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

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

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

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

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

Esta es una noticia en desarrollo.

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U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols didn’t rule from the bench on the plaintiffs’ request for an order blocking officials from implementing Trump’s March 31 order, his second related to elections since winning his second term in the White House. The case is one of multiple lawsuits filed to block the order on the grounds that only states and Congress, and not the president, are given power under the Constitution to decide how elections are run.

Trump's initial executive order to revamp elections by requiring documentary proof of citizenship, issued last year, was largely halted by multiplefederal judges on similar grounds. He issued his latest order only after the voting bill he backed stalled in Congress. The current legal fight comes as the country is in the midst of primary elections and election officials are preparing for the intricacies of holding the fall's midterm elections.

“I understand the time pressure here,” said Nichols, who questioned both sides but gave no clear indication of which way he's leaning.

The president can’t rewrite election rules to give himself and the Republican Party a partisan advantage, the plaintiffs’ attorneys said. They argued that the executive order’s requirements are illegal and designed to coerce states into limiting voter registration and ballot access.

“It is harming our clients every day in the middle of an election season,” said Orion Nevers, an attorney representing the NAACP.

Democrats are more likely to vote by mail. Since even before his 2020 loss, Trump has falsely implied there is mass fraud involved in the practice and fought to curtail it, even after his baseless claims led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and were repeatedly debunked by audits and reviews, including some run by Republicans.

Since returning to office, Trump has said he wants Republicans to “take over” elections in Democratic areas and launched investigations of the 2020 vote.

His latest executive order calls on the Department of Homeland Security to make a list of eligible voters in each state and seeks to prohibit the U.S. Postal Service from sending absentee ballots to those not on each state’s approved list.

The administration is asking the judge to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims. Justice Department attorney Stephen Pezzi on Thursday suggested that the litigation is premature, calling it “shadowboxing” for the plaintiffs to challenge a list that hasn’t yet been created.

“It’s a little hard to address these questions in the abstract,” Pezzi said.

Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, asked Pezzi why it would be lawful to disseminate the list to states.

“I think it would be the plaintiffs’ burden to explain why it’s unlawful,” Pezzi replied. “I don’t mean to be cute with that answer.”

Trump’s executive order requires federal agencies to compile a list of adults the U.S. government has purportedly “confirmed” to be U.S. citizens and to share it with each state at least 60 days before each federal election.

“There isn’t a way to lawfully compile it,” said Lalitha Madduri, an attorney for Democratic Party plaintiffs.

Danielle Lang, who represents the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the executive order is aimed at creating “the maximum amount of chaos and confusion” for local election officials.

“They need clear direction,” Lang said.

___

Riccardi reported from Denver.

He's hoping his name is still in the No. 1 spot on May 24.

The Mexican driver who finished second in 2022 and 2024 and third last year in IndyCar's biggest race of the season posted the fastest lap of the day on the third day of practice on Indy's 2.5-mile oval, going 227.308 mph. Four-time race winner Helio Castroneves, who tried his hand at Cup cars earlier this year, posted a 226.977.

“I like love the whole month, the practice days going into qualifying. The whole thing of qualifying on its own weekend, I love that," O'Ward said. “I really enjoy watching as well, and it's cool to see the big runs, big numbers and then going out there yourself and trying to beat that.”

The only thing that would be better than beating the competition in practice would be celebrating with a sip of milk after the 500.

But as O'Ward knows, Thursday's numbers don't mean much heading into qualifications Saturday and Sunday — or race day.

All 33 cars will have their power cranked up with a turbocharged boost Friday and before starting their four-lap qualifying runs Saturday.

Because of that, most teams used the six-hour practice session to work on qualifying runs, banking information on race-day setups and simply trying to get more answers about what works well and what won't during the race.

And the speeds were not nearly as quick as Wednesday when Conor Daly and defending Indy winner Alex Palou topped 228.

Only five drivers — O'Ward, Castroneves, Marcus Armstrong, Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi — hit 226.

“You couldn’t ask for better weather, not only in terms of the wind conditions, but the temperature, everything is just perfect,” Castroneves said as the Brazilian again tries to become Indy's first five-time winner. ”We know it’s going to be like this Saturday (in qualifying), but at the end of the day we felt comfortable. The starting point is one of the best balances I’ve had on qualifying weekend. We’ll see what we’ve got tomorrow.”

But speed was only part of Thursday's story.

Two-time race winner Takuma Sato posted the fastest non-tow speed at 223.828 while Team Penske teammates Scott McLaughlin and David Malukas were second and third in non-tow speeds at 223.738 and 223.391.

Rossi, the 2016 Indy winner, was the busiest driver of the day. He turned 68 laps less than 24 hours after his crew with Ed Carpenter Racing changed his engine.

___

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

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In a statement released on Wednesday, the U.S. State Department accused the regime of refusing to accept the aid to distributed in coordination with the Catholic Church and other independent organizations.

“The United States continues to seek meaningful reforms to Cuba’s communist system, which has only served to enrich the elites and condemn the Cuban people to poverty,” a State Department spokesperson wrote in the statement.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel also released a statement on Wednesday about the failures of Cuba’s National Electric Energy System, or SEN.

“For today’s operations, a deficit of more than 2,000 MW is forecast during the peak nighttime demand period,” Díaz-Canel wrote. “This dramatic worsening has a single cause: the genocidal energy blockade to which the United States subjects our country.”

Díaz-Canel denounced President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs against any nation that supplies Cuba with fuel and blamed “a small group of ultrarightists who have hijacked policy toward Cuba.”

Also on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez used X to raise awareness about a group of Cuban protesters at San Miguel del Padrón, a municipality in Havana.

Giménez also shared a report about Carlos MacDonald, a political prisoner whose family fears he isn’t getting proper treatment after an alleged cancer diagnosis.

“From the United States Congress, we demand the immediate release of all political prisoners inside Cuba,” Giménez wrote on X.

Giménez also blamed the crisis on the island on corruption.

“The dictatorship in Havana denies the people the opportunity to receive more than $100 million in food directly distributed by the USA,” Giménez wrote on X. “The regime only wants to keep doing what it always does: steal the aid and profit by reselling it to the people.”

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The State Department is publicly restating the United States' generous offer to provide additional direct humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people.

The Cuban regime must decide whether to accept our offer or deny life-saving help for the Cuban people, who desperately need it.

— Department of State (@StateDept) May 13, 2026

#AHORA Cacerolazos en La Habana a pocas cuadras de la “Plaza de la Revolución”. Sin miedo.#Cuba pic.twitter.com/TB0QSG1aq3

— Cristian Crespo F. 🇨🇺 (@cristiancrespoj) May 13, 2026

⚠️⚠️#Urgente. Continúan llegando imágenes de las afueras del gobierno municipal de San Miguel del Padrón.

Protesta masiva de cubanos tocando cacerolas. pic.twitter.com/FUErLVA2L7

— Mag Jorge Castro🇨🇺 (@MagJorgeCastro) May 13, 2026

Attendeees aired concerns about what they described as systemic inequities affecting Black residents across Miami-Dade County.

Former state Sen. Dwight Bullard criticized elected officials and questioned the lack of advocacy for Black communities.

“Where is our strategic intervention as Black Floridians and Black Miamians irrespective of party affiliation,” Bullard said.

Residents also expressed frustration over voter apathy and what some called defeatist attitudes within the community.

“You tell me there was no African-American that has qualified to become a city manager?” Liberty City activist Sharon Frazier asked, criticizing recent hiring decisions for Miami’s city manager and police chief positions.

Speakers argued that qualified African Americans within local ranks were overlooked for those jobs.

Pierre Rutledge, who heads Miami-Dade’s Black Affairs Advisory Board, said leaders making hiring decisions “need to be fair and equitable.”

The town hall marked the board’s last official meeting after Florida’s new law targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs eliminated DEI standards affecting such boards and initiatives.

“There are elements of segregation that still exists within Miami-Dade County,” said attorney Stephen H. Johnson.

Johnson also pointed to what he described as institutional racism within Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, blaming it for the absence of Black cadets among the department’s newest recruits.

“When there is no voice to raise those points that it is allowed to persist — people just believe it’s natural,” he said. “This is how things have always been, so this is how things will always be.”

Attendees also raised concerns about Florida’s congressional district maps, including District 20, which some speakers said pack Black voters into a single district while reshaping neighboring districts.

The discussion included concerns that longtime U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz could potentially run in District 20 against Black Democratic candidates.

Christopher Simmons, principal of Care Elementary School in Overtown, said representation matters.

“When we don’t see representation for us, it is hurtful,” he said. “But we have got to be the change as well. We have to put ourselves in that position.”

The exchange at a highly anticipated summit in Beijing underscored just how far apart Trump and Xi still are on thorny issues, including the war in Iran, trade disputes and Washington’s relations with Taiwan, which is self-ruled but which China claims as part of its territory.

It also suggested that Trump’s three-day visit to China is likely to be longer on pageantry and symbolism than substantive political or economic breakthroughs.

The pair met for about two hours behind closed doors at the Great Hall of the People after an elaborate welcome ceremony featuring booming cannons, a band playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and China’s national anthem, and hundreds of schoolchildren jumping and waving flowers and American and Chinese flags.

According to a post on X by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, Xi told Trump that “the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations.”

“If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy,” she wrote.

That comment followed a brief public exchange before the meeting began in which Trump told Xi: “You’re a great leader. Sometimes people don’t like me saying it, but I say it anyway, because it’s true.”

“It’s an honor to be your friend,” Trump said before promising that the U.S.-China relationship “is going to be better than ever before.”

Trump later told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview that Xi said during their conversations that he “would like to be of help” in negotiating an end to the Iran war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz to oil shipments.

Xi was far more stark in his opening public remarks, expressing hope that the U.S. and China could avoid conflict and asking “whether the two countries can transcend the ‘Thucydides Trap’ and forge a new model for relations between major powers.”

That’s a term, popular in foreign policy studies, referring to the idea that when a rising power threatens to displace an established one, the result is often war. Xi has used the term for years, but using it as Trump offered optimism was noteworthy and foreshadowed his closed-door comments on Taiwan.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio later said U.S. policy toward Taiwan was “unchanged” but warned that it would be “a terrible mistake” for China to take Taiwan by force.

“They always raise it on their side. We always make clear our position, and we move on to the other topics,” Rubio, who is traveling with the president, said in an interview with NBC News.

Both emphasized the importance of China-US relations

After their meeting, Xi took Trump on a tour of the Temple of Heaven, then hosted a state banquet for him. The Chinese leader used his evening toast to note that he and Trump had kept U.S.-China relations “generally stable” in a turbulent world.

“Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand,” Xi said, referring to Trump’s political movement. “We can help each other succeed and advance the well-being of the whole world.”

In his toast, Trump said his visit had been “a great honor” punctuated by a “fantastic” day. He said matters “all good for the United States and China” were discussed.

Trump also said Xi would make a reciprocal visit to the White House on Sept. 24 — a date not previously announced.

The positive tone was reflected in the White House assessment of the earlier meetings, which said both leaders had touched on ways to enhance economic cooperation, including expanding market access for American businesses in China and increasing Chinese investment into U.S. industries.

The White House readout did not mention Taiwan directly, but, in relation to Iran, said both sides had agreed that the strait must remain open. The strait’s closure has stranded tankers and caused energy prices to spike, threatening global economic growth.

The war is dominating Trump’s domestic agenda and stoking fears about the prospect of a weakening U.S. economy as November’s midterm elections — when Republicans hope to maintain control of Congress — approach.

China is the largest purchaser of Iranian oil, and Rubio said in an interview with Fox News that Trump would make the case for Beijing to exert its influence on Iran, noting that administration officials would underscore that “economies are melting down because of this crisis,” which means consumers are “buying less Chinese product.”

It’s not clear if Trump persuaded Xi to wield his influence. The White House instead said Xi opposed any implementation of tolls on vessels crossing the strait — as Iran has proposed — and expressed interest in China potentially purchasing more U.S. oil to reduce Chinese dependence on Gulf oil in the future.

When asked Thursday at a congressional hearing whether China is providing intelligence to Iran to help it target U.S. forces, Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, would not discuss intelligence but said the Iranian military “is largely made up of Russian and Chinese equipment.”

Taiwan issues remain contentious

Xi’s warning about Taiwan reflects China’s displeasure with a U.S. plan to sell weapons to the island. The Trump administration has approved an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan, but has yet to begin fulfilling it.

The U.S. has a longstanding commitment to help the island defend itself if attacked, but Trump has shown greater ambivalence toward Taiwan, fueling speculation about whether the president could be persuaded to dial back American support.

Taiwan said after the Xi-Trump meeting that it was grateful for Washington’s “long-term support.”

“The government views all actions that contribute to regional stability and the management of potential risks from authoritarian expansion positively,” Michelle Lee, a spokesperson for Taiwan’s premier, told reporters. She added that the U.S. “has also repeatedly reiterated its firm and clear position of support for Taiwan.”

US still hopes to secure trade wins

The White House has insisted that Trump would not be making the trip without an eye toward securing concrete results, suggesting there could be coming announcements on trade.

That likely includes a Chinese commitment to buy U.S. soybeans, beef and aircraft. Trump told Fox News that Xi had indicated a commitment to buying 200 jets from Boeing.

Trump administration officials also want to work toward establishing a board of trade with China to address commercial differences between the countries.

Trump and Xi discussed trade on Thursday, with Xi saying that China’s door of opportunity will open wider. Xi also met with a collection of U.S. business leaders who accompanied Trump.

The U.S. and China reached a trade truce last year that calmed each side’s threats to impose steep tariffs on the other. The White House says there have been ongoing discussions and mutual interest in extending the agreement.

The leaders also discussed further stemming the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals into the United States and increasing Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products, according to the White House.

___

Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Darlene Superville and Michelle L. Price in Washington, Simina Mistreanu in Bangkok and Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

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Ihab Sulaiman was accused of mail theft on Monday in Miami-Dade County, according to Michael Soto, a spokesman for the United States Postal Service.

Sulaiman, 53, was arrested on Wednesday near Westchester and accused of unlawful possession of five or more identifications, according to a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputy’s arrest report.

Investigators found Sulaiman in a parked gray Chevrolet with mail addressed to different people near Southwest 71 Court and 19 Street, according to the arrest report.

Sulaiman was also facing charges of possession of “suspected” crystal meth, Xanax, MDMA, and marijuana, and of possession of drug paraphernalia, records show.

Surveillance video shows the recent mail theft at the Midway Gardens community, where mail had already been stolen back in February.

“We have had checks stolen, we have had property stolen, we have had credit cards stolen,” Arturo Abraeu, the homeowners’ association president at Midway Gardens, told Local 10 News on Wednesday. “As soon as we saw someone was caught, everyone was so relieved about it.”

The video shows that the thief wasn’t working alone. After throwing the stolen mail into a white sports utility vehicle, he sat in the back seat, and the driver fled.

Local 10 News Senior Assignment Editor Frine Gomez and Reporter Roy Ramos contributed to this report.

Related story: Video shows man wanted for mail thefts in Miami-Dade

Details from the arrest report

Investigators reported finding an “unopened letter from the Internal Revenue service,” an “unopened letter from Citi American Airlines AAdvantage.” an “unopened letter from T-Mobile,” an “unopened Xfinity electronic service request letter,” an “unopened Bank of America credit card letter,” and an “unopened Interamerican Bank letter,” according to the arrest report.

Investigators also reported finding an “opened Fidelity Investments letter containing account information,” an “opened Netcredit from CCBank letter,” and an “opened Pershing LLC / Janus investment fund letter.

In the suspect’s wallet, investigators found six credit cards that did not belong to him, including a Capital One Visa card with the name of a woman and two American Express credit cards.

Investigators say Sulaiman is beleved to have targeted numerous communities in South Florida.

“Thats one story, but I’m certain with this individual there are many,” said Mary Faraldo, a resident of Glenvar Heights. “This is someone who should be put away and should serve a harsh penalty.”

As of Thursday, Sulaiman remains behind bars on a $23,000 bond. If he posts bond, he will remain on house arrest and will have a curfew from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Authorities said the investigation is ongoing and more arrests could follow.

Anyone with information is urged to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The victim’s family declined to speak.

This is a developing story. Local 10 News Assignment Editors Mercedes Cevallos and Wilson Louis contributed to this report.

Early morning report

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Mirlande Moltimer, 49, changed her plea in the high-profile case tied to the death of Deonte Atwell, who investigators said was starved to death at his home on Christmas Day in 2023.

Atwell weighed just 7 pounds when first responders found him, according to investigators. Prosecutors previously alleged the child was tortured as part of what they believed was a scheme to defraud Medicaid.

During Thursday’s hearing, Broward Circuit Judge Peter Holden asked Moltimer whether she was under the influence before accepting her plea.

“Miss Moltimer, I know you’re in custody, but at this time are you under the influence of any drugs, alcohol or medication?” Holden asked.

“No judge,” Moltimer replied.

Moments later, Holden addressed one of the charges against her.

“Count 15 ma’am, murder in the third degree felony, how do you wish to plead, guilty or no contest?” he asked.

“Guilty,” Moltimer responded softly.

Moltimer was among several people arrested in 2024 in connection with the case, including the child’s mother, Michelle Doe; the boy’s adult brother; his grandfather; and a nurse. Investigators said Moltimer owned a Medicare provider company connected to the allegations.

At one point during the hearing, the judge warned Moltimer about the severity of the possible punishment.

“If my math is correct, that’s 65 years of prison in Florida state that you’re looking at — do you understand that — it’s maximum penalty,” Holden said.

The plea agreement means Moltimer will not face that maximum sentence in state prison. However, she still must serve federal prison time tied to previous convictions connected to the case, followed by seven years of reporting probation.

The nonbinding memorandum of understanding among the Rays, Hillsborough County and the city of Tampa outlines the costs of a stadium, which would include $967 million of tax dollars. Elected officials for the city and county are expected to vote on the deal at separate meetings next week.

“The Rays respectfully but resolutely encourage Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa to approve the MOU and make possible a Forever Home for our community’s Tampa Bay Rays, breathe new life into the Dale Mabry Campus of Hillsborough College, and create a new privately financed neighborhood that will be an inviting and inclusive destination to work, live, learn, and play," Rays CEO Ken Babby said in a statement.

The Rays ownership reached an agreement earlier this year with Hillsborough College to build the stadium and mixed-use entertainment district on the college campus and to renovate some of the college's buildings. The property is located next to the New York Yankees’ spring training facility and across a highway from Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Rays have said they hope to have the new stadium built within three years.

Since the team took the field in 1998, the Rays have played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, except for moving home games to the Yankees' Steinbrenner Field in 2025 following hurricane damage at the Trop. The Rays lease runs through at least the 2028 season. The team returned to the Trop last month for the start of this season.

A proposed $1.3 billion redevelopment deal for a new ballpark adjacent to the Trop fell through last year, raising new questions about the future of the team, which was bought last September by Patrick Zalupski’s ownership group.

___

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

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Readon’s release comes as New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church is publicly welcoming him back.

A flyer circulating online advertises a “Readon Returns” worship service scheduled for Sunday from 8:45 a.m. to 10 a.m. at 2801 NW 170th St. in Miami Gardens. The flyer features Readon in a suit alongside the words “Readon Returns” and identifies him as “Pastor Eric Readon.”

Court records show Readon pleaded guilty in June 2025 to exploitation of an elderly person after prosecutors accused him of illegally taking control of Fuller’s home and selling it without Fuller realizing what had happened. Fuller, who was in his late 70s at the time the investigation began, had trusted Readon as a pastor and spiritual adviser.

The case drew widespread attention after Local 10 News began investigating allegations that Fuller had effectively lost ownership of his longtime home while under Readon’s influence.

Reporting over several years detailed allegations that documents transferring the property had been signed and that the home was later sold, leaving Fuller without the house he believed he still owned.

As part of a negotiated plea agreement, Readon was sentenced to 364 days in jail, followed by 15 years of probation. He was also ordered to pay $180,000 in restitution to Fuller.

Readon surrendered on July 15, 2025, to begin serving the sentence. Because jail inmates can receive credit for time served and gain-time reductions, his release at this point, after serving 303 days of a 364-day sentence, is consistent with the sentence imposed.

During earlier court proceedings, prosecutors argued that Readon used his position of trust to financially exploit Fuller. Readon later attempted to withdraw his guilty plea, claiming his attorney pressured him into accepting the deal and failed to properly prepare the case for trial.

That effort was rejected by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Christine Hernández, who ruled that the evidence showed Readon knowingly and voluntarily accepted the plea agreement. Hernández pointed to extensive communication between Readon and his attorney before the plea and said the evidence did not support claims that he had been forced into the deal.

The judge also noted that Readon told the court during his plea hearing that he understood the agreement and that no one had threatened or pressured him into taking it.

Now, following his release, Readon appears poised to return to ministry.

The church flyer promoting Sunday’s service lists the Northwest 170th Street address associated with New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens and encourages worshippers to attend the event marking Readon’s return.

It remains unclear what formal role Readon will have at the church moving forward or whether any conditions of his probation restrict his activities. It is also unclear how much of the court-ordered restitution to Fuller has been paid.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That mother’s intuition led to a frightening diagnosis.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Edwards, serving his second term in the House, said he welcomed the inquiry and planned to fully cooperate with the committee.

“I am confident the investigation will expose the facts, not politically motivated fiction,” Edwards said.

The investigation follows an Axios report stating that three sources told the publication that they witnessed conduct by Edwards toward two female staffers in their 20s that they described as inappropriate. The sources said Edwards’ behavior crossed professional boundaries and created an uncomfortable work environment. Axios said the sources were granted anonymity to protect against retaliation.

The Ethics Committee said in its investigation announcement that it would make no further public comment on the matter and that disclosing the review does not, by itself, indicate that any violation occurred.

The committee's investigation comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of lawmakers’ behavior toward female staffers following the resignations of Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales. Both were facing calls for their expulsion before they stepped down.

Republican U.S. Rep. Max Miller filed a defamation lawsuit against Emily Moreno, his one-time spouse, on Wednesday in Cleveland, citing “the considerable reputational and financial harm” caused to him by her accusations that he was “a violent and abusive husband and father.”

Miller, a two-term congressman up for reelection this fall, alleges that Moreno, her attorney Andrew Zashin and his law firm have engaged in a defamatory campaign against him by spreading knowingly false information about him to media outlets including The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, and the New York Post. The action contends that the resulting damage to his reputation undermines his chances of reelection.

Those outlets have “circulation measured in the tens of millions of print and online readership,” the complaint states, and their articles have been read, viewed or discussed by Miller's constituents, his congressional colleagues, ”his political supporters and donors, the media, and the general public.”

The suit seeks compensatory damages in excess of $25,000, punitive damages sufficient to deter future similar conduct and attorney's fees.

“Congressman Miller is seeking to hold those responsible accountable and to obtain damages for the significant personal, professional, and political harm that he has suffered,” his spokesman said in a statement.

Zashin declined comment.

The incident brings to mind a similar situation that played out as Miller, a White House aide to President Donald Trump during the Republican's first term, made his first run for Congress in 2021.

Miller's former girlfriend, one-time White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, raised allegations in her book and in a Washington Post op-ed at the time that a former White House staffer later identified as Miller had physically abused her while they were dating. Miller responded by filing a defamation lawsuit against her. He voluntarily dismissed the suit with prejudice in August 2023, just before the case was set to go to trial.

Moreno’s spokesperson, Stefan Mychajliw, cited the earlier lawsuit in a statement Thursday.

“Mr. Miller is upset because he’s tried to silence Emily Moreno the same way he silenced Stephanie Grisham — and Emily won’t let him," he said, suggesting Miller is "running the same playbook against a woman with photographs of her bruises and burns.” He added, “Mr. Miller will not silence Ms. Moreno.”

Miller married Emily Moreno in 2022. They had a daughter in 2023.

He filed for divorce in August 2024, as her father, Bernie, was making a successful run for U.S. Senate backed by Trump. The abuse allegations — most recently, Moreno said Miller threw boiling water at her, an allegation he denies — come amid a messy custody battle that has included Miller seeking a restraining order against his ex-wife and subpoenaing the senator to testify. The divorce was finalized last June.

