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At Optima Academy Online, a state-approved virtual school program, students attend class using VR headsets that immerse them in interactive learning environments — no traditional classroom walls required.

“When you put on the goggles, you log into your class,” said 10th grader Ryan Eddy.

For Ryan, virtual learning has become more than just an alternative to traditional school — it’s become a creative outlet.

“The VR helps a lot with trying to be creative,” he said.

What once sounded like the “classroom of the future” is now his everyday reality.

Ryan attends school virtually through Optima Academy Online, where students take classes in a fully immersive digital setting. His mother, Virginia Eddy, said the technology-driven format was one of the biggest reasons their family chose the program.

“One thing that attracted me was the virtual reality, the immersive learning,” she said.

Virginia explained she initially worried about Ryan’s safety and the distractions that can come with a traditional brick-and-mortar school environment. Since switching to virtual learning, she says she has noticed a dramatic difference in his focus and engagement.

“With this, I’ve noticed that he’s really just focused on school,” she said.

Now in his second year of virtual education, Ryan takes five to six classes a day. Some are live, teacher-led sessions, while others are self-paced and available on demand. Despite attending school from home, his mother says Ryan still maintains a healthy social life and participates in extracurricular activities, including playing baseball for a nearby school.

“It’s not homeschool — but it’s school from home,” said OptimaEd CEO Adam Mangana.

Mangana said the program was launched in 2021 with the goal of making online learning more immersive and engaging than traditional video conferencing platforms like Zoom. He compares the experience to the classic children’s television series The Magic School Bus.

“What we’re doing is essentially turning teachers into Miss Frizzle and taking students into the parts of a cell or back into ancient Rome,” Mangana said. “They’re doing this all in a social VR platform.”

According to Mangana, Optima Academy Online has quickly become one of the fastest-growing K-12 education models in the country. Through a partnership with the state of Florida, the program is tuition-free for students. The curriculum is state-approved, and the same technology is also being used in several elite private schools.

“This democratizes access and allows people to learn from anywhere in the state of Florida,” Mangana said.

While the rapid rise of AI and virtual reality in education may seem intimidating to some parents, Virginia Eddy said Ryan adapted quickly.

“The future is AI. The future is virtual reality,” she said. “He has that advantage, I feel, where he’s able to learn what you can’t learn in a regular school system.”

Mangana agrees that emerging technologies are reshaping education and says the focus should be on using them responsibly.

“AI and the metaverse are inevitable technologies,” he said. “These are things that most parents are already seeing impact their world. What we want is to create the proper guardrails.”

Currently, 228 K-12 students are enrolled in Optima Academy Online in South Florida.

En Optima Academy Online, un programa de escuela virtual aprobado por el estado, los estudiantes asisten a clases utilizando visores de realidad virtual que los sumergen en entornos de aprendizaje interactivos, sin necesidad de paredes de salón tradicionales.

“Cuando te pones los lentes, ingresas a tu clase”, dijo Ryan Eddy, estudiante de décimo grado.

Para Ryan, el aprendizaje virtual se ha convertido en más que una alternativa a la escuela tradicional: se ha convertido en una vía creativa.

“La realidad virtual ayuda mucho para tratar de ser creativo”, dijo.

Lo que alguna vez sonó como el “salón de clases del futuro” ahora es su realidad cotidiana.

Ryan asiste virtualmente a la escuela a través de Optima Academy Online, donde los estudiantes toman clases en un entorno digital completamente inmersivo. Su madre, Virginia Eddy, dijo que el formato impulsado por tecnología fue una de las principales razones por las que su familia eligió el programa.

“Una cosa que me atrajo fue la realidad virtual, el aprendizaje inmersivo”, dijo.

Virginia explicó que inicialmente le preocupaba la seguridad de Ryan y las distracciones que pueden surgir en un entorno escolar tradicional presencial. Desde que cambió al aprendizaje virtual, dijo que ha notado una diferencia dramática en su concentración y participación.

“Con esto, he notado que realmente está enfocado en la escuela”, dijo.

Ahora en su segundo año de educación virtual, Ryan toma entre cinco y seis clases al día. Algunas son sesiones en vivo dirigidas por maestros, mientras que otras son a su propio ritmo y están disponibles bajo demanda. A pesar de asistir a clases desde casa, su madre dijo que Ryan mantiene una vida social saludable y participa en actividades extracurriculares, incluyendo jugar béisbol para una escuela cercana.

“No es educación en casa, pero sí escuela desde casa”, dijo Adam Mangana, director ejecutivo de OptimaEd.

Mangana dijo que el programa fue lanzado en 2021 con el objetivo de hacer que el aprendizaje en línea fuera más inmersivo y atractivo que plataformas tradicionales de videoconferencia como Zoom. Comparó la experiencia con la clásica serie infantil de televisión The Magic School Bus.

“Lo que estamos haciendo es básicamente convertir a los maestros en Miss Frizzle y llevar a los estudiantes al interior de una célula o de regreso a la antigua Roma”, dijo Mangana. “Todo esto lo hacen en una plataforma social de realidad virtual”.

Según Mangana, Optima Academy Online se ha convertido rápidamente en uno de los modelos educativos K-12 de más rápido crecimiento en el país. A través de una alianza con el estado de Florida, el programa es gratuito para los estudiantes. El currículo está aprobado por el estado y la misma tecnología también se utiliza en varias escuelas privadas de élite.

“Esto democratiza el acceso y permite que las personas aprendan desde cualquier lugar del estado de Florida”, dijo Mangana.

Aunque el rápido crecimiento de la IA y la realidad virtual en la educación puede parecer intimidante para algunos padres, Virginia Eddy dijo que Ryan se adaptó rápidamente.

“El futuro es la IA. El futuro es la realidad virtual”, dijo. “Él tiene esa ventaja, siento yo, de poder aprender lo que no se puede aprender en un sistema escolar regular”.

Mangana coincide en que las tecnologías emergentes están transformando la educación y dijo que el enfoque debe estar en utilizarlas de manera responsable.

“La IA y el metaverso son tecnologías inevitables”, dijo. “Son cosas que la mayoría de los padres ya están viendo impactar su mundo. Lo que queremos es crear las barreras de protección adecuadas”.

Actualmente, 228 estudiantes de K-12 están inscritos en Optima Academy Online en el sur de Florida.

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The event is scheduled for 11 a.m. in Miami.

DeSantis, who spoke in front of a wall graphic that said “Supporting Safe Schools” is expected to sign House Bill 757, a school safety measure that expands Florida’s school guardian program and increases penalties related to firearm offenses near schools.

The measure “requires sheriffs to assist public postsecondary educational institutions in implementing guardian programs,” and allows colleges and universities to participate in the program, according to the Florida Senate website. It also directs sheriffs to establish or coordinate guardian training programs under certain conditions.

It states the legislation further “creates a new offense” for discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school and requires individuals arrested for certain offenses to remain in custody until they appear before a judge for bail consideration.

It also places the new offense on the state’s Criminal Punishment Code severity ranking chart and gives education boards authority to adopt related rules.

Additional details are expected during the news conference.

This story will have updates. Watch Local 10 or refresh the page for the latest information.

La portavoz de Miami Beach, Melissa Berthier, confirmó que la rotura ocurrió alrededor de las 3 a.m. cerca de Prairie Avenue y Dade Boulevard, al norte del centro de convenciones.

Sky 10 sobrevoló la escena alrededor de las 10:40 a.m., donde se observó a trabajadores removiendo el pavimento para acceder a la tubería principal mientras el tráfico pesado se acumulaba en el área.

Indicaron que solo un edificio residencial fue colocado bajo aviso de hervir el agua, mientras que el servicio en las áreas circundantes permaneció sin afectaciones.

Los funcionarios también exhortaron a los conductores a evitar la intersección mientras avanzan los trabajos de reparación.

Indicaron que se esperaba que las reparaciones concluyeran antes de finalizar el viernes.

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Miami Beach spokesperson Melissa Berthier confirmed that the water main break happened around 3 a.m. near Prairie Avenue and Dade Boulevard, north of the convention center.

Sky 10 flew over the scene around 10:40 a.m., where workers were seen digging up pavement to get to the water main as heavy traffic backed up in the area.

They said only one residential building was placed under a boil water notice, while service in surrounding areas remained otherwise unaffected.

Officials also urged drivers to avoid the intersection as repair work gets underway.

They said repairs were expected to be completed by the end of the day Friday.

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Witnesses said they heard a shooting shortly before 3 a.m., and a helicopter flying over at about 5 a.m. near Royal Palm Boulevard and Riverside Drive.

Police officers used a white tent and a tarp to cover the victim’s body near the garbage area of Coral Park East, a community of townhomes.

There was also crime scene tape near the pool of a neighboring apartment building at the Coral Springs Tower Club community, and there appeared to be an assault rifle in the water.

Police officers also used crime scene tape to block access to a sports utility vehicle with blood marks.

Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 to remain anonymous.

El evento está programado para comenzar a las 11 a.m., según información divulgada por la oficina del gobernador.

No se divulgaron de inmediato detalles adicionales sobre el tema o los temas de la conferencia de prensa.

Esta historia será actualizada. Vea Local 10 o actualice la página para obtener la información más reciente.

The all-Republican court dealt a blow to Gov. Greg Abbott and state Republicans in their efforts to severely punish the more than 50 Democrats who bolted for New York, Illinois and Massachusetts in a bid to stop a vote on the maps during a special session. State Republicans had sought their arrest and threatened fines to bring them back to the state Capitol.

Abbott had argued in a lawsuit filed directly to the state’s highest civil court that state Rep. Gene Wu, the leader of the House Democratic caucus, and others had effectively abandoned their office.

Wu had argued that he was not abandoning his office in the quorum break, but was exercising a right to dissent.

In denying Abbott’s request, the court opinion written by Justice James Blacklock noted that the Republican-majority Legislature had adequately resolved the problem itself through measures such as fines against the missing lawmakers, and that they eventually returned on their own within a few weeks.

“In the end, a quorum was restored in two weeks’ time, without judicial intervention, by the interplay of political and practical forces,” Blacklock wrote.

“Courts have uniformly recognized that it is not their role to resolve disputes between the other two branches that those branches can resolve for themselves,” the opinion said.

If the issue rises again and the Legislature cannot effectively compel lawmakers to return, the court may someday consider whether the courts should step in, the opinion said.

“When Greg Abbott threatened to arrest and expel us for denying him a quorum, we told him he should ‘come and take it.’ He tried!” Wu said in a statement Friday. “Abbott was wrong, weak, and after all his bluster, he couldn’t come and take a damn thing.”

Wu and the other lawmakers eventually returned to Texas, and the new map was passed and signed into law by Abbott.

Wu had argued that because he had returned to the Capitol and the map was eventually signed into law, there was no longer any reason for the court to weigh in.

“Their return is robust proof that they never intended to abandon their offices,” Wu argued in legal briefs. “Despite the overheated rhetoric, this quorum break was always understood to be temporary.”

The Texas walkout intensified into a high-stakes national drama as Trump urged Texas and other GOP-controlled states to redraw their congressional districts to help Republicans maintain control of the U.S. House. The Texas map effort set off a wave of similar efforts across several states as governors from both parties pledged to redraw maps with the goal of giving their political candidates a leg up in the 2026 midterm elections.

El informe indica que los investigadores vincularon a Jean Felix Fuentes-Gonzalez, de 39 años, con el asesinato de Rudy Quesada el 2 de febrero de 2024 mediante evidencia balística, pruebas de ADN y similitudes entre el homicidio en Miami y una balacera anterior en un motel de Hialeah que Quesada sobrevivió meses antes de su muerte.

La policía de Miami informó que los agentes respondieron alrededor de las 12:45 a.m. del 2 de febrero de 2024 al Ernesto Motel, ubicado en 4001 W. Flagler St., en referencia a una persona baleada.

Los agentes dijeron que encontraron a Quesada inconsciente en el suelo afuera de la habitación 18 del motel con múltiples heridas de bala. Personal de Miami Fire Rescue lo declaró muerto en la escena aproximadamente a las 12:59 a.m., según el informe.

La policía indicó que la novia de Quesada, Katherine Lopez, abrió la puerta de la habitación del motel cuando los agentes tocaron, pero dijo a los investigadores que no sabía del tiroteo. Posteriormente fue llevada a la estación de policía para ser interrogada.

Las autoridades dijeron que, durante una entrevista horas después, Lopez dijo a los detectives que mantenía una relación con Quesada y vivía con él en el motel.

También dijo a los investigadores que Quesada había sido baleado anteriormente múltiples veces en Hialeah por un “sospechoso desconocido”, según el informe.

Esa balacera anterior ocurrió el 10 de agosto de 2023 en el Hialeah Airport Motel, ubicado en 131 W. Fifth St.

Según los investigadores, los agentes que respondieron a esa balacera encontraron a Quesada con múltiples heridas de bala dentro de una habitación del motel. Fue trasladado al Ryder Trauma Center del Hospital Jackson Memorial, sometido a cirugía y sobrevivió.

La policía dijo que un video de vigilancia de la balacera en Hialeah mostraba al pistolero usando un gorro verde tipo skully, gafas de sol, guantes de trabajo de color claro y zapatos de dos tonos. Los investigadores dijeron que el sospechoso llegó y huyó en un vehículo robado.

Según el informe, Quesada dijo posteriormente a los detectives que durante el forcejeo logró quitarle el gorro skully al tirador. Los detectives dijeron que recuperaron el gorro, junto con mechones de cabello, en la escena.

Las autoridades dijeron que su investigación posteriormente conectó a Fuentes-Gonzalez con ambas balaceras.

Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade dijeron que realizaron una parada de tráfico el 24 de junio de 2025 en una gasolinera U Gas en Miami y recuperaron una pistola Polymer 80 de 9 mm de una Toyota Tacoma registrada a nombre de Fuentes-Gonzalez. Los investigadores dijeron que el arma coincidía con los casquillos recuperados en la escena del asesinato en Miami.

Indicaron que Fuentes-Gonzalez y Lopez estaban dentro del vehículo en ese momento y fueron arrestados por cargos relacionados con narcóticos.

Los detectives también confirmaron que Fuentes-Gonzalez y Lopez mantenían una relación de más de cinco años y vivían juntos en el suroeste de Miami-Dade, a pesar de tener un “historial reportado de violencia doméstica”.

Los investigadores señalaron que la vivienda estaba cerca del lugar donde fue abandonado el vehículo robado utilizado en la balacera de Hialeah.

Según el informe, los detectives también descubrieron que Fuentes-Gonzalez había sido arrestado por la policía de Miami en septiembre de 2023 en un caso no relacionado de vehículo robado mientras presuntamente usaba una peluca larga negra, un gorro negro tipo skully y ropa similar a la utilizada por el tirador en Hialeah.

Durante ese arresto, los agentes recuperaron un revólver, gafas de sol, guantes de trabajo y tenis de dos tonos que, según los investigadores, eran “consistentes con los artículos utilizados en la balacera de Hialeah”.

Las autoridades determinaron posteriormente que el revólver coincidía con un proyectil recuperado en la escena del crimen en Hialeah, según el informe.

Los investigadores también dijeron que Fuentes-Gonzalez fue arrestado nuevamente en octubre de 2023 después de que la policía lo encontrara dentro de un vehículo robado estacionado en el Ernesto Motel, el mismo lugar donde Quesada sería asesinado más tarde.

Según el informe, pruebas del laboratorio criminalístico de Miami-Dade confirmaron que el ADN recuperado del arma homicida coincidía con Fuentes-Gonzalez. Pruebas adicionales encontraron posteriormente que la sangre recuperada de un zapato dentro de su mochila coincidía con el ADN de Quesada, dijeron los investigadores.

El informe también indica que un análisis de fibras realizado por el Departamento de Cumplimiento de la Ley de Florida encontró que las fibras recuperadas en la escena de la balacera en Hialeah eran “consistentes” con la peluca recuperada de Fuentes-Gonzalez durante su arresto en 2023.

Fuentes-Gonzalez ya había sido acusado en relación con la balacera de Hialeah, pero las autoridades ahora añadieron un cargo de asesinato en primer grado por la muerte de Quesada.

El ciudadano chileno ha permanecido encarcelado desde el 15 de marzo y continúa detenido sin derecho a fianza en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight. Los registros de la cárcel muestran que también tiene una retención migratoria.

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The report states that investigators tied Jean Felix Fuentes-Gonzalez, 39, to the Feb. 2, 2024 killing of Rudy Quesada through ballistic evidence, DNA testing and similarities between the Miami homicide and an earlier Hialeah motel shooting that Quesada survived months before his death.

Miami police said officers responded around 12:45 a.m. Feb. 2, 2024, to the Ernesto Motel, located at 4001 W. Flagler St., in reference to a person shot.

Officers said they found Quesada unresponsive on the ground outside Room 18 of the motel with multiple gunshot wounds. Miami Fire Rescue personnel pronounced him dead at the scene at approximately 12:59 a.m., according to the report.

Police said Quesada’s girlfriend, Katherine Lopez, opened the motel room door when officers knocked but told investigators she was unaware of the shooting. She was later taken to the police station for questioning.

They said during an interview hours later, Lopez told detectives she had been in a relationship with Quesada and was living with him at the motel.

She also told investigators that Quesada had previously been shot multiple times in Hialeah by an “unknown suspect,” according to the report.

That earlier shooting occurred on Aug. 10, 2023, at the Hialeah Airport Motel, located at 131 W. Fifth St.

According to investigators, officers responding to that shooting found Quesada suffering from multiple gunshot wounds inside a motel room. He was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, underwent surgery and survived.

Police said surveillance video from the Hialeah shooting showed the gunman wearing a green skully cap, sunglasses, light-colored work gloves and two-toned shoes. Investigators said the suspect arrived and fled in a stolen vehicle.

According to the report, Quesada later told detectives that during the struggle he removed the skully cap from the shooter’s head. Detectives said they recovered the cap, along with hair strands, from the scene.

Authorities said their investigation later connected Fuentes-Gonzalez to both shootings.

Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies said they conducted a traffic stop on June 24, 2025, at a U Gas station in Miami and recovered a Polymer 80 9 mm gun from a Toyota Tacoma registered to Fuentes-Gonzalez. Investigators said the gun matched shell casings recovered from the Miami murder scene.

They said Fuentes-Gonzalez and Lopez were both inside the vehicle at the time and were arrested on narcotics charges.

Detectives also confirmed that Fuentes-Gonzalez and Lopez had been in a relationship for more than five years and lived together in southwest Miami-Dade despite having a “reported history of domestic violence.”

Investigators noted the home was near where the stolen vehicle used in the Hialeah shooting had been abandoned.

According to the report, detectives further discovered that Fuentes-Gonzalez had been arrested by Miami police in September 2023 in an unrelated stolen vehicle case while allegedly wearing a long black wig, black skully cap and clothing similar to those worn by the Hialeah shooter.

During that arrest, officers recovered a revolver, sunglasses, work gloves and two-toned sneakers that investigators said were “consistent with items used in the Hialeah shooting.”

Authorities later determined that the revolver matched a projectile recovered from the Hialeah crime scene, according to the report.

Investigators also said Fuentes-Gonzalez had been arrested again in October 2023 after police found him inside a stolen vehicle parked at the Ernesto Motel — the same location where Quesada would later be killed.

According to the report, Miami-Dade crime lab testing confirmed that DNA recovered from the murder weapon matched Fuentes-Gonzalez. Additional testing later found that blood recovered from a shoe inside his backpack matched Quesada’s DNA, investigators said.

The report also states that fiber analysis conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found that strands recovered from the Hialeah shooting scene were “consistent” with the wig recovered from Fuentes-Gonzalez during his 2023 arrest.

Fuentes-Gonzalez had previously been charged in connection with the Hialeah shooting, but authorities have now added a first-degree murder charge in Quesada’s killing.

The Chilean national has been jailed since March 15 and remains held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Jail records show he also has an immigration hold.

Speaking to reporters as he flew back from a trip to China, Trump said Xi told him he would give serious consideration to the case of Ezra Jin Mingri, pastor of an underground church detained in China in October in what observers have called an escalating crackdown on religious freedom.

“He said he’s gonna strongly consider the pastor," Trump said.

Trump said that the case of Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy Apple Daily who was accused of anti-China activities, was much more difficult for the Chinese president. “He told me that would be a tough one,” Trump said.

The families of both Jin and Lai said they appreciated Trump for raising their cases with Xi.

Jin's Zion Church is among the largest so-called underground or house churches that are unregistered with the Chinese authorities. They defy Chinese government restrictions requiring believers to worship only in registered congregations.

His daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, said Friday that the family and supporters are “overjoyed” to hear what Trump had said about her father.

“It’s truly nothing short of miraculous!” she wrote to The Associated Press in a message. “We could not be more grateful to President Trump and his skillful administration for pressing the case!”

Despite Trump's far less optimistic tone on Lai, the former media mogul's daughter, Claire Lai, said she also was grateful to Trump and his administration for the commitment shown to her father’s release.

“He has earned his reputation as liberating the unjustly detained and I am confident he and his administration will be the ones to free my father,” she said in a message to the AP.

She called this moment an opportunity for Xi to do “the only just and honorable thing” for Lai and to show a gesture of good will to the world by releasing a man she said had dedicated himself to Hong Kong.

Activists say Beijing is becoming less willing to release prisoners who have confronted the government over human rights under Xi’s rule. In 2017, the Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo died at a hospital in northeast China even after foreign governments urged China to release him for cancer treatment abroad.

Before his arrest, Lai, 78, was critical of Xi and the ruling Communist Party. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February under a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 that has virtually silenced dissent in Hong Kong.

Lai was found guilty of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and conspiring with others to publish seditious articles. His pro-democracy Apple Daily was shut down during a crackdown following massive anti-government protests that rocked the city in 2019.

Observers said Lai’s plight symbolizes a decline in freedoms that Beijing had promised when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Foreign governments, including the U.S. and U.K., have raised concerns about Lai for years. But the Hong Kong government insists his case had nothing to do with press freedom.

On Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry said Lai had been a key planner of anti-China activities that aimed at destabilizing Hong Kong, and said that the city’s affairs are China’s internal affairs.

____

Tang reported from Washington. AP journalist Emily Wang in Washington contributed.

In a Friday morning social media post, Trump said the National Garden of American Heroes would be built in West Potomac Park, a space near the National Mall that includes the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. The area is also home to several fields and volleyball courts regularly used by local sports groups.

Trump described the area in his post as a “totally BARREN field of Prime Waterfront Real Estate along our Mighty Potomac River.”

The president has said the garden would commemorate America's 250th anniversary with sculptures recognizing 250 prominent Americans who have made significant cultural, political and other historical contributions to the country. He first raised the idea during Fourth of July celebrations in 2020 and has framed it as a response to protests that resulted in the removal of controversial monuments, including those that commemorated slave owners and Confederate leaders.

In the final days of his first term, Trump, a Republican, signed an executive order naming 244 people including Ronald Reagan and Jackie Robinson who should be honored with statues in the garden. The idea languished under President Joe Biden, a Democrat, but Congress provided $40 million under Trump's big tax and spending cuts law last year to procure the statues included in his executive orders.

That may not be enough, however, to constitute the type of approval typically needed for major projects on or near the National Mall. Federal law requires projects and memorials to get a sign-off from multiple design and planning groups.

The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it was seeking such approvals and or whether contracts have been awarded for the statues.

Washington's monumental core is one of the nation's most closely regulated spaces, with the goal of protecting sight lines and preventing new construction that would undermine the area's history. Between the approvals process, design disputes and funding challenges, changes in the area can take years — or even decades — to reach completion. One of the newest additions near the National Mall, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, took 21 years to finish after Congress initially approved it in 1999.

Trump and his supporters have shown little interest in following such procedures. He moved quickly this month to drain and repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. He suddenly demolished the East Wing of the White House last year to build a ballroom. Trump's name has been added to the facade of the Kennedy Center, which he plans to close later this summer for a two-year renovation.

Just this week, workers began preliminary surveys and testing of the proposed site of a triumphal arch Trump is seeking between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. Part of the site was fenced off, and pink flags typically used as survey markings were planted in the grass.

And the Trump administration is moving forward with plans to transform East Potomac Park from an accessible public golf course into what Trump has described as a “U.S. Open-caliber course.” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Thursday released a design plan for the new course that he said would provide “championship-quality golf at affordable, highly discounted rates.”

The plan provided few details on how open the park, which is frequently used by local runners and bikers, would remain to the general public.

Virtually all of the projects have become subject to litigation.

At just 22 years old, the Miami musician, scholar and aspiring attorney has already overcome challenges that many could scarcely imagine. Yet through every obstacle, Plata has held tightly to his faith, his joy and his determination to live life fully.

As his tenor voice rises over piano keys, Plata is not simply performing music — he is telling the story of his life.

“God can turn what the world sees as adversity or an impossible situation into something that propels you forward,” he said.

Music has become both his passion and his testimony. But the melody of his life did not begin easily.

As an infant, Plata was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma, a rare form of retinal cancer that affected both of his eyes.

“I got diagnosed with bilateral retinal blastoma, a retina cancer in both eyes,” he recalled.

The cancer progressed so aggressively that doctors had no choice but to remove both of his eyes surgically.

“It had developed so much that really there was no other alternative than to eventually have both of my eyes removed via surgery,” Plata said. “What you see here today, these are prosthetics.”

Plata received his first set of prosthetic eyes when he was 3 years old in 2007. That same year, Local 10 first introduced viewers to the young boy and his family. The community responded with an outpouring of support, helping raise funds to cover the cost of the prosthetics.

More than a decade later, Plata still remembers that generosity.

“It truly means a lot to me,” he said. “I have so much gratitude in my heart.”

That gratitude has fueled a remarkable journey.

Over the years, Plata transformed his love of music into extraordinary talent, performing at professional sporting events, mastering multiple instruments and captivating audiences with his voice.

He now plays five instruments, including piano, drums and ukulele — an instrument he taught himself to play by ear.

His dedication and musical excellence eventually led him to the University of Miami’s prestigious Frost School of Music, where he earned a full vocal scholarship.

“It has been the best four years of my life, honestly,” Plata said.

Those years culminated in another milestone: graduating summa cum laude with degrees in vocal performance and political science.

And his journey is only beginning.

This fall, Plata will attend the University of Miami School of Law on yet another full scholarship after receiving the school’s Dean’s Merit Scholarship.

“It was this February that I found out that I was not only admitted to the school but I was being offered a dean’s merit scholarship,” he said.

Throughout every stage of his life — from childhood surgeries to standing ovations and academic honors — Local 10 has continued documenting the remarkable young man’s journey.

His story is one of perseverance, but also of faith.

Demonstrating that fulfillment comes from walking by faith, not by sight, as Plata says his blindness has never prevented him from seeing life clearly.

“God has a good sense of irony, I like to say,” he said. “I live in a physical darkness, but I can say that I do have the best light in the world.”

There are many people Plata credits for helping shape his success, including the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and the Doral Conservatory of Music, which helped develop his musical gifts. Above all, he honors his parents — his mother, Ileana, and his father, Silvio Sr., who has since passed away.

As Plata closes one chapter and prepares for another at law school, his story continues to inspire.

In three years, there is little doubt many will once again celebrate him — this time at his law school graduation.

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Detectives arrested Janet Hernandez on Thursday after the woman’s son installed a Ring surveillance camera that recorded videos showing her carrying full garbage bags to her 2011 white Chevrolet SUV, according to the M-DSO deputy’s report.

“She was also captured taking a new generator, pottery, plates, cleaning items, and other random miscellaneous items from inside the residence and placing them inside her vehicle,” a deputy wrote, according to the report.

Hernandez, who was working for United Homecare at the victim’s home in Miami Lakes, published a video showing her wearing “a unique gold cross pendant that was also missing from the residence” on Facebook in March, according to the deputy’s report.

Hernandez faced charges of theft from the elderly and third-degree grand theft.

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

That goes some way to explaining this month's showdown with a champion kickboxer in Egypt on May 23. Just don't expect to see him in the ring with YouTube star Jake Paul anytime soon.

“I don't know because Jake (is) my friend now,” Usyk told The Associated Press when discussing the potential of following Anthony Joshua and taking on the influencer-turned-prizefighter. “With Jake (a) fight is not possible, I think.”

Not that Usyk — the unified heavyweight world champion — is dismissive of the growing trend for boxers to take on ever more unusual and lucrative fights against opponents from different sports or different worlds entirely.

Jake and his brother Logan Paul found fame as YouTubers with millions of followers on the video-streaming platform and have gone on to fight legendary boxers Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather. Mayweather also fought UFC champion Conor McGregor and kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa.

In December, Jake Paul took on his most audacious challenge yet when he was knocked out by Joshua, the former two-time heavyweight champion.

The fight demanded attention around the world because, unlike Tyson and Mayweather, Joshua is 36 and still competing at the top of the sport for the biggest titles. Jake Paul was knocked out in six rounds and said his jaw was broken in two places.

Usyk says he understands the appeal of such fights, even if they are criticized by some boxing purists.

"It’s a media fight aimed at drawing even more people into professional boxing and combat sports in general. You know how it was when we were kids watching movies. ‘Who’s stronger, (Jean-Claude) Van Damme or Chuck Norris? Or (Sylvester) Stallone, or someone else?’

“Everything that happens in today’s world is a show, it’s all like a movie. And we are simply actors in that movie.”

The undefeated Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) is 39 and nearing the end of his career. He is planning three more fights ending with his “last dance” against Tyson Fury, who he has already defeated twice.

First up, however, is a title defense against Rico Verhoeven at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

The 37-year-old Verhoeven is a champion kickboxer from the Netherlands, who has only fought once professionally as a boxer in 2014. He won that fight and is 66-10 with 21 KOs as a kickboxer.

Usyk describes it as another “very good media fight” even if he has had to defend his decision to take on such a boxing novice, rather than leading challengers for his belts like WBO champion Fabio Wardley.

“Rico is the absolute world champion in kickboxing and I am in boxing. For the fans, that’s not bad,” Usyk said. “Most people don’t really understand professional sports. They just watch the picture, and people want bread and circuses. We, in turn, went through a certain period of conquering and achieving results. Now we’ll make some noise for a while and then return to specifically boxing opponents because there is a certain plan that we are building for ourselves.”

