La asistencia de emergencia que se ofrece a través de los servicios de gestión de casos en el centro incluye ayuda con el alquiler, la hipoteca y los servicios públicos.

Enlace relacionado : Solicitud en línea

Los centros están abiertos de 8:30 a 17:00.

• El Centro Noroeste está ubicado en 10077 NW 29 St., en Coral Springs. Para más información, llame al 954-357-5000.
• El Centro Norte está ubicado en 2011 NW 3rd Ave., en Pompano Beach. Para más información, llame al 954-357-5340.
• El Centro Sur está ubicado en 4733 SW 18th St., Hollywood. Para más información, llame al 954-357-5650.
• El Centro Central está ubicado en 900 NW 31st Ave., en Fort Lauderdale. Para más información, llame al 954-357-5001.

Con pérdidas superiores a los 2.500 millones de dólares desde 2020, las solicitudes de quiebra se presentaron en 2024 y 2025, y el cierre se produjo el sábado después de que fracasara un rescate gubernamental de última hora de 500 millones de dólares.

“Tenemos 18.000 personas que viven en este país que son personas estupendas y excelentes empleados”, dijo el presidente Donald Trump sobre los empleados de Spirit Airlines en todo el país el 23 de abril en la Casa Blanca.

Spirit Airlines presentó el lunes los avisos de despido ante FloridaCommerce , la principal agencia estatal encargada de la fuerza laboral, e informó del despido de más de 4.850 empleados en Florida.

Esto incluyó más de 3260 despidos en los condados de Broward y Miami-Dade. Hubo 2529 en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, 551 en el Centro de Apoyo de Spirit en Dania Beach y 181 en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami.

Documento relacionado: Aviso de despido (del 2 al 13 de mayo)

Enlace útil : Spirit Airlines lanza una página de reestructuración.

Historias relacionadas

• Spirit Airlines informa de más de 4,850 despidos en Florida.
• Mientras aún visten los uniformes de Spirit Airlines, los solicitantes de empleo comienzan a pedir ayuda.
• Ex empleados desempleados de Spirit Airlines marchan en Dania Beach.
• Spirit Airlines pide a los pasajeros que no acudan al aeropuerto, o de lo contrario, no se realizarán cambios de reserva.

Próximas ferias de empleo

La feria de empleo del sector de la hostelería se celebrará el miércoles de 10:00 a 12:00 en CareerSource Broward, ubicada en 2550 West Oakland Park Boulevard. La entrada y el estacionamiento son gratuitos.

Miramar organiza una feria de empleo el 20 de mayo, de 10:00 a 14:00, en el Centro Cultural de Miramar, ubicado en 2400 Civic Center Place. La entrada y el estacionamiento son gratuitos. Para más información, visite la página de Eventbrite .

La Feria y Exposición de Empleo de Port Everglades se llevará a cabo el 27 de mayo de 9:00 a 13:00 en el Centro de Convenciones del Condado de Broward, ubicado en 1950 Eisenhower Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale. La entrada y el estacionamiento son gratuitos. Aquí encontrará una lista de las empresas participantes >

Recursos

• Departamento de Trabajo: Los servicios de respuesta rápida incluyen orientación sobre la cobertura de continuación de COBRA.
• American Airlines lanza la página de empleo “Supporting Spirit”.
• United Airlines lanza un programa para dar prioridad a los exempleados de Spirit Airlines en sus contrataciones. Aquí está la página de empleo >
• Southwest Airlines estaba reclutando en esta página .
• Página de empleos de JetBlue
• JetBlue anunció una extensión del “acuerdo de asientos auxiliares durante las próximas dos semanas, sujeto a la disponibilidad de espacio y limitado a los asientos de cabina” para aquellos que quedaron varados mientras trabajaban para Spirit Airlines, y también anunció “entrevistas de empleo preferenciales”.
• Delta publica un comunicado de ayuda
• Para obtener más información sobre la ayuda que ofrece la Asociación de Auxiliares de Vuelo , llame al 1-800-385-3920.
• CareerSource Broward ofrece servicios como colocación laboral y orientación profesional en tres centros ubicados en 4941 Coconut Creek Parkway, 2550 West Oakland Park Boulevard y 7550 Davie Road Extension en Hollywood.
• Employ Miami-Dade ofrece servicios para quienes buscan empleo .
• CareerOneStop tiene una base de datos de centros de empleo.
• Para presentar una solicitud de beneficios por desempleo en Florida, llame al 1-800-204-2418 o visite esta página .
• Encuentra tu banco de alimentos local en esta página de Feeding America.

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The emergency assistance through case management services at the center includes help with rent, mortgage, and utilities.

Related link: Online application

The centers are open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• The Northwest Center is at 10077 NW 29 St., in Coral Springs. For more information, call 954-357-5000.
• The North Center is at 2011 NW 3rd Ave., in Pompano Beach. For more information, call 954-357-5340.
• The South Center is at 4733 SW 18th St. in Hollywood. For more information, call 954-357-5650.
• The Central Center is at 900 NW 31st Ave., in Fort Lauderdale. For more information, call 954-357-5001.

LAYOFFS

With more than $2.5 billion in losses since 2020, the bankruptcy filings followed in 2024 and 2025, and the shutdown was on Saturday after a last-minute $500 million government bailout failed.

“We have 18,000 people that live in this country that are great people and great employees,” President Donald Trump said about Spirit Airlines employees nationwide on April 23 at the White House.

Spirit Airlines filed the layoff notices on Monday with the FloridaCommerce, the state’s lead agency for workforce, and reported laying off more than 4,850 employees in Florida.

That included more than 3,260 layoffs in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. There were 2,529 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, 551 at the Spirit Support Center in Dania Beach, and 181 at Miami International Airport.

Related document: Notice of layoff (May 2-13)

Helpful link: Spirit Airlines launches restructuring page

Related stories

• Spirit Airlines reports over 4,850 job cuts in Florida
• While still wearing Spirit Airlines uniforms, job seekers start asking for help
• Jobless former Spirit Airlines employees march in Dania Beach
• Spirit Airlines asks guests not to go to the airport, or expect rebookings

Upcoming job fairs

The Hospitality Industry Job Fair is from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday at the CareerSource Broward at 2550 West Oakland Park Boulevard. Admission and parking are free.

Miramar is hosting a job fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 20 at the Miramar Cultural Center, at 2400 Civic Center Place. Admission and parking are free. For more information, visit the Evenbrite page.

The Port Everglades Career Fair & Expo is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 27 at the Broward County Convention Center at 1950 Eisenhower Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. Admission and parking are free. Here is a list of the participating companies >

Resources

• Broward County has four Family Success Centers to help with housing and utilities.
• Department of Labor: Rapid response services includes guidance on COBRA continuation coverage
• American Airlines launches “Supporting Spirit” career page
• United Airlines launches program to prioritize former Spirit Airlines employees when hiring. Here is the career page >
• Southwest Airlines was recruiting on this page.
• JetBlue’s jobs page
• JetBlue announced an extension of the “jumpseat agreement for the next two weeks, subject to space availability and limited to cabin seating” for those who were stranded while working for Spirit Airlines, and also announced “preferential employment interviews.”
• Delta releases statement of help
• For more information about help from the Association of Flight Attendants, call 1-800-385-3920
• CareerSource Broward offers services such as job placement and career coaching at three centers at 4941 Coconut Creek Parkway, 2550 West Oakland Park Boulevard, and 7550 Davie Road Extension in Hollywood.
• Employ Miami-Dade has services for job seekers.
• CareerOneStop has a database for job centers
• To file an unemployment benefits claim in Florida, call 1-800-204-2418 or visit this page.
• Find your local food bank, on this Feeding America page

La emergencia sanitaria a bordo del barco, anclado al otro lado del océano, se produce mientras Argentina registra un aumento de casos de la enfermedad que muchos investigadores locales de salud pública atribuyen a los efectos, recientemente acelerados, del cambio climático. Argentina, desde donde partió el crucero hacia la Antártida, ha sido clasificada constantemente por la Organización Mundial de la Salud como el país con la mayor incidencia en América Latina de esta rara enfermedad transmitida por roedores.

El aumento en las temperaturas amplía el alcance del virus, en parte, porque a medida que sube el calor y cambian los ecosistemas, los roedores que portan el hantavirus pueden reproducirse en más lugares, señalan expertos. Las personas suelen contraer el virus por exposición a excrementos, orina o saliva de roedores.

“El cambio climático entró a Argentina y al haberse tropicalizado Argentina trajo muchos problemas, como dengue, zika, chikunguña y fiebre amarilla. Ese cambio a lo mejor ha favorecido una mayor floración y una mayor cantidad de semillas que son el alimento de estos ratones”, señaló Hugo Pizzi, un destacado especialista argentino en enfermedades infecciosas. “Pero no hay ninguna duda de que, a medida que transcurre el tiempo, es como que se va diseminando cada vez más”.

El Ministerio de Salud argentino informó que se registraron 101 infecciones por hantavirus desde junio de 2025, aproximadamente el doble de los casos contabilizados en el mismo período del año anterior.

Un hantavirus presente en Sudamérica, llamado virus de los Andes, puede causar una enfermedad pulmonar grave y a menudo mortal denominada síndrome pulmonar por hantavirus. La enfermedad provocó la muerte en casi un tercio de los casos el último año, según el Ministerio de Salud argentino, por encima de una tasa de mortalidad promedio de 15 en los cinco años previos.

Las autoridades dijeron que pasajeros del barco MV Hondius dieron positivo al virus de los Andes.

Aún se investiga la causa de la infección

Las autoridades argentinas intentan precisar por qué partes del país viajaron los pasajeros infectados antes de embarcar en el crucero de bandera neerlandesa en Ushuaia, una ciudad del sur de Argentina conocida como el fin del mundo. Una vez que conozcan los itinerarios, aseguran que rastrearán contactos, aislarán a los contactos estrechos y realizarán un monitoreo activo para evitar una mayor propagación.

La OMS, que es la agencia de salud de la ONU, indicó que la primera muerte a bordo, un hombre neerlandés de 70 años, ocurrió el 11 de abril. Su esposa, también neerlandesa y de 69 años, murió el 26 del mismo mes. La tercera pasajera, una mujer alemana, falleció el 2 de mayo.

El virus puede incubarse en un plazo de entre una y ocho semanas. Eso dificulta saber si los pasajeros contrajeron el virus antes de salir de Argentina hacia la Antártida el 1 de abril, durante una parada programada en una remota isla del Atlántico Sur o a bordo del barco.

En la provincia de Tierra del Fuego, donde la embarcación estuvo atracada durante semanas antes de partir, nunca se ha registrado un caso de hantavirus. Antes de embarcar, la pareja neerlandesa hizo turismo en Ushuaia y viajó a otros lugares de Argentina y Chile, señaló la OMS.

La principal hipótesis del gobierno argentino es que la pareja contrajo el virus durante una salida de observación de aves en Ushuaia, según dos investigadores que hablaron bajo condición de anonimato porque no estaban autorizados a informar a la prensa mientras revisaban evidencia aún fragmentaria. Las autoridades también siguen los pasos de los turistas neerlandeses por las laderas boscosas de la Patagonia, en el sur de Argentina, donde se concentran algunas infecciones.

Debido a que los síntomas iniciales se parecen a la fiebre y los escalofríos de una gripe, “un turista, tal vez, dijo no, estoy resfriado, no le dio importancia. O sea, tiene todos los condimentos para ser un virus muy peligroso”, señaló Raúl González Ittig, profesor de genética en la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba e investigador del organismo científico estatal CONICET.

El gobierno de la provincia de Río Negro informó que Bariloche, la ciudad turística de montaña que es el punto de entrada más común al norte de la Patagonia, registró el martes su primer caso humano de hantavirus de 2026. El paciente fue hospitalizado el miércoles.

El cambio climático envía a los roedores a nuevas fronteras

Argentina sufrió en los últimos años una sequía histórica. Pero también tuvo episodios de lluvias inesperadamente intensas como parte de un patrón más amplio de clima extremo que los científicos atribuyen al cambio climático.

Parte de esta variabilidad ha creado condiciones que permiten que el hantavirus prospere, según expertos. Los períodos secos obligan a los animales a salir de sus hábitats habituales en busca de alimento y agua. Las enormes cantidades de lluvia provocan crecimiento de vegetación, dispersando semillas que atraen a roedores que se alimentan de hojas.

“Entonces, cuando hay aumento de la precipitación, aumenta la disponibilidad de alimento. Y eso lleva a que aumentan las poblaciones de roedores. Y ahí si hay algún caso, hay algún roedor infectado, aumenta la posibilidad de que transmita el virus a otros roedores” y, eventualmente, a los humanos, explicó Ittig.

Aunque los casos de hantavirus antes se limitaban a los extremos australes de la Patagonia, ahora el 83% de los casos se encuentra en el extremo norte de Argentina, según el Ministerio de Salud. En enero, el ministerio emitió una alerta por varios brotes mortales de hantavirus, incluso en Buenos Aires, la provincia más poblada.

“Con el cambio climático, el panorama epidemiológico ha cambiado completamente”, sostuvo Pizzi. “Yo creo que lo del barco puede ser un caso excepcional. Pero el virus no va a desaparecer”.

___

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

Stacey Price, the nonprofit’s executive director, reported that a portion of the clinic’s ceiling collapsed on Saturday afternoon due to termite damage.

“This moment highlights the realities of an aging facility and the importance of investing in modern, resilient infrastructure to support the lifesaving work that happens here every day,” Price wrote in a statement. “Plans for relocation for a new facility are in place, though still a few years from becoming a reality.”

The center, which holds more than 500 animals, closed portions of the clinic for assessment and repairs. For more information about how to help, visit this page.

Here is a list of other places to take injured animals:

• Pelican Harbor
• Sawgrass Nature Center
• Crow Clinic

Related link: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on injured and orphaned wildlife

Local 10 News Reporter Christina Vazquez contributed to this report.

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Prosecutors said those charged in two indictments, including “corporate attorneys and other financial professionals,” stole “and used confidential information on nearly 30 merger and acquisition deals from several of the nation’s premier law firms, including a firm headquartered in Massachusetts.”

Authorities said they arrested 19 of the defendants on Wednesday. Two are on the run in Russia and Israel, they said.

Federal prosecutors said attorneys Nicolo Nourafchan, 43, of Los Angeles, and Robert Yadgarov, 45, of Long Beach, New York, “recruited other attorneys and insiders to serve as sources of inside information” on major acquisitions and “paid their sources kickbacks consisting of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.”

Authorities said the two also provided information “to a network of traders and middlemen whom they also enlisted to join the scheme.”

According to a news release, one of the middlemen was from South Florida: Gavryel Silverstein, 43, of Hollywood.

Besides Silverstein, the following defendants from Broward and Miami-Dade counties are facing charges:

• Brian Fensterszaub, 45, of Hollywood
• Mark Fensterszaub, 47, of Hollywood
• Simon Fensterszaub, 50, of Fort Lauderdale
• Baruch Igal Hatanian, 39, of Fort Lauderdale
• Yisroel Horowitz, 50, of Hollywood
• Joseph Suskind, 39, of Sunny Isles Beach

Besides Nourafchan and Yadgarov, the other non-South Florida residents publicly identified as charged in the scheme are:

• Pedram Fejal, 39, of Brooklyn, New York
• Ilya Gavrilov, 56, of Russia
• God Izraelov, 46, of Israel
• David Makary, 35, of Covina, California
• Nowel Milik, 52, of Brea, California
• David Moradi, 35, of Brooklyn, New York
• Lorenzo Nourafchan, 38, of Los Angeles
• David Ostrov, 49, of Clifton, New Jersey
• Nicholas Rudela, 30, of Covina, California
• Yechiel Salzberg, 51, of Far Rockaway, New York
• Abe Shilian, 35, of Brooklyn, New York
• Stjepan Vinski, 30, of Glendora, California

“Charges against nine other defendants for securities fraud conspiracy were also unsealed” on Wednesday, prosecutors said.

Investigators said the conspirators “transferred proceeds and kickback payments in cash and through intermediaries and shell companies, in locations like Panama and Switzerland” and disguised them as “loans” or business transactions.

The suspects each face multiple federal charges, including securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and money laundering conspiracy, that could land them in federal prison for decades.

Read the indictments:

Los fiscales dijeron que los acusados en dos acusaciones formales, incluidos “abogados corporativos y otros profesionales financieros”, robaron y utilizaron “información confidencial sobre casi 30 acuerdos de fusiones y adquisiciones de varios de los principales bufetes de abogados del país, incluido uno con sede en Massachusetts”.

Las autoridades informaron que arrestaron a 19 de los acusados el miércoles. Dos están prófugos en Rusia e Israel, indicaron.

Los fiscales federales dijeron que los abogados Nicolo Nourafchan, de 43 años, de Los Ángeles, y Robert Yadgarov, de 45 años, de Long Beach, Nueva York, “reclutaron a otros abogados y personas internas para servir como fuentes de información privilegiada” sobre grandes adquisiciones y “pagaron a sus fuentes sobornos de hasta cientos de miles de dólares en efectivo”.

Las autoridades dijeron que ambos también proporcionaron información “a una red de operadores e intermediarios a quienes también reclutaron para unirse al esquema”.

Según un comunicado, uno de los intermediarios era del sur de Florida: Gavryel Silverstein, de 43 años, de Hollywood.

Además de Silverstein, los siguientes acusados de los condados Broward y Miami-Dade enfrentan cargos:

• Brian Fensterszaub, de 45 años, de Hollywood
• Mark Fensterszaub, de 47 años, de Hollywood
• Simon Fensterszaub, de 50 años, de Fort Lauderdale
• Baruch Igal Hatanian, de 39 años, de Fort Lauderdale
• Yisroel Horowitz, de 50 años, de Hollywood
• Joseph Suskind, de 39 años, de Sunny Isles Beach

Además de Nourafchan y Yadgarov, los otros acusados no residentes del sur de Florida identificados públicamente en el esquema son:

• Pedram Fejal, de 39 años, de Brooklyn, Nueva York
• Ilya Gavrilov, de 56 años, de Rusia
• God Izraelov, de 46 años, de Israel
• David Makary, de 35 años, de Covina, California
• Nowel Milik, de 52 años, de Brea, California
• David Moradi, de 35 años, de Brooklyn, Nueva York
• Lorenzo Nourafchan, de 38 años, de Los Ángeles
• David Ostrov, de 49 años, de Clifton, Nueva Jersey
• Nicholas Rudela, de 30 años, de Covina, California
• Yechiel Salzberg, de 51 años, de Far Rockaway, Nueva York
• Abe Shilian, de 35 años, de Brooklyn, Nueva York
• Stjepan Vinski, de 30 años, de Glendora, California

“Los cargos contra otros nueve acusados por conspiración para fraude de valores también fueron revelados” el miércoles, dijeron los fiscales.

Los investigadores dijeron que los conspiradores “transfirieron ganancias y pagos de sobornos en efectivo y a través de intermediarios y compañías ficticias, en lugares como Panamá y Suiza” y los disfrazaron como “préstamos” o transacciones comerciales.

Los sospechosos enfrentan múltiples cargos federales, incluidos fraude de valores, conspiración para cometer fraude de valores y conspiración para lavado de dinero, que podrían llevarlos a prisión federal durante décadas.

Lea las acusaciones formales:

The debate, broadcast on CNN, was one of their last chances to pitch themselves to voters and stand out from the pack in their primary election bids to succeed Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who terms out in January. Mail voting is already underway, and voters have until June 2 to cast their ballots. The top two-vote getters will advance to the general election in November, regardless of party.

Though California hasn’t had a Republican governor in more than a decade, the specter hangs over the race as the field is still crowded with less than a month to go.

Candidates who took part in the debate include Democrats Xavier Becerra, a former health secretary for the Biden administration; Katie Porter, a former congresswoman; Tom Steyer, a billionaire climate activist; Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose; and Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles; as well as Republicans Steve Hilton, a conservative commentator; and Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff.

Here's how they responded on some of the key issues:

Universal healthcare

The candidates sparred over whether they'd eliminate private health insurance in favor of a state-run system, an idea that has failed repeatedly in Sacramento.

Porter, who backs a government-run healthcare system, pressed Becerra on his stance since he's wavered on the issue recently.

“Do you support CalCare — California having its own state-run, single-payer system, yes or no?” Porter asked.

Becerra gave a vague answer.

“The most important thing about having a Medicare for All plan is that it includes everyone,” he said. “What we have to do is get to the point where we are covering everyone with something like Medicare for All.”

Mahan, who opposes a state-run system, later chimed in and said Becerra “was unable to clearly answer the most important question on healthcare.”

Becerra contested: “I did answer that question.”

Steyer joined Porter in saying he'd support it, while Bianco, Hilton, and Villaraigosa said it wasn't practical or would cost too much.

When the debate turned to healthcare access for immigrants, the candidates were divided.

Steyer, Porter and Becerra said they supported state-funded healthcare coverage for low-income immigrants without legal status, which Newsom passed then pared back. Bianco called the policy “ridiculous.”

Immigration

Other arguments about immigration fell largely along party lines.

The Democrats sharply rebuked the Trump administration's immigration raids.

Steyer said the state should prosecute federal agents and immigration enforcement leaders who racially profile or use violence against Californians. Mahan said business owners in San Jose have lost customers because many immigrants are afraid to leave their house.

But Bianco said he supported Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, saying agents were enforcing the law and working to deport people he referred to as “criminals” in the country illegally.

Hilton, who's from England, pointed out that he was the only immigrant on stage. The candidates shouldn't conflate legal and illegal immigration, he said.

“Although it is the federal government's responsibility to determine and implement immigration policy, I think it's important that all the laws are peacefully enforced,” Hilton said. “As governor, I would make sure that we work with the federal government to enforce our laws.”

President Donald Trump

The Democrats each emphasized they would fight Trump on immigration policy in particular.

Neither Hilton, whom Trump has endorsed, nor Bianco, invoked him much except to say that Democrats unfairly blame him for the state’s woes.

Becerra mentioned Trump the most, noting he sued the administration many times while serving as state attorney general from 2017 to 2021, when he was appointed health secretary under then-President Joe Biden.

“I’m going to repeat Donald Trump as often as I have because he’s the menace,” Becerra declared.

When Villaraigosa pressed Hilton to acknowledge Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, Hilton refused to answer.

“Endlessly going on about Donald Trump doesn’t serve the needs of the struggling families and small businesses,” Hilton said.

Mahan sought to find middle ground. He said Becerra was wrong to blame high gas prices solely on Trump, but also noted that San Jose has sued the Trump administration over immigration policy. He said it was disqualifying for the Republican candidates to support Trump’s “cruel and ineffective policies.”

Porter, meanwhile, put it simply: “Donald Trump sucks.”

Gas tax and proposed billionaires tax

Steyer was the only candidate on stage to say he’d vote for a proposed billionaires tax expected to appear before voters in November. The one-time tax proposal aims to backfill funding cuts signed into law by Trump that reduced healthcare access for low-income people.

Porter also supports some increased taxes on California’s ultrawealthy but called the proposed tax a temporary fix to a long-term problem.

Meanwhile Mahan said he would suspend the gas tax because it unfairly burdens working families.

Hilton would make people's first $100,000 free of income tax.

Mahan and Steyer said they'd tax artificial intelligence companies and use the money to support workers, for example through workforce development training.

“The answer is to tax these companies, not to regulate them to the point that they simply go to other places,” Mahan said.

The FBI confiscated the Tennessee Republican's cellphone in August 2024 to examine issues with his campaign finance reporting, but it had agreed not to review material from it and his personal email account as he challenged the matter in court.

A judge had not yet ruled on Ogles' challenge when defense lawyers revealed in a court filing on Tuesday that the Justice Department had voluntarily agreed to “promptly” return his phone and destroy the information it had obtained from it and his Google email account.

The investigation, started under President Joe Biden, a Democrat, had remained open under President Donald Trump, a Republican, but had stalled while the government awaited the judge’s ruling on whether investigators could examine Ogles’ phone and emails. The Justice Department's criminal division last year, led at the time by acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti, had concluded the investigation should move forward even after local prosecutors in Tennessee withdrew from the case, a criminal division prosecutor wrote in an email last July urging the Tennessee attorneys to reconsider.

The move comes as the Justice Department is facing intense scrutiny over its pursuit of Trump’s perceived political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat.

The Department of Justice didn't immediately respond to questions on Wednesday about its decision and whether it was formally closing the Ogles investigation. Ogles' lawyers told the court they were notified of the decision during discussions with the department's criminal division, now led by Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva.

Ogles called it a “complete win for the responsible exercise of prosecutorial discretion and respect for the Constitution’s Separation of Powers.” Ogles is still facing a House Ethics Committee investigation.

“From the day the FBI showed up, I said this investigation should never have happened and that the Biden DOJ had no right to rummage through a sitting congressman’s legislative communications," Ogles said in a statement. "Today the Justice Department has effectively acknowledged I was right."

At the time his phone was seized, Ogles said his understanding was that the FBI was investigating “mistakes" in his initial financial filings that had been “widely reported for months.”

Ogles reported making a $320,000 loan to his campaign committee in 2022. He later amended his filings to show that he only loaned his campaign $20,000, telling news outlets that he originally meant to “pledge” $320,000 but that pledge was mistakenly included in his campaign reports.

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On Wednesday, the Coral Gables-based nonprofit organization announced Attorney Rachael Curran filed a petition to initiate an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

In a statement, Curran, who represents Miami Waterkeeper in the appeal, said the nonprofit was asking the court to ensure that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy, “meaningfully evaluates and mitigates, as required by law, the real risks” of extending operations at the Turkey Point facility from 2032 through 2053.

Rachel Silverstein, the chief executive officer of Miami Waterkeeper, highlights that the Turkey Point nuclear plant and its cooling canals, on the edge of Biscayne Bay, sit atop the Biscayne Aquifer, the primary source of drinking water for millions in South Florida.

“The NRC’s decision to allow this risky nuclear license extension to remain does not resolve the serious environmental risks posed by operating this facility for decades longer, like ongoing groundwater contamination into our drinking water supply, and operating into an era of climate risks like sea level rise, high temperatures, and stronger storms,” Silverstein said.

The Florida Power & Light Company reports that Turkey Point generates “enough power to supply the annual needs of more than 900,000 homes.“ It has been in operation since 1972.

For more information about Miami Waterkeepers’ efforts, visit this page.

Related document: The 96-page petition filed

Related link: County guide to ‘prepare for a nuclear power plant emergency’

More from Don’t Trash Our Treasure

• Turkey Point: Is it safe in this age of climate change?
• New underwater monitoring system aims to detect water quality threats early

Local 10 News Reporter Christina Vazquez contributed to this report.

For the moment, that's just a formality based on results. The 41-year-old Vonn is still at least a year and a half — along with an ACL surgery — away from even thinking about returning to the World Cup circuit.

She may also retire. She's still sorting all of that out.

Vonn has already undergone eight surgeries since her crash in the women's downhill race on Feb. 8 at the Milan Cortina Games. She suffered a complex tibia fracture that nearly led to amputating her left leg. Vonn was competing in the race on a torn left ACL, which she injured in a crash leading into the Winter Olympics.

The nomination process is the first phase of making the U.S. Ski & Snowboard team. Those ski racers who accept the nomination, and meet the requirements, will be officially announced to the team in October. The opening World Cup races take place with a giant slalom in Söelden, Austria, in late October.

Other athletes who were nominated include Mikaela Shiffrin, the reigning World Cup overall champion and three-time Olympic gold medalist, along with Olympic downhill champion Breezy Johnson. On the men's side, Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who captured his second Olympic super-G silver medal in Italy, was selected.

Paula Moltzan and Jacqueline Wiles also earned a nomination to the A-team after combining to take an Olympic bronze in the women's team combined. Johnson and Shiffrin finished fourth in that event. Lauren Macuga is on the nomination list, too. She missed the Milan Cortina Games after tearing her ACL.

Vonn, a three-time Olympic medalist, came out of retirement in November 2024 after nearly six years away. She was feeling healthy and strong again following a partial titanium implant in her right knee.

She found her speed, too, winning two World Cup races during the 2025-26 season and recording three other podium finishes in five races. She was leading the World Cup downhill standings before her crash at the Olympics. She wound up fifth.

Vonn, who's won 84 World Cup races, has maintained she's not ready to decide her future. Instead, she's focused on healing. Vonn recently attended the Met Gala, using only a cane.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

Back in 1998, McGwire hit 70 homers to edge out Sosa's 66 as both players blew past Roger Maris’ single-season major league record of 61. The duel between the St. Louis Cardinals slugger and his Chicago Cubs counterpart helped rejuvenate baseball.

College softball has a similar home run race going on this year, providing an opportunity to boost an already rising sport.

Laura Espinoza's single-season record of 37, set for Arizona way back in 1995, could fall in the coming days. Oklahoma's Kendall Wells leads the pack with 36. A pair of UCLA seniors also are in the mix — Megan Grant has 35 homers and Jordan Woolery has 33 as the teams head into their conference tournaments.

Grant said pitching speeds increased in recent years and the hitters have caught up. UCLA and Oklahoma both have 173 home runs, having already shattered Oklahoma’s single-season record of 161 set in 2021.

Woolery said the game evolves in cycles.

“I think it’s just kind of one of those years or like, probably the next few years where we’ll see a lot of offensive power,” she said. “Then maybe in four years, when this freshman class is seniors, we’ll some more dominant pitching and go back to those 1-0 games. I think it’s going to ebb and flow throughout time.”

The trio of sluggers aren’t the only ones hitting the long ball. Teams this season have exceeded last year's home run total across Division I softball with an entire month of action remaining. As of Monday, the national average of 0.80 home runs per game would top the record of 0.77 home runs per game set in 2015.

Wells, Grant and Woolery can add to their numbers this week. Oklahoma will play LSU or Georgia in its Southeastern Conference tournament opener on Thursday. UCLA will play Northwestern or Penn State on Thursday in its Big Ten Tournament opener.

Grant and Woolery may have more homers ahead, despite being seniors. Grant was selected fourth in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League draft on Monday (Portland Cascade), while Woolery was chosen sixth (Utah Talons).

Grant said she and Woolery don't compete against each other.

“Honestly, we know we help each other and we both want to win more than anything,” Grant said. “And so it’s just nice watching one of my best friends be able to achieve her dream.”

Woolery said her improvement has been gradual. She hit 23 homers last year and has 77 in her career.

“I feel like as I’ve gotten older and just better and more refined in my craft, I think I’ve realized I don’t need to work as hard to hit, maybe, borderline pitches,” she said. “So seeing the pitch more over the heart of the plate, I think makes it easier to get a little bit more power.”

Grant bats second in UCLA’s order and Woolery hits third, so Woolery takes advantage of Grant's ability to get on base. Espinoza’s record of 132 RBIs, also set in 1995, is also in jeopardy because Woolery has 106 heading into league tournament play.

What makes Wells’ production so shocking is that she was in high school last year. Oklahoma’s Jocelyn Alo set the career record of 122 home runs in 2022, and Wells is on pace to eventually catch her.

“To be able to put up those numbers is quite literally insane, but also to do it as a freshman — I mean I can’t give her enough kudos,” Grant said. “She is really changing the game as we speak, and it’s just been really awesome to hear about.”

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

The 76ers had listed their center as probable to play, mentioning only the ankle, before adding the hip problem and ruling him out on the injury report about six hours before trying to even the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Embiid struggled through a short night in the Knicks' 137-98 romp in Game 1, scoring 14 points on 3-for-11 shooting in 25 minutes before the starters were benched with the game out of reach.

Embiid had been listed as probable to play in that game with a bruised right hip before being cleared, and the Knicks repeatedly took advantage of his lack of mobility to create open shots.

Embiid returned from a late-season appendectomy during Game 4 of Philadelphia's first-round series against Boston and helped the 76ers overcome a 3-1 deficit to win the series. He has averaged 25.2 points in five games thus far.

It's unclear whether the pain around Embiid's hip is replated to the appendectomy. He winced and grabbed his abdomen at one point in Game 1 after Knicks guard Mikal Bridges collided with him on a screen in the first half.

Embiid later said he felt the contact was unnecessary.

“Obviously based on what’s been going on I guess I’ve got to protect it more,” Embiid said. “I don’t know if it was dirty or not, so I guess I’ve got to do a better job of protecting, especially that part.”

Embiid's absence leaves the 76ers without him against Knicks All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns and likely means Philadelphia will need much more from Tyrese Maxey. The speedy point guard also struggled through Game 1, going 3 for 9 for 13 points after averaging 26.9 in the first round.

The 76ers, however, are used to playing without Embiid. It has been years since the former MVP has truly been healthy.

___

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

The main reason drivers are paying more at the pump is because the war has stranded oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil normally passes. The price of crude oil, which is the main ingredient in gasoline, climbed for most of the past two months because Iran has effectively shut the waterway located off its coast.

In mid-April, U.S. gasoline prices fell daily for almost two weeks amid signs the conflict could be winding down.

“After the announcement of the initial ceasefire, there was kind of optimism that this really could be the beginning of the end of the conflict,” said Rob Smith, director of global fuel retail at S&P Global Energy. “And so crude prices came down correspondingly, gasoline spot prices followed, and so on and ... the retailers lowered prices as well.”

But gasoline prices reversed course and began increasing again as deepening hostilities over the strait between the U.S. and Iran kept oil supplies constrained.

“There’s a fundamental shortfall that will exist globally or fundamental struggle to meet that demand that will drive up price,” Smith said. “No matter what a government says or what any market person thinks, there is a true kind of upward pressure that’s being exerted on prices every day the Strait of Hormuz is constrained. And it is still severely constrained.”

Who sets gasoline prices

Gas station owners set prices at the pump, but a lot of factors go into what they decide to charge.

The main ingredient in gasoline cost is the price of a barrel of crude oil. In the U.S., oil prices represented about 51% of the price of a gallon of gasoline in 2025, according to the Energy Information Administration.

That means when crude oil prices rise, gasoline prices generally follow. Less oil on the market means higher prices for oil and gasoline.

Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz during the war triggered the largest supply disruption in the history of oil markets, according to the International Energy Agency, pushing oil prices as high as $112 a barrel in early April.

