According to Oakland Park Fire Rescue, firefighters responded to the fire shortly after 5:30 a.m. at 4451 NE 19 Terrace, near the Holy Cross Health Hospital.

It looked like the fire had started in the kitchen by the stove. There was a wheelchair and a walker. Neighbors said the man had survived a motorcycle crash.

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

Location

The central African country's General Inspectorate of Mines said in a statement the new unit would be deployed gradually, with an initial 2,500 to 3,000 personnel expected to be operational by December following six months of training in military collaboration.

The paramilitary force is projected to have more than 20,000 personnel across all of Congo's 22 mining provinces by the end of 2028, with the aim of boosting investor confidence and strengthening state oversight of mineral production.

The $100 million program is funded through partnerships with the United States and United Arab Emirates, the statement said.

Congo is a major supplier of coltan, a metallic ore that contains the rare metal tantalum, a key component in the production of smartphones, computers and aircraft engines.

The vast country has long struggled with illicit mineral trafficking and chronic insecurity, particularly in its eastern provinces, where fighting between government forces and Rwanda-backed rebels has killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands.

Congo's president aims to "clean up the entire mining sector, by eliminating practices that run counter to good governance, transparency and the traceability of minerals,” the inspector general of mines, Rafael Kabengele, said in the statement.

The paramilitary guard will take over security duties currently performed by conventional military forces. Its mandate includes securing mine sites, escorting mineral shipments to processing facilities and border crossings and protecting foreign investments.

Washington is trying to reduce China’s dominance over critical mineral supply chains. Congo and the U.S. signed a minerals partnership last year under which American firm Virtus Minerals has taken over copper-cobalt miner Chemaf. Other Western companies have expressed interest, including some assets located in rebel-held territory.

Congo produced about 40% of the world’s coltan in 2023, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. More than 15% of the world’s supply of tantalum comes from the rebel-controlled Rubaya mines in the east.

Eastern Congo has been in and out of crisis for decades, with dozens of armed groups active.

Last year, the Congolese and Rwandan governments signed a peace deal brokered by the U.S., which also opened up access to critical minerals for the U.S. government and American companies.

Negotiations continue between M23 rebels and Congo. However, fighting continues on several fronts in the east.

___

Mwanamilongo reported from Bonn, Germany.

Are prediction markets safe places for news junkies to bet on events — or dens of insider trading?

A lot is at stake as states vow to heavily regulate or even ban what they view as illegal gambling operations. Even the Trump family could be impacted as it lays plans to open its own prediction market.

Just how fair prediction markets are now depends partly on the trading venue. They all have different internal policies and different rules, though recent headlines suggest they are all going through adolescent growing pains — and the adults are worried.

Part of the problem is no one on the outside can tell who exactly is placing the winning bets, fueling suspicion some participants are trading on non-public information and triggering demands for Washington to crack down.

“There has been very much a laissez-faire” attitude toward the industry, said Richard Warr, professor of finance at NC State University. “Regulation always takes time to catch up.”

Polymarket versus Kalshi

They’re the two dominant players in the industry but approach the business differently.

Polymarket operates primarily outside the U.S. and gives the impression of being a no-holds-barred wild child. It was even banned for a time from operating in the U.S. after the Biden administration ruled it wasn’t complying with regulations.

Polymarket uses cryptocurrencies to settle bets, allowing customers to use pseudonyms and remain anonymous. Critics say that encourages people with inside information to take a chance, though experts note that Polymarket should know who such people are from when the accounts and payments were verified.

Kalshi has been a U.S.-regulated exchange since 2020. By contrast, it requires its customers to show ID and so knows all their names on the back end, though it is shields their identities from other bettors on its site. And since it operates onshore, it also has to follow U.S. “Know Your Customer” rules to make sure money launderers and other assorted crooks are not using its market for criminal activities.

In the competition for customers, Kalshi is seeking to portray itself as the responsible, clean actor.

“Not all prediction markets are the same,” said Kalshi spokesperson Elisabeth Diana as calls grew for a crackdown earlier this month following the ceasefire bets. She added, “We support Congress and regulators taking action to police insider trading.”

Capturing Maduro, and making a killing

The latest news of alleged insider trading came this past week after the arrest of an army special operations soldier accused of using inside information to bet in Polymarket before the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

Polymarket emphasized that it had alerted federal authorities that something was awry with the soldier’s account, though it’s not clear whether customers view this as evidence the company is a good policeman or just overwhelmed by too many bad actors. “We flagged this, referred it, and cooperated throughout the process,” Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan posted on X. “This happens constantly behind the scenes, despite what many are led to believe.”

Kalshi took a different take and seized upon the news to say the same soldier — Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who had netted $400,000 on his trades — had tried to make a Maduro bet earlier on Kalshi but didn’t pass muster and was turned down.

“Unlike competitors whose trading activity is mostly offshore and unregulated, we ban and police insider trading and don’t allow war markets,” a Kalshi spokesperson told the AP.

Israeli soldiers, and congressmen

Earlier this year, Israeli authorities arrested two soldiers for allegedly trading on secret information on its country’s operations against Iran last year among other things.

On Wednesday, Kalshi announced that three politicians running for federal office had gambled on their own elections. The candidates, one running for the Senate in Virginia and two congressional hopefuls from Texas and Minnesota, were fined and banned from Kalshi for five years.

The industry is scrambling to clean things up.

Last month, Kalshi said it would ban political candidates from trading on their own campaigns, and it would preemptively block anyone involved in college or professional sports from trading contracts related to the sports they play or are employed by.

Polymarket also recently rewrote its rules to say clearly that users cannot trade on contracts where they might possess confidential information or could influence the outcome of an event.

State crackdown

The federal government maintains that oversight belongs to one of its agencies, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and prediction markets are not under the purview of state gambling laws. After all, it argues, the CFTC already oversees financial derivatives sold by banks to companies as a hedge against risks, and these prediction market bets are similar.

Some states fervently dismiss that argument.

“Gambling by another name is still gambling,” said New York state attorney general Letitia James after suing two new players — Coinbase and Gemini — for allegedly operating illegal gambling businesses. “It is not exempt from regulation.” In big states like California and Texas where bettors are using the markets to get around sports betting bans, the pushback to the CFTC’s support for prediction markets has been especially fierce. “I don’t remember the CFTC having authority over the ‘derivative market’ of LeBron James rebounds,” Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah wrote in response to a social media post from CFTC chairman Michael Selig in February. Cox vowed to use “every resource” to block the market from his state.

Congress is vowing a crackdown, too.

Members on both sides of the aisle are pushing for more oversight of bets on war, assassinations, terrorist attacks and a person’s death. Federal law already gives the CFTC the authority to bar some of these so-called event contracts, but some lawmakers are seeking an outright ban. “There is no justification for gambling on lives,” said Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff last month, noting that bets on war could also tip off U.S. enemies and therefore are national security risks.

What Trump thinks

Trump’s family stands to profit if the industry grows, yet another conflict in a presidency rife with them.

His oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has a stake in Polymarket through a venture capital fund in which he is a partner. He is also an adviser to both Polymarket and Kalshi. And the Trump business that runs the social media platform Truth Social has plans to build its own prediction market, called Truth Predict.

As for the president himself, its not clear if he’s going push for more regulation, though he has turned somewhat critical.

“I was never much in favor, and I don’t like it conceptually, but it is what it is,” he said Thursday, referring to the online bests. ”Now, I think that I’m not happy with any of that stuff.”

The writings, sent shortly before shots were fired Saturday night at the Washington Hilton, made repeated references to President Donald Trump without naming him directly and alluded to grievances over a range of administration actions, including U.S. strikes on boats accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Investigators are treating the writings, along with a trail of social media posts and interviews with family members, as some of the clearest evidence yet of the suspect’s mindset and possible motives.

Authorities uncovered what one law enforcement official described as numerous anti-Trump social media posts linked to the suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old California man accused of trying to breach a security checkpoint at the dinner while armed with multiple guns and knives.

Suspect’s brother reached out to Connecticut police

Allen’s brother contacted police in New London, Connecticut, after receiving the writings, according to the law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The New London Police Department said in a statement it was contacted at 10:49 p.m., about two hours after the shooting, by an individual who wanted to share information related to it. The police department said it then immediately notified federal law enforcement.

Allen’s sister, who lives in Maryland, told investigators her brother had legally purchased several weapons from a California gun store and kept them at their parents’ home in Torrance without their knowledge, according to the official. She described her brother as prone to making radical statements, the official said.

The writings examined by the AP ran more than 1,000 words and read as a rambling, deeply personal message, opening almost jarringly with a casual “hello everybody!” before shifting into apologies to family members, co-workers and even strangers he feared could be caught in the violence. The note moved between confession, grievance and farewell, with Allen thanking people in his life even as he sought to explain the attack.

Elsewhere, he veered between political anger, religious justifications and rebuttals to imagined critics. He also made a taunting critique of security at the Washington Hilton, mocking what he described as lax precautions and expressing surprise he was able to enter the hotel armed without detection.

The AP limits the use of attackers’ writings and social media posts to avoid amplifying their views or encouraging copycat actions. The AP chooses to summarize their words and focus mainly on the victims and investigations.

Allen legally bought a .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol in October 2023 and a 12-gauge shotgun two years later, according to the law enforcement official and another one who also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Acting head of Justice Dept. says Trump officials were targets

Allen is believed to have traveled by train from California to Chicago and then onto Washington, where he checked himself in as a guest at the hotel where the gala dinner was held with its typically tight security, said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. He is believed to have acted alone and is set to face criminal charges Monday.

Authorities say Allen attempted to charge toward the cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton but was tackled to the ground in a violent scene that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being hurried off the stage unharmed and guests ducking for cover beneath their tables.

“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

A profile of the shooting suspect emerges

Social media posts that appear to match the suspect show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.

A May 2025 profile photo of Allen appears to match the appearance of the man in a photo of the alleged attacker being taken into custody that was posted Saturday night by Trump. The photo, posted to the social networking site LinkedIn, shows him in a cap and gown after graduating with a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Allen earned a bachelor’s degree in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He listed his involvement there in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that battled with Nerf guns.

A local ABC station in Los Angeles included an interview with Allen during his senior year of college as part of a story about new technologies to help people as they age. He had developed a prototype for a new type of emergency brake for wheelchairs.

Allen contributed $25 to a Democratic Party political action committee in support of Kamala Harris for president in 2024, according to federal campaign finance records.

Chaotic scene unfolded minutes after gala began

The shooting at the security barricades happened minutes after the event got underway.

The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the room as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. Gasps echoed through the ballroom as guests realized something was happening. Hundreds of journalists immediately got on phones to call in information.

“Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck. From one corner, a “God Bless America” chant began as the president was escorted offstage. Outside the hotel, members of the National Guard and other authorities flooded the area as helicopters circled overhead.

After an initial attempt to resume the event, it was scrapped for the night and will be rescheduled.

Trump was unusually conciliatory after what he saw as a third attempt on his life in less than two years. He suggested that his personal politics had made him a repeated target, but he also called for unity and bipartisan healing in an increasingly violent world.

“It’s always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that never changes,” Trump told reporters in a hastily organized news conference at the White House late Saturday.

Federal prosecutors have been conducting a preliminary investigation since mid-February 2026 into alleged cyberattacks on Signal accounts, a spokesperson for the federal prosecutors confirmed on Saturday.

Among other things, the investigation involves an initial suspicion of espionage, she added, without specifying which country might be involved.

The German government has still not officially attributed the attacks to Russia.

Germany and other European countries have been under increased pressure from cyberattacks and other malign activity linked to Russia by Western officials since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Around 300 Signal accounts belonging to individuals within the political sphere were compromised in the attacks, German magazine Der Spiegel reported, quoting governmental sources.

There is no official confirmation of the names of the victims.

According to Der Spiegel, the targeted users received messages from a fake Signal security chatbot that informed them of suspicious activity on their accounts and asked them to take immediate action. If the user followed the instructions, including entering a PIN or scanning a QR code, their Signal accounts were linked to an external device controlled by the hackers.

This allowed the attackers to read past chats, follow ongoing conversations and even see address books and other data stored by the users.

In February, Germany's domestic intelligence service BfV and the federal cybersecurity authority BSI had issued a public warning about such a phishing campaign, saying it was “likely being carried out by a state-controlled cyber actor.” According to the German press agency dpa, German authorities also contacted several politicians personally to warn them such attacks may have happened.

In March, Dutch intelligence and security services also warned that “Russian state hackers are engaged in a large-scale global cyber campaign to gain access to Signal and WhatsApp accounts belonging to dignitaries, military personnel and civil servants.”

Targets include Dutch government employees, the Dutch authorities warned at the time, and journalists may also have been targeted.

The Russian embassy in Berlin did not respond to an AP request for comment. Moscow has repeatedly ​denied ⁠it is spying on other countries.

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the German ambassador to Russia, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday morning, dpa reported, regarding alleged contacts between German politicians and terrorist organizations. No connection has been made between the summons and the German media revelations about the Signal phishing attacks.

“I will, of course, comply with the summons. I consider it unlikely that the Russian side will be able to substantiate its accusations,” Lambsdorff said in advance. Relations between the two countries have been tense for years.

———

Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.

One motorcyclist died, and another was injured after the crash on Sunday night on the eastbound lanes of Alligator Alley, or Interstate 75, at mile marker 42.

FHP closed the highway on Sunday night and reopened it in time for Monday morning traffic.

For a map with live traffic updates, visit this page.

Morning traffic report

Luke’s father, Rev. Ezra Tillman, who was born in Michigan, is the senior pastor at First Baptist Church Piney Grove, in Lauderdale Lakes.

“When I was three, I had a dream that God called me to preach,” Luke said.

Luke isn’t waiting to make his dreams come true.

“Every single time I preach, I shake,” Luke said. “My mom said when I shake, that means the holy spirit is in me.”

Luke’s new 90-day devotional book is also inspired by family videos that have gone viral over the years.

In late 2022, after his father performed baptisms, his mother, Catrina Tillman, recorded Luke at five, baptizing his Paw Patrol toy.

“That inspired me to be like, ‘Hey! I want to start baptize somebody,” Luke said.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Luke (@according_2luke)

Luke is excited about helping others with his book, which will be released on Sept. 8.

“The book is about how kids like me can find God through our daily life experiences,” he said. “You can find God through different things in this book. Like brushing your teeth, cleaning your room.”

Luke has been making the rounds around the country and on national TV for years. Jennifer Hudson has had him on her show several times.

“It’s not being lucky, it’s being blessed,” Luke said.

His goal with the book is to get more pre-orders and go on the New York Times bestseller list.

“I want to make my Father, not my biological father, my Father that’s in heaven, pleased, so I can make this big goal,” Luke said.

For information about how to pre-order his book, visit this page.

More related social media

Don’t leave home without your umbrellas, as afternoon inland storms are expected to develop later in the day.

Some storms could be strong like on Sunday, so remember, “When thunder roars, you go indoors.”

Highs will be reaching the upper 80s before the storms develop.

Looking ahead, an area of high pressure is building, providing for an ocean breeze to return starting tomorrow, with lower rain chances. Keep it tuned to Local10 for more.

The third violent assault in the vicinity of Trump in less than two years is renewing the central tension confronting the Republican president’s defenders: how to accommodate the public-facing demands of the presidency while minimizing the risk of an attack.

Saturday’s episode, in which a man armed with guns and knives tried to storm the Washington hotel ballroom where the president was set to address the White House Correspondents’ Association, comes ahead of Trump’s expected participation in a stretch of large, high-profile events indoors and outdoors in the months ahead. Among them, he’s set to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary, oversee the U.S. co-hosting the World Cup and lead rallies meant to galvanize support for Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles will hold a meeting this week with officials from the White House operations team, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security to discuss security protocol at events with the president, according to a senior White House official. The meeting will examine security steps that were successful on Saturday while “exploring additional options” for future events, said the official, who insisted on anonymity to confirm private discussions.

Separately, a person familiar with the matter said the U.S. Secret Service was already reevaluating its security footing for the upcoming events. The agency’s posture was already elevated due the extraordinary number of threats facing Trump — including two back-to-back assassination attempts in 2024 — and the realities of recent events such as the U.S.-Iran war.

“I can’t imagine that there’s any profession that is more dangerous,” Trump said of the presidency Saturday night from the White House.

Inside the Secret Service, agents on protective intelligence and threat assessment teams are also reexamining threats made against Trump in recent months. Copycat violence can follow high-profile attacks, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security planning.

The White House and Buckingham Palace said King Charles and Queen Camilla’s state visit Monday is going ahead as planned. Still, organizing around large-scale events deeper in the future — including the UFC bout on the White House lawn marking Trump’s 80th birthday in June, World Cup matches and the IndyCar race past the White House — could get more complicated.

An inherent tension in presidential protection is exposed

Lawmakers, event attendees and some allies of the president saw fault in the correspondents’ dinner security planning, questioning why someone like the shooter could reserve a room at the hotel to sneak in weapons around the outermost layer of security.

Republican Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman emeritus of the House Homeland Security Committee, said security protocols for Trump and Vice President JD Vance may need altering.

“I think the Secret Service needs to reconsider having both the president and vice president together at something like that,” McCaul told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Kari Lake, a former unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate in Arizona and Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media, complained about not having to show a photo ID to match her ticket to the event when entering the hotel for the correspondents’ dinner. “I can’t believe how lax the security was,” Lake wrote on X.

The Secret Service is charged only with the safety of its protectees, not of the event itself, and the agency immediately celebrated its response, drawing a high-profile endorsement from Trump himself.

“Our multilayered protection works,” director Sean Curran said Saturday.

“Those guys did a good job last night. They did a really good job,” echoed Trump on Sunday in an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”

Garrett Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die,” wrote in an analysis of the multiple layers of security around Trump during the dinner, “Seems like the system basically working as designed, amid the always necessary trade-offs of security in a free society.”

Retired Secret Service Agent Thomas D. Quinn, who helped pioneer Secret Service counterassault teams, posted on X that “the Secret Service security plan for the WHCD worked and the assailant was stopped.” He continued, “As long as we are a free people in a freedom loving Nation, the Secret Service responsibilities will continue to be immense.”

More security changes ahead

Ronald Kessler, author of “In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect,” said authorities are likely to consider placing bulletproof glass around where Trump speaks outside and inside — not unlike after the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt during the heat of the 2024 presidential campaign.

Attendees, Kessler said, will likely be more thoroughly screened going forward — exacerbating lines at entrances that can already take hours to clear. An example of what might happen came last fall, when Trump attended the men’s final of the U.S. Open tennis tournament and triggered massive security lines.

Such events underscore the complicated security questions surrounding presidential protection in a country where citizens expect their leaders to move through public spaces, hold rallies, attend events and appear before crowds.

“Presidents don’t like to have too much protection,” Kessler said. “I think, by their nature, they’re very outgoing. They want to meet people. They don’t want to be accused of being prisoners of the White House. And so, they’ll try to get around some of these improvements.”

Presidents can have love-hate relationships with security details

The Secret Service took over full-time responsibility for protecting the president during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt, who came to office after an assassin killed William McKinley in 1901. Roosevelt found the constant security presence tiresome, however, and would sometimes slip away for unprotected hikes or horseback rides in Washington’s Rock Creek Park, according to the White House Historical Association.

Security personnel wanted President Ronald Reagan to exit the building where Saturday night’s shooting occurred, the Washington Hilton, through a covered garage in 1981, Kessler said. Reagan’s staff worried the optics would be bad, however, and the president was shot as he left an open-air exit, ultimately surviving.

After shots were fired Saturday, Secret Service agents surrounded Trump, who appeared to slip slightly as he was whisked away. Another team moved Vance so quickly it seemed as if it might haul him out while still seated in a banquet chair.

Trump told “60 Minutes” on Sunday that he “wasn’t making it easy” for the Secret Service by being “a little bit me.”

“I wanted to see what was happening,” the president said Sunday. “And by that time we started to realize maybe it was a bad problem — different kind of a problem — bad one.”

“I probably made them act a little bit more slowly. I said: ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute. Lemme see. Wait a minute,’” Trump said. He said he started walking out but: “They said, 'Please go down. Please go down on the floor.′ So I went down, and the first lady went down also.”

Trump repeatedly praised the Secret Service and his detail, and he has pushed the correspondents’ association to reschedule the dinner. He said it would have “even more security.”

“And they’ll have bigger perimeter security,” he said. "It’ll be fine.”

___

Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim in Washington and Mike Balsamo in New York contributed.

A sheep owned by O'Connor, who runs Clover & Bee Farm in Underhill, Vermont, with her husband, Gunnar, gave birth to a rare batch of six lambs earlier this month. The sextuplets and their mother are all doing well, making the lamb windfall even more remarkable.

The same ewe previously had quadruplets, and while a recent checkup indicated she would have two lambs this time, O'Connor suspected more. When the big day came, the baby lambs seemed to have kept coming and coming, she said.

“I was a little bit suspicious, just given how big she was and that she was going a little earlier, that she might have more than two,” she said. “Six is great, but it's definitely — it's plenty.”

Sources differ on how uncommon sheep sextuplets are, with O'Connor putting the number around 1 in 1,000 and some agricultural websites placing it at one in a million or higher. O'Connor said she has been in touch with the Vermont Sheep & Goat Association about the births, and the group found only one other shepherd had a sheep give birth to so many lambs.

“They do take longer to reach full body weight, but most do just fine,” said Kristen Judkins of Gilead Fiber Farm, who owned a ewe that had sextuplets three years in a row, in an email. “You have to keep an eye on them for the first few weeks to make sure they are getting enough to eat.”

The lambs, which are partially the Finnsheep breed, are named the numbers one through six in Finnish. Their mother is named Teemu after Finnish hockey player and Hockey Hall of Famer Teemu Selänne. The O'Connors plan to keep the four ewes and find homes for the two male lambs.

The farm raises sheep for wool and also grows herbs and berries. It's headed for its fifth summer raising sheep. The flock is booming — along with two other recent babies, the six new lambs have brought the total up to 21. And five ewes are currently pregnant.

Teemu's breeding days are likely not over. She'll be allowed a respite, but odds are good she'll have more lambs in the future, O'Connor said.

“She’s a great mom, she’s doing awesome with this,” O'Connor said. “She’s still very much in her reproductive years, so probably a year or more and she’ll just, you know, be able to put her hooves up.”

___

Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.

A shooting at a Washington dinner attended by President Donald Trump on Saturday sparked a last-minute security review of the four-day state visit, intended to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary, and the U.S.-U.K. “special relationship.”

Buckingham Palace said the king “is greatly relieved to hear that the president, first lady and all guests have been unharmed.” After a security review, the palace said the trip “will proceed as planned.”

Trump praises the king but derides Starmer

A rift between the U.K. government and Trump over issues including the Iran war had already raised the political stakes for the British monarch’s visit.

In recent weeks, Trump has lambasted Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his unwillingness to join U.S. military attacks on Iran, dismissing Britain’s leader as “not Winston Churchill” — the World War II prime minister who coined the phrase “special relationship” for the U.K.-U.S. bond.

It’s part of a wider rift between Trump and the United States’ NATO allies, whom he has called “cowards” and “useless” for not joining action against Iran. A leaked Pentagon email suggested the U.S. could reassess support for the U.K.’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands in the south Atlantic. Britain and Argentina fought a 1982 war over the islands, also known as the Islas Malvinas.

The president insists the political chill won’t affect the royal visit. Charles “has nothing to do with that,” Trump said in March, meaning NATO.

The president has spoken in glowing terms about Charles, repeatedly referring to the monarch as his “friend” and a “great guy.”

He also continues to mention his “amazing” trip to the U.K. in September with first lady Melania Trump for an unprecedented second state visit. Starmer hand-delivered the invitation from the king in the Oval Office five weeks after the Republican president returned to office, in a very public attempt to woo the president.

The U.K. royal family laid on pomp and pageantry for the Trumps, with scarlet-clad guardsmen, brass bands and a sumptuous banquet at Windsor Castle.

“President Trump has always had great respect for King Charles, and their relationship was further strengthened by the president’s historic visit to the United Kingdom last year,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Associated Press. “The president looks forward to a special visit by Their Majesties, which will include a beautiful state dinner and multiple events throughout the week.”

Trump, meanwhile, told the BBC that the king’s visit could “absolutely” help repair the trans-Atlantic relationship.

“He’s fantastic. He’s a fantastic man. Absolutely the answer is yes,” the president said.

Some have called for the trip to be canceled

Kristofer Allerfeldt, a University of Exeter professor specializing in American history, said the two governments have very different objectives for the trip.

He said that for Charles, the trip is about “reinforcing long-term ties, showcasing the monarchy’s soft power and reminding the world that Britain still carries diplomatic weight.”

For Trump, it’s more about “a media event,” with emphasis on the optics of a visit that resembles a meeting of “two gilded monarchs.”

Some U.K. politicians worry that the trip is fraught with opportunities for embarrassment. Trump’s recent broadsides at Pope Leo XIV have heightened those concerns.

Ed Davey, leader of the U.K. centrist opposition Liberal Democrats party, earlier this month called Trump “a dangerous and corrupt gangster” and implored the government to cancel the trip.

“I really fear for what Trump might say or do while our king is forced to stand by his side,” Davey said in the House of Commons. “We cannot put His Majesty in that position.”

Starmer defended the visit, saying “the monarchy, through the bonds that it builds, is often able to reach through the decades” and bolster important relationships.

Andrew and Epstein cast a shadow

Raising the stakes is the shadow of the king’s younger brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who has been stripped of his royal title of Prince Andrew, exiled from public life and put under police investigation over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. He has denied committing any crimes.

Epstein victims have urged the king to meet with them and other sexual abuse survivors. It’s unlikely he will do so.

Charles has visited the U.S. 19 times, but this is his first state visit to the country since becoming king in 2022. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, made four state visits to the U.S.

The king, who is 77 and was diagnosed in early 2024 with an undisclosed form of cancer, will spend four days in the U.S. accompanied by Queen Camilla.

In Washington, the king and queen will have a private tea with the Trumps and attend a garden party and a formal White House state dinner. The president and the king will also have a one-on-one meeting.

The royal couple will also visit the Sept. 11 memorial in New York and attend a 250th birthday “block party” in Virginia, where Charles will also meet Indigenous leaders involved in nature conservation — a favorite cause of the environmentalist king.

Three centuries after Britain’s kings and queens gave up any real political power, the royals remain symbols of soft power, deployed by elected governments to smooth international relationships and send messages about what the U.K. considers important.

A key moment will be the king’s speech to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday. It’s only the second time, after Queen Elizabeth II in 1991, that a U.K. monarch has addressed a joint meeting of both houses.

Elizabeth praised liberalism on that trip, spoke against the idea that “power grows from the barrel of a gun” and praised the “rich ethnic and cultural diversity of both our societies.”

The king’s treasured causes, including the environment and harmony among religious faiths, are in contrast to Trump’s. He’s unlikely to accentuate differences, but Allerfeldt said that, in the monarch’s subtle way, the king could use his speech to send a message.

“He does have an unorthodox way of looking at the world, and I think maybe he can actually have something valid to say when he addresses Congress,” Allerfeldt said.

___

Jill Lawless reported from London.

“May the Lord bless from his height, the meal our belly will take with delight,” they chanted in unison before beginning their lunch, a ritual that takes place three times a week in the dining hall adjacent to the church.

Among the nearly 50 elderly people was Carmen Casado, an 84-year-old retired chemical engineer who attends without fail. Her monthly pension of 2,000 Cuban pesos is equivalent to $4 at the informal exchange rate that people use on a daily basis. She lives alone, has no children and does not receive remittances from relatives abroad.

She says the church meals are a needed supplement to the meager rations, such as bread, rice and beans, that she can obtain for free from state-run stores, or bodegas.

“This is a lifeline for us retirees with small pensions,” said Casado, speaking in a rapid-fire tone. “What we get from the bodegas alone is not enough.”

The elderly are among the hardest hit by the severe economic crisis on the island, which has worsened dramatically since the beginning of the year following an oil embargo imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Most are former government employees — teachers, doctors, nurses, technicians, custodians, lawyers — whose pensions are usually less than $10 a month and who must face cuts to the basket of goods that have been subsidized for decades, as well as the loneliness brought on by the growing emigration of young people.

They were young when Fidel Castro entered Havana and lived through all the major events on the island, from the Bay of Pigs invasion to U.S. President Barack Obama shaking the hand of Raúl Castro in 2016.

Now, their revolutionary spirit is being tested in the latest crisis, which is forcing them to sell cigarettes on the streets, line up for a loaf of bread and seek free meals offered by churches and some state institutions.

An aging country

After lunch, Casado walked the four blocks home to tend to household chores she still performs without assistance. Her home is on the second and top floors of a 19th-century building that, like many in the capital, is falling apart.

Born in 1942, Casado was a teenager when the revolution led by Castro triumphed. Her life has spanned the island’s most defining moments, from the 1962 Missile Crisis to the so-called Special Period following the collapse of the Soviet Union. She also lived through the 1970s and 80s, when the island’s economy was heavily subsidized by the Soviets and when the Cuban system seemed to promise a brighter future.

“This is our life; we were born and raised here,” she said.

Even before the economic crisis worsened and before the wave of emigration over the past five years, Cuba was already one of the countries with the oldest populations in Latin America, a trend nudged further by high life expectancy and low birth rates.

According to Cuba’s National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2024, almost 26% of the population was aged 60 or older. That is almost twice the regional average of 14.2% in the same year, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, CEPAL.

The last five years have seen a population decline in Cuba of nearly 1.5 million, primarily due to migration. The number of Cubans residing on the island, which stood at 11.1 million, has fallen to just 9.7 million.

The impact of the crisis and the exodus of youth is visible at a glance. Elderly people walk the streets alone —some rummaging through trash, others standing in long lines for the bread and rice provided by the ration book, the basic subsidized foods the state guarantees to every Cuban.

The plight of the elderly is so critical that the government recently authorized private entrepreneurs to operate elder care services and residential facilities, a move marking a significant departure from the island’s traditional model of total state control.

Casado insists that she is still privileged. She is mentally sharp and has no physical impairments — she doesn’t even use a cane — and manages entirely on her own. Her only medication is half a tablet for blood pressure, which, “so far,” remains available at the state-run pharmacies.

Despite the poverty and loneliness, she continues to have faith in the government and blames the country’s woes on the United States.

“We’re doing everything we can here to move the country forward,” she said. “But the thing is, we have a very powerful enemy, and he’s right there, right on our doorstep.”

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

U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, which was passed to the Americans by Pakistan and would leave unresolved the disagreements that led the U.S. and Israel to go to war on Feb. 28.

With a fragile ceasefire in place, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. The U.S blockade is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store the oil.

The strait’s closure, meanwhile, has put pressure on Trump, as oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed ahead of crucial midterm elections, and it has pressured his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas.

The closure has also had far-reaching effects throughout the world economy, raising the price of fertilizer, food and other basic goods.

The proposal would push off negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons.

The two officials, who had knowledge of the proposal, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations between Iranian and Pakistani officials this weekend. The Axios news outlet first reported Iran’s proposal.

It came as Iran’s foreign minister visited Russia, which has long been a key backer of Tehran. It’s unclear what, if any, assistance Moscow might offer now.

