Leer en español

The 50-year-old man stands accused of attacking men at the beach on Wednesday, at 9559 Collins Ave., according to a Surfside police officer’s arrest report.

Two men reported Levi “became irate” when he learned the chairs were only for residents, according to police.

Levi “grabbed a beach umbrella and attempted to hit” a man, and he “grabbed a drill and charged at” another man, according to police.

“I am going to kill you,” Levi told the man, according to the police arrest report.

Police officers reported “Levi was refusing to comply ... remained seated on the beach chair,” and he kicked a police officer during his arrest.

Miami-Dade corrections booked Levi on Wednesday night at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Court records show his bond court hearing was on Thursday, but video of the hearing shows that he refused to appear, and the judge set his bond hearing for Friday.

Levi faced new charges of attempted aggravated b2023attery with a deadly weapon, battery on a police officer, and criminal mischief.

Court records show Levi has an arrest record in Miami Beach. In 2018, he was arrested for burglary and petit theft. In 2023, he was arrested for lewd and lascivious behavior, grand theft, battery, and charges related to resisting arrest. The cases were dropped.

Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez was set to preside over the new case.

Related story: WATCH: Body camera footage shows arrest of naked man accused of trying to steal Jet Ski

Local 10 News Photojournalist Tim McFarland and Assignment Editor Carson Merlo contributed to this report.

Trump then posted on his social media platform Truth Social congratulating Ali al-Zaidi and wishing him “success as he works to form a new Government free from terrorism that could deliver a brighter future for Iraq.”

“We look forward to a strong, vibrant, and highly productive new relationship between Iraq and the United States," the post said. "This is the beginning of a tremendous new chapter between our Nations — Prosperity, Stability, and Success like never seen before.”

The call and post signal that Washington has given its blessing to al-Zaidi, a businessman and political newcomer, after Trump had announced his disapproval of a previous leading candidate for the post.

Iraq’s dominant parliamentary bloc, the Coordination Framework — a coalition of Shiite parties allied with Iran — on Monday nominated al-Zaidi to be the country’s prime minister after weeks of internal debate among its member parties.

The coalition had previously said it would back former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who the U.S. administration views as too close to Iran. Trump publicly announced his opposition to al-Maliki and threatened to cut off aid to Iraq if he was appointed.

While al-Maliki remained defiant after Trump’s intervention, the bloc decided to shift to a compromise candidate.

Al-Zaidi, who is chairman of Al-Janoob Islamic Bank, emerged in the final stages of discussions as one of the leading candidates — bolstered by his economic background and business and investment connections. He hasn't previously held political office.

In 2024, Al-Janoob was one of a number of banks that were banned by Iraq’s central bank from dealing in dollars amid pressure from the U.S. to crack down on money laundering and funneling of funds to Iran. However, neither the bank nor al-Zaidi are under U.S. sanctions.

Following his nomination, al-Zaidi promised to focus on making Iraq “a balanced country, regionally and internationally.”

“This appointment comes at a sensitive time that requires concerted efforts from all political and social forces,” he said.

Under the constitution, the designated prime minister has 30 days to present a Cabinet lineup to the parliament, which requires 167 votes to secure a vote of confidence.

The next government will have to deal with the political and economic fallout of the Iran war, which spilled over into Iraq, while the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted the oil exports on which Iraq’s economy depends.

La fiscal estatal Alexcia Cox confirmó en un comunicado de prensa obtenido por Local 10 el jueves que Corrinne Blue enfrenta tres cargos de homicidio vehicular por el accidente del 21 de noviembre de 2024 que cobró la vida del cabo Luis Paez Jr., el agente Ignacio “Dan” Diaz y el agente Ralph “Butch” Waller.

Según el sheriff de PBSO, Ric Bradshaw, el accidente ocurrió alrededor de las 9 a.m. en la cuadra 18000 de Southern Boulevard, justo al oeste de Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, cerca de Lion Country Safari.

Bradshaw dijo que los agentes se habían detenido a un lado de la carretera en una franja de césped esperando cables de batería cuando un SUV impactó sus motocicletas mientras esperaban asistencia.

También confirmó que Blue se dirigía hacia el este en el carril central en un Jeep Grand Cherokee e intentó rebasar a un vehículo más lento por la derecha cuando, según los investigadores, sobrecorrigió, desviándose hacia los agentes y “lanzando a los tres por el aire en diferentes direcciones”.

Los agentes dijeron que los hallazgos preliminares sugieren que Blue no estaba bajo los efectos de sustancias. Sin embargo, sí confirmaron que sufrió heridas menores en el accidente.

Según la Patrulla de Carreteras de Florida, Blue conducía el SUV de manera “insegura” y a una velocidad muy por encima del límite establecido de 55 mph cuando impactó a los agentes.

“Estos cargos siguen a una revisión exhaustiva de la evidencia y marcan un paso importante en la búsqueda de justicia para las familias del cabo Paez, el agente Diaz y el agente Waller”, escribió Cox en el comunicado. “Estos agentes estaban sirviendo a esta comunidad cuando sus vidas fueron trágicamente arrebatadas por una conductora imprudente”.

Dave Kerner, director ejecutivo del Departamento de Seguridad Vial y Vehículos Motorizados de Florida, dijo que las autoridades apoyan la decisión de presentar cargos.

“Estamos agradecidos por la decisión de la fiscal estatal Alexcia Cox y su oficina de solicitar y obtener esta orden de arresto por delito grave”, dijo Kerner. “Ahora centramos nuestra atención en el proceso judicial, donde un jurado de los pares de la acusada decidirá el resultado final”.

Kerner agregó que, independientemente del resultado, los tres agentes “son recordados como héroes de nuestra comunidad”, reconociendo la pérdida que sienten sus familias, la oficina del sheriff y la comunidad en general.

Los investigadores dijeron que el caso será manejado por la Unidad de Homicidios de Tráfico de la Fiscalía Estatal.

La información sobre la fianza de Blue y su foto policial no estuvieron disponibles de inmediato.

Leer en español

State Attorney Alexcia Cox confirmed in a news release obtained by Local 10 on Thursday that Corrinne Blue faces three counts of vehicular homicide in the Nov. 21, 2024 crash that claimed the lives of Corporal Luis Paez Jr., Deputy Ignacio “Dan” Diaz and Deputy Ralph “Butch” Waller.

According to PBSO Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, the crash occurred around 9 a.m. in the 18000 block of Southern Boulevard, just west of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, near Lion Country Safari.

Bradshaw said the deputies had pulled over on the side of the road in a grassy swale waiting for battery cables when an SUV struck their motorcycles while they waited for assistance.

He also confirmed that Blue was heading eastbound in the center lane in a Jeep Grand Cherokee and attempted to pass a slower-moving vehicle on the right when investigators said she overcompensated, veering into the officers and “sending all three airborne in different directions.”

Deputies said preliminary findings suggest Blue was not impaired. However, they did confirm that she sustained minor injuries in the crash.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Blue was driving the SUV in an “unsafe manner” and at a speed well above the posted 55 mph limit when she struck the deputies.

“These charges follow a thorough review of the evidence and mark an important step in the pursuit of justice for the families of Corporal Paez, Deputy Diaz, and Deputy Waller,” Cox wrote in the news release. “These deputies were serving this community when their lives were tragically taken by a reckless driver.”

Dave Kerner, executive director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, said officials support the decision to pursue charges.

“We are thankful for the decision of State Attorney Alexcia Cox and her office in seeking and obtaining this felony warrant for arrest,” Kerner said. “We now turn our attention to the judicial process, where a jury of the defendant’s peers will decide the ultimate outcome.”

Kerner added that, regardless of the outcome, the three deputies “are remembered as heroes of our community,” acknowledging the loss felt by their families, the sheriff’s office and the broader community.

Investigators said the case will be handled by the State Attorney’s Office Traffic Homicide Unit.

Blue’s bond information and mugshot weren’t immediately available.

El hombre de 50 años enfrenta cargos por atacar a hombres en la playa el miércoles, en el 9559 de Collins Ave., según un informe de arresto de la Policía de Surfside.

Dos hombres reportaron que Levi “se enfureció” cuando supo que las sillas eran solo para residentes, según la Policía.

Levi “agarró una sombrilla de playa e intentó golpear” a un hombre, y “agarró un taladro y cargó contra” otro hombre, según la Policía.

“Te voy a matar”, le dijo Levi al hombre, según el informe de arresto policial.

Los agentes reportaron que “Levi se negaba a cumplir … permaneció sentado en la silla de playa”, y pateó a un agente policial durante su arresto.

Correcciones de Miami-Dade ingresó a Levi el miércoles por la noche en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight. Compareció ante la corte de fianza el jueves.

Levi enfrenta nuevos cargos de intento de agresión agravada con un arma mortal, agresión a un agente policial y daños criminales.

Los registros judiciales muestran que Levi tiene antecedentes de arresto en Miami Beach. En 2018, fue arrestado por robo con allanamiento y hurto menor. En 2023, fue arrestado por conducta lasciva y obscena, hurto mayor, agresión y cargos relacionados con resistirse al arresto. Los casos fueron desestimados.

La jueza del Tribunal de Circuito del condado Miami-Dade, Marisa Tinkler Mendez, estaba programada para presidir el nuevo caso.

Historia relacionada: VER: video de cámara corporal muestra arresto de hombre desnudo acusado de intentar robar una moto acuática

El editor de asignaciones de Local 10 News, Carson Merlo, contribuyó a este informe.

Leer en español

Deputies said they were escorting Jamie Romanski, 49, of Astoria, Queens, off an American Airlines flight at around 6:30 p.m. after “she had a verbal argument with the flight crew.”

According to an arrest report from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, airline employees said Romanski “seemed intoxicated” at the time and that they had planned on rebooking her.

Authorities said as an MDSO deputy approached Romanski and tried to calm her down, she smacked her hand away. The deputy then told her she was under arrest and cuffed her.

The report states that as the deputy was escorting her off the jet bridge, Romanski “stopped and heel-kicked her left thigh three times,” causing the deputy to “move back away in pain.”

After being taken to the MDSO station within MIA, a deputy wrote that he “was unable to interview (Romanski) due to the fact she was very irate and refused to speak to me.”

Romanski is now facing charges of battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence.

As of Thursday, she was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $2,500 bond.

Los agentes dijeron que estaban escoltando a Jamie Romanski, de 49 años, de Astoria, Queens, fuera de un vuelo de American Airlines alrededor de las 6:30 p.m. después de que “tuvo una discusión verbal con la tripulación del vuelo.”

Según un informe de arresto de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade, empleados de la aerolínea dijeron que Romanski “parecía intoxicada” en ese momento y que planeaban reprogramar su vuelo.

Las autoridades dijeron que cuando un agente de la MDSO se acercó a Romanski e intentó calmarla, ella le apartó la mano de un golpe. El agente entonces le dijo que estaba bajo arresto y la esposó.

El informe indica que mientras el agente la escoltaba por el puente de abordaje, Romanski “se detuvo y pateó con el talón su muslo izquierdo tres veces”, lo que provocó que el agente “se apartara hacia atrás por el dolor.”

Después de ser llevada a la estación de la MDSO dentro de MIA, un agente escribió que “no pudo entrevistar a (Romanski) debido a que estaba muy alterada y se negó a hablar conmigo.”

Romanski ahora enfrenta cargos de agresión a un agente del orden y resistencia al arresto con violencia.

Hasta el jueves, permanecía detenida en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight con una fianza de $2,500 USD.

No está claro cuánto tiempo cumplirá Bolsonaro por su condena por encabezar un intento de golpe de Estado, pero analistas señalan que la medida podría recortar 20 años de su sentencia. El expresidente, que comenzó a cumplirla en noviembre, se encuentra actualmente bajo arresto domiciliario.

El presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vetó la iniciativa en diciembre. El Congreso anuló el veto en una votación en que varios legisladores de la oposición hicieron referencia a las elecciones de octubre.

Lula busca la reelección y su rival más acérrimo es el senador Flávio Bolsonaro, uno de los hijos del expresidente.

El proyecto de ley aprobado por el Congreso reduce las penas de prisión para varios delitos, incluidos los cometidos contra el Estado democrático de derecho y el de encabezar un golpe de Estado.

La medida también podría beneficiar a simpatizantes de Bolsonaro que fueron condenados por cargos similares.

___

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

Over the last several weeks, the Saudis have bailed on a Winter Olympics-style sports festival and sold one of their best soccer teams, all while shifting the strategy of their multibillion-dollar investment fund that bankrolls it all.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund, helmed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, recently delivered a new prospectus outlining its strategy for 2026-30. The strategy focuses on more internal investment while “maximizing financial returns, strengthening investment efficiency and increasing private sector participation.”

The ultimate goal is to fulfill the prince's “Vision 2030,” which seeks to enhance and overhaul Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure and make tourism a more focal point of an oil-based economy.

It follows an era in which the fund poured staggering sums of money into various sports ventures around the world. Soccer has been a centerpiece — the country is hosting the 2034 World Cup, while PIF owns a majority stake in Newcastle of the Premier League and bolsters the Saudi Pro League. The fund has also spent big on men's and women's pro tennis, Formula 1, boxing and more.

LIV Golf, though not the most expensive, is the highest profile among them; the fund has reportedly poured some $5 billion into LIV without receiving any return.

“For the past two years, we've seen the beginning of the scaling back of some of the mega projects that were announced in 2021, 2022,” Kristian Ulrichsen, a Middle East expert at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy “That's exactly when LIV Golf began, as well.”

LIV Golf has new leadership and a new business strategy

The PIF announced Thursday it would withdraw funding for LIV Golf after 2026, ending weeks of speculation and reporting that the Saudis were about to cut the cord. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor who was behind the creation of LIV Golf, is no longer listed as chairman of LIV Golf amid reports he has resigned from that role.

Staff and players have been aware for the last two weeks the PIF was only going to support LIV Golf through the end of this year. LIV responded with a new board and a plan to diversify into an investment model with hopes of finding long-term partners.

The PIF's deep pockets were integral for LIV in prying some of the sport's best players from the PGA Tour. It spent $1 billion to land the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith and eventually Jon Rahm, the last big signing at the end of 2023.

In an interview earlier this week with The Wall Street Journal, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said: “We’re interested in having the best players who can help our tour. Not every player can do that.”

Already, five-time major winner Koepka has moved back to the tour from LIV, and Masters champion Patrick Reed plans to return later this year.

In a sign of the times, Saudis scale back multibillion-dollar plans for super-city

About three months ago, Saudi Arabia scaled back plans for a futuristic super-city project called The Line inside a bigger project called “Neom” that was supposed to span more than 100 miles and run from the Red Sea across the desert mountains.

One feature of the project was a resort called Trojena, which was envisioned as a year-round ski resort that would host the 2029 Asian Winter Games (which themselves were moved instead to Kazakhstan). It could have served as a dress rehearsal for future Olympics or, at the very least, the 2034 World Cup that has already been awarded to the kingdom.

More recently, PIF sold 70% of its Saudi Pro League soccer club Al-Hilal to a company owned by Saudi royalty, a move that sent shock waves through that sport — namely raising questions as to whether the fund was still committed to Newcastle of the English Premier League, of which it owns about 85%.

"Whether due to the war or reasons related to economic feasibility, we continuously reassess our priorities,” Al-Rumayyan told the state-owned Al Arabiya news channel shortly after the Al-Hilal sale.

Mohammed Soliman, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, told The Associated Press “Saudi Arabia is constantly reassessing its priorities, and its investment strategy will shift accordingly."

“The PIF has always been a vehicle of national transformation first, global sports deals were part of that story, but so is pulling capital closer to home when the moment calls for it,” Soliman said.

War's impacts only add to questions about Saudi's sports future

There's a healthy debate over what impact the U.S. war in Iran is having on the Saudi decision-making.

Some of these decisions — such as the scaling back of the Neom project — were being made earlier in the year when a barrel of oil was selling for $60 — a lower price that can cause the country to endure budget deficits that might have to be financed by cutting into profits of Aramco, the country's national oil producer.

The war, meanwhile, raised oil prices to above $100 but reduced the Saudis' ability to sell it while Iran and the U.S. battle over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the key chokepoint through which up to 25% of the world's oil must pass.

“Ironically, the fact that the Saudis are still able to export maybe two-thirds of their oil at much higher prices over the last six weeks maybe actually means that their revenues may have gone up,” Ulrichsen said. “But this won’t be forever. The war has definitely heightened the element of uncertainty, and the closer it gets to 2030, the more they’ll want to deliver one or two key things, rather than maybe falling short on six or seven in general.”

Golf captures headlines, but soccer and World Cup hover over Saudi decisions

The Saudis have made major inroads into sports other than golf and soccer.

They host a $15 million season-ending tournament on the Women's Tennis Association, and the PIF has naming rights for both the WTA and the men's ATP tour.

Saudi Arabia has hosted the Dakar Rally and an F1 event came to the country in 2021. (It was cancelled this year because of the war.)

It has shown interest in hosting the Summer Olympics, maybe as soon as 2036.

All that pales in comparison to its biggest sports undertaking — hosting the World Cup in 2034. That project calls for building 10 or 11 new stadiums across the country, including one in Neom that is planned to hover a quarter-mile above ground.

All those stadiums and all that investment make LIV's $5 billion look small. Still, it hasn't gone unnoticed that the vision LIV began with — as a league that would create teams, then sell them to make the endeavor profitable — hasn't materialized.

“The expense is not on the scale of what they spent on The Line or the (Asian) winter games,” Ulrichsen said. “But it’s significant, and I don't think there's an appetite for the prospect of losses continuing for at least another five or 10 years.”

___

AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson contributed.

___

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

He and another officials with the group accused Ankara of failing to enact legal and political reforms needed to move the process forward, contradicting recent optimistic statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Murat Karayilan, a co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and one of its most senior leaders, said in an interview with the PKK-linked ANF news outlet that his group had taken major steps as part of the peace effort, including declaring a ceasefire and an end to its armed struggle.

“The process is currently frozen. That’s what we’ve been able to see and what has been reported to us," the outlet quoted Karayilan as saying. “We, as a movement, have fulfilled our responsibilities at this stage. It is clear that we have done everything necessary for the government to take action.”

There was no immediate reaction from officials in Turkey to Karayilan’s remarks.

Last year, the PKK declared that it would disarm and disband as part of the new peace effort with Turkey, following a call by its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan. The PKK then staged a symbolic disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq, and later announced that it was withdrawing fighters from some key locations in Turkey to Iraq.

Earlier this year, a Turkish parliamentary committee recommended a series of reforms to advance the initiative, including the reintegration of PKK members who renounce violence, while stressing that legal steps should be tied to state security institutions verifying that the group has surrendered its weapons.

Karayilan said that Turkish government and ruling party officials had set April as the month in which legislation advancing the process would be brought to parliament, a deadline that has now passed with no bill introduced.

He accused the Turkish government of failing to implement even basic measures recommended by the committee, including releasing opposition politicians and activists from prison.

Ocalan himself also remains imprisoned. Karayilan said that the PKK’s decision at its 12th Congress to end its armed struggle and dissolve itself was approved on the condition that Ocalan personally manage the disarmament process, meaning, he said, that the group’s own internal mandate can't move forward while its leader remains in prison.

In a separate statement to The Associated Press, Zagros Hiwa, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Communities Union, a political organization linked with the PKK, said that the organization had taken several steps in line with Ocalan’s call. But Hiwa said that Turkish forces continue to operate in parts of northern Iraq, government-appointed administrators still occupy the seats of elected Kurdish mayors in Turkey and that thousands of Kurdish and Turkish political prisoners remain jailed.

“The Turkish state has taken no legal and political steps towards peace and has been continuing war-time policies under new rhetoric,” he said, adding that Ocalan remains under solitary confinement on Imrali island off Istanbul, where he has been imprisoned since his capture in 1999.

Hiwa accused the Turkish government of “instrumentalizing” the process to consolidate the governing party's grip on power and boost its standing in upcoming elections, rather than seeking a genuine settlement.

“What happens next totally depends on the attitudes of the Turkish state,” Hiwa said. He warned that the impasse could carry “precarious implications.”

The PKK officials' suggestion that the peace process has stalled contradicted a statement by Erdogan, who a day earlier told legislators from his governing party, that the peace efforts were moving in a positive atmosphere.

“The process is proceeding as it should,” Erdogan said. “Those who write pessimistic scenarios about the process are acting entirely on their delusions, not on facts.

The PKK has waged an armed insurgency since 1984, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and spilled into neighboring Iraq and Syria. It's designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The group initially sought an independent Kurdish state but later shifted to demands for autonomy and expanded rights in Turkey.

___

Suzan Fraser contributed to this report from Ankara, Turkey.

The trial centers on the 2015 birth of the ChatGPT maker as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk. It pits the world’s richest person against Sam Altman, a fellow OpenAI co-founder he accuses of betraying promises to keep the company as a nonprofit dedicated to humanity’s benefit.

On the stand, Musk has taken issue with the cross-examination by opposing attorney William Savitt, accusing him of asking misleading questions designed to trick him and the jury. At one point Thursday, Savitt asked Musk about earlier testimony where he said that as long as investor profits were capped, OpenAI wasn’t in violation of agreements to keep it a nonprofit.

“It depends on how high the cap is,” Musk replied. Savitt then said that “wasn’t your complete answer yesterday right?” In response, Musk said “few answers are going to be complete, especially if you cut me off all the time.” He added that if the cap is “super high,” then OpenAI is “really a for-profit at that point.”

Lawyers for OpenAI have rejected the allegations brought in Musk’s civil lawsuit and said there were never promises that the company would remain a nonprofit forever. The company has argued Musk’s legal challenge is aimed at undercutting OpenAI’s rapid growth and bolstering Musk’s xAI, which he launched in 2023 as a competitor.

The trial in federal court in Oakland, California, is scheduled to continue through late May. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers excused Musk from the witness stand Thursday, but he may be called back later.

During the cross-examination, Savitt also asked Musk about his companies — Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and X — and whether they were all for-profit. Musk replied yes, and affirmed that be believes all of these companies are “socially beneficial.”

Savitt then asked why Musk hasn't started a nonprofit himself, eight years after he left OpenAI.

“I thought I had started a nonprofit with OpenAI but they stole it,” Musk replied, adding that this is “the entire basis of this lawsuit.”

“The King and Queen got me to do something that nobody else was able to do, without hardly even asking!” Trump posted on social media.

Trump said people had wanted this change, especially with regard to the wooden barrels in which the spirits of Scotch and bourbon can be aged.

Trump has used alcohol as a pressure point in his tariff threats. Last year, he threatened a 200% tariff on European wine — a major potential blow to French and Italian vineyards that never came to fruition.

Foreign countries have responded in turn with threats on bourbon and other American products.

In the end, the Trump administration exempted cork from tariffs, a huge relief to Portugal, the leading supplier of the material used to cap wine bottles.

Chris Swonger, president and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council in the U.S., interpreted Trump’s post as a removal of the 10% tariff on whisky from the United Kingdom.

“We applaud President Trump for working to restore a proven zero‑for‑zero model of fair, reciprocal trade between our two nations,” Swonger said in a statement. “This action strengthens transatlantic ties, brings much‑needed certainty to our industry and allows spirits producers on both sides of the Atlantic to grow, invest and support jobs at a critical time.”

Jose Novo, director ejecutivo de Everglades Safari Park, recorrió en un aerodeslizador los pantanos calcinados a lo largo del corredor de la autopista, viendo por primera vez hasta dónde se había extendido el incendio tras iniciarse el sábado.

“Este fue un incendio bastante grande y se propagó muy, muy rápido”, dijo Novo.

El incendio forestal quemó más de 9,000 acres en los Everglades, alimentado por matorrales secos y vegetación muerta acumulada en el terreno.

Desde el agua, el daño es desigual, grandes extensiones de hierba de sierra ennegrecida interrumpidas por áreas de vegetación intacta a solo unos pies de distancia.

Desde el aerodeslizador, la cicatriz del incendio se extiende por millas en algunas direcciones, mostrando cuán rápida e irregularmente se movió el fuego a través del River of Grass.

Novo dijo que la intensidad del incendio fue impulsada en parte por la acumulación de material combustible en el suelo.

“Fue muy caliente debido a muchos árboles que se han podrido y caído a lo largo de los años”, dijo.

Las autoridades informaron que el incendio está ahora contenido en aproximadamente un 20%, con solo focos calientes dispersos restantes.

A pesar de la destrucción, Novo dijo que el fuego es parte del ciclo natural del ecosistema de los Everglades.

“Lo hermoso es que en dos o tres semanas verás todos los nuevos brotes verdes saliendo”, dijo.

Agregó que el incendio ayuda a eliminar la vegetación vieja y dar paso a nuevo crecimiento.

“Regresa más fuerte y elimina lo viejo”, dijo Novo.

Sin llamas activas restantes, Novo dijo que se está preparando para reabrir su negocio a medida que las condiciones continúan mejorando y comienza la recuperación en el área afectada.

Haga clic aquí para obtener actualizaciones del estado actual y estadísticas sobre el incendio, incluida la superficie afectada, que se actualiza periódicamente, y aquí para conocer los últimos cierres debido al incendio.

Leer en español

According to authorities, the crash happened April 22 at the intersection of Northwest 37^th Avenue and West Flagler Street in the city’s Flagami neighborhood.

Police said the victim, Asiel A. Escobar, was struck by an unknown vehicle while riding his motorcycle. The driver then fled north on Northwest 37^th Avenue.

Anyone with information about the vehicle or driver is asked to call the Miami Police Department at 305-603-6525 or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

Según las autoridades, el choque ocurrió el 22 de abril en la intersección de la avenida 37 del noroeste y West Flagler Street, en el vecindario Flagami de la ciudad.

La Policía dijo que la víctima, Asiel A. Escobar, fue impactada por un vehículo desconocido mientras conducía su motocicleta. El conductor luego huyó hacia el norte por la avenida 37 del noroeste.

Cualquier persona con información sobre el vehículo o el conductor debe llamar al Departamento de Policía de Miami al 305-603-6525 o a Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers al 305-471-8477.

The measure that passed unanimously by voice vote Thursday was written as a change to the Senate’s rules, so it will go into effect immediately. It comes a week after a U.S. special forces soldier was charged with using classified information to bet on the January capture of Venezuela's then-president, Nicolas Maduro, and as lawmakers increasingly voice concerns about who might be making public wagers on the war with Iran.

“United States senators have no business engaging in speculative activities like prediction markets while collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck, period,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, who sponsored the resolution. An amendment by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., broadened the measure to include staff.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the move was a “no-brainer.” He encouraged the House and Trump administration to do the same.

“We must never allow Congress to turn into a casino where members representing the public can gamble on wars or economic crises or elections,” Schumer said. “That would destroy the very principle of representative government.”

Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., have introduced a bill to ban all federally elected officials and government employees from using insider information to make prediction market bets. Young said the resolution was “a good first step” and he encouraged the Senate to take up their bill.

Prediction markets, including the betting platform Polymarket and its chief rival Kalshi, have come under scrutiny as the business has expanded. Polymarket has received particular criticism as a venue for offshore trades that are beyond the reach of U.S. regulators.

Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that a group of new accounts on Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the United States and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for the new customers. On the same day the AP published the report, the White House warned staff against using private information to trade on prediction markets.

The administration has been a key ally of the growing prediction market industry in a legal fight with states seeking to ban the platforms. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, is an adviser for both Polymarket and Kalshi. Trump’s social media platform Truth Social is also launching its own cryptocurrency-based prediction market called Truth Predict.

“The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino, and you look at what’s going on all over the world and Europe and every place, they’re doing these betting things,” Trump said this month.

Leer en español

According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the student called 911 shortly after 12:30 p.m., prompting deputies to respond to the school at 701 SE Sixth Ave.

“A short time later, Broward County Regional Communications also received reports of a possible threat to Cypress Bay High School in Weston,” a BSO spokesperson said in a news release. “BSO deputies and detectives with BSO TMU responded to both districts to investigate. Out of an abundance of caution, both schools were placed on lockdown.”

