Security was tight in Moscow as Putin and several foreign leaders attended the parade, which was scaled down even as a U.S.-brokered three-day ceasefire eased concerns about possible Ukrainian attempts to disrupt the festivities.

Putin, in power for more than a quarter-century, has used Victory Day, Russia’s most important secular holiday, to showcase the country’s military might and rally support for his military action in Ukraine, now in its fifth year.

Speaking at the parade, Putin hailed Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, declaring that they “face an aggressive force that is armed and supported by the entire bloc of NATO," and are fighting for a “just cause.”

“Victory has always been and will be ours,” Putin said, as columns of troops lined up on Red Square. “The key to success is our moral strength, courage and valor, our unity and ability to endure anything and overcome any challenge.”

But in a notable shift this year, the parade took place without tanks, missiles and other heavy equipment, aside from a traditional flyover of combat jets.

Officials explained the sudden change of format by the “current operational situation” and said that additional security measures have been taken in response to the threat of Ukrainian attacks. State television commentators said that the heavy weaponry was more needed at the battlefield in Ukraine.

For the first time, Saturday's parade featured troops from North Korea, a tribute to Pyongyang that sent its soldiers to fight alongside Moscow forces to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia's Kursk region.

Earlier ceasefires failed to hold

Russia declared a unilateral ceasefire for Friday and Saturday, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a truce that was supposed to begin on May 6, but neither of them held as the parties traded blame for continuing attacks.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced Friday that Russia and Ukraine have bowed to his request for a ceasefire running Saturday through Monday and an exchange of prisoners, declaring that the break in fighting could be the “beginning of the end” of the war.

Zelenskyy, who said earlier this week that the Russian authorities “fear drones may buzz over Red Square” on May 9, followed up on Trump's statement by issuing a decree mockingly permitting Russia to hold its Victory Day celebrations on Saturday, declaring Red Square temporarily off-limits for Ukrainian strikes.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov shrugged off Zelenskyy’s decree as a “silly joke.” “We don’t need anyone’s permission to be proud of our Victory Day,” Peskov told reporters.

Victory Day remains a rare point of consensus in Russia

Russia’s bigger and better-equipped military has been making slow but steady gains along the more than 1,000-kilometer (over 600-mile) front line. Ukraine has hit back with increasingly efficient long-range attacks, striking Russian energy facilities, manufacturing plants and military depots. It has developed drones capable of reaching targets over 1,000 kilometers (more than 600 miles) deep into Russia, far beyond its capabilities before 2022.

Russian authorities warned that if Ukraine attempts to disrupt Saturday’s festivities, Russia will carry out a “massive missile strike on the center of Kyiv.” The Russian Defense Ministry warned the civilian population there and employees of foreign diplomatic missions of “the need to leave the city promptly.” The EU said its diplomats wouldn’t leave the Ukrainian capital despite Russian threats.

Putin has used Victory Day celebrations to encourage national pride and underline Russia’s position as a global power. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in 1941-45 in what it calls the Great Patriotic War, an enormous sacrifice that left a deep scar in the national psyche and remains a rare point of consensus in the nation’s divisive history under Communist rule.

“We celebrate it with feelings of pride and love for our country, with understanding of our shared duty to defend the interests and future of our Motherland,” Putin said at the parade.

“Our soldiers suffered colossal losses, made a colossal sacrifice in the name of freedom and dignity of the peoples of Europe, became the embodiment of courage and nobility, fortitude and humanity, and crowned themselves with the great glory of a grandiose victory.”

Victory Day parades on Red Square have involved a broad array of heavy weapons — from armored vehicles to nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles — every year since 2008. Smaller parades are held elsewhere across the country, but this time many of them have also been pared down or even canceled altogether for security reasons.

The authorities on Saturday ordered restrictions on all mobile internet access and text messaging services in the Russian capital, citing the need to ensure public safety. The government has methodically tightened internet censorship and established increasingly stringent controls over online activities, causing rumblings and rare public expressions of discontent.

Merz criticizes Fico's trip to Moscow

Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, Laos President Thongloun Sisoulith, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko attended the festivities in the Russian capital.

Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia, a European Union member, laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier memorial just outside the Kremlin walls but stayed away from the Red Square parade. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized Fico’s trip, saying, "I deeply regret this, and we will discuss his visit to Moscow with him.”

Speaking at a meeting with Putin in the Kremlin, Fico bemoaned what he called a new “Iron Curtain” in Europe that hampered trade, and emphasized the importance of Russia's energy supplies to Slovakia. Putin hailed the Slovak leader for conducting a “sovereign” foreign policy and honoring the memory of fallen Red Army soldiers.

Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said that Fico informed Putin about his discussions with Zelenskyy but didn't convey any message from the Ukrainian leader.

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, with more than 140 passengers and crew on board, is headed to Spain's Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, and is expected to arrive at the island of Tenerife in the early hours of Sunday.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, are to head to the island Saturday to coordinate the disembarkation. of passengers and some crew.

Some residents on the island have said they do not want the ship to dock there, fearing the transmission of the virus. On board the cruise ship, some of the Spanish passengers have voiced concern about how they will be received once on land.

“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word “outbreak” and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment,” Tedros said in a direct message to the people of Tenerife.

“But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” he added.

Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus, a virus which can cause life-threatening illness.

Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

The WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide said Saturday that nobody on board the Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus.

“WHO continues to actively monitor the situation, coordinate support and next steps and will keep Member States and the public updated accordingly. So far, the risk for the population of Canary Islands and globally remains low,” Tedros posted earlier on X.

Passengers can take only limited belongings and will be isolated

Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said passengers and some crew would disembark in Tenerife under strict health protocols.

Everyone disembarking will first be medically checked to ensure they are not showing any symptoms, while people will only be taken off the ship if a flight is already in Tenerife waiting to fly them off the island, Garcia said during a news conference in Madrid. There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.

Both the U.S. and the U.K. have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens from the cruise ship.

Those disembarking will not take any luggage with them, Garcia said, and will be allowed to disembark with only a small item of hand luggage containing essential items, a cellphone, charger and documentation.

Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died onboard, will not disembark, Garcia said. They will remain on board as the Hondius then sets sail for the Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, the minister added.

All Spanish passengers will be transferred to a medical facility and quarantined, she said. Oceanwide has listed 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board.

Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for the evacuation

According to a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late Friday, Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for a medical evacuation plane equipped for high-consequence infectious disease to be on standby.

If anyone falls ill, the medics on board the ship will inform Spanish authorities, and the evacuation plane “will be sent to Tenerife so that the sick person can be quickly transported by air to the European mainland.”

The Dutch government will work with Spanish authorities and the ship company to arrange repatriation of Dutch passengers and crew as soon as possible after arrival in Tenerife, subject to medical conditions and advice from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the letter said. Those without symptoms will go into home quarantine for six weeks and be monitored by local health services.

As the ship is Dutch-flagged, the Netherlands may also temporarily accommodate people of other nationalities and monitor them in quarantine, it said.

Countries scramble to track passengers who disembarked

Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked before the deadly outbreak was detected. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.

On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, Dutch officials and the ship’s operator have said.

It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a passenger.

On Friday, the WHO said a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger had tested negative for hantavirus. Her possible infection had raised concerns about the virus’ potential transmissibility.

The KLM flight attendant was working on a plane headed from Johannesburg to Amsterdam on April 25, and had later fallen ill.

The cruise passenger briefly aboard that flight — a Dutch woman whose husband died on the ship — was too ill to stay on the international flight to Europe and was taken off in Johannesburg, where she died.

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Becatoros reported from Sparta, Greece. Associated Press writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

Magyar’s center-right Tisza party defeated Orbán’s nationalist-populist Fidesz in a stunning blow last month, gaining more votes and seats in Parliament than any other party in Hungary’s post-Communist history.

The win, which gave Tisza a two-thirds parliamentary majority, will allow it to roll back many of the policies that gave Orbán a reputation among his critics as a far-right authoritarian.

In a speech to lawmakers in Hungary's Parliament after being sworn in, Magyar said he would not use his office to “rule” Hungary, “but to serve my homeland.”

“I’m not standing here because I’m different from anyone else in the country,” Magyar said. “I stand here because millions of Hungarians decided that they want change. And this trust that we have received is both a weight of honor and a moral obligation, but also a wonderful feeling.”

Magyar has vowed to restore democratic institutions and governmental checks and balances that were heavily eroded during Orbán's rule, and to clamp down on alleged corruption.

His government is expected to transform political dynamics within the European Union, where the former prime minister had upended the bloc by frequently vetoing key decisions, most recently concerning support for neighboring Ukraine.

A Parliament without Orbán

On Saturday, Magyar, a 45-year-old lawyer who founded Tisza in 2024 after years as an insider in Orbán’s party, entered the sprawling neo-Gothic parliament building alongside 140 of his party representatives.

Tisza now controls 141 seats in Hungary's 199-seat parliament. Orbán’s Fidesz-KDNP coalition controls 52 seats, down from 135, while the far-right Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) party holds six seats.

The 199 representatives took their oaths of office at around 11 a.m. local time. Orbán was not among them for the first time since Hungary’s first post-Communist Parliament was formed in 1990.

Magyar earlier called on Hungarians to attend an all-day “regime-change” celebration on Kossuth Square outside Parliament to mark his inauguration and the end of the Orbán era. Thousands had already gathered in the square as the new representatives were sworn in, many waving Hungarian and EU flags and wearing Tisza T-shirts.

As the crowd watched the proceedings inside Parliament on large screens, cheers erupted whenever Magyar appeared. The new prime minister was set to address the crowd outside after the completion of Parliament's inaugural session.

Hungary's new national assembly has 54 women lawmakers, most from the Tisza party — more than a quarter of the total and the most in Hungary’s history.

One attendee, Andrea Szepesi, an economist from Budapest, said it was “about time” that more female lawmakers held seats in Parliament. Under Orbán's rule, there were fewer women in government than in nearly all of the EU's other 26 nations.

“Finally, women are able to participate in this new, beautiful democratic system and the flourishing of the country,” she told The Associated Press.

Repairing relations with the EU

Magyar has promised to repair his country’s ties with the EU, which Orbán had pushed to a breaking point, and to restore Hungary’s place among Western democracies, whose standing had been called into question as Orbán drifted ever closer to Russia.

The EU flag was raised on the Parliament building’s facade Saturday afternoon for the first time since Orbán’s government removed it in 2014.

Unlocking about 17 billion euros ($20 billion) of EU funds for Hungary frozen during Orbán’s time in office over rule-of-law and corruption concerns is among the incoming prime minister’s top priorities. The money is sorely needed to help jump-start Hungary’s struggling economy, which has stagnated for the past four years.

Another attendee of the celebration, 27-year-old web designer Áron Farsang, said he expects the new Tisza government to restore Hungary's democratic institutions and to “lead us back toward the European Union.”

“I would also really like it if we could get rid of the Russian influence as soon as possible,” he said. “I’m thinking about energy dependency and their general political style.”

Accounting for the past

Many of the nearly 3.4 million Hungarians that voted for Tisza expect Magyar to hold Fidesz officials and their business allies accountable for the perceived misconduct of the outgoing administration.

Magyar plans to form a National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, an authority tasked with investigating and seeking to recover public funds misused during Orbán’s tenure. He’s also vowed to suspend the news services of Hungary’s public broadcaster — widely seen as a mouthpiece of Orbán’s party — until objectivity can be restored.

In his speech to lawmakers Saturday, Magyar referenced his intentions to hold former officials accountable for past abuses, saying voters had “given us a mandate to open a new chapter in Hungary’s history.

“We must understand, however, that there can be no new beginning without reconciliation. There can be no reconciliation without justice. And there can be no justice without confronting the past,” he said.

The plane, on route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19 p.m. on Friday," the airport's official X account wrote.

A spokesperson for the airport said the pedestrian, who jumped a perimeter fence, has died. They said the unidentified person was hit two minutes after entering the airport. The person is not believed to be an airport employee.

“We're stopping on the runway,” the pilot tells the control tower according to the site ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”

The pilot tells the air traffic controller they have “231 souls” on board and that and “individual was walking across the runway.”

The air traffic controller responds that they are “rolling the trucks now" before the pilot tells the tower they “have smoke in the aircraft. We are going to evacuate on the runway.”

Frontier Airlines said in a statement flight 4345 was the one involved in the collision and that “smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff.” It was not clear whether the smoke was linked to the crash with the pedestrian.

“The Airbus A321 was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members,” the airline said. “We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities.”

Passengers were then evacuated via slides and the emergency crew bused them to the terminal. The airport spokesperson said 12 passengers suffered minor injuries and five were taken to local hospitals.

Denver Airport said the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified and that runway 17L, where the incident took place, will remain closed while an investigation is conducted. It is expected to open later today.

It might take a lot more than friendly officiating to make this series a fair fight.

The Western Conference semifinals series moves to Los Angeles for Saturday's Game 3 and the Lakers hope a change of scenery can help them get back into the matchup against the defending NBA champion Thunder.

Oklahoma City looks as formidable as ever and is 6-0 in these playoffs. The Thunder have won five of those games by at least 10 points.

Over in the Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers are in a similar situation on Saturday. They're in a 2-0 hole against the Detroit Pistons but now get to play in front of their home crowd.

Saturday's schedule

— Game 3, Detroit at Cleveland, 3 p.m. EDT (NBC/Peacock)

Series: Detroit, 2-0.

Odds: Cleveland by 4.5.

The Pistons have won five consecutive postseason games for the first time since 2008 — and three of them were while facing elimination in Round 1. Cleveland is now 2-10 in conference semifinal games over the past three seasons.

— Game 3, Oklahoma City at LA Lakers, 8:30 p.m. EDT (ABC)

Series: Oklahoma City, 2-0.

Odds: Oklahoma City by 8.5.

The Lakers are furious with elements of the officiating right now, and that might go one of two ways in Game 3. They'll either come out inspired on Saturday and make this a series, or the anger could work against them.

Sunday's schedule

— Game 4, New York at Philadelphia, 3:30 p.m.. EDT (ABC)

Series: New York, 3-0.

Odds: New York by 1.5.

The Knicks go for the four-game sweep on the road. Jalen Brunson scored 33 points in Game 3, delivering another big playoff performance. New York's fans — famous or not — have made themselves a big presence in Philadelphia. Mikal Bridges is having a big second-round series for the Knicks after struggling in the first round. He is averaging 19.3 points and shooting 64.9% from the field.

— Game 4, San Antonio at Minnesota, 7:30 p.m. EDT (NBC, Peacock)

Series: San Antonio, 2-1.

Odds: San Antonio by 4.5.

Victor Wembanyama delivered a masterful playoff performance in Game 3 with a career playoff-high 39 points, 15 rebounds and some game-wrecking defense. The Timberwolves need to find answers in a hurry when they host Game 4 before the series shifts back to San Antonio.

Friday's recap

— Knicks 108, 76ers 94 for 3-0 series lead.

— Spurs 115, Timberwolves 108 for 2-1 series lead.

Knicks, Thunder can afford patience

Injuries in the playoffs are never a good thing, but a comfortable lead in the second round gives the New York Knicks and Oklahoma City Thunder some room to be patient.

The Knicks have the luxury not to rush back forward OG Anunoby, who is averaging 21.4 points per game in the postseason. He sat out with a strained right hamstring and remains day to day.

The top-seeded Thunder are in a similar position as they wait for high-scoring guard Jalen Williams to return from a hamstring injury. Second-year guard Ajay Mitchell has played well in Williams' absence, averaging 19.5 points and five assists against the Lakers.

Awards watch

A breakdown of this season's NBA awards:

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

— Hustle Award: Moussa Diabaté, Charlotte.

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

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

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

— Sportsmanship Award: Derrick White, Boston.

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

— Rookie of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Dallas.

— Executive of the Year: Brad Stevens, Boston.

Among the announcements still to come:

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

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

Betting odds

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

The Thunder are followed by San Antonio (+300), New York (+700), Detroit (+1600), Cleveland (+6600), Los Angeles Lakers (+10000), Minnesota (+12500) and Philadelphia (+25000).

Key dates

— Sunday: NBA draft lottery.

— May 10-17: NBA draft combine.

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

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

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

— June 23: Round 1, NBA draft.

— June 24: Round 2, NBA draft.

Quote of the day

“I’m Linus. Jalen (Brunson's) my blanket,” first-year Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “He helps me relax at a lot of different times during the course of the game.”

Stats of the day

— Wembanyama is averaging five blocks through seven playoff games. The Spurs star was at his best in the fourth quarter of Friday night's win, scoring 16 points and grabbing six rebounds.

— Detroit's Cade Cunningham is scoring 30.6 points per game in the playoffs, which leads the NBA. He is shooting nearly 41% from 3-point range.

___

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

Another calls for court interventions by the Department of Justice on behalf of Amish parents fighting New York vaccine requirements and Catholic nuns challenging that state’s requirement that they accommodate hospice patients’ gender identities.

And the chair of the Religious Liberty Commission is calling for a federal hotline with this automated recording: “There is no separation of church and state.”

These are just some of the recommendations that members of the advisory panel formed by President Donald Trump last year want to see included in the commission’s final report.

That report is still in the works, but commissioners had an opportunity to describe their wish lists during their most recent meeting in April. There was little dissent as the commissioners, most drawn from Trump’s base of conservative Christian supporters, covered the items they want in the report.

Their ideas reflect the prevailing perspectives on the definition of religious liberty among many conservative Catholic and evangelical activists: increasing avenues for religious expression in public schools; expanding opportunities for faith-based organizations to receive public money; and allowing for religious-based exemptions in areas ranging from labor law to classroom lessons to healthcare mandates.

Such views have also been reflected in Supreme Court decisions issued in recent years by its conservative majority.

Commission criticized for narrow views

Critics of the commission say it embodies a one-sided perspective of Trump’s supporters and is threatening a well-established constitutional separation of church and state, despite the chair's claims.

A lawsuit by a progressive interreligious coalition argues that commission fails to comply with federal law requiring advisory panels to feature diverse members and viewpoints.

The lawsuit echoes criticism that most commissioners are conservative Christian clerics and commentators; one is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. The coalition says members have asserted that America is specifically a Judeo-Christian or Christian nation and notes that most commission meetings took place at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, an institution with Christian leadership.

The Republican administration is asking a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit. The government is citing legal technicalities and contending the law does not define how a commission should be fairly balanced or whose viewpoints should be represented.

Another entity created by Trump — the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias — issued a report saying Christians faced discrimination under the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden in areas such as education, tax law and prosecution of anti-abortion protesters. Progressive groups said that report failed to document systemic discrimination, focused on causes favored by conservative Christians and amounted to advocacy rather than an investigation.

In a further interlocking of Trump-related initiatives, several members of the Religious Liberty Commission are scheduled to take part in a May 17 prayer event marking the country’s upcoming 250th birthday. Several also participated in a recent Bible-reading marathon staged largely at the Museum of the Bible.

Harmony and tension within the commission

The commission has mostly featured agreement among members, with one dramatic exception. One commissioner, Carrie Prejean Boller, was ousted in February after a contentious hearing on antisemitism.

Commission Chair Dan Patrick said Prejean Boller sought to “hijack” the hearing, in which she had sharp exchanges with witnesses about the definition of antisemitism and defended commentator Candace Owens, denying her record of antisemitic statements. Prejean Boller, a Catholic, contended she was wrongly ousted for expressing her beliefs.

In other hearings, witnesses described how they defied workplace regulations that they said conflicted with their conservative religious values on gender, abortion, COVID-19 vaccines and more. Some said they were prevented, at least temporarily, from displaying a religious symbol at work or trying to sing a Christian song at a school talent show.

At the hearing devoted to antisemitism, Jewish witnesses spoke of being harassed and threatened at campus pro-Palestinian protests against Israel. The commission has also heard from some Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and other witnesses.

Even so, critics said the commission mostly focused on conservative Christian and right-leaning political grievances.

The Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president of the progressive Interfaith Alliance, one of the groups suing over the commission’s composition, said the panel’s omissions are as significant as what it focuses on.

He said the commission has failed adequately to address such issues as anti-Muslim efforts in Texas and elsewhere, and also the rise of antisemitism on the right, not just the left.

Separation of church and state debate

Raushenbush said he is especially worried about the commission chair's challenging the very notion of church-state separation.

Patrick, a Republican who is the Texas lieutenant governor, repeatedly denounced a concept that is embedded in Supreme Court precedent.

“We need to say there is no separation of church and state,” Patrick said at the April meeting. “That’s a lie.” He suggested printing “a million bumper stickers” to that effect.

No one at the commission meeting disagreed.

Trump made similar comments at a prayer event at the White House in 2025. “They say separation between church and state,” Trump said. “I said, all right, let’s forget about that for one time.”

While the phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear in the Constitution, 20th-century decisions by the Supreme Court cited Thomas Jefferson's description of the First Amendment as creating “a wall of separation between church and state." The court applied the First Amendment's prohibition of any church “establishment” to the states in addition to the federal government, citing the 14th Amendment's ban on states denying citizens’ rights.

Courts have since wrestled with how to balance freedom of religion and freedom from government-sponsored religion.

Concerns touch on schools, vaccines, workplaces and more

Patrick has advocated for prayer and Ten Commandments postings in public schools.

“I don’t have any malice towards anyone that doesn’t believe in any type of faith,” Patrick told fellow commissioners. “That’s fine. That’s what America is about. But these organizations that are pushed by some ideology and pushed by someone’s bank account who wants to remove God from our country? We need to push back.”

On other issues, various commissioners called for requiring schools and workplaces to post notices of the rights of religious expression and exemptions.

Some called for restoring full pay and pension benefits for military service members who were discharged for refusing COVID-19 vaccines.

Bishop Robert Barron of the Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, called for enabling religious groups such as Catholic Charities to receive federal money without compromising on traditional church teachings about the family.

He also said Catholic immigrants in detention should have humane treatment and access to sacraments and that immigration agents should not disrupt worship services in enforcement actions. The administration last year eliminated a policy against immigration enforcement in sanctuaries, which other religious leaders said should not occur at any time.

Kelly Shackelford, president and chief executive officer of the legal organization First Liberty Institute, called for new requirements that governments pay all legal bills if they lose a religious liberty case. He said many individuals lack the money to challenge the government in court.

“That would be a huge shifting of power in favor of citizens,” he said.

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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.

Investigators say the incident began Friday night when DeLand police tried to stop a reckless driver who nearly hit a pedestrian in downtown DeLand.

According to the sheriff’s office, the driver took off with headlights off, ran red lights and fled west on State Road 44 while officers pursued the vehicle.

Deputies later found the vehicle around 4:30 a.m. at the Walmart Neighborhood Market on South Woodland Boulevard.

The sheriff’s office says as deputies approached, the driver accelerated and tried to flee again.

“One deputy fired a shot through the windshield, striking the driver,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a social media post Saturday morning.

Investigators say the vehicle continued a short distance through the parking lot before crashing.

The driver was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. No other injuries were reported.

As of Saturday morning, the shopping center parking lot remained closed and surrounded by crime scene tape.

A spokesperson for the Volusia Sheriff’s Office told News 6 investigators are now reviewing body camera footage and other video connected to the shooting.

“At this point I don’t expect further updates until we are able to download and review body camera + any other available footage,” the spokesperson said in a message to News 6. “It may be Monday when we put that all together and provide a more comprehensive update.”

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is expected to investigate the deputy-involved shooting.

In the midst of a strange outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship that involves Americans and is making headlines around the world, the U.S. government's top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been missing in action, according to a number of experts.

“We seem to have things under very good control," President Donald Trump told reporters Friday evening.

But experts say the situation has not spiraled because, unlike COVID-19 or measles or the flu, hantavirus does not spread easily. It has been experts in other countries, not the United States, who have been dealing primarily with the outbreak in the past week.

“The CDC is not even a player," said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University. “I've never seen that before.”

The CDC's diminished role in this outbreak is an indicator the agency is no longer the force in international health or the protector of domestic health that it once was, some experts said.

The hantavirus outbreak is “a sentinel event” that speaks to “how well the country is prepared for a disease threat. And right now, I’m very sorry to say that we are not prepared,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive officer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

How the outbreak unfolded

Early last month, a 70-year-old Dutch man developed a feverish illness on a cruise ship traveling from Argentina to Antarctica and some islands in the South Atlantic. He died less than a week later. More people became sick, including the man's wife and a German woman, who both died.

Hantavirus was first identified as a cause of sickness of one of the cases on May 2. The World Health Organization swung into action and by Monday was calling it an outbreak. About two dozen Americans were on the ship, including about seven who disembarked last month and 17 who remained on board.

It's WHO taking center stage

For decades, the CDC partnered with the WHO in such situations. The CDC acted as a mainstay of any international investigation, providing staff and expertise to help unravel any outbreak mystery, develop ways to control it and communicate to the public what they should know and how they should worry.

Such actions were a large reason why the CDC developed a reputation as the world's premier public health agency.

But this time, the WHO has been center stage. It made the risk assessment that has told people the outbreak is not a pandemic threat.

“I don’t think this is a giant threat to the United States,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center. But how this situation has played out “just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now,” she said.

Tumult until Trump

The current situation comes after 16 tumultuous months during which the Trump administration withdrew from the WHO, has restricted CDC scientists from talking to international counterparts at times and embarked on a plan to build its own international public health network through one-on-one agreements with individual countries.

The administration has laid off thousands of CDC scientists and public health professionals, including members of the agency's ship sanitation program.

As this was playing out, Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said he was working to “restore the CDC’s focus on infectious disease, invest in innovation, and rebuild trust through integrity and transparency.”

Waiting to hear from the CDC

The CDC has not been completely silent on hantavirus.

The agency on Wednesday issued a short statement that said the risk to the American public is “extremely low,” and described the U.S. government as “the world’s leader in global health security.”

Said Nuzzo: “Not only was that not helpful, it actually does damage because a core principle of public health communications is humility.”

The CDC's acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, posted a message on social media that the agency was lending its expertise in coordinating with other federal agencies and international authorities. Arizona officials this week said they learned from the CDC that one of the Americans who left the ship — a person with no symptoms and not considered contagious — had already returned to the state. WHO officials said the CDC has been sharing technical information.

The CDC also is “monitoring the health status and preparing medical support for all of the American passengers on the cruise,” Bhattacharya wrote.

But federal health officials have mostly been tight-lipped, declining interview requests. Some details emerged not through public statements but through disclosures from anonymous sources, including news Friday that the CDC was sending a team to Spain's Canary Islands to meet the Americans onboard.

On Friday evening, health officials issued an updated statement, confirming the deployment of a team to the Canary Islands. They also said a second team will go to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska as part of a plan to evacuate American passengers from the ship to a quarantine center.

COVID-19 comparison

In interviews this week, some experts made a comparison with a 2020 incident involving the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship docked in Japan that became the setting of one of the first large COVID-19 outbreaks outside of China.

The CDC sent personnel to the port, helped evacuate American passengers, ran quarantines, shared genetic data on the virus, coordinated with the WHO and Japan, held public briefings and rapidly published reports “that became the world’s reference data on cruise ship COVID transmission,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director.

Some aspects of the international response to the Diamond Princess were criticized, and it did not halt the outbreak or stop COVID-19’s spread across the world. But some experts say it was not for the CDC's lack of trying.

“The CDC was right on top of it, very visible, very active in trying to manage and contain it,” Gostin said, while the agency's work now is delayed and subdued.

Instead of working with nearly all of the world's nations through the WHO, the Trump administration has pursued bilateral health agreements with individual nations for information sharing, public health support, and what it describes as “the introduction of innovative American technologies.” Roughly 30 agreements are currently in place.

That's not sufficient, Gostin said. “You can't possibly cover a global health crisis by doing one-on-one deals with countries here and there,” he said.

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Associated Press writers Ali Swenson in New York, Darlene Superville in Washington and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

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

Attacks Friday cast doubt on the month-old ceasefire that the United States has insisted is still in effect. Washington is awaiting an Iranian response to its latest proposal for a deal to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and roll back Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

The U.S. military said Friday that its forces had disabled two Iranian tankers that were trying to breach an American blockade of Iran’s ports. Hours earlier, the military said it thwarted attacks on three Navy ships and struck Iranian military facilities in the strait.

Meanwhile, in the small Gulf island of Bahrain, the nation's Ministry of Interior said Saturday it had arrested 41 people it alleges are part of a group affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. It said investigations are ongoing to take further action against anyone affiliated with the group but did not provide further details.

Bahrain is led by a Sunni Muslim monarchy but, like Iran, its population is majority Shiite. Rights groups have said that the kingdom has used the war between Iran and the U.S., which bases its Fifth Fleet in the country, as an excuse to crack down on dissent at home.

US says it responded to an attack in the Strait of Hormuz

Iran has mostly blocked the critical waterway for global energy since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, causing a global spike in fuel prices and rattling world markets. The U.S. has imposed its own blockade of Iran’s ports.

The U.S. military posted video of the two Iranian tankers as their smokestacks were struck by an American fighter jet on Friday. Earlier in the week, an American military jet shot out the rudder of a tanker the U.S. military said was attempting to breach its blockade.

A U.S. strike overnight killed at least one sailor and injured 10 others aboard a cargo vessel that caught fire, a news agency affiliated with Iran's judiciary reported. It was not clear if the ship was one of the two tankers the U.S. acknowledged striking.

Despite the attacks, U.S. President Donald Trump has insisted the ceasefire is holding. He also has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran doesn’t accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program.

On Friday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said the country was not paying attention to “deadlines” and Tehran continues reviewing a U.S. proposal related to ongoing negotiations, according to state-run IRNA.

A top Iranian official also said Friday that the country's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was in “complete health" and that he would eventually appear in public.

The comments were made by Mazaher Hosseini, who is affiliated with the office of Iran’s former Supreme Leader, at a pro-government gathering. Hosseini said Mojtaba had suffered knee and back injuries but that they’ve largely healed and he’s now in good condition.

Khamenei hasn't been seen in public since the war began and the continued absence of verified images, audio, or video of him has fueled speculation about his status. Remarks such as Hosseini's are seen by some as attempts to counter doubts that he may no longer be alive.

Britain deploys warship to the Middle East

Britain’s defense ministry said it was deploying a warship to the Middle East to join a potential mission to protect commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The ministry said the destroyer HMS Dragon will “pre-position” in the region, ready to join a U.K.- and French-led security plan once hostilities end. France also announced this week it was moving its aircraft carrier strike group into the Red Sea in preparation for a potential mission in the strait.

Britain and France have led planning meetings involving several dozen countries on a coalition to reestablish freedom of navigation in the strait. But they stress it won’t start until there is a sustainable ceasefire and the maritime industry is reassured ships can go through the strait safely.

Images show apparent oil slick off Iranian terminal

Satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press show what appears to be an oil slick in the Persian Gulf emanating from the western side of Kharg Island, Iran’s main crude export terminal.

Images taken Friday show the slick covering about 71 square kilometers (27 square miles) and appear to show oil still leaking from the terminal, said Ami Daniel, CEO of maritime intelligence firm Windward AI.

Daniel estimated that the equivalent of roughly 80,000 oil barrels has spilled from Kharg Island since the slick was first detected by satellite images Tuesday. It’s unknown whether the spill was caused by a malfunction, an airstrike or something else.

He said the spill appears to be spreading southwest and within the next two weeks could potentially reach the shores of the UAE, Qatar or Saudi Arabia.

The Pentagon declined to comment on whether the U.S. military was tracking the spill or whether there had been recent strikes on the Iranian island. Based on the imagery taken earlier this week, the spill occurred before the most recent round of U.S. strikes.

Calls for calm

As tensions escalate there's been a flurry of diplomacy across the globe.

Russia’s foreign ministry said Saturday that it, as well as Saudi Arabia, is calling for continued diplomatic efforts to reach a “sustainable, long-term agreement” to end the war, according to Russia's foreign ministry.

Egyptian and Qatari top diplomats have also have reiterated that diplomacy is the sole path to finding a solution, according to a readout of a Saturday phone call between Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country has been in contact with the U.S. and Iran “day and night” in an effort to extend the ceasefire and reach a peace deal.

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Magdy reported from Cairo, Egypt. Associated Press reporter Jill Lawless contributed from London.

But as of Thursday, they will no longer cast the same ballot despite living across the street from each other.

That’s because Tennessee’s Republican-controlled legislature redrew the congressional district of Memphis, which has long enjoyed its own Democratic-leaning U.S. House seat. Now, the city is split into three Republican-leaning districts, its majority-Black population sliced up and bound to mostly white, rural and conservative communities along lines that branch away from Fowler and Wilson’s East Memphis neighborhood.

A line runs down the middle of the street, placing Fowler in the 8th Congressional District, which runs hundreds of miles to central Tennessee across a dozen counties. Wilson is zoned for the 9th District, which extends across most of the state’s southern border before curving up to encompass the largely white and affluent Nashville suburbs.

“I think it’s horrible,” said Fowler, who is white. “This isn’t just going to be bad for Black folks in Memphis, but poor whites in these new districts also aren’t going to get services. How are any of these congressmen going to serve all these different counties?”

Part of a national redistricting competition

The redraw was sparked by a ruling from the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court that may be a death knell for congressional representation of majority-Black Southern communities such as Memphis.

For 60 years, a provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act required mapmakers to prove they were not discriminating against racial minorities in how they drew districts, often leading to political boundaries that allowed some minority communities to vote for their preferred representative rather than having their vote diluted by white majorities surrounding them.

The rule had the greatest effect in Southern states, where neighboring Black and white communities remain highly polarized in partisan politics.

On April 29, the justices court severely weakened that requirement, ruling that the way courts had handled it improperly injected racial matters into redistricting in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Republicans across the South immediately leaped at the chance to redraw their maps before the November elections to eliminate as many Democratic-held, majority-minority congressional seats as possible.

Tennessee’s legislature was the first in a GOP-controlled state to finalize a new map. But it is one of several Southern states — Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina among them — engaged in a broader partisan redistricting competition sweeping the country.

Republicans have long complained that the Voting Rights Act prevented them from doing to Democratic, majority-Black districts what Democrats in states they control do to conservative-leaning, white and rural areas — scatter their voters for partisan gain. That is what Tennessee Republicans did in their initial congressional map in 2021 to the state’s other large reservoir of Democrats in Nashville, where they did not have to step gingerly because that city is majority white.

“Tennessee is a conservative state and our congressional delegation should reflect that,” said Republican state Sen. John Stevens, who shepherded the bill for a new map that made all nine congressional districts solidly Republican.

A ‘central place’ in pursuit of racial justice

Wilson, the Memphis musician who is Black, was less distraught by the carving up of his neighborhood for partisan purposes. He saw the move as just another trial facing the city after a surge of federal agents sent by President Donald Trump to combat crime and amid narratives about Memphis' safety from neighboring suburbs and Republican state lawmakers.

“It’s a hustling community. We’re going to make ends meet for our families,” Wilson said. “The legacy of Memphis is music and our civil rights history,” he said, adding the two were intertwined. “Hard times mean you’re going to try and find your gift. That’s what we do here; music in Memphis is a way of life.”

The Memphis district predates the Voting Rights Act. For at least a century, well before Congress acted to protect minority voting rights, Tennessee has believed it made sense for its metropolis on the Mississippi River to have its own U.S. House district. But since that law was passed in 1965, anyone who tried to split up the district for partisan gain could be sued and have the maps thrown out. Now, legal experts say that is not much of a risk.

Nonetheless, Democrats and civil rights groups are suing to block the map. The symbolism is especially sharp as the city is home to the National Civil Rights Museum, built around the motel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. When the legislature passed the new maps, Democrats and protesters shouted “hands off Memphis!” and waved signs accusing Republicans of bringing back Jim Crow.

“Memphis is not just any city; it holds a central place in the national story of our quest for racial justice in this country and how, over time, we have increasingly achieved civil, voting, and economic rights for all Americans,” said Eric Holder, a former U.S. attorney general who chairs the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. “Black citizens protested, marched and died there for the right to vote.”

Contentious relations with the rest of Tennessee

Memphis has faced dual stories in recent years. Billions of dollars in private investment and federal dollars have flooded into the area in recent years, but many local businesses still express concerns about a lagging regional economy.

Residents who spoke with The Associated Press expressed concerns about safety and public services but bristled at stereotypes about rampant crime. The twin stories are often on display in the river city, where pothole-filled streets run from empty storefronts to ornate mansion-filled neighborhoods and leafy college campuses only blocks away.

The city has long had a contentious relationship with the rest of the state, which voted for Trump in 2024 by a roughly 2-1 margin.

The conservative legislature in Nashville has clashed repeatedly with Memphis and accused its leaders of broad mismanagement. The legislature passed a law blocking many police overhaul efforts in Memphis that were put in place after the death of Tyre Nichols, an unarmed Black man, at the hands of city officers in 2023. It passed another measure seizing control of Memphis’ airport board and those of other cities across the state, and gave the state attorney general, also a Republican, the power to remove Memphis' elected district attorney.

“The state legislature is trying to take it over,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, the white Democrat who still represents the city in Congress until the new lines kick in after the midterms. “And that’s absurd. It was all partially because it’s a majority Black city.”

Black Tennesseans deprived of fair representation, expert says

Thomas Goodman, a politics and law professor at Rhodes College in Memphis, notes that the new congressional districts may lead to greater friction over who receives attention — and funding — from lawmakers. Memphis residents will soon share districts with Republican towns with starkly different economies, geographies and demographics. Whoever holds those congressional seats will have an incentive to pay attention to those voters and not to Memphis’ population.

