But organizers say the event is about more than wins and losses on the battlefield.

It’s about exposing young people to opportunities in technology and showing them what they can achieve.

“It’s a battle of bots,” said 13-year-old Genesis Madrid, who is competed at he event. “I like to win. I’m super competitive.”

Before the matches even begin, students are working together to troubleshoot issues and fine-tune their machines.

“We’re trying to see what’s wrong with it because it’s not connecting,” Madrid said. “I like our teamwork.”

The event is organized by Do Good 4-1, a nonprofit founded last year by Max Joseph. He said the program focuses on more than robotics.

“We’re building confidence, we’re building character and we’re building community,” Joseph said.

Many of the students started with no prior experience, but the program has quickly expanded to 18 teams. Participants have designed, built and coded their own robots.

Joseph said he hopes the experience helps put students on a path toward careers in technology, particularly for those from high-need communities.

“It means a lot to me personally because I’m from this community and I didn’t have this opportunity,” he said. “Now they have access to scholarships to go to college. And now they’re on a career track to be a part of this tech system, where they’re not just consumers, but they’re also producers.”

Organizers say that while trophies are on the line, the bigger takeaway is the experience students gain — from coding and engineering to teamwork and problem-solving.

Do Good 4-1 also offers summer programs for students interested in robotics and technology.

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It was a failed operation that attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro’s communist government.

Decades later, the U.S. is still trying to usher in regime change in Cuba as many demand for the release of political prisoners.

As uncertainty grows over what comes next for Cuba, activists say the number of Cubans being jailed for protesting against their government is on the rise.

Prisoners Defenders, a nonprofit legal network, is on the ground tracking the number of political prisoners in the communist island.

In March, the group verified at least 44 Cubans were arrested after taking part in protests.

The organization’s President Javier Larrondo Calafat says over 1,200 are currently jailed for showing their opposition to the regime.

One of the most notable is rapper Maykel Osorbo.

He was arrested after taking part in the historic 2021Island Protests and collaborating in the Grammy winning Cuban protest anthem Patria y Vida.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel recently denied all of it in an interview with Meet the Press, claiming Cubans don’t get jailed for political reasons.

Activists are also sounding the alarm.

Cuban content creators and influencers like Anna Bensi, who lives in Havana, say they’re being targeted and threatened by authorities.

Earlier this month, Cuba released around 2000 from its jails.

Fue una operación fallida que intentó derrocar al gobierno comunista de Fidel Castro.

Décadas después, Estados Unidos aún intenta impulsar un cambio de régimen en Cuba mientras muchos exigen la liberación de presos políticos.

A medida que crece la incertidumbre sobre lo que sigue para Cuba, activistas dicen que el número de cubanos encarcelados por protestar contra su gobierno va en aumento.

Prisoners Defenders, una red legal sin fines de lucro, está sobre el terreno monitoreando la cantidad de presos políticos en la isla comunista.

En marzo, el grupo verificó que al menos 44 cubanos fueron arrestados tras participar en protestas.

El presidente de la organización, Javier Larrondo Calafat, dice que más de 1,200 actualmente están encarcelados por mostrar su oposición al régimen.

Uno de los casos más notorios es el del rapero Maykel Osorbo.

Fue arrestado después de participar en las históricas protestas de la isla en 2021 y colaborar en el himno de protesta cubano ganador del Grammy “Patria y Vida”.

El presidente cubano Miguel Díaz-Canel negó recientemente todo eso en una entrevista con Meet the Press, afirmando que los cubanos no son encarcelados por razones políticas.

Los activistas también están dando la voz de alarma.

Creadores de contenido e influencers cubanos como Anna Bensi, quien vive en La Habana, dicen que están siendo perseguidos y amenazados por las autoridades.

A principios de este mes, Cuba liberó a alrededor de 2,000 personas de sus cárceles.

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According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, rescue crews responded just after 9 a.m. and found a pickup truck had slammed into the rear of a semi-truck and became wedged underneath the trailer.

Deputies said at least one person was trapped inside the pickup and had to be extricated by technical rescue teams.

They said the individual was airlifted by Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue’s Air Rescue team to Broward Health Medical Center for treatment. Deputies said the person was in stable condition at the time of transport.

Air Rescue has left the scene and the highway is partially reopened https://t.co/f3KyoFUcLJ pic.twitter.com/FYpqc5nAAJ

— City of Weston (@CityofWeston) April 18, 2026

Emergency crews remained at the scene Saturday morning as investigators worked to determine what led to the crash. A city of Weston spokesperon wrote in a post on X that the Sawgrass Expressway “partially reopened” at 10:05 a.m.

Authorities said the Florida Highway Patrol is leading the investigation into the crash.

No other details about the crash were immediately released.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward, equipos de rescate respondieron poco después de las 9 a.m. y encontraron que una camioneta se había estrellado contra la parte trasera de un camión y quedó atrapada debajo del remolque.

Los agentes dijeron que al menos una persona quedó atrapada dentro de la camioneta y tuvo que ser rescatada por equipos especializados.

Indicaron que la persona fue trasladada en helicóptero por el equipo Air Rescue de Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue al Broward Health Medical Center para recibir tratamiento. Los agentes dijeron que la persona estaba en condición estable al momento del traslado.

Los equipos de emergencia permanecieron en la escena la mañana del sábado mientras los investigadores trabajaban para determinar qué provocó el choque. Un portavoz de la ciudad de Weston escribió en una publicación en X que la Sawgrass Expressway “reabrió parcialmente” https://t.co/f3KyoFUcLJpic.twitter.com/FYpqc5nAAJ

— City of Weston (@CityofWeston)April 18, 2026

Las autoridades dijeron que la Patrulla de Carreteras de Florida encabeza la investigación del choque.

No se divulgaron de inmediato más detalles sobre el accidente.

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Officers found them in a shipping container that arrived in Port Everglades from Singapore.

“It was actually a full container of perfume and it was mixed in with legitimate products,” Assistant Port Director Bonney Vitta said.

Local 10 was given access inside a warehouse in Broward County where the haul is being stored. The boxes and bottles of colognes looked like well-known brands such as Gucci, Armani, Burberry and Lancome.

Vitta said CBP works diligently to identify dupes and fakes. Officers also collaborate with import specialists, sometimes sending photos for image comparisons.

“They are looking for discrepancies. They’re looking at the product itself, the packaging,” Vitta said. “Where things come from is also a red flag.”

According to CBP, Singapore is a top exporter of counterfeit goods. China is still the steady number one.

“Number one is China; we get more than 80% of our counterfeit merchandise from China,” Vitta said.

In collaboration with CBP Headquarters Intellectual Property Enforcement Branch, CBP officers determined, on April 2, that the goods were counterfeit.

“Counterfeit goods not only undermine legitimate businesses and the U.S. economy but can also pose potentially serious health and safety risks to consumers,” Acting Port Director John Rico wrote in a statement.

According to CBP, the Miami/Tampa region is one of the busiest in the country for counterfeit goods seizures; $1.7 billion dollars worth of it last fiscal year.

The CBP has a website called Fake Goods Real Dangers highlighting what it says is “the truth behind counterfeits.”

The investigation continues into who is responsible for the fake fragrances, Vitta said.

The California Insurance Department said the three used a person in a bear suit to stage fake attacks inside a Rolls-Royce and two Mercedes in 2024, then submitted fraudulent claims seeking nearly $142,000 in payouts from insurance companies. The department called it “Operation Bear Claw.”

Two Los Angeles-area men and a woman pleaded no contest to felony insurance fraud and were sentenced to a weekend jail program, followed by probation, the department said in a news release Thursday. Two off them were ordered to pay over $50,000 in restitution.

A fourth person faces a court hearing in September.

The group is accused of providing several videos from the San Bernardino Mountains of a bear moving inside the vehicles to the insurance companies as part of their damage claims, the department said. Photos provided by the insurance department show what appeared to be scratches on the seats and doors.

A California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist reviewed the footage and concluded it was “clearly a human in a bear suit,” the insurance department said.

After executing a search warrant, detectives found the bear costume in the suspects’ home, the department said.

Bears breaking into homes or trash cans in search of food have become a problem in California from Lake Tahoe in the Sierra down to the foothill suburbs of Los Angeles, where some have been known to raid refrigerators and take dips in backyard pools and hot tubs.

Los agentes las encontraron en un contenedor de carga que llegó a Port Everglades desde Singapur.

“En realidad era un contenedor completo de perfume y estaba mezclado con productos legítimos”, dijo la subdirectora del puerto Bonney Vitta.

Local 10 obtuvo acceso al interior de un almacén en el condado Broward donde se guarda el decomiso. Las cajas y botellas de colonias parecían de marcas reconocidas como Gucci, Armani, Burberry y Lancome.

Vitta dijo que la CBP trabaja diligentemente para identificar imitaciones y productos falsos. Los agentes también colaboran con especialistas en importaciones, a veces enviando fotos para comparaciones de imágenes.

“Están buscando discrepancias. Están observando el producto en sí, el empaque”, dijo Vitta. “De dónde vienen las cosas también es una señal de alerta”.

Según la CBP, Singapur es uno de los principales exportadores de productos falsificados. China sigue ocupando firmemente el primer lugar.

“El número uno es China; recibimos más del 80% de nuestra mercancía falsificada de China”, dijo Vitta.

En colaboración con la Rama de Cumplimiento de Propiedad Intelectual de la sede de la CBP, los agentes determinaron el 2 de abril que la mercancía era falsificada.

“Los productos falsificados no solo perjudican a los negocios legítimos y a la economía de Estados Unidos, sino que también pueden representar riesgos potencialmente graves para la salud y seguridad de los consumidores”, escribió en un comunicado el director interino del puerto John Rico.

Según la CBP, la región Miami/Tampa es una de las más activas del país en decomisos de productos falsificados; el año fiscal pasado se incautaron mercancías valoradas en $1.7 mil millones USD.

La CBP tiene un sitio web llamado Fake Goods Real Dangers que destaca lo que describe como “la verdad detrás de las falsificaciones”.

La investigación continúa para determinar quién es responsable de las fragancias falsas, dijo Vitta.

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“Detect RF signals, to detect drones -- unlawful drones,” said Tim Fitzgerald of the FDLE.

Law enforcement has identified unmanned aerial attacks as a significant threat for the FIFA World Cup games, including the seven matches set to be played at Hard Rock Stadium in June and July.

The FDLE funding is the latest addition to a growing pool of public money and resources tied to the World Cup in South Florida.

Miami-Dade, the host county, is on track to commit between $38 million and $46 million -- split between cash and public safety services like police and paramedics. Broward County is contributing $2 million in marketing funds.

The $16 million from FDLE comes on top of more than $5 million in federal funding -- highlighted by a large check presented to the Miami-Dade sheriff about a week and a half ago.

“Projections for the income is a lot greater than the money we are investing,” Miami Dade Commissioner Oliver Gilbert said.

That’s been the key argument for county leaders backing the spending -- with FIFA projections estimating an economic impact of 10 times or more the public investment, even as some remain skeptical.

“Detectar señales de radiofrecuencia, para detectar drones, drones ilegales”, dijo Tim Fitzgerald, del FDLE.

Las agencias del orden han identificado los ataques aéreos no tripulados como una amenaza significativa para los partidos de la Copa Mundial de la FIFA, incluidos los siete encuentros programados para jugarse en el Hard Rock Stadium en junio y julio.

Los fondos del FDLE son la más reciente adición a un creciente fondo de dinero público y recursos vinculados al Mundial en el sur de Florida.

Miami-Dade, el condado anfitrión, está encaminado a comprometer entre $38 millones USD y $46 millones USD, divididos entre efectivo y servicios de seguridad pública como Policía y paramédicos. El condado Broward está aportando $2 millones USD en fondos de mercadeo.

Los $16 millones USD del FDLE se suman a más de $5 millones USD en fondos federales, destacados por un gran cheque entregado al sheriff de Miami-Dade hace aproximadamente una semana y media.

“Las proyecciones de ingresos son mucho mayores que el dinero que estamos invirtiendo”, dijo el comisionado de Miami-Dade Oliver Gilbert.

Ese ha sido el argumento clave de los líderes del condado que respaldan el gasto, con proyecciones de la FIFA que estiman un impacto económico de 10 veces o más la inversión pública, aunque algunos siguen escépticos.

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It happened on March 27 along the 1800 block of 31st Avenue in Lauderhill.

According to police, Melneisha Oliver, 32, is facing an attempted first-degree murder charge after shooting an ex-boyfriend.

Police said Oliver obtained a gun from a friend, then later observed her ex in a car, walked up to it and opened fire.

The victim survived and told police he wished to prosecute Oliver, authorities said.

She is also facing a charge of possession of a weapon by a felon.

Oliver is being held at the Paul Rein Detention Facility on no bond.

Ocurrió el 27 de marzo en la cuadra 1800 de la avenida 31 en Lauderhill.

Según la Policía, Melneisha Oliver, de 32 años, enfrenta un cargo de intento de asesinato en primer grado tras dispararle a un ex novio.

La Policía dijo que Oliver obtuvo un arma de una amiga y luego vio a su ex dentro de un auto, se acercó y abrió fuego.

La víctima sobrevivió y dijo a la Policía que desea presentar cargos contra Oliver, indicaron las autoridades.

También enfrenta un cargo de posesión de arma por una delincuente convicta.

Oliver permanece detenida en el Centro de Detención Paul Rein sin derecho a fianza.

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“Rowie is super smiley and now she’s just trying to get a belly rub,” said Cherie Wachter with the Humane Society of Broward County. “She’s a lovely dog who just wants to snuggle, cuddle and get belly rubs.”

Rowie weighs about 45 pounds and staff describe her as an easygoing walker who doesn’t pull on a leash. She is also reportedly good with other dogs and cats, though introductions should be done slowly.

“If you’re looking for a dog to go for walks that’s not going to pull you down the sidewalk, this is the girl for you,” Wachter said.

Rowie was previously in a home but was surrendered after the family had to move and could not take her along. Staff say she would likely do best with older children and a calm home environment.

In addition to Rowie, the shelter is also caring for tiny kittens during “kitten season” in South Florida. One kitten, about 2.5 weeks old, is among those needing round-the-clock foster care as staff look for volunteers willing to bottle-feed and help raise them.

Those interested in adopting Rowie or fostering kittens can visit the HSBC, with adoption hours beginning at 11 a.m.

Click here for more information.

“Rowie siempre está sonriendo y ahora solo está tratando de conseguir que le rasquen la barriga”, dijo Cherie Wachter, de la Humane Society of Broward County. “Es una perra encantadora que solo quiere acurrucarse, abrazar y que le rasquen la barriga”.

Rowie pesa alrededor de 45 libras y el personal la describe como una perra tranquila para caminar que no hala de la correa. También, según informes, se lleva bien con otros perros y gatos, aunque las presentaciones deben hacerse lentamente.

“Si está buscando una perra para salir a caminar que no lo vaya a arrastrar por la acera, esta es la indicada para usted”, dijo Wachter.

Rowie anteriormente vivía en un hogar, pero fue entregada después de que la familia tuvo que mudarse y no pudo llevarla consigo. El personal dice que probablemente estaría mejor con niños mayores y en un ambiente tranquilo en casa.

Además de Rowie, el refugio también está cuidando pequeños gatitos durante la “temporada de gatitos” en el sur de Florida. Un gatito, de aproximadamente 2.5 semanas de nacido, está entre los que necesitan cuidado temporal las 24 horas mientras el personal busca voluntarios dispuestos a alimentarlos con biberón y ayudar a criarlos.

Quienes estén interesados en adoptar a Rowie o servir como hogar temporal para gatitos pueden visitar la HSBC, con horario de adopciones a partir de las 11 a.m.

Haga clic aquí para más información.

Police said Saturday that they aren't currently linking the incident to recent attacks on Jewish charity ambulances and a Persian-language media organization.

The Metropolitan Police force said that detectives weren't treating the incidents as acts of terror, but Counter Terrorism Policing London is leading the investigation “due to the similarities of each attack.”

Police said that on Friday night a man was spotted leaving a bag containing three bottles of fluid outside a building, which was previously used by the Jewish community. He attempted to light the contents, which failed to ignite fully, and then fled. No arrests have been made.

Friday’s incident in the Hendon area is close to Golders Green, where four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity were torched on March 23. Four people have been charged over that attack.

Police are also investigating an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in northwest London on Wednesday. On the same day, what police called an “ignited container” was thrown into a Persian media organization’s premises in Wembley, another part of northwest London. Two men and a teenage boy have been charged with arson.

No one has been injured in any of the incidents.

One line of investigation is whether the incidents are linked to Iran. The U.K. has accused Iran of using criminal proxies to conduct attacks on European soil targeting opposition media outlets and the Jewish community. Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence service says that more than 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots were disrupted in the year to October.

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Friday night, the festival recognized an actor whose career has really been one of so many layers: Adam Scott.

The festival presented him with its prestigious Vanguard Award.

Recipients of the award are those who have championed cinema through bold storytelling.

Scott spoke exclusively with Local 10’s Jason Carter, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

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Some say group workouts provide extra motivation and accountability. Others say solo exercise offers focus and mental clarity without distractions.

Some say group settings help push effort higher.

Others prefer going solo or keeping to themselves even in a gym setting, saying earbuds and personal space help maintain focus and independence during workouts.

Research cited in wellness studies suggests group exercise may reduce stress levels by about 26% and improve overall quality of life.

Solo workouts, meanwhile, are often linked to higher individual effort but less measurable improvement in stress reduction or life satisfaction.

As fitness trends continue to evolve, many say the choice comes down to personal preference — and what helps them stay consistent.

We want to know what you think: solo workouts or group fitness?

Let us know in the poll or comment section below.

La noche del viernes, el festival reconoció a un actor cuya carrera realmente ha tenido muchas facetas: Adam Scott.

El festival le entregó su prestigioso Premio Vanguard.

Los recipientes del premio son quienes han impulsado el cine mediante narrativas audaces.

Scott habló en exclusiva con Jason Carter de Local 10, y la conversación puede verse en la parte superior de esta página.

El accidente ocurrió alrededor de las 6:15 a.m.

Un Audi salía de un Burger King en Northwest Seventh Avenue cuando el conductor realizó un “cambio de carril inseguro”, según la Policía de North Miami.

Los investigadores indicaron que el conductor del Audi rozó un Dodge gris antes de estrellarse contra la fachada de una tienda Arona Home Essentials, ubicada en el 12550 de NW 7th Ave., cerca de Northwest 126th Street.

Indicaron que había tres personas dentro del Audi al momento del accidente.

Funcionarios de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue confirmaron que un menor fue trasladado al Jackson North Medical Center con dolor en un brazo que no pone en peligro su vida. Las autoridades dijeron que no se reportaron otras personas heridas, incluido el conductor del Dodge.

El conductor del Dodge, quien no quiso ser identificado, dijo a Local 10 que el impacto le hizo perder el control y desviarse hacia un árbol, dejando su vehículo como pérdida total.

“(Yo fui) directo contra el poste y golpeé el costado del árbol”, dijo. “Primero trataba de asegurarme de que estaba a salvo. Estoy bien. Estoy un poco molesto, pero realmente no hay mucho que pueda hacer al respecto”.

Según el conductor del Dodge, un transeúnte también resultó herido en el incidente, describiendo la lesión como un golpe en la rodilla, aunque la Policía y los equipos de rescate no han confirmado que esa lesión haya sido resultado del choque.

El vehículo que impactó el edificio ya fue retirado, pero los daños extensos permanecen y se espera que las labores de limpieza continúen.

El tráfico en Northwest Seventh Avenue ya fue reabierto.

No se revelaron de inmediato más detalles sobre el accidente.

Brentford could have climbed above Chelsea, which plays Manchester United later, and into sixth place with a win but missed a slew of chances.

Top scorer Igor Thiago hit the goal frame, Keane Lewis-Potter blazed a glorious chance over and Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno made a stunning last-minute save from Dango Ouattara.

Seventh-placed Brentford still remains in outside contention for a finish in the Champions League positions as the top five will qualify for the Champions League.

Former Brentford manager Thomas Frank was in the stands. It was his first visit to his old club since being fired by Tottenham in February.

Later Saturday, Tottenham has a chance to climb out of the relegation zone by beating Brighton at home, while Newcastle hosts Bournemouth and Leeds hosts last-placed Wolverhampton.

Leicester heading for third tier

Ten years after winning the Premier League, Leicester looks to be heading to the third tier of English soccer.

A 1-0 loss at Portsmouth on Saturday left Leicester in second-to-last place in the Championship.

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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

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

Algunos dicen que los entrenamientos en grupo brindan motivación adicional y responsabilidad.

Otros dicen que el ejercicio en solitario ofrece concentración y claridad mental sin distracciones.

Algunos afirman que los entornos grupales ayudan a elevar más el esfuerzo.

Otros prefieren entrenar solos o mantenerse apartados incluso en un gimnasio, señalando que los audífonos y el espacio personal ayudan a mantener la concentración y la independencia durante los ejercicios.

Investigaciones citadas en estudios de bienestar sugieren que el ejercicio en grupo puede reducir los niveles de estrés en alrededor de un 26% y mejorar la calidad de vida en general.

Los entrenamientos en solitario, mientras tanto, suelen estar vinculados a un mayor esfuerzo individual, pero a una menor mejoría medible en la reducción del estrés o la satisfacción con la vida.

A medida que las tendencias de acondicionamiento físico continúan evolucionando, muchos dicen que la elección depende de la preferencia personal y de lo que les ayude a mantenerse constantes.

Queremos saber qué piensa usted: ¿entrenamientos en solitario o ejercicio en grupo?

Déjenos saber en la encuesta o en la sección de comentarios abajo.

Ibogaine and other psychedelics remain banned under the federal government's most restrictive category for illegal, high-risk drugs. But the administration is taking steps to ease restrictions and spur research on using the drugs for medical purposes, including conditions like severe depression.

“Today’s order will ensure that people suffering from debilitating symptoms might finally have a chance to reclaim their lives and lead a happier life,” Trump said as he signed an executive order on the drugs. The Republican president said his directive will help “dramatically accelerate” access to potential treatments. "If these turn out to be as good as people are saying, it's going to have a tremendous impact,” he said.

Veteran organizations and psychedelic advocates have long contended that the ibogaine, which is made from a shrub native to West Africa, has great promise for hard-to-treat conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and opioid addiction.

Trump’s announcement follows pledges by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other administration officials to ease access to psychedelics for medical use, an issue that has won rare bipartisan support.

Joining Trump in the Oval Office were his top health officials, conservative podcaster Joe Rogan and Marcus Luttrell, the former Navy SEAL whose memoir about a deadly mission in Afghanistan was the basis of the film “Lone Survivor.” Rogan said he texted Trump information on ibogaine and the president responded: “Sounds great. Do you want FDA approval? Let's do it.”

“You’re going to save a lot of lives through it,” Luttrell told Trump during the ceremony. “It absolutely changed my life for the better.”

The Food and Drug Administration next week will issue national priority vouchers for three psychedelics, which the agency's commissioner, Marty Makary, said will allow certain drugs to be approved quickly “if they are in line with our national priorities.” The vouchers can cut review times from several months to a period of weeks. It is the first time the FDA has offered that fast-tracking to any psychedelics.

The FDA is also taking steps to clear the way for the first-ever human trials of ibogaine in the U.S.

Trump's action surprised many longtime advocates and researchers in the psychedelic field, given that ibogaine is known to sometimes trigger potentially fatal heart problems. The National Institutes of Health briefly funded research on the drug in the 1990s, but discontinued the work due to ibogaine's "cardiovascular toxicity.”

“It’s been incredibly difficult to study ibogaine in the U.S. because of its known cardiotoxicity,” said Frederick Barrett, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. “If the executive order can pave the way for doing objective, scientific research with this compound, it would help us understand whether it is truly a better psychedelic therapy than others.”

No psychedelic has been approved in the United States, but a number of them are being studied in large trials for various mental health conditions, including psilocybin, MDMA and LSD. All those drugs remain illegal, classified as Schedule I substances alongside drugs such as heroin. Two states — Oregon and Colorado — have legalized psychedelic therapy with psilocybin.

Ibogaine was first used by members of the Bwiti religion in African nations like Gabon during their religious ceremonies.

In recent years, U.S. veterans have reported benefiting from the drug after traveling to clinics in Mexico that administer it.

Backing from veterans groups and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry led to a law last year providing $50 million for ibogaine research in that state. Perry, who co-founded a group called Americans for Ibogaine, recently appeared on Rogan’s podcast, making the case for reducing federal limits on the drug. It was his second time talking about ibogaine on the popular podcast in the past two years.

The drug is known to cause irregular heart rhythms and has been linked to more than 30 deaths in the medical literature, according to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a nonprofit that conducted some early studies in patients outside the U.S.

The group's co-executive director, Ismail Lourido Ali, said Trump's order might encourage other states to follow the Texas model.

“The stigma around Schedule I drugs is significant,” Ali said. “It feels like this would give pretty substantial cover for Republican governors and legislatures to step into the ring in terms of funding research programs at their universities.”

Owners of ibogaine clinics said the impact of the order will not be immediate.

“There will be no insurance coverage, it will still be considered unapproved and non-covered care,” said Tom Feegel of Beond Ibogaine, which operates a clinic in Cancun, Mexico. “But what it does mean is that ibogaine shifts from being fringe and underground to being federally acknowledged.”

Feegel says his clinic treated 2,000 people with ibogaine last year for between $15,000 and $20,000 per person. The company also gave free treatment to about 100 veterans.

Clinics that use the drug typically monitor patients’ heart readings and have emergency medical equipment on hand.

One of the only recent studies conducted by U.S. researchers found that veterans treated with ibogaine showed improvements in symptoms of traumatic brain injury, including PTSD, depression and anxiety. The Stanford University study was small — enrolling 30 veterans who received the drug in Mexico. It did not include a placebo group for comparison, an essential feature of rigorous medical research. Patients in the study received a combination of ibogaine mixed with magnesium intended to reduce heart risks.

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

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The crash happened at 9:41 p.m. in the 4300 block of Riverside Drive, according to the Coral Springs Police Department.

Police said officers and the Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department responded to the scene and found that a man who was riding an e-bike had struck a marked CSPD vehicle. Officers said they immediately began rendering aid.

They said the man was taken by fire rescue crews to Broward Health North, where he was pronounced dead. Investigators on Saturday confirmed that the officer involved was not injured and that the victim’s identity cannot be released at this time.

Anyone who witnessed the crash or has information is urged to contact Officer Xavier Reinoso at xreinoso@coralsprings.gov or 954-346-1268.

No other details about the crash were immediately released.

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Jail records show Adrienne Michelle James is facing a charge of aggravated battery on a person 65 years of age or older.

Officers with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department on Tuesday evening said they responded to a reported battery and located James at the scene.

Police said she showed signs of intoxication, including slurred speech, bloodshot eyes and the smell of alcohol on her breath.

Authorities said the victim told officers that around 5:15 p.m., she was sitting on a bench near the concessions area at Holiday Park, located at 1150 G. Harold Martin Dr., with a friend when she saw James, whom she recognized as a park employee from prior interactions.

The woman said she greeted James, who then began cursing at her and calling her a liar and a “Trump sympathizer,” according to the report.

Police confirmed that a short time later, James sat behind the victim, then stood up, walked in front of her, and began pouring what the victim believed to be vodka onto her chest and head from a plastic container, the report states.

The victim told police the liquid was then thrown into her face, causing a burning sensation, particularly in her eyes, according to investigators.

