The pair will meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was heading to Pakistan on Friday for “bilateral consultations,” Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency confirmed. Vice President JD Vance will not be traveling, the White House said.

The trip to Pakistan comes as officials there have been trying to get the United States and Iran to a second round of ceasefire negotiations.

The Trump administration also announced it is placing economic sanctions on a major China-based oil refinery and roughly 40 shipping companies and tankers involved in transporting Iranian oil. The move, actualizes the administration’s threat to impose secondary sanctions on entities that do business with Iran, an effort to cut off Iran’s key source of revenue: its oil exports.

Here is the latest:

Bessent rules out renewal of Iranian and Russian oil waivers

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that the U.S. does not plan to renew a waiver allowing the purchase of Russian oil and petroleum products that are currently at sea. He also said a renewal of a one-time waiver for Iranian oil at sea is totally off the table.

“Not the Iranians,” Bessent told The Associated Press. “We have the blockade, and there’s no oil coming out.”

In an AP interview about the impact of the war on the global energy market and other topics, Bessent also said he had no plans to extend the sanctions relief for Russia.

“I wouldn’t imagine that we’d have another extension. I think the Russian oil on the water has been largely sucked up,” he said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives in Islamabad for talks on reviving ceasefire negotiations

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said an Iranian delegation led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad on Friday.

Araghchi was received by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir and other senior officials upon arrival.

In a statement, it said during the visit Araghchi is expected to meet Pakistan’s senior leadership to discuss the latest regional developments and ongoing efforts to promote regional peace and stability.

US imposes sanctions on a China-based oil refinery and 40 shippers over Iranian oil

The Trump administration is placing economic sanctions on a major China-based oil refinery and roughly 40 shipping companies and tankers involved in transporting Iranian oil.

The move, announced Friday and first reported by The Associated Press, makes good on the Trump administration’s threat to impose secondary sanctions on companies and countries that do business with Iran. It’s also part of the Republican administration’s overall ramped-up campaign to cut off Iran’s key source of revenue — its oil exports.

Concurrently, the U.S. this month imposed a physical blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf waterway that is crucial to global energy supplies.

These sanctions come just a few weeks before President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping are due to meet in China.

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Israeli strikes kill at least 11 in Gaza, health officials say

Among those killed in three separate Israeli strikes on Friday across Gaza were a woman and a child, health officials said.

An afternoon drone strike near a police checkpoint in northwestern Gaza City killed two Palestinians and wounded two others, according to officials at Shifa hospital.

The Israeli military acknowledged the strike, saying that it targeted “terrorists” without providing evidence or further details.

In the evening, another strike targeted a police vehicle in southern Gaza, killing at least seven, according to officials at Nasser hospital. A third strike in northern Gaza killed a woman and a child, health officials at Shifa hospital said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the evening strikes.

Deadly Israeli strikes are a near-daily threat in Gaza, where more than 790 Palestinians have been killed despite a ceasefire with Hamas since October, according to figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

Leavitt says Vance is willing to go to Pakistan ‘if we feel it’s a necessary use of his time’

Leavitt told reporters the president decided to send Witkoff and Kushner “to hear the Iranians out.”

“We’ve certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days,” Leavitt said. She did not offer any details about what U.S. officials were hearing.

Witkoff and Kushner dispatched to Pakistan for new talks with Iranian foreign minister

President Donald Trump is sending his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan on Saturday to continue talks with Iran, the White House said Friday.

White House press secretary Karolien Leavitt said in an interview on Fox News Channel that the two will have talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

“We’re hopeful that it will be a productive conversation and hopefully move the ball forward to a deal,” Leavitt said.

She said that Vice President JD Vance would not be traveling but that he remains “deeply involved.”

Leavitt said he will be in the U.S., along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the president’s national security team, on “standby” to fly to Pakistan “if necessary.”

Lebanon’s health ministry raises death toll to 2,491

The ministry included figures released Friday that 7,719 people were wounded in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war that broke out March 2.

It was the first time the ministry has released new figures since April 17, when a ceasefire went into effect.

Despite the ceasefire, the death toll rose by 197 in one week because bodies were apparently recovered from areas that previously had been out of reach.

Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu says he was treated for prostate cancer and is now healthy

It’s his first public acknowledgment of the diagnosis.

He said that roughly a year and a half ago he had prostate surgery. Then two and a half months ago, his doctors discovered and treated a small tumor at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital with radiation therapy. That was not announced at the time.

“I requested to delay its publication by two months so that it would not be released at the height of the war” against Iran, the 76-year-old Israeli leader said, to prevent “more false propaganda against Israel.”

He said he was healthy and called the tumor a “minor medical issue.”

Netanyahu’s health was the subject of speculation during the early weeks of the war with Iran as fake, AI-generated images circulated suggesting he had died, including on Iranian state media.

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Businesses dole out up to $4 million to cross Panama Canal during Strait of Hormuz chokehold

That’s according to the Panama Canal Authority.

While passage through the waterway usually comes at a flat rate via reservations, companies without reservations can cross by paying an additional fee in an auction for slots, which are awarded to the highest bidder rather than waiting for days off the coast of Panama City.

That price has ballooned in recent weeks as Iran and the United States have bottlenecked the key shipping route, the Strait of Hormuz, and demand for those slots has skyrocketed. Ships have increasingly traveled through the Panama Canal as shipments are rerouted and buyers purchase from other countries to avoid commerce through the now-treacherous Middle Eastern waterway.

“With all the bombings, the missiles, the drones ... companies are saying it’s safer and less expensive to cross through the Panama Canal,” said Rodrigo Noriega, a lawyer and analyst in Panama City. “All of this is affecting global supply chains.”

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Netanyahu says Israel and the US are operating in ‘full cooperation’ on Iran

“The same is true in Lebanon: We have begun a process to achieve a historic peace between Israel and Lebanon, and it is clear to us that Hezbollah is trying to sabotage this,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday in a video statement released by his office. He was referring to direct negotiations underway between the two countries — which don’t have formal diplomatic relations — for the first time in decades.

Israel says it struck Hezbollah sites after rocket fire from Lebanon

The Israeli military said it hit sites from which rockets were launched toward the town of Shtula a day earlier.

The strikes targeted the town of Deir Aames, which is outside the border area in Lebanon that Israeli forces have declared a buffer zone and continued to occupy since a 10-day truce was implemented last week. Earlier Friday, the Israeli military issued a warning for residents of Deir Aames to leave.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a three-week extension to the Israel-Hezbollah truce, but both sides have continued to fire at each other.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says meeting in Saudi Arabia was productive

In a Telegram post Friday, Zelenskyy said his meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was productive and that both countries are developing a strategic security agreement.

The agreement includes three elements, he said: exporting Ukraine’s defense expertise and capabilities, expanding energy cooperation, and strengthening food security.

“We are working together to strengthen our nations and partners. We have defined tasks for our teams and I expect their prompt and full implementation,” he said.

Saudi Arabia, along with other Mideast countries, has been targeted by missile and drone attacks from Iran since the war began.

Iran’s top diplomat says purpose of tour is to consult on regional developments

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post that the purpose of his upcoming tour to Islamabad, Pakistan; Muscat, Oman; and Moscow is to “closely coordinate with our partners on bilateral matters and consult on regional developments.”

Araghchi’s comments didn’t address any possible resumption of talks with the U.S., but Pakistani officials have been intensifying efforts in recent weeks to get the U.S. and Iran to a second round of ceasefire negotiations.

Hezbollah legislator says extension of ceasefire is ‘meaningless’

Ali Fayyadh said in comments Friday that the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that was extended for three weeks the day before has no meaning as long as Israel continues its attacks, targeted killings and strikes on Lebanese villages.

Since the 10-day ceasefire went into effect last Friday it has been repeatedly violated by both sides.

Fayyadh said every Israeli attack against any Lebanese target, regardless of its nature, gives his group that right to respond appropriately.

He added that any ceasefire that doesn’t constitute a prelude to an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory affirms the Lebanese people’s “inalienable and final right to resist” the occupation and expel it from our land in order to restore full Lebanese sovereignty.

Lebanon’s president calls on European Union to hold conference for reconstruction of his country

President Joseph Aoun’s comments Friday came during a visit to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus where he’s a guest at the European Union summit.

Aoun said in a speech that “Lebanon’s stability is part of the region’s stability.”

He added that Lebanon refuses to be a bargaining chip in regional conflicts. He was apparently referring to Iran, which has put a permanent ceasefire between Israel and the militant Hezbollah group on top of its list in talks with the U.S..

Aoun said Lebanon, like other countries in the region, “places great importance on de-escalation, stability, and peace.”

Aoun used World Bank figures, saying the Israel-Hezbollah was has caused damage worth $1.4 billion to Lebanon’s infrastructure and that 38,000 housing units were destroyed.

He said 150,000 people in Lebanon are without homes.

US protected ships from Iran in Strait of Hormuz during ‘Tanker war’ in the ’80s. Could it again?

Today, offering escorts in the Strait of Hormuz wouldn’t be so easy. Military technology has advanced since the “Tanker war.”

The U.S. hasn’t defined the same clear, narrow goals in this war as it did in the 1980s. And it’s not clear international shippers would feel safe even with an American Navy escort given it’s a combatant now.

The U.S. Navy has long been familiar with the small boat tactics deployed by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which has adapted to international sanctions blocking its ability to access military vessels by using smaller civilian ships for military purposes.

For years, the Guard has used vessels the size of small commercial fishing boats to shadow American aircraft carriers whenever they pass through the strait. Instead of bearing fishing poles, most have Soviet-era heavy machine guns bolted to their bows with a small rocket launcher atop.

Using those small boats, Iran seized two cargo ships this week.

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A surge for Intel sends tech stocks higher on Wall Street and crude oil prices swing some more

A surge for Intel following a blowout profit report is leading technology stocks higher, while oil prices keep swinging in the wait for what’s next with the Iran war.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% early Friday and pulled near its all-time high set Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 74 points, while the Nasdaq composite jumped a market-leading 0.7%.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude to be delivered in June was down 0.4% at $104.67 after yo-yoing between roughly $103 and $107.

European stock markets were modestly lower and Asian markets closed mixed.

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Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov

In a statement in Islamabad, the foreign ministry said Lavrov appreciated Pakistan’s “constructive role” in facilitating dialogue between Iran and the United States.

Dar reaffirmed Islamabad’s commitment to supporting efforts that promote dialogue and diplomacy to resolve disputes, it said.

Both sides agreed to remain in contact, it added.

Israeli military confirms a drone downed over Lebanon

The army said in a statement Friday that a remotely piloted aircraft was downed in southern Lebanon following the launch of a small surface-to-air missile by the militant group Hezbollah.

The military said the incident is under review.

The statement came after Hezbollah said it shot down an Israeli Hermes 450 drone over the outskirts of the southern city of Tyre.

Malaysia in talks with Iran to let two tankers pass

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Friday that his government is in talks with Iran to allow two Malaysian-owned tankers carrying fuel supplies to pass through.

The vessels have exited the Strait of Hormuz but face severe restrictions despite earlier clearance given by the Iranian government, he was cited as saying by the national Bernama news agency. He didn’t provide further details.

One Malaysian vessel has earlier reached home and another is expected to enter Malaysian waters soon, he said. Another is stranded at port due to technical problems, he added.

Hegseth says any new Iranian mine laying would violate the ceasefire with the US

Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday that the military is prepared to deal with any Iranian ships that “recklessly and irresponsibly” lay more mines.

But he said he wouldn’t speculate on reports that it will likely take six months to clear mines in the strait. The Associated Press reported that the Pentagon gave that timeline in a classified briefing to lawmakers this week.

Hegseth was responding to statements from President Trump who said Thursday that he has ordered the military to “ shoot and kill ” small Iranian boats deploying mines.

Hegseth said the U.S. is confident it can clear any mines it identifies “and would encourage other countries to be a part of such an effort as well.”

White House didn’t immediately respond to questions on Iran’s foreign minister going to Pakistan

And it didn’t respond to questions on whether the U.S. would send a delegation.

Crews of seized tankers remain in US custody

The crews of all three merchant vessels seized by the U.S. military over the past week are still in U.S. custody, Gen. Dan Caine said at a briefing Friday.

“We will continue to conduct similar maritime interdiction actions and activities in the Pacific and Indian Oceans against Iranian ships and vessels of the Dark Fleet,” Caine said.

Caine also said the crew of the Tousca, the first merchant ship seized by U.S. forces Sunday, “repeatedly ignored U.S. warnings” over a six-hour period. Caine said this behavior prompted the crew of the Navy destroyer following the ship to fire five warning shots.

“The vessel and her crew continued to ignore warnings and, after exhausting all other measures, CENTCOM authorized disabling fire against the Tousca,” Caine said. Then, according to Caine, the destroyer disabled the ship’s engine by firing nine inert rounds from the destroyer’s 5-inch guns “precisely into the engine room and engine space on board the Tousca.”

“Not surprisingly, the vessel then reported issues with their engine, went dead in the water and began to comply with U.S. directions,” Caine added.

Hegseth criticizes European allies for inaction on the Strait of Hormuz

The U.S. secretary of defense suggested traditional U.S. allies in Europe are “free-riding” and being disloyal by not using their own forces to open the Strait of Hormuz that’s been closed because of President Trump’s Iran war.

“We are not counting on Europe, but they need the Strait of Hormuz much more than we do,” Hegseth insisted. He mocked a recent European confab, saying U.S. allies “might want to start doing less talking” instead of holding “a fancy conference” and “a silly conference.”

Iran’s maneuver to choke off the strait has disrupted global energy supplies — especially in Europe, where many leaders remain frustrated. French President Emmanuel Macron said at one point that the U.S. can’t complain about a lack of support “in an operation they chose to undertake alone.”

Hegseth’s broadsides echo Trump’s swipes that other nations should “Go get your own oil!” and “start learning how to fight for yourself.”

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency confirms Iranian foreign minister heading to Pakistan for talks

IRNA said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also would go to Oman and Russia.

The trip to Pakistan comes as officials there have been trying to get the United States and Iran to a second round of ceasefire negotiations.

The IRNA report said Araghchi’s trip, beginning Friday, is focused on “bilateral consultations and discussions on ongoing regional developments, as well as the latest situation surrounding the imposed war by the United States and Israel against Iran.”

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calls war in Iran a ‘gift to the world’

Speaking to reporters Friday at the Pentagon, Hegseth said the U.S. blockade of Iranian shipping will continue “as long as it takes” to accomplish America’s “bold and dangerous” mission to end Iran’s threat to global security.

U.S. officials say that so far the blockade has turned back 34 ships, but ship-tracking data shows Iran has still been to move some of its sanctioned oil.

Lloyd’s List Intelligence said “a steady flow of shadow fleet traffic” has passed in and out of the Persian Gulf, including 11 tankers with Iranian cargo that have left the Gulf of Oman outside the strait since April 13.

The maritime intelligence firm Windward said this week that Iranian traffic continues to flow “via deception.”

Iranians are able to evade the blockade by faking tracking data and by traveling through Pakistani territorial waters.

“Y’all gonna burn.”

That’s what Palm Bay police said Marc Hoover said Tuesday to some other people at a homeless camp off Babcock Street between the AutoZone and the Habitat for Humanity store.

“It was a lot of fire,” Assistant Fire Chief John Ringleb said. “It was pretty thick back in those woods.”

After police said Hoover used a lighter to start the fire, chief Ringleb told your Palm Bay Community Correspondent James Sparvero that fortunately, the wind didn’t blow the fire east in the direction of hundreds of apartments and houses.

“Why would he do something like that?” resident Alex Belal asked.

When he faced a judge at the county jail, Hoover didn’t explain, himself, what he was thinking, but when police interviewed him, they said Hoover said he was sorry for starting the fire and burning other people’s things.

“It’s really, really difficult because we all still have a job to do outside of managing these large brush fires,” Ringleb said. “We still have to meet the needs of the community and respond to all the other emergency calls.”

Belal said arsonists should be put in prison for life.

The judge told Hoover he faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted on his arson charges.

Less than a week after beating Burnley 4-1, Forest rose eight points clear of the relegation zone and sent shivers down the spine of Tottenham Hotspur fans. Spurs occupy the third relegation spot, two points behind West Ham.

With Burnley and Wolves already relegated, Spurs or West Ham are now the most likely candidates to join them.

“It gives us some breathing room and puts pressure on the two chasing behind," Forest's New Zealand striker Chris Wood said. "Back-to-back wins do that for you.

“We built on the second half from last week, that is what we wanted to do. We want to build and get better and show what we are capable of. We started fast and what we did today was fantastic."

Sunderland had the best defensive record in the league at home after Manchester City and Arsenal, but that defensive solidity disappeared during a woeful first half.

Forest looked quicker and hungrier from the off and took the lead after 16 minutes when Igor Jesus’ header went in off Trai Hume following a neatly worked short corner.

Disaster then struck for Sunderland as goalkeeper Robin Roefs gifted Forest a second. His sloppy pass went straight to Morgan Gibbs-White, who fed Chris Wood to give the big New Zealander, recently back from a long injury layoff, his first league goal since the opening day of the season.

Gibbs-White made it 3-0 three minutes later when he drilled home a low shot after Jesus’ superbly cushioned header gave him time and space.

Jesus got Forest’s fourth three minutes later as Sunderland crumbled.

Sunderland’s Dan Ballard had a goal chalked off after a video review in the second half and if there was any doubt the home side was all out of luck it came in stoppage time when Elliot Anderson made it five and confirmed Sunderland’s heaviest ever defeat at the Stadium of Light.

“It is hard to explain straight after the game,” Sunderland captain Granit Xhaka said. “What I can say is that we apologise to our fans. They were easy goals we conceded today. Three set-pieces and the coach has just said in there that if you drop 1% of your maximum then you are dead. You get punished and we got punished at home.”

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

Melania Trump on Friday announced that she is expanding the White House honey program by adding a beehive in the shape of the White House to two other beehives that have been on the south grounds since 2009.

The existing hives can swell to about 70,000 bees during peak summer months and produce 200 pounds to 225 pounds (91 to 102 kilograms) of honey in a year, the White House said. The new hive could increase honey production by about 30 pounds (13.6 kilograms), according to the White House.

The announcement came just before Britain's King Charles III and his wife, Queen Camilla, were expected to arrive in Washington on a four-day state visit, including an elaborate White House state dinner on Tuesday hosted by President Donald Trump and the first lady.

Charles and Camilla are supporters of beekeeping. The king keeps at least three beehives at Highgrove House, their private residence southwest of Tetbury in Gloucestershire, England, as part of his support for the environment and sustainability.

The queen is also a bee fan. She is a patron of Bees for Development, a charity that promotes the role of bees in sustainable development worldwide.

The White House uses the clover honey its bees produce to prepare meals, as official gifts from the president and first lady, and in donations to food kitchens.

The bees help pollinate a nearby produce garden that then-first lady Michelle Obama started in 2009 and a nearby flower cutting garden, along with vegetation on the National Mall.

The beekeeping program began after a White House carpenter started beekeeping as a hobby on the complex.

The new hive was funded through the Trust for the National Mall, the White House said.

The hive and the base were designed by White House residence staff and handmade by a Virginia artisan.

“Not the Iranians,” Bessent told The Associated Press. "We have the blockade, and there’s no oil coming out.”

"And we think in the next two, three days, they’re going to have to start shuttering production, which will be very bad for their wells.”

Bessent's statements come as the world is on edge over the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, and global energy markets have been ensnarled by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. originally issued a waiver for Russian oil sales and petroleum products in March with the intent of stabilizing global energy markets after crude oil prices surged above $100 per barrel.

The Treasury Department renewed the waiver two days after Bessent said at the White House that he had no plans to extend the sanctions relief.

In an AP interview about the impact of the U.S.-Israeli war on the global energy market and other topics, the U.S. treasury secretary explained his previous change of heart and ruled out the notion of renewing sanctions waivers for both Russia and Iran.

Bessent said during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings last week, “More than 10 of the most vulnerable and poorest countries came to me and said, ‘Can you help?” Bessent said.

"It was for those vulnerable and poor countries. But I wouldn’t imagine that we’d have another extension. I think the Russian oil on the water has been largely sucked up.”

In a post on Substack on Friday, Jake Reiner shares his sweetest memories of the beloved Hollywood director and the photographer and philanthropist who was his wife for 36 years. And he describes the horror of losing them when they were stabbed to death on Dec. 14 in the Los Angeles home he grew up in. It is his first detailed public account of his experience. He had previously only issued brief joint statements with his sister.

“Nothing can prepare you for what it feels like to lose both parents instantly at the same time,” Jake Reiner writes. “It’s too devastating to comprehend. I still wake up every morning having to convince myself that, no, it’s not a dream. This truly is my living nightmare.”

The long post makes only two fleeting mentions of his younger brother Nick Reiner, who has been charged with killing their parents, and he does not use Nick's name.

“Sure, any loss of a parent is devastating, but nothing compares to losing both of them at the same time and, on top of that, having your brother be at the center of it,” Jake Reiner writes toward the end of the post.

He also says, switching to the present tense, that the "love they have for me, my brother, and my sister is truly unconditional.”

Jake Reiner writes that he was at a memorial service for one of his best friends when he got the news.

“I received a call from my sister Romy telling me our father was dead,” he says. “Minutes later, she called back telling me our mother was also dead.”

He says his parents “were robbed of so many things that day" and that it “simultaneously breaks my heart and enrages me."

He writes that he cannot stop thinking of how frightened they must have been in their final moments.

But much of the piece invokes fond memories.

“The way my dad presented himself in the public eye was exactly the beautiful person he was at home,” Jake Reiner writes. “He was authentic, passionate, and his sense of humor has always been my sense of humor.”

The two especially connected over baseball.

“We loved the Dodgers more than anything,” he writes. “We went to so many damn games.”

He calls his mother "the engine, the backbone, and the heart of our entire family. And not just our immediate family. She was the reason behind why we spent time with our extended family too.”

“My mom was really funny and constantly complained about how nobody in the family thought she was,” he writes.

Rob and Michele Reiner had three children together: Jake, Nick and Romy. Rob Reiner was also father to Tracy, a daughter with his previous wife, Penny Marshall.

Jake Reiner writes that Romy, who was the first family member at the scene of the killings, will tell her own story when the time is right.

Nick Reiner has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder. His next court appearance will be at a pretrial hearing Wednesday. Authorities have said nothing about possible motives and have withheld most details about the deaths.

Rob Reiner was a prolific director whose work included some of the most memorable and endlessly watchable movies of the 1980s and ’90s. Friends and colleagues, including Billy Crystal, paid him an extended tribute at this year's Oscars.

His credits included “This is Spinal Tap,” “Stand By Me,” “A Few Good Men” and “When Harry Met Sally…,” during the production of which he met photographer Michele Singer. They wed soon after and were married for 36 years.

An unusually large number of wildfires are burning this spring across the Southeast, where scientists say the threat of fire has been amplified by a combination of extreme drought, gusty winds, climate change and dead trees still littering some forests after being toppled by Hurricane Helene in 2024.

In northern Florida, the Nassau County Sheriff's Office said Friday that volunteer firefighter James “Kevin” Crews suffered an unspecified medical emergency while suppressing a brush fire. Crews was rushed to a hospital where he died Thursday evening, according to a news release posted to social media.

“Kevin was the epitome of courage and dedication,” Hilliard Volunteer Fire Chief Jerry Johnson said in a statement. “His sacrifice will never be forgotten.”

‘No way to stop this fire’ without soaking rain

After getting a firsthand look at firefighting efforts in southeast Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp told reporters that state officials believe 87 homes burned in rural Brantley County this week are the most ever destroyed by a single wildfire in the state's history.

An additional 35 homes have been lost to a larger fire burning in sparsely populated Clinch and Echols counties near the Florida state line, Kemp said. That blaze has burned about 50 square miles (129 square kilometers), an area twice the size of Manhattan.

Kemp said officials suspect the Brantley County was sparked by a foil party balloon that touched live power lines, creating an electrical arc that ignited the ground. He said investigators suspect the larger fire started with a man welding a gate outside.

Spread across more than 11 square miles (28 square kilometers) and still growing, the Brantley County blaze was 15% contained Friday, the Georgia Forestry Commission said. An estimated 4,000 homes in the county were under evacuation orders Friday, said commission spokesperson Seth Hawkins.

“There’s no way to stop this fire,” Kemp said. “They’re having to contain the flanks and the back of it and then, hopefully, we get a change in the weather.”

No fire deaths or injuries have been reported in Georgia.

Firefighters are battling more than 150 other wildfires in Georgia and Florida that have sent smoky haze into places far from the flames, triggering air quality warnings for some cities.

‘We’ve lost everything, but I'm one of the lucky ones'

Michael Gibson was at his job Thursday at a chicken feed producer when his fiancee called urging him to come home. By the time he arrived, firefighters were already on the road where Gibson, his fiancee and their four children lived. He said he took his family to safety and tried to return to salvage belongings, but police stopped him.

Gibson said the fire consumed his mobile home and one beside it where his fiancee's brother lived. His family has been staying in a camper on a relative's property.

“We’ve lost everything, but I’m one of the lucky ones.” Gibson said Friday. “We’ve been prepared to leave. And I’m truly blessed to have my family and to have somewhere to sleep. ... A lot of people in my county didn’t make it out with the clothes on their backs.”

Jennifer Murphy said she had little time to react when firefighters knocked at her door in the Brantley County community of Hortense.

She said she barely had a chance to gather her dog, Chip, and a single bag of belongings before firefighters urgently helped her walk down her wheelchair ramp and grab a rolling walker from her van outside.

“It was like, 'Get out now, right now. You’ve got to leave,’” Murphy said Friday at the local church where she had spent the night on a couch.

Firefighters are hosing down homes, trying to limit destruction

While crews with bulldozers work to clear fire breaks around the burning areas, firefighters from dozens of local agencies have focused on protecting nearby homes and other structures — clearing away dry brush and using hoses and sprinklers to keep houses and yards wet.

"We’ve definitely had the local fire guys out there literally hosing stuff down,” said Hawkins of the forestry commission.

In Florida, firefighters were battling more than 120 wildfires Friday, mostly in the state’s northern half. Fire crews in Georgia responded to 31 new and relatively small blazes Thursday, the state forestry commission said.

Officials say soaking rain is badly needed to snuff out the large fires, and that possible showers forecast this weekend won't bring enough rainfall. There's also a chance of thunderstorms, raising concerns that lightning could spark more fires.

"It is going to take 8 to 10 inches before we can walk away from these fires,” said Johnny Sabo, director of the Georgia Forestry Commission.

He said long-range forecasts predict less than average rainfall until July.

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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press journalist Jeff Amy contributed from Atlanta

In a news conference held on Friday, Worrell said prosecutors could not meet the legal burden required to move forward.

Worrell said the investigation took two senior attorneys more than 100 hours to complete, adding that the complexity of the cases — and a lack of cooperation from arresting agencies — drove the lengthy timeline.

“This is a very novel issue,” she said. “No one has ever been prosecuted for anything like this before, and our job is to get it right.”

The rainbow crosswalk at South Orange Avenue and West Esther Street was installed by the state of Florida in 2017 as part of a $9 million Florida Department of Transportation-funded improvement project.

Worrell said FDOT’s own documents described the project as built in conjunction with the Pulse Memorial, and that city officials confirmed the crosswalk met national safety standards.

On Aug. 21, FDOT painted over the crosswalk overnight without advance notice, a public process, or safety data to justify its removal. Worrell said the timing was notable.

On June 30 — weeks before the removal — FDOT issued an internal memo banning pavement markings associated with social, political or ideological messages. That same day, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a parallel federal directive.

“This office will not use the power of prosecution as an instrument of political enforcement,” Worrell said.

Standing by the crosswalk Friday, James Houchins said he was feeling good.

“I think this is a win for the whole community to show, ‘You know, come back out, chalk, stand up,’” Houchins said.

Houchins is one of the six defendants who was arrested last year for using chalk on the crosswalk.

“If they’re claiming that chalk causes permanent damage, then what about all the children who chalk?” Houchins said, posing a rhetorical question for Florida Highway Patrol.

FHP troopers were responsible for making all six arrests.

While Worrell said there was not sufficient evidence to bring forth a criminal prosecution, she stopped short of questioning FHP’s actions.

“That’s not my call to make,” Worrell said, when News 6’s Mike Valente asked if she believes FHP erred in judgment when making the arrests.

News 6 reached out to both FHP and FDOT but a response was not returned as of this story’s publication.

Houchins, meanwhile, said he will continue to chalk the crosswalk -- as he has done since his arrest in November.

“We’re not going to stop,” Houchins said. “We’ve been at it for 246 days and until they come back and paint it, we’re not going to stop chalking.”

Bruce Burtoff, 77, was jailed for contempt of court March 4 because he refused to identify two of his clients who anonymously sued their HOA using the pseudonyms Jane Doe and Joe Doe, court records show.

Burtoff, who is asking an appeals court to overturn the civil contempt order, argues that disclosing the plaintiffs’ identities would violate a Florida Bar rule related to the protection of confidential attorney-client information.

The HOA disputes that attorney-client privilege prevents Burtoff from revealing identifying information about Jane Doe and Joe Doe.

[WATCH: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis talks tax cuts for gas and homeowners]

Burtoff remains incarcerated at the Orange County jail as the appellate process is underway. The contempt order states he can be released at any time if he discloses the names, addresses and telephone numbers of the anonymous plaintiffs.

“I’m very disappointed and near tears,” said Lynn Sandford, the only plaintiff to identify herself in the lawsuit. “His incarceration is one of the most unfair, no justice situations I’ve ever witnessed.”

Sandford and the two anonymous plaintiffs sued the North Shore at Lake Hart Homeowner’s Association in 2020, alleging mismanagement of the 1,049-home community in southeast Orange County.

Eight current and former HOA board members and officers were also named as defendants.

“Plaintiffs Jane Doe and Joe Doe request anonymity for fear of reprisal, retribution and retaliation against them by the Defendants,” the complaint stated.

Sandford, who is currently being sued for slander by the HOA’s president and previously reached a confidential settlement in a separate slander lawsuit filed by the HOA, believes her neighbors are afraid of publicly criticizing the association.

“Folks don’t want to speak out with their name on it,” said Sandford, who claims she does not know the identities of her fellow plaintiffs.

Sandford and the Does were originally represented in their lawsuit by Burtoff, who also lives in the North Shore at Lake Hart community.

But in early 2023, Burtoff filed notices in court indicating he was withdrawing as the attorney for Jane Doe and Joe Doe due to “irreconcilable differences.”

[WATCH: American flag sparks lawsuit between HOA and Volusia County homeowner]

Although Burtoff no longer intended to represent the Does, the attorney told a judge he would continue to accept legal correspondence on their behalf and forward it to them to preserve their “confidences.”

The HOA immediately filed a motion demanding Burtoff disclose the anonymous plaintiffs’ identities.

“Defendants have a right to, and must obtain, the identities and contact information for Jane and Joe Doe, especially if their counsel withdraws and they are proceeding in this matter pro se [on their own behalf],” the HOA’s attorney wrote.

Before a judge ruled on the parties’ requests, the lawsuit filed by Sandford and the Does was dismissed with prejudice, so it cannot be re-filed.

Five previous versions of the lawsuit had also been thrown out, court records show.

In his dismissal order, Circuit Court Judge Emerson Thompson described the residents’ complaint as “incoherent.”

“(The complaint) does not clearly allege which board members acted improperly during a particular period of time,” Thompson wrote. “Nor does the complaint specify who the board members were when an alleged unauthorized act occurred or what the act was as it relates to specific board members.”

The very next day, the HOA’s lawyer filed an affidavit seeking attorney’s fees and costs from the three plaintiffs.

At the time of the October 2023 filing, the HOA claimed it had incurred more than $116,200 in legal expenses defending the lawsuit.

Those legal costs had grown to more than $300,000 by the following year, according to a newsletter on the HOA’s website. The final amount will be determined at a future court hearing, records show.

“Defendants will be severely prejudiced without the identities and contact information for Jane Doe and Joe Doe, particularly as to their respective liability for attorneys’ fees and costs arising out of this matter,” the HOA’s lawyer wrote in a subsequent motion seeking to compel disclosure of the plaintiffs’ names.

Burtoff initially argued in court papers that he was not obligated to identify the Does since they had been quietly dropped as plaintiffs more than a year earlier, when an amended complaint was filed under only Sandford’s name.

The attorney also said he could not disclose the names due to “attorney-client privilege,” court records show.

“Neither (the HOA nor its attorney) can articulate a single reason why they need this information now,” Burtoff wrote in response to the HOA’s request for the identity of the Does. “There is no imminent danger of death or bodily harm nor an endangered child, simply nothing except (the HOA and its attorney’s) efforts to harass and intimidate Plaintiff Sandford (and) harass this attorney.”

In early 2024, a judge temporarily denied the HOA’s request to compel Burtoff to identify the anonymous plaintiffs because Sanford had appealed the dismissal of her lawsuit.

Nearly two years later, after an appeals court affirmed the trial court’s dismissal order, the HOA resumed its quest to collect attorney’s fees from Sandford and the Does.

Circuit Court Judge John Jordan instructed Jane Doe and Joe Doe to personally appear in court with valid personal identification on January 27, 2026.

After the Does failed to show up, Jordan ordered Burtoff to disclose the names, addresses and phone numbers of his anonymous clients by February 3.

Burtoff did not comply, records indicate, prompting the HOA to ask the judge to find the attorney and his three clients in contempt.

“Burtoff’s complete and utter disregard of this Court’s directives and orders and his obligations have wasted this Court’s precious time and resources, have caused the Association to incur unnecessary attorneys’ fees and expenses, and have prejudiced the Association’s ability to obtain and collect an award of attorney’s fees and costs,” HOA attorney Todd M. Hoepker wrote in a motion for contempt.

The HOA requested a Feb. 11 court hearing to address its contempt request.

Burtoff immediately filed an objection, claiming he was “out of the country” and would “not be able to attend” the hearing.

Court records show Burtoff had notified the judge one month earlier, on January 6, that he would be “out of the jurisdiction” that week with “limited access to email or phone.”

Burtoff later explained that he was on a cruise with his wife in the U.S. Virgin Islands, records indicate.

The HOA, which has accused Burtoff of “abusing” his court availability schedule, noted that Burtoff filed legal papers during the same period he claimed to be out of the country.

Jordan held a contempt hearing Feb. 11, despite Burtoff’s pre-announced absence.

Burtoff, Sandford and the Does did not appear, records show.

During the hearing, which lasted less than 10 minutes, Jordan granted the HOA’s motion for civil contempt against the attorney and his three clients.

“Burtoff has shown a willful and contumacious disregard of the (orders) and directives of the Court and therefore the imposition of civil coercive sanctions is necessary and appropriate to ensure compliance with the Court’s orders and directives,” Jordan wrote in an order commanding law enforcement to take the attorney into custody.

The order noted that Burtoff could be released from jail “at any time” if he disclosed the names, addresses and telephone numbers of Jane and Joe Doe.

Jordan also ordered Burtoff to pay a $500 daily fine to the HOA until he complied with the conditions.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office has been unable to take Joe Doe and Jane Doe into custody since the agency requires names to be listed on court papers, records show.

Although the judge found Sandford in civil contempt, records show Jordan later vacated the order after Sandford testified under oath that she did not know the identities of the Does.

Deputies took Burtoff into custody on March 4 when the attorney appeared in Jordan’s courtroom for a hearing in the case, records show. Burtoff was booked into the Orange County jail later that afternoon.

Two weeks later, while Burtoff remained incarcerated, Sanford filed a motion on her own behalf seeking to disqualify Jordan from the case.

Sandford’s motion noted the judge’s decision to hold the contempt hearing despite Burtoff’s documented unavailability that day.

Jordan granted the motion to disqualify himself and the case was re-assigned to another circuit court judge, records show.

“Even when the allegations may be misstated, judges should not try to defend the honor or reputation of the Court when reviewing and ruling upon motions for disqualification,” Jordan wrote.

Later that week, a state commission announced that Jordan admitted to violating Florida’s Code of Judicial Conduct in two unrelated cases and had agreed to a public reprimand.

Burtoff is now asking the Sixth District Court of Appeal to quash Jordan’s contempt order and release him from jail.

“Immediate intervention is required to restore his liberty,” Burtoff’s attorney Richard Parker wrote in an emergency petition for a writ of habeas corpus. “Petitioner’s only recourse is to request relief from this Court.”

Burtoff’s petition cites a Florida Bar rule that allows attorneys to exhaust all appeals before being forced to reveal confidential client information.

The HOA called Burtoff’s narrative “false and misleading.”

“The petition attempts to portray Burtoff as an innocent lawyer,” the HOA wrote in response. “Nothing could be further from the truth. Burtoff blatantly disobeyed every warning, directive and order requiring disclosure of the true identities of Jane Doe and Joe Doe.”

At the time of this publication, the appeals court had not yet indicated when it might rule on Burtoff’s petition.

“The priority is to get Mr. Burtoff out of jail,” Sandford told News 6. “There’s no justice here.”

During a news conference Friday, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry vowed to crack down on gang violence that has plagued the capital city. The tough-on-crime governor, who said he spoke with FBI Director Kash Patel, promised to utilize state, local and federal resources to address the issue and that consequences "are going to start being felt immediately.”

Landry said he is asking all levels and sectors of law enforcement — including the National Guard, FBI, U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — to “prepare for a targeted warrant sweep” for anyone connected to the mall shooting and focus on the “neighborhoods that these individuals came out of.” Landry said the sweep also includes adults who “enable juvenile offenders" and “need to face consequences as well.”

“We are not going to allow our streets, our schools and our public spaces to become your battleground,” Landry said. “Those who brought this violence into our public spaces and into the lives of our ordinary citizens, I want you to know you are now the criminal problem and we are focused on you.”

Baton Rouge Police Chief TJ Morse said the shooting seemed to be driven by “social media beefs and maybe gang-related stuff,” but the investigation is ongoing. One thing Morse said he was sure of was that the shooting was not a random act.

“We know that this was two groups of people that met up at the mall, exchanged words and then pulled guns and innocent people were hit," Morse said.

Shoppers and workers inside the Mall of Louisiana on Thursday afternoon fled or hid, as shots rang out at in the food court. Morse said that two officers on duty at the mall ran toward the gunfire without hesitation and rendered aid. Their quick action helped save lives, he said.

Hundreds of police officers — some wearing tactical gear and carrying long riffles — descended on the mall, as helicopters circled above.

Five people were injured in the shooting, including a 43-year-old man who is still in critical condition. Martha Odom, 17 year old high school student from Lafayette, died. Odom was visiting the mall with friends for her “senior skip day,” The Advocate reported. Two other high school students from Odom's school, Ascension Episcopal School, were among the injured.

