Lula and Sánchez are both outspoken in their criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has threatened both with punitive tariffs. They are considered standard-bearers of progressive or liberal politics on their respective continents, where reactionary parties and far-right populism have been on the rise for years.

Lula and Sánchez, along with ministers from their cabinets, will meet at a former royal palace in Barcelona on Friday when they are expected to sign agreements regarding their economies, technology and social policies.

Their bilateral meeting will be prelude for the following day’s double dose of gatherings when Lula and Sánchez confer with other leaders at two events inside a sprawling conference center in Spain’s second city.

‘Not anti-Trump’

The first gathering on Saturday is the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy. The event was launched by Brazil and Spain in 2024 as a forum to exchange ideas aimed at combating the “extremism, polarization and misinformation” that undermines participatory democracy, the organizers say. The first two editions of this event were held at the United Nations and the previous one was in Santiago, Chile, last year.

While both Lula and Sánchez have spoken out against many of Trump's positions and policies, including his decision to attack Iran along with Israel, Lula said that the multilateral summit should not been seen in that vein.

“This is not going to going to be an anti-Trump meeting,” Lula told Spanish newspaper El País on Thursday. “We are going to discuss the state of democracy, to see what went wrong and what we have to do to repair it.”

This edition will include the presence of European Council president Antonio Costa, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, Colombia president Gustavo Petro, and other leaders of countries from Uruguay and Lithuania to Ghana and Albania.

Sheinbaum’s participation comes after Spain’s King Felipe VI ironed out a longstanding diplomatic dispute regarding Spain’s colonial past when he recently acknowledged the Spanish conquest of the Americas had led to the “abuse” of native peoples.

At a time that Latin America has felt a rightward political swing and mounting pressure by the Trump administration, Sheinbaum has become one of the most powerful leftist voices in the hemisphere. She enjoys soaring approval in Mexico and has been able to strike a careful balance between maintaining a strong relationship with Trump, while pushing back on key issues like Latin American sovereignty.

Rallying the Left

Many of the leaders from the first event will stay put for the inaugural Global Progressive Mobilization, held at the same venue later on Saturday. The gathering of left-leaning politicians and policymakers was launched after Sánchez and former Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, who is now President of the Party of European Socialists, discussed the idea at a meeting of European Socialists last year.

Sánchez and Lula will both give speeches at the event, which is expected to have 3,000 attendees, including U.S. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, and feature round tables dedicated to issues ranging from wage inequality to how to improve election results for progressives.

The meeting comes amid a busy week for Sánchez, who just returned from meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, his fourth trip to Beijing in just over three years.

Sánchez's government declared its airspace closed to U.S. planes being used in the Iran war, and said it is not allowing the U.S. to use jointly operated military bases in southern Spain for actions related to the war.

Earlier this week, Lula released a video message expressing “deep solidarity” with Pope Leo XIV following public criticisms made by Trump after the pontiff slammed the Iran war.

Middle powers mingle

Pol Morillas, director of the Barcelona-based foreign affairs think tank CIDOB, said that the gatherings are meant to be a show of force by traditional democratic leaders who have seen how the populist far-right has successfully forwarded its messages of anti-migration and economic nationalism through international gatherings.

Morillas also sees the meetings in the context of the speech by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that shook the Davos economic forum in January on the importance of so-called “middle powers” seeking out new strategies to deal with a world of aggressive superpowers.

Lula, Sánchez and other leaders at the events “share the understanding that the world is not just for the great powers,” Morillas told The Associated Press.

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AP writers Megan Janetsky in Mexico City and Mauricio Savarese in Sao Paulo, Brazil, contributed.

Leo was travelling Friday to Douala, Cameroon’s main port city, to celebrate Mass and visit a hospital. The Vatican predicted some 600,000 people would turn out for the liturgy, the biggest crowd Leo is expected to draw on his 11-day odyssey, the first to Africa by history's first American pope.

Later Friday back in the capital Youande, Leo had an appointment with students, professors and administrators at the Catholic University of Central Africa. Popes have often used such encounters, especially in the developing world, to rally young people to persevere in the face of poverty, corruption and other challenges.

Catholics represent about 29% of Cameroon's 29 million people. It is an overwhelmingly young country, where the median age is 18.

An attention to young people

Leo has already offered words of encouragement to Cameroon’s youth, including in his opening speech to President Paul Biya, at 93 the world’s oldest leader. In the speech, Leo demanded the “chains of corruption” in Cameroon be broken and said Cameroon’s youth represent the future and hope of the country.

But with Biya in power since 1982, Cameroon perhaps represents the most dramatic example of the tension between Africa’s youth and the continent’s many aging leaders.

Despite being an oil-producing country experiencing modest economic growth, young people say the benefits have not trickled down beyond the elites.

“Of course, when unemployment and social exclusion persist, frustration can lead to violence," Leo warned in his opening address to Biya and government authorities earlier this week. "Investing in the education, training, and entrepreneurship of young people is, therefore, a strategic choice for peace. It is the only way to curb the outflow of wonderful talent to other parts of the world.”

According to World Bank data, the unemployment rate in Cameroon stands at 3.5%, but 57% of the labor force aged 18 to 35 works in informal employment.

The dire economic outlook in Cameroon has led to significant brain drain and has strained an already understaffed health sector, as many doctors and nurses are leaving the country for more lucrative jobs in Europe and North America.

In 2023, about a third of trained doctors who graduate from medical school in Cameroon leave the country, according to the Ministry of Higher Education.

Growing frustration over Biya’s record and long-term rule intensified during last October’s tense presidential election, in which Biya secured an eighth consecutive term.

When Cameroon’s main opposition candidate, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, contested the result of the poll, deadly protests erupted throughout the country.

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Mark Banchereau contributed from Dakar, Senegal.

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

It was unclear whether a lasting deal would be reached between the U.S. and Iran before the ceasefire ends next week, but the pause in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah could be an indication some progress has been made.

An end to Israel’s war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators. Israel has not been fighting with Lebanon itself, but rather with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group inside Lebanon, which said in a statement that “any ceasefire must be comprehensive across all Lebanese territory and must not allow the Israeli enemy any freedom of movement.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he agreed to the ceasefire “to advance” peace efforts with Lebanon, but said Israeli troops would not withdraw.

Pakistan’s army chief met Thursday with Iran’s parliament speaker as part of international efforts to press for an extension to the ceasefire that has paused almost seven weeks of war.

Mediators are pushing for a compromise on three main sticking points: Iran’s nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and compensation for wartime damages, according to a regional official involved in mediation efforts.

Reopening the strait is a key demand by the U.S. and the international community as a global energy crisis worsens daily because of the key oil route's closure. The leaders of France and the U.K. will gather dozens of countries Friday to push forward plans to reopen the strait, although the U.S. will not be included.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Here is the latest:

Beirut official says Israeli strikes hit neighborhood 62 times

A local government official in Beirut’s southern suburb of Haret Hreik said Israel struck the neighborhood 62 times over the past six weeks.

Haret Hreik Deputy Mayor Sadek Slim said 26 buildings were completely destroyed.

“We’ve been able to clear up the rubble of the partially damaged buildings, but for those totally destroyed we will need special equipment,” Slim said in a news briefing under a bridge on a busy intersection.

The area is gridlocked with traffic with people returning to check on their homes and Hezbollah supporters zooming around on scooters and waving the militant group’s flag.

French president praises ceasefire in Lebanon

French President Emmanuel Macron said he supports the 10-day-ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel and called for its continuation.

“Hezbollah must renounce its weapons. Israel must respect Lebanese sovereignty and stop the war,” he said Friday in a post on X.

German foreign minister says long-term accords needed after ceasefire

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday welcomed the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and thanked the U.S. for its role as a mediator.

What is needed now, Wadephul said, are long-term agreements on securing the border, protecting civilians on both sides of the Blue Line, and ensuring the safety of UNIFIL peacekeepers.

He said the talks paved the way for a future reality in which the interests of both sides are equally taken into account: Israel’s legitimate security interests and Lebanon’s right to territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Long-term security in the region can only be achieved through the effective disarmament of Hezbollah, Wadephul added.

Displaced Lebanese return to scenes of destruction

Relief at a ceasefire beginning in Lebanon on Friday was tempered by the destruction that many encountered upon returning to their homes.

In the southern village of Jibsheet, a trickle of residents returned to flattened apartment blocks and streets littered with chunks of concrete, twisted aluminum shutters and dangling electrical wires.

“I feel free being back,” 23-year-old Zainab Fahas said. “But look they destroyed everything: the square, the houses, the shops, everything.”

In the southern Beirut suburb of Haret Hreik, Ahmad Lahham, 48, waved the yellow Hezbollah flag. He stood on a mountain of rubble that was his apartment building and also housed a branch of Hezbollah’s financial arm, Al-Qard Al-Hassan.

Iran’s pressure in its talks with the U.S. brought the truce, condemning Lebanon’s direct talks with Israel, he said.

“Only the Iranians stood with us, no one else,” he said, calling Lebanon’s leaders “the leadership of shame.”

South Korea tanker passes through Red Sea route

A South Korean-flagged tanker carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port has safely exited the Red Sea, South Korean officials said.

The passage marks the country’s first such shipment since it began seeking alternative energy routes while Iran is largely blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Friday described the passage as a “valuable accomplishment” during the government’s efforts to overcome challenges posed by the war.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries did not immediately say how many tankers would attempt to use the Red Sea route or when the vessel that passed would arrive in South Korea.

Officials say 26 of South Korea’s vessels remain stranded in the strait.

Trump hails Israel-Lebanon ceasefire as ‘historic day’

In two social media posts Thursday night, U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday could have been “a historic day for Lebanon.”

In a separate Truth Social message after the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon went into effect, Trump added that he hoped the Lebanon-based, Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group “acts nicely and well.”

“It will be an GREAT moment for them if they do,” Trump added.

Australia strikes deal with BP to underwrite fuel imports

BP has become a fifth company to strike a deal with the Australian government to underwrite fuel imports at prices inflated by the Iran war.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the BP deal on Friday at Viva Energy’s Geelong refinery, southwest of Melbourne, that was damaged by fire over Wednesday night. He said the damaged refinery continued to produce diesel and jet fuel at 80% capacity and gasoline as 60% capacity.

Viva on Thursday secured 570,000 barrels of diesel underwritten by the government in shipments from Brunei and South Korea at prices that might otherwise be commercially unviable.

Australia has sufficient fuel supplies contracted into May, but there are concerns that shortages could emerge in the months ahead.

But it remained unclear whether Israel would completely stop strikes on Hezbollah, and whether the militant group would recognize a deal it did not play a role in negotiating and which will leave Israeli troops occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.

Barrages of gunshots rang out across Beirut as residents fired into the air just after midnight to celebrate the beginning of the truce, and displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to attempt to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would hold.

U.S. President Donald Trump heralded the deal a “historic day for Lebanon,” even as he expressed confidence that the war with Iran would soon end in a Las Vegas speech.

“I will say the war in Iran is going along swimmingly,” Trump said. “It should be ending pretty soon.”

An end to Israel’s war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who previously accused Israel of breaking the current ceasefire deal with strikes on Lebanon. Israel said that deal did not cover Lebanon.

Pakistan’s army chief met Thursday with Iran’s parliament speaker as part of international efforts to press for an extension of the ceasefire.

While oil prices fell on hopes of a deal, the head of the International Energy Agency warned that energy shocks could get worse if the Strait of Hormuz doesn’t reopen soon. Iran closed the crucial waterway, through which a fifth of the world’s oil normally passes, shortly after the war began. Europe has “maybe six weeks or so” of jet fuel left and broader economic consequences will grow the longer the strait is closed, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The leaders of France and the U.K. will gather dozens of countries — but not the United States — on Friday to push forward plans to reopen the strait.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Israel says it will keep troops in Lebanon

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he agreed to the ceasefire “to advance” peace efforts with Lebanon, but he said Israeli troops would not withdraw.

Israeli forces have engaged in fierce battles with Hezbollah in the border area as they pushed into southern Lebanon to create what officials have called a “security zone.” Netanyahu, in his video address, said it will extend 10 kilometers (6 miles) into Lebanon.

“That is where we are, and we are not leaving,” he said.

Hezbollah has said that Lebanese people have “the right to resist” Israeli occupation of their land and that their actions “will be determined based on how developments unfold.”

The U.S. State Department said that according to the agreement, Israel reserves the right to defend itself “at any time, against planned, imminent or ongoing attacks.” But otherwise, Israel “will not carry out any offensive military operations against Lebanese targets, including civilian, military, and other state targets.”

Trump announced the agreement as a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, but a Hezbollah official said the ceasefire was a result of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Israel and Hezbollah have fought several wars and have been fighting on and off since the day after the start of the Gaza war. Israel and Lebanon reached a deal to end that war in November 2024, but Israel has kept up near-daily strikes in what it says is an effort to prevent the Iran-backed militant group from regrouping. That escalated into another invasion after Hezbollah again began firing missiles at Israel in response to its war on Iran.

Flurry of diplomacy led up to Lebanon ceasefire

The agreement came after a meeting between Israel's and Lebanon’s ambassadors in Washington and a flurry of subsequent phone calls from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a White House official.

They were the first direct diplomatic talks between the two countries in decades. Hezbollah had opposed direct talks between Lebanon and Israel.

Trump spoke Wednesday evening with Netanyahu, who agreed to a ceasefire with certain terms, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Rubio then called Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, who got on board. Trump then spoke with Aoun, and again with Netanyahu.

The State Department worked with both governments to formulate a memorandum of understanding for the truce.

Pakistan army chief meets with Iranian parliament speaker

Pakistan’s army chief met Thursday with Iran’s parliament speaker as part of efforts to press for an extension to a ceasefire that has paused almost seven weeks of war between Israel, the U.S. and Iran.

Even as the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports and renewed Iranian threats strained the ceasefire, regional officials reported progress, telling AP the United States and Iran had an “in-principle agreement” to extend it to allow for more diplomacy. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.

Mediators are pushing for a compromise on three main sticking points: Iran’s nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and compensation for wartime damages, according to a regional official involved in the mediation efforts.

Trump suggested the ceasefire could be extended.

“If we’re close to a deal, would I extend?” Trump said in an exchange with reporters. “Yeah, I would do that.”

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Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. AP journalists Matthew Lee and Ben Finley in Washington, Samy Magdy in Cairo and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Después de que 17 organizaciones ambientalistas acusaron a las autoridades de mentir sobre las causas del derrame, la presidenta de México Claudia Sheinbaum ordenó la creación de un grupo conformado por los titulares de varias dependencias y el director de Pemex, Víctor Rodríguez, el cual confirmó el jueves que las denuncias de los grupos ecologistas.

El organismo gubernamental constató que funcionarios de la paraestatal no sólo ocultaron los daños en el ducto a los altos mandos de la energética sino que también tardaron ocho días en cerrar la válvula después de descubrir la fuga el 14 de febrero. Una vez que el derrame se hizo evidente, dichos los funcionarios minimizaron su impacto.

El gobierno había mantenido hasta ahora que el derrame se había originado de un barco y de dos sitios de los que el petróleo fluía de manera natural.

Los tres funcionarios cesados son el subdirector de seguridad y dos encargados de controlar los derrames, explicó Rodríguez sin dar sus nombres. La fiscalía federal ya inició una investigación en el caso, añadió.

Alrededor de 630 kilómetros de litorales en los estados de Tamaulipas, Veracruz y Tabasco resultaron afectados, de acuerdo con el balance del secretario de Marina, Raymundo Pedro Morales. Hasta el momento se han recogido 915 toneladas de residuos.

Además, 58 centros de anidación de tortugas resultaron contaminados, aunque ya se inició con las labores de limpieza. La Secretaría de Medio Ambiente aseguró que si bien se encontraron una docena de tortugas marinas muertas a causa del derrame, hasta el momento no se ha observado la “muerte masiva” de ninguna especie.

Numerosas irregularidades

La falta de transparencia ha sido una frecuente queja entre las organizaciones civiles en relación a varios incidentes vinculados a Pemex, incluidos otros derrames en el Golfo de México.

Ante la presión de varios organismos ambientalistas nacionales e internacionales, el gobierno ofreció en esta ocasión más detalles de lo habitual.

La secretaria de Ciencia, Rosaura Ruiz, confirmó que imágenes satelitales e información de sobrevuelos mostraban la magnitud del derrame en la zona de Abkatun-Cantarell, el cual se extendió posteriormente.

Por su parte, el director de Pemex dijo que los altos mandos de la paraestatal no fueron informados del daño en el oleoducto y de las labores de reparación. Añadió que la fuga fue "negada sistemáticamente por las áreas operativas”, particularmente después de que empezaron a llegar restos de crudo a las costas a partir de marzo. Afirmó también que se manipularon datos para minimizar el alcance del derrame.

Con el fin de evitar incidentes similares en un futuro, el gobierno anunció la creación de un observatorio permanente en el Golfo de México, el cual estará integrado por autoridades y científicos y tendrá como objetivo mantener información clara, generar alertas tempranas y fortalecer la prevención, el monitoreo y la coordinación ante cualquier contingencia.

Las autoridades aseguraron que mantendrán tlas acciones de limpieza y la atención a la población afectada, incluidos los miles de pescadores que tuvieron que dejar de trabajar.

Judge Greg Grogin ruled in a Sydney court that the former Special Air Service Regiment corporal had established exceptional circumstances to justify his release from custody. Prosecutors had opposed bail and argued there was a risk that Roberts-Smith would flee Australia or interfere with witnesses and evidence.

Roberts-Smith, 47, was arrested on April 7 and charged with five counts of war crime murder involving the deaths of five Afghans in Uruzgan province in 2009 and 2012.

Australian law defines war crime murder as the intentional killing in a context of armed conflict of a person who is not taking an active part in the hostilities, such as a civilian, prisoner of war or a wounded soldier.

Roberts-Smith was awarded both the Victoria Cross and Medal of Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan and is only the second Australian veteran of the Afghanistan campaign to be charged with a war crime.

The charges follow a military report released in 2020 that found evidence elite SAS and commando regiment troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers and other noncombatants. Around 40,000 Australian military personnel served in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021, of whom 41 were killed.

Similar allegations against Roberts-Smith were found credible in a civil court case in 2023 when a judge rejected his claims that newspaper articles defamed him.

At that trial, Roberts-Smith testified he had never killed an unarmed Afghan and denied ever committing a war crime. He claimed he has the victim of spiteful fellow soldiers’ lies and of others’ envy of his medals.

But while the civil court found the war crimes allegations were mostly proven on a balance of probabilities, the war crime murder charges would have to be proved in a criminal court to a higher standard of beyond reasonable doubt.

Roberts-Smith is accused of personally shooting dead two victims. He allegedly ordered subordinates to shoot the other three victims.

In opposing bail, prosecutor Simon Buchen described the charges against Roberts-Smith as “among the most serious known to the criminal law.”

Buchen said Roberts-Smith had been ”on the cusp of relocating overseas” without telling authorities when he became aware that prosectors were considering charges.

Roberts-Smith had made “advanced plans to relocate overseas. Consideration was being given to moving to various destinations overseas,” Buchen told the court.

Roberts-Smith faces a potential maximum sentence of life in prison on each conviction. He has yet to enter pleas.

Defense lawyer Slade Howell told the bail hearing Roberts-Smith’s case “may properly be described as exceptional in the sense that it is out of the ordinary.”

“The use of domestic courts to prosecute alleged war crimes committed by a highly decorated Australian soldier deployed overseas repeatedly by the Australian government to fight a war on its behalf is unprecedented and is uncharted legal territory of the common law of this country,” Howell said.

Howell also said Roberts-Smith’s “proceedings will be beset by a multitude of delays, many of which are peculiar to these proceeding.”

Potential delays could arise if prosecutors decide to charge one or more of Roberts-Smith’s fellow veterans, some of whom now live overseas, Howell said.

Roberts-Smith took part in the bail hearing by video link and spoke only when asked by the judge to confirm that he could see and hear proceedings.

The male wolf, named Neukgu, burrowed out of his enclosure at the O-World zoo in Daejeon on April 8, prompting a search that gripped the nation and raised fears about his safety. Animal rights activists questioned whether the wolf could survive outside the zoo and also worried it might be killed during capture, something that happened to a puma that escaped from the same zoo in 2018.

Intense national concern even prompted President Lee Jae Myung to make a statement reassuring the public police, fire officials and the military were doing their best to capture the wolf alive.

At one point, authorities nearly captured Neukgu after spotting him on a mountain near the zoo earlier this week, but he broke away from a perimeter set by rescue workers. A driver also spotted the wolf and shared a video of him trotting along a dark mountain road, lit by the headlights of the vehicle trailing behind.

Neukgu was finally found and tranquilized on a hill near an expressway early Friday, after an hours-long search involving drones, police and emergency workers and veterinarians, according to city and zoo officials. He was in stable condition after being taken back to the zoo, where veterinarians used a scope to remove a fishing hook from his stomach but found no other significant health issues.

Daejeon officials released social media videos showing rescuers pulling the limp wolf from a ditch and placing it in a carrier, and the animal undergoing medical examinations at the zoo.

Social media was flooded with celebratory posts, including messages like “welcome back” and “Neukgu, it’s dangerous outside the house.” Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo in a Facebook post expressed his “deepest gratitude to citizens of Daejeon and also the entire nation for your support in ensuring Neukgu’s safe return.”

Born at the zoo in 2024, Neukgu is a third-generation descendent of a group of wolves brought from Russia in 2008 as part of a project to reintroduce wolves resembling those that lived in the Korean wild before going extinct in the 1960s.

Lee Kwan Jong, director of O-World, said Neukgu will be kept in a separate area from other animals and receive care until he has fully recovered and stabilized.

The zoo’s management, which has been criticized over a series of animal escapes, closed the facility following Neukgu’s escape and says it has not decided when it will reopen.

Lee Kwan Jong said the zoo, which is reviewing its security measures, will prioritize Neukgu’s recovery.

He's expected to be a huge attraction when the zoo reopens.

Oil prices fell Friday, while U.S. futures edged up modestly.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 1% to 58,930.87 after reaching an all-time high on Thursday. South Korea’s Kospi was 0.6% lower at 6,191.19. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1% to 26,126.86, while the Shanghai Composite index edged down 0.1% to 4,051.45.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.3%, while Taiwan’s Taiex traded 0.5% lower.

U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that he’s open to extending the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war, and Iran’s U.N. envoy said Tehran remained “cautiously optimistic” over negotiations with the U.S.

As optimism over an extended ceasefire grew, oil prices fell early Friday after climbing a day earlier. Brent crude, the international standard, was 1.1% lower at $98.31 per barrel. It had surged roughly 40% since the beginning of the Iran war in late February. Benchmark U.S. crude was down 1.4% to $89.90 a barrel.

Global energy shocks are growing over impacts of the Iran war, with the Strait of Hormuz remaining largely closed while the U.S. imposed a sea blockade on Iranian ports. The head of the International Energy Agency told The Associated Press on Thursday that Europe has “maybe six weeks or so” of jet fuel supplies remaining and warned of flight cancellations “soon.”

On Thursday, Wall Street set another record with the benchmark S&P 500 closing 0.3% higher at 7,041.28, just a day after it eclipsed its previous all-time high in January. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 48,578.72, and the tech-focused Nasdaq composite added 0.4% to 24,102.70.

Shares of PepsiCo gained 2.3% following its announcement of better-than-expected quarterly results. U.S. logistics company J.B. Hunt Transport Services was 6.3% higher also on stronger-than-expected results.

In other dealings, gold and silver prices were up. Gold’s price was 0.1% higher at $4,814.60 an ounce, while silver prices gained 0.4% to $79.04 per ounce.

The U.S. dollar rose to 159.43 Japanese yen from 159.17 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1778, down from $1.1781.

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AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.

GOP leaders rushed lawmakers back into session to late Thursday with a series of back-to-back votes that collapsed in dramatic failure, before they quickly pushed ahead the stopgap measure as they race to keep the surveillance program running past Monday's expiration date.

First they unveiled a new plan that would have extended the program for five years, with revisions. Then they tried to salvage a shorter 18-month renewal that Trump had demanded and Speaker Mike Johnson had previously backed. Some 20 Republicans joined most Democrats in blocking its advance.

Shortly after 2 a.m. they quickly agreed to the 10-day extension, which was agreed to on a voice vote without a formal roll call. It next goes to the Senate, which is gaveling for a rare Friday session, as Congress races to keep the surveillance program running.

"We were very close tonight,” said Johnson after the late-night action.

But Democrats blasted the middle-of-the-night voting as amateur hour. “Are you kidding me? Who the hell is running this place?" said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., during a fiery floor debate.

At the center of the standoff that has stretched throughout the week is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and other agencies to collect and analyze vast amounts of overseas communications without a warrant. In doing so, they can incidentally sweep up communications involving Americans who interact with foreign targets.

U.S. officials say the authority is critical to disrupting terrorist plots, cyber intrusions and foreign espionage.

Surveillance program fight is a debate over privacy and security

Its path to passage has teetered all week in a familiar fight, as lawmakers weigh civil liberties concerns against intelligence officials’ warnings about national security risks.

Opponents of the surveillance tool point to past misuses. FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when searching intelligence related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and racial justice protests in 2020, according to a 2024 court order.

Trump and his allies had lobbied aggressively all week for a clean renewal of the program, without changes.

A group of Republicans traveled to the White House on Tuesday, and on Wednesday CIA Director John Ratcliffe spoke directly with GOP lawmakers. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Thursday there had “been negotiations late into the night with the White House and some of our members.”

“I am asking Republicans to UNIFY, and vote together on the test vote to bring a clean Bill to the floor,” Trump wrote on Truth Social this week. “We need to stick together.”

The result of days of negotiations

Thursday’s proceedings came to a standstill as lawmakers retreated behind closed doors and Johnson reached for an agreement to resolve the standoff.

Shortly before midnight GOP leaders announced a new proposal, a five-year extension, with revisions. The changes were designed to win over skeptics of the surveillance program who have demanded greater oversight to protect Americans’ privacy.

Among the changes are new provisions to ensure that only FBI attorneys can authorize queries on U.S. persons, and to require the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to review such cases, said Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., during the debate.

But the final product, a 14-page amendment, did not go far enough for some holdouts in either party.

With Johnson controlling a slim majority, he has little room for dissent. As the Republicans fell short on both efforts before the short extension, a handful of Democrats stepped in to try to help them advance the longer extensions, but most Democrats were opposed.

“We just defeated Johnson’s efforts to sneak through a 5-year FISA authorization tonight,” said Democratic Rep, Ro Khanna of California. “Now, they will have to fight in daylight.”

Los Angeles police said in a brief statement that homicide detectives arrested the 21-year-old Houston-born alt-pop singer, whose legal name is David Burke, on suspicion of murder in the investigation of the killing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

Defense attorneys Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter responded in an email: “Let us be clear — the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death.”

Police said investigators would present a case to prosecutors at the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office on Monday. The office said in its own statement that it is aware of the arrest and its Major Crimes Division will review the case to determine whether there is enough evidence to file charges.

The defense lawyers added, “There has been no indictment returned by any grand jury in this case and no criminal complaint filed. David has only been detained under suspicion. We will vigorously defend David’s innocence.”

It was their first public statement on the case. Authorities did not publicly name Burke as a suspect until his arrest. He was being held in jail without bail.

The singer had been under investigation by an LA County grand jury looking into the death of Rivas Hernandez. The probe was officially secret, but its existence — and the designation of D4vd as its target — was revealed on Feb. 25 when his mother, father and brother filed an objection in a Texas court to subpoenas demanding they testify.

The long-dead body of Rivas Hernandez was found in a Tesla towed from the Hollywood Hills on Sept. 8, a day after she would have turned 15. She was a 13-year-old seventh grader when her family reported her missing in 2024 from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. Authorities give her age as 14 when she was killed in court documents.

The 2023 Tesla Model Y was registered in the singer’s name at the Texas address of his subpoenaed family members, according to court filings from prosecutors. It had been towed from an upscale neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills where it had been sitting, seemingly abandoned.

Police investigators searching the Tesla in a tow yard found a cadaver bag “covered with insects and a strong odor of decay,” court documents said, and “detectives partially unzipped the bag and observed a decomposed head and torso.”

Investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office removed the bag and “discovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body,” according to court documents. A second black bag was found under the first, and dismembered body parts were inside it. No cause of death has been publicly revealed.

D4vd, pronounced “David,” gained popularity among Generation Z fans for his blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit “Romantic Homicide,” which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. He then signed with Darkroom and Interscope Records and released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns” and a follow-up, “The Lost Petals,” in 2023.

