The visit comes at a challenging moment for U.S.-UK relations. U.S. President Donald Trump’s up-and-down relationship with Prime Minister Keir Starmer has taken a particularly sour turn over the past several months as the president has sought to rally international support for the war in Iran.

The king, accompanied by Queen Camilla, will begin his day with a meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump around 10:35 a.m. ET. The King is then scheduled to address the U.S. Congress at 3 p.m. ET, the body’s first address from a British monarch since Queen Elizabeth II ’s in 1991. The day will end with an expectedly buzzy dinner at the White House.

Here's the latest:

UK envoy’s unguarded comments are leaked

As King Charles III celebrates the transatlantic relationship, Britain’s ambassador in Washington has appeared to downplay the uniqueness of the so-called “special relationship” in leaked comments.

Ambassador Christian Turner told a group of British students that “I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States — and that is probably Israel.”

He said, though, that the U.K. and the U.S. share “a deep history and affinity,” and that “particularly on our defense and security, we are intertwined.”

A recording of the comments was published Tuesday by the Financial Times, which said they were made in February.

Turner also called it “extraordinary” that scandals around Jeffrey Epstein had brought down a member of the royal family and senior officials in Britain – and could yet topple Prime Minister Keir Starmer – “and yet here in the U.S., it really hasn’t touched anybody.”

The Foreign Office said “these were private, informal comments” and “certainly not any reflection of the U.K. government’s position.”

Trump says he wanted to go to the Capitol for the king’s speech

Trump said he wanted to be there for the first address to a joint meeting of Congress by a British king, but he’ll stay behind and watch instead.

“I was thinking of going, but they said, I don’t know, that might be a step too far. I would love to go. It’s not supposed to be protocol, but I would love to be with you,” Trump said during his own speech at the welcome ceremony for Charles and Camilla.

Trump says the magic words: ‘our special relationship’

Part of the king’s mission on this state visit is to try to mend a rift over issues including the Iran wa r and bolster what is known as the “special relationship” between the two countries. In his remarks, Trump explicitly linked Charles to that relationship.

“Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt famously met on a ship in the North Atlantic to outline a vision for the free world after World War Two. That understanding of our nation’s unique bond and role in history is the essence of our special relationship, and we hope it will always remain that way,” Trump said.

“The ship where the two great leaders met was called the Prince of Wales, the very title that His Majesty the king held longer than any other individual in British history,” he said.

Trump tells Charles his mother ‘had a crush’ on him

Trump talked about his late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who was born in Scotland and loved watching the royal family on television at ceremonies and events.

“I also remember her saying very clearly, ‘Charles, look young Charles, he’s so cute,’” Trump said, looking back at the king sitting behind him on the dias.

“My mother had a crush on Charles -- can you believe it?”

‘What a beautiful British day this is,’ Trump quips

Trump welcomed the king and queen noting the drizzle weather that had guests wiping off seats and huddling under umbrellas.

Trump paid tribute the Brits who first traveled to America, then a “wild and untamed continent,” and walked through a history of the “special relationship” between the two nations.

Trump says it’s a ‘tremendous privilege’ to host King Charles

The president paid homage to the king’s mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, as he welcomed the royal couple to the White House.

Trump said Elizabeth was “an incredible woman who I had the privilege of getting to know,” noting that she planted a tree at the White House years ago.

“Look at it now,” he said.

The remarks were part of a broader effort by Trump to note the long history between the U.S. and the U.K.

“Like our nation itself,” Trump said of the tree, “it was laid with British hands but grew in American soil.”

Ballroom construction keeps going during royal visit

Nothing gets in the way of the president’s ballroom construction. Not even a visit from Britain’s king and queen.

Work on the project was continuing ahead of the royal visit to the White House. Ballroom construction cranes were swinging and the sound of clangs could be heard.

In the wake of Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Trump has said the ballroom is needed to hold secure events. The construction, however, is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit.

Grey skies in Washington ahead of White House welcome

Washington’s finicky spring weather is on display ahead of King Charles and Queen Camilla arriving at the White House. They’ll be greeted by President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on the South Lawn.

Ahead of their arrival, skies are grey with a light breeze. Drizzle and rain is possible over the next hour.

Members of the audience are shielding themselves with umbrellas to stay dry as the Marine band plays.

Trump delights in allegedly being a 15th cousin of King Charles III

Is the U.S. president actually a distant royal?

The U.K.-based Daily Mail reported this week that Trump and King Charles III have a shared distant ancestor that would make the two 15th cousins.

According to research conducted for the tabloid, Trump and Charles are both related to the 3rd Earl of Lennox, who is a great-grandson of King James II of Scotland.

“Wow, that’s nice. I’ve always wanted to live in Buckingham Palace!!!” Trump posted on his social media site Tuesday morning shortly before he was to formally greet the king and Queen Camilla at the White House. “I’ll talk to the King and Queen about this in a few minutes!!!”

Charles has faced some calls to meet with victims of Jeffrey Epstein

Charles has faced some calls on Capitol Hill to meet with victims of Jeffrey Epstein while he is in the U.S. There’s no indication that he will do so, even as the scandal involving the convicted sex offender has ensnared his brother, the former Prince Andrew, who was arrested in February over misconduct allegations, which he denies.

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., urged the king over the weekend to at least address the issue during his congressional speech.

Trump has maintained warm relations with the King

The president has spoken in glowing terms about Charles, repeatedly referring to the monarch as his “friend” and a “great guy.”

He also continues to mention his “amazing” trip to the U.K. in September with Melania Trump for an unprecedented second state visit. Starmer hand-delivered the invitation from the king in the Oval Office five weeks after Trump returned to office, in a very public attempt to woo the Republican president.

The U.K. royal family laid on pomp and pageantry for the Trumps, with scarlet-clad guardsmen, brass bands and a sumptuous banquet at Windsor Castle.

“President Trump has always had great respect for King Charles, and their relationship was further strengthened by the president’s historic visit to the United Kingdom last year,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Associated Press.

The visit comes at a challenging moment for US-UK relations

Trump’s up-and-down relationship with Prime Minister Keir Starmer has taken a particularly sour turn over the past several months as the president has sought to rally international support for the war in Iran. Trump lamented that Starmer, who has largely resisted his overtures, was “no Churchill.”

Trump has also imposed tariffs on the U.K. and warned of additional levies despite a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that has made such unilateral moves more challenging. Still, Trump threatened just last week to slap a “big tariff” on the U.K. if it doesn’t scrap a digital services tax on U.S. technology companies.

Trump has more broadly challenged the traditional trans-Atlantic alliance with efforts to annex Greenland and threats to walk away from NATO. He has repeatedly imposed tariffs on and taunted Canada, a member of the British Commonwealth.

A rare royal address to Congress

King Charles III will become the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress since his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1991. Her speech highlighted the shared history of both countries and the importance of their democratic values, themes Charles will likely reinforce on Tuesday.

Such addresses are an opportunity afforded to only the most prominent world leaders, including Pope Francis, Václav Havel and Winston Churchill. It will likely mark the most extensive public remarks Charles will deliver during a four-day visit to the U.S. that’s intended to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary of independence from Britain.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla head to the White House

The king, accompanied by Queen Camilla, will begin his day with a meeting at the White House with Trump. The Oval Office encounter offers the potential for the freewheeling, sometimes controversial meetings with foreign leaders that have become routine during Trump’s second term.

Given the expressly apolitical nature of the British monarch and Trump’s fondness for the royal family, the likelihood of an awkward meeting may be reduced.

Trump will host Charles on Tuesday evening for a state banquet at the White House.

Los investigadores dijeron que el crimen ocurrió el 18 de abril en las casas adosadas Antigua at Country Club of Miami, en el bloque 17500 de Northwest 67th Place.

Los detectives dijeron que José Vidal tuvo una discusión con su hijastro, quien lo acusó de robar una gran suma de dinero y planeaba desalojarlo de la vivienda.

Los investigadores dijeron que ambos se enfrascaron en una pelea, la situación se tornó violenta y Vidal apuñaló a su esposa y a su hijastro.

Un informe de arresto de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade indica que no fue hasta el lunes siguiente, dos días después, que Vidal montó su bicicleta para comprar un billete de lotería y luego se dirigió al Memorial Hospital West, a seis millas de distancia en Pembroke Pines, alegando que había sido atacado por dos hombres que lo apuñalaron, lo dejaron inconsciente y que al despertar encontró a sus familiares muertos.

Los detectives dijeron que las cámaras de vigilancia mostraron a Vidal caminando por la comunidad con unas sandalias específicas que dejaron huellas en la sangre encontrada dentro de la vivienda. Señalaron que no había evidencia de ninguna persona que coincidiera con la descripción de los supuestos sospechosos que Vidal proporcionó.

Vidal, oriundo de España, fue arrestado el viernes con dos cargos de asesinato en segundo grado y compareció el sábado ante el tribunal de fianzas de Miami-Dade, donde un juez ordenó que fuera detenido sin derecho a fianza.

Environmentalists fear the move will create a precedent for wiping out other protections for public lands across the country. Twin Metals Minnesota LLC, a subsidiary of Chile-based Antofagasta Minerals, has been looking to dig for copper, nickel and other precious metals in the Superior National Forest since 2019.

The canoe area lies in the national forest just downstream from the mine site, raising concerns that digging could create pollution that would contaminate one of the nation's last remaining wild areas.

Former President Joe Biden's administration in 2023 imposed a 20-year moratorium on mining in the national forest, putting Twin Metals plans on hold. But Trump has called for boosting domestic energy and mineral production, and congressional Republicans sent him a resolution to lift the moratorium earlier this month, promising the move would create jobs and reenergize the mining industry in Minnesota's Iron Range. The president signed the resolution on Monday.

“Today is a dark day for America's most beloved Wilderness area, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and a stark warning call for public lands nationwide,” Ingrid Lyons, executive director the group Save the Boundary Waters, said in a statement. “Minnesotans and the American public writ large have been loud and clear -- this iconic place needs to be protected. Today, by the very people who claim to represent them, they were ignored, and even worse, silenced. But of course, it's not over, and we will always keep fighting.”

Twin Metals spokesperson Kathy Graul said in a statement to The Associated Press that lifting the moratorium creates an opportunity to strengthen mineral supply chains but stressed that the company still must go through a rigorous permitting process that could last years.

Indeed, the mine site stands on a patchwork of state, federal and private land, creating a regulatory labyrinth.

The first hurdle for the company is reestablishing a right to mine after officials in Biden's Department of the Interior terminated its federal site leases in early 2022. Twin Metals filed a federal lawsuit seeking a declaration that the leases are still valid but a judge threw the case out in 2023. The company is appealing that decision.

Twin Metals also would have to win a mining permit from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources by showing that the company can prevent water pollution, safely store waste rock and restore the land after the mine is played out. The company also will need state water and air permits. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who voted against lifting the moratorium, could be a serious roadblock for the company if she wins her bid for the governor's office in November.

Environmental groups and tribes could conceivably challenge every permit in court, potentially blocking Twin Metals' plans for years. Friends of the Boundary Waters, for example, has said litigation remains “under active consideration.”

And Canadian officials could raise concerns about whether the mine could create cross-border pollution that violates treaties with the U.S. The Boundary Waters separates northeastern Minnesota from northwestern Ontario, hence the name.

The area remains largely untouched by humans. Logging is prohibited, planes must obey minimum altitude limits when flying over it, and motorized boats are limited to certain areas. The U.S. Forest Service issued about 776,000 visitor permits between 2020 and 2024.

Students were seen picking up trash along the beach as part of the organized effort, which brought together Heart of the Hive and Reef Boys along with support from multiple sponsors.

Organizers said the cleanup was designed specifically for children, giving them a hands-on way to help protect the environment while also learning about community involvement.

“We just want to show them how life is supposed to be. It’s more about mentorship and the influence, said Nakiyah Dawkins, director of Heart of the Hive. ”Just not being home and sitting at home but just coming out to enjoy the environment and being able to cleanup and be a helping hand."

Marissa Merlano of Reef Boys said the goal is to get young people engaged early in environmental efforts.

“It feels really good to come clean the beach it’s what I’m passionate about but I think it’s really important to get kids in on this and to care about the ocean and protecting the beach,” Merlano said.

Organizers said the event was about more than just cleaning the shoreline, but also teaching responsibility and encouraging kids to take pride in protecting the environment.

El concejo recibió oposición de residentes.

Se trata de un proyecto de gran escala con cuatro nuevos edificios de casi 300 pies de altura, que ofrecerían una combinación de hotel, unidades residenciales y espacio de oficinas en el sitio de Bal Harbour Shops.

El proyecto ha sido rechazado repetidamente por líderes del pueblo y residentes.

La oposición ha generado una demanda por parte de desarrolladores que intentan construir bajo la Ley Live Local de Florida, que les permite evadir la aprobación del pueblo, pero reservar el 40% de las más de 500 nuevas unidades residenciales como asequibles.

El ir y venir en los tribunales provocó una mediación entre ambas partes.

La noche del lunes, se hizo pública una oferta de compromiso presentada por los desarrolladores.

El nuevo plan reduce ligeramente la propuesta a tres edificios y una menor altura, según lo descrito por un abogado que trabaja para el pueblo.

Residentes llenaron la reunión especial del concejo del pueblo el lunes para expresar su oposición.

El aumento de la congestión vehicular, el hacinamiento en las escuelas y la falta de infraestructura para manejar situaciones como inundaciones están entre las razones por las que no quieren que Bal Harbour Shops se expanda.

Finalmente, los comisionados decidieron rechazar la nueva propuesta y continuar luchando contra los desarrolladores en los tribunales.

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The council received some pushback from residents.

It’s a sprawling project of four new buildings towering nearly 300 feet in the air, offering a mix of hotel, residential units and office space on the site of the Bal Harbour Shops.

The project has been repeatedly rejected by village leaders and residents.

The pushback has sparked a lawsuit by developers trying to build under Florida’s Live Local Act, which allows them to bypass village approval, but set aside 40% of the 500-plus new residential units as affordable.

The back and forth in courts prompted mediation between the two sides.

Monday night, a compromise offer that was made by developers was made public.

The new plan slightly scales back the proposed plan down to three buildings and a lowered height, as described by an attorney working for the village.

Residents packed Monday’s special village council meeting to lodge their opposition.

Increased traffic congestion, overcrowding in schools and a lack of infrastructure to handle anomalies like flooding are among the reasons they don’t want Bal Harbour Shops to expand.

Ultimately, commissioners decided to reject the new proposal and continue fighting the developers in court.

Un informe de 63 páginas de la alcaldesa del condado obtenido por Local 10 News indica que el Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami está alcanzando la capacidad de su campo aéreo, actualmente al 80% de su capacidad.

Ese es el punto en el que la Administración Federal de Aviación recomienda agregar más espacio, o podrían producirse más retrasos en los viajes.

“La capacidad limitada podría afectar el crecimiento, crear retrasos en los viajes y afectar nuestra competitividad”, dijo el presidente de la Comisión de Miami-Dade, Anthony Rodríguez. “Tenemos que actuar ahora y planificar con anticipación”.

Los comisionados han reducido las opciones a tres.

La primera es construir un nuevo aeropuerto en algún lugar del condado, mientras que las otras son ampliar el Aeropuerto Ejecutivo de Miami en el suroeste de Miami-Dade o el Aeropuerto de Aviación General Miami Homestead hasta convertirlo en un aeropuerto comercial importante.

La junta del condado le dio a la alcaldesa hasta principios de junio para informar cómo el condado podría pagar esto.

Si se aprueba, tomaría de 12 a 15 años ampliar cualquiera de los aeropuertos, o al menos dos décadas construir un aeropuerto completamente nuevo.

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A 63-page report from the county mayor obtained by Local 10 News says Miami International Airport is reaching airfield capacity, currently at 80% full.

That’s when the Federal Aviation Administration recommends adding more space, or there could be more travel delays.

“Capacity challenges could impact growth, create travel delays, and affect our competitiveness,” said Miami-Dade Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez. “We have to act now and plan ahead.”

Commissioners have narrowed it down to three options.

The first is building a new airport somewhere in the county, while the others are expanding either Miami Executive Airport in southwest Miami-Dade or the Miami Homestead General Aviation Airport into a full-on major commercial airport.

The county board gave the mayor until early June to report how the county could pay for this.

If it’s approved, it would take 12 to 15 years to expand either of the airports, or at least two decades to build a brand new airport.

The witness reported that Steven Goldman, who lives where the valet attendants work in the city’s Mid-Beach neighborhood, kept the firearms in a safe, and he “had become increasingly unwell.”

On Friday, Miami Beach police officers responded to the valet area at the Seacoast, a beachfront community at 5151 Collins Ave., according to a police officer’s arrest report.

Goldman had parked his silver Hyundai Sonata for over 40 minutes at the front of the valet area, blocking vehicles from passing, and he was angry over a parking violation sticker on his window, according to police.

Witnesses in the valet area and valet office reported Goldman was screaming, threw the parking violation sticker, pushed an employee, got back in the Hyundai, and grabbed a gun, according to police.

Goldman lifted his gun and pointed it at one of the victims while shouting an expletive several times before driving away in the Hyundai, according to the police officer’s report.

Surfside police officers stopped Goldman at Collins Avenue and 93 Street. One of the officers reported that Goldman “had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech,” and ”a heavy odor of alcohol emitted" from his breath when he said, “I pulled a firearm on someone!”

Police officers also reported Goldman had two guns — a black Smith & Wesson M&P Shield and a black and silver Springfield XD 9mm handgun — in a suitcase in the trunk of the car.

Records show police officers arrested Goldman on Friday evening, Miami-Dade corrections booked him early Saturday morning, and he appeared in court on Sunday and Monday.

Goldman faced charges of burglary with assault or battery, and aggravated assault with a firearm. He also had a warrant case for driving under the influence.

According to court records, a judge ordered Goldman to stay away from two victims, and he posted a $5,000 bond on Tuesday.

Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Richard Hersch was set to preside over the felony case.

Local 10 News Assignment Editor Carson Merlo contributed to this report.

Two of the applications filed Friday are sound trademarks covering her voice, one of her saying “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift,” and the other is “Hey, it’s Taylor.”

The third application is for a visual trademark, described in the filing as “a photograph of Taylor Swift holding a pink guitar, with a black strap and wearing a multicolored iridescent bodysuit with silver boots. She is standing on a pink stage in front of a multicolored microphone with purple lights in the background.”

The filings were made on behalf on Swift’s TAS Rights Management. All three have been approved and are currently awaiting assignment to an examining attorney.

The Associated Press has reached out to a representative for Swift as well as Rebecca Liebowitz, partner at law firm Venable, who is listed as the attorney on the filings. Requests for comment were not immediately returned.

News of Swift's new trademark filings made the rounds on Monday after first being noticed by intellectual property attorney Josh Gerben. In a blog post shared Monday, Gerben theorized that the trademarks are “specifically designed to protect Taylor from threats posed by artificial intelligence,” in response to growing concerns that AI could challenge celebrities' abilities to control their voices and likenesses without their consent.

In his post, Gerben explained that “Right of Publicity” laws — which protect celebrities from having their images or likenesses used to sell products without their permission — offer some protection against unauthorized use of a celebrity's likeness, but trademark filings like Swift's can offer additional protection.

Swift has been a target of AI misuse in the past. Pornographic deepfake images of her have circulated online, making the singer the most famous victim of a scourge that tech platforms and antiabuse groups have struggled to fix. In another instance, the superstar was shown in a fake endorsement of President Donald Trump during his 2024 campaign, which the then-candidate reposted and shared as genuine.

“The Life of a Showgirl” singer is not the only celebrity to pursue these kinds of trademarks. In January, attorneys for actor Matthew McConaughey secured eight trademarks from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office including a sound trademark of his catchphrase “Alright, alright, alright.”

Attorneys for the entertainment law firm Yorn Levine, which represented McConaughey, told Variety the trademarks were filed in an attempt to protect his voice and likeness from unauthorized use by AI, and to protect him in developing new opportunities using AI.

Last year, McConaughey made a deal with voice-cloning company ElevenLabs that will allow its artificial intelligence technology to replicate his voice.

Según la policía de Miami Gardens, el accidente fue reportado a las 7:53 a.m. en la cuadra 1200 de Northwest 188th Street.

La policía indicó que el conductor de un Ford Fusion negro se dirigía hacia el sur por Northwest 12th Avenue a alta velocidad cuando intentó evadir el tráfico lento conduciendo sobre el área verde.

El conductor luego chocó el vehículo contra un árbol y después atropelló al menor, dijo la policía.

Rose Emine, cuya cerca fue impactada por el conductor, dijo a Local 10 News que el niño no respondía después de ser atropellado por el vehículo.

“Dije, ‘Ahh’ porque pensé que el niño había muerto”, dijo Emine.

“Solo le estaban echando agua en la cabeza. Una gran herida en la cabeza”, dijo otro testigo, Orlando Lawrence.

Las autoridades indicaron que personal de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue trasladó en helicóptero a la víctima al Ryder Trauma Center del Jackson Memorial Hospital con lesiones graves pero estables en la cabeza.

La policía confirmó que el conductor fue arrestado por cargos de conducción imprudente.

Las identidades del sospechoso y de la víctima aún no han sido reveladas.

“Necesitamos orar por ese niño y su familia”, dijo Emine.

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According to BSO, the hit-and-run was reported shortly before 10 p.m. near the 4900 block of West Hallandale Beach Boulevard.

Investigators confirmed they are searching for the driver of a black SUV.

A Local 10 News crew was in the area later in the evening as a tarp covered the victim’s body.

Debris and gloves from investigators were also spotted on the ground, along with the victim’s bicycle.

Deputies said Pembroke Park police initially responded to the crash and the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

The police department then requested that BSO’s Traffic Homicide Unit investigate the circumstances surrounding the fatal crash, BSO said.

A Local 10 News crew spotted detectives speaking with witnesses at the laundromat on the corner of where the crash occurred.

While the roadway has since reopened, the investigation into what happened continues.

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According to Miami Gardens police, the crash was reported at 7:53 a.m. in the 1200 block of Northwest 188^th Street.

Police said the driver of a black Ford Fusion was heading south on Northwest 12^th Avenue at a high rate of speed when they tried to bypass slow-moving traffic by driving onto the swale.

The driver then crashed the car into a tree and then struck the child, police said.

Rose Emine, whose fence was crashed in by the driver, told Local 10 News that the boy was unresponsive after being struck by the car.

“I said, ‘Ahh’ because I thought the boy has died,” Emine said.

“They was just throwing water on his head. Big gash on his head,” another witness, Orlando Lawrence, said.

Authorities said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel airlifted the victim to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center with serious but stable head injuries.

Police confirmed that the driver was arrested on reckless driving charges.

The identities of the suspect and victim have not yet been released.

“We need to pray for that child and family,” Emine said.

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The fire, which started on Saturday and has been dubbed the Highway 41 Fire, is burning west of Tamiami Trail, just past Krome Avenue.

Heavy smoke could still be seen Tuesday morning coming from the blaze, just a few miles west from the Miccosukee Casino.

From the early morning hours, the fire off Tamiami Trail was lit by moonlight, but within hours, the billowing smoke and crackling embers reached the road.

At some point, flames pushed onto the street, getting within feet of oncoming cars.

The cause of the fire remains unclear, but fire service crews continue to assess the damage from above as the fire continues to move east.

Fire rescue officials say the smoke has affected the air quality in the area, so residents nearby are advised to stay indoors if they suffer from respiratory issues.

Local 10 aún trabaja para obtener detalles sobre lo ocurrido, pero se observó una lona cubriendo el cuerpo a lo largo de West Hallandale Beach Boulevard cerca de la 48th Avenue poco después de las 11:30 p.m. del lunes.

También se observaron escombros y guantes de los investigadores en el suelo, junto con una bicicleta.

Aunque la vía ya fue reabierta, la investigación sobre lo ocurrido continúa.

Un equipo de Local 10 News que acudió al lugar no vio ningún vehículo estacionado cerca, pero observó a la policía hablando con testigos en la lavandería en la esquina donde ocurrió el accidente.

Vea Local 10 News o actualice esta página para obtener actualizaciones.

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They say it’s not the first time he’s been caught trafficking the drug.

Investigators said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers made the discovery at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after Kristopher Marco, 53, of New Castle, Delaware, arrived on Spirit Airlines Flight 946 from Cartagena on Monday.

A federal criminal complaint states that CBP officers manning the inspection area and looking through Marco’s luggage first found tablets in a “Centrum vitamin bottle” that he claimed were HIV pills.

According to the complaint, “multiple Treasury Enforcement Communication System records” on Marco, plus his “nervous behavior,” led them to conduct a pat-down.

Officers “reported a large anomaly felt in (his) groin area,” it states. When asked what he had, authorities said Marco responded matter-of-factly: “Cocaine.”

They said it was was 1.75 kilograms, in fact. According to the complaint, the drugs were in a “large cylindrical-shaped package wrapped in pink cellophane.”

According to the complaint, Marco wouldn’t tell Homeland Security Investigations agents where the cocaine came from or where it was supposed to go.

They said a records check revealed that Marco ― under his former name, Christopher Allen Gransby ― had been arrested by authorities in Nicaragua on Sept. 10, 2024, for trying to enter the country from Costa Rica with 7.69 kilograms of cocaine.

Nicaraguan National Police said he was carrying the bricks of coke in a backpack. About five months after his arrest in Central America, the Virginia-born Gransby changed his name in Delaware to Kristopher Michael Cain Marco.

Records show Marco was set to appear in Fort Lauderdale federal court for a hearing on Tuesday morning as he faces a charge of possession with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine. They show that prosecutors are seeking pre-trial detention.

In the meantime, Marco was being held in the Broward Sheriff’s Office Main Jail facility on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Dicen que no es la primera vez que es sorprendido traficando la droga.

Los investigadores indicaron que oficiales de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de Estados Unidos hicieron el hallazgo en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood después de que Kristopher Marco, de 53 años, de New Castle, Delaware, llegara en el vuelo 946 de Spirit Airlines desde Cartagena el lunes.

Una denuncia penal federal establece que los oficiales de CBP en el área de inspección, al revisar el equipaje de Marco, primero encontraron tabletas en un “frasco de vitaminas Centrum” que él afirmó eran pastillas para el VIH.

Según la denuncia, “múltiples registros del Sistema de Comunicaciones de Aplicación del Tesoro” sobre Marco, además de su “comportamiento nervioso”, llevaron a realizarle una revisión corporal.

Los oficiales “reportaron una gran anomalía percibida en su zona de la ingle”, indica. Cuando se le preguntó qué tenía, las autoridades dijeron que Marco respondió de manera directa: “Cocaína”.

Indicaron que eran 1.75 kilogramos. Según la denuncia, la droga estaba en un “paquete grande de forma cilíndrica envuelto en celofán rosado”.

De acuerdo con la denuncia, Marco no quiso decir a los agentes de Investigaciones de Seguridad Nacional de dónde provenía la cocaína ni hacia dónde iba.

Señalaron que una verificación de registros reveló que Marco — bajo su nombre anterior, Christopher Allen Gransby — fue arrestado por autoridades en Nicaragua el 10 de septiembre de 2024 por intentar ingresar al país desde Costa Rica con 7.69 kilogramos de cocaína.

La Policía Nacional de Nicaragua indicó que llevaba los paquetes de cocaína en una mochila. Aproximadamente cinco meses después de su arresto en Centroamérica, Gransby, nacido en Virginia, cambió su nombre en Delaware a Kristopher Michael Cain Marco.

Los registros muestran que Marco debía comparecer en un tribunal federal en Fort Lauderdale para una audiencia la mañana del martes, enfrentando un cargo de posesión con intención de distribuir más de 500 gramos de cocaína. También indican que los fiscales buscan su detención previa al juicio.

Mientras tanto, Marco permanecía detenido en la cárcel principal de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward en nombre del Servicio de Alguaciles de Estados Unidos.

Bench coach Don Mattingly was named interim manager through the end of the season and third base coach Dusty Wathan was promoted to bench coach. Mattingly will now officially work for one of his sons — Preston Mattingly is the Phillies general manager — in what is believed to be the first father-son GM/manager combination in baseball history.

Thomson went 355-270 and led a Philadelphia team loaded with high-priced talent that included Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner to consecutive division titles. The 62-year-old Thomson, a baseball lifer finally promoted to his first managerial stint in 2022, signed a contract extension in the offseason running through the 2027 season and was again expected to lead the Phillies into World Series contention.

Instead, the Phillies and their $300-plus million payroll have been one of the biggest flops in the baseball and lost 10 straight games before ace Zack Wheeler led them to a win against Atlanta on Saturday. The Phillies lost to Atlanta on Sunday and fell to 9-19 overall, tied with the division rival New York Mets.

Thomson is the second manager fired in baseball this season after the Red Sox fired Alex Cora and five coaches on Saturday.