Even if many people see the fight as a mismatch, Usyk says his preparations are as serious as ever and he has been working on cognitive training techniques to further improve his skills.

According to the British Psychological Society, cognitive training is about treating the brain like a muscle and regularly exercising it via methods such as games or problem solving.

Usyk says it speeds up his decision-making in the ring.

“Boxing is not chess — you have to think quickly in there,” he says.

He has taken a role as chief discipline officer for language learning app Promova, which he says he incorporates into his training regime.

“For example, someone says a word to me in Ukrainian and I have to answer in English, or he says something in English and I have to translate it. All of this keeps intensifying, and your head feels like it’s exploding,” he said.

With all that brain training, getting into the ring is almost a relief.

“In the ring, when I’m boxing, for me, that’s where I’m really ecstatic," Usyk said. "I don’t like training. I don’t like doing this incredible work every single day. But I know it will simply help me perform better in the ring.”

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Associated Press reporter Illia Novikov in Kyiv contributed to this report.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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

El reporte surgió el mismo día en que el director de la CIA, John Ratcliffe, y otros delegados del gobierno de Estados Unidos viajaron a Cuba para una reunión de alto nivel con funcionarios cubanos.

Fotos publicadas en la cuenta de X de la CIA mostraron a Ratcliffe reunido con funcionarios cubanos durante la visita. Las autoridades cubanas dijeron que aceptaron la reunión para asegurar a los líderes estadounidenses que Cuba no representa una amenaza para Estados Unidos.

Para muchos en la comunidad cubana exiliada del sur de Florida, la presunta acusación representa un paso esperado desde hace mucho tiempo hacia la rendición de cuentas por el ataque de 1996, que mató a cuatro miembros de la organización humanitaria Hermanos al Rescate, con sede en Miami, después de que aviones militares cubanos derribaran dos aeronaves civiles sobre aguas internacionales.

“Ese es un buen paso, pero al mismo tiempo no concuerda políticamente que estén tratando de relacionarse con un régimen mientras intentan acusar a su líder”, dijo el exiliado cubano Ramón Saúl Sánchez.

Sánchez también pidió cautela hasta que surjan más detalles sobre las conversaciones de la delegación estadounidense con funcionarios cubanos.

“Hasta que conozcamos todos los detalles de la reunión, qué se propuso al régimen, qué respondieron, no podemos decir categóricamente que esto será bueno”, dijo Sánchez.

El acercamiento diplomático ocurre en medio de continuas tensiones entre Washington y La Habana. El secretario de Estado Marco Rubio acusó recientemente al gobierno cubano de bloquear esfuerzos de ayuda humanitaria.

“Hemos ofrecido distribuir $100,000,000 USD en ayuda humanitaria al pueblo a través de la iglesia y el régimen lo ha rechazado”, dijo Rubio en una entrevista reciente con Fox News.

El presidente cubano Miguel Díaz-Canel respondió diciendo que Cuba no rechazaría asistencia humanitaria legítima de Estados Unidos.

“Si realmente existe disposición por parte del gobierno de Estados Unidos de brindar ayuda en las cantidades que anuncia, no encontrará obstáculos ni ingratitud por parte de Cuba”, dijo Díaz-Canel.

Los acontecimientos también se desarrollan mientras Cuba enfrenta una creciente crisis económica y energética. Residentes en toda la isla continúan soportando apagones generalizados y escasez de combustible, lo que ha provocado nuevas protestas en varias comunidades.

El ministro de Energía y Minas de Cuba advirtió que las reservas de combustible del país casi han desaparecido.

“Petróleo crudo, fueloil, del cual no tenemos absolutamente nada; diésel, del cual no tenemos absolutamente nada”, dijo el ministro en declaraciones traducidas del español. “Lo único que tenemos es gas de nuestros pozos”.

Funcionarios cubanos dijeron que un envío de petróleo enviado por Rusia el mes pasado fue el único gran alivio de combustible de la isla desde enero, pero esas reservas ya se agotaron.

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Online jail records show Jeffrey Lamar Eubanks, 52, faces charges of vehicular homicide, disobeying a red light and careless driving.

According to Hallandale Beach police, the crash occurred at about 11:40 p.m. on April 14 in the 1800 block of South Ocean Drive.

Detectives said Eubanks was driving northbound at about 65 mph in a 35 mph zone and then failed to stop at a red light before striking the victim, who was crossing the roadway in the marked crosswalk.

Police said Eubanks turned himself in on Thursday.

He appeared in court Friday morning and was ordered held on a $30,000 bond. The judge also ordered that if he posts bond, he is not allowed to leave the tri-county area and is not allowed to drive.

At the time of publishing, Eubanks was being held in the Broward County Main Jail.

Los registros de la cárcel en línea muestran que Jeffrey Lamar Eubanks, de 52 años, enfrenta cargos de homicidio vehicular, no obedecer una luz roja y conducir de manera negligente.

Según la policía de Hallandale Beach, el choque ocurrió alrededor de las 11:40 p.m. del 14 de abril en la cuadra 1800 de South Ocean Drive.

Los detectives dijeron que Eubanks conducía hacia el norte a unas 65 mph en una zona de 35 mph y luego no se detuvo en una luz roja antes de atropellar a la víctima, quien cruzaba la vía en el cruce peatonal marcado.

La policía indicó que Eubanks se entregó el jueves.

Compareció ante la corte la mañana del viernes y se ordenó que permaneciera detenido con una fianza de $30,000 USD. El juez también ordenó que, si paga la fianza, no podrá salir del área de los tres condados ni conducir.

Al momento de esta publicación, Eubanks permanecía detenido en la cárcel principal del condado Broward.

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The report surfaced the same day CIA Director John Ratcliffe and other U.S. government delegates traveled to Cuba for a high-level meeting with Cuban officials.

Photos posted on the CIA’s X account showed Ratcliffe meeting with Cuban officials during the visit. Cuban authorities said they agreed to the meeting to reassure U.S. leaders that Cuba does not pose a threat to the United States.

For many in South Florida’s Cuban exile community, the reported indictment represents a long-awaited step toward accountability for the 1996 attack, which killed four members of the Miami-based humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue after Cuban military jets shot down two civilian aircraft over international waters.

“That’s a good step, but at the same time it doesn’t reconcile politically speaking that they are trying to engage with a regime at the same time that they are trying to indict their leader,” Cuban exile Ramon Saul Sanchez said.

Sanchez also urged caution until more details emerge about the U.S. delegation’s discussions with Cuban officials.

“Until we know all the details about the meeting, what was proposed to the given regime, what they answered -- we cannot categorically say this is going to be good,” Sanchez said.

The diplomatic outreach comes amid continued tension between Washington and Havana. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently accused the Cuban government of blocking humanitarian aid efforts.

“We’ve offered to distribute $100 million of humanitarian aid to the people through the church and the regime has denied it,” Rubio said in a recent interview with Fox News.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel responded by saying Cuba would not reject legitimate humanitarian assistance from the United States.

“If there is truly a willingness on the part of the United States government to provide aid in the amounts it announces, it will encounter no obstacles or ingratitude from Cuba,” Díaz-Canel said.

The developments also unfold as Cuba faces deepening economic and energy crises. Residents across the island continue to endure widespread blackouts and fuel shortages, prompting renewed protests in several communities.

Cuba’s Minister of Energy and Mining warned the country’s fuel reserves have nearly disappeared.

“Crude oil, fuel oil, of which we have absolutely none; diesel, of which we have absolutely none,” the minister said in remarks translated from Spanish. “The only thing we have is gas from our wells.”

Cuban officials said an oil shipment sent by Russia last month was the island’s only major fuel lifeline since January, but those reserves have now run out.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said contradictory messages have “made us reluctant about the real intentions of Americans.”

“We are in doubt about their seriousness,” he told reporters in New Delhi, adding that negotiations would move forward if Washington was ready for a “fair and balanced deal.”

U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this week dismissed Iran's latest formal proposal as “garbage.” While Iran was said to include some nuclear concessions, Trump has said he wants to remove highly enriched uranium from the country and prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

With talks between Iran and the U.S. at a standstill during the shaky ceasefire, tensions remain high and threaten to tip the Middle East back into open warfare and prolong the worldwide energy crisis sparked by the conflict.

Iran still has a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway where a fifth of the world’s oil passed through before the war, and America is blockading Iranian ports.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who finished talks on Friday, agreed the strait needs to be reopened.

China could play a diplomatic role, Iran says

Araghchi said Friday that Iran would welcome diplomatic support from other countries, particularly from China, citing Beijing’s previous role in facilitating the restoration of ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

“Chinese have a good intention. So anything that can be done by them to help diplomacy would be welcomed by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said.

Beijing has shown little public interest in U.S. requests to get more involved, even though Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Xi had in their conversations offered to help.

Pakistan said Thursday it was continuing diplomatic efforts to help ease regional tensions amid ongoing contacts over Iran-related ceasefire proposals. But it declined to disclose details of the discussions or say whether the United States had formally responded.

“The clock on diplomacy has not stopped. The peace process is working,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi told reporters in Islamabad.

Iran says uranium is a sticking point

Trump has demanded a major rollback of Iran’s nuclear activities while Iran has said that it has a right to enrich uranium.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who launched the war with Trump on Feb. 28, has also demanded that all of Iran’s highly enriched uranium be removed from the country.

Iran’s foreign minister said Friday that the issue of its enriched uranium stockpile is one of the most difficult subjects in negotiations with the U.S.

Russia has previously offered to take the stockpile if Iran is willing to give it up. Araghchi said Russia’s proposal was not currently under active discussion, but could be revisited if negotiations progress.

“When we come to that stage, obviously we will have more consultations with Russia and see if the Russian offer can help or not. This is not something for the time being,” he said.

Chinese company says its ship was taken into Iranian waters

A Chinese private security company said it lost communication Thursday with a ship it was operating as an offshore work platform — the same day the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center reported that a ship anchored off the United Arab Emirates coast had been seized.

Sinoguards said it had “been informed through relevant channels" that the vessel Hui Chuan was taken into Iranian waters for documentation and compliance inspection by the authorities.

The company's emailed statement said there was no indication of any injuries on the ship and that it was cooperating with the request for vessel and crew documentation.

The security company and the U.K. maritime center did not say who was behind the seizure. It happened as a senior Iranian official reiterated his country’s claim of control over the Strait of Hormuz and another said it had a right to seize oil tankers connected to the U.S.

The U.S. seized vessels in the Gulf of Oman last month and on Friday the foreign minister of Pakistan said it had secured the return of 11 Pakistani nationals and 20 Iranian citizens who were aboard those vessels. “All individuals are in good health and high spirits,” said the foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, said.

UAE speeds up construction of oil pipeline

The United Arab Emirates is speeding up the completion of a new pipeline that will allow the Gulf federation to export more oil without routing it through the Strait of Hormuz.

Sheikh Khaled bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, directed state oil company ADNOC to accelerate work on the pipeline during a meeting of the Emirati capital’s executive council, the Abu Dhabi Media Office said Friday.

The state oil company already runs a pipeline designed to carry 1.5 million barrels a day from its oil fields in the west of the country to the port of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman.

The new pipeline is expected to double the company’s export capacity through that port. It will become operational next year, the media office said.

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Schreck reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press reporters Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Mae Anderson in New York contributed.

The Oslo District Court said that the verdict in the case of Marius Borg Høiby will be delivered on June 15.

During six weeks of court proceedings that ended on March 19, prosecutors sought a prison sentence of seven years and seven months for Høiby, who denies the rape allegations.

Høiby, 29, is the son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit by a previous relationship and the stepson of Crown Prince Haakon, the heir to Norway’s throne. He is charged with 40 offenses in total, including four counts of rape between 2018 and 2024.

Defense lawyers for Høiby, who has no royal titles or official duties, said that there was no evidence to support the rape charges. He has, however, admitted to lesser offenses, including drug possession, transporting 3.5 kilograms (7.7 pounds) of marijuana in 2020, traffic violations and breaches of a restraining order involving a former partner. He has also partially admitted to acts related to violence and threats but disputes key aspects of those allegations, including intent.

The defense team has said that a maximum sentence of 18 months would be appropriate for the charges he has admitted to. It argued that Høiby has lived under extraordinary media pressure due to his royal connections, which they said has shaped public perception of the case.

While the trial has played out, Mette-Marit separately has faced scrutiny this year over her connections with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. That has raised questions over her judgment, though she is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Testigos dijeron que escucharon una balacera alrededor de las 3 a.m. y un helicóptero cerca de las 5 a.m. en el área de Royal Palm Boulevard y Riverside Drive.

Theresa Zuniga, quien vive en el área, dijo que sintió miedo al escuchar el helicóptero sobrevolando.

“Este lugar es muy tranquilo”, dijo Zuniga sobre su vecindario.

Una lona que la policía suele usar para cubrir un cuerpo estaba en el suelo en el estacionamiento del complejo de apartamentos Coral Park East.

El Departamento de Policía de Coral Springs anunció que la cercana Somerset Academy estará “cerrada por el día” y pidió al público “evitar el área”.

Esta es una noticia en desarrollo.

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Las autoridades dijeron que operadores del 911 recibieron una llamada alrededor de las 11:45 a.m. reportando que un hombre había sido baleado y se dirigía hacia un hospital.

Agentes respondieron y localizaron a la víctima al norte de Sheridan Street y 56th Avenue en Hollywood. Funcionarios dijeron que el hombre sufría una herida de bala.

Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue trasladó a la víctima a un hospital local con heridas que no fueron consideradas de gravedad, dijeron las autoridades.

Según los investigadores, la balacera pudo haber ocurrido cerca de Mary Saunders Park en West Park.

Detectives de la Unidad de Crímenes Violentos de BSO investigan las circunstancias de la balacera.

No se divulgaron de inmediato más detalles sobre la víctima.

Cualquier persona con información sobre la balacera debe llamar a Broward Crime Stoppers al 654-493-8477.

La liberación de Readon ocurre mientras la iglesia New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church le da públicamente la bienvenida de regreso.

Un volante que circula en internet anuncia un servicio religioso “Readon Returns” programado para el domingo de 8:45 a.m. a 10 a.m. en 2801 NW 170th St. en Miami Gardens. El volante muestra a Readon usando un traje junto a las palabras “Readon Returns” y lo identifica como “Pastor Eric Readon”.

Los registros judiciales muestran que Readon se declaró culpable en junio de 2025 de explotación de una persona mayor después de que fiscales lo acusaran de tomar ilegalmente el control de la casa de Fuller y venderla sin que Fuller se diera cuenta de lo ocurrido. Fuller, quien tenía casi 80 años cuando comenzó la investigación, confiaba en Readon como pastor y asesor espiritual.

El caso atrajo amplia atención después de que Local 10 News comenzara a investigar las acusaciones de que Fuller efectivamente perdió la propiedad de su casa de muchos años mientras estaba bajo la influencia de Readon.

Los reportes durante varios años detallaron acusaciones de que se firmaron documentos transfiriendo la propiedad y que la casa fue vendida posteriormente, dejando a Fuller sin la vivienda que creía seguir poseyendo.

Como parte de un acuerdo negociado, Readon fue condenado a 364 días de cárcel, seguidos de 15 años de libertad condicional. También se le ordenó pagar $180,000 USD en restitución a Fuller.

Readon se entregó el 15 de julio de 2025 para comenzar a cumplir la condena. Debido a que los reclusos pueden recibir crédito por tiempo cumplido y reducciones de condena, su liberación en este momento, después de cumplir 303 días de una sentencia de 364 días, es consistente con la condena impuesta.

Durante procedimientos judiciales anteriores, los fiscales argumentaron que Readon utilizó su posición de confianza para explotar financieramente a Fuller. Más adelante, Readon intentó retirar su declaración de culpabilidad alegando que su abogado lo presionó para aceptar el acuerdo y no preparó adecuadamente el caso para juicio.

Ese intento fue rechazado por la jueza del circuito de Miami-Dade Christine Hernández, quien determinó que la evidencia demostraba que Readon aceptó el acuerdo de culpabilidad de manera consciente y voluntaria. Hernández señaló extensas comunicaciones entre Readon y su abogado antes del acuerdo y dijo que la evidencia no respaldaba las acusaciones de que había sido obligado a aceptarlo.

La jueza también señaló que Readon le dijo al tribunal durante la audiencia de declaración de culpabilidad que entendía el acuerdo y que nadie lo había amenazado ni presionado para aceptarlo.

Ahora, tras su liberación, Readon parece estar listo para regresar al ministerio.

El volante de la iglesia promoviendo el servicio del domingo incluye la dirección de Northwest 170th Street asociada con New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church en Miami Gardens e invita a los fieles a asistir al evento que marca el regreso de Readon.

No está claro qué rol formal tendrá Readon en la iglesia en adelante ni si alguna condición de su libertad condicional restringe sus actividades. Tampoco está claro cuánto de la restitución ordenada por el tribunal a Fuller ha sido pagada.

Local 10 News estuvo frente a la vivienda en la cuadra 2300 de Northwest 34th Avenue mientras hollín negro cubría la entrada principal de la casa.

Un hombre que es dueño de la vivienda junto a su esposa dijo a Brett Knese de Local 10 que el incendio comenzó alrededor de las 4:30 a.m.

“Como a las 4:30, 4:45, mi esposa escuchó un ‘estallido’”, dijo el propietario. “Ella dijo que acababa de ir al baño y escuchó un ‘estallido’. Claro, no pensamos nada al respecto. Le dije: ‘Déjame revisar’. Caminé hacia la sala y la impresora era lo único que se estaba quemando. Traté de echarle agua. No ayudó. En cinco minutos, lo único que veía eran llamas y humo negro”.

Funcionarios de Bomberos y Rescate de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward dijeron que los bomberos lograron controlar el incendio unos 20 minutos después de llegar.

El propietario dijo que han vivido allí por más de 20 años y que recientemente terminaron algunas renovaciones en el interior de la casa.

Dijo que están agradecidos de haber salido ilesos, pero devastados por los daños dejados por el incendio.

La causa oficial del incendio sigue bajo investigación por parte de la Oficina del Jefe Estatal de Bomberos.

La Cruz Roja ahora está asistiendo a la pareja desplazada.

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Local 10 News was outside the home in the 2300 block of Northwest 34^th Avenue as black soot covered the front entrance to the home.

A man who owns the home with his wife told Local 10’s Brett Knese that the fire erupted around 4:30 a.m.

“At about 4:30, 4:45, my wife heard a ‘pop,’” the homeowner said. “She said she had just went to the restroom and she heard a ‘pop.’ Of course, we didn’t think nothing about it. I said, ‘Let me go check it out.’ Walked in the den, the printer was the only thing burning. I tried to throw water on it. It did not help. Within five minutes, (all I saw) was flames and black smoke.”

Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue officials said firefighters got the blaze under control about 20 minutes after arriving.

The homeowner said they have lived there for over 20 years and just finished some renovations to the interior of their home.

He said they are grateful to be able to walk away safe, but are devastated about the damage left behind.

The official cause of the fire remains under investigation by the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

The Red Cross is now assisting the displaced couple.

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Online jail records show Kodak, whose real name is Bill Kapri, was arrested Thursday on charges of attempting to flee/elude law enforcement and resisting an officer without violence.

Kodak’s arrest comes a week after he was arrested in central Florida on a drug trafficking charge, stemming from a 2025 investigation.

It’s unclear why he allegedly fled from authorities in Broward, but Local 10 News has requested a copy of his arrest report.

In the central Florida case, Kodak, 28, faces a felony charge of trafficking in MDMA.

The arrest stems from a November 2025 investigation by Orlando police after officers responded to reports of gunfire near Children’s Safety Village on Fairvilla Road in Orlando.

According to the warrant, officers arrived to find several people gathered around two vehicles, including a BMW SUV and a Lamborghini SUV.

Police said officers smelled burnt cannabis coming from the BMW and conducted a search of the vehicle, where they found cannabis and a pink pill that tested positive for MDMA. During the investigation, Kodak, 28, who is currently living in Fort Lauderdale, approached officers and watched the search, the warrant states.

Investigators later searched the Lamborghini SUV and reported finding suspected narcotics, cash and firearms inside the vehicle.

According to the warrant, officers discovered a pink bag containing a substance later identified by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as MDMA, along with about $37,000 in cash and documents bearing Kodak’s name.

The warrant states investigators also compared items found inside the vehicle, including a bag and lighter, to images posted on Kodak’s Instagram accounts.

Authorities said FDLE officials later confirmed the substance recovered from the bag was MDMA, weighing approximately 25 grams.

The rapper and others at the scene denied that the bag was theirs, however when he was informed that there was money in the bag, Kodak tried multiple times to have officers hand him the cash, saying it belonged to his business, the warrant stated.

Based on the investigation, Orlando police sought a warrant charging Kodak with trafficking in MDMA between 14 and 200 grams.

As of Friday morning, Kodak was being held at the Broward County Main Jail.

He appeared in bond court later in the morning where a judge ordered that he be held on a $3,500 bond. If he posts bond, he will not be allowed to possess any firearms, weapons or ammunition.

Los registros de la cárcel en línea muestran que Kodak, cuyo nombre real es Bill Kapri, fue arrestado el jueves por cargos de intentar huir o evadir a las autoridades y resistirse a un agente sin violencia.

El arresto de Kodak ocurre una semana después de que fuera arrestado en el centro de Florida por un cargo de tráfico de drogas relacionado con una investigación de 2025.

No está claro por qué presuntamente huyó de las autoridades en Broward, pero Local 10 News solicitó una copia de su informe de arresto.

En el caso del centro de Florida, Kodak, de 28 años, enfrenta un cargo grave de tráfico de MDMA.

El arresto se deriva de una investigación de noviembre de 2025 realizada por la policía de Orlando después de que agentes respondieran a reportes de disparos cerca de Children’s Safety Village en Fairvilla Road en Orlando.

Según la orden judicial, los agentes llegaron y encontraron a varias personas reunidas alrededor de dos vehículos, incluyendo una SUV BMW y una SUV Lamborghini.

La policía indicó que los agentes percibieron olor a cannabis quemado proveniente de la BMW y realizaron una búsqueda del vehículo, donde encontraron cannabis y una pastilla rosada que dio positivo para MDMA. Durante la investigación, Kodak, de 28 años, quien actualmente vive en Fort Lauderdale, se acercó a los agentes y observó la búsqueda, según la orden judicial.

Los investigadores luego registraron la SUV Lamborghini y reportaron haber encontrado presuntos narcóticos, dinero en efectivo y armas de fuego dentro del vehículo.

Según la orden judicial, los agentes descubrieron una bolsa rosada que contenía una sustancia identificada posteriormente por el Departamento de Cumplimiento de la Ley de Florida (FDLE) como MDMA, junto con aproximadamente $37,000 USD en efectivo y documentos con el nombre de Kodak.

La orden judicial establece que los investigadores también compararon artículos encontrados dentro del vehículo, incluyendo una bolsa y un encendedor, con imágenes publicadas en las cuentas de Instagram de Kodak.

Las autoridades dijeron que funcionarios del FDLE confirmaron posteriormente que la sustancia recuperada de la bolsa era MDMA, con un peso aproximado de 25 gramos.

El rapero y otras personas en la escena negaron que la bolsa les perteneciera, sin embargo, cuando se le informó que había dinero dentro de la bolsa, Kodak intentó en múltiples ocasiones que los agentes le entregaran el efectivo, afirmando que pertenecía a su negocio, según la orden judicial.

Con base en la investigación, la policía de Orlando solicitó una orden judicial acusando a Kodak de tráfico de MDMA entre 14 y 200 gramos.

Hasta la mañana del viernes, Kodak permanecía detenido en la cárcel principal del condado Broward.

Más tarde en la mañana compareció ante un juez, quien ordenó que permaneciera detenido con una fianza de $3,500 USD. Si paga la fianza, no podrá poseer armas de fuego, armas ni municiones.

Season 4 of “The White Lotus” will be set around the Cannes Film Festival, bringing one the most acclaimed TV series into the heart of cinema’s French Riviera playground. The Hôtel Martinez, one of the iconic luxury hotels that line the beach in Cannes, will be a central location in Mike White’s HBO series, fictionally renamed the White Lotus Cannes.

Shooting has begun along the Riviera. But four days into the Cannes Film Festival, “The White Lotus” production has yet to materialize in town. The festival runs to May 23, so there’s still plenty of time. But the prospect of it turning into a live backdrop for “The White Lotus” may be unlikely.

As tantalizing as the prospect of cast members — including Steve Coogan, Heather Graham, Kumail Nanjiani and Rosie Perez — mixing into red carpet premieres during the festival may be, Cannes is vigilant about keeping attention focused on its film selections.

Representatives for HBO and festival organizers declined to comment.

When cameras turn on Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival has often been an irresistible setting for movies and series. A trip to Cannes made for some of the best moments in the French series “Call My Agent!” Some movies have been shot guerrilla-style around the festival, like the 1996 cameo-rich mockumentary “Cannes Man.”

But most have relied on a mix of exterior footage shot from the event with staged interior scenes apart from the festival. “Mr. Bean's Holiday,” the 2007 comedy that culminates with Mr. Bean bumbling into Cannes, is, surprisingly, among the most seamless recreations.

Some of this season's “White Lotus” cast members are appearing in Cannes on their own, for other projects they're a part of. Vincent Cassel walked the red carpet Thursday night for the premiere of Asghar Farhadi's “Parallel Tales.” Laura Dern, who joined the cast after the departure of Helena Bonham Carter, is attending later in the festival for the documentary “Dernsie,” about her father, Bruce Dern.

After location scouting, producers settled on the Martinez and another hotel south of Cannes in Saint-Tropez: the Airelles Château de la Messardière. It will be renamed the White Lotus du Cap. In real life, the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, in Antibes, can function like a swanky satellite to Cannes during the festival, and hosts the annual amfAR gala.

Last month, “The White Lotus” producer David Bernad said the setting for Season 4 came out of a trip he and White took to the Cannes Film Festival in 2021.

“We went to dinner and we had a really specific experience with a waiter and a maître d’, and it was the stereotype. It was a very funny moment,” Bernad said at the Canneseries Festival. “And I think that it suddenly unlocked what the show is and the dynamics of the show.”

Their festival experience convinced them to bring “The White Lotus” to Cannes.

“The energy around it was so intoxicating and this season will have elements of that,” said Bernad. “It’s really about the people’s stories, them navigating Cannes, and the ups and downs of the festival. It’s the beating heart of everything in this season.”

A plum role for the Martinez

Meanwhile, the Martinez awaits its close-up. But the Hyatt-owned hotel, which first opened in 1929, is already at the heart of the festival. Like several of the other hotels on the Croisette, the Martinez hosts waves of stars for the festival. Glamour shots on its spiral staircase are an indelible feature of Cannes. Hordes of onlookers camp outside its doors hoping for a glimpse of a celebrity or an autograph.

“We are the biggest player in town in terms of the number of rooms,” says Michel Cottray, general manager of the Martinez. “The film festival started in 1946, but we have ever since been fully engaged and in complete partnership with the festival.”

On nights during the festival, the Martinez's lobby swells with attendees in formal wear heading to the evening premieres. Often, that includes casts and filmmakers who pile into the official festival motorcade that ferries them down the Croisette to the Palais des Festivals.

Right now, keeping that nightly ritual humming, and catering to its A-list guests, is the main concern of the Martinez. “The White Lotus” will come later.

“We are gearing up to the shooting,” Cottray says. “I think it will be in a couple months’ time and then it will be a big experience for all of us. But we are ready for that.”

Some floors of the hotel will be completely sold out and inaccessible to the public during the shooting. Filming will take place throughout the Hyatt-owned hotel. “It will be things happening a bit everywhere,” said Cottray.

Cottray spoke in the hotel’s Michelin-starred La Palme d’Or restaurant, where movie memorabilia adorns the vintage yacht-styled interiors: the boxing shorts from “Raging Bull,” a plate from “Titanic,” the ice pick from “Basic Instinct.”

In the same room, the Martinez every year hosts a private dinner at the beginning of the festival for the jury that will decide the Palme d’Or. This year, that includes Demi Moore, Chloé Zhao, Stellan Skarsgård and jury president Park Chan-wook. A meal is always tailored to the president of the jury. For the South Korean filmmaker of 2003 thriller “Oldboy,” octopus was naturally on the menu.

Hosting such a crowd — and with such a classic murder weapon near at hand, too — sounds straight out of “The White Lotus.”

“There are always unexpected issues happening,” says Cottray. “We have to react quickly. I will not drop names, but, clearly, we are ready for the unexpected.”

Según el teniente de la FHP Alex Camacho, el choque entre el camión de plataforma y un camión de carga ocurrió en los carriles en dirección sur de Okeechobee Road, en la intersección con Krome Avenue.

Camacho dijo que el camión de carga estaba detenido en una luz roja cuando un camión de plataforma amarillo se estrelló contra la parte trasera.

Las autoridades informaron que el conductor del camión de plataforma fue declarado muerto en la escena, mientras que el otro conductor no resultó herido.

Dos carriles en dirección sur de Okeechobee Road fueron cerrados tras la colisión.

Las identidades de las personas involucradas en el choque no fueron divulgadas de inmediato.

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According to FHP Lt. Alex Camacho, the crash between the flatbed truck and a box truck occurred in the southbound lanes of Okeechobee Road, at the intersection with Krome Avenue.

Camacho said the box truck was stopped at a red light when a yellow flatbed truck crashed into the back of it.

The driver of the flatbed truck was pronounced dead at the scene, while the other driver was not injured, authorities said.

Two southbound lanes on Okeechobee Rd were closed after the collision.

The identities of those involved in the crash were not immediately released.

Georgia's current secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, became a household name when he defended the state's election results against Trump's false claims about widespread voter fraud and resisted the president's urging to help “find” enough ballots to win the race.

Now that Raffensperger is stepping down to run for governor, election oversight is a key issue in the race to replace him. Some Republican candidates are endorsing the same distortions that Trump did six years ago. The president has stocked the federal government with people who echo his conspiracy theories, and election denial has spread through state offices as well.