“It would not only deprive Black Tennesseans of proper representation,” Goodman said. “These changes also break up the city of Memphis as an entity into multiple districts, thereby removing a dedicated agent in government who knows the people, who understands their concerns and can speak for them and deliver on behalf of their interests and desires.”

Chris Wiley’s house sits in what was, before this week, a quiet street in Midtown Memphis dotted with duplexes, tidy lawns and sports fields. Now his neighborhood is carved apart at the intersection of three congressional districts. That is not surprising, he said, because “Tennessee is all about the dollar” rather than residents.

“Memphis is majority Black, so if you mess with that, what’s the point of even voting in Tennessee?” said Wiley, a 29-year-old sports stadium worker who is Black. “Whatever the congressional numbers, whatever that is, we don’t count on the scale as high, anyway.”

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Associated Press writer Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and AP videojournalist Sophie Bates contributed to this report.

A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that about 4 in 10 U.S. adults — and around half of those under 50 — get health information from social media or podcasts.

Researchers also looked at the social media profiles of 6,828 health and wellness influencers with at least 100,000 followers. Only about 4 in 10 list a background as a health professional. About one-third called themselves coaches, about 3 in 10 described themselves as entrepreneurs and about 1 in 10 cited their own life experience, like being a parent.

Despite the wide range of expertise, about half of people who get health and wellness information from influencers said the influencers help them better understand their own health, while about one-third said it hasn't made much difference. About 1 in 10 said it made them more confused.

Experts say a bit of skepticism is key to interacting with posts about fitness, mental health and personal health. Here are their tips on how to be a smarter consumer.

How to vet a health influencer's credentials

Experts said the biggest green flag is when an influencer's credentials are easy to find on their profile. Beware the fill-in-the-blank “coach” who can't prove their training.

Courtney Babilya, a certified medical exercise specialist and personal trainer who has more than 430,000 followers on Instagram, has seen this with maternity content: "Someone has a baby and suddenly they’re a pregnancy coach.”

“We have to be careful with people who have an experience in one thing and suddenly become a ‘coach’ on that,” she said.

Coach is a business model, not a sign of training. Babilya shares her own experience dealing with chronic illness online, but keeps it separate from her professional advice.

"You do have an obligation to make sure that you are not giving someone a false idea or spreading a message that isn’t going to be applicable to everyone," she said.

Don't fall for viral shock factor

If it brings up big emotions, pause. For people who can't access care or feel unheard by their doctors, an offbeat opinion could feel like a long-sought answer. The Pew survey found 53% of uninsured people got health information from social media, compared to 38% of those who were insured.

But people who are trying to share good medical information online are not trying to incite fear or surprise, said Dr. Fatima Daoud Yilmaz, an OB-GYN at Stony Brook Medicine in New York, whose popular “Feminine Aisle” video series rates drug store products.

Even if the person has expertise, ask yourself: Are they speaking outside the scope of their knowledge? Is what they're saying in line with scientific consensus?

“All opinions are not created equal when it comes to something such as health or medicine or science,” said Daoud.

Look out for exaggerated or definitive claims, especially in the first few seconds of the video when influencers are trying hard to grab your attention, added Babilya.

Ambivalent wording is a good sign, said Nedra Glover Tawwab, a practicing therapist and author. In her videos on boundaries and mental health, she couches with “maybe,” “sometimes,” “perhaps," rather than diagnosing her 1.8 million followers on Instagram.

If you feel like you've found a diagnosis online, that is your sign to seek out a professional, Tawwab said.

Follow the influencer money

People on social media are making money — for some, it is their livelihood.

“It doesn’t mean that all of the information that they put out is biased, but it should tell consumers of that information to take it with a grain of salt because they do have financial incentive to be pushing information like this,” Daoud said.

Babilya's platform is now a full-time job, and the way she helps support her family. Taking partnerships and brand deals was not an easy decision, but one that makes her work sustainable.

Babilya said she prioritizes being upfront with her audience and making sure her ads are transparently labeled.

Stop being a passive scroller

Experts also recommend pausing to check the video’s sources. Look for gold standard science. Some posts are not well fact-checked, Babilya warned, citing studies that have nothing to do with what the influencer says it does.

Use the same standard as when you’re vetting a purchase online. Look at the larger conversation around the advice as you would reading product reviews, Tawwab said.

Two-thirds of users said they just happen to come across the content rather than seeking it out, according to the Pew survey.

If you want to control your feed, it will take time and ongoing effort, said Ash Milton of the University of Minnesota, who studies how users navigate online mental health information.

“You have to work for it because the algorithm is designed to be passive consumption,” Milton said.

You can use “Hidden Words” on Instagram or “Not Interested” on TikTok to filter out certain content, though Milton notes TikTok might not know exactly what in the video you're not interested in. Use your own reaction as a barometer to limit content by asking yourself: Is the health information actually applicable and helpful to your life, or just relatable?

Find a doctor you trust

Confirm with a trusted health professional before acting on anything you see online.

Influencers can say anything while medical professionals are ethically and legally liable for your care, and “may face professional and personal consequences for the advice that they give you," Daoud said.

“Ultimately, talk to the medical provider who knows you,” she said.

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

The jury limited its action to countries under investigation by the International Criminal Court for human rights abuses, but some say the U.S. should have been included. British artist Anish Kapoor cited “the politics of hate and war and all that that’s been going on now for too long.”

Visitors to the Giardini and Arsenale venues will vote for the best national pavilion, from 100 participants, and best participant in the main curated show, “In Minor Keys,” in Eurovision style. The vote will be anonymous, and by email, the Biennale said Saturday. Winners will be announced closing day, Nov. 22.

Ahead of the opening, protesters objecting to Israel's participation clashed with police on Friday. Earlier in the week, feminist groups from Ukraine and Russia converged on the Russian Pavilion and Palestinians remembered artists killed in Gaza.

Some places to start:

Koyo Kouoh’s ‘In Minor Keys’

A towering red feathered sculpture with beaded embroidery greets visitors to the main curated show. Rooted in New Orleans Black Masking culture born from practices brought by enslaved Africans, the costume-like sculpture signals the show’s focus on minority perspectives.

The first African woman chosen to curate the main Biennale exhibition, the late Koyo Kouoh assembled 110 artists and artistic groups under a title meant to spotlight the overlooked, and five co-curators carried on her legacy after her death a year ago.

“She was someone who thought about making spaces for everyone to shine and we see it in her exhibition, we see it with ourselves,” said co-curator Marie Helene Pereira.

Britain's Lubaina Himid explores life as a newcomer

Lubaina Himid, a Turner Prize winner, explores what it is like to make a home in a new place in her exhibition titled “Predicting History: Testing Translation” for the British Pavilion, featuring brightly hued paintings of couples facing the dilemmas of newcomers.

In one, two architects are trying to decide where to build. “One of them is trying to decide, would we build a building here, that proves that we have contributed to the culture, and the other architect is saying ’No, no, no, no, no. Let’s build something that we can escape in tomorrow,” said Himid, who was born in Zanzibar and has spent more than 70 years in Great Britain.

The Vatican’s Mystic Garden

The Vatican is offering spiritual respite from the world’s turmoil in the Mystic Gardens of Discalced Carmelite order next to Venice’s main train station.

Participants walk among the vineyards and pass a pomegranate tree and beds of herbs, wearing headphones that pick up music by the 12th-Century abbess, mystic and composer, St. Hildegard of Bingen, reinterpreted by artists such as Brian Eno and Patti Smith.

“Music also helps us delve into ourselves and understand, to use a phrase by Hildegard, the symphony that God has placed in our lives,” said Rev. Ermanno Barucco, prior of the Carmelite order.

Austrian Pavilion uses effluent as an artistic medium

A naked woman hangs from a bell outside the Austrian Pavilion, a human clapper making the performance art by Florentina Holzinger one of the hottest appointments in the Giardini. Inside, a nude rider swirls around on a Jet Ski inside a tank — emblematic of Venice’s relegation as an over-touristed amusement park.

A naked woman breathes through a scuba mouthpiece in another huge tank filled with water that has been flushed from nearby toilets and filtered multiple times. The presentation is called “Seaworld Venice.”

Israel: a meditation on love and war

Inside Romanian-born artist Belu-Simion Fainaru's installation, water drips from suspended tubes into a pool, stopping in cycles for just 42 seconds, representing divine creative power in Jewish mysticism. Locks hung around the pavilion, like those placed by lovers on bridges around Europe, are engraved with the commandment “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” in Hebrew, and the hopeful exhortation: “This too shall pass.”

“I am against boycott, I’m for dialogue, and that’s a political statement,” said Fainaru, who called the jury's exclusion of Israel a form of discrimination.

Art as a daily practice in the Estonian Pavilion

Estonian artist Merike Estna will work throughout the Biennale on a huge wall painting inside a community center gymnasium that was once a church — the space's layered history mirroring her practice of spilling paint to build deeply textured surfaces over time. The act of daily painting represents the undervalued quotidian work of women.

Curator Natalia Sielewicz likened it to “the everyday feminism of sustaining life, of sustaining our planet.''

But President Donald Trump might be interested in the role.

Shortly after the United States and Iran exchanged fire on Thursday, Trump made a quick jaunt to the National Mall to review the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool that he ordered repainted a color he describes as “American flag blue.”

The project has been on his mind lately. During an hour-plus speech Monday to small-business owners, Trump spent about nine minutes talking about the paint job, detailing the granite floor and boasting that he whittled the renovation's cost to $1.9 million from what he said was an initial $350 million estimate.

Trump's next project might be East Potomac Park, home to an affordable, accessible public golf course with views of the Washington Monument.

The Republican president has talked of transforming it into a posh “U.S. Open-caliber course.” Signs were posted this week warning of a disruption and preservation advocates took the government to court as debris dumped there from the White House East Wing demolition tested positive for lead.

By late Friday, the nonprofit that operates the course said it would continue managing the space until the National Park Service begins a “historic restoration.”

Meanwhile, the White House told a planning agency that it would cost taxpayers at least $7.5 million to follow through on Trump's plan to paint the granite Eisenhower Executive Office Building white.

And that was just this week in Washington's extreme makeover.

All the president's projects

Over the past year, Trump has bulldozed the East Wing to make way for a ballroom. His name was added to the facades of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Kennedy Center, which he plans to close for a two-year renovation. His face adorns a banner at the Department of Justice's headquarters, among others. He is pushing for a triumphal arch near Arlington Cemetery and has closed parks, including Lafayette Square across from the White House, for a rehab.

Trump is guaranteeing himself a lasting imprint on a city where he won just 6.5% of the vote in 2024. He is flexing extraordinary executive power and offering fresh insight into how he spends his time, perhaps a president's most valuable asset.

As the Washington projects unfolded this week, the ceasefire in Iran was at risk of unraveling, motor club AAA said the average price of a gallon of gas surpassed $4.50 and elections provided new evidence of Democratic enthusiasm heading into the November elections.

“It's not a zero-sum game but obviously all presidents have limited amounts of capital they can use and limited amounts of attention that they have to give,” said presidential historian Julian Zelizer of Princeton University. “And he's deciding, in a moment of war, a moment of economic instability, that this is a priority.”

Trump rejects such concerns.

Asked at the Reflecting Pool why he was focused on the project given the U.S. military action in Iran, he said, “Our country is about beauty, cleanliness, safety, great people. Not a filthy capital.”

Political considerations for Republicans

For Republicans defending slim congressional majorities, it is not so simple. Many would prefer to talk about policy accomplishments, including tax cuts, rather than multimillion-dollar Washington construction projects.

While few directly criticize Trump, there is an acknowledgment that the party needs to confront economic realities.

“A lot of Americans are very worried about the cost of living and we need to address it,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said recently.

A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted in late April found that 52% percent of Americans oppose Trump’s planned arch. That includes about 6 in 10 independents. Some 51% of Republicans favor it.

Americans oppose the ballroom by a 2-to-1 margin, driven largely by Democrats and independents. About 2 in 10 Republicans oppose the project, according to the poll. The poll did not find a notable shift in support of the ballroom after a shooting at last month’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Trump has cited that incident in his push for a secure facility, something he did not mention when he initially ordered the demolition of the East Wing.

Trump is showing no sign of backing away from any of the projects. In a sign of the GOP's loyalty to him, Republican senators added $1 billion in White House security upgrades for the ballroom to an unrelated bill this week. Trump initially said taxpayer money would not be needed.

A dizzying pace of change in Washington

In a city where historic preservation is often sacred, the pace of change has been dizzying.

Rebecca Miller, the executive director of DC Preservation League, has spent 23 years at the organization, which sued to stop the golf course takeover and joined a coalition attempting to force the Kennedy Center to comply with preservation laws. She said her organization has worked with administrations of both parties and called the Trump moves “highly unusual.”

“One of the problems that we have right now is an administration that seems to think that it can just plow ahead without any input,” she said. “These assets are owned by the people of the United States. They're not anybody's personal portfolio.”

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said Trump is “laser-focused on lowering costs for working families, deporting illegal criminals, keeping our cities safe, beautifying our nation’s capital, and protecting our national security by ensuring Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon all at the same time.”

This is not the first time a White House has taken an interest in Washington's appearance.

During Lyndon Johnson's administration, first lady Lady Bird Johnson oversaw beautification efforts that included planting trees and flowers throughout the District of Columbia.

Her efforts were sometimes derided as distractions from other pressing issues, such as the Vietnam War. But she implemented them in coordination with local officials.

“Lady Bird Johnson was trying to bring out the natural beauty of Washington,” said Mark Updegrove, chairman of the LBJ Foundation and a presidential historian. “Donald Trump is trying to remake the nation's capital in his own image.”

Trump's assertion of power over Washington, including the continued deployment of National Guard troops, has animated the city's Democratic primary next month for key local offices, including mayor and delegate to Congress.

The first question at a forum for mayoral candidates this week focused on how to protect the Home Rule Act, the 1973 law that gave the city limited self-government. The candidates said they would stand up to Trump as needed, though one contender, Vincent Orange, noted that national Democrats had also failed the district.

“The two times that we had an opportunity at statehood, it was the Democrats who let us down," he said, referring to failed congressional attempts to make the city a state with full rights of representation.

In an interview, Janeese Lewis George, a D.C. Council member and top candidate in the mayor's race, said city officials need to do a better job of making their case in Congress for statehood. She said Trump's impact on the city is broader than the renovations, as she referred to the troop deployments as a “federal occupation” and noted the fallout from immigration enforcement activity and cuts to the federal workforce.

“The people of our city are afraid,” she said. “It's the mayor's job to really let the nation know that D.C. has uniquely been left vulnerable.”

Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican who often supported the city's autonomy when he was a congressman, said the renovations offer an “opportunity to bring some money into the city and spruce up stuff that you wouldn't have had otherwise.”

“But this is tough,” he said. “This is not a city that is in love with the president."

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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

Expect Highs to reach the mid 90s Saturday afternoon with heat indices topping 100 degrees. If you have outdoor plans, be sure to stay well-hydrated and take breaks indoors. Spotty storms will develop around 3pm, mainly to the east of the I-4 Corridor. These storms will be pinned right along the coastline for the second half of the afternoon and into the early evening. Drier conditions prevail overnight.

Your Mother’s Day will feature a similar story, however, our storm coverage will be a bit larger and some may be on the stronger side. The Storm Prediction Center has labeled all of Central Florida under a marginal risk for severe weather. The primary threats will be strong storms capable of producing strong wind gusts, frequent lightning, and heavy rainfall. These storms will spark up around 3pm and once again favor areas east of I-4.

Rain chances continue for the first few days of the upcoming work week as a cold front makes its way down the state of Florida. Drier and slightly “cooler” conditions will be felt for the second half of the week behind this front.

“My players recognized their mistake, expressed their remorse and asked for forgiveness,” Arbeloa told reporters in Madrid on Saturday in his first public appearance since the fight.

“That is enough for me,” he said. “What I am not going to do is burn them on a pyre in a town square, because they don’t deserve that. It is time to turn the page."

The tussle by the two midfielders when Madrid practiced on Thursday ended with Valverde at the hospital to treat a head wound. Valverde said he had hit his head on a table, calling the incident “a meaningless fight.”

Madrid said both players apologized to one another the next day when they met with club officials investigating the incident. They also apologized to their teammates, coaching staff and fans.

The 15-time European champion, however, found the spat a serious enough breach of team discipline to slap the players with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player.

Arbeloa said he was satisfied with how the club had handled the situation, while also adding that he had seen worse behavior in his playing career as a defender, which included Madrid, Liverpool, West Ham and Spain’s national team.

“I had a teammate that hit another with a golf club,” he said, without giving any more detail. “Situations like this have always happened, but I am not justifying them.”

During Arbeloa's playing days at Liverpool, teammates Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise were involved in an incident in which Bellamy hit Riise with a golf club prior to a Champions League game at Barcelona in 2007.

Arbeloa’s harshest words were not for Valverde and Tchouaméni, but rather for whoever it was who told the media about the fight. It was first reported by Spanish sports daily Marca.

“That what happens in the changing room ends up being filtered (to the media) for me is a betrayal of Real Madrid,” he said. “These things must stay in the changing room.”

And now a trip to Camp Nou with everything to lose

Madrid is facing a second straight season without a major trophy, despite having France star Kylian Mbappé on the squad.

The 43-year-old Arbeloa has only been in charge since January when he was promoted from Madrid's reserve team to substitute the fired Xabi Alonso. It would be a major shock if he is not replaced after the season given the inconsistent play of his star-studded side.

Arbeloa now has the difficult task of rallying his players for a game at fierce rival Barcelona on Sunday. Only a win by Madrid can stop Barcelona from clinching a second straight La Liga title, and even then it would likely just delay a title celebration by Barcelona with the Catalan club 11 points ahead of Madrid with four games left.

“There is no doubt I have to take the responsibility for the fact that we have not risen to the challenge this season,” Arbeloa said. “It is clear that feelings of frustration and anger can push you into situations that you don’t desire. But now we must focus on (Sunday’s) game.”

Tchouaméni will be in Madrid's squad for the clasico, Arbeloa said, while Valverde is on medical leave recovering from his head injury.

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

The slain hikers were among 20 who set out to ascend the 1,355-meter (4,445-foot) volcano in defiance of safety restrictions and became stranded when Dukono erupted early Friday, spewing a thick ash column that rose about 10 kilometers (6 miles) into the air.

The woman, identified by authorities only as Enjel and known as a local hiker, was located Saturday afternoon, about 50 meters (165 feet) from the rim of the main crater, said Iwan Ramdani, who heads local Search and Rescue Office. The location of the bodies of two Singaporean climbers remains unknown, and rescue teams are continuing operations amid high volcanic activity, he said.

“The rescue efforts went through a situation that required careful calculation and a well-planned evacuation strategy,” Ramdani said, “We took into account the potential escalation of volcanic activity as well as the safety of all personnel.”

Hours after the eruption, 17 climbers had been safely evacuated, including seven Singaporean nationals and two Indonesians who eventually joined the rescue operation and provided information on climbing routes of the victims before the eruption. Ten of those evacuated suffered minor burn injuries.

The search operation that involved more than 100 personnel supported by drones resumed early Saturday, focusing on a 700 square-meter (7,500 square-foot) area where clues were found during earlier searches, despite hazardous terrain and continuing eruptions, according to Ramdani.

He said rescuers were prioritizing safety because Dukono’s volcanic activity remains elevated.

“The main challenge in this search effort is that we are racing against ongoing eruptions,” Ramdani said in a video statement, “When the authorities declare conditions safe, we move closer to the crater area, but when an eruption occurs, we must immediately secure all search personnel from potential danger.”

Indonesia’s volcanology agency reported multiple eruptions from early Saturday through late morning, including ash columns rising as high as 3,000 meters (nearly 10,000 feet) above the crater. Lava bursts were also observed overnight from a monitoring post near the volcano.

Mount Dukono has been on the second-highest alert level status since 2008. Authorities enforced a four-kilometer (2.5-mile) exclusion zone around the active crater in December 2024.

Local authorities formally closed all hiking routes to Mount Dukono in April and reinforced the ban following Friday’s incident. The National Disaster Management Agency warned that entering restricted zones could result in legal sanctions.

The agency urged climbers and tour operators to comply with safety recommendations, noting that similar restrictions apply to dozens of other active volcanoes across the country currently at elevated alert levels.

Indonesia, an archipelago nation of more than 270 million people, sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and is home to more than 120 active volcanoes.

Hefty marks — even without winning a championship — for the New Jersey native trusted enough to get plugged into most of UFC's milestone cards in its rise into a billion-dollar global sports behemoth.

“I'm not just out there just to win,” Miller said of his fight style. “I'm out there to win to make me happy; to make me excited with the way that happens.”

Miller's joy was dimmed over the last year when his teenage son was diagnosed with a rare form of childhood cancer. He dropped the fight week schedule for hospital visits and threw his focus into his family — all while knowing he would indeed return to the cage again.

When Miller fights Jared Gordon in a lightweight bout on Saturday night at UFC 328 in Newark, New Jersey, he'll mark more than his 47th career UFC fight and aim for his 28th career UFC victory.

He'll celebrate fighting for the first time since his son beat cancer.

Wyatt Miller was diagnosed with rhadbomyosacroma, a rare type of cancer that starts as a growth of cells in soft tissue and is more common in childhood.

Miller said the cancer cells were tucked into his son's left eye socket and sinus area and first popped up as a sign of trouble last July when Wyatt complained that it felt like he had something stuck in his eye. There was a noticeable lump that indeed proved cancerous.

The health issues were, naturally, scary for all involved, though the family was grateful the cancer did not spread and force Wyatt to face more dire circumstances.

“The vast majority of it came out when they did the biopsy,” Miller said. “It kind of just popped out on its own.”

Wyatt underwent two courses of chemotherapy and fives week of proton radiation at Rutgers University Cancer Institute that Miller said doctors told the family could have potential side effects later in life. Wyatt will need scans and MRIs about every three months for the next year or so, to make sure the cancer has not returned.

He'll need scans and cancer check-ups for rhadbomyosacroma well into his 20s. The disease had some ill effects on Wyatt's vision but doctors said the tumors didn't seem to present behind the eyeball and get tangled up in the optic nerves, which could have led to permanent damaging effects with his vision.

“He's just a stud,” Miller said with a smile. “He's just an amazing young man.”

Miller, tied for second with most finishes and most submissions in UFC history, has made a nice financial life for himself in a sport where fighter pay lags well behind the eight-figure annual salaries found in the traditional stick-and-ball sports. Yet, because UFC fighters are classified as independent contractors, not employees, the company is not obligated to provide benefits such as health insurance or retirement plans.

So, it doesn't.

Miller pays for his own health insurance plan for his family and admitted that — while, yes, he had a bit more of a financial cushion — the out-of-pocket bills and other expenses have piled up during Wyatt's cancer battle.

“It is what it is, right? We are contractors and that's the way it goes,” Miller said. “We acted quickly, and he got treatment quickly, and he needed it quickly. We were lucky it was just where it was because it tends to spread to the lungs.”

Miller expected his wife and their four children — including Wyatt — to attend his fight for one of the few times in his career.

His son's cancer scare kept him out of the cage for 13 months, an eternity for a fighter who made a habit of competing multiple times a year. Miller lost to Chase Hooper at UFC 314 in April 2025 and admitted he missed “that push, the grind of it” of all those training camps in his life without a fight to train for.

Miller is a New Jersey native and cut his teeth as a young pro in MMA cards in the state and has since seemingly fought on every East Coast card since his UFC debut in 2008. He first fought in Newark at UFC 111 in 2010 and has the distinction of being the only fighter to compete at UFC 100, UFC 200 and UFC 300.

He turns 43 in August, making UFC 400 seem like the ultimate long shot, even though he's not quite ready to hang up his gloves.

Consider, when the 37-year-old Gordon made his UFC debut in 2017, Miller already had 26 fights on his resume under the company banner.

Miller credited his longevity in large part to good health and good fortune — he rattled off a list of fighters and coaches he knows who suffered freak injuries — to a career that may put his career fights record out of reach by the time he finally retires.

“I've always tried to train like a professional,” Miller said. “That's really kind of it.”

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AP MMA: https://apnews.com/hub/mixed-martial-arts

That law — HB 905 — aims to limit influence by “foreign countries of concern” (FCOCs), including places like Iran, North Korea, Cuba, China and Russia.

More specifically, the law makes the following changes:

• Public Officers: Requires public officers and employees to repay double the value of any benefit received from FCOCs or designated foreign terrorist groups (FTOs)
• Charities: Prohibits charitable organizations from accepting contributions from FCOCS
• Ethics Training: Expands ethics training to help identify foreign influence campaigns, particularly tactics associated with the Chinese Communist Party’s “United Front” strategy
• Cuban Business: Allows local governments and tax collectors to revoke business tax receipts from those who do business with Cuba in violation of federal law
• Governor Powers: Allows the governor to temporarily suspend statutes and rules restricting interactions with Cuba if the federal government changes Cuba’s diplomatic status
• Adoption Agreements: Prohibits preplanned adoption agreements and gestational surrogacy contracts if a party is a citizen or resident of a FCOC
• Enhanced Penalties: Establishes harsher penalties for crimes committed to benefit FCOCs or FTOs

Governor DeSantis Signs Legislation to Combat Hostile Foreign Influence https://t.co/BbxMeBGOP9

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) May 8, 2026

“Today, I signed the Foreign Interference Restriction and Enforcement Act to strengthen Florida’s defenses against foreign adversaries,” DeSantis said. “This legislation combats hostile foreign influence in Florida by establishing new restrictions on agreements and partnerships involving countries of concern such as Iran and Cuba, as well as penalties for violations. The bill also strengthens ethics and disclosure requirements for elected officials and government employees, because public officials should be serving Floridians—not foreign adversaries.”

The law is set to take effect on July 1.

Meanwhile, you can find a full list of laws approved so far in 2026 by clicking here.

Fresh cuts and bruises on those long arms after fighting for paint position and jockeying for rebounds all night with the Minnesota Timberwolves made clear Wembanyama had to put in plenty of work to compile 39 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks in a 115-108 victory in Game 3 on Friday that gave the Spurs a 2-1 lead in their second-round NBA playoff series.

“It's going to happen," Wembanyama said. “They're Wolves, after all.”

The Spurs stayed unbeaten on the road in this postseason with their first win in a truly close game, after four victories in the first round over the Portland Trail Blazers with margins between 12 and 21 points.

“They just continue showing growth,” coach Mitch Johnson said.

Starting with Wembanyama. The 22-year-old phenom from France in his first NBA postseason has played in only seven playoff games, but he has wasted no time writing quite a legacy.

The only other players in NBA history to hit the 35-point, 15-rebound, five-block thresholds in a playoff game? Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Shaquille O'Neal. And only Wembanyama has now done it while shooting better than 70% from the floor. The 7-foot-4 star was 13 for 18 — and 10 for 12 from the line.

“It’s good to be along with the big fellas,” said Wembanyama, who credited Olajuwon for teaching him a spin fadeaway he sank over his mentor Rudy Gobert during a 16-point fourth quarter.

He did that despite picking up his fifth foul with 6:18 left, sitting for only about a minute down the stretch while helping the Spurs pull away each time the Wolves were within one possession.

“Just staying calm, getting my senses back,” Wembanyama said. “Our coaches tell us what to do. They give us the recipe, so as long as we stay steady and we trust our process we’re going to be all right.”

Wembanyama set an NBA postseason record with 12 blocked shots in the series opener, but he lamented his lack of impact on offense after the 104-102 loss to the Wolves on Monday. He stormed out of the gate for Game 2 by immediately asserting his dominance on both ends of the floor that sparked the Spurs to a 133-95 victory on Wednesday, and the travel north did nothing to stem that.

With a pair of effortless slams off lobs to start, the first one done in reverse, Wembanyama scored the first seven points for the Spurs as they sailed to an 18-3 lead. But he was even more of a force on defense, lurking in the paint and frequently prompting the Wolves to alter their layups and floaters to avoid being swatted.

“He's a world-class defender. You’re always aware of him,” Wolves guard Ayo Dosunmu said. "Yeah, he’s a gift at that end of the court.”

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

"I grabbed three of them,” Baltimore Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said before a 4-3 loss to the Athletics.

Shakur was raised in New York and Baltimore before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1980s. He lived in Oakland, California, in the early 1990s, which made Friday's matchup between the Orioles and Athletics an appropriate time to honor the rap icon, who was killed in 1996. The familiar riff from “California Love” was played while the starting lineup for the A's — who left Oakland before last season — was being announced.

Albernaz mentioned “Pain” when asked his favorite Tupac song.

“This is back on — I'm dating myself — Napster or LimeWire, trying to download that,” Albernaz said.

He also said “All Eyez On Me” best encapsulates the current Baltimore team.

Everyone on the Orioles' active roster was born in 1989 or later, so it wasn't immedately clear if the players were familiar with Shakur's music.

“I hope so,” Albernaz said. “I probably should ask around about that.”

Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, Tupac's sister, threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

The game drew 39,311 fans, the most for a Baltimore home game since opening day.

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

Ian Happ extended his on-base streak to 29 games, Michael Busch hit a three-run double and the Cubs clinched their second 10-game winning streak this year with a 7-1 victory over the Texas Rangers on Friday night.

It's the first time since 1935 that Chicago has had two 10-game winning streaks in a season. The only time the Cubs had more was in 1906 with four.

“That means you’re doing something that’s pretty rare, and I think we realize that,” manager Craig Counsell said.

The 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers were the previous major league team with two 10-game winning streaks within the first 39 games of a season, according to Sportradar. They did it in their first 24 games.

“Baseball is a game of a ridiculous amount of stats and things to look up, so anytime you have to go that far back, it is obviously a good sign, especially on a positive like that,” Chicago second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “We're just going to keep it rolling.”

These Cubs have done it pretty quickly, too, with a pair of 10-game winning streaks by May 8.

“That’s a crazy sentence,” Hoerner said.

Milwaukee had two winning streaks of at least 10 games last season on the way to winning the NL Central title and finishing five games ahead of Chicago.

The Cubs have the best record in the majors at 27-12 and have won 20 of their last 23 games, with three consecutive losses separating those long win streaks.

“If you break it to small things, it’s just come and play a good game today, and we played a really good game today, a really well-rounded, well-pitched for sure, with some pressure a lot in a bunch of innings," Counsell said. "It's been the recipe for a lot of wins.”

When the Cubs had multiple 10-game winning streaks in 1935, their Hall of Fame catcher Gabby Hartnett was the NL MVP and Charlie Grimm the manager while winning 100 games. The only time they have done that since was their 2016 World Series championship year, when they won 103 games in the regular season.

“Two double-digit winning streaks in a season, that sounds pretty wild to me,” said Ben Brown, who threw four hitless innings in his first start this season after 12 relief appearances.

“That’s kudos to all the guys in the clubhouse, all the coaches, all the trainers, the sports staff,” he added. “That is some goosebumps to think about how talented this team is. It’s special to be a part of, it’s special to witness, it’s special to watch.”

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

The vessel is expected to arrive Sunday at the Spanish island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, and passengers will be taken to a “completely isolated, cordoned-off area,” said the head of Spain's emergency services, Virginia Barcones.

Both the U.S. and the U.K. have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens from the cruise ship.

While three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are known to be infected with hantavirus, cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said Friday there were no people with symptoms of a possible infection on board the Dutch-flagged ship, the MV Hondius.

The World Health Organization considers the risk to the wider public from the outbreak as low.

On Friday, the WHO said a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger has tested negative for hantavirus. Her possible infection had raised concerns about the virus’ potential transmissibility.

The flight attendant’s negative result should ease concerns among the public, said Christian Lindmeier, a WHO spokesman. “The risk remains absolutely low,” he said. “This is not a new COVID.”

Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked the ship before the deadly outbreak was detected. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.

Passengers on the ship worry about how people will treat them

In interviews with The Associated Press, two Spanish passengers — speaking on condition of anonymity because of fears they’ll be ostracized once on land — said that despite the outbreak, their days aboard have passed with relative tranquility. Some people are bird-watching, and others are gathering in common areas to read or attend talks, while wearing masks and social distancing. Both passengers told AP they’re worried about how they’ll be treated in Spain and once home.

“We’re scared by all the news that’s coming out, by how people are going to receive us, by how people see us,” one said. “We’re just normal people. We’ve heard that this is a millionaires’ cruise, and it’s the complete opposite of reality. And we’re scared by this.”

Officials sought to reassure the public in the Canary Islands about possible exposure to the virus among the general population.

Once the ship reaches Tenerife, passengers will be evacuated in small boats to buses only after their repatriation flights are ready to take them, Spanish officials said Friday. Passengers will be transported in isolated and guarded vehicles, officials said, adding that the parts of the airport they travel through will be cordoned off.

Countries scramble to track passengers who disembarked

On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, Dutch officials and the ship's operator said Thursday.

It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a ship passenger, the WHO said.

The KLM flight attendant who tested negative for the virus was working on a flight headed from Johannesburg to Amsterdam on April 25, and had later fallen ill.

The cruise passenger briefly aboard that flight — a Dutch woman whose husband died on the ship — was too ill to stay on the international flight to Europe and was taken off the plane in Johannesburg, where she died.

The Dutch public health service is undertaking contact tracing on passengers who had contact with the ill woman before she left the plane.

On Friday, U.K. health authorities said a third British national who had been a passenger on the ship is suspected of being infected with hantavirus. The U.K. Health Security Agency said the person is on the island of Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory in the south Atlantic where the ship stopped in April. There was no word on the condition of the person.

Spanish health officials said Friday a woman in the southeastern Spanish province of Alicante has symptoms consistent with ‌a hantavirus infection and is being tested.

She was a passenger on the same flight as the Dutch woman who died in Johannesburg after traveling on the cruise ship, Secretary of ⁠State for Health Javier Padilla told reporters.

Two other Britons who were on the ship have been confirmed to have the virus. One is hospitalized in the Netherlands and the other in South Africa.

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

Some state officials across the U.S. said they are monitoring a small number of residents who were on the ship and already went home, as well as people who may have come into contact with ship passengers. None has symptoms.

Health officials in the US detail plans for American passengers

The U.S. agreed to send a plane to repatriate about 17 Americans who are still on the ship. Those passengers will be quarantined at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine, the hospital said Friday. None have symptoms.

Doctors will determine how long the quarantine will last after assessing the passengers.

The dedicated biocontainment and quarantine unit in Omaha previously was used to treat Ebola patients and some of the first COVID-19 patients. Nebraska Medicine is one of a handful of hospitals in the U.S. with specialized treatment units for people with highly dangerous infectious diseases.

“We are prepared for situations exactly like this,” Dr. Michael Ash, CEO of Nebraska Medicine, said in a statement.

The British government said it will charter a plane to evacuate the nearly two dozen British nationals onboard.

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Associated Press writers Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, Stefanie Dazio in Berlin, David Biller in Rome and Molly Quell in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.

The data were released just days ahead of a planned meeting next week between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing.

That beat analysts’ estimates and was a significant improvement from March’s 2.5% year-on-year expansion. Exports to the U.S. rose 11.3% from the year before, up from a 26.5% drop in March.

Imports climbed 25.3%, slower than the 27.8% growth in March but still robust.

The Trump-Xi summit comes at a time when relations are beset by multiple issues, with efforts to end the war in Iran eclipsing the usual sources of friction.

“We’re expecting that overall external demand will remain a solid driver of growth this year,” said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at Dutch bank ING, likely led by China’s exports of semiconductors and autos.

In March, Chinese leaders set an annual economic growth target of 4.5% to 5%, slightly lower than last year’s 5% expansion and the lowest target since 1991. Export growth is expected to continue to power its wider economy, especially as shipments increased from China to Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa over the past months.

China’s exports to the U.S. have fallen for most of the months since Trump imposed steeper tariffs and harsher controls on sharing of technology after he took office last year. But trade with the U.S. is likely improving this year, said Song, particularly because of the base effects of sharp declines caused by Trump’s tariff hikes in 2025.

Apart from efforts to broker a peace agreement to end the Iran war, trade and export controls, including rare earths and U.S. tech restrictions on China, will likely be on the agenda during the Trump-Xi summit, following a yearlong U.S.-China trade truce reached late last year when the two leaders last met in South Korea.

Major breakthroughs on export controls are unlikely, but the leaders’ upcoming meeting may bring “incremental” steps to troubleshoot trade friction, HSBC economists said in a recent research note.

“On balance, China looks to have more leverage,” wrote Leah Fahy, senior China economist of Capital Economics, in a note. “But higher tariffs haven’t stopped China’s exports from continuing to surge over the past year, and Beijing has showed that it is prepared to wait out U.S. pressure.”

For China, oil and fuel price hikes caused by the war in Iran are also feeding higher manufacturing and logistics costs across its many factories, said Wei Li, head of multi-asset investments at BNP Paribas Securities (China), while higher global inflation could dampen consumer purchasing power in China’s overseas markets.

Still, China’s overall economy has remained resilient compared with other countries, owing to its large oil reserves and more diversified energy sources.

ING’s Song said China’s trade surplus, which reached an all-time high of almost $1.2 trillion last year, could narrow for the whole of this year. Imports so far have been stronger in 2026, though China is still recovering from a prolonged property slump that has dragged on consumption and investment.

Shea Theodore had a goal and an assist and Brayden McNabb scored a short-handed goal as the Golden Knights stormed to a 5-0 lead after two periods, silencing a sellout crowd in Orange County and erasing memories of their rough offensive outing in Game 2.

“Our desperation level definitely got higher,” Marner said. “I just like the way that we came out and started. The first 10 minutes really, we just played our game and got to it, and that's something we were missing the first two games.”

