Jonathan Matos Morales, 18, was arrested Tuesday for the Monday morning crash, which happened in the area of State Road 64 in the southbound lanes

The Florida Highway Patrol says Matos Morales was driving recklessly when his Ford Mustang collided with a Chevy SUV, causing it to drive into the path of a semi tractor-trailer.

FHP says the impact caused the semi to cross traffic, overturn and stop across all three southbound lanes of I-75.

The driver of the semi, a 34-year-old man from New Smyrna Beach, was killed. The driver of the SUV suffered minor injuries.

FHP says Matos Morales stopped briefly after the collisions, then fled south on I-75.

FHP says the Atlanta Braves organization cooperated fully with them in bringing Matos Morales in.

A spokesperson from the Braves provided the following statement Tuesday:

“We are aware that a player who was formerly in our minor league system is under investigation related to a fatal accident that occurred yesterday in Manatee County. Our organization is cooperating fully with authorities and will not have any further comment at this time. Our condolences go to the loved ones of all who were involved.”

Atlanta Braves

Matos Morales was booked into the Manatee County Jail on charges of vehicular homicide and leaving a crash scene involving death.

But it is the European Union's policy toward Israel — and how to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as security deteriorates in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the occupied West Bank, as well as in Lebanon — that is dividing EU members, stymieing strong action, and frustrating many in the 27-nation bloc.

Israel disagreement hobbles EU action

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said there was no clear political agreement in Luxembourg to ramp up pressure on Israel.

“We didn’t see that today, but these discussions will continue,” she said.

One of the loudest voices within the EU blocking sharper pressure on Israel is shortly leaving office — Hungary’s outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán routinely obstructed EU action on issues ranging from support for Ukraine in its war against Russia’s invasion to sanctions on Israelis accused of violent extremism.

Kallas said that Orbán’s defeat by pro-European opposition leader Péter Magyar in Hungary’s recent election could accelerate action.

“A lot of issues ... have been blocked” by Hungary, she said. “We are reopening the discussions and hope that we get a positive result.”

The EU has an Association Agreement, signed in 2000, that regulates trade and cooperation with Israel. Spain, Slovenia and Ireland have proposed completely suspending it, a move that doesn't have the required unanimous support among EU nations.

However, a partial suspension targeting just the trade aspects could have enough political support, said Spanish Foreign Minister José Albares.

“The European Union has to say today very clearly to Israel that a change is needed,” he said.

The EU has found indications Israel had violated the agreement with the bloc in its military campaign in Gaza.

“The attacks on the values that underpin that agreement are now too serious to ignore,” said Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot, adding that Belgium would support at least a partial suspension of the deal.

Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Israel's recent adoption of the death penalty for some Palestinians, and ongoing fighting in Lebanon should push EU nations to ramp up pressure on Israel.

“We need to act. We need to make sure that our fundamental values are protected,” McEntee said.

Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said France and Sweden have brought forward a plan to curtail trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

EU diplomats call for extending ceasefires in Lebanon and Iran

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam spoke at the meeting in Luxembourg about the fragile ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, difficulties in disarming the Hezbollah militant group, and the need for EU assistance for the war-torn nation.

“Lebanon today needs its European partners more than ever,” Salam posted on X on Tuesday.

While now mainly headquartered in Brussels, EU institutions are also spread out in northern Europe like the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany and the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. Lawmakers, diplomats and officials regularly move between the cities for meetings.

The Luxembourg meeting comes a day after 60 nations sent representatives to a Palestinian peace conference in Brussels with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa and Bulgarian diplomat Nikolay Mladenov, who heads the Board of Peace set up by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The EU diplomats gathered in Luxembourg called for diplomacy on Iran as a ceasefire struck between Tehran and Washington that began April 8 was to expire Wednesday.

Kallas, the foreign policy chief, warned that if the fighting resumes, "it will come at a very large cost for all.”

She also announced that EU foreign ministers agreed Tuesday on new sanctions on Iranian officials responsible for obstructing freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf.

“Freedom of navigation is non-negotiable. Daily U-turns where the Strait of Hormuz is open or closed, are reckless. Transit through the strait must remain free of charge,” Kallas said.

She did not elaborate on the sanctions or name the targeted officials.

Germany’s foreign minister called on Iran to send negotiators to Islamabad to meet with U.S. negotiators.

“Iran should now take this outstretched hand in the interest of its own people,” Johann Wadephul said.

The war in Iran has throttled global oil and gas markets and rattled the EU as a major importer of energy.

Also Tuesday, EU transportation ministers discussed in a video conference how to protect consumers at home and at the pump after the head of the International Energy Agency warned that Europe has “ maybe six weeks ” supply left of jet fuel.

Since the latest war in the Middle East started, fighting has killed at least 3,375 people in Iran and more than 2,290 in Lebanon. Additionally, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.

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McNeil reported from Brussels.

“This case will come down to power, to control and to manipulation,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Candace White told jurors as opening statements began in the bellwether #MeToo case, with DA Alvin Bragg watching from the audience.

Weinstein lawyer Jacob Kaplan countered that the case actually “is about consent, about choice and about regret,” echoing the ex-studio head's longtime defense that his accuser has recast a willing encounter as a crime.

Since Weinstein became a major target of the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct nearly a decade ago, he has been convicted of some sexual assault charges and acquitted of others in trials on two U.S. coasts. But the rape charge involving a 2013 encounter in a Manhattan hotel has lingered, due to an overturned conviction followed by a jury deadlock.

Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and denies ever having nonconsensual sex. He said in court in this winter that he had been unfaithful to his then-wife and “acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.”

The jury — seven men and five women — was selected over several days last week. Weinstein's last New York jury was majority-female, but his first was mostly male.

The current jurors were questioned about, among other things, their familiarity with Weinstein and whether they could be fair and impartial regardless of what they might have heard.

Now a 73-year-old prison inmate, Weinstein was once one of the most influential people in Hollywood. An Academy Award-winning producer and a studio boss, he helped bring such acclaimed films as “Pulp Fiction,” “Shakespeare in Love” and “Gangs of New York” to movie houses and the popular reality series “Project Runway” to TV. He also was a prominent Democratic donor.

His career collapsed in 2017, when decades of Hollywood whispers about his behavior toward women became public accusations in news and social media. Criminal charges followed in New York and Los Angeles.

His accuser in this trial, Jessica Mann, was a 27-year-old hairstylist hoping to break into big-time acting when she met Weinstein at a Los Angeles-area party in early 2013.

She has testified that she was looking for a professional connection but ended up, ambivalently, in a consensual relationship with the then-married Weinstein.

During a New York trip with a friend in March 2013, she arranged a breakfast for both of them with Weinstein, she said at previous trials. According to Mann's prior testimony, Weinstein ultimately trapped her in a hotel room, ignored her protestation that “I don't want to do this,” demanded she undress and grabbed her arms, and she succumbed because she “just wanted to get out.”

White told jurors Tuesday that Weinstein “was used to getting his way. He did what he wanted, when he wanted and with whom he wanted,” White said, adding: “Behind closed doors, power meant him taking what he wanted from the victim in this case.”

Weinstein switched legal teams for this retrial, but his new attorneys are echoing their predecessors' themes. Kaplan emphasized Tuesday that after the alleged rape, Mann kept seeing Weinstein, accepting invitations, asking him for career help and sending warm messages to him.

“Ms. Mann was a strong and capable woman who was able to get what she wanted from Harvey while maintaining a relationship with him. She was not a naive child,” Kaplan said. He contended that she reevaluated the relationship and came to regret it years later, but that “does not remove consent.”

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they agree to be named, as Mann has done.

The trial is expected to take up to four weeks.

"Those (conversations) have been positive and productive. In order to be successful on and off the field, you have to make good decisions. That includes me. That starts with me,” Vrabel said in an unscheduled statement from the podium at the team's facility on the second day of its offseason workout program.

The photos were of Vrabel and Russini at a Sedona resort and were taken before the annual NFL meetings that began in Phoenix on March 29, according to the New York Post, which published the photos earlier this month.

Vrabel and Russini, who are both married, released written statements to the Post after the publication of the story downplaying what the photos depict. But Russini resigned from The Athletic less than a week later after the Post's report prompted an internal investigation at The New York Times-owned sports outlet.

Russini joined The Athletic in 2023 after nearly a decade at ESPN, where she held various roles, including “SportsCenter” anchor, NFL analyst and insider. She hosted a podcast for The Athletic and made appearances on their video platform.

The NFL, meanwhile, said last weekend that it is not investigating Vrabel’s behavior. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed to The Associated Press on Saturday that the league is not looking into the matter.

Until his appearance Tuesday, Vrabel hadn't spoken in a news conference setting with reporters since the owners' meetings.

Last year, prior to his first season as Patriots coach, he addressed reporters as part of the lead up to the NFL draft. He opted not to do that last week, with only Patriots vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf speaking at that news conference on April 13.

“Very involved. Business as usual,” Wolf said when asked how much Vrabel had been involved with the team’s draft process. “I’d say he’s been in there with us this round probably a little more than he was in there last year. ... He’s been in there. He’s been contributing. He’s watched a ton of the players.”

Vrabel, 50, won three Super Bowls as a player with New England. He is preparing for his second season as coach of the Patriots. He coached the team to a 14-3 finish last season, which ended with a Super Bowl loss to Seattle.

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

U.S. Vice President JD Vance, expected to lead U.S. negotiators if talks continue in Pakistan, remained in Washington on Tuesday, a White House official said. And Pakistan, which has been urging both sides to return to Islamabad, said it was still awaiting confirmation on whether Iran would participate.

Earlier in the day, two regional officials said Washington and Tehran had signaled they would hold a second round of talks, with Vance leading the U.S. team and Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf as its top negotiator. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

But Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said later Tuesday on X that Iran had not formally confirmed its participation, which was set to expire Wednesday. And Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Iran’s state TV there has been “no final decision” on whether to attend ceasefire talks because of “unacceptable actions from the American counterpart.”

Vance had policy meetings scheduled at the White House on Wednesday morning, said a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The vice president’s office and the White House did not immediately respond to messages asking whether Vance still intends to travel to Pakistan.

Trump says he doesn't favor extending ceasefire

Both sides remain dug in rhetorically. U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that “lots of bombs” will “start going off” if there’s no agreement before the ceasefire deadline, and Iran’s chief negotiator said that Tehran has “new cards on the battlefield” that haven't yet been revealed.

The ceasefire, which began April 8, could be extended if talks resume, though Trump said in an interview Tuesday with CNBC: “Well, I don't want to do that.”

"We don’t have that much time,” Trump said, adding that Iran “had a choice” and “they have to negotiate.”

White House officials have said that Vance would lead the American delegation, but Iran hasn't said who it might send. Iranian state television on Tuesday broadcast a message saying that “no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad … so far.”

US says its forces board sanctioned oil tanker

On Tuesday, the U.S. said its forces boarded an oil tanker previously sanctioned for smuggling Iranian crude oil in Asia. The Pentagon said in a social media post that U.S. forces boarded the M/T Tifani “without incident.”

The U.S. military did not say where the vessel had been boarded, though ship-tracking data showed the Tifani in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia on Tuesday. The Pentagon statement added that “international waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels.”

The U.S. military on Sunday seized an Iranian container ship, the first interception under a blockade of Iranian ports. Iran’s joint military command called the armed boarding an act of piracy and a violation of the ceasefire.

Strait of Hormuz control key to negotiations

The U.S. imposed the blockade to pressure Tehran into ending its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane through which 20% of the world’s natural gas and crude oil transits in peacetime.

Iran’s grip on the strait has sent oil prices soaring. Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at close to $95 per barrel on Tuesday, up more than 30% from Feb. 28, the day that Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran to start the war.

Before the war began, the Strait of Hormuz had been fully open to international shipping. Trump has demanded that vessels again be allowed to transit unimpeded.

European Union transportation ministers were meeting Tuesday in Brussels to discuss how to protect consumers after the head of the International Energy Agency warned that Europe has “ maybe six weeks ” of jet fuel supplies remaining.

Over the weekend, Iran said that it had received new proposals from Washington, but also suggested that a wide gap remains between the sides. Issues that derailed the last round of negotiations included Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, its regional proxies and the strait.

Qalibaf on Tuesday accused the United States of wanting Iran to surrender.

“We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats,” he wrote in an X post.

Pakistan hopeful talks will proceed

Pakistani officials have expressed confidence that Iran will also send a delegation to resume talks that mark the highest-level negotiations between the U.S. and Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The first round April 11 and 12 ended without an agreement.

Pakistan said Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met Tuesday with the acting U.S. ambassador in Islamabad to urge a ceasefire extension. Dar also met with the ambassador from China, a key trading partner with Iran.

Security has been tightened across Pakistan’s capital, where authorities have deployed thousands of personnel and increased patrols along routes leading to the airport.

Israel jails soldiers for defacing Jesus statue in Lebanon

Israel’s military said Tuesday it has sentenced two soldiers to 30 days in jail and removed them from combat duty for smashing a statue of Jesus Christ in Lebanon. Images of an Israeli soldier with a sledgehammer smashing the statue's head emerged over the weekend, bringing widespread condemnation.

Israel said one of the soldiers being punished hammered the statue to the ground. The other filmed the destruction. The Israeli military said it replaced the statue.

Meanwhile, historic diplomatic talks between Israel and Lebanon were set to resume on Thursday in Washington, an Israeli, a Lebanese and a U.S. official said. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes negotiations.

The Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors met last week for the first direct diplomatic talks in decades. Israel says the talks are aimed at disarming Hezbollah and reaching a peace agreement with Lebanon.

A 10-day ceasefire began on Friday in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants broke out two days after the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran to start the war. Fighting in Lebanon has killed more than 2,290 people.

Since the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, according to authorities. Additionally, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Bynum reported from Savannah Georgia. Associated Press journalists Michelle Price, Aamer Madhani and Darlene Superville in Washington; Samy Magdy in Cairo; David Rising and Huizhong Wu in Bangkok; Sam McNeil in Brussels; Julia Frankel in New York; Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this story.

UnitedHealth Group and other big companies showed they’re making even bigger profits than analysts expected. Oil prices, meanwhile, remained relatively stable as optimism seems to be sticking in financial markets that the United States and Iran will avoid a worst-case scenario for the economy, even with their war ongoing.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3%, coming off just its second drop in 14 days, and is hovering below its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 85 points, or 0.2%, as of 12:39 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was down 0.2%.

UnitedHealth helped lead the market with a jump of 8.2% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the beginning of the year than analysts expected. It also raised its forecast for profit over the full year of 2026.

That’s big because stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term. It’s a double-plus for investors when companies not only top earnings estimates but also forecast even better growth ahead.

Quest Diagnostics rose 5.1% after it likewise joined the fattening list of companies topping expectations for profit and revenue during the latest quarter. It also raised its forecast for profit for the full year.

They helped offset an 10.9% drop for Tractor Supply, whose profit and revenue for the latest quarter fell short of expectations.

Other signals are also indicating the U.S. economy may be doing OK despite sharp up-and-down swings for oil prices because of the war with Iran. A report on Tuesday morning showed that U.S. retailers made more money in March, the first full month of the war, than analysts expected.

Growth was even relatively stable for retail sales when not including those from gasoline stations.

“It’s become cliched to say that the economic hit will depend on the duration of the Middle East conflict, but that cliché does ring true,” according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 2.8% to $98.15 ahead of Wednesday's scheduled expiration for a U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement. Both sides are continuing to talk tough, but hope remains after both have signaled they will hold a new round of ceasefire talks in Pakistan.

Much of the tension in financial markets has focused on what will happen to the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway off Iran’s coast that oil tankers use to exit the Persian Gulf. A long-term closure would keep crude oil pent up in the gulf and away from customers worldwide.

The price for a barrel of Brent oil has gone from roughly $70 before the war to $119 at times as worries have risen and fallen about a long-term closure for the strait.

On Wall Street, Apple fell 2.8% after Tim Cook said he’ll step down as CEO on Sept. 1 and become the iPhone maker’s executive chairman. He’s handing control over to John Ternus, a company veteran who rose through Apple's hardware engineering ranks.

Amazon rose 1.6% after Anthropic said it signed a new agreement and is committing more than $100 billion over the next 10 years to AWS technologies to train and run its Claude chatbot.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were lower in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia. South Korea’s Kospi rose 2.7% for one of the world’s biggest moves.

In the bond market, Treasury yields gained ground. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.3% from 4.26% late Monday.

Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump's nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, appeared on Capitol Hill Tuesday. He's facing a tightrope walk, as investors want to see if he would maintain the Fed's independence from political meddling. During the hearing, he pledged to fight inflation even though Trump has been pushing hard for lower interest rates. Higher inflation typically leads the Fed to raise rates, or at least keep them unchanged, rather than cut them.

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

It has long been quoted and promoted by those who believe America was founded as a Christian nation and should be one. It's from the seventh chapter of 2 Chronicles, a book in the Hebrew (Old Testament) portion of the Bible.

The 14th verse — the one most often quoted — says:

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

Trump is among hundreds who are taking turns reading the entire Bible aloud over the course of a week. Most of the readings are taking place at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, though Trump's is coming by video from the Oval Office.

A passage often quoted at National Day of Prayer events

The Chronicles passage has for decades been a major theme at annual National Day of Prayer events. Organizers of the America Reads the Bible marathon invited Trump to read from it. “It’s a powerful statement that he decided to read that passage,” said Bunni Pounds, founder of Christians Engaged, which organized the project.

The passage has been recited over the decades at countless rallies, services and events, often organized around the disputed belief that America was created as a Christian nation and needs to repent of its sins and return to God. The passage has particularly been associated with annual events commemorating the National Day of Prayer, which has taken various forms since the mid-20th century and became fixed by law on the first Thursday in May since the 1980s.

The verse is set in a context far from modern America — during the reign of King Solomon in ancient Israel some 3,000 years ago. Solomon is presiding over the dedication of the first temple in Jerusalem, and in a lengthy prayer he asks for divine mercy if a future generation sins, is punished with military or natural disaster and then repents. In the key passage, God replies with a promise of restoration.

Critics say the passage is used out of context

But the use of the passage in modern settings has its critics.

The Chronicles passage is “a popular verse among Christian nationalists and has been for quite some time,” said Brian Kaylor, a Baptist pastor and president and editor-in-chief of Word&Way, a progressive site covering faith and politics.

He said its use has taken on a partisan and polarizing tone, often used in tandem with a promotion of a belief in a Christian America in an increasingly diverse country.

“This verse is not about the United States,” said Kaylor, author of “The Bible According to Christian Nationalists: Exploiting Scripture for Political Power.” It is “a promise made to one particular person in one particular moment. It doesn’t really work to pull it out of context and apply it to whatever you want to.”

But many have done so recently and in decades past, either saying America has a divinely ordained destiny similar to ancient Israel's or simply that they believe every nation has a duty to follow God and repent when needed.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower took the oath of office in 1953 with his hand on a Bible opened to the 2 Chronicles passage. President Ronald Reagan quoted the passage in a proclamation declaring 1984's National Day of Prayer. A speaker at the 2024 Republican National Convention also quoted it.

The National Day of Prayer, while officially nonsectarian, has long been drawn particular promotion and participation from evangelical Christians. Readings of the “If my people” passage has been a staple of such events.

Politicians, others joining in the Bible-reading marathon

Evangelicals — a loyal Republican voting bloc for decades — have formed a crucial part of Trump's electoral base. His rallies have featured a fusion of Christian and national symbols and rhetoric, featuring songs like “God Bless USA” and T-shirts with slogans like “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president.”

Many other Republican politicians are taking part in the Bible reading, along with celebrities, pastors and others. And Trump isn't the only one reading a passage significant to his office or mission.

Mike Huckabee, a Baptist pastor and U.S. ambassador to Israel, is reading from a Genesis passage in which God says he will bless those who bless Abraham — a passage popular with many evangelicals who believe they have a biblical mandate to support Israel.

David Barton, whose Wallbuilders promotes belief in America as a Christian nation, will read from a passage that gave his organization its name, in which Nehemiah rebuilds the broken walls of Jerusalem.

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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 notion that a flu vaccine must be mandatory for every service member, everywhere, in every circumstance at all times is just overly broad and not rational,” Hegseth said in a video posted on social media.

He said American service members are free to get the flu vaccine but will not be forced to “because your body, your faith and your convictions are not negotiable.”

Hegseth’s directive does allow for the military services to request to keep the vaccine requirement in place, according to a memo enacting the policy posted online. It says the services have 15 days to make those requests.

Vaccination programs in the U.S. military date back to the American Revolution. But they became a contentious political issue during the coronavirus pandemic, when more than 8,400 troops were forced out of the military for refusing to obey the 2021 mandate for the COVID-19 vaccine. Thousands of others sought religious and medical exemptions.

Congress agreed to rescind the mandate, which the Pentagon dropped in January 2023, after roughly 99% of active duty troops in the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps had gotten the vaccine, and 98% of those in the Army. The Guard and Reserve rates are lower but generally are more than 90%.

The Trump administration then spent months crafting a policy to allow service members who refused to take the mandatory COVID-19 vaccine to reenter service with back pay. While only a tiny fraction have taken the Pentagon up on the new policy, Hegseth’s team has spent the past several months personally highlighting them.

The Pentagon stated in March that 153 service members who were separated under the COVID-19 mandate had been reinstated or "re-accessed."

The dropping of the flu vaccine mandate follows what health officials said was a particularly severe flu season when U.S. infections surged. Public health experts recommend that everyone 6 months and older get an annual influenza vaccine.

The Trump administration has been working to dial back vaccine recommendations. It stated earlier this year that it will no longer recommend flu shots and some other types of vaccines for all children, saying it’s a decision parents and patients should make in consultation with their doctors. A federal judge has temporarily blocked that effort as a lawsuit plays out.

The Congressional Research Service listed eight mandatory vaccines for service members in a 2021 report. They included vaccines for the flu, polio and tetanus as well as the measles and hepatitis A and B.

Service members could request to opt out of a vaccine requirement for religious reasons, the report stated. But the unit commander was required to seek input from medical and religious representatives, while also counseling the service member on the potential impact on their ability to deploy. A military physician also had to counsel the service member on the benefits and risks of forgoing a required vaccination.

The Congressional Research Service noted that the military instituted its first vaccination program in 1777 when Gen. George Washington directed the inoculation of the Continental Army to protect personnel from smallpox.

Amazon will invest $5 billion immediately as part of the new agreement announced this week by the companies, and up to another $20 billion in the future. Amazon previously invested $8 billion in Anthropic.

The partnership will allow Anthropic to secure up to 5 gigawatts of Amazon’s Trainium chips to train and power their artificial intelligence models.

“Our custom AI silicon offers high performance at significantly lower cost for customers, which is why it’s in such hot demand,” said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

Amazon said AWS customers will be able to access the full Anthropic-native Claude console from within the AWS cloud platform.

Earlier this year, privately-held Anthropic said its valuation grew to $380 billion, positioning itself alongside rivals OpenAI and Elon Musk’s rocket maker SpaceX, which recently merged with his AI startup xAI, maker of the chatbot Grok.

Renaissance Capital, which researches the potential for initial public offerings, counts Anthropic as third among the most valuable private firms, behind SpaceX and ChatGPT maker OpenAI, valued at $500 billion.

Anthropic and Amazon have partnered since 2023 to accelerate generative AI adoption for customers to build, deploy, and scale AI applications. Amazon says 100,000 customers run Anthropic Claude models on AWS.

In February, the Trump administration ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic’s artificial intelligence technology and imposed other major penalties for refusing to allow the U.S. military unrestricted use of its AI technology.

In an unusually public clash between the government and the company, President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials took to social media to chastise Anthropic, accusing it of endangering national security.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to back down over concerns the company’s products could be used in ways that would violate its safeguards. Anthropic said it would challenge what it called an unprecedented and legally unsound action “never before publicly applied to an American company.”

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court refused to block the Pentagon from blacklisting artificial intelligence laboratory Anthropic in a decision that differed from the conclusions reached in another judge’s ruling on the same issues.

Anthropic is not yet profitable but said in February that it's on track for sales of $14 billion over the next year.

Anthropic was founded by ex-OpenAI employees in 2021 and released its first version of Claude in 2023, following OpenAI's ChatGPT debut in late 2022.

As part of President Donald Trump’s push to boost defense spending to $1.5 trillion in the 2027 budget, the Pentagon wants to triple spending on drones and related technology to more than $74 billion and invest over $30 billion into more critical munitions, including missile interceptors, whose stockpiles have become critically low during the Iran war.

Military officials said the spending blueprint was developed ahead of the conflict in the Middle East. They also did not discuss how much they will request in additional funds for the war, which would be on top of what the White House is seeking to boost defense spending in the next budget year.

“The overlap, you’ll see is the request for munitions, which is something we always need," Jules Hurst III, acting undersecretary of defense and the Pentagon's comptroller, told reporters at a briefing. "We always need to increase our magazine depth. But outside of that, there aren’t any operational costs in here from Iran.”

The missile interceptors whose numbers are under the most strain are the Patriot and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, air defense systems. The THAAD system is designed for defeating medium-range ballistic missiles, while the Patriot system is for taking down short-range ballistic missiles and crewed aircraft. However, they both also were used to shoot down cheap Iranian drones.

The $30 billion budget item also would aim to purchase long-range Precision Strike Missiles and Mid-Range Capability missile systems used by the U.S. Army.

The budget proposal would allocate nearly $54 billion for military drones and related technology, as well as $21 billion for weapons systems designed to take down enemy drones.

Drones and other unmanned vehicles have emerged as a key weapon in the wars in Ukraine and Iran, and top Pentagon officials say the U.S. must significantly increase its funding of both drones and counter-drone systems.

“Drone warfare is rapidly reshaping the modern battlefield,” Hurst said. “This budget is the largest investment in drone warfare and counter drone technology in U.S. history.”

As part of the 2027 budget, the Pentagon also intends to grow the military by 44,500 troops, or more than 2%, spend more than $2 billion on operations on the U.S.-Mexico border and make the largest shipbuilding request since 1962.

But both sides have sent mixed messages, with U.S. President Donald Trump saying Tuesday that “I expect to be bombing” and Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf saying Tehran has “new cards on the battlefield” that haven’t yet been revealed.

Pakistan-led mediators have received confirmation that Qalibaf and U.S. Vice President JD Vance are expected to arrive in Islamabad early Wednesday, the regional officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Here is the latest:

Israel’s military says it has replaced a crucifix in southern Lebanon after a soldier smashed it down

The Israeli military posted a photo on social media of the replacement crucifix, which appeared smaller but more ornate than the original statue that a soldier was photographed destroying in southern Lebanon. Israel says two soldiers involved in the episode will be held for a month in military detention.

Tuesday’s post on X said troops worked with the community in the Lebanese village of Debel to coordinate the replacement, which includes a metallic-sheened Jesus figure and four paintings of saints, one on each arm of the cross.

Christians are estimated to make up around a third of Lebanon’s population of roughly 5.5 million people. Thousands of Christians were displaced from their homes in the country’s south during the war.

EU diplomats agree to new sanctions targeted Iranians obstructing freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz

“Today we also reach the political agreement to widen our sanctions regime, to also target those responsible for breaches to freedom of navigation,” said the 27-nation European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas after the Tuesday gathering in Luxembourg.

“Freedom of navigation is non-negotiable. Daily U-turns where the Strait of Hormuz is open or closed, are reckless. Transit through the strait must remain free of charge,” she said, referring to Iran’s charging for safe passage on the Strait of Hormuz.

Kallas said the EU’s maritime security mission would be “the quickest way” to ensure safe transit in the Persian Gulf after peace is settled.

Vance is still in Washington

The vice president was participating in policy meetings at the White House on Tuesday morning, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The vice president’s office and the White House on Tuesday did not respond to messages inquiring about whether he still intends to travel to Pakistan for talks with Iran.

Iran-allied Yemeni rebels warn against escalation in the region

Even if the U.S.-Iran ceasefire holds and the current war ends, the leader of Yemen’s Houthi rebel group said “there is no doubt that further rounds of fighting are coming, as it is merely a truce within a continuous conflict with the enemy.”

In a televised speech Tuesday, Abdul Malik al-Houthi warned that escalation in the region is “possibly high” as the “fragile” ceasefire is nearing an end.

A Houthi missile attack on Israel last month raised concern that Iran’s ally in Yemen may again try to block Red Sea shipping routes, as it did during the war in Gaza.

Gulf shipping crews are stranded amid maritime attacks, UN agency warns

At least 10 seafarers have been killed and several more severely injured in a series of attacks on commercial vessels around the Persian Gulf since the start of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, according to the International Maritime Organization, the United Nations agency responsible for regulating global shipping.

IMO spokesperson Natasha Brown said the agency has confirmed 25 attacks on commercial shipping since Feb. 28. Hundreds of ships have been stranded in the Persian Gulf since.

“Around 20,000 civilian seafarers remain aboard vessels in the Persian Gulf, facing dwindling supplies, fatigue and severe psychological stress,” Brown added.

Following an extraordinary council session in March, the IMO said it is working with “relevant states on the development of a safe passage framework” to evacuate stranded crews, while coordinating access to supplies.

Pentagon wants to spend billions for more crucial missile interceptors

U.S. military officials said Tuesday that the Pentagon’s budget calls for spending more than $30 billion to buy more critical munitions, including missile interceptors, whose stockpiles have become critically low during the Iran war.

The supplies under the most strain are the Patriot air defense systems and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, interceptors. The THAAD system is designed for defeating medium-range ballistic missiles, while the Patriot system is for taking down short-range ballistic missiles and crewed aircraft.

The $30 billion budget item will also purchase long-range Precision Strike Missiles and Mid-Range Capability missile systems that are used by the U.S. Army.

A new budget request from the Pentagon would triple spending on drone technology

The $1.5 trillion budget proposal detailed Tuesday by defense officials would allocate nearly $54 billion for military drones and related technology, as well as $21 billion for weapons systems designed to take down enemy drones.

Drones and other unmanned vehicles have emerged as a key weapon in wars in Ukraine and Iran, and top Pentagon officials say the U.S. must significantly increase its funding of both drones and counter-drone systems.

“Drone warfare is rapidly reshaping the modern battlefield,” Jules Hurst III, the acting undersecretary of defense, comptroller, told reporters during a budget briefing at the Pentagon.

“This budget is the largest investment in drone warfare and counter-drone technology in U.S. history.”

Israel disciplines 2 soldiers for destruction of Jesus statue

One of the soldiers photographed the other using what appears to be a sledgehammer to hack down the crucifix during military operations in the Lebanese village. The two will be held in military detention for 30 days.

“The soldiers’ conduct completely deviated from IDF orders and values,” said a military statement, using the acronym for the Israeli military.

The disciplinary measures come after the photo of the incident attracted worldwide attention and condemnations from Christian religious leaders. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar have also denounced the incident.

The military said that six other soldiers who stood by without intervening would be summoned for conversations with higher-ups and that military protocol for dealing with religious buildings and artifacts were re-emphasized to troops in the area.

Pakistan calls for Iran ceasefire extension in meeting with US diplomat

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister met U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Natalie Baker on Tuesday, urging that Washington and Iran extend the ceasefire and pursue diplomacy, the Foreign Ministry said.

In a statement, it said Ishaq Dar “underscored Pakistan’s consistent emphasis on dialogue and diplomacy as the only viable means to address challenges and achieve lasting regional peace and stability.”

Baker, in response, conveyed Washington’s appreciation for Pakistan’s constructive role in supporting regional peace and facilitating dialogue, the statement said.

More on the UAE as US weighs offering it a currency swap

The United Arab Emirates, an autocratically ruled federation of seven sheikdoms on the Arabian Peninsula that’s home to Dubai, became wealthy from its oil deposits. It pegs its currency, the dirham, to the U.S. dollar.

While it has been able to send some of its oil out via a pipeline to the Gulf of Oman, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has squeezed the country’s oil exports.

The UAE has an estimated $2.5 trillion in savings and sovereign wealth funds, but may be seeking the swap to “bolster investor confidence in the UAE’s financial position if the war were to drag on,” said Jason Tuvey, an analyst at Capital Economics.

Trump says administration is weighing currency swap for UAE

Trump confirmed in his CNBC interview that he’s considering a request from the United Arab Emirates Central bank for a currency swap to help secure dollar liquidity for the oil-rich economy that’s been rattled by the Iran conflict.

The president expressed surprise that the nation needs assistance, but made clear he was open to the prospect of making the move to help meet his ally’s concerns.

“I mean I’m surprised because they are really rich,” Trump said. He added, “You know, they’re very good for this country. So, yeah, if I could help them, I would.”

Trump says he doesn’t want to extend Iran ceasefire if talks with US progress

Trump was responding to a question during a live telephone interview Tuesday on CNBC, a business news network.

Asked if he would continue the ceasefire if there’s progress in the next round of Iran talks, Trump said, “Well, I don’t want to do that. We don’t have that much time.” He said Iran “had a choice” and “they have to negotiate.”

But it remained unclear when the ceasefire actually expires. Tuesday night was the deadline when the pause was announced two weeks ago, but Trump told Bloomberg News the ceasefire will expire Wednesday night.

Trump says he’s ready to resume Iran bombardment if talks don’t go well

In an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Trump was asked directly if he’d resume strikes if there isn’t progress in the coming talks in Islamabad.

“Well, I expect to be bombing because I think that’s a better attitude to go in with,” Trump said. “But, you know, we’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go.”

Pakistan says it tests locally made anti-ship cruise missile

The navy says it successfully conducted a live firing of the Taimoor air-launched missile.

The announcement comes amid the Pakistani navy’s ongoing efforts to escort merchant vessels transiting key routes including the Strait of Hormuz.

US forces board oil tanker sanctioned for smuggling Iranian oil

The Pentagon on social media says U.S. forces “conducted a right-of-visit maritime interdiction” and boarded the M/T Tifani “without incident.” Ship-tracking data showed the Tifani in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

The announcement described the boarding as happening overnight. It added that “international waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels.”

Regional officials say US and Iran arriving Wednesday for Round Two

Neither the U.S. nor Iran have publicly confirmed the timing of talks. Iranian state television has denied any official is already in Pakistan’s capital.

Pakistan-led mediators received confirmation that the top negotiators, Vance and Qalibaf, will arrive in Islamabad early Wednesday, the officials told The Associated Press. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

A two-week ceasefire is due to expire.

— Munir Ahmed and Samy Magdy

Germany calls on Iran to head to Pakistan for talks

Germany’s top diplomat has called on Iran to come to Islamabad for negotiations with the U.S.

“We are now urgently calling on Iran to come to Islamabad and engage in constructive negotiations with the United States,” Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Tuesday on the sidelines of the European Union foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.

Wadephul pointed out that Vance is ready to travel to Pakistan and that “Iran should now take this outstretched hand in the interest of its own people.”

He also called on the American side to continue to keep its openness to negotiate with Iran.

“I believe there is still a window of opportunity to end this war through negotiations,” Wadephul said.

The German foreign minister also called on Iran “to immediately restore free and safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.”

‘Most severe energy crisis in a generation,’ U.N. chief says

The conflict in the Middle East has triggered “the most severe energy crisis in a generation,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday, speaking remotely from New York to a climate conference in Berlin.

The current crisis, he said, makes it clear that “fossil fuels are not just wrecking our planet, they are holding economies hostage.”

Guterres said that the energy crisis should be solved without exacerbating the climate crisis and that can be done by investing in homegrown renewables, developing the infrastructure to support them and providing financing for less developed economies to transition away from fossil fuels.

Climate change and fuel price chaos warning

The Iran war has locked the world in much higher fossil fuel costs for months and likely years to come, U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell said on Tuesday in Berlin.

“Fossil fuel driven stagflation is now stalking economies, driving up prices, driving down growth, pushing budgets deeper into the quagmire of debt and stripping away governments’ policy options and autonomy,” he said.

He referred to climate change and fuel price chaos as “twin reapers” and said that climate cooperation and faster investments in clean energy were needed to overcome this challenge.

15 bridges hit in Lebanon since war started

Lebanon’s public works and transport minister says 15 bridges have been damaged or destroyed during the latest war.