When the body was discovered, D4vd had been on tour in support of his first full-length album, “Withered.” Later, the last two North American shows, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with a scheduled performance at LA’s Grammy Museum, were canceled, as was the European tour that was to have begun in Norway.

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This story has been corrected to show that D4vd is 21, not 20 years old.

The team announced Thursday night it was bringing back Collier, but didn't disclose terms of the deal.

ESPN reported, citing sources, that the Lynx signed Collier to a one-year, $1.4 million supermax contract. The deal came a day after the WNBA defending champion Las Vegas Aces re-signed four-time MVP A’ja Wilson. ESPN reported that contract was a three-year, $5 million supermax deal, the most lucrative in league history.

The 29-year-old Collier averaged a career-high 22.9 points per game last season while shooting 53.1% from the floor, 40.3% from 3-point range and 90.6% from the foul line, becoming the first player in WNBA history to post 50/40/90 shooting splits while averaging 20 or more points per game. She finished second to Wilson in league MVP voting the last two years.

“Phee has been such an integral part of the Lynx since she was drafted in 2019," head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve said in a statement released by the team. “Coming off a historic 50/40/90 season and guiding the Lynx to the most wins in franchise history, Phee is hungry to position the Lynx for a championship run in 2026.”

Minnesota went 34–10 in the regular season and was the No. 1 overall seed in the WNBA playoffs. But Collier injured her left ankle in Game 3 of the WNBA semifinals against Phoenix, ending her season. The Lynx lost the series to the Mercury in five games.

Collier, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and four-time All-WNBA and All-Defensive Team selection, was the sixth overall draft pick by the Lynx in 2019 out of UConn and won the league's Rookie of the Year award. She has career averages of 18.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.2 blocks per game in seven seasons. Collier ranks second in franchise history in career steals (325) and scoring average (18.4), behind Maya Moore, and second in blocked shots (239) behind Sylvia Fowles.

Last season, Collier set the franchise record with 54 consecutive made free throws and was selected the WNBA All-Star Game MVP after setting the scoring mark with 36 points.

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

The Paris meeting is part of attempts by sidelined nations to ease the impact of a conflict they didn’t start and haven’t joined, but that has sent the global economy reeling. After the war started on Feb. 28, Iran effectively shut the narrow strait though which a fifth of the world’s oil usually passes.

The U.S. is not part of the planning for what has been branded the Strait of Hormuz Maritime Freedom of Navigation Initiative. In a post on X ahead of Friday’s conference, French President Emmanuel Macron said the mission to provide security for shipping through the strait would be “strictly defensive,” limited to non-belligerent countries and deployed “when security conditions allow.”

Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have spearheaded international efforts to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran, which Starmer has accused of “holding the world’s economy to ransom.” U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a retaliatory American blockade of Iranian ports has raised the economic jeopardy even higher.

“The unconditional and immediate reopening of the Strait is a global responsibility, and we need to act to get global energy and trade flowing freely again," Starmer said before the meeting.

Military planning underway

France and Britain also have led military planning meetings, in an echo of the “coalition of the willing” assembled to provide security for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire in that war.

French military spokesman Col. Guillaume Vernet said Thursday that the mission is still “in construction.”

Macron's office said participants will contribute “each according to its capabilities,” stressing options to ensure safe passage through the strait will depend on the security situation after a lasting ceasefire.

“What matters is that ship operators have all the means at their disposal to be sure their vessels will not be hit if they pass through the strait. That may require intelligence, mine-clearing capabilities, military escorts, communication procedures with coastal states, etc.,” an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the French presidency's customary practices.

Sidharth Kaushal, a research fellow in sea power at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said mine-clearing and creating a warning system for maritime threats were more likely roles for the coalition than warships escorting commercial tankers though the strait.

“You need huge numbers of vessels for that sort of thing, which nobody has,” he said.

Iran expert Ellie Geranmayeh, deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said mine-clearing is an area where European countries and their partners could play a role.

“They would be a better party to do this than the United States, because once you have U.S. military doing this and lingering on Iranian shores, it creates a potential arena for Iran and the U.S. to have miscalculations and get back into a sort of military tension,” she said.

Dozens of countries involved in talks

Britain has discussed using mine-hunting drones, deployed from the ship RFA Lyme Bay, for a Hormuz mission.

The war has highlighted the shrunken state of the Royal Navy, which has deployed just one major warship, destroyer HMS Dragon, to the eastern Mediterranean. France, which has the European Union’s most powerful military, has sent its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the region, alongside a helicopter carrier and several frigates.

More than 40 nations have taken part in diplomatic or military meetings led by France and the U.K. in recent weeks, though fewer are likely to commit military resources.

Macron's office said about 30 countries are to attend Friday's talks, including some from the Middle East and Asia. The list has not been disclosed. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni are expected to attend in person, with others joining by video.

The operation is partly a response to Trump, who has berated allies for failing to join the war and said reopening the strait is not America's job. The president has called allies “cowards,” said NATO “wasn’t there when we needed them” and telling Britain: “You don’t even have a navy.”

“I imagine there’ll be some desire on the part of many European states, and potentially Canada, to demonstrate the ability to provide security in a way that’s distinct from if not completely separate from the U.S. and which also demonstrates a capacity for independent action,” Kaushal said.

“How many states actually have spare capacity to offer to this is a pretty open question.”

___

Lawless reported from London.

But there is little of that energy so far in 2026. Even though Democrats may have a better shot at winning, there is far less attention and money as their candidates compete for the nomination in next month's primary.

Their struggles raise the possibility that the Democrats could miss another chance to win the Georgia governor's office for the first time since 1998.

National Democrats say they are not going to let that happen. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who leads the Democratic Governors Association, said Georgia is “in play” and the money will be there for the party's eventual nominee.

“We’re going to make sure the Democratic candidate in Georgia has the funding they need to compete,” Beshear told The Associated Press on Saturday as he visited Atlanta to keynote a party dinner.

While Republicans have flooded the state with nearly $100 million in advertising, Democrats have spent only $1.24 million. Most observers believe no Democrat will win a majority in the rapidly approaching May 19 primary, prolonging the party's uncertainty.

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms could be headed toward a June 16 runoff, thanks to superior name identification and being the only Black woman running in a party that has historically relied on support from Black women. But the scramble for a second spot appears wide-open, with likely contenders including former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former state Sen. Jason Esteves and former state labor commissioner and CEO of suburban DeKalb County Mike Thurmond.

Democrat could face big Republican money

On the Republican side, health care billionaire Rick Jackson has already spent or pledged $50 million toward his bid, twice as much as any previous primary candidate for Georgia governor. There is also Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump; Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; and Attorney General Chris Carr.

It is a contrast to 2022, when Abrams outraised Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. She ended up losing the race, her second defeat to Kemp.

But Democrats say they are not worried this year even if they are outspent.

“I'll still win,” Bottoms said after a campaign event Monday, echoing other Democrats who say money can't paper over voter discontent with Republicans.

She argues that she is a “battle-tested leader” who gained national experience in President Joe Biden's administration. Like other Democrats, she cites expanding health care, affordable housing and better education as among her top issues.

“When given the opportunity to lead, I led on behalf of not just the city of Atlanta, but people across the state, and I am ready to go and fight for all of our communities to make Georgia a better place for our children,” Bottoms said Wednesday.

The Democratic race doesn’t feature notable policy splits along the lines of the progressive-moderate fissures that have opened around the country. It is not even a clear-cut contrast on style like in the Texas Senate primary that James Talarico won over Jasmine Crockett. Only Esteves, who started nearly unknown statewide, has been willing to attack the other candidates.

The noncombative nature of the other candidates was on display Wednesday night in a televised debate that included only Bottoms, Duncan and Thurmond. Duncan made only the most oblique criticisms of Bottoms' record as mayor. After Thurmond blamed Duncan for supporting a bill allowing people to carry guns more widely, he said in a postdebate interview that the criticism wasn't aimed at Duncan directly.

Esteves tries to go from unknown to contender

Esteves is banking on a late surge to propel him to the runoff. He has spent about $1 million on a burst of advertising, the only significant spending by any Democrat thus far. The 42-year-old, who has a Puerto Rican father and a Black mother, argues he can build the “multiracial, multigenerational coalition" needed to win the young and diverse electorate in Georgia.

He often references his experience as a middle school teacher and small business owner in addition to his time as a lawyer, school board member and state senator.

“A lot of the challenges that Georgians are facing, I am facing in real time,” Esteves said in a Wednesday interview. “They’re looking for someone who not only wants to solve their issues, but can identify personally with their issues.”

Esteves is the only Democrat attacking Bottoms on how she managed crime, disorder and the COVID pandemic as mayor before her surprise decision not to seek a second term.

“The fact that she did not run for reelection confirmed people’s belief that when the going gets tough, she stepped out on the city,” Esteves said.

Bottoms defends her stewardship and says she declined to run again “based on what was best for me personally and my family."

Esteves has also repeatedly taken aim at Duncan, saying Duncan “oversaw some of the passage of the worst bills” while lieutenant governor, including Georgia’s ban on abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected. Although dozens of state lawmakers are backing Esteves, his top surrogate has been Shanette Williams, the mother of Amber Nicole Thurman, a woman who died in a suburban Atlanta hospital in 2022 after taking abortion pills and developing an infection.

New Democrat Duncan seeks ‘trust’

Duncan is best known for opposing Trump's attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden. He has spent the past year apologizing for his Republican past and argues he is the only Democrat who can win over enough moderate voters to give his new party a win. In recent weeks, Duncan has begun to pick up some endorsements from moderate Democrats and unions.

“I don’t want to only earn your vote, I want to earn your trust,” Duncan said in Wednesday night's debate.

Thurmond calls himself a “throwback” and says his experience in state and local government, including leading the state child welfare agency, serving as labor commissioner and helping to bail out the DeKalb County school district as superintendent, would let him move quickly to enact Democratic priorities.

“I have a track record of service to the people of Georgia, and I believe this election would turn not on promises, but on performance,” Thurmond said in an interview after Wednesday's debate.

He has been trying to knit together a coalition of rural voters and older Democrats. Among those backing him are Roy Barnes, the last Democratic governor, and Andrew Young, the former mayor of Atlanta and one of the last surviving leaders of the 1960s Civil Rights movement.

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Police said it happened at around 3 p.m. at a strip mall in the 7600 block of West Sample Road.

Video from Sky 10 showed officers and crime scene tape behind the shopping center, surrounding a crashed work van and an SUV. Police said both the person of interest and victim were in the vehicles.

Sgt. James Kaban, a spokesperson for the Coral Springs Police Department, said the victim was taken to Broward Health North “with serious injuries” and a suspect was arrested.

Kaban identified the suspect as 49-year-old Abdul Perez.

Kaban said just before 4:30 p.m. that the victim’s “current condition remains unknown.”

Police said they’re looking into the relationship between Perez and the victim.

Perez was arrested on multiple charges including attempted premeditated murder, aggravated battery, possession of firearm or ammunition subject to injunction, and tampering with evidence.

Kaban said there was no threat to the public and asked anyone with information to call CSPD at 954-344-1800.

It wasn’t the Iran war, nor the still-going partial government shutdown over Department of Homeland Security funding. He wanted to talk about a monumental issue of a different kind, hoisting up large artist renderings of the $400 million White House ballroom he’s building, complete with hand-carved “top-of-the-line” Corinthian columns.

“I’m so busy that I don’t have time to do this. I’m fighting wars and other things,” Trump said before extensively detailing plans for “the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world.”

His divided attention has become a Democratic point of attack and a concern for some Republicans who worry he’s not spending enough time on issues that voters care most about ahead of November’s midterm races.

The contrast was on full display Thursday, when, as Trump flew to Las Vegas to discuss tax cuts for Americans earning tips, his administration was pushing ahead with plans to build a 250-foot Triumphal Arch near the Lincoln Memorial replete with a Lady Liberty-like statue and a pair of golden eagles.

The president’s ability to speak to the concerns of working people has always seemed incongruous with his biography as a billionaire real estate developer. Yet his populist policies and emphasis on the economy during his 2024 campaign helped catapult him back to the White House.

Republican strategist Rick Tyler noted that, when Trump first ran for president in 2016, his wealth was a selling point.

“While other people, like Mitt Romney, played down how rich he was, Trump was giving free helicopter rides at the Iowa State Fair,” Tyler said. “People loved it.”

Still, Trump’s preoccupation with some of the gilded trappings of the presidency, as more Americans worry about bills, has drawn accusations that he’s a modern-day Marie Antoinette.

“‘Fighting wars’ and surging gas prices, yet Trump has time to brag about his billionaire backed ballroom,” Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, responded on X to Trump’s Air Force One presentation.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential hopeful, has been more direct in comparing Trump to the last queen before the French Revolution, who has come to embody extravagant opulence — even posting an AI-generated image of Trump's face on her body on social media.

"TRUMP ‘MARIE ANTOINETTE’ SAYS, ‘NO HEALTH CARE FOR YOU PEASANTS, BUT A BALLROOM FOR THE QUEEN!’ Newsom wrote in October 2025, at the start of a 43-day government shutdown.

White House says Trump's success benefits all Americans

Asked about opponents invoking Marie Antoinette, White House spokesman Davis Ingle said Trump “is going to go down in history as the most successful and consequential president in our lifetime.”

“His successes on behalf of the American people will be imprinted upon the fabric of America and will be felt by every other White House that comes after him," Ingle said in a statement.

The president faced similar critiques during his first term. But lately he's been unabashed about accusations he’s disconnected from Americans' worries about high costs, which could leave Republicans with an uphill battle to retain control of Congress.

About two-thirds of Americans said Trump is “out of touch” with the concerns of most people in the United States today, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll from February, though the same percentage said the same about the Democratic Party.

Presidents are usually removed from voters, separated by layers of security and surrounded by adoring subordinates. In her book “Why Presidents Fail And How They Can Succeed Again,” Elaine Kamarck argues that presidents get too focused on their own political narratives rather than the public's concerns. Yet, when it comes to Trump, “All of this stuff is frankly unique to him.”

She pointed to the ballroom as well as Trump's other White House renovations, soon adding his signature to paper currency, and renaming the Kennedy Center after himself.

“It's a reflection, I think, of his own background as a businessman and somebody who made his fortune selling his name," said Kamarck, who worked in Bill Clinton’s White House.

While Trump focuses on the ballroom and other Washington projects, some public work projects in other parts of the country have languished.

Joe Meyer, the former mayor of Covington, Kentucky, spent years pushing for critical improvements to the Brent Spence Bridge connecting his town with Cincinnati, a project listed as a top federal priority dating back to Trump's first administration.

Federal funds for improvements were approved under President Joe Biden but held up by a Trump-ordered review. Work is now finally set to begin later this year, though delays will likely limit design options and slow the project, Meyer said.

“The ballroom is Washington inside-baseball,” Meyer said. “The bridge is just a wreck. It’s frustration that we’ve been dealing with forever.”

A $100 tip and a golden tractor

Trumpeting new tax deductions for tips, Trump staged ordering McDonald's to the Oval Office — which he has crammed with gold flourishes — and tipped the grandmother making the delivery $100. When she described large medical bills from her husband’s cancer treatments, Trump said she should bring him to an upcoming UFC fight on the White House lawn.

When hundreds of farmers were invited to the White House for an agricultural policy speech, they stood on the South Lawn beside a tractor that had been painted gold. It drizzled, but Trump stayed dry, addressing them from a covered second-floor balcony.

“You don’t mind rain,” the president told the farmers below.

He then flew to Miami for a conference of Saudi investors who, the president noted, were too rich to be impressed by U.S. families scrounging to save up $5,000.

“I know they’re looking like, ‘What the hell is $5,000?’" Trump joked. "Their shoes cost them more than $5,000."

When asked in February, meanwhile, for his message to young people wanting to buy a home, Trump replied: “Save a little longer. Wait a little longer."

Members of the Cabinet have also fed the perception that Trump's promised “ Golden Age ” may not be arriving for everyone. Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. advised Americans to buy liver instead of beef.

“If you go and buy a steak, it’s still pretty expensive. But if you buy the cheaper cuts, it’s great meat. And it is very, very affordable. Or liver, or, you know, all these alternatives,” he told podcast host Joe Rogan.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said people could still afford meals consisting of “a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla and one other thing.”

The White House has sought to show that Trump is attuned to voter concerns by sending the president to politically competitive parts of the country to trumpet his efforts to lower costs. But Trump has stepped on the message by insisting that affordability concerns are a Democratic “hoax.”

Texas-based Republican consultant Brendan Steinhauser said he thinks that Trump “can kind of get away with" building a ballroom because voters have come to expect that from him as a brash dealmaker and businessman.

But Steinhauser said he worries that dramatic increases in gas prices and a potentially weakening economy could resonate with voters. Ahead of the midterms, Steinhauser said, Democrats could score points “trying to make it more about Trump and his oligarch friends.”

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Associated Press writers Linley Sanders in Washington and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

He went camping. He jammed with local musicians. He drank root beer delivered on roller skates. He shopped for records. He bought a guitar. Then he went home.

The next time people in Benton saw George Harrison, it was with 73 million others who tuned in to watch his band, the Beatles, make their U.S. debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show" about four months later. The British Invasion, which changed popular music and American culture, was underway.

Now, the house where Harrison and his brother Peter stayed in Benton, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of St. Louis, is for sale.

You’ll forgive Beatles fans if they’re worried about its future. In 1995, the house at 113 McCann Street had a date with the wrecking ball. Activists, including Harrison’s sister, Louise Harrison Caldwell, who had moved away in the late 1960s, stepped in to save it.

Coal mining brought the family of Harrison's sister to Benton

Previously known for hosting the state's last public hanging in 1928, Benton, population 6,700, was built on Southern Illinois' rich veins of coal. Louise Caldwell moved to town when her husband, a mining engineer, got a job in what was then a thriving industry.

The house they chose is a five-bedroom bungalow built in 1935 with a brick facade across its wide front porch.

In the mid-1990s, a state agency bought the house from a subsequent owner with plans to flatten it for parking. Mega-fan Robert Bartel of Springfield, a Beatles author and documentarian, alerted the media and Fab Four loyalists.

Local investors repurchased it from the state and opened the Hard Day's Nite Bed and Breakfast, featuring the couch Harrison traded guitar licks on and stacks of other loaned Beatles memorabilia, including a bevy from Bartel.

The bed-and-breakfast closed in 2010. Benton resident Grady Adams has since operated it as regular bed-and-bath apartments but now wants to sell, listing it for $105,000. Brian Calcaterra, Benton’s director of economic development, suggested the city draft an ordinance to protect the house from demolition by a new owner, but Benton Mayor Lee Messersmith said the city council has not discussed the matter.

“Of course, if it doesn't get demo'd, I would prefer that,” Adams said.

Interest in reviving the bed-and-breakfast is unclear

Whether there's interest — or energy — to return the McCann Street house to its Beatles glory is up for debate.

Jim Kirkpatrick of Creal Springs, author of “Before He Was Fab,” a recollection of Harrison's visit which has been optioned for a movie, has had at least one encouraging conversation with someone considering purchase.

Benton business owner Robert Rea, a historian who helped save the Beatles house three decades ago, said the obsession has faded.

“When we did this (in 1995), the world went crazy because they thought, ‘George is going to come, he’s going to save the house,'” Rea said. “And I’m just being honest with you, maybe I’m missing it or something, but that momentum is not here.”

Harrison's last chance to walk the streets in anonymity

Harrison's trip was perhaps the last time the musician could enjoy obscurity. He camped in Shawnee National Forest. He sat in with a popular local group when they played a nearby Veterans of Foreign Wars hall. The band’s leader took him to a drive-in restaurant with carhops on skates, where he guzzled root beer for the first time.

At a record store on Benton's downtown square, Harrison bought a pile of vinyl. Included was James Ray’s R&B single, “I’ve Got My Mind Set on You,” Harrison’s 1987 cover of which went to No. 1.

He also bought a Rickenbacker 425 guitar like the one bandmate John Lennon had. Harrison played the guitar a month later when the Beatles recorded “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” It sold at auction in 2014 for $675,000.

One day during Harrison's visit, he and Caldwell dropped by WFRX radio, where then-17-year-old Marcia Schafer Raubach had a Saturday afternoon teen program. Harrison gave her a copy of “She Loves You,” which he told her had just hit the top of the British charts.

Raubach interviewed Harrison on the air, the first for a Beatle in America, and played the 45, which she still has. She said it sounded different than the songs American teens were then punching up on jukeboxes. But it didn't make an impression on her audience.

Despite his longish hair in a land of crew cuts, Raubach found Harrison, dressed in a crisp white shirt, jeans and sandals, “very clean cut, he was personable and mannerly and they call him the ‘quiet Beatle’ — well, he was.”

“If I had known what they were going to become, I would have handled that differently,” Raubach, now 79, said. “It’s still amazing that he even came here and that I met him. I think he really liked Southern Illinois.”

Harrison never returned to Benton, though, dying in 2001 at 58. Caldwell was 91 when she died in 2023.

From stars on the Walk of Fame to Grammys and an acclaimed memoir, she is music royalty, now ready to delight fans with an intimate show at the Arsht Center.

She won her first Grammy in 2025, 40 years after her first nomination.

She burst onto the music scene in 1984 as a solo artist with her hit anthem “The Glamorous Life,” guided by the genius hand of Prince.

In 2014, the world got a deeper look into her life with her critically acclaimed memoir, “The Beat of My Own Drum.”

Authorities said everyone inside the complex was able to get out except Adeline Morant who lived in the unit, located in the 4000 block of Northwest 19th Street, where the fire started just after 1 p.m.

First responders were seen standing by as firefighters brought Morant down before she was rushed to Broward Health Medical Center, where her daughter said she later died.

Jasmine Greer, a spokesperson for Lauderhill Fire Rescue, said reaching the Morant was difficult.

“It was a task given the time of the day, a lot of people was outside, obviously it was on a third floor, we had to stretch a lot of lines, we had multiple mutual aid,” Greer said.

Fire officials said the blaze was contained to that one unit and no other injuries were reported. However, rescuing Morant proved challenging due to the size of the complex, tight hallways and heavy black smoke.

“Seeing the smoke, some reality hit and get what you can and get the hell out of there,” the neighbor said.

The apartment owner, Olivine Morant, told Local 10 that she lived in the unit with her 91-year-old mother. She said she was at work when she received a call that there was a fire in her unit.

When Olivine Morant arrived, she immediately asked rescue crews about her mother, but claimed that no one could tell her anything other than she had been taken to the hospital.

Olivine Morant described her mother as a vibrant, beautiful person who came to South Florida from Jamaica.

Morant said the family had planned to take her mother out for her birthday. She said she did not want a party, only a meal of her favorite seafood: crab legs and shrimp.

Morant now wants answers about how the fire started.

No other details about the senior or the cause of the fire were immediately released.

Local 10 News has learned that because federal grant money funded a significant portion of the electric bus fleets in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, there are federal guidelines tied to how long those buses are expected to remain in service.

If the buses are taken out of service early, counties may have to repay a portion of that federal funding.

That possibility is now driving decisions in both counties in very different ways.

In Broward County, transit officials have formally asked the Federal Transit Administration for forgiveness in an effort to avoid paying that money back.

“And so one of the things that we are, the application that we submitted to the FTA is for us to be able to get forgiveness from them so that we do not have to reimburse them for the funds that they have provided to us and also to be able to dispose of them,” said Coree Cuff Lonergan, CEO and general manager of Broward County Transit.

In Miami-Dade County, leaders are taking a different approach.

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the county is still trying to find a way to get the buses back on the road.

“We are still hopeful we can still put them into service. The company that is the successor company is not able to give us the level of service we need,” she said.

The mayor also said she has personally reached out to other companies about retrofitting the buses.

“I personally have spoken to other companies about ways to retrofit so we can move these buses forward,” she said. “I have not given up hope that we can put them into operation.”

At this point, however, Miami-Dade has not outlined a clear plan if those efforts are unsuccessful.

Nearly 100 buses out of service

A Local 10 investigation first reported earlier this week found nearly 100 electric buses sitting out of service across South Florida.

In Miami-Dade County, about 60 buses have been taken off the road most are being stored at the Homestead Air Reserve Base. In Broward County, 31 buses are sitting at a landfill site.

Together, the counties spent about 96 million dollars on the buses.

A significant portion of that funding came from federal grants.

The buses were manufactured by Proterra and were once promoted as the future of public transit.

Instead, both counties say the buses were plagued with reliability issues.

“They would only do a partial run, and then they would fail, which required us to either send out mechanics or to tow them back into one of the two garages that we have,” Lonergan said. “And that just kept happening and happening.”

Officials say parts have been difficult to obtain because they are proprietary.

Proterra filed for bankruptcy. Its assets were sold to a successor company, but counties say support and parts availability have remained unavailable

Uncertain financial impact

Under federal guidelines, heavy duty transit buses, including electric ones, are expected to remain in service for up to 12 years or 500,000 miles.

If that standard is not met, counties may be required to repay a portion of the federal funding.

Both counties are now working with federal officials on what happens next.

For taxpayers, the bottom line remains uncertain.

For filmmaker and producer Rachelle Salnave, that makes Miami’s film festival in Little Haiti the perfect place to debut her film “Dual Citizen.”

“While this story is based in Haiti, it could have taken place anywhere,” Salnave said.

“Dual Citizen” follows Salnave and her father as they navigate Haiti’s dual citizenship law.

In 2012, Haiti lifted its ban on dual nationality, allowing citizens to reclaim their status.

“It’s educating the actors in that work in each department of those processes that need to be cleared and clarified. Eventually we breakthrough because I’m like the constitution is right here,” she said.

Another film to watch this weekend is “Melodrama.”

The romance explores long-standing tensions between Haitians and Dominicans.

Actor Jimmy Jean-Louis plays a Haitian construction worker who falls for a Dominican woman.

“That division is done for a certain reason and I think I understand why, understand it. I don’t think we should fall into that trap,” Jean-Louis said.

Jean-Louis said the story will resonate with local viewers.

“I believe all South Floridians will identify. We live in a world where you have all those tensions going on as well. I think they’ll get it. At the end of the day it’s about love,” he said.

Both films will draw different crowds during the film festival, but they share a common theme.

“Most of all they’ll go home with something. They probably learned but they’ve experienced,” he said.

“Melodrama” premieres Friday night at Silverspot Cinema and screens again Saturday.

“Dual Citizen” will play again next month for Haitian Heritage Month in Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale.

“Who loses? The children lose. The kids lose,” Wenski said.

The Catholic Church’s unaccompanied minors program has been active since the 1960s. Its Miami operation is the longest-running, best known for taking in thousands of children fleeing communism in Cuba under Operation Pedro Pan.

“They gave us the protection and the guidance that we so needed,” said Javier Llorens, a retired dentist who went through the program.

“When I arrived at age 11,” he added.

Llorens says the experience was life-changing.

“When I raised my family, I was always remembering my experience as a child and I am extremely grateful,” he said.

But the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which manages the funding, says the program has seen a dramatic decrease in children, with illegal border crossings at record lows.

The agency added the cut is part of the Trump administration’s continued efforts to stop illegal entry and the smuggling and trafficking of unaccompanied children.

Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar and Congressman Carlos Gimenez also sent a letter to the Trump administration, saying that with crises intensifying in Cuba and Haiti, ending the program now is a strategic mistake.

The airline will soon open bookings for four-hour stints in the Skynest sleep pods and says they will be the first lie-flat beds for budget air travelers. Fliers will get cozy with their fellow passengers, however, so crumbs, strong perfumes and bedsharing are forbidden.

The curtained berths will be available to economy and premium economy fliers on the airline’s new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft from November. The planes will service the Auckland to New York route, which is one of the world’s longest commercial flights and leaves economy passengers sitting upright for a marathon 16 to 18 hours.

Instead, travelers will have the option of a pre-booked four-hour spot in a curtained pod, with costs starting from 495 New Zealand dollars ($291) on top of the price of their economy tickets. But use of the six pods, arranged in a triple-bunk style layout between cabins, will put fliers in close proximity to others, prompting the airline to publish etiquette notes.

Passengers must refrain from snacking in the pods, which can’t be used by children or any additional visitors.

“That means solo snoozes only please, no musical nests or tag-teaming,” Air New Zealand’s website says. For those worried about cleanliness, the airline assures travelers that the pillows, blankets and sheets supplied “are all refreshed” between four-hour naps.

Fliers are also required to change into specially provided socks to enter the pod, fasten their seatbelts over their blankets and forgo dousing themselves in any smelly “perfumes or potions.” Passengers will be woken by a gentle change in lighting at the end of their four-hour stint in the bunk – or by a flight attendant, possibly less gently, if they don’t rouse in time.