Carter Hart made 30 saves as Vegas moved halfway to the Western Conference finals while sending the upstart Ducks to the worst loss of their first postseason in eight years.

Game 4 is Sunday night in Anaheim.

Marner got his natural hat trick in the first two periods, giving him six goals in the past four games of his first playoff run with his new team. The longtime Maple Leafs forward delivered Vegas’ first four-point playoff performance since 2019 and prompted a few hats to be thrown onto the ice when he slipped his third goal under Ville Husso with 2:04 left in the second.

“I think (Marner) is very confident in what he brings," Vegas coach John Tortorella said. "People give him (grief) all the time about playoffs, and this and that, and I don’t think it bothers him a lick. He just plays. He’s a hockey player, and I’m glad he’s doing some things for us.”

Marner's three goals were more than he scored in last spring's entire 13-game playoff run with Toronto, where the Ontario native frequently got criticism for not delivering in the postseason.

“It's always nice to try to contribute, but at the end of the day, you just want to win games,” Marner said. “There's been a lot of different moments so far in this playoffs that people have stepped up and made big plays. Tonight, (there were) a lot of great plays by people around me to set me up in a spot where I could succeed.”

Beckett Sennecke and Chris Kreider scored in the third period for the Ducks, who got embarrassed in their team’s first home game in the second round since 2017. Kreider's goal was the 50th of his playoff career.

“I thought they played well, but I don't think we brought our best,” Ducks forward Alex Killorn said. “Maybe a little bit comfortable, in all honesty. They're a great team. We just have to have a little bit of a better start and effort.”

Lukas Dostal gave up three goals on eight shots in a rough first period before Husso replaced him. Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said he wasn't sure whether Dostal would start Game 4.

“They were desperate. They were hungrier,” Quenneville said after his team’s first home playoff loss of the spring. “I think there’s a lesson to take out of today’s game, and it’s only going to get harder every single game. ... They play like they’re an experienced bunch and they know what is necessary as you progress in a series. They got our attention.”

Vegas captain Mark Stone didn't play in the third period after apparently incurring a lower-body injury in the first period. Tortorella declined to give details.

Theodore, Anaheim's first-round draft pick in 2013, put Vegas ahead 66 seconds after the opening faceoff with his 20th postseason goal.

The 35-year-old McNabb then scored the third short-handed goal of his 14-year NHL career, and Marner capped the Knights' stellar first period with his fourth playoff goal on a power play. Marner tapped in a pass from Theodore midway through the second.

Brett Howden put his sixth playoff goal into an empty net with 1:56 left.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

Wembanyama went 13 of 18 from the floor and 10 of 12 from the line, adding five blocks and a full night of paint deterrence as the Spurs won their second straight game after dropping the opener at home.

“It was like holding the ship together. We had a lead. We didn’t need to rush. We needed to be consistent,” Wembanyama said.

De'Aaron Fox scored 17 points, and Stephon Castle had 13 points and 12 assists with a team-high plus-17 rating.

Anthony Edwards had 32 points and 14 rebounds and Naz Reid added 18 points and nine rebounds for the Wolves, whose defense kept them alive after a woeful start but allowed the Spurs to shoot 6 for 10 from 3-point range in the pivotal third quarter.

Minnesota will host Game 4 on Sunday night. The series shifts back to San Antonio for Game 5 on Tuesday.

Jaden McDaniels drew Wembanyama's fifth foul with 6:18 left and brought the Wolves within 99-98 on pair of free throws, but the Spurs never trailed in the second half despite never leading by double digits. Wembanyama sat for about a minute before coach Mitch Johnson sent him back in.

“We were going to not leave any bullets in the chamber in terms of keeping him on the bench," Johnson said. "We were going to play him, and then if he fouled out, we deal with that.”

Wembanyama didn't flinch despite the foul risk, finishing with 16 points in the fourth quarter. His 3-pointer that answered Reid's pushed San Antonio's lead to six with 3:06 to go. Reid tried another one near the end of the shot clock on the next possession that hit the rim and Wembanyama snagged for another rebound.

Edwards, who showed Minnesota yet again his swift healing ability by returning from a deep bone bruise in his hyperextended left knee after just one week to make the start of the series, had 22 points in the first half to help them snap back from an early 18-3 deficit.

“He needed that. We needed that,” coach Chris Finch said. “He’s battling back to find a game like this, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the result that went along with it.”

The Wolves missed their first 12 shots and didn't get a basket to go down until Rudy Gobert's putback with 6:52 had elapsed, but unlike in the 133-95 drubbing they took in Game 2 on Wednesday they had the defensive intelligence and tenacity at the ready to make up for the long shooting lulls.

Edwards hit a buzzer-beating 31-footer at the end of the first quarter, and McDaniels swished a 3-pointer from the wing to end the first half with a 51-all tie.

McDaniels and Julius Randle were the most affected by Wembanyama's presence, unable to get their short-range and rim-attacking game going. They shot a combined 8 for 34 from the floor.

“I went in the locker room and told the guys we had a bunch of great looks,” Edwards said. “If we make our shots, we win this game.”

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Catholic LGBTQ+ advocates cheered this week when a Vatican working group released a report featuring the testimony of two gay, married Catholics who spoke openly about their sexuality, faith and how the Catholic Church’s negative teaching on homosexuality had hurt them.

Additionally, Leo made clear during a recent airborne news conference that he believed the church’s teachings on social justice, equality and freedom were far more important than its teaching on sexual morality, suggesting he doesn't intend to prioritize the issue.

At that same news conference, though, Leo indicated he will go no further than Francis on the contentious matter of same-sex blessings. The Vatican has recently renewed its opposition to any local efforts to deviate from the Holy See stance.

For the Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit who has spearheaded the church’s outreach to the LGBTQ+ community in the U.S., the developments signal strong continuity with Francis.

“If the Catholic Church has begun to listen to LGBTQ Catholics as part of its methodology, the church has already moved forward in a significant way,” he wrote recently.

But the signals have prompted criticism from conservatives, who have stressed official Catholic teaching — unchanged during even Francis' pontificate — that says homosexual activity is “intrinsically disordered.”

A synod document featuring searing testimony

The Vatican working group report summarized the work of experts studying controversial topics that emerged after Francis’ yearslong reform effort. The report has no binding value and is merely a synthesis of deliberations. It’s not clear what, if anything, Leo will do with it.

The testimony of the gay men, contained in annexes published on the Vatican's synod website, featured moving accounts of how one, from Portugal, came to terms with his homosexuality and married his husband. The man also recounted how he sometimes struggled with his faith because of insensitive remarks from a Catholic spiritual director and forced “conversion therapy,” the scientifically discredited practice of using therapy to “convert” LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations.

The other testimony, from an American, criticized the therapy he went through and counseling he received from a Catholic pastoral group, Courage, that seeks to help people with same-sex attraction live chastely.

“My sexuality isn’t a perversion, disorder, or cross; it’s a gift from God,” the person wrote.

Courage, in a statement Friday, decried the negative depiction of its work, saying it has never been involved in “reparative therapy."

“Courage has suffered calumny and detraction before, but usually from secular outlets,” the group said. “It is a great sadness and an additional wound to our members to have this false and unjust depiction in a Vatican document.”

Martin said the publication marked the first time that an official Vatican report “has included such detailed stories from LGBTQ Catholics. As such, it marks a significant step forward in the church’s relationship with the LGBTQ community.”

Bishop Joseph Strickland, whom Francis removed as bishop of Tyler, Texas, said the report was “deeply alarming” and contradicted church teaching about sexuality, sin, marriage and morality. In a post on his personal website entitled “An Emergency in the Church,” Strickland said the church’s teaching on homosexuality didn’t come from prejudice but from God.

“To suggest that the sin does not consist in the same-sex relationship itself is not merely confusing language. It is a direct assault upon Catholic moral doctrine and upon the words of Scripture itself,” he wrote.

The German church guidelines

The issue of LGBTQ+ outreach is coming to a head in Germany, where Catholic bishops have issued guidelines for priests on performing same-sex blessings that seemingly go beyond what Francis’ Vatican decreed in 2023.

That year, the Vatican’s doctrine office issued a declaration, known by its Latin title “Fiducia Supplicans,” that allowed priests to offer spontaneous, nonliturgical blessings to same-sex couples, provided such blessings aren’t confused with the rites and rituals of a wedding. Church teaching holds that marriage is a lifelong union between a man and woman.

The declaration prompted an unprecedented, continentwide dissent from African bishops and other conservatives, prompting the Vatican to clarify that such blessings must be brief, “10 or 15 seconds,” and aren't a blessing of the union per se but the people in it.

In April 2025, German bishops and an influential lay organization published guidelines on implementing the declaration.

While stressing the spontaneous, nonliturgical nature of the blessing, the guidelines say they are for the relationship as opposed to individuals, and provide criteria for a proper celebration. The guidelines say, for example, there should be appropriate liturgical readings, “care in the preparation” of the event, and that people invited should offer “acclamation, prayer and song.”

Leo revealed last month, while traveling home from Africa, that the Vatican had told the Germans that it doesn’t agree with their proposals. This week, the 2024 letter in which the Holy See articulated its position was put online.

The letter, signed by doctrine chief Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, said the guidelines’ reference to acclamation resembled that of marriage and “in this sense effectively legitimizes the status of these couples, contrary to what is stated” in the Vatican's 2023 declaration.

Fernández's letter complained that the German guidelines' mention of the location, aesthetic and music in a blessing suggested a liturgical ceremony that “contradicts” what the Vatican had allowed.

The letter didn’t veto the German guidelines outright but offered Fernández's “observations.”

LGBTQ+ advocates welcome Leo's measured approach

Leo met Thursday with German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who — despite Fernández's letter — recently recommended that priests in his archdiocese use the German guidelines as a basis for their pastoral care.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Wednesday that talk of sanctions against German priests who use the guidelines was “premature” and said dialogue with German bishops was ongoing.

The hope is “never to have to resort to sanctions, that problems can be resolved peacefully, as should be the case in the church,” Parolin said.

Martin said the Vatican had been clear that the Vatican's 2023 declaration limited blessing of same-sex couples only under certain circumstances.

“But the synod has also made it clear that it is inviting the church to listen, in a new way, to the experiences of LGBTQ Catholics. So, to me, there is no contradiction," he told The Associated Press. "Both 'Fiducia' and the synod report are steps forward in the church’s ministry to LGBTQ people.”

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics, praised Leo’s comments on church teaching about sexual morality.

Returning from Africa, Leo was asked about Marx’s adoption of the German guidelines and how he intended to preserve the unity of the church over the divisive issue of same-sex blessings.

“It is very important to understand that the unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters,” Leo said. “I believe there are much greater, more important issues, such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue.”

DeBernardo said it was “good to hear from the pope that he is making a decisive turn away from the church’s obsession with sexual matters.”

He also welcomed Leo’s “measured” comments about the German same-sex guidelines.

“He did not condemn or even criticize German church leaders. He simply said there is disagreement, and that this is not a cause for disunity,” DeBernardo said. “Both the new moral emphasis on social issues instead of sexuality, and the fostering of a more collegial church are good news for LGBTQ+ Catholics.”

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Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.

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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.

Embiid — as he has done throughout his career — resolutely returned to the floor, this time with a sprained right ankle and a sore right hip that cost him one game to try and make the Eastern Conference semifinals with the New York Knicks into a competitive series.

Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George all fell short in crunch time with the series back at home.

Embiid scored 18 points and was the only one of the Sixers' vaunted Big Three to shoot a free throw while Jalen Brunson led the Knicks to a 108-94 win on Friday night for a 3-0 series lead.

Game 4 is Sunday in Philadelphia.

The 76ers went 13 of 16 from the line while the Knicks made 23 of 32, the kind of discrepancy that opened some eyes in the locker room. Maxey, George and their combined $400-plus million contracts failed to get to the line. Embiid was just 4 of 6.

“I guess it’s good when New York wins,” Embiid said.

Embiid struggled through a short night in the Knicks’ 137-98 romp in Game 1, scoring 14 points on 3-for-11 shooting before the starters were benched with the game out of reach.

Embiid had been listed as probable to play in that game and the Knicks repeatedly took advantage of his lack of mobility to create open shots.

He had been expected to play Game 2 but was ruled out hours beforehand.

Embiid had an appendectomy late in the regular season. He returned during Game 4 of Philadelphia’s first-round series against Boston and helped the 76ers overcome a 3-1 deficit to eliminate the Celtics.

Embiid and the Sixers have a more treacherous path as they try to win four straight games against the Knicks.

“We can't back down,” Embiid said. “You know, 3-1, this is tougher. Just going with the understanding we can't get it all back in one game. One win, focus on the next one, win the next one, that should be the mentality. That's the mentality we had last week.”

As for his plea that Sixers fans keep their tickets and refuse to sell them on the open market, Embiid said he was too focused on trying to win the game, rather than pay attention to a decidedly split fan group until the waning moments, when “Let's go Knicks!” chants boomed throughout the arena.

“I wasn't really paying attention,” Embiid said.

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Game 4 is Sunday in Philadelphia.

Brunson shook off a 2-of-8 start from the floor and finished 11 of 22 in 38 minutes to send the Knicks to their sixth straight postseason victory.

“I'm Linus. Jalen's my blanket,” first-year Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “He helps me relax at a lot of different times during the course of the game."

With 2016 and 2018 Villanova national championship banners hanging in the rafters, the so-called Nova Knicks all took turns taking the fight out of the Sixers in the fourth quarter, turning a four-point lead into another double-digit victory.

Josh Hart had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Mikal Bridges added 23 points, pushing the Knicks within one victory of their second straight conference finals appearance.

When Brown took the job after Tom Thibodeau was fired, the veteran coach said he wouldn't know what kind of team he really had until he got “into the trenches with them.”

Brown now sees the makings of a championship team.

“Yeah, OK, we might have a chance at this,” he said.

The Knicks have the luxury not to rush back forward OG Anunoby, who's averaging 21.4 points per game in the postseason. He sat out with a strained right hamstring and remains day to day.

Joel Embiid scored 18 points for the Sixers in his return after he missed Game 2 with a sprained right ankle and a sore right hip.

"I thought he gave us everything he could," coach Nick Nurse said.

Embiid's return from an appendectomy helped spur the Sixers' rally from a 3-1 deficit in the opening round to stun the Celtics.

Beating the Knicks four straight times — including twice in New York — seems like a much harder hill to climb for Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and the Sixers.

Kelly Oubre Jr. scored 22 points and Maxey added 17. Paul George scored 15 points in the first quarter, then went scoreless and missed all nine shots the rest of the game as the Sixers blew a 12-point lead.

George and Maxey each failed to shoot a single free throw.

The 76ers went 13 of 16 from the line while the Knicks made 23 of 32.

“I guess it's good when New York wins,” Embiid said.

The 76ers gamely tried to make it a series. Quintin Grimes hit his first two 3s of the game early in the fourth to trim the lead to 88-84.

The familiar faces in Philly — Brunson, Hart and Bridges all played for Villanova — seized control of the game.

Hart and Bridges made consecutive baskets that pushed the lead to 92-84. Brunson, the stone-cold shooter built for these moments, buried a 3 from the top of the arc that made it 95-86 during a 9-0 Knicks run, to the delight of the visiting fans.

Embiid openly pleaded with fans ahead of the series not to sell their tickets to New Yorkers.

Celebrity Row regulars at Madison Square Garden, Spike Lee, Timothée Chalamet, Tracy Morgan and Ben Stiller all made the trip to Philadelphia, along with thousands of less famous Knicks fans — and the split crowd erupted in cheers, boos and the occasional middle finger on just about every basket.

Chalamet rose from his seat and applauded when Landry Shamet buried a late 3 in the third that stretched the lead to 85-76. Shamet had 14 points this entire postseason before he scored 15 in Game 3.

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The Marlins sure hope that will become a new norm for their No. 2 pitching prospect, who made his MLB debut Friday against the Washington Nationals after being called up from Triple-A Jacksonville.

“It's pretty surreal,” Snelling said in Miami's clubhouse Thursday before walking over to the dugout where fans yelled for his signature. “Still trying to just kind of soak it in and get acclimated with all the guys again that I was around in spring and really take it all in and not let the moment get too big.”

Snelling gave up three runs and six hits over five innings in a 3-2 loss Friday night. He also walked four and struck out two.

“I don’t think there’s any way that you can really prepare yourself for something you haven’t even experienced," Snelling said. “A lot of adrenaline, a lot of emotions out on the mound. I did my best to not let that show externally.”

Washington scored three against Snelling in the first on CJ Abrams' RBI single and Jacob Young's two-run homer to left.

“Obviously, having runners on base as much as I did tonight, it’s not what starting pitchers want," Snelling said. "But being able to continue to attack the zone every hitter that stepped to the box, I’m proud of myself about that.”

The 23-year-old was acquired by Miami from San Diego for reliever Tanner Scott in July 2024. Snelling ascended through the Marlins farm system and became the organization’s second-rated pitching prospect before the club promoted him from Triple-A Jacksonville.

Snelling did not make the Marlins' opening-day roster despite impressing coaches during spring training. He called that both frustrating and motivating.

“I was upset and not necessarily at anybody in general,” Snelling said. "Just being told that you’re not going to get to do what you really had wanted to do as early as you wanted to do is a tough pill to swallow.

“But then you kind of come back down to earth and realize, ‘Alright, what do I need to do to get to that point where I want to be?’”

So he worked on lowering his walks, in part by improving his first-pitch strike rate. In six starts with Triple-A Jacksonville this season, Snelling went 3-1 with the second-best ERA (1.86) among qualified pitchers. He walked more than three batters only twice in those six starts.

“For him to really navigate himself through five – not maybe the cleanest innings – he really grinded," said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough. "He showed a lot of moxie today.”

A spot opened up in the Marlins' rotation after struggling pitcher Chris Paddack was designated for assignment on Tuesday.

There were other experienced options Miami could have inserted there but Snelling's recent performance showed the team he was ready for the opportunity.

“Coming into it we were certainly very high on Robby," McCullough said. “He performed incredibly well last year. This spring, he came into it in competition potentially for a spot in our rotation. Robby’s done well down there and continued to perform.”

The Jumbo Shrimp were coming off a walk-off win on Wednesday when Snelling got the news he was called up. He was summoned to manager David Carpenter's office afterward, where he was praised for his focus throughout the week with the uncertainty on whether his major league shot would come.

“I was like, 'Man, it’s really hard to keep my sanity knowing that potentially it was an option for me to go up,’” Snelling recalled telling Carpenter, who responded with a rather nonchalant question.

“He’s like, ‘Yeah, you’re still good to go on Friday right?'” Carpenter said, referring to Snelling's scheduled Triple-A start. "I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And he goes, 'Well, you’re going to be throwing in Miami.'"

Snelling described the past couple of days as a sort of reunion with players he became close with during the spring, including catcher Joe Mack, another highly-rated prospect who was called up this week. Mack scored the winning run on a throwing error in the ninth inning of the Marlins' win over Baltimore on Thursday.

It has also made Snelling grateful for the journey that brought him here.

“It was always fun competing with those guys (in the minors)," he said. “It didn’t really matter where I was in my mind. Obviously this is the goal — being up here and staying up here is the goal.”

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AP freelance writer Santos Perez contributed to this report.

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Mike Matheson, Alexandre Carrier and Nick Suzuki, with an empty-netter, also scored for the Canadiens. Rookie goalie Jakub Dobes made 27 saves, and Montreal extended its trend of alternating wins and losses after doing so in a seven-game first-round series win over Tampa Bay.

Montreal advanced to the second round on Newhook's game-winner 11:07 into the third period of a 2-1 series-clinching win on Sunday. Meantime, the Canadiens' top offensive threats continue to struggle. Cole Caufield extended his point drought to five games, while Juraj Slafkovsky has one assist in his past eight outings.

“I think as a group we knew we needed a big effort tonight, a bounce-back, a bounce-forward game,” said Newhook, who gave the team a pregame boost with an energetic reading of the starting lineup. “When you get the lineup read you just try to supply some energy there early and just try and carry that into the game.”

Zach Benson scored for Buffalo, but Alex Lyon allowed four goals on 27 shots. He previously allowed seven goals in six-plus appearances since replacing Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who was was pulled after two periods in a 4-2 loss to Boston in Game 2 of their first-round series.

The series shifts to Montreal for Game 3 on Sunday night.

It’ll be the Canadiens' first trip home after being on the road since traveling to Tampa Bay last weekend. The team stayed in Florida for two days before flying directly to Buffalo on Tuesday.

The Sabres dropped to 2-3 at home this postseason, but they won all three games — including the Game 6 series clincher — at Boston.

After falling behind 2-0 in the first period of Game 1, Montreal flipped the script.

Peyton Krebs’ turnover in Buffalo’s zone led to Newhook scoring at 1:36 by sneaking a shot under Lyon’s blocker arm. Matheson scored 2:51 later by floating in a shot from the left point that beat Lyon over his right shoulder.

“Awful game. Not acceptable,” Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said. “They wanted to compete the first 10 (minutes), and then that’s what kind of set the tone for the whole game. It’s hard to come back, especially in the playoffs, when an opponent is up two. So, can’t happen.”

Dobes said the difference between Games 1 and 2 was the Canadiens' ability to adjust to a much faster opponent in Buffalo after a grueling, tight-checking series against the defensive-minded Lightning.

“You play Game 7, I feel like we didn’t have much chance to prepare and kind of settle everything together and reset our minds,” he said. “I feel like we adjusted today really well. And yeah, I feel we catch a breath in the series. And I feel that we are ready to play our hockey and compete against the team for the rest of the series.”

Buffalo’s power play came up empty on five chances after going 2 for 3 in Game 1. The Sabres have converted just three of 32 power-play opportunities this postseason.

Newhook’s second goal, scored 4:47 into the second period, came four seconds after the Sabres' power play failed to register a shot with Carrier off for hooking.

Carrier’s goal 3:54 into the third was emblematic of Buffalo's evening. With the Sabres buzzing the Montreal net, Tage Thompson kept the puck in at the right point only to lose his balance and spin down to the ice. Carrier picked up the loose puck and scored to put Montreal up 4-1.

Benson whiffed on a tip-in chance two minutes later. In the first period, Buffalo’s Alex Tuch had the puck roll off his stick while attempting a shot breaking up the right wing, and Jack Quinn shot over the top of the net after being set up alone in the slot.

“Trying to chase the game, try and force plays that aren’t there, and just wasn’t executing,” Thompson said. “I think everything I touched turned into disaster tonight. So, tough one. Got to be better. It’s as simple as just flush that one, move on.”

Thompson then gave a blunt response when asked if he was playing with an injury by saying: “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

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The Alabama legislation, which was signed quickly into law by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, is part of an effort by Republicans in Southern states to capitalize on a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly weakened Voting Rights Act protections for minorities.

At the Alabama Statehouse, a chaotic scene erupted as one protester was dragged from the packed House gallery by security officers. Republican lawmakers in Louisiana and South Carolina also faced staunch opposition from civil rights activists and Democrats as they presented plans Friday to redraw their congressional districts.

The action came just a day after Tennessee enacted new congressional districts that carve up a Democratic-held, Black-majority district in Memphis. The state Democratic Party sued on Friday, seeking to prevent the districts from being used until after this year's elections because of the tight time frame

Even before last week's Supreme Court ruling in a Louisiana case, Republicans and Democrats already were engaged in a fierce redistricting battle, each seeking an edge in the midterm elections that will determine control of the closely divided House. That battle tilted further toward Republicans when the Virginia Supreme Court ruled Friday that Democratic lawmakers had violated constitutional requirements when placing a redistricting amendment on the ballot.

Since President Donald Trump prodded Texas to redraw its congressional districts last summer, Republicans think they could gain as many as 14 seats from new districts in several states while Democrats think they could gain up to six seats. But the parties may not get everything they sought, because the gerrymandering could backfire in some highly competitive districts.

Alabama primaries could be in flux

Demonstrators outside the Alabama Statehouse on Friday shouted “fight for democracy” and “down with white supremacy.”

“I was out there in 1965 marching for the right to vote, and now we are back here in 2026 doing the same thing,” Betty White Boynton said.

During debate inside the statehouse, Black lawmakers said the Republican legislation harks back to the state’s shameful Jim Crow history. The new law would ignore the May 19 primary results for some congressional seats and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under revised districts, if a court allows it. Lawmakers also approved a similar bill related to state Senate districts.

“What happened here today is that we were set back as a people to the days of Reconstruction,” Democratic state Sen. Rodger Smitherman said after the vote.

Senate Democrats shouted “hell no” and “stop the steal” as senators voted.

The special primary would happen only if the courts agree to lift an injunction that put a court-selected map in place until after the 2030 census. That order required a second district where Black voters are the majority or close to it, resulting in the 2024 election of Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures, who is Black. If a court lifts the injunction, Republican officials want to put in place a map lawmakers drew in 2023 — which was rejected by a federal court — that could allow them to reclaim Figures’ district.

“With this special session successfully behind us, Alabama now stands ready to quickly act, should the courts issue favorable rulings in our ongoing redistricting cases,” Ivey said in a statement.

On Friday evening, however, a three-judge panel rejected Alabama’s request to lift their injunction and pave the way for changing maps. The request remains pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Virginia ruling centered on timing of election

Democrats had hoped to gain as many as four additional U.S. House seats under new districts narrowly approved by voters in April. But the state Supreme Court invalidated the measure because it said the Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements.

To place a constitutional amendment before voters, the Virginia Constitution requires lawmakers to approve it in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election sandwiched in between. The legislature’s initial approval of the redistricting amendment occurred last October — while early voting was underway but before it concluded for the general election. The legislature’s second vote on the amendment occurred after a new legislative session began in January.

The state Supreme Court said the initial legislative approval came too late, noting that more than 1.3 million ballots already had been cast, about 40% of the total votes ultimately cast.

Louisiana lawmakers look at map options

A Louisiana Senate committee considered several redistricting options Friday from Republican state Sen. John “Jay” Morris that would eliminate either both or one of the current Black-majority U.S. House districts.

“Every one of these maps reduces Black voting power in every one of the districts. And I think that’s a problem,” Democratic state Sen. Sam Jenkins told Morris.

Morris denied that the proposed redistricting maps were racially discriminatory. He said his goal was to be “respectful of the traditional boundaries” of the state’s six congressional districts.

“I don’t think we should care that much about race,” Morris said.

The only four Black congressmen who have represented Louisiana since the end of the Reconstruction era appealed to state senators to keep two majority-Black districts in a state where one-third of voters are Black.

Leona Tate said she was escorted as a 6-year-old girl by federal marshals through a racist white mob trying to prevent her from desegregating a New Orleans elementary school. She told lawmakers she felt they were taking a step backward in time by reducing Black political power.

“You have a choice in front of you: You can draw a map that reflects what Louisiana actually is -- a state where Black voices belong in the halls of Congress,” said Tate, 71. “Or you can draw a map that tells my grandchildren that their votes don’t count, that their faces don’t matter and that the progress I helped build with my own two feet as a 6-year-old can be erased at will.”

South Carolina considers a House map

South Carolina lawmakers held a rare Friday meeting to discuss a proposed new congressional map intended to allow Republicans a clean sweep of the state’s seven U.S. House seats.

The House hearing was the first step in redistricting. But its future remains murky. The state Senate has yet to agree to consider new districts later this month, an action that requires a two-thirds vote.

The new map has some Republicans nervous. Breaking up the 6th District, represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, makes the other six districts less Republican.

At Friday’s subcommittee meeting, lawmakers heard hours of testimony, almost all against the new map. The hearing included a consultant who reviewed the map, saying it appeared to be legal under the Supreme Court's decision in the Louisiana case.

“I agree if the law allows us to do it, then we can do It,” Democratic state Rep. Justin Bamberg said. “But I can slap somebody’s mama and it’s not the right thing to do.”

Some absentee ballots already have been returned for the state's June 9 primary elections. The legislative subcommittee advanced a plan to delay the congressional primary to August and reopen a candidate filing period, if a new map is approved.

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Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina; Brook from Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri. AP reporter Travis Loller contributed from Nashville, Tennessee.

Africa imported 44,358 electric vehicles from China in 2025, according to data from China’s Commerce Ministry, up from 19,386 in 2024. The shipments, valued at over $200 million, highlight growing demand, especially in Ethiopia after it banned new imports of gas and diesel-powered vehicles in 2024.

More than 115,000 EVs are now on Ethiopia's roads, accounting for about 8% of the national fleet. In 2025, it imported a third of Africa’s imports from China, ahead of other major markets in South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria.

As the Iran war drags on, Ethiopia’s fuel shortages are rippling through transport systems and daily life, reinforcing its effort to cut costly imports of oil and gas and strengthen its energy security. However that trend is raising questions about charging infrastructure and affordability.

Ethiopia’s spends about $4.2 billion on fuel imports annually, straining its foreign currency reserves.

Its minister of Trade and Regional Integration, Kassahun Gofe, said in a statement that the country also is spending up to $128 million monthly on fuel subsidies, while shipments fell short by more than 180,000 metric tons as the imports are disrupted by Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping route for about a fifth of oil from the Gulf region before the war.

The government has redoubled its campaign for quicker EV adoption, framing it as a critical buffer against external supply shocks.

“From a general perspective, it is sustainable,” said Hiten Parmar, executive director of South African- based The Electric Mission. “By replacing imported fuel with domestically generated electricity, Ethiopia is strengthening its energy security position.”

Ethiopia has an edge

Ethiopia has a special advantage in that more than 90% of its electricity comes from renewable sources, mainly hydro and solar. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Africa's largest hydroelectric project, is expected to double its power generation, though the facility and has fueled a decade-long dispute over water supplies with downstream Egypt and Sudan.

“That scale of generation creates a foundation for electrified transport,” Parmar said. “It allows EVs to be powered by locally produced clean energy, rather than costly imports.”

“By gradually adopting EVs, that intensive fuel import expenditure can be reduced and redirected into other critical development needs,” Parmar said.

Globally, the International Energy Agency estimates electric vehicles displaced more than 1 million barrels of oil consumption per day in 2024.

Countries across Africa are pushing for more EVs

Egypt, South Africa and Morocco also are pursuing a transition to EV use, adopting a mix of policy incentives, investing in manufacturing capacity and in clean energy.

“That transition is beginning to ease pressure on fuel demand,” said Bob Wesonga, policy and investments lead at the Africa E-Mobility Alliance.

“That’s over 100,000 vehicle owners who are no longer directly exposed to pump price shocks,” he said. “In the medium to long term, this creates a buffer against global oil volatility.”

For those who have switched, the savings are significant.

“A private EV owner now spends roughly $4 a month on charging compared to about $27 previously spent on fuel,” Wesonga said. “For public transport operators, the difference is even more striking.”

Charging stations and other infrastructure are still lacking

The transition to EVs faces some daunting structural hurdles, Parmar notes.

“The technology is already mature, the challenge is building it out fast enough,” he said.

Ethiopia is deploying ultra-fast charging hubs in its capital Addis Ababa, but scaling them nationwide will take time and investment.

“The biggest hurdle is the last-mile power distribution,” Wesonga said. “While Ethiopia has a surplus of generation, getting that power reliably to where it’s needed, especially outside Addis Ababa, remains a challenge.”

Frequent blackouts and delays in connecting high-capacity charging stations have slowed construction of needed infrastructure, even as demand for electric vehicles rises.

“Charging infrastructure is still heavily concentrated in the capital and along a few corridors,” Wesonga said. “That limits e-mobility to specific areas and creates a bottleneck as adoption grows.”

Plans to assemble EVs raise question of affordability

Ethiopia is one of several countries in Africa looking to build their own EV industries. Official data show 17 electric vehicle assembly plants are in the pipeline in Ethiopia, with plans to raise that number to 60 by 2030. It's part of a broader strategy to localize production and reduce costs.

Affordability, however, remains a major constraint. While operating costs are lower, prices of electric vehicles remain high relative to average incomes.

“The purchase price is still out of reach for many,” Wesonga said. “At the same time, restrictions on fossil fuel vehicles have pushed up the cost of used cars, creating additional barriers.”

That dynamic could have unintended social impacts if not managed carefully.

“A national fleet transition is always gradual,” Parmar said. “Existing combustion vehicles will remain in use for some time, and the transition needs to account for livelihoods tied to that system.”

Even so, both experts say the long-term trajectory remains clear. Lower operating and maintenance costs for electric vehicles could reduce transport costs over time, easing the price of goods and improving access to economic opportunities.

Ethiopia is also looking to lessons from countries such as China and Norway, where policy support, infrastructure investment and consumer incentives have driven rapid adoption.

“This is not just about transport,” Wesonga said. “It’s about reshaping how the country uses energy, and who benefits from that shift.”

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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.

Ben Stiller attracted a crowd at halftime, and Tracy Morgan cheered for another Knicks win, too.

No this wasn't Celebrity Row at Madison Square Garden.

The Hollywood A-listers — and yes, just your average Knicks fans — crashed Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Friday night to watch New York beat the 76ers 108-94.

Oh, it wasn't all orange and blue and well-heeled celebrities in Philadelphia.

The Sixers still boasted the bulk of the fans — though there was a sizable contingent of Knicks supporters — and the spirited crowd included fans who received tickets donated by the franchise to community groups in the Sixers' latest attempt to keep more of their own fans in the building and avoid a New York takeover.

Lee gleefully reminisced about the time he saw the Knicks win their first NBA championship on May 8, 1970 — exactly 56 years earlier.

Most of the Knicks fans were just happy to get a chance to travel roughly 90 miles south of MSG to Xfinity Mobile Arena — no matter how hard the Sixers tried to shoo them away.

The Sixers had already tried to ward off Knicks fans in this playoff series through Ticketmaster by geographically restricting sales to fans in the greater Philadelphia area.

Knicks fan Lenny Rakhmanov of Brooklyn had a workaround to the geo-fencing barrier.

He phoned a friend.

“I bought my tickets off Ticketmaster,” he said. “I did have trouble. I have a friend in Philly and he got the tickets for me and sent them to me through Ticketmaster. They told me while I was trying to make the purchase from my office in New York, you had to be a Philly resident to purchase the tickets.”

Rakhmanov said he spent $800 per ticket for three seats in Section 123, and brought his 11- and 8-year-old sons.

“I can't even believe that they're trying to keep fans out,” he said. “It's part of sports. If their team was on the road, and they were up in the series, and they wanted their fans in the building, why would they want to stop that?”

The Sixers said 250 medical workers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine and 250 local educators selected by Learn Fresh, Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia, the Philadelphia school district and Camden, New Jersey, school district would attend Game 3 on Friday night.

The 76ers plan to host 500 mothers and children selected by Uplift Center for Grieving Children, Boys and Girls Club of Philadelphia, La Liga del Barrio and Apologues for Sunday's Game 4.

The Knicks lead the series 3-0 and can advance to the conference finals by winning Game 4 on Sunday.

Mikal Bridges, a Philadelphia native who starred at Villanova, scored 23 points for the Knicks in front of a loud cheering section.

“I spent a lot of money,” Bridges said. “I think my friends and family are pretty grateful.”

When the teams met two years ago in the first round, Knicks fans swarmed Philadelphia, and Sixers All-Star center Joel Embiid pleaded with fans ahead of this series not to let it happen again.

“Last time we played the Knicks it felt like this was Madison Square Garden East. So we’re going to need the support,” Embiid said. “Don’t sell your tickets. This is bigger than you. We need you guys. The atmosphere we’ve had the last couple games in Philly, especially the last one pushing it to Game 7, I mean, we need all of it.”

Embiid was booed when he went to the free-throw line in the first half, and Knicks fans roared when he missed the shot.

Moments later, Jalen Brunson went to the free-throw line and “MVP!” chants were quickly muffled by Sixers fans who booed the former Villanova standout.

It was that kind of night.

On the resale market, SeatGeek said buyers from New York and Pennsylvania were nearly even, with 27% of tickets sold to New York billing addresses and 26% to Pennsylvania buyers. Another 21% were from New Jersey, suggesting that Knicks fans were slightly more motivated to get to the game.

For Sunday’s Game 4, the New York share ticks up a bit further: 33% for New York vs. 17% for Pennsylvania.

Former Sixers standout Marc Jackson visited Camden’s Pride Elementary School ahead of the game and surprised teachers with Game 3 tickets.

That seemed like a big win, no matter which team fans rooted for in Philly.

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

The music festival, which organizers describe as the world’s largest hip-hop festival, is expected to bring about 65,000 people to the venue through Sunday.

Crowds steadily poured into the stadium grounds Friday evening despite the extreme heat and heavy traffic around the area.

Festivalgoer Lucy Farha said she came prepared for the temperatures.

“Water in hand, electrolytes, hat on top, some sunscreen,” Farha said before entering the festival.

Others said the energy and excitement surrounding the event made the conditions worthwhile.

“First of all, the vibe is hot. It’s hot outside. We are sweating,” attendee Marlanda Menerd said. “It seems really lively. I’m really excited to go inside and see what everything is really about.”

Menerd said she bought her tickets months ago as soon as Orlando was announced as a stop for the festival.

“As soon as they said Rolling Loud was going to be in Orlando, I was like, I got to get a ticket,” she said.

Fans also pointed to the festival lineup and crowd atmosphere as reasons they keep returning.

“I think the people and the lineup,” one attendee said. “The lineup is always amazing.”

With tens of thousands of people expected throughout the weekend, Orlando police activated a special event zone around the venue area extending from State Road 408 to Parramore Avenue.

Police said there will be an increased law enforcement presence throughout the weekend, and fines inside the designated zone will be doubled.