Oil prices fell below $100 a barrel Wednesday after the U.S. and Iran appeared to be moving closer to an initial agreement to end the war. That could pull gasoline prices down as well, if the trend continues.

Bob Kleinberg, adjunct senior research scholar at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy, compared the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. with the price for a barrel of WTI, the U.S. benchmark oil, over the past few weeks, and said their price changes generally matched up.

“Not much of a mystery here,” Kleinberg said. “It's not exactly proportional but the shape of the curves follows the same pattern, and really with very little delay.”

Federal and state taxes contributed about 17% of the oil price, refining costs and profits contributed 14% and distribution and marketing contributed 17%, the EIA said. In some states, such as California, higher taxes and refining costs push the price of gasoline well above the national average.

What caused renewed march in gasoline prices

One event that could have changed the trajectory of gasoline prices occurred in April, when the U.S. blocked Iranian ports to stop the country from exporting oil.

“Iran had been moving an unusually high amount of oil to global markets, so that was helping moderate prices," said Jim Krane, energy research fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute. "The Trump administration decides they’re going to punish Iran, and try to put more pressure on Iran by blocking their exports, so of course that does put pressure on Iran, but also puts pressure on global oil prices and forces them up. That was probably a big factor.”

What refineries and traders are willing to pay for oil swings wildly after news breaks about attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf or diplomacy talks stalling. “The oil market is exquisitely sensitive to what’s coming out of the White House,” Kleinberg said.

Back in early March, at the beginning of the Iran war, the price of gasoline jumped 48 cents in a week. The highest weekly jump was in March 2022, when the price jumped 60 cents in a week after Russia invaded Ukraine, AAA said.

No quick fix

No one can predict how high gasoline prices will climb. A gallon of regular in the U.S. costs more now than it did in early May of 2022, and back then, the price kept climbing through Memorial Day, AAA said.

The longer the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz is hindered, the higher prices will go and the longer it will take to get back to normal, Smith said.

“Even if there was a true and lasting resolution of the conflict, both sides agree to play nice and truly do commit to keeping Hormuz open, it will still take months to get back to what it was pre-war, if not even longer,” Smith said. “There will still be within the industry a risk premium associated with going through that region. Not that it was ever a perfectly safe journey, but the past few months have shown that it’ll be hard to convince shippers and insurance companies that the risk level will be similar to what it was in February. It’ll be a long time before anyone can be convinced of that.”

The health emergency aboard the ship that's moored across the ocean comes as Argentina sees a surge of hantavirus cases that many local public health researchers attribute to the recently accelerating effects of climate change. Argentina, where the cruise to Antarctica departed, is consistently ranked by the World Health Organization as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease in Latin America.

Higher temperatures expand the virus’ range because, in part, as it gets warmer and ecosystems change, rodents that carry the hantavirus can thrive in more places, experts say. People typically contract the virus from exposure to rodent droppings, urine or saliva.

“Argentina has become more tropical because of climate change, and that has brought disruptions, like dengue and yellow fever, but also new tropical plants that produce seeds for mice to proliferate,” said Hugo Pizzi, a prominent Argentine infectious disease specialist. “There is no doubt that as time goes by, the hantavirus is spreading more and more.”

The Argentine Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 101 hantavirus infections since June 2025, roughly double the caseload recorded over the same period the previous year.

A hantavirus found in South America, called the Andes virus, can cause a severe and often fatal lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The disease led to death in nearly a third of cases in the last year, Argentina’s Health Ministry said, up from an average mortality rate of 15 in the five years before that.

Authorities said passengers on the MV Hondius ship tested positive for the Andes virus.

The cause of infection remains under investigation

Argentine officials say they’re trying to pin down where infected passengers traveled in the country before boarding the Dutch-flagged cruise liner in Ushuaia, a city in southern Argentina known as the end of the world. Once they know the itineraries, they say they will trace contacts, isolate close contacts and actively monitor to prevent further spread.

The U.N. health agency, or WHO, says that the first death on board, a 70-year-old Dutch man, happened on April 11. His 69-year-old wife, also Dutch, died on April 26. The third passenger, a German woman, died on May 2.

The virus can incubate for between one and eight weeks. That makes it hard to know whether the passengers contracted the virus before leaving Argentina for Antarctica on April 1; during a scheduled stop to a remote South Atlantic island; or aboard the ship.

The province of Tierra del Fuego, where the vessel docked for weeks before departing, has never seen a case of hantavirus. Before boarding, the Dutch couple went sightseeing in Ushuaia, and traveled elsewhere in Argentina and Chile, WHO said.

The Argentine government’s leading hypothesis is that the couple contracted the virus during a bird-watching outing in Ushuaia, according to two investigators who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media as they sifted through still-fragmentary evidence. Authorities are also tracing the Dutch tourists' footsteps through the forested hillsides of Patagonia in southern Argentina where some infections are clustered.

Because early symptoms resemble the fever and chills of a flu, “tourists might think they just have a cold and not take it seriously. That makes it particularly dangerous,” Raul González Ittig, genetics professor at the National University of Córdoba and a researcher at state science body CONICET, said.

On Tuesday, the mountain resort town of Bariloche, Patagonia’s most common northern entry point, recorded its first human hantavirus case of 2026, the government of Río Negro Province said. He was hospitalized on Wednesday.

Climate change sends rodents to new frontiers

Argentina in recent years endured a historic drought. But it also had bouts of unexpectedly intense rainfall, part of a broader pattern of wild weather that scientists attribute to climate change.

Some of this variability has created conditions that have allowed hantavirus to flourish, experts say. Dry spells drive animals out of their usual habitats in search of food and water. Huge amounts of rain lead to vegetation growth, scattering seeds that attract leaf-munching rodents.

“When precipitation increases, food availability increases, rodent populations grow, and if there are infected rodents, the chance of transmission between rodents — and eventually to humans — also increases,” Ittig said.

Although hantavirus cases once were limited to the southern reaches of Patagonia, now 83% of cases are found in Argentina’s far north, according to the Health Ministry. In January, the ministry issued an alert on several fatal hantavirus outbreaks, including in the most populous province of Buenos Aires.

“With the climate changing, the epidemiological picture has completely changed,” said Pizzi. “The ship may be an isolated case. But this virus isn’t going anywhere.”

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A Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office arrest report states the incident happened at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, located at 11750 SW 40th St., on Tuesday night.

The report states that Michael Stevenson, 50, of Key Largo, backed into the victim’s vehicle “and when he approached him, (Stevenson) became irate and slapped him in the face.”

Authorities said Stevenson then picked up the victim’s phone from the ground and “launched” it at a fence. They said he then grabbed an expandable baton from his vehicle and launched it at the victim.

“The victim expressed he feared for his life and thought the weapon was a machete and ran towards to the hospital entrance to advise the on duty officer,” the report states.

Deputies said as they took Stevenson into custody, he kept trying to move his handcuffs to the front and was behaving “disorderly.”

According to the report, while being restrained, Stevenson said to a deputy, “I will f---ing kill you.”

Deputies said Stevenson also told them that he is in the Aryan Nation neo-Nazi gang. They said he had a service dog with him, which was handed over to Miami-Dade Animal Services.

Stevenson now faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, death threats to a law enforcement officer, battery and criminal mischief.

Records show he was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $7,500 bond.

Un informe de arresto de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade indica que el incidente ocurrió en el hospital HCA Florida Kendall, ubicado en 11750 SW 40th St., el martes por la noche.

El informe señala que Michael Stevenson, de 50 años, de Key Largo, retrocedió contra el vehículo de la víctima “y cuando este se le acercó, (Stevenson) se enfureció y le dio una bofetada en la cara”.

Las autoridades dijeron que Stevenson luego recogió el teléfono de la víctima del suelo y lo “lanzó” contra una cerca. Indicaron que después tomó un bastón extensible de su vehículo y lo arrojó contra la víctima.

“La víctima expresó que temió por su vida y pensó que el arma era un machete, y corrió hacia la entrada del hospital para avisar al agente de turno”, indica el informe.

Los agentes dijeron que mientras detenían a Stevenson, este intentaba mover las esposas hacia el frente y se comportaba de manera “desordenada”.

Según el informe, mientras era inmovilizado, Stevenson le dijo a un agente: “Te voy a matar”.

Los agentes dijeron que Stevenson también les dijo que pertenece a la pandilla neonazi Aryan Nation. Indicaron que tenía un perro de servicio con él, el cual fue entregado a Miami-Dade Animal Services.

Stevenson ahora enfrenta cargos de agresión agravada con arma mortal, amenazas de muerte a un agente del orden, agresión y daño criminal.

Los registros muestran que permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight con una fianza de $7,500 USD.

Hill, de 32 años, compareció en la corte vestido con una camisa blanca, sentado con sus abogados y manteniendo una expresión seria durante todo el proceso. Hall y su equipo legal estaban sentados al otro lado de la sala.

Según una demanda de 15 páginas, Hall y Hill se conocieron en mayo de 2023 después de que él la invitara a pasar varios días en su casa en el área de Miami. La demanda alega que Hall participó en ejercicios de línea ofensiva junto a Hill y su entrenador durante la visita.

El documento afirma que las tensiones aumentaron después de que Hall supuestamente empujara a Hill hacia atrás durante uno de los ejercicios, lo que hizo reír a los presentes, incluidos miembros de la familia de Hill. La demanda también alega que Hill se sintió avergonzado y, poco después, embistió a Hall durante una jugada posterior, causando una fractura en su pierna derecha.

Hall se sometió a una cirugía que incluyó “implantación de hardware metálico”, según la demanda, y ahora asiste a terapia física semanal. Alega que continúa experimentando dolor persistente y debilidad.

Está solicitando hasta $50,000 USD en daños, alegando agresión, agresión física, imposición intencional de angustia emocional y negligencia.

El equipo legal de Hill ha negado las acusaciones, argumentando en documentos judiciales que Hall fue negligente al participar en lo que describieron como ejercicios de fútbol extenuantes y potencialmente peligrosos.

La selección del jurado está en curso. Se espera que el caso avance a juicio una vez que se conforme el panel.

Lea la demanda en el documento a continuación.

MC Docket (13)

On Sunday, President Donald Trump announced “Project Freedom,” a way for the U.S. to “guide” ships to exit the strait. Two ships made the transit, but by Tuesday Trump abruptly paused the effort to allow time for a deal to end the war.

Meanwhile, the risks for ships and crew haven't faded. A cargo container ship operated by the CMA CGM Group was damaged when it came under attack while attempting to transit the strait, the French shipping company said Wednesday, and concerns about Iranian speedboats and drones are leading major ship owners and operators to say the strait remains too dangerous.

“Ultimately, it’s still going to come back to the primary issues of risk and safety," that shippers have to evaluate, said Sean Pribyl, a maritime attorney at Holland & Knight in Washington, D.C. ”It seems as though we’re not anywhere near to returning to a free flow of traffic and navigation through the strait," he added.

Costs pile up as goods, oil and ship workers remain stranded

Before the Iran war, 100 to 135 vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz daily, according to research firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence, but that has slowed to a trickle as Iran has demanded that vessels go through a vetting process run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to receive safe passage. The process requires ships to follow a route near Iran’s coast, submit information on crew and cargo, and in at least some cases, pay a fee. Meanwhile, paying the IRGC risks running afoul of sanctions from the U.S. and the EU, which have designated it a terrorist organization.

Goods stranded in the strait include oil and oil products such as fertilizer, not to mention thousands of ship workers. Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday there are more than 1,550 vessels with about 22,500 mariners on them inside the Persian Gulf.

To pressure Iran, the U.S. Navy is blockading Iran's ports, enforcing the blockade outside the strait in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

Holland & Knight’s Pribyl said shippers and ship insurers are likely still assessing the scenario in the strait. Ships carry two main types of insurance: protection and indemnity, which covers property and third-party liabilities, and — during a conflict — war risk insurance that covers damage and losses due to war.

Insurance costs have shot up for vessels in the region due to the risk of attack, jumping from less than 1% of the value of goods on a ship to anywhere from 3% to 10% during the conflict, said Ed Anderson, a professor of supply chain and operations management for the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas. But even with insurance, most shippers have deemed the crossing too unsafe.

“Ferrying out a couple of ships has not really affected the shipping industry in any way whatsoever,” he said.

Companies weigh costs and risks

Hapag-Lloyd AG, one of the world’s largest container shipping companies, says the Hormuz situation is costing it $60 million a week, particularly in skyrocketing prices of fuel and insurance. It has a fleet of 301 ships, including four stranded in the Persian Gulf. The company has also had to suspend some of its transport services and find alternate routes either to safe harbors or over land. “These options are however limited in capacity and cannot completely replace the regular maritime routes through the region,” the company said in a statement.

The Maersk shipping company said its U.S.-flagged Alliance Fairfax vehicle carrier exited the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz “accompanied by U.S. military assets” on Monday. “The transit was completed without incident, and all crew members are safe and unharmed,” the company said in a statement.

A long return to normal

Oil prices and shipping are unlikely to return to normal until it’s clear the risk of attacks in the Strait of Hormuz have receded, cautioned Kaho Yu, head of energy and resources at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

“Even with diplomatic engagement continuing, energy markets are unlikely to return quickly to precrisis assumptions,” he said. “Refiners, shippers, and commodity traders will remain cautious until there is clearer evidence that Hormuz disruptions will not re-escalate.”

A meeting on Wednesday between Iranian and Chinese diplomats emphasized de-escalation. But “Hormuz remains the real metric that will be watched,” Yu added. “Tanker traffic and energy flows over the coming weeks and months are likely to matter more than diplomatic language in assessing whether Beijing can translate influence with Tehran into practical stability.”

If the ceasefire holds and ships gradually begin transiting the Strait of Hormuz again, shipping won't “snap back overnight,” warned Razat Gaurav, CEO of Kinaxis, a supply chain management company.

“Even when conditions improve, carriers, insurers, and shippers need confidence that stability will hold before capacity and routes fully normalize," he said. “Air cargo can recover relatively quickly, but ocean shipping typically takes weeks or months because of longer lead times and contractual constraints.”

He said shipments of certain categories like liquid natural gas and sulfur, where the Middle East is a major source of supply, are likely to move more quickly as backlogs clear, but “most shippers will remain cautious until stability proves durable,” he said.

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McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany.

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Hill, 32, appeared in court dressed in a white shirt, seated with his attorneys and maintaining a serious expression throughout the proceedings. Hall and her legal team were seated across the courtroom.

According to a 15-page complaint, Hall and Hill met in May 2023 after Hill invited her to spend several days at his Miami-area home. The lawsuit alleges Hall participated in offensive line drills alongside Hill and his trainer during the visit.

The filing claims tensions escalated after Hall allegedly pushed Hill backward during one of the drills, which made observers laugh, including members of Hill’s family. The suit also alleges that Hill became embarrassed and, shortly after, charged into Hall during a subsequent play, causing a fracture to her right leg.

Hall, 36, underwent surgery that included “metal hardware impantation,” according to the lawsuit, and now attends weekly physical therapy. She alleges she continues to experience persistent pain and weakness.

She is seeking up to $50,000 in damages, alleging assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.

Hill’s legal team has denied wrongdoing, arguing in court filings that Hall was negligent in participating in what they described as strenuous and potentially dangerous football drills.

Jury selection is ongoing. The case is expected to proceed to trial once a panel is seated.

Read the lawsuit in the document below.

MC Docket (13)

El miércoles, la organización sin fines de lucro con sede en Coral Gables anunció que la abogada Rachael Curran presentó una petición para iniciar una apelación en el Tribunal de Apelaciones de Estados Unidos para el Circuito de D.C.

En un comunicado, Curran, quien representa a Miami Waterkeeper en la apelación, dijo que la organización solicita al tribunal que garantice que la Comisión Reguladora Nuclear, la agencia federal encargada de proteger la salud y la seguridad pública en relación con la energía nuclear, “evalúe y mitigue de manera significativa, como exige la ley, los riesgos reales” de extender las operaciones en la instalación de Turkey Point de 2032 a 2053.

Rachel Silverstein, directora ejecutiva de Miami Waterkeeper, destacó que la planta nuclear Turkey Point y sus canales de enfriamiento, en el borde de la Bahía de Biscayne, se encuentran sobre el acuífero Biscayne, la principal fuente de agua potable para millones en el sur de Florida.

“La decisión de la NRC de permitir que esta riesgosa extensión de la licencia nuclear se mantenga no resuelve los serios riesgos ambientales que plantea operar esta instalación por décadas adicionales, como la continua contaminación de aguas subterráneas en nuestro suministro de agua potable, y operar en una era de riesgos climáticos como el aumento del nivel del mar, altas temperaturas y tormentas más fuertes”, dijo Silverstein.

La Florida Power & Light Company informa que Turkey Point genera “suficiente energía para abastecer las necesidades anuales de más de 900,000 hogares”. Ha estado en operación desde 1972.

Para más información sobre los esfuerzos de Miami Waterkeeper, visite esta página.

Documento relacionado: La petición de 96 páginas presentada

Enlace relacionado: Guía del condado para “prepararse para una emergencia en una planta nuclear”

Más de Don’t Trash Our Treasure

• Turkey Point: ¿Es segura en esta era de cambio climático?
• Nuevo sistema de monitoreo submarino busca detectar amenazas a la calidad del agua de forma temprana

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The wreck happened at a home in the 5800 block of Southwest 62nd Terrace, in an unincorporated area between South Miami and Coral Gables.

Deputies said they were pursuing the suspect, whose vehicle was suspicious, after reported burglaries in the area.

They said the driver was injured after the crash and taken to the hospital.

Authorities said while an original call about a home burglary in progress was unfounded, detectives did recover items stolen in a nearby vehicle burglary.

It isn’t known if the driver, who wasn’t publicly identified as of Wednesday afternoon, will be charged.

El choque ocurrió en una vivienda en la cuadra 5800 de Southwest 62nd Terrace, en un área no incorporada entre South Miami y Coral Gables.

Los agentes dijeron que perseguían al sospechoso, cuyo vehículo era sospechoso, tras reportes de robos en el área.

Indicaron que el conductor resultó herido después del choque y fue trasladado al hospital.

Las autoridades dijeron que, aunque una llamada inicial sobre un robo en progreso en una vivienda resultó infundada, los detectives recuperaron artículos robados en un robo de vehículo cercano.

No se sabe si el conductor, que no ha sido identificado públicamente hasta la tarde del miércoles, enfrentará cargos.

Esos residentes del desarrollo Plantation Trace, ubicado en la cuadra 700 de la avenida 132, están molestos porque dicen que el Servicio Postal de Estados Unidos no está haciendo nada al respecto.

Recientemente, bajo la cobertura de la noche, cámaras de seguridad captaron un auto retrocediendo hacia un espacio de estacionamiento junto a una fila de buzones. Segundos después, un par de sujetos con capucha emergieron.

Está claro que los delincuentes pudieron obtener acceso al buzón rápidamente antes de huir con correspondencia perteneciente a los residentes.

“Es un poco intrusivo”, dijo el residente Alex Ruane. “La primera vez nos robaron algo material, pero luego empezamos a escuchar sobre tarjetas de crédito a nombre de personas y documentos del IRS y cosas así. Es una sensación un poco aterradora”.

Ruane es uno de muchos residentes dentro del desarrollo que han sido víctimas de este delito, un ciclo que se ha repetido cinco veces en los últimos dos años.

“¿Cuál es la solución? No hay una, así que terminamos gastando fondos de la asociación de propietarios para instalar cámaras, lectores de placas, y así fue como captamos el auto la última vez que ocurrió”, dijo Ruane.

Carli Pierson es la abogada que representa a la Asociación de Propietarios de Plantation Trace.

“Esto está siendo perpetrado por una organización criminal”, dijo Pierson. “Se mueven rápidamente y claramente tienen acceso a algún tipo de llave maestra”.

Pierson ha ayudado a orientar a los propietarios sobre cómo reportar adecuadamente los robos a la policía y al Inspector Postal de Estados Unidos, pero todos los esfuerzos para frenar el delito hasta ahora han chocado con un obstáculo.

“No podemos cambiar las cerraduras de los buzones nosotros mismos porque eso es manipulación, lo cual es un delito federal, y el servicio postal no le dice a la comunidad cuándo va a cambiar las cerraduras, así que están ahí como un blanco fácil”, dijo Pierson.

Los residentes esperan que el video de este último robo ayude a llevar a los delincuentes ante la justicia.

“No quiero enviar cosas a mi casa”, dijo Ruane. “Si voy a comprar algo, ¿lo voy a enviar a otro lugar? ¿Lo voy a enviar al negocio de mi esposo o a la casa de mis padres donde no tenga que preocuparme de que lo roben?”

Un equipo de Local 10 News estaba afuera de Cube Motors, en Northwest 79th Street, entre la Tercera y la Cuarta Avenida, mientras agentes fueron vistos principalmente dentro de la reja del negocio.

Empleados de un gimnasio contiguo dijeron que los agentes llegaron alrededor de las 6:10 a.m. y anunciaron que eran del FBI, pero la presencia de las autoridades no afectó las clases en el gimnasio.

Los agentes fueron vistos rodeando algunos vehículos afuera de Cube Motors, tomando fotos del exterior de los vehículos, así como del interior de algunos de ellos.

Local 10 también vio a agentes interrogando al menos a dos hombres.

Ambos tuvieron esposas en algún momento, pero ya les fueron retiradas.

No está claro de qué trata la investigación.

El negocio abre diariamente a las 8 a.m., pero había personas en el lugar desde las 6 a.m. para ser interrogadas como parte de la investigación.

Ninguna vía en el área está siendo afectada por la investigación en este momento.

Un portavoz del FBI solo dijo a Local 10 News que el “FBI está llevando a cabo actividades de aplicación de la ley ordenadas por un tribunal en las cercanías de esa ubicación”, pero agregó que “no hay más información disponible en este momento.”

Los fiscales informaron al juez que están trabajando para procesar a Anthony Gonzalez Tovar como adulto. El juez decidió aplazar su liberación un mes más.

Los agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Broward publicaron un video de vigilancia del ataque ocurrido el 8 de abril cerca de Golf Club Road.

Los detectives creen que Gonzalez Tovar se estaba masturbando en público y se estaba exhibiendo. El video muestra al atacante quitándose los zapatos antes de la emboscada.

La mujer estaba sentada en el césped cuando el atacante se le acercó por detrás. Ella se defendió hasta que él huyó.

Los agentes arrestaron a González Tovar el 17 de abril, y los servicios penitenciarios lo ingresaron en el Centro de Evaluación Juvenil.

Informes relacionados

• BSO: Un adolescente de 17 años fue arrestado por presunto intento de agresión sexual a una mujer en Weston.
• Un joven de 17 años, acusado de exhibicionismo y de manosear a una mujer en Weston, comparece ante el juez.
• Un video muestra a un hombre exhibiéndose y agarrando por detrás a una mujer desprevenida en Weston.

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Prosecutors told the judge that they are working to charge Anthony Gonzalez Tovar as an adult. The judge decided to delay his release for another month.

Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies released surveillance video of the attack on April 8 near Golf Club Road.

Detectives believe Gozalez Tovar had been masturbating in public and was exposing himself. The video shows the attacker taking off his shoes before the ambush.

The woman was sitting on the grass when the attacker approached her from behind. She fought back until he ran away.

Deputies arrested Gonzalez Tovar on April 17, and corrections booked him at the Juvenile Assessment Center.

Related reports

• BSO: Teen, 17, arrested for alleged attempted sexual battery of woman in Weston
• Boy, 17, accused of exposing himself, grabbing woman in Weston faces judge
• Video shows man exposing himself, grabbing unsuspecting woman from behind in Weston

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Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies took Luis Fernando De Ra Ortiz, 50, of Key Largo, into custody on Tuesday.

According to deputies, they responded to Gilbert’s Resort and Marina located at 107900 Overseas Highway at around 3:30 p.m. after receiving reports of an drunken man with a small child.

Deputies said Ortiz was “causing a scene after the resort declined to service him additional alcoholic drinks” due to staff learning the 5-year-old in his care “was left at the resort beach and swim area, forcing resort employees to care for the child” for an extended period of time that was reported to be several hours.

Resort staff told authorities that when they located Ortiz, he became belligerent, threatening to harm employees with a gun while yelling at them, at one point grabbing one worker, according to MCSO.

Workers also told deputies that Ortiz took the child and boarded a docked boat, causing staff to fear for the safety of the child and others if Ortiz started driving the boat.

When responding deputies spoke with Ortiz, they said he admitted to being drunk while continuing to yell at resort staff and that he “refused to calm down, refused to place his hands behind his back, and resisted being placed into a patrol car.”

Jail records show Ortiz is facing several charges, including misdemeanors for disorderly intoxication in a public place while causing a disturbance, assault, resisting an officer without violence and battery, as well as a felony charge for child neglect without great bodily harm.

His bond information has not been released at this time.

Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado Monroe detuvieron a Luis Fernando De Ra Ortiz, de 50 años, de Key Largo, el martes.

Según los agentes, respondieron a Gilbert’s Resort and Marina, ubicado en 107900 Overseas Highway, alrededor de las 3:30 p.m. tras recibir reportes de un hombre ebrio con un niño pequeño.

Los agentes dijeron que Ortiz estaba “causando una escena después de que el resort se negara a servirle más bebidas alcohólicas” debido a que el personal se enteró de que el menor de 5 años bajo su cuidado “fue dejado en la playa y el área de natación del resort, obligando a los empleados a cuidar del niño” durante un período prolongado que se reportó como varias horas.

El personal del resort dijo a las autoridades que cuando localizaron a Ortiz, este se volvió agresivo, amenazando con dañar a los empleados con un arma mientras les gritaba, en un momento llegando a agarrar a un trabajador, según la MCSO.

Los empleados también dijeron a los agentes que Ortiz tomó al menor y abordó un bote atracado, lo que generó temor por la seguridad del niño y de otras personas si Ortiz comenzaba a conducir la embarcación.

Cuando los agentes que respondieron hablaron con Ortiz, dijeron que este admitió estar ebrio mientras continuaba gritando al personal del resort y que “se negó a calmarse, se negó a colocar sus manos detrás de la espalda y se resistió a ser colocado en una patrulla”.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Ortiz enfrenta varios cargos, incluidos delitos menores por intoxicación desordenada en un lugar público causando disturbio, agresión, resistirse a un agente sin violencia y agresión física, así como un cargo grave por negligencia infantil sin causar gran daño corporal.

La información sobre su fianza no ha sido divulgada hasta el momento.

Sky 10 estaba sobre la escena a las 11:24 a.m. mientras los bomberos trabajaban para contener el incendio que se desató en la cuadra 9600 de Northwest 79th Avenue.

Funcionarios de MDFR dijeron que la llamada inicial se recibió como un reporte de incendio de un vehículo desocupado. Cuando las unidades llegaron, encontraron humo saliendo de un almacén.

Las autoridades dijeron que el incendio ha sido extinguido y las unidades permanecen en el lugar para monitorear puntos calientes.

Funcionarios de MDFR informaron a Local 10 News en un correo electrónico que al menos una persona fue trasladada al hospital.

No se ha divulgado de inmediato más información sobre la víctima, la causa del incendio o posibles daños.

Esta es una noticia en desarrollo. Vea Local 10 News o actualice la página para las últimas actualizaciones.

The controversial streamer and influencer, known for promoting “looksmaxxing,” is facing a new criminal charge, this time in Miami-Dade County.

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The Miami New Times reports the charges against the 20-year-old, whose real name is Braden Eric Peters, come in connection with a March incident in the Everglades in which he appeared to shoot a dead alligator. The publication reports that prosecutors “quietly” filed the charges April 29.

Court records show Peters, along with two others, is facing a misdemeanor charge of unlawful discharge of a firearm after the March 26 incident at the Everglades and Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area.

Peters would end up in jail one county to the north later that day for an unrelated reason: Fort Lauderdale police arrested him in connection with a warrant out of central Florida.

In that case, Osceola County deputies said he “instigated” a fight between his girlfriend, Violet Marie Lentz, and a 19-year-old woman at an Airbnb near Kissimmee.

Peters posted the Feb. 2 fight on social media “to exploit the two women,” deputies said.

Lentz, 24, was also facing a misdemeanor charge in connection with the incident, authorities said.

In April, Peters ― who has been open about using drugs like methamphetamine ― was reportedly hospitalized in Miami after an overdose.

As for the Everglades case, records show Peters is set to face a Miami-Dade judge on May 20.

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Those residents of the Plantation Trace development, located along the 700 block of 132nd Avenue, are upset because they say the U.S. Postal Service isn’t doing anything about it.

Recently, under the cover of night, security cameras captured a car reversing into a parking space next to a row of mailboxes. Seconds later, a pair of hooded subjects emerged.

It’s clear the crooks were able to gain access to the mailbox quickly before getting away with mail belonging to the residents.

“It’s a little intrusive,” said resident Alex Ruane. “The first time we got something materialistic stolen, but then we started hearing credit cards coming up in people’s names and IRS papers and things like that. It’s a little bit of a scary feeling.”

Ruane is one of many residents inside the development who have fallen victim to this crime, a cycle that’s been repeated five times over the past two years.

“What’s the resolution? There isn’t one, so we ended up spending HOA funds to put up cameras, license plate readers, and that’s how we caught the car the last time it happened,” said Ruane.

Carli Pierson is the attorney representing the Plantation Trace Homeowners Association.

“This is being perpetrated by an organized criminal enterprise,” said Pierson. “They move quickly and they clearly have access to some kind of a master key.”

Pierson has helped to guide property owners on how to properly report the thefts with police and the U.S. Postal Inspector, but every effort to curb the crime so far has hit a wall.

“We can’t change the locks on the mailboxes ourselves because that’s tampering, which is a federal offense, and the postal service won’t tell the community when they’re gonna change the locks, so they’re just sitting there like a sitting duck,” Pierson said.

Residents are hoping the video of this latest heist will help bring the crooks to justice.

“I don’t wanna ship things to my house,” said Ruane. “If I’m gonna buy something, am I gonna send it somewhere else? Am I gonna send it to my husband’s business or my parents’ house where I don’t have to worry about it getting stolen?”

El polémico streamer e influencer, conocido por promover el “looksmaxxing”, enfrenta un nuevo cargo criminal, esta vez en el condado Miami-Dade.

El Miami New Times informa que los cargos contra el joven de 20 años, cuyo nombre real es Braden Eric Peters, están relacionados con un incidente en marzo en los Everglades en el que aparentemente disparó a un caimán muerto. La publicación informa que los fiscales presentaron los cargos “discretamente” el 29 de abril.

Los registros judiciales muestran que Peters, junto con otras dos personas, enfrenta un cargo menor por descarga ilegal de un arma de fuego tras el incidente del 26 de marzo en los Everglades y el área de manejo de vida silvestre Francis S. Taylor.

Peters terminó en la cárcel en un condado al norte más tarde ese mismo día por una razón no relacionada: la policía de Fort Lauderdale lo arrestó en conexión con una orden judicial de Florida central.

En ese caso, agentes del condado Osceola dijeron que él “instigó” una pelea entre su novia, Violet Marie Lentz, y una mujer de 19 años en un Airbnb cerca de Kissimmee.

Peters publicó la pelea del 2 de febrero en redes sociales “para explotar a las dos mujeres”, dijeron los agentes.

Lentz, de 24 años, también enfrentaba un cargo menor en relación con el incidente, dijeron las autoridades.

En abril, Peters —quien ha sido abierto sobre el uso de drogas como metanfetamina— fue hospitalizado en Miami tras una sobredosis.

En cuanto al caso de los Everglades, los registros muestran que Peters tiene previsto comparecer ante un juez de Miami-Dade el 20 de mayo.

Turner died surrounded by his family, according to Turner Enterprises, the company that oversees his vast business interests.

Turner owned professional sports teams in Atlanta, defended the America’s Cup in yachting in 1977 and donated a stunning $1 billion to United Nations charities. He married three women — most famously actor Jane Fonda — and earned the nicknames “Captain Outrageous” and “The Mouth of the South.”

He once bragged: “If only I had a little humility, I’d be perfect.”

He was slowed in later years by Lewy body dementia. Long out of the television business, he concentrated on philanthropy.

His garrulous personality sometimes overshadowed a risk-taking business acumen. By the time he sold his Turner Broadcasting System to Time Warner Inc. in 1996, Turner had turned his late father’s billboard company into a global conglomerate that included seven major cable networks, three professional sports teams and a pair of hit movie studios.

President Donald Trump, reacting to Turner's death, called him “one of the Greats of All Time.”

The creation of CNN

Turner’s signature achievement was creating the Cable News Network, the first 24-hour, all-news television network in 1980. In part, Turner’s own frustration with television news was the instigator. He often worked past 8 p.m., after the ABC, CBS and NBC nightly newscasts had already gone off the air.

He took a chance by starting the operation in the early days of cable television, living in an apartment above its Atlanta office.

CNN’s breakthrough moment came during the Gulf War with Iraq in 1991. Most television journalists had fled Baghdad but CNN stayed, capturing arresting images of a war’s outbreak.

Turner was promised a continued role in CNN after his company’s sale to Time Warner but was gradually pushed out, much to his regret.

“The mistake I made was losing control of the company," he later said.

Building TBS SuperStation

Robert Edward Turner III was born Nov. 19, 1938, in Cincinnati. When he was 9, his family moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he grew up. After being expelled from Brown University, Turner came to Atlanta to work for his domineering father’s billboard company, Turner Advertising.

After his father’s 1963 suicide, Turner took over the company. In 1970, he bought an independent UHF station with a weak signal that didn’t even cover Atlanta.

On Dec. 17, 1976, he began transmitting the station to cable systems across the country via satellite. It became the TBS SuperStation.

TBS’ motley collection of old movies and sitcom reruns was augmented by Turner’s acquisition of baseball’s Atlanta Braves. Perennial doormats, the Braves slowly attracted fans nationwide through their superstation exposure.

In the 1980s, Turner went deeply into debt to buy MGM, a move again greeted with skepticism. But the acquisition gave his company a library of vintage movies that eventually were parlayed into the TNT and Turner Classic Movies networks.

He revealed his ambitions as a younger man: “I used to tell people I wanted to become the world’s greatest sailor, businessman and lover all at the same time.”