Dave Dombrowski, the Phillies’ president of baseball operations, gave Thomson a vote of confidence last week while they were in the midst of their losing streak. Dombrowski stood behind Thomson’s work and said he’s been a good manager since replacing Joe Girardi in 2022.

Dombrowski is scheduled to address the move ahead of Tuesday's game against San Francisco.

Thomson led Philadelphia to the 2022 World Series after taking over for Girardi, losing to the Houston Astros in six games. Since then, the club has regressed in the postseason. It lost in the NL Championship Series in 2023 in seven games, and the NL Division Series in 2024 and ’25 in four games.

Nicknamed Topper, Thomson has been with the club since the 2018 season, when he was first hired as bench coach under former manager Gabe Kapler.

He was with the New York Yankees from 1990-2017, including 10 seasons on the major league coaching staff as bench coach (2008, 2015-17) and third base coach (2009-14). He earned his nickname in the Yankees organization for always being on top of details.

Thomson became only the fourth manager in big league history to reach the postseason in each of the first four full seasons to begin a managing career, joining Dave Roberts, Aaron Boone and Mike Matheny. He became only the third manager in Phillies history to win consecutive division titles, joining Charlie Manuel and Danny Ozark.

The Phillies have been awful in what was supposed to be a celebratory season with the franchise set to host the All-Star Game and its surrounding festivities. Instead, they have collapsed in every aspect of the game, with regulars Alec Bohm and Schwarber both hitting under .200, while starters Jesús Luzardo, Aaron Nola and Andrew Painter all have 5.00-plus ERAs.

The Phillies just released high-priced bust Taijuan Walker in the final year of a four-year, $72 million contract and outfielder Nick Castellanos was released in February as he entered the final year of a five-year, $100 million deal.

The Phillies haven’t won the World Series since 2008 and had last made the playoffs in 2011 until Thomson led them a surprise run to the World Series in 2022 dubbed Red October that rejuvenated the fanbase and made 90-plus win seasons the norm.

The Phillies now will turn to Mattingly, the former New York Yankees great, to resuscitate their season and try to at least keep them in the hunt for an NL wild-card spot.

Mattingly, spending his 23rd straight season as a major league manager or coach, had his mind set on retirement after he left his role as Toronto’s bench coach under manager John Schneider following the World Series.

He reversed course after a talk with his family and latched on with the Phillies, enticed by the chance to work with his son and with Thomson, his friend from their Yankees days.

Mattingly managed the Dodgers from 2011-15 and the Marlins from 2016-22. He was the 2020 NL Manager of the Year after he led the Marlins to their first playoff appearance since 2003.

He said when the Phillies hired him in the winter that he no longer had interest in managing again.

“I don’t think I have the energy for that anymore,” Mattingly said.

Mattingly played 14 seasons as a first baseman in the major leagues, all for the Yankees, from 1982-95. He was a six-time American League All-Star and the 1985 AL Most Valuable Player before retiring. Mattingly captained the Yankees in his final five seasons.

Mattingly was thrilled in January at the chance of possibly winning his first World Series ring while working for the same franchise as his son.

“To be able to do it with him,” Mattingly said, “would be incredible.”

So, at this point, would be leading the Phillies to the postseason.

___

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

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According to an arrest report from the Miami Police Department, the theft was reported Feb. 27 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, located at 3300 SW 27^th Ave.

Police said the victim had checked into the five-star hotel on the night of Feb. 25. Later that evening, she removed all of her jewelry and placed it in a travel jewelry box, which she hid in a cosmetic bag in the bathroom of her room, authorities said.

According to the report, the victim left the hotel the next morning to go snorkeling and left her jewelry in the cosmetic bag.

Police said the victim returned to her room later that day and saw that housekeeping had cleaned her room and her belongings in the bathroom had been moved.

As she was getting ready to go to dinner, she then discovered that her wedding ring was missing, authorities said.

According to the report, the victim filed a police report the next day after being unable to find her ring.

Police said the housekeeper assigned to the room, Odessa Natasha Wray, 46, was questioned by the hotel manager that same day and he asked her whether she had seen any jewelry in the room.

“Not in the bathroom,” Wray responded, according to the report.

The manager told police he had not mentioned the bathroom when asking Wray whether she had seen any jewelry.

According to the report, during the investigation, detectives discovered that Wray had pawned a women’s ring at P&S Jewelry, located at 7900 NW 27^th Ave., on March 7 for $280. The 18kt white and yellow gold diamond ring is worth about $8,000, police said.

According to the report, detectives contacted the pawn shop to place a hold on the ring.

Police said they located Wray Monday and arrested her on charges of grand theft, dealing in stolen property and providing false verification to a pawnbroker.

According to the report, Wray confessed to stealing the ring and pawning it.

As of Tuesday morning, she was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Según un informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de Miami, el robo fue reportado el 27 de febrero en el hotel Ritz Carlton, ubicado en 3300 SW 27th Ave.

La policía indicó que la víctima se registró en el hotel de cinco estrellas la noche del 25 de febrero. Más tarde esa noche, se quitó todas sus joyas y las colocó en un estuche de viaje, el cual escondió dentro de un bolso de cosméticos en el baño de su habitación, según las autoridades.

De acuerdo con el informe, la víctima salió del hotel a la mañana siguiente para ir a hacer snorkel y dejó sus joyas en el bolso de cosméticos.

La policía dijo que la víctima regresó a su habitación más tarde ese día y vio que el personal de limpieza había arreglado su habitación y que sus pertenencias en el baño habían sido movidas.

Mientras se preparaba para salir a cenar, descubrió que su anillo de bodas había desaparecido, indicaron las autoridades.

Según el informe, la víctima presentó una denuncia policial al día siguiente tras no poder encontrar su anillo.

La policía indicó que la empleada de limpieza asignada a la habitación, Odessa Natasha Wray, de 46 años, fue interrogada ese mismo día por el gerente del hotel, quien le preguntó si había visto alguna joya en la habitación.

“No en el baño”, respondió Wray, según el informe.

El gerente dijo a la policía que no había mencionado el baño cuando le preguntó a Wray si había visto alguna joya.

De acuerdo con el informe, durante la investigación, los detectives descubrieron que Wray había empeñado un anillo de mujer en P&S Jewelry, ubicado en 7900 NW 27th Ave., el 7 de marzo por $280 USD. El anillo de diamantes de oro blanco y amarillo de 18 quilates está valorado en aproximadamente $8,000 USD, indicó la policía.

Según el informe, los detectives contactaron a la casa de empeño para retener el anillo.

La policía dijo que localizó a Wray el lunes y la arrestó por cargos de hurto mayor, tráfico de propiedad robada y proporcionar información falsa a un prestamista de empeños.

De acuerdo con el informe, Wray confesó haber robado el anillo y haberlo empeñado.

Hasta la mañana del martes, permanecía detenida en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

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Megan Weller lives right next to the mailboxes at her Deerfield Beach building, located at 3910 Crystal Lake Drive.

She said she was shocked to see a woman on her doorbell camera at 6 a.m.

“It sounded like the mail person was here,” said Weller. “I was in my living room. It was very strange because it was 6 a.m. and I didn’t think anything of it, but then I came out like 15 minutes later and this was open. It makes me angry because people, they could have checks in there. They have credit cards in there. It’s not right that people take things that are others.”

The woman seen in the video managed to break into one set of mailboxes and left with a handful of letters.

“I was a little surprised,” said Weller. “She was so brazen to come into our property and do something like that, so it’s a little nerve-racking.”

The video shows the woman getting into her car and driving away.

An earlier clip shows her looking around the area before she spotted the mailboxes and used some sort of tool to break in.

“I feel a little violated,” said Weller. “It wasn’t my mail that was taken, but I get Amazon packages all the time. I’m sure if there were packages here, she would’ve taken those as well and, you know, this is a nice, quiet building. I don’t know. Don’t expect things like that to happen.”

Residents did file reports with the Broward Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Anyone who thinks they recognize the woman in the video is urged to contact BSO or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.

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Police and rescue crews responded to a shooting call and found 37-year-old Adrian Venereo had been shot while working in the 6300 block of Southwest Eighth Street in Miami.

First responders found him bleeding on the ground after being shot in the head.

According to Miami police, Luis Lemus and another person were locked out of their apartment and Venereo was working on the front door lock when he was shot.

The husband and father is being remembered as loving and kind.

Witnesses told investigators the suspect ran off after the shooting.

Detectives arrested Lemus, 32, who police say was found with a gun and told them he had hurt someone.

He remains in jail awaiting trial on a second-degree murder charge, but a motive for the shooting has not been revealed.

Few details were released, though armed agents were seen outside child care centers in the Minneapolis area. KSTP-TV said one crew even had a battering ram.

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who has been on the defensive amid Trump administration claims that he hasn't done enough to root out fraud, welcomed the raids. The state child welfare agency said it shared key information with law enforcement.

“We catch criminals when state and federal agencies share information. Joint investigations work, and securing justice depends on it,” Walz said.

Tensions between Minnesota officials and the federal government were high during an extraordinary immigration crackdown that led to the deaths of two people before the operation was eased in February.

Before that crackdown, the government had brought fraud charges against dozens of people, many of them Somali Americans, who were accused of fleecing a federal program that was meant to provide food to children. The investigation began during the Biden administration. More than 60 people have been convicted.

“Homeland Security Investigations in cooperation with our law enforcement partners executed criminal search warrants in Minneapolis relating to the rampant fraud of U.S. taxpayers dollars,” the department said.

The department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to requests for more information Tuesday. Agents were seen outside various daycare centers.

In February, Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration would temporarily halt $243 million in Medicaid funding to Minnesota over fraud concerns. Minnesota sued in response, warning it may have to cut healthcare for low-income families, but a judge on April 6 declined to grant a restraining order.

Walz told Congress in March that he wanted to work with the federal government to help with fraud investigations, but that the immigration surge was making it more difficult.

“The people of Minnesota have been singled out and targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale,” he said at the time.

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A sandhill crane went on the attack when an alligator came too close to its family on the green.

The unafraid crane spread its wings real wide, and the scared gator wasn’t having it. It turned tail and the beautiful bird escorted the beast all the way to a nearby pond.

Una grulla atacó cuando un caimán se acercó demasiado a su familia en el campo.

La grulla, sin miedo, abrió sus alas muy ampliamente, y el caimán asustado no quiso enfrentarse. Dio media vuelta y el ave lo escoltó hasta un estanque cercano.

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“We’re actually the only ones in Florida, and as far as we know, we’re also the only ones in the whole country,” Michael Zuratti, CEO of Sedation Ink, said.

It’s a new medical twist on the industry that dates back over 5,000 years.

“(I) think it was a very cool idea, a very cool idea … as we know in Miami, we’re very big on plastic surgery,” Dr. Bryan Merkel, an anesthesiologist for Sedation Ink, said.

Since February 2024, the specialized Miami-based tattoo studio has been offering up large-scale tattooing while clients are under general anesthesia.

“I think we’re at the forefront of (a) shift in the industry,” Zuratti said. “So, you know, we do believe that eventually this will be more prevalent nationwide. Having said that, we are at the forefront and we’re excited to kind of set a good example in terms of, you know, making sure that the safety is of utmost importance.”

Zuratti exclusively gave Local 10 News a look at the process from the beginning, starting with the final consultation for their latest client – a business owner from Boston who asked that we blur his face and only use his initials, E.C.

“Doing this cover-up, it would take a long time,” he said.

The 37-year-old opted for the fast track, covering up tattoos he got inked when he was 15 years old.

“You change as you grow and then you start realizing that some tattoos, like, hey, they don’t fit you anymore,” E.C. said.

E.C. says the company’s online marketing piqued his interest, including Sedation’s tag line, “say goodbye to the pain.”

The procedure helps to expedite tattooing sessions for clients. Traditionally, large-scale tattoos can take upward of two years to complete with multiple hours of long sessions.

“We’re able to do large-scale projects in five, six hours,” Zuratti said.

“We’re seeing it in like LA and New York and Miami, and the typical places that you would expect to sort of find cutting edge ideas and thoughts on medicine and aesthetics and things like that,” Dr. Cameron Howard, chief of anesthesiology at Memorial Hospital West, said. “We have to take it seriously and we can’t be frivolous with it. So that being said, for patients receiving anesthesia for a tattoo, they should have all of the same precautions and the same emergency capabilities available to them.”

Back in 2025, the American Society of Anesthesiologists released a statement regarding anesthesia for tattoos, stating that going under for a tattoo can be dangerous, but “is no different from receiving it for an elective procedure.”

“It is a very serious undertaking, right? And it shouldn’t be treated like a spa day,” Howard said.

“This is an elective procedure, right? So the patient is unconscious and, you know, with a breathing tube so, it’s a medical procedure first,” Zuratti said.

What separates Sedation Ink from others is how the company is registered as both a tattoo shop and medical center, Zuratti said.

“Pitching this to the Florida Medical Board, contacting the tattoo establishment licensed people, so we’re certified with both departments, and, you know, it took a lot of groundwork to build this,” Zuratti said. “So, since day one, safety, safety, safety -- that’s what we push every day.”

“We pretty much give the patient medication through an IV, they go to sleep, once they’re completely asleep, they get a breathing tube,” Merkel said.

So far, the company has performed more than 50 procedures at South Florida Surgical Center after clients receive clearance from their primary physician, with a nurse and anesthesiologist monitoring.

“It’s no different than getting a general anesthesia for a plastic surgery procedure, for any type of other procedure, getting a colonoscopy,” Merkel said.

“The industry has been asking for this for a long time, but obviously it’s not for everyone,” tattoo artist Francisco Gomez said.

For seven years, Gomez has been tattooing clients and he’s been contracted with Sedation Ink for two years.

“My first reaction was like, ‘Before I say yes to anything, how is it working?’” Gomez said.

He, along with a handful of other artists, helped to design tattoos and cover up E.C.’s chest.

“The second the client gets put under, there’s a clock ticking, and the doctor doesn’t leave the room for the entire seven hours,” Gomez said.

Zuratti said he wants Sedation Ink to be “known as a lead provider that focuses on safety first, and then the tattooing secondary.”

Medical professionals and Sedation Ink both underscore that this is a medical procedure first.

Howard said serious reactions can range from airway issues to pulmonary or cardiac complications.

The best practice is to check with your doctor first and verify the company performing the procedure.

The price tag for Sedation Ink ranges from $32,000-$52,000.

“En realidad somos los únicos en Florida, y hasta donde sabemos, también somos los únicos en todo el país”, dijo Michael Zuratti, CEO de Sedation Ink.

Es un nuevo giro médico en una industria que se remonta a más de 5,000 años.

“Creo que fue una idea muy interesante, una idea muy interesante, como sabemos en Miami, somos muy grandes en cirugía plástica”, dijo el Dr. Bryan Merkel, anestesiólogo de Sedation Ink.

Desde febrero de 2024, el estudio de tatuajes especializado con sede en Miami ha estado ofreciendo tatuajes de gran escala mientras los clientes están bajo anestesia general.

“Creo que estamos a la vanguardia de un cambio en la industria”, dijo Zuratti. “Así que creemos que eventualmente esto será más común a nivel nacional. Dicho esto, estamos a la vanguardia y estamos emocionados de establecer un buen ejemplo en términos de asegurar que la seguridad sea de máxima importancia”.

Zuratti dio exclusivamente a Local 10 News un vistazo al proceso desde el inicio, comenzando con la consulta final para su cliente más reciente, un empresario de Boston que pidió que se difuminara su rostro y solo se usaran sus iniciales, E.C.

“Hacer esta cobertura tomaría mucho tiempo”, dijo.

El hombre de 37 años optó por la vía rápida, cubriendo tatuajes que se hizo cuando tenía 15 años.

“Cambias a medida que creces y luego empiezas a darte cuenta de que algunos tatuajes no encajan contigo”, dijo E.C.

E.C. dice que la publicidad en línea de la empresa llamó su atención, incluyendo el lema de Sedation, “di adiós al dolor”.

El procedimiento ayuda a acelerar las sesiones de tatuaje para los clientes. Tradicionalmente, los tatuajes de gran escala pueden tomar hasta más de dos años en completarse con múltiples sesiones de varias horas.

“Podemos hacer proyectos de gran escala en cinco, seis horas”, dijo Zuratti.

“Lo estamos viendo en lugares como Los Ángeles, Nueva York y Miami, y los lugares típicos donde esperarías encontrar ideas innovadoras en medicina y estética y cosas así”, dijo el Dr. Cameron Howard, jefe de anestesiología en Memorial Hospital West. “Tenemos que tomarlo en serio y no podemos ser frívolos con esto. Dicho eso, para los pacientes que reciben anestesia para un tatuaje, deben tener todas las mismas precauciones y las mismas capacidades de emergencia disponibles”.

En 2025, la Sociedad Estadounidense de Anestesiólogos publicó una declaración sobre la anestesia para tatuajes, señalando que someterse a anestesia para un tatuaje puede ser peligroso, pero “no es diferente de recibirla para un procedimiento electivo”.

“Es algo muy serio, ¿verdad? Y no debería tratarse como un día de spa”, dijo Howard.

“Este es un procedimiento electivo, ¿verdad? Así que el paciente está inconsciente y con un tubo de respiración, por lo que es un procedimiento médico primero”, dijo Zuratti.

Lo que diferencia a Sedation Ink de otros es cómo la empresa está registrada tanto como estudio de tatuajes como centro médico, dijo Zuratti.

“Presentar esto ante la Junta Médica de Florida, contactar a las autoridades de licencias de establecimientos de tatuajes, estamos certificados con ambos departamentos, y tomó mucho trabajo construir esto”, dijo Zuratti. “Desde el primer día, seguridad, seguridad, seguridad, eso es lo que impulsamos todos los días”.

“Básicamente le administramos al paciente medicamentos a través de una vía intravenosa, se duerme y, una vez que está completamente dormido, se le coloca un tubo de respiración”, dijo Merkel.

Hasta ahora, la empresa ha realizado más de 50 procedimientos en el South Florida Surgical Center después de que los clientes reciben autorización de su médico primario, con una enfermera y un anestesiólogo monitoreando.

“No es diferente a recibir anestesia general para una cirugía plástica o cualquier otro tipo de procedimiento, como una colonoscopia”, dijo Merkel.

“La industria ha estado pidiendo esto durante mucho tiempo, pero obviamente no es para todos”, dijo el tatuador Francisco Gomez.

Durante siete años, Gomez ha tatuado a clientes y ha trabajado con Sedation Ink durante dos años.

“Mi primera reacción fue, ‘Antes de decir que sí a algo, ¿cómo funciona?’”, dijo Gomez.

Él, junto con un grupo de otros artistas, ayudó a diseñar tatuajes y cubrir el pecho de E.C.

“En el momento en que el cliente es puesto bajo anestesia, hay un reloj corriendo, y el médico no sale de la sala durante las siete horas completas”, dijo Gomez.

Zuratti dijo que quiere que Sedation Ink sea “conocido como un proveedor líder que se enfoca primero en la seguridad y luego en el tatuaje”.

Profesionales médicos y Sedation Ink subrayan que este es un procedimiento médico primero.

Howard dijo que las reacciones graves pueden variar desde problemas en las vías respiratorias hasta complicaciones pulmonares o cardíacas.

La mejor práctica es consultar primero con su médico y verificar la empresa que realiza el procedimiento.

El costo de Sedation Ink oscila entre $32,000 USD y $52,000 USD.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index inched up to 92.8 in April from 92.2 in March.

Though the gauge measuring American consumers' confidence has ticked up the past two months, the reading remains mired near its lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Respondents’ comments about prices, oil, gas and the war increased in April as the national average for a gallon of gas in the U.S. rose to $4.18 this week, up more than a dollar since before the war began. The last time U.S. drivers were collectively paying this much at the pump was nearly four years ago, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The largest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades caused a sharp spike in inflation last month, creating major challenges for the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve.

Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department reported earlier this month, up sharply from just 2.4% in February and the biggest yearly increase since May 2024. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.9% in March from February, the largest such increase in nearly four years.

It’s the first read on inflation to capture the effects of the Iran war. The surge in gas prices will stretch the budgets of lower- and middle-income households as it erodes their incomes, making it harder to afford other necessities such as food and rent.

“Consumers are singing the blues,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “They aren’t happy with high prices for gas, housing, electricity and many other items. It’s clear consumers aren’t going to feel much better until there’s an end to the Middle East conflict.”

Government data from earlier this month showed that the inflation gauge closely monitored by the Federal Reserve moved 2.8% higher in February from a year ago, a sign that prices were persistently elevated even before the Iran war caused spikes in oil and gas costs.

Those higher prices and the prospect of even higher inflation due to the Iran war makes it unlikely that the Federal Reserve will cut its benchmark interest rate when it wraps up its two-day meeting on Wednesday.

The Fed cut its benchmark interest rate three times to close 2025 in an attempt to support a flagging labor market. However, because lower rates can exacerbate inflation, which remains above the Fed’s 2% target, the Fed has left its overnight lending rate alone at its past two meetings.

In the Conference Board's report Tuesday, a measure of Americans’ short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market rose 1.2 points to 72.2, but remained well below 80, a marker that can signal a recession ahead. It’s the 15th consecutive month that reading has come in under 80.

The index for consumers’ assessments of their current economic situation fell by 0.3 points to 123.8.

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Judge Jesse M. Furman in Manhattan noted in a written ruling that the sole reason provided for her firing last year was Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which vests “executive power” in the president.

He said the reason given for her firing takes her case outside the process that channels many, if not most, categories of disputes between federal employers and employees to avenues of administrative and judicial review outside of district courts.

The Justice Department didn’t immediately comment.

Comey sued after her firing, contending that she was improperly removed solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation or beliefs, the judge noted.

During oral arguments in December, Furman refused to let Comey immediately gather evidence to learn who ordered her firing and how it transpired, saying the government had made serious arguments that her firing must first be considered by the federal Merit Systems Protection Board.

Comey claimed in her September lawsuit that her dismissal — soon after she led the prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Combs and won a conviction on prostitution-related charges — was retribution because her father is a Trump foe. Trump fired James Comey as FBI director in 2017.

Furman set a May 28 hearing for an initial pretrial conference in the civil case.

Megan Weller vive justo al lado de los buzones en su edificio en Deerfield Beach ubicado en 3910 Crystal Lake Drive.

Dijo que se sorprendió al ver a una mujer en la cámara de su timbre a las 6 a.m.

“Sonaba como si el cartero estuviera aquí”, dijo Weller. “Estaba en mi sala. Fue muy extraño porque eran las 6 a.m. y no pensé nada, pero luego salí como 15 minutos después y esto estaba abierto. Me molesta porque la gente podría tener cheques ahí. Tienen tarjetas de crédito ahí. No está bien que la gente tome cosas que son de otros”.

La mujer que aparece en el video logró forzar uno de los conjuntos de buzones y se fue con un puñado de cartas.

“Me sorprendió un poco”, dijo Weller. “Fue tan descarada al entrar a nuestra propiedad y hacer algo así que es un poco inquietante”.

El video luego muestra a la mujer subiéndose a su auto y alejándose.

Un clip anterior la muestra mirando alrededor del área antes de ver los buzones y usar algún tipo de herramienta para forzarlos.

“Me siento un poco vulnerada”, dijo Weller. “No fue mi correo el que se llevaron, pero recibo paquetes de Amazon todo el tiempo. Estoy segura de que si hubiera paquetes aquí, también se los habría llevado, y sabes, este es un edificio tranquilo y agradable. No espero que cosas así sucedan”.

Los residentes presentaron reportes ante la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward y el Servicio de Inspección Postal de Estados Unidos.

Cualquier persona que crea reconocer a la mujer en el video debe comunicarse con BSO o con Broward Crime Stoppers al 954-493-TIPS.

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The crime, caught on surveillance camera, happened Sunday shortly after 4 p.m. in the area of Northeast 163rd Street and 12th Avenue in northeast Miami-Dade County.

In the footage, the teens are seen on their electric scooters when they are suddenly approached and pushed off by two men who appeared to be riding electric bicycles.

The father of one of those teens said his son was also threatened with violence during the crime.

Those scooters, he said, were valued at around $600 and $1,000.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.

Ocurrió alrededor de las 7:10 a.m. del domingo en el área de Northwest 135th Street y 27th Avenue.

Los agentes dijeron que Steven Hadley, quien habría cumplido 36 años el lunes, iba a exceso de velocidad y chocó contra varios vehículos.

Los investigadores indicaron que Hadley salió expulsado del vehículo en el accidente con fuego.

Mientras tanto, paramédicos trasladaron en helicóptero a dos mujeres que iban en el auto con él al Ryder Trauma Center del Jackson Memorial Hospital en condición crítica.

Vecinos dicen que el exceso de velocidad y los accidentes de tránsito son un problema frecuente en el área.

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It happened around 7:10 a.m. Sunday in the area of Northwest 135th Street and 27th Avenue.

Deputies said Steven Hadley, who would have turned 36 on Monday, was speeding and crashed into several vehicles.

Investigators said Hadley was thrown from the vehicle in the fiery wreck.

Meanwhile, medics airlifted two women in the car with him to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition.

Neighbors say speeding and car crashes are a frequent problem in the area.

He was 10 and half when the first film was released in theaters in 1977, which he went to see with his dad. From the opening shot of that Imperial Star Destroyer filling the screen, he was forever changed. It made him fall in love with the movies: The wonder, the world, the spectacle and the shared experience.

By the time “Return of the Jedi” came out he’d even found a job that was a little closer to the action: Movie theater usher.

For a screenwriter, director, actor and producer who has a billion-dollar film to his name, in addition to all that comes with being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he’s always been ready to raise his hand when it comes to Star Wars. He voiced a Mandalorian in “The Clone Wars,” played an alien in “Solo” and helped create “The Mandalorian” series and his immensely popular counterpart, Grogu (aka Baby Yoda). But believe it or not, he only ever got to direct one episode of the show (the first of the second season). So, yes, Favreau has paid his dues and now, at 59, he finally has a Star Wars movie of his own coming to theaters on May 22.

Inviting a new generation to Star Wars

“Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” is not simply Season 4 of the show on the big screen. Favreau should know, since he wrote both. And, perhaps more importantly, he knew there couldn’t be any presumption of Mandalorian knowledge. Writing a show, he said, you can assume that the audience will have seen the prior season. A movie is different; it has to be if it’s going to be a blockbuster.

“Even though in our hearts we are Star Wars fans, we make it for Star Wars fans, and we know that there’s a certain set of expectations around what Star Wars should be that we collectively hold, there is the responsibility to invite a whole new generation of people into Star Wars,” Favreau said. “That means that if a Star Wars fan brings somebody who’s not, they’ve got to have as good of a time as the fans do.”

It’s been nearly seven years since there was a new Star Wars movie released in theaters. That means there’s a whole group of a six-and-a-half-year-olds who’ve yet to have a first time experience of their own.

“I want to make the next generation feel the way about Star Wars that I did when I saw it for the first time,” Favreau said.

It can be intimidating going into a movie knowing that there were three seasons of television leading up to it. But the nice thing about Star Wars is, even people who don’t know it at least kind of know it. Remember, Favreau said, George Lucas plopped audiences in the middle of an adventure in 1977 without a lot of explanation.

“George has always understood that you have to fit into the mythic structure,” Favreau said. “There are certain story types that we connect with and understand and even if we might not know the particulars of the story he’s telling, we could drop right in and understand and know who to cheer for.”

For this film, Favreau is pretty sure that most people have heard of Baby Yoda and can pick up on the dynamic between the little green guy and his enigmatic bounty hunter counterpart, played once again by Pedro Pascal. If you are a newcomer, that’s pretty much all that you need to know. Also, the Mandalorian has a name: Din Djarin.

Din Djarin is a bit different

Season three left Din Djarin and Grogu at peace, at least for a moment. He's adopted Grogu as his son and apprentice, and they plan to live in a small cabin and take some jobs here and there to help protect the Outer Rim.

“He made it clear that he was only going to work for the good guys now,” Favreau said. “We switched the Western archetype from the bounty hunter to the guy who’s hunting down the bad guys in the wanted posters on the post office wall for the sheriff.”

When we meet him again in the film, “he’s a bit different from when we first met him, but he’s still, at his heart, a gunfighter and a warrior,” Favreau said. They're hunting down ex-Imperial warlords who seem to be organizing. (Remember, these events happen after “Return of the Jedi” and before “The Force Awakens.” )

And he’s not exactly thrilled about his new assignment which will put him back in the orbit of the Hutt family. Yes, Jabba the Hutt had a son, his name is Rotta, he is played by internet boyfriend Jeremy Allen White — and he's a gladiator.

“That’s one of those fun things for people who may have been following along since the first ‘Clone Wars’ film,” Favreau said. “If you don’t know who he is, you’re going to figure it out pretty quick. And he’s a lot different than people remember, and I think we have a bit of fun with that.”

