1. Buy food that can spoil. Williams said these foods are rich in enzymes and nutrients. Another way to look at it is to think of foods that need to be refrigerated; these foods are often the best foods for weight loss.

2. Consider frozen fruits and veggies, as they can also be a good choice. Because they’re picked at the height of their freshness, they are similar in nutrient content to the fresh stuff. You’ll want to avoid the canned products, however, since they’re likely to have been processed more.

3. Have something to eat before you go shopping. Don’t go in hungry.

4. Write out a plan and stick to it. If you follow a list, you’ll be more likely to walk out with healthy foods.

5. “Shop the perimeter.” Williams said it’s best to shop the edges of the store where the refrigeration is. This will be more heavy on plants and proteins. Middle aisles have some good things like paper products, coffee and spices, but also tend to have more preservative-rich foods.

Ideal You is a weight loss program that helps you focus on those perimeter foods. Williams said they help each person work out with which foods are the best for them to lose weight, while continuing to make delicious meals.

For more shopping tips from Williams, watch the video above.

Sometimes a 55% reduction is about equal to 50% to 52%. Sometimes it’s even less. Sometimes it’s way more.

As part of the Paris climate agreement process, each nation picks its own national goals for how much greenhouse gas should be cut by 2030 and — crucially — what baseline year it starts counting from for those cuts. That makes it difficult to compare countries’ emissions-cutting pledges to see who is promising more.

US AND EU GOALS

Both the United States and the European Union are offering similar-sounding pledges of cutting around half their emissions by 2030. But depending on what year you start from, each can sound significantly deeper than the other.

The European Union goal, newly approved by the union’s parliament, is 55% below 1990 levels. The new U.S. goal announced Thursday by President Joe Biden is 50% to 52% below 2005 levels.

If you convert the European goal to the American-preferred 2005 baseline, the two are the same. The European Union goal translates to 51% below 2005 levels, which is on par with the U.S. goal, said former Obama White House environmental aide Kate Larsen, a director at the private research Rhodium Group.

But if you compare them using Europe's preferred 1990 as the baseline, the 50% minimum U.S. cut is only 41%, far shy of the 55% EU goal, according to Larsen’s calculations.

If you compare the numbers to 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, the U.S. goal looks more ambitious than Europe's. The minimum the United States would be cutting is about 40% from today’s level and the EU only 35%, said Niklas Hohne, a climate scientist who helps run the Climate Action Tracker, which monitors world emission pledges.

WHY DIFFERENT BASELINES?

The idea behind different baselines goes back to a logjam that bogged down climate talks in 2009.

Developed countries that already spewed lots of carbon pollution wanted poorer nations that were counting on fossil fuels for economic development to forgo the dirtier fuels, said John Podesta, who was then-President Barack Obama’s climate czar. So a solution was struck for the 2015 Paris agreement that allowed nations to voluntarily choose their own goals tailored to each country.

Those nationally designed goals also included countries choosing their own baseline years. So countries tend to choose years in which they peaked or near peaked on carbon emissions.

For example, Europe, which took early action after the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, chose to keep that treaty’s 1990 baseline because it factored in early cuts. This way, Europe gets credit for acting early.

DOES IT MATTER?

Many developed nations' goals pretty much even out, said Nigel Purvis, who was a U.S. State Department climate negotiator for the George W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.

“At 50%, they’re all doing a lot,” Purvis said. “The baselines are becoming less important.”

HIGHER GOALS

Some nations are shooting higher.

University of Maryland global sustainability professor Nate Hultman pointed to Denmark, which he said did the math to see how much emissions cutting was feasible for the future and found it to be 65% below 1990 levels. Denmark then purposely set a tougher goal, 70%, counting on unforeseen changes in technology that often happen.

Climate Action Tracker’s Hohne said that despite the White House’s claims, the U.S. target is not enough to keep warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, the tougher Paris agreement target.

The entire world must cut its emissions in half compared to 2019, Hohne said. But Biden's new U.S. target only translates to about 40% from 2019 levels.

“If you take that comparison, then it doesn’t work,’’ Hohne told The Associated Press on Thursday.

NOT JUST CARBON DIOXIDE

Like other nations, the U.S. goal includes methane and hydrofluorocarbon gases that trap more heat but don’t last as long as carbon dioxide. Including those in the goals allows the United States to pick low-hanging fruit to better reach its goal, Larsen said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized how slashing methane pollution quickly can get the world nearly halfway to its 1.5 degree Celsius goal.

Reducing methane and HFCs gets results more quickly than cutting carbon dioxide, so cutting them “can buy us a lot of time,” Larsen said.

HOW TO REACH US GOAL

Most of the U.S. emissions reductions — about 70% — will likely come from the power sector, Hultman said. Switching to greener electricity would more quickly reduce overall emissions because people keep their cars for almost a dozen years.

Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek said Russia won't be allowed to have more diplomats in Prague than the Czechs currently have at their embassy in Moscow. All others have to leave by the end of May, he said.

The Czech secret services have repeatedly warned that Moscow had a disproportionately high number of diplomats at the embassy in the European Union nation, using it as a base for undercover spies.

“I don't want to escalate anything,” Kulhanek said. “It's not a role for the foreign minister. But the Czech Republic is a self-confident country and will act accordingly.”

He said the Czechs had to respond to the activities of Russian agents on Czech territory. Last weekend, the Czech government expelled 18 Russian diplomats it identified as spies from the GRU and the SVR, Russia’s military and foreign intelligence services. In response, Russia expelled 20 Czech diplomats.

“It's the Russian side that have paralyzed the situation, not the Czech side,” Kulhanek said, adding Prague was ready to discuss with Moscow how to set the number of employees at their diplomatic missions “to enable their effective functioning.”

Moscow responded immediately.

"Prague has come on a path of destroying relations. We will respond quickly,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. “They have gotten stuck in unbridled Russophobia.”

Zakharova later said the Foreign Ministry summoned the Czech ambassador to denounce Prague for an “escalation of an anti-Russian campaign under the falsified pretext.” She underlined that “the language of ultimatums is unacceptable.”

“In response to Prague’s hostile actions, we demanded to reduce the personnel of the Czech Embassy in Moscow, taking into account a significant disparity in the category of local hires,” she said.

Moscow does not employ Czechs at its Prague embassy.

She added “the ambassador was told that we reserve the right for other moves in case of further escalation."

The Czech government protested what it called Russia’s “inappropriate reaction,” saying the move had paralyzed the Czech Embassy in Moscow.

Czech leaders said Saturday they have evidence provided by the intelligence and security services that points to the participation of two agents from Russia's elite GRU Unit 29155 in the 2014 depot blast that killed two people. Russia denied that.

The same two Russians were charged by British authorities in absentia in 2018 with trying to kill former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in the English city of Salisbury.

Kulhanek and Michal Koudelka, the head of the Czech counterintelligence service known as BIS, briefed NATO allies on the situation Thursday.

“Allies express deep concern over the destabilizing actions that Russia continues to carry out across the Euro-Atlantic area, including on alliance territory, and stand in full solidarity with the Czech Republic,” they said in a statement.

Neighboring Slovakia on Thursday became the first NATO ally to expel Russian diplomats as a sign of solidarity with the Czechs. Prime Minister Eduard Heger said three diplomats were given seven days to leave. Their expulsion was based on information from the country's intelligence services.

“We are deeply disappointed by the unfriendly actions of Bratislava, which decided to show pseudo-solidarity with Prague on a trumped-up case," said Zakharova, the Russian spokeswoman.

___

Vladimir Isachenkov and James Heintz contributed to this report from Moscow.

The pledges came one day after the International Olympic Committee confirmed its long-standing ban on “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda” on the field of play, medal podiums or official ceremonies.

Raising a fist or kneeling for a national anthem could lead to punishment from the IOC. The Olympic body’s legal commission should clarify what kind of punishment before this year's games, which open on July 23.

The IOC also said that slogans such as “Black Lives Matter” will not be allowed on athlete apparel at Olympic venues, though it approved using the words “peace,” “respect,” “solidarity,” “inclusion” and “equality” on T-shirts.

The IOC’s athletes’ commission cited support to uphold Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter from more than two-thirds of about 3,500 replies from consulting athlete groups.

“This is precisely the outcome we expected,” said Brendan Schwab, executive director of the World Players Association union. “The Olympic movement doesn’t understand its own history better than the athletes.”

Speaking to The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Australia, Schwab said “Any athlete sanctioned at the Tokyo Olympics will have the full backing of the World Players.”

The independent group representing German athletes pledged legal backing for its national team.

“Should German athletes decide to peacefully stand up for fundamental values such as fighting racism during the Olympic Games, they can rely on the legal support of Athleten Deutschland,” Johannes Herber, the group’s chief executive, said in a statement.

In a statement, another athlete group, Global Athlete, encouraged athletes to “not allow outdated ‘sports rules’ to supersede your basic human rights.” It said the survey's methods were flawed.

“These types of surveys only empower the majority when it is the minority that want and need to be heard,” said Ireland's Caradh O'Donovan, a karate athlete who helped start Global Athlete.

While the IOC said cases would each be judged on merits, athletes who follow the iconic salutes by American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics still could be sent home.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee inducted Smith and Carlos into its Hall of Fame in 2019. It pledged in December not to take action against athletes protesting at their Olympic trials for Tokyo. On Thursday, it released a statement saying its plans to update its recently released policy over protests in response to the IOC’s decision have not changed.

“Nor has our commitment to elevating athlete expression and the voices of marginalized populations everywhere in support of racial and social justice,” CEO Sarah Hirshland said.

Both Schwab and Herber said minorities would be protected from discrimination if the IOC recognized the human rights of athletes to express themselves.

The IOC erred by trying to regulate the place where a protest might take place instead of the statement's content, Schwab said, adding athletes’ freedom of expression in Olympic venues “should be respected, protected and indeed promoted.”

Athletes breaching Rule 50 can be sanctioned by three bodies: the IOC, their sport's governing body, and their national Olympic committee (NOC).

Leaders of two of the biggest Olympic bodies — World Athletics president Sebastian Coe and FIFA president Gianni Infantino — have publicly opposed punishing their athletes for social justice statements. Coe gave his annual award last December to Smith, Carlos and the other sprinter on the 200-meter podium in Mexico City, Peter Norman of Australia.

In the past, the NOCs have played a major role in sanctioning athletes who run afoul of Olympic rules. But with the USOPC taking itself out of that role, Schwab noted “there is enormous confusion over responsibility to sanction.”

___

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Detroit continues to push for its residents to get vaccinated

As of Thursday, the city’s vaccination rates are at only 21%, about 10% less than Michigan’s vaccination rate.

As of Thursday, the city’s vaccination rates are at only 21%, about 10% less than Michigan’s vaccination rate.

Community organizations are stepping up to get the word out about the availability of vaccines, the safety of vaccines.

While demand for the vaccine in Detroit seems to be running low, there was a line of people ready to be vaccinated Thursday at the Sheffield Center on Grand River Avenue. The Rev. Horace Sheffield was able to access his database to get as many on board as possible.

READ: Detroit opens COVID vaccination sites that don’t require appointments, sees low turnout

The city is doing all it can to get more people vaccinated by offering walk-ins with no appointment needed, but the TCF Center and Ford Field seem nearly empty. What makes the Sheffield Center different? It could be the connection to the Reverend and its efforts to inform and educate the community.

Mayor Mike Duggan said he’s seen what’s happening at the Sheffield Center and is going to work alongside the Reverend to offer more vaccines to him and other influential leaders in the city to get people vaccinated.

“We’re seeing it across the country, there’s no question about it, we have to shift in the early phases people who are anxious to get the vaccine,” Duggan said. “The city of Detroit was the most efficient at getting them vaccinated. Now for those who are not as motivated, we got to be more accessible. I think we’ve opened up some neighborhood walk-in sites without a lot of publicity in the neighborhoods so we’re fixing that.”

The city is going to work on letting residents know about the neighborhood walk-in sites that are available. Duggan was very clear and direct about what may be the next big initiative

• Michigan opens COVID vaccine eligibility to 16 and older: Best appointment options
• Tracking COVID-19 vaccines in Michigan: New openings, clinics, appointments

The missile landed in southern Israel early Thursday, prompting Israel to respond with airstrikes on the missile launcher and other targets in Syria.

The army's chief spokesman, Brig. Gen. Hidai Zilberman, was quoted as telling military correspondents that the Israeli air force was already operating in Syrian airspace when the anti-aircraft missile was fired. He said the projectile, identified as a Russian-made SA-5 missile, missed its target and flew some 300 kilometers (200 miles) before exploding in southern Israel.

The missile, also known as an S200, set off air raid sirens in a village just a few kilometers (miles) from Dimona, the southern desert town where Israel's nuclear reactor is located.

“There was no intention of hitting the nuclear reactor in Dimona,” Zilberman was quoted as saying.

An Israeli missile-defense system tried but failed to intercept the incoming missile. Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the incident was under investigation.

In recent years, Israel has repeatedly launched air strikes at Syria, including at military targets linked to foes Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, both allies of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Such strikes routinely draw Syrian anti-aircraft fire. Thursday's exchange was unusual because the Syrian projectile landed deep inside Israel.

Syria's state news agency SANA said the exchange began with an Israeli air strike on Dumeir, a suburb of the capital, Damascus. Dumeir is believed to house Syrian army installations and batteries as well as bases and weapons depots belonging to Iran-backed militias. SANA said four soldiers were wounded.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group based in Britain that tracks Syria’s civil war, said the Israeli strikes hit an air defense base belonging to the Syrian military and destroyed air defense batteries in the area. It said the Syrian military fired surface-to-air missiles in response.

Syrian media made no mention of an anti-aircraft missile landing deep inside Israel.

The air raid sirens were sounded in Abu Krinat, a village near Dimona. Explosions heard across Israel might have been the air-defense systems.

Apparent missile fragments were found in a swimming pool in Ashalim, a community approximately 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Dimona. Israeli troops arrived at the scene and collected the fragments. There were no reports of damage or injuries.

The exchange between Israel and Syria comes against the backdrop of growing tensions between Israel and Iran, which maintains troops and proxies in Syria. Iran has accused Israel of a series of attacks on its nuclear facilities, including sabotage at its Natanz nuclear facility on April 11, and vowed revenge.

The exchange of fire also threatened to complicate U.S.-led attempts to revive the international nuclear deal with Iran, to which Israel is deeply opposed.

___

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Zingerman’s Community of Businesses is hiring for more than 20 positions at its Bakehouse, Roadhouse, Deli, Creamery and more.

The company has a wide range of positions currently open, including at its event venue Cornman Farms in Dexter.

Available positions include:

• Bakehouse retail sales
• Coffee barista
• Cornman Farms event staff
• Creamery cheese and gelato production staff
• Deli full-time sandwich maker
• Roadhouse front of the house manager

To see all available positions and to apply, click here.

To see the benefits Zingerman’s offers, click here.

In a dissent, a liberal justice accused her colleagues of gutting earlier decisions that said life without parole sentences for people under age 18 should be rare.

The current case, which involved a Mississippi inmate and a crime committed when he was 15, asked the justices whether a minor has to be found to be “permanently incorrigible,” incapable of being rehabilitated, before being sentenced to life without parole.

In a 6-3 decision that split the justices along ideological lines, the court said no. The ruling followed more than a decade in which the court moved gradually toward more leniency for minors convicted of murder.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority, said previous decisions only require a judge to consider “an offender’s youth and attendant characteristics” before imposing a sentence of life without parole. Kavanaugh rejected a more demanding standard.

The “argument that the sentencer must make a finding of permanent incorrigibility is inconsistent with the Court’s precedents,” Kavanaugh wrote for himself and Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.

Justice Clarence Thomas agreed with the result but said he would have instead rejected outright a 2016 decision in favor of the juveniles.

The court's three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing that the decision “guts” prior cases in favor of minors. Sotomayor called the decision an "abrupt break" and an “abandonment” of those cases. Sotomayor said that all the almost 1,500 juvenile offenders serving life without parole sentences wanted was “the opportunity, at some point in their lives, to show a parole board all they have done to rehabilitate themselves and to ask for a second chance.”

Beginning in 2005, the Supreme Court had concluded in a series of cases that minors should be treated differently from adults, in part because of minors' lack of maturity. That year, the court eliminated the death penalty for juveniles. Five years later, it later barred life-without-parole sentences for juveniles except in cases of murder. In 2012 and 2016 the court again sided with minors. The court said life-without-parole sentences should only be given to “the rarest of juvenile offenders, those whose crimes reflect permanent incorrigibility.”

Since that time, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose votes were key to those decisions, have been replaced by more conservative justices. Kavanaugh, the author of Thursday's majority opinion and a former clerk to Kennedy, replaced him on the court. Kennedy had been the author of the decisions favoring juveniles in 2005, 2010 and 2016.

The specific case before the justices involved Mississippi inmate Brett Jones, who was 15 and living with his grandparents when he fatally stabbed his grandfather. The two had a fight in the home’s kitchen after Bertis Jones found his grandson’s girlfriend in his grandson’s bedroom. Brett Jones, who was using a knife to make a sandwich before the fight, stabbed his grandfather first with that knife and then, when it broke, with a different knife. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Brett Jones had argued he is not “permanently incorrigible” and should therefore be eligible for parole. Mississippi argued that the Eighth Amendment doesn’t require that Jones be found to be permanently incorrigible to receive a life-without-parole sentence, just that Jones’ status as a minor when he committed his crime be considered.

The case is Jones v. Mississippi, 18-1259.

The drop-off in severe cases among people 65 and older is so dramatic that the hospitalization rate among this highly vaccinated group is now down to around the level of the next-youngest category, Americans 50 to 64.

That slide is especially encouraging because senior citizens have accounted for about 8 out of 10 deaths from COVID-19 since the virus hit the United States.

Overall, COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have plummeted to about 700 per day on average, compared with a peak of over 3,400 in mid-January. All told, the scourge has killed about 570,000 Americans.

“What you’re seeing there is exactly what we hoped and wanted to see: As really high rates of vaccinations happen, hospitalizations and death rates come down," said Jodie Guest, a public health researcher at Emory University.

The trends mirror what is happening in other countries with high vaccination rates, such as Israel and Britain, and stand in stark contrast to the worsening disaster in places like India and Brazil, which lag far behind in dispensing shots.

According to U.S. government statistics, hospitalizations are down 60% overall, but most dramatically among senior citizens, who have been eligible for shots the longest and have enthusiastically received them.

Two-thirds of American senior citizens are fully vaccinated, versus just one-third of all U.S. adults. Over 80% of senior citizens have gotten at least one shot, compared with just over 50% among all adults.

The hospitalization rate among those 65 and over is about 14 people per 100,000 population, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported, citing a surveillance system that gathers data from over 250 hospitals in 14 states.

At the same time, however, overall demand for vaccinations in the U.S. seems to be slipping, even as shots have been thrown open to all adults across the country. The average number of doses administered per day appeared to fall in mid-April from 3.2 million to 2.9 million, according to CDC figures.

“My concern is whether the vaccine uptake will be as strong in these younger age groups,” Guest said. “If it’s not, we will not see the positive impact for vaccines in these younger age groups that we’ve seen in our older population.”

Also, new virus cases in the U.S. have been stuck at worrisome levels since March, averaging more than 60,000 per day, matching numbers seen during last summer’s surge. The new cases are increasingly among people in their 30s, 40s and 50s, who also make up a larger portion of hospitalizations.

In Michigan, which has been battered by a recent surge of infections, hospitalizations among people in their 50s have increased 700% since late February, outpacing all other age groups.

In Seattle’s King County, hospital physicians are seeing fewer COVID-19 patients overall, fewer needing critical care and fewer needing breathing machines. These younger patients are also more likely to survive.

“Thankfully they have done quite well,” said Dr. Mark Sullivan, a critical care doctor at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. “They tend to recover a little quicker because of their youth.”

With enough people vaccinated, COVID-19 cases should eventually begin to fall as the virus finds fewer and fewer people to infect. Guest and other experts say Israel appeared to reach that threshold last month after it fully vaccinated roughly 40% of its population of 9 million people.

But the U.S. faces challenges in conducting mass vaccinations because of its far greater size, diversity, geography and health disparities.

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced new federal funding for small businesses so that employees can take time off with pay to get vaccinated or recover from the shot's side effects.

The challenge will be quickly vaccinating younger Americans, who feel they are less vulnerable to the coronavirus but are mainly the ones spreading the disease.

“To really feel that we’re out of the woods we’ve got to see a lot less cases than we’re seeing now,” said Dr. Jesse Goodman, a vaccine specialist at Georgetown University. “It’s going to take a wider, continuing effort.”

In Chicago’s Cook County, where 91% of adults 65 and older have had at least one shot, the patients in the hospital these days are younger and do better.

“That feeling of dread is definitely eased with older patients getting vaccinated,” said Dr. Tipu Puri, a kidney specialist and associate chief medical officer for clinical operations at University of Chicago Medical Center.

At some moments, there’s even joy, he said. He recently stopped to help an elderly couple find the hospital’s vaccination clinic. The woman was pushing her husband’s wheelchair.

“Those are people you hope you won’t see in the hospital,” Puri said. “We’re not going to see them in the emergency room or in the ICU."

He added: “This is what coming out of the pandemic feels like.”

___

AP Health Writer Tom Murphy contributed to this story from Indianapolis. Johnson reported from Seattle.

___

Follow Matthew Perrone on Twitter: @AP_FDAwriter

___

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

The pullout under U.S. President Joe Biden marks the end of America's longest war after a 20-year military engagement. Currently, some 2,500 U.S. soldiers and about 7,000 allied forces are still in Afghanistan.

In February last year, the U.S. military began closing its smaller bases. In mid-April, the Biden administration announced that the final phase of the withdrawal would begin May 1 and be completed before Sept. 11.

Since then, the military has been shipping equipment and winding down local contracts for services such as trash pickup and maintenance work, the U.S. official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with briefing regulations.

While preparations are under way, troops likely won't begin to depart for a few weeks, he said, adding that "we won't see a coming down of the (troop) numbers" until remaining bases close.

There have been indications that the pullout could be completed well before Sept. 11, which marks the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaida terror attack on the U.S. and the trigger for the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, Germany's Defense Ministry said discussions are underway among military planners with the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission in Kabul for a possible withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan as early as July 4.

In the short term, America will likely increase its troop presence in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said last Friday. The additional troops would be in Afghanistan over the coming weeks and months to help with what the herculean task of wrapping up 20 years of war.

While much of the equipment headed back to the U.S. will be shipped by air, the military will also use land routes through Pakistan and north through Central Asia, the Defense Department official said.

The U.S. equipment that is neither shipped back to America nor given to the Afghan National Security forces will be sold to contractors, who will, in turn, sell it in the local markets.

"You’ll most likely start seeing it eventually showing up in bazaars as scrap,” said the official.

The Taliban, meanwhile, were non-committal when asked by the AP whether the insurgents would attack departing U.S. and NATO troops. “It’s too early for these issues, nothing can be said about the future,” said Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem.

In a deal the Taliban signed last year with former President Donald Trump, the final U.S. withdrawal deadline was set as May 1. Under the agreement, the Taliban promised not to attack U.S. and NATO troops but they also later promised “consequences” if Washington defied the May 1 deadline.

We feared this would be the case as we got closer and closer to May with no positive updates on the 26-year-old left wing.

Bertuzzi, 26, has not played since Jan. 30 due to an upper-body injury. He appeared in nine games for the Red Wings this season, and was leading the team in goals when he was forced out (5 goals, 2 assists).

Read: Dear Red Wings: Rebuild timeline; Veleno up; Raymond signs

Bertuzzi had scored 21 goals in consecutive seasons. He was an All-Star during the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season and finished leading the team in goals along with having career highs in assists (27) and points (48) for the NHL’s worst team.

He went through contract arbitration during 2020, finally signing a one-year dear worth $3.5 million with Detroit in October. He becomes a restricted free agent (RFA) at the end of this season.

Where does he go from here? The severity of his injury -- something the team has not elaborated about -- could have a profound impact on his next contract, you would imagine.

Detroit drafted Bertuzzi in the second round of the 2013 draft and he has 49 goals and 119 points in 199 career games. He is a nephew of former NHL player Todd Bertuzzi.

Frans Nielsen also done for season

Meanwhile, veteran forward Frans Nielsen also will not return to play this season due to a lower body injury, the Red Wings announced Thursday.

The 36-year-old is in the fifth year of a six-year contract with Detroit ($5.25 million cap hit). He won’t be a free agent until 2022. The question is will he be bought out by the Red Wings this offseason?

The Red Wings announced earlier in April that forward Bobby Ryan would not return due to his injury.

Captain Dylan Larkin is out with an injury, too, as of Thursday, along with forward Robby Fabbri.

The Red Wings, sitting in 7th out of eight spots in the Central Division, have eight games left on their schedule.

In March 2020, Thomas Lilti was directing a critically-acclaimed French TV medical drama depicting the dire state of French hospitals, featuring storylines such as strapped resources, fatal illnesses, doctors’ suicides and mental health issues among hospital staff.

But when the pandemic hit, Lilti realized the world didn’t need drama to illustrate that story: It was happening all around him.

The creator of Canal+'s hit drama “Hippocrate,” a former doctor himself, was so moved by the urgency of the pandemic that he couldn’t just stand back -- he put back on his scrubs.

Lilti — who also writes and directs the TV show that is named after the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates — ended up working in a hospital last year when the filming of his second season was suspended by France's coronavirus lockdown.

“As a doctor, I just humbly tried to lend my hands and my knowledge and return to the hospital after not practicing for eight years. Just trying to improve things,” he said.

With over 102,000 virus patients dead, France has one of the worst death tolls in Europe, after the U.K., Italy and Russia.

With his studio shut down, Lilti transferred part of the set's multimillion-euro decor — materials such as real stretchers, trolleys and infusion stands — to a real French hospital that was facing strains amid the pandemic: the Robert Ballanger Hospital in Aulnay-Sous-Bois, a Paris suburb.

“We gave all our medical equipment that was used for the shooting to the hospital emergency rooms trying to help them,” he said.

He then worked in Robert Ballanger Hospital for about a month, helping patients, identifying medical records and using the skills he had acquired before he became a writer and director. After a few weeks, he had to pull back due to a lack of up-to-date doctors' insurance.

But the experience would impact him — and French television — in many ways. He used the drama of being back at work to rewrite the series’ second season.

“This frontal collision between fiction and reality for me was really a powerful experience and a very moving one,” he said. ("The series) is marked deeply by this adventure.”

The second season of “Hippocrate” is airing in France this month on Canal+.

___

Adamson reported from Leeds, England

Hundreds of people turned out Wednesday at Shiloh Temple International Ministries for the public viewing for 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a father of one shot by a police officer on April 11 during a traffic stop in the small city of Brooklyn Center.

Friends and family members wept as they stood before Wright's open casket, which was blanketed with red roses. Inside the open casket, the young man was dressed in a jean jacket bedazzled with several red and green gem-like buttons on the lapels.

An obituary handed out at the memorial recalled Wright's love of Fourth of July fireworks, the “lemon head” nickname bestowed by an aunt and the months he spent in a hospital intensive care unit when his son was born prematurely.

The city's police chief said it appeared from body camera video that the officer who shot Wright used her pistol when she meant to use her Taser. The white officer, 26-year veteran Kim Potter, is charged with second-degree manslaughter. Both she and the chief resigned soon after the shooting.

Wright's killing came amid increasing tension during the weekslong trial of Derek Chauvin, the white former police officer who killed Floyd last May. By the day of the verdict, more than 3,000 National Guard soldiers had flooded the area, along with police, state troopers and other law enforcement officers. Concrete barriers, chain-link fences and barbed wire ringed the courthouse where Chauvin was tried.

More than a dozen members from an armed team of local men, the Minnesota Freedom Fighters, many with rifles, sidearms and wearing body armor, provided security for the service.

Minneapolis residents who peacefully celebrated Tuesday's guilty verdicts had barely one full day before attention turned to burying Wright.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights leader, will deliver the eulogy. At Floyd's Minneapolis funeral last year, Sharpton put Floyd's death in the context of brutality long felt by Blacks in America, saying: “The reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed to be is you kept your knee on our neck."

“What happened to Floyd happens every day in this country,” Sharpton said back then. “It’s time for us to stand up in George’s name and say, ‘Get your knee off our neck!’”

In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Sharpton said he would first pay tribute to Wright, “a young man just at the beginning of life, full of life."

He said he will also use his remarks to remind those in attendance, or watching from afar, that the fight for justice didn't end with the Chauvin verdict.

“We should not think that, because we won one battle with Chauvin, the war is over,” Sharpton said, “or that if we do not get justice for this case, that we will undo what we were able to do with George Floyd. This is round two, and we must win this round."

Among those expected to be in attendance were several members of the Floyd family, including George Floyd’s brother, Philonise; Valerie Castile, whose son Philando Castile died after being shot by a police officer during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb in 2016; U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar; Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan; and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

Wright’s killing set off protests in Brooklyn Center, a working-class, majority nonwhite city, with hundreds of people gathering every night for a week outside the city's heavily guarded police station. While the mayor called for law enforcement and protesters to scale back their tactics, the nights often ended with demonstrators lobbing water bottles and rocks at the officers, and law enforcement responding with pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets.

Wright was pulled over on a Sunday afternoon. His mother said he called her to say he was stopped for having air fresheners hanging from his rear-view mirror — a traffic violation in Minnesota. Police said he was stopped for having an expired car registration.

The shooting occurred when a scuffle broke out as police tried to arrest Wright, after realizing he had an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court on charges of fleeing police and having a gun without a permit.

___

Associated Press writer Tim Sullivan contributed. Morrison is a member of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.

___

Find AP’s full coverage of the death of Daunte Wright at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-daunte-wright

Note: The NHL has branded this division the “Discover Central Division” due to a sponsorship agreement for the 2020-21 season.

View: Detroit Red Wings 2020-21 season schedule, TV, time, results

Pregnancy causes various changes in the body that may make women vulnerable to harm from the coronavirus. Pregnant women can gain some protection by getting vaccinated; recent evidence suggests the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are safe to use in pregnancy.

The results were published on Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics, which echo smaller studies. The research involved women in 18 countries, including the United States, Central and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The study involved about 700 pregnant women with COVID-19 and 1,400 without it. It was sponsored by a research fund at the University of Oxford, there the lead authors work.

On Wednesday, the preliminary results of a report of 35,000 U.S. women who received either the Moderna or Pfizer shots while pregnant showed their rates of miscarriage, premature births and other complications were comparable to those observed in published reports on pregnant women before the pandemic.

___

THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— AP explains why India is shattering global infection records

— German ‘emergency brake’ plan on virus clears last hurdle

— Nurse who underwent double-lung transplant confronts life after COVID-19

— Viral questions: How long does protection from vaccines last?

___

Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

___

HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican will give the second dose of coronavirus vaccines to some of the 1,400 homeless people, migrants and poor who got their first shot a few weeks ago in the walled city state.

The inoculation session Friday in the Vatican auditorium comes as Pope Francis celebrates a feast day honoring the saint of his birthname — Giorgio, or Jorge. The Vatican says the 600 people who will get their second doses of Pfizer will join Francis in a party.

They received their first doses during Holy Week leading up to Easter.

The Vatican City State purchased its own vaccines to inoculate Holy See citizens and staff. It has been giving its extra doses to the neediest around Rome. In addition, the pope has been making regular donations of ventilators and other medical equipment to poor countries.

___

CAIRO — Developers of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine say they signed a deal with a leading Egyptian pharmaceutical company to manufacture more than 40 million doses annually in Cairo.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund, along with Egypt’s Minapharm and its Berlin-based subsidiary, issued a joint press release saying the technology transfer will begin immediately. It expects the roll out of the Sputnik V vaccine in the third quarter of 2021.