Acquiring sports teams and land

For much of his life a partying roustabout who wooed beautiful women, the lean, mustachioed sportsman married three times. He was married to Fonda from 1991 to 2001. She tired of his philandering and divorced him, although they remained friends.

Perhaps Turner’s greatest love was for the land. He acquired millions of acres in ranches complete with roaming buffalo and was Nebraska’s largest private landholder. Researchers at Texas A&M University credited his donation of a few bulls in 2005 with helping increase the genetic diversity of the last herd of southern Plains bison.

He had a net worth of $2.5 billion in 2023 but had dropped off Forbes magazine’s ranking of the 400 richest Americans in 2021.

“See, my life is more an adventure than a quest to make money,” Turner once said.

Turner managed to insult many with his shoot-from-the-lip style. An atheist since his only sister died of lupus at age 17, he called Christians “losers” and “Jesus freaks,” later apologizing for both remarks.

Dedication to various causes

Turner, the father of five children, grabbed a leadership role in American philanthropy with his Sept. 18, 1997, pledge to give $1 billion to United Nations charities.

He promoted a range of humanitarian causes. Turner joined former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn to start the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to reducing the threat of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

As he poured millions into nonprofits on a global scale, Turner was also fond of spreading his wealth in small ways. He once gave $500 to a volunteer fire department that helped extinguish a blaze on one of his ranches.

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Bauder, a longtime media writer, retired from The Associated Press in 2026. Former Associated Press correspondent Ryan Nakashima contributed to this report.

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Jail records show the suspect, Antwon Trinard Glenn, 29, has been jailed since Jan. 22 on 29 counts of identification fraud in a separate case.

According to deputies with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, the alleged sexual battery occurred on July 5, 2025, while the victim was staying at her grandmother’s home in southwest Miami-Dade in the 11000 block of Southwest 203rd Terrace.

The victim told investigators she was outside the home when Glenn, who was driving a white SUV approached her, grabbed her arm and forced her into the vehicle “against her will,” the report states.

Authorities said the victim reported that she was raped inside the SUV and later taken to a nearby apartment, where the assault continued.

Records show Glenn was interviewed on March 26 at the Metrowest Detention Center in Doral, where he invoked his right to counsel.

Glenn’s arrest report did not state if he was known to the victim.

Court records show Glenn previously faced charges including fraudulent use of identification and multiple counts involving stolen credit or debit cards.

As of Wednesday, he is now facing charges that include sexual battery of a minor and kidnapping, and remains held without bond at the Metrowest Detention Center.

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Sky 10 was over the scene at 11:24 a.m. as firefighters worked to contain the blaze that erupted in the 9600 block of Northwest 79th Avenue.

MDFR officials said the initial call came in as a report of an unoccupied vehicle fire. When crews arrived, they found smoke coming from a warehouse.

Authorities said the fire has been extinguished and units remain at the scene to monitor for hot spots.

MDFR officials told Local 10 News in an email that at least one person was transported to the hospital.

No further information about the victim, the cause of the fire, or possible damage was immediately released.

Los registros penitenciarios muestran que el sospechoso, Antwon Trinard Glenn, de 29 años, está encarcelado desde el 22 de enero por 29 cargos de fraude de identidad en un caso aparte.

Según los agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade, la presunta agresión sexual ocurrió el 5 de julio de 2025, mientras la víctima se hospedaba en la casa de su abuela en el suroeste de Miami-Dade, en la cuadra 11000 de Southwest 203rd Terrace.

La víctima declaró a los investigadores que se encontraba fuera de la casa cuando Glenn, que conducía un SUV blanco, se le acercó, la agarró del brazo y la obligó a subir al vehículo “en contra de su voluntad”, según consta en el informe.

Las autoridades indicaron que la víctima denunció haber sido violada dentro del SUV y posteriormente llevada a un apartamento cercano, donde continuó la agresión.

Los registros muestran que Glenn fue entrevistado el 26 de marzo en el Centro de Detención Metrowest en Doral, donde invocó su derecho a un abogado.

En el informe de detención de Glenn no se especificaba si la víctima lo conocía.

Los registros judiciales muestran que Glenn ya había enfrentado cargos, entre ellos el uso fraudulento de identificación y múltiples cargos relacionados con tarjetas de crédito o débito robadas.

Desde el miércoles, se enfrenta a cargos que incluyen agresión sexual a una menor y secuestro, y permanece detenido sin derecho a fianza en el Centro de Detención de Metrowest.

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A Local 10 News crew was outside Cube Motors -- a used car dealership and auto repair shop -- on Northwest 79^th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenue, as agents were seen mostly inside the business’ gate.

Employees at a gym next door said agents rolled in around 6:10 a.m. and announced they were with the FBI, but the law enforcement presence didn’t impact classes at the gym.

Agents were seen circling some vehicles outside Cube Motors, taking pictures of the vehicles and checking VIN numbers.

Some cars received an X on the windows and were eventually towed away, including a Nissan, BMW, Tesla and others.

Members of the Department of Homeland Security and the National Insurance Crime Bureau were also at the scene.

A K-9 was also spotted sniffing along the fence line.

Local 10 saw agents questioning at least two men.

Both had handcuffs on at one point, but they’ve since been removed.

It’s unclear what the investigation is about.

The business opens daily at 8 a.m., but people were there by 6 a.m. to be questioned as part of the investigation.

No roadways in the area are being impacted by the investigation at this time.

A spokesperson for the FBI would only tell Local 10 News that the “FBI is conducting court ordered law enforcement activity in the vicinity of that location,” but added that “no further information is available at this time.”

Judges praised Boruch's work, including such collections as “Bestiary Dark” and “The Anti-Grief” as affirmations of human genius amid the rise of AI. The prize is overseen by the nonprofit organization Poets & Writers.

“Marianne Boruch renders luminous the expanse and reach of human thought,” the prize citation, released Wednesday by Poets & Writers, reads in part. “In an age of simulated intelligence, Boruch sets to tremble the whole of our collective knowledge where the soul, as she suggests in several poems, is a vastness of wanting and boundless curiosity.”

Boruch, 75, is a resident of West Lafayette, Indiana, who taught for decades at Purdue University, where she founded the school's MFA creative writing program. Previous winners of the Jackson prize, established 20 years ago with a gift from the Liana Foundation, include former U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo and the current laureate, Arthur Sze.

The document was released months after his administration published an updated national security strategy that called for the hemisphere to be the top U.S. focus.

“We will not let cartels, Jihadists, or the governments who support them plot against our citizens with impunity. Terrorists of any kind will not be allowed to find safe harbor here at home or attack us from abroad,” Trump wrote in the 16-page document.

Trump's administration has moved aggressively to reshape the region with the ouster of Nicolás Maduro as Venezuela's president, dozens of U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats operated by cartels and new pressure on the communist government of Cuba.

Sebastian Gorka, the White House counterterrorism czar who spearheaded the new strategy, said the shift in priorities acknowledges some simple math: Far more Americans have been killed by cartels pushing illicit drugs into U.S. communities than American service members lost in conflicts around the globe since World War II, he said.

“Whether it is strangling their illicit funds, whether it is tracking their drug boats, we will not permit them to kill Americans on a massive scale,” Gorka said in a telephone call with reporters to announce the strategy.

It is the latest example of the administration's efforts to demonstrate it remains committed to sharpening U.S. foreign policy focus on the Western Hemisphere even while dealing with worldwide crises.

The Republican administration’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters has persisted since early September and killed at least 191 people in total.

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

Gorka said the administration's other counterterrorism priorities include targeting and destroying Islamic military groups that have capabilities to execute operations against the United States; identifying and neutralizing violent secular political groups with ideology that are anti-American, "radically pro-gender," or anarchist; and boosting efforts to prevent nonstate actors from obtaining weapons of mass destruction.

Gorka said administration officials would meet with allies later this week to discuss how they can bolster their counterterrorism strategies.

“As the president made very clear, we will measure your seriousness as a partner and ally by how much you bring to the table,” he said. “So we expect more — from our partners in the Middle East, as well as elsewhere.”

Audiences have earned the right to be skeptical when something like “The Sheep Detectives” comes along — everyone involved was too. And yet this family-friendly “Knives Out” with a murder mystery at the center, a starry ensemble including Hugh Jackman, Emma Thompson and Nicholas Braun, as well as the voices of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Regina Hall and Patrick Stewart as yes, talking sheep, has caught more than a few off guard for its quirky humor, its sincerity and its unexpected depth.

Chris O’Dowd, who voices Mopple, “the most patient sheep,” noted: “You don’t get a lot of projects that are from the director of ‘Minions’ and the writer of ‘Chernobyl.’ It’s an unusual combination.”

In the film, in theaters Friday, Jackman plays George, a kind, but isolated shepherd in the English countryside who reads his animals murder mysteries at night. Unbeknownst to him, not only do they understand the words, they debate the stories among themselves. So when George dies under mysterious circumstances, the flock take what they've learned to try to help the dimwitted local police officer (Braun) solve the case, language barriers and all.

“What we know from watching this movie now with audiences over and over and over is that people are repeatedly delighted and surprised at how much more there is going on here than just silly sheep doing something silly,” screenwriter Craig Mazin said. “There are some really beautiful moments and themes and things that parents can talk about with their kids … and, most importantly, it is legitimately a movie that is meant for everyone.”

Aiming high with ‘The Sheep Detectives’

The story of how “The Sheep Detectives” got made goes back almost 20 years, when veteran producer Lindsay Doran (“Sense and Sensibility”) told Mazin about Leonie Swann’s novel “Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story.” He was expecting something cute, goofy and silly, but found himself enchanted by how smart, moving and philosophical it was.

It would take nearly a decade to secure the rights, and almost another to get the thing made, and made well thanks to studio executive Courtenay Valenti who, Mazin said, rescued it from rotting on a pile of scripts. Along the way they would find themselves emboldened by the caliber of talent who wanted to be part of it as well.

“Everybody involved was all on the same page of aiming as high as we could and sticking to our guns when it came to quality,” Mazin said. “Phil Lord and Chris Miller came on as producers as well, and their entire career has been about taking things that other people might not make good and making them good.”

Molly Gordon, whose character becomes a primary suspect when she mysteriously shows up in town the night of the murder, had the same reservations as many.

“The script was sent to my agent, and he emailed me, like, ‘This is really profound’ and I was like ‘How could this be profound?’ Like, I just, like, the sheep movie?” Gordon said. “And then within 10 minutes of reading it, I was like, this is one of the best scripts I’ve ever read.”

The real audience test

Mazin’s own kids grew up while “The Sheep Detectives” was getting made. But he still invited his 21-year-old daughter to watch it with him and his wife a few months back. She’s proud of her dad for his career, but, he said, also wouldn’t hesitate to call something of his “mid.”

“When the film ended, they were both just sort of a sobbing, happy mess,” he said. “My daughter, who doesn’t cut me any slack at all, AT ALL … Was like, ‘That is such a good movie.’ I thought, ‘OK’ … if your kids are older, it still works.”

The movie is coming into a fairly healthy theatrical marketplace, where PG-rated movies are often outperforming PG-13 movies and where non-franchise movies with the right buzz have been finding their audience, including another Amazon MGM release, “Project Hail Mary.” Mazin, a veteran screenwriter who also co-hosts the popular “Scriptnotes” podcast, doesn't often hype his own projects like this. Usually he thinks they should speak for themselves.

“Nobody needs the guy who wrote something to say, no, it’s really good. This is the first time in my career that I’m like, but actually, no guys. I love this,” he said. “Seeing this movie is a purely positive experience.”

And it needs a little bit of hype. “The Sheep Detectives” is currently tracking for a muted box office debut, in the $10 million to $15 million range. But it’s also a movie that has been underestimated at nearly every step.

“Low expectations are, you know, sometimes a gift,” Mazin laughed.

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Associated Press Writer Lizzie Knight contributed from London.

The search at Virginia Sen. L. Louise Lucas’s district office in Portsmouth comes after the Democrat helped lead the state’s recent redistricting effort.

The FBI said only that it was conducting a court-authorized search warrant in Portsmouth. The person who confirmed the FBI’s search was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Photos shared with the AP showed an armored FBI vehicle and several agents in camouflage outside the nearby Cannabis Outlet, which Lucas opened in 2021. She has said it sells legal hemp and CBD products, but the shop has drawn scrutiny from local media amid allegations that some products were mislabeled.

Lucas is a prominent backer of legalizing marijuana. Virginia has legalized pot possession, but retail sales of recreational marijuana remain illegal in the state.

A message seeking comment was left Wednesday on a cellphone for Lucas, who has been a state senator for 34 years. She is the first woman and first African American to serve as the body’s president pro tempore.

State House Speaker Don Scott said he was deeply concerned by the FBI search.

“Right now, there is far more theatrics and speculation than actual information available to the public,” Scott, a Democrat, said in a statement, adding that more facts were needed “before anyone rushes to political conclusions.”

Gov. Abigail Spanberger declined to comment. Some other Virginia Democrats were quick to note that the search comes as the FBI and Justice Department have opened a spate of politically charged investigations into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump.

The context “must be acknowledged,” U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott said in a social media post.

Last week, the Justice Department charged former FBI Director James Comey with making a threatening Instagram post against Trump, an accusation that Comey — who for nearly a decade has drawn the president’s ire — has denied. A separate mortgage fraud case, ultimately dismissed by a court, targeted Democratic New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who had brought a major civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his business.

The FBI and Justice Department have also provoked concerns among Democrats about ongoing election-related investigations, including the seizure by agents of ballots and other information from Fulton County, Georgia.

Amid a national, state-by-state partisan redistricting fight kicked off by Trump’s desire to aid his fellow Republicans, Virginia voters in April approved a Democrat-backed constitutional amendment authorizing new U.S. House districts. The plan could help the party win up to four additional seats.

Lucas has been a vocal leader of the effort.

“We are not going to let anyone tilt the system without a response,” she said after voters approved the map. Trump, meanwhile, denounced the results.

The state Supreme Court let the referendum proceed, but has yet to rule whether the effort is legal. The court is considering an appeal of a lower court judge’s ruling that the amendment is invalid because lawmakers violated procedural requirements.

Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump last year urged Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states.

Lucas, 82, has been a figure in Virginia politics since the 1980s, when she became the first Black woman elected to a city council seat in her native Portsmouth.

Earlier in life, she was the Norfolk Naval Shipyard's first female shipfitter, according to her biography in the state library. The job entails making, installing and repairing sometimes enormous metal assemblies for vessels.

In recent years, she has been the CEO of a Portsmouth business that runs residences, day programs and transportation for intellectually disabled adults.

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Associated Press writers Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky; Jake Offenhartz in New York; and Claudia Lauder in Philadelphia contributed.

However, the relief is not automatic or guaranteed, and most taxpayers need to file a claim for a refund or abatement of their tax liability by July 10 to get their money back.

The national taxpayer advocate, an independent watchdog of the IRS, is warning that the deadline to apply for relief is fast approaching after a federal court late last year ruled that taxpayers were not required to file their taxes on time during COVID-19.

The IRS had assessed more than 120 million penalties against tens of millions of taxpayers for filing late returns, failing to pay taxes or failing to make required estimated tax payments between January 2020 and July 11, 2023.

The case, called Kwong v. U.S., decided that COVID-19 emergency laws extended the deadline to file and that the IRS owes penalty payments to taxpayers. The case is still being litigated.

The taxpayer advocate calls the issue “widespread and not limited to a small or specialized group of taxpayers."

Ken Kies, assistant secretary at the Treasury Department, told The Associated Press that President Donald Trump's Republican administration believes that Kwong “was wrongly decided because it is a misreading of the plain language of the statute.”

“We will continue to defend the statutory language as written,” he said in a statement.

Still, as it currently stands, taxpayers should fill out a form to preserve their rights, said Alyssa Maloof Whatley, a director at Frost Law, a tax firm with locations across the U.S.

“Either it holds up or it doesn’t,” she noted of the ruling. ”So by preserving your claim, you’re actually preserving your right to that money.”

How to apply

People eligible for a potential refund or abatement are those who filed a tax return late between Jan. 20, 2020, and July 11, 2023; paid penalties for filing or paying late during that period; owed IRS penalties even if they have not paid them; or filed an international information return late.

In a series of blog posts on its website, the taxpayer advocate is sharing recommendations — including that people review their IRS tax account transcripts through their online account — to check penalty assessments from those periods.

Who's affected

“Many taxpayers affected by this issue have low and moderate incomes,” the taxpayer advocate said. “These taxpayers are less likely to have professional representation and to learn about complex legal developments like this one. As a result, they face a greater risk of missing the opportunity to claim refunds to which they may be entitled.”

Maloof Whatley said people will need to fill out Form 843, which can be found on the IRS website, and send it through snail mail.

According to the IRS, for people who received a penalty during the pandemic, the form must be mailed to the service center where they would be required to file a current year tax return.

Because of the impending July 10 deadline, “taxpayers should not delay reviewing their situation and considering potential claims for refund and abatement,” the taxpayer advocate said.

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Follow the AP's coverage of the IRS at https://apnews.com/hub/internal-revenue-service.

Correa was injured Tuesday while taking swings in the batting cage before a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“I was hitting in the cage, normal day, feeling great,” he said. “I went through my whole routine, took a swing and just felt a pop. It just completely snapped on me and then I fell to the ground and couldn’t put weight on it.”

Correa was on crutches and in a walking boot Wednesday morning at the ballpark after seeing a foot specialist. He said he would seek some other opinions before scheduling the surgery.

Correa, 31, said the injury was a complete tear and his recovery is expected to take six to eight months.

“Tough, really tough,” he said. “Not what I was expecting, but now it’s time to deal with it, face it head on and and focus on the rehab.”

Correa has had ankle problems in the past. In 2023, he had huge free agent deals with the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets fall through over concerns with his right ankle that was operated on in 2014. He ended up remaining with the Minnesota Twins after the deals collapsed.

Correa has salaries of $31.5 million this season, $30.5 million in 2027 and $30 million in 2028. As part of the last July's trade, the Twins will pay the Astros $10 million each Dec. 15 from this year through 2028.

His latest injury is yet another blow to an Astros team that has dealt with scores of injuries this season, including an oblique injury to Yainer Diaz that landed the catcher on the injured list Tuesday.

Correa, who is back with the Astros after last summer’s blockbuster trade from the Twins, played third base for Houston last season with Jeremy Peña at shortstop. But Correa has been playing shortstop recently with Peña out with a hamstring injury.

Manager Joe Espada said this week that Peña is close to a return and could begin a rehabilitation assignment soon.

But it's still a huge blow to lose Correa, who is one of the leaders of the team.

“It’s a gut punch,” general manager Dana Brown said. “But it’s not the end of the world. We still have a very competitive team. Thank God we have the depth still in the infield particularly when Jeremy comes back. And so, the team is still built to win, no doubt about it."

Espada said the Astros will miss all that Correa brings to the team.

“It’s just really hard,” Espada said. “Talking to Carlos this morning it was really, really hard. What he means to this team, to this organization, personally to me as his manager, as a friend. I’ve known him for a very long time. It sucks, but we have to move on.”

The Astros had Isaac Paredes playing third base and Braden Shewmake at shortstop for the finale of a series against the Dodgers on Wednesday.

Correa is batting .279 with three home runs and 16 RBIs. The No. 1 pick in the 2012 amateur draft, Correa spent his first seven seasons with the Astros before signing with the Twins where he spent 3 1/2 seasons before last summer's trade.

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

Higher-income households, meanwhile, ratcheted up their spending on gas while barely reducing their consumption, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Middle-income households fell in-between.

The gaps between how each group reacted were larger than in 2022, when a similar gas-price shock occurred after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the report found. Higher-income households cut back more on their gas consumption four years ago than in March, while poorer households likely benefited more from government stimulus programs in 2022. Wealthier households have seen significant increases in the value of their stock and real estate holdings since then as well.

The figures suggest the gas-price surge has worsened what many economists call the “K-shaped economy." The K-shape label refers to upper-income Americans continuing to do well while lower-income households fall behind. The disparate outcomes can help explain the generally gloomy attitude most Americans have toward the economy even as headline figures, such as the unemployment rate and economic growth, remain mostly solid.

“We find that households had very different experiences with gasoline spending,” researchers at the New York Fed wrote. “With the sharp increases in gasoline prices in March, a K-shaped pattern in gasoline consumption emerged—showing faster consumption growth for high income households relative to low-income households.”

The Iran war began Feb. 28, and by the end of March gas prices had risen about 25%, according to government consumer price data. Overall gas consumption, according to the New York Fed, fell 3% that month. As of Tuesday, gas prices have leapt 50% since the war began.

Poorer households, defined as those earning less than $40,000, cut their gas consumption by 7%, the report found, but still spent 12% more on gas in March. Higher-income households, defined as those earning $125,000 a year or above, lifted their spending on gas 19% in March, while reducing their overall consumption of gas just 1%. The report didn't specify the middle-income figures.

The figures suggest lower-income Americans have cut back on driving, perhaps by carpooling, taking public transportation, or combining errands into fewer trips, while richer Americans have had to make few, if any, changes.

The New York Fed report estimates that total spending at gas stations jumped 15% in March from the previous month. If sustained, that extra spending on gas will siphon money away from other areas, reducing overall inflation-adjusted spending and slowing the economy. So far, there are only limited signs that is happening. Americans do spend less on gas than in previous decades as cars have become more efficient.

Consumer spending, adjusted for price changes, ticked up 0.2% in March, slightly below February's 0.3% gain, the government said last week.

Still, there is evidence that for many lower-income people, the spike in gas prices is a big drag on their finances. A separate report from the Bank of America Institute, released last week, found that among the poorest one-third of households, one-tenth now spend 10% of their incomes on gas. The figure is far above the average for higher-income households, who spend just 2.7% of their incomes on gas.

Data from the Institute, which compiles reports from the anonymous accounts of its customers, also showed that more expensive gas has pulled some spending away from discretionary items, defined as those outside groceries, gas, and utilities. The annual growth in poorer households' discretionary spending slowed in March from February, while it rose for middle- and upper-income households.

Guido Reichstadter, a Florida-based activist, was seen coming down from one of the arches of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge where he had been camped since May 1. His presence caused periodic traffic jams as Washington police closed lanes and negotiated with him.

Reichstadter’s X account showed photos from atop one of the arches where he had pitched a tent. He announced on the site Tuesday that he would be coming down and expected to be arrested.

“I hope that this action has offered something to motivate and inspire you, and that it can serve as fuel for greater commitment and action in the cause of peace and in the fight for our future,” he wrote.

Washington police charged Reichstadter with crowding, obstructing, or incommoding, unlawful entry and failure to obey an officer.

He staged a similar protest atop the same bridge in 2022 against a Supreme Court decision.

Michael Marx, 45, of Midland, Texas, was shot multiple times during Monday’s confrontation and was in the back of an ambulance on his way to a hospital when he said, “'F—k the White House' and “Kill me, kill me, kill me,'” a Secret Service agent said in an affidavit.

The sworn statement does not specify whether investigators believe Marx had a particular target.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a statement that her office "will pursue the most serious charges available against anyone who brings gun violence to our streets, particularly when that violence unfolds steps from the seat of our government and the path of the Vice President of the United States.”

Marx was walking along the path of Vance's motorcade when officers spotted him near the intersection of 15th Street and Independence Avenue. The officers were responding to a Secret Service agent's report that Marx was seen near with White House complex with a firearm concealed on the right side of his body, the affidavit says.

Marx pulled a firearm from his waistband as he ran away from Secret Service officers and fired at one of them, but a bystander behind the officer was shot in the leg, the affidavit says. Officers returned fire and struck Marx in his abdomen, a hand and his left arm, according to the filing. It says Marx spit at officers as they provided him with aid after the shooting.

The teenage bystander was not seriously injured and has been released from a hospital, ABC News reported. ABC was first to report what the suspect allegedly said after the shooting.

Marx was charged in a complaint with assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon, discharging a firearm during a violent crime and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

The shooting came just over a week after a California man tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner while armed with guns and knives. Cole Tomas Allen has been charged in that incident with attempting to assassinate the president and firing a gun at a Secret Service officer.

Around the time of Monday's shooting, President Donald Trump was holding a small business event at the White House, which was briefly locked down as authorities investigated.

Online court records did not immediately list the name of a lawyer representing Marx.

Marx has used aliases, including Michael Patrick and Michael Zavici, according to the affidavit. It says Marx had a 2011 drug trafficking conviction in Florida that made it illegal for him to possess a firearm.

Elghandour, the CEO of biotech company Arcellx and an alumnus of the New Jersey university, had been set to give the May 15 convocation address at the Rutgers School of Engineering.

That invitation was rescinded after the university learned that "some graduating students would not attend their graduation ceremony due to concerns about the invited speaker’s social media posts,” a Rutgers spokesperson said in a statement.

The spokesperson declined to specify the offending posts, but confirmed they were focused on Israel. Elghandour did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Elghandour frequently shares news articles and footage of violence in Gaza and the West Bank, along with his own commentary accusing Israel of committing war crimes and upholding a system of apartheid.

He also served as the executive producer of the “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a documentary about a 5-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli Defense Forces.

The cancellation comes as the springtime commencement season ignites yet another round of debate about student protests against the war in Gaza, which have roiled U.S. campuses in recent years and led to canceled speeches and disruptions during graduations.

Earlier this week, the University of Michigan publicly disavowed a commencement speech delivered by Derek R. Peterson, a history professor, that briefly lauded pro-Palestinian student activists.

That speech sparked threats to strip the university of funding from Republican officials and donors, who said the comments created a hostile environment for Jewish students. The university president’s subsequent apology has drawn condemnation from academic and free-speech groups.

On Tuesday, Elghandour shared a clip on X of Peterson’s speech at the University of Michigan, along with his own caption: “Most people choose convenience. Professor Peterson chose principle. True leadership. Much respect.”

“They’re just so angry,” Gosling once sighed.

And yet, marking its upcoming 10th anniversary this month, “The Nice Guys” has established itself as one of the most beloved comedies of the last decade — a decade in which Hollywood studios largely left the genre for dead. A 1970s-set comic noir directed and co-written by Shane Black, “The Nice Guys” paired Gosling and Russell Crowe as private eyes in a Los Angeles crime caper that, a decade later, keeps getting better.

“There’s a lot of interest in ‘The Nice Guys’ today that wasn’t there when it opened. And the box office will attest to that,” Black deadpanned in a recent interview. “But people find these things. I think there’s kind of a joy of finding a movie on streaming or rental and then suddenly kind of realizing: How did I miss this? And ‘The Nice Guys’ was easy to miss.”

Now, “The Nice Guys” is almost always on, in reruns on cable or streaming services. Whenever it’s on Netflix, it ranks among the most viewed on the platform. As more have become familiar with the comic talents of Gosling, in “Barbie” or “Project Hail Mary,” fans inevitably ask: “But have you seen ‘The Nice Guys?’”

Black has known box-office smashes; he originated the “Lethal Weapon” movies. But he’s come to view films of his that didn’t make money as his favorites. In 2005, he made another cult favorite in “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” which helped revive Robert Downey Jr.’s career. (Downey makes a cameo as a corpse in “The Nice Guys.”)

“There’s something to being the king of the midnight movie,” says Black. “It’s not the most lucrative thing in the world.”

Comedies go dark

Earlier in the 2000s, comedy was a moviegoing staple. The films of Will Ferrell, Judd Apatow and Melissa McCarthy were some of Hollywood’s most lucrative. Movies like “The Hangover,” “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Bridesmaids” helped define the era.

But as the franchise film grew, and international ticket sales took on greater importance, the big-screen comedy began falling out of favor right around the time Warner Bros.’ “The Nice Guys” (with a $50 million budget) reached theaters, earning about $71 million worldwide at the time. Tastes were also changing. Horror took comedy’s place as the genre of the day.

There are signs that trends may be shifting. This year, “Project Hail Mary” and the just-launched “The Devil Wears Prada 2” have put comedies in front at the multiplex. But over the last decade, funny movies have largely migrated to streaming (Netflix’s pact with Adam Sandler was an early coup) or turned into the stuff of easy-to-miss cult.

Black's initial germ for the film, writing with Anthony Bagarozzi, was inspired by detective stories like those of William Campbell Gault and Brett Halliday. He’s read so many of them, he says, that “it’s almost a superpower.”

“I thought: There’s so much joy here,” Black says. “There’s so much fun in plot and twists and capers. You light a fuse and these guys go on this wild caper, and in the end, it’s just these two guys that are important. You can’t really remember the caper but it was there to service the idea, the shape of: These guys are at it again.”

If “Chinatown” is a detective tale about a Los Angeles private eye without a car, “The Nice Guys” is about a gumshoe who can’t smell. Gosling’s Holland March reluctantly joins with Crowe’s Jackson Healy, an enforcer, on a missing girl case. The movie is bright and colorful but set against a seedy LA and the adult film industry. With Holland also is his young but wise daughter, Holly (a preternaturally good Angourie Rice).

An heir to ‘Midnight Run’

“The Nice Guys” had an expansive cast, including Kim Basinger, Keith David and, in one of her first big roles, Margaret Qualley. But the heart of the movie is Gosling and Crowe. Neither was especially known for their comic skills at that point. Crowe was coming off the not-exactly-hysterical biblical epic “Noah.” But Black, a believer in the Lowell Ganz-Babaloo Mandel school of comedy (“Splash,” “Parenthood”), had an instinct they’d work well together.

“The thing is, Ryan is just a good actor,” says Black. “He’s funny in everything he does. But he didn’t do a lot of outright comedies. For this, the character was not like a ‘Talladega Nights’ or ‘Step Brothers.’ It’s not that kind of comedy where everything is pushed. It was a story that an actor could do and basically play a real character.”

They key for Black is centering the comedy on grounded characters, like the classic buddy movie “Midnight Run,” which paired Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin. That approach may have gone missing in a decade where most of the few studio comedies that got made went for high-concept laughs. (See “Tag,” a 2018 comedy about adult friends playing tag.)

But “The Nice Guys,” sleazy and silly, gave Gosling a jumping-off point for some of the most sublime pratfalls in recent memory. Gosling had shown a knack for comedy before, but “The Nice Guys” is his coming-out party. No one has ever had his arm broken, or reached the same high-pitched squeal of pain, like Gosling does in the film. In another scene, on a toilet, he tries to balance a pointed gun and a lit cigarette while lifting his pants and repeatedly kicking the stall door open. It's a ballet worthy of Buster Keaton.

“My favorite that he walked in with one day was where he said, ‘I saw this movie last night with Abbott and Costello where they meet Frankenstein,’” Black recalls. “He said, ‘I’d like to maybe give that type of energy a try.’ When he said that, what he really meant was: I’m going to do a pitch-perfect Lou Costello impression sitting next to a tree for 60 seconds.”

What about a sequel?

Black is most proud of how much Gosling and Crowe were anxious to do anything that made them look cowardly or stupid or inept. “They wanted to be antiheroes,” says Black. Crowe has spoken fondly of his experience on the film, crediting Gosling as his only co-star to ever regularly get him to break character.

Thus the inevitable question: So why not a sequel?

“It’s one of the most common questions I get,” says Black. “The answer, unfortunately, is nebulous.”

“You’re saying to a studio: Hey, we want to get these two big stars. It’s going to cost even more this time. You’re going to spend maybe twice the money on a sequel to a movie that didn’t get you what you wanted back,” says Black. “It’s a tough sell to take a movie that bombed and make a sequel.”

But would he do it, if he could?

“Of course,” replies Black. “This was designed for that. Like I said, it’s a caper. There’s these two and they get in a bunch of trouble and here they go again. You want to see them do it again. There’s a whole bunch of mystery capers you could throw at these guys. You could make a grounded, potentially very interesting, touching movie set not in the ’70s but perhaps in the ’80s.”

In 2016, Gosling called the London premiere of “The Nice Guys” a momentous occasion.

“I wasn't at the premiere of ‘The Godfather’ or ‘Apocalypse Now,’ but I got a feeling it felt pretty much the same as it does today,” Gosling said. “You're looking down the barrel of cinematic history.”

Gosling, of course, was kidding. But cinematic history? Maybe.

___

This story has been updated to correct the release year of “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.” It released in 2005.

Registros carcelarios muestran que Nazia Badal, de 44 años, de Arlington, Texas, fue detenida alrededor de las 9:20 p.m. del jueves por alguaciles federales y el Departamento de Policía de Miramar.

Las autoridades dijeron que tenía una orden activa del condado Broward por dos cargos de homicidio por DUI y permanece detenida sin derecho a fianza.

Los cargos se derivan de un choque del 16 de junio de 2013 cerca de la cuadra 2300 de Red Road en Miramar que mató a un hombre identificado por sus familiares como Jose Francisco Zamora.

Un informe de arresto indica que Badal, quien trabajaba como mesera en Tootsie’s Cabaret en el momento del choque, conducía con un nivel de alcohol en sangre de 0.15%, casi el doble del límite legal, y aproximadamente 15 mph por encima del límite de velocidad al momento del choque, que ocurrió cerca de la intersección de Red Road y Renaissance Boulevard.

“En el momento del choque, la acusada tenía una concentración ilegal de alcohol en sangre que afectaba sus facultades normales y su capacidad para operar un vehículo de manera segura”, escribió un agente en su informe de arresto de 2013.

Los investigadores dijeron que el choque resultó en “múltiples lesiones por fuerza contundente” a Zamora, causando su muerte.

El informe indica que un testigo dijo a la policía que Badal conducía de manera errática antes de chocar contra el vehículo de Zamora en lo que fue descrito como una “explosión”.

El testigo dijo que el vehículo de Badal se detuvo con daños severos, mientras que el auto de Zamora quedó reducido a “metal retorcido”, dejándolo atrapado en el interior, según el informe.

Los investigadores dijeron que Badal tenía un “fuerte olor a bebida alcohólica”, que se intensificaba cuando hablaba, y que sus ojos parecían “vidriosos y rojos”.

Según el informe, cuando las autoridades le dijeron a Badal que había una investigación criminal en curso, ella respondió, “¿por qué?, nadie murió”, y “¿quién va a pagar por mi carro?”

La policía también escribió que Badal “parecía estar ajena a la gravedad del choque y no mostró absolutamente ninguna preocupación por el otro conductor, solo por su vehículo”.

Un informe toxicológico reveló que Zamora no tenía drogas ni alcohol en su sistema en el momento del choque.