Also, for superfans, Favreau is pretty sure they don’t ever refer to him by his nickname, “Stinky.”

White isn’t the only Star Wars newcomer. Sigourney Weaver plays a New Republic leader; Martin Scorsese is an alien shopkeeper.

Upping the spectacle for IMAX

“The Mandalorian” always felt more cinematic than your average television show thanks to its innovative virtual sets known as the Volume, but the big screen demands something spectacular. And it turns out, more time, space and money help out quite a bit in making something worthy of the theater.

“With the bigger screen and the larger production value, we were able to dip into another one of George Lucas’ influences, which is the Flash Gordon-style space opera where you get big monsters and creatures and worlds,” he said. “We get to do a lot more than we had the ability to do when we had to turn the show around in a year and fit it onto a television screen. Now we’re in IMAX, we had several years to do it. We got to build sets, we got to build miniatures, we got to have stop motion set pieces … it opened up a lot of opportunities to do things that we never got to do before.”

Favreau said they had a whole backlot to work with and a set of stages to build on. They could play with water and snow and environments that just weren’t possible with the show.

The future of Star Wars

The Star Wars galaxy is in a time of transition as everyone figures out what the next era of films might look like under its new leadership team of Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan. Earlier this year it was announced that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who produced “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu,” was stepping down after 13 years.

“She’s definitely a Mount Rushmore producer,” Favreau said. “I also think she did a wonderful job preparing the next generation.”

He’s still working closely with Kennedy, and Filoni, to bring the Mandalorian movie to theaters. He's not too worried about the box office side of things.

“All of it comes down to seeing it with an audience,” Favreau said. “That’s the part I’m looking forward to.”

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For more coverage of this summer’s upcoming films, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/movies

A wildfire is burning along Highway 41 near Miccosukee. Winds will carry smoke into the Everglades today and Wednesday. If the fire is still burning by Thursday morning, it could become a bigger concern as shifting winds may push smoke into more populated areas of Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

La policía y equipos de rescate respondieron a una llamada por una balacera y encontraron que Adrian Venereo, de 37 años, había sido baleado mientras trabajaba en la cuadra 6300 de Southwest 8th Street en Miami.

Los socorristas lo encontraron sangrando en el suelo tras recibir un disparo en la cabeza.

Según la policía, Luis Lemus y otra persona estaban fuera de su apartamento sin poder entrar y Venereo trabajaba en la cerradura de la puerta principal cuando fue baleado.

El esposo y padre es recordado como amoroso y amable.

Testigos dijeron a los investigadores que el sospechoso huyó tras la balacera.

Los detectives arrestaron a Lemus, de 32 años, quien según la policía fue encontrado con un arma y les dijo que había herido a alguien.

Permanece en la cárcel a la espera de juicio por un cargo de asesinato en segundo grado, pero no se ha revelado un motivo para la balacera.

McDonald’s said Tuesday it will launch six crafted beverages in U.S. restaurants on May 6. It’s joining other chains, like KFC, Wendy’s and Taco Bell, that have elevated their drinks in order to lure customers away from rivals like Starbucks and Dutch Bros.

McDonald’s will offer three refreshers, including a mango pineapple flavor with strawberry boba and a blackberry passion fruit flavor with freeze-dried dragon fruit. It will also offer three crafted sodas, including a dirty Dr Pepper with vanilla flavoring and a topping of cold foam.

McDonald's said visual appeal — think bright colors and foams — and drinks as a form of self-expression are increasingly important to customers.

“Our fans have an obsession with beverages – to them, drinks are more than just drinks. And soon, our beverages won’t just be a reason you come to McDonald’s, they’ll be THE reason,” Alyssa Buetikofer, the chief marketing officer for McDonald's USA, said in a statement.

The drinks are also more profitable for fast food chains than the standard soda fountain drinks or plain coffees. A small Pineapple Citrus Sparkling Energy drink cost $3.29 on Tuesday at a Michigan Wendy's, while a small drink from the restaurant's Coca-Cola Freestyle machine cost $1 less.

McDonald's said it's also adding a “beverage specialist” role at its 14,000 U.S. restaurants. Those employees will have dedicated spaces behind the counter where they can focus on drinks. Initially, high-performing employees will be selected for those roles, but eventually all employees will be encouraged to rotate through the beverage positions.

McDonald’s has been working on a beverage upgrade for years. In late 2023, the company announced it would open small stores called CosMc’s which would sell customizable drinks and treats to appeal to afternoon snackers. McDonald’s said its sales often slump in the afternoon between mealtimes, and it wants to change that.

“This is a $100 billion category that’s growing faster than the rest of (casual dining) and with superior margins. And it’s a space that we believe we have the right to win,” McDonald’s Chairman and CEO Chris Kempczinski said at the time.

McDonald’s got creative with the CosMc’s menu, which included a turmeric spiced latte and a prickly pear slushie with popping candy on top. But it wound up closing its eight CosMc’s locations last spring. Kempczinski said many of the drinks were too complex for regular McDonald’s store operations, but he said the company would test some drinks at U.S. stores in the future.

Other chains are also jumping on the beverage bandwagon. KFC’s Kwench drink menu did so well in tests in Manchester, England, last year that it’s rolling out to 3,000 stores this year in the U.K., Australia and Canada. The menu includes shakes, like a Strawberry Shortcake Krunch, as well as boba refreshers and iced coffees.

Taco Bell, which is also owned by KFC parent Yum Brands, has a separate beverage brand called Live Mas Café. At kiosks within U.S. Taco Bell stores, employees dubbed Bellristas blend drinks like Churro Chillers milkshakes, iced coffees and fizzy energy drinks. Taco Bell opened its first Live Mas Café at the end of 2024 and added 30 more locations last year.

In a November conference call with investors, Yum Brands CEO Chris Turner said that if sales perform well at those 30 locations, the Live Mas Café concept will likely be part of Taco Bell’s long-term growth plan.

“Through Live Mas Café, (we) add a new consumer use case, which is the destination beverage visit,” he said.

Wendy’s added customizable cold foam iced coffees and two sparkling energy drinks to its U.S. menu last fall. Burger King has also upgraded its beverage options, starting with a Frozen Cotton Candy drink with an optional foam topping that debuted in 2024 and returned last summer.

El incendio, que comenzó el sábado y ha sido denominado Highway 41 Fire, arde al oeste de Tamiami Trail, justo después de Krome Avenue.

Una densa columna de humo aún podía verse la mañana del martes proveniente del incendio, a solo unas millas al oeste del Miccosukee Casino.

Funcionarios de rescate de bomberos dicen que el humo ha afectado la calidad del aire en el área, por lo que se recomienda a los residentes cercanos permanecer en interiores si sufren de problemas respiratorios.

Turns out, swiping left is out. Showing up is in again.

“Everybody’s in the same boat. Everybody’s meeting new people,” said Jessica Bakeman, founder of “We Met in Miami” and “We Met in Broward.”

“I was overwhelmed by how much demand there was,” she said.

Across South Florida, a growing nonprofit called “We Met” is organizing events designed to help people make friends, find romance and build real-life connections.

Bakeman launched “We Met in Miami” in February 2024 and has since expanded into Broward County, hosting nearly 100 meetups that have drawn thousands of attendees.

“The idea is … wouldn’t it be cool to meet someone at game night? Wouldn’t it be cool to meet someone on a hike in the Everglades?” asked Bakeman. “And look around and already know who’s single, who’s open to making new connections to make it a little bit easier to make those conversations happen.”

The organization hosts a wide range of outings across Miami-Dade and Broward counties — from dance classes and museum visits to sporting events and game nights — all intentionally structured to push strangers out of their comfort zones and into conversation.

To see how it works firsthand, Local 10 morning anchor Andrew Perez attended a “We Met at Game Night” gathering at Tripping Animals Taproom in Oakland Park.

When guests arrive, they choose colored wristbands signaling what kind of connection they are open to making: friendship, romance or LGBTQ connections. Some wear one, others stack all three.

The night begins with an icebreaker challenge, followed by randomized seating assignments listed on each attendee’s name tag. Participants head to their designated tables, meet a fresh group of strangers and choose from a towering collection of board and party games.

After about 30 minutes, everyone rotates to a second assigned table — another built-in chance to start over with new faces.

By the final round, games give way to a facilitated conversation designed to spark more meaningful interaction before attendees fill out a “match card,” indicating who they’d like to connect with again.

“A lot of people say the reason they come is because they want to be a part of a community,” said Bakeman. “They want to be part of something bigger ... also just looking for fun things to do and a way to explore the city.”

“You can really sense that people wanna connect,” said We Met volunteer, Viviane Valcezan. “They wanna meet people in person, they want to have that face-to-face experience and they’re hungry for friendship, for connection and for a way to just have fun.”

To submit an idea for What Connects Us, email whatconnectsus@wplg.com.

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Antranard Womble, 30, of North Miami Beach, was in court on Monday, facing the officer he shot at six years prior.

Officer Erica Socarras tried to pull him over on Northwest 50th Street, in the Liberty City neighborhood, in April 2020 when Womble, then 24, opened fire hitting her unmarked car several times.

Socarras, who was on board with the plea, said in a victim impact statement she was ambushed and has been living with anxiety.

She told the court and Womble she was a target and had to fight for her life.

“While everything was happening, all I could think was, ‘I can’t die today. I need to make it home to my kids,’” Socarras said.

Miami Police Department Chief Manny Morales was there with several other officers in support of Socarras.

“Six years ago, she got ready for work, put on her uniform, and ready to do what every officer does each and every day: go out there and protect and serve our community as they’ve sworn to do,” he said. “And on that day, Mr. Womble mercilessly and coldly attempted to take her life for simply doing her job. Fully aware of what was happening, there was an unmarked vehicle, but it had police lights.”

After court, someone connected to Womble became upset in the hallway, shouting expletives at police officers.

There are two other defendants facing charges in this case. Those cases remain open.

Eve Samples, of Friends of the Everglades, and Elise Bennett, of the Center for Biological Diversity, are the plaintiffs in the landmark environmental law case at the intersection of the remote immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades.

The pair are disappointed, but not deterred, by the federal appeals court ruling overturning a district court’s order which temporarily hit pause on the facility.

“It does feel like a setback, of course, because we’ve lost that preliminary injunction,” said Bennett. “But what I would say, especially with today being Earth Day, is that we are more motivated than ever to get back to district court.”

The case was aimed at compelling state and federal defendants to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and conduct an environmental impact study.

“The government is supposed to study the impacts of its actions on the environment before it takes action,” said Samples. “NEPA is a look-before-you-leap law, and in this case, the government took action before it looked.”

But in a 2-1 ruling, the appeals court said there was no federal action trigging the underpinning federal law in part because “to qualify as a major federal action - it must receive more than minimal federal funding” and “when the district court entered its injunction,” which was in August, “Florida has received no federal funding.”

Back in October, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told Local 10 News Florida did submit an application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and was awarded the full amount the state applied for, $608 million, which was money officials said could be applied to ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ or a second site opened dubbed the ‘Deportation Depot.’

At the time, the state was also working to bring online a third, to be called the “Panhandle Pokey,” in July. DHS officials estimated the total cost for that site would be $450 million for one year.

Samples said since the district judge’s order in August, they have learned this from documents obtained in a separate public records lawsuit.

She said the records showed that the state originally applied for a $1.4 million federal grant and that FEMA approved a $608 million grant, which she said is “a lot more evidence about the federal government’s commitment to fund ‘Alligator Alcatraz’.”

“There’s more evidence that the site is under federal control,” Samples said. “And we’re eager to get back to the district court to prove that.”

Bennett said the government “set up this project to try to avoid accountability.”

“They may have won this round,” she said. “But there are many more rounds in the legal fight.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the DHS said in the agency’s view, the lawsuit was about, “open-borders activists,” a phrase which stunned the environmental advocates.

“If someone believes that the Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity don’t care about the environment, then I’ve got a few acres of swampland to sell them in South Florida,” said Bennett.

That’s because what the facility does was not at issue in this environmental law case and the same goes for immigration policy.

“It has nothing to do with it,” said Samples.

Instead, she said the case is about whether the government followed the law.

“Any individual person, if they were to build like this in the middle of the Everglades, would have to get a permit,” said Bennett. “Why is it that the federal and state government don’t? Are they above the law? I don’t think so.”

Samples added, “We have a strong case to build. We also have filed notice of intent to sue under other laws. There are real impacts to endangered species and now that we have this opinion from the appeals court, we can get back, amend our original lawsuit to incorporate those claims and make our case even stronger.”

Abigail L. Fleming, Associate Director of the Environmental Justice Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law, told Local 10 News in an email that the plaintiffs could now “ask the Eleventh Circuit to rehear the case en banc, arguing that the decision conflicts with prior precedent or raises exceptionally important legal questions.”

“En banc review is rarely granted,” Fleming added. “They could also seek review from the Supreme Court of the United States, but that would be an uphill battle at this stage, particularly because the case is still in a preliminary posture. The plaintiffs also could return to the trial court and develop further evidence that the federal government is reimbursing Florida for building the facility and exercises control over it.”

The Alabama-based nonprofit was indicted last week on charges of fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors said the group misled donors by using their money to pay informants who served as leaders in the very hate groups the organization was founded to fight.

In its first legal defense against the charges, the group filed motions in federal court in Alabama asking the court to order acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to retract statements saying the government had “no information” about the informant program, and to block him from making further similar statements. Blanche made the comment in a press conference last week and later on Fox News as he announced charges against the nonprofit.

The filings detail three instances in which the SPLC says information from its informant program was shared with law enforcement to help stop the activities of racist groups. Attorneys for the SPLC presented information from at least one of those cases during an April meeting with prosecutors, attorneys said. The group asked Blanche for a retraction after he said authorities had been kept in the dark, but the government declined, according to the group.

“The Department of Justice is well aware that the SPLC provided helpful information, through the use of its confidential informants, to law enforcement,” the group said in its filing. “The Department of Justice also knows that these confidential informants helped law enforcement put violent extremists in jail.”

Lawyers for the group said Blanche's comments could taint the jury pool and compromise the group's right to a fair trial.

President Donald Trump has seized on the case, calling SPLC one of the “greatest political scams in American History” and connecting it to his false claims that he won the 2020 election. Critics have called it a politically motivated prosecution that weaponizes the Justice Department to punish opponents of conservatives.

The SPLC lays out examples of how it shared informant information

The indictment accuses the group of secretly promoting racist groups while publicly saying it was fighting them. For example, prosecutors said an SPLC-paid informant helped plan the 2017 white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and attended the rally at the direction of the SPLC.

But in its filings, the SPLC said it sent a 45-page “event alert” to the FBI in advance of the rally with information gathered from the informant program, including information about some attendees’ weapons.

In one 2019 case, the SPLC said a tip from its informant program helped thwart a planned attack in Las Vegas. The group said it shared information with law enforcement that led to the FBI's arrest of a man associated with Atomwaffen Division, a white supremacist group. A Justice Department news release from 2020 said the man discussed attacking a synagogue and a bar catering to LGBTQ customers. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

In another case, the SPLC said intel from the informant program was passed to law enforcement and led to the conviction of a man who lied about his ties to a white supremacist group while requesting national security clearance. The man, who was not identified in court documents, had been working at Philadelphia's Navy Yard in 2018 and was convicted and sentenced to prison following the tip, the group said.

Attorneys for the SPLC said they presented evidence to prosecutors at an April 6 meeting showing how information from the informant program was shared with law enforcement in that case.

Alongside its request for a retraction, the SPLC filed a motion asking for grand jury transcripts to make sure false statements weren't used to secure the indictment. It said mischaracterizations by the Justice Department “suggest that the grand jury was not merely misled by the government’s presentation of the law, but likely that it was actively weaponized to facilitate such charges.”

The government says the group was ‘manufacturing’ extremism

Prosecutors say the SPLC funneled more than $3 million in donated money to informants who were leaders in the KKK, the neo-Nazi National Alliance and other hate groups. The center is charged with defrauding donors and making false statements to create bank accounts that were used to relay money to informants.

Blanche said at a press conference that the group was “manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.” Justice Department officials have said these are the first charges in an ongoing investigation.

The center came under fresh scrutiny after the assassination last year of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who founded and led Turning Point USA. The SPLC had characterized Kirk's group as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024” in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024.”

In a statement on Tuesday, Bryan Fair, interim president and CEO of SPLC, said information shared with the FBI has saved lives.

“When threats and other unlawful activity were revealed, the SPLC immediately passed that information to law enforcement officials, local, state and federal and assisted in efforts to prevent violence and stop criminal activity,” Fair said.

On the same day that the British energy giant reported a banner financial performance, gasoline prices in the U.S. hit new multiyear highs, a point of increasing agitation for travelers, households and also businesses that are particularly sensitive to higher energy prices, such as airlines.

The near closure of the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Iran is a flashpoint in the war and the source of much of the economic pain being felt globally. The Trump administration appeared unlikely Tuesday to accept Iran’s offer to end the war and reopen the strait if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country.

About 20% of the world’s oil passes through the strait on a typical day, but the passage has been choked off since the war began in late February. The price for a barrel of Brent crude that cost about $73 on the day before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, was trading for more than $104 Tuesday.

Given soaring energy costs the stellar performance from BP was anticipated, yet it still exceeded the heightened expectations of industry analysts for both profit and revenue.

It was BP’s first earnings report since the war began and the company is the first of the oil majors to post its financial performance, providing a preview of what to expect when other big drillers like Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips report earnings later this week.

BP earned $3.84 billion, or $1.47 per share, for the first three months of the year, far exceeding last year’s $687 million, or 26 cents per share, the company said Tuesday. BP's underlying replacement cost profit, which more closely mimics net income reported by U.S. companies, was $3.2 billion. BP has an expansive oil trading operation, so it may outpace other oil giants due to the current volatility in energy markets.

“The Middle East conflict created significant crude and refined products dislocations that BP’s integrated supply chain was positioned to monetize,” wrote James West, managing director and head of Energy and Power Research at Melius.

The London exploration and production company called the performance of its trading desk “exceptional.”

The average price of gasoline in the U.S. hit $4.18 on Tuesday, according to motor club AAA. That is the highest level since 2022, when Ukraine was invaded by Russia, and well over dollar more than a gallon cost one month ago. The war in Iran had been going on for a month at that time, but a gallon still cost less than $4.

Inflation in the U.S. rose sharply last month during largest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor. The surge in gas prices has squeezed the budgets of lower- and middle-income families, making it more difficult to pay for necessities.

But it’s disrupting businesses as well, particularly those sensitive to higher fuel costs. Airlines worldwide have begun canceling flights as the war in the Middle East strains jet fuel supplies and pushes up ticket prices.

The huge profits from BP generated online vitriol almost immediately.

In addition to posts from individual social media accounts, organizations weighed in as well.

“Families are being pushed to the brink by spiraling energy bills, while fossil fuel companies turn a war into a windfall,” wrote Clémence Dubois, global campaigns director at 350.org. “This is not just unjust, it’s unacceptable.”

Simon Francis, coordinator with End Fuel Poverty Coalition, wrote on Tuesday that, “These astronomical profits are a startling reminder that when conflict drives up the price of oil and gas, energy companies profit and households pay.”

BP shares rose more than 1% Tuesday, close to a 52-week high, as did the shares of other major oil producers.

The UAE's decision had been rumored as a possibility for some time, as it pushed back in recent years against OPEC production quotas it felt had been too low — meaning it wasn't able to sell as much oil to the world as it had wanted.

“Having invested heavily in expanding energy production capacity in recent years, the bigger picture is that the UAE has been itching to pump more oil,” Capital Economics wrote in an analysis. “The ties binding OPEC members together have loosened,” it said, particularly after Qatar withdrew from the cartel in 2019.

Regional politics are also likely at play. The UAE has had increasingly frosty relations with Saudi Arabia, OPEC's largest producer, over political and economic matters in the Mideast, even after both came under attack by fellow OPEC member Iran during the war.

No immediate impact likely for world oil markets

The UAE’s withdrawal from OPEC won’t necessarily have any immediate effects in markets. That’s because world oil supplies are sharply constrained by the war in Iran, which has closed off the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which one-fifth of global oil supplies — including much of the UAE's — is transported. On Tuesday, Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded above $111 a barrel, or more than 50% above its prewar price.

OPEC's market power had already been waning in recent years as the United States ramped up its production of crude oil. Saudi Arabia had been pumping over 10 million barrels of oil a day before the war. The U.S. pumps more than 13 million barrels a day.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been a steady critic of the cartel during his two terms in the White House.

The UAE, which joined OPEC through its emirate of Abu Dhabi in 1967, had been producing around 3.4 million barrels of crude a day just before the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on Feb. 28. Analysts say it has capacity to produce roughly 5 million barrels a day.

In its announcement on Tuesday, made via its state-run WAM news agency, the UAE said it also would leave the wider OPEC+ group, which Russia had led to try to stabilize oil prices.

“This decision reflects the UAE’s long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile, including accelerated investment in domestic energy production,” the UAE said, adding that it would bring "additional production to market in a gradual and measured manner, aligned with demand and market conditions.”

The UAE’s withdrawal removes one of OPEC’s few members with the ability to quickly increase production, said Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy.

“A structurally weaker OPEC, with less spare capacity concentrated within the group, will find it increasingly difficult to calibrate supply and stabilize prices," he said.

Saudi Arabia, UAE increasingly at odds

Saudi Arabia and the UAE increasingly have competed over economic issues and regional politics, particularly in the Red Sea area. The two countries had jointly fought against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels in 2015. However, that coalition broke down into recriminations in late December, when Saudi Arabia bombed what it described as a weapons shipment bound for Yemeni separatists backed by the UAE.

As tensions rose in recent months, Saudi broadcasters long based in Dubai, the economic hub of the UAE, have pulled back to the kingdom.

“This exit of OPEC fits into the UAE need for flexibility with key energy consumers as well -- including a future relationship with China and a more competitive relationship with Saudi Arabia," said Karen Young, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

The UAE hosted the United Nations COP28 climate talks in 2023, a conference that ended for the first time with a pledge by nearly 200 countries to move away from planet-warming fossil fuels. But the UAE still plans to increase its production capacity in the coming years, even as it pursues more clean energy at home, a move decried by climate activists.

“The demand for power is going to go up and up and up,” U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told an Abu Dhabi oil conference in November. “Today’s the day to announce that there is no energy transition. There is only energy addition.”

He drew widespread applause from his Emirati hosts.

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Associated Press writer David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed to this report.

Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud was convicted of torture, religious persecution and other inhumane acts in 2024 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Judges found he was a key figure in a reign of terror after Islamic extremist rebels overran Timbuktu in 2012.

“Mr. Al Hassan, as the person found responsible for the crimes, which caused the harm to the victims, is the person financially liable for the cost of repairing the harm,” Presiding Judge Kimberly Prost said, addressing the courtroom in the Dutch city of The Hague.

While the court has declared Al Hassan liable, it won't be able to collect the money from the 49-year-old, who was declared indigent and represented by a court-funded lawyer during his trial.

Instead, reparations for the more than 65,000 victims will be paid by the Trust Fund for Victims, set up by the court’s member states to distribute the funds.

We are “one of the many innovations of the Rome Statute,” the fund’s executive director, Deborah Ruiz Verduzco, told The Associated Press. Under the statute, the court’s founding treaty, the fund “responds to the harm resulting from the crimes under the jurisdiction.”

The 24 staff members in Ruiz Verduzco’s office are tasked with assisting victims and their families, establishing programs in communities destroyed by violence and drumming up financial support.

In its two decades of operation, the trust fund has received money from perpetrators in only one case.

“Substantial fundraising will need to take place,” Prost said.

The bulk of the money will come from the court’s member states, though the fund also accepts private donations. In March, Germany gave 40,000 euros ($46,000). Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands are the three biggest supporters.

Judges guide how the reparations money will be allocated, though they solicit input from the victims through their lawyers and the trust fund.

In the Al Hassan case, the reparations will be used for “socioeconomic support, educational programs or trainings and psychological support,” according to the decision. Projects should target women and girls, who suffered disproportionately under the extremist groups.

Communities in Mali already have seen some restitution. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2016 for destroying historic mausoleums in Timbuktu. In 2021, the trust fund began a project to repair ruined buildings.

Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, for over a decade has battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Following coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance instead.

Tuesday's decisions comes days after an alliance of al-Qaida-linked militants and separatists carried out the largest coordinated attack in Mali in over a decade.

Poczobut, a correspondent for the influential Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and a leading figure among Belarus’ Polish minority, was serving eight years in prison in a case condemned as politically motivated.

His 2021 arrest after covering pro-democracy rallies in Belarus drew widespread criticism. He later was awarded the Sakharov Prize, the European Union’s most prestigious human rights award.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski called Poczobut a symbol of the fight for freedom in Belarus but also of the effectiveness of the Polish state in leaving no one behind.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who welcomed Poczobut at the border about midday Tuesday, posted on X that the journalist was “unwavering.” Poczobut’s first words to him were about his chances of returning home to Belarus, Tusk wrote, and said he replied: “Only you decide. You’re a free man now.”

Appearing at the border, Poczobut had noticeably lost weight, his face was gaunt and his head had been shaved. Bartosz Wieliski, the deputy editor in chief of Gazeta Wyborcza who met Poczobut there, said the journalist went straight to a hospital for a checkup.

The swap was the latest in a series of U.S.-negotiated prisoner releases that have marked stronger relations with Minsk under U.S. President Donald Trump.

A Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman said three of the five prisoners released by Belarus came to Poland in exchange for three sent by Poland to Belarus, with a total of 10 involving other countries.

Included in the swap were Grzegorz Gawej, a Roman Catholic friar from the Carmelite order in Krakow, and a “Belarusian citizen who cooperated with our secret services,” Tusk said at a news conference, without identifying the latter.

Tusk described organizing the swap as a “complicated and sensational story,” saying a previous agreement to free Poczobut was derailed after Minsk backed out with less than 24 hours to go. Tuesday's exchange was ultimately possible due to prisoners viewed as important by Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan and held by Poland, he said.

Speaking of Poczobut’s release, Tusk said: “There were a few tough men present there and they all had tears in their eyes.”

Moldovan President Maia Sandu said two Moldovan citizens working for its intelligence services who were held in Russia had been released, although she did not identify them. She said they were exchanged for Russian citizen Nina Popova, who allegedly was “acting against” the state of Moldova, and Alexandru Balan, a former Moldovan intelligence official accused of treason in support of the Belarusian security services.

“For our country, it is a gain that cannot be measured by a simple mathematical equation,” Sandu said. “We brought home two citizens who work for the Republic of Moldova, giving up, in return, (two) prisoners who worked against the Republic of Moldova.”

The Russian state news agency Tass identified one of those released by Poland as Alexander Butyagin, a Russian national due to be extradited to Ukraine on allegations he conducted excavations involving artifacts at a site in Crimea that Kyiv considers part of its cultural heritage.

Belarus’ presidential press service said the negotiations had involved intelligence services from seven countries. It described some of the prisoners who returned to Minsk as having "carried out particularly important missions in the interests of ensuring the national security and defense capability of our country.”

Seeking better relations

In March, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the release of 250 political prisoners as part of a deal with Washington that lifted some U.S. sanctions.

A close ally of Russia, Minsk has faced isolation for years. Lukashenko has ruled the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, and the country has been sanctioned repeatedly by Western countries — both for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory in the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Writing on X, Trump’s special envoy for Belarus, John Coale, said three Poles and two Moldovans had been released as part of the swap. He thanked Poland, Moldova, and Romania for what he called “their invaluable support,” along with the willingness by Lukashenko "to pursue constructive engagement with the United States.”

Poczobut became a symbol of repression

Large portraits of Poczobut had appeared regularly at the Poland-Belarus border, a reminder of the large-scale political repression in Minsk and of tensions on the EU and NATO frontier.

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press that Poczobut was a hero who had never betrayed his principles.

"After years of unjust detention and isolation, he can breathe freely," she said, while calling for the release of the hundreds of political prisoners in Belarus.

Poczobut’s arrest followed his coverage of the pro-democracy rallies that engulfed Belarus in 2020 after the disputed presidential election that kept Lukashenko in office.

He decided to stay in Belarus despite the brutal crackdown that followed, resulting in over 65,000 arrests, thousands of police beatings and tens of thousands fleeing abroad.

Poczobut was sent to one of the country’s harshest maximum-security prisons to serve his sentence, despite ongoing worries for his health.

The Belarusian human rights group Viasna said he repeatedly was denied essential medications and refused contact with his wife and children. It also reported that he had been placed in solitary confinement for several months after refusing work that he was unable to perform due to his health.

“For Poland, Poczobut is a national hero. For Belarus, he’s a reminder that a state cannot be built on fear,” said Andżelika Borys, head of the Union of Poles in Belarus, who spent over a year in prison. “For Europe, he’s a witness to the fact that the struggle for freedom continues not in the pages of textbooks but in the prison cells of the 21st century.”

