You can get messy with interactive science activities, experience high-energy music festivals, sample different drinks and learn from experts, or spend time outside picking fresh fruits and flowers. From family-friendly outings to lively entertainment, it’s a great chance to try something new and make the most of your weekend.

🎉 Mess Fest

Date: May 9, 2026

Time: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Place: Orlando Science Center

Mess Fest is a fun, hands-on science event where getting messy is part of the experience. You can play with slime, create colorful art with swinging paint, and watch foam erupt into the air. There are also activities like launching paintballs and small rockets powered by chemical reactions. It’s perfect for kids and families who enjoy interactive learning and creativity.

🥃 Whiskey Riot Festival

Date: May 9, 2026

Time: 4- 7 P.M.

Place: Central Florida Fairgrounds

Whiskey Riot is a large tasting event where you can sample a wide variety of whiskeys from different brands. It’s designed for everyone—from beginners to experienced whiskey fans. You’ll get the chance to compare flavors side by side, learn from experts, and talk with brand representatives who explain what makes each whiskey unique.

🎤 Rolling Loud Festival

Date: May 8–10, 2026

Time:

May 8: 2:00 PM

May 9: 1:00 PM

May 10: 12:00 PM

Place: Camping World Stadium

Rolling Loud is one of the biggest hip-hop festivals in the world, bringing together top artists and huge crowds. The event features multiple performances throughout the day, high-energy shows, and a festival atmosphere filled with music, food, and fans from all over. It’s ideal for anyone who loves live hip-hop and big events.

🌸 Mamas & Mimosas

Place: Far Reach Ranch

A $15 per car fee applies on Mother’s Day weekend only.

With your ticket, you may arrive at any time during operating hours:

Saturdays from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM and Sundays from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Please note that the last entry for both days is 3:00 PM, with no exceptions.

Advance purchase is strongly recommended, as capacity is limited and walk-up entry may not be available during this busy weekend.

Your car pass includes access to U-pick activities (additional cost), live music, a bar (additional cost), games, and more.

🌻 Sunflower Festival

Date: May 9–10 & May 16–17, 2026

Time: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Place: Amber Brooke Farms

The Sunflower Festival is a springtime event filled with bright flowers, outdoor activities, and family fun. You can walk through large sunflower fields, pick your own flowers or blueberries, and enjoy live music. There are also games, a petting zoo, food vendors, and plenty of photo spots, making it a great day out for all ages.

🎸 Welcome to Rockville

Date: May 7–10, 2026

Time: (All-day event)

Place: Daytona International Speedway

Welcome to Rockville is a huge rock and metal music festival featuring over 160 bands across multiple stages. Big-name headliners perform alongside many other artists, creating a nonstop music experience. It’s known for its high-energy crowds, loud performances, and festival atmosphere, making it a must for rock fans.

Authorities in Nigeria's Kogi state said that gunmen attacked an Islamic orphanage that was operating illegally and abducted 23 pupils in an “isolated area” of Lokoja, capital of Kogi State, on April 26. Fifteen of those abducted were immediately rescued.

The troops intercepted and recovered nine of those abducted within a forest area in the state, army spokesman Hassan Abdullahi said in the statement, which was dated Wednesday but released on Thursday.

“The rescued victims comprised five boys, two girls, and two adult females, believed to be the wives of the proprietor of the orphanage,” Abdullahi said.

The development would mean that there could be one more pupil missing, but the statement didn't mention if anybody else was unaccounted for.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. Armed groups attack schools and abduct students because they are seen as strategic in drawing attention and exacting huge ransoms, according to analysts. Several hundred students have been kidnapped across Nigeria.

The proposal will start the formal process of rolling back parts of the first-ever limits on PFAS in drinking water finalized during former President Joe Biden's administration. Officials at the time found they increased the risk of cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and babies being born with low birth weight.

Jessica Kramer, head of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water, said at a conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday the agency intended to rescind and revisit certain limits she said were improperly issued by the Biden administration. The move would align with actions the EPA had said a year ago they intended to take.

The proposal comes at a time when the agency is facing scrutiny from the Make America Healthy Again movement on issues like PFAS and pesticides. The group in part advocates against corporate environmental harms and has been championed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The details of the plan haven't yet been released, but officials previously said they would propose rescinding limits on three types of PFAS, including what are known as GenX substances found in North Carolina. They will then reconsider them. They will do the same with a limit on a mixture of several types of PFAS.

“We need drinking water rules that are legally defensible. We need drinking water regulations that are not susceptible to legal challenge because the explicit process in the Safe Drinking Water Act wasn’t followed. And so that is a huge concern,” said Kramer at a conference focused on ensuring everyone has access to safe drinking water and wastewater.

She said the intent is to start the process over and follow the law. The Biden administration faced allegations they did not follow the correct legal process, moving too quickly on limits on the less common types of PFAS the agency is proposing to rescind limits for.

The agency said they are committed to helping utilities reduce PFAS in drinking water. The agency provides technical assistance and there have been billions of dollars in extra funding available to assist in installing and navigating the expensive and sometimes complex treatment that's needed to remove the chemicals.

The Biden administration’s rule also set tight standards for the two common types of PFAS, referred to as PFOA and PFOS, at 4 parts per trillion. The EPA has said they intend to keep those standards, but give utilities two extra years — until 2031 — to comply.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said last year when they first announced they would take this action that delaying the deadline was “common-sense flexibility.”

“This will support water systems across the country, including small systems in rural communities, as they work to address these contaminants," he said at the time.

On drinking water broadly, the Trump administration said they would defend tough standards to reduce lead in tap water. That's in contrast to their efforts to slash health protections for coal and other polluting energy sources.

“Where they may have taken a wrecking ball to those rules, this is a little more surgical and measured in part because of the resonance of these issues among voters,” said Melanie Benesh, vice president of government affairs with the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.

Forcing utilities to treat for several types of PFAS can help ensure that other potentially harmful substances are filtered out of water, too, according to the nonprofit.

Benesh also said the move is likely illegal — the Safe Drinking Water Act, which authorizes EPA to regulate contaminants in drinking water, prevents officials from issuing regulations that are weaker than those previously in place.

The public will have a chance to comment before the change is finalized.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

There were no reports of deaths after the tornadoes cut across the state's southwest late Wednesday evening, said Scott Simmons, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

He said 12 of those hurt were transported from a hard-hit trailer park in the small community of Bogue Chitto, about an hour's drive south of the state capital in rural Lincoln County.

Most of the two dozen homes at Gene’s Mobile Home Supply were flattened into heaps of splintered boards and twisted metal. People picked through the debris Thursday morning under cloudy skies as a chain saw buzzed in the background.

Krystal Miller and six others — including babies as young as 4 weeks old — grabbed a Bible and sheltered in their home's hallway when the tornado sent the building cartwheeling through the air.

“We just flipped, and it threw us all out,” she said. “It scattered everybody out. … I can’t find the Bible.”

She said her young son was in the hospital for monitoring and another child was injured in the face.

“The trailer is in pieces but we made it out,” Miller said. “I'm feeling grateful.”

One intact trailer lay flipped on its roof near the tree line. Several cars, some with hazard lights blinking, appeared to have been picked up by the storm.

“We know there were at least three tornadoes,” said Daniel Lamb, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service office in Jackson.

“The same storm produced at least two tornadoes from Franklin, Lincoln into Lawrence counties, and then there was another one from Lamar possibly into Forest County.”

He said there may have been more. “Those are just the ones that we are able to confirm by radar before even having gone down there.”

“Pray for Mississippi,” Gov. Tate Reeves posted online, saying the state Emergency Management Agency was coordinating response efforts.

Many roads were still blocked in Lincoln County and teams from the agency were assessing the damage.

“We ask that you please refrain from sightseeing as crews are working,” the department posted early Thursday.

The governor said a volunteer rescue group was providing a 50-person shelter pod, a high-powered generator and 10 pallets of supplies to the county, which reported at least 200 damaged homes.

Lamar County to the southeast reported about 275 homes damaged, according to the state emergency management agency. Another 10 to 12 homes were damaged in Lawrence County.

More storms were expected Thursday with the possibility of tornadoes across parts of Alabama, Georgia and Florida, the weather service said. Strong storms also were possible for parts of the Carolinas and Texas.

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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire.

Once an outlier on the nation’s highest court, Justice Clarence Thomas has become a towering figure in the conservative legal movement over the last decade as he helped secure landmark rulings on abortion, voting and Second Amendment rights.

The only justice with a longer tenure is liberal William O. Douglas. Thomas would overtake Douglas in 2028 if he remains on the court, and there is no sign he plans to retire anytime soon.

“I think he’s more energized and excited now than when I first met him,” said John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who served in Republican President George W. Bush's administration after his time as a Thomas clerk three decades ago.

Thomas was confirmed in 1991 after contentious hearings that included sexual harassment allegations. More recently, his acceptance of luxury trips has raised a storm of ethics questions. He's nevertheless gone from near-silence at oral arguments to asking the first questions and penning a landmark ruling expanding Second Amendment rights.

Following the nomination of three conservative justices by Republican President Donald Trump, Thomas is now the most senior member of a supermajority that's also overturned abortion as a constitutional right, ended affirmative action in college admissions and sharply limited the Voting Rights Act.

“The court has radically moved in his direction over the course of his time on the court,” said Stanford University law professor Pamela Karlan. Thomas' seniority means he can decide who writes an opinion if he's part of a majority that doesn't include Chief Justice John Roberts, a factor that can nudge other votes behind closed doors, Karlan said.

Off the bench, Thomas' sphere of influence also includes his large, close-knit network of former clerks, who have served in the Trump administration and are increasingly filling out the ranks of federal judges.

“That is an important legacy that he will leave,” said Sarah Konsky, director of the Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School. “Even as justices' own time on the court winds down, significant influence lives on through their clerks.”

That’s not to say Thomas’ time on the court is up. In a recent speech, Thomas tied the nation’s highest ideals to a conservative vision of limited government — and launched a broadside on progressivism seen by critics as unfair and inappropriate. In the room at the University of Texas, though, it earned a standing ovation.

Thomas, who became the second Black member of the court, now has a tenure that tops 34 years, putting him ahead of Justice Stephen J. Field, who was nominated by President Abraham Lincoln before the end of the Civil War and served as the only 10th justice until 1897.

For Thomas, 77, it’s a long way from the hearings at which his nomination by Republican President George H.W. Bush was nearly derailed by allegations that he had sexually harassed Anita Hill, a charge he forcefully denied.

Thomas has more recently come under scrutiny for lavish, undisclosed trips from a GOP megadonor and the conservative political activism of his wife, who backed false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. The justice has said he wasn’t required to disclose the trips he took with friends and ignored calls to recuse himself from cases related to the election.

On the court, though, recent years have also brought perhaps the most significant work of his career, especially a 2022 opinion he wrote that found people generally have the right to carry a gun in public. The justice did not respond to a request for comment on his tenure.

His own jurisprudence has changed little over the years, said Scott Gerber, author of “First Principles: The Jurisprudence of Clarence Thomas." Even as the majority moves his way, he’s continued to write dissents that get noticed.

“He’s incredibly consistent,” Gerber said. Once known for solo dissents, “now he writes majority opinions.”

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

The self-taught sculptor from Utah who works in Mexico is keenly aware of his place as an outsider within the cliquey art world, and is bracing for the critical gaze as he takes one of the most prestigious stages in contemporary art.

A selection process that has been described as “opaque” has cast a shadow over the opening.

Institutions that typically vie for the coveted Biennale commission shied away out of apparent concern that they would be subjected to administration politics after the open call removed language focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion and replaced it with requirements to promote “American values.”

In a seemingly ironic act, Allen created a bronze evil eye to hang on the exterior of the brick, Jeffersonian-style U.S. Pavilion to ward off bad vibes, he joked. It is one of a dozen new pieces that he made for an exhibition that will likely be a defining moment in his 30-year career.

Just days before the Biennale’s opening on Saturday, the evil eye still had not arrived.

“This is really the first circumstance in my life as an artist where I felt the need to defend myself, or my work,’’ Allen told The Associated Press during a walk-through of the pavilion this week. He acknowledged that having lived outside the critical eye for the last three decades “has been actually a pleasure.”

The outsider artist

Allen makes biomorphic sculptures in wood, stone and bronze, and is reluctant to name them to give viewers “a moment of creation when they can decide what it is.”

The Biennale exhibition, titled “Call Me the Breeze,” includes works he made over the last 20 years, interspersed with new work. Alma said he chose the title to reflect his ability to get around obstacles.

“And that’s been my necessity and it’s also because of being self-taught and not having any institutional support very often in life,” he said.

The pavilion’s commissioner, Jeffrey Uslip, said Alma’s institutional independence was part of the appeal.

“I am deeply interested and invested in artists who are not, I guess, academicized … or lobotomized,’’ he said.

Lost and found commission

A prior proposal for artist Robert Lazzarini to stage the show, curated by art historian John Ravenal, fell apart in September, despite having secured U.S. State Department approval, after the project’s required institutional sponsor backed out, Ravenal told AP.

A U.S. State Department attempt to link the Lazzarini project to the newly formed American Arts Conservancy, failed, and a short time later the new project with the AAC as sponsor, Uslip as curator and Allen as artist was announced.

Uslip declined to discuss the selection process.

Ravenal called the process highly unusual, with no apparent committee vetting or application process, noting that the application deadline had expired in July.

“It’s really a loss of a 40-year history of open call and peer review,’’ Ravenal told AP by telephone, describing Allen as “a pawn in this whole thing.”

Allen is aware his willingness to mount the show has been the source of some backlash. But he insists that the Trump administration has not interfered with the show in any way.

“My art is not propaganda,” he said.

Wrong sheep, right moment

In the pavilion’s courtyard, a headless, and thus directionless, sheep stands as a self-portrait of Alma as an outsider. He described it as “a bit shunned because it’s the wrong sheep.”

His most recent work includes bronze wall sculptures that he treats with chemicals in a form of painting, treating the hard metal “as an instantaneous material, like watercolor,’’ he said.

Alma’s journey to the Biennale included a period of homelessness in New York City when he sold his creations from atop an ironing board, a move of admitted desperation that soft-launched his artistic career, establishing his first collectors.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Palm Springs Art Museum own pieces of Allen’s work, and he participated in the 2014 Whitney Biennial. He made his European debut in Brussels in 2022.

After getting the Biennale commission, he made his first trip ever to Venice in November to view the U.S. Pavilion, a neoclassic brick building built around a courtyard and rotunda. A painting by Hieronymus Bosch titled “The Visions of Hereafter” at Venice’s Accademia depicting heaven, hell and purgatory inspired the show’s organizing principle.

“I wanted there to be a bit of the chaos that we go through,” he said.

Beyond his body of work, Allen attributes his selection to the fact that “I’m just ready to do things at the last minute” and accept challenges as they come.

“When they do, I’m prepared to try it, and fail at it. That’s fine,” he said.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman entered the pleas Thursday in Boulder County District Court. He now faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the attack in downtown Boulder last June 1.

Soliman’s attorneys revealed he would plead guilty in a Sunday court filing in a related federal case. Soliman has meanwhile pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges.

Prosecutors are weighing whether to seek the death penalty in the federal case, according to his attorneys.

Soliman initially pleaded not guilty in state court to murder and dozens of attempted murder and assault charges for throwing two Molotov cocktails at demonstrators at a pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder, a city of 100,000 people northwest of Denver that’s home to the University of Colorado.

Karen Diamond, 82, was injured in the attack and later died. A dozen others were also injured.

Soliman, who is expected to be sentenced later Thursday, made no comments through two translators. He just agreed to guilty pleas and said he understood the judge's reading of the charges.

In a statement read in court by a prosecutor, Diamond’s sons asked that Soliman not be allowed to see his family again “since he is responsible for our mother never seeing her family again.”

Andrew and Ethan Diamond said their mother suffered “indescribable pain” for over three weeks before her death. “In those weeks, we learned the full meaning of the expressions living hell and fate worse than death,” Diamond’s sons said in the statement.

Soliman is an Egyptian national who federal authorities say was living in the U.S. illegally. Investigators allege he planned the attack for a year and was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people.”

Boulder Mayor Pro Tem Tara Winer said the victims included some of her close friends.

“It was a horrific attack,” Winer said by email this week. “Their lives were changed forever.”

Soliman’s federal attorneys have said in court filings the attack “was profoundly inconsistent” with Soliman’s prior conduct and “came as a total shock to his family.”

Soliman had been living with his family in a two-bedroom apartment in Colorado Springs — about 97 miles (156 kilometers) away — at the time of the attack. He had moved to the U.S. from Kuwait in 2022 with his wife and their five children and worked in a series of low-paying jobs.

The couple divorced in April.

Investigators allege Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration at Boulder’s Pearl Street pedestrian mall. He threw two of more than two dozen Molotov cocktails he had with him while yelling, “Free Palestine!”

Police said he told them he got scared because he had never hurt anyone before.

Federal prosecutors allege the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual connection to Israel. Soliman’s federal defense lawyers argue he should not have been charged with hate crimes because he was motivated by opposition to Zionism, the political movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel.

An attack motivated by someone’s political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.

State prosecutors have identified 29 victims in the attack. Thirteen were physically injured. The others were nearby and considered victims because they could have been hurt. A dog was also injured in the attack, and Soliman was charged with animal cruelty.

Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, and their children spent 10 months in immigration detention until a federal judge in Texas ordered their release in April.

An immigration appeals court had dismissed their case to stay in the U.S. and issued a deportation order. But U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio allowed their release on the condition that El Gamal and her oldest child, who is 18, wear electronic monitoring.

Soliman’s attorneys seek to block the family’s deportation until a judge determines they won’t need to be present for court proceedings in his federal case.

Though the non-binding advice to sports governing bodies does not yet apply also to Russia, it seemed to point toward being closer to ending Russia’s isolation in Olympic circles during its war on Ukraine as the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games approaches.

Athletes from Russia and its military ally Belarus had to be approved as neutrals who did not support the war for individual events at the 2024 Paris Olympics and February’s Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. The countries were barred from all team sports at the Olympics.

“The IOC reaffirms that athletes’ participation in international competition should not be limited by the actions of their governments, including involvement in a war or conflict,” the Olympic body said.

The IOC noted the qualification period “starts this summer” for Los Angeles, where more than 200 national Olympic teams are set to compete for more than 350 medal events on the program.

The updated Olympic position more than four years into the war on Ukraine also comes after repeated calls from critics of Israel for sporting sanctions to be applied because of the conflict in Gaza.

The IOC has under president Kirsty Coventry and her predecessor Thomas Bach resisted those requests, and on Thursday cited its task to “navigate the ever-increasing complex realities and consequences of the current geopolitical context.”

IOC awaits anti-doping investigation

One barrier to Russian athletes' full return is an ongoing World Anti-Doping Agency investigation into recent reports, including by the New York Times, implicating Russian anti-doping agency official Veronika Loginova.

The IOC said its executive board noted “with concern the recent information” being looked at by WADA, without naming Loginova.

The Russian Olympic Committee has been suspended by the IOC since October 2023 for incorporating regional sports bodies in illegally occupied eastern Ukraine.

“Whilst the ROC has held constructive exchanges with the IOC on its suspension,” the IOC said, “it remains suspended while the IOC Legal Affairs Commission continues to review the matter.”

Coventry told reporters at an online news conference there is no set timetable to complete the legal review.

Pushback from sports bodies

Track and field's World Athletics excluded athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus out of its international events within days of the war starting. The IOC's move Thursday will not change that.

“Our council has made a clear decision that when there is tangible movement towards peace negotiations it can begin to review its decisions,” the Monaco-based track body said.

Sports officials in northern European and the Baltic countries have taken strong positions against Russia and Belarus since 2022, and the Swedish sports confederation on Thursday called the IOC's advice “deeply unfortunate.”

Neutral athletes at the Olympics

A total of 32 neutral athletes competed in Paris, combining to win five medals including one gold in trampoline by Ivan Litvinovich of Belarus. One silver medal was won by the 20 neutral athletes in Milan and Cortina.

At the previous Olympic editions, a Russian team of 335 athletes went to the Tokyo Summer Games held in 2021 and 209 went to the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. Belarus sent 101 and 26, respectively.

A Belarus team should now expect to regain privileges at the 2028 Olympics — march under a national flag in the opening and closing ceremonies, wear uniforms in national colors, and hear the anthem played for gold medalists.

Doping case for Belarusian medalist

The IOC announced its Belarus news hours after a positive doping test was revealed for one of the country's four medalists at the Paris Olympics.

Weightlifter Yauheni Tsikhantsou, who took bronze in the men's 102-kilogram class in Paris, is not suspended while his case is prosecuted by the International Testing Agency. Growth hormone was found in a sample Tsikhantsou gave in March, the ITA said Thursday.

IOC updates on Olympic Games in 2030

The IOC board chaired by Coventry gave updates on the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps and picking a host for the 2030 Youth Olympic Games.

An ongoing review of the Winter Games program will be confirmed in June but cannot include in France any sports not played on snow and ice, Coventry said. There has been speculation about adding new sports or boosting the winter program with indoor sports from the Summer Games.

The youth hosting contest was moving to a vote next month but stalled Thursday because of IOC uncertainty about a strategy for what it aimed to achieve, Coventry said, noting “very disjointed” views worldwide.

The bidders are Asunción, Paraguay; Bangkok, Thailand; and Santiago, Chile.

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AP Winter Olympics at https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Israel meanwhile said it killed three Hezbollah militants in a strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut the day before.

Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya's 32-year-old son, Azzam, was wounded by a strike in Gaza City on Wednesday that killed another person and wounded several others. The Israeli military has not commented on the strike. The older al-Hayya is based abroad.

Israel has continued to carry out regular strikes against what it says are militant targets — also killing civilians — since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire halted major military operations in October. That agreement also led to the release of the remaining hostages taken in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war.

Key stipulations of the agreement remain unmet, including the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international stabilization force and Israel's withdrawal from the half of the territory its troops still control. Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violations.

Israel has killed several Hamas leaders and their relatives

Hamas accused Israel of trying to pressure negotiators through targeted killings. It was not clear if the younger al-Hayya was the target of the strike.

In comments to Al Jazeera after his son was wounded, Al-Hayya said that if his son was targeted, “it would be an honor to me, to him, and to all Palestinians.”

When asked about disarming, al-Hayya said Hamas would be ready to discuss the second phase of the ceasefire agreement only after Israel fulfills the first phase, which includes a cessation of hostilities and a surge in humanitarian aid.

Israeli strikes have killed several top Hamas leaders and their family members over the years. Another son of al-Hayya, Hammam, was killed in an Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar in September.

Al-Hayya's daughter, Tasnim, speaking at Shifa Hospital in Gaza, said her father's hand would not be forced by the deaths of his children.

“We are like all our people. Everyone has suffered and everyone has sacrificed. We are one of them,” she said.

Palestinians still struggle despite shaky ceasefire

An Israeli strike on Thursday killed three Hamas-affiliated security forces at a guard post, according to Shifa Hospital. A fourth security officer was critically wounded, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

More than 72,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas' 2023 attack, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. Palestinians in Gaza are still contending with myriad daily struggles, from lack of water to rodent infestations in sprawling tent camps.

Relatives of three people killed Wednesday in a separate Israeli strike on Gaza gathered in the courtyard of Shifa Hospital on Thursday to say their final goodbyes, embracing as they wept.

The family members had just moved out of a school where they were sheltering and were setting up new tents when they were struck. A man, his son and his nephew were killed, according to a relative, Yahiya Kishko.

A rare strike on Beirut

In Lebanon, the Israeli military said it had killed Ahmed Balout, who it identified as a commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, along with two other militants. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

Wednesday's strike occurred in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah has a large presence but which is also home to many civilians. It was the first time Israel had struck the area since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was announced on April 17. Fighting has continued in southern Lebanon.

Israel says it has killed more than 85 Hezbollah militants and struck 180 sites used by the group in the last week, without providing evidence.

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Ezzidin reported from Cairo. Associated Press reporter Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed.

Incoming drones were destroyed over 20 Russian regions, including Moscow, according to the Defense Ministry, in Ukraine’s second-biggest aerial attack since Russia’s all-out invasion more than four years ago. The largest was in March when it launched 389 drones.

Dozens more Ukrainian drones were launched during daylight hours Thursday, the ministry said, including some heading again toward Moscow. Nearly 100 flights in and out of the Russian capital's three main airports — Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo — were delayed or canceled by midday, the Moskva news agency reported.

The attacks came ahead of Russia’s most important secular holiday, Victory Day, which marks the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Russian authorities have declared a unilateral ceasefire in Ukraine for Friday and Saturday.

Ukraine had responded to that with its own suspension of hostilities from midnight Tuesday. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow disregarded the goodwill gesture and launched fresh attacks.

“Russia has not stopped any type of its military activity. Unfortunately, it has not stopped. Ukraine will act symmetrically,” Zelenskyy said in his regular evening video address Wednesday.

He said Thursday on X that Russia’s attacks have been ceaseless, with drones, missiles, artillery shelling and glide bombs hitting civilian areas of Ukraine, including the power grid and rail network.

In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest, a drone strike wounded nine people, including three children, local officials said.

Tension has grown as Russia’s Victory Day celebrations approach and U.S.-led peace efforts gain no traction. Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, was in the United States on Thursday and preparing to meet with Trump administration representatives, according to Zelenskyy.

All mobile internet access and text messaging services will be shut down in the Russian capital on May 9, state media reported Thursday, citing the country’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media.

A traditional parade in Moscow won’t feature the usual tanks, missiles and other military equipment for the first time in nearly two decades.

The Russian Defense Ministry cited the “current operational situation” as a reason for excluding military equipment.

Russian authorities say they are concerned about possible Ukrainian attacks, as Kyiv has expanded its long-range drone and missile capabilities.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that additional security measures were being taken due to the “rather complex operational situation.”

The measures being taken “are necessary to ensure the safety of citizens, which is an absolute priority,” Peskov told reporters.

Among the foreign dignitaries expected to attend the Victory Day ceremonies on Saturday are Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, Laos President Thongloun Sisoulith, and Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko. Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico was to meet with Putin and lay flowers at the tomb of the unknown soldier but stay away from the parade.

Russia repeated its recent warnings to Ukraine that it would take decisive action — including a potential mass strike on Kyiv — if Ukrainian attacks disrupt the occasion.

“We have strengthened our focus on the possibility of retaliatory measures,” presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists Thursday.

Also, Russia’s Foreign Ministry advised foreign embassies and international organizations located in Kyiv to evacuate their offices in case such a strike did take place.

Ukraine’s air defense shot down 92 of the 102 drones Russia launched overnight, the military said.

Russia maintains a significant advantage in drone numbers, regularly deploying hundreds in a single attack.

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

The Russian activist has lived under protection since 2022 because French officials believe Russia is trying to kill him.

In April 2025, a crew of Russian men staked out Osechkin's home and the surrounding area in southwestern France for several hours, taking videos and photos in suspected groundwork for an assassination, according to court documents seen by The Associated Press that are not public. Several years earlier, Osechkin said, a red dot — which he thought was a laser sight for a gun — appeared on his wall.

Elsewhere in Europe, Lithuanian officials disrupted a plot last year to kill a Lithuanian supporter of Ukraine and another against a Russian activist. Officials in Germany have similarly broken up two plots: one to target the head of a German weapons company supplying Ukraine, the other against a Ukrainian military official. Polish authorities arrested a man in 2024 in what they said was a plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And that same year, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected was killed in Spain — with Russian operatives the prime suspects.

While Russian officials have long been accused of silencing the country’s enemies abroad, three Western intelligence officials from different countries told AP that a campaign of targeted killings has ramped up since President Vladimir Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The officials said Russia's security services are now more brazen in their choice of targets, going after Russian activists and foreign supporters of Ukraine, in addition to the usual suspects like military defectors. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

“This campaign is not by accident or chance," said one of them, a senior European intelligence official. "There is political authorization.”

The intelligence officials, a former senior British counterterrorism official and prosecutors in Lithuania see the campaign as connected to Russia's broader efforts to undermine European countries that support Ukraine, including 191 acts of sabotage, arson and other disruption linked to Russia by Western officials that the AP has mapped across Europe since the beginning of the war.

Many accused in that campaign are people who were recruited as cheap proxies for Russian intelligence operatives. Moscow is now using that model to target its perceived enemies abroad, according to the French court documents, officials and information from the Lithuanian prosecutor.

Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told AP he didn't see “any need” to comment. Russian officials have previously denied that Moscow is behind attempts to kill its opponents abroad.

The AP spoke to three of the people targeted: Osechkin; Lithuanian activist Valdas Bartkevičius; and Ruslan Gabbasov, who advocates for independence for the Russian region of Bashkortostan.

A trip to the seaside

Three of the four men detained by French police in the plot to kill Osechkin traveled to the beach resort of Biarritz, where Osechkin lives, in April 2025, court documents show. They surveilled his house “with a view to assassinating him and subsequently intimidating all political opponents of the Russian authorities living in France,” the documents said.

All four were born in Russia's Dagestan region. One has multiple criminal convictions while another said he had been arrested by Russia's domestic security service and fled the country to avoid being sent to Ukraine.

Osechkin founded a rights group for prisoners years ago and runs a project that exposes abuses in Russia's prison system, but he said the threats against him escalated after he began investigating alleged Russian abuses in Ukraine and helping Russian military defectors flee.

He moved to France in 2015 and was put under police protection seven years later when French officials received information that his life was in danger.

“If it weren’t for them, I probably would have been killed,” he said.

Targets say Moscow wins if they hide

Across the continent in Lithuania, Gabbasov, the activist from Bashkortostan, discovered an Apple AirTag tracker hidden on his car in February 2025. Police told him to leave the device and followed the people following him, he said.

A few weeks later, Gabbasov said he was attending celebrations marking Lithuania’s independence from the Soviet Union with his wife and 5-year-old son when officers called and told him not to return home.

The next day, he said officers told him: “Yesterday, a killer was detained near your house; he was waiting for you with a gun. ... He was ready to wait for you all night.”

Lithuanian authorities, he said, offered him the chance to completely “disappear” — change his name, move and stop his work.

He turned them down, saying many people from his mainly Muslim home region near Kazakhstan see him as a leader in the campaign for independence. The region is important to the Kremlin, Gabbasov said, because of its gold reserves and because large numbers of its men have been sent to fight in Ukraine.

“I can’t betray them all by simply disappearing, especially out of fear,” Gabbasov said, adding that would play into Moscow’s hands.

“What difference does it make to them?” Gabbasov asked, referring to Russia’s security services. “They could kill me ... or I could hide from everyone and stop engaging in political activity. That’s exactly what they want.”

A plot to put a bomb in a mailbox

The authorities in Lithuania made the same offer to Bartkevičius, after he said they discovered a plot to kill him with a bomb planted in his mailbox in March 2025.

But disappearing also wasn't an option for the activist who raises money for Ukraine and who gained notoriety for his anti-Russian acts, including urinating on a Russian war memorial.

That, he said, would be “social death."

Lithuanian prosecutors charged 13 people from at least seven countries with involvement in the two plots — among at least 20 people authorities have detained, charged or identified as involved in such plots in Europe over the past year.

The people involved in the Lithuanian cases were directly ordered by Russian military intelligence, prosecutors said, and some had connections to Russian organized crime and could be linked to other arson and espionage plots elsewhere in Europe.

Moscow's switch to relying on such proxies can be traced to a previous attempted assassination, Cmdr. Dominic Murphy told AP before he retired as head of the counterterrorism squad at Britain’s Metropolitan Police.

In 2018, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury, England — an attack the U.K. government accused Moscow of carrying out with military intelligence officers.

In response, Britain and other Western nations kicked out hundreds of Russian diplomats — and spies — making it harder for Russian officers to operate in Europe, Murphy, a lead investigator, said.

The fact that most of the plots made public by Western officials since 2022 have been foiled could indicate that it’s harder for Moscow to carry them out with proxies, as opposed to its own officers, one of the Western intelligence officials said.

Still, the attempted killings may serve additional purposes, they said, including scaring the Kremlin’s opponents into silence and wasting European law enforcement resources.

Pointing to the case of Maxim Kuzminov — the helicopter pilot who defected and was threatened with death by masked men in military fatigues on Russian state television — the official said it’s clear Russia’s security services can kill someone in Europe if they really want to.

For that reason, the European intelligence official said, targets will never be safe.

“Even if you thwart an operation once, you still need to be ready in case they strike again.”

The Iranian effort to formalize control over the channel raised new concerns about international shipping, with hundreds of commercial ships bottled up in the Persian Gulf and unable to reach the open sea. Still, hope that the two-month conflict could soon be over buoyed international markets.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said the Islamic Republic was reviewing messages from Pakistan, which is mediating peace negotiations, but Iran “has not yet reached a conclusion, and no response has been given to the U.S. side,” Iranian state TV reported.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed Middle East peace efforts at the Vatican with Pope Leo XIV, whose opposition to the Iran war has led to open sparring with President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration has sent mixed messages on its strategy to end the war. A tenuous ceasefire and previous declarations that military operations were over have given way to new threats of bombing if Tehran does not accept a deal that allows for resumption of oil and natural gas shipments disrupted by the conflict.

Trump also suspended an attempt by the U.S. military to open a safe passage for commercial ships through the strait, saying the pause would allow more time to reach a peace agreement. An official in Saudi Arabia said Thursday that the kingdom and U.S. ally refused to support Trump's effort to reopen the strait by force.

The ceasefir e between the U.S. and Iran has largely held since April 8. But in-person talks between the two countries hosted by Pakistan last month failed to reach an agreement. The war began Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran.

Pakistan says it expects a deal soon

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar spoke by phone Thursday with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.

“We expect an agreement sooner rather than later,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said Thursday. “We hope the parties will reach a peaceful and sustainable solution that will contribute not only to peace in our region but to international peace as well.”

He declined to give a timeline.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, speaking in televised remarks, said Islamabad remained in “continuous contact with Iran and the United States, day and night, to stop the war and extend the ceasefire.”

In other regional developments, direct talks between Israel and Lebanon were scheduled to resume next week in Washington, according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss plans for the closed-door meetings. The official said talks will be held May 14 and 15.

Iran creates agency to control passage at Hormuz

Iran established a new government agency to approve transit and collect tolls from shipping in the strait, shipping data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence said Thursday. The move has raised concerns about eroding the freedom of navigation on which global trade depends.

The agency, called the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, is “positioning itself as the only valid authority to grant permission to ships transiting the strait,” Lloyd’s reported in an online briefing. Lloyd's said the authority had emailed it an application form for ships seeking passage.

Iran has effectively closed the strait, a vital waterway for the shipment of supplies of oil, gas, fertilizer and other petroleum products, while the U.S. is blockading Iranian ports. The disruptions have sent fuel prices skyrocketing and rattled the global economy.

The new Iranian agency formalizes an existing, albeit murky, vetting lane that takes vessels through the strait’s northern waters near the Iranian coastline. Iran controls which ships are allowed to pass and, for at least some vessels, imposes a tax on their cargo.

Maritime law experts say Iran’s demands to vet or tax vessels violate international law. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea calls for countries to permit peaceful passage through their territorial waters.

Iran's president reports lengthy meeting with new supreme leader

Top Iranian officials have said Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is playing a key role in overseeing negotiations with the U.S. But he remains in hiding and has not appeared in public since he was wounded early in the war.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said he met recently for more than two hours with Khamenei. In remarks aired Thursday on Iranian state television, Pezeshkian praised the supreme leader’s “sincere” behavior in what he said was a long in-person meeting.

Khamenei has only released a series of written statements since being named supreme leader in March. He replaced his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed during the war’s initial strikes.

Saudi official says kingdom did not support US effort to reopen strait

Trump did not consult with U.S. ally Saudi Arabia before launching the short-lived effort to force open a shipping passage through the strait, according to a Saudi official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We told them that we are not part of this and that they can’t use our territories and bases for this,” the official said Thursday.

The official said Saudi Arabia sent a message to Iran that the kingdom would not be involved in U.S. attacks related to Trump’s attempt to reopen the strait.

Trump suspended the effort, dubbed Project Freedom, during its second day Tuesday. Only two American-flagged merchant ships are known to have passed through the U.S.-guarded route. The U.S. military said it sank six Iranian small boats threatening civilian ships.

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McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany, and Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press journalists Sally Abou AlJoud, in Beirut; Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece; Matthew Lee in Washington; Samy Magdy and Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan; and Nicole Winfield in Vatican City contributed to this report.

Protesters shouted “No Jim Crow” outside the House and Senate chambers as lawmakers convened to consider the legislation. As the Republican-led House later voted for the new map, Democratic lawmakers locked arms at the front of the chamber while protesters yelled and made noise. A final vote in the Senate would sent the map to Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who called lawmakers into special session.

The redistricting effort in Tennessee is one of several rapidly advancing plans in Southern states as Republicans try to leverage a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened the federal Voting Rights Act.