La sobrina de la víctima dijo a Local 10 News que el caso en gran medida no había recibido cobertura desde el choque fatal.

Registros carcelarios muestran que Badal fue arrestada inicialmente en 2014 y luego liberada bajo fianza. Las autoridades dijeron que no compareció ante el tribunal en 2017, lo que llevó a una orden de arresto pendiente en su contra.

Los registros muestran que Badal, originaria de Trinidad y Tobago, ha sido puesta bajo retención migratoria y permanece detenida sin derecho a fianza en el centro de detención Paul Rein.

Los registros judiciales muestran que tiene programada una audiencia para el martes.

Un informe policial indica que Dayron Ramirez-Mesa, de 21 años, conducía la Cybertruck poco después de las 8 a.m. del 14 de diciembre.

Los investigadores dicen que iba a exceso de velocidad en el área de Southwest 56th Street y 122nd Avenue cuando se pasó la luz roja, impactando a dos vehículos que tenían la luz verde y estaban girando a la izquierda en la intersección.

Las autoridades dicen que poco después del choque, una de las otras conductoras, Dayana Abreu Perez, murió a causa de sus heridas.

La Oficina de la Fiscalía Estatal de Miami-Dade publicó tres nuevos ángulos del incidente, revelando la conducción imprudente en tiempo real.

Un ángulo desde la parte trasera muestra a la Cybertruck pasando rápidamente a varios autos segundos antes del choque.

Otro muestra las consecuencias, con partes volando y una llanta rodando por la calle.

Los investigadores dicen que los datos muestran que tres segundos antes del impacto, Ramirez-Mesa iba a 97 millas por hora, más del doble del límite de velocidad de 40 mph.

Los investigadores dicen que las tres muestras de sangre recolectadas de Ramirez-Mesa después del choque dieron por encima del límite legal en Florida.

Tiene previsto comparecer ante el tribunal a finales de mayo.

Leer en español

A police report says Dayron Ramirez-Mesa, 21, was driving the Cybertruck shortly after 8 a.m. on Dec. 14.

Investigators say he was speeding in the area of Southwest 56th Street and 122nd Avenue when he ran the red light, hitting two vehicles that had a green light and were making a left turn at the intersection.

Authorities say shortly after the crash, one of the other drivers, Dayana Abreu Perez, died of her injuries.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office released three new angles of the incident, revealing the reckless driving in real time.

A rearview angle shows the Cybertruck zipping past several cars seconds before the crash.

Another shows the aftermath, with parts flying and a tire rolling down the street.

Investigators say data shows that three seconds before the impact, Ramirez-Mesa was going 97 mph, more than double the posted speed limit of 40 mph.

Investigators say all three blood samples collected from Ramirez-Mesa after the crash came back above Florida’s legal limit.

He’s scheduled to appear in court in late May.

Malik, de 18 años, se declaró culpable de homicidio involuntario en la muerte de Lollar, su ex novio, en marzo.

La familia de Lollar había solicitado una sentencia de 30 años. El juez finalmente le impuso 17 años de prisión, con cinco años de libertad condicional.

“Voy a ponerme de pie y honrar a mi hijo y defender a mi hijo”, dijo Darveed Lollar, padre de Yakheim Lollar. “Solo quería ser escuchado. No me gusta la forma en que se manejó este caso”.

Ocurrió el 20 de diciembre de 2024 en el edificio de apartamentos donde vivía Lollar, en la cuadra 6100 de Northwest Sixth Court, en el vecindario Liberty City de Miami.

Malik dijo a la policía que la puñalada fue un accidente, un resultado mortal no intencional de un juego brusco.

“Siempre será un hecho que eres una asesina”, dijo Zeldrina Beecham, tía de Lollar, a Malik. “Eres una semilla del demonio que tus padres trajeron a este mundo para causar sufrimiento a los demás. Qué vergüenza para ellos”.

Nathalie Jean, madre de Lollar, dijo: “Solo queremos lo que mi hijo merecía”.

“Su vida importa. No quiero salir de aquí hoy, su señoría, sintiendo que perdí a mi hijo otra vez”, dijo.

Los fiscales reprodujeron videos de vigilancia en la corte, mostrando los últimos momentos de Lollar después de que Malik lo apuñalara en el pecho con una navaja.

“Entró en la tercera costilla del lado izquierdo, aproximadamente una pulgada de profundidad y alcanzó el corazón”, testificó el sargento del Departamento de Policía de Miami, Juan Santos.

Las imágenes y los sonidos fueron tan angustiantes que algunos salieron de la sala.

Los fiscales habían recomendado 20 años de prisión con 10 años de libertad condicional.

Mientras tanto, los abogados de Malik dijeron que ella estaba arrepentida y querían que fuera sentenciada como delincuente juvenil a un programa tipo campamento.

Malik se disculpó en la corte el martes.

“Estuve mal por lo que hice, y todos los días me siento y pienso en el daño que causé”, dijo. “La familia quiere que esté en prisión, pero estoy en mi propia prisión por el resto de mi vida. Desearía poder regresar y cambiar lo que pasó, pero no puedo, y esa es la peor parte. Ustedes no merecían este dolor y desearía no haber sido yo quien se los causó”.

Además de los años de prisión y la libertad condicional, Malik tendrá que someterse a una evaluación de salud mental y escribir una carta cada 20 de diciembre durante su período de libertad condicional, reconociendo lo ocurrido y cómo ha afectado sus vidas.

Después de la audiencia, las emociones estaban intensas para los seres queridos tanto de Lollar como de Malik.

“Espero que cuando vaya hoy a prisión y sea procesada, se siente y piense en las vidas que destruyó”, dijo Jean.

“Siento que no se hizo justicia esta noche para la acusada, mi sobrina, Jahara Malik”, dijo Gary Malik, tío de la acusada. “Era una delincuente juvenil en el momento en que ocurrió esto, y siento que el tribunal no reconoció eso”.

Malik fue puesta bajo custodia inmediatamente después de que el juez anunciara su decisión.

He died surrounded by his family, according to Turner Enterprises, the company that oversees his vast businesses and investments.

Turner was the force behind Cartoon Network, TNT and Turner Classic Movies. But his interests expanded far beyond media — owning professional sports teams in Atlanta and huge chunks of the American West, fueling conservation efforts through habitat restoration and endangered species work.

He donated a stunning $1 billion to United Nations charities and raced yachts too, winning the America’s Cup in 1977.

Turner married actor Jane Fonda in 1991, when he was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year. By then, he was a celebrity in his own right, earning the nicknames “Captain Outrageous” and “The Mouth of the South.”

He once bragged: “If only I had a little humility, I’d be perfect.”

He was slowed in later years by Lewy body dementia. Long since out of the television business, he concentrated on philanthropy and his more than 2 million acres (800,000 hectares) of property, including the nation’s largest bison herd.

His garrulous personality sometimes overshadowed a driven, risk-taking business acumen. By the time he sold his Turner Broadcasting System to Time Warner Inc. in a 1996 media megadeal, Turner had turned his late father’s billboard company into a global conglomerate that included seven major cable networks, three professional sports teams and a pair of hit movie studios.

President Donald Trump, reacting to Turner's death, called him “one of the Greats of All Time.”

“Whenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause!” Trump posted on social media.

The creation of CNN

Turner’s signature achievement was creating CNN, the first 24-hour, all-news television network in 1980. At a time when news is instantly available, it’s hard to recall that the idea of letting consumers decide when they choose to learn what’s going on in the world was once revolutionary.

In part, Turner’s own frustration with television news was the instigator. He often worked late after the network newscasts had gone off the air, and was in bed by the time his local stations did their own news.

He took a chance by starting the operation sometimes derided as the “chicken noodle network” in the early days of cable television, living in an apartment above its Atlanta office.

“I was going to have to hit hard and move incredibly fast and that’s what we did — move so fast that the (broadcast) networks wouldn’t have the time to respond, because they should have done this, not me,” Turner recalled in a 2016 interview with the Academy of Achievement. “But they didn’t have the imagination.”

CNN’s breakthrough came during the Gulf War with Iraq in 1991. Most television journalists had fled Baghdad. CNN stayed, capturing images of a war’s outbreak, with anti-aircraft tracers streaking across the sky and correspondents flinching from the concussion of bombs.

“His first love was family and he had five children. But very close behind, he’s always told me that his greatest achievement was CNN, but he had so many over the years,” Tom Johnson, CNN's president from 1990 to 2001, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Turner was promised a continued role in CNN after his company’s sale to Time Warner for $7.3 billion in stock but was gradually pushed out, much to his regret.

“I made a mistake,” he later said. “The mistake I made was losing control of the company.”

That same year — 1996 — saw the birth of Fox News Channel and arrival of a new dominant mogul in cable news, Rupert Murdoch. Turner once compared Murdoch to Adolf Hitler, but the bitter rivals later reconciled over their concern for the environment.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav called Turner a visionary and a trailblazer.

“Ted’s entrepreneurial spirit, creative ambition and willingness to take risks changed the media industry forever,” Zaslav said in a note to employees Wednesday.

Building TBS SuperStation

Robert Edward Turner III was born Nov. 19, 1938, in Cincinnati. When he was 9, his family moved to Savannah, Georgia. After being expelled from Brown University for sneaking a female student into his room, Turner came to Atlanta to work for his father’s billboard company.

After his father’s 1963 suicide, Turner took over the company. In 1970, he bought an independent UHF station with a weak signal that didn’t even cover Atlanta.

On Dec. 17, 1976, he began transmitting the station to cable systems across the country via satellite. It became the TBS SuperStation. “It was the start of something bigger than we ever imagined,” Turner said in 1996.

TBS’ collection of old movies and “The Andy Griffith Show” reruns was augmented by Turner’s acquisition of baseball’s Atlanta Braves, which slowly attracted fans across the nation and declared themselves “America’s team.”

In the 1980s, Turner went deeply into debt to buy MGM, a move again greeted with skepticism.

But the acquisition gave his company a huge library of vintage movies that eventually launched the TNT and Turner Classic Movies networks. His devotion to older movies earned Turner a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004. He was also criticized for adding color to classic movies like “Casablanca,” which he said he did to appeal to a younger audience.

TBS also acquired the Hanna-Barbera animation library, which led to the Cartoon Network.

“He sees the obvious before most people do,” Bob Wright, former president and CEO of NBC, told The New Yorker in 2001. “We all look at the same picture, but Ted sees what you don’t see. And after he sees it, it becomes obvious to everybody.”

He revealed his ambitions as a younger man: “I used to tell people I wanted to become the world’s greatest sailor, businessman and lover all at the same time.”

Asked to share the secret to his success, he said: “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.”

Acquiring sports teams and land

Married three times, the mustachioed Turner wooed beautiful women with a roguish charm. He was married to Fonda from 1991 to 2001. She quit acting while married to Turner, but tired of his philandering and divorced him, although they remained friends.

“He was sexy. He was brilliant. He had 2 million acres by the time I left. It would have been easy to stay,” Fonda once said of her relationship with Turner.

He struck up friendships with world leaders, bonding with Cuban leader Fidel Castro over hunting and arguments about politics.

Turner built a sports empire, at one point owning professional baseball, basketball and hockey teams in Atlanta. He was best remembered at the helm of the Atlanta Braves, turning the perennial doormats into champions in the 1990s. Their former stadium, built for the 1996 Olympics, was named Ted Turner Field.

He acquired millions of acres in ranches complete with roaming buffalo. He spoke often of reviving the West’s bison herds, and in 2002 started a restaurant chain serving bison burgers, Ted’s Montana Grill.

Forbes estimated his net worth at $2.8 billion at the time of his death.

He had enough time, and money, to devote to such lofty goals as promoting world peace and protecting the environment.

“See, my life is more an adventure than a quest to make money. Adventure is going out and doing something for the pure hell of it,” Turner once said. “You just want to see if you can do it, period. There’s no thought of gain other than your own satisfaction.”

‘The Mouth of the South’

Through the years, Turner’s antics occasionally overshadowed his business activities.

Fresh from skippering his boat “Courageous” to the 1977 America’s Cup title, a very inebriated Turner was captured by TV cameras stretched out on the floor at the victory celebration.

Turner managed to insult many with his shoot-from-the-lip style. An atheist since his only sister died of lupus at age 17, he called Christians “losers” and “Jesus freaks,” later apologizing.

He once suggested in a speech that unemployed Black people be used to haul mobile missiles with ropes “like the Egyptians building the pyramids.” He said he was joking after civil rights leaders demanded an apology.

Other times, his humor saved him from potentially awkward situations, like when he talked to an audience in Berlin in 1999. “You know, you Germans had a bad century,” Turner said, according to The New Yorker. “You were on the wrong side of two wars. You were the losers. I know what that’s like. When I bought the Atlanta Braves, we couldn’t win, either. You guys can turn it around. You can start making the right choices. If the Atlanta Braves could do it, then Germany can do it.”

Dedication to humanitarian causes

Turner grabbed a leadership role in American philanthropy with his 1997 pledge to give $1 billion, or $100 million a year for 10 years, to United Nations charities. Even as Turner’s fortune shrank after the AOL Time Warner merger, he continued giving money to the U.N., calling it the best hope for peace.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called Turner “a visionary whose conviction, generosity and audacious spirit left a lasting imprint on the United Nations and our world.”

Turner promoted a range of humanitarian causes. He joined former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn to start the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to reducing the threat of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

“If I had to predict, the way things are going, I’d say the chances are about 50-50 that humanity will be extinct in 50 years,” Turner said in 2003. “Weapons of mass destruction, disease, I mean this global warming is scaring the living daylights out of me.”

As he poured millions into nonprofits, Turner was also fond of spreading his wealth in small ways. He once gave $500 to a volunteer fire department that helped extinguish a blaze on one of his ranches. Another time he lent personal paintings for an exhibit at a Bozeman, Montana, museum.

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Bauder, a longtime media writer, retired from The Associated Press in 2026. Former Associated Press correspondent Ryan Nakashima and AP writers John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, R.J. Rico in Atlanta, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed.

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Malik, 18, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Lollar, her ex-boyfriend, in March.

Lollar’s family had asked for a 30-year sentence. The judge ended up giving her 17 years behind bars, with five years of probation.

“I’m gonna stand up and honor my son and defend my son,” Darveed Lollar, Yakheim Lollar’s father, said. “I just wanted to be heard. Man, I don’t like the way this case was handled.”

It happened on Dec. 20, 2024 at the apartment building where Lollar lived in the 6100 block of Northwest Sixth Court, in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood.

Malik told police the stabbing was an accident — a deadly, unintended result of horseplay.

“It will always be a fact that you are a murderer,” Zeldrina Beecham, Lollar’s aunt, told Malik. “You are a demon seed that your parents brought into this world to bring suffering on everybody else. Shame on them.”

Nathalie Jean, Lollar’s mother, said, “We just want what my son deserved.”

“His life matters. I do not want to leave here today, your honor, feeling like I lost my son all over again,” she said.

Prosecutors played surveillance videos in court, showing Lollar’s final moments after Malik stabbed him in the chest with a pocket knife.

“It went into the third rib on the left side, approximately one inch in depth and hit the heart,” Miami Police Department Sgt. Juan Santos testified.

The sights and sounds were so distressing, some fled the courtroom.

Prosecutors had recommended 20 years of prison with 10 years probation.

Meanwhile, Malik’s attorneys said she was remorseful and they wanted her sentenced as a youthful offender to a boot camp program.

Malik apologized in court Tuesday.

“I was wrong for what I did, and every day I sit and think about the damage I caused,” she said. “The family wants me in prison, but I’m in my own prison for the rest of my life. I wish I can’t go back and change what happened, but I can’, and that’s the worst part. Y’all didn’t deserve this pain and I wish I hadn’t been the one to give it to y’all.”

Besides the years of prison and probation, Malik will have to undergo a mental health evaluation and write a letter on every Dec. 20 during her probation term, acknowledging what has occurred and how it has affected their lives.

After the hearing, emotions were running high for loved ones of both Lollar and Malik.

“I hope when she goes today to go to prison and get processed, she’s going to sit there and think about the lives that she destroyed,” said Jean.

“I feel that justice was not served tonight for the defendant, my niece, Jahara Malik,” said Gary Malik, the defendant’s uncle. “She was a youthful offender at the time that this happened, and I feel that the court did not recognize that.”

Malik was remanded immediately after the judge announced her decision.

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Jail records show Zonia Beatriz Reatgui was arrested Tuesday by the Miami Police Department.

According to investigators, the victim, who is unable to drive, relied on Reatgui — a longtime friend of about 20 years — for transportation to medical appointments.

On Dec. 9, 2025, police said Reatgui drove the woman to a hospital for treatment related to a foot condition.

Before the victim was admitted, they said Reatgui offered to hold onto her bracelets to prevent them from being lost. The victim agreed and handed over the jewelry.

After the victim was discharged days later, police said she asked for the bracelets back.

They said Reatgui initially claimed she was traveling to Peru and would return the items later. Over the following weeks, she allegedly gave multiple excuses before ultimately telling the victim the jewelry had been “stolen” from her home, the report states.

Investigators said Reatgui asked the victim not to tell her family and promised reimbursement, but never followed through.

A review of pawn shop records later showed that bracelets matching the victim’s jewelry were pawned on Dec. 9 and Dec. 20, 2025, for $500 each, police said. They said the items were identified through photos and unique charm configurations and were placed on hold.

During a recorded interview, police said Reatgui admitted to pawning the jewelry and confirmed she never retrieved it.

They said the victim later provided a statement and identified Reatgui as the person she entrusted with the jewelry.

Records show she is facing one count of third-degree grand theft, as well as two counts each of dealing in stolen property and secondhand dealer violations involving failure to verify ownership of items valued over $300.

As of Thursday, she was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where her bond was listed as “to be set.”

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Zonia Beatriz Reatgui fue arrestada el martes por el Departamento de Policía de Miami.

Según los investigadores, la víctima, quien no puede conducir, dependía de Reatgui —una amiga de larga data de unos 20 años— para transporte a citas médicas.

El 9 de diciembre de 2025, la policía dijo que Reatgui llevó a la mujer a un hospital para tratamiento relacionado con una condición en el pie.

Antes de que la víctima fuera admitida, dijeron que Reatgui se ofreció a guardar sus pulseras para evitar que se perdieran. La víctima accedió y entregó las joyas.

Después de que la víctima fue dada de alta días más tarde, la policía dijo que pidió que le devolvieran las pulseras.

Indicaron que Reatgui inicialmente afirmó que estaba viajando a Perú y que devolvería los artículos después. Durante las semanas siguientes, presuntamente dio múltiples excusas antes de finalmente decirle a la víctima que las joyas habían sido “robadas” de su casa, según el informe.

Los investigadores dijeron que Reatgui le pidió a la víctima que no le dijera a su familia y prometió reembolso, pero nunca cumplió.

Una revisión de los registros de casas de empeño mostró posteriormente que pulseras que coincidían con las joyas de la víctima fueron empeñadas el 9 y el 20 de diciembre de 2025 por $500 USD cada una, dijo la policía. Indicaron que los artículos fueron identificados mediante fotos y configuraciones únicas de dijes y fueron puestos en retención.

Durante una entrevista grabada, la policía dijo que Reatgui admitió haber empeñado las joyas y confirmó que nunca las recuperó.

Dijeron que la víctima posteriormente proporcionó una declaración e identificó a Reatgui como la persona a quien le confió las joyas.

Los registros muestran que enfrenta un cargo de hurto mayor en tercer grado, así como dos cargos de tráfico de propiedad robada y dos cargos por violaciones de comerciante de segunda mano por no verificar la propiedad de artículos valorados en más de $300 USD.

Hasta el jueves, permanecía detenida en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, donde su fianza figuraba como “por establecer”.

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Jose Suarez and Jose Canto, former executives with the Bayfront Park Management Trust, claimed Carollo retaliated against them for exposing financial mismanagement, misuse of public funds and corruption.

Carollo, 71, left office in December after a fourth-place finish in the race for Miami mayor, an office he held on two previous occasions.

Suarez and Canto alleged that public trust money was spent on Carollo’s political office and allies, including $60,000 to the commissioner’s Little Havana Fridays event and $150,000 to a broadcaster with ties to Carollo.

The lawsuit alleged that Carollo pushed Suarez and Canto out of their jobs “(a)fter diligently working to bring transparency and ethics.”

The pair “were attacked, defamed and constructively discharged,” they claimed.

Tuesday’s filing does not indicate how much money they settled for.

José Suárez y José Canto, ex ejecutivos del Bayfront Park Management Trust, afirmaron que Carollo tomó represalias contra ellos por exponer mala gestión financiera, uso indebido de fondos públicos y corrupción.

Carollo, de 71 años, dejó el cargo en diciembre tras quedar en cuarto lugar en la contienda por la alcaldía de Miami, cargo que ocupó en dos ocasiones anteriores.

Suárez y Canto alegaron que dinero público fue gastado en la oficina política de Carollo y sus aliados, incluyendo $60,000 USD para el evento Viernes de la Pequeña Habana del comisionado y $150,000 USD para un comunicador con vínculos con Carollo.

La demanda alegaba que Carollo obligó a Suárez y Canto a dejar sus trabajos “después de trabajar diligentemente para llevar transparencia y ética”.

El dúo “fue atacado, difamado y despedido de manera constructiva”, afirmaron.

El documento del martes no indica por cuánto dinero se llegó al acuerdo.

“That's not a figure of speech, sadly,” the country star told The Associated Press. “I was really, really badly hurt, and it was a bad enough injury that there was a chance that I wouldn’t have been able to perform ever again.”

It was 2021. She was riding in Montana, and fell, landing on her head. The accident — so severe that she ended up in an emergency room — resulted in a concussion and stitches to her scalp. At the time, she couldn't walk without assistance.

In the years since, McBryde thought about all of the songs she and her band rip through on stage but hadn't yet committed to record. “What if I keep letting them not be on records? What if something had happened and now somebody never hears “Water in the River”? Somebody never hears “Rattlesnake Preacher.” Somebody never hears “Creosote” because I let myself be discouraged in this way or that way from putting those on the record?”

And so “Wild” — her new album out Friday, produced by John Osbourne and recorded with her live band Deadhorse — became their home.

Heading into the “Wild”

The live tracks that gave birth to “Wild” are barn burners, a rowdy good time. So, McBryde knew she needed to find a way to strike some balance. She pursued divination practices like reading runes, going to a tarot reader, doing anything and everything she could to have her fifth album reveal itself to her. The answer was in the experimentation, a “playful, curious” writing process with her band.

“The more we looked at the songs that we had felt like playing — and doing a good job of delivering — (we found they) were true stories about my life,” she recognized. “It's terrifying to be known.”

But it's also cathartic — as is the realization that “whatever it was that I was going through, I’m not unique. There’s nothing I’ve been through that most of us haven’t been through or are going to go through,” McBryde explains. “It’s not about me, it’s about us.”

Getting deep

McBryde's last album, 2023's “The Devil I Know,” had a rebellious streak to it — as does “Wild” and the bulk of her discography. When critics said something “was too rock, we turned that up. They said something that was too country, then we put a toothpick in its mouth. And I think by the time we got to ‘Wild,’ I didn’t care anymore. It was that level of defiance,” she said. “It's none of my business. My job is to make sure these songs get heard.”

She calls this album her most rock ‘n’ roll — sonically, like what is found on the first four tracks — and emotionally, embodying her fiery spirit on the cutting treatise on domesticity, “Lines in the Carpet,” the heartfelt mission statement of the title track and everywhere in-between.

“Does the wild call out to you from a distance?” she starts her first chorus on “Wild.” Then, the revelation: “Do you miss the fire and the freedom? / When there wasn’t anything keeping / You from being wild.”

“There are people out there with natural ability and there are people that dedicate every waking hour to honing their craft. Ashley is both,” Osbourne said in a press statement. “Never settling. Always reaching. The perfect combination of vulnerable and fearless.”

That combination is also evident on the songs that appear to detail her struggles with addiction. McBryde got sober in 2022, the specter of past indiscretions heard on the beery ballad “Bottle Tells Me So” and the gut-wrenching “Behind Bars.”

“I was terrified that I was gonna suck,” she says about songwriting after getting sober. “It’s not like I’d get hammered to write a song, but I would have drinks while writing songs.” And maybe a couple did suck, she guesses, “because they were just from such angry or unsatisfied places.” But she's worked on herself, and now, “these songs are just grown. And I'm glad. I got out of my way.”

It's good advice for anyone, and a central theme of the album. She wants “Wild” to shake something loose, to inspire her listeners to take a chance on themselves.

“Let’s say that someone doesn’t get to be what they wanted to be when they grow up. I will shoulder that for you,” McBryde says.

She wants to access that dreamer. “I want that to wake up in you when you hear this record,” she says.

Call it catharsis, call it enthusiasm, call it whatever you want. McBryde has her own word for it: “It's a recognition.”

Detroit’s selection is the result of the tight relationship the PWHL has with the city’s Ilitch family, whose holdings include the Red Wings. And it reflects the success the league has enjoyed in playing four neutral-site games at the NHL team’s home.

“I think from the get-go, we have really felt the passion that this city and state have for hockey and the PWHL,” executive vice president of business operations Amy Scheer told The Associated Press. “I think it’s the perfect place for us to grow.”

Detroit hosted the PWHL’s first neutral-site game during its inaugural season in 2024, which Scheer credited for inspiring the league launching its multicity “Takeover Tour” the past two years. The four games at Little Caesars Arena, which will serve as the team’s home, attracted a combined attendance of 53,626, including 15,938 in March in the PWHL’s first game broadcast to a U.S. national TV audience.

A half-hour news conference took place inside Little Caesars Arena, and featured a video with a car revving over video of downtown Detroit and scenes from past Takeover Tour games.

“The PWHL didn’t have to guess whether Detroit was ready. Detroit made it obvious,” said Chris Ilitch, CEO of Ilitch Companies, which also owns baseball’s Detroit Tigers. “The wait is over. Detroit has a team. Let’s go.”

Ilitch addressed a crowd that included his mother, Marian, one of only a handful of women to have their names engraved on the Stanley Cup.

The PWHL also announced Detroit will host the league’s draft and awards ceremony in mid-June. The draft on June 17 will feature a highly anticipated class of prospects brimming with U.S. talent, including gold medal-winning Olympians in Caroline Harvey and Laila Edwards, the first Black female player to represent Team USA.

Plans to add up to four teams

Detroit’s addition grows the PWHL to nine teams, and comes a year after adding franchises in Seattle and Vancouver. And there’s more to come, with the PWHL previously saying it plans to expand by between two and four markets.

Scheer would not reveal how more teams will be added, though the expectation remains four to be announced in the coming weeks.

Denver is considered a front-runner, with the PWHL targeting the city since a Takeover Tour game in January 2025 attracted 14,018 fans, who chanted “We want a team!” Another contender is Las Vegas, with the NHL’s Golden Knights having spent the past two years lobbying for a franchise.

And then there’s Hamilton, Ontario, whose potential addition would give the PWHL three teams in Ontario, rounded out by Toronto and Ottawa. Hamilton is an hour west of Toronto, and the PWHL is confident the region’s population of 570,000 is large enough to not draw fans away from the Sceptres.

The league has also expressed interest in Washington, D.C., Dallas, Chicago, the Alberta cities of Calgary and Edmonton, Quebec City and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Washington and Calgary have issues regarding arena availability and space, making it difficult to fit in an extra team.

Motor City meets PWHL criteria

Detroit meets several key PWHL expansion criteria, with the arena having a training facility attached to it, while the city’s location helps fill the travel gap between Toronto and Minnesota.

The Motor City is home to a large corporate base, including current league partners Ally Financial and the Meijer grocery store chain.

Detroit also has a rich history of girls developmental hockey programs. Among U.S. states, Michigan ranks second behind Minnesota in producing PWHL talent.

The PWHL can boast beating the state’s colleges in adding women’s hockey. The state does not have a Division I women’s hockey team, though the University of Michigan is in discussions to establish one.

“I hope it follows, right? I hope we can be a catalyst to continue to grow the game here,” PWHL executive vice president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford said. “We’re excited about the impact we’re going to be able to have here in Detroit on hockey in general, but certainly on women’s hockey.”

The yet-to-be named team’s primary colors will be black and silver, with a red accent in a nod to the Red Wings. The jerseys will also feature an Ally Financial patch.

Post-Olympic surge

The latest round of expansion comes during the Walter Cup playoffs and the league enjoying a major boost following the Milan Cortina Olympics.

The PWHL’s 120-game regular-season schedule attracted more than 1.1 million fans, representing a 28% jump over last year and marked the first time the league topped 1 million in one season. Online merchandise sales surged by more than 50% over last season, including a 190% jump following the Olympics as compared to the same period a year ago.

The league’s YouTube channel’s viewership increased by 77% this year, and now reaches 154 countries.

Adding three U.S. markets to its four existing American cities — rounded out by Newark, New Jersey, and Boston — would better position the PWHL to land a U.S. national broadcast partnership.

This season, Scripps Sports agreed to broadcast various games, including the playoffs, on ION, which is accessible to 126 million American households. League and Scripps officials have expressed interest in establishing a more permanent partnership for next season.

The PWHL is centrally controlled and privately backed by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter and wife Kimbra, who have invested hundreds of millions of dollars.

Scheer said this round of expansion before Season 4 meets the Walters’ vision in building a sustainable league.

“While it might be fast in terms of the way other leagues have done things, for us it’s measured and calculated,” Scheer said. “So we feel good at the pace that we’re moving, and feel confident in the way we’re growing. We’ll be here for a while.”

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AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey

About 150 passengers are isolating in their cabins aboard the Dutch ship at the center of the outbreak. The MV Hondius evacuated the patients via the Cape Verde islands off West Africa, before departing for Spain’s Canary Islands on Wednesday afternoon. Officials say those on board show no symptoms.

The WHO says the risk to the global population from this outbreak is low, with the organization’s top epidemic expert telling The Associated Press, “This is not the next COVID.”

Hantavirus is a rare, rodent-borne illness that usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings. The Argentine government’s leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus during a bird-watching outing at a garbage dump before boarding, according to two officials. The cruise ship departed Argentina on April 1.

Here’s the latest:

Medical evacuation flight lands at Amsterdam airport

The cruise ship operator had said two of the passengers who were evacuated “remain in a serious condition.” The third has no symptoms but was “closely associated” with a passenger who died May 2.

Hantavirus is on the rise in Argentina

Many local public health researchers attribute the increase to the recently accelerating effects of climate change.

Higher temperatures expand the virus’ range because, in part, as it gets warmer and ecosystems change, rodents that carry the virus can thrive in more places, experts say.

“With the climate changing, the epidemiological picture has completely changed,” said Hugo Pizzi, a prominent Argentine infectious disease specialist. “The ship may be an isolated case. But this virus isn’t going anywhere.”

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After evacuating 3 patients, Cape Verde says its duties under international regulations are complete

The cruise ship has been cleared to continue its voyage and the three patients were evacuated from the country “with maximum safety,” National Director of Health Angela Gomes said in a statement Wednesday.

Cape Verde is a group of islands about 450 miles (725 kilometers) off the west coast of Africa.

WHO says the body of a dead passenger will remain on the ship

A German passenger’s body will be taken to Spain’s Canary Islands, where the cruise ship is set to be received, a World Health Organization official told the AP on Wednesday.

“The Cape Verdean authorities here could not take care of the body to cremate it. So it’s kept in a cold room and it’s going with the boat,” Ann Lindstrand, the WHO representative in Cape Verde, said.

The WHO has not yet verified if that passenger was a confirmed case of hantavirus.

WHO says confirmed cases rise to 5, including 2 passengers evacuated Wednesday

The World Health Organization had previously confirmed three cases and five suspected ones.

Ann Lindstrand, the WHO representative in Cape Verde, said in a phone interview that a sample from the third patient evacuated from the ship is still being checked.

“So far of all the cases related to this boat, the eight cases, we now have five confirmed with laboratory testing for Andes virus,” she said. “So it’s quite a lot.”

Health officials are tracking down dozens of people in South Africa who might’ve been near infected passengers

Two passengers left the cruise ship at different islands in the South Atlantic and traveled to South Africa. One has died and the other remains hospitalized.

Health officials in that country have identified 62 people — airplane passengers, airport workers, health workers, hospital cleaners, port of entry officials and others — who likely had contact with those two patients.

So far, officials have tracked down 42 of them, and none tested positive for hantavirus. However, some of the 20 people still being traced may have traveled to other countries, the health ministry said in a report.

Evacuation plane will stop to refuel in the Canary Islands

A plane evacuating two of the patients with suspected hantavirus infections from the cruise ship off Cape Verde is stopping at an airport in the Canary Islands to refuel, the Spanish health ministry said.

A flight tracker showed the small plane circling near the island of Gran Canaria where it is expected to make its short stop before continuing on to the Netherlands.

WHO confirms it’s the Andes type of hantavirus

Samples taken earlier from the patients now evacuated from the ship were examined and also confirmed to be the Andes type, the World Health Organization said at a briefing Wednesday.

The WHO says the Andes virus is found in South America, primarily in Argentina and Chile, and can spread between people, though that’s rare and only through close contact.

The cruise ship will be leaving Cape Verde in around two hours and has gotten medical reinforcement after its doctor became sick and was evacuated, Ann Lindstrand, WHO representative in Cape Verde, said at the briefing.

“One medical doctor from WHO ... will be taking care of patients if there will be more cases on board,” Lindstrand said.

‘This is not the next Covid’

The World Health Organization’s top epidemic expert told the AP that the risk to the public is low, and the Andes type of the hantavirus is known — even if the WHO has never seen a hantavirus outbreak on a ship.

“This is not the next Covid, but it is a serious infectious disease,” Maria Van Kerkhove said. “Most people will never be exposed to this.”

For those on the ship, access to clinical care is important, she said, because infected people can develop severe acute respiratory distress and need oxygen or mechanical ventilation. The hantavirus incubation period can be one to six weeks, or more, she added.

Investigators say a couple on cruise ship possibly got hantavirus while bird-watching in Argentina

Two Argentine officials investigating the origins of the hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship that sailed from southern Argentina say the government’s leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus during a bird-watching outing in the city of Ushuaia before boarding.