The production will take place in Minapharm’s biotech facility in Cairo for global distribution.

CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev says in the release: “The Russian vaccine is highly efficient and trusted by regulators around the world and makes a huge contribution in the fight against coronavirus.”

The Russian vaccine has demonstrated efficacy of 97.6% and been approved by drug authorities in 61 countries so far, according to Dmitriev. Russia has been marketing Sputnik V abroad, despite the comparatively slow rollout at home and limited production capacities.

___

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s health minister says the government has received a batch of 203,000 COVID-19 vaccines as part of a push to speed up inoculations in the war-torn country.

The arrival of the United Nations-secured shots on Thursday comes as a new wave of infections overwhelms medical centers around Syria. The AstraZeneca vaccines are part of a campaign aiming to vaccinate 20% of the country’s population before the end of the year.

Syria’s government controls two-thirds of the country, with the rest held by rebels and Kurdish factions. Millions have fled the country or been displaced, and the war has killed half a million people.

___

BERLIN — A plan by German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to mandate standard restrictions in areas where the coronavirus is spreading too quickly has cleared its final legislative hurdle.

Parliament’s upper house, where Germany’s 16 state governments are represented, could have held up the plan by seeking renegotiations, but let it pass on Thursday. It now goes to President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to be signed.

The legislation to apply an “emergency brake” consistently in areas with high infection rates is intended to end the patchwork of measures that has often characterized the pandemic response across highly decentralized Germany’s 16 states. The measures include closures and a 10 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew, the most controversial element.

The restrictions would kick in for areas where there are more than 100 weekly new cases per 100,000 residents for three consecutive days. Schools would have to switch to distance learning at a higher rate of 165.

___

LONDON — Organizers say 4,000 people will be able to attend the ceremony for Britain’s leading music prize night next month as part of the government’s easing of coronavirus restrictions.

In a statement Thursday, the Brit Awards said audience members attending the indoor ceremony at London’s O2 Arena on May 11 will not have to socially distance or even wear face coverings once seated. It said the ceremony will be the first major indoor music event in the country to welcome back a live audience since the coronavirus pandemic erupted more than a year ago.

Instead, as part of the government’s pilot program for resuming live events, attendees will need to provide proof of a negative coronavirus test to enter the venue and will be required to provide details to test and trace authorities and follow travel guidance for getting to and from the venue.

Organizers said they are gifting 2,500 tickets to essential workers from the greater London area to honor their work through “the difficult times” of the pandemic.

The U.K. is slowly easing restrictions following a sharp fall in new coronavirus cases in the wake of a stringent lockdown and the rapid rollout of vaccines.

___

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The Norwegian government says it will “lend” all of its 216,000 Astra Zeneca vaccine doses to Sweden and Iceland as long as long as Norway has use of the vaccine on pause.

Health Minister Bent Hoeie says if the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine is resumed, “we will get back the doses we lend as soon as we request it” and Iceland and Sweden “send back the doses from their first deliveries from AstraZeneca.”

Hoie also said that if the vaccine is taken out of Norway's vaccination program, “the doses we have been given can be donated to other countries in collaboration with the EU.”

Norway decided on March 11 to put the AstraZeneca vaccine on hold after reports of rare blood clots in a small number of vaccine recipients.

Hoeie says Sweden will borrow 200,000 doses, and Iceland 16,000 doses. The Norwegian doses have expiration dates in June and July.

___

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia will reduce the number of flights arriving from India due to the growing wave of COVID-19 cases in the world’s second-most populous country.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he agreed with state and territory leaders that the numbers of Australian citizens and permanent residents returning in chartered flights would be reduced by 30%.

The government would soon announce a 30% reduction in scheduled commercial flights from India as well, he said.

India reported a global record of more than 314,000 new infections Thursday in a surge that has overwhelmed a fragile health care system.

__

BANGKOK — Laos locked down its capital and closed its international borders to most traffic Thursday after identifying a COVID-19 cluster connected to its bigger neighbor Thailand.

Residents of the capital Vientiane are barred from leaving the city and outsiders must get permission to enter. Its international borders were closed except to trucks carrying goods and in cases allowed by the nation’s COVID-19 taskforce, state news agency KPL reported.

It said the lockdown order signed by Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh also prohibits all Vientiane residents from leaving their homes except for essential food shopping, hospital visits and other authorized tasks. The restrictions last until May 5.

The report said they were ordered after 28 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed Wednesday, bringing the country’s total to 88. The total population of Laos is about 7.5 million, including about 700,000 in Vientiane.

The government-owned Vientiane Times reported on its website that 26 of the 28 new cases are residents of the capital who had contact with a student at the National University of Laos who had caught the virus from a Thai man. It said the other two were workers who had returned from Thailand to the southern province of Champassak.

___

TOKYO — The Tokyo Motor Show, which showcases cars from around the world, has been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda, who heads the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, said “we decided it’s difficult to hold the main program under safe and secure conditions for all the people to enjoy the joys of mobility.”

The organization hosts the biannual auto show in Tokyo, last held in 2019, when it attracted more than 1.3 million people. JAMA groups Japan’s 14 manufacturers of cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles.

Toyoda said organizers had studied the possibility of holding the event online. The exact dates had not yet been set, but the show usually happens in October and November. Auto shows in Detroit and Geneva have also been canceled.

Japan has been hit hard with a surge in infections, while the vaccine rollout is among the slowest for a developed nation, with about 1% of its population inoculated.

___

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey has announced that it is extending an upcoming weekend lockdown to include a public holiday on Friday, as it grapples with soaring infections.

An Interior Ministry statement said the lockdown will begin Thursday evening and end Monday morning. Turkey has been posting record levels of infections and deaths since it eased COVID-19 restrictions in early March.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan placed the country under a partial lockdown on April 13, involving an extended evening curfew on weekdays, a return to online education and a ban on unnecessary intercity travel, in addition to weekend lockdowns, which were re-imposed earlier.

The government has blamed the rising numbers on faster-spreading variants.

___

NEW DELHI — India reported a global record of more than 314,000 new infections Thursday as a grim coronavirus surge in the world’s second-most populous country has overwhelmed a fragile health care system.

The new cases raise India’s total past 15.9 million cases, second to the United States. A large number of hospitals across the country had an acute shortage of beds, medicines and are running on dangerously low levels of oxygen.

The New Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered the government to divert the oxygen supply from industrial use to hospitals. Responding to a petition by a New Delhi hospital seeking their intervention, the judges said, “Beg, borrow or steal, it is a national emergency.”

The government is rushing oxygen tankers to replenish hospitals.

The Times of India newspaper says that the previous highest daily case count of 307,581 was reported in the U.S. on Jan. 8.

___

11:45 a.m.

After livestreamed remarks by dozens of world leaders at the U.S.-hosted global climate summit, the conversation has turned to money.

President Joe Biden says, “Good ideas and good intentions aren’t good enough." He says, "We need to ensure that the financing will be there.”

Biden says combatting climate change will require mobilizing finance on an unprecedented scale. He says the U.S. on Thursday would announce an international climate finance plan, involving not only governments but also the private sector. He calls on Wall Street to join the climate fight.

Biden says investing in green businesses isn’t a drain on the economy but an opportunity. He says climate change "is more than a threat” and presents the largest opportunities for job creation in the future.

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the amount of money pledged by developed countries to help developing countries leapfrog to cleaner technologies needs to be increased.

___

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE GLOBAL CLIMATE SUMMIT:

Saying the United States and other big economies “have to get this done,” President Joe Biden opened a global climate summit aimed at getting world leaders to dig deeper on emissions cuts.

Read more:

— What to Watch: In Biden climate show, look for cajoling, conflict, pathos

___

HERE'S WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON:

11:35 a.m.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has shifted his tone on preservation of the Amazon rainforest at the U.S.-led climate summit, exhibiting willingness to step up commitment even as many critics continue doubting his credibility.

Bolsonaro said Thursday he agrees with U.S. President Joe Biden’s “call for the establishment of ambitious commitments.” Brazil’s leader says he is “determined that our climate neutrality will be reached by 2050.”

Bolsonaro also said he would double the amount of money for environmental authorities’ oversight. It’s unclear how that reconciles with immediate spending, as the 2021 budget outlook for the environment ministry is the lowest for any year this century.

The speech shows Bolsonaro’s administration realizes it needs to at least start talking the talk in the face of international and domestic pressure.

Dan Wilkinson runs Human Rights Watch’s environmental program and says this is “a different tone from the Bolsonaro who was in complete denial two years ago.” Wilkinson says it’s “going to be hard for anyone to take it seriously.”

Bolsonaro says Brazil requires outside funds to curb deforestation of the world’s largest tropical rainforest.

Last week a group of 15 U.S. senators penned a letter to Biden complaining of Bolsonaro’s woeful environmental track record and urging the U.S. to condition any support for Amazon preservation on significant progress reducing deforestation.

___

11:20 a.m.

Youth activist Xiye Bastida has told world leaders the climate crisis is the result of powerful people like them who are “perpetuating and upholding the harmful systems of colonialism, oppression, capitalism and market-oriented brainwashed solutions″ to global problems.

In a hard-hitting speech Thursday at the virtual climate summit, the Mexican teenager said solutions to global warming “must be aligned with the fact that climate justice is social justice.″

She says current economic and political systems “rely on the existence of sacrifice zones” that “target the global South and Black and brown communities to the global North.”

She says instead of just talking about climate change, world leaders “need to accept that the era of fossil fuels is over.” She demands an immediate transition to renewable energy worldwide and an end to fossil fuel subsidies and infrastructure, including new pipelines.

The 19-year-old Bastida is a leader of Fridays for Future, an international youth movement that includes Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Thunberg spoke to the U.S. Congress at a separate event.

___

10 a.m.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for international cooperation to tackle climate change at a virtual climate summit convened by U.S. President Joe Biden.

In his speech, Putin urged “broad and effective international cooperation in the calculation and monitoring of volumes of all types of harmful emissions into the atmosphere.”

Putin said Thursday, “Russia is genuinely interested in galvanizing international cooperation so as to look further for effective solutions to climate change as well as to all other vital challenges.”

Putin says Moscow is ready to offer a number of joint projects and consider preferences for foreign companies willing to invest in clean technologies, including those in Russia.

The Russian leader says he has tasked the government to “significantly cut the accumulated volume of net emissions” by 2050 in Russia, refraining from naming a concrete goal.

___

9:50 a.m.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has welcomed the United States’ new commitment to halve emissions as a “game-changing” announcement. Johnson will be hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow later this year.

As host of COP-26, Johnson said Thursday at President Joe Biden’s climate summit he wanted to see “similar ambitions” around the world.

Johnson says, “I think we can do it. To do it we need scientists in all of our countries to work together to produce the technological solutions that humanity is going to need.”

He says the developed world will have to find more resources to support developing countries’ move to a greener future. He says, “It’s going to mean the richest nations coming together and exceeding the $100 billion commitment they already made in 2009.”

Johnson stresses the economic dividend that could emerge from efforts to tackle climate change.

___

9:30 a.m.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in says his country will no longer finance the construction of coal power plants in other nations as he promises stronger contributions to international efforts to curb global warming.

In a virtual climate summit convened by President Joe Biden on Thursday, Moon said his country will provide a more ambitious target for reducing carbon emissions by the end of the year. South Korea in December had announced a 2030 target to cut its carbon emissions by 24.4% from the country’s 2017 level.

South Korea has faced international criticism for its continued investment in coal plants in other countries even as it pushes to phase out coal power at home.

Moon’s office says his pledge doesn’t affect South Korea’s participation in ongoing projects to build two new coal plants in Indonesia and another one in Vietnam.

___

9:20 a.m.

World leaders including China’s President Xi Jinping, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel are addressing a virtual global summit on climate change hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden.

Speaking from their home countries, the world leaders pledge action to lower carbon emissions, although they differ on details.

Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga emphasized the global nature of the event, saying, “Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, everyone.” He was speaking at nearly 10 p.m. in Japan and in the morning on the U.S. East Coast.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the effort “is not bunny hugging” but is about growth and jobs — and the survival of the planet.

Merkel calls the battle against climate change “a huge task.”

Putin’s remarks came after French President Emmanuel Macron began but had technical difficulties. Putin boasted that his country has significantly reduced its carbon emissions and will met an ambitious goal for 2050. Then Macron spoke again.

___

9:10 a.m.

India’s prime minister says he and U.S. President Joe Biden are launching an Indo-U.S. climate and clean energy agenda for 2030 partnership that will mobilize investments, demonstrate clean technology and enable green collaboration.

Narendra Modi told world leaders at a virtual summit called by Biden on Thursday that India is doing its part and its renewable energy target of 450 gigawatts by 2030 shows its commitment to clean energy. India also has taken several bold steps in promoting clean energy, energy efficiency, afforestation and biodiversity.

Modi says India has taken the lead in multilateral initiatives, such as the International Solar Alliance and the coalition of disaster resilient infrastructure.

Modi says India’s per capita carbon footprint was 60% lower than the global average because of its lifestyle, which is still rooted in sustainable traditional practices.

___

8:45 a.m.

China’s President Xi Jinping reiterates his country’s pledge to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

Xi spoke at the global climate summit hosted by the United States on Thursday. He says, “We must be committed to green development. To improve the environment is to boost productivity.”

Xi says developed countries, responsible for greater historical carbon emissions, should bear more responsibility for making changes at home and helping developing countries finance their transition to low-carbon economies.

He says, “We must be committed to the principle to common but differentiated responsibilities.”

Xi emphasizes that China is aiming to move from peak carbon to net zero in a short time period –- just 30 years, or the span of one generation.

___

8:35 a.m.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres says the world is “at the verge of the abyss” because of climate change and must take aggressive steps to avoid catastrophe.

Speaking at a global virtual summit on climate change Thursday, Guterres called for world leaders to build a global coalition for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 — “every country, every region, every city, every company and every industry.″

Guterres says the next decade must be one of transformation, with major polluters such as the United States and other advanced countries submitting detailed, ambitious plans to slow climate change.

Guterres says countries around the world must put a price on carbon, end subsidies for fossil fuels, ramp up investments in renewable energy and green infrastructure and stop the financing of coal and the building of new coal power plants.

He calls for advanced countries to phase out coal by 2030, with other countries phasing it out by 2040.

___

8:30 a.m.

The U.S. climate summit has started with an audio glitch, audio glitch.

For the first few minutes, during nearly all of Vice President Kamala Harris’ introduction of President Joe Biden, praising his history of climate advocacy, every word echoed. Echoed.

Then when Biden came on, the video and the audio were out of sync, while he urged the world “to move now” on what he called “the climate crisis.”

Biden said Thursday, “The cost of inaction keeps mounting. The United States isn’t waiting.”

Harris ticked off recent climate disasters including hurricanes hitting Central America during a year of record Atlantic storms.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls the problem “an existential threat” and says the world is “on red alert.”

Biden says this is the “decisive decade.” He says, “This is the decade we must make decisions that will avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis.”

Biden says the richest economies “have to step up.”

___

8 a.m.

The Biden administration has opened a global climate summit including 40 world leaders.

President Joe Biden is pledging to cut at least in half the climate-wrecking coal and petroleum fumes that the U.S. pumps out. That’s a commitment Biden hopes will spur China and other big polluters to speed up efforts of their own.

Former Vice President Al Gore praised the pledge on Thursday, saying, “Today President Biden showed that his administration is up to the task of tackling climate change.”

Japan also announced a new target, pledging to cut its emissions 46% below 2013 levels by 2030.

The two-day summit will include China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the pope and will be livestreamed.

The meeting follows allegations of a failed plot to assassinate Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko, allegedly involving a blockade of the country’s capital, power cuts and cyberattacks. Belarusian and Russian security agencies arrested the alleged coup plotters in Moscow earlier this month.

Speaking at the start of the meeting, Lukashenko said Russia and Belarus must “draw the lines that no one should cross and respond to those who fail to understand the need to behave more calmly."

Lukashenko has grown increasingly dependent on Russia's financial and political support after months of massive protests against his rule, and his visit to Moscow raised speculation that he could accept the Kremlin's push for a stronger union.

The Belarusian leader fueled such expectations over the weekend when he declared that he was preparing to make one of the most important decisions of his more than quarter-century rule.

“We have made some serious progress on programs of our union,” Lukashenko said at the start of his talks with Putin. “There are acute issues related that we need to focus on, including defense and security.”

Russia and Belarus have a union agreement that envisages close economic, political and military ties, but stops short of a full merger. Lukashenko has repeatedly resisted what he described as Moscow's attempts to subdue Belarus.

“Our teams are continuing work to develop the legislation for the union state,” Putin said.

The authoritarian Belarusian leader, who has been in power since 1994, has vowed not to abandon Belarus' post-Soviet independence and resisted Moscow's push for opening a military base in Belarus.

But Lukashenko's positions have weakened amid massive protests against his rule, which erupted after his reelection to a sixth term in office in a vote in August that the opposition saw as rigged. Authorities cracked down harshly on the protests, arresting more than 34,000 people and beating many. Most prominent opposition figures have fled Belarus or have since been jailed.

The U.S. and the European Union have responded by slapping sanctions on Belarus.

On Monday, Washington ramped up sanctions against Belarus, with the U.S. Treasury Department announcing it was revoking a license that had allowed transactions with nine top state-owned companies in Belarus since 2015. They include the oil company Belneftekhim, which accounts for 30% of the country’s industrial output.

Amid the Western pressure, Lukashenko has edged closer to Russia. He alleged that the U.S. was behind the botched coup attempt — a claim the White House has rejected.

In Wednesday's state of the nation address, Putin harshly criticized the West for failing to condemn the alleged coup attempt.

“The practice of organizing coups and planning political assassinations of top officials goes over the top and crosses all boundaries,” Putin said.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition challenger in Belarus' presidential election who moved to Lithuania after the vote under official pressure, dismissed the coup claim as an apparent “provocation of Russian and Belarusian security agencies.”

The shortlist for the literary award, announced Thursday, includes “The War of the Poor,” a story of religion and revolution by France’s Eric Vuillard, Jewish-Russian family history “In Memory of Memory” by Russian writer Maria Stepanova and imaginative short-story collection “The Dangers of Smoking in Bed” by Argentina’s Mariana Enriquez.

The other finalists are war story “At Night All Blood is Black,” by France’s David Diop, science-themed story collection “When We Cease to Understand the World” by Chile’s Benjamín Labatut and futuristic workplace novel “The Employees” by Danish writer Olga Ravn.

The award, run alongside the Booker Prize for English-language fiction, is given annually to a work of fiction in any language that is translated into English and published in the U.K. or Ireland.

The contenders often include writers who are widely read in their own languages but less known in English. Four of this year’s six shortlisted authors have never been published in English before.

Several internationally renowned writers who were on the 13-book longlist failed to make the cut, including Chinese writer Can Xue and Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o.

The winner will be announced June 2, with the prize money split between the winning book’s author and its translator.

British author Lucy Hughes-Hallett, who is chairing the panel of judges, said the list showed that some of the most exciting new writing is going on “in the borderlands” between fiction and other genres, such as history and memoir.

Vuillard’s book is about a real 16th-century German theologian, Ravn’s is set on a spaceship in the 22nd century and Diop’s story of Senegalese soldiers in World War I is so “wildly imaginative … when I first read it I almost thought I was having a nightmare,” Hughes-Hallett said.

“Some of the books … came close to being historical writing and some of them were very essayistic. Some of them seemed deeply personal, almost like memoirs,” she said. “What we concluded in the end is that this is a fantastically vital and vigorous aspect of the way fiction is being written at the moment. People are really pushing at the boundaries.”

The price of the Republican proposal came in at $568 billion over five years, compared to the $2.3 trillion that Biden has called for spending over eight years.

To help pay for their plan, the Republicans would rely on user fees, including for electric vehicles, and on redirecting unspent federal dollars. The outline does not offer specifics, such as which programs would receive funding. Biden has proposed raising the corporate income tax from 21% to 28% to help pay for his plan, a move the Republican senators rejected.

Republican lawmakers have been quick to criticize the infrastructure proposal from Biden. They say just a fraction of the spending would go to traditional infrastructure. Biden's plan devotes $400 billion to expand Medicaid support for caregivers, and substantial portions would fund electric vehicle charging stations and address the racial injustice of highways that were built in ways that devastated Black neighborhoods.

The Republican plan would dedicate $299 billion to roads and bridges, $65 billion to broadband internet and $61 billion to transit. Missing from the plan is Biden's focus on electric vehicle charging stations and caregiver support.

Republicans earlier this year also offered a counterproposal to Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan. Their price tag came in at about one-third of what the president wanted, and he soon declared it inadequate. Democrats went forward on their own and passed the relief bill without the support of any GOP lawmaker.

Biden is spending more time this go-around listening to Republicans and voicing a willingness to consider their ideas, but the end result could be the same. Democrats are intent on passing a major infrastructure boost this year and could use the budget reconciliation process to bypass GOP opposition.

“Meeting this moment is about more than preserving our planet,” Biden declared, speaking from a TV-style set for a virtual summit of 40 world leaders. “It’s about providing a better future for all of us,” he said, calling it “a moment of peril but a moment of opportunity.”

“The signs are unmistakable. the science is undeniable. the cost of inaction keeps mounting," he added.

Biden's own new commitment, timed to the summit, is to cut U.S. fossil fuel emissions up to 52% by 2030. marking a return by the U.S. to global climate efforts after four years of withdrawal under President Donald Trump. Biden’s administration is sketching out a vision of a prosperous, clean-energy United States where factories churn out cutting-edge batteries for export, line workers re-lay an efficient national electrical grid and crews cap abandoned oil and gas rigs and coal mines.

Japan announced its own new 46% emissions reduction target Thursday, and South Korea said it would stop public financing of new coal-fired power plants, as the U.S. and its allies sought to build momentum via the summit.

The coronavirus pandemic compelled the summit to play out as a climate telethon-style livestream, limiting opportunities for spontaneous interaction and negotiation. The opening was rife with small technological glitches, including echoes, random beeps and off-screen voices.

But the U.S. summit also marshaled an impressive display of the world's most powerful leaders speaking on the single cause of climate change.

China's Xi, whose country is the world's biggest emissions culprit, followed by the United States, spoke first among the other global figures. He made no reference to nonclimate disputes that had made it uncertain until Wednesday that he would even take part in the U.S. summit, and said China would work with America in cutting emissions.

“To protect the environment is to protect productivity, and to boost the environment is to boost productivity. It’s as simple as that," Xi said.

Putin, whose government has been publicly irate over Biden's characterization of him as a “killer" for Russia's aggressive moves against its opponents, made no mention of his feuding with Biden in his own climate remarks, a live presentation that also saw moments of dead air among production problems.

“Russia is genuinely interested in galvanizing international cooperation so as to look further for effective solutions to climate change as well as to all other vital challenges," Putin said. Russia by some measures is the world's fourth-biggest emitter of climate-damaging fossil fuel fumes.

However, Russia and China announced no specific new emissions cuts themselves.

The pandemic made gathering world leaders for the climate summit too risky. That didn’t keep the White House from sparing no effort on production quality. The president’s staff built a small set in the East Room that looked like it was ripped from a daytime talk show.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the summit from separate lecterns before joining Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and White House climate envoy John Kerry at a horseshoe-shaped table set up around a giant potted plant to watch fellow leaders’ livestreamed speeches.

The format meant a cavalcade of short speeches by world leaders, some scripted, some apparently more impromptu. “This is not bunny-hugging,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said of the climate efforts. “This is about growth and jobs.”

The Biden administration’s pledge would require by far the most ambitious U.S. climate effort ever, nearly doubling the reductions that the Obama administration had committed to in the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was one of many allies welcoming the U.S. back into the accord after Trump pulled out, boosted oil and gas production and mocked the science underlying climate warnings.

“I'm delighted to see that the United States is back, is back to work together with us in climate politics,” Merkel declared in her virtual appearance. "Because there can be no doubt about the world needing your contribution if we really want to fulfill our ambitious goals.”

The new urgency comes as scientists say that climate change caused by coal plants, car engines and other fossil fuel use is worsening droughts, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and other disasters and that humans are running out of time to stave off catastrophic extremes of global warming.

Leaders of smaller states and island nations buffeted by rising seas and worsening hurricanes appealed for aid and fast emissions cuts from world powers.

“We are the least contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, but the most affected by climate change,” said Gaston Alfonso Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda. He called for debt relief and more international assistance to recover from storms and the pandemic to prevent a flow of climate refugees.

His people he said, are " teetering on the edge of despair.”

After the stream of solemn pledges on fighting climate change, the talk turned to money. Developing countries were watching for firm financial moves from the United States, which they say still owes $2 billion in aid for transitioning away from fossil fuels that President Barack Obama promised but Trump didn't pay.

Biden delivered new pledges, saying the U.S. would double climate funding help for less wealthy countries by 2024. That cost would be more than made up for when “disasters and conflicts are avoided,” he said. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation would make a third of all its new investments climate-focused within two years, he said.

Other speakers urged hefty taxes on climate-damaging polluters and a slashing of government programs that amount to subsidies for oil, gas and coal.

Longtime climate policy experts, no strangers to climate summits with solemn pledges, watched some speeches with skepticism. After Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro promised an end to clearcutting in the Amazon, Dan Wilkinson of Human Rights Watch's environmental programs noted, "It is going to be hard for anyone to take it seriously until they actually start taking steps."

"Any number of them could be done right away,” Wilkinson said.

U.S. officials, in previewing the new administration target, disclosed aspirations and vignettes rather than specific plans, budget lines or legislative proposals for getting there.

As of 2019, before the pandemic, the U.S. had reduced 13% of its greenhouse gases compared with 2005 levels, which is about halfway to the Obama administration goals of 26% to 28%, said climate scientist Niklas Hohne of Climate Action Tracker. That’s owing largely to market forces that have made solar and wind, and natural gas, much cheaper

Biden, a Democrat, campaigned partly on a pledge to confront climate change. He has sketched out some elements of his $2 trillion approach for transforming U.S. transportation systems and electrical grids in his campaign climate plan and in his infrastructure proposals for Congress.

His administration insists the transformation will mean millions of well-paying jobs. Republicans say the effort will throw oil, gas and coal workers off the job. They call his infrastructure proposal too costly.

___

Knickmeyer reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press writers Ashok Sharma in New Delhi, Joe McDonald in Beijing, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Seth Borenstein, Matthew Daly, Alexandra Jaffe and Christina Larson in Washington contributed to this report.

Businessman and Texas Rangers co-chairman Bob Simpson owns the item, which is known as the “No Stars Flowing Hair Dollar.”

While it closely resembles silver dollars that were later minted in Philadelphia, it gets its name because it is missing stars.

“While subsequent dollar coins struck featuring stars were added to the front of the coin, starless coins are considered by collectors and institutions as one-of-a-kind prototypes for the silver examples that would follow,” said Jacob Lipson of Heritage Auctions.

Heritage Auctions estimates the prototype will sell for between $350,000 and $500,000 when it goes on the block online in Dallas on Friday.

Known as a pattern, the front features the flowing hair portrait of Liberty and the date 1794, while the reverse side shows a small eagle on a rock within a wreath. Similar starless examples are part of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Numismatic Collection.

“It’s incredibly exciting,” said California-based numismatist David McCarthy. “It gives us a view into what was going on inside the Mint in 1794 when it was gearing up to make the first dollars ever struck.”

The pattern was forgotten as the Mint continued the process of creating the nation's first silver dollars.

“Coin collecting lore states the unique rarity was excavated from the site of the first Philadelphia Mint before 1876,” Lipson said. That was how the coin’s first owner described its history at its first auction appearance in 1890.

The pattern is corroded and not in perfect condition, Lipson said, likely because it was buried at the site of the original Mint. There are some scratches and other marks on its brown surfaces.

It has traded hands eight times, according to the auction house.

Simpson, 73, purchased it along with other patterns in 2008 to add to his large collection. He views himself as a steward and thinks it is time for someone else to enjoy it.

“I think coins should be appreciated almost as artwork,” he said. “I have gotten more than enough joy from them.”

Simpson said he wasn't wealthy when he started collecting. As a boy, he said he would go to a bank, get a roll of coins and examine them. It was part of the fun he said he has had in this country.

“America is the only place I think where you can travel from near poverty to wealth based on education," he said.

After 10 of the 12 clubs involved in the creation of the breakaway competition quickly dropped out under an escalating backlash, Barcelona president Joan Laporta emerged on Thursday as the sole supporter of the plan hatched by Real Madrid counterpart Florentino Pérez.

“It is absolutely necessary,” Laporta said on Catalan public television in his first public comments on the project. “The biggest clubs create the most financial resources and we must have our say in deciding how the earnings are shared.”

The six English clubs involved in the competition pulled out Tuesday amid escalating complaints from their supporters and warnings from the British government. A day later, Spanish club Atlético Madrid and the three Italian teams in the project — Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan — also opted out.

Despite being left nearly alone, Pérez — the competition’s supposed first chairman — said late Wednesday that the idea was not dead, but rather on standby.

Both Juventus and AC Milan also left open the possibility of joining a Super League at a later date.

Laporta, who previously served as Barcelona president from 2003-10, was re-elected to the post last month. While campaigning, Laporta said he was not in favor of the Super League, but his position changed after taking charge of the troubled club that faces more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in debt.

The club’s finances have been hard hit by the pandemic, which has compounded problems in a budget that was already loaded by the highest payroll in soccer last season. Laporta’s financial challenges include trying to convince Lionel Messi to sign a new contract when his expires this year.

The chances to boost revenue by cutting UEFA out of the equation and replacing the Champions League with the new tournament of 20 teams appeared to be irresistible to Barcelona.

“There have been pressures placed on some clubs, but the proposal is still standing,” Laporta said. “We have very important investments, our salaries are very high, and those must be taken into consideration, along with sporting merits.”

Barcelona’s participation was conditioned by Laporta’s pledge to let the club’s members vote on the proposal.

“We are keeping a prudent stance," Laporta said. "It is a necessity, but our club members will have the final word.”

Laporta appeared open to tweaking the most controversial part of the project — locking in the 15 founding clubs and leaving only five berths open for other teams to join each season.

“It has to be an attractive competition, based on merit won on the field,” Laporta said. “We defend our national leagues and an open dialogue with UEFA."

While Laporta spoke in Barcelona, the other Spanish league clubs not involved in the Super League project met via videoconference with league president Javier Tebas to form a common front against the new competition. Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético were not invited to the meeting.

“I think that Barcelona has bigger problems than taking on the rest of the clubs in Spain and Europe to defend a Super League that is already dead,” Tebas said.

But Tebas saved his strongest criticism for Real Madrid's president, credited as the mastermind of the project.

“If they say that the Super League will save soccer, they are lying or they are mistaken,” Tebas said. “Florentino Pérez is lying. It can’t help soccer because it would destroy the national leagues.”

Players on the Spanish clubs not in the project wore T-shirts before league matches on Wednesday criticizing it. Otherwise, protests against the Super League have been subdued in Spain compared to England.

Barcelona will play its first match since the Super League announcement on Thursday against Getafe. There will be no fans at the Camp Nou because of the coronavirus.

___

More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Once-stalled legislation on Capitol Hill is now closer than ever to consensus, lawmakers of both parties said after Tuesday's verdict, when a Minneapolis jury found former officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death. Negotiations are narrowing on a compromise for a sweeping overhaul, though passage remains uncertain.

“We know that this bill must be done, it must be enacted into law,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday about the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

Pelosi said Democrats, with lead negotiator Rep. Karen Bass of California, are open to changes to “get it done” but that the final bill must be “a meaningful" version.

The revived effort, led by Black lawmakers including Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, comes at a pivotal moment. The nation is on edge after the case, the deaths of other Black Americans — including of a 16-year-old girl who was brandishing a knife about the time the Minneapolis verdict was announced — and almost a year of protests accusing police of brutal actions that often go unseen.