In a social media post by the school, Odom was described as “a joyful presence whose kindness and infectious enthusiasm brought light to all who knew her.”

Following the shooting, five people were taken into custody, but later released. A 17-year-old was arrested Friday after turning himself in, Morse said. The teen has been charged with first-degree murder, five counts of attempted first-degree murder and a count of illegal use of a weapon. Morse said the juvenile has an extensive criminal history within the juvenile court system.

Authorities are still searching for another suspect and asking the public for any information.

During Friday's news conference, Landry vehemently told reporters that if it was up to him the suspects would “spend the rest of their lives” at Louisiana's notorious state penitentiary — better known as Angola.

Under recently enacted Louisiana law, 17-year-olds are treated as adults in the criminal justice system.

The deadly shooting, is the second high-profile case of gun violence in Louisiana this week. A father fatally shot eight children, including seven of his own, in an attack on his family Sunday morning that stretched across two houses in a Shreveport neighborhood, police said. Two women, including the gunman’s wife who was the mother of their children, were critically wounded.

Additionally this week, a mass shooting plot at a festival in Louisiana was thwarted. A former North Carolina law enforcement officer who authorities say planned to kill Black people in a mass shooting at a major New Orleans festival was arrested at a Florida hotel with a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Zamil Limon’s remains were found on the Howard Frankland bridge Friday morning, but Nahida Bristy is still missing, Hillsborough County Chief Deputy Joseph Maurer said.

Limon’s roommate Hisham Saleh Abugharbeih, 26, was taken into custody at his family's home nearby on preliminary charges that include unlawfully moving a dead body, failure to report a death, tampering with evidence, false imprisonment and battery. He was expected to make a first appearance in court Saturday morning.

“We are still actively searching for Nahida,” Maurer said, appealing to the public to share any useful information. Law enforcement dive teams were searching the bay near the bridge as part of those efforts, the sheriff's office said.

Officers encountered Abugharbeih as they responded to a report of domestic violence at his family's home, just north of the campus, and were able to move his relatives to safety. But then he barricaded himself inside and refused to come out. A SWAT team responded — along with a drone, a robot and crisis negotiators — before Abugarbeih came out with his hands up, apparently wearing nothing but a blue towel.

“This is a deeply disturbing case that has shaken our community and impacted many who were hoping for a safe resolution,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said. “While the discovery of Zamil Limon’s remains is heartbreaking, I want the public to know that our detectives worked and are working tirelessly and relentlessly to uncover the truth.”

Limon and Bristy, both 27, were considering getting married, a relative said. They disappeared from campus on April 16. Limon was last seen at his home in an off-campus apartment complex where he lived with Abugharbeih. Bristy, who lived on campus, was last seen an hour later at a campus science building.

A family friend contacted authorities last Friday after being unable to contact either one, USF police said.

Investigators spoke with Abugharbeih, who is a native-born U.S. citizen, on Thursday, Maurer said, but after initially talking, Abugharbeih chose to end the interview. He said Abugharbeih was speaking with detectives again after his arrest Friday morning.

There are no other suspects in the investigation at this time, Maurer said.

An autopsy is being done on the remains to determine the manner and cause of Limon's death, and those results are expected Saturday morning, he said.

Abugharbeih had been a USF student but was not currently enrolled. University records showed he had attended the school from Spring 2021 through Spring 2023, and had pursued a BS in Management, a university spokesperson said.

Limon was studying geography, environmental science and policy, and Bristy is studying chemical engineering.

Abugharbeih had several previous arrests, the sheriff’s office said. He was charged with battery and burglary of an unoccupied dwelling in September 2023, and with battery that May — both classified in court records as misdemeanors. Court records show Abugharbeih entered into a diversion program for first-time offenders charged with misdemeanors. He completed the program in 2024 and the charges were discontinued. A phone call to his lawyer in that case was not immediately returned.

Hillsborough County Court records also showed two domestic violence petitions filed by a family member in 2023. A judge granted an injunction in one case and denied the other petition. He also was accused of traffic violations.

____ This story has been updated to correct that it was Hillsborough County Chief Deputy Joseph Maurer who spoke Friday morning, not the sheriff.

___ Lauer reported from Philadelphia and Boone reported from Boise, Idaho. Associated Press reporter Michael Schneider in Orlando, Florida, contributed.

Millwall was blindsided by the educational pamphlet that featured the southeast London club’s badge edited onto an illustration of a Ku Klux Klan robe. The Westminster City Council has since apologized.

A British lawmaker told The Associated Press that the misuse of Millwall branding is an “insult,” and the team’s leading fan group said it was “outraged” at the portrayal.

The second-division club said it is considering legal action because the imagery creates “a false and damaging image of the club.”

The incident comes at a time when Millwall has a strong chance to secure a first ever promotion to the Premier League. The team was last in the top flight in the 1989-90 season.

Millwall’s image

The checkered reputation of fan behavior dates to the days of England’s worst episodes of hooliganism in the 1970s and 80s. Hardcore Millwall fans proudly chanted, “No one likes us, we don’t care.”

But the club has worked to change its perception. The anti-discrimination body it created in 1994 was “the first organization of its kind at an English football club.” Millwall also boasts of its working relationship with anti-discrimination organizations Kick it Out and Show Racism the Red Card.

Despite the initiatives, Millwall has suffered dings to its image.

Millwall fans turned on each other — and police — during the 2013 FA Cup semifinal against Wigan at Wembley Stadium.

A few days after players were booed for taking a knee before kickoff at a December 2020 game, fans entering The Den received a printed statement that read: “The eyes of the world are on this football club tonight — your club — and they want us to fail.” That night, fans respected anti-racism gestures by both teams.

The English Football Association suggested its disciplinary commission consider a partial stadium closure because of offensive chanting by Millwall supporters about disabilities during a September 2025 game at Crystal Palace in the League Cup. The commission called the chants “abhorrent” and opted to fine Millwall 45,000 pounds ($60,000) in its recent ruling.

It was the third breach in the past three years — the previous chanting focused on religion and sexual orientation.

What was in the pamphlet?

The educational booklet distributed to London primary schools tells the story of Paul Canoville, a Black player who was subjected to racial abuse while playing for Chelsea in the early and mid-1980s.

One page depicts a Ku Klux Klan member in a white robe that has Millwall's logo on the chest. It's next to a Canoville quote about being racially abused at Millwall.

The Paul Canoville Foundation said it wasn't consulted on any of the contents. It said the illustration “is a depiction of a real incident Paul experienced whilst playing for Chelsea Reserves against Millwall Reserves in the 1980s, in which he was subjected to serious racial abuse by a number of individuals wearing Ku Klux Klan-style white hoods.”

The Westminster City Council said the booklet has been removed from circulation.

“We accept the use of this image was an insensitive way to illustrate the historic problem of racism within football. We have apologized to Millwall Football Club for the improper use of their logo and for any offense caused,” it said in a statement.

Neil Coyle, Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, told AP on Friday that the decision to use the Millwall branding “is an insult to southeast London frankly,” because of the club's work in the community.

The Millwall Supporters’ Club also weighed in Friday, saying it was “outraged" and “this deeply damaging misrepresentation does not reflect our club or a fanbase that works tireless to eradicate discrimination of any kind from the game.”

The Kensington and Chelsea Council's logo also features on the front of the pamphlet. A council spokesperson told the AP: “We understand the booklet is being withdrawn, and support that decision.”

Premier League promotion in sight

American-owned Millwall is battling Ipswich to earn the second outright promotion spot. Coventry has clinched the title. The top two finishers in the Championship get promoted automatically. The next four enter a playoff for the final promotion spot.

Millwall moved into second place Friday night — but only by one point over Ipswich — after a 1-1 draw at already relegated Leicester. Millwall has just one game left in the season.

Ipswich has three games remaining and plays at West Brom on Saturday.

___

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

Carie Hallford faced between 25 to 35 years in prison under a plea agreement. Some family members of those whose bodies were left to rot had urged Judge Eric Bentley to impose the maximum sentence. But the judge said Carie Hallford made credible claims of being a victim of domestic violence, and he said her ex-husband, Jon Hallford, was the driving force in their relationship.

Bentley added that 30 years was a “staggeringly huge sentence” and appropriate for her crimes.

Jon Hallford was sentenced to 40 years on corpse abuse charges at a February hearing in which he was called a “monster” by relatives of those whose bodies were left to rot.

Carie Hallford was the public face of Return to Nature, dealing with bereaved customers at the couple’s funeral home in Colorado Springs. Jon Hallford performed much of the physical work, including at a second location south of Colorado Springs in Penrose.

That's where authorities found bodies piled throughout a bug-infested building after neighbors in 2023 complained about a foul odor.

Among the remains was the mother of Tanya Wilson, who told Bentley on Friday that the family released what they thought were her ashes from a boat in Hawaii. It turned out her body was lying in toxic fluids on the floor of the Hallfords’ makeshift mortuary. Like other Return to Nature customers, the family received fake ashes instead of the cremated remains they were promised.

They had prepared her mother's body for meeting her Korean ancestors in the afterlife, Wilson said. To preserve her dignity, they brushed her hair, applied her favorite moisturizer and dressed her in special clothes to preserve the dignity she had in life.

“Carie Hallford annihilated that dignity,” said Wilson.

Carie Hallford apologized prior to being sentenced Friday, saying she was raised to know right from wrong but had lost who she once was.

She fought back tears as she said her marriage had been “a convoluted web of lies, deceit and abuse.” She said “he was not a monster but deserved punishment.

Discovery of corpses spurred first routine inspections

Prosecutors have alleged the Hallfords were motivated by greed. They charged more than $1,200 per customer, and authorities said the amount they spent on luxury items would have covered the cremation costs many times over.

The case became the most egregious in a string of allegations involving Colorado funeral homes as details emerged about the their lavish spending and their pattern of defrauding customers.

Colorado had been the only state that did not regulate funeral homes before lawmakers adopted recent changes. The Hallfords' case prompted laws mandating routine inspections and adopting a funeral director licensing system.

Last year, state inspectors found 24 decomposing bodies and multiple containers of bones behind a hidden door of a funeral home owned by the Pueblo County coroner and his brother. It was the first ever inspection of that Pueblo mortuary.

Before the bodies were found in Penrose, a mother and daughter who operated a funeral home in the western Colorado city of Montrose were sentenced to federal prison after being accused of selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes. In 2024, authorities in Denver arrested a financially troubled former funeral home owner who kept a body in a hearse for two years at a house where police also found the cremated remains of at least 30 people.

Carie Hallford was ‘the one who fed the monster’

Carie Hallford asked for leniency in March when she was sentenced in the federal fraud case, saying she was a victim of abuse and manipulation in her marriage.

Her attorney, Michael Stuzynski, said Friday said Carie Hallford initially believed what happened at Return to Nature was entirely her fault. He said she had a “lonely, gray and terrifying existence” and found solace in the interactions she had with the funeral home’s customers.

But Chief Deputy District Attorney Rachael Powell said Jon Hallford couldn’t have carried out the crimes alone. While his actions were gruesome, Powell said, Carie Hallford was the one manipulating clients as she smiled and took their money, knowing she was lying to them.

“She solicited bodies and took the checks. She fed Jon the bodies,” Powell said.

The Hallfords, who divorced following their arrest, received prison sentences in the related federal fraud case — 18 years for Carie and 20 years for Jon. They have each appealed.

Plea agreements call for the Hallfords' state prison sentences to be served concurrently with the federal sentences. Family members of some victims objected to the plea agreements as too lenient.

___

Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Associated Press journalist Thomas Peipert contributed to this story.

The talks planned for Saturday come as much of the world is on edge over a war that has snarled crucial energy exports through the Strait of Hormuz, clouded the global economic picture and left thousands dead across the Middle East.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad late Friday. Earlier on social media, he wrote that he was traveling to Pakistan on a trip focused on “bilateral matters and regional developments.” He didn’t specify who he would meet.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an interview on Fox News Channel that Witkoff and Kushner would meet with Araghchi.

“We’re hopeful that it will be a productive conversation and hopefully move the ball forward to a deal,” Leavitt said.

She said Vice President JD Vance would not travel but that he remains “deeply involved,” and would be willing to go to Pakistan “if we feel it's a necessary use of his time.”

Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the president’s national security team are on “standby” to fly to Pakistan if needed, Leavitt said.

Araghchi and the two Trump envoys held hours of indirect talks in Geneva on Feb. 27 over Tehran’s nuclear program, but walked away without a deal. The next day, Israel and the United States started the war against Iran.

Leavitt said the president decided to send Witkoff and Kushner to Pakistan “to hear the Iranians out.”

“We’ve certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days,” Leavitt said. She did not offer any details about what U.S. officials were hearing.

Islamabad has sought to reinject momentum into the negotiations between Iran and the United States, which did not resume this week as had been expected.

Trump extends the Jones Act waiver for 90 days

Separately Friday, the White House said Trump issued a 90-day extension to the Jones Act waiver, making it easier for non-American vessels to transport oil and natural gas.

He first announced a 60-day waiver in March in a move intended to stabilize energy prices and ease oil and gas shipments to the U.S. following the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

“New data compiled since the initial waiver was issued revealed that significantly more supply was able to reach U.S. ports faster,” the White House post on social media said.

The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, retreated on the news, vacillating between $103 a barrel and more than $107 — still early 50% higher than where it was on Feb. 28, when the war began.

The squeeze on shipments through the strait has rippled through global maritime trade flows, including through the Panama Canal nearly halfway around the world.

Pakistan forges ahead with diplomatic efforts

Pakistan has been trying to get U.S. and Iranian officials back to the table after Trump this week announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire with Iran, honoring Islamabad's request for more time for diplomatic outreach.

That hasn’t lowered tensions in the strait, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas is shipped during peacetime.

Iran has kept its stranglehold on traffic through the strait, attacking three ships earlier this week, while the U.S. is maintaining a blockade on Iranian ports and Trump has ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines.

“Iran has an important choice, a chance to make a deal, a good deal, a wise deal,” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on Friday. He said a second U.S. aircraft carrier will join the blockade in a few days.

Washington already has three aircraft carriers in the region; the USS George H.W. Bush in the Indian Ocean; the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea; and the USS Gerald R. Ford in the Red Sea.

It is the first time since 2003 that three American carriers have been operating in the region simultaneously. The force includes 200 aircraft and 15,000 sailors and Marines, U.S. Central Command said.

A growing toll even as ceasefires hold

Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, and more than 2,490 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the war started, according to authorities.

Additionally, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has also sustained casualties. UNIFIL said Friday that an Indonesian peacekeeper died of wounds sustained in an attack on his base on March 29, raising to six — four Indonesians and two French — the number of force members killed since the war erupted.

Tensions linger in Lebanon despite extended truce

The situation in Lebanon remained tense a day after Trump announced Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks. Hezbollah has not participated in the diplomacy brokered by Washington.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video statement released by his office on Friday, hailed “a process to achieve a historic peace between Israel and Lebanon.”

Earlier, the Israeli army asked residents of the southern Lebanese village of Deir Aames to evacuate, saying Hezbollah was using the village to launch attacks against Israel.

Israel's military said it downed a drone over Lebanon following the launch of a small surface-to-air missile by Hezbollah. The militant group, meanwhile, said it shot down an Israeli drone with a surface-to-air missile over the outskirts of the southern port city of Tyre.

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Keaten from Geneva. Associated Press writers David Rising in Bangkok; Koral Saeed in Abu Snan, Israel; Bassem Mroue in Beirut; and Aamer Madhani and Josh Boak in Washington contributed.

A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that immigration laws give people the right to apply for asylum at the border, and the president can’t circumvent that.

The court opinion stems from action taken by Trump on Inauguration Day 2025, when he declared that the situation at the southern border constituted an invasion of America and that he was “suspending the physical entry” of migrants and their ability to seek asylum until he decides it is over.

The panel concluded that the Immigration and Nationality Act doesn’t authorize the president to remove the plaintiffs under “procedures of his own making,” allow him to suspend plaintiffs’ right to apply for asylum or curtail procedures for adjudicating their anti-torture claims.

“The power by proclamation to temporarily suspend the entry of specified foreign individuals into the United States does not contain implicit authority to override the INA’s mandatory process to summarily remove foreign individuals,” wrote Judge J. Michelle Childs, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden.

“We conclude that the INA’s text, structure, and history make clear that in supplying power to suspend entry by Presidential proclamation, Congress did not intend to grant the Executive the expansive removal authority it asserts,” the opinion said.

White House says asylum ban was within Trump's powers

The administration can ask the full appeals court to reconsider the ruling or go to the Supreme Court.

The order doesn’t formally take effect until after the court considers any request to reconsider.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaking on Fox News, said she had not seen the ruling but called it “unsurprising,” blaming politically-motivated judges.

“They are not acting as true litigators of the law. They are looking at these cases from a political lens,” she said.

Leavitt said Trump was taking actions that are “completely within his powers as commander in chief.”

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the Department of Justice would seek further review of the decision. “We are sure we will be vindicated,” she wrote in an emailed statement.

The Department of Homeland Security said it strongly disagreed with the ruling.

“President Trump’s top priority remains the screening and vetting of all aliens seeking to come, live, or work in the United States,” DHS said in a statement.

Advocates welcome the ruling

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said that previous legal action had already paused the asylum ban, and the ruling won’t change much on the ground.

The ruling, however, represents another legal defeat for a centerpiece policy of the president.

“This confirms that President Trump cannot on his own bar people from seeking asylum, that it is Congress that has mandated that asylum seekers have a right to apply for asylum and the President cannot simply invoke his authority to sustain,” said Reichlin-Melnick.

Advocates say the right to request asylum is enshrined in the country’s immigration law and say denying migrants that right puts people fleeing war or persecution in grave danger.

Lee Gelernt, attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, who argued the case, said in a statement that the appellate ruling is “essential for those fleeing danger who have been denied even a hearing to present asylum claims under the Trump administration’s unlawful and inhumane executive order.”

Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, welcomed the court decision as a victory for their clients.

“Today’s DC Circuit ruling affirms that capricious actions by the President cannot supplant the rule of law in the United States,” said Nicolas Palazzo, director of advocacy and legal Services at Las Americas.

Judge Justin Walker, a Trump nominee, wrote a partial dissent. He said the law gives immigrants protections against removal to countries where they would be persecuted, but the administration can issue broad denials of asylum applications.

Walker, however, agreed with the majority that the president cannot deport migrants to countries where they will be persecuted or strip them of mandatory procedures that protect against their removal.

Judge Cornelia Pillard, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, also heard the case.

In the executive order, Trump argued that the Immigration and Nationality Act gives presidents the authority to suspend entry of any group that they find “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”

The executive order also suspended the ability of migrants to ask for asylum.

Trump’s order was another blow to asylum access in the U.S., which was severely curtailed under the Biden administration, although under Biden some pathways for protections for a limited number of asylum seekers at the southern border continued.

Migrant advocate in Mexico expresses cautious hope

For Josue Martinez, a psychologist who works at a small migrant shelter in southern Mexico, the ruling marked a potential “light at the end of the tunnel” for many migrants who once hoped to seek asylum in the U.S. but ended up stuck in vulnerable conditions in Mexico.

“I hope there’s something more concrete, because we’ve heard this kind of news before: A district judge files an appeal, there’s a temporary hold, but it’s only temporary and then it’s over,” he said.

Meanwhile, migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and other countries have struggled to make ends meet as they try to seek refuge in Mexico’s asylum system that’s all but collapsed under the weight of new strains and slashed international funds.

This week hundreds of migrants, mostly stranded migrants from Haiti, left the southern Mexican city of Tapachula on foot to seek better living conditions elsewhere in Mexico.

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AP reporters Gary Fields in Washington, Gisela Salomon in Miami and Megan Janetsky in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to show that Leavitt was speaking to Fox News, not to a press gaggle.

Alcaraz posted on X on Friday that neither would he appear in the preceding Italian Open in Rome, where he also won last year.

No. 2-ranked Alcaraz was injured at the Barcelona Open this month during his first-round win and withdrew the day after.

He pulled out of this week's Madrid Open and attended the Laureus World Sports Awards in the Spanish capital on Monday with his wrist immobilized. Alcaraz was named world sportsman of the year at the gala.

Alcaraz confirmed he was a no-go for Paris after undergoing more medical tests on Friday.

"After the results of the tests carried out today, we have decided that the most prudent thing is to be cautious and not participate in Rome and Roland Garros," he wrote on X. “It's a complicated moment for me, but I'm sure we'll come out stronger from here.”

Alcaraz started the year in sensational form, beating Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final. That made him the youngest man ever to win all four major titles in tennis.

He has won only one title since — at Doha in February — and will be without a title in the major clay-court events. He lost the Monte Carlo final to Jannik Sinner at the start of this month and surrendered the No. 1 ranking to his Italian rival.

Sinner hoped Alcaraz returns soon.

“Tennis needs Carlos,” Sinner said after his first-round win at the Madrid Open. “Tennis is a much better sport when he’s around.

“I hope he's going to come back and he will not have any further injuries. But I also believe that it's good that he and his team take the time. If you come back too early then maybe you have a bigger problem afterwards.

“We all want that he's competitive when he comes back. The next goal I guess for him, and I hope so, it's Wimbledon (in June). So I hope he's going to be back there. I sent him a wish for a speedy recovery, though it's painful and very sad for all tennis.”

Last year, Alcaraz beat Sinner in the finals of the Italian Open and French Open, where he saved three match points in an epic match. Alcaraz then lost the Wimbledon final to Sinner before beating him again in the U.S. Open final.

The Italian Open starts on May 5. The French Open does so on May 18.

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

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said on X Friday that her office was ending its probe into the Fed’s extensive building renovations because the Fed’s inspector general would scrutinize them instead.

The move could lead to a swift confirmation vote by the Senate for Warsh, a former top Fed official whom President Donald Trump, a Republican, nominated in January to replace Powell. Powell's term as chair ends May 15. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, had said he would oppose Warsh until the investigation was resolved, effectively blocking his confirmation.

Republicans praised Warsh during a Tuesday hearing even as Democrats questioned his independence from Trump, the lack of transparency around some of his financial holdings, and what they said was his flip-flopping on interest rates. Still, Trump's previous appointment to the Fed's board of governors, Stephen Miran, was approved by the full Senate just 13 days after his nomination.

Investigation lacked evidence, a court says

Pirro’s investigation focused on a $2.5 billion building renovation that Trump criticized sharply last year for its cost overruns. Trump visited the building last July and on camera presented to Powell an inflated cost estimate, which Powell corrected as the two stood at the construction site in hard hats.

Earlier estimates for the project had put the cost at $1.9 billion. The investigation also covered Powell’s brief testimony about the renovation before the Senate Banking Committee last June.

Pirro also said on X, “I will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so.” Powell has previously asked the Fed’s independent inspector general to investigate the cost overruns.

The probe was among several undertaken by the Justice Department into Trump’s perceived adversaries. For months it had failed to gain traction as prosecutors struggled to articulate a basis to suspect criminal conduct. Other efforts by the department to prosecute Trump's adversaries, including New York state Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, and former FBI Director James Comey, have also been unsuccessful.

A prosecutor handling the Powell case conceded at a closed-door court hearing in March that the government hadn’t found any evidence of a crime, and a judge subsequently quashed subpoenas issued to the Federal Reserve. The judge, James Boasberg, said prosecutors had produced “essentially zero evidence” to suspect Powell of a crime. Boasberg branded prosecutors’ justification for the subpoenas as “thin and unsubstantiated.”

The investigation was the most brazen attempt yet by the Trump administration to pressure the Fed to cut its short-term interest rate, which indirectly affects other borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans and business loans. Trump has obsessively attacked Powell for not cutting the rate from its current level of about 3.6% to 1%, a level that no Fed official supports.

Probe was intended to intimidate the Fed, Powell says

Instead, Fed policymakers, including Powell, have said they want to keep rates unchanged while they evaluate the impact of the Iran war, which has sent gas prices soaring, pushing up inflation. The increase could be a one-time shift but could also lead to more sustained inflation. The Fed seeks to restrain rising prices by keeping interest rates high, cooling borrowing and spending.

Powell said in January that the investigation was not really about the renovation or his testimony but “is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.”

More recently, prosecutors made an unannounced visit to a construction site at the Fed’s headquarters but were turned away, drawing a rebuke from a defense attorney in the case who called the maneuver “not appropriate.”

Warsh has promised to be independent

Warsh said during a hearing by the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday that he never promised the White House that he would cut interest rates, even as the president renewed his calls for the central bank to do so.

“The president never once asked me to commit to any particular interest rate decision, period,” Warsh said under questioning by the Senate Banking Committee. “Nor would I ever agree to do so if he had."

Warsh’s comments came just hours after Trump, in an interview on CNBC, was asked if he would be disappointed if Warsh didn’t immediately cut rates and responded, “I would.”

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said during the hearing that Warsh would be a “sock puppet” for Trump. When she asked if Trump had won the 2020 presidential election — which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden but incorrectly claims was decided by fraud — Warsh said only that the Senate had certified Biden as the winner. When asked for an example of an economic policy on which he disagreed with Trump, Warsh did not name one.

Robert Hur, an attorney for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, didn’t immediately respond Friday to an email seeking comment.

Trump sought more control over the Fed

Trump has taken other unprecedented steps to try to pressure the Fed, including an attempt last August to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Fed's governing board, who was appointed by Biden. Yet courts have temporarily blocked the firing, and, at an oral argument in January, the Supreme Court appeared sympathetic to the argument that Cook should keep her job.

A key question still to be resolved is whether Powell will remain on the Fed's board even after his term as chair expires next month. Powell, who serves a separate term as a governor that lasts until January 2028, has said he wouldn't leave until the investigation was dropped. Yet he did not promise to do so if it was. By remaining on the board, Powell would deprive Trump of the opportunity to fill another seat among its seven members, three of whom are Trump appointees.

Other presidents have pressured the Fed to keep borrowing costs low, notably Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, though rarely as publicly as Trump. Johnson’s and Nixon’s demands for lower rates, however, are considered key contributors to the 15-year outbreak of high inflation that only ended in the early 1980s after then-chair Paul Volcker ratcheted the Fed's rate to an eye-watering 20%.

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Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman and Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP's coverage of the Federal Reserve System at https://apnews.com/hub/federal-reserve-system.

“Of course, we are hitting what is painful for Russia, and it is very painful,” Zelenskyy said in voice messages to reporters. He said that Russian losses in the strikes have reached tens of billions of dollars.

It wasn't possible to independently verify Zelenskyy’s comments, but Russian officials have reported that attacks have struck infrastructure in regions more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) inside Russia.

While Russia presses its all-out invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022, Ukraine is using its domestically developed drone and missile technology to strike Russian territory. The Ukrainian military also uses American-made Patriot air defense systems to stop Russian missile attacks on Ukraine's territory.

“We see that the Russians do not want to stop — they are hitting our energy sector and our people. We will respond,” Zelenskyy said.

Prince Harry praises Ukraine's resistance

Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s bigger army drew renewed praise from Prince Harry, who arrived in Kyiv on Thursday for his third visit in a year.

Ukrainians have demonstrated “strength not just in bravery and capability, but in unity, in trust,” he said in a speech to a Kyiv security conference

Ukraine “continues to hold together, and hold together you must,” he said.

The Duke of Sussex stepped off a train in Kyiv’s main station after an overnight journey from Poland, which is the only way to travel to the Ukrainian capital.

It wasn’t clear whether Harry would meet with Zelenskyy, who was due to attend a summit of European Union leaders in Cyprus on Thursday evening.

Russian firefighters tackle huge drone strike blaze

Hours before Harry arrived, three people were killed and 10 were wounded in a Russian drone attack on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, according to Oleksandr Hanzha, the head of the regional military administration.

A 13-story building and an administrative building were damaged in the strike, Hanzha said on the Telegram messaging app.

Russian air defenses, meanwhile, intercepted 154 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the annexed Crimea Peninsula, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Authorities in the Krasnodar region on Russia's Black Sea coast said that 276 firefighters at the Black Sea port of Tuapse were fighting for a third straight day a huge blaze caused by a Ukrainian drone attack earlier this week.

Toxic material from the fire fell with rain, covering several districts of Tuapse with a black layer of dirt, the region’s emergency headquarters reported. The concentration in the air of chemicals from the fire surpassed admissible levels, officials said, and authorities advised residents to stay indoors.

Ukraine targets more Russian oil facilities

For the second consecutive night, Russia’s Samara region also was targeted. In the Samara city of Novokuybyshevsk, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, a drone attack on an unspecified industrial facility killed one person, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said.

Drone debris also fell on a roof of a residential building in the city of Samara, wounding a number of people, Fedorishchev said. One person was hospitalized.

Unconfirmed media reports said that a petrochemical plant in Novokuybyshevsk owned by the Rosneft oil and gas company came under attack.

Ukrainian forces also struck Russian oil infrastructure in the Samara region and a pipeline in the Nizhegorodskaya region that transports oil from Western Siberia to Tatarstan, said Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation.

An oil refinery in the Samara region and an oil pipeline in the Nizhegorodskaya region were hit, he said. The pipeline transports oil from Western Siberia to Tatarstan. He didn’t offer more details about the strikes.

Also, units of Ukraine’s Security Service struck the Gorky oil pumping station in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, said a senior official from the agency, which goes by the abbreviation SBU.

The nighttime drone attack damaged three oil tanks and caused a large fire, the official said. The official wasn't authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The operation of main pipelines is disrupted, the efficiency of processing at refineries decreases, and transportation costs increase. As a result, this directly affects the revenues of the Russian budget, which are used to finance the war against Ukraine,” the official said.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

The magistrate in North Carolina who authorized Gannon Ken Van Dyke's release told him to report to a New York federal courthouse by Tuesday to continue his case there.

Bearded with arm tattoos, Van Dyke said little during the nearly hourlong hearing, during which he was appointed a federal public defender who declined to comment afterward. The $250,000 unsecured bond did not require Van Dyke to put up any money.

Federal prosecutors say Van Dyke used his access to classified information about the operation to capture Maduro in January to win money on Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets. The sites allow people to trade on almost anything — from the Super Bowl to U.S. elections and even the winners of the TV reality shows.

Van Dyke, who is stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, was charged Thursday with the unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction.

He could face up to 10 years on four of the criminal counts, and up to 20 years on a fifth, the government said Friday. A publicly listed phone number listed for Van Dyke isn't in service.

Van Dyke, 38, was involved for about a month in the planning and execution of capturing Maduro, according to the New York federal prosecutor’s office. He signed nondisclosure agreements promising to not divulge “any classified or sensitive information” related to the operations, but prosecutors say he used what he knew to make a series of bets related to Maduro being out of power by Jan. 31.

“This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post.

Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan said in a post on X that the company flagged the suspicious activity, turned it over to the government and cooperated with the investigation.

“Every trade is public, permanent, and auditable,” Coplan wrote. “Bad actors leave a trail.”

Massive profits from well-timed bets aroused public attention days after the raid in Venezuela and brought bipartisan calls for stricter regulation of the markets.

The sudden rise of these markets has led to growing scrutiny by Congress and state governments. Some lawmakers alarmed by highly specific, well-timed trades on the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran and wagers on President Donald Trump’s next moves have pushed for guardrails against insider trading.

The Trump administration has been supportive of the industry’s expansion. The president’s eldest son is an adviser for both Polymarket and its main competitor, Kalshi,, and is a Polymarket investor. Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, is launching its own prediction market called Truth Predict.

Van Dyke moved into a home in Fayetteville just weeks ago, said Larry Duncan, one of his new neighbors.

“I introduced myself. I asked if he needed any assistance,” said Duncan, who once served in the Marines. “I said, ‘You look like special forces.’ He just smiled. I worked on a contract at Fort Bragg. I know how those people carry themselves. He was tatted up, quiet, kind of secretive.”

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets, announced Thursday that it had filed a parallel complaint against Van Dyke.

That complaint alleges that Van Dyke moved $35,000 from his personal bank account into a cryptocurrency exchange account on Dec. 26 — a little over a week before U.S. forces flew into Caracas and seized Maduro.

Van Dyke made a series of bets on when Maduro might be removed from power, according to the complaint. He placed those bets between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, with the vast majority occurring the night of Jan. 2 — just hours before the first missiles struck Caracas.

The bets resulted in “more than $404,000 of profits,” the complaint says.

“The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about U.S. operations and yet took action that endangered U.S. national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way,” said Michael Selig, the commission’s chairman.

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Associated Press reporters Allen G. Breed in Raleigh, Ed White in Detroit and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% and topped its prior all-time high, which was set on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 79 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.6% to its own record thanks to the jump for tech.

Intel led the way and roared past its 2000 peak during the dot-com boom to an all-time high. It soared 23.6% for its best day since 1987 after reporting much stronger results for the first three months of the year than analysts expected. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the next wave of artificial-intelligence technology is increasing the need for Intel’s chips and products, and the company’s forecast for profit in the spring topped analysts’ estimates.

Such strong profit reports have helped Wall Street rally to records, and the S&P 500 has leaped nearly 13% in a little under a month. Hopes have also built in financial markets that the United States and Iran can find a way to avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy because of their war.

A ceasefire is tenuously in place between the two, but tensions between them are still keeping oil tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

Oil prices climbed this week on worries about the strait, but an encouraging signal came Friday after Iran’s top diplomat said he was heading to Pakistan. That’s where officials have been trying to get the United States and Iran to convene for a second round of ceasefire negotiations.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later said in an interview on Fox News Channel that President Donald Trump is sending his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan to meet with Iran’s foreign minister.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude to be delivered in June yo-yoed for much of the day before settling at $105.33, up 0.2%. The price for a barrel of Brent oil delivered in July, which is where more of the trading is happening in the market, fell 0.2% to $99.13.

On Wall Street, Procter & Gamble rose 2.5% after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Shailesh Jejurikar said it saw broad-based growth across regions and products, which include Bounty paper towels and Tide detergent.

That helped offset a drop of 25.5% for Charter Communications, whose profit for the latest quarter came in weaker than analysts expected. It lost 120,000 internet customers during the three months, more than some analysts expected.

Hartford Insurance Group fell 3.7% after reporting profit growth for the latest quarter that fell short of analysts’ expectations.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 56.68 points to 7,165.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 79.61 to 49,230.71, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 398.09 to 24,836.60.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased as traders upped their bets on the possibility that the Federal Reserve could resume its cuts to interest rates later this year.

The path appeared to clear Friday for Trump’s nominee to chair the Fed, Kevin Warsh, after the U.S. Justice Department ended its probe into the Fed’s current chair, Jerome Powell.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, has said he would oppose Warsh until the investigation was resolved, effectively blocking his confirmation. Warsh is the choice of Trump, who has been arguing loudly for lower interest rates, which could help mortgages and other kinds of loans become less expensive.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped to 4.30% from 4.34% late Thursday.

A report in the morning also said sentiment among U.S. consumers remains sour. A survey by the University of Michigan found weaker sentiment in April across political party, income, age, and education, though it improved a bit after the ceasefire in the war with Iran was announced earlier in the month.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1%, and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.8% for two of the world’s bigger moves.

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

“It is headed right for us,” she recalled thinking, as she peeked outside, unable to contain her curiosity.

Huddled inside the dark 8-by-8 foot (2.44-by-2.44 meters) concrete shelter with her husband, brother-in-law and a neighbor, she heard roaring, metal slapping on the door and glass breaking.

Afterward, they emerged unscathed, but found the windows smashed out of the one-story brick home in Enid and the roof badly damaged.

The scene was repeated Thursday night across the city of about 50,000 people about 85 miles north of Oklahoma City as the EF-4 tornado hit. It was on the ground for 9 miles (14.48 kilometers), packing winds of 170 to 175 mph and measuring 500 yards across at its widest, said Rick Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

For those 30 to 40 minutes, at least 40 homes were damaged, some blown off their foundations. But no one was killed and only minor injuries were reported.

“People around here have a plan,” Hunt explained, noting that residents of this tornado-alley state are trained to either take shelter in a room near the center of their home or get underground.

Basements aren’t common in Oklahoma because of the red clay soil and elevated water tables that make it difficult and expensive to install them, but many homes — like Hunt's — have storm cellars or safe rooms with reinforced concrete walls where people can take cover.

People here also know to flip on the TV and set up weather alerts on their phones — particularly in the springtime, when the risk of violent twisters is highest.

“Especially in Oklahoma, we have great meteorologists,” said Justin Hunt of Enid, who described the storm's aftermath as a “disaster.”

Storm leaves rubble in its wake

Commercial buildings just south of the city were turned into a pile of twisted metal, splintered wood and insulation by powerful winds that pushed the buildings completely off the concrete foundations.

The tornado knocked down utility poles and left power lines wrapped with huge chunks of debris. A home had part of its metal roof torn off and trees were left stripped of bark and limbs. At another home, a section of one wall had peeled away to reveal the interior of the home with some furniture still in place.

“Usually when we come to a neighborhood that’s been hit this bad, there’s one or two deaths,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said during a news conference Friday. “We’re just so thankful there wasn’t a loss of life.”

People pick through rubble, clear away debris

Police and fire departments and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol conducted multiple home searches, rescuing some trapped residents, Enid Mayor David Mason said Friday.

“Supplies have poured in already,” Mason posted online. “This is who Enid is in challenging moments — we continue to show up for one another.”

Dave Lamerton of Enid spent Friday morning salvaging what was left of his son Joseph’s woodworking shop just south of the city, along with some family members and a group of volunteers who traveled from Kansas to help with cleanup.

“The tornado just swung right through here and just hit us directly,” Lamerton said, pointing to a giant mess of splintered wood beams, furniture, debris and heavy machinery that was pushed into a massive pile at the edge of the building’s foundation. “We’ve got stuff on the property we can’t even find.”

Meteorologists describe powerful storm system

One striking image from Thursday’s storms shows a tornado in the Enid area with a dark clouds of debris extending in V-shape on either side. That is typical of higher-end tornadoes, according to Mark Fox, the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service’s office in Norman.

It has such a violent motion as winds pick up dirt, debris and things like parts of people’s houses.

“If you start seeing things like this, you know it’s a violent tornado,” he said.

Neighboring counties also reported some flooded roads and barn damage. The National Weather Service was sending two crews out Friday to do damage surveys related to six potential tornadoes in the Enid and Braman areas of north-central Oklahoma, meteorologist John Pike said.

Air force base is damaged

Fences and some equipment were knocked down at nearby Vance Air Force Base, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) north of Oklahoma City. The base was closed until further notice “due to ongoing power and water restoration efforts,” it posted online Friday.

Everyone assigned to the base has been accounted for and no injuries were reported, 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs Chief Ashley D. Hendricks said in an email Friday.