The court ruled that Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the federal law. The high court's decision altered a decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans grounds to try to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats.

Louisiana has postponed its congressional primary to give time for state lawmakers to craft a new House map. Legislation awaiting a final vote in Alabama also would upend the state’s congressional primaries if courts allow the state to change its U.S. House districts. In South Carolina, meanwhile, Republican lawmakers urged on by Trump have taken initial steps to add congressional redistricting to their agenda.

The states are the latest to join an already fierce national redistricting battle. Since Trump prodded Texas to redraw its U.S. House districts last year, eight states have adopted new congressional districts. From that, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats while Democrats think they could gain up to 10. But some competitive races mean the parties may not get everything they sought in the November elections.

Tennessee Republicans act despite protests

As a first step to adopting new House districts, Tennessee lawmakers gave final approval Thursday to legislation that would repeal a state law prohibiting mid-decade redistricting. They then passed a bill that would reopen a candidate qualifying until May 15 to allow time for new people to enter the U.S. House primaries and existing candidates to switch districts or drop out.

The proposed House map would break up Tennessee’s lone Democratic-held district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis, creating a ripple effect of alterations to districts throughout the western and central parts of the state.

Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton said the proposed districts were drawn based on population and politics, not racial data.

But Democrats dismissed such assertions.

“These maps are racist tools of white supremacy at the behest of the most powerful white supremacist in the United States of America, Donald J. Trump,” said state Rep. Justin Pearson, a Black Democrat from Memphis who is running for the U.S. House.

State Rep. Torrey Harris, another Black Democrat from Memphis, said he would lose part of his voting power as a result of the congressional districts.

“You cannot celebrate democracy while carving out Black communities,” he said. “We all know it, whether we say it or not, that this map impacts Black people negatively.”

Democrats noted that the state Supreme Court in April 2022 rejected a challenge to the current congressional map, finding it was too close to the election to make changes. This year, there’s even less time before the Aug. 6 primary, raising the potential of confusion for both candidates and voters, Democrats said.

A plan for a new primary advances in Alabama

Protesters watching an Alabama legislative committee Thursday erupted in shouts of “shame” as Republican lawmakers advanced legislation to authorize special congressional primaries if the state can put a new congressional map in place for the November midterms.

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision arising from Louisiana, Alabama is seeking to overturn a court injunction that created a second U.S. House district with a substantial percentage of Black voters. That map led to the 2024 election of Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat. Republicans want instead to use a 2023 map drawn by state lawmakers that would give the GOP an opportunity to reclaim Figures’ district.

If a court grants Alabama's request, the legislation under consideration would ignore the May 19 primary results for congressional seats and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under the revised districts.

The House passed the legislation on a party-line vote Thursday after four hours of fiery debate. A final vote in the Senate is expected Friday.

South Carolina may add redistricting to its agenda

The South Carolina Senate could take up a resolution Thursday giving lawmakers permission to return later, after their regular work ends, to redraw congressional districts that could eliminate the state’s only Democratic-held district. The proposal, which passed the House on Wednesday, needs a two-thirds vote in both chambers.

Republican House leaders said after the vote that they plan to introduce a new map Thursday and hold committee meetings on Friday. But during debate Wednesday, Republicans fended off specific questions from Democrats, including why they were willing to stop the June 9 U.S. House primary elections well after candidates filed and how much a rescheduled primary could cost.

Democratic Rep. Justin Bamberg said he felt sorry for Republicans who, he said, were giving up their principles to follow the whims of Trump.

“The president of the United States is a very powerful man. Wields a heavy, heavy thumb — Truth Social, X, Meta, Instagram. To be honest I don’t envy our Republican colleagues,” Bamberg said.

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Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama; Collins from Columbia, South Carolina; and Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press reporter Kristin M. Hall contributed.

Starmer’s center-left Labour Party is bracing for big losses in polls that will choose about 5,000 local councilors and a handful of mayors across England, as well as semiautonomous parliaments in Scotland and Wales. They are the biggest set of elections since Labour swept to power in a landslide in July 2024, and Starmer’s opponents have painted them as a midterm referendum on the prime minister.

Polls will close at 10 p.m. (2100 GMT), and some local authorities will count ballots overnight, but the bulk of the results are likely to be declared on Friday afternoon.

A rout could trigger moves by restive Labour lawmakers to oust a leader who led them to power less than two years ago. Even if Starmer survives for now, many analysts doubt he will lead the party into the next national election, which must be held by 2029.

Starmer’s popularity has plunged after repeated missteps since he became prime minister in July 2024. His government has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living — tasks made harder by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has choked off oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

The prime minister has been further hurt by his disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.

Labour is defending about 2,500 seats on English local councils, and party members are apprehensive it may lose many of them.

Starmer already survived a crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers, including the party’s leader in Scotland, urged him to quit over the Mandelson appointment.

He has vowed to serve out his five-year term, but a bad result could spark a challenge from a high-profile rival such as Health Secretary Wes Streeting, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner or Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. Alternately, Starmer could face pressure from the party to set a timetable for his departure after an orderly leadership contest.

Hard-right Reform UK expected to win big

Luke Tryl of pollster More in Common said the local elections are likely to see “the total collapse of the traditional two-party system” that was dominated for decades by the Labour and Conservative parties.

The big winner is expected to be hard-right party Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, which is aiming for working-class, former Labour strongholds in England’s north and on London’s outer edges with its anti-establishment, anti-immigration message. The Green Party is also likely to gain hundreds of council seats in urban centers and university towns.

The main opposition Conservative Party is also expected to lose ground, with the centrist Liberal Democrats making some gains.

Starmer didn’t even mention the Conservatives in his final preelection message, framing it as a choice between “progress and a better future” under Labour and “the anger and division offered up by Reform or empty promises from the Greens.”

Farage said on the eve of the election that a strong result for Reform would mean Starmer is “gone by the middle of summer.”

Both Reform UK and the Greens have grown rapidly in the last year or two, and are facing increased scrutiny as a result. Farage is facing questions over a 5 million pound ($6.8 million) donation from a cryptocurrency billionaire that he accepted in 2024, but did not declare. He says it was a personal gift.

The environmentalist Greens, who have stressed their pro-Palestinian credentials under self-described “eco populist” leader Zack Polanski, have fired several candidates for antisemitic social media posts.

Reform also is eyeing breakthroughs in Scotland and Wales, though pro-independence nationalists the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru are likely to form governments in Edinburgh and Cardiff.

“Labour’s going to lose to Reform in some places, Greens in others, and here and there they’ll lose one or two seats to the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives as well,” said Tony Travers, a professor of government at the London School of Economics. “They’re fighting on four fronts in England — five in Wales and Scotland.”

Valdez was at first banned for six games by MLB, which cited him for intentionally throwing a pitch at Story, but the penalty was reduced in an agreement between Major League Baseball and the players' association. He started serving the penalty during Wednesday night's series finale and barring rainouts will be eligible to pitch Wednesday at the New York Mets.

Detroit already is missing injured starting pitchers Tarik Skubal (elbow), Casey Mize (hamstring) and Justin Verlander (hip).

"Generally when you have an event like last night where there’s a disruption of play and there’s a guy kicked out of the game for what is deemed throwing at somebody, that doesn’t come for free,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said.

Hinch was suspended for one game for what MLB said was Valdez's intentional actions and was to serve the penalty Wednesday.

Valdez already allowed eight runs in the first three innings when Willson Contreras hit a 449-foot homer on the first pitch of the fourth. Contreras watched the flight of the ball from home plate before flipping his bat.

Two pitches later, Wilyer Abreu boosted the score to 10-2 when he homered into the right-field seats, a 109.1 mph drive. His next pitch was a 94.4 mph offering that hit Story between the numbers on his back. Valdez had not thrown a four-seam fastball since last Aug. 3 when he hit Boston's Ceddanne Rafaela under the left arm with a 95.5 pitch with a 3-1 count leading off the sixth inning. The Astros trailed the Red Sox 6-1.

When home plate umpire Adam Beck and Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler got between Story and the mound Tuesday, the Red Sox dugout emptied, followed by Detroit's bench and both bullpens. There was no physical contact and few harsh words.

Valdez denied hitting Story on purpose, saying the unfamiliar four-seam fastball got away from him.

Last season while pitching for Houston, Valdez denied intentionally hitting his catcher César Salazar in the chest with a pitch almost immediately after he gave up a grand slam in a loss to the New York Yankees. Two pitches after Trent Grisham’s slam in the Yankees’ 7-1 victory on Sept. 2, Valdez crossed up catcher César Salazar by throwing a 92.8 mph sinker to Anthony Volpe. Valdez and Salazar both said after the game the pitch that hit the catcher wasn’t on purpose.

Earlier in the season, Valdez expressed frustration about the defensive positioning on a play in the sixth inning that led to the only run he allowed in the Astros’ 2-1 loss to the Washington Nationals on July 28.

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

The average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. was $4.55 on Thursday, according to AAA. That was 44% higher than a year ago.

McDonald's Chairman and CEO Chris Kempczinski said the company has been making progress bringing lower-income customers back into its stores with value meals. But fast food visits by customers with household incomes of $45,000 or less are still declining overall, and the spike in gas prices won't help, he said.

“Clearly, when you have elevated gas prices... that is going to disproportionately impact low-income consumers. And so we expect the pressures there are going to continue,” Kempczinski said Thursday during a conference call with investors.

McDonald's said same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, fell in the U.S. and some international markets in April. That was partly due to a big surge in sales last April, when a popular Minecraft meal drove traffic. Kempczinski said it's too early to get a read on sales in May and June, although the company is hoping a new beverage lineup which launched in the U.S. this week will generate interest.

“Certainly consumer sentiment is heightened anxiety, let’s just say, and it may have an impact. But, you know, our focus is on controlling what we can control,” Kempczinski said.

McDonald's shares were flat in early trading Thursday.

In the January-March period, McDonald's global same-store sales rose 3.8%. That was better than the 3.7% increase Wall Street was expecting, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

The company kept customers interested with limited-time menu items like the Big Arch burger, a 1,020-calorie behemoth that went on sale in the U.S. in March. The burger became a viral sensation after Kempczinski posted a video of himself taking a nibble from one and was mocked for his tentative bite. Tom Curtis, president of rival Burger King, posted his own video taking a vigorous bite of his chain’s new Whopper.

The Big Arch burger costs well over $8 in many U.S. markets. So McDonald's is trying to emphasize value in other parts of its menu. The company cut prices on some U.S. combo meals in September, and starting April 21, McDonald’s U.S. stores began offering 10 items that each cost less than $3.

Kempczinski said McDonald's experience in other markets like Germany and Australia has shown that the combination of meal deals and low-priced individual items is the best value strategy.

“You need to have a meal deal offering there to be able to drive interest and excitement around some of our core menu items,” Kempczinski said. “But you also need entry-level price points for those folks who are maybe a little bit more stressed around affordability and are looking for, you know, ‘What can I get for $3 or less?’”

The Chicago chain said its revenue rose 9% in the first quarter to $6.52 billion. That was also higher than the $6.47 billion Wall Street was expecting, according to FactSet.

McDonald’s net income rose 6% to $1.98 billion. Adjusted for one-time items, the company earned $2.83 per share. That was also higher than analysts’ forecast of $2.74.

He famously owned the Atlanta Braves, leveraging his ownership of the TBS superstation to broadcast their games across the country, all while showcasing his outsized personality at a time when many owners stayed behind the scenes.

Turner, who died Wednesday, bought the struggling Braves in the 1970s, put the team on his then-tiny TV station and then sold the signal to cable systems nationwide.

“He effectively transformed the Braves into a team with a national reach and set the table for ways that local teams have now gained more of a national footprint,” said Travis Vogan, a sports media professor at the University of Iowa.

With a burgeoning fanbase that stretched far beyond the South, the Braves turned into a World Series mainstay during the 1990s, and Turner finally hoisted the Commissioner’s Trophy in 1995 before selling the franchise the next year.

In a statement Wednesday, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred called Turner a “visionary whose impact on the media landscape transformed how fans experience sports.”

Turner also once owned the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers, and the rest of his sports interests were about as varied as could be — everything from professional wrestling to sailing to the Olympics.

He tried to make the 1964 Olympic sailing team, won a world sailing championship in 1971 off the coast of Long Island and skippered the winning entry in the 1977 America’s Cup — the most famous yachting competition in the world.

“There will never be a time in my life as good as this time,” he said when told he would skipper in the America’s Cup that year. “I can’t believe all this is really happening to me.”

A ‘swashbuckling’ owner

Turner always wanted to be part of the action and famously named himself owner-manager of the Braves in 1977. Atlanta had lost 16 straight, and Turner told manager Dave Bristol to take a few days off. Turner took over, and the Braves lost 2-1 to the Pittsburgh Pirates to extend their losing streak.

“I wanted to see what it’s like down in the trenches,” Turner said that night.

Major League Baseball intervened and put a stop to Turner’s managerial career after that one game — just as they had forced Turner to stop putting “Channel” on the back of the jersey of pitcher Andy Messersmith, who wore No. 17.

But Turner continued to lean into his identity as “Captain Outrageous,” helping to set a model for “swashbuckling” modern-day owners who use their ownership to shape their public image, said Vogan, the Iowa professor.

Larger-than-life sports moguls like Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer “have all emulated Turner by being these kinds of celebrity entrepreneurs that use sports to build their own identities and to build their own kind of brands in the popular imagination," Vogan said.

“Our good friend and former owner, Ted Turner, was one of a kind,” read a statement from the Braves on Wednesday.

A new international competition

Turner’s competitive drive wasn’t satisfied by owning teams, though.

He founded the Goodwill Games, born in large part out of his frustration with the U.S. boycotting the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and then the Soviets leading a boycott of the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. He brought the inaugural Goodwill Games to Moscow in 1986, with about 3,000 athletes from 79 countries taking part.

The Goodwill Games would be held five times in all, ending in 2001. There was also a Winter Goodwill Games, held only once — at Lake Placid, New York, in 2000.

“There’s nothing better for kids than sport,” Turner said at the opening ceremony of those Lake Placid Games.

Vogan said the Goodwill Games showcased Turner's “audacity,” even if it didn't work out.

“The fact that he was involved in an initiative like that says a lot about his ambitions and his role as a disruptive force in media,” Vogan said.

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Reynolds reported from Miami.

On Tuesday, commissioners will vote on an agreement between Altamonte Springs and Seminole County about the distribution of local option fuel tax proceeds.

The measure would clarify that the city has not assigned or pledged its fuel tax revenues to the county and retains authority over the use of those funds.

Dwayne Hardy lives near Cranes Roost Park and said the agreement is a good move for the city.

“I think tax dollars in Altamonte Springs should stay local with all the growth that we’re experiencing here.”

[WATCH: Seminole County pledges $50 million for new connector road from SR 417 to the airport in Sanford]

The vote comes as Seminole County has called for help to pay for a project that would link State Road 417 to the Orlando Sanford International Airport.

According to project leaders, the purpose of the road is to reduce congestion on East Lake Mary Boulevard and surrounding roadways, enhance access to commercial centers, and support long-term growth in the area.

Seminole County has agreed to pay $50 million toward the $200 million project.

County leaders have also asked Sanford, Oviedo, Winter Springs, and Lake Mary to contribute their local option fuel tax toward the two-mile connector road.

“If we pay to build a toll road, then we’re paying twice,” Hardy said. “Once to build it, and once to use it. I think that’s unfair.”

Altamonte Springs has not been asked to pay toward the project and has elected to retain its share of the fuel tax.

Commissioners are expected to vote on the measure during a meeting on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

• There’s a lot of unclaimed money sitting in state coffers.
• And it’s not just cash – there’s property too.
• Checking whether you’re owed money is free – but beware of scams.

Let’s start with some mind-boggling numbers.

Across the U.S., more than $70 billion is sitting unclaimed – most of it is held by state governments. In many states, about 1 in 7 people has unclaimed money. Last year, state programs returned over $4.25 billion to rightful owners – in Florida alone, that number for 2025 was $248 million and $426 million for 2024.

Funds can come from a variety of places, including:

• Old bank accounts
• Uncashed paychecks
• Utility deposits
• Insurance payouts
• Refunds
• Stocks or dividends

And it’s not always just money – in some cases, the property part of unclaimed funds can include things like the contents of safe deposit boxes or even real estate.

How does all this money end up with the government?

It doesn’t happen overnight. Most people keep close track of their money, but things still fall through the cracks. People move, change names, lose paperwork, or simply forget about old accounts.

Here’s a real-world example from our newsroom: recently, a co-worker used Florida’s unclaimed property website to claim $800. The money wasn’t from an inheritance or a forgotten paycheck – it was a refund tied to an overcharge from a hospital stay from eight years ago. And in case that math doesn’t feel like it’s mathing, yes, the claim was just made within the last two months.

If a business or financial institution loses contact with an account holder – say you move, change your name, or simply forget about an account – legally, it can’t hold that money forever. After a set period of inactivity, known as a dormancy period (typically between 1 and 5 years, depending on the asset), companies are legally required to turn that property over to the government. And by the way, it’s not just states – the federal government has unclaimed funds as well.

This process is called escheatment.

Once the state (or federal government) becomes the custodian of the asset (again, funds or physical property), it holds the money indefinitely until it’s claimed. The original owner does not lose his or her right to the asset. Governments, however, typically don’t just let the money sit around in a vault somewhere:

• Funds are often deposited into electronic accounts (for example, in Florida, those funds go into the State School Fund to support public schools)
• Some agencies may use or invest the money as part of their general operations
• Once someone comes forward, the state or the feds must pay the money back

What people may not realize

This is not government money.

Governments act as custodians – the money (asset) still belongs to an individual or business. Before property is turned over to a government agency, companies are generally required to attempt to contact the owner. Once the government receives the property, many conduct outreach efforts – but notification requirements and practices vary.

While some outreach happens, many people never realize they have money waiting (and it’s through media campaigns, direct mail, searchable databases and stories like these that people will stop and check). Remember that co-worker I mentioned earlier in the story and his $800? That person was notified by mail by the State of Florida of an unclaimed fund and then went to the website to expedite the claim process.

Assets will go unclaimed for a variety of reasons:

• People move (the most common reason) and/or change their phone number or email address
• Name changes (either through a marriage or divorce)
• People move from one state to another and important mail gets lost or never forwarded
• Small amounts are forgotten about
• Companies simply lose contact

Interestingly – but not always – unclaimed funds are often tied to deceased family members and go uncollected for years.

So, if the money is yours, and a government agency is holding onto it, how do you actually get it back? Let’s find out.

The easiest – and safest – way to look for funds

I recently checked in with Catherine Seat, Communications Director of the National Association of State Treasurers. Here’s the website she recommends consumers should use to start an unclaimed funds search:

For the federal government, start here.

One of the best features of the unclaimed.org site is that if you scroll towards the bottom, you’ll see a map with all 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Click on any of those state or territory links, and you’ll be taken DIRECTLY to a specific government website for unclaimed funds.

In addition, there are also links for our neighbors to the north: Bank of Canada, Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Quebec – all are members of the National Association of State Treasurers.

One of the reasons I’m highlighting this site is to help our readers avoid scams. With billions of dollars sitting unclaimed, it’s no surprise that scammers are trying to cash in, often by creating fake websites or posing as recovery companies.

Don’t fall for it.

Here are a few red flags to watch for:

• Upfront fees – Legitimate state programs will never charge you to search for unclaimed funds. If someone asks for money just to look up your name or release funds, that’s a warning sign.
• Pressure tactics – Be cautious of messages that say you need to act immediately to claim your money. In reality, states hold unclaimed funds indefinitely. There’s no ticking clock.
• Lookalike websites – Some sites are designed to mimic official government pages. Always double-check the web address. The safest option is to use a verified site like unclaimed.org, treasurydirect.gov, or go directly to a state government website ending in “.gov”.
• Requests for sensitive information – While you may need to provide documentation to claim funds, you should not have to enter sensitive personal information just to conduct a basic search.
• “Asset finders” or “heir locators” – Some companies offer to recover funds on your behalf, but they may charge significant fees—sometimes a percentage of what you’re owed. In most cases, you can complete the process yourself for free.

The bottom line: if you have to pay to find your money, or feel pressured to act quickly, it’s likely not legitimate.

Are my funds taxable?

One of the questions raised around the newsroom is “Are unclaimed funds taxable?” The answer: it depends.

Returned funds that aren’t taxable fall into the category of refunds, like utility bills, medical refunds, retail refunds, and security deposits. Bank deposits fall under non-taxable – interest from those deposits, however, is taxable.

Banks and other financial institutions issue 1099s each year – once you’re back on track, don’t ignore those forms that will get sent to you at the beginning of each year (you’ll need to include them when filing your taxes).

Other funds that are taxable: uncashed paychecks, dividends, investment-related earnings, and insurance payouts. Another wrinkle: an asset might have been taxable in the year it was originally issued. Check with a tax professional if you’re unsure about your tax obligations.

One last thing to add: how much can you realistically expect to get back?

One hundred percent of what you’re owed.

Government agencies don’t hold back any percentages or processing fees. What you’re owed is what you’ll get.

Catherine Seat also sent us this breakdown: though it isn’t an average payout or a state-by-state breakout, it is a yearly total of returned funds for the last few fiscal years from the NAUPA annual reports:

• FY2025:        $4,252,648,747.39
• FY2024:        $4,493,390,785.64
• FY2023:        $5,404,074,038.40
• FY2022:        $4,020,939,375.39
• FY2021:        NO DATA
• FY2020:        $2,873,202,054.71
• FY2019:        $3,144,585,563.08

Some final notes: don’t expect to get lost funds back quickly. Simple claims may be processed in a few weeks, but more complicated claims – especially those involving deceased relatives, businesses, or large amounts of money – can take much longer.

Depending on the type of claim, consumers may need to provide documentation, including proof of address, photo identification, death certificates, probate records, or tax documents.

Agencies verify claims carefully because they’re handling money and property that legally belong to someone else, and they want to make sure the right person gets paid.

Now that you know how to search safely, what money or property might be out there, and what assets may be subject to taxes, if nothing else, remember this: use official sites only. Never pay up front. And take your time to look in different states and check on your relatives.

If you haven’t checked yet for unclaimed funds, now might be a good time to start.

Norfolk Constabulary said that the arrest came Wednesday evening after a man was reported “behaving in an intimidating manner” near the home of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in eastern England.

“Officers attended, and the man was arrested on suspicion of a public order offense and possession of an offensive weapon,” the force said Thursday.

The suspect is being held for questioning at a nearby police station. The term offensive weapons covers knives, truncheons and other items used to cause injury. Police didn’t specify what type of weapon was involved.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that a man wearing a ski mask ran toward the former royal while shouting abuse. It said the incident occurred near the Sandringham Estate while the former prince was out walking his dogs, and that Andrew and his protection officer got in their car and sped away.

Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III, moved to the king’s private Sandringham Estate, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of London, after he was evicted from his longtime home near Windsor Castle following revelations about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Andrew, 66, now lives at Marsh Farm, a property on the Sandringham Estate, after leaving Royal Lodge last year.

He was stripped of all his honors and titles and banished from public view by the royal family after years of scandal over his money woes and links to questionable characters, including Epstein.

One of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Giuffre, alleged that she was forced to have sex with the then-prince three times starting when she was 17. He denied it, but eventually settled the case for an undisclosed sum and acknowledged Giuffre’s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking. Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025, aged 41.

In February, he became the first senior British royal in almost 400 years to be arrested when he was held for hours by British police on suspicion of misconduct in public office in a case related to his links to Epstein. It was an extraordinary move in a country where authorities once sought to shield the royal family from embarrassment.

Police previously said they were “assessing” reports that Mountbatten-Windsor sent trade information to Epstein, a wealthy investor and convicted sex offender, in 2010, when the former prince was the United Kingdom’s special envoy for international trade.

Correspondence between the two men was released by the U.S. Justice Department along with millions of pages of documents from the American investigation into Epstein.

The actor, director and producer lay down in a doctor's office in Seoul and underwent microinjections into his face of DNA from salmon sperm. The hope was to reduce inflammation and improve elasticity.

“I look like a got a little sunburn and a little redder than usual, but it’s not bad,” he says to a camera crew after the procedure. “OK, I’m camera ready.”

Kim was putting his face on the line as part of the new CNN series “K-Everything: The Global Rise of Korean Culture,” his love letter to K-beauty, K-pop, K-food and K-film. It debuts Saturday on CNN International and is also available on CNN and HBO Max.

“It's an examination of how Korea has risen in the course of three short generations from a war-torn third world country to one of the most modern places in the world,” Kim says in an interview. “We’ll take a look at how that’s happened through food, through cinema, through beauty products and through music.”

What's the show about?

At a vibrant kimchi festival in Pyeongchang, Kim explores how K-food is reshaping fine dining across the globe. In other episodes, he meets actor Lee Byung-hun, “Gangnam Style” singer-songwriter Psy, BigBang's Taeyang and the songwriters behind the Oscar-winning song “Golden.”

“For those who’ve never been to Korea, this is a nice introduction in a way that is not something taught in a classroom or in a textbook,” Kim says.

In the beauty episode, Kim chats with makeup artist and influencer LeoJ and model Irene Kim on how beauty standards have changed. He tries various serums and face masks and even visits a factory where snail slime is collected to be used in various products.

“I got to meet people from different walks of life, from different cities, from different economic classes, and it just broadened my understanding of the culture,” he says.

Kim was born in South Korea but moved to the United States when he was 1, returning frequently. That makes “K-Everything” a personal journey, which also includes his parents.

Seoul has undergone such an economic and cultural boom that all the landmarks his parents knew from when they were teenagers were gone and they relied on him to navigate. “It was almost a foreign country to them,” he says.

‘A trusted guide’

Kim joins a crowded field of celeb travel hosts, which includes Tony Shalhoub, Rainn Wilson, Eugene Levy, Stanley Tucci,Orlando Bloom, Zac Efron, José Andrés, Chris Hemsworth, Will Smith, Eva Longoria and Ewan McGregor.

Kim, the “Lost” star who recently earned a Tony Award nomination, is a fan of the late chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain, who helped create the role of modern TV travel host.

“I wouldn’t say that this show is as irreverent as Anthony Bourdain’s show was, but I loved it because I felt like he was showing me his take on each country and he was a trusted guide,” he says. “If I can be that for some people then that’s the spirit that I’d like to bring into this show.”

Amy Entelis, executive vice president for talent, CNN Originals and creative development, says Kim brings a unique and deeply personal perspective to the series.

“From the first time I met him, it was clear he was incredibly well equipped to tackle this — deeply passionate about the subject and highly knowledgeable. He was also very focused on making sure the way we look at Korean culture translates to a broad global audience, really putting a spotlight on it,” she says.

Kim has never played TV host, but he's an avid traveler and he's not a fish out of water in Korea. He says despite stretching himself, he felt comfortable.

“I get to introduce the world to a culture that I love and have gotten to know and has informed who I am as a performer and as a human being. So to me, it was strangely comfortable and it didn’t feel at all like I was stepping outside of my comfort zone.”

Kim hopes the series can help non-Koreans better understand a culture that has influenced so much of the globe of late and address anti-Asian racism, which surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If we can start to understand one another a little bit better through culture, then I think it is one step toward bringing together a global community. And I think the world could use a little more understanding in general.”

Davis, who rose to stardom as a little league pitching sensation, followed developments as WNBA players negotiated historic salaries. As she enters the inaugural season of the WPBL, Davis sees those record gains as a signal to the next generation of women's leagues about what is possible.

“Wanting to be a WNBA player growing up and seeing it not be as huge as it is now,” Davis said, “and just seeing the growth — it’s amazing. I’m excited for what’s to come.”

As the WNBA begins its season under the new CBA, emerging women's sports leagues like baseball and hockey are looking at that progress as a promising roadmap for growth. At the same time, leaders of those startup leagues recognize the WNBA's growth was shaped by decades of player advocacy, work stoppage threats and athletes playing elsewhere to supplement their incomes.

“The WNBA is definitely an example of a league that had to grind and keep showing its worth over and over,” said Justine Siegal, co-founder of the WPBL, which debuts in August. “The recognition is overdue and well-deserved. For us as a new women’s pro league, we don’t see it as the beginning. We see it is we’re part of a momentum that fans want to see.”

Newer women's leagues try to capitalize on current boom

The WNBA's new seven-year CBA will raise the league's salary cap from $1.5 million to $7 million in the first year of the deal. It will also improve player experience with codified charter flights, first-class travel accommodations and expanded mental health support. Perhaps most notably, the deal marks a new era of player compensation, with stars like four-time MVP A'ja Wilson making more than $1 million for the first time in WNBA history.

Those milestones are, in part, the result of surging popularity in women's basketball, with stars like Caitlin Clark becoming household names and driving up viewership. After securing a landmark media rights deal in 2024, players recognized a pivotal opportunity to demand a bigger share of that growing revenue.

“We can kind of show (other leagues) what worked and obviously the strength in numbers,” said New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart. “Realizing the value of your league and your teams."

Newer leagues are still far from the financial scale of leagues like the WNBA or National Women's Soccer League, which is in its 14th year and has benefitted from years of equal pay efforts. A recent report published by the accounting firm Deloitte said soccer and basketball are expected to be the top revenue-generating women’s sports in 2026, with each accounting for 35% of overall revenues.

Still newer leagues are watching closely as they try and capitalize on the current boom those established organizations helped create.

“There is a lot for us to take away from both the player solidarity that led to the deal and the substance of the deal itself,” said, Malaika Underwood, executive director of the Professional Women's Hockey League Players Association, in an email. “In many ways, this new CBA has raised important benchmarks for what women athletes should expect across professional sports.”

Growth won't happen overnight

She added while that kind of growth won’t happen overnight for the PWHL — which is concluding its third season— the league believes it has set itself up for similar success. That has been evident in how the PWHL has blown past initial attendance and revenue projections since its 2024 launch. After adding two franchises last year, the eight-team PWHL is preparing to expand by as many as four more for next season.

Other leagues, like Women's Elite Rugby (WER), are learning from WNBA players' unified approach to advocacy, while recognizing their own unique financial hurdles.

The WNBA, entering its 30th season, is partially owned by the NBA, and while the PWHL isn't financially tied to the NHL, it has been able to leverage partnerships through marketing and shared venues.

That's not the case for WER, which is entering its second season.

“There wasn’t a billionaire benefactor who was willing to write a big check and say, ‘Let’s get this going no matter what the cost,’" said Phil Camm, the league's chief commercial officer. “So we can learn from things, but we have to approach it from a very different perspective.”

Because of the current investment in the women’s sports ecosystem, David Berri, an economics professor at Southern Utah University, predicts it won't be long before women's athletes in rugby, baseball and other emerging leagues become household names and enjoy the same benefits that WNBA players long fought for.

“By the time you get to the end of the century, people are going look back to this point and go, ‘I don’t get it, why weren’t you showing it on television?'" Berri said. "'Why wasn’t it obvious that this was a good idea?’ It’ll seem obvious at that point that you should have done that.'”

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AP Sports Writer John Wawrow and Women's Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg contributed to this report.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Health authorities on at least four continents are now tracking down and in some cases monitoring the cruise passengers who disembarked on April 24, and trying to trace others who may have come into contact with them since then.

The World Health Organization said the risk to the wider public is low because hantavirus — usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings — isn't easily transmitted between people.

“We believe this will be a limited outbreak if the public health measures are implemented and solidarity is shown across all countries,” said Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, the WHO's alert and response director.

The Dutch health ministry said Thursday that a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger in South Africa was showing symptoms of hantavirus and would be tested in an isolation ward at a hospital in Amsterdam. The cruise passenger, also a Dutch woman, was too ill to fly and was taken off the plane in Johannesburg, where she died.

If the woman tests positive, she could be the first known person not on the MV Hondius to become infected in the outbreak.

Three cruise ship passengers have died in the outbreak, and several others are sick. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

None of the remaining passengers or crew on the ship are currently symptomatic, the ship's operator said.

1st hantavirus case on board was confirmed May 2

Three people, including the ship’s doctor, were evacuated Wednesday while the ship was near the West African island country of Cape Verde and taken to specialized hospitals in Europe for treatment.

The body of the Dutch man who was the first to die on board on April 11 was taken off the ship on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena on April 24, when his wife also disembarked. She then flew to South Africa a day later and died there.

Oceanwide Expeditions, the Netherlands-based cruise ship company, said Thursday that 30 passengers left the vessel at St. Helena, while the Dutch Foreign Ministry put the number at about 40. The company had not previously said publicly that dozens more people left the ship on April 24.

It wasn't until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a passenger on the ship, the WHO says. That was in a British man evacuated from the ship to South Africa from Ascension Island three days after the St. Helena stop. He was tested in South Africa and is in intensive care there.

Passengers who disembarked April 24 are being monitored

It emerged Wednesday that a man tested positive for hantavirus in Switzerland after he disembarked at St. Helena, though his precise movements in between aren’t clear.

On Thursday, Singaporean health authorities said they were monitoring two men who got off the ship at St. Helena and flew to South Africa and then home. The two men, who arrived in Singapore at different times, were being isolated and tested, officials said. One had a runny nose and the other had no symptoms, Singapore's Communicable Diseases Agency said.

British health officials say two people who were passengers aboard the ship but flew home midway through the journey are self-isolating but do not have symptoms of illness. The U.K. Health Security Agency said “a small number” of contacts of the two are also self-isolating but are not showing any symptoms. Other contacts are being traced.

Authorities in St. Helena, the remote, volcanic British territory in the South Atlantic where passengers got off, said they were monitoring a small number of people who were considered “higher risk contacts.” Those higher risk contacts were being told to isolate for 45 days, the St. Helena government said.

South Africa is tracing contacts from an April 25 flight

The vessel is now sailing to Spain’s Canary Islands, a voyage that is expected to take three or four days, with more than 140 passengers and crew members still on board.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday that he had been in regular touch with the ship's captain, and that “morale has improved significantly since the ship started moving again.”

Authorities in South Africa are also trying to trace contacts of any passengers who previously got off the ship. They have focused mainly on an April 25 flight from St. Helena to Johannesburg, the day after passengers disembarked there.

The Dutch woman from the cruise ship who later died in South Africa briefly boarded that flight, officials have said. It's not known how many other cruise passengers also were among the 88 people on it, but flights from St. Helena go to South Africa and are rare, normally once a week.

The body of the third fatality, a German woman, is also still on board the ship after she died on May 2.

Andes virus is only hantavirus that spreads human-to-human

Tests have confirmed that at least five people who were on the ship were infected with a hantavirus found in South America, called the Andes virus. The only hantavirus thought to spread human-to-human, it can cause a severe and often fatal lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

Argentina’s health ministry said there were 28 deaths from hantavirus last year, up from an average mortality rate of 15 in the five years before that. Nearly a third of cases last year were fatal, it said.

The ship departed from Argentina and investigations into the source of the outbreak are focusing on that country.

Tedros said the couple that presented the first two cases had traveled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay on a bird-watching trip before boarding the ship. The Dutch couple visited sites where the species of rat that is known to carry Andes virus was present, he said.

Tedros said the WHO is working with health authorities in Argentina to understand their movements, and that the WHO had arranged for shipping 2,500 diagnostic kits from Argentina to laboratories in five countries.

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Quell reported from The Hague, Netherlands. Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa. AP writers Jill Lawless in London and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.

“Don’t sell your tickets," Embiid said. “This is bigger than you. We need you guys.”

Of more pressing concern for the Sixers and their fans, they need Embiid.

The 2023 NBA MVP, Embiid missed Game 2 of the second-round series against the Knicks with a sprained right ankle and a sore right hip.

The 76ers put up a far better fight without Embiid than in the Knicks’ 137-98 romp in Game 1, yet still lost 108-102 on Wednesday night. It's the Knicks who hold a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals when the series shifts to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Friday night and Game 4 on Sunday.

Recent history proved, the Knicks should feel right at home once they play in Philadelphia.

Spurred by affordable train fare, cheaper tickets compared to Madison Square Garden and a simply overzealous passion for Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and the rest of the Knicks team stamped a legitimate NBA championship contender, New York fans have flooded Philly and provided a home-court edge on the road.

The Sixers’ strategy to ward off Knicks fans in this playoff series was to try through Ticketmaster to geographically restrict sales.

Geo-fencing, in sports ticket lingo.

A message on their website over the weekend read: “Xfinity Mobile Arena is located in Philadelphia, PA. Sales to this event will be restricted to residents of Greater Philadelphia area. Residency will be based on credit card billing address. Orders by residents outside Greater Philadelphia area will be canceled without notice and refunds given.”

The 76ers — and other sports teams in all leagues that cut off sales outside city limits — essentially shut the front door of their home but leave all the windows open. There are so many ways around the game plan through the various resale platforms — no proof-of-Philadelphia ID needed — it hardly seemed worth the effort.