According to BSO, the first caller told the dispatcher they were “about to shoot the school (Deerfield Beach Middle).”

A BSO spokesperson said the caller was later identified as the Deerfield Beach Middle School student.

“He admitted to detectives that he was playing ‘rock, paper, scissors’ and if he lost, he would have to call 911,” the spokesperson said. “He lost the game and then called the emergency number saying he was about to shoot the school.”

The teen was arrested and transported to the Juvenile Assessment Center.

He faces charges of unlawful use of a two-way communication device, misuse of 911 and disruption of a school function, along with a felony charge of making a false report concerning the use of a firearm in a violent manner.

Detectives are also still investigating the threat made at 12:48 p.m. to Cypress Bay High School in Weston, which they said appears to be unrelated to the Deerfield Beach threat.

“This is not a game and there is nothing routine about these calls,” Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony said in a statement. “Every report of a threat is thoroughly investigated and may lead to an arrest.”

Según la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward, el estudiante llamó al 911 poco después de las 12:30 p.m., lo que provocó que agentes acudieran a la escuela ubicada en el 701 de la avenida Sexta SE.

“Poco tiempo después, Broward County Regional Communications también recibió reportes de una posible amenaza a Cypress Bay High School en Weston”, dijo un portavoz de la BSO en un comunicado de prensa. “Agentes de la BSO y detectives de la BSO TMU respondieron a ambas zonas para investigar. Por precaución, ambas escuelas fueron puestas en confinamiento.”

Según la BSO, la primera persona que llamó le dijo al operador que estaba “a punto de disparar contra la escuela (Deerfield Beach Middle).”

Un portavoz de la BSO dijo que el autor de la llamada fue posteriormente identificado como el estudiante de Deerfield Beach Middle School.

“Admitió a los detectives que estaba jugando ‘piedra, papel o tijera’ y que si perdía, tendría que llamar al 911”, dijo el portavoz. “Perdió el juego y luego llamó al número de emergencia diciendo que estaba a punto de disparar contra la escuela.”

El adolescente fue arrestado y trasladado al Centro de Evaluación Juvenil.

Enfrenta cargos por uso ilegal de un dispositivo de comunicación bidireccional, uso indebido del 911 y alteración de una función escolar, junto con un cargo grave por hacer un reporte falso sobre el uso de un arma de fuego de manera violenta.

Los detectives también continúan investigando la amenaza hecha a las 12:48 p.m. a Cypress Bay High School en Weston, la cual, según dijeron, parece no estar relacionada con la amenaza de Deerfield Beach.

“Esto no es un juego y no hay nada rutinario en estas llamadas”, dijo el sheriff del condado Broward, Gregory Tony, en un comunicado. “Cada reporte de una amenaza es investigado a fondo y puede conducir a un arresto.”

Add into it that this weekend's race is in Miami — traditionally one of the most-viewed of the season not only in the U.S. but worldwide — and hopes are high that casual viewers of the sport will be able to increase audiences.

“I think it’s a relaunch in a way. We’re treating it and we were treating it in a huge way anyway, and we’ve kind of probably even done a little more, but we’ve got a lot of things coming up for the race, so we’re very excited about it,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services.

Apple reached a five-year deal with the global motorsports series last fall, averaging $150 million per year. ESPN, which had carried F1 races since 2018, paid nearly $90 million during a three-year extension signed in 2022.

Miami is the first race since the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29. The Iran war forced F1 to call off April's races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Apple is showing the races in 4K Dolby Vision with immersive 5.1 surround sound. Viewers can watch up to four live feeds at once during practices, qualifying and races via multi-view displays. In addition to in-car cameras, there are timing and scoring channels.

Viewers can also choose either the commentary team from F1 TV or Sky Sports. ESPN used the Sky Sports feed when it aired the races.

“I think the first feedback that we’ve gotten in general is how good the video quality is because we do Dolby Atmos and we do 4K and we really don’t compress at the levels that all of the others do. The first time you watch a race, you’re like, ‘Wow, this looks amazing.’ The video and sound quality is just really, really good,” Cue said. "We’ve had almost a third of the people that are watching the race are taking advantage of multiview, because we’ve made it easy to do that where you can watch the key feed and watch your favorite cars."

Apple TV is also adding two shows before and after race weekends.

“Circuits in Focus” debuted on Thursday and features 2016 F1 champion Nico Rosberg and creator Emelia Hartford previewing the circuit where the race will be run heading into the weekend, including strategy and key areas of the track that could define the race. Rosberg and Hartford will use the EA Sports F1 25 video game to take viewers into the driver's seat to show where there will be chances for drivers to overtake or defend their position.

“POV” will take place after races. It features former Red Bull Racing senior technician Calum Nicholas as well as content creator and engineer Christina Roki as they react and analyze key points from the weekend from a technical point of view.

Apple is also adding an on-demand, 10-minute recap of qualifying to join its race reviews.

In addition to content in its sports app, Apple also offers detailed circuit layouts in its Maps app, driver-curated playlists in Apple Music, and content in Apple News and podcasts.

Besides the content on Apple, Sunday's race will be shown nationwide from 50 IMAX locations. The race will also be shown in Times Square in New York.

The Tubi streaming “The Fast Lane: Miami” altcast features YouTube influencers Michelle Khare and Jeremiah Burton along with F1 expert Scott Mansell.

Apple is not part of Nielsen’s ratings system, and the company has not released ratings on the first three races. It is expected to release its first set of viewer numbers in May.

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

For the first time in almost five decades, there will be a former chair on the central bank's board, potentially creating an alternate center of power. And on Wednesday multiple officials dissented from the Fed's statement, a sign they won't easily roll over for a new chair who has sharply criticized recent policy. Outgoing chair Jerome Powell — who announced he will remain on the board of governors for a “period of time, to be determined” — has also shown a new outspokenness since the White House launched an unprecedented legal investigation into a Fed building renovation.

Warsh “is inheriting an institution that will fight for independent, consensus-driven decision-making, a potential obstacle to his vision of wholesale ‘regime change,’” said Jon Hilsenrath, a senior advisor to StoneX and visiting scholar at Duke University.

It's all a sharp contrast to the previous three Fed chairs — Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, and Powell — who were all Fed governors before becoming chairs in relatively smooth transitions.

At a news conference Wednesday, Powell indirectly acknowledged the unusual nature of his decision, when asked how it would work to have a current and former chair on the board: “I don’t know what the exact specifics of it will be," he said.

He also said he would move to the background as a governor, yet his presence could make it a bit harder for Warsh to cut the Fed's short-term rate, as Trump has loudly demanded. While Powell is considered by economists to generally favor lowering rates, he said inflation is “misbehaving” and signaled it could be months before a cut is considered.

“We no longer anticipate a rate cut in December,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, but expect the Fed to stay "on hold through the remainder of the year.”

On Wednesday, Powell emphasized that he is staying at the Fed to protect its political independence from the White House's legal attacks, rather than to push for any particular interest-rate policies.

“These legal actions by the administration are unprecedented in our 113-year history,” Powell said. “I worry that these attacks are battering the institution and putting at risk the thing that really matters to the public, which is the ability to conduct monetary policy without taking into consideration political factors.”

Trump has sought to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud, which she has denied, in what has become a test case regarding how much power the White House has to remove Fed governors. Should Trump succeed in firing Cook, he would be able to fill her seat and have much more sway over the central bank's interest rate decisions.

Three of the seven governors are already Trump appointees. So far, courts have allowed Cook to remain in her position and the Supreme Court in January appeared to lean in her favor.

By staying on as governor, Powell will also deny Trump an opportunity to appoint a new governor. The president won't have another shot at filling a seat on the Fed's board until Powell leaves. While his term as chair ends May 15, he can serve as a governor until January 2028.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday criticized Powell's decision on Fox Business, calling it “highly unusual” and “a violation of all Federal Reserve norms.”

Powell, however, rejected that his decision has injected politics into the Fed.

“I’m literally staying because of the actions that have been taken,” he said Wednesday. “I had long planned to be retiring and the things that have happened really in the last three months have left me no choice but to stay.”

Still, Powell said he planned to keep a “low profile” in his remaining time on the board, and would not be a “shadow chair.”

“That's just something I would never do,” he said. "There is only ever one chair of the Federal Reserve board. When Kevin Warsh is confirmed and sworn in, he will be that chair.”

The Senate is likely to confirm Warsh on a narrow, party-line vote the week of May 11. In a sign of the increasing politicization of the Fed, when Powell was confirmed for a second four-year term in 2022, the Senate vote was 80-19 in favor.

Warsh told a congressional committee last week that he would be an independent chair, but Trump has continued to say he expects his choice to reduce the Fed's key rate.

Yet on Wednesday Powell said the “center” of the committee was moving away from a bias toward cutting rates toward a more neutral stance. Three policymakers dissented from Wednesday's statement because they wanted to make that shift more explicit. A fourth official, Stephen Miran, voted to cut rates immediately, but he will be replaced by Warsh.

The four dissenting votes were the most since October 1992.

"A 34-year high in dissents is not exactly the welcome mat Mr. Warsh was hoping to see upon his arrival," Stephen Douglass, chief economist at NISA Investment Advisors, said in a note to clients. “He might want to wear a hard hat at his first meeting, and not only because the (Fed building) is still under construction.”

Leer en español

Jose Novo, CEO of Everglades Safari Park, rode an airboat through scorched marshland along the highway corridor, seeing for the first time how far the fire had spread after igniting Saturday.

“This was a pretty big fire and it spread very, very quick,” Novo said.

As of Thursday, the wildfire has burned approximately 8,500 acres across the Everglades, fueled by dry brush and long-dead vegetation scattered across the landscape.

From the water, the damage is uneven — large stretches of blackened sawgrass broken up by pockets of untouched greenery just feet away.

From the airboat, the burn scar extends for miles in some directions, showing how rapidly and irregularly the fire moved through the River of Grass.

Novo said the intensity of the fire was driven in part by accumulated fuel on the ground.

“It was very hot due to a lot of trees that have rotted and fell down throughout the years,” he said.

Officials say the fire is now about 20% contained, with only scattered hot spots remaining.

Despite the destruction, Novo said fire is part of the natural cycle of the Everglades ecosystem.

“The beautiful thing is is that in two or three weeks you’ll see all of the brand new shoots of green coming out,” he said.

He added that the burn helps clear out old vegetation and make way for new growth.

“It comes back stronger and gets rid of the old stuff,” Novo said.

With no active flames remaining, Novo said he is preparing to reopen his business as conditions continue to improve and recovery begins across the burned area.

Click here to get current status updates and statistics about the fire, including acreage, which is updated perodically, and here to get the latest closures due to the fire.

Job Listing: Floor Director

Looking for your start in television? Our ideal candidate is eager to learn and use this entry-level opportunity as a stepping-stone to their broadcasting future.

As a Floor Director Responsibilities will include but are not limited to the following:

• Control the flow of information from the control room into the studio. Give time and hand cues, assist in studio logistics, as well as teleprompter operation.
• Assist Studio Supervisor with maintenance of the studios, property room, and basic facility services.
• Work along with the News Department in the preparation of news shows.

The ability to multitask in a fast-paced high-energy environment along with attention to detail is necessary. This job entails the climbing of ladders and working at heights above 15 feet with hand and power tools. As a floor director you will be trained and expected to learn other duties so that you may be candidates for future positions such as OverDrive directors, photographer/editors, etc… Therefore, we are looking for applicants preferably with a background in television with experience either in a control room atmosphere or with editing Avid as a plus.

***All of the essential functions of this position are not necessarily described in this posting.

***We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider all qualified candidates regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, age gender, marital status, disability, matriculation or political affiliation. Any offer of employment is conditioned on successful completion of a pre-employment drug screen, investigative background check, employment/education verifications and reference checks. A valid driver’s license is required.

Please follow link below to apply for Floor Director Position:

https://jobs.dayforcehcm.com/en-US/wplg/CANDIDATEPORTAL/jobs/8922

WPLG/TV

Send resume to: Daniel Bruederlin

Control Room/Studio Supervisor

dbruederlin@wplg.com

3401 West Hallandale Beach Blvd.

Pembroke Park, Florida 33023

No phone calls please.

The decision, a striking reversal of the camp owners' determination to reopen amid bitter opposition, follows weeks of testimony in court hearings and legislative investigations. Those hearings laid bare the camp’s lack of detailed planning for a flood emergency, reliance on poorly trained staff, and missed chances for an evacuation that came too late as floodwaters ripped through the camp.

The floods that devastated the Texas Hill Country camp claimed the lives of 25 campers and two teenage counselors. The camp’s owner, Dick Eastland, also died in the flooding.

“No administrative process or summer season should move forward while families continue to grieve, while investigations continue and while so many Texans still carry the pain of last July’s tragedy,” Camp Mystic said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed Thursday that the camp withdrew its application.

The decision was praised by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who had opposed the camp's reopening while investigations were ongoing.

“I am thankful to hear that, today, the Eastland family withdrew their application,” Patrick said in a statement. “Given the tragic circumstances, this is the correct decision to protect Texas campers and to allow time for all investigations to be completed.”

Edward Eastland, one of the camp directors and a member of the Eastland family that owns and has operated the 100-year-old camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River, offered a tearful public apology to the victims’ families on Tuesday.

“We tried our hardest that night. It wasn’t enough to save your daughters,” Eastland said, with the victims' families sitting behind him. “I’m so sorry.”

All told, the destructive flooding killed at least 136 people along a several-mile stretch of the river, raising questions about how things went so terribly wrong.

Texas health regulators have said they are investigating hundreds of complaints against the camp's owners. The Texas Rangers are also looking into allegations of neglect, according to the Texas Department of Safety, although the scope of the state’s elite investigations unit was not immediately clear.

The camp, established in 1926, did not evacuate and was hit hard when the river rose from 14 feet (4.2 meters) to 29.5 feet (9 meters) within 60 minutes.

___

Murphy reported from Oklahoma City.

“Es un tema sin duda complejo y escabroso. Como gobierno nacional hemos puesto reiteradas quejas ante las autoridades de puertos chinos”, dijo Mulino durante su conferencia de prensa semanal.

Durante todo abril de 160 detenciones registradas en puertos chinos, 132 correspondieron a buques con bandera de Panamá, según datos del Port State Control Committee del Tokyo MOU, el órgano rector del Memorando de Entendimiento de Tokio en la región Asia-Pacífico, integrado por 22 autoridades marítimas.

“El tema de las detenciones sí ha aumentado exponencialmente. Mucho. No es normal. Los otros registros, sobre todo los dos que compiten con Panamá, tienen detenciones, pero muy por debajo de las panameñas. Eso no es casual. Eso no es fortuito”, sostuvo Mulino.

El mandatario aseguró que la situación “lleva intrínseco un mensaje político” y reiteró que Panamá ha quedado en medio de las tensiones entre Estados Unidos y China.

En los últimos días Estados Unidos y China intercambiaron comunicados por la situación de los buques de bandera panameña. China negó una presión a Panamá un día después de que Estados Unidos y varios países de Latinoamérica afirmaron que estaban alertas ante las acciones de Beijing.

La tensión ocurre luego de que el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump asegurara al inicio de su nuevo mandato que el Canal de Panamá estaba siendo controlado por China debido a que la firma hongkonesa CK Hutchison tenía la concesión de dos puertos estratégicos en cada entrada de la vía.

El pasado 29 de enero la Corte Suprema de Panamá declaró inconstitucional la concesión de dos puertos a orillas del Canal de Panamá que eran operados por CK Hutchinson.

El gobierno de Panamá tomó el control de los puertos de Balboa y Cristóbal en febrero y permitió que filiales de Maersk y Mediterranean Shipping Company asumieran las operaciones en esas terminales.

Mulino defendió la decisión panameña sobre los puertos.

“Lo que hicimos... era lo que había que hacer en función del derecho panameño. Se acabó el contrato de Panama Ports (filial local de CK Hutchinson) por una orden de la Corte y Panamá tenía que asumir el control de esos dos puertos inmediatamente”.

El gobierno panameño entregó por 18 meses la operación temporal de esas terminales a filiales de MSC y Maersk mientras se desarrolla una nueva licitación.

Panama Ports mantiene un arbitraje por 2.000 millones de dólares contra el Estado panameño y otro proceso contra Maersk.

“En lo que a mí respecta yo no tengo ningún interés de escalar este problema con China. Para eso están los dos procesos de arbitraje”, manifestó el mandatario panameño.

The Biennale said in a statement that the jury, made up of the president, Solange Farkas, and Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, Giovanna Zapperi, had resigned. It didn't provide an explanation for the highly unusual move.

It followed a visit to the Biennale by Cultural Ministry officials who arrived on Wednesday to gather information about the reopening of the Russian Pavilion. The Italian government has opposed the Biennale's decision to allow Russia to participate in the international exhibition.

The jury was due to select winners of the highly prestigious Golden Lion and other prizes on the official opening day on May 9. The Biennale announced that after the jury's resignation, visitors to the Biennale will select winners of two awards: Best Participant in the 61st curated Exhibition “In Minor Keys,” and the Best National Participation among the 100 national pavilions. It will be awarded on the closing day, Nov. 22.

Premier Giorgia Meloni, asked about the resignations, reiterated that the government didn’t agree with the Biennale’s decision to allow the Russians to participate, but acknowledged that the Biennale is autonomous.

She said that she didn’t know if the resignations were connected to the Culture Ministry’s decision to send inspectors to Venice.

Cabinet Minister Matteo Salvini said that it was a “great idea” by the Biennale leadership to allow the exhibition’s spectators to decide the ultimate winner of the Biennale, at the end, and not a jury.

“So it will be an autonomous and democratic Biennale,” he said. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”

The European Union last week slashed a 2-million euro ($2.3-million) grant to the Venice Biennale over Russia’s participation in the exhibition for the first time since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russian artists withdrew their participation in 2022, and Russia did not present an exhibition in 2024 for its permanent pavilion, which it instead lent to Bolivia. Russia last participated in the International Art Exhibition in 2019.

The Biennale said in a statement that it “does not have the authority to prevent a country from participating. Any country recognized by the Italian Republic may request to participate.’’

Since Russia owns the pavilion built in 1914 in the historic Giardini, it was required only to send notification of its request to participate, the Biennale said.

“La Biennale di Venezia rejects any form of exclusion or censorship of culture and art. The Biennale, like the city of Venice, continues to be a place of dialogue, openness and artistic freedom, encouraging connections between peoples and cultures, with the constant hope for an end to conflicts and suffering,’’ the Biennale said.

The Biennale contemporary art exhibition is the world’s oldest and most important, comprising a main exhibition alongside national pavilions, which are curated separately by the participating nations.

The Biennale has in the past refused pressure to exclude countries, including Iran and Israel, from participating.

___

Nicole Winfield contributed to this report from Rome.

Japan is pouring tons of money into everything from breeding to training and racing, with a turn to dirt-track runners over the past decade or so after turf was the focus for so long. Following a near miss with Forever Young in 2024, the investment could soon pay off in the form of a Kentucky Derby winner, with Danon Bourbon and homebred Wonder Dean the country's hopes in the race this year.

“We are getting closer,” racing manager Hiroshi Ando told The Associated Press outside the Japanese horses' barn Thursday. “For Japan, I think we’re able to change Japanese racing history again, like we did with Forever Young in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Our ambition is the Kentucky Derby right now, if possible.”

The ambition for a longer period of time has been the Arc De Triomphe on grass in Paris, because Japan's roots in racing are on turf. The Japanese Racing Association launched the Japan Cup in 1981 to promote the sport and get more national interest in it, and it has become the richest turf race in the world with a purse of $8.2 million.

“We tried to learn a lot of things from the techniques and lots of things from foreign countries, not only U.S. — from European countries,” said Tom Hashimoto, general manager of the JRA's New York Representative Office. “Developed not in a short period, (but) we make it. It took step by step and learn from other countries, and now we are very lucky to have so many good thoroughbreds.”

That history of quality thoroughbreds there dates to the early ‘90s, when 1989 Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sunday Silence drew little breeding interest in the U.S. and was exported to Japan to stand as a stallion. He was Japan's leading sire for 13 consecutive years from 1995-2008, and his ancestors have won races all over the world.

Interest in mainstream dirt racing piqued a little after that, around the time Victoire Pisa delivered Japan's first Dubai World Cup championship in 2011. American Pharoah, who won the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes in 2015 to end a 37-year Triple Crown drought, is in Japan breeding until July.

“Obviously he produced a lot of good horses in Japan, too, so Japanese people love American Pharoah babies,” Ando said. "I’m really interested to see how his babies perform because we have many good Japanese mares."

While the result of his stay in Japan won't be evident for a few years, the country is churning out strong horses on a regular basis, coming a long way from its debut Ski Captain finishing 14th in 1995. Master Fencer in 2019 and Derma Sotogake in '23 each were sixth, and Forever Young was a very close third two years ago when Mystik Dan beat Sierra Leone by a nose.

The post time just before 7 p.m. at Churchill Downs makes the Kentucky Derby a first Sunday morning in May event in Japan, and all the horses coming from there running in it is making fans take notice.

“Last couple years, Japanese racing people understand the Kentucky Derby,” Ando said. “Even the public knows the Kentucky Derby now, which is great for betting, great for the industry.”

Ando just wants to keep experiencing the Derby, which he called the best atmosphere in racing — and addictive. The chance to have a Japanese presence almost annually is certainly no accident, given how intentional Japanese stakeholders have been about getting to the elite level of the sport.

“The important thing is, how does the money fund the horse racing industry as a whole?” Hashimoto said. “Not only the racing: breeding, training, training, training and racing and back to breeding. We have to invest the money to all the aspects of horse racing.”

___

AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing

Una mujer recibió un disparo en el pecho, según agentes   que la encontraron poco después de la 1:35 p.m. del miércoles cerca de la avenida 22 del noroeste y la calle 90.

“Mientras veía televisión, escuché dos disparos, “POW! POW!”. Luego, escuché a alguien gritando, chillando”, dijo la testigo auditiva, quien pidió permanecer en el anonimato por temor a represalias.

El personal de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue trasladó a la mujer al Ryder Trauma Center del Hospital Jackson Memorial, donde murió, según agentes  .

Agentes   detuvieron a un hombre y a una mujer y cerraron la calle 90 del noroeste desde la avenida 22 hasta la 21.

Dentro del área acordonada con cinta de la escena del crimen, un marcador de evidencia amarillo estaba en el suelo cerca de una silla alta de plástico tipo resina.

Residentes dijeron que las personas se habían quejado del crimen en el área y pidieron a los agentes   del M-DSO que “cerraran la esquina”. El jueves por la tarde, los agentes   mantuvieron barricadas naranjas para bloquear el área.

Detectives pidieron a cualquier persona con información sobre este u otros casos que llame a Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers al 305-471-8477 para permanecer en el anonimato.

El editor de asignaciones de Local 10 News, Carson Merlo, y la editora senior de asignaciones, Frine Gomez, contribuyeron a este informe.

Área de la escena del crimen

Vea el informe de las 3 p.m.

Los investigadores dijeron que el sitio, ubicado en 13105 SW 199th Ave., tenía suficiente basura y escombros como para llenar múltiples piscinas de tamaño olímpico.

Las autoridades dijeron que un detective comenzó a vigilar un camión de basura alrededor de las 4 p.m. del miércoles y siguió al conductor mientras ingresaba al lugar.

Desde el exterior, el detective vio al conductor arrojando desechos de jardinería en la propiedad, según un informe de arresto del MDSO.

“Había varias otras pilas de basura observadas en la propiedad consistentes con una estación de transferencia de vertido ilegal”, escribió el detective.

Las autoridades dijeron que el detective detuvo tanto al conductor del camión de basura como al “supervisor del vertedero” Walter Afitt Garcia, de 48 años, cuando Garcia abrió la puerta principal para permitir que el conductor saliera.

Según el informe, Garcia dijo que era “solo un empleado” del propietario del sitio Manny Dorta, de 39 años, y que “solo deja entrar y salir a los camiones”.

El informe indica que el conductor del camión de basura dijo a los investigadores que Garcia y Dorta “tienen permisos” para verter en el lugar y que “paga $300 USD por viaje y ha estado allí dos veces hoy”. También indica que dijo a los investigadores que Garcia “le dice dónde botar los escombros porque no alquilan toda la propiedad”.

El conductor del camión de basura no parece enfrentar cargos, pero Dorta figura como coacusado “prófugo”. Las autoridades dijeron que el sitio en realidad no tiene permiso para verter desechos sólidos ni de jardinería.

Las autoridades dijeron que obtuvieron una orden de registro para la propiedad y encontraron montones de “desechos de jardinería mezclados con plástico, tuberías, metal y espuma de poliestireno con un total de 418,388 pies cúbicos de volumen”.

Además de ser suficiente basura para llenar cuatro piscinas de tamaño olímpico y aproximadamente tres cuartas partes de una quinta, también sería suficiente para llenar más de 175 contenedores de envío estándar de 40 pies.

Agentes arrestaron a Garcia por un cargo grave de vertido ilegal de basura y un cargo menor por no obtener un permiso ambiental. Según los registros de la cárcel, estaba en libertad bajo fianza al momento de su arresto por dos cargos de agresión agravada con arma mortal, violencia doméstica y agresión a un agente del orden.

Según un informe de arresto separado del MDSO, esos cargos se derivan de un incidente del 9 de julio de 2025 en la casa de Garcia en el noroeste de Miami-Dade, en el que, bajo la influencia de drogas, apuñaló a uno de sus hermanos en la mano y golpeó a otro con un bastón metálico.

Un informe separado indica que también lanzó un plato y la pata de una silla de madera contra los agentes que respondieron.

Leer en español

Investigators said the site, located at 13105 SW 199th Ave., had enough trash and debris to fill multiple Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Authorities said a detective began surveilling a dump truck at around 4 p.m. on Wednesday and followed the driver as he drove into the site.

From the outside, the detective saw the driver dumping landscaping debris onto the property, an MDSO arrest report states.

“There were several other trash piles observed on the property consistent with an illegal dumping transfer station,” the detective wrote.

Authorities said the detective detained both the dump truck driver and “dump supervisor” Walter Afitt Garcia, 48, as Garcia opened the front gate for the driver to allow him to leave.

According to the report, Garcia said he was “just an employee” of site owner Manny Dorta, 39, and he “just lets trucks in and out.”

The report states that the dump truck driver told investigators that Garcia and Dorta “have permits” to dump at the site and said he “pays $300 per trip and has been there twice today.“ It states that he told investigators that Garcia “tells him where to dump the debris because they don’t lease the whole property.”

The dump truck driver doesn’t appear to be facing charges, but Dorta is listed as an “at large” co-defendant. Authorities said the site is not, in fact, permitted to dump solid or yard waste.

Authorities said they obtained a search warrant for the property and found piles of “landscaping debris mixed with plastic, pipes, metal and Styrofoam totaling 418,388 cubic feet in volume.”

Besides being enough trash to fill four Olympic-sized swimming pools and about three-quarters of a fifth, it would also be enough to fill more than 175 standard 40-foot shipping containers.

Deputies arrested Garcia on a felony littering charge and a misdemeanor charge of failing to obtain an environmental permit. According to jail records, he was out on bond at the time of his arrest on two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, domestic battery and battery on a law enforcement officer.

According to a separate MDSO arrest report, those charges stemmed from a July 9, 2025 incident at Garcia’s northwest Miami-Dade home in which he, while under the influence of drugs, stabbed one of his brothers in the hand and beat another with a metal cane.

A separate report states that he also hurled a plate and wooden chair leg at responding deputies.

Garcia remained in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Thursday afternoon.

The White House had warned that temporary funding Trump had tapped to pay Transportation Security Administration and other agency personnel would “soon run out,” and that sparked new threats of disruptions for travelers at airport. DHS has been without routine funds since Feb. 14, causing hardship for workers, though much of Trump’s immigration agenda that is central to the dispute is being funded separately.

“It is about damn time,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, who proposed the bill more than 70 days ago.