Fayez Rasamny told the local LBC TV channel on Tuesday that the government still doesn't have a final estimate for the damage caused by the almost seven-week Israel-Hezbollah war.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war was halted by a 10-day ceasefire that went into effect last week.

Rasamny said that he believes that the losses could be worth between $7 billion and $8 billion. He said that the government was waiting until there is a permanent ceasefire before reaching out to donors.

Israeli strikes kill 5 in Gaza

Israeli strikes killed at least five people in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, hospital authorities said.

Four suspected militants were killed when a drone strike hit a security point overnight in the southern city of Khan Younis, the Nasser hospital said.

Another man was wounded in the strike, it said.

Israel’s military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The militant-manned point was around 4 kilometers (2½ miles) west of the so-called Yellow Line, separating the Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza, according to relatives of those killed.

In the northern town of Beit Lahiya, a 30-year-old woman was killed when the Israeli navy opened fire toward tents sheltering displaced people early Tuesday, the Shifa hospital said.

The Israeli military said that it wasn’t aware of attacks in Beit Lahiya.

The deaths were the latest among Palestinians in Gaza since a fragile October ceasefire deal took hold to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas.

No delegation from Iran in Islamabad, state TV says

Iranian state television on Tuesday issued an on-screen alert saying that “no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad ... so far” as speculation about possible talks with the United States grows.

The on-screen alert likely reflects the internal debate ongoing within Iran’s theocracy as it weighs how to respond to the U.S. Navy’s seizure of an Iranian container ship over the weekend.

Iranian state television long has been controlled by hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy.

So far, no official has acknowledged that a delegation will be heading to Islamabad, where officials have been on standby for days now for the possible talks.

Vance is expected to lead an American team to the talks.

Iran has offered no word on who could lead its delegation.

Last time, Qalibaf led the Iranian side.

China says war is at ‘critical stage of transition’

China says that it hopes all parties can maintain the momentum for peace talks, as the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war is set to expire Wednesday.

“The current situation is at a critical stage of transition between war and peace. At such a moment, it is all the more necessary for all parties to show the utmost sincerity, remain committed to a political solution, maintain the momentum of the ceasefire and negotiations,” Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.

While it’s not directly involved in ongoing mediation efforts, diplomats have said that China had pressed for Iran to attend the first round of negotiations.

Pakistan says China supports efforts to facilitate talks

China has expressed support for Pakistan’s efforts to facilitate engagement between the United States and Iran for peace and stability in the region and beyond, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry said Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong conveyed the message during a meeting with Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad, where both sides discussed the latest regional developments.

Dar reaffirmed the “all-weather” Pakistan-China strategic cooperative partnership, underscoring strong bilateral ties and the importance of continued high-level exchanges, the statement said.

Thousands of security personnel deploy in Islamabad

Security has been tightened across Pakistan’s capital, where authorities have deployed thousands of personnel and increased patrols along routes leading to the airport, as U.S. and Iranian delegations are expected to arrive this week for the second round of talks, witnesses and officials said Tuesday.

Security arrangements appear stricter than those put in place during the first round of talks held in the capital on April 11 and 12, following diplomatic efforts by Pakistan and regional countries, including China, to ease tensions in the region.

Pakistan hasn't announced final dates for the talks, however.

Analysts say the scale of the security measures suggests the possibility of high-level participation if negotiations make progress.

“The arrangements this time are markedly different from those during the first round,” said Syed Mohammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security analyst.

“Pakistan appears to be preparing for the possibility of visits by top U.S. and Iranian leaders if the talks advance to a stage where an agreement could be signed,” he told The Associated Press.

EU ministers meet on energy, jet fuel concerns

Transportation ministers from across the 27-nation European Union are meeting in Brussels Tuesday to discuss spiking energy prices because of the war in Iran, and how to protect consumers at home and at the pump after the head of the International Energy Agency warned that Europe has “maybe six weeks” jet fuel supplies remaining.

“This evolving geopolitical crisis in the Middle East has highlighted that Europe may have a short-term issue in supply of fuel,” said Cyprus Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades, who is chairing the virtual meeting.

He said that there is currently no crisis, but that the bloc must prepare for the possibility of shortages.

“If this ever happens, it will affect connectivity, it will affect every citizen in the union,” Vafeades said.

“We need to be ready to avoid queues at the gas stations if this ever happens.”

Pakistan and Egyptian foreign minister speak

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday spoke with Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty to discuss the latest regional developments, as part of a diplomatic push linked to a possible second round of talks between the United States and Iran.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry in Islamabad said in a statement that both leaders emphasized the importance of dialogue and engagement for peace and stability and agreed to remain in close contact.

The statement gave no further details.

While Pakistani officials have expressed confidence that Iran will send a delegation late Tuesday, there has been no formal announcement from Tehran.

Trump said over the weekend that he's sending a U.S. delegation to Pakistan.

Russian authorities lift flight restrictions

Russia’s Transport Ministry has announced that Rosaviatsia, Russia’s civil aviation authority, “lifted recommendations for Russian airlines to temporary halt sales of tickets to flights to and from" the United Arab Emirates, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Restrictions on flights via Iranian airspace have also been lifted, the report quoted the ministry as saying in an online statement.

Flights to Iranian airports and transit flights over the country will be carried out with recommendations from local aviation authorities taken into account, the report said.

Restrictions on flights to the Middle East were introduced in February.

Man hanged over January protests in Iran

Iran said Tuesday that it hanged a man convicted after being accused of setting fire to a mosque in northern Tehran during nationwide protests in January.

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency identified the man as Amir Ali Mir Jafari.

There was no immediate information about Jafari among activists who follow Iran.

Iran has been accused of repeatedly holding closed-door trials against suspects who can’t challenge the evidence against them.

Iran already has hanged people from the January protests, something that Trump had described as a red line before the recent war.

Asian shares mixed and oil prices slip

Shares are mixed in Asia and oil prices have slipped following the latest rise of U.S.-Iran tensions.

The lackluster start to trading Tuesday followed a modest retreat on Wall Street.

On Monday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.2% from its all-time high and the Dow industrials edged less than 0.1% lower. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil remains above $95.

Trump attacked critics after a second round of talks with Iran was thrown into doubt by the U.S. Navy’s seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship.

Financial markets have had vicious swings, both up and down, since the war began because of uncertainty about how long it may last.

The fear is that a long-term disruption could keep so much oil and natural gas off global markets that it creates a punishing wave of inflation for the global economy.

A proposed constitutional amendment backed by Democratic officials would bypass the state's bipartisan redistricting commission to allow use of new congressional districts approved by state lawmakers in this year's midterm elections.

The referendum, which needs a simple majority to pass, tests Democrats' ability to push back against President Donald Trump, who started the gerrymandering competition between states after successfully urging Texas Republicans to redraw congressional districts in their favor last year. Virginia is the second state, after California last fall, to put the question to voters.

It also tests voters' willingness to accept districts gerrymandered for political advantage — coming just six years after Virginia voters approved an amendment meant to diminish such partisan gamesmanship by shifting redistricting away from the legislature.

Even if Democrats are successful Tuesday, the public vote may not be the final word. The state Supreme Court is considering whether the redistricting plan is illegal in a case that could make the referendum results meaningless.

Virginia Democrats are following California's lead

Congressional redistricting typically is done once a decade after each U.S. census. But Trump urged Texas Republicans to redistrict ahead of the November elections in hopes of winning several additional seats and maintaining the GOP's narrow House majority in the face of political headwinds that typically favor the party that is out of power during midterms.

The Texas gambit led to a burst of redistricting nationwide. So far, Republicans believe they can win up to nine more House seats in newly redrawn districts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio.

Democrats think they can win up to five more seats in California, where voters approved a mid-decade redistricting effort last November, and one more seat under new court-imposed districts in Utah. Democrats hope to offset the rest of that gap in Virginia, where they decisively flipped 13 seats in the state House and won back the governor’s office last year.

Voters focus on fairness, with different perspectives

The stream of voters was steady Tuesday at a recreation center in the Old Town area of Alexandria, Virginia.

Matt Wallace, 31, said he votes regularly but this election has additional emphasis.

“I think the redistricting issue across the country is unfortunate, that we’ve had to resort to temporary redistricting in order to sort of alter our elections across the country," he said. Wallace said he voted for the Democratic redistricting amendment "to help balance the scales a bit until things get back to normal.”

Katie Reusch, 35, said she thought the amendment was necessary to respond to the Republicans' redrawing of congressional districts in Texas last year: “You can’t just say we’re in power so we’re changing things so we stay in power,” she said.

But Joanna Miller, 29, said she voted against the redistricting measure, “because I want my vote to count in a fair way.” Miller said she was more concerned about representation in Virginia than trying to offset actions in other states.

“I want my vote and my representation to matter this fall,” she said.

That concern is particularly acute among conservative voters in the state's rural areas, many of which would be drawn into congressional districts that will be dominated by Democratic-leaning cities and suburbs.

Ruth Ann McCartney, voting in the town of South Hill, a few miles north of the North Carolina border, said she cast her ballot against the amendment.

“I look at it more, not really in terms of Republican versus Democrat,” she said. “I look at it more as we don’t have the population as northern Virginia. And as a rural area, we just need to be heard.”

Political parties made a big push in Virginia

Leaders of both major parties see Tuesday’s vote as crucial to their chances to win a House majority in the fall. Trump weighed in via social media Tuesday morning, telling Virginians to “vote ‘no’ to save your country!”

Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, rallied with opponents of the measure Monday night, calling the redistricting plan “dishonest” and “brazenly deceptive.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters at the Capitol earlier in the day that a vote to approve the redraw “will serve as a check and balance on this out-of-control Trump administration.”

A committee supporting the Democratic redistricting effort had raised more than $64 million — three times as much as the roughly $20 million raised by opponents, according to finance reports filed less than two weeks before the election.

The back-and-forth battle over congressional districts is expected to continue in Florida, where the Republican-led legislature is scheduled to convene April 28 for a special session that could result in a more favorable map for Republicans.

A lobster-like district could aid Democratic efforts

In Virginia, Democrats currently hold six of the 11 U.S. House seats under districts that were imposed by the state Supreme Court in 2021 after a bipartisan commission failed to agree on a map based on the latest census data.

The new plan could help Democrats win as many as 10 seats. Five are anchored in Democratic-heavy northern Virginia, including one shaped like a lobster that stretches into Republican-leaning rural areas.

Revisions to four other districts across Richmond, southern Virginia and Hampton Roads dilute the voting power of conservative blocs in those areas. And a reshaped district in parts of western Virginia lumps together three Democratic-leaning college towns to offset other Republican voters.

The Virginia redistricting plan is "pushing back against what other states have done in trying to stack the deck for Donald Trump in those congressional elections,” Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger said during an online rally last week.

Ads for the “yes to redistricting” campaign featuring former President Barack Obama have flooded the airwaves.

Opponents have distributed campaign materials citing past statements from Obama and Spanberger criticizing gerrymandering, but those were before Trump pushed Republican states to redraw their congressional maps in advance of this year's midterms.

Democrats “were all against gerrymandering before they were for it,” Virginia Republican Party Chairman Jeff Ryer said.

Virginia court weighs whether lawmakers acted illegally

Virginia lawmakers endorsed a constitutional amendment allowing their mid-decade redistricting last fall, then passed it again in January as part of a two-step process that requires an intervening election for an amendment to be placed on the ballot. The measure allows lawmakers to redistrict until returning the task to a bipartisan commission after the 2030 census.

In February, they passed a new U.S. House map to take effect pending the outcome of the redistricting referendum. Republicans have filed multiple legal challenges against the effort.

A Tazewell County judge ruled that the redistricting push was illegal for several reasons. Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. said lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session.

He ruled that their initial vote failed to occur before the public began casting ballots in last year’s general election and thus didn’t count toward the two-step process. He also ruled that the state failed to publish the amendment three months before that election, as required by law.

If the state Supreme Court agrees with the lower court, the results from Tuesday's vote could be rendered moot.

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Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed in South Hill, Virginia, Gary Fields in Alexandria, Virginia, and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.

Soccer's governing body announced Tuesday it will make more tickets available at 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday for all 104 games in Categories 1, 2 and 3 plus the new “front category” pricing it added this month.

The new category sparked online complaints from fans who said they thought the better seats in the categories they had bought tickets for were withheld and they were assigned less favorable locations.

FIFA in December put tickets on sale at prices ranging from $140 for Category 3 in the first round to $8,680 for the final, then raised prices to as much as $10,990 when sales reopened on April 1.

FIFA did not respond to an April 9 request for comment about the new ticket categories it added.

Also Tuesday, The Athletic reported that tickets sales are lagging for the U.S. opener against Paraguay on June 12 at Inglewood, California. It said a document distributed to local organizers dated April 10 said 40,934 tickets had been purchased for the U.S.-Paraguay game and 50,661 for the Iran-New Zealand contest on April 15. FIFA projects SoFi's World Cup capacity at about 69,650, noting it may change.

FIFA's December sale priced U.S.-Paraguay tickets at $1,120, $1,940 and $2,735, and Iran-New Zealand seats at $140, $380 and $450.

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

“The president never once asked me to commit to any particular interest rate decision, and nor would I agree to it if he had,” Kevin Warsh said under questioning by the Senate Banking Committee. “I will be an independent actor if confirmed as chair of the Federal Reserve.”

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

The comments underscore the challenge faced by Warsh, 56, a financier and former top Fed official whom Trump named in January to replace the current Fed chair, Jerome Powell. Democrats on the committee accused Warsh of flip-flopping on interest rates over the years, supporting higher interest rates under Democratic presidents and advocating rate cuts during Trump's time in office. Investors are watching the hearing closely to see how Warsh balances Trump’s demands with worsening inflation, as the war in Iran pushes up the price of gasoline.

Higher inflation typically leads the Fed to raise rates, or at least keep them unchanged, rather than cut them. When the Fed changes its key rate, it can affect mortgages, auto loans, and business borrowing.

Warsh told the Senate Banking Committee that one of his top goals would be to fight inflation, which remains elevated at 3.3% annually.

“Congress tasked the Fed with the mission to ensure price stability, without excuse or equivocation, argument or anguish,” Warsh said. “Inflation is a choice, and the Fed must take responsibility for it.”

Warsh would be in a tough spot if confirmed. Inflation is worsening, making it much harder for the Fed to implement the interest rate cuts Trump so desperately seeks. The conflict could also slow the economy as well as hiring. And if Warsh ultimately becomes chair, he may very well find his predecessor, Powell, still sitting on the Fed’s governing board, an uncomfortable arrangement that hasn’t occurred since the late 1940s.

A former top official at the Fed and a wealthy investor, Warsh, faced a range of tough questions at the hearing Tuesday. Democrats have raised the issue of what they see as a lack of transparency regarding some of his vast financial holdings, which total more than $100 million, according to a recent disclosure.

Warsh said the Fed's political independence is “essential,” and that the central bank wasn't threatened when “elected officials — presidents, senators, or members of the House — state their views on interest rates." Trump has repeatedly urged Powell to cut the Fed's key rate from its current level of about 3.6% to as low as 1%, a view almost no economist shares.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said that Trump has not just stated his opinions on rates, but has sought to fire a Fed governor and is investigating Powell for recent testimony about a building renovation.

“The Senate should not be aiding and abetting Donald Trump’s illegal takeover of the Fed by installing his chosen sock puppet as chair,” she said.

While the long-delayed hearing is a necessary step for Warsh, it's not clear when the committee may even be able to vote on his nomination. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said Warsh's credentials are “impeccable” but stood by his position that the investigation into Powell must be dropped before he will vote for him.

“We have got to get rid of this investigation,” Tillis said, “so I can support your nomination.”

Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota, told reporters Monday that there is "a majority of the committee that’s not going to move this nomination forward, especially while this sham of a criminal investigation is going on. ... It feels a bit like we’re going through the motions when we really have not addressed the fundamental challenges that this nomination has.”

The turmoil could make a potential transition from Powell to Warsh an unusually turbulent one for the world’s most pivotal central bank, which has historically experienced smooth transfers of power. Should the change in leadership prove particularly bumpy, it could unnerve markets and lift longer-term interest rates.

Powell's term as chair ends May 15. He said last month that he would remain as chair until a successor is named. Powell also is serving a separate term as a member of the Fed's governing board that lasts until January 2028. Fed chairs typically leave the board when their terms as chair end, but Powell said last month he would remain on the board, even if a new chair is approved, until the investigation is dropped.

Trump said he would fire Powell if he attempted to remain at the Fed. Yet Trump's previous attempt to remove a Fed governor, Lisa Cook, has been tied up in courts. During oral arguments in January, a majority of justices on the Supreme Court appeared to lean toward letting Cook keep her job.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that 14-year-old Aws al-Naasan and 32-year-old Jihad Abu Naim were killed in an attack by Israeli settlers and soldiers on the village of al-Mughayyir that left three others wounded.

Kazem Al-Hajj Mohammad, who witnessed the shooting, said that there was a volley of gunfire after settlers and the army arrived. School administrators told parents to come get their children and were met with more gunfire and tear gas. That’s when the two were killed, he said.

He and other mourners carried the two bodies sheathed in Palestinian flags out of the Ramallah Medical Complex, where the dead and wounded were taken after the shooting.

“This is our daily reality,” he said, noting that the role of settlers and the army had become interchangeable amid daily violence, displacement, land grabs and livestock seizures.

Israel’s military said that the gunman was a civilian, an army reservist who wasn't mobilized. The military said that he hadn't been arrested, but that the incident was under investigation. It said that troops had responded to reports of rock-throwing toward an Israeli civilian vehicle.

Al-Mughayyir, a village 9 miles (15 kilometers) northeast of Ramallah, has been an epicenter of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli settlers and soldiers, with Palestinians reporting dozens of attacks in 2025, including lethal shootings, arson and vandalism. The main road leading to al-Mughayyir has been frequently closed by a military gate, and residents say they have gradually lost access to their agricultural lands and olive groves.

Many of the groves were razed during an Israeli army raid last summer, after a Palestinian gunman allegedly opened fire on settlers grazing sheep near the village. Eight settler outposts now encircle al-Mughayyir, including Adei Ad, which was legalized by Israel’s government in December.

Another 14-year-old, Mohammed Naasan, was killed there in January. Hamdi al-Naasan, Aws' father, was killed by settlers in a 2019 clash that drew international condemnation, including by the United Nations.

Al-Naasan and Abu Naim are the latest Palestinians to be killed this year in the occupied West Bank, where 10 people have been killed by Israeli settlers — surpassing the total killed by settlers in 2025. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 240 Palestinians were killed in the territory last year, the vast majority by Israel’s military, while nine deaths were attributed to settlers.

But rights groups caution that the distinction can be blurred. The Israeli advocacy group Yesh Din, which tracks violence in the West Bank, has reported that lethal violence is increasingly being carried out by “settler-soldiers” from reserve battalions, both when they're working and when they're off duty.

“The availability of uniforms and firearms has given a vast number of settlers, some of them with a history of ideologically motivated offenses, the opportunity to engage in illegal acts against Palestinians, using military equipment, whether by abusing their powers while on duty or off duty altogether,” it said in a February report titled “Settlers in Uniform.”

Yesh Din noted an active duty reservist wearing civilian clothes opened fire in the village of Deir Jarir — also northeast of Ramallah — in December. Israel's military also opened an investigation into a reservist who shot and killed a Palestinian in the same village on April 11.

Israeli strikes kill 5 in Gaza

Also on Tuesday, Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, hospital authorities said, including four suspected militants who were killed when a drone strike hit a Hamas-controlled security point just after midnight in Khan Younis.

Nasser Hospital, which received the casualties, said another man was wounded in the strike in Amal, a Khan Younis neighborhood around 4 kilometers (2.4 miles) west of the so-called Yellow Line, separating the Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza, according to relatives of those killed.

Israel's military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Relatives said the militant-manned checkpoint was being used to police the area and protect people and their properties.

“They were protecting people and their properties,” said Ahmed Musa Abu Helal, a relative of the two casualties. “This is a cold-blooded killing that didn’t respect the truce."

In the northern town of Beit Lahiya, a 30-year-old woman was killed when Israel's navy opened fire toward tents sheltering displaced people early Tuesday, Shifa Hospital said.

Israel's military said it wasn’t aware of attacks in Beit Lahiya.

The deaths were the latest among Palestinians in the coastal enclave since a fragile ceasefire deal in October attempted to halt the more than two-year-long war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

While the heaviest fighting has subsided, the shaky ceasefire has seen almost daily Israeli fire. Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones, killing more than 780 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.

The health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. But it does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

Militants have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to that and other violations. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.

——— Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank and Magdy from Cairo.

Worrell reported a 72% overall conviction rate for the first quarter of 2026.

“This data reflects the hard work of our attorneys and staff to deliver justice, and also the stability that we’re continuing to build within the office,” Worrell said.

According to Worrell, her office recorded an 80% conviction rate on property crimes and 79% on violent crimes during the first quarter. Narcotics cases saw a 37% conviction rate.

Worrell also noted that her office is still not receiving $500,000 in federal victim advocate funding, which she said is being blocked by the state attorney general. She said her office has declined to sign an agreement requiring a caseload deliverable of 1,000 child abuse and neglect cases — a number she said does not reflect reality, given that her office received only 271 such cases in all of 2025.

‘Missing Middle’ juvenile justice initiative

During the news conference, Worrell announced the launch of the Missing Middle Youth Initiative, a community-driven task force aimed at identifying gaps between juvenile prevention and prosecution.

“The Missing Middle Youth Initiative convenes community leaders, system partners, and stakeholders to address critical gaps in the continuum between prevention and prosecution,” Worrell said.

The task force is expected to develop legislative recommendations ahead of the next legislative session and will include subcommittees focused on youth violent crime trends, law enforcement challenges, and Department of Juvenile Justice reform.

Worrell pointed to a concerning trend in juvenile felonies: while the total number of juvenile cases dropped from roughly 6,500 in 2010 to about 2,500 in 2025, the share involving felonies remained high — about 1,500 felonies out of 6,500 cases in 2010 versus roughly 1,000 felonies out of 2,500 cases in 2025. 

Seven people were wounded by gunshots, the local government said. The nature of the other injuries was not disclosed, but some people fell when shooting started, including some who were climbing on the pyramids.

The assailant, who acted alone, shot and killed himself, authorities said, and security officials found a gun, a knife and ammunition at the scene.

Taken to hospitals were six people from the U.S., three from Colombia, one from Russia, one from Brazil, one from the Netherlands and one from Canada, the local government said. The youngest person who was hurt was 6; the oldest was 61, Mexican authorities said.

In an update Tuesday morning, Mexico's security cabinet said the injured patients were being treated at a clinic after spending the night in stable condition.

Authorities identified the attacker as 27-year-old Julio César Jasso Ramírez, a native of Guerrero, Mexico.

The assailant carried a tactical-style backpack containing an analog cellphone and bus tickets, said José Luis Cervantes Martínez, the attorney general of the state of Mexico, which includes Teotihuacan.

Martínez also noted the presence of “literature, images and manuscripts" related to "violent incidents known to have occurred in the United States in April 1999,” an apparent reference to the deadly shooting at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, in which 12 students and a teacher were killed.

The Teotihuacan pyramids, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are a series of massive structures on the outskirts of Mexico City built by three different ancient civilizations. As one of Mexico’s most important tourist destinations, the site drew more than 1.8 million international visitors last year, according to government figures.

The shooting took place shortly after 11:30 a.m. Monday, when dozens of tourists were at the top of the Pyramid of the Moon. The gunman fired upward, according to a tour guide who was at the scene and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

“Some people, because they were scared ... threw themselves face-down on the ground, and the rest of us started to go down,” the guide said, recounting how the shooter began firing as tourists descended the pyramid’s steps.

Another group of visitors lay motionless on the pyramid’s platform to avoid being targeted.

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

Ternus will take over as chief executive in September for Tim Cook, who turned Apple into a $4 trillion tech colossus during his 15-year run after the death of co-founder Steve Jobs.

Ternus faces challenges that will force him to step out of his comfort zone in hardware engineering. Beyond finding ways to keep Apple competitive in the artificial intelligence race, he will need to navigate supply chain questions and relationships with figures like President Donald Trump, who offered public praise for his predecessor on Tuesday.

Ternus, 50, has spent almost his entire career with Apple. He joined the company 25 years ago and has spent the past five years overseeing the engineering that underlies the iPhone, iPad and Mac.

It made him the prime contender to succeed Cook who on Monday, when Apple announced the change in leadership, hailed Ternus as “without question the right person to lead Apple into the future.”

Ternus worked on some of Apple's signature products under Cook, including the Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple Vision Pro. He was also involved in the MacBook Neo, "arguably one of the most disruptive products” that Apple has released in a while, said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight.

“This mentorship will undoubtedly ensure a smooth transition, and initially, I expect very few changes to the company’s strategy,” Wood said.

The appointment appeared to be carefully timed, following Apple's 50th anniversary celebrations and ahead of its annual WWDC developers conference in June.

The change also arrives at a pivotal time for the Cupertino, California, company. While Cook led Apple through an iPhone-fueled era of prosperity, Apple has fallen behind in the AI race. Apple has stumbled in its efforts to deliver new features built on AI, as was promised nearly two years ago.

“The challenge for the new CEO is really to make sure Apple is able to crack AI as the new user interface and reinvent human machine interaction," Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson said.

Wood says attention at WWDC will be on the new CEO's AI strategy, and what the company will do next after turning earlier this year to Google — an early leader in the AI race — to help make the iPhone’s virtual assistant Siri more conversational and versatile.

“A big strategic question is how far Apple will invest in building its own AI platform versus relying on other companies’ models and platforms,” Wood said.

Apple also faces a turbulent market amid geopolitical uncertainty, Wood said.

"The consumer electronics industry faces a perfect storm, with memory chip shortages and the war in the Middle East having widespread implications for consumer confidence. Apple will also need to decide how much it wants to continue its deep reliance on China for manufacturing,” he said.

Being Apple CEO will also require soft skills including developing relationships with important figures. Cook cultivated ties with Trump as he navigated the company through business challenges including Trump's trade and tariff war targeting countries in Asia, where Apple has extensive manufacturing supply chains.

Trump noted his relationship with Cook in a social media post on Tuesday morning, writing that “it began with a phone call” at the beginning of his first term, when Cook asked for help with “a fairly large problem that only I, as President, could fix.”

“That was the beginning of a long and very nice relationship,” Trump said.

Ternus is not well known outside of the Apple universe. He joined the company in July 2001, according to his LinkedIn profile, which does not have any posts.

Before joining Apple, he spent four years as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems. He graduated in 1997 from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the swim team and for his senior project developed a mechanical feeding arm for quadriplegics controlled by head movements.

In a 2024 commencement speech to the university's engineering school, Ternus said he was intimidated when he first started working at Apple and wasn't sure he belonged. He learned to “always assume you’re as smart as anyone else in the room but never assume you know as much as they do.”

“There will always be new skills to master and new people to learn from,” he said.

Ternus said in Apple's announcement that he was "humbled to step into this role, and I promise to lead with the values and vision that have come to define this special place for half a century.”

Frosty nights aren't unusual this time of year. Across the region, the average date of the last frost ranges from mid-April to early June, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. But the first half of April was unusually warm for much of the region, and that, coupled with the quick drop in temperature, could cause some problems.

Boston saw temperatures climb into the high 70s (around 26 Celsius) last week, with cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. reaching temperatures in the 90s (around 32 Celsius), according to the National Weather Service. By the weekend, temperatures across the region dropped into the 50s (around 10 Celsius), with some areas in New England seeing snow showers.

And the cold continued into this week: The National Weather Service issued a freeze warning for Monday night and Tuesday morning for parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.

In Ohio, the warm weather pushed peach and apple trees to start budding early at Apple Hill Orchards, which includes about 80 acres (32 hectares) in Mansfield and 110 acres (45 hectares) in Fredericktown. But the temperature then dropped into the low 20s (around minus 5 Celsius), ruining one variety of peach, said owner Anne Joudrey.

“Farming is farming, and you never know what you’re gonna get, but we had a pretty good bloom, so we were expecting a pretty good crop,” she said Monday.

The apples were doing OK, she said, and it helps that the trees are planted on high ground so cold air drains away.

“We should fare pretty well, hopefully,” she said. “But you never know.”

In Vermont, the temperature swing affected operations at Understory Farm in Bridport, which grows cut flowers. Tulips that were supposed to be ready for Mother's Day in mid-May have already bloomed in the farm's greenhouses, said owner Gregory Witscher.

“That just means that we have to harvest them all at the same time,” he said. “We have to harvest them and store them with the bulbs on in crates in a walk-in cooler for longer.”

Witscher grows about 50 varieties of flowers for wholesale markets. Weather fluctuations require flexibility, he said, and it's become more common for small vegetable and flower farms to have row covers or heaters to protect plants from cold or shade cloth for extreme heat.

“With the hot weather and then the cold weather, I think it's intense, and it makes things challenging,” he said. “The longer I do this, the more I want to have as many options as possible and have a lot of tools and resources available to be extremely nimble.”

On this edition of Trooper Steve on Patrol, I got a firsthand look at Seminole County’s new take on a Citizens Academy.

Now, you’ve probably heard of these programs before, usually hosted by law enforcement agencies. But this one? It’s bigger, broader, and designed to give you access to multiple departments that keep your community running every day.

Think of it as a mix between a Citizens Academy and an open house.

Throughout the next several weeks, Seminole County is opening its doors to the public, inviting residents to step inside and see how departments like Public Works, Sanitation, Parks and Recreation, and even the Sheriff’s Office operate — both administratively and operationally.

We spent time with the Public Works Department, where the work often goes unnoticed but impacts you every single day. From managing and timing traffic signals to replacing street signs and maintaining roadways, there’s a lot happening behind the curtain that keeps traffic flowing and communities safe.

And here’s the best part: this isn’t just a presentation.

It’s interactive. You’ll get a chance to ask questions, meet the people doing the work, and walk away with a better understanding of how decisions are made and how services are delivered.

If you’re looking to get more connected with your community or just curious about how things actually get done, this is a great opportunity to take a closer look.

The next opportunity to check it out is happening on Thursday, with additional sessions scheduled through May.

For a full list of events and how to participate, head over to Seminole County’s official website.

As always, we’ll see you out there on the next Trooper Steve on Patrol.

President and CEO Michael Reinsdorf made it clear after firing executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley near the end of the season that he wanted Donovan to remain on the job. He said anyone who wanted to bring in a new coach was “probably not the right candidate for us.”

Now, it looks like whoever the Bulls hire to run their organization will get that opportunity.

“While we clearly wanted Billy to return as our head coach, we had open dialogue about the importance of respecting the process of bringing in new basketball operations leadership," Reinsdorf said in a news release. “Together, we mutually agreed that giving that person the freedom to shape the organization was the best approach for everyone involved.”

The 60-year-old Donovan consistently has said he still has a passion for coaching. The decision to leave the Bulls was made “after a series of thoughtful and extensive discussions with ownership regarding the future of the organization,” Donovan said in the team release announcing the move.

“I believe it is in the best interest of the Bulls, to allow the new leader to build out the staff as they see fit,” he said.

Donovan was arguably the top candidate on the market when the Bulls hired him in September 2020, a few months after Karnisovas and Eversley got their jobs.

Chicago’s lone playoff appearance since all three were hired came during the 2021-22 season, when it finished sixth in the Eastern Conference at 46-36 and got knocked out by Milwaukee in the first round. The Bulls lost in the play-in tournament the next three years.

Donovan got a contract extension last offseason. Reinsdorf said after firing Karnisovas and Eversley that the problem was the roster construction — not the coach.

Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, Michael's father, praised Donovan for the “class and genuine care” that he brought to the organization.

“We wanted Billy to continue as our head coach — that was never in question,” Jerry Reinsdorf said. “But through honest conversations, we all agreed that giving our new head of basketball operations the right to build out his staff was the most important thing for the future of this franchise. That is the kind of person Billy is — he put the Bulls first.”

Karnisovas’ inability to land a franchise cornerstone player and refusal to give the Bulls a better shot at the No. 1 pick by rebuilding were glaring. He finally changed course before this year’s trade deadline, dealing Nikola Vucevic to Boston, Kevin Huerter to Detroit, Coby White to Charlotte and Chicago product Ayo Dosunmu to Minnesota. The Bulls loaded up on second-round draft picks and did not get any first-rounders in return.

One of the players Chicago got in return was Jaden Ivey from Detroit. Chicago waived him following anti-LGBTQ+ comments about religion he made in videos posted on his Instagram account.

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

The testimony by Olly Robbins increases the heat on Starmer, who is facing calls to resign over the decision to appoint Mandelson, a scandal-tainted politician and friend of Jeffrey Epstein, to one of the U.K.’s most important diplomatic posts.

Robbins, the former top civil servant in the Foreign Office, said there was an “atmosphere of pressure” from Starmer’s 10 Downing St. office to approve the appointment so Mandelson could be in the post at the start of U.S. President Donald Trump ’s second term.

He told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee there had been “a very, very strong expectation” that Mandelson “needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible.” He said Downing Street had “a generally dismissive attitude” toward the requirement for tough security checks.

The prime minister fired Robbins last week after the revelation that Mandelson was approved for the job in January 2025 against the recommendation of the government's security vetting agency.

Robbins said the vetting agency considered Mandelson a “borderline case” and was “leaning toward recommending against” giving him security clearance. Robbins cleared him anyway, based on advice that the risks could be managed, he said.

Robbins said the concerns about Mandelson didn't relate to his relationship with Epstein, but he declined to explain to lawmakers what led the government's vetting agency to flag him as a potential security risk.

Mandelson had to resign twice from senior posts in previous Labour Party governments because of scandals over money and ethics. A separate background report prepared before he was appointed ambassador flagged potential business links to Russia and China as a concern.

Politicians wanted the appointment approved

Starmer has called it “staggering” that Foreign Office officials failed to tell him about the security concerns, which he says he only found out about last week. Robbins said the rules bar details of the sensitive vetting process from being shared except in “exceptional circumstances.”

Starmer announced the choice of Mandelson in December 2024, before intensive security checks were carried out. Robbins said he was “very conscious” that refusing Mandelson security clearance would have caused “a real problem for the government and a problem for the country” in its relations with the Trump administration.

Robbins declined to identify any individuals as being behind the pressure. Starmer's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, a protégé of Mandelson, resigned in February, saying he took responsibility for the decision to appoint Mandelson.

The leader of the opposition Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, said Starmer "personally decided to appoint a serious known national security risk to our most sensitive diplomatic post.

“The prime minister is not fit for office," she said. “It is time for him to go.”

Starmer acknowledged on Monday that he made the wrong judgment when he picked Mandelson for the job, but said he would have withdrawn the appointment if he’d known about the failed security vetting.

Starmer fired Mandelson in September, nine months into the job, when new details emerged about his friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.

The U.K. leader has ordered a review of security concerns arising from Mandelson’s access to sensitive information while ambassador.

Questions over Starmer's judgment

Critics say the Mandelson appointment is more evidence of bad judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps since he led the center-left Labour Party to a landslide election victory in July 2024.

He picked Mandelson as ambassador despite being warned by his staff that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein exposed the government to “reputational risk.” Mandelson's expertise as a former European Union trade chief and contacts among global elites were considered assets in dealing with the Trump administration.

Starmer says he won't resign, but the scandal has caused gloom among lawmakers in his center-left Labour Party, already anxious about its dire poll ratings. Starmer already defused one potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to quit over the Mandelson appointment.

He could face a new challenge if, as expected, Labour takes a hammering in local and regional elections on May 7, which give voters a chance to pass a midterm verdict on the government.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said he had raised concerns about the choice of ambassador, but didn’t think Starmer should resign over the debacle.

“If every time a prime minister made a mistake they resigned, we would shuttle through prime ministers like nobody’s business,” Miliband told the BBC.

Mandelson is under police investigation for suspected misconduct in public office after a trove of Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. Justice Department in January included emails suggesting that Mandelson had passed on sensitive — and potentially market-moving — government information to Epstein in 2009, after the global financial crisis.

British police launched a criminal investigation and arrested Mandelson in February. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He doesn't face allegations of sexual misconduct.