They said the couple visited a landfill during the bird-watching tour where they may have been exposed to rodents carrying the infection.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, with the investigation ongoing. Previously authorities said that Ushuaia and the surrounding province of Tierra del Fuego had never recorded a case of the hantavirus.

— By Isabel DeBre

Hondius cruise company confirms 3 patients have left the ship

Oceanwide Expeditions says they are being taken by specially equipped planes to “locations able to provide specialized care and appropriate medical screening.”

A Dutch hospital has confirmed it will take one of the people, and German authorities say they are preparing to pick up a second from the Netherlands.

The Dutch company says two of the people medically evacuated “remain in a serious condition.” The third has no symptoms but was “closely associated” with a passenger who died May 2.

The company also says that it is “expanding medical care on board with two infectious disease physicians, arriving today by plane from the Netherlands.”

A Dutch hospital is preparing to take one patient from Hondius

The Leiden University Medical Center says the department where the patient will be seen is well prepared.

In a statement posted on its website, the hospital said, “In addition to isolation rooms for patients, all protective equipment for our staff is available. Treatment takes place in strict isolation, following the applicable protocols. The LUMC has specialized isolation facilities."

It also seeks to reassure other visitors to the hospital, saying patients or visitors “run no risk of infection. You do not need to take any special measures. You can continue to visit as usual.”

Düsseldorf University Clinic to test person who came in contact with a hantavirus case on board

In Germany, the Düsseldorf University Clinic said that one of the three passengers who was evacuated from the ship and is being flown to the Netherlands, who was in contact with one of the hantavirus cases on board the ship, would be brought to the hospital for testing later Wednesday.

It said in a statement that the person would be brought to Düsseldorf from an unspecified Dutch airport with the help of specialists from the city’s fire service.

The hospital stressed that the patient is asymptomatic and that the testing is a precaution.

Spanish officials say the remaining passengers and crew members are all without symptoms

The arrival of the boat “won’t represent any risk for the public,” Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said.

She said that the boat will arrive at a secondary port on the island of Tenerife, which is located 10 minutes from an airport. From there, the roughly 140 passengers will be repatriated to their home countries.

García said that the operation to send the passengers and crew home will be overseen by the European Union’s civil protection program.

The 14 Spaniards who are on board will be flown by military plane to the mainland, where, if necessary, they will be kept in quarantine.

Canary Islands regional president warns of lack of protocol for receiving ship passengers

The regional president of Spain’s Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said Wednesday that the Hondius had requested permission for the ship to dock on the island of Tenerife on May 9.

Clavijo, however, expressed his surprise that the passengers were being forced “to travel for three days” instead of flying to their homes from the airport in Praia.

He also complained that central authorities in Madrid had not informed him of the details of the circumstances on board the vessel, a situation that limited local health officials’ ability to prepare for its arrival.

“We still don’t know the status of all the passengers,” he said. “There is no protocol for this.”

Evacuation plans are still unclear

Oceanwide Expeditions said Tuesday evening that two specialized aircraft were flying to Cape Verde to evacuate two people who need urgent medical care and one person who was traveling with a German woman who died on board Saturday. They were to be taken to the Netherlands, though exactly when that would happen was not immediately clear.

Once the medical evacuation happens, the ship plans to sail to the Canary Islands, either Gran Canaria or Tenerife, a voyage of some three days, the company said in its statement, adding that “discussions are ongoing with relevant authorities.”

Spanish health officials had said in an earlier statement that they were monitoring and that “the most appropriate port of call will be decided. Until then, the Ministry of Health will not adopt any decision, as we have informed the World Health Organization.”

An altered journey

The World Health Organization has said the ship had an itinerary that included stops across the South Atlantic Ocean, including mainland Antarctica and the remote islands of South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena and Ascension.

The cruise company has only announced some details of two stops: at St. Helena, where the body of the Dutch man suspected to be the first hantavirus case on board was taken off the ship. His wife also left the ship at St. Helena and flew to South Africa, where she died.

The company said a British man was later evacuated from the ship at Ascension Island and taken to South Africa, where he is in an intensive care unit.

The company has not said if other people left the cruise ship at those or other locations.

The cruise ship is waiting to sail to Spain

The cruise ship will be welcomed to Spain’s Canary Islands, according to Spanish authorities, as the vessel waited off the coast of West Africa for a third day Wednesday for sick passengers to be evacuated.

The regional president of Spain’s Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said Wednesday that he was worried the arrival of the ship could put the local population at risk and demanded an urgent meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

“Neither the populace nor the government of the Canary Islands can rest assured because it is clear that the danger to the population is real,” Clavijo told Onda Cero radio.

South African tests first confirm the Andes virus

South African health authorities said they identified the Andes strain of hantavirus in two passengers who were on the ship, and Swiss authorities said they identified the same virus in their affected patient.

The World Health Organization says the Andes virus, a specific species of hantavirus, is found in South America, primarily in Argentina and Chile.

The Andes virus can be spread between people, though this is rare and the spread of the disease is typically contained because it would spread only through close contact, such as by sharing a bed or sharing food, experts say.

The South African Department of Health said its results came from tests performed on the passengers after they were removed from the ship and flown to South Africa.

One of the passengers, a British man, is in intensive care in a South African hospital. Tests were performed on the other passenger posthumously after she died in South Africa.

3 patients evacuated from cruise ship with hantavirus outbreak, new case confirmed in Switzerland

The cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak and which is stuck off the coast of Cape Verde with nearly 150 people on board was waiting Wednesday to head to Spain’s Canary Islands. Meanwhile, health authorities in South Africa and Switzerland identified a strain of the virus that can be transmitted between humans in rare cases.

Three passengers have died and several others have been sickened by hantavirus on board the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius cruise ship. Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings.

The ship left Argentina on April 1 on an Atlantic cruise and was scheduled to include stops in Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and other locations. However, the itinerary appears to have changed because of the situation on board.

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said three patients with suspected hantavirus cases have been evacuated from the ship and are on their way to the Netherlands.

The deployment puts Europe’s most powerful warship closer to the strait whose effective closure has come to epitomize the war in Iran, stranding hundreds of ships and triggering what the International Energy Agency calls the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.

The defensive effort is distinct from the U.S. “Project Freedom” that launched Monday and was paused by President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening.

The repositioning of the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle and its escorts comes as part of a proposed mission championed by France and Britain to restore maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz as soon as conditions allow.

It "may help restore confidence among shipowners and insurers,” Macron said on X. “It remains distinct from the parties at war.”

Macron, who spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday, said he also intends to raise the matter with Trump.

“A return to calm in the Strait will help advance negotiations on nuclear issues, ballistic matters, and the regional situation,” Macron wrote. “Europeans… will play their part.”

Col. Guillaume Vernet, spokesperson for the French armed forces chief of staff, stressed that the Hormuz coalition — drawn up by France, Britain and more than 50 nations — will not begin operating until two thresholds are cleared: The threat to shipping must come down, and the maritime industry must be reassured enough to use the strait.

Even then, he told The Associated Press, any operation would require the agreement of neighboring countries. That would include Iran, which borders the strait and effectively closed it by attacking and threatening ships after the war began on Feb. 28 with attacks by the U.S. and Israel.

Vernet did not specify when the carrier would reach its destination. He said the carrier was being positioned to be close enough to act if and when the conditions are met: “The French position is the same since the beginning — defensive posture, respecting international law."

War-risk insurance premiums for transits of the strait have risen four to five times above preconflict levels, according to industry estimates.

For now, insurance premiums are so high that "not a single ship will jeopardize their trip or go there,” Vernet said.

Washington has not been part of the French-British planning, which observers have said echoes the European “coalition of the willing” that Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer assembled to support Ukraine.

“We want to send the message that not only are we ready to secure the Strait of Hormuz, but that we are also capable of doing so,” a French top official said, speaking anonymously in line with the French presidency’s customary practices.

Early in the war, France sought a multinational initiative to reestablish freedom of navigation in the strait. Macron and Starmer hosted dozens of countries at a Paris summit on April 17, and military planners from more than 30 nations later finalized operational details.

The Charles de Gaulle had been ordered from the Baltic to the eastern Mediterranean soon after the war began in what the French presidency described as an “unprecedented” mobilization that also includes eight frigates and two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships.

Meanwhile, French Rafale fighters based at Al Dhafra airbase in the United Arab Emirates have been intercepting Iranian drones and missiles over the Gulf state since the war began under a long-standing defense pact with Abu Dhabi that puts some 900 French personnel on the Gulf’s southern shore.

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Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

Las señales de “Calle cerrada” bloqueaban la entrada al edificio de oficinas corporativas que albergaba la sede de la aerolínea desde abril de 2024, en 1731 Radiant Drive.

Marco A. Salvino, Sr., vicealcalde de Dania Beach, dijo que Spirit Airlines aportó alrededor de 1,2 millones de dólares en impuestos sobre la propiedad y servicios públicos a Dania Beach.

“Es una gran pérdida para nuestra ciudad”, dijo Salvino.

Dania Pointe , un centro comercial vecino, se benefició de tener la sede de la aerolínea de ultra bajo coste a tan solo 5 minutos a pie .

“Esto afectará a los restaurantes”, dijo Salvino.

La anterior sede de Spirit Airlines estaba ubicada en 2800 Executive Way, en el Miramar Park of Commerce.

Con pérdidas superiores a los 2.500 millones de dólares desde 2020, las solicitudes de quiebra se presentaron en 2024 y 2025, y el cierre se produjo el sábado después de que fracasara un rescate gubernamental de última hora de 500 millones de dólares.

“Tenemos 18.000 personas que viven en este país que son personas estupendas y excelentes empleados”, dijo el presidente Donald Trump sobre los empleados de Spirit Airlines en todo el país el 23 de abril en la Casa Blanca.

Trump y el secretario de Transporte, Sean Duffy, criticaron al gobierno del expresidente Joe Biden por bloquear la venta de Spirit Airlines a JetBlue por 3.800 millones de dólares en 2024.

Spirit Airlines presentó el lunes los avisos de despido ante FloridaCommerce , la principal agencia estatal encargada de la gestión laboral. Se registraron más de 3260 despidos en los condados de Broward y Miami-Dade.

Los registros muestran que el aviso incluía 2.529 casos en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood y 181 en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami.

Los otros fueron el vuelo 796 en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Orlando y el vuelo 796 en el Centro de Operaciones y Control de Tráfico Aéreo de MCO en Orlando.

Documento relacionado: Aviso de despido (del 2 al 13 de mayo)

Enlace útil : Spirit Airlines lanza una página de reestructuración.

Historias relacionadas

• Spirit Airlines informa de más de 4.850 despidos en Florida.
• Mientras aún visten los uniformes de Spirit Airlines, los solicitantes de empleo comienzan a pedir ayuda.
• Ex empleados desempleados de Spirit Airlines marchan en Dania Beach.
• Spirit Airlines pide a los pasajeros que no acudan al aeropuerto, o de lo contrario, no se realizarán cambios de reserva.

Próximas ferias de empleo

La feria de empleo del sector de la hostelería se celebrará el miércoles de 10:00 a 12:00 en CareerSource Broward, ubicada en 2550 West Oakland Park Boulevard. La entrada y el estacionamiento son gratuitos.

Miramar organiza una feria de empleo el 20 de mayo, de 10:00 a 14:00, en el Centro Cultural de Miramar, ubicado en 2400 Civic Center Place. La entrada y el estacionamiento son gratuitos. Para más información, visite la página de Eventbrite .

La Feria y Exposición de Empleo de Port Everglades se llevará a cabo el 27 de mayo de 9:00 a 13:00 en el Centro de Convenciones del Condado de Broward, ubicado en 1950 Eisenhower Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale. La entrada y el estacionamiento son gratuitos. Aquí encontrará una lista de las empresas participantes >

Recursos

• Departamento de Trabajo: Los servicios de respuesta rápida incluyen orientación sobre la cobertura de continuación de COBRA.
• American Airlines lanza la página de empleo “Supporting Spirit”.
• United Airlines lanza un programa para dar prioridad a los exempleados de Spirit Airlines en sus contrataciones. Aquí está la página de empleo >
• Southwest Airlines estaba reclutando en esta página .
• Página de empleos de JetBlue
• JetBlue anunció una extensión del “acuerdo de asientos auxiliares durante las próximas dos semanas, sujeto a la disponibilidad de espacio y limitado a los asientos de cabina” para aquellos que quedaron varados mientras trabajaban para Spirit Airlines, y también anunció “entrevistas de empleo preferenciales”.
• Delta publica un comunicado de ayuda
• Para obtener más información sobre la ayuda que ofrece la Asociación de Auxiliares de Vuelo , llame al 1-800-385-3920.
• CareerSource Broward ofrece servicios como colocación laboral y orientación profesional en tres centros ubicados en 4941 Coconut Creek Parkway, 2550 West Oakland Park Boulevard y 7550 Davie Road Extension en Hollywood.
• Employ Miami-Dade ofrece servicios para quienes buscan empleo .
• CareerOneStop tiene una base de datos de centros de empleo.
• Para presentar una solicitud de beneficios por desempleo en Florida, llame al 1-800-204-2418 o visite esta página .
• Encuentra tu banco de alimentos local en esta página de Feeding America.

Lo que antes se consideraba un pasatiempo transmitido de generación en generación ahora está teniendo un resurgimiento claramente moderno, impulsado por las redes sociales, la fascinación de celebridades y un creciente apetito local por la conexión en persona.

Clubes de mahjong están surgiendo en todo el sur de Florida y Mahjong Club Miami está organizando lecciones semanales con llenos totales y eventos sociales de juego.

El club comenzó con algo mucho más pequeño: un pequeño grupo de amigos jugando por diversión. El grupo de cinco se reunía semanalmente, rotando de casa en casa para encuentros íntimos de mahjong hasta que la noticia se difundió demasiado.

“La gente quería venir a jugar con nosotros en nuestra casa”, dijo la cofundadora Gabriela Leon. “Así que empezó a hacerse cada vez más grande y más grande hasta que un día dijimos: ‘No, esperen, no podemos invitar a más personas aquí. No podemos’”.

Leon dijo que su propia curiosidad por el mahjong surgió hace años por un momento memorable de la cultura pop: la dramática escena final de la película de 2018 “Crazy Rich Asians”, en la que el juego ocupa un lugar central.

Aprendió a jugar, enseñó a sus amigos y en poco tiempo, las pequeñas reuniones en casa se convirtieron en algo mucho más grande.

A través del boca a boca y las redes sociales, los amigos se convirtieron en instructores, atrayendo a recién llegados de todo el sur de Florida que querían aprender el juego y unirse a la creciente comunidad que lo rodea.

“No estamos en nuestros teléfonos”, dijo Leon. “Simplemente estamos conectando con las personas con las que estamos, así que se trata de comunidad”.

Asistimos al evento de Mahjong Club Miami en Ironside Cafe Bistro, que se ha convertido en un importante punto de encuentro en el sur de Florida para reuniones sociales de todo tipo, desde clubes de ajedrez y noches de juegos hasta eventos sociales de mercado público. Puede verlos en Instagram haciendo clic aquí.

El mahjong combina memoria, estrategia y velocidad, a menudo descrito por los entusiastas como una mezcla de ajedrez, póker, dominó y rummy.

Pero para muchos jugadores, el atractivo va más allá de las fichas.

A medida que los clubes de mahjong, eventos temáticos y lecciones para principiantes continúan multiplicándose en todo el país, el juego se ha convertido tanto en una salida social como en un símbolo de estatus, en partes iguales tradición, competencia e iniciador de conversaciones.

En el sur de Florida, eso significa una cosa está clara: el juego más antiguo en la sala podría ser la obsesión más nueva.

Para enviar una idea para What Connects Us, envíe un correo electrónico a whatconnectsus@wplg.com.

Leer en español

What was once considered a pastime passed down through generations is now having a distinctly modern revival, fueled by social media, celebrity fascination and a booming local appetite for in-person connection.

Mahjong clubs are popping up across South Florida and Mahjong Club Miami is hosting packed lessons weekly and social play events.

The club started with something much smaller: a small group of friends playing for fun. The group of five met weekly, rotating home to home for intimate Mahjong meetups until word spread too far.

“People wanted to come play with us at our house,” said co-founder Gabriela Leon. “So it started to become bigger and bigger and bigger until one day we were like, ‘No wait, we cannot invite more people here. We cannot.’”

Leon said her own curiosity about mahjong was sparked years ago by a memorable pop culture moment - the dramatic closing scene of the 2018 film “Crazy Rich Asians,” in which the game takes center stage.

She learned to play, taught her friends, and before long, the small home gatherings turned into something much larger.

By way of word-of-mouth and social media, the friends became instructors, attracting newcomers from across South Florida who wanted to learn the game and join the growing community surrounding it.

“We’re not on our phones,” Leon said. “We’re just connecting with the people we are with, so it’s about community.”

We attended the Mahjong Club Miami event at Ironside Cafe Bistro, which has become a major south Florida hub for social gatherings of all kinds — from chess clubs and game nights to public market socials. You can check them out on Instagram by clicking here.

Mahjong blends memory, strategy and speed — often described by enthusiasts as a mix of chess, poker, dominoes and rummy.

But for many players, the draw goes beyond the tiles.

As mahjong clubs, themed events and beginner lessons continue multiplying nationwide, the game has become both social outlet and status symbol — equal parts tradition, competition and conversation starter.

In South Florida, that means one thing is clear: The oldest game in the room may just be the newest obsession.

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

By Mother’s Day weekend we will introduce a stray shower or two into the forecast, but nothing widespread. Most of the weekend looks hot and dry. A higher chance for pop up thunderstorms holds off until Monday and Tuesday.

En el condado Miami-Dade, Wynwood Marketplace se convirtió en una gran fiesta callejera el martes.

Desde tacos hasta música en vivo y calles llenas, la fiesta estaba en pleno apogeo por la tarde.

El reportero de Local 10 News, Jason Carter, estuvo allí para toda la diversión, y su informe completo se puede ver en la parte superior de esta página.

Leer en español

In Miami-Dade County, Wynwood Marketplace turned into one big street party Tuesday.

From tacos to live music and packed streets, the fiesta was in full swing by the afternoon.

Local 10 News’ Jason Carter was there for all the fun, and his full report can be seen at the top of this page.

Electricity from solar and wind energy can power cars, however ships and aircraft largely run on liquid fuels made with a large percentage of oil or gasoline. When burned, those emit carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes global warming. Biofuel, refined from organic material like plants or algae, is a potential option to change the fuel makeup.

One kind of biofuel comes from kelp. Through a process that uses heat and pressure to produce fuel, known as hydrothermal liquefaction, this humble seaweed could power ships and aircraft without any petroleum.

“We need other sources of energy that are sustainable, we can’t just rely on petroleum,” said Scott Lindell, a marine scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution about a 90-minute drive south of Boston. “There’s hardly anything simpler, or anything that grows quite as fast and as sustainably, as seaweed.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is a collaboration between the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing and The Associated Press.

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Existing biofuels, like corn-derived ethanol, primarily work as gasoline additives. Corn crops require agricultural land, fresh water and pesticides while kelp, by contrast, can be grown in the ocean with minimal resources.

Although any bioethanol — whether produced from corn or kelp — releases hazardous gases when burned, such as acetaldehyde, these fuels produce fewer greenhouse gases overall compared to petroleum-based fuels.

Researchers like Lindell have successfully bred kelp varieties that in some cases produce up to three times more biomass than conventional strains. Yet energy companies are hesitant to invest in large-scale aquaculture projects without demonstrated demand, and farmers are reluctant to scale up without a guaranteed buyer, forming a circular problem that has slowed industry development.

Government interest in biofuels is inconsistent

Aquaculture farms today remain small, supplying kelp primarily to restaurants, cosmetics companies and fertilizer producers. Hauke Kite-Powell, an engineer and economic analyst at Woods Hole, said scaling kelp production to support a biofuel economy would require sustained government support, beyond just the private sector.

While oil price volatility, driven in part by international conflicts such as the war in Iran, has led to bursts of renewed interest in energy independence, government support for options like biofuel fluctuates in the United States. In 2016, a program run by the Department of Energy set out to develop tools for kelp-based biofuel production.

The program, known as MARINER — Macroalgae Research Inspiring Novel Energy Resources — consisted of projects ranging from developing heat-resistant kelp strains that can withstand warming oceans to studies on seaweed genomes. The Department of Energy often backs exploratory, high-risk high-return projects, and researchers involved in MARINER said they made progress, such as increasing kelp yields.

The program mirrored a similar feasibility-testing venture that began in the 1970s, which was swiftly terminated once oil prices stabilized. Lindell’s lab, funded by MARINER, focused on improving crop yield by selectively breeding kelp with desirable qualities — such as nonreproductive capabilities to prevent interbreeding with wild kelp — so that, down the line, farmers could scale up their kelp production.

Lindell’s MARINER funding lasted six years, finishing in 2024. Since then, federal research funding opportunities have been fewer and delayed. But the urgent need for sustainable energy remains, he said. “I don’t think things have changed incredibly since the first oil crisis.”

A middle market for kelp has yet to materialize

Farmers note the difficulties of finding consistent kelp buyers. Oliver Dixon, a shellfish farmer based in Point Judith, Rhode Island, grows kelp to supplement his oyster business during the winter. As of this month, he expects to harvest about 10,000 pounds (4,500 kilograms) of kelp, selling most of it to local restaurants and seafood markets.

“The buyers come in and out, it’s pretty discouraging,” Dixon said. His 9-acre (3.6-hectare) farm is hundreds of times smaller than what would be needed to produce biofuel, and without proven demand from the energy sector, he has no plans to expand.

Bren Smith, an ocean farmer and co-founder of GreenWave, a nonprofit supporting ocean farmers, argues that the issue isn’t a lack of demand, but instead where kelp makes sense economically: Kelp is currently more viable in products like cosmetics or food, rather than fuel, which remains one of its lowest-value uses.

“We’ve made this mistake before, right?” Smith said, referring to large-scale investments in kelp research focused on fuel production instead of the seaweed's myriad other uses. “Competing with the most technically advanced, subsidized industry on the globe, the fossil fuel industry.”

Red tape slows expansion, but researchers bet on the long game

Even with a guaranteed buyer, expanding kelp farming would face regulatory hurdles, according to Kite-Powell. In the United States, coastal waters are largely prioritized for recreation, fishing and conservation, making it difficult to obtain permits for large aquaculture projects. By contrast, countries in Asia often prioritize extensive seaweed farms, sometimes covering entire bays.

For now, most U.S. farms remain small and nearshore. Dixon said that he cannot obtain a permit to keep his farm infrastructure in the water year-round, requiring him to remove his lines and anchors each spring and reinstall them in the fall.

Moving farms further offshore could allow for larger operations, but it introduces engineering and environmental challenges, including the risk of entangling marine animals and the possibility that farmed kelp could compete with other marine life for nutrients.

“We don’t yet have a full understanding of what all the ecological side effects of very large-scale ocean farming might be,” Kite-Powell said.

Even so, scientists like Lindell remain confident that their work will be applied to a biofuel industry in the future. Around Lindell’s lab are glass vials and flasks of over 2,600 strains of sugar kelp collected from across New England, which he continues to study and breed selectively in hopes of the energy industry transitioning to renewable sources. To him, volatile fuel prices and the finite nature of resources like oil point to an eventual change.

“We’ll come to the realization that things have shifted in the marketplace,” Lindell said, “and we can’t squeeze any more oil out of the earth in 30 years' time.”

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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.

The results will likely bolster Trump’s confidence heading into upcoming Republican primaries where he wants to help oust more incumbents, including U.S Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

Indiana's primary also ratchets up the pressure on Republican lawmakers in other states to move aggressively to redraw congressional district boundaries before the November elections. Alabama and Tennessee have already begun special sessions that could limit Black voters’ strength in Democratic-leaning districts, and some of Trump’s allies in South Carolina want to follow suit.

The results were a clear signal that despite Trump's lame duck status, sagging poll numbers and difficult prospects in the November elections, his decade-long dominance over the Republican Party remains unrivaled.

State Sen. Linda Rogers, one of the Indiana lawmakers who voted against redistricting and lost her seat Tuesday, said the outcome “will probably discourage others in other states."

“If someone is going to ask you to take a tough vote, you may think twice about your conscience and what’s best for your community and instead what’s best for you and your career," she said.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, who sided with Trump, said it was a “historic night” and he thanked Republican voters who “stood with me and President Trump to nominate some great America First conservatives.”

Trump started the redistricting competition

Redistricting efforts began last year when Trump saw an opportunity to give Republicans an additional edge. Indiana stood out as a Republican-run state that declined to give Trump what he wanted, even as GOP- and Democratic-led states traded gerrymandering maneuvers in a national competition.

After the Indiana Senate rejected the redistricting plan in December, Trump pledged to punish defiant lawmakers. His allies spent more than $8.3 million on races that usually see very little spending.

Andy Zay, a state senator who voted for redistricting, resigned in January to become chair of a state utility commission. He was a target of harassment and threats in the months leading up to the vote, and he said Trump's influence and heavy spending made it tough for incumbents to hang on in the primaries.

“Trump matters and money matters,” he said.

Five of Trump's targets lost their races. One won. One race was too close to call.

Trump allies celebrated the results and warned other Republicans who might be thinking of opposing the president

“Redistrict ASAP for the November election or you face a real risk of losing your seat. No excuses,” Robby Starbuck, a conservative activist, wrote on social media. “Reschedule primaries if you must but redraw the map. Voters demand action NOW, not weakness.”

Redistricting efforts were supercharged last week when the U.S. Supreme Court gutted a provision of the Voting Rights Act that influenced how political lines are drawn in areas with large nonwhite populations.

James Blair, one of Trump’s top political advisers, was more direct, posting an image from the movie “Gladiator” depicting Russell Crowe’s ancient Roman character Maximus exulting after a combat victory.

In Congress, Massie and Cassidy have stood up to Trump

Trump was relatively restrained on social media. He shared a series of photos celebrating the victories of candidates he endorsed in Indiana and Ohio, which also held primaries Tuesday. But he otherwise passed on boasting or renewing his attacks on Massie or Cassidy.

Massie has been among the members of Congress who frustrated the president by pressing for release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files, challenging Trump for taking military action in Iran without congressional approval and voting against the party's sweeping tax-and-budget bill last year.

“I vote with the Republican Party and this president 90% of the time, and the 10% of the time that I’m not voting with the party or the president, I’m keeping the promises that the president and I campaigned on,” Massie recently told Kentucky's PBS affiliate.

Explaining his vote against Trump's signature domestic achievement, Massie called it “a big spending bill” and said he has voted consistently “not to bankrupt this country.”

Trump has endorsed Massie's challenger, retired Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, and campaigned for him before the May 19 primary. In Louisiana, Trump backs Rep. Julie Letlow over Cassidy in their May 16 primary, which includes other candidates.

Cassidy was among the Republican senators who voted to convict Trump on 2021 impeachment charges after the Jan. 6 riot. But he also has given Trump consistent support. Most notably, the Baton Rouge physician advanced Robert Kennedy Jr.'s controversial nomination as Trump's health secretary.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., noted Wednesday that Trump has gone after Massie before, only for the congressman to win reelection.

“Thomas Massie has been very popular in his district,” McCarthy said during a “Fox & Friends” interview. Still, he warned, it is not an ideal situation for any Republican to run without Trump's backing.

“I would not want President Trump against me in any election,” McCarthy said, calling Trump's influence with Republican primary voters unprecedented.

Indiana shows how far Trump will go to purge GOP

It is unusual for a sitting president to be focused on attacking and defeating his own party members this deep into a midterm election year.

Rogers, the Indiana state senator, faced almost $670,000 in television advertising against her, funded by political action committees associated with Braun and U.S. Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind.

She said she does not regret her vote against redistricting.

"It would have been easy for me to hit that ‘yes’ button,” she said. “To hear the number of people who asked me not to, then the number of people who thanked me, would mean I wasn’t representing them.”

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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa, and Barrow from Atlanta.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that Andy Zay, while in the Indiana state Senate, had voted for redistricting.

The attack occurred as Iran and the U.S. are officially in a ceasefire and as the two countries seemed to be approaching an agreement to end the war. U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Iran with a new wave of bombing if a deal is not reached that includes opening the critical Strait of Hormuz.

Trump posted on social media Wednesday that the two-month war could soon end and that oil and natural gas shipments disrupted by the conflict could restart. But he said that depends on Iran accepting a reported agreement that the president did not detail.

“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts,” Trump wrote.

Israel, meanwhile, struck Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time since a ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group was announced on April 17. Fighting has continued since then in southern Lebanon. A statement released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday’s strike, which came without warning, targeted a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force.

The Latest:

Iran’s foreign ministry says Tehran is still examining the latest US ceasefire proposal

The ministry’s spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told state media Wednesday that Iran had already “strongly rejected” proposals that the Axios news outlet reported the US had put forward for the agreement with Iran.

Axios had reported earlier that the deal included Iran agreeing to a moratorium on nuclear enrichment.

Israel strikes Beirut suburbs for first time since ceasefire was announced

Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs Wednesday for the first time since a ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group was announced on April 17.

Fighting has continued since then in southern Lebanon.

The last attacks in Beirut were before that, on April 8, when a series of massive Israeli strikes, including in central Beirut, killed more than 350 people.

A statement released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday’s strike, which came without warning, targeted a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force. Hezbollah did not immediately comment.

US military fires on Iranian-flagged oil tanker in Gulf of Oman

An American fighter jet shot out the rudder of an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday as it tried to breach the U.S. blockade of Iran’s ports, the American military said in a social media post.

The attack occurred as Iran and the U.S. are officially in a ceasefire and as the two countries appear to be moving closer to an initial agreement to end the war. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to pressure Tehran with threats of a new wave of bombing if a deal is not reached.

American forces issued multiple warnings and informed the ship it was violating the blockade, U.S. Central Command said in its post.

Trump says question is whether Iran can make a deal ‘that’s satisfactory to us’

The president insisted that Iranian officials want an agreement to end the war, suggesting as he did previously over social media that U.S. actions could ultimately force a settlement.

“We’re dealing with people that want to make a deal very much, and we’ll see whether or not they can make a deal that’s satisfactory to us,” Trump said at a Mother’s Day lunch at the White House.

The president added: “And if they don’t agree, they’ll end up agreeing shortly thereafter.”

Trump called the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz a “wall of steel,” as both countries jockey to use the stoppage in oil and natural gas shipments as a way to pressure the other side.

AP source: Office of Virginia Senate leader searched by FBI as part of corruption probe

The FBI searched the Virginia state Senate leader’s office on Wednesday as part of a corruption investigation, a person familiar with the matter said.

The search at Virginia Sen. L. Louise Lucas’s district office in Portsmouth comes after the Democrat helped lead the state’s recent redistricting effort.

The FBI said only that it was conducting a court-authorized search warrant in Portsmouth. The person who confirmed the FBI’s search was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

A message seeking comment was left on a cellphone for Lucas.

Amid a national, state-by-state partisan redistricting fight, Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment on April 21 authorizing new U.S. House districts. Backed by Democrats, the plan could help the party win up to four additional seats.

Lucas has been a vocal leader of the effort.

The state Supreme Court let the referendum proceed but has yet to rule whether the effort is legal. The court is considering an appeal of a lower court judge’s ruling that the amendment is invalid because lawmakers violated procedural requirements.

—By Eric Tucker and Jennifer Peltz

UAE urges UN to take action against Iran if it keeps blocking shipping and attacking neighbors

Mohamed Abushahab, the United Arab Emirates’ U.N. ambassador, said the Security Council must “compel Iran’s compliance” with its March resolution demanding that Tehran stop attacking its Gulf neighbors and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

He told reporters Wednesday that Iran attacked the UAE on May 4 -- while a ceasefire is in place -- with 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and four drones which resulted in a fire on critical energy infrastructure in the Fujairah oil industry zone.

The United States and its Gulf allies including the UAE have circulated a new Security Council resolution threatening Iran with sanctions or other measures if it doesn’t stop attacks and open the critically important strait, where about 20% of the world’s crude oil had transited.

The proposed resolution was drafted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter which can be enforced militarily. A watered-down resolution aimed at opening the Strait of Hormuz, which was stripped of Chapter 7 language, was vetoed by Russia and China hours before Washington and Tehran announced a temporary ceasefire in early April.

The UAE’s Abushahab was asked whether he thought Russia and China would agree to the new draft under Chapter 7. “Not only is it possible, but it’s necessary,” he replied.

GOP chair of oversight panel says Lutnick was not ‘truthful’ about Epstein ties

Rep. James Comer, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, told reporters as he entered the closed-door interview that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had in the past not been “100% truthful” about whether he had ever visited Epstein’s infamous private island.

Lutnick said on a podcast last year that he had decided to “never be in the room” with Epstein following a 2005 tour of Epstein’s home that disturbed Lutnick and his wife. But the release of case files on Epstein showed that Lutnick had kept in contact with Epstein and met up with him a couple of times in 2011 and 2012.

Under questioning from Democrats during an unrelated hearing earlier this year, Lutnick said he had visited Epstein’s private island with his family in 2012 for lunch.

AP-NORC poll: Many Americans have conflicting views on birthright citizenship

This poll comes as the Supreme Court weighs President Trump’s efforts to restrict birthright citizenship.

The AP-NORC poll finds about two-thirds of U.S. adults say automatic citizenship should be granted to all children born in the country. Most Democrats and independents back that view, but Republicans are more doubtful: just 44% support birthright citizenship.

The poll also shows that some people are conflicted, saying in general that they support birthright citizenship but also that they oppose it in some specific circumstances.

For instance, the poll found about three-quarters of U.S. adults say they support automatic citizenship for children born to parents who are in the country legally on work visas, while only about half support it for those born to parents who are in the country illegally.

Trump’s commerce secretary arrives for interview in congressional Epstein investigation

Howard Lutnick is answering questions from House lawmakers today about his relationship with his former neighbor, Jeffrey Epstein.

The commerce secretary is the highest-ranking official in the Trump administration, besides Trump himself, to appear in the Epstein case files.