Miller's spokesperson provided documentation that several allegations that he had abused his daughter were investigated by the Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services and deemed unsubstantiated.

Amid the drama, Democrat Brian Poindexter, a five-term local councilman and union ironworker, is looking to oust Miller and flip Ohio's 7th Congressional District in November.

“We can disagree on all sorts of things, but we’ve got to have something in common or we don’t have a country,” Thomas said at a judicial conference near Miami. “These documents, our founding documents, our founding history, whether we think it’s perfect or it shouldn’t be amended, or we might disagree about how far it goes, but we can say this is something that we all treasure.”

Thomas' remarks came in response to an interview with one of his former Supreme Court clerks, Kasdin Mitchell, who was nominated this month by President Donald Trump to serve on the federal bench in Dallas.

Thomas — who recently became the second longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history — looked back on his upbringing in the segregated South and his more than three decades on the high court.

But he gave no indication that, at age 77, he is looking to retire anytime soon and give President Trump the opportunity to further cement his influence on the Supreme Court and nominate his fourth justice, the most of any president in almost a century.

“Justice Marshall said you take a job for life, you do it for life,” referring to Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court's first African American justice, who Thomas replaced on the high court.

But he said his long tenure had given him a unique perspective on the cynicism that pervades so much of society and contributes to Americans' distrust in government.

He spoke about the example set by his grandfather, the son of a freed slave with barely any formal education, to describe his judicial philosophy in a limited form of government.

“One of the rods in this society versus so many of the others where the rights are parceled down by a government is that we were taught from the cradle that we were equal in God’s eyes, that was self-evident," said Thomas. "If you look at Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King or Abraham Lincoln, they all speak in terms of these transcendent rights beyond the ability of man to take away even though man had the power to infringe upon them.”

Kristi House es una organización sin fines de lucro con sede en Miami que brinda atención informada sobre trauma a víctimas de trata de personas.

La comunidad de agencias del orden y fiscales del condado Miami-Dade se está preparando para la Copa Mundial de la FIFA y lanzando una campaña de concienciación.

“(Estamos) logrando que las personas literalmente se preocupen unas por otras en la sociedad”, dijo Philippa King, subdirectora ejecutiva de It’s a Penalty.

Los pasajeros que lleguen al Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami en importantes aerolíneas, incluyendo American Airlines, verán un video durante su vuelo sobre seguridad relacionada con la trata de personas.

“Un joven vio el video y pidió ayuda”, dijo King. “Ayudamos a salvar una vida”.

Un portavoz de Uber dijo que están implementando recursos dentro de la aplicación y material educativo para conductores, otro grupo clave que puede ayudar en este esfuerzo multisectorial que incluye trabajadores de primera línea de la TSA, empleados de hoteles y hospitalidad y personal de estadios.

“Los hoteles pueden ser explotados por traficantes que quieren esconderse en las sombras”, dijo Glenn Sampert, gerente general del InterContinental Miami by IHG.

Los funcionarios hablaron sobre algunas de las señales de alerta que deben observarse, incluyendo mujeres que dependen de un hombre y parecen estar muy ligadas a ellos y que no tienen acceso a documentos o dinero para comprar artículos.

CÓMO REPORTAR ACTIVIDAD SOSPECHOSA

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

Si está en peligro inmediato, llame al 911.

Línea Nacional contra la Trata de Personas: 1-888-373-7888

Texto: 233733 (BEFREE)

humantraffickinghotline.org

Centro Nacional para Niños Desaparecidos y Explotados

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

CyberTipline: https://itsapenalty.org/na2026/usa/miami/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HOW TO REPORT SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY

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

If you are in immediate danger, please call 911.

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

Text: 233733 (BEFREE)

humantraffickinghotline.org

National Center of Missing and Exploited Children

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

CyberTipline: https://itsapenalty.org/na2026/usa/miami/

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According to Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue officials, the man, who was in his 70s, was working in a tree in the 700 block of Northeast 15th Court when the incident occurred.

First responders transported him to Broward Health Medical Center as a trauma alert, where he later died from his injuries.

No other details about the victim were immediately released.

The verdict, reached Wednesday after a trial in federal court in Chicago, resolves one of the last remaining wrongful death lawsuits filed in connection with the disaster that killed all 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.

Samya Stumo, who grew up in Sheffield, Massachusetts, had recently joined a nonprofit focused on strengthening health systems in developing countries. A 2015 graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, she was traveling to Uganda for what would have been her first major project with the organization when the plane crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019.

A spokesperson for UMass after the crash described her as someone known “for engaging others by earning their respect, friendship and trust.”

Jurors awarded $21 million for the pain and suffering and emotional distress that Stumo experienced aboard the doomed flight, $16.5 million for the loss of companionship suffered by her family and $12 million for their grief, according to attorneys representing her estate.

“We are gratified for the opportunity to try the compensatory damages case," attorneys Shanin Specter and Elizabeth Crawford said in a statement Wednesday evening announcing the verdict.

It is the second verdict tied to the crash. Boeing has reached confidential pre-trial settlements in most of the dozens of wrongful death lawsuits filed in connection with the Ethiopian Airlines disaster and a similar 737 Max crash five months earlier off the coast of Indonesia that together killed 346 people.

The fatal crashes became a defining crisis for Boeing and the 737 Max program. Investigators found that a flight-control system repeatedly forced the nose of the then-new planes downward based on faulty readings from a single sensor, and pilots in both crashes were unable to regain control.

The verdict follows a November 2025 jury award of $28.45 million to the family of Shikha Garg, a United Nations environmental consultant who also died in the 2019 crash. That case marked the first civil jury trial stemming from the disaster, with jurors similarly tasked only with calculating damages because Boeing has accepted liability.

“We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. While we have resolved nearly all of these claims through settlements, families are entitled to pursue their claims through the court process, and we respect their right to do so," a Boeing spokesperson said Thursday in a statement.

The Ethiopian Airlines crash prompted a worldwide grounding of the 737 Max that lasted more than a year and triggered multiple investigations into Boeing’s safety culture and regulatory oversight.

Federal prosecutors later charged Boeing with misleading regulators about the Max's flight-control system, though in November, the federal judge in Texas overseeing the long-running criminal case approved a Justice Department request to dismiss it. Prosecutors reached an agreement with Boeing, requiring the company to invest an additional $1 billion in fines, family compensation and safety improvements.

Stumo’s family has been among the most outspoken relatives seeking accountability from Boeing and changes to federal aviation oversight. Her father, Michael Stumo, has publicly pressed Boeing, regulators and Congress over what families viewed as failures that allowed the 737 Max to keep flying after the first crash off the coast of Indonesia.

The court’s order allows women seeking abortions to continue obtaining the drug, mifepristone, at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor. Access is likely to remain uninterrupted at least until into next year as the case plays out, including a potential appeal to the high court.

The justices granted emergency requests from makers of mifepristone, who are appealing a federal appeals court ruling that would require women to see a doctor in person and halt delivery of mifepristone through the mail. The federal Food and Drug Administration, which first approved mifepristone for use in abortion in 2000, stopped requiring in-person visits five years ago.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, with Thomas writing that the two companies, Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, are not entitled to the court's action to spare them “lost profits from their criminal enterprise.”

Anti-abortion groups, frustrated with President Donald Trump’s administration, are pushing the FDA to move faster with a review that they hope will result in restrictions on mifepristone, including blocking its prescribing via telehealth platforms. The Republican administration says the work takes time.

Earlier this week, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned after months of criticism from Trump’s political allies, including abortion opponents.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and similarly aligned groups had called on Trump to fire Makary over the slow pace of the mifepristone review.

The court is dealing with its latest abortion controversy four years after its conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.

The case before the court stems from a lawsuit Louisiana filed to roll back the Food and Drug Administration’s rules on how mifepristone can be prescribed. The state claims that the policy undermines the ban there, and it questions the safety of the drug, which has repeatedly been deemed safe and effective by FDA scientists.

Alito, who wrote the opinion overturning Roe, agreed that the state's efforts have been thwarted by medical providers and private organizations that mail the pills to women in Louisiana, despite the abortion ban. Danco and GenBioPro “are obviously aware of what is going on yet nevertheless supply the drug and reap profits from its felonious use in Louisiana,” he wrote.

Thomas said those who mail the pills are in violation of the Comstock Act, a 19th-century law that has long gone unenforced and bans mailing any “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion.”

Lower courts concluded that Louisiana is likely to prevail, and a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that mail access and telehealth visits should be suspended while the case plays out.

The drug is most often used for abortion in combination with another drug, misoprostol. Medication abortions accounted for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. in 2023, the last year for which statistics are available.

Telehealth prescribers were prepared to switch to sending abortion patients a regimen that uses only misoprostol.

While Thursday’s ruling keeps the status quo in place for now, abortion-rights advocates warn that the case isn’t settled forever.

“We are relieved that access to mifepristone remains protected for now, but this should never have been on the table in the first place,” Serra Sippel, executive director of The Brigid Alliance, which helps coordinate and fund travel and other logistics to assist women traveling for abortion, said in a statement. “Patients and providers should not be forced to wait on court rulings to know whether people can access critical health care.”

The decision is “extremely disappointing” but not a defeat, said Gavin Oxley, a spokesperson for the anti-abortion advocacy group Americans United for Life. “The Supreme Court still has the opportunity to hear the case in full and bring justice to Louisiana,” he said.

The current dispute is similar to one that reached the court three years ago, when the justices blocked a 5th Circuit ruling in a suit filed by anti-abortion doctors and kept mifepristone widely available, over dissents from Alito and Thomas.

Then, in 2024, the high court unanimously dismissed the doctors’ suit, reasoning they did not have the legal right, or standing, to sue.

In the current dispute, mainstream medical groups, the pharmaceutical industry and Democratic members of Congress have weighed in cautioning the court against limiting access to the drug. Pharmaceutical companies said a ruling for abortion opponents would upend the drug approval process.

Debate over the safety of mifepristone has churned for more than 25 years. The FDA has eased a number of restrictions initially placed on the drug, including who can prescribe it, how it is dispensed and what kinds of safety complications must be reported.

Despite those determinations, anti-abortion groups have filed a series of petitions and lawsuits against the agency, generally alleging that it violated federal law by overlooking safety issues with the pill.

Trump’s administration has been unusually quiet at the Supreme Court. It declined to file a written brief recommending what the court should do, even though federal regulations are at issue.

The case puts the administration in a difficult place. Trump has relied on the political support of anti-abortion groups but has also seen ballot question and poll results that show Americans generally support abortion rights.

Both sides took the administration’s silence as an implicit endorsement of the appellate ruling.

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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed to this report from New York. Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, N.J.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

Un comunicado oficial indicó que el encuentro tuvo lugar “en un contexto caracterizado por la complejidad de las relaciones bilaterales” y en “aras de contribuir a un diálogo político”.

El comunicado agregó que durante el encuentro los elementos aportados por la isla "permitieron demostrar categóricamente que Cuba no constituye una amenaza para la seguridad nacional de Estados Unidos, ni existen razones legítimas para incluirla en la lista de países que, supuestamente, patrocinan el terrorismo”.

La reunión del jueves se produjo semanas después de que el gobierno cubano confirmara haberse reunido recientemente con funcionarios estadounidenses en la isla en un contexto de alta tensión entre ambos países debido al bloqueo energético estadounidense contra el país caribeño.

A fines de enero Donald Trump amenazó con imponer aranceles a cualquier país que venda o suministre petróleo a Cuba. Trump también ha amenazado con intervenir la isla y el presidente cubano Miguel Díaz-Canel declaró recientemente que su país está preparado para luchar si eso llegara a ocurrir.

Un funcionario de la CIA, que habló bajo condición de anonimato según las normas establecidas por la agencia, dijo a The Associated Press que Ratcliffe se reunió con Raúl Rodríguez Castro —nieto del expresidente Raúl Castro—, el ministro del Interior cubano Lázaro Álvarez Casas y el jefe de los servicios de inteligencia cubanos para transmitirles "el mensaje del presidente Trump: Estados Unidos está dispuesto a abordar con seriedad los asuntos económicos y de seguridad, pero sólo si Cuba realiza cambios fundamentales”.

————-

El periodista de AP, Eric Tucker, colaboró en esta nota desde Washington DC.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

___

Tucker reported from Washington, D.C.

___

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The tracking apps then went dark.

Miami Beach police are asking anyone in the community who might recognize Torres to call (305) 673-7900.

Legislation passed unanimously by the Senate on Thursday would allow Capitol Police officers to apply to extend their service until age 62, while a bill passed by the House earlier this year would allow them to serve until age 65. That would raise the current age from 60 for officers who apply for waivers to work beyond the legal forced retirement age of 57 or after 20 years of service, whichever comes later.

Raising the age could help the Capitol Police force stem personnel shortages, which Chief Michael Sullivan told Congress earlier this year “span all operational units.”

“We have 300 officers right now that could say I’m done, I’m ready to walk away,” Sullivan told House, appropriators in March, as officers hit their age limit or 20 years of service. “That would be catastrophic for us.”

California Sen. Alex Padilla, the top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, authored the bipartisan bill with Senate Rules Committee Chairman Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Padilla said the legislation is a modest step as increased security measures are put in place to address the rise in threats.

By keeping older officers on the force, Padilla said, “we’re talking about officers who have served for a long, long time and have a tremendous amount of institutional memory, experience and expertise."

“After bicameral and bipartisan discussions, I hope to see this measure signed into law,” Padilla said.

Nearly 60 sworn officers are already working on a retirement waiver, according to the House Administration Committee, more than double the size of a typical USCP recruitment class.

“No officer should be forced to retire when they can still do the job,” said Republican Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, the chairman of that panel.

Capitol Police has struggled to maintain officers

The Capitol Police has made improvements across the board since widespread security failures on Jan. 6, 2021, when the force was overwhelmed by thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters who swarmed the grounds and broke into the building as they violently protested his defeat. Many officers left the department afterward, and retention and budget struggles remain.

The department’s budget request this year topped $1 billion for the first time as department leaders look to hire more officers and better protect members. Sullivan told lawmakers that the department has around 1,250 uniformed officers and needs 150 more to staff every post without paying overtime.

“I’m concerned with the overtime that we put on our folks every single day,” Sullivan said in the March oversight hearing. “There’s drafts on a consistent basis and it pushes the men and women that we have to the limit.”

Funding for the department’s protective intelligence, which protects members, is “very slim,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said a number of officers have left the force for other federal agencies that have better benefits.

“There’s nothing keeping folks here,” he said.

Huge spike in lawmaker threats taxes police force

Part of the reason for the shortages is the increased need for member protection. Threats against lawmakers have more than doubled in the last five years.

According to the department, almost 15,000 threats were investigated against members of Congress in 2025, a 58 percent increase from 2024. Sullivan said that the number of threats in 2026 is on track to be even higher.

The department has overhauled its security measures for members, boosting security for lawmakers and their families in districts around the country, and is working with local police departments that it reimburses. A January report said the force has seen an increase in reporting after a new center was launched two years ago to receive and process threat reports.

Lawmakers in both parties receive a “wide range of threats,” the report said.

All of that requires more personnel and experience, Sullivan said.

“While we focus on those individuals at the beginning of their career, we also need to focus on that experience that’s at the end of their career,” he told lawmakers.

Según funcionarios de Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue, la víctima, un hombre de unos 70 años, trabajaba en un árbol en la cuadra 700 de Northeast 15th Court cuando ocurrió el incidente.

Los rescatistas trasladaron a la víctima al Broward Health Medical Center como alerta de trauma. Su condición exacta aún no ha sido divulgada.

Ihab Sulaiman fue acusado de robo de correo el lunes en el condado Miami-Dade, según Michael Soto, portavoz del Servicio Postal de Estados Unidos.

Sulaiman, de 53 años, fue arrestado el miércoles cerca de Westchester y acusado de posesión ilegal de cinco o más identificaciones, según un reporte de arresto de un agente de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade.

Los investigadores encontraron a Sulaiman dentro de un Chevrolet gris estacionado con correspondencia dirigida a diferentes personas cerca de Southwest 71 Court y 19 Street, según el reporte de arresto.

Sulaiman también enfrentaba cargos por posesión de metanfetamina cristalina “sospechosa”, Xanax, MDMA y marihuana, además de posesión de parafernalia de drogas, muestran los registros.

Un video de vigilancia muestra el reciente robo de correo en la comunidad Midway Gardens, donde ya habían robado correspondencia en febrero.

“Hemos tenido cheques robados, hemos tenido propiedad robada, hemos tenido tarjetas de crédito robadas”, dijo Arturo Abraeu, presidente de la asociación de propietarios de Midway Gardens, a Local 10 News el miércoles.

El video muestra que el ladrón no actuaba solo. Después de lanzar el correo robado dentro de una camioneta SUV blanca, se sentó en el asiento trasero y el conductor huyó.

La editora sénior de asignaciones de Local 10 News, Frine Gomez, y el reportero Roy Ramos contribuyeron a este reporte.

Historia relacionada: Video muestra a hombre buscado por robos de correo en Miami-Dade

Detalles del reporte de arresto

Los investigadores reportaron haber encontrado una “carta sin abrir del Servicio de Impuestos Internos”, una “carta sin abrir de Citi American Airlines AAdvantage”, una “carta sin abrir de T-Mobile”, una “carta sin abrir de solicitud de servicio electrónico de Xfinity”, una “carta sin abrir de tarjeta de crédito de Bank of America” y una “carta sin abrir de Interamerican Bank”, según el reporte de arresto.

Los investigadores también reportaron haber encontrado una “carta abierta de Fidelity Investments con información de cuenta”, una “carta abierta de Netcredit de CCBank” y una “carta abierta de fondo de inversión Pershing LLC / Janus”.

Dentro de la billetera del sospechoso, los investigadores encontraron seis tarjetas de crédito que no le pertenecían, incluyendo una tarjeta Visa Capital One con el nombre de una mujer y dos tarjetas American Express.

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

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

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

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

Police said Toletino was attacked by Alvarez with a machete.

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

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

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

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

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

Familiares de Jonathan Torres, un joven autista de 18 años de Texas, dicen que le encantaba la idea y el atractivo de Miami.

Ahora creen que está desaparecido en algún lugar de la ciudad o sus alrededores.

La Policía de Miami Beach emitió una alerta de persona desaparecida para Torres, quien presuntamente se hospedó en un hotel cerca de Harding Avenue y 73rd Street la semana pasada.

“Está absolutamente enamorado de Miami”, dijo su abuela Michelle Lowe-Christensen. “Como persona autista, se obsesiona mucho”.

Lowe-Christensen está publicando videos que se han vuelto virales en TikTok sobre su nieto desaparecido. Ahora se encuentra en el sur de Florida para buscarlo.

Dijo a Local 10 News que Torres dejó su trabajo en un lavadero de autos a principios de la semana pasada y reservó un vuelo de último minuto a Miami, después de una escala en Denver.

Cuando Torres no llegó a la casa donde vive con su padre en Austin y nunca respondió llamadas telefónicas, la familia comenzó a rastrear su teléfono. Dijeron que también tienen acceso a sus iMessages y a su cuenta bancaria.

La familia dijo que el joven de 18 años es funcionalmente independiente, pero muy confiado.

“No siente miedo. Ve a todas las personas como amigables”, dijo Lowe-Christensen.

Creen que fue al Dadeland Mall el viernes y dijeron que los registros bancarios muestran que compró ropa.

Más tarde en la noche, su teléfono registró ubicación en el área de Brickell y luego en Downtown Miami la mañana del sábado, dijo Lowe-Christensen.

Las aplicaciones de rastreo dejaron de funcionar después de eso.

La Policía de Miami Beach pide a cualquier persona de la comunidad que reconozca a Torres que llame al (305) 673-7900.

Ocurrió el domingo en la tarde en el área de Northeast 142nd Street y Sixth Avenue en North Miami.

La policía dijo que llegó al lugar y encontró a un hombre sangrando profusamente de una mano mientras sujetaba a otro hombre contra una cerca.

Según las autoridades, el hombre que sangraba, Bryant Toletino, es la víctima en este caso.

Incluso se le escucha diciéndole al sospechoso, Ariel Alvarez, de 31 años, que no actuara como la víctima.

La policía dijo que Toletino fue atacado por Alvarez con un machete.

Las autoridades dijeron que la víctima estaba visitando a un amigo y Alvarez estaba afuera del apartamento. Ambos se conocían del vecindario, dijeron los agentes.

Los dos hombres estaban conversando y luego Toletino dijo que Alvarez simplemente perdió el control.

La policía dijo que Alvarez les dijo que actuó en defensa propia, pero indicaron que el video de vigilancia contó otra historia.

Alvarez ahora enfrenta un cargo grave de agresión agravada con un arma mortal.

He struggled mightily off the tee, a recipe for trouble at Aronimink. He was tentative over his putts, with three misses from the 7-foot range that could have made him feel a lot better.

The result was a 4-over 74 that left McIlroy chasing the wrong kind of history as the Masters champion goes for the second leg of the calendar Grand Slam. Not since the late Payne Stewart in 1989 has a player started the PGA Championship with a 74 and gone on to win.

The question by a PGA of America moderator when it was over sounded innocuous: “How would you describe your opening round?” The response was one word. A four-letter stinky word.

McIlroy had said earlier this week at Aronimink that “strategy off the tee is pretty nonexistent. It's basically bash driver down there and then figure it out from there."

He never quite figured it out Thursday.

McIlroy was hanging around par for so much of the day, right there with Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm in his group, not bad golf given the testing conditions at Aronimink.

But he started missing fairways — a lot of them.

His lone bogey on his front nine came on the opening hole from the right rough — he managed to only get that scooting down the fairway. But the miss to the right on the par-4 fourth (his 13th of the day) cost him another bogey. He holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 fifth. All was well.

And then it wasn't.

“I missed the fairway right on 4, the fairway right on 6, the fairway right on 7, fairway right on 9,” he said. "From there, it’s hard. I didn’t have great angles, either. Then obviously you start missing it just off the edges of these greens, it gets tricky.

“I just got on that bogey train at the end.”

McIlroy also opened with a 74 at Quail Hollow in the PGA Championship last year, his first round as the Masters champion. The frustrations were different. A year ago, he was irritated about learning the face of his driver had become too thin to conform to regulations (and then even more irritated when the news was leaked to the media without context).

This was simply a weakness in his game he thought he had corrected.

“I’m just not driving the ball well enough. It’s been a problem all year for the most part,” McIlroy said. “I miss it right, and then I want to try to correct it. And then I’ll overdo it, and I’ll miss it left. It’s a little bit of back and forth that way. So that’s pretty frustrating, especially when I pride myself on driving the ball well.”

He hit only five of the 14 fairways. He was in the short grass on No. 1 after making the turn. He played from the rough the rest of the round. McIlroy was in the hay right of the seventh hole and could only manage to hack that across the fairway into more rough on the left, leaving him 15 feet for par that he didn't convert.

His final hole was the par-5 ninth, another drive that sailed right. From there, he put it in the worst spot — a bunker 67 yards from the pin — and barely got that onto the green, leaving him 70 feet a way for birdie. He ran that 8 feet by and missed it coming back.

As for that blister causing problems, McIlroy offered another one-word answer: “No.”

This was about his driver, mainly, which McIlroy felt good about after his final round Sunday in the Truist Championship, and the 12 holes of practice at Aronimink he played this week.

“I honestly thought I’d figured it out,” he said. “Just once I get under the gun, it just seems like it starts to go a little bit wayward on me.”

___

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

During his nearly 30 years behind bars, Glossip came so close to execution multiple times that he was served “last meals” on three separate occasions in 2015. He has long insisted he is innocent in the murder of his former boss, Oklahoma motel owner Barry Van Treese. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out his conviction and death sentence last year.

Here is a look at key events in Glossip's case and appeals.

Jan. 7, 1997: Barry Van Treese is beaten to death at an Oklahoma City motel that he owned. Two of his employees, Justin Sneed and Richard Glossip, are soon arrested in connection with the killing.