Each berth is about the length of a regular bed — 80 inches or 203 cm — but the pods don’t leave headroom for sitting up and access “requires bending, kneeling, crawling, or climbing into the space,” the aircraft’s website says. The bunks are 25 inches (64 cm) wide at shoulder height, tapering to 16 inches (41 cm) at the foot of the beds.

Seats or couches that convert into beds in the sky aren’t a new offering for business and first class travelers, but Air New Zealand believes its lie-flat bunks for economy travelers will be a world first.

The offering from New Zealand’s national carrier is the latest from airlines seeking to sell seat upgrades and other add-ons to economy travelers. Air New Zealand first announced the economy beds were in development in 2020.

The airline has increased fares and cut some domestic flights from its schedule in response to increased jet fuel costs during the war in the Middle East. In March, it suspended its earnings outlook due to fuel price volatility and warned that more changes to its routes were possible.

But on one of its longest flights, travelers might finally get some shut-eye — although they should expect snoring, for which earplugs are provided, the airline said.

“Statistically, someone’s going to do it,” Air New Zealand’s website reads. “It might be you.”

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced Lyons' departure, calling him a great leader of ICE who helped to make American communities safer. Mullin said Lyons' last day will be May 31.

“We wish him luck on his next opportunity in the private sector,” Mullin said in a statement. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press asking why he is resigning.

Lyons, who was named acting director in March 2025, led the agency at the center of President Donald Trump’s plans to reshape immigration to the U.S.

Under his leadership, the agency was granted a massive infusion of cash through Congress, which it used to expand hiring and detention capabilities, and it ramped up arrests to meet demand from the administration.

ICE was also central to a series of high-profile immigration enforcement operations in American cities, including Chicago and Minneapolis, a deployment that ended after backlash erupted over the deaths of two American protesters at the hands of federal immigration officers.

Stephen Miller, the president’s deputy chief of staff and the main architect of his immigration policy, called Lyons a "dedicated leader."

“His courageous work at ICE has saved countless thousands of American lives and helped deliver safety and tranquility to millions of Americans,” Miller said in a statement.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson described Lyons in a post on X as “an American patriot who made our country safer.”

It’s not clear who might replace Lyons. But whoever does will take over an agency flush with cash while still a flashpoint for controversy. ICE is at the center of a battle in Congress, with Democratic lawmakers demanding restraints on immigration officers before agreeing to restore routine funding for DHS.

On Thursday, Lyons, along with two other top immigration officials, appeared before a House subcommittee to argue for his agency’s budget and faced continued scrutiny from lawmakers of ICE’s actions.

Lyons' departure also comes as DHS is under new leadership after Trump fired former Secretary Kristi Noem, who led the department through the administration’s major immigration policy changes.

Mullin, who took over as secretary last month, is likely to continue to advance the president’s agenda but has struck a softer tone on some of the administration’s most contentious policies.

Public perceptions of ICE during Lyons' tenure were low. In a February AP-NORC poll, most U.S. adults, including independents, said they have an unfavorable view of the agency.

Lyons faced questions in Congress over the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and was asked if he would apologize for the way some Trump administration officials characterized Good as an agitator. He declined to do so.

“I welcome the opportunity to speak to the family in private. But I’m not going to comment on any active investigation,” Lyons said.

Lyons said he had seen video that captured Pretti’s shooting but said he could not comment, citing an active investigation.

Lyons, who joined ICE in 2007 as an immigration enforcement agent in Texas, signed off on a memo, first obtained by The Associated Press, that granted federal immigration officers sweeping powers to forcibly enter homes and make arrests without a judge’s warrant.

Trump’s border czar Tom Homan described Lyons as serving selflessly and “a highly respected and effective acting Director of ICE.”

__

Golden reported from Seattle.

Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., expressed alarm that federal workers may be using AI chatbots to handle sensitive government data. Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C., asked whether it should be illegal for AI systems to use someone’s likeness to create pornographic images.

Rep. John McGuire, R-Va., expressed concerns that AI systems could deny U.S. military forces from taking lethal actions due to a model's conclusion for “moral” behavior. And Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., raised concerns about the Trump administration’s use of AI in the war with Iran, the technology’s intensive energy usage and its potential effects on the climate.

While members of Congress elsewhere debated other major topics — the scope of the federal government’s surveillance powers, the war with Iran and funding the Department of Homeland Security — the House Oversight Committee’s subcommittee roundtable on “Artificial Intelligence and American Power” brought executives of AI firms, academics and those implementing AI at major companies together with lawmakers.

Thursday’s discussion comes as leaders on Capitol Hill grapple with the dizzying pace of global developments in which technology plays a central role. But the conversation quickly considered the potential for artificial intelligence to dwarf every other challenge facing the country.

“People in our districts across this country are going to start feeling impacts very soon, and if we don’t start thinking properly and aggressively and proactively about the challenges that AI creates, I fear that we’re going to have a revolution on our hands,” said Rep. Dave Min, D-Calif.

The subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida, also expressed optimism about AI’s ability to cure diseases and boost the economy. But Frost, currently the youngest member of Congress, worried that the technology would outpace lawmakers and pose potentially disastrous consequences if not addressed early on.

“I don’t have faith in this institution to actually put the common sense guardrails in place. And then we fast forward ten years, and the house is on fire,” said Frost. “That won’t be good for anybody, whether it’s the industry or working families and people, or this institution itself.”

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., kicked off the meeting with praise for the industry and marveled at how one panelist’s company used AI to automate and fast-track manufacturing in the firm’s factories.

“It’s truly like the closest thing to Star Trek I’ve ever seen,” Burlison said. He later inquired about what congressional districts should do to attract AI firms for business.

Many also openly fretted about disclosures from technology firms like Anthropic, which recently announced that its Mythos AI model, which the company claims has capabilities so powerful that it is limiting its use to select customers because of its apparent ability to bypass traditional cybersecurity and hack major institutions like banks, government agencies and major corporations.

“I recognize AI is not going anywhere,” said Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., a former Navy SEAL who served in combat. “That being said, does anyone on this panel feel or believe, in any way, that as we are going down the road in this AI race, we might be simultaneously engineering our own destruction?”

The assembled experts and industry leaders all highlighted AI’s vast and growing capabilities. They urged lawmakers, alongside their policy recommendations, to be thoughtful and well-informed when making policy.

Mark Beall, president of government affairs at the AI Policy Network Inc. and a former Pentagon official, warned that Congress risked the country losing its competitive edge on AI if it did not act on key national security concerns.

“I don’t think it’s going to kill us,” Robert Atkinson, founder of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology think tank, told lawmakers.

“At the same time, I do think it’s important for the federal government to seriously fund AI safety research,” Atkinson continued. “We need to know a lot more about how the models work.”

Spencer Overton, a George Washington University law professor, said the incentives for AI companies “are really what they should be” when asked by lawmakers whether the firms were good actors.

“Constituents are looking for you, not for companies, to step up and protect them," Overton said. "They’re trusting you, the person that they voted for, to do that, as opposed to companies. That’s the way the system works, right?”

Hamilton was FEMA’s temporary leader from January to May of last year but was fired one day after testifying on Capitol Hill that he did not agree with proposals to dismantle the organization charged with coordinating the federal government's response to disasters, an idea Trump had repeatedly floated.

“I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” he told members of a House Appropriations subcommittee.

FEMA has lacked a permanent administrator throughout Trump's second term and is currently on its third temporary leader, something critics have said undermines the agency's effectiveness.

Trump offered Hamilton the job Wednesday, according to the person, who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The New York Times first reported Trump's intent to nominate Hamilton.

Hamilton’s nomination would come at a crucial time for FEMA and as its future remains uncertain. Trump has said he wants to shift more responsibility for disasters to states and has created a FEMA Review Council, expected to propose sweeping reforms to how the agency supports disaster-impacted communities.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has expressed support for FEMA while calling for reforms, striking a stark contrast from his predecessor Kristi Noem, who vowed to "eliminate FEMA as it exists today” and whose dealings with the review council grew fraught.

It’s unclear how Hamilton would lead FEMA or what Trump expects from his leadership.

Hamilton's relationship with DHS officials became “very hostile” during his short tenure at FEMA, he said in a September episode of the podcast “Disaster Tough.” He wanted to cut “wasteful spending” and “downsize the agency,” he said, but not dismantle it.

Trump has not officially announced the nomination and could change his mind. Hamilton could also face headwinds during the Senate confirmation process over never having served as a state emergency management director.

Federal law requires FEMA’s administrator to have “a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management and homeland security” and no less than five years of executive leadership and management experience. If confirmed, he would become the principal advisor to the president and the Homeland Security secretary for all matters related to emergency management.

Hamilton spent a decade in the U.S. Navy Seals, serving on Seal Team Eight for four overseas deployments between 2005 and 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile and a Congressional bio.

He then served as a supervisory emergency management specialist at the U.S. State Department and as the Department of Homeland Security’s director of emergency services for several years.

Hamilton ran for Congress in Virginia’s 7th district in 2024 but lost in the Republican primary.

In a LinkedIn post earlier this month marking 47 years since FEMA’s establishment, Hamilton said he was grateful to have served under Trump and alongside FEMA colleagues. “I wish my tenure had been longer,” he wrote, “as there is still much more work to do for reform.”

He returned to the piano only after a mentor told him about a large number of piano pieces for the left hand alone.

After exhaustive practice he made a comeback, playing recitals as South Korea's only known professional left-hand-only pianist.

He is now preparing for a new challenge: his first joint performance with an orchestra at an international music festival next month.

“I’m so, so nervous I could die,” Lee, 54, said with a smile during a recent interview with The Associated Press at his Seoul home. “It’s just one concerto but working with an orchestra has its own difficulties.”

Thrown into despair

In August 2012, Lee, then a doctorate candidate at the music school at the University of Cincinnati, abruptly collapsed at his home.

He survived after extensive surgery, but the stroke damaged about 60% of his brain’s left hemisphere. He couldn’t move his right arm and leg and suffered temporary aphasia.

Lee was later brought back to South Korea in a wheelchair. His father, Lee Hae Chang, a baseball legend in South Korea, said his son couldn’t recognize him upon arrival.

“After the stroke, I didn’t even imagine playing the piano. I only thought about whether I could stand on my feet again,” Lee Hun said.

Performing with five fingers

Lee’s condition was also hard on his family, who had to care for him daily. His mother Poong Ok Hee recalled she had fought a lot with her son because of his mood swings. He often resisted her advice and assistance.

Things began changing after he dined with his former piano teacher, Chun Yung Hae, in 2013. Chun encouraged him to play the piano again, saying there were more than 1,000 pieces for the left hand alone. That rekindled his passion for the piano, and Lee began practicing immediately that night.

In 2016, Lee made a formal debut as a one-handed pianist at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, where he received treatment and rehabilitation. After performing Camille Saint-Saens’ “6 Etudes for the Left Hand Alone,” Lee played “Amazing Grace” with Chun, with Lee using his left hand and Chun her right hand. At least one spectator cried.

“He is a pianist so he must play the piano. He was completely hopeless and in despair, so I tried to give him some hope. But I didn’t expect him to play as well as this,” said Chun, who served as dean of the College of Music at Seoul’s Kyung Hee University.

Performing a masterpiece with orchestra

Lee has steadily given recitals, appeared on TV programs and written a memoir. He now walks without assistance and communicates relatively smoothly in Korean.

Local media dub him as “Korea’s Paul Wittgenstein,” an acclaimed Austrian pianist who is considered a pioneer in one-handed piano music. He lost his right arm in World War I and commissioned left-hand repertories by famed composers, including Ravel, Strauss, Prokofiev and Britten. His brother was philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

On May 2, Lee is to appear at the annual Icheon Young-Artist International Music Festival in South Korea, performing with a festival orchestra. They’ll play Ravel’s “Piano Concerto for the Left Hand,” which was also commissioned by Wittgenstein.

It’s a highly difficult piece for a pianist, Lee said, but it’s something he’s been eager to play.

Chung Eun-hyon, head of Lee’s agency, Tool Music, said Lee has told him it’s his dream to play the concerto. Chung said he feels deeply emotional as he helps “make his dream come true.”

Dreams of a two-handed comeback

Before becoming a one-handed pianist, Lee said he focused on how to perfect skills to wow audiences. Now, he agonizes over how to convey his emotions and interpretation of music to people.

“He plays a sort of music that truly touches the heart of people and it’s not about finger dexterity,” said Lee Eungkwang, head of a cultural foundation responsible for the Icheon festival.

“I’m really curious what it was like when he played with both hands,” Lee said.

Lee Hun said he hopes to make a two-handed comeback one day, saying he succeeded in pressing a piano key once with his right hand at a concert in November 2024.

Medically speaking, prospects for Lee regaining the use of his right hand and performing with both hands are dim, according to his doctor at St. Mary’s Hospital, Koo Jaseong.

“I still would like to give him a round of applause to his efforts. Though rare, there have been reports of miraculous recoveries too,” Koo said.

Mendoza, 22, attended Christopher Columbus High School in Miami.

In 2025, Mendoza led the No. 1 Hoosiers to a 16-0 record, defeating No. 10 Miami 27-21 in the national championship game at Hard Rock Stadium.

Mendoza finished the season with career highs of 3,535 passing yards and 41 touchdowns and tied a career low with six interceptions.

Before the game, Mendoza is expected to participate in brief photo opportunities and pregame ceremonies near the dugout.

The club has not yet released details on whether Mendoza will be joined by guests or participate in additional activities throughout the game.

Fans can purchase tickets here.

“If you book a ticket, we want you and your family to have the certainty that you’ll fly without endless delays and cancellations,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.

O’Hare has the most number of flights of any U.S. airport, and it already had one of the worst records for flight delays nationwide last year.

More than 3,080 flights were planned on peak days this summer, which represented a 14.9% increase from the summer before, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration. That increase comes as air traffic controllers deal with taxiway closures for construction projects.

In its draft order, the federal government said both American and United announced expansion plans at O’Hare that could lead to significant delays this summer and limit the airfield’s ability to handle the expected amount of traffic.

Duffy said that the schedule was unrealistic and would have exceeded what the airport could handle. So the number of flights at the airport will be limited to a maximum of 2,708, which is still slightly higher than maximum of 2,680 flights that were scheduled at the peak of last summer. He said that “will reduce delays and make this busy summer travel season a little easier."

On slower days of the week, fewer flights will have to be cut because a smaller number was scheduled in the first place. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays are typically slower days of the week for flights.

The flight limits will take effect May 17 and last through Oct. 24.

Airlines will go through the details of the order to figure out how many flights they have to cancel and then will notify customers.

American Airlines said that once implemented, the FAA’s order will improve reliability and reduce delays for customers traveling through O’Hare this summer.

“We are grateful to Secretary Duffy, Administrator Bedford, and their leadership teams for acting swiftly to ensure that Chicagoans and all consumers continue to benefit from sensible competition and to help minimize flight disruptions during the busy summer season,” American said in a statement.

American told employees in a memo that it estimates that it will have to cut no more than 40 arrivals and departures per day, but it estimates that United might have to cut more than 200 arrivals and departures based on the published schedules. United did not provide an estimate of how many flights it will have to cut.

United said the airline appreciates that the government came up with “a solution that makes sense for everyone who cares about O'Hare's success.”

Both airlines will review the order and their scheduled to determine where to make cuts and then notify travelers who are affected.

___

Associated Press Transportation Writer Josh Funk contributed to this report from Omaha, Nebraska.

Ramagem, un exlegislador, fue sentenciado a 16 años en prisión en septiembre pasado por su participación en un intento de golpe de Estado contra el actual mandatario, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, en enero de 2023. Huyó de Brasil antes de empezar a cumplir la condena.

“Estoy aquí para agradecer al gobierno de Estados Unidos, a los miembros de más alto rango del gobierno de Trump”, manifestó Ramagem en redes sociales. Añadió que su liberación “no requirió el pago de ninguna fianza, lo cual es común en casos migratorios” como el suyo.

Ramagem fue arrestado en Florida el lunes, el mismo día en que el senador brasileño Jorge Seif comunicó a la embajada de Estados Unidos en Brasilia que el exlegislador no debía permanecer detenido porque, aseguró, era objeto de persecución en su país.

Medios locales informaron que fue liberado la noche del miércoles.

Ramagem ya había solicitado asilo político antes de su detención, aunque el caso aún no ha sido resuelto.

Ramagem figuraba el lunes en la base de datos de personas bajo custodia del ICE. La agencia no respondió de momento a una solicitud de comentarios sobre el caso.

Ramagem fue despojado de su escaño en el Congreso en diciembre pasado después de ser declarado culpable en el intento de golpe de Estado.

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

Instead, he became the second Guardians pitcher in eight months to fall short in the ninth inning.

“I did my best. Maybe next time,” Messick said after Cleveland's 4-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night.

Leody Taveras led off the ninth with a grounder that just eluded diving second baseman Juan Brito and went into right field for a single to break up Messick's no-hit bid.

Cleveland still has the longest current gap between no-hitters of any major league franchise. The team’s most recent one was Len Barker’s perfect game on May 15, 1981, against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Up to that point, Messick had faced only one batter over the minimum and silenced a Baltimore lineup that came into the game third in the American League in on-base percentage (.334).

Blaze Alexander followed with a line-drive single to center that ended Messick's night. The 25-year-old Messick was removed to a standing ovation from the crowd of 14,748.

“That was very special what we got to watch tonight. That’s an unbelievably talented lineup that he took a no-hitter into the ninth against and just continued to attack,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “He and (catcher Austin) Hedges were magnificent with their sequencing. With that arsenal, that was a beautiful game.”

It was the first time in 11 career starts that Messick went more than seven innings. He was the 54th overall pick in the 2022 amateur draft out of Florida State and made his big league debut last year.

Messick threw 112 pitches, 78 for strikes. The 69.6% strike rate was the third-highest of his career. He walked two and equaled a career best with nine strikeouts. He was charged with two runs in eight-plus innings.

Messick got ahead of hitters early with 21 first-pitch strikes to the 27 batters he faced. The 18 swings and misses also tied a career high.

Out of Messick's six-pitch repertoire, the most effective was the changeup. He threw it 29 times and got 22 strikes, including nine whiffs. His most-used pitch was his four-seam fastball, which he threw 43 times.

“I know they were looking for it. It's just, the bottom falls out of it when you've got late movement like that, especially when you’ve set it up with other pitches, the heaters and the curveballs and cutters — you have to take an outlier swing to it,” Hedges said of the changeup. “You could tell they were trying to, but it’s just that good of a pitch.”

The sinker was Messick's third-most frequent pitch in his first three starts this season, but he threw it only twice against the Orioles.

Hedges said he had the feeling it might be a special night when center fielder Steven Kwan caught Taylor Ward's deep flyball at the wall to end the third inning. José Ramírez — who had a two-run homer in the first — made a nice stop on a grounder by Coby Mayo deep in the hole at third to end the fifth.

“The crowd got pretty loud and that’s an awesome feeling when everybody gets into it. I was really trying to lock in every pitch,” Messick said. “Pretty much about the sixth inning on, I prayed between pretty much every inning and I just was telling myself to execute.”

Baltimore averted a shutout when Gunnar Henderson’s sacrifice fly against closer Cade Smith drove in Taveras. Pete Alonso hit an RBI double before Smith retired the final two batters with runners at second and third for his fourth save.

“The boys were into it the whole game. Once Leody got that hit, I equate it to a sniper in the NBA, where it only takes one to go in for everything to change," said Orioles first-year manager Craig Albernaz, who was Cleveland's bench coach in 2024 and associate manager last season. “Messick was on. He had all his pitches dialed in the strike zone. He did a great job changing speeds in all counts, (getting) weak contact. He was on tonight.”

It was the fourth time since Barker's gem that a single Cleveland pitcher carried a no-hitter into the ninth. John Farrell went eight innings on May 4, 1989, against Kansas City before Kevin Seitzer broke it up with a single after Willie Wilson reached on an error.

Carlos Carrasco went 8 2/3 innings against Tampa Bay on July 1, 2015, and Gavin Williams had a no-hitter for 8 1/3 innings last season on Aug. 6 against the New York Mets.

Carrasco came within one strike of a no-hitter when Rays left fielder Joey Butler lined a slider on an 0-2 count that just eluded the glove of leaping Cleveland second baseman Jason Kipnis.

Juan Soto broke up Williams’ no-hit bid with a home run to center.

Messick is one of five American League pitchers with at least three wins. He improved to 3-0 this season and is third in the AL with a 1.05 ERA.

“I mean it (stinks), but it is baseball. I’ll have plenty more years to pitch a baseball game, so it might happen again,” he said.

___

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

Owner David Blitzer announced the hire less than 48 hours after the team’s regular season ended without a playoff appearance. Mehta was an assistant when the Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup each of the past two years.

“We quickly realized this job was in high demand and were incredibly fortunate to meet with many qualified candidates," Blitzer said. "Sunny’s familiarity with our organization and experience with a two-time Stanley Cup-winning team are characteristics that will serve as a foundation for future success. Our expectations are to be a perennial playoff team and compete for the Stanley Cup, and I look forward to Sunny leading us there.”

Mehta, 48, established the NHL's first full-fledged analytics department when he joined his home-state Devils in 2014 and worked for them through 2018. He spent time with Washington before going to Florida.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, who also had a vacancy after firing Brad Treliving late last month, also showed interest in Mehta, given their interest in a numbers-driven GM. The Devils beat Toronto the punch.

Raised in Wyckoff, New Jersey, Mehta grew up a Devils fan. He had a career as a professional poker player and worked in finance before getting into hockey.

“I knew this was the place I wanted to be,” Mehta said, thanking the Panthers for the chance to take the next step in his career. “New Jersey has a tremendous young core that will be looking to get back to being a contender, a complement of young assets and draft picks, and a passionate fan base hungry for success.”

The Devils parted ways with longtime GM Tom Fitzgerald late in the season. The future of coach Sheldon Keefe is not clear, though he guided the team to the playoffs in his first year in charge.

Mehta takes over at an important time for the franchise, with U.S. Olympic hero Jack Hughes at the center of a young core and captain Nico Hischier eligible to sign an extension as soon as July 1.

“I’m focusing on playing hockey here,” Hischier said about it the morning after Fitzgerald left. "I still have one more year. I’m with the Devils right now, and then we’ll see what happens."

If he is able to trade defenseman Dougie Hamilton this summer after his $7.4 million roster bonus is paid, it will clear up valuable salary cap space to use to improve the forward group.

___

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

The James clan has the chance to add another chapter to its family lore this month, thanks to Bronny's growth into a player that all of the Los Angeles Lakers can trust.

LeBron and Bronny seem likely to play postseason minutes together this month when the Lakers face the Houston Rockets in the first round. The greatest scorer in NBA history and his 21-year-old son have been teammates for nearly two years, but the prospect of accomplishing a new first is still special to both generations.

“It’s insane,” Bronny said Thursday after practice at the Lakers' training complex. “I mean, I’ve literally watched his whole career. Now I’m a part of it. So it’s a great experience. I’m appreciative of it — but I’m part of the job, too. So I have to do my job as well. I’ve got to lock in.”

Bronny's playing time has increased over the last month, and he has been a rotation member for the Lakers since Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves went down with injuries two weeks ago.

LeBron takes an obvious fatherly pride in Bronny's development into a contributor for their short-handed team.

“Every moment we get an opportunity to play together is something I never take for granted," LeBron said.

“Me being on the floor with him postseason, regular season, training camp, practices, it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my career, above everything I've accomplished," he added. "The fact that he's put himself in position to get his number called for a postseason game is pretty remarkable and pretty cool, given the circumstances that he's been through over the last couple of years. He earned it. He deserves it. He'll be ready.”

After playing sporadic NBA minutes during his first 1 1/2 NBA seasons, Bronny has stepped up into a regular role — partly out of necessity with the Lakers' top two scorers sidelined, but also because he earned more playing time. He has played 13 minutes or more in seven of the Lakers' past 10 games, averaging 19 minutes over the past four.

That responsibility seems likely to continue in the postseason, since Doncic and Reaves won’t play in Game 1 on Saturday, and there’s no timetable for their return.

Lakers coach JJ Redick confirmed he will be using every healthy option while Los Angeles attempts to beat overwhelming odds without its starting backcourt.

“We’re going to have to have all hands on deck in this series,” Redick said. “That’s just what we’re handed. I think Bronny has improved a lot. We trust him. The shooting piece (of his game), I’m a believer in, because of how well he shot it the last two years in the G League. ... He’s improved a ton defensively, in terms of his body positioning, both on and off ball. We want him to continue to evolve as a disruptive defender as well.”

Bronny played only four playoff minutes last season during two of the Lakers’ first-round losses to Minnesota, and he acknowledges hasn’t played in many big games during his brief basketball career.

He spent his sole collegiate season at Southern California, but he didn’t suit up for the Trojans until midseason after his recovery from an offseason cardiac incident, and that team didn’t make the NCAA Tournament.

“It’s what I’ve wanted, to play in the playoffs,” Bronny said. “I wasn’t able to play in March (Madness), and this is a bigger stage than that. I’m so excited to get out there with my teammates and try to get some wins and try to make it further in the playoffs.”

If and when they play together this month, Bronny thinks they can connect quickly. After all, he knows LeBron’s game pretty well.

“I don’t want to give all the answers to the test, but I’ve been watching him for a long time, and I’ve kind of picked up on his tendencies,” Bronny said with a grin. “I think it’s good that I’m paying attention during his career and what he likes to do in the postseason. I think we’ll be able to play good together. My IQ isn’t going to be far behind him, but I know what he’s doing and where he likes to get the ball on the floor.”

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

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The shooting happened just after 2 p.m. in the area of Northwest 75th Street and 21st Avenue.

First responders said they took the three victims to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center. Deputies said two of the victims were in critical condition and a fourth person was in custody.

Deputies were also seen surrounding a Tesla in the street.

Witness Jake Gardner described what he saw and heard.

“I was just working from home. I was actually on a Zoom call and I probably heard like 10-plus gunshots and then looked out my window and there was some dude running behind a house with a gun, looked like a Glock or something,” he said. “Then he kind of took off in a sprint and, like, hopped over towards my neighbor’s house, and then probably, like five, 10, minutes later, I just saw him getting arrested on the corner of the street.”

Nearby Lillie C. Evans Elementary School, at 1895 NW 75th St., was put on “a precautionary lockdown,” school officials said. The lockdown was lifted just before 3:30 p.m.

While a spotty shower may not be out of the question early Friday, the remainder of the day is expected to be dry, featuring a sun/cloud mix and gentle, east winds. It will start to feel a bit more humid. Near seasonable temperatures are forecast: lows in the low 70s and highs in the mid-80s.

More than 350 BCPS staff members received notifications about the uncertain status of their jobs.

“These decisions are driven by sustained declining enrollment and the resulting loss of funding,” Hepburn said.

The proposed organizational chart reflects the need to align resources while protecting classrooms. Hepburn said his goal is to continue to serve for years to come.

The Broward School Board members will meet at 1 p.m. on April 21 to make decisions about Hepburn’s proposal.

Jose Elias Barrozo-Espinosa, 38, who uses several aliases, was arrested in late March.

Broward Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Robert O’Dor said the Chilean national is one of several suspects involved in multiple break-ins in the Windmill Ranch neighborhood.

“We definitely said ‘There’s something going on here,’” O’Dor said. “We took the operational plan that we had in place and we brought in additional BSO assets.”

O’Dor said Barrozo-Espinosa was cut after breaking into the window of a home on Nov. 8, along with an accomplice.

According to an arrest warrant, the suspects got in, stealing a safe containing roughly $500,000 in gold and jewelry.

DNA evidence taken from blood left on a shade near the shattered window and on the floor came back to Barrozo-Espinosa.

Barrozo-Espinosa was reportedly fleeing from another burglary in the wealthy Indianapolis suburb of Zionsville, Indiana when he was caught by police and arrested under one of his aliases, Fabian Eliseo Llancavil Nahuel.

Deputies say he’s also wanted in California and Texas. O’Dor flew to Indiana to bring him back to Weston.

“Going over there and picking him up and bringing him back, it felt good,” O’Dor said.

Barrozo-Espinosa is believed to be part of SATG, known to target the empty homes of celebrities, the wealthy and professional athletes.

“They don’t stay in one place very long,” O’Dor said.

As of Thursday evening, two suspects linked to high-end burglaries in Weston have been arrested and several others believed to be accomplices are in custody.

O’Dor credits good police work of BSO detectives as well as partnerships with other agencies including the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations.

BSO urges homeowners to be vigilant, keep lights on inside and outside their homes, and to change up their routines.