Strait of Hormuz remains blocked

Iran’s ability to choke off traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, has proved one of its biggest strategic advantages in a war that has often boiled down to which side can take more pain.

Oil prices have risen steadily since the war began and tankers full of crude became stranded in the Persian Gulf, unable to safely transit through the strait and reach global distribution points.

On Monday, the spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at around $108 per barrel, nearly 50% higher than when the war began.

Iranian foreign minister holds talks as negotiations with US stall

Trump last week indefinitely extended the ceasefire the U.S. and Iran agreed to on April 7 that has largely halted fighting. But a permanent settlement remains elusive in the war that has killed thousands of people.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi landed in St. Petersburg on Monday morning ahead of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“It is a good opportunity for us to consult with our Russian friends about the developments that have occurred in relation to the war during this period and what is happening now,” Araghchi said in a video interview posted by IRNA.

It comes as Pakistan has been seeking to revive stalled talks between Iran and the U.S., and negotiations had been expected in Islamabad over the weekend. Instead, Trump called off a trip by his envoys and suggested the talks could take place by phone instead.

Over the weekend, Araghchi made two stops in Pakistan and a visit to Oman, which shares the strait with Iran. He also spoke by phone with counterparts in Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

Iran wants to persuade Oman to support a mechanism to collect tolls from vessels passing through the strait, according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Oman’s response wasn’t immediately clear.

The official, who is involved in mediation efforts, also said Iran insisted on ending the U.S. blockade before new talks and that Pakistan-led mediators are trying to bridge significant gaps between the countries.

Trump says Iran has offered a ‘much better’ proposal

Trump told journalists Saturday that after he called off a trip by his envoys to Pakistan, Iran sent a “much better” proposal.

He did not elaborate but stressed that one of his conditions is that Iran “will not have a nuclear weapon.” Iran insists its program is peaceful, but the U.S. wants to remove Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be used to build a bomb, should Tehran choose to pursue one.

Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,509 people in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group resumed two days after the Iran war started. Another 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 U.S. service members in the region and six U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been killed.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has been extended by three weeks. Hezbollah has not participated in the Washington-brokered diplomacy.

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. AP journalist Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

The trial, which is scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection, centers on the 2015 birth of ChatGPT maker OpenAI as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.

The trial’s outcome could sway the balance of power in AI — breakthrough technology that is increasingly being feared as a potential job killer and an existential threat to humanity’s survival.

Those perceived risks are among the reasons that Musk, the world’s richest person, cites for filing an August 2024 lawsuit that will now be decided by a jury and U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California.

The civil lawsuit accuses Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, and his top lieutenant, Greg Brockman, of double-crossing Musk by straying from the San Francisco company’s founding mission to be an altruistic steward of a revolutionary technology. The lawsuit alleges they shifted into a moneymaking mode behind his back.

OpenAI has brushed off Musk’s allegations as an unfounded case of sour grapes that’s aimed at undercutting its rapid growth and bolstering Musk’s own xAI, which he launched in 2023 as a competitor.

Trial promises clashing testimony from two tech titans

Musk, who invested about $38 million in OpenAI from December 2015 through May 2017, initially was seeking more than $100 billion in damages.

But any damages now are likely to be much smaller after a series of pre-trial rulings that went against Musk. Musk has since abandoned a bid for damages for himself and instead is seeking an unspecified amount of money to be paid to fund the altruistic efforts of OpenAI’s charitable arm. The money would be paid primarily by OpenAI’s for-profit operations, and Microsoft, which became the company’s biggest investor after Musk cut off his funding.

Musk’s lawsuit also seeks Altman’s ouster from OpenAI’s board. Musk’s decision to stop funding the company contributed to a bitter falling out between the former allies. Musk says he was responding to deceptive conduct that OpenAI’s board picked up on when it fired Altman as CEO in 2023 before he got his job back days later.

But the trial also carries risks for Musk, who last month was held liable by another jury for defrauding investors during his $44 billion takeover of Twitter in 2022. Any damaging details about Musk and his business tactics could be particularly hurtful now because his rocket ship maker, SpaceX, plans to go public this summer in an initial public offering that could make him the world’s first trillionaire.

However it turns out, the trial is expected to provide riveting theater, with contrasting testimony from two of technology’s most influential and polarizing figures in the 54-year-old Musk and the 41-year-old Altman.

“Part of this is about whether a jury believes the people who will testify and whether they are credible,” Gonzalez Rogers said during a court hearing earlier this year while explaining why she believe the case merited a trial. The judge will make the final decision on the case, with the jury serving in an advisory role.

Evidence has included glimpses of the AI race’s early days

Musk, whose estimated fortune stands at about $780 billion, has long been hailed as a visionary for his roles creating digital payment pioneer PayPal, electric automaker Tesla and rocket ship maker SpaceX. But he has also provoked backlashes with his social media commentary, unfulfilled promises about Tesla’s self-driving technology and his cost-cutting role last year in President Donald Trump’s administration.

Some of Musk’s erratic behavior has been tied to allegations of taking hallucinogenic drugs, but Gonzalez Rogers ruled that he can’t be asked during the trial about his suspected use of ketamine. But the judge is allowing Musk to be questioned about his attendance at the 2017 Burning Man festival in Nevada, a free-wheeling celebration known for widespread drug use. The judge is also allowing Musk to be questioned about his relationship with former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis, the mother of several of his children.

Altman, currently sitting on a roughly $3 billion fortune, didn’t emerge in the public consciousness until the late 2022 release of ChatGPT. The tech boom triggered by that conversational chatbot has led some to liken Altman to a 21st-century version of the nuclear bomb inventor, J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Although Altman was initially hailed as trailblazer he is now facing blowback amid worries about AI’s potential dangers. Earlier this month, the New Yorker magazine published a profile that painted him as an unscrupulous executive. Days later, a 20-year-old man worried about AI’s effect on humanity was arrested on attempted murder charges after throwing a Molotov cocktail at Altman’s San Francisco home.

The dueling testimonies of Altman and Musk are expected to open a window into some of the thinking that helped trigger the AI race, as well as the unraveling of their friendship. The kinship was forged in 2015 when they agreed to build AI in a more responsible and safer way than the profit-driven companies controlled by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, according to evidence submitted ahead of the trial.

Details of the bitter break between the two men were captured in a February 2023 email exchange that surfaced as part of the evidence leading up to the trial.

After letting Musk know “you’re my hero,” Altman tells him: “I am tremendously thankful for everything you’ve done to help —I don’t think OpenAI would have happened without you — and it really (expletive) hurts when you publicly attack OpenAI.”

Musk’s response: “I hear you and it is certainly not my intention to be hurtful, for which I apologize, but the fate of civilization is at stake.”

General manager Nicola Colabianchi cited Beatrice Venezi’s “repeated and serious public statements that were offensive and harmful” to the theater and its orchestra for the decision to cancel future collaboration, the theater’s foundation said Sunday.

Italy’s Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said that he hoped the move would “clear misunderstandings, tensions and manipulations,” that had surrounded Venezi’s selection.

Musicians, singers and backstage hands had vociferously opposed her appointment, citing a lack of transparency and lack of experience necessary to lead the theater.

Their escalating protests included a strike that forced the cancellation of a performance and a march through Venice joined by workers from other opera houses, reflecting concerns of political interference in artistic decisions.

The audience and orchestra erupted in applause during a performance Sunday night at the news that Venezi’s appointment had been blocked, according to video circulated by Italian media.

Colabianchi, who appointed Venezi on Sept. 22, initially defended the move, saying her youth and dynamism would attract a younger audience to the theater. Giuli had also supported the move.

Venezi, 36, was appointed as an adviser to the culture minister after Meloni came to power in 2022. She previously was principal conductor of the Nuova Orchestra Scarlatti Young and guest conductor of the Orchestra della Toscana, and has conducted internationally, including in Armenia, Uruguay and Argentina.

The deal comes as New Delhi moves to diversify export markets to offset the impact of steep tariffs imposed by the United States and instability in shipping and energy routes due to the Iran war. For New Zealand, the agreement is part of a broader push to reduce reliance on China, its largest trading partner.

The agreement was signed in New Delhi by India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and visiting New Zealand Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay.

Negotiated over nine months and agreed in December, the deal will cut or eliminate tariffs on 95% of New Zealand’s exports to India, while making all Indian exports to New Zealand duty-free. Wellington has also committed to invest $20 billion in India over the next 15 years.

McClay said the deal marked a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to deepen economic ties at a time of rising global trade tensions and uncertainty. India is New Zealand’s 12th-largest export market, with bilateral trade valued at $2.15 billion in the year through June 2025, according to official data.

“This agreement is also being concluded at a time of heightened global and regional uncertainty. In this context, strong, reliable partnerships matter more than ever before,” McClay said.

Goyal called the deal a “defining milestone” and said India and New Zealand had “chosen each other” at a time ”when the world economy is being recast.” He said the agreement offers market access across sectors and creates frameworks for investment and regulatory cooperation.

Indian sectors expected to see expanded market access include textiles and apparel, engineering goods, leather and footwear, and marine products. New Zealand is likely to register increased exports in horticulture, timber, coal, wool and meat.

India has excluded dairy and certain agricultural products from the deal to protect its farming sector.

Indian exporters have been under pressure from higher U.S. tariffs since August last year, particularly in labor-intensive sectors such as textiles, auto components and metals, even as New Delhi continues negotiations with Washington on a separate bilateral agreement.

New Zealand’s trade deals are usually bipartisan. The agreement now requires ratification by parliament and is expected to pass after the opposition New Zealand Labour Party backed it, despite resistance from coalition partner and populist minor party New Zealand First.

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Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike killed two people in the Russia-occupied part of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, Moscow-installed Gov. Vladimir Saldo said Monday. A man and a woman in their 70s died in the village of Dnipriany, he said.

In Odesa, drones hit residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, said Serhii Lysak, the head of the city’s administration. Russia has repeatedly targeted Odesa, a key Black Sea port for Ukraine, since Moscow launched the war more than four years ago on Feb. 24, 2022.

Five of the wounded, most of them with shrapnel wounds, were hospitalized, according to Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Russia has fired approximately 1,900 attack drones, nearly 1,400 powerful guided aerial bombs and around 60 missiles of various types at Ukraine over the past week.

Ukraine’s wartime development of cutting-edge military technology means that it's intercepting more than 90% of the drones that Russia launches, Zelenskyy said in an X post. However, Ukraine needs more American-made Patriot air defense missiles, which are able to shoot down Russia’s ballistic missiles.

Ukraine has recently been helping Middle Eastern and Gulf region countries, which are countering attacks on their territory by Iranian drones, with know-how during the Iran war.

Norway is the latest European country to enter into a joint drone manufacturing agreement with Kyiv, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Monday.

In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that his government plans a “drone armada” with Ukraine’s help, to defend both itself and Europe.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, on a visit to Warsaw, said that Ukraine has evolved from being a recipient of foreign military aid to a country that can offer state of the art military solutions.

“We are able to destroy tanks, destroy expensive systems and drones, it is our reality,” she said, according to the Polish press agency PAP. “A number of the systems that we’re using are produced in Ukraine. I think we have made a big leap here.”

Zelenskyy noted a recent raft of good news for Ukraine: NATO partners, excluding the United States, have contributed to a financial arrangement to buy American weapons, the European Union has approved a 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) loan to Ukraine, and the EU intends to place more sanctions on Moscow.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has been assailing oil terminals and refineries deep inside Russia with long-range drones and missiles, aiming to disrupt Moscow’s economy.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said late Sunday it has seen geolocated evidence that Ukrainian forces conducted at least 10 strikes against Russian oil and gas infrastructure in the past two weeks.

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Claudia Ciobanu contributed to this report from Warsaw, Poland.

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

In a one-line statement, China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top planning agency, said it was prohibiting a foreign acquisition of Manus and had required all the parties to withdraw from the deal. It did not specifically name Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram.

The decision was made by the commission’s Office of the Working Mechanism for Security Review of Foreign Investment in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations, the statement said. It came after Chinese authorities said they were looking into the deal earlier this year.

The commission did not elaborate on the reasons for the ban. The announcement came less than a month before U.S. President Donald Trump's planned visit to Beijing to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in May, in a sign that China's communist leaders are tightening scrutiny of the AI industry amid intensifying geopolitical rivalry with the U.S. over the technology.

Meta announced in December that it was acquiring Manus, which has Chinese roots but is based in Singapore, in a rare case of a major U.S. tech group buying an AI company with strong links to China. Its deal with Manus, whose “general-purpose” AI agent can perform multistep complex work autonomously, was expected to help expand AI offerings across Meta’s platforms.

Meta had said there would be “no continuing Chinese ownership interests in Manus” and that Manus would discontinue its services and operations in China. But China said in January that it would investigate whether the acquisition would be consistent with its laws and regulations.

China’s commerce ministry said at the time that any enterprises engaging in outward investment, technology exports, data transfers and cross-border acquisitions must comply with Chinese law. Meta had said most of Manus’ employees were based in Singapore.

Manus did not respond to a request for comment. Its website says the company “is now part of Meta," indicating that the deal had already been completed.

Meta said on Monday that the Manus transaction “complied fully with applicable law.”

“We anticipate an appropriate resolution to the inquiry,” the California-based company said in a statement.

Singapore-based Butterfly Effect Pte was the firm behind Manus ahead of the acquisition. But the AI startup traces its roots back to Beijing-registered entities which were established several years ago.

“China is showing the world that it is willing to play hardball when it comes to AI talents and capabilities, which the country views as a core national security asset,” said Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at the technology research and advisory group Omdia. “It is strongly indicative of what Chinese authorities may do going forward regarding acquisitions involving Chinese deep-tech companies.”

Beijing’s acquisition ban could deter similar acquisition plans by U.S. tech giants going forward, he said. “In the context of rivalry, it mirrors U.S. export controls, entity lists, and investment curbs on China,” said Su.

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Chan reported in London.

Tokyo Electron was also fined 150 million new Taiwan dollars ($4.8 million) and four other people were sentenced to up to six years in jail.

The heavy sentencing under Taiwan’s national security act and other statutes underscores Taiwan's efforts to protect the self-ruled island’s advanced technology and semiconductor sector, which are vital for its export-oriented economy as artificial intelligence booms.

TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., is one of the world’s most valuable companies and counts Nvidia and Apple as key customers.

In handing down the 10-year sentence at Taiwan’s Intellectual Property and Commercial Court, Judge Chang Ming-huang said Chen Li-ming, who worked at TSMC before moving to Tokyo Electron's subsidiary in Taiwan, was believed to have used his relationships with his former TSMC colleagues to illegally access and collect the chip maker's trade secrets.

Chen photographed, copied and passed along the materials to help Tokyo-based Tokyo Electron improve its bids as a TSMC supplier, according to the court.

Chen's motivation was mainly to “improve his personal work performance,” Chang said, but he jeopardized the competitiveness and economic security of Taiwan and its chipmaking industry.

Taiwan’s prosecutors indicted Chen and others in August on alleged trade secret theft. Tokyo Electron said in a statement at the time it had dismissed an employee involved in the case but also said its internal investigation had not confirmed evidence of the relevant confidential information being leaked.

The Japanese company said Monday that it takes “the court’s finding with the utmost seriousness” and will strengthen its "information management systems and other relevant measures.” But it stressed that the court and its own probe had not found any organizational involvement by Tokyo Electron.

TSMC said in a response that it “maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward any actions that compromise the protection of trade secrets or harm the company’s interests” and that such kinds of violations “are dealt with strictly and pursued to the full extent of the law.”

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Chan reported from Hong Kong.

Isle Royale is a 134,000-acre (54,200-hectare) national park in far western Lake Superior between Grand Marais, Minnesota, and Thunder Bay, Canada. The island is a natural laboratory, offering scientists a rare opportunity to observe wolves and moose largely free from human influence.

Researchers have conducted wolf and moose population surveys on the island since 1958. The surveys had been an annual winter event when the roadless island is closed to visitors, but researchers have run into obstacles in recent years.

The pandemic in 2021 forced scientists to cancel the survey for the first time. The National Park Service ordered researchers to evacuate the island during their 2024 winter survey after weeks of unusually warm weather left the ice surrounding the island unsafe for ski-plane landings. Researchers rely on the planes for easier wildlife tracking but the island has no runway, forcing them to land on iced-over Lake Superior. Things didn't go much better last year when researchers were forced to scrap the effort after their pilot suffered a last-minute medical issue.

But this year a team of researchers led by scientists from Michigan Tech University were able to conduct a survey from Jan. 22 through March 3. Findings from the survey led them to estimate the island's wolf population at 37 animals. Data scientists gathered before they evacuated in 2024 survey showed the population at 30.

The 2026 estimates are the highest since the late 1970s and represent a marked improvement since the population dwindled to just two wolves a decade ago. Researchers believe inbreeding led to depressed survival rates in pups.

The island's moose population, though, is declining dramatically. This year's survey put the population at 524 moose, down 75% from a high of 2,000 in 2019. Wolves likely killed almost a quarter of the moose population over the last year, scientists estimated. For the first time in almost 70 years, researchers observed no moose calves during the winter survey.

Sarah Hoy, a Michigan Tech researcher who specializes in predator-prey interactions and one of the survey's co-leaders, said scientists had to brave wind chills that dipped to minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 45.5 Celsius) and it was difficult to keep warm with the woodstoves in their cabins.

But clear skies facilitated exceptional observations. The scientists spotted wolves on all but one survey flight, she said. One of the highlights was watching a pack snuggle up together on the ice on Valentine's Day, she said.

“It's always such a privilege to get to see wolves interacting, witnessing courtship behavior, pups playfully tugging on each other's tails, or a pack working together to take down a moose,” she said.

Scientists plan to conduct summer research on the island with an eye toward how the burgeoning wolf packs can maintain balance with the rest of the ecosystem.

Now, her stove is often cold as she crouches over a charcoal burner, coaxing a smoky fire to cook for her family outside her tin-roofed home in Kibera in Kenya's capital Nairobi, one of Africa’s largest informal settlements. Cooking gas is too expensive and often unavailable. Charcoal is always there.

“We don’t have many options,” she said. “You use what you can afford.”

Stories like hers are becoming more common because of the energy disruptions caused by the Iran war. Governments had promoted cleaner fuels like LPG for health and conservation reasons, but rising costs are undermining those gains.

The impacts are spreading beyond gas pumps to kitchens, forests, and wildlife habitats. Across Africa and South Asia, governments have spent years trying to shift households away from burning charcoal and firewood to cleaner fuels like liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG.

That push was driven by concerns over risks from air pollution, which killed 2.9 million people in 2021, according to the World Health Organization. But it also was focused on conservation, since use of firewood or charcoal increases pressure on forests and wildlife. Cutting trees faster than they grow back accelerates deforestation.

As more people search for fuel in the forest, they are encountering wildlife. At the same time, economic pressures can drive more poaching and bushmeat hunting, increasing the chance of diseases spreading from animals to people. Falling tourism means less funding for conservation, while high fuel costs make it harder for field teams to operate and respond quickly when wild animals enter human areas.

“The longer this debacle runs, the harder it is going to hit conservation,” said Mayukh Chatterjee, the International Union for Conservation of Nature's co-chair for its conflict and co-existence specialist group.

Rising costs push families into forests for fuel

When LPG, kerosene or electricity become too expensive or unreliable, many families turn to firewood and charcoal because they are easier to get in cash-poor settings, even though they harm the environment, said Paula Kahumbu, a wildlife conservationist, and CEO of Nairobi-based WildlifeDirect.

"The first conservation risk from an energy shock in Africa is not abstract. It is household fuel switching,” she said.

Rising demand for biomass fuels also degrades watersheds and wildlife habitats as people go deeper into previously undisturbed areas, increasing pressure on ecosystems and the species that depend on them.

Experts fear that rising diesel prices and higher fertilizer costs will also hurt farm productivity, reducing yields and increasing food insecurity.

“The crisis is impacting more than forests,” Kahumbu said.

Charcoal, made by slowly burning wood in kilns, is one of the most widely used cooking fuels in sub-Saharan Africa and a major driver of deforestation. Demand is climbing among customers in Nairobi’s low-income settlements, according to charcoal seller Munyao Kitheka.

A similar shift is underway in India, the world’s second-largest LPG importer, with about 60% of its supply coming from the Gulf region, according to S&P Global.

Rama, a social worker who goes by only one name, spent years encouraging waste-picking families in Bhalswa, a poor neighborhood in the outskirts of the capital New Delhi, to adopt LPG. But with incomes below $3 a day, many can no longer afford pricier LPG cylinders and are reverting to stoves that burn firewood, or returning to villages where wood is easier to find.

“Things are very, very bad,” she said.

The shift places a heavier burden on women and girls who end up spending hours each day hunting for fuel, limiting their time for work or school, said Neha Saigal, a consultant with the environmental and social justice startup Asar Social Impact Advisors.

“Years of work went into making LPG aspirational. But a global issue like this can reverse some of those gains,” she said.

Reducing pressure on habitats by reducing fuelwood use has been central to conservation efforts in Asia, said Chatterjee, the conservationist. He cited an elephant conservation project in India's northeastern Assam state where eateries had reduced wood use, but warned those gains could unravel as households shift back from LPG, which is produced from refining oil or natural gas.

“That all risks going back to square one,” he said.

Broader ripple effects on conservation

Experts warn that the war in Iran and the resulting fuel shocks can strain funding and disrupts field operations, hindering global conservation.

Airlines are cutting routes to Africa, potentially hitting tourism as rising fuel prices raise travel costs. Disruptions to aviation routes through Middle Eastern hubs make access to some destinations more difficult.

Even a modest drop in visitor numbers can have outsized effects in countries that rely on wildlife tourism to fund protected areas.

Tourism contributes about 14% of the GDP in countries like Kenya and Tanzania, where it underpins park management, anti-poaching patrols, and community conservation initiatives.

“Less tourism means less income for conservation initiatives, fewer rangers and more opportunistic poaching," Kahumbu said, adding that rising food and fuel costs could also push more people toward bushmeat as an affordable source of protein, increasing pressure on wildlife populations.

Moreover, conservation work in remote areas requires extensive and regular travel, often by motorbike or other vehicles. Higher fuel prices can disrupt that movement.

Chatterjee pointed out that in cases of conflict between wildlife and people in South Asia, rapid deployment of forest staff and conservation teams is critical to secure the area, manage crowds, and safely guide or tranquilize animals before situations escalate.

Delays increase the risk of injury or death on both sides, and fuel shortages can slow response times.

African governments have options to cushion the impact, but action has often lagged. Kahumbu called for protecting households from reverting to polluting fuels through targeted subsidies and stronger local supply chains and by backing local energy sources such as biogas, solar, and geothermal.

“Treat conservation as essential infrastructure during economic shocks,” she said.

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Ghosal reported from Hanoi, Vietnam.

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

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This version corrects the name of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and corrects to say India is the world’s second-largest LPG importer.

That news could have come from any of three major markets.

The Red Sox actually took two of three at Baltimore, but they're still in last place in their division at 11-17. The New York Mets have been even worse, scoring one run Sunday while getting swept in a home doubleheader against lowly Colorado. The Mets have lost 15 of 17 to fall to 9-19.

And they actually have company in the NL East cellar, because the Philadelphia Phillies have dropped 11 of 12 and have the same 9-19 record.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was still employed as of Sunday night, and so was Philadelphia's Rob Thomson. And all three of these big-market teams can take solace in the notion that it's hard to play your way out of contention before the end of April — if you have enough talent to recover.

Right now, FanGraphs still gives the Red Sox a 34% chance of making the playoffs, and the Phillies and Mets each a 33% chance. That means there's a decent shot one of those three teams will turn it around and reach the postseason.

But so far this season has been dire for each of them. The Mets and Phillies have the two worst run differentials in baseball, and New York will be without shortstop Francisco Lindor for at least a few weeks because of a calf injury. That won't help an offense that has scored the fewest runs in baseball.

Ace Zack Wheeler finally made his 2026 debut for Philadelphia on Saturday, and the Phillies snapped a 10-game skid, but a loss Sunday dropped them to 10 1/2 games behind first-place Atlanta.

The Red Sox are a little closer to first place, trailing the Yankees by only seven, but their run differential (minus-11) looks tolerable only because of a 17-1 win Saturday in which the Orioles brought in a position player to pitch during a 10-run ninth inning.

The next month is critical for these three teams. If they keep playing like this through Memorial Day, then it really might be too late to come back.

Trivia time

Both the lowest batting average in the National League and the highest ERA — among qualifying players — belong to members of the Phillies. Who are they?

Unfriendly schedule

The Milwaukee Brewers had to face each of last year's Cy Young Award winners in back-to-back games Thursday and Friday. Tarik Skubal took the mound for Detroit against Milwaukee, and the Tigers eventually won 5-4 on a home run by Spencer Torkelson. Then Paul Skenes took a perfect game into the seventh against the Brewers in a game Pittsburgh won 6-0.

Slugfests

The most surprising pitchers' duel of the week may have occurred Sunday, when the Nationals and White Sox played nine scoreless innings before Washington won 2-1 in 10. The Nationals are averaging 5.38 runs per game, the fourth-most in the major leagues. They've allowed 5.9, the second-most in baseball. Washington was actually leading the majors in both runs scored and runs allowed entering Wednesday's action.

The pitching was expected to be bad. The offense has made the team watchable thanks to James Wood (10 homers), CJ Abrams (.897 OPS) and a good start from Joey Wiemer (.320 average).

In 14 of Washington's 29 games, at least one team has scored eight runs.

Performance of the week

Milwaukee's Kyle Harrison struck out 12 in six one-hit innings in Sunday's 5-0 win over Pittsburgh. That prevented the Pirates from sweeping a series at Milwaukee for the first time since 2016.

Comeback of the week

Kansas City was down by three with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth before rallying to tie it Sunday against the Los Angeles Angels. The Royals eventually won 11-9 in 10 innings.

The Angels actually led 6-0 in the fifth, and it was 8-5 in the ninth before a triple by Vinnie Pasquantino, an RBI single by Salvador Perez and a two-run homer by Jac Caglianone sent the game to extra innings. Kansas City's win probability had been 0.5%, according to Baseball Savant.

The Royals were down to their last out again in the 10th when Lane Thomas' three-run homer won it.

Trivia answer

Alec Bohm is batting .143, and Jesús Luzardo has a 6.91 ERA.

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

Jeffrey Viel tied it with 6:29 left in regulation for the Ducks, who rallied from an early two-goal deficit and another third-period hole before taking a 3-1 series lead with their third consecutive victory over the back-to-back Western Conference champion Oilers.

The Ducks completed their NHL-best 10th multi-goal comeback of the season when Poehling’s sharp-angled shot hit an Edmonton skate in front and reluctantly trickled under goalie Tristan Jarry, who had played well in his first playoff start for his new team. Poehling celebrated immediately, even though he wasn't totally sure the game was over.

“I thought I saw some white (between the puck and the goal line) when I was behind the net,” Poehling said. “Then everyone was celebrating. Did it go in? I'm like, ‘I think so?’ But yeah, I thought so right away."

An extensive video review revealed no reason to overturn the judgment on the ice that the puck had barely crossed the goal line underneath Jarry’s skate. Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch was unconvinced.

“I can’t see it going in,” Knoblauch said. “I can’t see the line. ... The (initial) goal call on the ice was probably about 60 to 90 seconds after (the shot), maybe even more. They huddled when they got to center ice and then they made the (initial) call that it was a good goal. I don’t know. Wasn’t very definitive.”

Game 5 is Tuesday night in Edmonton.

Cutter Gauthier and Mikael Granlund scored power-play goals in the second period for the Ducks, who have scored 20 goals in four games to begin their team's first Stanley Cup playoff series in eight years. Lukas Dostal stopped 24 shots and made a pair of spectacular saves on McDavid in the final minutes.

“We're just playing so connected right now, and we're doing a good job of doing the right things,” said Anaheim defenseman Jackson LaCombe, who leads the NHL in postseason scoring with eight points after recording two assists in Game 4. “We're all just feeling great, and I think we're all competing to the best of our ability, and it's just paying off right now.”

Evan Bouchard scored a tiebreaking goal early in the third period and Jarry made 34 saves for the Oilers. Kasperi Kapanen and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored first-period goals.

Edmonton nearly won it late in regulation, but Dostal made a sprawling pad save to deny McDavid on a late breakaway — and Dostal added another big stuff of McDavid in the final minute. The Oilers’ superstar center, who is suspected to be dealing with an injury, had two assists in Game 4.

Jarry struggled for Edmonton right after arriving in a midseason trade with Pittsburgh, losing his job to Connor Ingram. But with the Oilers struggling mightily to stop the fast, exciting Ducks, Knoblauch made the switch and got a solid effort from Jarry, who hadn’t played since April 8.

The Oilers also improved their defensive structure after a shambolic Game 3 – and yet the energetic, hungry Ducks still pumped in four more goals despite never leading.

Kapanen silenced the raucous sellout crowd at Honda Center 38 seconds after the opening faceoff with his fourth goal in four games. Nugent-Hopkins then scored just Edmonton’s second power-play goal of the series.

The Ducks began yet another comeback with vicious wrist shot from Gauthier, their 22-year-old top scorer. Anaheim’s once-awful power play has scored in eight consecutive games.

Granlund and Leo Carlsson then teamed up for a fluid give-and-go to tie it.

Bouchard ripped a wrist shot for a tiebreaking goal just 4 seconds into an Oilers power play, but the Ducks’ fourth line tied it again, with Viel punching home a rebound of John Carlson’s shot for his second career playoff goal.

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

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

The Rockets got their first win in the series after falling into an 0-3 hole despite missing Kevin Durant for a third game thanks to a balanced scoring attack. Durant sat out a second straight game with a sprained left ankle after missing Game 1 with a bruised right knee.

Houston’s entire starting lineup scored at least 16 points with Alperen Sengun adding 19, Reed Sheppard 17 and Jabari Smith Jr. 16.

The Lakers were led by Deandre Ayton, who had 19 points and 10 rebounds before being ejected with about 5½ minutes left in the third quarter for a flagrant foul 2 on a hit to Sengun’s head. His output wasn’t nearly enough to allow the Lakers to close the series out on a night when LeBron James didn’t have his best game.

He had 10 points on 2-of-9 shooting with nine assists and eight turnovers before sitting with about 7½ minutes to go after scoring 19, 28 and 29 points in the first three games. But he wasn’t the only Laker who struggled. Los Angeles made just five 3-pointers after combining for 35 through the first three games.

James was 0 for 3 from long range, Marcus Smart missed both of his attempts and Luke Kennard was 0 for 3.

Houston looked good from the start in this one after squandering a six-point lead in the final 26 seconds of regulation in a devastating 112-108 overtime loss Friday night.

The Rockets led by nine at halftime and used a 12-4 run to start the third and make it 68-51 with about 8½ minutes to go in the quarter.

Sheppard had two 3-pointers in that stretch and Thompson added four points.

The Rockets led by 19 later in the quarter before going on a 9-3 run to end the quarter and push the lead to 90-65 entering the fourth.

Houston led by 23 with about 7½ minutes remaining when coach JJ Redick cleared the Lakers' bench.

Ayton was ejected with about 5½ minutes left in the third quarter after receiving a flagrant foul 2 for hitting Sengun in the face with his elbow and forearm. The referee announcing the foul called the contact “unnecessary and excessive.”