Officers said they observed that the woman’s clothing and hair were wet and that her eyes were red. They said she was taken to Holy Cross Health for treatment.

A witness told police he saw James pour alcohol on the victim, corroborating her account, though he said it was from a plastic cup rather than a bottle, the report states, according to the report.

Investigators said the victim told them that she wants to press charges.

Records show James was being held at the Broward County Main Jail but has since posted a $2,500 bond.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Adrienne Michelle James enfrenta un cargo de agresión agravada contra una persona de 65 años o mayor.

Agentes del Departamento de Policía de Fort Lauderdale dijeron que el martes por la noche respondieron a un reporte de agresión y localizaron a James en la escena.

La Policía dijo que mostraba señales de intoxicación, incluyendo dificultad para hablar, ojos enrojecidos y olor a alcohol en el aliento.

Las autoridades dijeron que la víctima informó a los agentes que alrededor de las 5:15 p.m. estaba sentada en una banca cerca del área de concesiones en Holiday Park, ubicado en 1150 G. Harold Martin Dr., con una amiga cuando vio a James, a quien reconoció como empleada del parque por interacciones previas.

La mujer dijo que saludó a James, quien entonces comenzó a insultarla y a llamarla mentirosa y “simpatizante de Trump”, según el reporte.

La Policía confirmó que poco después James se sentó detrás de la víctima, luego se levantó, caminó frente a ella y comenzó a verter lo que la víctima creía que era vodka sobre su pecho y cabeza desde un recipiente plástico, indica el reporte.

La víctima dijo a la Policía que luego el líquido fue lanzado a su rostro, causándole una sensación de ardor, particularmente en los ojos, según los investigadores.

Los agentes dijeron que observaron que la ropa y el cabello de la mujer estaban mojados y que sus ojos estaban rojos. Indicaron que fue trasladada a Holy Cross Health para recibir tratamiento.

Un testigo dijo a la Policía que vio a James arrojar alcohol sobre la víctima, corroborando su versión, aunque señaló que fue desde un vaso plástico y no una botella, según el reporte.

Los investigadores dijeron que la víctima les informó que desea presentar cargos.

Los registros muestran que James permanecía detenida en la cárcel principal del condado Broward, pero desde entonces pagó una fianza de $2,500 USD.

One tricky bit: Coming up with formulas that don’t smell like pot roast.

“You see it everywhere, so we were like, ‘Why don’t we do this?’” he said. “Some of the feedback is, ‘We don’t want to smell like beef,’ so we add things like lavender and wild orange to kind of counter that potential beef smell.”

From moisturizers made with beef tallow to salmon sperm facials, consumers have become more interested in animal-based skin care products in recent years. Promoted as natural alternatives to synthetics, they're gaining popularity across social media and high-end spas as well as at farmers’ markets and in home kitchens.

Some experts connect the products' rise to an increased focus on the health impact of chemicals, as well as pro-meat messaging from the Make America Healthy Again movement.

“There’s been a movement in the last couple of years to embrace animal-based foods,” said Norah MacKendrick, an associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University who has studied why consumers are worried about chemicals in their personal care products. “I think some of that is probably spilling over into the cosmetic world.”

Natalee Keenan, 31, said she was looking for natural skin care products when she decided to give tallow a try. The first product she purchased felt beefy and heavy on her skin, but the western Pennsylvania woman said she recently found a whipped tallow balm scented with coconut that feels much lighter.

“I use it sparingly,” she said, adding a tiny bit has been enough to keep her skin feeling smooth.

Here’s what experts have to say about animal-based skin care, including cautions about a lack of medical evidence for their effectiveness.

Chemists, farmers say animal byproducts can be a way to use industry waste

The cosmetics industry moved away from many animal-derived ingredients decades ago amid concerns about animal testing and disease outbreaks like mad cow, said Perry Romanowski, an independent cosmetic chemist who studies how skin care ingredients are formulated.

For years, those concerns, along with the rise of vegan beauty products, pushed many brands to avoid animal-based ingredients altogether. But recently, some of those materials have started to reappear in skin care products and are often marketed as natural alternatives.

Jamie Moody, founder of Sonoma Mountain Beef in Northern California, said she started making tallow products in an effort to reduce waste. “Since the trend toward clean products remains strong, I believe the market will continue to grow,” she said.

Vander Dussen, the California rancher, said he and his wife are “just kind of jumping onto the fad that’s already there.” He added: “In today’s world, it’s very important not only what you are putting on your face but where it comes from.”

Kelly Pratt, who owns a spa in Tampa, Florida, said demand for treatments like salmon sperm DNA facials have surged because clients report improvements over time. Cassandra Hutchison, an aesthetician who gives the treatments at the spa, said the ingredient is intended to repair skin and keep inflammation down. She said it helps in hydration, making skin look healthier and repairing damage to the outer layer of skin that keeps moisture in and irritants out.

Prices vary, but a tub of tallow balm at Target costs about $15 more than a tub of petroleum jelly. And while there are some salmon sperm products like masks you can apply at home, many have to be applied at a spa, which comes with its own costs. Still, that hasn't deterred some consumers, whose searches for terms like “beef tallow for skin” have jumped in recent years and remained higher than ever before, according to Google Trends.

Experts say these may not be best choices

Turning waste from an animal product into something people use is certainly an example of sustainability, experts said.

But neither beef tallow nor salmon sperm have robust medical data to support their effectiveness, said Dr. Angelo Landriscina, a New York City dermatologist who has taken to social media to debunk what he sees as skin care misinformation.

Dr. Heather Rogers, a Seattle dermatologist, agreed there’s no medical evidence that tallow on your skin is helpful. She said it can be rancid and hard to use, and additives to make it smell more pleasant can be irritants.

Romanowski, the cosmetic chemist, said consumers should keep their expectations realistic. He said only a few skin care ingredients, including retinol, a vitamin A-derived ingredient commonly used to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, and niacinamide, a form of vitamin B3 that helps with redness and strengthens the skin, have strong evidence behind them. Others, he said, may offer only modest benefits that are difficult for consumers to notice.

How the politics of meat and chemicals weigh in

Corrin Dial, 32, owns Lowcountry Family Farms with her husband in South Carolina. Neither of them grew up farming, she said, but decided to try it after he got out of the Marine Corps.

Dial said she was looking for a natural balm for her baby about two years ago and decided to try whipping tallow. She said she thinks many people are coming to it to avoid chemical products, citing one customer who had cancer and was told by her doctor to be careful of anything she puts on her skin. “A lot of people are moving away from the chemical stuff, they’re trying to get into healthy eating and using more products where they know exactly where it came from,” she said.

MacKendrick, the sociologist from Rutgers, speculated that mothers, who as a demographic have become increasingly aware of how chemical substances affect children, are driving some of the move toward animal-based cosmetic products.

“We find that mothers are making these decisions for the household,” MacKendrick said. “Buying cosmetics for children or personal care products for children is considered high-stakes work.”

Landriscina pointed out that ingredients like salmon-based skin care getting touted as “the hottest new thing” can be rooted in an idea that other cultures, especially in places like Korea, are somehow ahead of the curve or have more innovation in their skin care. That's a bit different than the “back to basics” mentality that can draw people to ingredients like beef tallow. But he said whether people are interested in something old or something new, their skin care choices should be rooted in evidence.

Romanowski said the beauty industry is under pressure to constantly introduce something new.

“You should think of the cosmetic industry more like the fashion industry because you can only do so much with the shirt, right?” said Romanowski. “You can change the color, you can do some aesthetics thing, but it’s still a shirt and it’s the same thing with cosmetics.”

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Diab reported from Tampa, Fla., Taxin reported from Santa Ana, Calif. and Walling reported from Chicago.

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Follow Melina Walling on X @MelinaWalling and Bluesky @melinawalling.bsky.social.

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

Según la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade (MDSO), el choque fue reportado a las 6:24 a.m. en el área de Northwest 54th Street y 77th Court.

“Según los investigadores, una camioneta circulaba hacia el este por la NW 54 Street cuando continuó a través de la intersección y chocó contra un muro de concreto”, indicó la MDSO en un comunicado. “El vehículo pasó por encima del muro de contención e ingresó a los carriles en dirección sur de la carretera estatal 826 (autopista Palmetto), donde impactó a otro vehículo”.

Agentes confirmaron que el conductor de la camioneta fue declarado muerto en la escena.

El conductor del otro vehículo fue trasladado a un hospital cercano en condición estable.

Según el detective Argemis “AC” Colome, se recuperó un arma en la escena y los detectives creen que el conductor de la camioneta se quitó la vida.

“Obviamente vio que la pared estaba destruida y los autos unos encima de otros, y luego vio que empezaban a llegar los rescatistas”, dijo Mercy McClusky, quien trabaja cerca. “El detective que vino a hablar con nosotros dijo que también había casquillos de bala”.

Todos los carriles en dirección sur de la autopista Palmetto fueron cerrados tras el choque, pero ya han sido reabiertos.

La Unidad de Homicidios de Tránsito de la MDSO investiga las circunstancias del choque.

Leo spoke to reporters aboard the papal plane flying from Cameroon to Angola as part of his 11-day tour of Africa.

He addressed the spiraling back-and-forth saga of Trump’s critiques of his peace message, which have dominated news headlines this week. But the American pope also sought to set the record straight, insisting that his preaching isn’t directed at Trump, but reflects the broader Gospel message of peace.

“There’s been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects, but because of the political situation created when, on the first day of the trip, the president of the United States made some comments about myself,” he said.

“Much of what has been written since then has been more commentary on commentary, trying to interpret what has been said.”

Trump launched the criticism on his social media platform Truth Social on the night of April 12, when he criticized Leo’s preaching about peace as the war, which began with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28 and was followed by Iran’s retaliation, raged on. Trump accused Leo of being soft on crime, cozy with the left and said that the first American pontiff owed his election to Trump.

Leo has issued consistent calls for peace and dialogue, and has denounced the use of religious justification for war. Specifically, he called Trump’s threat to annihilate Iranian civilization “truly unacceptable.”

The Vatican has stressed that when Leo preaches about peace, he is referring to all wars ravaging the planet, not just the Iran conflict. The Russian Orthodox Church, for example, has justified Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine as a “holy war.”

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Leo referred specifically to his remarks earlier this week to a peace meeting in Bamenda, Cameroon. The city is the epicenter of a separatist conflict that has been raging in the western, Anglophone region of the country for nearly a decade.

Leo said that his remarks, in which he blasted the “handful of tyrants” who were ravaging Earth with war and exploitation, were written two weeks ago, long before Trump’s criticisms began.

“And yet as it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate again the president, which is not in my interest at all,” he said.

Looking ahead, however, he said that he would continue preaching the Gospel.

“I primarily come to Africa as a pastor, as the head of the Catholic Church to be with, to celebrate with, to encourage and accompany all the Catholics throughout Africa,” he said.

He drew attention to some upcoming liturgical readings about what it means to be Christian and to follow Christ, promote fraternity and brotherhood, “but also looking for ways to promote justice in our world, promote peace in our world,” he said.

Leo arrived later Saturday in Angola, the third stop on his four-nation tour. A message of peace would be especially relevant for the southern African country, which was ravaged by a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002 but has left deep scars.

Leo will meet with Angolan President Joao Lourenco and deliver his first speech before government authorities, when he hopes to bring joy and encouragement to Angola's long-suffering people.

El choque ocurrió a las 9:41 p.m. en la cuadra 4300 de Riverside Drive, según el Departamento de Policía de Coral Springs.

La Policía dijo que agentes y el Departamento de Bomberos de Coral Springs-Parkland respondieron a la escena y encontraron que un hombre que conducía una bicicleta eléctrica había impactado un vehículo identificado de la CSPD. Los agentes dijeron que de inmediato comenzaron a prestarle ayuda.

Indicaron que el hombre fue trasladado por equipos de rescate a Broward Health North, donde fue declarado muerto.

Las autoridades dijeron que el choque continúa bajo investigación.

Se exhorta a cualquier persona que haya presenciado el choque o tenga información a comunicarse con el agente Xavier Reinoso al correo xreinoso@coralsprings.gov o al 954-346-1268.

No se divulgaron de inmediato más detalles sobre el choque.

Leer en español

On Friday, detectives in Broward County announced the arrest of a 17-year-old suspect wanted in connection to an attempted sexual battery.

He has been identified as Anthony Alejandro Gonzalez Tovar.

The incident happened around 4:39 p.m. on April 8 along the 16300 block of Golf Club Road in Weston.

The victim told police she was sitting on the grass when authorities said she was grabbed from behind by an unknown subject, struggling with her attacker before he got up and fled after putting his shoes on.

Video footage was obtained by investigators, who said it showed the light-skinned suspect wearing a khaki-colored hoodie and distinctive red and black pants “exposing and pleasuring himself in an adjacent parking lot” before he was seen “slowly approaching the victim, surveying his surroundings and removing his shoes before grabbing her from behind,” according to deputies.

“It’s sad because he’s 17 years old,” said neighbor Abigail Lopez. “It’s sad on both ends ... the victim of course.”

Deputies said Gonzalez Tovar was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center for processing.

El viernes, detectives del condado Broward anunciaron el arresto de un sospechoso de 17 años buscado en relación con un intento de agresión sexual.

Ha sido identificado como Anthony Alejandro Gonzalez Tovar.

El incidente ocurrió alrededor de las 4:39 p.m. del 8 de abril en la cuadra 16300 de Golf Club Road en Weston.

La víctima dijo a la Policía que estaba sentada sobre el césped cuando, según las autoridades, fue sujetada por detrás por un individuo desconocido. La mujer forcejeó con su atacante antes de que este se levantara y huyera tras ponerse los zapatos.

Los investigadores obtuvieron video de vigilancia que, según dijeron, muestra al sospechoso de piel clara usando una sudadera color caqui y pantalones distintivos rojos y negros, “exhibiéndose y complaciéndose a sí mismo en un estacionamiento adyacente” antes de ser visto “acercándose lentamente a la víctima, observando sus alrededores y quitándose los zapatos antes de sujetarla por detrás”, según los agentes.

“Es triste porque tiene 17 años”, dijo la vecina Abigail Lopez. “Es triste por ambos lados... la víctima, por supuesto”.

Los agentes dijeron que Gonzalez Tovar fue llevado al Centro de Evaluación Juvenil para su procesamiento.

La policía de Hialeah indicó que Nikol Marie Rodriguez, de Miramar, fue detenida antes de la 1:30 p.m. del jueves.

Dijeron que los incidentes ocurrieron el 4 de marzo en Peace Christian Academy, ubicada en 490 E. 50th St.

Según un informe de arresto, la víctima, que tenía 8 años en ese momento, tiene diagnóstico de autismo y TDAH y “puede comprender instrucciones simples, pero tiene dificultad para articular más que una solicitud sencilla”.

La policía dijo que el niño no es conocido por ser violento y vive con su madre.

Rodriguez había sido la educadora principal del niño desde agosto de 2024 y era responsable del “cuidado, supervisión y servicios esenciales para la salud física y mental del menor”, indica el informe.

Los investigadores señalaron que el video de vigilancia muestra una interacción poco antes de las 11 a.m. cuando Rodriguez “parece asistir físicamente a la víctima al sujetar su brazo izquierdo” y luego “agarrar el brazo derecho y el área del bíceps, girando a la víctima de manera agresiva”.

Indicaron que las acusaciones más graves se derivan de un incidente posterior alrededor de las 12:45 p.m. de ese día, cuando el niño estaba sentado tranquilamente en el suelo y “no mostraba de ninguna manera un comportamiento físicamente amenazante”.

A pesar de eso, el informe establece que Rodriguez presuntamente sujetó al niño al colocarle los brazos detrás de la espalda, causándole dolor. La policía dijo que el niño “fue observado luchando contra la técnica de restricción, aparentando estar en agonía”, mientras otro estudiante cercano se cubría los ojos y los oídos.

Señalaron que la situación se agravó aún más cuando se vio a Rodriguez “azotar con fuerza la parte superior del cuerpo y la cabeza de la víctima contra el suelo del salón” y continuó sujetándolo al inmovilizar sus brazos y aplicar presión en la parte superior de su cuerpo.

El informe describe al niño intentando escapar mientras Rodriguez permanecía en control, en un momento presionando su cabeza contra una esquina del salón y montándose sobre su torso.

Tras el forcejeo, la policía indicó que Rodriguez es acusada de empujar al menor contra una mesa cuando intentaba ponerse de pie.

Dijeron que Rodriguez no buscó asistencia médica ni brindó atención posteriormente.

Más tarde esa noche, la madre del niño descubrió lesiones, incluyendo “una pequeña herida punzante” en su bíceps, junto con moretones y rasguños en el pecho y el brazo, según el informe.

Un informe interno de la escuela describió el incidente como un esfuerzo de “intervención de apoyo para desescalar” con la intención de prevenir daño, indicando que Rodriguez “colocó sus manos en los costados del menor para brindar apoyo físico”. Sin embargo, los investigadores dijeron que el video de vigilancia contradice esa versión.

La policía dijo que Rodriguez se negó a dar una declaración a través de su abogado.

Christopher Pracitto, abogado defensor de Rodriguez, pidió que su cliente recibiera una fianza más baja.

“Es una menor que estaba actuando mal, y ella estaba en el proceso de sujetarla”, dijo en la corte. La solicitud fue denegada.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que enfrenta un cargo de abuso infantil sin causar gran daño corporal.

Hasta el viernes, permanecía detenida en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, donde su fianza fue fijada en $5,000 USD. También se le ordenó mantenerse alejada de la víctima.

Local 10 News solicitó una declaración a la escuela sobre el incidente y si ella continúa empleada.

La Policía indicó que Perez, de 49 años, embistió intencionalmente con su camioneta de jardinería el Lexus que conducía Mirtha Sanchez-Teran el jueves, empujándolo contra un edificio detrás de un centro comercial en la cuadra 7600, dejándola atrapada y provocando que se activaran las bolsas de aire del vehículo.

Las autoridades dijeron que un video muestra a Perez, vestido de color naranja brillante, acercándose al auto de la víctima, apuntando con un arma y disparando un solo tiro antes de que el video termine.

En otro video se escuchan más disparos. Un informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de Coral Springs indica que Sanchez-Teran, madre de dos hijos, recibió múltiples impactos en ambos hombros, el pecho, el abdomen y el rostro.

Tras “aparentemente creer que estaba muerta”, huyó desesperadamente y saltó a un canal cercano para escapar del lugar, según el informe.

Pero los agentes dijeron que Sanchez-Teran sobrevivió a los disparos e identificó a su presunto atacante.

La Policía localizó a Perez en un vecindario cercano. Inicialmente negó conocer a su exnovia.

Sin embargo, tras ser detenido, la Policía indicó que se mostró emocional cuando los agentes mencionaron a la víctima y a sus dos hijas.

Varios testigos también lo identificaron, y su empleador confirmó que la camioneta de trabajo le pertenecía.

Ahora enfrenta varios cargos graves, incluido intento de asesinato.

Las autoridades informaron que Sanchez-Teran permanecía en condición grave hasta el viernes.

More than 61% of the Lower 48 states is in moderate to exceptional drought — including 97% of the Southeast and two-thirds of the West — according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. It's the highest levels for this time of year since the drought monitor began in 2000.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's comprehensive Palmer Drought Severity Index not only hit its highest level for March since records started in 1895, but last month was the third-driest month recorded regardless of time of year. It trailed only the famed Dust Bowl months of July and August 1934.

Because of record heat, much of the West has had exceptionally low levels of snow in the first few months of the year, which is usually how the region stores water for the summer. A different drought — connected to the jet stream keeping storms further north — has put the South from Texas all the way to the East Coast into a separate drought that just happens to coincide with what's going on in the West, said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center.

It would take 19 inches of rain in one month to break the drought in eastern Texas and more than a foot of rain to solve the deficit for most of the Southeast, NOAA calculated.

“Right now 61% of the country is in drought and that’s steadily been going up for the calendar year,” Fuchs said. “We just haven’t seen too many springs where this amount of the country has been in this kind of shape.”

Sticking out like a sore thumb is a highly technical but crucial measurement of “the sponginess'' of the atmosphere — or how much moisture the hot, dry air is sucking up from the land it's baking. It's called vapor pressure deficit. It's 77% above normal and more than 25% higher than the previous record for January through March in the West, said UCLA hydroclimatologist Park Williams.

That level of moisture-sucking from the ground “wouldn't have appeared possible” before now, Williams said.

Drought usually peaks in summer, not spring, and that's what worries meteorologists.

“Fire tends to respond to heat and drought in an exponential manner,” Williams said. “For each degree of warming, you get a bigger bang in terms of fire than you got from the previous degree of warming.”

In Arizona, cacti are blooming months early and the worry about water has already started, said Kathy Jacobs, director of the Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions at the University of Arizona.

“Those of us who are dependent on the Colorado River, of course, are very concerned about the fact that we don’t have a negotiated path forward in the middle of what appears to be possibly the worst year of drought that we’ve all experienced,” Jacobs said. “We have lots of reservoirs that are not full.”

Yale Climate Connections meteorologist Jeff Masters said his biggest concern is what drought will do to agriculture and then food prices. If America has a poor crop year because of the drought, it could be a global problem. A strong natural El Nino weather oscillation is predicted, which often reduces crop yield in other places across the globe, such as India.

UCLA's Williams said the drought and hotter weather are driven by both natural variability and human-caused climate change with randomness a slightly bigger factor.

“All weather is now affected by climate change,” Arizona's Jacobs said. “There is no such thing as weather that's divorced from climate trends. But this extreme event is extreme in the way that we’ve been expecting: extreme heat waves, intense drought.”

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

Yet so far, it’s been the office running elections in the state’s most populous county that has commanded much of the spotlight.

Republican Justin Heap is an election skeptic who will be overseeing his first statewide election in Maricopa County. He has been engaged in a bitter legal feud with the county board of supervisors over election procedures, has put in place a controversial system for checking signatures on mail ballots and has run voter records through a federal system to check for noncitizens despite questions about its accuracy. Heap also has made overtures to the Trump administration in its quest for voter and election records.

His actions have drawn heated comments from members of that board, which splits election oversight with Heap’s office, and rebukes from the attorney general and secretary of state. A ruling this week in the legal case will give Heap more authority over election operations.

The turmoil has created an air of uncertainty about how the midterm elections will go in a county that has been a regular target of election conspiracy theorists and is pivotal for deciding statewide races in one of the nation’s most important political battlegrounds.

State Sen. Lauren Kuby, a Democrat who sits on a legislative elections committee and represents part of Phoenix, said the discord between the recorder and county board is sowing confusion and distrust.

“We’re one of the biggest counties in the country, and we have all of our election administrators fighting right now," she said. "So I imagine if you’re a voter, you’re pretty confused and worried.”

The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, which Heap runs, did not provide a response to questions despite multiple requests for comment. Heap did issue a statement in response to the court ruling, saying it “restores both the authority and the resources necessary for my office to do its job.”

A power struggle and heated accusations

Heap took office after defeating the incumbent in the 2024 Republican primary. He quickly began challenging the board of supervisors, which is majority Republican.

He sued them in June 2025 with the backing of America First Legal, a conservative group founded by Stephen Miller, now a deputy chief of staff in the White House. The lawsuit accused the board of negotiating an agreement with Heap's predecessor to transfer money, information technology staff and certain election functions away from his office, including management of ballot drop boxes, processing of early arriving ballots and placement of sites used for early voting.

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ended up largely siding with Heap in the case. The board's chair, Kate Brophy McGee, said the board will consider an appeal.

Before the ruling, supervisors had called Heap's lawsuit frivolous and “full of falsehoods” as part a power struggle that at times has boiled over. A budget meeting in January devolved into heated accusations, with Supervisor Thomas Galvin, a Republican, saying Heap “continues to lie over and over again.” In a statement issued afterward, Heap dismissed the incident as a “juvenile temper tantrum.”

The board proposed a settlement earlier this year but did not receive a counteroffer from Heap.

New way to check voter signatures

Once in the job, Heap changed the process for checking voters’ signatures on their mail ballot envelopes.

The new procedure involves workers of both political parties reviewing signatures and more workers conducting additional reviews of signatures deemed to be questionable, Heap told the board during a meeting last fall.

But some elected officials and observers say they are concerned the new policy could lead to otherwise eligible ballots being rejected. Galvin said the rejection rate in the November 2025 local election was “huge” relative to past elections.

He has said he worries the new signature verification process is a “looming disaster” and expressed concern that many people “who legally and validly voted last November saw their ballots be rejected for arbitrary reasons.”

Heap says the new policy is faster and more secure. “In the end, the signatures either match or they don’t,” he told the board.

Checking citizenship, but accuracy is a question

Heap has promoted his office’s use of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE system to identify people on the voter rolls who may not be citizens.

The office said that through the system, it found “137 registered voters who are not U.S. citizens” and that 60 of those “voted in prior elections.” The Maricopa County attorney’s office has said it received 207 names from the recorder’s office to review for voting eligibility.

Voting by people who are not U.S. citizens is rare, and the SAVE system has been criticized by some election officials and experts who say it frequently identifies eligible voters as noncitizens. Arizona's secretary of state, Democrat Adrian Fontes, said in an interview that the program is unreliable.

“The SAVE system is notoriously inaccurate,” he said. “You can’t depend on that to take somebody off the voter rolls or to start the removal proceeding.”

The recorder’s office announced its use of the SAVE system the same day Heap attended a news conference outside Phoenix, where then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was promoting a congressional bill that would require documented proof of citizenship to register and vote.

Fontes said his office has not received any additional information from the recorder about the alleged noncitizen voters and that the timing of the announcement makes it seem like “more of a headline grab than anything without more information.”

Fears of undermining confidence in elections

Heap’s presence at Noem’s February news conference was not the only instance when the recorder has appeared close with the Trump administration.

Correspondence obtained from the recorder’s office through a public records request shows a willingness to defer to the U.S. Department of Justice. This year the department seized ballots and other records related to the 2020 election from Georgia’s Fulton County, which includes Atlanta.

Meanwhile, the FBI subpoenaed similar Maricopa County records from the state Senate president.

Harmeet Dhillon, who oversees the department's Civil Rights Division, wrote to Fontes, Heap and county officials in September seeking preservation of county election records. Heap replied the next day, stressing in his letter that his office is “committed to full cooperation with the Department of Justice as it conducts its investigation," before adding: “We share your goal of safeguarding election integrity.”

As it has done in other states, the department sued Arizona months later for failing to comply with its request for detailed voter information.

The state’s attorney general, Democrat Kris Mayes, told a local media outlet that Heap is “trying to undermine Arizonans’ trust in our election system” and warned him not to provide voter lists to the federal government.

With the state’s July primary approaching, some observers are concerned that Heap’s feuding with the board and other actions could undermine public confidence in elections.

“The voters need to have a sense that this county is well-run, that the recorder and the board of supervisors have the best interest of every voter,” said Pinny Sheoran, state advocacy chair with the League of Women Voters of Arizona. “And that is frayed with this discord.”

Rain chances are about 10% Saturday, increasing to 30% Sunday and 50% by Monday as a cold front approaches South Florida. After Monday, temperatures will fall back closer to 80 degrees through the rest of next week, so this brief burst of heat won’t last long.

If you’ve been itching to get to the beach, conditions look favorable, with lighter winds and plenty of sunshine.

The attack near the southern Lebanese village of Ghandouriyeh came after a 10-day ceasefire went into effect at midnight Thursday between Israel and Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2 when the Iran-backed group launched rockets into Israel after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, killing top officials including the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The war, in which Israel invaded parts of Lebanon, left nearly 2,300 people dead in Lebanon, more than 1 million people displaced and caused wide destruction.