As of Thursday, Barrozo-Espinosa remained in jail on an immigration hold.

Tucked away in Pinecrest, the Mandelstam School is a place that, you could say, rises above the rest.

At the school, third graders don’t just hit the books -- they soar, literally.

Along with rigorous academics, students take mandatory gymnastics lessons and dive deep into the arts.

“It’s just beautiful growing together and having this community grow together,” said Allen Mandelstam-Soussa, co-owner of the school.

Inside, the classroom recently looked more like a stage, as students prepared for a musical -- but not the kind you might expect.

Think circus-style acrobatics, performed by 8- and 9-year-olds. No special cushions if they fall -- just talent, plenty of practice and grit.

“I learned how to do upside-down splits on rings,” said Charlie, a third grader.

But it’s not just about performance. Everything here carries meaning.

Recently, one performance in particular went viral — a traditional Pakistani dance full of color and rhythm that racked up more than one million views online.

“Yeah, when you heard about a million views, what was that like?” a student was asked.

“I was like, just a dance,” said Pheonix, a third grader.

Each year, students choose a country to study throughout the year. This time, they picked Pakistan to celebrate their classmate Elon — and fully embraced it.

From the clothing to the handmade art, every detail was meant to make him feel special.

“He’s one of my best friends,” Pheonix said.

“I was really excited that people could learn more about my culture,” Elon said.

And people did. The dance even made headlines in Pakistan.

“I never knew a kid’s video could get that many views,” Elon added.

For Elon’s mother, the moment goes beyond the spotlight.

“These students are being raised to be leaders that are empathetic, have cultural understanding, and ultimately I hope see the humanity behind the headlines these days and become adults in the future that are gonna lead us to a more peaceful and brighter future,” said Sultana Qureshi.

In a world that can often feel divided, this school stands apart.

Leave it to kids to remind us that lifting each other up is something we can all reach for.

“It makes me feel proud that I’m in this school,” Charlie said.

Se pronostica que más de 5,83 millones de haitianos enfrenten niveles agudos de hambre de marzo a junio, lo que representa a más de la mitad de la población del país, de acuerdo con la Clasificación Integrada de las Fases de la Seguridad Alimentaria (IPC, por sus siglas en inglés), la principal autoridad internacional en crisis de hambre. La cifra representa una leve disminución frente a la estimación anterior de 5,91 millones.

Mientras tanto, se prevé que casi 1,9 millones de personas, apenas por debajo de los 2 millones proyectados, enfrenten niveles de hambre de emergencia, se indica en el informe.

En el documento se atribuyen las pequeñas mejoras a que la inflación bajó de 32% a 22%, a un invierno en general favorable para los cultivos y a un mejor acceso por carretera en algunas zonas.

Sin embargo, persisten las preocupaciones, y la entidad señaló que las limitadas mejoras son “insuficientes” para revertir una tendencia general de inseguridad alimentaria aguda en el atribulado país.

“El estallido del conflicto en Oriente Medio y el bloqueo del estrecho de Ormuz han provocado una gran perturbación en el sistema alimentario mundial con implicaciones directas para Haití”, se lee en el informe.

En el documento también se responsabiliza a los grupos armados de la crisis de hambre y se añade que “la violencia sigue asfixiando la economía haitiana y limitando el transporte de bienes y el movimiento de personas, y muchas de las personas más vulnerables se ven obligadas a unirse a actores armados para poder alimentar a sus familias”.

También se espera que el hambre empeore porque, a inicios de abril, el gobierno de Haití aumentó el precio por galón del queroseno en 40%, el diésel en 37% y la gasolina en 29%, debido a la guerra en curso.

En el informe se indica que los altos precios en las gasolineras afectarían el transporte en general y provocarían un aumento de los precios de los alimentos.

La mayoría de las personas que experimentan niveles de hambre de emergencia viven en la región noroeste de Haití, incluida Artibonite, que las pandillas han atacado sin piedad en los últimos años, arrasando comunidades y destruyendo tierras de cultivo.

“Combatir el hambre es esencial para restablecer la estabilidad en Haití. No podemos construir la paz si las familias no pueden alimentar a sus hijos”, afirmó Wanja Kaaria, directora y representante del Programa Mundial de Alimentos en Haití, subrayando la necesidad de asistencia alimentaria de emergencia y de reconstruir los sistemas alimentarios locales.

Quienes enfrentan niveles de hambre de emergencia también viven en barrios empobrecidos de la capital de Haití, que, según la policía, ahora está controlada en 72% por pandillas, frente a un estimado previo de 90%.

El agravamiento del hambre se atribuye a la violencia de las pandillas, que ha desplazado a una cifra récord de 1,4 millones de personas en todo Haití. En el informe se determina que 70% de las personas que viven en sitios de desplazamiento experimentan altos niveles de inseguridad alimentaria.

En un refugio abarrotado y sucio que antes era una escuela, Feguens Jean, de 25 años, dijo que no tendría mucho para comer el jueves debido al mal tiempo.

Vende zapatillas usadas para alimentarse él mismo y a su madre y su hermana en el campo “para que sobrevivan”. Pero el clima lluvioso le impidió salir.

“Si no vendo, no como, lo que significa que lo que tengo hoy es muy poco para comer”, señaló Jean, que estudiaba para ser carpintero en una escuela técnica, pero se vio obligado a convertirse en vendedor ambulante para mantenerse a sí mismo y a su familia.

Antony Joassainte, de 40 años, forma parte de los cientos de personas que viven en el estrecho refugio junto a Jean. Es albañil y plomero, pero comentó que hoy en día es muy difícil encontrar trabajo.

“Nadie construye nada”, afirmó Joassainte, padre de dos niños de 11 y 13 años. “Me veo obligado a alimentar a una familia sin nada”.

Dijo que dependen sobre todo del pan.

“Es más barato”, explicó. “Tenemos una comida fuerte si podemos; podría ser arroz y frijoles”.

A Bernadette Toussaint, una madre de 37 años con dos hijos varones, también le preocupa la comida.

Vende arroz, frijoles y salsa de pollo, pero con la vertiginosa alza de los precios del petróleo, ha tenido que recortar las comidas de la familia.

“No puedo darles a mis hijos lo que antes les daba. No tengo esposo y tengo que depender de mi negocio”, se lamentó.

___

Coto informó desde San Juan, Puerto Rico.

___

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

According to Miami Beach police, the crash happened at around 1:27 p.m. at West 41st Street and Royal Palm Avenue.

Police said the woman was in the crosswalk as the box truck driver hit her while turning left onto 41st Street.

Surveillance video shows bystanders rushing to her aid.

Police said medics responded and “immediately initiated life-saving measures,” but the woman died after being taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.

Authorities said the investigation into the crash “remains ongoing.”

They have not identified the victim or driver involved or stated whether the driver would be criminally charged.

No one was arrested after more than a half dozen drone sightings around Coors Field April 3 to April 5, but it is possible the drone pilots could still face a fine later. Still the Federal Aviation Administration and FBI issued a warning Thursday to try to keep drones away from the stadium during the Rockies' next home games because they are concerned about the potential threat they pose.

“The illegal drone activity did not jeopardize anyone’s safety, but there were enough violations that the teams on the ground were concerned about the number of operators that did not seem to understand the seriousness of the situation. Thus the proactive messaging,” FBI spokeswoman Vikki Migoya said.

The FAA routinely restricts the airspace around major sporting events to protect the crowds and make sure the game can be played without interruptions.

The greatest fear is that someone could use a drone in a terrorist attack that could be just as deadly as the drone attacks that have become common on the battlefields of the Ukraine and Iran wars. That is why the federal government and World Cup host cities are investing hundreds of millions in drone defenses ahead of those games.

But even without a threat like that, Migoya said the problem is that illegal drone activity distracts law enforcement.

“Every instance of illegal drone activity requires a law enforcement intervention to ensure the intent is not nefarious; the fewer violations there are, the more law enforcement can focus on what might be a true threat,” she said.

All the airspace within 3 miles of Coors Field is restricted starting one hour before a game and continuing for one hour after a baseball or football game. Pilots are responsible for checking those restrictions before they fly.

The FAA said that drone operators who violated the restrictions could face fines up to $75,000 per violation and even lose their licenses.

Drones are also required to broadcast their locations. But authorities have other methods available to track down the operators.

The bill, pushed forward by House Democrats with a group of Republicans over the objections of the GOP leadership, would require a three-year extension of temporary protected status for Haitians by the Trump administration. That would allow hundreds of thousands of qualifying immigrants to remain in the United States without fear of deportation.

The vote was 224-204, drawing applause in the chamber. But it faces uncertainty in the Senate, and the Republican president would almost certainly seek to veto it.

“I know firsthand how important our Haitian neighbors are to our communities, to our civic life, to our culture, to our workforce, to our economy,” said Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, who is co-chair of the House Haiti Caucus and represents one of the largest Haitian communities in the country.

During the debate, she recounted the number of Haitian immigrants working in health care, housing construction, and other industries. Haitians with temporary legal status “are not the problem, quite the contrary, they are part of the solution,” she said.

Pressley has said deporting Haitians back to the troubled Caribbean country would be a “death sentence,” given the effects of natural disasters and gang violence. “Congress can do the right thing,” she said.

Ten Republicans, many from districts with large numbers of Haitian residents, joined all Democrats and one independent in voting for passage.

Congress tries to act before the Supreme Court does

The effort to help 350,000 Haitians living lawfully in the United States comes as the administration is working to end the temporary legal status for several groups, exposing them to deportation.

In less than two weeks, the Supreme Court is prepared to consider a fast-track case that would end the protected status for Haitian and Syrian immigrants in a challenge widely seen as threatening the broader program. The administration filed emergency appeals after lower courts stopped the immediate end of the program.

It is part of the administration’s efforts to strip certain immigrant groups of legal status as the White House works to fulfill Trump’s campaign promise of conducting the largest mass deportation operation in history. Some 1.3 million people fleeing countries around the world have been granted temporary protected status in the U.S.

The protections for Haiti, first approved after a devastating 2010 earthquake, have been extended multiple times. The State Department warns Americans not to travel to Haiti “due to kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest.”

Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an advocacy organization, fought back tears as she described the fear of deportations coursing through the community.

“We are asking, where will you be on the right side of history?” she asked at a news conference outside the Capitol. “Or continuing to cause trauma to people who are asking for nothing other than safety and protection.”

Trump has described migrants from poorer countries in vulgar terms, and he has falsely accused Haitian migrants in Ohio of eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs.

The conservative majority court has allowed the end of temporary legal status for a total of 600,000 people from Venezuela while lawsuits play out, leaving them to face potential deportation.

Lawmakers debate whether to help Haitians or stick with Trump

Rep. Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., whose district includes Long Island’s Haitian community, said she promised constituents she would work to protect their status. She introduced the legislation with Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York as soon as she took office last year.

“It’s cruel to expect Haitians to be forced to return to these deadly, dangerous conditions,” she said at a news conference. “Human lives are at risk.”

Lawler said there are differences of opinion on immigration policy, but that Haitian immigrants have become vital to his community and forcing them out would be unjust and unwise.

“They are small business owners, they are nurses, they are caregivers, they participate in our economy and take care of American citizens,” he said. “Congress has a responsibility to act.”

But Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, decried the number of immigrants, including Haitians, who have entered the U.S., and cited Democratic efforts to halt funding for enforcement and deportation efforts.

“Make temporary permanent,” he said, “that’s their plan.”

Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, said the program was a “backdoor amnesty” for foreigners.

To Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., the temporary status first granted under the Obama administration has become an “an open-ended invitation” for immigrants to enter the country, including some illegally, and remain.

“The Trump administration has heeded the cries of the American people,” he said.

Using a discharge petition to force votes

The vote was the latest effort by House Democrats to maneuver past the Republican majority using a discharge petition — once a rare tool, but now used increasingly to form bipartisan coalitions.

The discharge petition process forces the bill to the House floor for consideration, powering past House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and GOP leaders. It was used to help pass legislation that required the Justice Department to release the files of the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein.

Republicans hold a slim majority in the House and are typically able to swat back such efforts from Democrats. But Democrats and Republicans have formed bipartisan alliances to reach the majority needed on the discharge petitions.

Pressley’s effort to discharge the bill won support from four Republicans on the initial petition, and several more once it came to the floor vote.

Ramagem, a former lawmaker, was sentenced in Brazil in September to 16 years in prison for his role in the coup attempt by supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in 2023. He fled the South American nation before he would have started serving his sentence.

“I am here to thank the U.S. government, the highest ranking members of the Trump administration,” Ramagem said on his social media channels. He added his release “did not require any bail payment, which is common in migration cases” like his.

The former intelligence chief was arrested on Monday in Florida, the same day Brazilian senator Jorge Seif told the U.S. embassy in Brasilia his ally should not remain in custody because he was allegedly being persecuted at home.

Local media reported he was released late on Wednesday.

Ramagem had already filed for political asylum before this week's incident, but his case has not yet been decided.

On Monday, Ramagem appeared as in custody in ICE’s online detainee database. ICE did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press about Ramagem's release.

Ramagem was stripped of his seat in Brazil’s congress in December as a consequence of his conviction in the coup case.

___

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

Miami River Commission Chairman Horacio Stuart Aguirre said excessive bacteria contamination in the creek has come from historic industrial pollution, storm water pollution, and also human waste from some of the city’s homeless, who use the creek as a public restroom.

“This is the way it is right now before any treatment, and you can’t see six inches into the water,” he said. “If you were standing a foot and half into this water, you wouldn’t see your toes, that is how thick it is. The amount of poop that is in this water is unbelievable.”

The creek drains out to the Miami River and eventually into Biscayne Bay.

That’s why the creek’s reputation as “the most polluted waterway in the state of Florida” according to Aguirre, is of grave concern.

“So we either stop the infection here now, or deal with a body-wide infection two years from now,” he said.

To combat the issue, officials are using a solar-powered machine that oxygenates the water with ionized air, which Aguirre says you can think of like a water-cleaning vacuum.

“It is sort of like the little devices we have in our homes,” Aguirre said. “(It’s) a yellow manifold that is about as long as you are tall with six heads on each side, and that is what is distributing the oxygenated air into the water.”

Developed by Miami-based Fast Cleaning Solutions, it also uses various filters to kill bacteria.

“They gave it to us for one year as a pilot program,” Aguirre said.

So far, he says the results have been remarkable.

“If you look at the shoreline, the water is crystal clear,” Aguirre said. “This is the way it is supposed to be, this is the way the good lord made it.”

He said there was an 82% reduction in e-coli bacteria.

“We have clean water, happy aquatic life, and happy residents now enjoying their balconies without the small of sewage pollution,” he said.

That is why officials are presenting the results to city commissioners in hope of securing funds for several more.

“We don’t need to go to billion dollar solutions, this is cost effective and it works,” Aguirre said.

STARTED AS A PILOT PROGRAM

The vendor Fast Cleaning Solutions, LLC designed the device, came up with the idea, they patented it, they built the device and they gave it to us for one year [for free] as a pilot program.

THE PROPOSAL

The Miami River Commission is proposing to deploy 7 Bacterial Water Cleaning Machines (BCMW) developed by Fast Cleaning Solutions LLC in Wagner Creek, plus two additional BCMW devices and two water quality testing devices which they say would cost $360,000 for one year. The funding the commissioner spokesperson said could come for the city’s storm water utility fee which aims to eliminate pollution from the storm water system.

NEXT STEPS

Aguirre plans to meet with the city manager and the two commissioners whose districts are impacted by Wagner Creek. The creek runs 15 blocks through District 5, represented by Chairwoman Christine King, and District 1, represented by Miguel Gabela. Their hope is to agree on a plan and funding budget ahead of the upcoming budget hearing on Sept. 30.

WHAT ABOUT THE CITY’S WATER DECONTAMINATION VESSEL?

The Miami River Commission Chairman said the city’s contracted scavenger water decontamination vessel is doing a great job along the Miami River and Biscayne Bay, but is too large to navigate under Wagner Creek’s low fixed bridges, which is why they were on the hunt for another solution.

WHY IT MATTERS

Aguirre said it matters, “Because this small piece of canal is about 15 blocks long and drains all the way into the Miami River, and so if this contamination spreads into the Miami River, it will become a process out of control and then we will really have an expenditure and health issue to deal with.”

He added, “Not only are the ducks, and the fish, and the turtles eating this stuff, but it carries a horrendous odor down into the Miami River and contaminates the rest of the river. All the other tributaries are very, very clean except for this one. We clean this one and then we can really say mission accomplished and we give something back to children of the next generation that they will have a very clean Miami.”

WHERE DOES THE POLLUTION COME FROM?

“Well the good news is that it does not come from the Miami River, nor the shipping industry, nor the recreational boating industry. It is actually man made. Some of it from decades and decades ago was industrial pollution, but in the last 20-25 years, it is fecal matter, human poop, that is what it is,” Aguirre said. “On any given day we can walk these banks and see people with their underwear off relieving themselves on the Wagner. The amount of poop that is in this water is unbelievable.”

He added that the county has conducted a number of smoke and dye tests to explore if the bacteria contamination is coming from a sewage pipe leak, but have found that,“it is not a septic tank break somewhere and not a sewage line break.”

From a policy perspective, he added that, “we need to do something about the homeless in a humane way. We have enough agencies spending a lot of money on the homeless, so we ought to have a solution. We need to do something along the lines of what Judge Steven Leifman suggests, understanding that a great component of homelessness is mental illness. We need to address that and do what they are doing in Europe which is public bathrooms.”

DOES IT HELP MITIGATE AGAINST FISH KILLS?

“Absolutely,” said Aguirre. “You will notice here on top of the rocks you don’t see any algae. A lot of reasons for fish kills, algae is one. It is killing the bacteria and the germs which is why you have clean water and no pollution, no sludgy film on the water.”

RELATED LINKS

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2026/03/13/deferred-but-not-defeated-local-judge-says-he-will-continue-to-fight-for-a-mental-health-center/

https://x.com/wplglocal10/status/2031937226079121810?s=61&t=WzG6lM9zhQB0p89ctAEo8g

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It happened on Saturday around 1:50 a.m. along the 2400 block of Sheridan Street.

According to police, responding officers arrived to find a pedestrian who had been struck by a car.

First responders rushed the victim to a nearby hospital where he later passed away as a result of his injuries, authorities said. Police did not release his name or age.

Officers are searching for a red 2024 Honda Accord with Florida license plate number QCZ U51.

Police said the Honda should have heavy front-end damage and should be missing its Honda emblem.

Anyone with information is urged to call Hollywood police at 954-967-4567 or Broward Crime Stopers at 954-493-TIPS.

El incidente ocurrió el sábado alrededor de la 1:50 a.m. en la cuadra 2400 de Sheridan Street.

Según la policía, los agentes que respondieron encontraron a un peatón que había sido atropellado por un vehículo.

Paramédicos trasladaron a la víctima a un hospital cercano, donde posteriormente falleció a causa de sus heridas, indicaron las autoridades. La policía no reveló su nombre ni edad.

Los agentes buscan un Honda Accord rojo modelo 2024 con placa de Florida QCZ U51.

La policía indicó que el vehículo debe tener daños severos en la parte frontal y le faltaría el emblema de Honda.

Se insta a cualquier persona con información a comunicarse con la policía de Hollywood al 954-967-4567 o con Broward Crime Stoppers al 954-493-TIPS.

Hastings plans to focus on philanthropy and other pursuits. Hastings had served as Netflix’s CEO for more than 20 years until 2023 after taking over the role from his friend and fellow company co-founder Marc Randolph in the late 1990s.

“My real contribution at Netflix wasn’t a single decision; it was a focus on member joy, building a culture that others could inherit and improve, and building a company that could be both beloved by members and wildly successful for generations to come,” he said in a statement.

The company announced Hastings' departure along with its quarterly results Thursday, its first earnings report since walking away from its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business in February.

Netflix shares fell nearly 9% to $98.32 in after-hours trading after the company's outlook disappointed investors despite strong quarterly results.

Milenko Faria was interviewed at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices near Los Angeles, while his wife, Dr. Rubeliz Bolivar, entered her sixth day in immigration custody in Texas and was unable to attend the appointment they had been waiting for for more than 10 years.

Bolivar, who worked as a doctor in an area federally designated as medically underserved, was arrested by Border Patrol agents at McAllen International Airport on Saturday. She was with their American-born daughter, preparing to board a flight to join her husband and attend their asylum interview together.

Bolivar, 33, was the second Venezuelan physician arrested in the area within the span of a week. On April 6, Dr. Ezequiel Veliz was detained by Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint in South Texas. After spending about ten days in detention, his attorney, Victor Badell, said he was able to successfully request a bond hearing and secure his release on Thursday after paying a bond of $8,000.

The arrests are part of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies. Following an enforcement surge in Minnesota in January, in which two U.S. citizens died, the Department of Homeland Security has focused on less visible arrests.

Bolívar worked in the emergency room of a hospital in McAllen, city of about 150,000 in the Rio Grande Valley near the Mexican border, starting in June 2025, when she was accepted into her medical residency program.

“She was always focused on the community, and when she was accepted, it was an immense joy,” Faria, 36, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “We have never done anything outside the law. We have done everything by following the steps in accordance with the law to obtain permanent residency."

The husband said that she arrived at the U.S. with a tourist visa in 2016, after graduating from medical school in her native Venezuela.

Before her authorized period of stay expired, she was included in the asylum application filed by her husband, he said. Both are also seeking a green card through an application for skilled workers, processed by Faria’s employer, a California company where he has worked as an information systems technician since 2019.

The couple was beneficiary of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuela that shielded more than 600,000 Venezuelans from deportation. Trump terminated the protections for Venezuela, Haiti, Syria, Afghanistan, Nicaragua and other countries, a decision that has been challenged in federal court.

The Department of Homeland Security said that Bolivar was arrested because she was in the country illegally.

“She has overstayed her visa since 2017, nearly a decade, and had no legal status,” said DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis.

Jodi Goodwin, an immigration attorney in South Texas, noted that around September or October 2025, she observed a change in policy regarding travel of individuals with pending applications before USCIS.

”It just became a very apparent trend where anyone that had some kind of application pending with USCIS, whether it was an adjustment of status or asylum, anything like that, they were going to be arrested,” said Goodwin.

Faria and Bolivar lived together in Santa Maria, California, until she moved to Texas in the summer of 2025 for her medical residency. He said he traveled every two months to visit his wife and daughter. The day of her arrest was the first time Bolívar had traveled since moving to Texas.

Bolivar was arrested by Customs and Border Protection officers before passing through transportation security screening, where she was asked to show her identification. She showed her driver’s license — bearing the “Real ID” endorsement required to domestic flights — and a work authorization valid until 2030.

She told them that she was adjusting status to a green card and was traveling to California for an asylum interview but the officer detained her after asking for her nationality and demanding that she provide proof of legal permanent residency, said Faria. He received text messages from his wife at the time she was being arrested.

Their 5-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen, was also arrested and handed over to her grandfather 19 hours later. The girl is currently in California with her father.

The doctor was transferred to ICE custody on Sunday and is being held at El Valle Detention Facility in Texas.

She has asked several times why she was detained but has not received any response yet, Faria said.

Ezequiel Veliz, the other Venezuelan physician, came to the United States to become a doctor in 2018 under a tourist visa. His friend, Hector Ruiz, described him as a kind-hearted doctor who loves his pet cats and is devoted to his work.

Veliz adjusted his immigration status as a student and later as a doctor at a South Texas hospital in the Rio Grande Valley working under TPS. The pause in the protection status had immediate consequences on his two-year residency.

“He was one year and four months into that. He couldn’t continue working legally. He had to stop,” said Badell, his attorney.

He was waiting for a visa requested by the hospital when he was detained at a Border Patrol checkpoint traveling to Houston with his husband on April 6.

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Associated Press writer Valerie Gonzalez contributed.

Díaz-Canel spoke during a rally that drew hundreds of people to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the declaration of the Cuban Revolution’s socialist essence.

“The moment is extremely challenging and calls upon us once again, as on April 16, 1961, to be ready to confront serious threats, including military aggression. We do not want it, but it is our duty to prepare to avoid it and, if it becomes inevitable, to defeat it,” Díaz-Canel said.

He spoke as tensions remain high between the two countries, with Cuba’s crises deepening as a result of a U.S. energy blockade.

Earlier this week, Trump said his administration could focus on Cuba after the war in Iran ends.

“We may stop by Cuba after we finish with this,” he said. He described it as a “failing nation” and asserted that it’s “been a terribly run country for a long time.”

Trump previously has threatened to intervene in Cuba, like he did in early January when the U.S. military attacked Venezuela and halted key oil shipments from the South American country.

Weeks later, Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba.

Both Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio — whose parents emigrated from Cuba in the 1950s before the revolution — have described the island’s government as ineffective and abusive. The U.S. demands on Cuba’s government in return for easing sanctions have included an end to political repression, a release of political prisoners and a liberalization of the island’s ailing economy.

Díaz-Canel accused them of trying to construct a “narrative” that has no justification.

“Cuba is not a failed state. Cuba is a besieged state. Cuba is a state facing multidimensional aggression: economic warfare, an intensified blockade and an energy blockade,” said Díaz-Canel, the main speaker at Thursday’s rally.

“Cuba is a threatened state that does not surrender. And despite everything. And thanks to socialism. Cuba is a state that resists, creates, and make no mistake, a state that will prevail,” Díaz-Canel added.

Both Cuba and the U.S. have acknowledged talks to resolve the tension, but no details have been disclosed.

The Cuban president recalled the achievements made possible by the revolution and its social welfare system, which allows for free education that has trained thousands of professionals, many of whom have chosen to emigrate due to the country’s economic crisis.

The oil embargo imposed by Trump worsened the already harsh conditions brought on by an economic crisis that has lasted for five years, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and a tightening of U.S. sanctions aimed at pressuring for a change in the island’s political model.

Experts have warned of a humanitarian crisis.

Measures to prevent the island from acquiring oil from its Venezuelan, Mexican and Russian suppliers are exacerbating the already poor living conditions of the population, including prolonged blackouts and fuel shortages.

The rally commemorated the 65th anniversary of a historic speech by the late leader, Fidel Castro, during a crisis with the United States. That moment marked the ideological course the Caribbean nation would take and its opposition to Washington’s continental hegemony.

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

In the first incident, Charlotte County deputies said they responded to a domestic violence-related call at a Port Charlotte home.

Investigators said the suspect, Keith Dwayne Blevins, had threatened a woman with multiple guns during an argument.

Ring camera video from the front of the home shows Blevins, 52, walking outside and aiming a gun at responding deputies. Seconds later, deputies said they opened fire, striking him multiple times.

Deputies then rendered aid and called fire rescue, but investigators said Blevins was pronounced dead at the scene. They said he was armed with a fully loaded weapon.

Officials also released new video from a second deputy-involved shooting in Port Charlotte that also left a man dead.

According to investigators, a 911 caller reported that Matthew Cross approached a home and, seconds after the door was opened, allegedly fired a gun before running into a nearby wooded area.

Authorities said Cross, 32, later emerged from the woods while pointing a gun at his head. Deputies gave multiple commands for him to drop the weapon, but he continued walking toward law enforcement while holding the gun, according to investigators.

Deputies said they were forced to open fire and Cross was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators said no deputies were injured in either incident.

They said the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit is investigating both shootings and will turn its findings over to the State Attorney’s Office for review.

Gabriela Saldana was at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Thursday after corrections booked her on Wednesday afternoon.

Saldana “made a threat to kill or do bodily harm” in her posts on Friday and Wednesday about “a scheduled event” in a WhatsApp group chat, according to a police officer’s arrest report.

Saldana “admitted to sending and transmitting the messages,” and FIU campus police officers arrested her shortly after 2:10 a.m. on Thursday on campus at 885 SW 109 Ave., records show.

Police officers did not include the specific threats in their report about the alleged crime. FIU released a statement saying the threat of violence at a planned university event was credible.”

“Given the ongoing investigation and federal student privacy laws, FIU has no further comment,” a spokesperson for FIU wrote. “There is no further threat to the university community.”

Miami-Dade corrections booked Saldana shortly after 4:15 a.m. on Thursday. She faced a charge of written threats to kill or do bodily injury.

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

Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman granted Heinecke a preliminary injunction against the NCAA on Thursday that gives him immediate relief and allows him to rejoin his team days before the Sooners' annual spring game. Balkman said the NCAA “failed to consider the totality of the case” while announcing his ruling in court.

It was not immediately clear if the NCAA would appeal Balkman's ruling.

Heinecke called Sooners coach Brent Venable after the decision and said, “Let's go coach!”