More bad weather possible

More storms are possible through Friday night across south-central and southeast Oklahoma, the weather service said. Strong to severe thunderstorms are expected to develop Saturday, including in the Enid area.

It was a stormy night in other states, too. In Kearney, Missouri, north of Kansas City, officials reported downed trees, debris blocking roadways and damage to homes on Thursday night after storms passed through the area. Officials said in a social media post that no injuries had been reported. Crews worked to make roads passable by early Friday and were expected to continue cleanup efforts during the day.

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Associated Press writers Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, and Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, contributed to this report.

France will remain as NASCAR's chairman and his majority ownership stake will not change.

O'Donnell will be the first person outside the France family to hold the CEO title of NASCAR. Bill France Sr. founded the United States' most popular racing series in 1948 and always had a family member in the top role prior to the changes expected to be announced at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama on Saturday.

Ben Kennedy, France's great-nephew, will be promoted to chief operating officer.

Jim France had been chairman and CEO of NASCAR since the 2019 resignation of his nephew, Brian.

France took a hardline stance in negotiations for the 2025 revenue-sharing agreement, triggering an anti-trust lawsuit by Michael Jordan's 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. The sides reached a settlement in December that granted NASCAR teams the permanent charters they had sought.

France was soft spoken, needed several questions repeated and struggled to remember several topics during his first day of testimony in the anti-trust trial before a stronger second day.

NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps resigned earlier this year after inflammatory texts he sent during contentious revenue-sharing negotiations were revealed during the trial.

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

Just 16 of the 32 first-round picks chosen Thursday night were made by the original teams that owned them.

The 49ers and Bills traded out of the first round, joining the Falcons, Bengals, Packers, Broncos, Jaguars and Colts on the sideline. That's the second-most teams sitting out Round 1 since 1970. Ten teams didn't pick in the first round in 2022.

San Francisco was slated to kick off the second round with the first pick after making two deals to move down from 27 to 30 to 33. Buffalo made three trades, going from 26 to 28 to 31 to 35.

Atlanta, Cincinnati, Green Bay, Denver, Jacksonville and Indianapolis previously traded their firsts.

“It was really not a lot different with the exception the phones weren’t ringing, we weren’t having a lot of conversations with other teams,” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said about the slow night. “A lot more discussions about the players. ... I think it was, it went like I thought it would go.”

After Fernando Mendoza went first to the Las Vegas Raiders — a pick that was expected for months — the mystery began to unravel.

The Jets took edge rusher David Bailey after canceling his top 30 visit. The Cardinals made the first surprise move, choosing running back Jeremiyah Love at No. 3.

Quarterback Ty Simpson went to the Rams at No. 13 in the most unexpected pick of Day 1. He could be the eventual successor to 2025 AP NFL MVP Matthew Stafford.

The hometown Steelers fans booed NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell when he first walked on a stage in what’s become an annual tradition. But many of them were left shaking their heads and wringing their Terrible Towels in disappointment because the Eagles swooped in and picked wide receiver Makai Lemon.

Philadelphia made one of the eight draft-night deals, swapping picks with Dallas to move up from No. 23 to No. 20 to select Lemon while he was on the phone with Pittsburgh’s front office.

“I guess it was meant to be. I’m super excited to be in Philly,” Lemon said.

After missing out on Lemon, the Steelers took an offensive tackle in the first round for the third time in four years, selecting Max Iheanachor.

Defensive tackle Kayden McDonald and cornerback Colton Hood were the only two players among the 17 players who came to the draft that are still on the board entering Friday night.

Several players who had first-round grades weren't picked, including safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, edge rusher Cashius Howell, cornerback Avieon Terrell and wide receiver Denzel Boston.

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

The Richmond school’s board of visitors voted Friday to fund what VCU calls the East Marshall Street Well Project, an effort to right wrongs committed more than a century ago. Construction of the memorial and burial site are expected to start in summer of 2027.

“Years ago, VCU initiated this journey because we recognized a profound obligation to restore the human dignity of the people who were not afforded respect in their physical existence," VCU President Michael Rao said in a story about the effort posted on the school's website. "The East Marshall Street Well Project’s sacred mission is to ensure every life is honored with the permanence and reverence they deserve.”

The circular memorial will feature a “unity chamber” inspired by the Toguna structures of Dogon culture in West Africa. Its design “is intended to encourage humility and thoughtful discussion by purposefully having a low roof to facilitate seated reflection,” said Stephen Davenport, assistant vice president for social and economic development in the VCU Division of Community Engagement and the administrative lead for the project.

Workers in 1994 uncovered a brick-lined well containing human bones during construction of the Kontos Medical Sciences Building on the VCU medical center campus. Sifting through mud, researchers also found hair and skin, as well as remnants of leather shoes and glass bottles.

Based on archival records from the Medical College of Virginia, researchers believe the remains were dumped in the well between the 1840s and 1860s.

“A preliminary anthropological analysis of the recovered human remains showed some postmortem signs of dissection and amputation consistent with anatomical training and surgical procedure practice,” VCU researchers concluded in a paper published this year. “The constant demand for cadavers led to routine grave robbing practices, mainly targeting African American burial grounds, to supply the medical school.”

Archaeologists were given a short time to examine the burial site after the 1994 discovery. Before construction continued, the remains were removed by backhoes and sent to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Initial analysis estimated that a minimum of 44 adults and nine children were recovered from the well.

Interest in the remains was renewed in 2011 after the release of a film by a VCU professor and a separate report by two forensic anthropologists.

DNA study results released in February identified at least 43 distinct adults and three juveniles of “predominantly African heritage,” most likely from Central-West Africa. Several sets of remains bore traces of European ancestry.

Skeletal analysis “provided insight into the heavy labor endured by these individuals during their lives and the disregard for their bodies after death,” the study found.

The use of the bodies of people of African descent for medical research in Europe and the U.S. stretches back centuries. And it was frequently done without the expressed permission or knowledge of descendants.

In 2024, the University of Pennsylvania laid to rest the remains of 19 Black Philadelphians it kept for research, including studies once used to promote white supremacy through racist scientific theories.

The same school also discovered it had the bones of people who died in a 1985 police bombing of the headquarters of a Black liberation group in Philadelphia. City officials had assured the victims' families that they had turned over all of the remains that were collected, according to lawyers who represented the families.

___

Associated Press reporters John Raby and Aaron Morrison contributed to this report.

The Justice Department alleges the civil rights group defrauded donors by using their money to fund the very extremism it claimed to be fighting, with more than $3 million paid to informants through a now-defunct program to infiltrate white supremacist and other extremist groups. Prosecutors allege some of the money was used by extremists to carry out other crimes, but court papers did not include specific examples.

“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred,” Blanche said.

The civil rights group faces charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the case brought in the federal court in Alabama, where the organization is based.

The indictment came shortly after the SPLC revealed the existence of a criminal investigation into its disbanded informant program to gather intelligence on extremist group activities. The group said the program was used to monitor threats of violence and the information was often shared with local and federal law enforcement.

The SPLC said it “will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work" against what it described as false allegations. The group said its informant program saved lives.

“Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do,” interim CEO and president Bryan Fair said in a statement. “The actions by the DOJ will not shake our resolve to fight for justice and ensure the promise of the Civil Rights Movement becomes a reality for all."

A program that dated back to the 1980s

The Justice Department alleges the SPLC made false statements to banks in order to set up accounts used to funnel money to informants. The group created bank accounts for fictitious entities such as “Fox Photography” and “Rare Books Warehouse” that were used to send money from donors to informants, in a scheme to conceal the money’s actual purpose, the indictment alleges.

Prosecutors say the group never disclosed to donors details of the informant program.

“They’re required to under the laws associated with a nonprofit to have certain transparency and honesty in what they’re telling donors they’re going to spend money on and what their mission statement is and what they’re raising money doing,” Blanche said.

The indictment includes details on at least nine unnamed informants were paid by the SPLC through a secret program that prosecutors say began in the 1980s. Within the SPLC, they were known as field sources or “the Fs,” according to the indictment.

One informant was paid more than $1 million between 2014 and 2023 while affiliated with the neo-Nazi National Alliance, the indictment said. Prosecutors say another informant was a member of the “online leadership chat group” that planned the 2017 white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The informant attended the rally at the direction of the SPLC, according to the indictment, and helped coordinate transportation for several others. That person was allegedly paid more than $270,000 between 2015 and 2023.

The SPLC said the program was kept quiet to protect the safety of informants.

“When we began working with informants, we were living in the shadow of the height of the Civil Rights Movement, which had seen bombings at churches, state-sponsored violence against demonstrators, and the murders of activists that went unanswered by the justice system,” Fair said. “There is no question that what we learned from informants saved lives.”

The center has been targeted by Republicans

The SPLC, which is based in Montgomery, Alabama, was founded in 1971 and used civil litigation to fight white supremacist groups. The nonprofit has become a popular target among Republicans who see it as overly leftist and partisan.

The investigation could add to concerns that Trump's Republican administration is using the Justice Department to go after conservative opponents and his critics. It follows a number of other investigations into Trump foes that have raised questions about whether the law enforcement agency has been turned into a political weapon.

The SPLC has faced intense criticism from conservatives, who have accused it of unfairly maligning right-wing organizations as extremist groups because of their viewpoints. The center regularly condemns Trump’s rhetoric and policies around voting rights, immigration and other issues.

The center came under fresh scrutiny after the assassination last year of conservative activist Charlie Kirk brought renewed attention to its characterization of the group that Kirk founded and led. The center included a section on that group, Turning Point USA, in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024” that described the group as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said last year that the agency was severing its relationship with the center, which had long provided law enforcement with research on hate crime and domestic extremism. Patel said the center had been turned into a “partisan smear machine,” and he accused it of defaming “mainstream Americans” with its “hate map” that documents alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the United States.

House Republicans hosted a hearing centered on the SPLC in December, saying it coordinated efforts with President Joe Biden's Democratic administration "to target Christian and conservative Americans and deprive them of their constitutional rights to free speech and free association.” _____

Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.

__

This story was first published April 21, 2026. It was updated April 24, 2026, to correct that an informant was allegedly paid more than $270,000 between 2015 and 2023, not between 2015 and 2013.

“From here on out, if you come here and you promote an unsanctioned, unpermitted event, we’re coming after you civilly,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said at a news conference Friday.

Chitwood is working with local attorney Aaron Delgado to bring the lawsuits against the promoters, including a promoter named Aliyah Brooks and one named Brittany Plummer. There are seven separate lawsuits, with more on the way, Delgado said.

“I’ve lived and worked in Daytona Beach 20+years, and, you know, my office was trashed,” Delgado said. “I got complaints from everybody on Seabreeze (Boulevard). All my friends and neighbors were complaining about the event. And when I talked to the sheriff, I said, you know, we have to find a way to hold these people financially responsible.

Daytona Beach had to impose a youth curfew and a special event zone last month after unpermitted pop-up events drew large crowds, disrupted traffic, and turned violent in some cases.

[WATCH: Daytona Beach cracks down after chaotic Spring Break weekend]

The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office arrested 133 people in the first weekend of events on the beach in Daytona Beach and in New Smyrna Beach. The sheriff’s office said some 9,000 to 10,000 people were involved in that pop-up event.

Daytona Beach police also had to investigate four separate shootings on one Saturday night.

After that first weekend, Chitwood sent a notice to the event promoter, urging them to stop promoting subsequent pop-up events.

“If you promote an unsanctioned event and we incur cost and police, fire, EMS, and trash cleanup, you are responsible for the cost of that event,” said Sheriff Mike Chitwood at a news conference in March.

The sheriff’s office said the costs of grappling with the events over two weeks, for their office alone, were $800,000.

[WATCH: After weekend chaos in Daytona Beach, Volusia County sheriff urges event promoter to stop]

On Friday, Chitwood also said they were talking to the state attorney’s office to see if there was a way to file criminal charges, using the aggravated rioting statute. If not, they would work with state lawmakers to make it a felony to hold events like these.

Chitwood compared promoting an event like this to walking into a crowded theater and yelling “fire.”

"Think of this for a minute. If you stand up on a plane and yell hijack, if you walk into a crowded movie theater and you yell, fire, fire, fire, you’re getting arrested, charged with a felony," Chitwood said. “Why should you be able to sit hundreds of miles away behind your computer and put a community under economic strain and tighten the noose where nobody can make a dollar, and where you’re painting your reputation, where nobody wants to come here and visit.”

Chitwood said they were also going to go after the liquor license for a bar called The Joint on Seabreeze Boulevard. Chitwood says the bar partnered with the promoters.

However, 56 bills have already been approved by the governor as of Thursday, April 23, with many of these new laws set to take effect later this year.

You can find the full list below. Be sure to check back, as News 6 will update this list as more laws are signed.

HB 35 — Traffic Offenders

House Bill 35 revises the term “habitual traffic offender” to add the offense of driving without a valid license.

This crime will be added to the list of offenses for which a certain number of convictions in a five-year period requires the state to designate the person as a habitual traffic offender.

Once a person is designated as a habitual traffic offender, he/she can generally be prosecuted for a third-degree felony for driving a motor vehicle thereafter.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 52 — Security Services

Senate Bill 52 refers to a state statute that regulates private investigative and security services.

More specifically, the law expresses that this statute doesn’t apply to volunteers who provide armed security services at churches, mosques, synagogues or other places of worship.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 91 — Candidate Qualification

House Bill 91 requires that someone who wants to run for office must affirm that he/she hasn’t changed his/her name in the year prior to qualification, with few exceptions.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 1

SB 118 — R.V. Park Assessments

Senate Bill 118 revises how special assessments may be levied against R.V. parks.

The bill does this by prohibiting local governments from levying special assessments against areas over 400 square feet for each R.V. parking space or campsite.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 21

SB 182 — Teacher Mentors

Senate Bill 182 establishes the School Teacher Training and Mentoring Program, aimed at improving teacher effectiveness in public schools.

Under this program, qualified teachers can be placed as mentors in schools that have a “D” or “F” grade, thereby improving the performance of these schools.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 212 — Sex Offenders

Senate Bill 212 amends state statutes regarding sexual offenders and predators in the state.

Under this law, those convicted of certain sex offenses against children 16 years of age or younger may not live within 1,000 feet of a public swimming pool.

[BELOW: Florida attorney general unveils Sanford ‘house of horrors’]

Current law already prohibits these sorts of sex offenders from living near schools, childcare facilities, parks and playgrounds, though this bill cracks down even harder via the following rules:

• Contacting Children: Such offenders may be arrested without a warrant if they knowingly contact a minor at any park, playground or public swimming pool.
• School Grounds: Such offenders may be arrested without a warrant if they’re purposefully present in any pre-K-12 school while the school is still in operation, with few exceptions.
• Prowling Offenders: The bill increases the restricted distance for loitering and prowling by such sex offenders from 300 feet to 500 feet of places where children congregate.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 245 — Child Pornography

House Bill 245 replaces the term “child pornography” with “child sexual abuse material” under state law.

This shift does not change any other elements of the law, including offenses related to child pornography.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 246 — Specialty Plates

Senate Bill 246 grants permission for five new specialty license plates, which are as follows:

• Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
• Miami Northwestern Alumni Association
• Outsider
• St. Petersburg College
• First Responders Resiliency

The bill also revises certain requirements for the existing “Florida Wildflower” and “Fraternal Order of Police” plates.

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

HB 249 — State Flagship

House Bill 249 redesignates the official state flagship.

More specifically, the law replaces the current state flagship (the schooner Western Union) with the S.S. American Victory.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

[BELOW: New Florida bill could change meaning of ‘criminal gang member’]

SB 288 — Electric Cooperatives

Senate Bill 288 revises a state statute that prohibits certain bylaws, tariffs and policies from being used by rural electric cooperatives.

Under this law, the statute is limited to only those cooperatives that sell electricity at retail.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 290 — FDACS

Senate Bill 290 makes a number of changes to state law related to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS).

Some of these changes include a prohibition on local governments from banning gas-powered landscape equipment, and criminal penalties for those receiving unauthorized help on a CDL exam.

You can read a list of more changes here.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 302 — Coastal Resiliency

Senate Bill 302 prohibits any dredging or filling of submerged lands at the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve, with some exceptions provided for public safety and environmental protection.

This law is also expected to streamline the permitting process for nature-based methods aimed at improving coastal resiliency, helping to accelerate restoration timelines.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 386 — Farm Equipment

Senate Bill 386 sets up a process for consumers and manufacturers to remedy defective farm equipment.

If farm equipment is defective, this law lets buyers report the defect to the manufacturer during the warranty period or the one-year period after the original delivery date of the farm equipment.

The law also requires the manufacturer to either replace or refund any defective farm equipment.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 399 — Development Regulations

House Bill 399 requires application fees for development permits to be reasonably related to the costs associated with processing the application and prohibits fees based on a percentage of project costs.

The legislation also mandates that each local government’s land development regulations must include factors for assessing compatibility of residential uses.

DATE OF EFFECT: March 27

SB 422 — Airport Broadcasts

Senate Bill 422 prohibits airports from using information derived from automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) systems emitted from certain aircraft as a means of collecting fees from owners.

This rule is limited to aircraft with a gross weight of 12,499 pounds or less operating under FAA rules and applies under the following two scenarios:

• The operation for which a fee would be assessed is a departure or a landing, including touch-and-go landings
• The fee would be assessed based on an aircraft entering into the airspace of the airport where the fee is assessed

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 428 — Drowning Prevention

Senate Bill 428 amends the Swimming Lesson Voucher Program, raising the age limit to include children between 1 and 7 years of age.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 441 — Conservation Lands

House Bill 441 requires that when a water management district considers selling conservation lands, the governing board publish the following information at least 30 days before meeting:

• The district-owned parcels of land for sale or proposed for exchange
• The privately owned parcels proposed for exchange
• The portions of those parcels that will be preserved in a permanent conservation easement
• A statement from the district explaining why those lands are no longer needed for conservation purposes

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 445 — Dangerous Crimes

House Bill 445 adds certain offenses dealing with child exploitation and certain kinds of computer porn to the list of dangerous crimes under Florida law.

This means that someone arrested for one of these offenses can’t be given nonmonetary pretrial release at a first appearance hearing.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 488 — Transportation

Senate Bill 488 amends various provisions related to topics like motor vehicle registration, licensing and tax-related requirements. These new rules include the following:

• Creates penalties for counterfeiting or illegally altering fuel tax licenses and the related permits
• Revises penalties and interest calculations for delinquent tax payments
• Provides penalties for specific offenses related to the misuse of motor fuel-tax related documents and establishes detailed requirements for recordkeeping by motor carriers
• Increases the amount of estimated damage resulting from a crash that is required to be reported to law enforcement from $500 to $2,000

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

SB 490 — Public Records (FLHSMV)

Senate Bill 490 expands a public records exemption for email addresses collected by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

This expansion includes email addresses that are used to provide customers with general notifications.

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

SB 504 — Body Cameras

Senate Bill 504 requires governmental agencies that allow code inspectors to wear body cameras to set up policies addressing proper use and storage of these cameras, as well as the recorded data.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 506 — Public Records (Body Cameras)

Senate Bill 506 creates a public records exemption for code inspectors’ body camera recordings if the footage is recorded:

• Inside a private residence
• Inside a facility that offers health care, mental health care, or social services
• In a place that a reasonable person would expect to be private

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 569 — Forensic Client Services

House Bill 569 allows the Agency for Persons with Disabilities to house non-forensic clients and forensic clients within the same wards in secure APD facilities.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 572 — Public Ethics

Senate Bill 572 revises the term “relative” in the Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees to include foster parents and foster children.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 1

SB 598 — Funeral Services

Senate Bill 598 makes several revisions to a state statute that regulates funeral and cemetery services.

For example, the law prohibits licensees from contracting to become the sole provider of funeral services for any firm that provides medical or end-of-life care to the public.

Furthermore, SB 598 allows licensees to dispose of human remains that have been in their lawful possession for at least 90 days if the legally authorized person of the decedent fails to direct the disposition.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 628 — Trump Highway

Senate Bill 628 renames over a dozen roadways across the state.

The bill also designates the Tallahassee airport at 3300 Capital Circle SW as the “Bobby Bowden-Tallahassee International Airport.”

Furthermore, SB 628 designates 124 miles of SR-80 stretching from SR-A1A in Palm Beach County to US-41 in Lee County as the “President Donald J. Trump Highway.”

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 679 — Trademark Registration

House Bill 679 mandate that the Florida Department of State use the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s schedule of classes of goods and services as the state’s classification for trademark purposes, rather than the general classes for trademarks for goods and services set in statute.

Furthermore, the bill requires that agency to set up a website where applicants can apply for a trademark or renew a trademark and provides that the website must safeguard the applicant’s information to ensure data integrity.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 686 — Agricultural Enclaves

Senate Bill 686 deals with agricultural enclaves: pockets of agricultural land that are mainly surrounded by development.

Under this bill, enclave owners may submit development plans for single-family housing.

Local governments won’t be allowed to enact regulation for one of these enclaves that is more burdensome than for other types of applications for comparable uses, either.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1 (Provisions expire Jan. 1, 2028)

HB 697 — Drug Prices

House Bill 697 makes it unlawful for a PBM to force a pharmacy to take a loss when dispensing a drug or to reimburse a nonaffiliated pharmacy less than an affiliated pharmacy.

Furthermore, the law requires PBMs to allow in-network pharmacies to submit consolidated appeals comprised of multiple adjudicated claims featuring identical drugs, day supplies, and dates of service.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 844 — Sickle Cell Disease

Senate Bill 844 requires that the standard continuing education course on prescribing controlled substances include information regarding the treatment of pain for patients with sickle cell disease.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 919 — Donald Trump Airport

House Bill 919 preempts to the state the ability to name major commercial service airports.

More specifically, the law renames the Palm Beach International Airport as the “President Donald J. Trump International Airport.”

All other major airports, including the Orlando International Airport, may keep their current names for now.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

[BELOW: New Florida law could let lawmakers rename Orlando airport]

HB 991 — Elections

House Bill 991 makes several revisions to the Florida Election Code, including:

• Driver’s License: Requires the state to include a person’s legal status on any new, replacement or renewal driver’s licenses and ID cards
• Voter Oath: Voter registration applicants must affirm that they are U.S. citizens and may face criminal penalties for perjury if that is not the case
• Forms of ID: Debit/credit cards, student IDs, retirement center IDs, neighborhood association IDs, and public assistance IDs are no longer acceptable forms of identification for voters
• Campaign Contributions: Political parties and candidates may not willfully accept a contribution from a foreign national in connection with any election held in the state.
• Federal Courts: Requires the state to provide voter registration lists to federal courts to aid in their jury selection process, and requires those courts to provide the state with information about voters being ineligible due to convictions, death, or being a non-U.S. citizen
• Statute of Limitations: Creates a five-year statute of limitations for the prosecution of a felony under the Election Code
• New Penalties: Provides new fines and penalties for those who violate the law of involvement of foreign nationals in state elections
• Early Voting: Election supervisors must use local time when uploading the results of all early voting and vote-by-mail ballots by 7 p.m. the day before the election

DATE OF EFFECT: Jan. 1, 2027

HB 1093 — Vertiports

House Bill 1093 includes vertiports and charging systems as qualifying projects for funding under public-private partnerships between state and private entities.

In addition, the law allows the FDOT to fund all of the project costs of a public vertiport if federal funds aren’t available.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1103 — Vessel Restrictions (I)

House Bill 1103 allows local governments to administer provisions of law concerning vessels at risk of becoming derelict and long-term anchoring permits.

Furthermore, the law lets cities and counties regulate vessel speed and operation within 300 feet of a confluence of water bodies presenting a blind corner (up to 1,000 feet) if the extended area is necessary to ensure safe navigation and visibility for approaching vessels.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1113 — Vessel Restrictions (II)

House Bill 1103 allows local governments to authorize a code enforcement officer to administer the provision of law concerning vessels at risk of becoming derelict on state waters.

This can be done by way of local ordinances.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 1134 — DEI Policy Ban

Senate Bill 1134 prohibits local governments from funding, promoting, or enacting any DEI policies, initiatives, and programs.

DATE OF EFFECT: Jan. 1, 2027

HB 1137 — Alcoholic Beverage Taxes

House Bill 1137 allows alcoholic beverage distributors to take a deduction from alcoholic beverage excise taxes for standard product losses, including breakage, spoilage, evaporation, and expiration.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 21

HB 1153 — Juvenile Justice

House Bill 1153 includes “juvenile detention officers” and “juvenile probation officers” in multiple state statutes related to correctional officers.

This allows such positions to be eligible for a Medal of Heroism or Valor, as well as subjects a person to first-degree aggravated manslaughter if he/she causes such an officer to die through culpable negligence.

DATE OF EFFECT: March 30

HB 1159 — Sexual Offenses

House Bill 1159 sets up harsher penalties for various sexual offenses. These changes include:

• CSAM: Replacing the term “child pornography” with “child sexual abuse material” in Florida statutes
• Harsher Penalties: Increases penalties for use of a child in a sexual performance; possession and transmission of child porn; creation of generated child porn; possession of a child-like doll; and certain sex acts involving animals
• Mandatory Sentencing: Adults must receive a mandatory minimum sentence for certain offenses related to using children in sexual performances and transmitting child porn
• Repeat Offenders: Raises mandatory minimum sentences for certain repeat sex offenders
• Life Felony: Creates a life felony for aggravated use of a child under 12 years old in a sexual performance
• Generated Child Porn: Creates a second-degree felony for transmitting generated child pornography
• No Pets: Prohibits anyone convicted of certain sex offenses involving animals from owning or working with animals for at least five years

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1217 — Greenhouse Gases

House Bill 1217 prohibits the state and local governments from adopting or enforcing net-zero greenhouse gas emissions policies, including carbon taxes.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1219 — Spoil Island

House Bill 1219 designates a mangrove island within Jupiter Sound as the “Andrew ‘Red’ Harris Spoil Island.”

The island will be named for Andrew “Red” Harris, a native of Jupiter who started his own insurance brokerage agency in 2011 and was killed in a boating accident roughly three years later.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1417 — Department of Environmental Protection

House Bill 1417 repeals the Environmental Regulation Commission, which is expected to streamline rulemaking for environmental protection.

This law also requires erosion and sediment control plans for the construction of solar facilities to include stormwater best management practices.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1443 — Parkinson’s Disease Registry

House Bill 1443 requires the Florida Institute for Parkinson’s Disease at USF to set up a statewide Parkinson’s disease registry.

Under this legislation, physicians who diagnose a patient with Parkinson’s disease must report nationally recognized performance measures to the registry beginning on Jan. 1, 2027.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

[BELOW: Here’s what to know about Florida’s ‘license plate’ law]

HB 1445 — Public Records (Parkinson’s Disease Registry)

House Bill 1445 creates a public record exemption for patient-identifying information held in the Parkinson’s disease registry set up by HB 1443.

The exemption will be repealed on Oct. 2, 2031, unless reenacted by lawmakers.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1471 — Terrorist Organizations

House Bill 1471 makes several changes to state law regarding terrorist organizations. Many of those revisions are as follows:

• Terrorist Designations: Creates a process by which the state may designate groups as domestic or foreign terrorist organization if certain conditions are met
• Religious Laws: Courts and tribunals are prohibited from enforcing religious or foreign laws against someone if such application would violate his/her constitutional rights
• Private Schools: Prohibits private schools participating in state scholarship programs from being owned or funded by terrorist groups, terrorist supporters, or criminal gangs
• State Universities: Prevents institutions in the Florida College System from using state funds to support programs that advocate for terrorist organizations
• Visa Students: Public colleges must report information about the current status of students who are attending on a visa if they promote terrorist organizations
• Student Expulsions: If a student promotes a terrorist organization while enrolled at a public university, the student must be immediately expelled and assessed an out-of-state fee

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1473 — Public Records (Terrorism)

House Bill 1473 creates a public record exemption tied to HB 1471 for certain information that would require Florida’s Chief of Domestic Security to provide to the governor and cabinet in certain situations.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 4005 — Naples Airport Authority

House Bill 4005 revises the method of selection for the Naples Airport Authority board from a body appointed by the city to one elected by the residents of Collier County.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 6

HB 4019 — Lake County

House Bill 4019 limits the compensation of healthcare providers for medical services to inmates housed in a Lake County detention center to 110% of the Medicare allowable rate if the provider doesn’t have a contract with the county.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 14

HB 4037 — Pasco County

House Bill 4037 revises term limits for board members on the Pasco County Mosquito Control District from two terms to three terms, starting with the 2026 general election.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 23

HB 4041 — Indian River County

House Bill 4041 limits the compensation of healthcare providers for medical services to inmates housed in an Indian River County detention center to 110% of the Medicare allowable rate if the provider doesn’t have a contract with the county.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 14

HB 4059 — Polk County

House Bill 4059 limits the compensation of healthcare providers for medical services to inmates housed in a Polk County detention center to 110% of the Medicare allowable rate if the provider doesn’t have a contract with the county.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 14

SB 7000 — Public Records (Emergency Shelters)

Senate Bill 7000 continues a public records exemption for addresses and telephone numbers of those who provide public emergency shelter during a storm or catastrophic event.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 23

SB 7006 — Public Records (Florida PSC)

Senate Bill 7006 continues a public records exemption for for portions of hearings conducted by the Florida Public Service Commission.

More specifically, this exemption extends to proprietary confidential business information that is already exempt under state law.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 1

HB 7011 — Public Records (Aquaculture)

House Bill 7011 continues a public records exemption for certain aquaculture records held by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

That exemption refers to the following:

• Shellfish receiving and production records generated by licensed shellfish processing facilities
• Audit records and supporting documentation required for submerged land leases
• Aquaculture production records and receipts generated by certified aquaculture facilities

DATE OF EFFECT: March 27

SB 7016 — Public Records (Loan Programs)

Senate Bill 7016 continues a public records exemption for certain details held by an economic development agency pursuant to the administration of a state/federally funded small business loan program.

More specifically, the exemption protects tax returns, financial information and credit information.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 1

SB 7026 — Public Records (Trade Secrets)

Senate Bill 7026 continues a public records exemption for trade secrets held by an agency, which are kept confidential.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 23

The PGA of America on Friday afternoon confirmed an Associated Press report on Furyk's selection, which makes him the fourth U.S. captain to get a second chance dating to 1979, considered the modern era of the Ryder Cup when continental Europe became part of it.

The Ryder Cup committee chose Furyk once Tiger Woods removed himself from competition after his March 27 arrest on suspicion of DUI.

“My passion for the Ryder Cup and dedication to the U.S. team have never been stronger," Furyk said in a statement. "Having previously captained the team, I understand the responsibilities and immense pride that come with this role. I look forward to drawing on that experience while incorporating some new ideas as we prepare for 2027.

"I am committed to putting our players in the best position to succeed as we work to reclaim the cup on European soil.”

Furyk was the 2018 captain in Paris, a 17 1/2-10 1/2 win by Europe. That week was marked by the four U.S. captain's picks going 2-10-0 at Le Golf National and Patrick Reed blaming Jordan Spieth for them not playing together and Furyk for benching him twice.

Furyk led the Americans to victory as Presidents Cup captain in 2024, and he was said to be a reliable voice as an assistant to U.S. captain Keegan Bradley in the last Ryder Cup. Europe built a record seven-point lead after two days last year at Bethpage Black and held on for its second straight victory under captain Luke Donald, who returns for a third stint in Ireland.

Bradley was a surprise choice for the 2025 matches after the PGA of America waited until the summer of 2024 to see if Woods wanted the job.

This time around, the PGA of America set a soft deadline for the end of March for Woods to decide, and its backup plan was to have a list of candidates for the Ryder Cup committee to consider if Woods chose not to be captain.

It was not known which way Woods was leaning when his SUV clipped the back of a trailer being pulled by a pickup truck on a residential road in Florida, turning his SUV on its side. Woods was arrested and briefly jailed after Florida authorities determined he was impaired.

Four days later, Woods said he was stepping away indefinitely “to seek treatment and focus on my health," and the PGA of America announced Woods had told them he would not be captain.

"Jim Furyk has been an influential figure in the United States team room for nearly three decades,” PGA vice president Nathan Charnes said, referring to Furyk being part of every Ryder Cup team dating to 1997 — nine times as a player, four times as an assistant, once as a captain. “He is a trusted, widely-respected leader and possesses a wealth of Ryder Cup experience that can only serve to strengthen our team."

Davis Love III (2012 and 2016), Tom Watson (1993 and 2014) and Jack Nicklaus (1983 and 1987) are the other U.S. captains to have the job twice since 1979.

Love and Nicklaus had Ryder Cup matches at home both times. Furyk faces the daunting task of trying to win a Ryder Cup on the road, which the Americans have not done since 1993.

The Americans were coming off a resounding victory at Hazeltine in 2016 when it went over to Le Golf National, set up with narrow fairways and thick rough. After getting out to a 3-1 lead, the Americans never won another session.

Woods, coming off his victory the week before at the Tour Championship, went 0-4. Phil Mickelson went 0-2 and Bryson DeChambeau was 0-3. All were captain's picks. DeChambeau had won two FedEx Cup playoff events leading into the matches.

Europe has won 11 of the last 15 matches dating to Oak Hill in 1995. Donald will try to become the first captain to win three straight times in September 2027 at Adare Manor.

___

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

Troopers say Destiny Gonzalez was walking in the westbound lane of State Road 46, near Jungle Road in Geneva on April 14. She was carrying her infant daughter in a car seat when she was hit by a pickup truck around 3 a.m.

The godmother of both of Gonzalez’s children, who asked not to show her face on camera, says she was in contact with Gonzalez in the hours before the crash.

“I’ve known Destiny since 2021 — just through friends of friends. And ever since then, we’ve just got really close. She’s the godmother to my daughter, and I’m the godmother to both of her daughters. Like, we were inseparable,” she said.

She says Gonzalez had gone to visit her siblings’ home in Geneva — a place she visited often.

“It was like my brothers were brothers to her. Her little brothers — like, she went out there all the time, no questions asked, with or without me,” she said.

According to the godmother, Gonzalez arrived at the house around 1 a.m., and was with a friend.

“She showed up with her friend around one in the morning,” she said.

The last time the family saw Gonzalez, she was in the friend’s car, according to the godmother.

“My first thought was, you know, the baby? Like, why was she walking? Why would a man — why would this friend that she’s known since 2017 — leave her walking in the dark?” she said.

Those who loved Gonzalez say they are grieving not only her loss, but the future her two daughters will now face without their mother.

“I miss her presence. I miss her smile. I miss her dark humor. I miss everything,” the godmother said.

“She had a whole life ahead of her, and now two daughters had to grow up without their mom. And that’s something that should have never happened,” she added.

The godmother says the family is pushing for accountability.

“We just want justice. We want the truth to be told,” she said.

Florida Highway Patrol says at this time the case remains an active traffic homicide investigation.

While passage through the canal usually comes at a flat rate via reservations, companies without bookings can pay more to cross through an auction that awards slots to the highest bidder. The alternative would be waiting for days off the coast of Panama City.

The demand for slots skyrocketed and the auction prices ballooned in recent weeks as a standoff between the Iran and the United States over access to the strait kept traffic bottlenecked. Commercial vessels increasingly have traveled through the Panama Canal carrying shipments that were rerouted or purchased from different countries to avoid the waterway off Iran's coast.

“With all the bombings, the missiles, the drones ... companies are saying it’s safer and less expensive to cross through the Panama Canal,” said Rodrigo Noriega, a lawyer and analyst in Panama City. “All of this is affecting global supply chains.”

Meanwhile, Panama's government is “maximizing what it can earn from the Panama Canal," Noriega said.

The average price to cross through the canal ranges between $300,000 and $400,000 depending on the vessel. Previously, to get an earlier crossing, businesses would pay an additional $250,000 to $300,000. In recent weeks, the average additional cost has jumped to around $425,000.

Normally, about 6% of global trade passes through the Panama Canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in Central America, according to Patrick Penfield, professor of supply chain practice at Syracuse University. The canal has recovered from several years of drought, he added.

Goods like car parts, grain and consumer electronics being shipped from China to Europe or vice versa, or from China to the U.S. East Coast, pass through the canal.

Some oil passes moves through the Panama Canal, but it isn't a viable large-scale alternative to the Strait of Hormuz because of its size. The largest ships that carry oil, known as ultra-large container vessels, are too big for the canal.

Ricaurte Vásquez, the canal’s administrator, said one company that he would not name paid an extra $4 million when its fuel vessel had to change its destination because of ongoing geopolitical tensions.

"It was a ship carrying fuel to Europe, and they redirected it to Singapore, and it needed to get there because Singapore is running out of fuel,” he said.

Other oil companies paid an excess of $3 million in addition to the crossing fee to accelerate their passage in the face of soaring oil prices.

The extra fees are becoming so high not because ships are piling up at the canal, but rather because of last-minute shifts and greater urgency for vessels to pass through in the wake of broader trade chaos, Vásquez said. He emphasized that these costs were temporarily being shouldered by companies based on their level of urgency.

"They decide how high to go on the price,” Vásquez said.

At the same time as Panama's government is earning more money from the newly brisk business in the canal, its shipping industry is being confronted by the geopolitical struggle in the same way as those of other countries.

Panama's foreign ministry on Wednesday accused Iran of illegally seizing a Panama-flagged vessel from the Italian company, MSC Francesca, in the Strait of Hormuz. Panama, which has one of the world's largest ship registries, said the ship was “forcibly taken" by Iran. It wasn’t immediately clear if the boat remained in Iranian custody.

“This represents a serious attack on maritime security and constitutes unnecessary escalation at a time when the international community is advocating for the Strait of Hormuz to remain open to international navigation without threats or coercion of any kind,” it said.

Noriega, the analyst, said that the amount companies are paying to cross the Panama Canal may continue to go up if the conflict stretches on, as oil prices are already skyrocketing. The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil briefly jumped above $107 this week, soaring from around $66 a barrel a year ago.

Nobody expected the war to have quite so much effect on global trade, Noriega said.

___

Mae Anderson in New York contributed reporting.

___

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

The executive order, which acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed Thursday, does not address current penalties for possessing and selling marijuana or those jailed with yearslong sentences.

“While this is a victory, the fight is far from over," said Jason Ortiz, director of strategic initiatives for the Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit focused on cannabis criminal justice reform.

Proponents of legalizing marijuana as well as overhauling prison sentencing say this order, which does not completely decriminalize the drug, benefits only cannabis researchers, growers and others in Big Weed. Meanwhile, thousands — many of whom are people of color — are stuck serving harsh sentences for marijuana-related offenses. Or they have served their time but having a conviction on their record has made life difficult.

Now, advocates are calling on Congress and state lawmakers to take concrete steps to ensure those with marijuana-related convictions receive fair treatment or be forgiven altogether.