A looming deadline over vote counting

The race comes at a time when lawmakers have made a contradictory mess of state law governing how votes are counted. Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday called lawmakers into special session on June 17 for redistricting but also to address a looming deadline on voting.

Georgia’s touch-screen voting machines print a paper ballot that includes a human-readable list of voters’ selections and a QR code that a scanner reads to count votes. Lawmakers two years ago passed a law saying QR codes could not be used for the official vote count after July 1 of this year.

However, they've failed to agree on an alternative method since then, causing uncertainty and the potential for lawsuits over Georgia elections until that's sorted out.

While the special session may resolve the question temporarily, the next secretary of state will likely be involved in implementing a new voting system by 2028.

The shadow of the 2020 election

Gabriel Sterling, who was one of Raffensperger’s top aides, is the only Republican secretary of state candidate actively defending the state’s 2020 election results.

He rose to prominence by imploring Trump to help discourage threats of violence against election workers, and he said in a recent Atlanta Press Club debate that the state has “the best and safest elections in America.”

But others continue to echo Trump’s claims.

Vernon Jones, who was elected as a state representative and DeKalb County CEO as a Democrat and then switched parties to become a Republican and fervent Trump supporter, is maybe the harshest critic.

“I believe there were many irregularities. I believe violations have taken place,” Jones said, adding, “I stand with those who believe there was election fraud.”

Kelvin King, a general contractor who previously ran for U.S. Senate and is married to State Election Board member and conservative commentator Janelle King, is only a little more reserved.

“I think 2020 is still in question to be frank with you,” King said.

State Rep. Tim Fleming said he believes there were some “irregularities" in 2020 and that “great strides” have been made to address the issues. He said he's “not running on conspiracy theories” and is focused on the future.

What they're saying

Fleming said he believes he and his fellow lawmakers need to find a “temporary fix” during the special session to remove the QR code from the ballot in a way that is “least disruptive for the county elections officials.” But ultimately, he said, he also wants to see the state move to hand-marked paper ballots, a position supported by many other Republicans.

Fleming previously worked for the secretary of state's office while Brian Kemp, now the outgoing Republican governor, held the position. He led a study committee on Georgia's election system last summer, but the committee produced only the briefest of reports.

Jones and King and Ted Metz, who has previously run for governor and secretary of state as a Libertarian, have criticized Raffensperger's record as secretary of state. They have decried what they say is incompetence, which he denies, and a lack of transparency and are calling for a switch from touch-screen voting machines to hand-marked paper ballots. They have extended that criticism to Sterling, who oversaw the implementation of the state's current voting system and continues to defend it.

Sterling, for his part, has insisted he is best positioned to beat a Democrat in the fall. He endlessly repeats the refrain that he has defended Georgia's election laws and policies against attacks from “Stacey Abrams, Joe Biden's Justice Department and the woke world.”

Cole Muzio, president of Frontline Policy, a Christian conservative group, said he believes Jones has “traction” in the closing days of the race, but said he believes that in any runoff, rank-and-file Republicans are likely to rally behind anyone who is opposing Jones. Muzio said despite Jones’ outspoken pro-MAGA position, questions about his party switch could intensify in a runoff, particularly over Jones’ switch from vociferously defending legal abortion to opposing it.

The Democrats

On the Democratic side, the candidates have stressed protecting the right to vote and fighting attacks on the state's elections.

The Democrats running for secretary of state include certified financial planner and political organizer Cam Ashling; Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett; nonprofit founder Adrian Consonery Jr; and former Fulton County State Court Judge Penny Brown Reynolds.

No coffeehouse employees are affected, the company said. The cuts will impact employees in support functions like marketing, human resources and supply chain management. No international employees are affected for now, but Starbucks said it is also reviewing its corporate structure outside the U.S.

Starbucks said it’s also closing underused offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago and other cities. The Seattle-based company recently announced that it's opening a corporate office in Nashville, Tennessee, that will employ up to 2,000 people within five years.

Starbucks expects to the moves to result in $400 million in restructuring charges, including $120 million in employee separation benefits.

Starbucks has been trying to reduce costs and complexity under Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company in 2024. Last year, the company laid off 2,000 corporate employees and closed hundreds of stores in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Niccol said last month that the simplified structure is helping the company innovate more quickly. Starbucks is also investing in its remaining stores to improve customers' experience. It plans to redesign 1,000 U.S. stores this year to give them a cozier, more comfortable feel, and it's also hiring baristas to ensure faster service during busy times.

The efforts appear to be paying off. In the January-March period, Starbucks said its U.S. same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, jumped 7%. Niccol called the quarter “the turn in our turnaround.”

“Our focus now is on sustaining our momentum and making our results repeatable and durable, all while delivering a healthy cost structure that supports profitable growth,” Niccol said during a conference call with investors. “It’s how we turn progress into consistent results.”

The White House has not released details of the deal, and the company itself has not commented. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg had joined Trump for the trip to Beijing, one of a large group of CEOs seeking to sell products and services to China. For Boeing, the deal would mark a significant breakthrough in a market that was once central to its long-term growth.

Trump also said the deal would benefit General Electric, which he said would supply 400 to 450 engines. General Electric did not immediately comment on the agreement.

Last month, Ortberg signaled confidence that any broader U.S.-China agreement would include aircraft purchases, telling investors he expected Trump’s meeting with Xi to be a “meaningful opportunity” for Boeing.

Ortberg took over in 2024, a calamitous year for Boeing as it came under intensifying scrutiny over production and quality failures and faced mounting financial pressure. In January 2024, a panel known as a door plug blew off a 737 Max shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, renewing scrutiny of Boeing’s manufacturing practices.

Months later, the U.S. Justice Department revived a criminal case against Boeing tied to the two fatal Max crashes, although prosecutors later reached an agreement with Boeing to dismiss the case, committing the company to an additional $1.1 billion in fines, compensation for victims’ families and internal safety and quality improvements.

Then an eight-week strike stretching through the fall by machinists who assemble the 737 Max in Washington state disrupted production and added to the company’s financial strain.

—- Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Barrow reported from Atlanta.

Monica Elfriede Witt, 47, was indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2019 on charges of espionage, including transmitting national defense information to the government of Iran. She remains at large.

Witt “allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution more than a decade ago by defecting to Iran and providing the Iranian regime National Defense Information and likely continues to support their nefarious activities,” Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division, said in a news release Wednesday.

“The FBI has not forgotten and believes that during this critical moment in Iran’s history, there is someone who knows something about her whereabouts.”

It wasn't immediately known why the FBI was bringing attention to Witt's case. The United States and Iran have been at war since Feb. 28.

Witt served in the Air Force between 1997 and 2008, where she was trained in the Farsi language and was deployed overseas on classified counterintelligence missions, including to the Middle East. She later found work as a Defense Department contractor.

The Texas native defected to Iran in 2013 after being invited to two all-expense-paid conferences in the country that the Justice Department says promoted anti-Western propaganda and condemned American moral standards.

Before that, Witt had been warned by the FBI about her activities, but told agents that she would not provide sensitive information about her work if she returned to Iran, prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, Witt placed at risk "sensitive and classified U.S. national defense information and programs,” the news release said.

“Witt allegedly intentionally provided information endangering U.S personnel and their families stationed abroad. She also allegedly conducted research on behalf of the Iranian regime to allow them to target her former colleagues in the U.S. government,” it said.

The pop-up skating experience is taking over the venue through June 14, offering themed nights, food and cocktails, and a mix of old-school and modern Miami culture.

“What we wanted to do was keep the authentic feel of a skating rink and keep it classic with the music,” said Alex Macis, chief operative creative for Bayskate Miami. “It’s how we grew up, it’s a culture that’s really dear to us.”

Bayskate co-founder Marcos Macis said the concept began a decade ago in Bayfront Park as a way to activate public spaces.

“It was an idea to activate public spaces,” he said. “For those who don’t understand the Miami skate culture, there is a deep-rooted skate culture in Miami. So it’s not a disco themed experience. It’s actually a Miami experience.”

The 20,000-square-foot air-conditioned space features rotating themes each night, including TropiBass on Thursdays, disco nights on Fridays, Miami freestyle on Saturdays and open-format skating on Sundays.

“So Thursday nights we have TropiBass, which is a Latin fusion and Miami bass type thing. On Fridays we have our disco night, on Saturday we have our Miami freestyle night and on Sunday it’s kind of an open format,” Marcos Macis said.

Organizers said the experience also includes food and drinks, including wood-fired pizza and margarita flights.

“You’re going to have quality food, quality cocktails, we have margarita flights, wood oven fired pizza,” Alex Macis said. “We’ve got a mix of old school and new school so it’s going to be a good experience.”

Bayskate runs Thursday through Sunday, with ticket prices starting around $25, according to organizers. A $100 season skate pass is also available.

“Ticket prices start at around $25, $15 for kids during the day,” Marcos Macis said.

The founders say the goal is to keep skating accessible for all ages and skill levels.

“The thing is roller skating when we grew up is always something that is so inclusive, regardless of age or gender everybody was enjoying themselves in the same spot,” Alex Macis said.

“Bring your family, friends, date night, couples, families. I think we have a little bit for everybody. Hope to see you soon,” he added.

Click here for more information on how you can purchase tickets or book a party.

1 package beef ramen

neutral oil for sauteing, like grapeseed or canola, as needed

6 ounce skirt steak, cut into thin strips

½ cup snow peas, ends trimmed, cut into 1/3rds

½ cup snap peas, ends trimmed, cut into 1/3rds

3 scallions, whites and light green, thinly sliced

For the sauce:

¼ cup Oyster sauce

¼ cup Soy sauce

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon Sesame oil

Cook the noodles in water until al dente, about 1 minute less than package instructions. Drain.

While the noodles cook, heat a drizzle of oil over medium-high heat in a wok or tall-sided, large sauté pan. Sauté the beef for 1-2 minutes until it begins to caramelize. Add in the snow peas and snap peas and the cooked noodles. Stir to combine then add in the sauce. You can add a little of the flavoring packet to boost the flavor if desired. Sauté for 1-2 minutes to marry flavors. Add in the scallions and serve immediately.

The annual Legacy Ceremony was held at SEED School of Miami, a tuition-free boarding school with a 24-hour learning environment.

Graham was recognized for his work helping guide students in future projects. The SEED School is now 12 years old and has a 100% college acceptance rate.

Graham, who overcame many challenges growing up, said he quickly recognized how special the school is.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Local 10 News’ Clay Ferraro was at Miami Dade College’s North Campus for the first-ever Champions Gala.

The event honored middle school and lower school athletes with an awards show that had the feel of the Oscars.

Ferraro also delivered a speech to the athletes about the importance of youth sports in his life and the life of his family.

1 package shrimp ramen

neutral oil for sauteing, like grapeseed or canola, as needed

½ pound 16/20 shrimp, peeled and deveined

½ block firm tofu, drained and cubed

1 cup bean sprouts

4 scallions, whites and light green, thinly sliced

¼ cup salted roasted peanuts, lightly chopped

For the Pad Thai sauce:

¾ cup tamarind concentrate

¾ cup palm sugar, finely chopped

¾ cup brown sugar

¼ cup fish sauce

½ cup water

Prepare the Pad Thai sauce:

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients for the sauce and mix well.

Cooking the Pad Thai:

Cook the noodles according to package instructions, however, cook 1 minute less than advised.

While the noodles cook, heat a drizzle of oil over medium-high heat in a wok or tall-sided, large sauté pan. Add the shrimp and sauté for 1-2 minutes until they start to turn pink. Add the cooked noodles, tofu, and bean sprouts into the wok. Stir to combine, add as much Pad Thai sauce as desired and stir fry for 1-2 minutes. You can add a little of the flavoring packet to boost the flavor if desired. Top the scallions and chopped peanuts. Serve immediately.

1 package chicken ramen

1-2 slices American cheese

scallions, thinly sliced, for garnish

jammy poached eggs, for serving (see recipe below)

Following the package of chicken ramen, cut cooking time by 1 minute. When ready, add 2 slices of American cheese and the scallions just after adding the chicken flavor packet and mix together. Add the jammy eggs cut in half (recipe below) and serve while piping hot.

For the jammy eggs:

4 eggs

large ice bath

Bring a large saucepan of water to a rapid boil. Carefully add the eggs to the boiling water. Set your timer for 7 minutes.

While the eggs are boiling, prepare your ice bath. Fill a large bowl with ⅔ ice and cover it with cold tap water. Set aside.

At the 7-minute mark exactly, carefully remove the eggs one by one with a slotted spoon. Transfer each egg immediately to the ice bath and allow the eggs to sit in the ice bath for about 5 minutes.

Carefully peel each egg.

Slice the peeled eggs in half. Marinate in the recipe below for up to an hour.

Optional marinade for the eggs:

2 tablepsoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Mix together until sugar is dissolved.

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Witnesses said they heard a shooting shortly before 3 a.m., and a helicopter at about 5 a.m. near Royal Palm Boulevard and Riverside Drive.

Theresa Zuniga, who lives in the area, said she was scared when she heard the helicopter flying over.

“This place is very calm,” Zuniga said about her neighborhood.

Another resident, Samiir Syne, said it’s usually a safe area.

“It’s bizarre, I think it’s a safe area, and the fact that it was right there,” she said.

A man was fatally shot, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a spokesperson for the Coral Springs Police Department.

A white tent and a tarp covered a body near the garbage area of Coral Park East, a community of townhomes. Danny Raymonvil, who lives in the area, said he saw the man dead.

“It’s just unfortunate this person had to lose their life like that,” Raymonvil said.

According to neighbors, it took SWAT a few hours to find the possible shooter.

“They were pretty much trying to see if he’s in the building still, if he’s in this area,” said neighbor Storm Whittaker.

There was crime scene tape near the pool of a neighboring apartment building at the Coral Springs Tower Club community. There appeared to be an assault rifle in the water.

The Coral Springs Police Department announced that the nearby Somerset Academy will be “closed for the day” and asked the public to “avoid the area.”

Police told Local 10 News it has notified the family but has yet to release the man’s identity.

The victim’s family declined to speak.

Early morning report

Related social media

Location

On Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis answered more questions about the future of the detention center, though he still did not give a definitive yes or no on whether it will shut down.

DeSantis defended Florida’s involvement in hosting the immigration facility in the middle of the Everglades.

“We did it because we were asked to do it and I’m happy that we saved Floridians from having to face 22,000, many of whom would have done, I think, some bad things,” DeSantis said. “Well, they may not always keep them. We always said it was going to be temporary. They haven’t told us they don’t want it anymore.”

The governor also made it clear he would prefer the federal government handle immigration enforcement entirely.

“I would rather not have anything to do with this,” DeSantis said. “I’d rather just have our laws enforced, our border secure and have the federal government handle 100% of it. That would be fine with me. I know if Florida didn’t stand up, this job wasn’t going to get done the way it needed to get done.”

Earlier Thursday morning, Local 10 News was exclusively there as detainee Justo Bentacourt reunited with his family after spending six months at the detention center.

Bentacourt said he has heard from staff inside the facility that the detention center will shut down.

“That’s what he said,” Bentacourt said. “I have to see it first before I say it’s closed and it never closes.”

Attempts to deport Bentacourt to both Cuba and Mexico failed because of his health condition. This week, a judge granted his release after he spent more than 180 days in detention.

“January 23rd, they were supposed to send me home,” Bentacourt said. “Cuba didn’t accept me. Mexico didn’t accept me. Why are you letting me stay over there -- for what? For nothing.”

Vendors paid by the state confirmed to Local 10 News that they have been notified the detention center will close next month to allow time for logistics and related operations to wrap up, with the goal of shutting it down before hurricane season.

Local 10 News reached out to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and received a statement attributed to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson.

“FEMA is working closely with the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the State of Florida,” the statement said. “Reimbursement requests are in process. Updates will be provided as the process continues.”

Now, a child who was destined to end up in a wheelchair with possible heart and respiratory problems has the chance to be able to run and play.

That dream is a reality thanks to an innovative gene therapy, and one South Florida hospital is leading the way.

Nine-year-old Ka’Lee loves to climb and run and play outdoors, but when he was just a toddler, his mother, Carmen Stinnett, knew something wasn’t quite right.

“I knew because I have four children and they always met their milestones,” she said. “So I knew something was different. I knew something was wrong.”

That mother’s intuition led to a frightening diagnosis.

Ka’Lee has duchenne muscular dystrophy, a potentially deadly genetic disorder that causes patients, as they get older, to become weaker and lose their ability to walk.

But now there is hope for children like Ka’Lee in the form of a new therapy that restores some of the genes these children are missing.

It’s called ELEVIDYS, a one-time infusion with big results.

“With gene therapy, you are trying to correct the underlying gene problem,” said Dr. Migvis Monduy, of Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. “It’s not a cure for this particular disease, because the dystrophin gene is one of the bigger ones in the body. It’s too big to replace altogether.”

The gene therapy has been approved for children 4 years and older.

For Stinnett and Ka’Lee, a mother’s intuition, an early diagnosis, and innovative medical technology has been a winning combination.

“Before, he didn’t run. He runs now,” Stinnett said. “He walks a lot better; he has more stability. It’s really helped him a lot.

“I am happy and blessed. I was so happy he got the gene therapy. I was worried and concerned, but this has been life changing.”

Nicklaus Children’s Hospital was one of the first hospitals in the country to offer the therapy.

Monduy also said that because early diagnosis is vital, starting in 2027 in Florida, newborns will be tested for duchenne muscular dystrophy in the hospital.

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Kristi House is a Miami-based non-profit that provides trauma-informed care to trafficking victims.

Miami-Dade County’s law enforcement community and prosecutors are gearing up for the FIFA World Cup and launching an awareness campaign.

“(We are) getting people to literally care about one another in society,” said Philippa King, Deputy CEO of It’s a Penalty.

Passengers flying into Miami International Airport on major carriers, including American Airlines, will see a video on their flight regarding trafficking safety.

“A young boy saw the film and called out,” said King. “One life we helped.”

A spokesperson for Uber said they are rolling out in-app resources and education material for drivers, another key group who can help in this multi-agency effort that includes front line workers from TSA, hotel and hospitality workers to stadium staff.

“Hotels can be exploited by traffickers who want to hide in the shadows,” said Glenn Sampert, general manager of InterContinental Miami by IHG.

Officials spoke about some of the signs to look out for, including women who defer to a man and seem overall attached to them and who don’t have access to paperwork or money to purchase items.

HOW TO REPORT SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY

Call: 305-349-7867 (305-FIX-STOP)

If you are in immediate danger, please call 911.

National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-373-7888

Text: 233733 (BEFREE)

humantraffickinghotline.org

National Center of Missing and Exploited Children

1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678)

Cyber tip line: itsapenalty.org

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Now they believe he is missing somewhere in the city, or nearby.

Miami Beach police have issued a missing persons advisory for Torres, who was believed to have stayed at a hotel near Harding Avenue and 73rd Street last week.

“He’s absolutely enamored with Miami,” said grandmother Michelle Lowe-Christensen. “As an autistic person, he becomes very fixated.”

Lowe-Christensen has been posting videos that have gone viral on TikTok about her missing grandson. She is now in South Florida to look for him.

She told Local 10 News that Torres left his job at a car wash early last week and booked a last-minute flight to Miami, after a layover in Denver.

When Torres did not arrive home where he lives with his father in Austin, and never answered phone calls, the family began tracking his phone. They said they also have access to his iMessages and his bank account.

The 18-year-old is high-functioning but trusting, the family said.

“He does not see fear. He sees all people as friendly,” Lowe-Christensen said.

They believe he went to Dadeland Mall on Friday and said bank records show he bought clothing.

Later in the evening, his phone pinged in the Brickell area, then in downtown Miami Saturday morning, Lowe-Christensen said.

The tracking apps then went dark.

Miami Beach police are asking anyone in the community who might have seen Torres to call them at 305-673-7900.

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It happened Sunday afternoon in the area of Northeast 142nd Street and Sixth Avenue in North Miami.

Police said they arrived to the scene to find one man bleeding profusely from his hand while holding another man against a fence.

According to authorities, the man bleeding, Bryant Toletino, is the victim in this case.

He is even heard telling the suspect, 31-year-old Ariel Alvarez, not to act like the victim.

Police said Toletino was attacked by Alvarez with a machete.

Authorities said the victim was visiting a friend and Alvarez was outside the apartment. They knew each other from the neighborhood, cops said.

The two men were engaged in a conversation, and then, Toletino said Alvarez just lost it.

Police said Alvarez told them he was acting in self-defense, but they said surveillance video told another story.

Jail records show Alvarez is facing a felony charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

As of Thursday, he was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where his bond was listed as “to be set.” He was also placed on an immigration hold.

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Authorities said 911 dispatchers received a call around 11:45 a.m. reporting that a man had been shot and was on his way to a hospital.

Deputies responded and located the victim north of Sheridan Street and 56th Avenue in Hollywood. Officials said the man was indeed suffering from a gunshot wound.

Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue personnel transported the victim to a local hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, authorities said.

According to investigators, the shooting may have occurred near Mary Saunders Park in West Park.

“It’s surprising. A very quiet neighborhood. BSO is already around here,” said a mother who was picking up her child from an afterschool program at the park hours after the incident.

Detectives with BSO’s Violent Crime Unit are investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

No other details about the victim were immediately released.

Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 654-493-8477.

The auction on eBay was intended to revive an event that Buffett hosted for more than two decades that raised $53 million for the GLIDE Foundation homeless charity in San Francisco. This year's auction that wrapped up Thursday night also raised month for Curry's Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation that he established with his wife, Ayesha.

The anonymous winner paid $9,000,100 to win a private lunch with Buffett and the Currys in the 95-year-old investor's hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, next month.

"We’re overwhelmed with gratitude for this opportunity, which reflects a shared belief that when different generations and institutions come together with purpose, we can create deeper and more lasting impact for the people who need it most,” the Currys said in a statement.

The Buffett auctions started in 2000 and continued every year until the pandemic prompted a couple years off. Starting in 2008, every winning bid for lunch with the investing giant topped $1 million. He discontinued the event after someone paid $19 million for a lunch in 2022.

A follow-up auction in 2024 raised $1.5 million for a lunch with software titan Marc Benioff, but that version of the event didn't last.

Buffett reached out to the Currys earlier this year to ask them to join the lunch auction this year. Curry missed 27 games this year before returning to help the Golden State Warriors down the stretch.

Buffett stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway in January after six decades of leading the conglomerate. He remains chairman, but just sat through his first annual shareholder meeting — sitting in the audience instead of leading the event from stage.

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Sen. Bill Cassidy is running for a third term but first must overcome a Republican primary field that includes state Treasurer John Fleming and U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who was endorsed by Trump in January.

The primary is the president’s latest opportunity to exact retribution from his perceived political enemies, including fellow Republicans he considers disloyal. Cassidy has been near the top of that list since his vote more than five years ago to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial following the insurrection by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump was acquitted.

Louisiana is not among the states Democrats are targeting in their effort to retake the U.S. Senate. A Cassidy defeat in the primary would likely result in a Senate GOP caucus even more unified behind Trump and further demonstrate the strength of the president’s grip on the party.

Voters will also decide primary contests for state Supreme Court, Public Service Commission and state school board, along with five proposed state constitutional amendments.

Louisiana’s primaries for U.S. House were postponed after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state’s current congressional map, which includes a majority Black district that favors Democrats. U.S. House races will still appear on ballots, but any votes cast in those contests will not be counted.

In another key departure from previous Louisiana primaries, contenders in Saturday’s contests will run in separate party primaries, rather than in one jungle primary in which all candidates appear on the same ballot. State lawmakers adopted the new system for certain offices in 2024, but the law didn’t go into effect until 2026.

U.S. House races were originally slated to use the new primary system under the 2024 law, but state Republicans on Thursday adopted legislation to reinstate the jungle primary for U.S. House races, citing a compressed schedule after the Supreme Court decision. Just as in previous cycles, the jungle primary will be held on Nov. 3 alongside the general election.

East Baton Rouge Parish, home to Baton Rouge, and Jefferson and Orleans Parishes in the New Orleans area are the most populous in the state, but St. Tammany Parish, north of New Orleans along the Mississippi border, contributed the most votes in the 2016 and 2024 Republican presidential primaries.

Caddo Parish in the northwest, home to Shreveport, and Lafayette Parish also tend to play a bigger role in Republican primaries than in Democratic ones.

Trump narrowly won a four-way primary in 2016, powered in part by a large margin in Jefferson Parish and overcoming losses in East Baton Rouge and Caddo Parishes to Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. He swept the state eight years later in the 2024 primary against former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who had dropped out of the race by the time of the primary but was still posting stronger-than-expected showings in other states.

Cassidy’s previous victories in 2014 and 2020 were under the old primary system, in which his main opposition on the ballot came from Democrats.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 8 p.m. local time (CT), which is 9 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, state Supreme Court, state Public Service Commission and state school board, as well as five statewide ballot measures.

Who gets to vote?

Registered party members may vote only in their own party’s primary. In other words, Democrats can’t vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may participate in either primary. Voters registered with other parties may only vote on nonpartisan contests.

How many voters are there?

As of May 1, there were about 3 million registered voters in Louisiana. Registered Democrats and Republicans numbered about 1.1 million each, with registered Democrats at a slight advantage. About 813,000 voters were not registered with any party. The remainder were registered with other parties.

How many people actually vote?

Louisiana’s new primary system is closer in format to the 2024 presidential primaries than to previous state primaries. About 192,000 votes were cast in the Republican primary and about 167,000 in the Democratic contest. Each primary represented about 6% of registered voters.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 41% of the Republican primary vote and about 45% of the Democratic primary vote in 2024 was cast before primary day.

As of Thursday, about 255,000 ballots had already been cast in Saturday’s election, about 44% from Democrats and about 41% from Republicans.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Results from early and absentee voting are usually released by each parish in the first vote update, as separate totals from in-person Election Day vote results.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 general election, the AP first reported results at 9:32 p.m. ET, or 32 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 11:56 p.m. ET, with more than 99% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

There are no automatic recounts in Louisiana, but a candidate may request and pay for a recount of absentee and early votes. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Saturday, there will be 42 days until the June 27 primary runoff if needed, 171 days until Nov. 3 general election and the rescheduled U.S. House jungle primaries and 210 days until the Dec. 12 runoff.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

Ratcliffe met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the head of Cuban intelligence services, and discussed intelligence cooperation, economic stability and security issues. A CIA official confirmed the meetings to the AP.

Ratcliffe was there “to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes,’’ the CIA official said.

An official statement from Cuba’s government noted that Thursday’s meeting “took place ... against a backdrop of complex bilateral relations.”

While the U.S. stressed that Cuba cannot continue to be a “safe haven for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere,” the Cuban delegation insisted that the island presents no threat to U.S. security. Cuban officials also took issue with the nation’s continued inclusion on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Rodríguez Castro previously secretly met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of a Caribbean Community summit in St. Kitts in February. While he’s never occupied a government post, he served as his grandfather’s bodyguard and later as head of Cuba’s equivalent of the Secret Service.

U.S. and Cuban officials also met earlier this year in Cuba. The ongoing meetings between U.S. and Cuban officials mark the first U.S. government flights to land in Cuba other than at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay since 2016.

Thursday’s meeting comes weeks after the Cuban government confirmed that it had recently met with U.S. officials on the island as tensions between the two sides remain high over the U.S. energy blockade of the Caribbean country and as Cuba’s power grid has collapsed and energy to its eastern provinces has been cut. The U.S. blockade of fuel to the island has heightened its economic woes, with reduced work hours and food spoilage as refrigerators stop working.

Earlier this week, the U.S. State Department reiterated that the U.S. will provide Cuba with $100 million in humanitarian assistance and support for satellite internet “if the Cuban regime will permit it.”

In late January, Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba. Though Trump also has threatened to intervene in the country, and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said recently that his country was prepared to fight if that should happen, sources told the AP earlier this month that military action is not imminent.

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

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Tucker reported from Washington, D.C.

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This version is corrected to show that the U.S. aid offer is $100 million.

At a Seattle sports bar on a recent Saturday night, hundreds of very tall people got to experience something rare: blending in. Women in their highest heels craned their necks to look at someone taller. Men who usually duck under doorways looked ordinary. For once, nobody had to explain why they don’t play basketball.

Welcome to Tall Tour, a traveling meetup drawing thousands across the United States to celebrate the one physical trait that has made them stand out — for good and ill. Since launching last summer, the tour has visited 19 cities, with crowds swelling from an initial 30 people in Tampa, Florida, to some 4,000 in Orlando, according to organizers. Seattle drew around 750, they said.

“You’re walking around and there’s people your height and people taller than you when you thought you were just this giant freak,” said Tyler Bergantino, the tour’s 6-foot-9 founder who wears a size-16 shoe. “That’s something that I think is very healing for tall people.”

The concept emerged almost accidentally. Bergantino, 32, a former software salesman turned TikTok creator, posted a casual invitation on social media while traveling through Texas. He wanted content. Instead, he sparked a movement.

“It created itself,” he said. “I can’t really take credit for it.”

Each stop follows a similar format: Tall people gather, take photos, share recommendations for shoe shopping and swap stories about hitting their heads on door frames and cramming into airplanes.

For many women, the night’s biggest draw is the speed dating component and the hope of meeting someone comfortable dating a taller woman — whether that means matching their height, exceeding it or simply being open to it. Many bonded over the shared challenge of navigating a dating culture that still favors petite women.

“Dating as a tall woman, you feel like you’re intimidating to people,” said 25-year-old Ksenia Protasenko, who's 6 feet tall. “There’s this association with you being a warrior type, but it’s not true. It’s tough to have your height as the first thing people notice about you because it feels like people are not really seeing any vulnerable parts of you.”

Protasenko said men often ask whether she plays basketball. She usually has a reply ready.

“I tell them, ‘Yeah, sure,’ even though I don’t,” she said. “Then I ask them if they play mini golf. That seems to straighten them right up.”