The splashy headline for a day could turn into a cold reality check on Friday night — there’s nothing that can prevent big-spending backers of the Knicks from buying from Philadelphia fans who choose to sell.

“I think they’re soft,” Knicks fan Bryan Reinah, of Queens, said at Game 2. “They’re afraid of the Knicks takeover. I think last time we played them it was 47% Knicks fans. Everybody hops on the trains and goes right down. Tickets are cheaper and the Knicks fans travel well. They’re afraid of it.”

The 76ers' plan did spark national headlines even though the policy is not new or even uncommon in sports.

The thought is, why not try?

Of recent note, the Detroit Pistons tried the same tactic in last season's playoffs and limited ticket sales on Ticketmaster to residents of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Ontario, Canada. The Carolina Hurricanes did the same to New York Rangers fans during the 2024 and 2022 NHL playoffs.

Hey, maybe these cities just don't like New Yorkers!?

Ah, maybe not as the policy through the decades has enforcement well beyond the five boroughs.

Take 2001, when Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, a former senior executive with America Online, wrote a computer program that banned Pittsburgh residents from buying tickets on the Capitals' website.

"Pretty cool, isn’t it?” Leonsis said in 2001. “I got a lot of emails from Pittsburgh saying I was mean-spirited and unfair. I don’t care. I’m going to keep doing it.”

The Sixers said this season's effort was designed to ensure that tickets remained in the hands of local fans who have supported the team all season.

Neither the Sixers nor Ticketmaster said how many face-value tickets went on sale Sunday.

Ticketmaster put out a statement that covered its geo-fencing policy with a peppy social media post.

“Who gets to buy tickets to sports games? Let us break it down,” the video noted. “Sometimes, sports teams put limits on who can buy tickets for big, in-demand matchups. This is a way to give local fans the best shot at attending the event and to limit scalpers who are located hundreds of miles away, who are trying to flip to the tickets just for a profit.”

Ticketmaster said those rules and decisions come directly for the team.

When the Knicks played at Philadelphia in Game 6 of a first-round series in 2024, Sixers owners Josh Harris, David Blitzer and David Adelman and former minority owner Michael Rubin joined forces to buy more than 2,000 tickets they handed out to people who serve the Philadelphia community.

Tickets for Game 3 on StubHub as of Thursday started at about $220 a pop in the upper deck and topped $1,000 in the lower bowl.

Sixers or Knicks fans, that's some serious cash.

The amount of blue-and-orange and Brunson jerseys in the stands on Friday night will be the final word on if Sixers fans were serious about listening to Embiid and keeping tickets in house.

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

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

In a news conference Thursday morning, Sheriff Christopher Blackmon said the problem has reached epidemic levels on the county’s west side, where promoters are using short-term rentals like Airbnb and Vrbo to host large, unauthorized gatherings.

According to the sheriff’s office, a 19-year-old Kissimmee man, Jeremiah Kelly-Alexander Richmond, was arrested Wednesday by the OCSO Fugitive Unit and U.S. Marshals on an outstanding warrant. Investigators said Richmond promoted and ran two illegal parties in 2026, where two teens were shot and killed. He was booked into Osceola County Jail with no bond.

Separately, two 18-year-old women — Katty Francois and Neika St. Louis, both of Orlando — were arrested May 3 after a house party on Thunderbird Road in Kissimmee ended with a 17-year-old suffering a gunshot wound to his leg, the sheriff’s office said.

A 19-year-old Orlando man, Robert David White, 19, was also arrested at the party on felony charges. A responding deputy stopped White outside the residence as he carried a backpack. A criminal history check revealed White had been charged earlier this year with unlawful possession of a firearm by the Orlando Police Department.

Blackmon said roughly 80 Florida Highway Patrol troopers will join Osceola County deputies this weekend to shut down illegal gatherings.

“If you’ve got a party, expect to see the blue lights,” Blackmon said.

The sheriff also urged parents to monitor their children’s whereabouts and social media activity, warning that illegal parties have been linked to sexual battery cases and two teen murders this year.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crimeline or the OCSO Criminal Investigation Division.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell another 3.2% to $97.98, down from more than $115 early this week. It and gasoline are still much more expensive than they were before the war with Iran began, but hope is rising in financial markets as Iran said it was reviewing the latest U.S. proposals on ending their war.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 added 0.2% to its all-time high set the day before after a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said, “We expect an agreement sooner rather than later.” Pakistan has been acting as a mediator between the United States and Iran, and the hope is that they will reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Its closure during the war has kept oil tankers trapped in the Persian Gulf and sent prices higher for crude and all kinds of products.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 69 points, or 0.1%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was adding 0.6% to its own record.

Of course, Wall Street has rallied strongly before on hopes for a coming end to the war with Iran, only to get quickly disappointed. That could happen again, and tensions are still high in the Middle East after a U.S. fighter jet shot out the rudder of an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman Wednesday as it tried to breach the American blockade of Iran’s ports.

Despite all those uncertainties, a powerful parade of U.S. companies saying they made even bigger profits during the first three months of the year than analysts expected has helped support the U.S. stock market. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term.

Datadog leaped 29.6% to help lead the U.S. market after the monitoring and security platform for cloud applications topped analysts' expectations for profit in the latest quarter.

Albemarle rose 8.2% after the lithium products and specialty chemicals company likewise delivered better-than-expected results. Taser maker Axon Enterprise rallied 10.2% after raising its forecast for revenue this year in part because of big growth for its counter-drone products.

They helped offset a 12.5% drop for Whirlpool, which tumbled after reporting much weaker results than analysts expected. It announced the largest price increases in a decade for its major appliances in North America, while accelerating cuts to its costs, as it contends with weaker confidence among U.S. consumers.

Shake Shack dropped 28.6% after its results for the latest quarter fell well below analysts' expectations.

McDonald’s slipped 0.4% even though its revenue for the latest quarter edged past analysts’ expectations. CEO Chris Kempczinski said high gasoline prices and consumer anxiety over the Iran war could dent its sales this spring.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.36%, where it was late Wednesday, but remains down from 4.45% early this week.

Lower yields can bring down rates for mortgages and other kinds of loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which in turn can give the economy a boost. Lower yields also tend to push upward on prices for stocks and other kinds of investments.

The 10-year Treasury yield, though, remains well above its 3.97% level from just before the war.

Several reports on the U.S. economy also came in mixed. One said more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the increase was not as bad as economists expected. Another report suggested that productivity for U.S. workers improved by only half of what economists expected for the latest quarter.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 roared 5.6% higher as trading in Tokyo reopened following a holiday and caught up with big gains for Asian markets from earlier in the week. It’s at a record after soaring nearly 71% in the last 12 months on strength for tech stocks benefiting from the boom in artificial intelligence.

“I think it’s a kind of bubble because buying activity concentrated on leading AI, artificial intelligence stock and semiconductor-related stocks. It’s a situation where only semiconductor stocks are being bought,” said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at MONEX.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary opened the event by saying his agency was “removing all petroleum-based food dyes" from U.S. foods. But the specifics did not become clear until the final minutes, when Kennedy revealed that the government had “an understanding” with foodmakers to voluntarily stop using the chemicals. A “national standard and timeline” for completing the process would soon follow, according to an FDA statement.

More than a year later, the FDA has not introduced any of the detailed, scientific regulatory documents needed to establish a safety issue with the half-dozen widely used dyes. Instead, the FDA maintains an online list of manufacturers that have pledged to phase out the chemicals.

The administration’s handling of food dyes reflects its approach to a number of health priorities. Instead of using the time-consuming process of federal rulemaking, which can stretch across multiple administrations, officials working under Republican President Donald Trump have found a quicker approach: Announce sweeping changes first and deal with the regulations later.

“It speaks volumes that the administration has yet to produce a document articulating the scientific basis for the voluntary request,” said Susan Mayne, a Yale University public health expert and former director of the FDA’s food program. Meanwhile, the FDA's website continues to carry the government's longtime conclusion that “the totality of scientific evidence” does not show a link between synthetic dyes and health problems.

“If FDA has changed its position, then FDA should document why and pursue a ban,” Mayne said.

A spokesperson for Kennedy said the administration has used “multiple approaches” to quickly make more progress on food dyes “than at any point in the past.”

“FDA engaged industry early in this effort to encourage timely changes while continuing its scientific and regulatory work,” said Emily Hilliard of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “The agency maintains its role in evaluating safety and will continue to use its regulatory authorities, guidance, and review processes as appropriate.”

The lack of initiative in drafting new regulations is particularly striking at the FDA. Under federal law, the agency is supposed to refrain from making major policy announcements in news releases, speeches or other informal settings.

But a string of changes from Makary and his deputies have appeared first in articles in subscription-only medical journal articles, television interviews or online posts, including new restrictions on COVID-19 vaccines and other therapies.

Traditionally, those changes would be published first in the Federal Register, giving consumers, experts, and companies a chance to comment and suggest revisions to FDA proposals.

FDA has faced little pushback from industry

Almost as surprising as the agency’s shift away from rulemaking is the fact that the powerful companies FDA regulates have put up little resistance.

The FDA has faced hundreds of lawsuits over the decades — from drugmakers, pharmacies, tobacco companies and others — that accused the agency of failing to follow the legally required steps for new regulations and guidelines.

But drugmakers and other multibillion-dollar companies are sitting on the sidelines, at least for now.

Industry observers point to the administration's unusual willingness to pressure drugmakers, including on drug pricing concessions sought by Trump.

“Does the government have the ability to basically bully companies?” asked Dan Troy, the FDA’s former chief counsel. “Yes, and I think we’re seeing that.”

One of the biggest FDA changes came last May, when Makary and then-vaccine chief Dr. Vinay Prasad published a medical journal article announcing that the FDA would no longer routinely approve COVID-19 shots for healthy adults under age 65 and children without underlying health problems. To win approval for that group, vaccine manufacturers would need to conduct large studies that many experts say may not be feasible in today's post-pandemic environment.

As with other vaccine decisions, Makary and Prasad bypassed the agency’s outside experts, who had traditionally been consulted on major decisions involving the shots. Makary says FDA advisory panels are often biased and take too much time and money to convene.

“We had all of this experience looking at the safety of how these vaccines work, and then these two cowboys come and say: ‘We’re going to make this policy’,” said Dr. Kathryn Edwards, who previously led the FDA’s vaccine panel.

Edwards and other experts say the lack of pushback from vaccine manufacturers may reflect the tremendous power the FDA holds over them.

“Ultimately, you need the FDA to license your product,” said Edwards, a retired vaccine scientist at Vanderbilt University. “If you’re going to try and buck the FDA -- especially in this environment — the likelihood of your product getting a positive review is going to be pretty low.”

Earlier this year, the FDA briefly refused to consider a new mRNA flu shot from Moderna. The agency reversed its decision after pushback from the company and the White House.

Recent FDA changes may have little staying power

There may be other reasons why normally litigious companies are not challenging the agency.

Some FDA initiatives have the potential to benefit companies, including a program that awards ultrafast reviews to drugs favored by the Trump administration.

Even seemingly burdensome changes may have little staying power because the agency is not going through the process to enshrine them in federal rules or guidelines. That includes stringent new standards to win approval for CAR-T therapies that were previously approved for various forms of cancer, based on early results.

“Anything that this administration does that they don’t embody in law can easily be undone by a future administration,” Troy said.

Still, with more than two years remaining under Trump, there are signs at least some companies may be willing to raise objections.

The FDA last year began releasing rejection letters for drugs it declined to approve. Previously, that information was considered confidential and the property of drugmakers.

Last month, an unnamed drugmaker filed a formal petition challenging the practice, noting the FDA had provided “only a two-sentence explanation addressing its purported legal authority” to release the letters.

The petition does not carry the force of a lawsuit, but it invokes the same language as numerous legal challenges to the agency, calling the FDA’s action “arbitrary and capricious.”

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

The military said that any “hostile design” against Pakistan would be countered with “greater strength, precision and resolve” than what India witnessed during the May 2025 conflict, which Islamabad named “Marka-e-Haq,” or “Battle of Truth.”

Pakistan and India had exchanged tit-for-tat strikes following an attack by gunmen in the Indian-controlled part of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir that killed 26 people, most of them Hindu tourists. India blamed Pakistan-backed militants for the massacre in the town of Pahalgam, an allegation Islamabad denied while calling for an independent investigation.

India launched strikes inside Pakistan on May 7, triggering retaliatory attacks by Pakistan that included drone incursions, missile strikes and artillery fire. Dozens of people were killed on both sides before a ceasefire was reached on May 10 following U.S. mediation.

Pakistan at the time claimed it shot down at least seven Indian military aircraft, including a French-made Rafale fighter jet. India acknowledged suffering some losses but did not provide details.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly taken the credit for helping avert a wider war.

Speaking at a televised news conference, army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry said India had blamed Pakistan for the attack on tourists in Kashmir within minutes of the shooting without presenting evidence.

“It has been one year since the Pahalgam incident, yet the questions Pakistan raised remain unanswered,” he said. Chaudhry said Pakistan did not underestimate India’s military capability but was fully prepared to respond to any “misadventure.”

“We are prepared; if anyone wishes to test us, they are more than welcome,” he said alongside Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Rear Adm. Shifaat Ali and Deputy Chief of Air Staff (Projects) Air Vice Marshal Tariq Ghazi. However, Chaudhry added: “We are not seeking conflict, we are not seeking war. But we know how to defend ourselves with honor and dignity.”

Ali said the Indian navy had attempted to deploy vessels in the northern Arabian Sea during the fighting in an effort to target Pakistan’s naval assets and disrupt maritime trade routes. “But due to the effective strategy of the Pakistan Navy, maritime traffic in all our waterways remained uninterrupted,” he said.

At Thursday’s briefing, Ghazi said Pakistan had downed eight Indian fighter jets during the conflict. He added that Pakistan had exercised restraint and that its air force had the capability to inflict greater damage on the enemy.

Pakistan and India have long had strained relations and have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, which is claimed by both in its entirety.

Lori Ann Gonzalez was arrested on Wednesday on 31 counts of animal cruelty and has posted bond.

An animal cruelty investigator went out to the property on Atlantis Road back in April for a welfare check on the cattle.

According to a probable cause affidavit, 31 zebu-style cattle were found in “extremely poor body condition, with prominent ribs, spine, and pelvic bones clearly visible, consistent with severe emaciation.”

The affidavit also says the cows were in a pasture with little to no grass available, just remnants with hay that had been trampled into the ground, and the cows were not seen chewing cud, something they should be constantly doing as part of the digestive process.

The cows were taken into custody and evaluated. Most of the cows had a body condition score that indicated severe emaciation, with no measurable fat reserves. Tests also showed the presence of gastrointestinal parasites.

According to the sheriff’s office, all of the cattle have since been adopted by cattlemen.

Fellow No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka said this week the players should consider a boycott.

“It’s more about respect. Because I think we give much more than what we are getting back,” Sinner said on Thursday at the Italian Open. “It’s not only for the top players; it’s for all of us players.”

Sinner wouldn’t commit to a boycott.

“It’s tough to say,” he said. “I cannot predict the future in a way. But in the same time I also believe that somewhere we need to start.”

The players have targeted the upcoming French Open for reducing players’ share of revenue to an alleged 15% — compared to the 22% at ATP and WTA events like the Italian Open this week.

The same group of players sent a letter a year ago to the heads of the four Grand Slams seeking more prize money and a greater say in decision-making. Wimbledon increased its 2025 total pot by 7%, the U.S. Open by 20% and the Australian Open in January by 16%.

“It’s not nice that after one year we are not even close to conclusion of what we would like to have,” Sinner said. “I truly believe that within 48 hours you have not only a response but you also have a meeting.”

French Open organizers announced last month they were increasing overall prize money by about 10% for an overall pot of 61.7 million euros ($72.1 million), with the total amount up 5.3 million euros from last year. But the players’ statement said “the underlying figures tell a very different story,” claiming they will receive a smaller share of tournament revenues.

The players claim their share of Roland Garros revenue has declined from 15.5% in 2024 to 14.9% projected in 2026.

Wimbledon has not yet announced its prize money for this year.

“I think in the next couple of weeks we know also the prize money we’re going to have in Wimbledon. We truly hope that it’s going to be better. Then, of course, U.S. Open,” Sinner said.

Including profit sharing and an end-of-the-year bonus pool, men’s players actually get about 30% of the share of revenues at ATP Tour events like the Italian Open.

“We’ve been quiet for a long time and now the time has come to raise our voice,” Sinner added in Italian. “We’re not asking for 50% — we wouldn’t even dare — but right now we’re getting too little.”

French Open organizers have not responded to requests for comment.

Djokovic not involved but lends support

Novak Djokovic announced in January he was cutting ties with the Professional Tennis Players Association he co-founded, and that sued the sport’s governing bodies last year.

And while the 24-time Grand Slam champion said he has not been involved in the current player protest, he said the “players know that they’ll always have my support.

“The new generations are coming up," Djokovic added. “I’m glad that there is willingness from the leaders of our sport, like Sabalenka, to really step up and really understand the dynamics of how the tennis politics works and understand the nuances and really what needs to be done not only for her benefit and well-being, but for everyone.”

One of the big issues affecting tennis governance was that there were seven organizing bodies: The four Grand Slams, ATP, WTA and International Tennis Federation.

“Tennis, as any big global sport, is a big business,” Djokovic said. “It needs to be approached from all sides with willingness to work together and figure out what the formula is.”

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

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Orlando & Osceola County is increasing fundraising efforts to stay on schedule with its current construction pace.

“Materials continue to increase, and vendor costs continue to increase, but the difference between Habitat and a for-profit builder is we have to raise the money to build the home,” President and CEO Catherine McManus said.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost for new residential construction rose 4.2% over the last year.

“Just material costs. Lumber, wiring, you name it. Concrete is even more expensive,” McManus said. “Our fundraising team is out there every day working to share the impact we’re making in the community and asking people for support.”

Since 2020, building costs have risen by roughly 45%. The increase has been driven by a number of factors, including labor shortages, high demand, and storm-related construction.

In addition to fundraising, McManus said the nonprofit’s newly launched Faith Build initiative may also help offset some of the cost increases.

“Amazing volunteers helping us build a home, which does help decrease the cost a little because they’re doing the work that we would typically have to pay someone to do,” McManus said. “Secondly, it is getting people to understand the work that Habitat does, and then they go out and spread the word.”

For details on the homeownership program for Habitat Orlando & Osceola, click here.

The letter underlines how the Democratic Party — both its leaders and the base — has grown increasingly critical of Israel.

Since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran and the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, the Israeli military has regularly issued maps covering large areas of territory along with warnings telling all residents of the zones to flee. Israel had previously used a similar approach in Gaza.

The senators said the sweeping warnings have “been used to permanently displace people and destroy homes and towns” and that some civilians who refused to leave their homes in the areas have been killed by subsequent strikes.

The 12 senators led by Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, in a letter dated May 4 to CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper that was provided to The Associated Press, state that Israel’s practice of unilaterally declaring mass evacuation warnings in Lebanon and Iran “likely contravene international laws the United States has helped develop around humane warfare.”

The other signatories include senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

The letter asked the CENTCOM chief whether U.S. forces have coordinated military targets with Israeli forces during the recent war with Iran, whether they provided assistance or intelligence helping Israel’s military to impose the evacuation zones in Lebanon and Iran, and whether CENTCOM signed off on U.S. military support for the targeting of people or infrastructure in the evacuation zones. It also asked whether the U.S. military has reviewed the legality of the practice.

The Israeli military declined to comment when asked about the letter. CENTCOM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the past, Israel has said the evacuation maps aim to keep civilians out of harm’s way. It says Hezbollah has positioned fighters, tunnels and weapons in civilian areas across southern Lebanon, from which it has launched hundreds of drones and missiles — without warning — into northern Israel.

International law experts say Israel’s warnings are inconsistent and often overly broad and open-ended. In Lebanon, residents say the warnings sometimes come with short notice or in the middle of the night, causing chaos and confusion, while in some cases, the warnings prompt evacuations but are never followed by a strike. In other cases, strikes in residential areas come with no warning.

A shift in the party stance

Observers said the move is part of a larger shift in the stance of Democratic Party leaders on U.S. military assistance to Israel. Democrats have also been critical of the Trump administration's entry into the war on Iran alongside Israel.

The letter came nearly three weeks after more than three dozen Democrats supported an effort by Sanders to block arms sales to Israel, signaling a growing discontent in the party with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the wars in Gaza and Iran.

The two resolutions to block U.S. sales of bulldozers and bombs to Israel were opposed by all Republicans and rejected 40-59 and 36-63.

Jon Finer, former deputy national security adviser under President Joe Biden, said the recent steps by Democratic senators reflect a “growing concern about Israeli conduct of various wars that cause civilian harm and U.S. complicity in that" across the spectrum within the Democratic Party.

Asked why the Democratic Party is taking these steps now and not at the time when the war in Gaza and the Israel-Hezbollah war broke out — when the Democratic Biden administration was in power — Finer said: “our operational integration with Israel appears to be growing, which is part of it, but the truth is the Democratic base has been moving in this direction for some time and Washington has been catching up.”

Andrew Miller, a former senior official on Israel and Palestinian Affairs at the State Department, said the letter “represents a shift among congressional Democrats moving from questions of the legality of Israeli military operations to concerns about the complicity of the U.S. military.”

“It demonstrates that Democrats are taking international law very seriously and that is a welcome development,” Miller said.

The evacuation zones

Israel has issued dozens of evacuation warnings in Lebanon since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2. Over 1 million people in Lebanon have fled their homes during the war.

Israel has also issued similar warnings for Iranians, both during the 12-day Israel-Iran war last year and during the U.S.-Israeli war launched on Iran on Feb. 28. In one case last year they warned 300,000 people in Tehran, Iran's capital, to evacuate.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued an evacuation warning to residents of 12 villages in southern Lebanon saying Hezbollah is using them to launch attacks. The warnings came despite a ceasefire that has been nominally in place since April 17, although Israel and Hezbollah have been carrying daily attacks since then.

The senators said the declaration of evacuation zones does not absolve Israeli and U.S. forces “from the absolute legal responsibility to determine that each individual person or civilian facility targeted by drones, jets, and gunfire is, in fact, a military target.” It said the use of the zones has been linked to “the deaths of thousands of civilians," describing them as “kill zones.”

In response to questions by the AP last month, the Israeli military said it issues warnings by phone, text, radio broadcast, social media and leaflets dropped from the air, in accordance with the “principles of distinction, proportionality and feasible precautions” under international law.

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Associated Press writer Julia Frankel contributed to this report from Jerusalem.

The new concert film, co-directed by Eilish and three-time Academy Award winner James Cameron, was his idea. Cameron emailed Eilish's mother, Maggie Baird — a friend of his wife via their shared interest in plant-based diets and environmentalism — and suggested they shoot Eilish's “Hit Me Hard and Soft” tour in 3D.

It is new territory for Cameron, in some ways, and old hat in others. His production company has done a number of concert films, including one with Eilish's musical hero Justin Bieber, but Cameron hasn't sat in the director's chair of a project like this one. A 3D concert film also brings up a number of technical challenges — a passion of Cameron's, as anyone who has seen the blockbuster “Avatar” franchise could attest to — and as a fellow outlier of industry, the pairing succeeds.

Eilish, too, is no stranger to film: She's the subject of the 2021 documentary, “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry,” and a concert film released that same year, “Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles.” This, however, is her first time co-directing a feature. And where “The World's a Little Blurry” served as a composite of her come-up and various successes, “Hit Me Hard and Soft” is dedicated to the concert film format while pushing its boundaries.

While no movie can serve as the perfect replica of a transformative live music experience, “Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)” works an immersive magic. Every seat is the best seat in the house in these shots; common issues with concert films find solutions. Audience members are celebrated like additional characters. When the camera is on them, their voices are heard loud — sniffling, screams, cheers, off-key sing-alongs get their shine, sometimes above Eilish in the mix, mimicking the experience of swaying in the crowd.

In 3D, her minimalist set is given a visceral tangibility. Fans see Eilish jump through trap doors, hook into safety harnesses, chug water, dance off screen, become teary eyed and embrace her band mates. At nearly two-hours of runtime, it passes like zephyr, a thrill ride so fun it feels too short.

There is also new insight for the Eilish fan: Cameras escort the pop star backstage and underneath it. In the beginning of the film, viewers experience the tour's opening scene — and then they get to see it again, from Eilish's perspective. In other moments, Cameron is on screen with Eilish as she co-directs, giving the film the intimacy of a behind-the-scenes DVD extra detailing how the movie was made … in the middle of it. It's a compelling watch and demonstrates a deep understanding of a dedicated pop music audience, where accessibility is the most valuable cultural currency.

“You're like a tuning fork,” Cameron says to Eilish in one scene. “And they're hitting the same beats.”

There is little narrativizing, what often ruins a fine film, turning it into a vanity project. Eilish is shown backstage strengthening her ankle after suffering a sprain, mostly to highlight the physicality of her performance. In another, she plays with puppies, a brief reminder of her animal rights activism. They're welcomed breaks, but not totally memorable. The strength of the film is Eilish on stage — not in its interview interludes.

For years, Eilish has chosen to perform solo on stage. In this movie, fans will learn it is because she has long wanted to mimic a hip-hop performance, where a rapper can command a stage with just a microphone, the strength of their songs and charisma. “I just wanted the freedom of being a guy running around,” she tells Cameron. The performance that follows is “Bury a Friend” from her first record, a song with production that pulls inspiration from hip-hop — a masterful exhibition of influence creating innovation.

The only place where the structure falters is in a candid conversation about desirability and femininity followed by the Oscar-winning “Barbie” theme “What Was I Made For?” Other songs in Eilish's discography would've driven the point home with more subtlety and acuity.

But the moment comes and goes. What is left are big songs and bigger emotions. When a fan in the front row is heard wailing, “Billie! Billie! Billie,” with tears in her eyes and a handmade sign asking for a hug, the viewer has no choice but to hope she gets that embrace, that Eilish makes individual eye contact with her, that a connection can be realized in some brief, healing moment. “I understand that need and that desperation,” Eilish says in one scene, describing herself as a superfan like the ones before her. “I want to be the artist I would want to be a fan of.”

Concert films are engineered for loyal listeners: To relive the night, or experience it for the first time, or to revel in the joy of being a face in the crowd. That goes for Eilish as well.

“To get to see these close up, beautiful, 3D shots of these fans who I would never have gotten to see have that emotional reaction,” from the stage in the middle of her performance, Eilish told The Associated Press last month, “I feel really grateful for that gift.”

Spoken like a true fan.

“Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D),” a Paramount Pictures release in theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for strong language and suggestive references. Running time: 114 minutes. Three stars out of four.

Joined by Orange County commissioners and sloth conservation experts who traveled from Costa Rica, Eskamani spoke outside the shuttered Sloth World facility on International Drive.

“It’s just truly unacceptable. And if we were here outside a pet store for dogs or for cats, there would have been arrests made already, said Eskamani.

Newly obtained records show another 21 sloths died while under Sloth World’s care, bringing the total known death toll to 55. The 178 pages of records, obtained from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, include necropsy reports detailing the deaths. Those records are separate from documents previously obtained from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, or FWC, which detailed the deaths of 31 sloths.

Dr. Rebecca Cliffe, founder and executive director of the Sloth Conservation Foundation, said conditions made the sloths’ survival virtually impossible.

“In 2024, 21 sloths were brought here from Guyana, and they were placed in an unprepared warehouse in a parking lot with no electricity, no climate control, and no running water,” said Cliffe. “And within a matter of days, all 21 of those sloths were dead. Another 10 sloths were then imported from Peru. All 10 of those animals died as well. None of these deaths were reported at the time because under the current system."

The Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens in Sanford announced Tuesday that Dumpling, one of 13 sloths received from Sloth World on April 24, had died — the third sloth to die at the zoo since the animals’ arrival. Dumpling’s death follows the losses of Habanero and Bandit. Ten sloths remain in the zoo’s care.

Lawmakers are now calling for a ban on the import of wild-caught sloths into the United States for commercial purposes and private ownership.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier previously confirmed his office is working with Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell to determine whether criminal charges can be filed against Sloth World’s owners.

FWC has stated it found no evidence of violations — a position Eskamani called unacceptable.

“When I first spoke to FWC, they also told me that there were two owners, Pete and Ben (Agresta), and that Pete was the sloth expert, and he’s not certified to be a sloth expert,” Eskamani said. “And so running an exotic pet store does not make you an expert on animals. If anything, you’re an expert on profiteering off animals."

On Wednesday, the group of sloth experts will meet with prosecutors to discuss whether a criminal investigation moves forward.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office arrested Bill Kapri — known professionally as Kodak Black — on a charge of trafficking in MDMA, according to Orange County Jail records.

Jail records also show the 28-year-old is being held on no bond and is expected to face a judge on Thursday.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the arrest stems from an incident in November of 2025, at the Children’s Safety Village on Fairvilla Road.

Police say they were investigating calls about gunshots and found two vehicles there. After smelling freshly burnt cannabis, the officer searched the vehicles, finding a pink bag that contained what appeared to be MDMA. According to the affidavit, the bag is the same one seen on Black’s Instagram account, along with other paraphernalia, like a pair of scissors and a lighter.

Police said testing by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed the substance in the pink bag was MDMA, and was considered to be a trafficking amount. That report came back on April 17, 2026.

And arrest warrant was requested for Black on April 30.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Both the Vatican and the U.S. State Department stressed that Rubio’s meetings with Leo and the Vatican’s top diplomat underscored strong bilateral ties. Those relations, though, have been strained over Trump’s repeated broadsides about Leo’s calls for peace and dialogue to end the U.S.-Israeli war.

Rubio, a practicing Catholic, has often been called on to tone down or explain Trump’s harsh rhetoric. He had an audience first with Leo, which was complicated at the last minute by Trump’s latest criticism of the Chicago-born pope. During a 2½-hour visit, Rubio then met with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who on the eve of his visit had strongly defended Leo and criticized Trump’s attacks.

“Attacking him like that or criticizing what he does seems a bit strange to me, to say the least,” Parolin said Wednesday.

After the meetings, the U.S. State Department said that Rubio and Parolin discussed “ongoing humanitarian efforts in the Western Hemisphere and efforts to achieve a durable peace in the Middle East. The discussion reflected the enduring partnership between the United States and the Holy See in advancing religious freedom.”

In a separate statement about the audience with Leo, U.S. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said that the two discussed the situation in the Middle East and the Western Hemisphere. “The meeting underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See and their shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity,” he said.

The Vatican, for its part, said that during Rubio’s meetings with both Leo and Parolin, “the shared commitment to fostering good bilateral relations between the Holy See and the United States of America was reaffirmed.”

It said the two sides exchanged views on the current events “with particular attention to countries marked by war, political tensions, and difficult humanitarian situations, as well as on the need to work tirelessly in favor of peace.”

Rubio also has meetings Friday with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. Those meetings might not be much easier for Washington’s top diplomat, given both have strongly defended Leo against Trump’s attacks and have criticized the Iran war as illegal — drawing the president’s ire.

A mission to smooth ties

The tensions began when Trump lashed out at Leo on social media last month, saying the pope was soft on crime and terrorism for comments about the administration’s immigration policies and deportations as well as the Iran war. Leo then said that God doesn’t listen to the prayers of those who wage war.

Later, Trump posted a social media image appearing to liken himself to Jesus Christ, which was deleted after a backlash. He has refused to apologize to Leo and has sought to explain away the post by saying that he thought the image was a representation of him as a doctor.

Rubio said that Trump’s recent criticisms of Leo were rooted in his opposition to Iran potentially obtaining a nuclear weapon, which he said could be used against millions of Catholics and other Christians.

Leo has never said Iran should obtain nuclear weapons and that the Catholic Church “for years has spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt there.”

“The mission of the church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace. If someone wants to criticize me for announcing the Gospel, let him do it with the truth,” Leo said late Tuesday, after Trump again accused him of being “OK” with Iran having a nuclear weapon.

By Thursday, tensions seemed to have eased.

Rubio gave Leo a small crystal football paperweight. He acknowledged Leo’s known allegiance to the Chicago White Sox, saying “you’re a baseball guy,” but noted that the football had the seal of the State Department on it.

“What to get someone who has everything?” Rubio joked as he gave Leo the paperweight.

Leo, for his part, gave Rubio a pen apparently made of olive wood — “olive being of course the plant of peace,” Leo said — with his coat of arms on it and a picture book of Vatican artworks.

Trump also has criticized Meloni and other NATO allies for a lack of support for the Iran war, recently announcing plans to withdraw thousands of American troops from Germany in the coming months.

Vatican seen as willing to have dialogue

Giampiero Gramaglia, former head of the ANSA news agency and its onetime Washington correspondent, said that he didn’t expect much to come out of Rubio's visit for Italian or Vatican relations. He, and other Italian commentators, believe Rubio instead was looking to smooth over relations with the pope for his own political ambitions, as well as the upcoming midterm U.S. congressional elections and 2028 presidential race.

“I doubt Rubio has the role of conciliator for Trump,” he told Italy's Foreign Press Association. “I have the perception that Rubio’s mission is more about himself” and his political ambitions as a prominent Catholic Republican.

The Rev. Antonio Spadaro, undersecretary in the Vatican’s culture office, said that Rubio’s mission wasn’t to “convert” the pope to Trump’s side. Rather, Washington “has come to acknowledge — implicitly but legibly — that (Leo’s) voice carries weight in the world that cannot simply be dismissed.”

“The situation created by President Trump’s remarks required a high-level, direct intervention, conducted in the proper language of diplomacy: a semantic corrective to a narrative of frontal conflict with the church,” he wrote in an essay this week.

Cuba is also on the agenda

Rubio said that topics other than the Iran war were on the agenda for the Vatican visit, including Cuba. The Holy See is particularly concerned about the Trump administration’s threats of potential military action there following its January ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Trump has said frequently that Cuba could be “next,” and even suggested that once the Iran war is over, naval assets deployed in the Middle East could return to the United States by way of Cuba.

Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants and a longtime Cuba hawk.

“We gave Cuba $6 million of humanitarian aid, but obviously they won’t let us distribute it," Rubio said. “We distributed it through the church. We’d like to do more.”

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Matthew Lee, the AP's diplomatic writer, reported from Washington.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Iran effectively seized control of the critical waterway after the U.S. and Israel attacked it on Feb. 28. Weeks of heavy bombing and a U.S. naval blockade imposed last month have yet to loosen its grip. Iran says it will only reopen the strait if the war ends and the blockade is lifted. U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking wider concessions, including the rollback of Iran's disputed nuclear program.

Here is a look at the strait by the numbers:

21 miles (34 kilometers)

This is the width of the strait, which bends like an elbow, at its narrowest point between Iran and Oman. Ships follow narrow lanes to safely navigate the shallow water, making it even more of a chokepoint.

20%

Before the war, a fifth of the world’s traded oil typically flowed through the strait every day, as well as large supplies of natural gas, fertilizer and other petroleum products.

100-130

The number of ships that passed through the strait each day before the war began, including oil tankers and cargo ships, according to research firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

534

The number of ships that are believed to have passed through the strait from the start of hostilities through May 4, according to Lloyd's List Intelligence. Many are believed to have carried Iranian oil. In normal times, an estimated 6,500 to 8,450 ships would have transited the strait during the same period.

50%

The amount that the average price of gas in the U.S. has risen since the war began. The average price of a gallon was $4.56 on Thursday, according to AAA. The closure of the strait has also nearly doubled the cost of jet fuel.

Up to 10%

Insurance rates for ships have skyrocketed from 1% of the ship’s goods up to as much as 10%, according to shipping experts.

45 million

The number of people who could experience hunger, mostly in Asia and Africa, if the strait does not open soon, according to the U.N. World Food Program. The blocking of fuel and fertilizer shipments could soon push the price of food and other necessities out of reach for those already in a precarious situation, it said.

10

The number of mariners who have been killed since the Iran war began, according to the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization.

32

The number of ships that have come under attack, according to the International Maritime Organization.

1,550

The number of vessels, from 87 countries, currently stranded in the Persian Gulf, according to the U.S. military.

22,500

The number of mariners stranded on these ships, including many from South and Southeast Asia.

15,000

The number of U.S. soldiers, accompanied by 100 aircraft, committed to enforce Project Freedom, according to the U.S. military. Trump's initiative to guide ships through the strait was paused on Tuesday, just two days after he announced it.

2

The number of ships that the U.S. said it successfully guided through the strait as part of Project Freedom. ___

Associated Press writer David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed.

Angelo Binaghi, the president of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation, is also campaigning to turn the Rome event into a fifth Grand Slam.

The players have targeted the coming French Open for reducing players' share of revenue to an alleged 14.3% — compared to the 22% at ATP and WTA events like the Italian Open this week.

Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff were among players this week threatening a boycott of the Slams if they don’t start receiving more compensation.