“Everything suggests that responsibility for this attack lies with Hezbollah,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on social media. “France demands that the Lebanese authorities immediately arrest those responsible and assume their responsibilities alongside UNIFIL,” the U.N. mission in southern Lebanon.

Investigation launched as Hezbollah denies responsibility

In Beirut, three judicial officials said the country's Military Tribunal opened an investigation over the incident and is in contact with the army's intelligence department to work on identifying the attackers. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Hezbollah denied links to the attack calling in a statement for caution in assigning blame and judgment until the Lebanese army completes its investigation to determine the full circumstances of the incident. Hezbollah said peacekeepers should coordinate with the Lebanese army in their operations.

Hezbollah expressed surprise in the statement at the hasty accusations leveled against it, especially given the silence of these same parties “when the Israeli enemy attacks UNIFIL forces.”

Macron identified the dead soldier as Staff Sgt. Florian Montorio of the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment from Montauban. He added that three of Montorio’s “comrades in arms were injured and evacuated.”

“The nation bows in respect and extends its support to the families of our soldiers and to all our military personnel engaged for peace in Lebanon,” he said.

His death came nearly a month after a drone attack on March 12 targeted a Kurdish military base in Iraq's Erbil region, killing French Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion and wounding six others.

French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin said Saturday that the soldier was killed during an ambush. She said he was on a mission to open a route toward a UNIFIL post that had been isolated for several days due to fighting in the area between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.

A 10-day ceasefire took effect in Lebanon on Friday, but it wasn't clear to what extent Hezbollah would abide by a truce it did not play a role in negotiating.

“He was caught in an ambush by an armed group at very close range,” she said on X. “Immediately hit by a direct shot from a light weapon, he was pulled back under fire by his comrades, who were unable to resuscitate him.”

UNIFIL said a patrol clearing explosive ordnance along a road in the village of Ghandouriyeh on Saturday to re-establish links with isolated UNIFIL positions came under small-arms fire from non-state actors. UNIFIL said one peacekeeper succumbed to his injuries and three others were injured, two of them seriously.

Macron demands clarification of the incident

Macron spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam following the attack “in order to call on the Lebanese authorities to shed full light on this incident, to identify and prosecute those responsible without delay, and to do everything possible to ensure the safety of UNIFIL soldiers, who must under no circumstances be targeted,” Macron's office said.

Salam posted on X that he has ordered an investigation into the attack and to bring the perpetrators to justice. Aoun and Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri condemned the attack.

The Lebanese army condemned the attack in a statement adding that it will continue its “close coordination” with UNIFIL. The army added that it is investigating the attack to detain the perpetrators.

Macron also reiterated “the importance of full respect for the ceasefire by all parties and reaffirmed France’s commitment to Lebanon’s sovereignty, for the benefit of all Lebanese people and regional stability.

Israel confirms it carried out strikes in Lebanon

Earlier Saturday, the Israeli military said it had conducted aerial and ground strikes in southern Lebanon adding after it identified several incidents in which militants “violated the ceasefire understanding” by approaching areas close to where Israeli troops are located.

The military mentioned for the first time what it called a “Yellow Line,” saying militants tried to approach it from the north.

There is no mention of a “Yellow Line” in the 10-day ceasefire agreement that was announced by President Donald Trump and went into effect this week.

The U.S. State Department said Thursday that according to the ceasefire agreement, Israel reserves the right to defend itself “at any time, against planned, imminent or ongoing attacks.”

Senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qammati told Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed TV Saturday that the group will not tolerate any Israeli strikes similar to what happened after the November 2024 truce, when Israel continued to carry out almost daily airstrikes.

“This time we will not practice the strategic patience policy,” Qammati said.

_____

Petrequin reported from London.

Speaking to reporters Friday after Marie-Thérèse Ross returned to France, Hervé Goix, said the family's “absolute priority” is to protect her.

"To preserve her health and her rest, and for her to be able to rebuild herself,” Goix told a press conference alongside his two siblings in the town of Orvault, in western France.

“We are particularly relieved today to see our mother again, to have her back," he said. “She has necessarily gone through a difficult ordeal.”

Ross returned to France after a harrowing 16 days spent in federal immigration custody, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Friday. Without elaborating, Barrot said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement methods were “not in line” with French standards and “not acceptable to us.”

Ross entered the U.S. last June after marrying a retired U.S. soldier who had been stationed in her home country in the 1960s, court records show. But after her husband died of natural causes in January, a dispute arose over his estate. Ross’ stepson — a U.S. federal employee — allegedly intervened to have her taken into immigration custody, an Alabama judge found.

Federal immigration agents detained Ross in Alabama on April 1 after she overstayed her 90-day visa, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She was then held at a detention facility in Louisiana as French officials expressed concern about her well-being.

Goix, who told The Associated Press that she had been in the process of applying for a green card when she was taken into custody, added during the press conference that “the essential thing is that she is truly safe, that she regains her comfort, that she is surrounded by her children and grandchildren."

The mayor of Orvault, Sébastien Arrouët, told French media he spoke with Ross and said “she is delighted, she is happy, she is relieved.”

“Put yourselves in her place, in a country she knows a little bit, it all happened to her so suddenly,” he said. “We don’t realize the psychological violence. She needs to process all this, and the most important thing is that she is back with us.”

Ross was taken into custody in her nightgown and was unable to bring her phone, passport and other identification with her, records show.

Trump called Newsom "stupid,” “low IQ,” “mentally disabled” and unfit to become president. Muller knew it was part of a political feud — Trump is a Republican and Newsom is a Democrat who is expected to run for the White House in 2028 — but Trump’s words felt personal.

“We’ve had to overcome so many deficits, and for someone to, on a national stage, say, yeah, they will never be like us — that definitely came as an emotional sting to me,” said Muller, an incoming student at Auburn University whose dyslexia was identified as a child.

It was one more entry in Trump’s history of denigrating the intelligence of his foes and mocking those with disabilities. Yet this time he was maligning tens of millions of people, calling their abilities into question and undermining years of progress fighting stigma around dyslexia.

Among those with dyslexia, his remarks aroused feelings from anguish and anger to dismay. It cut across politics, drawing a rebuke from supporters and critics alike.

Muller's mother, Marilyn, voted for Trump three times and says she still supports his politics. But she was hurt when Trump linked dyslexia with low intelligence — a dated myth that she has spent years trying to dispel.

“It works against everything I do on a daily basis,” said Marilyn Muller, a literacy advocate in Florida. “It was probably one of the more ignorant comments I have ever heard come from his mouth.”

A learning disability often misunderstood

Trump’s comments clash with a large body of research finding that dyslexia and IQ are unrelated. They also conflict with statements he issued during his first term for national awareness months, heaping praise on the “extraordinary contributions” of those with dyslexia and noting that their ranks include top industry executives and inventors.

Often misunderstood, dyslexia affects the link between the brain and printed language, making it difficult for people to read. Dyslexia often emerges in childhood as kids learn to read and write. It is estimated to affect up to 20% of the world population.

“All of a sudden, you’re not doing so well in school and then people will tell you, oh, you’re not trying, you’re not smart or whatever, and none of that’s accurate. You just have this difference in that bridge from language to print,” said John Gabrieli, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Newsom has for years discussed his dyslexia, including in a children's book he wrote in 2021 as well as a new memoir. On his recent book tour, he talked about memorizing speeches because he is unable to read them. He described it as a struggle and a gift, saying it forced him to develop other skills.

Trump latched on to some of Newsom's comments. “He can’t read a speech, he can’t do almost anything,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting in March. “He’s actually a very stupid person.”

He added: “I think a president should not have learning disabilities.”

Trump acknowledged his departure from decorum, saying it’s “highly controversial to say such a horrible thing.” He went on to say it at least four more times.

Newsom's office declined to comment for this story and referred to the governor's social media posts. “Learning differences don’t define your limits, they shape your strengths,” Newsom wrote in one post. “And no one, not even the President of the United States, gets to decide your worth.”

Little GOP pushback to Trump's comments

In Utah, Lia Beatty said she has become inured to Trump's brash behavior, but she still sees danger in his latest tirades. People listen to the president, and young people with dyslexia might hear those comments and believe they count for less, said Beatty, 27, who has dyslexia and runs a university neurology lab.

“The harm isn’t necessarily in the headline. It’s what happens quietly,” she said. “It’s the student in the classroom who stops raising their hand, the college applicant who hides how they learn, the employee who doesn’t pursue a promotion that they’re more than qualified for.”

Until she saw his comments circulating on social media, Beatty had been keeping quiet about her acceptance to a doctoral neurology program at Dartmouth College. She made it public in a social media post aiming to undercut Trump.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge that, yeah, the rooms — they weren’t made for us, but we’re still getting in them,” Beatty said.

On Capitol Hill, there is a strong history of bipartisan support for people with dyslexia. A House caucus is devoted to the issue, with vocal champions from both parties. Yet there has been little Republican pushback to Trump’s comments.

Trump's remarks did not come up Wednesday at a congressional roundtable on dyslexia, organized by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., whose daughter has dyslexia and whose wife runs a school for children with dyslexia. After the event, Cassidy refused to respond directly to Trump's remarks.

“All I can say is that a child with dyslexia will grow to be, often times, a very talented adult,” Cassidy, who is up for reelection but did not get Trump's endorsement, told The Associated Press. “There’s people who have self-identified as dyslexic who have become CEOs of hospitals and of great businesses.”

There has been no comment from Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., co-chair of the dyslexia caucus.

Some in Trump's circles have detailed struggles with dyslexia

Advocates have noted that some past presidents probably did have dyslexia.

Woodrow Wilson wrote about his difficulty learning to read and he became an early adopter of the typewriter as one of many workarounds, said John M. Cooper, a presidential historian and Wilson biographer.

Some in Trump’s circles have spoken about difficulties with dyslexia.

Gary Cohn, the architect of Trump’s signature tax bill from his first term, has talked at length about struggling with dyslexia as a child. He went on to become a business titan and president of Goldman Sachs.

Advocates say Trump’s words threaten to reverse years of progress unwinding stereotypes. His comments also raise questions about promises his administration has made to protect students with disabilities even as Trump dismantles the Department of Education, which oversees the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Jacqueline Rodriguez, CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, said it will be hard for families to trust Trump's education appointees “when their boss is making these really stigmatizing and really inaccurate statements.”

In Decatur, Georgia, Meagan Swingle said Trump’s comments made her sick to her stomach. She brought it up with her 15-year-old son, Enrique, who has dyslexia, knowing he might hear about the remarks at school. Enrique, who excels in math and science, brushed it off, she said.

But it stuck with her.

“I don’t know that he remembers a time like I do when, whether you were a Democrat or a Republican or an independent, you could expect a higher standard from the president of the United States,” she said. “ We build people up, we don’t tear them down.”

She’s 48 years old, works at a hospital, describes herself as a conservative and voted for Trump in the last election. But that doesn't mean she's going to vote out her Republican state senator just because he defied the president's demand to redraw Indiana's congressional map.

“I’m not going to say that ‘because this is what the president wants, this is how I’m going to vote,’" Wise said from her front step on a sunny, springtime afternoon.

Indiana's primary on May 5 has become an unlikely test of Trump's grip on the Republican Party. After state senators defied White House pressure by opposing redistricting, Trump has endorsed seven primary challengers in races that rarely attract any attention from Washington.

The campaign, backed by national organizations such as Turning Point Action and pro-Trump groups that have spent more than $4.2 million on advertising, has no precedent in recent memory. Gov. Mike Braun and U.S. Sen Jim Banks, both Republicans, are also working against incumbent state senators in a display of deference to Trump.

One of their targets is Spencer Deery, a first-term state senator who knocked on Wise's door while canvassing her West Lafayette neighborhood via electric scooter.

“This is about one thing only,” he told The Associated Press. “And that’s control.”

An avalanche of campaign spending

Deery represents the 23rd Senate District, a seven-county swath of farmland that borders Illinois to the west, runs north to West Lafayette and touches the outskirts of Terre Haute to the south.

Four years ago, Deery's campaign spent $142,000 to win his seat in a race where fewer than 11,000 people voted. One of the primary candidates he defeated was Paula Copenhaver, a veteran Republican activist and local party chair.

Now Trump has endorsed Copenhaver, an aide to Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, and Deery is facing a nearly $1 million avalanche of spending. One television advertisement declared that “State Sen. Spencer Deary voted against President Trump’s agenda.”

“It’s about sending a message that any state that does not get in line or any lawmakers that do not get in line with the political forces in D.C. should be on the lookout,” Deery said. “That should concern you in a constitutional democracy.”

Deery has spent $167,000 so far, and he hasn't had any help from outside groups.

A Trump-backed opponent

Copenhaver declined to respond to telephone calls and text messages from The Associated Press after originally saying she was willing to discuss the campaign. Trump endorsed her in January by calling her a “MAGA Warrior” — a reference to Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement — and “a terrific Candidate for Indiana’s 23rd State Senate District.”

He wrote on social media that Copenhaver was “running against an incompetent and ineffective RINO incumbent named Spencer Deery who, for whatever reason, betrayed his voters by voting against Redistricting in Indiana.” RINO means “Republican in name only.”

The White House leaned heavily on Indiana lawmakers last year to break with precedent and adopt a new congressional map, part of an unusual nationwide cascade of redistricting that Trump hopes will help Republicans protect their thin U.S. House majority in November's elections. Vice President JD Vance met with Indiana politicians in Washington and Indianapolis, and Trump weighed in by conference call.

Some opponents of the proposal faced threats. Deery was targeted by a false police report intended to provoke a dangerous situation by sending a SWAT team racing to his home.

But the Republican-controlled state Senate voted against redistricting in December, a defeat for the president.

Trump tried to brush it off afterward, telling reporters in the Oval Office that “I wasn't working on it very hard.”

Making the rounds on the campaign trail

As Deery moved from door to door in the neatly manicured suburb at the edge of a clover field in northwest West Lafayette, a pair of motorcyclists out on a Saturday ride stopped to encourage him.

“I wanted to thank you for having the courage to vote against the redistricting,” one of them said.

Annette and Curtis Williams politely chatted with Deery at their door. Curtis said Trump’s threat to unseat Deery is “inappropriate.” Neither he nor his wife would say how they planned to vote.

Beckie Eikenberg, a quality assurance associate at an Indiana pharmaceutical company, has seen the advertisements targeting Deery, but she does not trust them. The 47-year-old who calls herself “libertarian on the conservative side,” spoke with the state senator at the end of her cul-de-sac.

She voted for Trump but wrinkled her brow when asked if the president should have a say in Indiana’s congressional map.

“He doesn’t necessarily know what’s going on within our state. He’s not here. He doesn’t see the day to day,” she said.

Governor stays allied with Trump

The campaign to oust incumbents is also intended to dislodge Indiana Senate President Pro Tem Rodrick Bray, who helped block redistricting and has faced criticism from Trump.

Bray is not up for reelection this year, but Braun wanted primary challengers to commit to opposing him as Senate leader, according to three people familiar with the demand. The people were not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump political aides said they were monitoring the campaigns. Representatives for Banks, the U.S. senator allied with the White House, did not return messages seeking comment.

Braun, the Republican governor, said he is backing the primary challengers not because of redistricting but because he needs help to advance his agenda. For example, he was at odds with Bray over property taxes earlier in his term.

Braun is putting $500,000 from his political action committee into state senate races.

“Whether you supported this or that, my goal is to get enterprising senators and representatives,” Braun said Monday. “So when it comes to what you do to either support or not support certain legislators, for me, it’s going to mostly based on, ‘Are you willing to help me take Indiana into places that all states would want to be?’”

One of Braun's predecessors is working against him in the primary. Former Gov. Mitch Daniels Daniels, a Republican who stepped away from politics after leaving office in 2015, has been quietly working to protect incumbents targeted by Trump.

Daniels recorded a video and helped raise money for Deery, who was chief of staff to the former governor when he became president of Purdue University.

Deery said his vote against redistricting was not about defying Trump or the president's allies.

“I don’t work for them,” Deery said. “I work for my voters, my constituents.”

_____

Associated Press videojournalist Obed Lamy in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

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According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, the crash was reported at 6:24 a.m. in the area of Northwest 54^th Street and 77^th Court.

“According to investigators, a pickup truck was traveling eastbound on NW 54 Street when it continued through the intersection and collided with a concrete barrier wall,” MDSO said in a news release. “The vehicle went over the barrier wall and entered the southbound lanes of State Road 826 (Palmetto Expressway), where it struck another vehicle.”

Deputies confirmed that the driver of the pickup truck, who they identified as 26-year-old Reinerio De La Torre Toledo, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the other vehicle was transported to a nearby hospital in stable condition. Detectives said they will not be releasing his name.

According to Detective Argemis “AC” Colome, a gun was recovered at the scene and detectives believe De La Torre Toledo took his own life.

“He saw obviously the wall was broken and cars on top of each other and then he saw the rescue starting to arrive,” said Mercy McClusky, who works nearby. “The detective that came to talk to us said that there were bullet casings also.”

All southbound lanes of the Palmetto Expressway were shut down after the crash, but have since reopened.

MDSO’s Traffic Homicide Unit is investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash.

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Hialeah police said Nikol Marie Rodriguez, of Miramar, was taken into custody before 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

They said the incidents occurred March 4 at Peace Christian Academy, located at 490 E. 50th St.

According to an arrest report, the victim, who was 8 years old at the time, is diagnosed with autism and ADHD and “is able to comprehend simple instructions, but has difficulty articulating more than a simple request.”

Police said the boy is not known to be violent and lives with his mother.

Rodriguez had been the boy’s primary educator since August 2024 and was responsible for “care, supervision, and services essential for the child’s physical and mental health,” the report states.

Investigators said surveillance video shows an interaction just before 11 a.m. when Rodriguez “appears to physically assist the victim by grabbing hold of the victim’s left arm” and then “grabbing the victim’s right arm and bicep area, spinning the victim in an aggressive manner.”

They said more serious allegations stem from a later incident around 12:45 p.m. that day when the boy was sitting calmly on the floor and “was not in any way displaying physically threatening behavior.”

Despite that, the report states that Rodriguez allegedly restrained the boy by pulling his arms behind his back, causing him to have pain. Police said the boy “was observed struggling with the restraint technique, appearing to be in agony,” while another student nearby covered his eyes and ears.

They said the situation escalated further when Rodriguez was seen “forcefully slamming the victim’s upper body and head onto the classroom floor” and continued to restrain him by pinning his arms and applying pressure to his upper body.

The report describes the boy attempting to escape while Rodriguez remained in control, at one point pinning his head into a classroom corner and mounting his torso.

After the struggle, police said Rodriguez is accused of pushing the child into a table as he tried to stand.

They said Rodriguez did not seek medical assistance or provide care afterward.

Later that evening, the boy’s mother discovered injuries, including “a small puncture wound” on his bicep, along with bruising and scratches to his chest and arm, according to the report.

An internal school report described the incident as a “supportive de-escalation” effort intended to prevent harm, stating Rodriguez “placed her hands on his sides in order to provide physical support.” However, investigators said surveillance video contradicted that account.

Police said Rodriguez declined to provide a statement through her attorney.

Jail records show she is facing one count of child abuse without great bodily harm.

Christopher Pracitto, Rodriguez’s defense attorney, asked that his client receive a lower bond.

“It is a child that was acting out, and she was in the process of restraining (the child),” he said in court. The request was denied.

Rodriguez posted her $5,000 bond on Saturday morning after being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. She was also ordered to stay away from the victim.

Local 10 News has requested a statement from the school about the incident and whether she is still employed.

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The crash happened around 6:15 a.m.

An Audi was leaving a Burger King along Northwest Seventh Avenue when the driver made an “unsafe lane change,” according to North Miami police.

Investigators said the driver of the Audi sideswiped a gray Dodge before crashing into the front of an Arona Home Essentials store, located at 12550 NW 7th Ave., near Northwest 126th Street.

They said there were three people inside the Audi at the time of the crash.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials confirmed that a child was transported to Jackson North Medical Center with non-life-threatening arm pain. Authorities said no other injuries were reported, including to the driver of the Dodge.

The driver of the Dodge, who did not want to be identified, told Local 10’s Jackie Pascale that the impact caused him to lose control and veer into a tree, totaling his vehicle.

“(I went) straight through the pole and hit the side of the tree,” he said. “I was trying to make sure I was safe first. I’m alright. I’m a little upset, but there’s really nothing much I can do about that.”

A bystander was also injured in the incident, according to the Dodge driver, who described the injury as a bruised knee, although police and fire rescue crews have not confirmed that injury was a result of the collision.

The vehicle that struck the building has since been removed, but extensive damage remains, and cleanup efforts are expected to continue.

The building has since been deemed an unsafe structure, forcing the business to temporarily close. Local 10 was at the scene as the business was boarded up.

Traffic along Northwest Seventh Avenue has since reopened.

No other details about the crash were immediately released.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump and the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, hosted two overlapping events about democracy and progressive politics at a convention center in Spain’s second city.

While no leader mentioned Trump in the part of the first gathering that was open to the press, the staunchly unilateral position of the American president that breaks with decades of U.S. foreign policy, including his derision of NATO and the United Nations, hung over the meetings.

“We all see the attacks against the multilateral system, the repeated attempts to undermine international law and the dangerous normalization of the use of force,” Sánchez said.

“The far right is international, so we must be too,” German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told a crowd of activists.

Trump again lashed out on Saturday on social media at Sánchez, who has faced Trump’s scorn for not allowing the U.S. to use jointly operated military bases in Spain for operations related to the Iran war and for refusing to raise military spending from 2% to 5% of GDP.

“Has anybody looked at how badly the country of Spain is doing. Their financial numbers, despite contributing almost nothing to NATO and their military defense, are absolutely horrendous. Sad to watch!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Spain, like the U.S. and other developed countries, is in debt, but it has one of the world’s leading economies under Sánchez.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, and other leaders and officials were in attendance at the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy. Later in the day, Sánchez, Lula and Ramaphosa stayed put at the convention center to attend the inaugural Global Progressive Mobilization, where some 3,000 left-leaning elected officials, policy analysts and activists exchanged ideas.

Former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sent a short video message to the rally, saying “we can shape a better future no matter what the odds may be against that promise.”

Reforming the U.N.

Ramaphosa said South Africa will present a draft resolution to establish an International Panel on Inequality, aiming to tackle the growing wealth gap both within and between nations, to the U.N. General Assembly in September.

He also urged a rethink of the Security Council of the U.N., pointing to the wars started by permanent Security Council members — Russia against Ukraine, and the U.S. against Iran.

“The United Nations has now become a toothless organization because those who are members of the Security Council are the ones who continue to violate all the laws and the rights,” Ramaphosa said at the gathering of socialists and progressives.

More trees, less inequality

Among concrete proposals, Sheinbaum plugged her idea that governments commit to spending the equivalent of 10% of their military budgets on reforestation projects.

“Each year, instead of planting the seeds of war, we will plant the seeds of life,” she said.

Sheinbaum also said she wants to propose a declaration, without specifying if she referred to the U.N., against a military intervention in Cuba. Trump has said that he believes he will “ have the honor of taking Cuba” soon, though it wasn't clear exactly what he meant.

Sánchez argued for the importance of regulating social media to stop the spread of hate speech and disinformation. His government also said that it is working with Brazil on a tax for the ultrarich.

Defending core values

The gatherings come a day after Sánchez and Lula held a summit at a former royal palace in Barcelona.

Lula and Sánchez are among the few progressive leaders who have withstood a shift to the right and remain popular in their countries while defending multilateral agreements, human rights, environmental protections and gender equality — values often challenged by Trump; Lula’s neighbor in Argentina, libertarian President Javier Milei; and Europe’s far right.

Leo’s plane touched down at Luanda’s international airport after the flight from Yaounde, Cameroon, where he celebrated a morning Mass before an estimated 200,000 people.

En route, he had further comments about his ongoing back-and-forth with U.S. President Donald Trump over the Iran war, which began on Feb. 28 with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes followed by Tehran's retaliation. Leo said that it was “not in my interest at all” to debate the president, but that he would continue preaching the Gospel message of peace.

In Cameroon, Leo sought to encourage young people to have hope and demanded that elites stop exploiting the land and its people for profit. It’s a message he was expected to echo in Angola, another mineral-rich former European colony where many of the people live in poverty.

In his homily Saturday, delivered in French, Leo said that the respect for human dignity was a cornerstone of every society.

“For this reason, every community has the obligation to create and sustain structures of solidarity and mutual aid in which, when faced with crises — be they social, political, medical or economic — everyone can give and receive assistance according to their own capacity and needs,” he said.

A scarred Angola welcomes the pope

In Angola, Leo will meet with President Joao Lourenco and deliver his first speech before Angolan government authorities.

Angola, a southern African country of around 38 million, gained independence from Portugal in 1975. But it still bears the scars of a devastating civil war that began straight after independence, and raged on and off for 27 years before finally ending in 2002. More than 500,000 people are believed to have been killed.

For years, the civil war was a Cold War proxy conflict, with the United States and apartheid South Africa backing one side and the Soviet Union and Cuba backing the other.

“I would like to hear a message of peace, a message of reconciliation," Luanda resident Sergio Jose said. "I would also like to hear good political messages, and I would also like to hear that the pope would also talk about the upcoming elections in Angola.”

Angola today is the fourth-largest oil producer in Africa and among the world’s top 20 producers, according to the International Energy Agency. It’s also the world’s No. 3 diamond producer and has significant deposits of gold and highly sought after critical minerals.

But despite its varied natural resources, the World Bank estimated in 2023 that more than 30% of the population lived on less than $2.15 a day.

In Cameroon, Leo had railed against the “chains of corruption” that were hindering development, as well as the “handful of tyrants” who were ravaging Earth with war and exploitation. He's expected to raise similar points in Angola.

Late former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who led Angola for 38 years from 1979 to 2017, was accused of diverting billions of dollars of public money to his family, largely from the country’s oil revenue, as millions struggled in poverty.

After Lourenco took over as president, his administration estimated that at least $24 billion was stolen or misappropriated by dos Santos. Lourenco's administration has vowed to crack down on corruption and has worked to recover funds allegedly stolen during the dos Santos era.

But critics note that Angola still has deep problems with corruption and have questioned if Lourenco’s actions were more aimed at political rivals so as to consolidate his power.

A legacy of slavery

Angola, on the southwest coast of Africa, was considered to be the epicenter of the trans-Atlantic slave trade as a Portuguese colony. More than 5 million of the roughly 12.5 million enslaved Africans were sent across the ocean on ships departing from Angola, more than any other country, though not all of them were Angolans.

The highlight of Leo’s visit to Angola is expected to be his visit Sunday to Muxima, south of Luanda. It's a popular Catholic shrine in a country where around 58% of the population is Catholic.

The Church of Our Lady of Muxima was built by Portuguese colonizers at the end of the 16th century as part of a fortress complex and became a hub in the slave trade. It remains a reminder of the inextricable link hundreds of years ago between Roman Catholicism and the exploitation of the African continent.

Leo, history's first U.S.-born pope, has Black and white ancestors who included both enslaved people and slave owners, according to genealogical research. He's going to Muxima to pray the Rosary, in recognition of the site becoming a popular pilgrimage destination, after believers reported an appearance by the Virgin Mary around 1833.

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Gerald Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.

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

New attacks on the strait, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil normally passes, threatened to deepen the global energy crisis and push the countries into renewed conflict eight weeks after the war began.

Their fragile ceasefire is due to run out by Wednesday. Iran said it had received new proposals from the United States, and Pakistani mediators were working to arrange another round of direct negotiations.