Crowning the royalty of the tall

The highlight comes when organizers crown the tallest man and woman in attendance. In Seattle, those titles went to a mother and son. Susan Mullendore, 44 and 6-foot-5, stood beside her son Grayson, 19 and 7 feet tall, as the crowd erupted.

“As a mom, just seeing Grayson having this experience meant the world to me,” Susan said. “To be able to be crowned with him was really special. It was nice to have our height celebrated.”

For Grayson, a college freshman, the evening offered something rare: a feeling of normalcy. When in public, he said, strangers make comments and photograph him without asking. “People think that because we’re tall they can say whatever they want or do whatever they want, like we’re zoo animals almost,” he said.

At Tall Tour, the dynamic flipped.

“It was insane to feel small for once,” he said, noting the event's 7-foot-3 and 7-foot-4 co-hosts known as the Tall Boys. “It was so surreal to be able to have a conversation and look people in the eyes.”

That commonality runs deeper than shoe size. Attendees describe a lifetime of social hyper vigilance — raising their voices a few pitches to sound less intimidating, slowing down around corners so they do not startle strangers, slouching to fit in.

“You’re hyper-fixated on making sure that people don’t see you as a threat,” Bergantino said.

Tall people often feel isolated and out of place, particularly around puberty, he said, noting he reached 6-foot-9 at age 16. But at Tall Tour, people can finally feel what it’s like to fit in.

“It heals a portion of your inner child,” he said. “Everyone’s walls come down, and it’s like we’re all one family.”

Susan knows the feeling.

“Sometimes you just want to go through the airport and be left alone. And that doesn’t happen for us. We usually get a lot of whispers,” she said. “We get it. It’s shocking to see tall people. But sometimes it does get old.”

The challenges extend beyond social awkwardness. Finding clothes and shoes that fit can be a mission. Susan, who wears a size-14 shoe, orders clothes from a specialty brand in the United Kingdom. To fit in his dorm bed, Grayson added a mattress extender and three sheets of plywood for support. He still hangs off the edge.

What began as a meetup has become a fast-growing business

Bergantino quit his sales job two years ago and now runs Tall Tour full time with a small team that includes his brother, who handles video and social media, a chief executive officer and a chief operating officer.

Even celebrities have taken notice. Seven-foot-6 basketball player Mamadou Ndiaye attended the Los Angeles event and the team has been in contact with 7-foot-1 NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal.

Future plans include expanding speed dating, launching a fashion show featuring height-inclusive brands and models, and adding spinoffs such as Tall Tour at Sea. International stops in Canada, Dubai, London, Australia, the Netherlands and Japan are also on the wish list. Bergantino says he wants to build “the tall-person ecosystem” — advocacy for exit row seating, better clothing options and even a phone app.

For now, the reward comes in smaller moments, like watching women in heels celebrate the height that once caused shame.

“The most joy of the day comes from the Tall Queen when she gets her crown and everyone’s going crazy,” he said. “It gets me every time.”

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Tall Tour will run through May with two more stops in Houston and Dallas, Texas. Follow Annika Hammerschlag on Instagram.

The Long Island Rail Road that serves New York City’s eastern suburbs has been negotiating for months on a new contract with labor officials representing locomotive engineers, machinists, signalmen and other train workers.

A strike was temporarily averted in September when President Donald Trump’s administration agreed to help. Those efforts ended without a deal, giving both sides 60 days — ending 12:01 a.m. Saturday — to again try to resolve their differences before the union was legally allowed to go on strike or the agency could lock out workers.

Five labor unions representing about half the train system’s 7,000-person workforce warned this week that Saturday’s deadline was approaching.

The LIRR is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, carrying about 250,000 customers each weekday. LIRR workers last went on strike in 1994, for about two days. Workers nearly walked out in 2014 before then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo reached a deal with unions.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the LIRR and other area transit systems, has said it will provide free but limited shuttle buses during the morning and afternoon rush hours. The agency says the shuttles will depart from designated LIRR train stations to subway stops in the New York City borough of Queens.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has urged LIRR riders to work from home, if possible, as the free shuttles are meant for essential workers and those who cannot telecommute. The Democrat, months earlier, slammed the LIRR unions for “greedy asks” that threaten to “destabilize the local economy.”

But there have been signs of progress in negotiations this week.

Months ago, the MTA had proposed to the unions a 9.5% wage increase over three years, in line with what the system’s other unionized workers have already agreed to. The unions, however, held out for another yearly salary increase of 6.5%, for a total raise of 16% over four years.

But following Wednesday’s closed door meetings, Gary Dellaverson, the MTA’s chief negotiator, said the agency offered the unions what it said would effectively amount to a 4.5% raise in the fourth year of the contract. That offer, he said, was in line with what federal officials had recommended and would come in the form of lump sum payments rather than wage increases, as the union sought.

“The difference between those two positions is not unbridgeable,” Dellaverson said in a news conference. “It is describable simply in terms of money. There are no longer any complexities involved with the parties.”

Kevin Sexton, a spokesperson for the unions, acknowledged Wednesday that there was “positive movement” toward a settlement but dismissed the notion that a deal was close as “far-fetched.”

“We would like to reach an agreement that reflects the rising cost of living,” he said. “Anything short of that amounts to a cut in real wages.”

Spokespersons for MTA didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Thursday, but the union said the two sides were expected to continue talks later that night and reconvene Friday if there was still no deal.

Susanne Alberto, a personal trainer from Long Island, said she’s already made plans with her Manhattan clients to hold virtual sessions in the event of a shutdown.

She said the union likely has the upper hand, even if she believes raises should be based on job responsibilities and not made across the board.

“The MTA is going to cave, and they know that,” Alberto said. “Why don’t they just do it now instead of waiting until virtually millions of people get inconvenienced?”

Rob Udle, an electrician who takes the LIRR at least five days a week, said he’ll likely use his vacation days rather than navigate the “nightmare” of commuting into Manhattan if the rail service shuts down.

A union member, he sympathized with the unions’ affordability concerns, but said he didn’t agree with their strongarm tactics.

“I get it, the cost of living is going up and stuff like that,” Udle said while waiting at Penn Station for a train home. “But they shouldn’t hold everybody hostage to do it. There’s a better way. You’re affecting a lot of other people.”

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The first reference to the rail system has been updated to correct to Long Island Rail Road, from Long Island Railroad.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

Italy’s Foreign Ministry said the group “apparently died while attempting to explore caves at a depth of 50 meters" (164 feet) in the Vaavu Atoll on Thursday. It said that the cause of the deaths remains under investigation.

The dead were Monica Montefalcone, an associate ecology professor at the University of Genoa, and her daughter Giorgia, as well as marine biologist Federico Gualtieri and researcher Muriel Oddenino, according to statements from Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology and Genoa university. The statement by the institute said the fifth victim was diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti.

The institute expressed “deep condolences” to their families and colleagues.

The five divers were believed to have been exploring the cave when they went missing, according to Maldivian presidential spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef.

“The cave is so deep that divers even with the best equipment do not try to approach,” he said.

Cave diving is a dangerous and highly technical form of diving that requires specialized equipment and training, and strict adherence to very specific safety protocols. Even entering underwater caves located in shallow depths can pose significant risks.

Maldivian authorities launched a major search operation, deploying boats, aircraft and dive teams to the area.

Rescuers recovered one body from about 60 meters (200 feet) below the surface Thursday, while the remaining four divers were believed to be inside the cave, officials said.

The group had been on a morning dive near Alimathaa and was reported missing after failing to surface by midday Thursday, with weather conditions described as unfavorable at the time.

Search teams were preparing a second dive Friday to assess access to the cave, though rough weather could delay operations. The Italian Foreign Ministry said an Italian expert was assisting Maldivian coast guard crews, and Italy’s ambassador to Sri Lanka — who also covers the Maldives — was on a search vessel as local authorities considered whether to seek international assistance.

The Italian ministry said about 20 other Italians who had been on the same expedition aboard a vessel named the Duke of York were safe, with no injuries reported. Italy’s embassy in Colombo was providing assistance to those onboard and had contacted the Red Crescent, which offered to deploy volunteers to help provide psychological aid.

The vessel was searching for safe harbor from poor weather conditions, and was waiting for conditions to improve before returning to Male, the ministry said.

The ministry added it was also coordinating with Divers Alert Network, a specialist diving insurance group that could support recovery operations with technical expertise and assist with the repatriation of the bodies.

Italian officials and the honorary consul remained in contact with the victims’ families to provide assistance.

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Zampano reported from Rome. Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi and Krishan Francis in Colombo contributed to this report.

Although Starmer vowed to fight on after a bruising week in which one Cabinet member resigned, dozens of lawmakers called for the prime minister to quit and his new policy proposals were largely ignored, some observers believe it’s only a matter of time before he steps aside.

The message of the past week “is that Labour seems to have made up its mind that Keir Starmer is going to have to go,” said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “And he’s going to have to go reasonably quickly, and he’s going to have to be replaced by someone who can, unlike him, connect with the public.”

Cabinet resignation adds pressure on Starmer

Weeks of speculation about Starmer ’s future broke into open rebellion Thursday when Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigned in preparation for a possible a leadership bid and the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, declared his intention to seek the top job. Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced she had cleared up a tax issue that forced her to resign from the Cabinet last year, thus freeing her up as well.

Starmer is under growing pressure to step down after Labour pe rformed dismally in local and regional elections last week, hemorrhaging votes to both the anti-immigrant Reform UK party on the right and Green Party on the left. The electoral drubbing cemented doubts among many party members about Starmer’s judgment, vision and leadership less than two years after he led Labour to a landslide victory.

But the potential contest to unseat him is on hold for now as Labour leaders wait to see if Burnham can win a special election for a seat in Parliament that would allow him to enter the race. That seat became available on Thursday when a Labour lawmaker resigned to make way for Burnham.

That election will be held in about five weeks. After that, Labour’s National Executive Committee will set the timetable for any leadership election. The most recent contest lasted three months.

The government’s borrowing costs rose Friday and the pound weakened on investor concern about continued disarray in Westminster. The pound has dropped 1.3% against the U.S dollar this week.

Starmer's supporters urge rivals to think again

Housing Secretary Steve Reed on Friday appealed to party members to step back from the brink of a divisive leadership contest that he said would prevent the government from tackling issues like the cost of living crisis and bolster the prospects of Reform UK.

“This weekend people just need to take a breath, look at what’s gone wrong this week, and come back next week ready to do what we said we’d do — country first, party second — and focus on delivering the change we were elected to deliver,” he told the BBC.

That plea came after a week of political jockeying that overshadowed everything else in Westminster.

The infighting reached a crescendo on Thursday morning when Streeting resigned. While praising Starmer’s “courage and statesmanship” in international affairs, Streeting said he had lost confidence in the prime minister’s leadership because of missteps on domestic issues.

“Where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift,” Streeting wrote in a stinging resignation letter.

“Leaders take responsibility, but too often that has meant other people falling on their swords,” he added. “You also need to listen to your colleagues, including backbenchers, and the heavy-handed approach to dissenting voices diminishes our politics.”

Opportunity knocks for the popular mayor of Greater Manchester

Streeting stopped short of putting himself forward as the best candidate to lead the party at the next general election, suggesting Starmer should step aside to allow a “broad” field of candidates to debate the future of the party.

That seemed to be a nod to Burnham, a former Cabinet minister who left Parliament in 2017 to run for mayor of Greater Manchester. Burnham has been looking for a way to return to the House of Commons so he can challenge Starmer for the top job.

Josh Simons, a Labour lawmaker from Northern England, provided that opening on Thursday by resigning his seat explicitly to make way for Burnham. But that was only the first step for Burnham. Before he can return to Westminster, Burnham must win a special election to represent Makerfield, a community where Reform UK posted strong results in last week’s local elections.

Burnham acknowledged those challenges on Thursday when he announced his candidacy for the seat.

“I truly do not take a single vote for granted and will work hard to regain the trust of people in the Makerfield constituency, many of whom have long supported our party but lost faith in recent times,” he said in a statement.

Longet's nephew, Bryan Longet, announced her death in a social media post on Thursday. “You have been a true inspiration in my life and you will always be," he wrote. "Another star in the sky. Thank you for everything, my aunt.”

Reached by phone by The Associated Press, he confirmed Longet had died but did not reveal the cause of her death.

Longet was a native Parisian who had been acting since childhood. She appeared in numerous TV shows, recorded such hit albums as “Claudine” and was widely known for the bossa nova-style ballad “Nothing to Lose,” a highlight of the 1968 movie “The Party” that starred Longet and Peter Sellers.

At the time, she was married to singer Andy Williams, whom she had met in the early '60s while dancing in a Las Vegas revue. But by the mid-1970s, she and Williams were divorced and she was living near Aspen, Colorado, with Sabich, who had competed for the United States in the 1968 Olympics.

On March 21, 1976, a day that would long be scrutinized, she shot him at their home with a Luger pistol that she would contend he had been showing her and fired accidentally. Sabich, 31, died of a single shot to his abdomen; Longet had accompanied him in the ambulance to the hospital.

Her trial in Aspen attracted worldwide attention. Williams was among those present, escorting her to and from the courthouse, paying for her legal fees and otherwise supporting his former wife and the mother of their three children.

“I thought it was unfair, I thought she was innocent, I thought it was an accident,” Williams told “CBS This Morning” in 2009.

Longet had been charged with reckless manslaughter, but law enforcement officials made such critical errors as taking a blood sample from Longet without a warrant. After four days of deliberation in January 1977, the jury found her guilty of negligent homicide. She was given two years’ probation, fined $250 and sentenced to 30 days in jail, eventually served on dates of her choosing.

Longet's career in entertainment was effectively over, though, and for a time she was the subject of mockery in popular culture, from a skit on “Saturday Night Live” to the Rolling Stones rocker “Claudine,” which featured a taunting refrain, “Claudine's back in jail again.” (The song was unreleased for decades).

Longet later married her defense attorney, Ron Austin, and lived with him in Aspen. After Sabich's family filed a $1.3 million lawsuit in 1977 against her, the two sides reached a settlement that barred Longet from ever discussing Sabich or the trial.

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Associated Press writer Samuel Petrequin in London contributed to this report.

The cruise missile hit the nine-story corner apartment block Thursday during what the Ukrainian air force said was Russia’s biggest barrage on the country of the full-scale invasion. Emergency workers finished digging through the rubble searching for victims after more than a day, Zelenskyy said on X.

Crowds of grieving people — many of them children — streamed toward a makeshift memorial beneath a tree near the destroyed building.

Teenagers clutching bouquets arrived in groups and broke into tears as they approached the growing mound of flowers and stuffed toys beside photographs of the dead. A portrait of a girl in a school uniform, posed against a bright yellow backdrop, was among the photos.

Zelenskyy and other top government officials visited the site to pay tribute to the dead, as did Kyiv-based foreign diplomats.

Russia has hammered Ukraine with large-scale aerial attacks in the days since a May 9-11 ceasefire that U.S. President Donald Trump said he asked Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to observe. Fighting continued over those 72 hours, although reportedly on a lesser scale.

This week’s attacks ran counter to recent suggestions from Trump and Putin that the war is close to ending.

The assault mostly targeted the Ukrainian capital, where 48 people were wounded, including two children, Zelenskyy said.

He said Moscow had launched more than 1,560 drones against Ukrainian population centers since Wednesday, adding that about 180 sites across the country were damaged, including more than 50 residential buildings.

Previously, the biggest Russian drone attack was on March 23-24 when Moscow’s forces fired nearly 1,000 drones and missiles at Ukraine. Thursday's death toll in Kyiv approached one from July 2024 that killed 32 civilians and injured another 85.

Russia reports a Ukrainian attack on Ryazan

Ukraine has also built up significant long-range capabilities, and Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday that its air defenses downed 355 Ukrainian drones overnight in one of the largest barrages of the war. Several airports suspended flights overnight because of the attacks.

A Ukrainian drone struck Ryazan, a city about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Moscow, killed four people, including a child, regional Gov. Pavel Malkov said. Massive plumes of black smoke rose from a fire at an oil refinery. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities to try to deny vital revenue for Moscow and rattle the Kremlin.

Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment on the Ryazan strike.

The cruise missile that hit the Kyiv apartment building was built in the second quarter of this year, Zelenskyy said, apparently after Ukrainian experts analyzed the wreckage.

“This means Russia is still importing the components, resources and equipment necessary for missile production in circumvention of global sanctions,” he said in another post on X late Thursday. “Stopping Russia’s sanctions evasion schemes must be a genuine priority for all our partners.”

Also on Friday, Russia and Ukraine swapped 205 prisoners of war, one of an occasional exchange.

Zelenskyy said it was the first phase of a planned swap of 1,000 POWs from each side. Some of the Ukrainians have been held by Russia since 2022 and fought in some of the war’s fiercest battles, he added.

Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the exchange and thanked the United Arab Emirates for helping to broker it.

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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.

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

Mas —acostumbrado a los aplausos y a trabajar con artistas profesionales— ahora pasa sus días ofreciendo talleres gratuitos para niños y subalquilando un espacio de su casa para sobrevivir económicamente.

Como la mayoría de los cubanos, su día a día se ha visto sacudido por la crisis económica y el cerco petrolero impuesto por Estados Unidos y que se traducen en apagones, cortes de agua y escasez de alimentos y medicinas. Y, como muchos artistas, por la cancelación de espectáculos y la falta de presupuesto para la cultura.

Recientemente fue notificado de la suspensión de su contrato como profesor del Teatro Nacional de Cuba. Sin embargo, no se da por vencido.

“Me interesa mucho quedarme en Cuba”, dijo a The Associated Press mientras se preparaba para ir a ensayar en un taller sabatino con niños de una comunidad vulnerable. Si emigrara “perdería el contacto con esa ‘cubanía’, con ese público, con esa gente”.

El panorama para el arte cubano “es complejo y oscuro”, dijo a AP el ensayista y periodista especializado Michel Hernández. Los espacios culturales —baratos y mayoritariamente estatales— “se han depreciado mucho, los artistas tienen muy pocos lugares para actuar, algunos pocos privados adonde el acceso suele ser caro”.

A ello se suman, dijo Hernández, la ausencia de transporte, lo que limita la asistencia del público, y la migración o la retracción voluntaria de muchos creadores. Un fenómeno que afecta a bailarines como Mas pero también a músicos, cineastas y escritores.

Ante la crisis, reinventarse

El último sábado Mas cargó una bolsa verde con un pomo de agua para combatir el sol mañanero y se dirigió a la popular barriada de Coco Solo, en el municipio capitalino de Marianao, donde más de 30 niños y sus madres y abuelas lo esperaban ansiosos.

El bullicioso grupo se instaló en una esquina al aire libre con un parlante inalámbrico y allí los pequeños ensayaron durante una hora y media sus números musicales vestidos como abejas y otros disfraces. Un par de ellos bailaron breakdance.

Para Mas —a quien la Casa de la Cultura de Marianao le paga un modesto sueldo por ese trabajo— es importante estar ligado a su comunidad.

“Es llevarle a los niños el conocimiento del arte y sacarlos de esa realidad que ellos tienen de conflicto”, comentó. “En ese barrio pasan muchos problemas… hay prostitución, hay droga, hay una serie de incidencias que son negativas y ellos tienen por lo menos un momento de esparcimiento”.

Nacido en La Habana en 1965, Mas se formó como bailarín y coreógrafo a pesar de haber sido inicialmente discriminado por su sobrepeso. En 1996 debutó con su propia compañía, Danza Voluminosa, que dio cabida a bailarines cuyos cuerpos distaban mucho de la estética hegemónica. También se desempeñó como actor.

Para incrementar sus ingresos, ahora alquila un pequeño espacio de su casa para un negocio en el que se venden perfumes, artículos de librería y cotillón y él mismo vende cada fin de semana en la puerta de su vivienda ropa reciclada, vajilla o utensilios que ya no usa.

Pese al contexto, el coreógrafo ve una oportunidad en la crisis.

“Pienso que el país debe entrar en una evolución”, expresó. “Que nos demos una oportunidad todos de crear un país con nuevas ideas, con nuevos caminos".

Today, the 60-year-old dancer and choreographer from Havana is far from the big stages where he once thrived and rehearsed alongside professional artists. Instead, he spends his days conducting dance workshops and classes for children and coordinating performances within his community.

Like many Cubans navigating one of the island's worst economic crises in decades, Mas' daily life has been upended by persistent blackouts, water outages, soaring costs and a lack of transportation.

But for artists like him, the situation is a little worse, compounded by the cancellation of shows, a lack of production budgets and a mass exodus from the cultural sector. In fact, he was recently notified that his teaching contract with the National Theater of Cuba has been suspended.

“The outlook for the arts is complex and bleak,” said essayist and arts journalist Michel Hernández. He noted that Cuba’s cultural spaces — once affordable and state-run — have deteriorated significantly, leaving artists with few venues beyond a handful of expensive private spaces.

Yet, Mas won't give up.

“I am very interested in staying in Cuba,” he told The Associated Press on a recent Saturday as he prepared for a rehearsal with children from a nearby community. “Were I to emigrate, I would lose contact with that ‘Cubanness’ that exists here, with the audience, the people, the folks next door.”

Transforming a street corner into a dance stage

Born in Havana in 1965, Mas trained as a dancer and choreographer under the tutelage of Laura Alonso, a renowned ballerina, and Ramiro Guerra, the father of contemporary dance on the island. He also studied with the Cuban-American dancer and choreographer Lorna Burdsall, who encouraged him to persevere despite the discrimination he faced from dance schools because he weighed 160 kilograms (352 pounds).

He made his debut in 1996 with his own company, Danza Voluminosa (or Voluminous Dance), which remained active until 2024 and provided a home for dancers whose bodies diverged significantly from the industry’s prevailing aesthetic norms. He also worked as an actor and in 2025 he starred in “Cherri,” a fictional film based on his own life experiences.

These days, to supplement the modest income he makes working with children, Mas leases a small area of his home for business use and hosts weekend garage sales featuring curated recycled clothing, tableware and household goods.

Since his sister and teenage nephew relocated to Spain last year, he has lived alone and managed his expenses by shopping at a local farmers’ market just two blocks away. Conveniently, he also accesses subsidized medications at a state-run pharmacy directly across the street.

On a recent morning, water bottle in hand to ward off the heat, Mas walked six blocks to the lively Marianao district, where a crowd of 30 children and their mothers awaited his arrival.

The group suddenly transformed a street corner into a stage and for a full 90 minutes, the air filled with music as the little ones performed their songs and showed off their dance moves dressed as bees and other colorful characters.

Against all odds, Mas highlighted the importance of staying connected to his community.

“It’s about bringing the knowledge of art to these children and lifting them out of a reality defined by conflict,” he said.

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

The deaths and suspected cases have been recorded mainly in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones, the Africa Centres for Disease Control ​and Prevention said in a statement.

The Ebola virus is highly contagious and can be contracted through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.

“Four deaths have been reported among laboratory-confirmed cases. Suspected cases have also been reported in Bunia, pending confirmation,” the agency said, referring to the capital of Ituri province, near the border with Uganda.

It said preliminary laboratory results had detected the Ebola virus in 13 of 20 samples. The results suggest a non-Ebola Zaire strain of the virus with sequencing ongoing to further characterize the strain, the agency said. The Ebola Zaire strain has been prominent in Congo's past outbreaks.

The World Health Organization said last year that Congo has a stockpile of treatments and some 2,000 doses of the Ervebo Ebola vaccine, However, the vaccine is effective against the Ebola Zaire strain of the virus, it said.

The Africa CDC said results confirming the strain in the new outbreak are expected within the 24 hours.

The latest outbreak comes around five months after Congo’s last Ebola outbreak was declared over after 43 deaths.

Ituri is in a remote eastern part of Congo characterized by poor road networks, and is more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the nation’s capital of Kinshasa.

Africa CDC said it is concerned about the risk of further spread due to intense population movement, mining-related mobility in Mongwalu, insecurity in affected areas, gaps in contact listing and control challenges.

The proximity of affected areas to Uganda and South Sudan also raises concerns, it said.

The agency said it is convening an urgent high-level coordination meeting Friday with health authorities from Congo, Uganda and South Sudan, together with key partners including U.N. agencies and other countries.

“The meeting will focus on immediate response priorities, cross-border coordination, surveillance, laboratory support, infection prevention and control, risk communication, safe and dignified burials, and resource mobilization,” it said.

Congo has seen more than a dozen Ebola outbreaks

This is the 17th outbreak in Congo since the disease first emerged in the country in 1976. An Ebola outbreak from 2018 to 2020 in eastern Congo killed more than 1,000 people. The WHO said that outbreak was characterized by the Ebola Zaire strain.

An earlier outbreak that swept across West Africa from 2014 to 2016 also killed more than 11,000 people.

The new outbreak will create more worry for the Central African country, which has been battling various armed groups in the east, including the M23 rebel group, which launched a rapid assault in January last year and has since occupied key cities.

Ituri in particular is also battling violence from the Allied Democratic Force, an Islamic State-linked militant group which has killed dozens there and in other parts of the east.

Congo, Africa's second-largest country by land area, often faces logistical challenges in responding to disease outbreaks. During last year's outbreak, which lasted three months, the World Health Organization initially faced significant challenges in delivering vaccines due to limited access and scarce funds.

Dr. Gabriel Nsakala, a professor of public health who has been involved in past Ebola outbreak responses in Congo, said the country and health workers on the ground have a high level of experience from past outbreaks, in addition to existing infrastructure such as laboratories.

“In terms of training, people already know what they can do. Now, the expertise and equipment need to be delivered quickly,” Nsakala added.

The rest of the NHL can't get rid of the Knights that easily, and their ridiculous roll has extended all the way into yet another Western Conference finals.

The Knights won their 14th playoff series when they finished off the upstart Anaheim Ducks with a 5-1 victory in Game 6 of the second round Thursday night. No team has won more postseason series since Vegas entered the league in 2017, and the Knights are in the third round of the playoffs for a jaw-dropping fifth time in nine seasons.

This charmed club is halfway to its second Stanley Cup title, but it isn't just luck driving Sin City's team deep into seemingly every postseason while the rest of the West looks on in frustration and envy.

Vegas' win-at-all-costs philosophy has required years of expensive signings and high-profile talent acquisitions. It led to a shocking coaching change this spring. It has also depended on that talent's ability to coalesce when games mean the most — a feat that even great teams sometimes can't pull off.

So far, the Knights' pot hasn't gone empty — and their luck is holding strong.

“Just proud of the guys,” said defenseman Shea Theodore, an original member of the Knights. “I think it comes right from (owner) Bill Foley up top. That's the message going into every year, is to win Cups, and I think we've put ourselves in great positions. Guys put the work in.”

With a pair of six-game series victories over the Utah Mammoth and the Ducks, Vegas has improved to 15-4-1 since the franchise pulled the stunning move of firing Bruce Cassidy, its Stanley Cup-winning coach, and hiring John Tortorella with just eight games left in the regular season.

“Torts has been a good change coming in, just getting us the right mindset going into each game, each playoff series," Theodore said. "I feel like we have the right tools going in and guys have been executing.”

The Knights had been in an 8-15-4 slump before they took the extraordinary step of turning over the team to a 67-year-old journeyman coach in late March. Tortorella hasn't made massive changes to the Knights' structure, but his new voice must have been heard: Vegas immediately surged past Anaheim and Edmonton to win the Pacific before speeding down this division's comparatively smooth path to the conference finals.

“I think we were maybe doubting a little bit of ourselves about what we were trying to do out there, and sometimes that happens,” said Mitch Marner, who scored the opening goal in the clincher in Anaheim after getting a hat trick on the same ice in Game 3. “Torts came in and, I think, brought our swagger back to where it needed to be, and playing the way that we wanted to play. And obviously since that change, I’ve really liked our game as a team. I think we all have. We’re playing a fast-paced game. We’re doing all the little things right, and that’s what it takes.”

Marner's first season in Vegas has been “a roller coaster ride,” according to the longtime Toronto forward who left for Vegas last summer amid fan discontent with him while the Maple Leafs failed to reach a conference finals. While the Leafs imploded this season, Marner started relatively slowly out West by his lofty standards before getting on the roll of his career in the playoffs.

Marner had a goal and an assist in the Game 6 clincher, giving him an NHL-best 18 points in the postseason so far. The Toronto fans who thought he was a playoff underachiever must look for somebody else to blame, because Marner has been aces in Vegas.

“Individually wise, it feels great to be going on to the next round with this team,” Marner said. “And the work now really just keeps getting harder, and we’re excited for it.”

Indeed, the Knights flew out of Southern California knowing that their path to the Stanley Cup Final is blocked by the Colorado Avalanche, who have been the NHL's best team for most of the season.

Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar have led their group to eight wins in nine playoff games against the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the conference standings. Vegas is facing long odds as it attempts to separate the Avs from their apparent destiny.

But the players who wear the Golden Knights sweater have been on a collective lucky streak since they entered the NHL, and that success breeds a confidence that money can't buy.

“We're playing a very high-talented team coming up here, so we've got to make sure we're doing all those things right,” Marner said. “And then when we get our opportunities, capitalize on them.”

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

Of the 272 regular-season games, 22 will stream as the primary network (one more than announced last season), and 14 will be primarily on cable.

That leaves 236 games that will be on CBS, Fox, NBC or ABC, meaning 87% of the schedule will be on broadcast television, the same percentage as last year. All games in a team’s home market air on a broadcast network.

President Donald Trump weighed in with his dissatisfaction with the costs for fans who want access to all of the games as investigations by the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice continue.

“You have people that live for Sunday. They can’t think about anything else, and then all of a sudden, they’re gonna have to pay $1,000 a game? It’s crazy, so I’m not happy about it,” Trump said while interviewed on “Full Measure” last weekend.

While fans are not paying $1,000 per game to watch on television or streaming, trying to view everything with “NFL Sunday Ticket,” a cable or satellite package, and subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Peacock could total nearly $1,000 for the season.

Even with greater scrutiny of its distribution models, the league stuck to the same plan, according to Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution.

“Our focus is on getting the best games into the best windows," Schroeder said. "And even with the additional games that went to Netflix, we think we’re expanding the reach of those games.”

More windows, more problems?