The House swiftly voted by voice, without a formal roll call, to pass the measure. It brought an abrupt end to the standoff that began months ago after Trump's deadly immigration crackdown in Minneapolis launched a reckoning on Capitol Hill over the money being sent to fuel the president's agenda.

The movement in Congress comes as DHS is under intense scrutiny and Trump ousted Kristi Noem as the department's leader, installing Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin in the middle of the shutdown. The agency counts some 260,000 employees, across TSA, the Coast Guard, FEMA and other operations.

Many workers have endured repeated turmoil with potential furloughs and missed paychecks in May as the congressional stalemate dragged on. This shutdown came on the heels of last year's governmentwide closure, which itself had set a record at 43 days. Countless employees have struggled with bills or simply quit their jobs.

Trump's deportation strategy fueled the dispute

In the aftermath of the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens, by federal agents during protests against the immigration actions in Minneapolis, Democrats refused to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol without changes to those operations.

At the same time, Republicans would not go along with a plan pushed by Democrats to fund TSA and the other parts of DHS without the money for ICE and Border Patrol. They insisted that immigration operations must not be zeroed out.

After the shutdown intensified, with hourslong lines at airport security screening, the Senate unanimously approved the bipartisan package in a middle of the night vote a month ago. Then the bill languished in the House.

Johnson, R-La., himself had called the legislation a “joke.”

To break the impasse, Republican leaders in both the House and Senate decided to tackle the immigration enforcement funding on their own through what is called budget reconciliation, a cumbersome weekslong process ahead.

By beginning that path, Johnson was able to unlock the broader bipartisan bill for the rest of DHS. House Republicans late Wednesday adopted a budget resolution, on a largely party-line vote, that focused on eventually providing $70 billion for immigration enforcement and deportations for the remainder of Trump’s time in office. His term expires in January 2029.

Johnson acknowledged on Thursday that while he had trashed the bipartisan bill before, the new budget process ensure that the immigration money eventually will flow “with no crazy Democrat reforms.”

“We threw a fit,” the speaker said. “We had to.”

But not all Republicans were pleased. During the quick floor action Thursday, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said isolating the immigration-related money on a separate track is “offensive to the men and women who serve in ICE and Border Patrol, and are serving this country every single day.”

White House warns paychecks at risk, again

The White House had urged Congress this week to act, warning that the money Trump tapped to temporarily pay TSA and other workers through executive actions was drying up.

Immigration enforcement workers have largely been paid through the flush of new cash — some $170 billion — that Congress approved as part of Trump’s tax cuts bill last year. Others, including at the TSA, have had to rely on Trump’s intervention through executive action to ensure their paychecks. Most of its employees are considered essential and have remained on the job.

But with salaries topping a combined $1.6 billion every two weeks, Mullin said recently that the money was dwindling.

On Thursday, he said in a social media post that the shutdown "NEVER should have happened."

More than 1,000 TSA officers have quit since the shutdown began, according to Airlines for America, the U.S. airlines trade group that on Wednesday called on Congress to fully fund the Cabinet department.

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said while workers are "pleased that Congress finally stepped up to do their jobs and fund DHS, it is unacceptable that it took them this long to do so.”

He said "federal employees are not political pawns. They are not leverage. They are Americans -– and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Complicated budget strategy ahead

The go-it-alone strategy under the budget resolution process is the same that was used last year to approve Trump’s tax cuts bill, which all Democrats opposed.

With the budget resolution now adopted by the House and Senate, lawmakers will next draft the actual $70 billion ICE and Border Patrol funding bill, with voting expected in May.

Trump has said he wants it on his desk by June 1.

___

Associated Press writer Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Leer en español

Attorneys for the rapper, whose real name is Jamell Demons, highlighted that the 26-year-old has been in jail for seven years and hasn’t been convicted.

Demons is accused of murdering his childhood friends Christopher Thomas and Anthony Williams in October 2018 after a late-night recording session and then making it look like a drive-by shooting.

His first trial ended in a mistrial in 2023 after the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. That trial included allegations of witness tampering.

Thursday’s hearing included testimony from the rapper’s family members and a Broward Sheriff’s Office detention officer regarding the rapper’s living conditions while in custody, which include no access to a phone.

The BSO detention officer testified as to Demons’ recreational opportunities, stating he gets outside exercise three times per week.

A judge will determine if he can be released on bond or remain in custody as he awaits retrial.

Los abogados del rapero, cuyo nombre real es Jamell Demons, destacaron que el joven de 26 años ha estado en la cárcel durante siete años y no ha sido condenado.

Demons está acusado de asesinar a sus amigos de la infancia Christopher Thomas y Anthony Williams en octubre de 2018 tras una sesión de grabación nocturna y luego hacerlo parecer como una balacera desde un vehículo.

Su primer juicio terminó en un juicio nulo en 2023 después de que el jurado no lograra un veredicto unánime. Ese juicio incluyó acusaciones de manipulación de testigos.

La audiencia del jueves incluyó el testimonio de familiares del rapero y de un oficial de detención de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward sobre las condiciones de vida del rapero bajo custodia, que incluyen no tener acceso a un teléfono.

El oficial de detención de la BSO testificó sobre las oportunidades recreativas de Demons, indicando que sale a hacer ejercicio tres veces por semana.

Un juez determinará si puede ser liberado bajo fianza o permanecer bajo custodia mientras espera el nuevo juicio.

Leer en español

A woman was shot in the chest, according to deputies who found her shortly after 1:35 p.m. on Wednesday near Northwest 22 Avenue and 90 Street.

“As I was watching TV, I heard two gunshots, ‘POW! POW!’ Then, I heard someone hollering, screaming,” said the earwitness, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel took the woman to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where she died, according to deputies.

Deputies detained a man and a woman and closed Northwest 90 Street from 22nd to 21st avenues.

Within the area enclosed by crime scene tape, a yellow evidence marker was on the ground near a resin plastic high-back chair.

Residents said people had complained about crime in the area and asked for M-DSO deputies to “shut the corner down.” On Thursday afternoon, deputies kept orange barricades to block the area.

Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477 to remain anonymous.

Local 10 News Assignment Editor Carson Merlo and Senior Assignment Editor Frine Gomez contributed to this report.

Crime scene area

Watch the 3 p.m. report

In a social media post, Trump said he would nominate Saphier, whom he called “a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment.”

Saphier is a radiologist and director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth, according to her profile on the New York-based institution’s website. She has a doctor of medicine degree from Ross University School of Medicine in Barbados along with fellowships at the Mayo Clinic, the profile said.

The withdrawal came after tense exchanges between Means and lawmakers of both parties threw into question whether she could secure enough votes to advance out of the Senate health committee.

Her nomination had languished since her confirmation hearing in late February, even as activists from the Make America Healthy Again movement orchestrated a push to support her bid by surging phone calls to Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. They had both indicated reservations with the pick.

Means pitches ideas popular with MAHA

In nominating Means last May, Trump sought to hire a close ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the nation’s doctor. The 38-year-old Means, a Stanford-education physician who became disillusioned with the health care system and pivoted to a career as an author and entrepreneur, promotes ideas popular with the MAHA movement, including that Americans are overmedicalized and that diet and lifestyle changes should be at the center of efforts to end widespread chronic disease.

But Means, who did not finish her surgical residency program and doesn’t currently have an active medical license, also had faced scrutiny for her lack of experience and potential conflicts. On top of those concerns, senators grilled her in February about Kennedy’s wide-ranging pullback of vaccine recommendations — leading to some contentious moments as Means toed the line between support for vaccines and calling them a decision best made by patients and their doctors.

In her confirmation hearing, Means was repeatedly asked about the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped recommending for all children late last year in a move criticized by scientific and medical groups nationwide. Means has raised doubts about the birth dose, posting on social media in 2024 that giving the vaccine to a newborn whose parents don’t have hepatitis B was “absolute insanity.”

In another post earlier Thursday, Trump called Means “a strong MAHA Warrior” and also criticized the “intransigence and political games” from GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is facing a tough reelection this year and who interrogated Means about vaccines during the hearing.

Means' brother, Calley Means, a health adviser to the Trump administration, blamed Cassidy in a social media post, claiming his “constant delay tactics” sank the nomination. Cassidy didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Now Trump will try to fill the post a third time

Means is the second U.S. surgeon general pick whose nomination has been withdrawn in Trump’s second term. Trump withdrew his first nominee, Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat, after questions were raised about her academic credentials.

In at least one case, Saphier has diverted from Trump’s medical messaging. Last year, as Trump advised pregnant women, “Don’t take Tylenol” — promoting unproven and in some cases discredited ties between the medication, vaccines and autism — Saphier said that while pregnant women generally are advised to take acetaminophen only under medical supervision, when necessary and at the lowest effective dose, equally important was that untreated fever or severe pain can also pose serious risks to mothers and babies. She noted that part was missing from Trump's message.

“For decades, women have endured a paternalistic tone in medicine. We’ve moved past dismissing symptoms as ‘hysteria,’” Saphier wrote in an email to The Associated Press at the time. “The President’s recent comments on Tylenol in pregnancy are a prime example. Advising moderation was sound; delivering it in a patronizing, simplistic way was not.”

Means and Saphier did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services referred inquiries to the White House.

___ Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C.

El incidente ocurrió el martes alrededor de las 9:30 p.m. en la cuadra 100 de Southeast Seventh Street en Deerfield Beach.

Según los agentes, la esposa de la víctima estaba paseando a su perro frente a su casa cuando su vecino, identificado por la Policía como Scott Surace, se le acercó con su perro, el cual ella temía que se volviera agresivo hacia su mascota.

Después de que le pidieran a Surace que mantuviera a su perro alejado, los agentes dijeron que comenzó a mostrarse agresivo, por lo que la mujer llamó a su esposo y entró a su casa.

Según las autoridades, después de que su esposo regresó a casa, estaba preparándose la cena cuando escuchó “lo que sonaba como impactos contra el frente de su casa” y salió corriendo para ver a Surace huyendo “mientras se reía” y notó que la vivienda había sido atacada con huevos.

En ese momento, los agentes dijeron que Surace regresó a la casa de la víctima con un palo de golf y dijo “¿Quieres ir a la guerra? Usaré esto contra ti” mientras sostenía el palo sobre su cabeza y lo blandía de una manera que los agentes describieron como “amenazante”.

Las autoridades indicaron que Surace luego huyó en un scooter eléctrico antes de que llegaran los agentes, pero fue detenido más tarde en la noche cuando regresó a su casa.

Durante la investigación, los agentes dijeron que también encontraron que un neumático del vehículo de la víctima había sido cortado, y que “aunque no se vio a Surace cortando los neumáticos, se puede concluir que probablemente fue responsable”.

Las víctimas dijeron a los agentes que han tenido problemas con Surace durante varios años, afirmando que “él cree que ellos son asociados de la mafia que están tras él”, según el informe de arresto.

Después de su arresto, Surace dijo a los agentes que estaba “a solo 50 pies” de las víctimas y que “tomó un palo de golf para defenderse”, antes de decir a los agentes que sus acciones entrarían bajo la ley de “defensa propia” después de que se le informaran los cargos.

Los detectives dijeron que “era evidente que Scott estaba en un estado de delirio y que si no recibe tratamiento probablemente se convertiría en una amenaza para otros”.

Surace finalmente fue acusado de agresión agravada con un arma mortal sin intención de matar y daños criminales con daños a la propiedad de $200 USD o menos.

No figuraba entre los reclusos de la cárcel del condado Broward hasta la tarde de este jueves.

But one distinguished guest — even if his fleeting stop consisted of a three-and-a-half-minute speech — brought a buzz that had some members of high society lining up along velvet ropes and craning their necks inside Christie's New York auction house. That would be King Charles III, who made his first appearance in the five-year history of the event supporting his nonprofit that helps young people find work.

The excitement was evident from the red carpet. Charlotte Tilbury, the British cosmetics entrepreneur, asked Martha Stewart, who wore a sparkling blue dress, if she would tell Charles that she wore “royal blue just for you.” Natasha Poonawalla — the executive director of the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer — said “everyone's been waiting for him."

“I think the fact that he’s here is going to strengthen the presence of the foundation so much more," Poonawalla said.

It appears so. Organizers reported a record fundraising total exceeding $3 million, affirming hopes that the arrival of the monarch and Queen Camilla might boost the sum collected Wednesday as the nonprofit tries to establish an endowment for its work in the United Kingdom and deepen its relationships in more than two dozen countries.

Charles is wrapping up the first visit to the U.S. since his coronation, a four-day trip intended to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence from Britain and strengthen the countries' fraying relationship.

The King's Trust counts 1.5 million people worldwide who have been reached in some way by its education and employment programs over the past 50 years. In brief remarks before guests sat for dinner, Charles noted that many of their beneficiaries return to support disadvantaged young people much like themselves.

“Only now do quite a lot of them actually admit they were started (here),” he joked.

Edward Enninful, the former editor-in-chief of British Vogue and a co-chair of the gala, has seen the trust's impact in West London. He said his cousins and brothers have been able to make something of their lives despite being classed by society as “not worthy.”

He described Charles' appearance as the nonprofit's “glory moment."

“He’s set the example that philanthropy matters," Enninful told The Associated Press. "No matter how well you are doing, you’re not doing enough unless you’re passing it on to a newer generation.”

The event was more intimate than previous years with just about 160 guests. There weren't musical performances either; Richie informed guests from the get-go that he wouldn't be singing, prompting Charles to joke that the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer “must gargle with port.” Other attendees included supermodels Karlie Kloss and Iman, actors Leo Woodall and Meghann Fahy as well as designers Donatella Versace and Stella McCartney.

Stewart recalled her own luck as she built a multi-million-dollar media empire centered around cooking, entertaining and homemaking. The lifestyle entrepreneur said she paid for her “fine education” through scholarships. And she was fortunate that all of her jobs were “excellent.”

“But I know today there’s a big challenge in getting a good job, a big challenge in getting a good education,” she said. "And we’re here to help those people.”

___

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits 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. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Leer en español

The incident happened on Tuesday around 9:30 p.m. along the 100 block of Southeast Seventh Street in Deerfield Beach.

According to deputies, the victim’s wife was walking her dog in front of her home when her neighbor, identified by police at Scott Surace, approached her with his dog, which she feared would become aggressive toward her dog.

After Surace was asked to keep his dog away, deputies said he began to get aggressive, so the woman called her husband and went inside her home.

According to authorities, after her husband returned home, he was making himself dinner when he heard “what sounded like impacts against the front of his home” and rushed outside to see Surace running away “while laughing” and noticed the home had been egged.

That’s when deputies said Surace returned to the victim’s home with a golf club and stated “You want to go to war? I’ll use this on you” while holding the club over his head and swinging it in what deputies described as “a threatening manner.”

Authorities said Surace then took off on an electric scooter before deputies arrived, but he was apprehended later in the evening when he returned home.

During their investigation, deputies said they also found that a tire on the victim’s vehicle had been slashed, and that “while Surace was not seen slashing the tires, it can be concluded that he was likely responsible.”

The victims told deputies that they have had issues with Surace for several years, stating that “he believes that they are associates of the mafia who are out to get him,” according to an arrest form.

After his arrest, Surace told deputies that he was “only 50 feet away” from the victims and that he “grabbed a golf club to defend himself,” before telling deputies his actions would fall under the “stand your ground” statute after he was informed of his charges.

Detectives said that “it was evident that Scott was in a state of delusion and that if left untreated he would likely become a threat to others.”

Surace was ultimately charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill and criminal mischief with property damage $200 or less.

He was not listed among Broward County jail inmates as of Thursday afternoon.

“The sport has changed a lot, the world has changed a lot,” Bottas said Thursday, a day after he discussed his own struggles in an essay for “ The Players' Tribune."

“There's better ways for people to communicate and share their issues, or anything from the past. It's definitely a more welcoming environment for everyone in F1, but I think also the whole world.”

Bottas said he was approached by the outlet late last year and began the process of writing the essay titled “Born Crazy” that was released ahead of the rookie Cadillac team making its North American debut this weekend at the Miami Grand Prix. Bottas, who is from Finland, and Sergio Perez of Mexico are the drivers for the team that considers itself the only true American team in the global series.

He said he agreed to open up to the publication in an effort to show the intense personal battles drivers work through in the ultra-competitive racing world.

“I think it's important to highlight that we're all humans and no one is perfect. Everyone has their struggles or their issues,” Bottas said. “Hopefully somebody can learn from other people's mistakes. Part of life is learning about your mistakes.”

Being a wingman broke Bottas

In the piece, Bottas revealed that during his time as a driver for Mercedes he was pushed to the brink of depression and despised F1 when he was relegated to “wingman” for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. He also disclosed an earlier two-year struggle with an eating disorder.

Bottas spent five seasons as Hamilton’s teammate following a 2017 promotion from Williams.

“First season was good,” he told the Players’ Tribune. “I started the 2018 season thinking that I was the best driver on the grid, and that I was going to win the championship.”

But he instead went winless and sacrificed track position often to help Hamilton win the title.

“Do you know how badly I wanted to just say no?” he said. “But I had to be a good teammate. I let him through, and of course he had an incredible season. He was the champion. I was ‘the wingman.’

“To this day, I have complicated feelings about it. I don’t know how to answer when people ask me about it, because Lewis is an incredible driver and a friend. I have no bad blood with Mercedes ... but the whole situation almost made me walk away from the sport."

The situation nearly broke him mentally.

“The old me came back. The negative Valtteri. The obsessive Valtteri. I was reading too many comments on social media, and I started to become very self-loathing," he said in the essay. "Thankfully, I had the tools from my experience in 2014 to understand what was happening, and I had plenty of support.”

Early career eating disorder

The 2014 reference was to Bottas' battle with an eating disorder that “completely consumed” him.

“It was like a game to me. I’d wake up and weigh myself every morning, and when I’d see the number go down, I’d feel a deep satisfaction," he said. "After two months of spiralling, my nerves were shot. I would wake up at 4 a.m. on my own, no alarm. I was like a drug addict, ‘I’ve never felt better!’ Ha. Completely delusional. The actual reason I was waking up so early was that my body was in starvation mode.”

He said he had struggled to find any joy and was “just so angry and negative about everything.” Bottas said his then-wife asked him if he feared the risks of racing, but he'd become so detached that he told her “‘No. If I die, I die.’”

“At that moment, I realized that I genuinely did not care what happened to me anymore," he revealed. "Not long after that, I decided to get some help. I started seeing a psychologist, and I finally admitted out loud that I was unwell. It took me almost two years to feel like myself again.”

His descent into depression began again in 2018 when it became clear he would only ever be in the shadow of Hamilton.

“I was definitely depressed and burnt out. I hated racing. During that winter break before the 2019 season, I did not think that I was going to come back," he said. "That winter break, I made the decision that I was going to retire. Then I went for a walk one day in the forest. I walked in the deep snow for maybe three hours and I walked out of those woods with a completely different mindset.”

Help is out there

Bottas said Thursday he isn't sure what sort of reaction his essay has received because it had only been released the day prior and he has avoided social media. But he hopes the essay shows others there are resources available and the stigma surrounding mental health has changed.

“The whole sport has evolved a lot. Everything is more professional,” Bottas said. “I also think when it comes to coaching, physical coaching, mental coaching, that level also has gone up. There is more support available. There's better packages for drivers when it comes to mental coaches. I think people are less afraid of seeking for help, seeking for support, because these things are now talked about more.”

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Prices rose at the fastest pace in almost three years last month, U.S. economic growth is steady and layoffs fell last week, according to a slew of economic data released Thursday.

The inflation gauge favored by the Federal Reserve — the Commerce Department's Personal Consumption Expenditures price index — rose 0.7% from February to March and 3.5% from a year earlier. The year-over-year gain was the biggest since May 2023.

No secret what was driving the increase: Gasoline prices shot up 21% in March from February after Iran responded to U.S. and Israeli attacks by closing the Strait of Hormuz and creating the biggest disruption of oil supplies in history.

The same data showed that prices outgrew American incomes — wages, business income and government benefits — for the second straight month in March.

The Commerce Department also reported Thursday that U.S. gross domestic product — the output of goods and services — grew at a steady 2% annual pace from January through March, slower than economists expected, but a rebound from lackluster 0.5% growth during the final three months of 2025. In the October-December quarter, the 43-day federal government shutdown had slashed more than a percentage point off growth.

Business investment is surging because of the AI boom. Excluding housing, business investment surged 10.4% in the first quarter, biggest jump in nearly three years.

From January through March, consumer spending — accounting for 70% of U.S. economic activity — expanded at a 1.6% annual pace. Americans were helped by big tax refunds, the result of President Donald Trump's 2025 tax cuts.

But the boost might not last long. “Rising tax refunds were outpacing the increased burden of gasoline spending two to one in March and most of April,” wrote Michael Pearce, the chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. "With tax refund season winding down and gas prices still climbing, the hit to consumer spending will become more evident from May.''

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline jumped another 7 cents overnight to $4.30. The price on this date last year was $3.18. In each of the past three days, gasoline prices have set new multi-year highs.

Forced to spend more on gasoline, consumers are likely to cut back their spending on other goods and services. Economists are already expecting GDP to take a hit as they do. Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, a tax and advisory firm, has downgraded his forecast for U.S. economic growth this year to 1.7% from the 2.4% he'd expected earlier.

“A year that was set to benefit from tail winds associated with a large tax cut and boom in artificial intelligence-led investment has been partially derailed by the impact of what as of today is an adverse and growing supply shock caused by the war in Iran,” Brusuelas said. “Unfortunately, war and the supply shock that ensued has altered the probable growth path this year.”

The combination of rising prices — and the threat to economic growth — has put the Fed and other central banks in a bind. Should they cut interest rates to help their economies? Or hold off — or even consider raising rates — to combat the threat of inflation?

So far, they are staying put. The Bank of England kept its main interest rate on hold at 3.75% Thursday and hinted of hikes to come as policymakers assess the war's economic impact. Likewise, the Fed, the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank, with all opting for no change as they assess the economic fallout from the conflict.

Still, U.S. workers enjoy considerable job security. The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits — a proxy for layoffs — tumbled last week to the lowest level in more than 50 years.

Companies aren't letting workers go — but they aren't necessarily eager to hire much either. Job growth last year was the weakest outside a recession since 2002. And it's been up and down so far this year — strong in January (160,000 new jobs) and March (178,000) but weak in February when employers slashed 133,000 jobs.

Economists describe “no-hire, no-fire’’ scenario that locks young applicants out of the job market. At the same time, there are growing worries that AI is taking entry-level jobs.

____

AP Business Writer Matt Ott in Washington contributed to this story.

The order is intended to help more people gain access to retirement plans before next year, when the federal government will start matching retirement contributions made by low- and middle-income workers, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the order before it is announced.

That new matching contribution, known as the Saver’s Match, comes from 2022 legislation passed under Democratic President Joe Biden. Starting in January, it will offer a match of up to $1,000 for workers who make less than $35,000 a year.

Trump’s order is meant to help make the match available to roughly 50 million people who do not have retirement plans offered by their employers. The Republican president is directing the Treasury Department to launch TrumpIRA.gov, where workers can compare private-sector retirement plans.

He is not offering a new government retirement plan but helping match workers with existing plans from private companies.

Details of the order were first reported by the news outlet Semafor.

Trump discussed the idea during his State of the Union address in February, when he noted that about half of the people in the country do not have access to employer-provided retirement plans with matching contributions.

“To remedy this gross disparity, I’m announcing that next year my administration will give these often-forgotten American workers — great people, the people that built our country — access to the same type of retirement plan offered to every federal worker,” Trump said.

The Saver’s Match program will offer a maximum match of $1,000 for single filers and $2,000 for married couples who file jointly. The maximum will be limited to single filers earning less than $20,500, with smaller matches offered for those earning up to $35,500. It applies to contributions made toward 401(k) plans, IRAs and Roth IRAs.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the income threshold for the Saver’s Match benefit is $35,500, not $46,000.

BET announced Thursday that the 31-year-old comedian and digital creator will lead the ceremony, which airs live June 28 from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

Druski surpasses Kevin Hart, who previously held the distinction as the BET Award's youngest host when he emceed in 2011.

“I grew up watching the BET Awards,” Druski said in a statement. “To know the comedic legends that hosted before me set the bar so high, I’m just grateful to be a part of the history. But I’m still bringing my brand of comedy to the stage.”

Best known for his viral sketches and improvisational style, Druski has built a massive following across social media, translating that momentum into sold-out tours and high-profile collaborations with artists including Drake and Snoop Dogg, as well as appearances alongside figures like Tom Brady and Timothée Chalamet.

Druski has been named to Forbes’ Under 30 list and Rolling Stone’s Most Influential Creator list, and in 2025 became the first comedian to cover Billboard’s No. 1s issue.

Now in its 25th year, the BET Awards has long served as a major stage celebrating Black achievement across music, film, television and sports, and is known for its performances, tributes and culturally defining moments.

“As one of the most exciting comedic voices of his generation, Druski brings a unique ability to connect with audiences through humor that feels both fresh and deeply rooted in culture,” said Connie Orlando, BET’s executive vice president of specials, music programming and music strategy.

The show will be produced by Jesse Collins Entertainment, with Jesse Collins,Dionne Harmon and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay serving as executive producers.

Other women can pick up on this. Many would even argue that it’s instilled in us from a young age through what we watch and the environments we grow up in. So daughters often grow up celebrating their mothers with intention, because we are tuned in to what is expected and what is needed from the people we love. Women understand the value of a thoughtful gift or even simple consideration on a global holiday like this. Weeks, sometimes months, go into planning something special not just for their mothers, but for sisters, friends, and even colleagues.

Men, on the other hand, sometimes let the day slip their minds, even though the holiday is advertised weeks in advance. It can start to feel like a secondhand Valentine’s Day: last-minute reservations, rushed trips down store aisles, grabbing teddy bears and flowers that no one really asked for, scratching their heads over what to cook or where to send the kids so mom can finally rest.

Although men and women are wired differently, one thing most would agree on is that Mother’s Day may be a small gesture but it deserves big respect.

Still, could it be that men are simply caught in the middle? With a wife, mother, sister, and mother-in-law all expecting something from you? Not to mention running a company filled with women who want to feel appreciated too. How do you meet the needs of so many when you already carry so much? For some, the day can bring stress and quiet anxiety, even a hint of resentment, wondering whether the same level of consideration would be returned on another holiday.

And then there’s a small group of cavemen who just choose not to remember the day at all. No shade but they should be mentioned. You know the one who ignores both his wife and his mother, leaving his poor sister to save the day. Or the one who uses financial support as justification for skipping a gift for his wife, yet expects her to buy one for his mother and bring the kids over to Nana’s house with flowers and cards lovingly covering up the fact that he couldn’t even show up.

We’ve all been there, and we all know someone like that. Relationships and the health of them play a psychological role in how mothers are treated on this day.

According to a 600-person survey conducted through Google Consumer Surveys and published by Jolly Good Gifts, men and women participate in Mother’s Day celebrations at roughly similar rates, but their methods differ significantly. The survey found that men are 44% more likely than women to give their mothers flowers and 39% more likely to make a phone call. However, men are 19% less likely to send a paper card and 38% less likely to give a special gift. In contrast, women are 61% more likely than men to purchase a special gift and 24% more likely to send a paper card, though they are 28% less likely to call and 31% less likely to give flowers. The survey also noted that 46% of men and 44% of women reported not participating in traditional Mother’s Day activities, with participation varying by age. 70% of respondents under 45 reported celebrating, compared to just 35% of those 55 and older.

Broader consumer data compiled by Gitnux shows that 92% of Americans acknowledge Mother’s Day, making it one of the most widely recognized holidays in the country. The data also indicates that 75% of consumers begin shopping at least two weeks in advance, and women are 60% more likely than men to purchase gifts for other mothers beyond their own.