Iran’s joint military command said “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state ... under strict management and control of the armed forces.” It warned it would continue to block transits while the U.S. blockade remained in effect.

Revolutionary Guard gunboats opened fire on a tanker transiting the strait and an unknown projectile hit a container vessel, damaging some containers, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said, without identifying the vessels. TankerTrackers.com said two Indian-flagged vessels, including a supertanker carrying Iraqi oil, were forced to turn around after being fired on by Iran.

For Iran, the strait's closure — imposed after the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28 during talks over Tehran's nuclear program — is perhaps its most powerful weapon, threatening the world economy and inflicting political pain on President Donald Trump. For the United States, the blockade keeps up pressure and could strangle Iran's already weakened economy.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, issued defiant remarks on Saturday, saying the navy stands “ready to inflict bitter defeats on its enemies.” He has not been seen in public since being elevated to the post following his father's death in Israel’s opening barrage.

A turnaround a day after Iran said the strait was open

On Friday, Iran announced the strait's reopening to commercial vessels after a 10-day truce was announced between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. The reopening caused oil prices to fall.

Trump, however, said the U.S. blockade of Iran's ports “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the United States. Trump had imposed the blockade after a round of historic face-to-face talks in Pakistan between the countries ended without an agreement.

U.S. forces have sent 23 ships back to Iran since the blockade began on Monday, U.S. Central Command said Saturday. Trump's comments triggered an outcry.

“Americans are risking the international community, risking the global economy through these, I can say, miscalculations,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told The Associated Press, adding that the U.S. is “risking the whole ceasefire package.”

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council issued a statement calling the blockade a violation of the ceasefire and said Iran would prevent “any conditional and limited reopening” of the strait.

Since most supplies to U.S. military bases in the Gulf region come through the strait, “Iran is determined to maintain oversight and control over traffic through the strait until the war fully ends,” the council said. That means Iran-designated routes, payment of fees and issuance of transit certificates.

Pakistan pushes for progress toward a new deal

The renewed standoff over the strait came hours after Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said his country was working to “bridge” differences between the U.S. and Iran. Pakistan is expected to host a second round of negotiations early next week.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said “new proposals” from the U.S. had been put forward during a visit to Iran by Pakistan’s army chief and were being reviewed.

But Khatibzadeh said the Iranians were not ready for a new round of face-to-face talks because the Americans “have not abandoned their maximalist position.”

He also said Iran will not hand over its stock of 970 pounds (440 kilograms) of enriched uranium to the United States, calling the idea “a nonstarter.” Khatibzadeh did not address other proposals for the enriched uranium, saying only that “we are ready to address any concerns.”

Trump said Saturday that Iran “got a little cute” but that “very good” conversations were happening, and more information would come by day's end. “They can’t blackmail us,” he added.

On Friday, Trump said the U.S. will go into Iran and “get all the nuclear dust,” referring to the enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried under nuclear sites badly damaged by U.S. military strikes last year.

French peacekeeper is killed in Lebanon

French President Emmanuel Macron said a French soldier was killed and three others were wounded Saturday during an attack on U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. “Everything suggests that responsibility for this attack lies with Hezbollah,” Macron wrote on social media.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Dar said fighting between Israel and Hezbollah had been a key sticking point in U.S.-Iran talks last weekend, and the declaration of a ceasefire in Lebanon was seen as a boost to efforts for an Iran agreement.

It was unclear to what extent Hezbollah would abide by a truce it didn't play a role in negotiating, especially with Israeli troops still occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.

In Beirut, displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and the capital's southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to return home until it was clear whether the ceasefire would hold.

The Iran war has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed.

__ Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Suzan Frazer and Andrew Wilks in Antalya, Turkey, contributed to this report.

There were a record-tying three teams — Charlotte at 44-38, Miami at 43-39 and the Los Angeles Clippers at 42-40 — that finished over .500 this season but failed to qualify for the playoffs.

The only other years when that happened were 1971 and 2022.

In NBA history, teams with records over the .500 mark have gone to the playoffs just over 95% of the time. For teams going at least 43-39 (or the equivalent in shorter seasons), that in-the-playoffs rate was 97.3%, until this season.

Miami now has finished over .500 in 25 of its 38 seasons. Of the first 24 Heat teams with winning records, 100% wound up going to the playoffs.

“My first year as a head coach, we won 43 games and we were the fifth seed,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We were the 10th seed this year with 43.”

If playoff teams only counted ...

If the playoff teams were their own 16-team league, counting only their games against one another in the standings, the top overall seed in these playoffs would be Detroit.

The Pistons went 30-12 against the other playoff clubs, just ahead of Oklahoma City (31-14) and San Antonio (29-14).

The Thunder had the biggest point differential in games against other playoff teams (8.4 per game), while the Thunder and the Spurs both had the most double-digit wins (18 apiece).

The money matters

The playoff pool for this season is the most in NBA history, with $35,740,226 to be divided up among the 16 teams.

As the team with the NBA’s best record, the Oklahoma City Thunder are already assured $2,161,408 from that pool. If the Thunder win the NBA title, they will claim more than one-third of the pool — $12,805,503.

Teams get shares for finishing with a top-six record in their conference, plus for making the playoffs and the size of the shares increase for advancing to later rounds. There’s about a $5 million difference between winning and losing the NBA Finals.

Hawks hit 50

Atlanta is in the playoffs for the 50th time, the Hawks becoming the fourth franchise to hit that total.

The other three? The Los Angeles Lakers (66), Boston (63) and Philadelphia (55).

It’ll be at least four more years before the 50-playoff-appearance club grows. New York has made 46 appearances, including this year’s.

It's 17 and counting for James Harden

James Harden has yet to win an NBA championship. But at least he gets into the playoffs — every single year.

That's right: 17 years in the league, 17 playoff trips for Harden.

He and the Cleveland Cavaliers will take on the Toronto Raptors in Round 1 of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Cavs will be the sixth team that Harden appears with in the postseason, after stints with Oklahoma City, Houston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, the Los Angeles Clippers and now Cleveland.

Harden enters the series with the Raptors 14th on the league's career playoff scoring list, two points behind No. 13 Larry Bird. He's 59 points behind No. 12 Dwyane Wade, and if the Cavs make any sort of deep run would figure to have a chance to reach the top 10 in playoff scoring sometime this spring.

Lots of minutes

Houston had three players (Amen Thompson, Kevin Durant and Jabari Smith Jr.) finish among the top five in minutes played during the regular season. Thompson was first, Durant second, Smith fifth.

— It was the first time that a team had three of the top five in minutes played.

— It was the fourth time in the last decade that teammates finished first and second on that list. New York’s Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart finished in those spots last year, the Knicks’ Julius Randle and RJ Barrett did in 2020-21 and Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns did in 2016-17.

— Durant played more minutes this season than he has in any season since 2013-14.

Milestones await

Some stat milestones that could await in these playoffs:

— Houston's Kevin Durant is 15 points shy of 5,000 for his playoff career. He'll be the seventh player to hit that number.

— The Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James — who already holds league records for playoff games, games won, games lost, points scored, field goals made, field goals attempted and steals, among other things — needs seven more steals to get to 500. Nobody else even has 400.

— If New York gets to the Eastern Conference finals, Mike Brown (who has 50 playoff wins) would pass Tyronn Lue (57) and move into the top 20 all-time for coaching playoff victories.

Nuggets playing? Take the over. Celtics? Take the under

When the Denver Nuggets play, you're going to see a lot of points.

How many points? Well, probably more than what oddsmakers tell you to expect.

Denver's games went over the Vegas over-under total — the number of total points expected in the game from both teams — 63.4% of the time this season. That's the second-highest rate in the last 12 seasons, topped only by Indiana's games going over the total 65.3% of the time in the 2020-21 season.

Other betting nuggets from this season:

— Among the 16 playoff teams, Boston (59.8%) covered more often than any other team, followed by San Antonio (57.3%). Charlotte covered in 61% of its games but missed the playoffs.

— Speaking of the Celtics, only 36.6% of their games went over the total. That's the lowest rate in the NBA in at least 12 years.

— Oklahoma City was favored in 78 of its 82 games, as would probably be expected.

A Game 1, in Detroit

It's been a long time since Pistons fans can say this: Game 1 is at home.

The opener of the Detroit-Orlando series on Sunday will be the first time the Pistons open any playoff series on their home floor since 2008 — an Eastern Conference semifinal matchup, also against the Magic.

Detroit wound up winning in five games before falling to Boston in that season's East finals.

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Soriano pitched two-hit ball into the sixth inning of the Angels' 8-0 victory over the Padres on Friday night, ending San Diego's eight-game winning streak with yet another dominant outing by Los Angeles' right-handed Dominican ace.

Soriano (5-0) has an ERA of 0.28 after allowing just one run in his first 32 2/3 innings this season. He leads the majors with 39 strikeouts while allowing only 11 hits, and he's tied with Milwaukee's Aaron Ashby for the lead with five wins.

Except for occasional control problems, Soriano has been overwhelming every lineup he faces — and Drake Baldwin's first-inning homer for Atlanta on April 6 is still the only run he has allowed all season. His 17-inning scoreless streak is the second-longest in the majors this season, and opponents are batting .104 against his 0.73 WHIP — both the best in baseball.

“It's like a hot knife through butter,” Angels slugger Jo Adell said. “It's pretty crazy. It's really special, and he's a special talent. He's always had the stuff to compete at this level, and he's doing what an ace does. Whatever he's done, just keep doing it.”

And after five straight dominant starts, Soriano has reached rare company.

The most recent pitcher to allow one earned run or fewer in each of his first five starts in a season with at least 15 total innings pitched was the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela in 1981, when he won the NL Cy Young award in his groundbreaking rookie season. Walter Johnson also did it in 1913 — and nobody else.

Soriano is also the only pitcher in major league history to go at least five innings while yielding one or fewer earned runs and three or fewer hits in each of his first five starts to a season.

“I just feel confident to keep pitching like that,” Soriano said. “I believe in my catcher, and we’re on the same page. I think that’s a big part of the results we’re having.”

While Soriano dazzled his previous two opponents with back-to-back, 10-strikeout outings over 15 combined innings to win the AL Player of the Week award, he actually didn't overwhelm the Padres' veteran lineup.

San Diego drew four walks and forced Soriano to throw 99 pitches. The Padres loaded the bases in the third before Soriano got Jackson Merrill to ground out, but San Diego eventually chased him with a single and a walk with two outs in the sixth.

“The thing that impressed was that to us, he had to grind a little bit tonight,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “I think that's the maturity showing up, where he's learning how to pitch — and I say this lightly — without his best stuff. He learned how to navigate a great lineup over there without his best stuff ... and it was pretty incredible. You can't say enough.”

Soriano has a 99-mph fastball and a sinker that ranks among the best in baseball, but he's also mixing in a curve that has flummoxed his opponents. The combination has been too much for any opponent through his first five starts.

“Knowing him from the past, you always thought of the high-90s sinker, and then he comes in breaking out the curveball,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “That pitch was very impressive from the dugout. Gave our guys trouble at the beginning. It's really hard to lay off that pitch, and it complements his sinker. He did a great job tonight mixing his pitches. ... He's just a really good pitcher.”

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

The common factor: Both are being done in the name of Charlie Kirk.

The laws are among the first of what could become multiple state tributes to the conservative activist who was killed while speaking at a Utah university last year. More than 60 Kirk-themed bills have been proposed in over 20 states seeking to promote his ideology, establish official days of remembrance or affix his name to roads and public places, according to an Associated Press analysis using the bill-tracking software Plural.

Just like Kirk, who was known for his provocative campus debates, the measures are not without controversy.

Republican lawmakers in Kansas overrode the veto of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly to enact a law that she said would “cause confusion for courts and schools.”

In Tennessee, where Republicans firmly control state government, some Democrats denounced the pro-Kirk legislation by recounting what they described as racist remarks he made about Black pilots and Black women in government positions.

“How many times have we sat here and endured this? The Charlie Kirk Saves America Act, whatever the heck it is? Come on guys. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s move on,” Democratic state Rep. Sam McKenzie said during a committee meeting where Republicans endorsed the “Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act.”

That's not to be confused with Tennessee's “Charlie Kirk Act,” which Republicans also recently passed. That bill addresses campus free speech, including a ban on attendee walkouts that intentionally disrupt a speaker.

The variety of bills in Kirk's name “shows just how deeply his influence is being felt, especially in the fight to restore intellectual diversity and core American values in education,” said Matt Shupe, a spokesperson for Turning Point USA, which Kirk founded.

Tennessee touts Christian values in Kirk's name

A Kirk-named law signed this week by Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee extols the historical “influence of Judeo-Christian values on the freedom and liberties ingrained in our culture.”

It gives permission for public schools and higher education institutions to teach about religion's positive role in American history. And it lists 19 examples, beginning with the organization of the Pilgrims as a church and including George Washington's direction for Army chaplains, Benjamin Franklin's appeal for prayer at the constitutional convention and the impact of Christian evangelist Billy Graham.

Tennessee is one of several Republican-led states to partner with Turning Point USA to promote its high school chapters, called Club America. Dozens of club leaders from Tennessee attended a state Senate committee hearing last month to support the religion-in-history legislation.

Ben Mason, a junior from Providence Academy in Johnson City, said Kirk helped him “to understand that America began with Judeo-Christian values.”

“This, of course, does not mean that you must be a Christian or even believe in God to be in America, but you will hear about our roots," Mason told lawmakers.

But Senate Democratic Leader Raumesh Akbari raised concerns.

“Our public schools are really not the place to push one religion over another," she said. "I know that is not the stated intent of the bill, but I think that ends up being the result.”

Kansas cites Kirk to promote free speech

Lawmakers turned Kirk's name into an acronym for the “Kansas intellectual rights and knowledge” act, which deems outdoor areas on college campuses as forums for free expression. The bill's preamble praises Kirk and cites a 2024 incident at Kansas State University in which Kirk's microphone was shut off at the end of his allotted time, leading Kirk to wade into the crowd to continue taking questions.

The measure limits security fees charged to student organizations for events and bans designated “free speech zones” that restrict the location of such activities. The attorney general — or any who believe their rights were infringed — can sue an institution seeking damages of at least $500 per violation, and $50 for each day it continues.

The bill is similar to the Campus Free Expression Act, promoted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. About half the states already have campus free-speech laws, according to the foundation.

“Charlie Kirk was assassinated for exercising his right to free speech and introducing young people to conservative values,” Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson said after Kelly’s veto was recently overridden. “His mission and legacy will live on and protect the free speech rights of all college students in Kansas for decades to come.”

Democrats, while decrying Kirk's assassination, were unified in opposing the bill. Democratic state Rep. Jerry Stogsdill said legislators should not honor an activist whose statements promoted “hate, bigotry, misogyny and racism.”

More Kirk bills are pending in state capitols

In Louisiana, Republicans have proposed a bill dubbed the “Charlie Kirk Success Sequence Act.” The measure would require public schools to teach that the keys to success include earning a high school diploma, immediately entering the workforce after high school or college, and marrying before having children.

A Senate committee advanced the bill this week after overcoming objections.

“Why muddy this bill up by putting a controversial political figure’s name on it?” asked Democratic Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews, whose attempt to remove Kirk's name failed in the Republican-dominated committee.

“In the last 20 years, I cannot think of anyone that’s had the type of impact on our students, on our campuses and in our cities as Charlie Kirk,” said Republican Sen. Rick Edmonds, who authored the bill.

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Associated Press writers Sara Cline, John Hanna and Jonathan Mattise contributed to this report.

“It might still go on. It may not,” Kerr said after the Warriors lost in Phoenix and were eliminated from the play-in tournament.

He shared an embrace with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, the team's two constants from the Warriors' title runs with Kerr, near the team's bench in the game's final moments and appeared to mouth the words “thank you.”

Kerr wouldn't reveal what he said in that moment.

“None of your business,” he said, smiling.

Green and Curry both made clear that they want him back. Kerr's future has been the subject of speculation for some time, fueled in part by him coaching this year on the final season of his existing contract. The Warriors missed the playoffs this season for the fourth time in the last seven years.

“I want Coach to be happy. I want him to be excited about the job. I want him to believe you know he’s the right guy for the job,” Curry said. "I want him to have an opportunity to again enjoy what he does. So, whatever that means for him, you know, everybody’s plan is their own. And I’m not going to try to tell anybody what to do. He knows how I feel about him. That shouldn’t even need to be said.”

Added Green, when asked if he could even fathom the Warriors without Kerr on the sideline: "I just don’t deal with change well. I don’t love it. So, I don’t want to think about that. I hope that’s not the case. but we’ll see what happens.”

The 60-year-old Kerr just finished his 12th season with the Warriors. He's 604-353 in that span, led Golden State to the NBA Finals in each of his first five seasons — and once since then as well — plus guided the U.S. to Olympic gold at the Paris Games in 2024.

His playoff record of 104-48 is nearly unmatched; among coaches with at least 100 playoff games in their career, his .684 playoff winning percentage is second only — and barely — to Phil Jackson, who went 229-104 (.688).

Kerr said he'll meet with Warriors owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy to chart a path for what's next. He suggested that might come in a week or two.

“We'll talk about what’s next for the Warriors, what the plan is this offseason,” Kerr said. "And we will come to a collaborative decision on what’s next. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I still love coaching. But I get it. These jobs all have an expiration date. there’s a run that happens, and when the run ends, sometimes it’s time for new blood and new ideas and all that.

"And, if that’s the case, then I will be just nothing but grateful for the most amazing opportunity any person could have to coach this franchise, in front of our fans in the Bay and to coach Steph Curry, to coach Dray and the whole group.”

Kerr wouldn't say what some of the factors are that might sway his decision, calling those private.

“If it’s right, it’s right," Kerr said. “And if it's not, it's not.”

There will be talks with Curry as well; the greatest 3-point shooter in NBA history, who just finished his 17th season — all with Golden State — said he plans to play for “multiple” seasons after this and would be interested in an extension.

“It'll be a busy summer for the Warriors,” Curry said, smiling.

The Warriors were 37-45 this season, dealing with injuries the entire way. They rallied Wednesday from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Los Angeles Clippers and move into Friday's play-in finale, only to fall short against the Suns.

And now, the Warriors wait to see what's next.

“This was as tough a season as you can have, with the injuries, with all kinds of adversity," Kerr said. "And they battled, and they battled the entire season. They kept going the other night just to, you know, continue the season, to show that kind of fight. And then tonight, we just didn’t have it. But the competitive desire was there. And I’m proud of the group for finishing the season the right way by continuing to fight and trying to win every game.”

Kerr — who won five championships as a player, to go along with his four rings as a coach — has spoken often of his good fortunes within the game. He played for Lute Olson at Arizona, played with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in Chicago, played with David Robinson and Tim Duncan in San Antonio and played for Jackson and Gregg Popovich as a pro.

And coaching Curry — the greatest face of a franchise he's ever seen, he said — is another honor, Kerr has insisted.

“The only thing I’ve learned is that I’m the luckiest guy in the NBA’s history," Kerr said.

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The Suns took the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference playoffs and will face the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday in Game 1. The Warriors' season is over.

Green shot 14 of 20 from the field, including 8 of 14 on 3-pointers. Jordan Goodwin scored 19 points, had nine rebounds and was a menace on defense with six steals.

Booker and Golden State's Draymond Green were both assessed two technical fouls late in the fourth quarter after exchanging words multiple times and were ejected.

The 38-year-old Curry couldn't get many clean looks and finished with 17 points on 4-of-16 shooting. Brandin Podziemski led the Warriors with 23 points.

Phoenix led by five at the break and built a 69-53 advantage with 5:12 left in third after a fast-break layup by Royce O'Neale. It was 85-72 with 10:12 remaining.

There was reason to believe the lead wasn't safe. Phoenix blew an 11-point, fourth-quarter lead in a loss to Portland on Tuesday night, while Golden State clawed back from a 13-point fourth-quarter hole to beat the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night, which led to the winner-take-all matchup Friday.

The Warriors looked as if they might have another comeback brewing — Curry hit a 3-pointer that cut the margin to 85-78 with 9:30 left — but the Suns responded with the next seven points.

The Suns avoided becoming the first team to lose both play-in tournament games on their home floor. The current format was established in 2021.

Golden State's Kristaps Porzingis played through right ankle soreness, the result of an injury Wednesday against the Clippers. The 7-foot-3 center played just 15 minutes and finished with 11 points.

The Suns built an early 13-2 lead after the Warriors turned the ball over four times. Phoenix pushed the advantage to 33-15 through one quarter after Golden State shot just 30%, including 1 of 9 from 3-point range.

But the Warriors recovered, cutting it to 50-45 by halftime.

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Confusion over the critical chokepoint threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy and push the two countries toward renewed conflict, even as mediators expressed confidence a new deal was within reach.

Iran’s joint military command said on Saturday that “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state ... under strict management and control of the armed forces.”

Two gunboats from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard opened fire on a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. It reported the tanker and crew as safe, without identifying the vessel or its destination. TankerTrackers.com reported vessels were forced to turn around in the strait, including an Indian-flagged super tanker, after they were fired on by Iran.

Saturday's developments came after U.S. President Donald Trump said the blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the U.S. that includes its nuclear program. Tehran had reopened the strait Friday to commercial vessels.

Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait and further limits would squeeze already constrained supply, driving prices higher once again. Iran’s Friday announcement about the opening of the crucial body of water, through which 20% of the world’s oil is shipped, came as a 10-day truce between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon appeared to hold.

Despite the escalation, Pakistani officials say the United States and Iran are still moving closer to a deal ahead of the April 22 ceasefire deadline.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, nearly 2,300 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Here is the latest:

Pakistan prime minister returns home after regional visits ahead of expected US-Iran talks

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif returned home Saturday after visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey ahead of an expected second round of talks between the United States and Iran.

Sharif’s office said in a statement that he was received by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi upon arrival in the eastern city of Lahore.

It said Naqvi, who visited Iran earlier this week along with army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and other officials, later met Sharif and briefed him on their talks with the Iranian leadership.

Hezbollah denies links to attack that left one French peacekeeper dead in south Lebanon

The Iran-backed group in a statement called for caution when assigning blame and judgment, until the Lebanese army completes its investigation of the incident.

Hezbollah said the peacekeeping forces should coordinate with the Lebanese army in their operations.

Hezbollah expressed surprise at the hasty accusations leveled against it, especially given the silence of these same parties “when the Israeli enemy attacks UNIFIL forces.”

Iran says it is reviewing new US proposals

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said in a statement that Pakistan’s army chief, serving as an intermediary, presented the proposals to Iran when he recently visited Tehran, and they were still under review.

It was not revealed what was in the proposals.

The council said Iran has yet to respond, but further talks would require the U.S. to abandon “excessive demands and adjust its requests to the realities on the ground.”

It also said that Iran will maintain full control over traffic through the Strait of Hormuz until “the war fully ends and lasting peace is achieved in the region,” adding that it would collect detailed information on passing vessels, issue transit certificates and impose tolls.

The council added that it considered the U.S. naval blockade a violation of the ceasefire, and there would be no reopening of the Strait of Hormuz until that was lifted.

Trump says Iran ‘got a little cute,’ but there are good conversations happening

President Donald Trump says that U.S. talks with Iran are going well and that he expects to have more information “by the end of the day.”

Trump made the comments Saturday morning during a White House event where he signed an executive order directing the Food and Drug Administration to expedite review of certain psychedelic drugs designed as breakthrough therapy for mental illness.

Trump declined to take reporters’ questions about Iran but said, “We have very good conversations going on.”

He says Iran “got a little cute,” later adding, “They wanted to close up the strait again,” referring to the Strait of Hormuz.

“They can’t blackmail us,” Trump said.

Pope Leo XIV says ‘not in my interest at all’ to debate Trump but will keep preaching peace

Pope Leo XIV said Saturday that it was “not in my interest at all” to debate U.S. President Donald Trump about the Iran war, but that he would continue preaching the Gospel message of peace.

Leo spoke to reporters aboard the papal plane flying from Cameroon to Angola.

He addressed the spiraling back-and-forth saga of Trump’s critiques of his peace message, which have dominated news headlines this week. But the American pope also sought to set the record straight, insisting that his preaching isn’t directed at Trump, but reflects the broader Gospel message of peace.

“There’s been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects, but because of the political situation created when, on the first day of the trip, the president of the United States made some comments about myself,” he said.

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Turkish Vice President says US-Iran negotiations will take time to conclude

Cevdet Yilmaz, whose country has been supporting Pakistan’s efforts to bring the sides together, told The Associated Press there are many “complex issues” on the table.

Yilmaz said he still believes talks between Iran and the United States would continue.

“We would all like these talks to end all at once, in a very short time. But we need to be realistic. These comprehensive negotiations will take some time,” Yilmaz said.

The vice president also said that a comprehensive settlement between Iran and the United States would be a prerequisite for free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

“What is the root cause here? The ongoing war. Therefore, the end of this war will provide the greatest guarantee,” he said.

US says 23 ships turned back since Iran blockade started

The U.S. military says it has forced 23 ships to turn around near the Strait of Hormuz since it imposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

In a post on X, the Central Command said U.S. forces are still enforcing the blockade “against ships entering or exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas.”

The blockade ordered by President Donald Trump started April 13 as part of U.S. pressure on Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

In response to the continued blockade, Iran reimposed restrictions on transit through the strait.

British military say container vessel attacked near the Strait of Hormuz

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said an unknown projectile hit the vessel, 25 nautical miles (46 kilometers) northeast of Oman.

Some containers on the vessel were damaged, it said.

The attack is the second on Saturday, after two gunboats from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard opened fire on a tanker transiting the key waterway.

Iran’s supreme leader sends defiant message

Iran’s “valiant navy” is “ready to inflict new bitter defeats on its enemies,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said.

Khamenei’s defiant remarks came as Iran swiftly reimposed restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz.

In a message celebrating the anniversary of the establishment of Iran’s army, he hailed Iran’s drone strikes that targeted Israel and the U.S. interests across the region during the war.

Indian ships reverse course in Hormuz strait, vessel tracker says

Two Indian vessels have had to reverse course in the Strait of Hormuz following reports of gunfire from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, a vessel-tracker said.

TankerTrackers.com said the vessels include an Indian-flagged super tanker, carrying 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.

Iranian gunboats fire on tanker, British military says

The British military says two gunboats from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard opened fire on a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz after Iran said it had reimposed restrictions on the vital waterway.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre said the tanker and crew were reported safe, without identifying the vessel or its destination.

Iran said earlier it was reimposing restrictions on the strait in response to a U.S. blockade on Iranian shipping and ports. Iran has prevented vessels from crossing throughout the seven-week-long war, except for ones it authorizes.

Iran says it won’t hand over enriched uranium to US

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh dismissed claims from U.S. President Donald Trump over the uranium and sounded a note of caution with regard to future talks between the two countries.

Speaking to the Associated Press in the Turkish city of Antalya, Khatibzadeh said the Iranians were not ready for a new round of face-to-face talks with the U.S. because the Americans “have not abandoned their maximalist position.”

On Friday, Trump said the U.S. will go into Iran and “get all the nuclear dust,” referring to the 970 pounds (440 kilograms) of enriched uranium believed to be buried under nuclear sites badly damaged by U.S. military strikes last year.

Lebanese leaders discuss future talks with Israel

The meeting between President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam came during a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

According to a statement from Aoun’s office, the pair discussed Lebanon’s “readiness for negotiations” with Israel. Lebanon and Israel have been in a state of war since 1948.