Heinecke played three games of lacrosse at Ohio State in February 2022, costing him a year of eligibility. He transferred to play football at Oklahoma, then sat out a year because of injury. He was mostly a special teams player in 2023 and 2024 before breaking out last season with 74 tackles, including 12 for a loss.

Oklahoma submitted a request for an eligibility waiver, but it was denied in January, and an appeal was denied in February. The emergency hearing was critical in determining Heinecke's future, especially with the NFL draft next week.

Heinecke hired an agent and participated in the Senior Bowl, Oklahoma's pro day and NFL scouting combine while trying to gain college eligibility.

Heinecke’s lawyers argued he deserved the additional year because of factors beyond his control. They said Heinecke lost his year of eligibility as a freshman because the Ohio State’s lacrosse coach ignored his request to redshirt so he could recover from high school injuries. They said the NCAA “breached its duty of good faith and fair dealing owed to Owen, and acted in bad faith, in denying Owen an additional year of eligibility so that he can compete as an intercollegiate athlete in the year 2026-27.”

Heinecke told the court he wanted to return to school to improve his draft stock while working toward a master’s degree in accounting. Oklahoma backed his quest.

Heinecke's case came while an NCAA panel is preparing to discuss potential changes to eligibility rules.

The proposal, which mirrors language writ ten in the executive order issued by President Donald Trump, would give athletes five years of eligibility with the clock starting when an athlete turns 19 or graduates from high school, whichever is earlier. There would be limited exceptions, but they would not include injuries, which has been a common reason for players to ask for and receive extra eligibility.

The details are being reviewed and discussed by a Division I Cabinet.

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Sunny Isles Beach police launched their drone just before 3 p.m. Wednesday.

They were looking for a car that was wanted in connection with an attempted homicide out of Lauderhill.

Once the car was spotted, officers quickly responded.

With guns drawn, they ordered the occupants out of the car.

Police identified the driver as Zorrian Jenkins, 30, of Bradenton, and the passenger as Jamar Franklin, 32, of Miramar.

Police said they found a stolen gun underneath the driver seat.

They also said that Franklin refused to identify himself and that he was on probation out of Broward County.

As for the car itself, Lauderhill police said its owner was arrested in April, but the car was still in the system.

At last check, both James and Franklin were behind bars at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. James is being held on a $16,000 bond while Franklin was given a bond of $500.

La policía desplegó un dron poco antes de las 3 p.m. del miércoles.

Buscaban un vehículo vinculado a un intento de homicidio ocurrido en Lauderhill.

Una vez que el auto fue localizado, los agentes respondieron rápidamente.

Con armas en mano, ordenaron a los ocupantes salir del vehículo.

La policía identificó al conductor como Zorrian Jenkins, de 30 años, de Bradenton, y al pasajero como Jamar Franklin, de 32, de Miramar.

Las autoridades indicaron que encontraron un arma robada debajo del asiento del conductor.

También señalaron que Franklin se negó a identificarse y que estaba en libertad condicional en el condado Broward.

En cuanto al vehículo, la policía de Lauderhill indicó que su propietario fue arrestado en abril, pero el auto aún figuraba en el sistema.

Hasta el momento, tanto Jenkins como Franklin permanecen detenidos en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight. Jenkins tiene una fianza de $16,000 USD, mientras que a Franklin se le fijó una fianza de $500 USD.

In their first news conference since returning to Earth, the three Americans and one Canadian said their lunar flyby puts NASA in a much better position for a moon landing by a crew in two years and an eventual moon base. They spoke from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, their home base.

Commander Reid Wiseman later told The Associated Press that he’s been so busy since getting back that he hasn’t had time to gaze up at the moon, let alone Carroll Crater, the name suggested by the crew for a bright lunar crater in honor of his late wife. They shared two daughters whose anxieties and fears over their father’s journey ended with his safe splashdown late last week.

“Being 252,000 miles away from home was the most majestic, gorgeous thing that human eyes will ever witness,” he said in an interview with the AP. But hurtling back through the atmosphere at 39 times the speed of sound, “that is scary and that is risky.” That’s why he yearned for home midway through his flight. “You just want to hold your kids and you just want them to know that you’re safe.”

Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen launched to the moon from Florida on April 1, NASA’s first lunar crew in more than a half-century and by far the most diverse.

They became the most distant travelers ever — breaking Apollo 13's record — as they whipped around the lunar far side, illuminated enough to reveal features never viewed before by the human eye. The sight of a total lunar eclipse added to the wonderment.

Their Orion capsule, which they named Integrity, parachuted into the Pacific last Friday to close out the nearly 10-day voyage. Artemis II's Houston homecoming the next day coincided with the 56th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13.

Wiseman said he and Glover “maybe saw two moments of a touch of char loss” to the heat shield as Integrity plunged through the fastest, hottest part of reentry. Once aboard the recovery ship, they peered at the bottom of the capsule as best they could, leaning over to view any signs of damage. They spotted a little loss of charred material on the shoulder, where the heat shield meets the capsule.

“For four humans just looking at the heat shield, it looked wonderful to us. It looked great, and that ride in was really amazing,” Wiseman said.

He cautioned that detailed analyses still need to be conducted. “We are going to fine-tooth comb every single, not even every molecule, probably every atom on this heat shield," he said.

The heat shield on the first Artemis test flight in 2022 — with no one aboard — came back so pockmarked and gouged that it pushed Artemis II back by months if not years. Instead of redoing it, NASA opted to change the capsule's entry path to minimize heating. Future capsules will sport a new design.

As the parachutes released right before splashdown, Glover said he felt like he was in freefall — like diving backward off a skyscraper. “That’s what it felt like for five seconds,” he said, adding when the ride smoothed out: “It was glorious.”

Since their return, the four astronauts have endured round after round of medical testing to check their balance, vision, muscle strength and coordination, and overall health. They even put on spacewalking suits for exercises under conditions simulating the moon’s one-sixth gravity of Earth to see how much endurance and dexterity future moonwalkers might have upon lunar touchdown.

NASA already is working on Artemis III, the next step in its grand moon base-building plans. The platform from which the rocket launches headed back Thursday to Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building, where it will be prepped for next year’s Artemis launch.

Still awaiting an assigned crew, Artemis III will remain in orbit around Earth as astronauts practice docking their Orion capsule with one or two lunar landers in development by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.

Artemis IV will follow in 2028 under NASA’s latest schedule, with two astronauts landing near the moon’s south pole.

NASA is aiming for a sustainable moon presence this time around. During the Apollo moonshots, astronauts kept their visits short. Twelve astronauts explored the lunar surface, beginning with Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969 and ending with Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in 1972.

Koch said that since returning, she and her crewmates are “feeling even more excited and just ready to take that on as an agency.”

“We made it happen,” she added.

Everyone will need to accept extra risk to achieve all this and trust that any future problems can be figured out in real time, Hansen noted. “We’re not going to be able to pound everything flat before we go. We're going to have to trust each other," he said.

While everything went smoothly for them, “it was also very clear to us that it can get pretty bumpy,” he said. Future crews will have to "understand it can get real bumpy real fast.”

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

Security guards detained the man without incident shortly after 10 a.m., within 3 minutes after he entered the Hartford building. They held him until city police officers arrived, a spokesperson for Hartford police said.

It wasn't immediately clear what the man's plans were, Lt. Aaron Boisvert said.

The man was brought to Hartford police headquarters and charged with illegal possession of an assault weapon, criminal possession of a firearm, possession of a large-capacity ammunition magazine and trespassing. Court and public records show he has a criminal history that includes convictions for assault, threatening and drug possession.

It was not immediately clear if the man has a lawyer who could respond to the allegations.

Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based CVS Health, Aetna's parent company, released a brief statement on the incident and did not immediately respond to follow-up questions.

“Earlier today, a suspicious person attempted to enter our office, was apprehended immediately by our security team and taken into custody by local police,” the statement said.

The arrest comes amid concerns about health care executives' safety, following the December 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City. Luigi Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges connected to the killing. He has become a cause célèbre for people upset with the health insurance industry.

In February, CVS Health announced it would be laying off more than 300 remote workers who reported to the Aetna headquarters.

On Thursday, Hennepin County announced charges against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent accused of pointing his gun at a motorist and passenger on a Minneapolis highway. A local prosecutor described the warrant for Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr.'s arrest as the first of its kind against an officer involved in the crackdown in Minnesota.

The government has suggested Minnesota prosecutors don’t have jurisdiction to investigate federal officers. Nevertheless, Minnesota last month sued the administration for access to evidence for investigations into three shootings, including two that resulted in deaths.

Here's where some of the more high-profile cases stand:

Alex Pretti

Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was one of many protesters on a commercial street on Jan. 24 when he was shot and killed by federal officers.

The Trump administration said shots were fired “defensively” against Pretti, who federal authorities said had a semiautomatic handgun and was “violently” resisting officers. Multiple videos of the shooting contradict those claims, showing Pretti had only his mobile phone in his hand as officers tackled him to the ground. One of the officers removed a handgun from the back of Pretti’s pants as another officer shot him in the back.

The Justice Department said the FBI was conducting a civil rights investigation into Pretti’s killing, and Customs and Border Patrol is conducting its own internal investigation.

Renee Good

Good, a 37-year-old mother, was blocking a residential street with her SUV and honking her horn when immigration officers approached the vehicle. She began to pull forward and an ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle fired at least two shots into the car, killing Good.

The Department of Homeland Security has said the matter remains under investigation but that footage shows Good impeded law enforcement operations and weaponized her vehicle, leading the officer to act in self-defense.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche has said the department’s Civil Rights Division does not investigate every law enforcement shooting and that there have to be circumstances and facts that “warrant an investigation.”

Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis

Sosa-Celis was wounded in January when a federal officer shot his right thigh. Federal officials initially accused Sosa-Celis and another man of beating an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel. But federal prosecutors later dropped all charges against the men, and authorities opened a criminal investigation into whether two immigration officers lied under oath about the shooting.

DHS has said both officers are on administrative leave as ICE and DOJ conduct a joint review.

ChongLy “Scott” Thao

Ramsey County, which includes St. Paul, is investigating federal officers' arrest of ChongLy “Scott” Thao, a Hmong American man, as a potential case of kidnapping, burglary and false imprisonment.

ICE officers bashed open the front door of Thao’s St. Paul home with guns drawn, then led him outside in just his underwear and a blanket in freezing conditions. The arrest was captured on widely shared video.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Sheriff Bob Fletcher said Monday that they are pursuing information from DHS but have not been able to determine whether ICE officers had a warrant for Thao's arrest.

DHS said in a statement that ICE does not kidnap people and called the county's investigation a political stunt.

Other incidents

In early March, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said her office was investigating at least 17 cases and considering whether to bring misconduct charges against federal officers, including Border Patrol official Greg Bovino.

Included in the investigation was an incident in which Bovino threw a smoke canister at protesters on Jan. 21. Another on Jan. 7 involved federal officers making an arrest outside a high school and deploying chemical irritants with students and staff nearby.

El tiroteo ocurrió poco después de las 2 p.m. en la zona de Northwest 75th Street y 21st Avenue.

Equipos de emergencia trasladaron a las tres víctimas al Ryder Trauma Center del hospital Jackson Memorial.

La cercana escuela primaria Lillie C. Evans, ubicada en 1895 NW 75th St., fue puesta en “cierre preventivo”, informaron autoridades escolares. El cierre fue levantado poco antes de las 3:30 p.m.

Hasta alrededor de las 3 p.m. del jueves, no se habían dado a conocer las condiciones de las víctimas.

Aberg moved ahead of Harris English and Viktor Hovland with an 8-iron to about 15 feet on the back corner of the green on the par-3 17th and made the birdie. He closed with a par, pleasing because he felt that 8-iron confirmed how well he was swinging the club.

Houston Open champion Gary Woodland, Matt Fitzpatrick and Rickie Fowler were in the group of players at 65.

Masters champion Rory McIlroy skipped this $20 million signature event for the second straight year, having said Harbour Town doesn’t suit him.

Scottie Scheffler, the runner-up last week at Augusta after a 65-68 finish, had a shocking start. His first tee shot was out-of-bounds on the right. He didn't know out-of-bounds was over there.

“It was looking like it was going to hit those trees and I guess it flew right through them and then hit path and went out-of-bounds,” Scheffler said. “Thumbs up for the start. It was a good bogey.”

That it was, a 12-foot putt to limit the damage, followed by a par save on the next hole and then it was business as usual in the tougher afternoon conditions for a 68.

Aberg had a disappointing week at Augusta National by his standards — a tie for 21st, his first time out of the top 10 in three appearances at the Masters.

“I felt like I was playing well but made some silly mistakes that prevented me from having a real chance,” Aberg said. “But I also felt like in the grand scheme of things, I was swinging it nice, I was moving it nice, so I didn’t have to prepare that much in terms of my golf swing on Monday through Wednesday, and I felt like good golf was in there.”

The challenge for Aberg and the other 52 players who were in the Masters was to stay sharp inside the ropes on an island that makes this tournament feel like a working vacation.

Hovland is feeling less stressful more because of his swing, instead of the week at the Masters when he made a big run up the leaderboard on Sunday only to catch the wrong gust at the wrong time that led to double bogey on the 15th hole. He still shot 67.

Hovland doesn't feel he's all the way back with his swing, but he found enough signs of progress to believe he is getting close. He played bogey-free for a 64 that featured no birdies on the three par 5s.

“The whole year I've been working really hard, and I think now that I’m seeing my game progress and get closer to where I want it to be, I can start to relax a little bit more and focus on kind of the recovery aspect of things,” Hovland said.

English also played bogey-free for his 64, finishing with a birdie to a front pin over the bunker.

Davis Love III refurbished the fabled course to restore greens to their original design, but players felt it looked the same. And it played the same — opportunity from the fairway, trouble otherwise as Scheffler and others discovered.

Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood each opened with a 76.

The toughest day belonged to someone who didn't even play. Brooks Koepka was the first alternate and showed up at Hilton Head in case someone withdrew. That typically means a two-hour wait in the morning, taking a break, and waiting some two hours during the afternoon wave.

Bad news for Brooks — this signature event has players in twosomes off the first tee, one right after the other. He was at the course about 6:45 a.m. (the first tee time was 7 a.m.) and could not leave until the last group teed off at 2:10 p.m.

There were three alternates on property — Keith Mitchell and Taylor Moore — because if Koepka got in, the stipulation for his return from LIV Golf was two additional players added to the field.

Morikawa seemed to be the best hope with his back that first went bad at The Players Championship. But he played the Masters with some trepidation and tied for seventh, and he played bogey-free at Harbour Town for a 66.

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This version corrects the two other alternates were Keith Mitchell and Taylor Moore.

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

La policía informó que ocurrió alrededor de las 3 p.m. en un centro comercial en la cuadra 7600 de West Sample Road.

Video de Sky 10 mostró a agentes y cinta de la escena del crimen detrás del centro comercial, rodeando una camioneta de trabajo chocada y un SUV. No estaba claro de inmediato si la balacera estaba relacionada con el accidente.

El sargento James Kaban, portavoz del Departamento de Policía de Coral Springs, indicó que la víctima fue llevada al Broward Health North “con heridas graves” y que una persona de interés está bajo custodia.

Kaban señaló poco antes de las 4:30 p.m. que la “condición actual” de la víctima sigue siendo desconocida.

La policía indicó que investiga la relación entre la persona de interés y la víctima.

Kaban agregó que no hay amenaza para el público y pidió a cualquier persona con información que llame al CSPD al 954-344-1800.

The U.N. is warning against privatizing a global aid system that delivers crucial assistance to some of the world's most vulnerable populations.

Ahead of the initiative being formally introduced at the U.N. at the end of April, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered all U.S. diplomats to deliver a call to action to high-level foreign officials to sign on with their support by Monday, according to a diplomatic cable sent this week and obtained by The Associated Press.

According to the directive, the “Trade Over Aid Initiative" is meant to encourage U.N. member states to “make pro-business reforms" to their aid processes by facilitating conversations between governments, the private sector and international organizations.

The proposal also calls for “free market” policies to attract foreign trade that include "limited regulation, low taxation, multiple energy sources, private property rights, sanctity of contracts, and a trusted judiciary."

“The idea that trade and free market capitalism is the surest path to prosperity has been proven by the facts and by history," said Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman. “The U.S. remains the most generous country in the history of the world, but those arguing for ‘aid not trade’ are really arguing for lining the pockets of a corrupt NGO industrial complex.”

While signing on to the proposal is nonbinding and does not create obligations or require changes to national laws, it would reflect global opinion on the increasingly dire global aid situation as powerful countries like the U.S., the United Kingdom and others have decreased funding for humanitarian aid and increased their nations' defense spending.

The latest move is also seen by the U.N. and other international organizations as further abandoning the aid system at a moment of growing conflicts around the world, while increasing the risk of exploitation by for-profit companies.

Despite the U.S. effort, the United Nations is committed to putting in place its sustainable development agenda by 2030, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, which includes ending poverty, achieving gender equality and urgently tackling climate change.

"For us, trade, investment, and private sector engagement can be powerful drivers of inclusive growth and job creation," he told AP. “They should, however, not be used to substitute international development cooperation or for principled humanitarian assistance.”

Eric Pelofsky, who served at the State Department under the Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations, blasted the effort in a statement, saying that “there’s no American who looks at a picture of a starving child and sees an opportunity for companies to enrich themselves.”

“That’s because Americans have historically run to the fire to help rather than looking for ways to sell fire hoses to those suffering,” according to a statement from Pelofsky, now an executive at the Rockefeller Foundation. "This approach betrays America’s traditions, values, and national security interests — and it makes us less safe.”

Devex, a news organization covering global development, earlier reported details of the initiative and The Washington Post earlier reported on the cable.

The initiative builds on the Trump administration’s pattern over the last year of pulling back from organizations that promote global cooperation. Since taking office in January 2025, the administration has suspended support for agencies like the World Health Organization, the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO.

The Trump administration also dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, while taking a larger, à la carte approach to paying dues to the United Nations, picking which operations and agencies it believes align with Trump’s agenda and avoiding those that no longer serve U.S. interests.

In December, U.S. officials announced a $2 billion pledge for U.N. humanitarian aid, a small fraction of past contributions but a reflection of what the administration says is still a generous amount that will maintain America’s status as the world’s largest humanitarian donor.

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Amiri reported from New York.

Preston Henry Tolth, 26, could be sentenced to a maximum of five years in federal prison, with credit for three years already served, under the conditions of the proposed agreement.

U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes asked Tolth during a hearing in Phoenix if he was entering the plea because he was, in fact, guilty.

“Yes, your honor,” Tolth said.

Ella Mae Begay was 62 when she vanished in 2021 from Sweetwater, Arizona, a community in the northern part of the Navajo Nation where she spent her days visiting with relatives and weaving rugs that she sold to nearby trading posts.

In 2022, Begay's niece Seraphine Warren walked from the Navajo Nation to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness about her aunt's disappearance and the high rate of homicides and missing persons cases in Indian Country. Begay's case has drawn national media attention and provided fuel for tribal leaders and victim advocates as they push for more law enforcement resources and cooperation between tribal and federal investigators.

Navajo Nation police identified Tolth, whose father was dating Begay's sister, as a suspect within days of her disappearance.

Under the conditions of the agreement, Tolth acknowledged using force to take Ella Mae Begay’s pickup truck, striking her in the face several times and leaving her on the side of the road before driving away and eventually selling the truck for money and methamphetamine.

Rayes is scheduled in May to review the latest plea agreement, which also protects Tolth from future murder or manslaughter charges in relation to Begay's case.

Members of Begay’s family say prosecutors negotiated the agreement against their wishes and without their input.

Begay’s son, Gerald Begay, took a break from his construction job in Denver to listen to Thursday’s hearing by phone. He told The Associated Press that he plans to attend the next court hearing and ask the judge to reject the plea agreement in hopes that Tolth can be put on trial.

“The prosecutors aren’t thinking about our rights or what we need as a family,” he said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the district of Arizona and Tolth's public defender each declined to comment.

In a 2021 FBI interrogation, Tolth confessed to attacking Begay in a fit of anger and leaving her for dead. But Rayes dealt prosecutors a major blow by ruling that confession inadmissible in court, saying the FBI agent had unlawfully coerced Tolth into waiving his right to remain silent. In court filings, prosecutors acknowledged that weakened the government’s case significantly.

At a hearing earlier this month, Rayes rejected an earlier agreement that would have released Tolth from federal custody on a sentence of three years of time served in exchange for a guilty plea. The judge's rare move came after Begay's grieving family members testified that Tolth should not walk free without leading investigators to her remains.

“Accountability is not time served,” Begay's niece Seraphine Warren had told the judge. “It’s about truth, and we still don’t have the truth.”

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Peters reported from Edgewood, New Mexico.

The renowned Baron, also a former editor of The Boston Globe and The Miami Herald, gave a keynote address Wednesday as New York University handed out journalism awards. The Associated Press was praised for its “unyielding defense of ethical standards and principles” for not changing its style guidance after President Donald Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico. The AP's lawsuit against the White House for reducing some of its access is currently under consideration by an appeals court.

NYU also honored The Atlantic for how it wrote about its editor inadvertently being included in a text chain with Trump administration and military figures, and student journalists at NYU, Stanford and the University of Texas at Dallas.

Worries that ‘to each his own’ is replacing an ethical compass

While conceding he risked sounding sanctimonious, Baron dove right in. He said he worried that journalists can't agree on an ethical compass — seeking the truth with humility is his suggestion — and that “to each his own” is becoming the evolving ethos for many who cover and talk about the news.

“We will be doing ourselves no favors if that turns out to be the case,” he said. “All of us will likely be tainted by the worst practices of any one of us.”

Baron praised some work he considered exemplary, including Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown's reporting on the Jeffrey Epstein case and Knight Ridder stories in the run-up to the Iraq War more than two decades ago. But he spent more time on his concerns.

Among them: ow Paramount Global mogul David Ellison and his choice for CBS News editor-in-chief, Free Press founder Bari Weiss, are positioning that network. Paramount is also seeking Trump administration approval for its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, which would also give the company control over CNN. Ellison has said CBS News — and CNN if it comes to that — will maintain editorial independence.

Ellison has said he wants CBS News to prioritize talking to Americans who identify as center-left or center-right politically, a group that he considers the majority of the country. Baron said that was “a political goal. It is not a journalistic one.”

He said that a news organization using that as a guiding principle “is fated to compromise ethics when a rock-solid story moving toward publication is deemed to fall outside the designated political comfort zone.” A CBS News representative had no immediate comment.

Ellison's perceived closeness with the Trump administration has become a prism through which much of CBS News' coverage is now viewed.

For example, the network was criticized in February for different framing of statistics on who ICE was arresting in immigration crackdowns. The network initially reported that 40% of those arrested had no criminal history and that 14% were charged or convicted of violent crimes — the so-called “worst of the worst” the administration had talked about deporting. But later on “CBS Evening News,” the focus had shifted to the statistic that 60% of those arrested had a criminal history.

CBS News has also received attention for inviting Trump administration officials to sit at its table later this month at the White House Correspondent Association dinner. Those dinner invites are common for news outlets at that event — not just CBS — but are being watched more closely due to the administration's attacks on the media.

Cable networks that operate as a bullhorn for the administration

In his NYU speech, Baron also criticized “cable networks that function as mouthpieces and bullhorns for the administration, who routinely funnel on-air personalities into its top positions and who supply them with lucrative landing spots when they exit. These outlets render themselves largely indistinguishable from the governments they are supposed to cover.”

His remarks came less than 24 hours before Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News Channel host, used his Pentagon podium to criticize journalists he said were “only looking for the negative” in their coverage of the Iran war. He said it reminded him of a biblical story of Pharisees who cast doubt on a miracle performed by Christ.

“Your politically motivated animus for President Trump nearly completely blinds you from the brilliance of our American warriors,” Hegseth said Thursday.

Baron denounced media figures from both political sides who see everything through a partisan lens, consult only people who say what they want to hear and seize on an isolated fact to make sweeping judgments. “This is an outrage and advocacy industry," he said, “not a fact-finding profession.”

He also said many journalists failed to live up to the mission of seeking the truth about Biden's cognitive and physical struggled during his term as president. Baron announced his retirement from the Post in January 2021, days after Biden took office.

“Did some among us shy from aggressively exploring his intellectual and physical health for fear of aiding Donald Trump's campaign and alienating loyal readers, viewers and listeners?” Baron asked. “My guess is yes. If so, would that be an ethical breakdown in our profession? Again, I'd say yes.”

___

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

Trout homered for the fifth time during a four-game series on Thursday, crushing a 446-foot drive in the seventh inning for the Los Angeles Angels in an 11-4 victory.

The three-time MVP joined Jimmie Foxx (1933), Darrell Evans (1985) and George Bell (1990) as the fourth player with five homers in a series against the Yankees, according to MLB research.

Trout homered twice on Monday before going deep again in the following two games. In the series finale Thursday, Trout drove a 2-2 slider from reliever Angel Chivilli about halfway up the left field bleachers to give the Angels a 7-4 lead. That drive made Trout the first player to hit five homers in a series in the Bronx.

“I heard that after the game,” Trout said. “It’s pretty surreal. All the great players that came through here, so it’s pretty cool.”

“Honestly, not surprising,” Los Angeles manager Kurt Suzuki said. “When you’re with Mike every day, there’s nothing that you believe that he can’t do."

He also became the first visiting player to homer in four consecutive days at the current Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009.

Trout went 6 for 16 with five homers and nine RBIs in the series. He also has homered in his last five games at Yankee Stadium and drew an intentional walk in his next plate appearance before Jo Adell hit a grand slam.

“At this point it’s vintage Mike Trout,” Adell said. “When he’s healthy and feeling good, there’s nothing like it. It’s special. It’s one of a kind. So for all of us to experience it, it’s special.”

“He’s unbelievable,” Suzuki said. “He really is. It’s been an amazing week for him.”

Trout is hitting .246 with seven homers and 16 RBIs. He is 9 for 27 (.333) with five homers and 13 RBIs on the Angels’ road trip, which coincides with him making a mechanical tweak.

Trout’s career-high homer streak is seven games, achieved Sept. 4-12, 2022. He has homered in four straight games for the fourth time in his career.

Trout’s homer was part of a four-game series that featured four homers from Yankees’ slugger Aaron Judge. Judge homered twice Monday, again on Wednesday and went deep in the first inning in the series finale.

“He’s unreal,” designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton said after the Yankees lost for the seventh time in nine games. “Cool showing from him and Judgie all series. Obviously, you don’t want that against us, but you got to acknowledge the greatness.”

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time opposing players who owned multiple MVPs hit at least three homers in the same series.

“It was an impressive show by those two,” Suzuki said. ”

___

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

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It marks the first time the Miami Heat have missed the playoffs since the 2018-19 season, ending a tumultuous stretch in which they lost 10 of their final 15 games.

Heat center Bam Adebayo was asked about possible changes needed this offseason.

Bam Adebayo on possible major changes needed for the Heat this offseason:

“That is not a question for me. That is obviously a question for Spo and Pat Riley. Seeing that we didn’t make the playoffs, there will probably be changes.” pic.twitter.com/a8fthvkks5

— Will Manso (@WillManso) April 16, 2026

“That is not a question for me,” he said. “That is obviously a question for Spo (Spoelstra) and Pat Riley. Seeing that we didn’t make the playoffs, there will probably be changes.”

Adebayo also addressed whether his injury would have kept him out longer had Miami advanced.

“I don’t like needles, but I would have taken a couple more to keep playing, for sure.”

In Miami, the NBA’s decision that LaMelo Ball grabbing Adebayo ankle as he was falling was an ejection-worthy flagrant foul didn’t register much of a reaction. In Charlotte, the fact that the ruling didn’t include a suspension brought relief.

Adebayo previously said he wanted the league to review how plays like that can be handled going forward.

Per NBA rules, the Heat could not challenge the ruling on the play at the time because no foul was called. Play continued, leaving no opportunity for a replay review.

However, the NBA decide to fine Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball $35,000 for his trip of Adebayo and upgraded the action to a Flagrant, plus fining him $25,000 for cursing postgame, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.

Adebayo was diagnosed with a lower-back contusion as a result of the fall, and he questioned why mechanisms exist to take 3-point makes off the scoreboard after several more minutes of play, while incidents like Tuesday’s cannot be reviewed unless immediately whistled.

Ball is now set to play Friday for the Hornets in their play-in elimination game at Orlando — a reality that Charlotte coach Charles Lee hoped for, and one that Spoelstra did not seem to oppose.

“I didn’t think that he needed to be penalized more moving forward. I don’t think that would make sense,” Spoelstra said Thursday as the Heat held their season-ending meetings.

Meanwhile, Heat guard Pelle Larsson reflected on his season and growth on Thursday.