—-

Karmanau reported from Tallinn, Estonia, and Davies reported from Manchester, England.

The animals are part of an interactive installation by American artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) currently showing at Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie.

Each printed image shows a snippet of reality transformed by AI to resemble the personality of the dog or, in other words, the worldview of the human figure on its shoulders (i.e., the Picasso dog will produce images in Cubist style and Warhol's in pop art).

It's a commentary on how our perceptions are shaped by algorithms and technology platforms, the organizers of the exhibition write in the description of the event.

“In the past, our view of the world was shaped in part by how artists saw the world,” Beeple told the AP. “How Picasso painted changed how we saw the word, how Warhol talked about consumerism, pop culture, that changed how he saw those things.”

Now our view of the world is shaped by tech billionaires who own powerful algorithms that decide what we see and what we don’t see, the artist added.

“That's an immense amount of power that I don’t think we’ve fully understood, especially because when they want to make a change, they don’t need to lobby the U.N. They don’t need to get something through Congress or the EU, they just wake up and change these algorithms.”

The dogs also wear heads in Beeple’s own image.

Lisa Botti, the curator of the exhibition in Berlin, said that artificial intelligence was one of the phenomena most impacting our lives today and that “museums are the places where society can reflect” on such transformations, which is why she wanted to have Beeple’s work shown.

The work, entitled “Regular Animals,” was first shown at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025.

Beeple is a graphic designer from South Carolina who does a variety of digital artwork. He is one of the founders of the “everyday” movement in 3D graphics: For years, he has been creating a picture every day and posting it online without missing a single day.

According to Christie's, he is the third most expensive living artist to sell at auction, after David Hockney and Jeff Koons.

In the spring of 2021, Christie’s opened bidding for Beeple's digital collage entitled “Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” with the sale ultimately closing at over $69 million. The auction house described the artwork as “critiques of modern society, the government and social media” in the form of “grotesque, dystopian futures, often featuring celebrities like Donald Trump and Kanye West.”

Christie’s said the sale marked the first time a major auction house offered a digital-only artwork with a non-fungible token as a guarantee of its authenticity, as well as the first time cryptocurrency has been used to pay for an artwork at auction.

Non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs, are electronic identifiers confirming a digital collectible is real by recording the details on a digital ledger known as a blockchain. The tokens have swept the online collecting world recently, an offshoot of the boom in cryptocurrencies.

At the Art Basel 2025 event, Beeple gave away the photos pooed by his dogs to audience members, accompanied by a certificate that read “100% organic GMO-free dog shit.” Some prints had QR codes that gave access to free NFTs, which in practice meant Beeple was giving away his digital art for free for people (sometimes the subjects of the photos themselves) to potentially monetize.

——

Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.

Random House Books for Young Readers announced Tuesday that “EXTRAordinary! A Little EXTRA to Reach BIG Dreams” will be published Nov. 3. In rhyming verse, the WNBA star shares a message about the importance of effort and support.

Clark, whose book features illustrations by Adriana Predoi, was inspired by an inscription above the mirror that hung in her childhood bedroom: “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is the little EXTRA.”

“Basketball has given me so many incredible opportunities, but what has always meant the most to me are the people who’ve supported me along the way,” Clark said in a statement. “I hope this book reminds kids that they’re never alone in chasing their dreams and that giving a little extra to the people and moments is what makes them EXTRAordinary.”

The 24-year-old Indiana Fever guard, widely credited with raising the profile of women's basketball, returned to action recently after injuries limited her to 13 games in 2025. She scored seven points Saturday in a preseason victory over the New York Liberty.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range attack drones struck a Russian oil refinery and terminal on the Black Sea for the third time in less than two weeks, prompting the evacuation of local people as a precautionary measure.

Ukraine has developed cutting-edge and battle-tested drone technology that has proved essential in holding back Russia’s bigger army and has drawn military interest from around the world.

Interceptor drones as part of a comprehensive air defense system are now being sought by Middle East and Gulf countries amid the Iran war, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukraine is scaling up supplies of interceptor drones to thwart Russian aerial attacks, and its military has introduced a new command within the air force to boost the country’s capabilities, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in a post on Telegram late Monday.

Ukraine’s offensive capabilities have also improved, with the Defense Ministry saying Tuesday that the country’s forces have more than doubled the range of their deep-strike capabilities since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

At that time, Ukrainian forces were able to hit military targets about 630 kilometers (400 miles) away, it said. They are now striking targets as far as roughly 1,750 kilometers (1,100 miles) behind enemy lines, the ministry said in a statement.

That improvement has allowed Ukraine to hit Russian oil installations that provide crucial revenue for Moscow’s war effort. It has also targeted manufacturing plants that supply Russia’s armed forces.

Ukraine struck a Russian oil refinery at the Black Sea port of Tuapse for the third time this month in a coordinated operation involving multiple branches of the country’s defense and security services, Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces said Tuesday

The two strikes earlier this month destroyed 24 oil storage tanks and damaged four others, it said. Independent verification of the claims was not possible.

Video from Tuapse released Tuesday by Krasnodar regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev showed a massive plume of black smoke rising from the refinery and black, steaming puddles on an adjacent street. An emergency official reported to the governor that boiling oil products had spilled onto the street from one of the oil tanks, damaging several cars.

People who live near the Tuapse refinery were being evacuated, Kondratyev said. He didn’t provide any details about how many people were being evacuated or for how long.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday its air defenses overnight intercepted 186 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the annexed Crimea and the Black and the Azov seas.

In the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, three people were killed and three more were wounded in a drone attack, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Russian drone attacks on Ukraine, meanwhile, killed three civilians and wounded five others, Ukrainian authorities said.

Two people were killed in the city of Chuhuiv in the northeastern Kharkiv region, according to the head of the regional military administration Oleh Syniehubov.

A 40-year-old man died and five other men sustained injuries in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

A rare daytime drone attack on Kyiv on Tuesday wounded two people, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Another Russian attack on Konotop, in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, knocked out the city’s power and water supply.

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

Literally.

Scenes of Japanese soccer fans sweeping stadiums and picking up trash after a match first drew public attention in France in 1998 — Japan's first appearance in the World Cup.

The tradition has continued every four years. It happened at the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, and it's certain to continue when Japan opens play in June with group games in Arlington, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico.

The cleanup astonishes non-Japanese who might be accustomed to leaving stadiums and stepping over half-eaten food, shredded paper wrappers, and cups — empty or with liquid dribbling out.

At the World Cup in Russia in 2018, Japanese players famously cleaned the dressing room after a loss and left a thank-you note in Russian. In 2022, fans left thank-you notes on rubbish bags written in Arabic, English and Japanese.

A Japanese phrase explains why

It's not that complicated. Beginning in elementary school, students are socialized to behave this way — in the classroom, in the school yard or on a playing field.

“Japanese sports fans at world events who clean up the stadium are behaving much the same way they did when they learned how to enjoy sports as school boys and girls,” Koichi Nakano, who teaches politics and history at Sophia University, told The Associated Press.

There is a phrase in Japanese that explains it.

“Tatsu tori ato wo nigosazu.”

The literal translation is: “A bird leaves nothing behind.”

Rendered in English the message is: “Return it the way you found it.”

Many Japanese elementary schools don’t have janitors, so the clean-up work is left to students. Office workers often dedicate time to sprucing up their areas.

Also, there are relatively few trash containers in public spaces in Japan, so people take their waste home with them. This keeps the sidewalks cleaner, saves the cost of emptying trash cans, and keeps away vermin.

“The way most ordinary soccer fans experience soccer at school is no different from other sports, and the emphasis is not just on physical education but also on moral education as well,” Nakano added.

Collective vs. the individual

Raised in Germany, Barbara Holthus is the deputy director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo. A sociologist, she agrees it's prudent not to put Japanese on a pedestal. Japan, like any country, has its own challenges and shortcomings.

“An academically sound explanation is that people in Japan just happen to be socialized different,” she told The AP. “If you grew up with a certain way of how things are being done, you apply that to even cleaning up a stadium afterwards.”

At work here is also the Japanese concept of “meiwaku,” which implies not causing trouble or annoying others. From the Japanese point of view, leaving rubbish piled up in a stadium would be a bother to others.

Japan is a relatively crowded place, and greater Tokyo alone has about 35 million people, almost the population of the entire state of California. People need to get along.

“Japanese learn early on that you don't want to inconvenience other people,” Holthus said.

She said the focus is often on the collective, compared with the West where the emphasis is on the individual and individual rights.

“You don’t want to bother people. It goes to all areas of life in Japan,” Holthus added. “We are raised (in the West) that we don’t have to clean up after ourselves in public spaces because there is going to be some kind of public service doing that.”

And because Japanese people have received widespread praise for the clean-up, the behavior has been reinforced.

“Now that the media has latched onto the story and lavished praise on Japanese fans, they have made it a point of pride to display those values and norms,” Jeff Kingston, who teaches history at Temple University in Japan, wrote in an email.

A Japanese tradition

The clean-up tradition is not limited to soccer's marquee tournament. The same thing happened last year at the Under-20 World Cup in Chile as Japanese fans cleaned up after a match. And even more recently last month at Wembley Stadium in London where Japan defeated England 1-0 in an international friendly.

“It’s one of our traditions,” said Toshi Yoshizawa, who was leading the cleanup in Chile. “We grew up with the teaching that we should leave a place cleaner than when we arrived.”

William Kelly, an emeritus professor of anthropology at Yale University and a specialist on Japan, said the tradition is linked to soccer more than other sports. He speculated it's tied to the establishment of Japan's professional football league more than 30 years ago.

“It (the J-League) was trying to distinguish itself from baseball by emphasizing teams’ community embeddedness and commitment,” Kelly wrote in an email. “Soccer fans felt, and feel, more a part of the club and its stadium.”

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Law enforcement authorities said the suspect was arrested near the city of Patra, some 210 kilometers (130 miles) west of the Greek capital.

The gunman initially opened fire at the social security office, wounding an employee, police said. Police officers who arrived at the scene treated the man, but the gunman fled the scene.

Local media aired security camera footage that it said was from a local store near the social security office, which showed a man walking calmly across the street carrying what appears to be a short-barreled shotgun in his right hand.

The same man was suspected of later opening fire on the ground floor of a court building in another part of central Athens, with several people wounded there, police said, adding that authorities had found the shotgun.

Television footage showed ambulance crews transporting at least three people from the courthouse to waiting ambulances.

The head of the Athens Judicial Employees Union, Stratis Dounias, said that initial information indicated that the man had shot at the floor inside one of the offices in the court building. At least three female court employees were slightly wounded by ricocheting shotgun pellets, while media reports said that a fourth female employee was transported to a hospital without physical injuries.

The motive for the shooting was unclear. State broadcaster ERT said that the gunman had reportedly left envelopes with documents after the shooting at the courthouse, saying those were the reasons for his actions.

Alexandros Varveris, head of the National Social Security Fund known by its Greek acronym EFKA, said the gunman had gone to the fourth floor of the social security fund's offices in the Kerameikos area of central Athens and opened fire after calling out to an employee to duck. His shot hit another employee, who was wounded in the leg, Varveris said, adding that the gunman had been wearing a trench coat under which he had hidden the shotgun.

“He went in, went up to the fourth floor, raised his shotgun, told an employee to duck and hit another one,” Varveris told ERT radio. He said the gunman didn't appear to specifically target the employee he hit.

The wounded employee was transported to a hospital, after police applied a tourniquet to his leg at the scene.

Gun violence is relatively rare in Greece, where firearm ownership is allowed but tightly regulated.

The government released draft legislation Tuesday it intends to introduce to Parliament by July 2 that would create a financial incentive for the social media companies to strike deals with news organizations to pay for journalism.

The platforms’ criticisms included that the proposal was a “digital services tax” that misunderstood the evolving advertising industry and would fail to deliver a sustainable news sector.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a monetary value needed to be attached to journalists’ work.

“It shouldn’t just be able to be taken by a large multinational corporation and used to generate profits for that organisation with no compensation appropriate for the people who produce that creative content,” Albanese told reporters.

“We think that investment in journalism is critical to a healthy democracy,” he added.

It’s Australia's second legislative attempt to make the platforms pay for the Australian news text and images that their users view.

Digital platforms had been pressured to strike deals with Australian news publishers to pay for journalism by legislation passed in 2021 that created the country's News Media Bargaining Code.

The platforms chose to reach commercial deals with news creators rather than be forced into arbitration and have a judge set the price.

But they have since avoided renewing those deals by removing news from their services.

The proposed News Bargaining Incentive would charge major platforms that choose not to strike commercial deals with news publishers a 2.25% tax on their Australian revenue.

The platforms would be given offsets and their overall costs would be lowered if they agree to pay publishers for journalism, the government said.

The government expects the incentive would raise between 200 to 250 million Australian dollars ($144 million-$179 million) a year. That was about as much as the platforms paid news outlets when the News Media Bargaining Code was working at its peak.

The government would distribute that income among news organizations based on how many journalists each organization employed, Communication Minister Anika Wells said.

The tax would apply to Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., and TikTok, which is majority-owned by U.S.-backed investors.

Opposing the proposed legislation, Meta said news organizations “voluntarily post content on our platforms because they receive value from doing so.”

“The idea that we take their news content is simply wrong. This proposed legislation, which would apply to platforms regardless of whether news content even appears on our services, is nothing more than a digital services tax,” Meta said in a statement.

“A government-mandated transfer of wealth from one industry to another, with no connection to the value exchanged, will not deliver a sustainable or innovative news sector. Instead, it will create a news industry dependent on a government-administered subsidy scheme,” Meta added.

Google said “we reject the need for this tax.”

“It ignores the fact that Google already has commercial agreements with the news industry, misunderstands how the ad market changed and mandates payments from some companies while arbitrarily excluding platforms like Microsoft, Snapchat and OpenAI -- despite the major shift in how people consume news,” a Google statement said.

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

All the targeted platforms are American. U.S. critics have argued that Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code had disproportionately cost American corporations.

Albanese was not concerned by potential pushback from the United States.

“We’re a sovereign nation and my government will make decisions based upon the Australian national interest,” Albanese said.

The road should get at least a little tougher in the coming weeks — but there's little doubt the defending champions are well-equipped to defend their title.

The Thunder finished off a four-game sweep of the Phoenix Suns on Monday night, winning 131-122 after pulling away in the fourth quarter. Oklahoma City is 12-0 in the first round over the past three years.

“It's a really good feeling," guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said of the sweep. “Just for our confidence as a group, it's good to get the playoff run started the right way. You never know what can happen — and usually the later you go, the better the teams, and the series won't go like that. You want to give yourself as many days as possible to rest.”

The 27-year-old Gilgeous-Alexander looked every bit like the reigning Most Valuable Player against the Suns, averaging 33.8 points and shooting 55.1% from the field. He was at his best in Game 3, scoring 42 points on 15-of-18 shooting.

He was very good again in Game 4, scoring 31 points on 10-of-17 shooting. The Thunder's offense was at its best in the series finale, with Chet Holmgren scoring 24 and Ajay Mitchell adding 22.

Oklahoma City shot nearly 54% from the field and made 17 of 34 (50%) 3-pointers.

“We played the right way, nothing out of the usual,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Guys were out there making aggressive plays and playing for each other. We have a formula we try to play with and we try to impose it every night.”

The Thunder will face the winner of the Los Angeles Lakers-Houston Rockets series in the Western Conference semifinals. The Lakers have a 3-1 lead after the Rockets won Game 4.

Even though they swept the series, the Thunder were hit with some adversity when starter Jalen Williams went down with a hamstring injury in Game 2. Oklahoma City still had plenty of depth to get past the gritty but overmatched Suns, who barely qualified for the playoffs after beating the Golden State Warriors in the play-in tournament.

Mitchell stepped into the starting lineup for Williams and looked confident, particularly in Game 4. He finished with 22 points and six assists, showing he could handle the larger workload in the postseason.

A second-round draft pick out of Santa Barbara, the 6-foot-4 guard has quickly become a vital part of the rotation.

“Ajay is one of the toughest dudes in the league,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Mentally, he's never shaken. He's never afraid of the moment. Ajay can be having the worst day ever and you would never know because he's so solid.”

The Thunder's superior size was also on display against the Suns, who were without starting center Mark Williams because of a foot injury. The 7-foot-1 Holmgren and 7-foot Isaiah Hartenstein combined for 24 rebounds on Monday night, including nine on the offensive glass.

Holmgren said the Suns were a guard-heavy team that tried to go small. He figures others will take a different approach but believes the Thunder are ready for anything.

“We're going to see different teams match up in different ways,” Holmgren said. "Some are going to go big and some are going to go small and play with more pace and open the floor. But I think we've seen a lot of what we could see at this point. Now it's just about going out and executing.”

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

It'll be the second time this season Ohtani pitches but does not hit. He'll be throwing on five days' rest.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts announced the plan for Ohtani after a 5-4 win in the series opener Monday night.

The first time Ohtani pitched for the Dodgers but didn't hit occurred April 15, when he struck out 10 in an 8-2 victory over the New York Mets. He was held out of the batting order after being struck in the back of his right shoulder by a pitch earlier that week.

The previous time Ohtani was not in the lineup as the designated hitter during a start on the mound was May 28, 2021, with the Los Angeles Angels.

The Dodgers will miss his bat Tuesday. He has a 10-game hitting streak against the Marlins dating to September 2024.

On Monday, Ohtani had his second consecutive three-hit game, finishing 3 for 5 with a ground-rule double, two singles, two runs and an RBI.

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

Iran offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country and ends the war in a proposal that would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, two regional officials said Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to rule out any deal that excludes Iran’s nuclear program.

Dozens of nations repeated calls to open the critical waterway in a joint statement led by Bahrain. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized the U.S. for going into the war with what he said was no strategy.

Here is the latest:

Red Cross aims to assess the humanitarian situation in Iran and encourage respect for the rules of war

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross has arrived in Iran to meet with officials and local affiliates and assess the war’s humanitarian consequences.

Mirjana Spoljaric will also discuss efforts of the Geneva-based humanitarian organization to ship more relief supplies to Iran, notably through the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

The ICRC says it delivered more than 170 tons of essential relief items to help people affected by the conflict this month, with more medical items and forensic supplies on their way.

Her visit is part of a trip through the region that involves bilateral discussions to help ensure respect for the rules of war, the organization said.

US consumer confidence inches higher in April despite Iran war and soaring gasoline prices

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index inched up to 92.8 from 92.2 in March, despite growing anxiety over soaring energy prices brought on by the war in Iran. It remains mired near its lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s the first read on inflation to capture the effects of the Iran war. The surge in gas prices to an average $4.18 a gallon this week, up more than a dollar since before the war, will stretch budgets and erode incomes, making it harder for lower- and middle-income American households to afford food and rent.

“Consumers are singing the blues,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “They aren’t happy with high prices for gas, housing, electricity and many other items. It’s clear consumers aren’t going to feel much better until there’s an end to the Middle East conflict.”

▶ Read more

Without OPEC production limits, UAE could help lower postwar oil prices

The announcement doesn‘t change anything regarding the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, but could help speed the oil market’s return to lower prices after the war, said Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone foreign exchange brokerage.

Once the war ends, the UAE could reach its pre-conflict goal of increasing production to 5 million barrels per day, “in turn helping crude benchmarks to normalize in shorter order once the ongoing Middle East conflict comes to an end,” he said.

The UAE’s exit from OPEC won’t expand global oil supplies right away

The UAE’s move appears to be part of an effort to assert themselves as leaders and independent actors in the region, and sell oil and gas when and how they see fit, said Karen Young, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

“This exit of OPEC fits into the UAE need for flexibility with key energy consumers as well — including a future relationship with China and a more competitive relationship with Saudi Arabia,” she said.

The exit won’t immediately change export capacity, since the UAE’s lone pipeline around the Strait of Hormuz to the port at Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman is already running at full capacity, she noted.

The move also indicates UAE’s frustration with regional organizations, such as the Gulf Cooperation Council, she said: “It signals regional cooperation and coordination is weak, the GCC as a unit is dead, this war has demonstrated failure of mutual defense.”

UN chief praises Pakistan’s role in regional and global peace

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres spoke with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday and conveyed the international community’s “deep appreciation” for Pakistan’s constructive role in promoting regional and global peace and stability, according to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry.

In a statement, the ministry said Guterres also expressed the United Nations’ full support for Pakistan’s ongoing peace efforts.

Dar briefed the U.N. chief on the latest regional developments and Pakistan’s diplomatic engagement with relevant parties, the statement said.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry raises death toll of Israel-Hezbollah war to 2,534

The ministry added on Tuesday that 7,863 have been wounded since the war broke out on March 2.

The war has displaced more than 1 million people and caused destruction worth billions of dollars.

Peak oil means sell barrels now or leave money on the table

Leon said the approaching peak in global oil demand has shifted the incentive for producers from collective restraint to earning money from their reserves now.

He said the UAE, with its 4.8 million barrels per day of production capacity and potential to increase output, is “particularly well positioned to pursue such a strategy outside the group.”

An OPEC without the UAE could increase global energy supply volatility, analyst says

The UAE’s withdrawal removes one of OPEC’s few members with ability to quickly increase production — the mechanism through which the cartel manages oil prices, said Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy.

“A structurally weaker OPEC, with less spare capacity concentrated within the group, will find it increasingly difficult to calibrate supply and stabilize prices,” Leon said. “The net effect points to a more fragmented supply landscape and a potentially more volatile oil market over time as OPEC’s capacity to smooth imbalances diminishes.”

Trump claims Iran has ‘just’ informed the US it’s in a ‘State of Collapse’

“They want us to “Open the Hormuz Strait,” as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their leadership situation,” Trump posted on social media.

He added that he believes they will be able to sort out reported divisions within the Islamic Republic government about negotiations with the U.S.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about who on the Iranian side delivered the message, who in the Republican administration received it and whether the communications were conducted directly with the U.S. or through an intermediary.

Israel to investigate ship carrying what Ukraine says is ‘stolen grain’

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday that Israel’s tax authority has opened an investigation into a ship expected to dock in the Haifa port that Ukraine said carries stolen grain.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X that Ukraine is preparing sanctions against companies that profit from grain harvested from areas of Ukraine under Russian control. Saar dismissed Zelenskyy’s comments as “Twitter diplomacy” and said Ukraine had not provided information about the cargo’s contents or a request for legal assistance.

“The vessel has not entered the port and has yet to submit its documents. It is not possible to verify the truth of the Ukrainian claims regarding the forgery of the bill of lading,” Saar said.

Israel has ‘no territorial ambitions’ in Lebanon, Israel’s foreign minister says

Gideon Saar said the Israeli military-occupied “buffer zone” that stretches 10 kilometers (6 miles) into Lebanon is necessary to protect residents in Israel’s north.

“Hezbollah has transformed the entire front line of southern Lebanon into a network of terrorist infrastructure, and this threat has not been properly addressed by the Lebanese government,” he said during a press conference with Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Đurić in Jerusalem.

Saar refused to comment on the fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah, which both sides have violated multiple times since Trump announced it last week, and whether Israel might expand its military operations beyond southern Lebanon. He did note Israel’s first direct negotiations with Lebanon in decades.

“Our direct negotiations with Lebanon are important, it could be an opening to a different, better future,” he said. “But the Lebanese government must take practical steps to restore its sovereignty against de facto Iranian control in its territory.”

Ukraine defense minister says it shot down 33,000 Russian drones in March, a monthly record

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range attack drones struck a Russian oil refinery and terminal on the Black Sea for the third time in less than two weeks. Ukraine has developed cutting-edge and battle-tested drone technology that has proved essential in holding back Russia’s bigger army.

The interceptor drones as part of a comprehensive air defense system are now being sought by Middle East and Gulf countries amid the Iran war, according to Ukrainian officials.

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The UAE is leaving OPEC and its production limits

The United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday that it will leave OPEC and the oil cartel’s wider OPEC+ group effective May 1, a move rumored for some time as the Emirates chafed under production restrictions and had increasingly frosty relations with neighboring Saudi Arabia.

The UAE had been a member of OPEC since before it became a country in 1971, but its foreign policy has become less aligned with Riyadh as Saudi Arabia began to directly challenge the Emirates in trying to draw foreign investments under assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“This decision reflects the UAE’s long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile, including accelerated investment in domestic energy production, and reinforces its commitment to a responsible, reliable, and forward-looking role in global energy markets,” the UAE said through its state-run WAM news agency.

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Iran’s economy has been battered. Its leaders still think Trump will blink first

U.S. and Israeli airstrikes crippled thousands of factories in Iran, and the economic damage is reverberating — millions more Iranians could lose their jobs. Most damaging, Israeli strikes knocked out most steel and petrochemical production, causing a surge in prices for metals and plastic. Things could get worse as the U.S. blockades Iranian ports. Economic woes sparked the mass protests that were crushed before the war, and could again push Iranians into the streets. But Iran’s leaders are betting that economic self-reliance built under decades of sanctions can help them endure the pain longer than Trump. ▶ Read more

United Nations General Assembly president urges ceasefire

United Nations General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock said urgent efforts to secure a ceasefire in the Iran war are critical.

During a visit Tuesday to New Delhi, Baerbock warned the conflict is disrupting global supplies and deepening regional crises, with attacks and blockades in the Strait of Hormuz increasing oil and fertilizer prices worldwide.

“Every effort to come to a ceasefire is highly needed,” Baerbock said, adding that the escalation is diverting attention from humanitarian crises in Gaza. “It overshadows the devastating situation for the people in Gaza. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is still heartbreaking.”

Doctors Without Borders says Israel uses water as weapon in Gaza

International aid group Doctors Without Borders accused Israel of “systemically depriving” people in Gaza of water in what it calls a “campaign of collective punishment” against Palestinians.

Known by its French acronym MSF, the group said in a report Tuesday that Israel has destroyed or damaged about 90% of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure including desalination plants, boreholes, pipelines and sewage systems.

MSF said it also documented the Israeli military shooting at clearly identified water trucks and destroying boreholes that were a lifeline for tens of thousands of people.

The practices have far-reaching consequences for the health, hygiene and dignity of Gaza’s 2.1 million people, MSF said.

“Israeli authorities know that without water life ends, yet they have deliberately and systematically obliterated water infrastructure in Gaza – while consistently blocking water-related supplies from entering,” MSF emergency manager Claire San Filippo said.

COGAT, Israel’s military body that coordinates aid to Gaza, rejected the accusations and said the water supply in the Gaza Strip “consistently exceeds humanitarian thresholds.”

Israeli airstrikes against southern Lebanon reported

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israeli airstrikes hit the villages of Chakra, Tebnine and Kafra in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.

A drone strike also hit a motorcycle in the village of Mansouri, the agency reported.

There was no immediate information about possible casualties.

The strike came as Israel’s military asked residents of 16 southern villages to evacuate, saying Hezbollah is using the communities to launch attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

Bahrain sentences 30 over Iran-related charges

Bahrain sentenced five people to life in prison and the remaining 25 defendants to 10-year terms over accusations of spying for Iran and supporting Iranian attacks on the tiny island kingdom.

Human rights activists have long criticized Bahrain’s rights records including convicting people in closed-door trials without allowing defendants to properly defend themselves.

Bahrain’s public prosecution said Tuesday that five people, including two Afghans, received life sentences after being convicted of spying for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

The prosecution said 25 others were separately sentenced to 10 years each for supporting Iran’s “terrorist acts” in Bahrain.

Israeli forces kill 9-year-old boy in southern Gaza

A 9-year-old boy was killed Tuesday by Israeli fire in southern Gaza, Nasser Hospital said.

The hospital said Adel al-Najjar was collecting firewood in a roundabout in Khan Younis city when Israeli forces shot him about 400 meters (1,312 feet) west of the Yellow Line separating Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

An Associated Press video shows two of the boy’s siblings crying over him on a stretcher at the hospital’s morgue. One knelt on his body and kissed his cheeks.

“What is the guilt of those children,” a woman said during the boy’s funeral. “God is plaguing you, Israel.”

The boy’s younger brother was killed a month ago, also while collecting firewood in Khan Younis, according to hospital records.

Since a ceasefire agreement went into effect in October, Israeli airstrikes and troops firing on Palestinians near military-held zones have killed at least 818 Palestinians, including at least 226 children and 179 women, according to Gaza health officials.

Pakistan and New Zealand prime ministers discuss de-escalation

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday briefed New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon by phone on Pakistan’s diplomatic outreach promoting regional peace and de-escalation.

Luxon expressed appreciation for Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts including outreach to the United States and Iran, according to Sharif’s office.

Sharif thanked Luxon for his support and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to peace, dialogue and regional stability, the office said.

Nearly all of Gaza cropland damaged or inaccessible, study finds

The war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza has left 96% of the Palestinian enclave’s cropland damaged or inaccessible, a study has found.