Negotiations could wrap up within two weeks, Scott said. Bass set a goal of passage by May 25, one year since Floyd's death.

With political pressure mounting on all sides, Biden is urging Congress to plunge back into policing legislation.

“We can’t stop here,” he said after the verdict.

In private, Scott briefed key Republican senators on Wednesday, updating his colleagues on quiet negotiations that have been underway with Democrats for nearly two months.

Republican leaders, including Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, have said little publicly of the Chauvin verdict, but McConnell has tapped Scott to continue leading the effort in talks with Democrats.

Congress struggled with a police overhaul bill last summer in the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s death, but the legislation went nowhere after Democrats and Republicans could not agree to a compromise package.

The House, led by Democrats, has now twice approved a sweeping overhaul, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, that would be the most substantial federally ordered changes to policing in a generation.

The bill would allow police officers to be sued and damages awarded for violating people’s constitutional rights, limiting “qualified immunity” protections now in place for law enforcement.

The legislation would ban the use of chokeholds and would create a national databases of police misconduct in an effort to prevent “bad apple” officers from being hired by other departments.

A Republican bill from Scott does not go as far as the House-passed measure. It was blocked last year by Senate Democrats, a fact that Republicans are emphasizing.

The GOP's Justice Act would step up compliance by law enforcement in submitting use-of-force reports to a national database. It also would require compliance reports for no-knock warrants, like the kind officers used to enter the residence when Breonna Taylor was killed in Kentucky.

The Democratic and Republican bills do share some provisions, including a measure making lynching a federal hate crime.

Talks in recent weeks have centered on one of the main differences, the limits on the public’s ability to sue law enforcement officers under “qualified immunity.” One alternative being discussed would allow police departments, rather than individual officers, to be held liable.

“I think that is a logical step forward,” said Scott, putting more of the burden on the department rather than the officer.

Biden is set to speak about policing issues in his address to a joint session of Congress next Wednesday. Though he is eager to get a police bill on his desk, press secretary Jen Psaki says the decision on what legislation is passed and when is the responsibility of Congress.

Senior administration leaders are consulting with members of Congress, as is the president, who has held separate Oval Office meetings with lawmakers, including a lengthy two-hour session last week with the influential Congressional Black Caucus. Aides are also working with civil rights organizations and other outside groups to pressure Congress to act.

And on Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Department of Justice is opening a sweeping investigation into Minneapolis policing. It will examine whether there is a “pattern or practice” of unlawful or unconstitutional actions and could result in changes.

But in the aftermath of Floyd's death and others, some leading Black advocates say neither bill being discussed in Congress goes far enough to stem a national history of police brutality.

___

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Washington and Kat Stafford in Detroit contributed to this report.

“Here it is — the salvation of Russia. You. Those who came out. Those who didn't come out but supported it. Those who didn't support it publicly, but sympathized,” Navalny said in an Instagram post.

The 44-year-old, who is in his fourth week of hunger strike, said he hadn't known “what was really happening” because he only has access to one TV channel in prison, but his lawyer visited him on Thursday and got him up to speed about the events on Wednesday. “And, I will sincerely say, two feelings are raging inside me: pride and hope.”

“People are marching in the street. It means they know and understand everything," said Navalny, who is President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent. "They won't give up their future, the future of their children, their country. Yes, it will be difficult and dark for some time. But those pulling Russia back historically are doomed. There are more of us in any case. Russia will be happy.”

Mass street protests in support of Navalny swept dozens of cities and smaller towns across Russia on Wednesday night. The largest crowds were seen in Moscow, where thousands marched down the city center amid a heavy police presence.

Unlike on past occasions, officers in riot gear didn't interfere with the rally in the Russian capital, allowing quickly growing crowds to swarm streets and squares for several hours. According to OVD-Info, a rights group that monitors political arrests and offers legal aid, police detained only 31 people in Moscow, which usually accounts for the vast majority of arrests across the country.

But overall, OVD-Info tallied more than 1,900 arrests across the country on Wednesday night, with more than 800 occurring in St. Petersburg.

It was unclear whether the demonstrations matched the size and intensity of the nationwide protests that broke out in January after Navalny was arrested.

Leonid Volkov, Navalny's top strategist and chief of staff, maintained in the YouTube live stream about the protests that Wednesday's turnout exceeded January's, while the number of arrests was several times lower.

Independent political analyst and former Kremlin speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov believes the turnout on Wednesday was somewhat comparable to that in January, indicating that the harsh crackdown that followed previous demonstrations hasn't scared off Navalny's supporters.

Hundreds of people were jailed in the aftermath of the January demonstrations, and a number of Navalny allies were slapped with criminal charges for allegedly violating coronavirus restrictions.

“In recent months, the authorities have made very serious attempts to (discourage protests) by tightening the screws, and many — including me — had serious concerns that much fewer people would turn up,” Gallyamov told The Associated Press Thursday.

Navalny was arrested in January upon his return from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning he blames on the Kremlin — accusations Russian officials reject.

Soon after, a court found that the politician’s stay in Germany violated the terms of his suspended sentence for a 2014 embezzlement conviction, and ordered him to serve 2 1/2 years in prison.

Navalny began the hunger strike to protest prison authorities’ refusal to let his doctors visit when he began experiencing severe back pain and numbness in his legs. Officials insisted Navalny was getting all the medical help he needs.

Navalny's doctors said last week that the politician's test results showed sharply elevated levels of potassium, which can bring on cardiac arrest, and heightened creatinine levels that indicate impaired kidneys. He “could die at any moment," his physician Dr. Yaroslav Ashikhmin said in a Facebook post.

Navalny's allies had called the Wednesday protest in light of the alarming news, saying his life was at stake.

Jessica Grace was last seen on March 24 in the 4400 block of Meldrum Street.

Her mother told police that she left home without permission at an unknown time. She also reported that this is the first time Grace has ever done so.

Police said that Grace is in good physical condition but has a learning disability.

Anyone with information should contact the Detroit Police Department’s 7th Precinct Detective Unit at 313-596-5740 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-Speak Up.

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

READ: More Missing in Michigan coverage

Voting along party lines with minority Republicans in opposition, the House approved the bill 216-208. That's likely the easy part, though. The proposal faces a far tougher fight in the Senate, where simple Democratic control of the chamber won’t be enough.

The legislation proposes creating a 51st state with one representative and two senators, while a tiny sliver of land including the White House, the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall would remain as a federal district. Instead of the District of Columbia, the new state would be known as Washington, Douglass Commonwealth — named after famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who lived in Washington from 1877 until his death in 1895.

An identical statehood bill passed the House in 2020, but it quickly died in the then-Republican-controlled Senate. Now, with the 2020 elections leaving Democrats in control of both chambers and the White House, Republican senators may resort to a filibuster to stymie the statehood bill.

For lifelong statehood proponents like Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington's long-serving and nonvoting delegate in the House, Thursday's vote was a culmination of a life's work.

“My service in the Congress has been dedicated to achieving equality for the people I represent, which only statehood can provide," Norton said at a Wednesday news conference. “My life as a third-generation Washingtonian has marched toward this milestone.”

The measure has received strong support from President Joe Biden’s White House, which released a statement Tuesday calling Washington’s current status “an affront to the democratic values on which our Nation was founded.”

The White House praised Washington as worthy of statehood, with “a robust economy, a rich culture, and a diverse population of Americans from all walks of life who are entitled to full and equal participation in our democracy.”

The bill is certain to face GOP pushback, given that the proposed 51st state would be overwhelmingly Democratic. That opposition was on display during Thursday morning's floor debates in advance of the vote.

The country's founding fathers, "never wanted D.C. to be a state and then specifically framed the constitution to say so,” said Georgia Republican Rep. Jody Hice. “This is absolutely against what our founders intended and it ought to be soundly rejected.”

But Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerald Connolly pointed out that Kentucky was once a part of Virginia, and was carved out as a state by a simple act of Congress.

Connolly argued that the federal district was a theoretical concept when first conceived, not a community with a higher population than two U.S. states.

“When the constitution was written, this place didn’t exist,” he said. “When people say this is not about race and partisanship, you can be sure it’s about race and partisanship.”

During a March hearing by the House oversight committee, a succession of GOP representatives claimed D.C. was unfit for statehood while calling the entire effort a cynical Democratic power play. Opponents proposed a variety of alternatives, from absolving Washingtonians of federal taxes to “retroceding” most of D.C. back into Maryland.

Contenting that Congress lacks the authority to change D.C.'s status is a frequent point of attack against the proposal — even though every state other than the original 13 was admitted to the union via congressional vote. Statehood opponents say D.C. is a special case that requires special steps.

Zack Smith, a legal fellow at the Heritage Institute, a conservative think tank, testified before Congress last month that since D.C.'s creation and limitations are are enshrined in Article I of the Constitution, its status can only be changed through a constitutional amendment. He also argued that D.C. shouldn't be made a state at all and that the Founding Fathers “intended this to be a federal district outside the jurisdiction of any one state.”

If the measure were to become law, Smith predicted a wave of lawsuits that would cloud the new state's actions and any congressional legislation it touched.

“You're basically looking at a lot of litigation,” Smith told The Associated Press. "Every legislative act of this new state would be called into question. ... Things would be in a state of flux for years."

D.C. has long chafed under its relationship with Congress, which has the power to essentially veto or alter any local laws. Its population is larger than that of Wyoming or Vermont and its estimated 712,000 residents pay federal taxes, vote for president and serve in the armed forces, but they have no voting representation in Congress.

The limitations of D.C.'s reality were put in stark relief last summer during a series of protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and against general police brutality. After a night of widespread vandalism, President Donald Trump usurped D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s authority and called in a massive multiagency federal force to downtown. The law enforcement forces cleared peaceful protesters from a public street so Trump could pose for a photo outside a church.

Ravi Perry, head of Howard University's political science department, said the events of the summer of 2020 were a crucial turning point for the perception of the D.C. statehood push, intertwining the issue with the country's ascendant racial justice movement. As recently as 2018, nationwide polls had shown the majority of Americans to be lukewarm at best on the topic, but those poll numbers changed dramatically in the past two years, he said.

“People have started to see D.C. statehood as the racial justice issue that it is," said Perry, who is also on the board of the pro-statehood group D.C. Vote. “There's been a major sea change, and a lot of that has been motivated by Trumpism.”

Akayed Ullah, 31, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Richard J. Sullivan, who said Ullah had carried out “about as serious a crime as there is," though he largely failed when the bomb attached to his chest barely exploded, burning him severely but largely sparing those around him from severe injuries.

“A life sentence is appropriate,” Sullivan said. “It was a truly barbaric and heinous crime.”

The judge told the would-be suicide bomber that life in prison was “less draconian than the sentence you were going to impose on yourself.”

Ullah, 31, speaking through a white mask over his black beard and with his tearful mother looking on from a courtroom bench behind him, apologized before hearing the sentence.

“Your honor, what I did on Dec. 11, it was wrong,” he said. “I can tell you from the bottom of my heart, I’m deeply sorry. ... I do not support harming innocent people.”

Prosecutors had sought the life term for Ullah, saying the “premeditated and vicious” attack was committed on behalf of the Islamic State group.

But defense lawyer Amy Gallicchio said Ullah deserved no more than the mandatory 35 years in prison. She said he had “lived lawfully and peacefully” before the December 2017 attack that she blamed on a “personal crisis that left him isolated, depressed, vulnerable and suicidal.”

“He's not an evil man. He is not a monster,” she said.

The attack in a pedestrian tunnel beneath Times Square and the Port Authority bus terminal left Ullah seriously burned but spared some pedestrians nearby from more serious injuries, though the government noted that one bystander has lost 70% of his hearing.

At trial, prosecutors showed jurors Ullah’s post-arrest statements and social media comments, including when he taunted then-President Donald Trump on Facebook before the attack.

Hours after Ullah’s bombing attempt, Trump derided the immigration system that had allowed Ullah — and multitudes of law-abiding Bangladeshis — to enter the U.S.

Ullah got an entry visa in 2011 because he had an uncle who was already a U.S. citizen. Trump said allowing foreigners to follow relatives to the U.S. was “incompatible with national security.”

Sullivan's sentence was formally described as life in prison plus 30 years because one count required that a 30-year mandatory sentence be added to whatever was imposed for the other charges. The judge, who now sits on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also ordered $7,380 in restitution.

Southwest Chairman and CEO Gary Kelly said Thursday that his airline has seen steady improvement in U.S. leisure-travel sales since mid-February. He credited rising vaccinations and falling new cases of COVID-19.

“While the pandemic is not over, we believe the worst is behind us, in terms of the severity of the negative impact on travel demand,” Kelly said.

American Airlines posted another large loss, but its CEO also sounded upbeat heading into the peak summer-travel season, when airlines usually earn most of their money. The airline is aggressively expanding its schedule for summer and recalling employees from leave.

“We are starting to see light at the end of this very dark tunnel,” Doug Parker, who is also American's chairman, said on a call with analysts.

Leisure travel within the U.S. has picked up recently, with about 1.4 million travelers going through airports each day this month. Still, that remains about 40% below the pre-pandemic pace of 2019. Lucrative business travel and long-haul international flying remain much more deeply depressed, down around 80% from 2019.

Southwest, the fourth-largest U.S. airline, is benefitting more from the pickup in U.S. leisure travel because it is less dependent than its biggest rivals — American, Delta and United — on business travelers, and it doesn't fly to Europe or Asia, which are mostly closed to American visitors.

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. reported net income of $116 million in the first quarter. However, Southwest received $1.45 billion in federal aid to help cover labor costs, and without that and other temporary items, the Dallas-based carrier would have lost $1 billion. The results were 3 cents per share better than Wall Street expectations. Revenue fell 52% to $2.05 billion.

American reported a loss of $1.25 billion, and that did not include $3.1 billion in taxpayer funds approved by Congress and the Trump and Biden administrations. Without that help and other one-time gains and losses, American would have lost $2.7 billion.

Airlines have been offering rock-bottom fares to attract passengers during the pandemic, but those prices appear to be heading up.

American's chief revenue officer, Vasu Raja, said fares on a per-mile basis started the year at around half their 2019 levels, but summer flights are selling for about 90% of where they stood two years ago.

The reason: supply and demand.

American has added about 25% to available seats for popular leisure destinations such as Las Vegas and Orlando, Florida, but bookings are running about double their year-ago levels, Raja said. He suggested that the airline is now more concerned with maximizing profit on each flight rather than simply filling seats.

American Airlines Group Inc. lost $4.32 per share after subtracting federal aid and other temporary items. That was 2 cents per share worse than forecast by analysts surveyed by FactSet. Revenue dropped 53% from a year ago, to $4.01 billion.

Alaska Airlines' parent reported a loss of $131 million, or $3.51 per share, after excluding federal relief and other temporary items. Revenue fell 51% to $797 million.

In trading Thursday morning, Southwest shares rose 1%, while shares of American and Alaska Air Group Inc. fell about 1%.

___

David Koenig can be reached at www.twitter.com/airlinewriter

The 16, including tribal leaders and former senior officials, were arrested during a crackdown in which authorities placed Prince Hamzah, the king's half-brother, under a form of house arrest. The prince denied being part of any plot and accused authorities of trying to silence his criticism of corruption and misrule in the country, which is a close Western ally.

Two of those arrested, former senior royal officials Bassem Awadallah and Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, remain in detention.

Wafaa Bani Mustafa, a former Parliament member who attended a meeting with the king on Thursday, said the 16 were released to spend the holidays with their families while the investigation proceeds. They have not yet received royal pardons, she said.

She said the king did not mention Prince Hamzah because the dispute had been resolved within the royal family.

The king asked authorities to look into releasing the detainees — some of whom come from powerful tribes on which the monarchy has historically relied — following a petition from their relatives.

“As a father and a brother to all Jordanians, and in this holy month of tolerance and solidarity, when we all wish to be with our families, I ask the relevant officials to look into the proper mechanism to have those who were misled into following the sedition return to their families soon," the king said, according to a palace statement.

He added that if the "sedition" had not been halted, "it could have taken the country in a difficult direction, God forbid.”

Abdullah has said that Hamzah is at home in his own palace under the king's care. The two appeared in public together earlier this month for the first time since the rift in a show of unity. It's unclear what, if any, restrictions are still being imposed on the prince.

The dispute was a rare public feud at the highest levels of the monarchy. Jordan is a close Western ally that has long been seen as a bastion of stability in a volatile region. It borders Israel, the occupied West Bank, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

The court document outlining the new charges also lists 19 new victims — including 11 law enforcement officers — that Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 22, is accused of trying to kill during the attack.

Some of the victims have more than one count of attempted first-degree murder associated with them, specifying two different theories for how Alissa allegedly tried to kill them, either intentionally or through “extreme indifference” to human life.

The Colorado lawmakers banned the sale of ammunition magazines that hold more than 15 rounds in response to the 2012 mass shootings at a suburban Denver movie theater and at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Despite that, an investigation by KUSA-TV found that some gun Colorado shops have skirted the law by selling the disassembled parts of high capacity magazines that buyers can then assemble.

Boulder investigators have said Alissa legally purchased the Ruger AR-556 pistol used in the attack, which resembles an AR-15 rifle with a slightly shorter stock. He bought it six days before the shooting after passing a background check.

Alissa's defense team has asked for time to evaluate what one of his lawyers cited his “mental illness” without offering any details about the condition. The suspect has not been asked to enter a plea yet and the public defenders who represent him are prohibited from talking to the media about the case under office policy.

Boulder County's district attorney, Michael Dougherty, planned to speak with reporters Thursday about the investigation and the next steps in Alissa's prosecution.

___

This version corrects that Alissa is 22, not 21.

The S&P; 500 was up less than 0.1% as of 11:38 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 43 points, or 0.1%, to 34,088 and the Nasdaq was up 0.3%. The S&P; 500 closed higher Wednesday, ending a two-day slide, but it's still down for the week.

Earnings are a key focus for investors as the bulk of companies in the S&P; 500 spend the next few weeks reporting their financial results. Wall Street is hoping to get a better sense of just how much companies in various sectors are benefiting from the economic recovery. They are also listening for clues on prospects for the recovery to continue as vaccine distribution rolls on and people try to return to some semblance of normal.

AT&T; rose 4.4% after reporting results that beat expectations, helped by higher wireless phone charges as well as the success of its streaming service HBOMax. Equifax also rose after reporting strong results.

Union Pacific fell 1.7% after the railroad operator reported a 9% drop in profit.

The broader market has had a choppy week of ups and downs as Wall Street digests earnings and tries to gauge how much and how quickly the U.S. and global economy will recover through 2021.

“It’s not a clear time in the market,” said Jay Hatfield, CEO and portfolio manager at Infrastructure Capital Advisors. “You’re in a trading range until you get some more clarity on the global recovery.”

The U.S. is showing solid signs of recovery, while Europe and other parts of the world lag behind. That will likely change as soon as more vaccines are distributed internationally, Hatfield said.

Credit Suisse dropped 2.6% after the Swiss bank announced it would issue more stock to help it recover from the losses it suffered because of the implosion of a hedge fund earlier this year. Credit Suisse had been a primary backer of Archegos Capital Management, which collapsed last month after several of its bets went sour.

Investors will be looking to Intel after the closing bell when the chip giant reports its quarterly results.

Investors got a bit of good news on the economy when the Labor Department reported that the number of Americans filing for unemployment fell again last week. Unemployment claims were 547,000, the lowest point since the pandemic struck and an encouraging sign that layoffs are slowing.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.58% from 1.56% late Wednesday.

A bee collective introduced 17 new colonies to new designer hives, bringing to 1 million the city’s population of honeybees cultivated by the Urban Beehives project. Creator Claudia Zanfi said the project aims to “create an intersection between artistic language and biodiversity.”

The art is in the form of hives designed by international artists and the biodiversity comes from the bees, which help pollinate plants in the city’s expanding green spaces.

The new hives were introduced to their homes in the Cascina Merlata Park, 20 hectares (50 acres) of new park dedicated last year on land used for the Expo 2015 World’s Fair, which focused on food, food security and nutrition.

The seven-year-old, prize-winning project is aimed at educating the public about the importance of bees to the environment, while boosting their population and producing a sweet treat of honey. It's billed as one of the biggest urban bee collectives in Europe, with hives placed in four public parks in the city.

“Urban Beehives is a redevelopment project of urban green through the reintroduction of bees in the city,’’ Zanfi said. “There always have been bees in the city, but creating a public space for them is what is new.”

Starting next week, Zanfi's group Green Island will offer courses and workshops at the park on beekeeping and the bees' critical role in helping maintain a healthy planet.

Two years ago, the Rome-based Food and Agricultural Organization sounded an alarm that declining bee populations pose threat to global food security and nutrition.

"The bees have a fundamental role for our lives, but also for the life of the planet,'' Zanfi said.

__

Read all AP stories about climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the benchmark 30-year home-loan rate declined to 2.97% this week from 3.04% last week. At this time last year, the long-term rate was 3.33%.

The rate for a 15-year loan, popular among those looking to refinance, dipped to 2.29% from 2.35% the week before.

Experts have expected home-loan rates to increase modestly in the short term, while remaining at low levels in light of the Federal Reserve’s goal of keeping its principal borrowing rate near zero until the economy recovers from the pandemic.

Even with historically low rates, buyers are having a hard time snatching up homes because there are so few for sale.

Another report Thursday from the National Association of Realtors showed that sales of existing home sales fell for the second straight month in March because there are so few on the market. The coronavirus pandemic has fueled demand for single-family homes as people look for more space.

On the bright side, the Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of Americans applying for unemployment aid fell last week to 547,000, the lowest point since the pandemic struck and an encouraging sign that layoffs are slowing on the strength of an improving job market.

The shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, who was swinging a knife during a fight with another person in Columbus, is in some ways more representative of how Black and other people of color are killed during police encounters than the death of George Floyd, pinned to the ground by Chauvin and captured on video for all the world to see.

Unlike Chauvin's case, many killings by police involve a decision to shoot in a heated moment and are notoriously difficult to prosecute even when they spark grief and outrage. Juries have tended to give officers the benefit of the doubt when they claim to have acted in a life-or-death situation.

While Tuesday’s conviction was hailed as a sign of progress in the fight for equal justice, it still leaves unanswered difficult questions about law enforcement’s use of force and systemic racism in policing. The verdict in the Chauvin case might not be quickly repeated, even as the list of those killed at the hands of police grows.

“This was something unique. The world saw what happened,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill, who has examined over 100 use-of-force cases there. To have video, witnesses, forensic evidence and multiple police officers testify against one of their own is unique and “demonstrates how high the bar has to be in order to actually have that kind of accountability,” he said.

Convictions like Chauvin’s are extraordinarily rare. Out of the thousands of deadly police shootings in the U.S. since 2005, about 140 officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter and just seven were convicted of murder, according to data maintained by Phil Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green State University.

“This is a success, but there are so many more unjust murders that still need reckoning, that we still need to address,” said Princess Blanding, a Virginia gubernatorial candidate whose brother was killed by a Richmond police officer. Marcus-David Peters, who was Black, was fatally shot by a Black officer during a mental health crisis after he ran naked onto an interstate highway and charged at the officer.

In Columbus, Bryant had been swinging a knife wildly at another girl or woman pinned against a car when the officer fired after shouting at the girl to get down, according to police and body camera video released within hours of the shooting. The mayor mourned the teen's death but said the officer had acted to protect someone else.

Kimberly Shepherd, who lives in the neighborhood where Bryant was killed, had been celebrating the guilty verdict in Floyd’s killing when she heard the news about the teenager.

“We were happy about the verdict. But you couldn’t even enjoy that,” Shepherd said. “Because as you’re getting one phone call that he was guilty, I’m getting the next phone call that this is happening in my neighborhood.”

In Chauvin's case, by contrast, cellphone video seen around the world showed the white officer pressing his knee to the Black man’s neck for more than nine minutes as Floyd gasped for air. It sparked protests across the U.S., and Chauvin’s fellow officers took the extraordinary step of testifying against him.

“As we look to future prosecution, the question is going to be: Is this perhaps the beginning of a new era, where those walls of silence are not impenetrable?” said Miriam Krinsky, a former federal prosecutor and executive director of the reform-minded group Fair and Just Prosecution. Chauvin's case could also make future juries more skeptical of police, she said.

The day after Bryant was fatally shot, at least two other people were also killed by police in the United States.

On Wednesday morning, a deputy fatally shot and killed a Black man while serving a search warrant in eastern North Carolina. Authorities wouldn’t provide details of the shooting but an eyewitness said that Andrew Brown Jr. was shot while trying to drive away, and that deputies fired at him multiple times. And in the San Diego suburb of Escondido, police said an officer fatally shot a man who was apparently striking cars with a metal pole.

On Thursday, a funeral will be held for Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist who was shot during a traffic stop this month in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, just a few miles from the courthouse as the Chauvin trial unfolded. In Chicago last month, 13-year-old Adam Toledo was fatally shot less than a second after he tossed a gun and began raising his hands as an officer had commanded.

Kim Potter, a white police officer, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in Wright’s shooting. The former police chief said Potter mistakenly fired her handgun when she meant to use her Taser; Potter resigned from the force afterward. Wright’s family has called for more serious charges, comparing her case to the murder charge brought against a Black officer who killed a white woman in nearby Minneapolis in 2017.

The Cook County state's attorney’s office will decide whether to charge Eric Stillman, the white officer who shot Toledo on March 29 in Little Village, a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of Chicago's southwest side. The boy, who was Latino, appeared to drop a handgun moments before the officer shot him. The graphic video of the boy’s death sparked outrage, but some legal experts have said they don’t believe Stillman could or should be charged under criteria established by a landmark 1989 Supreme Court ruling on the use of force by police.

Instead of just prosecuting officers after shootings happen, more must be done to prevent such encounters from happening in the first place, said Eugene Collins, who was a local organizer for the NAACP’s Baton Rouge, Louisiana, branch when Alton Sterling, a Black man selling CDs in front of a convenience store, was shot and killed by a white police officer in July 2016. The two officers involved in the encounter weren't charged in his death.

“We’re pulled over more, stopped and frisked more,” said Collins, now head of the NAACP branch. “It’s about putting responsibility on the policymakers.”

Activists say the fight for police reform and a more just legal system is far from over.

Rachael Rollins, the first woman of color to become district attorney in Massachusetts, said it must start in part by breaking down the misconception that questioning the police or suggesting ways they can improve means “you don’t back the blue.”

“The police have an incredibly hard job, and believe me, I know there are violent people that harm community and police but that’s not all of us. So we have to acknowledge that it’s not working and we have to sit together to come up with solutions, but it's urgent,” said Rollins, the district attorney for Suffolk County, which includes Boston.

“I’m afraid, I’m exhausted and I’m the chief law enforcement officer so imagine what other people feel like," she said.

____

Associated Press reporters Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Va., and Rebecca Santana in New Orleans contributed to this report, as did Farnoush Amiri in Columbus, Ohio, a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

___

Find AP’s full coverage of the death of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd.

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that Kim Potter has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, not second-degree murder.

The 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) chopper, named Ingenuity, hovered longer and also flew side to side this time, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. It achieved the intended altitude of 16 feet (5 meters) and even accelerated sideways 7 feet (2 meters).

This hop lasted 52 seconds, 13 seconds longer than the first one.

“Go big or go home!” JPL tweeted in announcing the Earth Day news.

The success came just three days after Ingenuity made the first powered flight by an aircraft on another planet. The helicopter carried a bit of wing fabric from the Wright Flyer that made similar history at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903.

Flight controllers had to wait four hours before learning Thursday's outcome. Like it did during Monday's 10-foot-high (3-meter-high) hop, the helicopter sent back a black and white photo showing its shadow against the dusty, rock-strewn surface now known as Wright Brothers Field.

“It sounds simple, but there are many unknowns regarding how to fly a helicopter on Mars," Ingenuity’s chief pilot, Havard Grip, said from JPL in a statement. “That’s why we’re here — to make these unknowns known.”

One of the challenges is the planet’s extremely thin atmosphere — 1% that of Earth's.

NASA plans up to three more test flights in the next 1 1/2 weeks, venturing higher each time with more complicated acrobatics. Ingenuity hitched a ride to Mars on the rover Perseverance, which photographed the proceedings from more than 200 feet (64 meters) away. The rover team allotted one month for the $85 million tech demo; The clock started ticking when Ingenuity was released from Perseverance's belly on April 3.

“We have two flights of Mars under our belts, which means that there is still a lot to learn during this month of Ingenuity," chief engineer Bob Balaram said in a statement.

Perseverance and Ingenuity arrived at Mars in mid-February, landing in an ancient river delta following a 6 1/2-month flight.

Once Ingenuity's flights are complete, Perseverance will set off on its journey to find any signs of past microscopic life. A robotic geologist, the rover will collect core samples of the most enticing rocks and set them aside for pickup by a future spacecraft a decade from now.

In another first, an experiment on the rover successfully converted Mars’ carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere into pure oxygen this week. Five grams of oxygen was produced, according to NASA, the equivalent of 10 minutes of breathing for an astronaut. Large-scale production at Mars could yield oxygen not only for air, but also rocket fuel. More tests are planned over the next two years.

___

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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the Russian pullback.

After watching the drills, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declared the maneuvers in Crimea and wide swathes of western Russia over and ordered the military to pull the troops that took part in them back to their permanent bases.

“I consider the goals of the snap check of readiness fulfilled,” Shoigu said. “The troops have shown their capability to defend the country and I decided to complete the drills in the South and Western military districts.”

Shoigu said the troops should return to their bases by May 1, but he ordered to keep the heavy weapons deployed to western Russia as part of the drills for another massive military exercise later this year.

Shoigu said they should remain at the Pogonovo firing range in the southwestern Voronezh region. The sprawling range is located 160 kilometers (about 100 miles) east of the border with Ukraine.

The Russian troop buildup near Ukraine that came amid increasing violations of a cease-fire in Ukraine’s east has raised concerns in the West, which urged the Kremlin to pull its forces back.

The U.S. and NATO have said that the Russian buildup near Ukraine was the largest since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and threw its support behind separatists in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland called Donbas.

Ukraine’s president said the Russian troops' pullback will help ease tensions and thanked international partners for their support.

“The reduction of troops on our border proportionally reduces tension,” Zelenskyy said on Twitter. He noted that Ukraine remains vigilant, but “welcomes any steps to decrease the military presence and deescalate the situation in Donbas.”

Earlier this week, Zelenskyy offered Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet in Donbas to defuse tensions.

Putin responded in televised remarks Thursday, saying that if the Ukrainian leadership wants to settle the conflict in Donbas, it should first engage in talks with separatist leaders in the east and only after that discuss it with Russia. If Zelenskyy wants to discuss normalizing ties with Russia, he's welcome to come to Moscow, the Russian leader said.

The Russian military hasn't reported the number of additional troops that have been moved to Crimea and parts of southwestern Russia near Ukraine, and it wasn't immediately clear from Shoigu's statement if all of them will now be pulled back.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the maneuvers in Crimea involved more than 60 ships, over 10,000 troops, around 200 aircraft and about 1,200 military vehicles.

The exercise featured the landing of more than 2,000 paratroopers and 60 military vehicles on Thursday. Fighter jets covered the airborne operation.

Shoigu flew in a helicopter over the Opuk firing range in Crimea to oversee the exercise. He later declared the drills over, but ordered the military to stand ready to respond to any “adverse developments" during NATO's Defender Europe 2021 exercise. The NATO drills began in March and are to last until June.

“NATO has significantly intensified its military activities in the region,” Shoigu said. “Intelligence gathering has increased and the intensity and scope of operational training has been growing. One of the alliance's main coalition groups is being deployed in the Black Sea region."

Russia long has bristled at the deployment of NATO's forces near its borders and stepped up its drills as relations with the West have sunk to post-Cold War lows over the annexation of Crimea, Russian meddling in elections, hacking attacks and other issues.

