According to fire rescue officials, the fire erupted at about 7:30 p.m. in the 5700 block of Northwest 15th Street.

A long line of fire trucks stretched across the scene, with Lauderhill police also responding to the area.

A total of 16 residents were displaced from their homes.

Neighbors gathered outside, watching as crews worked to extinguish the flames. One man who lives two doors down said the fire was hard to miss.

“It was dark. It had a certain smell, like (an) electrical scent,” the man, identified only as Maxwell, said. “Black smoke. Maybe about 10 to 15 feet.”

No injuries were reported.

The American Red Cross is helping 13 of those displaced by the fire, including eight children and five adults.

“The Red Cross is providing emergency financial assistance, health and mental health services, one-on-one support to connect people to available recovery assistance and will continue to provide additional support to the families to meet their disaster-caused needs,” the organization said in a news release.

Click here to donate to the Red Cross to help support their efforts.

Christian Q. Bouie, the burglary suspect accused of shooting Appie in the shoulder on Saturday night, was at the Broward County Main Jail on Monday.

After the shooting, another police dog bit Bouie, 30, during his arrest, and fire rescue personnel took him to the Broward Health Medical Center.

Bouie faced four charges: Use of a deadly weapon on a police animal, interfering with law enforcement with violence, possession of a weapon or ammunition by a convicted felon, and resisting arrest without violence.

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According to Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue, the crash happened just before 9 p.m. in the 500 block of West Sunrise Boulevard.

Crews say when they arrived, they found the two minivans, one of which was overturned with people trapped inside.

Medics took the nine injured victims to Broward Health Medical Center.

Seven of them suffered serious injuries and three of the injured are children, authorities said.

Their conditions have not been released. The crash is under investigation.

Según señaló la fiscalía regional de Los Ríos en un comunicado, las detenciones se llevaron a cabo en la madrugada por la policía y los imputados son dos hombres y una mujer, todos estudiantes de la institución.

La investigación se remonta al pasado 8 de abril, cuando la ministra, quien lleva poco más de un mes en el cargo, fue agredida física y verbalmente durante una manifestación estudiantil y cuando participaba en un evento académico en la Universidad Austral de Chile, en la ciudad de Valdivia, a unos 800 kilómetros de Santiago.

“Estos hechos son especialmente graves porque afectan directamente a autoridades en el ejercicio de sus funciones, lo que no solo compromete su integridad, sino también el normal desarrollo de actividades públicas”, dijo en la nota la fiscal Tatiana Esquivel.

El mandatario José Antonio Kast, un ultraderechista que llegó al poder el 11 de marzo, señaló en ocasión del hecho que la funcionaria fue agredida por "un grupo ideologizado que tiene solo un objetivo: silenciar y amedrentar”. “No buscan dialogar ni mejorar la educación. Su actuar no tiene explicación ni justificación”, aseveró.

Chile acumula un largo historial de violencia escolar y es conocido por las manifestaciones estudiantiles que a menudo sirven como catalizadores de movimientos sociales. No es infrecuente que terminen de forma violenta.

Los imputados, que no han sido identificados, deberán comparecer esta misma jornada a una audiencia de formalización de la investigación, instancia en la cual el Ministerio Público comunica ante el tribunal y los acusados los cargos que se les imputa y la calificación jurídica respectiva.

El caso generó el rechazo transversal de la clase política chilena, con distintos partidos y figuras condenando los hechos.

La ministra de Seguridad, Trinidad Steinert, valoró positivamente las detenciones y aseguró que "las manifestaciones pacíficas son un derecho”, pero el gobierno no acepta que sean ejercidas "a través de la violencia”.

“El ministerio de Seguridad interpuso una querella. Vamos a ser parte y concurrir a la audiencia de hoy con el fin de solicitar las medidas cautelares más gravosas”, señaló Steinert.

Ackerman, 66, has served in that role since 2013, presiding over the rebirth of the conference following the decision a year earlier for the Big East to split. Ackerman led the negotiations that resulted in the return of UConn in 2020 from the American Athletic Conference.

“It’s been an extraordinary honor for me to serve as the Commissioner of one of the most prestigious and storied organizations in college sports,” Ackerman said in a statement. “I want to thank our Presidents for entrusting me with this one-of-a-kind leadership opportunity and for supporting the investments needed to maintain the Big East's stature and meet our schools’ high competitive and academic standards."