Prisoners and their families look for hope

Blanche's order reclassifies state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug. The major policy shift, which both Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden had considered, means cannabis won’t be grouped with drugs like heroin.

But it does not legalize marijuana for medical or recreational use. It shifts licensed medical marijuana from Schedule I — reserved for drugs without medical use and with high potential for abuse — to the less strictly regulated Schedule III. This will likely give licensed medical marijuana operators and cannabis researchers a major tax break and less stringent barriers to doing normal business.

Virtually no one imprisoned at the federal level is there solely for marijuana possession. But many are there for large-scale possession, trafficking offenses or both.

Hector Ruben McGurk, 66, has been serving life without the possibility of parole since 2007 for transporting thousands of pounds of marijuana and money laundering. He is currently imprisoned in Beaumont, Texas, over 800 miles (1,290 kilometers) from his son's El Paso home. His incarceration has been hard on his son, said McGurk's daughter-in-law, Ferna Anguiano. And the distance makes visits logistically difficult.

So it's tempting to see this order as a glimmer of hope, given that the family believes McGurk's punishment far outweighs his crimes. But Anguiano has no idea how to navigate lobbying for his release.

“His release date is death," Anguiano said. “I mean, we see all this stuff on the news — bigger cases, fatal cases — and people are going in and out of prison and coming out to their families.”

They try to keep in touch through phone calls and a prison texting service. They're concerned about McGurk's health and his diabetes management. It would be a dream come true for him to come home.

“He deserves a second chance,” Anguiano said. “Yes, it was a poor decision he did in his lifetime. He was younger. But he is not a bad person. I think it's fair to say he has served enough time for it.”

It's not clear whether punishments would be different had marijuana always been scheduled differently, drug policy experts say.

“In addition to schedule-specific penalties, there are marijuana-specific penalties that have nothing to do with the schedule,” said Cat Packer, director of drug markets and legal regulation at the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance. “Even if marijuana were to be moved to Schedule V, those criminal penalties would still exist and there are mandatory minimums for simple possession.”

Racial disparities exist in convictions and Big Weed

Destigmatizing marijuana has long been an issue for both political parties. Obama commuted the sentences of about 1,900 federal prisoners, almost all of whom were incarcerated for nonviolent drug crimes. Biden pardoned 6,500 people convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia. President Donald Trump's administration has taken far fewer drug clemency actions and does not have an overarching policy directing such actions.

“What many people on the right and the left would like is to move marijuana from this ‘just as bad as heroin’ category and to just sort of de-schedule it entirely,” said Marta Nelson, director of sentencing reform at the Vera Institute of Justice. “Regulate it like you do alcohol or tobacco.”

Studies show Black Americans are roughly 3.7 to 4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white Americans, despite usage rates being roughly the same across racial groups. Federal-level marijuana cases are pretty small today, but those serving sentences for federal drug offenses are overwhelmingly Hispanic and Black, according to Justice Department and Bureau of Justice Statistics data.

The racial disparity with drug convictions is reminiscent of 2010 legislation Obama signed reducing the gap between mandatory sentences for crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. In 2018, Trump made it apply retroactively.

Because business owners with state medical marijuana licenses are predominantly white, the tax relief created by the rescheduling will also likely give a leg-up to mostly white businesses, Packer said. A lot of equity programs won't apply.

“This is going to, in my mind, widen the gap, the financial disparities, the business disparities that currently exist between Black and brown, Latino and white owners in the cannabis industry because licenses were not distributed equitably,” Packer said.

Possible next steps for marijuana convictions

In theory, Trump could issue a blanket pardon like he did for Jan. 6 rioters. But Nelson thinks that is highly doubtful.

“Having marijuana convictions on the record for things like mass immigration enforcement is helpful to the administration,” Nelson said.

An impactful next step would be for Congress to outline very comprehensive legislation addressing existing marijuana-related convictions, expungements and industry regulations, she added.

The Last Prisoner Project and other organizations are planning to renew a dialogue with federal lawmakers, including the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, which includes Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar and Republican Rep. David Joyce. They will also continue to lobby for Trump to conduct a large-scale act of commutation and clemency.

Advocates are also hoping Trump's order will prompt every state to rethink their marijuana classification and penalties.

“It is imperative that every state review their situation, as a lot of their controlled substances at the state level are tied to the federal government,” Ortiz said. “We’re gonna see other states that are going to need a little help from the public to remind them what the right thing to do is.”

Maj. Kenneth Chungag, a nurse who lives and works on Fort Belvoir in Virginia, is accused of using his military training and experience to assist the Ambazonia Defense Forces in Cameroon.

Chungag is “greatly dismayed by these charges and looks forward to a timely and just resolution of the matter,” defense attorney Robert Jenkins told The Associated Press in an email Friday.

Chungag, a 50-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, and co-defendant Mercy Akwi Ombaku were arrested Monday on federal conspiracy charges. A magistrate judge ordered their release from custody after initial court appearances in Alexandria, Virginia. Prosecutors didn’t seek their pretrial detention.

In 2020, Chungag was stationed at Fort Meade in Maryland when he first expressed interest in assisting members of the ADF, according to the FBI affidavit. In online chats with ADF members in Cameroon, Chungag falsely claimed to have combat experience in Iraq but appeared to be embellishing his military background to raise his profile in the group, the affidavit says.

Chungag is accused of plotting with Ombaku, a Maryland resident, to transfer money from the U.S. to Cameroon for the purchase of AK-47 assault rifles. Investigators believe Chungag grew disillusioned and withdrew from the organization in 2024. Later that year, FBI agents questioned him about his ADF-related activities. Investigators believe he tried to destroy incriminating evidence by deleting ADF-related messages from his phone after the FBI contacted him.

Cameroon, with a population of roughly 31 million, has been ruled by Paul Biya since 1982, making him one of Africa’s longest-serving rulers. The ADF is a separatist military organization in southern Cameroon fighting for the Anglophone region to break away from the central African country.

The separatist movement dates back to the early 1960s, when the British Southern Cameroons, a United Nations trust territory previously governed as part of Nigeria’s eastern region, was joined with Cameroon. In 2017, English-speaking separatists launched a rebellion aimed at establishing an independent state. The conflict has killed at least 6,500 people and displaced over 600,000 others, according to the Belgium-based International Crisis Group.

Pope Leo XIV on his recent Africa trip presided over a peace meeting last Thursday with community leaders in one of the two Anglophone regions. During the pope’s visit, separatist groups announced a three-day pause in fighting.

Chungag has worked as a nurse at a Fort Belvoir community hospital, according to a base spokesperson. The spokesperson referred questions about Chungag’s employment status to the medical center, which didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Ombaku, a healthcare worker who also is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Cameroon, is charged with conspiring with Chungag to financially support the ADF. She denied having any ADF affiliation when the FBI questioned her last July. An attorney for Ombaku, 38, of New Carrollton, Maryland, didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Fort Belvoir is located about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Washington along the Potomac River.

___

Adetayo reported from Lagos, Nigeria.

Thornell died Thursday at a hospital in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie from complications from kidney disease, his son, Jay Thornell said Friday.

He worked for the AP from 1964 to 2004 and had a variety of assignments over the years, photographing politicians, natural disasters, crime scenes. But the struggle for racial justice punctuated Thornell’s wire service career from the beginning. He covered the integration of a Mississippi Gulf Coast school on his first day of work for the AP New Orleans bureau.

In June 1966, Thornell, then 26, was assigned to cover a civil rights march led by Meredith, who had already made history by integrating the University of Mississippi in 1962, and was mounting a “March Against Fear” through the state encouraging Black residents to register and vote.

Meredith was walking on U.S. Highway 51 near Hernando, Mississippi, and Thornell and a rival photographer were in a car parked roadside, when the sound of the first shotgun blast sent them scrambling.

One resulting Thornell image remains a sobering photographic reminder of the violent resistance to desegregation. It shows a wounded Meredith grimacing in agony as he dragged himself to the road’s edge. Along with it was the Pulitzer-winning photo Thornell didn’t initially realize he had captured: Meredith is on the ground at the edge of the highway with arms extended and hands on the pavement — it’s unclear if he is still falling or pushing himself up after the fall. His head is turned and he appears to be looking at his would-be assassin, visible at the extreme left of the picture in a weedy ditch.

Meredith was hospitalized and recovered. Aubrey James Norvell, who was apprehended at the scene, pleaded guilty and served 18 months of a five-year prison sentence.

Until he developed the film and pored over the negatives, Thornell believed he might be fired. He feared his competitor had an image of the gunman and he didn’t. Instead of dismissal, Thornell won the Pulitzer in 1967.

Decades chronicling history

Jay Thornell remembered his father as a loving dad, but said he could be “regimented” and “stubborn,” saying that the stress of covering the Civil Rights Movement could sometimes kept Jack Thornell from realizing his own achievements at the time.

“He never really enjoyed or appreciated what he was accomplishing and doing,” Jay Thornell said. “Through his pictures, he was serving the world and exposing things that were going on in places that other parts of the world and country didn’t know about during the Civil Rights era.”

In 1964, Jack Thornell photographed the burned-out station wagon in Neshoba County, Mississippi, that belonged to civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, whose bodies were found buried in an earthen dam weeks after Ku Klux Klansmen abducted and killed them. And Thornell would hurriedly snap a photo of the local sheriff being arrested by federal agents on conspiracy charges in connection with their deaths. Thornell got the shot while backing away as a supporter of the sheriff threatened him with a knife.

Thornell chronicled violence leading up to the integration of schools in Grenada, Mississippi, in 1966. One of his photos showed a Black man covering his ears as he moved away from a cherry bomb tossed by angry white people.

Thornell photographed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. multiple times, including during the Selma-to-Montgomery march in Alabama in 1965, and demonstrations in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968, the week before King was assassinated there.

Thornell had returned to his home base in New Orleans before King was assassinated, but later was dispatched to Atlanta, where he photographed King’s family viewing the body at Spelman College’s Sisters Chapel.

He was late for that assignment. He said in the 2018 interview that he dashed around another photographer and climbed atop a pew, clambering toward the casket by stepping over pew after pew to get in position to make the picture.

“I was shaken when I left there. I had my eyes on the floor because I knew everyone was looking at me for my despicable behavior,” Thornell said in the interview at his home in Kenner, Louisiana. “But I didn’t leave without the picture.”

Years later, in 1977, King’s assassin, James Earl Ray, escaped from a Tennessee prison. Thornell was on hand when Ray, muddy and haggard, was recaptured.

A photographer by chance

Thornell was born and raised in Vicksburg, Mississippi. His career as a photographer might not have happened but for an Army snafu in the late 1950s, according to a 1967 account in the AP World corporate magazine.

“The U.S. Army had decided to make a radio repairman of him. But at Fort Monmouth, his name got mixed up with that of a camera bug who wanted to attend photographic school. So Thornell, who didn’t know an aperture from a back focus, took the short course in picture-taking while the camera bug learned to fix radios.”

After leaving the Army, Thornell got a job with the Jackson (Miss.) Daily News before he was hired by the AP in New Orleans.

Hired during a turbulent time in the South, Thornell recalled the fear he sometimes felt amid violence and threats. But there was a greater fear than physical harm.

“The greatest fear for me was coming back without the photograph,” he said. “The things that were happening there, you just kind of dealt with it and tried to photograph what was happening, because that was your bread and butter, that was your career. And your success depended on how well you did that day. Because tomorrow there’s always another newspaper coming out.”

But Jay Thornell said that later in life, his father got to survey his achievements without that deadline pressure, enjoying autographing his photos sent to him by others. Jay Thornell said a recent cherished memory is Jack Thornell telling the stories behind some of his famous photos to his granddaughter.

Thornell is survived by his son Jay, his daughter Candy Gros, and a granddaughter.

___

Amy reported from Atlanta.

Shouldn't TMZ have been in Washington already?

The tabloid gossip site that reinvented Hollywood and celebrity gossip coverage is taking a swing at the nation's capital of late with TMZ DC, deploying staff to confront lawmakers paparazzi-style in Washington and turning to the public to capture candid images of politicians living it up on the road. The push has already created viral moments, including an image of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., holding a wand at Disney World as chaos gripped airport security lines because of congressional inaction on a funding bill.

On Friday, TMZ put its Beltway foray on display at the Pentagon, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth calling on the outlet and singling them out as “new members of our press group here” — a subtle dig that mirrored his not-so-subtle campaign criticism of legacy media outlets.

Washington and Hollywood have long had an awkward relationship, with players in each power center harboring insecurities and misunderstandings about the other as politics and entertainment have steadily merged into a single cultural force.

Earlier efforts by TMZ to build a Washington bureau faltered. But this time may prove different.

President Donald Trump’s return to the White House further normalizes a particular brand of celebrity culture in the nation’s capital that made him a tabloid fixture for decades. Moreover, Congress is currently gripped by scandal, with three lawmakers resigning in April alone after varying allegations, which include sexual misconduct and fraud.

Also, Gallup polling released this week found that disapproval of Congress has climbed to 86%, tying the record high. Only 33% of U.S. adults approve of Trump's overall job performance, according to AP-NORC polling released this week. That’s a decline of 9 percentage points since early in Trump’s second term.

Washington's institutions are held in low regard

With Washington's institutions held in such low regard, the bigger surprise may be that TMZ hasn't attempted such a flex here sooner.

“I am legitimately surprised they weren't already there,” said Ana Marie Cox, who wrote the Wonkette blog, which covered Washington with an irreverence that was rare in the early 2000s. “They're actually a little bit late to the game.”

A representative for TMZ did not respond to a request for comment.

TMZ was founded in 2005 and is still run by hard-charging Los Angeles lawyer and media figure Harvey Levin, who has had an off-and-on relationship with Trump. Within a decade, TMZ made its name with a combination of sleazy and sensational celebrity news. Early in its life, TMZ broke stories that included antisemitic statements made by actor Mel Gibson during an arrest and an angry voicemail message left by actor Alec Baldwin to his daughter.

But the site, whose initials reference the 30-mile zone from the historic center of the television and film industry in Los Angeles, really established itself by breaking news of Michael Jackson’s death in 2009 and the drug use that led to it.

Its tactics can cross traditional journalistic boundaries, particularly when it comes to paying sources. Beyond the professional breach involved with such arrangements, the payments could run afoul of congressional ethics rules. Levin has not denied paying for story tips, which is frowned upon by traditional journalism outlets.

And TMZ has also had some high-profile failures, including reports that Beyoncé would perform at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which didn’t happen.

Some of TMZ's work is being applauded

Yet some of TMZ's early work in Washington is being applauded.

Robert Thompson, a trustee professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, said the photo of Graham at Disney World was genuinely newsworthy because it showed lawmakers away from Washington during a political crisis. A representative for Graham didn't respond to a request for comment.

TMZ published images of lawmakers from both parties who left Washington during the recent congressional recess that overlapped with the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown. Beyond Graham, the site published pictures of Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Robert Garcia of California.

TMZ is not currently credentialed by the congressional press galleries. That limits its Washington coverage to walk-and-talk interviews on the sidewalks outside the Capitol or in the hallways of public office buildings — a feature of its ambush-style celebrity interviews.

Some of the interviews are entertaining for audiences who are in on the bit. In one video this week, Rep. Troy Downing, R-Mont., seemed confused by questions about a party hosted by the gay dating and hookup site Grindr ahead of this weekend's White House Correspondents' Dinner.

“I don't understand,” Downing said. “Are they a media company?”

Others go in unexpected, sometimes touchingly personal, directions. When Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Calif., was asked how lawmakers celebrate the 4/20 marijuana holiday, she spoke of how the day marked the anniversary of her father's death.

“4/20 is the day that my daddy died,” she said. “My dad was an amazing man in San Francisco. I think about him every single time there's 4/20.”

And sometimes the gotcha nature of the reports backfires. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., was among the lawmakers whose image was captured away from Washington during the DHS shutdown. He was shown at his son’s basketball game, prompting defense from colleagues, including Republicans, who said he shouldn’t be shamed for being a present father.

At Friday’s briefing, TMZ’s Charlie Cotton eagerly played into Hegseth’s branding of “the Department of War,” and the Trump administration’s claim that the war in Iran is necessary. “Would you consider changing the name again to the Department of Peace since that’s what we’re all after?” Cotton asked.

Hegseth gushed over the “great question” and declared that “the one institution that should win the Nobel Peace Prize every single year is the United States military.”

The long history of the ambush interview

The TMZ approach isn't particularly new. Longtime CBS correspondent Mike Wallace made a habit of the so-called ambush interview, catching unprepared subjects on camera.

Before he broke the news of an extramarital affair that would doom Democrat Gary Hart's 1988 presidential campaign, Tom Fiedler confronted the Colorado senator in a Washington alley. A reporter for the Miami Herald at the time, Fiedler said he “didn't set out to do that.”

“We simply found ourselves in that situation,” he recalled this week. “At that point, we knew that he knew we were there to observe what he was doing. Our feeling was we needed to let him know who we were so he wouldn't think there was, in the worst case, an attempted assassin stalking him.”

Nearly 40 years later, journalism in Washington is drastically different.

The Washington Post cut nearly a third of its staff in February in a brutal blow to the legendary newsroom. Other outlets are growing. The website NOTUS is rebranding as The Star, with ambitions to fill the gap left by the Post, particularly in local and sports coverage.

Cox, the former Wonkette blogger, is now a writer living in Austin, Texas. Reflecting on her time in Washington, she said her goal was to “demystify politics and show that these are people who don't necessarily deserve our respect.”

But she expressed concern about coverage whose tone reinforces the eye-rolling aspects of Washington. If she were starting Wonkette today, she said, “I don't think I'd be as funny.”

“Funny is how we got here,” she said. “Making fun of Donald Trump did not work.”

___

AP Media Writer Dave Bauder and Bill Barrow contributed to this report.

In a case report, deputies said the incident happened around 10:20 a.m., when a school resource deputy received a Centegix staff alert.

Upon arrival to the classroom, the deputy found the sub — identified as Angela Faith Jourdan — yelling “incoherently,” stating that they should “put her in prison for life,” the report shows.

[RELATED: Man drives into Brevard County canal with ex in car, deputies say]

Investigators said they learned that before their arrival, Jourdan had been yelling, slamming her hands on a desk, making inappropriate statements to students, and “twerking” in the classroom.

This included telling students that she would engage in sexual activity with them and referring to herself as a “million dollar prostitute,” deputies added.

[BELOW: Watch the bodycam footage of the officer’s encounter]

“Assistant Principal Pannett entered and instructed Ms. Jourdan to gather her belongings and leave the classroom,” the report reads. “Ms. Jourdan refused, stating that she did not want to be (Tasered).”

Jourdan continued refusing to leave, prompting the deputy to restrain her and escort her to the front office, the report reveals.

Meanwhile, investigators said they spoke with a victim, who claimed that Jourdan had battered her.

[RELATED: Gang of boys caught playing ‘real-life Frogger’ at Central Florida park]

“As the bell rang and students began exiting, [REDACTED] stated she was among the last to leave when Ms. Jourdan yelled at her, called her a derogatory name, and placed her hands on [REDACTED] head and the back of her neck before moving her hand toward [REDACTED] throat,” the report continues.

The case report further reveals that Jourdan has a history of bipolar disorder, and her outburst in the classroom indicated a possible “mental health episode.”

In body-camera footage obtained by News 6, Jourdan is heard claiming that she had previously been Tasered by law enforcement in Pine Hills.

But no details have been released about whether Jourdan actually has a criminal history.

Now, Jourdan faces misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct, simple battery, and two counts of disruption of a school function.

News 6 reached out to the district for comment. The district’s response is as follows:

“Good afternoon -- We are aware of the arrest. Parents have been notified. The substitute teacher was hired 2/4/2025, and employment was terminated today.”

Lake County Schools Communications Officer Sherri Owens

Lake County School Board Chair Bill Mathias said he was informed of the situation immediately and commended the students for how they handled the incident.

“That was very moving to me,” Mathias said, noting students appeared to respond with sensitivity to what they believed was a mental health issue.

[RELATED: Here’s what we know after Lake County sub experienced ‘mental health episode’ in class]

Mathias also pointed to the district’s “You Are Not Alone” program, which places mental health specialists at every high school. He said those resources are available to staff, including substitute teachers.

Furthermore, Mathias acknowledged the ongoing challenge of hiring substitutes.

News 6 has also asked the district whether it conducts any mental health screenings for substitutes and is awaiting a response.

At a press gathering April 16, President Donald Trump was asked about “10 missing scientists with access to classified stuff, nuclear material, aerospace, they've all gone missing or turned up dead in the last couple of months" and whether he thought there were ties among them.

“Well, I hope it's random, but we're going to know in the next week and a half, ” Trump said.

Those speculating about the cases suggest that the individuals were targeted, perhaps by global U.S. adversaries, because of the sensitive nature of their work related to topics such as astrophysics, nuclear weapons and pharmaceuticals. But so far no evidence has been found that definitively links them or establishes coordinated foul play.

Jen Golbeck, a professor at the University of Maryland who studies conspiracy theories, said the idea of a sinister connection between tragedies involving scientists is a common trope within conspiracy theory communities.

“There are a lot of people who work for national labs and universities and government research centers and some of them will go missing or commit suicide or die,” she said. “Any year you could take a bunch of those and name them as something sinister if you wanted to."

The path from niche online communities to the mainstream

The deaths and disappearances in question garnered suspicion from online sleuths as they occurred, but it was the disappearance of 68-year-old William “Neil” McCasland, a retired Air Force general, on Feb. 27 that fueled a wider belief that there could be a nefarious connection between these incidents, spurred in part by his high-ranking military work and connection to the UFO community.

Around this time people began pointing to other examples of scientists who had died or gone missing, ultimately going as far back as June 2022.

The Daily Mail published an article on March 22 naming five individuals and reporting that “a chilling pattern has emerged after a string of US scientists died or went missing in recent months.”

On April 15, a question about the missing or dead individuals came up at a White House press briefing and by the next day Trump said he had met with advisers and the issue was being investigated. FBI Director Kash Patel reiterated the importance of looking for connections in these cases Sunday on Fox News. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is conducting its own investigation.

“That’s pretty typical for how a lot of this stuff works, is that there are these fringe online spaces, they start it, it spreads, it gets picked up by ... the more conspiratorial-minded politicians who do have platforms and makes its way onto more mainstream social media and then grabs that attention,” said Golbeck.

Callie Kalny, co-director of the Center of Media Psychology and Social Influence at Northwestern University, agreed that these conspiracy theories are following a familiar pattern of starting in more niche venues before finding their way into the national conversation.

“Once it’s made it to the mainstream and once we experience this repeat exposure to it, it sort of just embeds into our minds as something that maybe we just take as fact or we just take as something that is common knowledge without ever really critically thinking well, where did this come from to begin with? And is there any validity to this?” she said.

Correlation does not imply causation

There are some parallels among the dozen or so individuals at the heart of these conspiracy theories, such as associations with Los Alamos National Laboratory and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and some of those named had specialized knowledge and high-level security clearances. But the list contains many reasons to doubt the claims spreading online.

In some of the cases, investigations had already been conducted, with suspects identified or charged. In others, no connections were apparent or evidence was lacking or not as convincing as it first appeared.

For example, Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a physicist and fusion scientist who was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is on the list. He was fatally shot on Dec. 15 by Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, who was also responsible for a mass shooting at Brown University days prior. Neves Valente took his own life. A motive has not been established, but the two men knew each other decades earlier as classmates in Portugal studying physics.

Carl Grillmair, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology who discovered water on a distant planet, was fatally shot on Feb. 16, according to local reports. Authorities charged 29-year-old Freddy Snyder with Grillmair’s murder and carjacking. Snyder is being held on a multimillion-dollar bond.

Melissa Casias, then 53, went missing on June 26 in New Mexico. She worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory and while some online assumed she was a scientist there, according to her LinkedIn profile Casias actually worked as an administrative assistant.

As for McCasland, he left home without his phone, prescription glasses and wearable devices, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office. His hiking boots, wallet and a .38 caliber revolver could not be found at the house. There is no evidence indicating foul play and he remains missing.

McCasland’s wife, Susan Wilkerson, wrote in a Facebook post on March 6 responding to online rumors that since his retirement 13 years ago, McCasland “has had only very commonly held clearances” and that “it seems quite unlikely that he was taken to extract very dated secrets from him.” She added that although he “had a brief association with the UFO community,” he does not have any privileged knowledge about aliens.

“In the face of tragedy or uncertainty, people seek patterns and explanations rather than accepting ambiguity or coincidence,” said Donnell Probst, executive director of the National Association for Media Literacy Education. “Narratives suggesting hidden connections or intentional wrongdoing can feel more satisfying than incomplete or evolving information, even without supporting evidence.”

Saturday kicks off with plenty of sunshine, followed by hot afternoon highs—upper 80s inland and lower to mid-80s along the coast. As sea breezes develop later in the day, they could spark a few scattered showers, with rain chances around 30–40%.

Sunday brings a similar story: more heat with temperatures in the 80s across the region and slightly higher rain chances, climbing to 40–50%.

Looking ahead to next week, conditions turn drier—but the tradeoff is intensifying heat. By Tuesday, afternoon highs surge into the lower 90s and stay there through the rest of the week. Near-record temperatures are possible by Thursday and Friday, shaping up to be the hottest stretch of the year so far.

The 6-foot-6 Peterson showed flashes of brilliance with the Jayhawks, but he also caused a lot of headaches for the team. He dealt with a severe full-body cramping issue that required hospitalization before the season, and additional injuries and illnesses caused him to miss 11 games, hurting his ability to build any continuity with the rest of his teammates.

Peterson wound up averaging 20.2 points and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 38.2% from beyond the arc in 24 games.

He started to hit his rhythm in the postseason, scoring 24 points against TCU and 14 against Houston in the Big 12 Tournament. He had 28 points in a first-round NCAA tourney win over Cal Baptist and 21 in a last-second loss to St. John's in the second round.

“To my teammates, friends and everyone at the University of Kansas, a heartfelt thank you!” Peterson posted to social media Friday. “Your belief in me, your encouragement and your constant support have been invaluable every step of the way. This journey has been everything to me, and none of it would have been possible without your love, support and sacrifices.”

Most mock drafts have Peterson or BYU's A.J. Dybantsa going first overall, though Duke's Cameron Boozer also could be in the mix.

The closest comp to Peterson has generally been 6-foot-5 Devin Booker, the Phoenix Suns' five-time All-Star. Both have the ability to score at all three levels, and their athleticism allows them to play much bigger than their size.

Peterson's announcement came one day after Dybantsa declared for the draft in his hometown of Brockton, Massachusetts.

Dybantsa led the nation with 25.5 points per game, while also pulling down 6.8 rebounds with 3.7 assists. He’s the first player to post those averaged in a season and be a consensus All-American since Larry Bird did it in 1978-79 for Indiana State.

Arizona freshman Koa Peat, another projected first-round pick, declared for the draft on his Instagram account on Friday.

“Playing for the University of Arizona has been an incredible blessing and something I'll always be grateful for,” he posted. “Wearing this name and where I come from means everything to me. It's been an honor to compete at this level while still being rooted in the place that raised me.”

The 6-8 Peat, an Arizona native, averaged 14.1 points and 5.6 rebounds in 36 games while helping the Wildcats reach the Final Four for the first time since 2001.

Tennessee freshman Nate Ament also declared for the draft Thursday after starting all 35 games he played and averaging 16.7 points and 6.3 rebounds. His announcement came in an Instagram post in which he thanked the Volunteers for the opportunity.

“I promise to always represent the Vols with the upmost pride,” Ament wrote. “This University means more to me than just basketball — to me it’s a place I call home. I might’ve only been here a year but I’ll remember this year for the rest of my life.”

Another top draft prospect, Darius Acuff Jr. of Arkansas, declared for the draft on Wednesday. He joined LSU legend Pete Maravich as the only SEC players to have led the league in scoring (23.5 points per game) and assists (6.4 per game) in the same season.

Ament and Acuff also are widely considered to be top-10 draft picks.

___

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

In a release, police said the incident happened on the night of March 27, when the driver — identified as Terry Mitchell, 55 — was pulled over near North John Young Parkway and Old Winter Garden Road over traffic infractions.

“During the stop, officers detected the odor of burnt cannabis coming from the vehicle and observed cannabis in plain view,” the release reads.

[BELOW: Watch the full traffic stop with Mitchell]

However, Mitchell reportedly refused to get out of the vehicle, resisting attempts by officers to detain him, police added.

During the investigation, the department noted that cocaine, methamphetamine, cannabis and pepper spray were recovered.

[BELOW: Watch bodycam footage of officers searching Mitchell’s car]

But while he was being detained, Mitchell was spotted trying to chew and swallow something that investigators believed to be drugs, police revealed. In addition, Mitchell allegedly refused to be taken to the hospital.

“Officers gave multiple commands for him to remove the item from his mouth; however, he refused to comply,” the release continues. “While in the back of the patrol vehicle, Mitchell continued chewing in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence.”

[BELOW: Video shows first responders tending to Mitchell after detainment]

Upon arrival at the booking center, Mitchell refused to get out of the patrol car and was seen spitting blood, prompting corrections officers to put a spit mask on him, police stated.

That said, his condition and his refusal to cooperate with a medical screening meant jail staff declined to admit him, so Mitchell was taken to the hospital for medical clearance instead, investigators reported.

[BELOW: Raw bodycam footage shows Mitchell being taken to hospital]

“While at the emergency room, Mitchell continued to physically resist officers and medical staff,” police wrote. “He repeatedly tensed his body, pulled away from officers, and refused to comply with directions as staff attempted to evaluate him.”

As such, police said they had to physically restrain Mitchell to prevent him from hurting medical personnel and allow staff to safely provide care.

Mitchell also spat blood onto an officer’s face and mouth at this point, resulting in another charge of battery on a law enforcement officer, the police department explained.

[BELOW: Bodycam footage shows officers restraining Mitchell at hospital]

“Possibly due to the ingestion of suspected illegal narcotics, Mitchell experienced a medical emergency and remains hospitalized,” the release concludes.

Now, Mitchell faces the following charges:

• Possession of cocaine
• Possession of methamphetamine
• Possession of cannabis
• Tampering with evidence
• Possession of a concealed weapon by a convicted felon
• Resisting an officer without violence (2 counts)
• Battery on a law enforcement officer

However, Orlando Attorney Ben Crump announced afterward that Mitchell is still in the hospital, having fallen into a coma.

Crump, along with Mitchell’s family, said they want to know how that’s possible.

Phillip Demon Duncan, 25, of Silver Springs, was taken into custody on Thursday at a Waffle House on NW 34th Avenue in Ocala. Deputies located him in a vehicle in the parking lot while conducting a warrant check.

According to a news release, the investigation began Dec. 20, 2025, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified MCSO’s Internet Crimes Against Children unit that a Google user had uploaded child sexual abuse material. Detectives identified Duncan as the account holder and, through subsequent legal orders to Google, discovered dozens of additional files of child sexual abuse material, as well as voyeurism and non-consensual sexual media stored in his account.

Duncan previously worked as a paraprofessional at Oakcrest Elementary School in Ocala. Detectives said they believe he may have victimized a child.

News 6 received the following statement from Marion County Public Schools:

“Phillip Duncan was hired at Oakcrest Elementary School on March 9, 2026. He worked there for just over one month. He no longer works for Oakcrest nor for Marion County Public Schools. He passed state-mandated background and fingerprint checks along with mandatory drug tests. He volunteered as a dance coach at nearby Vanguard High School but is no longer involved there as well. He is not allowed on any MCPS property.”

Marion County Public Schools

Duncan was booked into the Marion County Jail, where he remains without bond.

The sheriff’s office asks that anyone with information relating to additional crimes contact Detective Osthed at (352) 351-4710.

In a release, deputies said they responded to the Hilton Hotel at 6001 Destination Pkwy. after receiving a report about the incident around 9 p.m.

Upon arrival, they found a man in his 30s who worked at the hotel under the dryer, the release shows.

“Orange County Fire Rescue pronounced the man deceased at the scene,” the release reads. “No additional information is available at this time.”

News 6 has reached out to the Hilton for comment and is awaiting a response.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA has launched an investigation into the incident.

The move, announced Friday and first reported by The Associated Press, makes good on Trump's threat to impose secondary sanctions on companies and countries that do business with Iran. It's also part of his Republican administration’s overall ramped-up campaign to cut off Iran’s key source of revenue — its oil exports.

Concurrently, the U.S. this month imposed a physical blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf waterway that is crucial to global energy supplies.

The sanctions, which cut off the companies from the U.S. financial system and penalize anyone who does business with them, come just a few weeks before President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping are due to meet in China.

Included in Friday's sanctions is Hengli Petrochemical’s facility in the port city of Dalian, which has a processing capacity of roughly 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day, making it one of the biggest independent refineries in China.

The Treasury Department says Hengli has received Iranian crude oil shipments since 2023 and has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the Iranian military.

The advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran said in February 2025 that Hengli is one of dozens of Chinese purchasers of Iranian oil.

China is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, importing 80% to 90% of Iranian oil before the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran broke out, though the crude — transported by a shadow fleet of vessels — often has its origin obscured but arrives in China as oil from countries such as Malaysia. Smaller refineries, known as teapot refineries, typically are the buyers of Iranian oil.

Iran has previously said that its demands for ending the war include the lifting of sanctions.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that his agency “will continue to constrict the network of vessels, intermediaries and buyers Iran relies on to move its oil to global markets.”

Earlier this month, Bessent's department sent a letter to financial institutions in China, Hong Kong, the UAE and Oman threatening to levy secondary sanctions for doing business with Iran and accusing those countries of allowing Iranian illicit activities to flow through their financial institutions.

Bessent said during a White House press briefing on April 15 that the administration has told countries “that if you are buying Iranian oil, that if Iranian money is sitting in your banks, we are now willing to apply secondary sanctions, which is a very stern measure.”

The sanctions come as the global energy trade is in turmoil as war around the Persian Gulf chokes off oil and natural gas shipments, causing prices to soar.

Treasury has tried to quell the impact of rising oil prices issuing temporary sanctions waivers on Russia oil and a one-time waiver on Iranian oil already at sea.

The AP was making efforts to contact Chinese officials for comment on the sanctions.

China has disagreed with previous U.S. sanctions, but its major companies and banks still comply with U.S. sanctions because they are more exposed to the U.S.-dominated financial system.

After the U.S. earlier this month sanctioned a Chinese refinery accused of buying Iranian oil, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, said the use of the sanctions “undermines international trade order and rules, disrupts normal economic and trade exchanges, and infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and individuals.”

The Justice Department is also reauthorizing the use of single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital that were used to carry out 13 executions during the first Trump administration — more than under any president in modern history. The Biden administration had removed pentobarbital from the federal protocol over concerns about the potential for unnecessary pain and suffering.

The moves were announced as part of a broader push to step up federal executions after a moratorium under the Biden administration. Only three defendants remain on federal death row after Democratic President Joe Biden converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison, though the Trump administration has so far authorized seeking death sentences against 44 defendants.

“The prior administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims.”

The federal government has not previously included firing squad as a method of execution in its protocols, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Five states currently allow executions by firing squad: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.

The pentobarbital protocol was adopted by Bill Barr, attorney general during Trump’s first term, to replace a three-drug mix used in the 2000s, the last time federal executions were carried out before Trump's first term in office.

Attorney General Merrick Garland in the final days of the Biden administration withdrew the pentobarbital lethal injection policy after a government review of scientific and medical research found there remains “significant uncertainty" about whether its use causes unnecessary pain and suffering."

In 2020, under Barr's leadership, the Justice Department published a rule in the Federal Register to allow the federal government to conduct executions by lethal injection or use “any other manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence was imposed.”

A number of states allow other methods of execution, including electrocution, inhaling nitrogen gas or death by firing squad.

The Trump administration, in a report released Friday, said the Biden administration “got the standard and the science wrong." The Biden administration's findings, among other things, “failed to address the overwhelming evidence” that an injected with pentobarbital quickly “quickly loses consciousness—rendering him unable to experience pain," the report said.

Currently on death row are are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history.

Angelica Sanchez Bautista, 19, faced an Orange County judge Friday, months after her one-week-old baby was found alone in a car seat on Lido Street in late July.

A woman had called police after Sanchez Bautista reportedly told people the baby had died, but the caller did not believe that to be the case. The hospital where she gave birth was contacted, and shared that no babies died on the date Sanchez Bautista gave birth.

Sanchez Bautista was arrested in early August.

In Court, Orange County Assistant State Attorney Logan Jackson described how Sanchez Bautista abandoned her child.

“It was discovered that the defendant wrapped the infant child in a blanket, ordered a ride from Lyft, and took the baby to a residence where the baby was left outside in 100-degree weather, nobody was alerted to the child’s presence, and when the child was located, he had a fever of 102 degrees,” Jackson said.

Jackson also said investigators found Google searches on Sanchez Bautista’s phone about how to abandon a baby.

Eight months after the incident, Sanchez Bautista pleaded guilty to contributing to the delinquency or dependency of a minor, a second-degree misdemeanor. Prosecutors dropped an additional child neglect charge, a third-degree felony.

When asked by the judge how she pleaded, she responded simply, through an interpreter: “Guilty.”

An Orange County judge sentenced Sanchez Bautista to 267 days in the Orange County Jail. With time served credit of 267 days, her sentence is complete.

Despite completing her sentence, Sanchez Bautista has an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer, and she will be deported to Mexico, the state said Friday.

As for her baby, Sanchez Bautista has signed her parental rights, and the child is in the process of being adopted.

With each call, a prisoner stumbled out the doors and into another woman’s tearful embrace. Fifteen men and two women. All alleged political prisoners. All freed just hours into Valentine’s Day thanks to the work of Mendoza, Rosales and more than two dozen other women who dared to challenge their authoritarian government.

These wives and mothers had already participated for 37 days in a protest that transformed a dead-end street in Caracas into a tent city. The women had prayed, chanted slogans, posted their pleas on social media. They had chained themselves together. They had screamed, hoping their cries might be heard by prisoners held behind thick concrete walls.

The release of the 17 inmates that frigid February morning was bittersweet for Mendoza and Rosales. They felt a surge of pride at each emotional reunion outside the jail walls. Yet, they felt defeated. Their own husbands’ names were not called.

The two women, who had no previous experience in politics, were part of a movement that sprang up after the U.S. military attacked Venezuela on Jan. 3 and captured and removed its president, Nicolás Maduro. The protest tested the wives' health and determination in ways that continue to haunt them. It has also challenged an authoritarian government's willingness to restrain its repressive impulses.

Under pressure from the U.S. government, Venezuela announced in January that it would free political prisoners, giving hope to families of detained dissidents. About 150 protesters, mostly wives and mothers, set up outside the doors of jails and prisons suspected of holding political detainees. Their demonstration became a key test of how far the U.S. intervention can clear the way for the restoration of civil liberties in Venezuela after Maduro was replaced by his loyal vice president.