Last week, Russia has announced that it would close broad areas of the Black Sea near Crimea to foreign navy ships and state vessels until November, a move that drew Ukrainian protests and raised Western concerns. Russia also announced restrictions on flights near Crimea this week, arguing that they fully conform with the international law.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned Tuesday that the Russian buildup across the border is continuing and is “expected to reach a combined force of over 120,000 troops” in about a week and urged the West to beef up sanctions against Moscow.

Moscow has rejected Ukrainian and Western concerns about the buildup, arguing that it’s free to deploy its forces anywhere on the Russian territory and charging that they don’t threaten anyone. But at the same time, the Kremlin sternly warned Ukrainian authorities against trying to use force to retake control of the rebel east, where seven years of fighting have killed more than 14,000, saying that Russia could be forced to intervene to protect civilians in the region.

Amid the tensions, Ukraine's president on Wednesday signed a law allowing the call-up of reservists for military service without announcing a mobilization. The new law will allow to quickly equip the military with reservists, "significantly increasing their combat effectiveness during military aggression,” Zelenskyy’s office said in a statement.

Sports during the coronavirus pandemic look dramatically different than in years past. From temperature checks to mask wearing during play and few in-person spectators, young athletes have had to adapt to this new normal.

Although the majority of parents ranked their child’s sports organization highly for communicating safety protocols, one in four rated their child’s team or league’s enforcement of health and safety precautions as “fair” or “poor.”

“As kids return to playing sports, it’s critical that teams and facilities enforce COVID guidelines to keep players, coaches and families as safe as possible and to reduce community spread,” poll co-director Sarah Clark said in a news release. “This is especially important as we have seen recent COVID-19 outbreaks among youth sports teams.”

Read: CDC: Restrictions needed to slow Michigan virus surge, specifically in indoor youth sports

“While most families seem confident in their local organization’s safety measures, our report suggests that ensuring compliance with COVID-19 protocols has also been challenging.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the state health department have asked asked residents to voluntarily follow some COVID-19 restrictions, including suspending sports and returning to virtual learning.

The report, which represents a national sample of parents, comes at a time when health experts are suggesting that organized sports may be driving COVID-19 cases in children.

Top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci has said that many of the cases seen in schools often trace back to team sports. Local health departments in various states have also found youth sports to be sources of outbreaks while contact tracing.

Here in Michigan, which is experiencing the worst surge of COVID cases in the country, experts have said that outbreaks in groups of young people are more often linked to extracurricular activities than classroom exposure. Additionally, socializing with others before and after sports activities could be helping to drive transmission.

Many schools nationwide have paused sports and returned to virtual learning in order to help curb the spread.

Read: Report: Michigan only state at ‘severe’ COVID risk level

Between August 2020 and January 2021, Mott received responses from 1,630 parents with children ages 6-18.

The poll found that older children ages 12-18 are participating in sports at a slightly higher rate than children ages 6-11. One in three parents whose child was not participating in sports said that their child’s team was canceled, while one in four said they wouldn’t allow their child to play a team sport due to safety concerns over COVID-19.

Overall, the majority of parents responded that their child’s school or sports league provided clear communication, listened to their concerns about COVID-19 and treated children fairly.

More than 90% of parents whose children participated in group sports said they were given information about social distancing and mask rules for players and spectators by their child’s school or sports league.

Four out of five parents were also given information about protocols when a player is exposed to the virus and when a child who contracted COVID-19 can return to play.

However, rules on testing protocols tended to be less clear, with 59 percent of parents saying they had to reach out to team leaders about when players should undergo COVID testing.

“Parents largely felt that sports officials successfully communicated about most of their new COVID-19 policies,” Clark said in a statement. “Communication was notably lower around COVID-19 testing. It’s unclear if the lack of information was an oversight or if schools and leagues didn’t have clear guidelines from public health officials.

“As more youth sports resume, our poll suggests that parents will need further direction on whether, when and where their child should get tested. This is particularly important as cases are rising among younger people.”

Another key factor for parents was when a child can return to practice after contracting COVID-19. Half of the parents said they would wait to have their child cleared by a doctor, while 40 percent said they would follow team or league guidelines on how many days a child must remain home before returning to sports activity.

Five percent of parents responded that they would have their child return once they felt well enough.

“If parents rely solely on league guidelines to determine when it’s safe for their child to return to sports activity, they may overlook signs that the child is not fully recovered. It’s important that parents involve their child’s doctor for specific guidance on resuming sports activity,” Clark said in a statement.

Overall, parents of younger children were more likely to wait the specified number of days, and parents of teens were less likely to have a doctor clear their child.

Clark also said that beyond following league or school policies, parents should reinforce common sense practices like not sharing food or water and keeping hands sanitized during breaks. She said parents should remember to wear masks and maintain proper social distancing while attending games.

“We know sports provide physical and social health benefits for children and teens and are a valuable part of many students’ school experience,” Clark said in a release.

“Unlike many youth activities that have switched to a remote format to meet social distancing guidelines, sports can’t go virtual. It’s important that both sports officials and families closely adhere to guidelines that minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission during practices and competitions.”

Existing home sales fell 3.7% last month from February to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 6.01 million annualized units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. Sales jumped 12.3% from March last year.

Homes typically sold in 18 days last month, a record low. It's less than the 20 days in February, and much faster than the average of 29 days last year at this time.

Sales are slowing despite the speed at which buyers are pouncing on homes that do hit the market, revealing surging demand in an ultra-low inventory environment, said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

“It’s simply a severe lack of supply that is holding back sales,” Yun said.

The inventory of unsold homes stood at just 1.07 million at the end of March, only a slight improvement over the record-low 1.03 million homes in February. And it's tumbled 28.2% from levels just a year earlier.

At the current sales pace, the March inventory of homes for sale amounts to a 2.1 months’ supply, well short of the six-month supply economists say is needed for a balanced market. In February, the supply was slightly lower at 2 months. In March last year, it stood at 3.3 months, the NAR said.

The newest housing data will be of no comfort to house hunters across the U.S. who are facing perhaps the most competitive market in decades. Any house that is put up for sale typically receives multiple, above-asking-price bids, which pushes prices overall even higher — a trend that continued in March.

The U.S. median home price surged 17.2% from a year earlier to $329,100, an all-time high.

Low mortgage rates remain a lure, providing stretched buyers with a measure of financial flexibility. Mortgage rates fell for a third straight week, with the benchmark 30-year home-loan rate slipping below 3% this week to 2.97%, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. At this time last year, the long-term rate was 3.3%.

Every region in the country suffered sales declines last month, a complete reversal of sales in March 2020.

Earth Day's origins start with Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson, who was inspired to organize the event after the Jan. 28, 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. More than three million gallons of oil spilled into the Santa Barbara Channel in the Pacific Ocean, killing more than 10,000 animals. Nelson enlisted Stanford University graduate Denis Hayes to assist in coordinating and organizing the event.

The first Earth Day was held April 22, 1970. The New York Times estimated the gather in in New York City had crowds of 20,000 people and more than 100,000 over the course of the day. Since New York City was home of most television networks and several large publications, coverage of Earth Day was spread nationally.

Across the country, approximately 2,000 colleges and universities and approximately 10,000 schools participated in the first Earth Day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The first Earth Day was said to bring 20 million Americans together, pressuring the United States to prioritize environmental issues.

"My primary objective in planning Earth Day was to show the political leadership of the nation that there was broad and deep support for the environmental movement," Nelson said in 1980. "While I was confident that a nationwide peaceful demonstration of concern would be impressive, I was not quite prepared for the overwhelming response that occurred on that day."

The first Earth Day's success didn't take President Richard Nixon by surprise, having representatives around the country at events. On July 9, 1970, Nixon proposed consolidating the environmental responsibilities of the U.S. government into one agency, the EPA.

In the 50 years since its inception, Earth Day continues to influence the environment on both local and international scales.

In 1995, Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his environmental work. He passed away in 2005 at the age of 89.

More: Earth Day events across Metro Detroit

The state has made 11 arrests this month in connection with a broad investigation into physical and sexual abuse allegations at the Youth Development Center in Manchester, now called the Sununu Youth Services Center. The allegations against Victor Malavet are the first, however, to involve the Youth Detention Services Unit in Concord, where children are held while awaiting disposition of their cases by the courts.

Malavet, 58, of Gilford, is charged with seven counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, all against a girl held at the Concord facility in 2001. According to court documents, he assaulted her in multiple rooms, including a laundry room, TV room and what investigators called a “candy storage room.”

During his court appearance Thursday, a judge read the charges but postponed a bail hearing to later in the day to give him time to speak to his lawyer. The other three men arrested Wednesday — Jonathan Brand, Trevor Middleton and Stanley Watson — also appeared in court but their bail hearings were scheduled for Friday because they didn't have attorneys.

The Manchester facility is named for former Gov. John H. Sununu, father of the current governor. It has been the target of a criminal investigation since 2019, as well as a lawsuit in which more than 200 men and women allege they were physically or sexually abused as children by 150 staffers from 1963 to 2018. According to their attorney, children were gang raped by counselors, beaten while raped, forced to compete for food in “fight clubs” set up by counselors and locked in solitary confinement for weeks or months.

Seven former workers at the Manchester facility were arrested earlier this month and charged with either sexually assaulting or acting as accomplices to the assault of 12 teenagers from 1994 to 2005. Malavet and the three other men arrested this week are accused of assaulting five victims between 1997 and 2007.

Brand, 56, of Concord, is charged with two counts of sexual assault involving a boy in 2007. Middleton, 52, of Belmont, is accused of engaging in a pattern of sexual assault involving a boy between 1999 and 2001. Watson faces three charges involving two boys between 1997 and 1999.

Watch her remarks live at 2:30 p.m. in the video above.

Expected to join Whitmer Thursday are the CEO of Consumers Energy and the director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

The governor’s message comes just as U.S. President Biden pledged to halve the nation’s carbon emissions by 2030.

In 2019, Gov. Whitmer signed a directive entering the state into the U.S. Climate Alliance -- a bipartisan coalition of U.S. governors committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Related: Michigan commits to $97 million investment into recycling

Nicole Poole Franklin, 43, entered the pleas Wednesday in a Des Moines federal court to two counts of violating the U.S. Hate Crime Act for trying to kill the children in separate attacks because of their races. She pleaded guilty Monday to two state counts of attempted murder in the same Dec. 9, 2019, attacks, the Des Moines Register reported.

Prosecutors said Franklin intentionally jumped a curb in Des Moines that afternoon and struck a Black 12-year-old boy, injuring one of his legs. During her hearing Wednesday, Poole said she thought the boy was of Middle Eastern descent and was a member of IS.

Minutes later, Franklin ran down a 14-year-old Latina girl on a sidewalk, leaving her with injuries for which she was hospitalized for two days. Police said Franklin told them she hit the girl because “she is Mexican.” About an hour later, Franklin was arrested at a local gas station, where officers say she had thrown items at a clerk while yelling racial slurs at him and other customers.

Franklin has said she is schizophrenic and has post-traumatic stress disorder. Last year, a judge ruled that she wasn't mentally competent to stand trial, but she was later restored to mental competency and ordered to face trial.

The federal counts carry a possible life prison sentence, but prosecutors recommended that Franklin be sentenced to 27 years behind bars and that her federal sentence be served at the same time as her state sentence. On the state counts, Franklin faces up to 25 years on each attempted murder count. It wasn't clear if other state counts, including hate crimes, would be dropped as part as her guilty plea in state court, the Register reported.

This list includes any players going through the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol.

• View: Detroit Red Wings 2020-21 season schedule, TV, time, results
• View: 2021 NHL Central Division standings

Ken “Legend” Williams, a Detroit independent filmmaker, has had the topic on his mind for much of his life; so much so, that 20 years after he began dreaming of making a film, he’s finally released “Asbury Park,” which shares dramatic and realistic stories of inner city life.

Watch the full, compelling interview in the YouTube video below.

Follow “Something Good” on Facebook and YouTube!

Williams, in the video above, shares behind-the-scenes stories that have brought the remarkable film to life -- all of which are similar to the most relevant topic at the moment.

“If you call 911, the police may or may not show up,” Williams said of growing up in an urban area. “But you know like I do, if I got caught with that gun at 12, I would have been labeled a criminal. But in reality, I was a boy trying to protect my mother.”

The film features some top-tier actors who agreed to be part of the project because they shared the same passion as Williams, and believed the message of what urban life is like should be shared.

“Asbury Park” is expected to debut in film festivals later this year with a wide release to follow.

News can be serious and times can be tough, but that’s when people band together and uplift in ways never thought possible. Come see that part of the story in "Something Good."

As we navigate these tricky times it can be easy to lose sight of the goodness in people, but it’s there. ‘Something Good’ is a show to highlight those moments. The ones that make you smile, feel good and applaud humanity.

PREVIOUS REPORT: 3 accused of stealing $470k by defrauding VA, Michigan Treasury

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Sophia Quill, 60, and co-conspirator Melissa Flores, 53, created aliases and obtained or created fake documents to make it appear that they were heirs to various people who died.

Between 2013 and 2019, Quill and Flores defrauded the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs out of more than $430,000, according to authorities. They defrauded the Michigan Department of Treasury out of more than $40,000, officials said.

Quill’s son, Steven Decker, is accused of receiving proceeds and using some o the money to hide property used to conduct the scheme.

Decker and Florida were arraigned last year. Quill was arraigned Wednesday via Zoom at the Wayne County 18th District Court.

She is charged with conducting a criminal enterprise, four counts of false pretenses between $50,000-$100,000, two counts of false pretenses between $20,000-$50,000 and two counts of false pretenses between $1,000-$20,000.

The criminal enterprise charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The first six counts of false pretenses are punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and the final two counts of false pretenses are punishable by up to five years in prison.

All nine charges are felonies. Quill is being charged as a fourth habitual offender, so she’s facing a maximum of life in prison, if convicted on any of the charges, according to officials.

“I said it after the first arraignments and I’ll say it again: Taking advantage of agencies that offer public benefits for our service members and their families is a slap in the face to the brave men and women who protect this country,” Nessel said. “Let the months spent building and prosecuting this case serve as a warning to anyone trying to defraud our state or federal agencies. It will not be tolerated.”

Quill wasn’t arraigned in Michigan last year because she’s from Florida and COVID-19 made extradition difficult, officials said.

Her bond is set at $10,000. She is not allowed to have contact with Flores if bond is posted.

A probable cause conference is scheduled for April 29, and a preliminary examination is scheduled for May 6.

This data is per for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) dashboard as of Wednesday, April 21, 2021.

Race Data for Ford Field + FEMA Mobile according to MDDHS Dashboard:

• White 55.0%
• Asian 16.8%
• Black 11.2%
• Unknown 7.4%
• Latinx 5.4%
• Other 4.0%

Age Data for Ford Field + FEMA Mobile according to MDDHS Dashboard:

• 16-19 years: 8.2%
• 20-29: 21.3%
• 30-39: 25.4%
• 40-49: 21.2%
• 50-64: 20.4%
• 65-74: 2.5%
• 75+: 1%

Statewide — here is the percentage of residents of each listed race who’ve received at least one dose:

• 36.3% of all Asian residents age 16+ have received at least one dose (98,000 people/272,000 people)
• 34.5% of all white residents (2.1 million people/6.2 million people)
• 30.4% of American Indian residents (14,000 people/46,000 people )
• 21.7% of Black residents (232,000 people/1 million people)
• 21.7% of Latinx residents (79,000 people/366,000 people)

Statewide — here are the % of residents of each listed race who’ve received at least one dose & complete vaccinations:

• 16-19 years: at least one dose 20.3% | complete 4.9%
• 20-29: at least one dose 25.8% | complete 12.7%
• 30-39: at least one dose 35.5% | complete 19.6%
• 40-49: at least one dose 39.6% | complete 22.6%
• 50-64: at least one dose 53.7% | complete 37.7%
• 65-74: at least one dose 73.0% | complete 64.3%
• 75+: at least one dose 71.6% | complete 63.7%

Metro Detroit (Wayne County including Detroit, Oakland and Macomb counties) -- here is the percentage of residents of each listed race who’ve received at least one dose and complete vaccinations:

• 16-19 years: at least one dose 23.2% | complete 5%
• 20-29: at least one dose 26.9% | complete 12.5%
• 30-39: at least one dose 35.7% | complete 18.1%
• 40-49: at least one dose 39.6% | complete 20.5%
• 50-64: at least one dose 54.8% | complete 37%
• 65-74: at least one dose 73.3% | complete 63%
• 75+: at least one dose 70.2% | complete 61.1%

Coronavirus resources

• Find help looking for COVID vaccine in Metro Detroit -- right here
• Vaccinations: How to find appointments, info on phases
• Where Michigan ranks in COVID-19 vaccinations
• How to schedule COVID vaccine appointment at Rite Aid in Michigan
• How to schedule COVID vaccine appointment at CVS in Michigan
• How long does it take the vaccine to be effective?

It’s OK! There are probably many of us out there who would scratch our heads, not sure where to start.

Enter: The Canopy Project.

We learned about it while clicking around on EarthDay.org.

The project plants trees across the globe, and since 2010, the Earth Day organization has planted tens of millions of trees with The Canopy Project, according to the website.

“EARTHDAY.ORG works with global partners to reforest areas in dire need of rehabilitation, including areas with some of the world’s communities most at-risk from climate change and environmental degradation. We have also conducted broad tree planting in the wake of environmental disasters.”

Here’s how you can help: $1 = one tree.

So, if you’re a novice gardener or you don’t even own a shovel, don’t waste your money buying supplies from Home Depot or Lowe’s. You could donate to the Canopy Project instead, and know that your cash is going even further.

We’ll go over some of the FAQs from the website:

How does reforestation help the planet?

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the world’s forests have lost about 20% of their coverage. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, about 18 million acres of forest are lost every year, and roughly half of Earth’s tropical forests have already been cleared. EARTHDAY.ORG recognizes that planting billions of trees across the world is one of the biggest and cheapest ways of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere to tackle the climate crisis. Not only do forests act as carbon sinks, but they also provide vital habitat for animals and ecological services for humans, such as purifying the air we breathe and regulating local temperatures.

How does the project handle planting?

Our projects typically include the growing of saplings in nurseries for 6-12 months before planting, as well as pruning and maintenance of trees for the first couple of years of their lives. This helps us maximize the number of trees that survive to maturity. In most cases, nursery and maintenance staff are local workers who gain valuable skills that help them serve as responsible stewards of the restored habitat.

Where do they plant?

Plantings are located on every continent except Antarctica. Currently, our planting locations are focused in the Mt. Elgon region of Uganda, foothills of the Himalayas in India, forests near Sierra Gorda in Mexico, and a recent project now underway in Madagascar.

We are always on the lookout for planting locations and partners who are committed to responsible reforestation programs. If you would like to see more of our planting locations, check out our reforestation map.

How much does it cost to plant a tree?

Tree planting costs vary by location, with planting in developed countries such as the U.S. typically more expensive. For The Canopy Project, EARTHDAY.ORG usually can plant one tree for every $1 donated. This dollar covers the purchase of materials, time spent growing in nurseries, long-term maintenance, as well as operating costs that allow us to carry out and expand our program.

And there you have it. Just something to consider!

Learn more here.

Follow “Something Good” on Facebook and YouTube!

Teaming up with NBC’s Climate Challenge week, Local 4 meteorologist Paul Gross will answer the most-asked questions about climate change all week long.

On Thursday, we’re addressing how climate change has impacted Metro Detroit’s climate.

To understand climate change’s impact on Detroit’s specific climate, we’re looking at temperature extremes -- or the hottest and coldest temperatures experienced -- over the last few decades.

If Detroit’s climate had remained stable over the past 150 years, then the ratio of record warmth to record cold would be nearly 1-to-1. But that’s not the case.

In the 1990s, heat records outnumbered cold records by a 3-to-1 ratio. That in itself is unusual.

In the 2000s, the ratio of heat records to cold records soared to 6-to-1, which is astounding.

In the most recent decade, the 2010s, the ratio was at 3.5-to-1.

The statistics for the past three decades clearly show a strong warm forcing on Detroit’s climate.

Another surprising statistic: Six of Detroit’s top 15 all-time snowiest winters have occurred just since 2002. This is caused by climate change: More ocean water evaporates in a warmer world, and that extra atmosphere humidity gives big winter storms more moisture to produce more snow.

Watch the full report in the video above.

Climate Challenge Week stories

• Monday, April 19: Climate Challenge Week: Reconstructing the past with science
• Tuesday, April 20: Climate Challenge Week: Global effects of change in air composition
• Wednesday, April 21: Climate Challenge Week: Is global warming impacting extreme weather events?

More: Earth Week eco-friendly tips

Officials said the scooter was stolen around 3:15 p.m. April 9 at the Kroger on Gratiot Avenue near 13 Mile Road in Roseville.

A man was seen taking the victim’s Hoveround scooter inside the store, police said. He was last seen riding it eat through the parking lot, toward Gratiot Avenue, according to authorities.

The man was about 25-35 years old, 5 feet, 9 inches to 6 feet tall, weighed 190-210 pounds and had dark hair, officials said. He was wearing a blue and white striped shirt, jeans and red shoes

Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information that leads to an arrest.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP or click here to visit the website.

“Like other automotive manufacturers, we are currently experiencing some COVID-19 supply chain disruption, including the global availability of semiconductors," the British luxury car brand said in a statement. The shortage “is having an impact on our production schedules and our ability to meet global demand for some of our vehicles.”

Production will be halted for a “limited period" starting Monday at its Halewood factory near Liverpool and at its Castle Bromwich plant near Birmingham in central England, the company said, without being more specific. Manufacturing at another plant in Solihull in central England will continue.

The Halewood factory makes Jaguar's XE, XF and F-type models, and the Castle Bromwich plant produces the Land Rover Discover Sport and Range Rover Evoque.

The announcement is the latest to highlight the challenge the intensifying chip shortage poses to the global auto industry, which is building vehicles that are starting to resemble computers on wheels.

General Motors and Ford said earlier this month they were being forced to cut production at their North American factories because of tightening chip supplies. Other marques like Fiat Chrysler, now Stellantis, Volkswagen, Nissan and Honda have also been hit hard by the semiconductor shortage.

Tightening chip shortages have been rippling through various markets since last summer. As the coronavirus pandemic erupted in early 2020, chip factories started shutting down, particularly in Asia, where much of global semiconductor production is based. By the time they started to reopen, there was big a backlog of orders to fill.

The semiconductor shortfall deepened after a fire last month at a plant owned by Japan's Renesas, which makes chips for Toyota, Nissan and Honda.

___

For all of AP’s tech coverage, visit https://apnews.com/apf-technology

But there are ways to solve those issues with a focus on making a home environmentally efficient, which can cut down on expenses and make it more sustainable as the years go on.

Here are five tips to make your home more environmentally friendly, according to Chris Bolio of Alair Homes Houston.

1. Insulate the entire home, not just the living space.

This includes making sure attic decking and exterior garage walls are insulated.

“By protecting all your home mechanicals and plumbing within your insulation system, you will save energy and your home will be more protected from damage during extreme weather occurrences,” Bolio said.

2. Try to build with concrete and steel.

These materials better regulate temperatures, last longer because of the way they minimize mildew and rotting, and with other construction materials either rising in prices or backlogged in terms of orders, they are more attainable than ever.

“Concrete homes are significantly more energy efficient because of thermal mass,” Bolio said. “They maintain the temperature in the home longer with less energy. This is due to the amount of energy it takes to change the temperature of that mass by one degree, so your house stays hotter longer in the winter and colder during the summer.”

3. Use recyclable/sustainable materials.

Bolio said this can include making beams from trees on the original home site, using reclaimed wood for flooring, tiles and glass, and using sustainable materials such as bamboo or cork that alleviates pressure on natural resources.

In addition, using paints and plywoods that don’t have harmful chemicals can help a home last longer.

“This means making sure you’re only sourcing materials from countries that don’t use harmful chemicals in their products,” Bolio said. “Become more educated and mindful about the types and use of chemicals in all our products.”

4. Use PEX plumbing systems.

Bolio said using PEX piping has countless advantages over traditional copper or CPVC.

“It’s more energy efficient because it only pushes hot water to the rooms in the house you need it (and) can expand and contract without permanently deforming and without failure, which means it lasts longer and will hold up during weather extremes, or summer heat,” he said.

5. Lower your home’s carbon footprint.

Whether it’s using solar power that has become more affordable, a rainwater harvesting system, or geothermal energy systems that use the consistent temperatures of the earth to heat and cool your home by providing heat or acting as a heatsink to cool your home, Bolio said using Mother Nature is usually sustainable and long-lasting for any home.

The meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels will be a face-to-face opportunity for Biden to rebuild relations with leaders from Europe and Canada that became strained under former President Donald Trump.

“This is a unique opportunity to reinforce NATO as the enduring embodiment of the bond between Europe and North America,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday in a statement.

Stoltenberg said the meeting will focus on the security “challenges of today and tomorrow: Russia’s aggressive actions, the threat of terrorism, cyber-attacks, emerging and disruptive technologies, the security impact of climate change, and the rise of China.”

The meeting will take place as NATO-led troops leave Afghanistan, the alliance’s biggest and most challenging operation ever, with the aim of being gone by Sept. 11 at the latest. NATO allies activated the organization’s collective defense clause for the first and only time after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 to rally to the defense of the United States.

It was the just the latest challenge in crisis messaging for officials since the start of the pandemic more than a year ago. The behavior of the new virus, the benefits of masks and the need for school and business closings have all been marked by public confusion, changing guidance and squabbling.

With the J&J; shots, the recommended “pause” announced last week was a precautionary measure as government advisers investigated the unusual clots and alerted doctors about how to treat them. But the news was bound to inflame fears.

“It’s going to be painful either way. It’s less painful if you address it early on,” said Dr. Wilbur Chen, a member of the government’s advisory committee on vaccines, which is expected to meet on Friday and could make a recommendation soon after on whether and how to resume use of the J&J; vaccine.

Whether the pause seriously undermines public confidence in the J&J; shot — or the other vaccines — remains to be seen.

Even before the coronavirus surfaced, training guides by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted the difficulty of communicating in a public health crisis, when fear and uncertainty are running high. Yet how leaders communicate can be key to winning public cooperation. Or undermining it.

By promptly notifying the public that they were investigating clots, officials were following a fundamental rule in the crisis playbook: transparency, even when the answers aren’t yet clear.

“We want people to know what we know,” U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy explained at a media briefing soon after the announcement on the J&J; vaccine.

Trying to appear confident when uncertain -- which leaders are often taught to do -- can backfire in a public health crisis, a CDC guide notes. In addition to building trust, being up front about the unknowns leaves room for officials to change their guidance as new information emerges.

“COVID is a new disease and we learn new things, and that is hard,” said Alice Payne Merritt, an expert in public health communications at Johns Hopkins University. “What we knew in April 2020 is different than what we know in April 2021.”

Quickly stating what isn’t yet known and why has another benefit: blunting the potential for misinformation to spread. Otherwise, people may start filling in the blanks themselves, the CDC guide says.

“Silence can be harmful,” Payne Merritt agreed.

Still, leaders might be reluctant to acknowledge uncertainty, especially since people crave clear answers and reassurance in stressful and unfamiliar situations.

Another problem: Anxiety can make it difficult for people to process new information, or as Payne Merritt put it, “Fear can override rational thinking. That’s just human nature.”

With the J&J; shots, for example, helping people understand the magnitude of any risk has been a challenge. So far, officials said there have been six cases of the unusual blood clots out of about 7 million J&J; shots given in the U.S.

People regularly take bigger risks just getting into a car.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, noted the difficulty of putting the odds of severe side effects in proper perspective for the public.

“They hear about a risk, and they don’t know what it is relative to other things that they do,” he said in an NBC interview.

Confusion and anger around public messaging haven’t been limited to the J&J; shots.

In September, President Donald Trump came under fire when it was revealed he sought to “ play it down ” to avoid a panic about the virus. Last April, U.S. officials sparked criticism when they advised people to wear face coverings, after earlier saying masks weren't needed and should be reserved for health workers.

And for months, officials have been trying to ease worries about the COVID-19 vaccines overall, in part by enlisting local leaders.

In the early days of the rollout, rare cases of severe allergic reactions fueled worries about the vaccines. Chen, the government adviser, said officials built trust by addressing the problem head-on. Now, he said, people have moved past it.

“Can you imagine if we had basically tried to cover it up, tried to minimize it?” said Chen, a vaccine expert at the University of Maryland, adding that U.S. vaccination rates probably wouldn’t be where they are today.

As of this week, more than half of American adults have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

___

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

The company's wireless division, its largest unit, added 595,000 phone customers who pay a monthly bill, up from 163,000 in the same period in 2020. It also added 207,000 prepaid phone customers.

In the WarnerMedia entertainment unit, revenue rose 9.8% to $8.5 billion. The company doesn't break out how many people sign up for its streaming service, HBO Max, but said there are now 44.2 million subscribers to HBO Max or the traditional HBO channel in the U.S. Entertainment companies have launched several new streaming services in the past couple years in an effort to gain on Netflix and as the audience for traditional TV shrinks.

AT&T; also signed up 46,000 home internet customers and lost 620,000 video customers. AT&T; is spinning off its DirecTV business after having lost about 60% of its satellite and cable TV customer base since buying DirecTV in 2015.

The Dallas company reported first-quarter net income of $7.55 billion, or $1.04 per share. Adjusted for one-time items, they came to 86 cents per share, beating the average estimate of 77 cents per share from 16 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.

Revenue rose 2.7% to $43.94 billion, topping Wall Street's estimate of $42.76 billion.

AT&T; shares rose more than 5% to $31.74 in morning trading. The shares had increased nearly 5% since the beginning of the year as of Wednesday's close, while the S&P;’s 500 index has increased 11%.

_____

Parts of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on T at https://www.zacks.com/ap/T

The investigation found that those service members were either not commemorated by name or weren’t commemorated at all, according to a report commissioned by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Between 45,000 and 54,000 other casualties were “commemorated unequally.”

The treatment of these soldiers, who served in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, contrasts with that of the men and women who died in Europe. It also violates the principle that all war dead should be remembered in the same way because they all made the same enormous sacrifice.

“On behalf of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the government, both of the time and today, I want to apologize for the failures to live up to their founding principles all those years ago and express deep regret that it has taken so long to rectify the situation,” Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in the House of Commons. “Whilst we can’t change the past, we can make amends and take action.”

The commission was created in 1917 to ensure that all who died in the service of the British Empire during World War I were identified and properly honored. Its responsibilities were later expanded to include those who died during World War II, and it now oversees the graves of 1.7 million men and women who died during the two wars.

The commission appointed an independent panel to investigate claims of unequal treatment following a 2019 TV documentary presented by David Lammy, a lawmaker from the opposition Labour Party, that focused on the way African casualties were commemorated. One researcher who worked on the documentary said she had forwarded information about her concerns to the commission more than a decade earlier but no action was taken.

The investigation found that tens of thousands of service personnel who died in Africa, Asia and the Middle East either weren’t commemorated at all or were only honored anonymously on collective memorials. Others had their names recorded on paper registers rather than stone monuments. The battlefield graves of thousands more were abandoned without the remains ever being identified.

In Europe, the commission attempted to identify all of the dead and bury their remains under identical white headstones that still dot cemeteries from France to Turkey. The names of those who couldn’t be identified were recorded on mass memorials.

“No apology can ever make up for the indignity suffered by the unremembered,″ Lammy said. “However, this apology does offer the opportunity for us as a nation to work through this ugly part of our history — and properly pay our respects to every soldier who has sacrificed their life for us.”

David Olusoga, a professor of public history at the University of Manchester, said World War I changed British culture, in part because of the powerful way that the dead were remembered.