A study released Tuesday by aid group Mercy Corps found only 7% of Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure remains functional.

The group said water systems have been severely degraded, wells have been damaged, salinity has risen and wastewater has infiltrated Gaza’s farmland.

“This destruction is not just environmental,” Mercy Corps said. “It is directly linked to the food crisis.”

The group warned full recovery of Gaza’s cropland could be hindered for years if Israel continued its restriction on goods delivery, and the contamination of land and water was not addressed.

An October ceasefire stopped heavy fighting in the Gaza war, which began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

US official says Iran’s ‘illegal behavior’ should be energy wake-up call

A senior U.S. State Department official says Iran’s “illegal behavior” in the Strait of Hormuz should serve as a “wake-up call” for global energy security.

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker told a gathering of Baltic, Black, and Adriatic Sea countries Tuesday in Croatia that more needs to be done to diversify supplies and connect to avoid future problems.

“Iran’s illegal behavior in the Strait of Hormuz should be a wake-up call for all of us with regard to the need to secure our supply chains and reduce our dependencies on unreliable countries and geographies,” Hooker said during a panel discussion in the southern Adriatic Sea city of Dubrovnik.

“We all need to do more,” Hooker said. “The world is changing under our feet.”

Rubio says preventing Iranian nuclear weapon remains 'core issue’

The secretary of state was asked in a Fox News interview about Iran’s latest proposal, which would postpone discussions on its nuclear program but end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade and ends the war.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that at some point in the future if this radical clerical regime remains in charge in Iran, they will decide they want a nuclear weapon,” Rubio said.

“That fundamental issue still has to be confronted,” he said. “That still remains the core issue here.”

Asked if he thinks the Iranians are serious about a deal, Rubio said they are skilled negotiators looking to buy time.

“We can’t let them get away with it,” Rubio said. “We have to ensure that any deal that is made, any agreement that is made, is one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point.”

Equipos de rescate desplegaron botes inflables para ayudar a trasladar a algunos residentes atrapados en sus viviendas en la ciudad de Qinzhou, en la región de Guangxi, reportó la agencia oficial de noticias Xinhua. Imágenes de video de Xinhua mostraron a rescatistas avanzando a pie por agua que les llegaba al pecho y a bomberos cargando en brazos a residentes ancianos.

Las autoridades de Qinzhou indicaron que la estación meteorológica de la ciudad registró más de 270 milímetros de lluvia (unas 10 pulgadas) durante un periodo de 24 horas que terminó a las 8 de la mañana del lunes. Era la mayor cantidad registrada allí en un solo día de abril.

Las autoridades citaron a Lin Nan, analista meteorológico, quien señaló en una publicación en WeChat que precipitaciones tan intensas en las regiones costeras del sur de China por lo general ocurren sólo después de la llegada del monzón de verano, entre mediados y finales de mayo. Lin agregó que es raro ver un aguacero tan fuerte a finales de abril.

Las escuelas de toda la ciudad reanudaron las clases la mañana del martes y el tráfico circulaba con normalidad en la mayoría de los lugares, según un medio operado por las autoridades chinas de gestión de emergencias.

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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

Nikola Jokic snapped out of his prolonged funk with a triple-double, Spencer Jones provided a spark while subbing for injured Aaron Gordon, and the Nuggets staved off elimination with a chippy 125-113 win over the injury-riddled Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5 of their playoff series Monday night.

“I think we're a multidimensional team that can win a variety of ways,” said Jones, who scored 20 points and keyed a third-quarter spurt that gave Denver its big cushion.

Jokic had 27 points, 16 assists and 12 rebounds for Denver, which trimmed its deficit to 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. Jamal Murray scored 24 points as the Nuggets, who led the NBA in scoring, enjoyed a breakout after being held under 100 points twice in Minneapolis.

Jokic posted his 23rd playoff triple-double, third on the career list, as the Nuggets stopped a three-game skid and played the way they did most of the regular season in securing the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference.

Game 6 is Thursday night in Minneapolis.

“They’re a championship team. They have championship DNA," said Julius Randle, who led Minnesota with 27 points. "They’re going to come out and have a sense of pride on their home court. They did that tonight. So, credit to them. We get to go back to Minnesota and have a chance to close it out.”

The Timberwolves, who trailed by 27, were without their starting backcourt of Anthony Edwards (hyperextended knee) and Donte DiVincenzo (ruptured Achilles), both of whom got hurt in Game 4, and they briefly lost center Naz Reid to a rolled right ankle late in the third quarter Monday night.

DiVincenzo underwent surgery Sunday, and Edwards is out indefinitely — but an MRI confirmed the absence of structural damage, meaning he could return to action if the Timberwolves advance.

Game 4 star Ayo Dosunmu added 18 points for Minnesota, but Rudy Gobert was finally neutralized. He scored his only bucket with 20 seconds remaining in the third quarter with the Wolves trailing by 25.

The Nuggets need to win the next two games to become just the 14th of 299 teams facing a 3-1 deficit to come back to win an NBA playoff series. Denver was the last team to accomplish the feat, doing it twice in the bubble in 2020, against the Jazz and Lakers.

The Wolves started out sloppy with nine first-quarter turnovers and finished with 25. Jokic swished a 29-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Denver a 60-51 halftime lead.

“It’s just a good win and then you move on,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said. “Tomorrow we’ll sit down and talk with the guys, get them right, give us a chance to go through things on Wednesday and try to win on Thursday.”

Jones, who scored 11 points in the first four games of the series, had 11 in a six-minute stretch in the fourth quarter when the Nuggets pulled away. He sank a trio of 3-pointers and added a breakaway dunk after learning just before tipoff that he'd start in place of Gordon (calf).

Jaden McDaniels, whose meaningless layup in the final seconds of Game 4 drew the wrath of Jokic and led to a dustup that resulted in ejections and fines and only added more fuel to an already-heated playoff rivalry, got into early foul trouble and scored 13 points. He was razzed by the Ball Arena crowd every time he touched the ball.

“We just ended up losing the day,” McDaniels said, “but we’re going to win the next one.”

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The Associated Press spoke with people who fled to the swamp-encircled community of Nyatim in recent weeks. They described having little food and no clean water in a place so desolate that a Starlink connection was used to call for help.

When aid workers reached out to South Sudanese authorities with a request to deliver emergency relief, however, it was denied. Reports that dozens of people had died, including some of apparent starvation, made no difference.

"It was a ‘no’ from local and national authorities and from the military,” said Yashovardhan, the head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in South Sudan, who goes by one name. “Meanwhile, people are eating leaves and roots to survive.”

The U.N. World Food Program, usually reticent about an issue that has simmered for years in South Sudan, also told the AP it had been blocked despite “numerous engagements with both national and local authorities,” according to the agency’s country director, Adham Effendi.

People say aid has been weaponized for years

It has happened over and over in South Sudan, whose people fought for years for independence from Sudan and then turned on each other. Whatever side that controls aid is accused of withholding it from the other, and civilians suffer.

This time, fighting has surged since Riek Machar, a longtime rival of President Salva Kiir, was suspended as first vice president and put under house arrest for alleged subversion last year. The two led opposing forces in a civil war that killed an estimated 400,000 people before a 2018 peace agreement brought them into a fragile unity government.

In December, opposition forces backing Machar seized military outposts in Jonglei state. Government forces struck back the following month.

On Feb. 7, soldiers reached the outskirts of Lankien town, where an aerial attack days earlier struck a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders. Residents described artillery fire before soldiers stormed the town in armored vehicles.

Thomas Nim was among those who fled. With his pregnant wife, three children and mother, they made their way through swampland, hoping soldiers wouldn't chase them.

They and many others soon filled Nyatim, about a day’s walk away.

“Some of the most vulnerable, like the elderly and children, ended up in Nyatim because they couldn’t make it any farther," said Nim, a 43-year-old pharmacist.

As days passed and people began to die without food or good water, he called for help. But none came.

Opposition and authorities blame each other

Gatkhor Dual, an opposition official coordinating aid in Jonglei state, blamed county commissioner James Bol Makuei for blocking humanitarian access. Makuei does not want aid to reach people who “support the opposition,” Dual said, especially when they are near government-held areas.

Makuei acknowledged that access to Nyatim had been restricted but added that estimates of its evacuee-swollen population — 30,000, according to Doctors Without Borders — were exaggerated. He accused South Sudan’s main opposition group, known by its initials SPLM-IO, of holding civilians in Nyatim to attract aid and secure a foothold near the county seat of government.

Nim, the pharmacist, said there were no opposition forces in the area.

Concerns about aid diversion are not without precedent. Armed groups in South Sudan, including the military, have a long history of diverting humanitarian supplies for military purposes. During recent fighting in Jonglei, fighters looted more than two dozen humanitarian-run health facilities, according to the U.N.

Doctors Without Borders said it first reached out for help to Nyatim on Feb. 22. It asked again on March 3 after hearing reports of deaths. At the end of March, the medical charity issued a statement drawing attention to its efforts.

Delivering aid in South Sudan is never easy. Infrastructure is poor. River traffic, where available, has been attacked. Clearance from authorities is required.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis has deepened. In March, over half of the more than 1,000 children screened by Doctors Without Borders in Chuil, a community where South Sudan's government has allowed humanitarian access to enter, were acutely malnourished.

Aid workers have been overwhelmed. In February, Doctors Without Borders began expanding a four-bed facility, first to 60 beds, then 80. It is now growing to 100.

Other people are giving up on remote Nyatim and going home to ruins.

“People are returning to their homes,” said one of them, Koang Pajok. “There was no food and shelter.”

The World Food Program turns to airdrops

Unable to reach the area by road or river, the World Food Program has airdropped 415 metric tons of food to Chuil since March, country director Effendi said.

But as civilians come seeking assistance, so do young men wielding Kalashnikovs. Some people worry that could make Chuil a target.

On a morning in April, a plane circling overhead drew anxious onlookers.

“It’s a surveillance plane,” said Gal Wai Tut, who had arrived days earlier with his wife and newborn child. He recalled seeing a similar plane over Lankien on the day he said a December airstrike killed at least 11 civilians.

Don't gather in one place, an older man advised, saying a crowd is more likely to be targeted.

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The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The plot was thwarted, but Austrian authorities still canceled Swift’s three performances in August 2024. The singer’s fans, known as Swifties, who had flown to Austria from across the globe to attend a performance of her record-setting Eras Tour were devastated, but rallied to turn Vienna into a citywide trading post for friendship bracelets and singalongs.

The defendant, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen known only as Beran A. in line with Austrian privacy rules, faced charges including terrorist offenses and membership in a terrorist organization. He could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, and has been in custody since August 2024.

The Vienna plot drew comparisons to a 2017 attack by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people. The bomb detonated at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving, becoming the deadliest extremist attack in the United Kingdom in recent years.

Defendant regrets his actions

Anna Mair, his defense attorney, said her client pleaded guilty to the charges related to the concert plot.

“Of course, he deeply regrets it all,” Mair said outside the court, adding that “he says it was the biggest mistake of his life.”

Austrian media reported that he also pleaded guilty to being a member of a terrorist organization.

Beran A. is facing trial alongside Arda K., whose full name also has not been made public. They, along with a third man, planned to carry out simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates during Ramadan in 2024 in the name of the Islamic State group. Beran A. and Arda K. never carried out their attacks.

Only Beran A. was charged in connection with the concert plot. He pleaded not guilty to the charges related to the plot for simultaneous attacks.

He allegedly planned to target onlookers gathered outside Ernst Happel Stadium — up to 30,000 each night, with another 65,000 inside the venue — with knives or homemade explosives. The suspect hoped to “kill as many people as possible,” authorities said in 2024. The U.S. provided intelligence that fed into the decision to cancel the concerts.

Beran A. also allegedly networked with other members of the Islamic State group ahead of the planned attack. Prosecutors say they discussed purchasing weapons and making bombs, and that the defendant also sought to illegally buy weapons in the days ahead of the performance. In addition, he swore allegiance to the militant group.

Authorities searched his apartment on Aug. 7, 2024, and found bomb-making materials. The concerts were scheduled to begin the next day.

“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating,” Swift wrote in a statement posted to Instagram two weeks later. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”

A representative for Swift did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.

The trial is being held in Wiener Neustadt, about an hour south of Vienna. The proceedings are set to continue May 12.

Three attacks planned in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and UAE

Prosecutors have also filed terrorism-related charges against Arda K. in the trial in connection with the plan for simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The third man in that plot, Hasan E., allegedly stabbed a security guard with a knife at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on March 11, 2024. He was arrested and remains in pretrial detention in Saudi Arabia, Austrian prosecutors said.

Beran A. and Arda K. did not carry out their plans in Turkey and the UAE. Beran A. returned to Vienna and then allegedly began plotting to attack a Swift concert there.

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Dazio reported from Berlin. Daniel Niemann in Cologne, Germany, contributed to this report.

Together, the sluggers have now accomplished something for the New York Yankees with their powerful starts that only Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra had done before them.

Rice went 404 feet the opposite way for a two-run shot to left field in the Yankees' 4-2 win at Texas on Monday night, his 10th homer of the season. Judge immediately followed by driving a full-count curveball 414 feet to tie for the MLB lead with his 11th.

“After he hit his, he said, `I'm not going to let Benny catch me,'” Rice said with a smile. “Just trying to keep him honest, keep him motivated.”

They became the second pair of Yankees teammates to each have 10 or more homers in the first 29 games of a season, joining Mantle and Berra in 1956.

“I’m glad that I don’t have to face them, let’s just put it that way,” said Yankees starter Max Fried (4-1), who threw six scoreless innings for New York (19-10).

“Benny’s off to an amazing start. Judgie, ho-hum, 11 homers already,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It's a pretty good combo there.”

Rice, a 27-year-old first baseman, is hitting .322 with 23 RBIs. Judge is at .252 with 19 RBIs.

“Just consistent at-bat after consistent at-bat. Like it’s must-watch TV at this point,” Judge said of Rice. “He's going to put something in play hard or he’s going to take his walk and pass the baton. It's just impressive to watch, and I get a front-row seat. ... And, makes my job easier when he does that.”

Rice deposited a 95 mph first-pitch fastball from Jack Leiter into the Yankees bullpen in left-center field to make it 2-0 with two outs in the third inning. It was Rice's sixth homer in 11 games.

Judge then homered into the left-field seats, the ball landing not far from the spot he hit his AL season record 62nd homer on Oct. 4, 2022. He also had two doubles and was hit by a pitch in his other plate appearances.

“Maybe his best game of at-bats. ... On all four times, stings two doubles, smokes the homer where he just rides out the curveball,” Boone said.

And it came a day after Judge also went deep on his 34th birthday.

Judge has hit 260 of his 379 career homers since the start of the 2021 season and already has four 50-homer seasons.

Rice has 43 homers in 216 career games since his debut in June 2024.

After their fast starts in 1956, Mantle went on to hit a majors-best 52 homers and Berra finished with 30.

When Rice was asked if he could keep pace with Judge all season, he said he's relishing the moment now.

“Yeah, I don’t know how long this is going to last, but I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying it right now being this close,” Rice said before reflecting on the history he now shares with a trio of three-time MVPs: Judge and two Hall of Fame players.

“It’s pretty cool. I definitely would not have anticipated something like that,” he said. “But obviously the three names I’m surrounded with there are pretty big ones, so definitely very humbling.”

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“We just didn’t quit,” Theodore said.

Game 5 in the best-of-seven series is Wednesday night in Las Vegas.

The Golden Knights appeared to have won the game earlier in OT when Pavel Dorofeyev tapped in a loose puck with 9:41 left, but the apparent score was waved off when it was determined Vegas was offside.

“It was good we never stopped,” Theodore said. “It sucks that one got called back, but it was good to get it done.”

Vegas’ Brett Howden scored his second goal of the game on a tip-in with 9:35 remaining in the third period, and that forced overtime after Utah had stormed back with four straight goals.

“I liked the way we responded in the third after they scored,” Howden said. “We stuck with it.”

The Golden Knights raced out to a 3-0 lead with two goals in the first and one early in the second by Dorofeyev, Howden and Cole Smith.

Utah countered with four straight scores, capped by Clayton Keller’s wrist shot off a deflection for a 4-3 lead at the 5:10 mark of the third period.

“I’m proud of the way our guys responded to adversity,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “It was a hard-fought game. We know how good they can be and I think we responded well in the second half of the game.”

Utah’s Karel Vejmelka stopped 31 shots. Carter Hart made 29 saves for Vegas.

Facing a three-goal deficit, Utah’s Nick Schmaltz and Ian Cole scored 29 seconds apart in the second period to set the Mammoth’s comeback in motion. Schmaltz got Utah on the board at the 8:04 mark, and Cole followed with a 50-foot slap shot at 8:33 of the second.

Michael Carcone tied it on another slap shot at 1:44 of the third.

Dorofeyev flicked home a wrist shot to put the Golden Knights in front just 72 seconds into the first. Howden then threaded another wrist shot past Vejmelka’s skate for a short-handed goal with 1:22 left in the period.

Smith’s tip-in at 3:27 of the second gave the Golden Knights their third goal.

“We started really well, lost ourselves for a bit,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “Momentum swung to their side, but we hung in there.”

Utah fell behind early after struggling to create scoring chances during the first period. The Mammoth tallied three shots on goal over the first 20 minutes. Only one came outside of a power play.

Vegas allowed 30 shots on goal over the final two regulation periods and overtime.

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The S&P 500 fell 0.6% from its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has less of an emphasis on technology stocks, held up better and was up 43 points, or 0.1%, as of 11:15 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite fell 1.1% from its own record.

Stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry led the way lower. Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the AI revolution, was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 after sinking 3.1%. Drops of 5% for Broadcom and 5.3% for Micron Technology also helped drag the S&P 500 toward what could be its worst day in a month.

The weakness came after a report in The Wall Street Journal said some leaders at OpenAI are concerned about whether it can support its massive spending on data centers after missing targets for new users and revenue. If the maker of ChatGPT pulls back on its investments, it could bolster criticism that the entire AI industry is in a bubble of over-the-top spending that may not produce the profits and productivity that would make it all worth it.

The drops came just a day before several of the biggest spenders on AI are scheduled to report their latest results for the start of 2026. They could offer more clues on whether all the investment in AI is producing the kind of returns that shareholders care about. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Microsoft are all reporting their latest quarterly results on Wednesday.

Also weighing on the stock market was another rise for oil prices on continued uncertainty about what will happen with the Iran war.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil to be delivered in June climbed 2.1% to $110.50. Brent to be delivered in July, which is where traders are focusing more in the oil market, rose 1.9% to $103.67.

After sitting around $70 in late February, Brent prices are moving closer to their peak of $119 reached when worries about the war have been at their heights.

The focus is the Strait of Hormuz, whose effective closure is keeping oil tankers stuck in the Persian Gulf instead of heading to customers worldwide. The Trump administration seemed unlikely Tuesday to accept Iran’s offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country.

The proposal would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, something that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to rule out in a Fox News interview Monday.

Meanwhile, the average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States reached $4.18 on Tuesday, the most since 2022, according to the auto club AAA.

Expensive fuel was one of the reasons JetBlue Airways reported a worse loss for the start of 2026 than analysts expected.

But its stock nevertheless rose 3.1% after CEO Joanna Geraghty said the airline saw demand from customers strengthening through the quarter. JetBlue meanwhile announced moves it's making to rein in fuel costs, such as cutting some flying.

Also helping to limit Wall Street's losses was Coca-Cola. Its stock rallied 6.1% after it reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, thanks in part to strength from China, the United States and India.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report showed U.S. consumers are feeling slightly more confident in April, when economists expected to see a decline. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.35%, where it was late Monday.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve is scheduled to announce its latest decision on short-term interest rates. The widespread expectation is that it will hold the federal funds rate steady and hold off on resuming its cuts. Lower interest rates would help the economy, but they also risk worsening inflation when oil is expensive and tariffs are threatening to push prices higher.

Also Wednesday, the Senate Banking Committee will vote on whether to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee, Kevin Warsh, to succeed Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The committee is expected to approve Warsh and send his nomination to the full Senate.

In stock markets abroad, indexes mostly fell in Europe and Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 sank 1% for one of the world’s larger losses after the Bank of Japan opted in a split vote to keep its key interest rate unchanged.

“There are various risks to the outlook,” it said in a statement. “For the time being it is necessary to pay particular attention to the impact of the future course of the situation in the Middle East.”

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

They’re one loss away from a rare elimination.

Only six No. 8 seeds have defeated a No. 1 in a playoff series in NBA history. It’s happened only four times since the postseason was expanded to a best-of-seven series for all rounds in 2003.

But the Pistons were sloppy with the ball and careless overall in a 94-88 loss to the Orlando Magic on Monday night, falling behind 3-1 in their first-round Eastern Conference series.

“We have to take care of the basketball. We have to win the rebound battle. We just have to be in the moment of what this is. This is playoff basketball,” said Tobias Harris, who scored 20 points. “We have to be more ready to just go out and there and scrap up. We are a little too casual. Everyone knows that in our locker room. We have to be better every single guy. All of us have to be better. We have to look ourselves in the mirror and be better.”

Harsh words from a veteran leader.

Cade Cunningham led the Pistons with 25 points but had eight of the team’s 20 turnovers. Meanwhile, the Magic turned it over just 12 times.

“We did so many positive things but 20 turnovers and give up 16 offensive rebounds. That’s hard to overcome and that’s what it comes down to,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “They’re sending a lot of bodies to (Cunningham). We have to help him by giving him more space so he has room to operate, set screens, be more physical, get the guys off of him but, again, we have to do a better job taking care of it.”

The Pistons haven’t advanced to the second round since losing in the East finals in 2008. They had five straight losing seasons before Bickerstaff came in last season and led them to 44 wins before losing to the Knicks in six games.

This is no ordinary 1-vs.-8 series. The Magic played well before faltering down the stretch and had to win an elimination game in the play-in tournament.

The Pistons, meanwhile, rose to the top of the conference while the second-seeded Boston Celtics didn’t have Jayson Tatum for the first several months.

Detroit has struggled in this series not only with turnovers but with finding scoring options beyond Cunningham and Harris. The Pistons shot 6 of 30 (20%) from 3-point range in Game 4 and 31 of 82 (37.8%) overall.

“Back’s against the wall. Whatcha gonna do? You’re gonna fight,” Pistons forward Isaiah Stewart said. “You have to fight until the end so let’s get back to the crib, protect the crib and take it one game at a time. The series is not over. We’re gonna keep fighting.”

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

The Thunder — who have a 12-0 record in the first round over the last three seasons — will face the winner of the Los Angeles Lakers-Houston Rockets series in the Western Conference semifinals. The Lakers have a 3-1 lead, though the Rockets won Game 4.

Phoenix has a 10-game losing streak in the playoffs, dating to 2023.

The Thunder closed the series with an overwhelming offensive performance — making 17 of 34 (50%) 3-pointers — and their big men played particularly well. The 7-foot-1 Holmgren shot 9 of 16 from the field and grabbed 12 rebounds, while the 7-foot Isaiah Hartenstein added 18 points and 12 rebounds, including seven on the offensive end.

Ajay Mitchell added 22 points and made four 3-pointers. Alex Caruso finished with 14 points and hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter.

Gilgeous-Alexander was reliable as usual. Two days after scoring 42 points in Game 3, he had another efficient performance, shooting 10 of 17 from the field.

The Suns showed some fight in the second half, cutting a 15-point deficit to 106-98 entering the fourth. Devin Booker scored 12 points in the third quarter on 5-of-8 shooting.

But every time the Suns got within a few possessions, the Thunder responded. Cason Wallace hit a corner 3 with 5:54 left to extend the Oklahoma City lead to 120-106. Gilgeous-Alexander followed with a spectacular layup, somehow getting the shot to fall over three defenders.

Booker led the Suns with 24 points while Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green added 23. Collin Gillespie added 20 points while making six 3-pointers.

The Thunder pushed to a 75-67 lead by halftime after shooting 61.4% from the floor and 60% from 3-point range, hitting 12 of 20 behind the arc. Gilgeous-Alexander had 17 before the break, making a wide-open 3-pointer just before halftime.

That offset a hot shooting start for the Suns, who made 11 of 20 3-pointers. Gillespie scored 17 before the break, making all six of his shots, including five 3s.

The Thunder were without starter Jalen Williams, who missed his second straight game because of a left hamstring strain. Suns center Mark Williams (foot) and guard Jordan Goodwin (calf) were also out.

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

Morgan McSweeney told lawmakers on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that it had been “a serious error of judgment” to back Mandelson, whose ill-fated appointment has left Starmer fighting for his job.

Opposition politicians secured a vote in the House of Commons later Tuesday on whether Starmer should be investigated by a parliamentary standards watchdog with the power to censure or suspend him.

The Foreign Affairs Committee is also investigating how Mandelson, a scandal-tainted friend of Jeffrey Epstein, was given the key diplomatic job despite failing security checks.

McSweeney said that “the prime minister relied on my advice, and I got it wrong.” He apologized to Epstein’s victims, saying “I am sorry for any part this controversy has played in causing further hurt or distress.”

But he insisted that he didn't “ask officials to ignore procedures, request that steps should be skipped, or communicate explicitly or implicitly that checks should be cleared at all costs.”

Starmer fired Mandelson in September after new details emerged about the ambassador's friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.

Police opened an investigation into Mandelson in February over allegations that he passed sensitive government information to Epstein when he was a member of the U.K. government in 2009. He denies wrongdoing and hasn't been charged.

Starmer's former top aide says sorry

McSweeney, who called Mandelson an adviser and confidant, resigned in February, saying he took responsibility for the ambassadorial appointment.

He denied allegations by former Foreign Office chief Olly Robbins that Starmer’s staff pressured officials to rush through the confirmation so that Mandelson could be in the post at the start of the second term of U.S. President Donald Trump in January 2025.

McSweeney said that he felt Mandelson's experience as a former European Union trade commissioner would serve the U.K. well in striking a free trade deal with the Trump administration.

“I don’t think the prime minister would have chosen Mandelson if Kamala Harris had been elected president,” he said.

He said that at the time of the appointment, he had the impression that Mandelson's relationship with Epstein was “a passing acquaintance.” When emails were published showing the friendship was close, “it was a knife through my soul,” McSweeney said.

Starmer fired Robbins earlier this month after the revelation that Mandelson was approved for the job against the recommendation of the government’s security vetting agency. Starmer has called it “staggering” that Foreign Office officials failed to tell him about the security concerns.

Robbins has said that the concerns didn’t relate to Epstein, though he hasn’t disclosed what they were about.

Robbins' predecessor, Philip Barton, told the same committee that he was concerned that Mandelson's known links to “toxic, hot potato” Epstein “could become a problem.”

But he said that he wasn't consulted on the “political decision” to appoint Mandelson. It's rare but not unknown for U.K. ambassadors to be political appointees rather than career diplomats.

“I was presented with a decision and told to get on with it,” said Barton, who left his job for unrelated reasons in January 2025.

“There was pressure to get everything done as quickly as possible,” he said, but denied there was pressure for a specific outcome.

Starmer has denied that anyone in his office put pressure on the civil service.

Opposition hopes to force an inquiry

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

Starmer already defused one potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to quit over the Mandelson appointment. He could face a new challenge if, as expected, Labour takes a hammering in May 7 local and regional elections, which give voters a chance to pass a midterm verdict on the government.

Later Tuesday, the House of Commons will vote on a demand by the opposition Conservative Party for Parliament’s Privileges Committee to investigate Starmer’s claim that “due process” was followed in Mandelson's appointment.

“It’s clear that full due process was not followed,” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said, adding that “appointing a known national security risk to be ambassador to the United States is a profound failure of government.”

Badenoch urged Labour lawmakers not to be complicit in a “cover-up.”

A finding by the committee that Starmer misled Parliament would likely be a resigning offense. But the inquiry is unlikely to proceed.

It would require a large number of Labour lawmakers to vote with the opposition for Starmer to be referred to the Privileges Committee, which has the power to suspend lawmakers, including the prime minister, from Parliament, for breaches of the rules.

Starmer urged Labour lawmakers to “stick together” and vote against the motion, calling it a “stunt” timed to damage the government before the May elections.

Censure by the committee exerts considerable moral pressure on politicians to resign. Its investigation into lockdown-breaking gatherings in government offices during the COVID-19 pandemic helped end the political career of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Johnson quit as a lawmaker in 2023 after the committee found that he had repeatedly misled Parliament over the “Partygate” scandal.

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Associated Press writer Sylvia Hui contributed to this story.

Now, more than two years after DeSantis ended his presidential campaign and endorsed Trump, the governor is returning to the national spotlight — at least for this week. He's pushing state lawmakers to redraw Florida's congressional map as part of a coast-to-coast redistricting battle ahead of November's midterm elections. His proposal would make it easier for Republicans to win four more seats, equivalent to Democrats' potential gains from last week's referendum in Virginia.