In Miami, the celebration often carries an added layer of culture and community. In many Hispanic and Caribbean households , which make up a large portion of South Florida, Mother’s Day is rarely a quiet exchange of flowers and cards. It can mean multigenerational brunches in Little Havana, packed church services in North Miami, or entire families gathering at Abuela’s or Nana’s house with food that took two days to prepare. The expectation to show up is not subtle; it’s cultural. In a city where family ties run deep, and motherhood is often honored loudly and collectively, the pressure to celebrate well can feel even greater, especially for sons and daughters navigating tradition, modern schedules, and shifting gender roles.

With all that data and information in mind, it’s fair to say men and women support moms the best way they know how. Still, the numbers suggest that women often lean more toward sentimental and detailed gift-giving not only for their mothers, but for the maternal figures closest to them. This data isn’t meant to belittle or discourage men when it comes to giving. Instead, it’s an invitation, a gentle challenge to approach the day with less stress and more intention.

In the end, it truly is the thought that counts. Thinking about mothers should never feel like a strain or punishment, because they would bend backward for the world without hesitation. Feeling special, loved, and valued is often enough to make her glow. With just a sprinkle of time and effort poured into one day out of the year, the everyday weight of motherhood can feel a little lighter.

The grass is greener where you water it. So in honor of Mother’s Day, don’t forget this small but powerful trick. Show up with care, show up with heart, and maybe next time the love you give won’t just play its part, it will come back around, full circle, right from the start.

To reveal how Mother’s Day changes as a child ages, nearly a dozen South Florida residents were asked to briefly recall how they spent Mother’s Day at different points in their lives, from early childhood to young adulthood. These anecdotes were then analyzed and split into categories, depending on factors such as whether the children made their mothers a card at school, went out for dinner, or made them breakfast in bed.

First, respondents were asked how they remember spending Mother’s Day at any point from the ages of 0 to 5 years old.

The largest share of respondents — more than 60 percent — recall making their moms a gift, such as a card or origami flowers, at school during the week of Mother’s Day. This is perhaps unsurprising, as preschool and kindergarten classes often involve lots of arts and crafts activities, and young toddlers with little independence or awareness of cultural events are unlikely to make or buy a gift without the guidance of a teacher. As one South Florida resident, Kelly Rengifo, recalled:

“For mothers day, me and my sister gave her cards we made in school and ate a special dinner together as a family.”

It’s only in later stages of childhood, such as when a child is 6 to 10 years old, that they start gaining agency over how they choose to celebrate the women that brought them into the world.

At a glance, this batch of data tells largely the same story as the first — children are more likely to go out to family dinners at restaurants than make a homemade gift — but there are significant changes as well. As an example, in this stage, children are now more likely to give their mothers a store-bought gift than one they made at school, reflecting the decline in seasonal arts and crafts activities in grade school versus preschool and kindergarten.

Additionally, a new category is added to the mix: Service. As children enter this age range, they become aware of the effort it takes to be a mother, and as such, might help with household chores as an intangible gift. One respondent, Samirah Mustafa, had this to say about how she spent Mother’s Day at 9 years old:

“[My sister, my dad and I] woke up early and cooked breakfast for my mom to deliver it to her in bed. It was pancakes, eggs, and fresh fruit. We then helped her clean the house and gave her cards we made in school.”

As a child with little to no disposable income, helping mom with household duties or errands can be a way to show gratitude for everything she does without spending any money, and as shown in the next set of data, it only seems to get more common as children grow into preteens and adolescents.

Between the ages of 11–15, acts of service are doubly as popular among respondents as it was during the previous age bracket, but there’s also a more significant change: store-bought gifts now top the list by a wide margin. While very few children in this age range are making their own cash at this point, they now have the ability to go to a store with a parent and play a role in choosing a gift — like jewelry, clothing, or a household appliance — even if a parent is the one making the purchase.

At this age, it seems, children are initiated into the nationwide ritual of holiday consumerism. According to the National Retail Foundation, Americans spend a total of $34 billion on Mother’s Day, a total that has increased almost every year since 2020. $6.8 billion of that amount goes towards jewelry, while $3.2 billion goes towards flowers.

As teenagers age into young adulthood, they become deeper entrenched in the consumer culture of Mother’s Day, as depicted in the final set of South Florida survey data.

In the 16–year-old to 20-year-old age range, 88% of respondents recalled buying a gift at a store for Mother’s Day. This is unsurprising, since at this age, teenagers and young adults usually get their first jobs, open bank accounts, and start accruing a significant amount of their own money for the first time.

Restaurant outings tie retail gifts for the top spot, with 88% of respondents also going out to eat. Rengifo recalls:

“I took my mom to breakfast and bought her a purse she wanted.”

According to research from the National Restaurant Association, 34% of consumers plan to celebrate Mother’s Day by going out to eat at a restaurant, while another 12% order takeout from a restaurant. However, Rengifo is one of just 13% of restaurant-goers who go out to breakfast for Mother’s Day, with most opting for dinner or lunch.

In a city as bustling as Miami, Mother’s Day festivities can cause a noticeable uptick in attendance at restaurants such as Korean Kitchen, an Asian eatery in North Miami Beach. One employee at the establishment, Angelina Shi, reports seeing “more people taking their moms out to eat,” but maintains an optimistic attitude, saying:

“I enjoy working on Mother’s Day […] because customers are usually nicer and tip more, and I can tell the moms really feel the love because they smile a lot.”

The roles of mothers, sons, and daughters are always changing as children age from infants into toddlers, and from adolescents into adults. But however families choose to spend the second Sunday of May, one thing stays the same: the desire to go the extra mile for those they love, and to make the mothers in their lives feel appreciated.

Alejandro Jacomino Gonzalez, 41, went missing while heading to Miami with a shipment of vehicles he picked up April 16 at the Port of Brunswick on the Georgia coast, according to the FBI.

He was last spotted at a rest stop along Interstate 95 in Brevard County, Florida, in the early morning hours of April 17. His tractor-trailer was found later that day about 320 miles (515 kilometers) away in Port Wentworth, Georgia, west of Savannah. The FBI said Gonzalez and several of the cars he was hauling were missing.

A body was discovered that day in coastal Glynn County, Georgia, nearly 80 miles (128 kilometers) south of where the semitrailer was found. Investigators confirmed it was Gonzalez's body, Tony Thomas, an FBI spokesman in Atlanta, said Thursday.

Thomas said he couldn't provide further details, citing the active investigation. No charges or arrests have been announced.

Gonzalez, a commercial truck driver, pulled into the Florida rest stop on April 17 at about 1:20 a.m., the FBI said when it posted a missing person bulletin for Gonzalez last Friday. He had completed more than half his trip to Miami.

The semitrailer's GPS showed it began moving again hours later, at about 7:50 a.m., the FBI said. The truck drove south a short distance on I-95, taking the first available exit. It then turned north, heading back toward Georgia.

The FBI said three of the vehicles missing from Gonzalez's truck when it was located in Georgia were later found in Florida, but others haven't been found.

The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate rose to 6.3% from 6.23% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. That’s still down from one year ago, when the rate averaged 6.76%.

The increase ends a three-week slide, bringing the average rate back to where it was two weeks ago.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also moved higher this week. That average rate rose to 5.64% from 5.58% last week. A year ago, it was at 5.92%, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation.

This week’s uptick in the average rate on a 30-year home loan follows a rise in the yield on U.S. 10-year Treasury bonds, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.39% in midday trading on the bond market Thursday, up from 4.34% a week ago. The yield was at just 3.97% in late February, before the war with Iran broke out.

As recently as late February, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage had slipped just under 6% for the first time since late 2022. It's hasn’t fallen below that threshold again in the weeks since the conflict in the Middle East began, sending energy prices soaring and heightening worries about higher inflation.

Bond yields, and mortgage rates, have remained volatile as the conflict drags on.

High oil prices helped push the Federal Reserve to announce Wednesday that it’s continuing to hold off on cuts to interest rates.

The central bank doesn’t set mortgage rates, but its decisions to raise or lower its short-term rate are watched closely by bond investors and can ultimately affect the yield on 10-year Treasurys.

While lower rates could give the economy a boost, they simultaneously risk worsening inflation, which could in turn lead to higher mortgage rates.

The U.S. housing market has been in a slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes were essentially flat last year, stuck at a 30-year low. They have remained sluggish so far this year, declining in January and February and March from a year earlier.

Even with its recent swings, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage remains nearly half a percentage point below what it was a year ago.

Still, the mortgage rate uncertainty has clouded the outlook for the spring homebuying season, traditionally the busiest stretch of the year for the housing market.

A recent measure of pending U.S. home sales, which tracks when a buyer signs a contract to buy a home, showed a mixed picture of the housing market.

Pending home sales rose 1.5% compared to February, but fell 1.1% compared to March last year, the National Association of Realtors reported earlier this week. There’s usually a month or two lag between a contract signing and when the sale is finalized, which makes pending home sales a bellwether for future completed home sales.

“There are some signs of life among buyers, as pending sales have inched up ever so slightly over the past four weeks,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS. “But the fact remains that we are not going to see rates fall below 6% anytime soon, and the spring housing market is going to be much more subdued than forecasts suggested at the end of last year.”

The indictment named a number of sitting officials in Sinaloa, including members of Sheinbaum's progressive Morena party, fueling a political firestorm at a time when Sheinbaum has sought to offset U.S. pressures while appeasing her own base. Shortly after, Mexico's government said that it had seen extradition request from the U.S. for 10 citizens, without naming them.

The highest profile official implicated was Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, a top Morena official and close ally of Sheinbaum's mentor and predecessor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Sheinbaum on Thursday said that Mexican prosecutors would investigate the cases and gather their own information to “determine whether there is evidence establishing that the allegations made by U.S. authorities have a legal basis for requesting arrest warrants.”

The president previously said that she had seen no evidence to back up the U.S. allegations.

She added that she was ready to put her foot down if they find “no clear evidence” in their investigation that those charged committed a crime.

“If it is evident that the Justice Department’s charges are politically motivated, let there be absolutely no doubt: under no circumstances will we allow a foreign government to interfere in decisions that are the exclusive prerogative of the Mexican people," Sheinbaum said.

Camara was killed during last weekend's coordinated militant attack in the West African nation, the largest in over a decade.

His death, and the major setback endured by the Malian army and its Russian mercenary allies, risk creating divisions within the junta and could lead it to reconsider its partnership with Moscow, analysts say.

After two days of national mourning, a funeral ceremony for Camara was attended by junta leader Gen. Assimi Goita and broadcast live on national television. The coffin was draped in the green, yellow and red of the Malian flag while large portraits of the former defense minister lined the ceremony hall.

Camara was born in 1979 in Kati, the same garrison town near the capital Bamako where he was killed when a car bomb exploded outside his home on Saturday.

As a field officer, he was deployed to northern Mali in the late 2000s, amid a rise in rebellions by armed groups, some linked to Al-Qaeda. After graduating from a military academy, he went abroad on several training assignments, including at a military academy in Russia.

Malians first became familiar with Camara when, as a colonel, he appeared on national television in August 2020 among a group of five officers who had overthrown President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

The officers accused Keita of being propped up by France and not doing enough to contain the rampant militant attacks in the country. They pledged to provide more security.

Following the coup, the new junta turned to Russia as its new security partner, expelling French troops and U.N. peacekeepers.

Camara quickly came to play a central role in establishing Russia as Mali's main security partner. He served as defense minister under both of Mali’s successive military governments — first following the 2020 coup and then reappointed after a second coup in May 2021 which brought Goïta to power.

Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Germany-based Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said Camara was the “architect of cooperation with Russia,” proposing the deployment of Russian mercenaries in 2021 and the expulsion of the U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSMA.

Camara, who made frequent trips to Moscow, played a key role in the coups and his stewardship of the war effort made him an indispensable figure for the junta despite a deteriorating security situation, according to Laessing.

On Monday, the recently created Africa Corps — a Russian military unit that reports to the defense ministry in Moscow, estimated to have around 2,000 troops in Mali — said its fighters had withdrawn from Kidal, two days after separatists said they had taken the key northern city.

Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Morocco-based think tank, said Camara's death and a growing frustration from the population and military leadership over the Russian mercenaries inability to curb the insurgencies, could result in the junta reconsidering its partnership with Moscow.

Goita, who met with the Russian ambassador to Mali on Tuesday, “seems open to collaboration with some Western countries, such as the United States,” said Laessing.

Leer en español

The Florida Department of Corrections released Castilla, 52, from prison on Nov. 18, 2025. He engaged in his shady business even while on probation until 2045, according to the detectives’ arrest report.

“The subject falsely represented himself as a commodities broker and accepted funds ... for investment purposes,” but “instead of investing the money, he diverted the funds for his personal use,” a detective wrote, according to the report.

It wasn’t the first time he kept his legal struggles secret to manipulate his victims, according to Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office detectives.

In 2020, a detective arrested Castilla on March 18, after accusing him of operating a fraudulent Ponzi-style scheme. He was released on bond on March 19.

“While awaiting trial, he continued to deceive another victim using similar false representations of non-existent investments,” a detective wrote, according to the arrest report.

Detectives arrested Castilla on Wednesday with his defense attorney present at the M-DSO Northwest District station in Miami Lakes.

Corrections booked him at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, facing charges of second-degree grand theft and organized fraud. His bond was $5,000.

Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Andrea Wolfson is set to preside over the case.

Local 10 News Assignment Editor Mercedes Cevallos contributed to this report.

El Departamento de Correcciones de Florida liberó a Castilla, de 52 años, de prisión el 18 de noviembre de 2025. Continuó con su negocio turbio incluso mientras estaba en libertad condicional hasta 2045, según el informe de arresto de los detectives.

“El sujeto se hizo pasar falsamente por un corredor de materias primas y aceptó fondos … con fines de inversión”, pero “en lugar de invertir el dinero, desvió los fondos para su uso personal”, escribió un detective, según el informe.

No era la primera vez que ocultaba sus problemas legales para manipular a sus víctimas, según detectives de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade.

En 2020, un detective arrestó a Castilla el 18 de marzo, tras acusarlo de operar un esquema fraudulento tipo Ponzi. Fue liberado bajo fianza el 19 de marzo.

“Mientras esperaba el juicio, continuó engañando a otra víctima utilizando representaciones falsas similares de inversiones inexistentes”, escribió un detective, según el informe de arresto.

Los detectives arrestaron a Castilla el miércoles con su abogado defensor presente en la estación del Distrito Noroeste de la M-DSO en Miami Lakes.

Correcciones lo ingresó en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, enfrentando cargos de hurto mayor en segundo grado y fraude organizado. Su fianza fue de $5,000 USD.

La jueza del Tribunal de Circuito del condado Miami-Dade, Andrea Wolfson, está asignada para presidir el caso.

La editora de asignaciones de Local 10 News, Mercedes Cevallos, contribuyó a este informe.

Leer en español

Miami Gardens police took Harold St. Vil, 38, into custody on Wednesday.

According to official documents, the victim and St. Vil were at the same party on March 16 when the two got into an argument which led to a fight.

Later in the evening, several of the partygoers went to St. Vil’s home near the intersection of Northwest 190th Street and First Avenue, police said.

According to police, a witness said that when the victim arrived, he was yelling in the street, prompting St. Vil to go inside the home and grab a knife before coming back outside where he “stabbed the victim in front of witnesses.”

Authorities said the the stabbing caused injuries to the victim that required surgery and several days of hospitalization.

After St. Vil was taken into custody on Wednesday, police said he admitted to stabbing the victim, telling investigators that the victim was drunk and that “he pushed him, making his blood boil.”

As of Thursday morning, the Haitian national was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with a bond listed as “to be set.”

La policía de Miami Gardens puso bajo custodia a Harold St. Vil, de 38 años, el miércoles.

Según documentos oficiales, la víctima y St. Vil estaban en la misma fiesta el 16 de marzo cuando ambos tuvieron una discusión que derivó en una pelea.

Más tarde en la noche, varios asistentes de la fiesta fueron a la casa de St. Vil, cerca de la intersección de Northwest 190th Street y First Avenue, dijo la policía.

Según las autoridades, un testigo indicó que cuando la víctima llegó, estaba gritando en la calle, lo que llevó a St. Vil a entrar a la vivienda y tomar un cuchillo antes de salir nuevamente, donde “apuñaló a la víctima frente a testigos”.

Las autoridades dijeron que el apuñalamiento causó heridas a la víctima que requirieron cirugía y varios días de hospitalización.

Después de que St. Vil fue puesto bajo custodia el miércoles, la policía dijo que admitió haber apuñalado a la víctima, diciendo a los investigadores que la víctima estaba ebria y que “lo empujó, haciendo que le hirviera la sangre”.

Hasta la mañana del jueves, el ciudadano haitiano permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight con una fianza listada como “por determinar”.

In a three-page letter, prosecutors said they would allow the appeals court judges to consult the material. But they didn’t deposit the documentation for the defense to see in the chancery as ordered, saying it was “irrelevant” to the trial and could harm the Vatican’s interests.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the appeals court would respond. The next hearing is scheduled for June 22.

A vast inquiry

Prosecutors had acquired the material during their sprawling investigation into a 350-million-euro (around $410 million) investment by the Vatican Secretariat of State into a London property. In December 2023, after a two-year trial, a cardinal and eight other people were convicted of several financial charges. But the prosecutors’ overarching theory of a grand scheme to defraud the Holy See was thrown out.

Defense lawyers had argued from the start of the trial that their clients couldn't get a fair trial with key evidence either redacted or withheld entirely by the prosecution. They cited in particular the full interrogations of a key prosecution witness and contents of his sequestered laptops and cellphones.

Prosecutors had argued that the redactions were necessary to preserve the integrity of other, ongoing investigations and refused an initial Oct. 6, 2021 court order to turn over the documentation.

An order to turn over the evidence

Attorney Luigi Panella, defending money manager Enrico Crasso, had argued from the very start of the trial, in July 2021, that the indictment was null because prosecutors had withheld evidence from the defense.

Five years later, the appeals court on March 17 agreed with him and other defense lawyers. The court ordered the prosecutors to deposit in the chancery “all the acts and documents of the investigation in their integral version” by April 30.

In response Thursday, the prosecutors repeated their objection to the court ruling and reasoned that the material was “irrelevant” to the case. They said it “could pose a grave danger” to the public interest, if given over to the defense lawyers. Prosecutors told the judges the material remained in their offices and was available for “consultation” to the judges via USB drive.

Court calls for retrial

The appeals court had determined that the refusal of prosecutors to provide all the evidence to the defense in the first round of the trial had nullified the original indictment. The appeals court declared a partial mistrial and ordered a retrial.

Defense lawyers said the prosecutors’ response to the appeals court order amounted to contempt.

“In what country in the world can it be that the acts (of an investigation) are shown to the judge but not to the defense?” Panella said in a telephone interview. “What concept of ‘fair trial’ can this type of statement represent?”

A request to end the trial

Attorneys Cataldo Intrieri and Massimo Bassi, defending former Vatican official Fabrizio Tirabassi, said that the prosecutors’ response was unprecedented.

“We wonder how a fair judgment can be reached under these conditions,” they said in a statement that urged the court to throw out the trial entirely.

Attorneys Fabio Viglione and Maria Concetta Marzo, representing Cardinal Angelo Becciu, said that the prosecutors’ response constituted a failure to comply with the court order.

“This is precisely the selective discretion that the court has ruled out: the prosecution cannot unilaterally decide which documents the defense has the right to access,” they said. “The right to defense, the equality of the parties, and the adversarial process require full access to the documents.”

A separate blow to the Vatican

Swiss federal prosecutors shelved an investigation initiated in 2020 after the Vatican Secretariat of State accused Crasso, its former money manager, of embezzlement, fraud and disloyal administration in a complaint filed with Swiss prosecutors. The accusations paralleled those against Crasso in the Vatican tribunal.

Crasso had managed the Secretariat of State’s assets while employed at Credit Suisse Italia and Credit Suisse in Switzerland, before he launched his own company and fund that took over the Vatican accounts.

In a decision dated April 23, Swiss federal prosecutor Annina Scherrer noted that the Vatican tribunal itself had acquitted Crasso and his company and fund of the same charges definitively and shelved the Swiss case.

But in her 31-page ruling, Scherrer noted “with a certain surprise” that her requests to Vatican prosecutors to question some of the key witnesses had been refused after clearly being sent to the Vatican Secretary of State to evaluate. She said that demonstrated the Secretariat of State’s “influence” over the entire Vatican judicial system, which is supposed to be independent.

___

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.

In a humorous video posted Thursday on his Instagram account, Banksy showed snippets of how the sculpture was put up in the dead of night. The sculpture appeared to have been erected in the early hours of Wednesday on a plinth on a traffic island in Waterloo Place, near Buckingham Palace.

Before the artist's post, locals and tourists gathered to inspect the statue on the assumption it was Banksy's work because his signature was scrawled at the base of the plinth.

The statue is situated close to those of King Edward VII, who reigned between 1901 and 1910, and legendary nurse Florence Nightingale, as well as the Crimean War Memorial.

Statues are not what Banksy is primarily known for. He is far more famous for his spray-painting on buildings, with his first creations appearing in the early 1990s in his hometown of Bristol in southwest England. He has since gone global and his paintings and installations have sold for millions of dollars at auction. His street art is often targeted by thieves and vandals.

Banksy, who has never publicly revealed his identity, is part of a tradition of street artists who viewed the undercover act of posting their art in public as a subversive form of expression.

Según un informe de arresto, el robo por la fuerza ocurrió poco después de las 9:30 p.m. del 22 de abril afuera del Publix ubicado en 6876 Collins Ave.

La policía de Miami Beach dijo que la víctima informó a los agentes que acababa de salir del supermercado con el bolso de diseñador colgado del hombro cuando fue abordado por el sospechoso, posteriormente identificado como David Bush, quien preguntó por comprarlo.

Bush, quien actualmente se encuentra sin hogar, comenzó a golpear a la víctima en el rostro, provocando que cayera al suelo, dijeron las autoridades.

Según el informe, mientras la víctima estaba en el suelo, Bush le arrebató el bolso de la mano y huyó del lugar en un scooter motorizado.

La víctima dijo a los agentes que el bolso contenía dos cinturones Louis Vuitton y alrededor de $500 USD en efectivo.

De acuerdo con el informe, los detectives obtuvieron video de vigilancia de Publix, el cual captó el robo.

Eventualmente lograron identificar a Bush como el sospechoso debido a varios encuentros previos con él en el área de North Beach, dijeron las autoridades.

La víctima también lo identificó como el autor del robo en una rueda de reconocimiento fotográfica.

Bush fue localizado por la policía el miércoles en la cuadra 1900 de West Bay Drive y fue puesto bajo custodia.

Enfrenta cargos de robo por la fuerza y posesión de arma de fuego por un delincuente convicto.

Hasta la mañana del jueves, Bush permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight. Los registros en línea indicaban que su fianza estaba “por determinar”.

Leer en español

According to an arrest report, the strongarm robbery occurred shortly after 9:30 p.m. on April 22 outside the Publix at 6876 Collins Ave.

Miami Beach police said the victim told officers that he had just exited the supermarket while carrying the designer bag around his shoulder when he was approached by the suspect, later identified as David Bush, who inquired about purchasing it.

Bush, who is currently homeless, then began to punch the victim in the face, causing the victim to fall to the ground, authorities said.

According to the report, as the victim was on the ground, Bush snatched the bag from his hand and fled the scene on a motorized scooter.

The victim told officers that the bag contained two Louis Vuitton belts and about $500 in cash.

According to the report, detectives obtained surveillance video from Publix, which captured the robbery.

They were eventually able to identify Bush as the suspect due to several past encounters with him in the North Beach area, authorities said.

The victim also identified him as the robber in a photo-lineup.

Bush was found by police Wednesday in the 1900 block of West Bay Drive and was taken into custody.

He faces charges of strongarm robbery and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

As of Thursday morning, Bush was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Online jail records listed his bond as “to be set.”

Leer en español

It happened at around 8:15 p.m. at the supermarket chain’s location at 6921 W. Broward Blvd., within the Plantation Towne Square shopping center.

Investigators said “one suspect pulled out a handgun, struck one of the victims in the back of the head with it and stole the victim’s cellphone,” while a “second victim reported being bitten, scratched and punched by another suspect.”

Police said after pulling over the suspects’ vehicle, they arrested Khamal J. Powell, 28, on charges of armed robbery and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, as well as an identity theft warrant out of Brevard County.

They also arrested Khalil Sean Powell, 29, on two battery charges.

Police didn’t immediately say whether or how the two men were related.

Khalil Powell had been booked into the Broward Main Jail on Wednesday. Khamal Powell did not appear in Broward jail records.

En su conferencia matutina Sheinbaum indicó que si la Fiscalía General recibe “pruebas contundentes e irrefutables” o si en su investigación encuentra elementos constitutivos de un delito “deberá proceder conforme a derecho bajo nuestra jurisdicción” para tramitar la detención y extradición del gobernador y de otros nueve funcionarios mexicanos.

Pero seguidamente advirtió que “si no existen pruebas claras es evidente que el objetivo de estas imputaciones por parte del Departamento de Justicia es político”.

“Debe quedar sumamente claro: bajo ningún motivo vamos a permitir la intromisión o injerencia de un gobierno extranjero en las decisiones que le competen exclusivamente al pueblo de México”, afirmó la mandataria.

El proceso iniciado en Nueva York contra el gobernador de Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya —el funcionario de mayor rango entre los acusados— por presuntos vínculos con el narcotráfico ha desatado nuevas fricciones entre México y la administración de Donald Trump.

El vínculo bilateral ha pasado por varios momentos álgidos en los últimos meses por las presiones de Washington contra los cárteles mexicanos y la política arancelaria y más recientemente por la muerte de dos agentes de la CIA en un accidente en el estado de Chihuahua.

Rocha Moya y los otros nueve funcionarios mexicanos —activos y retirados— fueron señalados de tráfico de drogas y tenencia ilícita de armas en una acusación formal que se hizo pública la víspera en Nueva York y en la cual se afirma que colaboraron en el envío masivo de estupefacientes ilícitos a Estados Unidos.

Además de Rocha Moya, que gobierna Sinaloa desde 2021, también fue acusado el alcalde de la capital de ese estado y un senador del partido gobernante Morena. Otros funcionarios ocupaban cargos no vinculados con ningún partido.

Según la fiscalía estadounidense los acusados ayudaron al Cártel de Sinaloa a introducir fentanilo, heroína, cocaína y metanfetamina a Estados Unidos. Dicho cártel es uno de los ocho grupos delictivos latinoamericanos a los que Estados Unidos designó como organización terrorista.

El gobernador rechazó de forma categórica las imputaciones en su contra y dijo el miércoles en su cuenta en la red social X que “carecen de veracidad y fundamento alguno”.

Rocha Moya, que fue un firme aliado del expresidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024) y de su política de no confrontación directa con los cárteles, sostuvo que no es sólo un ataque contra su persona sino contra el movimiento político oficialista Morena y sus líderes y se inscribe en “una perversa estrategia para violentar el orden constitucional” y la soberanía de México.

Sheinbaum informó que conversó la víspera con el gobernador de Sinaloa y le manifestó que "si no hay nada, pues no hay nada que temer”.

Al insistir en que debe haber “pruebas contundentes”, la mandataria recordó el proceso del exsecretario de Defensa, general Salvador Cienfuegos, quien fue detenido temporalmente en Estados Unidos en 2020 acusado de participar en una red de tráfico de drogas y posteriormente se le retiraron los cargos y fue enviado a México, donde quedó en libertad.

Tras el anuncio del proceso contra los diez funcionarios, la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores de México indicó en un comunicado que el martes en la tarde había recibido solicitudes de extradición de diversas personas de parte de Estados Unidos, pero no ofreció detalles.

Agregó que la documentación recibida “no cuenta con elementos de prueba para poder determinar la responsabilidad de las personas de las cuales se solicita la detención provisional con fines de extradición”.

Por su parte, el vicefiscal general Ulises Lara dijo en un video que se difundió el martes que la cancillería notificó a la Fiscalía General de las solicitudes y agregó que se revisará e investigará la información para establecer “si existen los elementos probatorios necesarios para tal fin”.