The Trump administration has praised the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez for its pledge to release political prisoners. But human rights groups say Venezuelan authorities have been selective in deciding whom to free, and more than 400 political prisoners remain behind bars.

The Venezuelan government’s press office did not respond to a request for comment on its plans for prisoners or how it decides which detainees will be freed.

After learning their husbands and at least 40 other men would remain in the jail, they headed back to their tent. Dawn had not yet broken as they discussed their options over a breakfast of crackers and ham salad. This would be their last meal, they vowed, until their husbands were freed.

“We’ll be here as long as necessary,” Mendoza told Rosales, sitting on a mattress and wearing a facemask as a health precaution. “We must continue fighting for our goal, which is the release of all of them. Not one, not two, not 17, but all of them.”

How the protests began

Rosales and Mendoza did not know each other before they started fighting for their husbands’ freedom.

Mendoza lived in western Caracas with her husband and two children, while Rosales and her husband raised four children in the once-thriving industrial city of Valencia, in north-central Venezuela.

A stay-at-home mother, Mendoza, 30, sold handcrafts to supplement her husband’s pay as a driver. Rosales, 37, had a steady job as an elementary school teacher; her husband worked as an explosive’s technician for the state’s intelligence service. Neither were the type to socialize in their free time, much preferring to spend time with their kids.

Mendoza last saw her husband, Eric Díaz, on a November morning when he left the house to go to work. She learned of his arrest from a friend and panicked. He was not allowed to call her, and authorities refused to acknowledge his detention.

Weeks went by before she learned that he had been accused by the Venezuelan government of plotting to detonate a bomb in a public plaza in Caracas. The plan, according to the country’s feared Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, was promoted by the U.S. and a faction of Venezuela’s opposition.

Rosales’ husband, Dionnys Quintero, had also been arrested that month and accused of being involved in the same plot. He, too, was not granted a phone call.

She was flummoxed by the accusations. She and Quintero firmly believed in the ideas of Hugo Chávez, the fiery Venezuelan leader who ushered in a self-proclaimed socialist revolution at the turn of the century and was Maduro’s mentor and predecessor. They consistently voted for the ruling party. She could only conclude that he had been “linked to the case because of his profession.”

“All police forces are organized like a ladder. The one at the top won’t fall; the one at the bottom will,” Rosales said. “And those at the top will always be careful not to fall.”

The Venezuelan government did not respond to questions about why it was detaining the pair's husbands.

For her part, the allegations perplexed Mendoza. Her husband had not been politically active, nor had he worked for security services. She said he spent all of his time delivering equipment for an events company or at home.

The holidays were particularly hard on their children because the women had no answers when they were asked the same question:

“When am I going to see my dad?”

The two wives dared not complain publicly. They were each told by friends and family members to keep quiet because they risked being arrested and leaving their children to fend for themselves. Maduro’s government had a reputation for ruthlessly cracking down on dissent, especially in the aftermath of his 2024 reelection claim.

That calculus changed after the U.S. military rappelled down helicopters and captured Maduro on Jan. 3 in Caracas. Five days later, under pressure from the White House to free dissidents, the Venezuelan government announced the imminent release of prisoners in an effort “intended to seek peace” without specifying with whom.

By then, Mendoza had gone to multiple detention facilities to ask about Díaz. Outside a jail, she met a man who had recently been released from custody. She showed him pictures of Díaz and a cousin of his who had also been detained. The man recognized Díaz.

He told Mendoza that her husband was being held with dozens of other political prisoners at a police station on Calle Mara, a dead-end street in a neighborhood filled with warehouses, a furniture factory, a pharmaceutical laboratory and a Catholic school.

Hours after the government announced it intended to free detainees, Mendoza and a handful of other women went to the station expecting to comfort their husbands. They carried nothing more than a few fleece blankets.

When the men were not freed, the women decided to do something. They refused to leave, setting up a makeshift camp outside the station. A furniture factory employee gifted them foam cushions to make it a little easier to lay down at night.

A few days later, Rosales joined the effort, which at its height would grow to 30 women. She and Mendoza soon became close friends, finding a sort of balance in their opposite temperaments.

While Rosales was calm and rational, frequently keeping Mendoza from doing something impulsive, her friend was fiery and passionate, unafraid to push other wives out of their comfort zones to amp up their chants and sloganeering.

“We are much more than comrades; we are a family,” Mendoza said, describing Rosales and the other wives. “No matter what happens, I will always be there for them because I have learned so much from them, including to be brave.”

While they had different personalities, they agreed that they were facing a dangerous foe.

The Venezuelan authorities have “absolutely no humanity. They have no fear of God,” Rosales said. “Venezuelan society is facing a monster.”

The camp slowly expanded from the sidewalk into the street. Tents, palettes in which to set them, chairs, stools and food began to take up space. A warehouse gave the women water, and another ran an extension cord so they could charge their phones, make coffee, play music and heat hair straighteners. A business allowed them to use the restroom.

Under growing international pressure sparked by the protests, the Venezuelan government granted a concession, allowing the women to visit their loved ones – effectively acknowledging for the first time that the men had been held there all along.

They raced to collect the clothing the government required them to wear on the Jan. 27 visit – white T-shirts and blue jeans.

Mendoza, Rosales and about two dozen other women were giddy as they entered the station. All were optimistic they might walk out with their loved ones.

The men looked pale and had lost weight

The women entered the visitation area in small groups. What they saw shocked them.

Their men – and two detained women – were pale and had lost weight. They seemed to have aged. The female prisoners wore neon green uniforms while the men were all clad in baby blue, which the women considered was an effort to link the prisoners to the political party of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado.

The Venezuelan authorities have accused Machado’s party of being part of the bomb plot. Its official color is baby blue.

During the emotional get-together, some prisoners cried, and so did the wives, mothers and sisters. The prisoners asked about their children. The men knew Maduro had been deposed, but they were not aware of the sit-in protest outside the prison.

If Venezuelan government officials had hoped the visit might quelch the protests, they were mistaken. Concerned about the prisoners’ well-being, the women redoubled their efforts.

“I’m not satisfied with just one visit. I want my family member’s full freedom, and the other women feel the same way,” Rosales said a week after she saw her husband. “Weekly or biweekly visits? That’s a waste of time, and life is fleeting.”

They met with lawmakers debating a bill to grant amnesty to political prisoners. They filed paperwork with the court and spoke with lawyers. They held vigils and prayed at all hours.

As they listened to Christian music, which helped drown out the city’s bustle, Mendoza, Rosales and the other women talked and talked. They grew familiar with each other’s stories -- hometowns, jobs, religions, favorite ring tones. They met each other’s children on videocalls or in person.

Their sisterhood strengthened when 10 of them began the hunger strike.

“What we have here is war dogs – courageous women, fighters – who despite the adversities are always together,” Mendoza said two days into her hunger strike.

Rosales lasted two days without food. Mendoza made it five. Sweat dripped down her forehead and she complained of heart palpitations when she quit and had to be taken to a hospital, weak, dizzy and dehydrated.

A stomach bug hit the camp, sending a few women home. Others, including Rosales, had to go back to work. Only another woman outlasted Mendoza, and only by a few hours. The strike ended on the camp’s 42nd day.

Hope faded slowly over the next two weeks.

Then, on the night of March 6, just as a police officer had done on Valentine’s Day, another had come outside and screamed the names of prisoners being released, and men began to shuffle out the gates.

“Freedom! Freedom!” the camp chanted as the releases extended into the first hours of March 7. Some knelt and thanked God.

Mendoza and Rosales again soaked in their achievement. Twenty-five men were freed. Yet, as they watched families embrace, reunited, they felt the familiar pang of emptiness. Their husbands remained behind bars.

One by one, reunited families drove away. Rosales crawled into a tent with a blinding headache. Mendoza stood silently by the dark gates of a warehouse.

Another prison, another visit

By sunrise, the tent city was mostly empty. Mendoza, Rosales and a few other women had a decision to make; they could continue their protests or head home.

As they weighed their next step, the wives learned their husbands had been transferred to a prison outside Caracas. They wondered if the men were being punished for their protests. The prison was much harsher than the police station. Notorious for sweltering conditions, physical and psychological abuse, insufficient food, and a particularly small cell in which new arrivals are crammed in for several days.

They decided to continue their vigil but lost more and more momentum over the next week. On March 13th, their 64th day of camping outside the police station, they gave up. Mendoza, Rosales and a few others folded up the tents and headed home.

The protest became a waiting game by their phones – hoping the government might grant them another visit. That call came two weeks later. This time, they could bring their children.

On April 5, Easter, the women took a bus from Caracas. Mendoza was joined by her son and daughter. Rosales escorted her two daughters and son, leaving her toddler home with a relative. Each family also carried something special for their prisoner.

Mendoza had some of her husband’s favorite snacks: popcorn and fried plantains. Rosales brought a sheet cake to celebrate the recent birthday of her eldest daughter, as well as her own, which was that very day.

The visit, the women and children said, was filled with conversations mostly about life and family. In between school and dentist appointment updates, the women assured their husbands they were not giving up on them. They just needed time to figure out another way to win their freedom.

After four hours, their reunion ended in hugs and tears –- the kind the wives have come to know those that say goodbye, not welcome home.

___

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

Cheers, subscribers. It’s Haley.

I think about certain Disney World experiences that went away due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of them was a hidden gem at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, and recently, Disney invited me to experience the newly reopened Garden View Lounge – Tea Experience.

The experience calls for company. A couple of colleagues joined in on the tea party, and from the food to the conversation to the sweeping garden views, it’s difficult to find a more elegant offering at a resort already celebrated for its grandeur.

A surprise guest was also present for the event, Stephen Twining, 10th-generation member of the iconic Twinings Tea family.

He spoke with us about what makes a perfect cup and why the centuries-old brand continues to thrive.

Woo-oo! at the waterpark 🥽

Disney H2O Glow After Hours is returning to Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park this summer with a nostalgic lineup of classic Disney Afternoon characters taking center stage.

Scrooge McDuck, Launchpad McQuack, Chip ‘n’ Dale as the Rescue Rangers, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, and Powerline Max from “A Goofy Movie” will all be on hand.

I have noticed the ticket price has increased, but if you’re an Annual Passholder, you’ll want to take advantage of the savings.

SeaWorld Orlando

Good times and neon lights 🛟

There is no shortage of nighttime experiences at Central Florida water parks.

Aquatica Orlando’s popular nighttime event, AquaGlow, is back for a third year. Expect a neon-lit escape where guests can ride, slide, and splash under dazzling light.

Legoland Florida

A day at Legoland 👾

If you’ve never been to Legoland Florida or haven’t been in a while, now is a good time to go.

The resort might be catered to families with young kids, but there is a lot to explore, from Miniland USA, the LEGO gift shop, and the newly opened Galacticoaster.

The News 6 Insider team wrapped up a bunch of highlights in this guide.

International Drive

Game on! 🎊

Think you’ve got what it takes to win big?

Great Big Game Show on International Drive puts you in the hot seat— literally — with a live, 60-minute interactive game show experience featuring lights, sound effects, and fast-paced mini games.

The News 6 Insider team recently visited the group-driven attraction, which is one of Orlando’s most unique ways to compete, laugh, and maybe discover your inner game show champion.

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- Haley

Among those in the firing line is Spain, which has refused to allow U.S. forces involved in the war to use bases on its territory or airspace. Spain says that U.S.-Israeli actions in the Iran war contravene international law.

France and the U.K. also have refused to give U.S. forces free rein to use their territory for the bombing campaign.

The Pentagon is reported to be mulling whether to suspend Spain from NATO, according to an unidentified U.S. official referring to a Defense Department email, and quoted by Reuters. A senior U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, did not dispute the accuracy of the reporting.

“Well, we do not work with emails," Sánchez told reporters at a European Union summit in Cyprus. "We work with official documents and positions taken, in this case, by the government of the United States.”

“The position of the government of Spain is clear: absolute collaboration with the allies, but always within the framework of international legality,” he said.

Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson claimed that NATO allies “were not there for us” and added in her statement that the Pentagon “will ensure that the President has credible options to ensure that our allies are no longer a paper tiger and instead do their part.”

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has routinely floated plans or ideas that are neither acted upon nor become policy.

The email also suggested reassessing U.S. support for the United Kingdom's claim to the Falkland Islands, near Argentina, which are also known as Islas Malvinas.

Dave Pares, a spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said the U.K. position on the islands is “longstanding and it’s unchanged: Sovereignty rests with the U.K., and the islanders’ right to self-determination is paramount.”

Pares noted “the Falkland Islands have previously voted overwhelmingly in favor of remaining a U.K. overseas territory.”

NATO staying out of the war

NATO operates by consensus, and all 32 member countries must agree for it to act.

The trans-Atlantic alliance's founding treaty has no mechanism for suspending or ejecting any of the members, although nations may leave of their own accord one year after notifying the other allies. As an organization, NATO has no direct role in the Iran war except to defend its own territory.

Asked for comment, NATO headquarters said: “NATO’s Founding Treaty does not foresee any provision for suspension of NATO membership, or expulsion.”

Trump has been angered by what he sees as the failure of some NATO members to back American actions in the Iran war and to help police the Strait of Hormuz, a major trade route. He has questioned the purpose of U.S. membership in the military organization.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas appeared perplexed by the U.S. criticism, given that the United Kingdom and France are leading an effort to help secure trade in the strait once the war is over.

“When we have had contacts with the American counterparts, then actually their asks for us have been exactly what we are able to offer after the cessation of hostilities,” she said. “Demining, escorting of ships, all of this that we have been discussing.”

But the United States has “long-standing arrangements and agreements with European allies on overflight, on basing” that should be respected, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said, in implicit criticism of some allies like Spain, but also France.

While Spain restricted U.S. military activity related to the Iran war, U.S. warplanes have flown over other NATO allies’ airspace and used U.S. bases in other NATO countries for war-related operations.

Trump has even threatened to cut trade with Spain over its refusal to allow the use of its bases and airspace. More broadly, Spain has also disappointed its allies by failing to commit to spend as much as they plan to do on defense.

Security without the US

As the reality sinks in that the U.S. commitment to NATO and Europe’s security under Trump has waned, the EU leaders debated how best to use European laws to come to each other’s aid should one of them come under attack.

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, whose country holds the bloc’s presidency until July, said that the leaders had tasked the European Commission to “prepare a blueprint on how we respond” should a member seek help under Article 42.7 of the EU treaties.

It's only ever been used once, by France after the Paris terror attacks in 2015.

EU envoys and ministers are set next month to conduct “table-top exercises” to game out how the treaty article might be used, drawing on the bloc’s military capacities, but also other assets not available to NATO, like trade, border and visa policies.

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Cook reported from Brussels. Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin in Washington and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

Owners of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week announced the newspaper's sale to a nonprofit foundation that said it was committed to keeping it open. A news outlet that predates the U.S. Constitution was due to close on May 3, which would have made the Steel City the nation's largest community without a city-based paper.

Weeks earlier, the alternative Pittsburgh City Paper, whose staff learned on New Year's Day that it was closing after 34 years, roared back to life under new ownership.

They were rare positive developments for a local news industry that has seen its share of the opposite over the past two decades — newsrooms shuttered or thinned out, journalists thrown out of work, consumers drifting away. No one is pretending that a true turnaround will be easy in Pittsburgh. One thing that may help is that the city faced a news abyss and was forced to prepare for it.

“It's human nature that sometimes you have to be shaken a bit to realize what's important in your life,” said Halle Stockton, co-executive director and editor-in-chief of the digital news outlet Public Source.

The many incarnations of the Post-Gazette

The Pittsburgh Gazette was born on July 29, 1786, the first newspaper west of the Allegheny Mountains. It went through several names with the expansion and contraction of a newspaper market that supported seven at the beginning of the 20th century. There was The Commercial Gazette, the Gazette-Times and, briefly, the Pittsburgh Gazette and Manufacturing and Mercantile Advertiser.

A consolidation caused by the closing of the Pittsburgh Post in 1927 made it the Post-Gazette, which has remained its name for 99 years.

It had a solid reputation, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2019 for its coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. “The Post-Gazette is really the paper of record for this city,” said Kevin Acklin, chief of staff to a former Pittsburgh mayor and former president of the Penguins hockey team. The other longtime “paper of record,” The Pittsburgh Press, closed in 1992 after a Teamsters union strike.

Labor woes marred the Post-Gazette's last few years as well. Much of the staff was on strike between 2022 and 2025, though the newspaper limped along. Its owner, Block Communications, Inc., announced the closing on the same January day that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected its appeal of a ruling on health benefits seen as favorable to former strikers.

Since then, rumors about its future ebbed and flowed. Acklin worked this winter with other investors to buy the newspaper, but a potential deal fell through when Block insisted the union not be part of it.

To anyone watching closely, a clue to the newspaper's future was revealed across town in mid-March.

“You thought we were dead and gone, didn't you?” Ali Trachta, top editor at the Pittsburgh City Paper, wrote on the outlet's revived website. “So did I. But, to be honest, only very briefly.” She announced that the paper was returning to cover community news, politics, the arts, “and the creative, weird and uniquely Pittsburgh stories” that have defined it since its founding in 1991.

A new nonprofit, Local Matters, led by a former engineering manager at Apple, had gathered investors to buy the City Paper. It would return to printed editions on a monthly basis and was launching a membership program for readers to pledge support. Most of its staff would return. The paper was printed weekly until its previous owner in 2025 said it would shift to only four printed editions a year.

That former owner? Block Communications.

A new nonprofit enters Pittsburgh's civic arena

When Block announced its sale of the Post-Gazette last week, it was also to a nonprofit. The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, which publishes the digital success story The Baltimore Banner, bought the Post-Gazette even though Block said it was not the highest bidder. Many in Pittsburgh feared it would be sold to a hedge fund notorious for stripping newspapers of resources.

Does that make Block, long seen as a villain in the local journalism industry, a hero in this story?

“For better or worse, the Blocks will never get credit for that,” said Andrew Conte, a journalism professor at Point Park University who runs Pittsburgh's Center for Media Innovation. “But it does seem like they made an effort to come up with the best outcome they could as they were leaving Pittsburgh. They could have just walked away and said, ‘You know, we’re done.'”

Now the work begins. Venetoulis officials did not return inquiries from The Associated Press. The institute's benefactor, hotel magnate Stewart Bainum Jr., has said that he plans to invest $30 million in both the Banner and Post-Gazette over the next five years. The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh said it hopes to be part of the process of rebuilding. Whether the union will be invited is uncertain.

“This is going to be one of the most closely-watched newspaper acquisitions in years,” said Tim Franklin, founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University. “Can a money-losing newspaper with serious labor strife be saved and resurrected as a nonprofit? If Stewart Bainum and his team pull this off — and I hope they do — it could be a model for the nation.”

Anticipating a Pittsburgh without the Post-Gazette, other news sources in the city had begun making plans to fill gaps in the marketplace, and they're not necessarily changing them because of the sale.

Another area newspaper, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, will reinstate a Sunday print edition in Pittsburgh on May 9. It had stopped printing in the city a decade ago. The Trib is also going ahead with adding about a dozen new journalists to boost its coverage of business, health care, transportation and education, said Jennifer Bertetto, its CEO. Based in Tarentum, 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the east of Pittsburgh, some city residents view the Trib as an outsider.

Stockton's Public Source, launched in 2011 primarily as a home for investigative news stories, is widening its outlook. The outlet has also convened town halls over the past few months for residents to talk about what they want in local news, and published a list of 40 to 50 small news outlets in the region that focus on subject areas like the arts and business, or different neighborhoods and towns.

People less engaged in news were looking for new ideas.

“People are actively interested in where they get their information and who they can trust for it,” Stockton said. “So we're leaning into that.”

With their careers in limbo the past several months, Post-Gazette content editor Erin Hebert and photographer Steve Mellon were among several journalists meeting regularly as the Pittsburgh Alliance for People-Empowered Reporting, or PAPER, seeing if they could create a digital news site. Hebert said it hasn’t been decided what will happen now with those plans.

Conte can walk a few blocks from the university to the office space set aside for journalists from small, local publications. He hopes to convince the Tribune-Review to print a periodic insert featuring the best reporting from these outlets.

Talk to someone young, and the challenge is obvious

A clue to the challenge faced by news organizations in 2026 is obvious when speaking to students in Conte’s journalism class. When they're asked how many had checked the Post-Gazette's website that morning, only a couple of hands tentatively go up.

Sites like Instagram or TikTok are often their destinations for news. It’s more convenient and without paywalls, said Gabriela Wait. The journalism students know to check with more reliable sources if they’re not sure they can believe what they see. Many of their friends don’t.

Makenna Smith recalled her grandparents and parents reading newspapers when she was growing up, keeping them informed and entertained. Few people her age have the same habit.

A study released earlier this month by the Pew Research Center showed that public interest in news is a problem for all ages. Pew found that 37% of Americans in 2016 said they followed local news very closely. That dropped to 21% in 2025.

To Conte, that reinforces the need for news organizations to cooperate. A former Trib reporter, he recalled his paper's bitter competition with the Post-Gazette.

“Literally, they were trying to kill each other,” he said. “I don't think any of us want to go back to a point where we're doing that. We've evolved. We're trying to work together. Even if we're competing for scoops and clicks and dollars, there's also a benefit to having us get around the same table once a month.”

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

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This story was first published on April 21, 2026. It was updated on April 24, 2026, to correct the location of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s main office. It is in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, not Greensburg.

For years, it’s been an honor to serve as an ambassador for this incredible organization. But this time, for Trooper Steve on Patrol, I went behind the scenes to show you exactly how your donations are changing lives.

And it starts somewhere you might not expect, the animal kennel.

Inside Harbor House, victims of domestic violence are not forced to make an impossible choice between their safety and their pets. They can bring them along...because for many, those pets aren’t just animals, they’re family.

Studies have shown that some victims will stay in dangerous situations simply because they don’t want to leave their pets behind. It’s a heartbreaking reality, but one Harbor House is actively working to change.

By offering a safe space for both people and their animals, that barrier is removed, giving families a real chance to escape and start over together.

During my visit, I had the chance to speak with CEO Michelle Sperzel about the importance of this program and the impact it continues to have across Central Florida.

“This is about keeping families whole,” she explained. “When someone makes the decision to leave, we want to make sure they don’t have to leave anyone behind.”

That message hits home.

Because when we talk about safety, we’re not just talking about individuals, we’re talking about entire families.

The 15th annual Paws for Peace Walk takes place tomorrow at Harbor Park, bringing the community together to support survivors and raise awareness.

It’s more than just a walk; it’s a chance to stand behind an organization that’s removing obstacles, saving lives, and keeping families together.

I hope you’ll take a moment to watch the full stream from this Trooper Steve on Patrol and, if you can, come out and show your support.

Because sometimes, helping someone take their first step to safety starts with making sure their best friend can come with them.

The limited-capacity, family-friendly nighttime event runs select nights from May 15 through Sept. 26, transforming the park into a neon-lit escape where guests can ride, slide, and splash under dazzling lights while enjoying shorter wait times and complimentary soft drinks.

New this year, guests can enter the park as early as 4 p.m., with AquaGlow officially lighting up from 8 to 11 p.m. All-new entertainment includes a Mini Rave, a reimagined Electric Tides Laser Show, and a nighttime revamp of Riptide Racer celebrating the attraction’s fifth anniversary.

Tickets start at $49.99 and are available by clicking here.

The Omni Ride and Fairfax Connector transit buses struck each other shortly before 7:30 a.m., according to a press release from the Pentagon Force Protection Agency. Emergency personnel transported 18 of the injured to local hospitals for further medical evaluation. Five were treated at the scene.

Ten of the 23 injured passengers are from the Defense Department.

The Metro Access Road was closed pending an accident investigation.

The accident altered mass transit operations for several hours. Camera footage from the scene showed the two buses colliding.

The Arlington Fire Department confirmed that the crash occurred and that it responded, but it referred questions to the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, the federal law enforcement agency at the Pentagon.

It was unclear what caused the crash.

DeepSeek’s V4 has been keenly anticipated by users looking to test how it compares to U.S. competitors like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini. Anthropic and OpenAI have accused DeepSeek of unfairly building its technology off their own.

Some industry analysts had expected the new model to arrive more than two months earlier at the start of the Lunar New Year.

DeepSeek says the new V4 open-source models, which include “pro” and “flash” versions, have big improvements in knowledge, reasoning and in their “agentic” capabilities – the ability to perform complex tasks and workflows autonomously. Another big change is they are supported in part by computer chips made by Chinese tech giant Huawei, reducing DeepSeek's reliance on U.S. chipmakers like Nvidia.

V4 is a successor to V3, an AI model that DeepSeek released in late 2024.

But it was DeepSeek’s specialized “reasoning” AI model, called R1, that took markets by surprise with its release in January 2025. DeepSeek claimed it was more cost-effective than OpenAI’s similar model and it became a symbol of how China was catching up with the U.S. in technological advancements.

DeepSeek said the “V4 Pro Max” version has “superior performance” in terms of standard reasoning benchmarks relative to OpenAI’s GPT-5.2 model and Google’s Gemini 3.0-Pro. It falls “marginally” short of GPT-5.4 and Gemini 3.1-Pro, it said. DeepSeek's release came hours after OpenAI released its new GPT-5.5 model on Thursday.

In terms of “agentic” capabilities, the Chinese company said the V4 “pro” version could outperform Claude’s Sonnet 4.5 and approaches the level of Claude's Opus 4.5 model based on its own evaluation.

The “flash” version of V4 performs on a par with the “pro” version on simple agent tasks and has reasoning capabilities closely approaching it, DeepSeek said.

“Based on the benchmark results, it does appear DeepSeek V4 is going to be very competitive against its U.S. rivals,” said Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at the technology research and advisory group Omdia.

Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, said DeepSeek's V4 rollout is as a “pivotal milestone for China’s AI industry,” especially as global competition intensifies in the pursuit of self-reliance in critical technologies.

DeepSeek offers a free‑to‑use web and mobile chatbot. Unlike the top models from Anthropic, Google and OpenAI, it describes its technology as “open source” in the way that it enables developers access to modify and build on its core technology.

Both the V4's “pro” and “flash” versions have a 1 million token context window, a parameter of how much information an AI model can process and recall, and run on a more efficient basis, the startup said. That is a significant improvement from before, since the V3 supported a 128,000 token context window.

Huawei said in a separate statement Friday that its Ascend chips and related technology are compatible with the DeepSeek V4 models. It’s a demonstration of technical feasibility of operating outside the Nvidia-dominated computing ecosystem “amid sustained technological decoupling between China and the U.S.,” said Zhang.

A report from Microsoft in January showed use of DeepSeek has been gaining ground in many developing nations, particularly those where Huawei phones are widely used.

However, some analysts remain skeptical. Ivan Su, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said while V4 is a “competent” follow-up, it’s not as big a breakthrough as the rollout of R1.

“Domestic competition has intensified significantly since R1’s release,” Su said. “Against U.S. models, DeepSeek’s own evaluation suggests its capabilities largely match on most fronts, but independent evaluations are needed before final conclusions can be drawn.”

In February, Anthropic accused DeepSeek and two other China-based AI laboratories of “industrial-scale campaigns” to “illicitly extract Claude’s capabilities to improve their own models.” It said they did that using a technique called distillation that “involves training a less capable model on the outputs of a stronger one.” OpenAI made similar allegations in a letter to U.S. lawmakers.

This week, Michael Kratsios, chief science and technology adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, also accused foreign tech companies “principally based in China” of distilling leading U.S. AI systems and “exploiting American expertise and innovation.”

China’s embassy in Washington hit back at the allegations, describing them as “unjustified suppression of Chinese companies by the U.S.”

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O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

Though the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was passed by the House of Commons last June, the House of Lords talked it out since then, stoking widespread criticism that it had overstepped the mark.

Proponents of what has been termed “ assisted dying ” — sometimes referred to as “assisted suicide” — hoped it would mark the biggest change to social policy in the U.K. since abortion was partially legalized in 1967. The intention was to put an end to the practice of those near the end of their lives from going to other countries, such as Switzerland, for an assisted death.

The bill had proposed allowing adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death subject to the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.

But opponents in the House of Lords managed to hold up its passing by filing more than 1,200 amendments on a range of concerns, including the potential coercion of vulnerable people and a lack of safeguards for those with disabilities.

”The House of Lords scrutiny exposed this bill as ‘skeleton legislation’ riddled with gaping holes,” said Gordon Macdonald from the Care Not Killing campaign group which is opposed to a change in the law. “It is now clear that this bill was both unsafe and unworkable.”

The number of amendments is believed to be a record high for a piece of legislation that was brought forward by a backbencher rather than by the government. These so-called private members' bills can only be debated on a Friday as the government largely controls the rest of the parliamentary timetable, thereby limiting the time available.

Campaigners for assisted dying expressed their anger at the sight of unelected lawmakers holding up the will of the elected chamber. They have insisted that they intend to bring the bill back in the next parliamentary session, which begins after King Charles III outlines the government's upcoming program in a speech to both houses of Parliament on May 13.

The sponsor of the bill in the House of Lords, Charlie Falconer, said he felt “despondent” that a piece of legislation “so important to so many, has not failed on its merits, but failed as a result of procedural wrangling."

“Much more than letting ourselves down are the very many people who support the bill and who feel we have not treated them properly,” he said.

Lawmaker Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the Bill to the House of Commons in late 2024, said she was “trying to stay positive” while admitting “a real sense of sadness and sorrow today.”

She said there “will absolutely be appetite" within the Commons to bring the legislation back in the next session of parliament.

Last month, lawmakers in the Scottish Parliament rejected their own assisted dying legislation. Scotland has a semiautonomous government that has authority over many areas of policy, including health.

Assisted suicide — where patients take a lethal drink prescribed by a doctor — is legal in countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and parts of the U.S., with regulations on qualifying criteria varying by jurisdiction.

The U.S. National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab released the latest photo of the popular hat-shaped galaxy on Friday. A telescope in Chile observed it four years ago, but the color imaging was not completed until this week.

Located approximately 30 million light-years away, this spiral galaxy — formally known as Messier 104 — is one of the largest in the constellation Virgo cluster. It’s an estimated 50,000 light-years across. A light year is about 6 trillion miles.

Captured in incredible detail, the galaxy's stellar halo appears to be triple the size of the sombrero itself.

A dark energy camera on the telescope also caught a stream of stars pouring out of the galaxy's southern edge. Scientists believe the stars in this stream, as well as the halo, were ripped from other galaxies in a long-ago collision.

Astronomers discovered the galaxy back in the 1700s.

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

From herbs that wilt in days to berries that seem to mold even faster, what we toss in the trash often has less to do with what we buy than how we store it at home.

A lot of that spoilage happens because of moisture and temperature.

From a scientific perspective, produce doesn’t just go bad — it breaks down under specific conditions. Plants, like humans, carry natural microflora, a diverse community of microscopic organisms.

“This could be bacteria, yeast, molds, things like that,” said Amanda Deering, associate professor of produce food safety at Purdue University.

Here are a few small changes that can extend the life of food by days.

Wait to wash

Washing produce before storing it can leave water that bacteria, yeast and mold need to grow.

Experts recommend waiting to wash fruits and vegetables until just before eating, and keeping them as dry as possible in the fridge meanwhile. Adding a paper towel can absorb dampness in containers of berries or leafy greens.

Food experts also warn that cutting up fruits and vegetables before storing them can reduce their shelf life.

“The big one is washing it and cutting it before storing it. This, of course, can leave a lot of excess moisture behind,” said Abbey Sharp, registered dietitian. “It speeds up spoilage because you’re cutting into those cell walls.”

Keep most produce cold and give it space

At room temperature, microscopic organisms grow faster. Keeping food in the fridge can slow that process, Deering said, but how you pack your fridge also matters. Overcrowding it can block airflow and make it harder to keep temperatures consistent.

Different foods have different needs.

Herbs last longer when treated like flowers, trimmed and placed in water, while harder herbs can be wrapped in a damp towel and stored in the fridge. Root vegetables like carrots can be kept in water to maintain crispiness. Separating leafy tops can extend the shelf life of carrots and beets.

Keep some kitchen staples apart

Where you store produce can affect both how it tastes and how it lasts. The texture and flavor of tomatoes, for example, are best preserved at room temperature, even if refrigeration can slow their spoilage, said Deering.

Whole garlic should be kept in a cool ventilated space, while cut or peeled garlic belongs in the fridge.

Potatoes and onions are best stored outside the fridge in a cool, dark, well-ventilated place, like a pantry or cabinet, but they shouldn’t be kept together.

“You want to keep them away from one another because they actually can make each other spoil faster,” said Sharp.

Mixing fruits at different stages of ripeness also can shorten shelf lives. As fruits ripen, they release ethylene gas, a natural compound that speeds up the ripening process in nearby produce. So storing very ripe bananas next to greener ones or alongside other fruits can cause everything around them to ripen and spoil more quickly, Deering said.

Know what spoiled actually looks like

Confusion about what’s actually safe to eat also drives food waste.

The FDA estimates that confusion over food labels accounts for about 20% of consumer food waste, as many people misinterpret the "purchase-by" dates as indicators of safety. Other food gets trashed when it doesn't look perfect, according to Sharp, who notes that “a little ugly is not the same as unsafe.”

When fruits and vegetables wilt, soften or become slightly discolored, they may not taste as fresh in certain recipes, but that doesn't mean they're spoiled. A limp carrot or a slightly soft celery stalk, for example, can still be safe to eat, especially when cooked, Sharp said.

“Produce that is like a little bit wilted or like a little soft or a little less crisp is often more a quality issue. It’s not necessarily a food safety issue,” said Sharp.

Signals that food should be thrown away are more distinct, like visible mold, slime, leaking liquid or a strong unpleasant odor — clear indications that produce has broken down beyond the point of safe consumption, according to Sharp.

Think of the impact outside your kitchen

Throwing away food also discards the results of all the resources used to grow, transport and store it. But small habits can make a big difference, like buying what you need, using items before they sit too long, and freezing produce like berries or bananas before it goes bad.

“Household food waste represents probably the largest portion of food waste when we look at it across the whole supply chain,” said Pete Pearson, a vice president at World Wildlife Fund.

And that waste also produces a potent greenhouse gas that harms the planet long after discarded food leaves the kitchen.

“When food enters landfills, it’s essentially buried in a non-oxygen environment where it breaks down and creates bacteria and methane emissions,” said Pearson.

But because people interact with food every day, even small shifts can add up, depleting fewer resources across the broader food system.

“It’s these small changes over millions and millions of people that can make a huge difference,” said Pearson.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The raid has evolved into an insider trading scandal. This week, the federal government charged a U.S. special forces soldier who was part of January's capture with using classified information about the mission to bet on Maduro's downfall, and pocket more than $400,000 on Polymarket soon after.

Polymarket, one of the world's largest prediction markets, said it alerted the Justice Department after determining that someone had traded on classified government information and cooperated with the investigation. In a statement, the company maintained that insider trading “has no place” on its platform.

Still, the case is once again putting the spotlight on a murky (and growing) world of speculative, 24/7 transactions now filling the internet. The timing and subjects of particular trades — particularly related to geopolitical conflicts — have fueled scrutiny recently. Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that a group of new accounts on Polymarket also made highly specific, well-timed bets on the fate of the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran.

Because prediction market wagers are categorized differently than traditional forms of gambling, tensions about government oversight are rising. President Donald Trump's administration has already thrown its support behind company operators — and sued three states over their efforts to regulate them further. Meanwhile, other lawmakers in Washington are calling for further investigations and new guardrails.

Here's what we know:

How prediction markets work

The scope of topics involved in prediction markets can range immensely. Beyond geopolitical conflicts, there’s been a surge of wages on elections and sports games recently. But users also bet on anything from weather forecasts, the likelihood of the U.S. government confirming the existence of extraterrestrial life and how much billionaire Elon Musk might post on social media this month.

In industry-speak, what someone buys or sells in a prediction market is called an “event contract.” They're typically advertised as “yes” or “no” wagers. And the price of one fluctuates between $0 and $1, reflecting what traders are collectively willing to pay based on a 0% to 100% chance of whether they think an event will occur.

The more likely traders think an event will occur, the more expensive that contract will become. And as those odds change over time, users can cash out early to make incremental profits, or try to avoid higher losses on what they’ve already invested.

Proponents of prediction markets argue putting money on the line leads to better forecasts. And some think there's value in monitoring prediction markets for potential news, particularly elections.

Still, prediction markets can also be wrong. Traders may be closely following certain events, but others could just be randomly guessing.

Who is behind all of the trading is also pretty unclear, at least to the public. The companies running today’s biggest platforms know who their customers are — as they collect personal information to verify identities and payments. But most users can trade under anonymous pseudonyms on the websites the world can see.

Critics also stress that the ease and speed of joining these 24/7 wagers leads to financial losses everyday, particularly harming users who may already struggle with gambling. The platforms themselves typically make money by taking a small cut of at least some trades, usually in the form of fees.

The major players

Polymarket is one of the largest prediction markets in the world. Users can fund event contracts through cryptocurrency, debit or credit cards and bank transfers.

Restrictions vary by country, although experts note that users might still find ways to buy certain contracts while traveling abroad or through connecting to different VPNs. But for U.S.-based trades, the reach of these markets has expanded rapidly over recent years, coinciding with shifting policies out of Washington.

While prediction markets have found backing from the Trump-controlled Commodity Futures Trading Commission, former President Joe Biden was more aggressive in cracking down. Following a 2022 settlement with the CFTC, Polymarket was barred from operating in the country. That changed under Trump late last year, when Polymarket announced it would be returning to the U.S. after receiving clearance from the commission. American-based users can now join a “waitlist” to access the platform.

Meanwhile, Polymarket’s top competitor, Kalshi, has been a federally-regulated exchange since 2020. The platform offers similar ways to buy and sell event contracts as Polymarket — and it currently allows event contracts on elections and sports nationwide. Kalshi won court approval just weeks before the 2024 election to let Americans put money on upcoming political races and began to host sports trading last year.

The space is now crowded with other big names. Major League Baseball inked a deal with Polymarket last month, following other partnerships in professional hockey and soccer. Meanwhile, sports betting giants DraftKings and FanDuel have launched their own prediction platforms. Trump’s social media site Truth Social has also promised to offer an in-platform prediction market through a partnership with Crypto.com — and one of the president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr., holds advisory roles at both Polymarket and Kalshi.

Last month, The Associated Press agreed to sell its U.S. elections data to Kalshi.

Loose regulation and calls for reform

Because they’re positioned as selling event contracts, prediction markets are regulated by the CFTC. That means they can avoid state-level restrictions or bans in place for traditional gambling and sports betting today.