The league was able to create new standalone windows after getting back four games from Monday night doubleheaders in previous seasons. Two went to Netflix (Thanksgiving Eve and the Saturday early game in Week 18), one to Fox (one of the international games) and one to NBC (a Saturday game in Week 17).

CBS and Fox were able to add Saturday games in Week 15 that were Sunday regional games in past seasons. Fox also has a Christmas Day game for the first time since 2023.

While the league and ESPN thought having two Monday night games some weeks would benefit viewers, it often divided them because one game started at 7 p.m. and the other at 8:15 p.m.

“I think our fans felt a little conflicted with having two games on Monday," Schroeder said. "It wasn’t working as we intended. We could take these games and find a better home and broader distribution for them."

The games on Netflix should also draw a large audience, given its U.S. and global reach. The streamer has 81.4 million U.S. subscribers compared to 60 million for ESPN. Netflix will also be able to distribute its five-game package globally.

There will be 10 Monday night games simulcast on ABC this season. ESPN will also air the Super Bowl for the first time, while ABC will air it for the first time since 2006.

Tim Reed, ESPN’s vice president of programming and acquisitions, also thought moving away from the doubleheaders helped “Monday Night Football” have a more complete schedule.

“The ability to streamline and simplify the schedule just helps. I assume it helped the league and makes it easier to land all the games,” he said.

With 10 broadcast windows to fill Thanksgiving week, there will be only six 1 p.m. games on Sunday, with three each on CBS and Fox. Baltimore at Houston (CBS) and Atlanta at Minnesota (Fox) are expected to be the showcase games in the early window, while Seattle at San Francisco gets the late afternoon spotlight on Fox.

Christmas week will have 11 windows — Christmas Eve, three on Christmas Day, two on Dec. 26, CBS doubleheader plus early game on Fox, NBC Sunday night, and ESPN Monday night. Once ESPN makes its decision on the two games it will air on NFL Network, CBS and Fox will each get one game, making it likely there will be a total of six 1 p.m. Sunday games. The 49ers-Chiefs contest is the featured late-afternoon game on CBS.

“How do you satisfy everybody? You probably can’t, but you can be fair," said Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports president, insight and analytics. "It leaves things a little light for the afternoon windows, but as long as we’re not shouldering more of that burden and feel we’re being treated fairly, it’s OK,”

CBS, Fox happy with results

CBS, which had its best regular season in 2025, has the Chiefs four times and the Cowboys twice in its Sunday 4:25 p.m. doubleheader window.

Its best lineup looks to be Week 15, with Bears-Bills on Saturday, Dec. 19, at 8:20 p.m., followed by Steelers-Ravens on Sunday at 1 p.m., and Cowboys-Rams at 4:25 p.m.

“That will be a great scene in Buffalo for us, and then you go from that game to Sunday and a monster doubleheader with Ravens-Steelers early, a legendary black-and-blue game, and then having the Cowboys in LA against the Rams,” said Dan Weinberg, CBS Sports EVP of programming.

CBS also has the Cowboys in Week 3 against the Ravens, which will be played in Brazil.

By carrying the Patriots-Lions game in Munich on Week 10, Fox will have its first tripleheader since Week 8 in 2016. After the Sunday morning game, it will also feature Vikings-Packers as a showcase game at 1 p.m., followed by 49ers-Cowboys in the late afternoon slot.

Tom Brady makes his first return to Foxborough, Massachusetts, as a broadcaster when the Patriots face the Packers in Week 9.

“I think there are 60 dates this season with NFL football. That is quite different than 20-25 years ago," Mulvihill said. “Sunday is still the core of the football experience and always will be. I think the league is mindful of not undermining the brand and power of Sunday football.”

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Captain and Liverpool defensive midfielder Wataru Endo and veteran fullback Yuto Nagatomo were included.

The 28-year-old Mitoma suffered a hamstring injury during Brighton’s 3-0 win over Wolves in the Premier League last weekend.

“The medical team assessed that it would be difficult for him to get back to fitness during the tournament,” Moriyasu said.

Monaco forward Takumi Minamino also missed out after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in December.

In 2022 in Qatar, Japan won its group after upset victories over Germany and Spain before losing in the round of 16 on penalties to eventual semifinalists Croatia.

Japan is on a five-match winning streak heading into its final pre-World Cup friendly against Iceland in Tokyo on May 31.

The streak started last October with a 3-2 win over Brazil in Tokyo when the home side came back from 2-0 down to beat the South Americans for the first time.

It was also the last time Japan conceded a goal. Japan also beat England 1-0 on March 31 at Wembley after defeating Scotland 1-0 at Glasgow three days earlier.

Japan qualified for its first World Cup at France in 1998 and co-hosted the event with South Korea in 2002. This year marks Japan's eighth World Cup tournament in a row.

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Japan squad:

Goalkeepers: Zion Suzuki, Keisuke Osako, Tomoki Hayakawa.

Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo, Shogo Taniguchi, Ko Itakura, Tsuyoshi Watanabe, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Hiroki Ito, Ayumu Seko, Yukinari Sugawara, Junnosuke Suzuki.

Midfielders/forwards: Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Daichi Kamada, Koki Ogawa, Daizen Maeda, Ritsu Doan, Ayase Ueda, Ao Tanaka, Keito Nakamura, Kaishu Sano, Takefusa Kubo, Yuito Suzuki, Kento Shiogai, Keisuke Goto.

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

A rocky start that wasn’t entirely Dobes’ fault, led to the goalie regaining his form and confidence. He stopped Buffalo's final 32 shots in a 6-3 win on Thursday night that gave Montreal a 3-2 lead in its second-round playoff series.

“I told him thank you for leaving me and trying to prove myself," Dobes said, referring to St. Louis. "That’s a big part, to have (the) trust of your coach, and I will never disrespect it. I appreciate it and the only thing I was trying to do just give some momentum back to the team and try to keep it tight, and it worked out.”

Game 6 is at Montreal on Saturday night.

Whatever struggles Dobes had to open a game in which the Sabres led 3-2 by the 10:15 mark of the first period, the 24-year-old from Czechia reassured his team he had rediscovered his groove.

That was particularly evident some four minutes into the second period in stopping Tage Thompson on a breakaway after the Sabres caught Montreal on a line change. Buffalo’s regular-season scoring leader drove in from the left wing, cut across the crease only to have Dobes stay with him and stop Thompson’s shot with his left pad.

Montreal responded with three goals over the final 12 minutes of the period in building a 5-3 lead.

“It was a huge save,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “We never lost confidence in him. Everyone was struggling in that first period. And I just thought that was a big moment for us.”

For Dobes, who went 29-10-4 in his first full NHL regular season, the down-then-up outing was a lesson in not giving in to frustration. The goalie acknowledged he sagged after rookie Konsta Helenius beat him through the legs on Buffalo’s third goal.

“The one lesson I learned from today was just got to have a better body language for the boys — don’t let them know that I’m not feeling maybe my best,” Dobes said, noting he was reminded of that during a first-intermission discussion. Dobes has been Montreal's starter since the playoffs opened, and is now 7-5 in which he's allowed 28 goals.

St. Louis said it was goalie coach Marco Marciano’s decision to not pull Dobes.

“Ultimately, it’s probably my decision right? But I feel like the goalie position is probably the one position that I can help much,” said St. Louis, a former NHL forward. “So I try to stay out of it and not be emotionally driven, and being upset that we’re down.”

St. Louis described the conversation over the radio with Marciano, who was watching from the press box, as being brief.

“He said, 'No, keep him in.’ OK, let’s move on,” St. Louis said.

Forward Juraj Slafkovsky defended Dobes by saying Buffalo’s first goal pinballed in by deflecting off Sabres forward Jason Zucker and then a Montreal defender. And Dobes was screened when Josh Doan beat him to put Buffalo up 2-1.

“We didn’t help him there, but then he came back and he was in a game, and he was once again really good,” said Slafkovsky, who had three assists. “It’s just Marty trusting him. I think it’s huge for confidence of (Dobes). And we all trust him as well.”

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

In New Delhi, gasoline prices rose to 97.77 rupees ($1.17) a liter, while diesel climbed to 90.67 rupees ($1.09) a liter.

India imports about 90% of its oil and has been hit hard by rising energy prices and supply disruptions linked to the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. It had until now avoided raising retail fuel prices despite sharp increases in energy costs, making it one of the last major economies to pass higher crude prices on to consumers.

The price increases came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indians to adopt voluntary austerity measures.

Modi on Sunday called on people to work from home where possible, limit foreign travel and reduce purchases of gold. He described fuel conservation and saving foreign exchange as an act of “patriotism,” and encouraged greater use of public transportation, carpooling and lower fertilizer consumption.

Opposition leaders said Modi’s appeal came only after a key round of state elections had concluded, noting that fuel prices were kept unchanged during the campaign.

Manoj Kumar, a 48-year-old taxi driver in New Delhi, said the rise in fuel prices was adding to the strain on working-class people.

“For common people like us, even one rupee has great value. People work so hard from morning till evening just to make ends meet. The government is not seeing this," he said.

Earlier this week, India also raised import duties on gold and silver to 15% in an effort to curb demand for imports that drain foreign exchange reserves.

The Indian rupee has fallen to record lows in recent weeks as higher oil prices increased pressure on imports and foreign exchange reserves.

Meanwhile, India’s capital has become the first state to roll out austerity measures.

Authorities in New Delhi on Thursday announced fuel-saving measures, including mandatory work-from-home days for some government employees. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the 90-day campaign aims to reduce official fuel use and encourage people in the capital to rely more on public transportation instead of private vehicles.

Under the plan, employees whose work can be done remotely will work from home two days a week, while private companies are being encouraged to adopt similar measures voluntarily.

India has also accelerated ethanol blending in gasoline as part of its push to cut crude oil imports.

Most fuel stations across the country now sell gasoline blended with 20% ethanol, and the government has proposed expanding the use of fuels containing 85% — or even 100% — ethanol in compatible vehicles.

Energy experts said blending biofuel can help shield from global energy shocks but can lead to further stressing already depleting groundwater resources, encroach on land meant for food crops and impact older vehicles’ engines.

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AP journalists Sibi Arasu in Bengaluru, India and Shonal Ganguly in New Delhi contributed to this report.

The Gulfstream long-range business jet carrying them from the Netherlands landed at RAAF Base Pearce outside the Western Australia state capital, Perth. The passengers, crew and a doctor who accompanied them were taken by bus to the nearby Bullsbrook quarantine facility.

Australian Health Minister Mark Butler said the government would implement one of world's strongest quarantine responses to the outbreak.

He said passengers of the cruise ship MV Hondius who returned to the United States and most European countries would spend a few days in a quarantine center before they were sent home.

"We have taken the decision to take a stronger approach to quarantine arrangements than that because we are determined to ensure there is no risk at all of any transmission of this virus into the Australian community,” Butler told reporters in his hometown of Adelaide.

The five Australians and one New Zealand citizen will spend the three-week quarantine period in the facility that had remained largely unused since it was built in 2022 is response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A decision had yet to be made on what precautions should be taken for the remainder of the 42-day period of potential incubation that the World Health Organization had identified, Butler said.

The six passengers all tested negative for the virus before they left the Netherlands, had been assessed by a doctor during the flight and would undergo more detailed health assessments at Bullsbrook, Butler said.

The MV Hondius ship was on a cruise from Argentina to the Antarctic and then to several isolated islands in the South Atlantic Ocean when the hantavirus outbreak was identified. Three people among the 11 cases from the ship have died.

With the evacuation of all passengers and many crew members completed, the MV Hondius is now sailing back to the Netherlands, where it will be cleaned and disinfected.

The S&P 500 fell 0.9% from its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 428 points, or 0.9%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was down 1.3% from its own record.

Technology stocks tumbled in a sharp turnaround from their meteoric rises for much of the year, which had carried markets worldwide to records but also raised criticism that they had gone too far.

Nvidia, the stock that quickly became the face of the AI revolution, dropped 4.2% and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500. It had come into the day with a gain of more than 26% for the year so far.

Applied Materials fell 1.3% even though it reported stronger profit growth for the latest quarter than analysts expected, thanks to the global build out of AI. The company, whose products help make chips and displays, came into the day with a gain of more than 70% for the year so far.

“To us, it looks like markets have pushed into overbought territory,” according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. He said the strong corporate profits and durable U.S. economy that launched U.S. stocks to records remain intact, but “the path is unlikely to be smooth. Periods like this call for discipline more than hope.”

In the meantime, rising oil prices are raising the pressure after already worsening inflation by more than economists had feared. The war with Iran is continuing, and the Strait of Hormuz remains shut to oil tankers, which is preventing them from delivering crude to customers worldwide and driving up oil’s price.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 3.3% to $109.16 and is well above its level of roughly $70 from before the war.

Many big U.S. companies have been saying their customers have been able to keep spending on their products and services despite having to pay higher prices for gasoline. But U.S. households have also been telling surveys they’re feeling discouraged about the economy and the pressures building on them because of the war and tariffs.

The worries were most clear Friday in the bond market, where Treasury yields climbed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.57% from 4.47% late Thursday. That’s a notable move for the bond market, and it’s well above its 3.97% level from before the war. The yield on the 30-year Treasury is near its highest level since 2023 after breaking above 5%.

Higher yields can make mortgages and other kinds of loans going to U.S. households and businesses more expensive, which slows the economy. They also tend to push downward on prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.

Stocks of smaller companies had some of Friday’s sharpest drops. Many of them need to borrow cash to grow, which means higher borrowing costs can hurt them more than their big rivals. The Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks fell 2.2%, more than double the S&P 500’s loss.

Yields have been climbing since the war on worries about higher inflation and how it may tie the Federal Reserve’s hands when it comes to short-term interest rates. Not only have traders abandoned virtually all expectations that the Fed will resume its cuts to interest rates this year, they’ve been building some bets that it may even hike rates in 2026, according to data from CME Group.

A couple of reports on the U.S. economy that came in better than expected also helped to lift yields. One said U.S. industrial production improved by more last month than economists expected, while another said manufacturing in New York state is expanding at a faster rate.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell sharply across Europe and Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi dropped 6.1% for one of the biggest moves. It had been reaching records this year because of the influence of AI beneficiaries like SK Hynix. But it quickly reversed momentum Friday after briefly topping the 8,000 level for the first time.

Some on Wall Street have been warning about a possible break in momentum for tech stocks in general and AI winners in particular.

“If nothing else this should be a ‘shot across the bow’ for how volatility works both ways,” according to Jonathan Krinsky, chief market technician at BTIG.

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AP Business Writer Chan Ho-him contributed.

The village, al-Joura, was demolished by the Israeli military at the time. It has since vanished under neighborhoods of the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and the grounds of a national park.

The neighborhood where Abu Hamam’s family ended up — and where he spent most of his life — now lies also largely in ruins. Buildings in the Shati Camp in the northern Gaza Strip have been razed and wrecked by Israeli bombardment and demolitions during the past 2½ years of war.

On Friday, Abu Hamam and millions of Palestinians mark the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” referring to the mass expulsion and flight of some 750,000 Palestinians from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. It’s the third commemoration of the Nakba since the war in Gaza began.

The 78-year-old Abu Hamam, one of a dwindling number of Nakba survivors, says the current war is an even greater catastrophe.

Israel’s military has pushed deep into Gaza, now controlling 60% of the territory, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday, during a Jerusalem Day celebration.

"Today it is 60%, tomorrow we will see, tomorrow we will see,” he told a cheering crowd in Jerusalem.

More than six months after an October ceasefire, Gaza’s more than 2 million people are now crammed into less than half of the 25-mile-long strip along the Mediterranean coast, surrounded by the Israeli-controlled zone.

“There is no country left,” Abu Hamam said, speaking next to his home, which was heavily damaged by Israeli shelling earlier in the war. “A square kilometer and a half extending from the sea, this is what we are living in … It’s indescribable, unbearable.”

What was the Nakba?

For Palestinians, the Nakba meant the loss of most of their homeland. Some 80% of the Palestinians who lived in the area that became Israel were driven from their homes by forces of the nascent state before and during the war. The fighting began when Arab armies attacked following Israel’s establishment as a home for Jews in the wake of the Holocaust. Palestinians who remained behind hold Israeli citizenship.

After the war, Israel refused to allow Palestinian refugees to return to ensure a Jewish majority within its borders. Palestinians became a seemingly permanent refugee community that now numbers some 6 million, with most living in refugee camps in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Gaza.

Around 530 Palestinian villages in what became Israel were destroyed, according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics.

Abu Hamam’s birth village was one of them. Al-Joura was seized by the Israeli military as it advanced against Egyptian forces in November 1948. Soldiers were ordered to destroy every home in al-Joura and neighboring villages to ensure their Palestinian populations couldn’t come back, according to military archives cited by Israeli historian Benny Morris.

Refugees swelled the population of the tiny patch of territory along the southern coast that became the Gaza Strip. They stayed in tent camps, run by a newly created U.N. agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, which provided aid and schooling. Those camps, like Abu Hamam’s Shati Camp, grew into dense urban neighborhoods over the decades, before many were flattened during the latest Gaza war by Israeli bombardment.

In Gaza, Palestinians live a new Nakba

The ancestors of Ne’man Abu Jarad and his wife, Majida, were already living in what would become the Gaza Strip in 1948. They both recall stories from their families about refugees streaming in by foot from areas further north, like the village Abu Hamam came from.

Though they avoided the original Nakba, there was no escaping from what Majida now calls “our Nakba.”

Their hometown has been wiped off the map. Over the past year, Israeli bulldozers and controlled detonations have razed nearly every building in the northern Gaza towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun. A new Israeli military base stands about 700 meters (765 yards) from where the Abu Jarads’ house once stood, according to satellite photos.

Also gone is the southern Gaza city of Rafah, once home to a quarter million people, and other villages and neighborhoods located in the Israeli-held half of the Gaza Strip. The military says it is destroying positions used by Hamas and preparing the area for reconstruction. Satellite photos show nearly every structure reduced to rubble.

Over the last 31 months of war, the Abu Jarads and their six daughters have been displaced more than a dozen times as they fled Israeli bombardment and offensives. They currently live in a camp in the southern city of Khan Younis. Their tent offers little shelter from biting winter winds or summer heat, Majida said.

Their daughters have been out of school for over two years now.

“The Nakba of ’48, I don’t think it can be compared to our Nakba,” Majida said. “In ’48, they say people were displaced once and settled in one place, and they are still there until now. But our Nakba, honestly, is more severe because our displacement has happened multiple times. There is no stability.”

Around 90% of Gaza’s more than 2 million people have lost their homes, according to U.N. estimates, with most of them now sheltering in huge tent camps with rat infestations and pools of sewage. They are dependent on aid to survive.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 72,700 Palestinians, according to local health officials. It was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people. Militants also abducted 251 hostages.

In the northern West Bank, tens of thousands of Palestinians are entering their 15th month of displacement, after the Israeli military ordered them out of their refugee camps as it launched an operation it said was targeting militant groups.

Since then, troops have demolished or heavily damaged at least 850 structures across the refugee camps of Nur Shams, Jenin and Tulkarem, according to an analysis of satellite imagery by Human Rights Watch released in December.

Saving what was lost, again and again

The 1948 Nakba also brought the loss of Palestinians’ history, as those fleeing struggled to keep hold of the documents and possessions tying them to their homes.

One of the largest archives of Palestinian documents dating back to the Nakba belongs to UNRWA.

UNRWA staff members, who fled their offices in Gaza after Israel ordered the north evacuated, had to leave behind the agency’s extensive archive.

The staff then launched a mission to rescue the most crucial documents — birth, death and marriage certificates and refugee registration cards, according to Juliette Touma, a former senior UNRWA official.

Without those documents, Palestinians could lose their rights and refugee status. Staffers crammed their personal suitcases full of papers and carried them through checkpoints and out of the territory, Touma said.

The current war has cost Palestinians in Gaza what little remained of their personal histories. Majida’s parents’ home in Beit Hanoun was destroyed, and with it family photos.

“There is nothing left,” she said.

Abu Hamam, too, says everything has been lost.

“When this war came, it devoured trees, stones and people,” he said. “Entire families were erased from the civil registry. Hundreds of families are still buried under the rubble.”

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Associated Press writer Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Brett Howden scored his third short-handed goal of the playoffs and Shea Theodore got a power-play goal during a 3-0 first period for the Golden Knights, who reached the third round of the NHL postseason for the first time since they won their lone Stanley Cup championship in 2023 — and for the fifth time in this charmed expansion franchise’s nine seasons of existence.

“You go into it and you want to score first, especially being on the road,” said Theodore, an original member of the Knights after Anaheim traded him to Vegas in 2017. “I thought we responded well. We played great the first 15 minutes, and that's what we had to do. ... Just a veteran group. We had the right mindset coming in, and it was good to see the results.”

Marner played a role in all three of Vegas' first-period goals while raising his NHL-leading playoff point total to 18, and Game 5 overtime goal-scorer Dorofeyev put the game away with a huge third period. Carter Hart made 31 saves as the veteran-laden Golden Knights ended the upstart Ducks' first playoff appearance since 2018.

“It obviously feels great,” said Marner, who got labeled a playoff underachiever while his Toronto Maple Leafs never reached a conference final. “We worked extremely hard for all these little goals that we set throughout the year, and another one (is) achieved. But obviously the work just keeps getting harder and harder.”

Vegas will face an exponentially bigger challenge in the Colorado Avalanche, who won the Presidents' Trophy and then improved to 8-1 in the postseason on Wednesday by ousting Minnesota in five games.

Mikael Granlund scored a power-play goal for the Ducks, whose return from a seven-year playoff drought ended when their young roster was unable to match the veteran Knights’ playoff poise in three losses over the final four games.

Lukas Dostal stopped 16 shots for Anaheim, which couldn't overcome another poor first period in Game 6, ending their encouraging first season under coach Joel Quenneville.

“Vegas got better every single game,” Quenneville said. “They played well. They checked well. They deserved to win. Tonight was kind of what happened too many times this year, where we give up a couple of quick ones early, and it's a tough comeback against a team that knows how to play hockey.”

The Knights are 15-4-1 since John Tortorella replaced Cup-winning coach Bruce Cassidy on March 29, surging past the Ducks to claim the Pacific Division title before beating Utah and Anaheim in the first two playoff rounds.

The 67-year-old Tortorella refused to speak to the media after the game.

Marner set the tone for Game 6 very early: The Anaheim crowd hadn’t calmed down from the pregame festivities before William Karlsson found Marner behind the defense at the blue line. Marner fought off Jackson LaCombe while driving the net and somehow got turned around, only to flip a shot between his legs and past Dostal for his seventh goal of the postseason and fifth of the series.

“I just tried to make a move," Marner said. “Dostal had me covered, I thought, on the backhand, so I tried to do that move, and luckily it worked out.”

Eight minutes after Marner's opening goal, he found an unmarked Howden for his eighth goal and the Knights' NHL-best fourth short-handed goal of the postseason.

Theodore then got a long shot through Marner's screen and over Dostal's shoulder just 5 seconds into a power play, silencing Honda Center.

Troy Terry found Granlund for the Finn's fifth goal of the playoffs, in the second period, but Dorofeyev got his eighth goal of the postseason early in the third after John Carlson's giveaway. Dorofeyev added another with 6:28 to play, fooling Dostal with a sneaky shot and giving him five goals in the past four games.

Vegas played without suspended defenseman Brayden McNabb, whose illegal hit on Ryan Poehling in Game 5 injured and sidelined the Ducks’ penalty-killing forward indefinitely.

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

Just six months earlier, thousands of miles away, this same young man was pulling all-nighters to play Madden NFL on his Xbox at his home near Minneapolis. Sometimes he'd pause to snack on pizza rolls and Diet Coke, or check his texts for the next hangout at TopGolf or Buffalo Wild Wings.

Two separate worlds. Both are home to Jalue Dorje.

A typical American teen, he grew up loving rap music, video games and football. He is also an aspiring spiritual leader who, from an early age, was recognized by the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist leaders as a reincarnated lama.

Now he’s 19. He graduated from high school last year and moved to northern India to join the Mindrolling Monastery, about 7,200 miles (11,500 kilometers) from his home in Columbia Heights. Recently, he came to Nepal to meet his parents, who flew from Minneapolis, and attended sacred rituals and teachings conducted by the abbot of Shechen Monastery.

Maroon and golden monastic robes had replaced his usual hoodies and sweatpants. But he still quoted from Drake (the rapper) and Shantideva (the 8th-century Indian monastic). And beneath his robes, he wore white Crocs decorated with Jibbitz charms of “The Simpsons.” He wore them often at Shechen Monastery, near the 1,500-year-old Boudhanath stupa, one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most sacred sites.

Each morning, he’d awake at dawn. After prayers, he walked from his hotel through crowded Kathmandu streets lined with fruits, incense and spices, dodging mopeds near the soaring white dome and spire of Boudhanath with its colorful Tibetan prayer flags and the painted, ever-watching eyes of the Buddha.

On a recent day, he strode to the monastery and took off his Crocs before entering a prayer hall reserved for monks with doctorates and lamas like himself. Incense wafted. The sound of ancient instruments — cymbals, bells and drums — punctuated the monastic chants.

Standing before three huge gold statues of the Buddha, Dorje bowed to Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, the monastery’s spiritual head, and presented him with a golden plate that symbolizes the entire universe, and a “khata” — a white Tibetan ceremonial scarf.

It was the first mandala, or offering, Dorje had made since his long journey to follow his predestined spiritual path. It was a moment, he says, when he realized how far he’d come.

“This is the real one, you know? We’re here and this is really happening,” he says. “I’m doing what the prophecy fulfilled.”

A reincarnation cycle dating to 1655

Since the Dalai Lama recognized him at age 2, Dorje had spent much of his life training to become a monk, memorizing sacred scriptures, practicing calligraphy, learning the Buddha’s teachings.

The process of identifying a lama is based on spiritual signs and visions. Dorje was four months old when he was identified by Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, a venerated master of Tibetan Buddhism. He was later confirmed by several lamas as the eighth Terchen Taksham Rinpoche — the first was born in 1655.

Jalue Dorje’s parents took him to meet the Dalai Lama in 2010 when Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leader visited Wisconsin. The Dalai Lama cut a lock of Dorje’s hair in a ceremony. He advised the parents to let their son stay in the U.S. to perfect his English and then send him to a monastery.

“From my parents’ end, educating me was a really big one,” Dorje says. “They followed the words of his holiness; he laid the foundation, and they took that gamble.”

As a child, he often wondered why he couldn’t sleep later on weekends and watch cartoons like other kids. One day, it would pay off, his dad would tell him, “like planting a seed that one day would sprout.”

He remembered the early mornings of recitation and memorization. He recalled people who posted messages online doubting that he was a reincarnated lama, and how that troubled his parents. And how they both worked hard cleaning hotel rooms and doing laundry at hospitals while raising him.

“It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns every day,” Dorje says. “We overcame a lot.”

Fluent in English and Tibetan, Dorje excelled in public school. Although he was officially enthroned as a lama in a 2019 ceremony in India, his parents let him stay in the U.S. until graduation.

Growing up, he kept a photo of the Dalai Lama in his room above DVD collections of “The Simpsons,” “South Park,” and “Family Guy,” next to the manga graphic novel series ″Buddha.”

On his bedside table, he kept a journal where he diagramed plays he’d like to try as a left guard with his school football team. On a wall in his living room he hung a poster with his senior year photo wearing sunglasses and his football uniform, touching thumb tips to index fingers in a meditation gesture.

He had a deal with his father, who would give him Pokémon cards in return for memorizing Buddhist scriptures. He collected hundreds, sometimes sneaking them in his robes at ceremonies. “I remember,” he says, “when I first learned my Tibetan ABCs, when I was able to recite it all by memory, my dad was so happy.”

A love of sports

The days were long. Every morning he awoke to recite sacred texts. Then school, followed by football practice. He returned home for tutoring on Tibetan history and Buddhism. At night, he practiced calligraphy or listened to rappers. When he got his license, he drove around listening to Taylor Swift.

What would he have been if not a spiritual leader? “Sports journalist would have been cool,” he says. He loves to write. An avid fan, he roots for the Atlanta Hawks in basketball, Real Madrid in soccer, and the Atlanta Falcons in football.

His favorite athlete is U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu: “She brings so much swagger, but it doesn’t overshadow the sports.” In high school, he wrote an award-winning story about Tibet for the student newspaper.

On the football field, his teammates praised his positivity; he reminded them to have fun and keep losses in perspective. But in the final game of his senior season, he shed tears, realizing it would likely be his last game ever.

He often helped with events representing the local Tibetan community. For his 18th birthday, more than 1,000 people gathered at the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota for the last party before joining the monastery in India.

Finding his groove

On the long plane ride, his mind wandered.

“I was like, ‘Dang! I’m missing the first week of NFL!’” He packed light: headphones, laptop, a fantasy football magazine and a book on Guru Rinpoche, the Indian Buddhist master who brought Tantric Buddhism to Tibet.

His parents flew with him to New Delhi and then drove north to Dehradun, near the Himalayan foothills, in the equivalent of a college dropoff. They bought him a larger bed. They painted his monastic room and erected a shrine where he could pray at dawn and dusk.

He is an only child, and his parents cried when saying goodbye. The farthest and longest that he'd gone from home on his own previously was a three-day camping trip in northern Minnesota.

“Everything leading up to this point in the history of all your lifetimes — the billions and billions of lifetimes you accumulated — leads to your family,” Dorje says. “To have such great parents is a result of a great past life’s merit. But not only past life merit, but the connection of karma — and love.”

Early on, his mother, Dechen Wangmo, worried about her then-toddler son during long prayer sessions.

“Would he be hungry? What if he fell asleep?” she recalled thinking. She kept worrying about him as a teenager: “He’s a tulku,” she says, using the Tibetan term for a reincarnated lama, “but he’s my son.”

To her relief, he thrived. While his friends attended history, science and literature classes in U.S. colleges, he took lessons on Buddhist philosophy, and practiced his calligraphy and chanting in India.

“He’s kind of found his groove at the monastery,” says Kate Thomas, one of his tutors in Minneapolis.