Lara recordó que sólo se puede aprobar la extradición “si se determina que las pruebas son suficientes conforme a las leyes de la parte requerida”, pero admitió que la solicitud de Washington “no se acompaña de elementos probatorios suficientes que aporten evidencias contundentes respecto de los hechos narrados”.

Dijo también que para enjuiciar a un funcionario elegido por el voto popular se requiere un juicio político para retirarle la inmunidad.

The appeal filed Wednesday was a delayed response to a March 16 court order that blocked the decision by President Donald Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, to end broad recommendations for all children to be vaccinated against flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis and RSV, a respiratory virus.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy's order also stopped a meeting of a Kennedy-appointed vaccine advisory committee.

The stay continues while the appeal is considered.

The government's one-sentence filing did not say why the block should be lifted. U.S. health officials did not immediately comment on the filing, or respond to a question about why they waited six weeks to file an appeal.

The appeal is the latest development in a lawsuit filed in July by the American Academy of Pediatrics and some other medical groups. The lawsuit in federal court in Boston originally focused on Kennedy’s decision to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccinations for most children and pregnant women.

The lawsuit was updated as Kennedy took more steps that alarmed medical societies, causing the plaintiffs to ask Murphy to take steps to address those policy changes too.

For example, the plaintiffs amended the lawsuit to stop the scaling back of the nation’s childhood vaccination schedule. They also asked the court to look at Kennedy’s actions concerning the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises public health officials on what vaccines to recommend to doctors and patients.

Kennedy, a leading anti-vaccine activist before becoming the nation’s top health official, fired the entire 17-member panel last year and replaced it with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices.

Murphy, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden, said Kennedy’s reconstitution of ACIP likely violated federal law. The judge ordered the appointments — and all decisions made by the reformulated committee — put on hold.

Earlier this month, the Republican administration updated the committee's charter to broadens qualifications for panel members in ways that would allow the inclusion of Kennedy allies. That move did not resolve the legal challenge, according to Richard Hughes IV, a lawyer representing the pediatrics group.

Hughes this week said he was disappointed that the government decided to appeal but said he expected to prevail. He pledged to bring an end to Kennedy's “steady destruction of vaccine policy and public health.”

___

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.

Ocurrió alrededor de las 8:15 p.m. en la ubicación de la cadena de supermercados en 6921 W. Broward Blvd., dentro del centro comercial Plantation Towne Square.

Los investigadores dijeron que “un sospechoso sacó un arma de fuego, golpeó a una de las víctimas en la parte posterior de la cabeza con ella y robó el teléfono celular de la víctima”, mientras que una “segunda víctima reportó haber sido mordida, arañada y golpeada por otro sospechoso”.

La policía dijo que tras detener el vehículo de los sospechosos, arrestaron a Khamal J. Powell, de 28 años, por cargos de robo a mano armada y agresión agravada con un arma mortal, así como por una orden por robo de identidad del condado Brevard.

También arrestaron a Khalil Sean Powell, de 29 años, por dos cargos de agresión.

La policía no indicó de inmediato si o cómo los dos hombres estaban relacionados.

Khalil Powell fue ingresado en la cárcel principal de Broward el miércoles. Khamal Powell no aparecía en los registros carcelarios de Broward.

Teachers are using it to create lesson plans and grade papers. Marketing professionals are harnessing it to work a room and learn about the needs of potential clients. Product managers are asking AI to serve as an interpreter when technical conversations went over their heads in meetings.

Some people who employ AI tools are concerned that widespread use of the technology could erode critical thinking skills, especially among children. They also caution that AI-assisted work needs to be checked carefully because the tools have been known to hallucinate and make mistakes.

Here are some ways that people with a range of jobs use artificial intelligence to save time and generate ideas.

Unpacking jargon

One creative way Kristin Moore, a technical product manager at PERQ, a digital marketing platform for property management companies, uses AI is to help ensure she understands her colleagues’ technically advanced conversations. If she’s in a meeting and engineers talk through a topic in a way that she doesn't grasp, she can upload the recorded conversation through Claude, AI assistant built by Anthropic, and ask it to summarize what she needs to do to follow up.

“It picks up on all of that terminology that I don’t understand, and it can simplify it into something that I can consume,” Moore said.

She also asks the AI tool to read through emails, support tickets, recorded meetings and conversations to determine what her clients would like her company to build.

“It’s definitely freed up hours and hours of my week,” Moore said.

Grading papers

Kyle Weimar, an elementary school teacher for Charter Schools USA, serves as coordinator of a Florida school’s multi-tiered support system, a position that involves creating plans to help children performing at the bottom 20% of the student population.

In that role, he uploads test scores, report cards and health information into his school district's AI tool. Then he asks it before meetings to help brainstorm what the district can do to help each child.

Weimar has also used AI to grade papers. He says he can upload 100 to an AI agent, give it a scoring guide, and let it grade and give students instant feedback. “I can do that in 30 minutes, whereas it would have taken me a week before,” he said.

Teachers are really overwhelmed with work, “so any tools that we can use to make that a little bit more viable, we’re really excited about using,” Weimar said.

Working a room

Ashley Smith, head of marketing at HireQuest, a staffing and recruiting company with about 400 franchises, used Claude to build a dashboard that analyzes website traffic data and social media trends. It reports what the HireQuest’s followers are reacting to or ignoring, and Smith uses the information to inform franchisees about how to win more business, she said.

When members of her sales team attended a huge manufacturing trade show recently, she asked them to take screenshots of the companies they wanted to pursue. She uploaded the images to an AI platform and prompted it to build a list including company names and, based on press releases and stock reports, insights on what their staffing needs might be over the next 18 to 24 months.

The hours Smith said she saved by handing off that research task to AI let her spend more one-on-one time with her franchisees.

“AI has not replaced anything. It’s only expanded what we’re able to offer to our franchisees,” Smith said. “It allows us to do things that, candidly, we just weren’t able to deliver even as short as two years ago.”

Rebr

anding the Brawny paper towel man

A design leader at Georgia Pacific, the pulp and paper company that makes Dixie cups, Quilted Northern toilet paper and other consumer products, says he uses AI to create quick visuals. When brainstorming how to modernize the Brawny paper towel brand, for example, Andrew Markle said his team asked AI to depict what the man shown on their packaging would look like with a longer or shorter beard.

Using AI helped people on the team review ideas more quickly, and the tool also offered predictions for how target consumers might respond, Markle said.

“It’s not replacing the creative eye of what’s good and what’s appropriate for our business,” Markle said. “Ultimately, we knew we were going to partner with our ad agency. We have an illustrator that’s going to do the final vision.”

Creating quizzes to help learn material

Kenneth Lynch, a special education coach in Tulsa, Oklahoma, teaches developmentally disabled students life skills to help them live independently. He uses AI to develop quizzes as learning materials. For example, when he was working with a student who wanted to pursue automotive work, Lynch uploaded a book of mechanical instructions to an AI tool that generated quizzes for each chapter.

He is more reluctant to trust AI when it comes to soliciting guidance on psychological conditions. “When I look up different types of diagnosis and try to connect comorbid diagnoses together, it really struggles with understanding how those fit together,” Lynch said.

Preparing for meetings and drafting emails

Ravi Pendse, the University of Michigan's chief information officer, has used AI to prepare for meetings by asking the tool to predict what questions he might get asked.

“It has made me a lot more efficient,” Pendse said. “It gives me more time to focus on my own mental health and wellness.”

The University of Michigan also created an AI tutor that professors can tailor to help students with coursework material around-the-clock, he said. But Pendse is mindful to use AI responsibly.

“We all should be thinking about how we ensure that AI does not erode our critical thinking skills, especially those of our children,” Pendse said. “As we grew up, we learned from our mistakes. We wrote bad papers, and we got better.”

One way that Bob Jones, the university's assistant vice president of emerging technology and support services, uses AI is making sure his emails are succinct enough for the intended audience.

“If I'm communicating about a particularly sticky topic, I want to make sure that I’m neutral and thoughtful,” Jones said. “So the idea of really assessing how I’m presenting myself, AI is really good at that.”

Understanding customer needs

The marketing director at SumnerOne, a company that delivers printers, copiers, and IT services, asks her AI tool to help create email campaigns, social media posts and slide decks. Natalie Blythe said she also uses it to help understand her ideal customers.

For example, when aiming to sell printing services to universities, she asked chatGPT, an AI tool created by OpenAI, to create a probable demographic profile of an admissions director at a university. Then she asked it to predict what the director's top five problems might be and to identify ways her company's products could help solve them.

“When it first started up, I was in the camp of, ‘Oh my God, this is the end for us,'” Blythe said about the early days of AI. But rather than just fear it, she dug in and started learning.

“The efficiencies gained out of it have been tremendous," she said.

__

Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

Leer en español

Authorities identified the suspect as Colson Kelvin Virgil, of Homestead.

Homestead police said officers responded around 12:15 p.m. to the 500 block of College Terrace to assist a detective investigating a report of an individual possibly selling narcotics near the campus.

Investigators said the responding detective located marijuana on Virgil.

As the detective picked up Virgil’s backpack, police said Virgil spontaneously stated there was a gun inside.

Officers then read Virgil his Miranda rights and he agreed to speak with investigators, according to the report. Police said Virgil acknowledged he was on school grounds at the time.

A school security official told police he called 911 after witnessing Virgil in possession of marijuana and said Virgil attends the college, the report states.

Police said Virgil was arrested and transported to the Homestead Police Department. Authorities said the gun will be swabbed for DNA and submitted to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office crime lab. They also confirmed that the marijuana was impounded.

Jail records show Virgil faces one count each of possession of a firearm on school property and possession of cannabis under 20 grams.

As of Wednesday, he was being held at the Metrowest Detention Center, where his bond was listed as “to be set.”

The Rev. Adam Hamilton enters the race as a potentially formidable candidate, though it appears likely that at least a few of the eight other, lesser-known Democrats who previously launched campaigns would remain in the Aug. 4 primary race. The winner will face incumbent Republican Roger Marshall, who aligned himself closely with President Donald Trump in his first run for the Senate in 2020.

Hamilton, 61, has a national following among mainline Protestants, and he’s built his Church of the Resurrection over the past 35 years in the Kansas City area with about 22,000 members — giving him a base from which to tap volunteers and donors.

Hamilton weighed an independent run first

He had considered running as an independent candidate, telling his congregation that he could bridge partisan divides in a highly polarized political climate. However, many Democrats believed that would simply split the anti-Marshall vote, giving Marshall a second term.

“Every week, it seemed there was another news story in the last year where I would find myself shaking my head and thinking, we have to do better,” the self-described fifth-generation Kansan said.

While Democrats and Republicans have traded off the Kansas governor’s office for the past 60 years, Republicans haven’t lost a U.S. Senate race in the state since 1932. Democrats gave Marshall a vigorous challenge in 2020, but he still prevailed by more than 11 percentage points, even as Democrat Joe Biden ousted Trump and his party won control of both houses of Congress.

In some ways, Hamilton’s candidacy would be similar to that of the Democratic nominee in Texas, state Rep. James Talarico, a Presbyterian minister in training who speaks often of his faith and how it guides his positions. However, Hamilton is a generation older.

Hamilton has been registered as both a Democrat and a Republican previously, according to voter records, but switched to unaffiliated in February. He has registered as a Democrat again, his campaign said Thursday.

Run greeted with skepticism on both sides

The Kansas Republican Party quickly signaled that it plans to portray Hamilton as liberal and out of step with the state, however he identifies himself.

“His so-called ‘independent’ exploration was little more than a political marketing strategy to mask a radical left agenda,” its executive director, Rob Fillion, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, two Democratic primary opponents were skeptical of Hamilton's return to their party.

A spokesman for state Sen. Patrick Schmidt of Topeka noted that Hamilton registered as a Republican for the August 2020 primary and argued that the pastor was not a Democrat “when it counted most.”

Noah Taylor, a Wichita-area veteran who served in Afghanistan, said Hamilton's return was “not a conversion.”

"That's a calculation,” he said.

Hamilton started massive church from nothing

But other Democrats — and Marshall — must reckon with Hamilton's ability to attract followers and raise money.

Hamilton was a graduate of Oral University in Tulsa and then Southern Methodist University in Dallas when his denomination tapped him at age 25 to start a church in suburban Kansas City for nonchurchgoers.

Worshippers initially met in the small chapel of a local funeral home and now gather at nine campuses. The main one, on 76 acres in an affluent suburb, resembles a small college. The Christmas Eve offering — devoted to mission work — sometimes tops $2 million.

Hamilton also has written and published dozens of books, and his video-based lessons are popular for Sunday school classes in churches across the country. In 2013, he preached at the National Prayer Service.

He's running in what promises to be a challenging midterm election year for Republicans. Polling shows most Americans believe the U.S. military action against Iran has gone too far and voters are increasingly worried about what they see as Trump’s failure to address affordability issues.

Hamilton’s home of Johnson County is the state’s most populous, with 643,000 people, more than one in every five Kansas residents. Once overwhelming Republican, it has grown increasingly blue, voting against Trump in the last two presidential elections.

The county is a key reason why a state with an overwhelmingly GOP Legislature has a Democratic governor.

Hamilton's views shaped through decades as a pastor

How voters view Hamilton’s politics is a key question, because he’ll need to win over disaffected Republicans as well as unaffiliated voters — the formula for Democrat Laura Kelly’s successful bid for governor in 2018 and narrow reelection win in 2022.

Hamilton’s congregation is a nearly equal mix of Republicans, Democrats and Independents, and he describes himself as “a liberal conservative and a conservative liberal.”

Although Hamilton hasn’t run for public office before, he isn’t a blank slate, with decades of sermons, and more recently podcasts and Facebook videos.

Following a surge of federal law enforcement in Minneapolis, for instance, Hamilton cited an Old Testament verse that commands Israelites to treat foreigners with love and fairness.

On abortion, the father of two married to his high school sweetheart said during the final stop of a listening tour earlier this month that he voted in 2022 against a state constitutional amendment that would have cleared the way for tougher abortion restrictions or a ban in Kansas.

He said lawmakers should not be “the ethicists and the spiritual guides” for women and that he has counseled rape victims. However, he also said his mother considered an abortion when she got pregnant with him as a teenager.

“I feel both of these things at the same time,” he said.

But Taylor said Hamilton “couldn't decide he was pro-choice until last week,” and Democratic state Rep. Alexis Simmons, of Topeka, focused on abortion in a Facebook post and reacted to Hamilton's announcement with, “Why would we go backwards?”

“Sorry but no," she posted. "It’s 2026.”

___ Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.

Las autoridades identificaron al sospechoso como Colson Kelvin Virgil, de Homestead.

La policía de Homestead dijo que los agentes respondieron alrededor de las 12:15 p.m. a la cuadra 500 de College Terrace para asistir a un detective que investigaba un reporte de un individuo que posiblemente vendía narcóticos cerca del campus.

Los investigadores dijeron que el detective que respondió encontró marihuana en poder de Virgil.

Cuando el detective recogió la mochila de Virgil, la policía dijo que Virgil declaró espontáneamente que había un arma dentro.

Luego, los agentes le leyeron sus derechos Miranda a Virgil y él aceptó hablar con los investigadores, según el informe. La policía dijo que Virgil reconoció que se encontraba en terrenos escolares en ese momento.

Un oficial de seguridad escolar dijo a la policía que llamó al 911 después de ver a Virgil en posesión de marihuana y señaló que Virgil asiste a la universidad, según el informe.

La policía dijo que Virgil fue arrestado y trasladado al Departamento de Policía de Homestead. Las autoridades dijeron que el arma será sometida a pruebas de ADN y enviada al laboratorio criminalístico de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade. También confirmaron que la marihuana fue incautada.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Virgil enfrenta un cargo por posesión de arma de fuego en propiedad escolar y un cargo por posesión de cannabis de menos de 20 gramos.

Hasta el miércoles, permanecía detenido en el Centro de Detención Metrowest, donde su fianza figuraba como “por determinar”.

But beneath these panels is lush pasture instead of gravel, enjoyed by a small herd of cattle that spends its days munching grass and resting in the shade.

Silicon Ranch, which owns the 40-acre farm in Christiana, outside of Nashville, believes cattle-grazing is the next frontier in so-called agrivoltaics, which mostly has involved growing crops or grazing sheep beneath the panels.

The solar company debuted the project this week and will spend the next year working to demonstrate to farmers that much larger cattle also can thrive at solar sites. If successful, advocates say, that could jump-start new projects to meet the soaring electricity demand driven by rapidly expanding data centers — without contributing climate-warming carbon emissions — and help cattle producers hold onto their land and livelihoods.

“Solar is one of the most powerful tools we have for cutting emissions and ... is cost-competitive with fossil fuels,” said Taylor Bacon, a doctoral student at Colorado State University who has studied ecological outcomes at solar grazing sites. “I think we’re starting to see enough research that, when you do it well, the land use can be more of an opportunity than a downside."

Making room for cattle

Though there are far more cattle than sheep in the U.S., their size poses challenges at solar sites, where both expensive equipment and the animals, which can weigh more than half a ton, must be protected.

Solar panels often pivot to near-vertical angles to capture the sun’s rays, leaving little room underneath for cattle; simply raising the panels is cost-prohibitive because of the amount of steel required. So Silicon Ranch raised the panels a little but also developed software that workers activate to turn the panels close to horizontal when cattle are grazing, giving them room to wander, said Nick de Vries, the company's chief technology officer.

Workers rotate the cattle — currently 10 cows and their calves — between paddocks every few days so panels on the ungrazed portion of the site operate normally, generating a supply of roughly 5 megawatts of electricity for Middle Tennessee Electric, a rural electric co-op.

The hope is that the technology eventually will be adopted more broadly, company officials said.

“We know it works," said de Vries. "But you need to prove it to other people."

What are the benefits for farmers?

For solar companies, agricultural land is generally easier to develop than other types of sites. But many farmers — and communities — will need to be convinced that solar grazing will benefit them because of past practices that destroyed topsoil and took land out of production permanently.

"For many agricultural stakeholders, it is offensive to see high-quality farmland getting graded and piled when that’s a farm family’s legacy,” said Ethan Winter, national smart solar director at American Farmland Trust.

But he sees potential for solar grazing partnerships to help farmers keep their land in production and earn extra income at a time when it's increasingly difficult to earn money farming and ranching alone.

“Agriculture is in a really tough spot right now" including because of trade wars, climate extremes, increased costs and pressure to sell, Winter said. "So maybe this is our moment where we can be helping states meet their energy needs and do that in a way that’s providing new opportunities for farmers.”

Silicon Ranch this year will have almost 15,000 acres of pasture being grazed — mostly by sheep — since launching five years ago, and is working with ranchers, farmers, university researchers and others to adopt best-practices for keeping soils and animals healthy.

What they're finding is that pasture beneath solar panels retains more moisture, making it more drought tolerant, said Anna Clare Monlezun, a rancher and rangeland ecosystem scientist who's working on the Tennessee project. Grazing in the shade leaves animals less prone to heat stress, enabling them to gain more weight and drink less water.

“There are more win-wins than trade-offs,” she said.

Sheep already have proven to be a good fit for solar sites, with more than 130,000 acres grazed as of 2024, a number that certainly has grown, said Kevin Richardson, senior director of the American Solar Grazing Association.

But for cattle, the industry still has to overcome site-design challenges and be able to scale up operations while also developing appropriate economic incentives for ranchers, Richardson said.

“Once we have that, I think we’ll see more solar sites using cattle or multi-species grazing with sheep and cattle,” he said.

Farmers often earn about $1,000 an acre by leasing their land for solar, easily 10 times more than what they historically earned through traditional agriculture, said Winter, from the Farmland Trust. That can help them to diversify operations, pay down debt and buy more land.

“I think you’ll start to hear more interest from farmers who are up against a serious financial wall right now and looking for income diversification opportunities that keep land in production,” Winter said. “We need and want to grow America’s energy capacity but not at the expense of our best farmland or at the expense of agricultural livelihoods.”

___

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

It's the third time Jessica Mann has had to answer his lawyers' questions in a New York court. But different attorneys are now defending the ex-studio boss whose downfall powered the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct. The first several hours of back-and-forth were tense but didn't hit the emotional boiling points of Mann's prior cross-examinations.

Weinstein lawyer Teny Geragos began questioning Mann on Wednesday by seizing on her complicated feelings about Weinstein during a knotty relationship that involved some consensual sexual encounters.

Under prosecutors' questioning earlier, Mann said that despite the alleged rape, she loved “a part of him” because he could be kind and encouraging about her personal struggles and professional dreams, and that the two had “some pretty human moments” together.

“What did he do for you that made parts of you really love him?” Geragos asked.

“It was the validation,” Mann said.

When Geragos went on to ask about the “human moments," Mann said she once slapped Weinstein, thinking he was inviting it as sex play, but that he later told her, “Jess, that's not you.”

“So when you were talking about the validation that you received … and the human moments that you shared with Harvey, it was that you slapped him?” Geragos asked.

Mann said she instead was referring to his remark that “that's not you.”

Court ended for the day soon afterward. As it resumed Thursday, Geragos quizzed Mann about her early interactions with Weinstein.

Weinstein, 73, is on trial for the third time on a charge accusing him of raping Mann in a New York hotel in March 2013. He was initially convicted in 2020, but an appeals court overturned that verdict. During his first retrial, the jury couldn't reach a decision on the rape charge.

Mann also alleges that Weinstein raped her again in Beverly Hills, California, in late 2013 or early 2014. He has never been charged with any crime related to that allegation.

“He just treated me like he owned me,” she told jurors this week.

Mann, 40, acknowledges that she accepted his sexual advances at times but said the two rapes happened as she protested and pleaded with him to stop.

Weinstein's lawyers maintain that everything that happened between the two was consensual and part of a supportive, caring relationship. They say Mann benefited from associating with an Oscar-winning producer, only later accusing him amid the #MeToo outcry of 2017 and 2018.

Mann and Weinstein met at a Los Angeles-area party around early 2013. At the time, she was a financially struggling hairstylist and actor aspiring to make it big in show business.

The then-married Weinstein invited her to a bookstore, where he bought her volumes about movies. Not long afterward, he took her to dinner at a hotel in Beverly Hills.

“From your perspective in 2013, going to dinner with another man who’s older than you can imply certain ideas, like a date, correct?” Geragos asked.

Mann said she hadn’t thought of it as a date. His assistant scheduled the dinner, so it seemed “somewhat professional,” she explained.

After the meal, Weinstein asked her up to his hotel suite, where Mann testified that he pressed her to take off her shirt and let him massage her. She said she instead rubbed his back to “de-escalate” the situation.

Geragos suggested Mann simply could have left the room.

On another occasion, Mann said, Weinstein pulled her into a hotel suite bedroom and made advances she initially resisted, before submitting to oral sex because he otherwise wouldn't let her leave.

Geragos noted, through questions, that although Mann said the encounter shocked and dismayed her, she didn't call out for help from a friend who she said was in the suite's sitting area throughout.

The alleged rape happened weeks later.

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

Former Florida walk-on Olivier Rioux, a 7-foot-9 center from Canada and one of the most recognizable student-athletes in North America, announced Thursday he has signed with UC Irvine. The school in Southern California announced his arrival hours earlier.

“Olivier is a high-character young man whose presence will elevate our team, our university, and our community," UC Irvine coach Russell Turner said in a statement. "He embodies the values that have defined our success at UC Irvine.

"We’ve built a strong relationship with Olivier and his family over the years, dating back to his high school recruitment, and that familiarity gives us tremendous belief in who he is both on and off the court. Olivier’s unique skill set and physical presence align perfectly with the tradition of dominant front court players in our program. We believe he will have an immediate impact and continue to grow within our system, and we are thrilled to have him join the Anteater family.”

Rioux played sparingly in two years with the Gators, redshirting as a true freshman during the team’s national championship season and then getting on the court in mop-up duty this past season. He played 15 total minutes, finishing with seven points, six rebounds and an assist.

He set a Guinness World Record as the world’s tallest teen before he stepped foot on campus. Now 20, he’s looking for a chance to play more as a third-year sophomore.

Rioux became the tallest person to ever play college basketball when he made his debut in a 104-64 victory over North Florida last November. He scored three games later, making a free throw after getting fouled. He also recorded his first rebound.

Rioux is 2 inches (5 centimeters) taller than former NBA giants Gheorghe Muresan and Manute Bol, and 3 inches taller than popular big men Yao Ming, Tacko Fall and Shawn Bradley.

Florida coach Todd Golden gave Rioux the option of playing sparingly as a true freshman or taking a redshirt season and working on his game. Rioux chose the latter. Nonetheless, he was a walking viral video, from riding his custom-made bike on campus, to ducking under every doorway, to cutting down nets while standing flat-footed during Florida’s NCAA Tournament run.

Golden made it clear before last season that Rioux would only play late in blowouts, the result of having all four frontcourt players returning. But Rioux doubled down on wanting to be at Florida and welcomed the challenge of playing against Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu and Micah Handlogten in practice and behind them in games.

Now he will try to get on the court more often in Southern California.

UC Irvine won the Big West regular-season title last season but lost in the conference tournament and ended up in the NIT.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

Cole Thomas Allen did not enter a plea during his brief appearance in federal court days after authorities say he ran through a magnetometer at the Washington Hilton while holding a long gun and disrupted one of the highest-profile annual events in the nation’s capital.

Allen was injured during Saturday night's attack but was not shot. A Secret Service officer was shot but was wearing a bullet-resistant vest and survived, officials say. Prosecutors have said they believe Allen fired his shotgun at least once and that a Secret Service agent fired five shots. They have not publicly confirmed that it was Allen’s bullet that struck the agent’s vest.

In court papers pressing for Allen's continued detention, prosecutors wrote Wednesday that Allen took a picture of himself in his hotel room just minutes before the incident, and that he was outfitted with an ammunition bag, a shoulder gun holster and a sheathed knife. In a message that authorities say sheds light on his motive, Allen referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” and alluded obliquely to grievances over a range of Trump administration actions.

Allen’s lawyers agreed during the brief hearing before U.S. Magistrate Moxila Upadhyaya to keep their client behind bars for now after initially arguing in court papers that Allen should be released.

In a court filing Wednesday, the defense wrote that the government’s case is “based upon inferences drawn about Mr. Allen’s intent that raise more questions than answers" and noted that Allen’s writings never mentioned Trump by name. The defense left the door open to pressing in the future for Allen’s release before trial.

“The government’s evidence of the charged offense –- the attempted assassination of the president –- is thus built entirely upon speculation, even under the most generous reading of its theory,” defense lawyers wrote.

Allen's lawyers alleged that some of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's statements “indicate that the recovered ballistics evidence is inconsistent with aspects of the government’s theory, evidence collected by the government and/or statements made by witnesses.”

The Justice Department, in response, said the evidence shows Allen fired his shotgun at least once in the Secret Service agent's direction. Investigators recovered at least one fragment at the crime scene that is consistent with a buckshot pellet, prosecutors wrote.

"The government is aware of no physical evidence, digital video evidence, or witness statements that are inconsistent with the theory that your client fired his shotgun in the direction" of the officer or that the officer "was indeed shot once in the chest while wearing a ballistic vest," prosecutors wrote.

Allen was charged on Monday with that crime, as well as two additional firearms counts, including discharging a weapon during a crime of violence. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of the assassination count alone.

Allen, 31, is from Torrance, California. He is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.

Sanford, 65, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he was shuttering his campaign just a month after he launched it, a decision inspired by his desire to focus on combating the national debt and deficit.

“What I hope to do is to indeed build a grassroots organization — start small, but I have a fair size circle of friends and folks with whom I have some degree of influence and contacts,” Sanford told the AP, also noting that, with his first grandchild on the way, he realized as he mounted this campaign that he wanted to be able to spend more time with his family.

The pivot comes after Sanford mounted a bid to reclaim his former seat in South Carolina's 1st District. He entered a primary on the last day of candidate filing, when the race already was chock full of other Republican candidates, many of whom had spent months laying the groundwork for their campaigns.