Big East men's basketball teams won four national championships during her tenure, with two by Villanova and two by UConn — more than any other Division I conference in that span. The UConn women's team won its 12th national title in 2025.

“Speaking on behalf of all the BIG EAST Presidents, we announce Commissioner Val Ackerman’s retirement with a tinge of sadness and deep gratitude,” said St. John’s president, the Rev. Brian J. Shanley, who is the chair of the conference's Board of Directors. “When we re-founded the BIG EAST in 2013 as a basketball-centric conference, our first task was to find a commissioner who could provide the strategic vision needed to position us as a basketball peer with the power football conferences and compete with the country’s best. We found that visionary leader in Val Ackerman."

She presided in the relocation of the conference headquarters to New York in 2014, and the Big East moved to the famed Empire State Building last year. Ackerman also ensured that the Big East men's basketball tournament will remain at Madison Square Garden until 2032, which would be the 50th anniversary of the event there. The women's tournament is set to be held at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut until 2029.

Before coming to the Big East, Ackerman was the first president of the WNBA when it was launched in 1997 and was in charge of the league for eight years. She also held positions including president at USA Basketball.

Ackerman played at Virginia and was a four-year starter, becoming the first 1,000-point scorer in program history.

___

AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball

“No fue un operativo que tuviera conocimiento del gabinete de seguridad”, señaló Sheinbaum durante su conferencia matutina. “No estábamos enterados, fue una decisión del gobierno de Chihuahua... ellos tienen que tener autorización de la Federación para esta colaboración que se tiene a nivel estatal, necesariamente, así lo establece la Constitución”.

El fiscal de Chihuahua, César Jáuregui, dijo el domingo que el accidente tuvo lugar por la mañana cuando dos oficiales instructores de la embajada y dos miembros de la agencia de investigación de su departamento regresaban de un operativo de destrucción de laboratorios clandestinos.

Los cuatro murieron cuando el vehículo supuestamente se salió de la carretera y cayó por un barranco en las escarpadas montañas de la sierra del estado, dijo el fiscal. Jáuregui indicó que los estadounidenses participaban en un entrenamiento habitual.

El embajador Ronald Johnson lamentó en sus redes las muertes y, aunque no mencionó cuáles eran sus labores, reconoció “su dedicación y sus incansables esfuerzos para enfrentar uno de los mayores desafíos de nuestro tiempo”.

El gobierno de Estados Unidos tiene en la lucha contra contra los cárteles y el tráfico de drogas uno de sus principales objetivos y su presidente Donald Trump no ha dejado de presionar a México para que ofrezca más resultados en seguridad ni de lanzar insinuaciones sobre su deseo de actuar militarmente contra las organizaciones criminales mexicanas a las que calificó el año pasado de terroristas.

La presidenta insistió en que “no hay operaciones conjuntas en tierra, ni en aire” sino intercambio mutuo de información con el gobierno de Trump, una colaboración que se realiza dentro de un marco jurídico “bien establecido” y con todo el respeto a la soberanía mexicana.

Agregó que el gobierno contactó el mismo domingo al embajador Johnson y que este lunes pediría una reunión del diplomático con el secretario de Relaciones Exteriores para aclarar el tema.

El entrenamiento de distintos cuerpos de seguridad mexicanos por parte de Estados Unidos es algo habitual, pero sus actividades en territorio mexicano han sido objeto de un debate, agudizado en esta administración después de las acciones militares lanzadas por Trump en Venezuela e Irán.

La polémica más reciente, en enero, fue el cruce de versiones sobre si uno de los fugitivos más buscados por Estados Unidos, el ex deportista canadiense Ryan Wedding, fue arrestado tras entregarse en México o en un operativo binacional.

The Atlantic, in response, said it stood by its reporting and would vigorously defend against the “meritless lawsuit.”

In the article, posted on the magazine's website on Friday, author Sarah Fitzpatrick said Patel is deeply concerned about losing his job and that “he has good reasons to think so — including some having to do with what witnesses described to me as bouts of excessive drinking.”

His behavior, including “both conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences,” has alarmed officials at the FBI and Department of Justice, The Atlantic said. Fitzpatrick was named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Patel, in the lawsuit filed in district court in Washington, denied the allegations of his behavior and criticized the magazine for relying on anonymous sources. Fitzpatrick wrote that she interviewed more than two dozen people and granted them anonymity to “discuss sensitive information and private conversations.”