Police Chief Eric Smith said officers are especially focused on people gathering in parking lots and outside the venue after concerts end. Officers will remain stationed nearby throughout the festival.

“It’s beautiful, man,” one attendee said. “First time here in Orlando for Rolling Loud.”

Another festivalgoer described the atmosphere as “energetic, amplified, new, innovative.”

The festival continues through Sunday near Camping World Stadium.

The remaining 44 captive swans will be moved to other locations, including farms and zoos, as officials attempt to contain the spread of the virus and protect the surviving birds. The relocation process will begin as soon as this weekend.

The swans have been a signature part of downtown Orlando for nearly a century, attracting tourists and serving as a symbol of the city. Residents who regularly visit the park said the birds are deeply connected to the identity of Lake Eola.

“I will miss the swans. I think this is an iconic part of Orlando,” bird watcher Janice Schilling said.

City Commissioner Patty Sheehan said the outbreak is linked to migratory birds that visit the lake and spread the virus to the city’s captive flock.

“This is all due to avian flu,” Sheehan said. “The migratory birds are coming and spreading it to our flock.”

Officials said inspectors determined the park was no longer a safe environment for the swans, particularly the five cygnets, other known as baby swans, that remain in the flock.

“Unfortunately, after the inspection, we were told that is not a safe environment for the cygnets and we need to get them relocated,” Sheehan said.

The city said the cygnets will stay together during the relocation process.

Although Orlando plans to continue caring for the park’s natural wildlife, officials said they currently cannot safely maintain the captive swan program.

“We can’t take care of them right now because if someone gets injured, we can’t take them to the vet because the vet is concerned about bringing the virus into the practice,” Sheehan said.

The relocation also comes as the city prepares for a major construction project at Lake Eola Park. Officials said any future return of the swan program would require additional protections, including safer enclosures for young swans and improved medical holding areas.

“If we do decide to bring the program back we will need a place to put cygnets so they are not attacked by predators and better pens to put them in for medical purposes,” Sheehan said.

For many residents, the temporary loss of the swans marks the end of a longtime Orlando tradition.

“I want what’s best for the swans, but this lake or downtown will never be the same,” Schilling said.

City officials are also urging residents not to bring pet birds to the park while concerns over avian flu remain.

In a release, deputies said the crash was reported shortly after 8 p.m. west of Mulberry.

Upon arrival, first responders discovered that the pilot was uninjured and that he was the only person involved.

Per investigators, the aircraft — a one-seat, fixed-wing plane — had taken off from South Lakeland Airport in Mulberry.

“Soon after takeoff, the plane experienced engine trouble,” the release reads. “The pilot found a grassy area not far from the airport near SR-60 and County Line Road where he could land the plane.”

But after touching down and slowing to a stop, the plane flipped over, investigators added.

No additional information has been provided at this time.

In a release, Uthmeier’s office announced that the man — identified as Steven Harry Minard, 57 — was accused of putting together a complex scheme to defraud a high-profile investor out of $1 million.

To do so, he promoted a non-existent, multi-billion-dollar development project known as “Orlando World Live” (OWL), the release states.

Officials wrote that OWL was presented as a massive entertainment and urban development project in downtown Orlando, featuring futuristic “zones,” high-profile celebrity partnerships, and projected revenues of over $1.6 billion.

However, it was later revealed that no such project actually existed, investigators noted.

“No permit applications or contracts were ever filed with the city of Orlando, and the funds provided by the victim were allegedly diverted to pay off Minard’s unrelated business debts and personal expenses,” the release reads.

As a result, Minard was located and arrested in Honolulu, Hawaii, while trying to board a flight back to Houston, Texas, Uthmeier’s office declared. He’s now in custody, pending extradition to Florida.

Per state officials, Minard faces several felony charges, including a count of scheming to defraud and a count of sale of an unregistered security.

“This case exemplifies the reach of our Statewide Prosecutors, who partner with state, local, and federal law enforcement to bring criminals back to Florida to face justice,” Uthmeier said. “Thanks to the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, our federal partners at HSI New York EDTF, HSI Orlando, HSI Honolulu, and the Honolulu Police Department for their collaboration on this investigation and arrest.”

Three forensic document examiners who reviewed the notes at the request of The Associated Press concluded that they have or appear to have common authorship, with shared characteristics such as the same spacing, letter shapes, usage of capital letters and unique punctuation.

In the first note, made public this week, the writer states: “They investigated me for month — found nothing!!!” and talks about being able to choose the “time to say goodbye.” The other note, which has been public for years, is a list of grievances about conditions at the jail, including the showers, food and “Giant Bugs.”

While no one has definitively said Epstein wrote the notes, they point to his grim outlook before his death and echo some frustrations he conveyed to jail personnel about being confined in the crumbling Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan after living in luxury for decades. They also contain phrases he had used in the past.

Both notes, written in pen on notepad paper, include the underlined phrase “NO FUN” and end with double exclamation points — the first of which is bowed slightly with similar curvature. The first few words of each note are larger than the rest and each successive line slants away from the left margin.

“These are the kinds of things that would suggest that we're dealing with the same writer,” said Thomas Vastrick, the president of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners.

“They are written by the same person,” said Bart Baggett, who founded the forensic analysis firm Handwriting Experts Inc. and has testified in court as an expert witness more than 130 times.

“Both of those documents have the same author,” said Grace Warmbier, who worked for a decade for the New York City Police Department performing document examinations and handwriting analysis.

None of the experts were able to say definitively that Epstein wrote the notes, in part because there are few if any confirmed examples of his handwriting in the millions of pages of records the Justice Department recently released on the late financier.

In addition to the two jail notes, Warmbier and Vastrick also reviewed writing samples from the former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, including part of a note he sent to the New York Daily News in 2019 in which he denied any involvement in Epstein's death.

Warmbier ruled out Tartaglione as the author, finding “significant dissimilarities between his handwriting and the handwriting in question.”

Vastrick said Tartaglione's writing samples had “a wide range of variation from one to another” and that there were at least some similarities that require further examination.

“At this point, I certainly would not eliminate him as a potential writer,” Vastrick said. “I don’t at the same time want to suggest that he is the writer.”

For years, only a few people known about the note that Tartaglione claimed he found. Then, last summer, he mentioned it on writer Jessica Reed Kraus’ podcast. That piqued the interest of writers at The New York Times, who convinced a judge on Wednesday to release the note, which had been sealed in an unrelated case.

Tartaglione, an ex-police officer serving a life sentence for killing four people, said he discovered the note in a book in his cell after Epstein was found on July 23, 2019, on the floor with a strip of bedsheet around his neck. Epstein was placed on suicide watch and moved to a different cell. He had no cellmate when he was found dead on Aug. 10, 2019.

Epstein and Tartaglione shared a cell for about two weeks, beginning soon after Epstein’s July 6, 2019, arrest on sex trafficking charges and ending with the suspected suicide attempt. Both men were awaiting trials.

According to a chronology in the Justice Department's files on Epstein, Tartaglione told his lawyer about the note four days after the suspected July 23 attempt. There is no indication that anyone alerted jail officials or Epstein's representatives.

The note was later submitted as evidence in Tartaglione’s criminal case and placed under seal amid a dispute over his legal representation. It wasn’t mentioned in government reports examining the circumstances of Epstein’s death, nor did it surface in the Justice Department’s files. The other note, found after Epstein's death, was shown on CBS' “60 Minutes” in 2020 and is in the files.

Beyond handwriting analysis, the phrasing of the notes could give clues to their authorship. The note Tartaglione said he found contains the line: “Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!”

Epstein previously referenced that line, mimicking dialogue from a 1931 “Little Rascals” film, in three emails that were included in the Justice Department's files, including one he sent to his brother four months before going to jail.

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Associated Press videojournalist David R. Martin contributed.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org

In addition to GAESA and its leader, the sanctions announced Thursday include Moa Nickel, a Cuban joint venture with Canada's Sherritt International, which immediately announced it would withdraw from the business, ending a 32-year presence on the island.

The May 1 executive order and the new designations announced May 7 significantly expand the legal authority through which the U.S. government can levy sanctions on third-country nationals and firms, explained Lee Schlenker, a research associate at the Quincy Institute’s Global South program, a Washington think tank.

“Not only are they subject to having their assets frozen but their U.S. accounts as well as their travel to the U.S., that of their shareholders, investors or employees,” said Schlenker. “This is bound to have an extremely significant impact of the presence of foreign companies” in Cuba.

Economist Pavel Vidal, a Cuba expert at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia, told The Associated Press that the measures are “very concerning” for an economy already “practically paralyzed.” The U.S. has blocked fuel shipments to Cuba since January, further escalating the island's yearslong economic crisis. Vidal noted that the new sanctions would likely deter GAESA’s remaining partners, saying that “very few will risk defying them.”

The new measures amount to “total isolation,” said Vidal, driven by the fear they instill in international banks, insurers and corporations.

As an expert who has analyzed GAESA’s internal documents, Vidal noted that the conglomerate’s deep reach into nearly every sector of the Cuban economy makes any connection to the island a potential liability under the new U.S. rules.

According to Vidal, GAESA commands nearly 40% of Cuba’s gross domestic product. As of early 2024, the conglomerate held $14.5 billion in liquid reserves, with annual revenues triple the size of the entire Cuban state budget.

Family ties with the Castros

Established in the 1990s under military control, GAESA was the Cuban Armed Forces’ strategic response to the economic collapse that followed the Soviet Union’s fall and the tightening of U.S. sanctions in place at the time.

Despite being state-owned, GAESA’s accounts are exempt from audits by the Office of the Comptroller General. Gladys Bejerano, the entity’s director, admitted to this lack of oversight in a 2024 interview; shortly thereafter, she retired.

For years, until his death in July 2022, Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja served as GAESA's general manager. As the son-in-law of former President Raúl Castro, he was a pillar of the family — a legacy continued by his son, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro. While the younger Castro officially serves as his grandfather’s chief bodyguard, he has recently emerged as a pivotal intermediary in sensitive discussions with the U.S.

This week's sanctions also added Ania Guillermina Lastres to the U.S. blacklist. As the successor to López-Calleja, she currently serves as GAESA’s executive president, overseeing the conglomerate’s vast international financial interests.

Based on the limited information available, GAESA oversees dozens of retail outlets — selling everything from food and clothing to home appliances — as well as a sprawling service network that includes car rentals and travel agencies. Notably, it also manages Cuba’s financial institutions, currency exchange bureaus, and the administration of the country’s major hotels.

In remarks to the press Friday, Rubio said the sanctions were not on the Cuban people and he referred to GAESA as a company that “is taking anything that makes money in Cuba and illegally putting it into the pockets of a few regime insiders.”

Cuban authorities maintain that the sanctions constitute “collective punishment” designed to strangle the island’s economy, arguing the Trump administration’s policies show a disregard for the welfare of the Cuban people in favor of political leverage.

The new sanctions on Havana come under the weight of a U.S. energy blockade that has caused sweeping water and power outages along with severe gas and water shortages.

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

The Hurricanes and the Avalanche have put on a clinic for how to start the race.

The top two teams in the NHL during the regular season, seemingly on a collision course to meet in the Stanley Cup Final, have been performing on the ice with a force to match their natural-disaster-themed nicknames. Neither the Canes nor the Avs have lost a game in these playoffs.

With a 4-1 win at Philadelphia on Thursday to take a 3-0 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series, the Hurricanes became the 13th team in NHL history to start a postseason with seven straight wins. Eight of the first 12 won the Stanley Cup.

The Hurricanes will send sizzling goalie Frederik Andersen out for Game 4 on Saturday to try to finish off the Flyers, seeking a sweep that would give them the league's first 8-0 start in the playoffs since 1985.

“I would anticipate we’re going to give it our best, because we’re going to need to,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We’re not going to win if we don’t put our best foot forward.”

Only three teams in NHL history have overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series, but plenty of teams have managed to at least force a fifth game.

“The fourth one is the hardest one to win. No one wants to go home,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “It's going to be a brand-new challenge.”

Only two teams have started the playoffs 7-0 in the last three decades. Colorado, which has already scored 14 goals on Minnesota in their Western Conference semifinal series, would make it two in the same year by winning Game 3 on Saturday night. The NHL gave the Avalanche and Wild three days between games to sync up the schedules of the four ongoing series.

“For our team, the energy and pace that we want to play with on a nightly basis that helps us have success, it doesn’t hurt,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “It doesn’t hurt to be rested and recovered and still get a little practice time in to go out and feel good about your puck touches and your systems and everything. Meetings don’t have to get crammed in. You can take your time and get feedback from the guys."

The Hurricanes, who have made the playoffs in each of eight seasons under Brind’Amour, lost to eventual champion Florida in the Eastern Conference finals last year. They would tie for the 10th-longest winning streak in a single NHL postseason by beating the Flyers on Saturday. Twenty-three teams in league history have won eight or more consecutive playoff games in the same year, and 18 of them won the Stanley Cup.

One of the five that came up short was the 1992 Chicago Blackhawks, who matched the all-time record with 11 straight playoff wins. The Pittsburgh Penguins also staked claim to the record that spring, finishing with a four-game sweep in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Avalanche are aiming to emulate the way the Canes powered through the Philadelphia crowd noise to win a feisty Game 3. Minnesota has not hosted a game this late in the postseason since 2015.

“It will be a rockin’ environment,” Avs goalie Scott Wedgewood said. “That’s what makes playoff so fun, right?”

Carolina Hurricanes at Philadelphia Flyers

When/Where to Watch: Game 4, Saturday, 6 p.m. EDT (TNT, truTV, HBO Max).

Series: Hurricanes lead 3-0.

The Flyers have been unable to solve Carolina's stifling defense, with just three goals in three games. Their league-worst power play during the regular season has carried over, with just one goal in 12 opportunities in this series and a 3-for-29 showing in nine playoff games.

Colorado Avalanche at Minnesota Wild

When/Where to Watch: Game 4, Saturday, 9 p.m. EDT (TNT, truTV, HBO Max).

Series: Avalanche lead 2-0.

The Wild have spent the extra time off trying to shore up their penalty kill, which has been dearly missing center Joel Eriksson Ek and defenseman Jonas Brodin. But after dominating Dallas at even strength in the first round they've also struggled to contain Colorado's high-octane forwards in 5-on-5 situations. Minnesota might go back to rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt after giving Filip Gustavsson the net for a 5-2 loss in Game 2.

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AP Sports Writers Dan Gelston in Philadelphia and Pat Graham in Denver contributed to this report.

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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

In a release, event organizers initially urged visitors to “calmly proceed to the nearest exit.”

“If you camped, please return to the campgrounds and shelter in your vehicle,” the release reads. “If you parked, please exit the venue and take shelter in your vehicle or in the grandstands (Turn 1 Entrance).”

Meanwhile, all other attendees were asked to exit and seek shelter in the grandstands.

A severe weather alert was issued for Northeastern Volusia County shortly before 7 p.m. on Friday, and it to expired around 7:45 p.m.

That said, organizers announced shortly after 8:30 p.m. that the gates were reopened.

“Please make your way calmly and safely back into the festival,” organizers wrote. “Performances will resume shortly.”

Video posted on social media by U.S. Southern Command shows a black, boat-shaped image before what appears to be an explosion, followed by a column of fire rising from the ocean.

Southern Command said it “immediately notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivor.”

The White House announced Wednesday that President Donald Trump has signed off on a new U.S. counterterrorism strategy that sets eliminating drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere as the administration’s highest priority.

The Trump administration’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters, including the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean Sea, has gone on since early September and killed at least 193 people in total. The military has not provided evidence that any of the vessels were carrying drugs. The strikes have ramped up again in recent weeks.

At the same time, Trump has sought to press regional leaders to work more closely with the U.S. to target cartels and take military action themselves against drug traffickers and transnational gangs that he says pose an “unacceptable threat” to the hemisphere’s national security.

Critics, meanwhile, have questioned the overall legality of the boat strikes.

McIlroy said the answer will likely depend on what happens with LIV's financial situation in the coming months.

Last month, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund pulled the plug on future funding for LIV Golf, which had lured away stars including Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau with lucrative, guaranteed contracts. LIV's uncertain future raises new questions about whether some players should be allowed to return to the PGA Tour — and if so, under what set of rules or penalties.

The PGA Tour recently offered a temporary path back for some LIV players. Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka took advantage of the opportunity.

Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton are among the players who remain under contract with LIV beyond this season.

However, Rahm resolved his financial dispute with the European tour, known commercially as the DP World Tour. That move potentially gives him a place to compete in 2027 and beyond.

“If it is a scenario where they have the option to come back and play on the traditional tours, I think (PGA Tour CEO) Brian Rolapp has said anything that makes this tour stronger, anything that makes the DP World Tour stronger, I think everyone should be open to that,” McIlroy said after finishing his second round at the Truist Championship. “That’s just good business practice.”

For now, McIlroy, like most in golf, is in a wait-and-see mode — although he expressed skepticism about the rival tour raising enough money to continue in its current form.

“They’re going to go and try and find alternative investment, whatever that may look like,” McIlroy said. “But when one of the wealthiest sovereign wealth funds in the world thinks that you’re too expensive for them, that sort of says something.”

McIlroy, the No. 2 player in the world, has become the face of the game along with top-ranked Scottie Scheffler.

He has been an outspoken critic in the past of players who bolted for big paydays that came with joining the Saudi-backed tour.

“Obviously the guys over there are under contract and if they are able to keep it going and get a schedule together next year, it seems like those guys are still going to play the majority of their golf on LIV, in whatever form it takes,” McIlroy said.

DeChambeau’s contract with LIV is up after the season and he has reportedly asked for a new, $500 million deal.

McIlroy has softened his stance on those who moved on to LIV over the years, and reiterated on Friday that he was “probably too judgmental” in his opinions.

But he said LIV is “not for me.”

“I’m not going to judge anyone for not wanting to play on the PGA Tour,” McIlroy said. “I don’t know, does that mean that they go play DP World Tour, maybe; if that’s a pathway, that would make the DP World Tour stronger, and I would be delighted with that.”

But he also questioned why top players would not want to compete against the world's best every week.

“If you want to be the most competitive golfer you can be, this is the place to be,” McIlroy said of the PGA Tour. “And if you don’t want to play here, I think that says something about you.”

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

The two-time Cy Young Award winner is set to rejoin the rotation sooner than anticipated after teammate Tyler Glasnow left a start early this week because of back trouble. Glasnow was placed on the 15-day injured list Friday with low back spasms, and Los Angeles recalled right-hander Paul Gervase from Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Snell missed most of the 2025 regular season because of a lingering shoulder injury, making just 11 starts after signing a $182 million, five-year contract in November 2024. But the left-hander went 3-2 in six postseason games to help the Dodgers win their second consecutive World Series title.

Snell has been on the IL since late March with left shoulder fatigue. He had been scheduled to make one more minor league rehabilitation start for Class A Ontario on Saturday, but instead will face the Braves at Dodger Stadium.

Glasnow exited after one inning against the Houston Astros on Wednesday. He had an MRI that showed “nothing really significant,” manager Dave Roberts said Friday before the opener of a three-game series against Atlanta.

The 32-year-old Glasnow is 3-0 with a 2.72 ERA in seven outings this season.

The 6-foot-10 Gervase, 25, is 2-0 with a 3.65 ERA in nine games for Oklahoma City this year. He made one appearance for the Dodgers last season, striking out two batters in two innings. He also pitched in five games for Tampa Bay, compiling a 4.26 ERA.

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

In the modern era, since 1950, the strongest El Niño reached 2.5° Celsius above normal.

That anomaly is from recording the sea surface temperature in the equatorial Pacific off of the coast of Peru.

To be considered an El Niño, the anomaly must grow to .5° Celsius or greater.

Going back to the late 1800s, the strongest becomes the El Niño of 1877 reaching 2.7° Celsius.

The latest European ensembles depict a real chance of eclipsing the El Niño from the late 1800s.

Each red line represents a model member of the European ensemble. About half show the anomaly growing greater than 3°.

What it means for Florida

Hurricane season 2026

In an El Niño year, typically, the Atlantic hurricane season is quieter with fewer named storms. This doesn’t mean impacts will be lower as Hurricanes Michael and Andrew, 2018 and 1992, respectively, both formed during an El Niño.

Still, there should be fewer named storms during the 2026 season.

The clearer signal comes during the cool season, as above-normal rainfall typically arrives during an El Niño.

Long-range models suggest that the upcoming December and January will be very wet relative to the normally dry stretches during the Florida dry season.

This pattern would likely prevent a widespread drought from forming next season.

The chance for severe weather also increases during the cool months in Florida.

However, in the Middle East, the shaky ceasefire in the U.S. war with Iran is being strained even further.

The U.S. said it thwarted attacks on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz and retaliated against Iranian military facilities. Hours later, U.S. Central Command said its forces disabled two more Iranian tankers that were trying to breach an American blockade on Iran’s ports.

Washington, meanwhile, awaits a response from Tehran in negotiations to end the war.

And in U.S. politics, Republicans are moving quickly to try to capitalize on a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly weakened Voting Rights Act protections for minorities. Alabama lawmakers passed a plan Friday for new congressional primaries if courts allow different districts this year, while Virginia’s top court struck down Democrats’ redrawn U.S. House maps, giving Republicans a win.

Here's the latest:

Justice Department sues to block ban on local immigrant detention agreements in New Mexico

The lawsuit says termination of a county agreement for the Otero County Processing Center would drastically limit the state’s capacity “to detain illegal immigrants.”

The county-owned facility — one of three privately operated immigrant detention centers in New Mexico — includes four immigration courtrooms and space for more than 1,000 detainees.

Federal prosecutors said the state and city laws infringe on federal authority by trying to regulate immigration policy and preventing longstanding cooperation between local and federal officials.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the Legislature was within its right in responding to “inadequate medical care, deaths in custody, and conditions that fell well below acceptable standards” at immigration detention facilities.

The Department of Justice has filed similar lawsuits targeting state or city policies seen as interfering with immigration enforcement, including those in Los Angeles, New York City, and Minnesota and cities there.

UN chief calls on all parties to abide by the ceasefire

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern at the reported exchange of fire between Iran and the United States in the Strait of Hormuz, his spokesperson said.

“He underscores that this is a critical moment for de-escalation and urges all sides to exercise maximum restraint to avoid further escalation,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday.

Guterres calls on all parts to refrain from action “that could lead to renewed escalation or undermine ongoing diplomatic efforts,” Dujarric said.

Iran’s envoy urges UN to ‘condemn unequivocally’ the US blockade and attacks on 2 Iranian oil tankers

Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said the “unlawful” U.S. actions “constitute a grave and dangerous escalation that further destabilizes an already fragile region and poses a serious threat to international peace and security.”

The Iranian envoy warned in letters Friday to the U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that the consequences of U.S. actions in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz “could be catastrophic” and extend far beyond the Middle East.

The U.S. “would bear full responsibility,” Iravani said. The U.S. military said Friday that its forces had disabled two Iranian tankers that were trying to breach an American blockade of Iran’s ports, part of U.S. efforts to get Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

He called on the secretary-general and Security Council to urge the U.S. “to comply with its obligations under international law and refrain from further provocative actions.”

Global food prices hit highest level in three years due to Iran war, UN says

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday its food price index was up 2% in April from the prior year, hitting its highest level since 2023. The index tracks international prices for commodities like grain, rice and sugar.

The FAO said vegetable oil saw the biggest increase. Higher crude oil prices are increasing demand from the biofuel industry for seed oils. Concerns about lower production in Southeast Asia is also raising prices, the FAO said.

Wheat prices were up 0.8% due to concerns about drought in the U.S. and Australia as well as high fertilizer prices tied to the war. The FAO said farmers may shift from wheat to less fertilizer-intensive crops this year, which would tighten wheat supplies and raise prices.

Qatar’s top diplomat and the US vice president discuss Mideast negotiations

The tiny, gas-rich Gulf Arab state of Qatar — which hosts the biggest U.S. military base in the Middle East — has a long track record as a mediator between Iran and its regional adversaries.

In March, the kingdom said it was not directly mediating between the U.S. and Iran, however it voiced support for all diplomatic channels to end the war.

In Friday’s meeting in Washington with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is both Qatar’s prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, expressed the need for all parties to engage with the ongoing mediation efforts that would eventually lead to a “comprehensive agreement that achieves lasting peace” in the region.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Al Thani and Vance reviewed Pakistani mediation efforts aimed at de-escalation, without providing further details.

Vance’s office did not immediately comment on the meeting.

US won’t say whether Iran oil spill was caused by airstrikes

The Pentagon declined to comment Friday on whether there had been recent strikes on Kharg Island, Iran’s main crude export terminal.

Based on the imagery taken earlier this week, the spill occurred before the most recent round of U.S. strikes in the region. Kharg Island is on the other end of the Gulf from the Strait of Hormuz, hundreds of miles away.

Satellite images show oil is still spilling from an Iranian terminal

Satellite images taken Friday show an apparent oil spill covering about 71 square kilometers (27 square miles) off Kharg Island, Iran’s main crude export terminal, said Ami Daniel, CEO of maritime intelligence firm Windward AI.

The slick was first spotted on satellite images Tuesday.

Although the spill’s origin is unknown, cleanup efforts will probably not be launched in waters where the U.S. and Iran have been trading fire, Daniel said.

Nina Noelle, an international crisis operations expert with Greenpeace Germany, said it appears unlikely the spill will impact land, though it could still possibly affect some sensitive marine habitats.

Trump administration appeals court ruling against new global tariffs it imposed after a stinging Supreme Court loss

On Thursday, a split three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade in New York found that Trump’s 10% global tariffs were illegal after small businesses sued.

In a filing Friday, the Justice Department said it would appeal the 2-1 decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington. The trade court had ruled that the tariffs are “invalid’’ and “unauthorized by law.’’

At issue are temporary 10% worldwide tariffs the Trump administration imposed after the Supreme Court in February struck down bigger double-digit tariffs the president had imposed last year on almost every country on Earth. The new tariffs, invoked under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, are set to expire July 24.

Trump’s Greenland envoy is expected to make his first visit to Arctic island this month

Later this month, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who is doubling as the president’s special envoy to Greenland, is expected to make his first visit the Danish territory that Trump has said the United States must take over for national security reasons, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The person, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Landry is scheduled to attend Future Greenland, a business conference, in the capital city of Nuuk, but did not provide any further details about the governor’s itinerary.

Trump announced earlier this year he was levying new tariffs against eight European nations to press for U.S. control over Greenland. But he quickly backed off the threat after global markets tanked.

The president has paid scant attention, at least publicly, to Greenland in recent months as he’s focused on the Iran war, Venezuela, and Cuba.

Greenlandic media outlet Sermitsiaq first reported on Landry’s expected visit.

—By Aamer Madhani in Washington

Alabama lawmakers pass plan for new US House primary if courts allow different districts

Republican state senators gave final approval to the legislation on Friday, sending it to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey.

The action in Alabama came on the same day that the Virginia Supreme Court dealt a major setback to Democrats by overturning a redistricting plan that could have helped Democrats win as many as four additional House seats.

The Alabama bill could set aside the results of the May 19 primaries, if courts lift an injunction requiring it to use a map with two districts that have large Black populations.

Trump says Russia and Ukraine have agreed to his request for a 3-day ceasefire and a prisoner swap

The U.S. president said Friday that such a halt to hostilities could be the “beginning of the end” of the long war between the two nations.

Trump announced on social media that the ceasefire would run Saturday through Monday. Saturday is Victory Day in Russia, a holiday that commemorates its victory over Nazi Germany 81 years ago in World War II.

Trump says he’s “pleased to announce that there will be a THREE DAY CEASEFIRE.” The Republican president said the ceasefire includes a suspension of all kinetic activity and the exchange of 1,000 prisoners by each country.

Democrats had hoped to win as many as 4 additional US House seats under Virginia’s redrawn map

Don Scott, the Democratic speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, said Democrats respect the court’s opinion while noting the voters of the state had approved of the new congressional map.

“We gave this decision to the voters — exactly where it belongs — and they spoke loud and clear,” he said in a statement. “They voted YES because they wanted to fight back against the Trump power grab.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi criticizes recent US military actions against Iran

He said “every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the U.S. opts for a reckless military adventure.”

In a post on X, Araghchi said “Iranians never bow to pressure” and questioned whether the U.S. actions were a crude pressure tactic or the result of “a spoiler once again duping POTUS.”

Araghchi also boasted that Iran’s missile inventory and launch capacity was at “120%” of prewar levels, attaching a screenshot from a U.S. newspaper report that said the CIA had found Iran managed to retain more of its weaponry after the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign than previously thought.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry says the US strikes were a ‘clear violation’ of the ceasefire

The violence came as Washington awaited a response from Tehran in negotiations to end the war. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters he expects to hear from Iran later Friday.

“I hope it’s a serious offer,” Rubio told reporters. “I really do.”

US military shows smoking oil freighters in latest confrontation with Iran

The U.S. military posted video of two Iranian oil tankers as their smokestacks were struck by an American fighter jet Friday, marking the latest confrontation between the U.S. and Iran.

Both countries exchanged fire off Iran’s coast on Thursday as U.S. Navy warships passed through the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. also disabled another Iranian ship earlier this week.

“U.S. forces in the Middle East remain committed to full enforcement of the blockade of vessels entering or leaving Iran,” Adm. Brad Cooper, the leader of U.S. Central Command, said in a statement.

Virginia Supreme Court strikes down Democrats’ redistricting plan, dimming party’s midterm hopes

The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down the voter-approved Democratic congressional redistricting plan, delivering another major setback to the party in a nationwide battle against Republicans for an edge in this year’s midterm elections.

The court ruled the state’s Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize the mid-decade redistricting. Voters narrowly approved the amendment April 21, but the court’s ruling renders the results of that vote meaningless.

“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” the court said in its opinion.

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US forces disabled two more Iranian tankers that were trying to breach an American blockade

That’s according to U.S. Central Command in a social media post.

In the social media post on Friday, it says a U.S. Navy fighter jet fired into the smokestacks of ships in the Gulf of Oman after they tried to pull into an Iranian port.

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The newly unveiled website housing documents on UFOs has a decidedly retro feel

It features black-and-white military imagery of flying objects displayed prominently on the page, with statements displayed in typewriter-like font.

The first release includes 162 files, such as old State Department cables, FBI documents and transcripts from NASA of crewed flights into space.

One document details an FBI interview with someone identified as a drone pilot who, in September 2023, reported seeing a “linear object” with a light bright enough to “see bands within the light” in the sky.

“The object was visible for five to ten seconds and then the light went out and the object vanished,” according to the FBI interview.

Another file is a NASA photograph from the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, showing three dots in a triangular formation. The Pentagon says in an accompanying caption that “there is no consensus about the nature of the anomaly” but that a new, preliminary analysis indicated that it could be a “physical object.”

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Rubio defended Trump after weeks of his criticisms of the pope

And Rubio said the U.S. believed it could still have a “productive and fruitful and important relationship” with the Catholic Church.

Rubio spoke to reporters in Rome, a day after his meeting with Pope Leo XIV during a fence-mending visit to Italy and the Vatican.

He was asked if he would recommend that Trump stop criticizing Leo’s position on the Iran war.

“The president will always speak clearly about how he feels about the U.S. and U.S. policy,” Rubio said. “The president of the United States is always going to act in what’s in the best interest of the United States.”

Rubio came to Rome after Trump repeatedly criticized Leo’s calls for peace and dialogue. The back and forth that ensued riled Italian leaders who came to Leo’s defense.

“The president’s perspective is clear. He thinks that Iran is a threat, and it needs to be addressed. And that position remains unchanged,” Rubio said.

US employers added a surprising 115,000 jobs last month despite economic shock from the Iran war

Hiring was better than the 65,000 forecasters had expected, though it decelerated from the 185,000 jobs created in March. The unemployment rate remained at a low 4.3%.

The Iran war has caused the biggest disruption of global oil supplies in history and sent average U.S. gasoline prices surging past $4.50 a gallon this week. But the conflict hasn’t done much damage to the American job market so far.

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Pentagon begins releasing new files on UFOs and says the public can draw its own conclusions

In addition to the Pentagon, the effort is led by the White House, the director of national intelligence, the Energy Department, NASA and the FBI.

The Pentagon said Friday in a post on X that while past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, Trump “is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files.”

The Pentagon says additional documents will be released on a rolling basis.

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Rubio says Iran’s reported plan to create an agency to control Strait of Hormuz is ‘unacceptable’

And he warned that if Tehran attacks U.S. Navy ships “they’re going to get blown up.”

Rubio fielded questions at the end of a two-day fence-mending visit to Rome and the Vatican after sharp disagreements over the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and President Donald Trump’s criticisms of Pope Leo XIV.

He was asked about reports from a shipping data company that said Iran has created a government agency to vet and tax vessels seeking passage through the strait.

“Is the world going to accept that Iran now controls an international waterway?” Rubio asked. “What is the world prepared to do about it?”

He also warned Tehran against attacking American maritime assets in the region. The U.S. said it thwarted attacks on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

“The red line is clear. They threaten Americans, they are going to be blown up,” he said.

Rubio says US expecting Iran response Friday

The secretary of state, traveling in Italy, said the U.S. is anticipating a response from Iran on the ongoing diplomatic discussions sometime later Friday.

“We should know something today,” Rubio, who doubles as the White House national security adviser, told reporters.

He added: “I hope it’s a serious offer. I really do.”

Judge rules Trump administration’s cancellation of humanities grants was unconstitutional

The Trump administration’s cancellation of more than $100 million in humanities grants to scholars, writers, research groups and other organizations was unconstitutional, and the Department of Government Efficiency had no authority to end the funding, a federal judge in New York ruled on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan sided with The Authors Guild, several other groups and several people who had their grants canceled and sued DOGE and the National Endowment for the Humanities. McMahon permanently barred the administration from terminating the grants and criticized DOGE’s use of artificial intelligence in nixing the funding.

Government lawyers had argued that the cuts of more than 1,400 grants of congressionally approved funds were legal moves to implement President Donald Trump’s directives, eliminate grants associated with diversion, equity and inclusion and reduce discretionary spending under the administration’s priorities.

The White House and Department of Justice, which defended against the lawsuit, did not immediately return emails seeking comment Thursday evening. It was not immediately clear if an appeal was planned.

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Federal court rules against new global tariffs Trump imposed after loss at the Supreme Court

A federal court ruled Thursday against the new global tariffs that Trump imposed after a stinging loss at the Supreme Court.

A split three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade in New York found the 10% global tariffs were illegal after small businesses sued.

The court ruled 2-1 that Trump overstepped the tariff power that Congress had allowed the president under the law. The tariffs are “invalid″ and “unauthorized by law,” the majority wrote.

The third judge on the panel found the law allows the president more leeway on tariffs.

If the administration appeals Thursday’s decision, as expected, it would first turn to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, based in Washington, and then, potentially, the Supreme Court.

At issue are temporary 10% worldwide tariffs the Trump administration imposed after the Supreme Court in February struck down even broader tariffs the president had imposed last year on almost every country on Earth. The new tariffs were set to expire July 24.

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Trump drives across Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to inspect new blue coating he’s putting on it

Trump on Thursday went on an unannounced trip to the Lincoln Memorial to see the Reflecting Pool after he had it coated in a color he calls “American flag blue.”

The Republican president was driven across the new coating before he got out of his SUV to make a statement and answer questions from reporters who had been taken there to await his arrival before the sun set.

The new blue coating will hide the pool’s gray stone, a color Trump said was “never good.” The project cost nearly $2 million, he said.

“It never had the color people wanted, but now it’s going to have the great color,” he said, standing in the pool surrounded by some of his Cabinet secretaries, including Doug Burgum of Interior and Markwayne Mullin of Homeland Security.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign affairs adviser, both confirmed the agreement.

“I asked and, President Putin agreed. President Zelenskyy agreed -- both readily," Trump said as he departed the White House to attend a dinner at his Virginia golf club. " And we have a little period of time where they’re not going to be killing people. That’s very good ”

Trump earlier Friday had announced on social media that the ceasefire would run Saturday through Monday. Saturday is Victory Day in Russia, a holiday that commemorates the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

“I am pleased to announce that there will be a THREE DAY CEASEFIRE (May 9th, 10th, and 11th) in the War between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump wrote. “The Celebration in Russia is for Victory Day but, likewise, in Ukraine, because they were also a big part and factor of World War II.”

The Republican president said the ceasefire includes a suspension of all kinetic activity and the exchange of 1,000 prisoners by each country.

Russia had announced a ceasefire for Friday and Saturday, but it quickly unraveled, with both sides blaming the other for the continued fighting, just as they had when Ukraine’s own unilateral ceasefire had swiftly collapsed earlier in the week.

Trump said he made his request for the ceasefire “directly” to the two presidents. “Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard fought War," he said.

Trump added that talks continue over ending the war that began in February 2022 “and we are getting closer and closer every day.” Trump has gone back and forth over whether the war will end, at times expressing optimism and at other times saying Russia and Ukraine should be left to fight it out to the bitter end.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s decision on how to engage with those discussions was shaped in part by the prospect of freeing its prisoners. Ukraine has made the return of prisoners of war a central demand throughout the conflict.

“Red Square matters less to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners of war who can be brought home,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. Red Square is where Russia holds its traditional military parade to celebrate Victory Day, one of the biggest holidays of the year.

After releasing his statement, Zelenskyy issued a formal presidential decree “authorizing” Russia to hold the parade, declaring Red Square off-limits for Ukrainian strikes for the duration of the event. The framing of the decree appeared designed to underscore Kyiv’s claim that it holds effective targeting reach over the Russian capital, while publicly tying Ukrainian restraint to the ceasefire terms.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later shrugged off Zelenskyy’s decree as a “silly joke.”