Durant was on the bench Sunday night to support his team after he was absent Friday night because coach Ime Udoka said he was receiving treatment on his injured ankle.

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

But the rise of artificial intelligence has scrambled those calculations. The basic skills she was learning in things like statistical analysis and coding can now easily be automated. “Everyone has a fear that entry-level jobs will be taken by AI,” said the 20-year-old at Miami University in Ohio.

A few weeks ago, Timperman switched her major to marketing. Her new strategy is to use her undergraduate studies to build critical thinking and interpersonal skills — areas where humans still have an edge.

“You don’t just want to be able to code. You want to be able to have a conversation, form relationships and be able to think critically, because at the end of the day, that’s the thing that AI can’t replace,” said Timperman, who is keeping analytics as a minor and plans to dive deeper into the subject for a one-year master’s program.

Today’s college students say that picking a major that’s “AI-proof” feels like shooting at a moving target as they prepare for a job market that could be fundamentally different by the time they graduate.

As a result, many are reconsidering their career paths. About 70% of college students see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a 2025 poll by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, while recent Gallup polling finds U.S. workers are increasingly concerned about being replaced by new technologies.

Students seeking majors that teach ‘human’ skills

The uncertainty appears most concentrated among those pursuing degrees in technology and vocational areas of study, where students feel a need to develop expertise in AI but also fear being replaced by it. A recent Quinnipiac poll found the vast majority of Americans believe it’s “very” or “somewhat” important for college and university students to be taught how to use AI, as Gallup Workforce polling finds AI is getting adopted in technology-related fields at higher rates. Meanwhile, students studying healthcare and natural sciences may be less impacted by AI overhauls, Gallup found.

“We see students all the time change majors. That’s not new or different. But it’s usually for a ton of different reasons,” said Courtney Brown, a vice president at Lumina, an education nonprofit focused on increasing the number of students who seek education beyond high school. “The fact that so many students say it’s because of AI — that is startling.”

A recent Gallup poll of Generation Z youth and adults, between the ages of 14 and 29, found increasing skepticism and concerns about AI. Although half of Gen Z adults use AI at least “weekly,” and teenagers report higher use, many in this generation see drawbacks to the technology and worry about AI's impact on their cognitive abilities and job prospects. About half — 48% — of Gen Z workers say the risks of AI in the workforce outweigh the possible benefits.

Part of the challenge for college students is that the experts they would typically turn to for advice, like advisers, professors and parents, don’t have any answers. “Students are having to navigate this on their own, without a GPS,” says Brown.

That uncertainty was evident last month at Stanford University, where the leaders of several prominent universities gathered for a wide-ranging panel discussion on the future of higher education. Topics of concern included the AI revolution that is transforming how students learn and forcing educators to rethink pedagogy.

“We need to think really hard about what students need to learn to be successful in the job market in 10, 20, 30 years,” said Brown University President Christina Paxson.

“And none of us know. We don’t know the answer to that,” Paxson said. “I think it’s communication, it’s critical thought. The fundamentals of a liberal education are probably more important than learning how to code in Java right now.”

Anxiety also reaches computer science majors

Computer science major Ben Aybar, 22, graduated last spring from the University of Chicago and applied for about 50 jobs, mostly in software engineering, without getting a single interview. He pivoted to a master’s degree in computer science and meanwhile has found part-time work doing AI consulting for companies.

“People who know how to use AI will be very valuable,” said Aybar, who sees new jobs emerging that require AI skills, particularly for people who can explain the complexities in layman's terms. “Being able to talk to people and interact with people in a very human way I think is more valuable than ever.”

At the University of Virginia, data science major Ava Lawless is wondering if her major is worthwhile but can’t get concrete answers. Some advisers feel that data scientists will be safe because they’re the ones building AI models, but she keeps seeing gloomy job reports that indicate the contrary.

“It makes me feel a bit hopeless for the future,” Lawless said. “What if by the time I graduate there’s not even a job market for this anymore?”

She is considering switching to studio art, which is her minor.

“I’m at a point where I’m thinking if I can’t get a job being a data scientist, I might as well pursue art,” she said. “Because if I’m going to be unemployed, I might as well do something I love.”

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

The case contends that the Democratic-led General Assembly violated procedural requirements by placing the constitutional amendment before voters to authorize mid-decade redistricting. If the court agrees that lawmakers broke the rules, it could invalidate the amendment and render last week's statewide vote meaningless.

The Virginia court proceedings mark the latest twist in a national redistricting battle between Republicans and Democrats seeking an advantage in a November election that will determine whether Republicans maintain their narrow majority in the U.S. House.

President Donald Trump urged Texas Republicans to redraw districts to their favor last year in an attempt to win several additional House seats. That set off a chain reaction of similar moves in other states, leading to the voter approval last week of Virginia's new map.

Next up is Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has included congressional redistricting on the agenda for a special session of the GOP-controlled Legislature beginning Tuesday.

On Sunday, Trump said he was in favor of the Florida attempt and criticized the Virginia amendment that was pushed by Democrats.

“It’s a very bad thing for our country. Very, very bad,” he told Fox News Channel’s "The Sunday Briefing."

So far, the two major parties have battled to a near draw. Republicans think they could win up to nine more seats under revised districts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Democrats think they could win as many as 10 additional seats under new districts in California, Utah and Virginia. But legal challenges remain in both Virginia and Missouri.

Virginia currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans who were elected from districts imposed by a court after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census. The new districts, which narrowly won voter approval last Tuesday, could give Democrats an improved chance to win 10 districts.

At issue before the state Supreme Court is whether those districts should be invalidated because of the process used by lawmakers.

Because the state's redistricting commission was established by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, lawmakers had to propose a new constitutional amendment to redraw districts themselves. That required approval of a resolution in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election sandwiched in between, to place an amendment on the ballot.

In January, a judge in rural Tazewell County, in southwestern Virginia, ruled that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session last fall. Circuit Judge Jack Hurley Jr. also ruled that lawmakers failed to initially approve the amendment before the public began voting in last year’s general election and that the state had failed to publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by law. As a result, he said, the amendment is invalid and void.

The Virginia Supreme Court placed Hurley's order on hold and allowed the redistricting vote to proceed before hearing arguments on the case. Republicans have filed at least two additional legal challenges, which also are winding their way through the courts.

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Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press reporter Allen G. Breed contributed.

Iran also wants the United States to end its blockade of the country as part of its proposal, according to the two regional officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.

Oil prices were up Monday as a standoff between the U.S. and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz remained despite a ceasefire, while Pakistan leaders were seeking to revive stalled talks between the two countries.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Russia Monday for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin as part of a trip that included two stops in Pakistan and a visit to Oman, which shares the strait with the Islamic Republic.

Pakistan-led mediators are working to bridge significant gaps between the U.S. and Iran, according to a regional official involved in the mediation efforts who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

U.S. President Donald Trump canceled plans for his top envoys to travel to Islamabad this weekend for negotiations after Iran insisted the U.S. should end its blockade of Iranian ports before new talks can take place.

Early Monday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it has so far turned around 38 ships during the blockade.

Here is the latest:

Tired and worried, seafarers have been stranded in the Persian Gulf for weeks

Around 20,000 seafarers on hundreds of vessels, including oil and gas tankers and cargo ships, have been stuck in the Gulf, unable to cross the Strait of Hormuz. Normally about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas transits the waterway.

Roughly 80 vessels passed through the strait in the week of April 13-19, according to the maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence, compared to approximately 130 or more transits per day before the war. Dozens of ships have come under attack since the war started, and the U.N. says at least 10 seafarers were killed.

Even as U.S. President Donald Trump last week extended the ceasefire indefinitely, the U.S. kept the blockade of Iranian ports. In response, Iran fired on ships in the strait and seized two.

▶ Read more

Israel and Iran spent less on defense in 2025 than 2024, tracker says

Military spending in the Middle East plateaued in 2025, even as it climbed in other parts of the world, according to a report released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The think tank, which goes by the acronym SPRI, said regionwide spending increased 0.1% but actually fell in both Israel and Iran.

Israel’s military spending fell 4.9% to $48.3 billion, reflecting a less intense year of fighting than in 2024 after it entered ceasefires in Lebanon in November 2024 and in Gaza in October 2025. Even as large-scale combat subsided, Israel continued carrying out lethal strikes and maintained a ground presence in both. Spending remains sharply elevated — up 97% compared with 2022 — and the war has strained public finances, with Israel reporting wider deficits and increased borrowing since it began.

Iran’s spending fell 5.6% to $7.4 billion. SIPRI attributed that to inflation and broader economic strain, though researchers warned that government reports are likely understated.

“Iran also uses off-budget oil revenues to finance its military, including the production of missiles and drones,” SIPRI researcher Zubaida Karim said.

Lebanon president blasts Hezbollah for rejecting talks

Lebanon President Joseph Aoun blasted militant group Hezbollah on Monday over its rejection of direct talks with Israel.

Lebanon’s decision to hold negotiations with Israel is not “treason,” Aoun said in a statement, adding that treason is when “someone takes the country to war to achieve foreign interests.”

Harshly criticizing Hezbollah without naming it, Aoun asked whether there was a “national accord” when the Iran-backed group took Lebanon to war last month.

Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel on March 2, two days after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. The fighting has killed over 2,500 people, wounded more than 7,000 and displaced over 1 million people.

Aoun asked how long people in south Lebanon will pay for the wars of other nations or groups, “the latest of which was the war for backing up Gaza and the war for backing up Iran.”

“I totally reject this war” when the goal is to benefit others, he said.

Aoun said he wants to end the state of war with Israel in the manner of the 1949 Armistice Agreements that brought calm along the border for years without normalizing relations.

“Was the armistice agreement humiliation? I will not accept reaching a humiliating deal,” Aoun said.

French airline Transavia cancels flights over fuel costs

Transavia France said late Sunday it is canceling some flights in May and June because of rising fuel costs.

The low-cost airline, part of the Air France-KLM group, said in a statement “the current geopolitical context in the Middle East and its repercussions on the price of aviation fuel” forced the cancellations.

French media reported the cancellations represented less than 2% of the company’s May and June flight program.

Transavia said affected passengers would be able to choose between a voucher, full refund or free rebooking, which will be offered within 24 hours for the majority of canceled flights.

China opposes US sanction on oil refinery

China said Monday it opposed a decision by the United States to sanction one of its refineries for purchasing Iranian crude oil shipments.

The U.S. announced Friday it would sanction Hengli Petrochemicals in China’s northeastern port city of Dalian.

The measure blocks the company and others that transport Iranian oil from accessing the U.S. financial system.

Hengli Petrochemicals is among dozens of Chinese buyers of Iran’s oil. China is Iran’s largest overall oil customer.

“China always opposes illegal unilateral sanctions that lack a basis in international law and urges the U.S. to stop its wrong practices of abusing sanctions and exercising long-arm jurisdiction,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian said.

“We will firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” Lin said.

World’s largest condom company raising prices due to strait closure

Karex, the world’s largest manufacturer of condoms, said it has raised prices by up to 30% to cope with escalating costs due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which is a vital channel for petrochemical supplies.

CEO Goh Miah Kiat said the company has little choice but to pass higher costs to customers for condoms, personal lubricants, probe covers and catheters as raw materials, logistics and production expenses surge.

Karex produces 5 billion condoms annually, or about a fifth of global market share, with its biggest market in the United States, according to company data.

The Malaysian firm believes demand will rise at least 30% this year as “people use more condoms during periods of economic uncertainty,” Goh said.

Karex faces rising costs for nitrile latex, silicone oil and lubricant materials, natural rubber latex and aluminum foil packaging, Goh said, adding that freight costs and supplier delays have forced Karex to hold larger inventories of key materials.

Iran offers proposal to US to reopen Strait of Hormuz without nuclear agreement

Iran is offering to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz without addressing its nuclear program, two regional officials with knowledge of the proposal said Monday.

Iran also wants the United States to ends its blockade of the country as part of its proposal, according to the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.

The new proposal, passed onto the U.S. by Pakistan, is not likely to receive the backing of U.S. President Donald Trump, who wants to end Iran’s atomic program as part of an overall deal including the Strait of Hormuz to make the ceasefire permanent.

“We have all the cards. If they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us,” Trump told Fox News Channel on Sunday.

Axios first reported Iran’s proposal.

— By Samy Magdy

Iran’s foreign minister says Russia trip an opportunity to coordinate after war

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Monday that his trip to Russia offered an opportunity to coordinate with Moscow after the war with Israel and the United States.

Araghchi made the comments in a pretaped interview posted by the state-run IRNA news agency.

“It is a good opportunity for us to consult with our Russian friends about the developments that have occurred in relation to the war during this period and what is happening now,” he said.

Araghchi said it was America’s approach that “caused the negotiations to be delayed” that had been planned in Islamabad.

“The previous one, despite the progress that had been made, could not achieve its goals,” he said, blaming what he called Washington’s “excessive demands.”

Trump has questioned who is in charge in Iran at the moment and said confusion within its theocracy made it difficult to reach a deal.

Iran’s foreign minister arrives in Russia

Iran’s top diplomat arrived Monday in Russia ahead of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The state-run IRNA news agency said Abbas Araghchi landed in St. Petersburg for his meeting with Putin.

Araghchi has visited Islamabad twice and Muscat, Oman, on the foreign trip as negotiations with the U.S. appear stalled over the Iran war.

Futures for the S&P 500 are flat before the opening bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.1%. Nasdaq futures rose 0.2%.

Two Middle Eastern officials said Iran was offering to end its chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz without addressing its nuclear program, while requesting that the U.S. end its blockade of Iran. President Donald Trump is unlikely to support the proposal, which was conveyed to the U.S. through Pakistan. He wants Iran’s nuclear program closed down as part of a broader deal to end the war.

Disruptions to shipping through the strait have pushed oil prices sharply higher since the war began.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude to be delivered in July inched up 57 cents to $99.70 after eclipsing $100 overnight. U.S. benchmark crude oil added 25 cents to $94.65 per barrel.

After coming off their highs in recent weeks, the cost of gasoline in the U.S. is again markedly higher than it was the previous week. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $4.11 on Monday, 7 cents more than a week ago, and almost $1 more than last year at this time.

This week will bring decisions on interest rates by top central banks, including the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England. A big batch of potentially market-moving data is also due, including the Fed's preferred measure of inflation, the latest U.S. economic growth report and the Conference Board's consumer confidence survey.

The S&P 500 has leaped nearly 13% in a little under a month, boosted most recently by strong corporate earnings reports that have helped propel markets to all-time highs.

Reporting this week are tech heavyweights Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Apple. Coca-Cola, General Motors and Ford also issue their most recent quarterly results in the coming days.

Also Monday, China blocked Meta’s acquisition of the artificial intelligence startup Manus, which has Chinese roots but is Singapore-based.

China’s top planning agency said it was prohibiting a foreign acquisition of Manus and had required all the parties to withdraw from the deal. Meta said the deal fully complied with the law and that it expected a “appropriate resolution” to the inquiry.

Meta shares were effectively unchanged by the news.

In midday European trading, Germany's DAX picked up 0.9%, while the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.7%. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.3%.

In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 surged 1.4% to 60,537.36 after touching a new intraday high of 60,903.95. The Kospi in South Korea jumped 2% to 6,615.03.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 0.1% to 25,964.27 and the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.2% to 4,086.34.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2% to 8,766.40.

Taiwan's Taiex rallied 1.8%, helped by a revival of buying of tech shares driven by the boom in artificial intelligence. India's Sensex added 0.8%.

A foul was called after Ayton hit Sengun when he had the ball and was heading toward the basket with about 5½ minutes left in the third quarter. The play was reviewed and upgraded to a flagrant foul 2 and Ayton was ejected.

The referee announcing the foul called the contact "unnecessary and excessive.”

“We’re both sweaty guys,” Ayton said. “I just slipped off his shoulder and literally my elbow hit him right there above his shoulders and it looked crazy on camera. But I’m not no guy who’s a dirty player or plays like that. ... I just hope he’s all right and didn’t think it was intentional.”

Players and coaches from both teams questioned whether Ayton should have been ejected.

“It looked intentional, but I was surprised at the flagrant 2,” Houston coach Ime Udoka said. “But that’s the NBA nowadays and they call it a little softer than they used to.”

Sengun was glad that they called it, but wasn't sure if it was worthy of an ejection.

“I don’t want to make the officials crazy, but I didn’t expect him to get ejected, to be honest,” he said. “I think it was a little bit soft.”

Lakers coach JJ Redick said Ayton would never do something like that on purpose.

“He’s got such a sweet, kind soul, and no, that wasn’t dirty or intentional,” he said. “It looked from our vantage point like he was trying to brace himself with that off arm ... and it looked like his arm just kind of slipped and obviously hit him in the head.”

The Lakers trailed 76-57 at the time of the foul and lost 115-96 to send the series back to Los Angeles Wednesday night. Ayton led the team with 19 points and 10 rebounds despite the ejection.

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

The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office responded to a traffic crash around 6:14 p.m. in the area of Southwest 127 Avenue.

According to investigators, a man traveling north on Southwest 127th Avenue struck a tree.

The driver was taken to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital in critical condition, where he was later pronounced dead.

The sheriff’s office’s Traffic Homicide Unit has taken over the investigation, and the circumstances surrounding the crash remain under investigation.

No other information was immediately released.

“Everyone is here together hoping for the same thing and praying for the same thing,” said Valeria Barraza, a Cuban American.

The event, hosted by the City of Miami and local community groups, is drawing support and prayers from outside of the Cuban community.

“These people here are interceding. They’re praying. They’re praying for their families,” said Julio Santa, who supports Cuban freedom.

Santa, who is Mexican, said his connection to Cuba runs deep because of his stepfather.

“It’s a privilege. It’s an honor to be here from another nationality to support the Cuban people,” he said.

The gathering comes as people in Cuba continue to face severe economic hardship, amid an ongoing energy crisis, limited resources and political tensions with the U.S. government.

“My mom still has a cousin over there and things are not good, at all. It’s pretty bad,” said Cuban American Nataly Fernandez.

For families like the Fernandezes, the moment is personal, with hopes their prayers will be answered.

“We’re hoping so because my grandfather died last year waiting for it to be free,” Fernandez said.

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Troopers with the Florida Highway Patrol said one person was killed, while at least one other motorcyclist was injured.

There was no word on their condition.

Just after 9 p.m., one lane on Interstate 75 reopened, allowing traffic to begin flowing again.

FHP is investigating.

Agentes de la Patrulla de Carreteras de Florida informaron que una persona murió y al menos otro motociclista resultó herido.

No hubo información sobre su estado de salud.

Poco después de las 9 p.m., un carril de la Interestatal 75 fue reabierto, lo que permitió que el tráfico comenzara a fluir nuevamente.

La FHP investiga el caso.

The Trump administration's campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters has gone on since early September and killed at least 186 people in total. Other strikes have taken place in the Caribbean Sea.

The military has not provided evidence that any of the vessels were carrying drugs.

After Sunday's attack, Southern Command posted a video on X showing a boat moving swiftly in the water before an explosion left it in flames. It repeated previous statements by saying it had targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes.

The attacks began as the U.S. built up its largest military presence in the region in generations and came months ahead of the raid in January that captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He was brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges and has pleaded not guilty.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States.

Critics, meanwhile, have questioned the overall legality of the boat strikes.

Bauer (1-0) allowed just one baserunner in seven innings and struck out seven on 84 pitches, 54 strikes. The 35-year-old right-hander retired the first 15 batters he faced.

Bauer gave up a one-out walk to Kevin Watson Jr., and he followed by retiring the next five hitters to finish off the third no-hitter in Ducks' history.

The Ducks won, 13-0.

Bauer has been trying to revive his big-league career after serving a 194-game suspension for violating MLB’s domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. He was never charged with a crime in the matter, and civil claims against him were settled.

Bauer was released by the Los Angeles Dodgers in January 2023. He pitched in Japan in 2023 and ’25, sandwiched around one season with Diablos Rojos in the Mexican Baseball League in ’24.

Bauer was 4-10 with a 4.41 ERA with Yokohama last year. He was named the Mexican Baseball League’s pitcher of the year in 2024.

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

Riegle, who began his career as a Republican and later became a Democrat, died Friday of cardiac arrest at his home in San Diego, according to a family statement.

“The cornerstone of our family, Don was a kind, loving, courageous leader who taught us to stand up for justice, economic opportunity, and fairness for everyone,” the statement said.

His family said Riegle was proud of fighting for the rights of working people and leading the Senate opposition to NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement that resulted in the loss of many jobs in his home state. He pushed for economic development and the expansion of health insurance in Michigan.

The native of Flint, Michigan, was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in 1966 at age 28. As a congressman, he challenged President Richard Nixon's policies on the Vietnam War and crossed the aisle to join the Democratic Party in 1973. Three years later, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until 1994.

As chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Riegle pushed for financial reforms of the savings and loan industry. Later he was instrumental in getting treatment for Gulf War syndrome for military veterans who fought in the Persian Gulf in 1991.

Riegle was caught up in the Keating Five controversy, when he and four other senators faced Ethics Committee hearings in 1990 about whether they pressured federal regulators to go easy on savings and loan kingpin Charles Keating after receiving campaign contributions from him. The committee found Riegle did not break any federal laws or Senate rules, but determined his conduct gave the appearance of being improper.

In 2001, Riegle became chairman of government relations for public relations firm APCO Worldwide.

In retirement, he spent time with his grandchildren and other family at his homes in Michigan and California, his family said. His wife of 48 years, Lori Hansen Riegle, was by his side when he died, the statement said.

Memorial services are pending.

Game 5 is Tuesday night in Boston.

“It's going to have to be a big pick-up mentally,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said.

Jaylen Brown scored 20 points for the Celtics, who thumped the Sixers by 32 points for the second time in the series. The Celtics outrebounded the Sixers 51-30.

Embiid scored 26 points in 34 minutes just 17 days after having an appendectomy. Embiid wasted little time scoring in his first game since April 6. The two-time NBA scoring champion sank two free throws for the Sixers’ first points of the game, added a monster two-handed jam and scored the team’s first eight points.

Embiid withered after the fast start and missed seven straight shots before he converted a three-point play in the third quarter. That cut the Sixers' deficit to 23.

The Celtics hardly needed much production from Brown or Tatum — they combined for 50 points in a Game 3 win and only 13 in the first half of Game 4 — and used a whopping 14-rebound edge in the first half that sparked a 13-0 shutout in second-chance points to build a 21-point lead.

All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey took a backseat to Embiid and took only three shots in the first half. He scored 22 points for the Sixers.

“That can't happen," Maxey said of the slow start. “That's on me. That's just unacceptable by me. I was playing within the flow of the game. It kind of happened that way. It wasn't meant to happen that way.”

Maxey and the Sixers largely tried to get Embiid rolling early.

Embiid had an appendectomy in Houston on April 9 after Philadelphia’s star big man was stricken with appendicitis overnight. He returned to the court Sunday wearing a protective brace around his midsection and was cleared to play about 40 minutes before the scheduled tipoff.

“What am I going to do? Cry about it?” Embiid said of his latest postseason malady.

Whatever emotional lift he provided lasted only minutes into the first quarter.

Pritchard buried a long 3 on one leg to end the first quarter and give Boston a 34-18 lead.

“He’s just a guy that finds the game. He dictates the pace for us,” Celtics coach Joe Mazulla said. "He did a good job of that for himself and others tonight. When we’re at our best, he’s aggressive.”

Embiid shot 3 of 5 in the first quarter while the rest of the Sixers missed 10 of 13 shots.

There were some questions about how Tatum’s return in early March from the ruptured Achilles tendon he suffered in the playoffs last May would affect the flow of a group that had learned to adjust and thrive without the six-time All-Star.

Instead, Tatum has reacclimated himself in short order and the Celtics are dominating like a team that feels as though the East will go through Boston.

Embiid's gutsy return mattered little, and now the Celtics can clinch the series at home and wait for the winner of the Atlanta Hawks-New York Knicks series.

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Cale Makar also scored and Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves as the Presidents' Trophy-winning Avs advanced to face the winner of the heavyweight first-round series between Dallas and Minnesota.

Colorado coach Jared Bednar praised his team's defensive acumen after holding the defense-first Kings to five goals in four games, noting that his high-powered lineup would probably prefer to emphasize offense.

“It's not as fun to commit on the defensive side and really dig in there and spend a bunch of energy there to chip away at the game, but I think they bought into the way we needed to play the LA Kings,” Bednar said. “And that may change a little bit for the next opponent ... but they did a heck of a job playing the right way in order to win it.”

Colorado also ended the 20-year career of Kings captain Anze Kopitar, who announced his pending retirement in September.

The Slovenian center is the top scorer in franchise history and a two-time Selke Trophy winner, and he was a star on the Kings’ two Stanley Cup championship teams in 2012 and 2014 before spending the past decade as their captain. The Kings crowd repeatedly chanted “Kopi! Kopi!” in the final minutes of the blowout, and he got standing ovations when he came out for his final two shifts.

With a masterful four-game demonstration of the roster-wide talent on a team ready to win it all, Colorado earned at least five consecutive days off before the second round, and quite possibly more. The Wild and Stars are tied heading to Game 5 on Tuesday.

“(A sweep) just shows that we stuck to the details this entire series,” Makar said. “I felt like they were pushing us at times, and we were able to weather it. It's a good test for us. That's a stingy defensive team over there that has a lot of offensive threats, and we found different ways to shut them down.”

Joel Edmundson scored and Anton Forsberg stopped 27 shots for the Kings, whose fifth consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs ended with their eighth consecutive postseason defeat over the past two years and their seventh straight first-round exit since hoisting the Cup 12 years ago.

Although interim coach D.J. Smith was able to extend his team’s streak of postseason appearances with a late surge into the last wild-card spot, Los Angeles has not won a playoff round since raising the Stanley Cup for the second time.

“We fought hard, there's no doubt about that, but they're the best team in the league for a reason,” Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said. “We were in games, but didn't ultimately get the job done. Proud of our effort.”

After scoring 53 goals in the regular season, MacKinnon got his first goal of these playoffs in the first period on a power play, ending the Avs’ 0 for 9 start to the series with the man advantage. Colorado never trailed in Game 4, putting it away with two goals in less than three minutes early in the third.

Although Los Angeles began the series by slowing down the powerhouse Avs and even holding MacKinnon to one assist in three games, the Kings scored just four goals while being pushed to the brink.

Makar glided past Taylor Ward early in the second period and fired a beautiful wrist shot for the Conn Smythe Trophy winner’s second goal in two games.

MacKinnon added an empty-net goal, giving him 57 goals in 99 career playoff games.

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

Durant missed Game 3 with a sprained left ankle on Friday night, when the Rockets blew a six-point lead with less than 30 seconds to go in regulation of an eventual 112-108 overtime loss to fall to 0-3 in the first-round series.

This will be the third game of the series that Durant has missed after he sat out the opener with a bruised right knee. He returned for Game 2, scoring 23 points in 41 minutes of the 101-94 loss, during which he injured his ankle late in the game.

His injury problems this postseason came after the 37-year-old ranked second in the league in the regular season by playing 2,840 minutes.

Durant, who is in his first season in Houston after an offseason trade from Phoenix, is the fifth-leading scorer in NBA history.

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After outdueling Chris Buescher with a last-lap pass Sunday, Hocevar celebrated with one of NASCAR’s most unconventional victory laps. While sitting on the windowsill of his No. 77 Chevrolet to salute the crowd with fist pumps and waves, the lanky Hocevar managed to keep his left hand on the wheel while driving down the frontstretch.

He steered the car nose-first into the outside wall to perform a burnout before climbing onto the roof.

“He looked like Shamu hanging out the window,” said Jeff Dickerson, a co-owner of Hocevar's Spire Motorsports car.

The unique revelry was appropriate for the rising star who has made headlines by angering veterans with aggressive moves.

“I’ve had this thought up for a while,” Hoecvar said after becoming the 13th driver to earn his first Cup win at Talladega. “I’ve messed it up every which way to not be able to do it. I was going to figure out how to do it. It took me a while.

“I’m so thankful. This is the biggest dream I’ve ever thought of. Thank you, everybody. I couldn’t have done it any better way.”

Hocevar joined Ty Gibbs ( who won two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway ), as the second first-time winner this season by winning his 91st start in NASCAR’s premier series.

The 23-year-old from Portage, Michigan, used a drafting push from Alex Bowman's No. 48 Chevrolet to edge past Buescher’s No. 17 Ford by 0.114 seconds.

Buescher had been getting drafting help from Erik Jones, who spun after contact from Hocevar while battling for second with seven laps remaining. Jones’ No. 43 Toyota stalled to bring out the final yellow and set up a three-lap shootout in which Buescher and Hocevar ran side by side virtually all the way to the checkered flag.

“That was a fun race,” Buescher said. “I felt really good where we were at coming off Turn 4. Felt like we were in a spot to take this Ford Mustang into victory lane. Man, it was close."

Bowman finished third (his best finish since missing four races with vertigo ), followed by Chase Elliott and Zane Smith.

“To be blunt, it just feels good to get out of here without crashing,” Bowman said. “I’m getting old and don’t have much of that left in me. Glad to get out of here clean.”

Big wreck

With tight packs at nearly 200 mph, Talladega is known for massive wrecks, and some contact at the front involved 26 of the 40 cars in the field.

Bubba Wallace was leading on Lap 115 when he lost control of his No. 23 Toyota on a push by the No. 1 Chevrolet of Ross Chastain. Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson were among those eliminated from contention in the crash, along with Wallace, who finished outside the top 30 for the third time in five races.

“It’s a bummer,” said the 23XI Racing driver, who was making his 300th Cup start. “But we’ve got to figure out how to be pushed better, so I take responsibility on that. And we’ll have a good debrief and figure out what we can do to make our Toyotas a little bit better at being pushed and maybe not have that happen.”

Mileage still matters

In an attempt to blunt the fuel conservation strategies that have become prevalent at superspeedways, NASCAR instituted a 98-lap first stage that covered more than half the race distance (which is typically the length of the final stage). The change resulted in an opening segment that ran for 85 minutes under green as drivers cautiously raced well below their maximum speeds to achieve optimum mileage.

They opened the second stage at full throttle, and the big pileup erupted only 10 laps later.

“It’s frustrating,” Logano said. “What do you want? Save fuel or crash? Pick one. That’s what it feels like right now. You’ve got round bumpers on these things. The cars are unstable. And once everyone starts pushing and racing aggressive, it’s going to happen. So until we fix that stuff, we’re going to continue seeing it, unfortunately.”

New deal

Points leader Tyler Reddick announced on the Fox prerace show that he had finalized a multiyear contract extension with 23XI Racing. Team co-owner Denny Hamlin recently had guaranteed the return of Reddick, who has 10 of his 13 career wins (including five this season) since joining 23XI Racing in 2023.

“Excited to have it all done and be able to continue building on what we’ve done,” Reddick said. “Just really glad that myself and 23XI were able to get to a good place and get the deal done. So I’ll be here for hopefully a long time.”

Up next

The NASCAR Cup Series will race May 3 at Texas Motor Speedway, the lone stop this season at the 1.5-mile oval near Fort Worth. Joey Logano won at Texas last year, the most recent Cup victory for the three-time series champion.