“Defendants cannot evade responsibility for their malicious lies by hiding behind sham sources,” the lawsuit said.

Investigators with the Homestead Police Department said Samantha Morales, 34, drunkenly opened fire after confronting the victims after they walked out of Dr. Limon Ceviche Bar, located at 2508 NE 10th Court ― within the large Homestead Pavilion shopping plaza.

According to police, the victims told investigators that after they “exited the restaurant and began to say their goodbyes,” Morales drove up in a Tesla and asked them whether they were “good” or “OK.”

An HPD report doesn’t state whether or how Morales knew the women.

After one of the victims replied, “Yes, I’m OK. Are you?,” police said Morales retorted, “Yes, b----. But it looks like you have a problem.”

Police said Morales opened her car door and pulled out a gun, asking, “What are you gonna do about it?”

After one of the victims asked Morales whether she was going to “intimidate” them with the gun, police said the group continued to argue until Morales opened fire, shooting two of the women.

According to the report, one of the women “lunged” at Morales in an effort to disarm her.

“The two then began to fight and were separated by the police,” a detective wrote. “The victim then noticed she was shot.”

Detectives said Morales told them that she “she did not remember the incident but claims she was fighting for her life” and “admitted to having three alcoholic beverages.”

Authorities arrested Morales on three counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and one count of using a firearm ― all felonies ― plus misdemeanor charges of improper exhibition of a firearm and using a firearm while under the influence of alcohol.

As of Monday, she remained behind bars at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center after a Miami-Dade judge ordered her held without bond.

Miami police said an officer noticed a large group of dirt bike and ATV riders “gathering and impeding traffic” on Northwest Second Avenue and 27th Street at around 11:15 p.m.

Police said two other officers on foot patrol saw the group as they approached Northwest 26th Street and approached Chamari Jaheim Pippins, 22, of Hollywood, who was on a blue Yamaha dirt bike with no license tag.

After one of Pippins’ friends told him that officers were coming up to him, police said he looked back, made “eye contact” with one of the officers and “accelerated” in an attempt to get away.

According to an arrest report, Pippins “spun the tires to a point where he was unable to attain traction” and lost control, “striking a victim on the sidewalk” and hitting a black Infiniti parked on the street.

Police said the pedestrian suffered “multiple injuries,” including an elbow fracture and cuts on her eyelid and foot; medics later took her to Jackson Memorial Hospital for treatment.

The report states that officers took Pippins into custody and found he had a concealed Glock 45 pistol.

Police arrested Pippins on charges of aggravated fleeing and eluding causing injury, possession of a weapon while committing an offense and resisting an officer without violence. He was also cited for failure to obey a police officer or firefighter and failure to have a vehicle registration.

Records show that Pippins, booked into jail early Sunday morning, remained in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center Monday morning on a $5,500 bond.

Hundreds of outfits across the world are offering multiday trips where attendees pay for drug-assisted experiences claiming to promote psychological healing, personal growth and other benefits.

Many have safety procedures in place, but they still carry “potential for physical, psychological, and interpersonal harms,” researchers who surveyed dozens of retreats wrote in a recent paper in JAMA Network Open.

Currently no psychedelics have been federally approved in the U.S., although that may soon change. On Saturday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Food and Drug Administration to accelerate reviews of psychedelics that show potential for conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder. The order also directs law enforcement agencies to quickly lower restrictions on any psychedelic approved by the FDA.

The only drug to come before the FDA thus far, MDMA, was rejected as a PTSD treatment in 2024 due to concerns about its safety and effectiveness.

Dr. John Krystal, a Yale School of Medicine psychiatrist who has followed the field, says psychedelics should be approached as “a serious medical procedure that carries risks that must be carefully managed.”

People who work in the field say today's retreats are far safer than those of prior decades, when psychedelic experiences were almost always conducted underground with few safety precautions.

“The sheer visibility of psychedelics has led to more demand for these retreats,” said Brad Burge, who has worked with psychedelic nonprofits, drugmakers and retreat operators for nearly 20 years. “That growing market has allowed retreats to expand their services, hire more medical and coaching staff and take safety more seriously than we've ever seen in the past.”