Aug. 14, 1998: Glossip is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Prosecutors argue at his trial that Van Treese was killed in a murder-for-hire scheme. Motel handyman Sneed testified that he killed their boss after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000.

July 17, 2001: The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals throws out Glossip's murder conviction and orders him a new trial.

Aug. 27, 2004: Glossip is sentenced to death again after second trial ends with a new murder conviction.

April 29, 2014: Oklahoma uses the surgical sedative midazolam for the first time during the execution of Clayton Lockett, who writhes and groans on the gurney. The execution process gets halted, but Lockett dies 43 minutes later. The state later blames an improperly placed intravenous line, not the new drug mix.

Nov. 20, 2014: Glossip’s scheduled execution is delayed to allow Oklahoma to obtain drugs and train staff on a new protocol.

Jan. 28, 2015: After Glossip has been served what is supposed to be his final meal, the U.S. Supreme Court halts his execution and those of two other Oklahoma prisoners while considering their legal challenge to the state's use of midazolam in executions.

June 29, 2015: A divided U.S. Supreme Court upholds Oklahoma’s use of midazolam during executions.

Sept. 15, 2015: For the second time, Glossip is served what is supposed to be his last meal: chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and a dinner roll, fish and chips, a bacon cheeseburger and a strawberry malt.

Sept. 16, 2015: Hours before Glossip is scheduled for execution, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals grants him a two-week reprieve to review claims of new evidence supporting his innocence.

Sept. 29, 2015: For the third time, Glossip is served what is supposed to be his final meal: a medium pizza, two orders of fish and chips, a bacon cheeseburger and a strawberry malt.

Sept. 30, 2015: Prison officials are preparing to execute Glossip when Oklahoma's governor stays the procedure because one of the lethal drugs being used didn't match the state's execution protocol.

Oct. 2, 2015: The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, at the request of the state's attorney general, puts all executions on indefinite hold as officials review Oklahoma's execution procedures.

Feb. 13, 2020: Oklahoma announces plans to resume executions using a three-drug lethal injection protocol.

May 5, 2023: The U.S. Supreme Court again halts Glossip's execution, set for May 18, at the urging of Oklahoma's Republican attorney general, who has concluded Glossip's trial was “unfair and unreliable.”

Feb. 25, 2025: The U.S. Supreme Court throws out Glossip's murder conviction and death sentence, ruling prosecutors violated his right to a fair trial by allowing Sneed, their key witness, to give testimony they knew was false.

June 9, 2025: Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond says he plans to try Glossip again for murder. While agreeing his previous trial was unfair, Drummond says he doesn't believe Glossip is innocent.

May 14, 2026: An Oklahoma judge orders a $500,000 bond for Glossip, granting him a chance to leave jail while awaiting trial. Hours later, Glossip walks out of an Oklahoma City jail.

___

Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.

La policía usó gases lacrimógenos para dispersar a los mineros que habían intentado ingresar por la fuerza a la plaza que alberga al Palacio de Gobierno. Los mineros respondieron detonando pequeñas cargas de dinamita en la segunda semana de protestas de diferentes sectores.

Miles de mineros llegaron hasta el centro de La Paz en reclamo de mayores áreas de trabajo y combustible, entre otras exigencias, pero con el correr de las horas comenzaron a corear consignas pidiendo la renuncia del mandatario.

La Paz ha quedado aislada por los bloqueos y marchas. Los maestros públicos de las zonas rurales habían pasado antes por el centro de la ciudad reclamando un aumento salarial.

Las protestas comenzaron por los campesinos que reclamaban la derogación de una ley que permitía hipotecar sus tierras. La noche del miércoles el presidente promulgó una norma que anuló esa ley y pidió que se levanten las manifestaciones.

Por su parte, la Central Obrera de Bolivia (COB) — que en un inicio reclamaba un aumento de salarios— se sumó al pedido de renuncia del mandatario, al que acusa de no dar respuesta a la crisis.

Por la misma razón protestan campesinos aymaras conocidos como Ponchos Rojos que bloquean desde hace días carreteras y que la víspera protagonizaron una masiva marcha hacia la vecina ciudad de El Alto.

El gobierno acusa al expresidente Evo Morales (2006-2019) de estar detrás de las protestas. "Este es un bloqueo político... con fines de desestabilización”, afirmó el ministro de Gobierno, Marco Antonio Oviedo, a radio Panamericana.

Morales rechazó la acusación en su cuenta de X y aseguró que mientras no se "aborden las reivindicaciones estructurales, como las relativas al combustible, la comida y la inflación, la revuelta no se detendrá”.

Agregó que “los indignados están motivados por su conciencia social y por la rabia contra un gobierno que traicionó a sus electores y a la nación... Bolivia está viviendo una rebelión popular que incluso superó a sus líderes”.

El martes un grupo de seguidores de Morales, el primer presidente indígena de Bolivia, inició una marcha desde la localidad de Caracollo, a unos 190 kilómetros de La Paz, luego de conocerse una segunda orden de detención librada contra el exmandatario para que responda ante la justicia por el presunto abuso de una menor cuando ejerció el poder.

DeChambeau wasn't sure how to play that shot, telling officials, “I'm so confused right now.”

Confused by the lie, confounded by the course, DeChambeau is on the brink of missing the cut of his second straight major following his breakdown at the Masters.

DeChambeau, a two-time U.S. Open champion, was a disaster in his opening round at Aronimink Golf Club and shot a 6-over 76, about six weeks after Amen Corner put him through the wringer again at the Masters.

Take the eighth hole at Aronimink.

DeChambeau flubbed a pitch from the rough so badly that the ball landed short of the green and rolled right back to his feet on the closely mown area around the putting surface.

The initials on his yardage book seemed to sum up DeChambeau's day.

B.A.D.

This 76 is his worst score to par ever in the PGA Championship. This is the fifth time he shot 4-over or higher in the first round of a major. He made the cut in two instances, the 2018 U.S. Open and 2021 Masters.

His round over, DeChambeau headed straight to the scoring tent, and he then stormed through the parking lot and to the driving range.

DeChambeau pounded ball after ball, stopping after most shots to review his form on the mobile phone video shot by a member of his team. He did not speak to the media.

DeChambeau, one of the main players in LIV Golf, might not rush to add video from the range or the bulk of his shots at Aronimink to his YouTube channel. He's a hit on the platform, registering millions of views while he pals around on the course with Stephen Curry, Adam Sandler and Kevin Hart, and his Break 50 series has helped him earn more than 2.7 million subscribers and growing to his channel.

The good times haven't extended to the majors.

He's missed the cut in three of his last five Masters and is going to need a terrific rebound on Friday to have any shot at spending the weekend in suburban Philadelphia.

What hasn't faded is his popularity.

Not even his much-derided and debated departure to LIV has dampened the enthusiasm for DeChambeau and his lethal driver. His tee shot on No. 4 seemed to fly as high as the Goodyear Blimp that flew overhead the hole and had fans rooting him on — "He smoked that thing!" — as he walked to find his ball.

He averaged nearly 336 yards on his drives, yet the short game failed him.

On the 11th hole, he tapped a putt that rolled and rolled and rolled some more until it landed almost off the green. DeChambeau finished with one of his six bogeys on the round, including a double-bogey on eight.

DeChambeau had a bit of a wait on No. 8 for the group ahead of him to finish. He folded his arms, stared straight ahead and could only search for answers. He snacked on beef jerky but not even a quick snack could help him snap into a successful end to this hole.

Funny thing, DeChambeau actually two-putted after his ball found the bottom stair of the staircase off the second hole and he saved par.

He couldn't save much else, though he finished the round with his lone birdie of the day on the par-5 ninth.

DeChambeau is in the final year of his LIV contract and the rival league to the PGA Tour faces a murky future now that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has pulled its financial backing. Even if the league doesn't fold, could it find another investor willing to scrape up the cash needed to keep a talent like DeChambeau?

DeChambeau said earlier this month that “egos would need to get dropped” by the PGA Tour and LIV officials if there was going to be reconciliation in the golf world.

DeChambeau, who won LIV Golf events in Singapore and South Africa earlier this year, could simply step back and focus on social media content and playing the four majors if he fails to re-sign with LIV or find a path back to the PGA.

Ratings for the LIV Tour have been anemic, meaning most people see DeChambeau four times a year — at the majors.

DeChambeau gears his content toward a younger audience, and Aronimink fans packed the tee box area and lined the ropes rows deep to catch a rare glimpse of him in the Northeast, though one grumbled after the end of the round, “I hope he can fist bump better than he can play golf.”

His future in limbo, DeChambeau could find himself with two extra days to film content for his YouTube channel — he posted a PGA practice round to social media — if he can't figure out a way into the weekend.

___

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

Riddle, who transferred to Georgia from East Carolina ahead of the upcoming season, was observed weaving through traffic at roughly 95 miles per hour on Friday night in an SUV, according to the report. Glynn County police officers stopped Riddle and noted nervous behavior and an odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle.

The report detailed Riddle's compliance as police discovered a bag inside a backpack containing “a large amount of multicolored packaging, some with a leafy substance stating marijuana, and some containing vapes stating THC.”

Riddle was charged with two felony counts related to marijuana and controlled substances, according to the report.

The Glynn County Police Department didn't immediately respond to an information request from The Associated Press.

“We are aware of the charges and are actively gathering additional information," a spokesperson for the football team told the AP. "As this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not be providing further comment at this time."

Riddle had 133 total tackles, 10 pass deflections, and six interceptions, including one pick-six, over two seasons at East Carolina.

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In a letter to a lawyer for Yale, Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said a DOJ investigation found that Black and Hispanic students have a much higher chance of admission to the medical school than white or Asian students, despite having lower grade-point averages and lower test scores.

“Yale has continued its race-based admissions program despite the Supreme Court and the public’s clear mandate for reform,” Dhillon said in a statement. “This Department will continue to shed light on these illegal practices, and demand that institutions of higher education comply with federal law.”

The university replied in a statement that its School of Medicine “is confident in the rigorous admissions process we follow,” and it will review the Justice Department letter.

“The students admitted to Yale School of Medicine demonstrate exceptional academic achievement and personal commitment; its program of medical education encourages curiosity and critical thinking, and its graduates go on to become leaders in clinical care, research, and public service,” the school said.

Since President Donald Trump returned to office last year, his administration has been putting pressure on universities to stop using race as a basis for admission, which conservatives view as illegal discrimination. And a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2023 banned the use of affirmative action in college admissions, in cases involving Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

Last week, the Justice Department notified the University of California, Los Angeles, that its medical school illegally considered race in admissions.

In the letter to Yale, Dhillon alleged the New Haven, Connecticut, school was violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting discrimination and said the DOJ is seeking to enter into a voluntary resolution agreement with the university. She also noted in the letter that the agency has the authority to take the school to court to enforce Title VI if it cannot obtain compliance through voluntary means.

The DOJ cited differences in grade-point averages and standardized test scores as evidence of racial preferences in the incoming classes of 2023, 2024 and 2025. In Yale’s most recent class, Black students had a median GPA of 3.88 and a median MCAT score in the 95th percentile, compared to Asian students who had a median GPA of 3.98 and white students with a 3.97 median GPA. Both Asian and white students of that class had median MCAT scores in the 100th percentile.

“Based on our preliminary review of the applicant-level data, Yale’s use of race resulted in a Black applicant being as much as 29 times higher odds of getting an interview for admission than an equally strong Asian applicant with similar academic credentials,” Dhillon's letter said.

The Justice Department also described Yale’s use of a holistic admissions process as a means for the school to consider race.

The letter also cited Yale’s amicus brief in the Student for Fair Admissions lawsuit that led to the 2023 Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, where the school said it would not be able to maintain diverse classes without explicit consideration of race. The department said the fact that Yale was able to maintain similarly diverse classes despite that brief as evidence that the school had engaged in race discrimination.

Dhillon wrote that the lack of any change in Yale's admissions outcomes after the Supreme Court ruling showed "a willful failure to comply with that decision.”

In March, a coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit challenging a Trump administration policy that requires higher education institutions to collect data showing they aren’t considering race in admissions.

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Associated Press writer Annie Ma in Washington contributed to this report.

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

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

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

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

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

No se divulgaron de inmediato más detalles sobre la víctima.

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

It is the latest step that President Donald Trump's administration has taken to pull back regulations on coal mining and coal-fired power and empower fossil fuels as a primary energy source to feed the rapid growth of artificial intelligence data centers.

In its proposed rule, the EPA said a 2024 rule under President Joe Biden misjudged the effectiveness and cost of the regulation, and had the effect of shutting down coal-fired power plants at a time when energy demand is spiking.

Changing the rule is critical to making electricity more affordable and reliable, while advancing the economy, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement.

“The AI and data center revolution is creating an electricity and baseload power demand that cannot be met under the overly restrictive policies of past administrations,” Zeldin said. “The Trump EPA will continue doing its part to address these burdensome regulations on the coal-fired power plant sector that hold American communities back from the new opportunities presented by this new 21st century energy reality.”

In 2024, the EPA strengthened wastewater rules over coal-fired power plants that keep coal ash — a byproduct of burning coal — in unlined, uncovered dumps that leach toxic heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic and selenium into groundwater.

In the rule, the EPA required plant owners to report whether the groundwater was contaminated and, if so, pump and treat the contaminated groundwater before discharging it into streams and rivers, Thom Cmar, an attorney for environmental advocacy group Earthjustice, said.

The EPA initially had given power plant owners until Dec. 31, 2029, to meet the new limits.

The EPA said the rule proposed Thursday, if finalized, would reduce power generation costs by as much as $1.1 billion a year. Coal and power industry trade associations cheered the EPA's move. Environmental groups slammed it as a public health danger and giveaway to the coal-power industry.

Earthjustice said the lakes, rivers and other waterways that will see more pollution as a result of the EPA’s proposal are often sources of drinking water that tens of millions of people rely on. Coal-fired power plants are by far one of the largest sources of toxic pollutants in America’s rivers, lakes and streams, Earthjustice said.

“This plan would eliminate safeguards on hundreds of millions of pounds of wastewater with neurotoxins and cancer-causing contaminants. It would allow coal power plants to avoid cleaning up contamination that threatens our drinking water sources," Cmar said.

The proposal unveiled Thursday would exempt contaminated groundwater seeping into waterways from the mandatory treatment requirements, Earthjustice said. Power plant owners would only be required to treat the contaminated groundwater if they were already complying with the 2024 rule to pump it to the surface to treat it, Earthjustice said.

States could, however, still investigate whether power plants are polluting the groundwater and, if they are, try to force owners to treat the polluted groundwater under federal clean water laws, Cmar said.

“The problem is, at the state level, many states are reluctant to use that tool that they all have to hold up the permitting process and force the companies to do an adequate job of documenting and limiting the pollution,” Cmar said.

The EPA said dozens of coal-fired power plants — likely up to 104 — are polluting groundwater through the uncontrolled runoff. It found seven plants were complying with the rule to pump and treat the groundwater, it said.

The EPA had estimated in 2024 that its new rule that year would reduce pollutant discharges by 660 to 672 million pounds per year, provide $3.2 billion in public health benefits each year and especially benefit “low-income communities and communities of color that are disproportionately impacted by pollution from coal-fired power plants.”

It had projected that electricity bills for the average residential household would increase by less than $3.50 per year.

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Follow Marc Levy at http://twitter.com/timelywriter

That's unnerving workers across sectors, with many fearing what the rapid adoption of AI will mean for their job prospects. Even if AI isn't replacing people directly, some businesses have announced reductions as they redirect money to the technology or tout new ways to streamline operations — raising alarm about what might be left over for payrolls and future openings.

But corporate explanations are often very vague. AI is rarely the sole reason companies cite when taking layoffs, with most still pointing to wider corporate restructuring or macroeconomic headwinds. Some executives have also suggested that, while they’re making cuts to move around resources now, AI and its demand could open up new roles down the road. Still, it’s hard to know if that’s the real driver or just the message a business wants to tell Wall Street.

Regardless, here are some companies that have announced layoffs recently while at least nodding to the role of AI along the way.

Cisco

On Wednesday, Cisco Systems announced plans to cut under 4,000 jobs, or about 5% of its workforce. The announcement arrived the same day the tech giant unveiled record revenue for its third fiscal quarter, amid soaring demand for its AI tools and infrastructure.

CEO Chunk Robbins told employees in a memo that “the companies that will win in the AI era will be those with focus, urgency, and the discipline to continuously shift investment" — and that meant “making hard decisions.” But he said Cisco would also help employees impacted by the cuts find new opportunities, “whether internal or external.”

Block

Financial services provider Block in February moved to lay off more than 4,000 of its 10,000 plus employees. And the parent of payment platforms like Square and Cash App was vocal about reconfiguring to capitalize on AI.

“The core thesis is simple. Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,” CEO Jack Dorsey said in a letter to shareholders at the time. “A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better."

Dow

Not only tech companies have pointed to AI when initiating layoffs. In January, chemicals maker Dow, Inc. announced plans to cut about 4,500 jobs — as part of broader push to “streamline” operations. That included putting more emphasis on AI and automation.

Pinterest

Also in January, Pinterest said it would lay off under 15% of its workforce as the company pivots more of its money to AI. The image-sharing platform said the cuts were part of broader “transformation initiatives” — which included reallocating the company’s resources to AI-focused roles and prioritizing AI-powered products.

Lufthansa Group

Last fall, Lufthansa Group said it would shed 4,000 jobs by 2030 — pointing to the adoption of AI, digitalization and consolidating work among member airlines.

Cuts at Meta and other big names arrive amid broader AI ramp-up

While perhaps not explicitly mentioning or tying the technology to recent layoff announcements, a host of other big names — including Meta, Microsoft and Amazon — are also cutting thousands of jobs while investing billions of dollars toward AI.

Meta, for example, plans to lay off about 8,000 workers, or about 10% of its workforce, starting next week. When announcing the cuts last month, the Facebook owner more broadly cited the need to offset certain investments and broader efficiency.

Still, the move arrives as Meta continues to ramp up spending on AI infrastructure and highly-paid AI expert hires. And earlier this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said 2026 will be when, “AI starts to dramatically change the way that we work.”

El Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos (INDEC) reportó el jueves una inflación de 2,6% en el cuarto mes del año y una variación interanual de 32,4%. En lo que va de 2026, los precios acumulan un alza de 12,3%.

En marzo el Índice de Precios al Consumidor (IPC) había marcado 3,4% mensual, el más alto en un año, y una variación interanual de 32,6%.

El nuevo dato es la primera buena noticia que recibe el mandatario ultraliberal para su plan de ajuste anti-inflacionario desde que en julio pasado (1,9%)el IPC empezó a subir a ritmo constante.

“Retornando a la normalidad”, celebró el mandatario tras conocerse el dato oficial. Destacó que “la inflación retoma el sendero decreciente” a pesar de la oposición y sectores del empresariado disgustados por la apertura económica que permitió un aluvión de importaciones, a los que acusó de boicotear su programa económico.

Según el INDEC, el rubro de mayor impacto el IPC de abril fue Transporte (4,4%), en el marco de proceso de corrección de tarifas de servicios públicos a partir de un recorte en los subsidios. En cambio, alimentos y bebidas no alcohólicas (1,5%) registraron las menores variaciones.

El último Relevamiento de Expectativas de Mercado (REM) que publica el Banco Central prevé que la desaceleración de precios continuará en mayo

En un informe de política monetaria que realiza el Banco Central, se estima que en mayo continuará la tendencia hacia una desaceleración de la inflación, en gran medida por una estabilización del precio de la carne, que en los primeros meses del año registró subas promedio del 20%.

Sin embargo, la autoridad monetaria advirtió sobre “la incertidumbre global que puede traducirse en una mayor presión inflacionaria internacional”.

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

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

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

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

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

No other details about the victim were immediately released.

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

Activists claim too many tree removal permits are being granted in order to fast-track development. City officials, however, insist nothing has changed.

At a recent City of Miami Historic and Environmental Preservation Board meeting, frustrated residents voiced concerns over what they described as a growing loss of legacy canopy trees across the city.

“The madness needs to stop,” one resident said. “I’m wondering if developers have some special hatred toward mature trees?”

Others pointed to what they called a constant issue of clear-cutting lots and cutting down large trees.

“We’ve seen this just rampant onslaught of tree slaughter,” another activist said.

Critics say the removals are happening throughout Miami, from Coconut Grove to Morningside.

“In the past six months, we’ve definitely seen an increase, and people are extremely angry,” said Jessica Johnson, a Morningside resident.

Among the examples cited by activists: a row of mature royal palm trees cut down at 1401 Brickell and four legacy native mahogany trees in Edgewater that were permitted for removal by the city despite being in the public right of way.

“And it seems like they’re on a murder spree right now,” said Edgewater resident Lindsay Cain.

Sandy Moise, conservation co-chair for the Sierra Club Miami Group, said the justification for some removals is construction activity.

“And the reason given is that trees are conflicting with construction activities,” Moise said.

Videos posted to social media documenting tree removals have fueled outrage among activists.

“It truly is a tree travesty,” Moise said. “We are losing so many of our specimen-sized trees.”

Moise and other activists accuse the city of quietly bending and reinterpreting Chapter 17 -- the ordinance meant to protect trees -- in order to speed up development projects.

“They’re failing to enforce our code,” Moise said. “They’re failing to implement the policies that are required of our code, and we’re not having it anymore. We’re fed up.”

City officials pushed back against those claims.

“That is not the case,” said Miami District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo.

Pardo acknowledged the optics can look bad amid a wave of development and visible tree removals, particularly involving palms, but denied any internal changes to Chapter 17.

“Absolutely not,” Pardo said when asked whether there had been backroom changes to expedite tree removals. “There’s been no changes that I’m aware of.”

While officials say the code itself has not changed, city staff acknowledged there has been a directive to make the permitting process easier.

“And so they come in and they sit with the reviewer on the spot, regardless what division,” said Shawn Smith, acting chief of environmental resources for the City of Miami.

Smith said the process still follows Chapter 17 requirements.

“It’s not an approval. You conduct your review just as if there were any other review,” Smith said. “We still go through the same process. We still follow Chapter 17.”

Asked whether the city is moving at a faster clip, Smith said, “Not in regard to approval.”

Activists argue the growing number of permits tells a different story. They created a public dashboard called Miami Tree Canopy Watch to track open permits across the city. According to activists, there are currently 223 open permits.

Pardo said those numbers alone are misleading.

“If you’re only looking at those data points, it’s misleading, because we’re also planting a lot of trees, relocating a lot of trees,” Pardo said. “Something could be slated for removal, and it could be something completely different that the resident isn’t aware of.”

Still, activists and environmental experts warn the stakes are high as South Florida faces increasing heat driven by climate change.

“Trees are protecting us from the increasing heat that we’re experiencing in South Florida,” said Chris Baraloto, associate director of the FIU Institute of Environment and professor of biological sciences. “By removing those trees, we will feel the urban heat island effect even more.”

Pardo said the city is committed to preserving the canopy and pointed to a legacy banyan tree that will become the center piece for a newly redesigned Kirk Munroe Park.

“We do everything from actually relocating trees to other areas to make sure the ones that can be relocated,” Pardo said. “If they can’t be relocated, we ask for mitigation, where usually it’s two times the existing level of tree removal.”

Critics argue replacing mature trees with saplings is not enough.

“What we’re effectively doing is taking out a tree, and even if we’re following our current mitigation, we’re replacing it with this,” Baraloto said. “Is this commensurate value with that? Certainly not.”

Ian Wogan, owner of Tree Sources, warned the long-term impacts could become more noticeable citywide.

“If we scale that up to the city level, we’re going to start feeling urban heat,” Wogan said.

Wogan said Miami has an obligation to prioritize trees and nature-based solutions as critical infrastructure.

“Not for ourselves, but for the generations to come,” he said.

More than 1,200 signatures have been added to an action alert email addressed to Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins and city commissioners calling for a moratorium on all non-emergency tree removal permits until any proposed policy changes to Chapter 17 are publicly reviewed.

Meanwhile, the long-awaited tree committee is expected to go before commissioners Thursday for approval, giving residents a voice in the future of Chapter 17 and Miami’s tree protections.