That territory was familiar to Sanford. An outsider with almost no name recognition when he launched his first congressional campaign for the 1994 contest, the real estate investor finished second in the GOP primary before winning the runoff. He served for six years before his outside run at governor, again pushing his way through a crowded primary, then knocking off the last Democrat to hold the office.

Sanford’s eight years as governor were overshadowed by the Appalachian Trail, which became shorthand for his disappearance to go to Argentina to see his lover. Sanford’s wife, family and staff didn’t know where he was.

Beating back both an impeachment inquiry and calls to resign, Sanford held fast, leaving office on his own terms. His wife at the time, Jenny Sanford, moved out of the governor’s mansion in Columbia, relocated with their four sons into the family’s beachfront home near Charleston and later sued him for divorce.

In a 2013 special election, Sanford won back his old congressional seat, beating 15 other candidates in a primary and runoff. He won two more full terms before falling in 2018 to a GOP challenger who had President Donald Trump’s backing.

A year after his primary loss, Sanford reemerged again, launching a long-shot primary challenge to Trump and offering his determination to bring fiscal restraint into the national conversation as a counterpoint to what he described as Trump’s incendiary rhetoric. Just ahead of the New Hampshire primary, Sanford dropped out of the contest.

Sanford, who had appeared at county GOP meetings and candidate forums, said he had been getting "a warm reception” on his recent campaign. But with the experience of knowing that in Congress he wouldn't be able to singularly focus on debt-related issues, he said he felt he would have more impact from the outside.

“There are no guarantees with life, but I think that this has a better chance of elevating that issue, if I worked earnestly on it, than I was going to with the course that I was on with the campaign," Sanford said.

In setting up the new organization, which he said would be centered in South Carolina, Sanford will be able to utilize the more than $1.3 million that had remained in his federal account since he left Congress in 2019. Depleting those resources, Sanford said, is a signal he’s moving away from running for office himself.

But is he done with politics forever? Maybe — and maybe not.

“Look, if there’s ever a guy who would say, ‘Never say never,’ it’s me,” Sanford said. “But I think, realistically, yeah, and it’s recognition of that being the case."

Sanford's decision was first reported by The Post and Courier of Charleston.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.

Leer en español

A group of retired firefighters says the image is concerning and is now speaking out about the hiring process.

“We knew firsthand what the department can and cannot do” said William D.C. Clark, a former Miami-Dade Fire Rescue firefighter. “We spoke directly to the fire chief and voiced our concerns. The mayor agreed. There was a lot more work to be done.”

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava acknowledged the concerns.

“We’re fully committed, and it’s a very productive conversation that we’re having,” Levine Cava said.

The department says Recruit Class 159 was selected from an expiring eligibility list, which significantly limited who could be hired.

Officials add that national recruiting challenges, a smaller applicant pool and urgent staffing needs made this class an outlier -- not a reflection of the department’s overall commitment to diversity.

“What came away from this meeting was just an ultra-positive experience -- a more strong and shared vision and partnership in the recruiting process so we can accomplish the goals that both sides wanted to get,” said Charles Francois, a captain with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.

MDFR tells Local 10 News that a new class is underway and provided a breakdown of the 34 recruits.

Nine are Black, 20 are Hispanic and five are white. There is no date set for graduation yet.

Leer en español

Daytona Beach police said they pulled over a car that was involved in a shooting on Saturday, but it quickly turned into a chaotic chase.

Officers started to question the driver, identified as Cory Acree, when they noticed a small baggie between the door and the driver’s seat, authorities said.

Police said the officer picked up the bag and asked Acree to get out of the car, and that’s when he took off.

Officers were able to find Arcee’s young daughter a short distance away from where they took him into custody after they said he ditched her in the woods to try and run away faster.

Officers said they immediately got his daughter out of the woods.

They placed her away from where they were arresting her father and did everything to comfort her, handing her stickers and toys, authorities said.

Acree faces multiple charges, including fleeing from officers, drug trafficking and child abuse.

As of Wednesday, he was being held behind bars without bond.

Captain Tyler Baruch said the sandbar is shifting and is a hazard to boaters.

Baruch said he has been a boat captain for 15 years and that one particular sandbar in the Jupiter Inlet could cause serious damage to boats and potentially even cost someone their life.

Baruch’s video has racked up more than 400,000 views, calling on elected officials to act.

He says that dredging currently happening in the inlet is actually making the problem worse, explaining that when they take the sand and put it on the beach, the second a decent swell comes, that sand is swept out and clogging up the inlet.

Baruch said he’s experienced some pretty scary situations himself while on the water.

“Don’t hit the cut perfectly and you hit the sandbar and there’s a wave, the wave can flip your boat and you can either get crushed by the boat or potentially get knocked out and drown,” he said. “We almost flipped. We were pretty much vertical. The boat was almost about to flip and I was so scared. All I think they need to do is keep a consistent dredge pumping just like we have in West Palm and other inlets, and then the inlet will stay deep and everything will be fine.”

In Baruch’s video, he also called on elected officials to help.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it’s working to get permits to help the situation, but since the inlet is not federally mandated, they have to wait for approval, adding that turtle nesting season also brings complications.

Leer en español

Officers with the Miami Police Department arrested 34-year-old Nathan Tyler Guy on Wednesday following an investigation that they say spanned from September 2025 through February 2026.

Investigators said Guy, who lives in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, “engaged in a systematic scheme to defraud multiple victims” by posting fake rental listings on Facebook Marketplace, communicating with victims through text messages and FaceTime, and providing what appeared to be legitimate lease agreements.

According to his arrest report, Guy would request deposits and other payments under false pretenses and, after receiving the money, “cease communication and block the victims without returning any funds.”

Police said the scheme involved “consistent methods,” including the use of third-party payment platforms such as Zelle, Venmo and Cash App, as well as false representations of property ownership.

The report states that in one case, a victim told investigators he paid a $1,000 cash deposit after being shown a property via FaceTime, but was denied a refund after asking to see the apartment in person.

In another incident, a victim reported paying about $19,000 in rental-related payments and was later locked out of the residence and denied access to personal belongings, according to investigators.

That same victim also alleged she provided an additional $35,000 for a “purported investment opportunity” that was never fulfilled, with no funds returned, the report states.

Other victims also reported sending deposits ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars before being told the listings were no longer available or discovering they were fraudulent, after which they were blocked by the suspect, according to police.

Authorities said Guy was taken into custody Wednesday outside of his apartment complex. During a search of his apartment, officers seized two iPhones, an iPad and a MacBook, police said.

According to his arrest report, Guy declined to provide a statement without an attorney but “spontaneously state(d) that he was aware he was being arrested in connection with the renting of his apartment.”

Jail records show he is facing one count each of organized fraud of $50,000 or more, second-degree grand theft between $20,000 and $100,000, and six counts of third-degree grand theft.

As of Thursday, Guy was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where his bond was listed as “to be set.”

Anyone who believes they may be a victim of this scheme is urged to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

Agentes del Departamento de Policía de Miami arrestaron el miércoles a Nathan Tyler Guy, de 34 años, tras una investigación que, según dijeron, se extendió desde septiembre de 2025 hasta febrero de 2026.

Los investigadores dijeron que Guy, quien vive en el vecindario Edgewater de Miami, “participó en un esquema sistemático para defraudar a múltiples víctimas” al publicar anuncios falsos de alquiler en Facebook Marketplace, comunicarse con las víctimas mediante mensajes de texto y FaceTime, y proporcionar lo que parecían ser contratos de arrendamiento legítimos.

Según su informe de arresto, Guy solicitaba depósitos y otros pagos bajo falsos pretextos y, tras recibir el dinero, “cesaba la comunicación y bloqueaba a las víctimas sin devolver ningún fondo”.

La policía dijo que el esquema involucraba “métodos consistentes”, incluido el uso de plataformas de pago de terceros como Zelle, Venmo y Cash App, así como representaciones falsas de propiedad.

El informe indica que en un caso, una víctima dijo a los investigadores que pagó un depósito en efectivo de $1,000 USD después de que le mostraran una propiedad por FaceTime, pero se le negó un reembolso tras solicitar ver el apartamento en persona.

En otro incidente, una víctima reportó haber pagado alrededor de $19,000 USD en pagos relacionados con el alquiler y posteriormente fue excluida de la residencia y se le negó acceso a sus pertenencias personales, según los investigadores.

Esa misma víctima también alegó que proporcionó $35,000 USD adicionales para una “supuesta oportunidad de inversión” que nunca se concretó, sin que se le devolvieran los fondos, señala el informe.

Otras víctimas también reportaron haber enviado depósitos que van desde cientos hasta miles de dólares antes de que se les informara que los anuncios ya no estaban disponibles o descubrieran que eran fraudulentos, tras lo cual fueron bloqueadas por el sospechoso, según la policía.

Las autoridades dijeron que Guy fue detenido el miércoles fuera de su complejo de apartamentos. Durante un registro de su apartamento, los agentes incautaron dos iPhones, un iPad y una MacBook, informó la policía.

Según su informe de arresto, Guy se negó a proporcionar una declaración sin un abogado, pero “declaró espontáneamente que sabía que estaba siendo arrestado en relación con el alquiler de su apartamento”.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que enfrenta un cargo de fraude organizado de $50,000 USD o más, un cargo de hurto mayor en segundo grado entre $20,000 USD y $100,000 USD, y seis cargos de hurto mayor en tercer grado.

Hasta el jueves, Guy permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, donde su fianza figuraba como “por determinar”.

Cualquier persona que crea haber sido víctima de este esquema debe llamar a Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers al 305-471-8477.

Según el informe de arresto del sospechoso, el incidente ocurrió alrededor de las 12:40 p.m. en el área de 25200 S. Dixie Highway.

Las autoridades dijeron que un agente respondió a la escena tras recibir un reporte de una “agresión en curso” y encontró a David Allen Snyder Jr., de Miami, apuntando un arma a un vehículo.

El agente le ordenó a Snyder que soltara el arma y levantara las manos, y luego lo puso bajo custodia, dijeron las autoridades.

Según el informe, Snyder le dijo espontáneamente al agente: “Esto es un acto de guerra”.

Las víctimas en el otro vehículo le dijeron al agente que respondió que estaban detenidos en una luz roja cuando sintieron que su vehículo se movía y al principio pensaron que habían tenido un accidente menor.

Pero dijeron que luego miraron por el espejo retrovisor y vieron al sospechoso intentando quitar una bandera estadounidense que estaba colocada en su auto.

Según el informe, el conductor huyó del área en un intento de alejarse de Snyder, pero él los siguió hasta un centro comercial en Southwest 264th Street y South Dixie Highway.

Las víctimas dijeron al agente que Snyder apuntó repetidamente un arma al parabrisas de su vehículo.

Dijeron que mientras giraban en el estacionamiento, escucharon un solo disparo.

El agente que respondió llegó a la escena cuando las víctimas salían del centro comercial, dijeron las autoridades.

Según el informe, el agente que realizó el arresto encontró un arma negra y un casquillo percutido dentro del vehículo de Snyder.

Después de ser puesto bajo custodia, Snyder invocó su derecho a permanecer en silencio, dijeron las autoridades.

Fue arrestado por cargos de agresión agravada con un arma mortal, intento de asesinato, disparar un arma de fuego desde un vehículo y exhibición indebida de un arma de fuego.

Hasta la mañana de este jueves, Snyder permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight con una fianza de $18,000 USD.

Early voting had been scheduled to begin Saturday for Louisiana's May 16 primaries. But Republican Gov. Jeff Landry issued an executive order postponing the U.S. House primary in response to a ruling Wednesday by the court that struck down a majority Black congressional district.

“Allowing elections to proceed under an unconstitutional map would undermine the integrity of our system and violate the rights of our voters,” Landry stated. “This executive order ensures we uphold the rule of law while giving the Legislature the time it needs to pass a fair and lawful congressional map.”

The Republican-controlled secretary of state's office, which declared an electoral emergency allowing for Landry's order, said it would post notices at early voting sites alerting the public about the suspended congressional primary. All other races on the ballot will proceed as scheduled.

The governor's order suspended the congressional primary until either July 15 or a date to be set by the Legislature.

President Donald Trump, in a series of social media posts Thursday, praised Landry for moving quickly to revise the state's congressional districts and urged Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to do likewise in response to the Supreme Court's decision.

While civil rights activists denounced the potential for diminished minority representation in Congress, top Republicans cited the Supreme Court's decision as justification to spur an already intense national redistricting battle among states before the November elections.

“I think all states who have unconstitutional maps should look at that very carefully, and I think they should do it before the midterm,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters in Washington.

The election suspension in Louisiana was denounced by some Democrats.

“This is going to cause mass confusion among voters -- Democrats, Republicans, white, Black, everybody,” said Louisiana state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents the New Orleans area. “What they’re effectively doing is changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game. It’s rigging the system.”

Delaying an election is unusual but not unprecedented.

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, several states pushed back elections because of health concerns. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who led Louisiana at the time, postponed Louisiana’s April 4 presidential primary three weeks before it was supposed to occur — then delayed it again until July 11.

Louisiana could join a national redistricting wave

Louisiana currently is represented in the U.S. House by four Republicans and two Democrats. A revised map could give Republicans a chance to pick up at least one more seat in the November midterms — adding to Republican gains elsewhere from redistricting.

Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump last year urged Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states.

On Wednesday, Florida became the latest state to redraw its U.S. House districts, adopting a new map backed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that could give the GOP a chance at winning several additional seats.

The Florida vote occurred just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority issued a ruling that significantly weakened minority protections under the federal Voting Rights Act. The court said Louisiana officials had relied too heavily on race when drawing a congressional district that is represented by Democrat Cleo Fields.

Trump wants Tennessee to also take up redistricting in response to the court's ruling. The president posted on social media that he had spoken with Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who he said would work hard for a new map that could help Republicans gain an additional seat. Democrats currently hold only one of the state's nine House seats — a district centered in Memphis, which is majority Black.

Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, said he is in conversations with the White House and others while reviewing the court's decision.

Louisiana has a history of redistricting challenges

After the 2020 census, Louisiana officials had drawn House voting district boundaries that maintained one Black majority district and five mostly white districts, in a state with a population that is about one-third Black.

A federal judge later struck down the map for violating the Voting Rights Act. And the following year the Supreme Court found that Alabama had to create its own second majority Black congressional district.

In response, Louisiana’s legislature and governor adopted a new House map in 2024 that created a second Black majority district. But that map also was subsequently challenged in court, leading to the most recent Supreme Court ruling.

After the ruling, Landry called U.S. House candidates on Wednesday and told them that primaries would most likely be stalled, according to Misti Cordell, a Republican running in a crowded race to fill U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow’s vacated seat.

“It’s an inconvenience for a candidate for sure, but you know they want to do it right versus having to go through all this again,” Cordell said. She added that she appreciated the heads up before she and other candidates began “spending their war chest” during the final weeks leading up to Election Day.

Republican state lawmakers are reviewing which pending bills could be used to alter primaries and reconfigure congressional maps, said Louisiana state Rep. Beau Beaullieu, chair of the House committee overseeing redistricting efforts.

___

Brook reported from New Orleans and Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. AP reporter Travis Loller contributed from Nashville.

Leer en español

According to the suspect’s arrest report, the incident occurred at about 12:40 p.m. in the area of 25200 S. Dixie Highway.

Authorities said a deputy responded to the scene after receiving a report about an “assault in progress” and found David Allen Snyder Jr., of Miami, pointing a gun at a vehicle.

The deputy ordered Snyder to put the gun down and his hands up, and then took Snyder into custody, authorities said.

According to the report, Snyder spontaneously told the deputy, “This is an act of war.”

The victims in the other vehicle told the responding deputy that they were stopped at a red light when they felt their vehicle move and initially thought they had been in a minor accident.

But they said they then looked in the rearview mirror and spotted the suspect trying to remove an American flag that was attached to their car.

According to the report, the driver fled the area in an attempt to get away from Snyder, but he followed them into a shopping plaza at Southwest 264^th Street and South Dixie Highway.

The victims told the deputy that Snyder repeatedly pointed a gun at the windshield of their vehicle.

They said as they were making turns in the parking lot, they heard a single gunshot.

The responding deputy arrived at the scene as the victims were exiting the shopping plaza, authorities said.

According to the report, the arresting deputy found a black gun and one spent casing inside Snyder’s vehicle.

After being taken into custody, Snyder invoked his right to remain silent, authorities said.

He was arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, attempted murder, discharging a firearm from a vehicle and improper exhibition of a firearm.

As of Thursday morning, Snyder was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on an $18,000 bond.

Leer en español

A few months ago, a brand-new facility was unveiled, promising to bring recycling into the future and make the process more effective and affordable. Now, South Floridians are being urged to step up and get it right.

“Recycling really works, and recycling really is real. If you put good, clean material at your curb, it comes here,” said Dawn McCormick, communications director for Waste Management Florida.

The facility is South Florida’s latest high-tech effort to tackle a growing solid waste crisis.

“We run it through a $90 million facility. We have bales at the end that we have markets for, mostly in the United States, and those become new products,” McCormick said.

Waste Management unveiled the new, high-tech, 127,000-square-foot recycling facility in West Pembroke Pines in February. It can process 275,000 tons of material each year at a rate of 60 tons per hour.

“What we can do is recycle some additional items, which we’re excited about -- some additional types of plastics and other things that our optical sorters are able to allow us to do,” McCormick said.

The effort is critical as both Broward and Miami-Dade counties each produce more than 5 million tons of waste every year -- double the national average.

“Right now in South Florida, we have limited landfill space, and the clock is ticking,” McCormick said. “I think all of our elected officials and our counties are aware of that and trying to preserve the space that does remain.”

In Miami-Dade alone, about 36% -- or 1.8 million tons -- of materials are recycled each year. However, 39% of what enters the recycling stream is contaminated, meaning it doesn’t belong there and drives up costs.

“It just doesn’t work well in our equipment, and it ends up getting into the other bales of cardboard and other things where it doesn’t belong,” McCormick said.

Instead, plastic bags should be returned to retailers that have designated recycling bins. Recyclables should be placed loosely in the bin.

Officials also warn against putting items like garden hoses, plastic tubing, cords, electronics and batteries -- especially lithium-ion batteries -- into recycling bins.

“This is not what we want. We don’t want the tanglers and the hoses and the cords,” McCormick said. “We don’t want electronics, and we don’t want any types of batteries, especially your lithium-ion batteries, which are sparking fires in our collection trucks and facilities.”

Those items should be taken to county household hazardous waste sites.

So what can be recycled?

“We’re looking just for bottles, cups, jugs and tops,” McCormick said.

Plastic dairy tubs, like yogurt and cheese containers, can now be recycled, as long as they are rinsed out. Plastic cups are also now accepted, though plastic cutlery still belongs in the trash.

Paper and cardboard remain highly recyclable, including pizza boxes as long as there’s no food inside. Residents are reminded to break down and fold boxes and discard packaging materials.

The most valuable recyclable item remains aluminum cans.

“Recycling an aluminum can has the most environmental benefit. It also has the most economic benefit,” McCormick said. “An aluminum can can be back on your store shelf in 60 days, and it continuously can be recycled. There’s no end to it.”

To help residents recycle correctly, Miami-Dade has partnered with the Scrapp recycling app, which allows users to scan a barcode to see if an item belongs in the bin.

“Recycling works when you do it right,” McCormick said. “It’s a small effort, both at home and even on the go. Bring those materials back, recycle them curbside. You’re doing a tremendous benefit to our environment, and at the same time, you’re saving landfill space and doing the right thing.”

Waste Management is also recycling glass, but it must be shipped to another site in Central Florida, adding extra cost. Because of that, not all cities offer glass recycling.

Officials also warn against “wishcycling” -- throwing items in the bin in hopes they can be recycled. When in doubt, throw it out.

Hace unos meses, se inauguró una instalación completamente nueva que promete llevar el reciclaje al futuro y hacer el proceso más efectivo y asequible. Ahora, se insta a los residentes del sur de Florida a dar un paso al frente y hacerlo correctamente.

“El reciclaje realmente funciona y el reciclaje realmente es real. Si colocas material limpio y adecuado en la acera, llega aquí”, dijo Dawn McCormick, directora de comunicaciones de Waste Management Florida.

La instalación es el más reciente esfuerzo de alta tecnología del sur de Florida para enfrentar una creciente crisis de desechos sólidos.

“Lo procesamos en una instalación de $90,000,000 USD. Al final tenemos pacas para las que tenemos mercados, principalmente en Estados Unidos, y esas se convierten en nuevos productos”, dijo McCormick.

Waste Management inauguró la nueva instalación de reciclaje de alta tecnología, de 127,000 pies cuadrados, en West Pembroke Pines en febrero. Puede procesar 275,000 toneladas de material cada año a una tasa de 60 toneladas por hora.

“Lo que podemos hacer es reciclar algunos artículos adicionales, lo cual nos entusiasma, algunos tipos adicionales de plásticos y otras cosas que nuestros clasificadores ópticos nos permiten procesar”, dijo McCormick.

El esfuerzo es crítico ya que tanto el condado Broward como Miami-Dade producen cada uno más de 5 millones de toneladas de desechos cada año, el doble del promedio nacional.

“En este momento en el sur de Florida, tenemos espacio limitado en los vertederos y el tiempo se está agotando”, dijo McCormick. “Creo que todos nuestros funcionarios electos y nuestros condados están conscientes de eso y tratando de preservar el espacio que queda”.

Solo en Miami-Dade, alrededor del 36%, o 1.8 millones de toneladas, de materiales se reciclan cada año. Sin embargo, el 39% de lo que entra en el flujo de reciclaje está contaminado, lo que significa que no pertenece allí y eleva los costos.

“Simplemente no funciona bien en nuestros equipos y termina mezclándose con otras pacas de cartón y otros materiales donde no corresponde”, dijo McCormick.

En cambio, las bolsas plásticas deben devolverse a minoristas que tengan contenedores designados para reciclaje. Los reciclables deben colocarse sueltos en el contenedor.

Los funcionarios también advierten no colocar artículos como mangueras de jardín, tubos plásticos, cables, electrónicos y baterías, especialmente baterías de iones de litio, en los contenedores de reciclaje.

“Esto no es lo que queremos. No queremos los enredos ni las mangueras ni los cables”, dijo McCormick. “No queremos electrónicos y no queremos ningún tipo de baterías, especialmente las de iones de litio, que están provocando incendios en nuestros camiones de recolección e instalaciones”.

Esos artículos deben llevarse a sitios de desechos domésticos peligrosos del condado.

Entonces, ¿qué se puede reciclar?

“Buscamos solo botellas, vasos, envases y tapas”, dijo McCormick.

Los envases plásticos de lácteos, como los de yogur y queso, ahora pueden reciclarse, siempre que estén enjuagados. Los vasos plásticos también son aceptados ahora, aunque los cubiertos plásticos aún deben ir a la basura.

El papel y el cartón siguen siendo altamente reciclables, incluidas las cajas de pizza siempre que no tengan comida dentro. Se recuerda a los residentes desarmar y doblar las cajas y desechar los materiales de empaque.

El artículo reciclable más valioso sigue siendo la lata de aluminio.

“Reciclar una lata de aluminio tiene el mayor beneficio ambiental. También tiene el mayor beneficio económico”, dijo McCormick. “Una lata de aluminio puede volver al estante de la tienda en 60 días y puede reciclarse continuamente. No tiene fin”.

Para ayudar a los residentes a reciclar correctamente, Miami-Dade se ha asociado con la aplicación de reciclaje Scrapp, que permite a los usuarios escanear un código de barras para ver si un artículo pertenece al contenedor.

“El reciclaje funciona cuando se hace bien”, dijo McCormick. “Es un pequeño esfuerzo, tanto en casa como incluso fuera de ella. Lleva esos materiales de regreso, recíclalos en la acera. Estás generando un gran beneficio para nuestro medio ambiente y, al mismo tiempo, estás ahorrando espacio en los vertederos y haciendo lo correcto”.

Waste Management también está reciclando vidrio, pero debe enviarse a otro sitio en el centro de Florida, lo que añade costo adicional. Debido a eso, no todas las ciudades ofrecen reciclaje de vidrio.

Los funcionarios también advierten contra el “wishcycling”, es decir, tirar artículos en el contenedor con la esperanza de que puedan reciclarse. En caso de duda, tíralo a la basura.

“Every time I get a paycheck, it’s all already spoken for,” said Jones, a 21-year-old who works at a deli and a nonprofit in Springfield, Massachusetts. Being a homeowner is one of Jones’ dreams, and his inability to save for it frustrates him.

Currently, 65% of working-age renters can’t cover their monthly expenses after paying for housing, according to an analysis from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Nearly half of all renters were cost-burdened by rent in 2024, that means they spent more than a third of their income on housing and utilities, which is based on data from the most recent census.

___

EDITORS’ NOTE: The Money Happens series explores challenges and anxieties around money and offers helpful tips for dealing with them. Each episode features a case of an individual experiencing a challenging financial problem, whether it’s student loan or credit card debt, and an expert who can help provide strategies for working through these issues. You can listen to all of the episodes here.

___

Anxiety about the possibility of never being able to own a house can make some people give up on organizing their finances altogether, said John Hankins, a certified financial therapist.

Sometimes "anxiety becomes kind of a self-perpetuating cycle,” he said.

If you hope to buy a house in the future but don’t know where to start, here are some expert tips for you:

1. Feel comfortable facing your finances

Getting a handle on your finances is the first step towards planning and achieving a financial goal. If you’re looking to buy a home in the future but that goal feels unattainable, start by figuring out how much money you’re bringing in, how much you’re spending, and where you can cut back to start saving.

For Jones, the anxiety of possibly being evicted from his current apartment because he lives paycheck to paycheck has been a barrier to making future plans for homeownership.

“I’d want to come back to this anxiety, this sadness that stopping him from getting his arms around his finances,” Hankins said.

Don’t let your anxieties stop you from facing your finances. The longer you avoid solving a financial worry, the longer it will take to solve it down the road.

2. Avoid debt if you can, but build a credit history

After watching his parents get into large amounts of debt and have to deal with the consequences, Jones has avoided any type of debt, including student loans and credit cards. But he needs to build a credit history to buy a home in the future.

Learning to find a middle ground between building credit and falling into credit card debt is key, Hankins said.

“Once you have a credit card, it’s a dangerous thing," he said. "So let’s be really understanding how you’re going to manage this so that it doesn’t get out of control."

3. Don’t compare yourself to others

Jones often compares his journey to his parents'. They became homeowners in their mid-twenties while working in the restaurant industry. But that type of comparison isn't helpful, Hankins said.

“It’s not a reflection on you that you haven’t been able to achieve what your parents achieved," Hankins said. “They were operating under a whole different set of rules."

___

The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

Un grupo de bomberos retirados dice que la imagen es preocupante y ahora está expresando inquietudes sobre el proceso de contratación.

“Sabemos de primera mano lo que el departamento puede y no puede hacer”, dijo William D.C. Carter, un ex bombero de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. “Hablamos directamente con el jefe de bomberos y expresamos nuestras preocupaciones. La alcaldesa estuvo de acuerdo. Había mucho más trabajo por hacer”.

La alcaldesa de Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, reconoció las preocupaciones.

“Estamos totalmente comprometidos y es una conversación muy productiva la que estamos teniendo”, dijo Levine Cava.

El departamento dice que la Clase de Reclutas 159 fue seleccionada de una lista de elegibilidad por vencer, lo que limitó significativamente a quiénes se podía contratar.

Los funcionarios agregan que los desafíos de reclutamiento a nivel nacional, un grupo más pequeño de solicitantes y necesidades urgentes de personal hicieron de esta clase un caso atípico, no un reflejo del compromiso general del departamento con la diversidad.

“Lo que resultó de esta reunión fue una experiencia sumamente positiva, una visión más sólida y compartida y una asociación en el proceso de reclutamiento para que podamos lograr los objetivos que ambas partes querían alcanzar”, dijo Charles Francois, capitán de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.

MDFR dijo a Local 10 News que una nueva clase ya está en marcha y proporcionó un desglose de los 34 reclutas.

Nueve son negros, 20 son hispanos y cinco son blancos. Aún no hay una fecha establecida para la graduación.