“The players have our full support,” Binaghi said. “It’s scandalous that we’re required by the ATP to share a bigger cut of the revenues with the players and the four Grand Slams hand out a smaller cut.

“It’s shameful and creates competitive disparities, too, because the four nations (that organize the Slams) have a huge amount of money to invest in their technical sectors that other nations don’t have,” Binaghi added. “I want to blow apart this monopoly.”

Italian Open prize money

It should be noted that the Italian Open has offered less prize money for women than men for years. The total men's prize money this year in Rome is $9.6 million while the women's prize money is $8.3 million.

But next week the women's champion in Rome will earn 1.055 million euros — slightly more than the 1.007 million euros handed out to the men's winner.

Fifth Grand Slam

For more than a year, Binaghi has been campaigning to turn the Italian Open into a fifth Grand Slam alongside the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open — upending a century of tennis history.

With Jannik Sinner dominating at No. 1 and three other Italians in the men's top 20 rankings — No. 10 Lorenzo Musetti; No. 12 Flavio Cobolli and No. 20 Luciano Darderi — Italian tennis is booming.

Italy has won the Davis Cup for three straight years and the Billie Jean King Cup — the women’s team event — for the last two years.

So Binaghi, who took over the federation a quarter century ago when it was nearly bankrupt, wants to take advantage of the boom for his Grand Slam dream.

“We’re experiencing a stretch of tennis in Italy that will be tough to repeat, because it also needs to be considered in comparison with the Italian soccer debacle," Binaghi said, referring to how Italy failed to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup.

Foro Italico running out of room

Besides tradition and scheduling issues, Binaghi faces another major obstacle toward making the Italian Open bigger: There’s little room for expansion at the Foro Italico.

“We’re open to organizing a (fifth Grand Slam) anywhere in Italy — on any surface,” Binaghi said.

Work on a retractable roof for Campo Centrale is slated to start immediately after this year’s Italian Open and be ready for the 2028 edition.

Capacity for the revised stadium will increase from 10,500 to 12,400.

The Italian Open is hoping to pass 400,000 ticket sales this year, while the French Open last year had a total attendance of nearly 700,000.

“If we’re going to aim big, we shouldn’t focus exclusively on the Foro Italico, because there are a lot of issues here in terms of transport and temporary venues,” Binaghi said.

So would Binaghi be willing to move the tournament away from the Foro and its statue-lined courts?

“These days, the beauty factor is just added value; it’s not decisive,” he said. “The people don’t come to see the statues anymore. They come to see Sinner, Musetti, (Jasmine) Paolini and the other Italian players.”

The Italian Open wanted to add a mixed doubles tournament this year on the weekend before the singles events start but ATP and WTA rules wouldn’t allow it because the Madrid Open ends those days.

Sinner favored to end drought

While Jasmine Paolini earned Italy the titles in both women’s singles and doubles (with partner Sara Errani) last year, Sinner is an overwhelming favorite this year to become the first Italian man to win at the Foro since Adriano Panatta 50 years ago.

Apart from the Olympics, the Italian Open and French Open are the only big titles in tennis that Sinner hasn’t won and his top rival, Carlos Alcaraz, is out of both tournaments due to a right wrist injury.

Binaghi said if Sinner raises the trophies in Rome and Paris, “maybe I should step down.

“If it happens,” Binaghi said of Sinner winning those two titles, “we’ll take stock of all the opportune and logical consequences.”

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

Sand Lake Road and Turkey Lake Road.

Back when I was patrolling the roads as a state trooper, anytime dispatch sent you to that area, you already knew two things: the crash was probably serious, and getting there was going to take a while.

The congestion around Sand Lake Road near I-4 has always been one of the busiest and most frustrating traffic areas in Central Florida. Between tourism traffic, local drivers, and constant backups, simply getting through the intersection could become a challenge all by itself.

But now, the area has a completely different feel.

One of the biggest changes is the new dedicated Turkey Lake Road ramp, which helps separate traffic and allows drivers heading toward Turkey Lake to avoid some of the congestion that used to build up around Sand Lake Road.

And honestly? I love it.

As somebody who spent years responding to crashes in that corridor, it’s nice seeing traffic flow improvements that not only make driving easier, but can also help emergency responders get where they need to go faster.

On this patrol, I wanted to show you what the redesign looks like from the driver’s perspective and walk you through some of the biggest changes in the area.

If you’ve driven through there recently, you’ve probably already noticed the difference.

Check out this edition of Trooper Steve on Patrol.

The No. 2-seeded Spurs restored order in the West, handing the Timberwolves their worst postseason loss in franchise history, 133-95, as Victor Wembanyama and company seemed to send a message after a disappointing home loss in the series opener.

The 7-foot-4 Wembanyama dominated with 19 points and 15 rebounds, Stephon Castle added 21 points and the Spurs shot 50% from the field to even the series, which heads to Minnesota for Game 3 on Friday night.

Minnesota coach Chris Finch reacted by saying, “I just told (our players) we got punked.”

The Spurs’ win marked the franchise’s highest-scoring playoff game since a series-clinching 145-105 win over Denver on May 4, 1983.

Also Wednesday, the New York Knicks took a 2-0 Eastern Conference semifinal series lead over the Philadelphia 76ers with a 108-102 win behind 26 points from Jalen Brunson.

A pair of Game 2s are on tap Thursday: Detroit, at home, will aim for a 2-0 lead on Cleveland in the East and Oklahoma City, also at home, is seeking a 2-0 lead on the Los Angeles Lakers in the West.

Thursday's schedule

— Game 2, Cleveland at Detroit, 7 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Odds: Detroit by 3 1/2.

Cade Cunningham had 23 points, Tobias Harris scored 20 and the top-seeded Pistons ended a NBA record-tying 12-game postseason losing streak to a single opponent with a 111-101 win against the Cavaliers in Game 1. The Pistons had not defeated Cleveland in the NBA playoffs since the 2007 Eastern Conference finals. Cavs reserve guard Sam Merrill (left hamstring) could miss Game 2.

— Game 2, Los Angeles Lakers at Oklahoma City, 9:30 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Odds: Oklahoma City by 15 1/2.

The Los Angeles Lakers, still without Luka Doncic (hamstring), looked completely outmatched against OKC in Game 1. Chet Holmgren had 24 points and 12 rebounds, and the Thunder ran away with a 108-90 victory. Doncic has already been ruled out for Game 2. Jarred Vanderbilt (finger) is doubtful and Luke Kennard (neck) is questionable for the Lakers.

Friday's schedule

— Game 3, New York at Philadelphia, 7 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Series: New York leads 2-0.

Odds: 76ers by 1 1/2.

The 76ers will look to avoid falling into a 3-0 hole as the series heads to Philadelphia. The 76ers are hoping to get center Joel Embiid back after he missed Game 2 with a sprained ankle.

— Game 2, San Antonio at Minnesota, 9:30 p.m. EDT (Prime)

Series: Series tied 1-1.

Odds: Spurs by 3 1/2.

Wembanyama brought a refuse-to-lose attitude to Game 2 and the Spurs won in a blowout. Now the series moves to Minnesota and the Timberwolves hope star Anthony Edwards, who has come off the bench in the first two games, may be able to play more minutes as he works his way back from a hyperextended knee.

Wednesday recap

— Knicks 108, 76ers 102 for 2-0 series lead. Joel Embiid did not play due to a sprained ankle.

— Spurs 133, Timberwolves 95 to even series at 1-1.

Awards watch

A breakdown of this season's NBA awards:

— Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year: DeAndre Jordan, New Orleans.

— Hustle Award: Moussa Diabaté, Charlotte.

— Defensive Player of the Year: Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio.

— Clutch Player of the Year: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City.

— Sixth Man of the Year: Keldon Johnson, San Antonio.

— Sportsmanship Award: Derrick White, Boston.

— Most Improved Player: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta.

— Rookie of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Dallas.

— Executive of the Year: Brad Stevens, Boston.

Among the announcements still to come:

— Most Valuable Player: Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver's Nikola Jokic.

— Coach of the Year: Detroit's J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio's Mitch Johnson or Boston's Joe Mazzulla.

Betting odds

Defending champion Oklahoma City (-165) is favored to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.

The Thunder were followed by San Antonio (+400), New York (+800), Detroit (+1700), Cleveland (+3500), Los Angeles Lakers (+4000) and Minnesota (+4000).

Philadelphia has the longest odds at +10000.

Will Lakers strategy in Game 2 change?

The Lakers were determined not to let Gilgeous-Alexander beat them in Game 1, repeatedly double-teaming the Thunder point guard.

The strategy mostly backfired.

While Gilgeous-Alexander turned the ball over seven times and was limited to 18 points — the first time he's been held to fewer than 20 points in 81 games — the rest of the OKC team thrived in a blowout victory.

“Ultimately it’s the easiest form of basketball,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I’d much rather do that than have to go one-on-one all night over somebody. My teammates on the back end playing four-on-three, it’s what you play for.”

Added Thunder coach Mark Daigneault: “When they play like that, it’s one of the advantages that you have. They’re throwing two at Shai really early in possessions and, in order to do that, you get two guys on the ball and then you’ve got three guys off of bodies and rotating and that presents rebounding opportunities.”

Key dates

— Sunday: NBA draft lottery.

— May 10-17: NBA draft combine.

— May 17 or 19: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.

— May 18 or 20: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.

— June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).

— June 23: Round 1, NBA draft

— June 24: Round 2, NBA draft

Quote of the day

“I thought we had maybe four wide-open shots in a row that didn’t go. We just needed to keep the scoreboard moving and we played great offense. We just didn’t shot-make.” 76ers coach Nick Nurse on his team's struggles scoring down the stretch in Game 2 without Embiid.

Stats of the day

— The 76ers-Knicks game featured 25 lead changes, the most in a playoff game in 11 years. There were also 14 ties. The largest lead of the game was seven points.

— San Antonio's De'Aaron Fox made both 3-point attempts after missing on four attempts in Game 1.

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

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office served the warrant Wednesday in the ongoing investigation into Smart's disappearance. Her remains were never found and she was declared legally dead in 2002. Paul Flores was convicted in October 2022 and ultimately sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Law enforcement searched a home in the central coast town of Arroyo Grande occupied by Flores’ mother, Susan Flores, according to public records and reporting by a podcast that has closely followed the case.

“The Sheriff’s Office remains committed to bringing Kristin home to her family,” the sheriff's statement said. “No further information is available.”

The “Your Own Backyard” podcast, which helped investigators crack the case by bringing forward additional witnesses, first reported the search and said the home belongs to Flores' mother. Attempts to reach Susan Flores for comment Wednesday were not successful.

Smart went missing from California Polytechnic State University in May 1996 after returning from an off-campus party. Prosecutors alleged she was killed during an attempted rape and that the last person she was seen with was Flores, a fellow student.

Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, were arrested in 2021.

Prosecutors alleged Smart’s remains were buried on Ruben Flores’ property and later moved. He was acquitted of accessory charges. That property is different from the one searched on Wednesday.

Paul Flores was sentenced in March 2023 to prison, where he has been physically attacked at least twice.

In 2024, a judge ruled that Paul Flores must pay just over $350,000 to Smart's family for costs they incurred after her death.

The family has said it would forgo restitution if Flores would tell them where Kristin’s body was. Flores’ attorney, Harold Mesick, said in 2024 that the defense did not know where her remains are. Flores maintains his innocence.

The county district attorney’s office said Wednesday it was helping the sheriff's office with the investigation.

“While those responsible for Kristin’s death — and those with knowledge of her whereabouts — could provide answers at any time, we remain firmly committed to using every lawful tool available to locate Kristin’s remains and to support her family until she is brought home,” District Attorney Dan Dow said in a statement.

Now, a renter-friendly pilot program in New York City is testing a different approach: plug-in batteries that can power air conditioners offline during peak demand, helping take pressure off the grid at its most stressed moments while still keeping residents cool.

“It’s basically a souped up version of the power bank that you would use to charge your phone when you go out,” said Andrew Wang, the chief executive officer of Every Electric, the company behind the pilot, which has partnered with the city's energy company Con Edison.

The devices, about the size of a microwave, charge when electricity demand is low and then run window AC units for a few hours when demand spikes. It's one of many partners participating in Con Edison's demand response programs, which pay customers to reduce or shift electricity use to support the grid.

The pilot program is expanding to more than 1,000 homes this summer and participants can get rewarded in cash rebates.

Experts say this initiative reflects the broader shift toward so-called virtual power plants, in which many small, distributed energy resources are coordinated to reduce strain during peak demand. When scaled, solutions like this could have a significant impact on power reliability and affordability.

Why electricity gets pricier during heat events

When electricity demand spikes, utilities often turn to backup power plants that don’t run as often, and are typically less efficient and more polluting, said Kevin Brehm, a manager at RMI, a nonprofit that researches energy systems and the transition to clean power.

Over time, those spikes can push utilities to build more power plants, often fossil-fuel based, to meet demand, with the costs eventually passed down to consumers.

“There’s a question of emissions, and then there’s also a really important question around affordability,” said Brehm.

That’s why power companies often ask residents to conserve energy during the hottest days of the year, and set higher rates during peak hours to encourage people to conserve power. Those strategies “can be hard to rely on because they don’t know exactly how consumers are going to behave,” Brehm added.

That’s where solutions like Every Electric’s can help.

Battery networks can take the pressure off

Utilities and governments are increasingly looking for ways to manage rising electricity demand as heat waves become more frequent and intense.

One approach is Every Electric's demand response program, which pays customers to reduce or shift electricity use during periods of high demand.

Virtual power plant programs are another solution expanding state by state. They connect thousands of small energy devices, like home batteries or smart appliances, and coordinate them to send power back to the grid when demand spikes, easing strain without building new plants. California, for example, is working to develop one of the world’s largest, paying hundreds of thousands of participants to send stored energy back to the grid during extreme climate events. Most of these programs are limited to homeowners with solar panels.

Con Edison said batteries can help reduce peak demand, support renewable energy and lessen the need for new infrastructure.

Every Electric’s program works specifically for people with window AC units, who are typically renters, though it does not export power back to the grid. Instead, it reduces demand by using stored battery power.

Still, Brehm said programs like it are part of the broader push to integrate consumer energy devices into the grid and reward the services they provide.

“I can’t put solar panels on my roof,” said Bianca Pasternack, a New York City renter enrolled in the program. “This is at least something that’s accessible and easy. It was very set-it-and-forget-it.”

Pilot program of plug-in batteries to AC units is growing

The battery plugs into the AC unit, then into the wall outlet. It’s connected to a smartphone app that detects when demand is low, charging the battery during off-peak hours and using it to power the AC during peak times, usually from 1 to 4 p.m. or 4 to 8 p.m. during the hottest months.

Participants can also earn money for taking part, roughly the equivalent of the cost of a July electric bill, according to the company. Pasternack said she received a $100 gift card at the end of the season.

The company says its pilot is growing from about 200 kilowatts of flexible capacity last year to roughly 2 megawatts this summer, and could expand much further. By comparison, California's program exceeds 200 megawatts. The company is looking to expand to other cities, Wang said.

Although Every Electric's program currently operates at a small scale, Brehm says systems like this could meaningfully reduce strain on the grid if they reach enough households.

“It’s a matter of how we’re able to get to that scale,” he said, noting that widespread adoption is a key issue that depends on how easily the technology can be deployed and integrated into the grid. He added that Every Electric’s installation process is easily accessible. “It’s plug-and-play and you don’t need a ton of permissions.”

___

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.

Rubio met with Leo and then Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in a visit that lasted 2½ hours.

Also, Iran said it was reviewing the latest American proposals on ending the war, as Trump threatened the country with a new wave of bombing unless a deal is reached that includes reopening the crucial Strait of Hormuz to international shipping. The developments followed days of mixed messaging from the Trump administration over its strategy to end the war.

Here's the latest:

Tennessee poised to vote on new US House map sought by Trump that carves up Memphis

Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are poised to take up a plan Thursday that could carve up a majority-Black congressional district, reshaping it to the GOP’s advantage as part of President Trump’s strategy to try to hold on to a slim House majority in the November midterm elections.

The redistricting effort in Tennessee is one of several rapidly advancing plans in Southern states as Republicans try to leverage a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened the federal Voting Rights Act.

The court ruled Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the federal law. The high court’s decision altered a decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans grounds to try to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats.

▶ Read more

Rubio’s Vatican talks included discussing efforts to achieve ‘durable peace’ in the Middle East

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Pope Leo XIV and then Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in a visit that lasted 2½ hours.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Rubio and Leo discussed the situation in the Middle East “and topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere. The meeting underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See and their shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity,” he said.

In a separate statement about the Parolin meeting, Pigott said the two diplomats discussed “ongoing humanitarian efforts in the Western Hemisphere and efforts to achieve a durable peace in the Middle East. The discussion reflected the enduring partnership between the United States and the Holy See in advancing religious freedom,” the statement said.

▶ Read more

Trump, hoping for an eventual Supreme Court victory, seeks to halt $83M payment in sexual abuse case

Trump’s lawyer, hoping for an eventual Supreme Court victory, has asked a federal appeals court in New York to temporarily block a longtime columnist from collecting an $83 million defamation award.

The lawyer told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a filing Tuesday to stay its decision supporting the award so that Trump won’t have to pay writer E. Jean Carroll while he appeals to the high court.

A Manhattan jury awarded Carroll the payout in January 2024. Another jury in May 2023 awarded Carroll $5 million after concluding Trump sexually abused her in a Manhattan luxury department store dressing room in 1996 and then defamed her after she published her account of it in 2019.

Trump has vehemently denied sexually abusing Carroll or ever knowing her and has repeatedly accused her of making accusations against him for political purposes or to promote her memoir.

Attorney Roberta Kaplan, who represents Carroll, declined to comment through a spokesperson.

▶ Read more

Trump wants to paint the Eisenhower office building white. Now a key federal agency considers it

Trump’s proposal to put a coat of white paint on the exterior of a 19th-century historic landmark building next to the White House is slated for a hearing Thursday by a key federal agency, which he expects to approve what would be a dramatic makeover.

The National Capital Planning Commission is scheduled to begin considering the plan on Thursday, according to its meeting agenda. Trump calls for painting all or most of the Eisenhower building’s gray granite exterior with white paint. He last year called the gray a “really bad color.”

But the proposal has alarmed preservationists, architects, historians and others who argue that granite is not meant to be painted and that paint would trap moisture, deteriorate the stone and not solve problems the administration wants to fix.

▶ Read more

Trump administration sows confusion as it tries to reopen Strait of Hormuz

The Trump administration’s approach to the Iran war over the past 24 hours has pinballed from declarations that a tenuous ceasefire was holding and military operations were over to new threats of bombing the Islamic Republic.

Tuesday started with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explaining how the U.S. military was protecting stranded ships so they could traverse the Strait of Hormuz.

That afternoon, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the White House that the military operation was “concluded” and that the U.S. achieved its objectives. But in almost the same breath, he said Trump was still seeking a “path of peace” that required Iran to agree to a deal to reopen the vital oil shipping corridor.

By Tuesday evening, Trump announced that the effort to protect ships was paused to see if an agreement could be reached. Then on Wednesday morning, he again warned that bombing would resume if Tehran didn’t agree to U.S. terms.

▶ Read more

Iran reviewing US proposal as Trump pressures Tehran for agreement on deal to end war

Iran said it was reviewing the latest American proposals on ending the war, as Trump threatened the country with a new wave of bombing unless a deal is reached that includes reopening the crucial Strait of Hormuz to international shipping.

Hope that the two-month conflict could soon end buoyed international markets on Thursday, even as the U.S. military fired on an Iranian oil tanker attempting to breach an American blockade of Iran’s ports hours earlier. The developments followed days of mixed messaging from the Trump administration over its strategy to end the war.

Trump posted on social media that the two-month war could soon end and that oil and natural gas shipments disrupted by the conflict could restart. But he said that depends on Iran accepting a reported agreement that he did not detail.

“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts,” Trump wrote.

▶ Read more

Rubio arrives for audience with Pope Leo XIV to ease tensions after Trump’s criticism over Iran

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio opened a fence-mending visit to the Vatican on Thursday after President Donald Trump’s broadsides against Pope Leo XIV and the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran angered the Holy See and sparked ongoing sparring between the two American leaders.

Rubio, a practicing Catholic, had an audience scheduled with Leo, which was complicated at the last minute by Trump’s latest criticism of the Chicago-born pope. Leo has pushed back, calling out Trump’s misrepresentations of his views on Iran and nuclear weapons and insisting that he is merely preaching the biblical message of peace.

Rubio was also due to meet with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who on the eve of his visit strongly defended Leo and criticized Trump’s attacks in understated diplomatic terms. “Attacking him like that or criticizing what he does seems a bit strange to me, to say the least,” Parolin said Wednesday.

Parolin said Washington had requested Rubio’s audience, and that the pope was open to continued dialogue.

▶ Read more

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits in the week ending May 2 rose by 10,000 to 200,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s fewer than the 205,000 new applications analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting.

The previous week’s new claims figure, which was the fewest since 1969, was revised up by 1,000 to 190,000.

Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered a proxy for U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

Despite dwindling layoffs shown in government data, the Iran war, now in its third month, has injected a large degree of uncertainty about how it will affect the U.S. and global economies even as Iran and the U.S. remain under a ceasefire agreement with growing optimism that an end to the war is near.

U.S. financial markets have rebounded near record levels and prices for a barrel of U.S. crude oil remain elevated around $90 per barrel. That’s down from highs of $112 last month, but still 36% higher than before the war began. Gas prices also much higher since the war began — AAA says the national average Thursday was at $4.56 a gallon —- saddling businesses and consumers with higher costs.

Last week, the government reported that a key inflation measure jumped in March as gas prices soared, the latest sign that the Iran war is driving the cost of living sharply higher.

An inflation gauge monitored by the Federal Reserve rose 0.7% in March from February, up sharply from the previous month, the Commerce Department said. Compared with a year ago, prices rose 3.5%, the biggest increase in almost three years.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation was also up in March.

This comes at a time when U.S. inflation is already above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Last week, the Fed opted to leave its benchmark rate alone, citing economic uncertainty caused by instability in the Middle East and still-elevated inflation.

Lower interest rates can boost the economy and hiring, but also tend to fuel inflation. Fed officials voted to cut rates three times to close 2025 out of concern for a weakening job market.

The Labor Department reported last month that U.S. employers added an unexpectedly strong 178,000 new jobs in March, nudging the unemployment rate back down to 4.3%. That followed a surprisingly large loss of 92,000 jobs in February. Revisions also have trimmed 69,000 jobs from December and January payrolls, a sign that the labor market remains under strain.

The government issues its monthly jobs report for April on Friday.

A number of high-profile companies have cut jobs recently, including Morgan Stanley,Block, UPS, Amazon and Disney.

Weekly jobless aid applications have stabilized in a range mostly between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. economy emerged from the pandemic recession. However, hiring began slowing about two years ago and tapered further in 2025 due to President Donald Trump’s erratic tariff rollouts, his purge of the federal workforce and the lingering effects of high interest rates meant to control inflation.

Employers added fewer than 200,000 jobs last year, compared with about 1.5 million in 2024, according to the data firm FactSet.

Economists say the American labor market appears stuck in a “low-hire, low-fire” state that has kept the unemployment rate historically low, but has left those out of work struggling to find a new job. The recent artificial intelligence boom and the investment required to develop it is also making companies reluctant to hire.

The Labor Department’s report Thursday showed that the four-week moving average of jobless claims, which evens out some of the weekly ups and downs, fell to 203,250, down 4,500 from the previous week.

The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending April 25 declined by 10,000 to 1.77 million.

The indictment identified the man as Yona Schreiber, 36, from the Israeli-occupied West Bank settlement of Peduel. It comes after a video of the assault received wide condemnation from foreign and Christian leaders.

Schreiber was arrested last week, and Israel's attorney general recommended extending his detention for the duration of the case. Schreiber’s lawyer refused to speak to an Associated Press journalist at the court.

According to the indictment, Schreiber attacked a woman in Jerusalem, just outside of the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, because she was wearing a habit that identified her as a Catholic nun. He pushed her and then kicked her while she was lying on the ground, and also attacked a passerby who attempted to halt his attack, the indictment said.

Schreiber is being charged with simple assault, and assault motivated by religious hostility.

Olivier Poquillon, the director of the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, said that the nun was a researcher at the school. He called the attack an “act of sectarian violence” in an X post.

Religious groups have documented a rise in acts of harassment and violence against Christian pilgrims and clergy as well as Palestinian Christian residents, including assaults and spitting, often by extremist ultra-Orthodox Jews.

The arrest comes as Israeli treatment of religious minorities is under scrutiny, weeks after police limited access for holiday worship in Jerusalem’s holiest sites because of security concerns during the Iran war.

Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa was prohibited from holding a private Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday, the first time in centuries Catholic leaders have been prevented from observing Palm Sunday at the church. After the uproar, Jerusalem police eventually worked out a compromise for a limited Easter Mass at the church.

Israel also drew international criticism after a soldier photographed himself bludgeoning a fallen statue of Jesus on the cross with an ax in southern Lebanon. Israeli leaders later disavowed the incident and said that he would be reprimanded, and assisted local residents in replacing the statue.

The Israeli military also opened an investigation into a soldier photographed shoving a cigarette into the mouth of the statue of the Virgin Mary, which was apparently photographed several weeks ago. The military said that it views the incident with “utmost severity.” And there have been questions and concern about Israeli soldiers bulldozing parts of a Catholic convent in southern Lebanon.

Last month, Israel’s Foreign Ministry appointed former Ambassador George Deek to be the special envoy to the Christian world, in response to the incidents. Deek previously served as Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan and was Israel’s first Arab Christian ambassador.

Deek condemned the soldier filmed smoking a cigarette with a statue of the Virgin Mary, and stressed that Israel “is committed to preserving religious freedom and the dignity of all religions.”

Israel’s founding declaration includes safeguarding freedom of religion and all holy places, and it portrays itself as an oasis of religious tolerance in a volatile region.

But some church authorities and monitoring groups have lamented a recent increase in anti-Christian sentiment and harassment. The issue is particularly pronounced in Jerusalem’s Old City, a densely populated area with narrow alleyways of ancient stones, which houses holy sites for Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Wadie Abunassar, the coordinator of the Holy Land Christian Forum, last week called attacks targeting Christians a growing phenomenon. He attributed the quick response to the attack on the nun to the fact that it was caught on video.

He said that he felt “great anger on the system and great sadness, because I feel that this will not end anytime soon.” One of the problems, he said, was insufficient deterrence against such violence.

“Many times in such cases there are no arrests and if there are arrests, sometimes after one or two days, (suspects) are released,” he added. “In some cases, the police do not recommend the prosecution to file charges or to indict them. And in some cases, when there is indictment, the indictment is mild.”

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Sam Metz contributed to this report from Ramallah, West Bank.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains, New York, ordered the release of the note after The New York Times asked him last week to unseal it and other documents in a case involving the former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione. Federal prosecutors did not oppose the request.

Few people had known about the note until Tartaglione, a former police officer serving a life sentence for killing four people, mentioned it last year on writer Jessica Reed Kraus’ podcast.

Tartaglione claimed he discovered the note in a book after Epstein was found on the floor of their cell at a Manhattan federal jail on July 23, 2019, with a strip of bedsheet around the financier's neck. That was about three weeks before Epstein was found dead in his cell in what authorities concluded was a suicide.

“They investigated me for month -- found nothing!!!” said the short note, which is hard to decipher in some places. “It is a treat to be able to choose” the “time to say goodbye,” the note continues. “Watcha want me to do -- Bust out cryin!!”

“NO FUN,” the note concludes, with those words underlined. “NOT WORTH IT!!”

It is unclear who wrote the note Tartaglione claimed to have found. It wasn’t mentioned in the lengthy government reports examining the circumstances of Epstein’s death, nor did it surface in the Justice Department’s recent release of files on the late financier.

In a written ruling, Karas said he weighed the privacy interests of third parties, including Epstein, before ruling to release the note. He said existing case law suggests that privacy interests of a deceased person, such as Epstein, “are vastly reduced and disclosure of the deceased’s information is unlikely to ‘work a concrete harm.‘”

According to jail records, Epstein had friction marks and skin irritation on his neck from the suspected July 23 attempt. Jail officers said he was breathing heavily but responsive. One officer reported at the time that Epstein said he believed Tartaglione had tried to kill him, according to a memo included in the Justice Department’s files.

Jail officials placed Epstein on suicide watch for 31 hours after the incident before downgrading him to psychiatric observation — his status when he killed himself. According to jail records, he denied trying to harm himself, telling a jail psychologist that suicide was against his Jewish religion and that he was a “coward” who didn’t like pain.

A chronology included in the files states that Tartaglione told his lawyer about the note four days after the suspected July 23 attempt. The note was later submitted as evidence in Tartaglione’s criminal case and was placed under seal amid a dispute over his legal representation.

Both men were interviewed by jail personnel on July 31, 2019, according to jail records.

Epstein said he had never had any issues with Tartaglione, wasn't threatened by him and didn't “want to make up something that isn’t there.” Tartaglione said he didn't have any issues being Epstein’s cellmate, though he said they kept their conversations to a minimum. On July 23, he said, he thought Epstein was having a heart attack because his eyes were open and he appeared to be snoring.

Epstein and Tartaglione shared a cell for about two weeks, beginning soon after Epstein’s July 6, 2019, arrest and ending with the suspected suicide attempt. Both were awaiting trials — Epstein on sex trafficking charges and Tartaglione on charges that in 2016 he killed four men, including a man he tortured and strangled over stolen drug money.

Tartaglione, who had been an officer in the Hudson River Valley village of Briarcliff Manor, was convicted in 2023. He is currently incarcerated at a federal penitentiary in California and has petitioned President Donald Trump for a pardon.

Epstein was without a cellmate when he was found dead at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, on Aug. 10, 2019. Authorities have pointed to a series of missteps by jail personnel — including browsing the internet and sleeping when they should've been checking on Epstein — for allowing him to take his own life.

Officials said they found a handwritten note in Epstein’s cell at the time of his death, but that it didn't appear to be a suicide note. Rather, they said, it appeared to be a list of grievances about conditions at the jail, including about food, showers and the presence of bugs.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org

A free kick that should have led to a second yellow card for handball by Paris Saint-Germain defender Nuno Mendes was overturned after just 29 minutes when Bayern badly needed a way back into Wednesday's game.

“That would have been a decisive moment if PSG had lost a player so early,” said Bayern’s Konrad Laimer, who instead was eventually judged — on the fourth official’s advice — to have handled the ball seconds earlier.

Two years ago, a potential goal in stoppage time by Bayern’s Matthijs de Ligt to force extra time at Real Madrid was ruled out by a quickly raised flag for a possible offside that was marginal at best.

In 2024, Bayern’s then-coach Thomas Tuchel called the on-field ruling a “disastrous decision” that “feels almost like a betrayal.”

It is now six years and counting — and two semifinals exits — since six-time European champion Bayern last played in the final.

An added frustration is the passage of play around the Nuno Mendes handball could not be reviewed by the VAR system — though a similar incident could be next season when the rules are updated.

Key moment

PSG took a deserved third-minute lead in Munich on Wednesday when Ousmane Dembélé finished a fast break driven by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s skills and speed.

That made it 6-4 on aggregate to PSG, and Bayern seeking a big change in momentum.

It seemed to come when Laimer surged forward and flicked the ball up to the side of Nuno Mendes, whose outstretched right arm made his body bigger and blocked the ball.

Referee João Pinheiro blew his whistle and signaled with his left arm a free kick to Bayern. Another yellow card for Nuno Mendes, already booked for tripping Michael Olise, seemed inevitable.

Before Pinheiro reached the spot to take the free kick, his right arm was out in the PSG direction of play. The Portuguese referee gave a thumbs up signal to his fourth official on the touchline, Espen Eskas from Norway.

Laimer was judged to have handled the ball several meters (yards) further back when he first controlled the bouncing ball. Television replays were inconclusive.

“You don’t feel it during the game itself. I thought I had played the ball with my stomach, and then Mendes with his hand,” Laimer said. “The referee whistled for handball against me five seconds later. That’s really strange.”

No VAR review

The VAR protocol today allows video review of “clear and obvious errors” in four game-changing situations: A goal, a penalty, direct red cards, mistaken identity when the wrong player is shown a red or yellow card.

Starting at the World Cup next month, VAR can intervene to overturn a red card if a second yellow was shown in error.

Nuno Mendes never was shown a second yellow on Wednesday. However, a similar situation next season will let the referee follow their first instinct and review the whole passage of play at a pitchside monitor.

“I though he was giving it,” Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said of Pinheiro moving toward a second yellow for Nuno Mendes. “I felt he pulled out because he realized he had already given him a yellow and he didn’t want to send him off for that, and he’s turned it around to the other side.

“I’ve seen it from a few angles. I don’t see Konrad Laimer touch the ball with his hand.”

Instead of playing one hour against PSG down one man, Bayern faced a full-strength opponent and did not score until Harry Kane’s goal at the very end of a 1-1 game that cut the overall score to 6-5.

Minutes after the Laimer decision, Bayern was correctly denied a penalty for handball by PSG’s João Neves because the ball was played to his arm by a teammate. That nuance is not specified in The Laws of the Game but it is in a supplementary document called Football Rules.

PSG will defend its Champions League title against Arsenal on May 30. Bayern’s wait goes on.

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

Deputies responded to Hemingway Drive around just before midnight on Tuesday.

The victim told investigators she drove there to confront a woman she had been arguing with on Facebook. When she arrived, she said she saw two people in the driveway, both holding handguns. Without a word exchanged, they both raised their arms and fired at her car. She saw muzzle flashes, heard gunshots, and her rear window shattered. She later discovered her front passenger-side tire was also flat, according to the sheriff’s office.

After several hours of public address announcements, 29-year-old Ines Jonjic, her children, and her 15-year-old babysitter surrendered to deputies around 5:30 a.m. Jonjic admitted to shooting at the vehicle, and deputies recovered her firearm from her bedroom.

Both Jonjic and the 15-year-old were each charged with shooting into an occupied vehicle.

Detectives also found bags of drugs in a backpack in the teen’s bedroom. He faces additional charges of possession of a firearm by a delinquent, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, and trafficking in cocaine. He was also charged with violation of probation for breaking curfew from a prior arrest.

Jonjic faces additional charges after detectives found marijuana, amphetamines and other pills inside her home and vehicles. Her additional charges include possession of marijuana with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a park, possession of Schedule II and IV controlled substances, possession of a new legend drug (two counts) and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Last week, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said he hopes the U.S. would make the “right choices” relating to the self-ruled island when he spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has not excluded the use of force to take it. Beijing has been ramping up its military pressure by sending warplanes and naval vessels around the island almost daily.

“The Taiwan question is at the core of China’s core interests and the bedrock of the political foundation of China-U.S. relations,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian Thursday.

“Abiding by the One China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués and honoring the commitments made by U.S administrations on the Taiwan question, is the due international obligation of the United States and the prerequisite for a steady, sound, and sustainable China-U.S. relationship," he added.

Such strong language so close in time to the two leaders' meeting is rare for Beijing, said Arthur Zhin-Sheng Wang, a defense expert at Taiwan’s Central Police University. The new language also explicitly links U.S. diplomatic actions on Taiwan to Washington's relationship with China.

China and Taiwan split after a civil war in 1949. The U.S. is the island's largest unofficial ally and also sells weapons to Taiwan as part of a law which requires it to ensure Taiwan can defend itself. Those weapons sales and diplomatic support is a primary source of tension between China and the U.S.

Separately, China's top diplomat Wang said Thursday in a meeting with visiting American senators that ties with both sides have managed to keep things stable amid disruptions.

During a meeting with members of a U.S. bipartisan congressional delegation, led by Sen. Steve Daines, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi credited Presidents Xi Jinping and Trump for “helping steer the direction of bilateral relations at critical moments.”

“Over the past year, China-U.S. relations have gone through many twists and disruptions, but we have still managed to maintain overall stability," Wang said.

Daines, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a strong supporter of Trump, agreed and said that both countries should look for stability.

“I strongly believe that we want to de-escalate, not decouple. We want stability, we want mutual respect,” he said.

Daines hinted at one possible outcome to the two leaders' meeting next week, saying, "perhaps we could see some more Boeing airplanes purchased, which I know would be something we would like to see."

The senator also recognized China's efforts to help reduce tensions in the Middle East and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He said that Wang's meeting on Wednesday with the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was proof of China's engagement.

Ahead of Trump's visit to China, scheduled for May 14-15, the U.S. government has been pressing Beijing to use its influence with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world’s oil normally flows.

It was Daines' second trip to China since Trump took office last year. He previously visited in March 2025, when the two countries were locked in frictions over trade tariffs and efforts to combat illegal fentanyl trade.

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Wu reported from Bangkok.

Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis outlined the proposed revisions on Thursday, casting them as necessary to safeguard future generations given global concerns about AI’s risks to democratic governance and humanity itself.