“(Yet) when it came to men who were black and brown and Asian and African, it is not equal. Particularly the Africans, who have been treated in a way that is … apartheid in death,″ he told the BBC. “It is an absolute scandal.”

The inequality was rooted in the “imperial ideology” of British and colonial authorities in the years immediately after World War I, the investigation found. For instance, the officer in charge of graves registration in East Africa asserted that central memorials were the most appropriate way to commemorate the dead because most Africans “do not attach any sentiment” to the graves of their dead.

“Sweeping judgements such as these, which chose to ignore the intricacies of faith, culture and customs in Africa outside Christian and Islamic traditions, played a significant role in shaping the (commission’s) policies that led to unequal treatment,” the panel said.

These attitudes were adopted at the highest levels of the British government. Winston Churchill, then-Secretary of State for the Colonies, in 1921 signed a document directing that collective memorials, rather than individual headstones, should be erected for African troops in Africa.

In response to the panel’s findings, the commission said it would continue to search for the names of African, Asian and Middle Eastern casualties and add their names to its records. It also promised to be more flexible in the evidence required to support requests for commemoration in light of the panel’s concerns about the availability of paper records.

The commission also said it would improve transparency about this issue on its website and set up an expert panel to advise it.

“We apologize unreservedly for the historical wrongs found in this report and for failing to live up to founding principle, of `equality of treatment in death,’” the commission said.

___

Read other stories about racial injustice at https://apnews.com/Racialinjustice

Lagarde said Thursday that the monetary authority for the eurozone sees an eventual rebound this year but did not discuss any reduction in its emergency stimulus because such a discussion would be “premature.”

While the ECB is encouraged by continued rollout of vaccines, "we still have this overall environment of uncertainty” about when infection numbers and restrictions on business activities and travel will ease," she said, citing concerns about the new, more contagious variants that have fueled recent increases in number of infections. “We still see near-term risks tilted to the downside.”

The economy is “on crutches, one fiscal crutch and one monetary crutch" and isn't ready to stand on its own power yet, she said.

Lagarde spoke at a news conference after the ECB left interest rate benchmarks untouched at record lows made no adjustments to its 1.85 trillion (2.22 trillion) bond purchase stimulus it says will run at least through March, 2022. Just under half of that amount remains to be used in coming months. The regular purchases using newly created money — a key power of central banks — drive down longer-term borrowing costs for companies, consumers and governments. Its key rate benchmark remains at minus 0.5%.

Lagarde again said that increased inflation this year, which is anticipated, would not lead the bank to tighten policy. She said the recent increase in inflation was due to “idiosyncratic and temporary factors” and that underlying inflationary pressures “remain subdued.”

The bank stands ready “to adjust all its instruments” if the situation calls for it, Lagarde said.

Longer term, risk are “more balanced” and progress in ramping up vaccination was “encouraging.” Europe's vaccine rollout has lagged that in the US and the UK.

Bank officials have stressed that any jump in inflation would be the result of one-time factors such as the withdrawal of pandemic tax breaks and comparisons with an earlier period of very low oil prices — and not a reason to withdraw any of its efforts to keep credit cheap for companies, governments and consumers. Inflation in the eurozone was an annual 1.3% in March. The bank’s goal is close to but below 2%.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has taken a similar view, saying that price increases later this could be due to temporary factors and that the Fed would not begin raising rates until the recovery in jobs in hiring was “effectively complete” and that inflation appears “on track to run moderately above 2% for some time.”

The eurozone economy shrank by 6.6% last year and economists say it may have contracted in the first quarter of this year as well. Output is not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels until mid-2022, lagging well behind other major pillars of the global economy.

The U.S. could reach pre-pandemic output as early as this month, according to a forecast this month from the Conference Board, while China was the only major economy to grow for the year in 2020. The U.S. rebound is being propelled by massive relief and stimulus spending by the federal government.

European governments have also spent heavily on pandemic relief but their 750-billion euro recovery fund at the EU level will only starting paying out for digital and green projects this year.

3 biggest things Michigan can do to battle climate change

It can be hard to fathom the change needed to take on climate change on a global scale. The truth is, we can only control so much. It takes a global team effort.

Starting in Michigan, there are actions that must be taken by our government -- but there are also ways we can each get involved ourselves.

Learn more here.

How to recycle properly in Michigan

Not everyone knows how to recycle the right way and so, unfortunately, a significant portion of recycled items don’t even end up getting recycled at all.

Data shows that, depending on the community, about 20-40 percent of recycled items received by sorting facilities can’t actually be recycled. Some items received by sorting facilities are ridiculous -- like bowling balls -- but most items that aren’t recyclable are sent by people with good intentions who just don’t know better.

See more here.

At ‘moment of peril,’ Biden opens global summit on climate

Declaring that the U.S. and other big economies must “get this done,” President Joe Biden opened a global climate summit Thursday aimed at getting world leaders to dig deeper on emissions cuts. The United States pledged to cut in half the amount of climate-wrecking coal and petroleum fumes it is pumping out by 2030.

“Meeting this moment is about more than preserving our planet,” Biden said, speaking from a TV-style set for a virtual summit of 40 world leaders. “It’s about providing a better future for all of us,” he said, calling it “a moment of peril but a moment of opportunity.”

Read the report here.

What Michigan’s future could look like without action on climate change

Climate change is happening now -- and much of it is already baked in for the coming decades.

If climate change isn’t stopped soon, the impacts of the change will become much worse in Michigan. Heatwaves and air pollution will become more deadly, and the likelihood of an increasing number of infectious diseases spreading in the state will also increase dramatically.

Learn more here.

Weather: Bright but cold start in the 20s

• Track the interactive live Michigan Weather Radar here 🌨️
• Find more weather forecast articles at Weather Center ☂️

Looking for COVID-19 vaccines in Metro Detroit: Track openings, clinics, appointments

Coronavirus in Michigan 💉

The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Michigan has risen to 804,724 as of Wednesday, including 17,031 deaths, state officials report.

Wednesday’s update includes a total of 5,584 new cases and 45 additional deaths. On Tuesday, the state reported 799,140 total cases and 16,986 deaths.

Testing has been steady around 35,000 diagnostic tests reported per day on average, with the 7-day positive rate above 13% as of Wednesday, lower than one week ago. Hospitalizations have increased over the last several weeks, now at the highest point of the pandemic.

Michigan continues to lead the nation in new COVID-19 cases. The state’s 7-day moving average for daily cases was 5,744 on Wednesday -- the highest since December, but lower than two weeks ago. The 7-day death average was 56 on Wednesday, slightly higher than the last two weeks. The state’s fatality rate is 2.1%. The state also reports “active cases,” which were listed at 184,700 on Wednesday.

More than 603,000 have recovered from the virus in Michigan.

Michigan has reported more than 6.1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered as of Friday, with 46.1% of residents having received at least one dose.

Here’s a look at more of the data:

More Local News Headlines

• St. Clair County becomes Michigan’s latest COVID hotspot
• Feds indict alleged drug kingpin linked to Grosse Pointe Park CEO killed in plane crash
• 7-year-old accidentally shoots himself on Detroit’s west side
• Community rallies to help light fires, keep crops warm at Detroit cider mill
• ‘He was born for this’ -- Brother of Minnesota AG discusses family’s upbringing in Detroit
• 32-year-old man killed by gunman who walked up to car, stole his watch on Detroit’s east side

National and World Headlines

• US-Canada border travel restrictions extended through May 21, 2021
• How long does protection from COVID-19 vaccines last?
• Making oxygen on Mars: Rover tests technology to make Red Planet breathable
• US jobless claims fall to 547,000, another pandemic low
• Floyd killing has prompted state reforms, but not everywhere
• New data reassuring for COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy
• Low on beds, oxygen, India adds global high 314K virus cases
• Indonesia looking for submarine that may be too deep to help
• ‘We’re buzzing!’ Brit Awards to welcome back music fans

Sports Headlines ⚾🏀🏈🏒⚽

• NHL: Virus protocols not ‘relaxed’ for vaccinated players
• Indy 500 to host 135,000 in largest sports event in pandemic
• Jessica Korda shoots 7-under 64 to take LA Open lead
• AP source: NFL exploring changes to scouting combine

Tweets by Local4News

New Orleans Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said convicting Chauvin on Tuesday showed “police officers are not above the law." Charmaine McGuffey, the sheriff in Cincinnati, said it was a “necessary step” in healing a nation torn apart by police violence. Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo encouraged Americans to breathe “a collective sigh of relief.”

Law enforcement leaders said Chauvin's conviction was a step toward restoring trust in the criminal justice system and repairing relations between police and the communities they serve. It was a major departure from years past, when even the highest levels would close rank around an officer following an on-duty killing.

But police leaders and activists alike cautioned that a single case will not end systemic racism or stamp out excessive force in departments nationwide.

“The American justice system has not always served all of her people well, and the death of George Floyd is a shocking example of where we can fail each other,” said Madison, Wisconsin, Police Chief Shon Barnes, who is Black. “As an officer of the law, I believe that today justice has prevailed. We hear you. This moment matters.”

At Chauvin's trial, jurors saw video from bystanders and police body-worn cameras and heard witnesses describe how the white officer pinned his knee to Floyd’s neck as the Black man cried out, “I can’t breathe."

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo testified against Chauvin, breaking the “blue wall of silence" that has long shrouded accountability around police wrongdoing. Arradondo told jurors that Chauvin's conduct violated department policy, went against training and “is certainly not part of our ethics or our values.”

Some large unions for rank-and-file officers also supported the verdict, but it’s unclear whether that sentiment was universal when the general practice is to defend officers immediately.

Floyd's death last May gave rise to nightly protests across the U.S. and demands from activists to dismantle or radically rethink the role of police in society.

Since then, some police departments have instituted changes — such as banning chokeholds or setting timelines for the release of body-cameravideo of fatal police interactions — and many state legislatures are debating police reform bills.

Activists dedicated to systemic changes to American policing have criticized those steps as far too limited. But Chauvin's conviction gave cautious hope to many who have watched officers face no criminal consequences for other killings of Black Americans, from the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York City to last year's suffocation of Daniel Prude in Rochester, New York.

Activist Isaac Wallner said Chauvin’s conviction suggested the country may be starting to take Black communities’ cries of police abuse seriously. But he said a single verdict won’t make him feel safe in his hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin, where no officers have been charged in last year’s shooting of Jacob Blake.

“Until that day happens when police are afraid to abuse their badge, I’ll continue to be afraid of the police,” Wallner told The Associated Press. “As of right now, they’re not afraid because too many of them have gotten off.”

Law enforcement leaders in cities large and small said the verdict was just a first step.

“The work of doing justice for George Floyd doesn’t end today," San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said. "My hope for all of us in criminal justice roles is that we rise to this moment, and learn the lessons that history has, frankly, been trying to teach us for decades.”

Darin Balaam, the sheriff in Washoe County, Nevada, said, “It is past time we hold law enforcement officers who tarnish our profession and oath accountable for deplorable actions.”

Acevedo, the Miami police chief and president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said law enforcement leaders across the country took the unusual step last year of decrying Chauvin's actions because the bystander video was “shocking to the conscious.”

“Anyone who would question the righteousness of this conviction, I would say they really need to take a good, hard look at their own gut because I question their humanity,” Acevedo told the AP on Wednesday.

Even some police unions supported the verdict.

Patrick Yoes, president of the National Fraternal Order of Police, said the “trial was fair and due process was served."

Unions for officers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose said the verdict “was just” and offered “an opportunity to improve how our nation is policed.” And the usually pugnacious head of New York City's officers union, Patrick Lynch, said: "What Derek Chauvin did that day was not policing. It was murder.”

Chauvin's Minneapolis police union thanked jurors for their dedication but also criticized elected officials for what it deemed political pandering and divisive comments about police.

“There are no winners in this case and we respect the jury’s decision," the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis said in a statement.

The verdict was especially profound and complicated for Black officers, who see the struggles of policing and race in both their work and personal lives.

Terrance Hopkins, president of the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas, said he was relieved Chauvin was convicted but acknowledged that “it’s hard to see an officer take a fall like this.”

“It helps me to do my job because this is how we build trust,” said Hopkins, a senior Dallas police corporal. “The trust has been taken away by us not holding officers accountable.”

Tattered relations between police and communities have been driven by centuries of poverty, poor schooling and a lack of economic opportunity in “inner cities and very diverse communities,” said Malik Aziz, former executive director of the National Black Police Association and incoming chief in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Officers alone can’t address those issues, he said.

“Until we actually face those facts of any structural or institutional racism or discrimination or prejudice or poverty, then we’ll continue to see these things flourish,” Aziz said. “This should not be a day of celebration, but it should be a day for us to actually have a real dialogue."

___

Sisak reported from Fort Pierce, Florida, and Bleiberg from Dallas. Associated Press writers Dan Sewell in Cincinnati; Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Kevin McGill in New Orleans; Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada; Robert Jablon in Los Angeles; Walter Berry in Phoenix; and Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak and Bleiberg at twitter.com/JZBleiberg.

___

This story has been corrected to delete the reference to Shon Barnes being the first Black police chief in Madison, Wisconsin; Barnes is the third.

Wednesday’s update includes a total of 5,584 new cases and 45 additional deaths. On Tuesday, the state reported 799,140 total cases and 16,986 deaths.

Testing has been steady around 35,000 diagnostic tests reported per day on average, with the 7-day positive rate above 13% as of Wednesday, lower than one week ago. Hospitalizations have increased over the last several weeks, now at the highest point of the pandemic.

MORE: Michigan extends COVID rules for gatherings, masks, restaurants, entertainment venues

Michigan continues to lead the nation in new COVID-19 cases. The state’s 7-day moving average for daily cases was 5,744 on Wednesday -- the highest since December, but lower than two weeks ago. The 7-day death average was 56 on Wednesday, slightly higher than the last two weeks. The state’s fatality rate is 2.1%. The state also reports “active cases,” which were listed at 184,700 on Wednesday.

More than 603,000 have recovered from the virus in Michigan.

Michigan has reported more than 6.1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered as of Friday, with 46.1% of residents having received at least one dose.

According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 31.8 million cases have been reported in the U.S., with more than 569,000 deaths reported from the virus.

Worldwide, more than 143.9 million people have been confirmed infected and more than 3 million have died. More than 81 million have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are certainly much higher, because of limited testing, different ways nations count the dead and deliberate under-reporting by some governments.

Michigan COVID-19 vaccinations: How to find appointments, info on phases

Coronavirus headlines:

• St. Clair County becomes Michigan’s latest COVID hotspot
• Report: Michigan only state at ‘severe’ COVID risk level
• Where Michigan ranks in COVID-19 vaccinations in United States
• Michigan extends COVID rules for gatherings, masks, restaurants, entertainment venues
• Michigan school districts struggle over decision to go remote
• Parents react to Michigan’s mask mandate expanding to children as young as 2
• CDC: Michigan’s response to rising COVID cases should be to ‘shut things down’

VIEW: Tracking Michigan COVID-19 vaccine doses 💉

VIEW: Tracking coronavirus cases, outbreaks in Michigan schools

Michigan extends COVID rules for gatherings, masks, restaurants, entertainment venues

Michigan has extended the COVID-19 order that implemented restrictions on gatherings, restaurants, entertainment venues and more.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services extended the epidemic order through May 24. It also expanded mask requirements to include children ages 2-4 years old.

“Michigan continues to implement smart health policies and mitigation measures to fight the spread of COVID-19,” MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel said. “This includes the requirement to wear a mask while in public and at gatherings, limits on indoor residential social gatherings larger than 15 people with no more than three households, and expanded testing requirements for youth sports.”

Read the latest on the restrictions here.

CDC: Michigan’s response to rising COVID cases should be to ‘shut things down’

The director of the CDC said the answer to Michigan’s alarming rise in COVID-19 cases isn’t to “vaccinate our way out” of it, but to “shut things down” like the state did last spring and summer.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, spoke Monday about the COVID-19 situation in Michigan.

On Friday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called Michigan a “COVID hotspot” and called on the federal government to surge additional vaccines here in response to rising case numbers.

Read more here.

Voluntary COVID restrictions: Whitmer, MDHHS ask Michiganders for 2-week pause

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the state health department are asking residents to follow certain voluntary COVID-19 restrictions, such as avoiding indoor dining, suspending sports and returning to remote learning.

On Friday, Whitmer and Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, spoke about the alarming COVID-19 trends in Michigan.

“I am quite concerned with what we are seeing in our data,” Khaldun said “We are on track to potentially see a surge in cases that’s even greater than the one we saw in the fall.”

Detroit launches 8 neighborhood COVID vaccine sites

The city of Detroit is launching eight neighborhood COVID-19 vaccination sites, adding to an expansion at TCF Center, to combat surging cases and hospitalizations in the city.

Detroit’s vaccination rate, 21% as of Monday, is far below neighboring areas and overall state average, which is 35%. The city is expanding options for residents with an urgent message: Get vaccinated.

Next week, the city will be offering eight additional locations throughout the week, in addition to its Community Saturdays and other outreach programs, to provide Detroiters with the opportunity to get vaccinated in a convenient and familiar location close to home.

Read here.

Michigan: All adults eligible for COVID vaccine April 5

All Michigan residents age 16 and up became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine on April 5, nearly a month before the May 1 date pledged by President Joe Biden.

People age 16 to 49 with certain medical conditions or disabilities will qualify starting March 22, when 50- to 64-year-olds can begin getting shots under a previous announcement. Two days later, March 24, a federally selected regional mass vaccination site will open at Detroit’s Ford Field to administer an additional 6,000 doses a day for two months.

Learn more here.

MORE: Michigan’s updated COVID-19 vaccination schedule: Who is eligible and when

Officials say contagious COVID variant from Brazil found in Michigan as cases surge

The COVID-19 variant detected in Brazil has been identified in Bay County. That variant is known as the P1 strain and it is more contagious and more than 50% able to reinfect.

The person infected in Bay County and the people they’ve been in contact with will need to quarantine for 14 days. It’s unclear what effect, if any, it will have on those, including seniors, who have already been vaccinated as there isn’t enough research to know exactly.

Federal officials increasing COVID-19 vaccine doses available for Michigan

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer released a statement Tuesday after White House officials announced that there will increase COVID-19 vaccine doses available for Michigan starting next week.

According to a press release, next week’s shipment will increase by 66,020 bringing the total number of doses to 620,040 -- a weekly record for the state. Officials said the allocation includes 147,800 doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

This comes after Whitmer recently requested for more vaccines as the state is seeing a rise in COVID numbers.

CDC: Michigan leads country in new cases of COVID per population

The CDC said that Michigan is leading the country in new cases of COVID-19 per population.

On Tuesday, officials reported 5,177 new COVID cases and 48 additional deaths, including 20 from a Vital Records review. On Monday, the state reported 660,771 total cases and 16,034 deaths.

Local 4′s Dr. Frank McGeorge said he’s seen a very clear increase in COVID patients at the hospital where he works.

“Many of them need to be hospitalized. I would honestly say, this feels worse to me here in Southeast Michigan than it was during the wave that started in November. Now, the most concerning trend is the number of middle-aged people with severe COVID,” McGeorge said.

Michigan confirms first case of South African COVID variant in Jackson County

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced that the first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.351 has been identified in a child in Jackson County.

The health department did not say how the boy was infected but a case investigation is underway to determine close contacts and if there are additional cases associated.

This new variant was originally detected in South Africa in October 2020 and shares some mutations with the B117 variant. The first case of the B117 variant -- originally detected in the United Kingdom -- was identified in Washtenaw County.

Michigan COVID-19 daily reported cases since March 15:

• March 15 -- 1,572 new cases
• March 16 -- 2,048 new cases
• March 17 -- 3,164 new cases
• March 18 -- 2,629 new cases
• March 19 -- 3,730 new cases
• March 20 -- 2,660 new cases
• March 21 -- 2,400 new cases
• March 22 -- 2,401 new cases
• March 23 -- 3,579 new cases
• March 24 -- 4,454 new cases
• March 25 -- 5,224 new cases
• March 26 -- 5,030 new cases
• March 27 -- 4,670 new cases
• March 28 -- 4,101 new cases
• March 29 -- 4,101 new cases
• March 30 -- 5,177 new cases
• March 31 -- 6,311 new cases
• April 1 -- 6,036 new cases
• April 2 -- 5,498 new cases
• April 3 -- 8,413 new cases
• April 4 -- 5,146 new cases
• April 5 -- 5,147 new cases
• April 6 -- 4,964 new cases
• April 7 -- 8,015 new cases
• April 8 -- 7,819 new cases
• April 9 -- 7,834 new cases
• April 10 -- 6,892 new cases
• April 11 -- 4,837 new cases
• April 12 -- 4,837 new cases
• April 13 -- 8,867 new cases
• April 14 -- 7,955 new cases
• April 15 -- 6,303 new cases
• April 16 -- 8,955 new cases
• April 17 -- 5,530 new cases
• April 18 -- 4,287 new cases
• April 19 -- 4,287 new cases
• April 20 -- 5,259 new cases
• April 21 -- 5,584 new cases

Michigan COVID-19 daily reported deaths since March 15:

• March 15 -- 5 new deaths
• March 16 -- 27 new deaths (6 from vital records)
• March 17 -- 0 new deaths
• March 18 -- 25 new deaths (24 from vital records)
• March 19 -- 15 new deaths
• March 20 -- 47 new deaths -- (39 from vital records)
• March 21 -- 3 new deaths
• March 22 -- 3 new deaths
• March 23 -- 16 new deaths (8 from vital records)
• March 24 -- 16 new deaths
• March 25 -- 49 new deaths (30 from vital records)
• March 26 -- 20 new deaths
• March 27 -- 22 new deaths
• March 28 -- 4 new deaths
• March 29 -- 4 new deaths
• March 30 -- 48 new deaths (20 from vital records)
• March 31 -- 10 new deaths
• April 1 -- 49 new deaths (33 from vital records)
• April 2 -- 20 new deaths
• April 3 -- 57 new deaths (51 from vital records)
• April 4 -- 11 new deaths
• April 5 -- 10 new deaths
• April 6 -- 58 new deaths (16 from vital records)
• April 7 -- 30 new deaths
• April 8 -- 73 new deaths (43 from vital records)
• April 9 -- 26 new deaths
• April 10 -- 74 new deaths (57 from vital records)
• April 11 -- 6 new deaths
• April 12 -- 6 new deaths
• April 13 -- 74 new deaths (37 from vital records)
• April 14 -- 35 new deaths
• April 15 -- 112 new deaths (81 from vital records)
• April 16 -- 40 new deaths
• April 17 -- 69 new deaths (60 from vital records)
• April 18 -- 30 new deaths
• April 19 -- 31 new deaths
• April 20 -- 85 new deaths (33 from vital records)
• April 21 -- 45 new deaths

Coronavirus resources:

• View more: Michigan COVID-19 data 📊📈
• Tracking Michigan COVID-19 vaccine doses
• Vaccinations: How to find appointments, info on phases
• Tracking COVID-19 weekly growth factor by Michigan county
• Tracking moving 7-day average of new COVID-19 cases in Michigan
• Tracking Michigan emergency room visits with COVID-19 symptoms
• Cases and deaths by race, ethnicity
• Tracking Michigan COVID-19 hospitalization data trends
• Michigan COVID-19 cases, deaths by sex
• Tracking Michigan’s active COVID-19 cases
• Tracking growth factor of daily new COVID-19 cases in Michigan
• Coronavirus news
• Question about coronavirus? Ask Dr. McGeorge here.
• More: Reopening Michigan updates
• More: Return to School updates

🌟 Become an Insider 🌟

Introducing WDIV Insider: A new way for loyal Local 4 fans to gain access and customize your ClickOnDetroit news experience. This new and free membership is our way of saying thank you — and your way of getting in on the news action. WDIV Insiders will gain exclusive access to the Local 4 team and station, including personalized messages, offers and deals to big events, and an elevated voice in our news coverage. Learn more about WDIV Insider - and sign up here!

The Labor Department said Thursday that applications declined 39,000 from a revised 586,000 a week earlier. Weekly jobless claims are down sharply from a peak of 900,000 in early January. At the same time, they're still far above the roughly 230,000 level that prevailed before the viral outbreak ripped through the economy in March of last year.

About 17.4 million people were continuing to collect unemployment benefits in the week that ended April 3, up from 16.9 million in the previous week. Most of the increase occurred in two states, California and Texas. In California, recipients of a federal program for the long-term unemployed jumped nearly 50%, a sign that the state likely processed a backlog of claims that had been filed earlier. Other states, too, have been struggling with backlogs of applications.

Still, the number of ongoing recipients has declined by about 2.3 million from early March, when the figure was 19.7 million — a sign that more people are being hired. Some long-term unemployed may have also exhausted all their benefits.

The overall job market is making steady gains. Last month, the nation's employers added 916,000 jobs, the most since August, in a sign that a sustained recovery is taking hold. The unemployment rate fell from 6.2% to 6%, well below the pandemic peak of nearly 15%.

The number of available jobs has also jumped in recent weeks, leading many employers to complain that they can't find enough workers despite still-high unemployment. Several factors may be keeping some of those out of work from searching for jobs. They include fears of contracting the virus, child care needs and the fact that a federal supplemental unemployment benefit of $300 a week, on top of state aid, means that some low-income workers can receive as much or more income from jobless benefits compared their former job.

The weekly data on applications for jobless aid is generally seen as a rough measure of layoffs because only people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own are eligible. But during the pandemic, the numbers have become a less reliable barometer.

States have struggled to clear backlogs of unemployment applications, and suspected fraud has clouded the actual volume of job cuts. In addition, the supplemental federal jobless payment, on top of regular state unemployment aid, might have encouraged more people to apply for benefits.

For now, the economy is showing steady signs of recovering. Sales at retail stores and restaurants soared 10% in March -- the biggest increase since last May. Federal stimulus checks of $1,400 have been sent to most adults. And Americans who have kept their jobs have accumulated additional savings, part of which they will likely spend now that states and cities have loosened business restrictions and the virus wanes.

Economic growth is accelerating so fast that the principal concerns surrounding the economy have shifted from a high unemployment rate and anemic spending to bottlenecks in company supply chains and the difficulty some businesses say they are having in finding enough workers.

Those issues, in turn, have fed concerns that the Federal Reserve’s low-interest rate policies could fuel a spike in inflation. Last month, wholesale prices jumped 4.2% compared with a year earlier, the biggest 12-month increase in nearly a decade.

Still, consumer prices are, so far, rising at a more restrained pace. They increased 2.6% in March from a year earlier, mostly because of a jump in gas prices. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation rose just 1.6% in the previous 12 months.

Economists expect inflation to rise steadily in the coming months because prices fell about a year ago when the pandemic first hit and the economy largely shut down. That makes comparisons to price levels a year ago look particularly large.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell says he expects that higher inflation to prove temporary and that supply bottlenecks will eventually clear as shipping picks up and factories produce more parts.

This Earth Day, we’re focusing on one of the best ways to reduce waste and help the environment: recycling.

Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to recycle the right way, and so a significant portion of recycled items don’t even end up getting recycled at all.

Data shows that, depending on the community, about 20-40 percent of recycled items received by sorting facilities can’t actually be recycled. Joe Munem with Green For Life in New Boston says that some of these items are extreme -- like the deer carcass he saw recycled once -- but most items that aren’t recyclable are sent by people with good intentions who just don’t know better.

Related: Michigan commits to $97 million investment into recycling

Munem says his sorting facility receives strange items like extension cords, Christmas lights, chains and bowling balls nearly each day. It goes without saying: these items cannot actually be recycled.

But other items that can’t be recycled may come as more of a surprise: grocery bags and pizza boxes.

Those plastic bags you get when grocery shopping should not go into your recycling bins. Munem says those bags get tangled up in the sorting belts, and it’s bad for the facility. However, those bags can be returned to your grocery story so that they can be recycled.

Our own @nickmonacelli joined the @TODAYshow this morning to discuss the dos and don'ts of recycling on this #EarthDay 🌎 ♻ pic.twitter.com/RJ9QVEXwIX

— Local 4 WDIV Detroit (@Local4News) April 22, 2021

Anything with food contaminates cannot be recycled, and that includes pizza boxes. Munem says that any cans or containers, including those pizza boxes, must be cleaned before they can be recycled, or they’ll be thrown out.

In Canton, a state grant is funding recycling inspectors who will do a non-invasive check of recycling bins before the truck picks them up for about two months. Officials say residents who have improperly recycled will first receive a friendly reminder on the dos and don’ts of recycling. The next time it occurs, the recycling bin will be tagged and will not be picked up.

The goal of the inspectors is to help residents correct their habits and recycle properly.

Watch the full report in the video above.

Related news

• Bills would update Michigan’s bottle, recycling laws: What would change
• Climate Challenge Week: Is global warming impacting extreme weather events?
• Biden opening summit with ambitious new US climate pledge

As the rebels blamed for Deby's death threatened to overtake the capital, N'Djamena, some residents of the city of 1 million feared violence and began trying to leave. Others remained inside their homes despite authorities' calls for life to resume as normal after the president of three decades was slain.

Some 30 opposition political parties announced they have decided not to recognize the military's transitional council, which was announced Tuesday at the same time as Deby's death.

Many in the international community also called for a democratic transfer of power after Deby's sudden death even as some heads of state prepared to travel to N'Djamena for Friday's funeral despite growing security fears. French President Emmanuel Macron is among the heads of state expected to attend, highlighting the central African country's strategic importance.

On Tuesday, a military spokesman announced that Deby had been fatally wounded while visiting the front lines of the battle against rebels.

"The Chadian people tell us they do not want a dynastic transfer of power," one opposition leader, Succes Masra, said in a video message released online. “The Chadian people do not want to continue with the same institutions that have created the current situation.”

Mahamat Idriss Deby, 37, is only one year older than his father was when his rebel forces overthrew the president back in 1990. Many fear that he will stay on beyond the 18-month transitional period announced by the military this week.

“We say no to this and the military transitional council must hand over power to civilians," said François Djekombe of the Union of Republican Forces opposition party. “The military must respect the constitution of our country and it is up to the president of the national assembly to ensure the interim.”

Mahamat Zen Basda, secretary-general of the ruling MPS party, said the president of the National Assembly had declined the offer to become the country's leader and that the army had been entrusted to form the transitional council to avoid a power vacuum.

A statement attributed to the National Assembly president late Wednesday also said that he had supported the decision to bypass him and instead appoint the military council to lead the transition.

Chad has played a key role in the fight against Islamic extremism in Africa, providing pivotal troops to regional forces battling jihadists in northern Mali, which has been called the most dangerous U.N. peacekeeping mission in the world.

France, which bases its regional counterterrorism operations in Chad, has emphasized the importance of a peaceful transition.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington that “the developments in recent days and hours are a cause for concern.”

“We want to see a peaceful democratic transition of power to a civilian-led government,” he said. "We would be concerned by anything that would stand in the way of that.”

Following Deby's death, French officials described him as a “courageous friend," and a “great soldier."

However, human rights groups say Chad's military contributions to fighting Islamic extremism ultimately helped shield him from international criticism as his government became increasingly autocratic. Despite being an oil-producing nation, Chad remains one of the world's poorest countries.

“For years, international players have propped up Deby’s government for its support for counterterrorism operations in the Sahel and the Lake Chad basin and involvement in other regional initiatives while largely turning a blind eye to his legacy of repression and violations of social and economic rights at home,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement this week.

Earlier this month, Deby was elected to a sixth term after facing minimal opposition because several challengers chose to boycott, fearing the vote would be rigged. In a bit to thwart opposition activists, the internet in Chad was disrupted several times before and during the April 11 voting day.

Authorities now believe the rebels blamed for killing Deby entered Chad that same day from southern Libya.

The rebels now aiming for the capital are led by Mahamat Mahadi Ali, a longtime Deby opponent who formed the shadowy group known by its French acronym, FACT, in 2016 after leaving another rebel group, the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development.

___ Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.

“I felt he was guilty,” Lisa Christensen said on “CBS This Morning” in a story aired Thursday. “I didn't know if it was going to be guilty on all counts, but I would have said guilty.”

Christensen was one of two alternates dismissed by Judge Peter Cahill after Monday's closing arguments. The remaining 12 jurors voted unanimously Tuesday to convict Chauvin on all counts: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The identities of jurors and alternates are protected under the judge's order, and Christensen is the first to publicly speak out.

Chauvin, 45, was by far the most senior officer at the scene. Prosecutors said he pinned Floyd to the pavement outside Cup Foods, where Floyd had been accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill, for 9 minutes, 29 seconds. Three other officers, since fired, face trial in August.

“I felt like he was the leader, and the other officers were following his lead," Christensen said. "I kind of felt like he wasn’t taking the warnings seriously obviously, kind of like, ‘I know what I’m doing.’”

Christensen described her impressions of Chauvin.

“Every time I would look up, he was right in my vision," she said. "So we locked eyes quite a few times and I was pretty uncomfortable.”

Prosecutors played a wide range of videos for the jury, including teenager Darnella Frazier's bystander video that was seen worldwide in the hours after Floyd's death. That video and the officers' body camera video captured bystanders shouting at Chauvin and the other officers to get off Floyd, warning that they were cutting off his breathing and asking them to check for a pulse.

Christensen said she felt prosecutors “made a really good, strong argument” and credited Dr. Martin Tobin, one of their medical experts, for his testimony on how Floyd's breathing was cut off by the restraint.

"Dr. Tobin was the one that really did it for me. He explained everything to me, I understood it, down to where he said, ‘This was the moment where he lost his life.’ Really got to me.”

Christensen was critical of the defense, saying attorney Eric Nelson " overpromised in the beginning and didn't live up to what he said he was going to do.”

Nelson argued that Floyd died due to his use of drugs and to heart issues. He also argued that videos were deceptive, that Chauvin's knee wasn't on Floyd's neck as long as prosecutors said and that an autopsy found no evidence of damage to his neck. And he sought to portray the concerned bystanders as a threatening crowd that distracted officers.

Nelson has not commented since the verdicts and didn't immediately respond to a message Thursday.

Christensen praised Frazier for shooting the video, saying without it she didn't think the case would have been possible.

“I just don’t understand how it got from a counterfeit $20 bill to a death,” she said. “It kind of shocks me.”

___

Find AP’s full coverage of the death of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd

And this week, Perseverance was successful in one major test: Creating oxygen!

Mars’ atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, but that doesn’t cut it -- humans need oxygen to breathe, and also for rocket fuel to return home.

So, when Perseverance landed on Mars earlier this year, it brought with it a toaster-size instrument called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment -- or “MOXIE” for short.

Here’s how it works: Carbon dioxide is made up of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. MOXIE separates the two oxygen atoms from that carbon atom and, voila, you have oxygen!

NASA tested MOXIE a few days ago and it worked, producing about five grams of oxygen, which is about 10 minutes of breathable oxygen for an astronaut. There will be more testing done and, if a human mission to Mars comes to fruition, a much larger version of MOXIE that could produce 25 tons of oxygen would likely be a part of that mission.

Related: NASA’s Mars helicopter takes flight, 1st for another planet

NASA’s successfully landed its Mars Rover Perseverance on Feb. 18 this year near an ancient river delta in the Jezero Crater to search for signs of ancient microscopic life. Perseverance is now the ninth spacecraft to successfully land on Mars since the 1970s, and each of those spacecrafts have been from the U.S.

Over the next two years, the rover will collect rock samples containing possible signs of bygone microscopic life, which will eventually be retrieved by another rover and brought back to Earth by another rocket ship.

More: Check out these new photos from Mars Rover ‘Perseverance’

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Japan will strive by 2030 to cut its emissions by 46% from 2013 levels, up from its earlier goal of 26%, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, a target he announced in October. He said Japan would further try to push the reduction as high as 50%.

“It will not be easy,” Suga said. “In order to achieve the target, we will firmly implement concrete measures, while aiming to create a positive cycle that links the economy and environment and achieve strong growth.”

Japan’s target of no net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 brought it into line with the European Union, which last year set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by the same date. China in September pledged to be carbon neutral by 2060.

Japan, one of the world's biggest carbon emitters, has been under pressure from environmental groups and European countries to do more than its earlier 26% reduction target. Britain has pledged a 78% reduction by 2035.

Japan initially was to release its new 2030 target in time for the U.N. Climate Change Conference in November in Britain, and Thursday's announcement was apparently to show its commitment to taking an active role in the global effort as an important U.S. ally.

Experts say Japan is under pressure to play a greater role as part of a multilateral effort led by the United States in environment and climate issues, where China is also expanding its influence.

Suga, during a visit to Washington last week, agreed to cooperate in leading global efforts to reduce carbon emissions by promoting clean energy technologies and implementing the 2015 Paris climate accord.

Progress toward reducing reliance on fossil fuels in Japan has been hindered by the prolonged closures of most of its nuclear plants after the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011.

Japan’s current energy plan, set in 2018, calls for 22-24% of its energy to come from renewables, 20-22% from nuclear power and 56% from fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas.

Energy experts are discussing revisions to the plan for 2030 and 2050. The 2050 emissions-free target would require drastic changes and likely prompt calls for more nuclear plant restarts.

About 40% of Japan’s carbon emissions come from power companies, and they must use more renewable sources of energy while stepping up development of technologies using hydrogen, ammonia and other carbon-free resources, experts say.

Suga said he will maximize the use of renewables and other non-carbon power sources, provide support for local decarbonizing efforts and encourage investment.

The claims made for the first time in legal filings this month have ignited a flurry of accusations between University Hospitals in Cleveland and its former employee and his attorney.

Andrew Bhatnager, who oversaw the clinic's fertility tanks, said in an affidavit quickly sealed by a judge that a series of avoidable mistakes led to the tank failure. He also said he was pressured by the hospital's lawyers to withhold details about what went wrong.

Hospital attorneys called his statements “salacious, misleading and untrue” and have asked a northeastern Ohio court to stop Bhatnager's lawyer from releasing what it says is confidential information. A judge has scheduled a hearing for Friday to consider the request.

The back and forth erupted in what is one of the last remaining lawsuits against the hospital from the loss of more than 4,000 frozen eggs and embryos in March 2018. That failure and a second one the same day at a fertility clinic in San Francisco were the biggest such losses on record in the U.S., causing centers around the nation to review their procedures.

University Hospitals already has settled with hundreds of couples who had stored their eggs and embryos at the clinic and were devastated because the tank failures meant they might not be able to have their own children. Some had been trying for years to get pregnant, suffered multiple miscarriages or undergone cancer treatments that destroyed their fertility.

Just weeks after the storage tank failure, University Hospitals sent a letter to its patients saying that the tank had been malfunctioning for weeks and that someone had turned off an alarm system that should have alerted staff when its temperature began to rise.

The maker of the tank, which has been a target in other lawsuits, said its initial investigation concluded its equipment didn’t malfunction and that missteps were made at the clinic in suburban Cleveland.

Little else has been released about what happened because all of the settlements with the families have been private and many of the documents filed in the lawsuits have been sealed.

But Bhatnager, one of several hospital employees included in the lawsuits, shared his version of the events this month after a rift developed between him and his former lawyers, who also represented University Hospitals. He accused the hospital of making him a scapegoat and said its attorneys wanted to stop him from telling the truth.

His new attorney publicly filed statements in a Geauga County court. In his affidavit, Bhatnager said he warned hospital administrators during his 18-month tenure that the fertility center was understaffed and had too many unqualified workers.

He said he was was not at the lab when the disaster occurred on March 4, 2018.

The staff, he said, failed to follow his instructions to move the embryos and eggs into another tank while the primary was undergoing maintenance and also didn't properly fill the tank with liquid nitrogen to maintain the right temperatures.

Bhatnager’s lawyer, Subodh Chandra, has said the public has a right to know what happened.

But attorneys for University Hospitals want Chandra held in contempt of court, saying he publicly disclosed documents that contained confidential attorney-client information in an attempt to influence potential jurors with explosive and unsupported allegations.

“To be clear, this is not about hiding the truth. Rather, this is about making sure that an unbiased jury is responsible for determining the truth — and not news organizations fed by improper and false allegations from an attorney whose client admittedly has ulterior motives,” the hospital's attorneys said in a court filing.

For links to local health departments, hospital systems and more, click here.

As of April 5, all Michigan residents 16 and older are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine. We’re keeping an eye on any updates on appointments, openings, clinics or new vaccination sites in the area. Track updates below.

More resources:

• 6 ways Michigan residents can sign up for COVID-19 vaccine
• Registration for COVID-19 vaccine at Ford Field now open -- How to register
• Find appointments from CVS here
• Find appointments from Rite Aid here
• Find appointments from Walmart here
• Find appointments from Walgreens here
• Michigan Vaccine Hunters/Angels group clinics and resources
• Vaccine Spotter tracks openings for all of these across Michigan.

Tracking COVID-19 vaccination updates (not loading? click here):

The diesel-powered KRI Nanggala 402 was participating in a training exercise Wednesday when it missed a scheduled reporting call. Officials reported an oil slick and the smell of diesel fuel near the starting position of its last dive, about 96 kilometers (60 miles) north of the resort island of Bali, though there was no conclusive evidence that they were linked to the submarine.

“Hopefully we can rescue them before the oxygen has run out” at 3 a.m. on Saturday, Indonesia’s navy chief of staff, Adm. Yudo Margono, told reporters.

He said rescuers found an unidentified object with high magnetism at a depth of 50 to 100 meters (165 to 330 feet) and that officials hope it’s the submarine.

The navy believes the submarine sank to a depth of 600-700 meters (2,000-2,300 feet), much deeper than its estimated collapse depth.

Ahn Guk-hyeon, an official from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, which refitted the vessel in 2009-2012, said the submarine would collapse if it goes deeper than around 200 meters (655 feet) because of pressure. He said his company upgraded much of the submarine’s internal structures and systems but lacks recent information about the vessel.

Frank Owen, secretary of the Submarine Institute of Australia, also said the submarine could be at too great a depth for a rescue team to operate.

“Most rescue systems are really only rated to about 600 meters (1,970 feet),” he said. “They can go deeper than that because they will have a safety margin built into the design, but the pumps and other systems that are associated with that may not have the capacity to operate. So they can survive at that depth, but not necessarily operate.”

Owen, a former submariner who developed an Australian submarine rescue system, said the Indonesian vessel was not fitted with a rescue seat around an escape hatch designed for underwater rescues. He said a rescue submarine would make a waterproof connection to a disabled submarine with a so-called skirt fitted over the recue seat so that the hatch can be opened without the disabled submarine filling with water.

Owen said the submarine could be recovered from 500 meters (1,640 feet) without any damage but couldn’t say if it would have imploded at 700 meters (2,300 feet).

In November 2017, an Argentine submarine went missing with 44 crew members in the South Atlantic, almost a year before its wreckage was found at a depth of 800 meters (2,625 feet). In 2019, a fire broke out on one of the Russian navy’s deep-sea research submersibles, killing 14 sailors.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo asked all of the country's people to pray that the submarine and crew could be found.

“Our main priority is the safety of the 53 crew members,” Widodo said in a televised address. “To the families of the crew members, I can understand your feelings and we are doing our best to save all of the crew members on board.”

The military said more than 20 navy ships, two submarines and five aircraft were searching the area where the submarine was last detected. A hydro-oceanographic survey ship equipped with underwater detection capabilities also was on its way to the site around the oil spills.

Margono said the oil slick may have been caused by a crack in the submarine’s tank after the vessel sank.

Neighboring countries are rushing to join the complex operation.

Rescue ships from Singapore and Malaysia are expected to arrive between Saturday and Monday. The Indonesian military said Australia, the United States, Germany, France, Russia, India and Turkey have also offered assistance. South Korea said it has also offered help.

“The news of the missing submarine is deeply concerning,” Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said during a visit to New Zealand. “We will provide any assistance that we can. There’s no question that submarine search and rescues are very complex.”

Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton called the incident “a terrible tragedy.” He told Sydney Radio 2GB that the fact that the submarine is “in a very deep part of waters” makes it “very difficult for the recovery or for location.”

“Our fervent prayers and hopes go out to the crew of KRI Nanggala, for their safety and resilience,” Singapore’s Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen wrote on Facebook.

Indonesia’s navy said an electrical failure may have occurred during the dive, causing the submarine to lose control and become unable to undertake emergency procedures that would have allowed it to resurface. It was rehearsing for a missile-firing exercise on Thursday, which was eventually canceled.

The German-built submarine, which has been in service in Indonesia since 1981, was carrying 49 crew members, its commander and three gunners, the Indonesian Defense Ministry said. It had been maintained and overhauled in Germany, Indonesia and most recently in South Korea.

More than 60 of the Type 209 class submarines have been sold and have served in 14 navies around the world, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems spokesperson Eugen Witte said.

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation with more than 17,000 islands, has faced growing challenges to its maritime claims in recent years, including numerous incidents involving Chinese vessels near the Natuna islands.

Last year, President Widodo reaffirmed the country’s sovereignty during a visit to the islands at the edge of the South China Sea, one of the busiest sea lanes where China is embroiled in territorial disputes with its smaller neighbors.

___

Associated Press writers Kim Tong-hyung and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, and Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.

Francis also reaffirmed during the 30-minute audience his desire to visit Lebanon as soon as conditions permit, according to a statement from the Vatican spokesman.

“This is a message to all Lebanese and all parties that we have to hurry up in the formation of a government,” Hariri told Lebanese reporters traveling with him after the audience. “The pope sees Lebanon as a message of neutrality and coexistence.”

Hariri’s visit to the Vatican comes as Lebanon is experiencing its worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history following decades of widespread corruption. Since late 2019, the local currency has lost 90% of its value, and more than half of the country's population now lives in poverty, according to the World Bank.

Hariri has been touring the Middle East and Europe to win support for his efforts to form a government. Among the countries he recently visited were France, Turkey, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. He was also meeting Thursday with Italian officials.

Hariri has not been able to form a Cabinet six months after he was chosen for the prime minister's post amid deep disagreements between him and President Michel Aoun.

One of the main points of difference includes Aoun’s rejection of Hariri’s plan to choose some Christian members of the new government. Aoun is a Maronite Catholic, while Hariri is Sunni Muslim.

According to Lebanon’s power-sharing system, the president has to be a Maronite and the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim, while the prime minister has to be a Sunni. Parliament and Cabinet seats are equally split between Muslims and Christians.

The Vatican said that during the meeting with Hariri, Francis expressed his solidarity with the Lebanese people who are “living in great difficulty and uncertainty, and recalled the responsibility of all political forces to urgently commit themselves to the benefit of the nation."

Francis is hoping that Lebanon can once again embody “the fortress of the cedars, the diversity that from weakness becomes strength in the great reconciled people,” the statement said.

Hariri said he asked the Vatican “to be concerned about Lebanon and to intervene where they can be effective because this is what concerns Lebanon and the Lebanese.” He said: “We are in a very bad situation, but once we form a government we can stop the collapse.”

The Vatican didn't list the meeting on Francis' official agenda given that Hariri isn't yet in office; it was described by the Vatican as a private audience, not an official state visit that carries with it specific protocol.

Lebanon, a Mediterranean nation of 5 million, has the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East and is the only Arab country with a Christian head of state. Christians make up a third of the population.

___

Zeina Karam and Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Beirut.

Without the federal money, Southwest would have lost $1 billion in the quarter.

Southwest also echoed rivals in saying that demand for travel is continuing to improve. The airline said Thursday that bookings for leisure trips within the United States have been improving each week since mid-February.

“While the pandemic is not over, we believe the worst is behind us, in terms of the severity of the negative impact on travel demand,” Chairman and CEO Gary Kelly said in a statement.

Southwest is benefitting more from the pickup in leisure travel because its biggest rivals — American, Delta and United — depend more on business travel and long-haul international flying, both of which remain deeply depressed.

Kelly also expressed gratitude for federal payroll aid — the airline industry has received $64 billion in cash and low-interest loans over the past 13 months to help cover labor costs.

Without Southwest's share of that aid and other temporary items, Southwest would have lost $1.72 per share. That result was still slightly better than Wall Street feared. The average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of $1.82 per share.

Southwest posted revenue of $2.05 billion, slightly above the analysts' prediction of $2.03 billion.

Shares of Dallas-based Southwest rose 2% in trading before Thursday's opening bell. At Wednesday's closing price, the shares had more than doubled in the past 12 months and gained 33% since the beginning of 2021, beating the 11% increase in the S&P; 500 index.

___

Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on LUV at https://www.zacks.com/ap/LUV

On March 11, Norway followed Denmark in deciding to put on hold jabs by the British-Swedish company after reports of very rare blood clots.

Health Minister Bent Hoeie said if the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine is resumed, “we will get back the doses we lend as soon as we request it.”

The European Medicines Agency has said the benefits of being immunized against COVID-19 outweigh the very rare risks of developing the unusual clots with AstraZeneca.

Hoie also said if the vaccine is taken out of the coronavirus vaccination program in non-European Union-member Norway, “the doses we have been given can be donated to other countries in collaboration with the EU.”

Hoeie said Sweden will borrow 200,000 doses and Iceland 16,000 doses. The Norwegian doses expire in June and July.

The Danes, who were the first to pull suspend use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, have not yet decided what will happen with their doses.

Although the Norwegian Institute of Public Health has called for removing the AstraZeneca vaccine from Norway’s vaccination program, the government in Norway this month decided to wait, saying it "believes that we do not have a good enough basis for drawing a final conclusion.”

Hoeie reiterated that experts in Norway would gauge the use of the AstraZeneca and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine before May 10. Both vaccines are made with the same technology.

Norway started its vaccinations on Dec. 27 and 1.1 million people — out of a population of 5.3 million -- have so far been vaccinated. Norway uses the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

___

Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

“If climate change isn’t stopped soon, the impacts of the change will become much worse in Michigan.”

Welcome back to the In This Climate Newsletter! I’m Ken. I launched this newsletter to bring climate change to the neighborhood level. How is climate change impacting Michigan right now -- and how will it impact Michigan in the future? What can we do about it?

We’ll spend some time looking at the issues -- and we’ll seek out solutions. We’ll talk to the experts. We’ll educate ourselves along the way.

(If you missed the first newsletter -- 2 biggest climate impacts in Michigan right now -- click here to catch up!)

We’re continuing our series of newsletters with one of the top climate experts in the U.S. -- Dr. Jonathan Overpeck, Samuel A. Graham Dean and William B. Stapp Collegiate Professor of Environmental Education School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan.

🌡️ Heat of the moment

This time, we’re talking about the future. Climate change is happening now -- and much of it is already baked in for the coming decades. What will Michigan look like if climate change isn’t stopped -- and soon?

Here’s what Dr. Overpeck says about this:

If climate change isn’t stopped soon, the impacts of the change will become much worse in Michigan. Heatwaves and air pollution will become more deadly, and the likelihood of an increasing number of infectious diseases spreading in the state will also increase dramatically.

Continued rapid increases in precipitation amount and intensity will continue to elevate flood risk more and more in the winter and spring, as well as exacerbate the spread of toxic algae blooms in all of the Great Lakes, and many other water bodies as well.

At the same time, some new climate impacts will start to have serious impacts in Michigan. Continued increases in temperature will likely lead to more frequent, longer, and severe summer dry-spells and drought, which in turn will pose increasing threats to agriculture in the state, particularly for crops that can’t be easily irrigated.

Forests will also be increasingly threatened by drought impacts and wildfire, much as the forests of the US West are already experiencing. Both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems will experience hard-to-predict changes, and will likely deteriorate.

Winter recreation and outdoor sports will obviously be severely impacted by continued warming.

One other big factor concerns scientists thinking about the future of climate change in states like Michigan. If the amount of global warming is allowed to cross certain “tipping points”, it is possible that this will trigger additional warming that is irreversible on human timescales.

This, in turn, will make the climate change situation for the state even worse.

Do the Great Lakes provide protection to Michigan?

The northern location of the Great Lakes mean that the region won’t get the worse of heat waves and extreme temperatures that are already starting to hit more southerly parts of the United States.

Similarly, the wetter nature of the region is protecting it from the early onset of aridification, drought and severe wildfire impacts that is now plaguing the U.S. West. But, these protections are not absolute, and could be overwhelmed even in Michigan if climate change is allowed to continue unchecked.

For example, the time would come when southern Michigan routinely experiences dozens of high-humidity days above 100 degrees F each year.

And in the meantime, the presence of the Great Lakes will do nothing to slow the impacts of increasing rainfall amount and intensity, nor the spread of toxic algae blooms; indeed, it is possible that many of the Great Lake coasts could become choked with algae, just as we’re starting to see in Lake Erie (photo below) and along the Gulf Coast of Florida.

2014 Getty Images

In our next newsletter: Three things Michigan can do to take on climate change -- and is it too late?

♨️ Hot reads

• Executive actions: In the most ambitious U.S. effort to stave off the worst of climate change, President Joe Biden signed executive orders to transform the nation’s heavily fossil-fuel powered economy into a clean-burning one, pausing oil and gas leasing on federal land and targeting subsidies for those industries. The directives aim to conserve 30 percent of the country’s lands and waters in the next 10 years, double the nation’s offshore wind energy, and move to an all-electric federal vehicle fleet, among other changes. Biden’s sweeping plan is aimed at staving off the worst of global warming caused by burning fossil fuels. (More here)
• Climate adaptation: An organization that promotes efforts to adapt the environment to cope with the effects of climate change is calling on governments and financers around the globe to include funding for adaptation projects in their COVID-19 recovery spending. (More here)
• Shark population drop: Scientists have known for decades that individual shark species are declining, but a new study drawing on 57 global datasets underscores just how dramatically worldwide populations have collapsed in the past half century. Globally, the abundance of oceanic sharks and rays dropped more than 70% between 1970 and 2018, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. (More here)
• Cicadas are coming: A 17-year Brood X cicada will emerge in Michigan this spring -- here’s what you need to know.

🧊 Break the ice

Thanks for reading the In This Climate Newsletter! I appreciate it. If you have a topic you’d like me to cover or just want to say hello, feel free to email me!

We have plenty of other newsletters at Local 4, covering all types of topics. Sign up for others here. Talk soon! - Ken Haddad (Email | Twitter)

Sign up to receive the In This Climate Newsletter below:

Watch live beginning at 8 a.m. in the video player below.

Biden opening summit with ambitious new US climate pledge (AP)

President Joe Biden will open a global climate summit with a pledge to cut at least in half the climate-wrecking coal and petroleum fumes that the U.S. pumps out, a commitment he hopes will spur China and other big polluters to speed up efforts of their own.

Biden is offering Americans and the world a vision of a prosperous, clean-energy United States where factories churn out cutting-edge batteries for export, line workers re-lay an efficient national electrical grid and crews cap abandoned oil and gas rigs and coal mines.

His commitment to cut U.S. fossil fuel emissions up to 52% by 2030 will come at the launch Thursday of an all-virtual climate summit for 40 world leaders, marking a return by the U.S. to global climate efforts after four years of withdrawal under President Donald Trump. Japan, a heavy user of coal, announced its own new 46% emissions reduction target Thursday before the summit opened, as the U.S. and its allies sought to create momentum.

Read more here.

“It is not too late, but time is running out.” Welcome back to the In This Climate Newsletter!

I’m Ken. I launched this newsletter to bring climate change to the neighborhood level. How is climate change impacting Michigan right now -- and how will it impact Michigan in the future? What can we do about it?

We’ll spend some time looking at the issues -- and we’ll seek out solutions. We’ll talk to the experts. We’ll educate ourselves along the way.

If you missed our first two newsletters, on the biggest climate impacts right now and what the future could look like without action, catch up right here.

We’re continuing our series of newsletters with one of the top climate experts in the U.S. -- Dr. Jonathan Overpeck, Samuel A. Graham Dean and William B. Stapp Collegiate Professor of Environmental Education School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan.

🌡️ Better late than never?

It can be hard to fathom the change needed to take on climate change on a global scale. The truth is, we can only control so much. It takes a global team effort. And with us, it starts here in Michigan.

I asked Dr. Overpeck about the three biggest things we can do to take on climate change. Here’s what he said:

First and foremost, the state of Michigan needs to become a leader in transitioning the state to low-carbon energy, and eliminating all forms of greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 or earlier. The utilization of fossil fuels needs to be phased out as rapidly as possible, and replaced with renewable energy and widespread electrification of everything. In addition to helping to halt climate change, these goals would also reduce air pollution, the cost of energy, and the cost of transportation (“mobility”). Moreover, Michigan’s manufacturing economy would be enhanced and broadened if the state became a global leader in electric mobility and other clean tech solutions to climate change. Why? Because the entire globe is decarbonizing, and is thus a market for the electric mobility and other clean tech solutions that Michigan could produce. For Michigan, being a climate action leader translates into being an economic leader, as well as a jobs creator.

(Related: Whitmer sets goal to make Michigan carbon-neutral by 2050)

Second, even with aggressive global action, climate change will worsen before it is halted in the coming two to three decades. This means Michigan must also become expert in adapting to the continued climate changes that are unavoidable. For example, we must update our infrastructure (e.g., dams and storm-water systems) to reduce the risks posed by increasing amounts and intensity of rainfall. We must develop more advanced agricultural processes that both reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also allow agricultural operations to be more productive without exacerbating nutrient runoff and algae blooms. We must learn to anticipate and manage our rich terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems so that they thrive even as climate continues to change. If done well, the state’s climate adaptation successes will translate into enhanced resilience, as well as more well-paying jobs and market opportunities; again, it’s critical to realize that the entire world will be looking for the same types of climate adaptation solutions that Michigan could provide.

Third, everything Michigan does to solve the climate crisis should advance environmental justice. Disadvantaged communities, both urban and rural, need to benefit from the policies that Michigan puts into place to adapt to our changing climate, and to halt the changes we can’t adapt to. Priority needs to be place on eliminating the fossil fuel burning and other practices that are destroying our climate, and disproportionately burdening some communities, just as priority needs to be placed on making water, energy and mobility affordable for everyone.

If Michigan becomes a leader in ensuring that everyone in the state has access to well-paying jobs, clean air, clean water and an affordable life-style, Michigan will become a major go-to state for people and industries central to creating a sustainable and just economy that is free of climate change.

What can Michiganders do in their everyday lives to make a difference?

Above all else, Michiganders need to support, and elect, leaders who are committed to climate action, and each of the three major priorities described above. Individual actions are important, but without federal, state and local leaders who are committed to climate action, we will not succeed in what needs to be done.

At home and work, Michiganders should also each do whatever they can to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions. The internet has many sites that provide ideas how to act as individuals, families, communities and businesses, and we all have roles to play. But, in the end, success for Michigan depends on electing leaders – at all levels of government – who will make climate action a top priority.

Huge thank you to Dr. Overpeck for sharing his expert insights with us!

♨️ Hot reads

• Dinosaur news: Plant-eating dinosaurs probably arrived in the Northern Hemisphere millions of years after their meat-eating cousins, a delay likely caused by climate change, a new study found. Read more here.
• Speaking of climate adaptation: Texas is seeing its harshest winter weather in decades, resulting in millions of power outages and even deaths. “We’re going to have to plan for more of this kind of weather. People said this would never happen in Texas, and yet it has.” More here.
• Coal mine costs: A judge says U.S officials downplayed climate change impacts and other environmental costs from the expansion of a massive coal mine near the Montana-Wyoming border, in a case that could test how far the Biden administration is willing to go to unwind its predecessors’ decisions. More on this here.
• Podcast: “How to Save a Planet” has a great episode, “Party Like It’s 2035,” which looks at what would need to happen to reach 100% clean electricity in the U.S. (It’s a lot!)
• Help the planet: Here are 13 everyday things you can do to help our planet!

🧊 Break the ice

Thanks for reading the In This Climate Newsletter! I appreciate it. If you have a topic you’d like me to cover or just want to say hello, feel free to email me!

We have plenty of other newsletters at Local 4, covering all types of topics. Sign up for others here. Talk soon! - Ken Haddad (Email | Twitter)

Sign up to receive the In This Climate Newsletter below:

The shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, who was swinging a knife during a fight with another person in Columbus, is in some ways more representative of how Black and other people of color are killed during police encounters than the death of George Floyd, pinned to the ground by Chauvin and captured on video for all the world to see.

Unlike Chauvin's case, many killings by police involve a decision to shoot in a heated moment and are notoriously difficult to prosecute even when they spark grief and outrage. Juries have tended to give officers the benefit of the doubt when they claim to have acted in a life-or-death situation.

While Tuesday’s conviction was hailed as a sign of progress in the fight for equal justice, it still leaves unanswered difficult questions about law enforcement’s use of force and systemic racism in policing. The verdict in the Chauvin case might not be quickly repeated, even as the list of those killed at the hands of police grows.

“This was something unique. The world saw what happened,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill, who has examined over 100 use-of-force cases there. To have video, witnesses, forensic evidence and multiple police officers testify against one of their own is unique and “demonstrates how high the bar has to be in order to actually have that kind of accountability,” he said.

Convictions like Chauvin’s are extraordinarily rare. Out of the thousands of deadly police shootings in the U.S. since 2005, about 140 officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter and just seven were convicted of murder, according to data maintained by Phil Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green State University.

“This is a success, but there are so many more unjust murders that still need reckoning, that we still need to address,” said Princess Blanding, a Virginia gubernatorial candidate whose brother was killed by a Richmond police officer. Marcus-David Peters, who was Black, was fatally shot by a Black officer during a mental health crisis after he ran naked onto an interstate highway and charged at the officer.

In Columbus, Bryant had been swinging a knife wildly at another girl or woman pinned against a car when the officer fired after shouting at the girl to get down, according to police and body camera video released within hours of the shooting. The mayor mourned the teen's death but said the officer had acted to protect someone else.

Kimberly Shepherd, who lives in the neighborhood where Bryant was killed, had been celebrating the guilty verdict in Floyd’s killing when she heard the news about the teenager.

“We were happy about the verdict. But you couldn’t even enjoy that,” Shepherd said. “Because as you’re getting one phone call that he was guilty, I’m getting the next phone call that this is happening in my neighborhood.”

In Chauvin's case, by contrast, cellphone video seen around the world showed the white officer pressing his knee to the Black man’s neck for more than nine minutes as Floyd gasped for air. It sparked protests across the U.S., and Chauvin’s fellow officers took the extraordinary step of testifying against him.

“As we look to future prosecution, the question is going to be: Is this perhaps the beginning of a new era, where those walls of silence are not impenetrable?” said Miriam Krinsky, a former federal prosecutor and executive director of the reform-minded group Fair and Just Prosecution. Chauvin's case could also make future juries more skeptical of police, she said.

The day after Bryant was fatally shot, at least two other people were also killed by police in the United States.

On Wednesday morning, a deputy fatally shot and killed a Black man while serving a search warrant in eastern North Carolina. Authorities wouldn’t provide details of the shooting but an eyewitness said that Andrew Brown Jr. was shot while trying to drive away, and that deputies fired at him multiple times. And in the San Diego suburb of Escondido, police said an officer fatally shot a man who was apparently striking cars with a metal pole.

On Thursday, a funeral will be held for Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist who was shot during a traffic stop this month in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, just a few miles from the courthouse as the Chauvin trial unfolded. In Chicago last month, 13-year-old Adam Toledo was fatally shot less than a second after he tossed a gun and began raising his hands as an officer had commanded.

Kim Potter, a white police officer, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in Wright’s shooting. The former police chief said Potter mistakenly fired her handgun when she meant to use her Taser; Potter resigned from the force afterward. Wright’s family has called for more serious charges, comparing her case to the murder charge brought against a Black officer who killed a white woman in nearby Minneapolis in 2017.