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

Este domingo en North Miami, una gran cantidad de haitianos beneficiarios del TPS que viven en el sur de Florida hicieron escuchar su voz, con muchos expresando ansiedad por la decisión del miércoles.

“Por favor, por favor, si nos escuchan, luchemos juntos por Haití”, dijo Nicole Miniviel, asistente a la manifestación. “Necesitamos el TPS para los haitianos, por favor”.

La manifestación fue organizada por Family Action Network y sus socios, con el llamado a los legisladores de extender el TPS.

Paul Namphy, de FAN, dijo que Haití no es seguro y que los haitianos que regresan enfrentan condiciones devastadoras.

“Merecen respeto, aportan más de lo que reciben, y creemos que es cruel amenazar con deportarlos a un Haití que se encuentra en una situación extremadamente incierta, donde sus vidas estarían en riesgo”, dijo.

Haití se encuentra actualmente bajo una advertencia de viaje de Nivel 4, con una alerta de No Viajar, ya que el Departamento de Estado ha advertido sobre crimen, terrorismo, secuestros e inestabilidad en la nación isleña.

La alcaldesa de Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, asistió a la manifestación del domingo y habló sobre los peligros que enfrentan los haitianos.

“No es momento de enviarlos de regreso a Haití”, dijo. “No es momento de separar familias, y debemos asegurarnos de que estén seguros”.

Un tribunal federal bloqueó la cancelación del TPS.

Según el Servicio de Ciudadanía e Inmigración de EE.UU., más de 330,000 haitianos pueden mantener su protección y autorización de empleo hasta el 1 de julio.

El abogado de inmigración Ronald Surin dijo que sus clientes están angustiados.

“Hoy pueden tener un permiso de trabajo y al día siguiente puede que ya no sea válido”, dijo. “La gente tiene una sensación real de inestabilidad que les genera problemas incluso con sus empleadores”.

Namphy dice que los haitianos están siendo tomados como rehenes por fechas que cambian constantemente, agobiados y estresados por una posible deportación futura.

“Este es un juego cruel con las vidas de las personas”, dijo. “Con las personas más importantes de esta economía se están jugando con sus vidas”.

La administración Trump argumentó que las condiciones en Haití habían mejorado.

Un grupo de republicanos de la Cámara de Representantes recientemente se opuso al presidente y apoya permitir el TPS para los haitianos por tres años más.

La Cámara aprobó un proyecto de ley para extender el TPS a los haitianos, y ese proyecto está pendiente en el Senado.

Este domingo en Haulover Park, el Comité Anfitrión de Miami organizó la clínica de fútbol juvenil One Game One Future.

Los participantes disfrutaron de un taller para entrenadores que incluyó todo tipo de ejercicios de fútbol.

Grassroots Soccer formó parte del evento. La organización de salud utiliza el fútbol para ayudar a los jóvenes a aprender información que puede salvarles la vida y a llevar una vida más saludable.

La organización indicó que el enfoque del día fue la salud mental y, por supuesto, el fútbol.

“Estamos muy emocionados de participar con la FIFA y el Comité Anfitrión de Miami para llevar a cabo programas de fútbol y salud mental llamados Mind Skills”, dijo Ethan Zohn, cofundador de Grassroots Soccer. “Usamos metáforas del fútbol para transmitir información de salud muy importante, proteger a estos niños y concientizarlos sobre la salud mental y los peligros y problemas que la rodean”.

Monday will feature above normal temperatures in the upper 80s. With the heating of the day, additional showers will fire off by the afternoon. Expect storms to bring gusty winds and moments of heavy rainfall.

Showers will give way to hot highs by the middle and end of the week. Highs will soon soar to 90 degrees. The last time South Florida experienced temperatures this hot was back in October 2025.

El accidente ocurrió alrededor de las 7:10 a.m. en el área de Northwest 135th Street y 27th Avenue.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade, un vehículo circulaba a alta velocidad cuando impactó contra varios autos estacionados.

El hombre que conducía fue expulsado del vehículo y fue declarado muerto en la escena por los primeros respondedores, según las autoridades.

Dos mujeres que viajaban como pasajeras en el vehículo del hombre fueron trasladadas en helicóptero al Centro de Trauma Ryder del Jackson Memorial Hospital en estado crítico, de acuerdo con la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade.

La Unidad de Homicidios en Tráfico del departamento investiga las circunstancias que llevaron al choque.

Matt Fitzpatrick and younger brother Alex combined for a 1-under 71 in alternate-shot play Sunday to pull out a dramatic, single-stroke victory in the Zurich Classic team event and usher the younger Fitzpatrick onto the PGA Tour.

“To win a team event on the PGA Tour with my brother — I don't know if it does gets better than that," said 31-year-old Matt Fitzpatrick, who won the US Open in 2022. “That's how special it feels. To get in over the line the way we did and to hang in there on the back nine is incredible.”

The Englishmen finished with a tournament-record 31-under 257 total, but only after losing a four-stroke lead on the back nine.

They recovered when Matt Fitzpatrick, the third-ranked player in the world, stuck a bunker shot on the par-5 18th a foot from the hole. Alex Fitzpatrick, a 27-year-old European tour regular, smiled and put his hand on his head as he went to mark the ball, knowing that all he had to do to earn a two-year exemption on PGA Tour was sink a virtual gimme.

As his putt dropped, he crouched and put one hand over his face, and then rose to embrace his approaching older brother.

“I couldn’t feel my hands. I couldn’t feel my legs. I couldn’t feel anything,” Alex Fitzpatrick said. “It’s a pretty life-changing thing.”

Watching from the clubhouse tied at 30 under were the teams of Americans Alex Smalley and Hayden Springer and Norwegians Kristoffer Reitan and Kris Ventura. All four players' bids for a first PGA Tour victory had come up just short.

Matt Fitzpatrick arrived in New Orleans as arguably the hottest player in golf with two previous wins since March, including last weekend at Harbour Town.

Now he's won three of the last four PGA Tour events he's entered, starting with the Valspar.

Having shot a tournament record 57 in better ball play Saturday, the Fitzpatricks began the final round with a four-shot lead which stood on the back nine until a near collapse, starting with a double-bogey on No. 12 that ended a 47-hole streak of bogey-free play.

Just after making am 11 1/2-foot bidie putt on the par-5 11th, Matt Fitzpatrick sliced his tee shot on 12 into a cluster cypress trees. Alex tried to punch out from a awkward lie, but hit another tree, and the ball came to rest on the edge of the cart path, still 209 yards away. They double-bogeyed from there, shrinking their lead to a single stroke.

Matt made another error when his short approach shot from the 13th fairway went off the back of the green. Alex’s flop from next to a television camera tower helped them save par.

Matt pulled his tee shot on the par-3 14th into a greenside bunker, and after Alex’s shot skipped 24 feet past the hole, Matt missed the par putt, and they lost the lead.

A week after facing down World No. 1 and crowd favorite Scottie Scheffler in a playoff hole on Hilton Head Island, Matt Fitzpatrick experienced a new kind of pressure, understanding how consequential it would be for his brother if they failed to capitalize on their final-round lead.

“Certainly today I didn’t expect to be as nervous as I was,” Matt Fitzpatrick said about his back-nine stumbles. “I kind of felt like, ‘What the hell is going on here?’ I felt like I lost my swing.”

But as he made his way up the 15th fairway, Matt caught sight of his father, Russell, walking along the ropes and gesturing at him.

“That was a really nice moment for me personally,” Matt said. “It was, like, ‘Yeah, come on, mate. Let’s keep going here.’”

Moments later, Matt stepped up to an 8-footer to save par and keep the Fitzpatricks at 30 under — where they remained as they walked to the 18th tee — tied with two teams in the clubhouse.

It's rare for brothers to win in tandem on the PGA Tour. There haven't historically been many team events, but brothers Danny and David Edwards did it at the Walt Disney World Team Championship in 1980.

“Amazing to have them win together. It’s been brilliant,” mother Sue Fitzpatrick said as she walked from a post-tournament concert toward the clubhouse. “What a great finish.”

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

Embiid had 26 points and 10 rebounds in 34 minutes, a gutsy effort in his latest return from injury that wasn't enough to overcome the Celtics in their 128-96 Game 4 win Sunday night for a 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.

“You try to do the best job possible with the conditions,” Embiid said. “You've still got to go out there and try and play and win a basketball game. We didn't do that tonight. We didn't play well.”

Embiid — who received a roaring ovation in pregame introductions — wasted little time scoring in his first game since April 6. The two-time NBA scoring champion sank two free throws for the Sixers' first points of the game, added a monster two-handed jam and scored the team's first eight points.

Embiid withered after the fast start and missed seven straight shots before converting a three-point play in the third quarter. That cut the Sixers’ deficit to 23 points.

Embiid was listed as doubtful to start the day and was upgraded to questionable about 90 minutes before the scheduled tipoff. Embiid returned to the court wearing a protective brace around his midsection, and was cleared to play about 40 minutes before the start of Game 4.

The 32-year-old Embiid averaged 26.9 points and 7.7 rebounds this season after playing in only 19 games in 2024-25. He hasn’t appeared in as many as 40 games in a regular season since 2022-23, when he averaged a career-best 33.1 points and earned MVP honors.

Embiid had an appendectomy in Houston — he said he had unspecified complications after the surgery — on April 9 after Philadelphia’s star big man was stricken with appendicitis overnight.

Embiid provided nothing more than an early emotional lift to a Sixers team that was a 7 1/2-point home underdog to the Celtics, according to oddsmakers.

“I thought he had a lot of good looks,” coach Nick Nurse said. “A lot of them went in and out. That wasn't certainly helping our offense.”

The Celtics won Game 1 by 32 points and the Sixers responded with a surprise 111-97 win in Boston in Game 2. Tyrese Maxey scored 31 points and shot the Sixers into a fourth-quarter lead in Game 3 before Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown took over down the stretch for the Celtics in a 108-100 victory.

Embiid joined Maxey, rookie standout VJ Edgecombe, Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr. in the starting lineup.

Embiid's absence in the play-in tournament win over Orlando and the first three playoff games against Boston continues a trend of injury-plagued postseasons.

Such as:

In 2024, Embiid played in the playoffs through a bout with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis. He wore sunglasses to the podium after he scored 50 points in the Sixers’ Game 3 win over the Knicks and said at the time he was dealing with various symptoms such as blurred vision and dry eyes.

A year earlier, Embiid missed a playoff game in two series because of a sprained right knee.

In 2022, the Sixers won 51 games under coach Doc Rivers and had a great chance at a deep playoff run until Embiid suffered a right orbital fracture and a concussion when he was hit in the face by Toronto’s Pascal Siakam. He also suffered a torn ligament in his right thumb. Embiid missed two games in a second-round series against Miami. The Sixers lost both games and the series, 4-2.

Embiid missed one game in the 2021 playoffs with a torn meniscus in his right knee.

He missed one playoff game in 2019 and two in 2018 with injuries.

Embiid said he no choice but to push through his latest postseason malady headed into Game 5 Tuesday night in Boston.

“You probably go through a couple of days where you feel bad for yourself,” Embiid said. “Then it's right back to it. Are you going to give up or are you going to try and come back as early as possible?”

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

Now, his legacy will forever be etched onto his hometown baseball diamond.

Flamingo Park Baseball Field on Michigan Avenue in Miami Beach was officially renamed this week to Stanley Skip Bertman Field.

Bertman, who turns 88 next month, graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School in 1956, later returning to the school as a coach and winning a state championship.

He also played on the field growing up.

“I’m proud of the name of this field in particular because I was here so often and played so often here. I had so many friends,” Bertman said.

He later led the LSU Tigers baseball to five national championships.

To this day, he has the highest winning percentage in postseason play.

“Here in Miami Beach, he represents a legacy of excellence, leadership and lasting impact on generations of athletes in our community,” said Miami Beach City Manager Eric Carpenter.

“I’m so happy and so lucky,” Bertman said.

Bertman smiled as he met friends old and new in the hometown he’ll always treasure.

De'Aaron Fox added 28 points for the Spurs, who will return home for Game 5 on Tuesday night.

The Spurs announced about an hour before the game that Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 Defensive Player of the Year, would play after clearing the league's concussion protocol.

After the game, he indicated that the way his return to play was handled was “very disappointing” but emphasized that he was treated well by the Spurs’ medical staff. He would not elaborate, saying he did not want to be a distraction.

The Spurs trailed the Blazers by 17 points at the half, but the game was knotted at 74 going into the fourth quarter. Fox and Keldon Johnson hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Spurs up 90-77 with 7:14 left.

Johnson's dunk with 4:31 remaining made it 101-81 for San Antonio and all but sealed the win.

“We need to find the answers before having our back against the wall,” Wembanyama said about the second-half comeback. “But that also shows the strength of our team in adversity. We stick together. We get closer to each other, we feed off of each other's energy.”

Deni Avdija led the Trail Blazers with 26 points. There was tense moment with 2:13 left when Avdija and Stephon Castle exchanged shoves. They were given offsetting technical fouls.

“You can be tough, you can be, you know, physical, but there’s a level of disrespect that I’m not gonna accept,” Avdija said about the dustup.

Wembanyama sustained a concussion in the first half of San Antonio's 106-103 loss on Tuesday and was unavailable Friday night for Game 3. But the Spurs rallied in the third quarter and won 120-108 to take the series lead.

Wembanyama, who was listed as questionable going into Sunday's game, started and drew gasps from the crowd at the Moda Center with an emphatic dunk with 9:58 to go in the first half.

Portland went ahead 45-28 in the first half on an 18-3 run. Robert Williams III dunked before a pair of quick 3-pointers from Jerami Grant and Scoot Henderson. Avdija capped the run with a fadeaway jumper.

The Blazers led by as many as 19 in the half and were ahead 58-41 at the break.

Stephon Castle, who had 33 points in San Antonio’s Game 3 win, appeared to injure his left hand in the first half but returned.

The Spurs went on a 13-0 run to open the second half and closed the gap to 58-54 as the Blazers went cold. Devin Vassell's jumper with 4:38 tied it at 62 for the Spurs. He hit another to put San Antonio in front.

“I think there's no useless drama in between us,” Wembanyama said. “We thrive when we do the invisible efforts that benefit others. There’s no jealousy. There’s nobody who cares about their stat line. So it’s our greatest strength.”

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

“It’s time to build the ballroom,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said plainly Sunday on X, posting a letter in which Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate gave the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has sued to block construction, until 9 a.m. Monday to dismiss its lawsuit.

If it doesn't do so, Shumate wrote, the government would ask a court to do so “in light of last night’s extraordinary events," calling the Washington Hilton — the site of Saturday's gala — “demonstrably unsafe” for events with the president “because its size presents extraordinary security challenges for the Secret Service."

The White House ballroom, Shumate wrote, “will ensure the safety and security of the President for decades to come and prevent future assassination attempts on the President at the Washington Hilton.”

Asked about the letter, Elliot Carter, spokesperson for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said Sunday the group would review it with legal counsel.

The preservation group sued in December, a week after the White House finished demolishing the East Wing to make way for a ballroom that Trump said would fit 999 people. Trump says the project is funded by private donations, although public money is paying for the bunker construction and security upgrades.

A crowd of 2,300 attended Saturday night's event at the Hilton, home to one of the few rooms in Washington large enough for the event. It packs in attendees at round tables whose chairs are back to back, and room to move around is tight. The dinner is not a White House event — it is run by the White House Correspondents’ Association, a nonprofit organization of journalists from media outlets that cover the president.

Republicans amp up their push for White House ballroom

For months, Trump has mentioned the ballroom project at nearly every chance, often talking about the lawsuit or his desire to construct the space during events on a number of other topics. As he addressed tuxedo- and ball gown-clad reporters who scurried from the Washington Hilton to the White House for a Saturday night news conference, Trump called for tougher security measures and pointed to the incident as a reason his ballroom is needed.

In the wake of the shooting, Trump, Blanche and a number of supporters of the administration have taken the opportunity to push for the project across social media platforms and news programs. Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said he agreed with Trump “100%” on the massive White House construction project, which Jordan said on Fox News Channel “obviously would be much safer location for these type of events.”

Sunday morning on X, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he agreed with Trump that the White House ballroom “is a national security necessity" that would give the Secret Service “immense control over the security environment of future events with a very hardened facility.”

Even some Democrats agreed. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who attended Saturday’s dinner, said on X that the proposed White House space should be used “for events exactly like these.” On CNN later Sunday, Fetterman said attendees and Americans overall were in a “vulnerable” position during Saturday's event, in part because many in the presidential line of succession were present and could have been harmed

Fetterman responded, “I certainly hope so” when asked if the incident would spark more support for the White House project.

Gate crashers, party crashers, a plane — security breaches at the White House

In the century-plus since its grounds were largely closed to the public, dozens of events are evidence that even the White House complex is not impervious to intrusion.

There have been a number of documented incidents in which people have scaled security barriers around the White House. One of them, a disturbed Army veteran carrying a knife, jumped the fence in 2014 and raced into the White House, making his way into the East Room before heading back down a hallway on the State Floor deep within the mansion.

A Homeland Security Department review of the case determined that lack of training, poor staffing decisions and communication problems contributed to the embarrassing failure that ultimately led to the resignation of the head of the Secret Service.

In 1994, a pilot died when he crashed a small stolen plane on the South Lawn, hitting a tree and a first-floor corner of the building. And in 2009, uninvited guests Tareq and Michaele Salahi crashed a state dinner, passing through security checkpoints and meeting President Barack Obama in an incident that sparked security investigations.

How is the White House ballroom project going?

In litigation since December, work is ongoing, although there have been recent hiccups.

Trump tore down the East Wing last fall to build the massive ballroom in that space. In its lawsuit, the National Trust for Historic Preservation argued that Trump had overstepped his authority by moving forward with the project without first getting approval from key federal agencies and Congress.

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court allowed Trump to continue construction of the $400 million project, ruling a day after a lower court judge continued to block above-ground construction on the site and scheduling a June 5 hearing to review the case. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon's ruling had blocked above-ground construction of the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom addition, while allowing only below-ground work to continue on a bunker and other “national security facilities” at the site.

On Fox News Channel on Sunday, Trump forecast that, by the end of his current term, his project would be complete.

“In the year '28 you’re going to have something, you’re going to have a ballroom, the top of the line, security,” Trump said. “You’re not going to have problems.”

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

Sunday at Haulover Park, the Miami Host Committee put on the One Game One Future youth soccer clinic.

Participants enjoyed a coach’s workshop that included all kinds of soccer drills.

Grassroots Soccer was part of the event. The health organization uses soccer to help yougsters learn more about life-saving information and how to live a healthier life.

The organization says today their focus was mental health and, of course, soccer.

“We are so excited to be involved with FIFA and the Miami Host Committee to run some mental health soccer programs here called Mind Skills,” said Grassroots Soccer co-founder Ethan Zohn. “We’re using metaphors from the sport of soccer to deliver some really important health information to protect these kids and make them aware about mental health and the dangers and issues around mental health.

Sunday in North Miami, a large turnout of Haitians receiving TPS living in South Florida made their voices heard, with many saying they are anxious for Wednesday’s decision.

“Please, please, if you listen, let’s fight together for Haiti,” said rally attendee Nicole Miniviel. “We need the TPS for the Haitian, please.”

The rally was organized by Family Action Network and their partners, calling on lawmakers to extend TPS.

Paul Namphy with FAN said Haiti is not safe and Haitians going back face dire conditions.

“They deserve respect, they put in more than they get, and we believe that it is cruel to threaten to deport them to a Haiti, which is in an extremely uncertain situation right now where their lives would be at risk,” he said.

Haiti is currently at a Level 4 travel advisory, with a Do Not Travel warning, as the Department of State has warned of crime, terrorism, kidnapping and unrest on the island nation.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava attended Sunday’s rally, touching on the dangers Haitians face.

“It’s not the time to send them back to Haiti,” she said. “It’s not the time to separate families, and we need to make sure that they are safe.”

A federal court blocked termination of TPS.

According to U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, more than 330,000 Haitians can maintain protection and employment authorization until July 1.

Immigration attorney Ronald Surin said his clients are anxious.

“They may have a work permit today and the next day may not be valid,” he said. “So people really have a sense of instability that create problems to them even with their employers.”

Namphy says Haitians are being held hostage by ever changing dates, burdened and stressed by possible future deportation.

“This is cruel game with people’s lives,” he said. “The most crucial people of this economy, games are being played with their lives.”

The Trump administration argued conditions in Haiti had improved.

A group of house Republicans recently went against the president, and are supporting allowing TPA for Haitians for three more years.

The House passed a bill aiming to extend TPS for Haitians, and that bill is now pending in the Senate..

Korda was so untouchable at The Chevron Championship that no one got closer than four shots of her the entire weekend. She played her last 29 holes at Memorial Park in even par and still won by five, the largest margin at this major in 18 years.

And it was one of the toughest times she ever had.

“It's not easy going in with that big of a lead,” said Korda, “I think that was the challenging point with like, where do I still play like Nelly and where do I play a little defensive?”

That's why where was much relief as joy when she holed a 7-foot par putt to close with a 2-under 70 to capture her third major championship and return to No. 1 in the women's world ranking for the first time since August.

She celebrated in the best manner possible — a cannon ball into the 4 1/2-foot pool built to the right of the 18th green to keep with the tradition at this major that dates to 1988 when the winner jumped into Poppie’s Pond at Mission Hills in the California desert.

“Feet first,” she said with a smile, dressed in the winner's white robe. “I knew it was 4 feet, so I was expecting to hit the ground very fast.”

No one else expected anything else.

Staked to a five-shot lead at the start, Korda was efficient as ever with two early birdies, and two more on the back nine that put the final touches on this masterpiece.

Playing it safe left her a couple of par putts in the 6-foot range, the ones that had given her fits in the third round. She made one on the 11th. She left the next one short, and her lead was down to four shots.

Time for Nelly golf.

Her caddie told her she should play well short of the pin on the heavily contoured green at the 13th. Korda had other ideas.

“I actually just sent it at the pin and I had a tap-in birdie,” she said.

Korda followed by hammering a 3-wood to just short of the green for a simple up-and-down for birdie. And then it was back to playing it safe — so conservative that instead of hitting a mid-iron onto the par-5 16th over water, she opted to lay up with a gap wedge and then hit lob wedge to 25 feet for a two-putt par.

The victory was her 17th on the LPGA and 21st worldwide. Not since Meg Mallon in 2000 had an American reached three majors in her career, and the 27-year-old Korda is just getting started.

She doesn't care for comparisons with her 2024 season when she won seven times, including that record-tying streak of five in a row that was capped off at The Chevron.

But it's the start to a season that will get everyone's attention. She has played in the final group in all five of her tournaments, winning twice and being runner-up the other three times. And then she won a major by leading the final 57 holes of the tournament.

Korda joined Juli Inkster (1989) and Amy Alcott (1991), both at Nabisco Dinah Shore, as the only players in the last 50 years to win LPGA majors when leading by multiple shots after each round.

About the only drama in the final hour — all weekend, really — was whether Korda could break Dottie Pepper's 72-hole scoring record that has stood since 1999. Korda was playing it safe with a big lead, hitting to the fat of the green and settling for pars, along with another three-putt bogey.

She finished at 18-under 270, one short of Pepper's record at Mission Hills.

Korda made a 25-foot birdie putt on the 12th hole Friday, and didn't make another putt over 10 feet the rest of the week. That included a trio of 4-foot misses that kept it from being a blowout, and it stayed in her heard.

But that was part of Korda's new outlook. Don't worry about mistakes, knowing she could make up for them, and she did.

‘What I was telling myself was I really want to hoist this trophy because I want to show the kids at home that it’s OK to miss short putts and still win a major championship," she said with a laugh. "You’re going to make mistakes. You have to mentally still be in it 100%, and that’s really what I wanted show.

“I wanted to show it to myself and I wanted to show it everyone looking up to me.”

Ruoning Yin (69) and Patty Tavatanakit (70) tied for second. They were the only ones who could even think about having a chance on Sunday.

Tavatanakit walked in a 25-foot birdie on the sixth hole to get within four shots, only to make bogey with a wedge on the par-5 eighth. Yin went 56 consecutive holes without a bogey until making one on the 17th.

Korda won $1.35 million for a victory that puts her back as the best in women's golf without any debate. And now it's off to the Gulf Coast of Mexico for the next LPGA event, taking Monday to celebrate and getting back to work on Tuesday.

She loves competition. In this case, she was competing mainly against her herself. It was a big win in many ways because she had self-doubts when she missed those short putts Saturday. Korda told her caddie she did not want those thoughts to creep in during the final round.

"I want to go out and play golf. Whatever happens — if I jump into that pond, if I have the trophy in my hands at the end of the day — then great. I gave it 100%. If I don’t, then I have next week. I have the week after.

“That's going to be my mindset for the rest of the year.”

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

Refsnyder was initially called out by plate umpire John Bacon on an 0-2 pitch that the replay showed was outside. After two more balls, he hit a 412-foot blast into the left-field bullpen off JoJo Romero (0-1) to give the Mariners their first lead.

Jose Ferrer retired the Cardinals in order in the ninth for his first save of the season.

Each team successfully challenged four ball-strike calls by Bacon during the game, all during Mariners plate appearances, before JJ Wetherholt had an unsuccessful bid in the ninth.

During J.P Crawford’s eighth-inning plate appearance, each team had a successful challenge. Crawford had a strike overturned early in the at-bat, and then had ball four changed to the third strike on a challenge by catcher Iván Herrera. Herrera also secured a strikeout against Randy Arozarena in the second inning with a challenge.

Eduard Bazardo (1-1) got four outs in relief to record the victory.

Wetherholt led off the third inning with a line drive that traveled 375 feet into the right-field bullpen for the rookie's fifth home run.

Cal Raleigh answered in the fourth with a 401-footer that also landed in the Cardinals' bullpen.

Nathan Church added a 407-foot home run down the right-field line in the sixth to put St. Louis up 2-1.

Emerson Hancock gave up seven hits, including the Cardinals' two solo home runs, in six innings for Seattle. He walked two and struck out four.

Michael McGreevy allowed one run and five hits in six innings while striking out six and walking none.

Up next

Seattle: RHP Luis Castillo (0-1, 5.01 ERA) starts the opener of a three-game set Monday at Minnesota against LHP Connor Prielipp (0-0, 4.50).

St. Louis: RHP Dustin May (3-2, 5.84) takes the mound Monday at Pittsburgh to open a four-game series. The Pirates had not yet announced a probable starter.

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

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It happened around 7:10 a.m. in the area of Northwest 135th Street and 27th Avenue.

According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, a vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed when it slammed into several parked cars.

Resident James Moyer said he walked outside of his home to see a vehicle engulfed in flames.

“When the car hit, it blew up right here and became a fireball,” he said. “It was a fireball straight down the curbside.”

The man driving was ejected from his car and pronounced deceased at the scene by first responders, authorities said.

Two women who were passengers in the man’s vehicle were rushed to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital via helicopter in critical condition, according to MDSO.

“The girl was still close by, I pulled her away from the car with my wife,” said Moyer. “Broken bones, barely breathing, trying to fight for her life at that moment.”

The department’s Traffic Homicide Unit is investigating the circumstances that led up to the crash.

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It happened around 8:41 a.m. Sunday in the area of Northwest 17th Street and Third Avenue in Miami.

According to Miami Fire Rescue, first responders arrived to the scene to find a 77-year-old man pinned underneath a trolly.

Authorities said the Miami Technical Rescue Team worked quickly and used an air bag system to raise the trolly and remove the man from underneath.

That man was rushed to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition, according to authorities.

There has been no word on the circumstances that led to the man being trapped under the trolly.

Gauff, a finalist in Madrid last year, rallied to beat Sorana Cirstea 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 on Sunday.

The American threw up on court in the middle of the second set.

“When I actually threw up on the court, that was like a little bit embarrassing," Gauff said. “Then after that first game and the second, I was like that took everything out of me."

On Saturday, fourth-ranked Iga Swiatek withdrew due to an unspecified illness while playing her round-of-32 match against American Ann Li.

Gauff said she was determined to carry on her match.

“I’m someone who doesn’t like to pull out. I don’t like to do that unless I really feel like I have no other options,” Gauff said. "So the plan was to always just try to finish, even if it ended up with me just playing just to get through it.”

She recovered from a break down three times before winning the set 7-5.

The third-ranked Gauff said she doesn't know how she “got through that," and said she almost threw up in the middle of a point.

“I felt fine all this morning. I felt a little weird last night, but I was OK. Woke up this morning, felt fine. And mid-first set, I was feeling like I was going to throw up. And then I did," she said. "They gave me some pills and that definitely helped. After that, once I felt the feeling of throwing up, then I just felt nauseous and tired. I just didn’t want to throw up in the middle of the point, which I almost did at one point.”

Gauff will next meet No. 13 seed Linda Noskova.

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

In the aftermath, safety and coverage blended as some of the nation's most powerful reporters and editors tried to figure out what was unfolding in front of them.

Or in many cases, above them. Many of the journalists, clad in tuxedos and gowns, had ducked for cover in fear, bewilderment or just plain instinct. “We were under the table before we knew what was happening,” The Atlantic magazine journalists Missy Ryan, Matt Viser and Michael Scherer wrote of their experience.

When they emerged, mobile phones were the tools of their trade — to shoot pictures or video, record interviews or keep a phone line open to describe the scene to colleagues working the story off-site.

“For many people who have either been in a war zone or in the midst of a crisis, I don't think there was any fear,” said former CBS News president Susan Zirinsky, who was attending. “It was get it, find it, shoot it, report it. But it was very frustrating not getting a signal out of the room.”

Struggling to get the news out of the room

She added an expletive. Cellphone service at the Washington Hilton is notoriously spotty.

The bad service, however, was a key factor in Alex Brandon, a photographer for The Associated Press, securing one of the night's most memorable images: shooting suspect Cole Tomas Allen on the ground and in custody outside the ballroom, his shirt stripped off.

Brandon, who was attending as a guest and didn't have his usual gear, stood up at his table after hearing the shooting and trained his mobile phone camera on Trump, capturing photos of him as he was surrounded by Secret Service agents and then hustled off the dais.

He knew he had significant photos and had to transmit them to the world. But he had no cell service. He rushed to a doorway to leave the ballroom and outside that, spotted a person lying on the ground being watched by authorities. Brandon immediately sensed it was the suspect and began taking more pictures.

“Frankly, it was muscle memory,” the veteran photographer said. “The whole thing was muscle memory.”

Moments earlier, CNN's Wolf Blitzer got uncomfortably close to the shooter before he was in custody, when Blitzer was returning to the ballroom following a bathroom break. A police officer threw Blitzer to the ground and later hustled him back into the men's room for safekeeping, he described on the network.

“I happened to be a few feet away from him as he was shooting and the first thing that went through my mind was, ‘Is he trying to shoot me?’” said Blitzer, a veteran of conflict reporting. “I don't think he was trying to shoot me but I was very close to him as the shots were fired and it was very, very scary but I'm OK now.”

Because it was a room full of journalists, “most of the crowd immediately began to cover the story,” wrote The Washington Post's Maura Judkis, who was there documenting the social scene. “Print journalists interviewed eyewitnesses. Television reporters shot selfie-style video, angled so that the now-empty dais was in the background. Non reporters reached for the wine on the tables, hoping to steady their nerves.”