Leer en español

“I live right there -- that could be me,” one neighbor said.

Sky 10 was over the scene shortly after the collapse on a block near East 63rd Street and Fourth Avenue. The boom on the heavy-duty mobile crane was fully extended when it toppled over, barely missing a home where a man’s wife and children were inside.

“It sounded very strong and I expected that something happened,” said Mayra Jimenez, who lives two doors down from where the boom came to rest.

Jimenez rushed outside after hearing the crash.

“I think everything was okay. I feel lucky, but nothing happened -- not even my car and not even my neighbors,” she said.

Police responded to the scene, roping off traffic and keeping neighbors at a distance from the situation.

Florida Power & Light crews were also spotted nearby, as the crane appeared to have taken down part of a tree and a concrete pole.

“This is crazy what we’re seeing here,” said Richard Alberto, whose home sits directly across the street.

The all-terrain crane, capable of lifting up to 800 tons, had its outriggers -- or stability plates -- extended at the time of the collapse.

Sims Crane & Equipment dispatched additional mobile cranes to help lift the overturned equipment, a delicate and dangerous operation unfolding in the middle of the residential neighborhood.

“It could be something worse, so we are grateful nothing happened,” Jimenez said.

“Vivo justo ahí, eso podría haber sido yo”, dijo un vecino.

Sky 10 estaba sobre la escena poco después del colapso en una cuadra cerca de East 63rd Street y Fourth Avenue. El brazo de la grúa móvil de alta capacidad estaba completamente extendido cuando se volcó, por poco impactando una vivienda donde la esposa y los hijos de un hombre estaban dentro.

“Sonó muy fuerte y supe que algo había pasado”, dijo Mayra Jimenez, quien vive a dos casas de donde el brazo terminó.

Jimenez salió corriendo afuera tras escuchar el estruendo.

“Creo que todo está bien. Me siento afortunada, no pasó nada, ni siquiera a mi carro ni a mis vecinos”, dijo.

La policía respondió a la escena, cerrando el tráfico y manteniendo a los vecinos a distancia de la situación.

Equipos de Florida Power & Light también fueron vistos cerca, ya que la grúa aparentemente derribó parte de un árbol y un poste de concreto.

“Es una locura lo que estamos viendo aquí”, dijo Richard Alberto, cuya casa está justo al otro lado de la calle.

La grúa todoterreno, capaz de levantar hasta 800 toneladas, tenía sus estabilizadores, o placas de estabilidad, extendidos al momento del colapso.

Sims Crane & Equipment envió grúas móviles adicionales para ayudar a levantar el equipo volcado, una operación delicada y peligrosa que se desarrolla en medio del vecindario residencial.

“Pudo haber sido algo peor, así que estamos agradecidos de que no pasó nada”, dijo Jimenez.

Según el FBI, Alejandro Jacomino González, de 41 años y originario de Cuba, fue visto por última vez el 17 de abril en el área de descanso del condado Brevard en la Interestatal 95 en dirección sur en Grant-Valkaria. Llegó al área de descanso alrededor de la 1:21 a.m. y permaneció allí durante varias horas, dijeron las autoridades.

Los agentes indicaron que González transportaba vehículos desde el Puerto de Brunswick en Georgia hacia Miami cuando desapareció.

“El camión y algunos de los vehículos han sido recuperados, pero González sigue desaparecido”, publicó el FBI en redes sociales.

Según el FBI, el GPS del camión muestra que alguien condujo el camión hacia el sur una salida antes de girar hacia el norte en dirección a Jacksonville a las 7:49 a.m., después de salir del área de descanso.

“Poco después, González se volvió inlocalizable y el camión fue reportado como desaparecido”, dijo el FBI en un comunicado de prensa.

Según los agentes, el camión fue localizado más tarde ese mismo día en Port Wentworth, Georgia; sin embargo, González no fue encontrado con él y varios vehículos faltaban del transporte.

“Desde el hallazgo del camión, tres vehículos han sido localizados en Florida. Otros aún están desaparecidos, junto con González”, indicó el FBI.

Los agentes ahora buscan fotos y videos de cualquier persona que haya estado en o cerca del área de descanso del condado Brevard entre la 1 a.m. y las 8 a.m. del 17 de abril, “enfocándose específicamente en la parte sur del área de descanso cerca de la rampa que conecta nuevamente con la I-95 Sur”.

Cualquier persona que tenga información sobre lo que los agentes llaman el “secuestro de transporte de vehículos del condado Brevard”, o que desee enviar fotos o videos, debe llamar al FBI al 1-800-225-5324 o hacer clic aquí.

La mujer estaba sangrando poco después de la 1:35 p.m. cerca de Northwest 22 Avenue y 90 Street, según la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade.

Personal de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue trasladó a la mujer al Ryder Trauma Center del Hospital Jackson Memorial. Su condición era crítica, según los agentes.

Los agentes detuvieron a un hombre y a una mujer mientras la investigación continuaba. También cerraron Northwest 90 Street desde la avenida 22 hasta la 21.

Los detectives pidieron a cualquier persona con información sobre este u otros casos que llame a Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers al 305-471-8477 para permanecer en el anonimato.

El editor de asignaciones de Local 10 News Carson Merlo y la editora senior de asignaciones Frine Gomez contribuyeron a este informe.

Área de la escena del crimen

Leer en español

The case, now in its fifth week in federal court in downtown Miami, stems from alleged conduct dating back to 2017.

Prosecutors are expected to complete their arguments by the end of the day, after which the case could be turned over to the jury.

Rivera and co-defendant Esther Nuhfer are accused of failing to register under federal foreign agent laws.

Prosecutors allege the pair conspired to profit by using political connections to advance efforts tied to Venezuela’s government, including attempts to normalize relations between Caracas and Washington.

According to prosecutors, Rivera and Nuhfer engaged in undisclosed lobbying activities that benefited Maduro’s administration while avoiding required disclosure under U.S. law.

During rebuttal arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Cruz told jurors they could use the superseding indictment as an outline to guide their deliberations and referenced the charging document multiple times.

“Of course Rubio trusted them,” Cruz said, arguing to the jury that Rubio was “used by these two to make money.”

He also urged the 12-person jury to review an interview between Rivera and former Local 10 reporter Michael Putney that was submitted into evidence, which prosecutors have described as a key part of their case.

Defense attorneys counter that the work at issue was commercial in nature and did not require registration.

They argue the arrangement involved a U.S.-based company connected to Venezuela’s oil sector and was focused on business opportunities rather than political advocacy.

The prosecutor pushed back, telling jurors, “They wanted it for Exxon” — adding, “we agree — what we argue is the client was Nicolas Maduro.”

Exxon and Venezuela had a major legal battle after Maduro’s predecessor, former President Hugo Chávez, seized the company’s assets, according to the Miami Herald.

Attorneys for Nuhfer told jurors there is no evidence she acted in bad faith, asking during closing arguments, “Why did they charge her in the first place?” They argued that if jurors cannot answer that question, they should return a not guilty verdict.

The jury of 12 also heard testimony from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said he had no knowledge Rivera was lobbying on behalf of the Venezuelan government when they met in 2017.

“The facts in this case speaks volumes that these two defendants are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” Cruz said.

Jurors additionally heard from Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, who testified he was unaware Rivera’s consulting work was tied to any foreign government contract.

Cruz reiterated jurors could rely on the charging document, saying, “You can use the charging document” as a reference.

He closed by telling jurors: “Take your time, talk it over, but it is crystal clear” that the evidence stacks up against them.

Earlier Wednesday, the judge told both sides that a juror had indicated during selection that they would be unavailable from Thursday through Tuesday, requiring the first alternate to step in.

As a result, the 12-person jury chose to stop deliberations for the day, noting a new juror would join the panel Thursday.

Court is set to resume at 11 a.m., with the alternate replacing the now-unavailable juror.

Read Rivera’s indictment in the document below.

Indictment

Race officials announced the change Thursday, and trainer Brad Cox told The Associated Press that Fulleffort will undergo surgery and is expected to recover and return to racing. Cox said an X-ray revealed fluid in the ankle and called it an easy decision because Fulleffort showed some lameness.

“That’s part of the game,” Cox said. “It was a problem that needed to be addressed."

Fullefort’s exit means jockey Tyler Gaffalione will have to wait for another chance to win the race for the first time. Cox went into the week with three Derby horses and is now down to two: Commandment and Further Ado.

"I love 'em," Cox said. “Both had a great morning. I’m excited about Saturday.”

With Fulleffort out, Ocelli draws in off the also-entered list. Trainer Whit Beckman found out after the colt galloped at Churchill Downs around 7:15 a.m.

“I kind of had the expectation all along that if you’re within a couple spots that you have a chance,” Beckman said. “Especially in this day and age, it just seems there’s always a lot of changes from the time we draw to the time we run. We were kind of quietly confident that things would go our way.”

Beckman has been training Ocelli all along as though the colt would be participating in the Derby. Ocelli is coming off a third-place finish in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct Race Track on April 4.

“He’s been training great since we got back here from New York after the Wood,” Beckman said. “Around the barn, he’s a very mature, easy-going horse. Sometimes he could be a little quirky on the track, but it seems like we’re getting a little bit close to perfection every time.”

Ocelli follows Great White into the field, who got in Wednesday when Silent Tactic was scratched because of a foot injury. Like Great White's John Ennis, Beckman was unsure if he'd have a horse in the Derby but was unbothered by the situation.

“The certainty of it to me was more stressful because things can only go wrong,” Beckman said. “In this case, when things can only go right and if something did go wrong, well, it didn’t matter: We weren’t in the race anyway. ... Coming in knowing you could — maybe, maybe not — go, you just kind of let the cards fall and let the universe do its thing.”

___

AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing

Leer en español

Officials said they were called to the Dames Point Bridge on April 12 after a man was spotted getting ready to jump and take his own life.

Video shows a number of officers surrounding the man, who was standing on the ledge of the bridge.

As the man was preparing to jump, Officer Antonio Richardson stepped in.

Richardson is seen in the video speaking to the man for a while and eventually extending out his hand, even offering to pray for him.

Other officers also kept encouraging the man, who eventually took Richardson’s hand, leading to a very emotional embrace between the two.

Jacksonville police say in that moment, their officers weren’t the police, but rather people showing how much they cared for another person, adding that they do what they do every day because they care.

If you or someone you know is struggling mentally, there is help available. Call or text 988 to reach the suicide hotline 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

She has undergone eight surgeries after suffering a complex left leg fracture — one that nearly led to a leg amputation — in the women’s downhill skiing race on Feb. 8. She needs at least one more to repair a torn ACL in that same knee.

So if the 41-year-old races again — and she’s not ready to make that decision — a return is at least a year and a half away, Vonn told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday.

“I just don’t want to jump to any conclusions or even speculate on what I might do,” Vonn said. “I may retire. I may never race again and that would be completely fine, but I’m not in a position emotionally to make that decision at this point.”

A return to retirement was an option after a comeback season

Vonn thinks she would have returned to retirement had she been able to complete a comeback season that rivaled one of the best of her career. She ended a six-year absence from the sport largely to race at Cortina, Italy, one of her favorite courses, and the venue for the Milan Cortina Games.

The winner of three Olympic medals, including a downhill gold in 2010, crashed just 13 seconds into the race and suffered a complex tibia fracture, shocking a star-studded crowd and ending a season in which she led the World Cup downhill standings and hadn’t finished worse than fourth in any race.

She’s returned from an assortment of injuries before — she has a titanium implant in her right knee — but this one was different. The pain was different. The eight surgeries are just one shy of the total she had for all the others combined.

“It’s a much different injury in that way, again, like the severity of the injury and understanding that I could have lost my leg and how bad things were,” Vonn said. “I can deal with a lot of pain, but this was so extreme. It’s not even been in the universe of pain with this injury as what I’ve had before.”

Vonn is making progress in and out of the gym, though not as quickly as she would like. She has moved beyond a wheelchair and now is on crutches — she is weary of both — and next week will be able to begin walking short distances.

‘Tell me I can’t and I'll prove you wrong'

She is able to travel again, making a trip to New York this week to discuss her support for the biopharmaceutical company Invivyd's “Antibodies for Any Body” campaign, and she has an upcoming vacation planned.

Beyond that, the future is hard to see.

Vonn said she hasn't spoken to her doctor about what a return to skiing would look like, saying they both prefer to focus on this phase of her recovery.

“Regardless, nothing would really happen until '27-28 because I still have one more surgery left to take out the metal and to replace my ACL. That still needs to happen,” Vonn said. “Once I get my ACL fixed, then that’s another six months, so I have at least I would say a year and a half ahead of me before I could really be back to 100%, even just training in the gym.”

Vonn knows there could be risks in a return, and family members don't want her to take them. It was only a day after her crash, when she was still in the hospital, that her father said her career would be over if it were up to him. Said Vonn: “He means the best. He forgot the cardinal rule with me is that if you don’t want me to do something, you shouldn’t tell me I can’t. Tell me I can’t and I’ll prove you wrong.”

A risk Vonn has ‘always taken happily,’ but she doesn't ‘want a do-over’

Vonn has never shied from taking chances — she raced in the Olympics a little more than a week after tearing her ACL — no matter how they turned out.

“Downhill skiing is one of the most dangerous sports in the world, and that’s a risk that I’ve always taken happily, and this is the result, and I don’t regret it,” said Vonn, who noted she had done all she could to be fully prepped for the race. “I don’t want a do-over.”

But she will at some point decide if she wants to race again.

For now, Vonn said she's focused simply on getting her leg healthy. Only after that's done can she start thinking about a career that may or may not be over.

“I’m still, like I said, in survival mode that I just want to get through this phase and be able to assess where I am in my life,” said Vonn, whose 84 World Cup wins are second-most among women, trailing only teammate Mikaela Shiffrin (110). "And take count of what I’ve done and take count of what could be and make decisions in a much better place than where I am now.

“I don’t want to make a decision now because I think that would be rash and probably too emotional and I don’t want to make a mistake, you know?”

___

AP Sports Writer Pat Graham in Denver contributed to this report.

___

AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

He just didn’t yet know her name.

“He goes, ‘you know the young girl from ‘House of the Dragon’? The young queen or princess? That’s how I picture it, like a young punk rock girl who is just totally badass and tough,’” Safran told The Associated Press. “I was like, yeah, that sounds fantastic, and we haven’t seen that before.”

Milly Alcock, now 26, had just started to break out playing Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (later portrayed by Emma D’Arcy) in the “Game of Thrones” prequel, when she got a request for a self-tape for the secretive Supergirl project. Alcock had been working in her native Australia since she was a teenager, but her world was suddenly getting bigger very quickly.

A few weeks later, she was summoned for a screen test (her first ever). She boarded a 24-hour flight from Sydney to Atlanta and gave it her best shot.

“I kind of had a feeling, I remember I like got back to my hotel room and I like sat down and I was like, ‘Oh, this is gonna, something’s gonna happen,’” Alcock said. “I just had like an intuition that like, this is going to be a very exciting challenge if it goes in my favor.”

‘This is crazy, what have I done?’

Ten days later, Gunn texted her an article in the trade publication Deadline: “‘Supergirl’: New Woman Of Steel Is ‘House Of The Dragon’s’ Milly Alcock.” No phone call. No context. And all she could think was, “This is crazy, what have I done?” A few days later, she was back on that 24-hour flight to film her cameo in “Superman.”

And things have not slowed down. If shooting the film was a marathon of stunts and action and emotion, the promotion of new DC’s second major film is going to be its own non-stop ride.

When Alcock spoke to the AP earlier this month, she had just arrived in Las Vegas from Kyoto, where she was filming another movie, and on just two hours of sleep had to muster the energy to get up on stage in front of thousands of movie theater owners to hype “Supergirl,” which is out June 26.

“It’s a really original and unique take on a superhero movie,” Safran said. “I think it’s just a great movie for audiences. It’s not just for superhero fans.”

‘She’s just that girl’

The character might be less widely known than her famous cousin, but the response to her appearance in “Superman” was encouraging.

“She’s in the ‘Superman’ movie for, you know, 12 seconds, yet one of the things audiences wanted to see ... more of was her,” Safran said. “And Millie in real life, she’s just that girl … she is authentically a badass.”

Perhaps part of the intrigue is that she’s not straightlaced Superman, who got to be raised by loving and gentle parents on earth. Supergirl saw her planet destroyed and everyone she knew killed and had to fend for herself.

Directed by Craig Gillespie, best known for two other films about complicated young women, “I, Tonya” and “Cruella,” this film finds the jaded Kara on an intergalactic odyssey with Krypto the Superdog and a young woman seeking revenge against the murderous Krem of the Yellow Hills.

“Kara surprisingly reminded me a lot of myself, which I never thought I would get from playing like a superhero, from playing someone who isn’t human. There’s a lot humility in her and that kind of made me fall in love with her immediately,” Alcock said. “Sometimes you can get swept up in what other people expect, and then you kind of lose your intrinsic you-ness. And that’s why people hire you in the first place, because of what you bring to something just innately being who you are.”

‘Why would someone have a toy of my face?’

Alcock didn’t grow up a big film fan, but in acting found a lifeline and an outlet to communicate feelings that she struggled to in real life. It helps her exist as a person, she said.

Recently, Alcock has been living in London, where she said she has a great group of friends, none of whom are actors. And she’s adjusting to the reality that her face is going to be everywhere for a bit.

“It’s been kind of disorientating,” she said. “I do this job because it gives me the ability to disappear. So then to like suddenly be so visible and so exposed is a very vulnerable experience. I’m just trying to learn how to deal with that relationship. But I mean, it’s exciting. Of course it’s exciting. But like anything exciting, it’s also terrifying.”

When she was on the “Superman” set, she remembered talking to David Corenswet briefly and realizing that they had very perspectives about the experience.

“I remember him being like, ‘We’re gonna have action figures, isn’t that cool?’” she said. “And I was like, ‘That’s so weird. Why would someone have a toy of my face?’”

The move now thrusts political newcomer Graham Platner, an oyster farmer almost no one knew a year ago, as the expected Democratic front-runner against longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins, whose seat Democrats are targeting in their effort to win control of the closely divided Senate.

“While I have the drive and passion, commitment and experience, and above all else – the fight – to continue on, I very simply do not have the one thing that political campaigns unfortunately require today: the financial resources," Mills said in a statement. “That is why today I have made the incredibly difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the United States Senate.”

Mills, a two-term governor and longtime Maine politician, was seen as one of Democrats' top 2026 recruits when she entered the Senate race last year. She had the backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and prominent left-leaning advocacy groups hoping to unseat Collins in the chamber, which has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the Democrats.

But Mills struggled to outshine first-time candidate Platner, her opponent in the June 9 Democratic primary. Platner has maintained strong popularity despite facing controversy over past comments he made online and a tattoo he had that is widely recognized as a Nazi symbol.

Mills did not endorse Platner in her campaign suspension announcement but instead promised to keep defending the Constitution and democracy while she's governor for the remainder of her term.

Meanwhile, Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, both of New York, said they would work with Platner to defeat Collins.

“Our North Star is winning a Democratic Senate majority, and over the past year, Senate Democrats have carved out multiple paths to do that,” their statement said.

Democrats debate how to win back some power

The contest between Platner and Mills was part of a broader debate within the Democratic Party over how best to defeat Republicans and win back some power in President Donald Trump's Washington, where the GOP controls the White House and both chambers of Congress.

While Schumer backed Mills, his caucus did not fall in line.

Platner is backed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. He said during a Thursday news conference that he hopes to work with Mills to “turn the seat blue again” in November.

“We both got into this race because we knew how critical it is to defeat Susan Collins, and her decision today reflects a commitment to that project,” Platner said.

Mills had tried to convince voters that she was the best candidate to stand up to Trump, repeatedly noting she told the president she would see him in court, a reference to Maine officials' lawsuit against the Trump administration over federal funding and a dispute over transgender athletes in sports.

Yet the message appeared at times drowned out by the popularity Platner attracted on the campaign trail. His events have attracted thousands of supporters as he pitched his populist message and flooded airwaves with his ads. He consistently outraised Mills every step of the way, raising $4 million while Mills raised $2.6 million in the latest fundraising quarter. Collins raised $3.1 million but has $10 million in the bank.

Age also became an issue in the race, as some Democrats want younger candidates to lead the party going forward. Mills is 78, while Platner is 41. Collins is 73.

“I’m sure this was a difficult decision for Governor Mills, and I thank her for her decades of service to the people of Maine,” Collins said in a statement.

So far this year, Democrats have largely avoided messy internal fights in their bid to retake the Senate. The Maine race was an exception, and with Mills’ decision, the Michigan Democratic primary could be the most heated campaign this year. Abdul El-Sayed, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow are locked in a competitive race there ahead of the August primary.

Many political observers initially anticipated that it would be Platner, not Mills, who would be forced to bow out of the race.

Questions about Platner

Platner has been dogged by questions about the skull-and-crossbones tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol that he said he got on his chest during a night of drinking while on military leave in Croatia. He has said the tattoo has been covered to no longer reflect that image. Additionally, there have been lingering questions from Democrats and Republicans about inflammatory comments he made in old online postings, which he has since disavowed.

Yet, Platner's willingness to talk and apologize about his past mistakes has helped propel his favorability.

Republicans had already begun attacking Platner ahead of Mills' campaign suspension announcement, pointing to his old social media posts that were dismissive of sexual assault. Among the posts, Platner once wrote on Reddit that people shouldn’t get so drunk “they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.”

With Mills' departure, the GOP will only further attempt to paint Platner as a radical candidate.

“I think what that does is it tees up a race for Susan Collins against a very extreme radical Democrat who has views that are completely out of the mainstream from the people of Maine," Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters on Thursday.

___

This story has been corrected to show a reference to the candidate’s name should be Platner, not Plater.

___

Kruesi reported from Providence. R.I. Associated Press writer Steven Sloan contributed from Washington.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

U.S. jobless aid applications for the week ending April 25 fell by 26,000 to 189,000, down from the previous week’s 215,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s well below the 214,000 new applications analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting.

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

According to High Frequency Economics, this week’s number for new jobless aid applications was the fewest since September of 1969.

“There is nothing to worry about in this report. YET!,” HFE’s Chief Economist Carl Weinberg wrote in a note to clients. “At some point, elevated energy costs and prices for materials will cause firms to lay off marginal workers to protect profit margins.”

Despite dwindling layoffs shown in government data, the Iran war, now in its ninth week, has injected a large degree of uncertainty about how it will affect the U.S. and global economies even as Iran and the U.S. remain under a ceasefire agreement.

U.S. financial markets have rebounded near record levels and prices for a barrel of U.S. crude oil remain elevated around $104 per barrel. That’s better than the $112 earlier this month, but still 50% higher than before the war began. Gas prices also much higher since the war began — AAA says the national average Thursday was at $4.30 a gallon —- saddling businesses and consumers with higher costs.

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

An inflation gauge monitored by the Federal Reserve rose 0.7% in March from February, up sharply from the previous month, the Commerce Department said. Compared with a year ago, prices rose 3.5%, the biggest increase in almost three years.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation also rose.

This comes at a time when U.S. inflation was already above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. On Wednesday, the Fed opted to leave its benchmark rate where it was, citing economic uncertainty caused by instability in the Middle East and persistently high inflation.

Lower interest rates can boost the economy and hiring, but also tend to fuel inflation. Fed officials voted to cut rates three times to close 2025 out of concern for a weakening job market.

More government data released Thursday showed that the U.S. economy expanded at a modest 2% pace from January through March. That’s up from a lackluster 0.5% expansion the last three months of 2025, hampered by the 43-day government shutdown.

The Labor Department reported earlier this month that U.S. employers added an unexpectedly strong 178,000 new jobs in March, nudging the unemployment rate back down to 4.3%. That followed a surprisingly large loss of 92,000 jobs in February. Revisions also have trimmed 69,000 jobs from December and January payrolls, a sign that the labor market remains under strain.

A number of high-profile companies have cut jobs recently, including Morgan Stanley,Block, UPS, Amazon and several other tech companies.

Weekly jobless aid applications have stabilized in a range mostly between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. economy emerged from the pandemic recession. However, hiring began slowing about two years ago and tapered further in 2025 due to President Donald Trump’s erratic tariff rollouts, his purge of the federal workforce and the lingering effects of high interest rates meant to control inflation.

Employers added fewer than 200,000 jobs last year, compared with about 1.5 million in 2024, according to the data firm FactSet.

The American labor market appears stuck in what economists call a “low-hire, low-fire” state that has kept the unemployment rate historically low, but has left those out of work struggling to find a new job. The recent artificial intelligence boom and the investment required to develop it is also making companies reluctant to hire.

The Labor Department’s report Thursday showed that the four-week moving average of jobless claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, came in at 207,500, about 3,500 lower than the previous week.

The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending April 18 fell to 1.79 million, a decrease of 23,000.

Nicky Jackson Colaco, Roblox’s vice president and global head of public policy, announced the changes in a press conference in Jakarta, describing them among the strictest that the company has implemented anywhere in the world.

She said the company has introduced tailored, age-based accounts in Indonesia: Roblox Kids for ages 5 to 12 with no chat features and Roblox Select for ages 13 to 15, with chat features limited to parents or approved family and friends.

The rollout involves automatically transitioning the 23 million accounts that identified as belonging to users under 16 by implementing age verification through facial scanning.

“Any user in Indonesia who has not used that tool, who has no facial age estimated, will be automatically placed in a Roblox Kids account and will not have access to chat," the Roblox executive said.

The age verification tool requires players to take a video selfie that will be used to estimate their age. Jackson Colaco said the date would be immediately deleted. “We don't keep anything,” she said.

The number of Roblox users in Indonesia has reached approximately 45 million, with about 23 million of them being children, said Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid.

Roblox was the only gaming platform classified as high-risk by the Indonesian government, and its access restrictions for children differ from those of other social media platforms.

In addition to account categories and interactions based on age, the interactive gaming platform will also categorize the types of games played by age. The government regulations have prompted Roblox to limit usage time in the hope of reducing children’s addiction to the platform.

“To address concerns about addiction, screen time limits are now in place. Parents can set specific times or hours for their children to play games,” Hafid said.

Indonesia began implementing a new government regulation at the end of March banning children younger than 16 from accessing digital platforms that could expose them to addiction, pornography, online scams and cyberbullying.

Seven of the eight platforms classified as high-risk, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live, have committed to restricting children’s access to their services.

In addition to restricting access based on age, Indonesia is urging social media companies and digital platforms to report the number of accounts that have been suspended as part of the implementation of government regulations restricting access for children.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — rebounded from a lackluster 0.5% expansion the last three months of 2025. The federal government’s spending and investment grew at a 9.3% annual rate in the first quarter, adding more than half a percentage point to growth after lopping off 1.16 percentage points in fourth-quarter 2025.

Growth in consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of U.S. economic activity, slowed to 1.6% in the first quarter from 1.9% at the end of 2025. Spending on goods, including food and clothing fell slightly. Spending on services slowed.

But business investment, likely driven by spending in artificial intelligence, rose at an 8.7% pace. A weak housing market continues to weigh on the economy. Residential investment fell at an 8% annual pace — the fifth straight quarterly drop and the biggest since the end of 2022. Excluding housing, nonresidential investment surged 10.4%, biggest jump in nearly three years.

An uptick in imports, which rose at an annual rate of 21.4% from January-March, slashed more than 2.6 percentage points off first-quarter growth.

“This is a split-screen economy,” Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote. “Companies and investors involved in AI are on fire. Meanwhile, middle and moderate income households are struggling with high gas prices ... Consumption is slowing as people are struggling to manage all their bills and growing more concerned about the future.’’

Still, a category within the GDP data that measures the economy’s underlying strength grew at a solid 2.5% clip, accelerating from 1.8% in fourth-quarter 2025. This category includes consumer spending and private investment, but excludes volatile items like exports, inventories and government spending.