The Cook County state's attorney’s office will decide whether to charge Eric Stillman, the white officer who shot Toledo on March 29 in Little Village, a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of Chicago's southwest side. The boy, who was Latino, appeared to drop a handgun moments before the officer shot him. The graphic video of the boy’s death sparked outrage, but some legal experts have said they don’t believe Stillman could or should be charged under criteria established by a landmark 1989 Supreme Court ruling on the use of force by police.

Instead of just prosecuting officers after shootings happen, more must be done to prevent such encounters from happening in the first place, said Eugene Collins, who was a local organizer for the NAACP’s Baton Rouge, Louisiana, branch when Alton Sterling, a Black man selling CDs in front of a convenience store, was shot and killed by a white police officer in July 2016. The two officers involved in the encounter weren't charged in his death.

“We’re pulled over more, stopped and frisked more,” said Collins, now head of the NAACP branch. “It’s about putting responsibility on the policymakers.”

Activists say the fight for police reform and a more just legal system is far from over.

Rachael Rollins, the first woman of color to become district attorney in Massachusetts, said it must start in part by breaking down the misconception that questioning the police or suggesting ways they can improve means “you don’t back the blue.”

“The police have an incredibly hard job, and believe me, I know there are violent people that harm community and police but that’s not all of us. So we have to acknowledge that it’s not working and we have to sit together to come up with solutions, but it's urgent,” said Rollins, the district attorney for Suffolk County, which includes Boston.

“I’m afraid, I’m exhausted and I’m the chief law enforcement officer so imagine what other people feel like," she said.

____

Associated Press reporters Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Va., and Rebecca Santana in New Orleans contributed to this report, as did Farnoush Amiri in Columbus, Ohio, a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

___

Find AP’s full coverage of the death of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd.

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that the first reference to the charge against Potter should say second-degree manslaughter, not second-degree murder..

Chairman and CEO Doug Parker said the airline continues to see signs that demand for tickets is improving.

American said it burned through $27 million in cash each day in the quarter, down from $30 million a day in the fourth quarter of 2020. The airline said it reduced 2021 costs by more than $1.3 billion, including a new round of voluntary buyouts that will result in 1,600 employees leaving the company.

Leisure travel within the U.S. has picked up recently, with about 1.4 million travelers going through airports each day this month. Still, that remains about 40% below the pre-pandemic pace of 2019.

With less traffic, American reached a deal with Boeing to delay delivery of 23 737 Max jets until 2023 and 2024 and convert five of those to a larger version of the plane. American expects to take 14 Max jets over the next 12 months.

The first-quarter loss was roughly in line with Wall Street expectations. Excluding federal payroll aid and other temporary items, American said it lost $4.32 per share. The average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by FactSet was a loss of $4.30 per share.

A year ago, when the pandemic was just starting to hit the U.S., American lost $2.24 billion.

Revenue was $4.01 billion, just shy of the $4.04 billion forecast by analysts and down 53% from $8.52 billion a year ago.

Shares of Texas-based American Airlines Group Inc. rose 2% in trading before the opening bell.

But on Thursday, the tiny carpet sharks were jolted out of their warm pools at the flashy Atlantis Hotel aquarium to travel farther than they ever have in their two years of existence. A team of Dubai conservationists gingerly caught the sharks with nets and moved them into oxidized tanks in a Ford pick-up truck.

Soon, the baby sharks were on the move. The specialists plopped them into big plastic bags and carried their squirming bodies over the white sandy beach of the Jebel Ali Wildlife Sanctuary, a short drive from the hotel. For the past few years, the hotel’s aquarium has sought to contribute to the conservation of native marine species by breeding honeycomb stingray and brown Arabian carpet sharks before releasing them into the wild, rich with coral reefs and mangroves.

The team stood shin-deep in the warm waters of the Persian Gulf, surrounded by the small and slowly circling sharks. The creatures are harmless to humans, preferring a diet of snake eels, shrimps, crabs and squid.

For a few minutes, many of the sharks appeared spooked, staying close to the shore, before venturing into their vast new home.

But several people came out Wednesday night to help Leandra King save her crops.

“It seemed like spring came early and our blossoms started popping out a little bit earlier,” King said. “At first it was 29 degrees and then yesterday we found out it’s going to 26 degrees. Twenty-eight degrees is the point where it could damage the blossoms.”

King reached out to her network of friends and came up with a plan to fight off the coming frost.

King says she’ll be out here all night till 6am keeping the bonfires going. Her kids are excited to make a night of it too. #Local4 pic.twitter.com/8yuvskMs4O

— *Jason Colthorp* (@JasonColthorp) April 21, 2021

“We’re going to create bonfires throughout the orchard and we’re focusing on our apple trees because of the limited barrels we have access to,” she said. “It, in a sense, insulates the entire orchard.”

King needed supplies -- charcoal, wood, anything -- to keep the fires going until 6 a.m. Thursday, April 22.

When word spread about help needed, several people in the community rallied around the cider mill, including Eugene Rozen and his daughter Sasha.

“There was no thought. We knew we needed to jump into action. We knew we had to get all of the wood we had laying around and bring them over and save these blossoms,” Rozen said.

“My heart is full. I can’t say I didn’t expect it because I know my city. I did expect all of the love,” King said.

MORE: Community news

The Brit Awards said Thursday that the May 11 event at London's 02 Arena has been picked to be part of the government’s easing of coronavirus restrictions following a sharp drop in new cases in the U.K.

As part of the government's live events pilot program, audience members attending the ceremony won't have to socially distance or even wear face coverings once seated. Instead, they will need to provide proof of a negative coronavirus test result to enter the venue and be required to provide details to test and trace authorities as well as follow the guidance while traveling to and from the venue.

Organizers said they are giving away 2,500 tickets to essential workers from the Greater London area to mark their work through “the difficult times” of the pandemic.

“This has been a long tough year for everyone and I’m delighted the night will honor the key worker heroes who have cared for us so well during that time and continue to do so,” said singer/songwriter Dua Lipa, who is set to perform at the event. “They are quite simply an inspiration.”

Though the U.K. has Europe's highest coronavirus death toll of more than 127,000, restrictions are slowly being eased following a sharp fall in new infections in the wake of a stringent lockdown and the rapid rollout of vaccines.

As part of that easing of restrictions, which has already seen schools reopen and pubs allowed to serve food and drink in outdoor settings, the government is trialing ways to allow audiences back at indoor cultural events.

The Events Research Programme is looking at how venues can restart large events and welcome crowds back safely this summer, by which time the government hopes many of the curbs that have been in place since last March will have been ditched.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said this year's awards will be particularly special as they will “reunite live audiences with the best of British talent for the first time in a year, while providing a vital opportunity to see how we can get large crowds back safely as soon as possible.”

In addition to Dua Lipa, organizers said Griff, Arlo Parks and Headie One are among the artists scheduled to perform during the ceremony, which will be hosted by comedian Jack Whitehall.

“Not only will we be celebrating the brilliant music and artists that have helped us through the pandemic, but we hope it will provide a path for the return of live music that fans and artists have so sorely missed,” said Geoff Taylor, the chief executive of the British Phonographic Industry and of the Brit Awards.

“We’re buzzing about the show and working closely with government," he added.

The announcement comes after the Grammy Awards hosted a 2021 edition in Los Angeles, which saw nominees and performers, including Harry Styles and Beyonce, attend in person but without a live audience.

___

Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at:

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

The Disciplinary Chamber, which was created by the populist party that governs Poland, is due to decide whether to arrest Judge Igor Tuleya and force him to answer to prosecutors about charges related to a years-old ruling that went against the interests of the party.

Tuleya, who is a judge at the Warsaw District Court, was stripped of his immunity by the Disciplinary Chamber and faces criminal charges. He has refused to face prosecutors, insisting the procedure is illegal and that he has done nothing wrong.

The panel's members deliberated for many hours on Wednesday as protests took place outside the Supreme Court, where police encircled the building and detained some protesters. Protesters gathered again on Thursday as the deliberations were set to resume.

Government critics consider the charges against Tuleya to be bogus and argue they are largely intended to warn other judges to fall in line with the government's interests or be punished.

The prosecutor has charged Tuleya for a criminal breach of secrecy for allowing journalists into the courtroom for a verdict in 2017. Tuleya has said allowing the journalists in the court was "“fully permitted by the Code of Criminal Procedure. I did not reveal any secrets.”

He could face up to three years in prison if found guilty.

“Judge Igor Tuleya did not commit any crime. His crime in the eyes of the authorities is that he performed his work independently, in service to citizens,” another judge, Pawel Juszczyszyn, said during Wednesday's protest in front of the Supreme Court building.

After the right-wing Law and Justice party came to power in 2015, it moved quickly to take control of most aspects of the court system, successfully establishing political control over the Constitutional Tribunal and other institutions.

Nearly six years on, however, it still struggles to control the lower courts, where independent judges often issue rulings that run counter to government officials and interests.

The ruling party argues that it has sought to clean up a court system it characterizes as inefficient and corrupt. Party leaders say Tuleya, with his open criticism of its judicial overhaul, has acted as a political activist.

Democracy activists argue that Poland has taken an anti-democratic turn under Law and Justice and see the resistance of judges like Tuleya and Juszczyszyn to be one of the last bulwarks against the erosion of citizens' rights.

The European Union does not recognize the Disciplinary Chamber examining Tuleya's case as legally valid under EU law. The bloc's executive commission asked the EU's top court recently to rule on the matter.

“An illegal Disciplinary Chamber might send a Polish judge Igor Tuleya to jail for doing his job,” Guy Verhofstadt, a leading member of the European Parliament, said Wednesday on Facebook.

Urging the EU to act, Verhofstadt said he thinks the Polish government’s “destruction of the rule of law will continue until the EU puts a halt to it.”

Bundle up Thursday, as it’s a very cold start to the day with most of us in the 20s. As I warned last month when we were enjoying that unusual early spring warmth, that warmth got the growing season started earlier than it’s supposed to, and some fruit trees are already blooming. This freeze could kill those blossoms and ruin our fruit tree crop. We’ll know soon how much damage was done.

Sunrise was at 6:41 a.m.

The day ahead will feature mostly sunny skies this morning, which will then become partly cloudy. Temperatures will rebound from yesterday’s low to mid 40s to highs today in the low 50s. It’ll become breezy though, with a west wind moving at 10 to 20 mph.

Thursday’s sunset is at 8:23 p.m.

It will be mostly clear Thursday night, with lows in the mid 30s.

There will be a mostly sunny start on Friday, then it will become partly cloudy (maybe even mostly cloudy by the end of the day). Highs rise further into the low 60s. Friday night will become cloudy, with lows in the mid 40s.

Weekend forecast

We will potentially start Saturday dry -- so get out early if you’re a morning jogger, because rain will develop. Most computer models bring in the rain by mid-to-late morning, and only one model holds it off until mid-afternoon. But that one model is the trusty ol’ European model. Right now, it’s one against the rest, so plan at this point on rain most of the day, and I’ll update you on the timing Friday. Highs will only reach the mid to upper 50s on Saturday due to the clouds and rain.

Rain is likely Saturday night, but will end before dawn. Lows will be near 40 degrees.

Sunday starts mostly cloudy, but we’ll see increasing sunshine through the day. Highs will be in the mid to upper 50s.

Back to summer!

As promised, we then warm up big time next week.

Think about this: We’ll go from snow this past Tuesday night, to highs in the upper 70s this coming Tuesday! Which brings to mind one of my all-time favorite memes:

• Track the live Michigan Weather Radar here
• Track severe weather alerts here
• Submit storm photos here
• Find more weather forecast articles at Weather Center

Remember to download the FREE Local4Casters weather app -- it’s easily one of the best in the nation. Just search your app store under WDIV and it’s right there available for both iPhones and Androids! Or click the appropriate link below.

• Download for iPhone
• Download for Android

The 314,835 infections added in the past 24 hours raise India's total past 15.9 million cases since the pandemic began. It's the second-highest total in the world next to the United States. India has nearly 1.4 billion people.

Fatalities rose by 2,104 in the past 24 hours, raising India's overall death toll to 184,657, the Health Ministry said.

A large number of hospitals are reporting acute shortages of beds and medicine and are running on dangerously low levels of oxygen.

The New Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered the government to divert oxygen from industrial use to hospitals to save people’s lives. "You can't have people die because there is no oxygen. Beg, borrow or steal, it is a national emergency,” the judges said, responding to a petition by a New Delhi hospital seeking the court's intervention.

The government is rushing oxygen tankers to replenish supplies to hospitals.

Indian Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Thursday that "demand and supply is being monitored round the clock.” He said in a tweet that to address the exponential spike in demand, the government has increased the quota of oxygen for the seven worst-hit states.

Lockdowns and strict curbs have brought pain, fear and agony to many people in New Delhi and other cities.

In scenes familiar across the country, ambulances are rush from one hospital to another, trying to find an empty bed. Grieving relatives line up outside crematoriums where the number of dead bodies has jumped several times.

“I get numerous calls every day from patients desperate for a bed. The demand is far too much than the supply," said Dr. Sanjay Gururaj, a doctor at Bengaluru-based Shanti Hospital and Research Center.

“I try to find beds for patients every day, and it’s been incredibly frustrating to not be able to help them. In the last week, three patients of mine have died at home because they were unable to get beds. As a doctor, it’s an awful feeling,” Gururaj said.

Yogesh Dixit, a resident of northern Uttar Pradesh state, said earlier this week that he had to buy two oxygen cylinders at 12,000 rupees ($160) each, more than twice the normal cost, for his ailing father because the state-run hospital in Lucknow had run out of supplies.

He bought two “because the doctors can ask for another oxygen cylinder at any time,” he said, adding that he had to sell his wife’s jewelry to meet the cost.

The main cremation ground at Lucknow, the state capital, received nearly 200 bodies on Sunday. "The bodies were everywhere, they were being cremated on sidewalks meant for walking. I have never such a flow of dead bodies in my life,” said Shekhar Chakraborty, 68.

In Kanpur, also in Uttar Pradesh, 35 temporary platforms have been set up on Bithoor-Sidhnath Ghat along the Ganges River to cremate bodies.

The Health Ministry said that of the country’s total production of 7,500 metric tons (8,300 U.S. tons) of oxygen per day, 6,600 metric tons (7,275 U.S. tons) was being allocated for medical use.

It also said that 75 railroad coaches in the Indian capital have been turned into hospitals providing an additional 1,200 beds for COVID-19 patients.

The Times of India newspaper said that the previous highest daily case count of 307,581 was reported in the U.S. on Jan. 8.

———

Associated Press writers Krutika Pathi in Bengaluru, India, and Biswajeet Banerjee in Lucknow, India, contributed to this report.

But those changes mask a more complicated legislative legacy to a movement that many hoped would produce generational change: Other states have done little or nothing around police and racial justice reforms, and several have moved in the opposite direction.

In Texas, where Floyd was raised and laid to rest, state Sen. Royce West this year helped introduce the “George Floyd Act" to overhaul policing. But the bill has languished for weeks after getting one hearing, and West, one of the state's most prominent Black lawmakers, acknowledges it faces long odds in the Republican-dominated Legislature.

“We have members of the Senate that just refuse to pass a bill with his name on it," he said.

He now hopes to take a different approach in hopes of getting a win — stand-alone bills without Floyd’s name that would make piecemeal changes such as banning police chokeholds.

“You have to ask yourself whether or not you want symbolism over substance,” West said. "And so if you don’t have the votes to pass a bill named after George Floyd, then we got to make certain that we do some single-shot bills.”

Across the country, the murder conviction Tuesday of a white Minneapolis police officer who held a knee to Floyd's neck for 9 1/2 minutes has renewed calls for policing reforms and legislative action to address long-standing racial inequities.

They will test over how far states will go in addressing police brutality and systemic racism in everything from education to health care to housing. Some seized on the verdict to promote legislative action or calls for change.

On Wednesday, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, signed a policing bill that will require officers to report any use of force and when they point a weapon at someone. Another GOP governor, Ohio's Mike DeWine, announced a legislative proposal to boost police oversight. And in Nebraska, the Legislature advanced a bill requiring greater law enforcement accountability and training, especially on how to de-escalate conflicts.

Ahead of the verdict Tuesday, members of California’s Legislative Black Caucus gathered outside the Capitol to highlight police and criminal justice reform bills they hope to advance. Several of the proposals, including the creation of a system to decertify officers accused of misconduct, failed last year.

“The time is now for us to act," said state Sen. Steven Bradford, a Democrat who chairs the caucus. "No more kneeling and social media posts -- we’ve had enough of the performative acts. Real police reform is needed now.”

Over the past year, at least 36 states have signed into law measures that would reform some police practices, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. The new laws come from at least 1,800 police reform bills filed in statehouses across the U.S. since Floyd’s killing, with the majority being introduced this year.

The proposals include statewide bans on chokeholds, limits on no-knock warrants, ending qualified immunity for officers and restrictions on use of tear gas and other crowd-control techniques. Statehouses also have focused on changing how fatal police shootings are investigated.

Earlier this month, Maryland lawmakers overrode the governor's veto to repeal what had been the nation's first Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights, replacing those protections with procedures that give civilians a role in the disciplinary process. Washington lawmakers, over some objections from law enforcement unions and Republicans, are moving ahead with nearly a dozen bills overhauling police tactics, use of force and oversight.

Many of the successful bills had bipartisan support, but sweeping reforms have been more difficult, even in heavily Democratic states, in part because of opposition from police unions. Several states have moved in the opposite direction, expanding the rights of officers or passing legislation that targets protesters like those involved in last summer's demonstrations.

In Oklahoma, where proposals to ban the use of police chokeholds never received a hearing in the GOP-controlled Legislature, a new law that targets protests grants immunity to motorists who kill or injure rioters. Other legislation targeting protesters has advanced in Arizona, Florida and Tennessee.

“These anti-protest bills were flying off the floor,” said state Rep. Regina Goodwin, a Democrat from Tulsa. “What that says to me is that Oklahoma is either not aware of the critical issues that America faces as it relates to racism and police abuse, or folks are looking the other way because they can.”

In a reaction to calls for redirecting some police funding to social services, Georgia’s Republican-majority Legislature passed a bill aimed at preventing cities and counties from cutting police budgets by more than 5% a year, after Atlanta and another local government debated but rejected sharper cuts.

One of the most hotly contested bills in the Republican-controlled New Hampshire Legislature this year would prohibit teaching about systemic racism and sexism in public schools and state-funded programs. Under the so-called “divisive topics” bill, which has already passed one chamber, prohibited subjects include the notion that New Hampshire or the U.S. are fundamentally racist or sexist and that individuals are inherently oppressive due to their race or gender.

"If that’s the assumption we are going to make as a society, then we are never going to get to unity,” said Republican state Rep. Keith Ammon.

Democratic state Rep. Latha Mangipudi called the bill a blow to diversity and democracy: “This refusal of truth is insidious because it denies the reality we see in our own lives, that we experience ourselves, that I have experienced,” she told WMUR-TV earlier this month.

In states with divided governments, Democratic governors have had limited success in getting specific changes but have faced opposition to more wide-ranging police and racial equity reforms.

In North Carolina, the Republican-controlled legislature is expected to advance measures focused on removing problem officers and helping police with mental health needs. But lawmakers will likely avoid the larger recommendations from a task force commissioned last year by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to address racial inequities in policing, criminal justice and the court system.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, on Wednesday ordered the Wisconsin State Patrol and other state law enforcement agencies to update their use-of-force policies to bar chokeholds, unless they are a last resort. He acted after the Republican-controlled Legislature ignored a police reform package he proposed last year after Floyd's killing.

In Minnesota, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said after Tuesday's verdicts that he’s ready to go on the offensive if there is no progress toward racial equity and police accountability. He said Minnesota’s politically divided Legislature gives the state a “golden opportunity” to show the world “that equity, decency and humanity should know no political boundary.”

“I will burn my political capital on this,” he said.

___

Farnoush Amiri, based in Columbus, Ohio, is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

___

Associated Press statehouse reporters across the U.S. contributed to this report.

___

Find AP’s full coverage of the death of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd

The sprawling studio's atrium opened to 1,400 people who were able to snag free reservations, while other fans paid their respects in front of a statue erected outside the front doors in the shape of his famous purple Love Symbol.

A custom-made ceramic urn shaped like Paisley Park with Prince’s symbol on top was originally placed in the middle of the atrium when the pop legend’s 65,000-square-foot studio in suburban Minneapolis first opened as a museum in October 2016. At the request of Prince’s family, the ashes were moved to a less prominent spot in the atrium and eventually removed entirely from public view, disappointing the superstar's legions of fans.

Wednesday was the first time the urn has returned to the atrium for display to the public.

“He reached me through his music and through his words and everything. My daughters, I raised them with the love of Prince," said Raquel Ponce of Mason City, Iowa. She noted while fighting back tears that she tried to give birth to one of her daughters on the singer's birthday, but missed that mark by a day.

Prince died April 21, 2016, of an accidental fentanyl overdose at age 57, shocking fans and setting off waves of grief around the world. Since then, Paisley Park was turned into a museum and paid tours were created. Tours were shut down for the day to mark the fifth anniversary.

“We celebrate his life and legacy every day at Paisley Park, a place that Prince wanted to share with the world,” Paisley Park Executive Director Alan Seiffert said in a statement. “So, on this day especially, we acknowledge the incredible force and inspiration Prince is in people’s lives and open up our doors for them to pay their respects.”

Paisley Park also posted an online memorial at Paisleypark.com.

Pepe Willie, Prince's uncle and an early music mentor, still tears up when he thinks of the lost star.

“It was devastating," he recently told The Associated Press of the moment he learned the news. "I’m standing in the living room with my underwear on watching the TV. I couldn’t go anywhere, I couldn’t do anything. I was just in so much shock. It was unbelievable.”

Known as the “godfather of the Minneapolis sound,” he met Prince as a young musical prodigy after marrying his aunt. The pair developed a bond through music, with Prince soaking up his knowledge about the music business and playing for Willie in a recording studio.

“I cried for him so hard," Willie said. “I didn’t even cry at my father’s funeral."

___

Associated Press Writer John Carucci in New York and Aron Ranen in Chanhassen contributed to this story.

The Trussell Trust said the food banks it works with handed out more than 2.5 million food parcels in the year through March, up from 1.9 million a year earlier. The figures represent only a partial picture of the increasing need because independent food aid providers also expanded during the pandemic, the trust said.

The trust called on the British government to do more to help people struggling to make a living and not to rely on food banks to fill gaps in the country's welfare system.

“No one should face the indignity of needing emergency food,’ said Emma Revie, the trust’s chief executive. “Yet our network of food banks has given out record numbers of food parcels as more and more people struggle without enough money for the essentials.’’

The British economy suffered one of the deepest and most protracted recessions in the developed world last year. The economy shrank by about 10% amid the pandemic.

The impact was felt most deeply by poorer households, which were far more likely to have suffered a severe income loss than their counterparts in France and Germany, according to a report released Thursday by the Resolution Foundation, a respected think tank.

___

Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at:

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Like many in this community, for him illegally setting fire to whatever he can find that contains metal — from computers to tires to electrical cables — seems like his only means of survival.

“We’re selling it to people who buy metal, we are poor people … we have to work hard for a week or two to get one kilogram of metal,” 34-year-old Bratu, perched on an old wooden cart, told The Associated Press. “We are struggling to feed our kids ... The rich people have the villas, look at the rich people’s palaces.”

You don't have to look far.

The main road that runs through Sintesti, a largely Roma village in the Vidra commune, is lined with ornate, semi-constructed villas and dotted with shiny SUVs. Behind lurk the parts where Bratu and his young children live, a social black hole with no sanitation or running water. The two worlds are strongly connected.

For Octavian Berceanu, the new head of Romania’s National Environmental Guard, the government environmental protection agency, the pollution from the illegal fires that burn here almost ceaselessly was so bad that he started regular raids in the community — where he says “mafia structures” lord it over “modern slaves.”

“This is a kind of slavery, because the people living here have no opportunity for school, to get a job in the city, which is very close, they don’t have infrastructure like an official power grid, water, roads — and that is destroying their perspective on life,” Berceanu told The Associated Press during a police-escorted tour in April.

The slums of Sintesti, like Roma communities elsewhere, have long been ignored by authorities. They're made up of makeshift homes, where unofficially rigged electricity cables hug the ground and run over a sea of trash.

“For too many years, they were allowed in some way to do this dirty job," Berceanu said. "Nobody came here in the past.. to see what's happening.”

On one day in April during a patrol of the local area, authorities seized a van loaded with 5,000 kilograms of illegal copper, worth as much as 40,000 euros ($48,000). That's just a small cog in the local illegal metal recycling industry and highlights the staggering revenue it can bring to the wealthy homeowners.

But on top of the considerable social ills, according to the environment chief, the fires can significantly hike pollution in Bucharest, potentially by as much as 20-30%, at times pushing air quality to dangerous levels.

“The smoke particulates are taken by the wind 10 miles, it’s like rain over Bucharest and it’s destroying the quality of the air in the capital. It’s one hundred times more dangerous than wood-fire particles — there are a lot of toxic components,” Berceanu said.

During a late afternoon patrol of Sintesti, AP journalists joined Berceanu and four police officers as they homed in on an acrid cloud of smoke rising above the hotchpotch dwellings. A raucous scene broke out until a hunched-over elderly lady could be persuaded to douse the fire with water — exposing the valuable metal remnants.

“If the local authorities are not applying the law, of course people — whatever their ethnic origin — are encouraged to continue doing what they are doing,” said Gelu Duminica, a sociologist and executive director of the Impreuna Agency, a Roma-focused non-governmental organization.

Focusing on pollution from the Roma community, Duminica says, instead of on big industry or the more than 1 million cars in the densely populated capital of 2 million, is “scapegoating” and part of a political “branding campaign.”

“Everywhere in the world, the poorest are exploiting the marginal resources in order to survive. We have a chain of causes: low education, low infrastructure, low development … a lot of things are low,” Duminica said

“The rich Roma are controlling the poor Roma, but the rich Roma are controlled by others. If you look at who is leading and who is controlling things, it’s more than likely you'll have huge surprises. Let’s not treat it as an ethnic issue," he said.

In the future, the environment chief hopes surveillance drones with pollution sensors and infrared cameras can help paint a clearer picture of how the networks operate.

“We’re working against organized crime and it’s very hard,” he said. “If we solve this problem here, very close to Bucharest, we can solve any kind of problem similar to this all around the country.”

For local resident Floria, who refused to give a surname but said she was 40-something, a lack of official documents, education, and options leave her and her community with no alternatives.

“We don’t want to do this. Why don’t they give us jobs like (communist dictator Nicolae) Ceausescu used to, they would come with buses, with cars, and take us to town to work,” she told The Associated Press. “Gypsies are seen as the worst people no matter where we go or what we do.”

Mihai Bratu blames local authorities for the plight of his community, for the lack of roads, the lack of action.

“The mayor doesn’t help us!” he exclaims, as a small boy shifts building materials from Bratu's horse cart to the muddy yard next door.

“What do we have? What can we have? Some little house? — whatever God granted us.”

While there will be many faces on screen, this will clearly be President Joe Biden’s show.

Biden will convene the summit on Thursday, and what he says will call the shots for what’s to come. He’s trying to show that the United States is again serious about cutting pollution of heat-trapping gases with a new American goal for reducing emissions. Then he’ll try to cajole other nations to ratchet up the pollution-cutting promises they made in 2015's Paris climate agreement. All of it via virtual diplomacy.

Along the way, there may be intrigue, potential conflicts and pathos. A viewer’s guide:

HOW TO WATCH

All sessions will be livestreamed on the White House and State Department channels. Sessions are scheduled to run from 8 a.m. EDT to midday on Thursday and Friday.

THE THEME

It’s simple: The U.S. is returning to the climate fight and wants to lead again.

After the United States helped negotiate the last two climate agreements — 1997’s Kyoto Protocol and 2015’s Paris accord — Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump backed out. The United States last year became the only country to leave the Paris deal.

For the Biden administration, this summit is “their version of ‘we’re baaack,’” said Henry “Jake” Jacoby, co-founder of the MIT Center for Global Change Science. “And they want to do that in a dramatic way.”

That dramatic way is to announce one of the world’s most ambitious national goals for cutting the gases that cause climate change: cutting them between 50% and 52% by 2030 compared with 2005.

“That is quite a welcome message after the four years we painfully witnessed,” said Christiana Figueres, the former U.N. climate chief, who helped forge the Paris accord. “The fact that the United States is back is very important.”

WHY WATCH

Human-caused climate change is getting worse around the globe. On average about 23 million people a year are displaced by weather-related storms, fires and floods, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Hundreds of billions of tons of snow and ice are lost each year. Sea level rise is accelerating.

In Paris, world leaders set two goals to limit global warming to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) and if possible to limit it to no more than 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) compared with pre-industrial temperatures. However, the world has already warmed almost 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius).

“We are on the verge of the abyss,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday.

Leaders still hope that somehow the more stringent Paris goal can be met even as scientists say it is less and less likely.

The leaders attending the summit represent "the group that will make it possible that we keep the 1.5-degree goal within reach,” U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa told The Associated Press.

THE KEY ANNOUNCEMENT

The Paris agreement calls for ratcheting up 6-year-old commitments to cut carbon emissions with tougher goals aimed at 2030.

Biden's new target aims for cutting the country's greenhouse gas emissions from 50% to 52%, aiming to achieve it by emphasizing decarbonization across the government and economy.

That would put “the U.S. at the top of the pack,” said former Obama White House environment official Kate Larsen, a director at the private research Rhodium Group. It would be about the same as the European Union but behind the United Kingdom.

After the U.S. announces its target, other nations will be invited to present tougher targets.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

Just as important is money, Espinosa said. That’s because poorer nations, which are using polluting fossil fuels to develop, need financial help to switch to cleaner but more expensive fuels. The Paris agreement commits richer nations, like the United States, to spend billions of dollars to help poorer nations because it makes the world cleaner for everyone, she said.

Years ago, the developed world committed to $100 billion in public and private financial help, much of which hasn’t been paid. Eventually that needs to increase to $1 trillion a year because that's how much it will take to get the world to decarbonize and help poorer nations adapt to rising sea levels, worsening storms and other climate harms, former climate chief Figueres said.

The U.S. promised $3 billion in aid in Paris but paid only the first $1 billion. Then Trump canceled the rest. Biden has put $1.2 billion in his latest budget proposal.

“The U.S. is way behind on its commitment because of those four Trump years,” Figueres said. “And needs to play catch up, not on its own, but hand-in-hand with all of the other industrialized nations.”

Also look for private companies to contribute.

WHOM TO WATCH

This is Biden’s show, and he will kick it off, formally announcing the 50% to 52% emissions cut. He’ll be followed by the leaders of the world’s biggest economies, which spew 80% of the greenhouse gases.

The U.S., which has put the most greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over decades, and current top carbon-polluting nation China, last week issued a joint statement saying they’re working together to be more ambitious on climate. Chinese President Xi Jinping will deliver an important speech, the government announced. Also keep an eye on the leader of India, the third-biggest emitter.

Then there’s the human factor. The tighter Paris goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius is because small island nations, such as the Marshall Islands and Jamaica, said further warming and sea level rise could wash them out of existence. Some of those leaders will talk at the summit.

“The message they will bring humanizes climate change,” Figueres said. “Let’s not only talk about gigatons (of emissions), let’s talk about human impact today, not just in the future.”

ALSO STARRING

Others to closely watch: leaders of Japan and South Korea, who are being pressured to stop financing new coal power plants in other countries.

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro will be on the spot because his country's 2030 goal is weaker than the nation's 2025 goal and there's pressure to stop Amazon deforestation. And Russia's Vladimir Putin, who has clashed with Biden, will also appear.