After diving under her table, Judkis sent a Slack message to colleagues: “shots fired.” In retrospect, she said she should have noted that those reports were unconfirmed. Did she really hear shots or was it something else?

In a fast-developing story, getting news out fast while being careful that it is solid information is a journalist's biggest test. At one point, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, reporting live, said the alleged shooter “is confirmed dead.” She cited a security official working for the nation’s education secretary, who had been seated near her, as her source. But it was wrong.

A change in attitude for administration at odds with reporters?

Hours earlier, the biggest concern for many of the journalists as they prepared for the party was whether they would be subject to a tongue-lashing from Trump, whose animus for the press — expressed in words, policies and legal action — has been a hallmark of his second term. It was his first time attending the correspondents' dinner as president.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a particularly ill-timed comment to Fox News' Jimmy Failla on the event's red carpet, previewed the president's speech. “It will be funny,” she said. “It will be entertaining. There will be some shots fired in the room.”

The speech never came. Trump and the correspondents have expressed interest in rescheduling the event, but it's not clear whether that will happen. The logistics of such a rescheduling after Saturday's events would be daunting, to say the least.

Trump, in remarks at the White House after the incident ended the evening prematurely, said he saw “a tremendous amount of love and coming together” after the shooting.

“This was an event dedicated to the freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press and in a certain way it did,” he said. “I saw a room that was totally united — in one way, it was a very beautiful thing to see.”

Trump praised CBS News' Weijia Jiang, president of the correspondents' association, who had been sitting next to him Saturday night. Like with many reporters, Trump has had contentious exchanges with Jiang, but he said she had done a “fantastic job” with the correspondents event. He gave her the first question at his news conference.

In a interview that aired Sunday night on “60 Minutes,” Trump told CBS’ Norah O’Donnell: “I hope we’re going to do it again. Norah, tell ’em to get it going, and we should do it within 30 days, and they’ll have even more security, and they’ll have bigger perimeter security. It’ll be fine.”

Not all of Trump's supporters were generous of spirit. Kari Lake, who has been overseeing the U.S. Agency for Global Media and faces legal action for her work in that role, wrote on social media that she berated CNN's Jake Tapper when she saw him leaving the dinner. “These reporters have spent a decade spreading absolute lies about President Trump,” she wrote. “They share some of the blame for what happened tonight.”

But CBS' Zirinsky said she sensed, in Trump's remarks, a new sense of respect. They now had something in common, as CNN's Brian Stelter noted in his newsletter Sunday. “Thousands of media and political elites now have gone through what countless millions of other Americans have experienced in their schools, offices, malls and churches,” Stelter wrote.

“I felt it,” Zirinsky said. “I may have been the only one. But I was literally sensing when I was listening to him at the White House that there was this shared experience and the relationship, is this a change? Is this the mark of a change of a relationship?”

Still, the combative Trump came through clearly on "60 Minutes." After O'Donnell quoted a sentence from a message written by the alleged gunman, the president responded: “You shouldn’t be reading that on ‘60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace.”

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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

The Highway 82 Fire has been burning since April 20 and as of Saturday had destroyed at least 87 homes. On Sunday morning, officials said it was only 7% contained.

Highway 82 in Brantley County is about 35 miles (56.3 kilometers) north of the state line with Florida.

“The fire basically doubled last night in size,” Brantley County Manager Joey Cason said Sunday in a Facebook post. “It is a dynamic fire event that will be impacted by the wind.”

Wind gusts of about 15 mph (24.1 kph) were expected Sunday.

Cason also said evacuation notices could be issued Sunday and that residents should heed them.

“We had folks that did not evacuate and they almost got caught by that fire,” he added. “It's going to be another potential bad fire day as the winds pick up later in the day.”

A second fire about 70 miles (110 kilometers) to the southwest in Clinch and Echols counties, near the Florida state line, had burned more than 46 square miles (121 square kilometers), destroyed at least 35 homes and only was about 10% contained as of Saturday. That blaze was started by sparks from a welding operation.

The Highway 82 fire was started by a foil balloon hitting live power lines. That created an electrical arc that ignited combustible material on the ground.

More crews were expected to arrive Sunday and Monday to help battle it, Cason said.

“There’s a ton of assets that are being poured into this fire to, hopefully, get it under control or get it out,” he said. “This whole situation is heartbreaking.”

Updated figures on homes damaged or destroyed by the blaze were not immediately available Sunday afternoon, said Susie Heisey, spokeswoman with the Southern Area Incident Management Team.

“Our firefighters worked so hard and had so much success in protecting structures and private homes, but there also were losses,” Heisey said.

Due to the ongoing fire, investigators can’t be sent in yet to assess damages, she added.

Firefighters have been battling more than 150 other wildfires in Georgia and Florida that have sent smoky haze into places far from the flames, triggering air quality warnings for some cities.

An unusually large number of wildfires are burning this spring across the Southeast. Scientists say the threat of fire has been amplified by a combination of extreme drought, gusty winds, climate change and dead trees still littering some forests after being toppled by Hurricane Helene in 2024.

In northern Florida, Nassau County Sheriff’s Office volunteer firefighter James “Kevin” Crews died Thursday evening after he suffered an unspecified medical emergency while suppressing a brush fire. No fire deaths or injuries have been reported in Georgia.

Reagan was hit in the chest and nearly died. Forty-five years later, another gunman is accused of trying to storm into the same hotel's ballroom during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night. The suspect fired at least one shot, authorities said, before being subdued in a chaotic scene that forced the evacuation of President Donald Trump and other top administration officials. The gunman never entered the ballroom or was close to the president.

That Hilton has hosted hundreds of large events attended by presidents and other dignitaries since it opened in the 1960s. While on the surface there appear to be similarities in the incidents beyond its location, there are stark differences that highlight how much has changed in the decades since Reagan was shot.

“Security is a lot more robust today than it was then,” said Stephen T. Colo, a former assistant director of the Secret Service. “But you still deal with the same tension involving politicians and the public’s access to them.”

Washington Hilton was built to accommodate presidents

The Washington Hilton Hotel and its cavernous ballroom were designed to be a prime venue for presidential speeches and events. To entice high-profile speakers, primarily the president, architects designed a VIP entrance on the side of the hotel and, one floor below it, a holding room known as the bunker.

In the decade before Reagan was shot, presidents visited the hotel more than a hundred times.

The 1981 shooting was set in motion when Hinckley got on a bus in Los Angeles, where he had been trying to write and sell music, and headed to Washington. There, he planned to hop on another bus to New Haven, Connecticut, to stage a suicide in front of the object of his obsession, movie star Jodie Foster.

In the nation's capital, he learned Reagan would be speaking at the Washington Hilton on the afternoon of March 30, and he changed his plans. He would try to kill the president to impress the actress.

Hinckley got very close to the president

Outside the hotel that afternoon, Hinkley found himself 15 feet from Reagan as the president headed to his limousine. In a small crowd of onlookers and journalists behind a rope line, the would-be assassin pulled out a gun and fired six shots in 1.7 seconds, wounding Reagan, White House press secretary Jim Brady, District of Columbia Police Officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy.

Reagan was struck below his left armpit, the bullet lodged an inch from his heart. Reagan survived thanks to the quick thinking of Secret Service agent Jerry Parr and the medical personnel at George Washington University Hospital. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

In the wake of the shooting, the Secret Service enhanced security in dozens of ways. The most visible action came when the Secret Service began deploying checkpoints and metal detectors to screen visitors at the White House and at public events. Hinckley did not have to pass through either a checkpoint or metal detector to get so close to the president.

The hotel built a bunker-like garage for the armored limousine to park and drop off and pick up the president at the VIP entrance. The Secret Service and local police assigned more agents and officers to guard presidential events at the Hilton.

Even with such enhancements, former agents said, securing the Hilton is challenging and highlights the tension between protecting politicians and ensuring the public has access to them. The hotel also has many public areas, and it would be hard to shut them down for an event, even one as high profile as the correspondents’ dinner.

That was why the main security checkpoint, they said, was near the ballroom and not in the hotel lobby or entrance — measures that would be disruptive to hundreds of guests and hotel operations. Inside the ballroom, more agents and heavily armed tactical officers were stationed close to the president.

Gunman was stopped at security checkpoint

On Saturday, the suspect sprinted through the checkpoint leading to the ballroom, according to video posted by Trump. The video shows officers and agents pivoting and pointing guns at the man as he ran away. The assailant was quickly subdued and was not injured, officials said. An officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest, officials said, but was not seriously hurt.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday that the gunman was likely seeking to target the president and members of the administration.

The assailant is suspected of having traveled by train from California to Chicago and then on to Washington, where in recent days he checked in as a guest at the hotel, Blanche said.

Law enforcement officials familiar with the matter identified, to The Associated Press, the suspect as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California. Cole sent writings to family members minutes before the shooting referring to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin,” railing against Trump administration policies and signaling what investigators increasingly believe was a politically driven attack, according to another law enforcement official who, like the others, was not to authorized discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The writings made repeated references to Trump, the official said, without directly naming the president and alluded to grievances over a range of administration actions

“I mean obviously, it’s kind of up in the air what the true direction is,” the two-time All-Star said on Sunday morning before a series finale against the Baltimore Orioles. “Those are conversations that need to be had. They’ll be had today and onward going forward, too.”

The Red Sox officially dismissed Cora on Saturday evening after a 10-17 start to his eighth season guiding the club, including an embarrassing three-game sweep at home to the New York Yankees earlier this week.

Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow explained the first in-season firing of a Boston manager since 2001 by suggesting it showed commitment to the current season.

“It really comes down to the belief we have in the players, and the belief we have in the group to accomplish what we set out to accomplish,” Breslow said Sunday. “By acting today, it gives us 135 games ahead of us, almost a full season’s worth of run, to take advantage of this fresh start.”

But Story, in the fifth season of a six-year, $140-million deal, is an exception on a young roster that has traded away stars like Mookie Betts, Chris Sale, Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers in the years since Cora guided Boston to a 2018 World Series title in his first season.

The Red Sox have reached only two postseasons since, and only one since Story’s arrival when they made a wild-card appearance in 2025.

“I came here to win and I came here to be successful,” said the 33-year-old Story, who is among the Boston batters struggling with a .198 average, two homers and 17 RBIs. “And we had a flash of that last year. We’re looking to build on that. Obviously not off to a great start. But yeah, some of the direction needs to be cleared up, in my opinion.”

Breslow and interim manager Chad Tracy spoke with the team for roughly eight minutes in a Sunday morning gathering that also included owner John Henry and team president Sam Kennedy, according to reliever Garrett Whitlock. Players did not talk during the meeting.

“They spoke. Yeah, they spoke,” Story said. “There just has to be more conversations had. I wouldn’t say it was satisfactory.”

To reporters, Breslow and Kennedy indicated this was a decision driven by baseball operations after the club had performed particularly poorly on offense.

Despite a 17-1 win over Baltimore Saturday that halted a four-game slide, the Red Sox batters entered Sunday slashing .233/.312/.354 collectively and ranked in the bottom quarter of MLB in most key metrics.

“Ultimately, responsibility for the performance on the field, it falls on me as the leader of baseball operations,” Breslow said. “But so, too, does the responsibility for doing everything I can and the organization can to find solutions. And right now we feel like this change, these changes were warranted.”

Kennedy said Breslow has “made several bold decisions and recommendations.”

"And this was one of them and we fully support it.," he said.

Henry remained in Baltimore Sunday but did not address the media.

“I think it’s evident by his presence here that this was a collaborative decision (with Henry),” Kennedy said.

Tracy makes his MLB managerial debut after six seasons guiding Triple-A Worcester. The son of longtime manager Jim Tracy, he recognized the delicate dynamics of his opportunity.

“I’m toeing that line of sitting here with all of you in this moment, but also acknowledge the relationship with some of the people that are no longer here was strong,” Tracy said. “And you also know that that’s, in a lot of ways, that’s how some of the players feel as well. So, excited, right? But also honoring the people that were before me that were mentors to me.”

Story praised Tracy’s “baseball mind,” but was clearly still emotional about Cora’s firing.

“He had our backs every single day,” Story said. “He was very truthful with players and took bullets for us and did everything you can ask for and more as a manager. I just can’t express how thankful I am to have played for him. Yeah, I’ve got a love for that guy.”

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

The Spurs announced about an hour before tipoff Sunday that Wembanyama could play in Game 4 of the team's first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers after clearing the league's concussion protocol. He went on to score 27 points with 11 rebounds and seven blocks in San Antonio's 114-93 win.

Wembanyama, the league’s first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year, was ruled out of Game 3 on Friday in Portland because of the concussion. The Spurs won 120-108.

“The way the situation was handled was very disappointing,” Wembanyama said Sunday. He would not elaborate, but emphasized that he was not referring to San Antonio's medical staff.

“I’m not saying that not playing was a good or bad decision. It was a decision, I’m not saying it was good or bad," he said. "But the way the situation was handled, very disappointing.”

Wembanyama sustained the concussion in the first half of Tuesday’s 106-103 loss to the Blazers in San Antonio and did not return to the game. He traveled to Portland while continuing to complete the steps mandated by the league’s concussion protocol.

“I won’t get into details, I don’t want it to become a distraction. Ask me again after the end of the season,” Wembanyama said.

A versatile 7-foot-4 forward from France, Wembanyama averaged 25 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists and a league-best 3.1 blocks per game this season.

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said before tipoff Sunday that the team was prepared to play with or without Wembanyama, who was listed as questionable going into the game.

“Fortunately, we have a little experience preparing for a variety of lineups and rotations,” Johnson said. “I think the guys have really empowered us as a staff, I’d say, throughout the season, of being able to have a brand and identity regardless of availability."

With Sunday's win, the Spurs took a 3-1 lead in the first-round series, which shifts to Game 5 in San Antonio on Sunday.

Luke Kornet got the Game 3 start against the Trail Blazers in Wembanyama’s absence, finishing with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Players must clear a series of benchmarks before they are allowed to play under the concussion protocol. The results are compared to baseline neurological evaluations players take at the start of the season.

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

Al menos una persona murió y varios hogares resultaron dañados la noche del sábado en la localidad de Runaway Bay, dijo el juez del condado Wise, J.D. Clark, quien se desempeña como el principal funcionario ejecutivo del condado. Los equipos de emergencia trabajaron para retirar escombros con el fin de llegar a viviendas dañadas y brindar atención médica donde fuera necesario, declaró Clark.

“El acceso ha sido difícil debido a carreteras bloqueadas y a la caída del tendido eléctrico, pero los equipos han seguido avanzando para llegar a quienes lo necesitan", declaró Clark.

La tormenta también azotó Springtown, donde el subjefe de bomberos del condado Parker, David Pruitt, aseveró en un correo electrónico que una segunda persona murió al sur de los límites de la ciudad. Hubo “daños considerables” en el área, dijo Pruitt.

“Uno de los mayores desafíos es el apagón generalizado que afecta a muchos residentes”, escribió.

Equipos del Servicio Meteorológico Nacional confirmaron que un tornado EF-2, con vientos máximos de hasta 217 km/h (135 mph), tocó tierra en el área de Runaway Bay. El servicio meteorológico indicó que se confirmó un tornado EF-1 con vientos máximos de 169 km/h (105 mph) en el área de Springtown.

La supercélula de desplazamiento lento atravesó la zona alrededor de las 10:00 de la noche del sábado, indicó la meteoróloga Patricia Sanchez, de la oficina del servicio meteorológico en Fort Worth.

Se desplazó hacia el sureste desde las inmediaciones de Wichita Falls, cerca de los límites estatales con Oklahoma, pasando justo al oeste de Fort Worth. Runaway Bay está a unos 72 kilómetros (45 millas) al noroeste de Fort Worth, en el lago Bridgeport. Springtown se encuentra a unos 48 kilómetros (unas 30 millas) al noroeste de Fort Worth.

El radar del servicio meteorológico detectó un tornado “potencialmente grande y extremadamente peligroso” cerca de Azle a las 10:14 de la noche del sábado. Eso está a unos 16 kilómetros (unas 10 millas) más al sureste de Springtown.

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

The Palestinian Authority, which administers semiautonomous areas of the West Bank but is left out of the U.S.-drafted ceasefire plan for Gaza, has described Saturday’s local election in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah as a largely symbolic pilot while the authority seeks to politically link the territories.

It was the first election in part of Hamas-run Gaza in more than two decades. Deir al-Balah, like much of the territory, is devastated by two years of war but was spared an Israeli ground invasion. Turnout there was 23%, but officials cited challenges including large-scale displacement and outdated civil registry records.

Hamas, which controls the half of Gaza that Israel withdrew from last year under the current ceasefire, did not field candidates and did not try to block the vote.

Turnout in the West Bank elections was 56%, or over a half-million people, not dramatically different from elections there in recent years.

Many races were not contested, and candidates were required to accept the program of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which leads the Palestinian Authority. The program calls for the recognition of Israel and renouncing armed struggle, effectively sidelining Hamas and other factions.

Election results, then, were dominated by independents and Fatah, the faction that leads the authority and claimed victory.

“Everyone is aware of the political, security and economic conditions, the fragmentation of Palestinian territory, the war on Gaza, and the regional conflict in Iran,” Rami Hamdallah, chair of the Ramallah-based Central Election Commission and a former prime minister, told journalists.

“Simply holding the elections in Deir al-Balah is a significant achievement, and we hope to hold elections in other bodies across the Gaza Strip in the near future,” he said.

The elections in both territories were for the makeup of local councils tasked with overseeing water, roads and electricity.

The elections were the first to take place since reforms were enacted in response to international pressure. Elections now allow voting for individuals rather than slates. With faith in political parties low, they were less important than families and clans in campaigning.

Hamdallah called the vote a reflection of national unity, adding that “we hope that presidential and legislative elections will follow.”

The Palestinian Authority, however, has not held a presidential election in 21 years, and support for it and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has withered during years of corruption and frustration over the sometimes violent advances of Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority is the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people. It was ousted from Gaza after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and violently seized control. Abbas, 90, was elected to what was supposed to be a four-year term in 2005. The authority has not held presidential or legislative elections since 2006.

Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa called Saturday’s elections “another step on the path to full independence.” Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, opposes a Palestinian state.

Many Palestinians want more than local votes as they seek a greater say in their future.

“Municipal elections are an important step, but they are not enough. ... We want general elections,” Bashar Masri, a prominent Palestinian-American business owner, said on social media.

The attack happened Saturday when an explosive device was detonated on a bus traveling along the Pan-American Highway in the municipality of Cajibio. So far, 15 women and five men are among the victims, according to Octavio Guzmán, governor of the region of Cauca.

He wrote on X that the attack injured 36 others, three of whom are in intensive care. Guzmán noted that five of the injured are minors who are expected to recover.

Colombia’s Institute of Legal Medicine said that specialists including dentists, anthropologists and forensic doctors are identifying the victims.

The bombing is the latest attack in the region, with more than two dozen incidents reported in the past three days in southwestern Colombia. The region is home to illegal armed groups who vie for control of coca leaf cultivation areas and for sea and river access routes to run drug trafficking operations to Central America and Europe.

Gen. Hugo López, commander of Colombia’s Armed Forces, has described the incident as a “terrorist act.” He blamed it on the network of a man known as “Iván Mordisco” — one of Colombia’s most wanted figures — and the Jaime Martínez faction. Both are dissidents of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that operate in the region.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the attacks against the civilian population and called on authorities to investigate the incidents and “guarantee justice for the victims.”

Guzmán declared three days of mourning on Sunday in memory of the victims.

The Nuggets bounced the Wolves 4-1 in 2023 on their way to the franchise's first NBA championship but Minnesota won the rematch a year later, capped by a 20-point second-half comeback in Game 7 in Denver.

This year the Nuggets rolled into the playoffs on a 12-game winning streak and handled the Timberwolves in the opener of their Western Conference playoff series only to blow a 19-point lead in Game 2 before getting throttled twice in Minneapolis.

Even with their starting backcourt of Donte DiVincenzo (Achilles) and Anthony Edwards (knee) getting hurt Saturday night, the Wolves raced past the Nuggets 112-96 behind Ayo Dosunmu's career-best 43 points, the most by a reserve in a playoff game in half a century.

Game 5 is in Denver and another flop could send the Nuggets into a stunning early exit and an offseason of change after an injury-marred first full season under coach David Adelman, who has had no answers for the Nuggets' sudden struggles.

The Minnesota-Denver game is the nightcap of a three-game slate Monday, one that also could see the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder get their third consecutive first-round sweep. The Thunder lead Phoenix 3-0, with Game 4 on the Suns’ home floor.

Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning MVP, was a maestro in Game 3, scoring 42 points on 15-for-18 shooting.

“He doesn’t need a ton of direction from me,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of Gilgeous-Alexander. “But I thought he was obviously outstanding. The efficiency was ridiculous. For him to score like that, on 15 of 18, is a really impressive game.”

And leading off the night is Game 4 in Orlando, where the eighth-seeded Magic will aim to take a 3-1 lead over the top-seeded Detroit Pistons in their Eastern Conference quarterfinal matchup.

“Being up 2-1 at home is a good thing, but again, you got to come out and do it again,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said after Saturday’s Game 3 win. “And that’s why I’ll keep saying it’s the one game. ... We’ve got to learn from this game and what we could do better.”

The only fight the Nuggets have put up since their series-opening win came when Nikola Jokic took offense to Jaden McDaniels scoring an uncontested layup with 2.1 seconds left after the Nuggets had conceded their double-digit defeat Saturday night.

Jokic ran from one end of the court to the other to shove McDaniels, who labeled all of the Nuggets bad defenders after Game 2. Players from both teams converged around them to broaden the scuffle. Timberwolves forward Julius Randle, who was livid with Jokic, was ejected along with Denver’s center.

“He scored when we’d stopped playing,” Jokic explained. “You guys saw what happened.”

The NBA reviews all plays, especially altercations, and almost always announces disciplinary action before the next game of the teams involved. It is standard practice for the league office, which could warn, fine or suspend those involved in Saturday’s end-of-game dustup.

The Nuggets have long odds to bounce back and advance. In NBA history, only 13 of 298 teams facing a 3-1 deficit came back to win the series. The last team to do it? The Nuggets in 2020, against both the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Clippers.

Minnesota Timberwolves at Denver Nuggets

When/Where to watch: Game 5: 10:30 p.m. EDT (NBC Peacock)

Series: Wolves lead, 3-1

Betting line: Nuggets by 10 1/2

What to Know: DiVincenzo’s season is over with an Achilles tendon injury and Edwards is facing a long recovery from a bone bruise and hyperextended knee. ... The Nuggets were the highest-scoring team in the NBA this season and were held under 100 points just twice, back in January. But they managed just 96 points in both of their losses in Minneapolis.

Detroit Pistons at Orlando Magic

When/Where to watch: Game 4, 8 p.m. EDT (NBC Peacock, NBC Sports)

Series: Magic leads, 2-1

Betting line: Pistons by 2 1/2

What to Know: Behind 25 points each from Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane, the Magic beat the Pistons Saturday. It’s the 13th time since 1984, when the NBA went to the 16-team format, that a No. 8 seed has taken a 2-1 lead in a first-round series over a No. 1 seed. Of the previous 12, five finished off the upset: Miami in 2023, Philadelphia in 2012, Memphis in 2011, Golden State in 2007 and New York in 1999.

Oklahoma City Thunder at Phoenix Suns

When/Where to watch: Game 4, 9:30 p.m. EDT (NBC Peacock)

Series: Thunder lead, 3-0

Betting line: Thunder by 10 1/2

What to Know: Devin Booker should be ready to play in Game 4 when the Suns try to avoid a four-game sweep after leaving Game 3 briefly because of a left ankle injury he sustained after tripping over Lu Dort’s foot. The five-time All-Star returned a few minutes later and said he was fine. Booker said he thought Dort stuck out his foot a little on the play, but didn’t know if it was on purpose.

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

There is inherent tension in the room, with journalists dressed in finery sharing drinks and food with many of the subjects they cover. That friction was starkly evident this year given President Donald Trump's often contentious relationship with the media.

That ritual was wildly upended Saturday night when a gunman charged the premises, trying to penetrate the hotel ballroom where Trump and Cabinet secretaries were assembled. They were spirited out unharmed and the crowd of 2,300 hunkered down in gasps, confusion, broken plates and spilled wine.

Wait, was that the sound of a gunshot? Trump wondered. Or did some waiter just drop a tray? "I was hoping it was a tray," Trump said. "But it wasn’t.”

Oz Pearlman, the mentalist enlisted as the evening’s entertainer, was performing a magic trick for Trump on stage as shots rang out outside the ballroom, he told The Associated Press, which had two dozen journalists there.

Trump had boycotted previous dinners as president. It was apparent, going into the dinner, that he had things he wanted to say about the media coverage he seems to revile even as it supplies him with oxygen. “I was really ready to rip it,” he said later at the White House.

In cocktail receptions before the dinner, attendees speculated about who would face Trump’s ire and whether he would stick around for the presentation of journalism awards, including a prize for Wall Street Journal reporters who spotlighted Trump’s relationship with disgraced sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

All of that was on plenty of minds as the audience started on spring pea and burrata salad and waiters prepared to serve a main course starring prime chateaubriand and Maine lobster.

A shout of ‘shots fired’

The atmosphere then took a dramatic, fearful turn.

Those seated closest to the doors were the first to respond as security officials shouted “Shots fired." People ducked under tables and chairs, knocking over table settings.

“I heard a pop, but we didn’t know what the hell it was," said Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y. "And then you heard all sorts of things clatter. Then the Secret Service and every detail came flooding in and everybody went down. I took a knee. … I didn’t go under the table.”

The commotion spread almost as a wave toward the stage. For a few moments it appeared as though Trump was a spectator to the disarray, before he, too, was whisked away by his security detail.

As Trump told it, his wife “knew immediately what happened,” while he did not. Melania Trump told him "that’s a bad noise," he said later.

Up front, the gunshots were not immediately distinguishable in the cacophony. Heavily armed Secret Service agents flooded the stage and a broad collection of law enforcement and National Guard descended on the hotel.

Vice President JD Vance was the first to be pulled off stage. Trump and the first lady were initially shielded by his detail behind armored plating placed on the stage. After a few moments the Trumps were also removed from the room. The president briefly stumbled before being assisted to a secure suite reserved for him behind the stage.

In response to shouts for everyone to get down, one administration official at a media table crawled under it, with just her high heels poking out.

Security agents fished VIPs from the crowd, among them Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and senior White House advisers Stephen Miller and Dan Scavino. Someone tried to start a “U.S.A” chant as Trump was taken out, before being shushed by others in the room.

Erika Kirk, widow of assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk, was seen in tears as she was escorted from the ballroom. Others in the crowd traded hugs as they were leaving the event site. It was quickly clear that there were no serious injuries in the room.

Suspect ran past barricades before being tackled

Police said the suspect had a shotgun, a handgun and knives, and stormed the lobby, running past security barricades as Secret Service agents raced toward him. One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was recovering, officials said. The gunman was tackled and taken into custody and was not injured, but was being evaluated at a hospital.

The shooting suspect was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California.

Some guests had fled the ballroom immediately through the warren of hallways surrounding it. Staff directed people to emergency exits. Outside, guests had to walk for blocks to get outside of streets blocked by police vehicles. Helicopters hovered.

Trump remained at the hotel for some time. It was a secure site that was set up at the Washington Hilton after the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan occurred as he was leaving the same hotel.

Trump was itching for the dinner to proceed once security had been reestablished. Hotel staff was refolding napkins, refilling water glasses and aides adjusted the teleprompter for his remarks. But he deferred to security protocols and insisted the event would be rescheduled for sometime in the coming 30 days.

Back at the White House late in the evening, he said his piece.

“When you’re impactful they go after you," said Trump, the subject of two assassination attempts. “I’m not a basket case."

He added about the night and the interrupted gala: “I see so many tuxedos and beautiful dresses. It was a little different evening than we thought. But we’re going to do it again.”

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Associated Press writers Collin Binkley, Roberta Rampton, Anna Johnson, Aamer Madhani, Mary Clare Jalonick, Tia Goldenberg, Courtney Bonnell, Darlene Superville and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation inspection report from August found that 21 sloths imported from Guyana died at an Orlando facility called Sanctuary World Imports in December 2024 when temperatures dropped into the 40-to-55 degree Fahrenheit (4.4 to 12.8 degrees Celsius) range.

Sloths are unable to regulate their body temperature as well as other mammals and do best in the 68-to-85 degree Fahrenheit (20 to 30 degrees Celsius) range, according to the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Peter Bandre, listed as the facility licensee in the report, said that the animals died of what he called a “cold stun.” The building had no water and no electricity and wasn't ready to receive the animals, he said, but it was too late to cancel the shipment. The facility purchased space heaters but the heaters tripped a fuse and shut down, leaving the sloths alone without heat for at least one night.

The facility later ordered 10 sloths from Peru, which arrived in February 2025. Two were dead on arrival. The rest appeared emaciated and died of what the report termed “poor health issues.” Bandre said that he planned to interview for a new veterinarian, the facility's third, according to the state report.

Bandre did not immediately return a message The Associated Press left at a number listed for Sanctuary World Imports on the August report.

According to reports detailing follow-up state inspections in March 2026, Sanctuary World President Benjamin Agresta said he had changed the name to Sloth World Inc. and that Bandre was no longer affiliated with the business. A voicemail and text that the AP left Sunday at the number listed in the March reports for Sloth World Inc. were not immediately returned.

Inspectors reported the March inspections at the facility where the sloths from Guyana died revealed independent heat and air conditioning with a temperature constantly set at 82 degrees Fahrenheit (27.8 degrees Celsisus). They did not observe any issues with the sloths the facility was holding.

Hasta el momento se registran 15 mujeres y cinco hombres fallecidos, todos mayores de edad, detalló en X el gobernador del Cauca, Octavio Guzmán. Sobre los heridos, precisó que tres permanecen en cuidados intensivos y cinco menores se encuentran “fuera de peligro”.

El Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal indicó que hasta el final de la jornada se han identificado 15 cuerpos que fueron entregados a sus familiares.

El ataque ocurrió el sábado, cuando un artefacto explosivo detonó al paso de un autobús que circulaba sobre la vía Panamericana en el sector El Túnel, en Cajibío, departamento del Cauca, que junto al aledaño Valle del Cauca han soportado una arremetida violenta en los últimos días.

La Gobernación caucana declaró el domingo tres días de luto en memoria de las víctimas.

“Fueron personas muy inocentes, había niños, familias que salieron de sus trabajos y vinieron a llevar sus mercados”, lamentó el sábado Miyer Reinoso, testigo del hecho, en diálogo con The Associated Press.

La potente explosión dejó un cráter de 200 metros cúbicos en la carretera y más de una decena de vehículos reducidos a hierros retorcidos. El concesionario de la vía anunció pasado el mediodía que logró restablecer la circulación en la Panamericana.

Esa región es considerada un punto clave para las economías ilícitas de grupos armados ilegales que se encuentran en permanente disputa por el control de las áreas de cultivo de hoja de coca y la ruta de acceso marítimo y fluvial para el tráfico de droga hacia Centroamérica y Europa.

Las autoridades de seguridad colombianas cifraron en 26 los atentados “criminales” en esa zona durante los últimos días, mismos que adjudicaron a la facción Jaime Martínez de las disidencias de las desaparecidas Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC).