Earlier this week, the two countries’ ambassadors to the U.S. held a meeting, in the first direct talks in decades.

U.S. President Donald Trump has invited Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, although no date has been set yet.

Aoun has said he is ready to go anywhere to “liberate my country, protect my people and save my nation.”

Iran reimposes restrictions in Strait of Hormuz

Iran has reversed course on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reimposing restrictions on the critical waterway after the U.S. said the move would not end its blockade.

The country’s joint military command said “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state ... under strict management and control of the armed forces.”

It warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.

The announcement came the morning after U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the U.S., including on its nuclear program.

Pakistani leader heads home from Turkey ahead of U.S.-Iran talks

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has left for home after visiting Turkey, where he attended a diplomacy forum in Antalya.

Whiie there, he met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani ahead of the second round of U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad.

While at the forum, Sharif discussed recent regional developments and ongoing diplomatic efforts between Tehran and Washington with Erdogan and the Qatari emir.

Pakistan is expected to host the second round of talks between Iran and the United States early next week

Iran announces partial reopening of its airspace

Iran has announced a partial reopening of its airspace after a seven-week hiatus because of the war, state media reported.

The Civil Aviation Organization said air routes over eastern Iran were reopened at 7 a.m. (0330 GMT), according to the state-owned IRAN newspaper. It said flights at the country’s airports would gradually resume but did not give a timeframe.

Iran’s airspace had been closed since the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran on Feb. 28. The partial reopening has come more than a week into a ceasefire between Iran and the U.S.

Iranian lawmaker clarifies conditions for transit through Hormuz

A senior Iranian lawmaker said only commercial vessels authorized by the Revolutionary Guard are allowed to transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

Ebrahim Azizi, head of Iran’s parliamentary National Security Commission, said in a social media post late Friday that commercial vessels must pay “required tolls” before transiting the strait, using a route set by Iran last month.

“The time has come to comply with the new Maritime Regime of the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. “These regulations are determined by Iran, not by social media posts!”

He warned that the mechanism could change “if the U.S. attempts to create any disturbance for Iranian ships.”

Strait of Hormuz only open during ceasefire, Iranian military official says

Iran’s Defense Ministry spokesperson said the Strait of Hormuz is only open during a ceasefire and conditionally, two Iranian semiofficial news agencies reported.

Brig. Gen. Reza Talaei-Nik said “military vessels and those linked to hostile forces have no right” of transit, according to the ISNA and Mehr news agencies.

Pakistani army chief leaves Tehran after meeting senior Iranian leaders

Field Marshal Asim Munir has concluded a visit to Tehran, where he met senior Iranian leaders in an effort to ease tensions between Iran and the United States, the Pakistani military said Saturday.

It said the visit reflects Pakistan’s commitment to promoting peace, stability and a negotiated settlement to regional conflicts.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi accompanied Munir.

The delegation met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and held talks with Parliament Speaker Bagher Qalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and senior military officials.

Discussions focused on regional security, ongoing diplomatic efforts and steps to promote lasting peace.

Munir emphasized dialogue, de-escalation and resolving disputes through sustained engagement.

He also conveyed goodwill messages from Pakistan’s leadership and reaffirmed Islamabad’s desire to strengthen longstanding ties with Iran.

Trump rejects notion of tolls by Iran on Strait of Hormuz

President Donald Trump flatly rejected the idea when a reporter asked about the prospect of restrictions or tolls managed by Iran on the Strait of Hormuz.

“Nope. No way. No. Nope,” Trump said. He said there can’t be tolls along with restrictions. “No, they’re not going to be tolls.”

The Lexington Minutemen are marking the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington in Massachusetts on Saturday, as they do every year. Thousands of people — some in colonial costumes, gathered on the Lexington Green to witness the historic clash, many booing the British troops and cheering on the patriots. The battle, which marked the start of the American Revolution 251 years ago, ended with eight Americans killed and 10 wounded — the dead scattered on the grounds as the British marched off.

Among the soldiers represented there was Prince Estabrook, an enslaved man who joined his white neighbors on Lexington Green in April 19, 1775, as British troops approached. He was wounded that day but went on to serve in multiple deployments throughout the war.

“I wasn’t surprised that we didn’t know about it,” said Price, a 95-year-old Black Korean War veteran who played the role of Estabrook for 50 years. “I was surprised that there was one Black soldier out here.”

As America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, Estabrook and other patriots of color are being celebrated through programs nationwide that aim to tell a more complete story of the birth of the nation.

Telling the whole story

Museum exhibits, documentary films and lectures have traditionally focused on the white leaders of the American Revolution, such as Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere.

Christopher Brown, a British Empire historian at Columbia University, said the Revolution has long been portrayed as a “simple story and a moral story that celebrates American origins and that looks to the American past in a kind of idealized version of what the present is.”

But in recent decades, “a more accurate view of the past” has emerged that showcases the diverse collection of men and women who played critical roles in the fight for freedom.

“There were Black men in the ranks who were fighting in Concord and Lexington and fought on Bunker Hill,” he said. “They knew all of the work that women were doing to support the revolutionary effort. The fact that we didn’t know that is more of a sign of our lack of curiosity and the need for greater research.”

The National Park Service estimates that by the end of the Revolution more than 5,500 patriots of color — including Black and Indigenous people — served on the colonial side, while many runaway slaves fought for the British.

“Finding this out, I was very proud,” said Jason Roomes, a descendant of three formerly enslaved men from Rhode Island, Cato, Pero and Ceasar Rome. Roomes learned in his 40s all three Black men fought in the American Revolution for the colonial side.

“Proud that my family has been here and fought for the creation of this United States,” he said.

The stories of Black patriots cannot be told without mentioning slavery, which was legal at the time in all 13 Colonies. Some Blacks who fought were enslaved and others fought in the hopes of gaining freedom. Indigenous soldiers made similar calculations, even as tribes fought for their very survival.

But despite the documented military diversity of that time, efforts to promote such stories are under pressure. The Trump administration has ordered the removal or censorship of some exhibits highlighting the history of slavery and enslaved people, the Civil Rights Movement and the mistreatment of Indigenous people.

Roger Davidson, Jr. an associate professor of history at Bowie State University, said failure to recognize that important part of history can impact communities of color today.

“If you’re not seen as having contributed to society, to the military, to any of it, then people can sort of overlook you,” Davidson said. “It plays into, and I hate to put it this way, but it plays into some people’s biases. Why should we pay any attention to you in the present day, politically, socially, economically, if you have not contributed?”

Remembering patriots of color

MA250 has handed out millions of dollars in grants to commemorate the battles across Massachusetts that helped lead to America's independence. Among the beneficiaries is the Black Heritage Trail in Concord that highlights the lives of Black residents in the town during the Revolution.

Museum exhibitions celebrating Black patriots have also received grants. Among those highlighted is Crispus Attucks, a sailor of African and Indigenous ancestry who died on March 5, 1770, when British troops fired on a crowd in what is known as the Boston Massacre. Another, Salem Poor, was born enslaved but purchased his freedom before fighting at Bunker Hill.

American Ancestors, a nonprofit history and heritage center in Boston that also received MA250 funding, opens its “Patriots of Color” exhibit next week, throwing a spotlight on the lives of 26 Black and Indigenous men and women who played a role in the American Revolution. They include: Prince Ames, a Black and Narragansett man from Andover, who was forced to join the Continental Army in place of his enslaver; and Paul Cuffe, a Black and Wampanoag businessman, who petitioned the Massachusetts government to reject taxation without representation.

Some of their descendants will attend the opening of the exhibition.

“By telling these lesser known stories, we want to highlight that ordinary people made a tremendous difference in the arc of the country’s history,” Ryan Woods, president and CEO of American Ancestors, said.

The details of Estabrook’s life

Records about Prince Estabrook's life are scant, but according to the National Park Service, he was likely born in the Lexington area around 1740. His father was enslaved by landowner Benjamin Estabrook, so Prince was born into slavery.

It is unclear what his life was like before he trained as a soldier in the Lexington militia. The Park Service says he was serving under the command of Colonel John Parker on April 19, 1775, when his left shoulder was struck by a musket ball. He recovered from that injury and went on to serve eight years with the militia and the Continental Army.

After the Revolution, he was granted freedom and returned to Lexington, where tax records from 1790 indicate he joined Benjamin Estabrook’s payroll as ‘a non-white freeman.’ It is unclear if he ever married, had children or owned property.

According to family records, he died in 1830, around the age of 90, and was buried in the same cemetery as Benjamin's son, Nathan, in Ashby, Massachusetts.

Price, who has handed reenactment duties to a younger colleague but still attends the early morning reenactment every year, says it is important to know about the soldier's life.

“Keep the story alive to make sure that everybody knows, everybody that we can get in touch with, everybody knows that Prince Estabrook was here,” Price said. “He was a viable person. He did his role, he did his part in fighting for the country.”

That all came crashing down days before Thanksgiving 2025, when he and a mutual friend unknowingly took a lethal cocktail of fentanyl and carfentanil they may have mistaken for cocaine.

“I heard the word ‘autopsy’ and I literally just collapsed to the floor,” his mother, Kelley Nalewaja said, recalling the call she received from his wife. “Even if somebody had been there prepared with Narcan — even if somebody had called 911 in time — he was not going to survive.”

Carfentanil, a weapons-grade chemical that authorities say is 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times stronger than fentanyl, has seen a drastic resurgence across the U.S., killing hundreds of unsuspecting drug users.

The rise coincides with a recent crackdown by the Chinese government on the sale of precursors used to make fentanyl. Those regulations are likely prompting traffickers in Mexico to use carfentanil to boost the potency of a weakened version of fentanyl, according to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration intelligence bulletins reviewed by The Associated Press.

The surge of a drug so deadly that less than a poppy seed-sized amount can kill a person comes as fentanyl seizures and overall drug overdose deaths continue a multiyear decline.

“You’re talking about not even a grain of salt that could be potentially lethal,” said Frank Tarentino, the DEA's chief of operations for its northeast region, which stretches from Maine to Virginia. “This presents an extremely frightening proposition for substance abuse dependent people who seek opioids on the street today.”

Carfentanil surge

A decade ago, carfentanil exploded into the North American drug supply, causing hundreds of unsuspecting drug users to overdose, only to see a major dip after China banned it, closing a key regulatory loophole in the U.S.

But the situation has shifted dramatically in recent years.

In 2025, DEA labs identified carfentanil 1,400 times in U.S. drug seizures, compared with 145 in 2023 and only 54 in 2022, according to DEA records viewed by AP.

Traffickers in Mexico may be experimenting with producing carfentanil themselves, authorities say, while others could be procuring it from China-based vendors skirting the country's regulations by spamming online forums in other countries with ads for the drug.

Complicating matters for the cartels are the extreme dangers associated with manufacturing carfentanil, Tarentino said.

“You can't just dabble in this,” he said. “This is not some mad scientist on Reddit you’re going to get to go out to a rudimentary laboratory in Mexico to make carfentanil.”

Dip in overdose deaths and fentanyl seizures

U.S. overdose deaths have fallen for more than two years — the longest drop in decades. Experts point to several possible explanations, including the overdose-reversing drug naloxone being more widely available and the expansion of addiction treatment. Some have also tied it to the regulatory changes the U.S. has pressed for in China.

Experts say that even multiple high doses of naloxone might not be enough to reverse an overdose when carfentanil is involved.

Fentanyl seizures, along with several other illicit drugs, have also dipped. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that fentanyl seizures plunged to about 12,000 pounds (5,443 kilograms) in 2025 — less than half the amount seized in 2023.

But even as fentanyl numbers fall, it remains a major focus of the DEA. Just recently, the agency's proposed budget included a $362 million increase centered on cartel-driven fentanyl trafficking.

“Anyone who takes a pill that is not prescribed to them by their doctor is playing a game of Russian roulette with their life,” said Sara Carter, President Donald Trump's drug czar. “But if those terrorists think they can continue this chemical warfare without consequences, they are wrong.”

Researched as a chemical weapon

While the prevalence of carfentanil still pales in comparison to fentanyl, experts are nevertheless alarmed by the increase of a substance researched for years as a chemical weapon and deployed by Russian forces on Chechen separatists in 2002.

The DEA's annual quota for lawfully manufactured carfentanil — veterinarians use it to tranquilize elephants and other large animals — is just 20 grams, an amount that can fit in the palm of your hand.

“It’s like a biological weapon,” said Michael King Jr., founder of the Opioid Awareness Foundation. “If the world thinks we had a problem with fentanyl, that’s minute compared to what we’re going to be dealing with with carfentanil.”

In 2024, overdose deaths involving carfentanil nearly tripled compared to the previous year, with 413 deaths across 42 states and Washington, D.C., according to the most recent data available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Carfentanil definitely has that potential of spreading throughout the United States unless law enforcement really focuses in on carfentanil and they develop intelligence as to how these drug addicts are getting it,” said Mike Vigil, a former chief of international operations at the DEA.

In recent months, the DEA has documented several large seizures of carfentanil. In October, the DEA Los Angeles Field Division found 628,000 pills containing carfentanil, while in September, officials seized more than 50,000 counterfeit M30 pills from a person at a gas station in Washington state that turned out to be a mixture of carfentanil and acetaminophen.

‘All about money’

In some cases, frequent drug users have become tolerant to fentanyl and are seeking out carfentanil, despite the danger, because of the sudden euphoria it promises, explained Rob Tanguay, senior medical lead for addiction services with Recovery Alberta, a health agency in Canada. It appeals to the drug market, he said, because so little of it goes such a long way toward supply.

“The toughest part about all of this,” he said, “is that this is all about money.”

After Michael Nalewaja's death, his mother decided against a large funeral.

Instead, she organized a town hall in her hometown of El Dorado Hills, California, bringing together local officials along with mothers who had gone through something similar.

As she grieves her son, an adept salesman full of charisma who had recently gotten a national award by the electrical union, she's pushing for major legislative and judicial changes so others don't go through what she did because of a drug she said was never meant for humans.

“It’s not an OD; it’s not an overdose,” she said. “It’s a murder weapon.”

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Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed.

Los daños fueron severos en algunas comunidades —techos arrancados de viviendas, líneas eléctricas enredadas y caminos intransitables por los escombros. Sin embargo, no se reportaron muertes.

“Somos sumamente afortunados de que esta tormenta no haya provocado pérdida de vidas ni lesiones graves”, declaró el jefe policial del condado Stephenson, Steve Stovall, sobre la tormenta que azotó Lena, Illinois, el viernes.

Autoridades de Wisconsin y Minnesota hicieron declaraciones similares.

Un tornado arrasó Kronenwetter y Ringle, en el centro de Wisconsin, el viernes por la tarde, dejando viviendas dañadas y a algunos residentes brevemente atrapados en sus sótanos, dijo a reporteros el jefe de bomberos de Ringle, Chris Kielman.

El jefe de la policía del condado Marathon, Chad Billeb, indicó durante una conferencia de prensa la noche del viernes que no había visto tanta devastación durante sus 34 años en las fuerzas del orden.

“Mucha gente va a necesitar mucha ayuda”, afirmó Billeb sobre las tormentas en Wisconsin.

La recuperación tras la tormenta tomará mucho tiempo, subrayó Brent Jacobson, un congresista estatal de Wisconsin, en una publicación en redes sociales la mañana del sábado.

“A medida que siguen llegando las fotos y los videos, está claro que partes de Ringle y Kronenwetter sufrieron daños devastadores”, señaló el comunicado de Jacobson.

En el condado Olmsted, Minnesota, funcionarios del jefe policial dijeron que los tornados causaron “múltiples niveles” de daños. Al menos 30 viviendas resultaron afectadas en Marion Township, y varias de ellas sufrieron daños “significativos”.

Personal de Seguridad Nacional y Manejo de Emergencias de Minnesota, el Departamento de Bomberos de Rochester y la jefatura policial del condado Olmsted fueron de puerta en puerta revisando a los residentes, detalló el comunicado del jefe de policía.

El Servicio Meteorológico Nacional señaló que los daños probablemente fueron provocados por tornados y que se llevarán a cabo inspecciones de las zonas afectadas durante el fin de semana.

En Illinois, Leo Zach, de 14 años, acababa de llegar al auditorio de la escuela secundaria local para una competencia de bandas musicales cuando el edificio comenzó a estremecerse y se fue la luz. Contó que la sala estaba llena de estudiantes y que algunos estaban muy asustados y sufrieron ataques de pánico.

“Definitivamente tuve mucha suerte, considerando lo que pudo haber pasado", comentó. "Sólo traté de mantener la calma y ayudar a otras personas”.

Cuando salieron, encontraron algunas ventanas reventadas del gimnasio y parte del techo de la escuela arrancado.

Fotos y videos publicados en internet mostraban una cochera destruida, edificios que perdieron ladrillos y cercas demolidas.

Lena es una localidad de unos 3.000 habitantes, ubicada a unos 188 kilómetros (117 millas) al noroeste de Chicago.

Rachel Nemon se dirigía a la escuela secundaria de la localidad para recoger a su hijastro cuando tuvo que meterse en un autolavado para resguardarse de la tormenta. Vio cómo un árbol de gran tamaño era arrancado de raíz y cómo saltaban chispas a pocos metros de ella.

“Es algo que ves en internet, no en la vida real, especialmente en un pequeño poblado de Illinois”, subrayó.

El gobernador JB Pritzker señaló en la red social X que ya recibió un informe de los daños y que la Agencia de Manejo de Emergencias de Illinois se encuentra en el lugar.

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Frisaro reportó desde Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

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

Works wonders, actually.

Facing elimination and clearly wanting no part of it, the Magic might have put together one of their best performances of the season Friday night. They rolled past the Charlotte Hornets 121-90 in an Eastern Conference play-in game, moving into the playoffs for the third straight season and getting a matchup with top-seeded Detroit as their reward.

“When you play with a sense of desperation and urgency, when you know you’re either going home or extending your season, that’s what it looks like,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “There (are) no second chances.”

Mosley is the first coach to lead the Magic to three consecutive playoff appearances since Stan Van Gundy took Orlando there in five straight years. Van Gundy was at Friday's game as an analyst for Amazon Prime Video.

“I've got to be honest. Charlotte is shrinking from the competition,” Van Gundy said on the broadcast, as the Magic were running away in the second quarter — building what became a 35-point lead shortly before halftime. “They look like they don't want any part of this.”

That's exactly how Orlando wanted it. It was bully ball, and it worked.

“We’re going to need more of that in the playoffs,” Magic forward Franz Wagner said.

Added Magic forward Paolo Banchero: “We were just relentless with that tonight. ... It was just a complete effort from the whole team.”

Charlotte coach Charles Lee, who has engineered quite a turnaround over his first two seasons with the Hornets, said he hopes his team doesn't forget the lessons that Orlando taught them in this one.

“I hope that this fuels us this offseason, because we’ve done a ton of really good things and gave ourselves an opportunity,” Lee said. “You’re one step away from being in the playoffs. I don’t want to discredit that. But this has got to hurt a little bit.”

Orlando dealt with injuries all season, and going 2-8 in a 10-game stretch late in the regular season could have absolutely sunk any postseason hopes. But the Magic — even with a loss in Wednesday's play-in opener at Philadelphia — have now won six of their last eight, heading into a no-pressure matchup against heavily favored Detroit.

“We did what we were supposed to do,” Mosley said. “There’s a reason we can be happy tonight. But at the end of the day, we still have more work to do.”

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

Scoreless entering the fourth inning, the Marlins were undone by defensive miscues, notably when catcher Agustín Ramírez airmailed a throw to Graham Pauley on an attempted pickoff at third, allowing a run that proved costly in a 7-5 loss in 10 innings.

Miami has now dropped three straight games for the second time this season.

Although Ramírez had a shaky night behind the plate, he doubled home Xavier Edwards in the bottom of the eighth inning to tie the game at 4-4.

The Marlins trailed 3-0 and 4-1 earlier in the game.

With the score tied 4-4 in the 10th inning, Milwaukee had the bases loaded with no outs against Marlins reliever Calvin Faucher.

Luis Rengifo hit a slow grounder that Edwards fielded and threw home to Ramírez, but the throw never reached his glove, allowing the Brewers to score and take a 5-4 lead.

Making his Major League debut, Brewers right-hander Coleman Crow was efficient over 5 1/3 innings, surrendering four hits, two earned runs, one via a sacrifice fly, one walk and striking out four.

“I want him to understand that he can pitch here; he can pitch in the big leagues,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.

Taking the loss in his last outing against the Detroit Tigers, Marlins right-hander Janson Junk threw 93 pitches over 5 2/3 innings, allowing four runs, three of them earned, while not allowing a home run.

He finished with a no-decision.

Otto Lopez tripled in the fourth inning, added a two-run home run to straightaway center field in the sixth, and singled in the eighth for a three-hit night, finishing a double shy of the cycle.

He now carries a .347 batting average.

Third baseman Graham Pauley was removed from the game with two outs in the seventh inning after he moved to avoid a pitch that would have hit him.

According to the Marlins, Pauley exited with right oblique discomfort.

Right-hander Sandy Alcantara (2-1, 2.67 ERA) will start for the Marlins (9-11) on Saturday at 4:10 p.m. ET.

Alcantara will look to bounce back after allowing seven earned runs, three home runs, and 10 hits over six innings in a loss to the Tigers on April 12.

Damage was severe in some communities — roofs ripped off homes, power lines tangled, and roads impassable because of debris. However, no deaths were reported.

“We are extremely fortunate that this storm did not result in loss of life or serious injury,” Stephenson County Sheriff Steve Stovall said of the storm that hit Lena, Illinois, on Friday.

Officials in Wisconsin and Minnesota echoed those sentiments.

A tornado tore through Kronenwetter and Ringle in central Wisconsin on Friday afternoon, leaving damaged homes and some residents briefly trapped in their basements, Ringle Fire Chief Chris Kielman told reporters.

Marathon County Sheriff Chad Billeb said during a Friday night news conference that he had not seen this much devastation during his 34 years in law enforcement.

“A lot of people are going to need a lot of help,” Billeb said of the Wisconsin storms.

Recovery from the storm will take a long time, Brent Jacobson, a Wisconsin state representative, said in a Saturday morning social media post.

“As the photos and videos continue to come in, it is clear that parts of Ringle and Kronenwetter suffered devastating damage,” Jacobson's statement said.

In Olmsted County, Minnesota, sheriff's officials said tornadoes caused “multiple levels” of damage. At least 30 homes were damaged in Marion Township, with a number of those sustaining "significant'' damage.

Personnel from Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Rochester Fire and Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office went door-to-door checking on residents, the sheriff's statement said.

The National Weather Service said the damage was likely caused by tornadoes and that surveys of the affected areas would be conducted over the weekend.

In Illinois, Leo Zach, 14, had just gotten to the high school band room for a music competition when the building started shaking and the power went out. He said the room was packed with students and some were very scared and had panic attacks.

“I’m definitely on the luckier side of how that could’ve happened," he said. “I was just trying to stay calm, help other people.”

When they got outside, they found some of the windows blown out in the gym and part of the school's roof ripped off.

Photos and video posted online showed a garage totaled, bricks torn off of buildings and fences demolished.

Lena is a village of nearly 3,000 people, located about 117 miles (188 kilometers) northwest of Chicago.

Rachel Nemon had been going to pick up her stepson from Lena's middle school when she had to pull into a car wash to take cover from the storm. She watched a large tree get ripped from the ground and sparks fly feet in front of her.

“This is something that you see online, not in real life, especially in a small town in Illinois,” she said.

Gov. JB Pritzker said in a post on the social platform X that he's been briefed on the damage and that the Illinois Emergency Management Agency is on the ground.

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Frisaro reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The Magic earned the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Their reward is a matchup with top-seeded Detroit, a best-of-seven that begins Sunday on the Pistons' home floor.

The Magic were physical from the outset, and the Hornets were never in the game. Franz Wagner had 18 points for the Magic, along with seven rebounds and six assists.

Wendell Carter Jr. finished with 16 points on 6-for-7 shooting, while Desmond Bane scored 13 and Jalen Suggs added 12 for the Magic.

Orlando led by 31 at halftime, the biggest midpoint lead in the play-in tournament’s seven-year history. It has been utilized in this format — four teams qualifying from each conference, playing to decide the final two playoff spots on each half of the bracket — since 2021.

LaMelo Ball — who the NBA said should have been ejected from Tuesday’s season-extending win over Miami for an uncalled flagrant foul against Bam Adebayo -- led the Hornets with 23 points, 21 of them coming in the third quarter.

But the game was long decided at that point. Orlando raced out to a 27-10 lead, stretched it to 68-33 late in the first half, and the Hornets never even got within 20 points the rest of the way.

Miles Bridges, who has played more games than any other active player without a playoff appearance, scored 15 for the Hornets. Brandon Miller scored 14 and Kon Knueppel added 11.

The Hornets, who have now missed the playoffs in 10 straight seasons, were outrebounded 49-34 and shot only 34%. Orlando shot 50%.

The Magic were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in each of the last two postseasons and have not won a playoff round since 2010. But they went 2-2 against the Pistons this season.

The Hornets, who beat the Magic in their last three regular-season games, have not been in the playoffs since 2016. It's the longest active drought in the NBA.

___

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

The so-called general license means U.S. sanctions will not apply for 30 days on deliveries of Russian oil that has been loaded on tankers as of Friday. It extended a similar 30-day license issued in March for Russian oil that had been loaded by March 11. The extension underscores how the fallout from the Iran war has boosted Moscow’s ability to profit from its energy exports, which had been restrained since the invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, Bessent ruled out extending the license. “We will not be renewing the general license on Russian oil, and we will not be renewing the general license on Iranian oil,” he said. The administration did not immediately explain the reversal.

Lanez, 33, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, filed the federal lawsuit seeking $100 million in damages on Tuesday against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the warden and guards at the prison in Tehachapi where he was being held.

The suit says he was stabbed 16 times in the back, torso, head and face in an “unprovoked life-threatening attack” by inmate Santino Casio, who used a homemade “shank.” Lanez had a collapsed lung and had to be airlifted to a hospital, it says.

Lanez is serving a 10-year sentence for shooting hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion in the feet after a dramatic and high-profile 2022 trial in Los Angeles.

Prison officials say he was attacked May 12, 2025, by Casio, who is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder. Casio had another 2008 conviction for assault by a prisoner with a deadly weapon and another in 2018 for manufacturing a deadly weapon.

“The choice to house Casio with Peterson was known or should have been a known danger,” the lawsuit says. It alleges that correctional officers' response was slow, and no special measures like flash grenades or smoke bombs were used to stop Casio. It says the institution housed the men together despite the rapper's “high-profile celebrity status,” which made him a target.

There is no record of Casio being charged in the assault. An attorney who represented him previously did not respond to messages seeking comment at the time.

Lanez was transferred to another prison, the California Men's Colony, in San Luis Obispo County.

The lawsuit also says the defendants unlawfully seized his songbooks with unpublished lyrics that are of great future commercial value and refused to return them.

In response to a request for comment, Department of Corrections spokesperson Ike Dodson said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit was first reported by TMZ.

Lanez was convicted of three felonies in December 2022: assault with a semiautomatic firearm; having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle; and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.

A California court rejected his appeal in November.

Megan, whose legal name is Megan Pete, testified at trial that in July 2020, after they left a party at Kylie Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home, Lanez fired the gun at the back of her feet and shouted for her to dance as she walked away from an SUV in which they had been riding.

She had bullet fragments surgically removed from both feet. It was not until months after the incident that she publicly identified Lanez as the person who fired the gun.