Becoming a ‘leader of peace’

Despite the 10-hour time difference, he kept in contact with friends back home through texts and WhatsApp. On time off, he built Legos, walked to an arcade to play the FIFA soccer video game and watched Marvel superhero films and NBA and NFL games on his laptop. He was especially psyched about the halftime Super Bowl show: “That was an incredible performance by Bad Bunny — I can ’t lie!”

It was his first time experiencing a life of asceticism, eating a daily ration of rice and lentils and washing his own clothes by hand. But he adjusted, getting along with monks from all over Asia, discussing spirituality, popular culture and sports.

“Dudes are dudes!” he says.

It was the first time that he was hanging out with other “tulkus' — reincarnated spiritual masters around his own age. Among them was Trulshik Yangsi Rinpoche, 13. He's believed to be the reincarnation of Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche — the Tibetan Buddhist master who first recognized Dorje as a tulku at four months old.

At the monastery, they bonded over their love of Tintin comics. Dorje became his English teacher.

“I think of him as my spiritual teacher,” Dorje said after sharing a meal with the younger lama. “I’m profoundly grateful that I get to repay my debt to the one who found me and improving his English.”

Yangsi Rinpoche smiled, then reflected: “He’s my best friend.”

Just hours after Dorje blessed thousands — including his parents — on the last day of the 12-day rituals, the family awoke before dawn to visit the ancient Maratika or Halesi Mahadev Caves, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Mount Everest. They drove for eight hours on dirt roads, crossing mountains and valleys, for a pilgrimage to caves sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists.

After exploring the caves in awe, Dorje sat cross-legged on the rocky ground next to his father, Dorje Tsegyal. They prayed together, as they had done almost daily since his childhood.

Following several years of contemplation and asceticism, Dorje hopes to return to the United States to teach in Minnesota’s Buddhist community at the Nyingmapa Taksham Buddhist Center. His goal: become “a leader of peace,” following the example of the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Gandhi.

It’s a long path that began soon after his birth. He feels ready. “This,” he says, “is just the beginning.”

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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.

That’s the mantra of a multiracial group of civil rights leaders and activists organizing opposition to a mostly white conservative alliance dismantling the Voting Rights Act and political districts that allowed Black and other nonwhite voters to choose more of their elected leaders for the last half-century.

“We have to respond as quickly as possible,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in an interview. “The real question,” Johnson told The Associated Press, “is how do we as a country really address the effort to shrink us backwards into a 1950s reality?”

Johnson’s 117-year-old association, which was at the forefront of legal and legislative fights for Black political rights in the 20th century, is among scores of groups coming together Saturday in Alabama for a rally and tribute to the Civil Rights Movement that helped bring about the 1965 Voting Rights Act. They plan events in Selma, where voting rights advocates were attacked by white law enforcement officers on Bloody Sunday, and Montgomery, where a rescheduled march concluded two weeks later.

Unlike 61 years ago, the Alabama events are not the pinnacle of a protracted movement. Instead, civil rights activists hope they serve as a catalyst for a renewed crusade after the U.S. Supreme Court, two weeks ago, further weakened the VRA by no longer allowing race to be considered in how congressional and other districts are drawn.

They acknowledge difficulty in countering a white-dominated conservative network entrenched in the White House, Capitol Hill, federal courts and many state legislatures of the Old Confederacy, where a majority of Black Americans still live.

The VRA “was the foundational nucleus of the Civil Rights Movement,” said Jared Evans of the Louisiana-based Power Coalition for Equity and Justice. “They’ve taken that from us,” he said, with the recent Louisiana v. Callais decision on congressional districts and the earlier Shelby v. Holder decision in 2013 that rolled back federal oversight of election procedures in states and localities with a history of discrimination.

Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, said from his pulpit that the result is “Jim Crow in new clothes.”

Warnock pointed to King and the last voting rights movement. “We need political power. We need economic power. We need personal power,” he said, assuring parishioners that “your adversaries know that your voice matters” because they're “bending over backwards” to diminish it.

Evans reached further back into history to say what must happen next.

“Our response must be and will be a second Reconstruction period,” Evans said.

Some Democrats want an answer from Congress

The ultimate goal, organizers said, is to win more elections, sway policy fights and protect diverse political representation at all levels.

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, a Black lawmaker who represents Selma, Alabama, said an immediate priority is to “reform and reintroduce” Democrats' flagship voting bill, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act.

Sewell, whose seat ultimately could be threatened under redistricting, said Democrats want to “completely” eliminate partisan gerrymandering.

She also said the legislation would “bring back pre-clearance,” the requirement for certain federal approvals that the court struck down in Shelby.

“We need to come up with a modern-day formula for showing just how egregious the behavior of these state actors is,” Sewell said.

The Supreme Court ruled in Callais that states do not have to draw majority nonwhite districts under the Voting Rights Act and, in fact, should not consider race at all when drawing boundaries. By arguing that the law's remedies to combat discrimination had themselves become racist, the decision allows states to redraw heavily Black districts that have historically elected Democrats while arguing that the designs are based on party interests, not race.

President Donald Trump praised the decision as “a BIG WIN for Equal Protection under the Law, as it returns the Voting Rights Act to its Original Intent, which was to protect against intentional Racial Discrimination.”

Groups mobilized for redistricting sessions

Many of the same groups who’ll be in Alabama on Saturday have already gone to Southern statehouses, where white Republican lawmakers moved swiftly to redraw congressional districts after Callais.

Alabama and Louisiana lawmakers reverted to a single majority-Black district, each scrapping a second district that had been ordered by lower federal courts under now-reversed VRA interpretations. Tennessee lawmakers gutted a majority Black district by splitting greater Memphis into three different sprawling districts — itself an obvious racial gerrymander the court had previously forbidden, Evans said.

Anticipating the Callais outcome, Florida and Texas proceeded with redistricting before it came down. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a term-limited Republican, has called a June session to redraw congressional lines for the 2028 cycle. Mississippi and South Carolina have delayed the matter for now.

South Carolina state Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey was among the few white Republicans who pushed back against GOP redistricting plans. He said that not even pressure from Trump could sell him on disenfranchising Black South Carolinians instead of doing what's best for his state.

Other white conservatives are still talking openly about ousting Reps. Jim Clyburn and Bennie Thompson, the only Black U.S. House members from South Carolina and Mississippi, respectively.

Evans, the Louisiana activist, predicted the fight ahead won't just be about congressional representation.

“Look for them to go after state house and state senate seats — and then it will be the local level,” he said, adding that “it’s going to be an entire erasure of Black representation.”

The issue is more than a partisan Washington fight

Heavily minority districts drawn under the VRA before Callais nearly always elect Democrats. Black Americans have overwhelmingly aligned with the party since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, sparking a decades-long migration of most white Southern politicians to the Republicans. Latino and Hispanic voters still lean Democratic in most places as well.

The immediate fight shapes the midterm campaign scramble for control of the U.S. House during the final years of Trump’s presidency. Trump initially pushed Republican-run states to redistrict to protect the party's fragile House majority.

But Johnson, the NAACP leader, said all voters should see more than partisan warfare or a regional battle over race.

Beyond party allegiance, Johnson argued, white conservatives want to curtail a range of rights “depending on how you pray, depending on who you love,” while also pushing economic policies that punish workers across racial and ethnic lines. From legislation to the confirmation of federal judges who decide constitutional questions, those policy outcomes start with election results.

“It’s not a Black problem,” Johnson said. “That’s an American problem.”

There is no singular movement or leader yet

Evans, Johnson and others acknowledged the complexity in harnessing disparate organizations and galvanizing voters on issues like redistricting and gerrymandering. But they insist the brazen nature of Republicans' course has spurred engagement.

Johnson said he was on an organizing call in Mississippi this week that had 8,000 participants. Evans pointed to packed hallways in the state Capitols in Baton Rouge and Nashville, respectively.

The NAACP and allies have challenged new maps in multiple states, despite Callais. Many groups want to spur midterm turnout among Black voters, and others are disenchanted with white conservatives’ maneuvers in racially diverse places.

Johnson stressed the need for perseverance.

The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was seismic, with a unanimous court declaring segregated public schools unconstitutional and reversing 19th-century precedents denying Black Americans' fundamental rights.

But it took 17 years — and many more court battles — for it to be implemented in most Southern school districts. Fights over mandated student busing continued beyond the South. It was a decade after Brown before Congress and Johnson enacted the movement’s seminal laws.

There's no clear leader of a modern movement.

Johnson said it’s worth remembering that even with King at the helm before his assassination, “there was tension around strategy” in the 1950s and 1960s.

But even “through that tension, through many episodes, we were able to get directly in the right place.”

Grabbing viewers’ attention as one of 25 acts competing in quick succession in Saturday’s grand final in Vienna means pulling out all the stops, both musically and visually.

In the case of this year’s favorites to win, the Finnish duo of pop singer Pete Parkkonen and classical violinist Linda Lampenius, that involves jets of flame, a valuable 18th-century violin and a team of “ninjas” working to avert disaster.

The pair’s song “Liekinheitin,” or “Flamethrower,” is a favorite with both fans and betting markets with its melding of pop and classical influences — and its spectacular staging.

Here’s what it takes to create the eye-catching performance.

Permission to play

Parkkonen and Lampenius dub their sound “new pop with a classical touch." Their song of burning love is an explosion of energy in which Parkkonen’s passionate vocals act as counterpoint to Lampenius’ frenetic fiddling.

The Finnish delegation had to secure special permission for Lampenius to play live. Eurovision rules state that lead vocals must be performed live, but instruments are prerecorded, to help speed changeovers between songs.

Lampenius says “Flamethrower” was “written as a duet,” and both performers need to be live for it to work.

“It’s a woman and a man, it’s a female voice and a male voice. So I do all my lyrics through my violin, by playing, and you (Parkkonen) are singing it with words. But we are talking. We are (equally) as important, both of us.”

The pair were not certain when they arrived in Vienna that Eurovision organizers would allow the request. They were only given final approval after performing in front of an audience in a live rehearsal.

The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, said contest rules allow that “live audio capture of instruments may exceptionally be permitted where artistically justified.”

Lampenius had brought two violins just in case – a treasured Gagliano made in 1781 so live performance would “sound perfect,” and a cheaper instrument to use if she had to rely on playback. That would remove any risk to the Gagliano from the slightly hazardous staging.

Practice makes perfect

Lampenius and Parkkonen say they have been rehearsing for this moment since November. They won Finland’s national selection contest for Eurovision in February and say by now they have performed the song hundreds of times.

It is crucial to get it right. The performance builds to a climax that sees jets of flame spurt from a stage on which Lampenius, fanned by a leaf blower and wearing a flowing dress, is playing her precious violin.

Lampenius concedes it's “a bit scary when you think of it."

But she says she is secure in the knowledge she has black-clad stagehands who call themselves “ninjas” on hand to keep her dress away from the flames – an essential piece of the performance that goes unseen by viewers watching at home.

“They’re running with me – first one guy carrying my dress when I’m running, then the other one catching me during my run,” she said. “And he helps me also when I jump up on the stage and do the pirouette.”

For the striking final pose in which Lampenius perches atop chairs in high heels, violin aloft, Parkkonen combines singing with his role as a security spotter, there to catch her if she topples over.

“That’s my work,” the singer said.

Within weeks, the neighborhood was a ghost town and the playground was empty.

What prompted the mass exodus was a bungled message from the housing authority in Port Isabel, a South Texas community of 5,000 people, many of whom are immigrants working at hotels and restaurants on the beaches of nearby South Padre Island. The Port Isabel Housing Authority indicated a Trump administration proposal was about to take effect that would end housing assistance to families with at least one member in the country illegally. The events that followed provided a glimpse of what could happen in communities across the U.S. if the proposed rule is actually finalized.

“The impact was not limited to undocumented immigrants, but really to immigrants who are here legally as well as people within their families who are citizens,” Marie Claire Tran-Leung, senior staff attorney at National Housing Law Project, said.

For decades, families with at least one legal or eligible resident have been allowed to live in public housing provided those who are here illegally or are otherwise ineligible due to their immigration status pay a full, unsubsidized share of rent. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Department wants to reverse that.

Advocates estimate up to 80,000 people would be kicked out of their homes nationwide under the measure that is part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. They include U.S. citizens, many of them children born in this country but whose parents were not.

A message from the Port Isabel Housing Authority

On Feb. 3, the Port Isabel Housing Authority sent residents a letter saying that the Trump administration wanted every household member to prove legal status within 30 days or face eviction. Three weeks later, the agency sent a note of “clarification” that no such proof was required.

It was already too late.

Half of residents living in Port Isabel public housing left within a month of receiving the first letter. The occupancy rate plunged from 91% in January to 43% in May, far below the national average of 94%.

The proposed rule from HUD still has not taken effect.

The housing authority gave no explanation for the initial misunderstanding and officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Rumors and panic

Fears about eviction and rumors that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement might get involved prompted panic among some residents.

“My kids and I spoke and wondered what we were going to do, but then we said it’s better to leave and avoid any retaliation,” a single mother from Mexico raising two teenagers who are U.S. citizens told The Associated Press. She, like other former residents, spoke on condition of anonymity due to fears of being deported.

She turned to legal service organizations that told her and others they could stay in public housing. But she and her children decided it was too risky and left their home of nearly a decade, finding an apartment within the same school district that costs about $500 more per month.

The move also added about 10 minutes to the commute to the island, where both the mother and her daughter work. The 18-year-old gets home from school at 4:30 p.m. and grabs a quick dinner before her mom drives her to a job that starts at 5 p.m. The daughter is a top student in her senior class and plans to go to college in the fall with help from scholarship offers, but she worries how her family will make ends meet. Her brother was laid off, and their mom underwent cancer treatment last year, depleting her energy and straining their finances.

Other families face even greater challenges.

A mother of three said she moved her family into a one-bedroom trailer home illegally parked between two other trailer homes. Her oldest son sleeps in the living room.

Another family of three sold beds and other furniture so they could squeeze into a small trailer home, only to find out the landlord wouldn't let them use the mailing address, affecting her children’s school and health insurance.

“Since we got the letter, everything changed from one day to the next. It wasn’t the same anymore. Before the letter, the kids were happy, playing outside,” the mother of two said.

A preview of a Trump administration proposal

The Trump administration proposed in February that any household with one ineligible resident would disqualify an entire family, estimating that 24,000 recipients were ineligible in 20,000 households.

“We have zero tolerance for pushing aside hardworking U.S. citizens while enabling others to exploit decades-old loopholes,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said at the time.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which advocates for low-income families, estimates that 79,600 people could be forced to leave their homes, with a disproportionate impact on children and Latinos.

The rule drew more than 16,000 public comments, many of them critical, including from city leaders across the U.S.

For example, the New York City Council told HUD that an estimated 12% of city of households have at least one member who lacks legal status. Some 240,000 children are in those homes.

“This proposed rule will unequivocally lead to increased displacement, homelessness, poverty, and decreased educational and health outcomes,” the council wrote.

HUD is expected to publish a final version of the rule after considering public comments.

It is almost certain to face legal challenges.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Casey in Boston and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this story.

“The history of nature is made up of both extreme beauty and violence, volcanoes and butterflies, shifting tectonic plates and marsupials, the bones of the stegosaurus and the light of Milky Way,” the author and bookseller said Thursday night as she stood before hundreds at the Manhattan-based cultural institution museum and accepted the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award.

“To spend a day in this museum is to understand that the world had plenty of action before we got here, and it will continue to have plenty of action. And so, let us marvel that people still want to write books, and that we want to read them.”

Patchett and film producer Jason Blum were among the featured speakers and Amy Tan, Walter Isaacson and Rebecca Yarros among the table hosts for the fundraising dinner, which raised more than $2 million for the century-old literary and free expression organization. The gala took place as writers and journalists face persecution worldwide and after recent reports from PEN and the American Library Association documenting the continued surge in book bans in the U.S., with thousands of works being pulled from schools and libraries.

“First, they come for your freedom of expression. Without that freedom to raise your voice, it is much easier to strip away all of your other rights,” PEN co-CEO Summer Lopez said during her remarks. “We believe that hidden in the horrors of this moment is also an opportunity — to mobilize people and ignite a movement for free expression, here and everywhere."

Blum, the producer whose credits range from Jordan Peele's Oscar-nominated “Get Out” to such horror franchises as “Halloween” and “Paranormal Activity,” received PEN's Business Visionary award. He was introduced by the actor-singer Maya Hawke, who remembered him as a cherished childhood friend — he is her godfather — and an ongoing role model who “builds a safe and boundaried structure and then gives creatives freedom and control within that. Like a good father, or godfather.”

Blum wryly noted that horror films don't have a rich history of critical praise. He read off some of the insults he had come across, or alleged he came across: “For the young, the ignorant, and the idle" and “Extremely provocative of that sensation in the palate and throat which leads to nausea.”

But those remarks, he added, date back to the 19th century, and they were directed at the mass market sensation of the time — the novel.

“So all forms of storytelling, especially when they’re new and different, need protection from the forces of snobbery and suppression," he said.

The PEN gala, hosted by author-actor B.J. Novak, has long been a mix of star power and social causes. The Iranian writer-dissidents Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee and Ali Asadollahi were this year's recipients of the PEN/Barbery Freedom to Write Award, given to writers who have faced government harassment and imprisonment. PEN President Dinaw Mengestu, pointing out that neither was able to attend and that their absence was signified by two empty chairs, asked the audience to imagine a time of no empty chairs “on this stage or on any stage in this world.”

One of the night's longest ovations was given to the Tennessee-based activists Tatiana Silvas and Keri Lambert, whose anti-censorship Rutherford County Library Alliance has fought book bans in the Rutherford area. The library alliance was this year's winner of the PEN/Benenson Courage Award

“Libraries are not simply buildings filled with books. They are one of the few institutions that truly belong to everyone, regardless of age, income, background or beliefs,” Lambert said. “Defending libraries is really about defending democracy itself. A healthy community depends on informed citizens, open dialogue and the freedom to explore ideas. Libraries make all of that possible.”

En un video que difundió en su cuenta en la red social X, Sheinbaum indicó que Juan Carlos Carpio Fragoso, actual director de Finanzas de Pemex, asumirá como nuevo director general de la petrolera en reemplazo de Víctor Rodríguez, quien decidió separarse del cargo para retornar a sus actividades académicas. Rodríguez acordó lo anterior con la presidenta cuando ella comenzó su mandato en octubre de 2024.

El exdirector seguirá apoyando al gobierno desde el Instituto de Electricidad y Energías Limpias, precisó la mandataria.

La salida de Rodríguez se da un día después que la agencia calificadora de riesgo S&P Global Ratings degradó la perspectiva de Pemex y de la Comisión Federal de Electricidad, de estable a negativa.

La agencia ratificó la calificación crediticia de la petrolera, pero reconoció que su “estructura de capital es insostenible, dada su escasa liquidez y su elevado apalancamiento”.

Pemex cerró 2025 con una deuda de unos 84.500 millones de dólares, lo que representó un descenso de 13,4% en comparación con el año previo. La reducción de la pesada deuda de la petrolera tuvo que ver con los apoyos de cerca de 22.647 millones de dólares que le otorgó el año pasado la Secretaría de Hacienda para la recompra de deuda y la emisión de notas precapitalizadas.

En noviembre de 2024, Sheinbaum anunció un plan de “austeridad” para reducir los gastos de Pemex en unos 2.500 millones de dólares, ello mediante el recorte de costos y la eliminación de empresas filiales.

Desde hace años la empresa estatal ha enfrentado una complicada situación financiera, la cual ha golpeado los ingresos petroleros de México, que por décadas fueron fundamentales para el país y llegaron a representar cerca del 40% del presupuesto de egresos del gobierno federal.

La caída en la producción —que ronda actualmente 1,6 millones de barriles diarios— y las limitadas finanzas de Pemex hicieron que los aportes de la petrolera al presupuesto federal se ubicaran debajo de 15% durante 2025.

S&P anunció el pasado martes que cambió de estable a negativa la perspectiva crediticia de México ante el lento crecimiento económico y el aumento de la deuda pública del país, pero ratificó las calificaciones de crédito soberano en moneda extranjera y local.

“But the problem here is not the library,” attorney Gerald Greenberg said. “The problem here is your personal business for personal gain and that’s unlawful.”

Greenberg represents a group of Miami residents -- including a student, nearby neighbors and a nonprofit connected to Marvin Dunn -- suing over what they describe as a land giveaway.

The plaintiffs claim the land, owned by Miami-Dade College, was illegally gifted to President Donald Trump. The lawsuit cites the domestic emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“The domestic emoluments clause says the president can’t get gifts from states,” Greenberg said. “This is a quintessential gift from a state. Miami-Dade College transferred the land to the state of Florida and the state of Florida transferred the land to the president.”

The site next to Miami’s Freedom Tower is valued at around $67 million. But the lawsuit argues the land the project would sit on is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

In comments from March, Trump said the project would “most likely be a hotel.”

“It’s most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby, which is going to be a trick,” Trump said.

The 57-page lawsuit states the land “is no longer available to serve MDC’s student community and downtown Miami.”

Instead, the filing states, “the land will house a Trump hotel that brings riches to the president.”

When asked whether critics would view the lawsuit as politically motivated, Greenberg rejected the idea.

“Yeah, this isn’t a politically motivated lawsuit at all,” Greenberg said. “This is about giving public land to a private individual or in this case a president for his own private gain.”

On Friday they walked the grounds of Zhongnanhai, Xi's official residence, and had a working tea and lunch. During a series of meetings and events Thursday, the two discussed divisive issues such as the Iran war, trade, technology and Taiwan.

China has shown little public interest in getting more involved in solving the war in Iran. Xi also suggested differences over Taiwan could put his country and the U.S. on the path toward conflict. Threats of each side imposing steep tariffs also still loom.

Trump said Xi told him China wants to help negotiate an end to the war and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. China is the largest buyer of Iranian oil and Trump hopes Xi will use that leverage to prod Iran into a deal on U.S. terms. Trump also said Xi assured him that China wouldn’t provide Iran with military equipment.

Here's the latest:

China says two sides to set up trade and investment boards to address ag goods trade and tariffs

The two countries agreed to establish boards on trade and on investments to address each other’s concerns on agricultural goods’ market access and to promote expanded trade under a framework of reciprocal tariff reductions, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

The two sides have yet to announce any concrete trade deals, but the boards are expected to serve as a channel of communications to address economic and trade issues.

Wang said the economic and trade teams from the two sides have reached results that are “overall balanced and positive.”

Xi will have a state visit to the US this fall, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi says

President Trump extended a Sept. 24 invitation to Xi and his wife during his reciprocal toast at a banquet Thursday.

According to a readout about Wang’s briefing to media outlets on the summit, Wang said Trump and Xi agreed to keep close contact through meetings, phone calls and letters, the Chinese official news agency Xinhua reported.

Wang said both sides should work together to make thorough preparations for the leaders’ interactions and create an appropriate atmosphere to accumulate more results.

Merz says he and Trump agree that Iran must open Strait of Hormuz

Merz on Friday said he spoke to Trump on the phone as the U.S. president traveled home from China.

“We agree: Iran must come to the negotiating table now. It must open the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons,” Merz wrote on X. “We also discussed a peaceful solution for Ukraine and coordinated our positions ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara. The U.S. and Germany are strong partners in a strong NATO.”

Germany’s Merz worries about America’s ‘social climate’

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday said he wouldn’t recommend that his children work in the U.S. because of its “social climate.”

“I am a great admirer of America. My admiration isn’t growing at the moment,” he said during a panel discussion at the Catholic Congress in Wuerzburg, Germany. “So, I wouldn’t recommend to my children today that they go to the U.S., get an education there, and work there. Simply because of a social climate that has suddenly developed there.”

He added: “by the way, the question of what well-educated young people can achieve used to be answered very differently in America up until a year ago than it is today. Today, the best-educated in America have great difficulty finding a job.”

Trump says summit yielded a new Boeing deal for hundreds of planes

Trump told reporters on Air Force One that China would buy 200 planes from Boeing with the possibility of expanding the deal to 750 “if they do a good job with the 200, which I’m sure they will.”

The order would represent Boeing’s first major sale to China in nearly a decade, and it would mark a significant breakthrough for the plane maker in a market that was once central to its long-term growth.

China has high demand for new aircraft as they expand and modernize fleets, while giving Trump a high-profile win for his trade agenda.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg joined Trump on his trip to Beijing.

Trump also said China would purchase 400 to 450 engines from General Electric. He did not offer a more precise number.

Daughter of imprisoned pastor asked Trump to help free her father

Trump said Xi would consider the case of Ezra Jin Mingri of the Zion Church, who has been detained since October.

On Monday, Grace Jin Drexel, the pastor’s daughter, asked Trump to help bring back her father and other jailed activists on his trip to Beijing.

“We really plead the president will continue to raise the political prisoners, like my father, and like many of the family members here today, and bring them home,” she said. “We just would love for him to just be part of the family and, like, eat nice food with us and watch movies with us, and just, like, have a have, just live normal lives again.”

Putin set to visit Beijing ‘very soon,’ Kremlin says

The Kremlin said Thursday that President Vladimir Putin is set to visit China shortly.

Asked about a report that Putin is coming to China next Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the visit indeed will take place “very soon,” adding that Moscow and Beijing will announce its date.

Asked to comment on President Donald Trump’s visit to China, Peskov emphasized the importance of contacts between the world’s two biggest economies, adding that Russia expects to get firsthand information from China about its talks with the U.S. when Putin visits Beijing.

Trump still mulling US arms sale to Taiwan

President Donald Trump says he’s not yet made a determination on whether a major U.S. sale of arms to Taiwan can move forward, following his three-day visit to China.

Speaking to reporters as he flew back on Air Force One on Friday, Trump said he’d not decided on the sale, but added, “I will make a determination.”

The Trump administration has authorized the sale but it has yet to move forward. China opposes the deal and has suggested that Washington’s relationship with the self-governing island is the key factor in China-U.S. relations.

Trump brought up Jimmy Lai to Xi, but says it’s ‘a tough one’

Activist Jimmy Lai, a prominent critic of Beijing, was sentenced to 20 years in prison under a national security law in February in Hong Kong. His family and supporters hope Trump could help free the 78-year-old, who has spent over five years in custody.

“He told me that would be a tough one,” Trump said, referring to Xi.

Lai’s daughter Claire told The Associated Press that she was so grateful to Trump for the commitment shown to his father’s release.

“He has earned his reputation as liberating the unjustly detained and I am confident he and his administration will be the ones to free my father,” she said.

She said this is an opportunity for Xi to do “the only just and honorable thing” for a man who has given so much to Hong Kong and show a gesture of goodwill to the rest of the world.

Trump raised a potential nuclear deal between the U.S., Russia and China

Trump wants the three countries to sign a pact that would cap the number of nuclear warheads each one has in its arsenal.

China has previously been cool to entering such a pact. Beijing’s arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and is far from parity with the U.S. and Russia, which each are estimated to have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads.

But Trump suggested Xi was receptive to the idea when he raised it in their private talks.

“I got a very a positive response,” Trump said. “This is the beginning.”

The last nuclear arms pact, known as the New START treaty, between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century.

Analyst says the summit delivers a roadmap

George Chen, a partner at The Asia Group consultancy, said the summit felt like a political reality show at times and unfolded almost exactly as scripted, but it delivered symbolism, clarity and a roadmap for the months ahead.

Chen noted both sides have highlighted what they care about most: For Xi, Taiwan. For Trump, deals.

“The readouts from Beijing and the White House differ in tone and emphasis, but neither side contradicted the other’s account. That alone reflects a rare moment of mutual respect,” he said.

While the list of concrete deliverables remained limited for now, Chen said the most important development might be Xi and Trump having spent extended time together again.

“Personal rapport between leaders can shape the tone of an entire bilateral relationship,” he said.

However, Taiwan could feel uneasy after Xi warned the U.S. over it. Taipei will be watching closely for signs of Trump’s responses, he added.

Elon Musk replies to well-known Chinese dissident account on X

Elon Musk said his son is learning Chinese. The message in a public post on X Thursday quickly drew attention on Chinese social media and began to trend.

But what the state media outlets omitted was who Elon Musk responding to. He replied to Teacher Li, or Li Ying, whose X account posts news and videos submitted from users about uncensored news in China and has some two million followers.

Li himself noted the irony that Musk’s response to him was now trending on Weibo, which is managed by censors. He shared on Friday that many of the accounts that originally wrote up Musk’s comments have now deleted the posts.

A search on Weibo and local media showed that while the topic was still searchable, some websites had indeed deleted their coverage.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang takes food tour of Beijing

Jensen Huang is trying all of Beijing’s delicacies, the good and others which may be more of an acquired taste.

Huang was spotted by the public and local media at No. 69 Fangzhuanchang Noodles, for a bowl of “zhiangmian” -- a Beijing specialty that features noodles covered in a thick soybean-paste sauce mixed with vegetables and meat.

“It’s so good,” he said, as he dug into the bowl.

But it’s the “douzhi’er,” a fermented mung bean drink that’s slightly sour and gray-green in color, that made the Nvidia CEO wince. Videos of his reaction were trending on Weibo Friday afternoon. Huang then quickly reached for a sweet drink from Chinese beverage chain Mixue Bingcheng.

———

This post has been updated to reflect that douzhi’er is made with fermented mung beans and not soybeans.

Xi played up a new relationship status: ‘managed stability’

China said the two leaders agreed to a new vision for dealing with their relationship issues: “a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the framework would shape ties for at least three years — the rest of Trump’s term — and would focus on cooperation, competition within proper limits, and managing differences.

The idea is “to keep the relationship on an even keel,” said Helena Legarda of the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin.

George Chen, a partner at The Asia Group consultancy, said it can be seen as progress from the Biden era, which framed the relationship as a strategic competition.

Exuberant airport send-off for Trump at end of China visit

Schoolchildren dressed in some of Air Force One’s light blue and white colors waved American and Chinese flags in a coordinated movement as the U.S. president arrived to board the plane.

“Farewell, farewell,” they chanted. “Warm farewell!”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi saw a smiling Trump off at the airport.

Trump turned at the top of the stairs and pumped his fist and waved before entering the aircraft.