Lutnick has said he barely knew Epstein and has welcomed the closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee, but his story on his interactions with Epstein has changed. He met with Epstein a couple times and exchanged emails with the financier, even after Epstein’s 2008 conviction in Florida for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

French navy moving to support shipping through the strait

France’s aircraft carrier strike group is moving south of the Suez Canal and into the Red Sea in preparation for a potential future mission as part of a French-British plan for the Strait of Hormuz, a senior French military spokesman told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The repositioning of the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle puts France’s only carrier closer to the Persian Gulf chokepoint where Iran has effectively halted commercial traffic since early March. The French effort is distinct from the U.S. “Project Freedom” mission launched Sunday and paused by Trump on Tuesday evening.

“Going south of Suez is new for us,” said Col. Guillaume Vernet, spokesman for the French armed forces chief of staff.

The wider Hormuz coalition — drawn up by France, Britain and more than 50 nations — will not begin operating until the threat to shipping eases and the maritime industry is reassured enough to use the strait, Vernet said, adding that any operation would also require the agreement of neighboring countries.

An attack damaged a French-operated cargo ship and injured its crew, company says

A cargo container ship operated by the CMA CGM Group was damaged when it came under attack while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, the French shipping company said Wednesday.

Multiple crew members were injured in the attack on the CMA CGM San Antonio, the company said without providing details. The injured crew were taken off the ship and are receiving medical treatment.

Trump is going to Beijing. Iran’s foreign minister got there ahead of him

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s visit comes ahead of Trump’s planned high-profile summit on May 14 and 15 with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first such trip by a U.S. president since Trump visited in 2017.

In a televised interview Wednesday with Iran’s state media from Beijing, Araghchi said his discussions with Chinese officials included the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions imposed on Tehran. And he said Iran has attained “an elevated international standing,” having proven its capabilities and strength.

China’s Foreign Ministry said after the meeting that it values Iran’s pledge not to pursue nuclear weapons while affirming its “legitimate right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had expressed hope on Tuesday Beijing would reiterate the need for Iran to release its chokehold on the strait, its main source of leverage, as Trump demands a major rollback of its disputed nuclear program.

Trump’s Indiana wins show his power over GOP with more primaries and redistricting debates ahead

Five months ago, Trump was stinging from a political defeat as Republican state senators defied him on redistricting in Indiana. Now he has proved he can still punish wayward party members after the slate of challengers he endorsed defeated almost every one of those lawmakers.

The results will likely bolster Trump’s confidence heading into upcoming Republican primaries where he wants more incumbents ousted, including Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

Indiana’s primary results also ratchet up pressure on Republican lawmakers in other states to move aggressively to redraw congressional district boundaries in time for the November elections.

▶ Read more

Shipper either loses millions or risks sanctions for paying Iranians for safe passage

Hamburg-based shipping company Hapag-Lloyd says the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is costing it around $60 million a week, in particular in costs for fuel and insurance, as it remains too risky to permit its ships to try getting through.

Insurance costs have shot up due to the risk of attack from Iranian drones and small boats. Alternate routes to safe harbors or overland are “limited in capacity and cannot completely replace the regular maritime routes through the region,” a company statement said.

The number of ships passing the strait has dwindled to a trickle. Iran has demanded that vessels go through a vetting process run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp that involves passing to the north near the Iranian cost, submitting information on crew and cargo, and in some cases paying. But paying the IRGC risks running afoul of sanctions from the US and the EU, which have designated it a terrorist organization.

Shipping industry and oil traders see no quick return to normal

Oil prices and shipping are unlikely to return to normal until it’s clear the risk of attacks in the Strait of Hormuz have receded, cautions Kaho Yu, head of energy and resources resources at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

“Even with diplomatic engagement continuing, energy markets are unlikely to return quickly to pre-crisis assumptions,” he said. “Refiners, shippers, and commodity traders will remain cautious until there is clearer evidence that Hormuz disruptions will not re-escalate.”

Despite the Iran-China meeting’s emphasis on de-escalation, “Hormuz remains the real metric that will be watched,” he added. “Tanker traffic and energy flows over the coming weeks and months are likely to matter more than diplomatic language in assessing whether Beijing can translate influence with Tehran into practical stability.”

Poll: Most believe the US is no longer a great place for immigrants

About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say the United States is no longer a great place for immigrants, according to the AP-NORC poll.

Roughly 3 in 10 say the U.S. is a great place for immigrants, while about 1 in 10 say it never was. The belief that America is no longer great for immigrants is more common among Democrats and independents.

Nick Grivas, a 40-year-old Democrat from Massachusetts, said he worries that federal immigration policies could discourage new arrivals from investing in their communities, especially if they don’t believe they will be allowed to remain.

“You’re less willing to commit to the project if you don’t think that you’re gonna be able to stay,” he said.

White House says it believes an agreement with Iran is near

The White House believes it is nearing an agreement with Iran on a one-page memorandum to end the war, according to reporting by Axios.

There is not an agreement yet, but the provisions include a moratorium on Iranian uranium enrichment, a lifting of U.S. sanctions and the distribution of frozen Iranian funds and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz for ships.

The White House did not respond to questions about the possible agreement.

Trump threatens Iran with bombing if it doesn’t reopen Strait of Hormuz

Trump posted on social media that the war with Iran could soon end and oil and natural gas shipments could restart. But that all depends on Iran accepting a reported agreement that the U.S. president did not detail.

“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before,” Trump said.

Trump said that it was “perhaps a big assumption” that Iran would agree to the terms being offered by the United States.

AP-NORC poll: For many Americans, Trump’s immigration crackdown is personal

Many U.S. adults say they or someone they know has made life changes because of immigration enforcement over the last year, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

About one-third of Americans say they know someone who has started carrying proof of their immigration status or U.S. citizenship, been detained or deported, changed their travel plans, or significantly changed their routines – such as avoiding work, school or leaving the house – because of their immigration status.

This is especially true among Hispanic adults, with more than half knowing someone affected. Democrats are also more likely than Republicans to say they have a personal connection to someone impacted by immigration enforcement.

China’s top envoy calls for a ‘comprehensive ceasefire’ in the Iran war

Wang Yi said his country was “deeply distressed” by the conflict. He spoke after meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was visiting Beijing for the first time since the war with the U.S. and Israel started Feb. 28.

China’s close economic and political ties to Tehran give it a unique position of influence. The Trump administration is pressing China to use that relationship to urge the Islamic Republic to open the Strait of Hormuz.

The Chinese minister’s comments followed an earlier statement by Trump that he was pausing his short-lived U.S. effort to guide stranded commercial vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz in hopes that a deal could be finalized. A shaky ceasefire has been largely holding, despite exchanges of fire during the U.S. push to reopen the strait on Monday.

Michigan Democrats keep their majority in the state Senate

The seat has been vacant for more than a year, since Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet resigned to take a seat in Congress.

Democrats are showing surprising strength in special elections and off-year contests across the country, winning races in unexpected places and significantly narrowing the gap, even when they fall short.

There’s no guarantee the trend will continue through the midterms, when turnout will be much higher, but it has nonetheless energized Democrats and spooked Republicans worried about keeping their congressional majorities.

Trump’s influence on the Republican Party remains strong

Trump took aim at seven Republican state senators in Indiana who opposed his plan to redraw congressional district boundaries to help the party gain seats in the U.S. House. His intervention mostly paid off.

Groups allied with the president spent more than $8.3 million on advertising, an extraordinary surge of money into races that are typically low-profile.

Five Trump-backed challengers won. One incumbent won. A seventh contest was too close to call on Tuesday night.

The races were a test of Trump’s enduring grip over his party as Republicans grow increasingly anxious about the midterm elections.

By winning most of them, Trump sent a signal to Republicans everywhere that they can still get thrown out of office if they distance themselves from him even as his popularity fades. And they show the president that he can still credibly threaten consequences for Republicans who cross him.

The Trump-targeted state senators all represent districts he carried in 2024, mostly by 20 percentage points or more.

Takeaways from Indiana, Ohio and Michigan: Trump’s flex pays off and Democrats win special election

Elections in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan on Tuesday reinforced a picture that’s becoming increasingly clear — while President Donald Trump still dominates the Republican Party, Democrats seem to have the momentum ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The biggest test of Trump’s power came in Indiana, where he backed primary challenges against seven Republican state senators who rejected his redistricting plan in December. Five of the president’s candidates won with the help of an avalanche of cash.

Meanwhile in Michigan, a Democrat comfortably won a state Senate race in a bellwether district, the latest in a string of special election victories.

Over in Ohio, primaries locked in candidates for two major races with national implications.

▶ Read more

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This version updates to correct that a cargo container ship operated by the CMA CGM Group was damaged.

The International Court of Justice is holding a week of hearings between the South American neighbors who both lay claim to the Essequibo region, which is rich in gold, diamonds, timber and other natural resources and is located close to massive offshore oil deposits.

An 1899 decision by arbitrators from Britain, Russia and the United States drew the border along the Essequibo River largely in favor of Guyana. The U.S. represented Venezuela in part because the Venezuelan government had broken off diplomatic relations with Britain. Venezuela contends that the Americans and Europeans conspired to cheat the country out of its rightfully owned land.

Venezuela has considered Essequibo as its own since the Spanish colonial period when the jungle-draped region was within its boundaries. The country argues a 1966 agreement sealed in Geneva to resolve the dispute effectively nullified the 19th-century arbitration.

“Guyana presents itself as the true, legitimate heir to British and Dutch territories, but the reality is that it is the beneficiary of colonial dispossession, formalized through fraudulent arbitration. The Geneva Agreement seeks to correct this century-old injustice,” Venezuela's representative, Samuel Reinaldo Moncada Acosta, told the world court.

He said that Venezuela rejects the court's jurisdiction that was “erroneously imposed” in a 2020 decision and said the 1966 agreement “establishes a framework” for a negotiated resolution.

As hearings opened Monday, Guyana's foreign minister, Hugh Hilton Todd, told the panel of international judges that the dispute “has been a blight on our existence as a sovereign state from the very beginning.” He said that 70% of Guyana's territory is at stake.

The court, based in The Hague, is likely to take months to issue a final and legally binding ruling in the case.

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This story has been corrected to show that the first name of Guyana’s foreign minister is Hugh, not High.

Lutnick, a member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet, is the latest powerful political figure to appear before the House Oversight Committee. He has previously given contradictory statements about his relationship with Epstein, but he said he has done nothing wrong and welcomed the closed-door interview with lawmakers.

The transcribed interview is a test of how much scrutiny lawmakers will apply to powerful men who kept company with Epstein even after his conviction. Trump's administration has tried unsuccessfully for more than a year to move past the issue.

“I’ve been on the Oversight Committee 10 years, and there’s never been a chairman bring in Cabinet secretaries of their own party,” said the committee head, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, before the interview. “Our goal is to provide justice for the victims and hopefully today will be helpful."

Lutnick is the highest-ranked administration official, besides Trump, to be named in the Epstein case files. The Republican president has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and has said he ended their relationship years ago.

Several Democrats have called for Lutnick to resign. A few Republicans, including Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, have said he should at least testify before the committee.

Lutnick has played down his ties to Epstein, who was once his neighbor in New York City. Under questioning from Democrats during an unrelated hearing earlier this year, Lutnick described their contact as a handful of emails and a pair of meetings in 2011 and 2012.

But that admission came after he had previously claimed on a podcast last year that he had decided to “never be in the room” with Epstein after a 2005 tour of Epstein’s home that disturbed Lutnick and his wife.

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state sex offense charges in Florida, including soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

“I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with him,” Lutnick told senators in February when he was asked about Epstein during a subcommittee hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

But Lutnick, who was previously the head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, actually had an hourlong engagement at Epstein’s home in 2011. His family then visited Epstein’s private island in 2012 for lunch.

The federal release of case files on Epstein also showed that the two had kept in contact through email. Lutnick in 2018 emailed Epstein about a proposed expansion of a museum in their neighborhood that would have blocked the view from their homes. Epstein also gave $50,000 to a 2017 dinner honoring Lutnick, while Lutnick invited Epstein to a 2015 fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. In 2013, they both invested in the same business venture.

“I haven't seen wrongdoing in the email correspondence, but he wasn't 100% truthful with whether or not he had been on the island,” Comer said. He added that the committee planned to later release the transcript of the interview and “let the American people judge whether the credibility was damaged or not.”

The interview was not being recorded on video, as the committee has done with depositions for others, including former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state. Comer said the decision not to video the interview, for which Lutnick volunteered, was keeping with the committee's practice.

The White House has continued to express support for Lutnick, who is one of the biggest boosters of Trump's tariff strategy. He has been close to Trump for years and helped raise money for his 2020 and 2024 campaigns.

The committee is also scheduled to hear testimony on May 29 from Pam Bondi, who was pushed out as attorney general last month.

Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

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Follow the AP's coverage of Jeffrey Epstein at https://apnews.com/hub/jeffrey-epstein.

La tormenta, que atravesó las Montañas Rocosas y se adentró en las Grandes Llanuras, debía debilitarse antes de terminar el miércoles por la tarde. Varias localidades en zonas de mayor altitud recibieron alrededor de 61 centímetros (2 pies) de nieve.

Se mantenía vigente una advertencia de tormenta invernal, y se esperaban de 5 a 10 centímetros (entre 2 y 4 pulgadas) adicionales de nieve en Fort Collins, Boulder, Denver y Castle Rock, informó el Servicio Meteorológico Nacional.

Los viajeros en Denver lidiaban con carreteras resbaladizas. La Patrulla Estatal reportó algunos choques, pero no había informes de lesiones graves. Los meteorólogos advirtieron que ramas de árboles cargadas de nieve podrían quebrarse. “Evite estacionar debajo de los árboles”, publicó la oficina del servicio meteorológico en Denver.

Nieve acumulada en partes de Colorado

El pueblo de Estes Park, cerca del Parque Nacional de las Montañas Rocosas, registró de 56 a 71 centímetros (22 a 28 pulgadas) de nieve, indicó el servicio meteorológico.

En Boulder, algunos puntos recibieron 30 centímetros (un pie) de nieve y las autoridades advirtieron a los residentes sobre árboles y ramas caídos.

Denver enfrentaba lo que podría ser su mayor nevada de la temporada. El Aeropuerto Internacional de Denver registró casi 14 centímetros (5,5 pulgadas) de nieve después de algunos retrasos y cancelaciones de vuelos a primeras horas, informó el servicio meteorológico.

Las temperaturas también se desplomaron. Denver, que rondaba los 0 grados Celsius (en la gama baja de los 30 grados Fahrenheit) el miércoles por la mañana, activó su plan de refugios por frío. El distrito escolar más grande del estado, Denver Public Schools, y otros distritos importantes y universidades de la región cancelaron las clases. Se vaticinan temperaturas más cálidas para el jueves.

El pronóstico ominoso no disuadió a miles de asistir al espectáculo de David Guetta en el anfiteatro Red Rocks el martes por la noche, aunque los organizadores adelantaron la hora de inicio una hora. Los asistentes al concierto se abrigaron con abrigos invernales de pelo y gorros mientras esperaban en la fila para entrar al recinto al aire libre.

La tormenta obligó a los Colorado Rockies a reprogramar dos juegos contra los New York Mets. Pero eso ocurre con más frecuencia de lo habitual durante la temporada primaveral de béisbol en Denver, incluidas cuatro ocasiones en 2015, según MLB.

Las nevadas de mayo no son inéditas en Colorado. Son aún más comunes en la capital de Wyoming, Cheyenne, que está casi 300 metros (1.000 pies) más alta que Denver y es más fresca y ventosa, y donde la nieve suele acumularse.

La tormenta es bienvenida durante una sequía

Abril fue más cálido y seco de lo habitual: el mes pasado a Denver le faltó 2,5 centímetros (una pulgada) de lluvia y 7 centímetros (2,8 pulgadas) de nieve en comparación con lo normal.

Para algunos agricultores, que han sentido la presión de la sequía en Colorado, la nieve fue una oportunidad.

Adam Jones, quien dirige Unsung Family Farms en Longmont, había sembrado semillas de zanahoria días antes para aprovechar la precipitación.

“Con líneas de goteo o aspersores no se logra una distribución tan uniforme”, comentó a KMGH-TV. “No hay nada como iniciar semillas con nieve o agua”.

Sin embargo, Jones tuvo que trasladar al interior los cultivos más sensibles al clima, y usó un calefactor para mantenerlos calientes.

Tormentas en otros lugares

El tiempo inestable no se limitaba a las Montañas Rocosas. El miércoles podrían registrarse tormentas eléctricas severas, algunas capaces de producir tornados, en el sureste, y se vaticinaban algunas de las tormentas más fuertes para la franja desde Arkansas hasta Georgia.

___________________________________

McCormack reportó desde Concord, Nueva Hampshire. La corresponsal Jaimie Ding contribuyó desde Los Ángeles.

___________________________________

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

The ADL tallied 1,694 antisemitic incidents on U.S. college campuses in 2024, after pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist student protests proliferated due mostly to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. That figure fell by 66% in 2025, to 583, as many colleges and universities — under pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration — took steps to curb such protests.

With the drop in on-campus incidents a major factor, the ADL’s latest annual audit — released Wednesday — says there were 6,274 incidents of antisemitic assaults, harassment and vandalism overall in 2025. That’s down 33% from the record-high 9,354 incidents counted for 2024.

The states with the most antisemitic incidents in 2025 were New York (1,160), California (817) and New Jersey (687), the ADL says.

The ADL’s methodology in tallying such incidents has added grist to an intense and divisive debate among American Jews and others over the extent to which vehement criticism of Israeli policies and of Zionism should be considered antisemitic. Some critics say the ADL’s criteria is too broad.

2025 incidents included 3 killings, record number of assaults

Despite the decrease in total incidents, the ADL’s national director and CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, said 2025 “was one of the most violent years for American Jews,” with a record-high 203 incidents of physical assault tallied in the audit.

“Numbers that would have shocked us five years ago are now our floor,” Greenblatt said. “People are being murdered because of antisemitism on American soil, and thousands more are threatened.”

Greenblatt was referring to the two Jewish people killed in a May 21 shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., and the 82-year-old Jewish woman who died from injuries sustained in a June 1 firebombing attack at an event in Boulder, Colorado, aimed at raising awareness of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Campuses are under scrutiny from groups with varying views

In the ADL's report for 2024, antisemitic incidents related to Israel or Zionism accounted for 58% of the total, marking the first time since the annual audit began in 1979 that more than half the incidents fit this category. The change arose from widespread opposition to Israel's intensive military operation in Gaza that was launched after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

In 2025, 45% of all antisemitic incidents were related to Israel or Zionism. The ADL said anti-Israel rallies featuring “extreme anti-Israel rhetoric that crossed the line into antisemitism” decreased significantly — by 67% overall and by 83% on college campuses.

Starting in 2024, the ADL launched a Campus Antisemitism Report Card, assigning grades reflecting its assessment of how colleges address antisemitism and whether they adopt ADL-recommended policies. Seeking to raise pressure on colleges, the ADL filed several lawsuits and — in cooperation with two other Jewish organizations — reached a settlement in a complaint against Pomona College.

“We welcome any decrease in antisemitic incidents on college campuses or in other settings. It is indisputably a good thing, and we hope this is just the beginning of a downward trend,” Greenblatt told The Associated Press via email.

“Yet, let me be very clear: this is not a moment for relief or complacency. Yes, ADL recorded a 66% decline of antisemitic incidents on college campuses in 2025. But here is the critical context: campus incidents in 2025 are still nearly four times higher than they were in 2021.”

In its new report, the ADL says it is “careful to not conflate general criticism of Israel or anti-Israel activism with antisemitism.” But there are gray areas. For example, the ADL contends that vilification of Zionism — the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel — is a form of antisemitism, yet some Jews are among the critics of Zionism and of the ADL itself.

The ADL's approach “emerges from their genuine concern that anti-Zionism is a genuine threat to the safety and security of American Jews,” said antisemitism expert Aryeh Tuchman. “There are a lot of people who would disagree with that. ... It's important that there be room for multiple approaches.”

Tuchman formerly led the ADL’s Center on Extremism, the group behind the annual audit, and now is director of the Nexus Center for Antisemitism at the Nexus Project, a watchdog group that promotes a more nuanced definition of antisemitism than the ADL uses.

Responding to the pressure on colleges from the ADL and Trump administration, the Council on American-Islamic Relations launched an “Unhostile Campus Campaign” aimed at ensuring that pro-Palestinian students, faculty, and staff enjoy free speech and academic freedom and are not penalized for their viewpoints.

Schools rated “most hostile” in CAIR's latest report were Columbia University, the City University of New York, and the University of Michigan.

Worries about antisemitism deepen in Britain and Australia

The new ADL report surfaces amid growing concern about antisemitism elsewhere in the world.

In Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said tougher action is needed against people chanting certain phrases at pro-Palestinian protests, as concerns grew over the safety of British Jews after the stabbings of two Jewish men in London.

The stabbings were the latest in a string of incidents, including recent arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites in London. The U.K.’s senior police officer said British Jews are facing their greatest ever threat, and blamed social media for making antisemitism more mainstream.

— In Australia, a wide-ranging inquiry commission examining antisemitism after a massacre at a Hanukkah celebration heard this week from Jews who said escalating hatred has left them fearful and vulnerable. Fifteen people were killed when two gunmen opened fire at the celebration on Bondi Beach in December. The Commission says there has been a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents nationwide since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023.

— According to a recent study by Tel Aviv University, the total of 20 deaths in Australia, Britain and the United States made 2025 the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks since 1994. That's when the bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina killed 85 people.

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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.

The June 6-12 visit will first bring Leo to Madrid for meetings with the government, parliament and King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. He will also preside over a prayer vigil with young people that will recall the last time a pope visited Spain: 2011, when Madrid hosted World Youth Day with Pope Benedict XVI.

In Barcelona, Leo will be on hand to mark the 100th anniversary, on June 10, of the death of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who designed Sagrada Familia, the world’s tallest church. Leo will celebrate an evening Mass in the basilica and inaugurate its Tower of Jesus Christ, the soaring central piece that was moved into place in February.

The tower brought Sagrada Familia to its maximum height, 172½ meters (around 566 feet) above Barcelona, but the building is still far from complete. When Benedict visited in 2010, he consecrated the basilica, and there will still be unfinished related business when Leo visits: Gaudí is on the path to possible sainthood, but he won't be canonized during the pope's trip, Spain's bishops said Wednesday.

The head of the Spanish Catholic bishops conference, Archbishop Luis Argüello of Valladolid, highlighted Leo’s planned address to parliament while in Spain as particularly significant. Only on rare occasions do popes address foreign legislatures, and the speeches often end up among the most noteworthy of a pontificate.

“I believe it’s of great importance,” said Argüello, because parliament “as the embodiment of national sovereignty, needs to reflect on what an ethical and spiritual reference means at a time of the undoubtedly necessary renewal of our democratic life.”

Fulfilling Pope Francis' wish

Leo is in many ways carrying out an intention of his immediate predecessor, Pope Francis, by visiting the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago off northwest Africa which is the main gateway for migrants from Africa to enter Spain.

Francis had made reaching out to migrants and refugees a hallmark of his papacy, and Leo has followed suit by demanding dignified treatment of migrants, especially in his native United States. Francis had planned to visit the Canary Islands, even while staying away from the Spanish mainland for his entire 12-year pontificate, as he prioritized smaller destinations far from the centers of traditional Catholicism.

Spain’s government under Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has championed legal immigration at a time when many governments in Europe are trying to decrease migrant arrivals and step up deportations.

Underway in the Iberian nation of 50 million is a migrant amnesty measure that aims to legalize the status of an estimated 500,000 people the government says are living in Spain without authorization.

Conservative opposition parties have criticized the approach, especially Vox, which has described the legalization push as an “attack on our identity.”

But Spain’s leftist government has said that the measure has the support of a broad coalition that includes the Catholic Church and many Spanish business leaders. Spain's population is aging, and Sánchez has repeatedly said that the country needs more workers to maintain its growing economy and contribute to social security.

Spain’s population now includes around 10 million foreign-born residents — or one in every five people. Many are from Latin America and Africa.

Two days in the Canary Islands

Leo will meet with organizations working with migrants in Las Palmas, Canary Islands. The following day he will meet with migrants at a reception center in Tenerife and separately with Spanish groups that work with them.

The Canary Islands are roughly 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the closest point in Africa, but to avoid security forces, many migrants attempt longer journeys that can take days or weeks.

The islands have been a steppingstone for migrants trying to reach Europe from West Africa and Morocco for decades. Arrivals peaked in 2024 with nearly 47,000 arrivals, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry statistics. Following pressure and deals between the European Union, Spain and the governments of Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia, arrivals have fallen dramatically, with just over 2,000 migrants landing in the Canaries in the first four months of 2026.

A few weeks after Leo visits the Canary Islands, history's first U.S.-born pope will travel to the main migrant entry point to Europe, the Italian island of Lampedusa, Sicily, on July 4, to meet with migrants there. That's the same day the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of its independence.

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Suman Naishadham reported from Madrid, and Renata Brito from Barcelona, Spain.

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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.

The system swept over the Rocky Mountains and into the High Plains a day earlier and was expected to wind down Wednesday afternoon. Several towns at higher elevations received about 2 feet (nearly 61 centimeters) of snow.

A winter storm warning remained in place, with another 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) of snow expected in Fort Collins, Boulder, Denver and Castle Rock, the National Weather Service said.

Commuters in Denver were dealing with slick roads. A few crashes were reported by the State Patrol but there was no word of serious injuries. Forecasters warned that snow-loaded tree limbs could snap. “Avoid parking under trees,” the weather service's Denver office posted.

Mountain towns dig out from feet of snow

The town of Estes Park, near Rocky Mountain National Park, saw 22 to nearly 28 inches of snow (56 to 71 centimeters), the weather service said.

In Boulder, some spots got a foot of snow (30 centimeters), and officials warned of downed trees and branches.

Denver might see its biggest snowfall of the season. The city's international airport recorded 5.5 inches (nearly 14 centimeters) of snow after early flight delays and cancellations, the weather service said.

Temperatures dropped into the low 30s Fahrenheit on Wednesday morning (0 degrees Celsius), prompting Denver to activate its cold-weather shelter plan. Denver Public Schools and other districts and colleges canceled classes. Warmer weather is expected Thursday.

The storm didn't stop thousands of people from showing up for an outdoor David Guetta concert at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Tuesday night, although organizers moved the start time up an hour. Fans bundled up in furry winter coats and beanies while lining up to enter.

The Colorado Rockies postponed two games against the New York Mets, but that happens more often than not during Denver's spring baseball season, including four times in 2015, according to the MLB.

Snow in May isn't unheard of in Colorado and is even more common in Wyoming's capital of Cheyenne, which sits almost 1,000 feet (300 meters) higher than Denver and is cooler and windier, often piling snow into drifts.

The storm is welcome during a drought

April was warmer and dryer than usual, with Denver missing an inch of rain (2.5 centimeters) and 2.8 inches of snow (7 centimeters) last month.

For some farmers, who have felt the pressure from Colorado's ongoing drought, the snow was an opportunity.

Adam Jones of Unsung Family Farms in Longmont planted carrot seeds just days earlier to take advantage of the precipitation.

“You can’t get as even distribution with driplines or sprinklers,” he told KMGH-TV. “There’s nothing like starting seeds with snow or water.”

Jones moved more delicate crops inside, and used a heater to keep them warm.

Storms elsewhere, too

The unsettled weather stretched beyond the Rockies. Severe thunderstorms, some capable of producing tornadoes, were possible across the Southeast on Wednesday, with the strongest storms expected from Arkansas through Georgia.

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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writer Jaimie Ding contributed from Los Angeles.

The new name will be Donald J. Trump International Airport.

It’s an airport frequented by the president while traveling to and from his Mar-a-Lago home in the town of Palm Beach.

The name change is just part of a naming rights and license agreement between Palm Beach County and DTTM or Donald Trump Trademark Operations LLC.

And while some were for the change, others were against it.

New signage and branding that would need to be changed is estimated to cost at least $5.5 million, funds the county is hopeful they will get back from the state.

While Trump’s companies have agreed not to receive any royalties or revenue for the sale of Trump-branded items at the airport, a non-exclusivity clause leaves an opening for them to sell airport branded items off site for profit.

County commissioners were advised if they refused to sign the agreement they could be penalized and moving forward with the agreement meant protection for Palm Beach County residents.

The FAA will still need to approve the name change, and it’s likely we will see the airport code change from PBI to DJT.

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This followed another round of vigorous debate.

During the discussion, a company representative told commissioners they have outgrown their existing space and need to accommodate for future growth.

After the vote, Kelly Tractor owner Chris Kelly told Local 10 News they have made a lot of effort “to give them what they want and hopefully we can get there.”

“Unfortunately, every environmental decision is temporary,” said Florida International University biologist and science director for the advocacy group Hold the Line Coalition Laura Reynolds. “And so a deferral is to survive another day, those wetlands are still there.”

According to Hold the Line, the project will remove, “247 acres of land available for agriculture,” located, “within the North Trail Basin and contains Wetlands of Regional Significance,” and within, “the core foraging area of the federally Threatened wood stork, within consultation area for the Endangered Florida bonneted bat as well as just east of the USFWS Florida Panther Focus Area.”

‘It protects us, the taxpayer’

Reynolds said this one item could have immense implications for the county’s residents from their drinking water to insurance rates.

“The UDB is in place because it protects us, the taxpayer,” she said.

Reynolds explained the wetlands help mitigate against property-damaging flood risks.

“It allows the water to go somewhere,” she said. “If we don’t have those wetlands out there, where are we going to pump the water?”

She said the wetlands also clean the water that eventually makes its way to Biscayne Bay, a huge ecological benefit for marine life and preserving the water quality which underpins the county’s multi-million-dollar real estate, trade, and tourism economy.

A frustrated Commissioner J.C. Bermudez, sensing the item was on the cusp of another deferral, felt like the county was not telegraphing it is pro-business.

Setting a precedent: Is the future of UDB, wetlands on the line?

“We want jobs for Miami-Dade County and we’re glad the Kelly Tractor company has been here for 93 years,” said Reynolds. “But is it worth destroying these wetlands for this particular said purpose?”

For Reynolds, a key factor at the heart of this contentious public debate is the manner by which the company proposed its plans to the county.

Previously, Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins expressed concern about the process this application used to make its way to county hall, in the form of a text amendment, which has lower thresholds than the more rigorous application typically required to request building outside the UDB.

“We need to put a stop to this,” said Cohen Higgins. “And my concern regarding precedent is that if we continue to have applications that come in the form of text amendments, as opposed to applications to move the Urban Development Boundary, we’re going to get a plethora of them. And our Urban Development Boundary is going to cease to exist.”

“This would set precedent,” Reynolds said. “What it does is it makes the UDB irrelevant. Any private company could now come in with just a text amendment and rewrite the rules just for themselves. It would almost be like if House Bill 399 passed, and then there was no UDB.”

“We’ve owned the land since 1984. We filed this application three years ago, we would have happily filed a UDB application back then,” Kelly said. “Hopefully we can get this approved because there’s been a lot of time and resources dedicated. It’s been three years. I would hate to have to start from scratch and wait until May of 2027 to file the UDB application. It’s just very duplicitous.”

Who worked with Kelly Tractor? Owner won’t say

At this hour, it remains unclear who at the county advised a private company seeking to expand beyond the UDB to bypass the county’s routine oversight process.

Local 10 News asked the company’s owner for the name and title of the county employee who advised them to approach their expansion plans in a text amendment form.

Kelly declined to provide a specific name.

“Honestly, I don’t want to ruin anyone’s career,” he said. “I’m not here to throw shade on anyone, I don’t want to ruin a public servant’s career, but I was in a couple meetings and there were multiple county planning staff that pretty much, my interpretation is, they were fine with it.”

Some of the commissioners did express support for the company in terms of honoring the money it already invested in pursuing this path.

Local 10 News has reached out to each commissioner’s office, the mayor’s office, and the Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, asking them how they verified the company’s claim that a planning official suggested this course of action.

“We have reviewed the company’s claim and do not have information to support it. We are not aware of anyone in the Administration having advised the company to bypass the UDB process and pursue a text amendment in that manner. Based on that review, we are not aware of any record, documentation, or directive reflecting that type of guidance, nor identified staff associated with that claim.”

Roy Coley, Miami-Dade County Chief Utilities and Regulatory Services Officer

“We have land inside the Urban Development Boundary for industrial uses like the one they’re proposing,” argued Reynolds. “So if they went through the process in the normal way, we would not have a need to push into wetlands.”

Reynolds said advocates for the environment and the county’s master plan would like to see the commissioners “protect the wetlands” and require that every private company follow the same rules, “and make it clear that if you’re going to try to move the UDB, you need to follow the rules that we have had since the early ‘80s on the books in Miami-Dade County.”

The new date for a vote is set for June 2.

The Walt Disney Co. warned early this year that its theme parks division would likely see modest growth due in part to declining tourism from abroad.

International tourism in the U.S. has waned for a number of reasons after President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, including tariffs, a crackdown on immigrants, and repeated jabs at alliednations.

In the Experiences division, which includes Disney’s six global theme parks, its cruise line, merchandise and video game licensing, operating income climbed 5% to $2.62 billion and revenue hit $9.49 billion in the quarter. Operating income rose 5% at domestic parks, while operating income edged up 1% for international parks and Experiences.

However, overall attendance at U.S. parks declined 1% from the same time last year due to declining international tourism.

Disney said Wednesday that domestic parks and resorts are doing well, but that the company is aware that customers are facing heightened inflation and soaring energy prices. Disney expects year-over-year attendance at its U.S. parks to improve in the current quarter.

Shares jumped 8% Wednesday.

Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston said during Disney’s conference call that the company is not seeing any change in consumer behavior from elevated gas prices so far, but that the business remains mindful of economic conditions and can make adjustments if needed.

For the period ended March 28, Disney earned $2.25 billion, or $1.27 per share. A year earlier it earned $3.28 billion, or $1.81 per share.

Stripping out one-time gains and losses, earnings were $1.57 per share, easily beating the $1.49 that Wall Street expected, according to analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research.

The Burbank, California, company reported revenue of $25.17 billion, which was slightly above expectations.

Revenue for Disney Entertainment, which includes the company’s movie studios and streaming service, climbed 10%, while revenue for the Experiences division, rose 7%.