Here's what to know about the trend:

Psychedelic retreats are currently illegal in the US

Virtually all the drugs offered at retreats are illegal under U.S. federal law, including magic mushrooms, ayahuasca, MDMA and LSD.

Retreat companies will not always make that explicit or sometimes claim that they are protected by a rare legal exemption for religious organizations that traditionally use psychedelics.

But only a handful of groups have formally obtained that legal status, including the Native American Church, which uses peyote in its ceremonies.

Some retreats are held in countries that don’t restrict psychedelics, including Peru and Brazil, where ayahuasca — a psychedelic brew of Amazonian plants — has been used for centuries by Indigenous cultures.

No matter where they operate, experts say there are no industrywide standards or regulations for how participants are screened, prepared or monitored afterward.

“If there is no regulation, what does that mean about the quality of care you’re going to have?” said Joshua White, founder of the Fireside Project, which runs a hotline for people experiencing distress during psychedelic trips. ”I certainly fear that there could be a race to the bottom where there is no liability or accountability."

Safety procedures and staffing credentials vary

With essentially no oversight, potential attendees are on their own when vetting different options.

“It’s really important that somebody interested in a psychedelic retreat do their research, talk to the organizers or facilitators to get more information about what is being offered and how,” said Amy McGuire, a biomedical ethicist at Baylor College of Medicine and co-author of the JAMA Network Open study.

McGuire and her colleagues documented a wide range of practices, including some companies offering multiple psychedelic drugs over the course of their retreats.

Many retreats have health professionals on site, but their roles and responsibilities are often vague. In some cases, they take psychedelics alongside participants, which could impair their ability to respond in an emergency.

Important questions when evaluating retreats include:

— Do retreat staff have training and equipment to handle a medical emergency?

— Is there a hospital nearby and transportation to get there?

— Do staffers spend significant time helping participants prepare and process the experience?

Websites that compile user reviews, such as Retreat.guru, are one source for this information.

Screening for risky medical conditions is not rigorous

One of the most important safety steps happens before any retreat begins: screening out people with serious medical conditions who shouldn't take psychedelics.

More than half the retreats surveyed for the study excluded participants with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

“Psychedelic drugs may worsen symptoms of psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia,” noted Krystal, who was not involved in the research. “It is important that patients are carefully screened to ensure that appropriate patients enter treatment.”

Significantly, all the retreats said they rely on potential customers to truthfully disclose their medical history and health conditions.

That approach carries risks, the authors noted, since people suffering from severe afflictions may withhold information if they think it could stop them from attending.

"When you’re really desperate and hoping to access something that you think could help you, there’s an incentive not to be truthful,” McGuire said.

Discontinuing medications is common

Another potentially risky practice: Nearly 90% of the surveyed retreats require or recommend that attendees stop taking certain medications, including antidepressants, before using psychedelics. These so-called “washout periods" ranged from one day to six weeks before the psychedelic experience.

Medical experts say safely tapering off antidepressants like Prozac can take six to 12 weeks and requires professional supervision.

"The patient needs to realize that by going off their medicine they’re at greater risk of recurrence or exacerbation of their symptoms,” said Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, a Columbia University psychiatrist. “They should be monitored regularly to make sure nothing bad happens.”

The rationale for halting antidepressants comes from research that combining those drugs with psychedelics may cause excess levels of serotonin, a brain chemical that influences mood, sleep and other functions.

But retreat operators may also be trying to make sure the medications don’t dull the intensity of the psychedelic experience, according to McGuire.

“There’s a business rationale for wanting people to have the maximum experience when they show up and they’re paying for these retreats,” she said.

___

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

Felipe Llanos Colon was driving a U-Haul van after stealing from the Franky Diamonds booth at 7900 NW 27 Ave., in the West Little River area, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputy’s report.

“The victim jumped onto the hood of the offender’s vehicle, and the assailant proceeded to drive away, with the victim mounted on the hood of the van,” the deputy wrote, according to the report.

Llanos Colon fled with a $39,500 watch at about 1:05 p.m. on April 13; Miami police officers arrested him on Friday for another case; and deputies re-arrested him for the theft.

“Screenshot images of the defendant’s face from the video were obtained and later submitted to the MDSO real-time operations center, which used facial recognition software to identify the defendant,” a deputy wrote, according to the report.