“It’s very important that, in this process of constitutional revision, we take care of the world that will host our children,” Mitsotakis told lawmakers from his governing center-right party.

The proposed changes would include a provision that says: “Artificial intelligence shall serve the freedom of the individual and the prosperity of society, ensuring that risks are mitigated and that the advantages it provides are fully realized.”

Dozens of other changes would include expanding postal voting, increasing mandatory schooling from nine to 11 years and banning retroactive taxation.

“These challenges already dominate today: from the climate crisis and protection of water resources to renewable energy sources, but above all the use of artificial intelligence,” the prime minister said. “This great revolution must also be constitutionally placed at the service of individual freedom and social well-being.”

The lengthy revision process involves a series of votes by two successive parliaments and typically requires some cross-party support.

Greece has been an eager adopter of AI and modern technology since emerging from a major financial crisis eight years ago, upgrading border surveillance and rebuilding its tax administration.

A powerful government services platform now manages everything from obtaining a divorce to buying tickets for domestic soccer matches.

Last month, the government unveiled plans for a full social media ban for children younger than 16 — a move it said was intended to pressure the European Union to adopt similar rules.

Some constitutional experts in Greece argue AI must be legally required to serve democracy because major private technology platforms now hold enough data and power to operate beyond effective public oversight.

Evripidis Stylianidis, the government’s lead lawmaker on the constitutional revision, said the changes would serve as a long-term guardrail on AI use.

“Many issues today are defined at the international level,” he told state radio Thursday. “The protection and proper use of artificial intelligence touches all human rights in daily life and is something that must concern us in the constitutional revision.”

One big reason: despite President Trump declaring a ceasefire with Iran, we’re learning tankers still don’t feel safe traveling through the Strait of Hormuz—a critical route that normally moves about one out of every three gallons of oil in the world. With no clear end in sight, many of you have asked: “How can I save on gas?”

Since it matters to you, it matters to us—so News 6’s Ashley Garrett went on the hunt and dug into three apps that promise real relief.

[RELATED: How are you saving money with rising gas prices? These 3 apps can help]

1) BP: Earnify (Amazon Prime perk, too)

BP’s savings tool is the Earnify app. When you search “BP” you may see more than one option—look for Earnify. After you register, you can get 5 cents off per gallon right away. The app also starts you with points in your wallet, often 250 points. You can track and use those points toward additional savings. And an extra bonus: Amazon Prime members can save 10 cents per gallon at BP through Earnify.

2) Circle K: Deals inside the app (plus a Fuel Day promo)

You can also download the Circle K app thru Apple or Google Play, and then be sure to tap the word “Deals.” You’ll see offers you can activate. One example available now, advertises up to 40 cents off per gallon, but you do need to fill up four times to unlock it. Also important: you must be a registered Inner Circle member. You can sign up inside the app .Also: Circle K is promoting a Fuel Day deal on Thursday, May 7th, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. In the app, go to Deals, then look for “Circle K Fuel Day.”

3) 7-Eleven: Instant discount when you register + bigger Thursday deal

Download the 7-Eleven app. After you register, the app may load you with starter points, often 800 points. Tap the Fuel option to see the price at participating stations. Wednesday’s example showed $4.59/gallon, but with the app discount it dropped by 11 cents to $4.48/gallon. And looking ahead: 7-Eleven says Thursday brings an even better deal—50 cents off per gallon. How to get it: Text ALL IN to 711-711 on every 7th and 11th of the month through July 11th.

Here’s another tip. If you go to Wawa, buying food and fueling up thru it’s app also earns you points that can cut your gas cost by 15 to 30 cents/gallon.

Bottom line: Gas prices are rising fast, but app-based discounts—especially time-limited promos—can help take the edge off.

“If our hearts must break, let them break open,” said the rabbi, who leads Kehillat Israel where 300 families out of 900 lost their homes. “This tragedy has really pushed us closer to one another. We're working to change the things we need changed.”

Faith leaders both in the Pacific Palisades and in Altadena and Pasadena — devastated by the pair of fires that tore across Southern California — have relied on interfaith and community partnerships to rally congregants who are picking up the pieces 16 months later.

They’ve had to learn on the fly about insurance coverage and local land use regulations while still trying to keep their scattered flock together and raising money for basic needs. Pastors in Altadena have had to fight to protect the rights of Black people who decades ago found pathways to home ownership in that community despite redlining — but now risk losing their land to outside developers who sense an investment opportunity.

And throughout this span, faith leaders have had to cater to the emotional and spiritual needs of their communities and think about how they want to rebuild their sanctuaries that were lost or damaged in the fire. More than a dozen houses of worship burned to the ground or were damaged.

Interfaith relationships have become stronger after the fires

This would have been difficult for faith leaders to handle but for the interfaith relationships that became closer and stronger after the fires, said the Rev. Grace Park, associate pastor at Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church, which burned down.

Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics, Jews and yogis have not just found common ground in human suffering and loss, but have learned how to lean on one another in a time of dire need, she said.

“It’s a sense of mutual affection and respect, learning from each other and leaning on one another,” Park said. “We’re sharing the joys and the deep valleys of what it means to lead through a time of tragedy.”

Brother Satyananda, a senior monk at the Self Realization Fellowship, lost his living quarters and belongings in the fire. Much of the campus, started by Paramahamsa Yogananda who brought ancient spiritual practices from India to the West, fortunately survived the fire.

Satyananda recalls one day when Bernstein picked up on his sadness and offered him “motherly compassion.”

“We share the same profession where we’re tuned to people in need,” he said. “Now, our relationship has changed because we’re tuning into each other. There’s a greater level of trust.”

Pastor BJ King, who leads LoveLand LifeCenter, worked with the late Rev. Cecil B. Murray to heal communities and build interfaith coalitions after the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

“Back then, there was a choice whether or not to get involved,” he said. “But with these fires, there is no choice. It has affected everybody.”

Pastors have had to acquire new skills

King’s congregation has switched to online services after their leased church building in Altadena suffered smoke damage. Twelve families lost their homes. In addition to helping meet people’s basic needs, King has created a program organizing gatherings to connect therapists with those in need of mental health.

“Many people didn’t even know they needed that,” he said.

One of the most powerful roles faith leaders have played after the fire is to “continue to talk with power, people in charge,” said Pastor Jonathan DeCuir, who leads Victory Bible Church in Pasadena. He and others in the region have continued to meet with local officials and even conferred with Gov. Gavin Newsom to keep things moving for their communities.

DeCuir chairs the board of a nonprofit called Legacy Land Project, which provides financial aid, legal support and guidance on building contractors, as well as medical care to those affected by the fires.

The disaster has brought a level of camaraderie that DeCuir says he has never seen among the region's clergy.

“Denominational lines have been crossed,” he said. “Even if we have different theological stances or approaches to ministry, we are all now looking at how to care for our people and community. If we don’t come together, Altadena will never ever be the same. The people won't be there anymore. That, to me, is terrifying.”

While a church is more than a building, physical churches do appear as “beacons of hope” in traumatized communities, said Pastor Mayra Macedo-Nolan, executive director of Clergy Community Coalition in Pasadena. Her group has lobbied for houses of worship to be prioritized on the same footing as businesses in the rebuilding plan.

“When people start seeing churches rebuilding in Altadena, they’re going to feel like it’s going to be OK because the churches are coming back,” she said.

Reimagining a purposeful future

On April 26, the Altadena Fountain of Life Church broke ground to build a new sanctuary after their house of worship, which had stood for over three decades, was destroyed in the fire. Pastor Jonathan Lewis, who ministers to about 75, hopes the church will be ready in time for Easter next year.

“It’ll be a Resurrection Sunday for our church, too,” he said.

Alexis Duncan, who grew up in Altadena attending that church, came to the groundbreaking with her 6-year-old daughter. She lost both her home and her church building.

“It means everything to me that they’re rebuilding because I want the church to be there for my daughter as she grows up,” she said. “This new beginning gives me and my family hope and the encouragement to come back.”

Some churches like Altadena Community Church, a United Church of Christ congregation, are pausing to rethink their future purpose. The Rev. Michael Lewis, who took over in February after the previous pastor retired, said the congregation is looking into several possibilities for the one-acre lot, including affordable housing.

“We know that a church is not intended to be a landlord and the pastor is no property manager,” he said. “But, we’re also thinking about who is able to return to Altadena? How will this rich, economically diverse community that was scattered by the fire come back?”

The church has been around since the 1940s. A haven for actors, poets and musicians, the former sanctuary also served as a vibrant performance space. Lewis said they hope to incorporate a performance stage into the new facility.

“It’ll look different from what we had before,” he said. “Once we figure out how to build community, we can decide what physical structures will help us support that community.”

As for Kehillat Israel, on May 15, members will carry their Torah scrolls back to their sanctuary, marking one of the first returns by a house of worship to the Palisades since the disaster.

Judaism has had “a long history of starting over,” Bernstein said.

“It’s encoded in our cultural approach to the world, that there are things that can always be taken away from you,” she said. “But what you become can never get taken away.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

THURSDAY

Widespread mid 90s are forecast this afternoon, including along much of the coast, where temperatures usually stay cooler this time of year. Strong west-southwest winds will prevent the sea breeze from fully developing, allowing the heat to spread all the way to the beaches.

Several cities are expected to easily break daily record highs, including Leesburg, Sanford, Melbourne and Daytona Beach.

The heat will combine with dry and gusty conditions to create an elevated fire danger through this afternoon and evening, which is why a Red Flag Warning is in effect through the evening.

Make sure to take the proper summer-time precautions and take the heat seriously, like staying hydrated, taking cooling breaks, and wearing loose clothing.

FRIDAY-WEEKEND

By Friday, a weak front approaching North Florida will begin increasing moisture across the state. A few showers may develop during the morning, followed by scattered afternoon and evening storms through the weekend.

Rain chances gradually increase Saturday and Sunday (30-40%) as sea breeze boundaries and the stalled front help spark more widespread activity.

Despite the return of rain chances, temperatures remain well above normal through the weekend with highs staying in the upper 80s and 90s.

Unfortunately, the added humidity will also push heat index values into the upper 90s and near 100 degrees in some areas.

NEXT WEEK

Another cold front arrives early next week, bringing a better chance for scattered storms Monday (50-60%) before slightly cooler and more seasonable temperatures return by the middle of next week.

Walking through the home of Holly Joffrion and Mikhail Vaysberg is a testament to their travels. Every room features a different look, and every piece of art tells a story. But city officials are now questioning whether the couple actually lives there.

“It has become stressful,” one of the homeowners said when asked about the toll the legal battle has taken on their family.

Fines topping $500K

News 6 found the city began fining the couple in 2023. Some of those fines are accruing at up to $2,000 per day, pushing the total well past $500,000. The largest single fine exceeds $341,000.

At the heart of the dispute: The city accuses the couple of not living in the home, but instead renting it as an Airbnb and hosting concerts on the property.

“There’s no business here. I make zero money on anything they claim I make,” Vaysberg said.

Vaysberg denies the allegations, saying the gatherings held at the home are simply for family and friends.

“I also have a big family, and why should I not have friends over?” he said.

Neighbors tell a different story

But residents who live in the condo complex directly behind the property describe something far different.

“These are events they’re having — they’re not family,” said Paul Stocksdale, president of the homeowners association for Justin Place Condos.

Stocksdale says the sound carries directly over the fence and into the neighboring units.

“They have the loud music — it’s like a studio, it’s like a concert. It’ll shake your windows,” he said.

“That loud?” a reporter asked.

“Yeah, it’s that loud,” Stocksdale replied.

Homestead exemption at issue

The couple told News 6 they did explore using the property as an Airbnb, but changed their minds once they realized how much work the historic home requires. However, News 6 found they are also claiming a homestead exemption on the property — something the city calls improper.

Neighbors say the situation has worn thin.

“They have total disregard for the neighbors. They don’t care,” Stocksdale said.

The City of Orlando released a statement to News 6, saying in part: “We remain committed to protecting the quality of life in the surrounding neighborhood and will continue to follow all applicable legal procedures as the case moves forward,” a spokesperson said via email

Lamine Yamal is out for the rest of the season and so is Brazil star Estêvão.

There was also a scare when Mohamed Salah hurt his hamstring recently.

Injuries to some of soccer's biggest names are mounting ahead of the World Cup which starts in five weeks.

Mbappé is expected to play again for Real Madrid this month and there is no suggestion his issue will rule him out of the World Cup. But every setback to France's best player will be of concern to the national team.

Barcelona's teenage sensation Yamal — recuperating from a leg muscle injury — is also expected to be part of Spain's squad and appear at his first World Cup.

And initial fears about Salah have been dispelled.

Others, however, have not been so fortunate.

France's Hugo Ekitike sustained an Achilles injury in April that could take more than six months to fully recover, ruling him out of the tournament co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico and possibly the start of next season.

Brazil stars Rodrygo and Éder Militão are definitely out. So is Bayern Munich and Germany forward Serge Gnabry after injuring his adductor in training.

Meanwhile, the absence of Spain and Manchester City midfielder Rodri in recent weeks because of a groin injury is also worrying after he missed the majority of last season due to ACL damage. City manager Pep Guardiola has given positive updates about Rodri's recovery in recent days and the former Ballon d’Or winner should play again this season.

Players and coaches have increasingly warned about the impact of an ever-packed playing schedule, and the expanded World Cup comes a year after the relaunched, supersized Club World Cup. The Champions League has also been expanded in recent years.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta describes the demand on players as “an accident waiting to happen."

Players definitely ruled out of the World Cup

Argentina: Joaquín Panichelli (ACL)

Brazil: Éder Militão (hamstring), Rodrygo (ACL)

France: Hugo Ekitike (Achilles)

Germany: Serge Gnabry (adductor)

Netherlands: Xavi Simons (ACL)

United States: Cameron Carter-Vickers (Achilles), Patrick Agyemang (Achilles)

Ones to watch

Algeria: Goalkeeper Luca Zidane, the son of France icon Zinedine Zidane, is a doubt after a facial injury during an on-field collision last month.

Argentina: Cristian Romero has been ruled out for the season with a knee injury. It has not yet been confirmed if he is out of the World Cup, with Tottenham not giving a timeframe for his recovery.

Brazil: Teenage sensation Estêvão will not play again for Chelsea this month after a hamstring injury. There are conflicting reports as to whether he will recover in time for the World Cup.

Croatia: Veteran midfielder Luka Modrić broke his cheekbone last month but is expected to be available for the World Cup.

Morocco: Paris Saint-Germain defender Achraf Hakimi has been sidelined with a right thigh injury.

United States: Defender Miles Robinson hasn’t played since April 18 because of a leg injury.

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

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

The proposed painting of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building is one piece of a broader plan the Republican president has said will make Washington more beautiful.

Trump is making numerous changes inside and outside the White House and its grounds, most notably razing the East Wing to build a 1,000-person ballroom. Across the street from the mansion, Lafayette Park is closed for renovations that include getting the fountains working again.

The National Capital Planning Commission is scheduled to begin considering the plan on Thursday, according to its meeting agenda. Trump calls for painting all or most of the Eisenhower building's gray granite exterior with white paint. He last year called the gray a “really bad color.”

Josh Fisher, a White House official, in April told the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts — a separate federal agency that also must approve the proposal — that the Trump administration prefers painting the entire building because the exterior is stained and in “great disrepair.”

The White House also presented an alternative proposal to paint most of the building in white while leaving the granite as is on the base.

Fisher said in April that experts consulted by the government could not guarantee that an exterior cleaning would improve the condition of the building.

But the proposal has alarmed preservationists, architects, historians and others who argue that granite is not meant to be painted and that paint would trap moisture, deteriorate the stone and not solve problems the administration wants to fix.

There's also scant public support for the paint job.

Hundreds of pages of public comment submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission and available on the agency's website were overwhelmingly against the plan on the grounds that the granite would be harmed by being painted and that problems would remain, at great expense to taxpayers. Others suggested improved landscaping, lighting and other steps to improve the building's appearance.

Members of the Society of Architectural Historians sent a letter this week to Will Scharf, a top White House aide and chair of the planning commission, outlining why the project “will adversely and permanently alter this important part of American heritage and should be rejected.”

A report by the planning commission's staff recommends that commissioners support cleaning the building but said more information is needed to evaluate the proposals to paint the exterior.

Staff also recommends asking the White House to provide information about the type of paint to be used, including where it has been successfully used on exterior granite facades in other projects. It also recommends the White House summarize other ways to achieve the goal, including cleaning the building and/or lighting.

The Eisenhower Executive Office Building is a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A lawsuit against the proposed paint job is working its way through federal court.

The Eisenhower building sits across a driveway from the West Wing, and its granite, slate and cast iron exterior makes it one of America’s best examples of the French Second Empire style of architecture. It was the original home for the State, War and Navy departments, and it currently houses ceremonial offices for the vice president and offices for the second lady, the National Security Council and other White House components.

At its April meeting, the fine arts commission directed White House officials to return at a future date to present more information, including the results of paint testing.

Surging gas prices, an unpopular war in Iran and tariffs that have hit the state’s auto industry hard have all contributed to concerns about a worsening political environment for Michigan Republicans.

The latest warning sign came Tuesday, when a Democrat won a special election by almost 20 points in a state Senate district that Kamala Harris won by less than 1 point in 2024. The previous officeholder, a Democrat, carried the seat by 6 percentage points in 2022.

“To get to this margin in that kind of a district means that Democrats and independent voters are working in tandem to send a message to the Trump administration,” Michigan pollster Richard Czuba said of Tuesday's result.

The sentiment could pose a challenge for Michigan Republicans in a midterm year when voters will decide the governor’s office, control of the Legislature and a premier U.S. Senate race. The mood of voters in Michigan also matters for a national Republican Party that sees the state — which Donald Trump flipped in 2024 — as central to its coalition and a midterm map that will again hinge heavily on the industrial Midwest.

‘If they don’t get Iran figured out pretty quick, we’re screwed’

Nationally, Trump’s approval rating on the economy fell between March and April as the Iran war sent prices higher, according to an AP-NORC poll. The April poll found that approval had eroded even among Republicans, with 62% having a positive view of the way Trump is handling the economy, down from 74% in March.

Trump’s economic approval remained low among independents, who have an outsized role in deciding elections in swing states like Michigan. About 2 in 10 independents approved of Trump’s performance on the economy in the April poll, down slightly from about 3 in 10 in March. Only about one-quarter of U.S. adults approved of his handling of the cost of living.

Michigan voters may be feeling the impacts more than those elsewhere in the U.S. Gas prices in Michigan are averaging around $4.80 per gallon, the 10th-highest in the nation, according to AAA, after they jumped by over 80 cents in a week.

Jared Kaufman, 26, is among those frustrated by rising costs and the war in Iran. He voted for Democrat Chedrick Green in Tuesday's election, saying he’s a teacher who doesn’t make much money. The sacrifices being made “for something that is nowhere near us” are unnecessary, he said.

Tariffs have also created new anxiety in a state deeply tied to the auto industry and cross-border trade with Canada. While Trump has argued the tariffs will strengthen domestic manufacturing, suppliers and smaller manufacturers in Michigan say the uncertainty has made it harder to plan investments and expansion.

“The more stability there is in the environment, the easier it is for me to make decisions to grow and expand,” said John Lytle, president of Promess Inc., a manufacturer outside Detroit. “That’s probably been the biggest impact it’s had on us.”

Jason Roe, a strategist and former executive director of the Michigan GOP, conceded that the political environment isn’t good right now, but argued Democrats have their own problems and that Trump still has time to bring costs down.

“But if they don’t get Iran figured out pretty quick, we’re screwed,” he added.

A messy top of the ticket race

The worsening political climate is also colliding with internal divisions at the top of the GOP ticket.

With Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer term-limited and leaving office at year's end, the governor's race was once viewed as Republicans' best pickup opportunity. Michigan has a long history of electing a governor from the opposite party once an incumbent leaves office.

The overwhelming favorite in the GOP primary was Rep. John James, a veteran who represents a competitive House district and has been endorsed by Trump in previous elections, including two failed bids for U.S. Senate (Trump has not endorsed in this year's GOP primary). But frustration with his campaign has steadily built within the party, spilling into public view in recent weeks.

After it was announced in April that James would miss a GOP debate in an important swing county where all other major candidates were attending, a wave of Republicans criticized him.

“The data is clear: if John James wins the Aug. 4, 2026, primary, Republicans will almost certainly lose the general election in November,” said Chris Long, a member of the Michigan GOP's leadership team, in a social media post calling for James to drop out.

James has said that he will take part in two debates in July.

Democrats have their own concerns. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is expected to lead the Democratic field, though Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson is also running. Some in the party worry that Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, a former Democrat now running for governor as an independent, could pull votes from their nominee.

But James' campaign has also been complicated by the late entry of Perry Johnson, a millionaire businessman who mounted long-shot bids for governor in 2022 and president in 2024. Johnson has aggressively attacked James — and has the money to sustain it, announcing a $10 million television ad buy in February.

Republican strategist Dennis Lennox criticized James as running “an awful campaign,” but added that no matter who is the nominee, it will be a tough cycle.

“Anyone who isn't being paid to say otherwise will concede that 2026 is going to be a very difficult year for Republicans,” said Lennox.

In a statement, James spokesperson Hannah Osantowske dismissed the criticism as “sore losers griping,” arguing that James remains the GOP frontrunner and “the only Republican beating both Democrats in November.” She also dismissed Johnson’s campaign.

“Michiganders are not buying what he is selling,” Osantowske said. “They want a trusted Trump ally, combat veteran and proven job creator. That is John James.”

Republicans hope to break a three-decade Senate losing streak

The governor's race is top of the ticket in Michigan, but national Republicans are also looking to crush Democrats' chances of winning control of the Senate by flipping Michigan's open Senate seat.

Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers is running again on the GOP ticket, after losing in 2024 by less than 20,000 votes to freshman Sen. Elissa Slotkin.

Democrats are in the midst of a competitive — and increasingly messy — Senate primary with three high-profile candidates vying for the party's nomination in the Aug. 4 primary.

Still, questions linger about whether Rogers can win a race he lost even with Trump on the ballot. No Republican has won a U.S. Senate race in Michigan since 1994.

Rogers maintains the most cash on hand of any Senate candidate, due to a non-competitive GOP primary, but was behind Democratic candidates Mallory McMorrow, a state senator, and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a former health official, in fundraising in the first quarter of 2026. The Senate Leadership Fund, the leading super PAC for Senate Republicans, announced an initial $45 million investment in the Michigan race early in April.

Czuba said the influx of outside money may not help Rogers if it further nationalizes the race.

“If the conversation is nationalized in Michigan, we see how poorly the president's numbers look right now,” said Czuba. “If undecided voters disproportionately view Donald Trump negatively, I'm not sure what the path is for Mike Rogers.”

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Associated Press journalist Mike Householder in Bay City, Michigan, contributed to this report.

That’s HB 1471, which was originally filed by state Rep. Hillary Cassel (R-Hollywood) earlier this year. It seeks to make a variety of changes to state law regarding terrorist organizations.

Many of those revisions are as follows:

• 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

[RELATED: DeSantis discusses Florida airport under new ‘Trump Highway’ law]

However, a major component of the law is a new rule that allows the FDLE executive director — a role appointed by the governor — to designate certain groups as terrorist organizations.

To do so, the FDLE director must find the following criteria:

At least seven days before designating a group as a terrorist organization, the FDLE director must provide written notice to the Cabinet, along with written findings behind the decision.

[RELATED: Are you a ‘gang member?’ This new Florida bill changes what it means]

Then, the Cabinet will be responsible for either approving or rejecting the designation.

If a group is properly dubbed a terrorist organization, the following consequences would also apply:

• State agencies may not expend funds or levy ad valorem taxes to support such an organization or its members
• Criminal penalties imposed against such organization may be enhanced
• The following terrorist-related crimes include conduct involving a domestic terrorist group as designated by the FDLE head:
• • Using military-type training provided by a terrorist organization
  • Providing material support or resources for terrorism
  • Willfully becoming a member of a terrorist organization

The law was ultimately signed by DeSantis early last month, though it doesn’t formally take effect until July 1.

Meanwhile, you can find a full list of new laws passed this year by clicking here.

However, that trend may have just been reversed.

Lovebugs are known for flying through the air while getting “stuck” together during their explosive breeding seasons, causing plenty of splatters on the front of people’s cars.

But in recent years, Florida natives have noticed a stark drop in the number of these pests flitting about.

During a 2024 conversation with Dr. Norman Leppla — a professor at the University of Florida specializing in pest management — he explained that lovebugs’ disappearance was part of a larger trend.

“I really don’t know why, but we’re having a crisis globally with the loss of insect species and all kinds of other organisms just plain disappearing. And we’re quite worried about it,” he said at the time.

[RELATED: Where did all the lovebugs go?]

But this week, News 6 reached out for a follow-up after several members in the newsroom noticed more lovebugs in the air this year.

“Your newsroom members are correct in noticing more lovebugs than last year,” Leppla wrote. “I have seen some in North Central Florida during the past couple of weeks where there were none last year. They certainly aren’t abundant, however.”

According to Leppla, the number of lovebugs you see flying around depends on the survival of larvae, which in turn depend on continuous moisture to feed and develop.

Female lovebugs can lay hundreds of eggs, but if the environment is too dry or submerged for too long, the larvae end up dying — resulting in fewer lovebugs.

Typically, lovebug season pops up twice per year in Florida: in April to May, and August to September.

Per Leppla, lovebugs actually reached nuisance levels last month down south in places ranging from the Florida Keys up through Ft. Myers.

“They probably occurred in swarms along the lower east coast, as well,” he continued. “They will continue to be relatively abundant in local habitats where larvae can develop. Lovebugs will exist as far north as the climate will enable the larvae to survive.

However, lovebugs aren’t originally from Florida.

They actually hail from the Yucatán in Mexico, having traveled into the Gulf Coast through Texas during the early-to-mid 1900s. In the Sunshine State, they weren’t seen until around 1950.

That means that even if lovebugs really did disappear from Florida, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re gone for good.

“They live in that tropical habitat, and they came here as our habitat became more conducive to lovebugs,” Leppla previously explained. “That’s usually what happens. And so they spread, and they can certainly just recede right back to the tropics.”

[RELATED: Don’t touch these fuzzy Florida bugs!]

But that begs the question: what are the impacts of lovebugs possibly disappearing from Florida?

The short answer? Not much.

In fact, lovebug guts reportedly contain an enzyme that can eat through the clearcoat of a vehicle, which can damage the vehicle’s paint. As such, it could be good news for drivers.

“It’s not going to cause a lot of issues for the folks here in Florida,” Leppla stated. “Only the car wash people.”

Leppla gave News 6 a few tips to keep the pesky insects away. Here’s what you should know:

• Lovebugs are attracted to light colors, so you can avoid wearing light-colored clothing and being near light-colored walls to not draw them in
• They are also bad flyers, so you can use a fan to blow them away
• Lastly, lovebugs don’t fly at night and take a break around noon, so if you limit outdoor exposure during the morning and afternoon times you may be able to avoid them

This massive pool (fittingly dubbed “Warm Mineral Springs”) was formed within a deep sinkhole in North Port, and it’s a popular place for locals to frequent.

However, newcomers are likely to be surprised by the strong, sulfurous stench that the springs emit.

As the name implies, Warm Mineral Springs hosts over 50 different kinds of minerals in its waters, including sulfur, magnesium and potassium.

But for many, the mineral-induced odor is worth enduring.

“A lot of people that go to the springs, they seek it out because they believe the springs help with health and well-being...” said Kimberly Lencki with the city’s parks and recreation department. “Those (minerals) are rumored to have healing powers.”

These beliefs play into the spring’s reputation as “The Original Fountain of Youth,” though there are plenty of other attractions that make similar claims.

[STORY CONTINUES BELOW]

Beyond that, the springs stay at roughly 85°F year-round, making them a great place to hang out when temperatures get too extreme.

This isn’t anything new, either. According to geological experts, the warm springs have been used by humans for thousands of years.

While the edges of the springs are only a few feet deep, the floor of the spring has a steep dropoff, eventually stretching to well over 200 feet from surface to bottom.

The U.S. Geological Society reports that the sinkhole formed over 12,000 years ago, and plenty of evidence has been found to support that claim.

In fact, plenty of ancient artifacts have been uncovered from the springs and beneath the park.

“During exploratory dives in the 1950s, the remains of a prehistoric hunter and seven other humans were discovered in a very well preserved state,” the city’s website reads. “Similarly, evidence of several creatures have been extracted from the spring, including saber tooth tigers, giant sloths, tortoises, and even camels.”

But what exactly keeps the springs so warm?

Well, that’s the big mystery.

Researchers in the 1970s discovered that there were two major hot water vents at the bottom of the spring’s north wall, which feed in water to the spring at around 100°F. Meanwhile, there are also nine cooler water vents that measure close to 70°F.

These various vents help to moderate the water temperature in the springs, keeping it nice and warm for guests. But researchers have yet to figure out how the water from those hot-water vents got so... hot.

Florida’s springs are typically formed from rainwater, which forms underground cavities and is eventually pushed out through openings in the ground.

And hot springs usually rely on volcanic activity to stay heated, but Florida doesn’t actually have any volcanoes (or at least none that have been discovered).

So then where is all of the springs’ hot water coming from?

One theory that researchers have posited is that seawater could be circulating below the Florida Platform from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

At depths of 3,000 feet, the seawater may be heated geothermally before making its way through fractures in the platform’s overlying carbonate rock, ultimately getting pushed to the surface through springs like this one.

Other theories suggest that it could be seawater that had been trapped deep beneath sediments millions of years ago. Or that there exist “hot spot” anomalies where highly mineralized water is heated before being pushed into the Warm Mineral Spring.

Regardless of the truth, the springs are still available for anyone who wants to pay them a visit.

However, many of the buildings surrounding the park — including a beauty spa and eatery — are now defunct, having been damaged in major storms over the past few years.

“There was a hurricane that had damaged some of the buildings, and then (Hurricane) Ian came along, and they condemned the buildings,” Lencki explained.

But now, the city commission is working to restore the historic buildings at Warm Mineral Springs Park and figure out how to flood-proof them.

“We’re gonna restore some of the admission buildings and a complete hybrid renovation to the spa building that’s in there,” Lencki added. “They’re really converting it into an open-air pavilion.”

No official timeline has been set yet for when these renovations can be expected, though visitors can still make use of the springs themselves.

Admission fees into the park are as follows:

For more information on the park, visit the city’s website here.

Supporters of President William Ruto, who is seeking a second term in elections next year, use the phrase to describe the political violence that authorities will not tolerate. Opposition figures use it to condemn what they see as Ruto’s aggressive — and underhanded — campaign tactics.

At times it can seem as if goonism is up against goonism, an unwelcome turn of events in this East African nation where the contest for political power is becoming ever more vigorous and tinged with a sense of danger.

Many Kenyans doubt Ruto's commitment to the religious values he espoused before taking power in 2022.

Ruto vowed to raise a kind of born-again Christian nation, fearful of God and at peace with itself.

But as president, he appears to have benefited from the lawlessness that is now a national scourge as religious and political leaders warn that political violence threatens democratic gains. His critics charge that such chaos rises in part from Ruto’s uncompromising style of leadership.

“Goons, goons, goons,” yelled preacher Wilfred Lai during a recent Sunday sermon in which he lamented what had befallen Kenya. “Everyone who wants to rule this country by that kind of thing, I speak as a prophet of God: You shall fall.”

He added: “You can’t use goons and you are telling us that you are taking us into a better place. You are a liar and the truth is not in you.”

Although Lai, the pastor of a megachurch in the coastal city of Mombasa, didn't mention Ruto by name, many Kenyans suspect he had the president in mind when he gave that sermon, parts of which were shared online.

Some former supporters say Ruto has betrayed Christian values

Lai is among evangelical preachers who embraced Ruto when he was vice president and seeking to replace President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose backing he didn't have. At the time, Ruto was widely seen as a pious politician.

Ruto said he was fighting for the downtrodden, for those whose manual labor put food on the table. The leader — nicknamed “Nabii,” Kiswahili for “God’s prophet” — said he had risen so high in politics by the grace of God, unlike rivals he depicted as the entitled sons of political dynasties. Ruto won a tight race.

For many of his supporters, however, Ruto changed as soon as he won the presidency.

Although he continued to go to church on Sundays, some noticed that he stopped carrying the Bible and no longer quoted it regularly. His decision to demolish a chapel within the compound of the statehouse — to be replaced by a modern facility — was criticized by some as self-aggrandizing. Others saw betrayal in Ruto’s aggressive income tax measures months after his inauguration.

Thousands of young people took to the streets of Nairobi, the capital, forcing authorities to withdraw some tax proposals but not quite cooling popular anger. Ruto later faced more protests triggered by the death in police custody of a blogger.

Although the protests failed to remove Ruto, they left him wounded and determined to show strength. While his position remains precarious ahead of next year’s vote, some of his adversaries admit he is cunning and still hard to defeat.

After protesters stormed the parliamentary building in 2024, Ruto vowed that such a thing would never happen again. Last year, facing protesters who held placards saying “Ruto must go,” the president urged the police to “break” the limbs of protesters and said he was going nowhere.

“If we go this route, we will not have a country,” Ruto said in a televised address. “The country belongs to all of us. And if there’s no country for William Ruto, there’s no country for you.”

Some saw that as a veiled threat, and some opposition figures suspect the gangs materializing at opposition events are sponsored by the state.

“We must say no, collectively, to the new specter, the new norm, of goonism,” Kalonzo Musyoka, a prominent opposition figure, told a local broadcaster. “The goons are very well-known. So for anybody to pretend that it is the work of united opposition, he really must be ashamed, even before God, that this is state-sponsored.”

Political violence is on the rise

Men armed with machetes and guns can break up political rallies or prevent them from commencing. While opposition figures accuse authorities of fomenting violence, Interior Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen recently warned goons that “since the politician won’t be with you when you commit the crime, we’ll come for you.”

Speaker Moses Wetang'ula, Ruto's ally, said last month that “the culture of goonism has no place in a democratic society.”

In a notable event last month, an opposition lawmaker from western Kenya was manhandled in a restaurant by men questioning his political views. Sen. Godfrey Osotsi’s injuries required hospitalization. The attack sparked protests in his home area and was condemned by religious leaders.

Ruto hasn't given up on church leaders — whose influence cuts across social networks — in his quest to retain power. His choice of where to pray on a given Sunday may be unpredictable. Sometimes church leaders, from Methodist to Pentecostal pastors, congregate near him at the statehouse.

Other religious leaders are critical, provoked most recently by insults traded between Ruto and his former deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, who fell out with the president, was impeached and now is the leader of the Wantam movement to make Ruto a one-term president.

Their exchanges can be venomous.

In March, after Gachagua called Ruto a thief who would steal a funeral home, the president called Gachagua a “cold-blooded pig” who stole from his brother.

Days later, the head of the local conference of Catholic primates, Archbishop Maurice Muhatia, rebuked Ruto and Gachagua at a gathering of bishops. “Disagreement is OK, but insulting each other in public is a disgrace,” Muhatia said. “Give us a break.”

Expert warns that election could turn ‘very bloody'

Kenyan elections are often fractious affairs. There was a violent gang, known as Mungiki, that played a role in deadly violence that followed the 2007 election.

There is a pervasive sense this time that more is at stake, with a president who won’t back down. Some worry that Ruto is verging on authoritarianism, unlike his recent predecessors.

Kenyatta, Kenya’s fourth president, is a jolly man who tolerated internal opposition from Ruto while they served together. Mwai Kibaki, whom Kenyatta replaced, was a gentleman who once called a news conference to deny he had a second wife.

Kenya's current president is different, and goonism is “a product of gangster theology” of which Ruto is the high priest, said Christine Mungai, an independent writer based in Nairobi.

Ruto has mastered “how to perform public piety” while simultaneously working “to make life harder for everyone,” she said.

It isn't clear who Ruto's main election opponent will be. It could be Musyoka or Fred Matiang’i, a former cabinet secretary for the interior. While Gachagua is likely ineligible to seek the presidency after his impeachment, his support will be crucial for the opposition.

If Ruto and opposition figures don't tone down the rhetoric “the election is going to be very bloody,” said Karuti Kanyinga, a Kenyan development scholar who is a visiting professor at Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa. “Everyone will have their own protection gangs.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

The 2030 Commonwealth Games are already locked in for Ahmedabad, and there's high expectations for India's bid to host the 2036 Olympics.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has envisioned a developed India by 2047, and the government is focused on improving living standards, transport infrastructure, education and becoming a global hub for tech and innovation.

And that's the bedrock of India’s aspirations for the Olympics and beyond.

“India today reflects a confident and aspirational mindset, ready to lead and shape the future of global sport,” Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Our growing capability to host major international sporting events is a testament to how far we've progressed.