“We don’t need anyone’s permission to be proud of our Victory Day,” Peskov told reporters.

Zelenskyy said the deal for a ceasefire was reached through a U.S.-mediated process and thanked Trump and the American team for what he called effective diplomatic engagement. He said Ukraine expected Washington to hold Russia to the terms of the agreement.

“We are counting on the United States to ensure that Russia fulfills its commitments,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy said he had instructed his team to prepare everything necessary for the exchange without delay.

Trump's announcement came hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a much more somber tone about negotiations to halt Russia’s 4-year-old war in Ukraine, saying U.S. mediation efforts have not led to a “fruitful outcome” so far.

“While we’re prepared to play whatever role we can to bring it to a peaceful diplomatic resolution, unfortunately right now, those efforts have stagnated,” Rubio told reporters at the end of a visit to Rome and the Vatican. “But we always stand ready if those circumstances change.”

—-

Associated Press writers Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed to this report.

The point of contention: The popular show “The View," and whether it's subject to equal time rules.

ABC’s filing to the Federal Communications Commission, made public Friday, came in a dispute involving one ABC station in Houston, KTRK-TV. But the wording indicated the network was embarking on a broader battle with the administration.

“The Commission’s actions threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to The View and more broadly,” said the filing on behalf of both KTRK-TV and ABC.

The commission replied, in a statement emailed to The Associated Press, that equal time law “encourages more speech and empowers voters to decide the outcome of elections. The FCC will review Disney’s assertion that ‘The View’ is a ‘bona fide news program’ and thus exempt from the political equal time rules.”

The ABC filing appeared to be the latest volley inside and outside the legal arena between the U.S. media and the Trump White House over what journalists perceive as the president’s attack on free speech and the media’s ability to do its job. Trump has been critical of media outlets whose journalism runs counter to his agenda and sensibilities.

Among legal battles in the courts: a dispute between the Pentagon and The New York Times over access; a battle between the White House and The Associated Press over how to refer to the Gulf of Mexico; and Trump’s anger at The Wall Street Journal over reporting about Jeffrey Epstein.

The dispute concerns content on “The View,” ABC’s long-running morning talk show, which combines entertainment and political interviews and often features commentary critical of Trump. The filing referenced the FCC’s revisiting, with legal action, the question of whether “The View” should fall under equal time rules. The rules require granting equal airtime to competing candidates for office.

At issue: Whether ‘The View’ is subject to equal time rules

News programs are exempt from the rules. Trump’s FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, has indicated he intends to argue that “The View” is not a so-called “bona fide news program.” The issue could affect other shows that similarly combine entertainment and politics.

In its filing, ABC argued that “‘The View’ has been broadcasting under a bona fide news exemption granted to it more than twenty years ago, consistent with longstanding Commission interpretations designed to minimize the serious First Amendment problems inherent in the equal time regime.”

The network also argued that the decades-old equal time doctrine was not attuned to the realities of the present day, when “the broadcast airwaves account for a slice of the numerous media options through which Americans get their political information. Indeed, the marketplace of ideas has never been more robust, and people can hear virtually any brand of political commentary by listening to a podcast, watching cable, scrolling social media, or streaming on a phone, computer or connected TV. The free flow of ideas flourishes on these non-broadcast platforms even though the equal opportunities rule does not apply there.”

ABC argues that free political discourse is needed now more than ever

Narrowing the FCC’s longtime approach to so-called “bona fide news exemptions,” it said, “would risk restricting political discourse exactly when it is needed most.”

The administration’s criticism of “The View” echoes its displeasure with late-night news hosts who criticize Trump – especially ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel.

Donald and Melania Trump recently both called for ABC to fire Kimmel for a joke in which the comic described the first lady as having “the glow of an expectant widow.”

The joke came two nights before the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which was cut short when a man armed with guns and knives tried to enter the Washington ballroom where the Trumps were gathered along with much of the nation’s leadership and Washington media. Kimmel said the joke was a light roast about the couple’s age difference — and certainly not a reference to assassination.

In a footnote, ABC noted that “The View” has long featured a panel including women of different backgrounds to discuss issues of the day.

“Although the lineup of the co-hosts has changed over the years, ‘The View’ has consistently prioritized having a panel of women from different backgrounds in order to facilitate interesting discourse and the exchange of divergent perspectives,” it said.

Current and former officials in the archipelago at the southernmost point of South America insist that the virus did not originate from the trash heap in Ushuaia that national health authorities named earlier this week as the most likely place two Dutch tourists contracted it while bird-watching.

“I believe we are facing a smear campaign against this destination,” Juan Facundo Petrina, the province’s director of epidemiology, told reporters Friday in a press conference from Ushuaia.

Federal officials didn’t contact local authorities initially — instead, they discovered the purported Ushuaia connection via media reports, he said. Additionally, Tierra del Fuego has never recorded a case of the hantavirus — let alone the Andes variant involved in the ship outbreak — unlike Argentine provinces further north.

The Dutch couple — both of whom died — spent just two days in Tierra del Fuego during their four-monthlong trip through Argentina and Chile, he added, which “dramatically reduces the likelihood that the infection happened here.”

As the main gateway to Antarctica, the remote town of Ushuaia drew over 157,000 cruise passengers last year — almost double its local population. Deep-pocketed cruisers have increasingly grown vital to Tierra del Fuego's economy as its core electronic manufacturing sector reels from libertarian President Javier Milei's slashing of trade barriers and subsidies.

“Now the whole world is associating Ushuaia, and cruise travel, with a lethal virus, and if this continues, reservations for next season are honestly going to plummet because nobody will want to be exposed,” said Rubén Rafael, the former health minister of Tierra del Fuego. “Ushuaia’s reputation as a tourist destination is suffering badly."

Argentine investigators have yet to arrive

When asked Friday whether the Argentine Health Ministry still favored the outbreak origin theory of the Ushuaia landfill, a ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk about the investigation, said that nothing had changed and that Ushuaia was the only place where the ministry was sending investigators, adding that it remained possible the virus originated elsewhere in Argentina.

The Health Ministry announced on Wednesday that it would dispatch experts from the state-backed Malbran Institute to trap rats at the Ushuaia trash heap and nearby areas and test them for the Andes strain of the hantavirus.

Over two days later, the investigators have yet to arrive. The official dismissed the delay as normal for Argentina’s slow-moving bureaucracy.

In Tierra del Fuego, Petrina said he hoped national investigators would clear Ushuaia's name. He said it was taking a while “to determine all the exact locations where trapping and analysis will take place."

Others in the left-leaning province complained that the government's delay and lack of transparency came as part of a wider pattern ever since Milei took his chain saw to the country's health system, withdrawing his country from the World Health Organization weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump did the same and defunding national programs responsible for tracking infectious diseases.

“The health system in Argentina is going through a serious crisis,” said Rafael, the former provincial health minister. “The system is weakened, and as a result, the response to this outbreak has been very slow. That exposes all of us.”

Outside Argentina, public health experts said that the investigation is a critical step so that a similar situation can be avoided.

“It's not an extreme emergency, but it's still of urgency in terms of collecting the data,” said Celine Gounder, an epidemiologist who serves as editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News and previously advised the Biden administration on the coronavirus pandemic.

“If there is an Andes virus that is more infectious locally you’d want to know that so that you can warn local residents and take measures to prevent their infection. And if they haven’t started that process yet, that would be concerning.”

A daunting hunt for answers

The Dutch couple that the WHO has identified as the first cruise passengers infected with the Andes variant — the only hantavirus that may be able to spread from person-to-person in rare cases — arrived in Argentina last November, according to the Argentine Health Ministry.

The couple, 70 and 69 years old, spent weeks driving up and down the country before making a series of border crossings between Argentina and Chile over months. They also traveled between Argentina and Uruguay in March before embarking on the Antarctic cruise from Ushuaia on April 1.

The governments of Chile, which has seen deadly outbreaks of the Andes variant before, and Uruguay, which hasn't, declared the couple couldn't have become infected while visiting based on the virus' up-to-eight-week incubation period. They didn't offer details.

Because the couple died, retracing their steps through the country is exceedingly difficult, said Argentine health officials, adding that they're working to fill in some gaps in the couple's travels.

Many independent Argentine epidemiologists believe that the hantavirus outbreak most likely emerged from the woodlands of central Patagonia, another major tourist destination where authorities have recently recorded hantavirus cases and long-tailed rats known to carry the Andes variant run rampant — unlike in Ushuaia.

“With the media pressure now, it wouldn’t surprise me if the government's response has been more about quieting criticism by appearing to act,” said Raul González Ittig, genetics professor at the National University of Cordoba.

In a release, police said that two unidentified White males were seen jumping the fence near the gymnasium and Building 4 around 1:07 a.m.

After entering Building 4 through an unlocked door, the suspects apparently messed with ESE bicycles and equipment before going into a classroom and taking around $50 worth of lanyards, police added.

“The suspects then entered a second classroom and stole miscellaneous food items, including approximately 100 hot dogs and ice cream, valued at approximately $60,” the release reads.

In addition, the suspects took an Allen wrench set from a desk in the hallway before leaving campus around 1:30 a.m., investigators noted.

“I hope they do get in trouble… so at least they know to nip it in the bud while they’re young so it doesn’t become something else in the future,” said Junior Encarnacion, whose son attends the school.

While police look into the incident, anyone with information regarding the suspects’ identities is urged to contact the Orange City Police Department.

No additional information has been provided at this time.

Raymond Epps, a former Marine, was falsely accused by Fox of being a government agent causing trouble near the Capitol that day so that it would be blamed on Trump fans. He said he and his wife sold an Arizona ranch where they lived and moved into a recreational vehicle because of the harassment they faced after Fox's reports.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Hall in Delaware granted Fox's motion to dismiss the case, finding Epps failed to show enough evidence to prove that Fox knew its statements were false.

The judge previously dismissed the case in 2024 but gave Epps a second chance to file his case. Her Friday ruling said he still fell short.

Epps had named Tucker Carlson, who was fired from Fox in April 2023, as being the most active promoter of the conspiracy theory. At the time, Carlson hosted Fox’s most popular show. Epps was featured in more than two dozen segments on Carlson’s prime-time show, the lawsuit said.

“In the aftermath of the events of January 6th, Fox News searched for a scapegoat to blame other than Donald Trump or the Republican Party," lawyers for Epps wrote in their lawsuit. "Eventually, they turned on one of their own.”

In a statement Friday night, Fox News said it was "pleased with the federal court’s ruling, further preserving the press freedoms of the First Amendment.”

Epps pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge related to the Jan. 6 riot and was sentenced to a year of probation. He was later pardoned by Trump alongside 1,500 others who received clemency for their roles in the insurrection.

Federal prosecutors have backed up Epps’ vehement denials that he was a government plant or FBI operative. They say Epps has never been a government employee or agent beyond serving in the U.S. Marines from 1979 to 1983.

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING:

• Northeastern Volusia County until 7:45 p.m. Storm is located near Daytona Beach, moving east at 25 mph.

Much of Central Florida falls into a level one out of five severe risk, which means a few of these storms could become strong to severe. The main hazards are damaging wind gusts forecast from 45 to 60 mph and the potential for quarter-size hail.

Although less likely, isolated tornadoes remain possible in some of the stronger rotating thunderstorms.

While specific boundaries for the severe risk area weren’t mentioned, the green-shaded map shown by Morgan highlights a broad swath across central and northern portions of the state. For anyone with outdoor plans, staying weather-aware is the best move as conditions may develop rapidly.

Hot temperatures stick around for Orlando, surrounding areas

The heat isn’t going anywhere soon. Friday’s daytime highs are expected to reach into the lower 90s across the Orlando metro—think 92 degrees in Clermont, Leesburg, and Wildwood, and not much cooler along the coast, with 88 in Cocoa Beach and 89 in Melbourne. News 6’s meteorologist reminds viewers to stay hydrated and not forget the sunscreen if spending time outdoors.

If you’re planning around the weekend, prepare for even hotter conditions with a high of 95 degrees forecast for Saturday and 94 degrees on Sunday in Orlando. A slight break may come with an approaching front early next week, dipping highs back to 91 degrees on Monday.

Rain and storm timing for your Friday plans

Showers are likely to pop up in the afternoon, with more widespread thunderstorms forecast around the 5 p.m. hour. News 6 Pinpoint Weather’s outlook shows the most intense downpours may track along the I-4 corridor, with some lingering storms expected to stick around into the evening, especially over southern counties.

Rain chances sit at 30 percent for Friday, dropping to 20 to 30 percent for the weekend. By Monday, the next front bumps storm coverage up to 40 percent, keeping another round of showers on the radar as the new week gets underway.

Stay safe and PinIt!

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The No. 2 player in the world heated up on the back nine Friday at Quail Hollow and finished with a 4-under 67 to climb into contention at the Truist Championship, four shots behind 36-hole leader Sungjae Im, who was at 9-under 133.

Playing his first tournament since winning the green jacket for a second time on April 12 at Augusta National, McIlroy was 1 under and buried on the leaderboard eight shots back when he made the turn.

But birdies at No. 10 and 11 got him rolling and he seemed to feed off the energy from the crowd, just as he’s done in his previous four wins in Charlotte, where he has a large following.

McIlroy’s approach shots got closer and closer, and he added birdies on Nos. 13, 15 and 16. He shot 32 on the back nine despite lipping out his par putt on the par-4 18th hole after finding a greenside bunker.

“It was a good day to get myself back in the hunt, and feel like I have a real chance going into the weekend,” McIlroy said.

At one point, McIlroy hit 14 straight greens in regulation — a personal course record.

“I started to make some good swings, especially with the irons,” McIlroy said. “I played one tournament in seven weeks, so I think just getting the reps under my belt a little bit and getting a scorecard in my hand. I feel like your patterns on the golf course are always a little bit different than your patterns on the range, or it is for me anyway.”

McIlroy isn’t the only big name in contention.

Tommy Fleetwood shot 67 for the second straight day and trailed Im by one shot. Justin Thomas was two back along with PGA Tour newcomer Alex Fitzpatrick, the brother of Matt Fitzpatrick.

Rickie Fowler vaulted into the mix with the day’s low round of 8-under 63, which included nine birdies.

Cameron Young, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour this year, shot 70 and was five shots back.

Fleetwood said he scored well despite not having his best stuff.

“It’s just nice to even get a couple of days where you have something to show for your work, I guess,” said Fleetwood, who will play in the final pairing with Im on Saturday. “Just a nice reminder that it will come good at some point if you keep doing the right things. So that’s been great. I just hope it continues.”

For Im, the season hasn’t gone as well he’s hoped. He’s battled through a wrist injury and has only one top-40 finish.

Now healthy, that may be about to change.

The South Korean followed an opening round 7-under 64 with a 69 as he looks for his first tour win since 2021 in Las Vegas.

“I know this course very well, so I’m taking advantage of that,” Im said. “And then the scrambling, because of the play with the Presidents Cup, I know where to miss the greens, I’m very familiar with this golf course. But I didn’t putt very well today, but I’m happy with where I’m at.”

Thomas won the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in 2017 and said this is the best he’s felt physically since having surgery to treat a herniated disk in his lower back in November.

He would have posted back-to-back 67s had he not missed a birdie putt on his final hole Friday.

“I felt like I’m close,” Thomas said. “I’ve really been pleased the last couple weeks.”

Chandler Blanchet had the shot of the day, a hole-in-one on the par-3 17th hole. It was the fourth ace on No. 17 in tournament history and the first since Mark Hubbard in 2023.

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

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement Friday that authorities boarded eight cruise ships in late April and determined that 27 people, mostly from the Philippines, were involved in “the receipt, possession, transportation, distribution, or viewing” of child sexual abuse images.

The agency canceled the visas of those involved and returned them to their home countries, the statement said.

The agency did not say if any passengers aboard the ships were believed to be victims. It also did not say which ships agents boarded, why those ships were targeted or where the operations took place. The statement said no additional information was available.

At least some of the ships had docked in San Diego.

Disney Cruise Line in a statement said the company has a “zero-tolerance policy for this type of behavior and fully cooperated with law enforcement. While the majority of these individuals were not from our cruise line, those who were are no longer with the company.”

Immigrant and workers' rights groups said they had been trying, without success, to obtain information about the status of the workers and the reason behind the enforcement action. Benjamin Prado, with one of the groups, Unión del Barrio, said they held a news conference Tuesday in San Diego after previously receiving a generic statement from Customs and Border Protection.

The statement the agency subsequently released to news organizations this week did not appear to be on the agency's website, he said. That information should be readily accessible, he said.

Prado said his group wants to better understand what kind of monitoring or surveillance might have been occurring ahead of the workers being detained and whether due process rights were followed. He acknowledged skepticism around information released by agencies like Customs and Border Protection.

“At this point, we doubt, we question their claims and so we do want to follow up with some of these workers to find out exactly what took place,” Prado said.

Customs and Border Protection has said that a criminal charge is not required for someone's visa to be revoked.

Tyler Robinson's attorneys argued potential jurors could be biased by slanted news reports and online comments that depict the defendant as unremorseful based on how he looks and acts in court. They said live broadcasts were fueling those stories and interfering with Robinson's right to fair proceedings.

State District Judge Tony Graf said some news outlets have used courtroom footage as “a springboard to discuss out-of-court commentary” by public officials, opine on the existence of evidence that has not been presented in court and “generally vilify the defendant," but he declined to ban cameras.

“Electronic media coverage provides a means to facilitate the public’s right of access to court proceedings for those who cannot physically occupy the limited space available in a courtroom," Graf said. "Livestreaming in particular allows as many people as are interested to observe the justice system at work and hold our branches of government accountable.”

Media organizations, prosecutors and Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, had urged the judge to allow cameras. They said transparency is the best way to guard against conspiracy theories that have circulated since Kirk's assassination on Sept. 10, when the 31-year-old conservative activist was shot in the neck while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem.

The defense and prosecution did not immediately respond to requests for comment after Graf read the ruling via video call.

Graf has said repeatedly that he cannot control the spread of misinformation outside court, but he has taken steps to protect Robinson’s rights during hearings. He tightened rules for cameras after members of a media pool violated a courtroom order by showing Robinson’s shackles and capturing close-ups of him talking to his attorneys. Graf relocated cameras to the rear of the courtroom, behind Robinson, making it harder to get images of him.

The judge also approved a defense motion to push back Robinson’s preliminary hearing, which was scheduled for mid-May. Prosecutors during that hearing, now set for July 6-10, must show they have enough evidence to proceed to trial. Graf said he set a time frame that balances Robinson’s rights with those of Erika Kirk, who is entitled to a speedy resolution.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if Robinson, 23, is convicted. He is charged with crimes including aggravated murder and has not yet entered a plea.

Prior to his death, Kirk and the conservative youth movement he founded, Turning Point USA, emerged as a major force in U.S. politics that was considered instrumental in getting President Donald Trump elected to a second term.

Authorities have said DNA consistent with Robinson’s was found on the trigger of the rifle, the fired cartridge casing, two unfired cartridges and a towel used to wrap the rifle. Robinson’s attorneys have argued his preliminary hearing should not take place until federal law enforcement agencies turn over more details about their DNA analysis.

Prosecutors say they have sufficient proof beyond DNA, including surveillance video and a handwritten note Robinson allegedly left for his romantic partner confessing to the crime.

Accusations that Robinson targeted Kirk over his political views have amplified interest in the case, which in turn has stoked the long-running dispute over cameras inside major cases.

Photos and videos have exposed the inner workings of some of America’s most spectacular criminal cases, from the Lindbergh baby kidnapping trial to O.J. Simpson’s double murder trial. They've also created tensions between advocates for transparency and defense attorneys eager to shield clients from bad publicity.

The stakes are especially high in death penalty cases such as Robinson's, where a jury can consider the defendant's character as part of its determination. Footage of Robinson apparently smirking while talking to his attorneys during a December hearing elicited comments on Fox News that he treated Kirk “like a trophy.”

The Constitution gives greater weight to a defendant’s rights to a fair trial than the public’s right to know what’s happening in a case. Nevertheless, cameras have become much more common in state courts in recent years.

They are generally barred in federal criminal trials. Under a New York state law, Trump’s trial and 2024 conviction in a hush money case was famously closed to cameras while court was in session. Media organizations used sketch artists to capture the scene.

Judges typically retain broad discretion over which parts of a case can be broadcast and who can be filmed or photographed. ___

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

Whether it works will depend on how fast three-time defending race winner Alex Palou and the other starters adapt — and, naturally, how much risk they're willing to take on the first lap of the race.

The move comes in the wake of last month's software failure at Long Beach, where a dozen drivers illegally used extra turbo boost during a midrace restart. That led series officials to make the modification that allows drivers to use their push-to-pass on all restarts once the race has started and they've reached the alternate start-finish line in Turn 11 on the first lap. An early push will result in a penalty, even if there is another malfunction.

And that's caused confusion in Gasoline Alley.

“If I push it and it works because someone else does a mistake, it’s my fault? Yes?” Palou asked, jump-starting a minutes-long debate among the top five drivers in the standings. “I didn’t read the rule, sorry.”

Drivers will still get 200 total seconds of green-flag racing to give their cars a boost of about 60 horsepower throughout the race, though the button is not supposed to be operable until they pass the alternate start-finish line, potentially making the race into Turn 11 as harrowing as the first turn of the race. Then drivers can allocate their turbo boost however they choose around Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.

The change essentially eliminates a possible repeat of the 2024 controversy that cost two-time series champ Josef Newgarden a season-opening victory at St. Petersburg when officials determined he used push-to-pass on a restart.

At Long Beach, nearly half the field took advantage of the software error. Others insisted they weren't even aware the push-to-pass button was working on the restart.

During last week's test session on Indy's 2.5-mile oval, Santino Ferrucci told reporters he realized the button worked only when he tried to fend off Marcus Armstrong's pass on a Lap 61 restart. Ferrucci said he tried it and continued using it. Neither Armstrong nor Ferrucci was penalized and Palou wasn't either, even though he said he used it three times on the restart. Palou wound up winning his third race of the season.

“Let’s set the record straight,” Kyle Kirkwood said. “Everybody would have used it if they’d known it was active. Every driver would have. I wish I’d have known it was on. I would have used it.”

On Saturday, everyone has — or should have — a strategy for how to deal with the new rule.

Palou, the four-time series champ from Spain, begins race weekend as the favorite. He has a 17-point lead over Kirkwood, an American, after winning the last two races, has six straight top-five finishes at Indy including last year's sweep of the grand prix and Indianapolis 500, and is trying to become the second driver in Brickyard history to win the same race four straight times.

The only other driver with four straight wins is seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher. He won the U.S. Grand Prix every year from 2003-06 and his son, Mick, is scheduled to make his Indy debut Saturday albeit on a differently configured road course.

Palou had the fastest lap in both of Friday’s practice sessions, posting a top speed of 124.953 mph in the morning and a best lap of 124.632 in the afternoon before rain arrived, forcing qualifying to be moved to Saturday. Kirkwood had the second-fastest lap in the afternoon, 124.443, as he tries to change his road-course reputation.

“So why do I suck on road courses?” Kirkwood joked Thursday. “That’s a good question. Appreciate that. Quite honestly, we just haven’t been that good on road courses. That’s been across all of our cars in recent years. But Barber was much better. I can’t say there’s been any other ones, but I feel like we’re constantly improving.”

And getting a little power boost on Saturday's restarts certainly won't hurt.

“You might want to save it a little bit more and maybe not use it as much on in-and-out laps, trying to overtake people knowing if a restart comes at any point, you need to have it, or else you’re going to get passed,” Kirkwood said. “So people might be hoarding it a little bit more.”

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

Anunoby was injured late in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, in which he scored 24 points.

The Knicks hold a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Anunoby was having another strong game Wednesday before appearing to suffer a leg injury and motioning to come out of the game. He went to the locker room area and did not return to the bench before the end of the Knicks’ 108-102 victory.

Anunoby is averaging 21.4 points per game in the postseason while shooting 61.9% from the field and 53.8% from 3-point range.

The 6-foot-7 Anunoby, who is considered the Knicks’ top defender, injured his hamstring two years ago in the second round as the Knicks were taking a 2-0 lead over Indiana. He missed the next four games and played just a few minutes in Game 7 as the Pacers rallied to win the series.

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

The court ruled 4-3 that the state's Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize mid-decade redistricting. Voters narrowly approved the amendment on April 21, but the court's ruling renders the vote’s result meaningless.

Writing for the majority, Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote that the legislature submitted the proposed constitutional amendment to voters “in an unprecedented manner.”

“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” he wrote.

Democrats had hoped to win as many as four additional U.S. House seats under Virginia's redrawn map as part of an attempt to offset Republican redistricting done elsewhere at the urging of President Donald Trump. Later Friday, Virginia Democrats said in a filing that they intended to file an emergency appeal of the state high court's decision with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Friday's ruling, combined with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that severely weakened the Voting Rights Act, has supercharged Republicans' congressional gerrymandering advantage heading into this year's midterm elections.

“Huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia,” Trump said about the decision on his social media account.

Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the ruling was another sign of GOP momentum heading into the midterms.

“We’re on offense, and we’re going to win,” he said in a statement.

Don Scott, the Democratic speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, said Democrats respect the court’s opinion but lamented that it overturned the will of the voters: “They voted YES because they wanted to fight back against the Trump power grab.”

Suzan DelBene, chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, criticized the court majority for what she said was a decision that “cast aside the will of the voters,” but she said the people will have the final say.

“In November, they will, and they’ll power Democrats to the House majority,” she said in a statement.

A longshot Democratic appeal

Democrats are taking a legal longshot in asking the nation’s highest court to reverse the Virginia ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court tries to avoid second-guessing state courts’ interpretations of their own constitutions. In 2023, it turned down a request by North Carolina Republicans to overrule a state Supreme Court decision that blocked the GOP’s congressional map.

Still, even an unsuccessful appeal would let Democrats try to blame their failure on the conservative majority that dominates the nation's highest court, which has already infuriated the party and civil rights groups by neutering the Voting Rights Act.

Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade after each census to account for population changes. But Trump sparked an unusual flurry of mid-decade redistricting last year by encouraging Republican officials in Texas to redraw districts in a bid to win several additional U.S. House seats and hold on to their party's narrow majority in the midterm elections.

California responded with new voter-approved districts drawn to Democrats' advantage, and Utah's top court imposed a new congressional map that also helps Democrats. Meanwhile, Republicans stand to gain from new House districts passed in Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee. They could add even more after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Voting Rights Act case, which has prompted some other Republican states to consider redrawing their maps in time for this year’s elections.

Virginia is currently represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans, all elected from districts imposed by a court following a bipartisan redistricting commission’s failure to agree on a map after the 2020 census. The new districts could have given Democrats an improved chance to win all but one of the state's 11 congressional seats.

The state Supreme Court's majority was critical of the state’s redrawing of the congressional maps to benefit one political party. Those justices noted that 47% of the state’s voters supported GOP congressional candidates in 2024, but the new map could result in Democrats making up 91% of the state’s House delegation.

What was in the Democrats' map

Under the Democratic-drawn map, five districts would have been anchored in the Democratic stronghold of northern Virginia. Revisions to four other districts across Richmond, southern Virginia and Hampton Roads would have diluted the voting power of conservative blocs in those areas. And a reshaped district in parts of western Virginia would have lumped together three Democratic-leaning college towns to offset other Republican voters.

The state Supreme Court’s seven justices are appointed by the state legislature, which has toggled back and forth between Democratic, Republican and split control over recent years. Legal experts say the body doesn’t have a set ideological profile.

The case before the court focused not on the shape of the new districts but rather on the process the General Assembly used to authorize them.

Because the state’s redistricting commission was established by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, lawmakers had to propose an amendment to redraw the districts. That required approval of a resolution in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election sandwiched in between, to place the amendment on the ballot.

The legislature’s initial approval of the amendment occurred last October, during early voting for the general election, before it concluded. The legislature’s second vote on the amendment occurred after a new legislative session began in January. Lawmakers also approved a separate bill in February laying out the new districts, subject to voter approval of the constitutional amendment.

Arguments over the definition of ‘election’

Judicial arguments focused on whether the legislature’s initial approval of the amendment came too late, because early voting already had begun.

Attorney Matthew Seligman, who defended the legislature, argued that the “election” should be defined narrowly to mean the Tuesday of the general election. In that case, the legislature’s first vote on the redistricting amendment occurred before the election and was constitutional, he told judges.

But in its ruling, the Supreme Court said, “this view appears to be wholly unprecedented in Virginia’s history.”

An attorney for the plaintiffs, Thomas McCarthy, argued an “election” should be interpreted to cover the entire period during which voters can cast ballots, which lasts several weeks in Virginia. If that’s the case, he told justices, then the legislature’s initial endorsement of the redistricting amendment came too late to comply with the state constitution.

The Supreme Court agreed with that argument, writing: “The General Assembly passed the proposed constitutional amendment for the first time well after voters had begun casting ballots during the 2025 general election.”

By the time lawmakers initially endorsed the amendment, voters already had cast more than 1.3 million ballots in the general election, about 40% of the total votes ultimately cast, the court said.

The Supreme Court’s ruling affirms a decision by a judge in rural Tazewell County, in southwestern Virginia. The court had placed a hold on that ruling and allowed the redistricting vote to proceed before hearing arguments on the case.

In the dissent to Friday's ruling, Chief Justice Cleo Powell said the election for the purpose of considering the amendment does not include the early voting period.

“The majority’s definition creates an infinite voting loop that appears to have no established beginning,” she wrote, “only a definitive end: Election Day.”

Those are some of the details in a new batch of files on UFOs that the Pentagon began releasing on Friday as President Donald Trump taps into the public's long-held curiosities about "unidentified anomalous phenomena” in the broader universe. Though the Pentagon has been working on declassifying the documents for years, Trump put attention back on the topic months ago by teasing a major UFO document dump.

“Whereas previous Administrations have failed to be transparent on this subject, with these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?’ Have Fun and Enjoy!” Trump wrote Friday in a Truth Social post.

Trump's Republican administration says the public can draw its own conclusions with the information in the files, which includes old State Department cables, FBI documents and transcripts from NASA of crewed flights into space. A new Pentagon website housing the documents on UAPs has a decidedly retro feel, with black-and-white military imagery of flying objects displayed prominently on the page, with statements displayed in typewriter-like font.

The files reflect cases that the government deems unresolved, meaning that for a variety of reasons they couldn’t be explained with certainty. The Pentagon described the files as new and “never-before-seen,” though some had been made public years ago.

Experts urge caution around the release of the new files, warning that UAP videos are often misinterpreted and mischaracterized by those unfamiliar with military technology. A 2024 Pentagon report rebutted claims that the U.S. government has recovered alien technology or confirmed evidence of alien life.

Files describe numerous sightings of UAPs

The initial release is a trove of videos, other imagery and testimony that is sure to stir more speculation among those who believe we are not alone in the universe.

For instance, a State Department cable from the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan in 1994 details how one Tajik pilot and three Americans saw a brightly lit UAP while flying a jet over Kazakhstan. The object, according to the cable, was “making 90 degree turns, doing corkscrews and maneuvering in circles at great rates of speed.”

That's not the only instance of erratically moving objects cited in the document release. A military report from the Aegean Sea in 2023 cited a UAP flying just above the surface of the ocean and making “multiple 90-degree turns at an estimated 80 mph" (129 km/h).

One interview with a U.S. intelligence official details an incident last year in which the official, doing a search on a helicopter, encountered a “super-hot” orb hovering over the ground, traveling about 20 miles (32 kilometers) at a speedy clip, then spotted four or five more orbs that flared up and down.

In a 1969 debriefing of Apollo 11 crew members, the astronaut Aldrin recalled spotting several unusual sights, such as a “sizeable” object close to the moon and a “fairly bright light source” that the crew felt could be a laser.

One document details an FBI interview with someone identified as a drone pilot who, in September 2023, reported seeing a “linear object” with a light bright enough to “see bands within the light” in the sky.

“The object was visible for five to ten seconds and then the light went out and the object vanished,” according to the FBI interview.

Another file is a NASA photograph from the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, showing three dots in a triangular formation. The Pentagon says in an accompanying caption that “there is no consensus about the nature of the anomaly” but that a new, preliminary analysis indicated that it could be a “physical object.”

The documents include more than 20 video files showing unidentified objects captured by military sensors in locations from Syria and Japan to North America. The objects range from fast-moving specks captured in the distance to a football-shaped object spotted over the East China Sea in 2022. The most recent video is from Jan. 1 of this year and appears to show two circular lights flying against an inky black backdrop in North America.

Several files include military videos from the past several years that showed small ambiguous dots moving above the landscapes of Iraq, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. The white objects sometimes streaked across the screen in less than a second, while others slowly glided through the air or were followed by the camera.

Other files include written reports from U.S. military service members who were surveilling locations in the Middle East. One report described an object that was “shaped as a bouncy ball” and traveling 483 mph (777 km/h) consistently for at least seven minutes over Syria in 2023.

The object was later determined to be benign.

Among the files are hundreds of pages detailing reported sightings dating to the 1940s. A 1948 report from U.S. airmen in the Netherlands raised concerns about recurring flying saucer sightings. Swedish counterparts saw them, too, and believed they did not come from “any presently known culture on earth,” the report said.

One military video that quickly caught attention on Friday appears to show an aircraft shaped like an eight-pointed star weaving through the air. The video, from 2013 in the Middle East, is probably nothing more than a hot jet engine producing a diffraction pattern in the camera, said Sean Kirkpatrick, a former director of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which investigates UAP.

Kirkpatrick said there’s nothing unexpected in the release and warned that without analysis it will “only serve to fuel more speculation, conspiracy and arm-chair pseudoscience.”

Some call for even more transparency on UFO files

Trump has previously released records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. that revealed little beyond what was already known.

The Pentagon has been working on declassifying documents related to UFOs for years, and Congress created an office in 2022 to declassify material. Its 2024 debut report revealed hundreds of new UAP incidents but found no evidence that the U.S. government had ever confirmed a sighting of alien technology.

A small group of Republicans in Congress has pressed for further transparency, accusing the Pentagon of holding documents back. A March letter from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., demanded 46 UAP videos identified by whistleblowers. Luna said Friday those videos will be released later by the Pentagon.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., thanked Trump for “keeping his word” on transparency and disclosure.

“I would like to remind people that transparency won’t all happen at once, it will take some time,” Burchett said in a statement.

Others used Friday's release to urge further transparency into what the government knows about UAPs. The Sol Foundation, a research group focused on UAPs, pushed for passage of legislation that would force a “thorough” review of classified UAP records "with the aim of providing Americans with the full truth about longstanding government knowledge and programs concerning technologies and vehicles not of human origin.”

“While today’s new step toward a full disclosure of government knowledge concerning UAP is welcome, many more need to be taken to bring an end to the decades of secrecy by which the American people were kept in the dark,” said Peter Skafish, the foundation's executive director, and retired Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet, a former acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency.

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Associated Press writer Ben Finley in Washington contributed to this report.

The local and regional elections were widely seen as an unofficial referendum on Starmer, whose popularity has plummeted since he led the center-left Labour Party to power less than two years ago.

Voters have grown impatient for economic growth and dramatic change after 14 years of Conservative government, and many Labour lawmakers have become despairing at the government's failure to deliver.

Starmer said he took responsibility for the “very tough” results, which saw his party lose more than half the seats it was defending, but would not quit.

“The voters have sent a message about the pace of change, how they want their lives improved,” he said. “I was elected to meet those challenges, and I’m not going to walk away from those challenges and plunge the country into chaos.”

Reform UK, led by the veteran nationalist politician Nigel Farage, won hundreds of local council seats in working-class areas in England’s north, such as Sunderland, that were solid Labour turf for decades, and also made gains from the Conservatives in areas like the county of Essex, east of London. Reform, which ran on an anti-establishment and anti-immigration message, did particularly well in areas that backed the U.K. to leave the European Union in the historic Brexit vote in 2016.

Farage said the results in England, as well as those in Scotland and Wales, where elections to their semiautonomous parliaments were held, marked a “historic change in British politics.”

Labour also lost ground to the Green Party, whose popularity has risen under self-described “eco populist” leader Zack Polanski. The Greens beat Labour to win the mayoral race in London’s Hackney borough and gained hundreds of council seats in urban centers, including in London and Manchester, as well as university towns, such as Cambridge. The Conservative Party also lost ground, with the centrist Liberal Democrats making some gains.

A handful of Labour lawmakers urged Starmer to quit but Cabinet ministers cautioned the party not to topple the prime minister, while acknowledging the results were a wake-up call for the party.

Results reflect fragmentation of UK politics

Tony Travers, professor of government at the London School of Economics, said the elections show established parties struggling “to respond to populists on the left and right who appear to provide painless and simple solutions to intractable political and economic problems.”

The results reflect a fragmentation of British politics after decades of domination by Labour and the Conservatives, and make the outcome of the country's next national election hard to predict.

John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said Britain is entering a new political era.

“Even Reform are probably not quite at 30% of the vote, so the fracturing of British politics is underlined by these results,” he told the BBC.

Scotland and Wales go their own way

In Scotland and Wales, nationalist parties came first in elections to the Parliaments in Edinburgh and Cardiff, which have an array of powers, including on health and tax.

In Scotland, the Scottish National Party, which has governed since 2007 and campaigned on a promise to hold another referendum on Scotland leaving the U.K., won the most seats. Because it fell short of a majority, analysts said it's less likely it will push for one during the coming five-year parliamentary term. With just a handful of seats remaining to be allocated, Labour is vying with Reform for second.