He didn’t speak again before departing for home.

Trump and Xi wrap up summit

Trump has boarded Air Force One for his flight out of China.

Trump and Xi both said they made progress in stabilizing U.S.-China relations. But deep differences persist.

The leaders spent a lot of time together the past two days.

They met for about two hours at the Great Hall of the People, toured the Temple of Heaven and attended a banquet on Thursday. On Friday they walked the grounds of Zhongnanhai and had a working tea and lunch.

China has nonetheless shown little public interest in getting more involved in solving the war in Iran.

Xi also suggested differences over Taiwan could put his country and the U.S. on the path toward conflict.

Threats of each side imposing steep tariffs also still loom.

Xi says ‘landmark’ visit deepened mutual trust

While little has been announced about any potential deals as Trump and Xi held a closed-door lunch in Zhongnanhai on Friday, Xi spoke of a positive turn between the two countries.

“This visit is a historic and landmark visit. Together, we affirmed the new position of a constructive, strategic and stable China-U.S. relationship,” the Chinese president said, according to a readout from CCTV.

“The visit is also beneficial to promoting mutual understanding, deepening trust in each other, and increasing the well-being of the people of both countries,” Xi said.

The Chinese leader said both countries should carry out the “important consensus” reached during Trump’s visit and keep the relationship on the right track.

Xi hosts Trump in venues with agricultural symbolism

Trump and Xi feasted on Chinese delicacies in the Chun’ou Zhai building in Xi’s presidential Zhongnanhai compound Friday.

The name of the historic building translates to “Spring Lotus Roots” and the structure carries farm-related significance: Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century would go there to admire the ancient Chinese “Five Cattle” painting every year after the imperial sacrifice to the god of agriculture.

The two leaders on Thursday also visited the Temple of Heaven, another venue with deep agrarian symbolism

as the imperial site for rituals for agricultural prosperity.

Trump has been expected to announce business deals with China in areas such as agricultural purchases, beef exports and aviation but no concrete announcements have been made yet.

Taiwan thanks US for ‘continued support’

Taiwan Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung thanked the U.S. on Friday for the support expressed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio the previous day.

Lin thanked the U.S. for “its continued support and valuing of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

Rubio told NBC News on Thursday that U.S. policy toward Taiwan remains unchanged and it would be a “terrible mistake” for China to take Taiwan by force.

The U.S. is Taiwan’s biggest unofficial supporter and main supplier of arms for the island’s defense.

“As a responsible member of the international community, Taiwan will continue to strengthen its self-defense capabilities,” Lin said.

Trump and Xi dine on a menu including stir-fried lobster balls

While folks outside their closed lunch chowed down on McDonalds, the menu for Trump and Xi was far more formal.

The two leaders had minced codfish in seafood soup, crispy and stir-fried lobster balls and pan-seared beef fillet stuffed with morel mushrooms, according to the White House.

They also ate kung pao chicken and scallops, braised seasonal greens, bamboo shoots, mushrooms and beans, as well as stewed beef in a bun and steamed pork and shrimp dumplings.

Dessert was chocolate brownies and fruits and ice cream. Coffee and tea also was served.

After lunch, Trump is not expected to make any more public appearances before heading to the airport to fly back to Washington.

Xi highlights centuries-old trees in Zhongnanhai garden tour

Before their closed-door lunch, Xi gave Trump a tour of Zhongnanhai, the former imperial gardens and now the seat of power.

“Zhongnanhai is where the CPC Central Committee and the State Council work, and it is also where I work and live,” Xi said. “After the founding of New China, Chinese leaders including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and others all lived here.”

In the highly manicured garden, the two men walked with their interpreters as they admired the greenery.

“All these trees are 200 to 300 years old. There’s a big one that’s about 400 years old,” Xi said as he pointed out specific trees to Trump, who expressed his admiration.

“There’s even one that’s 1,000 years old. It’s somewhere else,” Xi said.

Xi said he invited Trump to the quarters in response to the hospitality Trump showed by inviting him to Mar-A-Lago in 2017.

Mc-Beijing: While Trump eats fancy lunch, everyone else gets his favorite fast food

As Trump ate lunch inside Xi’s residence, the folks outside chowed down on McDonald’s.

The fast-food restaurant with the golden arches is one of Trump’s favorites. His White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, recently said he eats McDonald’s every day.

Trump did a stint working out of a McDonald’s drive-thru window during his 2024 reelection campaign and more recently had a McDonald’s order delivered to the door of the Oval Office during an event contrived to highlight the elimination of taxes on tips to service industry workers.

Outside Xi’s residence, U.S. Embassy and White House staff ate their McDonald’s lunches in the parking lot.

Bags of McDonald’s food also were delivered to members of the White House press pool as they waited in vans for Trump to depart for the airport and the long trip back to Washington.

Reporters ask questions in China but Trump doesn’t take the bait

The U.S. president did something highly unusual for him over days of meetings with Xi: he held his tongue in front of the media.

Trump relishes taking reporters’ questions, often doing so nearly every day back home.

But Xi, like most members of senior Chinese leadership, refrains from press conferences.

In what might have been deference to Xi, Trump didn’t answer questions when reporters asked them while the pair toured the Temple of Heaven on Thursday.

And he didn’t do so again on Friday while walking with Xi at Zhongnanhai.

Trump’s relative silence even extended to posting on his social media site, where he was not as active as usual during his three-day Beijing swing.

Trump says ‘fantastic trade deals’ struck during ‘incredible’ visit

The White House so far hasn’t released details of any deals struck during Trump’s summit with Xi in Beijing.

Trump told Fox News about soybeans, airplanes and oil in an interview that followed his two-hour sit-down with Xi on Thursday.

Meeting with Xi again on Friday, Trump praised the visit as “incredible.”

He said “a lot of good has come of it,” including “some fantastic trade deals” that are “great for both countries.”

Montreal surged with a three-goal second period, and never led until Evans swept a loose puck over the goal line behind Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to put the Canadiens up 4-3 with 3:45 remaining. Suzuki then scored 10 seconds into a power-play opportunity by converting Juraj Slafkovsky’s one-handed pass from the end boards and beating Luukkonen through the legs with a shot from the lower right circle.

Cole Caufield, Josh Anderson, Ivan Demidov and Alexandre Texier also scored for Montreal, which will host Game 6 on Saturday night. Jakub Dobes allowed three goals on the first four shots he faced before finishing with 33 saves.

Josh Doan, Jason Zucker and rookie Konsta Helenius, appearing in his second career playoff game, scored for Buffalo.

Luukkonen allowed five goals on 23 shots, and was pulled after two periods -- the second time he’s been yanked this postseason. Alex Lyon mopped up in allowing a goal on three shots. Lyon is potentially in line to regain the starting duties after losing the job following a 6-2 loss in Game 3.

The Sabres have dropped two of three at home in the series, and were coming off a 3-2 win at Montreal on Tuesday.

Montreal finally got much-needed production from its top line, with Suzuki (goal, two assists), Slafkovsky (three assists) and Caufield getting on the scoresheet. The trio had combined for four goals and five assists in the first four games of the series.

Star defenseman Lane Hutson, meantime, had two assists to give him six in four outings.

Montreal is one win from advancing to the semifinal round of the playoffs for the first time since the Covid pandemic altered 2021 playoffs. The Canadiens eventually reached the Stanley Cup Final and lost to Tampa Bay in five games.

Buffalo and Montreal combined for five goals in the first 10:15, including Doan and Texier scoring nine seconds apart. The surge was capped by Helenius putting Buffalo up 3-2 with a shot from the top of the right circle that sneaked in through Dobes’ legs.

The five goals were scored in a span of 8:15, which ranks 11th on the playoff list of fastest between two teams.

Buffalo’s deficiencies continue being exposed. After allowing 12 goals in six games of their first-round series against Boston, the Sabres have allowed 21 already to Montreal — and 19 in the past four.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

On Thursday, the NFL released the full 2026 schedule, including dates and times, for all 32 teams across the league.

Miami will host eight regular season games at Hard Rock Stadium and will play nine road contests in 2026.

The Dolphins’ social media team announced the official schedule release in a video posted on X, featuring rapper Rick Ross.

Mr. Ross wants to see you.

The 2026-27 schedule is here 🗓️ pic.twitter.com/Qa3nRDQ57F

— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) May 14, 2026

The Dolphins will begin their first season under head coach Jeff Hafley on Sept. 13 against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium at 4:25 p.m. ET.

It remains to be seen whether the Dolphins will face rookie quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who grew up in Miami and was selected No. 1 overall in April’s draft.

Following the Raiders, the Dolphins will remain on the West Coast and visit Levi’s Stadium to play the San Francisco 49ers on Sept. 20 at 4:25 p.m. ET.

Miami’s home opener at Hard Rock Stadium will be Sept. 27 at 1 p.m. ET against the Kansas City Chiefs, highlighted by three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Mahomes continues to rehab from a torn ACL in his left knee late last season, but the expectation is that he will be ready for Week 1.

The Dolphins will have an early bye week in 2026, with their off week falling on Oct. 18, one week after they host Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals at Hard Rock Stadium.

Miami is one of five teams to not have a primetime game in 2026, joining the New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals, Raiders, and Tennessee Titans.

The Dolphins also announced their three opponents for the preseason schedule.

Miami will travel to Washington on Friday, Aug. 14, at 7 p.m. ET before hosting the New York Giants on Saturday, Aug. 22 at 4 p.m., and the Atlanta Falcons on Friday, Aug. 28 at 7 p.m. at Hard Rock Stadium.

Fans can visit Dolphins.com and Ticketmaster.com/Dolphins to purchase single-game tickets, which are now on sale.

Here is the full Dolphins 2026 schedule:

• Week 1 at Las Vegas, Sept. 13, 4:25 p.m. ET

• Week 2 at San Francisco, Sept. 20, 4:25 p.m. ET

• Week 3 vs. Kansas City, Sept. 27, 1 p.m. ET

• Week 4 at Minnesota, Oct. 4, 4:05 p.m. ET

• Week 5 vs. Cincinnati, Oct. 11, 1 p.m. ET

• Week 6 Bye, Oct. 18

• Week 7 at New York Jets, Oct. 25, 1 p.m. ET

• Week 8 vs. New England, Nov. 1, 4:25 p.m. ET

• Week 9 vs. Detroit, Nov. 8, 1 p.m. ET

• Week 10 at Indianapolis, Nov. 15, 1 p.m. ET

• Week 11 at Buffalo, Nov. 22, 1 p.m. ET

• Week 12 vs. New York Jets, Nov. 29, 1 p.m. ET

• Week 13 at Denver, Dec. 6, 4:05 p.m. ET

• Week 14 vs. Chicago, Dec. 13, 1 p.m. ET

• Week 15 at Green Bay, Dec. 20, 1 p.m. ET

• Week 16 vs. Los Angeles Chargers, Dec. 27, 1 p.m. ET

• Week 17 vs. Buffalo, Jan. 3, 2027, 1 p.m. ET

• Week 18 at New England, (TBD Flex Game)

Quick nuggets on Dolphins 2026 schedule:

• It will be the third time in franchise history that the Dolphins play the Raiders to start a season (1966, 1975), including Miami’s first game as a franchise in 1966.

• Overall, the Dolphins will play nine games against seven different playoff teams from 2025, which is tied for the third most in the NFL behind the Denver Broncos (10) and Seattle Seahawks (10).

• The Dolphins will play five of their nine games against 2025 playoff teams on the road.

• Former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel returns to Hard Rock Stadium in Week 16 on Dec. 27 at 1 p.m. ET.

• Former Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa returns to Hard Rock Stadium for the final exhibition game on Aug. 28 at 7 p.m. ET.

• Hafley, Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and quarterback Malik Willis return to Lambeau Field in Week 15, Dec. 20 at 1 p.m. ET.

They also made sure to poke plenty of fun at upcoming opponents, themselves and offseason flubs.

The Indianapolis Colts pointed the finger at themselves in their Simpsons’ cartoon. First, they referenced the long drought since their last win in Jacksonville along with Homer Simpson disappearing into the hedge for the team’s road game against the Jaguars.

The video also had Bart Simpson writing repeatedly on the chalkboard: “We will not include Tyreek Hill in these videos.”

The New York Jets went with a “ football is ART (craft blend)” approach mixing uniquely named daubs of paint colors to mix and draw out their opponents by the date.

Their season opener against the Titans features colors “Dolly Denim” and “Bachelorette Blush” for a team in a town known for Dolly Parton and bachelorette parties. Playing the Dolphins uses spray tan, del boca vista, major key and finkle — a reference to the Ray Finkle character in the 1994 movie “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" — and raspberry beret and minnetonka blue for the Vikings.

New Orleans used a “season forecast” approach that included people such Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel. The Los Angeles Rams tapped the movie “Napoleon Dynamite” for “A Dynamite schedule” reveal.

The Buccaneers went with a nod to the TV show “Baywatch" protecting Tampa Bay, while Las Vegas used Kirk Cousins and rookie Fernando Mendoza in the Raiders' take on the 2008 movie “Step Brothers.”

Pittsburgh went long with a video lasting more than 4 minutes, 36 seconds that leaned into local style, customs, food and “Pittsburghese” with “Ready to yinzify your DNA, n'at?" Actor Billy Gardell, a Pittsburgh native, walks a new security guard through it all with the schedule buried at the end.

Video game style

The Los Angeles Chargers went even longer using Halo Infinite for a reveal video lasting 6:12 and they opened with a post asking if they should make their schedule release video with the game spelling out “NO” with the words “yes.”

The Chargers reminded Baltimore of the Ravens backing out of their trade with the Raiders for Maxx Crosby.

They also made an apparent reference to Patriots coach Mike Vrabel's offseason in the headlines with a mention of "Next Photo Dump 1 Mile.”

Smells like a champion

The reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks had actor Josh Lucas introducing the schedule in the form of a cologne commercial, with opponents having their own signature scents such as “Substation” for the San Francisco 49ers.

Short but sweet

Jacksonville took advantage of perhaps the most famous offseason haircut with quarterback Trevor Lawrence getting his long locks cut short on camera after introducing the Jaguars' schedule that then plays out on the screen edited down to less than 2 minutes.

Fan assistance

The Tennessee Titans went back to the streets quizzing random people in their schedule reveal in a twist to the team's 2023 schedule reveal. This time, the Titans went with “You never know who you'll see on the street” set to the Who song “Who Are You” asking random people if they were a big name with a specific opponent.

Artistic reveal tease

The Atlanta Falcons tapped the approach used by the social media account (at)ArtButMakeItSports to preview their schedule release. The Falcons had a thread Thursday morning using “Art but make it our 2026 opponents” featuring paintings for each team.

For the actual release, Atlanta went with a Falcons style “This is SportsCenter” series of commercials.

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

Following the trip, Trump said he had not yet made a determination on whether a major U.S. sale of arms to Taiwan can move forward. Speaking to reporters as he flew back on Air Force One, Trump said he’d not decided on the sale, but he added, “I will make a determination.”

Trump’s Republican administration has authorized the sale but it has yet to move forward. China opposes the deal and has suggested that Washington’s relationship with the self-governing island is the key factor in China-U.S. relations.

Trump said Xi told him that he was opposed to Taiwan’s independence. “I heard him out,” Trump said. “I didn’t make a comment.”

Trump also said he raised a potential three-way nuclear deal among the U.S., Russia and China. He wants each of the three countries to sign a pact that would cap the number of nuclear warheads in its arsenal. China has previously been cool to entering such a pact.

Beijing’s arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and is far from parity with the U.S. and Russia, which each are estimated to have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads. But Trump suggested Xi was receptive to the idea.

“I got a very a positive response,” Trump said. “This is the beginning.”

The last nuclear arms pact, known as the New START treaty, between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century. As the treaty was set to expire, Trump rejected a call by Russia to extend the two-country deal for another year and called for “a new, improved, and modernized” deal that includes China.

The Pentagon estimates China will have more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030.

Xi welcomed Trump at his official residence, Zhongnanhai, on Friday for their final engagement of the summit before the U.S. leader’s return to Washington. The leaders took a short walk through the grounds that feature ancient trees and Chinese roses, and they strolled through a covered passageway with green columns and archways painted with birds and traditional Chinese mountain scenes.

Over tea and lunch, Trump and Xi — with top aides and translators in tow — huddled for nearly three hours of talks before the U.S. leader completed his three-day visit to China.

“It’s been really a great couple of days,” Trump told reporters.

Xi, for his part, called it a “milestone” visit. “We have established a new bilateral relationship, or rather a constructive, strategic, stable relationship,” he said.

But the optimistic outlook collides with some difficult truths about the thorniest issues between the two superpowers.

Beijing has shown little public interest in U.S. entreaties to get more involved in solving the conflict in Iran, even though Trump said in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity that Xi had in their conversations offered to help. In recent weeks, the U.S. State Department has accused Chinese firms of providing satellite imagery to the Iranian government and the Treasury Department has moved to target Chinese oil refineries accused of buying oil from Tehran, as well as shippers of the oil.

And the White House believes China can still do more to stem the flow of Chinese-made precursor chemicals into Mexico used to make illicit fentanyl that has wreaked havoc on many U.S. communities.

Xi, meanwhile, warned Trump during private talks that their differences on the self-ruled island of Taiwan, if handled poorly, could hurtle the world's dominant powers toward “clashes and even conflicts,” according to Chinese government officials.

Trump appeared impressed by the bucolic grounds, remarking the roses were the most beautiful he had ever seen. Xi promised to send him some rose seeds.

The compound is wrapped around two artificial lakes that had been built for the pleasure of emperors. Zhongnanhai is often compared to the White House, the Kremlin or South Korea’s Blue House. But unlike the other presidential residences, Zhongnanhai does not serve as the main venue for diplomatic visits. The invitation appeared to be an attempt by Xi to extend a personal touch to a U.S. leader who appreciates big gestures.

“I think he’s a warm person, actually. But he’s all business,” Trump said of Xi in the Fox News interview. “There’s no games.”

The Chinese government also bid farewell to Trump with great pomp.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi saw a smiling Trump off at the airport. And schoolchildren dressed in Air Force One's light blue and white colors waved American and Chinese flags in a coordinated movement as the U.S. president arrived to board the plane.

Taiwan remains the most important issue for China

Xi's sharp language on Taiwan loomed large over the visit, with Chinese government officials amplifying that differences on the self-ruled island pose the biggest risk to U.S.-Chinese relations.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC News that U.S. policy toward Taiwan was “unchanged” and cautioned that it would be “a terrible mistake” for China to try to take Taiwan by force. He also framed Xi's comments as standard practice.

“They always raise it on their side. We always make clear our position, and we move on to the other topics,” said Rubio, who was among senior aides to join Trump for the talks.

China in recent weeks has sought to put more focus on its view that Taiwan sits at the “core” of its interests and is key to ensuring a stable relationship with the U.S. Trump at moments has shown ambivalence toward Taiwan, raising speculation that he could be open to loosening ties with Taipei.

Trump has demanded Taiwan increase defense spending, and in December, the White House announced an $11 billion weapons package for Taiwan, the largest ever to the island democracy.

But the U.S. has yet to begin fulfilling the arms sales, and Trump had said he expected to discuss the matter with Xi in Beijing. He’s also groused that Taiwan “stole” America’s semiconductor business and called on Taiwan to pay the U.S. for protection.

China wants the Strait of Hormuz opened

The leaders agreed that the Strait of Hormuz — effectively closed since the start of the Iran conflict — needs to be reopened to support global energy demands About 20% of the world’s oil flowed through the strait before the war started on Feb. 28.

“We feel very similar about (how) we want it to end,” the president said with Xi at this side. “We don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon.”

White House officials say Xi was also opposed to any implementation of tolls on vessels crossing the strait and expressed interest in China potentially purchasing U.S. oil to reduce Chinese dependence on Gulf oil in the future.

Trump earlier this week had downplayed the importance of talks with Xi on the 11-week-old Iran war that has led to surging energy prices and threatens to plunge the global economy into recession if the conflict does not conclude soon.

Will Trump announce any major business deals?

The White House, ahead of the visit, insisted that Trump wouldn’t be making the trip without an eye toward securing results before he leaves, suggesting there could be announcements coming on trade.

Trump says some “fantastic trade deals” had been struck during the visit, but did not offer further details

The U.S. side had been hoping to nail down Chinese commitments to buy U.S. soybeans and beef. Trump told Fox News that Xi had indicated a commitment for China to buy 200 Boeing jets from the U.S.

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Mistreanu reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Huizhong Wu in Bangkok, Darlene Superville and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

The Colombian superstar Shakira and Afrobeats icon Burna Boy have teamed up for “Dai Dai,” the official song for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

It's a mesh of their musical landscapes: Afrobeats and Latin rhythms, an undeniably global, multilingual pop track. In one verse, they name a number of the world's most famous soccer players and countries competing in this year's World Cup: “Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia,” Shakira cheers. “Mexico, Japan, Korea, Netherlands.”

After the first chorus, Shakira and Burna Boy take turns tackling their own verses, singing back and forth, before joining in a duet.

The song arrived shortly after it was announced that Shakira, Madonna and K-pop group BTS will co-headline the FIFA tournament's first-ever final halftime show on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just outside New York City. The lineup was curated by Coldplay's Chris Martin.

The show will support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which is raising $100 million to help children access education and soccer.

Shakira first teased “Dai Dai” last week, sharing a minute-long teaser clip of her dancing in the center of the field of Maracaná Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. She included a snippet of the opening verse: “Here in this place / You belong,” she sang in English, a male voice harmonizing with her now identifiable as Burna Boy. “What broke you once / Made you strong.”

She is no stranger to World Cup anthems. Her song “Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)” was the official song of the 2010 World Cup held in South Africa and is widely regarded as one of the best.

It's also not uncommon for sponsors of the FIFA World Cup to release their own singles for the tournament. In March, Coca-Cola shared its own official anthem for the World Cup, a reimagination of Van Halen’s “Jump” that features Colombian singer J Balvin, drummer Travis Barker, pop/R&B singer Amber Mark and guitarist Steve Vai.

It is similarly multilingual: Balvin wrote a new verse in Spanish for the anthem, bringing in Brazilian funk and hip-hop to the classic rock staple. “‘Jump’ is not a fútbol song,” he told The Associated Press about the original track, using the Spanish word for soccer. “So that’s why I had to put the Latin love and passion for fútbol (in the lyrics).”

The World Cup is co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico and runs through June and July.

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

But Global Citizen is preparing for its most ambitious production yet: the first-ever FIFA World Cup halftime show on July 19, curated with help from Coldplay vocalist Chris Martin. Super Bowl-style performances — uncommon in soccer — will feature Madonna, Shakira and BTS. Also Thursday, Shakira released the official World Cup song “Dai Dai” featuring Afrobeats giant Burna Boy.

Organizers aim to direct the tournament's billions of projected viewers worldwide toward a humanitarian initiative launched alongside soccer's international governing body. Leveraging what Global Citizen founder Hugh Evans called the “complementary” unifying powers of soccer and music, the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund aims to raise $100 million for grassroots groups providing underserved children with access to education and sports.

“I hope that on the world’s biggest stage, finally, the importance of investing in education steals the show,” Shakira told the Global Citizen NOW summit in New York on Thursday. Later, she told The Associated Press in an interview that she wanted to help the “many children who are being left behind.”

"That should be our first concern,” Shakira said. “I’m so excited that finally we’re gonna use a global event like this one as a platform to discuss what’s most important: kids’ education.”

That push could be complicated, however, by the staggering cost of match attendance. A dollar from every World Cup ticket sale will go toward the education fund. But with tickets selling for four- to five-figures, not to mention the high price of travel and lodging, some host cities are lowering their attendance expectations.

Further complicating their message of unity is FIFA President Gianni Infantino's tightening connection to President Donald Trump, whose restrictive immigration policies and recent military pursuits amount to what critics consider an unwelcoming environment atypical of an international sporting event.

Infantino awarded FIFA’s new peace prize to Trump in December. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, was also appointed to the education fund's board.

Evans is not focused on politics, though. “I’m a pragmatist," he told the AP. “I’ve always believed that if we can do something so unbelievably positive, it has the potential to unite people at a time when the world needs it most.”

Thursday's Global Citizen NOW summit speakers emphasized their ability to build cross-sector support for causes like the education fund. The annual spring gathering draws entertainers, business executives and world leaders to discuss shared solutions to ending extreme poverty, oftentimes aligned with the United Nations’ ambitious list of “sustainable development goals” ranging from eliminating hunger to achieving gender equality.

They've raised $47 million so far for the education fund, according to a Thursday announcement at a Global Citizen summit in New York City. Corporate sponsors Bank of America, MetLife and Cisco put in $15 million between them, according to Evans. MetLife is donating an additional $5 for every video that fans post online of themselves juggling a soccer ball with the hashtag #FootworkForFutures.

Indian education entrepreneur Sunny Varkey and his Varkey Foundation contributed $3 million. Also being donated are ticket proceeds from The Weeknd’s high-grossing world tour as well as the joint tour recently announced by Usher and Chris Brown. Shakira announced Thursday she will donate 100% of her “Dai Dai” proceeds plus $1 from every ticket to her newly expanded tour in the United States.

Evans is now turning to heads of state for more financial support. He invited existing or future World Cup host countries to supplement funding.

“It has the potential to say to the whole world: We are global citizens... We’re all on this amazing planet together. Let’s solve the world’s biggest problems together," Evans said, adding that the move can foster a human approach rather than a “nationalistic” one.

Evans cited the 27 inaugural FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund grantees, released earlier this week, as inspiration. Among the recipients was Hit the Books, a Harlem-based nonprofit that uses mixed martial arts as the hook to provide students with additional educational resources.

The grants range from $50,000 to $250,000. Jhae Thompson, executive director of Hit the Books, said the support is meaningful because many nonprofits support hundreds of children on incredibly small budgets.

“What we are really leveraging is the foundation of what a young person needs in order to build character, to build discipline, to build confidence,” Thompson told the Global Citizen NOW audience.

Global Citizen has pursued partnerships in new regions as traditional actors including the U.S. cut their international aid budgets. That expansion includes the Middle East, represented by the addition of Mariam AlMheiri to their board.

AlMheiri, who heads the International Affairs Office at the Presidential Court of the United Arab Emirates, emphasized that “when you look at a football, everyone's happy" — a positive association she hopes will translate into support for the education fund.

Marcus Samuelsson, a multiple James Beard Award-winning chef and avid soccer fan, noted that this World Cup is spread across three different countries: the United States, Mexico and Canada. The tournament, he added, has expanded from its origins as a competition largely between South American and European nations to represent countries in Africa and Asia, too.

He hopes that wide geographic spread inspires curiosity about global issues.

““You start thinking about these countries. You maybe want to go there on vacation, maybe you want to go there, volunteer and help out. Whatever gets you going,” Samuelsson told AP. "And it can start by falling in love while watching them.”

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols didn’t rule from the bench on the plaintiffs’ request for an order blocking officials from implementing Trump’s March 31 order, his second related to elections since winning his second term in the White House. The case is one of multiple lawsuits filed to block the order on the grounds that only states and Congress, and not the president, are given power under the Constitution to decide how elections are run.

Trump's initial executive order to revamp elections by requiring documentary proof of citizenship, issued last year, was largely halted by multiplefederal judges on similar grounds. He issued his latest order only after the voting bill he backed stalled in Congress. The current legal fight comes as the country is in the midst of primary elections and election officials are preparing for the intricacies of holding the fall's midterm elections.

“I understand the time pressure here,” said Nichols, who questioned both sides but gave no clear indication of which way he's leaning.

The president can’t rewrite election rules to give himself and the Republican Party a partisan advantage, the plaintiffs’ attorneys said. They argued that the executive order’s requirements are illegal and designed to coerce states into limiting voter registration and ballot access.

“It is harming our clients every day in the middle of an election season,” said Orion Nevers, an attorney representing the NAACP.

Democrats are more likely to vote by mail. Since even before his 2020 loss, Trump has falsely implied there is mass fraud involved in the practice and fought to curtail it, even after his baseless claims led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and were repeatedly debunked by audits and reviews, including some run by Republicans.

Since returning to office, Trump has said he wants Republicans to “take over” elections in Democratic areas and launched investigations of the 2020 vote.

His latest executive order calls on the Department of Homeland Security to make a list of eligible voters in each state and seeks to prohibit the U.S. Postal Service from sending absentee ballots to those not on each state’s approved list.

The administration is asking the judge to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims. Justice Department attorney Stephen Pezzi on Thursday suggested that the litigation is premature, calling it “shadowboxing” for the plaintiffs to challenge a list that hasn’t yet been created.

“It’s a little hard to address these questions in the abstract,” Pezzi said.

Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, asked Pezzi why it would be lawful to disseminate the list to states.

“I think it would be the plaintiffs’ burden to explain why it’s unlawful,” Pezzi replied. “I don’t mean to be cute with that answer.”

Trump’s executive order requires federal agencies to compile a list of adults the U.S. government has purportedly “confirmed” to be U.S. citizens and to share it with each state at least 60 days before each federal election.

“There isn’t a way to lawfully compile it,” said Lalitha Madduri, an attorney for Democratic Party plaintiffs.

Danielle Lang, who represents the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the executive order is aimed at creating “the maximum amount of chaos and confusion” for local election officials.

“They need clear direction,” Lang said.

___

Riccardi reported from Denver.

He's hoping his name is still in the No. 1 spot on May 24.

The Mexican driver who finished second in 2022 and 2024 and third last year in IndyCar's biggest race of the season posted the fastest lap of the day on the third day of practice on Indy's 2.5-mile oval, going 227.308 mph. Four-time race winner Helio Castroneves, who tried his hand at Cup cars earlier this year, posted a 226.977.

“I like love the whole month, the practice days going into qualifying. The whole thing of qualifying on its own weekend, I love that," O'Ward said. “I really enjoy watching as well, and it's cool to see the big runs, big numbers and then going out there yourself and trying to beat that.”

The only thing that would be better than beating the competition in practice would be celebrating with a sip of milk after the 500.

But as O'Ward knows, Thursday's numbers don't mean much heading into qualifications Saturday and Sunday — or race day.