“At the same time, our athletes continue to make the nation proud, signaling the steady rise of India as a formidable sporting force.”

Progress reports

On Thursday, Mandaviya was due to preside over a national sports conclave in Delhi, where India’s preparedness for the 2026 Asian Games and Commonweath Games, as well as the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, will be measured.

Discussion topics also included compliance to the National Sports Governance Act that was introduced last year, pertaining to transparency of national sports federations, and the hosting of and participation in international events.

So far in 2026, India has hosted three high-profile cricket events — the men’s Twenty20 World Cup, the Women’s Premier League and currently the Indian Premier League, one of the richest and most followed franchise leagues in international sport.

New Delhi is hosting the badminton world championships, Bhubaneshwar is slated to host a World Athletics Continental Tour meet and Ahmedabad is set to host the Asian weightlifting championships.

Indian authorities are also considering ways of bringing Formula 1 back to the country for the first time since 2013. Influential sports officials have already helped get cricket back into the Olympics for Los Angeles in 2028.

Commonwealth Games

Outside of cricket, the Commonwealth Games are the biggest barometer for India’s developing sport story.

New Delhi hosted the Asian Games in 1982 and 1951, and also the 2010 Commonwealth Games that was fraught with logistics problems. Long delays in getting facilities ready and a list of scandals overshadowed the event.

Indian officials expect Ahmedabad to put those problems into the distant past. The Sardar Patel Sports Enclave is marked as a key hub for the 2030 Games, which bring together thousands of athletes from 74 Commonwealth nations and territories.

The complex also houses the biggest cricket stadium in the world – the Narendra Modi Stadium – and it can be optimized to host different sports.

On and off the field

But this is a tale growing beyond infrastructure alone. There is a genuine push toward attaining success on the field as well, and sustained efforts have been made over the past decade to develop a robust sports ecosystem.

There are more than fifteen professional leagues across sports actively nurturing talent and creating future opportunities.

The Sports Authority of India has established sports-specific centers of excellence across the country, designed to provide world-class infrastructure and scientific training with the aim of producing Olympic and international medalists.

The results are showing – India recorded its best-ever showing at the Asian Games with 107 medals in the last edition staged in 2023. It won the Thomas Cup (badminton) in 2022, a first squash World Cup title, earned 29 medals — including seven gold — at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, and 20 medals at the World Boxing Cup finals.

Olympic and world champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra is among the standout individual performers.

Sports backers say the individual success stories matter in sending out a message of fitness and participation through society.

Play India

Hari Ranjan Rao, Sports Secretary, Government of India, said while the infrastructure is put in place, “we are also working on our messaging.”

The Khelo India — or Play India — program has grown since 2018 at the youth and university level, winter and para games, beach and water sports, and even tribal games.

“The aim is to draw out the masses into an active lifestyle,” Rao said, “As well as into participation.”

And with extra participation, India is hoping for greater success.

“As we prepare to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games and advance our bid for the 2036 Olympic Games, India stands ready to take center stage,” Mandaviya said. “We are determined to emerge as a global sporting powerhouse, both in producing champions and in hosting world class events.”

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Wembanyama responded by setting a suffocating tone as San Antonio handed Minnesota its largest postseason loss in franchise history, beating the Timberwolves 133-95 on Wednesday night to even their series at one game apiece.

Despite posting 11 points, 15 rebounds and setting an NBA postseason record with 12 blocks, Wembanyama shouldered much of the blame for the Spurs' 104-102 loss to the Timberwolves on Monday in Game 1.

The 7-foot-4 All-Star knew he needed to do more, especially offensively.

Was there some anger and frustration and a desire to get back on the court for Game 2? Absolutely.

“There always is,” Wembanyama said. “In the playoffs, magnify that.”

What resulted was what Minnesota coach Chris Finch said was a punking before a raucous sellout crowd.

The Timberwolves were held to 35 points in the first half while shooting 7 for 24 from the field and 2 for 15 on 3-pointers.

Minnesota closed the game shooting 40% from the field, 30% on 3-pointers while committing 22 turnovers. San Antonio had a 58-36 scoring advantage in the paint, a 55-43 rebounding advantage and had nine blocked shots compared to two for Minnesota.

“We got beat in every way possible, it’s as simple as that,” Timberwolves forward Julius Randle said. “There’s not really much to say from this game. They outhustled us, out-physicaled us, executed, played better defensively, more energy. They just beat us in every way in this game. We’ve got to come back in the next game and be better.”

Game 3 is Friday in Minneapolis followed by Game 4 on Sunday at the Target Center.

The Spurs and Timberwolves went deep into their benches Wednesday with 10 minutes remaining in the game with only the margin of defeat undecided.

San Antonio's 38-point victory toppled Minnesota’s previous largest postseason defeat of 30 points to the Los Angeles Lakers on April 29, 2003.

“I know this team’s capable of doing all of this,” Wembanyama said. “To be honest, I’m expecting this kind of response from myself, from my teammates. So, I’m not surprised by any means and I’m just going to keep working so we approach more games like we did tonight.”

After blowing a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter Monday, Wembanyama and De'Aaron Fox both took accountability for the two-point loss.

Wembanyama andFox combined for only 21 points in Game 1. The All-Star duo was a combined 0 for 12 on 3-pointers with Wembanyama missing eight.

“They acknowledged it, them being the leaders on our team,” Spurs guard Stephon Castle said. “Coming out of Game 1, I mean, it’s going to happen. You're going to have bad shooting nights, but I mean, we have nothing but confidence in those two. So, I expect them to play well the rest of the series like they did tonight.”

Wembanyama set the tone early in Game 2, scoring seven points on 3-for-4 shooting.

The Spurs missed their first three shots, but Wembanyama followed the third attempt by flying through the lane and throwing down a right-handed dunk to open the scoring.

Wembanyama had 14 points and nine rebounds in the first half while leading a defensive effort that limited Minnesota to 35 points, the fewest points by a San Antonio opponent in the first half of a playoff game since Memphis had 31 in 2013.

“I just think we respond well to adversity,” Castle said. “I think we’ve done that all year. I mean, I don’t think we were too shell shocked coming out of Game 1. I think we knew why we lost Game 1 and we addressed it right away. And I feel like that’s what carried us through tonight.”

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

It’s a rare moment of respite and catharsis amid the harsh realities of life in the Gaza Strip. The children, some wearing sliders on their feet, dance next to mangled metal rods jutting out from a mound of rubble and shattered concrete. The school that trains them is in the Nuseirat refugee camp, a crowded, built-up camp in central Gaza dating back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

“I come to this center because I discovered that I have a talent for breakdancing, and I also come here to release the negative energy inside me and to enjoy,” said Habiba Abu Khater, one of the children from around five to 14 years old who train at the school. She said she's been attending for four years and is happy about her progress after starting from scratch.

Instructor Fayez Saraj said the school, established in the camp in 2004, helps children build their self confidence and improve their mental health through break dance, gymnastics, and contemporary dance.

The movements "help the child with psychological release, especially from the difficult situations we experienced during the years of war," he said. “We have a significant role in … moving them from an atmosphere of depression and frustration to one of joy.”

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 72,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, caused widespread destruction and displaced most of the territory’s residents.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

Israel launched the offensive after Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostage in their attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

While the heaviest fighting has mostly subsided since a fragile ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, deadly Israeli strikes have repeatedly disrupted the truce. Hamas and Israel have accused each other of violating the ceasefire. Palestinians in Gaza are still contending with myriad daily struggles.

—-

Associated Press writer Mariam Fam in Winter Park, Florida, contributed to this report.

“I just told them we got punked,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said.

Stephon Castle had 21 points and De'Aaron Fox added 16 points for San Antonio, which shot 50% from the field and 41% on 3-pointers. It was the highest-scoring playoff game for the Spurs since a series-clinching 145-105 win over Denver on May 4, 1983.

Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle, Jaden McDaniels and Terrence Shannon Jr. each scored 12 points for Minnesota.

Edwards came off the bench again as Minnesota continued to restrict his minutes in his second game back from a hyperextended left knee.

Games 3 and 4 are Friday and Sunday in Minneapolis.

With Wembanyama playing more aggressively on offense from the outset, the Spurs put the series-opening loss behind them quickly.

Minnesota's previous largest postseason defeat was by 30 points to the Los Angeles Lakers on April 29, 2003.

Only the margin of victory was in doubt Monday as both teams sent their starters to the bench with 10 minutes remaining and the Spurs leading 104-66.

“I told the guys after the first game it’s the natural tendency for the team that steals the first game, the away team, to get blown out in Game 2," Edwards said. “We can’t come out cool and we came out cool and what happened — we got blown out.”

After combining to score 21 points on 10-for-31 shooting in Game 1, Wembanyama and Fox combined to go 12 of 25 from the field Wednesday.

The All-Star duo scored the Spurs' first 11 points as they raced to a 29-point lead in the first half.

“Just trying to set the tone,” Wembanyama said.

Fox finished 2 for 2 on 3-pointers after missing on four attempts in Game 1.

“We’re at our best when (Fox is) in attack mode,” San Antonio coach Mitch Johnnson said. “He has probably the strongest ripple effect on our team in terms of when he’s in attack mode pushing the pace, because you have Steph (Castle) and Dylan (Harper) that follow suit with that. And then our shooters get shot in transition. Victor plays in space and so on and so forth.”

The Spurs missed their first three shots, but Wembanyama followed the third attempt by flying through the lane and throwing down a right-handed dunk to open the scoring.

Minnesota was held to 35 points in the first half. The Timberwolves shot 29.8% from the field before halftime and were 2 for 15 on 3-pointers as they fell behind by 25 points.

“I loved how everyone had everybody’s back (defensively),” Wembanyama said. “Tonight looked like a system that worked.”

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

The health emergency aboard the ship that's moored across the ocean comes as Argentina sees a surge of hantavirus cases that many local public health researchers attribute to the recently accelerating effects of climate change. Argentina, where the cruise to Antarctica departed, is consistently ranked by the World Health Organization as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease in Latin America.

Higher temperatures expand the virus’ range because, in part, as it gets warmer and ecosystems change, rodents that carry the hantavirus can thrive in more places, experts say. People typically contract the virus from exposure to rodent droppings, urine or saliva.

“Argentina has become more tropical because of climate change, and that has brought disruptions, like dengue and yellow fever, but also new tropical plants that produce seeds for mice to proliferate,” said Hugo Pizzi, a prominent Argentine infectious disease specialist. “There is no doubt that as time goes by, the hantavirus is spreading more and more.”

The Argentine Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 101 hantavirus infections since June 2025, roughly double the caseload recorded over the same period the previous year.

A hantavirus found in South America, called the Andes virus, can cause a severe and often fatal lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The disease led to death in nearly a third of cases in the last year, Argentina’s Health Ministry said, up from an average mortality rate of 15 in the five years before that.

Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings and can spread person-to-person, though that is rare, according to the WHO, whose top epidemic expert said the risk to the public is low. The Andes strain only hantavirus known to spread from human to human.

Authorities said passengers on the MV Hondius ship tested positive for the Andes virus. Argentina on Wednesday said it was sending genetic material from the Andes virus and testing equipment to help Spain, Senegal, South Africa, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom detect it.

The cause of infection remains under investigation

Argentine officials say they’re trying to pin down where infected passengers traveled in the country before boarding the Dutch-flagged cruise liner in Ushuaia, a city in southern Argentina known as the end of the world. Once they know the itineraries, they plan to trace contacts, isolate close contacts and actively monitor to prevent further spread.

The U.N. health agency, or WHO, says that the first death on board, a 70-year-old Dutch man, happened on April 11. His 69-year-old wife, also Dutch, died on April 26. The third passenger, a German woman, died on May 2.

The virus can incubate for between one and eight weeks. That makes it hard to know whether the passengers contracted the virus before leaving Argentina for Antarctica on April 1; during a scheduled stop to a remote South Atlantic island; or aboard the ship.

The province of Tierra del Fuego, where the vessel docked for weeks before departing, has never seen a case of hantavirus. Before boarding, the Dutch couple went sightseeing in Ushuaia, and traveled elsewhere in Argentina and Chile, WHO said.

The Argentine government’s leading hypothesis is that the couple contracted the virus during a bird-watching outing in Ushuaia, according to two investigators who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, with the investigation ongoing. Authorities are also tracing the Dutch tourists' footsteps through the forested hillsides of Patagonia in southern Argentina where some infections are clustered.

Because early symptoms resemble the fever and chills of a flu, “tourists might think they just have a cold and not take it seriously. That makes it particularly dangerous,” Raul González Ittig, genetics professor at the National University of Córdoba and a researcher at state science body CONICET, said.

Climate change sends rodents to new frontiers

Argentina in recent years endured a historic drought. But it also had bouts of unexpectedly intense rainfall, part of a broader pattern of wild weather that scientists attribute to climate change.

Some of this variability has created conditions that have allowed hantavirus to flourish, experts say. Dry spells drive animals out of their usual habitats in search of food and water. Huge amounts of rain lead to vegetation growth, scattering seeds that attract leaf-munching rodents.

“When precipitation increases, food availability increases, rodent populations grow, and if there are infected rodents, the chance of transmission between rodents — and eventually to humans — also increases,” Ittig said.

Although hantavirus cases once were limited to the southern reaches of Patagonia, now 83% of cases are found in Argentina’s far north, according to the Health Ministry.

Argentina issued alerts early this year

The ministry issued an alert in January about several fatal outbreaks, including in the most populous province of Buenos Aires.

With rural hospitals underequipped, residents had no clue what hit them.

Daisy Morinigo and David Delgado said they initially thought their 14-year-old son had the flu when he came down with a fever and body aches. Doctors who first saw Rodrigo in the town of San Andrés de Giles sent him home with ibuprofen and orders to rest.

But the feisty fourth grader's breathing worsened. On Jan. 1, they rushed Rodrigo to intensive care. He died just two hours after a hantavirus test came back positive.

"I wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone in the world,” Delgado said.

Member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh — who performs as Mo Chara — had been charged with a terror-related offense for displaying a flag of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, (which is banned in Britain as a terrorist organization) during a London concert in 2024. The case was eventually thrown out and the band used the experience of going to court, and the party that ensued in their support, as inspiration for some of the tracks on “Fenian.”

The record's title is also an act of defiance, reclaiming a word that has historically been used as derogatory term directed toward Irish people.

During the band’s various court appearances, fans lined the streets outside court to support the Belfast trio — singing, playing instruments and chanting “Free Mo Chara” — a refrain that's sampled on the band’s new track “Carnival.”

Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, and DJ Próvaí discussed recording “Fenian,” the importance of their live shows and if they think they can get visas to tour the U.S., with The Associated Press recently.

The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: How is this process different from writing your first record?

MO CHARA: We were writing the tracks as Dan Carey (producer) was creating the tracks so like the lyrics and the production was like kind of developing at the same time, same place, which I thought was interesting. It was a very organic feeling. It was the first time we’d ever done it like that.

MÓGLAÍ BAP: Obviously when we were in the studio we had, we were in the Magistrates’ Court during that period, during the seven weeks we had to leave the studio and go to the courts and then also had the Wembley Arena concert so it was quite a busy time.

Usually studio time for bands it’s quite (a lot of) down time but we were kind of going into the chaos of going to court — Mo Chara was obviously — but actually ended up not much of a hindrance. It kind of helped us and we used that in the song “Carnival,” we sampled the crowd outside the court case saying “Free Mo Chara.”

AP: How would you describe your live performances, it feels like a celebration with that kind of energy. Is that important to you?

DJ PRÓVAÍ: Because we have a reputation of being like a band that’s live shows are good, you know people already come with that kind of energy and they have that expectancy so whenever they’re in there they’re up here already. Even when the show’s starting it’s kind of sits here alrdy. (gesturing toward the ceiling)

MO CHARA: It’s almost like the hard work’s all been done before the show so people are coming in and they’re full of energy now. They’re giving us a show as well.

MÓGLAÍ BAP: I think the origins of that is like because we started off doing the music in Irish, a big part of our challenge was to connect with the audience and interact with them in a way that they can enjoy the music without understanding it. Just kind of bringing that energy on stage was a way for the crowd to actually enjoy it because most people don’t know what the (expletive) we’re saying.

AP: Do you think you’d be able to go to America? Is there a plan? Are you trying to get visas?

MO CHARA: See, the thing was we never actually got turned down for a visa, like there was a lot of miscommunications there and I think the media kind of ran with the story that they wanted. We were never turned down.

What happened was we were changing our promoters in America so what happens is you have to reapply for a new working visa and then obviously with the court case going on we didn’t apply for one. So now that the court case is over, I don’t see any reason why we won’t get our visa accepted. Obviously we’ve never been convicted of any crimes in any country in the world.

We just didn’t apply for it because we thought it was probably the wrong time to do it. So I think now with everything being over, there’s no reason why we won’t be back in America soon.

The grand jury indictment filed April 21 by the U.S. Justice Department is an extraordinary strike against the Alabama-based organization, which works to combat discrimination and racism particularly in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The SPLC denies wrongdoing, and no individual is charged.

The group has drawn criticism from conservatives including FBI Director Kash Patel, especially after it included Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA in a report about “hate and extremism.” Kirk was killed during a Utah college appearance in 2025.

Supporters say the SPLC is being unfairly targeted by the Trump administration for its civil rights triumphs.

An arraignment on charges of money laundering conspiracy, wire fraud and false statements to a bank was set for Thursday in federal court in Montgomery.

The Justice Department accuses the organization of defrauding donors by using their money to fund the same extremism it says it fights. At least $3 million went to informants affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations, the National Socialist Party of America and other groups between 2014 and 2023, the indictment says.

CEO Bryan Fair said the payments went to confidential informants to monitor threats of violence from the extremist groups. The information gathered helped save lives, he said, and was frequently shared with the FBI.

“We are outraged by the false allegations levied against SPLC,” Fair said when the charges were filed.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche recently acknowledged that the organization has a history of sharing information with law enforcement after he was challenged for saying the opposite.

“That's well-documented, and there's no dispute there. They aren't charged with any of that conduct,” Blanche said.

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Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is tech’s favorite candidate to be the next leader of California.

The 43-year-old former tech executive jumped into the crowded race in January, touting himself as a pragmatic problem-solver. A moderate Democrat, Mahan has built his statewide profile mainly by criticizing Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature's response to homelessness and crime. His centrist message has appealed to tech leaders who want a business-friendly governor to succeed Newsom, a longtime tech ally who’s terming out.

In just three months, Mahan has raised more than any of his rivals, many of whom have been running for more than a year. ( Billionaire Tom Steyer is largely self-funding his campaign.)

During a Tuesday night debate on CNN, he criticized his rivals as career politicians while crafting himself as the candidate with practical solutions to the state’s challenges.

“We don’t need MAGA values, but we also don’t need more of the same,” Mahan said, referring to President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement supported by Republican rivals Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, whom Trump has endorsed.

But Mahan doesn’t appear to have yet gained the momentum he expected or the widespread name recognition to beat his rivals — and he’s running out of time to win over voters ahead of the June 2 primary. His ties to tech are of particular concern to labor unions and a segment of Democratic voters who question whether he’ll stand up to the industry.

A Silicon Valley mayor

“People do not want somebody who is a puppet of these big tech billionaires, of these AI billionaires — and that’s who he has always been,” said Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, president of the California Labor Federation, which has endorsed Steyer, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Mahan said he's the only candidate who has experience with the behemoth industry, pointing to a coalition he created in San Jose where more than 900 public agencies work together to explore responsible ways to implement artificial intelligence in government. In Tuesday's debate, he said he supports taxing AI companies to fund workforce development.

“Voters can see past the kind of, you know, shallow connection that because I’m the mayor of the largest city in Silicon Valley, that might mean that I’m not willing to regulate tech,” Mahan told The Associated Press. "It’s actually been quite the opposite.”

Observers note California is known for leading the way on policies aimed at both boosting and reining in its home-grown tech industry.

“If they can ensure that they get a governor in California who’s weak on tech accountability, then that can save them a lot of money across the states,” J.B. Branch of Public Citizen, a progressive consumer rights advocacy group, said of the Silicon Valley leaders supporting Mahan.

Tech's efforts to exert political influence

Across politics, the tech industry is flexing its political muscle as public skepticism about social media and artificial intelligence rises. Independent groups backed by tech companies and billionaires have already committed at least $40 million to influence California legislative races.

Political committees backing Mahan have raised more than $25 million, including donations from Google co-founder Sergey Brin, venture capitalist Michael Moritz and Reddit CEO Steve Huffman.

Some donors, like Brin and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, are hedging their bets — they also gave to Hilton, the former Fox News host.

Mahan is “focused on actually solving problems — building more housing, improving public safety and making it possible for people to live and work here again,” Garry Tan, who leads a startup accelerator that helped launch companies like Airbnb and DoorDash, said through a spokesperson.

From the Ivy League to business and politics

A Harvard graduate, Mahan was classmates with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who he's said persuaded him to go into tech instead of law school.

Mahan was part of the team that built an early Facebook app called Causes that allowed users to promote nonprofit organizations. He then co-founded Brigade, a nonpartisan online voter network.

But that's not at the center of Mahan's campaign. He's focused instead on his upbringing as the son of a postal worker and a schoolteacher. He's the only major Democrat who wants to suspend the state's gas tax.

He defeated a labor-backed candidate for mayor in 2022 after serving two years on the city council. As mayor, he convinced council members to direct more city money toward short-term housing to get homeless people off the streets and made them eligible for arrest for rejecting shelters. Both efforts faced fierce opposition, but San Jose last year saw a drop in the number of people without access to shelters, according to county data.

He bucked Newsom in 2024 by backing a tough-on-crime ballot measure. Mahan has since tamped down his criticism, saying the governor has focused on the right issues.

Tech support is a double-edged sword

Mahan has committed to not raising taxes to fix budget holes — including with a one-time tax on billionaires that most of his rivals are also against. He wants to incentivize elected state officials and appointees by tying future pay raises to improvements on issues like unemployment rates and homelessness.

“Raising taxes isn’t always the answer, Tom,” he pointedly said Tuesday when Steyer pitched a plan to make corporations pay more in property taxes.

Mahan raised more than $13 million in 11 weeks, allowing him to launch television ads to reach voters in some of the most expensive markets in the country. Two independent expenditure groups have spent more than $18 million to boost him.

As of last month, only about 730 donations given to Mahan’s campaign were less than $250, indicating limited grassroots support. In contrast, almost all of Porter’s 46,000 donations were under that amount, as were about 5,600 of those to former state attorney general Xavier Becerra.

Still, voters' support for the other Democratic candidates "is very soft" Mahan said of his chance. “Even if people are leaning a certain way, they’re still persuadable.”

Tech moguls’ support of Mahan’s candidacy and his plans to regulate them were among the most popular topics during a recent “Ask Me Anything” session Mahan hosted on Reddit, where people can ask questions anonymously.

Several people asked when Mahan would drop out to prevent a catastrophic scenario for Democrats where two Republicans could advance to the November election. One asked which Democrat he would endorse after exiting the race.

“I plan to win!” he responded.

It turned sour, and the jury is charged with settling the ensuing legal dispute between the two Silicon Valley titans.

But the unresolved questions about the dangers of AI have been looming over the federal courthouse in Oakland, California, since the trial began last week. The technology itself is not on trial – the judge has warned lawyers not to get “sidetracked” by questions about its dangers – but witness testimony has touched on concerns around workforce disruptions and the prospect raised by Musk that superhuman AI might one day kill us all.

Musk, the world's richest person, filed the case accusing his fellow OpenAI co-founder of betraying promises to keep the company as a nonprofit. Altman, in turn, accuses Musk of trying to hobble the ChatGPT maker for the benefit of his own AI company.

One witness, AI pioneer Stuart Russell, said that the “winner take all” power struggle over AI's future is itself threatening humanity.

Musk's lawyers brought Russell to the stand as an expert witness, at the rate of $5,000 an hour. The University of California, Berkeley computer scientist listed a host of AI dangers, from racial and gender discrimination to jobs displacement, misinformation and emotional attachments that take some AI chatbot users down a spiral of psychosis.

“Whichever company develops AGI first would have a very big advantage” and an increasingly big lead over everyone else, Russell told the court, using the initials for artificial general intelligence, a term for advanced AI technology that surpasses humans at many tasks.

A judge's warning hasn't kept out talk of AI's dangers

The trial centers on the 2015 birth of OpenAI as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk.

Both Musk and Altman, who has not yet testified in the trial, have said they wanted OpenAI to safely develop AGI for the benefit of humanity and not for any one person’s gain or under any one person’s control. And both camps allege it’s the other guy who was trying to control it.

A jury of nine people selected from the San Francisco Bay Area will get to say which one of them is telling the truth.

Early on, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers warned lawyers, particularly Musk’s, not to delve into broader AI concerns that go beyond Musk’s claims that OpenAI violated its charitable mission.

“This is not a trial on the safety risks of artificial intelligence. This is not a trial on whether or not AI has damaged humanity,” Gonzalez Rogers told lawyers before jurors arrived at the federal courthouse.

Still, Musk managed to skirt that guidance in his testimony last week. Asked to describe artificial general intelligence, Musk said it is when AI becomes “as smart as any human," and added that “we are getting close to that point," and AI will be smarter than any human as soon as next year.

Musk said he has “extreme concerns” about AI and has had them for a long time. Musk said he wanted a “counterpoint” to Google, which at the time had “all the money, all the computers and all the talent” for AI, with no counterbalance.

“I was concerned AI would be a double-edged sword,” he said.

Musk and OpenAI each say they are working for humanity's benefit

During his testimony, Musk repeatedly said that he could have founded OpenAI as a for-profit company, just like the other companies he started or took over. “I deliberately chose this,” he said, “for the public good."

The judge expressed some skepticism. In comments to lawyers last week before the jury came into the room, Gonzalez Rogers pointed out that Musk, “despite these risks, is creating a company that is in the exact same space,” referring to the billionaire’s xAI artificial intelligence company, which launched in 2023 and has since merged with Musk’s rocket company SpaceX.

OpenAI's side also claims its goals are to benefit the public. OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman, a defendant in Musk's lawsuit along with Altman and their company, said he thought the technology OpenAI was developing was “transformative” — bigger than corporations, corporate structures and bigger than any one individual. It was, he said, “about humanity as a whole.”

Brockman testified this week that his No. 1 goal was always the “mission” of OpenAI and it was Musk who sought unilateral control over the company.

Brockman recalled a meeting where at first Musk seemed open to the idea of Altman being OpenAI's CEO. In the end, however, “he said people needed to know he was in charge.”

In addition to damages, Musk is seeking Altman’s ouster from OpenAI’s board. If Musk wins, it could derail OpenAI’s plans for an initial public offering of its shares.

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O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

The 76ers were limited to 12 points in the fourth quarter and lost 108-102 to the New York Knicks to fall into a 2-0 deficit in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Embiid was ruled out about six hours before the game with a sprained right ankle and a sore right hip. Coach Nick Nurse said Embiid woke up with soreness and was treated during the 76ers' morning shootaround. The team's medical staff determined afterward that Embiid would be unable to play.

Andre Drummond started and Adem Bona backed him up. They combined for 15 rebounds but both were in foul trouble. Drummond took only two shots and Bona didn't take any.

That's nowhere near the kind of offense the 76ers can count on from Embiid, who has averaged 25.2 points in five games thus far.

“We feel like we should have won it,” 76ers guard VJ Edgecombe said. “It came down to shot-making at the end of the game. They were making shots, we weren’t.”

Embiid struggled through a short night in the Knicks' 137-98 romp in Game 1, scoring 14 points on 3-for-11 shooting in 25 minutes before the starters were benched with the game out of reach.

Embiid had been listed as probable to play in that game with a bruised right hip before being cleared, and the Knicks repeatedly took advantage of his lack of mobility to create open shots.

Embiid returned from a late-season appendectomy during Game 4 of Philadelphia's first-round series against Boston and helped the 76ers overcome a 3-1 deficit to win the series.

It's unclear whether the pain around Embiid's hip is replated to the appendectomy. He winced and grabbed his abdomen at one point in Game 1 after Knicks guard Mikal Bridges collided with him on a screen in the first half.

Embiid later said he felt the contact was unnecessary.

“Obviously based on what’s been going on, I guess I’ve got to protect it more,” Embiid said. “I don’t know if it was dirty or not, so I guess I’ve got to do a better job of protecting, especially that part.”

Tyrese Maxey bounced back from a passive performance in Game 1 with 26 points, while Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr. each had 19. Edgecombe finished with 17, but Philadelphia was just 4 for 17 in the fourth quarter.

Embiid might have made a difference, though the Sixers are used to playing without him. It has been years since the former MVP has truly been healthy.

“I said this before, but coming back from that appendectomy so quick was not easy for him to do,” Nurse said. “He’s worked extremely hard to get back and he continues to want to play badly and I feel really bad for him, because he really wants to be out there and we want him out there.”

Perhaps Embiid will get a chance this weekend, with Games 3 and 4 in Philadelphia. Either way, the 76ers believe they can make another comeback.

“We definitely feel like we can pull ourselves out of this one,” Maxey said. “Kind of go home, get two.”

___

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

In a non-arrest affidavit, a deputy said he responded to city hall in response to the battery complaint, which apparently stemmed from the Monday city commission meeting.

At the time, a discussion reportedly broke out over City Commissioner Dori Howington and her secondary employment with the Volusia County Clerk’s Office, specifically about whether it created a conflict of interest.

“Commissioner Santiago made a motion for the City Attorney to begin an investigation, and the motion passed,” the affidavit reads. “Following this, Commissioner Howington displayed an angry demeanor and was heard mumbling the statement, ‘I’m going to get that (expletive).’”

But on Tuesday morning, an argument erupted after Howington told Santiago to sign a form from the clerk’s office, during which Howington allegedly said, “I know where you live,” deputies noted.

“Commissioner Santiago reported feeling threatened due to this statement, combined with the comment made during the previous day’s meeting,” the affidavit continues.

Shortly afterward, Howington physically patted Santiago on the shoulder, deputies added.

[BELOW: News 6 has obtained video of the incident]

While Santiago wasn’t hurt, she claimed that the behavior was part of a “pattern of ongoing and escalating aggression,” and that she now has concerns for her family’s safety, investigators said.

As a result, the responding deputy determined there was probably cause for the offenses of simple battery and threat against an elected official, with the report being sent to the State Attorney’s Office for review.

News 6 reached out to both Howington and Santiago for comment. Their responses are as follows:

“As this is an ongoing matter there is very little I can say except that I cannot believe that my fellow commissioner would involve the Sheriff’s Office in such a trivial matter. It seems petty, vindictive, and above all political. I am certain that our Sheriff’s Office has better things to do than follow up on political disputes.”

District 4 Commissioner Dori Howington

“As elected officials, we take an oath to support, protect, and defend the Constitution and the government of the United States and the State of Florida. That oath carries a higher level of responsibility and accountability. When an elected official violates the law, it is a serious matter.

During a commission meeting, while I was actively performing my duties, I was verbally attacked and threatened by another commissioner, Dori Howington, who serves as CFO for the Clerk of Court in Volusia County and as a Deltona City Commissioner. During the meeting, she shouted, ‘I am going to get that (expletive)!’ which was both alarming and inappropriate. The following morning, she approached me aggressively, stated, ‘I know where you live,’ and subjected me to unwanted physical contact. It is unclear to me why an elected official would engage in this type of behavior in violation of the law.

This conduct is not only inappropriate, but it is also a clear violation of the law and our code of conduct.

I did not provoke this situation. I was fulfilling my responsibilities, and I have the right to do so in a safe and respectful environment. Threats and unwanted physical contact are against the law. That is why I stated clearly: “Do not touch me.”

I have met with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, and they are currently investigating this incident. I hope that their findings will be referred to the State Attorney’s Office for further consideration.

Regarding the motion, it was based on the auditor’s report, which specifically identified a related disclosure and outlined a potential conflict of interest. My intention was simply to request that the Florida Commission on Ethics review the matter and provide an opinion. That is part of ensuring transparency and accountability."

District 2 Commissioner Emma Santiago

The State Attorney’s Office will now decide whether any charges will be filed.

Josh Doan and Jordan Greenway also scored for Buffalo, which was making its first second-round appearance since 2007, and first overall in 15 years. Alex Lyon stopped 26 shots and improved to 4-1 since taking over the starting duties in Game 3 against Buffalo’s opening-round opponent Boston.

Nick Suzuki and Kirby Dach scored for Montreal, which appeared slow to find its legs three days after defeating Tampa Bay in Game 7 of its first-round series. Jakub Dobes finished with 12 saves, and allowed four goals after allowing a combined two in splitting Games 6 and 7 against the Lightning.

Montreal has yet to win consecutive playoff games this postseason, and was coming off a series in which all seven games were decided by one goal, including four in overtime.

Buffalo hosts Game 2 on Friday night, before the series shifts to Montreal on Sunday.

The Sabres were the more rested team, having had four days off since beating Boston 4-1 in Game 6 on Friday.

“I like the quick start we got off to. I know we can be a lot better," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said, noting he thought Buffalo looked disjointed at times. “There’s a couple situations in the game that we gave them a little bit of momentum.”

Doan opened the scoring 4:31 in by converting Zach Benson’s pass to cap a 2-on-1 after Montreal defenseman Lane Hutson fell and turned over the puck in front of his bench.

McLeod made it 2-0 by converting Benson’s pass through the crease on Buffalo’s second power-play opportunity 13:26 into the first period. Byram scored on the next opportunity by snapping in a shot from between the circles to put Buffalo up 4-1 midway through the second period.

Byram’s goal was his fourth, matching the Sabres’ franchise playoff record for defensemen, joining Mike Ramsey (1988), Jason Woolley and Alexei Zhitnik, who both scored four in 1999.

Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis was pleased with how much more room his players had to create with the puck after a tight-checking series against the Lightning. His only issue is the Canadiens need to take advantage of it.

"Now, what does that mean? I got to rewatch," St. Louis said.

“I have ideas, but I’m not going to put my stamp on those ideas right now. Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you," he added. "I’m confident that we can play any style. I’m confident that we could play the game that’s in front of us. And I’m confident that we can learn from this one and be better.

Buffalo converted 2 of 3 power-play chances, breathing new life into a unit that went 1 of 24 against Boston. The Sabres' 4.2% conversion rate was tied for 865th out of 897 teams that had 20 or more opportunities in a playoff series since 1978.

And Buffalo’s man-advantage woes carried over from the final seven regular-season games, during which the team went 0 for 22.

McLeod didn't mind hearing questions about the power play on Wednesday night.

“I mean, maybe keep asking, if we’re gonna keep scoring now,” he said with a laugh. “It’s a process of building it and getting your look. So I think, we got them tonight and it was going in.”

Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin limped off favoring his right leg with under three minutes left after blocking a shot by Jake Evans. Dahlin briefly went up the tunnel, before returning to the bench, but did not see any further ice time.

Ruff said he doesn't believe there's an issue after seeing Dahlin walking down the hallway.

Dach scored the game’s highlight goal, cutting Buffalo’s lead to 4-2 with 3:29 left in the second. Driving up the right wing, Dach’s centering pass was blocked by Lyon’s stick. The puck caromed back to Dach who, while falling, was able to lift the puck over the goalie’s glove.

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

“Shuttle launches were just kind of routine and the broadcast networks weren’t even covering them anymore,” says Knobel, who worked for CBS News in the 1990s and now teaches journalism at Fordham University. “CNN did. So when things went so tragically wrong, there they were on top of the story like no one else.”

That, says Knobel, who now teaches a class on TV’s biggest innovators, is just one example of why Turner was the biggest of them all — huge steps ahead of anyone else in his understanding of how news needed to be delivered.

Turner’s death Wednesday comes at a fraught time for cable news, which has struggled to retain viewership in an era of countless media choices and abundant streaming video. CNN has not been immune; changes in the media ecosystem, the company’s financial picture and multiple editorial resets over the years have left it a markedly different entity than the one Turner built.

But that misses an important point: He built it.

“We use the word giant sometimes to describe people that really aren’t giant," Knobel says. "Ted Turner truly is a giant. He invented around-the-clock news.”

Early on, Turner saw news as something global

Many in and around the news industry struggled Wednesday for big enough words to describe Turner’s impact on how we consume news. Longtime TV analyst Robert Thompson said the issue was hyperbole-proof.

“Death and hyperbole often go together,” said Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture. ”But there is no hyperbole here. I can think of very few other things in the 20th century that so dramatically changed American politics, journalism and civic engagement than the invention of 24-hour cable news.”

He does add a caveat: The real impact would not be truly felt until others started doing it. Which, of course, they did. But for a long time, and certainly well into the 90s, “CNN became almost generic for breaking news,” Thompson says,” like Kleenex for facial tissues and Xerox for photocopying.”

But it isn't just the 24-hour cycle that defines Turner’s legacy in news. A number of analysts cited, too, how he conceived of news as a global commodity.