And in Wales, Plaid Cymru secured a historic breakthrough, bringing an end to Labour's unbroken 27-year run in power since the legislature was formed. The party, which has an ambition for Wales to leave the U.K. but no plan to do so anytime soon, fell short of a majority but will likely form the new government.

The huge reverse for Labour in Wales, which saw its leader lose her seat and the party drop to third behind Reform, is perhaps the party's most striking reverse and the one that may hurt the most.

“Welsh Labour has today suffered a catastrophic result,” said outgoing Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan. “It ends a century of Labour winning in Wales and the party will have to take a really hard look at itself.”

Starmer's future is under threat

Starmer’s popularity has plunged after repeated missteps and policy U-turns such as welfare reform. His government has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living — tasks made harder by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has choked off oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

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

The election results could trigger a challenge from a high-profile rival such as Health Secretary Wes Streeting, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner or Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. Alternatively, Starmer could face pressure from the party to set a timetable for his departure.

“I don’t think Keir Starmer should survive these results,” said Labour lawmaker Jonathan Brash, who represents Hartlepool in Parliament. “We have to be bolder, and we have to go further. And quite frankly, we need new leadership in order to achieve that.”

Even if Starmer survives for now, many in the party doubt he will lead the party into the next national election, which must be held by 2029.

A new Orange County bike and pedestrian safety study released last month found 981 crashes at intersections along Hiawassee Road between Silver Star Road and Balboa Drive from 2019 to 2024. Only 37 of those crashes involved a bicycle or pedestrian.

62% or 607 of those crashes happened at intersection. 337 of those crashes resulted in injury, 3 of which were deaths.

Where Hiawassee meets Silver Star, is one of the most dangerous intersections, according to the report. From 2019 to 2024 — 465 crashes happened at this intersection.

There were also 98 crashes at Balboa Drive/Vernon Street and 44 at Hennepin Boulevard during that time according to the report.

“The report also says this intersection ranks fourth on the county’s top 30 corridors in its high-injury network.”

“That’s Hiawassee Point. I got hit making a left into that area,” said Lakiesha Dixon

In 2024, Dixon and her son were taken to the hospital after they were hit on the other side of Silver Star Road, where Hiawassee Road connects with Coral Cove Drive.

“It was a very scary experience. My son and I have PTSD as a result of that crash. And soon after our crash, there started to be fatal crashes at that same intersection.”

In 2025, eight people were killed in crashes along Hiawassee Road, including some at intersections. Dixon says that’s why improvements are needed at every intersection along Hiawassee.

“The visibility is very poor because people are going over hills and they can’t see downhill. By the time they can see, it’s too late. They’ve already hit another vehicle,” she said.

Orange County District 6 Commissioner Mike Scott said the county plans to use the data to prioritize safety improvements along the corridor.

County officials are working to add speed-feedback signs, new “Signal Ahead” warnings and updated road markings in the area since Dixon’s crash.

The Transportation Planning Division has submitted a request for a safety study north of Silver Star Road (like Hiawassee Road south of Silver Star Road) to be budgeted next fiscal year.

The Board of County Commissioners sets the budget in September ahead of the fiscal year start on October 1^st.

The effort comes in the wake of the collapse of Sloth World, an Orlando facility that housed dozens of sloths under conditions authorities have linked to severe neglect and malnutrition.

Records obtained by News 6 from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services show at least 55 sloths have died in connection with the facility.

The Central Florida Zoo took in 13 of the surviving animals, three of which have since passed away.

Among the survivors is Mr. Ginger, the smallest and youngest sloth in the group. The Central Florida Zoo shared an update Friday confirming he remains in critical condition and intensive care, but zoo staff couldn’t resist sharing a few photos of the tiny fighter.

In one photo, Mr. Ginger basks in the Florida sunshine on a good day. In another, he sits patiently on a scale while veterinarians check his weight. In a third, he investigates a green bean between naps, nearly blending in with his plush toys.

“Thank you, Central Florida and beyond, for all of your support,” the zoo wrote in its update.

Sanford Main Street board member Patty Mahany says the situation struck a personal chord.

“Wild animals need to stay in the wild,” Mahany said. “If they’re going to come out of the wild, they need to come to the most supreme, accredited zoos. Sloth World was a bad idea from the get-go.”

Mahany was among the first to ask what the Sanford community could do to help. She reached out to Paul Williams, owner of West End Trading Company and a well-known local fundraiser, with a simple question.

“I said, ‘Paul, how can we raise some money for this? What can we do?” Mahany recalled. “And he came up with this idea immediately.”

Within days, Williams designed a T-shirt bearing the slogan “Help Us Hang In There” — featuring the Central Florida Zoo’s official logo — and the Sanford Main Street initiative was born. The entire effort, from concept to product, came together in less than a week.

“He came up with a great design, we got with the zoo, they approved everything,” Mahany said. “This is the official zoo logo, and we just started rolling from there.”

The shirts, priced at $35 in unisex sizes, are available at the Sanford Welcome Center at 230 E. First St. in downtown Sanford.

A second run of shirts — including youth sizes — is expected to arrive Friday afternoon after the first batch of 100 sold out quickly. Sanford Main Street is also working to make the shirts available for shipping.

Mahany was clear that buyers can feel confident their money is going directly to sloth care. Sanford Main Street has a written contract with the zoo guaranteeing that the proceeds from shirt sales go toward the animals’ medical care and rehabilitation.

“If you buy this shirt, it’s going to the right place — it’s going to the zoo,” Mahany said.

She also issued a warning to would-be supporters about unauthorized shirt sellers who have not contacted the zoo, have not received approval, and have not committed to donating proceeds.

“People need to be careful when they make donations,” Mahany said. “They need to donate directly to the zoo, or they need to buy the shirt from us because we have a contract in writing with the zoo.”

Mahany said the financial burden on the Central Florida Zoo has been significant. In addition to existing staff working extended hours, the zoo has brought in outside veterinarians and sloth experts — including specialists flown in from South America — to help care for the surviving animals.

“It’s almost like a mass casualty,” Mahany said. “The veterinary care is very expensive. The staffing, the flights in and out of South America — they’re doing everything they can do to save these sloths and give them the life that they deserve.”

Mahany added that even those who cannot afford to buy a shirt can still support the zoo in meaningful ways.

“Just taking your child to the zoo for the summer, taking your kid out there for the day — ticket money helps them just equally,” she said. “Think about these for little gifts. And if you can’t do anything else, just keep a good thought for the zoo, for the staff.”

The expansion of March Madness and the $300 million in extra revenue that comes with it through opening sponsorships to beer, wine and liquor companies offered a brief reprieve from the steady drip of headlines that underscore big-picture problems confronting college sports in an era of tightening budgets and revenue sharing with athletes.

Among them:

— A title-contending tennis program at Arkansas is disbanded, while golf teams at Wichita State also get the ax as part of the purge of multiple sports programs nationwide.

— The Big 12 taps into private equity for loans, while Duke cuts a streaming deal with Amazon expected to bring millions more to the Blue Devils.

— The College Sports Commission, which is in charge of making sure everyone follows the rules regarding the hundreds of millions of dollars now being paid to players, gets challenged in court and in arbitration while waiting for schools to sign off on a long-awaited agreement that cements its authority.

All of those issues have one thing in common: money. The NCAA's move to expand its tournament brackets to 76 teams is about that, too. Of the $300 million in extra revenue projected over the next six seasons, about $131 million will be distributed to the conferences whose schools make the tournaments.

“The NCAA and conferences and schools generating revenue in responsible ways is important in the current environment with revenue sharing,” said Dan Gavitt, who oversees Division I basketball at the NCAA. “That wasn't the sole reason, I can assure you that. But it was an important consideration.”

Is a tennis program more valuable than a wide receiver?

One of the most trenchant questions sports attorney Gabe Feldman asked North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham during a recent podcast was if Arkansas, after cutting its tennis programs, “can't find a way to make it work, how can Arkansas State and everybody else?”

Cunningham's basic answer was that the ultimate solution will involve a system in which the money flows in both directions.

“One is you will be paid to play your game and other is you’ll have to pay if you’re going to play your game,” he said.

If recent headlines are any indication, tennis and golf players will be among those who will be paying to play.

The tennis programs at Arkansas joined those at North Dakota, Saint Louis and Illinois State (men's only) that were discontinued this season. The cuts at Arkansas stood out because this involves a team in the Southeastern Conference, the second-richest conference in college sports behind the Big Ten.

The Razorbacks' tennis programs cost about $2.5 million — around the cost to sign a high-profile wide receiver — men's coach Jay Udwadia told Front Office Sports.

“My initial reaction was, ‘That’s funny. April fools, right?'" Udwadia said of his reaction upon hearing the news.

Turns out, his was one of about 20 programs eliminated this year across all college sports — a cutback that figures to hit Olympic sports, and the U.S. Olympic pipeline, the hardest.

“You want to see Olympic sports survive and thrive,” said Paia LaPalombara, a former college administrator who is now partner at the Church, Church, Hittle and Antrim law firm specializing on college sports deals. “But those are going to be the ones generally on the chopping block.”

Schools are tapping into different ways to expand revenue

Schools and conferences are showing an endless willingness to discover new ways to make ends meet.

Last week, Duke signed a landmark deal to stream three of its basketball games on Amazon — a deal believed to be worth millions and one that could be a sign of things to come.

When Georgia and Florida State abruptly canceled their home-and-home football series set for 2027 and ‘28, they said they were seeking to reschedule a neutral-site game. Reporting emerged that the schools were looking to cut a deal with a streamer, as Duke had done. It’s the sort of arrangement a smaller school could never make, and one that further separates the haves from the have-nots in college sports.

“Ultimately, it’s about revenue generation,” said James Strode, a professor of sport management at Ohio University who focuses on changes in college sports. “We're now in a situation where the separation and divide between big programs, Power Four programs, and Group of Six programs is even getting wider."

In another move that felt novel a mere three years ago but now seems like business-as-usual, the Big 12 inked a deal with private equity firms that availed its 16 schools of up to $30 million each in a line of credit.

Texas Tech was among the Big 12 schools not interested. The school's regent chair, Cody Campbell, is a billionaire who last year said equity deals were not a permanent solution and basically amounted to a “payday loan.”

NIL regulator off to a bumpy start with more questions looming

Who's keeping track of it all?

That's supposed to be the College Sports Commission — the entity formed out of the House settlement that is tasked with vetting most of the payments going from schools and their affiliates to the players.

The CSC has introduced an approach that LaPalombara said “has growing pains at the moment.” The difficulty comes in two places:

— Schools' reluctance to sign a “participation agreement” that was intended to cement the CSC's status as the main regulator when it comes to NIL compensation.

— Arbitration cases stemming from deals the CSC has rejected. The most important one involves 18 football players at Nebraska over whether the CSC can exercise oversight over third-party NIL deals cut through schools' multimedia-rights holders, the likes of which are an increasingly popular way to execute the deals. A ruling in favor of the CSC could trigger litigation.

“That's the true test of the efficacy of the CSC as an actual governing body,” LaPalombara said. “If an institution or a student-athlete doesn't receive the outcome they desire, it's whether they sue and what the outcome of the lawsuits will be. That will be the true test of whether the CSC can continue in its current form.”

___

AP March Madness: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes in Phoenix on Friday accepted an agreement in which Preston Henry Tolth pleaded guilty to robbing Begay. Under the agreement, Tolth was credited with three years’ time served and prosecutors dropped an assault charge and agreed not to prosecute him in the future if Begay’s case develops.

The sentencing effectively closes a yearslong case that has been troubled by a lack of physical evidence and the suppression of a confession from Tolth, who also is Navajo.

During Friday's hearing, family members urged Rayes to reject the agreement. Begay's niece tearfully reiterated that they didn’t want Tolth released without him leading investigators to Begay.

“A 62-year-woman is still nowhere to be found. No amount of time is enough if he won’t tell us where she is,” said Seraphine Warren, who later left the courtroom when it was apparent the judge was moving forward with the sentencing.

A beloved grandmother of nine and talented weaver of Navajo-style pictorial rugs, Begay was 62 when she vanished from her home in Sweetwater, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation in June 2021. Tolth’s sentencing comes amid a week of awareness for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples movement, which highlights the disproportionate number of Native Americans who are missing or have been killed.

In the years since Begay went missing, her family members have organized searches, pushed law enforcement for answers and even walked across the country to keep a public spotlight on her case. Advocates have compared Begay’s case to that of Gabby Petito, a young white woman whose disappearance the same summer drew a frenzy of news coverage, social media attention and law enforcement action that ultimately led to the discovery of her remains in Wyoming.

Navajo Nation police and FBI agents identified Tolth as a suspect within days of her disappearance. Tolth, whose father was dating Begay’s sister, initially denied any involvement. In a later interrogation, an FBI agent lied to Tolth, telling him police found Begay’s truck and were processing evidence that would implicate him. In response, Tolth waived his right to remain silent and confessed to stealing Begay’s pickup truck, beating her and leaving her for dead on the side of the road.

It is typically legal for U.S. law enforcement to fabricate evidence during interrogations. But Rayes ruled that in this instance, the FBI agent failed to “scrupulously honor” Tolth’s initial refusal to speak and threw the confession out. A panel of appellate court judges agreed.

In the absence of that confession, U.S. Attorney Tracy Van Buskirk said Friday that the plea agreement was the government's best attempt at securing a reasonable sentence. Speaking about Tolth’s effort to help investigators find Begay, Van Buskirk said Tolth wasn’t familiar with the Sweetwater area and had been drinking alcohol on the night when he robbed her.

In court Friday, Begay’s son Gerald Begay called the agreement a “failure.”

“It shouldn’t be that way,” Gerald Begay told the judge.

Jane McClellan, a lawyer for Tolth, said her client acknowledged robbing Begay, showed officers where he thought he might have left her on the night of the crime and doesn't have further information.

“He is remorseful for his actions,” McClellan said. “He has taken responsibility for his actions.”

In an unusual move, Rayes rejected a previous plea agreement that called for Tolth to be released after three years of time served, saying it was overly lenient. Begay's family members had presented anguished testimony and said they would prefer to the case went to trial.

Navajo Nation public safety director Michael Henderson said finding Begay is still a priority for tribal law enforcement.

“One of the hindrances is that the federal investigation is still pending,” Henderson said.

Once federal law enforcement officially close the case, Henderson said, Navajo Nation police may gain access to information that will aid their search.

April Curley, a former Google employee, had sued the tech giant for racial discrimination, saying it engages in a “pattern and practice” of unfair treatment for its Black workers. The suit claimed the company steered them into lower-level and lower-paid jobs and subjected them to a hostile work environment if they speak out. Other former Google workers also joined the suit, which later received class action status.

“This case is about accountability, plain and simple,” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented the plaintiffs, in a statement. “For far too long, Black employees in the tech industry have faced barriers that limit opportunity. This settlement is a significant step toward holding one of the world’s most powerful companies accountable and making clear that discriminatory practices cannot and will not be tolerated.”

The settlement was announced in May 2025 and granted final approval this week. Google said when the settlement was reached that it strongly disagrees with the allegations that it treated anyone improperly and remains "committed to paying, hiring, and leveling all employees consistently.”

The lawsuit, echoed years of complaints from Black employees at the company. That includes prominent artificial intelligence scholar Timnit Gebru, who said she was pushed out in 2020 after a dispute over a research paper examining the societal dangers of an emerging branch of artificial intelligence.

The 2022 lawsuit claimed that Mountain View, California-based Google viewed Black job candidates “through harmful racial stereotypes” and claimed that hiring managers deemed Black candidates “not ‘Googly’ enough, a plain dog whistle for race discrimination.”

In addition, according to the suit, interviewers “hazed” and undermined Black candidates and hired Black candidates into lower-paying and lower-level roles with less advancement potential based on their race and racial stereotypes.

The settlement, which does not constitute admission of liability by Google, also includes a commitment to pay equity analyses, pay transparency measures, and limits on mandatory arbitration for employment-related disputes through at least August 2026, according to Crump.

The tech company targeted is called Instructure and they operate the online learning platform called Canvas. Canvas is used by major universities like Harvard and Princeton, along with K-12 districts. Some users who tried logging in this week were redirected to a page carrying an ominous message from a hacking group calling itself “ShinyHunters.”

UCF student Samuel Gross is among the millions potentially impacted. He worries the outage could ripple into high-stakes issues like financial aid since some programs require proof of class activity early in a term to release funds.

Gross learned something was wrong after receiving an e-mail from his provost. While his own exams and assignments for the spring semester were already completed, he says the disruption would be far more serious for students graduating or taking final exams this week.

“I think it’s really important that they get this up and running because Canvas is one of those things that we use for everything,” said Gross. “It is the ultimate tool for colleges and universities from things like simple quizzes to syllabuses being posted and as summer begins to kick-off in the next couple of weeks here, I really couldn’t imagine college without it.”

Orange County Public Schools, which also uses Canvas, released a statement saying the data accessed may include names, email addresses, student identification numbers and some private messages sent within the platform. The district says there is no evidence that passwords, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, or financial information were involved.

Hackers have reportedly warned they will leak information unless the company pays, setting a deadline of May 12. In all, an estimated 9,000 schools worldwide could be impacted.

Seminole State College also confirmed it uses Canvas and says it is monitoring the situation and working with Instructure on next steps.

Leaders are now urging users to be on the lookout for phishing E-mails and report anything suspicious to your school immediately. If hackers did access personal information and class schedules, experts warn scams could become more targeted and more convincing.

“Drawn to Life,” an exclusive collaboration between Cirque du Soleil and Disney, drops audiences into a story centered on Julie, a young girl who loses her father, an animator, and discovers he left behind an unfinished animation.

“It is a story of a young lady who loses her father at a young age,” said Kelly Straczynski, the show’s artistic director. “It’s passing the legacy of his animation and getting her to continue the unfinished book that he was creating.”

Straczynski said the production aims to do more than impress viewers with strength and spectacle. It is designed to make them feel something.

“What makes that even stronger is to be able to combine that with storytelling,” she said. “If you don’t emotionally move me on a journey, I just think you look incredible.”

That emotional pull, Straczynski said, can land differently depending on who is watching, children soaking in the visuals and older audience members connecting the story to their own memories.

The show’s performers bring that journey to life without relying on a traditional script, instead leaning on physical storytelling, dance and acrobatics. That approach requires artists with elite technique and an ability to connect.

“We hire professionals at the top of their fields,” said Andre, who performs the role of the mother and also serves as an artist coach. “We are looking for professionals with strong foundation, amazing technique, but we also do look for a mindset to be creatively risky, be able and willing to play, and connect directly with the audience.”

For aerial hoop artists Liz Fraley and Susan Scova, the work is both technical and emotional, a performance that can’t be faked once you’re suspended above the stage.

“It’s transferring movement and dance in the air using an apparatus,” Fraley said.

Scova described it as “something physical and also emotional altogether.”

“You really have to feel it in your body. If you don’t feel it, you get lost,” Scova said.

The audience often sees only minutes of an act, but the artists say those moments are built on years of training, repetition and safety checks.

What viewers don’t see is the backstage machinery that makes the transitions seamless. David Wallace, technical director for “Drawn to Life” and a Cirque veteran of 28 years, said the theater was originally built for Cirque’s “La Nouba,” and retrofitting it for a different show came with challenges.

“One of the biggest challenges we had technically was to make all of the scenic elements work in the space that we had,” Wallace said.

Wallace pointed to scenic pieces that rise from below the stage, then disappear to keep the floor flat for the next scene. Some elements function as tributes to Disney history, including a piece inspired by Mary Blair, a pioneering artist whose bold, modernist color palette helped shape mid century Disney design.

“It is an ode to Mary Blair, one of the first female Imagineers with the Walt Disney Company,” Wallace said, noting Blair’s signature use of “bold colors” and “a lot of primaries.”

Even with careful planning, Wallace said, live theater demands flexibility. If a performer is injured or an act has to be skipped at the last second, teams must quickly re cue the show.

“What happens backstage is it looks like complete chaos, but it’s absolutely organized,” he said.

For guests in the seats, the result is a production that blends Disney nostalgia with Cirque intensity, a show built to be revisited.

“There is so much happening all at once,” Straczynski said. “You can come back and you’ll see a different show.”

You can purchase tickets to see Cirque du Soleil’s Drawn to Life at Disney Springs here.

Elizabeth Polo was in a creative writing class at the University of Maryland late Thursday afternoon when a classmate shouted, “Canvas got hacked.” A message from a hacking collective flashed on her computer screen.

“Our whole class just like was like freaking out about it,” said Polo, a junior. “Our poor professor was trying to get everyone to calm down but it was just kind of chaos.”

Across academia, the outage set off panic and confusion as students and faculty members found themselves locked out of a platform they rely on to manage grades and access course notes and assignments. Colleges scrambled to reschedule final exams as students lost any way to access materials they needed to study.

Instructure, the company behind Canvas, said in an update late Thursday that the system was available for most users.

“Instructure discovered the unauthorized actor involved in our ongoing security incident made changes to the pages that appeared when some students and teachers were logged in,” Instructure said Friday in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, we immediately took Canvas offline to contain access and further investigate.”

Instructure also said it confirmed that the unauthorized actor exploited an issue related to its Free-For-Teacher accounts. The company has temporarily shut down those accounts.

Instructure did not say whether it paid a ransom nor has it said what happened with the compromised data.

Rich in digitized data, the nation’s schools are prime targets for far-flung criminal hackers, who are assiduously locating and scooping up sensitive files that not long ago were committed to paper in locked cabinets. Past attacks have hit Minneapolis Public Schools and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Hackers breached data days before the outage

A hacking group called ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach at Canvas, said Luke Connolly, a threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft. The hacking group posted online that nearly 9,000 schools worldwide were affected, with billions of private messages and other records accessed, Connolly said.

The message that flashed on Polo's computer screen urged individual schools to reach out directly to the hacking group to negotiate a settlement and threatened to leak data if they didn’t. She said that Canvas later took that message down, replacing it with a message saying the site was undergoing scheduled maintenance.

Just before 1 a.m. Friday, Polo was able to submit an assignment on Canvas, but she now worries personal data has been compromised.

Canvas went down just as deadlines were hitting

The outage happened just as a deadline arrived for semester-long projects in one of Gwyneth Doland’s journalism classes at the University of New Mexico.

“They were a little hyperventilating,” recalled Doland, who extended the deadlines. “None of these platforms are fail-proof. I’m glad that they got that lesson.”

That the attack came with finals looming came as no surprise to Huseyin Can Yuceel, the security research lead at Picus Labs.

“Timing is everything, because they want to inflict pain as much as possible,” he said, “so they can extort money out of it.”

Teachers said they had to find workarounds to help students study for exams and submit final assignments. Some schools, such as the University of Texas at San Antonio, announced they were pushing back finals scheduled for Friday in response to the outage.

Rod Uzat, a professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Texas Permian Basin, pushed back the posting of grades by a day.

“The concern is for those of us who were doing the grading if there’s anything left,” Uzat said.

Rhongho Jang, a computer science professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, was finalizing grades for a class of 94 students when the system went down. He keeps paper copies of the student exams, but all of the semester assignments, which make up half of the final grade, are done online.

If those assignments and grades could not be recovered, Jang would have given his students full credit.

“I didn’t want to penalize them,” he said. “We cannot judge based on the data we don’t have. The final responsibility is still on the server.”

A reliance on tech makes schools vulnerable

The breach underscored how much schools depend on outside companies' digital platforms to keep their operations running.

“What it boils down to is concentration risk,” said Joseph Blankenship, a vice president and research director at Forrester. He said any space, including education, is particularly vulnerable when there’s only one or maybe two key providers hosting essential technology.

Allan Liska, of the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, said the outage did appear deliberate, not a glitch, and that Instructure was trying to figure out how widespread the problem was and make sure the hackers were no longer inside its system.

“There’s no indication at this point that any ransom has been paid,” Liska said. “And it likely is still a little too early for a ransom to have been paid. You know, normally these negotiations kind of drag on for a while.”

Connolly described ShinyHunters as a loose affiliation of teenagers and young adults based in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. The group also has been tied to other attacks, including Live Nation’s Ticketmaster subsidiary. ShinyHunters posted online that it was not commenting on the Canvas incident.

ShinyHunters, or an offshoot, also was behind a previous smaller breach of Instructure, Liska said. Sometimes small breaches reveal weaknesses that threat actors later exploit in future leaks, said Yuceel, who likened it to a leak in a boat.

“You fixed it, but you already have the water in the boat,” he said.

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This story has been updated to correct the name of the cybersecurity company to Emsisoft, not Emisoft. ___

Associated Press writer Wyatte Grantham-Philips contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press’ education 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.

According to an arrest affidavit, hidden cameras were discovered inside the restroom used by Barnie’s Coffee & Tea customers on Park Avenue on March 22, March 25, and again on April 28.

Investigators arrested 27-year-old Nicolas Sebastian Esparza on a charge of digital voyeurism.

Police say surveillance video showed Esparza placing a hidden camera inside the restroom. According to the report, one of his law professors at Barry University later identified him from surveillance images.

Investigators say one memory card contained video of 18 people inside the restroom, including men, women, and children.

News of the arrest is alarming some regular customers at the popular Winter Park coffee shop.

“I think it’s disgusting and appalling that in this day and age you have to be careful, to be leery of the bathrooms you use,” said Niki Estrada, who was visiting Barnie’s on Tuesday.

Estrada said the case now has her thinking differently about privacy in public spaces.

“You kind of got me thinking I should get some sort of device trying to detect where the cameras could be hidden,” she said.

Another customer told News 6 she believes businesses should take more responsibility for preventing hidden cameras inside restrooms.

“That should fall on the business owners,” she said. “You’re running an establishment, you have bathrooms, you need to do your due diligence.”

News 6 contacted Barnie’s management for comment. A manager initially responded, “Thank you for the inquiry. We will let law enforcement provide any comments.”

However, Barnie’s released the following statement on Friday, saying it was their managers who found the cameras in the bathroom, which is shared with other businesses in the area.

Barnie’s Coffee & Tea Company has released the following statement. Barnie’s Coffee values the safety of its customers and employees above everything else. We have had a presence in the community for 45 years, and we consider Winter Park our home.

Up to this point, Barnie’s has refrained from commenting on this incident to allow law enforcement to continue its work. At this time, we would like to clarify some important points.

Barnie’s management discovered a camera hidden in the common area bathroom located off Greeneda Court on March 22 and immediately alerted local law enforcement, who were very responsive. Since this camera was found, management has had a policy of checking for cameras regularly and on two further occasions, cameras were found by Barnie’s employees and immediately reported to law enforcement. The common area bathroom is used by patrons of multiple businesses on Park Avenue. It is accessed through the Greeneda courtyard and is not in Barnie’s cafe.

The accused is not a Barnie’s employee and has never been a Barnie’s employee. He has no affiliation with the company.

We are concerned for the victims of these incidents. We support local law enforcement and trust that they will act within the law to protect our community.

Barnie's Coffee & Tea Company

Barry University also sent News 6 a statement saying:

“Barry University is aware of an off-campus incident involving a law student and continues to assist law enforcement as appropriate. Due to privacy laws, we cannot comment on any student’s enrollment status.”

The News 6 Neighborhood Network also received messages from viewers concerned they may have visited the restroom during the time investigators say the cameras were placed there.

One woman told News 6 she and her mother regularly visit Barnie’s on weekends. After contacting Winter Park police, she said investigators were “very helpful” and eager for any information connected to the case.

She now urges anyone who believes they may have been recorded — or who may have information that could help investigators — to contact Winter Park police immediately.

Connie began working at Walt Disney World Resort as a teenager, turning an early job into a career that has stretched more than three decades. Over the years, she worked across parks and resorts before moving into workforce management, supporting cast members behind the scenes.

Along the way, she was also raising two children on her own — and the parks became part of their everyday life.

“My kids grew up with me here in the parks all the time with them,” Connie says.

As her children got older, that connection deepened into something more permanent: They chose to apply to work for the same company that helped shape their childhood.

“When they became adults, they decided they wanted to come and work for the company as well,” Connie says. “My son actually works here at Portland’s French Quarter in the food and beverage location, and my daughter’s a pool attendant for this region,” she added, referring to Disney’s Port Orleans Resort area.

Now, Connie says she’s able to stop by and see them on the job — a small, everyday moment that carries the weight of everything it took to get there.

“I am so proud of them and glad to get to see them here in the resorts,” she says. “I’ll come out and visit them sometimes just to say hi.”

Connie’s son, Matthew, works in food and beverage at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort while pursuing pastry and culinary arts at Valencia College through Disney Aspire, the company’s education investment program. Her daughter, Aiyana, recently joined the resort and is studying business administration through Disney Aspire, with hopes of pursuing a leadership role.

For Aiyana, seeing her mother’s long tenure helped turn Disney from a childhood memory into a goal.

“It’s really awesome because seeing how my mom grew with the company, inspires me to grow with the company like her,” she says. “We have so many opportunities to do so many different roles, and get to learn very, like, a lot from everything.”

The pride runs both ways, and the emotion can catch them off guard.

“Oh, my gosh, I’m going to cry again. She’s a hero. She’s my world. She’s just very strong. And I just love her so much,” Aiyana says.

Matthew echoes that gratitude.

“I’m proud of you. And thank you for everything you do for providing me with growing up. You’re the best,” he says.

Beyond the milestone of working under the same umbrella, the family describes the everyday closeness — the shared experiences, the way their personalities fit together.

“Working in the same company as mom has been wonderful,” Matthew says.

Connie, too, talks about them with an ease that comes from years of knowing every version of her kids — from little ones in the parks to adults building their own paths.

“She is so outgoing and friendly, and, she keeps me on my toes, so that’s good,” Matthew says of his mom.

Connie laughs about her son’s calm demeanor.

“He’s so laid back and just a chill kid. Well, kid, he’s an adult now, right? I don’t know. Just hanging out with him is a lot of fun,” she says.

On Mother’s Day, Disney is spotlighting cast member families like Connie’s as an example of how careers can become legacies — and how a mother’s determination can open doors her children one day choose to walk through themselves.

For Connie, the wish is simple.

“Just want happiness and success for both of them,” she says.

This Mother’s Day, their story is a reminder that a mother’s impact is often measured in the quiet, steady work that happens long before any milestone is celebrated. To all the moms who show up day after day, who work hard to provide, to guide and to lift their families forward: Thank you. Your strength, sacrifice and love help shape the next generation, and your legacy lives on in the lives you’ve built.

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

Let’s start with some mind-boggling numbers.

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

Funds can come from a variety of places, including:

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

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

How does all this money end up with the government?

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

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

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

This process is called escheatment.

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

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

What people may not realize

This is not government money.

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

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

Assets will go unclaimed for a variety of reasons:

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

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

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

The easiest – and safest – way to look for funds

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

For the federal government, start here.

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

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

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

Don’t fall for it.

Here are a few red flags to watch for:

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

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

Are my funds taxable?

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

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

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

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

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

One hundred percent of what you’re owed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In April, Holly Hill police arrested Cari Miller, 36, in connection to mail thefts at 63 addresses.

About a week later, Yania Romero, 40, and Yohan Mayo, 36, were arrested for stealing mail in Volusia County, according to Port Orange Police. Court documents stated the vehicle registered to Romero was identified from nearby cameras where mail was stolen in Seminole County in 2024 and in Orange County in 2025.

Those recent arrests prompted a deeper look into where mail theft is reported. News 6 requested data from the federal government for 2025 and 2026, broken down by ZIP code.

We uncovered the 34736 ZIP code- covering Groveland- reported 18 mail thefts last year, the most in Central Florida, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Other high-incident ZIP codes were spread across Osceola and Polk counties.

Six mail thefts were reported in the 34758 (Kissimmee/Poinciana) and 33897 (Davenport) ZIP codes. Search the map below to find how many thefts, if any, were reported in your ZIP code in 2025 and 2026.

[INTERACTIVE: Click to see where mail thefts were reported]

Artificial intelligence was used to create this map.

Credit: Perplexity

Rick Johnsten, Postal Inspector, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, told News 6 criminals are looking for checks, gift cards, as well as replacement credit and debit cards in the mail.

“When it comes to credit cards and debit cards, you know, once they get them, they try to spend them as quickly as they can before you notice that they’ve been stolen,” said Johnsten. “With checks, they have to alter them usually to whatever name they want, if they can, and have that person deposit it.”

This is called check washing — when criminals change the payee names and the dollar amounts on checks and fraudulently deposit them.

Mail theft is not a new crime, but Johnsten told News 6 it is getting more elaborate.

“They’re using, you know, online technologies and chat rooms and stuff like that to sell some of these items,” he said.

According to Johnsten, criminals sometimes sell the checks they stole.

“The safest way still to communicate with other people is the mail,” Johnsten said, “There are some bad actors out there that do occasionally get in the way of mail delivery and we investigate those incidents thoroughly.”

News 6 discovered 30 mail theft cases have been prosecuted in Central Florida by the United States Middle District Court of Florida over the past three years.

Some of the defendants ended up with probation. Jordan Jax and Tarod Goodman Jr. were sentenced to three years’ probation. According to court documents, they used a postal key to access USPS collection boxes in Marion County and steal mail. Prosecutors claimed both men stole mail, then altered and cashed checks for themselves.

Others were sentenced to years in prison. Jamel Williams was sentenced to four years and six months in federal prison for conspiracy, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. Levar Baker was sentenced to three years and six months in federal prison for the same offenses. Prosecutors stated the men stole mail, altered checks, and then deposited those checks at banks across Central Florida.

There are things you can do to help prevent mail theft. Johnsten recommends checking your mail every day, leave nothing inside your mailbox. You can also sign up for Informed Delivery, a free program by the USPS which sends updates and pictures of your incoming mail.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% to an all-time high after a report said U.S. employers added 115,000 more jobs than they cut last month, even though the war with Iran is raising fuel costs and uncertainty for everyone. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up by 12 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.7% to its own record.

While hiring slowed from March’s level, it was still nearly double what economists expected. And it helped the S&P 500 close out a sixth straight winning week, its longest such streak since 2024. The U.S. stock market has been blasting higher since late March, in part on hopes that the war will not mean a worst-case scenario for the global economy and that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen to allow oil tankers to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf again.

It’s still to be determined if those hopes are warranted or just wishful. U.S. forces fired on and disabled two Iranian oil tankers on Friday after exchanging fire with Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz overnight. It’s the latest flare-up in fighting to raise doubts about the tenuous month-old ceasefire that the United States has insisted is still in effect.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil rose 1.2% to settle at $101.29 following the latest volleys of fire. That’s below its heights above $119 during the war, but it’s still much more expensive than its roughly $70 level from late February before the fighting began.

One big factor helping to support the U.S. stock market despite the war’s uncertainties is the strong profits that companies have been reporting for the start of 2026.

Monster Beverage jumped 13.6% after the energy drink maker joined the parade of companies topping analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue for the latest quarter. It benefited from strong growth outside the United States, and total net sales from there made up about 45% of its total, the highest percentage ever for the company.

Akamai Technologies leaped even more, 26.6%, after its results squeaked past expectations. It announced a $1.8 billion deal to provide cloud infrastructure services to an unnamed client over seven years. The cybersecurity and cloud computing company is benefiting from the surge in investment in artificial-intelligence technology.

Voracious demand for AI helped CoreWeave report revenue for the latest quarter that was more than double what it was a year earlier, but its net loss was worse than analysts expected. It also gave a forecasted range for revenue in the current quarter whose midpoint fell below analysts’ expectations. The stock of the company, which offers AI computing power to customers over the cloud, fell 11.4%.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 61.82 points to 7,398.93. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 12.19 to 49,609.16, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 440.88 to 26,247.08.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia. Germany’s DAX lost 1.3%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.9% for two of the bigger losses.

South Korea’s Kospi was an exception, and it inched up 0.1% to another all-time high.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased and remained lower after a preliminary report suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers is stuck near its lowest level since 2022. Consumers told the survey from the University of Michigan they’re concerned about both high gasoline prices and tariffs, though their expectations for inflation in the coming year softened by a bit.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.36% from 4.41% late Thursday and from 4.45% early this week.

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

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

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

The announcement gives Schmitz the title Nico Harrison held until he was fired in November, nine months after trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in a move that backfired badly on the franchise.

The Mavericks said Schmitz would oversee day-to-day management and strategic alignment in the club's basketball operations department.

The move comes with Dallas still not having provided any clarity on the future roles of Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi. They were named co-interim GMs when Harrison was fired and engineered the trade of Anthony Davis, the centerpiece acquired by Dallas in the Doncic deal, to Washington.

Schmitz and the Nigerian-raised Ujiri have strong ties to Africa. Schmitz has spent time working on youth basketball development in Ujiri's homeland and has served as an assistant coach with the Ugandan national team.

Schmitz joined the Trail Blazers in 2022 after spending five years as a draft analyst at ESPN.

“I have tremendous respect for Masai, this ownership group and the vision they have for the future of the franchise,” Schmitz said. “I'm excited to get to work alongside the talented people already in place and help build a championship-caliber organization.”

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

Those concerns are now coming true. On Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a controversial new congressional map into law that gives Republicans an advantage in nearly all the state’s seats.

Many counties in the state remain in their previous districts under the new map.

But for those in the areas that were significantly redrawn — around Orlando, Tampa and Miami — those changes will affect who voters see on their ballots and could change where they vote in person on election day.

New costs

In Orange County, Elections Supervisor Karen Castor Dentel is expecting the changes will cost her office nearly half a million dollars in extra spending.