Pelle Larsson on his season and growth:

“Definitely stepped up in my development.”

Says getting more minutes and opportunities were a big part of it, but says “I absolutely have more to build on.” pic.twitter.com/U6NG7kfyYl

— Will Manso (@WillManso) April 16, 2026

“Definitely stepped up in my development.” He said getting more minutes and opportunities were a big part of it, but added, “I absolutely have more to build on.”

Heat forward Norman Powell told reporters that he enjoyed his time in Miami and would like to continue it, but he still has to speak to his agent and see what conversations his agent has with the Heat front office moving forward.

Guard Nikola Jovic told reporters that he believes inconsistent minutes led his struggles in Miami’s new up-tempo offense.

“I thought this offense was going to be good for me too, but I think the part that didn’t help me was the fact my playing time was so inconsistent,” he said. “I think I started the first game of the year, and then I came off the bench and after a few games, it (his minutes) went down and down more and I couldn’t find a rhythm.”

Miami’s Tyler Herro and Andrew Wiggins declined to speak to reporters on Thursday.

Spoelstra added, “I truly feel there could have been four to six more wins on the table for us, but that did not happen. But you are what your record is.”

He also stated that Miami’s front office is highly motivated to be better.

The Heat finished the regular season 43-39, and now face an offseason full of questions as the franchise looks to return to playoff form.

Esto marca la primera vez que el Miami Heat queda fuera de los playoffs desde la temporada 2018-19, poniendo fin a un tramo complicado en el que perdieron 10 de sus últimos 15 juegos.

Al pívot Bam Adebayo se le preguntó sobre posibles cambios necesarios en la próxima temporada baja.

Bam Adebayo on possible major changes needed for the Heat this offseason:

“That is not a question for me. That is obviously a question for Spo and Pat Riley. Seeing that we didn’t make the playoffs, there will probably be changes.” pic.twitter.com/a8fthvkks5

— Will Manso (@WillManso) April 16, 2026

“Esa no es una pregunta para mí”, dijo. “Obviamente es una pregunta para Spo (Spoelstra) y Pat Riley. Al ver que no llegamos a los playoffs, probablemente habrá cambios”.

Adebayo también abordó si su lesión lo habría dejado fuera por más tiempo si Miami hubiera avanzado.

“No me gustan las agujas, pero me habría puesto un par más para seguir jugando, sin duda”.

En Miami, la decisión de la NBA de que LaMelo Ball sujetara el tobillo de Adebayo mientras caía merecía expulsión como falta flagrante no generó mucha reacción. En Charlotte, el hecho de que la sanción no incluyera suspensión trajo alivio.

Adebayo había dicho previamente que quería que la liga revisara cómo manejar jugadas como esa en el futuro.

Según las reglas de la NBA, el Heat no pudo impugnar la decisión en el momento porque no se sancionó falta. El juego continuó, sin oportunidad de revisión en repetición.

Sin embargo, la NBA decidió multar a LaMelo Ball, de Charlotte, con $35,000 USD por hacer tropezar a Adebayo y elevó la acción a falta flagrante, además de imponerle una multa de $25,000 USD por usar lenguaje obsceno después del juego, según ESPN y Shams Charania.

Adebayo fue diagnosticado con una contusión en la parte baja de la espalda como resultado de la caída, y cuestionó por qué existen mecanismos para anular triples varios minutos después, mientras incidentes como el del martes no pueden revisarse si no se sancionan de inmediato.

Ball ahora podrá jugar el viernes con los Hornets en su partido de eliminación del play-in en Orlando, una posibilidad que el entrenador de Charlotte, Charles Lee, esperaba, y a la que Spoelstra no pareció oponerse.

“No pensé que necesitara ser penalizado más en adelante. No creo que eso tenga sentido”, dijo Spoelstra el jueves durante las reuniones de cierre de temporada del Heat.

Mientras tanto, el escolta del Heat Pelle Larsson reflexionó el jueves sobre su temporada y su desarrollo.

Pelle Larsson on his season and growth:

“Definitely stepped up in my development.”

Says getting more minutes and opportunities were a big part of it, but says “I absolutely have more to build on.” pic.twitter.com/U6NG7kfyYl

— Will Manso (@WillManso) April 16, 2026

“Definitivamente di un paso adelante en mi desarrollo”. Señaló que tener más minutos y oportunidades fue una parte importante, pero añadió: “Definitivamente tengo más por mejorar”.

El alero del Heat, Norman Powell, dijo a los reporteros que disfrutó su tiempo en Miami y le gustaría continuar, pero aún debe hablar con su agente y ver qué conversaciones mantiene con la gerencia del equipo.

El base Nikola Jovic dijo a los reporteros que cree que la inconsistencia en sus minutos afectó su rendimiento en la nueva ofensiva de ritmo rápido de Miami.

“Pensé que esta ofensiva iba a ser buena para mí también, pero creo que lo que no me ayudó fue que mi tiempo de juego fue muy inconsistente”, dijo. “Creo que fui titular en el primer juego del año, luego salí desde la banca y después de algunos juegos mis minutos bajaron cada vez más y no pude encontrar ritmo”.

Tyler Herro y Andrew Wiggins, de Miami, declinaron hablar con los reporteros el jueves.

Spoelstra añadió: “Realmente siento que pudimos haber logrado entre cuatro y seis victorias más, pero no ocurrió. Pero eres lo que tu récord dice”.

También afirmó que la gerencia del Heat está altamente motivada para mejorar.

El Heat terminó la temporada regular con marca de 43-39 y ahora enfrenta una temporada baja llena de interrogantes mientras la franquicia busca volver a nivel de playoffs.

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Officers responded around 9 p.m. to the 2500 block of Northwest 21st Street after receiving reports of a possible shooting. When they arrived, they found two adults suffering from gunshot wounds.

Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue transported both victims to Broward Health Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

One of the victims died from their injuries. Police identified him as 19-year-old Lamardric Anntwan Davis.

The second victim remains at the hospital in critical condition.

The investigation remains active.

Anyone with information related to this incident is encouraged to contact the Fort Lauderdale Police Department at (954)828-6958, or Broward County Crime Stoppers at (954)493-TIPS (8477).

Andres Zapata was sentenced Wednesday in Austin, Texas, to time served after agreeing to cooperate in a decade-long investigation that has implicated several agents in misconduct, according to two people who weren’t authorized to discuss the ongoing inquiry and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Zapata, 48, was extradited to the U.S. last year from his native Colombia, where he had worked closely with José Irizarry, a former DEA agent serving a 12-year sentence for skimming millions of dollars from money laundering stings to fund luxury travel, expensive sports cars and frat-house style parties.

The DEA paid Zapata, a professional money launderer, $3.8 million from 2015-2020 for his work as a confidential informant, court records show. He pleaded guilty last July to a single charge of failing to report those earnings on his tax returns. Informants are required by the DEA to report such income to the IRS but are rarely prosecuted for failing to do so.

The Justice Department’s criminal division, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment. The DEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zapata’s lawyer, Don Bailey, argued at the sentencing hearing that it was unusual for prosecutors to target someone who had risked their life helping U.S. law enforcement combat violent cartels for an offense he didn’t even know he was committing.

Zapata and other informants “don’t get 1099s or W-9s,” Bailey said, referring to forms typically filed by independent contractors to report income. “You don’t know what you owe. You sign a piece of paper for money. You don’t get receipts.”

At the hearing, Zapata told a federal judge he was ready to move forward with his life after having spent over a year in a rough prison near his hometown of Medellin awaiting extradition.

“I’ve learned my lesson,” he said, according to a transcript of the proceeding.

U.S. District Judge David Ezra described Zapata at the hearing as having been “very cooperative” with the government. He denied a request by the AP to unseal sentencing records. In sentencing Zapata to time served in Colombia, the judge also ordered the former informant to pay $1.2 million in restitution, an amount reflecting the tax loss to the U.S. government.

Internal DEA records obtained by the AP show the agency first signed up Zapata as an informant in 1998, employing an erstwhile vacuum salesman whose brother-in-law got jammed up for drug trafficking.

Over the next two decades, he became one of the agency’s most prolific informants, arranging covert cash pickups and assisting in investigations from Peru to Los Angeles, the records show, earning more than $4.6 million from the DEA.

But he didn’t supply agents with just tips.

Under the cover of a DEA assignment, the Colombian-American dual national crisscrossed the globe with agents and sometimes prosecutors from Miami in what Irizarry has described as a “world debauchery tour” that flouted strict rules against cozying up to informants.

A secret WhatsApp chat agents used to revel in their three-continent joyride details Zapata’s role procuring prostitutes — and helping what Irizarry coined “Team America” get out of trouble. In 2018, Zapata had been on assignment in Madrid drinking with an agent who was briefly detained and accused of sexually assaulting a woman.

Irizarry told investigators that Zapata kicked back some of the reward money he earned as an informant. He recalled a night Zapata showed up at his apartment in Colombia with a bag containing $40,000 in cash — money Irizarry used to purchase a Tiffany ring for his wife.

Zapata also allegedly served as a go-between for payments Irizarry admitted to taking from Colombia’s “Contraband Czar” Diego Marin — a one-time DEA informant arrested in 2024 in Spain as part of a Colombian bribery investigation. Marin and Zapata appear in a video obtained by the AP partying with agents at a Madrid restaurant.

__

Mustian reported from Natchitoches, Louisiana.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the panel, told reporters she had met with Warsh Thursday and urged him to disclose more information about his assets than was included in financial disclosure forms released earlier this week. Warsh, a former top official at the Fed and a wealthy investor, listed financial assets worth well more than $100 million. The figures are given in ranges so a precise value wasn't disclosed.

Warsh has large stakes in several investment funds and owns a solo financial advisory firm, Vicarage LLC. He has pledged in ethics filings to sell those holdings and stop working as an adviser if he is confirmed as Fed chair. Yet he has not disclosed the values of all his investments through the funds, or the names of some of his clients.

“This is a real problem,” Warren said. “No one has gone forward in the Trump administration without disclosing fully their financial holdings."

It's the latest hurdle for Warsh, 56, who is already facing an unusually turbulent path toward the Fed chair position, which he has sought for at least a decade. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican and member of the Banking panel, said this week he won’t vote for Warsh until a Department of Justice investigation into current Fed chair Jerome Powell is resolved. The stand-off threatens to delay Warsh’s confirmation until after Powell’s term as chair ends May 15.

But even if Warsh is confirmed, he will likely face ongoing pressure from Trump to cut the Fed's key interest rate despite the Iran war pushing inflation higher and many other policymakers expressing skepticism about cuts. And he could end up serving while Powell remains on the Fed's governing board, an uncomfortable arrangement that hasn’t occurred since the late 1940s.

Warsh was a member of the Fed's governing board from 2006 to 2011, and is married to Jane Lauder, the daughter of billionaire cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, a major Republican donor. He has also worked in finance and has made roughly $10 million as an advisor to billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller's family office, according to his disclosure form.

Warren said Warsh declined in their meeting to disclose more information about his holdings, “which, frankly, raises more concerns.” She added that his extensive investments are “a red flag surrounded by fireworks and sparklers.”

Warsh said in his disclosures that “pre-existing confidentiality” agreements prevent him from specifying the size of individual holdings or in some cases what they are. For example, he owns a stake in Polymarket, the prediction betting market, but did not say how large it is. He said he would comply with all ethics requirements by selling those investments if confirmed.

Also Thursday, all 11 Democrats on the Banking Committee called for next week's hearing to be postponed until the DOJ drops the investigation into cost overruns for a $2.5 billion Fed building renovation project and Powell's role in it, as well as an effort by Trump to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook.

Both moves “appear to be part of the Trump Administration’s broader effort to take control of the Fed,” the letter said.

Powell said last month that he would continue to serve as Fed chair if no replacement is confirmed by the end of his term. He added that previous chairs have done the same. Yet on Wednesday, Trump threatened to try to fire Powell if he did so.

Powell has also said he would remain on the Fed's governing board even after his term as chair ends if the investigation isn't dropped. By doing so, he could prevent the Trump administration from filling another seat on the board, a step he might take if he saw it as a way to preserve the Fed's political independence.

Powell serves a separate term as governor that lasts until January 2028. A Fed chair hasn’t remained on the board as a governor even after a new chair is appointed since 1948.

The battles over Powell, as well as the uptick in inflation from the Iran war, could create extensive headaches for Warsh.

“The ground has shifted materially beneath Warsh’s feet since he was nominated,” Marco Casiraghi, an analyst at Evercore ISI, an investment bank, wrote earlier this week. “Both with the oil shock and the failure to swiftly resolve the DOJ investigation, which we think means Powell will now likely stay on as a regular governor for several months.”

Trump is likely to keep pushing for Fed rate cuts regardless of who is chair. The Fed’s short-term rate influences other borrowing costs in the economy, including for mortgages, auto loans, and business borrowing.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent earlier this week appeared to reduce the pressure on the Fed somewhat, when he told reporters Tuesday that rates should be cut, “but if they want to wait for some clarity, I understand that.” Many Fed officials have said they want to see if the jump in energy prices starts to push up inflation more broadly. If it doesn't, the Fed could potentially look past the gas price spike and cut rates, particularly if the economy weakens.

Yet when Trump was asked Wednesday on Fox Business whether he still expects interest rates to decline, he said, “when Kevin gets in, I do. ... interest rates should be much lower.”

___

Associated Press Writer Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.

In an exclusive Associated Press interview Thursday, International Energy Agency Director Fatih Birol said Europe has “maybe six weeks” of remaining jet fuel supplies and said the global economy faces its "largest energy crisis."

In general, some European countries hold several months' worth of jet fuel inventory at a time, according to an IEA report released this week.

Jet fuel — a refined kerosene-based oil product — is airlines' biggest cost, making up about 30% of overall expenses, according to the International Air Transport Association. And jet fuel prices have roughly doubled since the war began. Shortages could start next.

“Every passing day that the Strait of Hormuz remains shut, Europe is edging closer to supply shortages,” said Amaar Khan, head of European jet fuel pricing at Argus Media. “The strait accounts for around 40% of Europe’s jet fuel imports, but no jet fuel has passed the strait since the war broke out.”

Airline officials have largely reacted with caution, acknowledging potential fuel issues but working to reassure customers. Still, some carriers have already passed costs on to consumers by increasing fees for baggage and other add-ons, embedding costs into ticket prices, or raising fuel surcharges.

A handful of airlines already are cutting flights. Experts say other parts of air travel — such as scheduling flexibility and routes — would likely be impacted.

Here's a look at how jet fuel supplies work and how consumers might see effects.

How does jet fuel get to the plane?

Jet fuel is made from crude oil at refineries, which also create gasoline and diesel.

Airlines generally buy jet fuel from refineries or fuel companies, similar to drivers buying gasoline from stations, but on a much larger scale. Jet fuel travels on ships and through pipelines and is stored by airlines at airports.

Purchasing is handled by airlines. If fuel supplies are running out in a region, that doesn’t necessarily mean there will be no flights. Some airlines might have more stored than others.

But remaining flights are likely to be expensive, reflecting fuel costs.

Larger airlines have advantages in regions with shortages. They have the financial means to deal with high prices, said Jacques Rousseau, managing director at financial firm Clearview Energy Partners.

In Europe, a number of countries are now relying on less than 20 days of coverage in their fuel supplies, according to this week's IEA report. Supplies haven’t dropped below 29 days since 2020, the report said.

If that falls under 23 days, physical shortages may emerge at some airports, resulting in flight cancellations and lower demand, the report warned.

Which regions could feel pain?

Asia-Pacific countries are the most reliant on oil and jet fuel from the Middle East, followed by Europe, Rousseau said.

Most of Europe’s jet fuel is produced by European refiners, but about 20-25% of its supply is missing because of the war, Rousseau said.

To fill some gaps, the U.S. has increased its exports of jet fuel to Europe considerably, sending about 150,000 barrels per day in April, or about six times the normal level, Rousseau said.

Availability of jet fuel is less of an issue in the U.S., a major oil producer, he added.

“I tell my kids ... we’re not so much going to run out of supply," Rousseau said. "It’s just going to cost more here, whereas in different parts of the world you could actually get to a point where there’s just no fuel.”

How much is the world supply of jet fuel lagging?

The world is losing 10 million to 15 million barrels of oil a day due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, said Pavel Molchanov, senior investment strategist at investment firm Raymond James & Associates.

“There are exactly the same refineries in exactly the same places in Asia and Europe, but if there is not enough oil for those refineries to operate, it’s going to lead to physical supply disruption,” he said.

Even though the IEA has released 400 million barrels of oil from members' emergency reserves, that won't help in the short term, he added.

“It could take until the end of the year to get all of those barrels onto the market,” he said.

How will my travel be affected?

Christopher Anderson, a professor of operations, technology and information management at Cornell University, said travelers should prepare for more than just higher airfares.

“This is no longer just a fuel-price story. For airlines, it is now a network-planning story,” he said. “Higher fuel costs matter, but so do longer routings, reduced scheduling flexibility and greater uncertainty about what demand will look like even a few weeks out.”

Travelers might see “a market with later booking patterns, more schedule volatility and fewer low-fare options if this disruption lasts into the core summer season,” he said.

What are airlines doing?

Dutch airline KLM and U.K. budget carrier easyJet told AP they weren't experiencing current fuel shortages, without commenting further on the IEA’s warning.

Still, both airlines are among those that have seen higher costs eat into their budgets.

On Thursday, KLM said it would cut 160 flights next month — about 1% of its total European routes. The airline cited “rising kerosene costs” and said a limited number of flights are “no longer financially viable to operate.”

In a Thursday update, EasyJet said it expects to see a pretax loss of 540 million to 560 million pounds (about $731 million to $758 million) for the first half of the 2026 fiscal year. Still, CEO Kenton Jarvis said demand remains strong overall — noting that Easter travel was easyJet’s busiest ever for that holiday period.

Lufthansa said Thursday that labor disputes and high fuel prices are forcing it to immediately shut down feeder airline CityLine, earlier than planned, and take its 27 older, less fuel-efficient planes out of service. The decision accelerates a shutdown that had been expected for next year.

U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines — which frequently flies to European destinations — said on Thursday that it was “aware of the potential jet fuel supply issue” on the continent and monitoring the situation. Delta, which bought a refinery in Philadelphia in 2012 to manage its largest expense, said it doesn’t expect any “near-term impact to our operations.”

How are prices affected?

Other airlines have sounded the alarm about rising fuel prices, with some already passing along new costs to travelers, often embedded into ticket prices and add-on fees.

U.S. carriers Delta, United, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue have all increased checked baggage fees, for example, in recent weeks.

United CEO Scott Kirby said in a recent memo to staff that if fuel prices stay elevated, it could add $11 billion in annual costs. “For perspective,” Kirby wrote, “in United’s best year ever, we made less than $5B.”

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific recently bumped fuel surcharges by roughly 34% across all routes, while Air India added up to $280 in fees to some flights earlier this month. Emirates, Lufthansa and KLM have also adjusted fees or fares to keep pace with the price volatility.

___

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

“Soy inocente y lamento mucho su muerte”, dijo Luque, uno de los principales imputados en el proceso que encabeza un tribunal de la localidad de San Isidro, en las afueras de Buenos Aires. “Yo lo amaba, era mi ídolo”, afirmó el neurocirujano que oficiaba de médico de cabecera de Maradona al momento de su deceso.

Posible negligencia médica

El excapitán de la selección que conquistó el Mundial en 1986 falleció de un ataque cardiaco el 25 de noviembre de 2020, mientras cumplía una internación domiciliaria en una casa situada en las afueras de Buenos Aires. Allí el exfutbolista, entonces de 60 años, intentaba recuperarse de una cirugía practicada dos semanas antes en una clínica para removerle un hematoma subdural.

Los siete procesados están imputados de homicidio simple por dolo eventual, que es cuando el victimario sabe que su conducta puede ocasionar un daño, pese a lo cual continúa con la acción. Se castiga con una pena máxima de 25 años de prisión.

Encaran desde el martes un segundo juicio, casi un año después de que un primer proceso judicial fuera declarado nulo al descubrirse la conducta indebida de una jueza integrante del tribunal que entonces estaba a cargo.

Luque se desvincula

En la audiencia del jueves, Luque negó haber sido quien decidiera todas las medidas que debían implementarse para la recuperación de Maradona luego de la cirugía a la que fue sometido y aseguró que él “no estaba a cargo de esa internación domiciliaria”.

“En cuanto a la injerencia de ‘Luque decide todo, hace todo’, yo soy neurocirujano subespecializado en columnas”, subrayó el imputado sobre el acotado papel que habría tenido en relación con la salud del astro.

El fiscal Patricio Ferrari había criticado el martes las condiciones de la internación domiciliaria. Sostuvo que en esa vivienda “un grupo de improvisados incumplieron todos los deberes a su cargo” y “abandonaron a su suerte” a Maradona “condenándolo a la muerte”.

En otro momento Luque afirmó que desde 2007 el exfutbolista no recibía medicación para sus problemas cardiacos. “Y en ese momento el doctor que estaba acompañando al paciente fue (Alfredo) Cahe, no yo”.

Cahe —ya fallecido— fue el médico personal del exfutbolista durante décadas y se mostró crítico con el equipo que lo atendió durante sus últimas semanas con vida.

Luque también rechazó que Maradona hubiera sufrido agonía de 12 horas, tal como señaló un informe oficial de unos 20 peritos.

Sobre la enorme hinchazón que presentaba el cuerpo del exfutbolista, señaló que no obedecía a una condición “no alertada” por los profesionales, sino a las maniobras de reanimación practicadas al Diez el día de su muerte. “Estuvo reanimado al menos una hora; lo reaniman, paran un segundo y por pedido de la familia lo vuelven a reanimar; quién sabe las alteraciones que produce eso en el cuerpo”.

El neurocirujano sostuvo que “el edema agudo en una RCP (reanimación cardiopulmonar) puede ser ocasionado en minutos” y “no necesita del 11 al 25 de noviembre”, que es el periodo de tiempo que Maradona estuvo internado en la vivienda en 2020.

El médico también apuntó contra Giannina Maradona, una de las hijas del exfutbolista, señalando que la también imputada psiquiatra Agustina Cosachov le propuso conseguirle una clínica para atender a su padre, “a lo que ella dijo ‘no, no, déjenme que voy a averiguar’, y no averiguó”.

Además de Luque y Cosachov, están imputados el psicólogo Carlos Díaz y los médicos Nancy Forlini y Pedro Di Spagna; también el representante de la empresa que ofrecía el servicio de enfermería Mariano Perroni y el enfermero Ricardo Almirón. Todos ellos cumplieron algún papel en la internación domiciliaria del exfutbolista.

Luque declaró ante el tribunal —la primera vez que lo hizo— luego de que su defensa lo solicitara temprano en la mañana.

Durante la misma audiencia fueron reproducidos audios de las conversaciones por móvil que el neurocirujano mantuvo con cuidadores de Maradona. En una de ellas, un masajista le dijo preocupado que vio al campeón del mundo “hinchado con la luz apagada, imagínate con la luz prendida”.

Gianinna Maradona apuntó contra Luque durante el proceso que terminó siendo anulado el año pasado señalando que durante la internación domiciliaria vio a su padre muy descuidado.

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La periodista de The Associated Press, Almudena Calatrava, colaboró con este reporte.

In his testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, kicking off an expected sprint of seven budget hearings he'll attend across congressional committees and subcommittees over the next week, Kennedy emphasized the administration's work to reform dietary guidelines and crack down on waste, fraud and abuse.

Republicans on the committee praised Kennedy as a “breath of fresh air” and asked him to promote his department's recent actions. Democrats, who have been furious over Kennedy's sweeping overhaul of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, largely had a different agenda.

They needled Kennedy on what they viewed as the Trump administration’s hypocrisy on fraud, demanded to know why he was cutting budgets for various programs and slammed his efforts to pull back vaccine recommendations and messaging, which they said have caused unnecessary deaths.

Kennedy fired back, often raising his voice as he accused the Democrats of misrepresenting his work and past statements.

Here are three standout moments from Thursday's hearing:

A standoff over measles

One heated exchange early in the hearing came between Kennedy and Rep. Linda Sanchez. The California Democrat decried recent measles outbreaks across the U.S. and asked Kennedy to answer for the fact that under his leadership, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pulled back public health messaging supporting vaccination.

“As a mother, this horrifies me,” Sanchez said. “Did President Trump approve your decision to end CDC’s pro-vaccine public messaging campaign?”

Kennedy repeatedly refused to answer, saying first he wanted to respond to the “misstatements that you've made” and later praising the Trump administration's record on preventing measles, although protections against the disease have eroded in some parts of the country as vaccination rates have dropped.

“That's not answering my question,” Sanchez said as the two talked over each other.

But Sanchez also got Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist before he entered politics, to acknowledge that a 6-year-old who died of measles last year in West Texas could have potentially been saved with vaccination.

“Do you agree with the majority of doctors that the measles vaccine could have saved that child’s life in Texas?” she asked.

“It's possible, certainly,” Kennedy said.

RFK Jr. denies talking about Black children being ‘re-parented’

A fight erupted between Kennedy and Rep. Terri Sewell, a Democrat from Alabama, when Kennedy vehemently denied making remarks he'd said in 2024.

The comments dated back to when Kennedy was a presidential candidate. On the “High Level Conversations” podcast in 2024, he said, “Psychiatric drugs — which every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence, and those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented to live in a community where there'll be no cellphones, no screens, you'll actually have to talk to people."

“Have you ever re-parented, or parented, I should say, a Black child?” Sewell asked, as her staff held up a poster featuring an abbreviated version of the quote.

“I don't even know what that phrase means,” Kennedy said. “I'm not going to answer something I didn't say.”

“You're making stuff up,” he later claimed.

A recording of the podcast shows he made the comments during a conversation about free rehabilitation facilities he was proposing opening at the time in rural areas around the country.

HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said Kennedy before joining the administration was referring to spaces where young people facing alienation, mental health challenges and despair could get re-parented, which she said was a psychotherapy term for “developing the emotional regulation, discipline, boundaries, and self-worth that may not have been established in childhood.”

For Kennedy and his former party, civility is the exception

Kennedy spent most of his life as a Democrat, the scion of one of the nation's most famous political families. Both Republicans and Democrats during the hearing began their remarks by expressing their admiration of Kennedy's relatives, among them former President John F. Kennedy.

But again and again throughout Thursday's hearing, the fraying of bonds between Kennedy and his former party was on full display as spiteful comments were passed back and forth.

The health secretary grew defensive and visibly agitated. He repeatedly criticized Democratic lawmakers for not giving him a word in edgewise.

“They've all shut me up,” Kennedy said at one point. “They give a little speech that they can go and market, you know, for fundraising, and they don't allow me to answer the question.”

On a few rare occasions, the exchanges were civil. One representative, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, used humor to make that happen.

“I promise to give you easy, comfortable questions if you don't yell at me and hurt my feelings,” she told Kennedy. He promised he wouldn't.

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An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Kennedy's remarks about Black children were made last year. He made the remarks in 2024.

The department said that more than half of the 200 licenses reviewed during the audit had significant problems such as remaining valid long after an immigrant was authorized to be in the country. So the state was ordered to review all of this type of licenses and revoke illegal ones.

The federal government has reviewed records related to these non-domiciled CDLs in every state since Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy put a spotlight on this issue after an August crash in Florida that killed three people. Most states have either complied or are in negotiations with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, but California has lost $200 million. Several other states — including Pennsylvania, Minnesota and North Carolina — have been warned they are at risk of losing some funding.

“I promised the American people I would hold any state leader accountable for failing to keep them safe from unvetted, unqualified foreign drivers. I’m delivering on that promise today,” Duffy said.

Duffy has said that immigrants account for about 20% of all truck drivers nationwide, but these non-domiciled licenses immigrants can receive only represent about 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses or about 200,000 drivers. New York issued 32,606 of them. New rules the Transportation Department has announced will prevent 97% of those foreign drivers from getting a commercial license again.

New York officials have defended their licensing practices and said they are complying with federal law and that audits during the first Trump administration supported that.

This is not the first time that the Transportation Department had withheld or threatened to withhold funding from New York since Trump returned to office.

Duffy put a hold on $18 billion in funding for a subway extension in Manhattan and tunnels beneath the Hudson River for Amtrak and commuter rail trains. The Trump administration agreed Thursday to restore funding for the subway project. In February, a judge ordered the funding to continue for the tunnel project. Duffy also threatened to pull federal funding from New York if it did not abandon a congestion pricing fee for driving into a large swath of Manhattan and if crime on the subway system was not addressed. The state also fought those efforts in court and won.