Knobel recalls that when she was Moscow bureau chief for CBS beginning in the early 1990s, she would walk into the Kremlin and see CNN on televisions.

“That was the way in which they came to understand what the world was thinking about Russia,” Knobel says. The same was true in other seats of power across the world. “Global programming didn’t exist before Ted Turner came along and said, ‘Not only am I going to build a new channel for America, but there are a lot of people around the world that will probably want to watch this news channel.’”

All of this has become so ingrained by now that it’s hard to convey to younger people that it once didn't exist. Back in the ’70s when Turner — an insomniac — was first dreaming of 24/7 news, in many places you’d turn on your TV late at night and would see only static, a test pattern or an American flag until about 6 am.

Former CNN White House bureau chief Frank Sesno, now a media and public affairs professor at George Washington University, tells his students about the “Walter Cronkite era" — when news was delivered at an appointed time, by a voice from on high, in a 30-minute broadcast (which actually doubled the 15-minute broadcasts there once were.)

“I teach these young people and they have no idea who Ted Turner is,“ Sesno said. “I remind them this was, in fact, the world of Walter Cronkite. Ted Turner came in and and CNN was seen as an upstart, as something that wasn’t going to succeed.” Thus the derisive moniker “Chicken Noodle News,” which was echoing across the industry when Sesno joined the network in 1984 .

“When they hired me, I had zero television experience," he says.

But CNN wasn’t looking for star anchors at the time. The news was supposed to be the star. The stable of stars came later.

The first Gulf War was a turning point

For CNN, a moment of particular success came in October 1987, the year after the Challenger explosion, when 18-month-old Jessica McClure was rescued from a well in Texas after a two-day ordeal. CNN covered not only the outcome but the incremental developments — standard fare today but certainly not so then for TV.

Brooke Erin Duffy, an associate professor of communication at Cornell University, points to public appetite for that story as a key moment for CNN, which covered the “hours and hours of waiting” and allowed audiences to regularly tune in for updates.

But it was during the first Gulf War with Iraq when the entire foundation of news shifted. When other journalists left Baghdad, CNN stayed. With correspondents Bernard Shaw, John Holliman and Peter Arnett doing reports under siege from Baghdad's al-Rashid Hotel, the network changed war journalism forever.

A key factor was technology. CNN's news managers “went to Turner and said you know, there’s a war coming. We need some money to cover it, and Ted Turner said to them well what do you need?” Knobel said. ”What they did with that money is to bring in satellite phone technology that no one else had." It enabled CNN to continue to broadcast news when communications were knocked out.

“I’m someone who competed against CNN for many years working for CBS (and) I can say CNN always had a technological advantage over everybody else," she said, crediting Turner for giving his network the edge.

The 24/7 schedule of broadcasting continuous developments also vastly reshaped what it was like to actually work in the TV news industry. Journalist were increasingly expected to “be available 24/7 to satiate the public’s appetite for news," Duffy said.

After CNN found success, more and more outlets followed suit. The uptick in competition for around-the-clock content made time even more of a currency when it came to breaking news.

“I think one of the consequences is the race for eyeballs within the saturated media landscape,” Duffy said. “Time is the currency in news media.”

Playing without the injured Joel Embiid, the 76ers put up a far better fight than in the Knicks' 137-98 romp in Game 1. The game featured 25 lead changes — the most in a playoff game in 11 years — and 14 ties. Neither team led by more than seven points.

“Most importantly it’s staying poised, staying composed,” Brunson said. “Just figuring out one just play at a time, one step at a time and not looking too far ahead.”

Those kinds of situations are made for Brunson, who made the tiebreaking basket with 5:06 remaining and added another jumper for a 103-99 advantage with 3:45 to play before Mikal Bridges' basket made it a six-point game.

“They started switching a little bit and he got to his spots and scored a bucket and that’s what he’s expected to do for us,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said of Brunson.

OG Anunoby added 24 points for New York, though he left late in the game, went to the locker room and didn't return to the bench. Brown said after the game he didn't have an update on the forward's status.

Karl-Anthony Towns had 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for the Knicks, whose Game 1 victory made them the first team to win three straight postseason games by at least 25 points.

Tyrese Maxey scored 26 points for the 76ers, who face another big climb after falling behind 3-1 against Boston in the first round.

The series moves to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Friday and Game 4 on Sunday, where Embiid will find out if gets his wish for the arena to be filled with Sixers fans or if New Yorkers made their way in.

Embiid was ruled out with right hip and ankle injuries after waking up with soreness and being unable to go through the 76ers’ morning shootaround.

But the 76ers, who won Game 2 in Boston without him while he was still recovering from a late-season appendectomy, got 19 points each from Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr. and 17 from VJ Edgecombe to nearly overcome their big man’s absence.

They were ahead for the final time at 99-96 after Oubre’s 3-pointer before Josh Hart — who had appeared to hurt his left hand or wrist in the third quarter and left the game — made a 3-pointer with 6:52 remaining.

“I thought we had maybe four wide-open shots in a row that didn’t go,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “We just needed to keep the scoreboard moving and we played great offense. We just didn’t shot-make.”

The 25 lead changes were the most since the Spurs and Clippers combined for 31 on May 2, 2015.

Maxey managed only 13 points in Game 1 but was back to leaving defenders in the dust Wednesday, scoring 15 points in the second quarter and 19 in the first half.

The Knicks did a better job on him in the second half, led by Bridges, who also contributed 18 points.

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

People living along East Livingston Street near North Hyer Avenue say they have spent years asking the City of Orlando for a four-way stop, arguing speeding drivers and heavy cut-through traffic have made the intersection dangerous for pedestrians and families.

Amanda Monday, who lives along East Livingston Street, said the area lacks traffic calming measures and has become unsafe for residents trying to cross the road.

“We don’t have speed humps. We don’t have any street parking, so this is basically the freeway of Lake Eola,” Monday said.

She added that many neighbors no longer feel comfortable crossing certain streets in the area because of aggressive drivers.

“If we are limiting ourselves to who is next door because it’s just no longer safe, then what is the point in the community,” she said.

Residents also say drivers frequently use Livingston Street as a shortcut to nearby Mills Avenue, often traveling above the speed limit through the residential neighborhood.

“You can see they are going fast just like they would on Colonial, but this is a residential street,” neighbor Sarah Hayes said.

Hayes said she regularly walks her two young children across the intersection on the way to nearby schools, including Hillcrest Elementary.

“We don’t want anyone to get hurt, especially our kids,” Hayes said. “Cars go fast. They don’t stop. There’s a crosswalk. They don’t care.”

Neighbors say they are hoping the city will install at least a stop sign or flashing pedestrian warning lights at the intersection.

It remains unclear how long the traffic study camera will stay in place or when the city of Orlando could make a decision on possible safety improvements.

Blanche was in Phoenix to address the Border Security Expo, a yearly gathering that draws top immigration officials, local and state law enforcement officers and representatives from companies doing business with the federal government. Blanche's appearance at the gathering reflects the way immigration enforcement and border security have become priorities throughout the Trump administration.

Blanche, who has led the Justice Department since Pam Bondi was ousted last month, spoke to The Associated Press after his appearance at the conference. His comments were some of the most detailed on the changes to immigration courts since he took over the role.

“You take an oath and you’re not allowed to make decisions based upon what appear to be just sympathy or your whim,” Blanche said.

“If there’s judges that are just not applying the law in the way that it needs to be applied, delaying inappropriately, have backlogs that are just unacceptable, they’re the folks that we’re going to try to find somebody different to fill that spot.”

The second Trump administration has made mass deportations a central priority and has launched an all-of-government effort to reach its lofty goals. To do so, it has cracked down on migrants in American cities, scaled up detention facilities and increased hiring of immigration officers.

While the Department of Homeland Security is the Cabinet agency most directly responsible for carrying out President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda, immigration courts, a key aspect of the immigration system, fall under the Justice Department.

Dozens of immigration judges have been removed from their jobs during Trump's second term, with critics saying they were targeted because they were approving too many asylum cases. The administration has also directed masked officers to handcuff migrants at closed asylum hearings and sent memos instructing judges to fall into line. Many migrants and their advocates say that immigration courts have increasingly become traps — they show up for routine hearings only to face arrest.

Unlike federal courts, where there are strict rules of procedure and judges have lifetime tenure, the Justice Department runs immigration courts and the attorney general can fire the judges with fewer restraints.

But critics take issue with how the administration is remaking the immigration courts.

“Unfortunately, the Trump Administration is systematically dismantling due process protections in U.S. immigration courts, prioritizing speed and enforcement over fairness, accuracy, and fundamental justice,” the American Immigration Lawyers Association wrote in a policy brief last fall.

Critics also say that a board within the courts system that determines how immigration judges can rule on cases has issued a number of decisions under the Trump administration that have narrowed the pathway to asylum through the courts. Blanche brushed away the criticism, saying the decisions were consistent with the law.

Blanche said there were problems with judges repeatedly delaying cases and other cases where judges weren't following the law “because of sympathy towards individuals.”

Flush with money from Congress last summer that empowered the department to hire more judges, the department is rapidly hiring new immigration court judges, sparking criticism that the judges do not meet standards.

“We have a very rigorous process to get people interviewed, approved and then trained up. And then we’ll watch them,” Blanche said, expressing confidence in the new hires.

Blanche also said the Justice Department has been prioritizing efforts to strip citizenship from people who the administration says have defrauded the system, a process known as “denaturalization” that between 1990-2017 was used in only about a dozen cases per year.

“That’s one of the tools that we are using aggressively that hasn’t been used as aggressively in the past,” Blanche said, without providing specific numbers.

“I think, at a very basic level, people think we’re making policy decisions, we're saying we think this is how things should be, as opposed to what the law provides,” he said. “I think they view us as purely political actors, which I don’t think is an accurate understanding of what we do.”

His remarks to a conference of judges and lawyers from the 3rd U.S. Circuit in Pennsylvania came at a time of low public confidence in the court, and about a week after the court handed down a decision that hollowed out the Voting Rights Act.

The high court struck down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana, finding it was an unconstitutional gerrymander based on race. The decision weakened the Civil Rights era law that has increased minority representation in Congress, and it opened the door for more redistricting across the country that could aid Republican efforts to control the House.

In recent years, the conservative majority court has also handed down landmark rulings overturning the constitutional right to abortion, expanding gun rights and ending affirmative action in higher education.

Roberts didn’t reference any specific decisions in his remarks, but said the court is “simply not part of the political process.”

Opinions, he said, are based on the Constitution — though he acknowledged disagreement with some outcomes. “One thing we have to do is make decisions that are unpopular,” he said.

Criticism, he said, should focus on rulings rather than personal attacks. He condemned the targeting of lower-court judges, a sentiment he’s repeated amid rising threats to the judiciary. “That’s not appropriate and it can lead to very serious problems,” he said.

High-profile criticism of judges in personal terms has come from Republican President Donald Trump, who also targeted Roberts and other justices who voted against him in the opinion that struck down tariffs the president levied under an emergency-powers law.

Tuesday started with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explaining how the U.S. military was protecting stranded ships so they could traverse the Strait of Hormuz. He insisted it was a defensive operation and the truce was still in place even though Iran had launched missiles and drones at U.S. forces, which sank Tehran’s small attack boats.

That afternoon, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the White House that the military operation was “concluded” and that the U.S. achieved its objectives. But in almost the same breath, he said President Donald Trump was still seeking a “path of peace” that required Iran to agree to a deal to reopen the vital oil shipping corridor.

By Tuesday evening, Trump announced that the effort to protect ships was paused to see if an agreement could be reached. Then on Wednesday morning, he again warned that bombing would resume if Tehran didn't agree to U.S. terms.

The Trump administration’s shifting and often contradictory messaging throughout the Iran war has produced ever more confusion this week as the president and his aides presented a dizzying narrative over the U.S. strategy to unblock the Strait of Hormuz and wrap up the war that drastically changed over the course of mere hours.

Administration officials have been trying to walk a fine line between maintaining the ceasefire and reopening the strait, where 20% of the world’s oil normally flows. The economic fallout is growing as fuel prices rise, with Republicans facing increasing pressure to find solutions to higher costs ahead of the midterm congressional elections.

Aides are trying to sell Trump's strategies

The Trump administration has struggled with its messaging because the war wasn't well planned, said Elizabeth Dent, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“Because it happened very quickly, it wasn’t sold to the American public in a way that I think was palatable,” said Dent, a former official in the State Department and Pentagon. “Now I think Trump is sort of doing everything he can to prevent a return of hostilities because he saw how unpopular the war was.”

Throughout the conflict, the president has shifted his priorities and his perspectives on victory. He's offered a murky definition of a ceasefire. And he's provided his own interpretation of a law that requires congressional approval for military operations after 60 days.

The confusion is fueled in part by Trump’s tendency to make off-the-cuff statements that essentially make policy, Dent said. Aides like Rubio and Hegseth must then explain Trump's statements.

The whirlwind 24 hours of decision-making by the Trump administration also reflects a realization that any alternative to an agreement “is going to range from unpalatable to outright ugly” at a moment of great political importance for the Republican president, said Ali Vaez, Iran director at the International Crisis Group.

“This is not an administration that operates based on a policy process. It operates based on impulse. And the president seems now both tired of this war and reluctant to continue investing his political capital into it,” Vaez said.

The administration's narrative whipsaws on the Strait of Hormuz effort

The last couple of days have been emblematic of how the Trump administration's statements can seem out of sync and hard to follow.

The president said Sunday that U.S. forces would safely guide hundreds of stranded commercial vessels out of the strait, which Iran has effectively closed by firing at ships off its coast.

On Tuesday, Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, said two American-flagged freighters transited the waterway to lead the effort, but Iran fired at U.S. ships and the military sank six Iranian small attack boats.

When asked about the fire from both sides, Hegseth said, “No, the ceasefire is not over.” Caine also said Iranian attacks did not reach the level of “restarting major combat operations.”

Rubio later insisted Trump's preference was diplomacy.

“Operation Epic Fury is concluded. We achieved the objectives of that operation,” he said, referring to the code name for the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran. “What the president would prefer is a deal.”

A deal seemed closer at hand when Trump said Tuesday night on social media that he was halting the operation in the strait to see what would happen with negotiations.

One key ally, Saudi Arabia, had been skeptical of what turned out to be the short-lived plan by Trump to guide the stranded vessels out of the strait, according to a person familiar with the diplomatic conversations. The person, who was familiar with the conversations but who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss them publicly, said the Saudis conveyed they didn’t see Trump’s plan as a feasible way to get the strait open and create confidence for vessel operators and insurers who are looking for a lasting solution to U.S.-Iranian standoff over the waterway.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not offer any immediate comment on the kingdom’s position on Trump’s effort, dubbed “Project Freedom.”

By Wednesday morning, Trump was threatening Iran once again.

“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before,” he wrote on Truth Social.

The U.S. military said Wednesday that it shot at and disabled an Iranian oil tanker as it tried to breach the blockade of Iran’s shipping.

Seeking help from other countries in the strait

Another confusing element is the administration's efforts to persuade allies to deploy warships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump has been lashing out at countries unwilling to do more, telling them to “go get your own oil” and saying it was not America’s job to secure the strait. But administration officials have begun actively soliciting help while toning down their language.

Rubio said the issue is not a lack of interest, but that many are unable to provide the necessary resources.

“A lot of countries would love to do something about it. But they don’t have a navy, right? Or they can’t get there in time,” he said.

After Trump's abrupt suspension of the initiative, two U.S. officials said the administration was still deciding whether, and how, to proceed with planning, following the State Department’s formal request for support from countries last week.

The officials, who spoke on Wednesday on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Trump’s announcement had not been expected and that they had not been offered detailed guidance on whether to withdraw the requests for support.

U.S. allies like Britain and France have rejected on-again, off-again suggestions from Trump that they become militarily involved, but they have led the formation of a separate international maritime coalition to secure the strait — but only once the threat to shipping ends. France’s aircraft carrier strike group is moving south of the Suez Canal and into the Red Sea in preparation for a potential French-British mission in the strait.

The issue only has been more complicated by Trump’s trip to Beijing next week.

“Going to China while the strait remains closed is humiliating for President Trump and puts China in a position of strength vis-a-vis the United States, because President Trump would have to, as he has done recently, ask for China’s help to resolve a problem that didn’t exist before he launched a war,” Vaez said.

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Amiri reported from New York.

U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee's decision came after lawyers for the county had argued that the ballots and other election materials, as well as any electronic copies the Justice Department has made, should be returned because the seizure was improper and unconstitutional.

The Jan. 28 seizure by the FBI targeted the elections hub in Georgia’s most populous county, which is heavily Democratic and includes most of the city of Atlanta. Fulton County has been at the center of unfounded claims by President Donald Trump and his allies that widespread election fraud cost him the 2020 election.

The Justice Department has said it is investigating “irregularities that occurred during the 2020 presidential election in the County” and identified two laws that might have been violated. One requires election records to be maintained for 22 months, while the other prohibits procuring, casting or tabulating false, fictitious or fraudulent ballots.

Georgia’s votes in the 2020 presidential race were counted three times, including once by hand, and each count affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s win.

Fulton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts said he strongly disagrees with the judge's denial of the county's request to return the election records.

“We will continue, as always, to stand by our election workers and the voters of Fulton County,” he said in an emailed statement. “We intend to vigorously pursue all available legal options.”

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the ruling Wednesday evening.

“The seizure in this case was certainly not perfect,” Boulee wrote in his 68-page ruling. But he went on to say that Fulton County did not establish that its rights were callously disregarded “either through the lack of probable cause, omissions in the Affidavit or by the manner of the execution of the seizure.”

The county also failed to show that it needs the documents or will be irreparably harmed if they are not returned, he wrote, noting this is particularly true because the Justice Department has given the county copies of the documents.

Months after the January seizure of ballots and other election materials, the Justice Department in April obtained a grand jury subpoena for the names and personal contact information of Fulton County employees and volunteers involved in the 2020 election. Fulton County filed a motion Monday to quash that subpoena, arguing that it is overly broad and meant to harass the president’s political opponents.

The Trump administration has also taken moves to obtain past election records from other critical swing states. The FBI used a subpoena in March to get records related to an audit of the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County in Arizona. And in April, the Justice Department demanded that Michigan’s Wayne County turn over its 2024 election ballots.

The Justice Department is also fighting numerous states in court for access to voter data that includes sensitive personal information. Election officials, including some Republicans, have said handing over the information would violate state and federal privacy laws.

Democrats have raised concerns that the Trump administration is weaponizing federal law enforcement to pursue the president’s personal grievances and is planning ways to interfere in this year’s midterm elections. The administration has said it is looking into allegations of past problems and seeking to protect future elections.

During a March 27 hearing on Fulton County’s demand that the FBI return its ballots and other materials, lawyers for the county argued that the seizure was improper and unjustified and demonstrated “callous disregard” for the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure. They suggested that the Trump administration decided to use a criminal search warrant to obtain the materials because it had grown tired of waiting for the outcome of the civil litigation the Justice Department had filed last year to obtain them.

Justice Department attorneys argued that they took the appropriate steps to get a warrant and then take the documents. They said it is not uncommon for parallel civil and criminal investigations to be going on at the same time.

The judge agreed that the affidavit was “defective in some respects” and that some of the statements included in it were “troubling.” But he noted that the FBI agent who wrote it also included “facts that both hurt and helped him.” He concluded that the document's shortcomings don't amount to callous disregard.

He also agreed that the government can pursue civil and criminal proceedings on the same matter and said the timeline of the investigation weighs against the county's theory that the Justice Department “created an ‘ongoing investigation’ to sidestep procedural hurdles” in civil cases.=

A fighter jet shot out the rudder of the tanker in the Gulf of Oman as it tried to breach the American blockade of Iran’s ports, U.S. Central Command said in a social media post.

The attack occurred as Iran and the U.S. are officially in a ceasefire. Trump threatened Tehran with a new wave of bombing if a deal is not reached that includes opening the critical Strait of Hormuz.

Trump posted on social media that the two-month war could soon end and that oil and natural gas shipments disrupted by the conflict could restart. But he said that depends on Iran accepting a reported agreement that the president did not detail.

“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts,” Trump wrote.

Israel hits Beirut for first time since last month's ceasefire

Meanwhile, Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time since a ceasefire between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group was announced April 17. Fighting has continued since then in southern Lebanon.

The last strikes in Beirut were on April 8, when a series of massive Israeli attacks killed more than 350 people. More than 2,500 have died in Lebanon since fighting began March 2, two days after Israel and the U.S. launched the war on Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday’s strike, which came without warning, targeted a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force. Hezbollah did not immediately comment.

Trump suggests U.S. might force a deal with Tehran

Trump insisted Wednesday that Iranian officials want to end the war.

“We’re dealing with people that want to make a deal very much, and we’ll see whether or not they can make a deal that’s satisfactory to us,” the president said.

He suggested that the U.S. could ultimately force a settlement.

“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts,” Trump said on social media, “and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.”

The White House believes it is near an agreement with Iran on a one-page memorandum to end the war, according to reporting by Axios. There is no deal yet, but provisions include a moratorium on Iranian uranium enrichment, lifting of U.S. sanctions, distribution of frozen Iranian funds and opening the strait for ships.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the possible agreement.

A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmaeil Baghaei, told state TV that Tehran had “strongly rejected” U.S. proposals reported by Axios, but that it was still examining the latest U.S. proposal.

A shaky ceasefire between the U.S. and Tehran has largely held since April 8. Pakistan hosted in-person talks last month between the two countries, but they failed to reach an agreement.

Trump suspends short-lived effort to force open safe passage

Trump sought to increase pressure on Tehran the day after he suspended a short-lived U.S. effort to force open a safe passage for commercial ships through the strait. The waterway was a vital passage for oil and gas supplies, fertilizer and other petroleum products before the war.

Only two American-flagged merchant ships are known to have passed through the U.S.-guarded route after it opened Monday. The U.S. military said it sank six Iranian small boats threatening civilian ships.

Iran’s effective closure of the strait has sent fuel prices skyrocketing, rattled the global economy and put enormous economic pressure on countries, including major powers such as China.

China's foreign minister called for a comprehensive ceasefire Wednesday after meeting in Beijing with Iran's top envoy. Wang Yi said his country was “deeply distressed” by the conflict, which began Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran.

China’s close economic and political ties to Tehran give it a unique position of influence. The Trump administration is pressing China to use that relationship to urge the Islamic Republic to open the strait.

Iranian envoy visits

China ahead of Trump

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi's visit to China came ahead of a planned trip by Trump to Beijing.

Trump is scheduled to attend a high-profile summit on May 14-15 with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump was the last U.S. president to visit China in 2017.

“We believe that a comprehensive ceasefire is urgently needed, that a resumption of hostilities is not acceptable,” Wang said in a video of the meeting.

The Chinese foreign minister said the conflict “has not only caused serious losses to the Iranian people, but also had a severe impact on regional and global peace.”

Araghchi told Iranian state TV that his visit included discussions about the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's nuclear program and sanctions imposed on Tehran.

Trump has demanded a major rollback of Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

A statement published on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's website said China values Iran’s pledge not to pursue nuclear weapons while affirming its “legitimate right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

Shipper says strait shutdown costing $60M per week

Hundreds of merchant ships remain bottled up in the Persian Gulf, unable to reach the open sea without passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

A cargo container ship operated by the CMA CGM Group was damaged, and multiple crew members were wounded when it came under attack while transiting the strait Tuesday, the French shipping company said. It said the injured crew members were taken off the ship and received medical treatment.

Oil prices and shipping will not likely return to normal until the risk of attacks in the strait has receded, said Kaho Yu, head of energy and resources at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

“Refiners, shippers and commodity traders will remain cautious until there is clearer evidence that Hormuz disruptions will not re-escalate,” he said.

Hapag-Lloyd, one of the world's largest shipping companies, said in a statement that the strait's shutdown is costing it around $60 million per week, with rising fuel and insurance costs hitting particularly hard. The company said alternate routes to other harbors or over land are limited.

The spot price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell to around $100 per barrel Wednesday, easing significantly from big price jumps earlier in the week. Crude sold for roughly $70 a barrel before the war began.

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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press writers E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing; Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo; David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany; Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.

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A previous version of this story misstated the name of the company that operates the container ship.

So when Jess Rattle began seeing purse seine ships fishing the Indian Ocean under the flags of Mauritius, Tanzania and Oman, she wondered whether European corporations might be involved.

“We wanted to understand who really owned these vessels,” said Rattle, head of investigations at the London-based environmental charity Blue Marine Foundation. “Were they owned by the coastal states whose quota they were now using, or in fact, were they owned by the EU?”

A new report released Thursday by the Blue Marine Foundation and Kroll, a global investigations firm, and shared with The Associated Press in advance reveals the extent of the European fleet’s access to Indian Ocean tuna stocks, finding that European companies have taken a third of the tropical tuna catch at a time when yellowfin and bigeye tuna are under pressure and still rebounding from being severely overfished.

They have done so in part by registering their ships under the flags of the Seychelles, Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania and Oman to gain access to a greater catch limit, Rattle’s team found. The practice has allowed the European-owned fleet to expand to more than 50 purse seine ships and supply vessels and increase its catch of tropical tuna despite the European Union’s commitments to cutting back.

The finding comes ahead of an annual meeting of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission in the Maldives, which brings together the EU and 28 countries with a stake in the tuna fishery.

While common in the fishing industry and not illegal, reflagging a vessel to a foreign country makes it difficult for observers and regulators to gauge the impact of European companies on the fishery. Parent company ownership is often obscured via layers of shell companies and foreign registries, which Rattle and the team at Kroll tracked down over the course of months.

“Europe’s opportunity to help stop overfishing is greater than first appears,” said Benedict Hamilton, a managing director at Kroll.

Though European companies have long fished under the Seychelles flag, Rattle said, their registering under the flags of Oman and Kenya is new. Europeche Tuna Group, which represents the European tuna industry, said in a statement that the industry’s relationship with coastal nations reflects its long-term investment in the region and strong local partnerships.

Spokesperson Anne-France Mattlet said the European industry benefits the economy of regional countries by paying taxes and fishing license fees, investing in local infrastructure, and unloading tuna and other fish in their ports and canneries.

Mattlet concurred with the report’s findings that Europeche has more than 50 purse seine and supply ships operating throughout the Indian Ocean, including with non-EU flags.

Maciej Berestecki, a spokesperson for the European Commission, said in a statement the reflagging of fishing vessels is a private business decision not influenced by public authorities, and that the EU does not defend or represent the interests of vessels flagged to other countries.

“The EU has done, and keeps doing, its utmost to promote and respect catch limits,” Berestecki said.

Despite Europe’s distance from the Indian Ocean, its fishing fleets have long played a dominant role there. Spanish and French tuna companies first introduced purse seine ships to the Indian Ocean in the 1980s, which allowed them to quickly increase their yearly catch. The ships get their name from their giant nets that encircle the tuna and close like a drawstring purse.

But the EU has occasionally butted heads with coastal nations that want a say over the fishing practices in the ocean at their doorstep.

Five years ago, with yellowfin tuna stocks in sharp decline, the Maldives accused the EU of not putting forth a serious proposal to lower tuna quotas at a contentious meeting of the tuna commission. In 2023, the EU objected to a proposal from Indonesia for a closure on purse seine fishing gear that passed with the support of 15 other countries.

In recent years, the tuna commission has put in place new management measures to rebuild the vulnerable yellowfin and bigeye tuna stocks, which are beginning to show signs of recovering. For instance, the EU agreed to reduce the yellowfin tuna catch for EU-flagged vessels by 21%.

Those new limits may be pushing European fishing companies to look to other countries’ quotas to maintain their catch, said Glen Holmes, senior officer with Pew Charitable Trusts.

Holmes and colleagues from Pew, Global Fishing Watch, and other environmental groups are advocating for greater ownership transparency among fishing fleets in the Indian Ocean.

Shipowners have long registered vessels under the flags of foreign countries, much to the dismay of transparency advocates, who say the practice limits oversight of those ships. Sanctioned oil tankers in the ‘ghost fleet’, for instance, frequently change their name and flags to conceal their ownership.

Certain flags have become known as ‘flags of convenience,’ offering companies low fees and lenient attitudes toward fishing or trade rules. Some countries may simply have fewer resources to enforce the laws of the sea.

A January report by the environmental group Oceana found European companies routinely register fishing vessels under the flags of foreign nations, including some countries the EU has accused of “turning a blind eye to illegal fishing activities.”

Oceana is calling on EU countries to begin collecting and publishing ownership data for their fishing fleet.

The change would help the EU better enforce its own laws, which prevent any European individual from benefiting financially from the practices of illegal fishing, said Vanya Vulperhorst, Oceana’s illegal fishing campaign director for Europe. And it would shed light on “the real EU fleet,” she said.

“What we found last year is that the real European fleet, if you add the non-EU flagged vessels, doubles,” Vulperhorst said.

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This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/

The deployment puts Europe’s most powerful warship closer to the strait whose effective closure has come to epitomize the war in Iran, stranding hundreds of ships and triggering what the International Energy Agency calls the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.

The defensive effort is distinct from the U.S. “Project Freedom” that launched Monday and was paused by President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening.

The repositioning of the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle and its escorts comes as part of a proposed mission championed by France and Britain to restore maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz as soon as conditions allow.

It "may help restore confidence among shipowners and insurers,” Macron said on X. “It remains distinct from the parties at war.”

Macron, who spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday, said he also intends to raise the matter with Trump.

“A return to calm in the Strait will help advance negotiations on nuclear issues, ballistic matters, and the regional situation,” Macron wrote. “Europeans… will play their part.”

Col. Guillaume Vernet, spokesperson for the French armed forces chief of staff, stressed that the Hormuz coalition — drawn up by France, Britain and more than 50 nations — will not begin operating until two thresholds are cleared: The threat to shipping must come down, and the maritime industry must be reassured enough to use the strait.

Even then, he told The Associated Press, any operation would require the agreement of neighboring countries. That would include Iran, which borders the strait and effectively closed it by attacking and threatening ships after the war began on Feb. 28 with attacks by the U.S. and Israel.

Vernet did not specify when the carrier would reach its destination. He said the carrier was being positioned to be close enough to act if and when the conditions are met: “The French position is the same since the beginning — defensive posture, respecting international law."

War-risk insurance premiums for transits of the strait have risen four to five times above preconflict levels, according to industry estimates.

For now, insurance premiums are so high that "not a single ship will jeopardize their trip or go there,” Vernet said.

Washington has not been part of the French-British planning, which observers have said echoes the European “coalition of the willing” that Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer assembled to support Ukraine.

“We want to send the message that not only are we ready to secure the Strait of Hormuz, but that we are also capable of doing so,” a French top official said, speaking anonymously in line with the French presidency’s customary practices.

Early in the war, France sought a multinational initiative to reestablish freedom of navigation in the strait. Macron and Starmer hosted dozens of countries at a Paris summit on April 17, and military planners from more than 30 nations later finalized operational details.

The Charles de Gaulle had been ordered from the Baltic to the eastern Mediterranean soon after the war began in what the French presidency described as an “unprecedented” mobilization that also includes eight frigates and two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships.

Meanwhile, French Rafale fighters based at Al Dhafra airbase in the United Arab Emirates have been intercepting Iranian drones and missiles over the Gulf state since the war began under a long-standing defense pact with Abu Dhabi that puts some 900 French personnel on the Gulf’s southern shore.

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Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

Their faces covered with pink balaclavas and shouting “Blood is Russia’s art” and “Disobey,” 50 members of feminist groups opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin blockaded the highly controversial pavilion for at least half an hour while Italian police prevented them from getting inside.

They chanted, played a punk rock song and dispersed without confrontation.

After years of war, “you guys just opened the door to them,” said Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova, adding that the Biennale had not comprehended the importance of “so-called soft power, things, things that seemingly for some people are not important or not political.”

“For Russia, it’s clear that it’s part of their military strategy, and that’s the way they try to conquer the West,” she said.

Discord marks the Biennale

This year is the first time Russia has participated in the international art exhibit since its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The opening has already cost the Biennale 2 million euros ($2.3 million) in EU funding, and plunged the normally serene week of previews into chaos after the jury resigned in protest of both Russia and Israel's participating, citing crimes against humanity.

The Biennale has defended its decision saying that any country with relations with Italy is free to participate in the exhibition, despite opposition from Premier Giorgia Meloni 's government.

The protest comes on the second day of VIP previews for art world luminaries and journalists ahead of the Biennale’s opening on Saturday.

The run-up to Biennale's 61st edition is the most contested in recent memory, reflecting global turmoil that is spilling over into the exhibition that features 100 national pavilions and 110 artist and artist groups participating in the main curated exhibition titled “In Minor Keys.”

Palestinians have also protested Israel's participation with actions in the Giardini.

Russia is one of 29 countries with a pavilion in the historic Giardini venue, and one of the oldest, dating from 1914, 19 years after the Biennale was founded in 1895.

The impact of jury's resignation

The five-woman jury's unprecedented resignation came after it announced that it would not award the prestigious Golden Lion prizes to countries under investigation by the International Criminal Court for human rights abuses, effectively isolating Russia and Israel.

British artist Anish Kapoor, who has opened an exhibition in his palazzo across Venice, called the jury “courageous.”

“They should have included the US of A in that list of countries excluded because of the politics of hate and war that has been going on now for too long,’’ he told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. “What these wonderful women say is that culture has a language that speaks to politics that is if you like enrolled, embedded in political discourse, even if it’s invisible.”

Inside the Russian Pavilion

For all the controversy it unleashed, Russia’s pavilion, which features a series of musical performances, is scheduled to close before the official opening of the Biennale on May 9. The performances were being recorded to play through the window during the rest of the international exhibition, which closes Nov. 22.

Until Friday, visitors can fish a piece of discarded clothing from a bin inside the sparsely adorned pavilion, and wander upstairs where an open bar dispenses champagne and Prosecco next to a huge bouquet of flowers resembling a tree, visible through an open window from outside the Giardini walls.

On Tuesday, the first preview day, a small group of people danced to house music played by an Argentine DJ, while a pavilion spokesman wearing an animal mask refused to give his full name and said curators were not available for interviews.

Tolokonnikova said the only Russian art that should be shown is by dissidents who are jailed “for mostly ridiculous charges.”

“Those people make art, and I want that art to represent Russia, because they represent the real face of Russia,’’ she said.

Tolokonnikova said that efforts to contact the Biennale organizers to express their concerns had failed, and that to enter the Giardini venue, she had to use an assumed name to get through security.

In Russia, Mikhail Shvydkoy, Putin’s special envoy for international cultural cooperation, has welcomed Russia’s return to the Biennale, telling Russia’s news outlet RBC last month that “Russian culture can’t be canceled.”

Russia’s Antiwar Committee, a group of Kremlin critics and opposition activists in exile that formed after Moscow launched its all-out war on Ukraine and which has since been banned in Russia and declared a “terrorist organization,” lauded the EU’s decision to pull funding.

“The participation of Putin’s representatives at one of the world’s foremost cultural forums is neither a gesture of openness nor a celebration of artistic freedom,’’ the group said. “It is a source of shame for Europe and a gift to the Russian propaganda machine.”

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Associated Press writer Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

In Tennessee, protesters repeatedly interrupted legislative hearings on the redistricting plans, yet Republicans advanced them for a potential final vote Thursday.

Despite passionate pleas from Black Democratic lawmakers, Republicans in the Alabama House approved a measure to upend the state’s congressional primaries if courts allow them to switch their U.S. House districts. In South Carolina, Democrats chided Republican colleagues for abiding by President Donald Trump's desires as they took an initial step toward redrawing a district long held by a Black Democratic lawmaker.

The stakes are high for minority voters who stand to lose their preferred representatives and for any Republican lawmakers reluctant to follow Trump's wishes. In Republican primary elections Tuesday, Trump-endorsed challengers defeated at least five of the seven Indiana state lawmakers targeted by the president's allies for refusing to support a congressional redistricting effort last year.

The Supreme Court ruled last week that Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling significantly altered a decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans in Louisiana and elsewhere grounds to try to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats.

The ruling intensified an already fierce national redistricting battle ahead of a November midterm election that will determine control of the closely divided House.

Since Trump prodded Texas to redraw its U.S. House districts last year, eight states have adopted new congressional districts. From that, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats while Democrats think they could gain up to 10. But some of the new districts could be competitive in November, meaning the parties may not get all they sought.

Tennessee plan splits up Memphis district

Republicans on Wednesday proposed a new U.S. House map that would split Memphis’ home of Shelby County into three districts, instead of the current two. The map would break up Tennessee’s lone Democratic-held district, centered on the majority-Black city, creating a ripple effect of alterations to districts throughout the western and central parts of the state.

“Tennessee is a conservative state, and our congressional delegation should reflect that. This bill ensures it does,” Republican state Sen. John Stevens said.

Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton said the proposed districts were drawn based on population and politics, not racial data.