The victim at the flea market’s Franky Diamonds booth reported that Llanos Colon ran away after putting on the watch, so he chased him to the parking lot and attempted to stop him by jumping onto the van’s hood.

LLanos Colon “drove off the property through a cutout in a fence, leading to Northwest 30th Avenue, where he proceeded southbound ... while the victim maintained a grip on the hood of the van,” according to the report.

Llanos Colon stopped at Northwest 79th Street, got out of the van, ran westbound, and vanished near the MetroRail area, according to the report.

After Miami police officers arrested Llanos Colon on Friday at 1280 NW 60 St., in Liberty City, Miami-Dade corrections booked him at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Llanos Colon appeared in court on Saturday, and a judge ordered him to stay away from the Franky Diamonds booth employee and ordered house arrest with an electronic monitor.

Miami-Dade prosecutors filed two criminal cases against Llanos Colon on Saturday, according to county court records.

Llanos Campos faced charges of second-degree grand theft and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. His bond was $20,000. Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Ariel Rodriguez was set to preside over this case.

For the arrest in Liberty City, Llanos Campos faced charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and knowingly driving with a suspended license. His bond was $500. Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Julie Nelson was set to preside over this case.

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

“Se deja atrás el tiempo del partido único. Hoy empieza una Bolivia con nuevos liderazgos, nuevos proyectos y un compromiso claro: trabajar juntos”, dijo Paz el domingo por la noche tras la segunda vuelta para elegir gobernadores en cinco de nueve regiones. En las otras cuatro se eligieron autoridades en primera vuelta.

Según el cómputo preliminar del Tribunal Supremo Electoral, siete de las nueve regiones estarán lideradas por gobernadores de corrientes distintas al oficialismo.

Aunque Paz no tiene un partido propio, el gobernador de La Paz y el de Beni han recibido el respaldo del gobierno. En cambio Santa Cruz, la región más rica y poblada, estará controlada por un gobernador de derecha afín al expresidente Jorge Quiroga (2001-2002).

El Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) de los expresidentes Evo Morales (2006-2019) y Luis Arce (2020-2025), que por casi dos décadas fue el partido más poderoso, sólo controla la región central de Cochabamba —la tercera en importancia— donde ganó el exsenador y dirigente cocalero Leonardo Loza, leal a Morales. Loza dijo que seguirá una línea de oposición dura al gobierno.

La derrota más sorpresiva para Paz fue en su región, Tarija, donde ganó en segunda vuelta una senadora opositora.

El gobernante asumió en noviembre en medio de una crisis económica y con graves deficiencias en el abastecimiento de combustible.

Hasta ahora su mayor oposición ha sido de sindicatos, organizaciones sociales y gremiales, de gran poder de movilización en las calles, que rechazan sus reformas económicas.

“Estas elecciones regionales de gobernadores y alcaldes nos han dejado un mejor pluralismo. Hoy hay una gran diversidad política que es la que dominará en adelante, a diferencia de los tiempos del MAS que acaparó todo el poder”, sostuvo la profesora de ciencia política Jimena Costa.

El caso más grave fue el de Sushi Cafe, en el 7917 NW 2nd Street de Miami, donde los inspectores encontraron más de 35 excrementos de roedores debajo del mostrador de sushi, cucarachas vivas y muertas, y moho dentro de la máquina de hielo. El local acumuló 31 violaciones y fue clausurado el 15 de abril.

También en Miami, Moshi Moshi, ubicado en Biscayne Boulevard, fue cerrado el 14 de abril después de que los inspectores hallaron ocho cucarachas vivas dentro del horno de la cocina y moscas sobrevolando el área donde se almacena el vinagre para sushi.

Don Camaron Grill & Market, en el 501 NW 37th Ave de Miami, fue el que más violaciones acumuló: 33 en total. Los inspectores documentaron cucarachas vivas y muertas en el área de preparación de mariscos, moscas posadas sobre las mesas y empleados que manipulaban pescado crudo y alimentos listos para consumir sin lavarse las manos.

En Pittzza at Ironside, dentro del complejo Miami Ironside, los inspectores contaron más de 50 moscas sobre el fregadero de la cocina y encontraron alimentos almacenados a temperaturas peligrosas durante más de cuatro horas, incluyendo carne cruda, ricotta y salsa de pasta.