Voters in the Commonwealth are considering a ballot measure that would amend Virginia’s constitution to give the Democratic-majority General Assembly temporary power to redraw the state’s congressional districts. It’s the latest move in an escalating redistricting arms race that began in July 2025, when Texas Republican lawmakers redrew their state’s congressional map to favor Republicans at President Donald Trump’s urging.

Democrats hold six of Virginia’s 11 congressional seats, but if a plan passed by the legislature in February and signed by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger is enacted, the party could gain the upper hand in 10 districts, a net pickup of four seats.

The new boundaries would be in place in time for November’s midterm congressional elections, where just a handful of seats could determine which party controls the House for the last two years of Trump’s final term.

Under the proposal, state lawmakers would retain the power to redraw district boundaries until October 2030, when the authority would revert to the state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission. The commission would create new maps for the 2032 election after the census.

Spanberger and former President Barack Obama are among the high-profile Democrats who have endorsed the referendum, saying it's a necessary response to Republican-initiated mid-decade redistricting in other states. But groups opposed to the measure have also prominently featured the two in campaign materials alongside their past quotes critical of gerrymandering. Former GOP Govs. Glenn Youngkin and George Allen oppose the measure.

Groups supporting the proposed amendment have far outraised those opposing it, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.

Democrats won Virginia in the past five presidential elections, but voters tend to be less party-loyal in state elections, as the governorship has changed party hands six times over the last 33 years.

If support for the measure falls mostly along party lines, the “Yes” side can expect overwhelming support in the state’s traditional Democratic strongholds of Northern Virginia and the cities of Richmond and Norfolk, while the “No” side should see wide margins in the smaller, more rural counties that make up the bulk of the state geographically.

Fairfax County, the state’s most populous, votes heavily Democratic, but Republican candidates who can chip away at the Democratic advantage there can win statewide. In 2021, Republicans Youngkin and then-attorney general candidate Jason Miyares received about 35% of the vote in Fairfax and won their races. By comparison, Trump lost Virginia in all three of his presidential campaigns, and his best showing in Fairfax was about 31% in 2024. Republican Winsome Earle-Sears received about 26% of the vote in her unsuccessful 2025 gubernatorial bid.

Other key jurisdictions to watch are Chesterfield and Stafford counties and the cities of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. Spanberger and Democratic presidential nominees Joe Biden and Kamala Harris carried all four areas in their statewide victories, but Youngkin swept the four in 2021. Majority “No” votes in any of these areas on election night could be an indicator of a very close race.

The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing side to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

Virginia does not conduct automatic recounts. On ballot questions, a group of 50 or more voters may request and pay for a recount if the vote margin is 1 percentage point or less. The government will pay for the recount if the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points or the recount changes the outcome. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The proposed constitutional amendment is the only statewide contest on the ballot.

It reads: “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”

A “yes” vote would support allowing the General Assembly to redraw congressional districts ahead of the midterms. A “no” vote would leave current boundaries unchanged until the next round of regularly scheduled redistricting after the 2030 census.

Who gets to vote?

Any voter registered in Virginia can cast a ballot. Eligible voters may register on Election Day.

How many voters are there?

There were 6,386,877 registered voters as of March 1. Virginia voters do not register by party.

How many people actually vote?

About 3.4 million votes were cast in the 2025 general election for Virginia governor, which was the last statewide election. This was about 54% of registered voters at the time.

How much of the vote is cast early or absentee?

About 43% of total votes cast in the 2025 general election for governor were cast early or by absentee ballot.

As of Monday, about 1.4 million ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election. That’s about 93% of the total advance votes cast in the 2025 gubernatorial election. In-person early voting concluded on Saturday.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Virginia counties and independent cities vary in terms of when they release results from early and absentee voting.

Less than a third of jurisdictions release all or almost all of their early and absentee voting results in their first vote update of the night.

Nearly half the jurisdictions release no early or absentee voting results in the first vote update.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2025 general election for Virginia governor, the AP first reported results at 7:10 p.m. ET, or 10 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 1:52 a.m. ET with more than 99% of total votes counted.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 196 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow election results for the Virginia redistricting special election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/virginia-special-general-results-question-1/.

U.S. forces “conducted a right-of-visit maritime interdiction” and boarded the M/T Tifani “without incident,” the Pentagon said on social media.

The Tifani was captured in the Bay of Bengal — between India and Southeast Asia — and was carrying Iranian oil, according to a U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing military operation. The U.S. military will decide in the next four days what to do with the vessel, such as tow it back to the U.S. or turn it over to another country, the official said.

It's the latest move in the U.S. war on Iran to stop any ship tied to Tehran or those suspected of carrying supplies that could help its government, from weapons and oil to metals and electronics. The announcement comes ahead of the expiration of an already tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, and as Pakistan attempts to broker talks between Washington and Tehran.

It is the second vessel linked to Iran that has been interdicted by the U.S. military. The U.S. Navy attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship Sunday that it said had tried to evade its blockade of Iranian ports, with President Donald Trump saying an American destroyer blew a hole in the ship’s engine room.

Targeting Iran-linked ships in international waters

The Pentagon on social media described the Tifani as “stateless” despite it being a Botswana-flagged vessel.

“As we have made clear, we will pursue global maritime enforcement efforts to disrupt illicit networks and interdict sanctioned vessels providing material support to Iran — anywhere they operate,” the Pentagon announcement said, echoing previous statements from Trump administration officials. “International waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels.”

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week that the enforcement actions would extend beyond Iranian waters and the area under control of U.S. Central Command.

U.S. forces in other areas of responsibility, he told reporters at the Pentagon, “will actively pursue any Iranian-flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran.” He specifically pointed to operations in the Pacific and said the U.S. would target vessels that left before the blockade began outside the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for energy and other shipments.

The military also detailed an expansive list of goods that it considers contraband, declaring that it will board, search and seize them from merchant vessels “regardless of location.” A notice published Thursday says any “goods that are destined for an enemy and that may be susceptible to use in armed conflict” are “subject to capture at any place beyond neutral territory.”

Blockades can be lawful in wartime, expert says

The U.S. military’s actions against Iranian-linked vessels, namely the attack over the weekend on the cargo ship named the Touska, have raised questions about the two-week ceasefire.

The U.S. and Iran are operating in “an awkward space where the law doesn’t give you a clean yes-or-no answer” on whether the ceasefire was violated, said Jason Chuah, a law professor at the City University of London and the Maritime Institute of Malaysia.

“The United States seems to take the line that the conflict never fully switched off — that is there is still a state of armed conflict,” Chuah said. “By saying that, it can keep doing things like enforcing a blockade and even using limited force at sea.”

But Iran is treating the ceasefire as a pause on all hostile acts, Chuah said. Iran’s joint military command has called the armed boarding an act of piracy and a violation of the ceasefire.

The U.S. earlier had instituted a blockade against sanctioned oil tankers linked to Venezuela but had never fired on those vessels.

Blockades and even limited attacks on vessels can be lawful in wartime, with merchant vessels becoming legitimate targets if they contribute to military actions, carry contraband or are incorporated into enemy logistics, Chuah said.

It's harder to prove that a ship such as the Touska is realistically contributing to military action against the U.S., Chuah said.

“The whole dispute really turns on a deceptively simple question: Did the ceasefire actually suspend the right to use force?” Chuah said. “If it did, then firing on vessels or seizing them is very hard to square with the United Nations Charter.”

Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and a senior defense adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said a violation is up for interpretation because there were no defined terms.

“Trump announced it. The Iranians agreed. But there’s no formal agreement,” Cancian said. “So whether it broke the ceasefire or not depends on your perspective. ... Nothing was written down.”

Michael O’Hanlon, a defense and foreign policy analyst at the Brookings Institution, said the U.S. did not violate the ceasefire because it was limited to bombing Iran, not the blockade.

“We agreed to stop dropping bombs on them, and that’s the basic thing they wanted,” O’Hanlon said, adding that the U.S. still had to enforce the blockade “if you’re going to make it mean anything.”

Welcome to Rockville producer, Danny Wimmer Presents, is releasing the set times for 160+ bands spanning all rock genres on 5 stages.

The performances will be topped by these bands:

Thursday, May 7: Guns N’ Roses, Five Finger Death Punch, Godsmack, Staind

Friday, May 8: Foo Fighters, Turnstile, The Offspring, Parkway Drive

Saturday, May 9: Bring Me The Horizon, Breaking Benjamin, Motionless in White, Lamb of God

Sunday, May 10: My Chemical Romance, A Day To Remember, Rise Against, Yellowcard

This year, the concert will have extra shade, and one of the stages will even be tented with 15,000 square feet of coverage. Some of the bands scheduled to perform inside the new Garage Stage include Mayday Parade, We The Kings, and State Champs.

There will also be a brand new zone near the Apex Stage called The Pit Stops. Fans will be able to see artist interviews, special performances, and 2026 festival merch.

Click here to see the complete lineup and set time of bands, ticket information, and special events.

The fire is in the area of Wiygul Road, between State Road 19 and County Road 439.

The fire is about 70% contained as of around 9 p.m., according to the Florida Forest Service. Smoke will be visible to people in the area.

Three homes were also evacuated.

People are being asked to avoid Wiygul Road while Umatilla Fire and Lake County Fire crews battle it.

No other information is available. Stay with News 6 for updates.

The School District of Osceola County is expected to vote on updating its agreement with United Data Technologies (UDT), its computer vendor, during a school board meeting Tuesday evening.

The proposed change would shift the district from a fixed pricing model to an interim pricing process, a move aimed at keeping up with an increasingly volatile memory market.

At the heart of the issue is the RAM chip, a component found in nearly every computer and cellphone.

[WATCH: Osceola County educators express concerns over special education policy changes]

Jorge Diaz, technology services manager at Quantum Computer Solutions, an IT service provider in Kissimmee not affiliated with the district, broke down what the chip actually does.

“Well, our RAM chip is basically a memory chip. It is what holds the information while you’re working on your system,” Diaz said.

He tells News 6 that without it, devices simply do not function.

“If you remove the RAM from this thing, it will do nothing,” he said.

[WATCH: Trooper Steve talks school bus safety with Osceola County deputy]

As AI technology continues to evolve, its demand for RAM chips has surged, squeezing supply for everyone else.

“[The] reasoning is just because AI needs a lot of RAM. So, they’re basically getting the first dibs at it, if you want to put it that way. And the rest of us are kind of sitting in the back end and waiting to get the leftovers,” Diaz said.

For a district of Osceola County’s size, it could be pricey. All schools in the district operate a 1-to-1 laptop and device program for students, and roughly 80,000 students are currently enrolled.

According to information UDT provided to the district, a low-end workforce device for education that cost $225 in October 2025 is projected to cost more than $500 by October 2026.

“Yes, whatever [the district] paid for before is going to be at least 30% more than what they did as far as replacing those devices,” he said.

If approved, the district and UDT would temporarily move away from fixed pricing until the market stabilizes, at which point both parties would return to the original pricing structure.

The Osceola County School Board will meet Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.

The Auto Train, Floridian and Silver Meteor trains have been cancelled in the state.

The biggest concern right now is a brush fire in Putnam County, which has burned over 4,100 acres and is 50% contained.

This fire started as two separate fires along the Putnam and Clay county line and has since merged into one large “unpredictable” fire, according to our news partners at WJXT in Jacksonville.

Because of the fires, Amtrak has canceled the Auto Train, which runs between Sanford and Lorton, Va. The cancellation continued into Tuesday.

ALERT: Due to track closure stemming from a large brush fire. Auto Trains 52 and 53 which departed Sanford (SFA)/Lorton (LOR) on 4/19, are canceled. Customers will be returned back to their points or origins. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.

— Amtrak Alerts (@AmtrakAlerts) April 20, 2026

For some passengers, the disruption meant more than just a delay. Julie Bonser of Clearwater booked the Auto Train on Sunday with plans to head to Virginia.

“We got over here at 11:30 a.m. yesterday to get our car on the train,” Bonser said. “We went a couple hours north, and we got as far as Palatka train station and found out that there was a fire going on.”

The train sat at the Palatka station for about two and a half hours before being backed up south of the station. Bonser said a second train ahead of them also had to reverse course.

“They finally came across and said we had to go all the way back to Sanford, and that we were going to have to offload here because they were not going to let anybody through,” she said. “The train tracks were damaged beyond repair for any trains to go through.”

Bonser and other passengers stuck in Sanford spoke to News 6 while they were waiting for their vehicles to arrive, which were rerouted to Orlando.

“They had to take another train to go to Orlando, offload the cars, reload them — so then bring it back here,” she said. “That’s still about an hour away. So maybe by 1:00 p.m. we’ll be on the road. Fingers crossed.”

Krissy Summers, another passenger who was hoping to get to Massachusetts, said the cars didn’t start unloading in Sanford until around 3:30 p.m. Monday.

“For me, the fact that I’m able to drive home making these hotel stops, OK, I will make peace with it,” she said. “But there’s a lot around me that are struggling. They booked this in advance. They knew that they couldn’t make that drive, and they have to go through with the gas, the hotel stay, the uncertainty of their trip.”

ALERT: Due to track closure stemming from a large brush fire. Train 98 which is scheduled to depart Miami (MIA) on 4/20, is canceled between Miami (MIA) and Jacksonville (JAX) with bus transportation provided. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.

— Amtrak Alerts (@AmtrakAlerts) April 20, 2026

Amtrak has also canceled the Silver Meteor in Florida, which runs between Miami and New York City, with stops in Orlando, for Monday and Tuesday, as well as the Floridian, which goes to Chicago.

Passengers who were already on the Silver Meteor to New York were stopped in the DeLand area and are being taken back to their stops in Orlando and Miami. They will receive refunds and travel vouchers.

The train routes will remain canceled until the fires are under control.

The civil rights group made the announcement on Tuesday, saying President Donald Trump's administration appears to be preparing legal action against it or some of its employees.

“Although we don’t know all the details, the focus appears to be on the SPLC’s prior use of paid confidential informants to gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups,” CEO Bryan Fair said in a statement.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment.

The Southern Poverty Law Center previously paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups and gather information on their activities, often sharing it with local and federal law enforcement, Fair said. It was used to monitor threats of violence, he said, adding that the program was kept quiet to protect the safety of informants.

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

He said the organization “will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

A spike in gas prices due to the Iran war, now in its eighth week, resulted in a hefty 1.7% gain in retail sales in March after a revised 0.7% increase in February, according to the Commerce Department’s report on Tuesday. The figure marked the fastest one-month increase in retail sales in more than three years.

The report marks the first read on spending to capture the effects of the Iran war.

Excluding gas prices, retail sales were up 0.6%, helped in part by government tax refunds and warm weather.

Business at gas stations rose 15.5% percent.

Elsewhere, shoppers were still willing to spend. Sales at department stores rose 4.2%, while sales at furniture and home furnishings stores were up 2.2%. Online retailers saw a 1% gain. Consumer electronics and appliance stores posted a 0.9% increase. The only area that saw a decline for March was miscellaneous retailers, according to the Commerce report.

The snapshot offers only a partial look at consumer spending and doesn’t include things like travel and hotel stays. The lone services category – restaurants – registered a more modest gain of 0.1%.

The so-called control group—which excludes food services, autos, building materials and gas station sales and is used to calculate economic growth—rose 0.7%. That offered a good sign of broad spending by consumers, economists said.

“It’s a blowout retail sales figure for March,“ Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote in a report.

She noted that the impact of tariffs is visible in the high spending on electronics and appliances due to higher prices. A small increase at restaurants may indicate some early signs of pullback as consumers have to spend more at the pump, she said.

“Overall, the American consumer is still healthy,” she added. "Extra income from tax refunds is helping many households weather this oil shock, but that extra money won’t last forever.”

The Iran war began Feb. 28 and has shut down the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.

Late last month, U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022.

Economists had believed that an unusually large jump in tax refunds would kick start spending at the start of the year. But spiking gas prices are taking a bite out of that money. And the Iran war is also further dampening shoppers' mood. Consumer sentiment plunged to a record low in April, according to a survey released earlier this month by the University of Michigan, largely because of the Iran war and concerns over higher gas prices.

Shoppers aren’t just feeling it at the gas pump, but are also starting to see unforeseen costs everywhere, including when they travel such as higher baggage fees. They will also likely see higher prices on different products ripple through the supply chain as companies start to pass on higher transportation costs to shoppers, analysts said.

The jump in gas prices caused a sharp spike in inflation last month, creating major challenges for the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve and increasing already significant political hurdles for the White House.

Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.9% in March from February, the largest such gain in nearly four years.

Heading into the war, shoppers were already cautious. But Bryan Eshelman, Americas leader of retail and a partner and managing director at consultancy AlixPartners, noted his retail clients see their customers pulling back even more now.

“Particularly in the low-end economy, people are shifting from wants to needs,” he said.

R.J. Hottovy, head of analytical research at Placer.ai, noted that for seven straight weeks, traffic at nondiscretionary retailers like grocers outpaced that of discretionary merchants. That trend was reversed the week of April 6, helped by the distribution of tax refunds and spending tied to spring break and Easter.

But after the data goes past Easter trends, future visits will largely depend on consumer sentiment regarding broader macroeconomic conditions and gas prices, Hottovy said. The firm tracks people’s movements based on cellphone usage.

Adoring crowds in the largely Catholic country lined the road from the airport into the capital, Malabo, cheering the first pope to visit since St. John Paul II in 1982. Wearing his formal red mozzetta cape, Leo thrilled the flag-waving masses by arriving at the presidential palace in his open-sided popemobile.

“There is a lot of joy today because we waited 44 years for the pope to come,” said Diosdado Marques, a senior Catholic official in the country. “It’s a blessing for the country, we hope many things will change and we will deepen our faith.”

The former Spanish colony on Africa’s western coast is run by the continent's longest-serving president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been accused of widespread corruption and authoritarianism.

The discovery of offshore oil in the mid-1990s transformed Equatorial Guinea’s economy virtually overnight, with oil now accounting for almost half of its GDP and more than 90% of exports, according to the African Development Bank.

Yet more than half of the country’s nearly 2 million people live in poverty. And rights groups including Human Rights Watch — as well as court cases in France and Spain — have documented how revenues have enriched the ruling Obiang family rather than the broader population.

Leo, who arrived from Angola, met with Obiang at the presidential palace and then addressed government authorities, diplomats and civil service representatives. Noting that the encounter occurred on the first anniversary of Pope Francis’ death, Leo quoted the late pope in denouncing income inequalities that he said had been exacerbated by a global economy focused on the pursuit of profit at all cost.

“Such an economy kills,” Leo said. “In fact, it is even more evident today than in years past that the proliferation of armed conflicts is often driven by the colonization of oil and mineral deposits, occurring with no regard for international law or the self-determination of peoples.”

The Trump administration, which has announced plans to create a minerals trading bloc with its allies, has been racing to get access to Africa’s regions rich in critical minerals and to beat competition from China in a region where Beijing has long dominated.

Last year, as the administration emerged as a key broker for a peace deal to end the fighting in Congo’s mineral-rich but conflict-battered eastern region, it was also signing a partnership with Congo that would allow American companies access to those conflict minerals.

The U.S. is also investing funds in the Lobito Corridor, a major rail project in Africa that would facilitate export of minerals from mineral-rich regions in Zambia and Congo through Lobito in Angola. At the same time, the U.S. has also backed a South Africa project aimed at extracting rare earth minerals from industrial waste. The project developer has said it can extract key metals used in electronics and defense systems.

Two models of cities

The pope's meetings took place in the old presidential palace. The government has built a new capital on the mainland, named Ciudad de la Paz, or City of Peace, but the transfer of government buildings hasn’t been completed yet.

Authorities have said the decision to build the new capital was strategic, given the potential for expansion of the city carved out in the middle of a tropical forest. But critics said the relocation of the capital would exacerbate existing inequalities and give further opportunities for the presidential circle to enrich themselves

Leo referred to the new capital by citing to the famous work of St. Augustine, “City of God,” in which the 5th-century philosopher interpreted humanity through two models: The “earthly city” where people live temporarily, and the eternal “city of God,” characterized by God’s unconditional love and love of one another, especially the poor.

Leo didn't call out the corruption associated with the Obiang family or the criticism of the new capital. But he suggested Equatorial Guinea should look to the “City of God” as a model.

“The earthly city is centered upon the proud love of self, on the lust for power and worldly glory that leads to destruction,” he said. “It is essential to discern the difference between that which lasts and that which passes, remaining free from the pursuit of unjust wealth and the illusion of dominion.”

A secular but very Catholic country

Equatorial Guinea is officially a secular country, but about 75% of its population is Catholic, making it one of the most Catholic countries in Africa.

Church leaders “are very much interconnected intrinsically with the government,” said Tutu Alicante, a U.S.-based activist who runs the EG Justice rights group. “Part of it is the fear the government has instilled in everyone, including the church, and part of it is the monetary gains that the church derives from this government.”

The Rev. Fortunatus Nwachukwu, No. 2 in the Vatican’s missionary evangelization office, said the Catholic Church is present in difficult civil spaces and knows how to operate in them to carry out its mission.

“Should the church go to war against the government? Surely no,” Nwachukwu said. “Should the church swallow everything as if it were normal? No. The church has to continue preaching justice, always in defense of life, human dignity and the common good.”

In addition to official corruption, the country’s government also faces rampant accusations of harassment, arrest and intimidation of political opponents, critics and journalists.

Equatorial Guinea is also one of several African nations that have been paid millions of dollars in controversial deals with the Trump administration to receive migrants deported from the U.S. to countries other than their own.

AP reporting shows that at least 29 such migrants with no ties to the country have been deported there. Some remain in detention in Malabo with restrictions on legal and medical support, while others have been forcibly returned to their countries where they face persecution.

Leo, who will visit a prison in the port city of Bata on Wednesday, has criticized the Trump administration’s overall migration deportation policy as “extremely disrespectful.”

___

Associated Press writers Monika Pronczuk in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea and Ope Adetayo in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to the reporting.

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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.

Republicans are already calling for the expulsion of Cherfilus-McCormick, who is in her third term and is running for reelection in a southeastern Florida district. She is also facing federal criminal charges accusing her of stealing $5 million in coronavirus disaster relief funds and using the money to buy items such as a 3-carat yellow diamond ring.

Cherfilus-McCormick has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges and says she is not guilty of ethics violations, either.

The allegations against the congresswoman center on how she received millions of dollars from her family’s health care business after Florida mistakenly overpaid the business by roughly $5 million with COVID-19 disaster relief funds. She is accused of using that money to fund her 2022 congressional campaign through a network of businesses and family members.

Cherfilus-McCormick declined to testify during a previous Ethics Committee hearing, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Her attorney, William Barzee, sparred with some of the lawmakers and argued that they should have allowed a thorough ethics trial, at which he could present witnesses and evidence to counter the conclusions of House investigators.

A group of supporters in Cherfilus-McCormick’s congressional district have weighed in on her behalf with the lawmakers who lead the Ethics Committee. They noted that the committee’s decision could leave hundreds of thousands of people without representation in Congress during an important time in their state, and they urged committee leaders to proceed with caution.

“Our communities deserve stability. Our voices deserve to be heard. And our right to representation must be protected,” said one of the letters sent to the committee signed by about a dozen local faith leaders, union officials and others.

In all, the panel’s two-year investigation led to the issuance of 59 subpoenas, 28 witness interviews and a review of more than 33,000 pages of documents.

Rep. Greg Steube, a Florida Republican, has said he will move to expel Cherfilus-McCormick once the Ethics Committee makes a determination on what punishment it will recommend.

That move could in turn prompt Democrats to seek the expulsion of Rep. Cory Mills, a Florida Republican who is the subject of a wide-ranging investigation by the Ethics Committee that includes whether he violated campaign finance laws, misused congressional resources and engaged in sexual misconduct or dating violence. That investigation is ongoing. Mills has denied any wrongdoing.

The focus on lawmaker wrongdoing comes just one week after two lawmakers resigned during ethics investigations into alleged sexual misconduct. Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California and Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas headed off possible expulsion votes with their resignations.

House Democratic leaders have declined to condemn Cherfilus-McCormick, saying they wanted to see the ethics process play out. Potential punishments include a reprimand or a censure, which serve as forms of public rebuke. The committee could also recommend a fine. The most severe form of punishment is expulsion, but the House has historically been reluctant to serve as the final arbiter of a lawmaker’s career, preferring to give that final say to the voters.

Only six members of the House have been expelled. The first three fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War and were expelled for disloyalty. The next two had been convicted of crimes. The final one was George Santos, the scandal-plagued freshman who was the subject of a blistering ethics report on his conduct as well as federal indictment. Santos, a New York Republican, served time in prison for ripping off his campaign donors before President Donald Trump granted him clemency, and he has apologized to his former constituents.

Under the Constitution, at least two-thirds of the House has to vote for expulsion for it to occur, a high threshold that requires enormous bipartisan support.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters last week he believes the House will move to expel Cherfilus-McCormick.

“The facts are indisputable at this point, and so I believe it’ll be the consensus of this body that she should be expelled,” Johnson said.

That home went up in flames slower because it was fortified with better materials. Add moving vegetation, mulch, wood fences and hot tubs with their highly flammable insultation several feet away and experts said you can protect houses from the increasing danger of wildfires on a warming planet.

The research is being done by workers at a remote site in South Carolina. They have set fire to 13 houses because scientists need to burn to learn.

Inside the carefully crafted home were sensors and a few cameras the site's manager said will “give their life for science.” Outside are nearly $1 million of other cameras and instruments in a fireproof building nearby and scattered around.

The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety is a nonprofit created by insurers to make houses and other buildings more resilient. The institute's 100-acre (40-hectare) site in Richburg, South Carolina, started to study hurricanes and heavy wind and rain.

As wildfire danger increased in recent years, they sometimes turn the six-story tall wall of 105 fans stacked on top of each other to blow out of the wind tunnel's massive doors and spread fire.

“We crash test houses,” said Roy Wright, the president of the institute.

Wildfires are worsening, costing more damage

From 2016 to 2025, wildfires in the United States on average burned an area the size of Massachusetts each year, slightly more than 11,000 square miles (28,500 square kilometers). That’s 2.6 times the average burn area of the 1980s, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Canada’s land burned on average for the last 10 years is 2.8 times more than during the 1980s, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

In the United States, wildfires have caused an average of $17.7 billion a year in damage since 2020, according to statistics kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the nonprofit Climate Central.

Climate change is intensifying and extending fire seasons across the U.S. and a growing population puts densely packed neighborhoods into fire-threatened areas. In the past three years, massive and devastating wildfires hit California, Maui in Hawaii and the North and South Carolina mountains.

Drought across much of the United States — especially in the West and Southeast — is at record severe levels for this time of year. Add to that record heat and unheard of levels of low moisture in the West for the first three months of 2026 and it looks like this upcoming fire season will be extraordinarily bad, unless late spring or early summer rain somehow bails out the country, said UCLA climate and fire scientist Park Williams.

Test fires lead to building changes

The institute's research has already led to some conclusions that strengthened California's fire code. New homes must have ignition-resistant walls, tempered or double paned windows and mesh over vents to prevent fire embers from getting inside.

As important is taking care of the outside. Creating a 5-foot (1.5-meter) buffer where any material that burns easy like pine straw, a hot tub, a wooden fence or overhanging branches is an important line of defense.

The fire testing makes that clear. Researchers at the test site set fire to wooden blocks that look like Jenga towers within the buffer zone. The simulated winds, which in a recent test purposefully fluctuated between 30 and 55 mph (50 to 90 kph), continually pushed the flames toward the home.

Once the windows and walls are breached, all the combustible things inside like couches, furniture, clothes and plastics quickly erupt and begin sending large showers of dangerous burning embers lofted by heavy wind, setting new fires a block or two away.

But fire standards can only help so much. “Under really severe fire conditions, especially those involving very high winds, they probably are of more limited value,” Syracuse University fire researcher Jacob Bendix said.

Home fire prevention becomes a business

Fire prevention tools and techniques are becoming a big business.

After the 2018 Woolsey fire near his home in Ventura County, California, Nicholai Allen watched firefighters use fire retardants and wondered if homeowners could do the same. He became a wildland firefighter and learned that preventing embers from getting into homes’ attics and garages are the key.

Allen now makes and sells Safe Soss (pronounced like sauce), which include carbon filters or guards for attics and vents, fiberglass heat-resistant ember-stopping tape and a spray fire retardant that can work from a garden hose, all of which recently became available at a major hardware chain.

Allen compares it to how people up north get ready for winter.

“It’s kind of like if you live in the snow, you have a snow shovel, you have scrapers, and you know that you have to take certain preventative steps in order to live in an environment that, hey, sometimes snows,” Allen said.

Trial by fire

The test fires by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety are carefully controlled. The homes are made to be as similar to regular houses as possible without electricity or plumbing.

The attention to detail and safety is exacting. The institute likes spring fire testing at its site about halfway between Charlotte, North Carolina and Columbia, South Carolina, because while summer temperatures in the South can nearly match those in the fire-prone West, the swampy humidity in July is a bad approximation to a mountain canyon.

High winds delayed last week's fire for more than six hours with anxious workers worried they couldn't wait for the next day because an outdoor burning ban was starting after an unusually dry and hot spring.

Tarps and machines heat the houses to summer levels just before the fires are set on a huge concrete pad just outside the giant hanger where the fans line one wall and the hurricane testing takes place.

Elsewhere at the site, researches have started looking into hail and how it can damage homes. Another part of the campus has dozens of roofs just sticking above the ground as the shingles freeze and bake and are soaked by Mother Nature sometimes for more than a decade for more testing.

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Borenstein reported from Washington. Associated Press journalist Erik Verduzco contributed from Richburg, South Carolina.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Some aspects of sustainable seafood are obvious and well-trod, even if the how-to intricacies likely are lost on most consumers.

But sustainability today is complicated terrain, as much about business as bycatch, and why, for your next clam chowder, human rights matter as much as healthy habitats.

Advocates now want you considering issues of labor abuses, the rights of indigenous populations to use traditional fishing practices, the carbon footprint of a salmon fillet relative to a filet mignon, even whether the fishing boats offer free, high-speed Wi-Fi.

All of this is certified, rated and labeled by a tapestry of competing and overlapping groups.

For the already seafood-averse consumer -- Americans have a notoriously limited appetite for seafood -- it all can be a bit overwhelming.

“I’m an expert and I still sometimes struggle to look through some of the systems to figure out which product in the store actually matches which rating, and which label is different,” said Robert Jones, global director of aquatic foods for The Nature Conservancy.

The old 'traffic light' ratings

For several decades, the most recognizable expression of seafood sustainability was Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, which encouraged or admonished consumption of specific species with cards labeled green, yellow and red.

Driven largely to preserve seafood populations -- eat the abundant Arctic char, but take a pass on the tenuous tuna -- the simplicity resonated.

Twenty-five years ago, that was the right focus, said Jennifer Kemmerly, vice president of global ocean conservation for Monterey Bay. Overseas fisheries, the source of much of the seafood consumed in the U.S., might be immune to American regulations, but would respond if enough consumers demanded sustainable choices.

But the simple, traffic-light ratings also created a guilty-until-proven-innocent aura that lingers, said Barton Seaver, a seafood sustainability expert with National Geographic. Rather than tease out whether farmed or wild salmon is better (the answer has changed over the years), many people just opt for chicken.

“The entire category had to be exonerated,” he said. “Yes, (the information) was more easily digestible, but the end result was fear, trepidation and a general lack of participation.”

The many meanings of sustainability

Seafood Watch eventually fell silent, partly a victim of pandemic pressures. By then, the definition of sustainable had broadened dramatically. Safeguarding endangered stocks still matters, of course. But a host of other issues -- treatment of workers, regenerative practices, local vs. corporate ownership of the fleet -- can mitigate that.

And plenty of people in and outside the industry argue that any test of sustainability also must weigh the impact of seafood against the alternatives.

“When we do so across five very important metrics -- greenhouse gas, land-use alteration, feed conversion, freshwater and antibiotics -- seafood just comes out on top in the animal-protein conversation,” said Seaver.

“If you want the sustainable option for dinner, the yellow-list or even red-list seafood might be the better environmental option than chicken or beef,” he said.

The result is an equation too complex for most consumers. It doesn’t help that many of the newer sustainability issues simply aren’t intuitive to the consumer. That on-ship Wi-Fi, for example? A lifeline for workers to report labor abuses while at sea for months at a time.

The monoculture-like beef, pork and poultry industries easily align on methods and messaging (after all, everyone knows what’s for dinner and which is the other white meat.) But seafood is inherently complex, comprised of thousands of species, regions and regulations.

“The biggest loser here is the American consumer,” said celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern, whose documentary “Hope in the Water” highlighted efforts to make seafood more sustainable.

Aiming higher

Despite the information overload, Kemmerly sees the complexity as a sign of success.

“These big companies who 25 years ago made a sustainability commitment thinking it was just the environmental piece are now also on the hook -- no pun intended -- for reporting on environmental, social and governance issues,” she said.

The way forward, many say, is to sell confidence in American seafood. Zimmern wants to see all the players -- from fishermen and wholesalers to watchdog groups -- agree on regularly updated standards. It puts the onus for good choices on the industry and frees the consumer to feel good about whatever they purchase.

That may not be as wishful as it sounds. The Alaskan seafood industry benefits from a sustainability halo because regulations mandating good practices are written into the state constitution.

“We’ve always said, if you choose Alaska, it’s the easy choice from a sustainability standpoint. There’s not a single one of our fisheries that isn’t sustainably managed,” said Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. “We’ve tried to simplify that for them.”

The best way to support the industry, Seaver said, is to let chefs and consumers focus on what tastes good. And Seafood Watch seems to agree. The program is in the midst of a relaunch that will focus on educating chefs about making sustainable choices.

So what’s a befuddled seafood shopper to do? The consensus seems to be: Buy American, local when possible. Though hardly perfect, the U.S. seafood industry is highly regulated and works with retailers who insist on sustainability standards.

“When you go to Whole Foods, you trust that they’ve done the job for you. And that’s the case for a lot of large grocery chains these days,” Woodrow said. “Consumers should feel confident when they go to the freezer case or the fresh case that that fish is going to be coming from a responsible fishery.”

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J.M. Hirsch is a longtime food writer who was food editor of The Associated Press for nearly a decade until 2016.

Under a proposal submitted Monday to a state judge in Texas, The Onion would be granted an exclusive, temporary license to the intellectual property of Infowars' parent company, Free Speech Systems, allowing the outlet to put its own content on the Infowars website and social media accounts.

Ben Collins, chief executive of The Onion, said the deal could be in place around April 30, if approved by Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Austin. He said The Onion has already hired people to run Infowars as a parody site including Tim Heidecker, one half of the comedy duo Tim and Eric known for their work on the Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” shows.

“We’ll build this into a bigger comedy network,” Collins said in phone interview Monday, adding the Sandy Hook families would receive profits from the new operations.

“A big part of it for us is that the way people consume news now is they see somebody who has no idea what the (expletive) they’re talking about staring into their camera and just like coming up with conspiracy theories or telling you health hacks that will actually get you poisoned, things like that,” he said. “We’re going to create a bunch of characters and worlds around those kinds of things.”

After the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, which killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, Jones called it a hoax staged by “crisis actors” in an effort to increase gun control. Many relatives of the victims, along with an FBI agent who responded to the shooting, sued Jones and his company for defamation and infliction of emotional distress.

On his show Monday, Jones vowed to fight the licensing proposal in court but acknowledged he and his crew could be kicked out of the building at the end of the month. He said he would continue his shows in another studio he is preparing, and they would air on his personal X account and other new social media accounts and websites, as well as dozens of radio stations. He also has set up new websites for the merchandise he sells, including dietary supplements and clothing that bring in millions of dollars a year.

“I’m going to continue the exact same show,” he said. “It’ll just be called the ‘Alex Jones Show.’ So, it’s the same satellite, same system. It's a different news site and news studio. So I’m not going anywhere.”

The licensing deal with The Onion would be for six months, with the right to renew it for another six months as a court-appointed receiver works to eventually sell the assets of Infowars’ parent company, Austin-based Free Speech Systems, and give proceeds to the Sandy Hook families. The receiver is supporting the plan, which calls for The Onion to pay $81,000 a month to cover the rent for the building housing Infowars' studios, along with utilities and other costs.