Disney is preparing for the release of several films, including “The Mandalorian & Grogu,”“Toy Story 5” and the live-action “Moana.”

“Franchise films like these strengthen our most strategic asset – our intellectual property – and help fuel our streaming, consumer products, experiences, and games businesses over years and generations,” CEO Josh D'Amaro and Johnston said in a joint statement.

D’Amaro succeeded Bob Iger as Disney’s CEO in March to become the 9th CEO of the 100 plus-year-old company after overseeing its theme parks, cruises and resorts since 2020.

Just over a month into the job he was facing a challenge that had tested Iger's later years with Disney: Clashes with Donald Trump.

Last week, Donald and Melania Trump both called for ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel after he described the first lady as having “the glow of an expectant widow.” Disney owns ABC.

Kimmel made the comment before a man with a gun stormed the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and Trump was spirited out of the room by the Secret Service.

Last year, Kimmel was suspended by ABC following a comment made by the late night talk show host about assassinated conservative leader Charlie Kirk, a decision encouraged by Trump’s FCC chairman, Brendan Carr. ABC later brought Kimmel back.

Disney still anticipates double-digit growth for fiscal 2027 adjusted earnings per share, excluding the impact of an extra week in the period.

Beijing's profile in international diplomacy has risen in recent years. Long reluctant to get involved in conflicts far from its borders, it has nevertheless emerged as a major player with attempts to mediate conflicts from Southeast Asia to Europe.

Beijing is not an official mediator in the Iran war, but all parties — including Washington and Tehran — say it has played an important role in efforts to de-escalate the conflict. The Trump administration is pressing China to use its influence with Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

During Wednesday's meeting with Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for a “comprehensive ceasefire," saying his country is deeply distressed by the war.

“The international community shares a common concern for restoring normal and safe passage through the Strait, and China hopes the relevant parties will respond as quickly as possible to the strong calls from the international community,” China's official news agency Xinhua quoted him as saying.

The timing of Araghchi’s visit matters

Trump and Xi are set to meet in Beijing next week, with the conflict expected to be on their agenda. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Chinese officials to use Araghchi’s visit to China to urge Tehran to release its chokehold on the critical waterway.

Wang's renewed call for reopening the strait could provide fresh momentum to help push for an agreement between the U.S. and Iran to end the war.

“Currently, it is possible to resolve the issue of reopening the Strait of Hormuz as soon as possible," Xinhua quoted Araghchi, who's in Beijing for the first time since the war started on Feb. 28, as saying.

Wang also said China appreciates Iran’s pledge to not develop nuclear weapons, while acknowledging Iran's legitimate right to peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Tuvia Gering, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, said the timing of Araghchi's visit is important, saying the meeting showed coordinated messaging between Beijing and Tehran and reinforces China's desire to have a seat in any future regional agreement.

“However, unless China implements a concrete initiative, I would not consider this a significant shift in China’s role,” he said.

Some noted that the Iranian foreign minister visited at Beijing’s initiative. “It’s China exercising their leverage ... to summon the Iranian foreign minister,” said Hoo Tiang Boon, a professor of Chinese foreign policy at Nanyang Technological University.

“By holding the talks with the Iranians, you can’t fault for them not putting in any effort," Hoo said.

China leans on its role as an economic power

Some analysts say China occupies a unique position as an important economic partner for many countries involved in mediating the war, including Pakistan and key Arab Gulf states. It can promise investment in postwar reconstruction and commercial reliefs in ways few others can.

George Chen, a partner at The Asia Group consultancy, said China’s role in the Iran situation is irreplaceable. As Tehran’s biggest oil buyer, its advice carries weight. China is also one of the few countries that has showed sympathy for Iran at the United Nations, he said.

In addition, Iran’s ballistic missile program was built with Chinese technology, and China sells dual-use industrial components that can be used for missile production, according to the U.S. government.

China’s role as a global mediator is growing

One of China’s biggest diplomatic wins in recent years came in 2023, when it was among the parties bringing Saudi Arabia and Iran together to restart official engagement.

It was widely seen as a major geopolitical breakthrough that reduced the risk of direct and proxy conflict, said Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, a researcher at the Center of Economic and Law Studies in Indonesia.

But China is choosing when to play a role cautiously, he said, noting that Saudi Arabia and Iran had preexisting incentives to reengage diplomatically. “Its mediation tends to be opportunistic and low-risk, often occurring when conditions are already conducive to agreement,” he said.

Beijing also was active during the recent conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, hosting multiple meetings between them and attending initial ceasefire talks alongside the U.S. in Malaysia. When fighting started again in December, China and the U.S. helped broker another ceasefire.

Beijing also has issued peace proposals for the war in Ukraine, hosting the Ukrainian foreign minister at one point, even though it maintains what it calls a “no-limits” friendship with Russia.

Beijing’s role remains carefully worded

China’s diplomatic efforts tend to follow a pattern, experts say, with Beijing reiterating calls to respect the U.N. charter and national sovereignty.

With the Iran war, Xi last month called for “upholding the principles of peaceful coexistence, upholding national sovereignty, upholding the rule of international law, and coordinating development and security.”

“A lot of the points are remarkably consistent,” said Hoo.

In conflicts further afield, the stakes for Beijing can be low but benefits can be high as the world tries to come to terms with the Trump administration’s approach to negotiating, said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of international relations at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University.

“What the U.S. is doing is deeply damaging, and everyone suffers from it ... and China is displaying global leadership and exerting its global role by speaking to the rules-based international system,” he said. “It’s an inescapable contrast.”

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Wu reported from Bangkok.

Their faces covered with pink balaclavas and shouting “Blood is Russia’s art” and “Disobey,” 50 members of feminist groups opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin blockaded the highly controversial pavilion for at least half an hour while Italian police prevented them from getting inside.

They chanted, played a punk rock song and dispersed without confrontation.

After years of war, “you guys just opened the door to them,” said Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova, adding that the Biennale had not comprehended the importance of “so-called soft power, things, things that seemingly for some people are not important or not political.”

“For Russia, it’s clear that it’s part of their military strategy, and that’s the way they try to conquer the West,” she said.

Discord marks the Biennale

This year is the first time Russia has participated in the international art exhibit since its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The opening has already cost the Biennale 2 million euros ($2.3 million) in EU funding, and plunged the normally serene week of previews into chaos after the jury resigned in protest of both Russia and Israel's participating, citing crimes against humanity.

The Biennale has defended its decision saying that any country with relations with Italy is free to participate in the exhibition, despite opposition from Premier Giorgia Meloni 's government.

The protest comes on the second day of VIP previews for art world luminaries and journalists ahead of the Biennale’s opening on Saturday.

The run-up to Biennale's 61st edition is the most contested in recent memory, reflecting global turmoil that is spilling over into the exhibition that features 100 national pavilions and 110 artist and artist groups participating in the main curated exhibition titled “In Minor Keys.”

Palestinians have also protested Israel's participation with actions in the Giardini.

Russia is one of 29 countries with a pavilion in the historic Giardini venue, and one of the oldest, dating from 1914, 19 years after the Biennale was founded in 1895.

The impact of jury's resignation

The five-woman jury's unprecedented resignation came after it announced that it would not award the prestigious Golden Lion prizes to countries under investigation by the International Criminal Court for human rights abuses, effectively isolating Russia and Israel.

British artist Anish Kapoor, who has opened an exhibition in his palazzo across Venice, called the jury “courageous.”

“They should have included the US of A in that list of countries excluded because of the politics of hate and war that has been going on now for too long,’’ he told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. “What these wonderful women say is that culture has a language that speaks to politics that is if you like enrolled, embedded in political discourse, even if it’s invisible.”

Inside the Russian Pavilion

For all the controversy it unleashed, Russia’s pavilion, which features a series of musical performances, is scheduled to close before the official opening of the Biennale on May 9. The performances were being recorded to play through the window during the rest of the international exhibition, which closes Nov. 22.

Until Friday, visitors can fish a piece of discarded clothing from a bin inside the sparsely adorned pavilion, and wander upstairs where an open bar dispenses champagne and Prosecco next to a huge bouquet of flowers resembling a tree, visible through an open window from outside the Giardini walls.

On Tuesday, the first preview day, a small group of people danced to house music played by an Argentine DJ, while a pavilion spokesman wearing an animal mask refused to give his full name and said curators were not available for interviews.

Tolokonnikova said the only Russian art that should be shown is by dissidents who are jailed “for mostly ridiculous charges.”

“Those people make art, and I want that art to represent Russia, because they represent the real face of Russia,’’ she said.

Tolokonnikova said that efforts to contact the Biennale organizers to express their concerns had failed, and that to enter the Giardini venue, she had to use an assumed name to get through security.

In Russia, Mikhail Shvydkoy, Putin’s special envoy for international cultural cooperation, has welcomed Russia’s return to the Biennale, telling Russia’s news outlet RBC last month that “Russian culture can’t be canceled.”

Russia’s Antiwar Committee, a group of Kremlin critics and opposition activists in exile that formed after Moscow launched its all-out war on Ukraine and which has since been banned in Russia and declared a “terrorist organization,” lauded the EU’s decision to pull funding.

“The participation of Putin’s representatives at one of the world’s foremost cultural forums is neither a gesture of openness nor a celebration of artistic freedom,’’ the group said. “It is a source of shame for Europe and a gift to the Russian propaganda machine.”

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Associated Press writer Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

But when the 25-year-old from Southern California gives serious thought to the idea of repeatedly having to get the cosmetic procedure — it only lasts about a year — she wonders if a surgical implant would be more practical, even though the prospect of surgery scares her.

“I just try to remember self-love, you know? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” she says as she verbally processes her internal struggle and talks herself out of getting any work done for now.

Technological advancements over recent decades have made various forms of body modification increasingly accessible — and inescapable on many social media algorithms.

As injectables like Botox, cosmetic plastic surgeries and GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic become more pervasive, people — often but not exclusively women — are grappling with the philosophical and ethical implications of turning to these interventions in a ceaseless quest for beauty, youth and conformity.

“We need to have a wider conversation about how to think about this in a way where we’re not putting the burden squarely on women, while also not taking away their moral agency,” said Natalie Carnes, a feminist theologian at Duke Divinity School. “Beauty is something that’s good. And beauty is something that is good to pursue. Botox and Ozempic and face-lifts, they’re all ways of really narrowing the cultural ideals of beauty.”

There has been little in the way of official guidance or explicit prohibitions from major religions. But a growing chorus of theologians, philosophers and bioethicists are calling for more conversations surrounding these procedures and treatments.

In March, the Vatican released a document on Christian anthropology decrying the “cult of the body.” “Once modified, often with relentless frenzy, the body becomes a body-object in which the person-subject mirrors themselves, creating a relationship in which the person is no longer his or her body but ‘owns’ a body,” it said.

Increased — and younger — demand for intervention

Demand for cosmetic surgery in the United States has increased in recent years across all age demographics and ethnic backgrounds, says Dr. C. Bob Basu, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. “Forty years ago, perhaps people would think, ‘Cosmetic surgery is for the superrich or the celebrity elite. It’s not for regular folk.’ That’s not the case anymore.”

One of the biggest changes he’s seen is more young people opting for interventions.

“They’re being proactive and thinking about preventive measures, whether it be baby Botox at a younger age to prevent wrinkles from starting or maybe considering a deep plane face-and-neck-lift in the late 30s or early 40s, rather than waiting until you’re in your 60s,” he said.

But despite its increasing ubiquity, many bioethicists say plastic surgery is not prioritized in their training.

“If you’re getting into bioethics and you rotate to learn about medicine, you go to the ICU, you go to places where the palliative care is for dying people, you’re looking at transplants. Nobody rotates to plastic surgery,” said Arthur Caplan, founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University Grossman School of Medicine.

As a result, plastic surgeons often must set their own boundaries for what they will and won’t do, without much specialized ethical training.

Faith in the operating room

Many religions condemn vanity and praise modesty, which can inform attitudes toward cosmetic work.

Dr. Jerry Chidester, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he sees a broad spectrum of stances on plastic surgery within the church. Although some stricter interpretations of the faith may discourage interventions, Chidester said that attitude contrasts with the broader cultural landscape of Salt Lake City, where he’s based. Several studies suggest the area has a high number of plastic surgeons and procedures performed per capita.

When patients wrestle with whether to have an operation, Chidester tells them to not worry about what others will think.

“I’m like, ‘Look, if you want to do this or not, it’s up to you,’” he said. “It’s literally your body. Who cares if they think you’re doing it for vanity or for function or whatever? It is none of their business.”

Dr. Sheila Nazarian, a Jewish board-certified plastic surgeon, incorporates her interpretations of parts of the Torah for guidance on thinking about when it is appropriate to modify one’s body.

“If it’s bringing distress, then it’s OK,” she said. “My patient population, they’re all pretty well adjusted, happy, successful, intelligent people. But they need help with one little thing that they’d just rather not think about anymore.”

Dr. Michael Obeng, a Christian, has seen a dramatic shift in acceptance of cosmetic procedures in the nearly 20 years he’s been practicing.

“Now people are not even hiding it. They show their plastic surgery as a badge of honor, like somebody wearing their expensive bag,” he said. “We are aging slower and of course we are working much longer than our moms and grandmothers worked. In the marketplace, we have to look presentable.”

Obeng, a board-certified surgeon in Beverly Hills, specializes in a wide range of procedures from tummy tucks and Brazilian butt lifts to rib removal surgeries. He says he rarely feels tension between his faith and his work. It wasn’t until he came to a “crossroads” in 2018, when he began thinking through his willingness to perform certain gender transition surgeries.

He sought the advice of several pastors and religious leaders about what to do. “Nobody could give me an answer,” he recalled.

He said his faith ultimately led him to limit his practice to some gender-related procedures like breast augmentation, stopping short of genital gender-affirming surgeries, which he sees as harder to reverse.

Agency versus constraint

Ivory Kellogg, a 29-year-old actor in Los Angeles, has been grappling with the tension she feels as a woman while pondering cosmetic interventions.

“There’s this expectation that once you hit 35, you think about doing a mini face-lift. That's a lot of pressure,” she said. “At the same time, I do want women to feel like they’re allowed to do whatever they want. Like if you want to have a face-lift, that’s your prerogative.”

Though opting for these interventions is often framed as a personal decision, many experts say it’s hardly that simple.

“It’s important to think about how those choices are constrained and to think about the social pressures,” said Abigail Saguy, a sociologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “This is a social issue. It is a collective problem. But it’s continually treated as an individual issue and what individual people should do.”

In some cases, as with drugs like Ozempic, these interventions can offer real health benefits. But as their use expands beyond medical need, questions arise about how medical resources are used.

Dr. Aasim Padela, who studies bioethics and Islamic thought at the Medical College of Wisconsin, thinks a broader conversation is needed. His primary issues are the ways in which the field of medicine suffers as a result and what resources are poorly distributed when cosmetic surgery is prioritized within a society.

“The profession is supposed to be about restoring health or preventing loss of health,” he said. “Certain types of procedures, body modifications, interventions — whatever you want to call them — may not meet those goals or even be aimed at those goals.”

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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.

Apple trumpeted new AI features for its virtual assistant Siri when it rolled out the iPhone 16 in 2024, part of new software updates that the company billed as “Apple Intelligence.”

The company has been scrambling to keep up with tech rivals amid the AI boom but still hasn't delivered on the Siri revamp two years later.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of U.S. consumers in the San Francisco federal court for the Northern District of California, alleged that Apple deceived consumers with a marketing campaign that promoted features that did not yet exist and misled them into buying the devices.

Lawyers for the iPhone buyers asked a court for preliminary approval of the proposed $250 million settlement, according to a court filling. If approved by a judge, it would be one of the biggest ever for Apple.

The settlement covers about 37 million devices bought in the United States between June 10, 2024 and March 29, 2025, including all iPhone 16 models and the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Owners are eligible for a payment of at least $25 for each device, and that amount could go up to $95 depending on how many claims are filed “and other factors,” the filing said.

Customers will be notified by email or mail that they can file a claim on a settlement website, it said.

“Apple has reached a settlement to resolve claims related to the availability of two additional features,” the company said in a statement. "We resolved this matter to stay focused on doing what we do best, delivering the most innovative products and services to our users.”

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, was caught off-guard by the intense consumer interest in the Siri AI features. Buyers were angered after finding out that the new features would be released later than expected, the filing said.

They “would not have purchased the Eligible Devices or would have paid significantly less, had they known Enhanced Siri features were not available,” the filling said.

Apple's AI features remain in development even as rivals Google and Samsung have been rolling out more of the technology on their own devices. The company is expected to unveil its Siri upgrade this year, most likely at its annual developer conference next month.

Apple said in its statement that it has “introduced dozens of features” since it launched Apple Intelligence, such as Visual Intelligence and Live Translations.

Parents can help minimize the risks by providing professional driving instruction, modeling safe driving behavior, and putting their teen in the safest vehicle possible. But how can you know which models are safest, especially if you’re on a budget? Edmunds has done the research for you and compiled a list of the five best used SUVs for teen drivers under $20,000.

Each of our picks below earned a Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and an overall five-star rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Additionally, you can find clean examples with less than 60,000 miles for under $20,000. We’ve included a variety of SUV sizes and types, but these five crossovers all have one thing in common: favorable crash test ratings. They’re listed below in alphabetical order.

2021-2023 Chevrolet Trailblazer

Chevy’s latest Trailblazer is small in size but big on personality. It is surprisingly roomy and practical, and its engine is reasonably fuel-efficient. The model years we picked for the Trailblazer did not come standard with blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert. This is a driver assist feature we think is beneficial for teens, so be sure to find a used Trailblazer that came with it as an optional add-on. However, every Trailblazer includes Teen Driver technology, which lets parents monitor their child’s driving habits while they’re away from home.

2019-2023 Hyundai Santa Fe

Hyundai redesigned its midsize SUV for the 2019 model year, infusing it with a long list of standard driver assist features that can help keep a teen driver safe on the road. Not only that, but an active subscription to Hyundai’s Bluelink communication service also gives parents the ability to program alerts for vehicle speed, a teen’s curfew time, and when the SUV travels beyond a geo-fenced boundary. There is no need to upgrade to the Santa Fe’s optional turbocharged engine; the standard four-cylinder offers enough power without encouraging dangerous driving.

2018-2023 Mazda CX-5

Mazda redesigned the CX-5 small crossover SUV for the 2017 model year, but in 2018, it added blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert as standard equipment. That was also the first year the CX-5 earned top ratings from both the IIHS and the NHTSA. No matter which model year you choose, make sure the CX-5 has the i-Activsense package (it became standard in 2020), which fully equips the vehicle with all available driver assist features. Parents can also rest easy knowing that the infotainment system includes automatic 911 emergency assistance technology that contacts first responders in the event of a collision.

2019-2023 Subaru Forester

If you think your teen driver needs a small SUV that is very easy to see out of and comes with standard all-wheel drive and a raised ride height to help with outdoor recreational use, look no further than the Subaru Forester. This small crossover received a redesign in 2019 and added many standard driver assist features, including one that alerts the driver when traffic ahead is moving again. Just keep in mind that blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert were unavailable on the base trim level, so find a used Forester with those features and within your budget.

2021-2023 Volkswagen ID.4

Going electric? The Volkswagen ID.4 is a safe choice for a teen driver. This compact crossover is available with rear-wheel or all-wheel drive and can travel an EPA-estimated 209-275 miles on a full battery charge depending on the version you pick. An active subscription to Car-Net Safe & Secure equips the ID.4 with emergency assistance and automatic crash notification systems, and this electric VW includes an impressive list of standard safety features. It even has Emergency Assist, which can bring the ID.4 to a safe stop if it detects the driver has become unresponsive.

Edmunds says

With a budget of $20,000, you can find a safe and clean used SUV for your teenager to drive. The models listed above can protect your child in a collision, but they’re also equipped with modern technologies that can help to prevent one from occurring in the first place. However, these are just a sampling of potentially suitable choices. We encourage you to prioritize crash test ratings when conducting your own research, as well as standard and available driver assist features.

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This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds.

Christian Wardlaw is a contributor at Edmunds.

Si se hace un promedio entre todas las ciudades del mundo, la cobertura arbórea —al dar sombra y liberar vapor de agua— enfría de media 0,15º Celsius (0,27º Fahrenheit), según un estudio publicado el miércoles en Nature Communications.

Sin esos árboles, las ciudades del mundo se calentarían en promedio 0,31º C (0,56º F) debido al efecto de isla de calor urbana, en el que los tejados oscuros y el pavimento absorben el calor. Ese mecanismo de calentamiento causado por el ser humano es distinto del cambio climático provocado por la quema de combustibles fósiles.

Los investigadores elaboraron su análisis de las casi 9.000 grandes ciudades de la Tierra midiendo temperaturas en segmentos de aproximadamente 150 manzanas. Eso les permitió captar los efectos de enfriamiento en ciudades y vecindarios, de modo que, por ejemplo, a los árboles del Central Park de Nueva York no se les atribuyera el enfriamiento de zonas más urbanizadas a kilómetros (millas) de distancia en el Bronx.

Unos 185 millones de personas que viven en 31 de las ciudades más grandes ya perciben un enfriamiento medio proporcionado por la cobertura arbórea de al menos 0,3º C (0,5º F). Pero el autor principal del estudio, Rob McDonald, científico de The Nature Conservancy, señaló que los grandes centros urbanos más pobres y más calurosos —que son los que más lo necesitan— no están recibiendo tanto alivio frente al calor extremo, que puede causar la muerte al confundir el cerebro, provocar el fallo de órganos y sobrecargar el corazón.

Los meteorólogos miden la diferencia de temperatura entre el centro de una ciudad y una zona rural cercana para determinar el efecto de isla de calor urbana. Los científicos de este estudio usaron una combinación de mediciones de estaciones meteorológicas, datos satelitales y modelos informáticos para estudiar el enfriamiento que aportaban los árboles.

Poco alivio en zonas calurosas, secas y pobres

En 20 ciudades con al menos tres millones de habitantes, los residentes sienten 0,05º C (menos de 0,1ºF) de enfriamiento debido a los árboles. En cuatro ciudades —Dakar, Senegal; Yeda, Arabia Saudí; Ciudad de Kuwait y Amán, Jordania— la cobertura arbórea es tan mínima que los más de 15 millones de personas que viven allí prácticamente no perciben enfriamiento de los árboles.

En el otro extremo del espectro, McDonald examinó ciudades donde la cobertura arbórea enfría al menos 0,25º C (0,45º F). Casi el 40% de las ciudades en países ricos obtiene ese nivel de enfriamiento, pero apenas el 9% en los países más pobres cuenta con ese nivel de alivio gracias a los árboles, indicó el estudio.

La lista de los lugares que más se enfrían está encabezada por Berlín e incluye a Atlanta, Moscú, Washington, Seattle y Sydney, que tienen más árboles. Por ejemplo, Atlanta tiene el 64% de su superficie terrestre bajo un dosel arbóreo, afirmó McDonald. Las zonas acomodadas de América del Norte tienen parcelas más grandes, propiedades individuales y residentes con mayor influencia política, lo que contribuye a que crezcan más árboles y proporcionen una mayor cobertura, explicó Chris Greene, de la Universidad de Dalhousie en Canadá, que no participó en el estudio.

“Existe esta desigualdad”, manifestó McDonald. “Cuando se observan las ciudades a nivel global, hay muchísimas ciudades, especialmente en países en desarrollo, que tienen una cobertura arbórea muy baja, y por eso creo que la cifra de enfriamiento de la temperatura del aire fue un poco menor de lo que esperábamos”.

Thomas Crowther, ecólogo de la Universidad Rey Abdalá de Ciencia y Tecnología en Arabia Saudí, dijo que cada pequeño aporte ayuda. Él está en una región donde las ciudades casi no se benefician del enfriamiento por la cobertura arbórea, a menudo porque el agua es un recurso escaso.

“A medida que hasta el 75% de la población humana se desplaza hacia entornos urbanos, estos efectos amortiguadores de la vegetación urbana van a ser vitales", apuntó Crowther, quien no formó parte de la investigación. "Pero tenemos que revertir las devastadoras desigualdades en la distribución de los árboles urbanos, para que sus beneficios puedan ser experimentados por las comunidades de ingresos bajos y medios, que a menudo son las más vulnerables a los efectos de las temperaturas extremas”.

Plantar árboles no nos salvará del cambio climático

Los autores del estudio afirmaron que las ciudades, especialmente las más pobres y calurosas, pueden y deben hacer más para aumentar la cobertura arbórea. Pero debido a las limitaciones en la disponibilidad de agua, tierra y especies adecuadas, además del agravamiento del cambio climático, como máximo reducirían el calentamiento urbano futuro en un 20%, indicó McDonald.

“Los árboles no nos salvarán del cambio climático”, apuntó. “Los escenarios climáticos muestran un mundo mucho más cálido y la cobertura arbórea solo puedo ayudar hasta cierto punto".

Aun así, plantar árboles tiene beneficios más allá de reducir el calor. En 2019, Crowther y Jean-Francois Bastin sugirieron en un estudio publicado en la revista Science plantar un billón de árboles nuevos —además de los tres billones que ya crecen en el planeta— para absorber dióxido de carbono, no tanto por su efecto de enfriamiento.

“Plantar árboles sí ayuda a combatir el cambio climático de múltiples maneras, pero esta estrategia no es ni de lejos suficiente para frenar el cambio climático en un grado significativo”, dijo Jonathan Overpeck, decano de Medio Ambiente de la Universidad de Michigan, quien no participó en el estudio. “Solo al alejarnos de los combustibles fósiles en favor de las energías renovables y el almacenamiento en baterías podemos esperar detener el cambio climático que está causando estragos en todo el planeta”.

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La cobertura climática y ambiental de The Associated Press recibe apoyo financiero de múltiples fundaciones privadas. AP es la única responsable de todo el contenido. Consulte las normas de AP para trabajar con filantropías, una lista de patrocinadores y las áreas de cobertura financiadas en AP.org.

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

A new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research of more than 2,500 U.S. adults finds about 6 in 10 say the country used to be a great place for immigrants but is not anymore. About one-third of U.S. adults — and more than half of Hispanic adults — say that over the last year they, or someone they know, have started carrying proof of their immigration status or U.S. citizenship, been detained or deported, changed travel plans, or significantly changed routines, such as avoiding work, school or leaving the house, because of their immigration status.

The poll comes as the Supreme Court is considering whether the Trump administration should be allowed to restrict birthright citizenship, as well as following months of sweeping immigration enforcement and mass deportations of immigrants.

Missouri retiree Reid Gibson, an independent, is furious about the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants. He hopes America eventually becomes more welcoming to immigrants again, but he worries “it may take many years to reverse the damage that the Trump administration has inflicted” with its policies.

The poll finds that many Americans know someone who has been affected by Trump's approach. That includes Gibson’s stepdaughter, who he says started carrying her passport because of concerns that her darker skin would make her a target in immigration crackdowns.

“It’s just plain wrong,” Gibson, 72, added. “This is not a good country for immigrants anymore.”

Americans’ personal connections to immigration enforcement

Many U.S. adults have adapted their lives to heightened immigration enforcement over the last year, as Trump increased detentions and sought to conduct the largest deportation operation in American history.

Democrats are more likely than independents or Republicans to know someone affected, and those with a personal connection are more likely to say the U.S. is no longer a great place for immigrants.

Kathy Bailey, a 79-year-old Illinois Democrat, has seen the administration’s immigration policies seep into the small-town swim class she regularly attends. She said two women in the class — both naturalized U.S. citizens — have begun carrying their passports when they leave home. Bailey says one of the women, who is from Latin America, has been especially worried about sticking out in an overwhelmingly white community.

“She’s an American citizen now, but she’s so scared that she has to carry her passport,” said Bailey. “She’s just another sweet old grandmother swimming at 5 in the morning.”

About 6 in 10 Hispanic adults say they or someone they know has been impacted by immigration enforcement in this way, much higher than among Black or white adults.

“This is terrible for these women!” Bailey said. “I’m just stunned at what we are coming to.”

Most believe the US used to be a great place for immigrants

Nick Grivas, a 40-year-old from Massachusetts, said his own grandfather’s immigration to the U.S. from Greece has made him feel the impact of the president’s policies. It’s part of why he believes the U.S. stopped being a promising place for people seeking a new life.

“We can see how we’re treating children and the children of the immigrants, and we’re not viewing them as potential future Americans,” Grivas said.

Roughly 3 in 10 U.S. adults say the U.S. is a great place for immigrants, according to the poll, while about 1 in 10 say it never was. The belief that America is no longer great for immigrants is more common among Democrats and independents, as well as among those born outside the U.S.

Grivas, a Democrat, worries that federal policies against immigration could stunt the country by discouraging new arrivals from investing in their local communities, especially if they don’t believe they will be allowed to remain.

“You’re less willing to commit to the project if you don’t think that you’re gonna be able to stay,” he said.

Most support birthright citizenship, but also hold nuanced views

The Supreme Court recently heard arguments in President Donald Trump’s efforts to restrict birthright citizenship by declaring that children born to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.

About two-thirds of U.S. adults in the poll say automatic citizenship should be granted to all children born in the country, a view that most Democrats and independents back. Republicans are more doubtful: just 44% support birthright citizenship. The poll also shows that some people are conflicted, saying in general that they support birthright citizenship but also that they oppose it in some specific circumstances.

Among those who object to automatic citizenship is Linda Steele, a 70-year-old from Florida, who believes that only children born to American citizens should be granted citizenship. Steele, a Republican, does not believe foreigners living legally in the U.S. — whether for work or other reasons — should be able to have a child who automatically becomes a U.S. citizen.

“That shouldn’t be allowed,” she said. “They’re just here visiting or going to school.”

When asked about some specific circumstances, about 6 in 10 U.S. adults say they support birthright citizenship for children born to parents on legal U.S. tourist visas, while only about half support it for those born to parents who are in the country illegally. An even higher share, 75%, support automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country legally on work visas, with much of that increased support coming from Republicans saying this was an acceptable situation.

Kevin Craig, a 57-year-old from Wilmington, North Carolina, does not believe citizenship should be automatically granted. Craig, who leans conservative, believes there should be “at least some opportunity for intervention by a human being who can make some sort of a judgment.”

But he added: “I think my personal opinion is that I can’t think of a situation where it would not be granted.”

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Sullivan reported from Minneapolis. Catalini reported from Morrisville, Pennsylvania.

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The AP-NORC poll of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

When averaged out over all the world’s cities, tree cover — by giving shade and releasing water vapor — cools an average of 0.27 degrees Fahrenheit (0.15 degrees Celsius), according to a study in Wednesday’s Nature Communications.

Without those trees, the world cities would warm on average by 0.56 degrees Fahrenheit (0.31 degrees Celsius) due to the urban heat island effect, where dark roofs and pavement absorb heat. The human-caused warming mechanism is distinct from climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

Researchers built their analysis of Earth’s nearly 9,000 large cities by measuring temperatures for segments of about 150 city blocks each. That allowed them to capture cooling effects for cities and neighborhoods so that trees in New York’s Central Park, for example, weren’t credited for cooling more built-up areas miles away in the Bronx.

About 185 million people living in 31 of the larger cities already feel an average cooling from tree cover of at least half a degree Fahrenheit (0.3 degrees Celsius). But study lead author Rob McDonald, a scientist at the Nature Conservancy, said poorer and hotter large urban centers that need it the most aren’t getting as much relief from higher heat, which can kill by confusing the brain, shutting down organs and overworking the heart.

Meteorologists measure the temperature difference between a city center and nearby rural area to find the urban heat island effect. Scientists in this study used a combination of weather station measurements, satellite data and computer models to see the cooling trees provided.

Little tree relief in hot, dry poor places

In 20 cities with at least 3 million people, residents feel less a tenth of a degree Fahrenheit (0.05 degrees Celsius) from cooling trees. In four cities — Dakar, Senegal; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Kuwait City and Amman, Jordan — there's such minimal tree cover that the more than 15 million people who live there get essentially no cooling from trees.

On the other end of the spectrum, McDonald looked at cities where tree cover cools at least 0.45 degrees Fahrenheit (0.25 degrees Celsius). Nearly 40% of cities in wealthy nations get that much cooling, but just under 9% in the poorest countries have that amount of tree relief, the study said.

The list of places that cool the most is topped by Berlin and includes Atlanta, Moscow, Washington, Seattle and Sydney, which have more trees. For example, Atlanta has 64% of its land area under tree canopy, McDonald said. Wealthy areas in North America have larger lot sizes, individual ownership and residents with more political clout, all of which contribute to more trees growing and providing larger cover, said Chris Greene of the University of Dalhousie in Canada, who wasn't part of the study.

“There’s this inequality,” McDonald said. “When you look at cities globally, there are many, many cities, especially in developing countries, that have very low tree cover, and so I think the air temperature cooling number was a little less than we expected.”

Thomas Crowther, an ecologist at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, said every little bit helps. He's in a region where cities have nearly no cooling from tree cover, often because water is at a premium.

“As up to 75% of the human population shifts towards living in urban environments, these buffering effects of urban vegetation are going to be vital,” said Crowther, who wasn't part of the research. “But we have to overturn the devastating inequities in the distribution of urban trees, so that their benefits can be experienced by the low- and middle-income communities that are often most vulnerable to the effects of extreme temperatures.”

Planting trees won't save us from climate change

The study's authors said that cities, especially poorer and hotter ones, can and should do more to increase tree cover. But because of limitations in availability of water, land and proper species, combined with worsening climate change, at most they'd reduce future urban heating by 20%, McDonald said.

“Trees won’t save us from climate change,” McDonald said. “The climate scenarios are showing a much warmer world and there’s only so much of that that tree cover can help with.”

Still, planting trees has benefits beyond lowering heat. In 2019, Crowther and Jean-Francois Bastin in a study in the journal Science suggested planting a trillion new trees — on top of the 3 trillion trees already growing on the planet — to suck up carbon dioxide, not so much for their cooling.

“Planting trees does help fight climate change in multiple ways, but this strategy is not nearly enough to slow climate change to a significant degree,” said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck, who wasn’t part of the study. “Only by transitioning away from fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy and battery storage can we hope to halt the climate change that is wreaking havoc around the planet.”

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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.

PSG edged their encounter 5-4 in the first leg in Paris last week, giving the defending a champion a slim advantage going into Wednesday’s decisive second leg.