With DeSantis' second term coming to a close, the special legislative session that starts Tuesday is one of his final opportunities to remind Republicans that he could lead the party one day. But there are also plenty of risks ahead for the 47-year-old governor.

Some Republicans are worried that a new map will backfire and make it easier for Democrats to pick up seats. In addition, DeSantis wants lawmakers to increase regulations for artificial intelligence and loosen vaccine requirements, two proposals that have previously stalled in Tallahassee.

Trump may be constitutionally barred from running for a third term in 2028, but that doesn't mean there's a clear path for DeSantis, who would likely have Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio to contend with in a Republican primary.

“The window for Ron looks reasonably narrow at this point,” said Whit Ayres, who served as DeSantis' pollster in his first campaign for governor in 2018.

DeSantis, for his part, is embracing the national fight. When House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., last week dared Florida Republicans to go ahead with their special session, the governor punched back with the kind of aggressiveness he showed in the early days of his failed White House bid.

“I will pay for you to come down to Florida and campaign,” DeSantis said of Jeffries. “I’ll put you up in the Florida governor’s mansion. We’ll take you fishing.”

DeSantis wants four more Republican seats

DeSantis unveiled his proposed map to Fox News on Monday even before it had been widely circulated among lawmakers. He argued that the 2020 census shortchanged the state's population, making it necessary to redraw the lines.

The governor's map, if approved, would reshape districts in Democratic areas around Orlando and Tampa Bay, while also condensing Democratic voters into fewer South Florida districts. The changes could cost Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, among others, their seats.

The current maps yielded a 20 to 8 Republican tilt in 2024. DeSantis' version would aim for an advantage of 24 to 4.

DeSantis first announced the special session back in January, months after Trump started pushing Republican-run states to redraw their congressional boundaries. What followed has been a tit-for-tat redistricting battle, with each party looking for an edge in the midterms.

There's no guarantee that new maps would play out the way parties hope. For example, Texas based its revised lines largely on Trump’s performance in 2024, theoretically redistributing the president's voters across more districts to pull them into the Republican column. But Trump's popularity has waned since his reelection, including among Latino voters that figure prominently in the state.

Florida could face a similar conundrum. If the state creates more majority-Republican districts but with thinner margins, it could dilute their advantage and give Democrats more opportunities to win seats, especially if there's an anti-Trump backlash at the polls this year.

“If Florida moves like it can, the Republicans will at least be even,” said Karl Rove, a former top political adviser to President George W. Bush. If Republicans get too aggressive, “they may lose a seat or two.”

Brian Ballard, an influential Florida lobbyist who has been DeSantis’ top fundraiser, said it’s worth remembering that DeSantis was the muscle behind the 2021 map that expanded Republicans’ advantage in the state to its current levels.

“He’s incredibly smart and capable,” Ballard said. “And he doesn’t get enough credit for that map. He’s done this before.”

Florida legislative leaders appear hesitant

Still, DeSantis will be testing his relationships with lawmakers, especially in a state House chamber that has grown more willing to buck the governor in recent sessions. House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton made clear for weeks that they were not drawing their own proposals and would react only to what DeSantis put forward.

Albritton has sent multiple memos to senators reminding them of Florida’s state constitutional limits on redistricting and the requirement that it not be done as a blatantly partisan act. Perez, who convened a redistricting panel last year, has said in recent weeks that he expects something to get done, but he’s been circumspect in his public statements.

“We’re ready to have that conversation,” he recently told WPLG in South Florida, before DeSantis released his proposal.

Besides redistricting, other topics won't be much easier. DeSantis wants to require tech companies to ensure children cannot interact with chatbots without parental permission. He also wants to prevent AI from generating harmful material for minors. The proposal will put DeSantis at odds with Trump, who wants the federal government to be the regulatory arbitrator of AI technology.

On vaccines, DeSantis wants to add a conscience-based exemption to public school vaccine requirements, similar to the existing religious exemption. The push aligns him with the anti-vaccine portion of the Trump base that was instrumental in pushing the president to tap Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his health secretary.

Versions of DeSantis' proposals have passed the state Senate previously but did not advance in the state House, where Perez has been skeptical.

Ballard downplayed concerns. What may seem to some as strained relations with certain Republican legislative leaders, he said, is simply measuring DeSantis against the opening years of his tenure.

“I mean, he went from batting a thousand to maybe batting .600,” Ballard said, using a baseball analogy for the governor who played the sport while attending Yale. “That isn’t failure.”

The White House is watching

It's hard to say how the session will affect DeSantis' relationship with Trump or the president's supporters.

Trump grew frustrated at DeSantis when they were competing for the Republican presidential nomination, calling him “Ron DeSanctimonious” on the campaign trail. The governor, at least initially, gave conservative establishment figures and key donors an option other than the then-former president.

But Trump seemingly forgave DeSantis when he dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump following his victory in the Iowa caucuses. He even promised to call DeSantis by his actual name.

There's more bad blood within the White House, though. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, a Floridian, managed DeSantis’ razor-thin 2018 victory, only for the governor to have a falling out with her.

Wiles did not respond to a request for comment. But Ayres said he’s certain she’s paying attention.

“Donald Trump has a long memory, and Susie Wiles has a longer one,” he said. “And that doesn’t bode well for Gov. DeSantis to be Donald Trump’s Republican successor.”

Trump welcomed Charles and Queen Camilla to the White House in a ceremony on the South Lawn. The king shook hands with members of Trump's Cabinet before joining the president for a rendition of the national anthem.

The leaders will huddle later in the Oval Office for a meeting that’s closed to the public, reducing the potential for the freewheeling, sometimes controversial meetings with foreign officials that have become routine during Trump’s second term.

Charles will later become the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress since his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1991. Her speech highlighted the shared history of both countries and the importance of their democratic values, themes Charles will likely reinforce on Tuesday.

Such addresses are an opportunity afforded to only the most prominent world leaders, including Pope Francis, Václav Havel and Winston Churchill. It will likely mark the most extensive public remarks Charles will deliver during a four-day visit to the U.S. that's intended to celebrate the country's 250th anniversary of independence from Britain.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., became the first sitting leader of his chamber to address the U.K. Parliament earlier this year. He attended a garden party with the king in Washington on Monday and said he told him he would be “well received” in Congress.

The visit comes at a challenging moment for U.S.-U.K. relations. Trump’s up-and-down relationship with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has taken a particularly sour turn over the past several months as the Republican president has sought to rally international support for the war in Iran. Trump criticized Starmer, who has largely resisted his overtures, by saying “this is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with.”

Trump has also imposed tariffs on the U.K. and warned of additional levies despite a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that has made such unilateral moves more challenging. Trump threatened just last week to slap a “big tariff” on the U.K. if it doesn't scrap a digital services tax on U.S. technology companies.

Trump has more broadly challenged the traditional trans-Atlantic alliance with efforts to annex Greenland and threats to walk away from NATO. He has repeatedly imposed tariffs on and taunted Canada, a member of the British Commonwealth.

Meanwhile, Charles has faced some calls on Capitol Hill to meet with victims of Jeffrey Epstein while he is in the U.S. There's no indication that he will do so even as the scandal involving the convicted sex offender has ensnared his brother, who was arrested in February over misconduct allegations, which he denies.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., urged the king over the weekend to at least address the issue during his congressional speech.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York blamed Republican policies on Monday for straining the U.S.-U.K. relationship.

“Hopefully, the king's visit is going to go a long way toward repairing the damage that this administration has done to one of our most important allies in the world,” Jeffries said.

Charles and Camilla arrived at the nation's capital on Monday and held a tea with the president and first lady Melania Trump. The royal couple will continue their U.S. trip later this week with stops in New York City and Virginia.

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Associated Press writer Stephen Groves in Washington contributed to this report.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, has been charged with the unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction.

The case comes during heavy scrutiny on prediction markets, which allow people to trade or wager on almost anything, as policymakers call for stricter regulation of the platforms amid concerns about insider trading.

Prosecutors said Van Dyke was involved in the planning and execution of Maduro's capture and had signed nondisclosure agreements centered on the operations, but he eventually placed a series of bets related to Maduro being out of power by Jan. 31.

Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets, flagged the suspicious activity and turned it over to the government, according to CEO Shayne Coplan.

Van Dyke, who is stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, was granted bond after a court hearing in North Carolina last week and will continue his case in New York. Court records did not list an attorney for him in New York.

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

Jones, 49, entered a guilty plea to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud during the first of back-to-back plea-change hearings in Brooklyn federal court.

Reading a prepared statement to the court, he acknowledged that he conspired with others to defraud sports betting companies by using “insider information that I obtained as a result of my relationships as a former player.”

“I would like to sincerely apologize to the court, my family, my peers and also the National Basketball Association,” Jones said.

He said the goal of the conspiracy, which ran from December 2022 to March 2024, was to use his insider knowledge — which prosecutors say involved nonpublic information about injuries to NBA stars — to make money from sports books.

He acknowledged that his actions violated the NBA’s code of conduct and also the terms of service on sports betting websites.

Jones is due to be sentenced Jan. 6 before Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall. The sentencing guidelines for conspiracy to commit wire fraud call for a punishment of 21-27 months in prison. Jones also agreed to forfeit $35,000. Under the conditions of his bail, he can’t gamble or be involved with organized crime figures and he must get court approval for bank transfers of more than $10,000 unless it’s for legal fees.

Jones is separately charged with profiting from rigged poker games, according to court filings. He's due in court later Tuesday, where he's expected to plead guilty in that case, too.

None of the other defendants have shown a willingness to plead guilty. On Monday, prosecutors said they were seeking additional charges against a co-defendant in the betting case, former Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier.

Jones’ lawyer, Kenneth Montgomery, declined to comment before Tuesday's hearings.

Jones was arrested last October along with Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers head coach and Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, and others, including a sports bettor accused of cashing in on injury information.

Jones was one of three people charged in both the poker and sports betting schemes.

Originally from Galveston, Texas, Jones earned more than $20 million playing for 10 teams in 11 seasons from 1999 to 2009. He and James played together in Cleveland from 2005 to 2008, and Jones served as an unofficial assistant coach for James’ Los Angeles Lakers during the 2022-2023 season.

Prosecutors say Jones sold or attempted to sell nonpublic information to bettors that James and former Lakers forward Anthony Davis were injured and either wouldn’t be playing or would play less time in certain games.

In the poker scheme, prosecutors say Jones was among former NBA players used to lure unwitting gamblers to poker games that were rigged using altered shuffling machines, hidden cameras, special sunglasses and even X-ray equipment built into the table.

According to the indictment, Jones was paid $2,500 for a game in the Hamptons where he was instructed to cheat by paying close attention to others involved in the scheme. When in doubt, Jones was told to fold his hand, prosecutors said.

In response, according to prosecutors, Jones texted: “Y’all know I know what I’m doing!!”

Advocates worry that the state is launching so rapidly that key details remain unresolved and some people who are eligible for coverage will lose it.

State officials say they're prepared, training staff and sending letters, emails and texts to people who could be impacted.

Health policy experts, advocates and other states will be watching closely.

“It can be used as a lesson for other states, both where things go well and where things don’t go well,” said Jennifer Tolbert, deputy director of KFF's Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

The law is expected to leave some without insurance

The work requirement is part of a broad tax and policy law that President Donald Trump signed last year. Nebraska Republican Gov. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced in December that the state would implement it eight months before it was required, saying the aim was “making sure we get every able-bodied Nebraskan to be a part of our community.”

The state had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the U.S. in February: 3.1%

The federal policy won't apply to all Medicaid beneficiaries, just those who are enrolled under an expansion that most states chose to make to allow more low-income people to get healthcare coverage.

Under the change, many Medicaid participants ages 19 through 64 will have to show that they work or do community service at least 80 hours a month, or are enrolled in school at least half-time. They'll also have their eligibility reviewed every six months rather than annually, so they could lose coverage faster if their circumstances change.

Exceptions will be made for people who are too medically frail to work or in addiction treatment programs, among others.

An Urban Institute report from March estimated that the changes would mean about 5 million to 10 million people fewer people nationally would be enrolled in Medicaid than would have been otherwise.

Choices states make about how to run their programs are expected to be a major factor in exactly how many people lose coverage.

“The higher the administrative burden, the more likely people are found noncompliant and disenrolled,” said Michael Karpman, who researches health policy at Urban.

Nebraska plans to use data to help determine who qualifies

Not everyone who has coverage will need to submit proof that they're working.

The state says it will first match enrollees with other data it has to see if participants are working or exempt. The state says it has that information for most of the roughly 70,000 people enrolled in Medicaid through the expansion.

That leaves between 20,000 and 28,000 who would have to provide more information, plus an average of 3,000 to 4,000 new enrollees each month.

At first, they will just need to show that they met the requirements in just one month of the previous 12. The time frame will shift to six months in 2027.

There's some flexibility. For instance, instead of showing they work 80 hours in a month, someone could instead provide records that demonstrate they earned at least $580, the amount someone earning minimum wage would make in 80 hours.

People who don't submit requested information within 30 days of being asked could have their applications denied or lose coverage they already have.

The change is causing worry and confusion

Bridgette Annable, who lives in southwest Nebraska, received a letter saying she must meet the work requirements or lose the benefits that pay for her insulin and diabetic supplies.

The 21-year-old mother now has a part-time job, despite being advised against it to protect her mental health. She’s worried about her ability to keep working.

“I am working 30 to 25 hours a week — as much as my employer can provide,” Annable said. “Although I call out of work often due to fibromyalgia pain and bipolar episodes that leave me too tired to leave the house. I have enough energy to take care of my daughter and do some cleaning, but that’s about it.”

Amy Behnke, the CEO of the Health Center Association of Nebraska, said that staff members who help people enroll with Medicaid and their clients have a lot of questions, including some that the state hasn’t yet answered.

Some examples: Apprenticeship programs are supposed to count for work requirements, but does that apply only to those certified by the state’s labor department? There’s an exemption for people who travel to a hospital for care, but there's not clarity on how far the journey must be.

KFF’s Tolbert noted that the state issued its 295-page list last week of conditions that could qualify someone as medically frail. “We don’t know if it’s a comprehensive list,” she said.

“The speed at which we are choosing to implement work requirements hasn’t left a lot of space for really meaningful communication,” Behnke said.

And Nebraska could have to make changes after the federal government provides guidance that is expected in June.

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Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey.

There was Sidney Crosby, his left knee throbbing after absorbing a blistering shot from the point by teammate Ryan Shea, limping off the ice and disappearing down the tunnel in the second period of Game 5 on Monday night against Philadelphia.

A few minutes later, with the Penguins' longtime captain still out of sight, the Flyers tied it. Suddenly, a contest Pittsburgh had controlled for significant stretches was gone. The young Flyers, many of them experiencing the cauldron of playoff hockey for the first time, were surging. A quick playoff exit for a team that spent six months defying expectations loomed.

And just like that, Crosby's familiar No. 87 returned to the bench. And just like that, he was over the boards and on the ice. And just like that, he was finishing off a shift by flipping the puck to Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang at the top of the Flyers' zone.

Crosby's back was to the play when Letang's somewhat innocent shot from the point sailed wide of the Philadelphia net. Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar kept his eyes forward, expecting a big rebound. It never came.

The puck instead glanced off the back of Vladar's left leg, then his right and trickled across the goal line to provide the goal that turned out to be the game-winner as Pittsburgh fended off elimination and forced maybe more than a little doubt into the mind of the Flyers, whose once-comfortable 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series no longer feels quite so comfortable after Pittsburgh's 3-2 victory.

Game 6 is in Philadelphia on Wednesday, and the Penguins will head across the state not only with momentum, but also with their unquestioned leader starting to look like his old self after an uncommonly quiet start.

Save for his brief retreat to the trainer's room, Crosby was everywhere. He assisted on Connor Dewar's goal in the second period, got another primary assist on Letang's second goal in as many games and nearly added a goal himself when his diving flick toward the Flyers’ open net in the final minutes clanged off the left post.

So much for looking every bit of 38. Monday night was vintage Crosby.

“When things get hard and your back is against the wall, there is no doubt in my mind that he’s going to lead the charge in terms of elevating and finding a way to do everything possible to help us win this game," first-year Penguins coach Dan Muse said.

Crosby has 21 points in 24 games in his career when facing elimination. His 100th career playoff victory looked an awful lot like the 99 that came before it, with Crosby doing a little bit of everything, including taking a wallop off his left knee, then returning a few minutes later as if nothing happened.

“I feel good,” he said. “I mean, that’s stuff that happens sometimes and you try to go to the front of the net and it’s just one of those ones that found its way. Sometimes they hit you, sometimes they go by.”

Crosby absorbed a direct hit, albeit from friendly fire, and bounced back immediately. It's been that way all season for the Penguins, whose surprising season has been marked by righting themselves just when it looked like things were about to get sideways.

What they're trying to pull off now would trump everything that came before it by a wide margin. The odds remain slim — only four teams have ever rallied after losing the first three games of a series — but they're not as slim as they were when the puck dropped for Game 4.

Crosby will take it. So will his team.

“I think the last couple games we found our stride a bit,” he said. "We should feel good about that ... we’re playing good hockey and we’ve got to go in there and find a way to win again.”

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

They're not celebrating yet.

Desmond Bane scored 22 points, Franz Wagner had 19 in three quarters and the Magic beat the Detroit Pistons 94-88 Monday night to take a 3-1 series lead, putting the East’s No. 1 seed on the brink of elimination.

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Detroit.

“We put our ourselves in position to try to get four, but right now it means nothing,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “We have the advantage and now we have to try and make sure we keep that advantage.”

Orlando, which had to win an elimination game at home in the play-in tournament, is on the verge of becoming just the seventh No. 8 seed to defeat a No. 1 in a series in league history. It's happened only four times since the playoffs were expanded to a best-of-seven series for all rounds in 2003.

“This is a team that won 60 games. I’m sure they’re not blinking an eye about not being able to win three games in a row,” Bane said. “They did it multiple times throughout the regular season.”

Paolo Banchero scored 18 points for the Magic on 4-of-18 shooting. Orlando shot just 32.6%, with Jalen Suggs going 1 for 13, including 1 for 11 from 3-point range.

The Magic overcame their shooting woes by protecting the ball. They had only 12 turnovers to 20 for Detroit.

Cade Cunningham led the Pistons with 25 points and Tobias Harris had 20. Cunningham had eight turnovers.

“We went into the series saying we needed to win a possession game,” Harris said. “That came down to the rebounding battle and also taking care of the basketball and in all of our losses that’s what we haven’t been at our best at. Obviously, we need to limit them from going to the free-throw line. They’ve been able to get us in close-out situations and break us down, get to the lane.”

Wagner left with 1:34 left in the third quarter due to right calf soreness.

Jamal Cain replaced Wagner and electrified the crowd with a driving dunk over Jalen Duren early in the fourth quarter. He also had a one-handed tip-in dunk that made it 87-85 with 4:55 to go.

Suggs missed his first eight shots before nailing a 3-pointer from the corner for an 85-80 lead. But Ausar Thompson’s layup tied it before Cain’s putback.

With former Grizzlies teammates Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. cheering him on courtside, Bane banked in a 3-pointer to extend Orlando’s lead to 92-86 with 1:16 remaining.

“It’s special. Those are guys I spent five years with, started my career with, made a lot of memories with,” Bane said. “I’m super thankful that they came out to support. It’s a friendship that will last forever. Those are guys that mean a lot to me.”

The 45-win Magic haven’t won a playoff series since 2010, when they lost in the Eastern Conference finals. The 37-year-old franchise has never won an NBA title.

The Pistons, who won 60 games in the regular season, have an even longer series drought. They haven’t advanced to the second round since losing in the East finals in 2008

The teams traded double-digit leads in the first half and the Magic led 54-52 going into the third quarter.

Riding a wave of energy from a frenzied, blue-clad crowd, the Magic scored the first eight points and led 19-7 before missing 13 straight shots during a 20-5 run by Detroit.

The Pistons had a 40-30 lead midway through the second.

The Magic improved to 8-1 at home in the playoffs over the past three seasons.

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

La policía y los equipos de rescate respondieron a un llamado por disparos y encontraron a Adrian Venereo, de 37 años, baleado en el bloque 6300 de Southwest 8th Street en Miami.

Los primeros respondedores lo hallaron sangrando en el suelo tras recibir un disparo en la cabeza.

Según la policía, Luis Lemus y otra persona estaban encerrados fuera de su apartamento y Venereo trabajaba en la cerradura de la puerta principal cuando fue baleado.

El esposo y padre es recordado como una persona amorosa y bondadosa.

Testigos le dijeron a los investigadores que el sospechoso huyó tras el tiroteo.

Los detectives arrestaron a Lemus, de 32 años, quien según la policía fue encontrado con un arma y les dijo que había herido a alguien.

Permanece en prisión a la espera de juicio por un cargo de asesinato en segundo grado, pero no se ha revelado un móvil para el crimen.

Investigators say MDSO deputies attempted to stop a vehicle Feb. 24 when the driver took off.

Deputies tracked the suspect, identified as 23-year-old William Paulemon, from the air and say he crashed into another car before stopping and exiting the car while armed.

One deputy opened fire, striking Paulemon in the lower body.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment while deputies said they recovered two guns at the scene.

No other injuries were reported as a result of the crash or the shooting.

Jail records show Paulemon is facing one count of attempted second-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, two counts of displaying a firearm while committing a felony and one count each of reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident involving property damage.

An investigation into the shooting remains active and ongoing.

The crash occurred Monday when a long-distance train crashed into the rear car of the stopped commuter train at Bekasi Timur Station outside Jakarta. The car was one designated for women only, a common accommodation to stop harassment.

A total of 88 injured people were taken to hospitals for treatment, said Bobby Rasyidin, CEO of state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia. The bodies of the dead were taken to a hospital for further identification.

“We are currently ensuring that all victims receive the best possible care,” said Rasyidin.

Rescue teams completed the evacuation of all victims from inside the wreckage about midmorning. “There are no further casualties,” said Mohammad Syafii, the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency.

All 240 passengers on the Argo Bromo Anggrek long-distance train were safe, officials said.

Police were investigating the cause of the accident, Jakarta Police Chief Asep Edi Suheri told reporters at the scene.

The Indonesian Ministry of Transportation said in a written statement that authorities believe the incident began when another commuter train hit a stalled taxi near Bekasi Timur Station.

That led staff to stop a second commuter train at the station, where it was struck by a long-distance commuter train.

“As for the chronology of events, we are leaving it to the National Transportation Safety Committee to investigate the cause of tonight’s train accident in greater detail,” Rasyidin said.

Accidents are common on Indonesia’s aging railroad network. In January 2024, two trains collided in West Java province, killing at least four people.

___

Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the Guardians have not announced the roster move.

The 23-year-old second baseman is the top prospect in the Guardians' organization. He is batting .287 with two home runs and 10 RBIs in 24 games for Triple-A Columbus.

Juan Brito, who is expected to be sent down to make away for Bazzana, is batting only .176 in 15 games and has 17 strikeouts in 51 at-bats.

Brito was called up from Columbus on April 7 after Gabriel Arias was placed on the injured list due to a strained left hamstring.

Bazzana showed his potential during the recent World Baseball Classic, when he had two hits and a home run for Australia in its 3-0 win over Chinese Taipei.

Bazzana missed two months last season due to an oblique strain. He had a .239 batting average with nine home runs, 39 RBIs and 12 stolen bases with Double-A Akron and Columbus.

___

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

Sidney Crosby shook off a shot to his left knee to add two assists for the Penguins, who cut the Flyers’ lead in the best-of-seven series to 3-2.

Game 6 is Wednesday in Philadelphia, where the pressure will be on the Flyers to avoid putting themselves in danger of becoming just the fifth team in NHL history to blow a series after winning the first three games.

“We know it’s a big challenge going into there," Crosby said. "But I think we have a lot of belief in our group, and we’ve done it time and time again.”

Alex Bump scored in his playoff debut for Philadelphia, who rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie it on Travis Sanheim's second goal of the series 15:06 into the second.

Crosby, who limped to the bench and then to the training room for treatment minutes earlier after a blast from the point by teammate Ryan Shea appeared to hit the top of his left knee, helped put the Penguins back in front just over two minutes later when he fed the puck to Letang at the top of the Philadelphia zone.

Letang sent a shot toward Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar that sailed wide of the net before bouncing back toward Vladar. The puck smacked off Vladar's left pad, then his right and across the goal line to give Pittsburgh the lead for good.

“Bounces are part of the game,” Penguins coach Dan Muse said. “But I think you earn them when you're working and you try to do the right things. That’s usually when the bounces go your way.”

After four games of mostly low-event hockey, Game 5 started with a frantic pace, a style that favors the Penguins, who finished as the NHL's third-highest-scoring team during the regular season.

That offense went largely missing while Pittsburgh fell into a 3-0 hole. Pushed to the brink, it has returned with a flourish, and this time it wasn't just Crosby, Letang and Evgeni Malkin shouldering the burden.

Soderblom's first goal of the playoffs and Dewar's second gave Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead in the second period. Philadelphia responded behind Bump and Sanheim, but Letang's fluky score late in the second was the difference.

Pittsburgh will take the ice on Wednesday, having all the momentum after two games in which they looked like the resilient, resourceful group that was among the NHL's biggest surprises.

The Flyers and their late playoff surge were one of the others, though Philadelphia and its talented young core will have the difficult task of finishing off a more experienced group with Hall of Famers scattered across the roster.

“They are a veteran team, they know what it takes to win,” Vladar said. "We are still a young team. We’ve got to learn that. We’ve got to bounce back. Still try to play our game, not their game.”

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

Called “Sonnet Boom,” the contest, which launched in January, invited Miamians to submit original poems reflecting their connection to the “305.” More than 500 people, including first-time writers, students and a poet as young as 7-years-old, accepted the invitation and submitted a 14-line sonnet.  

The writings were submitted in Spanish, English, French and Creole and touched on culture, music and the all-familiar Cafecito.

“This is the biggest contest that we’ve experienced from a community involvement perspective in over 15 years,” said Caroline Cabrera, Co-Executive Director of O, Miami.

O, Miami is an organization that provides resources for people to identify and express themselves through poetry.

A panel of distinguished judges, comprised of literary leaders, selected the primary winners. The public also had the opportunity to vote on their favorite submissions through an online gallery. The voting period drew an astounding 140,000 votes.

 “Having this many votes is wildly impressive and proves that Miamians are hungry to share their story,” added Cabrera.

In the adult category, the poem “Magic City,” won for its vivid description of “hibiscus trumpets blaring life” and “mangrove roots prophesying.” In the youth category, first prize went to “The Pink Hotel Threw Fire” for its celebration of family and cultural identity describing “The city spoke in tongues I came to teach — I learned its pulse inside that room by the beach.”

First place winners received prizes of $2,000.  Second and third place winners were also selected for each category and won $1,000 and $500, respectively. All winners received opportunities for publication and live performance across the city.

“Sonnet Boom brought Miami together across languages, generations, and neighborhoods, and it proves that our culture is one of our greatest strengths,” said City of Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins. “That is civic pride in action, and it is exactly the kind of community spirit we want to keep building across Miami.”

Elevate Cities and Elevate Miami, in partnership with O, Miami and SWWIM, announced the winners.  Both winners and finalists were recognized during a special community celebration at YoungArts earlier in April in celebration of National Poetry Month.

For more information and to read the winning poems, click here.

The withdrawal of nominee Scott Socha comes as the park service has been shaken by widespread firings as part of the Trump administration's pledge to sharply reduce its size.

Socha said in a statement that he was dropping out of consideration for the post for personal reasons.

The park service is currently overseen by an acting director, agency comptroller Jessica Bowron. It did not have a Senate-confirmed director during Trump's first term, when it was led by a series of acting directors.

Socha is president for parks and resorts at Buffalo, New York-based Delaware North, which has service contracts with numerous parks and describes itself as one of the world's largest privately owned entertainment and hospitality companies. A White House spokesperson had said when he was nominated in February that Socha was “totally qualified” to execute Trump’s plans for the park system.

But some conservation groups had questioned whether Socha's private sector work provided the experience he would need to oversee hundreds of national parks and monuments that range from the Statue of Liberty and other cultural sites to remote sites in the Utah desert.

The Associated Press sent email messages to the White House and the Interior Department seeking comment on Socha's withdrawal.

Thousands of employees have been fired or otherwise left the park service since Trump took office.

Emily Douce with the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group, said Monday that the next director for the service needs to “undo the damage.”

“It’s very unfortunate that our parks have gone more than a year without a permanent director at a time when they need strong, steady leadership the most,” Douce said.

The Republican administration's proposed budget for next year would reduce staffing to 9,200 employees. That's down almost 30% compared to 2025 levels.

The park service's operating budget would be cut by more than $1 billion, to $2.2 billion, for the 2027 fiscal year that starts in October.