During a trial of the defamation suit in Connecticut in 2022, victims' relatives testified that people whom they called followers of Jones subjected them to death and rape threats, in-person harassment and abusive comments on social media over the hoax claims. Jones argued there was never any proof that linked him to the actions of others.

A jury and judge awarded the families and the FBI agent more than $1.4 billion in damages. In a similar lawsuit in Texas, the parents of a child killed at Sandy Hook were awarded nearly $50 million. Jones appealed both awards. He lost his challenges to the Connecticut judgment, while his appeal of the Texas award is still pending.

Jones filed for bankruptcy in late 2022. In those proceedings, an auction was held in November 2024 to liquidate Infowars’ assets to help pay the defamation judgments, and The Onion was named the winning bidder. But the bankruptcy judge threw out the auction results, citing problems with the process and The Onion’s bid.

The attempt to sell off Infowars’ assets later moved to the state court in Texas, where Guerra Gamble appointed a receiver to liquidate the assets of Jones' company. Jones is also appealing that ruling, which has put a hold on the liquidation.

A lawyer for the Sandy Hook families who sued Jones in Connecticut said they support The Onion's plan.

Leon Smith, 46, has spent his entire 25-year career at Haverford High School, where he teaches Advanced Placement classes in U.S. history and African American studies. He describes himself as a “warm demander,” someone who sets high expectations while surrounding students with love and support. Often, that means recognizing hidden talents and bringing them to the forefront, he said in an interview Monday.

“An adult can tell you that they see something in you that maybe you didn’t see in yourself,” he said. “I love to do that for students. When I see ambition, when I see talent, I let them know that so that they can hopefully pursue that goal and achieve their dreams.”

Smith starts each class with a community building exercise — on Monday, he asked his students to talk about a song that made them happy. One shared a track that reminded him of a family vacation. Another recalled music she listened to with friends before they went their separate ways. The exercise helped settle the students before the discussion shifted to a harder question: When, if ever, should the United States enter a war happening far away?

“We want to make sure that our students can think critically, that they have empathy, that they can understand the nuance and complexity that goes into making decisions,” he said. “My hope is that when they leave my classroom, that they can be civically engaged, that they can make sure that they can create a society that they can be proud of.”

Smith also extends his teaching to outside the school, taking students to the state Capitol each year to engage with policymakers. That won him praise from the organization behind the award, the Council of Chief State School Officers, which also cited his emphasis on the inclusion of multiple perspectives in history.

As the Teacher of the Year, Smith will spend a year promoting the pivotal role educators play in shaping the next generation.

“They’ve moved societies. They have empowered activist movements. They’ve helped people to figure out what they want to do when they group up,” he said. “They’ve had a tremendous impact, and my hope is that people are inspired to join that legacy.”

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Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire.

Daniel Coman, 44, was re-arrested at the Orange County Jail on a new charge of felony criminal mischief stemming from a March 30 incident near Avalon Road and Hartzog Road in Orange County.

Coman has remained in custody since his original arrest and has never bonded out.

[WATCH: Footage from Tesla car show attack on good Samaritan along Florida expressway]

According to an arrest affidavit, a woman was driving north on Avalon Road when she saw a white male arguing with someone on the roadway.

When she honked, the man jumped onto the hood of her gray 2021 Toyota Corolla and began banging on her windshield, causing an estimated $3,200 in damage, the affidavit states.

Investigators linked Coman to the incident after noting the scene was less than 4 miles from where he was arrested on the 429 Expressway about 20 minutes later.

Coman already faces charges of battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence, assault on a law enforcement officer, battery, and criminal mischief in connection with the expressway attack on Good Samaritan Hans Hamilton, who suffered a brain bleed and four broken ribs.

Through his long months in captivity, family and friends hoped that, like Frankl, he would come back with a message of hope. Then, in August 2024, after nearly a year in captivity, he and five other hostages were shot dead by their captors deep underground, likely as Israeli forces were closing in.

The quest for his why has fallen to his family, who led a high-profile campaign for his release. His mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, has a new book released Tuesday.

“When We See You Again,” has no narrative arc, no tidy uplifting message, no score settling with the Hamas militants who killed her son or the Israeli leaders who many blamed for his death — only a searing account of her grief.

She hasn’t yet decided whether the book is an exceptionally painful love story, or a love-filled pain story.

“I’m still trying to figure out with clarity what is my why, but it’s clear to me that my why is not done,” Goldberg-Polin said, a photo of a smiling Hersh behind her. “I just really wanted to tell the truth. It’s very ugly.”

A face of the hostage crisis

Hersh was among the 251 people abducted by Hamas in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack. His hand was blown off by a grenade before he was dragged into Gaza and eventually into the militant group’s labyrinth of tunnels.

The war sparked by the attack led to the killing of over 70,000 Palestinians and the destruction of much of Gaza before a ceasefire deal in October led to the release of all the remaining hostages. Hersh had been killed, along with five other hostages, more than a year earlier.

Rachel had campaigned tirelessly for her son’s release, appearing in countless media interviews, meeting with then-President Joe Biden and addressing the Democratic National Convention. She also joined mass protests in Israel accusing the government of failing to reach a deal sooner.

Her son was among the best-known hostages. Posters and graffiti with his name and face still appear across the country, often bearing the line from Frankl.

A human portrait

In her memoir, Rachel takes care not to mythologize him. She notes that he picked his scabs as a kid and was bad at doing dishes.

“Hersh has become a symbol to many,” Goldberg-Polin writes in the book. “I don’t know what to do with that. But it’s OK. If people need Hersh to be something, he will be that. That is the essence of service, being what is needed.”

Rachel grew up in Chicago and moved to Israel with her husband and three children when Hersh, the oldest, was six. She tells stories from the “before time”: of how Hersh as a child would wow people with his encyclopedic knowledge of U.S. presidents, and how he loved Jerusalem's local soccer team and their sister team in Bremen, Germany.

She only briefly touches on his capture and the details of his captivity, which have been widely reported. She writes about their desperate search for information in the chaotic and terrifying days after the attack, their long fight for his release and the news of Hersh's killing, along with five others, after 328 days.

The book is mostly a “very raw, peeled, oozing, throbbing pain,” Goldberg-Polin said. She describes “hundreds of sodden days dripping with anguish.”

“The book really started just as a way of taking this tremendous weight of suffering that was causing my soul to buckle,” she said in an interview in Jerusalem.

The writing came out in bursts, without a plan for a final project, just a question of “How do I survive the next 15 minutes?” she said.

A fellowship of grief

The book emerged in part from her frustration when people asked how she was. “I think, ‘Well, do you not see this dagger sticking out of my chest at my heart? How can you possibly be asking me that?’” she said. “But I realized they don’t see it. And it’s not because they’re mean or insensitive. They simply don’t see it.”

“Someone who’s born blind doesn’t know what blue is, and it’s very difficult to describe blue to someone who’s blind. But I’m desperate for people to see my blue, and I’m yearning for people to feel my pain,” she said.

Then there were those who wanted to share their own stories of death and loss, even during her son’s shiva, the traditional Jewish week of mourning after the funeral. It’s an experience that she describes as overwhelming and eye-opening, revealing the “surplus of suffering” in the world.

“They’re not trying to comfort me, they’re saying: ‘Let me stand next to you and we’ll be in this together,’” she said.

During the campaign to release the hostages, one of Rachel’s mantras was “Hope is mandatory,” even when it felt impossible. Now, wherever they go, people ask her and her husband for a bit of their creased and crumpled hope.

She has no easy answers, as she tells Hersh in a letter addressed to her dead son near the end of the book.

“I will carry your why,” she writes. “I'll do it, I’ll carry your why around the world.”

Hans Hamilton, who said he suffered a brain bleed and broken ribs during the roadside assault, has set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to help cover his unexpected medical expenses.

“This person tried to kill me,” said Hamilton. “I don’t want anyone else to go through what I did.”

Hamilton was driving north on the 429 Expressway near Walt Disney World on Monday when he noticed a white Lexus that had collided with a guardrail.

Video captured by cameras on Hamilton’s Tesla appears to show a man staggering out of the driver’s side door and collapsing in the grass in front of the Lexus.

[WATCH THE FULL FOOTAGE BELOW]

As Hamilton pulled off the expressway to provide aid, the man’s body was initially motionless.

But moments later, as the Good Samaritan exited his Tesla, the man leaped up and began running.

A camera mounted on the front of Hamilton’s car shows the man jumping on the hood and roof of the Tesla, shattering the windshield.

The man then tackled Hamilton to the ground and began beating him, video captured by another Tesla camera shows.

For nearly 30 seconds, the man repeatedly punched Hamilton in the head, face, neck and back.

Hamilton eventually broke free and began hitting the man in the throat to stop him, he told News 6.

An Orange County deputy soon arrived and identified the attacker as 44-year-old Daniel Coman.

Coman told the deputy he only spoke Spanish despite previously speaking English to Hamilton, according to the arrest report.

When the deputy first attempted to take Coman into custody, Coman approached in an “aggressive fighting manner” and “began swinging his left hand as if he was going to strike” the law enforcement officer, an arrest affidavit states.

Hamilton and another bystander grabbed Coman’s arms and helped hold him down as the deputy placed him in handcuffs, records show.

Coman was arrested on charges of battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence, assault on a law enforcement officer, battery and criminal mischief.

Prior to attacking Hamilton, Coman was involved in a separate hit-and-run crash two mile south that was being investigated by the Florida Highway Patrol, deputies said.

Coman is also a suspect in a “similar criminal mischief incident” that occurred earlier that morning, his arrest affidavit states.

Orange County deputies originally asked that Coman be held in jail without bond, records show, but a judge set bond at $5,000.

Coman was in the hospital for an undisclosed reason at the time of his scheduled first court appearance on Tuesday, court records show. He remained in custody at the Orange County Jail on Thursday night.

An ambulance transported Hamilton to the hospital where he said he was treated for a brain bleed, a concussion, multiple contusions, and four broken ribs.

“My family and I live paycheck to paycheck,” Hamilton wrote on his GoFundMe account. “Now, on top of trying to heal, I am facing auto and hospital deductibles, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in medical expenses.”

Daniel Coman, 44, was arrested March 30 after he allegedly battered a motorist who thought Coman had been in a car crash and stopped to help him.

[WATCH: Footage from Tesla car show attack on good Samaritan along Florida expressway]

Hans Hamilton suffered a brain bleed and four broken ribs during the attack, he told News 6.

Video of the violent altercation, which was first published by News 6, was recorded by cameras on the victim’s Tesla.

Coman is also accused of assaulting and battering an Orange County deputy sheriff while resisting arrest, authorities allege.

Court records show Coman, who is represented by a public defender, entered a written plea of “not guilty” Wednesday.

Coman remained incarcerated at the Orange County jail Wednesday, where he was being held on a $5,000 bond.

[WATCH: Good Samaritan describes attack on Central Florida expressway]

According to an eviction complaint filed in Orange County Circuit Court, Coman was expelled from his Orlando home days before the attack.

“Although you have been temporarily staying elsewhere since approximately March 23, 2026, please be advised that you no longer have permission to reside in this home,” a March 27 email message attached to the eviction stated. “As the legal homeowner, I am formally requiring that you vacate the premises permanently and remove any personal belongings.”

“What! Oh my. OK, I guess, you are the boss of your domain,” Coman allegedly replied to the message.

News 6 attempted to contact the homeowner who filed the eviction complaint, but a woman who answered the phone claimed News 6 had the wrong number and hung up.

The contract has been at the center of a weeks-long dispute. The county says the federal government is not reimbursing enough money to cover the costs of housing migrants at the county jail, and officials want to renegotiate the deal.

[WATCH PREVIOUS COVERAGE BELOW]

Some critics are going further — calling on the county to cut ties with federal immigration officials entirely. But doing so would put the county in violation of state law.

Tuesday’s meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m.

Victor Wembanyama — as expected — was announced Monday as the league's top defensive player. The San Antonio center was second in the voting for DPOY as a rookie, was the favorite last season until a medical condition ended his season prematurely, then left no doubt this year.

At 22, he's the youngest winner of the award.

“The real struggle might have been getting to 65 games,” Wembanyama said — referring to the number he needed for award eligibility — on NBC Sports Network. “But I’m super, super happy to win this award and actually super proud to be the first-ever unanimous.”

Oklahoma City's Chet Holmgren was second and Detroit's Ausar Thompson was third after both helped their teams secure No. 1 seeds for the playoffs. But this was never in doubt, not after the 7-foot-4 — or maybe taller — Wembanyama led the NBA in blocked shots for a third consecutive season and generally terrorized opponents any time they wanted to score.

“Best player in the world,” Spurs forward Keldon Johnson said.

The NBA will continue its award announcements Tuesday when the Clutch Player of the Year — either Minnesota's Anthony Edwards, Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Denver's Jamal Murray — is revealed. Wembanyama is also a finalist for MVP, with the winner of that trophy not set to be revealed until next week at the earliest.

First, the league got this announcement out of the way. And Wembanyama's win was accompanied by a slew of milestones.

— Every other winner of the award had been at least 23. Wembanyama doesn't turn 23 until next January.

— The Spurs became the first franchise with four players to win DPOY, which was first handed out in the 1982-83 season. The others? Alvin Robertson in 1986, David Robinson in 1992 and Kawhi Leonard in 2015 and 2016.

— Wembanyama joins Robinson and Michael Jordan as the only players to win both Rookie of the Year and DPOY.

“I’ve had the chance to have great coaches over my career who have taught me great habits on defense,” Wembanyama said.

The biggest accomplishment may be this: Wemby got every voter to agree.

Golden State's Stephen Curry was the unanimous MVP in 2016 and in the 10 seasons that have followed, there have been only two instances of a player collecting 100% of the first-place votes for an award.

Those were Wembanyama for Rookie of the Year in 2024, and now this.

No player in at least the last 50 seasons — and maybe ever, since it's hard to say with certainty because some full voting results for awards handed out generations ago are not known publicly — has won two major individual awards unanimously.

It's the 10th known unanimous pick in any vote for MVP, Rookie of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Most Improved Player, DPOY or Coach of the Year. And some of biggest names, including LeBron James and Michael Jordan, never won a major award unanimously.

“I feel like he is one of the hardest workers that I’ve ever been around,” Johnson said. “He takes his craft very seriously. I feel like this is just a small token of what’s to come for Victor. He’s a special player now. He’s a special player on the court and even more special person off the court as well. This is just a small token, small flowers that’s given to him for Defensive Player of the Year.”

Holmgren and Thompson both got votes for the first time; a panel of reporters and broadcasters who cover the league were asked to pick their top three in the category, with ballots due last week before the playoffs started.

Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert — a four-time DPOY winner — was fourth, followed, in order, by Toronto’s Scottie Barnes, Boston’s Derrick White, Oklahoma City’s Cason Wallace, Houston’s Amen Thompson, Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels and New York’s OG Anunoby.

There was a three-way tie for 11th between Detroit’s Jalen Duren, Golden State’s Draymond Green — the 2017 winner — and Miami’s Bam Adebayo.

Wembanyama is an MVP finalist (along with Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning MVP, and three-time winner Nikola Jokic of Denver), which almost certainly means he'll be an All-NBA first-team selection. And the DPOY win means he'll also be on the All-Defensive team, so the Frenchman is assured of no fewer than four trophies from this year's award season.

“We often overlook the team aspect,” Wembanyama said. “I’m sitting here. I happen to be the guy who’s put in the spotlight, but I am part of a system and I couldn’t get this award and I couldn’t do what I do if it wasn’t for my teammates ... and my coaching staff.”

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AP freelance writer Raul Dominguez contributed to this report.

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

The Sentry was canceled last January on drought-stricken Maui when the grass on the Plantation course at Kapalua was dying due to restrictions brought on by a dispute with the company in charge of a century-old water delivery system.

Two staff members at Kapalua, which is operated by Troon Golf, were notified Monday of the decision not to return. The PGA Tour confirmed it when contacted by The Associated Press.

The Sony Open on Oahu was in the final year of its sponsorship. It had leaned on being the week after Kapalua since 1999 to help attract players for a two-week stay in Hawaii.

The Sony Open is working toward becoming a PGA Tour Champions event to be packaged with the Mitsubishi Electric Championship on the Big Island.

“We are grateful to The Plantation Course at Kapalua, Kapalua Resort, Maui County and the state of Hawaii for their longtime support of our season-opening PGA Tour event, as well as the fans, partners and volunteers across Maui who have supported the event throughout the years,” the tour said in a statement.

It said it would share more details on the 2027 schedule at a later date. The tour also confirmed it was in conversations with the Sony Open about a spot on the PGA Tour Champions schedule, without further comment.

Kapalua began as a winners-only start to the PGA Tour season in 1999, a favorite among players for its wide fairways and endless views of the ocean on the west end of Maui.

Wisconsin-based Sentry took over as title sponsor in 2018, and its most recent extension takes it through 2035.

The most likely landing spot for Sentry is Torrey Pines in San Diego, where several executives attended this year. The previous sponsorship for Torrey Pines with Farmers Insurance ended this year without any intention of renewing.

Stephanie Smith, the company’s chief marketing and brand officer in charge of the golf partnership, did not mention future plans, only to say Sentry was proud of its eight-year run at Kapalua.

“We have said from the beginning, we love Maui and Maui is a Sentry community not unlike our hometown of Stevens Point, Wisconsin,” she said. “We cherish the friends and partnerships we have formed over the past several years. Our commitment to the island runs deep, and we remain committed to being active in the community.”

Hideki Matsuyama was the last winner at Kapalua. The final stroke was an 8-foot birdie putt that set the PGA Tour record for score to par at 35 under.

The tour had been subsidizing the purse increase to $20 million when it became a signature event, and The Sentry was among the most expensive operations because of shipping so much equipment to Maui. Attendance was moderate at best.

The water dispute involved accusations from the Kapalua owner, Japanese billionaire Tadashi Yanai, homeowners and Hua Momona Farms that Maui Land & Pineapple had not maintained the water delivery system.

MLP then filed a countersuit and alleged Kapalua was violating water restrictions.

The Sony Open dates to 1965 and had been played continuously since 1971, played at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, along the ocean down from Diamond Head. It took over as the season opener this year when The Sentry was canceled, won by Chris Gotterup.

The most famous moment in tournament history was Isao Aoki holing out from the fairway for eagle to win in 1983. Ernie Els became the first player to sweep the tour’s Hawaii events in 2003 when he won at Kapalua and Waialae.

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

Schlittler has overcome similar threats to experience success against the Red Sox in the postseason spotlight, so he has reason to carry confidence into his first game at Fenway.

Schlittler grew up a Red Sox fan in Walpole, Massachusetts. Despite his background with the Red Sox, Schlittler told the New York Post that he and his family have received death threats leading up to Thursday night's game. He compared the threats to normal trolling from fans and said he hasn't felt the need to get police involved.

“Most normal fans could care less, right?” Schlittler told the newspaper. "It’s just those diehards that just have nothing else in their lives other than baseball or sports that really care about this, and the fact that I play for the Yankees makes it worse for them.”

After his family was targeted with hurtful comments on social media during last season's AL Wild Card Series against the Red Sox, Schlittler responded with a dominant performance. He became the first postseason pitcher with at least eight scoreless innings and 12 strikeouts without allowing a walk, pitching New York to a 4-0 clinching win over Boston in New York.

This season, the 6-foot-6 Schlittler has enjoyed more success. The 25-year-old is 2-1 with a 1.95 ERA in five games. He has 36 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings.

He says his strong start will only encourage more venom from Red Sox fans.

“It’s gonna be bad, it’s gonna be bad," Schlittler told the Post. "I’m not nervous about it, but it’s gonna be loud. ... They’re gonna probably have dudes that are my age or a little bit younger, sitting right outside the bullpen, yelling whatever, probably throwing stuff at me, trying to grab me.

“That’s kind of what I expect. So I know the guys are excited for it and I’m excited for it.”

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

“I think that this is the election that’s going to be the sea change, not only for getting to a pro-equality majority but for changing the momentum on this fight for equality,” said Kelley Robinson, the Washington-based organization's president, in an interview with The Associated Press. “This movement is ready for its next wind, its second wind.”

Besides eight congressional districts that could help determine control of the U.S. House, the Human Rights Campaign is also supporting Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio and Texas. The money will be spent on advertising, events and canvassers.

The LGBTQ+ movement has been reckoning with a wave of defeats on the campaign trail and in the courtroom that have left Democrats struggling to regain their footing.

President Donald Trump's Republican administration has rolled back protections for transgender people, such as banning them from serving in the military and cutting off gender-affirming care for children. The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority has upheld Republican states’ restrictions while striking down bans on “conversion therapy” practices in Democratic states.

“I believe that our movement made ourselves believe that we were closer to equality than we actually are,” Robinson said. “The last few years, we’ve been doing an incredible amount of listening, of learning, also of repositioning this work.”

After the 2024 presidential election, Democrats were divided over the role that LGBTQ+ rights played in their party’s losses. The Trump campaign ran a series of advertisements mocking Vice President Kamala Harris for supporting medical gender transitions for incarcerated people and highlighting the issue of transgender people playing on women's sports teams.

“Kamala Harris is for they/them,” said a voice-over in one national ad. “President Trump is for you.”

Robinson argued that the ad was effective because of an implicit economic message, not for its critiques of the policy toward transgender people. But conservative activists and some moderate Democrats have argued such stances are too unpopular with swing voters.

“There’s a real disconnect between most voters and the party elite," said Leor Sapir, a fellow with the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.

He added, “If I’m a Democrat consultant, my advice would be: Do everything in your power to keep this issue off the public agenda."

Robinson said her organization has been soul-searching on how to best craft winning messages on LGBTQ+ rights.

“Our job is to move away from the fireballs that our opposition wants to talk about and instead find a way to get back to the things that are impacting folks every day,” she said.

In January, the Human Rights Campaign published a guide to blunting conservative attacks on LGBTQ+ issues, citing the successful campaigns of Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

Although the guide encourages candidates to “lead with your values” and “address concerns directly," it also encourages them to “go big” and quickly pivot to issues like cost-of-living concerns.

“I think the number one way to shut out a voter is to try to make them believe that their fears are not real. So what we coach candidates on doing is listening,” Robinson said. “For folks who have questions about the issues, that’s OK. We’re in a moment where the stakes in front of us are too high to look away.”

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Follow the AP's coverage of LGBTQ+ issues at https://apnews.com/hub/lgbtq.

The America Reads the Bible event — with each participant reading a passage aloud — is being livestreamed this week from the Museum of the Bible in Washington and other locations. It is slated to feature a video of Trump on Tuesday evening reading a passage that called for national repentance in ancient Israel — words that have been used prominently for decades by those promoting the belief that America has been and should be a Christian nation.

The Bible is “indelibly woven into our national identity and way of life,” Trump said in a statement commemorating the event. The statement cited historical figures such as the Puritan leader John Winthrop as “imploring his fellow Christian settlers to stand as a beacon of faith for all the world to see.”

Critics say the event has a highly partisan list of participants and is part of a larger project to connect America's upcoming 250th birthday with a Christian nationalist vision that portrays the nation's founding as essentially Christian, something many historians dispute. White Christians, particularly evangelicals, have been crucial to Trump's electoral base.

The list of participants — which overwhelmingly includes Republican politicians and Christian supporters of Trump — shows it to be “very much a right-wing MAGA, Christian nationalist effort," said Brian Kaylor, author of “The Bible According to Christian Nationalists: Exploiting Scripture for Political Power,” referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

“If they wanted this to be a unifying American project, there would have been a whole lot more attention to getting political diversity and ideological diversity,” added Kaylor, president and editor-in-chief of Word&Way, a progressive site covering faith and politics.

Historian Jemar Tisby, whose books have challenged what he says is enduring Christian complicity in racism, criticized the event on Facebook: "You cannot quote the Bible while justifying violence, war and exclusion.”

Bunni Pounds, founder of Christians Engaged, said that reading the Bible alone isn't enough. “Faith without works is dead,” she said, adding: “We need the word first to bring faith into our life.”

Trump's latest faith-related tensions

The Bible event comes just a week after Trump drew rare criticism from his evangelical supporters for circulating a social media meme in which a white-robed Trump appeared as a Jesus-like healer surrounded by patriotic symbols. Trump removed the image from his Truth Social site while insisting he was depicted as a doctor, not Jesus.

It also comes shortly after Trump's high-profile clash with the U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war.

Other high-ranking officials have been or will be reading biblical passages in person or by video. They include Cabinet officials such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as House Speaker Mike Johnson and several other Republican members of Congress. Prominent evangelical supporters of Trump who are participating include evangelist Franklin Graham, pastor Jack Graham and pastor Paula White-Cain, who heads Trump's White House Faith Office.

Pounds said that the organization invited Democratic members of Congress as well as leaders of some denominations that might be considered progressive but that they didn’t accept.

Each speaker is taking a turn in the ongoing reading of the 66 books of the Bible as recognized by Protestants. Jews recognize the Hebrew portion of the Bible that Christians call the Old Testament but not the New Testament books centered on Jesus, while Catholics and Orthodox recognize additional books of the Bible that are not included in this reading. The event does include some Catholic representation, including the president of CatholicVote, which endorsed Trump in 2024.

The event involves a comprehensive reading of the entire Bible, from the famous verses ("Let my people go," "The Lord is my shepherd") to the obscure. Passages range from the creation of the world to bloody battles and apocalyptic destruction, from exhortations to love of God, neighbor and the needy to passages telling of Jesus' life, death and resurrection.

Trump will read from 2 Chronicles

The event organizer is Christians Engaged, a nonprofit whose stated mission includes “discipling Americans on biblical worldview and their responsibilities to pray, vote and engage.”

Trump's appearance will be from the Oval Office, where he will read from the seventh chapter of 2 Chronicles, set during King Solomon's dedication of the temple in ancient Jerusalem. In it, God promises forgiveness if a future generation rebels then repents: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

The verse has long been quoted at many conservative Christian rallies and political events such as the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Pounds noted that the Chronicles passage has for decades been a major theme at annual National Day of Prayer events and that organizers invited Trump to read from it. “It’s a powerful statement that he decided to read that passage,” she said.

The Bible-reading marathon comes just weeks before a May 17 event called a “National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving,” to be held on the National Mall. It's the climactic event of “America Prays,” a project Trump announced last year in conjunction with America 250, calling for prayer for the country and to “rededicate ourselves to one nation under God."

Several of the groups and individuals involved in America Prays are also participating in this week’s Bible reading event.

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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.

We’ve compiled a non-exhaustive list of upcoming Space Coast launches so you can know what to expect.

[RELATED: Best spots to watch a rocket launch]

Keep checking back, though, because as most space enthusiasts know, launch schedules are subject to change due to weather, technical reasons, and range restrictions.

I repeat: All launch dates and times are tentative!

• Date: April 27
• Vehicle: SpaceX Falcon 9
• Mission: SpaceX is targeting the launch of its Falcon Heavy equipped with the ViaSat-3 F3 mission to geosynchronous transfer orbit.
• Launch Time: 10:21 a.m.
• Location: Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center.

• Date: First half of 2026
• Vehicle: Blue Origin New Glenn
• Mission: Blue Origin will launch a Blue Moon lunar lander carrying NASA payloads on a demonstration mission.
• Launch Time: TBD
• Location: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Launch Complex 36

• Date: No earlier than April
• Vehicle: Boeing Starliner
• Mission: An uncrewed Boeing Starliner will deliver cargo to the International Space Station and undergo in-flight validation of a series of system upgrades.
• Launch Time: TBD
• Location: TBD

• Date: Q4 2026
• Vehicle: ULA Vulcan
• Mission: Sierra Space will launch its uncrewed Dream Chaser space plane atop a ULA Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
• Launch Time: TBD
• Location: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Launch Complex 41

History’s first American pope is visiting the continent against the backdrop of his calls for peace that have sparked a feud with U.S. President Donald Trump over the war in Iran.

Leo is now in Equatorial Guinea, the final stop of his tour, after visiting Algeria, Cameroon and Angola. His trip is so dizzying in its complexity it recalls some of the globe-trotting odysseys of St. John Paul II in his early years.

In meetings with leaders and with Africa's young population, the pope has also focused on themes including Christian-Muslim coexistence, the overexploitation of the region’s natural and human resources, corruption, migration and the legacy of colonialism.

Here’s a country-by-country look at each destination and highlights of the itinerary:

ALGERIA: April 13-15

In Algeria, Leo walked in the footsteps of his spiritual father, St. Augustine, making a pilgrimage to the archaeological ruins where the fifth-century titan of early Christianity lived, died and wrote some of the most important works in Western thought.

The Algeria stop clearly carried the most personal importance for Leo, given his ties to St. Augustine, the inspiration of his Augustinian religious order.

Migration and Christian-Muslim coexistence were other top themes in Algeria, a former French colony which is a majority Sunni Muslim nation on North Africa’s Mediterranean coast. Leo also paid homage to migrants killed in shipwrecks trying to reach Europe and visited the Great Mosque in Algiers.

In Annaba, the modern-day Hippo, Leo met with a small community of Augustinians and celebrated Mass at the Basilica of St. Augustine, the 19th century basilica overlooking the ruins of Hippo where thousands of pilgrims including Muslims visit every year.

CAMEROON: April 15-18

A major highlight of Leo's visit to Cameroon were his remarks at a “peace meeting” in the western city of Bamenda, the epicenter of Cameroon's separatist conflict. There, he blasted the “handful of tyrants” who are ravaging the planet with war and exploitation.

Although the remarks were directed at the separatist conflict, considered one of the world’s most neglected crises, Vatican officials have said the pope's Gospel-mandated message of peace on this trip is meant for all those responsible for wars and exploitation.

Leo met with both religious and political leaders including Cameroon's 93-year-old president, Paul Biya, the world's oldest leader. He called for an end to the “chains of corruption” and for upright leadership.

Biya has been accused of using corrupt means and the targeting of opponents to remain in power.

Cameroon sits atop significant reserves of oil, natural gas, cobalt, bauxite, iron ore, gold and diamonds. But revenues rarely reach rural and Indigenous communities and mostly benefit only foreign companies and a small national elite, activists say.

The pope also visited an orphanage for children taken off the streets after suffering abandonment or maltreatment from their parents.

He celebrated a Mass before thousands of people in the economic hub of Douala, where he urged young people to resist the temptation of corruption.

ANGOLA: April 18-21

As Leo headed for Angola, he again addressed the back-and-forth with Trump, saying it was "not in my interest at all” to debate the American president over the Iran war, but he would continue preaching a message of peace.

In Angola, where around 58% of the population is Catholic, Leo prayed at the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, a Marian shrine that has become one of the most important Catholic pilgrimage sites in Angola.

That church also has deep links to Angola's history of slavery. It was first built around the end of the 16th century by Portuguese colonizers after they established a fortress at Muxima, and became a key point in the Portuguese trans-Atlantic human trade as a place where enslaved people were baptized before they were sent on ships to the Americas.

While Leo didn't directly address slavery, his visit to the small town of Muxima drew reflections on his own complex heritage after research last year showed the first American pope has both Black and white ancestors who include enslaved people and slave owners.

Angola today is an oil- and mineral-rich country, yet many of its 38 million people live in poverty. Previous leaders have been accused of large-scale corruption, while the country still bears the scars of a 27-year civil war that began straight after independence from Portugal in 1975.

At a meeting with Angolan President Joao Lourenco, Leo challenged current Angolan leaders to break the “cycle of interests” that have exploited Africa and its people for centuries.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: April 21-23

Equatorial Guinea, the last stop, presents the pope with perhaps the most delicate diplomatic challenge of his tour.

The overwhelmingly Catholic former Spanish colony has been led for nearly 50 years by a president who is accused of widespread corruption and holding on to power through the harassment, arrest and intimidation of political opponents, critics and journalists.

Equatorial Guinea's leader, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, is Africa’s longest-serving president and has been in power since 1979.

The discovery of offshore oil in the mid-1990s transformed Equatorial Guinea’s economy virtually overnight, with oil now accounting for almost half its GDP and more than 90% of exports, according to the African Development Bank.

Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have documented how revenues have enriched the ruling Obiang family rather than the broader population, where at least 70% of the country’s nearly 2 million people live in poverty.

In addition to the negative impacts of the extraction industries, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Leo would raise issues of corruption and the proper role of governing authorities during the trip to Africa.

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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 six were all in custody. A seventh suspect, former Bayelsa state Gov. Timpre Sylva, is accused of helping to conceal the plot and is still at large.

In the 13-count charge sheet, authorities said suspects “conspired with one another to levy war against the state to overawe the president of the Federal Republic."

The Nigerian government first said it had foiled a coup attempt in January, when it announced that several military officers would stand trial. They were part of a group of 16 military officers arrested in 2025 over what military authorities described as “acts of indiscipline and breaches of service regulations," which fueled rumors of a coup plot that the government initially denied.

Africa's most populous nation experienced five coups in the 20th century but has not seen one since it transitioned to democracy in 1999.

The alleged coup plot comes on the heels of a surge in coups and attempted coups in West and Central Africa, the latest in Benin and Guinea-Bissau late last year. The military takeovers, experts say, follow a pattern of disputed elections, constitutional upheaval, security crises and youth discontent.

The restaurant shared clips on social media of the deer bolting by the outdoor restaurant bar on Ocean Shore Boulevard, startling guests and knocking over a few chairs.

One of the deer almost collided with a worker.

The restaurant assured followers that no one was hurt during the wild encounter. Footage taken from one of the outside cameras showed the deer frolicking through the parking lot.

The Tortugas’ patio sprint isn’t the first time a deer has caused a stir in Flagler Beach.

Last July, Flagler Beach Ocean Rescue lifeguards pulled a deer from the Atlantic Ocean after spotting the animal struggling to stay afloat offshore.

After a noticeably cooler start Tuesday morning, temperatures through the day are expected to remain below average in the low to mid 80s.

Winds out of the east to northeast will ramp up through the afternoon, with gusts reaching around 25 mph inland and up to 30 to 35 mph along the coast.

FIRE & MARINE HAZARDS

The combination of very dry air and breezy conditions will increase the threat for brush fires, which is why a Red Flag Warning is in effect Tuesday afternoon between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Remember, any little spark could easily start and spread a fire in these conditions.

The winds are expected to keep beach and boating activities dangerous as strong onshore winds will keep rough surf, rip currents, and rough seas over the next few days.

LATE WEEK

As we move through the week, the winds should start to die down a bit. A weaker onshore flow sets up Wednesday into Thursday, and while a brief coastal shower is possible, rain chances remain low, generally 20 percent or less. Temperatures stay near seasonal norms, with upper 70s along the coast and low 80s inland.

WEEKEND

Looking ahead into the weekend, a warming trend takes over. Afternoon sea breeze interactions could spark a few isolated to widely scattered storms inland each day, with rain chances in the 20 to 30 percent range.

Highs will climb into the mid to upper 80s, with some inland spots nearing 90 degrees by Sunday into Monday.

“We thank the Lord for the great gift of the life of Francis, to the church and the world,” Leo said.

The American pope delivered the tribute in Italian while speaking with reporters aboard the papal plane heading from Angola to Equatorial Guinea, the final leg of his four-nation African trip.

Francis died on Easter Monday last year after suffering a stroke. He had been at the Vatican recovering from a five-week hospital stay for double pneumonia, and had managed to deliver a final Easter salute to the crowd with a popemobile romp through St. Peter’s Square.

His death, at 88, set the stage for the conclave that elected Leo a few weeks later. It was an outcome for which Francis had laid the groundwork by promoting the former missionary priest, Robert Prevost, whom he considered “a saint.”

In his tribute, Leo recalled with precision some of Francis’ most memorable homilies and messages, saying he “gave so much to the church with his life, with his witness, with his word and with his gestures.”

“So many times what he did was live truly being close to the poorest, the smallest, the sick, children, the elderly,” he said.

He cited Francis’ preaching promoting human fraternity and “authentic respect” among all people, as well as a special Holy Year he called in 2015 to emphasize God’s mercy and forgiveness. Francis famously opened the year in the Central African Republic, and Leo delivered his tribute just as his plane was flying over that part of Africa.