The 32-year-old Canadian Lanez began releasing mixtapes in 2009 and saw a steady rise in popularity, moving on to major label albums, two of which reached the top 10 on Billboard’s charts.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies were greeted by 3 inches of snow that blanketed Coors Field as their four-game series got off to a frigid start Friday.

Dodgers pitcher Emmett Sheehan took advantage of the frosty mid-April day when he came out on the field in shorts to make a snowman about four hours before the game's scheduled first pitch.

The snow stopped about three hours before the game began and Colorado’s grounds crew, which placed a tarp over the infield to shield it from the snowfall, used a plow to clear snow from the outfield. By the first pitch, it was 35 degrees and sunny — with the only remnants of snow on the pine trees behind the wall in center field.

It was the coldest first pitch in Dodgers history.

“It was a dry cold,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said with a laugh after the game.

The bats were back out and the white stuff gave way to green grass after the shovels slugged at the snow, which came one day after the high temperature in Denver was 75 degrees.

In front of a crowd of 28,783, the Dodgers won 7-1 behind a pair of home runs from Max Muncy and a strong outing from starter Tyler Glasnow, who gave up two hits and one run in seven innings.

The start of the game didn’t mark the end of the teams’ weather-related woes. The National Weather Service issued a freeze warning for the Denver area that will be in effect from 8 p.m. locally Friday until 8 a.m. Saturday, with sub-freezing temperatures dropping down into the 18-to-24 degree range overnight.

“There was still ice on the field and it was only getting colder, but you can’t complain about it,” Muncy said. “You’ve got to go out there and they have to play through it also.”

The projected high is 57 on Saturday, according to the weather service, and 74 on Sunday before reaching 79 on Monday for the series finale.

The Dodgers come in from wrapping up a six-game homestand on Wednesday in Los Angeles, where the high was 73 on Friday.

“We were told right from the start the game was going to start on time,” Muncy said. “When you know you have to go out there and play, obviously the weather sucks, but if there’s no question of you may not play or may get delayed or you may play a doubleheader, when there’s no question of that, it’s easier to just kind of block out the noise, go out there and get ready. Today was thankfully one of those days.”

—

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

A senior State Department official met with the grandson of retired Cuban leader Raúl Castro last week during the trip, according to a department official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke Friday on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

The official did not say who from the U.S. met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, whose grandfather is believed to play an influential role in the Cuban government despite not holding an official post. A second U.S. official said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was not part of the delegation that visited Havana.

U.S. officials have previously said Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants and a longtime Cuba hawk, met the younger Castro in the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis in February.

During last week's extraordinary diplomatic push, which was reported earlier by Axios, the U.S. delegation urged Cuba to make major changes to its economy and way of governing because it would not let the island nation become a national security threat in the region, the State Department official said.

It marked the first U.S. government flight to land in Cuba other than at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay since 2016.

Cuba’s crises have deepened following a U.S. energy blockade, coming as the Trump administration has described its government as ineffective and abusive. In return for easing sanctions, U.S. demands have included an end to political repression, a release of political prisoners and a liberalization of the island’s ailing economy.

Along with those similar topics, the sides last week also discussed a U.S. proposal to provide free and reliable internet to the island through a Starlink satellite connection, the State Department official said.

The talks were revealed after Trump said earlier this week that his administration could focus on Cuba after the war in Iran ends.

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

In response, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the U.S. has no valid reason to carry out a military attack against the island or attempt to depose him but that the country was ready to fight back if needed.

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

He was speaking during a rally that drew hundreds of people to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the declaration of the Cuban Revolution’s socialist essence.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment about the talks last week.

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Police say Perez, 49, of Tamarac, intentionally rammed his landscaping van into the Lexus Mirtha Sanchez-Teran was driving Thursday, pushing it into a building behind a strip mall in the 7600 block of West, trapping the victim and causing the vehicle’s airbags to deploy.

Authorities said video shows Perez in bright orange, approaching the victim’s car, aiming a gun and firing a single shot before the video ends.

More shots ring out in another video. An arrest report from the Coral Springs Police Department states Sanchez-Teran, a mother of two, was hit multiple times in both shoulders, her chest, abdomen and face.

After “apparently believing she was deceased,” he desperately ran off and jumped into a nearby canal to get away from the scene, the report states.

But officers say Sanchez-Teran survived the gunfire and identified her accused attacker.

Police caught up with Perez in a nearby neighborhood. He initially denied knowing his ex-girlfriend.

But after being taken into custody, police say he became emotional when officers mentioned the victim and her two daughters.

Several witnesses also identified him, and his employer also identified the work van as Perez’s

He now faces several felony charges, including attempted murder.

Authorities said Sanchez-Teran remained in serious condition as of Friday.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Troy L. Nunley in Sacramento, California, made the ruling late Friday afternoon, finding that eight attorneys general and DirecTV were likely to prevail in their legal bid to stop the merger. The attorneys general, all Democrats, and DirecTV contend the merger will lead to higher prices for consumers, stifle local journalism and that the deal runs afoul of federal laws designed to protect against monopolies.

The deal, announced last year and approved by the Federal Communications Commission, would create a company that owns 265 television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, most of them local affiliates of one of the “Big Four” national networks: ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.

That would likely give Nexstar the power to raise the retransmission fees it charges to video programming distributors like DirecTV, which means higher bills for consumers, Nunley wrote. The company also has a track record of consolidating local television news stations when it owns more than one station in a market, the judge said, meaning viewers “will lose options for where to get their local news.”

The deal could also force distributors like DirecTV to comply with Nexstar’s demands for higher broadcast fees or risk leaving subscribers potentially unable to watch things like Sunday NFL football games, the judge said.

Stopping the merger for now is “in the public interest,” Nunley wrote.

Attorneys representing Nexstar and Tegna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nexstar’s attorneys told the court the deal has already been reviewed and cleared by the FCC and the Department of Justice. They said the FCC order commits the company to expand local journalism and programming, not shrink it.

The merger needed the approval of the Republican Trump administration’s FCC because the government had to waive rules that limit how many local stations one company can own. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in March that the company had agreed to divest itself of six stations.

The judge said the FCC clearance process for the deal was “unusual,” and that the regulatory oversight “did not curb the manifest anticompetitive effects of this acquisition.”

The Department of Justice, which is tasked with conducting antitrust reviews of these types of mergers, announced it was closing its investigation of the deal in March through “early termination,” the judge noted, ending the review process sooner than is normally required by statute.

“In unusual circumstances — with the FCC’s quasi-adjudicatory licensing proceeding still pending — the President himself weighed in publicly in February and urged federal regulators to approve the deal to ‘knock out the Fake News,’” Nunley wrote.

The preliminary injunction is designed to keep things as they are until the lawsuit is fully decided, Nunley said.

New York Attorney General Letitia James called the ruling a “critical victory” in a statement released Friday evening.

“Consolidating hundreds of local TV stations under one corporate owner would mean higher prices and lower quality programming for consumers,” she wrote. She later continued, “We will keep fighting our case to ensure fair competition among local TV stations that serve communities across the country.”

Maria Medetis Long told defense lawyers involved in the investigation that she was no longer participating in the Brennan investigation. Her departure from the investigation came after she conveyed doubt that there was sufficient evidence for a criminal case against Brennan, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press to discuss internal Justice Department conversations.

The Justice Department did not dispute that Medetis Long was no longer part of the investigation but also did not elaborate on the circumstances of her departure. The department said in a statement that “as a matter of routine practice, attorneys are moved around on cases so offices can most effectively allocate resources. It is completely healthy and normal to change members of legal teams.”

CNN first reported Medetis Long's departure from the investigation. She referred a request for comment to a spokesperson for her office, who did not immediately provide a statement.

Medetis Long heads the national security section at the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of Florida, which for months has been scrutinizing Brennan in connection with one of President Donald Trump's chief grievances — the U.S. government's years-old investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign for the White House.

Brennan served as CIA director under President Barack Obama and was in the position when the intelligence community published a detailed assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The Justice Department last year received a referral from Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, asserting that Brennan had given false testimony about the preparation of that assessment — a claim Brennan and his lawyers have vigorously denied.

Investigators who in recent months have issued a flurry of subpoenas have been preparing for additional interviews in the probe, though it remains unclear whether any charges will be brought or what impact Medetis Long's departure will have on the case or on witnesses' willingness to cooperate.

Trump this month replaced Pam Bondi as his attorney general, frustrated by the lack of progress in criminal investigations against political opponents like Brennan.

Her deputy, Todd Blanche, is now acting attorney general and has said that Trump has the right and duty to be involved in seeking investigations against people he has had “issues with.”

Last year, Trump effectively forced out the acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, after Siebert did not push forward with criminal charges against two other Trump foes, former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. A hastily installed loyalist prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, subsequently secured indictments against Comey and James but the cases were thrown out after a judge concluded that Halligan was unlawfully appointed.

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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.

“Ecuador está pasando al fascismo, ha decidido ilegalizar la oposición y criminalizar la política, dejando morir de hambre al ciudadano colombiano ex vicepresidente de la república de Ecuador: Jorge Glas”, aseguró Petro en la red social X.

El mandatario reaccionó a una noticia que refería recientes denuncias de la Organización Mundial Contra la Tortura, con sede central en Ginebra, que advierten presuntos “actos de tortura, así como amenazas y hostigamientos contra población civil campesina” en operaciones militares en la comunidad de San Martín, provincia de Sucumbíos, así como malas condiciones para los privados de la libertad.

The Associated Press consultó sin obtener respuesta de inmediato a la Cancillería ecuatoriana y al Ministerio de Defensa.

El gobierno ecuatoriano ha dicho que el operativo en la provincia fronteriza de Sucumbíos está dirigido a combatir al crimen organizado, incluido el bombardeo del 6 de marzo en el que, con apoyo de Estados Unidos, aseguró que se destruyó un campamento del grupo armado ilegal Comandos de la Frontera, que servía como sitio de descanso de uno de sus cabecillas.

Aunque no se ha referido al caso particular de la comunidad San Martín, desmintió versiones de The New York Times sobre la supuesta afectación a una finca que, según el medio, no era un campamento.

Los dichos de Petro ocurren en medio de tensiones bilaterales que iniciaron en enero y se han agudizado con imposición recíproca de aranceles, la suspensión de venta de energía para Ecuador y el incremento de la tarifa de transporte de petróleo colombiano.

El presidente ecuatoriano Daniel Noboa inició con la imposición de aranceles con una tasa “de seguridad” del 30% a todos los productos colombianos, los aumentó al 50% en marzo y en mayo llegarán al 100%. Alegó que Colombia no combate eficazmente la criminalidad en la frontera común.

Mientras que Colombia busca, según un decreto en borrador publicado la víspera, establecer un arancel recíproco a mercancías provenientes de Ecuador del 35%, 50% y 75%, en una metodología que selecciona productos sin llegar a imponer a ninguno el 100%, como lo hará Ecuador. La medida entraría en vigencia luego de recibir comentarios de ciudadanos, un procedimiento usual en el país.

Las tensiones políticas han incluido la situación de Glas, condenado por corrupción, a quien Petro ha denominado un “preso político”. Noboa ha rechazado el calificativo y ha dicho que Petro atenta contra la soberanía de su país.

Petro le concedió la nacionalidad colombiana a Glas el año pasado y ha pedido a Ecuador que lo entregue a Colombia.

———

La periodista Gabriela Molina contribuyó a este reporte desde Quito.

Authorities have not offered a potential motive for Monday morning's attacks. Among the victims was an auditor for the Department of Homeland Security who was walking her dog near the suspect's home.

The suspect in the shootings, Olaolukitan Adon Abel, a 26-year-old U.K. native, is charged in state court in DeKalb County with two counts of malice murder, aggravated assault and firearms counts. He also is facing a federal firearms charge, along with another man who is accused of buying the gun used in the shootings for him, prosecutors announced Friday.

Adon Abel lived with six others in separate units of a home listed on PadSplit, a platform offering low-cost shared housing. He was granted U.S. citizenship in 2022 while serving in the Navy and stationed in the San Diego area.

Long-running issues inside a communal home

Three roommates told The Associated Press that Adon Abel and a male roommate were screaming at each other late Sunday night over how cold Adon Abel kept the house in Panthersville, a suburb southeast of Atlanta.

“He (kept) the house freezing,” roommate Angela Britton said Friday. "It’s not the first time they got into it about the AC. But that time was a real big argument.”

Another roommate, Lakisha Mckinzie, said the fight scared her so much that she called her mother before bed and asked her to pray for her and her roommates' safety, telling her there had been a lot of “chaos and tension” in the home.

Mckinzie said she had been afraid of Adon Abel ever since he inappropriately touched her last month after asking her on a date. Mckinzie said he frequently knocked on her door late at night, but she never answered. She said she complained to her landlord multiple times, but no action was taken. PadSplit did not respond to a request for comment about whether it knew about Adon Abel's alleged behavior in the home.

After the argument, the roommates said Adon Abel packed up a large duffel bag and drove off shortly after midnight Monday morning.

Around 12:50 a.m., and about 5 miles (8 kilometers) away, 31-year-old Prianna Weathers was fatally shot outside a Decatur-area fast food restaurant, investigators said.

Then, around 2 a.m., a 49-year-old homeless man was shot multiple times while sleeping outside a grocery store in Brookhaven, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of the first attack, Brookhaven Police Chief Brandon Gurley said. The man, whose name hasn’t been released, remains hospitalized in stable but critical condition, authorities said Thursday.

DHS worker Lauren Bullis, who was out walking her dog a few hundred feet from Adon Abel's home, was found around 7 a.m. with gunshot and stab wounds.

Authorities have linked Adon Abel to all three attacks, though it is unclear whether he knew any of the victims — police have said they believe at least one victim was targeted at random.

Georgia State Patrol troopers stopped Adon Abel’s car around 11 a.m. Monday in Troup County, not far from the Georgia-Alabama border. Inside the vehicle, investigators said they found ammunition and shell casings matching those at the scene of Weathers’ killing. Police found the gun and shell casings on the ground near Bullis, Hertzberg said.

Federal charges have now been filed

Adon Abel is now also facing prosecution in federal court for illegally possessing a firearm, officials announced Friday.

He was charged with a firearms violation along with a 35-year-old homeless man, Damon Marquis Yarns. U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg, the top federal prosecutor for northern Georgia, said Yarns acknowledged buying the gun used in the shootings for Adon Abel and falsely stating on a federal form that he was the owner.

Adon Abel is accused of illegally possessing the gun as a person previously convicted of a felony.

Monday's crimes led Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to issue a statement raising concerns that Adon Abel was granted U.S. citizenship when Joe Biden was president. Mullin has catalogued a litany of the defendant’s previous alleged crimes, but it is unclear whether any of them happened before he became a citizen.

Adon Abel pleaded guilty in October 2024 in San Diego County, California, to charges of assault with a deadly weapon and criminal vandalism over what authorities there said was an attack on two police officers and another person, according to California court records.

Online court records show that someone listed with a similar name and the same birth date pleaded guilty last June in Chatham County, Georgia, to four misdemeanor counts of sexual battery.

Yarns is accused of buying the 9 mm pistol used in the shootings at a federally licensed firearms dealer in Atlanta on Feb. 20. Hertzberg said that a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives interviewed Yarns on Thursday, and Yarns said he had purchased the gun for a Nigerian or British man he knew only as “Abdul or Obie,” then identified Adon Abel from a photo.

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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.

Rodríguez indicó que, en su lugar, aspira utilizar los “activos congelados” en ese organismo una vez estén disponibles para mejorar los servicios públicos del país sudamericano.

La “recuperación de nuestra representación ante este organismo internacional es muy importante, es una gran noticia para Venezuela”, dijo la presidenta en funciones en una declaración difundida por la estatal Venezolana de Televisión.

“Estamos recuperando no solamente las responsabilidades que tenemos dentro del organismo, sino también los derechos y activos congelados que tiene nuestro país en este organismo, que nos permitirán invertir de manera inmediata en servicios públicos”, entre los que se incluye la obsoleta red eléctrica nacional, que genera frecuentes apagones, y la “recuperación del sistema de distribución de agua”, acotó.

El FMI ​y el Banco ​Mundial anunciaron ​paralelamente en la víspera que reanudaron las relaciones ​con ​Venezuela que habían estado suspendidas desde 2019 debido a problemas relacionados ​con ‌el reconocimiento del gobierno del entonces presidente Nicolás Maduro.

En 2019, el líder opositor Juan Guaidó, entonces titular de la Asamblea Nacional, quien en enero de ese año se declaró presidente interino de Venezuela, fue reconocido por Estados Unidos y otras varias decenas de países como el gobernante legítimo de Venezuela, ya que consideraron que los comicios de 2018 en los que Maduro fue reelecto para un segundo mandato fueron fraudulentos.

La legitimidad de Maduro siguió en duda tras los polémicos comicios presidenciales del 28 de julio de 2024. Maduro fue declarado ganador sin presentar evidencias de que obtuvo 6.4 millones de votos frente a los 5.3 millones del opositor Edmundo González. El opositor fue reconocido como presidente electo de Venezuela por varios gobiernos tras mostrar pruebas creíbles de su victoria electoral ante Maduro.

En contraste, ahora la administración del presidente estadounidense Donald Trump ha dado una serie de pasos, entre ellos levantar las sanciones de vieja data impuestas a Rodríguez, una clara señal de que Estados Unidos la reconoce como una autoridad legítima en Venezuela desde que el ejército de Estados Unidos capturó a Maduro y a su esposa, Cilia Flores, en la capital venezolana, el pasado 3 de enero.

La entonces vicepresidenta era, de acuerdo con la Constitución, la primera en la línea de sucesión.

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It turns out the car he bought was stolen.

It was fall of last year when Adrian Blejdea was in the market for a new ride.

He came across a black chevy suburban on Facebook Marketplace that was listed for $45,000 dollars.

Blejdea ran the vehicle’s VIN number and it came back clean, and the title matched.

The seller’s registration and paperwork seemed legit.

“I did my research, everything seemed fine so I bought the car and registered it,” said Blejdea.

They negotiated a deal and Blejdea gave the seller $35,000.

He drove off in the SUV and thought all was well, until three days later.

“The radio wasn’t working, so when I hooked up the GPS to the car the next day, Hollywood police found me,” said Blejdea.

According to a Hollywood police incident report provided by Blejdea, an officer ran the license plate and there were big red flags on a Carfax report.

The incident report says during the traffic stop the officer “Inspected the public VIN plate of the vehicle which I immediately identified as being fraudulent.”

Police found there was no real dealership history for the SUV, and the paperwork was fake too.

The title was linked to a car from a dealership in Kentucky, but that VIN was never in their inventory.

But that’s not all.

During officers’ inspection of the SUV, they found another fraudulent VIN that “appears to be a clone of a legitimate Canadian vehicle.”

Hollywood police determined Blejdea was the victim of something called VIN swapping, where crooks take a legitimate VIN number and place it on a stolen car.

When police dug deeper, they discovered the car was originally reported stolen in Oklahoma and somehow made it to South Florida and eventually sold to Blejdea.

It’s an elaborate scheme happening from coast to coast, one so sophisticated the FBI does not have precise nationwide statistics.

For Blejdea, the car he thought was his, was seized by Hollywood Police.

Now he is out of a car and thousands of dollars.

“I don’t trust anything anymore,” said Blejdea. “I’m always double checking and searching and I just want to make sure that whoever I’m talking to or they tell me something it’s not fraud because you hear a lot of stories but you don’t think it would happen to you.”

Blejdea had a take out a loan, which he is still paying back, and on top of that he bought another car to get around and work for Uber.

He is hoping somehow he will get his money back.

Ways to protect yourself include running a Carfax and try into cross reference the VIN numbers in multiple locations, while looking into professional inspection services is also an option.

Fitzpatrick was cruising along when his tee shot on the par-3 14th turned hard to the left, headed for sand and trees when it caught what appeared to be the edge of a cart path that sent the ball back down a slope onto the green and headed for the water.

It was slowed just enough by a sprinkler to stay dry, and he holed a 30-footer for a most unlikely birdie. Fitzpatrick birdied two of the next three and completed a bogey-free round.

“Yeah, it was lucky, there's no two ways about it,” Fitzpatrick said. “Sometimes you need that in a week, so it's nice to get, and then even nicer to take advantage of it.”

Hovland had it far tougher in the afternoon when the wind got stronger, and it doesn't take much around tree-lined Harbour Town for players to get indecisive or catch the wrong gust.

Hovland got the right club on the exposed par-3 17th to 12 feet for his eighth birdie of the day and a hard-earned 65. That included a birdie on the par-5 fifth when he was still 205 yards out for his third shot and wound up holing a 30-footer.

“I wouldn’t say I striped it today, but at least I kind of kept the ball in front of me, and that’s what you’re trying to do on this golf course,” Hovland said.

Fitzpatrick, who won the RBC Heritage in a playoff over Jordan Spieth in 2023, was at 14-under 128.

Harris English got the wrong gust on the 11th hole and went from scrambling for par to figuring out how to escape with double bogey from a plugged lie in the sand. He overcame that, had a 68 and was three shots behind.

Scottie Scheffler, who played alongside Fitzpatrick, hit all 14 fairways for only the fourth time in his career — two of those were on the runway-wide fairways of Kapalua — and had a steady diet of birdie chances in the 18-foot range. He managed a bogey-free 67 and was seven behind.

Fitzpatrick and Scheffler both hit the ball so well it looked they were playing a Tuesday money game, with birdie chances on every hole and exchanging birdies early on before the wind acted up.

On the par-4 eighth, Scheffler hit enough of the left corner of the green that it hopped right to 7 feet. Fitzpatrick followed on the same line and was 6 inches closer, and Scheffler looked back at the Englishman and smiled.

But it was Fitzpatrick who surged ahead with a batch of three straight birdies on the front and three straight birdies on the back. The longest par putt he had was 4 feet on the final hole.

He called it a continuation of good iron play that began when he finished one shot behind Cameron Young at The Players Championship, then won the following week at Innisbrook in the Valspar Championship.

Patrick Cantlay, who took a big step last week with consecutive bogey-free rounds at the Masters after opening with a 77, shot 64 and was four shots behind along with Sepp Straka (67) and Ludvig Aberg, who was closing in on Fitzpatrick until three bogeys on the back nine led to a 71.

Robert MacIntyre also was in the mix, three shots behind, until the wind died enough to keep his ball from finding the 17th green, and then he took two to get out of a bunker for a double bogey. That wiped out a lot of good work, and a bogey on the 18th dropped him to a 68, six behind.

There were 20 double bogeys on the day from the 82-man field on 11 of the holes at Harbour Town. Spieth made three of them and scratched out a 73.

Akshay Bhatia had 11 birdies to offset his double bogey in a round of 63.

“Man, it got tricky there on the back nine, as it can here at Hilton Head,” English said. “Gusty winds. You don’t really know what direction it’s coming from.”

Fitzpatrick has a history at Hilton Head Island beyond winning three years ago. His family used to come over on holiday. He suspects his father typed in the words “tennis” and “golf” and “nice weather” and off they went. He recalls going to the tournament, even getting a golf ball signed by Boo Weekley. And now here is, a major champion looking for another plaid jacket for the winner.

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

“I think it's exactly what it was,” Stars forward Mikko Rantanen said Friday.

Dallas won 5-4 in that game April 9, when there were 12 roughing penalties — six on each side. Each team won twice in the regular-season series in which both scored 13 goals.

“They got the best of us for sure, but it was a great hockey game for the end of a regular season,” Minnesota forward Matt Boldy said.

Now, the teams that were in second and third place in the Central throughout most of the season behind Presidents' Trophy winner Colorado play a best-of-seven series. Game 1 is Saturday in Dallas.

The Wild missed a chance that night to match the Stars in the standings. Instead, Dallas pretty much locked up home-ice advantage with the second of five consecutive wins to end the regular season.

“We learned some lessons last time we played them," Wild forward Marcus Foligno said. “We know that they’re a really, really good team, and so are we. They have some lethal weapons. We’re just more educated, more experienced going into this series than we were before. We always like our chances. We’re positive.”

40-40 duos for both teams

Both teams have a pair of 40-goal scorers in the same season for the first time. Kirill Kaprizov (45 goals) and Boldy (42) did it for the Wild. Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston, the 22-year-old center already in his fourth postseason, each scored 45 goals for the Stars.

“That’s a legit number,” Stars veteran forward Matt Duchene said.

Injuries and ills

Dallas defenseman Miro Heiskanen skated with the team Friday for the first time since a lower-body injury sustained when he was knocked hard into the boards by Ryan Hartman in the last game against the Wild.

Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said Heiskanen, who missed the start of last year's playoffs, made it through practice with no issues and felt good.

“I would think that as long as everything goes good, he should be in,” Gulutzan said. “He means everything on both sides of the puck for us. Power play, penalty kill, he touches all parts of the game.”

Stars top-line center Roope Hintz, who last played March 6, will miss the start of the playoffs after a setback in his recovery from a lower-body injury.

Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes, who has been dealing with an illness since last playing Saturday, traveled to Dallas on his own Friday after not going with the team Thursday.

“With the illness, I think more rest for him and just not having him on the plane,” coach John Hynes said. “The expectation is for him to play."

Between the pipes

Jake Oettinger is going into his 11th playoff series as the starting goalie for the Stars, and second for the Minnesota native against the Wild — he grew up about 30 miles from their arena. His first playoff series win was in six games against the Wild in the first round of the 2023 postseason.

The Wild are going with rookie Jesper Wallstedt over playoff-experienced Filip Gustavsson, though Hynes emphasized that is a decision for Game 1 and not the entire series.

“His overall body work has been really solid. He's played really well coming down the stretch,” Hynes said of the 23-year-old rookie. “We're confident in both guys.”

Gustavsson made his playoff debut three years ago with 51 saves in a double-overtime win over the Stars during Game 1. Wallstedt made 33 starts in his NHL debut this season, ranking second in the league with a .916 save percentage while setting franchise rookie records with 18 wins and four shutouts.

Tarasenko gives the Wild a wild-card scorer

While the Stars will be plenty focused on trying to keep Kaprizov and Boldy off the scoresheet, the Wild have a trusty scorer on their third line with plenty of playoff experience in Vladimir Tarasenko. The longtime St. Louis star, who has won the Stanley Cup twice in his 14-year career, has 49 goals in 121 career playoff games. Tarasenko had 23 goals and 24 assists in his first season with Minnesota.

“He’s a big-game player," Hynes said. “I think that leadership and the way he plays is certainly a playoff-style of game.”

Some playoff history

The Stars won both previous postseason series against Minnesota in six games, in 2016 and 2023. ... Dallas was the Minnesota North Stars before the franchise moved south in 1993. ... The Wild's 12 postseason appearances in 14 years are the most in the NHL during that span. They have lost nine straight series, since beating St. Louis in the first round in 2015. .... Dallas is in its fifth consecutive postseason, the last three ending in the West final. ... Gulutzan, part of 83 playoff games as an Edmonton assistant, including trips to the Stanley Cup Final the last two seasons, is looking for his first postseason win as a head coach. Calgary was swept in the first round by Anaheim with Gulutzan in 2017.

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AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell contributed from St. Paul, Minnesota.

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

Miami-Dade and Broward counties can expect partly cloudy skies Friday night. Temperatures will be quite mild with lows forecast in the low 70s.

Saturday will feature sunshine and scattered clouds-- can’t rule out a stray shower. As east-southeast winds stir, temperatures will make a run for the mid and upper 80s.

Sunday will offer light winds and partly cloudy skies along with a slightly better chance for showers compared to Saturday, especially during the afternoon.