“It’s a huge loophole,” Karl Lockhart, an assistant professor of law at DePaul University who has studied this space, previously told the AP. “You just have to comply with one set of regulations, rather than (rules from) each state around the country.”

Sports betting is taking center stage. There are a handful of big states — like California and Texas, for example — where sports betting is still illegal, but people can now wager on games, athlete trades and more through event contracts.

A growing number of states and tribes are trying to stop this. But the Trump administration has already pushed back, maintaining that the CFTC has the sole authority to regulate prediction markets. Many lawyers expect litigation to eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

Despite overseeing trillions of dollars for the overall U.S. derivatives market, the CFTC is much smaller than the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates the securities industry. And at the same time event contracts are growing rapidly on prediction market platforms, there have been sizeable workforce cuts and leadership departures. CFTC chairman Michael Selig is the sole member filling just one of five commissioner slots.

Meanwhile, Congress members from both sides of the aisle have introduced broad legislation for more guardrails in recent months — including a ban on prediction market bets related to war, assassinations or terrorist attacks. Federal law already gives the CFTC the authority to bar these kinds of event contracts, but some lawmakers are seeking an outright ban.

Calls for change also arrive as insider trading allegations pile up. Beyond the charges spanning from the Maduro-related bets on Polymarket, Kalshi just earlier this week fined and suspended three congressional candidates who it said wagered on the outcome of their own elections.

Both Kalshi and Polymarket have rolled out added guardrails in efforts to combat insider trading recently, notably soon after Congressional pushes for increased oversight.

According to the district, the principal was transported to the hospital following the incident and is expected to make a full recovery and sustained only minor injuries.

Additional details about the circumstances surrounding the incident were not immediately known.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

It won’t be the last time, either.

The minimum salary for an NFL draft pick in 2026 is slotted at $915,120. But with college revenue sharing going into effect before the 2025 season — top programs are now spending up to $20.5 million on student-athletes, with the majority earmarked for the most talented football players — there are undoubtably players who will be drafted Saturday who topped the million-dollar mark last season and will earn less in the pros.

At least in Year 1.

“So the character of those players, their passion and love of the game come to the forefront even more,” Roseman said.

Most of the players making more than $1 million in college football are quarterbacks. Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza and Alabama’s Ty Simpson were first-round draft picks, with Mendoza going No. 1 to the Las Vegas Raiders and Simpson surprisingly landing with the Los Angeles Rams at No. 13.

Mendoza’s NFL rookie deal is slotted to top $57 million, including nearly $10.5 million in 2026. Simpson’s contract will be roughly half that — $25.4 million total, including $4.6 million in the first year.

LSU's Garrett Nussmeier and Miami’s Carson Beck are projected to be the next quarterbacks selected, with both potentially coming off the board in the second or third round Friday night — and both likely earning less as NFL rookies than they made as established college starters.

Same goes for fellow QBs Drew Allar (Penn State), Taylen Green (Arkansas), Cole Payton (North Dakota State), Sawyer Robertson (Baylor), Cade Klubnik (Clemson), Joey Aguilar (Tennessee) and others.

Although revenue share payments are typically undisclosed, name, image and likeness valuations are much more public. Nearly half of the top 50 NIL valuations in 2025 belonged to QBs, according to On3, with two dozen of those over $1.5 million.

“They come in almost like pros now,” Raiders general manager John Spytek said. “I actually think it’s made it easier because you know what the guys are going to do when they have money.

“You know the ones that love the game and are about the right things, and just because they’ve got more money than we all had when we were in college, they still prepare the right way, they play the right way, they love the game, they’re there for their teammates. I think it’s kind of been a little bit illuminating to the character of who they are.”

The financial component has less of an impact on NFL decision-makers as the age issue.

Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said this is the third consecutive year in which 18% of the team’s draft board is comprised of players at least 24 years old. That number used to be 4%, he added.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the initial age surge. But soaring NIL payments and rev share could be the deciding force for years to come.

“That’s something that we don’t really understand fully and what that means,” DeCosta said. “I don’t think it’s a good thing, certainly. But historically we’ve tried to draft younger players when we can. That’s been something that we feel strongly (about), but now we’ve got 18% of the draft board that’s over 24 years old. So that’s going to change the way that maybe we target players.”

And some of them will be millionaires before they even sign an NFL contract.

“That’s interesting. I don’t know that it’s rooted in financial thoughts as much as you talk about age quite a bit and whether or not tread on the tires is something of note,” Jacksonville Jaguars general manager James Gladstone said. “I think most of the times the guys have a little bit more financial awareness, and that can be a really helpful tool.

“The fact that they’re not just being dumped a good chunk of cash for the first time when they enter the NFL. They now have some version of experience navigating that, and that can be a really helpful piece for sure.”

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

He and the Hurricanes thought they'd won Game 2 of their first-round series against Ottawa when teammate Mark Jankowski scored, but a league-initiated challenge ruled the play to be offside, took the goal off the board and rewound the clock. The very next shift, Martinook was hooked by Senators forward Warren Foegele on a breakaway and awarded a penalty shot.

“I was trying to tell (the referee) we needed the power play, not the penalty shot,” Martinook said. He got turned aside by Linus Ullmark, then scored the winner in double overtime.

Through Thursday night's games, there have been four penalty shots already in these playoffs — more through 21 games than the previous three years' worth combined, including zero in 2025 — and the goaltenders have saved all four.

Two more penalty shots would tie the record for the most in a single postseason. There doesn't seem to be a reason for the uptick in refs calling for penalty shots over power plays, but there is no doubt it has added rare and must-see entertainment to a compelling first round.

“Everything’s very circumstantial,” Buffalo goalie Alex Lyon said after denying Boston's Viktor Arvidsson in Game 3 on Thursday night. He's not sure if he'd rather face the 1-on-1 matchup or endure a 2-minute penalty kill.

“To be honest with you, every player in this league has the ability to score on penalty shots,” Lyon said. “So yeah, I guess it’s just more circumstantial, but I don’t really have a definitive answer one way or the other.”

Lyon stopped Arvidsson, Ullmark stopped Martinook, Philadelphia's Owen Tippett missed the net against Pittsburgh's Stuart Skinner, and Colorado's Scott Wedgewood made such a highlight-reel save on Los Angeles' Quinton Byfield that jubilant fans in Denver broke the glass behind the Kings' bench.

“Never really seen the glass shatter behind the bench,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said following a repair process that delayed the game more than 15 minutes. “That’s a different one. Stuff happens. Fans get excited. Our guys were excited.”

Is more grabbing going on during play? More breakaways in a league that has increased the emphasis on offense in recent years? Both could be true.

The NHL's rule 24.1 says "a penalty shot is designed to restore a scoring opportunity which was lost as a result of an infraction being committed by the offending team, based on the parameters set out in these rules.” That does provide some latitude for officials to determine what constitutes a penalty shot if a player is unimpeded by an opponent with no one between him and the net.

Still, four penalty shots before the end of the first round is unusual. The only playoffs with more penalty shots 2019 (five) and 2008 (six).

These are potentially game-changing moments and add even more pressure to a playoff game. Martinook described his experience as being the big guy on one end of a teeter-totter, acknowledging he didn't feel good about himself after not scoring on his opportunity. The 33-year-old grinder made good on his next one to keep from being perceived as the goat.

“It was going to be a long night if that penalty shot came back to bite me,” Martinook said. “Hockey's crazy, sports are crazy and being able to score after that, I'll tell my grandkids about that one, that's for sure.”

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AP Sports Writers Jimmy Golen in Boston; Aaron Beard in Raleigh, North Carolina and Pat Graham in Denver contributed to this report.

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

The shooting happened around 9:30 a.m. on the 200 block of East 13th Street.

Responding deputies say they found a man in his 50s who had been shot by a known suspect. Witnesses at the scene told deputies the shooter was 19-year-old Keith Simmons.

Simmons and the victim, Chester Keys, got into a verbal confrontation in the driveway of a home, which led to the shooting, according to the report filed by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities say Keys was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Authorities say Simmons left the scene but was later arrested and charged with attempted murder with a firearm.

Dowler, who has Stargardt disease and says she has about 10% useful vision, only began running last year, starting with a couch to 5K program before building up to marathon distance. She is now preparing to run the London Marathon with her boyfriend as her guide, using AI powered Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses to help her navigate and track her progress.

“They are AI assisted,” she said. “While running, I can ask for live cues, such as what landmarks are around me and how far I have run.”

She said the glasses allow her to combine audio feedback with guidance from her running partner.

“I can put my music on but still be able to listen to my guide runner,” she said.

Her goal is not focused on speed.

“My mission was to inspire other people with sight loss and people going through something really tough and inspire them to believe in themselves,” she said.

Dowler is among a growing number of visually impaired runners using AI enabled smart glasses. These wearable devices combine standard consumer products with cameras, microphones and open ear speakers. They can be controlled with your voice, buttons or some simple gestures and use artificial intelligence to interpret surroundings and provide audio feedback.

The most well known smart glasses are from tech company Meta, which makes them in partnership with Ray-Ban and Oakley. More than 7 million pairs of Meta Ray-Bans were sold last year, underscoring their growing popularity. But they’ve also stirred privacy worries, including being used to film people without their knowledge as well as concerns that Meta was sending the video to human reviewers for AI training.

For Sha Khan, who lost around 90 percent of his vision in 2021 due to retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt disease, the technology has become part of daily life as well as training.

“It’s like literally a part of me now,” he said. “If I step out the front door, I wouldn’t do that without my glasses on.”

Khan also relies on his guide dog, Moby, in his day to day life, using him for navigation outside of running.

He said the hands free nature of the glasses is especially useful because it allows him to stay focused on working with Moby without needing to handle a phone.

Khan began running in 2022 after a volunteer from Guide Dogs UK, a charity that provides guide dogs and mobility support for people with vision loss, encouraged him to try it after his sudden loss of sight loss and the impact that it had on his mental health.

While training with guide runners, he uses voice commands to interact with the glasses.

“If they say that’s Big Ben ahead of us I can just say ‘hey Meta take a picture,’” he said.

He said the hands free nature of the device is important.

“I don’t need to be worrying about fumbling with a mobile phone,” he said.

Smart glasses use a front facing camera to capture visual input and artificial intelligence to analyze it, converting the information into audio delivered through speakers built into the frame.

Chris Lewis, a technology analyst who is visually impaired and has used smart glasses while skiing, said the system provides an additional layer of awareness.

“The AI is taking the images coming in, analyzing it and giving you the information about what’s in front of you, what might be moving and what might be changing,” he said.

He said this allows users to receive information in real time without losing awareness of their surroundings, which is important for activities such as running.

However, Lewis said events like marathons can pose additional challenges, with large crowds putting pressure on mobile networks and potentially weakening signal, which in turn can affect how reliably the glasses deliver real time information.

Guide Dogs UK, which also provides other services to help people live independently, says the technology should be used alongside existing support systems rather than replacing them.

“These glasses can really support and enhance somebody’s independence but they’re not there to be relied upon or replace core independent skills,” said Tommy Dean, a technology specialist at the charity.

He said guide dogs, mobility training and human support remain essential, particularly in complex environments.

Ben Hatton, an analyst at CCS Insight who studies emerging consumer technologies, said reliability remains a key challenge.

“If you’re going to allow visually impaired people to walk down the street or cross busy roads with the technology then it has to be perfectly reliable every single time,” he said.

He said factors such as accuracy, connectivity and cost will determine how widely the technology can be adopted.

Despite those limitations, experts say advances in artificial intelligence are enabling mainstream devices to play a growing role in accessibility.

“The fact that consumer technology can enhance the experience of someone with a sight problem adds to the potential to be more and more independent,” Lewis said.

More than 59,000 runners are expected to take part in the London Marathon on Sunday, according to organizers, following a 26.2 mile route through the capital that starts in Greenwich and finishes near Buckingham Palace.

Mario Gomez, 39, was arrested on April 18 in Ormond Beach. He faces two felony counts of battery stemming from two separate incidents in Altamonte Springs.

The first incident occurred on April 5 at Ulta Beauty near Crane’s Roost Park. Police say Gomez grabbed a woman from behind while she was shopping. The woman struck him before he fled.

[WATCH PREVIOUS COVERAGE BELOW]

While investigating Gomez, detectives identified a second victim, who positively identified him through a photo lineup. A review of his criminal history revealed at least five to six prior guilty convictions for battery dating back to 2018, prompting prosecutors to upgrade both charges to felony battery.

After Altamonte Springs police determined he was in Volusia County, Gomez was arrested and transferred to Seminole County to face pending charges.

Anyone with information is asked to call Altamonte Springs police at 407-339-2441 or dial 911. Anonymous tips can be submitted to Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS.

Some people at the busy shopping center told News 6 they had seen the social media post about the incident.

“It’s scary because I live on the other side of Crane’s Roost and I walk my dog. I’m around here by myself a lot, so it’s unnerving to know that somebody is walking around, and we don’t know who it is,” one woman said.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last weekend directing the FDA and other federal agencies to speed research and loosen restrictions on psychedelics, a class of hallucinogenic drugs which remain illegal under federal law.

The FDA said it awarded priority review vouchers to two companies studying psilocybin — the active ingredient in magic mushrooms — for hard-to-treat forms of depression. A third company received a voucher for methylone, a drug related to MDMA, for post-traumatic stress disorder. The FDA did not name the companies in a press release announcing the news.

“We owe it to our nation’s veterans and all Americans who are suffering from these conditions to evaluate these potential therapies with urgency,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in a statement.

The vouchers don’t guarantee approval, but instead mean that regulators will try to shorten their reviews from a period of months to weeks.

The recent moves on psychedelics reflect growing popular support for the mind-altering substances among Trump’s supporters, including combat veterans and followers of the Make America Healthy Again movement spearheaded by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Last July, Kennedy told members of Congress his department aimed to make psychedelics available for hard-to-treat psychiatric conditions within one year. Some of Kennedy’s top allies and staffers are proponents of the drugs.

Calley Means, a former Kennedy campaign staffer now serving as a senior health adviser, has previously written about the “mind-blowing” power of psychedelics and his plans to invest in companies developing the drugs.

FDA's special treatment for psychedelics is likely to renew scrutiny of its program for speeding up drug reviews, known as the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher program.

Democratic members of Congress have noted that vouchers have gone to companies that are politically favored by the White House, including those that have agreed to cut prices on their medications.

In a separate move, the FDA authorized initial testing of a drug related to ibogaine, a powerful psychedelic made from an African shrub, for people with alcohol use disorder. Ibogaine is known to sometimes cause dangerous heart rhythms but has been embraced by combat veterans as a way to treat trauma and addiction.

The drugmaker, DemeRx, is led by a Florida-based researcher who first began studying ibogaine as a treatment for cocaine addiction in the 1990s, before federal health officials pulled funding for the work.

“Every grant proposal that I submitted to (the National Institute on Drug Abuse) was rejected,” Deborah Mash, a neurologist and founder of DemeRx, told The Associated Press. “I couldn't get that funding and that's why ibogaine didn't advance in the 1990s.”

Ibogaine is known to cause intense hallucinations, nausea, vomiting, tremors and sometimes dangerous irregular heart rhythms. Mash says DemeRx’s drug is a metabolite of ibogaine, and doesn't carry the same hallucinogenic effects or risks as the original drug.

Saturday’s White House event on psychedelics suggested Trump’s political allies had a role in pushing the drugs to the top of his agenda.

Joe Rogan, the podcaster who appeared at the Oval Office event, said he texted Trump about the psychedelic ibogaine, which he’s repeatedly discussed on his show. According to Rogan, the president quickly responded: “Sounds great. Do you want FDA approval? Let’s do it."

Rogan’s endorsement of Trump days before the November 2024 election was seen by White House aides as a key factor in his election victory.

On his show earlier this week, Rogan said he learned about ibogaine from his friend Ed Clay, a mixed martial arts trainer and entrepreneur who runs retreats making use of it in Mexico.

Virtually all psychedelics, including LSD, psilocybin and MDMA are classified as Schedule I substances, a category for high-risk drugs that have no medically accepted use.

For decades, drugmakers steered clear of the substances due to the difficulties of studying drugs that are illegal under federal law.

But dozens of small drugmakers, many fueled by Silicon Valley investors, have recently jumped into the race to win FDA approval for various psychedelics. For example, tech billionaire Peter Thiel — who has made political donations to both Trump and Vice President JD Vance — has invested in AtaiBeckley, a company studying MDMA and other psychedelic compounds.

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

Researchers blame a number of factors including climate change causing fuel to dry out and be more flammable, a record drought, tens of millions of tons of dead trees from Hurricane Helene and just the large area where dense forests and high numbers of people try to coexist.

So far this year, 2,802 square miles (7,258 square kilometers) of the United States has burned in wildfires — much of it in Nebraska, an unusual area for massive wildfires — that's 88% more than the 10-year average for this time of year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. That's happening as significant chunks of the country set records for the warmest winter and March and April drought.

“The warmer we get, the more fire we see. Longer fire seasons, more lightning possibly, and drier fuels,” said fire scientist Mike Flannigan of Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, Canada. “I think we're going to see more fire in the East. We're seeing more intense fires.”

Fires are increasing in the East

The number of large fires, likelihood of them happening and amount of land burned has increased in most of the Southeast United States from 1984 to 2020, according to a 2023 study by University of Florida fire ecologists Victoria Donovan and Carissa Wonkka.

“The fires in the East historically and today are a lot smaller than in the Western United States, so they might not always grab as much attention as those out West. But we’re starting to see now this shift in dynamics in the East, we’re starting to quantify it,” Donovan said Thursday. “Even though the changes that we're seeing in the East are much smaller than we're quantifying out West, we think it's extremely important to start to get ahead of this problem now.”

Three months ago, Donovan, Wonkka and other fire scientists created a new network for fire researchers to study Eastern fires because some of the issues that experts have learned out West may not apply in the East, Wonkka said.

Even though the West has bigger and more noticeable fast-spreading fires, the East has more people in the way of flames in something scientists call the wildland-urban interface or WUI.

“We found that 45% of all large wildfires in the East burn some portion of the wildland-urban interface and 55% of the area burned so that a lot of these large wildfires are associated with WUI fires,” Donovan said.

Add to that the forests in the East are denser and less likely to be thinned out than those in the West, Donovan said.

Hurricane Helene created a ‘ticking time bomb’

A week ago, federal and state official looked at the drought, the weather and the millions of dead trees from Hurricane Helene in 2024 and issued an advisory to watch out for fires, said Nick Nauslar, a National Weather Service fire science and operations officer at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

“They are thinking, you know, they could see more fires, more resistance to control with the fires that they get,” Nauslar said. “It has been warmer and drier than normal across many of the areas where Helene caused damage. So there’s the potential there. You have an excess of fuel available because now (the trees are) dead and at the mercy of weather and climate. And then if you get dry and windy conditions, if you get an ignition, it’s more likely to ignite and spread.”

In Georgia alone, 13,954 square miles (36,142 square kilometers) of forest land was hit by Hurricane Helene, downing more than 26 million tons of pine and 30 million tons of hardwood, according a November 2024 University of Georgia and Georgia Forestry Commission timber damage assessment.

“Many of us have worried about fuel buildup post-Helene. It’s a ticking time bomb,” University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd said.

Dry air makes it worse

But it's not just downed trees — it's also dry air increasing the likelihood of fires. It's not just a lack of rain, but the air itself is less humid, which causes problem, Nauslar and Flannigan said.

“As we warm … the atmosphere’s ability to suck moisture out of dead fuel, not live fuel, but dead fuel, increases almost exponentially as temperature increases,” Flannigan said. “The drier the fuel, the easier it is for a fire to start, means more fuel dried and is available to burn, which leads to higher intensity fires that are difficult to impossible to extinguish.

“That's what we're seeing now starting to make inroads into the East,” Flannigan said. Human-caused climate change is clearly playing a role, he said.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The Atlanta-based railroad said Friday that it earned $547 million, or $2.43 per share. That's down from $750 million, or $3.31 per share, a year ago. The disastrous derailment in the small town on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border has generally boosted earnings in recent quarters as the railroad collected insurance payments, but that wasn't the case this time, so it combined with planning costs related to the merger, earnings per share were reduced by 22 cents. Last year's results were also helped by some land sales.

Without those unusual costs, the railroad's profit would have beat Wall Street estimates. The analysts surveyed by FactSet Research predicted the railroad would earn $2.51 per share.

CEO Mark George said the railroad also dealt with the uncertain economy that reduced the shipments it delivered by 1%, along with severe weather and rapidly rising fuel costs.

“Despite these challenges, our employees safely delivered a solid service product, managed costs effectively, and earned the continued trust of our customers. As conditions improved, we captured momentum exiting the quarter, reinforcing the strength of our operating foundation and the dedication of the entire Norfolk Southern team,” George said.

The railroad's revenue was relatively flat at just under $3 billion. But its expenses jumped 15% compared to last year when insurance payments from the derailment added $185 million to Norfolk Southern's bottom line.

Norfolk Southern is working with Union Pacific to update its application to merge that the railroads plan to submit next Thursday. The U.S. Surface Transportation Board rejected the railroad’s first request to approve the $85 billion merger because the regulators wanted more information. The STB hasn’t yet decided whether the deal that would cut the number of major freight railroads down to five will enhance competition.

Norfolk Southern operates trains all over the eastern United States. Combining with Union Pacific's network west of the Mississippi River would create the nation's first transcontinental railroad.

The mission would mark the end of an era for the American space program, but Schmitt already was looking to the future. His voice crackling over a high-frequency radio signal that day, he shared his thoughts with Cernan and those listening in at Mission Control.

“Well, I tell you Gene, I think the next generation ought to accept this as a challenge. Let's see them leave footsteps like these someday,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt, 90, is one of the four Apollo moonwalkers still alive today. A field geologist, he was the first scientist to set foot on the moon and his expertise helped answer questions about the origin of that big rock up there and what it tells us about the solar system.

Schmitt felt the thrill again when the Artemis II crew rocketed into space on a historic lunar flyby. Pure excitement and the potential for so much more. And he's hopeful as new generations get back to the moon and beyond.

Interviewed by The Associated Press, the former U.S. senator from New Mexico spoke about everything from the importance of having a lunar base to tapping new energy sources and whether we’re alone in the universe. Dark matter and quantum entanglement also were mentioned, with Schmitt saying many discoveries are yet to come.

“You’ve just got to remember," he said, “what used to be called supernatural probably should be called unknown physics.”

This interview has been edited for brevity.

Q: What about having a lunar base?

Well, I think a lunar base makes a lot of sense and it always has for a lot of reasons. One is geopolitical. Probably the most important one is a geopolitical presence in deep space — and in preparation for going on to Mars.

The moon has resources that are going to reduce the cost of actually going to Mars and it gains experience. One of the things people keep forgetting about is you’ve gone through several generations and the new generation has to gain experience — psychologically as well as practically about how you work in deep space. And they’re doing that. That was probably the most important part of Artemis II, is it gave the ground people, Mission Control and others, the experience now to really have the risk as real rather than as part of a simulation.

Q: What was your mission during Apollo 17?

I had a lot of understanding of what other crews had learned, what had been learned from some of the early sample analyses and so we were trying to put sort of the frosting on the cake of answering questions in a very complex geologic area called Taurus-Littrow.

Taurus-Littrow actually is deeper than the Grand Canyon and so it has a three-dimensional aspect to it that we hadn’t had on other missions. And plus having a field geologist like myself on board meant that we should be more efficient at gathering samples that had a meaningful aspect to our further understanding of the origin of the moon, its relationship to the Earth and, it turns out, also its relationship to the history of the sun.

Q: So we're building upon our knowledge of the universe around us?

Well there’s no question that the moon has a history to tell us.

It’s been recording the history of the solar system ever since the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago. That is really what the moon gives us — that library of knowledge, of potential knowledge about how the solar system evolved and then what the sun has been doing in that 4.5 billion years.

In the recent work that I’ve been doing in that layer of debris, the regolith, we find that the sun became even more active than it had been about the same time as we had an explosion of life in the oceans on Earth, and so the oceans may have been and almost certainly were warming to that more active sun and life likes warmth. So it multiplied not only in quantity but in diversity. The mammals started to appear soon after that, life started to move up onto the continents that had formed so things were really starting to move about a half-billion years ago.

Q: Tell us about the moon rocks

This is a sample of a basalt lava and we have a lot of basalt lavas here in New Mexico. This is different in that it is rich in titanium, more rich than most terrestrial basalts. And that titanium turns out to be very important in terms of the resources that are available on the moon. It has a property of concentrating some of those resources, particularly hydrogen and helium.

There’s an isotope called helium-3 and that is going to be, I think, ultimately very, very important in the production of energy. It’s going to be extremely useful in quantum computing, in cancer therapy and other things here on Earth. We just don’t have much on Earth, so the moon is going to be a our reservoir, our source of this very important isotope of helium-3.

Q: How important will this isotope be in the future?

Helium-3 offers a possibility of having nuclear energy without nuclear waste. We’ve known that for decades, and so the moon now offers that opportunity to begin to substitute a nuclear form of energy that doesn’t produce nuclear waste for what we have today.

Q: Is it just as much an energy race as a space race?

There’s no question about it. China is interested in it, we’re interested in it. And that’s probably one of the big technological drivers of this new race to the moon, a new space race, a Cold War that’s on now primarily involving China and I think helium-3 is a big actor in that right now.

Q: What was it like in the Taurus-Littrow Valley?

First of all, we were in a valley deeper than the Grand Canyon. The mountains on either side were as high as the Grand Canyon from the bottom. Secondly, you’re in one-sixth gravity so that means you can walk much more easily than you could here on Earth. Now we were covered by a pressure suit but still walking around was like being a kid again ... if you fell you didn’t fall very hard and you certainly didn’t cry about it. But the moon is really a very easy place to work so as long as you have the right equipment surrounding you. You have to have that atmosphere of course to breathe.

Q: Any downsides to working in a weightless environment?

For me, it was a very comfortable environment to be in and you get a little bit lazy. For example, if you’re taking notes with a pad of paper and a pen or pencil and somebody says would you take the SCS switch to off, well you just let go and it floats there and you go over to the switch and come back and start to dictate those notes again.

You’ve got to be careful though because you’re brain gets lazy. When I got on the carrier after splashdown, I was taking my first drink of water and I just let go of the cup and of course it broke on the floor. Human beings tend to take advantage of their environment very quickly and the brain does get a little bit lazy like that. It took about three days to get comfortable again back here on Earth.

Q: So we'll have no problem living on the moon?

No, I think living on the moon is going to be very good. Now long term civilization on the moon, there’s still some major issues. The radiation issue has to be dealt with and we can. There are ways to do that. Going to Mars is another issue and that’s why you’ll almost certainly need fusion rockets to cut that time frame.

Q: We've heard a lot lately about UFOs. What are your thoughts on that?

Well there are billions of sunlike stars out there and so you just have to imagine that life may have originated on some other planet, although the conditions for life to originate here on Earth are really unique. Everything sort of fit together and creation for us sort of leads to you thinking of an infinitely intelligent being that made it all happen. But the technical potential statistically is very high that you could have had the similar kind of conditions develop elsewhere in the universe.

Now are they visiting us? My feeling is if they’re really so advanced they could be here, they'd communicate better than they have and so I just don’t know. But it’s plausible. Let’s put it that way. Unlikely maybe, but plausible.

Q: Would you take the opportunity to go back to the moon or to Mars?

Oh surely. Teresa, my wife, would like very much to go with me — that would be one condition. But I think a trip to Mars is going to be fantastic for those people.

So youth is extremely important and the education of those youth particularly in mathematics is extraordinarily important, and NASA now has a younger agency than they had grown to be during the shuttle era.

Look what has happened since Apollo. The commercial sector has developed new technologies, new ways of doing things and NASA is now trying to integrate those into a new approach to deep space exploration.

“For the zoo and for us here, it’s the very big deal,” said Amarylis Celestina, who oversees carnivores and koalas at the Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society in West Palm Beach, Florida. "We are trying the best that we can to help with a lot of the genetic diversity within the population that we have here in the United States. So that’s why it’s important that we do have a joey and that we were successful this year.”

The joey, born to Ellin and Sydney last fall, remains in its mother's pouch and has just recently started to become visible to zoo officials.

They continue to monitor Ellin's weight, and are providing extra food as she cares for the baby.

Meanwhile, the koala population is enjoying a renovated habitat, which include more greenery, new perching for exercising, and solar tubes to bring in more natural light. The changes bring a bit of the Australian outback to the zoo for koalas, which are an endangered species. They are able to move between their climate-controlled indoor exhibit and the expanded outdoor area.

“This new habitat is a milestone for our koalas,” Margo McKnight, the zoo's CEO and president said in a news release. “The deliberate design supports the voluntary, cooperative care our zoologists and koalas have developed together.”

Koalas in the U.S. are on loan from the Australian federal government to help with conservation practices.

Koalas are generally peaceful, have a calm nature and enjoy a “slow” lifestyle. They like to climb and hop between the trees in the habitat. The renovations are designed to help koalas express their natural behaviors, zoo officials said.

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Frisaro reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The changes have followed a rise in political violence nationwide that included the stunning assassination last June of Rep. Melissa Hortman, the top Democratic leader in the Minnesota House, and the September killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was speaking at a college in Utah.

In Minnesota, most doors at the state Capitol are now locked, and people entering must go through weapons detectors. People entering the visitors' galleries to watch floor debates must go through a second set of detectors.

“It’s important for us to be able to not have our government fall apart if our legislators are under threat,” said Minnesota Rep. Julie Green, a Democrat who sits directly across the aisle from Hortman's old desk, which remains empty except for fresh roses, her portrait and a speaker's gavel. “It’s a complicated, complex, very emotional issue, as you can imagine.”

High-profile attacks have stoked lawmakers’ fears

In addition to the killings of Hortman and Kirk, violence targeting political figures in the U.S. in the last few years has included an arson attack last year at the home of Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro; an assassination attempt on then-candidate Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally in 2024; and a hammer attack on the husband of Democratic then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at their California home in 2022.

Twenty-five states, including Minnesota, now formally allow candidates to use campaign funds for personal security. Most made the change after the killings of Kirk and Hortman. Eleven states have laws permitting it, while others have approved it through rules or other mechanisms, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and the VoteMama Foundation.

This year alone, Alabama, Oregon, Nebraska and Utah enacted laws allowing campaign funds for security. Bills to legalize it are pending in about a dozen other states.

It’s not just happening at the state level. Security spending for congressional and presidential campaigns has jumped fivefold over the past decade. Federal political committees spent more than $40 million on expenses labeled as security during the 2023-24 campaign cycle, according to an April report from the nonpartisan Public Service Alliance.

Weapons detectors are just one response

Metal detectors — one of the most visible signs of concerns about political violence — were installed at Alaska's Capitol last year. Democratic Rep. Sara Hannan said the change was due to “increased risk of violence in our public institutions.” Lawmakers approved them before Hortman was killed.

But some states have balked at making it harder to access the halls of power. Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican who knew Hortman, resisted efforts to install metal detectors in his state, saying he didn’t want to “fortify” the Capitol. Wisconsin’s is one of 11 state capitols that don’t have metal detectors, a state audit found.

Minnesota lawmakers are also considering creating a special unit within the State Patrol, which oversees Capitol security, that would provide protection for legislators, the state attorney general, secretary of state, state auditor, and Supreme Court justices.

One lead author is Democratic Sen. John Hoffman, who survived being shot nine times the night Hortman was killed. Prosecutors say the gunman, disguised as a police officer, began his rampage by shooting Hoffman and his wife, then stopped at the residences of two other lawmakers who weren't home. He then went to Hortman's home, where he killed the representative and her husband, and wounded their dog so severely that he had to be euthanized.

At a hearing Tuesday, Hoffman called his measure “a necessary response” that would “keep elected officials and Supreme Court justices safe and dedicate the resources necessary and hopefully stop future tragedies from happening.”

Numerous states have also taken action to protect lawmakers’ personal information. North Dakota lawmakers on Wednesday discussed a bill draft for next year that would make confidential the home addresses of candidates and public officials upon request.

The NCSL in February created a $1.5 million fund to reimburse legislatures for expenses related to lawmakers' personal safety and security while they’re away from their statehouses. More than 30 states have applied or are preparing to, NCSL spokesperson Katie Ziegler said.

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Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin. Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota, contributed to this report.

The festival draws riders from across the country and is happening after questions were raised about the event’s sustainability.

Last year, commissioners learned that recent years of the Bikefest resulted in the city losing more than $100,000 from a fund with money from a former partnership.

“The way it was being done before, it just wasn’t going to be something that we could sustain to keep moving forward,” Special Events Manager Maggie Lyden said.

With worries the city may have to dip into the general fund, commissioners voted to contract with an outside company to manage alcohol sales for this year’s event.

“We feel like that was a really good choice to make the event more sustainable, so we can continue to grow it and continue to do it in the future,” Lyden said.

Visitors to the festival will be able to enjoy live music, vendors, bike shows, live action stunts, and other activities.

The free community event features headliners Lita Ford, Everclear, and Sister Hazel. More than 20 other bands will perform on other stages.

With more than 100,000 people expected to attend Leesburg Bikefest, businesses are also hoping for an economic boost.

“The event itself brings in $40 million to the Lake County area,” Lyden said. “Hotels, bars, restaurants, everything is packed out from Leesburg and the surrounding areas. So, it’s a huge boost for this county.

Leesburg Bikefest will cover several blocks in the city’s historic downtown Friday through Sunday.

“If I had to go farther, I would have,” Aaron Beggs said in an interview Thursday. “It's fight or flight, and I decided to fight and help him get to our destination.”

Beggs, of Northern Ireland, and Robson De Olivera, of Brazil, sprang into action Monday when Ajay Haridasse collapsed about 1,000 feet (305 meters) from the end of the course. Beggs also had been feeling sick and exhausted, but was reminding himself of all the people in his running club who might never get to experience such an iconic race.

“Then when I came down and up towards Boylston Street, the crowd started cheering and I just turned the corner and happened to see Ajay fall,” he said. “I looked at my watch, and I looked at him again, and the natural instinct was just to go and pick him up.”

For Beggs, the moment capped what already had been an incredible experience, from being cheered on by local college students to chatting with a fellow runner wearing his father's name on his shirt just to hear onlookers call it out.

“We were shaking hands as we were running, and was like, 'We’ve got this. Let's do this together',” he said. “It's not like in shorter races where you're head-to-head trying to beat people. In the marathon, you're cheering each other on and encouraging everybody.”

Video of the runners' good deed has gone viral. Beggs said he has been in touch with Haridasse, a Massachusetts native and student at Northeastern University, and hopes to reconnect with Robson as well. Their finishing time was good enough to qualify for next year's race.

“Three strangers, three different countries, and we'll have a story for the rest of our lives,” he said. “We all need just a nice story in our lives, just to make us smile, bring a tear to your eye with happiness. And it's nice to be nice.”

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Aaron's last name to Beggs, not Breggs.

A three-judge panel found unanimously there were “substantial grounds” to believe the ex-leader was responsible for dozens of murders, first as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao and later when he was president.

Duterte, who served as president from 2016 to 2022, was arrested in the Philippines last year and flown to The Hague, where the global court is located. He denies the charges against him.

In their 50-page decision, judges found that the evidence shows that Duterte, 81, “developed, disseminated and implemented” a policy “to ‘neutralize’ alleged criminals.”

According to prosecutors, police and hit squad members carried out dozens of murders at Duterte’s behest starting in 2011, motivated by the promise of money or to avoid becoming targets themselves.

“For some, killing reached the level of a perverse form of competition,” deputy prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang told the court in pretrial hearings in February.

Estimates of the death toll during Duterte’s presidential term vary, from the more than 6,000 that the national police have reported to up to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.

Prosecutors said in a statement on Wednesday that the decision “represents a significant milestone” in their effort to bring accountability.

Duterte's lead defense lawyer Nick Kaufman told The Associated Press he was disappointed in the decision, saying it “is based on the uncorroborated statements of vicious self-confessed murderers acting as cooperating witnesses.”

A date for the start of the trial has not yet been set.

Duterte has not been present in the courtroom for any hearings, having waived his right to appear. Last month judges found he was fit to stand trial, after postponing an earlier hearing over concerns about his health.

In the Philippines, families of slain victims in the brutal anti-drugs crackdown rejoiced over the decision, saying it will bring them closer to justice and toward a closure of a tragic chapter in their lives.

“This is for all the victims, who were not even given the chance to be recognized as victims because their stories were twisted in police reports, investigations and findings,” said Randy delos Santos, whose nephew, Kian delos Santos, was gunned down in an alley in August 2017 by three police officers.

“Unlike Kian, most other victims were nameless, voiceless and were just numbers and statistics whose horrific stories were never heard. Now the ICC will give their stories a chance to be told,” delos Santos told the AP.

Human rights groups also praised the decision.

“Duterte’s trial will send a powerful message that no one responsible for grave crimes is above the law, whether in the Philippines or elsewhere, and that justice will eventually catch up with them,” said Maria Elena Vignoli, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch.

ICC prosecutors said in 2018 that they would open a preliminary investigation into the violent drug crackdowns. In a move that human rights activists say was aimed at avoiding accountability, Duterte, who was president at the time, announced a month later that the Philippines would leave the court.

On Tuesday, appeals judges rejected a request from Duterte’s legal team to throw out the case on the grounds that the court did not have jurisdiction because of the Philippine withdrawal.

In October, judges disqualified the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan from the case, citing a “reasonable appearance of bias” because he represented victims of Duterte’s alleged crimes before he took office at the ICC. Khan had already stepped back from his duties pending the outcome of an independent investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

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Associated Press journalist Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines contributed to this report.

The $2,299,998.85 seats for the July 19 match at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, are located behind a goal in the lower deck in block 124, row 45, seats 33-36.

FIFA does not control the asking prices on its Resale/Exchange Marketplace but takes a 15% purchase fee from the buyer of each ticket and a 15% resale fee from the seller.

An aisle seat 33 in block 146, row 32 of the lower deck listed as easy access standard was listed at $207,000, while a category two seat in the last row of the uppermost third deck was listed at $138,000 for block 310, row 26, seat 23. A few feet away, seat 21 has an asking price of $23,000.

The lowest-priced tickets for the final listed Thursday on the Marketplace were $10,923.85 for four seats four rows from the top of the upper deck behind a goal, in block 323, row 23, seats 13-16.

“FIFA has established a ticket sales and secondary market model that reflects standard ticket market practices for major sporting and entertainment events across the host countries," the governing body said in a statement. “The applicable resale facilitation fees are aligned with industry standards across North American sports and entertainment sectors. FIFA’s variable pricing ticketing approach aligns with industry trends across various sports and entertainment sectors, where price adaptations are made to optimize sales and attendance and ensure a fair market value for events.”