Franklyn Jones, quien vive en Fort Lauderdale, cumplió 17 años en febrero. Timothy Flowers, quien vive en Coral Springs, cumplió 17 años en septiembre.

El jueves, autoridades correccionales los trasladaron del centro de detención juvenil en Broward al de Miami-Dade, muestran los registros.

“Mediante métodos investigativos, [un detective del Departamento de Policía de Miami Beach] obtuvo evidencia forense digital que reveló que [los adolescentes] estaban involucrados”, escribió un detective sobre un BMW X7 negro modelo 2025 que fue robado el 10 de febrero de una casa en Prairie Avenue, según la orden judicial.

Un BMW M4 fue reportado robado el 16 de abril en Coral Gables, según una orden de arresto.

El Equipo de Captura Criminal del Sur de Florida observó a los dos adolescentes, quienes eran pasajeros en un BMW 330i plateado, en Boca Ratón, robando una matrícula de un Ford y colocándola en el BMW M4 robado, según las órdenes de arresto.

Los agentes reportaron haber visto a Jones “desbloquear el vehículo usando una llave y comenzar a entrar”, según una orden judicial.

Los investigadores sorprendieron a Jones, Flowers y a otras tres personas que intentaron huir, pero finalmente fueron arrestados y llevados a la división de crímenes violentos de la Oficina del Sheriff de Palm Beach, según la orden de arresto.

Jones y Flowers enfrentan cargos de hurto mayor y allanamiento de una vivienda ocupada.

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Franklyn Jones, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, turned 17 in February. Timothy Flowers, who lives in Coral Springs, turned 17 in September.

On Thursday, corrections transferred them from the juvenile detention center in Broward to the one in Miami-Dade, records show.

“Through investigative means [a Miami Beach Police Department detective] obtained digital forensic evidence which revealed [the teens] to be involved,” a detective wrote about a black 2025 BMW X7 that was stolen on Feb. 10 from a house along Prairie Avenue, according to the warrant.

A BMW M4 was reported stolen on April 16 in Coral Gables, according to an arrest warrant.

The South Florida Criminal Apprehension Team witnessed the two teens, who were passengers in a silver BMW 330i, in Boca Raton, stealing a license plate from a Ford and placing it on the stolen BMW M4, according to the arrest warrants.

Agents reported seeing Jones “unlock the vehicle using a key and begin to enter it,” according to a warrant.

The investigators surprised Jones, Flowers, and three others who tried to get away, but were eventually arrested and taken to the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office violent crimes division, according to the arrest warrant.

Jones and Flowers face charges of grand theft and burglary of an occupied dwelling.

Higgo arrived on the first tee box at what he estimated to be 30 seconds after his listed tee time and was assessed a two-stroke penalty. His first swing of the championship turned out to be his third because of the penalty.

The South African still managed a 1-under 69, even though he could only wonder how easily that could have been a 67, the low score of the morning wave.

“I was there on time,” Higgo said. “But the rule is if you’re one second late, you’re late.”

Due to tee off at Aronimink Golf Club at 7:18 a.m., he was told as he arrived he had been penalized. The rules state a golfer must be on the tee box and ready to play at the assigned time, regardless of the order. He was third to play.

Higgo said it's the first time he's been penalized for being late to the tee box. The good news? If he had been five minutes late, he would have been disqualified.

“It wasn’t a surprise,” he said. “I was late. I mean, my caddie was yelling at me to get to the tee.”

The 27-year-old kept his composure and went on to “par” the opening hole, but his 4 became a 6.

“Obviously, it wasn’t great,” he said of being penalized. “I knew that I firstly had to get a driver, and I have to hit a tee shot. It was OK. I just kind of focused on what I need to do. ... I wasn’t going to give up and shoot 80. There was only one thing that I could do, and that was make birdies and pars and hit it where I wanted to hit it.”

Higgo said the whole episode made him focus on making birdies in the first round. He did just that, finishing with four birdies and a bogey for a 69.

He attempted to argue his case to officials after the round, to no avail. He even had the support of his playing partners. He said he believed he was within the time limit, yet conceded he might have been a bit tardy and grudgingly accepted his fate.

He attributed it to his casual approach to being late, though he's not the type who arrives 10 minutes early. He said he could have added time for his walk from the range to the putting green and ultimately the first tee.

“I was obviously too casual,” he said.

Higgo managed to erase the two-stroke penalty on the front nine. He rolled in a birdie putt from about 35 feet on the par-4 third hole and made a 10-foot birdie putt at the par-5 ninth to get back to even par.

After a bogey at the 10th, Higgo made birdie on the two par-3 holes on the back nine, with a 27-foot putt at the 14th and hitting to just over 5 feet and making the putt at the 17th.

“I played great, made a lot of good swings, made some good putts,” said Higgo, who has two PGA Tour victories and six international wins. “Did everything that I could do.”

___

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

Fouls are up so far in the first week of the WNBA season with teams averaging 21.6 fouls — that's up just under two per game from the same point last year (19.9). That number dropped over the course of the year with 17.5 fouls on average per game for each team.

“Fouls are up. I don't think if we are going to get rid of rough play that we saw in previous seasons there is any other outcome other than at the beginning fouls will be up," said Monty McCutchen, who is the head of WNBA officiating, on a Zoom call with The Associated Press. "That's a fairly safe assumption.”

The increased fouls aren’t really leading a major increase in free throws with 21.9 being attempted this season to 21.4 last year at this point. By the end of the year, 18.2 free throws were attempted by each team on average.

The WNBA formed an officiating task force in the offseason as part of the “state of the game” group that included players and coaches. The hope was to clean up some of the league’s growing concerns around physicality.

“What came out of our meetings was we didn’t really change any rules or change an interpretation,” said Sue Blauch, who is the head of referee performance and development for the WNBA. “When we drilled down to the nitty gritty, it came down to we needed to strictly enforce our current guidelines. So that’s what you’re seeing more of. A more stricter enforcement of freedom of movement. That will allow the game to open up and the players to showcase their talents.”

McCutchen said the taskforce spent many hours discussing what players, coaches and the league wanted from officials.

“That amount of hours gives clarity to Sue on the day-to-day portion for teaching our staff," he said. "There will be some over calibration when we try to impart freedom of movement. I think we’ve experienced a little bit of that.”

McCutchen said the officiating group will continue to meet frequently to make sure that “our alignment can become finer and finer as we move into our best parts of our season.”

Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve is on the task force and knows it will take a little bit of time to get everyone on the same page.

“Obviously, we’ll continue to work with the league on getting right because we’re not the only team sitting here wondering why everything is a foul,” she said.

Increased fouls also lead to longer games. The New York Liberty’s overtime win over Washington went for 2 hours, 41 minutes.

“It disrupts everyone’s flow,” Liberty star Breanna Stewart said. “This game was 2 hours and 41 minutes long. That’s insane. … I know it’s going to take time of, like, figuring out what’s the standard of what’s going to be called, but there’s calls that are being called that are unnecessary on both sides, and then there’s no flow.”

Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale also noticed a difference so far.

“I guess we just have to adapt, because that’s going to happen," she said. "It’s been a long time since I had three fouls in the first half and almost fouling out. I guess show our hands and see what we can do.”

Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark got a technical foul during the team's win over Los Angeles on Wednesday night. After the game, she praised the officials for their efforts.

“I think the refs are doing a tremendous job. I deserved the technical they gave me. But it’s great for the game," she said. 'They’re going to keep the hands off; they’re going to make the play be good. Obviously they called a lot of fouls tonight but it’s going to even out. So, you’ve got to give them credit. They’re doing the right thing.”

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

The deportation of Adriana Maria Quiroz Zapata “was likely illegal,” U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ruled Wednesday.

Zapata, 55, who has diabetes and a thyroid condition, “has been sent to a country that refused to accept her because they cannot provide sufficient medical care,” the ruling said. “As a result, she faces a daily risk of medical complications, up to and including death.”

Black spots began to grow on Zapata’s back and foot while she was in detention, her skin started to peel and her nails blackened, according to a declaration that Zapata submitted in court, and which was provided to the AP by her lawyer.

“She’s not doing well and does worry that she’s going to die,” her lawyer, Lauren O’Neal, said.

Zapata entered the U.S. from Mexico in August 2024 and was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. Since being deported, she has lived in a hotel in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital. The hotel gates are locked, O’Neal said. Zapata and other deportees are rarely allowed out, and only with supervision, she said.

Zapata was among thousands of immigrants living legally in the U.S., waiting for rulings on asylum claims, when they were suddenly issued deportation decrees that ordered them expelled to countries where most had no connections.

More than 15,000 third-country deportation orders were issued in the White House push for ever more immigrant expulsions, advocacy groups say, though only a fraction of the orders have been carried out.

Few details are known about the agreements to accept these deportees, though the U.S. has signed them with a range of countries, including Ecuador, Honduras, Uganda, Cameroon and Congo. Advocacy groups estimate only a couple of hundred third-country deportations, at most, have been carried out.

Esa fue la última comunicación que mantuvo desde el pueblo San José El Hueyate en el sureño estado de Chiapas, uno de los puntos de la ruta marítima considerada una de las más peligrosas usadas por los traficantes y donde la joven desapareció junto a otros 39 migrantes de Cuba, Honduras y Ecuador.

Este mes su madre, Isis Pérez, llegó a ese mismo poblado cerca de la frontera con Guatemala para realizar tareas de búsqueda junto a otros familiares de los desaparecidos.

Los familiares recorrieron el muelle de San José El Hueyate, una pequeña comunidad pesquera y turística de apenas 953 habitantes con casas de hormigón, techos de palma y calles sin pavimentar. Subieron a una lancha para navegar por la costa del Pacífico y preguntaron a comerciantes y residentes por pistas sobre sus familiares.

Nadie pudo darles información, pero muchos pobladores sí recordaron que antes de que Donald Trump asumiera su segundo mandato se veían vehículos cargados de migrantes que luego eran llevados en lanchas por el mar.

Ese flujo migratorio se desplomó el año pasado cuando Estados Unidos empezó con las detenciones de migrantes en su territorio y las deportaciones a sus países de origen o a terceras naciones.

Los familiares —que llegaron a Chiapas apoyados por la Red Regional de Familias Migrantes— también recorrieron albergues, centros penitenciarios y plazas públicas en la frontera con Guatemala, una zona que se disputan los Cárteles de Sinaloa y Jalisco Nueva Generación.

“Como familiares vivimos un tormento, una angustia y deseamos encontrarles”, dijo el hondureño Óscar Hernández, quien también llegó al pueblo de Chiapas para intentar localizar a su hermano.

Ricardo Antonio Hernández Barahona, de 33 años, había quedado desempleado tras trabajar durante siete años como repartidor en una empresa de alimentos que se vio obligada a cerrar por la extorsión del crimen organizado en Honduras. La necesidad de obtener ingresos para mantener a su esposa y sus dos hijos lo empujó a ir en busca del sueño americano, pero desapareció en el trayecto.

Cruzar por el mar

Según un informe de la Organización Internacional para las Migraciones (OIM), desde 2021 se han identificado varios puertos marítimos utilizados por los traficantes de migrantes: se embarcan en pequeñas lanchas con doble motor en Puerto de Ocós, Guatemala; hacen escalas para recargar combustible y abastecerse de alimentos en Puerto Madero, San José, Barra de Zacapulco y Paredón, en Chiapas, y desembarcan en Salina Cruz o Huatulco, en Oaxaca, desde donde siguen por tierra hacia el norte.

De acuerdo con el Proyecto Migrantes Desaparecidos de la OIM, en la ruta desde Sudamérica hacia Estados Unidos se ha registrado la desaparición o deceso de 11.475 migrantes desde 2014. Más de la mitad ocurrieron en México.

Los 40 migrantes que desaparecieron a fines de 2024 estaban apurados por llegar a Estados Unidos antes de que Trump asumiera su segundo mandato y diera marcha atrás a la política migratoria más flexible de su antecesor demócrata Joe Biden.

Entre los desaparecidos estaban los cubanos Meiling Álvarez Bravo, de 41 años, y su hijo Samei Armando Reyes Álvarez, de 15.

“El 21 de diciembre (de 2024) a las ocho de la mañana me dijo que iban a desayunar porque ya iban a cruzar para el DF en una barca”, relató Julia Margarita Bravo Díaz, su madre y abuela.

Su hija y su nieto habían viajado vía aérea desde Cuba a Nicaragua y de ahí por tierra por Honduras y Guatemala hasta llegar a México, pero al inicio del periplo no sabían que los llevarían por mar hacia la frontera sur de Estados Unidos.

El ecuatoriano José Antonio Quindil también llegó a San José El Hueyate en busca de su hijo Jefferson Stalin Quindil Guanoquiza, de 18 años.

El albañil de 50 años contó que ya en una ocasión había hecho desistir al joven de su idea de emigrar, pero que en cuanto cumplió la mayoría de edad no pudo frenar sus aspiraciones por una vida mejor. Su hijo, uno de los 40 desaparecidos, había pagado 3.000 dólares por el viaje que nunca completó.

Entre julio y noviembre de 2025 la Secretaría de Marina (Semar) de México informó el rescate de 22 migrantes, seis de ellos al naufragar en alta mar y 16 en tierra mientras esperaban embarcar en el sureño estado de Chiapas.

En marzo pasado, la Semar informó que en coordinación con su contraparte de Guatemala habían reforzado la vigilancia en alta mar para combatir el tráfico de sustancias ilícitas y el movimiento irregular de migrantes hacia Norteamérica.

La decisión posterga por dos días más el anuncio de los resultados de la primera vuelta luego que el Tribunal aseguró a fines de abril que los resultados se iban a conocer el viernes. Las autoridades aseguran que están resolviendo estos días un número elevado de actas electorales impugnadas por los partidos en disputa.

El presidente del Tribunal, Roberto Burneo, indicó en una declaración ante la prensa que el proceso electoral peruano sigue en curso y que durante la mañana del domingo 17 de mayo se “procederá a proclamar las fórmulas que pasarán a la segunda vuelta”.

Según las autoridades electorales, contabilizadas el 99,982% de las actas de votación presidencial, la conservadora Keiko Fujimori, del partido Fuerza Popular, lideraba el jueves el conteo de votos con 17,179%, seguida del nacionalista Roberto Sánchez, de Juntos por el Perú, con 12,030% y apenas detrás el ultraconservador Rafael López Aliaga, de Renovación Popular, con 11,905%.

Las autoridades indicaron que tras anunciar los dos finalistas del balotaje se realizarán de inmediato las pruebas en color de las boletas de votación con sus rostros y símbolos para luego empezar la impresión.

Fujimori tiene su pase asegurado a la segunda vuelta, pero Sánchez y López Aliaga se disputan voto a voto el segundo lugar, según el lento conteo oficial electoral.

López Aliaga reclama que en Perú hubo un "fraude único en el mundo", pero no ha mostrado pruebas, también ha protestado junto a miles de seguidores frente a las oficinas del Tribunal y ha insultado repetidas veces al presidente del Tribunal. El ultraconservador ha indicado que desconocerá los resultados electorales.

La misión electoral de la Unión Europea ha indicado que no existen pruebas de fraude en Perú.

El partido de López Aliaga anunció el jueves en un comunicado que desde el Parlamento se compromete a “luchar para desmantelar” a las autoridades electorales, a las que calificó de “organización criminal”, por “poner en riesgo la democracia y la libertad”.

De acuerdo a la ley peruana, quien salga elegido asumirá el poder por cinco años el 28 de julio de 2026.

Newsom is eager to safeguard programs that have defined his tenure as the leader of the nation’s most populous state and one of the world’s largest economies. As he gears up for a possible presidential run in 2028, Newsom is promoting the budget as fiscally responsible because it protects California's progressive programs while also builds up the state's rainy day funds — a pointed rebuke to critics who say the state spends more than it has. The state’s spending has grown more than $100 billion since 2020, according to the legislative budget analysts.

“We’re cutting deficits. But we’re not cutting corners,” Newsom said.

Newsom can’t seek a third term and will leave office in January.

Revenues, driven mostly by the booming stock market and artificial intelligence industry, are $16.5 billion higher than projections in January, according to Newsom's office. That will help the state avoid a $2.9 billion deficit Newsom projected in January, guarantee no budget hole next year and cut the shortfall the following year in half, his office said.

It is a welcoming change for the state where revenues have not kept up with spending. California faced tens of billions in budget deficits several years in a row, forcing painful cuts last year such as a rollback on a promise to provide free health to low-income immigrants without legal status. Nonpartisan budget analysts projected the state will see budget holes upward of $20 billion each year in the next few years.

Still, Democrats are bracing for federal funding cuts and new costs for the state in healthcare and the impacts of high costs on everything from gas to energy because of the war in Iran. State officials repeatedly said California can't backfill all the federal monies.

Newsom used his presentation to blast President Donald Trump and his policies. Trump “doesn’t particularly give a damn about the financial situation of the average American," Newsom said.

The May budget proposal will officially kick off the final stretch of negotiations between Newsom and Democrats in the Legislature, who have to pass a spending plan by the end of June.

State lawmakers this year have pitched several proposals to increase taxes on corporations to help with budget problems, but Newsom has largely opposed the idea, arguing such proposals could drive businesses and wealthy people away. He has instead proposed to cut fees for new small businesses and limit some tax credits that could generate $850 million a year starting 2027. He is against a ballot initiative for a one-time tax on billionaires that will likely go before voters in November.

He also proposed to increase the monthly premiums for adult patients without legal status in the state-funded healthcare program, up to $50 from $30. The premiums were part of last year budget set to take effect July 2027 for adults under 60 years old. Newsom estimated the change would save the state $427 million in the first year of implementation. But Democratic lawmakers will likely fight against it.

California has a progressive tax system that relies on rich people, meaning it gets about half its revenues from just 1% of the population. When the economy is good, rich people pay more in taxes and revenues can soar quickly. When the economy is bad, they pay less and revenues can drop just as fast.

The state could also see a revenue boost from expected upcoming initial public offerings by several major AI companies, which are expected to be the largest IPOs in history. But legislative budget experts warned last year of a potential AI bubble that could worsen the state's finances.

Newsom’s Thursday proposal also includes a $300 million plan to backfill some of the loss of government-sponsored health subsidies, a $5 billion education grant for teacher training and $100 million to help Los Angeles-area homeowners rebuild after the devastating wildfires last year.

While the authors did not blame the USAID cuts for the increase in violence, they said the findings demonstrate that “large-scale, sudden aid cuts can destabilize fragile settings.” They, however, added that this is not evidence that more aid reduces conflict, instead it only shows “the effect of a sudden and unexpected disruption.”

For many years, USAID had provided crucial support to African countries wrecked by conflict and violence. By eliminating more than 90% of foreign aid contracts, the Trump administration effectively cut some $60 billion in funding.

The study by researchers from several universities in Europe and the United States said the abrupt withdrawal of USAID resources also interrupted contracts, staffing and aid procurement.

“The abrupt withdrawal of USAID led to a significant and sustained increase in conflict across Africa’s most USAID-dependent regions,” said the study, published in the Science journal.

The researchers said they examined whether the abrupt shutdown of USAID was followed by an increase in violence in regions of Africa that had historically received the most support and found that there was a correlation.

Africa is facing a threat from jihadis more than any other region in the world, conflict experts say. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, or ACLED, said Wednesday in a new report that jihadis in the region have been more involved in violence across the board and have been increasingly targeting civilians in the last four years.

USAID had long been the key funding partner for many African countries, helping to provide funding that helped governments and aid groups respond to multiple crises across different sectors.

In Nigeria for example, USAID support had helped victims of the militant Boko Haram group, which emerged in 2002. In Ethiopia's fragile Tigray region, officials relied heavily on U.S. funds as full-scale recovery efforts were yet to start after the war there killed hundreds of thousands.

And in northern Ivory Coast, a front line of the global fight against extremism, USAID had made significant financial commitments to counter the spread of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.

The findings from the study underscore the lasting impact of funding cuts, said Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, who was not among the authors of the study.

“The lasting problem with the shuttering of USAID is likely going to be that for much of its conflict prevention work, even if you put back all the money ... the experience is gone,” Raymond said.

Also, some USAID programs may have helped prevent spillover from conflict zones, said Ladd Serwat, senior Africa analyst at ACLED.

“We now see increasing insurgency and spillover, so some of those programs may have supported these communities from insurgent threats, and now they are no longer active,” said Serwat.

The money will be allocated over the coming year and adds to the $2 billion that the Trump administration pledged in December. Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said at a press conference that the new funding is just “the latest step.”

The new contribution brings total U.S. support for U.N. humanitarian programs to $3.8 billion across 21 countries, according to the State Department, which said the money would be prioritized for locally run projects that help the most vulnerable populations.

The department said the initial contribution delivered "life-saving assistance to 21.1 million people more quickly, more efficiently, and with greater focus on those facing the most acute humanitarian needs in less than four months.”

Still, the money is a fraction of what the U.S. has contributed in the past and reflects what President Donald Trump’s administration believes is still a generous amount that will maintain America’s status as the world’s largest humanitarian donor.

The Trump administration has cut billions in U.S. foreign aid, prompting U.N. agencies to slash spending, aid projects and thousands of jobs. Other traditional U.N. donors like Britain, France, Germany and Japan also have reduced aid allocations.

U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called his agency “overstretched, under-resourced and literally under attack” and reiterated its 2026 plan to reach 87 million of the world’s most needy at a cost of $23 billion — even though 300 million people need humanitarian help.

Before Waltz’s announcement, he said, the U.N. had raised about $7.4 billion. He welcomed the new U.S. contribution and called the United States “the single largest national donor” to the United Nations.

Fletcher urged donors to reach the $23 billion goal this year, but also to provide more funding to help some of the 200 million-plus people worldwide not expected to get aid this year because of the financial crisis.

Waltz pointed to significant changes in U.N. humanitarian operations that the U.S. has pushed for to cut costs, including pooling warehouses, vehicle fleets and back-office operations among U.N. agencies.

He slammed what he called a narrative in the media that the U.S. has walked away from helping people in need, saying it’s “absolutely false.”

Under Trump, the U.S. has been taking an à la carte approach to paying dues to the United Nations, picking which operations and agencies it believes align with Trump’s agenda and avoiding those that no longer serve U.S. interests. The State Department has said that “individual U.N. agencies will need to adapt, shrink, or die.”

Critics say the Western aid cutbacks have been shortsighted, driven millions toward hunger, displacement or disease, and harmed U.S. soft power around the world.

The United Nations says the U.S. owes $2.2 billion to its regular operating budget and $1.8 billion to a separate budget for its far-flung peacekeeping operations, though the Trump administration insists it owes less.

In February, the administration paid about $160 million to the regular budget. Waltz said Thursday that “we will have an additional substantial tranche towards the regular budget coming soon.”

A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit also heard arguments from a government attorney who urged them to reverse lower-court decisions in favor of four law firms. The panel didn't specify how or when it would rule after Thursday's two-hour hearing.

Paul Clement, who represented the law firms, said Trump impermissibly punished the firms because of their relationships with clients and attorneys who “raised the president’s ire.”

“The executive orders here strike at the heart of the First Amendment and the ability of lawyers to zealously represent their clients,” he said. “Lawyers cannot zealously represent their clients while walking on eggshells for fear of reprisals.”

Deputy Associate Attorney General Abhishek Kambli accused district court judges of rushing to judgment and overstepping their authority because they “clearly didn't like the content” of Trump's executive orders.

“President Trump is not beneath the law," Kambli said. "He is entitled to the benefit of the Supreme Court and this court's precedent on his authority to decide matters such as security clearance determinations and investigating anti-discrimination.”

District court judges in Washington, D.C., consistently ruled that the White House cannot enforce Trump's executive orders against the firms of Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, Susman Godfrey and WilmerHale. Trump sanctioned firms with attorneys who had done work that Trump opposed or had been associated with prosecutors who investigated the Republican president.

Trump ordered the suspension of security clearances for attorneys at the targeted firms, the termination of federal contracts and the barring of employees from federal buildings. Other major firms sought to avert orders by preemptively reaching settlements that required them to collectively dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars in free legal services in support of causes supported by the Trump administration.

Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk, 38, made arrangements to surrender in the Seattle area on Wednesday as special agents with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were seeking to arrest him, Assistant U.S. Attorney Aislinn Affinito in Honolulu said.

He is charged with harassing and attempting to harass a protected animal.

Lytvynchuk, who lives in Covington, Washington, was in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Thursday. A judge ordered him released pending another court appearance in Honolulu on May 27.

Greg Geist, a federal public defender who represented Lytvynchuk at the hearing, said Lytvynchuk hired an attorney in Hawaii, whose name was not immediately listed in the case docket. After the hearing, Geist declined to acknowledge questions from an Associated Press reporter or identify the attorney Lytvynchuk hired.

Two supporters who attended the hearing declined to comment.

The video drew widespread condemnation and demands for prosecution in Hawaii, including from Maui’s mayor.

A state Department of Land and Natural Resources officer last week investigated a report of Hawaiian monk seal harassment in Lahaina, the community that was largely destroyed by a deadly wildfire in 2023. A witness showed the officer video of the seal swimming in shallow water while a man watched from shore.

“In the cellphone video, the man can be seen holding a large rock with one hand, aiming, and throwing it directly at the monk seal," prosecutors said in a criminal complaint. The rock, described by a witness as the size of a coconut, narrowly missed the seal's head, but caused the “animal to abruptly alter its behavior,” the complaint said.

When a witness confronted the man, he said "he did not care and was ‘rich’ enough to pay any fines," according to the complaint.

Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said the charges send a clear message that cruelty toward protected wildlife won't be tolerated. He identified the seal as “Lani,” a known and beloved character along Lahaina's waterfront, whose return after the wildfires brought a sense of healing and hope during a difficult time.

But the state natural resources department said in an email that it likely was not Lani, as it lacked certain markings.

“Humanity and the instinct to protect what is vulnerable are still values people can unite around," Bissen said in an emailed statement.

The mayor said he called the U.S. attorney in Honolulu to advocate for prosecution.

Lytvynchuk is charged with violations of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Hawaiian monk seals are a critically endangered species. Only 1,600 remain in the wild.

If convicted, Lytvynchuk faces up to one year in prison for each charge. He also faces a fine of up to $50,000 under the Endangered Species Act and a fine of up to $20,000 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

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Kelleher reported from Honolulu. Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this report.

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According to investigators, Tenezia Sims was last seen around 1 a.m. on May 7, near the intersection of Sample Road and Northwest 27th Avenue.

Authorities said she was last seen wearing a pink tank top, black skirt with a flower design and blue slides. She is about 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighs around 110 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes.

They said Sims experiences mental illness.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts is urged to contact BSO Detective Leonard Charla at 954-321-4274 or the BSO non-emergency number at 954-764-4357.

Según los investigadores, Tenezia Sims fue vista por última vez alrededor de la 1 a.m. del 7 de mayo cerca de la intersección de Sample Road y Northwest 27th Avenue.

Las autoridades dijeron que fue vista por última vez usando una camiseta rosada sin mangas, una falda negra con diseño de flores y sandalias azules. Mide aproximadamente 5 pies y 5 pulgadas, pesa alrededor de 110 libras y tiene cabello negro y ojos marrones.

Indicaron que Sims padece una enfermedad mental.

Cualquier persona con información sobre su paradero debe comunicarse con el detective Leonard Charla de BSO al 954-321-4274 o con el número de no emergencia de BSO al 954-764-4357.

Tyler Brown, 46, who appeared in Cambridge District Court via video from a hospital bed, did not speak and appeared to have his eyes closed for most of the brief hearing. He nodded when the judge said not guilty pleas had been entered on his behalf to charges of armed assault with intent to murder and six other charges, including possessing a gun without a license.

Judge David Frank ordered him to remain in custody, either at the hospital or in jail, pending a hearing on May 21. Brown's attorney, Carolyn McGowan, declined to speak at the hearing other than answering the judge's questions about scheduling matters. The Committee for Public Counsel Services/Public Defender Division, where she is listed as a senior trial counsel, did not respond to a request for comment.

Brown is accused of opening fire Monday afternoon on a heavily traveled road along the Charles River in Cambridge. Panicked drivers abandoned their vehicles or hid under them seeking cover.

One man, who was struck in the back of the head, has since been released from the hospital, while another driver who was shot four times in the leg remains hospitalized, Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Nicole Allain said.

About an hour before the shootings, Brown connected with his parole officer via video conference. Armed with a gun, he said on video that he had relapsed and wanted to end his life. The parole officer called police, who began searching for Brown and, using phone records, found him in Cambridge.

The complaint describes what led up to the shootings. According to investigators, Brown had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression and had been released Friday from a psychiatric hospital.

According to the complaint, Brown is on parole and probation for offenses including armed assault to murder and other gun-related convictions. His parole was set to end this week, though his probation continued.

Meghan Kelly, a spokesperson for the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, said Brown was not licensed to carry a firearm.

Allain described Brown’s criminal history going back to 1994, when he was convicted of armed robbery in Michigan. He also was convicted of escape in Michigan in 1997 and drug offenses in New Hampshire in 2007.

In Massachusetts, he has been convicted of multiple assault and gun-related charges, most recently in 2021, when he was convicted of firing at officers.

Prosecutors said then that he should serve at least 10 years in prison, due to the “level of brazen violence” and because he was on probation for a 2014 conviction on assault and witness intimidation charges. A judge instead ordered Brown to serve five to six years in state prison and three years of probation with credit for nearly 18 months spent in custody.

At the time, the judge’s decision sparked outrage and criticism among local officials concerned that violent offenders were not being held accountable — concerns that have resurfaced. “Talk about a ball drop,” said the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association in a statement on social media.

During a 2021 sentencing hearing, a police officer who Brown shot at called him "a very dangerous individual who doesn't care who he hurts," according to an audio recording of the proceedings. A probation officer expressed concern that the incident he was on probation for and the one he was being sentenced for were similar and he was a “danger to the community due to his random acts of violence.”

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders told the court then that she considers factors like psychiatric issues and childhood trauma Brown endured in imposing a sentence. But Sanders seemed especially moved by the support expressed in letters from Brown's family and the community, including city officials, who were impressed with “his commitment to turn his life around.”

“Mr. Brown, I do realize I’m kind of taking a chance on you,” the judge told him. “When experienced officers, experienced probation officers tell me this guy is a danger to the community, I hear that. I can't look into a crystal ball and figure out what is going to happening once you get out. But I do understand I am taking a risk here. I just pray that you know my intuitions are right.”

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An earlier version of this report misattributed information about the suspect's background to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan. It actually came from Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Nicole Allain.

In announcing the partnership, the kingdom's public investment fund (PIF) said sport was a “priority sector” and soccer was crucial to the “ongoing transformation of Saudi Arabia.”

PIF announced this month that it was pulling the plug on future funding for LIV Golf, the breakaway tour that it has poured billions of dollars into, raising questions about its long-term plans for other sports after its enormous spending in recent years.

While the value of the World Cup deal, which covers North America and Asia, was not disclosed, it further strengthens ties between Saudi Arabia and world soccer's governing body FIFA.

2034 host and TV

The oil-rich kingdom has won the rights to host the 2034 edition of the World Cup and PIF was a commercial partner for last year's Club World Cup.

The PIF-owned SURJ Sports Investment also owns a stake online streamer DAZN, which broadcast the Club World Cup.

According to FIFA accounts, television broadcasting rights had contributed “the lion’s share” of its annual revenue in 2025, worth more than $1 billion.

Soccer has been a major focus for Saudi Arabia as it looks to move away from its heavy reliance on oil and explore other revenue-generating sectors.

That has included enticing some of the sport's biggest stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Karim Benzema to its domestic league and buying Premier League club Newcastle. Winning the right to host the World Cup is its standout achievement so far.

F1 and boxing, tennis

Investment in other sports includes hosting a number of world championship boxing matches, Formula One racing and tennis.

Critics have accused the kingdom of “sportswashing” — using sports to rebrand its public image in the face of its human rights record and the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

The launch of the contentious LIV Golf tour in 2022 was a major disruptor for the sport, luring top players like Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson away from the PGA. LIV Golf's spending is expected to exceed $6 billion by the end of the year.

While there has been a slowdown of top soccer players heading to the Saudi league after its earlier aggressive recruitment drive, PIF outlined its ongoing commitment to the world's most popular sport.

“PIF continues to expand its global footprint in sport, with football at the heart of this growth," head of corporate brand Mohamed AlSayyad said.

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

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

Spc. Mariyah Symone Collington, of Taveres, Fla., and 1st Lt. Kendrick Lamont Key Jr., of Richmond, Va., fell off a cliff during an off-duty hike on May 2, and their deaths remained under investigation on Thursday.

Collington served as an air and missile defense crewmember and was assigned to Charlie Battery, 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment.

“The loss of Spc. Collington is a profound loss for the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command,” Brig. Gen. Curtis King, commanding general of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, said in a statement.

Collington and Key, 27, vanished near the Cap Draa Training Area during the African Lion 26, a military exercise led by the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa. Key’s remains were recovered along the shoreline on May 9, according to DOD.

U.S. Air Force pararescuemen with the 406th Air Expeditionary Wing, Moroccan military mountaineers, and Moroccan Civil Protection found and recovered Collington’s remains on May 12, according to DOD.

Collington entered the Army’s delayed entry program in 2023 and started active-duty service in 2024. She completed basic combat training and advanced individual training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, as a 14P air and missile defense crewmember.

Collington reported to Charlie Battery, 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, in Ansbach, Germany, in February 2025.

“Spc. Collington was an outstanding Soldier whose unwavering enthusiasm and positive spirit uplifted every environment she entered,” Capt. Spencer Grider, commander of Charlie Battery, 5-4 ADAR said in a statement. “Her infectious energy, whether in the office, in the field, or among her peers, fostered connection and camaraderie, bringing people together through her genuine warmth and heartfelt sense of humor. Her presence will be greatly missed across our formation.”

Collington was promoted to specialist on May 1, and her awards and decorations included the U.S. Army Service Ribbon.

“Spc. Collington was a bright light in this battalion. To the Soldiers who knew her best and served alongside her each day, she was a treasured friend whose loss leaves a deep and profound void on our team,” Lt. Col. Chris Couch, the 5-4 ADAR battalion commander, said in a statement. “As we hold her family, friends, and teammates in our prayers, we extend our heartfelt thanks to the U.S. personnel and Moroccan partners who dedicated themselves to bringing her home.”

Location of soldiers’ deaths

Las autoridades identificaron al sospechoso como Ronald Trayvon Kelly, de 29 años y residente del área de Brownsville en Miami-Dade.

Los investigadores dijeron que Kelly fue arrestado el miércoles después de que una persecución a alta velocidad que involucró a la Patrulla de Carreteras de Florida y la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade terminara con su camioneta Dodge roja volcada cerca de Northwest 86th Terrace y Northwest 18th Avenue.

Según un reporte de arresto de la FHP, los patrulleros recibieron una alerta BOLO alrededor de las 7 p.m. por un “secuestro” ocurrido en Miami Gardens.

Las autoridades dijeron que la víctima, quien presuntamente estaba siendo retenida contra su voluntad dentro de la camioneta de Kelly, llamó al 911 y proporcionó actualizaciones de ubicación en tiempo real.

Los patrulleros dijeron que Kelly aceleró a través de una zona de construcción, casi atropellando a un trabajador, condujo en dirección contraria y alcanzó velocidades de aproximadamente 80 mph en una zona de 30 mph mientras huía de las autoridades.

Las autoridades dijeron que un agente de la FHP finalmente realizó una maniobra PIT exitosa, causando que la camioneta se volcara sobre uno de sus lados. Según el reporte, la víctima fue “retirada inmediatamente del peligro”.

Indicaron que tanto Kelly como la víctima fueron trasladados al Ryder Trauma Center del Jackson Memorial Hospital como medida de precaución.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Kelly enfrenta un cargo de secuestro/conspiración y otro de huir agravadamente causando lesiones o muerte en ese caso.

Kelly también fue arrestado el miércoles en un caso separado en Miami Gardens relacionado con un incidente afuera del Hard Rock Stadium, según un segundo reporte de arresto.

La policía dijo que los agentes respondieron al estadio después de recibir reportes de que una Dodge Ram roja posiblemente vinculada a una investigación de robo había regresado al lugar.

Los investigadores dijeron que un hombre intentó tomar fotos de la camioneta y mirar dentro de la cama en busca de propiedad robada cuando Kelly repentinamente arrancó desde la Puerta 14 con la víctima todavía dentro de la cama de la camioneta.

Según el reporte, la camioneta ingresó a la autopista Florida’s Turnpike a alta velocidad mientras la víctima permanecía atrapada atrás.

La víctima dijo a los detectives que se subió completamente dentro de la cama de la camioneta por seguridad y se dio cuenta de que los ocupantes sabían que estaba allí después de que abrieron la ventana corrediza trasera, indica el reporte.

La víctima dijo que los ocupantes le dijeron repetidamente que saltara, pero temía sufrir “graves lesiones corporales” debido a la velocidad de la camioneta y no podía escapar de manera segura.

Después de ser informado de sus derechos, Kelly admitió que estaba en el estadio y dijo que “escuchó un golpe” proveniente de la parte trasera de la camioneta antes de alejarse, según el reporte.

Kelly dijo a los detectives que luego se dio cuenta de que la víctima estaba en la cama de la camioneta, pero no se detuvo porque temía por su seguridad después de presuntamente haber sido amenazado por la víctima.

La policía dijo que Kelly enfrenta un cargo de privación ilegal de libertad en ese caso.

Las autoridades indicaron que Kelly también enfrenta cargos en una investigación separada del Departamento de Policía de Miami derivada de una disputa doméstica en abril con la madre de su hijo.

Según ese reporte de arresto, la mujer dijo a la policía que fue a la casa de Kelly el 5 de abril para recoger a su hijo cuando Kelly la confrontó por una supuesta infidelidad pasada.

La mujer dijo a los agentes que Kelly agarró la manija de la puerta del lado del pasajero de su vehículo y saltó sobre el capó mientras ella intentaba irse, gritando: “Te voy a matar”, indica el reporte.

Posteriormente, un testigo dijo a los investigadores que vio a Kelly golpear y patear el parabrisas mientras se aferraba al vehículo en movimiento mientras la conductora maniobraba aparentemente para quitárselo del capó, según la policía.

La policía dijo que Kelly presentó un reporte contra la mujer, pero los investigadores determinaron que esas acusaciones eran falsas.

Kelly negó esas acusaciones después de renunciar a sus derechos Miranda, según el reporte.

En ese caso, enfrenta cargos de agresión agravada con intención de cometer un delito grave y de reportar falsamente un crimen a las autoridades.

Hasta el jueves, Kelly permanecía detenido en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, donde su fianza figuraba como “pendiente por establecer”.

Según la policía, la víctima es propietaria del Doral Dentistry Specialty Center ubicado en 7902 NW 36th St.

La víctima dijo a los investigadores que las sospechosas, identificadas como Kaylyn Lopez, de 24 años, y Cynthia Joya, de 53, habían estado robando del negocio durante aproximadamente un año, desde marzo de 2025 hasta el 16 de marzo de 2026, según reportes de arresto obtenidos por Local 10 el jueves.

Los investigadores dijeron que fue en esa fecha cuando ambas mujeres renunciaron abruptamente a sus puestos sin previo aviso y no pudieron ser contactadas posteriormente.

Fue entonces cuando la víctima dijo a la policía que comenzó una revisión interna de los registros comerciales y transacciones financieras relacionadas con Lopez y Joya y descubrió que habían malversado fondos de la empresa.

Según la policía, las sospechosas aceptaban pagos en efectivo y por Zelle de clientes y se quedaban con el dinero para uso personal.

Los reportes indican que los investigadores citaron una cuenta de Bank of America “que ambas acusadas mantenían y controlaban” y descubrieron “múltiples transacciones de Zelle realizadas entre las acusadas y clientes de la clínica” que no habían sido autorizadas por los propietarios del negocio.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que ambas mujeres fueron arrestadas el miércoles y cada una enfrenta cargos graves de hurto mayor en tercer grado y esquema organizado para defraudar.

Fueron ingresadas en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center la madrugada del jueves, donde ambas permanecían detenidas hasta la tarde del jueves con fianzas individuales de $5,000 USD cada una.

Michael Banks' decision, announced in a Fox News interview and later confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security, is the latest leadership shake-up of officials implementing President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown and comes as the Republican administration appears to be recalibrating its approach to its centerpiece policy of mass deportations.

“It’s just time,” Banks was quoted as saying in a report on the Fox News website, which said the resignation was effective immediately. “I feel like I got the ship back on course," he said, referring to what he described as previous chaos at the southern border. Banks said it was “time to enjoy the family and life."

In a statement, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, Rodney Scott, thanked Banks for his service “during one of the most challenging periods for border security.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It was not clear who will replace Banks. He led an agency at the forefront of Trump's high-profile immigration enforcement efforts but kept a lower profile than some other officials such as Gregory Bovino, a now-retired commander who became a public face of the immigration crackdown.

Border Patrol participated in immigration enforcement operation in US cities

CBP is one of the federal agencies that participated since last year in a series of immigration enforcement operations, carried out primarily in cities governed by Democrats — an effort that triggered a spike in arrests and led to the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis this year at the hands of federal immigration officers.

Banks' resignation takes place two months after Markwayne Mullin, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma, became homeland security secretary. DHS oversees CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly known as ICE.

Banks is stepping down at the same time that ICE is also going through a leadership transition. Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, is leaving later this month and will be replaced by David Venturella, who worked for years for private contractors before returning to government service.

CBP was established in 2003 and handles customs, immigration, and agricultural regulations to secure U.S. borders. It has a workforce of over 20,000 agents assigned to patrol the more than 6,000 miles of land borders, and an operating budget of $1.4 billion, according to information from its website.

As head of CBP, Banks became a pivotal figure in the Trump administration’s hardline policy to reconfigure immigration law enforcement in the United States. He oversaw the expansion of prosecutions for illegal border crossings, intensified coordination between the Border Patrol and ICE, and supervised the implementation of broader internal enforcement operations within the country’s borders.

Banks had a long career at Border Patrol

Banks returned to the Border Patrol last year after a long agency career that had never landed him in its senior ranks. His star had risen as border czar to Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, during a period when illegal crossings reached record highs and the state launched a multibillion-dollar enforcement surge that led to turf battles with the Biden administration.

Banks kept a relatively low public profile as arrests for illegal crossings that have plunged to their lowest levels since the mid-1960s, a trend that began toward the end of that Democratic administration.

Banks did not appear publicly at the Border Security Expo this month in Phoenix, an annual conference at which government officials update contractors on the state of the border. Scott, who was Banks’ supervisor, is a close ally of Trump border czar Tom Homan and has acted more as the agency’s public face.

Banks, who grew up in a small town in Warner Robins, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta, Georgia, has said his first job was picking peaches at an orchard when he was 14 years old. He worked with migrant farm workers and learned “compassion and humility,” he said, in an interview published last year on the CBP website.

Banks, in the interview, said he was “honored” to have returned to the agency.

“The United States Border Patrol will be unapologetic in its enforcement of our nation’s laws,” he said.

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Elliot Spagat in San Diego, California contributed to this report.

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According to police, the victim owns the Doral Dentistry Specialty Center located at 7902 NW 36th St.

The victim told investigators that the suspects, identified as Kaylyn Lopez, 24, and Cynthia Joya, 53, had been stealing from the business for about a year, from March 2025 to March 16, 2026, according to arrest reports obtained by Local 10 on Thursday.

It was on that date the victim said both women abruptly resigned from their positions without any notice and could not be contacted afterwards, investigators said.

That’s when the victim told police he began conducting an internal review of business records and financial transactions involving Lopez and Joya and discovered they had misappropriating company funds.

According to police, the suspects would accept cash and Zelle payments from clients and retain the funds for personal use.

The reports state that investigators subpoenaed a Bank of America account “that both defendants maintained and controlled” and discovered “multiple Zelle transactions conducted between the defendants and clients of the clinic” that had not been authorized by the business owners.

Jail records show both women were taken into custody on Wednesday and are each facing felony counts of third degree grand theft and organized scheme to defraud.

They were booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center early Thursday morning, where both remained as of Thursday afternoon on individual bonds of $5,000 each.

Soto exited a 3-2, 10-inning win over the Tigers in the seventh inning on Wednesday night, four innings after he fouled a ball off his right foot. X-rays were negative and Soto batted third as the designated hitter in Thursday’s matinee.

“I wasn’t concerned, I’ve done it before,” Soto said Thursday. “It was getting swollen big time, so I just tried to make a smart move. I know how to handle it.”

Manager Carlos Mendoza said Lindor, who was injured April 22 while scoring from first on a double hit by Francisco Alvarez, underwent an MRI Wednesday that showed “signs of healing,” though the All-Star shortstop is nowhere near a return.

Mendoza said Lindor has been cleared to do more work in the weight room before beginning a running program.

“Positive sign,” Mendoza said. “We’ve just got to let it heal.”

Mendoza said there was no timetable for Lindor to begin baseball activities. Lindor has been sidelined for the Mets’ last 18 games — four more than he missed the previous four seasons combined.

Alvarez, who suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee while fouling off a pitch in Tuesday’s 10-2 win over the Tigers, underwent surgery Thursday morning. Mendoza said the Mets expect Alvarez to miss up to eight weeks.

Alvarez is the Mets’ 12th player currently on the injured list, joining Lindor as well as right-handers Reed Garrett (Tommy John surgery), Justin Hagenman (fractured rib), Tylor Megill (sprained right elbow), Dedniel Núñez (Tommy John surgery) and Kodai Senga (lumbar spine inflammation); left-hander A.J. Minter (left lat surgery); infielders Ronny Mauricio (broken left thumb), Jorge Polanco (bruised right wrist) and Jared Young (torn left meniscus); and outfielder Luis Robert Jr. (lumbar spine disk herniation).

In addition, Soto missed 15 games last month because of a strained right calf.

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

Musk, the world's richest man, was a co-founder of OpenAI, which started in 2015 and went on to create ChatGPT. His lawsuit filed in 2024 accuses OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his top deputy of betraying a plan to keep it as a nonprofit and shifting into a moneymaking mode behind his back.

The trial’s outcome could sway the balance of power in AI — breakthrough technology that increasingly has raised fears about its potential impacts on the economy, society and even humanity's survival. Scrutiny of Altman’s leadership comes at a crucial time for the company and its competitors, Musk’s own AI firm and Anthropic, formed by a group of seven ex-OpenAI leaders.

All three firms are moving toward planned initial public offerings that are expected to be among the largest ever. Musk is seeking damages and changes to OpenAI’s business structure, as well as Altman’s ouster from company leadership. If Musk wins, it could derail OpenAI’s IPO plans.

Timing of lawsuit is key question

One of the jury’s tasks is to decide if Musk filed his lawsuit in time. Much of the testimony has centered on OpenAI’s early years after its founding, but there’s a relatively short timeline to allege the claims Musk is making of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment.

OpenAI has argued that Musk waited too long and cannot claim harms that occurred before August 2021.

The judge wrote in a court filing last month that “if the jury finds that Musk failed to file his action within the statute of limitations, it is highly likely” that she will “accept that finding and direct verdict to the defendants.”

If the jury decides the lawsuit was filed in time, it then has to decide if OpenAI had a “charitable trust” that was broken by OpenAI and its executives. Musk's other claim means jurors must determine whether Altman, Greg Brockman — co-founder and president — and OpenAI unjustly enriched themselves at Musk's expense.

For Microsoft, a co-defendant in the trial, the jury has to decide whether the company aided and abetted that breach. Musk invested $38 million in OpenAI during its first years, and Microsoft became OpenAI's biggest investor after Musk's departure.

Musk lawyer focuses on Altman's credibility

Altman and Brockman were in the courtroom Thursday, while Musk was in China with President Donald Trump and other prominent tech executives.

Musk’s attorney, Steven Molo, told jurors the Tesla CEO was “sorry he could not be here.”

In his closing arguments, Molo doubled down on claims of Altman's untrustworthiness, pointing to testimony from witnesses who called the OpenAI CEO a “liar.”