Leo recalled Francis’ first Sunday noon prayer as pope, and a Mass he celebrated two days before his pontificate was officially inaugurated, when he preached about an adulterous woman “and how he spoke from the heart of the mercy of God.”

“Let us pray that he is still enjoying the mercy of the Lord,” Leo said.

Books recall Francis’ life and what he thought of Prevost

The anniversary was being marked with commemorations in Rome, including the release of commemorative books about and recollections of Francis, and a Mass on Tuesday evening at St. Mary Major basilica, where Francis’ tomb is located.

Among the flurry of recollections, one by Salvatore Cernuzio stands out because it offers a view of the current pope from his predecessor.

Cernuzio, an Italian reporter with Vatican Media, the Holy See’s in-house news operation, developed a close personal relationship with Francis and often traveled in his entourage when the pope left the Vatican. However, the book, entitled “Padre,” or “Father,” details the private side of their relationship, of Cernuzio’s visits with Francis at the Santa Marta hotel where he lived, and their conversations.

“Him? He’s a saint,” Francis told Cernuzio of the then-Cardinal Robert Prevost, whom Francis had brought to Rome in 2023 to take up the important job heading the Vatican’s bishop-vetting office.

Francis’ assessment, delivered in 2023 after he had announced Prevost would be included in his new batch of cardinals that year, adds even more weight to the hypothesis that Francis saw in Prevost a possible successor.

Cernuzio recalls that when Francis called someone a saint, it was usually “to describe people who are able to handle conflicts, tensions, and complex situations with composure, and who are able to foster a sense of community.”

Prevost was spotted and promoted by Francis

The hypothesis that Francis laid the groundwork for Prevost’s election is well-founded, given it’s clear Francis had his eye on Prevost from the start and greatly appreciated his experience as a missionary who spent two decades working in Peru.

After Prevost finished a second consecutive stint as head of the Order of St. Augustine, Francis sent him in 2014 to be bishop of the complicated diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, and he rose up within the Peruvian bishops conference from there to take on leadership roles.

Francis then moved Prevost to head one of the most important Vatican jobs — prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops — that gave Prevost crucial experience in the Vatican bureaucracy and contacts with the cardinals who would eventually choose Francis’ successor.

The combination made Prevost a viable contender in a future papal election, overcoming the otherwise impossible conclave hurdle of his American citizenship. There had long been a taboo in the church against a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical power the country already wields.

The two men, who later became good friends, had known each other from when Prevost was the Augustinian prior general and the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Prevost has recounted that at one point Bergoglio had expressed interest in assigning an Augustinian priest to a specific job in his archdiocese.

“And I, as prior general, said ‘I understand, Your Eminence, but he’s got to do something else’ and so I transferred him somewhere else,” Prevost told parishioners in his home state of Illinois in 2024.

Prevost said he “naively” thought the Francis wouldn’t remember him after his 2013 election as pope, and that regardless “he’ll never appoint me bishop” due to the disagreement years earlier.

Bergoglio not only made him bishop, he laid the groundwork for Prevost to succeed him.

QVC Group, the parent company of both QVC and HSN, is in financial trouble.

The West Chester, Pennsylvania-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday. In its 2025 annual report filed last week, QVC stated that it planned to file for Chapter 11 as early as Wednesday.

The reason for the filing: the company carries more than $6.6 billion in debt and needs to restructure to avoid shutting down. In a press statement, QVC said its RSA (Restructuring Support Agreement) with creditors would reduce the debt to about $1.3 billion. The company says the restructuring will cut billions in debt while allowing it to continue operating and fulfill its vision to shift toward livestream and social media–driven shopping. The new company will be named Reorganized QVC Inc.

QVC Group is not entering this process suddenly; the company’s financial condition has been deteriorating for some time. Recognizing that it was facing immense pressure and competition from social media and streaming, in November 2024, the company announced it was rebranding itself as QVC Group in an effort to “expand into a live social shopping company.”

In August of 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that a group of QVC’s top lenders, lenders holding more than 75% of its $3.25 billion revolving credit line, formed a rare cooperation pact to negotiate together as the company’s financial condition worsened.

That move was seen as defensive and came about as QVC’s debt prices had fallen to about 60–64 cents on the dollar. The Journal also reported the company plans to only be in Chapter 11 for just 90 days, though in its annual report, QVC Group warned that cash on hand may not “be sufficient to continue to fund our operations and allow us to satisfy our obligations related to the Chapter 11 Cases until we are able to emerge from the Chapter 11 Cases.”

QVC has drawn down almost all of its credit line, leaving only about $200 million in liquidity, and the company’s stock price has dropped dramatically over the last decade.

• In February 2015, QVC Group (known as Liberty Interactive from 2006-2018 and Qurate Retail from 2018-2025) was trading at an all-time high of about $30.
• By January 2023, the stock had fallen to around $2.58.
• Shares fell below $1 last week, hitting an intraday low in the mid-70-cent range and closing as low as about $0.79. The stock was trading around $2.16 on the morning of April 17, 2026.
• NOTE: Some sources list QVC stock as high as $900 a share, but those figures reflect earlier legacy share structures and are not directly comparable to the current stock price.

The origins of shopping at home on TV

So, what brought all this about? A number of factors, including social media, competition from online shopping, and cable cord-cutting.

The pay TV market (cable, satellite, and telco – fiber optic delivery of cable and internet) hit its peak in the early 2010s at roughly 100–105 million households, or about 87–88% of all U.S. homes. By 2023, that share had dropped to 64%, and by 2025, industry estimates put penetration at roughly 50% or lower. That’s not good news for cable shopping networks that have historically relied on those distribution systems for their largest audiences.

The Home Shopping Network has its roots in radio, starting off on an AM station in Clearwater, Florida in 1977 before jumping to broadcast TV in 1982 and cable in 1985. At its peak, it reached tens of millions of homes primarily via cable and satellite, while also using a group of a dozen broadcast stations to secure carriage.

Under Barry Diller’s USA Broadcasting, those stations – all in top 20 markets – were repurposed in the late 1990s in an attempt at a locally driven “fifth TV network” behind ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox (Diller created Fox Broadcasting in the late 1980s before retiring in 1992). The flagship station of the group was South Florida-based WAMI (its call letters stood for We Are Miami), which experimented with locally produced news and entertainment programs.

The station’s sole news program, The Times – anchored by Ben Mankiewicz – went off the air in December of 2000 with its infamous 5-year Miami forecast. The locally produced programming concept struggled with ratings and high costs, and in 2001 WAMI (along with the other eleven USA Broadcasting stations) was sold to Univision and became either Univision or UniMás (formerly Telefutura) affiliates. HSN was sold to QVC in December of 2017.

QVC on the other hand went on the air in January of 1987 as a cable network and has always been distributed through both cable or satellite and QVC.com. Like HSN, QVC is an acronym: Quality, Value, and Convenience.

The company snapped up competitors in its early years, including The Fashion Channel, CVN, and the J.C. Penney Shopping Channel. By 1992, the whole segment was down to just two main players: QVC and HSN. QVC has also opened brick-and-mortar retail locations, most notably at the Mall of America, along with regional outlet stores.

QVC’s rapid growth was fueled by its focus on live, personality-driven sales, with hosts demonstrating products in real time and encouraging viewers to call in or order on-screen. The model proved highly successful through the 1990s and early 2000s, as cable television expanded into tens of millions of homes.

The company became part of media mogul John Malone’s Liberty Media empire in the 1990s, eventually operating under Liberty Interactive and later Qurate Retail. Over time, QVC expanded internationally, launching networks in the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and other markets, helping it become one of the largest video commerce retailers in the world.

In 2017, QVC’s parent company acquired longtime rival HSN in a deal valued at more than $2 billion, consolidating the two dominant U.S. home shopping networks under one corporate umbrella. The combined company also includes brands such as Zulily, Ballard Designs, Garnet Hill, Grandin Road, and Frontgate. QVC sold Zulily in 2023.

Like its competitors, QVC benefited from early adoption of e-commerce, launching QVC.com in the 1990s and later expanding into mobile apps and streaming platforms. However, the rise of online retail giants like Amazon, combined with the decline of traditional cable television, put increasing pressure on the company’s core business.

For decades, that model thrived on one key advantage: access to millions of captive cable viewers. But that advantage is rapidly disappearing.

Death by disruption: online shopping and cutting the cord

For years, cable home shopping was the primary alternative if you didn’t want to leave the house to shop. They controlled the pricing narrative, product discovery, and the mechanics of shopping from the living room – from ordering to payment to home delivery.

QVC and HSN were not only the gatekeepers, but they were also the innovators. Many of today’s “buy now, pay later” options – including PayPal, Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay – trace their roots to installment payment models popularized by QVC and HSN.

The rise of e-commerce, however, has fundamentally changed how people shop.

Online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Wayfair, and Etsy made it possible to compare prices instantly, often undercutting the urgency and exclusivity that home shopping networks relied on. Low-cost – and often free – delivery from global e-commerce platforms like Shein, Temu, and Alibaba has further fragmented the market.

Add in the convenience of smartphones – a shopping comparator in every pocket – along with the meteoric rise of influencers and social commerce, and both QVC and HSN quickly found themselves on the outside looking in. Instead of consumers passively watching cable channels, audiences now spend hours on smartphones, browsing social media and shopping apps. The kind of extended viewing that once fueled impulse purchases on QVC and HSN has largely disappeared.

And then there’s TikTok.

Ironically, the core concept behind QVC and HSN – live, personality-driven selling – has not disappeared: it has migrated to new platforms. Influencers on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube now demonstrate products in real time, often reaching larger and younger audiences than traditional broadcast and cable networks.

One of the biggest disruptions is the shift away from linear programming. Unlike traditional TV, where viewers must tune in at specific times, social media platforms not only use algorithms to deliver content directly to users but also make that content available anytime after it’s posted. And it can be easily shared.

That shift has made product discovery more personalized – and far more competitive.

Frankenstein, meet your monster(s)

The steady decline of cable television has reduced QVC and HSN’s reach as millions of households cancel pay TV subscriptions each year and the built-in audience that once sustained home shopping networks continues to shrink. Meanwhile, social media and smartphone use continue to rise. Together, these changes have created a perfect storm for the legacy cable shopping brands: fewer viewers, more competition, and a retail landscape dominated by digital platforms.

For the QVC Group, the question now is whether those changes are too little, too late. The company said it will not only “amplify” their streaming channels (both QVC+ and HSN+), but they also said they are developing streaming commerce options for other channels including Roku, Hulu, YouTube TV, and Netflix – yes, you read that right.

In their November 2025 press release, the company acknowledged that consumers are spending more time on social media because that’s increasingly where consumers are now discovering and buying products.

But moving forward, QVC and HSN are not only competing against traditional online retailers and smartphone apps, but platforms that in many ways modeled themselves after the two OG shopping networks: TikTok Shop, Amazon Live, Instagram shopping, YouTube, Facebook Live, and Whatnot.

In other words, the companies that pioneered influencer-driven retail – before influencers were even a thing – now face stiff competition from the very model they helped create. The model that once defined QVC and HSN hasn’t disappeared – it just no longer lives exclusively on cable television.

As you watch her work, and it’s clear she’s locked onto something. What she’s detecting, though, isn’t visible to the human eye.

“Her nose is super sensitive. She could detect really the littlest amount,” her handler, Paul Lutwin, explains.

Lutwin is the founder of Mold Testers 407, and Radar is their star employee.

Radar isn’t sniffing for narcotics or explosives. She’s trained to find mold which is a widespread problem across Central Florida homes.

“It’s the same training that law enforcement uses, military uses. Scent detection training is all the same. It’s just a scent that’s completely different,” Lutwin said.

Radar, a Belgian Malinois, is part of a specialized effort to uncover hidden mold behind walls, under floors, and inside areas homeowners rarely think to check.

According to Lutwin, Florida’s climate makes it a hotspot.

“Orlando area is the number one state for mold, followed by Tampa, then Miami. Being inland seems to be more humid, and a lot of the homes in this area have crawl spaces, and that affects the indoor environment. So it’s a big problem.”

Mold isn’t just a property issue. Experts say it’s also a health concern.

“I’ve seen people with major neurological issues from mold contamination inside the house, where people can’t think, they have brain fog, they can’t walk… all the way down to rashes, memory loss, respiratory issues. It affects everything.”

Many of those symptoms can be easy to dismiss.

“Being very lethargic, everybody complaining that they’re tired, they don’t have the energy anymore, they can’t sleep, nose bleeds, rashes, respiratory issues, eye irritation, brain fog, memory loss.”

The challenge is that mold often hides out of sight making Radar’s skill especially valuable.

“When I put that collar on, she knows she’s going to find some mold,” Lutwin said.

And when she does, her alert is subtle.

“Her alert is to hold still and then plop - which is in a down position. She’ll basically just point and hold that position. And that’s an alert.”

That quiet signal has helped uncover problems others missed.

In one case, a homeowner went through multiple inspections and costly repairs without answers.

“He had mold assessment companies, assessment after assessment. Nobody could really isolate the issue,” Lutwin said. “Went out there, walked her around, got into the master bathroom area - and boom. She just hit right on that tile wall.”

Behind it was a hidden leak and significant mold growth.

“Sure enough, there was a ton of mold behind there.”

A $30,000 bathroom renovation, he said, had failed to catch it.

Experts warn the risk increases after heavy rains, hurricanes, and prolonged humidity which are all common in Florida.

“By the time people feel something and then they actually take action, it’s beyond a small little issue. It becomes a big problem at that point.”

Lutwin advises homeowners to trust their instincts if something feels off.

“If you think you don’t feel well inside and it’s not the common cold, and you went to the doctor and they can’t figure it out, have your indoor air quality, your indoor environment tested.”

Cost concerns may also be less of a barrier than people think.

“If they deny you, you’re in the same boat anyway. Most of the time, if it’s a real loss, they’ll cover that.”

Lutwin said there are some things you can be on the lookout for to detect a hidden mold problem in your home:

• A musty or damp odor
• Visible water stains
• Discoloration on walls
• High humidity levels
• Water damage
• Dark spots on walls or ceilings

Even more notable: Mendoza, of Indiana, joined Jim Plunkett and Bryce Young as just the third Latino to win the trophy while Pavia, from Vanderbilt, was the runner-up.

Now with the NFL draft almost here, Mendoza and Pavia continue to drive conversation about where they will go. Mendoza is projected to be the No. 1 selection Thursday night, likely going to the quarterback-needy Las Vegas Raiders, while Pavia hopes to prove any lingering doubters wrong.

And while the two quarterbacks are the headliners, they are certainly not the only Latino prospects hoping to hear their names called before the draft ends Saturday.

Here's a look at nine players who attended the NFL's annual scouting combine in Indianapolis in February.

QB Fernando Mendoza, Indiana

The Heisman Trophy winner and national championship-winning quarterback seems a virtual lock to be the No. 1 pick after throwing for 3,535 yards, leading the nation with 41 TD passes and running for seven more scores, including the memorable TD that helped seal Indiana's national title. Mendoza eagerly embraces his Cuban lineage. He has talked often about the role his parents and family played in his growth as a player, and his four grandparents who fled Cuba in 1959.

WR KC Concepcion, Texas A&M

The 5-foot-11 1/2, 196-pound, do-it-all receiver with Puerto Rican connections emerged as one of the nation's top playmakers in 2025. He was a first-team All-America selection as the all-purpose player and though his 40-yard dash time of 4.43 seconds may cause some scouts to question his top-end speed, Concepcion always seems to deliver in clutch moments or when plays appear to be over. He also has written about his speech impediment, indicating he wants to become a role model for those who “may be too scared to speak.” He could be picked on Day 1 or early on Day 2.

LB Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech

The 6-1, 231-pound Rodriguez did a little bit of everything with one of last season's top defenses. He made 128 tackles, broke up seven passes, intercepted four, forced seven fumbles, recovered two and posted one sack. And the unanimous All-American also won the Nagurski Trophy, Butkus Award, Lombardi Award and Bednarik Award on a defense stacked with future NFL players. He seemingly did it all in college, including playing quarterback at Virginia in 2021. The question is where he will land and how all that experience will translate to the pro level.

LB Taurean York, Texas A&M

At 5-11, 186 pounds, York is smaller than prototypical linebackers but could find a home by playing the trendy safety-linebacker hybrid NFL teams seem to increasingly want. He's been productive, too. The second team all-SEC selection started all three seasons with the Aggies, and he finished last season with 72 tackles and three passes defensed. He's one of five players in this draft with family ties to Mexico. Look for York to be chosen on Day 2 or early on Day 3.

QB Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt

He's one of the most polarizing players in this draft class, in part because he's not afraid to express his thoughts and in part because he stands only 5-foot-10, much shorter than most teams prefer in a quarterback. But there are two things on Pavia's resume that can't be ignored — he's routinely defied the odds and he wins. Pavia started his college career at New Mexico Military Institute, played well enough to jump to New Mexico State and then led Vanderbilt to its most successful back-to-back seasons in recent memory. Now the 2025 SEC Offensive Player of the Year and the first Heisman finalist from Vanderbilt will be waiting to find out which NFL team will give him a chance to prove himself all over again.

TE Josh Cuevas, Alabama

Cuevas has been a more proficient blocker than pass catcher at his three college stops — Cal Poly, Washington and Alabama. And though his size, 6-3 1/2, 245 pounds, may prompt some teams to project him more as a fullback than a tight end, there's plenty to like. Cuevas produced solid numbers last season with the Tide — 37 receptions, 411 yards, four TDs — and had career bests in 2022 at Cal Poly (58 catches, 678 yards, six TDs). The other thing coaches will appreciate is his accountablilty. He apologized to Alabama fans after the 2025 season-opening loss to Florida State, saying the players failed to meet the expected standard in that game. He also used his Senior Bowl platform to throw his support behind Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer.

OL Fernando Carmona, Arkansas

Carmona showed his versatility last season by moving to guard after playing left tackle the previous three seasons. That gave NFL teams a potential preview of what he could do next season with his shorter arms and massive size — 6-4 1/2, 316 pounds. He's also improved steadily in college, going from honorable mention all-Western Athletic Conference with San Jose State in 2023 to third-team all-SEC in 2024 and second-team all-SEC last year. While scouts also seem to like his energy and edge, they also realize he'll need better technique to excel at the next level.

QB Joey Aguilar, Tennessee

Aguilar is one of the rare prospects who didn't want to be on any draft list. Despite throwing for 3,565 yards and 24 touchdowns in his only season with the Volunteers, Aguilar wanted to return to school for one more year. But just days before the NFL's annual scouting combine was set to begin, a Tennessee court denied his preliminary injunction, pushing him into the draft. The decision put Aguilar in an awkward position because most of the other players had spent weeks or months preparing for the draft. That makes his landing spot — or even a selection — anybody's guess.

OL Enrique Cruz Jr., Kansas

Cruz has the size teams covet — 6-5 1/2, 313 pounds — and the versatility they like in late-round prospects because he played both left and right tackle in college. He also overcame the adversity of going from starter to backup at Syracuse by reclaiming the starting job last year at Kansas. Will it be enough to entice an NFL team? Perhaps.

___

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

However, recent events should serve as a wake-up call to take some risk off the table and give bonds a closer look. Stocks have recently encountered some volatility but they’re still near all-time highs. That provides pre-retirees and retirees with an opportune time to scale back equity exposure and plow the proceeds into safer assets like cash and high-quality bonds.

The benefits of de-risking

The key benefit that bonds confer to a retirement-decumulation portfolio is their lower volatility. Even though bond returns are apt to be lower than stocks’, bond returns are much more reliable.

In retirement portfolios, holding a component of lower-risk assets mitigates “ sequence risk ” — the prospect of encountering big portfolio losses early in retirement. Because equity-heavy portfolios have the potential for bigger losses than balanced or more bond-heavy ones, that leaves them more vulnerable to sequence risk.

In addition to bonds’ lower volatility, today’s higher yields point to better return prospects from bonds over the next decade than was the case a few years ago. That’s because bonds’ starting yields and subsequent returns are closely correlated. The yield on 10-year Treasury bonds sat at about 50 basis points in the summer of 2020, but today, it’s about 4.3%. Not only does that improve bonds’ forward-looking return prospects, but higher yields also give bondholders more protection against price declines than they had when yields were ultralow. (Even if a bond or bond fund’s price declines, the investor still receives their yield.)

There’s a time-period-specific reason to consider bonds, too. With worries about a slowing economy looming over the market, high-quality bonds will tend to be particularly well situated. Bond returns have been reliably positive in recessionary environments.

Finally, for retirees who worry that they’re too late to de-risk because market volatility is already underway, they shouldn’t sweat the timing too much. Stocks’ extended run leaves many portfolios equity-heavy today. A portfolio that was 60% stocks/40% bonds five years ago would be nearly 80% equity today, without any additional purchases of stocks.

How to do it/where to go

First, what not to do: jettison stocks and go all-in on safety. Yes, uncertainty reigns over both the economy and markets. But the best way to confront uncertain times is with humility and a portfolio that’s diversified enough to perform reasonably well in a variety of scenarios. While recessions and sequence risk are a particularly big problem for portfolios that are too stock-heavy, inflation is the chief threat for portfolios that are too timid and bond-heavy. That’s because the return potential of an all-bond portfolio is relatively constrained, so inflation will tend to gobble up a bigger percentage of returns than is the case with balanced or more equity-heavy portfolios. The  Bucket portfolios  that I write about include stocks for the good times, bonds for recessionary periods and flights to safety when stocks fall, and cash for when both stocks and bonds struggle, as they did in 2022.

How much you drop into each of those three buckets depends on your spending rate and your proximity to spending. In my standard three-bucket setup, I earmark one to two years’ worth of withdrawals for cash and another five to eight years’ worth of portfolio withdrawals in bonds. Spending from those two buckets could tide you through an extended equity-market downturn. You don’t want to start building out the cash position until you’re a few years from retirement, as the opportunity cost is too great.

If your portfolio’s current allocations are dramatically out of whack with your targets and you are already retired or expect to retire within the next few years, it’s wise to de-risk as swiftly as practical. If retirement is further into the future and/or your current allocations are only modestly away from your targets, you could take a more gradual approach to enlarging your safety portfolio, dollar-cost averaging from stocks to bonds and/or steering new contributions to safer assets.

Finally, de-risking has the potential to trigger a tax bill. You won’t owe any taxes if you focus your rebalancing activities on tax-sheltered accounts. But if you need to rebalance your taxable portfolio, it’s best to use new contributions to address the imbalance and/or get some tax advice on the implications of selling appreciated equity holdings.

_______

This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more retirement content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/retirement.

Christine Benz is director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar and co-host of The Long View podcast.

Related Links

How to Handle Market Volatility at Every Life Stage

https://www.morningstar.com/portfolios/how-handle-market-volatility-every-life-stage

Alternatives in 401(k)s Are a Solution in Search of a Problem

https://www.morningstar.com/retirement/alternatives-401ks-are-solution-search-problem

5 Things to Do Today If You Want to Retire in 2030

https://www.morningstar.com/retirement/5-things-do-today-if-you-want-retire-2030

Let’s make a deal.

There have been 60 trades involving first-round picks over the past five years. Eighteen were traded in 2022. Last year, six first-round picks were dealt. That was tied for the fewest since 1985.

The Bengals, Packers, Jaguars, Falcons, Colts and Broncos don’t have a first-round pick while the Giants, Jets, Dolphins, Cowboys, Browns and Chiefs each have two.

Cincinnati traded the 10th overall pick to the Giants on Saturday for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence. New York owns the fifth and 10th picks. Green Bay doesn’t have one because of its blockbuster trade for Micah Parsons last August. Jacksonville traded its 2026 first-rounder to Cleveland on draft night last year to move up to get Travis Hunter with the second overall pick.

Atlanta sent this year’s first-round pick to the Rams on draft night a year ago to select edge rusher James Pearce Jr. at No. 26. Indianapolis traded its first-rounder to the Jets for Sauce Gardner. Denver sent the 30th overall pick to Miami in the deal for Jaylen Waddle.

Here are five teams that could be active on Thursday night:

Philadelphia Eagles

General manager Howie Roseman is one of the most active and aggressive executives in the NFL. The Eagles own the 23rd pick. They moved up from No. 10 to No. 9 in 2023 to get defensive tackle Jalen Carter. A year earlier, they went from 15 to 13 to get defensive tackle Jordan Davis. In 2021, Philadelphia moved up from 12 to 10 to select wideout DeVonta Smith. Roseman also moved up in 2019 and 2016. He traded out of the first round in 2018.

“I think we go into this draft being very comfortable with having 23 guys we’re ready to take. We’re there ready and prepared for that,” Roseman said. “If something happens where somebody who’s higher on our board than 23rd is available, we’ll be ready for that. If there’s an opportunity that we think makes sense to move up based on the value of that player, we’ll move up. If we have multiple guys at our spot and there’s a trade that makes sense to move back, we’ll move back.”

The trade involving the Eagles that’s been a hot topic throughout the offseason isn’t expected to happen this week. A.J. Brown is likely on the move, with the Patriots expected to be the leading contender to land the star wide receiver, reuniting him with coach Mike Vrabel. The Rams already pursued Brown earlier in the offseason. The Eagles would be able to spread a $40 million salary cap hit over two seasons by waiting until June 1 to deal Brown.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

With the 15th pick in the first round, the Buccaneers might miss out on one of the top players on their board. They need an elite rusher and could use more draft capital because they have only one pick in each round. There are several potential pass rushers who could be a fit in the 16-25 range that would allow Tampa Bay to move back and add more premium draft picks.

“In a lot of scenarios that we’re working through, yeah,” GM Jason Licht said about moving back. “You have a group of players that you say, ‘No matter what, if this player’s there, we’re taking (them).’ If there’s a group of three, then maybe you go back one or two to make sure that you ensure you get one of your three, but the part of that that makes it difficult is you’ve got to find a trade partner. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Sometimes teams just don’t want to move up. They don’t want to give up picks, and I understand why.”

Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys have the 12th and 20th picks, and Jerry Jones has hinted at being aggressive. But it would make more sense for Dallas to trade down in one of those spots to add extra picks because the defense has several needs.

The Cowboys don’t have a second-round pick after sending it to the Jets in a deal for defensive tackle Quinnen Williams before the trade deadline. Moving down from 20 and adding a second-rounder plus other picks is one scenario.

New York Jets

The Jets have four of the top 44 picks in the draft, including Nos. 2 and 16 in the first round. They have three 2027 first-round picks.

If there’s a player they covet — perhaps an elite wideout — they have the draft assets to jump up from 16. They have their choice of edge rushers at No. 2 after quarterback Fernando Mendoza goes first to the Raiders.

Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins have the 11th and 30th picks in the first round and plenty of needs. They’re in full rebuild mode. Trading one of those to add more picks could help Miami replenish its roster.

___

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

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency confirmed that it has asked prosecutors to request a court warrant for arresting Bang, the billionaire founder and chairman of Hybe.

Bang’s legal team in a statement to The Associated Press did not directly address the accusations but expressed regret that police were seeking his arrest “despite our full and consistent cooperation with the investigation over an extended period.”

“We will continue to cooperate with all legal procedures and make every effort to clearly explain our position,” the statement said.

Bang, who has been barred from leaving the country since August, is being investigated over allegations that he misled investors in 2019 by telling them Hybe had no plans to go public, prompting them to sell their shares to a private equity fund, before the company proceeded with an initial public offering. Police believe that the fund may have paid Bang around 200 billion won ($136 million) in a side deal that promised him 30% of post-IPO stock sale profits.

Hybe officials say Bang denies any wrongdoing.

Bang’s legal troubles are a major public relations setback for Hybe, coming as BTS embarks on a global tour after a nearly four-year hiatus as its seven members served their mandatory military service, which is required for most able-bodied South Korean males.

BTS performed in front of tens of thousands of international fans at a free comeback concert in Seoul last month and have also held several concerts in South Korea’s Goyang city and Tokyo. The group is to kick off a series of U.S. events with a concert in Tampa, Florida, later this month.

Bang, a music executive and producer who founded Hybe as Big Hit Entertainment in 2005, is widely seen as one of the most powerful figures in K-pop and has sought to capitalize on the global success of BTS to build his company into an international pop powerhouse.

In 2021, Hybe spent about $1 billion to purchase Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, securing the management rights to artists like Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.

While Hybe’s roster includes some of K-pop’s biggest acts, such as Seventeen, Le Sserafim and Katseye in addition to BTS, the company has seen turmoil in recent years, including a highly public fallout between Bang and star producer Min Hee-Jin over the popular girl group NewJeans.

The rift erupted in 2024 when Hybe attempted to remove Min as CEO of Ador, the subsidiary managing NewJeans, while accusing her of illegally attempting to take control of that company. Min, in turn, accused Bang of hostile treatment and of undermining NewJeans in favor of other groups, as the dispute moved into courts. Members of NewJeans, who have described Min as a mentor, tried to leave the label following her ouster, but a court last year ruled they must honor their contract through 2029.

Amid the frustrated jeers of an infuriated home crowd, the Hurricanes now had to regroup and continue the grinding fight of a postseason game that appeared over only moments earlier. And that led to forward Jordan Martinook immediately standing at center ice with another chance to end it as he waited to take a penalty shot — a rarity in OT during the playoffs.

“Try having a penalty shot after all that,” Martinook quipped.

Nothing came easily Monday night for the Eastern Conference's top seed against the Ottawa Senators in a 3-2 double-overtime win that secured a 2-0 lead in their first-round series. That was particularly true of those gut-churning few minutes when the Hurricanes thought they had secured a victory, then learned they hadn't, then got an immediate second chance at a walk-off win, only for Martinook to be denied.

Martinook ultimately got his winner, beating Linus Ullmark from the slot at 13:53 of the second OT to finally end this one more than four hours after the puck dropped on Game 2.

“Hockey’s crazy, sports are crazy,” Martinook said. “Being able to score after that, I’ll tell my grandkids about that one, that’s for sure.”

Not that anyone around here will soon forget this one, not with the emotions — and fortunes — changing at whiplash speed.

“There's a lot there to unwind, that's for sure,” Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said.

The Hurricanes won the series opener 2-0 on Saturday, then found themselves up 2-0 in the second period Monday before giving up goals to Drake Batherson and Dylan Cozens that eventually pushed the game into overtime. Ullmark had been brilliant all night on the way to 43 saves, one coming when he gloved down a hammered one-timer from Taylor Hall as the puck shifted cross-ice to his left side.

Another came in the final seconds of regulation when Ullmark got his left shoulder on Jordan Staal’s shot from the top of the crease.

That all became prologue to those few minutes when things got weird in Raleigh.

The Hurricanes appeared to break through late in the first OT, with Mark Jankowski skating in to pounce on a loose rebound and beat Ullmark on the left side with 2:42 left to send the home crowd into a frenzy. But officials reviewed the sequence and determined Staal didn’t have possession and control of the puck as he entered the zone, coming as Martinook skated through the middle across the blue line for a 1-on-1 chance on Ullmark.

“I don’t know that rule,” Staal said. “I pick up the puck, I look up where Marty is and apparently I lost control of it. And then I make a nice pass to Marty for a breakaway. I don’t really get it. … We battled through it. It is what it is.”

“It's a weird play, you don't see it a lot in overtime,” Senators coach Travis Green said, adding: “I felt like it was offside. I thought the refs made the right call.”

But that sequence ultimately led to a hooking penalty on Warren Foegele, meaning Martinook quickly had to pivot to taking the first OT penalty shot in a postseason game since August 2020 and only the fifth ever.

Martinook skated in on Ullmark and tried to beat him to the glove side, only for Ullmark to knock down the puck and ensure the game would continue.

Afterward, a reporter mentioned to Martinook that he had a chance to become the first player ever to end a playoff game on an OT penalty shot.

“Thanks for that,” Martinook said with a grin.

“I was trying to tell them we needed the power play, not the penalty shot,” Martinook said. “Yeah, I've never seen that. That's a first.”

The Hurricanes ultimately came out on top — after the Senators nearly got their own sudden-death winner in the second overtime when Michael Amadio got an in-close shot. Frederik Andersen made the stop with his glove to deflect the puck, which kept rising and hit the crossbar before bouncing away.

Roughly 2 1/2 minutes later, Martinook buried a shot past Ullmark to finally end this one.

___

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

DeSantis received these latest laws back on April 10, alongside several others. As of now, only two of those bills (SB 182 and SB 686) remain on the governor’s desk.

[BELOW: DeSantis talks tax cuts for gas and homeowners]

Meanwhile, the newly signed laws are as follows:

HB 1093 — Vertiports

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

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

The law takes effect on July 1.

HB 1103 — Vessel Restrictions

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

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

The law takes effect on July 1.

[BELOW: DeSantis calls for special session. Here’s what he plans to tackle]

The fan-favorite Florida-native grocer disclosed the locations of both of these stores on its website, listing out where customers can expect to see the new businesses.

According to the website, the first will open on April 30 in Winter Haven, at 4267 Dundee Road.

This store — located at The Shoppes at Country Club shopping center — will span 46,791 square feet, and include both a pharmacy and adjacent liquor store.

[RELATED: Man tried to smash ex’s car near Publix store - but it turned out to be an employee’s]

Meanwhile, the second location will open on May 21 in Palm Beach Gardens, at 12535 Northlake Blvd.

This store — located at Avenir Town Center — will also offer a pharmacy and liquor store, though it’ll be a bit bigger at 48,388 square feet.

They’ll join the growing list of nearly 900 Publix stores in Florida. Other recently opened locations are as follows:

It’s not the only news coming out of Publix recently, though. The grocer has also revealed its latest lineup of “Pub Subs,” focusing on new brisket sandwiches.

The full lineup of new Pub Subs is as follows:

• Publix Deli Stacked Brisket and Brioche Sandwich — “A half-pound of tender smoked brisket, stacked high and drizzled with Sweet & Spicy BBQ sauce on a soft, buttery brioche roll for a rich, ready-to-savor experience”

• Publix Deli Spicy Brisket Sub — “Smoked brisket layered with Boar’s Head 3-Pepper Colby Jack cheese, jalapenos, crispy Publix Fried Onions and Sweet & Spicy BBQ sauce for a bold bite with heat and crunch”

• Publix Deli Brisket, Lettuce and Tomato Sub — “A fresh, classic option featuring smoky brisket paired with crisp lettuce, ripe tomatoes and Sweet & Spicy BBQ sauce”

• Publix Southern Style Brisket Sub — “A comforting Southern-inspired sub stacked with smoked brisket, Publix cheddar, dill pickles, crispy Publix Fried Onions and Sweet & Spicy BBQ sauce”

The study examines over 850 cities across the U.S., scoring them based on factors like housing affordability, quality of life, and proximity to health care.

While some may point to The Villages as a retirement haven, it technically doesn’t qualify, as the area is instead classified as a census-designated place.

[BELOW: Why is Gen Z flocking to The Villages?]

“For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, quality of life scored higher than affordability in the U.S. News weighting survey,” the report reads. “Today’s retirees value overall well-being and connection to community over cost alone.”

According to the researchers, Florida was a prominent state among the top-ranked cities in the latest report, featuring three locations in the top 10 alone.

“This year’s new senior population/migration metric captures Florida’s enduring popularity among older Americans. The Sunshine State has three cities in this year’s top 10.

Quiet Homosassa Springs (No. 3), surrounded by the wildlife reserves and waterways of the Gulf Coast, scores high for tax favorability (No. 3) and senior population/migration (No. 12). Spring Hill (No. 7), 50 miles north of Tampa, offers suburban affordability (No. 119).

And on the bustling Atlantic coast, south of historic St. Augustine, Palm Coast (No. 9) lures retirees with its warm winters, low taxes (No. 15) and booming senior population (No. 14).”

U.S. News & World Report

However, the highest-ranked city on last year’s list, Naples, didn’t fare quite as well this time around, dropping all the way down to No. 18.

[BELOW: Here’s what to know about the so-called ‘Loofah Code’ in The Villages]

Meanwhile, this year’s ranking of the top 100 cities is as follows:

FDOE officials said the standards were developed by educators and content experts in the state, and they’re set to be implemented beginning in the 2026-2027 school year.

“With the resurgence of communist ideologies across the United States and throughout the world, it is more important than ever for students to understand the catastrophic failures and human suffering caused by communist regimes,” said Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas.