Should Miami achieve its forecast high temperature of 89°, it would be the warmest so far this year.

The superstars met again in 2017 and 2018, and Durant's Golden State Warriors beat James' Cleveland Cavaliers to win Durant's two rings.

The two greatest scorers of this generation are matched up once again in the postseason this weekend when Durant and his Houston Rockets visit James' Los Angeles Lakers. Game 1 is Saturday night in the latest chapter of this friendly rivalry, and the basketball world will be watching.

“It’s prime time,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Two of the best, and still doing it at this stage in their careers. And they have had some battles in the playoffs, but not a ton being in the East and the West a lot. So that part alone has a lot of storylines, a lot of history. I’m sure this will add to their chapters.”

The 41-year-old James is the top scorer in NBA history, and the 37-year-old Durant is fifth. While this fourth engagement might turn out to be their final spring meeting — and maybe even James' final playoff appearance, who knows? — they're both thinking mostly about the task before them, not the history behind them.

“It’s always great playing against great players,” Durant said. “You feel their presence on the floor, even if you’re not matched up with them. But it’s just like all basketball players know, it’s much more than just one player. You need a whole group of guys to go out there and win ... but yeah, the matchup is definitely fun. Two great players who’ve been in the league for a long time. But everybody who’s involved in this series knows it’s much deeper than that.”

Indeed, their shared playoff history only underlines the importance of a supporting cast, even for players of their stature.

James' Heatles were too much for a young Thunder group led by Durant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook. The Warriors then became arguably the most loaded team in recent NBA history when Durant chose to join Stephen Curry, and it was too much even for James, who moved to the Lakers a few weeks after his Cavs fell to Golden State for the third time in four years.

The importance of a supporting cast is the reason fifth-seeded Houston is the prohibitive favorite in this series, of course.

The Lakers lost NBA scoring champion Luka Doncic and prolific guard Austin Reaves to injuries two weeks ago, and they're both out indefinitely.

So while James is once again attempting to carry an inferior roster to places it would never otherwise go, the hard-working Rockets are healthier around Durant, who wants his first postseason with Houston to be memorable.

“Obviously, we know that’s the head of the snake,” James said of Durant. “But it’s the Houston Rockets, and they have some damn good players on their team. It’s not just a KD team. It’s the whole group. Like I said, KD is gonna do what KD does. He’s a Hall of Famer. We know that. So we have to prepare not only for him, but for the whole group.”

Hanging in

The Lakers aren't publicly predicting when their top two scorers will return, if at all. The injuries to Doncic (Grade 2 hamstring strain) and Reaves (Grade 2 oblique strain) typically take several weeks to heal. The first-round schedule has a few extra days off, but that's no guarantee.

“We’re going try to make this season as long as possible so that we can get those guys back at some point,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “We don’t know what that is, but that’s just our job. And their job is to do everything they can to be in a position to come back at some point. It may not work, but that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Tough out

Hard-working, resourceful Houston would be a tough matchup even under ideal circumstances for the Lakers, but the Rockets know they're facing a competent opponent playing with extra fire from the widespread perception that this short-handed team can't hang with them.

The Lakers have home-court advantage because they won 53 games, including two in Houston last month.

“Even though they got injuries, we’re not looking at this team like they’re not a good team,” Durant said. “We have to show the proper respect to them as NBA players and then into the game as well. We’ve got to come out and respect these guys, because they can have that impact if we let them.”

Fifth starter?

Udoka wouldn’t say this week who will join Durant, Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr. and Amen Thompson as his team’s fifth starter in this series. Down the stretch, Udoka started Tari Eason, Josh Okogie and Reed Sheppard, depending on the matchup. Okogie could be the top option in this series for his defense, but he is averaging just 4.5 points a game, making him a less desirable option offensively than Sheppard (13.5 points a game) or Eason (10.5).

Hit the boards

Redick is aware of the Rockets' historic dominance as a rebounding team, so he addressed it from the first day of practice this week by putting the Lakers through fundamental rebounding and boxing-out drills that reminded his players of junior high.

“Taking care of the basketball and boxing out. That’s the series,” Redick said. “Scheme, personnel, obviously important. But if we don’t take care of the basketball and we don’t box out, we’re not going to win the series.”

Houston led the NBA in total rebounds (48.1 per game) and offensive rebounds (15.0), That proficiency powered much of the Rockets' offensive production, while the Lakers obviously depended on Doncic's brilliance for a big chunk of their scoring.

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AP Sports Writer Kristie Rieken in Houston contributed.

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

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The vice mayor was honored in a procession, with Coral Springs police and Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies leading the way as the community came together to remember her life.

The viewing, which was open to the public, began at 11:30 a.m. at the Church by the Glades in Coral Springs.

A celebration of life was then held at 12:30 p.m.

“The city encourages all who wish to honor Vice Mayor Metayer to do so not only in remembrance but by carrying forward the values she embodied, uplifting others, making space at the table, serving with compassion, and working toward a more sustainable future,” city officials said in a news release.

On Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered that all flags in Tallahassee and Coral Springs be lowered to half-staff from sunrise to sunset Friday in honor of Metayer Bowen.

The vice mayor’s husband, Stephen Bowen, 40, faces first-degree murder and evidence tampering charges after being captured in Plantation.

He is accused of shooting Metayer Bowen inside their Coral Springs home, where Metayer Bowen’s body was found on the morning of April 1 wrapped in a comforter and garbage bags. She was 38 years old.

Those close to her say that if there were signs of trouble, she kept them private.

“What we see is the escalation happens between rounds of these different incidents of abuse, so the quicker we can get law enforcement to the scene to understand what the issue is, the more seriously we can deal with the perpetrator and the abuser,” State Sen. Alexis Calatayud said.

“She was the best of us,” said an attendee at the memorial. “Kind, brilliant, graceful, dignified, and that beautiful smile — this is our Nancy.”

Lawmakers are now pushing for more protections, including tools that could silently alert police.

The incident happened Thursday as the soldiers were participating in a “land navigation training event” in Arctic Valley, part of the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s training area.

The soldiers were receiving medical care as of Friday, a military official told the Anchorage Daily News. Messages sent to base spokespersons were not immediately returned to The Associated Press on Friday.

The soldiers’ conditions were not released pending notification of relatives.

Both soldiers used pepper spray on the bear, the official said. Few other details were available about the incident because it was still under investigation.

“The safety and well-being of our personnel is our highest priority,” Lt. Col. Jo Nederhoed, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army 11th Airborne Division, said in an email to the Anchorage Daily News.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is investigating what it says appears to have been “a defensive attack" by a bear that had recently emerged from a den. The area near where the incident occurred has been closed to recreational activity by base officials, the department said.

Samples were collected by investigators with the aim of positively identifying the species and gender of bear involved, the department said.

The base encompasses 100 square miles (259 square kilometers) within the Municipality of Anchorage, where up to 350 black bears and 75 brown bears roam freely.

The video, shared by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, captures the incident that occurred just after 1 a.m. on Jan. 17 at Gables Motorsports in the 7300 block of Bird Road.

Video shows a person wearing a hooded sweatshirt walking up to the boats before climbing inside one vessel, then moving to another.

Deputies said the man was cutting GPS units off the boats.

They said a second person, wearing a black jacket, later arrived in a Tesla and is seen approaching the boats. Investigators said he was acting as a lookout.

The two men, identified as James Briggs-Stanford, of Atlanta, and Shavonte Malone, of southwest Miami-Dade, were later arrested on grand theft, burglary and criminal mischief charges.

Investigators said the surveillance video played a key role in tracking down the suspects.

Police said the theft caused thousands of dollars in damage, but the GPS units were ultimately recovered.

Motorists, hoping for relief at the pump, wondered how quickly gasoline prices might fall once oil tankers stuck in the Persian Gulf were moving again. A gallon of regular gasoline cost $4.08 on average in the U.S. Friday, which was 37% more than before U.S. and Israel attacked Iran but down a few cents from a week ago.

But when gas prices spike, they don’t typically drop as quickly as the cost of crude. Even if Iran keeps the waterway open in the face of a U.S. blockade of its vessels, it still could take months for fuel prices to return to levels resembling those enjoyed before the war began Feb. 28, energy experts said.

The slow speed at which oil tankers travel from ports to refineries, lingering security concerns, traffic in the strait and damage to energy infrastructure in the Middle East are all playing a role in the elevated price of gasoline.

“The historical observation is that gasoline prices rise quickly but fall slowly, regardless of the particular causes of the increase,” said Mark Barteau, a professor in the department of chemical engineering at Texas A&M University.

“In this case, one has to take into account the time it takes for the steps that have to happen once tankers sail through the straits – for example, sailing time to refineries on other continents, time to ramp up refinery operations, and time to transport some refined products by tanker to the continent where they will be used,” Barteau said. “There is also tendency to hedge bets because of doubts about whether and how quickly that restoration might occur, and whether further disruptions are possible along the way.”

Nevertheless, some energy analysts were optimistic that gas prices would gradually decline.

Hope for lower gasoline prices

Gasoline prices were already falling slightly after last week’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, according to motor club federation AAA.

Following the Strait of Hormuz announcement, oil prices fell by $10 to $12 per barrel, which generally translates into a decrease of 25 or 30 cents per gallon of gas, said Michael Lynch, distinguished fellow at Energy Policy Research Foundation, a non-partisan research institution focused on energy and economics.

“That doesn’t happen overnight, but within a week or two, we could be down 50 cents a gallon easily, if this holds,” Lynch said. “And part of it is, there’s a lot of tankers ready to go. And if they all come out, then that balances the market very quickly.”

In the wake of Friday's news, “every state will start seeing gas price decreases accelerate at a pace of probably 1 to 3 cents a gallon for every day or two,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, in a webcast. “And that could continue for at least a couple of weeks.”

DeHaan estimated that the national average for a gallon of regular gas could reach $3.45 to $3.65 by Memorial Day. But he acknowledged that returning to lower prices could take a while.

“It might take until later this year or early next year to really fully normalize and for some of these surcharges and impacts to reverse and disappear," De Haan said.

Traffic and trepidation

If an agreement to end the war is reached, it could take at least four months for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to go back to normal, said Patrick Penfield, professor of supply chain practice at Syracuse University.

“Right now, you still have potential mines that have to be removed or detonated, you have over 150 tankers that have been anchored in and around the strait, which is causing a traffic jam, and we still have shipping rates that are still high because of lack of shipping capacity and war rate insurance,” he said.

The leaders of France and the U.K. welcomed word of the strait's reopening but said they would keep pushing for a way to permanently restore freedom of navigation for vessels that rely on the narrow passage off Iran's coast, through which about one-fifth of the world's oil typically travels.

Ship owners would have to be convinced to trust the Americans and Iranians, "and that seems like it’s a hard hill to climb,” Lynch, of the Energy Policy Research Foundation, said. “I certainly wouldn’t want to do it. I wouldn’t wanna be the first ship through or even the first five ships through, but somebody will do it. There’s a lot of money on the table and somebody’s going to grab it.”

If the Iranians are cooperating, the mines should not be a problem, because Iran has a sense of where the mines are, Lynch said.

"Now, that raises the issue, are the Iranians going to cooperate, or what do they want to cooperate?” he asked. “Are they going to demand a couple-million dollars a ship, as is talked about? Or is Trump going to say ‘that’s not acceptable,’ and then what’s the next step after that?”

If the strait remains open, and ships loaded with oil leave the Persian Gulf, it could take weeks for those heavy, slow-moving ships to reach their destinations.

“People think that once the strait opens, it’s fine. We’re done. It’ll be better really fast,” said Richard Joswick, global head of near-term oil analysis at S&P Global Energy. “If you open the strait today to get a ship and bring it around and take it to Europe and run a refinery, turn it into products, you’re talking 10 weeks of a lag time here. It will be two to three months before things can start to get back to normal after the straight re-opens.”

Damage to energy infrastructure in the Middle East

Many oil production facilities were damaged in the Middle East, including refineries in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and oil tanker terminals in the United Arab Emirates and Iran. Some repairs has been made, but damage remains.

In addition, some countries slowed down or halted production during the war, because without the ability to ship crude through the Strait of Hormuz, their ships and storage tanks filled up with stranded oil.

“It’s not a light switch. Everyone’s impatient and saying, ‘Go, go go,’” De Haan said. “But it will take time to get these flows of oil through the Middle East fired back up again.”

Once an oil well is turned off, the pressure within the well could change, and it can take time to restart the flow. But that might not be a problem in some Middle East oil fields, where production can be resumed quickly, Lynch said.

“The Saudis have done that a bunch of times. They ramp up by 2 or 3 million barrels a day, almost overnight, and there’s no problem with the wells that have been shut in for months and sometimes years,” Lynch said.

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Mae Anderson in New York contributed to this report.

The Dream acquired Reese from the Sky on April 6. Chicago obtained first-round draft picks in 2027 and 2028. Atlanta also received the right to swap second-round picks with Chicago in 2028.

One of the WNBA's most recognizable stars, Reese led the league in rebounds in each of her two seasons with the Sky.

“I’m always gonna be grateful for that because I did experience a lot of great things,” Reese said Friday of her time in Chicago. “I enjoyed being able to grow within my first two years but I wanted more. I love to win, I love to compete and I wanted to be surrounded by people that can make me better.

“And I am not satisfied with what I am as a player and I felt like being around these kinds of players would help me be better. I can help them in different ways to help them win and that’s all I ever wanted. I don’t care about anything else that comes with it. I want to win and being able to come to an organization that really cared about their players.”

Reese was joined at the news conference by the five players Atlanta has re-signed this offseason. Guard Rhyne Howard said Reese, a two-time All-Star forward, could help Atlanta win a championship.

“Angel, I think is special for us because she could be exactly what we were missing,” Howard said.

Reese averaged 14.7 points and a league-best 12.6 rebounds last season. She joins a team that won a franchise-record 30 games last season under coach Karl Smesko before losing to Indiana in the playoffs.

Atlanta also re-signed Allisha Gray, Brionna Jones, Jordin Canada and Naz Hillmon.

Gray finished fourth in MVP voting last season. Howard became the fastest player in WNBA history to make 300 3-pointers. Hillmon was named Sixth Player of the Year and Jones was an All-Star.

The trade to Atlanta came after Reese expressed frustration late last season, with Chicago on the way to a 10-34 finish. She told the Chicago Tribune the Sky needed to improve their roster and added she “might have to move in a different direction and do what’s best for me” if that didn't happen. She later apologized to the team for the comments.

The Sky suspended Reese for half a game for comments deemed “detrimental to the team.” The team held her out for its final three games with a back injury, raising speculation about her future in Chicago.

Reese said the interest from the Dream “was mutual on both sides and I was able to choose a destination I really wanted to go to.”

General manager Dan Padover said adding Reese capped a successful offseason.

“When we went into this offseason, we had two main priorities,” Padover said. “That was retain our core. And to remain opportunistic. And over the last week, I’m thrilled to say we did both. Keeping these players in Atlanta was just so important to us. And the most special thing is that they want to stay here.

“And then to have someone like Angel come in and say ‘Hey guys, I love what you’re doing. I love that city. Let me jump in here.’ And to have this whole group as well as the others that are here today come together to try to build something and win a championship. That’s what sports is all about.”

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

Maslin Kurtz said she initially believed she had blown a tire when her vehicle veered off the road along Fruitville Road near Cowpen Lane.

“I thought I hit something and blew a tire just because it ripped my car off of the road,” Kurtz said.

Authorities said Kurtz’s Toyota 4Runner hit the alligator, causing the vehicle to overturn multiple times. Photos show extensive damage to the SUV.

Kurtz said she became trapped inside the vehicle after the crash.

“I just remember being stuck in my car like I was crushed between the roof and the steering wheel,” she said. “I’m just kind of stuck there, not sure what happened.”

She said she prayed for help as cars passed by, unsure where she had landed off the roadway.

“I was just praying that somebody would see me,” she said. “I saw lights go by and thought I was behind a bush or something. I didn’t know where I had ended up.”

A couple stopped and called 911, helping Kurtz out of the wreckage, she said.

Kurtz was hospitalized for four days at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, including two days in the intensive care unit. She suffered multiple injuries, including fractures to her spine, sternum and left scapula.

“I have a few fractures on my spine. My sternum is fractured and then my left scapula,” she said.

She is expected to make a full recovery but must wear a brace for four to six weeks and undergo physical therapy.

Kurtz said she feels fortunate to have survived the crash. Her home is now filled with balloons and cards, and she said the couple who helped rescue her later visited and brought her a stuffed alligator.

“It was very emotional,” she said. “I’m just grateful that I’m here and I give all the glory to God,” Kurtz.

Authorities said the alligator did not survive the crash and was removed from the roadway. A GoFundMe has been started to help Kurtz with her medical expenses.

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It’s just the latest safety issue discovered by inspectors.

“I know we don’t have earthquakes and stuff, but it felt like an earthquake or a sinkhole or something everything just started coming down on me,” said Dajah Stover.

Stover, her father and attorneys think most people would never believe a ceiling and the air conditioning system in a restaurant would suddenly come crashing down.

But it happened on Oct. 6 at Flyers Wings and Grill in Orlando.

“I just saw so much blood pouring from my head,” Stover said. “The ambulance came and they basically saw the situation, how it happened, and they saw the deep cut I had in my head, and they just I need to go to the hospital to get staples.”

Stover wasn’t alone in the restaurant, she was eating with her daughter, who was not quite two years old at the time.

“I had walked over there to sit next to her and scooted her over,” she said. “So if I had not walked there and scooted her over, everything would have hit her instead of me. And that was just by the grace of God, that she didn’t get hit.”

Stover is now suing the restaurant, claiming negligence and lingering health problems from the collapse.

“It’s definitely traumatic for the family, myself and the family, to know that my daughter and granddaughter were in a situation like that,” said Torrence Stover, Dajaj’s father.

According to state inspection reports, the restaurant has been cited for violations involving “ceiling tiles and vents soiled with accumulated food debris” since 2023, and just days after the ceiling collapse was given a “repeat violation warning” for lack of ceiling maintenance.

The lawsuit also alleges in “2024, a customer was injured when a piece of ceiling fell.”

“It wasn’t until after Dajaj got hit in the head and her daughter narrowly escaping injury or death that they closed down the restaurant, partially, to fix this,” said Ryan Fletcher, who is representing Dajaj Stover.

The restaurant also had multiple violations of the FDA food code and the lawsuit highlights a repeat violation for damaged or missing ceiling tiles.

So far, the business has not commented on the lawsuit.

Es el más reciente problema de seguridad detectado por inspectores.

“Sabemos que no tenemos terremotos ni cosas así, pero se sintió como un terremoto o un socavón, todo empezó a caer sobre mí”, dijo Dajah Stover.

Stover, su padre y sus abogados creen que la mayoría de las personas no imaginarían que un techo y el sistema de aire acondicionado de un restaurante colapsarían repentinamente.

Pero ocurrió el 6 de octubre en Flyers Wings and Grill en Orlando.

“Vi mucha sangre saliendo de mi cabeza”, dijo Stover. “La ambulancia llegó y básicamente vieron la situación, cómo ocurrió, y vieron el corte profundo que tenía en la cabeza, y dijeron que necesitaba ir al hospital para recibir grapas”.

Stover no estaba sola en el restaurante, estaba comiendo con su hija, que en ese momento tenía menos de dos años.

“Me acerqué para sentarme a su lado y la moví”, dijo. “Si no hubiera hecho eso, todo le habría caído a ella en lugar de a mí. Fue por la gracia de Dios que no resultó herida”.

Stover ahora demanda al restaurante, alegando negligencia y problemas de salud persistentes tras el colapso.

“Es definitivamente traumático para la familia, para mí y para todos, saber que mi hija y mi nieta estuvieron en una situación así”, dijo Torrence Stover, padre de Dajah.

Según informes de inspección estatal, el restaurante ha sido citado por violaciones relacionadas con “losetas del techo y ventilaciones sucias con acumulación de residuos de alimentos” desde 2023, y días después del colapso recibió una “advertencia por violación repetida” por falta de mantenimiento del techo.

La demanda también alega que en 2024 un cliente resultó herido cuando una parte del techo cayó.

“No fue hasta que Dajah recibió el golpe en la cabeza y su hija estuvo a punto de resultar herida o morir que cerraron parcialmente el restaurante para hacer reparaciones”, dijo Ryan Fletcher, quien representa a Dajah Stover.

El restaurante también tenía múltiples violaciones del código alimentario de la FDA y la demanda destaca una infracción reiterada por losetas del techo dañadas o faltantes.

Hasta el momento, el negocio no ha comentado sobre la demanda.

The Mets' skid is their worst since the 2004 team dropped 11 straight. They’ve been outscored 56-16 during the streak.

Chicago scored in double digits for the third straight game and major league-leading fourth time this season.

Ballesteros made it 4-0 in the first with a three-run homer.

Hoerner had three hits and drove in two runs after setting a career high with five RBIs in Wednesday’s 11-2 win at Philadelphia. His two-run shot in the second against Kodai Senga (0-3) made it 6-3. The two-time Gold Glove second baseman also made a diving stop to rob Bo Bichette of a hit in the fifth.

Happ added a two-run drive in the eighth.

Edward Cabrera (2-0) went six innings, allowing three runs and eight hits, as the Cubs rolled to their third straight win.

Senga got tagged for seven runs in his second straight start.

The Japanese right-hander gave up six earned to go with six hits in 3 1/3 innings after lasting just 2 1/3 in a loss to the Athletics last week. His ERA through four starts is 8.83.

After outscoring Philadelphia by a combined 21-6 in their previous two games, the Cubs jumped on Senga.

Seiya Suzuki singled in a run in the first and Ballesteros made it 4-0 when he drove the next pitch to the left-field basket.

The Mets cut it to 4-3 in the second on an RBI double by Marcus Semien and two-run single by Tyrone Taylor off the center-field wall. Taylor got thrown out at second by Pete Crow-Armstrong.

Up next

The series continues with the Mets sending RHP Freddy Peralta (1-1, 3.86 ERA) to the mound and the Cubs going with RHP Jameson Taillon (0-1, 4.86). ___

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

Resultó que el auto que compró era robado.

Fue en el otoño del año pasado cuando Adrian Blejdea estaba buscando un nuevo vehículo.

Encontró una Chevrolet Suburban negra en Facebook Marketplace que estaba listada por $45,000 USD.

Blejdea verificó el número VIN del vehículo y no arrojó problemas, y el título coincidía.

El registro y la documentación del vendedor parecían legítimos.

“Hice mi investigación, todo parecía estar bien, así que compré el auto y lo registré”, dijo Blejdea.

Negociaron un acuerdo y Blejdea entregó $35,000 USD al vendedor.

Se fue conduciendo el SUV pensando que todo estaba bien, hasta tres días después.

“La radio no funcionaba, así que cuando conecté el GPS al auto al día siguiente, la Policía de Hollywood me encontró”, dijo Blejdea.

Según un informe policial de Hollywood proporcionado por Blejdea, un agente verificó la placa y encontró señales de alerta en un reporte de Carfax.

El informe indica que durante la parada de tráfico el agente “inspeccionó la placa VIN pública del vehículo, la cual identifiqué de inmediato como fraudulenta”.

La Policía encontró que no existía un historial real de concesionario para el SUV, y que la documentación también era falsa.

El título estaba vinculado a un auto de un concesionario en Kentucky, pero ese VIN nunca estuvo en su inventario.

Pero eso no fue todo.

Durante la inspección del SUV, los agentes encontraron otro VIN fraudulento que “parece ser un clon de un vehículo legítimo de Canadá”.

La Policía de Hollywood determinó que Blejdea fue víctima de un fraude conocido como cambio de VIN, donde delincuentes toman un número VIN legítimo y lo colocan en un auto robado.

Cuando la Policía investigó más a fondo, descubrió que el vehículo había sido reportado como robado originalmente en Oklahoma y de alguna manera llegó al sur de Florida, donde finalmente fue vendido a Blejdea.

Se trata de un esquema elaborado que ocurre en todo el país, tan sofisticado que el FBI no tiene estadísticas precisas a nivel nacional.

Para Blejdea, el auto que creía suyo fue incautado por la Policía de Hollywood.

Ahora se quedó sin vehículo y sin miles de dólares.

“Ya no confío en nada”, dijo Blejdea. “Siempre estoy verificando todo dos veces y buscando, y solo quiero asegurarme de que con quien estoy hablando o lo que me dicen no sea un fraude, porque escuchas muchas historias pero no crees que te pasará a ti”.

Blejdea tuvo que sacar un préstamo, el cual aún está pagando, y además compró otro auto para poder movilizarse y trabajar para Uber.

Espera poder recuperar su dinero de alguna manera.

Algunas formas de protegerse incluyen verificar un reporte de Carfax e intentar cruzar los números VIN en múltiples lugares, así como considerar servicios de inspección profesional.

The actor told Harper’s Bazaar she is “very grateful” to be welcoming a child with partner Tanguy Destable, 45, a French electronic music producer known by his stage name, Tepr.

“Tanguy and I are very excited,” she told the outlet. “I’m just very grateful. I know it’s such a privilege and a miracle.”

The actor shares two older children, son Aleph, 14, and daughter Amalia, 9, with ex-husband Benjamin Millepied. Portman and Millepied divorced in 2024.

A publicist for Portman, Keleigh Morgan, confirmed news of the pregnancy but did not give further details.

Portman has spoken about how she grew up the child of a fertility doctor.

“I grew up hearing about how hard it is to get pregnant,” she told Harper's Bazaar. “I have so many people I love who’ve had such a hard time with it that I want to be respectful around that as well. It’s such a beautiful, joyous thing, and it’s also not an easy thing.”

She also said she is feeling good physically, with “more energy than I thought I might.”

Portman's upcoming projects include Cathy Yan's “The Gallerist,” about an unusual art world caper, and Lena Dunham's “Good Sex” on Netflix.

The sports power couple announced Friday that they are ending their 10-year relationship and phasing out their popular podcast, “A Touch More.” They dropped the news together on the podcast.

“I hope you all know we put a lot of thought and care into this,” said Rapinoe, who rose to fame as a member of the Women’s World Cup team in 2011, 2015 and 2019. “It’s a decision that we made together. We’re still going to be there for all of you and for each other. It’s just going to look and feel a little bit different.

“We truly are evolving into something new to each other, to ourselves and to all of you, and we just wanted to say thank you for sharing this space with us and giving us this space for us to find ourselves in a different way through this podcast.”

Bird is considered one of the greatest women’s basketball players in history. She won four WNBA championships and was a 13-time All-Star over a 20-year career.

“We have shared so much of our life, so much of our relationship with you, so that’s why we wanted to come on here and share this, too,” Bird said. “These past 10 years have given us so much, and launching this podcast and sharing this space has been one of our favorite things that we’ve done together.”

Rapinoe is planning to start her own podcast, and Bird is committed to a second season of her own venture, “Bird’s Eye View.”

“It’s gonna look a little bit different moving forward,” Rapinoe said. “Obviously, our relationship was such a huge part of this podcast for you guys, but also for us. … We are both really sad to be losing this space. It’s been so meaningful to us, especially post-retirement, to be able to have this space to share, not just together, but with you as well.”

Bird said they will host six more special episodes of “A Touch More” as a “farewell to you all and to this space.”

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

Court records show U.S. District Judge James Peterson sentenced Roger Hoffman on Wednesday. He also ordered Hoffman to pay a $150,000 fine. Hoffman's attorney, Mark Maciolek, didn't immediately return a message Friday seeking comment.

Hoffman, a 70-year-old self-employed investor originally from Madison, became a citizen of the Caribbean nation Saint Kitts and Nevis in January 2009, according to a grand jury indictment handed down in 2021. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in July of that year.