“It wasn’t really part of our budget, and we have estimated that it will cost about $400,000 for the whole process between hiring a consulting firm to help us with the [geographic information system] maps, and then printing and mailing of the new voter information cards,” said Castor Dentel. “So that’s a really big cost.”

Her office has a roughly $21 million budget for this year’s midterm elections. While a 2% increase in costs might sound small, she said, it could mean cuts to other election programs.

“We may have to make some different decisions about how we spend the money, and we may have to go to the county commission and ask for an additional supplement to afford it,” she explained.

A weight on staff

Supervisors of elections are responsible for interpreting, administrating and complying with the new congressional map.

For election staff who already dedicate time to educating voters and countering misinformation, a new map will mean more questions and more opportunities for confusion and frustration, Osceola County Supervisor of Elections Mary Jane Arrington said.

“I think a lot of times people think redistricting is just taking a Sharpie and drawing some lines on a map, right? But we deal with people,” said Arrington. “I mean, we’re talking about real people that have to be moved to their new location or to a different location, and so that is time consuming, staff-wise. And again, we didn’t plan on that. We’re already busy with verifying candidate petitions and getting ready for the primary election.”

And it’s already a busy part of election season for staffers.

“We’re trying to get ready for the midterm elections anyway,” Castor Dentel explained. “So we’re already on high alert, and we already have our staff working long hours, and we’re already hiring seasonal staff just to get all of those different logistics in place for Election Day. And this is just added on top of that. It’s confusing, and we do have to rework our workflow.”

Litigation limbo

This week, three groups filed lawsuits alleging that the new map violates the Fair Districts Amendments of the state constitution. All are asking courts to block the new map and reinstate the previous one before the midterm elections.

That’s making it difficult for staff to decide how to proceed, Arrington said.

“What do we do here?” said Arrington. “We don’t know, because of the challenges that have been filed, what the outcome is going to be.”

The new map ignores the state’s constitutional protections for minority voting districts and its ban on partisan gerrymandering, representatives from the Governor’s Office testified in committee hearings last week.

During the Legislature’s special session on redistricting last Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in Louisiana v. Callais. The ruling significantly weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that protected “majority-minority” voting districts in federal, state and local elective office.

The Governor’s Office is arguing that the ruling invalidates all of the protections in the Fair Districts Amendments, not just those for minority districts, because all of the protections must be taken, or stricken, as one. DeSantis is confident the map will withstand the court challenges.

If courts uphold the new map, staff will have fewer than 60 days to do what took months the last time the state adopted a new map in 2022, Arrington said.

The attacks cast more doubt on a tenuous month-old ceasefire that the United States has insisted is still in effect. Washington is awaiting an Iranian response to its latest proposal for a deal to end the war, reopen the strait and roll back Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he hopes to receive “a serious offer” from Iran later Friday.

The U.S. military said Friday that its forces had disabled two Iranian tankers that were trying to breach an American blockade of Iran’s ports. Hours earlier, the military said it thwarted attacks on three Navy ships and struck Iranian military facilities in the strait.

Iran has mostly blocked the critical waterway for global energy since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, causing a global spike in fuel prices and rattling world markets. The U.S. has imposed its own blockade of Iran's ports.

The UAE’s Defense Ministry meanwhile said three people were wounded after air defenses engaged two ballistic missiles and three drones launched by Iran. It was not clear if all were successfully intercepted.

US says it responded to an attack in the strait

The U.S. military posted video of the two Iranian tankers as their smokestacks were struck by an American fighter jet on Friday. Earlier in the week, an American military jet shot out the rudder of a tanker the U.S. military said was attempting to breach its blockade.

Late Thursday, the U.S. military said it thwarted Iranian attacks on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz and struck Iranian military facilities in response. It said no American ships were hit.

“They threaten Americans, they are going to be blown up,” Rubio told reporters Friday.

Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned what it called “hostile” U.S. military action, saying it violated the ceasefire. “Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the U.S. opts for a reckless military adventure,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X.

A U.S. strike overnight killed at least one sailor and injured 10 others aboard a cargo vessel that caught fire, a news agency affiliated with Iran's judiciary reported. It was not clear if the ship was one of the two tankers the U.S. acknowledged striking.

U.S. President Donald Trump has insisted the ceasefire is holding. He also has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran doesn’t accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country has been in contact with the U.S. and Iran “day and night” in an effort to extend the ceasefire and reach a peace deal.

Images show apparent oil slick off Iranian terminal

Satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press show what appears to be an oil slick in the Persian Gulf emanating from the western side of Kharg Island, Iran’s main crude export terminal.

Images taken Friday show the slick covering about 71 square kilometers (27 square miles) and appear to show oil still leaking from the terminal, said Ami Daniel, CEO of maritime intelligence firm Windward AI.

Daniel estimated that the equivalent of roughly 80,000 oil barrels has spilled from Kharg Island since the slick was first detected by satellite images Tuesday. It’s unknown whether the spill was caused by a malfunction, an airstrike or something else.

“This is the risk of fighting in an oil-rich area,” said Daniel, adding that it’s unlikely any cleanup efforts will be launched in Gulf waters that have become an active war zone.

He said the spill appears to be spreading southwest and within the next two weeks could potentially reach the shores of the UAE, Qatar or Saudi Arabia.

Nina Noelle, an international crisis operations expert with Greenpeace Germany, said Friday that preliminary assessment and recent images show the spill beginning to disperse and it appears unlikely that it will impact land. She said depending on wind, waves and current conditions, parts of the slick could still possibly affect some sensitive marine habitats.

“More likely, it will dissipate offshore under prevailing conditions,” Noelle said.

The Pentagon declined to comment on whether the U.S. military was tracking the spill or whether there had been recent strikes on the Iranian island. Based on the imagery taken earlier this week, the spill occurred before the most recent round of U.S. strikes.

Rubio says `unacceptable' for an Iranian agency to control strait

Rubio said Friday that it's “unacceptable” for Iran to have a government agency that vets and taxes ships seeking passage through the strait.

Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a shipping data company, reported Thursday that Iran has created such an agency, known as the Persian Gulf Strait Authority.

The Iranian effort to formalize control over the channel raised new concerns about international shipping, with hundreds of commercial vessels bottled up in the Persian Gulf and unable to reach the open sea.

“Is the world going to accept that Iran now controls an international waterway?” Rubio said. “What is the world prepared to do about it?”

Iran has effectively closed the strait, a vital waterway for the shipment of oil, gas, fertilizer and other petroleum products, while the U.S. is blockading Iranian ports.

A Chinese-crewed oil tanker was attacked near the strait. China has continued to import oil from Iran despite the effective closure of the waterway.

China's Foreign Ministry expressed concern, saying the tanker was registered in the Marshall Islands with Chinese crew on board. There were no casualties reported.

An oil tanker that passed through the Strait of Hormuz in mid-April arrived off South Korea’s coast on Friday with 1 million barrels of crude. South Korea, which last year imported more than 60% of its crude through the strait, has capped prices of gasoline and other petroleum products.

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Finley and Biesecker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Giada Zampano and Nicole Winfield in Rome, Seung Min Kim in Washington, Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, and Simina Mistreanu in Bangkok contributed.

Even as unilateral ceasefires declared by Ukraine and Russia earlier this week failed to hold, with both parties blaming each other, Trump said Friday that the leaders of Russia and Ukraine agreed to his request for a ceasefire running Saturday through Monday and an exchange of prisoners. Trump added that the break in fighting could be the “beginning of the end” of the war that has dragged into a fifth year.

Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov confirmed that Russia has accepted Trump’s initiative for a three-day ceasefire and an exchange of 1,000 prisoners of war on each side.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine's consent to the U.S.-brokered agreement was driven by the prospect of freeing its prisoners. At the same time, he issued a decree mockingly allowing Russia to hold its Victory Day celebrations on Saturday, declaring Red Square temporarily off-limits for Ukrainian strikes.

“Red Square matters less to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners of war who can be brought home,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov shrugged off Zelenskyy’s decree “authorizing” the Red Square parade as a “silly joke.”

“We don’t need anyone’s permission to be proud of our Victory Day,” Peskov told reporters.

Earlier, a unilateral ceasefire in Ukraine that Russia announced for Friday and Saturday quickly unraveled. Moscow and Kyiv blamed each other for the continued fighting, just as they did when Ukraine’s own unilateral ceasefire swiftly collapsed earlier in the week.

The accusations reflect the deep-seated lack of trust between the two sides more than four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor. That has thwarted U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to find a peace settlement.

Ukraine's new drone and missile technology has helped it hit deep inside Russia frequently and accurately in recent months, especially major oil facilities.

Meanwhile, rumblings of unhappiness with some of the Kremlin’s wartime policies have put the spotlight on Putin, who is due to make a speech on Saturday to mark Victory Day, commemorating victory over Nazi Germany 81 years ago.

The Russia-Ukraine war rages unabated

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Friday that its forces in Ukraine “completely ceased combat operations and remained at their previously occupied lines and positions” from midnight, when Putin’s unilateral ceasefire came into force.

But it accused Ukrainian forces of continuing to strike Russian positions as well as civilian infrastructure in border areas of the Belgorod and Kursk regions.

Air defenses shot down 390 Ukrainian drones and six Neptune long-range guided missiles aimed at Russia after midnight, according to the ministry.

A Ukrainian drone strike hit the administrative building of the Southern Russia Air Navigation branch in Rostov-on-Don, forcing 13 airports in the south of the country to suspend operations, Russia’s Transport Ministry said. Flights resumed Friday afternoon, but officials said it would take up to three days to fully restore air travel in the area.

Speaking during a meeting of Russia's Security Council, Putin called the strike a “terrorist” attack and hailed traffic controllers for helping to avoid tragic consequences.

Zelenskyy had a different story. Russian forces continued attacking on the front line overnight, he said, while Ukrainian air defense forces shot down 56 Russian drones.

“All this clearly shows that there was not even a pretense of a ceasefire attempt from the Russian side,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine also claimed Friday more long-range strikes on Russian oil facilities. Zelenskyy said one hit the Yaroslavl region, more than 700 kilometers (430 miles) from the border, although he didn’t specify when the attack happened. Ukraine’s Security Service said a separate strike hit a major Russian oil refinery and pipeline pumping station in the Perm region, more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) away.

Difficulties mount for Putin

Putin, who has ruled Russia for more than 25 years, has used the USSR’s victory in World War II to rally support for him and the war in Ukraine, as well as to project Russia’s global clout.

That made it surprising that the traditional parade will take place without tanks, missiles and other military equipment, aside from war planes in a traditional flyover, for the first time in nearly two decades. Officials put the move down to the “current operational situation,” without elaborating.

Russia’s bigger and better-equipped army has been engaged in a slow, hard slog in Ukraine, while Ukraine’s long-range attacks deep inside Russia targeted Russian oil production as well as manufacturing plants and military depots, rattling the Kremlin.

Some Russians are disgruntled about internet censorship and government control over online activities, including the blocking of the popular messaging app Telegram.

All mobile internet access and text messaging services will be restricted in Moscow on Saturday, according to the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media. It said the drastic measures were to ensure public safety.

“A military parade is intended as a demonstration of strength and bravery, but if it is held furtively … and with the internet jammed (to reduce the chances of a Ukrainian attack drone being able to navigate to the site), it demonstrates nothing but fear and weakness,” Alexander Baunov of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, a Berlin-based think tank, wrote in an analysis this week.

Russia warns of heavy retaliation if Moscow is attacked

Russian officials have repeatedly warned that Moscow would take decisive action — including a potential mass strike on Kyiv — if Ukrainian attacks disrupt official events scheduled for Saturday.

Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, Laos President Thongloun Sisoulith, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko were due to attend Victory Day celebrations in the Russian capital.

Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia, a European Union member, laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier memorial just outside the Kremlin walls after arriving in Moscow on Friday. He was set to meet with Putin but will stay away from the Red Square parade.

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

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Associated Press writer Hanna Arhirova contributed to this story from Kyiv, Ukraine.

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

Crews are currently building a seawall that will be set into the sand, serving as the foundation for the boardwalk extension. The project will stretch from just north of the construction site near the pier to just south of Harvey Avenue. City officials hope the expansion will attract new businesses and families to the area.

“It’s a great idea. It’s a beautiful stretch of beach for scenery,” said Kristin, a tourist visiting from Pennsylvania.

The actual boardwalk portion is still in the design phase, but groundwork is being laid to prepare for construction. The total project cost has not yet been determined. The city plans to use Community Redevelopment Authority funds and pursue grants to cover expenses.

“I think it’ll give it a little more space, and more people would be attracted to come down,” Kristin said.

Not everyone is on board with the expansion. Some business owners along the existing boardwalk believe the money should also go toward improving what’s already there.

“I’m totally against going that way. You got to make the one you got already work,” said Louie Louizes, owner of Ocean Ave Gallery.

Others echoed the sentiment, saying the focus should be on restoring the area’s former energy and adding more family-friendly attractions, especially on a big, empty lot just North of the pier.

“I would like the city to build next door to us fun centers for the families that do come down here,” said Kenneth Morris at the Mardi Gras arcade.

Several business owners say they want to see the boardwalk return to what they describe as its “glory days,” with more attractions and improvements to the pier.

“I mean, it’s the boardwalk. It’s a torn-up piece of property, it’s embarrassing, and I want it to look nice like when I was a kid,” Louizes said.

Construction on the boardwalk extension is expected to be completed in the fall of 2027.

The agreement, which was approved by the union's board of directors and ratified by a vote of the membership, runs through the 2032 NFL season.

“We see this new CBA as a partnership with the league that benefits our membership but also seeks to make our game better. It is good to get these negotiations behind us so we can focus on preparing for the 2026 season,” union President Carl Cheffers said.

The NFL’s collective bargaining agreement with the referees association had been set to expire on May 31, and the two sides began negotiating in the summer of 2024.

The league began the onboarding process for replacement officials last month because negotiations weren’t progressing. But they won’t be necessary.

The league and the union said in a joint statement that the deal covers a wide range of issues including economics, performance and accountability.

“This agreement is a testament to the joint commitment of the league and union to invest in and improve officiating,” said Troy Vincent, NFL executive vice president of football operations. “It also speaks to the game officials’ relentless pursuit of improvement and officiating excellence. We look forward to working together for the betterment of the game.”

Detailed terms weren't released.

The NFL had sought increased access to officials in the offseason, a practice squad or bench of officials, a new formal training program and control of playoff assignments based on performance. A person with knowledge of the new deal told The Associated Press those priorities were met in the agreement. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because contract details weren't publicized.

A stalemate in 2012 resulted in a 110-day lockout and replacement referees were used.

That led to several high-profile mistakes, including the Fail Mary when Russell Wilson completed a desperation pass to Golden Tate in the closing seconds to lift Seattle over Green Bay in a Monday night game. Tate pushed off so he should’ve been penalized for offensive pass interference. He appeared to wrestle the ball away from a Packers defender and was given credit for a catch even though two officials had called it differently.

There weren’t as many glaring errors when the NFL also used replacement officials for one week of exhibition games and the opening week in 2001 before the labor dispute was resolved shortly after 9/11, and the regular officials returned in time when the season resumed following a one-week break.

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

South Florida served as a central location for planning and financing the plot to oust Moïse and replace him with someone of the conspirators’ choosing, U.S. prosecutors alleged.

Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages were found guilty of conspiring to kill or kidnap Haiti’s elected leader and providing material support for the plot. They were also convicted of violating the U.S. Neutrality Act and could face possible life sentences.

“These defendants pursued power, influence, and profit through violence," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones said in a statement. "They supported a conspiracy that crossed borders, destabilized a friendly nation, and ended with the murder of a sitting president. The jury has spoken, and the rule of law has answered.”

Prosecutors argued that the men had their own leader in mind and had hoped to enrich themselves with a new government.

Moïse was killed on July 7, 2021, when about two dozen foreign mercenaries, mostly from Colombia, attacked his home near Port-au-Prince. Moïse’s wife, Martine, was wounded during the attack and flown to the U.S. for treatment. In Haiti, meanwhile, gang leaders have grown increasingly violent and empowered.

Martine Moïse was the first witness at trial, which began in March in Miami's federal court, describing through a Creole interpreter how she awoke to the sounds of gunfire after midnight. She told jurors that she turned to her husband in bed next to her to ask what was going on.

“Honey, we are dead,” Jovenel Moïse replied, according to his wife's testimony.

Ortiz and Intriago were principals of Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy and Counter Terrorist Unit Security, collectively known as CTU, and Veintemilla was a principal of Worldwide Capital Lending Group. Both companies were based in South Florida.

Christian Sanon is a dual Haitian-American citizen whom investigators say was initially favored by the conspirators to replace Moïse. Solages was a CTU representative in Haiti who coordinated with Sanon and others, officials said. Sanon will face trial at a later date.

Defense attorneys argued at trial that the investigation into the assassination was a mess and that the four were manipulated into taking blame for an internal coup. They said the men believed they had a legitimate warrant signed by a Haitian judge and that they were liberating Haiti from Moïse, who had overstayed his term as president.

At least five others have pleaded guilty in the conspiracy and are serving life sentences.

Separately, 20 people, including 17 Colombian soldiers, face charges in Haiti. Gang violence, death threats and a crumbling judicial system have stalled an ongoing investigation.

The Jets and Hall agreed Friday on a three-year extension worth $45.75 million, according to a person familiar with the deal. The team had used the franchise tag on Hall, whose contract — which will pay him $15.25 million per year — makes him the third-highest paid running back in the NFL.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the Jets didn't announce the deal.

“Cried for the first time since I tore my ACL,” Hall posted on X, referring to his season-ending injury as a rookie in 2022. “This day really hit different for me man.”

Based on annual salary, Hall’s $15.25 million per year is behind Philadelphia’s Saquon Barkley ($20.6 million) and San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey ($19 million). It’s slightly higher than the $15 million Baltimore’s Derrick Henry is scheduled to make.

Hall rushed for a career-high 1,065 yards last season despite missing the final game with a knee ailment, becoming the first Jets player to top 1,000 yards rushing in a season since Chris Ivory in 2015. Hall has 1,000 yards from scrimmage in three straight seasons, just the sixth player — and fifth running back — in franchise history to accomplish that feat.

Hall, who turns 25 on May 31, was a second-round pick in the 2022 draft out of Iowa State. He didn’t receive a contract extension from the Jets last offseason when first-rounders Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson did, causing some uncertainty about Hall’s future with the franchise. He was also mentioned in trade rumors leading up to last year’s deadline.

But coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey both insisted they wanted to keep Hall.

“He’s a playmaker and we want to keep playmakers around on both sides of the ball,” Mougey said at the NFL combine in February. “He’s a proven playmaker and a good player, a good person, so want to find a way to keep Breece around.”

New York planned to use a three-running back approach with Hall, Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis sharing carries last season, but Allen hurt a knee and landed on injured reserve and Davis served as a clear No. 2 to Hall.

With a new offensive coordinator in Frank Reich and quarterback in Geno Smith, the Jets decided to use the franchise tag on Hall to give them an opportunity to retain him and negotiate during the offseason.

Hall and the Jets had until July 15 to reach an agreement or the star running back would've had to play this season under a one-year contract for the franchise tag amount of $14.3 million.

After the draft two weeks ago, Mougey indicated that contract talks would pick up — and the Jets got the deal done a few weeks before voluntary organized team activities begin and more than a month ahead of their mandatory minicamp.

The Jets' revamped offense is expecting to be more productive this year after a dismal season with Smith under center, Wilson healthy from a knee injury that limited him to seven games and the addition of a pair of first-rounders in tight end Kenyon Sadiq and wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr.

But Hall's dual-threat ability to run the ball out of the backfield or catch it anywhere on the field made keeping him this season and beyond a priority for the Jets.

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

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami filed a civil denaturalization complaint Thursday that would complete the Colombian-born Rocha's fall from grace, stripping him of the citizenship he attained after moving to New York City at age 10 with his widowed mother and two siblings.

Rocha, 75, was arrested in late 2023 and later sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after admitting he worked for decades as a secret agent for communist Cuba. He was secretly recorded by an undercover FBI agent praising Fidel Castro as “El Comandante” and bragging about his work for Cuba’s communist government, calling it “more than a grand slam” against the U.S. “enemy.”

The plea to 15 federal counts averted a trial that would have shed new light on what, exactly, Rocha did to help Cuba even as he held prestigious State Department postings such as ambassador to Bolivia and top posts in Argentina, Mexico, the White House and the U.S. It’s not even clear when federal prosecutors first suspected Rocha was spying for Cuba.

As part of his plea agreement, Rocha acknowledged that he first connected with Cuban intelligence agents in 1973 — five years before applying for U.S. citizenship — while attending a student program in Chile at the end of socialist President Salvador Allende's rule. Shortly after, at the direction of Havana, he enrolled in master's programs at Harvard and Georgetown Universities on his way to getting hired by the U.S. State Department.

The government generally faces a high burden of proof in revoking citizenship, as federal law requires prosecutors to show convincing evidence that an individual attained citizenship illegally or procured naturalization by “concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.”

Prosecutors alleged in court filings that Rocha lied under oath that he “believed in the U.S. Constitution” and had no affiliation with the Communist Party of Cuba while applying for citizenship in 1978.

“The Southern District of Florida helped take down one of the most prolific Cuban spies ever uncovered in the United States,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “This civil denaturalization case is about finishing the job.”

The Justice Department has significantly increased its focus on denaturalization cases in recent years, and last year issued an internal memo to prosecutors directing them to prioritize cases against people who “pose a potential danger to national security,” including those involving terrorism and espionage.

The Trump administration moved this week to denaturalize 11 other people accused of crimes, including child sexual abuse and providing material support to terrorists. The denaturalization process was used in only about a dozen cases per year between 1990 and 2017.

An Associated Press investigation into Rocha found several red flags overlooked along the way, including a warning that one longtime CIA operative received nearly two decades ago that Rocha was working as a double agent. Separate intelligence revealed the CIA had been aware as early as 1987 that Cuban leader Fidel Castro had a “super mole” burrowed deep inside the U.S. government, and some officials suspected it could have been Rocha.

Over the past two years, the FBI, U.S. State Department and CIA have been working to decipher the case’s biggest missing piece: exactly what the longtime diplomat may have given up to Cuba. Rocha spent the first several months of his imprisonment being debriefed by federal officials, but it's not clear what new information was gleaned from those sessions.

San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said they cannot say whether the remains are those of Smart or whether authorities will seek another warrant to start digging on Susan Flores' property. Her son, Paul Flores, was convicted in 2022 of killing Smart, whose body has never been found.

The search began Wednesday after authorities served a warrant Wednesday at the home in the central coast town of Arroyo Grande more than 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles. Authorities have not specified what prompted the search, but scientists specializing in human decomposition and soil took samples from the ground.

“We believe that based on what we’re looking at evidence-wise -- scientific evidence -- that a human’s remains were there at one time -- or still there. We can’t call it Kristin, but there’s evidence to support human remains,” Parkinson said during a news conference.

Smart went missing from California Polytechnic State University in May 1996 after returning from an off-campus party. Prosecutors alleged she was killed during an attempted rape and that the last person she was seen with was Paul Flores, a fellow student. She was declared legally dead in 2002.

The decades-old case has captivated the public, fueled in part by a podcaster who helped investigators by bringing forward additional witnesses. Chris Lambert of the “Your Own Backyard” podcast first reported the search of the home.

“We remain hopeful that this current search will be successful and look forward to the outcome," the Smart family said in a statement, adding that they "continue to feel the amazing support of the local community which provides us with great strength to continue this journey to bring Kristin home.”

Parkinson, the sheriff, said Friday he was not sure how long they would search the property, but that Susan Flores could not return until investigators felt they were finished.

“We are not leaving that house until we are sure that we have checked everything,” he said.

Attempts to reach Susan Flores for comment this week have not been successful. She has never faced criminal charges related to the case.

Parkinson said the property has changed over the years and investigators have to move items to deploy ground-penetrating radar, which can detect anomalies. He said they might need multiple search warrants to dig, including excavating cement.

Tim Nelligan, an expert in soil vapor testing, confirmed by phone Thursday that he was on the premises, gathering samples from the yards of Flores and a neighbor. He said his team has, in general, “come up with a methodology to assess soil vapor" and its relation to “human cadaver decomposition,” but that he could not discuss the current investigation.

Soil vapor sampling, which is an evolving science, involves collecting underground gas samples to detect volatile organic compounds associated with human decomposition.

Lambert, the podcaster, said he did not know much about the search, but was optimistic investigators could locate Smart's body. He said past searches of Susan Flores' home have never been thorough.

“This property in particular has been overlooked for quite some time," he said Thursday in front of the house.

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

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

Paul Flores was sentenced in March 2023 to prison, where he has been physically attacked at least twice. In 2024, a judge ruled that he must pay just over $350,000 to Smart's family for costs they incurred after her death.

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

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This story has been updated to correct a word in Parkinson's quote and the distance from Arroyo Grande to Los Angeles.

Owen Gleiberman, writing for Variety, called it “a cutting, audacious, and at times astonishing movie.”

Perhaps it makes more sense to understand that “Our Hero, Balthazar,” which is currently in theaters, comes from a filmmaker known for his collaborations with the Safdie brothers. Filmmaker and producer Oscar Boyson has been on the ground making independent films for nearly 20 years, from “Frances Ha” to “Uncut Gems.”

The idea for “Balthazar,” which he co-wrote with Ricky Camilleri, just felt electric, like the movies that made them want to make movies when they were younger. It’s also the kind of that seems to be disappearing from American cinemas and has the makings of a cult classic.

“There’s a trend towards sameness and safety and familiarity that is making the movie industry a really uninteresting world to play and create and collaborate in,” Boyson said. “I felt like because the industry was saying no to it, it was exactly what I should be doing. And that really fired me up.”

Boyson has come up against a lot of obstacles in the industry with “Balthazar,” from festivals to distributors, who told him they loved it but couldn’t market it. That resistance just made him even more emboldened to do it his own way. Besides, he learned long ago not to look for permission from the establishment.

Bringing back the slow burn release

“We don’t have the marketing budget, but we do have tremendous energy,” Boyson said.

And, through their grassroots campaign, involving a fake social media account for Martell's character Balthazar that has over 84,000 followers (more than most film accounts), and old-fashioned word-of-mouth, audiences are finding the film, which will be in New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Diego, Encino, Santa Cruz and Westbrook, Maine, this weekend. At the Village East in New York, where it’s entering its seventh weekend, there are people who’ve seen it six times. And it’s not just the hard core cinephiles either: It’s younger audiences too.

Boyson wishes the industry could get away from the “big opening weekend” mentality and give movies time to find their place and audience.

"So much of it’s about word-of-mouth, and you need time in order for that to work,” he said. “When it does, it’s actually not that expensive. You just gotta make something good.”

Don’t get hung up on the budget

“Frances Ha” was the first New York City-based feature Boyson got to work on. Their primary location was the apartment he shared with Greta Gerwig and the production designer, and their crew was small enough to fit in a van.

“The thing that really stuck with me was that nobody talked about how small the production model was,” he said.

“Movies are about the emotional response that they get from the audience and that has nothing to do with how expensive or how cheaply they were made. When you feel what it’s like to work on something that felt like you were just making something that felt so intimate and small and you feel it resonate with a big audience of people who could go see a Marvel movie or could go see a hundred million dollar David Fincher movie, that’s so empowering. That really informs everything I do, that belief that that can happen.”

On “Our Hero, Balthazar,” he wanted to surround himself with 20-somethings, like he was on “Frances Ha,” because, he said, “they keep me honest.”

Actors love to work

“Our Hero, Balthazar” is full of up and coming and veteran character actors. Jennifer Ehle is Balthazar’s distracted socialite mother; Noah Centineo is his life coach. In Texas, “Sex Education’s” Asa Butterfield plays Solomon, the struggling kid Balthazar tries to befriend, Becky Ann Baker is his loving grandmother and Chris Bauer (“The Wire”) is his estranged dad.

“Actors love to work, you know? And actors love to be surprised, and actors love to challenge themselves,” Boyson said. “Especially if you’re in New York, ‘Our Hero, Balthazar’ is a testament to the fact that a low budget movie, if you get lucky on the timing, you can have some of the greatest actors in the world popping up in your movie.”

A sense of place is important

Shooting in New York City wasn’t just convenient for its talent pool; It’s also a vital part of the texture of the film, which also shot its Texas portions in Texas.

“All too often the first thing that you’re asked to do when you write a story that takes place in America is shoot it somewhere else,” Boyson said. “It’s what I value as a viewer when I watch movies, but it’s also it comes from the experience of shooting movies in America and feeling what you lose when you pretend that when you play one place for another. I think a sense of place is something that is really missing or fading from American movie culture.”

The audience and the gatekeepers have nothing to do with each other

Perhaps the most important lesson Boyson has learned over the years, and that seems to be playing out with “Balthazar,” is that the gatekeepers aren’t the ones who make your movie into thing: The audience and the fans do.

“The people who are showing up for the movie are young people and people who are who are like ‘this isn’t fringe, this is the reality I’m living,’” he said. “I don’t know that that makes the movie commercial, but we worked really hard to make it fun, entertaining and accessible.”

The 20-year-old Dino Prižmić defeated the record 24-time Grand Slam champion 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 with an ace on his first match point.

The 38-year-old Djokovic hadn’t played since March when he lost to Jack Draper in the fourth round in Indian Wells, California.

Djokovic had taping on his right shoulder that was revealed when he changed shirts between sets.

He declined to talk about any ailments, not wanting to take any focus from Prižmić. But Djokovic admitted he wanted more than one match at his only warmup for the French Open.

Djokovic didn't surprise himself in his only competitive clay-court match before the French, though he thought the second set was forgettable.

“I see what I'm missing,” he said. "Late half a step. I'm not definitely where I want to be for the highest level and to compete at the highest level and to be able to get far.

“Eventually you have to play. You have to start somewhere. I wanted to start earlier but I couldn't. The situation is as it is. You make the most out of it. I train hard. I train as much as the body allows me to. Then how it turns out on the court, that's really unpredictable.”

Asked if he was confident he'll be in good shape for the French Open which starts in 16 days, Djokovic said, “I don't know.” With a smile he added, “I hope so.”

In Djokovic’s only other tournament this year, he reached the Australian Open final and lost to Carlos Alcaraz.

The 79th-ranked Prižmić lost a four-setter to Djokovic in their only previous match at the 2024 Australian Open. Djokovic told him on Friday his forehand had improved and he'll go far if he can stay healthy. Prižmić beat No. 6 Ben Shelton at the Madrid Open last month.

“He’s my idol,” Prižmić said of Djokovic. “I just played unbelievably today.”

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

During the program’s first year, it will be offered at about 65 to 75 hospitals that handle about a quarter of births in the state and largely serve low-income patients, Newsom's office said. The initiative will expand to more hospitals statewide, though the governor's office did not say how many. The state has partnered with nonprofit Baby2Baby to manufacture the diapers under the label “Golden State Start.”

Newsom said the plan builds on California's effort to make living in the notoriously expensive state a little easier for families. He highlighted policies in recent years to provide students with free meals at school and make preschool free for all.

“Every baby born in California deserves a healthy start in life — and that means making sure parents have the basics they need from day one,” the Democrat said in a statement.

The state set aside $7.4 million in last year's budget to roll out the initiative, and this year's budget proposal includes an additional $12.5 million to implement the program for the upcoming fiscal year ending in June 2027.

It will allow each family to receive 400 diapers in sizes for newborns and babies up to 14 pounds (6 kilograms) when they are discharged from a hospital after birth. That's a little more than a month’s worth, since newborns on average require eight to 10 diapers a day.

Baby2Baby provides families in need with essential items. The nonprofit built a manufacturing system that allows them to produce diapers for 80% less than the retail price, co-CEO Kelly Sawyer Patricof said.

“California is once again setting the standard of what it means to show up for mothers and babies,” added co-CEO Norah Weinstein.

The announcement comes two years after Tennessee and Delaware became the first U.S. states to offer free diapers to families enrolled in their Medicaid programs, which provide healthcare to low-income families. Tennessee families can go to pharmacies to pick up 100 diapers per month for children under two. The Delaware program, which began as a pilot before the state extended it in 2024, provides individuals with up to 80 diapers and up to one pack of baby wipes per week in the first 12 weeks of life.

California's Medicaid system doesn't cover diapers for newborns, but it does cover the items for enrollees ages 5 and older if they have a medical need for them.

Diapers are a large, ongoing expense for many families. They typically spend about $100 a month on the items per child, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank. The cost burden can lead some parents to leave their child's diapers on for too long or reuse disposable diapers, which can result in rashes and urinary tract infections, the center says.

California officials are touting the new effort as a way to ease that financial strain.

“The first days at home with a newborn should be focused on the love, connection, and joy of an expanded family, not stress about affording diapers,” said Kim Johnson, the state's health secretary. “This program helps ensure families can begin that journey with greater stability and peace of mind.”

A National Theatre production has landed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music starring Hiran Abeysekera. There’s a movie version set in London’s South Asian community starring Riz Ahmed. Anthony Hopkins, at 88, is delighting fans on TikTok with some of Prince Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” soliloquy. The movie “Hamnet” — the fictionalized story of loss that inspired the creation of “Hamlet” — earned Jessie Buckley an Oscar. Taylor Swift's “The Fate of Ophelia” — that's Hamlet's ex — went to No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart. Eddie Izzard is taking her one-person production of the play on a worldwide tour.

Four hundred years on, “Hamlet” — whose seemingly quite modern antihero is endlessly mulling over what to do after his uncle murdered his father and married his mother — is still giving.

Want even more? There’s even a “Hamnet” play, adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s original novel, and the Royal Shakespeare Company is taking it on a U.K. tour. Shakespeare & Company will stage a “Hamlet” this August in the Berkshires. There’s a Canadian production of “Hamlet, Sweet Prince,” using a queer, contemporary lens. The Acting Company in New York will have a modern-verse version led by a woman, and the Peruvian theater company Teatro La Plaza recently presented a version off-Broadway starring eight Spanish-speaking actors with Down syndrome.

Harvard's Jeffrey R. Wilson, a Shakespeare scholar, says “Hamlet” is perfect for our era, when the crush of bad news has triggered constant, existential check-ins, like: “Hey, how’s everyone hanging in there?”

“People are exhausted from the onslaught of awfulness in the world,” he says, “and ‘Hamlet’ gives audiences both permission to ‘go there’ to explore those emotions and a tool kit of ideas to help us process angst.”

A neurodiverse ‘Hamlet’

The plethora of works are markedly vibrant and fresh, from the Hamlet in Brooklyn who wears a beanie to the one who enjoys Bollywood-style dances in London.

“Great plays survive not because they remain untouched, but because they can continue to be transformed,” says director and playwright Chela De Ferrari, from Teatro La Plaza, whose neurodiverse “Hamlet” is a visceral and urgent call from those often excluded from cultural narratives.

“Working with actors with Down syndrome and cognitive disabilities brought me back to something essential in ‘Hamlet’: that beneath its philosophical brilliance there is an exposed human being asking, in one way or another, how to exist in a world that keeps misreading him,” she said.

In one of the show’s most potent moments, an actor attempts to imitate Laurence Olivier’s delivery of Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” soliloquy with an image of the famous actor projected on a screen. It takes on a new urgency when spoken by someone whose very right to be in public or artistic spaces is often questioned.

“I like to imagine a kind of continuity between our actors and all the great actors who have carried the play before. I believe Shakespeare lives in all of them,” says De Ferrari.

Shakespeare in a BMW

On school trips to see Shakespeare plays, filmmaker Aneil Karia always felt like they were an arm's length away.

“I felt like I was primarily watching an intellectual experience unfold and I had to use my brain to keep up with the plot and the language and everything like that,” he says.

He teamed up with Ahmed and screenwriter Michael Lesslie for a stripped-down, modern-day retelling of “Hamlet” that leans into the title character's unease at being complicit in a corrupt business system.

“That feels so pertinent to the moment we’re in politically and everything. It feels like the question a lot of people are asking,” says Karia. “It feels like these stories are actually a conversation through time itself.”

Hamlet here parties at a neon-drenched nightclub and delivers his soliloquy while hurtling down rain-slicked London streets in a BMW, taking his hands off the wheel as a truck approaches head-on. To be, or not to be, indeed.

“The best best-case scenario here is that it’s opening up Shakespeare to audiences who didn’t think it was for them, or who struggled with it previously,” says Karia, whose film starts streaming Tuesday. “This is a big call, but I feel like Shakespeare would approve. I feel his whole thing was like, ‘Take this stuff and do your thing.’”

A more clownish prince

The “Hamlet” in Brooklyn leans into the humor of the play for one good reason: The guy playing Hamlet is naturally funny.

Abeysekera is manic and mischievous as he pulls out the play's physical humor, addressing the audience directly in his soliloquies, sometimes sitting at the edge of the stage and making eye contact.

“It’s a very self-aware play. It sort of really knows that it’s a play, if that makes any kind of sense,” says director Robert Hastie. “Hamlet knows he’s in a play called ‘Hamlet,’ like Deadpool knows he is in a film called ‘Deadpool.’”

Abeysekera tackles his “To be, or not to be” speech as an errant thought, a wisp of an idea, instead of the traditional foot-planted, actor-y, big-thing-coming approach.

“Rather than thinking, ‘Oh, here’s the big speech coming up and that's freaking me out,’ I started thinking, ‘It’s such a thought that most of us kind of have,’” he says. “Sometimes, in front of the mirror, we just see ourselves and go, ‘Oof. Today’s a tough day.’”