El presidente Gustavo Petro calificó a los autores de “terroristas, fascistas y narcotraficantes”, al mando de alias “Marlon”, quien comanda a las disidencias en esa zona del país andino y hombre cercano a alias “Iván Mordisco” —uno de los más buscados de Colombia.

En tanto, la vicepresidenta Francia Márquez exigió el domingo en un comunicado que las fuerzas militares detengan “esta ola terrorista” y cuestionó que labores de inteligencia no hayan prevenido el hecho.

El gobierno aumentó a 5.000 millones de pesos (más de un millón de dólares) la recompensa por información que permita la captura de alias “Marlon”, cuyo nombre es Iván Jacob Idrobo Arredondo.

La jornada violenta arreció desde el viernes cuando dos vehículos acondicionados con explosivos detonaron cerca de dos unidades militares, uno en la capital vallecaucana Cali y otro en la aledaña Palmira, causando daños materiales.

Un día después se registraron agresiones múltiples con disparos y daños a un sistema de radares en diversos puntos de esos departamentos sin dejar heridos.

El Alto Comisionado para los Derechos Humanos de la ONU rechazó las acciones armadas en contra de la población civil y pidió a las autoridades competentes a investigar los hechos y “garantizar justicia para las víctimas”.

La Comunidad Andina de Naciones se sumó a la condena.

La estatal Consejería Comisionada de Paz instó el domingo a los grupos armados ilegales a “cesar de inmediato" sus acciones violentas” contra la población civil pues ninguna causa justifica su “sufrimiento y afectación a sus derechos fundamentales”, citó un comunicado. Al gobierno solicitó tomar todas las medidas de protección y presencia integral en sus territorios para garantizar la paz.

Los diálogos entre el gobierno y las disidencias de las extintas FARC se suspendieron en 2024 tras un ataque armado a una comunidad del Cauca en el que falleció una líder indígena. Sectores de oposición han cuestionado la política de “paz total” impulsada por Petro asegurando que no ha cesado la violencia y alienta la impunidad.

Petro, el primer gobernante de izquierda en el país andino, terminará su mandato en agosto, y los comicios presidenciales para definir al próximo presidente serán el 31 de mayo.

Trailing to Jule Brand's 19th-minute goal for record eight-time champion Lyon, Arsenal was gifted an equalizer in the 59th when Mariona Caldentey's low free kick into the area was fumbled backward by goalkeeper Christiane Endler and onto the post. Lyon center back Ingrid Engen, stretching to make the clearance, inadvertently turned the ball into her own net.

Engen compounded that mistake by misreading a back-pass from teammate Lindsey Heaps in the 83rd minute. Olivia Smith got to the ball ahead of Engen, had a shot saved by Endler, and recovered to convert the rebound.

The return match is in Lyon on Saturday.

In the other semifinal, Bayern Munich and Barcelona are locked at 1-1 after the first leg in Germany.

The final will be in Oslo on May 23.

Arsenal is seeking to beat Lyon in the semifinal stage for a second straight year. Last season, Lyon won the first leg at Emirates Stadium but was thrashed 4-1 in the second match en route to Arsenal winning the title for the second time.

This time, Arsenal holds the advantage at halfway.

“Lyon are giants of European football and have a great crowd like we do,” Arsenal captain Leah Williamson said. "So an intensity that matches that occasion will be key. We have to be really clinical, defensively secure and we’ll see.”

A tight first half was illuminated by the solo goal from Brand, who ran through the heart of Arsenal's defense down the inside-left channel and cut into the area before shooting low inside the post.

In between Arsenal's goals, Lyon forward Kadidiatou Diani crashed a shot off the crossbar.

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

The full episode can be seen at the top of this page.

Wars with Iran and its proxies haven’t gone according to plan for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that could mean trouble for Israel’s longest-serving prime minister in elections scheduled for later this year. Many Israelis are dissatisfied with the Netanyahu government’s wartime leadership, according to a recent poll.

At the start of the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran in late February, Netanyahu said the goal was to degrade the Islamic Republic's military, eradicate its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and create the conditions for its overthrow. While Iran’s military has been badly damaged, it is still a threat to neighbors and ships in the Strait of Hormuz — and Netanyahu's other goals remained unfulfilled when a ceasefire was announced earlier this month.

Israel’s latest war with Hezbollah in Lebanon has also been cut short. Netanyahu said he agreed to a truce at the request of Trump but that Israel was “not finished yet” with the Iran-backed militant group; Israeli forces are still occupying a 10-kilometer- (6-mile-) deep swath of southern Lebanon.

The recent poll showing Israelis' dissatisfaction comes on top of the unresolved war in Gaza – another instance in which Trump pressured Netanyahu to wind down military operations. More than two years after Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, the Iran-backed militant group is weakened but still standing.

“After 925 days of fighting since October 7, Israel has failed to achieve decisive victory on any front,” wrote Yoav Limor, a prominent military affairs commentator. “At the end of yet another war, it is perceived as a country whose decisions are not made in Jerusalem, but in Washington.”

For his part, Netanyahu has cast the war with Iran as a success, a preemptive strike against an “existential” threat. “We crushed the Iranian regime’s destruction machine in advance,” he recently said.

Frustrations with Netanyahu’s government have persisted

Trust in Netanyahu’s government nose-dived after the deadly 2023 Hamas attack. He spent the next two years waging a fierce retaliatory campaign against Hamas and its allies and secured the release of dozens of hostages from Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal.

Israel has also enjoyed a number of military successes against Iran and its Lebanese proxy, the Hezbollah militant group. But these gains do not appear to have benefited Netanyahu personally. While the latest wars against Iran and Hezbollah were widely supported, the inconclusive outcomes have left many Israelis feeling fatigued and disappointed.

“People were disappointed because it hadn’t achieved the goals,” said Dahlia Scheindlin, a political analyst in Tel Aviv.

A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute, a centrist think tank in Jerusalem, during the first week of the war against Iran found a solid majority of respondents, 64%, trusted Netanyahu to direct the campaign. But a second poll in the days after the April 8 ceasefire found that Israelis rated the management of the war by the government — not just Netanyahu — more negatively than positively.

The poll, which was conducted before the U.S. brokered and extended the ceasefire in Lebanon, also found that a majority of Israelis thought the fighting in Lebanon against Hezbollah should continue.

Pushed into two ceasefires, back to back

Since the ceasefires with Iran and Hezbollah, Israelis have begun to question whether the relationship between Netanyahu and Trump — and Israel and the United States — is as strong as it was before the wars began.

Though Trump's interests have at times diverged from those of Netanyahu, the U.S. president has continued to publicly laud Israel. He wrote on Truth Social recently that "whether people like Israel or not, they have proven to be a GREAT Ally of the United States of America.”

He said Thursday that he'd host Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House in the “near future" for talks on the truce, describing it as an honor.

Israelis have their doubts.

In the Israel Democracy Institute’s poll, most Israelis said there was a “fairly” or “very” low likelihood that the agreement reached between the U.S. and Iran would take Israel’s security into account to an appropriate degree.

Asked about the leaders' relationship, Netanyahu's office declined to comment. But an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations said Trump and Netanyahu still speak every day.

Late last year, Netanyahu announced he would award the Israel Prize, one of the country’s highest honors, to Trump, making him the first foreign leader to receive it. Israel invited Trump to formally accept the award in Jerusalem on April 22, as part of the country’s 78th celebration of its independence.

The day came and went without a Trump visit.

In northern Israel, anger and fear are palpable

The ceasefire with Lebanon has stoked deep disappointment in Israeli towns near the border that have endured a month and a half of missile fire from Hezbollah.

“I live 100 meters from the border," said Asaf Oakil, a resident of Kiryat Shmona. “The ceasefire? It’s a mistake.”

Shops are still closed and protests have broken out in recent days, with much of the anger directed at Netanyahu.

“I really hope that the residents of the north will learn from this and vote for someone who can help us here, not someone who brings us down and buries us," said Shosh Tsaoula, another resident of Kiryat Shmona.

Netanyahu’s government is in the final months of its four-year term and is required to hold elections by the end of October.

Two opposition politicians — Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid — announced Sunday that they would join forces in the next election. Another popular opposition figure, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, is also expected to team up with the two men.

Nadav Eyal, a commentator with the Israeli Yediot Ahronoth daily newspaper, said that Netanyahu is in “big trouble” if he cannot convince Israelis that the wars with Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas have led to lasting security gains.

“With unstable ceasefires that can lapse at any given point, voters will be not happy about it.”

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AP reporters Ibrahim Hazboun and Sam Metz in Jerusalem contributed reporting.

Enzo Fernandez’s 23rd-minute header secured Chelsea a 1-0 win over Leeds in the semifinals on Sunday, setting up a meeting with Manchester City in the May 16 title match back at Wembley Stadium.

Chelsea’s run in the FA Cup is salvaging a campaign that has veered off the rails after a humiliating exit from the Champions League — 8-2 on aggregate to Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 — and five straight losses in the Premier League that marks the team’s worst run of league results in 114 years and led to the midweek dismissal of manager Liam Rosenior.

Calum McFarlane, Rosenior’s unheralded and inexperienced assistant, has taken control of Chelsea until the end of the season and he will now be leading the team back out at Wembley next month, in search of what would be the club's ninth FA Cup title and a first since 2018.

“It was important to break the momentum and the form we were in," McFarlane said. “We were confident we would do that today and I think this completely changes the feel within the group.”

Fernandez makes amends after controversy

Fernandez met a right-wing cross from Pedro Neto with a firm header low into the net for the only goal. The Argentina midfielder recently courted controversy by speaking publicly about wanting to live in Madrid, earning him a two-match suspension by the team, but McFarlane was happy to give Fernandez the captain's armband against Leeds.

“He's a winner — he's got so much talent, so much fight, he's massive for this group,” McFarlane said.

Leeds, seeking to reach a first FA Cup final since 1973, piled on the pressure in the second half and Sanchez notably produced a stunning, one-handed save to keep out a piledriver from Anton Stach.

“You could feel the boys were a bit too nervous today to be at their free-flowing best,” said Leeds manager Daniel Farke, whose priority this season has been to keep the team in the Premier League.

“They always had an answer to all our questions that we asked,” he added about Chelsea. "It’s hard to take anyhow, but nevertheless I’m proud of the cup run.”

Chelsea will try to stop City's treble bid

City rallied to beat second-tier Southampton 2-1 on Saturday to advance to the final and stay on course for a domestic treble. Pep Guardiola's team already has won the English League Cup and is battling with Arsenal for the Premier League title.

McFarlane also briefly took charge of Chelsea between the firing of Enzo Maresca and the hiring of Rosenior in January. Of his two games at the helm, one was a 1-1 draw at City in the league.

“They're an exceptional side in really good form,” McFarlane said of City, where he once had a spell as a coach in its academy. “So it's going to be a massive challenge but I think there's something about this (Chelsea) group — the bigger the game, the tougher the opponent and the circumstance, they seem to raise their level.”

Chelsea was most recently in the FA Cup final in 2022, when it lost to Liverpool on penalties. That marked a third straight loss in the competition's title match and Chelsea has lost its last six domestic cup finals.

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

State Rep. Kevin Chambliss, a Democrat who represents parts of Miami-Dade County, and State Rep. Tom Fabricio, a Republican who also represents parts of Miami-Dade County, joined “This Week in South Florida” host Glenna Milberg to discuss, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Howard Hepburn joined “This Week in South Florida” host Glenna Milberg to discuss, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

Miami-Dade County Commission Chairman Anthony Rodriguez joined “This Week in South Florida” host Glenna Milberg to discuss, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

A highly authorized portrayal of the King of Pop, co-produced by the Jackson estate, Lionsgate’s “Michael” far surpassed previous biopic top performers like “Straight Outta Compton” (a $60.2 million debut in 2015) and “Bohemian Rhapsody” ($51 million in 2018).

International sales were also strong. “Michael” collected $120.4 million overseas, to give it a $217.4 million global opening — a new high for a music biopic. Universal picked up distribution in most international markets.

A few weeks back, estimates for “Michael” were closer to $50 million. Going into the weekend, the studio estimated closer to $70 million. But it wildly overperformed.

"From the beginning, all of the signals were that something like this was possible," said Adam Fogelson, Lionsgate chairman. “We were seeing massive engagement with every conceivable audience segment that you could identify.”

Even in the lucrative market of music biopics, “Michael” was an audacious bet by Lionsgate on an extraordinarily popular but controversial figure. The reputation of Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50, has been repeatedly tarnished by allegations of sexual abuse of children. Jackson and his estate have maintained his innocence, though the pop star acknowledged sharing a bedroom with other people’s children. He was acquitted in his sole criminal trial in 2005.

Some Jackson family members opposed the film. Janet Jackson was uninvolved and doesn’t appear in it. Jackson’s daughter, Paris, called it “fantasy land.” But three years after “Leaving Neverland,” the 2009 documentary about Jackson’s alleged sexual abuse of children, “Bohemian Rhapsody” producer Graham King announced plans for the biopic. Jackson’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, was cast to star.

“Michael” had an unusually rocky production. After shooting was completed, producers realized they had made a costly mistake. The third act focused on the accusations of Jordan Chandler, then 13 years old, whom Jackson paid $23 million to in a 1994 settlement. The terms of that settlement barred the Jackson estate from ever mentioning Chandler in a movie.

A huge chunk of the film had to be cut. Reshoots for as much as $50 million were done at the estate’s expense. Director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter John Logan reworked the movie to conclude in 1988, before any accusations were made.

“I would take issue with the idea that we as a studio or as filmmakers were running around in a panic," said Fogelson. “It was definitely a unique and challenging circumstance to figure out how to work through. But it created an opportunity to tell more story than any one film could possibly contain.”

Yet as bad as things once looked for “Michael,” the movie turned into a huge hit. The film’s total production cost came close to $200 million. To defray costs, Lionsgate sold international distribution rights to Universal. A sequel is in development. A third film after that, Fogelson said, is “not inconceivable.”

“The audience spoke loud and clear," Fogelson said. “The portion of Michael's life that this story tells couldn't have gotten into those allegations because the allegations themselves hadn't happened in the period this movie existed. I think the audience is judging it on those terms. We'll see what happens as we move into the possibility of subsequent films.”

Critics slammed the film for glossing over some of the less convenient aspects of Jackson’s life. It scored a paltry 38% on Rotten Tomatoes. But audiences were far more enthusiastic. “Michael” earned an “A-” CinemaScore.

“It’s only human nature to enjoy yourself at the movie theater,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends for Comscore. “The movie was perfectly positioned ahead of the start of the summer movie season which launches later this week with the ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ that is also poised to outpace even the most generous opening weekend projections.”

The opening for “Michael” added to a strong spring for Hollywood boosted by box-office hits like Amazon MGM’s “Project Hail Mary” and Universal’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.” After three weeks atop the box office, the “Mario” sequel slid to second place, with $21.2 million. In four weeks, it’s collected $386.5 million domestically and $445 million internationally.

Meanwhile, “Project Hail Mary” surged past $600 million worldwide in its sixth weekend of release. The film's total haul for Amazon MGM stands at $305.3 million domestic and $613.3 million globally.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. “Michael,” $97 million.

2. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” $21.2 million.

3. “Project Hail Mary,” $13.2 million.

4. “Lee Cronin's The Mummy,” $5.6 million.

5. “The Drama,” $2.6 million.

6. “Hoppers,” $1.9 million.

7. “You, Me & Tuscany,” $1.5 million.

8. “Over Your Dead Body,” $1.4 million.

9. “Mother Mary,” $1.2 million.

10. “American Youngboy,” $1.2 million.

Edwards has a bone bruise and also hyperextended the knee, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced details or a return-to-play timeline.

ESPN and The Athletic first reported the diagnosis on Edwards.

Edwards was hurt in the first half of Minnesota's 112-96 win over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night, a victory that gave the Timberwolves a 3-1 lead in that series. But the Wolves also lost fellow starting guard Donte DiVincenzo in that game with a torn Achilles tendon, meaning his season is over and his 2026-27 season is likely in great jeopardy as well.

Game 5 of the series is Monday night in Denver.

DiVincenzo was having surgery to repair the Achilles on Sunday in New York, the Timberwolves announced. That timeframe — surgery one day after the injury — follows what Boston’s Jayson Tatum did after he sufferend the same injury in last season’s playoffs. Tatum started rehab quickly and missed about 10 months, returning for the final stretch of this season. If DiVincenzo follows the same timeline, he could be back before the end of next season.

Edwards is one of the NBA's most dynamic players, someone who — if he had met the league's eligibility criteria by playing in a few more games — would have been a lock to make the All-NBA team for a third consecutive season.

He averaged 28.8 points in the regular season, third best in the NBA behind Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers and reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Edwards also averaged five rebounds and 3.7 assists per game.

Edwards was fourth in scoring for the U.S. Olympic team that won a gold medal at the Paris Games in 2024. He missed 21 games this season, by far the most of his career.

This injury happened with him on the defensive end, while he was contesting a layup attempt by Denver's Cam Johnson. Edwards leaped in an effort to block the shot, and when he landed his left leg appeared to be at an unusual angle. His knee buckled, and when he hobbled off the floor he seemed unable to put much if any weight on that leg.

Timberwolves forward Julius Randle said he didn't see DiVincenzo before leaving the arena, and he had a quiet exchange with Edwards when he saw him in the locker room.

“I just dapped him up,” Randle said. “There's not much to say in those moments. ... Somebody who's going through those situations is processing a lot.”

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

She joined “This Week in South Florida” host Glenna Milberg to discuss, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

El incidente ocurrió alrededor de las 8:41 a.m. del domingo en el área de Northwest 17th Street y Third Avenue en Miami.

Según Miami Fire Rescue, los primeros respondedores llegaron a la escena y encontraron a un hombre de 77 años atrapado debajo de un trolebús.

Las autoridades indicaron que el Equipo de Rescate Técnico de Miami actuó con rapidez y utilizó un sistema de bolsas de aire para elevar el trolebús y sacar al hombre de debajo.

El hombre fue trasladado al Centro de Trauma Ryder del Jackson Memorial Hospital en estado crítico, según las autoridades.

Hasta el momento no hay información sobre las circunstancias que llevaron al hombre a quedar atrapado bajo el trolebús.

It was held Sunday morning in Brickell.

The event was created to support the Cleo Institute.

The mission of the non-profit is bringing awareness about what the group says is extreme weather, climate change, and other environmental concerns.

The run is three miles, but supporters say the journey to save the planet is endless.

Food vendors and other street vendors were on hand, as well we familiar faces like Zoo Miami’s Ron Magill who are concerned that Florida’s increasing heat and violent storms are trying to tell us something, that danger signs on Earth cannot be ignored.

Hundreds of runners pounded the pavement for the MADD Dash 5K.

They’re on a mission to encourage drivers to make smarter decisions before getting behind the wheel.

Heather Geronemus established the event 15 years ago in honor of her father, who was killed by a drunk driver in Miami back in 2009.

“Everyone has the power to end drunk driving,” she said. “Just have to plan ahead for a safe and sober ride home when your plans include alcohol.”

While the tragedy still weighs heavy, Geronemus pushed through, turning her pain into purpose.

“My father was crossing the street on foot after a medical conference dinner, and he was struck by a drunk driver, and he died in the middle of Brickell,” she said. “So my dad, Dr. Robert Geronemus, a lifesaver, was killed in an instant by a person who made a terrible decision to drink all day and ultimately impacted my father and my family forever. Mothers Against Drunk Driving supported me when really no one else could, and when I was able, a year or two later, I started to think about how we could bring the community together before tragedy, because nobody wants that call from a stranger.”

Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid served as prime ministers in a rotation agreement as part of a coalition government they formed in 2021, ending 12 years of Netanyahu's rule. Now they plan to merge their parties into single faction headed by Bennett, calling it a partnership between the center and the right.

Bennett said if elected, the new government on its first day would establish a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel that started the war, an issue that has dogged Netanyahu.

There have been calls in Israel for a public inquiry into the failures around the Oct. 7 attack, the deadliest on Israel in its history.

Lapid urged Israel's political center to unite behind Bennett, adding that “this country needs unity like air to breathe."

Bennett had served as prime minister for the first year of their 2021 agreement until the coalition fractured. Lapid then held the top job as caretaker prime minister for the final six months until elections brought Netanyahu back to power.

Lapid has served as Israel's opposition leader since that time, while Bennett took a break from politics.

The two men have ideological differences. Bennett is an Orthodox Jew with hard-line views toward the Palestinians, while Lapid is secular and seen as more moderate. But they enjoyed a close working relationship during their short-lived coalition.

“We have been through a great deal together. We have made difficult decisions together. We know we can count on one another,” Lapid said.

Their alliance is aimed at uniting a fragmented opposition that appears to have little in common beyond their shared hostility toward Netanyahu.

The president was uninjured and was rushed off the stage. The armed man, who officials said was a guest at the Washington Hilton where the dinner was being held, was taken into custody and was expected in court Monday. Police believe he opened fire and acted alone but did not say who was his intended target or describe a motive.

“When you’re impactful, they go after you. When you’re not impactful, they leave you alone,” Trump, safe and uninjured and still in his tuxedo, said at the White House two hours later. “They seem to think he was a lone wolf.”

The shooting unfolded just outside the vast subterranean ballroom holding thousands of dinner guests, disrupting minutes after it began an annual event meant to honor journalism and the First Amendment that was being especially scrutinized this year because it was the first time since Trump became president that he had attended. Trump told reporters later that he hoped the event would be rescheduled within 30 days, though the fact that an armed man was able to rush toward the ballroom raised instant questions about security precautions at an event attended each year by senior government officials.

Video posted by Trump showed the suspect running past security barricades as Secret Service agents ran toward him. One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was recovering, officials said. The gunman was tackled to the ground and was not injured, but was being evaluated at a hospital, police said.

The shooting suspect was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. He is facing two firearm-related charges, including a count of assaulting an officer with a deadly weapon.

Inside the ballroom, guests scurried for cover at the sound of shots while Secret Service agents, including the heavily-armed counterassault team, swarmed the stage after the incident.

Vice President JD Vance was removed from the room first, while agents initially covered Trump in place before escorting him and first lady Melania Trump from the room. Trump briefly stumbled on the way offstage, before being assisted by his security detail.

He was held for some time in a secure presidential suite at the hotel as the president and organizers initially sought to resume the event -- hotel staff refolded napkins and refilled water glasses, and aides adjusted the teleprompter for the president -- before Trump was returned to the White House on the advice of the Secret Service.

It was the third time since 2024 that the president had been under threat by an attacker in his immediate vicinity — including the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, that injured him and killed a local firefighter.

“Today we need levels of security that probably nobody has ever seen before,” the president said. But he also said, “We’re not going to let anybody take over our society.”

FBI Director Kash Patel, flanking Trump, said the agency is examining a long gun and shell casings recovered from the scene, as well as interviewing witnesses from the dinner. He urged anyone with information to come forward.

Dinner turns to disorder

Guests were dining on a spring pea and burrata salad when noise began — noise Trump said he initially thought was a tray dropping but some journalists believed were five to eight gunshots.

The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the room as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. Audible gasps echoed through the ballroom as guests realized something was happening; hundreds of journalists immediately got on phones to call in information.

“Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck. From one corner, a “God Bless America” chant began as the president was escorted offstage. Outside the hotel, members of the National Guard and other authorities flooded the area as helicopters circled overhead.

After an initial attempt to resume, the event was scrapped for the night and will be rescheduled.

“We will do this again,” said Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. Shortly afterward, staff began breaking down table settings and the presidential lectern.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he and his wife, Kelly, who both attended the event, were “praying for our country tonight.” The House Democratic leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, wrote on social media, “The violence and chaos in America must end.”

The banquet hall — where hundreds of prominent journalists, celebrities and national leaders were awaiting Trump’s remarks — was immediately evacuated. Members of the National Guard took up position inside the building as people were allowed to leave but not immediately reenter. Security outside was also extremely tight.

Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, a guest at the dinner, said he heard a pop and “we didn’t know what the hell it was. And then you heard all sorts of things clatter.” Lawler said he gets “death threats often” and said, “I think we live in a climate where everybody recognizes it’s a problem, but I don’t think people fully appreciate how much of a problem it really is.”

The event had initially appeared set to resume after the disorder. Servers refolded napkins and refilled water glasses in preparation for Trump’s return. Another worker prepared the president’s teleprompter for the remarks he was scheduled to make.

Generally, the Hilton hotel, where the dinner has taken place for years, remains open to regular guests during the correspondents’ dinner, and security has typically been focused on the ballroom rather than the hotel at large, with little screening for people not entering the dinner itself. In past years, that has created openings for disruptions in the lobby and other public spaces, including protests in which security moved to remove guests who unfurled banners or staged demonstrations.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr. outside the Hilton — an event that prompted redesigns of the property that increased security and added a special presidential suite near the entrance where chief executives could be taken. Trump was dispatched there briefly after the incident Saturday night.

Event would have highlighted Trump’s relationship with press

Trump’s attendance at Saturday’s annual dinner in Washington for his first time as president was expected to put his administration’s often-contentious relationship with the press on full public display.

Trump arrived to an event where the leaders of a nation at war mingled with celebrities, journalists and even a puppet — Triumph the Insult Comic Dog — in a dinner that typically generates debate about whether the relationship between journalists and their sources should include socializing together and putting aside sometimes adversarial relationships.

Trump was being watched closely at the event held by the organization of reporters who cover him and his administration. Past presidents who have attended have generally spoken about the importance of free speech and the First Amendment, adding in some light roasts about individual journalists.

The Republican president did not attend during his first term or the first year of his second. He came as a guest in 2011, sitting in the audience as President Barack Obama, a Democrat, made some jokes about the New York real estate developer. Trump also attended as a private citizen in 2015.

Trump entered the banquet hall of the Washington Hilton to the strains of “Hail to the Chief” and greeted prominent journalists on the dais, also pausing to laud White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt with a cheerful pointing of his finger.

Past dinners have also featured comedians who poke at presidents. This year, the group opted to hire mentalist Oz Pearlman as the featured entertainment.

Between berating individual reporters, fighting organizations like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press in court and restricting press access to the Pentagon, the administration’s animus toward journalists has been a fixture of Trump’s second term.

A few dozen protesters stood across the hotel in the run-up to the event. One was dressed in a prison uniform, wearing a Pete Hegseth mask and red gloves. Another carried a sign saying, “Journalism is dead.”

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AP journalists Eric Tucker, Michael Balsamo, Zeke Miller and Anna Johnson contributed to this report. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

The announcement by Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina removes a big hurdle to Trump's effort to install Kevin Warsh, a former high-ranking Fed official, in the job in place of Jerome Powell, long under White House pressure to lower interest rates. Tillis' opposition was enough to stall the nomination in the GOP-controlled Senate Banking Committee as Powell neared the scheduled end of his term on May 15.

“I am prepared to move on with the confirmation of Mr. Warsh. I think he’s going to be a great Fed chair,” Tillis told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” two days after the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia said her office’s investigation of the Fed’s multibillion-dollar building renovations was over. Powell's brief congressional testimony last summer about that work was also under review.

The Fed's internal watchdog is scrutinizing a project, now at $2.5 billion after earlier estimates had put it at $1.9 billion, that the Republican president has criticized for cost overruns. Powell had asked in July for the inspector general's review.

“I believe that there will not be any wrongdoing. Maybe we find a little stupid here in terms of somebody responsible for the project making a decision they shouldn't? Maybe. But it doesn’t rise to a criminal prosecution. That was my problem to begin with because I feel like there were prosecutors in D.C. that thought this was going to be a lever to have Mr. Powell leave early," he said.

Tillis, who infuriated Trump in June for opposing his big tax and spending cuts bill over Medicaid reductions and then announced he would not seek reelection in 2026, added that he had received assurances from the Justice Department that “the case is completely and fully settled … and that the only way an investigation would be opened would be a criminal referral from one of the most respect inspector generals.”

Important week for Fed leadership

The committee on Saturday said it planned to vote Wednesday on Warsh's nomination. The ranking Democrat, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, responded with a statement that "no Republican claiming to care about Fed independence should support moving forward the nomination of Kevin Warsh, who proved in his nomination hearing to be nothing more than President Trump’s sock puppet.”

Also Wednesday, Fed policymakers will meet and are expected to keep their key interest rate unchanged for the third straight meeting, shrugging off Trump's demands for a cut. At a news conference, Powell could indicate whether he will remain on the Fed's board of governors after his term as chair ends, an unusual but not completely unprecedented step that would deny Trump the opportunity to fill another seat on the seven-member board. Powell's term as a governor lasts until January 2028.

At a hearing last week, Warsh told senators he never promised the White House that he would cut interest rates and pledged to be “an independent actor” if confirmed as chair. Hours before that, Trump had been asked in a CNBC interview whether he would be disappointed if Warsh did not immediately cut rates. “I would,” the president said.

Without the constraints of a political campaign, Tillis has spoken out forcefully about Powell, decrying the inquiry by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a longtime Trump ally, as a “vindictive prosecution” and suggested it threatened the Fed’s longtime independence from day-to-day politics. Tillis told NBC that he had gotten assurances from the Justice Department that he needed "to feel like they were not using DOJ as a weapon to threaten the independence of the Fed. So this will allow Mr. Warsh to move on with his confirmation.”

On Saturday, Trump was asked by reporters whether there was now smooth sailing for Warsh with the end of the Justice Department's investigation. “I imagine it's smooth,” Trump said, adding that his nominee “is going to be fantastic.” The president said he still wanted to find out “how can a building of that size cost ... whatever it’s going to be.”

Trump visited the Fed building in July and, in front of television cameras, said the renovations would run $3.1 billion. Powell, standing next to him, said after looking at a paper presented to him by Trump, that the president's latest price tag was incorrect.

Justice Department pursues Trump adversaries

The investigation was among several undertaken by the Justice Department into Trump’s perceived adversaries. For months it had failed to gain traction as prosecutors struggled to articulate a basis to suspect criminal conduct. Other efforts by the department to prosecute Trump’s adversaries, including New York state Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, and former FBI Director James Comey, have also been unsuccessful.

Last month, a federal judge quashed Justice Department subpoenas issued to the Fed in the investigation, describing their purpose as “to harass and pressure Powell to resign” and open the path for a new chair. A prosecutor handling the Powell case had acknowledged at a closed-door court hearing that the government had not found any evidence of a crime.

Pirro said Friday on X that she “will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so.” The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, told NBC on Sunday that ”there is no doubt that we will investigate" if the inspector general finds evidence of criminal conduct.

Warsh is a financier and former member of the Fed’s board of governors. Trump nominated him in January.

The best chance for some of those storms is between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and some of these storms could have small hail and over an inch of rain in spots. It’ll heat up into the upper 80s before those cooling storms arrive so get ready to sweat out there today!

You’ll find cooling relief at the beaches however with that seabreeze keeping it in the lower 80s today. The risk of rip currents is low today so enjoy a cool dip in the water. Scattered afternoon storms are likely tomorrow and possibly Tuesday too before a drier, hotter airmass moves in by midweek.

Wiesberger, who qualified for the 2021 Ryder Cup, avoided the mistakes that cost Otaegui. The Spaniard had a three-shot lead on the back nine only to drop shots on both par 3s at Shanghai Enhance Anting Golf Club.