Gov. Kathy Hochul's spokesman Sean Butler said the action related to commercial driver's licenses seems to be part of broad effort to attack blue states.

“This continues a yearlong pattern of Secretary Duffy threatening to withhold money that keeps our roads, subways, and other infrastructure safe for New Yorkers. We will fight back, and once again we will win,” Butler said.

Trucking industry groups have praised the Transportation Department's efforts to get unqualified drivers off the road, crack down on questionable trucking schools and go after trucking companies that violate the rules and then just change their names and keep operating. The industry said that too often unqualified drivers who shouldn’t have licenses or can’t speak English have been allowed to get behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound (about 39,916 kilograms) truck.

"Thes“ enf”rcement actions will remove bad actors from the road and restore accountability to the system. Today’s action is an important step toward safer highways and a stronger, more professional trucking industry.” said Todd Spencer, who is president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association trade group.

But immigrant groups say some drivers are now being unfairly targeted. The spotlight has been on Sikh truckers because the driver in the Florida crash and the driver in another fatal crash in California in October are both Sikhs.

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Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the stabbing shortly after 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday at 28759 SW 132 Court.

“The victim and the defendant are coworkers ... have known each other for approximately four to five months,” a deputy wrote, according to the arrest report.

The conflict started after the victim accused Edward Lowery, the alleged attacker, of not doing his job, according to the M-DSO deputy’s arrest report.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel airlifted the stabbing victim to Jackson South Medical Center in Kendall.

Deputies arrested Lowery shortly after 6:20 p.m. on Wednesday at 1027 NE 23 Ave., in Homestead, according to the deputy’s arrest report.

Lowery “spontaneously stated that he acted in self-defense,” a M-DSO deputy wrote, according to the arrest report.

Miami-Dade County corrections booked Lowery shortly before 1:50 a.m. on Thursday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Lowery faced a second-degree charge of attempted murder.

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

La visita de Türk se dará en medio de las tensiones que surgieron entre el gobierno de la presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum y el Comité de la ONU contra la Desaparición Forzada (CED por sus siglas en inglés) tras el reporte que presentó a inicios de mes en el que solicitó, en una decisión sin precedentes, que se lleve el caso México a la Asamblea General para que sopese medidas de prevención, investigación, castigo y erradicación de las desapariciones forzadas.

Sheinbaum anunció el jueves en su conferencia matutina que se reunirá la próxima semana con el alto comisionado quien también sostendrá encuentros con funcionarios de la Cancillería y la Secretaría de Gobernación.

Desde el 2000 a la fecha al menos tres altos comisionados de derechos humanos de la ONU han visitado México, entre ellos Louise Arbour en 2007 y Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein en 2015.

La mandataria detalló que durante la visita las autoridades mexicanas le informarán a Türk sobre lo que se ha realizado para apoyar a las víctimas y atender el delito de desaparición, y agregó que también se recibirán sus opiniones.

La oficina del alto comisionado de los derechos humanos y el CED forman parte del sistema de la ONU, pero responden a mandos distintos y tienen plena independencia, por lo que no se prevé que la visita de Türk pueda influir en la postura del comité sobre la situación de México.

El arribo del alto comisionado se dará en un momento álgido pues coincidirá con los recientes hallazgos de cientos de restos óseos que encontraron a las afueras de la capital mexicana grupos de personas que buscan por su cuenta a sus familiares desaparecidos. Según la fiscalía local los restos corresponderían a al menos tres personas.

El colectivo local Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco también informó esta semana la localización de “molares, placas y diversos indicios óseos” en una fosa séptica del Rancho Izaguirre, ubicado a las afueras de la ciudad occidental de Guadalajara, que fue intervenido el año pasado por la Fiscalía General de la República tras la denuncia que hizo el mismo grupo sobre la presencia de numerosos restos óseos calcinados y cientos de prendas de vestir en el lugar.

Los activistas han cuestionado los pocos avances que ha habido en las investigaciones del Rancho Izaguirre que era utilizado por el poderoso Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación como centro de entrenamiento.

Sheinbaum criticó duramente el informe de la CED alegando que se ignoró las acciones que ha realizado su gobierno para enfrentar la crisis, y sostuvo que el análisis se basó en casos ocurridos en cuatro estados mexicanos entre 2009-2017 y que los resultados “los extrapolan hasta 2025”.

También rechazó la afirmación de la CED de que en México podrían estar ocurriendo desapariciones forzadas como “crímenes de lesa humanidad”, y dijo que para que se dé ese tipo penal se requieren “ataques sistemáticos contra la población civil” por parte del Estado.

En su informe la CED también expresó preocupación por la crisis forense sin precedentes que enfrenta México con más de 70.000 cuerpos sin identificar en morgues y fosas comunes.

En respuesta a las críticas de las autoridades mexicanas, Juan Pablo Albán, presidente del CED, expresó que las diferencias jurídicas, incluso políticas, “son comprensibles” en el marco del diálogo internacional y la cooperación, pero sostuvo que es “fundamental preservar el respeto institucional” hacia los órganos de supervisión de los derechos humanos y sus integrantes.

Albán también refutó las críticas al informe y planteó que el análisis que hizo la CED de los casos de desaparecidos en México “no se limita a un periodo cerrado”, sino que “examina la evolución de la situación hasta la actualidad”.

El problema de desaparecidos en México se remonta al último tercio del siglo XX, pero a partir de 2006, cuando se inició la guerra frontal contra el crimen organizado, las cifras se dispararon, sin que se hayan logrado contener hasta la fecha.

En un intento por hacer frente a esta crisis, el año pasado Sheinbaum anunció una serie de reformas para agilizar las búsquedas, y a finales de marzo presentó una revisión del registro nacional de personas desaparecidas. Organizaciones humanitarias locales criticaron dicha revisión, asegurando que las debilidades en los registros revelan la enorme impunidad que existe en el país sobre esos casos, y consideraron que las nuevas clasificaciones no tienen fundamento legal.

Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade respondieron al incidente poco después de las 4:45 p.m. del miércoles en 28759 SW 132 Court.

“La víctima y el acusado son compañeros de trabajo… se conocen desde hace aproximadamente cuatro a cinco meses”, escribió un agente en el informe de arresto.

El conflicto comenzó después de que la víctima acusara a Edward Lowery, el presunto agresor, de no cumplir con su trabajo, según el informe.

Personal de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue trasladó en helicóptero a la víctima al Jackson South Medical Center en Kendall.

Los agentes arrestaron a Lowery poco después de las 6:20 p.m. del miércoles en 1027 NE 23 Ave., en Homestead, según el informe.

Lowery “declaró espontáneamente que actuó en defensa propia”, escribió un agente.

Correcciones de Miami-Dade registró a Lowery poco antes de la 1:50 a.m. del jueves en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

Lowery enfrenta un cargo de intento de asesinato en segundo grado.

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Estos sectores reclaman que tienen más de cuatro años sin recibir aumentos en el salario mínimo mensual, considerado el más bajo de la región.

En una mañana lluviosa, los manifestantes también exigieron al gobierno estadounidense velar que los fondos del gobierno venezolano — retenidos por Washington debido a las sanciones — al ser liberados sean usado para “pensiones, para salario…. para la reparación de escuelas, hospitales, universidades y para la obra de infraestructura pública”, dijo a la prensa el dirigente sindical Carlos Salazar, quien encabezó la delegación que entregó el pliego de peticiones a un funcionario de la sede diplomática.

Portando carteles en los que se leía “Mr. Trump consuma ya la transición”, los manifestantes pidieron, además, la convocatoria a elecciones próximamente, argumentando que es necesario un cambio de gobierno para lograr la recuperación del país rico en petróleo.

Después de su operación militar para capturar al entonces presidente Nicolás Maduro, el 3 de enero pasado, Estados Unidos ha estado trabajando para influir en los próximos pasos de Venezuela a través de sus vastos recursos petroleros.

La administración del presidente Trump sostiene que tienen el propósito de asumir el control de las exportaciones de productos petroleros venezolanos y mineros para asegurar, según dice, que beneficien al pueblo venezolano, así como revitalizar la economía venezolana atrayendo inversión extranjera a sus vastos recursos naturales.

El secretario de Estado estadounidense, Marco Rubio, ha dicho que como parte de permitir que Venezuela venda petróleo, que sigue bajo sanciones, esos ingresos estarán dedicados en un principio a cubrir los costos de servicios gubernamentales básicos, como salarios, atención médica, y estarán sujetos a la supervisión de Washington.

La presidenta encargada, juramentada dos días después de la captura de Maduro, dijo en enero que el dinero procedente de las ventas de petróleo se destinaría hacia dos fondos soberanos: uno para apoyar los servicios de salud y otro para fortalecer la infraestructura pública, incluida la deteriorada red eléctrica.

Las protestas han continuado pese a que Rodríguez ha pedido paciencia a los trabajadores, cuyos salarios durante cerca de tres lustros no les han permitido cubrir sus necesidades básicas.

Rodríguez prometió a los trabajadores un aumento salarial el 1 de mayo. No reveló el monto, pero explicó que se implementaría de manera tal que se evite un repunte inflacionario como el que siguió al último incremento del salario mínimo.

Numerosos trabajadores del sector público subsisten con aproximadamente 160 dólares al mes, casi en su totalidad bonos que no tienen incidencia en otros beneficios laborales. De acuerdo con el Observatorio Venezolano de Finanzas, un organismo independiente, un empleado promedio del sector privado ganaba el año pasado alrededor de 237 dólares mensuales.

El salario mínimo mensual de Venezuela de 130 bolívares (menos de 20 centavos de dólar al tipo de cambio oficial) no ha aumentado desde 2022, lo que lo sitúa muy por debajo del umbral de pobreza extrema de tres dólares al día establecido por el Banco Mundial y Naciones Unidas.

Muchos venezolanos tienen dos o más empleos para mejorar sus ingresos, mientras el precio de una canasta básica de alimentos supera los 500 dólares mensuales, según el Observatorio.

In an interview with the arts website Hyperallergic, Duwaji, an illustrator, said she felt “a lot of shame being confronted with language I used that is so harmful to others," adding “being 15 doesn't excuse it."

"I’ve read and seen a lot of what others have had to say in response, and I understand the hurt I caused and am truly sorry," she said in the interview, published Wednesday, in response to a question about adjusting to life as a public figure.

Duwaji did not specify which comments she was referring to, nor did she address other, more recent social media activity regarding Israel that has attracted heavy scrutiny as Mamdani tries to ease concerns among some in the city's Jewish community over his own criticism of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

Last month, The Washington Free Beacon reported on years of Duwaji’s online activity across a handful of social media platforms, finding she had shared posts praising female Palestinian militants who participated in plane hijackings and bombings in the 1960s and early 1970s. In 2015, she shared a post in which someone else wrote that Tel Aviv was occupying Palestinian land and “shouldn’t exist.”

Duwaji also once used a racial slur for Black people while affectionately addressing a friend and used an abbreviated slur for gay people in 2013.

The mayor has previously said his wife is a “private person” who does not hold a formal position in City Hall. Asked Thursday about which specific posts his wife regretted, Mamdani demurred.

“She shared some of her reflections in this interview. I won’t add much to them, what I will say, however, is that she is someone of incredible integrity,” Mamdani told reporters.

He added that questions about Duwaji's social media activity were “part and parcel” of his own choice to run for mayor, “a decision that has ramifications for those that I love.”

Separately, Duwaji has also come under criticism for liking an Instagram post that appeared to cheer Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 surprise attack on Israel. The Free Beacon has also reported that Duwaji provided an illustration for an essay by an author who described the Oct. 7 attack as “spectacular" and had called Jewish Israelis “rootless soulless ghouls.”

Mamdani has previously said his wife had been commissioned to illustrate an excerpt of a book by a third party, and said she had never engaged or met with the author, and that Duwaji had not seen the author's previous comments. He called the author's rhetoric “patently unacceptable” and “reprehensible.”

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AP writer Jake Offenhartz contributed

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Both burglaries happened Sunday in the vicinity of Southwest 180th Street and 117th Avenue in the county’s unincorporated South Miami Heights area.

Deputies arrested the suspect, Erick Lluis, after spotting him on Wednesday.

According to a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office arrest report, the federal officers ― working for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and Immigration and Customs Enforcement ― live close to one another. They also live close to Lluis, who resides about a block away.

Deputies said the 41-year-old burglarized their vehicles less than an hour apart.

Investigators said Lluis stole an FBOP “vest carrier, ID holder, hat and badge” from one vehicle and “a black sweater with ‘Police ICE’ printed on the back, a police radio charger and a fleet fuel card” from the other.

The report states that video from one of the burglaries showed Lluis rolling up on an electric scooter and breaking into one of the vehicles.

According to the report, on Wednesday, a deputy spotted him near his home and tried to stop him, but he ran into his backyard.

Deputies said they eventually found Lluis “concealing himself on the roof of a light-colored garage shed in the backyard” and also found the ICE sweater “laying on the ground” inside the open shed.

Authorities said they recovered the FBOP gear after obtaining a search warrant.

Jail records show Lluis was taken into custody on two counts of burglary and one count of fleeing and eluding.

As of Thursday, Lluis was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $22,500 bond with a listed hold for another, unspecified, agency.

Ambos robos ocurrieron el domingo en las inmediaciones de Southwest 180th Street y 117th Avenue, en el área no incorporada de South Miami Heights.

Los agentes arrestaron al sospechoso, Erick Lluis, tras localizarlo el miércoles.

Según un informe de arresto de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade, los agentes federales —que trabajan para la Oficina Federal de Prisiones y el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE)— viven cerca uno del otro. También viven cerca de Lluis, quien reside a aproximadamente una cuadra.

Los agentes dijeron que el hombre de 41 años robó los vehículos con menos de una hora de diferencia.

Los investigadores indicaron que Lluis robó de un vehículo un “chaleco portaequipo, portacredencial, gorra y placa” de la FBOP y del otro “un suéter negro con ‘Police ICE’ impreso en la parte trasera, un cargador de radio policial y una tarjeta de combustible de flota”.

El informe señala que un video de uno de los robos muestra a Lluis llegando en un scooter eléctrico y forzando la entrada a uno de los vehículos.

Según el informe, el miércoles un agente lo vio cerca de su casa e intentó detenerlo, pero este huyó hacia el patio trasero.

Los agentes dijeron que finalmente lo encontraron “ocultándose en el techo de un cobertizo de garaje de color claro en el patio trasero” y también hallaron el suéter de ICE “tirado en el suelo” dentro del cobertizo abierto.

Las autoridades indicaron que recuperaron el equipo de la FBOP tras obtener una orden de registro.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Lluis fue detenido enfrentando dos cargos de robo de vehículo y uno por huir y evadir a la policía.

Hasta el jueves, permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight con una fianza de $22,500 USD y una retención adicional de otra agencia no especificada.

A change-of-plea hearing for Jones is scheduled for April 28 in Brooklyn federal court, according to a court filing Thursday. It was originally set for May 6, but was moved at the request of the parties.

Jones, 49, had previously pleaded not guilty to separate indictments charging him with profiting from rigged poker games and providing sports bettors with non-public information about injuries to stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Jones is charged in both cases with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.

A message seeking comment was left for his lawyer, Kenneth Montgomery. He told a judge at Jones’ arraignments in November that they “may be engaging in plea negotiations.”

Jones, a onetime teammate of James, was arrested last October along with Portland Trail Blazers head coach and Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, 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. He remains free on bail.

A native of 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.

According to prosecutors, Jones sold or attempted to sell non-public information to bettors that James was injured and wouldn’t be playing in a Feb. 9, 2023, game against the Milwaukee Bucks, texting an unnamed co-conspirator: “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out.”

James wasn’t listed on the Lakers’ injury report at the time of the text message, but the NBA’s all-time scoring leader was later ruled out of the game because of a lower body injury, according to prosecutors, and the Lakers lost the game 115-106.

On Jan. 15, 2024, prosecutors said, sports bettor Marves Fairley paid Jones approximately $2,500 for a tip that Davis, the Lakers’ forward and center at the time, would see limited playing time against the Oklahoma City Thunder because of an injury.

Fairley then placed a $100,000 bet on the Thunder to win, prosecutors said, but the tip was wrong. Davis played his usual minutes, scored 27 points and collected 15 rebounds in a 112-105 Lakers win, prompting Fairley to demand a refund of his $2,500 fee, prosecutors said.

In the poker scheme, according to prosecutors, Jones was among former NBA players used to lure unwitting players into 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. His instructor likened those people to James and NBA All-Star Steph Curry, prosecutors said. 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!!”

The poker scheme often made use of illegal poker games run by New York crime families that required them to share a portion of their proceeds with the Gambino, Genovese and Bonnano crime families, according to prosecutors.

Members of those families, in turn, also helped commit violent acts, including assault, extortion and robbery, to ensure repayment of debts and the continued success of the operation, officials said in court documents.

A hot hand from outside the three-point arc, Jones once proclaimed himself in an interview with insidehoops.com as “the best shooter in the world.” He played in every regular season game for three consecutive seasons from 2003 to 2006.

After his playing days, he worked as a “shooting consultant” for the Cavaliers and was an assistant coach when the team, led by James, won the NBA championship in 2016.

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Undercover officers located the vehicle and stopped it near Northeast 38th Street and Biscayne Boulevard near Miami’s Design District, according to police.

Police said two people were detained for questioning.

Sky 10 flew over the scene, where officers were detaining a man in handcuffs while the other suspect was seen on the ground as police searched a black vehicle.

Authorities said Florida Highway Patrol troopers also responded to the scene.

No other details about the culprits were immediately released.

Agentes encubiertos localizaron el vehículo y lo detuvieron cerca de Northeast 38th Street y Biscayne Boulevard, en las inmediaciones del Design District de Miami, según la policía.

Las autoridades indicaron que dos personas fueron detenidas para ser interrogadas.

Sky 10 sobrevoló la escena, donde los agentes tenían a un hombre esposado mientras el otro sospechoso estaba en el suelo, mientras la policía registraba un vehículo negro.

Las autoridades señalaron que agentes de la Patrulla de Carreteras de Florida también respondieron al lugar.

No se dieron a conocer de inmediato más detalles sobre los sospechosos.

Jay Bryant pleaded not guilty to murder after his 2023 indictment, but his lawyer and federal prosecutors told the court in recent letters that they were negotiating a plea agreement.

A court docket entry Thursday indicated that Bryant intends to change his plea, without saying anything about the charge or conduct to which he might admit or the punishment he might expect. No date was set for a change of plea, and prosecutors declined to comment; a message was sent to Bryant’s attorney.

The notice isn't an irreversible commitment, and defendants can change their minds about pleading guilty even as they're sitting in court.

If Bryant goes through with the plea, it could bring a measure of both closure and complexity to the already convoluted case. Co-defendants Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington were convicted by a jury, but Jordan was later cleared by a judge — and Bryant has been something of an outlier.

He was indicted nearly three years after the others, when authorities said Bryant's DNA was found on a hat in the music studio where Jam Master Jay was gunned down. Born Jason Mizell, he was the DJ in Run-DMC, crafting beats and scratches that helped propel rap into music’s mainstream in the 1980s. The trio's hits included “It’s Tricky” and a take on Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”

By the time the DNA was allegedly matched to Bryant, prosecutors had long since articulated a theory that Jordan and Washington — both of whom were close to Mizell — went after him out of anger over a failed drug deal. According to prosecutors and trial witnesses, Jordan shot the DJ while Washington blocked the door during the shooting and ordered one of Mizell's to get on the ground. Both men denied the allegations.

Jordan was Mizell's grandson, and Washington was one of the DJ's childhood friends. Bryant, by contrast, had little if any connection to the rap star. He knew someone in common with Jordan and Washington, according to testimony at their trial, but it was unclear whether Bryant had ever met Mizell.

After the alleged DNA match, prosecutors contended that Bryant had slipped into the studio building and opened a back fire door so that Washington and Jordan could avoid buzzing up and could ambush the DJ.

Meanwhile, Bryant’s uncle claimed that his nephew told him he shot Mizell after the artist reached for a gun. No other witnesses even placed Bryant in the studio, however, and prosecutors differed with the uncle's account, even though he was their witness . Instead, they suggested that Bryant touched the hat and then Jordan or Washington carried it into the studio and dropped it.

Neither Washington's nor Jordan's DNA was found on the hat, according to court papers.

One of Jordan’s lawyers, Michael Hueston, argued that the charges against Bryant raised reasonable doubt about the case against Jordan. Jordan's conviction ultimately was overturned for unrelated reasons.

Bryant, now 52, was jailed on federal drug and gun charges when he was indicted in Mizell's death. He has since pleaded guilty in the drug and firearm case and is awaiting sentencing.

Kast llegó al poder hace poco más de un mes con el compromiso de contener la inmigración irregular y la violencia. Una de sus primeras medidas —a menos de una semana en el cargo— fue la construcción de una enorme zanja en la frontera norte del país para evitar los cruces clandestinos.

También prometió acelerar las expulsiones de extranjeros en situación irregular, en especial de aquellos que cuenten con condenas judiciales o antecedentes de delitos cometidos en el país.

Entre los 40 extranjeros deportados el jueves 30 tenían antecedentes asociados a delitos o conductas de alta gravedad, por lo que fueron escoltados por un fuerte refuerzo policial. El vuelo partió a primera hora desde la base de la Fuerza Aérea en Santiago y los individuos serán ahora entregados a las autoridades migratorias de Bolivia, Ecuador y Colombia.

“A poco andar del primer mes ya tenemos nuestro primer vuelo de expulsados. Y van a haber más”, dijo en una rueda de prensa el subsecretario de Interior, Máximo Pavez.

Ese ministerio había adelantado una “política permanente de control migratorio” que se desplegará de manera continua mediante operaciones aéreas y terrestres orientadas a “materializar expulsiones, reforzar la fiscalización y asegurar el cumplimiento efectivo de la ley”.

Los vuelos de expulsión de extranjeros han sido una herramienta recurrente de distintos gobiernos como los de los expresidentes Gabriel Boric (2022-2026) y Sebastián Piñera (2018-2022). Para ello, los deportados deben contar con una decisión oficial, ya sea a través de una medida administrativa u orden judicial, y el proceso debe ser coordinado entre las autoridades de todos los países involucrados.

Por eso hasta el momento este modelo de deportaciones no contempla a los ciudadanos venezolanos —la mayor comunidad extranjera en Chile y muchos de los cuales no cuentan con papeles— ya que las relaciones diplomáticas entre ambos países están congeladas.

Sin embargo, el director del Servicio Nacional de Migraciones, Frank Sauerbaum, indicó en la rueda de prensa que desde que Kast ganó las elecciones presidenciales en diciembre “han salido voluntariamente 2.180 venezolanos” del país. “Y hoy día tenemos un 67% menos ingresos irregulares que cuatro años atrás”, agregó.

Según estimaciones de la autoridad migratoria, unas 330.000 personas se encuentran en situación irregular en Chile, país de unos 18 millones de habitantes y donde la población extranjera saltó de 0,8% en 1992 a 8,8% en 2024. Muchos han vinculado la llegada masiva de inmigrantes a un aumento de la delincuencia.

And Adebayo wants the league to look at how plays like that can be reviewed going forward.

Ball will play Friday for the Hornets in their play-in elimination game at Orlando — the reality that Charlotte coach Charles Lee hoped for, and something that Miami coach Erik Spoelstra didn’t seem to have a problem with.

“I didn’t think that he needed to be penalized more moving forward. I don’t think that would make sense,” Spoelstra said Thursday as the Heat held their season-ending meetings — two days after being eliminated from the postseason with a 127-126 loss in Charlotte, a game that Adebayo missed much of after being injured on a play where Ball grabbed at his ankle as he was falling.

“I don’t think he’s a dirty player. I just think, in that moment, all things can be true,” Spoelstra said. “It was a dirty play and a dangerous play. It should have been caught at that moment. But it wasn’t and then, you know, you move on.”

The league said Ball made “unnecessary and reckless contact” with Adebayo. Ball was fined $35,000 for the foul, plus another $25,000 for using profanity in a postgame on-court interview.

“Everybody’s going to have their opinion on it,” Adebayo said when asked his thoughts on the play. “Nobody’s really going to know the truth but LaMelo if it was dirty or not, obviously. Everybody’s going to try to defend him or defend me. ... We move on at this point.”

The flagrant foul from Tuesday’s game, if called as a Category 2 in real time, would have resulted in Miami being awarded two free throws and possession of the ball — plus would have led to Ball’s ejection.

An NBA investigation is standard after such plays; referee Zach Zarba even told a pool reporter Tuesday night that the league would be looking into the play further. The league’s word came late Wednesday night, and only then could Lee exhale.

“I think the league handed out something that was what they deemed to be fair,” Lee said in Charlotte on Thursday before the team’s flight to Orlando. ”And we’re glad that we still have him going on to the next game. I know he never has the intent to try to hurt anybody out there on the court. But I’m glad everything’s kind of settled now.”

Per NBA rules, the Heat could not challenge the ruling on the play because no foul was called. Play continued, leaving no opportunity for a replay review. Adebayo was diagnosed with a lower-back contusion as a result of the fall, and he wondered why mechanisms exist to take 3-point makes off the scoreboard after several more minutes of play — but incidents like the one Tuesday can’t be reviewed unless immediately whistled.

“I think the officials handled it, I guess, by the rule book,” Adebayo said. “I feel like it’ll be a change at some point. It doesn’t make sense that three or four plays go by and you can review a 3-point shot but you can’t review a hostile act.”

It’s at least the second time Ball has been involved in such a play with Adebayo. During a game at Miami in January 2024, when Ball grabbed at Adebayo’s leg as the Heat star was running to the other end of the court. Adebayo stumbled but did not fall.

“There’s never been any, like, bad blood between us. ... There’s always been good conversations,” Adebayo said. “As far as those incidents, I can’t tell you what goes through his mind.”

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

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During the call, the woman — speaking with the help of a translator for portions of the conversation — told dispatchers she had been sitting in a common area just before 4:40 p.m. on April 8 near the 16500 block of Golf Club Road, near the Bonaventure Golf Club, when the attack happened.

“So like I usually walk here inside the condos, which are several buildings, and I was like sitting on a hill like to rest and watch like how they playing golf, right? And suddenly someone jumped me from behind,” the victim stated on the call.

The victim said she was able to quickly fight back during the struggle.

“I suppose that he wanted to do like a violation or something, but I turned over immediately,” she said. “I defend myself, and like he ran out immediately, and he’s with a scooter.”

Investigators said the assault happened off Golf Club Road in the Country Club Village community last Wednesday.

Authorities said surveillance video showed the suspect exposing himself in a nearby parking lot before removing his shoes and slowly approaching the victim from behind.

The suspect was described as wearing a khaki hoodie and distinctive red and black pants. The victim said he fled the scene on a scooter.

The incident has rattled residents in the normally quiet neighborhood.

“This is not possible. They have to do something about it.” said neighbor Patricia Guerrero.

“It was too close to our apartment and this is a very nice place. Very secure. I’m very surprised.” said Ana Caraballo, another woman who lives nearby.

Anyone with information on the suspect is being asked to call BSO Detective Michael Kravecz at 954-626-4006 or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

According to BSO, tips leading to an arrest “are eligible for a reward of up to $5,000.”

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said it is the first criminal case against a federal officer involved in the Minnesota immigration crackdown, which was part of a surge of forces into cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and New Orleans.

“There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal agents who violate the law in the state of Minnesota,” Moriarty told a news conference, saying the agent acted outside the scope of a federal officers’ authority.

An arrest warrant filed in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, says Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. is charged with two counts of second-degree assault. Minnesota authorities say Morgan, 35, was driving back to immigration offices at the end of his shift when the incident occurred Feb. 5.

The driver and front-seat passenger of a car called 911 saying the driver of an unmarked SUV pulled alongside them, rolled down his window and pointed a handgun at them both. The car's driver told investigators they feared it was a “crazy person driving down the road aiming guns at people," according to the warrant.

A spokesman for Moriarty’s office said no arrangements have been made for Morgan to surrender and that there is an active nationwide warrant for his arrest. If convicted, Morgan faces up to seven years in prison for each assault charge.

Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department officials didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

A person returning a call to a possible phone listing for Morgan said it was a wrong number for him. A message sent to a possible email address for Morgan bounced back as undeliverable. No one immediately returned a phone message left at a number for a person listed as sharing an address with Morgan. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney who could speak for him.

Accused agent told state investigators he 'feared for his safety'

Moriarty said during a news conference that Morgan was driving a rented, unmarked SUV on the shoulder of the highway when a car also moved into the shoulder to try to slow Morgan down, its driver not knowing he was an officer. After the car returned to the legal lane, she said, Morgan pulled up alongside and pointed his service weapon at the two people in the car.