Kelly’s Cajun Grill, en el Pembroke Lakes Mall de Pembroke Pines, fue clausurado el 15 de abril tras una queja de un consumidor. Los inspectores hallaron dos cucarachas vivas sobre una mesa de preparación en la parte trasera del local.

El camión de comida El Toro Loco Ranch fue sacado de circulación el 17 de abril después de que los inspectores encontraron moscas posándose repetidamente sobre pan expuesto y carne molida cocinada almacenada a temperaturas inseguras.

En Hialeah, Los Lagos Restaurant, también conocido como Mayajigua Restaurant Corp., fue clausurado el 10 de abril con 20 violaciones, entre ellas ocho cucarachas vivas en distintas áreas de la cocina y huevos crudos almacenados sobre vegetales sin lavar.

Café Ruyi, en el 5300 NW 7th Avenue de Miami, recibió su orden de cierre el 14 de abril tras una queja de consumidor. Los inspectores encontraron una mosca posada sobre arroz frito en la línea de cocción, lo que obligó a desechar el alimento. No es la primera vez que este local es clausurado: ya había sido cerrado en febrero de 2019.

Todos los establecimientos fueron autorizados a reabrir únicamente después de completar las limpiezas ordenadas y aprobar una reinspección satisfactoria.

Los equipos de rescate dijeron que al llegar encontraron dos minivans involucradas en el choque, con una volcada y personas atrapadas en su interior.

Un total de nueve personas fueron trasladadas al Broward Health Medical Center.

Siete de ellas sufrieron heridas graves y tres de los heridos son niños, según las autoridades.

Sus condiciones no han sido reveladas.

El choque está bajo investigación.

De acuerdo con la policía de Hallandale Beach, el choque ocurrió en la intersección de Federal Highway y Northeast Third Street.

La policía dijo que un vehículo no se detuvo ante un semáforo en rojo, lo que provocó la colisión.

El personal de Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue tuvo que rescatar con equipos especiales a una persona atrapada en el segundo vehículo.

Esa persona fue trasladada a un hospital local en condición estable.

Todos los carriles fueron reabiertos tras el choque, aunque la policía advirtió que los conductores podrían seguir experimentando demoras hasta que la escena sea despejada por completo.

La policía dijo que el choque parece haber sido causado por manejo distraído, pero la investigación continúa.

La policía de Hallandale Beach les recuerda a los conductores que:

Mantengan los ojos en la carretera y las manos en el volante en todo momento.

Eviten usar dispositivos móviles mientras conducen.

Configuren la navegación, la música y otros controles antes de comenzar su viaje.

Permanezcan alerta en las intersecciones y respeten siempre las señales de tráfico.

De acuerdo con un informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de Miami, cuatro alertas de ShotSpotter fueron detectadas en el área de Northeast Miami Court y la calle 71 a las 8:54 p.m. del domingo.

La policía dijo que el sospechoso, Samuel Saint Remy, de Miami, llamó al 911 alrededor de las 9 p.m. y reportó que le disparó a un conductor que había intentado atropellarlo con su vehículo.

Los oficiales que respondieron encontraron a la víctima sentada en el asiento del conductor de un Nissan Murano 2020 azul, con múltiples heridas de bala, según las autoridades.

De acuerdo con el informe, los oficiales sacaron al conductor del vehículo y le prestaron primeros auxilios hasta que llegó el personal de Miami Fire Rescue.

La policía dijo que Saint Remy fue detenido y se recuperó una pistola Smith & Wesson, junto con un cargador vacío y uno lleno que tenía en su poder.

Según el informe, los detectives obtuvieron video de vigilancia del estacionamiento, ubicado en 7101 N. Miami Ave., que muestra a Saint Remy y a la víctima en una discusión verbal.

La policía dijo que la víctima luego entró a su SUV mientras Saint Remy estaba parado frente al vehículo.

La víctima entonces aceleró en dirección a Saint Remy antes de continuar hacia la salida del estacionamiento, según las autoridades.

De acuerdo con el informe, en el video se ve a Saint Remy metiendo la mano en su cintura, dirigiéndose hacia el vehículo y luego disparando varias veces hacia el lado del pasajero del SUV mientras estaba estacionario.

La policía dijo que Saint Remy regresó luego a su posición inicial en el estacionamiento y recogió un objeto desconocido del suelo.