Otaegui came to the par-5 18th needing birdie to force a playoff and hit his tee shot into a bush to the right. He wound up with a double bogey for a 71 to finish three shots behind.

Wiesberger finished on 19-under 265 for his ninth career European title, and first since winning in Denmark in 2021 that helped him make the Ryder Cup team at Whistling Straits. He lost all three of his matches in a rare American victory.

Wiesberger was among the first players to join Saudi-backed LIV Golf in 2022 and played two seasons before his contract ended and he returned to the European tour.

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

“It’s always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that never changes," a subdued Trump told reporters in a hastily organized news conference at the White House late Saturday.

Only a short time before, a man with guns and knives tried to rush past the security perimeter inside the Washington hotel where the Republican president was about to address the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

Authorities are trying to determine what happened and why. A suspect was taken into custody and identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California.

Trump said he himself was undoubtedly the target. The presidency is “a dangerous profession,” he said, noting that violence associated with politics had escalated in the U.S. and around the world. ”No country is immune."

Trump suggested it was a sign of how successful his presidency has been.

“I’ve studied assassinations, and I must tell you the most impactful people — the people who do the most, take a look at Abraham Lincoln,” Trump said. He added: “The people that make the biggest impact, they’re the ones that they go after. They don’t go after the ones that don’t do much.”

The president called for Americans to put aside their differences and unite — a break from his usual gleefully combative political tack.

“We have to, we have to resolve our differences,” Trump said. “I will say, you had Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals and progressives. Those words are interchangeable, perhaps, but maybe they’re not. But yet everybody in that room, big crowd, record-setting crowd, there was a record-setting group of people, and there was a tremendous amount of love and coming together. I watched, I watched, and I was very, very impressed by that.”

Trump says he would have changed course and made ‘a speech of love’

The president kept up a similar tone during a Sunday interview with Fox News Channel, calling the dinner “an evening where a lot of people got together.”

“I saw some Democrats, as we were leaving — and they were generally hostile — and last night they were waving to me. Politicians, congressmen, senators. They were waving and saying, ‘Great going’ and ‘Hello,’” Trump said. “The place was just coming together. It was very nice to see.”

He also said he had originally planned to give a speech blistering the media. "I was gonna really rip it last night,” Trump said of his initial plan.

But immediately after the incident, when there was some thought that the event would carry on, Trump said he wanted to change course with remarks that were “gonna be much different. It’ll be a speech of love."

“But I didn’t get a chance to do that,” Trump said. "Probably I was better off, if I didn’t. I don’t know.”

There was still some of his old edge, especially when he spoke about the suspect: “I hated a guy like this — a sick, bad person — I hated somebody like that changing the course of our country.”

Echoes of what Trump said after 2024 incidents

Trump has called for national unity before, only to quickly pivot.

He told Fox News that what happened Saturday proved the necessity of the White House ballroom he's building. Trump also wrote on social media that the attack “would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!” And he scoffed at a legal challenge against the construction that led to the demolition of the White House's East Wing, calling it the “ridiculous ballroom lawsuit.”

After the shooting in 2024 during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when Trump was wounded in the ear and a supporter was killed, the president strode into the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee two days later. That same week, he gave a speech featured a softer and deeply personal message, drawing directly from his brush with death.

“The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly," Trump said then. “As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart.”

Such calls proved to be very short lived.

Trump later in that same speech veered back into his trademark combativeness. He repeated false claims about the 2020 election was stolen from him and assertions that Democratic President Joe Biden had done “unthinkable” damage to the nation.

The pattern played out anew in September 2024, when Secret Service agents fired at a man who was armed with a rifle as Trump played golf at his resort club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s golf partner when the second incident occurred, described Trump's initial reaction as “courageous and stoic.” It was not long before Trump was talking constantly about “radical" Democrats and “left-wing lunatics.” He branded Ryan Routh, the man sentenced to life in prison for trying to kill him, a “sick” individual.

This time, the first lady was with Trump

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said increasingly polarizing rhetoric was partly to blame for so many violent incidents around Trump.

“There have been threats against leadership for a very long time. Years and years and years. That’s not new,” Blanche said on ABC’s “This Week.” “There is something unique about the threats against President Trump and his Cabinet that is disgusting.”

Unlike the first two incidents, however, the latest one occurred with first lady Melania Trump by his side. The president said on Sunday that his wife “was doing great.”

That followed the previous evening, when Trump described the first lady as being rattled but also “very cognizant, I think, of what happened.”

“I think she knew immediately," Trump said. “She was saying ‘It’s a bad noise.’”

He added, “It was a rather traumatic experience for her."

No change to British monarch's upcoming American trip

Buckingham Palace said Sunday that the U.S. visit by King Charles III will go ahead as planned despite the incident at the correspondents’ dinner.

The announcement came after discussions between American and British officials on questions of security. The trip, an intricately planned affair, is meant to showcase the strength of the trans-Atlantic “special relationship.’’

“Following discussions on both sides of the Atlantic through the day, and acting on advice of government, we can confirm the state visit by their majesties will proceed as planned,″ Buckingham Palace said in a statement. “The king and queen are most grateful to all those who have worked at pace to ensure this remains the case and are looking forward to the visit getting underway tomorrow.’’

Charles and Queen Camilla are scheduled to begin their four-day trip on Monday, when they will have tea with the president and first lady Melania Trump.

Trump told Fox News Channel's “The Sunday Briefing” that "we’re going to have a great time and he represents his nation like nobody else can do it.’’

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Associated Press writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.

It remains the largest art theft in history — far surpassing more recent museum thefts, including a daylight heist at the Louvre involving far fewer works that was resolved more quickly. In 2013, the FBI said it knew who was responsible for the Boston museum heist but declined to name them, fueling speculation that persists today.

A former FBI agent who led the investigation for more than two decades is now offering the first detailed account of how investigators reached that conclusion — and publicly identifying the men he believes were involved. In a new book, “Thirteen Perfect Fugitives,” Geoffrey Kelly traces how the artworks moved through criminal networks, where violence took the lives of key suspects and witnesses, and challenges long-circulating theories by revisiting key details.

The irony at the center is Gardner’s intention for the museum to remain frozen in time, stipulating in her will that nothing in the Venetian palazzo-inspired building would be changed after her death. Gardner, who lived in the museum and died there in 1924, intended for the paintings, sculptures and architectural fragments to remain exactly as she had arranged.

The empty gilded frames of the missing paintings still hang in the museum today — silent witnesses to what was taken.

The art heist

Early on March 18, 1990, as Boston wound down from St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, two men dressed as police officers arrived at the museum and persuaded a security guard to let them in, violating protocol.

The men handcuffed the guards in the basement and made their way to the museum’s Dutch Room, where they cut Vermeer’s “The Concert” and Rembrandt’s “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee" from their frames, also taking works by Degas and Manet.

They also took a Napoleonic eagle finial — a decorative metal piece of comparatively little value that investigators later found puzzling — and the museum’s security videotapes.

The museum offered a $5 million reward that they then doubled a decade later for information leading to the recovery of the works.

Boston-area network of criminals

Some tips pointed to the Irish Republican Army and to Boston mob figures, including notorious crime boss Whitey Bulger.

Kelly followed one lead to France, where he watched through binoculars as FBI agents, posing as wealthy intermediaries, lounged on a yacht — drinking Champagne and eating strawberries — in an effort to draw out suspected Corsican mob figures.

Closer to home, agents searched houses across New England, relying heavily on informants. A triple murderer known as “Meatball” who was terminally ill secretly recorded conversations with suspected associates in hopes of earning money for his family.

But none of the tips led to the paintings.

Violence complicates matters

In the decades since the robbery, several people believed to have ties to the heist were killed, and another died under suspicious circumstances.

Robert “Bobby” Donati, a Boston mob associate long suspected in the case, was found stabbed to death in 1991, his body left in the trunk of a car after his home had been ransacked.

Years earlier, Donati visited the Gardner with another known art thief, Myles Connor, to scope it out for a robbery and said that if he ever took the museum’s Napoleonic finial, it would be his “calling card.” Years later, a jeweler told investigators Donati tried to sell a finial but the jeweler declined, saying it was “too hot.”

A separate line of evidence centered on George Reissfelder, who investigators believe owned the getaway car.

Kelly tracked down Reissfelder’s brother, a retired military officer who had initially not believed his brother was involved. He broke down after being shown Manet’s “Chez Tortoni,” saying he recognized it as a painting he himself hung above his brother’s bed.

Reissfelder later died under suspicious circumstances. When investigators searched his home, the painting was gone.

Both men had ties to TRC Auto Electric, a Dorchester shop linked to Charles “Chuck” Merlino’s crew.

Investigation with limited resources

Though investigators believed they knew who was responsible, they had a difficult time finding definitive proof.

In the investigation's early stages, the FBI assigned a single agent to the case, which Kelly said slowed progress.

“You have to keep in mind when you’re talking about investigations, they come down to dollars and cents,” Kelly said. It was “like pulling teeth” to secure resources. At the time, federal investigators in Boston were heavily focused on violent crime, drug trafficking and organized crime cases.

Kelly said a decision to release surveillance footage despite investigators’ objections became a lasting distraction. With no usable video from the night of the robbery, prosecutors released footage from the night before that showed a museum employee entering the building after his car broke down. Kelly said he objected to the theory that the employee was casing the museum, since that possibility had already been reviewed and dismissed. The footage fueled years of misplaced suspicion; the man was later determined not to have been involved.

Despite those challenges, Kelly credited supervisors who pushed to give the museum’s security director access to the case so investigators could share leads — a rare level of collaboration — and said earlier investigators left extensive notes, first in paper binders and then later transferred to CDs.

Theories about an inside job at the museum

In photos from that night, a museum guard is seen handcuffed in the basement, his head wrapped in duct tape.

Investigators noted that shortly before the robbery, the guard opened a door against policy — one that faced the area where the thieves were later seen waiting — a move investigators considered highly unusual and suspicious.

“It’s the immutable laws of time and space,” Kelly said. “I think that there was enough information back then that he could have been charged. Would it be enough to convict him? I don’t know.”

By the time investigators examined those questions more closely, Kelly said, the statute of limitations had expired, leaving them with little leverage to compel cooperation.

The museum guard, Rick Abath, denied any involvement in the theft. He died in 2024.

The artworks that disappeared

Kelly personifies the missing artworks and describes them as “perfect fugitives.”

“They don’t go to the doctor. They don’t get stopped for speeding. They don’t leave fingerprints,” he said. “They can just disappear.”

Unlike human fugitives, he said, artworks can also be copied.

Over the years, that has meant chasing down false leads — including paintings spotted in a Reno antique market, hanging in private homes and even one that appeared in an episode of the TV show “Monk.”

Because the works are so recognizable, it's nearly impossible to sell them publicly.

“Stealing the artwork from the museum, that’s the easy part,” Kelly said. “Profiting from it, that’s the difficult part.”

He imagines the paintings will surface one day — outliving those who carried out the heist.

“I have no doubt they still exist,” he said

Vivek Ramaswamy has parlayed his national name recognition, tech industry connections and alliance with President Donald Trump into a record fundraising haul that he is tapping for advertising spots aimed at the November election. He is using campaign rallies and advertising to criticize his would-be general election opponent, Democrat Amy Acton, the state’s former public health director.

Ramaswamy feels so assured of gliding through the May 5 primary that his campaign has all but ignored his GOP opponent so far.

“I believe this year we face the single greatest contrast between two candidates in the history of governor's races in Ohio,” he told Republicans at a recent party fundraising dinner, referencing the general election. “We face the most consequential election for governor in the history of our state.”

Nonetheless, the primary season has exposed potential vulnerabilities for the 2024 presidential candidate.

Ramaswamy faces growing headwinds within a GOP base disgruntled over the rising cost of living, the disjointed release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, the burgeoning demands of data centers and the war with Iran. Ramaswamy is also under criticism for some of his proposals, such as consolidating the state's university system and raising the voting age to 25. Critics say those ideas suggest the Ivy League-educated biotech billionaire is out of touch with average Ohioans.

The criticism has veered into the personal, surfacing as ethnic and racial animosity toward Ramaswamy, a child of Indian immigrants.

If Ramaswamy is the nominee, his supporters worry less that Republicans will switch sides and vote for a Democrat than about the factors that could depress conservative turnout. If enough voters stay home in the fall, Ohio could see its first Democratic governor in 20 years.

“We have three opponents right now in this race,” Ramaswamy’s running mate, state Senate President Rob McColley, said in remarks to Republicans in rural Marion County that were shared by WGH Talk. “We have Amy Acton, we have the national political environment and then we have complacency. I would argue the third opponent is the most dangerous opponent we possibly have.”

‘He’s a guy like me’

Discontent among a segment of Ohio’s conservative voters is being funneled into curiosity about Casey Putsch's campaign.

An engineer and vehicle designer who calls himself “The Car Guy,” Putsch has attracted fans with provocative YouTube videos that troll Ramaswamy and criticize national Republicans over their handling of the Epstein files, positions on energy-guzzling data centers and support for Israel.

His events are sparsely attended and his campaign has raised only $123,000, but Putsch has won over some conservative voters. Tyler Morris, an ambulance manufacturing worker from central Ohio, is among them.

“When I hear people like Casey speak, he’s a guy like me,” Morris, 32, said as he was on his way to see Putsch speak at a Columbus park. “He’s just a guy that got pissed off one day. He’s not a politician. He’s like, do you know what -- I want to speak for the average, everyday Ohioan.”

Morris said he used to support Trump, but has since soured on him and will not back a candidate endorsed by the president, as Ramaswamy is.

“I say I’m politically cynical, because it’s just like regardless of who I vote for, I feel like as an average Ohioan, it seems like things are just getting worse and worse for everyone,” he said.

A campaign that has exposed racial animosity

Putsch’s messaging has gone beyond the pitch to make life better for working-class Ohioans. He has been accused of contributing to the spread of ethnic hatred toward Ramaswamy, including repeatedly taking issue with the candidate's Indian heritage and Hindu faith.

As he was beginning his campaign, Putsch said Ramaswamy had contempt for “American cultural values.” In one online video, he called for Ramaswamy to “be destroyed.”

The day after Putsch's launch, a Ramaswamy opinion piece in The New York Times asked Republicans to reject the far-right, white nationalist element within the Republican Party in favor of a vision of American identity “based on ideals.”

“No matter your ancestry, if you wait your turn and obtain citizenship, you are every bit as American as a Mayflower descendant as long as you subscribe to the creed of the American founding and the culture that was born of it,” he wrote. “This is what makes American exceptionalism possible.”

Ramaswamy, who was born and raised in Cincinnati, followed up the column by rebuking racism and antisemitism within Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement during a speech at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, angering some members of his party.

Amid the fallout from that speech, Ramaswamy’s social media posts were drawing increasingly ugly and racist reactions. Putsch also has pushed racial epithets, including depicting Ramaswamy as a stink bug he is spraying with insecticide and challenging him to a game of “cowboys and Indians.”

In January, Ramaswamy announced he was getting off Instagram and the social media site X.

“Leaders who depend on social media to gauge public opinion are looking through a broken mirror,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal column.

Putsch mocked Ramaswamy for the decision, posting to X that his rival “can’t take the heat.”

National star power, but will it be enough?

The Ohio Republican Party chairman, Alex Triantafilou, dismisses Putsch's attacks as typical for a primary election.

“The online right these days, it’s meaningless to the message of where we are as a party on the ground,” Triantafilou said.

He cited Ramaswamy's national profile, his political skills and his fundraising prowess — a record $50 million in total contributions, though roughly half is from Ramaswamy's own fortune.

“In every possible category of what we want in a candidate, he has it,” Triantafilou said.

Aaron Baer, president of the Columbus-based Center for Christian Virtue, also rejects Putsch's disparagement of Ramaswamy's background, including questioning Ramaswamy's ability to lead “a Christian state.”

“The bottom line is Vivek Ramaswamy, while he doesn't share the Christian faith with me and millions of other Ohioans, he very much shares our values,” Baer said.

Ramaswamy has been running what looks like a general election campaign, drawing impressive crowds during visits to each of Ohio’s 88 counties. His strategy appears to be working for voters like Pam Koch, a 70-year-old pharmacy worker who attended a Lincoln Reagan Day dinner where Ramaswamy was the featured speaker.

Koch described herself as a “pro-life Christian” and said she came to the event “just to see where he stands, you know, spiritually and (on) everything that we value.” Afterward, she said she was delighted with what she heard.

“I think he lines up with all of our values, so I’m excited about that,” she said.

Ron Eckles, a retired communications worker, is sticking with Putsch, partly for qualities the candidate shares with Ramaswamy, such as being a native Ohioan and building his own business. But he believes Putsch is stronger on gun rights and likes that Putsch is an Ohio State University alumnus; Ramaswamy attended Harvard and Yale.

Putsch's stark financial disadvantage in the primary doesn't bother him.

“I believe in miracles,” Eckles said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the anniversary with a warning that Russian attacks risk repeating history.

“Russia is once again bringing the world to the brink of a man-made disaster — Russian-Iranian Shaheds regularly fly over the plant, and one of them struck the confinement last year,” he wrote on Facebook, referring to the Iran-designed drones that have wreaked havoc since Moscow launched its all-out war in February 2022.

“The world must not allow this nuclear terrorism to continue, and the best way is to force Russia to stop its reckless attacks,” Zelenskyy said.

Russian drone and missile strikes on the city of Dnipro killed at least nine, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said Sunday.

One man was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the port city of Sevastopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea, Moscow-installed authorities said Sunday. Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world considered illegal, and has used it as a staging and supply point during the war.

Leonid Pasechnik, the Russia-installed governor in Ukraine’s Luhansk region — of which Russia earlier this month said it had taken full control, a claim denied by Ukraine — said three people were killed in an overnight Ukrainian drone strike on a village, after reporting two people were killed in the early hours of Saturday.

Ukraine did not comment on either attack, which could not be independently verified by The Associated Press.

Earlier, a woman was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Belgorod border region, according to local authorities.

Ukrainian forces also struck an oil refinery in Yaroslavl, deep inside Russian territory, Ukraine’s General Staff said Sunday. The strikes sparked fires at the facility, which processes 15 million tons of oil a year and produces gasoline, diesel and jet fuel for the Russian military. Russia did not immediately comment.

Ukraine has developed its own long-range drones, which can reach targets some 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) inside Russia.

It has used them recently against Russian oil facilities as Moscow looks to boost its exports after the Trump administration gave it a temporary waiver from sanctions to ease supply constraints. Kyiv officials complain that Russia will use the additional revenue on new weapons to hit Ukraine harder.

Concerns for Chernobyl on a grim anniversary

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, echoed Zelenskyy's concerns over Chernobyl during a visit to Kyiv, saying repairs to the plant’s damaged outer protective shell must begin immediately.

IAEA assessments show the damage sustained after a strike last year has already compromised a key safety function of the structure, he said, warning that years of inaction could heighten danger to the original sarcophagus beneath it.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said repairs would require at least 500 million euros ($586 million).

Energy Minister Denys Smyhal said on Sunday that partner commitments to fund repairs at the facility totaled 100 million euros ($108 million). That is in addition to a previously agreed 30 million euros ($32 million).

Ukrainian officials say a Russian drone struck the outer shell of the plant’s New Safe Confinement structure — a $2.1 billion archlike enclosure completed in 2019 over the remains of Reactor No. 4 — in February 2025. Moscow denied targeting the plant, alleging Kyiv staged the attack.

Russia's honors its allies from North Korea

Russia's Defense Minister Andrei Belousov visited North Korea on Sunday for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un about future military cooperation between the countries.

Belousov said the countries agreed to “transition military cooperation to a sustainable, long-term basis,” according to Russia state news agency Ria Novosti.

During the visit, he presented the Russian Order of Courage to Korean service members who served in Russia's Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a surprise incursion in August 2024.

Kim has sent thousands of troops and large weapons shipments to support Russia's war against Ukraine.

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Associated Press journalist Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

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

Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds, bettering the previous men’s world record by an astonishing 65 seconds. He beat Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, who was running his first marathon and finished in 1:59.41.

“What comes today is not for me alone,” Sawe said, “but for all of us today in London.”

Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda came in third, finishing in 2:00.28. That was seven seconds better than the previous world record held by Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum and completed a podium in which all three men broke Kiptum’s three-year-old mark.

Legend has it that the marathon's distance is the same as the run a Greek soldier made from Marathon to Athens to announce a military victory in ancient times.

On a relatively flat London course on a mostly sunny day in the low 60s (15 Celsius) — ideal for running — Sawe ran a faster second half, covering the second half of the race in 59:01.

He and Kejelcha pulled clear after 18.5 miles (30 kilometers), then Sawe made his solo break in the final two kilometers. Fans showered him with loud cheers as he sprinted to the finish on The Mall.

“I think they help a lot,” Sawe said, “because if it was not for them you don’t feel like you are so loved ... with them calling, you feel so happy and strong.”

Sawe, who came in as the defending champion in London, said it was a “day to remember for me” and thanked the huge crowds who lined the streets of the British capital to witness one of the greatest performances in a sport that asks a simple question: How fast can a person run?

Under two hours has been done before — unofficially

After Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile in 1954, the mark was lowered 18 more times until it reached the current world record: 3:43.13, by Morocco's great runner, Hicham El Guerrouj.

The mile has been largely replaced by the 1,500 meters as the main four-lap race in major events. The marathon, however, remains a staple of world-class running and the 2-hour barrier — a nice, even number at a distance that has been around since ancient times — has been in the sights of the world's greatest runners (and shoe companies) for about the last 20 years.

Kenyan long-distance great Eliud Kipchoge did, in fact, break 2 hours in 2019, but it did not go into the record books, as it was a specially tailored race — the “1:59 Challenge” — run in favorable conditions on a 6-mile track with a stable of 41 rotating pacemakers. Kipchoge finished in 1:59.40.

Sawe beat that time by 10 seconds on one of the world's less-taxing marathon courses.

“The goalposts have literally just moved for marathon running,” Paula Radcliffe, a former winner of the London Marathon, said during commentary of the race for the BBC.

The first sub-2:30 marathon came in 1925 and the 2:15 barrier was broken 38 years after that. At the turn of the century, the world's best time for the men's marathon was 2:05:42, set by Khalid Khannouchi in Chicago in 1999.

Khannouchi broke his own record by four seconds in 2002 — the previous last time the fastest men's marathon was run in London — and it has been whittled down gradually over the last 24 years by a succession of Kenyan and Ethiopian runners, including Haile Gebrselassie, Wilson Kipsang, Kipchoge and, most recently, Kiptum.

Now that the 2-hour mark has been broken, a few other iconic track-and-field records to watch include Usain Bolt's 9.58 seconds in the 100 meters (2009), Mike Powell's 8.95 meters in the long jump (1991) and Marita Koch's 47.60 in the women's 400 meters (1985).

Lightweight shoes with cutting-edge technology help fuel the speed

Part of the lowering of the times is about improvements in training, nutrition and technique.

Another key element is the streamlining of shoes, defined through a battle of shoe companies who use carbon-fiber plates and other materials as part of an effort to make shoes lighter and springier.

There's been ongoing debate about whether the advances in shoes amount to “technology doping." Seven years ago, Kipchoge wore Nike in his controlled run at sub-2 hours. On Sunday, Sawe was in Adidas, which is making a men's size 9 shoe that weighs 3.4 ounces — less than half the weight of an average running shoe, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“When you give them the box, they think it’s a joke,” Patrick Nava, general manager of Adidas running, told WSJ. “They think the box is empty.”

Assefa wins fastest-ever women's-only marathon

A record also went down in the women's race, with Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa pulling away with about 500 meters remaining to win in 2:15:41 and defend the title in the fastest-ever time in a women’s-only marathon.

However, it was 16 seconds slower than the course record set by Radcliffe in 2003 when it was a mixed race.

Kenya’s Hellen Obiri was 12 seconds back in second place in a personal-best time on her London debut and compatriot Joyciline Jepkosgei was third, a further two seconds adrift. It was the first time three women have run under 2 hours, 16 minutes in a marathon.

“I screamed when I finished because I knew I was breaking the world record," Assefa said.

“I felt much healthier today and have worked really hard on my speed and all my training has paid off.”

Swiss double in wheelchair races

In the wheelchair races, there was a Swiss double with Marcel Hug powering to a sixth straight men’s title – and eighth in total – and Catherine Debrunner beating Tatyana McFadden in a close finish to defend the title.

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

Atef Najib, a former Syrian army brigadier general who was head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria's Daraa province under Assad and who is also a cousin of the former president, appeared in the courtroom to face charges related to “crimes against the Syrian people,” state-run news agency SANA reported.

Najib was in that position in 2011, when teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a school wall in Daraa were arrested and tortured. The case became a catalyst for mass protests against the repressive policies of Assad's security forces.

The protests were met by a brutal government crackdown and spiraled into a 14-year civil war that ended with Assad's ouster in December 2024 in a lightning rebel offensive. Assad fled to Russia, while most members of his inner circle also escaped Syria.

Assad and his brother, Maher, former commander of the Syrian military's 4th Armored Division — which Syrian opposition activists have accused of killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking, in addition to running its own detention centers — were charged in absentia, along with a number of other former high-ranking security officials.

Najib was the only one of the defendants who was arrested and present in person in court Sunday for a preparatory session in the trial, which will continue next month.

Crowds gathered outside the courthouse to celebrate. Baraa Abdulrahman, a spokesperson for the Syrian Ministry of Justice, said the trial “is of great importance for the independence of the judiciary, for transparency and accountability."

One of the plaintiffs, Ramez Abu Nabbout, said his brother, a father of three, was killed when security forces opened fire on protesters at Daraa’s Omari Mosque.

“He was a civilian and peaceful, but Atef Najib greeted peaceful (protesters) with gunfire,” he said. “Of course we hope Atef Najib will be quickly convicted and will get the most serious sentence, which is the death penalty.”

The government of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has faced criticism over delays in launching a promised transitional justice process. Syria is struggling to heal following 14 years of civil war that left an estimated half a million people dead, millions more displaced, and the country battered and divided.

Authorities now appear to be moving more aggressively to prosecute officials linked to Assad.

Syrian authorities on Friday arrested Amjad Yousef, a former intelligence officer who appeared in a video leaked four years ago that purportedly showed him and his comrades executing dozens of blindfolded and shackled prisoners in the Damascus suburb of Tadamon during the country’s civil war.

The Malian government confirmed the death of the defense chief, Gen. Sadio Camara, in a post on the defense ministry's Facebook page, and expressed its condolences to his family. State-run television also broadcast the announcement of his death by spokesman Gen. Issa Ousmane Coulibaly.

Mali was struck on Saturday by one of the biggest coordinated attacks on its army in the capital, Bamako, and several other cities and towns in an assault that also challenged Mali’s security partner, Russia, which has forces on the ground in the West African country.

The government said Sunday the attacks appear to be over, but several questions remain, including who was in control of a key northern city that the separatists claim to have taken.

The government has not provided a death toll from Saturday and previously said only that at least 16 people were wounded in what it denounced as terror attacks.

The separatists have been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali, while al-Qaida and IS-aligned militants have been fighting the government for over a decade.

According to the government statement, Camara's residence was targeted by a suicide car bomber and other attackers on Saturday.

“He engaged in an exchange of fire with the assailants, some of whom he managed to neutralize,” it said. "During intense clashes, he was wounded and then transported to the hospital, where he unfortunately succumbed to his injuries."

Separatists claim control of the northern town of Kidal

A spokesperson for the separatist Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA, said the Russian Africa Corps troops and the Malian military withdrew from the city of Kidal following the attack on Saturday, after an agreement was reached for their peaceful exit.

“Kidal is declared free,” said FLA spokesperson Mohamed El Maouloud Ramadan.

In a statement on state TV late Sunday night, Gen. Oumar Diarra, head of the armed forces, confirmed that the Malian army had left the city and that its forces were repositioning in Anefis, a city about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Kidal.

The separatists have been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali.

Kidal had long served as a stronghold of the rebellion before being taken by Malian government forces and Russian mercenaries in 2023. Its capture marked a significant symbolic victory for the junta and its Russian allies.

Militants unite with separatists to coordinate attacks

Saturday's wave of attacks was the first time the separatists joined forces with the al-Qaida-linked group JNIM, which said it was also part of the attack on Kidal and had also targeted a town outside of the capital of Bamako and three other cities on Saturday.

The FLA spokesperson confirmed the coordinated push.

“This operation is being carried out in partnership with the JNIM, which is also committed to defending the people against the military regime in Bamako,” Ramadan said.

The separatists called on Russia to “reconsider its support for the military junta" in Mali, saying its "actions have contributed to the suffering of the civilian population.”

Wassim Nasr, a specialist for the region and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center security think tank, said this “coordination, conducting attacks all over the country at the same time,” the united push by the two groups and the call for the Russian military to leave was a first.

It extended beyond the military, he said, to the political level because both groups “acknowledged that they worked together.”

Following the attacks, a three-day overnight curfew, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., was also announced for the Bamako district.

Mali's government spokesperson, Coulibaly, said civilian and military personnel were among the 16 wounded and that several militants were killed. He did not provide a death toll.

A threat to the wider region

The Economic Community of West African States condemned Saturday's attacks in Mali and called on “all states, security forces, regional mechanisms and populations of West Africa to unite and mobilize in a coordinated effort to combat this scourge.”

Following military coups, the juntas in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso turned from Western allies to Russia for help in combating Islamic militants.

But the security situation in the region has worsened in recent times, with a record number of attacks by militants. Government forces have also been accused of killing civilians they suspect of collaborating with militants.

In 2024, an al-Qaida-linked group claimed an attack on Bamako’s airport and a military training camp in the country's capital, killing scores of people.

Ulf Laessing, from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said that the separatists and JNIM are unlikely to take control of Bamako in the near term due to opposition from the local population.

Still, the attacks undermined the Malian junta's Russian partners.

“The attacks are a major blow to Russia as the mercenaries had no intelligence about the attacks and were unable to protect major cities,” Laessing said.

The bomb, fashioned from a compressed gas cylinder, exploded as police were evacuating nearby residents in Dunmurry, on the outskirts of Belfast, on Saturday night, Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton told reporters on Sunday.

“This clearly demonstrates that what this type of device may have lacked in terms of its sophistication and scale, it more than made up for in its reckless unpredictability,” Singleton said. “For a device like this to have been deployed against police and in such proximity to the public was idiotic. It was absolute madness.”

The incident took place at about 10:30 p.m. after the attackers stopped a delivery driver, placed an improvised bomb in his vehicle and ordered him to drive to the police station, Singleton said.

Brendan Mullan, chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, said the device “was sent to kill officers and cause maximum harm in an attack which was in the heart of a residential area.”

“The people have spoken when they overwhelmingly endorsed the Good Friday Agreement” in 1998, Mullan said.

“Such acts of violence have no place in a society committed to peace. We stand united in condemnation of those responsible for this terror, and in voicing support for the work of the officers and staff of the PSNI.”

It was the second incident at a police station in recent weeks.

On March 30, police foiled a similar attack on a police station in Lurgan, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Dunmurry. Two masked men stopped a delivery driver, placed an explosive device in the trunk of his vehicle and forced him at gunpoint to take the device to the police station, according to authorities. Police carried out a controlled explosion after about 100 homes were evacuated.