FIFA says it reinvests World Cup revenue among its 211 members to develop the sport.

FIFA put new blocks of tickets on sale Wednesday on its direct tickets site. Available tickets for the final cost $10,990.

Tickets were available from FIFA at $11,130 for the July 14 semifinal in Arlington, Texas, and at $9,660 and $4,360 for the July 15 semifinal in Atlanta.

Prices for the U.S. opener against Paraguay on June 12 at Inglewood, California, were listed at $4.,105, $2,735, $2,330 and $1,940, while seats for the Americans' second match against Australia on June 19 at Seattle cost $2,715. Tickets for the U.S. group stage finale against Turkey on June 25 at Inglewood cost $2,970 and $1,345.

Canada's opener vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 12 at Toronto was available for $3,360, $2,240, $1,645 and $980.

No tickets were listed directly by FIFA for the June 11 tournament opener between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City.

For the quarterfinals, available tickets were $4,200 and $1,610 for the July 9 match at Foxborough, Massachusetts; $5,730 for the July 10 game in Inglewood; $4.770 and $1,815 for the July 11 match at Miami Gardens, Florida, and $4,080 for the July 11 game at Kansas City, Missouri.

Tickets for the third-place game at Miami Gardens on July 18 could be purchased at $1,125.

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Vrabel spoke for just over seven minutes prior to the start of Thursday's NFL draft. He vowed to prioritize his family by beginning counseling this weekend and stepping away from the team for the draft's final day Saturday.

“I understand that there are questions. I take accountability for my actions, and the actions that caused a distraction to the people that I care most about — my family, this football team, the organization and our fans,” Vrabel said. “My previous actions don't meet the standard that I hold myself to. They don't.”

Vrabel said at a news conference earlier this week that he’s had “difficult conversations with people I care about,” including his family, his coaching staff, team officials and players following the publication of the photos by the New York Post.

On Thursday, he called his family and the Patriots the most important things in his life and said he was dedicated to taking steps to giving them “the best version of me.” He said he is committed to that process for “however long it takes.”

“And that's what we're going to do,” Vrabel said.

Asked about the timing of stepping away from the team on Saturday, Vrabel said it was solely family-related.

“When you prioritize your family first, and your job, that’s what’s required. And that’s what was necessary,” he said.

Vrabel said he was unsure if this would be the last time he planned to step away from the team.

The photos of Vrabel and Russini were taken in Sedona, Arizona, before the annual NFL meetings that began in Phoenix on March 29, according to the Post. The NFL has said it is not investigating Vrabel’s behavior. Vrabel and Russini are both married. Russini resigned from The Athletic last week.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated in an interview with ESPN that the league is not looking into the situation.

“This is not a personal conduct policy as we know of today,” Goodell said Thursday. “It’s a personal matter and we’ll leave it at that.”

Goodell added, “I think the teams handle these matters when they are personal matters. They have a lot more information that can benefit people involved.”

The Patriots said in a statement earlier in the day that they support Vrabel stepping away from the team on Saturday.

“Mike has been open with us about his commitment to being the best version of himself for his family, this team and our fans, and we respect the steps he is taking to follow through on that commitment,” the statement said in part. "We are confident in the leadership and communication Mike has established with our personnel staff throughout this pre-draft process. While he will not be present at the facility on Saturday, we know the draft evaluations are complete and Eliot Wolf and his personnel staff are prepared to execute our draft as planned this weekend.”

Vrabel declared his intension to sit out the final day of the draft in a late-night statement Wednesday.

The Patriots entered the draft holding 11 picks. That included the Super Bowl runner-up’s one scheduled pick (No. 31) in Thursday’s first round. They traded that pick and one in the fourth round to Buffalo to move up and take Utah offensive tackle Caleb Lomu at No. 28. They have one pick each in rounds 2 and 3 on Friday.

But the bulk of their selections will be Saturday when Vrabel won’t be in the draft room. That’s when they are scheduled to select twice in the fourth round, once in the fifth, four times in the sixth and once in the seventh round.

Vrabel was still present in the Patriots team facility Thursday after addressing reporters. Prior to meeting with them, he spoke briefly with season ticket holders at a draft night party. He also was spotted briefly sitting in the middle seat in the team draft room as they celebrated selecting Lomu.

Executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and fellow personnel vice president Ryan Cowden will run the draft room with Vrabel away.

Wolf expressed confidence that remaining members of front office will be able to manage Day 3 with Vrabel away. Wolf will have final say on picks during Vrabel's absence. Vrabel will still be in communication with the team via Zoom at times on Saturday.

“Not too worried about that as far just as the process we have in place. The people that we have in place,” Wolf said. “It’s going to be different without his presence there. But we feel really good about the people that we have in place to make up for it.”

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

In a Thursday memo, Michael Kratsios, the president's chief science and technology adviser, accused foreign entities “principally based in China” of engaging in deliberate, industrial-scale campaigns to “distill,” or extract capabilities from, leading AI systems made in the U.S. and “exploiting American expertise and innovation.”

The administration, Kratsios wrote, will work with American AI companies to identify such activities, build defenses and find ways to punish offenders.

The memo arrives at a time when China is challenging U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence, an area where the White House says the U.S. must prevail to set global standards and reap economic and military benefits. But the U.S.-China gap in performance of top AI models has “effectively closed,” according to a recent report from Stanford University's Institute for Human-Centered AI.

China's embassy in Washington said it opposed “the unjustified suppression of Chinese companies by the U.S.”

“China has always been committed to promoting scientific and technological progress through cooperation and healthy competition. China attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights,” said Liu Pengyu, the embassy spokesperson.

In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters Friday that the U.S. claims are groundless and were smearing the achievements of China's artificial intelligence industry.

“China firmly opposes this. We urge the U.S. to respect facts, discard prejudice, stop suppressing China’s technological development, and do more to promote scientific and technological exchange and cooperation between the two countries,” he said.

Kratsios' memo also came the same week that the House Foreign Affairs Committee offered unanimous, bipartisan support for a bill to set up a process to identify foreign actors that extract “key technical features” of closed-source, U.S.-owned AI models and to punish them with measures including sanctions.

“Model extraction attacks are the latest frontier of Chinese economic coercion and theft of U.S. intellectual property,” said Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., who sponsored the bill. “American AI models are demonstrating transformative cyber capabilities, and it is critical we prevent China from stealing these technological advancements.”

Last year, the Chinese startup DeepSeek rattled U.S. markets when it released a large language model that could compete with U.S. AI giants but at a fraction of the cost.

David Sacks, then serving as President Donald Trump's AI and crypto adviser, suggested that DeepSeek copied U.S. models. “There’s substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here is they distilled the knowledge out of OpenAI’s models,” Sacks said then.

In a February letter to U.S. lawmakers, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, made similar allegations and said China should not be allowed to advance “autocratic AI” by “appropriating and repackaging American innovation.”

Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, in February accused DeepSeek and two other China-based AI laboratories of engaging in campaigns to “illicitly extract Claude’s capabilities to improve their own models” using the distillation technique that “involves training a less capable model on the outputs of a stronger one.”

Anthropic said distillation can be a legitimate way to train AI systems but it's a problem when competitors “use it to acquire powerful capabilities from other labs in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the cost, that it would take to develop them independently.”

But it can go both ways. San Francisco-based startup Anysphere, maker of the popular coding tool Cursor, recently acknowledged that its latest product was based on an open-source model made by Chinese company Moonshot AI, maker of the chatbot Kimi.

Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Washington-based think tank The Brookings Institution and an expert on China's technology development, said it will be like “looking for needles in an enormous haystack” to separate unauthorized distillation from the vast volume of legitimate requests for data. But information sharing and coordination among U.S. AI labs could help, and the federal government can play an important role in facilitating anti-distillation efforts across labs, Chan said.

It's hard to assess how far the House bill can go, but Chan said Trump may not want to rock the boat with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of a planned mid-May state visit to Beijing.

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AP Technology Writer Matt O'Brien contributed to this report from Providence, Rhode Island.

Success on the pitch for both Spain’s women and men’s teams has been partially overshadowed in recent years by incidents of racism, sexism and xenophobia.

As the World Cup approaches, concerns have been raised about whether meaningful cultural change is happening in Spain, one of the title favorites.

“It’s not a very good image for Spain right now, but we can’t mistake these acts by minority groups, usually the ultra groups, with the actions of the majority of fans in Spain,” said Esteban Ibarra, head of the Madrid-based Movement Against Intolerance, Racism and Xenophobia.

Spain is one of the co-hosts of the 2030 World Cup, and cleaning up its image abroad is seen as a priority. The Spanish government and local soccer officials have been working hard to dismiss the notion that Spain is a racist country.

They have called recent incidents in soccer — including the anti-Muslim chants last month — isolated cases that can be blamed mostly on the actions of a minority of radical fans.

“The first thing we must bear in mind is that these acts, which we condemn in the strongest possible terms, have been perpetrated by a group of people who in no way represent the vast majority of Spanish soccer fans,” Spain's Higher Council for Sports, the nation's top sports authority, told The Associated Press in a statement.

“The chants were deplorable and cannot be repeated," it said. "We are confident that the Spanish men and women attending the World Cup this summer will support our team with passion and always with respect.”

Lamine Yamal speaks out

Spain was drawn into a World Cup group that includes Saudi Arabia, an overwhelmingly Muslim country.

It was in the March 31 friendly against Egypt — another predominantly Muslim nation — that a group of Spanish fans sang the anti-Muslim chants that made headlines worldwide. They also jeered Egypt's national anthem in the match in Barcelona.

“These actions are entirely unacceptable in football stadiums and represent a negative phenomenon that must be collectively addressed and eradicated,” the Egyptian Football Association said.

The chants happened despite the presence of Spain star forward Lamine Yamal, who is Muslim. On the next day, he called the chants disrespectful and intolerable, and said it didn’t matter that they were not directed at him personally.

“I understand that not all fans are like that, but to those who chant these things: Using a religion as a taunt on the field makes you look ignorant and racist,” the 18-year-old Yamal said. “Football is for enjoying and cheering, not for disrespecting people for who they are or what they believe.”

Spanish police opened an investigation into the behavior of the fans during the game, and FIFA opened disciplinary proceedings against the Spanish soccer federation.

The Spanish federation has used the popularity of Yamal as an example of how the recent incidents don’t represent the nation’s fanbase as a whole. It noted that Yamal's shirt is the best-selling Spain jersey and that he is the most sought-after player everywhere the team goes.

The federation also noted several actions and campaigns that have been taking place in Spain, with the participation of the government and other soccer entities, against intolerance and discrimination in sports.

Abuse against Vinícius sparked action against racism

Spain was widely criticized for its lack of action against racism in soccer after Real Madrid's Brazilian forward Vinícius said he was racially abused in a Spanish league game in Valencia in 2023. Vinícius, who is Black, said at the time that the Spanish league “now belongs to racists” and Spain “is seen as a racist country.”

He has since nuanced his description of Spain, but continues to speak up against racism in the sport.

“I’m not saying that Spain or Germany or Portugal are racist countries, but there are racists in these countries, and in Brazil and other countries as well,” Vinícius said after praising Yamal for his condemnation of the anti-Muslim chants last month. “But if we keep fighting together, I think future players and people in general won’t have to go through this again.”

There was widespread support for Vinícius after the 2023 match in which he threatened to leave the field in Valencia after a few members of ultra groups called him “monkey.”

The number of cases of racial abuse against the Brazil international decreased as authorities started to take more significant action. The first conviction for racism-related cases in professional soccer in Spain came after Vinícius’ repeated complaints, and fans were punished in other cases as well.

A recent Supreme Court ruling set a precedent for more severe sentences in cases of intolerance in sports, another step forward for Spain in the fight against discriminatory actions.

Federation says it has changed since the Rubiales scandal

Not long after the abuse against Vinícius, the Spanish soccer federation faced another scandal involving the behavior of then-federation president Luis Rubiales.

Rubiales resigned and was eventually found guilty of sexual assault for grabbing player Jenni Hermoso's head and kissing her on the lips after Spain won the 2023 Women's World Cup final.

Critics said the scandal highlighted a culture of sexism in Spanish soccer.

The federation says the incident prompted internal change, noting that 50% percent of its board of directors is now composed of women, who are also in several top managerial positions.

Spanish fans expected to behave at the World Cup

During the World Cup, the federation does not expect problems involving Spanish fans, in part because it can try to keep members of radical fan groups from buying tickets for Spain’s matches by monitoring the identity of those making mass purchases.

“In theory, during the World Cup there isn’t really the risk that these types of cases will happen," Ibarra said. “Especially now that Spain is on alert because of the international repercussion of the recent incidents, and more severe measures are expected against these Spanish ultra groups that are responsible for these acts.”

The Spanish government said it has been working for years "in a coordinated and effective manner with government agencies, state security forces, federations, clubs and fans to prevent a few hooligans from tarnishing our sport.”

The government also noted it has “one of the most advanced systems in Europe” to combat intolerance acts, with an anti-violence commission in place to coordinate actions by authorities, prosecutors and other institutions involved.

The men’s team heads to the World Cup as the defending European champion. Since its disappointing round-of-16 elimination in the World Cup in Qatar, Spain also won the Nations League in 2023 and was runner-up last year.

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Frustrated and seemingly exhausted Wednesday, Kennedy said he wanted more time to debate his amendments to a budget resolution to fund immigration enforcement agencies. But he had another complaint.

“Frankly I am worried about the health of some of our members,” Kennedy said as 9 p.m. approached. “Not that they’re in bad health, but it’s hard to stay up all night.”

More than 6 hours later, just past 3:30 a.m., senators wrapped up another marathon voting session on amendments and filed out of the chamber, dazed, tired and resigned to soon doing it all again.

It's a complaint as old as the Congress, with leaders in both major political parties often turning to the torturous grind of an overnight session to exhaust members, overcome objections and push legislation to passage. But it's a scenario that is playing out again and again, nearly business as usual, as the House and the Senate fracture and careen from one crisis to the next.

Lawmakers say it’s a symptom of a broken Congress that leaders are increasingly forced to govern in the dead of night.

“The dysfunction is getting worse,” said Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, who has been in Congress for 14 years. Lawmakers have become “less mature,” he said, as a growing number act only in their own self-interest and hold up bills or delay proceedings.

“It’s not a healthy lifestyle,” Cramer said, for the country or the lawmakers. “There’s less concern for the team effort.”

Late-night fights have become the norm

In the last few weeks, Congress has repeatedly debated pressing national issues at night — leading to confusion and turmoil in both chambers.

Much of the drama has centered, as it increasingly does, on government funding.

In late March, Senate Republicans struck a deal with Democrats to reopen most of the Department of Homeland Security, including the Transportation Security Administration, while Democrats continued to block money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol after the shootings of two protesters in Minneapolis. It was a breakthrough, and Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., passed the spending bill by voice vote — meaning there were no objections on either side — just past 2 a.m.

Senators then flew home for a two-week recess, leaving final passage to the House. But House lawmakers who were asleep when the final Senate agreement was announced woke up and angrily rejected it, saying they wouldn’t pass legislation that didn’t include funding for the immigration enforcement agencies. Senators were then forced to figure out a new plan for reopening the department, and it remains unresolved.

An equally contentious matter, the renewal of surveillance powers for federal spy agencies, also devolved into an after-hours affair.

House GOP leaders kept members in session well past midnight last week while trying and ultimately failing to pass different versions of a foreign surveillance bill. Scrambling to pass an extension of the law ahead of a Monday deadline, leaders eventually cobbled together a 10-day extension past 2 a.m.

Members of both parties were exasperated by the last-minute mayhem.

“Who the hell is running this place?” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. He said Republicans threw the bill together “on the back of a napkin in the back room in the middle of the night.”

“Just about everyone agrees that this is serious stuff, the kind of debate that Congress ought to have in the open,” McGovern said.

Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican and member of the House Freedom Caucus who opposed the leadership bills, said the outcome was predictable.

“We warned them that this was gonna happen,” Ogles said. “Unfortunately, here we are at 2 in the morning.”

Time-consuming partisan bills push Senate into late nights

The late-night vote series in the Senate this week was part of an arcane, complicated process called budget reconciliation that GOP leaders are using to try to fund the two immigration enforcement agencies that Democrats continue to block. It's become the default mode of governing for majorities in Congress as bipartisanship on major issues fades away.

Reconciliation allows the Senate majority to bypass the filibuster and pass budget-related bills along party lines. First, though, they have to get through two lengthy series of votes — and that's where the dreaded “vote-a-rama” comes in.

The process is open-ended, which means lawmakers in both parties can offer as many amendments as they want to put the other side on record — or, as Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska describes it, “to make each other miserable.”

Leaders generally hold the votes in the middle of the night, as they did Wednesday into Thursday, in hopes of exhausting both sides and forcing senators to stay on the floor and vote quickly. But instead of waiting around between amendment votes, Murkowski walked back and forth between the chamber and her “hideaway,” a small office each senator has in the Capitol building.

“I’m at 14,291 steps,” she said just after 11 p.m., looking at her smartwatch, which was also telling her that her bedtime was approaching. She said if she couldn’t sleep, she might as well get more exercise.

Senators went through the same reconciliation process last year, in extremes, as they labored for weeks to pass President Donald Trump’s package of spending and tax cuts, which he dubbed One Big Beautiful Bill.

The bill had barely enough Republican support to pass, and the Senate and the House held nearly back-to-back all-night sessions to pass it by Trump’s July 4 deadline. In the Senate, GOP leaders kept the long vote series open for hours on end as they worked to win support from Murkowski and others.

“It’s insane,” Murkowski said of the late nights. “My mom always said, ‘Nothing good happens after midnight.’”

Overnights are not new but become more common

Overnight votes are certainly nothing new in Congress. The Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, passed the Senate in the early hours of Christmas Eve in 2009 after weeks of negotiations, just in time for senators to get home for the holidays. Countless other big bills have been passed in the dead of night, as well.

But lawmakers say the after-dark routine has gotten worse and more frequent.

“Part of what’s changed here is there’s a lot of heavy lifting that you have to do to get a bill passed,” said Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, who has served in Congress since 1981, when he was elected to the House. “I think at some point you’ve got to have a forcing mechanism, and one of the easiest is to stay up until the wee hours so that everybody is basically trying not to fall asleep on national TV.”

Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey, a relative newcomer to the Senate elected in 2024, said there’s an eventual question of whether anyone is watching.

In the middle of the night, he said: “Are the American people paying attention? How do we get the message out?”

Still, he said, it’s important that lawmakers get their work done at any hour, especially when there is a war going on with Iran and lawmakers take long stretches away from Washington.

“I don’t mind being here,” Kim said.

Officers responded to the scene of the crash at Westmonte Drive and State Road 436 near the Chick-fil-A, west of Interstate 4.

Police said the pedestrian was transported to the hospital. The extent of the pedestrian’s injuries was not immediately available.

Eastbound State Road 436 from Westmonte Drive toward the McDonald’s was closed, but has since reopened.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Work location: Detroit, MI

Description

The Director of Digital Sales leads Graham Media Group’s digital sales strategy across all markets, driving revenue growth and collaboration between station sales teams and digital specialists. Reporting to the Senior Director of Sales, this role owns the total digital revenue goal for the company and oversees a team of six Digital Sales Strategists (DSS) embedded within GMG stations. The Director of Digital Sales ensures every market has the tools, training, and leadership to develop and close high-value, multi-platform deals that deliver measurable client outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of six Digital Sales Strategists across GMG markets.
• Own the overall digital revenue goal for the company, ensuring accountability and strategic focus on growth.
• Partner with station leadership and Account Executives to identify, strategize, and close high-dollar, multi-platform opportunities.
• Oversee category strategies, pricing, packaging, and inventory management across all digital products (display, OTT/CTV, social, audio, video, search, etc.).
• Collaborate with internal teams and vendors to enhance product offerings, improve margins, and maintain consistent execution quality.
• Use data, pacing, and forecasting tools to monitor performance and adjust sales strategy accordingly.
• Drive a culture of collaboration between traditional and digital sellers, ensuring shared accountability for total revenue goals.
• Represent GMG in strategic vendor meetings and industry events to maintain awareness of emerging platforms and opportunities.

Requirements

• BA/BS degree in related field preferred; or equivalent work experience.
• A minimum of 7 years of experience in digital media sales, with at least 3 years in leadership or senior sales capacity.
• Proven success leading digital sales teams or strategists across multiple markets.
• Strong understanding of digital advertising products, campaign strategy, and performance metrics.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and motivational skills.
• Data-driven mindset with the ability to interpret and act on performance metrics and trends.
• Experience managing vendor relationships and negotiating partnerships.
• Ability to travel up to 75% of the time.

Contact: Bob Allen, Senior Director of Sales

rallen@grahammedia.com

Graham Media Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In addition to complying with the requirements of federal law, GMG will comply with applicable state and local laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Any offer of employment is conditional upon the successful completion of a pre-employment drug screening, investigative background check, employment/education verifications and reference checks.

Analysts say the biennial auto show in China's capital, which opened to media on Friday, shows how its auto industry is setting the global pace for cutting-edge technologies in areas such as electric vehicles and batteries, eclipsing many foreign brands that used to dominate the global market.

More than 1,450 vehicles are on display at this year’s show, including 181 global debuts. The show runs until May 3.

Intelligent driving, fast charging showcased

Chinese EV maker XPeng is showing off its latest GX model, a six-seater SUV with a third row seats that can lie completely flat, among other new displays and technologies.

Huge crowds gathered for a presentation by its founder and CEO He Xiaopeng, who described more high-tech aspects of the vehicle.

“When you’re driving on the highway, you fall asleep, or if you feel unwell and can no longer control the vehicle, the system can detect the situation, pull over automatically and alert emergency services,” He said. “Many people who have tried it say it’s amazing.”

Chinese EV maker BYD showcased its new generation of the fast charging “blade” EV battery, first unveiled last month, which can achieve a near full charge in nine minutes, at the auto show, as well as demonstrated charging under the low temperature of minus 30 degree Celsius. Also showcased by Yijing, a EV joint venture between Chinese carmaker Dongfeng Motor Corp. and technology giant Huawei, was the X9, their flagship six‑seat SUV.

According to Chairman Wang Junjun, the new model will features some of the latest auto technology, including a next-generation Qiankun intelligent driving system and a new HarmonyOS cockpit and operating system developed by Huawei.

Ahead of the show, Chinese battery giant CATL unveiled on Tuesday a new version of its “Shenxing” battery, which can be charged from 10% to 98% in only about six-and-a-half minutes.

China's ‘aggressive’ advancements

The auto show showcases the “speed and aggressiveness of advancement” among Chinese automakers, said Tu Le, managing director of consultancy ​Sino Auto Insights. “It just reinforces that the Chinese — whether in EVs, batteries, intelligent driving — are setting the pace for all these important sectors,” he said.

“China has become one of the fastest-moving markets for deploying and iterating new vehicle technologies, giving consumers early access to some of the most advanced features,” said Chris Liu, a senior analyst at research and advisory group Omdia.

China has become the world’s biggest car exporter, benefiting from its ability to reap cost advantages from its huge scale as well as significant government subsidies and support that helped automakers to rapidly scale up and more quickly rolling out new models and technologies than their foreign competitors.

But Chinese automakers has been facing immense pressure from ferocious price wars over the past months. This year, the government has scaled back subsidies encouraging drivers to switch to EVs and plug-in hybrids, weighing on domestic demand.

Sales of passenger cars in China dropped 23% in the January-March quarter from a year earlier to around 4 million vehicles, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. But exports jumped 63% to almost 2 million vehicles as Chinese cars made inroads in regions like Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Omdia forecasts China’s passenger vehicle exports will grow by around 14% year-on-year in 2026.

The hypercompetitive Chinese market have pulled vehicle prices down by a fifth over the past two years, according to a report this week by consultancy AlixPartners.

Few new tech expected to be exported

Few of the new technologies showcased at the auto show may be exported to overseas markets in the short term due to regulatory and safety challenges, Liu said. But they signal “capabilities that can be refined and adapted for global markets over time.”

Even as foreign automakers have been losing market share in recent years in China, some are staging a comeback, with Volkswagen ‌Group announcing on ​Tuesday plans for installing “agentic” AI ​into ​its vehicles for China. It also unveiled new EV models for the Chinese market, including the new UNYX 09 electric sedan co-developed with XPeng.

While the foreign car brands may try to “stabilize” their market share in China, “gaining back a significant market share they had before is, to my perspective, not realistic,” said Andreas Radics, managing director at Berylls by AlixPartners specialized in the automotive industry.

Meanwhile, given the growing demand and often better profitability in overseas markets, Chinese automakers have been shifting from exporting cars from China to building more factories overseas, including in Hungary and Turkey, to increase supplies abroad and avert trade friction.

Chinese carmakers are likely to almost triple their overseas production by 2030 to 3.4 million vehicles from 1.2 million last year, according to AlixPartners estimates.

___

Chan reported from Hong Kong. Associated Press video producer Wayne Zhang in Beijing contributed to this report.

Prosecutors selected lyrics with alleged references to gang affiliation and shootings to convince jurors that instead of life in prison, Broadnax, who is Black, should be put to death after his conviction — a move his lawyers argue biased the almost all-white jury.

Broadnax isn’t the only defendant or even the only person on Texas’ death row whose rap lyrics have been introduced to a jury. Rap lyrics have featured in hundreds of court cases in more than 40 states over the past 50 years, though judges often exclude other forms of creative expression from being used as evidence, researchers have found. Treating rap lyrics as diary entries minimizes their artistic value while playing on negative racial stereotypes to influence jurors, experts say.

“It denies rap music the status of art. It is characterized as autobiography,” said Erik Nielson, co-author of the book “Rap on Trial.” “It really does speak to underlying assumptions that some people have about young men of color — and that’s almost exclusively who this practice targets — that they aren’t sophisticated enough to engage in various literary devices. That there isn’t metaphor here.”

Rap lyrics are commonly used in racketeering or gang-related cases. Prosecutors try to establish the defendant’s involvement in an underlying crime by introducing lyrics as evidence, Nielson said. If someone is charged with a shooting, for example, prosecutors look for lyrics that mention a shooting.

“If the lyrics were written before the alleged crime, the prosecutors will say this is evidence of motive,” Nielson said. “If they’re written afterward, they’re characterized as a straight-up confession.”

Rap lyrics introduced in court as autobiographical

Broadnax and his cousin were charged with murder for the 2008 shooting deaths of two men outside a suburban Dallas music studio. After more than a decade on death row, he is scheduled to be executed April 30.

In their pending appeal asking the U.S. Supreme Court to halt Broadnax’s execution, his attorneys argue that a judge should have considered the potential for racial bias and instructed the jury that his lyrics should not be viewed as autobiographical.

“The emphasis on the rap lyrics was a key element in this racially charged narrative,” Broadnax’s attorneys wrote. “Worse, the record in this case confirms that the jury delivered a death sentence based on the racial stereotypes invoked by the rap lyrics.”

Kemba, a rapper featured in the documentary “As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial,” told The Associated Press that introducing rap lyrics is particularly effective with juries because of innate prejudices — and because prosecutors want convictions.

“There’s a lot of people that don’t see rap or Black music as artistic expression,” he said. “And when you’re in a court case, there’s already an assumption that you’ve done something (wrong).”

The defendants in these cases are “almost exclusively young men of color, often with very limited resources,” and many can’t afford a private attorney, Nielson said.

But some high-profile rappers have had their songs introduced in court, like Young Thug, whose lyrics were used as evidence at his trial on gang and racketeering charges. He pleaded guilty to those charges and was released from custody in 2024.

Stereotypes about rap emerge

“The criminalization and the targeting of hip-hop has been going on for all 50 years of the culture,” said Nielson, who noted the use of rap lyrics in court ramped up in the early 1990s.

The monitoring of Black artistic expression dates back to the antebellum South, he said, though that intensified as rap music became more critical of power structures, like N.W.A.’s 1989 song “F--- the Police,” which condemns police brutality.

In 2022, The New York Times’ Jaeah Lee looked for non-rap examples of lyrics used at trial from 1950 onward and found only four. Three cases were thrown out and one led to a conviction that was overturned. In that same time period, Nielson found roughly 700 examples of rap lyrics used in court cases, including lyrics that someone rapped but didn’t even write.

Another study conducted by University of Nevada assistant professor Adam Dunbar examined stereotypes of rap. He presented people with lyrics, saying they were from rap, country or metal music. When it came to rap, respondents overwhelmingly considered the lyrics to be autobiographical.

“But if they’re given the same lyrics and told that those are country or heavy metal lyrics, they say, 'No, it’s just art,’” said J.M. Harper, director of “As We Speak.”

Some rappers have begun directly attesting to the fictional nature of their music. The year before he was fatally stabbed in 2021, Drakeo the Ruler released the song “Fictional” from behind bars because his lyrics were being treated as nonfiction. In 2023, 21 Savage described his raps as “fiction as hell.”

“There’s no doubt in my mind that they are doing this for fear of prosecution,” Nielson said.

Rules of evidence can be open to judge's interpretation

A number of A-list rappers, including Travis Scott, T.I. and Killer Mike, have filed briefs at the Supreme Court in support of Broadnax, cautioning against considering rap lyrics autobiographical.

Prosecutors in the case said Texas law allows evidence relevant to a defendant’s reputation at sentencing and contend the court shouldn’t consider the argument against the lyrics because Broadnax failed to raise concerns in previous appeals. State courts have ruled against other appeals by Broadnax’s attorneys.

“At the end of the day, the most important thing is not the prosecutors,” rapper LL Cool J told the AP in 2024, adding that judges should better block rap lyrics from trials. “The question is: Why is it even admissible?”

Lucius T. Outlaw III, a professor at Howard University School of Law who filed the amicus brief on behalf of Nielson and Killer Mike, said judges enforce rules of evidence specific to each state.

One judge might view rap lyrics as relevant; another may disagree. One might worry about triggering “anti-rap, which is anti-Black, bias,” he said, “where another judge will say, ‘I don’t see that prejudice.’”

“Guidelines about what is relevant when it comes to artistic expression and what is overly prejudicial is so needed,” he said.

Jeff Bellin, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School, said current rules tell judges to exclude evidence if it has low value as proof and a danger of creating bias.

“The safeguard should be judges, but they are often not aware of the social issues, or the context, when it comes to rap lyrics,” he said.

New legislation seeks protection for lyrics

Bellin said legislating around the issue is difficult because lawmakers don’t want to create rules that would exclude evidence truly relevant to any case.

In the past five years, at least 27 bills have been introduced federally and in a half-dozen states to limit the use of a defendant’s creative expressions, including rap lyrics, in criminal proceedings, according to an AP analysis using the bill-tracking software Plural.

On April 9, Maryland became the third state to pass legislation, creating “guardrails and a test for judges to impose anytime prosecutors want to use artistic expression, not just rap,” Outlaw said, noting it requires a factual connection between the potential evidence and the charges.

“It’s not the cure-all, but it’s a huge, important step,” he said.

According to officials, the fire started in the kitchen of the home on East Osceola Road. The family is expected to be OK, but was taken to the hospital out of an abundance of caution.

Firefighters said a large number of animals also lived at the home, including dogs, cats, a snake, as well as turkeys and chickens that lived outside.

Officials said some animals have been accounted for.

The Red Cross has been called in to assist the family.

Washington’s premier soiree on Saturday is most identified by its modern form: a red carpet for the capital’s journalism elite, political staffers and an assortment of American business leaders and celebrities — with the leader of the free world and a comedian offering roasts.

Some years are forgettable and relegated to C-SPAN archives. Others produce viral moments — funny, cringeworthy or undeniably tense — and endure across social media.

Here’s a look at some of that history as Donald Trump prepares for the first time to attend as president:

Ronald Reagan once gave up the chance to rebut a comedian

As a former Hollywood actor, the 40th president had a magnetic stage presence and easy manner with a joke, and it was during Reagan’s presidency that comedians became an annual part of the dinner.

In 1983, Mark Russell, whose satire was a PBS staple, offered relatively tame jabs at Reagan. “There is another speaker following me,” he opened, “and so it is quite an honor for me to be doing the warmup for my chief writer here.”

When it was the president's turn, Reagan demurred. He reminded the audience that he’d made “a sad journey” to Andrews Air Force Base earlier that day to receive the remains of the Americans killed in the April 18 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon.

“I realize the original plan was that I would, in a sense, sing for my supper. In fact, I was prepared, not really to sing, but to do what you expected,” Reagan said, before explaining that it would be inappropriate for him to deliver humorous remarks. “If you’ll forgive us,” he said, “I’ll keep my script, and I hope you’ll give us a rain check, and it’ll still be appropriate next year.”

Dana Carvey and George H.W. Bush: A rare friendship

Presidents have been lampooned on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” since Chevy Chase first depicted Gerald Ford in 1975. But Dana Carvey and President George H.W. Bush set the standard.

Carvey, who also played the iconic Church Lady, embellished the 41st president’s nasal tone and patrician air to caricature his signature phrases: “Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.”

Bush became a fan. He and Carvey sat together at Bush's last dinner as president, in 1992. After he lost to Bill Clinton that November, the president invited Carvey to the White House for a Christmas party. The two remained friends.

George W. Bush jokes about weapons of mass destruction

In 2004, American forces remained in Iraq after the 43rd president ordered an invasion based on assertions that Saddam Hussein had weapons that threatened U.S. security.

By the time of the annual dinner, it was apparent those claims were overblown. Bush made light of the situation with pictures of him looking around the White House for Saddam’s weapons.

“Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere,” he said as one slide showed him looking under furniture in the Oval Office.

The audience laughed and applauded. Some veterans, including then-Sen. John Kerry, a 2004 presidential nominee, were not amused. Bush defeated Kerry that November anyway.

Colbert skewers Bush and the media

Not long into his second term, Bush sat uncomfortably as Stephen Colbert, then a Comedy Central host, hammered him with an aggressiveness unusual for the dinner.

“The greatest thing about this man is he’s steady,” Colbert said in 2006. “You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change; this man’s beliefs never will.”

He sarcastically urged Bush to ignore his approval ratings, then in the low 30s: “We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in reality. And reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

Colbert lambasted the dinner hosts, too, suggesting Washington media protected the Bush administration.

“Over the last five years you people were so good — over tax cuts, WMD intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn’t want to know,” Colbert said, “and you had the courtesy not to try to find out.”

A Trumpian dinner without Trump

During his first White House term, Trump broke the long streak of presidential attendance. Comedian Michelle Wolf targeted him anyway.

“It’s 2018, and I’m a woman, so you cannot shut me up — unless you have Michael Cohen wire me $130,000,” she cracked, referencing payments made to keep an adult film star from disclosing her allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump.

When the audience groaned at her crassness, Wolf quipped, “Yeah, shoulda done more research before you got me to do this.”

With Trump absent, his press secretary and now-Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sat at the head table and at the center of Wolf’s routine. Wolf compared Sanders’ role for Trump to being a character in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a dystopian novel about an authoritarian, misogynistic society.

Her harshest barb riffed on a famous Maybelline mascara ad.

“I actually really like Sarah. I think she’s very resourceful,” Wolf said. “But she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like maybe she’s born with it; maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies.”

Trump, who was in Michigan, called the routine “disgusting.”

Within hours, the Correspondents’ Association issued a statement saying the dinner is meant to celebrate “our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners” and saying Wolf’s monologue "was not in the spirit of that mission.”

Sanders rekindled the moment earlier this year at Washington Gridiron, another annual politics-journalism event. “I’m proud to note that color has really taken off,” she said. “In fact, it’s the exact same thing worn by Vice President JD Vance.”

Obama vs. pre-presidential Trump

Despite not yet attending as president, Trump's had his moment at the dinner.

In 2011, he helped lead the birther movement against then-President Barack Obama. Trump used social media and frequent Fox News Channel appearances to push the false narrative that the first Black president was born in Kenya and not a natural-born U.S. citizen.

But at the Washington Hilton, Obama had the lectern — and he used it with Trump sitting in front of him.

“Tonight, for the first time, I am releasing my official birth video,” Obama deadpanned, before showing the opening scene of Disney’s “The Lion King,” when the royal cub Simba is presented on the savanna.

Obama then turned his fire directly on the reality TV star.

“No one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald,” Obama said. “And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. For example, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”

As cameras captured a dour Trump, Obama mocked Trump’s role on “Celebrity Apprentice.”

“We all know about your credentials and breadth of experience,” the president said, marveling that Trump had to decide who to blame when “the men’s cooking team cooking did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks.”

“These are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night,” Obama concluded. “Well handled, sir. Well handled.”

Trump glared icily.

By November 2012, as Obama prepared for his second term, Trump had filed a trademark application for the phrase he would emboss in the national culture four years later: “Make America Great Again.”

The crackdown, led by a U.S. government Scam Center Strike Force, includes the Treasury Department's sanctioning of a prominent lawmaker and 28 other people and companies accused of operating from Cambodia. Criminal charges also were filed against two Chinese nationals involved in a similar operation in Myanmar.

The initiative includes a warrant to seize and shut down a major online recruitment channel on the Telegram messaging app and freezing hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit assets, Pirro said in a virtual press conference connecting her from Washington to journalists in Asia.

Cybercrime has flourished in Southeast Asia in recent years, particularly in Cambodia and Myanmar, with illegal operations making mammoth profits from victims around the world, according to United Nations experts and other analysts. Americans lost nearly $21 billion to cyber-enabled crimes and online scams in 2025 alone, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The illicit industry is closely involved in human trafficking, with foreign nationals employed to run romance and cryptocurrency scams, often after being recruited with false offers of legitimate jobs and then forced to work in conditions of near-slavery.

The Scam Center Strike Force comprises Pirro’s U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service.

The most prominent target of the crackdown is Kok An, a Cambodian senator and prominent businessman described by the Treasury Department as a “scam center kingpin."

The department's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions against Kok An and associates for their roles in a network that has allegedly defrauded U.S. citizens of millions of dollars. They include blocking Kok An’s assets in the United States and prohibiting U.S. entities from doing business with him.

The Associated Press was unable to contact Kok An or any of his representatives for comment.

“His Excellency Kok An is a Cambodian Senator and he was elected by elections, and as a senator he has parliamentary immunity," said Chea Thyrith, a Cambodian Senate spokesperson, who added that only the U.S. side could speak clearly about the sanctions.

Kok An is at least the second Cambodian senator to be sanctioned by the U.S. In 2024, Washington acted against another top tycoon, Ly Yong Phat, who also was accused of being connected with forced labor, human trafficking and lucrative online scams.

Pirro said the latest crackdown was set in motion in November when FBI agents sent to Thailand accessed copious evidence seized from an abandoned scam center in Myanmar, including more than 8,000 phones and 1,500 computers.