All 33 cars will have their power cranked up with a turbocharged boost Friday and before starting their four-lap qualifying runs Saturday.

Because of that, most teams used the six-hour practice session to work on qualifying runs, banking information on race-day setups and simply trying to get more answers about what works well and what won't during the race.

And the speeds were not nearly as quick as Wednesday when Conor Daly and defending Indy winner Alex Palou topped 228.

Only five drivers — O'Ward, Castroneves, Marcus Armstrong, Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi — hit 226.

“You couldn’t ask for better weather, not only in terms of the wind conditions, but the temperature, everything is just perfect,” Castroneves said as the Brazilian again tries to become Indy's first five-time winner. ”We know it’s going to be like this Saturday (in qualifying), but at the end of the day we felt comfortable. The starting point is one of the best balances I’ve had on qualifying weekend. We’ll see what we’ve got tomorrow.”

But speed was only part of Thursday's story.

Two-time race winner Takuma Sato posted the fastest non-tow speed at 223.828 while Team Penske teammates Scott McLaughlin and David Malukas were second and third in non-tow speeds at 223.738 and 223.391.

Rossi, the 2016 Indy winner, was the busiest driver of the day. He turned 68 laps less than 24 hours after his crew with Ed Carpenter Racing changed his engine.

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

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In a statement released on Wednesday, the U.S. State Department accused the regime of refusing to accept the aid to distributed in coordination with the Catholic Church and other independent organizations.

“The United States continues to seek meaningful reforms to Cuba’s communist system, which has only served to enrich the elites and condemn the Cuban people to poverty,” a State Department spokesperson wrote in the statement.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel also released a statement on Wednesday about the failures of Cuba’s National Electric Energy System, or SEN.

“For today’s operations, a deficit of more than 2,000 MW is forecast during the peak nighttime demand period,” Díaz-Canel wrote. “This dramatic worsening has a single cause: the genocidal energy blockade to which the United States subjects our country.”

Díaz-Canel denounced President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs against any nation that supplies Cuba with fuel and blamed “a small group of ultrarightists who have hijacked policy toward Cuba.”

Also on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez used X to raise awareness about a group of Cuban protesters at San Miguel del Padrón, a municipality in Havana.

Giménez also shared a report about Carlos MacDonald, a political prisoner whose family fears he isn’t getting proper treatment after an alleged cancer diagnosis.

“From the United States Congress, we demand the immediate release of all political prisoners inside Cuba,” Giménez wrote on X.

Giménez also blamed the crisis on the island on corruption.

“The dictatorship in Havana denies the people the opportunity to receive more than $100 million in food directly distributed by the USA,” Giménez wrote on X. “The regime only wants to keep doing what it always does: steal the aid and profit by reselling it to the people.”

Related social media

The State Department is publicly restating the United States' generous offer to provide additional direct humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people.

The Cuban regime must decide whether to accept our offer or deny life-saving help for the Cuban people, who desperately need it.

— Department of State (@StateDept) May 13, 2026

#AHORA Cacerolazos en La Habana a pocas cuadras de la “Plaza de la Revolución”. Sin miedo.#Cuba pic.twitter.com/TB0QSG1aq3

— Cristian Crespo F. 🇨🇺 (@cristiancrespoj) May 13, 2026

⚠️⚠️#Urgente. Continúan llegando imágenes de las afueras del gobierno municipal de San Miguel del Padrón.

Protesta masiva de cubanos tocando cacerolas. pic.twitter.com/FUErLVA2L7

— Mag Jorge Castro🇨🇺 (@MagJorgeCastro) May 13, 2026

Attendeees aired concerns about what they described as systemic inequities affecting Black residents across Miami-Dade County.

Former state Sen. Dwight Bullard criticized elected officials and questioned the lack of advocacy for Black communities.

“Where is our strategic intervention as Black Floridians and Black Miamians irrespective of party affiliation,” Bullard said.

Residents also expressed frustration over voter apathy and what some called defeatist attitudes within the community.

“You tell me there was no African-American that has qualified to become a city manager?” Liberty City activist Sharon Frazier asked, criticizing recent hiring decisions for Miami’s city manager and police chief positions.

Speakers argued that qualified African Americans within local ranks were overlooked for those jobs.

Pierre Rutledge, who heads Miami-Dade’s Black Affairs Advisory Board, said leaders making hiring decisions “need to be fair and equitable.”

The town hall marked the board’s last official meeting after Florida’s new law targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs eliminated DEI standards affecting such boards and initiatives.

“There are elements of segregation that still exists within Miami-Dade County,” said attorney Stephen H. Johnson.

Johnson also pointed to what he described as institutional racism within Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, blaming it for the absence of Black cadets among the department’s newest recruits.

“When there is no voice to raise those points that it is allowed to persist — people just believe it’s natural,” he said. “This is how things have always been, so this is how things will always be.”

Attendees also raised concerns about Florida’s congressional district maps, including District 20, which some speakers said pack Black voters into a single district while reshaping neighboring districts.

The discussion included concerns that longtime U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz could potentially run in District 20 against Black Democratic candidates.

Christopher Simmons, principal of Care Elementary School in Overtown, said representation matters.

“When we don’t see representation for us, it is hurtful,” he said. “But we have got to be the change as well. We have to put ourselves in that position.”

Edward Busby Jr. was pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m. following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay over his disabilities claims. The execution capped a series of last-minute legal efforts by Busby's attorneys seeking to spare his life.

Busby was condemned for the suffocation death of Laura Lee Crane, a retired professor from Texas Christian University. Prosecutors said she was abducted from a grocery store parking lot in January 2004 and left to suffocate in the trunk of her car with duct tape wrapped heavily around her face, covering her mouth and nose.

The execution was the 600th in Texas since it resumed carrying out the death penalty in 1982. Busby also was the fourth person executed this year in Texas and the 12th nationwide. Earlier Thursday, Oklahoma executed Raymond Johnson for killing his ex-girlfriend and her 7-month-old daughter nearly 20 years ago.

When asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Busby repeatedly apologized and asked for forgiveness.

“I am so sorry for what happened,” he said while strapped to the death chamber gurney. “Miss Crane was a lovely woman. I never meant anything bad to happen to her.” He said he wished he could “take it all back” and added he had “no right to get in that car.”

“I’ll take the blame if that helps."

He said he had surrendered his life to God and urged a sister, who was praying and watching through a window a short distance away, to find a church and “pick up your cross.”

"I’m here because this is the will of God,” he said before the injection got underway.

As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began flowing, he took a sharp breath, closed his eyes and gasped. Then he made snoring sounds that got progressively quieter. Within 40 seconds, all movement and sounds ceased. He was pronounced dead 38 minutes afterward.

Busby’s execution had been in doubt after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week issued a stay of execution to further review his claims of intellectual disability. But the Supreme Court overturned the stay Thursday at the request of the Texas Attorney General’s Office. The attorney general’s office had argued that similar appeals were previously rejected and were “meritless” and based on “conflicting evidence.”

Busby’s lawyers quickly sought another stay but it was denied by a lower court.

The Supreme Court in 2002 had barred the execution of intellectually disabled people. But it has given states some discretion to decide how to determine such disabilities.

Busby's attorneys had argued against putting him to death because a defense expert as well as one hired by the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case, both found he was intellectually disabled.

The district attorney’s office had previously recommended Busby’s sentence be reduced to life in prison. But the trial judge in Busby’s case disagreed with the findings of intellectual disability and in 2023 upheld the death sentence.

In a statement Wednesday, the district attorney's office said it requested Thursday's execution date because it believed that under current law Busy was not intellectually disabled.

Two other prior execution dates for Busby had been delayed by courts.

Prosecutors have said Busby and his co-defendant, Kathleen Latimer, abducted Crane in her car from a Fort Worth grocery store parking lot and later put in her vehicle’s trunk as they drove around. Prosecutors said she died in the trunk after suffocating from having 23 feet (7 meters) of duct tape wrapped over her entire face.

Busby was subsequently arrested in Oklahoma City driving Crane’s car and led authorities to her body in Oklahoma just north of the state line with Texas.

Latimer is in prison serving a life sentence for murder.

Bryan Mark Rigg, an author and historian who represented the Crane family as a witness to the execution, said they “neither support or oppose the death penalty. However, they are united in their respect for the rule of law.”

Rigg said as a child he was a student of Crane, who for decades helped children overcome learning disabilities and “was discarded in a field like a piece of trash.” He said the execution was not about vengeance but “accountability under the law and about remembering the life of an extraordinary educator.”

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Lozano reported from Houston. Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://x.com/juanlozano70

The exchange at a highly anticipated summit in Beijing underscored just how far apart Trump and Xi still are on thorny issues, including the war in Iran, trade disputes and Washington’s relations with Taiwan, which is self-ruled but which China claims as part of its territory.

It also suggested that Trump’s three-day visit to China is likely to be longer on pageantry and symbolism than substantive political or economic breakthroughs.

The pair met for about two hours behind closed doors at the Great Hall of the People after an elaborate welcome ceremony featuring booming cannons, a band playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and China’s national anthem, and hundreds of schoolchildren jumping and waving flowers and American and Chinese flags.

According to a post on X by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, Xi told Trump that “the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations.”

“If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy,” she wrote.

That comment followed a brief public exchange before the meeting began in which Trump told Xi: “You’re a great leader. Sometimes people don’t like me saying it, but I say it anyway, because it’s true.”

“It’s an honor to be your friend,” Trump said before promising that the U.S.-China relationship “is going to be better than ever before.”

Trump later told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview that Xi said during their conversations that he “would like to be of help” in negotiating an end to the Iran war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz to oil shipments.

Xi was far more stark in his opening public remarks, expressing hope that the U.S. and China could avoid conflict and asking “whether the two countries can transcend the ‘Thucydides Trap’ and forge a new model for relations between major powers.”

That’s a term, popular in foreign policy studies, referring to the idea that when a rising power threatens to displace an established one, the result is often war. Xi has used the term for years, but using it as Trump offered optimism was noteworthy and foreshadowed his closed-door comments on Taiwan.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio later said U.S. policy toward Taiwan was “unchanged” but warned that it would be “a terrible mistake” for China to take Taiwan by force.

“They always raise it on their side. We always make clear our position, and we move on to the other topics,” Rubio, who is traveling with the president, said in an interview with NBC News.

Both emphasized the importance of China-US relations

After their meeting, Xi took Trump on a tour of the Temple of Heaven, then hosted a state banquet for him. The Chinese leader used his evening toast to note that he and Trump had kept U.S.-China relations “generally stable” in a turbulent world.

“Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand,” Xi said, referring to Trump’s political movement. “We can help each other succeed and advance the well-being of the whole world.”

In his toast, Trump said his visit had been “a great honor” punctuated by a “fantastic” day. He said matters “all good for the United States and China” were discussed.

Trump also said Xi would make a reciprocal visit to the White House on Sept. 24 — a date not previously announced.

The positive tone was reflected in the White House assessment of the earlier meetings, which said both leaders had touched on ways to enhance economic cooperation, including expanding market access for American businesses in China and increasing Chinese investment into U.S. industries.

The White House readout did not mention Taiwan directly, but, in relation to Iran, said both sides had agreed that the strait must remain open. The strait’s closure has stranded tankers and caused energy prices to spike, threatening global economic growth.

The war is dominating Trump’s domestic agenda and stoking fears about the prospect of a weakening U.S. economy as November’s midterm elections — when Republicans hope to maintain control of Congress — approach.

China is the largest purchaser of Iranian oil, and Rubio said in an interview with Fox News that Trump would make the case for Beijing to exert its influence on Iran, noting that administration officials would underscore that “economies are melting down because of this crisis,” which means consumers are “buying less Chinese product.”

It’s not clear if Trump persuaded Xi to wield his influence. The White House instead said Xi opposed any implementation of tolls on vessels crossing the strait — as Iran has proposed — and expressed interest in China potentially purchasing more U.S. oil to reduce Chinese dependence on Gulf oil in the future.

When asked Thursday at a congressional hearing whether China is providing intelligence to Iran to help it target U.S. forces, Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, would not discuss intelligence but said the Iranian military “is largely made up of Russian and Chinese equipment.”

Taiwan issues remain contentious

Xi’s warning about Taiwan reflects China’s displeasure with a U.S. plan to sell weapons to the island. The Trump administration has approved an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan, but has yet to begin fulfilling it.

The U.S. has a longstanding commitment to help the island defend itself if attacked, but Trump has shown greater ambivalence toward Taiwan, fueling speculation about whether the president could be persuaded to dial back American support.

Taiwan said after the Xi-Trump meeting that it was grateful for Washington’s “long-term support.”

“The government views all actions that contribute to regional stability and the management of potential risks from authoritarian expansion positively,” Michelle Lee, a spokesperson for Taiwan’s premier, told reporters. She added that the U.S. “has also repeatedly reiterated its firm and clear position of support for Taiwan.”

US still hopes to secure trade wins

The White House has insisted that Trump would not be making the trip without an eye toward securing concrete results, suggesting there could be coming announcements on trade.

That likely includes a Chinese commitment to buy U.S. soybeans, beef and aircraft. Trump told Fox News that Xi had indicated a commitment to buying 200 jets from Boeing.

Trump administration officials also want to work toward establishing a board of trade with China to address commercial differences between the countries.

Trump and Xi discussed trade on Thursday, with Xi saying that China’s door of opportunity will open wider. Xi also met with a collection of U.S. business leaders who accompanied Trump.

The U.S. and China reached a trade truce last year that calmed each side’s threats to impose steep tariffs on the other. The White House says there have been ongoing discussions and mutual interest in extending the agreement.

The leaders also discussed further stemming the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals into the United States and increasing Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products, according to the White House.

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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Darlene Superville and Michelle L. Price in Washington, Simina Mistreanu in Bangkok and Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

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Ihab Sulaiman was accused of mail theft on Monday in Miami-Dade County, according to Michael Soto, a spokesman for the United States Postal Service.

Sulaiman, 53, was arrested on Wednesday near Westchester and accused of unlawful possession of five or more identifications, according to a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputy’s arrest report.

Investigators found Sulaiman in a parked gray Chevrolet with mail addressed to different people near Southwest 71 Court and 19 Street, according to the arrest report.

Sulaiman was also facing charges of possession of “suspected” crystal meth, Xanax, MDMA, and marijuana, and of possession of drug paraphernalia, records show.

Surveillance video shows the recent mail theft at the Midway Gardens community, where mail had already been stolen back in February.

“We have had checks stolen, we have had property stolen, we have had credit cards stolen,” Arturo Abraeu, the homeowners’ association president at Midway Gardens, told Local 10 News on Wednesday. “As soon as we saw someone was caught, everyone was so relieved about it.”

The video shows that the thief wasn’t working alone. After throwing the stolen mail into a white sports utility vehicle, he sat in the back seat, and the driver fled.

Local 10 News Senior Assignment Editor Frine Gomez and Reporter Roy Ramos contributed to this report.

Related story: Video shows man wanted for mail thefts in Miami-Dade

Details from the arrest report

Investigators reported finding an “unopened letter from the Internal Revenue service,” an “unopened letter from Citi American Airlines AAdvantage.” an “unopened letter from T-Mobile,” an “unopened Xfinity electronic service request letter,” an “unopened Bank of America credit card letter,” and an “unopened Interamerican Bank letter,” according to the arrest report.

Investigators also reported finding an “opened Fidelity Investments letter containing account information,” an “opened Netcredit from CCBank letter,” and an “opened Pershing LLC / Janus investment fund letter.

In the suspect’s wallet, investigators found six credit cards that did not belong to him, including a Capital One Visa card with the name of a woman and two American Express credit cards.

Investigators say Sulaiman is beleved to have targeted numerous communities in South Florida.

“Thats one story, but I’m certain with this individual there are many,” said Mary Faraldo, a resident of Glenvar Heights. “This is someone who should be put away and should serve a harsh penalty.”

As of Thursday, Sulaiman remains behind bars on a $23,000 bond. If he posts bond, he will remain on house arrest and will have a curfew from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Authorities said the investigation is ongoing and more arrests could follow.

Anyone with information is urged to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

Mirlande Moltimer, 49, changed her plea in the high-profile case tied to the death of Deonte Atwell, who investigators said was starved to death at his home on Christmas Day in 2023.

Atwell weighed just 7 pounds when first responders found him, according to investigators. Prosecutors previously alleged the child was tortured as part of what they believed was a scheme to defraud Medicaid.

During Thursday’s hearing, Broward Circuit Judge Peter Holden asked Moltimer whether she was under the influence before accepting her plea.

“Miss Moltimer, I know you’re in custody, but at this time are you under the influence of any drugs, alcohol or medication?” Holden asked.

“No judge,” Moltimer replied.

Moments later, Holden addressed one of the charges against her.

“Count 15 ma’am, murder in the third degree felony, how do you wish to plead, guilty or no contest?” he asked.

“Guilty,” Moltimer responded softly.

Moltimer was among several people arrested in 2024 in connection with the case, including the child’s mother, Michelle Doe; the boy’s adult brother; his grandfather; and a nurse. Investigators said Moltimer owned a Medicare provider company connected to the allegations.

At one point during the hearing, the judge warned Moltimer about the severity of the possible punishment.

“If my math is correct, that’s 65 years of prison in Florida state that you’re looking at — do you understand that — it’s maximum penalty,” Holden said.

The plea agreement means Moltimer will not face that maximum sentence in state prison. However, she still must serve federal prison time tied to previous convictions connected to the case, followed by seven years of reporting probation.

The nonbinding memorandum of understanding among the Rays, Hillsborough County and the city of Tampa outlines the costs of a stadium, which would include $967 million of tax dollars. Elected officials for the city and county are expected to vote on the deal at separate meetings next week.

“The Rays respectfully but resolutely encourage Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa to approve the MOU and make possible a Forever Home for our community’s Tampa Bay Rays, breathe new life into the Dale Mabry Campus of Hillsborough College, and create a new privately financed neighborhood that will be an inviting and inclusive destination to work, live, learn, and play," Rays CEO Ken Babby said in a statement.

The Rays ownership reached an agreement earlier this year with Hillsborough College to build the stadium and mixed-use entertainment district on the college campus and to renovate some of the college's buildings. The property is located next to the New York Yankees’ spring training facility and across a highway from Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Rays have said they hope to have the new stadium built within three years.

Since the team took the field in 1998, the Rays have played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, except for moving home games to the Yankees' Steinbrenner Field in 2025 following hurricane damage at the Trop. The Rays lease runs through at least the 2028 season. The team returned to the Trop last month for the start of this season.

A proposed $1.3 billion redevelopment deal for a new ballpark adjacent to the Trop fell through last year, raising new questions about the future of the team, which was bought last September by Patrick Zalupski’s ownership group.

___

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

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Readon’s release comes as New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church is publicly welcoming him back.

A flyer circulating online advertises a “Readon Returns” worship service scheduled for Sunday from 8:45 a.m. to 10 a.m. at 2801 NW 170th St. in Miami Gardens. The flyer features Readon in a suit alongside the words “Readon Returns” and identifies him as “Pastor Eric Readon.”

Court records show Readon pleaded guilty in June 2025 to exploitation of an elderly person after prosecutors accused him of illegally taking control of Fuller’s home and selling it without Fuller realizing what had happened. Fuller, who was in his late 70s at the time the investigation began, had trusted Readon as a pastor and spiritual adviser.

The case drew widespread attention after Local 10 News began investigating allegations that Fuller had effectively lost ownership of his longtime home while under Readon’s influence.

Reporting over several years detailed allegations that documents transferring the property had been signed and that the home was later sold, leaving Fuller without the house he believed he still owned.

As part of a negotiated plea agreement, Readon was sentenced to 364 days in jail, followed by 15 years of probation. He was also ordered to pay $180,000 in restitution to Fuller.

Readon surrendered on July 15, 2025, to begin serving the sentence. Because jail inmates can receive credit for time served and gain-time reductions, his release at this point, after serving 303 days of a 364-day sentence, is consistent with the sentence imposed.

During earlier court proceedings, prosecutors argued that Readon used his position of trust to financially exploit Fuller. Readon later attempted to withdraw his guilty plea, claiming his attorney pressured him into accepting the deal and failed to properly prepare the case for trial.

That effort was rejected by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Christine Hernández, who ruled that the evidence showed Readon knowingly and voluntarily accepted the plea agreement. Hernández pointed to extensive communication between Readon and his attorney before the plea and said the evidence did not support claims that he had been forced into the deal.

The judge also noted that Readon told the court during his plea hearing that he understood the agreement and that no one had threatened or pressured him into taking it.

Now, following his release, Readon appears poised to return to ministry.

The church flyer promoting Sunday’s service lists the Northwest 170th Street address associated with New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens and encourages worshippers to attend the event marking Readon’s return.

It remains unclear what formal role Readon will have at the church moving forward or whether any conditions of his probation restrict his activities. It is also unclear how much of the court-ordered restitution to Fuller has been paid.

Edwards, serving his second term in the House, said he welcomed the inquiry and planned to fully cooperate with the committee.

“I am confident the investigation will expose the facts, not politically motivated fiction,” Edwards said.

The investigation follows an Axios report stating that three sources told the publication that they witnessed conduct by Edwards toward two female staffers in their 20s that they described as inappropriate. The sources said Edwards’ behavior crossed professional boundaries and created an uncomfortable work environment. Axios said the sources were granted anonymity to protect against retaliation.

The Ethics Committee said in its investigation announcement that it would make no further public comment on the matter and that disclosing the review does not, by itself, indicate that any violation occurred.

The committee's investigation comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of lawmakers’ behavior toward female staffers following the resignations of Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales. Both were facing calls for their expulsion before they stepped down.

Republican U.S. Rep. Max Miller filed a defamation lawsuit against Emily Moreno, his one-time spouse, on Wednesday in Cleveland, citing “the considerable reputational and financial harm” caused to him by her accusations that he was “a violent and abusive husband and father.”

Miller, a two-term congressman up for reelection this fall, alleges that Moreno, her attorney Andrew Zashin and his law firm have engaged in a defamatory campaign against him by spreading knowingly false information about him to media outlets including The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, and the New York Post. The action contends that the resulting damage to his reputation undermines his chances of reelection.

Those outlets have “circulation measured in the tens of millions of print and online readership,” the complaint states, and their articles have been read, viewed or discussed by Miller's constituents, his congressional colleagues, ”his political supporters and donors, the media, and the general public.”

The suit seeks compensatory damages in excess of $25,000, punitive damages sufficient to deter future similar conduct and attorney's fees.

“Congressman Miller is seeking to hold those responsible accountable and to obtain damages for the significant personal, professional, and political harm that he has suffered,” his spokesman said in a statement.

Zashin declined comment.

The incident brings to mind a similar situation that played out as Miller, a White House aide to President Donald Trump during the Republican's first term, made his first run for Congress in 2021.

Miller's former girlfriend, one-time White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, raised allegations in her book and in a Washington Post op-ed at the time that a former White House staffer later identified as Miller had physically abused her while they were dating. Miller responded by filing a defamation lawsuit against her. He voluntarily dismissed the suit with prejudice in August 2023, just before the case was set to go to trial.

Moreno’s spokesperson, Stefan Mychajliw, cited the earlier lawsuit in a statement Thursday.

“Mr. Miller is upset because he’s tried to silence Emily Moreno the same way he silenced Stephanie Grisham — and Emily won’t let him," he said, suggesting Miller is "running the same playbook against a woman with photographs of her bruises and burns.” He added, “Mr. Miller will not silence Ms. Moreno.”

Miller married Emily Moreno in 2022. They had a daughter in 2023.

He filed for divorce in August 2024, as her father, Bernie, was making a successful run for U.S. Senate backed by Trump. The abuse allegations — most recently, Moreno said Miller threw boiling water at her, an allegation he denies — come amid a messy custody battle that has included Miller seeking a restraining order against his ex-wife and subpoenaing the senator to testify. The divorce was finalized last June.

Miller's spokesperson provided documentation that several allegations that he had abused his daughter were investigated by the Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services and deemed unsubstantiated.

Amid the drama, Democrat Brian Poindexter, a five-term local councilman and union ironworker, is looking to oust Miller and flip Ohio's 7th Congressional District in November.

“We can disagree on all sorts of things, but we’ve got to have something in common or we don’t have a country,” Thomas said at a judicial conference near Miami. “These documents, our founding documents, our founding history, whether we think it’s perfect or it shouldn’t be amended, or we might disagree about how far it goes, but we can say this is something that we all treasure.”

Thomas' remarks came in response to an interview with one of his former Supreme Court clerks, Kasdin Mitchell, who was nominated this month by President Donald Trump to serve on the federal bench in Dallas.

Thomas — who recently became the second longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history — looked back on his upbringing in the segregated South and his more than three decades on the high court.

But he gave no indication that, at age 77, he is looking to retire anytime soon and give President Trump the opportunity to further cement his influence on the Supreme Court and nominate his fourth justice, the most of any president in almost a century.

“Justice Marshall said you take a job for life, you do it for life,” referring to Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court's first African American justice, who Thomas replaced on the high court.

But he said his long tenure had given him a unique perspective on the cynicism that pervades so much of society and contributes to Americans' distrust in government.

He spoke about the example set by his grandfather, the son of a freed slave with barely any formal education, to describe his judicial philosophy in a limited form of government.

“One of the rods in this society versus so many of the others where the rights are parceled down by a government is that we were taught from the cradle that we were equal in God’s eyes, that was self-evident," said Thomas. "If you look at Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King or Abraham Lincoln, they all speak in terms of these transcendent rights beyond the ability of man to take away even though man had the power to infringe upon them.”

Kristi House es una organización sin fines de lucro con sede en Miami que brinda atención informada sobre trauma a víctimas de trata de personas.

La comunidad de agencias del orden y fiscales del condado Miami-Dade se está preparando para la Copa Mundial de la FIFA y lanzando una campaña de concienciación.

“(Estamos) logrando que las personas literalmente se preocupen unas por otras en la sociedad”, dijo Philippa King, subdirectora ejecutiva de It’s a Penalty.

Los pasajeros que lleguen al Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami en importantes aerolíneas, incluyendo American Airlines, verán un video durante su vuelo sobre seguridad relacionada con la trata de personas.

“Un joven vio el video y pidió ayuda”, dijo King. “Ayudamos a salvar una vida”.

Un portavoz de Uber dijo que están implementando recursos dentro de la aplicación y material educativo para conductores, otro grupo clave que puede ayudar en este esfuerzo multisectorial que incluye trabajadores de primera línea de la TSA, empleados de hoteles y hospitalidad y personal de estadios.

“Los hoteles pueden ser explotados por traficantes que quieren esconderse en las sombras”, dijo Glenn Sampert, gerente general del InterContinental Miami by IHG.

Los funcionarios hablaron sobre algunas de las señales de alerta que deben observarse, incluyendo mujeres que dependen de un hombre y parecen estar muy ligadas a ellos y que no tienen acceso a documentos o dinero para comprar artículos.

CÓMO REPORTAR ACTIVIDAD SOSPECHOSA

Llame: 305-349-7867 (305-FIX-STOP)

Si está en peligro inmediato, llame al 911.

Línea Nacional contra la Trata de Personas: 1-888-373-7888

Texto: 233733 (BEFREE)

humantraffickinghotline.org

Centro Nacional para Niños Desaparecidos y Explotados

1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678)

CyberTipline: https://itsapenalty.org/na2026/usa/miami/

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According to Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue officials, the man, who was in his 70s, was working in a tree in the 700 block of Northeast 15th Court when the incident occurred.

First responders transported him to Broward Health Medical Center as a trauma alert, where he later died from his injuries.

No other details about the victim were immediately released.

The verdict, reached Wednesday after a trial in federal court in Chicago, resolves one of the last remaining wrongful death lawsuits filed in connection with the disaster that killed all 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.

Samya Stumo, who grew up in Sheffield, Massachusetts, had recently joined a nonprofit focused on strengthening health systems in developing countries. A 2015 graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, she was traveling to Uganda for what would have been her first major project with the organization when the plane crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019.

A spokesperson for UMass after the crash described her as someone known “for engaging others by earning their respect, friendship and trust.”

Jurors awarded $21 million for the pain and suffering and emotional distress that Stumo experienced aboard the doomed flight, $16.5 million for the loss of companionship suffered by her family and $12 million for their grief, according to attorneys representing her estate.

“We are gratified for the opportunity to try the compensatory damages case," attorneys Shanin Specter and Elizabeth Crawford said in a statement Wednesday evening announcing the verdict.

It is the second verdict tied to the crash. Boeing has reached confidential pre-trial settlements in most of the dozens of wrongful death lawsuits filed in connection with the Ethiopian Airlines disaster and a similar 737 Max crash five months earlier off the coast of Indonesia that together killed 346 people.

The fatal crashes became a defining crisis for Boeing and the 737 Max program. Investigators found that a flight-control system repeatedly forced the nose of the then-new planes downward based on faulty readings from a single sensor, and pilots in both crashes were unable to regain control.

The verdict follows a November 2025 jury award of $28.45 million to the family of Shikha Garg, a United Nations environmental consultant who also died in the 2019 crash. That case marked the first civil jury trial stemming from the disaster, with jurors similarly tasked only with calculating damages because Boeing has accepted liability.

“We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. While we have resolved nearly all of these claims through settlements, families are entitled to pursue their claims through the court process, and we respect their right to do so," a Boeing spokesperson said Thursday in a statement.

The Ethiopian Airlines crash prompted a worldwide grounding of the 737 Max that lasted more than a year and triggered multiple investigations into Boeing’s safety culture and regulatory oversight.

Federal prosecutors later charged Boeing with misleading regulators about the Max's flight-control system, though in November, the federal judge in Texas overseeing the long-running criminal case approved a Justice Department request to dismiss it. Prosecutors reached an agreement with Boeing, requiring the company to invest an additional $1 billion in fines, family compensation and safety improvements.

Stumo’s family has been among the most outspoken relatives seeking accountability from Boeing and changes to federal aviation oversight. Her father, Michael Stumo, has publicly pressed Boeing, regulators and Congress over what families viewed as failures that allowed the 737 Max to keep flying after the first crash off the coast of Indonesia.