To adopt new House districts, Tennessee lawmakers also are seeking to repeal a state law prohibiting mid-decade redistricting.

Democrats and civil rights activists denounced the efforts during Wednesday's committee hearings.

The proposal “is Black vote dilution at an industrial scale,” said Sekou Franklin, a political science professor at Middle Tennessee State University who is part of the Tennessee branch of the NAACP.

Protesters interrupted a Senate committee meeting, loudly chanting “Hands off our vote!” After senators suspended the hearing, state troopers cleared people from the room. Senators resumed their work elsewhere, advancing the legislation.

Later Wednesday, protesters in the hallway beat on the walls and doors of a committee room where senators were meeting. A House committee also paused its work as state troopers escorted chanting protesters from the room.

The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, but legislation would reopen it to allow new candidates to join the races and existing candidates to switch districts. The primary election is Aug. 6.

Democrats noted that the state Supreme Court in April 2022 rejected a challenge to the current congressional map, finding it was too close to the election to make changes. This year, there’s even less time before the primary elections, raising the potential of confusion for both candidates and voters, Democrats said.

Alabama House backs a new primary

The Republican-led Alabama House on Wednesday passed legislation authorizing special congressional primaries as Republicans eye the possibility of getting a different congressional map in place for the November elections. The bill now moves to the state Senate.

Alabama is seeking to lift a federal court order that created a second congressional district with a near-majority of Black voters. That map led to the 2024 election of Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat. Republicans want instead to use a 2023 map drawn by state lawmakers that would give the GOP an opportunity to reclaim Figures’ south Alabama district.

The legislation won House approval on a party-line vote after four hours of fiery debate during which Black legislators said the moment calls back to the state’s shameful Jim Crow-era history.

“It’s a tragic step backward for Black Alabama voters. But we’ve been here before, and we will not give up this fight,” Democratic state Rep. Adline Clarke said.

Democratic state Rep. Juandalynn Givan likened the legislation to poll taxes and counting jelly beans in a jar — a virtually impossible task that was used to suppress Black voters during the Jim Crow era.

“It is a calculated political maneuver born out of fear, a fear that is of Black people and most importantly Black political power,” Givan said.

Tensions rose later Wednesday as dozens of protesters temporarily blocked a hallway outside the Senate, singing “We Shall Overcome” and shouting “we’re not going back” as security officers tried to get them to leave.

Alabama's legislation hinges on the U.S. Supreme Court or a district court agreeing to lift the injunction.

“We’re going to be ready if the court hands down a favorable ruling,” said Republican state Rep. Chris Pringle, who sponsored the bill.

Alabama’s primaries are May 19. If a court grants the state’s request, the legislation would ignore the results for congressional seats and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under the revised districts.

South Carolina moves toward redistricting

The South Carolina House on Wednesday approved a resolution giving lawmakers permission to return later, after their regular work ends, to redraw congressional districts that could eliminate the state’s only Democratic-held district. The proposal now goes to the Senate, where it would need a two-thirds vote.

Republican House leaders said after the vote that they plan to introduce a new map Thursday and hold committee meetings on Friday. But during debate Wednesday, Republicans fended off specific questions from Democrats, including why they were willing to stop the June 9 U.S. House primary elections well after candidates filed and how much a rescheduled primary could cost.

Democratic Rep. Justin Bamberg said he felt sorry for Republicans who he said were giving up their principles to follow the whims of Trump.

“The president of the United States is a very powerful man. Wields a heavy, heavy thumb — Truth Social, X, Meta, Instagram. To be honest I don’t envy our Republican colleagues,” Bamberg said.

Democratic Rep. Leon Stavrinakis said democracy will die if lawmakers redraw voting districts for political reasons every time power changes or to protect someone in office.

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Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama; Collins from Columbia, South Carolina; and Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press reporter Kristin M. Hall contributed.

In a release, troopers said that the crash happened near State Road 40 and Southeast 177th Avenue around 2:50 p.m.

At the time, the bus was headed south along SR-40 and had stopped at the intersection while waiting to turn left, troopers added.

But while turning, the bus failed to yield to an oncoming pickup truck that was towing a trailer, leading to a head-on crash between the two vehicles, the release shows.

The truck driver — identified as a 76-year-old Silver Springs man — was taken to the hospital as a trauma alert, though authorities later confirmed that he succumbed to his injuries.

Meanwhile, the bus driver and the four children on board were uninjured, troopers revealed.

“No citations will be issued until the investigation has been completed,” the FHP wrote.

While the crash initially blocked traffic, the sheriff’s office announced shortly before 4 p.m. that the road had been reopened.

No additional information has been provided at this time.

Hundreds of crashes — including dozens involving pedestrians — are highlighted in a new Orange County report.

Tonight, two community meetings are giving neighbors a chance to share concerns and push for safety improvements, especially along Silver Star Road and Hiawassee Road.

“There have been hundreds of crashes right here at this intersection — Silver Star Road and Hiawassee Road — according to a new study on bicyclist and pedestrian safety," said Orange County District 6 Commissioner Mike Scott

“We’ve had some pedestrian challenges, where folks have had near misses and car accidents,” said Julien Serrano-O’Neil of the Pine Hills Community Council. “So this is about making it a more pedestrian-friendly environment, but also a safer environment.”

Several neighbors at the Multicultural Center in Pine Hills shared ideas to improve their community.

“One of the topics residents talked about was safety — especially along Silver Star Road, where there were eight pedestrian crashes last year.”

“Pedestrian safety is important, and it’s vital — especially considering Evans High School is right there,” Serrano-O’Neil said.

“More lights. More traffic lights, where pedestrians can push a button to cross,” said Linda Chisholm, a Pine Hills resident.

“And then there’s Hiawassee Road. According to a pedestrian and bicycle safety study released last month by Orange County, this roadway has seen 37 pedestrian crashes from 2019 to 2024.

“And right here — where it meets Silver Star Road — the report says there have been 465 total crashes.”

“It’s one of our heavy traffic areas — even Darden — where there have been many accidents,” said Jacqueline Taylor, a Pine Hills resident. “To see improvements there for safety is definitely needed.”

Orange County said the study and community feedback will help shape what comes next for Hiawassee.

We reached out to FDOT about projects along Silver Star Road and will update you when we hear back.

These records show that the reported eateries experienced violations like rodent droppings, roaches, sewage backup, and storage issues.

But one restaurant in particular — China Lee along South Kirkman Road in Orlando — had notable health violations not even two months after it was previously shut down.

Back in March, a health inspector noted that China Lee had over 100 live roaches and roughly 400 rodent droppings on its premises.

While the issues this time around were far fewer in number, the restaurant still took around three days to meet inspection standards, finally being allowed to reopen on Friday.

In fact, all of the Central Florida eateries that were forced to close down last week were eventually able to reopen after meeting health standards.

The full list of Central Florida eateries required to close last week is as follows:

DELAND

• Checkers — 133 S. Woodland Blvd.
• • Closed on April 29
  • • Grey water from ice machine floor drain backed up onto floor
    • Grey water backed up from floor drain on both sides of steam table
    • Soiled ice in soda ice bin
  • Met inspection standards on April 29

ORLANDO

• China Lee — 2338 S. Kirkman Road
• • Closed on April 28
  • • Over 20 live roaches found on premises
    • Around 10 rodent droppings found next to three-compartment sink
    • Time/temperature violation for broccoli
    • Small fly infest on prep table
    • Container of medicine improperly stored over cook line
    • Employee rinsed soiled dishes and resumed food prep without washing hands
    • Pan rinsed but not sanitized
  • Met inspection standards on May 1

TAMPA

• La Ceibena (Food Truck) — 8806 W. Flora Street
• • Closed on April 29
  • • Four dead roaches found beneath three-compartment sink
    • Six live roaches found beneath three-compartment sink coming from waste tank area
  • Met inspection standards on April 29
• Rocky’s Tacos (Food Truck) — 1201 W. Hillsborough Ave.
• • Closed on April 30
  • • Over 20 dead roaches found inside cabinet beneath sink
    • At least 62 live roaches found on premises
    • Four roach eggs found on premises, along with roach excrement
  • Met inspection standards on May 4

Orange County is hosting a series of meetings that give residents a chance to weigh in on a long-term plan to revitalize and grow the area.

Residents used color-coded pins to mark what they want to see, including new businesses, safety improvements and community projects. Attendees also got a first look at renderings showing what Pine Hills could look like in the years ahead.

Tamara Johnson, executive director of the Pine Hills Neighborhood Improvement District, said every pin and idea will help guide the plan.

“I hear, ‘Oh, I want a Starbucks.’ We’d love to have big-box grocery stores within the community. We’d love to see a high-rise,” Johnson said. “You also have to be realistic about the expectations — what our community is and who can come — but this is setting the framework for people to come.”

Johnson said the input will be used to develop a master plan to redevelop the community. A first draft is expected as early as this summer.

Performances are canceled through Sunday, May 17. Ticket holders for impacted performances will be notified via their point of purchase to receive refunds or reschedule.

“ATG Entertainment and ‘The Book of Mormon’ are currently working with a team of industry professionals to begin repairs needed to the building,” according to a statement by both groups issued Wednesday. They extended “their deepest thanks to the firefighters and emergency responders for their bravery and speedy response.”

The blaze, which began May 4 in an electrical room, caused “substantial damage” to the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, according to New York Fire Department Assistant Chief David Simms. The cause of the fire remains unknown. “FDNY was immediately contacted, were on site within minutes, and quickly extinguished the fire,” according to the latest statement.

Simms said the damage was largely confined to the fourth floor area and a backroom containing lighting equipment and dangling chandeliers. There was some water damage as well, he said.

“The Book of Mormon” is among Broadway’s longest running shows, with more than 5,000 performances since opening at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre in 2011.

The theater, which opened in 1925, has previously hosted productions of “Sweeney Todd,” a revival of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and the rock musical “Spring Awakening,” among many other performances.

One of the people said the investigation into Democratic Sen. L. Louise Lucas was opened during Democratic former President Joe Biden’s administration. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation.

While the probe apparently has spanned administrations of different political parties, Democrats viewed it against a backdrop of recent, politically charged inquiries during President Donald Trump’s tenure. Lucas, who has been a senator for 34 years, was a prominent voice in Virginia's recent redistricting effort, a Democrat-led initiative to counter Republican redrawing pushed by Trump.

“Today’s actions by federal agents are about far more than one state senator; they are about power and who is allowed to use it on behalf of the people,” Lucas said in an evening statement. “What we saw fits a clear pattern from this administration: when challenged, they try to intimidate and silence the voices of those who stand up to them.”

The FBI said only that it was conducting a court-authorized search in Portsmouth. Such searches require approval from a judge and for investigators to assert that they believe they have identified probable cause of a crime.

Besides the search at Lucas' office, which houses her disabilities services business and is her political base in Portsmouth, agents in FBI T-shirts also went into the nearby cannabis store, which she opened in 2021. Several entrances to the Cannabis Outlet's parking lot were blocked by unmarked vehicles with flashing blue lights, as was an entrance to the politician's office.

By evening, agents were carrying boxes and bags out of the shop's back door.

Lucas, a prominent backer of legalizing marijuana, has said the store sells legal hemp and CBD products. It has drawn scrutiny from local media amid allegations that some products were mislabeled.

Virginia has legalized pot possession, but retail sales of recreational marijuana remain illegal in the state.

A woman who identified herself as Lucas’ granddaughter, Nicole Bremby, came by after agents left to check on the Cannabis Outlet. She declined to discuss the raids.

“I’ve had better days,” she said. “It’s all good. Everyone is home.”

Virginia Democrats point to other recent prosecutions

State House Speaker Don Scott said he was deeply concerned by the FBI search.

“Right now, there is far more theatrics and speculation than actual information available to the public,” Scott, a Democrat, said in a statement, adding that more facts were needed “before anyone rushes to political conclusions.”

Gov. Abigail Spanberger declined to comment.

Other Virginia Democrats were quick to note that the search comes as the FBI and Justice Department have opened a spate of investigations into perceived adversaries of Trump.

Last week the Justice Department charged former FBI Director James Comey with making a threatening Instagram post against Trump, an accusation that Comey — who for nearly a decade has drawn the president’s ire — has denied. A court dismissed federal prosecutors' earlier case accusing Comey of lying to Congress.

A separate mortgage fraud case, also ultimately dismissed by a court, targeted Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a major civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his business. Both she and Comey, a longtime Republican who split from the party in the past decade, denied the charges and said the prosecutions were vindictive.

Such cases “have undermined public confidence” in federal prosecutors in Virginia, Democratic state Attorney General Jay Jones said in a statement.

The FBI and Justice Department have also provoked concerns among Democrats about ongoing election-related investigations, including the seizure by agents of ballots and other information from Fulton County, Georgia.

Lucas has been a vocal leader of Virginia's redistricting effort, which voters approved last month. A sign urging people to “vote yes” to “stop the MAGA power grab” still hung Wednesday on a fence separating her office's parking lot from that of the cannabis shop.

Lucas played a leading role in Virginia redistricting

Amid a national, state-by-state partisan redistricting fight kicked off by Trump’s desire to aid his fellow Republicans, Virginia voters OK'd a Democrat-backed constitutional amendment authorizing new U.S. House districts. The plan could help the party win up to four additional seats.

“We are not going to let anyone tilt the system without a response,” Lucas said after the vote. Trump, meanwhile, denounced the results.

The state Supreme Court let the referendum proceed but has yet to rule on whether the effort is legal. The court is considering an appeal of a lower court judge’s ruling that the amendment is invalid because lawmakers violated procedural requirements.

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

Lucas, 82, has been a figure in Virginia politics since the 1980s, when she became the first Black woman elected to a city council seat in her native Portsmouth. She now is the first woman and first African American to serve as the Senate’s president pro tempore.

Earlier in life she was the Norfolk Naval Shipyard's first female shipfitter, according to her biography in the state library. The job entails making, installing and repairing sometimes enormous metal assemblies for vessels.

In recent years she has been the CEO of a Portsmouth business that runs residences, day programs and transportation for intellectually disabled adults.

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Associated Press journalists Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky, Jake Offenhartz in New York, Claudia Lauder in Philadelphia and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed.

“No, I don't," Maye said. "I mean, he’s our head coach. I think he’s done a great job of talking to us and talking us through it. I’m just looking forward to getting back to work and getting ready.”

Maye spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday following the Truist Championship Pro-Am in Charlotte in which he was paired with PGA Tour pro Gary Woodland on the back nine at Quail Hollow.

Vrabel has found himself entangled in controversy after the New York Post posted pictures of him with longtime NFL reporter Dianna Russini at an Arizona resort. Vrabel said on April 24 that he was taking accountability for his actions without addressing specifics about the published photos.

Vrabel missed the third day of the draft to attend counseling.

Vrabel said he had to have hard conversations with the people that he cared about the most, including his family, his team and members of the Patriots organization. He added that, "My previous actions don’t meet the standard that I hold myself to. They don’t.”

When asked if the issues are something the Patriots will need to put behind them before the season, Maye said, “I think that’ll take care of itself.”

“I know he’s got the right mindset and I know he’s a great human being,” Maye added. “I think he’s ... like I said, I love playing for him.”

Maye, the third overall pick in 2024 who grew up in nearby Huntersville, North Carolina, led the Patriots to an appearance in Super Bowl 60 in just his second season. He was runner-up to Los Angeles Rams QB Matthew Stafford for the AP NFL MVP award in 2025.

Maye also addressed former Patriots teammate Stefon Diggs' acquittal on charges that he assaulted his live-in personal chef.

The charges stemmed from a Dec. 2 incident at his Massachusetts home where Jamila Adams testified that Diggs slapped and choked her during an argument.

Diggs had pled not guilty to a felony strangulation charge and a misdemeanor assault and battery charge. The jury deliberated for less than two hours before clearing Diggs of all charges. The acquittal in court clears a path for the four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver to return to the field, although he could still face discipline from the NFL.

“Well, you know, he’s always been a great teammate to me and I know he’ll do great things," Maye said. "I was fortunate enough to have a year with him, and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens to him. He’s a great player.”

And as for the shoulder injury that hampered him down the stretch last season, Maye said he's doing “great.”

“Nothing, nothing, no problems at all," said Maye, adding that he did not need surgery.

The Patriots will host a three-day rookie minicamp beginning Friday in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

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

The lawyer, Justin D. Smith, told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a filing Tuesday to stay its decision supporting the award so that Trump won’t have to pay writer E. Jean Carroll while he appeals to the high court.

A Manhattan jury awarded Carroll the payout in January 2024. Another jury in May 2023 awarded Carroll $5 million after concluding Trump sexually abused her in a Manhattan luxury department store dressing room in 1996 and then defamed her after she published her account of it in 2019.

Trump has vehemently denied sexually abusing Carroll or ever knowing her and has repeatedly accused her of making accusations against him for political purposes or to promote her memoir.

In court papers filed with the 2nd Circuit, Smith told the appeals court that Carroll's lawyer does not oppose the request for a stay as long as Trump increases the bond posted after the verdict by $7.4 million to cover any post-judgment interest that would accrue during a possible Supreme Court review.

Attorney Roberta Kaplan, who represents Carroll, declined comment through a spokesperson.

Smith told the 2nd Circuit that Trump “will suffer irreparable harm” if he must pay Carroll now because she has said publicly that she plans to give the award away, meaning the president would not be able to recover the money if the high court reverses the verdict.

Smith said there was a “reasonable probability” that the Supreme Court will take up an appeal in part based on Trump's insistence that he has absolute immunity from a lawsuit stemming from statements he made while he was president.

In support of his request, Smith cited arguments in a dissent by three 2nd Circuit judges to a decision last week in which the appeals court refused to put the case before all of the court's active judges, leaving standing a three-judge panel's September decision upholding the verdict.

He wrote that there was “at least a fair prospect that the Supreme Court will reverse the Panel.”

Former workers gathered at one of the airline’s now-closed operations centers near Orlando International Airport, many wearing their uniforms for what they said could be the final time. Employees hugged, cried and reflected on careers they believed would last until retirement.

“It’s been hard,” said former flight attendant Syn Harris. “It’s been hard to get out of bed, it’s been hard to do basic stuff.”

The airline ceased operations over the weekend amid rising fuel costs tied to conflict in the Middle East, leaving workers scrambling for answers about unemployment benefits, future job prospects and unpaid wages.

“I filed for unemployment this morning,” Harris said. “It’s like I made so much to get peanuts.”

Several employees said they learned about the shutdown while on the clock.

“The news was reporting it before we got anything from the company,” said former flight attendant Travis Arcamone.

Meanwhile, Harris notes, “We just all need help.”

Workers also expressed concern about whether they will receive final paychecks for hours already worked as bills and financial obligations pile up.

“We the front-line workers might not even get paid for hours that we worked, and that’s an extra stab in the heart because we are already losing our income,” Arcamone said.

Now former Spirit pilot Bart Terburg said the collapse has created fierce competition in an already difficult aviation job market.

“I was definitely going to retire here,” Terburg said. “And it’s not going to be easy because now you have a whole flood of pilots flooding the market and we are competing for the same bone.”

Many former employees are now calling for federal or local assistance as they search for new jobs and financial support.

“Originally this was a goodbye,” Arcamone said, “but hopefully it’s a see you later with what’s going on with the campaign to save Spirit.”

Some employees said they remain hopeful help will come soon, though many acknowledged finding similar work may be difficult with so many displaced workers seeking the same positions.

“I went to Spain to do PRP,” the NBA scoring champion told reporters as the Lakers prepare to face the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals. “Everybody knows that it's one of the best countries to do that. Obviously, you know, we talked with the Lakers doctors, so everybody agreed for me to go there.”

Each injection required four days of rest in between, resulting in an extended stay in Spain, he said.

“I know and trust lots of people in Spain that I used to work with before,” he said. “I needed four days in between every shot. I did it four times, so that’s why I stayed longer.”

Doncic was injured during the third quarter of a loss to Oklahoma City. on April 2. The Lakers beat the Houston Rockets 4-2 in the first round of the playoffs, with 41-year-old LeBron James taking up much of the scoring slack.

The Lakers lost to the top-seeded Thunder 108-90 in Game 1 on Tuesday. If Doncic can't speed up his recovery timeline, he would miss the entire series and part of the conference finals, should the Lakers advance.

Doncic said he’s been running but has yet to reintroduce contact. He said it has been hard to watch his team while knowing he can't participate.

“It's very frustrating. I don't think people understand how frustrating it is,” he said. “All I want to do is play basketball, especially this time. It's the best time to play basketball. It's very frustrating to see what my team is doing. I'm very proud of them, but it's been very tough to watch.”

The six-time All-Star also understands that coming back too soon would put him at risk.

“It's a tough one for me. I've come back from injuries too soon before, and it wasn't the best result,” he said. “This is the first time I have a hamstring injury. It's not the same like other injuries. You have to be very careful. I'm doing everything to come back.”

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

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia raced clear after playing a simple one-two with Fabián Ruiz in midfield, then picked out the unmarked Dembélé to sweep the ball in under the crossbar in the third minute of the semifinal second leg.

By the time Harry Kane equalized in stoppage time it was too late to keep alive Bayern's dream of a Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League treble.

The draw gave PSG, the defending champion, a 6-5 win on aggregate after edging their encounter 5-4 in the first leg in Paris last week.

The French league leader will face Arsenal in the final in Budapest, Hungary, on May 30, after the Gunners defeated Atletico Madrid 1-0 on Tuesday to progress 2-1 on aggregate.

“It’s magnificent, two finals," PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi said. “Now we will go there and try to fetch a second star. I said to the players we are warriors.”

PSG’s defense — breached four times in Paris last week — kept Bayern’s much vaunted attack of Kane, Luis Díaz and Micheal Olise largely in check.

“We know how to suffer and we’re ready for what we have to face,” PSG midfielder João Neves said. “We’re very proud of how far we’ve come.”

By the time Kane let fly for his 55th goal across all competitions including the German Supercup for Bayern this season, PSG’s substitutes were already lining up to celebrate.

The England captain's goal ensured Bayern has scored in every competitive match this season. Bayern coach Vincent Kompany struck an optimistic tone despite the disappointment.

“We made progress this season,” Kompany said. “We have to do it again.”

Real Madrid was the last team to achieve back-to-back titles — winning three in a row from 2016-18.

“Shoot us into the final,” the Bayern fans had urged their team with a huge choreography as the combatants emerged on the field.

Bayern only needed one goal to level the tie, but it soon turned to two after Fabián sent Kvaratskhelia on his way.

If the Georgia star was surprised by how much space he was offered by the absent defense, he didn’t stop to question it. Desiré Doué was another option queuing beside Dembélé to take a shot with Luis Díaz the closest Bayern player back.

Bayern’s players complained the already-booked Nuno Mendes should have been booked again when the ball hit his arm in the first half, but referee João Pinheiro blew instead for a handball from Konrad Laimer.

There were more protests shortly afterward when Vitinha struck teammate João Neves’ arm with the ball in the penalty area with a clearance.

Kompany played down the importance of the referee's calls, though he also said more time should have been played in stoppage time.

While Bayern dominated possession, PSG was more efficient, with Doué and Kvaratskhelia keeping Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer alert after the break.

“PSG were killers with their five goals and how they scored (last week),” Neuer said. “That’s what we needed today. I think we were close to the final but couldn’t finish the job.”

PSG already had good memories of Munich. The city was the scene of PSG’s triumph in the final last season when it demolished Inter Milan 5-0 to fulfill its Qatari owners’ quest to become European champion for the first time. A relatively unchanged team is well-placed to deliver the second title.

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

The system swept over the Rocky Mountains and into the High Plains a day earlier and was winding down Wednesday afternoon. Several towns at higher elevations received about 2 feet (nearly 61 centimeters) of snow.

A winter storm warning remained in place, with another 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) of snow expected in Fort Collins, Boulder, Denver and Castle Rock, the National Weather Service said.

Commuters in Denver were dealing with slick roads. A few crashes were reported by the State Patrol but there was no word of serious injuries. Forecasters warned that snow-loaded tree limbs could snap. “Avoid parking under trees,” the weather service's Denver office posted.

The weather service said parts of the region could continue to see light snow and rain on Thursday but that temperatures will trend warmer, reaching as high as the mid 70s Fahrenheit (about 24 Celsius) in Denver by the weekend.

Mountain towns dig out from feet of snow

The town of Estes Park, near Rocky Mountain National Park, saw 22 to more than 30 inches (56 to more than 76 centimeters) of snow, the weather service said.

Estes Park resident Kathy Ross said enough snow fell in her yard to clear the head of her Boston terrier mix.

“The view of the mountains is just spectacular, as long as you like the color white,” said Ross, who spent Wednesday morning shoveling the sidewalks outside the used bookstore she manages.

In Boulder, some spots got a foot (30 centimeters) of snow, and officials warned of downed trees and branches.

Denver saw one of its biggest snow storms of the season. The city's international airport recorded 5.8 inches (nearly 15 centimeters) of snow after early flight delays and cancellations, the weather service said.

Temperatures dropped into the low 30s Fahrenheit (zero degrees Celsius) on Wednesday morning, prompting Denver to activate its cold-weather shelter plan. Warmer weather is expected Thursday.

The storm didn't stop thousands of people from showing up for an outdoor David Guetta concert at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Tuesday night, although organizers moved the start time up an hour. Fans bundled up in furry winter coats and beanies while lining up to enter.

The Colorado Rockies postponed two games against the New York Mets, but that happens more often than not during Denver's spring baseball season, including four times in 2015, according to the MLB.

Snow in May isn't unheard of in Colorado and is even more common in Wyoming's capital of Cheyenne, which sits almost 1,000 feet (305 meters) higher than Denver and is cooler and windier, often piling snow into drifts.

A springtime snow day

Denver Public Schools, the largest K-12 district in the state, and others on Colorado’s Front Range canceled Wednesday classes. Families dug mittens and snow boots out of seasonal storage to make the most of the rare May snow day.

On Denver’s west side, neighborhood parents and kids gathered at Nettie Moore Playground, a popular sledding spot where a hill slopes into a dry gulch. Fern Garstka, 8, joined the fun after a morning of hard work.

“My parents made me go outside and shake the snow off of the trees,” Garstka said.

Andy Flinn said the wet, heavy snow was less than ideal for sledding, but that his two young sons were happy to get a few runs in after an exceptionally dry winter.

“Every little bit helps. Whether it’s snow or rain, we’ll take it,” Flinn said.

The storm is welcome during a drought

April was warmer and dryer than usual, with Denver missing an inch of rain (2.5 centimeters) and 2.8 inches of snow (7 centimeters) last month.

For some farmers, who have felt the pressure from Colorado's ongoing drought, the snow was an opportunity.

Adam Jones of Unsung Family Farms in Longmont planted carrot seeds just days earlier to take advantage of the precipitation.

“You can’t get as even distribution with driplines or sprinklers,” he told KMGH-TV. “There’s nothing like starting seeds with snow or water.”

Jones moved more delicate crops inside, and used a heater to keep them warm.

The unsettled weather stretched beyond the Rockies. Severe thunderstorms, some capable of producing tornadoes, were possible across the Southeast on Wednesday, with the strongest storms expected from Arkansas through Georgia.

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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press journalists Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles, Savannah Peters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Thomas Peipert in Denver contributed.

Associated Press footage showed health workers in protective gear evacuating three patients. Two arrived at Amsterdam's airport Wednesday evening and were taken to separate hospitals.

Three people have died, and one body remained on the ship, the World Health Organization said. Of eight recorded cases, five were confirmed by laboratory testing.

Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings and can spread person-to-person, though that is rare, according to the WHO, whose top epidemic expert said the risk to the public is low.

Health officials in Europe and Africa are trying to identify people who may have had contact with people who earlier left the ship, which departed April 1 from South America for stops in Antarctica and several remote Atlantic islands.

Two Argentine officials investigating the origins of the outbreak said the government's leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus while bird-watching in the city of Ushuaia before boarding.

They said the couple visited a landfill during the tour and may have been exposed to rodents. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, with the investigation ongoing.

Officials say those still on board show no symptoms

The Dutch foreign ministry said the three people evacuated Wednesday were a 41-year-old Dutch national, a 56-year-old British national and a 65-year-old German national. WHO said testing in Senegal confirmed that two of the evacuees were infected with hantavirus.

Two of the evacuees were in “serious condition,” Dutch ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions said, and the third had no symptoms but was “closely associated” with a German passenger who died on the MV Hondius ship on Saturday.

Upon arriving in Amsterdam, one of the evacuated patients was taken to a specialized hospital in Dusseldorf, Germany; the other was taken to a hospital in Leiden, the Netherlands.

Health officials said passengers and crew members still on the ship were without symptoms. Their journey to the Canary Islands will take three or four days, Spain’s health ministry said. Their arrival “won´t represent any risk for the public,” the ministry said.

Still, the Canary Islands regional president, Fernando Clavijo, said he worried about the risk to the public and demanded a meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

WHO expert says this is ‘not the next COVID’

Authorities said passengers tested positive for the Andes virus, a species of hantavirus found in South America, primarily in Argentina and Chile. The virus can spread between people, though that’s rare and only through close contact, according to the WHO. The health agency has never seen a hantavirus outbreak on a ship.

“This is not the next COVID, but it is a serious infectious disease,” the WHO's top epidemic expert, Maria Van Kerkhove, said. “Most people will never be exposed to this.”

Two Dutch infectious diseases experts were joining the ship, Van Kerkhove said. Access to clinical care is important, she said, because infected people can develop severe acute respiratory distress and need oxygen or mechanical ventilation. There is no specific treatment or cure, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.

The hantavirus incubation period can be one to six weeks, or more, she said.

The ship's itinerary included stops across the South Atlantic, including mainland Antarctica and the remote islands of South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena and Ascension.

Officials rush to determine passenger's travel after leaving ship

Authorities in Switzerland said a former passenger who tested positive was being treated at a Zurich hospital. South African authorities earlier said two passengers who were transferred there tested positive. One, a British man, was in intensive care; the other collapsed and died in South Africa.

Swiss health office spokesperson Simon Ming said the patient there had left the ship during its St. Helena stop. It was not clear when or how he traveled to Switzerland and how many other countries he might have passed through.

The patient’s wife hasn’t shown symptoms but is self-isolating as a precaution, a statement by the office said.

South Africa looks for people who had possible contact

At St. Helena, the body of the Dutch man suspected to be the first hantavirus case on board was taken off the ship. His wife flew to South Africa, where she collapsed at the Johannesburg airport and died.

Later, a British man was evacuated at Ascension Island and taken to South Africa.

The ship's operator has not said if other people left at those or other locations.

The South African health ministry says officials have traced 42 out of 62 people, including health workers, they believe had contact with the two infected passengers who traveled there. The 42 tested negative for hantavirus.

British health officials said two passengers who flew home earlier in the ship's journey are self-isolating but do not have symptoms. The U.K. Health Security Agency said “a small number” of contacts of the two are also self-isolating but also are not showing symptoms.

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DeBre reported from Buenos Aires and Furtula from Amsterdam. Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria; Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Mark Banchereau in Dakar, Senegal; Joseph Wilson in Barcelona; Geir Moulson in Berlin; Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Michelle Gumede and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg, contributed to this report.

The San Francisco-based company said in March that it would offer extra compensation to U.S. and Canadian drivers as part of a temporary program to offset a sharp increase in gas prices due to the Iran war. The national average for a gallon of gas on Wednesday was $4.53, up 44% from a year ago, according to AAA.

DoorDash said demand for deliveries remained strong in the January-March period despite higher gas prices, with total orders rising 27% to 933 million. That fell short of Wall Street’s forecast of 954 million, according to analysts polled by FactSet. DoorDash said winter storms closed businesses and dampened demand in some locations.

Revenue also fell short of expectations. DoorDash said its revenue rose 33% to $4.0 billion, which was shy of the $4.15 billion analysts were forecasting.

The company said it's paying for gas price relief by adjusting investments in other areas. DoorDash said in November that it would be spending heavily on new products and services this year, including the addition of restaurant reservations in its app and robot deliveries.

“We did have to push out some investments ... in order to make room for this,” DoorDash Chief Financial Officer Ravi Inukonda said during a conference call with investors. “If we do decide to extend the program, our goal is to find offsets.”

DoorDash said its net income fell 5% to $184 million, or 42 cents per share, for the January-March period. That was partly due to a 30% increase in research and development costs compared to the same period last year.

Still, that beat analysts' forecast of a 36-cent per share profit, according to FactSet.

DoorDash's shares rose more than 11% in after hours trading Wednesday.

DoorDash's earnings report came a week after rival Uber announced a deal with Expedia Group that will let users make hotel reservations through the Uber app.

When asked if DoorDash plans to add a similar service, DoorDash Co-founder and CEO Tony Xu said the company still sees plenty of room to grow its core area of restaurant and retail delivery.

“We are a tiny fraction of what’s actually available and addressable, which in some sense means that there’s a large runway and opportunity for us to become even better in breed in terms of what it is that we can offer,” he said. “And if we can keep doing that, I think we’re going to be just fine.”

The Cabinet member was the latest powerful political figure to appear before the House Oversight Committee. He has previously given contradictory statements about his relationship with Epstein, but he said he has done nothing wrong and welcomed the closed-door interview with lawmakers.

The transcribed interview is a test of how much scrutiny lawmakers will apply to powerful men who kept company with Epstein even after his conviction. Trump's administration has tried unsuccessfully for more than a year to move past the issue.

Lawmakers emerged from the private interview with vastly different assessments of Lutnick's answers. The committee chairman, GOP Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, said Lutnick had been “forthcoming” in describing limited interactions with Epstein. Democrats accused Lutnick of lying and evading their questions.

Lutnick is the highest-ranked administration official, besides President Donald Trump, to be named in the Epstein case files. The Republican president has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and has said he ended their relationship years ago. Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Several Democrats have called for Lutnick to resign. A few Republicans, including Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, have said he should at least testify before the committee.

“He was evasive, nervous. He was dishonest,” said Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va. “He would not admit to lying, which he clearly did.”

Epstein's private island

Lutnick has played down his ties to Epstein, who was once his neighbor in New York City. Under questioning from Democrats during an unrelated hearing earlier this year, Lutnick described their contact as a handful of emails and a pair of meetings in 2011 and 2012.

But that admission came after Lutnick had previously claimed on a podcast last year that he had decided to “never be in the room” with Epstein after a 2005 tour of Epstein’s home, which included a massage table, disturbed Lutnick and his wife.

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state sex offense charges in Florida, including soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

“I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with him,” Lutnick told senators in February when he was asked about Epstein during a subcommittee hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

But Lutnick, who was previously the head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, actually had an hourlong engagement at Epstein’s home in 2011. His family then visited Epstein’s private island in 2012 for lunch.

Committee Democrats asked Lutnick repeatedly about that visit, but came away from the interview frustrated with Lutnick and accused him of evading their questions. They said Lutnick said he remembered little about the island visit and did not see anything that raised concern.

During a break in the interview, Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., said Lutnick “claims that when he said, ‘I would never be in a room again with Jeffrey Epstein,’ he meant only him and Jeffrey Epstein.”

The federal release of case files on Epstein also showed that Epstein and Lutnick had kept in contact through email. Lutnick in 2018 emailed Epstein about a proposed expansion of a museum in their neighborhood that would have blocked the view from their homes. Epstein also gave $50,000 to a 2017 dinner honoring Lutnick, while Lutnick invited Epstein to a 2015 fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. In 2013, they both invested in the same business venture.

“I haven't seen wrongdoing in the email correspondence, but he wasn't 100% truthful with whether or not he had been on the island,” Comer said. He added that the committee planned to later release the transcript of the interview and “let the American people judge whether the credibility was damaged or not.”

Democrats said Lutnick also backed away from his statement in an interview last year that Epstein was the “greatest blackmailer ever."

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said Lutnick told him that he was only “speculating” when Lutnick made the blackmail claim.

No video recording of the interview

The interview was not recorded on video, as the committee has done with depositions for others, including former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state. Comer said the decision not to video the interview, for which Lutnick volunteered, was keeping with the committee's practice.

To Democrats, that decision allowed Lutnick to escape the same kind of scrutiny as others had.

“The level of the lies that are taking place inside that room without video is unbelievable and part of this egregious cover-up,” said Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz.

Comer said Democrats were only trying to score political points. “This is a serious investigation,” he said.

The chairman argued it made the committee's inquiry easier when subjects consented to an interview, rather than resist congressional demands.

“Nobody wants to be videoed. If you come in, you work with us, then you know, you might not have to be videoed,” he said.

The White House has continued to express support for Lutnick, who is one of the biggest boosters of Trump's tariff strategy. He has been close to Trump for years and helped raise money for his 2020 and 2024 campaigns.

The committee is also scheduled to hear testimony on May 29 from Pam Bondi, who was pushed out as attorney general last month.

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Follow the AP's coverage of Jeffrey Epstein at https://apnews.com/hub/jeffrey-epstein.