But he still moved more than $400,000 to state and federal elections in the U.S. over more than a decade, using an assistant identified in court documents only as M.W. as a conduit to circumvent laws prohibiting foreign nationals from making donations in U.S. elections.

He pleaded guilty in September to a single count of making illegal donations in a deal with prosecutors, agreeing that they would be able to prove he made about $345,000 in illegal federal campaign contributions between 2010 and 2020, according to court records.

Court documents state that Hoffman made donations to federal and Wisconsin candidates and political parties, with most of the dollars directed toward the federal side, but does not list specific recipients. It's not clear which candidates or political parties received money from him.

A message left at the U.S. attorney's office in Madison seeking those details was not immediately returned.

The office said in a news release Friday that Peterson admonished Hoffman during the sentencing hearing for demonstrating “a resolute pattern of dishonesty.”

Las autoridades identificaron al sospechoso como Jamesly Mezime.

La balacera ocurrió cerca del escenario principal del evento en Northeast 62nd Street y Second Avenue, en el vecindario de Little Haiti en Miami.

Según el informe de arresto, agentes que trabajaban en el evento escucharon múltiples disparos, mientras que una alerta de ShotSpotter también detectó disparos en el área. Cuando los agentes respondieron, encontraron a un hombre inconsciente en el suelo con una herida de bala en el pecho.

Ese hombre fue identificado posteriormente como Kitchner Cyrille, de 23 años.

Cyrille fue trasladado al Ryder Trauma Center del Jackson Memorial Hospital, donde luego murió.

Un segundo hombre fue encontrado cerca del escenario central con múltiples heridas de bala y fue hospitalizado en estado crítico.

Una tercera víctima, una mujer, recibió disparos en las piernas y fue llevada al hospital en condición estable, donde luego fue dada de alta.

Según el informe de arresto, cámaras de vigilancia muestran una pelea en la multitud poco después de las 11:20 p.m. del domingo antes de que Mezime disparara contra dos personas y luego huyera a pie.

La policía dijo que el video también muestra a asociados de Mezime tomando objetos de los bolsillos de Cyrille mientras estaba en el suelo antes de “dispersarse entre la multitud”.

Un video obtenido por la policía mostró a Mezime, de North Miami Beach, regresando a un estacionamiento cercano. Fue visto caminando cerca de un Dodge Charger negro antes de subir al vehículo con otras personas y abandonar el área.

La policía indicó que lectores de matrículas y cámaras de vigilancia captaron el mismo vehículo circulando por la zona antes de la balacera.

El jueves, detectives encontraron el Dodge Charger en una residencia en Pembroke Pines y comenzaron vigilancia. Las autoridades siguieron el vehículo mientras transitaba por los condados Broward y Miami-Dade, eventualmente dirigiéndose hacia el sur por la Interestatal 95 y luego por la Interestatal 195.

Poco antes de las 11:45 a.m., los agentes realizaron una parada de tráfico por delito grave. Ordenaron a Mezime y a otras dos personas que salieran del vehículo y los detuvieron.

Los agentes trasladaron a los tres al departamento de homicidios de la Policía de Miami para interrogarlos mientras la investigación continúa.

Según el informe de arresto, Mezime dijo a los detectives que caminaba entre la multitud cuando sintió que alguien lo empujó o tiró de él por detrás y se dio la vuelta para ver qué ocurría. Dijo que un hombre vestido completamente de negro y con un sombrero negro lo golpeó en la cara, y otro hombre con una sudadera azul intentó sacar un arma de su cintura. Mezime afirmó que disparó contra ambos hombres en defensa propia antes de huir.

Mezime enfrenta un cargo de asesinato en segundo grado y dos cargos de intento de asesinato.

Hasta la mañana del viernes, los registros muestran que permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, con una fianza “por determinar”.

VEA EN VIVO LA CELEBRACIÓN DE VIDA A CONTINUACIÓN:

La vicealcaldesa fue honrada en una procesión, con la Policía de Coral Springs y agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward encabezando el recorrido mientras la comunidad se unía para recordar su vida.

El velorio, abierto al público, comenzó a las 11:30 a.m. en la iglesia Church by the Glades en Coral Springs.

Luego se llevó a cabo una celebración de vida a las 12:30 p.m.

“La ciudad alienta a todos los que deseen honrar a la vicealcaldesa Metayer a hacerlo no solo en recuerdo, sino continuando los valores que ella encarnó, apoyando a otros, dando espacio en la mesa, sirviendo con compasión y trabajando hacia un futuro más sostenible”, informaron funcionarios de la ciudad en un comunicado.

El jueves, el gobernador Ron DeSantis ordenó que todas las banderas en Tallahassee y Coral Springs ondeen a media asta desde el amanecer hasta el atardecer del viernes en honor a Metayer Bowen.

El esposo de la vicealcaldesa, Stephen Bowen, de 40 años, enfrenta cargos de asesinato en primer grado y manipulación de evidencia tras ser capturado en Plantation.

Está acusado de dispararle a Metayer Bowen dentro de su casa en Coral Springs, donde su cuerpo fue encontrado la mañana del 1 de abril. Tenía 38 años.

Personas cercanas a ella dicen que, si había señales de problemas, las mantenía en privado.

“Lo que vemos es que la escalada ocurre entre distintos episodios de abuso, por lo que mientras más rápido podamos llevar a las fuerzas del orden al lugar para entender cuál es el problema, más seriamente podremos tratar con el agresor”, dijo la senadora estatal Alexis Calatayud.

Los legisladores ahora impulsan mayores protecciones, incluidas herramientas que podrían alertar a la Policía de forma silenciosa.

Leer en español

Authorities identified the suspect as Jamesly Mezime.

The shooting happened near the main stage of the event off Northeast 62nd Street and Second Avenue in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood.

According to the arrest form, officers working the event heard multiple shots fired, while a ShotSpotter alert also detected gunfire in the area. When the officers responded, they found a man unresponsive on the ground with a gunshot wound to his chest.

That man was later identified by officials as 23-year-old Kitchner Cyrille.

Cyrille was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where he later died.

A second man was found near the center stage with multiple gunshot wounds and was hospitalized in critical condition.

A third victim, a woman, was shot in the legs and taken to the hospital in stable condition, where she later was released.

According to the arrest report, surveillance cameras show a fight occurring in the crowd just after 11:20 p.m. Sunday before Mezime shot at two people and then fled on foot.

Police said the video also shows Mezime’s associates taking items from Cyrille’s pockets as he was laying on the ground before “dispersing in the crowd.”

Video obtained by police showed Mezime, of North Miami Beach, returning to a nearby parking lot. He was seen pacing near a black Dodge Charger before getting inside with others and leaving the area.

Police said license plate readers and surveillance cameras captured the same car circling the area before the shooting.

On Thursday, detectives found the Dodge Charger at a residence in Pembroke Pines and began surveillance. Authorities followed the vehicle as it traveled through Broward and Miami-Dade counties, eventually heading south on Interstate 95 and onto Interstate 195.

Just before 11:45 a.m., officers conducted a felony traffic stop. They ordered Mezime and two others in the car out of the vehicle and detained them.

Officers took all three to the Miami Police Department’s homicide office for questioning as the investigation continues.

According to the arrest form, Mezime told detectives he was walking through the crowd when he felt someone push or tug him from behind and turned around to see what was going on. He said a man wearing all black and a black hat punched him in the face, and another man wearing a blue hoodie reached into his waistband to take out a gun. Mezime said he shot both men in self-defense before fleeing.

Witnesses said otherwise, saying the violence stemmed from a dispute involving an ex-girlfriend.

“They say that they had a girlfriend in common at one time and this is what led to this incident,” said Mike Vega, officer of the City of Miami Police.

Mezime is facing one count of second degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.

As of Friday morning, records show he was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, with a bond listed as “to be set.”

Schmidt’s family said in a statement that he fought a brain tumor for 15 years “with courage, dignity and resilience . . . while remaining a role model of determination, generosity and love of life. Oscar leaves a legacy that transcends sport and inspires generations of athletes and admirers in Brazil and worldwide.”

Schmidt is beloved in Brazil for committing to the national team for 19 years and becoming one of the most prolific scorers in basketball history. He also starred in a historic victory over the United States in the final of the 1987 Pan American Games.

“The biggest player of Brazilian basketball history bids farewell as an absolute symbol of sport, the holder of a trajectory that redefined the boundaries of what was possible in a court,” the Brazil Basketball Confederation said in a statement. “His death closes an era. But his greatness remains.”

Chose Brazil over NBA

Schmidt, who never played in the NBA, began his professional career in 1974 and most of it was at home and Italy, where he became a childhood idol of future great Kobe Bryant.

In 1984 the NBA’s New Jersey Nets drafted him in the sixth round and he trained with them but declined a contract. At the time NBA players were not allowed to play for national teams. Schmidt said he had no regrets at his Hall of Fame induction.

“I was the choice (No,) 144,” he said. His idol Larry Bird laughed next to him. “They came to offer me a no-cut contract to play for the New Jersey Nets. I said thank you very much but if I play one game here I will never again play for my national team.

“Three years later we beat the Americans here in the U.S. Sorry, that was the greatest thing I did in basketball.”

Bird released a statement Friday, saying: “I always admired Oscar and considered him a friend. He was, without a doubt, one of the greatest players to ever play the game. It was an honor of a lifetime when Oscar asked me to present him at his well deserved induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. My sincere condolences to Oscar’s family.”

Kerr compares Schmidt to Steph Curry

Golden State coach Steve Kerr said in comments before the Warriors played the Phoenix Suns on Friday that Schmidt “was one of the greatest shooters I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“Just no conscience, just a little bit, you know, of a Steph Curry mentality,” Kerr added. "Never, ever thought twice about letting it fly, just a beautiful player with an incredible mentality.”

Kerr played against Schmidt at the 1986 world championships and tore his ACL during the game.

“He literally picked me up, carried me off the floor,” Kerr said. "It was an incredible gesture on his part. And over the next few years, he really exploded.”

"I was so sad to hear about the news today. Only 68 and the guy was absolutely beloved in Brazil. So to all our Brazilian fans, I just want to say my condolences, and from the Warriors, we’re feeling for you.”

Portland Trail Blazers coach Tiago Splitter and NBA champion Anderson Varejao, two Brazilians in the league, praised Schmidt while passing along their condolences on social media.

Holy Hand

Standing 2.03 meters (6-foot-8), he was a keen 3-point shooter in the 1980s when many coaches advised against it. That earned him the nickname “Mão Santa” (Holy Hand). Schmidt didn’t believe he was worthy of the tag.

“I don’t have a holy hand. I have a trained hand,” Schmidt used to say in interviews.

He debuted for Brazil at 19 in 1977 and made 326 appearances, averaging 23.6 points per game.

He played in a record-tying five Olympics and four World Cups. He’s the all-time leading scorer in both tournaments. He still has seven of the 10 highest scoring games in Olympic history and he holds the single-game records for points scored in the Olympics (55 vs. Spain in 1988) and World Cup (52 vs. Australia in 1990).

“More than results and medals, Oscar represented values that define the Olympic spirit; dedication, resilience and respect to the opponents,” Brazil’s Olympic committee said in a statement.

The 1987 Pan Am Games victory in Indianapolis marked the first time a U.S. team lost a major international tournament on home soil. Brazil won 120-115 and Schmidt led with 46 points.

Schmidt retired in 2003 at 45. He passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to be the unofficial career highest scorer and his known tally of 49,737 points for club and country was eclipsed by LeBron James in 2024.

Hall of Fame honors

Schmidt was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2010, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013, and the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.

After retirement, Schmidt became one of his country’s most popular motivational speakers. He often talked about his battle with the brain tumor diagnosed in 2011, his love for Brazil and basketball.

Schmidt is survived by wife Maria Cristina Victorino, whom he married in 1981, and two children. One of them, Filipe, spoke about his father’s death on social media.

“Now you rest in peace, dad. You are in the hall of fame of life,” he said.

—-

AP Sports Writer David Brandt contributed from Phoenix.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

The swarm shut down an exit of Interstate 40 in Knoxville, said Mark Nagi, Tennessee Department of Transportation regional spokesperson. There were no injuries, he said.

“The ramp from I-40 East to Henley Street is back open but the truck is destroyed and the bees are… well… buzzing," Nagi posted, along with a photo of a person in beekeeper garb. "Unless you are dressed in this outfit please stay in your vehicles in this area.”

Later Friday, Nagi confirmed that all of the bees had been moved from the area and the truck was removed.

What could not be as easily quelled were the puns.

“So, this is the buzz around town?" U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett wrote on social media. "This stuff just writes itself.”

The Virginia Department of Transportation commiserated on social media. Its northern division reminisced about a 2018 crash that similarly released a swarm of bees on Interstate 495, prompting the advice, “Please roll up your windows.”

El anuncio se produjo luego de una reunión del ministro de Economía argentino Luis Caputo con el presidente del BID, Ilan Goldfajn, en Washington, donde tiene lugar la Asamblea de Primavera del Banco Mundial (BM) y el Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI).

Supuso otro gesto de apoyo de los organismos de crédito al gobierno del mandatario ultraliberal luego de que el FMI aprobó el miércoles la segunda revisión del programa de facilidades extendidas firmado con Argentina hace un año, lo que activa un desembolso de 1.000 millones de dólares para el país sudamericano.

Las buenas noticias en materia de financiación se producen en momentos en que surgen contratiempos en la macroeconomía debido a una aceleración de la inflación en marzo de 3,4%, la más alta en un año, y una caída de la recaudación tributaria.

El Grupo Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo dijo que prevé "la provisión una garantía por 550 millones de dólares, que se sumará a las aportadas por otros organismos multilaterales” en un comunicado en el que afirmó que busca “acelerar su respaldo a la Argentina con un financiamiento récord que podría superar los 7.200 millones de dólares en 2026” y más de 5.000 millones en operaciones con el sector público que incluyen financiamiento a proyectos.

El organismo destacó que Argentina ha hecho “un gran esfuerzo para estabilizar su economía”.

El gobierno de Milei apuesta a recabar préstamos privados con garantías de organismos internacionales para cubrir los próximos vencimientos de deuda de julio por unos 4.200 millones de dólares. Aspira a hacerlo a tasas más bajas que las disponibles en los mercados internacionales y sin emplear reservas del Banco Central.

“Nuevo respaldo a Argentina, esta vez por parte del BID. Esto nos permitirá refinanciar deuda más cara por deuda más barata, reduciendo el costo financiero para todos los argentinos”, celebró Caputo en su cuenta de X.

En tanto el Banco Mundial señaló la víspera que “está trabajando en una garantía de hasta 2.000 millones de dólares para ayudar a refinanciar una porción relevante de la deuda de Argentina", reducir costos de financiamiento y crear mejores condiciones para un mayor flujo de inversión privada.

Según indicó Caputo a medios de prensa “ellos nos proveen el financiamiento con su garantía... buscan los recursos”.

Las operaciones están sujetas a la aprobación de los directorios ejecutivos de ambos organismos.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been announced.

The extension includes $134 million in guaranteed money.

The $50 million per year Anderson will earn surpasses the $46.5 million per year defensive end Micah Parsons got when he signed a four-year extension with the Packers after a trade from Dallas last year.

Anderson started each game last season and had 12 sacks and 20 tackles for loss — both career highs — to lead a Houston defense that was among the best in the NFL.

The Texans selected Anderson with the third pick in the 2023 draft, trading up to nab the Alabama standout after selecting quarterback C.J. Stroud second in that draft.

In three seasons with the Texans, Anderson has piled up 30 sacks and 136 tackles, including 46 for loss. He also has 64 quarterback hits in his career and has forced four fumbles and recovered three.

The Texans exercised his fifth-year player option earlier this month so this deal will keep him in Houston through the 2030 season.

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AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed to this report.

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

The deal came just days before nearly 34,000 workers’ contract with an array of private building owners would have expired at midnight Monday. A strike would have been the first in 35 years, and some apartment-dwellers across the city had been bracing to haul trash, postpone renovations and major deliveries and volunteer to staff lobby doors, sort packages and mop hallways.

“Our goals were simple: to raise the wage to a level that our members can live in this city,” to protect health benefits and to improve pensions, union President Manny Pastreich said at a news conference. He called the proposed contract “an incredibly good deal for both sides.”

Workers will vote by May 28 on the tentative agreement, which includes pay raises and a 15% pension boost. Average annual wages for a doorperson or porter, for example, would rise from about $62,000 now to $71,000 in four years, and a new training program would offer future hires a faster route up the wage scale.

Building owners also retreated from proposals to have employees start paying health insurance premiums and to create a new job classification for future hires. The union said the newcomers would be lower-paid.

At the same time, the tentative deal gives building owners a break on some payments into a health fund that has built up a reserve, said Howard Rothschild, the president of the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, which represents the owners.

“Ultimately, both sides thought carefully about the current economic situation and how to make contract improvements that we can all agree with,” Rothschild said at the news conference.

Negotiations had grown tense in recent days, and thousands of union members thronged Manhattan's ritzy Park Avenue on Wednesday to authorize a strike if a deal wasn't reached. The rally drew Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other New York Democratic officials.

The union said then that members were straining to pay New York-area bills, while employers have reaped sharply rising rents for market-rate apartments in buildings that the workers maintain, safeguard and make welcoming.

The Realty Advisory Board said the union was being unrealistic at a time when owners’ costs also are rising and landlords face a potential rent freeze on 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, an idea championed by Mamdani.

The union’s last strike, in 1991, lasted 12 days.

U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy sided with Rhode Island's top election officials and civil rights advocates, writing that federal law does not permit the U.S. Department of Justice “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here.”

In an emailed response, the Justice Department said it would not comment on ongoing litigation.

McElroy's decision is similar to other rejections by federal judges across country since the Justice Department began seeking detailed voter data from the states. The information includes dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

Federal officials say they need the voter data to ensure election security, but Democratic and some Republican officials have objected to the requests and said such a demand violates state and federal privacy laws.

“The executive branch seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states,” Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore said in a statement. "But the power of our democratic republic, built on three, coequal branches of government, is clearer than ever before.”

Some election officials have raised concerns that federal officials will use the sensitive data for other purposes, such as searching for potential noncitizens. Those concerns were raised again after the DOJ's attorneys acknowledged in the Rhode Island case that the department was seeking unredacted voter roll information so it could be shared with the Department of Homeland Security to check citizenship status.

At least 12 states have either provided or promised to provide their detailed voter registration lists to the department, according to the Brennan Center: Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.

Meanwhile, the DOJ has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking to force release of the data. In addition to Rhode Island, judges have rejected those attempts in California, Massachusetts, Michigan and Oregon. In Georgia, a judge dismissed a DOJ lawsuit because it had been filed in the wrong city, prompting the government to refile elsewhere.

In Rhode Island, McElroy sided with the federal judge's decision in Oregon. That ruling said the federal government was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists containing sensitive data and said the Justice Department had failed to identify a basis or a purpose for requesting the voter records.

“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” McElroy wrote.

The man, Pedro Hernandez, 65, has been behind bars since his 2012 arrest. He is due back in court in June for a status update. A trial date has not yet been set.

Etan vanished on a two-block walk to his school bus stop on the first day his mom let him go unaccompanied. He was among the first vanished kids to be pictured on milk cartons, and the May 25 anniversary of his disappearance became National Missing Children’s Day.

New York Judge Michele Rodney turned away his lawyers' arguments that prosecutors waited too long to charge Hernandez and that he can’t get a fair trial now, after decades of media coverage.

“The court will carefully work, together with the parties, to ensure that jurors are selected who promise to be fair and to consider only the evidence and the law, despite what they have learned about the case from the media,” Rodney wrote.

Hernandez's lawyers declined to comment afterward. Prosecutors had no immediate comment.

Hernandez was a 19-year-old corner store clerk in Etan’s neighborhood, but the man didn't become a suspect until investigators got a 2012 tip that he had told various people in his life years ago that he’d killed a child or young man in New York.

Hernandez then told police — after seven hours of questioning and before being told he had a right to remain silent — that he had strangled Etan in the shop basement after enticing him there with the offer of a soda. Hernandez later was read his rights and recapped his statement on video, telling authorities: “Something just took over me.”

Defense lawyers said all of Hernandez’ admissions amounted to the imaginings of a mentally ill and intellectually limited man, haunted and confused by a highly publicized tragedy that had happened near his workplace.

Hernandez' 2015 trial ended in a jury deadlock, a 2017 retrial yielded a conviction, and then a federal appeals court overturned the verdict. The court said the 2017 trial judge mishandled a jury question about determining the validity of Hernandez’ confessions.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office pledged to retry the case but also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to restore Hernandez’ conviction. The high court isn’t obliged to hear the case and hasn’t yet said whether it will.

In a federal court filing Friday, Trump asks a judge to pause the case for 90 days while the two sides work to reach a settlement or resolution.

“This limited pause will neither prejudice the parties nor delay ultimate resolution," the filing says. "Rather, the extension will promote judicial economy and allow the Parties to explore avenues that could narrow or resolve the issues efficiently.”

Tax and ethics experts say the lawsuit raises a plethora of legal and ethical questions, including the propriety of the leader of the executive branch pursuing scorched-earth litigation against the very government he oversees.

Earlier this year, Trump filed a lawsuit in a Florida federal court, alleging that a previous leak of his and the Trump Organization’s confidential tax records caused “reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump, and the other Plaintiffs’ public standing.”

The president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, are also plaintiffs in the suit.

In 2024, former IRS contractor Charles Edward Littlejohn, of Washington, D.C. — who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a defense and national security tech firm — was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to leaking tax information about President Trump and others to two news outlets between 2018 and 2020.

The outlets were not named in the charging documents, but the description and time frame align with stories about Trump’s tax returns in The New York Times and reporting about wealthy Americans’ taxes in the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica. The 2020 New York Times report found Trump paid $750 in federal income tax the year he first entered the White House, and no income tax at all some years, thanks to reported colossal losses.

When asked in February how he would handle any potential damages from the case, Trump said, “I think what we’ll do is do something for charity."

“We could make it a substantial amount," he said at the time. "Nobody would care because it’s going to go to numerous very good charities.”

Several ethics watchdog groups have filed friend-of-the-court briefs challenging the president’s lawsuit.

The watchdog group Democracy Forward's February filing states that the case is “extraordinary because the President controls both sides of the litigation, which raises the prospect of collusive litigation tactics," and “the conflicts of interest make it uncertain whether the Department of Justice will zealously defend the public fisc in the same way that it has against other plaintiffs claiming damages for related events.”

The decision could have broad implications in one of the nation’s most prominent battleground states, which will have several high-profile races this fall. Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, has been roiled by election conspiracy theorists ever since President Donald Trump lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden during his bid for reelection in 2020.

Justin Heap, the Republican recorder in Maricopa County, sued the predominantly Republican county board of supervisors last summer alleging it had illegally taken control of certain aspects of election administration. Heap claimed the board transferred funding, IT staff and some key functions — including management of ballot drop boxes and establishing early voting sites — away from his office through an agreement negotiated with his predecessor, whom he had recently defeated in a GOP primary.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney mostly sided with Heap's office in his ruling, which was filed Thursday but appeared on the public docket Friday. The board of supervisors “acted unlawfully and exceeded its statutory authority by seizing the Recorder's personnel, systems and equipment and refusing to return them” to the recorder, he wrote.

Blaney also ruled that the recorder's office is responsible for overseeing in-person early voting, among other duties, while the board is responsible for other operations, such as selecting Election Day voting locations, supplying polling locations and hiring poll workers.

“The Board's assertion of plenary authority over election administration through its general supervisory powers is inconsistent with Arizona law,” the judge wrote.

Board Chairwoman Kate Brophy McGee said the board will consider an appeal.

“I disagree with other portions of the ruling, and I will explore all options with the Board of Supervisors, including an expeditious appeal,” McGee, a Republican, said in a statement. "From day one, the Board of Supervisors has provided Recorder Heap the resources and staffing needed to fulfill his statutory duties. We will continue to do so because voters always come first.”

In a statement, Heap praised the ruling as a “clear and decisive victory for the rule of law and for the voters of Maricopa County.”

“The court confirmed that the Board cannot override state law, use funding as leverage, or take control of election duties assigned to the Recorder,” Heap said. "This ruling restores both the authority and the resources necessary for my office to do its job.”

Heap, a former Republican state lawmaker, was elected in 2024 after unseating incumbent Stephen Richer in the GOP primary and defeating a Democratic candidate in the general election. In the past, Heap has stopped short of repeating false claims that the 2020 and 2022 elections were stolen, but has said voters don’t trust the state’s voting system and that it’s poorly run.

False claims of fraud since the 2020 presidential election led to threats of violence against Richer and others in the Maricopa County elections office. Richer blamed Heap for contributing to an atmosphere of distrust and vitriol directed toward the office.

“He catered to the really ugly stuff that the people in that office had to live through,” Richer said of Heap, in an interview last month. “And he allied with people who were very much in the eye of the storm in terms of creating it.”

Once he took office, Heap terminated a previous agreement that was reached between Richer and the board that had revised how election operations were divided between the two offices. Heap filed his lawsuit with the backing of America First Legal, a conservative public interest group founded by Stephen Miller, now a deputy chief of staff in the White House.

El decreto de necesidad y urgencia, firmado por Milei y publicado en el Boletín Oficial, anunció que el ejercicio militar “DAGA ATLÁNTICA” tendrá lugar entre el próximo martes y el 12 de junio en la Base Naval Puerto Belgrano, la Guarnición Militar Córdoba y la VII Brigada Aérea de la Fuerza Aérea situada en la provincia de Buenos Aires.

En tanto el ejercicio naval “PASSEX” se llevará a cabo en la Zona Económica Exclusiva de Argentina entre el 26 y 30 de abril y contará con el destructor “Gridley” y el portaaviones “Nimitz" de Estados Unidos.

El Congreso argentino autorizó la participación de fuerzas argentinas en ejercicios conjuntos con Estados Unidos en 2024, lo que incluyó el despliegue del portaaviones “USS George Washington” en aguas argentinas.

Las entrada de tropas extranjeras a territorio argentino debe contar con el aval del Parlamento, según establece la Constitución.

La alianza estratégica entre Argentina y Estados Unidos desde que el ultraderechista mandatario argentino asumió a fines de diciembre se ha traducido en el férreo apoyo del país sudamericano a la política exterior de Donald Trump, acuerdos bilaterales en materia comercial y una generosa asistencia financiera norteamericana en momentos en que su socio sufrió un periodo de alta volatilidad cambiaria.

En el decreto, el gobierno argumentó que había enviado un proyecto de ley para autorizar “la entrada de tropas extranjeras al territorio nacional y la salida fuera de él de fuerzas nacionales" para participar en los ejercicios entre 1 de septiembre de 2025 y el 31 de agosto de 2026, sin que haya sido tratado aún.

“La naturaleza excepcional de la situación planteada hace imposible seguir los trámites ordinarios previstos en la Constitución Nacional para la sanción de las leyes”, indicó.

El decreto destacó que el ejercicio “DAGA ATLÁNTICA” muestra el compromiso del país sudamericano con la estabilidad regional y la seguridad internacional “mejorando su reputación como socio confiable”.

La no participación, según aseguró, privaría a las fuerzas argentinas de “interoperar con fuerzas de operaciones especiales de mayor experiencia y trayectoria a nivel mundial”.

El ejercicio “PASSEX” —agregó— surge de acuerdos bilaterales para realizar ejercicios básicos de adiestramiento naval.