The first quarter included about a month of the clash in Iran. Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes. That has driven energy prices higher, fueling inflation and hurting consumers. The Federal Reserve, announcing Wednesday that it was keeping its benchmark interest unchanged, cited “a high level of uncertainty″ arising from the conflict.

Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, did not even bother to forecast first-quarter GDP growth. “The truth is that we do not have any defensible basis for trying to project how these indicators will print,” Weinberg wrote in a commentary Monday. President Donald “Trump’s war with Iran has led to a total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. We do not know how to model the impact of that event, as we have never seen anything quite like it.″

Thursday’s report was the first of three Commerce Department estimates.

An inflation gauge monitored by the Fed rose 0.7% in March from February, up sharply from the previous month, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Compared with a year ago, prices rose 3.5%, the biggest increase in almost three years.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation rose 0.3% in March from February, and it was 3.2% higher than a year earlier. The annual figure is above February’s reading of 3%.

The jump in gas prices has pushed inflation further away from the Fed’s 2% target. Outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled at a news conference Wednesday that the central bank would likely be on hold for months as it evaluates the impact of the Iran war. The Fed has kept its key short-term interest rate unchanged after cutting it three times last year. The central bank typically keeps rates elevated — or even raises them — to combat higher inflation.

At the same time, Thursday's report showed that Americans' incomes — wages, business income, and government benefits — increased 0.6%, a solid increase but slower than the rate of inflation, for the second straight month.

The decline illustrates the other risk created by higher gas prices: The extra costs will likely siphon away spending that would have gone to other products and services, potentially slowing the economy. For now, consumers have been bolstered by healthy tax refunds, which were lifted by last year's tax cut legislation, but much of that benefit is being eaten up by higher prices at the pump.

“A year that was set to benefit from tail winds associated with a large tax cut and boom in artificial intelligence-led investment has been partially derailed by the impact of what as of today is an adverse and growing supply shock caused by the war in Iran,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, a tax and advisory firm. “Unfortunately, war and the supply shock that ensued has altered the probable growth path this year.”

Brusuelas now expects the economy to expand just 1.7% this year, down from an earlier estimate of 2.4%.

Gas prices jumped nearly 21% in March from the previous month, the report said, while grocery prices actually slipped 0.1%. Clothing costs climbed 1% just in March.

The average price of gas nationwide rose to $4.30 a gallon Thursday, according to AAA, up from $2.98 before the war began. U.S. oil prices cooled a bit Thursday morning but still topped $105 a barrel, up from about $67 before the war.

Still, the Fed typically pays more attention to core prices, and how much higher energy costs feed through to core inflation in the coming months will be a major factor in how the central bank decides on its next moves.

“We’re very well aware that people are experiencing higher gas prices all over the country now,” Powell said Wednesday. “And that hurts.”

Thursday’s report also showed that consumer spending soared 0.9% last month, with most of the increase reflecting the sharp jump in prices. But it also indicates Americans lifted their spending a bit even after adjusting for inflation, a sign of consumer resilience.

The economy expanded at a modest 2% annual rate in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department also said Thursday, up from an expansion of just 0.5% in last year’s final quarter, when growth was held back by the six-week government shutdown. Still, consumer spending growth slowed compared with the final three months of last year.

Hegseth battled with Democrats — and some Republicans — a day earlier during a nearly six-hour House Armed Services Committee hearing, where he faced sharp questioning over the war’s costs in dollars, lives and the diminishing stockpiles of critical weapons.

The Senate Armed Services Committee will hear a similar presentation on the Trump administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defense spending to a historic $1.5 trillion. Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, will again stress the need for more drones, missile defense systems and warships.

Here's the latest:

Sen. Ernst lists accomplishments of ousted top Army uniformed officer

Saying she was “disappointed” to see Gen. Randy George’s retirement “hastened,” Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa noted that the officer “pulled the Army out of its worst recruiting crisis since the Vietnam era” and trimmed “nonessential” Army positions.

George is one of several top military officers to be dismissed since Trump returned to office. In early April, the Pentagon said George would be “retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately.”

George had held the post of Army chief of staff, which typically runs for four years, since August 2023.

“He had 38 years of honorable service. He achieved the greatest Army recruitment and modernization effort in a generation,” Ernst said. “So I want to thank him for his service.”

Senators question whether the Pentagon has resources to prevent civilian casualties

Senators wanted to know what the Defense Department is doing to prevent deaths of civilians, especially after outdated intelligence contributed to the U.S. striking an elementary school in Iran and killing over 165 people.

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand asked Hegseth, “What is your response to targeting that has resulted in the destruction of schools, hospitals, civilian places? Why did you cut by 90% the division that’s supposed to help you not target civilians?”

Hegseth responded that the Pentagon has an “ironclad commitment” to do more than other countries to prevent civilian deaths.

Still, Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, continued Gillibrand’s line of questioning. He asked Hegseth whether the Pentagon still has the resources necessary to protect civilians.

Hegseth said it has “every resource necessary” and that humans are kept in the loop when AI is involved in military decisions.

Democratic senator grills defense officials on release of Ukraine funding

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, pushed Hegseth and other defense officials for details on how the Pentagon plans to use $400 million that Congress has allotted for Ukraine.

Hegseth told lawmakers a day earlier that the funding had been released. His actions came after Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former Senate Republican leader, penned an op-ed slamming the delay in releasing the funds.

But Shaheen pointed out that the Pentagon has not given Congress details on how it plans to spend the money. Hegseth told her that it would also be used as part of a program to sell military equipment first to NATO allies.

Shaheen shot back that it “was not the intent of Congress in providing that $400 million.”

The Defense Department’s current budget request includes no funding for Ukraine.

Top defense official confirms Russian involvement in Iran war

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, told senators Russian President Vladimir Putin has aided Iran’s war effort.

He declined to go into details, citing the public nature of the hearing, but said, ”There’s definitely some action there.”

The chair of the committee, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, agreed, saying “there’s no question that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is taking serious action to undermine our efforts for success in Iran.”

Hegseth again has harsh words for critics

“As I said yesterday, and I’ll say it again today, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless naysayers and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” Hegseth said in his opening statement to the Senate panel.

Defending Trump’s budget request, Hegseth said the president “inherited a defense industrial base that had been hollowed out by years of America last policies, resulting in a diminished capacity to project strength.”

Similar to his Wednesday remarks to a House committee, Gen. Dan Caine said it was his duty as Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman “to ensure our civilian leadership has a comprehensive range of military options and the associated risks required to make the nation’s hardest and most complex decisions.”

Man accused of trying to kill Trump at correspondents’ gala agrees to remain jailed for now

Cole Thomas Allen did not enter a plea during his brief appearance Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Moxila Upadhyaya.

Prosecutors allege Allen planned his attack for weeks and tracked Trump’s movements online before he ran through a magnetometer at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night while holding a long gun and disrupted one of the highest-profile annual events in the nation’s capital.

Allen was injured during the attack but wasn’t shot. A Secret Service officer was shot but was wearing a bullet-resistant vest and survived, officials say. Prosecutors have said they believe Allen fired his shotgun at least once and that a Secret Service agent fired five shots. They have not publicly confirmed that it was Allen’s bullet that struck the agent’s vest.

▶ Read more

Chinese foreign minister speaks with Rubio ahead of Trump’s planned China trip

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Thursday spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and called leader-level diplomacy the “guiding star” of the China-U.S. relations, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

The call came just about two weeks before President Trump plans to travel to China for the first time since 2017 and hold talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Wang credited the “strategic leadership” by Xi and Trump for the overall stability in China-U.S. relations and said both sides should cherish it and well prepare for “high-level interactions.”

Wang urged the U.S. side to make the “right choice” over the Taiwan issue, which he said is the most risky in China-U.S. relations. Beijing considers the self-governed island part of Chinese territory and vows to seize it by force if necessary, while Washington opposes use of force in the Taiwan Strait.

Anti-war protester disrupts Hegseth hearing

A protester in a pink shirt disrupted Hegseth’s opening statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The man stood, unfurled a hand-written sign and yelled, “Pete Hegseth, you’re a war criminal.”

Within seconds, he was removed by Capitol Police officers. Several other people dressed in similar pink shirts have also left the hearing room.

The committee chair, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, continued the hearing by saying he respected First Amendment rights to free speech, but that anyone who disrupts the hearing would be removed.

Top Democrat on military panel gives sweeping critique of Hegseth’s leadership

Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, did not hold back in his opening statement directed toward Hegseth.

From the war with Iran to Hegseth’s efforts to remake military culture, Reed dressed down the defense secretary’s actions and warned they could do long-term harm.

Reed argued that the war with Iran has left the U.S. in a worse strategic position than when it was started because the Strait of Hormuz is closed and 13 U.S. military members have been killed. Many others have been injured, and equipment has been destroyed.

“The American people’s trust in our military took 250 years to build. You are dismantling it in a fraction of that time,” Reed concluded.

Panel chairman decries ‘axis of aggressors’ in Hegseth Senate hearing

In opening remarks, GOP Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi outlined threats to the United States he said were a “growing alliance” of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, saying the current moment represents “the most dangerous security environment since World War II.”

Saying Chinese President Xi Jinping led a “growing alliance” among the countries, Wicker said they shared a goal ”to oppose America’s interests and the interests of other like minded, democratic countries across the globe.”

“Ties have never been closer among these four dictators,” Wicker said. “Among these four dictatorships, they support each other’s aggressive endeavors.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he’ll sign redistricting bill when he gets it

The Republican Florida governor told reporters Thursday he would not delay signing the new congressional map the GOP-dominated Legislature passed Wednesday at his and President Trump’s urging.

There had been some speculation that DeSantis could hold the bill for as long as possible — as much as two weeks or so depending on when the Legislature adjourns — to delay when the bill’s critics can file lawsuits challenging the measure.

The new map is intended to help Republicans gain as many as four more U.S. House seats in November, making the GOP advantage in Florida up to 24-4.

DeSantis said Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision curtailing the strength of nonwhite voters in redistricting vindicated his decision to call a special session for what he insists is a “race neutral” map.

Hegseth’s Senate hearing is starting

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is sitting before senators in what’s expected to be another fiery hearing on the Hill.

The defense secretary’s hearing is ostensibly to discuss the Pentagon’s $1.5 trillion budget request to Congress, but it’s the first time that senators will get to publicly question him since the Iran War began nearly two months ago. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, is also seated beside Hegseth.

The defense secretary also appeared for a House hearing Wednesday and he drew a large crowd of anti-war protesters to the hallways of the House office building where the hearing was held.

On Thursday, things feel a bit more low-key in the Senate, although there are a handful of people in the hearing room wearing pink shirts that state “Peace with Iran.”

Top Chinese and US trade officials speak ahead of planned state visit

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Thursday spoke by video with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, China’s state media reported, ahead of a planned state visit by President Trump to Beijing in mid-May.

The two sides had a “candid, in-depth and constructive” exchange, the state broadcaster China Central Television said. The Chinese side lodged “solemn concerns” over recent restrictive trade measures imposed by the U.S. on China, but the statement didn’t specify the measures.

Last week, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned a China-based oil refinery and 40 shippers involved in transporting Iranian oil. The U.S. Trade Representative Office this week held a hearing on the use of forced labor in foreign goods.

Trump takes another dig at German leader

The president is continuing to pillory German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who’s been increasingly critical of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.

Trump in a social media post said Merz “should spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine” and “fixing his broken Country, especially Immigration and Energy” and less time concerning himself with the Iran war.

The latest criticism by Trump of Merz came the day after the U.S. president announced he was reviewing the U.S. military presence in Germany, a NATO ally that hosts several American military installations.

Trump administration appeals order blocking government from cutting vaccine recommendations

U.S. officials are appealing a judge’s order that blocks the government from cutting the number of vaccines recommended for every U.S. child.

Government lawyers on Wednesday filed the one-sentence appeal.

It was a delayed response to a March 16 order by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, who blocked an order by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — announced in January — to end broad recommendations for all children to be vaccinated against flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis and RSV.

Murphy’s order also stopped a meeting of a Kennedy-appointed vaccine advisory committee. The stay continues while the appeal is considered.

White House is facing a War Powers Resolution deadline

The Trump administration is constrained by the 1973 law, which requires several notification and approval steps meant to keep a commander-in-chief’s military powers in check.

One of its provisions is that military action authorized by the president must end after 60 days unless Congress has explicitly approved it, or has declared war. That 60-day clock runs out Friday.

One White House official said the administration is in “active conversations” with lawmakers on addressing the deadline, but did not elaborate. The official was granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The administration can request a 30-day extension by telling Congress in writing that there’s a continued need for military action. The White House, which has long stressed that the president is working toward a diplomatic option in Iran, hasn’t indicated publicly whether Trump will seek that extension.

— Seung Min Kim

Trump floats a new plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz

Under the plan, the United States would continue its blockade on Iranian ports, while coordinating with allies to impose higher costs on Iran’s attempts to subvert the free flow of energy, according to a senior administration official.

Trump is weighing multiple diplomatic and policy options to push Iran to end its chokehold on the waterway, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

— Aamer Madhani

US jobless aid filings fall to 189,000 last week despite multiple economic headwinds and Iran war

U.S. jobless aid applications for the week ending April 25 fell by 26,000 by to 189,000, down from the previous week’s 215,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s well below the 214,000 new applications analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting.

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

The four-week moving average of jobless claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, came in at 207,500, about 3,500 lower than the previous week.

The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending April 18 fell to 1.79 million, a decrease of 23,000.

▶ Read more

US economy grew 2% from January-March, recovering from last fall’s federal shutdown

But the outlook is clouded by the Iran war.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — rebounded from a lackluster 0.5% expansion the last three months of 2025. The federal government’s spending and investment grew at a 9.3% annual rate in the first quarter, adding more than half a percentage point to growth after lopping off 1.16 percentage points in fourth-quarter 2025.

Growth in consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of U.S. economic activity, slowed to 1.6% in the first quarter from 1.9% at the end of 2025. But business investment, likely driven by investments in artificial intelligence, rose at an 8.7% pace.

Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes. That has driven energy prices higher, fueling inflation and hurting consumers.

▶ Read more

A key inflation gauge jumps in March as Iran war-driven gas prices squeeze budgets

It’s the latest sign that the Iran war is pushing up the cost of living and delaying any interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

An inflation gauge monitored by the Fed rose 0.7% in March from February, up slightly from the previous month. Compared with a year ago, prices rose 3.5%, the biggest increase in almost three years.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation rose 0.3% in March from February, and it was 3.2% higher than a year earlier. The annual figure is above February’s reading of 3%.

Rising gas prices have caused inflation to move further away from the Fed’s 2% target, which has caused the central bank to keep its key short-term interest rate unchanged after cutting it three times last year. The Fed typically keeps rates elevated — or even raises them — to combat higher inflation.

▶ Read more

New ‘bluster’ from Trump? Germany faces new threat about reduced US military presence in Europe

President Trump has again threatened that the United States could reduce its military presence in Germany, a key NATO ally and the European Union’s largest economy. Europeans have heard this before.

Trump’s social media post on Wednesday followed comments by Chancellor Friedrich Merz that the U.S. was being “ humiliated ” by Tehran as it slow-walks its diplomacy over the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.

Trump has mused for years about reducing America’s military presence in Germany, and has recently repeatedly railed against NATO for the its refusal to assist the U.S. in its two-month-old war.

U.S. allies at NATO have been waiting for the Trump administration to pull troops out since just after it came to office, warning that Europe would have to look after its own security, and that of Ukraine, in the future.

▶ Read more

Full federal appeals court won’t rehear $83 million defamation verdict against Trump

A divided federal appeals court said Wednesday it won’t grant a rare meeting of its active judges to hear an appeal of an $83 million verdict against President Donald Trump for defaming a magazine advice columnist over an encounter three decades ago.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to reject a so-called “en banc” hearing comes several months after Trump appealed to the Supreme Court another jury’s decision to grant $5 million the writer, E. Jean Carroll, after concluding he had sexually abused her in a department store dressing room in 1996 and later defamed her. The high court hasn’t yet decided whether to hear the case.

Lawyers for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement that her client was “eager for this case, originally filed in 2019, to be over so that she can finally obtain justice.”

▶ Read more

Environmental Protection Agency boss backs big budget cuts but Congress will get the final say

Senate Democrats accused the Trump administration of abandoning the Environmental Protection Agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment at a congressional hearing Wednesday, slamming agency leadership over a proposal to cut its budget in half.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s appearance before the Senate environment committee was his last of three budget hearings this week where he argued for sharply reduced funding for the agency, which already has seen its staffing reduced to its lowest level in decades under his leadership. During much of the week, the former Republican congressman from New York took an aggressive approach, responding to Democrats in the House and Senate with his own questions and at times accusing them of being unprepared or failing to care about the EPA’s track record.

Zeldin has eliminated major climate change programs, promoted deregulatory efforts he calls the biggest in American history and canceled billions of dollars in Biden-era environmental justice grants to halt what he calls “EPA’s radical diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.”

▶ Read more

Brent crude surges over $120 a barrel on Iran war worries, while world stocks are mixed

The price of Brent crude oil briefly surged past $126 a barrel early Thursday as stalled U.S.-Iran talks raised doubts over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a permanent end to the Iran war.

Brent crude to be delivered in June jumped 3.3% to $121.90 after briefly soaring past $126 per barrel. Brent to be delivered in July rose 1.4% to $112.02.

Benchmark U.S. crude climbed 1.3% to $108.28 per barrel.

Before the war began in late February, Brent crude was trading around $70 per barrel.

There’s no clear path to an end to the war. The U.S. has continued its blockade of Iranian ports while the Strait of Hormuz is closed, pushing oil prices higher. Reports Thursday suggesting a possible escalation by Trump doused hopes for a quick end to the conflict.

▶ Read more

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board rejected Union Pacific's initial application because regulators wanted more details about how the deal would affect the competitive balance between the five remaining major freight railroads and the impact on customers.

Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena said the new application makes an even stronger case for the benefits of the merger that he believes would shave a day or two off the delivery time for many shipments because they would no longer have to be handed off between two railroads in the middle of the country.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad projects that the merger could lead to shifting 2.1 million truckloads off the highway onto trains, and doing that could save shippers $3.5 billion because over long distances, rail is cheaper than trucking. But some current rail shippers worry that the rates they already pay could go up.

Vena said CSX and BNSF are already improving their operations to ensure they can compete ,and shippers will benefit from that if the deal is approved. Plus, he pointed out that since BNSF is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway it has the financial resources to do whatever is needed because Berkshire is sitting on nearly $400 billion cash.

“The first few years after this, it’s gonna be like one of those old 15-round boxing fights. Prices are gonna be used, the service is going to be used, everything. And I think the customer’s going to be the winner in all this while we knock down, drag it out, to see who can win and grow their market share,” Vena said.

But the STB established a high bar for major railroad mergers like this one around the turn of the century after past rail mergers snarled freight and led to prolonged disruptions while two railroads worked to integrate their networks. Now Union Pacific has to demonstrate that this deal will enhance competition.

Vena said he's confident the railroads can avoid the integration problems of past mergers because they will take it slow while listening to a new board of customers about the impact. Plus this would be a combination of two successful railroads instead of many deals of the past where one thriving railroad took over another nearly bankrupt one in disrepair.

The deal includes a provision that if the STB requires more than $750 million in concessions Union Pacific can consider walking away, but it won't automatically doom the deal, the railroads disclosed Thursday as they submitted a copy of their merger agreement. Norfolk Southern would be entitled to a $2.5 billion breakup fee if the deal falls apart.

Currently, Norfolk Southern and CSX serve the eastern U.S. while Union Pacific and BNSF serve the west, and the two major Canadian rails compete where they can with their tracks crossing Canada and extending into the United States and Mexico.

A merged Union Pacific would likely control nearly 40% of the nation’s freight, but the railroad said that currently BNSF delivers that much of the nation's freight. So the railroads said the deal would shift which railroad dominates the market but wouldn't dramatically change the competitive balance.

But competitors BNSF and CPKC railroads joined a new coalition Wednesday to highlight concerns that the deal could hurt shippers and eventually consumers if it leads to higher rates for companies that have few options besides rail to get their raw materials and deliver their products. The coalition also includes trade groups for chemical and agricultural shippers and the unions that represent engineers and track maintenance workers.

“This did not begin with a customer asking for a UP-NS merger to happen,” BNSF CEO Katie Farmer said. “It’s driven by Wall Street on the promise of a big shareholder payout. It will eliminate competition, raise costs for consumers, and destabilize the supply chain that powers the American economy.”

But the biggest rail union and hundreds of shippers have backed the deal that would cut the number of major freight railroads across America down to five.

Union Pacific has promised that every union employee who has a job with either railroad at the time of the merger will have a job for life although the workforce could still shrink through attrition if the number of shipments slows down. But UP sounded an optimistic note Thursday and predicted that more than 1,200 new jobs will be created by the third year after the deal to handle the increased freight.

Previously, the railroads predicted 900 new jobs. But the new traffic data the railroads analyzed from all the major freight railroads convinced executives that more job growth is likely.

If the STB accepts this new application, regulators will likely spend more than a year analyzing every aspect of the deal.

.

Trump's threats came after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in comments this week that the U.S. was being “humiliated” by Tehran in negotiations to end the Iran war.

The mercurial U.S. leader has mused for years about reducing the American military presence in Germany, and has railed against NATO for its refusal to assist Washington in the war, which began on Feb. 28 with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Trump wrote Wednesday on social media that the U.S. was reviewing possible troop reductions in Germany, with a “determination” to be made soon. On Thursday, he was still thinking about Merz, posting that the German leader should “spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine” and “fixing his broken Country” than concerning himself with Iran.

US military presence in Europe

American allies in NATO have braced for a U.S. troop withdrawal since just after the Trump administration took office, with Washington warning Europe would have to look after its own security, and that of Ukraine, in the future.

Depending on operations, exercises and troop rotations, around 80,000-100,000 U.S. personnel are usually stationed in Europe. NATO allies have expected for more than a year that U.S. troops deployed after Russia launched its all-out war on Ukraine in February 2022 would be first to leave.

Germany hosts several U.S. military facilities, including the headquarters of its European and Africa commands, Ramstein Air Base and a medical center in Landstuhl, where casualties from wars in places like Afghanistan and Iraq were treated. U.S. nuclear missiles are also stationed in the country.

Ed Arnold, an expert in European security at the Royal United Services Institute, or RUSI, in London, said that the U.S. gets a lot out of its presence in Germany — like logistics and support for Middle East combat operations — and was unlikely to withdraw.

Nico Lange from the Center of European Policy Analysis agreed, and said that there are approximately 36,000 U.S. soldiers in Germany who primarily serve U.S. interests, including “the projection of American power globally,” rather than helping with the defense of Germany.

The U.S. has invested “substantial funds” in high-quality infrastructure in Germany that can't be moved overnight, and a different deployment would cost Washington a huge amount of money, which would require Trump to get approval from U.S. Congress, Lange said.

As early as 2020, Trump announced plans to withdraw 11,900 U.S. troops from Germany, but that didn't happen partly because U.S. Congress didn't provide the necessary funds and a withdrawal would have required enormous investments elsewhere.

That's why Trump’s post is most likely “bluster,” Arnold said.

“There is a difference between the military view and the political view,” Arnold said. “The issue with some of these threats is that they are not quite as galling as they were a couple of years ago.”

Merz, visiting troops Thursday at a military training area in Munster, in northern Germany, didn't directly address Trump’s comments, but alluded to working “shoulder to shoulder for mutual benefit and in deep trans-Atlantic solidarity,” and said that his government has “made great efforts to strengthen Germany’s security.”

Arnold, the expert at RUSI, said that Europe is more concerned about issues like a U.S. redeployment of Patriot missile systems and ammunition from Germany to the Middle East, and notifications to NATO countries such as Estonia and Belgium that orders for American weapons will be delayed as the U.S. government is prioritized.

A senior Western official told The Associated Press that they weren't aware of any discussions between the U.S. and Germany or other allies regarding the possibility of troop reductions in Germany.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said that Europe and Germany, which recently announced its new military strategy, is taking more responsibility for security on the continent.

In October, the U.S. confirmed that it would reduce its troop presence on NATO’s borders with Ukraine. The move to cut 1,500-3,000 troops came on short notice and unsettled NATO ally Romania, where the military organization runs an air base.

As Russia looks on, Iran war has had an impact

The U.S. administration informed the allies early last year that it has been reviewing its military “posture” in Europe and elsewhere. The findings of that review had been due to be made public in late 2025, but still haven't surfaced.

However, the U.S. did commit to inform its allies in advance about any changes to ensure that no security gap is created at a time when Russia is increasingly confrontational.

The Iran war only made the prospect of a withdrawal more likely, and a flurry of meetings has been held between administration officials, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European leaders since the conflict started more than two months ago.

Over the last year, European allies and Canada have understood that they will have to provide Europe’s conventional defenses. The main U.S. contribution to NATO deterrence going forward will be the presence of American nuclear weapons and some troops.

Trump's Greenland fixation

Beyond the uncertainty over U.S. personnel, the allies have become accustomed to Trump’s outbursts, having weathered insults as “cowards” or hearing NATO branded as a “paper tiger” by their most powerful ally in recent weeks.

Repeated threats to leave altogether, or over things like defense spending, have inured them to social media posts that Trump might be considering some action or another.

The real damage to NATO unity was done by Trump’s fascination over Greenland, and his intent to annex the island, which is a semiautonomous part of ally Denmark, including sending family members and administration officials there.

___

Emma Burrows reported from London, and Lorne Cook from Brussels. Jamey Keaten in Geneva, and Aamer Madhani in Washington, contributed to this report.

Leer en español

According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the hit-and-run crash was reported shortly before 10 p.m. near the 4900 block of West Hallandale Beach Boulevard.

The moments before the crash were captured on video by the nearby Koinonia Worship Center.

Kyra Budgett told Local 10 News it was her uncle, Derrick Sheffield, who was killed in the hit-and-run crash.

“You hit someone,” she said. “A father, uncle, a cousin that was loved.”

She created a memorial along West Hallandale Beach Boulevard on Wednesday afternoon for the 60-year-old.

“Hurt right now because the person that hit him, they hit him and kept going,” she said. “Like he was a piece of trash.”

A Local 10 News crew was in the area Monday evening as a tarp covered the victim’s body. Detectives were seen speaking with witnesses at the laundromat on the corner of where the crash occurred.

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

“He rode these streets for years and nothing ever happened to him,” said Budgett. “It just so happened that night, somebody took his life.”

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

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

“You could have stopped, it could have been an accident. It was dark, it was night,” said Budgett. “You could have stopped and (you) didn’t.”

Anyone with information about the hit-and-run is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

Leer en español

According to FBI agents, the body of Alejandro Jacomino Gonzalez, 41, who is originally from Cuba, was discovered in coastal Georgia.

A cause of death has not been released.

According to the FBI, prior to his body being found, Gonzalez had last been seen on April 17 at the Brevard County Rest Area on Interstate 95 southbound in Grant-Valkaria. He arrived at the rest stop at about 1:21 a.m. and rested there for several hours, authorities said.

Agents said Gonzalez was transporting vehicles from the Port of Brunswick in Georgia, which he picked up the day prior, to Miami when he vanished.

According to the FBI, GPS from the truck shows that someone drove the truck south one exit before turning north toward Jacksonville at 7:49 a.m. after leaving the rest stop.

“Soon after, Gonzalez became unreachable and the truck was reported missing,” the FBI said in a news release.

According to agents, the truck was located later that day in Port Wentworth, Georgia, however Gonzalez was not found with it and several vehicles were missing from the hauler.

“Since the discovery of the truck, three vehicles have been located in Florida. Others are still missing,” the FBI said.

Agents are now seeking photos and video footage from anyone who was in or around the Brevard County rest stop between the hours of 1 a.m. and 8 a.m. on April 17, “specifically focusing on the southern portion of the rest area near the ramp that enters back onto I-95 South.”

Anyone who has information about what agents are calling the “Brevard County Car Hauler Hijacking,” or would like to submit photos or video, is asked to call the FBI at 1-800-225-5324 or click here.