[RELATED: Central Florida sub caught acting ‘erratically,’ deputies say]

The curriculum comes as part of a law passed last year (SB 1264), which requires public schools to teach about the “atrocities” committed under communist regimes throughout history.

WHAT TO KNOW

The coursework involves instruction on communist movements in places like Russia, China, Cuba, and even in the U.S. itself.

According to Legislative analysts, instruction must include “age-appropriate” content about the following:

• The history of communism in the U.S. and domestic communist movements
• Atrocities committed in foreign countries under the guidance of communism
• Comparative discussion of political ideologies, such as communism and totalitarianism
• The increasing threat of communism in the U.S. and to its allies
• The economic, industrial, and political events that have preceded communist revolutions
• The communist policies of Cuba and the spread of communist ideologies throughout Latin America

The subject is slated to be taught as part of a school’s social studies curriculum.

Standards show that the topic will be taught as early as Grade 6, with education on the matter continuing through high school. Each grade level focuses on different facets of communism and communal societies.

NEW UPDATE?

But even before this curriculum has been officially introduced, state officials declared an update to the lesson plans.

[RELATED: Florida Board of Education unanimously ratifies ‘Phoenix Declaration’]

On Friday, a memo was issued to superintendents across the state, explaining that the standards will now also include education on the “autocratic rule and subsequent fall of the Nicolas Maduro Regime.”

“They include the human rights abuses inflicted upon the Venezuelan people; ties between the regime and the Cartel de los Soles, the Iranian government and other terrorist organizations; and recent events including international sanctions and other legal actions,” the memo reads.

WHAT ELSE IS IN THE CURRICULUM?

You can find the full grade-by-grade breakdown of the “History of Communism” standards below.

• GRADE 6
• • At this stage, students will learn about ancient communal societies and the impacts of their systems. Instruction includes:
  • • Spartan Communal Life
    • • Sparta’s dependency on helots (slaves)
      • The Agoge system
      • Sparta’s limited trade and innovation
    • Roman Society
    • • The latifundia
      • Reliance on slave labor
      • The role of the Cura Annonae

• GRADE 7
• • Students will begin to assess the effects of communist governments on individual freedoms, political participation, and the economy. Instruction includes:
  • • Censorship
    • • The use of censorship to restrict free speech, the press, political dissent and religious expression
    • Central Planning
    • • The failures of central economic planning (e.g., the Soviet Union’s Five-year Plans, China’s Great Leap Forward)
    • Political Comparisons
    • • A comparison of political violence between communist and democratic states

• GRADE 8
• • Students will examine early attempts at communal living in American society and their effect on economic stability and societal prosperity. Instruction includes:
  • • Colonial America
    • • Early attempts of collectivism (i.e. Jamestown and Plymouth Colony)
      • Reasons for shifting to private ownership (e.g., a lack of incentives to work, mass starvation)
    • Utopian Experiment
    • • Failures of the Brook Farm Experiment

• GRADES 9-12
• • The remaining standards for grades 9 - 12 cover around 30 pages. They can be read below.

Grades 912 by Anthony Talcott

Four years after the queen’s death, the shop is doing a brisk business in mugs, tea towels and key rings bearing the likeness of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch as the nation marks the centenary of her birth on Tuesday. Items featuring her son King Charles III? Well, not so much.

“We still sell more than the king any day,’’ said Ismail Ibrahim, the store’s manager.

The late queen’s memory looms over the monarchy after a 70-year reign that saw her evolve from the glamorous young sovereign who cheered Britain during the gloomy post-war years to the beloved national grandmother who rallied the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still ‘the queen’

When she died in September 2022, Elizabeth was the only monarch most Britons had ever known. Even now, mention of “the queen” is more likely to evoke thoughts of Elizabeth than of Queen Camilla, Charles' wife.

But the passage of time has also tarnished the late queen’s legacy. While she is celebrated as a symbol of tradition and continuity who helped unite Britain as the end of empire, economic struggles and mass migration changed the nation’s perception of itself, revelations about the former Prince Andrew’s links to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have raised questions about why she let the problem fester for years.

“Despite her absence, Elizabeth II remains this key presence whenever we think about the monarchy,’’ Ed Owens, author of “After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?’’ told The Associated Press.

“She’s certainly the most significant figure in the history of the institution in the last 100 years and, I think, therefore deserves probably the attention that’s going to be focused on her in connection with what would have been her 100th birthday.”

The festivities include a Buckingham Palace reception where Charles will congratulate centenarians who share the late monarch's birthday, and the dedication of a memorial garden at Regent's Park in central London. An exhibit of the queen's fashions is already underway.

An unexpected reign

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor wasn’t meant to wear the crown. Born on April 21, 1926, she started her long life not in a castle but at 17 Bruton St., a townhouse in London’s Mayfair district.

As the elder daughter of King George V’s second son, Elizabeth was expected to live the life of a minor royal. Dogs and horses, a country house, a suitable match — a comfortable but somewhat anonymous life — seemed her future.

But destiny intervened. A decade after Elizabeth’s birth, her uncle King Edward VIII abdicated to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Elizabeth’s father became King George VI, thrusting the young princess into the spotlight as heir to throne.

Elizabeth became queen the day her father died on Feb. 6, 1952. Just 25, she heard the news in Kenya and hurried home to take up her duties.

Global ambassador

For decades, she presided over the annual opening of Parliament in crown and ermine robe, hosted banquets for visiting leaders at Buckingham Palace and made thousands of appearances across the U.K., often wearing brightly colored suits to make sure the people could catch a glimpse of their queen.

She also became a global ambassador for brand Britain, making more than 200 overseas trips that helped bolster ties with one-time colonies from India to Tanzania, former enemies Germany and Japan and long-time friends such as the United States.

Late in life, the queen became an internet star when she and James Bond star Daniel Craig used moviemaking sleight of hand to parachute into the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics and teamed up with Paddington Bear to celebrate her 70 years on the throne.

The king recalled his mother's impact on people around the world in a video tribute released Tuesday.

“Millions will remember her for moments of national significance; many others for a fleeting personal encounter, a smile, a kind word that lifted spirits, or for that marvelous twinkle of the eye when sharing a marmalade sandwich with Paddington Bear in the final months of her life,'' he said.

In a world of relentless change, she moved with the times — applauding the nation’s successes and consoling Britons during difficult times, while remaining above the fray of politics, Robert Hardman, author of “Elizabeth II: In private. In public. The Inside Story,’’ told the AP.

Scandal's shadow

But those accomplishments make her failure to end the scandal surrounding her second son even more glaring.

Despite concerns about his boorish behavior, questionable business dealings and unsavory friends, Andrew spent 10 years as Britain’s special envoy for international trade and remained a prince of the realm until the details of his relationship with Epstein were revealed last year. In an effort to shield the monarchy from the continuing fallout, Charles fi nally stripped his younger brother of his princely title. He is now known simply as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

“He was problematic and that gave her cause for worry,’’ Hardman said. “But I do think people let him have an easy ride because they thought if they came down hard on him, they might somehow upset the queen. Now that’s partly attributable to her, but partly attributable to others.”

Besides, her “great achievements’’ far outweighed any errors, Hardman said.

Elizabeth took the throne as a young woman with two small children at a time before jet travel existed and no one had even thought of going to the moon, then remained a constant presence in British public life across generations.

“She just reigned through this vast span of the ages and was as authoritative and loved and respected at the end as she was at the beginning,” Hardman said. “And she was working till the very end, ‘til her last day.”

As historians debate the queen’s legacy, members of the public are making their own judgements.

Take Sylvie Deneux, and her daughter Clara, who stopped by Cool Britannia during a visit to London from their home in Lille, France.

They praised the late monarch for her elegance and described her as an icon. But when asked about Mountbatten-Windsor, Sylvie Deneux, 49, paused and looked at her daughter. Failing to quickly quash the scandal was a mistake, she said. But Deneux could still muster sympathy for Elizabeth, because she made those decisions as a mother, not as a queen.

“Can we blame her?’’ she asked. “I’m not sure.”

The Timberwolves forward pretty much labeled all the Nuggets' players bad defenders. Thrown in there were All-Stars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray.

“Go after Jokic, Jamal, all the bad defenders,” said McDaniels, who had 14 points and three assists. "Tim Hardaway (Jr.), Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, the whole team, just go at them.”

So they're all bad defenders?

“Yeah, they’re all bad defenders,” McDaniels added.

The Timberwolves overcame a 19-point deficit to even the first-round series, which shifts to Minnesota for Game 3 on Thursday night. Anthony Edwards led the way with 30 points despite playing on a sore knee. He also had 10 rebounds.

“They don’t got people that can defend the rim,” McDaniels said. "We’re still more athletic than them and just got to be able to finish when we do.”

Jokic had 24 points and 15 rebounds — all on the defensive end — while Murray scored 30 points. But Denver's dynamic duo shot a combined 2 of 12 for four points in the fourth quarter. Murray had a chance to tie the game with a 3-pointer in the closing seconds but elected to pull up for a 2-point shot instead.

He missed.

“I was happy he took the two points,” Edwards said. “I thought he had a good look at a 3 when he first came off but yeah, he took the 2-pointer. I guess if he made it, we would have been in a free-throw situation. But yeah, I’m kind of happy he took the 2-pointer.”

Murray said he “didn't make enough shots tonight.”

"That’s really about it,” he added. "We all could have played better. It’s not all on one person, that’s just the way the game goes sometimes. They played hard as well. It was a good game. I thought we had the game in our hands, but we just didn’t make enough shots, in my opinion.”

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

The vote was held behind closed doors during a routine meeting of Luxon’s center-right National Party lawmakers and was sought by the Prime Minister himself. Luxon emerged afterward to read a brief statement announcing the vote and departed without taking questions from reporters.

“The last week, there has been intense media speculation about my leadership,” Luxon said, adding that he had called for a confidence vote “to put that media speculation to rest.”

His party caucus had “answered clearly and decisively,” the Prime Minister said. “It has backed my leadership.”

He did not say that the vote had been unanimous. Nicola Willis, the party's deputy leader, said later Tuesday that vote had been a secret ballot with only scrutineers knowing the final tally, but that Luxon must have received a majority.

The confidence vote happened months ahead of New Zealand’s next national election, scheduled for Nov. 7. Recent drops in the polls for National had prompted speculation from analysts that he would face a leadership challenge.

That was seen by party lawmakers as an unwelcome distraction in an election year for National, which has governed New Zealand in a right-wing coalition government since the 2023 vote. Luxon, a former airline executive who entered Parliament in 2000, has led the party since 2021.

While two recent New Zealand prime ministers — National's John Key and Labour's Jacinda Ardern — have voluntarily quit the post, it would have been extremely unusual for lawmakers to oust a sitting prime minister.

Luxon blamed reports of unrest within his party's ranks on news outlets, but one political poll released days ago appeared to have made a discussion of leadership unavoidable. The 1News-Verian poll suggested slumping support for Luxon and for National in a hypothetical election.

The levels of support in the most recent poll implied the right-wing bloc led by his party could come in behind the left-wing bloc led by Labour if an election were held immediately, though the vote won’t occur for more than another six months.

“If the media want to keep focusing on speculation and rumor, I am not going to engage,” Luxon said Tuesday.

This time, they overcame a 19-point deficit, rallying past the Nuggets 119-114 on Monday night behind 30 points from Anthony Edwards and 24 from Julius Randle to tie their first-round playoff series at one game each.

“Just coming together, staying poised within those moments," Edwards said.

Jamal Murray scored 30 points for Denver, which had won 13 straight games since losing on March 18. The Nuggets jumped out to a 44-25 lead early in the second quarter only to see a potential laugher quickly turn into a head-scratcher.

After outscoring the Wolves 39-25 in the first, the Nuggets watched Minnesota flip that exact score in the second period.

“So, basically same quarters, first and second, just opposite teams,” said Nikola Jokic, who had 24 points, 15 boards and eight assists for the Nuggets.

After a slow start, Edwards looked much better than he did during his 22-point effort in Game 1, when his rust from a bum knee was apparent. This time, he drove to the basket more instead of settling for jumpers, fueling the comeback.

“He was awesome. It was unbelievable,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “Also in that (first) period when we were down, he was great on the bench. Great leadership, positive. He recognized he needed to get into attack mode and get downhill a little bit more. He did that."

Denver blew a chance to take control against its Northwest Division rival. The Nuggets are 8-0 in their history when winning the first two games of a playoff series, and the Wolves are 0-8 when dropping Games 1 and 2.

Edwards turned the ball over with 31 seconds left and Christian Braun got fouled at the other end after Jokic passed up a floater to tie it. Braun missed one of two free throws, leaving Denver trailing 115-114 with 19 seconds remaining.

Randle then sank two free throws and Donte DiVincenzo added a breakaway dunk to cap the comeback.

“I trust C.B. to make free throws,” Denver coach David Adelman said. “It rimmed out. That happens in the NBA. You're going to have moments that you don't want to remember. That's a tough moment for C.B. after playing such a good game."

Murray sank a 51-foot 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to tie it at 64. Jokic came on strong after a quiet start, scoring 16 points in the third quarter when Denver took a 93-90 lead. But the Nuggets' All-Star duo shot a combined 2 for 12 in the fourth quarter as the Wolves evened a best-of-seven series that shifts to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Thursday night.

“I feel like we had the game in hand,” Murray said, “and then we just didn't make our shots.”

Jaden McDaniels, who added 14 points for the Wolves, said the key to Minnesota's bounce-back was going "after Jokic, Jamal, all the bad defenders. Tim Hardaway, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, the whole team, just go at them. Yeah, they’re all bad defenders.”

Before tipoff, Finch complained for a third straight day about the free-throw disparity in Game 1, when the Nuggets outscored Minnesota 30-14 from the stripe. He cracked that maybe his players need to “start flopping, too.”

Each team went to the line 30 times Monday night.

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

Many Iran-backed militias are funded through the Iraqi state budget and embedded within the security apparatus, drawing criticism from the United States and other countries that have borne the brunt of their attacks and say Baghdad has failed to take a tougher stance.

Despite mounting pressure from the U.S., Baghdad has struggled to contain or deter the groups. The most hard-line factions now operate under Iranian advisers using a decentralized command structure, the five officials told AP, each on condition of anonymity to speak freely about sensitive matters.

“The various forces have been granted the authority to operate according to their own field assessments without referring back to a central command,” said one militia official, who didn't have permission to speak publicly.

The war in the Middle East has exposed the fragility of Iraq’s state institutions and their limited ability to restrain these groups. A parallel confrontation between Washington and the militias has deepened the crisis, with factions acting as an extension of Iran’s regional campaign and escalating attacks on U.S. assets in Iraq before a tenuous ceasefire deal was reached in April.

Even if the ceasefire agreement holds, Washington is expected to intensify efforts against the groups militarily and politically, particularly as they gain latitude to operate more independently, officials and experts said. On Friday, the U.S. imposed sanctions on seven commanders and senior members of four hard-line Iran-backed Iraqi militia groups.

“The U.S. is still going to feel it has the freedom of action to hit Iraqi militias,” said Michael Knights, head of research for Horizon Engage, a geopolitical risk consulting firm, and an adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “That may well play out into an effort to try and guide a less militia-dominated government formation.”

For Iran-backed militias in Iraq, a move to decentralized control

Days into the war sparked by U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, an Iranian delegation arrived in Iraq’s Kurdish region and delivered a blunt message: If militia attacks escalated near U.S. military bases, commercial interests and diplomatic missions, Iraqi Kurdish authorities should not come to Tehran with complaints, as there was little they could do about it.

“They said they’ve devolved authority to regional Iranian commanders,” a senior Iraqi Kurdish government official said on condition of anonymity, citing the subject's sensitivity.

In the past, Kurdish leaders in Iraq would call Iranian officials after attacks to ask why they had been targeted. “This time, they wanted to preempt that by saying, ‘We can’t help you with the groups in the south right now,’” the official said.

This shift reflects lessons drawn from the 12-day war in June, the official said. Militia officials corroborated the claim. During that war, operations were tightly centralized. In its aftermath, greater autonomy was granted in the field.

A spokesperson for Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, among the Iran-backed militia groups that have attacked the U.S. in Iraq, said there was “coordination” with Iran in launching attacks but didn't give details.

"Since we are allies of the Islamic Republic, we have coordination with our brothers in the Islamic Republic,” Mahdi al-Kaabi said.

In the recent war, key Iraqi militia leaders appeared to step back from the latest phase and didn't appear to be directly involved in operations, Knights said. U.S. strikes largely killed mid-level commanders, according to militia officials.

“None of the first-line leaders have been killed,” said a second militia official, who wasn't authorized to brief reporters.

Rather than targeting top figures, the U.S. also focused on Iranian Revolutionary Guard advisory cells, said Knights, who tracked the attacks. In one strike in Baghdad’s upscale Jadriya neighborhood, three Guard advisers were killed at a house used as their headquarters during a meeting, according to the second militia official.

Pressure on Iraq is intensifying

At the heart of government efforts to rein in militia groups lies a paradox: The factions the government says it cannot control are tied to political parties that brought it to power.

The Coordination Framework, an alliance of influential pro-Iran Shiite factions, helped install Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as prime minister in 2022. He now serves as caretaker premier amid a prolonged political deadlock.

Militia forces carrying out attacks on U.S. targets aren't rogue actors; they're part of the state’s Popular Mobilization Forces, created after the fall of Mosul in 2014 to formalize volunteer units that were critical in defeating the Islamic State.

The PMF has evolved into a powerful force that surpasses the Iraqi army, with fighters receiving state salaries and access to government resources, including weapons and intelligence. The result, critics say, is a deep contradiction: Certain state-funded groups operate in line with Iranian priorities, even when doing so undermines Iraq’s national interests.

Al-Sudani’s office didn't respond to the AP’s requests for comment on the decentralized control of militia groups.

The U.S. is focused on curbing the power of these groups in Iraq, the senior Iraqi Kurdish official and a Western diplomat said, which will put increasing pressure on the government, still functioning in caretaker status. The diplomat also spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't permitted to brief reporters.

Last week, Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S. was summoned to Washington to hear U.S. condemnation of attacks by Iran-backed factions on American personnel and diplomatic missions, according to State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Bigot.

“The Deputy Secretary affirmed that the United States will not tolerate any attacks targeting its interests and expects the Iraqi Government to take all necessary measures immediately to dismantle Iran-aligned militia groups,” Bigot said in a statement.

Militias resist steps from Iraq's government

Al-Sudani has taken limited steps to curb militia influence, including further institutionalizing the PMF and occasionally removing commanders who act outside state authority. The efforts have met significant resistance from militia groups.

Further institutionalizing them has deepened their entrenchment within the state. The U.S. may seek to isolate the most hard-line factions — including Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba, and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada — from others more embedded in Iraq’s political system. “The bad militias from the worse militias,” the senior Iraqi Kurdish official said.

Harakat al-Nujaba spokesperson al-Kaabi offered a dual framing of the group’s position, stressing both its alignment with Iran and its claim to Iraqi state legitimacy.

“To put it bluntly, we are allies of the Islamic Republic,” he said. He described the group as part of Iran’s regional “axis” alongside Hezbollah in Lebanon and Ansar Allah in Yemen.

At the same time, he insisted the group operates within Iraq’s political order, supporting the state and government when they serve national interests.

“It’s true we’re not affiliated with the government or the prime minister, but we respect the law and the constitution,” he said.

Chavez-DeRemer is the third Trump Cabinet member to leave her post after Trump fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March and ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month.

In a statement posted on social media, Chavez-DeRemer praised Trump and wrote, “I am proud that we made significant progress in advancing President Trump’s mission to bridge the gap between business and labor and always put the American worker first.”

Unlike other recent Cabinet departures, Chavez-DeRemer’s exit was announced by a White House aide, not by the president on his social media account.

“Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said on the social media site X. “She has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives.”

He said Keith Sonderling, the current deputy labor secretary, would become acting labor secretary in her place. The news outlet NOTUS was the first to report Chavez-DeRemer's resignation.

Labor chief, family members faced multiple allegations

Chavez-DeRemer’s departure follows reports that began surfacing in January that she was under a series of investigations.

A New York Times report last Wednesday revealed that the Labor Department’s inspector general was reviewing material showing Chavez-DeRemer and her top aides and family members routinely sent personal messages and requests to young staff members.

Chavez-DeRemer’s husband and father exchanged text messages with young female staff members, according to the newspaper. Some of the staffers were instructed by the secretary and her former deputy chief of staff to “pay attention” to her family, people familiar with the investigation told the Times.

Those messages were uncovered as part of a broader investigation of Chavez-DeRemer’s leadership that began after the New York Post reported in January that a complaint filed with the Labor Department’s inspector general accused Chavez-DeRemer of a relationship with the subordinate.

She also faced allegations that she drank alcohol on the job and that she tasked aides to plan official trips for primarily personal reasons.

Late Monday, on her personal X account, Chavez-DeRemer posted, “The allegations against me, my family, and my team have been peddled by high-ranked deep state actors who have been coordinating with the one-sided news media and continue to undermine President Trump's mission.”

Both the White House and the Labor Department initially said the reports of wrongdoing were baseless. But the official denials got less full-throated as more allegations emerged — and when Chavez-DeRemer might be out of a job became something of an open question in Washington.

At least four Labor Department officials have already been forced from their jobs as the investigation progressed, including Chavez-DeRemer’s former chief of staff and deputy chief of staff, as well as a member of her security detail, with whom she was accused of having the affair, The New York Times reported.

“I think the secretary demonstrated a lot of wisdom in resigning,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Monday after her departure was made public.

She enjoyed union support — rare for a Republican

Confirmed to Trump’s Cabinet on a 67-32 vote in March 2025, Chavez-DeRemer is a former House GOP lawmaker who had represented a swing district in Oregon. She enjoyed unusual support from unions as a Republican but lost reelection in November 2024.

In her single term in Congress, Chavez-DeRemer backed legislation that would make it easier to unionize on a federal level, as well as a separate bill aimed at protecting Social Security benefits for public-sector employees.

Some prominent labor unions, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, backed Chavez-DeRemer, who is a daughter of a Teamster, for Labor Secretary. Trump’s decision to pick her was viewed by some political observers as a way to appeal to voters who are members of or affiliated with labor organizations.

But other powerful labor leaders were skeptical when she was tapped for the job, unconvinced that Chavez-DeRemer would pursue a union-friendly agenda as a part of the incoming GOP administration. In her Senate confirmation hearing, some senators questioned whether she would be able to uphold that reputation in an administration that fired thousands of federal employees.

She was a key figure in Trump's deregulatory push

Aside from reports of wrongdoing in recent months, Chavez-DeRemer had been one of Trump’s more lower-profile Cabinet picks, but took key steps to advance the administration’s deregulatory agenda during her tenure.

For instance, the Labor Department last year moved to rewrite or repeal more than 60 workplace regulations it saw as obsolete. The rollbacks included minimum wage requirements for home health care workers and people with disabilities, and rules governing exposure to harmful substances and safety procedures at mines. The effort drew condemnation from union leaders and workplace safety experts.

The proposed changes also included eliminating a requirement that employers provide adequate lighting for construction sites and seat belts for agriculture workers in most employer-provided transportation.

During Chavez-DeRemer’s tenure, the Trump administration canceled millions of dollars in international grants that a Labor Department division administered to combat child labor and slave labor around the world, ending their work that had helped reduce the number of child laborers worldwide by 78 million over the last two decades.

In her statement Monday, Chavez-DeRemer said, “While my time serving in the Administration comes to a conclusion, it doesn’t mean I will stop fighting for American workers.”

The Labor Department has a broad mandate as it relates to the U.S. workforce, including reporting the U.S. unemployment rate, regulating workplace health and safety standards, investigating minimum wage, child labor and overtime pay disputes, and applying laws on union organizing and unlawful terminations.

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Associated Press writers Steven Sloan and Will Weissert in Washington and Cathy Bussewitz in New York contributed to this report.

The shooter was identified as 27-year-old Julio Cesar Jasso of Mexico, a state official told the AP on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak about the case. Jasso later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said, and security officials found a gun, a knife and ammunition. Jasso was the sole assailant in the attack, the State of Mexico government confirmed on Monday night.

The local government said seven people were wounded by gunshots. How the other people were injured was not disclosed, but a number of people fell when shooting started, some while climbing on the pyramids.

Those taken to hospitals for treatment were six Americans, three Colombians, one Russian, two Brazilians and one Canadian, the local government said. The youngest person who was injured was 6; the oldest was 61, Mexican authorities said.

Video and photos published by local media showed a man, later identified as Jasso, standing with a gun on top of a pyramid while people ducked for cover. A number of gunshots rang out in the videos.

The Teotihuacan pyramids, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are a series of massive structures on the outskirts of Mexico City built by three different ancient civilizations. As one of Mexico’s most important touristic destinations, the site drew more than 1.8 million international visitors last year, according to government figures.

The shooting took place shortly after 11:30 a.m. when dozens of tourists were at the top of the Pyramid of the Moon. The standing on the structure’s platform began firing upward, according to a tour guide who was at the scene and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

“Some people, because they were scared ... threw themselves face down on the ground, and the rest of us started to go down,” the guide said, recounting how the shooter, upon seeing the tourists descending the pyramid’s steps, began firing.

Another group of visitors lay motionless on the pyramid’s platform to avoid being targeted by the shooter, who authorities have not yet identified.

Brenda Lee, of Vancouver, British Columbia, said she was waiting to buy a souvenir when she and others in her group thought they heard firecrackers.

"Before we knew it, someone said, ‘No, that’s gunfire, run,’ and we saw people coming off the top,” she told CTV News, one of Canada’s national television broadcasters.

“There were thousands of people there and there were a lot of gunshots that just kept coming,” Lee said.

The scene quickly turned chaotic as people tried to escape, Lee said.

“And then a fellow jumped,” she said. “It was someone trying to get away, and he dropped to the next level, but he fell on his back, and it was ... it just was awful.”

In past years, staff at the archaeological site carried out security scans before people entered the area but have since stopped, one local guide noted.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote on social media that the shooting would be investigated and that she was in touch with the Canadian Embassy.

“What happened today in Teotihuacán deeply pains us. I express my most sincere solidarity with the affected individuals and their families,” she wrote.

Anita Anand, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, said on X that as a “result of a horrific act of gun violence, a Canadian was killed and another wounded in Teotihuacán” and that her “thoughts are with their family and loved ones."

Later in the evening U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson also expressed “deep concern” and sadness over the deaths and numerous injuries, and said on a post on X that the U.S. is “ready to provide support as needed while Mexican authorities continue their investigation.”

The National Institute of Anthropology and History said in a statement that the Teotihuacán archaeological site will remain closed until further notice.

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

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AP journalist Jim Morris contributed to this story from Vancouver, British Columbia.

Martinook — who was stopped on a penalty shot in the first OT — kept the winning play alive by chasing down a loose rebound toward the boards to keep the possession in the offensive zone. Moments later, Nikolaj Ehlers found Martinook between the circles to beat Ullmark, who was partially shielded by Carolina captain Jordan Staal at the top of the crease.

That set off a mob celebration by the Hurricanes around Martinook in a corner of the ice, ending a game that saw them hang on despite blowing a 2-0 lead and having an apparent winner by Mark Jankowski waved off in the first overtime due to an offside call on review.

The Hurricanes still had a chance to win it after the overturned goal, only for Ullmark to stop Martinook on the NHL's first OT postseason penalty-shot attempt since 2020.

“I didn't feel very good about myself after that penalty shot, and that intermission felt really long," Martinook said. “That was cool. I'm happy it worked out that way. It didn't matter who scored, but it was going to be a long night if that penalty shot came back to bite me.”

The Eastern Conference's top seed managed to protect home-ice advantage — barely — as the series moves to Canada’s capital for Game 3 on Thursday.

“That’s the toughest thing: You have it won, a hard-fought game, and then to have it turned over," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "You’ve got to give the guys tons of credit, because our game didn’t change. We actually got better, I think, in the second overtime.”

Logan Stankoven and Sebastian Aho also scored for Carolina, while Frederik Andersen shook off giving up two second-period goals to finish with 37 saves and multiple key stops late.

Drake Batherson and Dylan Cozens scored for Ottawa, while Ullmark finished with 43 saves and was terrific all night. He had multiple big stops in the second period, one when he extended his glove to knock down a hammered one-timer from Taylor Hall as the puck shifted cross-ice to his left side. Another came in the final seconds of regulation when he got his left shoulder on Staal's shot from the top of the crease.

“A hell of an effort,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “Playoffs are hard sometimes. Some of the games you lose, they sting. This one's going to sting.”

The Hurricanes appeared to have pushed through late in the first OT, with Jankowski skating in to pounce on a loose rebound and beat Ullmark on the left side with 2:42 left to send the home crowd into a frenzy. But officials reviewed the sequence and determined that Staal didn’t have possession and control of the puck as he entered the zone, coming as Martinook skated through the middle across the blue line for a 1-on-1 chance on Ullmark.

That sequence ultimately led to a hooking penalty on Warren Foegele, with Carolina scrambling an extra attacker and getting Jankowski’s offside-overturned score and then Martinook's penalty shot.

“Hockey’s crazy, sports are crazy,” Martinook said. “Being able to score after that, I’ll tell my grandkids about that one, that’s for sure.”

The Senators played without defenseman Artem Zub, who left Game 1 with an undisclosed injury. He had been considered a game-time decision.

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

McCollum not only replaced Young in Atlanta, now he's replaced him in Madison Square Garden — as the villain who carried the Hawks past the New York Knicks in a playoff game.

“I ain't no villain,” McCollum said. “I'm a nice guy with two kids and a wife.”

The veteran guard scored 32 points Monday night to help the Hawks rally for a stunning 107-106 victory that tied the Eastern Conference first-round series at one game apiece.

He was profanely taunted by the Garden fans after he and Jose Alvarado went nose-to-nose and were each given technical fouls in the third quarter, just as Young was in a 2021 first-round series. And just like Young did in Game 1 of that series when New Yorkers picked him as their target, he made the big plays late that left them silent.

“I love it. I love it. That’s why we play the game,” McCollum said. “It’s fun being in opposing arenas and when the buzzer sounds and it’s quiet and you walk off the court, I think there’s a level of mutual respect.”

When the Hawks decided to move on from their longtime star guard, coach Quin Snyder knew McCollum could step in as a veteran leader on a young team. But he also knew the 34-year-old could replace some of the firepower Young had provided.

“Yeah, I felt like we needed both, you know?” Snyder said. “Being in the West for a while, I’ve watched him do that when he was in Portland.”

Then it was on to New Orleans, before the Pelicans dealt him in July to Washington. Then came the trade to Atlanta and what McCollum called his “light at the end of the tunnel.”

“I’m just thankful to be able to play in the playoffs on a good team in a good situation,” McCollum said. “I think you take the journey for what it is in stride and just hope for the best. And I think when you do things the right way you get rewarded at the end of the tunnel, and my reward is playing the Knicks in the Garden.”

He outplayed counterpart Jalen Brunson, seemingly looking for every opportunity to go 1-on-1 at the Knicks All-Star, and made the go-ahead basket, a jumper with 33 seconds to play.

He left the door open for the Knicks to win by missing two free throws with 5.6 seconds remaining, but Mikal Bridges missed a jumper. Now the Knicks have to win at least once at Atlanta — and figure out how to cool off McCollum.

“CJ hit a couple big buckets late. He hit his and we missed ours and you give a guy like CJ a lot of credit,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “That’s what those guys are supposed to do and he got it done.”

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

Hayden, 73, who headed the Library of Congress from 2016-2025 and worked in libraries for much of her adult life, cited her profession as a vital bridge between writers and the general public.

“Libraries are where storytelling meets opportunity,” she told the audience gathered for the Guild's annual dinner-gala, held at Cipriani Wall Street. “They are where a child discovers a first favorite book, where a new American finds language and belonging and where research uncovers hidden history, and where communities see themselves in the pages of literature. Libraries do more than house books. You know that. They connect people to ideas, to knowledge, and to one another. They ensure that storytelling is not reserved for the few, but shared by all.”

Hayden, was among three honorees, along with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Percival Everett and “The Joy Luck Club” author Amy Tan. Hayden, the first woman and first Black person to be appointed Librarian of Congress, didn’t refer to Trump or her ouster during her brief remarks. But her speech was an implicit rebuttal to Trump's attacks against what he calls “woke" culture that have been directed at her and at such cultural institutions as the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institution.

She praised libraries as “engines of accessibility and inclusion” and as havens for free expression at a time of record-high book bans.

“In many places today, librarians are under attack for believing in the power of the written word and in the principle that free people should be able to read freedom,” she said. “Yet librarians remain steady and hopeful.”

The gala was a forum for opposing bans and for other causes crucial to the Guild and to the thousands of published writers its represents. Author David Baldacci was among those who denounced AI, which has been the subject of various lawsuits filed by writers against Microsoft,OpenAI and other companies that alleges their work had been used without their permission for AI generative programs. Baldacci was among several writers present who have been plaintiffs in legal action, and his name was invoked later in the evening: It was attached to the prize given to Everett, the Baldacci Award for Literary Activism.

Everett, 69, whose “James” won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award, is a prolific author and longtime academic who joked that receiving an honor for activism was like being called an athletic chess player. His books are known for their cutting and provocative takes on racism and other subjects, and he referred indirectly to Hayden's departure by picturing a future — one he finds all too plausible — in which the only kinds of works available at the Library of Congress are the writings of Ayn Rand and other conservative favorites.

“That is where we are, and I can't tell you how sad I am about this,” Everett said.

Tan, 74, was cited for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community. Besides writing “The Joy Luck Club” and such novels as “The Kitchen God's Wife” and “The Bonesetter's Daughter,” she also has a long history of supporting emerging writers and for helping young people pay for treatment for Lyme disease, which she has suffered from for decades.

Tan offered a deeply personal account of the importance of writing, thinking and how she came to think of herself, and other writers, as “political.” As a girl, she was chastised by a minister for reading the allegedly immoral “The Catcher in the Rye.” The minister then assaulted her, an attack that left her devastated, an “unwanted life lesson" that made her question everything and set her on a path to storytelling that was compassionate and intrinsically “political” because of its power to change minds.

“Books, by their nature, have far reaching consequences regardless of our conscious intentions. Books have readers, readers have reactions and what they do with those reactions is of consequence,” said Tan, a daughter of Chinese immigrants who summarized herself as a “writer, an American writer, an American who uses her freedom of expression."

Owners of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week announced the newspaper's sale to a nonprofit foundation that said it was committed to keeping it open. A news outlet that predates the U.S. Constitution was due to close on May 3, which would have made the Steel City the nation's largest community without a city-based paper.

Weeks earlier, the alternative Pittsburgh City Paper, whose staff learned on New Year's Day that it was closing after 34 years, roared back to life under new ownership.

They were rare positive developments for a local news industry that has seen its share of the opposite over the past two decades — newsrooms shuttered or thinned out, journalists thrown out of work, consumers drifting away. No one is pretending that a true turnaround will be easy in Pittsburgh. One thing that may help is that the city faced a news abyss and was forced to prepare for it.

“It's human nature that sometimes you have to be shaken a bit to realize what's important in your life,” said Halle Stockton, co-executive director and editor-in-chief of the digital news outlet Public Source.

The many incarnations of the Post-Gazette

The Pittsburgh Gazette was born on July 29, 1786, the first newspaper west of the Allegheny Mountains. It went through several names with the expansion and contraction of a newspaper market that supported seven at the beginning of the 20th century. There was The Commercial Gazette, the Gazette-Times and, briefly, the Pittsburgh Gazette and Manufacturing and Mercantile Advertiser.

A consolidation caused by the closing of the Pittsburgh Post in 1927 made it the Post-Gazette, which has remained its name for 99 years.

It had a solid reputation, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2019 for its coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. “The Post-Gazette is really the paper of record for this city,” said Kevin Acklin, chief of staff to a former Pittsburgh mayor and former president of the Penguins hockey team. The other longtime “paper of record,” The Pittsburgh Press, closed in 1992 after a Teamsters Union strike.