But Bayern is confident after fighting back from 5-2 down in that game and developing a habit of comebacks in its last three matches including two in the Bundesliga.

Bayern, which had already secured the league title, fought from three goals down to beat Mainz 4-3 before its trip to Paris, then twice came from behind to draw with Heidenheim 3-3 last weekend.

The winner will face Arsenal in the final in Budapest, Hungary, on May 30, after the Gunners defeated Atletico Madrid 1-0 on Tuesday to progress 2-1 on aggregate.

PSG and Bayern are the top-scoring sides in the competition with 43 and 42 goals, respectively. It’s the first time two teams have scored more than 40 in the same season.

The German club has won five of its last seven meetings with PSG in Munich, and is going for a repeat of the Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup treble of titles that it won in 2020 and 2013.

But PSG has good memories of Munich. The city was the scene of PSG’s triumph in the final last season when it demolished Inter Milan 5-0 to fulfill its Qatari owners’ quest to become European champion for the first time. A relatively unchanged team has been charged with delivering the second title.

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

Associated Press footage showed health workers in protective gear evacuating three passengers, including the ship's British doctor, who Spain's health ministry said had been in “serious condition” but has improved. On Wednesday evening, two of the evacuated patients arrived at Amsterdam's airport and were driven off in ambulances.

Three people have died, and one body remained on the ship, the World Health Organization said. Of the eight cases recorded, five were confirmed by laboratory testing.

Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings and can spread person-to-person, though that is rare, according to the WHO, whose top epidemic expert said the risk to the public is low.

Health officials in Europe and Africa are trying to identify people who may have had contact with people who earlier left the ship, which departed April 1 from South America for stops in Antarctica and several remote Atlantic islands.

Two Argentine officials investigating the origins of the outbreak said the government's leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus while bird-watching in the city of Ushuaia before boarding.

They said the couple visited a landfill during the tour and may have been exposed to rodents. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, with the investigation ongoing. Authorities previously said Ushuaia and surrounding Tierra del Fuego province had never recorded a hantavirus case.

Officials say those still on board show no symptoms

The Dutch foreign ministry said the three people evacuated were a 41-year-old Dutch national, a 56-year-old British national and a 65-year-old German national who would be transferred to specialized hospitals in Europe. WHO said Wednesday that testing in Senegal confirmed that two of the evacuees were infected with hantavirus.

Two of the evacuees remain in "serious condition," Dutch ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions said, and the third had no symptoms but was “closely associated” with a German passenger who died on the MV Hondius ship on May 2.

Health officials said passengers and crew members still on the ship are without symptoms and isolating in their cabins. Their journey to the Canary Islands will take three or four days, Spain’s health ministry said, adding that the arrival “won´t represent any risk for the public."

Still, the Canary Islands regional president, Fernando Clavijo, said he worried about the risk to the population and demanded a meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

WHO expert says this is ‘not the next COVID’

Authorities said passengers tested positive for the Andes virus, a species of hantavirus found in South America, primarily in Argentina and Chile. The virus can spread between people, though that’s rare and only through close contact, according to the WHO. The health agency has never seen a hantavirus outbreak on a ship.

“This is not the next COVID, but it is a serious infectious disease,” the WHO's top epidemic expert, Maria Van Kerkhove, said. “Most people will never be exposed to this.”

Two Dutch infectious diseases experts were joining the ship, Van Kerkhove said. Access to clinical care is important, she said, because infected people can develop severe acute respiratory distress and need oxygen or mechanical ventilation. There is no specific treatment or cure, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.

The hantavirus incubation period can be one to six weeks, or more, she said.

The ship's itinerary included stops across the South Atlantic, including mainland Antarctica and the remote islands of South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena and Ascension.

Officials rush to determine passenger's travel after leaving ship

Authorities in Switzerland said a former passenger who tested positive was being treated at a Zurich hospital. South African authorities earlier said two passengers who were transferred there tested positive. One, a British man, was in intensive care; the other collapsed and died in South Africa.

Swiss health office spokesperson Simon Ming said the patient there had left the ship during its St. Helena stop. It was not clear when or how he traveled to Switzerland and how many other countries he might have passed through.

The patient’s wife hasn’t shown symptoms but is self-isolating as a precaution, a statement by the office said.

“There is currently no risk to the Swiss public," the office said, while looking into whether the patient had come into contact with others.

South Africa looks for people who had possible contact

At St. Helena, the body of the Dutch man suspected to be the first hantavirus case on board was taken off the ship. His wife flew to South Africa, where she collapsed at the Johannesburg airport and died.

Later, a British man was evacuated at Ascension Island and taken to South Africa.

The ship's operator has not said if other people left at those or other locations.

The South African health ministry says officials have traced 42 out of 62 people, including health workers, they believe had contact with the two infected passengers who traveled there. The 42 tested negative for hantavirus.

But 20 people still need to be traced, including five people who may have been on flights to South Africa with some of the passengers as well as flight crew members.

Some may have now traveled overseas, the ministry said.

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DeBre reported from Buenos Aires and Furtula from Amsterdam. Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria; Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Mark Banchereau in Dakar, Senegal; Joseph Wilson in Barcelona; Geir Moulson in Berlin; Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Michelle Gumede and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg, contributed to this report.

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This version corrects to say the evacuated doctor is British.

Visitors came from France, China, Ivory Coast and Italy, including France’s ambassador to Tunisia, a symbolic gesture after two French citizens were among those killed in the 2023 attack. A national guardsman shot and killed five people at the El-Ghriba synagogue soon after the festival that year, spreading fear among the local Jewish population and international pilgrims.

Participants said about 500 people have attended this year’s pilgrimage, held on the Mediterranean island of Djerba from April 30 to May 6 to celebrate the Lag B’Omer Jewish holiday. Jews have lived in Tunisia since Roman times, and the pilgrimage remains central to the country’s small but long-standing Jewish community.

Inside the synagogue, the atmosphere was calm and devotional, while also buzzing with conversations and social exchanges. Worshippers lit candles, read sacred texts and wrote wishes on eggs later placed in a sacred cave within the complex, a tradition believed to bring blessings.

Among them was Redj Cahen, a Tunisian-Italian pilgrim who returned after missing last year’s gathering. “We are back, and we are proud to be Tunisian Jews,” he said. “It is a feeling you cannot explain. Only those who come here understand.”

The gathering draws both local worshippers and members of the diaspora returning to their ancestral roots and has long been seen as a symbol of coexistence, attracting Muslim visitors alongside Jewish pilgrims.

A visible but contained security presence surrounded the synagogue, while heavier measures were deployed at access points to the island, where police checkpoints and barricades controlled entry. Vehicles were searched and identification documents carefully inspected. Within Djerba, security was especially concentrated in Hara Seghira and Hara Kebira, the island’s main Jewish quarters.

Despite security worries, the traditional “Minara” procession took place for the first time since the 2023 attack, signaling a cautious easing of restrictions.

The Minara, a pyramid-shaped tower of gold and silver, is placed at the center of the synagogue. Women drape it with colorful scarves in a gesture associated with good fortune, fertility and marriage. A symbolic auction of paintings and Jewish religious items follows as part of a traditional fundraiser for the synagogue’s maintenance, after which the scarf-laden Minara is placed on a cart and paraded outside to the sounds of the traditional darbuka drum, singing and throwing of candy. It is later brought back into the synagogue, concluding one of the event’s pillar traditions.

The pilgrimage, one of the oldest in Africa, has historically drawn thousands from around the world. Attendance dropped sharply after the 2023 shooting outside the synagogue that killed two pilgrims and three security officers. The synagogue was also targeted by a 2002 truck bombing by al-Qaida that killed about 20 people.

“This year’s Ghriba pilgrimage marks a gradual return,” said former Tourism Minister René Trabelsi. “We are returning little by little.''

Trabelsi said Tunisian authorities had pushed to maintain the pilgrimage despite the challenges. The event plays an important role in supporting the local economy.

Khedir Hnaia, who has worked at the synagogue for more than three decades, welcomed the return of longtime visitors. “We would like to reflect a good image to the world, to bring back the glory of Ghriba and make it even better than how it used to be,” he said.

“We need to stand up for our country, we love Tunisia very much and in the same way our country stood up for us we will always stand up for it,” said Haim Haddad, a member of the pilgrimage organizing committee from Zarzis.

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Ben Mbarek reported from Tunis, Tunisia.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that Ukraine hadn’t abided by its own ceasefire, saying that air defenses shot down 53 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula and the Black Sea between Tuesday evening and dawn Wednesday.

Five people were killed by a Ukrainian drone strike on the city of Dzhankoi in Crimea, according to Russia-installed Gov. Sergei Aksyonov. He reported the casualties just after midnight, but posted about the attack itself more than 90 minutes earlier.

There had been no official sign from Moscow that it would heed Kyiv’s ceasefire, and there was little hope for a pause in hostilities as the war stretches into its fifth year following Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor. U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the war over the past year have come to nothing.

On Tuesday, Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine killed 27 people and wounded 120 others, all of them civilians, according to Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. On Wednesday, two Russian drones hit a kindergarten in the downtown area of Sumy city in northeastern Ukraine, killing a security guard and wounding two others, officials said. No children were there at the time.

Russian attacks since last Friday have killed at least 70 civilians and wounded more than 500, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said Wednesday, as the strikes hit 14 regions.

“What is particularly alarming is both the scale of civilian casualties and the extent of territory affected in only a few days,” said Danielle Bell, the mission’s head.

The war has killed more than 15,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.

Despite Kyiv's open-ended suspension of hostilities, Russia has continued shelling, with aerial strikes using drones and powerful glide bombs, and has attempted to break through Ukrainian defenses on the front line, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday on X.

“Russia’s choice is an obvious spurning of a ceasefire and of saving lives," Zelenskyy said.

“Russia must end the war it is currently waging,” he said, urging Moscow to call off its invasion. “The Russian side has our diplomatic proposals, and the only thing needed is Russia’s willingness to move toward real peace.”

Both sides have kept up long-range strike campaigns. On the roughly 1,250-kilometer (800-mile) front line, meanwhile, Russia's bigger army remains engaged in a slow-moving and costly slog against Ukraine's drone-heavy defenses.

Zelenskyy had announced the unilateral ceasefire after Russia said it would hold its own pause of hostilities on Friday and Saturday while it marks the 81st anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The Ukrainian leader said any breach of the ceasefire would trigger a military response.

European officials had welcomed Ukraine's unilateral move as a goodwill gesture illustrating its readiness for a peace settlement.

Russian forces launched 108 drones and three missiles overnight, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, with attacks continuing throughout the night and into Wednesday morning.

“Moscow once again ignored a realistic and fair call to end hostilities, supported by other states and international organizations,” Sybiha said in a post on X.

Moscow’s proposal to stop fighting later this week follows a pattern of Russia declaring short unilateral ceasefires during the war timed to coincide with various holidays, most recently Orthodox Easter.

Those suspensions of combat don’t produce any tangible results amid deep mistrust between the warring sides.

Sybiha said Russia’s actions exposed its calls for a separate ceasefire around May 9 as insincere. “Putin only cares about military parades, not human lives,” he said.

The diplomat called for increased international pressure on Moscow, including new sanctions, diplomatic isolation, accountability measures for war crimes and expanded military and civilian support for Ukraine.

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

A fighter jet shot out the rudder of the tanker in the Gulf of Oman as it tried to breach the American blockade of Iran’s ports, U.S. Central Command said in a social media post.

The attack occurred as Iran and the U.S. are officially in a ceasefire. Trump threatened Tehran with a new wave of bombing if a deal is not reached that includes opening the critical Strait of Hormuz.

Trump posted on social media that the two-month war could soon end and that oil and natural gas shipments disrupted by the conflict could restart. But he said that depends on Iran accepting a reported agreement that the president did not detail.

“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts,” Trump wrote.

Israel hits Beirut for first time since last month's ceasefire

Meanwhile, Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time since a ceasefire between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group was announced April 17. Fighting has continued since then in southern Lebanon.

The last strikes in Beirut were on April 8, when a series of massive Israeli attacks killed more than 350 people. More than 2,500 have died in Lebanon since fighting began March 2, two days after Israel and the U.S. launched the war on Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday’s strike, which came without warning, targeted a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force. Hezbollah did not immediately comment.

Trump suggests U.S. might force a deal with Tehran

Trump insisted Wednesday that Iranian officials want to end the war.

“We’re dealing with people that want to make a deal very much, and we’ll see whether or not they can make a deal that’s satisfactory to us,” the president said.

He suggested, both at the White House and on social media, that the U.S. could ultimately force a settlement.

“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts,” Trump said on social media, “and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.”

The White House believes it is near an agreement with Iran on a one-page memorandum to end the war, according to reporting by Axios. There is no deal yet, but provisions include a moratorium on Iranian uranium enrichment, lifting of U.S. sanctions, distribution of frozen Iranian funds and opening the strait for ships.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the possible agreement.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry told state TV that Tehran had “strongly rejected” U.S. proposals reported by Axios, but that it was still examining the latest proposed agreement.

A shaky ceasefire between the U.S. and Tehran has largely held since it began April 8. Pakistan hosted in-person talks last month between the two countries, but they failed to reach an agreement.

Trump suspended short-lived effort to force open safe passage

Trump sought to increase pressure on Tehran the day after he suspended a short-lived U.S. effort to force open a safe passage for commercial ships through the strait. The waterway was a vital passage for oil and gas supplies, fertilizer and other petroleum products before the war.

Only two American-flagged merchant ships are known to have passed through the U.S.-guarded route after it opened Monday. The U.S. military said it sank six Iranian small boats threatening civilian ships.

Iran’s effective closure of the strait has sent fuel prices skyrocketing, rattled the global economy and put enormous economic pressure on countries, including major powers such as China.

China's foreign minister called for a comprehensive ceasefire Wednesday after meeting in Beijing with Iran's top envoy. Wang Yi said his country was “deeply distressed” by the conflict, which began Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran.

China’s close economic and political ties to Tehran give it a unique position of influence. The Trump administration is pressing China to use that relationship to urge the Islamic Republic to open the strait.

Iranian envoy visits

China ahead of Trump

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi's visit to China came ahead of a planned trip by Trump to Beijing.

Trump is scheduled to attend a high-profile summit on May 14 and 15 with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump was the last U.S. president to visit China in 2017.

“We believe that a comprehensive ceasefire is urgently needed, that a resumption of hostilities is not acceptable,” Wang said in a video of the meeting.

The Chinese foreign minister said the conflict “has not only caused serious losses to the Iranian people, but also had a severe impact on regional and global peace.”

Araghchi told Iranian state TV that his visit included discussions of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's nuclear program and sanctions imposed on Tehran.

Trump has demanded a major rollback of Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

A statement published on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's website said China values Iran’s pledge not to pursue nuclear weapons while affirming its “legitimate right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

Shipper says strait shutdown costing $60M per week

Hundreds of merchant ships remain bottled up in the Persian Gulf, unable to reach the open sea without passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

A cargo container ship operated by the CMA CGM Group was damaged, and multiple crew members were wounded when it came under attack while transiting the strait Tuesday, the French shipping company said. It said the injured crew members were taken off the ship and received medical treatment.

Oil prices and shipping will not likely return to normal until the risk of attacks in the strait has receded, said Kaho Yu, head of energy and resources at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

“Refiners, shippers and commodity traders will remain cautious until there is clearer evidence that Hormuz disruptions will not re-escalate,” he said.

Among them is Hapag-Lloyd, one of the world's largest shipping companies. It said in a statement that the strait's shutdown is costing it around $60 million per week, with rising fuel and insurance costs hitting particularly hard. The company said alternate routes to other harbors or over land are limited.

The spot price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell to around $100 per barrel Wednesday, easing significantly from big price jumps earlier in the week. Crude sold for roughly $70 a barrel before the war began.

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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press writers E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing; Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo; David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany; Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.

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A previous version of this story misstated the name of the company that operates the container ship.

Aunque las cifras de visitantes siguen siendo pequeñas —en parte por los altos costos y el tiempo que puede requerir—, crecen tan rápido que científicos y ambientalistas están dando la voz de alarma.

Un brote mortal del inusual hantavirus a bordo de un barco neerlandés en un crucero polar de varias semanas ha llamado la atención sobre esta creciente tendencia del turismo.

La mayoría de las expediciones se dirigen a la península Antártica, uno de los lugares que se calientan más rápido en el mundo. De 2002 a 2020, se derritieron aproximadamente 149.000 millones de toneladas de hielo antártico por año, según la Administración Nacional de Aeronáutica y del Espacio.

Una ruta común consiste en viajar hacia el sur desde Argentina rumbo a la Antártida antes de dirigirse al norte por la costa de África, la misma ruta que tomó el crucero MV Hondius.

“Los sitios que verán en la Antártida son extremadamente únicos y no se pueden replicar en ningún otro lugar del planeta —las ballenas, las focas, los pingüinos, los icebergs—, todo es realmente impresionante y deja una enorme huella en la gente”, dijo Claire Christian, directora ejecutiva del grupo ambiental Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.

Crecimiento explosivo de los viajes al continente austral

En 2024, más de 80.000 turistas pisaron el vasto continente cubierto de hielo y 36.000 lo observaron desde la seguridad de los barcos, según datos recopilados por la Asociación Internacional de Operadores Turísticos de la Antártida.

La Unión Internacional de Científicos Preocupados estima que el turismo a la Antártida se ha multiplicado por diez en los últimos 30 años.

Esa cifra podría aumentar aún más en la próxima década a medida que bajen los costos, ya que entrarán en servicio más cascos capaces de navegar entre hielos y hay avances tecnológicos, señaló Hanne Nielsen, profesora titular de derecho antártico en la Universidad de Tasmania. Sus colegas en la universidad estiman que el número anual podría triplicarse o cuadruplicarse hasta superar las 400.000 visitas en ese periodo.

Algunos turistas llegan a la Antártida por el “turismo de última oportunidad”, conscientes de que el paisaje que se derrite está cambiando rápidamente, indicó Nielsen.

Riesgos de contaminación

Las autoridades no han señalado ninguna evidencia de contaminación proveniente del MV Hondius.

Sin embargo, bandadas de aves migratorias llevaron la gripe aviar desde Sudamérica a la Antártida en los últimos años, según los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades de Estados Unidos.

Ese brote llevó a la Asociación Internacional de Operadores Turísticos de la Antártida y a otros a endurecer las normas sobre la conducta y la higiene de los turistas para proteger a los visitantes de contaminarse. Para proteger el frágil ecosistema de especies invasoras, grandes y microscópicas, se indica a los visitantes que se mantengan alejados de los animales y que eviten tocar el suelo con cualquier cosa que no sean sus pies.

“Hay reglas que la gente debe cumplir cuando se dirige hacia el sur”, manifestó Nielsen, que describió sus cinco viajes en su papel anterior de guía. Tripulaciones y pasajeros usan aspiradoras, desinfectantes y cepillos para limpiar zapatos y equipos, eliminando insectos, plumas, semillas y tierra que transporta microbios.

“Entre la lengüeta y los cordones de las botas se pueden encontrar muchas cosas”, comentó.

Los cruceros han sufrido brotes de enfermedades como el norovirus, que puede propagarse rápidamente en los espacios reducidos de un barco. En 2020, un brote de COVID-19 en el Diamond Princess convirtió al crucero en una incubadora del entonces misterioso virus.

El hantavirus suele propagarse al inhalar excrementos de roedores contaminados.

El crucero del Hondius de isla en isla

La Organización Mundial de la Salud informó que el MV Hondius salió de Ushuaia, Argentina, el 1 de abril y visitó la Antártida y varias islas aisladas.

La OMS está investigando una posible transmisión de persona a persona en el crucero, explicó la doctora Maria Van Kerkhove, directora de preparación ante epidemias y pandemias de la OMS. Las autoridades sospechan que la primera persona infectada probablemente contrajo el virus antes de embarcar, precisó, y se les ha informado a los funcionarios que no hay ratas a bordo.

La Antártida se rige por el Tratado Antártico, que en 1959 consagró el territorio como una reserva científica utilizada únicamente con fines pacíficos. Una serie de normas posteriores “tienen como objetivo garantizar que todas las visitas, independientemente del lugar, no afecten negativamente el medio ambiente antártico ni sus valores científicos y estéticos”, según la secretaría del tratado.

Las empresas y las iniciativas científicas cumplen de manera voluntaria las directrices de bioseguridad y presentan evaluaciones de impacto ambiental para las operaciones en la Antártida.

El tratado se redactó cuando las cifras de turismo eran mucho más bajas, señaló Christian.

“La actividad debe regularse de manera adecuada, como se haría con cualquiera de los sitios ecológicos sensibles y valiosos del mundo”, señaló Christian desde Hiroshima, Japón, donde se preparaba para una Reunión Consultiva del Tratado Antártico. Allí se sumará a los llamados para reforzar las protecciones de los pingüinos, ballenas, aves marinas, focas y kril de la Antártida, criaturas diminutas en la base de la cadena alimentaria.

Por ahora, el atractivo de la frontera helada sigue atrayendo visitantes.

“Puedes dejar una huella en la Antártida y sigue ahí 50 años después”, afirmó Christian.

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El periodista de The Associated Press Mike Corder contribuyó desde La Haya, Países Bajos.

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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.

Now the league can focus on the play on the court which will feature the Las Vegas Aces looking for a fourth championship in five years, the return of Caitlin Clark after she missed most of last season with injuries, and the debut of expansion teams the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo.

The Aces have their core intact from last season's title run, including four-time league MVP A'ja Wilson. She was picked by a national media panel as the preseason AP Player of the Year. She became the highest paid player in WNBA history, earning a $5 million supermax contract extension over the next three years.

Las Vegas has won three of the last four championships with New York taking home the crown in 2024.

The Liberty look poised to challenge the Aces again with their Big Three of Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu all returning. Ionescu will miss at least the first couple of weeks of the season with a foot injury she suffered in the preseason finale over the weekend.

The Liberty added All-Star Satou Sabally in free agency and made a coaching change after last season's first-round exit in the playoffs. They replaced Sandy Brondello with former Golden State Warriors assistant Chris DeMarco. He's one of five new head coaches in the league.

Brondello didn’t stay unemployed long as she is the head coach of the Tempo — the league’s first team outside of the United States.

Clark played in only 13 games last year after a series of injuries cut short her sophomore season. The Indiana Fever star spent the offseason getting healthy and stronger and is ready to go.

Here are a few other tidbits for the upcoming season:

Free agent movement

While 80% of the players were free agents this offseason with the expected payday of the new CBA, a handful changed teams with coming home a major reason why.

Nneka Ogwumike returned to Los Angeles, Skylar Diggins went to Chicago, putting her closer to her hometown of South Bend, Indiana. Sabally came to New York where she was born.

Sunset season

The Sun will play their final season in Connecticut as the franchise will move to Houston next year after the team was sold to Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta. Connecticut has said that it will honor its past players and coaches over the course of the season. This will end a 23-year run by the team in New England after moving to Connecticut from Orlando in 2003.

Injured Lynx

Lynx star Napheesa Collier, who was the runner-up in MVP voting last year, will be out until at least early June while she recovers from ankle surgery she had in March. Collier also had surgery on her right ankle in early January.

“Right now, I’m just working as fast as I can with my doctors and my (physical therapy) staff, just trying to get back on the court,” Collier told reporters in training camp. “But everything is going well, so you’ll see me soon.”

The Lynx will rely on rookie Olivia Miles, who was the No. 2 pick in the WNBA draft last month. She was picked as the AP preseason Rookie of the Year.

Tune-in

A record 216 WNBA regular-season games and events will be available on multiple broadcast platforms throughout the year. The league will have games on ABC/ESPN, CBS, Amazon Prime Video, ION, NBC, USA Sports and NBA TV.

Predicted order of finish

Las Vegas was the preseason No. 1 team in the AP WNBA power poll, which is in its 10th season, The Liberty were second. New York was followed by Atlanta, Indiana, Los Angeles, Minnesota and Phoenix. Dallas was eighth with Golden State ninth. Chicago, Washington, Toronto, Seattle, Connecticut and Portland rounded out the poll. ___

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

While visitor numbers are still small — in part due to the high costs and time it can take — they are growing so fast that scientists and environmentalists are sounding alarms.

A deadly outbreak of the rare hantavirus aboard a Dutch ship on a weekslong polar cruise has brought attention to the growing tourism trend.

Most expeditions head to the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the fastest-warming places in the world. From 2002 to 2020, roughly 149 billion metric tons (164 billion tons) of Antarctic ice melted per year, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

A common route is to voyage south from Argentina toward Antarctica before heading north up the coast of Africa — the same route taken by the cruise ship MV Hondius.

“The sites you will see in Antarctica are extremely unique and not replicable anywhere else on the planet — the whales, the seals, the penguins, the icebergs — it’s all really stunning and it makes a huge impression on people,” said Claire Christian, executive director of the environmental group Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.

Explosive growth of trips to the southern continent

In 2024, more than 80,000 tourists touched down on the vast ice-cloaked continent and 36,000 viewed from the safety of ships, according to data collected by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.

The International Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that tourism to Antarctica has grown tenfold in the past 30 years.

That number could rise further in the next decade as costs fall with more ice-capable hulls hitting the water and technological advances, said Hanne Nielsen, a senior lecturer of Antarctic law at the University of Tasmania. Her colleagues at the university estimate the annual figure could triple or quadruple to over 400,000 visits in that time.

Some tourists come to Antarctica for “last chance tourism,” knowing the melting landscape is rapidly changing, Nielsen said.

Risks of contamination

Officials have not indicated any evidence of contamination from the MV Hondius.

However, flocks of migratory birds brought avian flu from South America to Antarctica in recent years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That outbreak prompted the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators and others to harden rules for tourists’ conduct and hygiene to protect visitors from being contaminated. To protect the fragile ecosystem from invasive species large and microscopic, visitors are told to stay away from animals and to avoid touching the ground with anything but their feet.

“There are rules that people are bound by when they’re heading south,” Nielsen said, describing her five voyages as a former guide. Crews and passengers use vacuums, disinfectants and brushes to scrub shoes and equipment clear of bugs, feathers, seeds and microbe-carrying dirt.

“Between the tongues and the laces of the boots you can find a lot of things,” she said.

Cruise ships have been struck by outbreaks of diseases like norovirus, which can spread quickly in a ship's close quarters. In 2020, a COVID-19 outbreak on the Diamond Princess turned the cruise ship into an incubator for the then-mysterious virus.

Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings.

The Hondius' island hopping cruise

The World Health Organization said Tuesday that MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 and visited Antarctica and several isolated islands.

WHO is investigating possible human-to-human transmission on the cruise ship, said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness. Officials suspect the first infected person likely contracted the virus before boarding, she said, and officials have been told there are no rats on board.

Antarctica is governed by the Antarctic Treaty, which in 1959 enshrined the territory as a scientific preserve used only for peaceful purposes. A series of rules that followed “aim to ensure that all visits, regardless of location, do not adversely impact the Antarctic environment or its scientific and aesthetic values,” according to the treaty’s secretariat.

Companies and scientific ventures voluntarily comply with biosecurity guidelines and submit environmental impact assessments for Antarctic operations.

The treaty was written when tourism numbers were much lower, Christian said.

“Activity needs to be regulated appropriately, as you would with any of the world’s sensitive and precious ecological sites,” Christian said from Hiroshima, Japan, where she was preparing for an Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. There she'll join calls to strengthen protections for Antarctica's penguins, whales, seabirds, seals and krill — tiny creatures at the base of the food chain.

For now, the lure of the frozen frontier continues to draw visitors.

“You can put a footprint in Antarctica and it’s still there 50 years later,” Christian said.

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Associated Press writer Mike Corder contributed from The Hague, Netherlands.

The Colorado Avalanche forward crunched Minnesota's Quinn Hughes and Matt Boldy in the third period as part of a big game where he scored a goal and notched two assists.

Just Nate being playoff Nate.

He downplayed the hits after a 5-2 win in Game 2 on Tuesday night gave Colorado a 2-0 lead in the second-round series with the Wild. He was modest about his offensive production as well.

“Just excited to play," said MacKinnon, who scored a league-leading 53 goals in the regular season. “Playoff hockey, obviously, the best the time of year. Just excited and just trying to have a good start.”

MacKinnon joined some exclusive company with his third straight three-point playoff game. The only players to accomplish that feat over the last 40 years are Leon Draisaitl (2022), Mikko Rantanen (2025), Joe Pavelski (2010), Joe Sakic (1997) and Dennis Maruk (1986), according to NHL Stats.

“He was unbelievable tonight on both sides of the puck,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “The physicality, the defending details, the hunger to check pucks back in all three zones, and the speed and pace that he played with early in the game — it was like he was shot out of a cannon.”

His teammates concurred.

“Having Nate makes my job a lot easier, for sure,” captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “He's our driving force offensively and tonight, really since the playoffs started, defensively, he's been a beast as well.”

MacKinnon was credited with two hits in the game — one on Hughes, which knocked the talented defenseman to the ice, and another on Boldy, who went hard into the boards.

“It wasn’t that big of a hit,” MacKinnon said of his collision with Hughes. "He’s one of the best players in the world and he’s so hard to contain and you’re just trying to do the best that you can. He’s going to create a lot of stuff. I think everyone’s being more physical. The whole team is trying to ramp that up.”

The Wild head home for Game 3 on Saturday searching for answers. They tried a new goaltender for Game 2 — going with Filip Gustavsson over Jesper Wallstedt — but the Avalanche still scored five goals. That, coupled with their nine-goal spurt in Game 1, gives them 14 for the series. It's the most in the first two games of a playoff series since the Calgary Flames had 15 against the Los Angeles Kings in 1988.

“They’re a great team. They play super-fast, super-dynamic,” Boldy said. "Obviously, they have some incredible players. The biggest thing is just staying above them and not giving them those odd-man rushes, because obviously they're pretty special players make special plays.”

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

Starmer’s center-left Labour Party is expected to take a battering in elections for local authorities across England and for semiautonomous legislatures in Scotland and Wales.

With the prime minister’s popularity in the doldrums from a weak economy and repeated questions about his judgment, rival parties are framing Thursday’s votes as a referendum on Starmer and his 2-year-old government. “Vote Reform, Get Starmer Out” is the campaign slogan of the hard-right party Reform UK.

The next national election does not have to be held until 2029, but a wipeout on Thursday could tip a restive Labour Party into revolt against its unpopular leader.

Less than two years after winning a landslide election victory, “Keir Starmer has become a vessel for people’s disappointment (and) disillusionment,” said Luke Tryl of pollster More in Common.

Polling day could be Starmer's judgment day

Starmer's popularity has plunged after repeated missteps since he became prime minister in July 2024. His government has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living — tasks made harder by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has choked off oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

The prime minister has been further hurt by his disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.

Labour is defending about 2,500 seats on English local councils, and party members are apprehensive it may lose many of them.

Forecasters suggest Labour will lose well over half of the 2,500 seats it is defending on English local councils. It is expected to lose votes to parties on both left and right — especially to the Green Party in London and Reform UK in working-class, former Labour strongholds in England’s north.

“These elections are a perilous, perilous moment for Keir Starmer,” said Tony Travers, professor in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics. He said that after a series of policy U-turns and in an economy where “there isn’t much money to spend on anything … his opponents are lining up.”

Starmer has already survived one crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers, including the party’s leader in Scotland, urged him to quit over the Mandelson appointment.

An election rout could trigger a snap leadership challenge from a high-profile rival such as Health Secretary Wes Streeting, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner or Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. Any challenger would need the support of 80 lawmakers, one-fifth of the party in the House of Commons, to trigger a contest. In Burnham’s case he would have to win election to Parliament before he could take over.

Alternately, Starmer could face pressure from the party to set a timetable for his departure after an orderly leadership contest.

“His parliamentary party are unsure as to whether now is the right time to unseat him,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “So there might be a stay of execution.”

But, Bale added, “it’s a case of when rather than if he goes.”

Polls point to fragmented politics and a fractured country

For decades, Labour losses would have been good news for its main rival, the right-of-center Conservative Party. But the Conservatives are tarnished by 14 tumultuous years in power that ended in 2024. In these elections, it’s Nigel Farage-led Reform UK, the left-leaning Greens and nationalist Welsh and Scottish parties that will likely be the main beneficiaries.

Opponents have heightened their scrutiny of Reform and the Greens in an effort to stop their rise. Farage is facing questions over a 5 million pound ($6.8 million) donation from a cryptocurrency billionaire that he accepted in 2024 but did not declare. He says it was a personal gift.

The environmentalist Greens, who have stressed their pro-Palestinian credentials under self-described “eco-populist” leader Zack Polanski, have fired several candidates for antisemitic social media posts.

Travers said Britain is moving from being a “two-and-a-half party system” — with the Liberal Democrats as the usual third party — “to something more like a five-party one.”

That is excellent news for Rhun ap Iorwerth, who leads Plaid Cymru (the Party of Wales) and stands a strong chance of leading that country’s semiautonomous government.

“The old politics is gone,” he said. “Labour is not going to win this election.”

A possible seismic shift on the horizon

Labour has dominated Welsh politics for a century and has held power in Cardiff since the Welsh government was established in 1999. Now it may be pushed into third place behind Plaid Cymru and Reform UK.

A Plaid victory would give three of the four parts of the U.K. pro-independence leaders. Northern Ireland is governed by Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein in a power-sharing arrangement with the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party.

The Scottish National Party, which has governed in Edinburgh since 2007, says it will push for a new referendum on independence if it wins a majority on Thursday. Scottish voters rejected leaving the U.K. in a 2014 vote.

Plaid Cymru says a secession vote isn’t on the agenda in the next few years, though independence remains the party’s ultimate goal. In the short term, it wants more power to raise taxes and more control over how money is spent.

“We need a fundamental redesign of Britain,” ap Iowerth said. “This is an unequal union.”

The fire started Tuesday in the Arghavan shopping center in Andisheh town in Tehran province. It was not clear what caused the blaze. Iran's state television IRIB said authorities were investigating.

Television footage showed firefighters battling the flames as large plumes of black smoke billowed from the multistory building.

There was no indication the blaze was linked to the U.S. war against Iran. A shaky ceasefire with the United States has been holding for around three weeks.