Similar cuts proposed for 2026 were blocked by lawmakers in Congress after park supporters and former employees warned the administration's proposal would have effectively gutted the agency.

The administration also has faced blowback for the removal or planned removal of national park exhibits about slavery, climate change and the destruction of Native American culture. In February, a federal judge said an exhibit about nine people enslaved by George Washington must be restored at Washington's former home in Philadelphia after the Trump administration had taken it down.

Administration officials have said they are removing “disparaging” messages under an order last year from Trump. Critics accuse it of trying to whitewash the nation’s history.

Under Trump's interior secretary, Doug Burgum, the park service has started charging millions of international tourists who visit U.S. parks each year $100 each to visit sites including Yellowstone and Grand Canyon. The service also has put Trump's image onto its annual passes for U.S. citizens, drawing a lawsuit from environmentalists who said the move was illegal.

On social media Monday night, Hegseth posted photos of himself and Kid Rock at the base. “Kid Rock is a patriot and huge supporter of our troops,” Hegseth wrote.

Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesman, said the flights supported a “community relations event” for a White House-led initiative, called Freedom 250, that is coordinating events for America’s 250th anniversary commemoration.

“Robert ‘Kid Rock’ Ritchie participated in multiple troop touches with service members and filmed videos for Memorial Day, America’s 250th birthday, and for his Freedom 250 tour,” Parnell said in a statement.

Army aviators in March flew the same type of helicopters near the home of the musician, who is an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump. The helicopters also flew over a “No Kings” protest against the Trump administration in Nashville, prompting questions about flight safety and whether either maneuver was authorized.

The Army initially said it would investigate the March flights, which involved crews from the 101st Airborne Division at nearby Fort Campbell, and suspended the pilots involved. However, Hegseth quickly intervened and shut down the inquiry.

Army officials said at the time that the helicopters were on a training mission when they stopped by Kid Rock’s house and that their presence had nothing to do with the protest.

Kid Rock's jet left Nashville early Monday and landed at Fort Belvoir in Virginia at 6:30 a.m., according to open source flight data.

Shortly after 1 p.m., a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache took off, did a few loops over the base and landed about 10 minutes later, according to the Military Air Tracking Alliance, a group of open source data analysts who track military flight activity across the world.

That same helicopter was part of a group of four Apaches, as well as two H-60 Blackhawk helicopters, that had arrived at the base Saturday from Fort Campbell, which sits on the Kentucky-Tennessee border.

Drop Site News was first to report Monday’s flights in Virginia.

An Army Apache helicopter costs about $7,000 per hour to fly, said an Army official who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details not authorized for public release.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office took to social media to criticize the flights, saying, “Why are taxpayers paying to fly Kid Rock around on $100 million helicopters?”

Newsom is a sharp critic of the Trump administration and is seen as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate.

Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, a former Army Ranger, posted on social media, “Why is Pete Hegseth spending your taxpayer dollars to give Kid Rock ‘joy rides’ on Apache helicopters?”

When asked about the costs associated with public events like flying celebrities or military flyovers, military officials typically argue that they help fulfill regular training requirements for pilots and so do not represent an additional cost for taxpayers.

Hegseth also posted a photo of Kid Rock speaking to a small group of servicemembers in the Pentagon’s press briefing room.

According to publicly available flight data, Kid Rock's jet landed back in Nashville shortly after 3 p.m. Monday.

Apaches typically have a two-person crew who can both fly the helicopter, though one typically focuses on managing the weapons system. A passenger would replace one of the crew members, meaning that Hegseth and Kid Rock would not have flown in the same aircraft at the same time.

Un exempleado de la discoteca Jet Set Club donde murieron 236 personas al desplomarse su techo un año atrás aseguró el lunes ante un juez que los propietarios del local tenían total conocimiento del deterioro de su estructura.

“Sí tenían conocimiento, porque yo le mandaba fotos, yo le mandaba videos de todos los problemas que habían ahí, eso no debió pasar, ahí no debió morir una sola persona”, afirmó Gregory Adames durante la fase final del juicio preliminar contra los hermanos Antonio y Maribel Espaillat, propietarios de la discoteca.

Este testimonio en el proceso donde participan fiscales y decenas de abogados que representan a las familias afectadas agrava la situación de los empresarios en medio de las quejas de familiares de las víctimas sobre su lentitud y dilatación.

Se prevé que la vista judicial del lunes continúe el viernes, momento en el que un juez decidirá finalmente si hay pruebas suficientes para celebrar un juicio.

Aunque inicialmente los empresarios están acusados de homicidio involuntario, los abogados de las familias afectadas piden que se modifique la acusación a homicidio voluntario.

“Hoy se está debatiendo la variación de la calificación jurídica y es lo que esperamos que ocurra, que el juez varíe la calificación jurídica de homicidio involuntario a homicidio voluntario”, dijo a The Associated Press el abogado Jean Carlos Martínez Segura, quien representa a nueve familias que perdieron seres queridos en dicha tragedia.

Si el juez acepta el pedido, los hermanos Espaillat pasarían de enfrentar una pena de hasta 2 años por el delito de homicidio involuntario, a 20 años con el voluntario.

“Queremos que se ajusten a la proporcionalidad y gravedad del hecho”, añadió Martínez Segura.

Mientras, los abogados de los acusados depositaron un recurso alegando que peritos de su parte no han podido recabar información sobre la estructura colapsada por una serie de obstáculos e impedimento de los propios fiscales.

Los fiscales consideran que, como responsables de la operación del local de diversión, los hermanos Espaillat incurrieron en el homicidio involuntario de 236 personas y las heridas involuntarias a más de un centenar cuando el 8 de abril de 2025 se desplomó el techo del establecimiento.

La fiscalía ha acusado a los Espaillat de intentar intimidar o manipular a los empleados. Antonio Espaillat es considerado un poderoso empresario propietario de lujosos centros de ocio y de docenas de emisoras de radio locales.

Cientos de personas se encontraban en la discoteca cuando se produjo el derrumbe, disfrutando de un concierto de la cantante Rubby Pérez, quien se encontraba entre las víctimas. Entre los demás fallecidos se encontraban Nelsy Cruz, gobernadora de la provincia de Montecristi y hermana del jugador de las Grandes Ligas de Béisbol Nelson Cruz, y el exlanzador de las Grandes Ligas Octavio Dotel, quien fue rescatado de los escombros pero falleció en el hospital.

A new bill introduced by Republican senators would authorize $400 million — roughly the cost of the project — for construction and security infrastructure underneath. Trump has said that private money would pay for the ballroom, but Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the sponsors, said Monday that he believes those private dollars should only pay for “buying china and stuff like that.”

Graham said at a news conference that some people may think the ballroom was Trump’s “vanity project,” but said it is necessary to allow the president to hold events safely and avoid much less secure venues like the Washington Hilton, where Saturday’s event was held. The man who authorities say tried to storm the dinner with guns and knives had reserved a room in the hotel, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.

“It would be insane” to hold the dinner there again, Graham said, adding that he would advise any president not to do it, even as Trump has said he would like the dinner to be rescheduled.

Cole Tomas Allen appeared in court Monday to face federal charges of attempting to assassinate Trump after the encounter Saturday in which shots were fired outside the ballroom. The president was evacuated off the stage as thousands of guests dived under tables and ducked for cover.

Other lawmakers said they would push their own measures to approve the ballroom, including Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Tim Sheehy of Montana.

“It is an embarrassment to the strongest nation on earth that we cannot host gatherings in our nation’s capital, including ones attended by our president, without the threat of violence and attempted assassinations,” Sheehy posted on X.

It is unclear, though, whether the effort could get enough support. Democrats have opposed the ballroom’s construction since Trump demolished part of the White House to make way for it without permission from Congress, and as it has faced lawsuits. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters that the president should be focused on ending the war with Iran, healthcare and other measures to drive down living costs.

“These are the things that we should actually be focused on," Jeffries said.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that Trump wants to seclude himself in a “walled palace, literally.”

He said Republicans should instead pass a spending bill that includes money for the U.S. Secret Service, which is part of the Homeland Security Department and has been shut down for more than two months. The House has yet to act on two spending bills for the department that were approved by the Senate.

“If Republicans truly want to improve security, they should join Democrats in funding the Secret Service, not Donald Trump’s luxury ballroom,” Schumer said.

Republicans also used the incident to call for the Homeland Security funding, blaming Democrats who have blocked money for immigration enforcement agencies since mid-February.

The chaos at the annual dinner came after Trump has faced two attempts on his life and as members of Congress in both parties have received an increasing number of death threats in recent years.

Graham said the times are unusual.

“I’ve been up here a while now, and I’ve never felt the sense of threat that exists today,” he said.

Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, who sponsored the legislation with Graham, said the bill is not just about Trump.

“This will not be done until the end of his term,” she said. “This is about future presidents. This is about our nation having a place to gather.”

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Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

The Chilean-American actor arrived accompanied by the cute Grogu and director, cowriter and producer Jon Favreau, who received a huge ovation from the 2,500 attendees on the Thunder Stage when they exclusively presented a preview of the film Sunday night.

“We’ve been working in secret for years, but we wanted to show it to you and for us it’s a big treat too, it’s the first time we get to share this with the fans,” said Favreau.

A year ago, Pascal visited the convention to present “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and now he said he was excited to be part of the Star Wars legacy and make the leap to the big screen after the television series “The Mandalorian," released in 2019.

“I always had a dream in my heart that would be on a big screen. Because that’s how I developed as a child. I went to the movie theater so much with my family. And I saw the Star Wars movies on the big screen,” said Pascal, who attributed the urge to cry to the fact that “I’m old, it happens very easily.”

“They are films ... that really fostered all my dreams,” he said. “So now to be a part of that and share it with you who see it on a big screen. ... It’s a dream I never imagined.”

Filmed in IMAX, the movie starring Pascal, Sigourney Weaver and Jeremy Allen White, opens on May 21 and is one of the most anticipated summer releases of 2026. It’s the first Star Wars film in seven years since “The Rise of Skywalker,” and Favreau highlighted the opportunity to attract new fans.

“We wanted to introduce these characters to a new audience,” the director said. “But for the fans who’ve been there forever, like these people, we wanted to evolve the relationship. So it’s no longer about the Mandalorian rescuing Grogu. Now Grogu has leveled up. He’s a Mandalorian apprentice.”

Favreau also shared his own experience as a Star Wars fan to an audience full of Grogu’s green ears and lightsabers.

“When I was in high school, I was a usher in the movie theater when ‘Empire Strikes Back’ went out. Then ‘Return of the Jedi’ came out, so I’ve been a fan since I was young, but never did I think I’d get to make Star Wars.”

The director took the opportunity to highlight that the film had a more in-depth treatment than the series, since they had a lot of pre-production time.

“We had three years to do this. The choreography, the creatures, the stop motion, the CGI, all of it,” said the director. “It’s just been a tremendous ride. I’m so super grateful that the fans are trusting me with Star Wars.”

Pascal, who was wearing a green Mexican national soccer team jersey in preparation for the World Cup to be held in Mexico, Canada, and the United States, noted that in the film the relationship between legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin and Grogu has evolved.

“They’ve always been like a very powerful team, but everyone sees that the Mandalorian is protecting a baby. And now, in this movie, they’re more like a couple, on the same level,” he said.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump greeted Charles and Queen Camilla as they arrived, posing for photos and exchanging small talk before they went inside for tea in the Green Room. Afterward, the couples went down to the south grounds to see a new beehive in the shape of the White House that the first lady had installed last week.

Charles and Camilla both support beekeeping. He keeps at least three beehives at his private residence in England as part of his support for the environment and sustainability.

After the White House visit, the royal couple attended a garden party at the British Embassy.

Trump praises the king but derides Starmer

A rift between the U.K. government and Trump over issues including the Iran war had already raised the political stakes for the British monarch’s visit.

In recent weeks, Trump has lambasted Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his unwillingness to join U.S. military attacks on Iran, dismissing Britain’s leader as “not Winston Churchill,” the World War II prime minister who coined the phrase “special relationship” for the U.K.-U.S. bond.

It’s part of a wider rift between Trump and the United States’ NATO allies, whom he has called “cowards” and “useless” for not joining action against Iran. A leaked Pentagon email suggested the U.S. could reassess support for the U.K.’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands in the south Atlantic. Britain and Argentina fought a 1982 war over the islands, also known as the Islas Malvinas.

The president insists the political chill won’t affect the royal visit. Charles “has nothing to do with that,” Trump said in March, meaning NATO.

The president has spoken in glowing terms about Charles, repeatedly referring to the monarch as his “friend” and a “great guy.”

He also continues to mention his “amazing” trip to the U.K. in September with Melania Trump for an unprecedented second state visit. Starmer hand-delivered the invitation from the king in the Oval Office five weeks after Trump returned to office, in a very public attempt to woo the Republican president.

The U.K. royal family laid on pomp and pageantry for the Trumps, with scarlet-clad guardsmen, brass bands and a sumptuous banquet at Windsor Castle.

“President Trump has always had great respect for King Charles, and their relationship was further strengthened by the president’s historic visit to the United Kingdom last year,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Associated Press. “The president looks forward to a special visit by Their Majesties, which will include a beautiful state dinner and multiple events throughout the week.”

Trump, meanwhile, told the BBC that the king’s visit could “absolutely” help repair the trans-Atlantic relationship.

“He’s fantastic. He’s a fantastic man. Absolutely the answer is yes,” the president said.

Some called for the trip to be canceled

Kristofer Allerfeldt, a University of Exeter professor specializing in American history, said the two governments have very different objectives for the trip.

He said that for Charles, the trip is about “reinforcing long-term ties, showcasing the monarchy’s soft power and reminding the world that Britain still carries diplomatic weight.”

For Trump, it’s more about “a media event,” with emphasis on the optics of a visit that resembles a meeting of “two gilded monarchs.”

Some U.K. politicians worry that the trip is fraught with opportunities for embarrassment. Trump’s recent broadsides at Pope Leo XIV have heightened those concerns.

Ed Davey, leader of the U.K. centrist opposition Liberal Democrats party, earlier this month called Trump “a dangerous and corrupt gangster” and implored the government to cancel the trip.

“I really fear for what Trump might say or do while our king is forced to stand by his side,” Davey said in the House of Commons. “We cannot put His Majesty in that position.”

Starmer defended the visit, saying “the monarchy, through the bonds that it builds, is often able to reach through the decades” and bolster important relationships.

Andrew and Epstein cast a shadow

Raising the stakes is the shadow of the king’s younger brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who has been stripped of his royal title of Prince Andrew, exiled from public life and put under police investigation over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. He has denied committing any crimes.

Epstein victims have urged the king to meet with them and other sexual abuse survivors. It’s unlikely he will do so.

Charles has visited the U.S. 19 times, but this is his first state visit to the country since becoming king in 2022. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, made four state visits to the U.S.

The king, who is 77 and was diagnosed in early 2024 with an undisclosed form of cancer, will spend four days in the U.S. accompanied by Queen Camilla.

In Washington on Tuesday, the king and queen will attend a formal White House state dinner.

The royal couple will also visit the Sept. 11 memorial in New York and attend a 250th birthday block party in Virginia, where Charles will also meet Indigenous leaders involved in nature conservation — a favorite cause of the environmentalist king.

Three centuries after Britain’s kings and queens gave up any real political power, the royals remain symbols of soft power, deployed by elected governments to smooth international relationships and send messages about what the U.K. considers important.

A key moment will be the king’s speech to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday. It’s only the second time, after Queen Elizabeth II in 1991, that a U.K. monarch has addressed a joint meeting of both houses.

Elizabeth praised liberalism on that trip, spoke against the idea that “power grows from the barrel of a gun” and praised the “rich ethnic and cultural diversity of both our societies.”

The king’s treasured causes, including the environment and harmony among religious faiths, are in contrast to Trump’s. He’s unlikely to accentuate differences, but Allerfeldt said that, in the monarch’s subtle way, the king could use his speech to send a message.

“He does have an unorthodox way of looking at the world, and I think maybe he can actually have something valid to say when he addresses Congress,” Allerfeldt said.

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Jill Lawless reported from London.

El encuentro en la ciudad caribeña de Santa Marta se produce en momentos en que gobiernos de todo el mundo enfrentan una creciente presión por ir más allá de las promesas climáticas y empezar a establecer lineamientos para eliminar gradualmente la dependencia de petróleo, gas y carbón, los principales impulsores del calentamiento global.

Si bien las conversaciones climáticas de la ONU han reconocido la necesidad de una transición, no se han producido mecanismos concretos, dejando a los países y regiones por su cuenta al momento de lidiar con los desafíos económicos.

Aunque la energía renovable, como la solar y la eólica, suele ser más barata de generar que los combustibles fósiles, los expertos afirman que el costo de la transición está impulsado por otros factores. Los gobiernos deben realizar grandes inversiones en infraestructura, como redes eléctricas y almacenamiento, al tiempo que reemplazan los sistemas existentes de petróleo y gas que aún sostienen a un gran número de economías.

En los países en vías de desarrollo, los altos costos de endeudamiento y un acceso limitado a financiamiento también pueden disparar significativamente el precio de proyectos de energía limpia, incluso si con el tiempo resultan más baratos de operar.

El sistema financiero favorece a los combustibles fósiles

Los expertos afirman que el problema se basa en la manera en que está conformado el sistema financiero global.

Muchos países y gobiernos regionales no están en contra de un alejamiento de los combustibles fósiles, pero están limitados por la deuda, el poco margen fiscal y el alto costo de financiar proyectos de energías más limpias, indicó Amiera Sawas, directora de investigación y políticas en Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.

“No están atados ideológicamente a los combustibles fósiles”, aseguró. “Pueden acceder con mayor facilidad al financiamiento para combustibles fósiles”.

En muchas regiones en vías de desarrollo, los costos de endeudamiento para la energía renovable pueden ser exponencialmente más elevados que en economías más ricas —con un promedio de alrededor de un 15% en partes de África frente a aproximadamente un 2% en Europa y Norteamérica—, por lo que es más barato a corto plazo mantener sus inversiones en petróleo y gas.

Esta dinámica puede crear lo que los investigadores describen como una “trampa de deuda para combustibles fósiles”, en la que los países dependen de sus ingresos del gas y el petróleo para pagar deudas y mantener su acceso a la energía, lo que les deja poco margen para invertir en alternativas.

Gobiernos buscan formas de financiar la transición

En ese contexto, algunos gobiernos están recurriendo a los propios ingresos de los combustibles fósiles para ayudar a financiar la transición.

En el estado brasileño de Espírito Santo, funcionarios señalaron que el dinero obtenido de la producción de gas y petróleo está siendo utilizado para ayudar a pagar la transición hacia energías más limpias, entre ellos un nuevo fondo que tiene como objetivo captar inversión privada para proyectos de reducción de emisiones.

Las autoridades señalaron que este tipo de ingresos puede ofrecer un punto de partida en regiones donde el financiamiento alternativo es limitado y, en algunos casos, puede ayudar a atraer capital privado hacia proyectos de energía más limpia.

Pero los expertos advierten que este enfoque tiene límites claros. Los ingresos por combustibles fósiles pueden ser volátiles, están vinculados al mercado global y se tiene previsto que disminuyan a medida que los países reduzcan su producción y el consumo.

“El financiamiento climático es un desafío en todo el mundo, pero a nivel subnacional es aún mayor”, sostuvo Nicolas Lippolis, fundador y director ejecutivo del Centre for Energy, Finance and Development, quien durante la conferencia moderó un panel sobre el uso de regalías para la transición energética.

Las regiones más ricas usan políticas para reducir la brecha

Funcionarios de regiones más ricas afirmaron que están tratando de reducir parte de esa brecha mediante políticas y mecanismos de mercado. California, por ejemplo, ha utilizado mercados de carbono —sistemas que obligan a las empresas a pagar por sus emisiones o a limitarlas— y estándares de combustibles de bajo carbono para generar inversión y orientar la transición.

“Mantenemos nuestro firme compromiso con la neutralidad de carbono para 2045”, declaró Sarah Izant, subsecretaria de política climática de la Agencia de Protección Ambiental de California, la cual es responsable de supervisar las políticas ambientales y climáticas del estado. Añadió que el cambio también aporta beneficios para la salud pública y la economía.

Afirmó que California sigue siendo un “socio estable y confiable” en la acción climática y destacó las coaliciones de algunos estados de Estados Unidos que continúan buscando la manera de reducir emisiones, incluso cuando la política federal se ha alejado por momentos de los compromisos climáticos internacionales y de las regulaciones sobre el uso de combustibles fósiles. Izant reconoció que la transición ha traído desafíos, incluidas interrupciones en el suministro de combustibles a medida que cierran refinerías y la necesidad de complementar con importaciones a corto plazo.

El gobierno de Estados Unidos no estuvo entre los invitados a la conferencia de Santa Marta, que, según los organizadores, giró en torno a países que buscan acelerar una transición hacia energías más limpias.

En Canadá, Quebec ha adoptado un enfoque más directo, al aprobar una ley que frena por completo la nueva exploración y producción de combustibles fósiles.

“Decidimos, en consenso, decir no a los combustibles fósiles en Quebec”, subrayó Jean Lemire, enviado climático de la provincia, aunque reconoció que existe cierta presión debido a los costos y políticas energéticas.

Advirtió, sin embargo, que los esfuerzos globales para coordinar la transición siguen siendo lentos.

“Ahora mismo en la ONU no logramos grandes avances en nada… porque estamos bajo la regla del consenso”, afirmó, en referencia a un sistema en el que todos los países deben estar de acuerdo antes de que se adopte una decisión.

Los esfuerzos por generar impulso fuera de las conversaciones formales de la ONU continúan. Tuvalu, una nación insular del Pacífico sumamente vulnerable al aumento en los niveles del mar, anunció que será anfitriona de la próxima edición de la conferencia.

“Tuvalu no espera a que el resto del mundo actúe, vamos a la vanguardia”, declaró el doctor Maina Vakafua Talia, ministro del Interior, Medio Ambiente y Cambio Climático del país. “Esta no es una postura de negociación: es una cuestión de supervivencia”.

El debate en Santa Marta pone de manifiesto un cambio más amplio en la transición energética: de un desafío tecnológico a uno económico, centrado en movilizar inversión y reconfigurar a las economías que han dependido desde hace mucho tiempo de los combustibles fósiles.

Pero los ponentes dijeron que el problema sigue sin resolverse.

“Hay mucho dinero para la guerra”, subrayó Lemire. “Pero hay un enemigo en común —el cambio climático— y no vemos ese dinero”.

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La cobertura climática y ambiental de The Associated Press recibe apoyo financiero de múltiples fundaciones privadas. La AP es la única responsable de todo el contenido. Consulte las normas de la AP para trabajar con filantropías, una lista de patrocinadores y las áreas de cobertura financiadas en AP.org.

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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

The ruling by a divided three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit isn't the final decision in the newspaper's lawsuit over a new Pentagon press credential policy. But the panel's majority opinion said the administration is likely to succeed in showing that the policy's escort requirement is legally valid.

The panel granted the government's request to suspend an April 9 decision by U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, who ruled that the Defense Department was violating his earlier order to restore access to the Pentagon for reporters.

Circuit Judges Justin Walker, J. Michelle Childs and Bradley Garcia heard the case, with Childs dissenting from the 2-1 majority.

“Reporters can hardly verify sources, gather information, or speak candidly with Department personnel with an escort looming over their shoulders,” Childs wrote.

Friedman found that the Pentagon’s new credential policy violated journalists’ constitutional rights to free speech and due process. He said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s team had tried to evade his March 20 ruling by putting in new rules that expel all reporters from the building unless guided by escorts.

Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell said it welcomes the panel's decision and looks forward to arguing the merits of its “full case” before the same panel. In a statement posted on social media, Parnell said unescorted access to the Pentagon has led to the “regular unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and classified national defense information.”

“Since implementing the current access policy, the Department has seen a meaningful reduction in these unauthorized disclosures, which when they occur can endanger the lives of service members, intelligence personnel, and our allies,” he wrote.

Theodore Boutrous, an attorney for The Times, said the panel's ruling is “a narrow, preliminary one" and “casts no doubt” on the strength of the newspaper's constitutional arguments.

"We look forward to defending the full scope of the district court’s rulings in The Times’s favor in this appeal,” Boutrous said in a statement.

President Donald Trump, a Republican, nominated Walker. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, nominated Garcia and Childs. Friedman was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

A passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta gave birth to a healthy 5-1/2 pound (2.5-kilogram) girl just before the Boeing 737 landed at Portland International Airport in Oregon on Friday night. Two paramedics who happened to be on the flight assisted, borrowing blankets from other passengers and using a shoelace to tie off the umbilical cord.

Baby Brielle Renee Blair came in about two weeks ahead of schedule; the plane, about 20 minutes.

Her mom, Ashley Blair, who is from Tennessee, was flying to Oregon to be with her own mother for the birth, but didn't quite make it. She went into labor about half an hour from Portland.

One of the paramedics, Tina Fritz, told The Associated Press on Monday that she and the other paramedic, Kaarin Powell, were returning home after vacationing in the Dominican Republic. They had been helping a nurse attend to the medical needs of another passenger at the back of the plane when a flight attendant asked them to check on Blair.

They found Blair was indeed in labor and contractions were getting close. It was a full flight with 153 passengers on board — soon to be 154 — so they began moving the passengers next to Blair back to their seats to make room for the delivery.

They asked flight attendants for blankets and an obstetrical kit, a sterile set of medical tools used in emergency childbirth. Fritz said they had to improvise when neither was available.

They got blankets from other passengers and a shoestring from a flight attendant to tie off the umbilical cord. Powell tore out one of her own shoes laces to use as a tourniquet to start an IV.

Then, Fritz recalled, the mother yelled: “OK, it’s time. I got to push.”

As she was doing so, flight attendants told Fritz and Powell they needed to sit, because the plane was about to touch down.

“We’re like, ‘No! No!’” she said.

Blair gave three “super, really good pushes, and the baby came out really quickly,” Fritz said. “It was nice.”

Powell cut the umbilical cord and sat down while holding the baby. Fritz sat down next to her, and the wheels hit the runway.

“Baby pinked up right away,” Fritz said. “She was gorgeous. Mom was a rock star.”

After the plane began taxiing to the jetway, they handed the baby to Blair, and everyone celebrated by taking photos.

A responding crew from Portland Airport Fire & Rescue “found the mother and baby healthy, and the new family was transported to a local hospital for observation,” Port of Portland spokesperson Molly Prescott said in an email to The Associated Press.

In a statement, Delta said a doctor and two nurses assisted flight attendants, but Fritz said there was no doctor and the only nurse stayed with the first ailing passenger. Delta didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking clarification.

“We extend our sincere thanks to the crew and medical volunteers on board who stepped in to provide care to a customer onboard prior to landing in Portland. The health and safety of our customers is always our top priority, and we wish the new family all the best,” Delta said in the statement.

Blair didn’t return messages from the AP. Fritz, who has been keeping in touch with Blair since the birth, said she's been a little overwhelmed by all the attention.

“I feel like we’re friends now forever,” Fritz said.

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Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.

Stanton exited Friday's series opener at Houston after experiencing calf stiffness while running the bases and missed the following three games, including Monday's series-opening 4-2 win over Texas.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone revealed the results of an MRI after the game.

“It doesn’t look too serious, but enough to not want to wait a couple of more days,” Boone said.

Asked if Stanton could return as soon as he's eligible to come off the 10-day IL, Boone said that's possible, but he didn't want to put a timetable on it.

The Yankees recalled outfielder Jasson Domínguez from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before Monday's game, and the switch-hitter went 1 for 4 with a strikeout as the designated hitter in his big league debut this season.

They had an open spot on their 26-man roster after right-hander Luis Gil dropped to 1-2 with a 6.05 ERA in four starts and was optioned to Triple-A after Sunday's loss to the Astros.

Stanton, a five-time All-Star, is hitting .256 this season with three home runs and 14 RBIs in 24 games.

He has been plagued by injuries and hasn’t played a full season since 2018, his first with the Yankees. He has been out of the lineup due to injuries to his elbows (2025), left hamstring (2020, 2023 and 2024), left quadriceps (2021), and right ankle and left Achilles (2022).

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

A jury had previously convicted him of 13 charges, mostly related to sexual assault of three women.

Accusers and their families told Judge Jessica Peterson they continue to suffer from the trauma caused by Chasing Horse, 49, and struggle with their faith after he exploited his position as a spiritual leader.

“There is no way to get back the youth, the childhood loss, my first time, my first kiss, the graduation I never got to have,” said Corena Leone-LaCroix, who was 14 when Chasing Horse assaulted her. “The life that little girl could have lived has been taken from me forever.”

The Associated Press typically does not use the name of alleged sexual assault victims unless they come forward publicly, as Leone-LaCroix has.