Hastie believes “Hamlet” is one of those works that reveals something new all the time. Grounded in the human condition, it speaks fresh things to each audience and we discover new things that have always been there.

“One of the reasons I think why we’re still talking about Shakespeare, and this play in particular, is that whenever those words fuse with a new actor or a new group of actors, it becomes a different play,” he says. “Maybe that’s a good working definition of a classic.”

An extremely online bard

Caitlin Cardile is doing her best to keep the 400-year-old playwright alive in the TikTok era. She and her three-person troupe Mad Spirits Theatre Company are on virtually every social media platform spreading the word.

“We wanted to bring Shakespeare to a modern audience and make it understandable,” Cardile says. “We want people to feel more comfortable with Shakespeare and not think that it’s old English and such a hard thing to understand.”

They post live readings and commentary of the plays on YouTube but it's on Instagram and TikTok where the true coolness starts. They find trending audio snippets — of everything from dialogue on “The Office” to a Lady Gaga song — and assign a Shakespeare character to say them.

So Kitty Forman's popular line “I may have been a little irrational today” from “That '70s Show” is lipsynced by an actor playing Ophelia. A section of dialogue between Scar and Simba from “The Lion King” is put in the mouths of actors playing Claudius and Hamlet.

“We’re like, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if we took these silly trending sounds that everybody’s doing and what if we put them to Shakespeare characters?'” says Cardile. “This has ended up being so much fun.”

The recall includes model year 2024-2026 Cybertrucks with 18-inch steel wheels. In its report, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that rough roads and cornering may strain the stud hole in the wheel rotor causing cracks to form and with continued driving the wheel stud could eventually separate from the wheel hub.

Wheel stud separation may affect vehicle controllability, increasing the risk of a collision.

On affected vehicles, Tesla will replace the front and rear brake rotors, hubs, and lug nuts with more durable ones at no cost to vehicle owners.

The manufacturer's recall number is SB-26-33-003. Owners may contact Tesla customer service at 1-877-798-3752.

Tesla is also recalling more than 200,000 Model Y, Model S Model X and Model 3 electric vehicles because of a software issue that renders the rearview camera inoperable for a short period of time.

Loss of the rearview camera image may affect the driver’s view, increasing the risk of a crash.

Tesla’s number for this recall is SB-26-00-016.

Tesla is not aware of any accidents, fatalities or injuries related to either of the problems in the above recalls.

According to Sheriff Pat Breeden, an investigation began when a supervisor suspected that the drop box of unused medication was being tampered with.

That’s when the sheriff said an operation got underway, eventually catching Dennis L. Turner with a hidden camera.

Breeden said the camera caught Turner opening the box with a key he had through his assignment.

Turner faced a judge on Friday, receiving a $9,300 bond on eight counts.

Sheriff Breeden said Turner “tarnished the star I entrusted him to” and that he will “continue to demand the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and accountability from the men and women of the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.”

D-backs manager Torey Lovullo's jaw dropped almost to the dugout floor.

“Twenty years old and driving the ball off the center field wall,” Lovullo said. “Let's go back to being 20 years old. I was just getting hair under my armpits, and this guy's in a big-league baseball game. It's impressive.”

Griffin — who just turned 20 a few weeks ago — is part of an MLB rookie class that's made an instant impact as the calendar turns to May. He's batting .256 with two homers, 16 RBIs and is 8 for 8 on stolen bases, all while playing shortstop at a high level for a Pirates team that has a 21-17 record.

No wonder the Pirates were comfortable handing him a $140 million, nine-year deal in April.

Lovullo has been the manager of the D-backs for 10 seasons and said he's noticed a huge difference in the readiness of young players when they get to the big leagues.

The data backs that up, too. As measured by Wins Above Replacement, three of the five most productive classes of rookie hitters since 1950 graduated in the past four years, in 2023 (67.5 WAR), 2022 (53.7) and 2024 (49). Through Thursday's games, this year's class is on pace for 47, which would rank fifth.

Even the 2025 class, which wasn't as deep, featured examples of players ready to make an unusually fast impact. Nick Kurtz got just 210 at-bats in the minor leagues before joining the Athletics, then batted .290 with 36 homers and 86 RBIs over 117 games to win American League Rookie of the Year in 2025.

“Everything is fast-forwarded now, everything's on speed dial, everything happens really quick,” Lovullo said. “These kids are developing. It's the same message I send to our group about player development. We aren't going to be the L.A. Dodgers or the Padres. Spots won't be filled by Player ‘X’ coming off of free agency. Spots will be filled by someone in this clubhouse."

Here's a look at some of the other top rookies in the big leagues through the season's first 1 1/2 months:

Kevin McGonigle, SS, Detroit Tigers

The 21-year-old made the big-league club with a strong spring performance and continues to impress, batting .299 with two homers, 16 RBIs and an .845 OPS while splitting time between shortstop and third baseman. He's been arguably the best player on a Tigers' team that's otherwise underachieved so far this year. That's exactly why the franchise was comfortable signing him to a $150 million, eight-year deal in April.

JJ Wetherholt, 2B, St. Louis Cardinals

Another highly-regarded prospect who was the No. 7 overall pick in 2024 out of West Virginia, Wetherholt has popped seven homers for a Cardinals team that's been a pleasant surprise in the NL Central. He looks like a mainstay in St. Louis for years to come.

Chase DeLauter, OF, Cleveland Guardians

DeLauter actually made his MLB debut last season when he became one of the few players in big league history to get his first call-up in the playoffs. So far this spring, he's showed why the Guardians had enough confidence to bring him up for those pressure-packed games, batting .306 with six homers and 23 RBIs.

Munetaka Murikami, 1B, Chicago White Sox

The veteran Japanese slugger has made an instant impact in the big leagues, crushing 14 homers in just 37 games. He needs to cut down on the strikeouts and may never consistently hit for high average, but there's no doubt the power is legit and he's still just 26 years old.

Kazuma Okamoto, 3B, Toronto Blue Jays

The 29-year-old is older than all of the other players on this list and had a slow start while making the transition from Japan. But he's picked up the pace over the past few weeks and is batting .246 with 10 homers and 23 RBIs.

Sal Stewart, 1B, Cincinnati Reds

The 22-year-old made a good impression during a short stint last season and has continued to hit in the big leagues so far this spring. Playing mostly first base, he's batting .245 with 10 homers and 30 RBIs.

Nolan McLean, RHP, New York Mets

The Mets have been one of the biggest disappointments in the big leagues, but McLean has been one of few bright spots. He dazzled in an eight-start cameo last season and has pitched well so far in 2026. The 24-year-old has a 2.97 ERA and 51 strikeouts in 39 1/3 innings through seven starts.

Parker Messick, LHP, Cleveland Guardians

The Florida State product has been one of the best pitchers in the American League this season with a 3-1 record and a 2.40 ERA through seven starts. The left hander is a big reason the Guardians are currently at the top of the AL Central.

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

Alghoula has lived in the U.S. since 2016, and his current visa will expire in September if his application is denied.

But last week, Alghoula and doctors like him got a potential lifeline when the administration quietly made an exemption for physicians with pending visa or green card applications. It's a move physicians, organizations and immigration attorneys had sought for months, citing widespread shortages and a high proportion of foreign-trained doctors, who disproportionately work in underserved areas, according to the National Library of Medicine.

The lack of doctors is top of mind for Alghoula, a pulmonologist and Intensive Care Unit doctor who serves a mostly rural population spanning parts of Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.

“It is about four to five months wait to get the pulmonologist here,” he said.

Still, applicants and immigration attorneys say it's unclear how big a difference the exemption will make. The change means doctors can have their cases reviewed, but it doesn't guarantee their green cards or visas will be renewed. It is also unclear whether U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will be able to process those applications in time to meet immigration deadlines like Alghoula's — especially as many doctors with pending applications still haven't heard any updates from the federal government directly since the announcement was first made.

Despite his qualifications, Alghoula said he is still concerned about his upcoming appointment, given stories circulating about immigrants being detained at appointments to renew their paperwork.

“I’m still scared to go to my interview,” Alghoula said Wednesday. That uncertainty intensified on Friday when he learned that his interview, scheduled for early June, had been canceled without any explanation. He said he doesn’t know what that means for his application.

Meanwhile, the pause remains in effect for thousands of others, including researchers and entrepreneurs from 39 countries, including Iran, Afghanistan and Venezuela. While they’re on hold, many can’t legally work, get health insurance or a driver’s license. If they leave the U.S., they won't be let back in.

Immigrants unable to work or see family

The Trump administration decided last year to stop reviewing green card and visa applications for people from a list of countries deemed high-risk and this year stopped reviewing visa applications for citizens of more than 75 countries over concerns they would seek public assistance. The moves came amid the U.S. government's broader crackdown on immigrants.

The pause followed the shooting of two National Guard troops by an Afghan citizen, which the administration said highlighted “what a lack of screening, vetting, and prioritizing expedient adjudications can do to the American people.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration officials, didn’t answer questions about the pause or recent changes to exempt physicians but said in an email it wants to ensure applicants are properly screened after determining the prior administration failed to do so.

“There are lots of bans and lots of pauses that are happening right now,” said Greg Siskind, an immigration attorney based in Memphis, Tennessee. “It is all about making life miserable for people who are here legally so they will choose other countries.”

It isn’t clear how many doctors have been affected by the pause, according to a spokesperson for the American Academy of Family Physicians, who said several doctors have reached out to the organization asking for help.

Some doctors have already been denied

Before the exemption, many immigrants filed federal lawsuits demanding that the government issue decisions on their cases.

One of them was Iranian Dr. Zahra Shokri Varniab, who came to the United States three years ago to conduct radiology research. She was waiting for a green card to attend a residency program but her application got stuck in the pause. She filed a lawsuit demanding an answer to her application and a federal judge ordered immigration officials to review her case.

They did — and denied her. The 33-year-old doctor said she believes it was in retaliation for her lawsuit.

“I feel completely confused,” Shokri Varniab said.

In court filings, U.S. government lawyers wrote that Shokri Varniab's application contained inconsistencies about whether she plans to become a practicing doctor or researcher. She said she plans to do both.

She said the exemption doesn't appear to apply to her since her case was decided but is seeking relief in court.

Immigration policy compounding war abroad

Immigrants who hold prestigious jobs in science and technology said they currently can't work due to the pause because they're waiting on employment authorization documents. Some said they are running out of money for rent and groceries and worry their careers could be thwarted if they're forced to leave the country.

Those from Iran are especially worried about returning home during the ongoing war with U.S. and Israeli forces. They said they can't regularly reach family due to the Iranian government's internet blackout or count on them for financial support.

Kaveh Javanshirjavid came to the United States from Iran seven years ago to study for his doctorate in agriculture. He was supposed to start a lab job in January but needs employment authorization and his application is on hold.

The 41-year-old said he’s borrowing from friends to pay rent and relying on his wife’s doctorate stipend for basic necessities. But he doesn’t know how long that will last because she’s also Iranian and will need work authorization to get a job after graduating this summer.

“The whole of my life is on hold,” he said.

Hiring beat the 65,000 jobs forecasters had expected, though it decelerated from the 185,000 jobs created in March. The unemployment rate remained at a low 4.3%, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The Iran war has caused the biggest disruption of global oil supplies in history and sent average U.S. gasoline prices surging past $4.50 a gallon this week. But the conflict hasn’t done much damage to the American job market so far. And the import taxes — tariffs — that President Donald Trump imposed last year haven't turned out to be as high and as damaging as originally feared.

“The labor market is not booming, but it is proving harder to break than` many feared,’’ said economist Olu Sonola of Fitch Ratings.

Healthcare added 37,000 jobs last month and transportation and warehousing companies 30,000. However, manufacturers cut 2,000 jobs in April and have shed 66,000 jobs over the past year despite Trump’s protectionist policies aimed at creating factory jobs.

“Businesses to some extent are viewing the conflict in Iran as temporary,'' said Gus Faucher, chief economist at the financial firm PNC. ”We’re seeing strong business investment, particularly around tech and AI. The economy continues to expand. We’ve weathered some shocks. The worst of the tariff impact is likely over.''

Still, Faucher cautioned that "the longer conflict in Iran lasts, the higher energy prices go, the longer they stay elevated the greater the drag on the economy.''

Among those worrying is Michael Cramer, co-founder and CEO of online retailer Adagio Teas. He expects to freeze hiring this year. He typically adds anywhere from five to six workers per year to help pack up online tea orders at the company’s warehouse in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Adagio Teas, which has about 50 workers, has seen a slight drop in sales after the Iran war drove up gasoline prices and squeezed shoppers, particularly those in lower-income brackets. Cramer is worried that shoppers are opting for less expensive supermarket tea to cut costs.

“You only hire when you have more orders that you can fill,” he said.“I don’t envision us being in that position for the remainder of the year. I think the remainder of this year is going to be fairly bumpy.”

Labor Department revisions shaved 16,000 jobs from February and March payrolls.

Average hourly earnings rose 0.2% from March and 3.6% from April 2025, consistent with the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target.

The number of people in the U.S. labor force dropped last month, and the share of those working or looking for work — the so-called labor force participation rate — dropped to 61.8%, lowest since October 2021.

After the U.S. and Israel launched their attacks Feb. 28, Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes. The disruption has caused a painful increase in the price of energy and led many economists to downgrade their estimates for global and U.S. economic growth.

But the job market keeps chugging along this year.

The economy is getting a boost from big tax refund checks this spring, arising from Trump’s tax cut legislation last year; the refunds allow consumers to spend more freely, giving companies an incentive to add workers in response to rising sales.

The job market is showing intermittent signs of recovery after a bleak 2025. Employers last year created just 9,700 jobs a month, fewest outside a recession year since 2002. High interest rates and uncertainty over Trump’s economic policies held back hiring.

The March and April hiring figures marked the first consecutive months of job growth above 100,000 since the end of 2024.

The recent uptick in hiring raises hopes that the job market will break out of a recent rut – in which Americans who have jobs are relatively secure from layoffs but jobseekers struggle to find work.

Angela Paniccia, 33, of Queens in New York City was laid off by an educational travel company in December. The job search can be frustrating. “You’ll never hear back or you’ll get just a generic ‘We’re moving on with someone else’ without feedback,’’ she said.

Many of the openings at colleges and other employers in her field simply don’t pay enough to support someone living in one of the country’s most expensive cities. To help with the rent, she’s been working part-time for a caterer. “I’ve always had a full-time job,’’ she said. “Admittedly, I’m struggling with the loss of daily routine.’’

U.S. hiring has been dominated by one industry: Healthcare companies, catering to an aging American population, have added 456,000 jobs over the past year; other employers have combined to cut 205,000 over the 12 months that ended in April.

Still, Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, noted that last month's job gains extended beyond healthcare. Retailers, for example, added 22,000 jobs and construction companies 9,000. “America’s hiring recession appears to be over,'' she wrote. "Average job gains in 2025 were an anemic 10,000 a month. So far in 2026, the average is 76,000.''

Simbe Robotics Inc., which deploys five-foot tall robots that scan shelves for out-of-stock items in more than 1,000 stores worldwide, is eager to hire. Co-founder Brad Bogolea started the company with a handful of workers and now has 100, many of them software and artificial intelligence engineers. Simbe has its pick of candidates. Applications more than doubled over the past year, partly because of layoffs elsewhere in the technology industry. Applications for robotics software engineer jobs are up 127% over that time period, Bogolea said.

The Labor Department's monthly jobs report consists of two parts.

For the so-called household survey, the government collects data from 60,000 households to calculate the unemployment rate and the share of people who are working or looking for work, among other things.

For the so-called establishment survey, the government gathers information from about 119,000 businesses and government agencies, representing 622,000 worksites, to calculate the number of jobs in the economy, how many hours Americans work and the hourly wages they receive.

The establishment survey is subject to revisions — sometimes big ones — because some employers submit their responses late or have to correct what they already sent in. The Labor Department — like government statistical agencies in other countries — has also been contending with a drop in the share of employers that respond to the survey, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the revisions and problems collecting the data, most economists, businesses and investors consider the monthly jobs report to be a reliable gauge of how the labor market is doing.

Friday's jobs data will likely keep the Fed on the sidelines, as it holds its key rate unchanged while evaluating the economic impact of the Iran war. Fed officials are increasingly focused on inflation, which has risen quickly since the war, driven higher by spikes in gasoline prices.

Inflation jumped to 3.3% in March, a two-year high and far above the Fed’s target. The Fed typically keeps its rate unchanged -- or even raises it -- to combat inflation, while it cuts rates to spur more growth and hiring. Early this year many Fed policymakers were worried the job market was stalling and leaned toward rate cuts. But in more recent months hiring has stabilized, undermining the case for cuts.

Friday's jobs report, PNC's Faucher said, “actually makes it less likely that we see a rate cut anytime soon because the Fed can say, ‘The job market is solid. Let’s get inflation back down to 2%. This is not the time to cut rates.’"

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AP Retail Writer Anne D'Innocenzio in New York and AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber in Washington contributed to this story.

Delta Airlines said the incident happened Thursday evening and is working with local authorities as a full investigation gets underway.

OSHA said it has opened an investigation into the incident but noted the agency has six months to complete its probe and is unable to share additional information in the meantime.

“The Delta family is heartbroken at the loss of a team member while on the job at Orlando International Airport on the evening of May 7,” the airline said in a statement. “We are focused on extending our full support to family and taking care of our Orlando team during this difficult time.”

Operations at Delta’s Orlando station were paused Thursday evening while investigators worked the scene. One flight departure was canceled as a result, though affected customers were accommodated on other flights.

Delta noted that safety is the airline’s top core value.

In a statement to News 6, Orlando International Airport said it is mourning the loss of a staff member who died while working at the airport.

The MCO community is deeply saddened about the loss of an airport staff member, and we send our condolences to his friends and family.

Orlando International Airport

The Orlando Police Department said it’s conducting a death investigation inside the airside terminal, and the probe is having minimal impact on airport operations. Preliminary information suggests the incident was “accidental in nature”.

Police added that no additional details are being released at this time.

The deaths of dozens of swans and other birds from avian influenza earlier this year also influenced the decision.

The city’s announcement on Friday said officials went through a review with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission of the care and management of the flock.

“Through this review, it became clear that consistently meeting those requirements within an active urban park, especially one preparing for major construction, will be increasingly difficult,” the announcement read.

[WATCH: Orlando considers Lake Eola Park renovation (from 2025)]

The city says it is pausing the program in advance of the master plan renovations. The city is going to start by rehoming this year’s cygnets, their parents, and any eggs and currently nesting parents.

“Relocating them now will reduce stress and risk during this extended period of construction activity in the park and will help ensure their ongoing care in environments that can fully meet required standards,” the statement read.

City officials say that wild swans and other waterfowl may still be seen around Lake Eola, because the birds are free-ranging and not part of the captive flock.

[WATCH: Internal emails reveal Orlando’s behind-the-scenes handling of Lake Eola swan flu outbreak]

Thirty-seven birds around Lake Eola were killed by the avian influenza outbreak earlier this year, including 29 mute swans.

Meanwhile, the city is set to begin a multi-million renovation project. The first phase of the project will include updates to parts of the seawall, drainage improvements, moving the swan boat dock closer to Lake Eola House, and building a walkway behind the amphitheater. This first phase is estimated to cost around $30 million.

Other ideas still on the drawing board include renovating the playground, adding a family zone, adding more shade to the amphitheater, and renovating the bathrooms. The city says it will update residents as the project progresses.

F1 started the year with big changes including a 50-50 split in power between a traditional engine and the onboard battery pack, but driver criticism was immediate.

Governing body the FIA said it met with teams and F1 officials in an online session Friday and that the changes were agreed in principle.

“The measures agreed in principle today for 2027 would see a nominal increase in internal combustion engine (ICE) power by (tilde)50kW alongside a fuel-flow increase and a nominal reduction of the energy recovery system (ERS) deployment power by (tilde)50kW,” the FIA statement said.

The changes, it added, will be “intuitive for drivers and teams.”

After just three grands prix this season, tweaks were made that slightly curbed the influence of the electrical power. They answered driver criticism by promoting pure driving skill over electrical recharging, especially in qualifying.

Last weekend's Miami Grand Prix was the first under those changes. Sunday’s race was one of the most wide open in recent F1 history with drivers from four different teams leading before Kimi Antonelli took his third win of 2026 for Mercedes.

F1 has used V6 engines with electrical hybrid power since 2014 and an increase in the amount of electrical power has forced drivers to adjust. Timing the electrical boost and recharging is the key to tactical racing. Four-time world champion Max Verstappen loathes it so much he’s questioned his future in F1.

The FIA said Friday's session began with a review of the changes put in place before Miami.

“The conclusion from the deployment of modifications in Miami, designed to improve safety and reduce excessive harvesting, was that they resulted in improved competition and were a step in the right direction,” it said.

“Evaluation of the Miami package is ongoing with a view to the introduction of further adjustments at future events.”

Next on the calendar is the Canadian Grand Prix on May 24.

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

“I couldn’t really bend my arm. I couldn’t button a shirt,” the New York Yankees left-hander said. ”I couldn't scratch my face. I couldn't take a drink of water. ... I could definitely never comb my hair."

Seven months after elbow surgery, the 33-year-old is set to return to a major league mound Sunday at the Milwaukee Brewers. While he feels a lot better, it's not like when he reached the major leagues with the Chicago White Sox a decade ago.

“That’s almost a virgin arm then,” he quipped.

Rodón is 93-72 with a 3.73 ERA in 11 major league seasons, including 37-26 since signing a $162 million, six-year contract with the Yankees in December 2023.

He was 18-9 with a 3.09 ERA last season despite an ailing arm. His four-seam fastball velocity, which averaged 95.3 mph in his first season with the Yankees, was 94.4 mph in the first half last year and dropped to 93.8 mph in the second half.

“He was great last year. So, just had to do it a different way. He didn’t have the range of motion,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “But I think if you talk to major league pitchers, especially ones that have done it for a while, you’re kind of always dealing with different stuff. So credit to him for being able to navigate it last year and with excellence.”

Rodón's fastball velocity dropped to 93.4 mph in his Division Series start against Toronto, when he allowed six runs and lasted just 2 1/3 innings.

“They were mending to him every day to get him to post,” pitching coach Matt Blake said.

Rodón said his elbow deterioration occurred over three-to-four years. He was willing to tolerate the pain to get through last season.

“Did it hurt? Sometimes sure, pitching, but I’d rather go out there and compete," he said. “I was throwing well, so I couldn't just say, 'Oh, I can't pitch,' but it was manageable.”

Rodón had surgery Oct. 15 to remove loose bodies in his left elbow and shave a bone spur, then had a setback in late March when he felt tightness in his right hamstring while throwing at the Yankees’ Florida complex.

As part of his rehabilitation, he had a pair of platelet-rich plasma injections.

“The first one was early. I really remember it because it was vivid because my arm felt like it got ran over by a bus,” he said.

He reported to spring training in the mid-to-upper 250-pound range, about 10 pounds above his target, but figured the weight would come off as he readied for his return.

“I guess a happy offseason," he said with a laugh. "I enjoy food.”

Rodón made three starts during a minor league injury rehabilitation assignment that started April 24 and had a 3.38 ERA and 16 strikeouts while allowing three walks and three homers in 16 innings.

He threw 83 pitches in his last outing and will have a limit of about the same against the Brewers.

“Not as daunting as Tommy John’s surgery,” said Rodón, who had his UCL repaired in 2019. “You never want to go under the knife, for sure, but it’s good to be at the end of the road.”

Blake notices the difference in Rodón's mechanics.

“You can see there’s just a little more freedom of motion in the arm action,” he said. “It looks a little easier. It’s not as much body creating the power.”

But with that added motion, Rodón has to work to regain command.

“I’m happy with the recovery,” he said. “So just keep going.”

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

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro were attending the April 25 event at the Washington Hilton when Cole Tomas Allen allegedly ran through a security checkpoint and fired a shotgun at a Secret Service officer.

In a court filing late Thursday, Allen's attorneys argued that it creates at least the appearance of a conflict of interest for Blanche and Pirro to be making any prosecutorial decisions in the case.

“As this case proceeds closer to trial, the country and the world will continue to wonder — how can the American justice system permit a victim to prosecute a criminal defendant in a case involving them?” defense attorneys Eugene Ohm and Tezira Abe wrote.

Ohm and Abe, who are assistant federal public defenders, suggested that the appointment of a special prosecutor might be warranted. They urged U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump nominee assigned to Allen's case, to disqualify Pirro, Blanche and possibly other Justice Department officials from direct involvement in the investigation and prosecution.

“Both heard gunshots, which presumably forced them to duck below the tables with the rest of the occupants. They were quickly evacuated. Shortly thereafter, they learned that law enforcement believed the target was certain administration officials,” Ohm and Abe wrote.

Pirro said her office will respond to the defense lawyers' arguments in its own court filing.

“We will not tolerate people who come to the District of Columbia to engage in antidemocratic acts of political violence; and we will prosecute all such acts to the fullest extent of the law,” Pirro said in a statement.

Allen is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on charges in an indictment handed up Tuesday by a grand jury in Washington.

The charges include attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump, who is a longtime friend of Pirro. Blanche served as a personal attorney for Trump before joining the Justice Department last year.

Blanche, through a spokesperson, referred a request for comment to Pirro's office.

Allen also is charged with assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and two additional firearms counts. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of the attempted assassination charge alone.

The Secret Service officer who was shot once in a bullet-resistant vest fired his own weapon five times without hitting anybody. Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was injured but was not shot.

About 20 climbers had set out Thursday to ascend the nearly 1,355-meter (4,445-foot) volcano in defiance of safety restrictions, said North Halmahera police chief Erlichson Pasaribu.

They became stranded when Dukono erupted at 7:41 a.m. local time, spewing a thick ash column that rose about 10 kilometers (6 miles) above the summit. The eruption was recorded on seismographs for more than 16 minutes, Indonesia’s Geological Agency said.

“They were aware that climbing was prohibited as the mountain is a restricted zone due to its high alert status, but insisted on going ahead,” Pasaribu said in a television interview.

Rescue teams were deployed after receiving an emergency signal from the mountain area. Two Singaporean men and one Indonesian woman died at the scene, Pasaribu said.

As of Friday afternoon, 17 climbers had been safely evacuated, including seven Singaporean nationals and two Indonesians who joined the rescue operation and provided information on climbing routes of the victims before the eruption, National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said. Five of those evacuated were reported injured.

The bodies had not yet been recovered because continued eruptions and dangerous conditions prevented rescue teams from reaching the location.

Muhari said the search and rescue operation was halted late Friday due to darkness, and would resume early Saturday.

The Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation has long banned activities within a 4‑kilometer (2.5‑mile) danger zone radius of Dukono’s crater, citing hazards such as volcanic explosions, ashfall and toxic gases. Officials believe the hikers were inside the restricted zone at the time of the eruption.

Despite warnings on social media and signs at the site, “many people remain determined to climb, driven by the desire to create online content,” Pasaribu said.

Mount Dukono is one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes and has been erupting almost continuously since 1933. Indonesia sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an area of intense seismic and volcanic activity, and is home to more than 120 active volcanoes.

Authorities also have warned of possible secondary hazards, including volcanic mudflows, especially during heavy rain, which could travel along rivers flowing from the volcano’s slopes.

Volcanic activity at Dukono remains high, and authorities said it was at the second highest alert level. Authorities said the volcano has shown an increase in explosive magmatic eruptions since late March, with an average of about 95 eruptions a day.

“Friday’s eruption was among the strongest during this period,” said Lana Saria, who heads Indonesia's Geology Agency at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. She added that ash clouds ranging from white to gray and black in color were being blown northward.

She warned that ashfall could affect nearby settlements, including the town of Tobelo, raising health risks and disrupting transportation and daily life.

Officials urged residents, tourists and climbers to remain calm, follow official guidance and avoid restricted areas as monitoring of Mount Dukono continues.

Speaking after meetings with Premier Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Rubio warned that Tehran was attempting to assert control over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, calling the move “unacceptable” and a threat to global security.

“Everybody says Iran is a threat. Everybody says that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon … but you’ve got to do something about it,” Rubio told reporters in Rome. “If the answer is no … then you better have something more than just strongly worded statements to back it up.”

Clear ‘red line’

Rubio said Iran was trying to normalize control over an international waterway, a precedent he warned could encourage similar actions elsewhere. He also cautioned Tehran against targeting U.S. maritime assets, saying the United States had thwarted attacks on three Navy ships in the strait.

“The red line is clear. They threaten Americans, they are going to be blown up,” he said.

Rubio said Washington was pursuing a diplomatic track, including a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at preserving freedom of navigation. He added the U.S. was awaiting Iran’s response on Friday to ongoing diplomatic efforts.

Rubio's visit comes after weeks of sharp disagreements between Washington and Rome over the Iran war, tariffs and U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticism of both Meloni and Pope Leo XIV.

Differences remain over Iran war

Meloni described her meeting with Rubio as “constructive, frank and productive,” focused on both bilateral relations and major international issues. She said the talks covered strategic topics, including the Middle East, freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, Ukraine, China and areas of Italian interest such as Libya and Lebanon.

“We both understand how important the trans-Atlantic relationship is, but we also understand that each country must defend its own national interests," Meloni stressed after the meeting.

Tajani struck a more conciliatory tone after meeting his U.S. counterpart, reaffirming the importance of the trans-Atlantic alliance.

“I am convinced Europe needs America — Italy needs America — and the United States also needs Europe and Italy,” Tajani said, adding he hoped “tensions have been calmed.”

He said discussions covered the Iran conflict and its spillover into Lebanon, as well as Venezuela and Cuba. The U.S. State Department said Rubio also raised the need to protect economic interests and end the war in Ukraine.

Despite the effort to ease tensions, differences remain over the Iran conflict. Italy has opposed the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign, with Meloni calling it “illegal,” and has resisted involvement in offensive operations.

Tajani said Italy would be prepared to contribute naval forces to demine the Strait of Hormuz once a permanent ceasefire is reached, and would maintain its role in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. He also stressed the importance of continued U.S. troop presence in Europe amid concerns about possible reductions.

No final decision on NATO troops adjustments

Rubio said “no final decision” had been made on NATO troop adjustments, noting that any changes would depend on U.S. national interests and global priorities.

The U.S. has announced a decision to pull 5,000 military personnel from Germany and Trump has threatened to withdraw more troops from Italy and Spain over their stance on the war.

Italy, a key logistics hub for U.S. and allied operations in the Mediterranean and beyond, has already signaled limits to its cooperation. In March, it declined to allow U.S. bombers bound for the Middle East to use a base in Sicily without parliamentary approval, reflecting constitutional constraints and strong domestic opposition to the war.

Meloni, weakened by a recent referendum defeat and facing public unease over the conflict, has insisted that any use of Italian bases for offensive operations would require parliamentary backing.

The war has also raised economic concerns in Italy, with Meloni warning that disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz risk driving up energy costs and inflation, while U.S. tariff threats weigh on the country’s export-driven economy.

An attempt to de-escalate at the Vatican

Rubio also sought to ease tensions with the Vatican following Trump’s criticism of the pope's calls for peace. After a lengthy meeting on Thursday with the pontiff and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Rubio said Washington remained committed to a “productive and fruitful” relationship with the Catholic Church.

“The president’s perspective is clear. He thinks that Iran is a threat, and it needs to be addressed. And that position remains unchanged,” Rubio said.

Rubio confirmed that Cuba was also discussed at the Vatican, with Washington hoping the church's Caritas charity organization would continue distributing humanitarian aid.

Rubio said the U.S. has provided about $6 million in humanitarian aid to Cuba, to be distributed through Caritas, should the Cubans allow it. He added Washington has also offered up to $100 million in additional aid, but the Cuban government has not accepted it so far. Rubio blamed Cuba’s government for blocking assistance and worsening conditions, describing it as “incompetent."

U.S. officials said the Vatican talks underscored strong bilateral ties and a shared commitment to promoting peace, even as differences over the Iran war persist.

Health officials plan careful evacuations of the more than 140 passengers and crew when the MV Hondius arrives in Tenerife this weekend.

At least three passengers have died, and several others are sick. None of the remaining passengers or crew is currently symptomatic.

The U.S. and the U.K. are arranging flights to repatriate their citizens. The World Health Organization says the risk to the wider public is low. Health authorities are tracking passengers who disembarked before the outbreak was detected.

Here's the latest:

A lot of unknowns about the illness and treatment

There is no specific treatment or cure, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.

Despite years of research, many questions have yet to be answered, including why hantavirus infection can be mild for some people and severe for others and how antibodies are developed. Some researchers have been following patients over long periods of time in hopes of finding a treatment.

“In the Americas, hantavirus infection is very serious, but it’s also quite rare,” said Steven Bradfute, an associate professor and associate director of the Center for Global Health at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, which specializes in hantavirus research.

“And so for a time that probably led to less research into it because of funding priorities, but I know there’s been a lot of interest in funding hantavirus work of late,” he said.

What researchers do know is that rodent exposure is key.

The best way to avoid the germ is to minimize contact with rodents and their droppings. Use protective gloves and a bleach solution for cleaning up rodent droppings. Public health experts caution against sweeping or vacuuming, which can cause virus particles to get into the air.

Dutch woman's remains have been repatriated

South African health department spokesperson Foster Mogale told The Associated Press that the body left Johannesburg on a KLM flight on Thursday.

Posthumous tests on the woman's body came back positive for hantavirus.

Her 70-year-old husband was the first passenger to die on board the MV Hondius on April 11. His body was taken off the cruise ship in the South Atlantic Island of St. Helena on April 24, when she also disembarked to accompany it.

She traveled from St. Helena to Johannesburg on a commercial flight and was trying to take another flight home when she fell seriously ill at O.R. Tambo International Airport. She died at a nearby hospital on April 26.

She was one of dozens of cruise ship passengers who disembarked at St. Helena.

It’s unclear if her husband’s body, which remained on St. Helena, has been repatriated.

US will offer repatriation flight for Americans on board the cruise ship

The State Department says it is in direct contact with a number of American citizens on board the cruise ship and will offer them a special flight home from Tenerife when the vessel arrives there this weekend.

The department said Friday that U.S. diplomats will be available to provide consular services in Tenerife to the Americans on board and has arranged the special repatriation flight in coordination with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Spanish government.

Suspected hantavirus case on Tristan da Cunha was a ship passenger

The person suspected of having hantavirus on the island of Tristan da Cunha was a passenger on the cruise ship that had an outbreak of the disease, the British Foreign Office said.

A British government official indicated the patient was an island resident and was hospitalized but did not say how they may have come in contact with the virus.

Stephen Doughty, the U.K. minister of overseas territories, said in a message sent to the remote British overseas territory that his thoughts were with “the islander currently in hospital and their spouse who is isolating.”

The Foreign Office would not provide additional details, and emails from the AP seeking additional information from Tristan da Cunha officials were not returned.

Infections have been fairly uncommon

Hantavirus infections are relatively uncommon globally. The WHO reported that in 2025, eight countries within the Americas had documented 229 cases and 59 deaths.

Argentina’s health ministry said hantavirus led to 28 deaths nationwide last year. The ministry on Tuesday reported 101 hantavirus infections since June 2025, roughly double the caseload recorded over the same period the previous year.

In the U.S., federal health officials began tracking the virus after a 1993 outbreak in the Four Corners region — the area where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet. It was an astute physician with the Indian Health Service who first noticed a pattern of deaths among young patients.

Most U.S. cases are in Western states. New Mexico and Arizona are hot spots, likely because the odds are greater for mouse-human encounters in rural areas.

This outbreak may have come from Argentina

Detailed investigations of the cruise ship outbreak are ongoing, notably to determine its source.

Investigators in Argentina suspect that the cases were initially contracted during a birdwatching trip in Ushuaia, at the country’s southern tip, two officials told AP.

Argentina has seen a surge of hantavirus cases that many local public health researchers attribute to climate change.

Officials have found evidence of Andes virus, a version of hantavirus found in South America.

What to know about hantavirus

The virus usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings. Hantaviruses have been around for centuries and are thought to exist around the world.

But global health officials say the risk to the general public remains low because the germ does not easily spread between people.

“This is not the next COVID, but it is a serious infectious disease,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness at the World Health Organization. “Most people will never be exposed to this.”

The disease gained renewed attention last year after the late actor Gene Hackman ’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from a hantavirus infection in New Mexico.

International effort to trace passengers spans four continents

Health authorities across four continents were continuing to track down and monitor passengers who disembarked the ship before the deadly outbreak was detected. They are also trying to trace others who may have come into contact with them since then.

On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, the ship’s operator and Dutch officials said Thursday.

It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a ship passenger, the World Health Organization said.

The KLM flight attendant who tested negative for the virus was working on a flight headed from Johannesburg to Amsterdam on April 25, and had later fallen ill. She was taken to an isolation ward at an Amsterdam hospital on Thursday.

The cruise passenger briefly aboard the flight — a Dutch woman whose husband died on the ship — was too ill to stay on the international flight to Europe. She was taken off the plane in Johannesburg, where she died.

US and Britain to repatriate citizens when ship reaches Spanish island

The MV Hondius is expected to reach Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, on Saturday or Sunday.

Passengers “will arrive at a completely isolated, cordoned-off area,” said Virginia Barcones, Spain’s head of emergency services, on Thursday.

The MV Hondius is a Dutch-flagged vessel and Dutch officials said Friday they were also in close contact with the ship’s owner and authorities of countries whose citizens are on board.

The United States has agreed to send a plane to the Canary Islands to repatriate its 17 citizens from the cruise ship, Barcones said. The British government also said it will charter a plane to evacuate the nearly two dozen British citizens on board.