"I confronted Sam Altman with the fact that five witnesses in this trial, all people that he’s known for years and worked with, called him a liar under oath. Liar’s a very powerful word in a courtroom,” Molo said.

Those five people were Musk and another co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who was OpenAI’s chief scientist, as well as OpenAI’s former chief technology officer Mira Murati and two ex-board members, Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley.

“Sam Altman’s credibility is directly at issue in this case. He’s the defendants' main witness. The defendants absolutely need you to believe Sam Altman. If you cannot trust him, if you don’t believe him, they cannot win. It’s that simple,” Molo said.

Because Musk, Altman and Brockman never signed a contract that could show they had a charitable trust that OpenAI then broke, Musk's side has made the case that jurors should consider emails and other communication between them — along with everything from OpenAI's website to press interviews — as constituting such a trust.

A question of money

In a terse exchange while jurors were out of the room, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sharply criticized Musk’s attorney for suggesting to jurors Thursday that Musk wasn’t seeking any money in the lawsuit.

While Musk, before the trial, abandoned a bid for damages for himself, he is still seeking an unspecified amount of money to be paid to fund the altruistic efforts of OpenAI’s charitable arm.

Musk is seeking “billions of dollars of disgorgement,” the judge said, ordering Molo to either retract his statement or “drop your claim for billions of dollars.” They later agreed that the judge would correct the statement to jurors.

OpenAI says Musk has no evidence

Sarah Eddy, a lawyer for OpenAI, said it was Musk who has misrepresented details surrounding OpenAI's nonprofit founding and his subsequent falling out with the other co-founders.

“Mr. Molo says that Sam Altman can’t be trusted,” she said. “Mr. Musk is the one whose testimony is contradicted by every other witness.”

As OpenAI has argued throughout the trial, Eddy said Musk knew of and supported plans for OpenAI to form a for-profit company that would still support its mission to benefit humanity.

“Mr. Musk, he has tried to persuade you that his years-ago donations to OpenAI came with specific strings attached, that these strings were strong enough to last forever to tie OpenAI up in knots as it tries to pursue its mission, and that these strings gave Mr. Musk perpetual rights over OpenAI,” Eddy said. "But Mr. Musk has come nowhere close to making that case.”

She brought up testimony that Musk had discussed his children inheriting control of OpenAI.

“He wanted dominion over AGI,” she said, referring to artificial general intelligence, a term for advanced AI technology that surpasses humans at many tasks. “That’s why this was such a high stakes conversation. Mr. Musk wanted total control. Maybe, maybe he’d give it up over time, or maybe not. But it was up to him and that was the problem.”

Protesters outside court bash both sides

Outside the courthouse, more than a dozen protesters bashed both parties as billionaires who were eroding the environment, workforce and people’s mental health and whose industry would wipe out humanity.

There were signs that read “Stop replacing healthcare workers with chatboxes!” and “No future for workers in Musk-Altman fascist world.”

It doesn’t matter which side wins in court, said Saru Jayaraman, who is part of a campaign to push a $30 hourly wage on election ballots this fall.

“The thing is, we’re all losing, that’s the main point. Who’s really winning? The two of them,” she said, referring to Altman and Musk.

Phoebe Thomas Sorgen, a peace activist from nearby Berkeley, said there needs to be a global ban on artificial intelligence and used a slang term to say everyone is awful here, except for the jurors and activists.

“Both parties in this trial are completely hypocritical. They both claim that they’re developing AI for the benefit of humanity and that’s a lie. They’re developing it for greed.”

___

Associated Press Writer Janie Har contributed to this story. O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

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Authorities identified the suspect as 29-year-old Ronald Trayvon Kelly, of Miami-Dade’s Brownsville area.

Investigators said Kelly was arrested Wednesday after a high-speed chase involving the Florida Highway Patrol and the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office ended with his red Dodge pickup truck overturned near Northwest 86th Terrace and Northwest 18th Avenue.

According to an FHP arrest report, troopers received a be-on-the-lookout alert around 7 p.m. for an “abduction” that had occurred in Miami Gardens.

Authorities said the victim, who was allegedly being held against his will inside Kelly’s truck, called 911 and provided real-time location updates.

Troopers said Kelly sped through a construction zone, nearly hitting a worker, drove into oncoming traffic and reached speeds of about 80 mph in a 30 mph zone while fleeing from law enforcement.

Authorities said an FHP trooper ultimately performed a successful PIT maneuver, causing the truck to overturn onto its side. The victim was “immediately removed from danger,” according to the report.

They said both Kelly and the victim were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center as a precaution.

On Thursday morning, Cynthia Hulett showed Local 10 what’s left of her car that Kelly smashed into

“I came outside (and) my car was all messed up,” she said.

Jail records show Kelly is facing one count each of kidnapping/conspiracy and aggravated fleeing or eluding causing injury or death in that case.

Kelly was also arrested Wednesday in a separate case out of Miami Gardens tied to an incident outside of Hard Rock Stadium, according to a second arrest report.

Police said officers responded to the stadium after receiving reports that a red Dodge Ram possibly connected to a burglary investigation had returned to the scene.

Investigators said a man attempted to photograph the truck and look into the bed for possible stolen property when Kelly suddenly drove away from Gate 14 with the victim still inside the truck bed.

According to the report, the truck entered the Florida’s Turnpike at a high rate of speed while the victim remained trapped in the back.

The victim told detectives he climbed fully into the truck bed for safety and realized the occupants knew he was there after they opened the rear sliding window, the report states.

The victim said the occupants repeatedly told him to jump out, but he feared “serious bodily injury” because of the truck’s speed and could not safely escape.

After being advised of his Miranda rights, Kelly admitted he was at the stadium and said he “heard a bang” coming from the back of the truck before driving away, according to the report.

Kelly told detectives he later realized the victim was in the truck bed but did not stop because he feared for his safety after allegedly being threatened by the victim.

Police said Kelly is facing one count of false imprisonment in that case.

They said Kelly is also facing charges in a separate Miami Police Department investigation stemming from an April domestic dispute involving the mother of his child.

According to that arrest report, the woman told police she went to Kelly’s home on April 5 to pick up their child when Kelly confronted her about alleged past infidelity.

The woman told officers Kelly grabbed the passenger-side door handle of her vehicle and jumped onto the hood as she attempted to leave, yelling, “I’m going to kill you,” the report states.

A witness later told investigators he saw Kelly strike and kick the windshield while clinging to the moving vehicle as the driver swerved in an apparent attempt to remove him from the hood, according to police.

Police said Kelly filed an incident report against the woman, but investigators determined those allegations were false.

Kelly denied those accusations after waiving his Miranda rights, according to the report.

In that case, he is charged with aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony and falsely reporting a crime to law enforcement.

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

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Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade arrestaron a Myeisha Smith el martes por un cargo de negligencia infantil con grandes daños corporales, muestran los registros.

Según un reporte de arresto obtenido por Local 10, Smith admitió a los detectives que dejó su arma desatendida en su habitación junto a su hijo, quien luego tomó el arma y se disparó en el hombro, justo encima de la clavícula.

Los detectives reportaron que Smith llevó a su hijo herido desde su casa en West Perrine hasta Jackson South Medical Center. Posteriormente fue trasladado en helicóptero al HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, donde figuraba en condición estable.

Smith compareció el miércoles ante la corte de fianzas, donde el padre de la víctima le dijo al juez que su hijo se encuentra bien y que cree que el disparo fue un accidente desafortunado.

“Honestamente, esto fue un gran error. Ella es la madre perfecta para ese niño”, dijo el padre.

“¿Ustedes dos siguen juntos?”, preguntó la jueza.

“No, señora”, respondió el padre del niño.

La jueza finalmente le otorgó a Smith una fianza de $2,500 USD, la cual pagó.

Los registros judiciales muestran que el juez del circuito de Miami-Dade, Ariel Rodríguez, presidirá el caso.

Si es declarada culpable, Smith podría enfrentar hasta 15 años de prisión.

Historias relacionadas

• MDSO: Arrestan a madre luego de que su hijo de 6 años se disparara con su arma
• MDSO: Niño de 6 años se dispara en West Perrine

Según los investigadores, la víctima, de 12 años, declaró que el lunes por la mañana iba caminando a la escuela cuando Carlos Jean , de 37 años y residente de Biscayne Gardens, se le acercó y la tocó de forma inapropiada.

Según la policía, esa interacción cerca de la escuela secundaria Carol City quedó grabada en video.

En ese caso, Jean se enfrenta a un cargo de agresión y abuso sexual lascivo contra un menor de 16 años.

El jueves, los detectives informaron que otra joven se había presentado para denunciar que había sido víctima de un delito similar.

Según el informe policial, la víctima se encontraba en casa con su madre cuando vio la noticia sobre Jean que publicó Local 10 el miércoles e inmediatamente acudió al Departamento de Policía de Miami Gardens.

Una vez allí, la joven de 15 años declaró a los detectives que el 17 de marzo, Jean se le acercó en su Kia color burdeos y “se masturbó delante de ella mientras estaba sentado en su vehículo”, según consta en el informe.

La víctima también declaró a la policía que Jean le dijo: “Nunca has visto algo así” cuando ella pasó junto a su vehículo, antes de seguirla hasta su casa y pasar varias veces en coche por delante de su vivienda, según consta en el informe de detención.

Según los registros penitenciarios, ahora enfrenta un cargo adicional por abuso sexual lascivo contra una menor de 16 años. Jean compareció nuevamente ante el tribunal el jueves por este cargo.

Permanece tras las rejas en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, y su fianza está “por determinar”.

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The 12-year-old victim said she was walking to school on Monday morning when Carlos Jean, 37, of Biscayne Gardens, approached her and touched her inappropriately, according to investigators.

That interaction near Carol City Middle School was caught on camera, police said.

Jean is facing one count of battery and lewd and lascivious molestation on a child under 16 in that case.

On Thursday, detectives said that an additional girl had come forward to report she was victimized in a similar fashion.

According to an arrest report, the victim was at home with her mother when she saw Local 10’s Wednesday story about Jean and immediately went to the Miami Gardens Police Department.

Once there, the 15-year-old girl told detectives that on March 17, Jean had approached her in his burgundy Kia and “masturbated in front of her while sitting in his vehicle,” the report states.

The victim also told police that Jean told her, “You ain’t ever seen this before” when she walked past his vehicle before following her home and driving past her house several times, according to his arrest form.

Jail records show he is now facing an additional charge of lewd and lascivious molestation on a child under 16. Jean was back in court for this charge on Thursday.

He remains behind bars at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with bond listed as “to be set.”

The two-time World Series MVP shortstop is hitless in his last seven games for the Texas Rangers. That is part of a longer 0-for-27 span, also a career long, that includes 11 strikeouts.

“You're obviously still working on things and you'd like to see some better results, but you're not getting them,” Seager said after going 0 for 4 with two strikeouts in a wild 6-5 comeback win over Arizona on Wednesday night.

While he has started 42 of the Rangers’ 43 games, the 32-year-old Seager said physically he feels “completely fine.” He has played 24 in a row since his only game off April 16.

“It’s one of those things that you’re going to figure it out out there,” Seager said. "It’s always been like my focus, right, you’re going to figure it out swinging. So right now, I want to keep going out there and trying to figure it out.”

The Rangers had a day off Thursday, when his .179 batting average ranked 167th out of 174 qualified MLB hitters. Seager, in the fifth season of a $325 million, 10-year deal, has 28 hits and 22 walks but 50 strikeouts account for 27.5% of his 182 plate appearances. He has seven home runs and 20 RBIs.

His last hit was an RBI single in the fourth inning at Yankee Stadium on May 6. Seager's solo homer in the first inning put Texas ahead to stay in that 6-1 win over New York, but strikeouts in his final two at-bats started his hitless span. He is 6 for 61 (.098) with 23 K's over his last 16 games.

This is the latest in any of his 12 seasons that Seager, a .285 career hitter in 4,500 at-bats over 1,173 games, has been below .200. He never finished a game under that mark in eight of those seasons, including three times he went 1 for 5 (.200) in openers (2016, 2020 and 2024) before having at least three hits in the second game.

“Corey still feels good to go,” first-year Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “I like him in the lineup. So I’m going to continue putting him there if his body feels good and his mind is right. And it is, so that part is good."

Schumaker did acknowledge that there is a date picked for Seager to sit out a game around one of the team's off days. The manager didn't say if that would be Friday at Houston, or coincide with their only remaining scheduled off day this month, next Thursday between road series against Colorado and the Los Angeles Angels.

Texas sat slumping first baseman Jake Burger for two games last weekend. He went 3 for 3 on Tuesday night, then matched a career high with four RBIs on Wednesday, a three-run homer and then a tying RBI single in the ninth inning.

Seager was hitting .194 after 10 games last year, which had been his latest sub-.200 mark, then went 14 for 30 (.467) his next eight games. He finished the season at .271 with 21 homers and 50 RBIs, even with an 0-for-25 span over six-plus games in June. He was limited to 102 games overall because of hamstring issues and an appendectomy.

“Someone told me a long time ago ... that when you are in a funk, it just means you’re going to get really, really hot,” Schumaker said. “There’s some really big names right now that have had tough months, and that’s OK to start the season. And that just means, in my opinion, that he’s going to have a really good five months.”

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

His ninth studio album — and his first since his extravagant loss in a very public feud with Kendrick Lamar — arrives Friday.

The beef between two of hip-hop’s biggest stars erupted in the spring of 2024, with the pair trading a series of vitriolic tracks that culminated with Lamar’s release of “Not Like Us.” The hit song was a direct attack on Drake, spurring Drake’s defamation lawsuit against their shared label that was dismissed. Drake’s appeal of the dismissal is pending, but in hip-hop spaces, Lamar’s victory over Drake is undisputed.

The Canadian rapper is at a crossroads. He's still one of the most popular artists on the planet, and a successful entrepreneur with businesses spanning music, fashion, sports, online gambling and beyond. But he hasn't had a smash single in a few years.

In hip-hop, where reputation is central to cultural clout, where does he stand?

Drake after Lamar

“The Kendrick battle absolutely dethroned Drake. Up until then, he was considered the leader of the pack, insofar as sales and hit records,” says Sowmya Krishnamurthy, author of “The Blueprint: Inside the Business of Roc-A-Fella Records.”

“He also just hasn’t been able to recover with a hit record. I often like to say all is forgiven with a hit,” she said.

Since the feud began, Drake has had only a few modest successes: “Nokia” and “What Did I Miss?” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Peter A. Berry, a music journalist with work in XXL and Complex, takes it a step further: “People have beefed in rap before and people have lost public rap battles. But the loss that Drake took to Kendrick Lamar on a national and global stage is probably the biggest loss any rapper has ever taken in a big rap conflict.”

He points to “Not Like Us” taking home record and song of the year at the 2025 Grammys, a first for a rap diss track. The victory lap concluded with Lamar performing the chart-topper onstage at the Super Bowl halftime show.

Not only did Drake lose the battle, but he was struck by his own weapons: “Not Like Us” is a rap song so catchy it bordered on pop, fueled by meme-able lyrics — the kind of thing Drake has long been known for. (See: “Kiki, Do you love me?” from 2018's “In My Feelings,” or even “YOLO” from 2011's “The Motto.”)

And yet, he's still one of the most popular artists of the 21st century. Just last month, Spotify named him the third-most streamed artist in the history of their platform, globally, just behind Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny.

“He remains this kind of immutable pop culture force,” says Berry, even though he hasn't had a long-lasting, multiweek No. 1 hit since 2018's “Nice for What,” “God's Plan” and “In My Feelings.”

“Drake's music hasn't evolved,” Krishnamurthy adds. The lack of innovation, she says, in addition to fractured, algorithmic listening habits has made Drake less successful than in years past.

His 2021 album, “Certified Loverboy,” is largely considered a turning point, where the ubiquitous hits and critical praise slowed.

“It just feels very sort of scattered and disorganized. It’s almost like he’s throwing things at the wall and hoping for something to stick,” says Krishnamurthy, analyzing Drake's lack of huge singles.

That's why “Iceman” feels so pivotal. “Let’s say it doesn’t perform to certain standards. It will get harder and harder to see him as a viable artist,” she said.

What does Drake need ‘Iceman’ to accomplish?

Drake's album rollout seems to reflect the pressure of the moment.

“Iceman” is no surprise release. He's been teasing it for weeks, with livestreams and themed YouTube skits. He covered his favored courtside seats at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena in ice and turned a parking lot in downtown Toronto into a massive ice block installation. Fans used blowtorches, sledgehammers and pickaxes to reveal the album’s release date.

“Drake has been a genius-level marketer,” says Matthew Ismael Ruiz, a culture critic. “He’s masterful at commanding attention. The ice block was smart because it forced people to talk about it. It was a physical impediment to anyone in that community — and that instantly goes viral.”

“Of all the things he’s done in the last few years, this ‘Iceman’ album rollout has been unambiguously great,” says Berry. “It’s reminding people that he can be kind of unpredictable.”

But inventive promo can only do so much. Ultimately, Drake would benefit from a massive hit. “We’re about to go into the summer. If he can come out with a song of the summer, I think that would be really great for him,” says Krishnamurthy.

Reputationally, Ruiz believes the collaborations on “Iceman” will be revealing — and that keeping the track list closely guarded could be telling. “The features will be the best indication of his pull in the industry,” he says — concrete proof of who supports him after the Lamar beef.

This could be his comeback album, Krishnamurthy says — and not just in terms of streams. “Reputation, culture, these are things that cannot be quantified,” she says. “Maybe he does spectacular commercially and that is great, but that doesn’t mean that the music is good or has any lasting impact.”

Because ultimately, “Drake is very concerned with his own mythology,” says Berry.

Even if “Iceman” goes No. 1, if it doesn't stay there, if it doesn't improve Drake's reputation with hip-hop fans, if it isn't met with acclaim — it may very well be a disappointment.

Glossip wore a gray short-sleeved shirt and jeans as he walked out of the jail hand-in-hand with his wife, Lea Glossip.

“I'm just thankful for my wife and my attorneys. Just thankful,” he said. "It's overwhelming, but it’s amazing at the same time.”

Earlier Thursday, Judge Natalie Mai issued an order setting bond at $500,000. Glossip must wear an electronic monitoring device and will not be allowed to travel outside Oklahoma. He also must not contact any witnesses in the case, or consume any drugs or alcohol.

His attorney Donald Knight had suggested Glossip was counting on contributions to raise the money.

“Mr. Glossip has many supporters and we are hopeful those supporters can afford the bail,” Knight said.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his conviction, and his longstanding claims of innocence have drawn support from Kim Kardashian and other prominent figures.

Glossip had been sentenced to death over the 1997 killing in Oklahoma City of his former boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese, who was beaten with a baseball bat in what prosecutors have alleged was a murder-for-hire scheme.

The Supreme Court ruled last year that prosecutors’ decision to allow a key witness to give testimony they knew to be false violated Glossip’s constitutional right to a fair trial.

Glossip has remained behind bars after Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced the state would seek to retry him on a murder charge but not pursue the death penalty again.

“The court fully expects that the state will rigorously prosecute its case going forward and the defense will provide robust representation for Glossip,” the judge wrote in the order. “The court hopes that a new trial, free of error, will provided all interested parties and the citizens of Oklahoma, the closure they deserve.”

During his time on death row, courts in Oklahoma set nine different execution dates for Glossip, and he came so close to being put to death that he ate three separate last meals. In 2015, he was even held in a cell next to Oklahoma’s execution chamber, waiting to be strapped to a gurney and die by lethal injection.

But the scheduled time for his execution came and went. Behind the walls of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, prison officials were scrambling after learning one of the lethal drugs they received to carry out the procedure didn’t match the execution protocols. The drug mix-up ultimately led to a nearly seven-year moratorium on executions in Oklahoma.

“Mr. Glossip now has the chance to taste freedom while his defense team continues to pursue justice on his behalf against a system that the United States Supreme Court has found to be guilty of serious misconduct by state prosecutors,” Knight said.

Van Treese’s family had asked the Supreme Court to leave Glossip’s conviction and sentence intact. Attorneys for the family did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

Glossip’s case attracted international attention after actress Susan Sarandon — who won an Academy Award for her portrayal of death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean’s fight to save a man on Louisiana’s death row in the 1995 movie “Dead Man Walking” — took up his cause in real life. Glossip’s case also was featured in the 2017 documentary film titled “Killing Richard Glossip.”

“Both Richard and I are grateful for the court’s decision,” Glossip’s wife, Lea, said in a text to The Associated Press. “We have been praying for this day.”

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Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies had arrested Myeisha Smith on Tuesday on a charge of child neglect with great bodily harm, records show.

According to an arrest report obtained by Local 10, Smith admitted to detectives that she left her gun unattended in her bedroom with her son, who then grabbed the gun and shot himself in the shoulder, just above the clavicle.

Detectives reported that Smith took her wounded son from their home in West Perrine to Jackson South Medical Center. He was then airlifted to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital where he was listed in stable condition.

Smith appeared in bond court Wednesday where the victim’s father told the judge his son is doing well and he believes the shooting was an unfortunate accident.

“This was honestly a big mistake. She is the perfect mom for that boy,“ the father said.

“Are you two still together?” the judge asked.

“No ma’am‚“ the boy’s father responded.

The judge ultimately granted Smith a $2,500 bond, which she posted.

Court records show Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Ariel Rodriguez is set to preside over the case.

If convicted, Smith could face up to 15 years in prison.

Related stories

• MDSO: Mother arrested after son, 6, shoots himself with her gun
• MDSO: Boy, 6, shoots himself in West Perrine

The bipartisan support for the measure comes at a time when federal closures have become longer and more frequent, frustrating lawmakers who say there should be punishment when Congress fails at its most basic legislative duty.

Under the resolution, senators’ pay would be withheld by the secretary of the Senate whenever a government shutdown affects one or more agencies, then released once funding is restored. It will take effect the day after the Nov. 3 general election and does not apply to the House.

“Shutting down government should not be our default solution to our refusal to work out our issues and our differences,” said Sen. John Kennedy, the bill’s sponsor, in a floor speech Wednesday.

“This is about putting our money where our mouth is,” said Kennedy, R-La.

Two shutdowns in the past year created significant financial hardship for tens of thousands of federal workers, particularly at the Department of Homeland Security. The department reopened last month after a 76-day partial shutdown, the longest agency funding lapse in history.

The DHS shutdown came just a few months after a 43-day lapse of the entire federal government, which was the longest such closure on record.

The Constitution stipulates that lawmakers must be paid so they have received salaries during shutdowns even as federal workers went without paychecks. When the full government shutdown began in October amid a dispute over health care subsidies, Sen. Lindsey Graham proposed a constitutional amendment to require members to forfeit their paychecks when the government is closed.

“If members of Congress had to forfeit their pay during government shutdowns, there would be fewer shutdowns and they would end quicker,” Graham, R-S.C., said at the time.

Graham said his legislation was the most “constitutionally sound” way to deal with the problem, but the process would have been much more laborious as three-fourths of states must ratify an amendment.

Lawmakers in previous shutdowns have often pledged to forgo their paychecks while federal workers went unpaid. Senators earn an annual salary of $174,000, but many are independently wealthy.

Kennedy told reporters Wednesday that he pushed his measure to ensure there is “shared sacrifice” during shutdowns. He added that it does not go as far as he would like, but that it’s a start.

Asked why it does not extend to the other chamber of Congress, Kennedy said “the House’s business is the House’s business” while also touching on the tensions between the Senate and House.

“There’s a very strong undercurrent of animosity among some of my friends in the House,” Kennedy said.

“It’s quickly becoming like two kids fighting in the back of a minivan,” he said.

“That one was,” the coach said, “something.”

Something, indeed.

The Avalanche advanced to the Western Conference final for the eighth time since relocating to Denver courtesy of a Brett Kulak goal in a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild in Game 5. It's just the second time in the last nine playoff appearances the Avalanche have made it past the second round.

On the other occasion, in 2022, the team went on capture the Stanley Cup championship.