The Lurgan attack was probably carried out by dissident Republican groups in a “pathetic attempt to remain relevant and provoke fear,” police said.

The Good Friday Agreement largely ended decades of violence involving Republican groups opposed to British rule and others who wanted to maintain the region’s ties to the United Kingdom. Dissident groups that oppose the peace process still carry out sporadic attacks.

Residents show up for the vigil each year despite wartime curfews and official warnings against large gatherings during Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The April 26, 1986 disaster shone a spotlight on lax safety standards and government secrecy in what was then the Soviet Union. The explosion was not reported by Soviet authorities for two days, only after winds had carried the fallout across Europe and Swedish experts had gone public with their concerns.

About 600,000 people, often referred to as Chernobyl’s “liquidators,” were sent in to fight the fire at the nuclear plant and clean up the worst of its contamination. Thirty workers died within months from either the explosion or acute radiation sickness. The accident exposed millions in the region to dangerous levels of radiation and forced a wide-scale, permanent evacuation of hundreds of towns and villages in Ukraine and Belarus.

The city of Slavutych, around 50 kilometers (32 miles) from the former plant, dates to this period. While most evacuees were resettled across nearby districts in Kyiv region, in late 1986 Soviet authorities began building what would become the city to house workers from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and their families. The first residents moved in around 1988.

Since then, the city has endured a brief Russian occupation during Moscow’s failed push to seize the Ukrainian capital in early days of the war, as well as harsh winters — especially the last one, when blackouts forced some residents to cook meals over open fires in the streets.

People of all ages gathered in the square, some arriving as families carrying spring tulips and daffodils. They lined up in a broad plaza framed by Soviet-era apartment blocks, where a memorial stands near a row of posters honoring local residents killed in the war.

Liudmyla Liubyva, 71, came to the ceremony with a friend. She used to attend with her husband, who worked at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant but later developed a disability linked to radiation exposure, and lost the ability to walk, she said.

Liubyva said it was important to honor those who sacrificed their health in the aftermath of the disaster, but Russia’s war has revived fears that the danger was never fully left behind.

“When the drone struck the arch, it felt like the world could return to 1986,” she said, referring to a Russian drone strike in 2025 that damaged the New Safe Confinement structure, the massive dome built to contain radiation from the destroyed reactor. “We all — young and old alike — must protect our land, because it is so vulnerable.”

Soft music played in the background as poetry about the disaster drifted over loudspeakers. “Years pass, generations change, but the pain of Chernobyl does not fade,” a woman’s voice recited. As the words echoed across the square, people dressed in white protective suits and face masks, symbolizing the liquidators, stood in silence holding candles.

Larysa Panova, 67, often recalls the day of the accident that forced her to leave her native hometown of Chernobyl, which transliterate as Chornobyl, and begin a new life in Slavutych. Though the new city has long since become home, she still thinks of the forests and rich nature of the place she left behind.

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, she regularly travelled back to visit relatives who remained there or simply to spend time in the land where she grew up. But with the war, access to the exclusion zone became restricted.

“I never stop thinking of Chernobyl as my homeland,” she said. “You remember your school, your childhood, your youth — everything happened there, in Chernobyl.”

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AP reporters Vasilisa Stepanenko and Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv contributed.

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The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. ___

Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/

Pakistan-led mediators are working to bridge significant gaps between the U.S. and Iran, according to a regional official involved in the mediation efforts who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

Iran still insists on ending the U.S. blockade on its ports before launching a new round of talks with the Trump administration, the official said.

Trump said he told his top envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner not to travel to Pakistan this weekend to negotiate with Iran.

“If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” Trump said on social media.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a phone call Saturday night that the U.S. “should first remove operational obstacles, including the blockade,” to allow a new round of negotiations, according to the ISNA and Tasnim news agencies in Iran.

As the U.S. enforces its blockade of Iranian ports, a standoff also remained on in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil typically travels, with Iran restricting movement through the key waterway.

Early on Monday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it has so far turned around 38 ships during the blockade.

Here is the latest:

Oil prices rise after US-Iran talks in Pakistan fail to materialize

Oil prices rose when the market opened Sunday as traders absorbed the news that talks between the U.S. and Iran about a potential ceasefire have stalled again.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S.-produced light, sweet crude, was selling for $96.50 a barrel Sunday, up 2% since the market closed on Friday. The price was 44% higher than before the start of the Iran war, when oil was selling for about $67 a barrel.

Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at $107.75 per barrel Sunday, up about 3% since Friday and 48% since the war began, when oil was selling for $72 a barrel.

Oil prices have risen steadily since the war began and tankers full of crude became stranded in Persian Gulf, unable to safely transit through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage through which one-fifth of the world’s oil typically travels.

Iran’s foreign minister leaves Pakistan for Russia

Abbas Araghchi made a brief visit to Islamabad a day after leaving the city and throwing the prospect of a second round of talks with the United States into question.

He had gone to Oman, located on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, before his latest three-hour visit to Islamabad. He then left for Russia late Sunday.

The U.S. didn’t send envoys to Pakistan for a second round of talks, but Pakistan continues to mediate, and two officials there said indirect talks are still ongoing. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Araghchi’s low-profile visit contrasted with his earlier one, when he met with Pakistan’s military and political leaders and presented Tehran’s proposals to end conflict in the region.

Pakistan lifts Islamabad lockdown after stalled US-Iran talks

Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, said late Sunday that the government has lifted all restrictions around the high-security zone in the capital of Islamabad.

Iranian and U.S. delegations held rare face-to-face talks there earlier this month. The area had remained under lockdown for more than a week as Pakistan hoped to host a second round of talks aimed at securing a ceasefire.

Dar’s remarks signaled that there was no immediate prospect of further direct talks between the United States and Iran. Still, Pakistan’s government says it continues to mediate by conveying messages between the two sides to promote lasting stability in the region.

In a post on X, Dar thanked residents of Islamabad and the nearby city of Rawalpindi “for their patience and cooperation.”

Trump says US, Iranian officials can talk by phone

In an interview Sunday on Fox News Channel, Trump said he made that decision rather than send a delegation on a 17-hour flight.

“We have all the cards. If they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us,” Trump said, not indicating when the call would take place.

Talks appeared to fall apart on Saturday, with Tehran’s top diplomat leaving Pakistan, and Trump soon afterward saying he had told envoys not to travel to Islamabad.

Asked about NATO, Trump said he was “very, very disappointed” in the military alliance, which he has suggested the U.S. may consider leaving after member countries ignored his call to help as Iran effectively shut the the Strait of Hormuz.

“We’ve been serving them for many years, spending trillions of dollars, and when we wanted to help they were not there, so we have to remember that,” Trump said.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said early Monday that it had turned around 38 ships so far during its blockade of Iran.

Israel strikes Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon

The Israeli military says it carried out artillery and airstrikes in southern Lebanon.

They targeted Hezbollah militants and weapons sites, including rocket launchers and storage facilities, north of what it calls the Forward Defense Line, as fighting has picked up in recent days despite a ceasefire.

Israeli strikes raise death toll to 2,509 in Lebanon

The country’s health ministry added in figures released Sunday that 7,755 people were wounded in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war that broke out on March 2.

The war broke out after Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel two days after the U.S. and Israel attacked its main backer, Iran.

A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect on April 17. The ceasefire was extended by three weeks on Thursday.

Hezbollah calls its attacks on Israel ‘a legitimate response’

The Iran-backed group on Sunday condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ceasefire remarks, in which he said Hezbollah’s actions are threatening the truce between Israel and Lebanon.

Hezbollah said its shelling of Israeli targets is “a legitimate response” to what it described as Israel’s violations of the ceasefire.

The group also criticized Lebanese authorities, saying they “have placed themselves in a dangerous predicament when they chose to be photographed in a disgraceful image alongside representatives of a usurping and illegitimate entity that violates its land and sovereignty and continues killing its people.”

The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was extended for three weeks, with Trump hosting talks flanked by Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors.

Israeli girl wounded in Iran missile strike dies weeks later

An 11-year-old Israeli girl who was critically wounded in an Iranian missile strike earlier this month has died of her injuries, according to Sheba Medical Center.

The girl had been hospitalized at Sheba since the attack. She died on Friday after several weeks in critical condition.

She was wounded when a missile struck a residential area in the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak on April 1 and had remained in critical condition for several weeks.

Her death raises Israel’s death toll from the war to 39.

Top Iranian diplomat arrives in Pakistan in effort to resume peace talks

Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Islamabad on Sunday after a visit to Oman, Pakistani officials said, as Islamabad steps up efforts to bring Tehran and Washington back to the negotiating table.

Abbas Araghchi will hold more talks with Pakistani officials during the visit and is expected to travel to Moscow afterward, two officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media on the record.

Top diplomats for Iran and Qatar speak by phone about peace efforts

Iran’s top diplomat has briefed his Qatari counterpart about his country’s “latest initiatives and diplomatic efforts” to end the war in the Middle East.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke by phone Sunday with Qatar’s top diplomat, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

The two ministers affirmed the importance of diplomatic coordination to back peace efforts, Araghchi wrote in his channel on Telegram.

Egypt’s foreign minister speaks with his Qatari and Iranian counterparts

Egypt Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty discussed efforts to relaunch negotiations between the United States and Iran with his Qatari and Iranian counterparts.

In separate calls with the ministers, Abdelatty affirmed the importance of the diplomatic path to ensure the continuation of the ceasefire in a way that leads to an end to the war.

Israeli president delays decision on Netanyahu request to halt trial

Israeli President Isaac Herzog delayed a decision on a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt his corruption trial.

Herzog’s office said the president has stated “on several occasions” that a settlement between Netanyahu and prosecutors is the best way to resolve the case and this position hasn’t changed.

“The president therefore believes that before addressing the pardon request itself, efforts should first be exhausted to reach an agreement between the parties, outside the courtroom,” the office said.

The announcement marked a setback for Netanyahu, who faces new elections later this year. It also came despite multiple calls by Trump for Herzog to end the trial.

Netanyahu filed his request in November, saying that dropping corruption charges against him would help unify the country. His office did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Israeli forces kill 4 Palestinians in Gaza

At least four Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces Sunday morning in the Gaza Strip, hospital authorities said.

Two men were killed when Israeli forces opened fire on a group of people in the Kuwait roundabout in southeastern Gaza City, according to Shifa hospital, which received the casualties.

Another man was shot and killed close to the Saqqa mosque in central Gaza, the hospital said.

Nasser hospital said a 40-year-old woman was shot and killed by Israeli forces close to the Turkish slaughterhouse in the southern part of Khan Younis city.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deaths were the latest among Palestinians in the coastal enclave since an October ceasefire deal attempted to halt more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

While the heaviest fighting has subsided, Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fired on Palestinians near military-held zones.

At least 811 Palestinians have been killed including at least 226 children and 179 women, according to Gaza health officials.

Israeli military tells Lebanese in 7 towns to flee ahead of strikes

Israel’s military on Sunday warned Lebanese living in seven southern towns to flee their homes ahead of strikes in the area.

Col. Avichay Adraea, a military spokesman, claimed without evidence that Hezbollah violated a ceasefire deal between Lebanon and Israel. He didn’t provide evidence.

Adraea said in a social media post that the military will operate in the area south of Zahrani river and ordered the residents to leave.

Israel previously issued a sweeping warning for people in southern Lebanon to flee their homes during its war against Hezbollah.

Analyst says indirect US-Iran talks progressing

Syed Mohammad Ali, an independent political analyst in Pakistan, said indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran were progressing despite Trump’s decision not to send envoys to talks that had been set to begin this weekend.

“The delay in the second round of Islamabad talks must not be seen as a setback to ceasefire negotiations and peace efforts, which remain on track,” Ali told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Ali said ongoing tensions between Washington and Tehran cannot be eased overnight and the negotiation process “requires wisdom and patience from both sides.”

“This is a sensitive and complicated process, and there will be ups and downs, which are normal in such matters. But the good thing is that the ceasefire is holding, and both sides have a desire to end the conflict in a way that does not backfire at home,” Ali said.

Pakistan mediation attempts moving forward

Pakistan’s top political and military leadership is continuing to mediate between the United States and Iran, with indirect ceasefire talks still alive despite mounting tensions between the sides, two Pakistani officials said Sunday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to arrive in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Sunday evening for a second visit in as many days after a short trip to Oman.

Araghchi was in Islamabad on Saturday and presented Tehran’s position on ending the regional conflict to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and other senior officials.

There were no immediate plans for U.S. envoys to return for talks, according to the Pakistani officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Netanyahu expresses shock after shots fired at event attended by Trump

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close Trump ally, said Sunday morning he was shocked by what he called an “attempted assassination” at an event attended by Trump.

Trump was uninjured and rushed off the stage at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday night after a man armed with guns and knives stormed the lobby outside the event in Washington.

Police believe the man opened fire and acted alone but did not say who was his intended target or describe a motive. He was taken into custody.

One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was recovering, officials said.

“We send our wishes for a full and speedy recovery to the wounded police officer and salute the US Secret Service for their swift and decisive action,” Netanyahu wrote on X.

Islamabad resumes normal life

Life began returning to normal in Pakistan’s capital on Sunday morning.

Authorities in Islamabad eased near-lockdown measures imposed during a week of heightened security prior to planned ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran.

The restrictions enforced across Islamabad and the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi disrupted daily life for hundreds of thousands. Commuters were forced to make long detours, traffic thinned along major arteries and parents struggled to reach schools.

By Sunday, barriers were being lifted and traffic was gradually building on the city’s main roads. Residents described a sense of relief after days of gridlock and uncertainty.

The government said in a social media post late Saturday that tourist destinations, parks and bus terminals were being reopened.

Security remained tight around the heavily guarded Red Zone, home to key government buildings and the site where U.S.-Iran talks were held earlier this month.

Iran hangs man convicted of terrorism

Iran on Sunday hanged a man who was convicted of carrying out terrorist activities in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, state media reported.

Amer Ramesh was hanged after the country’s Supreme Court upheld a death sentence issued by a primary court, according to Iran’s judiciary news outlet, Mizanonline.

Mizanonline did not report where he was hanged or when and where he was arrested.

Mizanonline said Ramesh received training in a regional country and was a member of militant group Jaish al-Adl, which reportedly aims to achieve greater rights for people in the Baloch ethnic group.

Iran has executed other people over similar charges and in recent weeks has hanged more than a dozen people accused of terrorist activities.

Iran’s president tells US to end blockade to negotiate

Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country won’t negotiate while the United States imposes a blockade on its ports, according to Iranian media.

Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a phone call Saturday night that the U.S. “should first remove operational obstacles, including the blockade,” to allow a new round of negotiations, the ISNA and Tasnim news agencies reported.

The Pakistani premier described the call as a “warm and constructive discussion.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi concluded a one-day trip to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Saturday after meeting with Pakistani military and government officials.

The trip did not produce a breakthrough in efforts to relaunch negotiations after Trump canceled a planned trip by his envoys to Islamabad.

Iranian foreign minister plans a return to Pakistan

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will return to Pakistan after his current visit to Oman on his way to visiting Russia.

The report said he was expected to be back in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Sunday and would join other members of his delegation who had gone to Tehran for consultations and “instructions on the topics related to the end of the war.”

Authorities say Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was taken into custody at the dinner Saturday night in Washington that was attended by Trump and top members of his administration. A social media profile for a man with the same name and a photo that appears to match that of the suspect show he worked part-time for the last six years at a company that offers admissions counseling and test preparation services to aspiring college students.

In a message sent to family members minutes before the attack, the 31-year-old the described himself as “Friendly Federal Assassin” and railed against recent actions taken by the U.S. government under Trump, though he did not name the Republican president directly, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press.

The writings ran more than a thousand words and read as a rambling, deeply personal message, opening almost jarringly with a casual “hello everybody!” before shifting into apologies to family members, co-workers, fellow travelers and even strangers he feared could be caught in the violence. The note moved between confession, grievance and farewell, with Allen thanking people in his life even as he sought to explain the attack.

Elsewhere, the document veered between political anger, religious justifications and rebuttals to imagined critics, at times reading as if he were arguing with detractors in real time.

Authorities said Allen will face charges including using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer, as well as other potential counts. A search of state and federal court databases showed no indication Allen had ever previously been charged with a crime.

He signed the document using a moniker that matches social media accounts that have since been taken offline. A defunct account using the same name on the platform Bluesky reposted others who offered commentary critical of Trump as well as members of the media who attend the annual black-tie dinner.

The AP limits the use of attackers’ writings and social media posts to avoid amplifying their views or encouraging copycat actions. The AP chooses to summarize their words and focus mainly on the victims and investigations.

Allen was arrested Saturday night trying to rush past a security checkpoint with two firearms and knives. Law enforcement officials told the AP that Allen legally bought a .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol in October 2023 and a 12-gauge shotgun last year.

Canvassing the suspect's neighborhood

Voter registration records from California lists Allen’s home address as his parent’s house on a tree-lined street in one of the most historic neighborhoods in Torrance, a city within the Los Angeles metro area. Public records show he is the oldest of four adult siblings, with two younger sisters and a brother.

Two cars were parked in the driveway Sunday morning. A blue scooter that a neighbor said Allen rode was on the front lawn. No one answered the door when an Associated Press reporter knocked. By the afternoon, several people who appeared to be law enforcement agents were canvassing the neighborhood, with one wearing an FBI sweatshirt.

A yard sign displayed at the family home supported a local candidate for judge who was endorsed by the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. Federal campaign finance records show Cole Allen contributed $25 to a Democratic Party political action committee in support of Kamala Harris for president in 2024 and listed his employer as C2 Education.

A 2024 post on the C2's Facebook page listed Allen as the company’s teacher of the month. The company did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday night and an office in Torrance was closed on Sunday.

Allen's profile photo on LinkedIn shows him wearing a cap and gown when graduating with a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills. The photo appears to have been taken May 2025. Bin Tang, a computer science professor at the school, told the AP that Allen took a few of his classes.

“He was a very good student indeed, always sitting in the first row of my class, paying attention, and frequently emailing me with coursework questions. Soft-spoken, very polite, a good fellow. I am very shocked to see the news,” Tang wrote in an email.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, according to his profile on the social networking site LinkedIn. The small university is academically prestigious with a very low acceptance rate. He also listed his involvement there in a campus group that battled with Nerf guns and a Christian student fellowship.

The suspect’s father, Thomas Allen, is listed as an elder at Grace United Reformed Church Torrance. The webpage for the congregation describes it as a “Bible-believing church” following the “infallible Word of God.” Security guards posted at the sanctuary during worship services on Sunday escorted parishioners to the door and kept reporters at bay.

Allen also posted that he had developed a video game for the Steam platform based on molecular chemistry. A post under Allen’s name said he was working to develop a new “top-down shooter” combat game set in outer space.

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Biesecker and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Michael Kunzelman, Brian Slodysko and Byron Tau in Washington contributed to this report.

The shooting suspect was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, two law enforcement officials told the AP. Officials told reporters after the incident that Allen was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives.

Security for the annual event is always tight when the president attends, especially given the venue’s history — 45 years ago, the Washington Hilton was the site of an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan — and law enforcement argued that their “multi-layered protection” worked as designed. Still, the incident was sure to set off more questions about security around the president and political events in the wake of high-profile acts of political violence in recent years.

Here's what we know about the security of the correspondents' dinner.

The perimeter at the Washington Hilton

The interim police chief for Washington's Metropolitan Police Department, Jeffery Carroll, told reporters Saturday evening that investigators believe that the suspect was staying in the hotel and that appears to be how he was able to enter the hotel at the time of the event.

The hotel was closed to the public beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday in anticipation of the dinner which began at 8 p.m. Outside, dozens of protesters gathered in the rain — mostly directing their criticism at the media attending the event.

Access to the hotel was restricted to hotel guests, people with tickets to the dinner itself, an invitation to one of the receptions that are held at the hotel before or after the dinner, or documents from the White House Correspondents' Association indicating affiliation with the dinner.

The 2,300 guests at the event in the hotel's cavernous subterranean ballroom had to pass through several additional checks to enter the room, including showing tickets to association volunteers and hotel staff and passing through magnetometers manned by the Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration.

It was not immediately released when the suspect checked into the hotel. Security camera footage released by Trump to social media shortly after the incident shows the gunman running past security officers who appear to be disassembling the metal detectors. Once the president was seated in the ballroom, additional attendees were not permitted to enter the secured area, which is why they were taking them down.

“It shows that our multi-layered protection works,” Secret Service director Sean Curran said. His comments were echoed by Carroll, who said the security plan for the evening was developed by the Secret Service and “that security plan did work this evening.”

Security measures inside the ballroom

Inside the ballroom for the dinner itself there were further security measures.

The U.S. Secret Service maintained another perimeter around the president that included a buffer separating him and others seated at the head table from the rest of the attendees. Armored plates were hidden under the table where Trump was seated. Secret Service agents were at their posts in front of the stage and in its wings, as were heavily armed counter-assault agents ready to respond to threats. Security details for dozens of other high-profile attendees were also in the ballroom.

A spokesperson for the hotel directed questions about their security measures to the U.S. Secret Service.

Assassination attempt of Reagan at the Washington Hilton

The hotel itself has a long presidential history, and everyday people have regularly booked rooms or filled the lobby bar to watch people at an event that attracts Washington's elite and has also drawn celebrities like George Clooney and Kim Kardashian as well as hosts including Jimmy Kimmel and Trevor Noah.

Although known for the correspondents' dinner, the hotel regularly hosts large events in the nation's capital, especially those that feature the president. It was the site of the shooting of Reagan by John Hinckley Jr. on March 30, 1981.

Reagan was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement when Hinckley shot him with a revolver, seriously wounding him. Hinckley believed the attack would impress the actress Jodie Foster.

Security overhauls and US Secret Service training

After that incident, the hotel built extensive security modifications specifically to accommodate the president, including a secured garage designed to fit the presidential limo which leads to a dedicated elevator and staircase to ferry them to a secured suite reserved for their personal use.

The suite includes a reserved bathroom that the hotel traditionally adorns with monogrammed towels for the president for the handful of times they are in the space every year.

Because of the venue's long presidential history, the Secret Service has long used the annual event to put some agents through their paces because the venue has been extensively studied by the agency for decades.

However, since the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, many major hotels have also tightened security protocols, in some cases adopting measures such as periodic room checks or policies aimed at flagging extended privacy requests. It was not immediately clear when the person involved Saturday checked into the hotel, or whether any such measures would have had any bearing in this case.

Abbas Araghchi had left Pakistan’s capital late the previous day, creating confusion around an expected second round of talks there, but he returned before continuing on to Moscow on Sunday, Iranian state media said. He had been in Oman, which previously mediated talks and is on the other side of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The White House last week said it would dispatch envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad to follow up on historic face-to-face talks earlier this month. But shortly after Araghchi's departure Saturday, Trump said he had called off the mission because of a lack of progress with Iran.

“If they want, we can talk but we’re not sending people," Trump told Fox News on Sunday. He said earlier on social media: “All they have to do is call!!!”

Indirect talks between the two sides were ongoing, two Pakistani officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Trump last week indefinitely extended the ceasefire the U.S. and Iran agreed to on April 7 that has largely halted the fighting that began with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28. But a permanent settlement remains elusive in the war that has killed thousands of people and shaken the global economy.

Strait of Hormuz at center of Iran’s discussions in Oman

A standoff remained on in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passes, as Iran has restricted movement through it and the U.S. enforces a blockade of Iranian ports.

Iran wants to persuade Oman to support a mechanism to collect tolls from vessels passing through the strait according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Oman’s response wasn’t immediately clear.

The official, who is involved in mediation efforts, also said Iran insists on ending the U.S. blockade before a new round of talks and that Pakistan-led mediators are trying to bridge significant gaps between the countries.

Araghchi also spoke by phone with counterparts in Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

Even before Saturday’s developments, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said any talks would be indirect and Pakistani officials would act as go-betweens, reflecting Tehran's wariness after rounds of indirect talks last year and earlier this year ended with Iran being attacked by the U.S. and Israel.

Trump said Iran has offered a ‘much better’ proposal

The economic fallout is growing two months into the war as global shipments of oil, liquefied natural gas, fertilizer and other supplies are disrupted by the near-closure of the strategic strait.

Both sides have continued to make military threats. Iran’s joint military command Saturday warned that “if the U.S. continues its aggressive military actions, including naval blockades, banditry, and piracy” it will face a “strong response.”

Trump last week ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines in the waterway.

Trump told journalists on Saturday, before a security incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, that within 10 minutes of him canceling Witkoff and Kushner’s trip to Islamabad, Iran sent a “much better” proposal.

He did not elaborate but stressed that one of his conditions is that Iran “will not have a nuclear weapon.” The status of Iran's enriched uranium has long been at the center of tensions. Tehran has 440 kilograms (970 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency.

Syed Mohammad Ali, an independent political analyst in Pakistan, said the delay in the talks must not be seen as a setback and that indirect talks were progressing. He said tensions between Washington and Tehran cannot be eased overnight and the negotiation process requires patience.

"But the good thing is that the ceasefire is holding, and both sides have a desire to end the conflict in a way that does not backfire at home,” Ali said.

A growing toll even as fragile ceasefires hold

Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,509 people in Lebanon, where the Israel-Hezbollah fighting resumed two days after the Iran war started.

Also, 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 U.S. service members in the region and six U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been killed.

Another ceasefire — between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant Hezbollah group — has been extended by three weeks. Hezbollah has not participated in the Washington-brokered diplomacy.

Oil prices rise again as Pakistan talks fail to materialize

Oil prices rose when the market opened Sunday as traders absorbed the news of the stalled ceasefire talks.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S.-produced light, sweet crude, was selling for $96.50 a barrel Sunday, up 2% since the market closed on Friday. The price was 44% higher than before the start of the Iran war, when oil was selling for about $67 a barrel.

Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at $107.75 per barrel Sunday, up about 3% since Friday and 48% since the war began, when oil was selling for $72 a barrel.

Oil prices have risen steadily since the war began and tankers full of crude became stranded in the Persian Gulf, unable to safely transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

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Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Washington and Cathy Bussewitz in New York contributed to this report.

As the baby boom generation ages, the travel industry is increasingly catering to older adults with the time and money to sightsee internationally and who sometimes need additional assistance. Truly inclusive accessibility, though, accommodates a much greater range of tourists, from individuals with physical disabilities to people with autism or dementia.

To better serve visitors with visible or invisible disabilities, museums and other cultural institutions worldwide have added specialized guides and barrier-free tours, some made possible by advances in technology.

These include sign-language tours for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, touch-based events for guests with blindness or low vision, and programs designed for people on the autism spectrum. Tourism agencies dedicated to serving disabled travelers have sprung up, too.

Offering barrier-free tours shows people with disabilities they are welcome in cultural spaces, said Ashley Grady, an accessibility program specialist at the Office of Visitor Accessibility of Washington's Smithsonian Institution.

The services are a way of saying, “we’ve thought of you,” Grady said. “We want you to come to our museums. We want you to see yourselves reflected in our staff and our collections. And we want to make these programs as accessible as possible for you, your family, your loved ones, your friends.”

Still, gaps remain. Ivor Ambrose, managing director of the nonprofit European Network for Accessible Tourism, said there's a continuing lack of awareness around the different levels of accessibility that travelers need.

"This is actually a really big market and an opportunity, which is still not fulfilled by the operators in all these different areas of tourism," he said.

Here is advice from several experts about how to take advantage of barrier-free options for yourself or someone else.

Research and plan ahead

Josh Grisdale, the founder of Accessible Japan, a website that publishes databases, resources and guides to navigating the country for people with disabilities, has cerebral palsy and uses a power wheelchair. Before traveling to a new place, he peruses Reddit, watches travel videos on YouTube — even if the person filming didn't require accommodations — and browses Google's Street View to look for stairs or other features that aren't suitable for wheelchairs.

Facebook can be helpful, but tips often are buried in private groups that aren't searchable, Grisdale said. If a hotel has a concierge, he recommends working with them and calling ahead to ask if a place you'd like to visit has the proper accessibility. Most museums and cultural institutions have written guides and other resources online detailing their barrier-free options.

Grisdale also created the online platform tabifolk, which crowdsources knowledge about accessible travel from around the world. A lack of such information can make researching and planning a trip even more stressful, so he wanted there to be a place where people could help each other through their lived experiences.

“Even though I’m in a wheelchair and I've had a disability my whole life, there’s things that I don’t know about other disabilities,” he said.

In Africa, proper planning is crucial for people with disabilities to be able to enjoy what the continent has to offer, such as going on a safari or climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, according to Joanne Ndirangu, the founder and director of accessible tourism agency Scout Group Agency.

Ndirangu promotes and advocates for expanding accessible tourism throughout Africa, particularly in Kenya. She urges visitors to work with local travel agents or other trained experts who know the region and what accessible options exist. Those people may have been the ones who worked to get a hotel or restaurant to install ramps or train the staff on helping someone who is neurodivergent.

"Let’s say you want to see giraffes somewhere," Ndirangu said. “I can now advise you, ‘That place is not viable if you’re on a wheelchair or on crutches because of the hills and the valleys.’ So I can give you an alternative — and you get to see the giraffes.”

Seek out specialized programming

Tours organized for the general public may not be ideal for people with disabilities in many cases, whether it's because the exhibits are too high for anyone in a wheelchair to see, or too loud for a person with sensory issues.

The offerings at the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum complex, include the sensory-friendly “Morning at the Museum” program, which is designed so participants who are neurodivergent and their families can visit a Smithsonian museum in Washington once a month before it opens to the public. They can engage in hands-on, multi-sensory activities or just stroll around at their own pace.

“We can control the environment, we can reduce the crowds,” Grady said. “It’s a completely judgment-free environment and one that’s really meant to hopefully be that full bridge to inclusion, where they are able to come to a museum, have a great experience, and then maybe come back when we’re open to the public.”

In Berlin, Catholic aid organization Malteser Deutschland noticed that people with dementia were often overlooked as visitors. The organization designed barrier-free tours specifically for this population at the Berlin Zoo, the Museum of Natural History, Britzer Garden and Charlottenburg Palace, with hopes of expanding to other locations.

The Berlin Zoo tour is limited to a handful of people, and runs about 90 minutes. The program skips the majority of the zoo’s vast collection of species to focus a few habitats so the participants don't get too tired or overwhelmed.

Ask for what you need and give feedback

Ndirangu said her team was trained to ask visitors upfront if they or their family members require accommodations for any disabilities so they can suggest the best options. It's not always possible to mitigate what they don't know about ahead of time, she said. Most hotels in Kenya only have one or two accessible rooms, for example, and they might already be booked by the time a guest who needs it arrives.

“Give us that opportunity to give you solutions,” she said. “We’ve had guests who don’t mention anything.”

The European Network for Accessible Tourism encourages travel companies to build the cost of providing barrier-free services into their programming so it's spread among all participants instead of only those who might require them. Many museums, for example, offer discounted rates for people with disabilities or free or reduced tickets for a companion.

Grady at the Smithsonian said the institution adapted its offerings after feedback from participants as well as an advisory group. Their advice has ranged from adjusting the colors on an app for people with low vision, to working with curators to ensure that upcoming exhibits are properly accessible for all.

“They’re not asking for anything out of the ordinary,” she said. “They’re literally just trying to experience a visit just like anyone else.”