That led to charges of wire fraud conspiracy against two Chinese nationals, Huang Xing Shan and Jiang Wen Jie, who were managers of the compound before seeking to reestablish their operations in Cambodia. They are being held by Thai authorities for immigration violations and the U.S. is seeking their extradition, Pirro said.

Cambodian lawmakers unanimously adopted a new law in March targeting online scam operations with up to life in prison, following a government pledge to shut down the centers by the end of April.

In January, Cambodia extradited to China another alleged scam kingpin, Chen Zhi, the founder of business and banking conglomerate Prince Holding Group, even though U.S. authorities had sought custody after indicting him last year for allegedly running a huge scam operation.

___

Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Michael Kunelman in Washington contributed to this report.

FRIDAY

A big warmup begins Friday afternoon, with highs climbing into the low to mid-80s and partly cloudy skies. A light south breeze will help spark a few isolated showers this afternoon along the sea breeze, with coverage at 20-30%.

WEEKEND

As we head into the weekend, temperatures continue to climb. Highs push into the mid to upper 80s Saturday and Sunday as winds turn more south to southwest and the sea breeze slows down.

This setup will help boost the chance for afternoon storms a bit farther east each day (30-40%). Rain chances also tick up slightly, with scattered showers and storms possible both days, especially in the afternoon and evening.

NEXT WEEK

By early next week, the pattern stays warm and mostly quiet, with the big story being the heat.

Temperatures are expected to stay above average in the mid to upper 80s Monday and Tuesday, then climb even higher into the low to mid 90s across much of the inland areas by late week.

According to Harbor House of Central Florida, 65% of survivors delay leaving an abusive situation for fear their pets will be maimed or killed, and 88% of pets living in domestic violence homes are either abused or killed.

A safe place that welcomes both the survivor and their pet can be the difference between leaving and staying, which is why having a safe place for survivors and their pets is so crucial.

Nationwide, it’s estimated that just 17% of domestic violence shelters allow pets on property. Harbor House of Central Florida is one of them with its Paws for Peace kennel.

However, it takes a village to support all the animals. News 6 anchor Lisa Bell spoke with Andria Gibbon, the founder of Protecting Paws for Life, a non-profit in Pinellas County that supports the kennel. Gibbon says the organization was created to help shelters become and remain pet-friendly, providing supplies and services to programs that already accept pets or want to start.

“On a monthly basis, we provide all the pet supplies that they could need on property and for any of the pets in their care. We also supply basic wellness care for vet costs because one of the things that you want to make sure of when you’re housing animals, is that everybody’s up to date on their vaccines,” said Gibbon.

Gibbon says all of their funding and donations come from private donors.

“For me, coming from the rescue world, one of the hardest things has always been when an owner feels like they don’t have a choice but to surrender their animal,” said Gibbon. “You can feel the pain in the owner. You see the pain and the pet after the owner leaves, and it’s not just someone dropping off their dog at the shelter because they don’t want it anymore. It’s just truly painful. And so, for me, my mission has always been to help that part of the rescue world, like keeping families together.”

Yoon is charged with benefiting an adversary and abusing his powers, which are among a long list of indictments against the conservative former leader over his short-lived imposition of martial law in South Korea in December 2024.

The request came in the closing stages of a trial at the Seoul Central District Court, where a team of investigators led by special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk said that Yoon and his top defense officials were responsible for alleged drone infiltrations into North Korea, about two months before he imposed martial law, while portraying the liberals as North Korea-sympathizing, “anti-state” forces.

Yoon’s legal team said in a statement to reporters that he never ordered the alleged drone flights over North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, or retroactively approved such action, and said that prosecutors are failing to back their “speculation and delusion” with evidence.

In February, the court sentenced Yoon to life in prison after finding him guilty of the more serious rebellion charge. That verdict was appealed both by Yoon and prosecutors, who had sought a death sentence.

Cho’s team said in a statement Friday that Yoon tried to create a warlike situation between the Koreas while plotting an authoritarian push to remove his political opponents and “monopolize and extend his power.” Prosecutors are seeking a 25-year prison term for Yoon’s former defense minister, Kim Yong Hyun, a key confidant who helped plan and mobilize forces for the martial law declaration.

North Korea accused Seoul of flying drones over Pyongyang to drop propaganda leaflets three times in October 2024. Kim initially made a vague denial, but Seoul's Defense Ministry later switched to saying it couldn’t confirm whether or not the claims were true. Tensions with North Korea rose sharply at the time.

Yoon proceeded with his late night martial law declaration on Dec. 3, 2024, delivering a televised address in which he criticized liberals over a range of issues, but largely over their impeachments of his top officials and cuts to his government’s budget bill.

The decree lasted about six hours until a quorum of lawmakers broke through a blockade of heavily armed soldiers and police Yoon had deployed to the National Assembly. They then voted to overturn it, forcing his Cabinet to lift the measure.

Yoon was suspended from office on Dec. 14, 2024, after being impeached by the liberal-led legislature and was formally removed by the Constitutional Court in April 2025. He was arrested in July that year and has been undergoing various criminal trials since.

Though brief, Yoon’s martial law decree threw the country into a severe political crisis, paralyzing politics and high-level diplomacy and rattling financial markets. The turmoil eased only after his liberal rival, Lee Jae Myung, won an early presidential election in June.

Shortly after taking office, Lee approved legislation that launched independent investigations into Yoon’s martial law stunt and other criminal allegations involving him, his wife and associates.

At Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, the Garden View Lounge is raising the cup on what an afternoon tea experience can be.

I recently visited the Garden View Lounge – Tea Experience alongside News 6 Insider Guide Kara Moeller and Florida Foodie Kaia Poisall.

The lounge quietly reopened in March for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and trust me — it was worth the wait.

From the moment you walk into the intimate space, you are greeted with elegance.

“The views were beautiful, and there was such attention that I really felt like I was at a magical tea party,” said Poisall.

“It was a great way to satisfy that need for a cute, girly tea party,” said Moeller. “Every tea we got to try lived up to the Twinings name, and the food was the perfect pairing to go with the tea. I would highly recommend to anyone thinking about going.”

A whimsical world of tea

The experience is inspired by Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Alice in Wonderland,” and the theming doesn’t disappoint.

Kara, Kaia, and I each ordered the Afternoon Tea, and choosing our tea selections felt like its own kind of adventure. The menu ranges from classic to unique blends. We also got the chance to smell all the tea selection to help us decide, something I highly recommend.

We settled on the following: London Strand, Redbush Caramel Velvet, Blackcurrant & Lavender, Spicy Chai, and Exotic Mango & Ginger.

Tea guides are on hand to help customize each cup with aromatic additions and optional sweetness — a thoughtful touch that makes the whole thing feel personal.

The main event

Each of us started with an Orange-Cranberry Scone before working our way through an impressive lineup of savory bites and sweet finishes served on a three-tier tower.

Savory selections:

• Curried Chicken Salad Playing Card Tart — savory curried chicken salad filling topped with cherry gelée
• Footman’s Feast — Wonderland Salmon Crisp with a salmon rillette on a miso brown butter crisp
• Tweedledee Egg Salad Sandwich — traditional egg salad on beet bread
• Caterpillar Cucumber Roll — butterfly pea-infused cream cheese and cucumbers on pumpernickel

Sweet finishes:

• The Matcha Mad Hatter — sponge cake with apricot jam and yuzu buttercream
• Tea Party Tart — vanilla tart, coffee custard and chantilly cream
• Flamingo Croquet Choux — filled with passion fruit cream and a raspberry crunch
• Painting the Rose — Earl Grey-flavored teacake painted tableside

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Plant-based options and enhancements — including a Seasonal Cheese Selection and Royal Osetra Caviar — are also available for those looking to elevate the experience even further.

Meeting tea royalty

Sipping tea at a Disney resort is one thing. Sipping with a 10th-generation member of the Twinings family? That’s a whole different level of enchanted.

Stephen Twining serves as Director of Corporate Relations and Global Brand Ambassador for Twinings and was a special guest for our afternoon tea experience.

Kara, Kaia, and I had the chance to ask him about his tea expertise and family legacy. The Disney connection runs deep: Twining’s father helped open the United Kingdom Pavilion at EPCOT.

“There are so many things that we have in common with Disney,” Twining said. “We’re always looking to the future. At the end of it, it’s about attention to detail and a great experience for guests — straight customers. That makes us very natural partners. They’re not afraid to try new things, and neither are we.”

When it comes to his personal tea choices, Twining said they shift throughout the day — and even with the weather.

“Breakfast time, I’m very old-fashioned English. I like my English Breakfast tea with my breakfast food,” he said. “Then I choose my tea according to where am I, what am I doing, how am I feeling, and what’s the time of day?”

Evenings call for herbal teas to wind down the caffeine. Hot weather brings him back to green tea, while cold weather returns him to English Breakfast.

On the topic of sugar, Twining is firm — though not without nuance. He takes none in his tea.

Twining compared master tea tasters to professionals holding an MBA — experts who spend 12 to 15 years honing their craft before logging many more years of experience. Their job is to select and blend specialty teas so that every cup of English Breakfast, for example, tastes exactly the same.

“And then you come along and put a spoonful of sugar. All you taste is the sweetness. You’re suppressing the tea,” he said.

There is, however, one exception to his no-sugar rule: chai.

“If you like the spiciness in chai, by adding the sugar, you suppress the tea — so you elevate the spices,” he said. “There’s an exception to every rule, and that’s the one.”

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency asked prosecutors earlier this week to request a court warrant to arrest Bang, the billionaire founder and chairman of Hybe. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office said that it found that the request lacked sufficient grounds to justify his detention and instructed police investigators to strengthen their case.

Bang, who has been barred from leaving the country since August, isn't seen as a realistic threat to flee.

The 53-year-old is being investigated over allegations that he misled investors in 2019 by indicating that Hybe had no immediate plans to go public, prompting them to sell their shares to a private equity fund, shortly before the company proceeded with an initial public offering.

Police believe that the fund may have paid Bang somewhere around 200 billion won ($135 million) in a side deal that promised him 30% of post-IPO stock sale profits.

Bang denies any wrongdoing, Hybe officials say. Bang’s legal team had criticized police for seeking his arrest, saying that he has been fully cooperating with the investigation for months.

Bang’s legal troubles are a public relations setback for Hybe, coming as BTS launches a global tour after a nearly four-year hiatus as its seven members served their mandatory military service.

BTS performed in front of tens of thousands of international fans at a free comeback concert in Seoul last month and have also held concerts in South Korea’s Goyang city and Tokyo. The group will kick off a series of U.S. events with a concert in Tampa, Florida, over the weekend.

ČEZ chief executive Daniel Beneš said that the work includes the project plan and licensing documentation necessary for issuing building permits for the reactor.

Beneš said the company hopes to have all the approvals by 2030. The small nuclear reactor will be built at the site of the existing Temelín nuclear plant.

On April 13, Great Britain Energy – Nuclear, a government agency, inked a contract with Rolls-Royce SMR to begin design work for the first small nuclear reactors in the U.K.

Beneš said that the Czech small nuclear reactor will be the second one built by the British firm after the first one is completed in the U.K.

ČEZ has a 20% share in Rolls-Royce SMR and the companies had signed a deal about a strategic partnership, which should result in up to 3 gigawatt energy sources installed in the Czech Republic.

The Czech state has an almost 70% stake in ČEZ and the government is taking steps to acquire full control of the company.

Small modular reactors are a type of nuclear reactor that can generate a smaller amount of power than a traditional reactor. Developers say small reactors will be built faster and at a lower cost than large power reactors, scaling to fit the needs of a particular location.

China on Friday announced it will send two giant pandas to Zoo Atlanta in the U.S. in Beijing's latest efforts of panda diplomacy despite tensions with Washington, less than a month before a much-anticipated visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing.

The China Wildlife Conservation Association said in a statement that male panda Ping Ping and female panda Fu Shuang, from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, will kick off a decade-long conservation partnership under an agreement it signed with the zoo last year.

The association did not specify the pandas' departure date but said the U.S. side was carrying out facility upgrades, among other preparation work, to create a more comfortable and safer environment for the pair. Chinese experts provided technical guidance on the upgrades, it said.

The announcement came weeks ahead of Trump's planned visit to China in mid-May, during which he is expected to discuss various issues, including trade, with his counterpart, President Xi Jinping.

Zoo Atlanta said Thursday that it was delighted and honored to be trusted as stewards of the pandas and to partner with the association.

“We can’t wait to meet Ping Ping and Fu Shuang and to welcome our members, guests, city, and community back to the wonder and joy of giant pandas,” the zoo's president, Raymond B. King, said in a statement.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters that the new round of cooperation on conservation would help improve the health and well-being of the giant pandas, advance global biodiversity protection and strengthen the friendship between the Chinese and American people.

During an earlier giant panda agreement between the zoo and China that concluded in 2024, pandas Lun Lun and Yang Yang gave birth to seven bears, the zoo said. Lun Lun and Yang Yang and their two youngest offspring left Atlanta for China in October 2024, where the rest of their offspring reside, it said.

Giant pandas have been a symbol of the U.S.-China friendship ever since Beijing gifted a pair of pandas to the National Zoo in Washington in 1972, and China has long used its giant panda loan program as a tool of Beijing’s soft power diplomacy worldwide.

Beijing could also be renewing its cooperation with U.S. zoos at a time of otherwise sour relations in a bid to boost conservation efforts for the mammals.

The association said Friday that the new round of cooperation will help China and the U.S. to advance in areas ranging from disease prevention and treatment to scientific exchanges.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, a leading international group, took pandas off its endangered list in 2016 and classified them as “vulnerable" instead.

In 2024, the National Zoo in Washington and the San Diego Zoo also received pandas from China.

These laws cover a wide range of issues, including traffic offenses, body cameras, and public records, among others.

Many of these laws will take effect on July 1, though a select few went into play immediately upon being signed.

The full list of newly signed laws is as follows:

HB 35 — Traffic Offenders

House Bill 35 revises the term “habitual traffic offender” to add the offense of driving without a valid license.

This crime will be added to the list of offenses for which a certain number of convictions in a five-year period requires the state to designate the person as a habitual traffic offender.

Once a person is designated as a habitual traffic offender, he/she can generally be prosecuted for a third-degree felony for driving a motor vehicle thereafter.

The law will take effect on July 1.

SB 52 — Security Services

Senate Bill 52 refers to a state statute that regulates private investigative and security services.

More specifically, the law expresses that this statute doesn’t apply to volunteers who provide armed security services at churches, mosques, synagogues or other places of worship.

The law will take effect on July 1.

SB 422 — Airport Broadcasts

Senate Bill 422 prohibits airports from using information derived from automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) systems emitted from certain aircraft as a means of collecting fees from owners.

This rule is limited to aircraft with a gross weight of 12,499 pounds or less operating under FAA rules and applies under the following two scenarios:

• The operation for which a fee would be assessed is a departure or a landing, including touch-and-go landings
• The fee would be assessed based on an aircraft entering into the airspace of the airport where the fee is assessed

The law will take effect on July 1.

SB 504 — Body Cameras

Senate Bill 504 requires governmental agencies that allow code inspectors to wear body cameras to set up policies addressing proper use and storage of these cameras, as well as the recorded data.

The law will take effect on July 1.

SB 506 — Public Records (Body Cameras)

Senate Bill 506 creates a public records exemption for code inspectors’ body camera recordings if the footage is recorded:

• Inside a private residence
• Inside a facility that offers health care, mental health care, or social services
• In a place that a reasonable person would expect to be private

The law will take effect on July 1.

SB 598 — Funeral Services

Senate Bill 598 makes several revisions to a state statute that regulates funeral and cemetery services.

For example, the law prohibits licensees from contracting to become the sole provider of funeral services for any firm that provides medical or end-of-life care to the public.

Furthermore, SB 598 allows licensees to dispose of human remains that have been in their lawful possession for at least 90 days if the legally authorized person of the decedent fails to direct the disposition.

The law will take effect on July 1.

HB 4037 — Pasco County

House Bill 4037 revises term limits for board members on the Pasco County Mosquito Control District from two terms to three terms, starting with the 2026 general election.

The law took effect upon being signed.

SB 7000 — Public Records (Emergency Shelters)

Senate Bill 7000 continues a public records exemption for addresses and telephone numbers of those who provide public emergency shelter during a storm or catastrophic event.

The law took effect upon being signed.

SB 7026 — Public Records (Trade Secrets)

Senate Bill 7026 continues a public records exemption for trade secrets held by an agency, which are kept confidential.

The law took effect upon being signed.

In a release, Publix officials announced that the company had several winners in the contest — the 2026 American Pie Council Pie Championship.

[RELATED: Publix unveils new ‘Pub Subs’ — and people are split]

“This month, eight of Publix’s original pies won blue ribbons...” the release reads. “Our bakery competed in small and large categories.”

One of these winners was the Limited Edition S’mores Pie, which will be available in stores starting in May.

Meanwhile, the full list of winning Publix pies is as follows:

• Publix Small Apple Pie

• Publix Small Blueberry Pie

• Publix Small Cherry Pie

• Publix Small Key Lime Pie

• Publix Small S’mores Pie

• Publix Large Apple Pie

• Publix Large Cherry Pie

• Publix Large Key Lime Pie

Gannon Ken Van Dyke was part of the operation to capture Maduro in January and used his access to classified information to make money on the prediction market site Polymarket, the federal prosecutor’s office in New York said.

He has been charged by the Justice Department with unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction. He could face years in prison.

Van Dyke, 38, was involved in the planning and execution of capturing Maduro for about a month beginning Dec. 8, 2025, according to the federal prosecutor’s office. Even though he signed nondisclosure agreements promising to not divulge “any classified or sensitive information” related to the operations, prosecutors say the Army soldier used this information to make a series of bets related to Maduro being out of power by Jan. 31, 2026.

“This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post to social media.

A telephone number listed for Van Dyke in public records was not in service. There was not yet an attorney listed for him in court documents.

Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets in the world, said it had found someone trading on classified government information, alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and “cooperated with their investigation.”

“Insider trading has no place on Polymarket,” the company said in a statement.

Second complaint filed against the soldier

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets, announced Thursday it had filed a parallel complaint against Van Dyke.

That complaint alleges that Van Dyke moved $35,000 from his personal bank account into a cryptocurrency exchange account on Dec. 26 — a little over a week before U.S. forces would fly into Caracas and seize Maduro.

Van Dyke used more than $32,500 to make a series of bets on when Maduro might be removed from power, according to the complaint. He placed those bets between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, with the vast majority occurring the night of Jan. 2 — just hours before the first missiles would fall on Caracas.

In the early hours of Jan. 3, President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform a photo of the now-captured Venezuelan leader, wearing a gray sweatsuit, headphones and a blindfold.

The bets Van Dyke made on Maduro leaving power resulted in “more than $404,000 of profits," the complaint said. Bets on three other Venezuela-related contracts netted the solider more than $5,000, according to the document.

“The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about U.S. operations and yet took action that endangered U.S. national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way," said Michael Selig, the commission's chairman.

The massive profits from the well-timed bets aroused public attention days after the raid and brought bipartisan calls for stricter regulation of the markets where people can wager on just about anything.

Officials allege that shortly after the operation, Van Dyke put most of the money he won in a foreign cryptocurrency vault and then into a new brokerage account. He also asked Polymarket to delete his account, saying he had lost access to his email associated with the account, according to the federal prosecutor’s office.

Trump, when asked about the case Thursday, drew parallels between the embattled soldier and late professional baseball player Pete Rose, who was banned from the sport amid accusations that he placed bets on his own team.

“The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino, and you look at what’s going on all over the world and Europe and every place, they’re doing these betting things,” Trump told reporters.

The Trump administration has been a key ally of the growing prediction market industry in a critical legal fight with states seeking to ban the platforms. The president’s eldest son is an adviser for both Polymarket and its competitor Kalshi, and a Polymarket investor. Trump’s social media platform Truth Social is also launching its own cryptocurrency-based prediction market called Truth Predict.

Nearly two decades in the Army

Van Dyke joined the Army in 2008 and, in 2023, was promoted to the rank of master sergeant, the second-highest enlisted rank in the Army, according to the indictment. Federal prosecutors said he was part of the special forces community and was stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, but their indictment offered little other details about his military service.

The document said Van Dyke was photographed following the raid on the deck of a ship “wearing U.S. military fatigues, and carrying a rifle, standing alongside three other individuals wearing U.S. military fatigues."

The Pentagon referred questions on the case to the Army and the Justice Department.

Army officials declined to provide Van Dyke's service record. Typically, the military services are reticent to offer details about members of the special forces and take measures to keep their identities secret.

Bets on geopolitical tensions draw scrutiny

The high-profile indictment comes as bipartisan lawmakers are considering legislation to ban prediction markets from allowing bets on war, assassinations or terrorist attacks.

Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that a group of new accounts on Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for the new customers. On the same day the AP published the report, the White House warned staff against using private information to trade on prediction markets.

On Wednesday, Kalshi fined and suspended three congressional candidates who the company said wagered on the outcome of their own elections.

__

Golden reported from Seattle, and Schoenbaum from Salt Lake City.

The Valencia College Criminal Justice Training Center hosted its own memorial service, honoring former recruits who trained in their program and later lost their lives in the line of duty. Over the years, 10 of their own have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving right here in our community.

Let that sink in for a second.

These aren’t just names on a wall. These are men and women who once sat in those same classrooms, went through the same training, and walked the same halls as the recruits who are coming up right now.

I’ll be honest, in all my years around law enforcement, I’ve never seen a criminal justice center host something like this. And to me, that says everything about the passion and dedication they have, not just to training future officers, but to staying connected to them long after they graduate.

It was an absolute honor to be asked to serve as the keynote speaker for this event. Moments like this remind me why I do what I do; it’s never just about traffic. It’s about people, service, and remembering those who gave everything.

For the recruits in the room, it was real. A reminder of the responsibility that comes with the badge. For the instructors, you could feel the pride and the heartbreak, knowing the impact they’ve had on every class that’s come through.

And for me, it was a chance to take you behind the scenes of something that doesn’t get seen very often, a place where training meets tradition, and where those who are lost are never forgotten.

Hope you take a moment to watch this one. It means a little more.

Authorities are seeking to remove at least 10 tons (9 metric tons) of the fish from Jakarta's waterways, an effort officials hope will restore balance to the Ciliwung River and renew public attention on water quality.

From the polluted river to the concrete embankments and skyscraper-lined canals of the city’s heart, the dark shapes of the fish cling tightly to the river walls. At first glance, they appear almost prehistoric, with armored bodies gleaming a dull brown beneath the murky surface.

Janitor fish, or suckermouth catfish, known scientifically as Pterygoplichthys and locally as “sapu-sapu,” aren't native to Indonesia. Imported decades ago for aquariums because of their ability to consume algae, they were later released and found a home in Jakarta’s heavily polluted rivers. The fish can grow up to 50 centimeters (nearly 20 inches) and live for 10-15 years.

Experts have long warned that unchecked populations of invasive species can destabilize freshwater ecosystems, particularly in densely populated urban areas like Jakarta.

Dian Rosleine, an ecologist from the Bandung Institute of Technology, said that the adaptability of janitor fish is very high, so that even in polluted conditions, it can survive when other species can't.

“So, these fish are biological indicators that the water is in poor condition,” she said.

The Ciliwung once carried clear water from the mountains of West Java into Jakarta. Today, it flows through dense neighborhoods, carrying untreated household waste and industrial runoff. Concrete walls replaced riverbanks. During dry months, the water warms and slows — conditions that favor janitor fish over native species, Rosleine said.

Jakarta authorities have responded with mass removals, targeting the janitor fish in city waterways. The campaign began last week.

The cleanup drive, ordered by Jakarta Gov. Pramono Anung, was carried out simultaneously in all five administrative cities of the capital, involving hundreds of personnel, including firefighters, disaster officers and local residents. They have netted and buried more than seven tons of janitor fish across the city within a week.

The cleanup on Friday at a 6-meter-deep (19-foot-deep) reservoir in East Jakarta’s Ciracas neighborhood drew curious crowds as city workers collected about 320 kilograms (705 pounds) of the fish.

Piles of wriggling janitor fish filled red barrels along the reservoir — tangible proof that something, at last, was being done.

“The janitor fish populations have reproduced at a notable level while also feeding on native species," East Jakarta's mayor, Munjirin, told reporters when visiting Friday's cleanup. “The impact extends beyond ecosystem destruction, contributing to structural damage to riverbank and embankment walls.”

Munjirin, who like many Indonesians uses a single name, said that the coordinated operation marks the beginning of a sustained effort to control the species, with regular monitoring and removal planned to prevent further ecological damage.

However, he vowed a review of the program’s method after the Indonesian Ulema Council, or MUI, raised concerns over perceived cruelty, pledging that all fish will be dead before burial.

While endorsing the cleanup, MUI’s fatwa commission warned that burying the janitor fish alive amounts to a violation of animal rights enshrined in Islamic teaching.

Authorities are still cautious about what happens next. As janitor fish are edible in some countries, concerns over heavy metal contamination mean they won't be immediately approved for consumption in Jakarta. Instead, officials are exploring alternatives, including processing the fish into animal feed or fertilizer.

Anung said that the cleanup method will require the fish to be dead before burial at designated sites, with hygiene standards applied to block their return to rivers or trade.

The Jakarta governor noted that buried janitor fish can serve as natural compost and suggested adopting Brazil’s model, where the fish are turned into charcoal to generate greater economic benefits.

Yet experts caution that removal is only a beginning. Without improving wastewater management and reducing pollution, the river could quickly return to the same condition.

“The Ciliwung River requires rehabilitation, our major challenge that must be addressed,” Rosleine said. “Addressing the symptoms without tackling the root causes will not provide a lasting solution.”

“The Tale of KAHO,” which is scheduled to be released July 3 in print and digital formats, centers on a 26-year-old picture book author named Kaho.

The new novel is Murakami’s first in three years. His previous novel, “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” is a story of a male protagonist searching for love, loss and the boundaries between real and subconscious worlds.

Kaho is the first lone, woman protagonist featured in a full-length novel by Murakami, Shinchosha Publishing Co. said Thursday in a statement.

Initially, the novel started as a short story titled, "Kaho," which Murakami rehearsed at a book reading event two years ago at Waseda University, his alma mater in Tokyo, with Mieko Kawakami, a renowned female author and fan of his work. The story was published in the June 2024 edition of the monthly Shincho magazine.

The character Kaho, who has average looks and intelligence, is a curious person. One day she dines with a man who tells her, "I've never seen one as ugly as you.” Not outraged but baffled, curious Kaho tries to find out his hidden message.

Soon she starts encountering bizarre things in her life.

“I must find the way out of this world,” a brief promotional teaser released by the publisher says. “Murakami world is in full force.”

Murakami has since released three subsequent “Kaho” series stories in Shincho magazine, most recently in the March edition. They include “The Anteater of Musashi-sakai,“ “Kaho and the Termite Queen” and “Kaho and the Motorcycle Man, and Scarlett Johansson.”

The English version of the first piece, translated by Philip Gabriel, was published in The New Yorker magazine in 2024.

Murakami brings the four parts together and gives them new life in the 352-page new novel, the publisher said.

It’s a spectacle that once brought 1,000 or more tourists each year to Kaktovik, the only settlement in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in a phenomenon sometimes called “last chance tourism” — a chance to see magnificent sights and creatures before climate change renders them extinct.

The COVID-19 pandemic and an order from the federal government halting boat tours to see the bears largely ended Kaktovik's polar bear tourism amid concerns that the tiny village was being overrun by outsiders.

But Kaktovik leaders are now hoping to revive it, saying it could be worth millions to the local economy and give residents another source of income — provided the village can set guidelines that protect its way of life and the bears themselves.

“We definitely see the benefit for tourism,” said Charles Lampe, president of the Kaktovik Inupiat Corp, which owns 144 square miles (373 square kilometers) of land. “The thing is, it can’t be run like it was before.”

Visitors overwhelm a tiny village

As far back as the early 1980s, anyone in Kaktovik with a boat and knowledge of the waters could take a few tourists out to watch the bears as they lumbered across the flat, treeless barrier islands just off the coast or tore into the ribs of a bowhead whale left by subsistence hunters.

Tourism in Kaktovik soared in the years after federal officials declared polar bears a threatened species in 2008. The rapid warming of the Arctic is melting the sea ice that the bears use to hunt seals, and scientists have said that most polar bears could be wiped out by the end of the century.

As visitation boomed, the federal government imposed regulations requiring tour operators to have permits and insurance, and that began to squeeze locals out of the industry, Lampe said. Larger out-of-town operators moved in, and before long, crowds of tourists were coming to Kaktovik — a village of about 250 people — during the six-week viewing season.

The town’s two hotels and restaurants lost out on some business when large operators began flying tourists in from Fairbanks or Anchorage for day trips. Locals complained that tourists gawked at them or traipsed through their yards.

Small plane capacity became an issue, with residents sometimes battling tourists to get on flights to or from larger cities for medical appointments, forcing those left stranded in the cities to get expensive hotel rooms for the night.

Renewing polar bear tourism, with changes

When the pandemic struck, Kaktovik paused visitation. Then in 2021, the federal government, which manages polar bears, halted boat tours, mostly over concerns about how tourists were affecting bear behavior and overrunning the town.

Alaska Native leaders are now in talks with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to address those concerns and reignite the industry, perhaps as early as 2027. The agency told The Associated Press in a statement that it’s working with Kaktovik “to ensure that any future opportunities are managed in a way that prioritizes visitor safety, resource protection, and community input.”

Among the changes Kaktovik leaders want to see is a limit on how long a boat can sit in the water near the bears. Too long, Lampe said, and the bears get used to humans — making for a dangerous situation when bears wander into town looking for food.

During the height of the tourism boom, it became tougher to haze bears out of town, even with the town’s bear patrol shooting at them with nonlethal rounds. The patrol had to kill about three or four bears per year, compared with maybe one per year before the boom, Lampe said.

“Our safety was at risk,” Lampe said.

In 2023, a 24-year-old woman and her 1-year-old son were killed in a polar bear attack in Wales, in far western Alaska. It was the first fatal polar bear attack in nearly 30 years in Alaska, the only U.S. state home to the species.

Since the boat tours in Kaktovik were halted, the bears once again seem more fearful of humans, Lampe said.

Encouraging respectful visits in the Arctic

Polar bear tourism coincides with Kaktovik’s subsistence whaling season. When a crew lands a whale, it's usually butchered on a nearby beach. While the community encourages visitors to watch or even help, some were recording or taking pictures without permission, which is considered disrespectful, Lampe said.

Sherry Rupert, CEO of the American Indigenous Tourism Association, suggested that Kaktovik market itself as a two- or three-day experience.

Native communities that are ready for tourists "want them to come and be educated and walk away with a greater understanding of our people and our way of life and our culture,” she said.

Roger and Sonia MacKertich of Australia were looking for the best spot on the planet to view polar bears in the wild when they came to Kaktovik in September 2019. They spent several days in the village, took a walking tour led by an elder and bought souvenirs made by local artists, including a hoodie featuring a polar bear.

For Roger MacKertich, a professional wildlife photographer based in Sydney, the highlight was the boat tours to see bears roaming on the barrier islands or taking a dip in the water. The bears paid them no attention.

“That’s nearly as good as it gets,” he said.

The serac between base camp and Camp One is unstable and is risky for climbers, said Himal Gautam of Nepal's Department of Mountaineering.

Officials are working with climbers and expedition organizers to assess the situation as hundreds of climbers and their guides wait at base camp unable to move up the mountain.

According to the department, 410 foreign climbers have been issued permits to attempt to reach the Everest summit during the spring climbing season, which ends at the end of May.

The “Icefall Doctors,” the elite guides who lay the yearly climbing route by setting ropes and securing aluminum ladders over crevasses usually finish the task by mid-April.

The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which would deploy the team to lay the route, plans to assess the serac by aerial survey. The risk of avalanche is high and they are waiting for the serac to melt down on its own to a safe level, committee Chairman Lama Kazi Sherpa said.

The serac is part of the Khumbu Icefall, a constantly shifting glacier with deep crevasses and huge overhanging ice that can be as big as 10-story buildings. It is considered one of the most difficult and trickiest sections of the climb to the peak.

In 2014, a chunk of the glacier sheared away from the mountain, setting off an avalanche of ice that killed 16 Sherpa guides as they carried clients’ equipment up the mountain. It was one of the deadliest disasters in Everest climbing history.

Hundreds of foreign climbers and about the same number of Nepalese guides and helpers are expected to attempt to scale the mountain next month when there are a few brief windows of favorable weather.

Thousands of people have climbed the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) high peak since it was first climbed on May 29, 1953, by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay.

They dashed in vans to hangars where their prepped and armed Rafale jets awaited, clambered into the cockpits and fired up the engines, which puffed and screamed.

Within minutes of takeoff from the Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania, they were over the Baltic Sea, first intercepting a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft and then tailing supersonic Russian bombers and their fighter escorts that neared the airspace of multiple NATO countries.

In a conflict situation, things could quickly get heated. But for the moment, with Russia and the military alliance at odds over Ukraine but not at war, pilots on both sides just watched and filmed each other — keeping their distance like wary tomcats with claws unsheathed, their missiles visible but not used.

One of the points of the posturing — in aerial ballets that take place away from public gaze hundreds of times a year — is to try to ensure that the frostiness between NATO and the Kremlin over Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine doesn't tilt into open hostility.

Commanders and pilots flying NATO air-policing missions on the eastern flank of the 32-nation military alliance say that their goal is to deter, not provoke. They believe their presence is reassuring for Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — that border Russia and its ally Belarus but don't themselves have airpower to fight off any Russian attack, if it ever came to that.

“It's a game of cat and mouse, or rather cat and cat,” said Lt. Col. Alexandre, commander of a French air force wing of four Rafales that is sharing the Lithuanian base with another fighter detachment from Romania. Citing security concerns, the French military withheld the commander's surname.

“We watch each other, scrutinize each other and try to make sure that it doesn't go any further," he said.

Alliance members take turns policing Baltic skies around the clock, seven days a week. The French inherited the building that now serves as their temporary headquarters from a Spanish detachment. They will hand it over to Italian replacements in August. Successive teams leave plaques and badges on a wall that records their passage.

NATO scrambles jets to identify and possibly take other action when Russian planes fly in Baltic airspace without switched-on transponders and without filing flight plans or communicating by radio with air traffic controllers.

“There are plenty of times in which, on purpose or not, they’re not really respecting the ICAO — the International Civil Aviation Organization — rules, regarding flight plans and behavior," said Col. Mihaita Marin, commanding the Romanian detachment of six F-16s.

“So obviously we are forced to take off and just make sure that they are who they say they are and their intention is peaceful,” he said.

The arrival of spring, bringing better flying conditions, means French and Romanian flyers have been busy since they deployed at the start of April on four-month NATO rotations.

Marin said interceptions “are getting close to daily" and "that will definitely increase as the weather is getting better."

French aircrews — watched by an Associated Press journalist who was reporting at the airbase — had their busiest day so far on Monday.

Scrambled under NATO command, French Rafales met and observed a pair of Russian Tu-22M3 bombers carrying supersonic, anti-ship missiles from their bellies that Russia has also used in Ukraine, repurposing them to attack ground targets, and which can be equipped to carry a nuclear warhead.

The strategic bombers' more than four-hour flight from an airbase near St. Petersburg, escorted by Su-30 and Su-35 fighters, remained in international airspace but took them past the coasts of NATO countries Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, doubling back when they approached Denmark.

The French detachment said the Russian planes didn’t have switched-on transponders, file flight plans or enter into radio contact. Fighter jets from Sweden, Finland, Poland, Denmark and Romania also went airborne to keep watch, according to the French. NATO didn't respond to requests for comment.

The French commander, Lt. Col. Alexandre, said it isn't clear why Russian pilots behave in ways that could endanger other users of Baltic airspace.

“We don’t know if it’s lack of professionalism or just a means for them to test us," he said.

“But what is sure is that we need to go every time," he added. "We cannot say, 'OK, that's usual, this time we will just let them pass.'”

Gabriel Landeskog and Artturi Lehkonen scored on fortunate deflections for the Presidents' Trophy-winning Avalanche, who went up 3-0 in the series with another narrow win over the persistent Kings.

With Wedgewood backstopping the defense in his first playoff series, Colorado has allowed just four goals in three games by defense-minded Los Angeles, which has held superstar Nathan MacKinnon without a goal so far.

“It’s been tough sledding to create offense, but we have different guys stepping up on different nights and scoring in different situations,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “That’s been able to make the difference.”

Trevor Moore and Adrian Kempe scored and Anton Forsberg stopped 19 shots, but the Kings are a loss away from being eliminated in the first round for the fifth consecutive season.

Game 4 is Sunday in Los Angeles. A loss would end the 20-year career of Kings captain Anze Kopitar, who is retiring after the season.

Los Angeles scored two goals for the first time in the series, but couldn't find a tying goal after Kempe scored on a power play with 4:03 to play. Instead, Brock Nelson scored into LA's empty net with 2:18 left.

“We’ve just got to continue to find ways to break them down,” Makar said. “I feel like tonight, we got a lot of chances and capitalized on a few. Still, I feel like there’s areas for improvement, for sure.”

Los Angeles hasn't won a playoff round in six previous tries since raising the Stanley Cup in 2014, and this loss was the Kings' seventh straight postseason defeat dating to last spring.

After grinding out a pair of 2-1 victories in Denver, the Avalanche again took care of business in LA with fundamentally sound hockey — and a good bit of luck this time.

Landeskog put the Avs ahead in the opening minutes with a fluke goal when his wrist shot hit the end boards and caromed back perfectly to deflect in off Forsberg’s skate.

Colorado then got another fortunate bounce during a Kings power play in the third period. When Lehkonen and Logan O’Connor broke out on an odd-man rush, Lehkonen’s pass deflected off the back of Kempe’s skate and ricocheted through Forsberg’s legs with 12:21 to play.

Offense remains the fatal flaw of the Kings, who were the only team in the bottom third of the NHL in scoring to make the playoffs. Los Angeles has four goals on 76 shots against Colorado.

“We've got to find ways to score,” Kings interim coach D.J. Smith said. “I mean, we had looks. You can give them credit, but we missed the net 13 times leading into the third period.”

Makar put Colorado ahead in the second, dangling just inside the blue line and firing a brilliant wrist shot through traffic. The perennial Norris Trophy candidate has 23 playoff goals — second-most among active defensemen — in 82 career games, memorably scoring eight in his Conn Smythe Trophy-winning performance during the Avs' championship run in 2022.

Colorado defenseman Josh Manson left Game 3 early with an upper-body injury. He'll be re-evaluated before Sunday, Bednar said.

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