According to the warrant, Morgan then merged his SUV back into traffic ahead of the victims, who took cellphone photos of the SUV’s license plate.

The warrant does not identify the victims.

Morgan and his partner, who was not charged, told investigators they were returning at the end of their shift to the federal building being used to stage officers. The arrest warrant says Morgan "made no claim that he was conducting any law-enforcement operation or activity or responding to any emergency situation.”

Morgan told investigators with the Minnesota State Patrol that the other vehicle “swerved over in front of him and cut him off,” the warrant said. Investigators wrote that Morgan said “he feared for his safety and the safety of others” when he drew his gun and yelled: “Police! Stop!”

The warrant says the victims couldn’t tell Morgan was a law enforcement officer and couldn't hear him because their windows were up.

Trump administration has warned against arresting federal agents

The charges could intensify a clash between the Trump administration and Minnesota officials over the crackdown. Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, has warned that the Justice Department could investigate and prosecute state or local officials who arrest federal agents for performing their official duties.

Moriarty said she is not concerned about blowback from federal authorities and that her office will “hold people accountable if they violate the laws of the state.”

Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said federal officers are granted immunity for actions within the scope of their official responsibilities.

He said the actions described in the arrest warrant don’t seem relevant to the officer’s duties. But because he apparently was on-duty at the time, the officer could petition to move the charges to federal court and make a claim for immunity.

“When you look at it more closely, flashing a gun is a serious threat,” Gerhardt said. “And there’s a good argument that isn’t part of his official duties … it’s abusing his powers.”

Minnesota still investigating killings of 2 US citizens by federal officers

DHS deployed about 3,000 federal officers to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area from December through February in what the department called its “ largest immigration enforcement operation ever.” The Minnesota operation led to thousands of arrests, angry mass protests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens.

Backlash over the officers' aggressive tactics mounted, and two of the crackdown’s most high profile leaders were soon gone. Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March shortly after the Minnesota surge ended. That same month, Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol sector chief who led immigration operations in several large cities, announced his retirement.

Minnesota authorities continue to investigate the conduct of federal officers during the immigration crackdown, insisting they can't trust the federal government to investigate itself. Minnesota sued the Trump administration last month for access to evidence in three cases involving shootings by federal officers, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

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Lauer reported from Philadelphia and Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press reporters Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed.

Gabriela Saldana se encontraba en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight el jueves después de que fuera ingresada el miércoles por la tarde.

Según el informe de arresto de un agente, Saldana “emitió una amenaza de matar o causar daño corporal” en sus publicaciones del viernes y miércoles sobre “un evento programado” en un chat grupal de WhatsApp.

Saldana “admitió haber enviado y transmitido los mensajes”, y agentes de la policía del campus de FIU la arrestaron poco después de las 2:10 a.m. del jueves en el campus ubicado en 885 SW 109 Ave., según los registros.

Los agentes no incluyeron las amenazas específicas en su informe sobre el presunto delito.

Correcciones de Miami-Dade registró a Saldana poco después de las 4:15 a.m. del jueves. Enfrenta un cargo por amenazas escritas de matar o causar lesiones corporales.

La policía de Waukesha, al oeste de Milwaukee, indicó que el “área estaba experimentando fuertes lluvias acompañadas de truenos y relámpagos significativos” cuando alguien reportó haber visto al hombre en el suelo la noche del miércoles.

“La información preliminar indica que la persona fue alcanzada por un rayo mientras caminaba por el estacionamiento durante la tormenta”, señaló la policía.

Un patrón meteorológico que combina aire húmedo con una fuerte corriente se ha extendido desde tan al sur como el centro de Texas hasta el Medio Oeste y hacia el este a través de la región de los Grandes Lagos. Del lunes al miércoles, el Servicio Meteorológico Nacional recibió más de 1.100 reportes de granizo grande, vientos por encima de 96 km/h (60 mph) y tornados como parte del sistema de tormentas, explicó Bill Bunting, meteorólogo del Centro de Predicción de Tormentas del servicio meteorológico.

Agregó que el jueves había equipos recorriendo zonas para evaluar daños y determinar el número exacto de tornados.

Las tormentas han retumbado en varios estados durante la mayor parte de esta semana y podrían continuar hasta el inicio del fin de semana.

“Ha habido una cantidad tremenda de rayos con estas tormentas en los últimos días”, declaró Mark Gehring, meteorólogo del servicio meteorológico en Milwaukee.

“Hemos tenido la temperatura y la humedad del verano y esto está durando toda una semana — a mediados de abril”, añadió. “Además de un patrón muy tormentoso, casi todos los días estamos teniendo lluvias intensas. Hemos tenido tornados casi todos los días, granizo muy grande”.

Según Gehring, se han confirmado cinco tornados en el sur y en partes del centro de Wisconsin.

“Pero hay más. Vamos a salir a hacer evaluaciones de tormentas”, dijo el jueves, y añadió que las tormentas previstas para la noche del viernes podrían ser severas.

Además de rayos, granizo y tornados, las tormentas han traído lluvia con decenas de advertencias y vigilancias de inundación emitidas por el servicio meteorológico en varios estados.

Esta semana, cuadrillas se apresuraban a bombear agua de una presa en Cheboygan, Michigan, e incluso retiraron compuertas para aliviar la presión. El lunes se indicó a residentes y negocios de la ciudad que prepararan una “bolsa de emergencia” con medicamentos, documentos y otros artículos importantes y que “estuvieran listos para actuar” debido a la amenaza de inundaciones.

En el norte de Michigan, Bellaire, con una población de 1.000 habitantes, informó el jueves que su sistema de tratamiento de aguas residuales estaba siendo sobrepasado, lo que obligó a liberar desechos parcialmente tratados en pantanos de la zona. La localidad instó a los residentes a reducir el uso de agua en casa.

Carl Johnson, de 59 años, tiene una vivienda junto al río Muskegon, que está subiendo rápidamente en el oeste de Michigan. Publicó en Facebook para decirle a la gente que sus botes están listos si alguien necesita ayuda.

“Se salió de su cauce por todas partes. Está realmente mal”, le dijo a The Associated Press. “No se supone que alcance su punto máximo hasta el sábado”.

Losa habitantes de al lado del río cerca de Croton Dam en el condado Newaygo recibieron órdenes de evacuar. No se sabe cuántas personas están afectadas.

Gehring indicó que el río Wisconsin está en etapa de inundación mayor en Portage, Wisconsin, y se pronostica que alcanzará o superará el récord de 6,3 metros (20,7 pies) en algún momento de la mañana del viernes.

“Ahora mismo está en 19,9 pies (6 metros)”, explicó. “En Portage, hay una gran zona de inundación en terrenos bajos. Muchas carreteras están inundadas. Hay un dique allí. Es importante que el dique aguante”.

El gobernador de Wisconsin, Tony Evers, declaró el estado de emergencia a principios de esta semana.

Autos quedaron varados la noche del miércoles en aguas de inundación profundas en una autopista de Milwaukee, y la policía del condado Milwaukee publicó en internet un llamado a la gente para que no condujera en el sureste de Wisconsin.

Pero, al menos en Wisconsin, un respiro podría estar cerca.

“Nos queda un evento más de lluvia intensa y severa que viene hacia aquí antes de que tengamos una buena pausa”, manifestó Gehring. “Eso será la noche del viernes. Ese será el último coletazo de lluvia severa”.

Bunting dijo que el sistema de tormentas seguirá desplazándose hacia el norte y el este y probablemente tardará de tres a cuatro días en finalmente salir de la costa este.

“Probablemente, el día más preocupante en términos de potencial de tormentas eléctricas intensas y tornados es el viernes, extendiéndose desde el norte de Oklahoma hasta el centro de Wisconsin y el extremo oriental de Illinois”, afirmó.

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Williams reportó desde West Bloomfield, Michigan y White desde Detroit.

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

Durante la llamada, la mujer — hablando con la ayuda de un traductor en partes de la conversación — dijo a los operadores que estaba sentada en un área común poco antes de las 4:40 p.m. cerca de la cuadra 16500 de Golf Club Road, cerca del Bonaventure Golf Club, cuando ocurrió el ataque.

“Yo usualmente camino aquí dentro de los condominios, que son varios edificios, y estaba sentada en una colina para descansar y ver cómo jugaban golf, ¿verdad? Y de repente alguien me atacó por detrás”, relató la víctima en la llamada.

La víctima dijo que logró defenderse rápidamente durante el forcejeo.

“Supongo que quería hacer como una violación o algo así, pero me volteé inmediatamente”, dijo. “Me defendí y él salió corriendo de inmediato, y estaba en un scooter”.

Los investigadores dijeron que el ataque ocurrió en Golf Club Road, en la comunidad Country Club Village, el miércoles pasado.

Las autoridades indicaron que un video de vigilancia muestra al sospechoso exponiéndose en un estacionamiento cercano antes de quitarse los zapatos y acercarse lentamente a la víctima por detrás.

El sospechoso fue descrito como alguien que vestía una sudadera con capucha color caqui y pantalones distintivos rojos y negros. La víctima dijo que huyó del lugar en un scooter.

El incidente ha alarmado a residentes del vecindario, normalmente tranquilo.

“Esto no es posible. Tienen que hacer algo al respecto”, dijo la vecina Patricia Guerrero.

“Fue demasiado cerca de nuestro apartamento y este es un lugar muy agradable. Muy seguro. Estoy muy sorprendida”, dijo Ana Caraballo, otra residente cercana.

Se solicita a cualquier persona con información sobre el sospechoso que llame al detective Michael Kravecz de la BSO al 954-626-4006 o a Broward Crime Stoppers al 954-493-8477.

Según la BSO, las pistas que conduzcan a un arresto “son elegibles para una recompensa de hasta $5,000 USD”.

A filing about imminent bankruptcy protection by parent company QVC Group, which also owns HSN, formerly the Home Shopping Network, arrives as long-running TV shopping networks struggle to adapt to the rapid shift by consumers now tuning in to livestreams on TikTok, or online marketplaces like Shein.

According to an annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week, the company said that it intends to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas after reaching a restructuring agreement with creditors.

Its goal is to emerge from bankruptcy protection before the summer is over, but the West Chester, Pennsylvania, company warned that its access to funding is difficult to predict. It noted significant fees and other costs in connection with the preparation for the bankruptcy protection.

“We cannot assure that cash on hand, cash flow from operations will be sufficient to continue to fund our operations,” it wrote.

QVC Group has attempted to revive flagging sales for some time, which in 2024 were down almost 30% compared with its peak of more than $14 billion in 2020. Shares in QVC Group, which went for over $900 a decade ago, were trading for less than $3 earlier this week.

Founded in 1986 by Joseph Myron Segel, QVC, which is short for Quality Value Convenience, built a following primarily of women aged 50 and older, according to Lawrence Duke, a clinical professor of marketing at the university’s LeBow College of Business. He said in a blog post that QVC benefited from repeat purchases by its base of viewers. But that group has aged and is shrinking, he noted.

And competition has increased substantially.

Consumers have increasingly dropped cable subscriptions and look less and less to scheduled programming, Duke said. Such programming has been replaced by live platforms such as TikTok Shop, where consumers can buy products touted by influencers with tens of thousands of followers on Instagram and YouTube. Low-cost marketplaces like Shein and Temu are also commanding more attention, Duke wrote.

QVC has significantly expanded its digital sales and expanded its presence on social media, but those maneuvers have fallen short.

QVC "competes in a crowded marketplace where attention is fragmented and switching costs are low,” Duke said.

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Jail records show Laura Tavarez Ramirez is facing a charge of attempted second-degree murder with a firearm or deadly weapon in the case, which unfolded at 16395 Biscayne Boulevard.

According to the report, a 35-year-old man was shot in the parking garage on the eighth floor of the building and was later transported to Aventura Hospital with a gunshot wound to his lower back on March 15.

Police said the victim told dispatchers during a 911 call, “Laura shot me,” as he reported being attacked inside the garage.

Investigators said he was found with a gun at the scene, and officers recovered multiple shell casings, including 9mm and .5.7 caliber rounds, as well as a second handgun in a nearby area of the garage ramp.

The report states that surveillance video showed the victim arriving at the building shortly after 3 a.m. and entering the lobby before meeting a woman later identified as Tavarez Ramirez.

Police said the two were seen entering an elevator together and later appearing on upper floors before going to the eighth-floor parking garage.

They said surveillance video shows the woman walking behind the victim before both moved out of camera view.

Seconds later, the woman was seen running from the area and taking a ramp toward another floor before leaving in an elevator. A black Range Rover was later seen leaving the location, according to the report.

Investigators said access records for the building’s elevator system showed the woman used a key fob registered to Tavarez Ramirez, who also resides in the building’s penthouse unit.

A search of the apartment linked to Tavarez Ramirez turned up a live 9mm round, an empty ammunition box, and a firearm box matching a weapon recovered at the scene, according to the report.

The report also notes that the victim, while being treated at the hospital, told investigators he had been with a woman named “Laura” and later identified her from surveillance images.

At the time of the incident, police said the victim was in possession of a bag containing three Cuban link gold chains, each valued at approximately $100,000, as well as multiple diamond watches collectively valued at approximately $85,000.

While the report states the victim believed the suspect was attempting to rob him, police have not released a motive for the shooting.

Jail records show Tavarez Ramriez is being held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Laura Tavarez Ramirez enfrenta un cargo de intento de asesinato en segundo grado con arma de fuego o arma mortal en el caso, ocurrido en 16395 Biscayne Boulevard.

Según el informe, un hombre de 35 años fue baleado en el estacionamiento del octavo piso del edificio y posteriormente trasladado al hospital Aventura con una herida de bala en la parte baja de la espalda el 15 de marzo.

La policía indicó que la víctima dijo a los operadores del 911: “Laura me disparó”, al reportar que había sido atacado dentro del garaje.

Los investigadores señalaron que fue encontrado con un arma en la escena, y los agentes recuperaron múltiples casquillos, incluyendo municiones de 9 mm y calibre 5.7, así como una segunda pistola en un área cercana de la rampa del estacionamiento.

El informe indica que un video de vigilancia muestra a la víctima llegando al edificio poco después de las 3 a.m. e ingresando al vestíbulo antes de encontrarse con una mujer posteriormente identificada como Tavarez Ramirez.

La policía dijo que ambos fueron vistos entrando juntos a un ascensor y luego apareciendo en pisos superiores antes de dirigirse al estacionamiento del octavo nivel.

Indicaron que el video muestra a la mujer caminando detrás de la víctima antes de que ambos salieran del campo de visión de la cámara.

Segundos después, la mujer fue vista corriendo del área y tomando una rampa hacia otro piso antes de salir en un ascensor. Posteriormente, un Range Rover negro fue visto saliendo del lugar, según el informe.

Los investigadores dijeron que los registros de acceso del sistema de ascensores del edificio mostraron que la mujer utilizó un llavero electrónico registrado a nombre de Tavarez Ramirez, quien también reside en el penthouse del edificio.

Un registro del apartamento vinculado a Tavarez Ramirez arrojó una bala viva de 9 mm, una caja de municiones vacía y una caja de arma que coincide con un arma recuperada en la escena, según el informe.

El informe también señala que la víctima, mientras era atendida en el hospital, dijo a los investigadores que había estado con una mujer llamada “Laura” y posteriormente la identificó en imágenes de vigilancia.

En el momento del incidente, la policía indicó que la víctima tenía en su poder un bolso con tres cadenas de oro tipo Cuban link, cada una valorada en aproximadamente $100,000 USD, así como varios relojes de diamantes valorados en conjunto en aproximadamente $85,000 USD.

Aunque el informe indica que la víctima creía que la sospechosa intentaba robarle, la policía no ha revelado un motivo para la balacera.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Tavarez Ramirez permanece detenida sin derecho a fianza en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

Medios como The Wall Street Journal y Bloomberg informan que el reciente aumento en los precios del combustible, provocado por la guerra con Irán, está poniendo a la aerolínea, con sede en Dania Beach, en riesgo de liquidación, posiblemente en los próximos días.

El plan inicial de la aerolínea era salir de la bancarrota a principios del verano, respaldado por acuerdos con prestamistas para reducir su deuda de aproximadamente $7.4 billion a cerca de $2 billion.

El plan de reestructuración incluía reducir su flota y disminuir rutas.

Sin embargo, en documentos judiciales, los prestamistas señalan que están evaluando si seguir adelante con el plan o liquidar completamente el negocio, citando que Spirit no tomó en cuenta el aumento significativo de sus costos, específicamente el combustible.

La aerolínea había alcanzado un acuerdo con un grupo de acreedores apenas días antes de que Estados Unidos e Israel comenzaran ataques aéreos contra Irán.

Spirit también intenta dividir un préstamo de $275 million en dos partes separadas. Pero Citibank, que representa a los prestamistas, afirma que eso violaría el contrato original e ignoraría protecciones legales destinadas a mantener los activos de la aerolínea vinculados.

La situación ya está afectando una de las principales opciones de viajes de bajo costo para residentes del sur de Florida, especialmente para quienes vuelan a América Latina y el Caribe.

La aerolínea, fundada originalmente en el área de Detroit antes de mudarse al sur de Florida en 1999, tiene una importante base de operaciones en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood.

También cuenta con una base de tripulación en Miami.

Un portavoz de Spirit Airlines emitió un breve comunicado a Local 10 News tras una consulta sobre los reportes: “No comentamos sobre rumores y especulaciones del mercado”.

El nacionalista Roberto Sánchez, del partido Juntos por el Perú, superaba el jueves al ultraconservador Rafael López Aliaga, de Renovación Popular, por más de 6.000 votos al 93% del conteo de la Oficina Nacional de Procesos Electorales (ONPE).

En tanto, la conservadora Keiko Fujimori, candidata por Fuerza Popular, encabeza la votación con 17,06%.

Perú irá a un balotaje el 7 de junio porque ningún candidato ha logrado el 50% más uno de los votos válidos que exige la ley para ganar en primera vuelta.

A la ajustada diferencia entre Sánchez y López Aliaga falta incorporar unas 1.600 actas de peruanos que votaron en el extranjero y pueblos remotos del país y hay más de 5.000 actas adicionales que han sido observadas y están bajo un análisis de la justicia electoral que podría tomar varias semanas.

“En Perú siempre hay un porcentaje de actas observadas, donde no sumaron correctamente (los votos). Cuando sucede esto, se envían a los 60 jurados especiales para revisarlas”, explicó a The Associated Press Álvaro Henzler, presidente de Transparencia, una organización que trabaja por la calidad de la democracia y desplegó 4.000 observadores para los comicios del domingo.

En 2021 el Tribunal Electoral proclamó los resultados de la primera vuelta 37 días después de los comicios, pero entonces la diferencia entre los contendientes por el segundo lugar fue amplia desde el inicio, por lo que no hubo suspenso.

“En este caso, como está tan pegado, las actas observadas podrían terminar cambiando el orden de posición, por eso está demorando más”, dijo Henzler.

Sánchez lamentó ante la prensa que López Aliaga haya ofrecido de forma pública 5.800 dólares a funcionarios electorales para que le envíen pruebas de un posible fraude. Temprano, López Aliaga realizó ese ofrecimiento en su cuenta de X, pero luego borró el mensaje y colocó otro similar pero sin ofrecer dinero a cambio.

Una misión de observación electoral de la Unión Europea descartó cualquier posibilidad de fraude. El martes, López Aliaga protestó frente al Tribunal Electoral y exigió anular las elecciones, también pidió iniciar una insurgencia civil “si se termina de consumar el fraude”, una acusación de la que no ha presentado pruebas.

Los comicios se realizaron el domingo pero se extendieron hasta el lunes porque más de 52.000 no pudieron votar en Lima debido a que las papeletas electorales no llegaron a los centros de sufragio.

Esta es la cuarta vez que Fujimori —hija del fallecido exmandatario Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000)— busca la presidencia y la segunda vez que López Aliaga intenta llegar al máximo puesto de Perú. Sánchez se presenta por primera vez.

Perú celebró elecciones en medio de una crisis política entre el Parlamento y el Ejecutivo que ha provocado el desfile de ocho presidentes y tres Congresos en una década y un incremento de la delincuencia que los ciudadanos identifican como su mayor preocupación.

En el último quinquenio las denuncias por extorsión —un delito que golpea a la clase trabajadora y a los pequeños empresarios— se han quintuplicado, mientras los asesinatos se han duplicado, según datos oficiales.

Los peruanos también votaron para escoger a 130 diputados y 60 senadores de un Congreso bicameral en el que el Senado tiene amplios poderes.

Democrats voiced concern that the United States is becoming further entrenched in another lengthy conflict in the Middle East. They promised to keep raising the issue through more war powers votes in the coming weeks.

The 213-214 vote came one day after a similar effort failed in the Senate. The U.S. and Israel struck Iran on Feb. 28, and a fragile ceasefire is now in its second week.

Democrats overwhelmingly supported the attempt to rein in Trump's use of military force.

“We're standing at the edge of a cliff and Congress must act before the president pushes off,” said New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. “Every day we delay, we inch closer to a conflict with no exit ramp.”

Republicans tried to cast the effort as hypocritical.

Florida Rep. Brian Mast, the committee chairman, said Congress never voted on a war powers resolution when the U.S. attacked Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen in 2024 while Democrat Joe Biden was president.

“When Joe Biden was responding to merchant marine vessels being attacked, it was OK. No war power needed. It went on for about a year,” Mast said. “President Trump responds — war power, war power, war power. ... That's the hypocrisy.”

Under the War Powers Act of 1973, Congress must declare war or authorize use of force within 60 days — a deadline in the Iran war that will arrive at the end of April. The law provides for a potential 30-day extension, but lawmakers have made clear that they want the Republican administration to soon lay out a plan for the war's end.

While the House vote failed, it gave Democrats an opportunity to highlight some of the most negative effects of the war: the billions of dollars spent, the death of at least 13 service members, the soaring gas prices and fissures with long-standing allies who do not support Trump's actions.

“Gas prices at home are up to $7 in my home state, and families are hurting," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. “Another 10,000 U.S. troops are being sent in to join 50,000 already stationed in the Middle East with absolutely no strategy, no plan and no exit.”

Republicans defended Trump as taking decisive action against an Iranian government that has long terrorized the Middle East and its own people.

“President Donald Trump has sent a message that those who threaten the United States and our partners will be ultimately held accountable," said Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.

In Thursday's vote, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the only Republican to cross party lines and vote for removing U.S. forces from the war. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the only Democrat to vote against the measure.

The first House vote to curb Trump's miliary action with Iran failed in early March, 212-219.

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Outlets including the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg report that the recent spike in gas prices caused by the Iran war are putting the carrier, headquartered in Dania Beach, at risk of liquidation ― potentially in the coming days.

The airline’s initial plan was to get out of bankruptcy by early in the summer, backed by agreements with lenders to cut its debt from about $7.4 billion to about $2 billion.

The restructuring plan included shrinking its fleet and reducing routes.

But, in court filings, lenders say they’re deciding whether to move forward with the plan or wind down the business entirely, citing Spirit’s failure to account for the airline’s dramatically higher costs, specifically for fuel.

The airline had reached an agreement with a group of creditors just days before the U.S. and Israel began launching airstrikes against Iran.

Spirit is also trying to split a $275 million loan into two separate pieces. But Citibank, which is representing the lenders, says that would break the original contract and ignore legal protections meant to keep Spirit’s collateral tied together.

It’s already disrupting the major low-cost travel option for South Florida residents, especially those who fly to Latin America and the Caribbean.

The airline, originally founded in the Detroit area before moving to South Florida in 1999, has a major operating base out of its adopted hometown airport: Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

The airline also has a crew base in Miami.

A Spirit Airlines spokesperson issued a brief statement to Local 10 News after an inquiry about the reports: “We don’t comment on market rumors and speculation.”

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Glidden, 52, and Hochstein, 43, are each charged with one count of interception of wire, oral, or electronic communications after authorities said they both planted a recording device in a silver 2023 Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 SUV, owned by Hochstein’s ex-husband, Dr. Leonard “Lenny” Hochstein.

Local 10 was at Miami-Dade’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center Wednesday when Lisa Hochstein was greeted outside the jail by friends and castmates Alexia Nepola and Adriana de Moura.

Lisa Hochstein briefly addressed supporters, saying, “I just love them all. I love all my fans” and sending them well wishes, but did not directly comment on the allegations.

Her attorney, Jayne Weintraub, said, “We’re not talking about recordings,” adding that the case has “started the process” and that she hopes it “will be resolved very soon.”

According to Lisa Hochstein’s arrest warrant, she and Glidden planted a recording device in the driver’s seat floorboard of Lenny Hochstein’s SUV in March 2023 after the reality star asked if she could borrow the vehicle because she was thinking of purchasing one of her own.

Lenny and Lisa Hochstein were still going through divorce proceedings at the time.

Lenny Hochstein, a prominent plastic surgeon in South Florida, told detectives in May 2023 that he immediately informed his attorney after discovering the device and the attorney then hired a private investigator to examine it, the warrant states.

According to the warrant, a total of 98 recordings were recovered from the device, including a conversation between Lisa Hochstein and Glidden as the device was being “wrestled into place.”

In addition to conversations between Lenny Hochstein and others he spoke to while in his vehicle, a detective recovered deleted recordings from the device, including a recording of Lisa Hochstein and Glidden engaged in “intimate activities,” the warrant states.

Records show Glidden was taken into custody Saturday. He has since been released from jail.

Lisa Hochstein surrendered to authorities Wednesday before also being released.

Lisa and Lenny Hochstein’s divorce was finalized in November 2024. They share two children.

Weintraub, Lisa Hochstein’s defense counsel, and attorneys Howard Srebnick and Frank Gaviria, Glidden’s defense counsel, released a joint statement to Local 10 News on Monday afternoon saying, “This matter is part of a contentious divorce proceeding and does not belong in criminal court.”

Lisa Hochstein is set to be arraigned on April 20.

Glidden, de 52 años, y Hochstein, de 43, enfrentan cada uno un cargo por interceptación de comunicaciones por cable, orales o electrónicas, luego de que las autoridades indicaran que ambos colocaron un dispositivo de grabación en un Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 SUV plateado modelo 2023, propiedad del ex esposo de Hochstein, el doctor Leonard “Lenny” Hochstein.

Local 10 estuvo el miércoles en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight de Miami-Dade cuando Lisa Hochstein fue recibida afuera de la cárcel por amigas y compañeras del elenco Alexia Nepola y Adriana de Moura.

Lisa Hochstein se dirigió brevemente a sus seguidores, diciendo “Los quiero mucho a todos. Amo a todos mis fans” y enviándoles buenos deseos, pero no comentó directamente sobre las acusaciones.

Su abogada, Jayne Weintraub, dijo “No estamos hablando de grabaciones”, y agregó que el caso ha “iniciado el proceso” y que espera que “se resuelva muy pronto”.

Según la orden de arresto de Lisa Hochstein, ella y Glidden colocaron un dispositivo de grabación en el piso del asiento del conductor del SUV de Lenny Hochstein en marzo de 2023, luego de que la estrella de reality pidiera prestado el vehículo porque estaba considerando comprar uno propio.

Lenny y Lisa Hochstein aún estaban en proceso de divorcio en ese momento.

Lenny Hochstein, un reconocido cirujano plástico del sur de Florida, dijo a los detectives en mayo de 2023 que informó de inmediato a su abogado tras descubrir el dispositivo y que este contrató a un investigador privado para examinarlo, según la orden.

De acuerdo con la orden, se recuperaron un total de 98 grabaciones del dispositivo, incluyendo una conversación entre Lisa Hochstein y Glidden mientras el dispositivo era “colocado a la fuerza en su lugar”.

Además de conversaciones entre Lenny Hochstein y otras personas con las que hablaba dentro de su vehículo, un detective recuperó grabaciones eliminadas del dispositivo, incluyendo una grabación de Lisa Hochstein y Glidden participando en “actividades íntimas”, según la orden.

Los registros muestran que Glidden fue puesto bajo custodia el sábado. Desde entonces ha sido liberado de la cárcel.

Lisa Hochstein se entregó a las autoridades el miércoles antes de también ser liberada.

El divorcio de Lisa y Lenny Hochstein se finalizó en noviembre de 2024. Comparten dos hijos.

Weintraub, abogada defensora de Lisa Hochstein, y los abogados Howard Srebnick y Frank Gaviria, defensa de Glidden, emitieron un comunicado conjunto a Local 10 News el lunes por la tarde en el que señalaron: “Este asunto forma parte de un proceso de divorcio contencioso y no corresponde a la corte penal”.

La audiencia de lectura de cargos de Lisa Hochstein está programada para el 20 de abril.