But there's more. Pope Francis will speak on Thursday, while Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg are featured on Friday. Mayors, governors, financial leaders, numerous Biden appointees plus Vice President Kamala Harris and indigenous and youth activists will also get screen time.

THE SEQUEL

This all leads to formal climate negotiations in November in Glasgow, Scotland, which is the big follow-up to the Paris agreement. The United Nations is counting on nearly 200 nations to announce tougher emission cut targets before that meeting, which will hash out still lingering issues.

“This week is getting the ball rolling,” said Nigel Purvis, a former State Department climate negotiator in Democratic and Republican administration.

The clash adds to strains in relations that are at a multi-decade low after Beijing blocked imports of coal and other goods from Australia in retaliation for its call for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

The two contracts with Victoria, where the major city of Melbourne is located, were vetoed under a law allowing the government to overrule agreements that violate the national interest, Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced Wednesday.

They were part of Beijing’s multibillion-dollar “Belt and Road Initiative” to expand trade by building ports, railways and other facilities across dozens of countries from the South Pacific through Asia to Europe.

The signing of those agreements in 2018 and 2019 led Australia's parliament to enact the law permitting the national leadership to intervene. It took effect in December.

Payne also announced cancelation of contracts signed by Victoria's Education Department with the governments of Syria in 1999 and Iran in 2004.

The four deals are "inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations,” Payne said.

The Chinese government criticized the decision, though Payne said Thursday she didn't expect Beijing to retaliate.

The decision “seriously damaged relations and mutual trust,” said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin.

“China reserves the right to make a further reaction,” Wang said. He gave no details of possible retaliation.

“We urge the Australian side to abandon its cold war mentality” and “not to go further down the wrong path so as to avoid making China-Australia relations, which are already facing serious difficulties, even worse," Wang said.

China blocked imports of Australian coal, beef, wine, lobsters and other goods last year after Australia called for an investigation into the coronavirus, which emerged in central China in late 2019.

Chinese ministers refuse to take calls from their Australian counterparts.

China is Australia's No. 1 foreign market, but the sanctions impact has been limited, because Chinese steel mills still buy Australian iron ore, the country's most valuable export.

The decision “isn't about any one country,” said Payne. “It is most certainly not intended to harm Australia’s relationships with any countries.”

The opposition leader in Victoria, Michael O’Brien, welcomed the decision.

O'Brien, who belongs to the same conservative Liberal Party as the foreign minister, complained the Victoria government had “given away major infrastructure contracts to Chinese-owned companies."

“In return, the Chinese government has smashed our farmers with tariffs on barley" and “smashed our wine exporters with trade sanctions,” O'Brien said.

Observers describe the Victoria deals as vague and non-binding.

Some suspect their value to China's ruling Communist Party was to exploit disagreements in Australia over “Belt and Road” deals.

Defense Minister Peter Dutton expressed concern about Chinese military activity and possible cyber attacks.

Agreements with China “against our national interests” are “used for propaganda reasons, and we’re just not going to allow that to happen,” Dutton said.

The vast Chinese steel industry's need for for iron ore is likely to restrain Beijing from taking drastic action, said Fitch Ratings in a report. It said blocking imports would hurt Chinese employment and economic growth.

Any further penalties are likely to target "smaller export categories,” Fitch Ratings said.

Australian exports to China fell by 2% from a year earlier in the second half of 2020, the government says. Excluding iron ore, the decline would have been 40%.

Authorities wouldn't provide details of the shooting but an eyewitness said that Andrew Brown Jr. was shot while trying to drive away, and that deputies fired at him multiple times. The car skidded out of Brown's yard and eventually hit a tree, said Demetria Williams, who lives on the same street.

Williams said after hearing one gunshot, she ran outside, where she saw other shots being fired at the car.

“When they opened the door he was already dead," Williams told The Associated Press. “He was slumped over.” She said officers tried to perform chest compressions on him.

A car authorities removed from the scene appeared to have multiple bullet holes and a broken rear windshield.

The Pasquotank County Sheriff’s deputy was placed on leave pending a review by the State Bureau of Investigation, Sheriff Tommy Wooten II said at a news conference. Court records show Brown was 42 years old and had a history of drug charges and a misdemeanor drug possession conviction.

Dozens of people gathered at the scene of the shooting in Elizabeth City, a municipality of about 18,000 people 170 miles (274 km) northeast of Raleigh, where they expressed their anger and rallied around Brown’s family members. A large crowd later stood outside City Hall while the City Council held an emergency meeting, some holding signs proclaiming “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop killing unarmed Black Men.” As the evening wore on, a group gathered in the parking lot of the sheriff’s office and a crowd that grew to more than 200 blocked traffic on a main thoroughfare of the city, forcing cars to turn around.

“The police didn’t have to shoot my baby,” said Martha McCullen, an aunt of Brown who said she raised him after his parents died. McCullen stood on the stoop of Brown’s rental home, her eyes moist with emotion.

“Andrew Brown was a good person," she said. "He was about to get his kids back. He was a good father. Now his kids won’t never see him again.”

Wooten said the deputy shot Brown about 8:30 a.m. The deputy was wearing an active body camera at the time of the shooting, said the sheriff, who declined to identify the officer or say how many shots he fired, citing a pending review by the State Bureau of Investigation. Wooten also did not say what the warrant was for.

Williams, the eyewitness who also was among those demonstrating outside City Hall on Wednesday evening, said Brown, who was known by neighbors as “Drew,” wasn’t a violent person.

“I didn’t believe that (officers) really did that because he wasn’t a threat to them. He was driving off even though he was trying to get away,” Williams said.

During the emergency meeting, Black members of the City Council spoke emotionally about the fears of their community amid multiple police shootings across the country and implored investigators to remain transparent.

“I’m afraid as a Black man,” an emotional Councilman Gabriel Adkins told his colleagues. “I’m afraid that I may be the next one that my family might have to see on the news that I was gunned down.”

Adkins said businesses in the neighborhood of the shooting had begun boarding up their windows in anticipation of violence.

“Not only do we need transparency ... we need accountability,” said City Councilman Darius Horton, who called for the immediate release of bodycam footage, the search warrant and a speedy explanation of what led to the shooting. “We need answers. ... Let’s not hide behind anything.”

Others councilors urged the community to remain calm until all of the facts about the shooting are known.

Brown’s grandmother, Lydia Brown, and his aunt Clarissa Brown Gibson told The Associated Press that they learned about his death through a TV news report. Both said they want the shooting thoroughly investigated.

“I am very upset. Andrew was a good person,” Lydia Brown said. The deputy “didn’t have to shoot him like that.”

Clarissa Brown Gibson said: “We want to know if he was served with a warrant, why the shooting over a warrant?”

Among those who gathered at the scene of the shooting was Keith Rivers, president of the Pasquotank County chapter of the NAACP.

“When is it going to stop? We just got a verdict yesterday,” Rivers said in a phone interview, referring to the guilty verdicts handed down Tuesday in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd. “Is it open season now? At some point, it has to stop. We have to start holding the people in charge accountable.”

The State Bureau of Investigation will turn the findings of its review over to District Attorney Andrew Womble, who pledged a thorough and deliberate inquiry.

“What we are looking for at this time will be accurate answers and not fast answers,” Womble told a news conference. "We’re going to wait for the full and complete investigation ... and we’ll review that and make any determinations that we deem appropriate at that time. This will not be a rush to judgment.”

Elizabeth City is located near where the Pasquotank River empties into the Albemarle Sound. It is home to a U.S. Coast Guard air station, Elizabeth City State University and a medical center, all of which support numerous jobs. The city’s population is more than 50% Black and about 40% white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Nearly 23% of residents live in poverty.

___

This story has been edited to remove an incorrect reference to how George Floyd died.

___

Lavoie reported from Richmond, Virginia. Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed in Elizabeth City and Tom Foreman Jr. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

India is massive — it's the world's second-most populous country with nearly 1.4 billion people — and its size presents extraordinary challenges to fighting COVID-19.

Some 2.7 million vaccine doses are given daily, but that's still less than 10% of its people who've gotten their first shot. Overall, India has confirmed 15.9 million cases of infection, the second highest after the United States, and 184,657 deaths.

The latest surge has driven India's fragile health systems to the breaking point: Understaffed hospitals are overflowing with patients. Medical oxygen is in short supply. Intensive care units are full. Nearly all ventilators are in use, and the dead are piling up at crematoriums and graveyards.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

Authorities were lulled into believing the worst was behind them when cases started to recede in September.

Cases dipped for 30 consecutive weeks before starting to rise in mid-February, and experts say the country failed to seize the opportunity to augment healthcare infrastructure and aggressively vaccinate.

“We were so close to success,” said Bhramar Mukherjee, a biostatistician at the University of Michigan who has been tracking India’s pandemic.

Despite warnings and advice that precautions were needed, authorities were unprepared for the magnitude of the surge, said K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India.

Critics have pointed to the government deciding to not pause Hindu religious festivals or elections, and experts say that these may have exacerbated the surge.

“Authorities across India, without exception, put public health priorities on the back burner,” Reddy said.

Consequently, India's 7-day rolling average of confirmed daily new cases has risen over the past two weeks from 6.75 new cases per 100,000 people on April 6 to 18.04 new cases per 100,000 people on April 20, possibly driven by new variants of the virus, including one that was first detected in India, experts say.

India's top health official Rajesh Bhushan would not speculate Wednesday why authorities could have been better prepared, saying: “Today is not the time to go into why did we miss, or did we miss, did we prepare?”

WHY IS INDIA'S HEALTH SYSTEM COLLAPSING?

India only spends a fraction of its gross domestic product on its health system, lower than most major economies.

As the virus took hold last year, India imposed a harsh, nationwide lockdown for months to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. This brought terrible hardship to millions, but also bought time to implement measures to plug critical gaps, like hiring additional health care workers on short-term contracts, establishing field hospitals and installing hospital beds in banquet halls.

But authorities didn't take a long-term view of the pandemic, said Dr. Vineeta Bal, who studies immune systems at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Pune city.

Suggestions for permanent improvements like adding capacity to existing hospitals or hiring more epidemiologists to help track the virus were widely ignored, she said. Now authorities are scrambling to resuscitate many emergency measures that had been ended once the numbers fell.

A year ago, India was able to avoid the shortages of medical oxygen that plagued Latin America and Africa after it converted industrial oxygen manufacturing systems into a medical-grade network.

But many facilities went back to supplying oxygen to industries and now several Indian states face such shortages that the Health Ministry has urged hospitals to implement rationing.

The government in October began building new plants to produce medical oxygen, but now, some six months later, it remains unclear whether any have come on line, with the Health Ministry saying they were being "closely reviewed for early completion.”

Tanks of oxygen are being shuttled across the country to hotspots to keep up with the demand, and several state governments have alleged that many have been intercepted by other states en route to be used to meet local needs.

WHAT COMES NEXT?

India is faced with the massive challenge of trying to prevent its health care system from further collapse until enough people can be vaccinated to significantly reduce the flow of patients.

The good news is that India is a major vaccine producer, but even after halting large exports of vaccines in March to divert them to domestic use, there are still questions of whether manufactures can produce enough fast enough.

“Vaccination is one way to slow down the spread — but this really depends on the speed and availability of the shots,” said Reddy of the Public Health Foundation.

Already several states have said they have shortages in vaccines — although the federal government denies it.

India said last week it would allow the use of all COVID-19 shots that have been greenlit by the World Health Organization or regulators in the United States, Europe, Britain or Japan.

On Monday, it said it would soon expand its vaccination program from people aged 45 to include all adults, some 900 million people — well more than the entire population of the entire European Union and United States combined.

Meanwhile, Reddy said some states have had to implement new lockdowns but long-term, it was up to individuals as well to do their part.

“As a society, it's crucial that we maintain public health measures like masking, physical distancing and avoiding crowds,” he said.

___

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

A collection of 33 artifacts seized from a New York-based art dealer who authorities say was one of the world's most prolific smugglers of antiquities was turned over by the U.S. to the government of Afghanistan this week.

“The significance of the material is huge,” Roya Rahmani, the country's ambassador to the U.S., said Wednesday. “Each one of these pieces are priceless depictions of our history.”

Rahmani formally took control of the collection in a ceremony Monday in New York with the Manhattan District Attorney's office and Homeland Security Investigations, which recovered the artifacts as part of a larger investigation into the trafficking of antiquities from a number of countries.

Now, after briefly being displayed at the embassy in Washington, the masks, sculptures and other items, some from the second and third centuries, are en route to Kabul, where they are expected to go on display at the National Museum.

It's the same museum where members of the Taliban destroyed artifacts in 2001 as part of a cultural rampage rooted in a fundamentalist version of Islam in which depictions of the human form are considered offensive.

The Taliban is now out of power. But it controls much of the country outside of Kabul amid stalled talks with the government and the looming withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces after two decades of war. Rahmani concedes it's a delicate time.

“However, what I know is that our security forces are determined to defend our people,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press. “The government is committed to do its part for peace and stability in a way that would bring durable peace."

They may get a chance earlier than expected. Germany's Defense Ministry said Wednesday that discussions are underway among military planners with the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission in Kabul for a possible withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan as early as July 4.

President Joe Biden has already said the U.S. would remove all its troops by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the attacks that prompted the American invasion to dislodge the Taliban in 2001 for allowing al-Qaida to operate from Afghanistan.

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, the Taliban had already become internationally notorious for enforcing a harsh form of Islamic law that kept women out of public view and for destroying — with rockets, shells and dynamite — the famed giant, sixth century sandstone Buddha statues built into a cliff in Bamiyan province.

The destruction of the statues was on the ambassador's mind as she prepared to ship the artifacts to her homeland, not only because a mural of the sandstone Buddhas adorns the room at the embassy where visitors gathered this week to see the relics.

Rahmani, her country's first female ambassador to the United States, recalls that she wept when she first learned what the Taliban had done to the Buddhas. It was an important moment, she says, because she had pledged never to let anyone see her cry as a way to defy the male-dominated culture of her homeland.

"I broke my vow," she said. “I really cried hard. I wept and wept.”

In contrast, the items are “returning to a government and people who cherish their past” and will make sure they are preserved for future generations, Rahmani said. She doesn’t expect the Taliban, if they return to power, would dare to destroy them.

“Our security forces and our government would not let that happen,” she said. “We are determined not to let that happen.”

Like the statues, some of the recovered antiquities depict Buddha. There's also a marble statue of Shiva and a Greek mask. The artifacts reflect the multicultural influences on Afghanistan, an important center of trade and commerce, according to Fredrik Hiebert, an archaeologist and National Geographic Fellow who studies the country.

There are at least 2,600 archaeological sites around the country, said Hiebert, who helped authenticate some of the items after they had been confiscated by federal agents and discuss the relics at a gathering Tuesday at the embassy.

“Afghanistan is one of the richest countries in archaeology and history in the world,” he said. And there’s very good reason, of course. For 6,000 years there’s been civilization based in Afghanistan."

That also makes it an attractive target to looters, which is how the items eventually ended up in the United States.

In 2007, Homeland Security Investigations, an agency that deals with cases of smuggling that traverse international borders, received information about looted artifacts brought to the New York City area from India.

It eventually led to the indictment of a New York art gallery owner, Subhash Kapoor, and seven others as well as the seizure of more than 2,600 artifacts, valued at more than $140 million. He is jailed in India on charges and faces extradition to the U.S. when that case is resolved.

In the meantime, the U.S. government is working to repatriate the looted material, much of which was found in a series of raids on storage units in the New York City area.

They have already returned relics to Nepal and Sri Lanka and soon will turn over artifacts to Thailand, said Stephen Lee, the supervisor special agent in charge of HSI’s cultural property, arts and antiquities unit. The 33 items being sent to Afghanistan, valued at around $1.8 million, are the first to go back there as part of this investigation.

“They belong to the people of Afghanistan,” Lee said. “That’s their cultural history.”

Experts don't know yet because they're still studying vaccinated people to see when protection might wear off. How well the vaccines work against emerging variants will also determine if, when and how often additional shots might be needed.

“We only have information for as long as the vaccines have been studied," said Deborah Fuller, a vaccine researcher at the University of Washington. “We have to study the vaccinated population and start to see, at what point do people become vulnerable again to the virus?”

So far, Pfizer's ongoing trial indicates the company's two-dose vaccine remains highly effective for at least six months, and likely longer. People who got Moderna’s vaccine also still had notable levels of virus-fighting antibodies six months after the second required shot.

Antibodies also don't tell the whole story. To fight off intruders like viruses, our immune systems also have another line of defense called B and T cells, some of which can hang around long after antibody levels dwindle. If they encounter the same virus in the future, those battle-tested cells could potentially spring into action more quickly.

Even if they don't prevent illness entirely, they could help blunt its severity. But exactly what role such “memory” cells might play with the coronavirus -- and for how long -- isn’t yet known.

While the current COVID-19 vaccines will likely last for at least about a year, they probably won’t offer lifelong protection, as with measles shots, said Dr. Kathleen Neuzil, a vaccine expert at the University of Maryland.

“It’s going to be somewhere in the middle of that very wide range,” she said.

Variants are another reason we might need an additional shot.

The current vaccines are designed to work against a particular spike protein on the coronavirus, said Mehul Suthar of the Emory Vaccine Center. If the virus mutates enough over time, vaccines might need to be updated to boost their effectiveness.

So far, the vaccines appear protective against the notable variants that have emerged, though somewhat less so on the one first detected in South Africa.

If it turns out we need another shot, a single dose could extend protection of the current shots or contain vaccination for one or more variants.

The need for follow-up shots will also depend partly on the success of the vaccination push globally, and tamping down transmission of the virus and emerging variants.

___

The AP is answering your questions about the coronavirus in this series. Submit them at: FactCheck@AP.org. Read more here:

I got the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Now what?

Are some COVID-19 vaccines more effective than others?

I got the COVID-19 vaccine. What can I safely do?

___

OPEN WITH ACES

Los Angeles right-hander Walker Buehler (1-0, 2.00 ERA) starts the opener of a four-game series against the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium. Buehler will be followed by LHP Clayton Kershaw (3-1, 2.19) and RHP Trevor Bauer (2-0, 2.42), with Dustin May (1-1, 2.93) scheduled for Sunday’s series finale. The Dodgers won two of three last weekend in San Diego during the first series of the season between the NL West rivals.

BACK AGAIN

Yankees right-hander Domingo Germán (0-2, 9.00 ERA) will rejoin the club from the alternate training site to make his third start after missing all of 2020 serving a ban for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy. Germán struggled in outings against Toronto and Tampa Bay before being sent down, allowing seven runs and four homers over seven innings. He’ll face the Indians and righty Aaron Civale (3-0, 2.18) in the opener of a four-game series at Cleveland.

STRUGGLING 'STROS

Alex Cobb (1-0, 4.63 ERA) makes his third start for his new team when the Los Angeles Angels begin a four-game series at Houston. The slumping Astros have lost nine of 10. Houston also was 7-10 last year before winning eight in a row and eventually reaching Game 7 of the AL Championship Series.

“We’re 3 1/2 games back, 17 games into a season that’s 162 games long. Just get to work, get back into rhythm,” third baseman Alex Bregman said.

Cristian Javier (1-0, 2.08) gets the ball for the Astros in a matchup of AL West teams.

BACK IN THE SWING

Javier Báez and the Chicago Cubs go for a three-game sweep of the visiting Mets, who committed a season-high four errors during an ugly 16-4 defeat Wednesday night at chilly Wrigley Field. Báez became the first player to go 0 for 4 with four strikeouts in one game and then hit a grand slam in the next since Gorman Thomas did it for Milwaukee in the first two games of the 1978 season, according to STATS.

David Bote drove in four runs as the Cubs won their second straight after losing six of eight. Chicago scored its most runs since putting up 16 against Pittsburgh on Sept. 15, 2019.

Trevor Williams (2‐1, 5.02 ERA) looks to win his second consecutive start for the Cubs. Williams is 3‐1 with a 2.08 ERA in four starts against New York.

___

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

“Advice to a Secretary,” a rarely seen essay published this week in the spring issue of the literary quarterly The Strand Magazine, is a wry set of instructions for his assistant in the 1950s, Juanita Messick. For Chandler, who had little family beyond his wife and few close friends, work was personal. His tone with Messick varied from indulgent employer to hapless spouse.

“Assert your personal rights at all times. You are a human being. You will not always feel well. You will be tired and want to lie down. Say so. Do it. You will get nervous; you will want to go out for a while. Say so, and do it. If you get to work late, don’t apologize. Just give a simple explanation of why, even if it is a silly explanation. You may have had a flat tire. You may have overslept. You may have been drunk. We are both just people.”

More of Chandler's observations:

"I am only exacting in the sense that I want things right. I am not exacting in the sense that I expect human beings to subordinate their own lives to my whims. If you should ever feel that I am acting that way, for God’s sake tell me so."

"I must have order and organization from you, because I lack it myself."

The essay was discovered, like a missing clue, in a shoebox at the University of Oxford's Bodleian library. Strand managing editor Andrew Gulli, who has published obscure works by Chandler ("Notes To An Employer"), William Faulkner, John Steinbeck and many others, was anxious to show Chandler in a more personal and light-hearted way.

"The reason for publishing this work is that often writers who have written works that have very dark themes are among the most friendly and benign people around," he said. “This work shows a softer side to an author who has been associated with a bleak worldview.”

Chandler was open minded enough when it came to Messick's whereabouts but particular about her stenography. He once sent her a brief memo dedicated entirely to the misuse of present participles. In “Advice To a Secretary,” he points out that Messick transcribed a word incorrectly, “accept” instead of “except.”

“If you do not fully understand a sentence, or a word, or a punctuation mark, say so and demand an explanation,” Chandler tells her. "If the explanation you get does not clarify things for you, demand another explanation. Do not be satisfied with anything less than you want. It is never stupid to ask questions. It is only stupid to guess at the answers and take a chance on being wrong."

Chandler scholar Dr. Sarah Trott notes that Chandler's decision not to give Marlowe a secretary is in contrast to such sleuths as Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. While Chandler had a warm, playful side and both the author and his wife, Cissy, became close to Messick, Chandler avoided such intimacy in “The Long Goodbye,” “The Big Sleep” and other Marlowe novels.

“He was an introverted character,” Trott told the AP in a recent email, recalling how the director Billy Wilder regarded him as “kind of acid, sour, grouchy.”

“The isolated lifestyle that Marlowe lives is, I imagine, the sort of lifestyle Chandler coveted,” Trott wrote.

____

https://strandmag.com

The Philadelphia center was flat on his back in disbelief over the near-make that would have sent the game to overtime.

“It would have made for a long flight, long night and not a lot of sleep," Suns coach Monty Williams said.

Rest easy, Phoenix.

Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges and the Suns walked off winners on the road for the second time this week against one of the top teams in the East. Paul scored 28 points, Booker had 19 and Bridges 18 to lead the Phoenix Suns to a 116-113 victory over Philadelphia on Wednesday night.

Embiid had 38 points and 17 rebounds and one oh-so-close shot.

‘When I threw it, it looked good," Embiid said.

Paul, a 93% free-throw shooter, missed one from the line that would have sealed the win instead of giving Embiid a glimmer of highlight-reel hope.

“If you’re up three, I always want to make the free throw to go up four,” Paul said. “That shot was in-and-out. I ain’t never seen anything like it.”

Neither had the rest of the Suns.

“That was a heck of a display of a throw right there,” Suns forward Cameron Johnson said.

Said Bridges: “I don't know how I would have reacted. That was crazy.”

The Suns improved their NBA-best road record to 19-7 and are second overall at 42-16 — 1 1/2 games behind Utah for the league lead.

Paul hit five 3s and Bridges, a former Villanova standout, continued to haunt the Sixers three years after an ill-fated draft-night deal. The Sixers selected Bridges with the 10th overall pick in 2018 — a feel-good story because of the Nova connection and his mother worked for the 76ers’ parent company. Zhaire Smith played only 13 NBA games and is out of the league while Bridges turned into a breakout star for the blossoming Suns.

The Sixers again played without starters Ben Simmons (unspecified illness) and Tobias Harris (right knee). Simmons missed his second straight game and Harris his third, the Sixers certainly secure enough in playoff spot to the point they don’t have to rush either one back. Seth Curry also missed the game with a left hip flexor -- three starters down certainly one reason why FanDuel Sportsbook had the Suns as three-point favorite.

The Sixers would certainly like all three back in time for this week’s two-game set in Milwaukee. Shake Milton, Furkan Korkmaz, and Matisse Thybulle joined Embiid and Danny Green (18 points) in the lineup.

"I know we got a lot of guys out, but we still want to win the game," 76ers coach Doc Rivers said.

Embiid left in the third when he slammed his left knee on the court and sat behind the basket with a towel around his leg. He rested on his back and stretched his knee as the teams went basket-for-basket. Embiid jogged in place on the baseline and played cheerleader as the short-handed Sixers tried to hang with the Suns. Embiid has missed 18 games this season with injuries, notably a bone bruise on his right knee that cost him 11 games after the All-Star break.

Rivers said he did not know who would be available for both games against the Bucks.

Paul buried consecutive 3s for an 85-81 lead in Embiid’s absence and the All-Star center did not check back in until a shade over 6 minutes left the game and the Sixers down seven. Embiid buried a 3 in a late-game lineup in which he was the only regular starter.

The Suns, coming off an overtime win in Milwaukee, got big baskets down the stretch from Booker -- including a nice bank off the glass and he swished a fall-away jumper for the dagger with 13 seconds left in the game.

TIP-INS

76ers: Rivers, who stumped for Joe Biden during his campaign President, welcomed the guilty verdict of the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. “The fact that we celebrated a man who committed murder is going to jail, I thought about that last night and I’m not so sure if we’ve come a long way or we have a long way to go,” Rivers said. Rivers said he talked to the team about the verdict and felt “it was my responsibility” as coach to discuss current events with his players.

Suns: Count Rivers among the fans of Williams. “Monty is a terrific coach. When you talk to other coaches and who you have to prepare for, who runs good stuff, Monty’s name always comes up. Now he has the talent,” Rivers said. The Suns will make the playoffs for the first time sine 2010. ... Jae Crowder left the game with a sprained right ankle.

UP NEXT

Suns: At Boston on Friday night.

76ers: At Milwaukee on Thursday night and Saturday.

__

More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/tag/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

They’re a perennial powerhouse.

Jonathan Marchessault scored twice and the Golden Knights became the first NHL team to clinch a playoff berth, beating the San Jose Sharks 5-2 Wednesday night for their eighth straight victory.

Vegas, which leads the NHL with 33 wins and 68 points, also became the fourth franchise in NHL history to make the playoffs in each of its first four seasons. The Golden Knights lost to the Washington Capitals in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season.

“It’s an accomplishment in this league; 31 teams to make the playoffs,” said Peter DeBoer, who has led two teams to Stanley Cup Final appearances during his coaching career. “What this franchise has done so far is unheard of. I don’t know if you’ll ever see that again out of an expansion team.

“I wouldn’t trade our group for any other group out there.”

The Golden Knights improved to 15-1-3 all-time against the Sharks in regular-season meetings — including a perfect 7-0-0 this season. Vegas also improved to 18-4-2 at home this season.

“We’ve been doing good against (San Jose),” Marchessault said. “We seem to be playing the right way. It’s good to have success against a divisional team like that.”

Mark Stone Alex Tuch, and Mattias Janmark also scored for Vegas. Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves to improve to 5-0-0 against the Sharks this season and 7-0-1 in his last eight.

“They’re scoring every night, and they’re looking dangerous doing it,” DeBoer said of his team’s offense. “That for me is what we’re looking for, even on nights when the pucks don’t go in, we’re creating momentum, we’re getting chances, we’re putting pressure on the other team.”

Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl scored for San Jose, which is now mired in an 0-6-1 slide. Josef Korenar made 35 saves.

The Sharks took a 2-1 lead just past midway through the second period before the Golden Knights scored four unanswered goals.

“The hottest team in the league, it’s not just us,” San Jose coach Bob Boughner said. “We’re a team that doesn’t match up on paper to them. So a lot of things have to go right for us. They find ways to win. Our power play has to get going, it’s been dry for a while. That’s the difference in these tight games. You have to have good special teams when you go against these guys.”

The Sharks were 0 for 3 on the power plays against the league’s second-best penalty kill.

On the power play, Pacioretty fed Stone, who wrapped the puck around Korenar to knot the score 2-all with 7:08 left in the second period. It was Stone’s team-leading sixth power-play goal of the season, while Pacioretty became the 10th active U.S.-born player to collect 600 career points.

Tuch blasted home the go-ahead goal with 50 seconds left in the second, giving Vegas its first lead of the game.

Marchessault netted his second goal and third point of the night when he beat Korenar short side, extending Vegas’ lead to 4-2 with 6:42 left in the game.

Janmark, who was acquired from Chicago at the trade deadline, scored an empty-netter for his first as a Golden Knight with 56 seconds to go.

“I liked our resiliency, I liked our calmness tonight,” DeBoer said. “I thought after the first period, we could’ve been up three. We stuck with it. We took some penalties we found to kill off, get some big saves at the right time. There wasn’t any panic there.”

ANOTHER ONE

Two nights after Patrick Marleau appeared in his record-breaking 1,768th career NHL game to pass Gordie Howe for all-time games played, he skated in his 900th consecutive game, becoming the fourth player ever to do so.

HOME SWEET HOME

Marchessault, who has 22 points in 19 regular-season games against the Sharks, has scored nine of his 13 goals this season at home.

GOLDEN DEBUT

Dylan Sikura, who had three points in nine appearances with Chicago last season, made his team debut for the Golden Knights, playing in his NHL game since Jan. 15, 2020.

UP NEXT

Sharks: Host Minnesota on Saturday.

Golden Knights: At Anaheim on Saturday.

___

More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

The feds allege that Didani is a drug kingpin running a cocaine trafficking organization that spans the globe. Court records show Didani was conspiring with Grosse Pointe CEO Marty Tibbitts to construct a cocaine submarine -- a large drone that would affix itself with magnets to the bottom of container ships and be controlled remotely via a modem and GPS antenna.

READ: Feds say Metro Detroit businessman financed drug ring prior to 2018 fatal plane crash

When the ship would arrive at its destination, the cocaine sub would disengage and wait to be picked up by a fishing boat controlled by Didani’s organization.

Tibbitts died in a plane crash in 2018.

The feds intercepted 3,400 kilograms of cocaine, which they said is from Didani’s organization from 2019 to 2020. They place the value at $100 million.

“This is a very significant and important prosecution of a large scale, well organized drug trafficking organization involved in the distribution of thousands of kilograms of cocaine worth tens of millions of dollars, across multiple continents,” said acting U.S. Attorney Saima Mohsin.

Deeper chill

Expect even colder starts Thursday as clouds clear out overnight. Temperatures will range from the low and mid-40s outside the Metro Zone to near 30 along the east side.

Wind chills are headed to the teens in much of the area, so don’t let the morning sunshine fool you when you walk out the door.

Temperatures will climb about 25–30 degrees during the day, getting us to the mid-50s by afternoon.

Half wet weekend

Our next round of precipitation will be all rain, and there will be plenty of it Saturday. This system looks earlier and earlier with each new batch of data. So we’re now expecting to see showers by late morning. Rain will hang around through the afternoon and overnight.

This is going to be more than a few passing showers. Total rainfall might reach an inch in some locations. Temperatures will be close to, but slightly below, normal in the afternoons. Highs both days will reach the upper 50s, with morning lows starting in the 40s.

Warmup in sight

We can finally see some well-above-normal numbers in the 10-day forecast.

Tuesday and Wednesday of next week will get us to the mid-70s. It doesn’t look like it will be coming with a ton of sunshine, however.

We will probably be dealing with rain by the evening hours of next Wednesday. At least it’s not snow, right?

Track the radar:

• Michigan Weather Radar page
• Metro Detroit Weather Radar page

Child rushed to the hospital after fire rips through apartment building