With a team led by Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, it's always a Cup-or-bust scenario. This team especially, given a regular season with captain Gabriel Landeskog on the ice, their depth — the Avalanche had 16 different players score in the Wild series — and the play of their stars.

Stanley Cup favorite

Among the preseason favorites, they led the NHL most of the regular season in capturing their fourth Presidents’ Trophy, which goes to the team with the best record.

Like Carolina, the Avalanche are rolling into the conference finals. The Hurricanes advanced with a pair of sweeps while the Avalanche required nine games, including a first-round sweep of the Los Angeles Kings. As of Thursday, Colorado is a slight favorite over the Hurricanes to win the Cup.

Next up for Colorado is either Vegas or Anaheim. Colorado was 2-0-1 against both the Golden Knights and the Ducks in the regular season.

Bednar understands the lofty expectations year in and out, given his talented roster. Criticism comes with the territory.

“It's hard to win,” Bednar said. "But I wouldn't want it any other way. I don't think our players would want it any other way.

“People are going to get on you because you didn't win the Cup. I'd still rather be fighting for that, having earned that type of reputation because of the way you play through the regular season and the group that you put together as an organization and the high expectations, rather than, “Let’s just try and make the playoffs.'”

Not much rattles the Avalanche these days. Not even a three-goal hole, which set up a frantic finish and the overtime winner from Kulak, who took a pinpoint pass from Martin Necas and lined it into the net to send the capacity crowd into a frenzy.

It was Kulak's first goal since Jan. 19 when he was with Pittsburgh before being traded to Colorado the following month. It was also the first time the Avalanche won a series on home ice since 2008, when they beat the Wild in Game 6 of the conference quarterfinals.

“In an environment like this, where the building felt like it was going to start shaking at any moment, it was exciting," said Landeskog, who played in his first regular season since 2022 after being sidelined with a knee injury. “Now, it’s kind of a sigh of relief.”

Banged-up Avalanche have chance to heal

The Avalanche have a few days to heal. They were without forward Artturi Lehkonen and defenseman Sam Malinski the last two games of the Wild series due to upper-body injuries. Makar momentarily left Wednesday's game after a collision, but returned.

“The playoffs are a long grind and you want to keep your focus narrow," said Kulak, who made the Stanley Cup Final with Edmonton last season. “We can get some rest.”

Colorado has a 3-4 record in the conference finals since arriving in town before the 1995-96 season. All three times the team has advanced, though, a banner has followed — 1996, 2001 and 2022.

“They’re a really good team,” Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes said.

Depth on display

A strength of Colorado has been its depth. The 16 different players to score in the second round is tied for the most in a singles series, according to NHL Stats.

“The depth is what's going to win, coming down the stretch here in the playoffs,” Landeskog said. “Guys are stepping up all over the place.”

In net, too, even if a goalie dilemma may now be a storyline.

Scott Wedgewood took over in the second period after Mackenzie Blackwood surrendered three first-period goals. Wedgewood stopped all seven shots he faced in the second and third periods (he saw none in OT).

“Just proud,” Wedgewood said of making the conference final. "Proud of our group ending it and finding a way to do that because we knew going into the series, it wasn’t going to be an easy out. There’s a long road ahead, a lot of stories to write and just preparing for that.”

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

La caída, que ocurrió en la madrugada según informaron las autoridades, se produce en medio de una prolongada crisis energética agravada por el cerco petrolero impuesto por Estados Unidos presionando cambios políticos.

La estatal Unión Eléctrica indicó que luego del colapso, los circuitos se encuentran “en proceso de restablecimiento”, pero se desconoce cuánto tardará en producirse la reconexión completa.

La última caída nacional del sistema energético, o sea un apagón masivo que afectó a todo el país, fue en marzo pasado.

La víspera, el presidente Miguel Díaz-Canel calificó de “tensa” la situación energética luego de que se terminara el abastecimiento de petróleo traído por el buque ruso Anatoly Kolodkin a fines de marzo.

Los largos apagones están llegando a las 24 horas corridas en La Habana. En muchos barrios los vecinos golpearon sus cacerolas al caer la tarde del miércoles y prendieron fuego cestos de basura en señal de protesta, constató The Associated Press.

En la popular barriada de Lawton residentes encendieron fuego en la noche del miércoles y madrugada del jueves con algunos pedazos de madera y cortaron una calle.

El contexto energético empeoró esta semana incluso en las afueras de La Habana, adonde ya se producían largos apagones.

“Se está yendo (la luz) todos los días”, dijo a la AP José Manuel Bueno Perdomo, un técnico de 73 años que reside en Bacuranao, unos 20 kilómetros al sur este de la capital. “Las condiciones de vida que tenemos son malas. Muchos mosquitos... no hay quien duerma. Y los alimentos tienen que cometerlos rápido porque se echan a perder todo”.

La escasez de combustible y la incertidumbre seguían preocupando a muchos.

“Soy taxista y llevo tres meses exactamente sin poder trabajar con el lío del tema de combustible, tres meses exacto, porque no hay combustible”, aseguró a la AP Yaser Leiva, de 39 años. “Es una situación muy grave lo que estamos pasando”.

“No puedo decir qué puede pasar, pero algunas medidas tendrán que tomar (las autoridades)”, manifestó Digna Pereira, una jubilada de 79 años con tono desesperado.

Sin soluciones inmediatas

Unas horas después de los comentarios de Díaz-Canel, en una comparecencia en la televisión cubana, el ministro de Energía y Minas, Vicente de la O Levy, aseguró que la situación energética es “crítica”.

Dijo que sin combustible de importación a la vista por ahora la isla se encuentra generando a partir de su escasa producción de crudo local y gracias a un programa que se intensificó desde el año pasado para instalar páneles solares, pero señaló que no cubren la demanda.

La isla produce apenas un 40% del combustible que consume y necesita unos ocho buques como el petrolero ruso al mes, según las autoridades. El buque arribó a la isla el 31 de marzo con 730.000 barriles de crudo que en los días posteriores fue descargado y refinado, lo que redujo los apagones, constató AP.

Rusia anunció sus planes de enviar un segundo buque cisterna a Cuba a principios de abril. Según informan los medios del país euroasiático, este otro navío con crudo zarpó del puerto báltico ruso de Vysotsk en enero y cruzó el Canal de la Mancha el 8 de abril pero desde hace varias semanas se encuentra estancado en el mismo punto del océano Atlántico.

Paralelamente, el canciller Bruno Rodríguez indicó en su cuenta de X que por primera vez el gobierno de Estados Unidos formalizó su oferta de ayuda a Cuba por 100 millones de dólares, aunque “sigue sin aclararse” si será en dinero o bienes y si incluirá combustible.

“Aún tomando en cuenta la incongruencia de la aparente generosidad de parte de quien somete al pueblo cubano a un castigo colectivo por medio de la guerra económica, el gobierno cubano no tiene como práctica rechazar ayuda extranjera que se ofrece de buena fe”, expresó el ministro.

Cuba reportó el año pasado pérdidas por 7.500 millones de dólares debido a las sanciones estadounidenses.

—————-

El periodista Ariel Fernández contribuyó con este reporte.

The season kicks off on Sept. 9 when the Seattle Seahawks raise their Super Bowl banner. It’ll be the second time the NFL season opens on a Wednesday — the Giants hosted the Cowboys on Sept. 5, 2012.

Several games already were announced, including a record nine international games across four continents. The San Francisco 49ers face the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne on Sept. 10 in the first international game of the season.

The Pittsburgh Steelers play the New Orleans Saints on Oct. 25 in Paris in the NFL’s first regular-season matchup in France.

Sixteen of the league’s 32 teams will play at least one of their 17 regular-season games outside the United States. The 49ers and Jacksonville Jaguars each have two international games. San Francisco also faces Minnesota in Mexico City in Week 11. The Jaguars have consecutive games in London in Weeks 5 and 6 against the Eagles and Texans. The Colts-Commanders also face off in London in Week 4.

The Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens go head-to-head in Rio de Janeiro in Week 3. The Bengals-Falcons are in Madrid in Week 8 and the Patriots-Lions play in Munich in Week 9.

Other highlights already announced include the Cowboys-Giants in the first Sunday night game and the Broncos-Chiefs in the first Monday night game.

The Packers-Rams are playing on Thanksgiving Eve and it’ll be the Lions-Bears and Eagles-Cowboys in two of the Thanksgiving Day games.

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

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BCAC spokeperson Zachary Rinkins told Local 10 News on Thursday that Bram, a playful stray who came from Fort Lauderdale, is about 4 years old and weighs around 40 pounds.

Rinkins said he is a very affectionate dog and is well-mannered. He also confirmed that Bram has a great interaction with people and should do well around other dogs.

He also promoted the organization’s “Give Love Save Lives” event.

You can learn more about that event by clicking here or calling 954-359-1313.

El portavoz de BCAC, Zachary Rinkins, dijo a Local 10 News el jueves que Bram, un perro callejero juguetón que llegó desde Fort Lauderdale, tiene aproximadamente 4 años y pesa alrededor de 40 libras.

Rinkins dijo que es un perro muy cariñoso y de buen comportamiento. También confirmó que Bram interactúa muy bien con las personas y debería llevarse bien con otros perros.

También promovió el evento “Give Love Save Lives” de la organización.

Puede obtener más información sobre ese evento haciendo clic aquí o llamando al 954-359-1313.

Two weeks after Cherie DeVaux became the first woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner with Golden Tempo and after Jenna Antonucci won the 2023 Belmont with Arcangelo, Russell has the chance to complete the Triple Crown sweep of female trainers when she saddles Taj Mahal in the 151st running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

“It would sort of feel probably a little fairytale-like," Russell said. "Jena opened the door just a couple years ago with Arcangelo, and Cherie got it done in the Kentucky Derby. The fact that I feel like I have a live one in the Preakness here, look, there’s some pressure and I certainly hope we can do it, but it would mean an awful lot.”

Where the race is taking place and who will be aboard could make it mean even more. The Preakness is being run at Russell's home track, Laurel Park, for the first time, and husband Sheldon is the jockey. They would be the first married couple, at least as trainer and jockey, to win a Triple Crown race.

“The dream, the goal was always to get one that would take us to one of the big races, and he’s sort of taken us there,” Sheldon Russell told The Associated Press. “Just like a normal day, really.”

Most weekends, the Russells take their children to Laurel Park, which is just off I-95 between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and 6-year-old daughter Edy and 4-year-old son Rye are expected to be in attendance.

They were a little younger when they went to the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar in Southern California, in the fall of 2024 when Post Time, trained by their mother and ridden by their father, finished second in a world championship mile-long dirt race. It was a cross-country introduction to the sport.

“That was a big event for them,” Sheldon Russell said. “They didn’t really understand what we were doing there until we sort of got there. (This time) it’s not like we have to travel.”

And, unlike the usual Maryland-based horses who go into the Preakness as long shots, Taj Mahal is right in the mix of contenders in the wide-open field of 14 that does not include Golden Tempo. He opened at odds of 5-1, just behind morning line favorite Iron Honor.

Taj Mahal is unbeaten in three races, all at Laurel Park, including going wire to wire to win the Federico Tesio Stakes on April 18 by more then eight lengths.

“Immediately everybody started talking, just the way that horse won it,” Maryland Jockey Club president and CEO Bill Knauf said. “To have Brittany as our leading trainer for many years now here, she’s obviously one of the best in the country, and Sheldon has done an unbelievable job.”

Brittany Russell called it a dominant effort, and she hopes the home track advantage could be a major one. Her husband rides most of her horses, and that's another relationship edge they have over everyone else as they watch replays together and discuss strategy.

“Most of the time, it’s great,” Brittany said. "Now, look, does everything go to plan? Is everything always perfect? No, and it can be a little tricky. But at the end of the day, it’s horse racing and some things are out of our control. In this particular instance, I think it’s great. He knows the horse. He’s won on it three times. He knows the racetrack better than anybody. I think it’s a good thing.”

This is Brittany Russell's first Preakness horse in her eighth year of training. It's her husband's fourth chance to ride in the middle leg of the Triple Crown after finishing fifth aboard Chase the Chaos in 2023, sixth aboard Excession in 2020 and 10th aboard Concealed Identity in 2011.

This is different, though Sheldon Russell said he has not pondered the big-picture ramifications. His thoughts keep coming back to the little things, like, “We have a chance.”

“I guess if it happened, it’s going to be something,” he said. "We both know that he has a decent chance of showing up on the big day.”

___

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

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According to police, an unidentified woman was caught on camera stealing from another woman inside the Salvation Army store located at 888 N. University Dr. on Wednesday, April 29 at approximately 4:40 p.m.

The woman in the video is seen taking the victim’s purse out of her shopping cart and taking it with her to the bathroom, authorities said.

Officers said she then removed the contents of the purse before leaving the empty purse behind on the bathroom floor.

Police describe the suspect as a white woman in her mid-to-late 50s with blonde hair and a medium build, last seen wearing a black tank top, blue shorts and flip flops.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Pembroke Pines Detective Chris Abbey at 954-743-1267 or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477. Police said any tips could be made anonymously.

Según la policía, una mujer no identificada fue captada en cámara robando a otra mujer dentro de la tienda Salvation Army ubicada en 888 N. University Dr. el miércoles 29 de abril aproximadamente a las 4:40 p.m.

La mujer en el video aparece tomando la cartera de la víctima de su carrito de compras y llevándola al baño, dijeron las autoridades.

Los agentes dijeron que luego sacó el contenido de la cartera antes de dejar la cartera vacía en el piso del baño.

La policía describe a la sospechosa como una mujer blanca de entre 50 y 59 años, de cabello rubio y complexión mediana, vista por última vez usando una camiseta negra sin mangas, pantalones cortos azules y sandalias.

Cualquier persona con información debe comunicarse con el detective Chris Abbey de Pembroke Pines al 954-743-1267 o con Broward Crime Stoppers al 954-493-8477. La policía dijo que cualquier pista puede ser proporcionada de manera anónima.

The singer, songwriter and actress also performed the anthem before the 2015 and 2024 races. This year's “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” is scheduled for May 24.

“Jordin knows how important the national anthem performance is to the pre-race ceremonies of the Indianapolis 500, and we have been moved by her two previous renditions,” Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles said in a statement released by track officials. "This year’s performance will be a special moment as we mark the 250th birthday of our nation and prepare for another incredible edition of the world’s greatest race.”

Boles announced Wednesday that reserved seats for the race have been sold out, though there are still general admission tickets available. Although race officials do not announce attendance figures, the grandstand capacity is estimated to be 275,000 and the world's largest single-day spectator sporting event typically has an estimated 350,000 fans in attendance.

Sparks became the youngest winner of “American Idol” in the television show's sixth season. Since then, her singles have generated more than 10 million digital tracks sales in the U.S. Sparks also co-wrote Ariana Grande’s smash single, “The Way.”

She has toured with superstars such as Britney Spears, Alicia Keys, The Jonas Brothers, New Kids on The Block and Backstreet Boys in addition to headlining her own tours. Sparks owns two BET Awards, one American Music Award and one People’s Choice Award and was twice nominated for Grammys.

Sparks also has performed on Broadway, made her film debut by paying the lead role in the film “Sparkle,” opposite the late Whitney Houston, and has most recently worked on network news programs.

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

Weinstein, who's 74 and has a history of heart trouble and other health woes, looked pale but alert as he was brought into court in the wheelchair he has used for years. He said he felt “good, fine.”

The ex-studio boss was in a courthouse holding area Wednesday when jurors, after a few hours of deliberating, sent a note asking to rehear some of accuser Jessica Mann ’s testimony and to review a lengthy prosecution timeline of emails and other evidence.

After defense lawyers, prosecutors and Judge Curtis Farber convened in court to decide how to respond, Weinstein attorney Marc Agnifilo said court officers had told him Weinstein was experiencing chest pains.

Weinstein wasn't brought into court at that point, and Farber ultimately sent jurors home Wednesday a bit earlier than planned, telling them there were “unforeseen reasons” for the early dismissal.

Jurors got the requested information Thursday, revisiting testimony that Agnifilo had highlighted in his closing argument: a moment when Mann said she was “spacing out” as a defense lawyer asked why she didn’t want a friend to know that anything sexual had happened between her and Weinstein. The defense was trying to suggest that she was worried about her reputation, not an alleged rape that Weinstein says never happened.

Jurors returned to their closed-door discussions. Over the ensuing hours, the jury asked to rehear Mann's testimony about the alleged rape and the lead-up to it, and to go over the judge's instructions on reasonable doubt. That's the legal bar that evidence must clear to justify a conviction.

Jurors ultimately went home for the night without reaching a verdict. Deliberations are to resume Friday.

Mann, 40, has testified that she willingly had some sexual interludes with the then-married producer, but that he subjected her to unwanted sex in a Manhattan hotel room in March 2013 after she repeatedly said no.

Weinstein's lawyers maintain that the encounter was consensual. They have emphasized that Mann subsequently continued seeing Weinstein and expressing warmth toward him. Mann has said she was mired in complicated feelings about him, herself and what had happened.

Her viewpoint changed in 2017, when a series of sexual misconduct allegations against the Oscar-winning Weinstein propelled the #MeToo campaign to hold people — especially powerful men — accountable for sexual misbehavior. Weinstein has said he “acted wrongly” but never assaulted anyone.

Some of those accusations generated criminal convictions against Weinstein in New York and California.

An appeals court overturned his 2020 New York conviction on charges that involved Mann and another accuser. At a retrial last year, jurors failed to reach a verdict on Mann's portion of the case, leading to this retrial. Weinstein is charged with one count of rape in the third degree.

The current jury heard nearly three weeks of testimony, five days of it from Mann. Weinstein did not testify.

The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted. Mann, however, has agreed to be named.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said in a new assessment that of the nearly 19.5 million people facing this level of food insecurity, 135,000 people were in Phase 5, which is characterized by “extreme food gaps, starvation, very high levels of malnutrition, and death due to disease or acute malnutrition.”

“Conditions are expected to deteriorate further in the upcoming June–September lean season,” the IPC assessment statement read. It warned that an estimated 825,000 children under 5 years old are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2026 amid limited access to medical treatment, marking a 7% increase compared to last year and a 25% increase compared to prewar levels.

More than 98,500 children received treatment for severe acute malnutrition between January and March, according to the IPC.

The war in Sudan broke out in April 2023 after long-simmering tensions between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces erupted into a full-scale armed conflict. At least 59,000 people have been killed, some 13 million displaced, and many parts of the country have been pushed into famine. More than 30 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

The IPC said Thursday that it found that no area is in famine, but warned that 14 areas in the provinces of North Darfur, South Darfur, and South Kordofan are at risk of famine if conflict intensifies, food access worsens, healthcare and sanitation decline, and displacement increases.

Last year, famine was confirmed in el-Fasher, a major city in the western Darfur region, and in the town of Kadugli, in South Kordofan.

Farmers in Sudan are bracing for an expensive planting season as costs of fertilizers, gasoline to power farm equipment and diesel for irrigation pumps increase due to the conflict in the Middle East.

The Gulf region, where hundreds of commercial ships have been stranded for weeks because of Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, provides over half of Sudan’s fertilizer that’s imported by sea. Fuel prices have shot up by around 30%.

Adebayo se unió al tiktoker Zachery Dereniowski, mejor conocido como MDMotivator, para sorprender a Bianca con un auto nuevo y un año completo de renta pagada.

“Mi mamá, solo éramos ella, mi hermana y yo, y estuvimos sin hogar, así que ahora estoy ayudando a otras personas”, dijo Bianca sobre su trabajo en Camillus House.

Adebayo y Dereniowski la sorprendieron en una parada de autobús, le vendaron los ojos y la guiaron hacia el auto nuevo estacionado, que tenía un gran lazo rojo.

“Esto va a cambiar nuestras vidas para siempre”, dijo Bianca, quien tiene una hija de 5 años.

La fundación BBB de Adebayo se enfoca en ayudar a madres solteras en honor a su madre.

Vea el video de MDMotivator

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The new U.S. House districts, which still need House approval, would be used for primary elections poised to be postponed from Saturday until November.

The high court's ruling has led to a flurry of redistricting efforts in Southern states as Republicans seek to capitalize on a weakened federal Voting Rights Act. While most of those efforts are voluntary, Louisiana must redraw its U.S. House map in response to the ruling that it had illegally used race to gerrymander a majority-Black district.

The debate over the shape of Louisiana's new districts is playing out as South Carolina's governor ramps up pressure on lawmakers to also redistrict ahead of the midterms. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster on Thursday called a special session on redistricting to start Friday.

President Donald Trump has encouraged numerous Republican-led states to redraw House voting districts to their advantage in a bid to hold on to control of the closely divided chamber in November.

Republicans think they could win as many as 15 additional House seats in seven states that already have adopted new voting districts. Democrats think they could gain up to six seats from two other states because of new House districts. But there's no guarantee those seats will turn out as expected. Litigation is continuing in some states, and voters will have the ultimate say on who wins.

Louisiana map scraps snaking district

Legislation in Louisiana seeks to address the Supreme Court ruling by scrapping a district that snakes over 200 miles (321 kilometers) northwest from the capital, Baton Rouge, to Shreveport, creating a voting bloc with a majority of Black residents. Democratic U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields represents the current 6th District.

Under the new plan, that district would instead be clustered around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana.

The new plan keeps a New Orleans-based, majority-Black district represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter while also adding a portion of Baton Rouge to it.

Fields, a Baton Rouge resident, said he won’t decide whether to seek reelection until the maps are finalized. But he said he won’t challenge Carter in a primary.

The newly proposed House map is similar to one used in 2022 that resulted in five Republicans and one Democrat winning election. Republican state Sen. Jay Morris said the new map packs Democrats into the 2nd District held by Carter to allow Republicans to prevail elsewhere.

“These maps are drawn to maximize Republican advantage for the incumbent Republicans that we have in Congress,” Morris said.

Democratic state Sen. Sam Jenkins suggested Republicans are “using partisanship as cover for discriminatory practices against a group of people, particularly Black voters and Democrats.”

“If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck,” Jenkins said.

“It’s not quacking,” Morris said.

“It’s quacking pretty loud, it’s quacking all over the state,” Jenkins replied.

Republican senators defeated an alternative from Democrats that would have kept two Democratic-leaning districts. Republicans opted not to pursue a 6-0 Republican map because it was infeasible, said Louisiana Senate President Cameron Henry, a Republican.

A federal judge struck down Louisiana's 2022 map for violating the Voting Rights Act. Then in 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Alabama had to create its own second largely Black congressional district. In light of the Alabama ruling, the Louisiana Legislature passed a revised map, creating a second majority-Black district that was used in the 2024 elections. That map also was challenged, leading to an April 29 Supreme Court ruling that Louisiana’s districts relied too heavily on race.

Louisiana House primary could shift to November

After the Supreme Court ruling, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry postponed Louisiana’s U.S. House primaries, which were scheduled for Saturday.

A bill given final approval Wednesday by the Legislature would shift the election to an open primary on Nov. 3. All U.S. House candidates, regardless of their party affiliation, would be on the ballot for voters in their district. If no one wins a majority outright, the top two vote-getters would enter a run-off on Dec. 12.

A new qualifying period for House candidates would run from Aug. 5-7.

The system is similar to how Louisiana's congressional elections previously occurred. Landry pushed the Legislature to end the state’s unique jungle primary system in 2024. Closed party primaries went into effect this year, and more than 250,000 votes already had been cast, according to the Louisiana secretary of state. The canceled congressional votes would be shielded from public records law.

Rep. Beau Beaullieu, the bill’s Republican sponsor, said that with congressional redistricting, there would not be sufficient time for closed primaries and a primary run-off before the Nov. 3 general election.

A closed primary remains in place for Louisiana's U.S. Senate race, which has not been suspended and pits incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy against Trump-backed challenger U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow.

South Carolina to work overtime on redistricting

South Carolina's regular legislative session ended Thursday, but McMaster quickly called lawmakers back into session Friday to continue working on redistricting and other matters.

It could be next week before the House can finish the redistricting bill, which would also move congressional primaries to August, Republican House Majority Leader Davey Hiott said. All primaries are currently scheduled for June 9. Early voting begins May 26, and that’s likely the deadline to finish redistricting, he said.