Chasing Horse, wearing his navy blue Clark County Detention Center uniform, stared straight ahead as victims read their statements and remained quiet as he was escorted out of the courtroom. He’ll be eligible for parole after serving for 37 years, and has continued to deny the charges against him.

“This is a miscarriage of justice,” he told the judge on Monday.

Peterson said she was struck by his continued denial of the charges despite the evidence shown in trial.

“You preyed on these women’s trusts and their spirituality, and you manipulated them for your own personal gratification," she said before she announced his sentence. When the hearing adjourned, more than a dozen people in the courtroom clapped.

Other charges in Canada are still pending

The sentencing wraps a yearslong effort to prosecute the former actor after he was first arrested and indicted in 2023. That initial arrest reverberated around Indian Country, with law enforcement in other states and Canada following up with more criminal charges. Those charges are still pending.

The British Columbia Prosecution Service said Chasing Horse was charged with sexual assault in February 2023, though the date of the alleged offense took place in September 2018 near Keremeos, a village about four hours east of Vancouver. In November 2023, the case paused due to Chasing Horse’s charges in the United States, but resumed the following year.

After all of Chasing Horse’s appeals have been exhausted, British Columbia prosecutors will assess next steps, Damienne Darby, communications counsel for the British Columbia Prosecution Service, said in an email.

A warrant against Chasing Horse remains outstanding in Alberta, the Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service in Alberta said in a statement following Chasing Horse’s conviction in January. The Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service said that it is in contact with the Alberta Crown Prosecutors Office regarding the warrant.

January trial focused on his role as spiritual leader

Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation. Following his appearance as the young Sioux tribe member Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning film “Dances With Wolves,” Chasing Horse traveled across Indian Country to attend powwows and perform healing ceremonies.

During his trial, Nevada prosecutors said Chasing Horse used his reputation as a Lakota medicine man to prey on Indigenous women and girls.

Deputy District Attorney Bianca Pucci told the jury that for almost 20 years, Chasing Horse “spun a web of abuse” that ensnared many women.

Jurors heard from three women who said Chasing Horse sexually assaulted them. The jury returned guilty verdicts on some charges. He was acquitted on others.

Needing medical help

Multiple victims described how they participated in his ceremonies or went to Chasing Horse for medical help.

Chasing Horse allegedly told Leone-LaCroix when she was 14 that the spirits wanted her to give up her virginity to save her mother, who was diagnosed with cancer. He then sexually assaulted her and told her that if she told anyone, her mother would die, according to Pucci. The sexual assaults continued for years, Pucci said.

Chasing Horse denied the allegations and his attorney questioned the main accuser’s credibility, calling her a “scorned woman.” His attorney had filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that a witness was not qualified to talk about grooming and that the statute of limitations had expired. That motion was denied.

Victims and their family members testified that they struggle with their faith as a result of Chasing Horse’s actions. The mothers of the victims said Chasing Horse betrayed their trust and abused sacred traditions.

“Even to this day I struggle to regain my faith and spirituality,” said Lynnette Adams, the mother of Siera Begaye, one of the other victims.

The AP typically does not use the name of alleged sexual assault victims unless they come forward publicly or approved the use of their names, as Begaye has.

Begaye said she still faces complications after suffering an ectopic pregnancy as a result of the assault and being forced to undergo surgery.

“I am choosing to see this moment as a fresh start," Begaye said. "I will rebuild my life, reclaim my voice and continue fighting for the future I deserve."

Beat the Boston Bruins at home in Game 5 on Tuesday, and the Sabres will skate in the second round for the first time since 2007.

“You can expect this to be the hardest game that we’re going to have to play short-term here, because they're in the nothing-to-lose-and-everything-to-gain category,” said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff, whose first stint with the team was a 15-year run that included the most recent postseason appearance and series victory — plus four trips to the conference finals and one Stanley Cup finals berth.

The Bruins, behind first-year coach Marco Sturm, are reeling from a 6-1 drubbing they took on Sunday to fall behind 3-1.

“They know that if they don’t put whatever they can put into the game,” Ruff said, “they’re done.”

Across the Canadian border, and more than 2,000 miles away, another team that has far exceeded external expectations is on the verge of a clinch. The Anaheim Ducks must do so on the road against the Edmonton Oilers, but they're a fearless young group that's hungry to give the franchise its first series victory in nine years.

“We just believe in ourselves,” center Ryan Poehling said, reflecting on the overtime win in Game 4 for a 3-1 lead after facing a two-goal deficit on Sunday. “We’ve done it all year, and I think it just teaches you throughout a season that you’re never out of it. The belief on the bench is something that you truly feel when you go out there for offensive play. It’s a great way to play hockey for us.”

In Dallas, there will be a Game 5 on Tuesday night, too, but no clinching celebration after Minnesota evened the series on Saturday.

Boston Bruins at Buffalo Sabres

When/Where to Watch: Game 5, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. EDT (TNT).

Series: Sabres lead 3-1.

The Bruins lost their cool during their Game 4 meltdown. Defenseman Nikita Zadorov received a $5,000 fine from the league on Monday for cross-checking Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. Goalie Jeremy Swayman shouted at his own bench as he skated off after being pulled from the game.

“We have an extremely high competitive group. We all have a standard that we all carry ourselves to, and it wasn’t met. So that was just emotion," Swayman told reporters. "It’s moved on now, and we have a job to do going into Buffalo.”

The Sabres can't wait to take the ice in front of a fired-up crowd.

“When I came in last season, there was lots of talk of, ‘This is a hockey city, not a football city,’ and that was pretty hard to believe as an outsider coming in. You can see the passion for the Bills and just everything around that,” Sabres left wing Beck Malenstyn said. “But then I think throughout this year, we’ve slowly grown to see just how supportive and passionate this fan base is.”

Minnesota Wild at Dallas Stars

When/Where to Watch: Game 5, Tuesday, 8 p.m. EDT (ESPN2).

Series: Tied 2-2.

The snapshot of this rugged series between these well-built teams that comfortably finished second and third in the Western Conference during the regular season varies sharply by how many men are on the ice. The Wild have had the upper hand in even-strength play, with a 10-3 scoring advantage. The Stars power play has been dominant, with eight goals in 19 opportunities, and their penalty kill has been scored on only three times in 19 situations.

As the Stars prepared on Monday for yet another pivotal game, they expressed confidence in their 5-on-5 performance by virtue of a steady shot volume. They lead the league this postseason with 141 attempts on target, including 102 during even-strength play, which ranks fifth-most among playoff teams.

“We just have to take the next step and get some loose pucks, get some tips,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said.

Only one Stars player has a plus-rating during even-strength situations in this series: defenseman Nils Lundqvist. Unfortunately, he won't play in Game 5 after taking an inadvertent skate to the face from a collision in Game 4. Gulutzan said he hoped Lundqvist would return in the series.

“Sometimes the puck goes in. Sometimes it doesn’t. It’s hockey,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said.

The Wild power play has clearly missed right wing Mats Zuccarello, who hasn't played since an upper-body injury suffered during Game 1, but his return to practice on Monday was an encouraging sign.

“We’ll see how he felt and what his response is from that,” coach John Hynes said. "But it is definitely a step in the right direction.”

Anaheim Ducks at Edmonton Oilers

When/Where to Watch: Game 5, Tuesday, 10 p.m. EDT (TNT).

Series: Ducks lead 3-1.

While both teams were on flights back to Canada, the hockey world was still rehashing the chaotic ending to Game 4 late Sunday and the unusual way in which the officials reached what was almost certainly the correct ruling on Ryan Poehling’s squeaker of an overtime goal for Anaheim.

But that wild finish didn’t alter the overall trajectory of this series: The aggressive Ducks appear to be capable of erasing any trouble caused by their mediocre defensive play, while the Oilers look ever wearier while they attempt to mount their fifth consecutive long playoff run.

“We just believe in each other, and kind of no matter the score, we just continue to compete,” said Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe, the top scorer in the entire Stanley Cup playoffs with eight points. “It’s something that’s been huge for us all year, and it’s something nice to have in your back pocket right now.”

Edmonton is down to its last chance after blowing two leads in Game 4 despite a solid performance by new goalie Tristan Jarry. Anaheim has made the most multi-goal comebacks in the sport this season under coach Joel Quenneville, who passed Al Arbour for the second-most postseason coaching victories in NHL history in Game 4.

The Ducks have won three straight in this series, and they’ve scored 20 goals in four games as they attempt to secure their team’s first playoff series victory since 2017. But this tired Oilers core has been in big postseason jams before. They played their best defensive game of the series on Sunday, so there’s no outward panic as they attempt to bring the series back to Southern California for Game 6.

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AP Sports Writers Greg Beacham in Anaheim, California, Stephen Hawkins in Dallas, and John Wawrow in Buffalo, New York, contributed to this report.

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

The chatbots ― developed in collaboration with tech companies including Hypervsn ― are geared to enhance the passenger journey by providing information about travel times and airport amenities.

The robots speak 40 languages and can answer questions a traveler asks into a microphone at an adjacent display.

On Monday, most travelers bypassed the bot in the departures area between Terminals D and E and approached the human MIA worker at the information desk instead.

Jim Kummer, who was looking for the Margaritaville restaurant, said he was more used to the nuance of speaking to a real person.

“You know ― he’s more friendly, kind,” he said.

Traveler Giovanni Cortez, a frequent cruiser, said he was willing to try the chatbot after getting directions from information desk about catching a shuttle to PortMiami.

After having to ask his question twice, he said he was surprised by the accuracy and detail of the answer.

“It precisely told me what he just told me,” Cortez said, referring to the human worker.

In a statement to Local 10, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said: “We’re not just keeping pace with innovation. We’re leading it, harnessing artificial intelligence to transform how we serve our visitors and our community every day.”

The chatbots cost the county $50,000 each, from MIA’s regular operating budget.

Some comments on social media included criticism that the chatbots were a “waste” of money and that more effort should be focused on fixing conveyances and bathrooms.

MIA officials said repairs on aging infrastructure ― part of a $9 billion modernization plan ― is at an even more rapid pace than nearly two years ago.

Nearly 50 bathrooms have been completely refurbished and the number of elevators and escalators out of service has been reduced to 5%, a spokesperson said. Forty conveyances are on track to be modernized this year.

It's no wonder they ended up in a tight Rookie of the Year race.

Flagg edged his former Duke teammate to win the award Monday night after becoming the first rookie since Michael Jordan in 1984-85 to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists and steals.

The 19-year-old Flagg and Knueppel were first and second in rookie scoring, the first former college teammates to do that since UConn stars Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon in 2004-05. Philadelphia's VJ Edgecombe was the other finalist.

Flagg and Knueppel traded places as betting favorites during the season, but Flagg's 96-point outburst over two games on the second-to-last weekend might have tipped the scales. Flagg was the favorite going into the announcement.

The first of those games was Flagg's 51-point showing against Orlando, the first time a teenager has scored 50 in the NBA. He broke his own record for a teenager of 49, set against Knueppel and the Hornets in January.

“I see the games every night. I can check the box scores,” Flagg said when asked how close of an eye he kept on Knueppel. “I think also I was watching Kon just because that’s one of my brothers. We had such a good connection, and we’re gonna be there for each other for the rest of our lives. I was watching him as a fan as well, but there was obviously that competition at the same time.”

It was, as expected, one of the closest votes in Rookie of the Year history.

Only 26 points separated Flagg and Knueppel in a balloting where 100 reporters and broadcasters who cover the league ranked their top three rookies, with five points going to first place, three to second and one to third.

In 2002, Scottie Barnes edged Evan Mobley by 15 points.

There were three years where the award was shared because of a tie in the voting, and two of those included Duke players Elton Brand and Grant Hill. Brand and Steve Francis tied for the award in 2000, Hill and Jason Kidd — Flagg’s current coach — tied in 1995 and Dave Cowens and Geoff Petrie tied in 1971.

Knueppel, who was a one-and-done at Duke just like Flagg but turned 20 before his NBA career started, became the first rookie to lead the league in 3-pointers with 273.

He averaged 18.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists, while shooting 42.5% from 3-point range to join Larry Bird and Paul Pierce as only the only NBA rookies to average 15 points and five rebounds per game while shooting better than 40% from beyond the arc.

Behind Knueppel, Charlotte won 44 games before being eliminated by Orlando in the final round of the play-in tournament.

Flagg thought he was joining a playoff contender after the Mavericks converted a 1.8% chance in the draft lottery and took him No. 1 overall. Knueppel was the fourth pick.

Oft-injured center Anthony Davis was sidelined again as Dallas started slowly, and was traded to Washington before Flagg's fellow Duke alum, Kyrie Irving, could return from a knee injury. The Mavericks eventually decided to keep Irving out the entire season.

Despite his team's steady slide in the standings, Flagg kept making history a year after leading Duke to the Final Four as just the fourth freshman to be named AP men’s basketball player of the year.

Flagg and Jordan are the only rookies to record multiple games of at least 45 points since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976-77.

Flagg was playing against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this month when he scored 45 points and passed the 41-year-old for the most 40-point games by a teenager with his fourth. That game was the capper to the big weekend that might have decided the rookie race.

The Mavericks ended up back in the lottery at 26-56, with Flagg having to carry a much heavier load than anticipated. He averaged 21.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.2 steals in 70 games.

“I think you talk about pressure and things like that, this season was a lot different going into it and what I was expecting and how the season ended up turning out,” Flagg said. “I think dealing with that and adjusting and kind of getting thrown in on the fly right away like that helped me long-term and throughout the season just getting really comfortable. I think I grew in a lot of different areas.”

The rookie award was the sixth to be announced by the NBA since the end of the regular season. The others:

— San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama was the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year.

— Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got 96 of a possible 100 first-place votes to win the Clutch Player of the Year award.

— San Antonio’s Keldon Johnson won Sixth Man of the Year.

— Boston’s Derrick White won the Sportsmanship Award. That award, unlike most others, is selected solely by active players.

— Atlanta’s Nickeil Alexander-Walker won Most Improved Player.

Other award announcements yet to be scheduled include MVP (either Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver’s Nikola Jokic) and Coach of the Year (either Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio’s Mitch Johnson or Boston’s Joe Mazzulla).

The NBA will announce the Executive of the Year, the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year and the Hustle Award winner later this week.

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AP Sports Writer Steve Reed in Charlotte, North Carolina, and AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.

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

The attack took place late on Sunday in Guyaku, a village in the Gombi local government area in the country’s Adamawa state, according to the state governor.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on the Telegram messaging app.

Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri denounced the attack as tragic and unacceptable during a visit to the village on Monday.

Nigeria is facing myriad security challenges, especially in the north, where an insurgency has simmered for more than two decades. In February, the United States sent troops to the West African nation to help advise its military on the fight against insecurity.

There are two major IS-backed militant groups in Nigeria but it wasn't immediately clear which one was behind the attack in Guyaki.

The Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP, is known to be operating in the northeast, including in Adamawa state, while another IS-linked group known locally as Lakurawa often attacks villages further away in the northcentral states of Sokoto and Kebbi.

The Guyaki attack occurred on the same day that gunmen raided an orphanage in north-central Nigeria and abducted 23 pupils. Fifteen were later rescued and the government said “intensive operations” were underway to "secure the safe return of the remaining eight victims and apprehend the perpetrators.”

Students’ kidnappings have come to define the insecurity in Nigeria, where analysts say armed gangs see schools and students as “strategic” targets to draw attention.

The attack took place in an “isolated area” of Lokoja, capital of Kogi State, according to a statement by the state’s commissioner, Kingsley Femi Fanwo. The facility, Dahallukitab Group of Schools, was operating illegally, he said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in a region has seen an increase in kidnappings for ransom. The statement did not say how old the abducted children are, but the term “pupil” in Nigeria usually refers to someone in kindergarten or primary school, covering ages up to 12.

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Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal.

Then they learned that so called bird deterrent is actually poison.

Graciella Scariato is an animal lover, and she became extremely concerned when she started seeing birds dying, convulsing, gasping for air and unable to fly.

She began documenting the birds’ behavior as some were acting erratically, but for others it was too late.

“Nineteen years and I never saw pigeons dead around here, ever,” she said.

She even rescued one seagull, rushing it to Pelican Harbor Seabird Station, though the bird did not make it.

“The birds they don’t die right away because I saw how they die and it’s horrible to see,” said Scariato.

She claims the dead and injured birds started appearing in late February.

She received an email on March 10 from management of Parker Tower in Hallandale Beach.

They hired Orkin, a licensed pest management company, to address the serious issue of numerous complaints of bird droppings.

The email clearly states the deterrent methods are humane and that no poisoning or intentional killing is taking place.

“This is not ethical,” said Scariato. “We don’t have any right to kill because animals are pooping on the balconies. And then they say like nothing like they don’t care.”

Hallandale Beach police came out to 3140 South Ocean Drive on March 9 due to Scariato’s complaints.

The property manager explained the pigeons had become a significant nuisance, resulting in over 200 complaints.

The police report shows Orkin using avitrol in pigeon corn to encourage the pigeons to leave the building, claiming the dosage is low, humane and non-lethal.

The problem is, that’s not true.

Two years ago, Local 10 reported on a restaurant at Weston Town Center using avitrol to deter the birds outside their business.

Local 10’s cameras were rolling as birds were seen suffering and dying at the hands of a pest control company using the same poison to scare the birds away.

They also claimed they were told avitrol is safe and humane.

It is not.

A simple search will tell you avitrol is a highly lethal toxic poison, not merely a scaring agent.

Dr. Tess McFeeters from South Florida Wildlife Center cares for poisoned animals daily.

She explained why poisons like that are even called a deterrent?

“Because they are a company that makes money and of course to the public something that’s a deterrent sounds a lot nicer,” she said.

But it’s not nicer if it is deadly, and it’s not just pigeons and seagulls potentially eating the poison.

“It could be an endangered bird eating that neurotoxin and you don’t know that, you have unintended consequences,” said McFeeters.

Local 10 attempted to speak to someone in charge at Parker Tower, but those requests in person and over the phone were ignored.

We were told everything they are doing is legal, and it is, and that avitrol is registered by the EPA and licensed in Florida.

“Avitrol is legal but my point is the cruelty,” said McFeeters. “Why they have to use cruelty.”

There is no antidote for avitrol, so any neurological damage a bird suffers from the poison is permanent.

With no plans to cancel the poison being fed to the birds, there’s one more huge issue Orkin and Parker Tower seem unaware of.

“They don’t have that cognizance of like, ‘Oh, I specifically ate this food from this balcony, I shouldn’t come back to this spot.’ They are a wild species that look for their food and look for the next meal any way that they can get it,” said McFeeters.

That means the birds will always come back. They live there, just like the residents do.

The Dodgers hit a small bump in the road before taking two of three games in their previous series against the Chicago Cubs.

Four-time MVP winner Shohei Ohtani snapped a 12-game home run drought with a solo blast in a 6-0 win over the Cubs on Sunday.

It was Ohtani’s longest stretch without a homer since joining the Dodgers before the 2024 season.

Right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2-2, 2.48 ERA) will get the series going for Los Angeles. He won his lone start against the Marlins in 2024, allowing two runs over eight innings.

Manager Clayton McCullough will send veteran right-hander Chris Paddack (0-4, 6.38 ERA) to the mound as he looks to bounce back. The 30-year-old was tagged for eight hits and five runs over 4 2/3 innings in a 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on April 21 at loanDepot park.

He has allowed two or more runs in four of his five appearances this season.

Paddack is 1-4 with a 5.91 ERA in nine career starts against the Dodgers.

The Marlins are 1-2 on their current six-game trip, and their 3-9 road record currently ranks last in the National League.

Series pitching matchups

April 28, 10:10 p.m. ET: RHP Janson Junk (1-2, 3.67 ERA) vs. RHP Shohei Ohtani (2-0, 0.38 ERA).

April 29, 3:10 p.m. ET: RHP Sandy Alcantara (3-2, 3.05 ERA) vs. RHP Tyler Glasnow (3-0, 2.45 ERA).

Now the administration is scrambling to put more durable tariffs in place to keep revenue flowing into the U.S. Treasury and to shore up the president’s protectionist wall around the American economy.

Starting this week, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will begin hearings in two investigations that are expected to lead to a new round of U.S. tariffs — taxes paid by importers in the United States and usually passed on via higher prices to consumers who are already fed up with the high cost of living.

Trump’s newest tariff push is sure to face more challenges in court but is likely to prove sturdier than the one the Supreme Court tossed out.

First up is a hearing Tuesday and Wednesday into whether 60 economies — from Nigeria to Norway and accounting for 99% of U.S. imports — do enough to prohibit the trade in products created by forced labor.

“For too long, American workers and firms have been forced to compete against foreign producers who may have an artificial cost advantage gained from the scourge of forced labor,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in March. The administration could punish scofflaws with new tariffs.

Then, next week, the administration will hold hearings on whether 16 U.S. trading partners — including China, the European Union and Japan — are overproducing goods, driving down prices and putting U.S. manufacturers at a disadvantage. The economies being investigated account for 70% of U.S. imports, according to Erica York of the Tax Foundation. Again, the probe could result in new tariffs.

Most major economies, including China, the EU and Japan, are on both lists.

Trump's top trade official insists he won't prejudge the investigations

The administration has brought the cases under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which authorizes tariffs and other sanctions against countries found to engage in “unjustifiable,” “unreasonable” or “discriminatory” trade practices.

U.S. Trade Representative Greer, who is overseeing the investigations, has insisted he won’t prejudge them.

But importers and foreign countries have doubts the process will be fair. After all, Trump’s Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, did not wait for the investigations to be completed to proclaim that the U.S. government will replace its original tariff revenues with new import taxes, including ones to be imposed under Section 301. The president himself has said that new tariffs “are going to get us more money.’’

“If you believe the Treasury secretary and the president, then the cake is already baked,” said Scott Lincicome of the libertarian Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies. “These investigations will result in tariffs that approximate what the Supreme Court overruled in February.’’

On Feb. 20, the high court ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority by invoking the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose double-digit tariffs on almost every country on Earth. Trump had used the act to plaster taxes on imports with eager abandon. For example, he conjured up a new tariff on Canada (though he never actually imposed it) because he didn’t like a Canadian television ad criticizing his trade policies.

He used the threat of IEEPA tariffs to strong-arm top U.S. trading partners – including the EU, Japan and South Korea – into accepting lopsided trade agreements. The levies also brought in a lot of revenue -- $166 billion – before the Supreme Court shut them down, ruling that IEEPA couldn’t be used to impose tariffs. Now the federal government must refund money to importers who paid those tariffs.

Tariffs remain Trump's go-to

Trump had a handy way to quickly recoup some of the lost revenue — which had been expected to hit $1.6 trillion over the next decade – at least temporarily. Section of 122, also of Trade Act of 1974, allows the president to impose global tariffs as high as 15% for up to 150 days.

The administration wasted no time. Two days after the Supreme Court decision, it slapped 10% Section 122 tariffs on imports. Trump said he’d raise the levies to the maximum 15% but hasn’t.

The clock runs out on those tariffs July 24. Congress could extend them. But lawmakers have little enthusiasm for approving what amounts to a big tax as November’s midterm elections approach: American voters are already furious about the high prices, for which tariffs are at least partly to blame.

Section 301 offers another opportunity to replicate the the protectionist impact of the IEEPA tariffs. There are no limits on the size of Section 301 tariffs. They expire after four years but can be extended.

Perhaps best of all, from the Trump administration’s perspective after its Supreme Court defeat, Section 301 tariffs withstood legal challenges when the president used them in his first term to pound China in a dispute over Beijing’s sharp-elbowed policies to promote its own tech companies.

Any new 301 tariffs are sure to be challenged again in court. But judges might not throw them out.

“Even if it is a veiled — or less-than-veiled — attempt to reinitiate the IEEPA tariffs, he still has the cover of the process itself,’’ said trade lawyer Joyce Adetutu, a partner at law firm Vinson & Elkins.

Importer calls investigation a "sham''

Critics have latched onto the speed with which Trump’s latest investigations are proceeding. Imposing the Section 301 tariffs against China in the president’s first term took nearly a year of investigation and public comment. If the latest investigations produce new tariffs in time to replace the expiring Section 122 levies, the process will have taken less than half that long.

“It’s such a short timeframe,’’ said Kenya Davis, a partner at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner who has done pro bono work on human trafficking and forced labor. “It’s so condensed that it doesn’t make a lot of sense that they can do it that quickly.’’

Importers bracing for the return of painful tariffs can take some comfort in knowing that Trump’s Section 301 tariffs likely won’t be as erratic as his IEEPA levies. He has to follow procedures before imposing them.

“One of the reasons Trump used IEEPA is because it was just a complete blank slate’’ — or seemed to be before the Supreme Court ruling, Cato’s Lincicome said, describing it as “a little tariff switch in the Oval Office that Trump could flip on and off anytime he wants; he wakes up in the morning and he doesn’t like a Canadian television commercial, he flips the switch ... You really can’t do that with 301.’’

Antranard Womble, de 30 años y residente de North Miami Beach, estuvo en el tribunal el lunes frente a la oficial a quien le disparó hace seis años.

La oficial Erica Socarras intentó detenerlo en Northwest 50th Street, en el vecindario de Liberty City, en abril de 2020, cuando Womble, entonces de 24 años, abrió fuego e impactó su auto sin identificación policial varias veces.

Socarras, quien estuvo de acuerdo con el trato, dijo en su declaración de impacto como víctima que fue emboscada y que ha vivido con ansiedad desde entonces.

Le dijo al tribunal y a Womble que fue un blanco y que tuvo que luchar por su vida.

“Mientras todo pasaba, lo único que pensaba era: ‘No puedo morir hoy. Tengo que llegar a casa con mis hijos’”, dijo Socarras.

El jefe de la Policía de Miami, Manny Morales, estuvo presente junto a varios oficiales en apoyo a Socarras.

“Hace seis años, ella se preparó para ir al trabajo, se puso su uniforme y se dispuso a hacer lo que cada oficial hace todos los días: salir a proteger y servir a nuestra comunidad, tal como juraron hacerlo”, dijo. “Y ese día, el señor Womble intentó quitarle la vida de manera despiadada y fría, simplemente por hacer su trabajo. Sabiendo perfectamente lo que ocurría: era un vehículo sin identificación, pero tenía luces policiales”.

Tras la audiencia, una persona vinculada a Womble se alteró en el pasillo y comenzó a lanzar insultos a los oficiales de policía.

Otros dos acusados enfrentan cargos en este caso, los cuales permanecen abiertos.

Glore, de 35 años, ha sido descrito por el New York Post como un joyero cuyos clientes incluyen a 50 Cent y a Scott Disick, personalidad del programa “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”, y fue visto en la temporada 5 del reality show de Bravo “Below Deck Mediterranean”. Su página de Instagram muestra fotos posando con 50 Cent y otras celebridades, entre ellas el rapero Meek Mill y el actor Joseph Sikora.

El viernes posó para la foto de ficha policial en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight de Miami-Dade, luego de que la policía de Miami lo arrestara por cargos de agresión agravada y exhibición indebida de un arma de fuego relacionados con el incidente de marzo. Su abogado, sin embargo, alega defensa propia.

Según el informe de arresto de la Policía de Miami, la víctima intentaba estacionar su auto en el garaje del edificio Worldcenter, ubicado en el 851 NE First Ave., alrededor de las 12:30 a.m. del 11 de marzo, pero tenía problemas con su llavero.

La policía dijo que mientras la víctima esperaba la ayuda del conserje del edificio, Glore, cuyo nombre completo aparece en el informe como Leon J. Glore, llegó detrás de él en un Ferrari blanco tocando el claxon sin parar.

Las autoridades dijeron que Glore comenzó a lanzar insultos a la víctima, quien le explicó que la puerta estaba fallando y que estaba en el teléfono con el conserje.

El informe indica que Glore bajó del Ferrari y se desató una discusión verbal que fue escalando. La policía dijo que Glore sacó una pistola negra y le dijo a la víctima “dame una razón”, lo que llevó a la víctima a llamar al 911 “por temor a su vida”.

La policía dijo que fue al Worldcenter el viernes para arrestar a Glore, quien se negó a hablar con ellos por consejo de su abogado.

Sería liberado del TGK durante el fin de semana tras pagar una fianza de $5,500, según los registros judiciales.

El abogado de Glore, Chad Piotrowski, ofreció declaraciones a Local 10 News el lunes por la tarde.

“El señor Glore fue investigado inicialmente y liberado en la escena después de que los oficiales revisaron el video de seguridad del edificio”, dijo Piotrowski en un correo electrónico. “Semanas después fue arrestado a pesar de esa misma evidencia. Basándonos en los hechos y el video, le pediremos al tribunal que desestime los cargos conforme a la ley de Defensa Propia de Florida”.

Piotrowski presentó una declaración de no culpabilidad por escrito. Los registros muestran que el caso fue asignado al juez de Miami-Dade Richard Hersch.