Labor woes marred the Post-Gazette's last few years as well. Much of the staff was on strike between 2022 and 2025, though the newspaper limped along. Its owner, Block Communications, Inc., announced the closing on the same January day that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected its appeal of a ruling on health benefits seen as favorable to former strikers.

Since then, rumors about its future ebbed and flowed. Acklin worked this winter with other investors to buy the newspaper, but a potential deal fell through when Block insisted the union not be part of it.

To anyone watching closely, a clue to the newspaper's future was revealed across town in mid-March.

“You thought we were dead and gone, didn't you?” Ali Trachta, top editor at the Pittsburgh City Paper, wrote on the outlet's revived website. “So did I. But, to be honest, only very briefly.” She announced that the paper was returning to cover community news, politics, the arts “and the creative, weird and uniquely Pittsburgh stories” that have defined it since its founding in 1991.

A new nonprofit, Local Matters, led by a former engineering manager at Apple, had gathered investors to buy the City Paper. It would return to printed editions on a monthly basis and was launching a membership program for readers to pledge support. Most of its staff would return. The paper used to print weekly until its previous owner in 2025 said it would shift to only four printed editions a year.

That former owner? Block Communications.

A new nonprofit enters Pittsburgh's civic arena

When Block announced its sale of the Post-Gazette last week, it was also to a nonprofit. The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, which publishes the digital success story The Baltimore Banner, bought the Post-Gazette even though Block said it was not the highest bidder. Many in Pittsburgh feared it would be sold to a hedge fund notorious for stripping newspapers of resources.

Does that make Block, long seen as a villain in the local journalism industry, a hero in this story?

“For better or worse, the Blocks will never get credit for that," said Andrew Conte, a journalism professor at Point Park University who runs Pittsburgh's Center for Media Innovation. “But it does seem like they made an effort to come up with the best outcome they could as they were leaving Pittsburgh. They could have just walked away and said, ‘You know, we’re done.'”

Now the work begins. Venetoulis officials did not return inquiries from The Associated Press. The institute's benefactor, hotel magnate Stewart Bainum Jr., has said that he plans to invest $30 million in both the Banner and Post-Gazette over the next five years. The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh said it hopes to be part of the process of rebuilding. Whether the union will be invited is uncertain.

“This is going to be one of the most closely-watched newspaper acquisitions in years,” said Tim Franklin, founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University. “Can a money-losing newspaper with serious labor strife be saved and resurrected as a non-profit? If Stewart Bainum and his team pull this off — and I hope they do — it could be a model for the nation.”

Anticipating a Pittsburgh without the Post-Gazette, other news sources in the city had begun making plans to fill gaps in the marketplace, and they're not necessarily changing them because of the sale.

Another area newspaper, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, will reinstate a Sunday print edition in Pittsburgh on May 9. It had stopped printing in the city a decade ago. The Trib is also going ahead with adding about a dozen new journalists to boost its coverage of business, health care, transportation and education, said Jennifer Bertetto, its CEO. Based in Greensburg, 30 miles to the east of Pittsburgh, some city residents view the Trib as an outsider.

Stockton's Public Source, launched in 2011 primarily as a home for investigative news stories, is widening its outlook. The outlet has also convened town halls over the past few months for residents to talk about what they want in local news, and published a list of 40 to 50 small news outlets in the region that focus on subject areas like the arts and business, or different neighborhoods and towns.

People less engaged in news were looking for new ideas. “People are actively interested in where they get their information and who they can trust for it,” Stockton said. “So we're leaning into that.”

With their careers in limbo the past several months, Post-Gazette content editor Erin Hebert and photographer Steve Mellon were among several journalists meeting regularly as the Pittsburgh Alliance for People-Empowered Reporting, or PAPER, seeing if they could create a digital news site. Hebert said it hasn’t been decided what will happen now with those plans.

Conte can walk a few blocks from the university to show office space set aside for journalists from small, local publications. He hopes to convince the Tribune-Review to print a periodic insert featuring the best reporting from these outlets.

Talk to someone young, and the challenge is obvious

A clue to the challenge faced by news organizations in 2026 is obvious when speaking to students in Conte’s journalism class. When they're asked how many had checked the Post-Gazette's website that morning, only a couple of hands tentatively go up.

Sites like Instagram or TikTok are often their destinations for news. It’s more convenient and without pay walls, said Gabriela Wait. The journalism students know to check with more reliable sources if they’re not sure they can believe what they see. Many of their friends don’t.

Makenna Smith recalled her grandparents and parents reading newspapers when she was growing up, keeping them informed and entertained. Few people her age have the same habit.

A study released earlier this month by the Pew Research Center showed that public interest in news is a problem for all ages. Pew found that 37% of Americans in 2016 said they followed local news very closely. That dropped to 21% in 2025.

To Conte, that reinforces the need for news organizations to cooperate. A former Trib reporter, he recalled his paper's bitter competition with the Post-Gazette.

“Literally, they were trying to kill each other,” he said. “I don't think any of us want to go back to a point where we're doing that. We've evolved. We're trying to work together. Even if we're competing for scoops and clicks and dollars, there's also a benefit to having us get around the same table once a month.”

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

McCollum led a late surge that was almost for naught when he missed two free throws with 5.6 seconds remaining. The Knicks rushed the ball up the court without any timeouts left, but Mikal Bridges missed a jumper as time expired.

“It’s a long game,” McCollum said. “You’ve got to play to zero.”

The Hawks had trailed the whole second half and were down 12 after three quarters. Atlanta chipped away and a basket by McCollum gave the Hawks a 101-100 lead — their first of the series in the second half — with 2:09 to play. He made another for a three-point lead, and after Jalen Brunson tied it with a 3-pointer, McCollum answered with another jumper to make it 105-103 with 33 seconds to play.

Jonathan Kuminga added 19 points off the bench and Jalen Johnson scored 17, including a basket with 10 seconds left for a four-point lead for the No. 6 seeds, who host Game 3 on Thursday.

Brunson had 29 points for the Knicks and Karl-Anthony Towns added 18.

The Knicks are trying to reach the second round for a fourth straight season, their longest stretch since the 1991-92 to 1999-2000 seasons, and seemed well on their way.

“This is a game we should have won,” New York's Josh Hart said. “In the playoffs you can’t give away games.”

The Knicks had been 40-1 in the postseason since the advent of the shot clock in 1954-55 when leading by 12 or more after three quarters. The only loss was when Reggie Miller scored 25 points in the fourth for Indiana in Game 5 of the 1994 Eastern Conference finals.

Towns, who had four points in the first half, scored 14 in the third quarter as the Knicks extended the lead to 78-64. They were still ahead by eight with under five minutes remaining.

But their young players who sparked the Hawks' surge after the All-Star break finally made some plays before McCollum — ignoring profane jeers after he and Jose Alvarado went nose-to-nose and were each given technical fouls in the third quarter — then closed it out.

McCollum was acquired from Washington in the January trade for Trae Young, the Hawks star who was a former playoff villain at Madison Square Garden. He filled the role perfectly Monday, outplaying Brunson in the second half and stealing a game that looked lost.

Hart had 15 points, 13 rebounds and six assists.

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Many advocates in the aftermath of the deadly shootings have said the tragedies pointedly highlight troubling underlying trends where Black women are more likely to experience domestic violence — and they see the killings as an opportunity to confront how disparities in access to care and resources make some women and children more vulnerable to violence in the home.

On Sunday morning, a man police identified as Shamar Elkins fatally shot seven of his children and another child in Shreveport, Louisiana. A relative has said Elkins was in the midst of separating from his wife who was wounded.

And last Thursday, police found the bodies of former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and his estranged wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, in their suburban Washington, D.C., home. Justin Fairfax shot his estranged wife and then himself, and their two children in the home at the time were unhurt, police said. Like Elkins, Fairfax was in the process of separating from his wife and had faced a judge's upcoming deadline to move from the house.

While it's not clear what prompted the Shreveport killings or the apparent murder-suicide in Annandale, Virginia, experts say that the harrowing details of the killings echo familiar patterns that play out in homes across the country — and underscore the need for solutions that address the root causes of the disparate violence.

A ‘silent epidemic’

Sunday wasn’t the first time that Elkins’ family had suffered from gender-based gun violence: Shaneiqua Elkins and the other woman who was shot, Keosha Pugh, were sisters, and lost their mother to gun violence when they were under age 10, according to their uncle Lionel Pugh.

“It’s sad. It just breaks you down," Pugh said.

Shreveport Councilman Grayson Boucher said at a news conference Monday that the Louisiana killings were emblematic of “a true epidemic of domestic violence" across the small southern city of roughly 180,000 people.

Those trends go well beyond Shreveport as experts have pointed out how both race and gender make Black women in particular more vulnerable to domestic violence.

More than four in 10 Black women experience physical violence from an intimate partner during their lifetimes — a much higher rate than women who are white, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander — according to a 2014 study by the Centers for Disease Control.

Paméla Tate is the executive director of Black Women Revolt, which runs programs to prevent abuse and offers survivors' resources. She said a logical skepticism about police and government child services agencies based on a history of institutionalized racism makes Black women reluctant to seek help — and especially vulnerable to domestic violence.

Additionally, Black women are two times more likely to be murdered by men than their white counterparts, according to a 2025 study published by the Violence Policy Center, based on federal government data from 2023. Those men are more often than not familiar to their victims, according to the study, which found that more than nine in 10 Black female victims knew their killers, with the majority of those killings being carried out with guns.

Ultimately, Tate said, “domestic violence doesn't see color," and is primarily driven by the prevalent belief among men — across racial demographics — that women are subjects or property.

“Domestic violence is about exerting power over someone that you profess to love and controlling their behavior,” Tate said.

Lack of resources for Black men

There has been intense speculation about the role that mental health crises might have played in both shootings.

A relative of Elkins' wife told The Associated Press that Elkins had voluntarily checked into a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in January for about a week and a half for mental health help.

In Virginia, Justin Fairfax was a rising star in the Democratic Party until two women accused him of sexual assault, casting doubt on his trustworthiness as a political leader. The former lieutenant governor's “mental and emotional health” suffered before he killed his wife and himself, according to court documents, which say he drank heavily and withdrew from his family after the allegations were made public in 2019.

Adult and child psychiatrist Christine Crawford hasn’t examined the killings in Shreveport or Annandale, but said financial troubles, marital issues and problems at work — in addition to underlying mental health vulnerabilities — can lead someone to “crack."

“It makes some think about the amount of pain, distress and hopelessness they found themselves in at that time,” said Crawford, who practices at the Webster Clinic in Boston and is interim chief medical officer at the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

She noted many Black people find themselves priced out of programs and care for mental health for such reasons as private care costs and a lack of insurance.

That level of desperation can make some people feel “completely out of options on how to deal with the pain he was in at that moment," Crawford said. T

Some have said that there are social dimensions to these economic trends, too.

“Mental health disparities in the Black community is not accidental,” said University of Michigan Social Work Professor Daphne C. Watkins. “They are the predictable result of structural racism” in schools, employment and other aspects of society.

Watkins, founder of the YBMen Project which provides young Black men with a safe place to discuss their mental health, manhood and social support, said studies show that 10% of Black adults experience moderate to severe depression, while 18% experience anxiety disorders.

But Black men tend to forego mental health treatment due to cultural expectations, in addition to costs, said Watkins. Without an outlet, stressors from family, work and relationships can pile up.

“For a long time, in the Black community, we didn’t talk about anxiety. Now, you have to talk about it hand in hand along with depression.”

Mental health not an excuse, some say

Others have emphatically said that mental health is not an excuse for domestic violence.

“To say they’re mentally ill, that doesn’t cut it,” Tate said. “There are people who are depressed or people who have schizophrenia and don’t harm the their partners, much less kill them.”

Shaneiqua Elkins and Cerina Fairfax could have been struggling with mental health challenges too, Tate added, and they both “had the same access or ability to go and purchase a gun” but chose not to.

“The mental illness is not what we’re talking about here,” she said.

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Associated Press writer Sophie Bates contributed in Shreveport, Louisiana.

The procedure will be performed Wednesday at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic in Los Angeles, and Díaz is not expected back until the second half of the season.

The Dodgers placed the 32-year-old right-hander on the 15-day injured list and recalled left-hander Jake Elder from Triple-A Oklahoma City. Elder, was acquired from the Washington Nationals on April 1 for cash, has allowed two runs in 5 1/3 innings this season with Oklahoma City.

Díaz is 1-0 with a 10.50 ERA, 10 strikeouts and four saves in five opportunities over seven appearances. He gave up three runs without recording an out in Sunday's 9-6 loss at Colorado. He has allowed three earned runs in each of his past two appearances.

“It gives other guys opportunities, but losing your closer is a big loss,” manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers beat the Rockies 12-3 on Monday night. “Other guys are going to have to step up. Fortunately for us, we’ve got a lot of depth and we’ve got some other guys who should be coming here in the next few weeks.”

The Dodgers signed the three-time All-Star to a three-year, $69 million deal last December after he opted out of the final two years and $38 million of his contract with the New York Mets.

The two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers split their four-game series at Colorado. Their seven-game trip continues with a series at San Francisco that starts Tuesday.

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Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather. Willacy was sentenced to death a year later upon a 9-3 jury recommendation after being convicted of first-degree murder, burglary, robbery and arson.

Court records indicate Sather had returned to her Palm Bay home for her lunch break in September 1990 and found Willacy burglarizing her home. He struck her in the head with a blunt object, fracturing her skull, and then bound her hands and ankles with wire and tape, according to investigators.

Willacy attempted to strangle Sather with a telephone cord, and when that didn’t work, he doused her in gasoline and set her on fire, records show. An autopsy determined that Sather had died from smoke inhalation, indicating she was still alive when she was set ablaze.

Willacy also stole Sather’s car and other items from her home, and used the woman’s ATM card to steal cash, officials said. When Sather failed to return from her break, her employer caller her family. Her son-in-law went to check on her and found her body.

The Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing in 1994 because the trial judge failed to allow defense attorneys a chance to rehabilitate a potential juror who indicated she could not recommend the death penalty. Willacy was resentenced to death in 1995 with an 11-1 recommendation by a new jury.

This would be Florida’s fifth execution in 2026 following a record 19 executions in the state last year. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.

The Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Willacy last Wednesday. He had made claims based on the state's refusal to grant public records requests about executions and lethal injection.

Willacy's final appeals were pending before the U.S. Supreme Court as the execution date loomed.

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a long line of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each.

Another execution has been scheduled in Florida for later this month. James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, is scheduled to received a lethal injection on April 30. He was convicted of beating and choking his 13-year-old niece to death.

All Florida executions are by lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

There is a case to be made that Pope Leo XIV, the careful, reserved, Midwestern Augustinian, found his voice on his epic trip through Africa, blasting the “handful of tyrants” and “chains of corruption” that have held parts of the continent hostage for centuries.

But the fact is, Leo has been preaching this kind of message for a while now, including in the context of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. It just took U.S. President Donald Trump’s unprecedented broadside and Vice President JD Vance's claims of theological superiority for many people to pay attention, especially American Catholics.

“Yes, Pope Leo might give the impression that he is engaging, in his quiet way and with authority, and this is how it looks to the world press and social media,” Cardinal Michael Czerny, a top Vatican official and aide to Leo, told The Associated Press.

“But in fact the Holy Father’s homilies and talks in Africa have been prepared, well in advance, in terms of the local African reality and the church," Czerny said. "So, if they seem relevant to the current wars, controversy, this reminds us of Jesus saying, ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear!’”

Leo tried to make that point when he came to the back of Air Pope One on April 18, en route from Cameroon to Angola, and complained that “a certain narrative” had taken hold suggesting he was in a feud with Trump over the Iran war and his peace messages in Africa were directed at the president.

Leo insisted his words about tyrants and the religious justification for war had been wrongly interpreted and he was referring only to the African context, and to a separatist conflict in western Cameroon, in particular.

The thin line of the pope's explanation

But Leo also was trying to have it both ways. Yes, he was talking about the separatist conflict at a peace meeting in Bamenda. Yes, he was preaching the Gospel message of peace and fraternity. But he also has been talking about Trump, a lot.

“That distancing of Pope Leo from some interpretations was really a move to de-escalate a very dangerous situation,” said Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology at Trinity College Dublin. “Because the Vatican needs the United States to restore some kind of peaceful — not order — but a horizon of peace, a hope of peace.”

Leo criticized Trump, directly, before he got to Africa. And in one remarkable comment two weeks ago, he encouraged the faithful to contact their congressional representatives to demand an end to the war.

The headline from the April 7 encounter outside Leo's country house in Castel Gandolfo was that Leo had called Trump’s threat to annihilate Iranian civilization “truly unacceptable.”

But the more significant message followed. “I would invite the citizens of all the countries involved to contact the authorities, political leaders, congressmen, to ask them, tell them to work for peace and to reject war,” Leo said.

Faggioli termed the comment “the Vatican’s nuclear option,” making a direct appeal to U.S. voters to take a stand, because it genuinely feared Trump was about to take the Iran war in a vastly more catastrophic direction.

What came before Leo's unprecedented appeal

The Holy See had never resorted to such a directly political message from a pope even at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when a Catholic president — John F. Kennedy — was on the verge of a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union, Faggioli said.

At that moment, Pope John XXIII did make a public appeal — his famous Oct. 25, 1962, radio address — with a strong, direct plea for peace including to “those who have the responsibility of power” to “do everything in their power to save the peace.”

The pope also sent private letters to Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and worked behind the scenes through diplomatic channels to de-escalate the situation. But he didn't urge U.S. voters to essentially choose which Catholic to listen to: their president or their pope.

“What is at stake now is that at a time of war, loyalties of Catholics are tested in a particular way,” Faggioli said. He added that however the situation ultimately resolves itself, the tension will complicate any future political aspirations of Catholics seeking high office, whether Vance on the Republican side or California Gov. Gavin Newsom on the Democratic side, as long as a U.S.-born pope is still in Rome.

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Global Catholic Research Initiative at the University of Notre Dame, said Leo has consistently operated “on a higher plane” but American Catholics are used to church discussion of morality in the context of sexuality, gender and abortion, and it's jarring to process foreign policy through a moral lens.

“So JD Vance can say the pope should stick to morality," she said, “but war and peace are ancient moral issues.”

The Rev. Antonio Spadaro, the under-secretary in the Vatican’s culture department, said Leo is continuing in the tradition of popes past to preach the Gospel message of peace. What has changed, he said, was how Trump reacted.

“The strong reaction arrived from America," he said. "It was America that reacted to Leo’s words, and not vice versa.”

Even with his direct comments about Trump, Leo was not engaging in an attack, Spadaro said.

“It’s very dangerous to imagine that the pope is fighting with Trump, because it means demeaning the pope to a level of contrast, one against the other, which Trump may want but that the pope has no intention of doing," he said.

New role, same Leo, Vatican official says

Spadaro added that from his perch, Leo hasn't changed at all from when he was known as Robert Prevost, the Chicago-born missionary priest.

“I see the Prevost I’ve always seen,” Spadaro said. “Let’s say it’s the backdrop that has changed, so his calm yet very direct style stands in stark contrast to a chaotic scenario, and that’s why it’s striking.”

For better or worse, the incredible saga of Trump, the war and geopolitics seems far removed from Leo’s day-to-day ministering to his flock in Africa, who have turned out in droves to welcome the American pope in each stop on his four-nation tour.

The polyglot pope has made it easy for them to hear his words, delivering speeches, homilies and prayers in the languages of the faithful: French in Algeria, English and French in Cameroon, Portuguese in Angola and, starting Tuesday, Spanish in Equatorial Guinea.

Lucineia Francisco left her family behind on Sunday so she could see Leo at the Shrine of Mama Muxima, Angola’s most popular pilgrimage destination. Some 30,000 people turned out for Leo’s rosary prayer.

“My kids were crying to come, but I said no,” Francisco said. “This is a spiritual journey that I’m really going to face on my own.”

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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.

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This version corrects the title for Rev. Antonio Spadaro, the under-secretary in the Vatican’s culture department

The Oviedo City Council passed a declaration of restrictive covenants for the city-owned Twin Rivers Golf Course during a meeting Monday night. The decision formalizes the city’s longstanding commitment to keep the property free from development.

The city purchased the 310-acre site in 2017. According to Mayor Megan Sladek, leaders at the time assured residents the land would not be developed in the future.

Under the newly approved conservation rules, residential, rental and vacation properties will be prohibited on the site.

Sladek said preserving the green space is also critical for environmental reasons, noting the property plays a key role in absorbing stormwater and helping prevent flooding in nearby neighborhoods.

In addition to the vote on the restrictive covenant, city officials also approved an additional $10,000 to fund a third-party audit into the golf course’s operations. The decision follows concerns about profit margins.

The added funding brings the total cost of the audit to $30,000.

Evan Mobley had 25 points and eight rebounds for the Cavaliers, who had at least three players score at least 25 points in a postseason game for the second straight season and fourth time overall.

“They threw the kitchen sink at us, gave us a lot of different looks and (we) kept our poise,” Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Donovan and James closed it for us, but I thought our defense kind of forced them to go small. This is what the playoffs are about. They came at us hard and we responded.”

Cleveland — which never trailed — has won 12 straight playoff games against Toronto, tying the NBA postseason record for consecutive wins against an opponent. The streak began in the 2016 Eastern Conference finals, when the Cavaliers took the final two games. Cleveland swept Toronto in four games in the second round in 2017 and '18.

The Cavaliers also have 12-game winning streaks against Detroit and Atlanta, while the Los Angeles Lakers had a 12-game run against Seattle from 1980 through '89.

Scottie Barnes led Toronto with a playoff career-high 26 points. RJ Barrett had 22 points and nine rebounds.

The Raptors had 16 fast-break points after being held to a season-low three on Saturday. But Toronto committed a season-high 22 turnovers that led to 22 Cavaliers points.

“The only time the game got away was when we made a lot of turnovers. We played super hard, we adjusted to how the game was going, and did certain things that helped us,” Barnes said.

The series shifts to Toronto for Game 3 on Thursday night.

Harden had four assists to move into seventh place on the playoff career list with 1,139. He also had five steals, the fourth time he’s had at least that many in a playoff game.

A driving layup by Barnes got Toronto within 99-90 midway through the fourth quarter. Mitchell responded with seven straight points to put it away.

The Cavaliers had a 73-57 advantage midway through the third quarter before the Raptors countered with a 16-6 run.

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“Braylon, he’s not here,” she recalled one of her students saying Monday.

Braylon Snow, who just turned 5, was one of seven siblings who were fatally shot Sunday by their father in an attack that also killed their cousin. The shooting rattled classrooms in Shreveport where teachers like Hall on Monday came face-to-face with distraught parents and a messy stew of emotions.

In Hall's classroom at Johnnie L. Cochran Head Start, it's likely students noticed Braylon's absence immediately. Each day, Hall instructs her students to look around for friends who aren't there.

“When they come back tomorrow, we can tell them, ‘Hey, we missed you, we’re glad you’re back'” she tells them.

But Hall wasn't ready to tell the students that the boy she described as a “cool little dude” wasn't returning. She kept circle-time moving. Numb and heartbroken, she lasted until noon and then went home.

“I’m no good to my babies right now because I just feel like I need to be in a moment of silence and just pray,” she said.

Preschool comes to an end

At Head Start, preparation's for next month's graduation ceremony have been in full swing. Hall, an organist and pianist at her local Baptist church, wrote a song for the ceremony.

Students, who dress in caps and gowns for the festivities, have been busy learning the words, excited about the prospect of starting kindergarten in the fall. Hall was working hard to make sure they were ready.

Just last Thursday, she pulled Braylon's mother aside during morning drop-off, boasting that Braylon was writing his first and last name. Braylon also was getting so independent, squirting syrup for his pancakes onto his plate by himself. He didn't even need a reminder to wash his hands.

“Braylon doesn’t give me any problems,” she told his mother.

Braylon greeted Hall — known to her students as “Mrs. Hall” — each day with a small wave.

As the year progressed, she nudged more gap-toothed smiles from him. He loved his time on the playground — playing chase, tag and even partaking in "a little wrassling.” She laughed as she remembered it.

“He was for the majority of the time kind of a quiet little soul in the classroom," she said. "When he did get a little extra energy or something, it was just a joy to see him smile and laugh."

News of the shooting emerges

But then came Sunday. After church, she went to her mother's house. It was then that she stumbled across an article about the shooting.

The number of victims was so high she struggled to comprehend it. Then she learned Braylon was among the victims. She also knew one of his brothers. He had been a Head Start student at the school last year.

“I just broke down and just started crying,” she said.

The same thing happened Monday morning at drop off when she locked eyes with a parent. Neither could say anything; the preschoolers were all around them.

“I just immediately broke down,” she said. So too did the parent and a teacher's aide.

She is relying on her faith now. She prays for the dead, for the families and also for the teachers.

“And I’m just praying for all the educators that were connected to these children because it’s tough because my parents’ babies, they become my babies. And I treat them like they’re my own. So I’m just really praying that he sustains us all during this time.

“Just give us that strength."

The 19-year-old Martone became the sixth-youngest player in NHL history to score in each of his first two playoff games when he beat Stuart Skinner deep into the second period to put Philadelphia in front. Garnet Hathaway added a short-handed goal a few minutes later, and Luke Glendening chipped in an empty-netter late in the third.

Vladar made it stand up as the red-hot Flyers, who needed a scorching finishing stretch just to reach the playoffs, frustrated the suddenly offensively challenged Penguins all night.

“He’s been like that all year for us,” Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet said of Vladar. “Guys enjoy playing for him.”

Game 3 is Wednesday night in Philadelphia.

Pittsburgh, the NHL's third-highest scoring team during a resurgent regular season, again struggled to get pucks on net against Vladar. The Penguins, who had just 17 shots in a Game 1 loss on Saturday night, vowed to come out with more jump.

While Pittsburgh controlled long swaths of the game after another slow start, including sustained pressure in the third, it could not find a way to slip the puck past Vladar.

“(We) should be frustrated, we just lost two games at home,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. "But with frustration it’s how are you going to respond. ... Nobody is happy. Nobody should be.”

The 28-year-old Vladar, who had never won a playoff game in his six-year career before this series, held firm as the Flyers headed home with momentum.

Pittsburgh shuffled its top two lines midway through the game looking for a jolt. While it created more opportunities, it did not result in more goals. The Penguins went 0 for 5 on the power play to fall to 0 for 7 with the man advantage during the series.

Stuart Skinner made 20 saves for the Penguins, including a couple of breakaways that could have broken things open, but it wasn't against the young Flyers, who seem to be gaining confidence with each passing game.

Martone, who was playing collegiately at Michigan State last month, scored his fifth goal in 10 games as a pro when a rebound off a Travis Konecny shot came right to his stick. Martone powered it into the open net to put Philadelphia in front with 6:21 to go in the second.

“I made this jump because I believed I could help this hockey team,” Martone said. "I hopped on a moving train and it’s been good ever since.”

The Flyers were on the penalty kill just over four minutes later when they doubled their lead. Owen Tippett fought off a pair of Penguins to keep the puck in the Pittsburgh zone and then fed Hathaway, who deposited it into the open net on a night the only place Philadelphia dominated was the scoreboard.

“Sometimes in the playoffs you have to win those ugly games,” Tocchet said. "It was an ugly game for us. ... Sometimes you’ve got to win games like that.”

___

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

“I felt like I was back in the Northwest League,” manager John Schneider said before Monday night’s series opener against the Los Angeles Angels. “But we made the best of it, we all got here safe, and we’re ready to go.”

Schneider said he was informed by Blue Jays traveling secretary Rodney Hiemstra of the mechanical problem at about 4 p.m. on Sunday, as the Blue Jays were finishing a 10-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“There was an issue with the joystick, which is pretty important — apparently, it’s used for takeoffs and landings,” Schneider said. “So the options were to get a new plane, which would have had to fly down from Vancouver and wouldn’t have landed until 10 p.m., or drive. We took a team vote, and the team voted to bus.”

While pitcher Dylan Cease, who was Monday night's scheduled starter, flew commercial from Phoenix to Orange County, the team had to unload all the luggage and food from the charter plane and drive it all back to Chase Field. There, it was loaded onto three buses — two for players and one for the rest of the traveling party of about 40, which included the coaching staff.

“The math was a little off,” Schneider said. “It worked out way better for the players, but there was a whole lot of doubling up for us. I had my own two seats, and I still had cases of water around me, and you feel bad reclining on people.”

Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer was on the losing side of the vote — he preferred the team fly to Orange County — but the veteran right-hander was still able to find some humor in the situation.

“I got reprimanded by Max for electing to travel that way,” Schneider said as he showed reporters a letter Scherzer printed out for the manager. “So we’re going to go to a trial in kangaroo court.

“I was like, ‘Max, why don’t you just buy a plane? You've got plenty of cash.’ Most of the guys who were playing (Monday night) wanted to get out of there.”

___

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

However, 36 bills have already been approved by the governor as of Monday, April 20, with many of these new laws set to take effect later this year.

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

HB 91 — Candidate Qualification

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

DATE OF EFFECT: April 1

SB 212 — Sex Offenders

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

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

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

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 245 — Child Pornography

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 246 — Specialty Plates

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

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

HB 249 — State Flagship

House Bill 249 redesignates the official state flagship.

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

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

SB 288 — Electric Cooperatives

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 290 — FDACS

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

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

You can read a list of more changes here.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 302 — Coastal Resiliency

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 386 — Farm Equipment

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

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 399 — Development Regulations

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: March 27

HB 445 — Dangerous Crimes

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 569 — Forensic Client Services

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 572 — Public Ethics

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

DATE OF EFFECT: April 1

SB 628 — Trump Highway

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

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 679 — Trademark Registration

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 697 — Drug Prices

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 844 — Sickle Cell Disease

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 919 — Donald Trump Airport

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

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

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

HB 991 — Elections

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: Jan. 1, 2027

HB 1093 — Vertiports

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1103 — Vessel Restrictions (I)

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1113 — Vessel Restrictions (II)

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

This can be done by way of local ordinances.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1153 — Juvenile Justice

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: March 30

HB 1159 — Sexual Offenses

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1417 — Department of Environmental Protection

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1443 — Parkinson’s Disease Registry

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

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

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

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1471 — Terrorist Organizations

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1473 — Public Records (Terrorism)

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

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 4005 — Naples Airport Authority

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

DATE OF EFFECT: April 6

HB 4019 — Lake County

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

DATE OF EFFECT: April 14

HB 4041 — Indian River County

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

DATE OF EFFECT: April 14

HB 4059 — Polk County

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

DATE OF EFFECT: April 14

SB 7006 — Public Records (Florida PSC)

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: April 1

HB 7011 — Public Records (Aquaculture)

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

That exemption refers to the following:

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

DATE OF EFFECT: March 27

SB 7016 — Public Records (Loan Programs)

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

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

DATE OF EFFECT: April 1

The crash, following an operation to destroy a clandestine drug lab in a rural area, has reignited a debate over the extent of U.S. involvement in Mexican security operations. Speculation was only fueled by Sheinbaum, local officials and the U.S. Embassy appearing to contradict each other and at times themselves, and offering sparse details about the U.S. officials who died.

“It was not an operation that the security cabinet was aware of,” Sheinbaum told journalists. “We were not informed; it was a decision by the Chihuahua government.”

It comes at a key moment for the relationship between the two neighboring nations as Mexico faces escalating pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump crack down on cartels and Sheinbaum underscores Mexico’s sovereignty.

Sheinbaum said her government would investigate the incident to ensure no laws were broken after the deaths on Sunday, adding that state governments must have authorization from Mexico's federal government to collaborate with U.S. and other foreign entities “as established by the Constitution.”

A mountainside car crash

Chihuahua Attorney General César Jáuregui said Sunday the officials died while returning from the operation to destroy labs of criminal groups. They were driving in the middle of the night through rugged mountain territory connecting Chihuahua to the state of Sinaloa, when the truck “appears to have skidded at some point and fell into a ravine, exploding.”

He said the four who died were two local Mexican investigative officials and two U.S. Embassy instructors who were participating in routine “training work.”

The U.S. Embassy on Monday declined to identify who the U.S. officials were or which entity of the U.S. government they worked for, but said the officials were “supporting Chihuahua state authorities’ efforts to combat cartel operations.” U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson expressed his condolences on social media but he and other officials provided few details of the incident.

Jáuregui said that the operation came following months of investigation by state prosecutors and Mexico's federal military, indicating there was at least some level of involvement in the operation from Sheinbaum’s security forces. Hours later, the Mexican Security Cabinet confirmed that the army and state prosecutor’s office carried out a joint operation over the weekend in Chihuahua dismantling drug labs in the same location, Morelos.

After locating the labs using drones, officials found tons of material to manufacture drugs but no people, who were likely alerted beforehand and fled, the prosecutor added.

The local official later backtracked and clarified to press that there “were no U.S. agents in the operation to secure the narco-lab," and said the embassy officials joined the group after the operation and were several hours away from where the action took place.

A resurfaced debate

Sheinbaum said her government would provide more information when it has more details, but insisted Monday that “there are no joint operations on land or in the air" in Mexico. She said there is only sharing of information between her government and the U.S., carried out within a “well-established” legal framework.

While U.S. officials’ training of Mexican security forces is common, their presence on Mexican territory has been the subject of ongoing debate, which has intensified after Trump’s military actions in Venezuela and Iran.

Trump has repeatedly offered to take action on Mexican cartels, intervention which Sheinbaum has said was “unnecessary. ” The Trump administration has already launched joint military operations in Ecuador, a country that has been roiled by violence by drug gangs in recent years.

Last year, Sheinbaum said the U.S. had conducted surveillance drone flights at Mexico’s request after a series of conflicting public statements on the issue, also sparking alarm among observers.

The most recent controversy surfaced in January over the detention in Mexico of former Canadian athlete Ryan Wedding, one of the United States’ most wanted fugitives. While Mexican officials claim he surrendered at the U.S. Embassy, U.S. authorities have described his capture as the result of a binational operation.

The recent debacle comes at a pivotal time in U.S.-Mexico relations. The second round of negotiations between the United States and Mexico on the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, the USMCA, was slated to begin in Mexico City. The U.S. delegation is led by Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who was scheduled to meet with the president on Monday.

That same day, the Trump administration also announced it was imposing visa restrictions on family members of the Cartel de Sinaloa.

___

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

The violence reverberated across Shreveport a day after the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in two years. Schools brought in counselors for the victims' young classmates and community leaders called for a city-wide reckoning on stopping domestic violence.

“We cannot afford to wait until the next crisis,” said Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn. “We owe it to the eight children who were lost.”

The shooter, identified as Shamar Elkins, killed seven of his children and a nephew, police said. His wife and another woman were also shot and wounded.

Shooter ‘just snapped,’ brother-in-law says

Elkins had voluntarily checked into a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in January for just over a week for mental health treatment, said his brother-in-law, Troy Brown, who lived in the house with his wife, Keosha Pugh, and was at work during the attack. Elkins appeared “better when he came home,” he said.

Elkins' wife was seeking a divorce, which was causing him stress, Brown said. But everything seemed calm in the house when Brown left for work Saturday night, with the children playing games or watching TV.

“All I know is he just snapped,” Brown told The Associated Press. “If I wouldn’t have been at work, he was going to kill everybody in the house and that includes me."

Brown's wife, who made a series of frantic calls for help when the shooting started, and their 12-year-old daughter escaped through the home's roof, he said. His wife broke her pelvis after falling and has since had surgery, he said.

“She said she was running for her life,” said Lionel Pugh, an uncle of the two women shot. “The only ones he didn’t kill was the ones who got away.”

Elkins died after fleeing and a police pursuit. It was not clear whether he was killed by officers who fired or from a self-inflicted gunshot, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said.

Officials said the children who died — three boys and five girls — ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old.

Brown said his 10-year-old son, who loved to go outside and run around and play with friends, was killed.

“I'm never going to get to throw the football with him again," he said “I’m never going to get to hear him say, ‘Dad, can I get this bag of chips?'”

Elkins and his wife, identified by family members as Shaneiqua Elkins, were separating and had been due in court Monday, said Crystal Brown, a cousin of a woman shot in the attack. She said the couple had been arguing about the separation before the shooting.

Family members described Shaneiqua Elkins as a doting mother, who celebrated her children’s success in school.