The redistricting work “will be long. It will be boring. It will be confrontational,” Hiott told reporters.

If the proposal passes the House, it then heads to a more skeptical Senate, where Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Luke Rankin has said he will “demand the process” without elaborating. During the last regular redistricting at the start of the decade, Rankin’s committee held a month of meetings across the state and encouraged the public to submit its own maps.

Only one of South Carolina's seven U.S. House seats currently is held by a Democrat — longtime U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn. Some Republicans worry it is impossible to guarantee seven GOP districts in a state where the Democratic presidential candidate has gotten more than 40% of the vote every election this century. There are also concerns about holding two statewide elections in a little over two months. South Carolina’s elections leader said it may require employees to work 24 hours a day.

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Brook reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Collins from Columbia, South Carolina; and Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri.

Tamarius Blair Davis Jr. disparó y mató a Dustin Wakefield, de 21 años y residente de Castle Rock, Colorado, mientras protegía a su hijo Eli, de 1 año, el 24 de agosto de 2021, mientras estaban sentados afuera de La Cerveceria de Barrio, un restaurante mexicano ubicado en el 1412 de Ocean Drive.

Davis, quien entonces tenía 22 años y era residente de Norcross, Georgia, era un completo desconocido y se creía que estaba bajo una psicosis inducida por hongos alucinógenos en ese momento.

También se declaró culpable el miércoles de cargos por intento de asesinato y abuso infantil en relación con la balacera.

Se espera que el proceso de sentencia de Davis dure entre dos y tres días.

No se ha fijado una fecha para la audiencia de sentencia de Davis; una investigación previa a la sentencia debe realizarse antes del 12 de junio.

Davis podría enfrentar entre 25 años y cadena perpetua en prisión.

Torrey Holston tenía 19 años cuando agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Palm Beach lo arrestaron el 3 de diciembre de 2019 por el asesinato de Christopher Randazzo el 19 de octubre de 2019 en el Southern Seas Resort en Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.

Randazzo, quien estaba fuera de servicio y había salido del Aruba Beach Cafe antes del robo a mano armada, tenía 39 años.

Los fiscales de Broward acusaron a Holston de asesinato en primer grado, robo a mano armada, conspiración criminal y extorsión por conspiración.

El juez del circuito de Broward, Michael Usan, preside el caso de homicidio capital.

Los detectives identificaron y arrestaron a otros dos acusados del robo a mano armada: Jose Garcia Romero, entonces de 20 años, y Marco Rico, entonces de 32 años.

La editora sénior de asignaciones de Local 10 News, Frine Gomez, contribuyó a este reporte.

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Torrey Holston was 19 when Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested him on Dec. 3, 2019, for Christopher Randazzo’s murder on Oct. 19, 2019, at the Southern Seas Resort in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.

Randazzo, who was off duty and had left the Aruba Beach Cafe before the armed robbery, was 39.

Broward prosecutors charged Holston with first-degree murder, armed robbery, criminal conspiracy, and conspiracy extortion.

Broward County Circuit Judge Michael Usan is presiding over the capital homicide case.

Detectives identified and arrested two others accused of the armed robbery: Jose Garcia Romero, then 20, and Marco Rico, then 32.

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

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Knoblauch coached the Oilers to the playoffs three times since taking over as a midseason replacement when Jay Woodcroft was fired following a bad start in November 2023. They won 166 of their 286 total games behind the bench, and Knoblauch's .623 regular-season points percentage ranks sixth among active NHL coaches.

The Oilers are now set for their sixth coach since Connor McDavid entered the NHL in 2015 and became the best player in the world, skating alongside fellow MVP Leon Draisaitl. The two still have not won a championship, now going into their 12th season together.

Moving on from Knoblauch comes in the aftermath of a report earlier this week that Edmonton had sought and were denied permission from the Vegas Golden Knights to speak to Bruce Cassidy, whom they fired as coach in late March but is still under contract. Teams making offseason changes typically wait until there is a vacancy before reaching out about prospective candidates.

General manager Stan Bowman getting to make this move seems to indicate he will keep his job, along with president of hockey operations Jeff Jackson, who joined the organization in August 2023. Jackson took over control of hockey operations following the team’s first trip to the final in 2024 and hired Bowman as GM that summer. Assistant coach Mark Stuart was also fired.

“Following a thorough review of this past season, we believe these changes are needed,” Bowman said. “We are grateful for the contributions both Kris and Mark have made to our organization and we wish them the best moving forward.”

The Oilers fell behind 3-0 in their first final matchup against Florida before pushing the Panthers to a Game 7 and losing by a goal. They made it back the following year and had home-ice advantage but seemed to regress in a six-game series defeat that could be blamed on poor defense and goaltending.

Those problems continued this season, before and after Bowman made a goalie swap to get Tristan Jarry and send Stuart Skinner to Pittsburgh. It made the situation worse, as Edmonton ranked 29th out of 32 teams in the league in save percentage at .883.

McDavid late in the season heaped praise upon Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper after the Lightning beat the Oilers 5-2. Even if it was not meant as criticism of Knoblauch, it stood out from a player who usually speaks more about taking responsibility for losses.

Edmonton was eliminated by the less-experienced Anaheim Ducks, when he was unable to find someone to stop the puck between Jarry and backup-turned-starter Connor Ingram. They combined for an .880 save percentage, worst in the playoffs, and the Oilers’ 4.33 goals allowed also ranked last.

The three-year contract extension the Oilers signed Knoblauch to in October kicks in next season and runs through 2028-29. They are obligated to pay him until another team hires him and would be on the hook for any differential in salary over that time.

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

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy's Wednesday ruling is the latest setback for the U.S. Department of Justice, where at least seven other federal courts have agreed to quash or limit the expansive civil subpoenas sent to more than 20 doctors and hospitals last summer.

McElroy's decision also echoed similar concerns raised by judges surrounding the expansive scope of the subpoenas, describing the Justice Department as having “immense prosecutorial authority and discretion” but no longer trustworthy it will enforce its power fairly and honestly.

“DOJ has proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case,” McElroy wrote.

A DOJ spokesperson said Thursday that they would appeal and continue with their investigations.

“The Rhode Island court’s attack on the professionalism and integrity of DOJ attorneys is outrageous and unjustified,” the department said.

According to the subpoenas, the DOJ had demanded Rhode Island Hospital hand over the birth dates, Social Security numbers and addresses of every patient who received transgender care over the past five years. It also included instructions to provide all documents detailing adverse side effects in minor patients who received gender-related care, assessments that formed the basis for prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy, as well as patient intake forms and guardian authorization.

The Justice Department has repeatedly argued that the information sought in the subpoenas is needed to investigate possible fraud or unlawful off-label promotion of drugs. Most recently during a hearing in Rhode Island, the DOJ said that the investigation was taking place in the Northern District of Texas, where the court's chief judge ordered Rhode Island Hospital to comply with the subpoena before McElroy's decision voided the subpoena.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brantley Mayers told McElroy during the hearing that the DOJ is investigating potential “misbranding” of drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, such as puberty blockers for young people. While off-label prescribing is legal, Mayers said that the DOJ is concerned that pharmaceutical companies are providing “financial incentives” to Rhode Island doctors to prescribe the drugs.

The subpoenas were crucial in getting the names of children and their families so the DOJ could interview them.

McElroy rejected that argument.

"The administration has publicly characterized gender-affirming care for minors as abuse, directed the DOJ to bring its practice to an end, and celebrated when hospitals curtailed such programs as a result of this subpoena campaign," McElroy wrote.

The Rhode Island decision is the latest development in the fight over transgender youth health records. Earlier this week, 11 families filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to block the DOJ from obtaining the documents. The lawsuit, filed in Maryland’s federal court, is backed by families with transgender children who have received care from hospitals across the U.S.

And separately, a New York hospital announced that it received a grand jury subpoena from federal prosecutors in Texas seeking information about children who received gender-affirming care and the medical providers who administered it.

NYU Langone is the first hospital system to publicly acknowledge receiving a subpoena for such records as part of a federal criminal investigation. But the institution said in its statement Tuesday it was one of several that received a subpoena out of the Northern District of Texas on May 7. It said it was deciding on how to respond.

“The government cannot use its subpoena power to intimidate families out of seeking lawful medical care. To trans and gender-diverse children and their families, we want you to know that you are valued, you are not alone,” Kevin Love Hubbard, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee of Rhode Island, who represented the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement.

Gender-affirming care includes a range of medical and mental health services to support a person’s gender identity, including when it’s different from the sex they were assigned at birth. It may include counseling, medications that block puberty, hormone therapy to produce physical changes or surgeries to transform chests and genitals, although those are rare for minors.

Most major medical groups say access to the treatment is important for those with gender dysphoria and see gender as existing along a spectrum.

At least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or banning the care for minors, while several others have adopted laws or policies protecting access to transgender health care.

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According to an arrest report from the Miami Police Department, officers arrested Ramon Lauzurique-Gonzalez on Wednesday after officers responded around 5:05 p.m. to an apartment in the 3400 block of Southwest 10th Street in Coral Gables for reports of a man who had been shot.

Police said they found the victim suffering from a gunshot wound to his right shoulder. The victim told police he lived at the apartment with his wife, Lauzurique-Gonzalez, and his ex-wife, the report states.

Investigators said Lauzurique-Gonzalez shot the victim with a handgun during an argument inside the home.

The victim told police he was able to disarm Lauzurique-Gonzalez after being shot and after the suspect struck him in the head with the gun, according to the report.

A handgun believed to have been used in the shooting was recovered near the front entrance of the apartment, police said.

They said an officer later spotted Lauzurique-Gonzalez near Southwest 34th Avenue and Southwest Seventh Street.

According to police, Lauzurique-Gonzalez “spontaneously stated” something in Spanish to the officer before he was taken into custody, though the statement was redacted from the publicly released report.

Witnesses told detectives Lauzurique-Gonzalez had been arguing with his ex-wife earlier in the day and accused her of divorcing him because she was “attracted to the victim,” the report states.

His ex-wife told investigators Lauzurique-Gonzalez left the apartment saying in Spanish, “I’m going to solve a problem,” before later returning through another entrance, the report states.

Another witness told detectives Lauzurique-Gonzalez pointed what appeared to be a black handgun at the victim and said, “I’m going to f----- kill you today,” before firing a shot, according to investigators.

Police said the victim and two witnesses later identified Lauzurique-Gonzalez in separate photo lineups.

Detectives later interviewed Lauzurique-Gonzalez after reading him his constitutional rights, according to the report, though his alleged confession was also redacted from the report.

Jail records show Lauzurique-Gonzalez is facing one count of attempted second-degree murder with a firearm or deadly weapon.

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

Dropbox has no plans to return its workers to offices. After adopting a “virtual-first” staffing model in 2020, the San Francisco technology company met all of its financial goals and remains committed to making remote work the norm for the vast majority of its employees, according to Chief People Officer Melanie Rosenwasser.

“The pandemic tested our assumption that we have to be in person in order to be productive,” she said.

Allowing employees to work from anywhere helps Dropbox retain talent, said Rosenwasser, who leads the cloud storage provider's human resources teams. Over time, the company refined scheduling practices, meeting protocols and employee well-being programs to better meet the needs of its “distributed” workforce, she said.

“It’s especially important to us to maintain this posture as so many other companies across many, many industries are mandating return to office," Rosenwasser said.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Rosenwasser reflected on the ways Dropbox thrives with remote workers and creates in-person events to build community. Her responses were edited for brevity and clarity.

AP: Why did Dropbox choose a virtual-first model?

ROSENWASSER: We are explicitly not hybrid. We think this is the worst of all worlds, where employees suffer through long commutes only to sit on Zoom because most of our colleagues are distributed. We really believed in this creation of an even playing field. The rules of that are, largely, individual work is done remotely by everyone, but we still come together in person at least quarterly for strategy setting, connection, team building and bonding.

The model is fundamentally built on this notion that flexibility and agency are these new currencies of modern work. We see benefits in recruiting, engagement, employee retention and cost savings.

AP: How does it work?

ROSENWASSER: We put a lot of intention behind how we would bring this to life. We are asynchronous by default, which means we do a lot of our communication and even decision-making in writing. We have a structure called core collaboration hours. These are four-hour blocks for meetings that overlap by time zone. The rest of the time is yours for deep work, answering emails, continuing individual work on projects.

We’re also really obsessed with meeting hygiene. When we do come together and meet, we want to be really intentional on the rules of engagement. We focus on something that we call the three D's: discuss, debate or decide. If none of those things are on the table, then a meeting is not required.

AP: Outside core collaboration hours, can people set their own schedules?

ROSENWASSER: The core collaboration hours are great because everyone knows that this is when you’re meeting with colleagues. Outside of that, you design your workday according to your preferences. Some people log off earlier in the afternoon because they have things they need to do with their children, but they log on later on at night because that is the way that they want to work. We allow for that, and every team contracts on these things so everyone knows what each other’s working schedule is and accommodates.

AP: What challenges do you face with the virtual-first model?

ROSENWASSER: The first is around burnout and the importance of setting boundaries. When you’re working from home, your personal and professional life blur, and that’s why we wanted to intentionally put into place non-linear workdays which are very much based on personal preferences.

When you’re working remotely, you’re very sedentary. We piloted a program called "Meet & Move." We took a set of employees, and all of the meetings they took for the week were on the phone and they were moving. They could take a walk outside or move throughout their house, but they were not sitting in front of a camera.

We have this companywide meeting-effectiveness initiative. It’s not actually the number of meetings that’s the problem. It’s the fragmentation of these meetings. For example, you have a couple of meetings in the morning, then you’ve got a 15-minute break, then you've got another hour-and-a-half, and you’ve got a 30-minute break. When this happens, you can’t really do anything meaningful in those 15- or 30-minute breaks between meetings.

On the HR team, we eliminated all legacy meetings that no longer served us. We built our meetings where we would batch them. Mondays and Wednesdays are for one-on-ones, Tuesdays are for team meetings, Fridays are for interviews. We all tried to adhere to the same schedule. We had more efficiently restructured meetings, more focused time. Now we’re thinking about rolling this out more broadly to the company.

AP: How do you build community?

ROSENWASSER: There’s a relationship tax when you work remotely. Because you’re not in person every day, you don’t have these natural moments of connection. Quarterly off-sites are one of the best ways to build teamwork and strengthen sense of belonging. We have an off-site team that is dedicated to helping leaders put together an agenda, guest speakers, location and hotels.

We had to be really intentional about onboarding because it takes place remotely. Everyone gets an onboarding buddy, which is somebody likely on their team. They show them the ropes, meet with them every day, and eventually it turns into weekly meetings. They also get a mentor, and this could be someone that sits within their team or outside of their team.

People who live in and around the same city come together every week, every other week, for various events. It could be a volunteer event. When we have executives in town in certain cities, we’ll do fireside chats with them and invite all the folks (who work in that area) to come. Everything is basically subsidized, and they’re not mandatory.

AP: What did Dropbox leaders need to unlearn to make this work?

ROSENWASSER: There is a perception that when you’re in the office and you can actually physically see the people on your team, you can just assume they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing. But I think we all know from working in offices that’s not necessarily true. There are tons of distractions. You’ve got gyms and on-site yoga and all kinds of things that are distracting, let alone the number of people that can walk by your desk to start a conversation when you’re midthought.

Today, every single person at Dropbox can see what every team’s responsible for, every item on the roadmap, when things are going to be done, how those things are going to be done. We’re extremely transparent about our goals and what teams are doing.

We don’t have to micromanage their presence because we set these goals and either they hit them or they don’t hit them, so this has become a really important aspect of our operating model, is assertive goal-setting and clarity.

All of our meetings start with a written document. People will, for the first five or 10 minutes of the meeting, read it and then they come on camera, and then we discuss it. It's been really great for clarity of thought because clear writing is effectively clear thinking, so it forces you to put your thoughts and your proposal into a format that can be digested.

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

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The organization alleges David Suarez paid for the billboards, spending about $4,000 on the mobile ads.

“We love being Jewish and are proud of the Jewish values that guide us to love,” said Hayley Margolis, of Jewish Voice for Peace South Florida.

Members of the organization gathered there, claiming Suarez targeted two Jewish constituents by displaying their photos and first names on the billboards alongside the phrase “Jew hater.”

“I am one of the people whose face and name was on the billboard Commissioner Suarez created and paid for,” said Donna Nevel, of Jewish Voice for Peace South Florida.

“The commissioner has targeted me and called me a Jew hater because I differ with his views on Israel,” Nevel added.

Alan Levine, another member of the organization, said seeing his face on one of the billboards was shocking.

“My first reaction was horror,” Levine said.

“As city commissioner, to call two of his constituents Jew haters -- that may or may not be protected by free speech -- but it is grossly unethical and inappropriate for a public official,” he added.

Levine is also one of the attorneys suing the city, Mayor Steven Meiner and Suarez, alleging they infringed on the organization’s First Amendment right to protest.

“I have spoken many times at the city commission and been called a Hamas lover by Mayor Meiner and an anti-Semite by him and by David Suarez,” Levine said.

The organization filed a motion Wednesday tied to its existing lawsuit seeking additional documents related to the mobile billboards. Attorneys say they obtained an invoice from the billboard company that includes Suarez’s name and what they describe as his personal email address.

“We did get the information from the billboard company. We are engaging in discovery as part of this lawsuit,” said Katherine Giannamore, an attorney representing Jewish Voice for Peace South Florida.

It remains unclear what funding source was used to pay for the billboards.

Giannamore said they have not yet heard directly from Suarez regarding the allegations.

Local 10 News has been in communication with Suarez, who said he is currently out of town. However, he has not provided a statement regarding the allegations.

Local 10 News also reached out to the mayor’s office but had not received a response at the time of publishing.

Según un reporte de arresto del Departamento de Policía de Miami, agentes arrestaron a Ramon Lauzurique-Gonzalez el miércoles luego de responder alrededor de las 5:05 p.m. a un apartamento en la cuadra 3400 de Southwest 10th Street en Coral Gables por reportes de un hombre baleado.

La policía dijo que encontró a la víctima sufriendo una herida de bala en el hombro derecho. La víctima le dijo a la policía que vivía en el apartamento con su esposa, Lauzurique-Gonzalez y su ex esposa, indica el reporte.

Los investigadores dijeron que Lauzurique-Gonzalez le disparó a la víctima con una pistola durante una discusión dentro de la vivienda.

La víctima le dijo a la policía que logró desarmar a Lauzurique-Gonzalez después de recibir el disparo y luego de que el sospechoso lo golpeara en la cabeza con el arma, según el reporte.

La policía indicó que una pistola que se cree fue utilizada en la balacera fue recuperada cerca de la entrada principal del apartamento.

Las autoridades dijeron que posteriormente un agente vio a Lauzurique-Gonzalez cerca de Southwest 34th Avenue y Southwest Seventh Street.

Según la policía, Lauzurique-Gonzalez “de manera espontánea dijo” algo en español al agente antes de ser detenido, aunque la declaración fue censurada del reporte divulgado públicamente.

Testigos dijeron a los detectives que Lauzurique-Gonzalez había estado discutiendo con su ex esposa más temprano ese día y la acusó de divorciarse de él porque se sentía “atraída por la víctima”, indica el reporte.

Su ex esposa dijo a los investigadores que Lauzurique-Gonzalez salió del apartamento diciendo en español: “Voy a resolver un problema”, antes de regresar más tarde por otra entrada, señala el reporte.

Otro testigo dijo a los detectives que Lauzurique-Gonzalez apuntó lo que parecía ser una pistola negra hacia la víctima y dijo: “Hoy te voy a matar”, antes de disparar, según los investigadores.

La policía dijo que la víctima y dos testigos identificaron posteriormente a Lauzurique-Gonzalez en ruedas fotográficas separadas.

Los detectives entrevistaron más tarde a Lauzurique-Gonzalez después de leerle sus derechos constitucionales, según el reporte, aunque su supuesta confesión también fue censurada del documento.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Lauzurique-Gonzalez enfrenta un cargo de intento de asesinato en segundo grado con arma de fuego o arma mortal.

Hasta el jueves, el ciudadano cubano permanecía detenido en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, donde su fianza figuraba como “pendiente por establecer”.

Los investigadores dijeron que un Kia K5 se dirigía hacia el norte por Northwest Ninth Avenue cerca de la calle 199 cuando no se detuvo en una señal de pare y chocó contra un Lexus que viajaba hacia el este. El impacto empujó al Lexus contra un Ford Fusion que iba hacia el oeste.

La policía informó que la conductora del Lexus, una mujer embarazada, fue trasladada en helicóptero al Ryder Trauma Center del Jackson Memorial Hospital y se encuentra en condición estable.

Los conductores del Kia y del Ford fueron llevados por tierra a un hospital local para recibir tratamiento.

Las circunstancias que llevaron al choque continúan bajo investigación.

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Investigators say a Kia K5 was heading north on Northwest Ninth Avenue near 199th Street when it failed to stop at a stop sign and hit a Lexus, which was traveling east. The impact pushed the Lexus into a Ford Fusion that was going west.

Police say the driver of the Lexus, a pregnant woman, was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center and is in stable condition.

The drivers of the Kia and the Ford were taken by ground to a local hospital for treatment.

The circumstances leading up to the collision remain under investigation.

The justices ruled unanimously in favor of Shawn Montgomery, whose parked vehicle was hit by a speeding truck driver on an Illinois highway in 2017. He wants to sue C.H. Robinson, the country’s largest freight broker by size, over its role in putting the driver on the road despite what he called “serious red flags.”

The decision does not mean Montgomery will necessarily win the lawsuit, which the company is contesting. But the ruling opens the door to increased liability for freight brokers, a key part of the industry.

The Trump administration and companies such as Amazon had argued that letting the suit go forward would expose logistics companies to liability under a “patchwork” of state laws.

The Transportation Intermediaries Association, an industry group, said the decision was “deeply disappointing.”

“This is like asking travel agents to evaluate the safety of a given airline despite the fact that the airline has been licensed to fly by the federal government,” said Chris Burroughs, the group's president and CEO. “We are working with our members to assess potential next steps to mitigate the consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision."

Montgomery's lawyers say the trucker had been cited for careless driving in another crash months earlier and that the carrier he worked for had been involved with at least three crashes in a span of about five months. Montgomery's lawsuit said C.H. Robinson should share liability because it hired the carrier despite those problems.

Montgomery's appeal was backed by more than two dozen states. They said a win for him would help bolster safety in an industry that moves billions of tons of goods across billions of miles every year.

The company argued the suit, filed under state law, must be tossed out because brokers rely on the federal government to regulate carriers and federal law trumps state law.

But in an opinion by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Supreme Court disagreed. The justices found Montgomery's claims can move forward because they fall under an exception for safety regulations. The high court overturned a lower-court ruling in the company's favor.

The decision could increase insurance costs for freight brokers that eventually “cascade through the economy" and result in higher prices for consumers, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurrence joined by Justice Samuel Alito.

Still, “truck safety is a matter of life and death," Kavanaugh wrote.

C.H. Robinson, which is based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, pointed to another part of his concurrence, where he said the decision does not mean brokers will be “routinely subject” to lawsuits.

“We will keep working with policymakers, advocates, carriers, our customers, and others across the industry to strengthen the national safety system and advance practices that reduce accidents on America’s roads," said Dorothy Capers, the company's chief legal officer.

The ruling could have far reaching effects if brokers can be held liable for the actions of the trucking companies they hire, said Brian Watt, who runs a freight logistics company in Florida.

Brokers will now have to focus more on the safety records of the truckers they contract with to haul all kinds of goods, including hazardous materials, instead of just looking for the cheapest and fastest option.

“More than 28,000 federally licensed brokers currently operate in the United States with virtually no meaningful federal safety oversight regarding how they select carriers,” Watt said in a post on LinkedIn. He said there are tougher standards for brokers that arrange shipments out of ports and on railroads, but that highway shipments face fewer restrictions.

The Transportation Department has been cracking down on the trucking industry over the past year by trying to force unqualified drivers, trucking companies and schools out of the industry.

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Associated Press writer Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.