“She raised those kids right,” Pugh said. “They were the center of her universe.”

Gunman had no recent arrests for domestic violence, police say

While the shooter did not appear to have a long criminal history, court records showed Elkins was placed on probation in 2019 after pleading guilty to illegal use of weapons. In that case, Elkins fired five rounds at a vehicle and told police that someone inside it had pulled a gun on him, according to a police report.

Based on Louisiana law, a person convicted of certain violent felonies — including illegal use of weapons — are banned from having a gun for at least 10 years after completing their sentence and probation.

Authorities said Monday that how and when Elkins got the gun is being investigated.

Louisiana, a reliably red state, has expanded access to guns in recent years. For years, Democrats in Louisiana have proposed bills to tighten gun control — or at least put “red flag” measures in place. But Republicans have routinely blocked such legislation.

Investigators were not aware of other domestic violence issues involving Elkins, said police spokesperson Chris Bordelon.

Elkins had served in the Louisiana National Guard from 2013 to 2020, said guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Noel Collins. Elkins held the rank of private and had no deployments, Collins said.

The violence started before sunrise Sunday

Authorities said the shooting erupted before dawn at two homes.

Elkins shot a woman in a neighborhood south of downtown, and opened fire a few blocks away at the home where the children were targeted, police said.

One of the victims, 5-year-old Braylon Snow, was getting ready for preschool graduation next month, said Laurance Guidry, president and CEO of Caddo Community Action Agency, which runs the Head Start program where Braylon was a student.

“They have the cap and gowns just like you would have when you were graduating from high school,” Guidry said.

Gov. Jeff Landry said during a news conference Monday that he thought he had seen evil up close after a truck attack last year on Bourbon Street left 14 dead. “But the tragedy that unfolded this weekend seems to have eclipsed that,” he said.

Landry announced that the foundation created by the state’s first lady will pay the children’s funeral expenses.

A relative says they were a joyful family

Francine Monro Brown, a cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she would often see the children playing in the yard on Sunday mornings when she drove past the house on her way to church.

“Happy children, joyful children. Shaneiqua is a great mother, She provided a great home for the kids,” Brown said as she stood near a growing memorial of stuffed teddy bears, flowers and pink and blue balloons.

Betty Pugh, another cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she was always with her children. “That was the way we were taught: to love our kids, to take care of our kids. And that’s what she did,” Pugh said.

The mayor of Shreveport, a city of about 180,000 residents in northwestern Louisiana, called it one of the city's worst days.

The shooting was the deadliest in the U.S. since January 2024, when eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

___

This story has been updated to correct that Shaneiqua Elkins' sister was not shot, she was injured escaping, and a second woman who authorities have not identified was also shot.

___

Brook reported from New Orleans. Contributing were Associated Press reporters Gerald Herbert in Shreveport; Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Jake Offenhartz in New York; and Hallie Golden in Seattle.

The charges revealed key details and were among the first concrete public moves made in a grisly and horrific case that had been under a largely secret investigation in the seven months since Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found dead.

The 21-year-old D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, was charged with first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a body, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said. A defense lawyer entered not guilty pleas to all counts on behalf of Burke, who made his first court appearance Monday. He appeared behind glass in a custody area, dressed in black. A judge said he would continue to be held without bail.

The girl's parents appeared at the hearing. They looked down as they entered the courtroom and sat in the audience. They did not speak to reporters outside court.

Alleged child sex abuse during a career on the rise

Authorities alleged the Houston-born alt-pop singer killed Rivas Hernandez to protect a career on the rise after she threatened to report their sexual relationship. His debut album, “Withered,” was released just two days after authorities said she was last known to be alive. She was reported missing by her family in 2024, when she was 13. That was her age when, according to allegations in a criminal complaint, the singer engaged in continuous sexual abuse of her for at least a year from September 2023 to September 2024. California law penalizes abuse of a child under 14 especially harshly.

Authorities, who described her Monday as a “runaway,” said Rivas Hernandez was 14 when she was killed with a sharp object on or around April 23, 2025, a day she was at Burke's house in the Hollywood Hills.

Prosecutors allege Burke mutilated her body about two weeks later.

The murder charges include special circumstances — lying in wait, committing crime for financial gain and murdering the witness in an investigation — that could carry the death penalty. Prosecutors haven’t announced whether they will seek it.

The witness Burke is alleged to have killed is Rivas Hernandez herself, who could have given testimony about the sex crime allegations.

Defense says D4vd ‘did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez’

“We believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez,” lead defense attorney Blair Berk said in court. “We would like to have the evidence come into the light of day.”

Berk told the judge that after media reports of months of secret grand jury proceedings, she would like a public preliminary hearing to take place as soon as possible so a judge can decide whether there is enough evidence for trial.

Burke is entitled under California law to have the evidentiary hearing within 10 court days of his arraignment. Nearly all defendants waive their right to have it happen that fast, but he didn’t. A hearing to work out what will happen next was scheduled for Thursday.

“We’ll be very happy to put on the evidence that we’ve collected," said Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman, the lead prosecutor.

A missing child and the grisly discovery of a body

The case is a “a parent’s nightmare,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said at a news conference Monday announcing the charges.

The long-dead body of Rivas Hernandez was found inside a Tesla that was towed from the Hollywood Hills on Sept. 8, when Burke was on tour in support of his album. It was a day after she would have turned 15.

Her family had reported her missing from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.

The singer had been under investigation by an LA County grand jury looking into the death. The probe was officially secret, but its existence — and Burke's designation as its target — was revealed in February when his mother, father and brother objected in a Texas court to subpoenas demanding they testify. The 2023 Tesla Model Y was registered in the singer’s name at their address, according to court filings. Authorities did not publicly acknowledge him as a suspect until his arrest Thursday.

Police investigators searching the Tesla in a tow yard found a cadaver bag “covered with insects and a strong odor of decay,” court documents said. Detectives partially unzipped the bag and found a head and torso.

Investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office removed the bag and “discovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body,” according to court documents. A second black bag was found under the first, and dismembered body parts were inside it. No cause of death has been publicly revealed, and police got a judge to block the release details of the autopsy. The court order was expected to be lifted after the charges.

“I had the chance to meet with some of the family members of Celeste and their grief is incalculable as to what happened to their daughter,” Hochman said.

D4vd was a social media-savvy singer making breakthroughs

D4vd, pronounced “David,” gained popularity among Gen Z for his blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit “Romantic Homicide,” which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. He then signed with Darkroom and Interscope Records and released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns” and a follow-up, “The Lost Petals,” in 2023.

The Associated Press confirmed that D4vd was dropped by Interscope last year.

When the body was discovered, the singer continued his North American tour, but when reports of his possible involvement spread widely, he canceled the final two shows and a European tour that was to follow.

On April 11, about two weeks before the killing, he made his debut appearance at the Coachella music festival, where he talked to the AP.

“I was such an internet kid. The internet is really what I claim as my home,” he said. “My neighborhood was Instagram and the society was the internet.”

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AP Music Writer Maria Sherman in New York contributed to this report.

An HC-130 Hercules crew from the U.S. Air Force 31st Rescue Squadron confirmed Sunday night that the overturned ship spotted Saturday is the cargo ship Mariana, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a news release. The plane deployed divers and boats.

“If divers locate a viable access point, the team may employ an underwater remotely operated drone to further investigate the vessel,” the guard said.

Debris, including a partially submerged inflatable life raft, was spotted about 110 miles (177 kilometers) northeast of the overturned vessel, the guard said.

Guard air crews continued to search near the Northern Marianas for the missing crew members, whose nationalities weren't released. So far, the guard and partnering agencies from Guam, Japan and New Zealand have covered more than 99,000 square miles (256,000 square kilometers), the guard said.

The Mariana, a 145-foot (44-meter) dry cargo vessel registered in the U.S., suffered engine failure Wednesday as Typhoon Sinlaku bore down on the island chain, which is home to roughly 50,000 people.

After the crew reported that the ship had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, the Coast Guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel, the guard said. But contact was lost Thursday. A HC-130 plane launched that morning to conduct a search, but it returned to Guam due to heavy winds.

The Mariana’s last known position was about 140 miles (225 kilometers) north-northwest of Saipan, which is the capital of the Northern Marianas and about 3,800 miles (6,115 kilometers) west of Hawaii.

Typhoon Sinlaku triggered floods, tore off roofs and overturned cars on Saipan. The islands endured roughly 48 hours of fierce winds, which delayed responders’ ability to assess damage and help communities, officials said.

The Northern Marianas' government on Sunday requested an expedited major disaster declaration. If approved, it would include assistance for survivors and public infrastructure as well as hazard mitigation funding, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Monday.

Running water was slowing being restored in some villages, thanks to generators from FEMA, Ed Propst, a former lawmaker who works in the governor's office, said Tuesday.

But because tap water isn't potable, residents typically buy drinking water, which is in short supply now, he said.

The Marianas are also typically very hot and humid, so a lack of air conditioning is making life extra uncomfortable, he added. “Last night there was no breeze,” he said. “Everything is just so still.”

There have been no official updates on electricity restoration, he said.

And flooding has exacerbated the mosquito problem: “It's pretty bad at night,” Propst said.

The ruling by a divided seven-judge panel of the appellate-level Commonwealth Court is a major victory for Planned Parenthood and abortion clinic operators who first sued Pennsylvania over its Medicaid funding restrictions in 2019.

While the case initially centered over state Medicaid limitations, the stakes significantly expanded after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 ended nearly a half-century of federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade.

The court's finding on Monday marks the first time that the right to an abortion is protected by the Pennsylvania constitution, joining a handful of states where reproductive rights advocates have found success in protecting abortion access by pointing to state constitutions.

The case could still be appealed to Pennsylvania's Supreme Court.

“Today, our Commonwealth Court, looking at the Pennsylvania constitution, held that there is a right to reproductive autonomy, and it’s the highest possible level of a right,” said Susan Frietsche, executive director of the Women's Law Project, which helped represent the clinics.

A spokesperson for Attorney General David Sunday, a Republican, said the office was reviewing the decision and did not say whether it would appeal.

Democrats roundly praised the decision, as did abortion rights advocates.

“I’ve long opposed this unconstitutional ban, and as Governor, I did not defend it — because a woman’s ability to access reproductive care should never be determined by her income,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement.

The likely Republican nominee to challenge Shapiro in the fall general election, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, said in a statement that the court's decision “to force our tax dollars to pay for abortions is not only misguided, it is immoral.”

In 2019, plaintiffs asked the court to order the state’s Medicaid program to begin covering abortions, without restriction, arguing that a 1982 Pennsylvania law restricting state Medicaid funding violated the constitutional equal protection rights of low-income women.

The case has since taken several turns, with a lower-court ruling in 2021 that the plaintiffs did not have standing and also saying that they were bound by a state Supreme Court 1985 decision upholding the 1982 law.

However, in 2024, the state Supreme Court overturned the lower court's ruling and also determined that previous court decisions did not fully consider the breadth of state constitutional protections against discrimination beyond those provided by the federal constitution.

The seven judges on the lower court who heard the case largely sided with the plaintiffs on Monday. The majority opinion said the state should invest in maternal and infant health care and other resources if it believes that women should carry a pregnancy to term.

The attorney general's office had argued that the state had an interest in “protecting fetal life” and that the Medicaid coverage exclusion helped support that goal.

“If the state believes certain medical procedures may psychologically harm women, the state can license, regulate, and educate around such care. That is less intrusive than taking an entire medical procedure off the table categorically for some women, some of whom may benefit from that procedure — a fact the Attorney General does not dispute," the majority opinion said.

Abortion opponents quickly criticized Monday's decision.

“By declaring a sweeping constitutional ‘right to reproductive autonomy’ and mandating taxpayer-funded abortion through Medicaid, the court has overstepped its authority, ignored the plain text of our state constitution, and forced millions of Pennsylvanians who believe life begins at conception to subsidize the killing of unborn children," said Michael Geer, president of Pennsylvania Family Institute, which opposes abortion rights.

In Pennsylvania, abortion is legal under state law through 23 weeks of pregnancy.

The charges were filed Monday, but the allegations in the disturbing case stretch back to 2023 — just a year after the singer's first single made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The 21-year-old's defense attorney pleaded not guilty on his behalf during an arraignment Monday afternoon.

Here's a look at the timeline of the investigation, the allegations and the career of D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke.

2022: Burke's music goes viral

Burke, a content creator who began making his own music to accompany the video game montages he would post online, goes viral on TikTok for his song “Romantic Homicide.” The song ultimately peaks at No. 4 on Billboard's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, and Burke signs with Darkroom and Interscope Records.

Sept. 7, 2023: Prosecutors say the abuse begins

Burke allegedly begins the continuous sexual abuse of Rivas Hernandez, who had just turned 13, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office. The girl has been described by authorities as a runaway, and court documents say she lived with Burke in Los Angeles.

April 5, 2024: Rivas Hernandez is reported missing

Rivas Hernandez's family reports the seventh grader missing from her home in Lake Elsinore, a town about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, for the last time. They had reported her missing several times before.

April 11, 2025: Burke makes his Coachella debut

Burke performs at the music festival Coachella and goes viral again — this time for face-planting hard on the stage during a failed backflip attempt. In an interview with The Associated Press during the festival, Burke talked about using social media feedback from fans to refine his set lists. “I am my fans and my fans are me. And we work in tandem with each other and it's such a beautiful poetic kind of thing that we have,” he said.

April 23, 2025: Rivas Hernandez is last known to be alive

The charging documents filed by prosecutors in the case against Burke have few details, but they do allege he killed Rivas Hernandez “on or about” April 23, the day they say she was last heard from. Prosecutors say Burke killed Rivas Hernandez because she posed a threat to his career.

April 25, 2025: Burke releases debut album, ‘Withered'

Burke releases his first album, “Withered.” In social media posts and media interviews, he describes using a recurring motif in his music and videos — an alter ego character he calls “IT4MI,” after “itami,” a Japanese word for pain. “He's basically like the evil version of me," Burke said in a YouTube interview with the “Tape Notes” podcast published May 2025. Burke's videos sometimes depict the character blindfolded, in a shirt that appears covered in blood.

May 5, 2025: Authorities say Rivas Hernandez's remains are mutilated

One of the felony charges against Burke is “unlawful mutilation of human remains." Prosecutors say Rivas Hernandez's arms and legs were severed from her body on or around May 5.

Aug. 5, 2025: Burke launches tour

Burke's tour for the album “Withered,” begins with a show in Del Mar, California. He also released an official Fortnite anthem, “Locked & Loaded,” on Sept. 3. The collaboration with video game creator Epic Games echoed his start in the music world, when he would create and post Fortnite montages online.

Sept. 8, 2025: Celeste Rivas Hernandez's body is discovered

One day after she would have turned 15, Rivas Hernandez's badly decomposed remains are discovered in body bags inside the trunk of a Tesla registered to Burke, prosecutors say. The 2023 Tesla Model Y had been towed from an upscale neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills where it had been sitting, seemingly abandoned. Police searching the vehicle found a cadaver bag covered in bugs with Rivas Hernandez's head and torso inside. A second bag containing her arms and legs was found underneath the first, according to court documents.

Sept. 19, 2025: Burke’s remaining tour dates are canceled

The remaining dates of Burke's tour, which had been scheduled to wrap up Nov. 4 in Warsaw, Poland, are canceled. The Associated Press confirmed that D4vd was also dropped by his label, Interscope Records, at some point in 2025.

Oct. 6, 2025: A funeral service is held for Rivas Hernandez

Multiple news outlets reported that Rivas Hernandez's family held a funeral service for her on at the Queen of Heaven Cemetery and Mortuary in Rowland Heights, California.

Nov. 24, 2025: Police block release of coroner's report

In an unusual move, police block the release of the coroner's report on Rivas Hernandez's death. The medical examiner's office said in a statement that it had received a “court order, initiated by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), to place a security hold” on the case. The order said no records or details, including the cause and manner of death, could be released until further notice.

February 2026: Burke revealed as the target of a secret grand jury probe

The grand jury investigation into the case was kept under seal, as is standard in grand jury proceedings. But some documents were made public by an appeal of subpoenas by Burke's mother, father and brother that was filed in Texas. The court filings said the Tesla was registered in Burke's name at the address of his subpoenaed family members, and that the “target may be involved in having committed the following criminal offenses against the laws of the State of California, to wit: One count of murder.”

April 16, 2026: Burke is arrested

Burke is arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with Rivas Hernandez's death and is held without bail. The Los Angeles Police Department announces the arrest on social media pages, posting photos of several officers wearing tactical gear and holding weapons approaching a home.

April 20, 2025: Burke is charged with murder

Burke is formally charged with murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a body. The charging documents also allege several factors connected to the crimes that could lead to a harsher sentence if Burke is convicted. Those circumstances include allegations that Burke was “lying in wait” for Rivas Hernandez, who entered his home and was never seen again; that she was a witness to an investigation into the lewd and lascivious acts committed against her; and that Burke allegedly killed her for financial gain.

“When she threatened to expose his criminal conduct and devastate his musical career, Burke allegedly murdered her,” the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office wrote in a statement.

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Boone reported from Boise. AP Music Writer Maria Sherman and journalist Liam McEwan contributed.

The complaint stems from a massive leak in a 72-inch (183-centimeter) pipeline, called the Potomac Interceptor. The pipe collapsed Jan. 19, shooting sewage out of the ground and into the river just north of Washington in Montgomery County, Maryland. The leak spilled 244 million gallons (924 million liters) of raw sewage into the Potomac River and shined a fresh light on the country's aging infrastructure.

The local water authority, DC Water, said it knew the pipe, first installed in the 1960s, was deteriorating, and rehabilitation work on a section about a quarter-mile (400 meters) from the break began in September and was recently completed.

The complaint alleges that DC Water failed to properly operate and maintain its sewer system in a manner that keeps untreated sewage out of the Potomac River and tributaries, and other areas with risk of human contact.

“After decades of use and years of neglect, including at least eight years of DC Water knowing about severe corrosion requiring immediate repair, a section of the Potomac Interceptor known by DC Water to be severely corroded catastrophically failed,” the filing said.

"DC Water's failure to maintain the Potomac Interceptor resulted in raw sewage flowing into the Potomac River and the surrounding environment, posing a direct risk to public health," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson in a statement. “As cities grow and infrastructure ages, cities must invest in their wastewater system to prevent such catastrophes.”

The complaint was one of two filed against DC Water Monday. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown filed a separate action in Montgomery County Circuit Court seeking civil penalties and damages for costs from the contamination of the river.

“The utility must take full responsibility for the damage caused and take immediate and lasting action to prevent future spills," said Maryland Department of the Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain in a statement.

DC Water said in a statement that it was “fully committed to the long-term rehabilitation” of the Potomac Interceptor. The agency added that its highest priority was to contain the overflow and repair the damaged section of the pipe, which it did in fully stopping “all discharges to the Potomac River within 21 days. The repairs of the affected segment were completed in 55 days. DC Water is working now to accelerate the rehabilitation of more than 2,700 linear feet of pipeline in this area that was previously scheduled for improvement.”

The statement declared that both lawsuits were “under review.”

The leak sparked political recriminations from President Donald Trump — who blamed local Democratic leaders, focusing especially on Maryland's Democratic Gov. Wes Moore. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser declared an emergency in February and asked Trump for help. He issued an emergency declaration days later that provided a rush of federal assistance.

The pipe was returned to operation last month after emergency repairs were completed.

The leak is largely under control, but it could take months to fully repair the pipe. DC Water, along with the EPA, has been working to repair the leak and monitor the impact on the river.

Commissioners approved the creation of a small business enterprise preference program that encourages and promotes the participation of certified businesses in contracting and procurement with the city.

The program includes a preference scale for veteran-owned business, but the ordinance establishing the program eliminates any references to “women” or “minorities.”

“(Rescinding the program) is a blow, in my opinion, to the small business community as a whole when you lose programs like that,” said Kenneth Hughes, the founder and owner of Keeping Projects in Motion, a Parramore-based company.

Hughes had benefited from MWBE, as did his parents when they owned a business.

“The reality of that program is you still had to work, you still had to be qualified, you still had to get in here and know your business and build relationships,” Hughes said. “But it brought people to the table.”

The city suspended the MWBE last May in an effort to avoid non-compliance with federal guidelines.

Shortly after President Donald Trump took office last year, he issued an executive order targeting programs that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion--better known as DEI.

“In your work place, you should want diversity,” Hughes said. “You should want to give people equity, and you should want inclusion.”

Although disappointed by the MWBE’s termination, Hughes said he is looking forward to tapping into the new program.

At the outset of Monday’s city commission meeting, Commissioner Patty Sheehan shared her mixed feelings.

“I, too, am glad to see that we’re seeing the small and local business enterprise program moving forward,” Sheehan said. “What I’m distressed by is that women and minority-owned businesses are being singled out and disenfranchised by the federal government, and I think it’s disgusting.”

Winston-Salem police Capt. Kevin Burns said a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old died at the scene after being shot around 10 a.m. at Leinbach Park, near a middle school. Five others between the ages of 14 and 19 were shot and suffered injuries ranging from critical to minor, Burns said at a news conference. Four of those victims are female, officials said.

Officials said multiple people fired guns during the shooting. Winston-Salem police Chief William Penn said no one was in custody but authorities believe some of those injured may have also been involved in the shooting.

“I feel like everyone else. I’m frustrated, I’m angry, I’m sad. This didn’t have to happen,” Penn said.

Penn said he couldn’t immediately answer whether the teens who died were the ones scheduled to fight. The police chief also said “no” when asked if it was known what the fight was about.

Officials said schools near the park were safe.

The shooting happened in a park in a suburban and residential area northwest of downtown Winston-Salem, a city of about 250,000 known for decades as the home of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

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Associated Press writers Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, contributed to this report.

A cold front sliding south has ushered in drier air and gusty northeast winds, and that combination is creating very sensitive to critical fire weather conditions. A Red Flag Warning has been issued for interior counties from late Tuesday morning through the afternoon, where winds around 15 - 20 mph and lower humidity levels will make it easier for fires to start and spread quickly. Even along the coast, where humidity may stay just above critical thresholds, conditions will still be very sensitive due to stronger winds.

Any fire that develops could become difficult to control, so it will be important to use extra caution with anything that could spark a flame.

A few isolated showers south of Melbourne will fade this evening, leaving behind a quieter but still breezy night. Overnight lows will fall into the low to mid 60s, with winds remaining elevated along the coast.

Tuesday will stay breezy with highs in the upper 70s to low 80s and gusts approaching 25 mph at times. Temperatures over the next few days will run a bit cooler than normal, with highs generally in the low 80s. The average high for this time of year is 84 degrees, and Orlando only reached 80 degrees today, highlighting that slightly cooler trend.

At the coast, beach conditions remain dangerous as strong onshore winds continue to build rough surf and increase the risk of rip currents. Entering the water will be hazardous, and it is safest to stay near a lifeguard if you plan to be at the beach.

Boating conditions are also a concern. Northeast winds of 20 - 25 knots and seas building to 7 - 10 feet are creating hazardous conditions for mariners, with Small Craft Advisories in effect. These poor conditions will linger into Tuesday before gradually improving later in the week.

Looking ahead, the overall pattern begins to settle down slightly by midweek as winds ease, but there is still no significant rain in the forecast. By the weekend, temperatures will climb, with highs nearing 90 degrees and just a small chance for a few isolated showers.

Until then, the biggest concerns remain the elevated fire danger across inland areas Tuesday, along with rough surf at the beaches and hazardous conditions on the water.

Reza Dindar, 44, was indicted in 2014 on charges that include conspiracy, smuggling and money laundering. He was arrested last July in Panama at the request of U.S. authorities and flown to Seattle last Thursday, the DOJ said. It's unclear where Dindar had been in the intervening years or why he had not been arrested sooner.

Dindar made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in the afternoon, and his arraignment was set for May 1. One of his attorneys, Farhad Alavi, told The Associated Press on Monday that he had no comment.

According to the indictment, which was unsealed Friday, Dindar ran a business called New Port Sourcing Solutions in Xi’an, China. In 2011 and 2012, he and others “used deception to purchase parts for three military sonar systems from a business in the Western District of Washington” by concealing that the items were ultimately destined for Iran and by claiming that no license was needed to export them, prosecutors said.

The company bought the sonar systems for $97,600, had them shipped to China and then surreptitiously sent them to Iran, according to the indictment. The conduct violated sanctions on Iran first imposed in 1995 and renewed in 2001, it said.

The U.S. and Israel launched a war on Iran Feb. 28 during talks over Tehran’s nuclear program. Since then at least 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.

In an unrelated case, federal prosecutors said a 44-year-old Los Angeles woman was arrested Saturday night at Los Angeles International Airport on suspicion of helping Iran traffic weapons to Sudan, which is in its fourth year of a bloody civil war.

The enormous hot air balloon, with a pilot and passengers in the basket, descended perfectly Saturday on a small plot of grass at a home in Temecula. Hunter Perrin said he had no idea that he had visitors until a neighbor alerted him.

“I was watching TV and my wife was doing yoga,” Perrin told The Associated Press. “There was a man standing in front of my door saying, ‘They just landed.’ What? I was very confused.”

But there they were, a group of anxious people suddenly relieved to be on solid ground. Perrin's grassy backyard patch is only about 10 feet (3 meters) wide.

“It was unbelievable, like something out of a Disney fairy tale,” Jenna Perrin said. “The balloon didn't hit our house or our trees. It was kissing the fence.”

Brianna Avalos and her husband were riding in the balloon to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. She said the pilot informed passengers that he needed to make an emergency landing because of low fuel and a shift in winds.

“At first I was like, ‘Oh my God! We’re in a backyard! This is crazy!’” Avalos told KABC-TV.

The blue balloon with gold stars and a crescent moon image was a spectacle as it came to rest in the backyard, towering over Perrin's home. The pilot disembarked the passengers, returned aloft and then landed the balloon nearby in the street, where it was dismantled.

“He was an amazing pilot,” Avalos said.

Denni Barrett, the owner of Magical Adventure, which provides the balloon rides, declined to identify the pilot but said he had “exercised great judgment” and “done the right thing.”

“Most of our landings are in wine country,” Barrett said, referring to vineyards in California's Riverside County. “Usually they're bigger backyards.”

Williams' agency, Elite Loyalty Sports, announced the deal that includes $37 million of fully guaranteed money and a $22 million signing bonus. Williams had been owed about $33 million this season in the final year of a three-year, $82.3 million deal he had signed before the 2024 season before agreeing to the new contract.

The 49ers got the deal done on the first day of their offseason program and three days before the start of the draft. San Francisco has the 27th pick in the first round and had been linked to some tackles but that could be less of a priority now that Williams is under contract for two more seasons.

“As I told Trent when we started this thing, my hope is that his name, his number, are up in those rafters with a lot of great players that have played here,” general manager John Lynch said. "There’s a buzz in the building, the players are back, it’s the first day back for phase one. But, there’s a buzz because what Trent means to this place. So, we’re very excited.”

Williams turns 38 in July but is still playing at a high level after making the Pro Bowl and earning second-team All-Pro honors.

San Francisco originally acquired Williams from Washington for a third- and fifth-round pick during the 2020 draft and re-signed him to a six-year, $138.1 million contract the following offseason. The sides did a reworked three-year deal just before the start of the 2024 season after Williams held out of training camp.

There was much less drama this time around as the two sides came to the agreement before the start of the offseason program.

Williams is coming off his 12th Pro Bowl season — the most for any offensive tackle — and is two shy of tying Hall of Famer Bruce Matthews’ record for any offensive lineman.

Williams made three straight All-Pro teams from 2021-23 before being hampered by injuries in 2024. He was healthy for most of last season, playing 16 games for the first time since 2013.

Williams’ 40 pressures allowed last season were his most since his rookie season with Washington in 2010, according to Pro Football Focus, but he still remained one of the top left tackles in the game in both run and pass blocking.

“We’re fired up,” quarterback Brock Purdy said. “It’s going to be good getting back. He’s got a lot left. I know he’s going to have a chip on shoulder to go out and get a ring for him and his resume and his career and I want to help him do that.”

The 49ers have not drafted a tackle with a Day 1 or Day 2 draft pick since acquiring Williams from Washington during the 2020 draft, leaving the team with no obvious succession plan for when Williams’ tenure in San Francisco is finished.

Only two tackles in the last 20 seasons — Andrew Whitworth and Jason Peters — have played more than 125 snaps on offense in a season after turning 38, but San Francisco is counting on Williams to do that.

“We did a two-year deal with Trent with great confidence that Trent’s going to be here for a couple years," Lynch said. "The way he takes care of himself, where his heart’s at. In the inception of this offseason, I sat down with Trent, 'Where you at, man, what’s on your mind, what’s on your heart?’ That gave us a great feel. I think there’s going to be more and more cases of guys playing to this level with just the way they are taking care of themselves. I have a high degree of confidence that Trent can and will do that for us.”

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

Pittsburgh general manager Omar Khan said Monday the team remains in regular communication with the four-time MVP, who guided the Steelers to the AFC North title in 2025.

“Nothing's changed,” Khan said. “It's all been positive and good. He knows how we feel about him and we know how he feels about us."

It just hasn't rendered any definitive answer from Rodgers, and none appears to be coming before the NFL draft descends on Pittsburgh on Thursday. The 42-year-old quarterback didn't sign with Pittsburgh until just before the start of mandatory minicamp last June. Rodgers' uncertain status, however, is unlikely to play a factor in what the Steelers plan to do with their 12 selections that begin with the 21st overall pick.

“That doesn’t change our evaluation process,” Khan said. “We’re still putting the guys up where they need to be and we’ll just see how it shakes out.”

What was once considered a quarterback-rich draft a year ago looks far different now, with no safe bets outside of Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza of Indiana going No. 1 to Las Vegas.

The Steelers currently only have two quarterbacks under contract in last year's sixth-round pick Will Howard — whose rookie season a year ago was marred by a hand injury sustained early in training camp — and longtime backup Mason Rudolph.

Pittsburgh will almost certainly add to that depth in the draft. Penn State's Drew Allar, Miami's Carson Beck and North Dakota State's Cole Payton have all been in for pre-draft visits, though all figure to be later-round selections whenever they hear their name called.

Mike McCarthy, a Pittsburgh native hired to replace Mike Tomlin in January, has a lengthy resume as quarterback whisperer of sorts. The list of players McCarthy has worked with in the past include Rodgers, Dallas' Dak Prescott and former No. 1 overall pick Alex Smith, who spent a year with McCarthy in San Francisco in 2005.

“We speak on it as being the most important position in football,” McCarthy said. “And I think it’s important to always try to add to it if you can (but) it has to fit.”

The Steelers do have several needs outside of a young quarterback, including a versatile receiver to team with veterans DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr., and at offensive tackle, a position that's in a state of flux as left tackle Broderick Jones — their first-round pick in 2023 — recovers from a neck injury that forced him to miss the last seven games of 2025.

There is no timetable on when Jones might be ready, though he was with his teammates on Monday as part of the “medical group” as the Steelers held informal workouts.

Khan said Jones was still “early in the process” and the injury means Pittsburgh will almost certainly decline Jones' fifth-year option for 2027, meaning they might head into the draft eyeing a longer-term solution to protect whoever might end up being the franchise quarterback the club has been searching for since Ben Roethlisberger's retirement in early 2022.

Pittsburgh's dozen picks give Khan the option to use some of them as collateral if the team decides to trade up. There's also the chance he could trade down early in the draft to accumulate more capital.

McCarthy seems fine either way. While he called the current roster a “nice mix” of older and younger players, the chance to add quality depth is never a bad thing.

“Being above 10 (picks) I think would be awesome personally,” McCarthy said. “I’ve always felt that the more players you have to develop, I think it definitely is, for the long term, a good process.”

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

Cook, 65, will turn the CEO duties over to Apple’s head of hardware engineering, John Ternus, on Sept. 1 while remaining involved with the Cupertino, California, company as executive chairman. That’s similar to the transitions made by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Netflix’s Reed Hastings after they ended their highly successful tenures as CEO.

To allow Cook to assume his new job, Arthur Levinson will relinquish his role as Apple's non-executive chairman while remaining on its board of directors.

“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company," Cook said in a statement. “I love Apple with all of my being, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with a team of such ingenious, innovative, creative, and deeply caring people.”

Ternus, 50, has been with Apple for the past quarter century, including the past five years overseeing the engineering underlying the iPhone, iPad and Mac — a role that made him a prime candidate to succeed Cook.

“I am profoundly grateful for this opportunity to carry Apple’s mission forward,” Ternus said in a statement.

Cook and Ternus may have more to say about the changing of the guard on April 30 when Apple is scheduled to release its financial results for the first three months of the year.

The transition to a new CEO comes at a pivotal time for Apple. Artificial intelligence has unleashed the most upheaval within the industry since Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007. Apple has gotten off to a rough start in AI after stumbling in its efforts to deliver new features built on the technology, as promised nearly two years ago.

Earlier this year, Apple finally turned to Google — an early leader in the AI race — for help making the iPhone's virtual assistant Siri into a more conversational and versatile helper.

“Cook created a major legacy at Apple but it was ultimately time to pass the torch to Ternus with the AI strategy now the focus,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said.

Although he never shook the perception that he lacked Jobs’ vision, Cook leveraged the popularity of the iPhone and other breakthroughs orchestrated by his predecessor to lift Apple to heights that seemed unfathomable when it was on the brink of bankruptcy during the mid-1990s.

Not long after Cook took over, Apple became the first publicly traded company to be valued at $1 trillion, then became the first to be valued at $2 trillion and $3 trillion, too.

But after Apple's slow start in AI, chipmaker Nvidia rode the feverish demand for its processors that power that technology to be the first company to reach the $4 trillion threshold and then the first to break through the $5 trillion barrier, too. Apple is currently valued at $4 trillion, up from $350 billion when Tim Cook took over in August 2011, shortly before Jobs died after a long bout with cancer.

“Steve Jobs was never going to be an easy act to follow, yet Tim Cook took Jobs’ legacy and transformed Apple into a durable, resilient financial powerhouse,” said Forrester Research analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee.

Besides guiding Apple to a phenomenal run of financial success, Cook also made his mark in an October 2014 essay acknowledging his homosexuality – a disclosure by the leader of a renowned company that was hailed as a breakthrough for the gay rights movement.

Before his death, Jobs spent time grooming Cook to be his successor – a move that reflected the Apple co-founder’s respect and admiration for an executive that he hired in 1998 to oversee the company’s supply chain. Knowing his successor would likely be measured against his legacy, Jobs advised Cook to be guided by his own instincts and never bother musing, “What would Steve do?”

Cook, an Alabama native who previously worked at Compaq Computer and Apple’s former nemesis, IBM, masterminded the intricacies of an international supply chain that plumbed the cheaper labor and efficiency of China’s manufacturing plants. It has played an instrumental role in the production of the Mac computers, iPods, iPhones, iPads and other products that account for most of Apple’s annual revenue of $416 billion – up from $108 billion when Cook became CEO.

But most of Apple’s best-selling devices were all conceived while Jobs was still CEO, raising questions about whether Cook was more of a logistics man than an idea man.

“While Cook has kept Apple’s growth trajectory moving at a steady clip, he has not overseen a step-change innovation that would reset Apple’s competitive position for the next two decades, as Jobs did with the iPhone,” Chatterjee said.

The company did create the two popular new product lines – the Apple Watch and wireless AirPod headphones – and a still-niche Vision Pro headset for experiencing virtual reality, but none of them have been the kind of breakthroughs that became Jobs’ trademark. Meanwhile, other ballyhooed projects such as Apple’s effort to build a self-driving car never materialized after years of research and investments.

Apple’s reliance on overseas manufacturing required Cook to master the art of political diplomacy, particularly while President Donald Trump waged trade wars with China during both his terms in the White House. After persuading Trump to exempt the iPhone and other products from Trump’s first-term tariffs, he faced a more daunting challenge during the current administration.

While insisting that Apple shift its iPhone manufacturing from China to the U.S., Trump imposed some tariffs on the device this time around. But Cook still managed to minimize the fees by shifting the production of iPhones destined for the U.S. market to India and also winning some exemptions after promising Apple would invest $600 billion in the U.S. during Trump’s second administration.