“Debido al retraso del video y la claridad limitada, no se puede determinar de manera concluyente si el vehículo golpeó al acusado”, escribió un oficial en el informe de arresto.

Saint Remy fue detenido en la madrugada del lunes bajo cargos de intento de asesinato en segundo grado, uso de arma de fuego durante la comisión de un delito grave y descarga ilegal de un arma de fuego en un lugar público.

A pesar de invocar su derecho a guardar silencio, Saint Remy hizo “declaraciones espontáneas” que fueron redactadas del informe publicado, y una conversación telefónica con su madre en criollo fue grabada. Sus declaraciones a su madre también fueron redactadas del informe.

Hasta el lunes por la mañana, Saint Remy se encontraba detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight. Los registros de la cárcel en línea indicaban que su fianza estaba “por determinarse”.

Williams' agency, Elite Loyalty Sports, announced the deal that includes $37 million of fully guaranteed money and a $22 million signing bonus. Williams had been owed about $33 million this season in the final year of a three-year, $82.3 million deal he had signed before the 2024 season before agreeing to the new contract.

The 49ers got the deal done on the first day of their offseason program and three days before the start of the draft. San Francisco has the 27th pick in the first round and had been linked to some tackles but that could be less of a priority now that Williams is under contract for two more seasons.

Williams turns 38 in July but is still playing at a high level after making the Pro Bowl and earning second-team All-Pro honors.

San Francisco originally acquired Williams from Washington for a third and fifth-round pick during the 2020 draft and re-signed him to a six-year, $138.1 million contract the following offseason. The sides did a reworked three-year deal just before the start of the 2024 season after Williams held out of training camp.

There was much less drama this time around as the two sides came to the agreement before the start of the offseason program.

Williams is coming off his 12th Pro Bowl season — the most for any offensive tackle — and is two shy of tying Hall of Famer Bruce Matthews’ record for any offensive lineman.

Williams made three straight All-Pro teams from 2021-23 before being hampered by injuries in 2024. He was healthy for most of last season, playing 16 games for the first time since 2013.

Williams’ 40 pressures allowed last season were his most since his rookie season with Washington in 2010, according to Pro Football Focus, but he still remained one of the top left tackles in the game in both run and pass blocking.

The 49ers have not drafted a tackle with a Day 1 or Day 2 draft pick since acquiring Williams from Washington during the 2020 draft, leaving the team with no obvious succession plan for when Williams’ tenure in San Francisco is finished.

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

Hug's fourth consecutive win in Boston puts him into second place all-time in Boston men’s wheelchair history, behind only South African great Ernst van Dyk’s record 10 titles between 2001 and 2014. American racer Daniel Romanchuk was second in 1:22:44, followed by Jetze Plat of the Netherlands in 1:24:13.

In the women’s race, Eden Rainbow-Cooper of Britain earned her second win in Boston, crossing the finish line in 1:30:51. Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland was second in 1:32:59 and Tatyana McFadden of the United States was third in 1:36:43.

American racer Susannah Scaroni, the 2023 and 2025 champion, did not defend her title. She is expecting her first child.

Hug jumped in front of the field quickly, building a 13-second advantage over David Weir of Britain three miles into the race. That lead grew to 55 seconds by the halfway point.

Since winning the Berlin Marathon in 2022, Hug has lost only one of the seven world major titles, when he finished second at the New York Marathon in 2024.

The race came on a clear morning with starting temperatures in the low 40s.

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

Clad only in her signature corsetry that binds the flesh, Stark stood in the midst of a circle as the cameras captured all angles of her body, simultaneously — part of an intricate process known as photogrammetry. The goal: to scan her body and build a mannequin — three, actually — for display in one of the world’s top museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And at the Met Gala, no less.

“It was definitely a bit nerve-wracking,” recalls Stark of the “intimate and vulnerable” experience. But, she quips, “something about being naked on a 40-degree (Celsius) day in a corset that isn’t hiding anything kind of takes the awkwardness away from the situation, actually.”

The mannequins, and others based on real-life models like Stark, will be featured in “Costume Art,” the upcoming spring exhibit at the museum’s Costume Institute that's launched by the starry May 4 gala. It’s part of an effort to add an element of body positivity to a show that examines the dressed body in art over the centuries, says curator Andrew Bolton.

Making room for body types that art has ignored

Bolton notes that the classic fashion mannequin is usually around a women’s size 2. The idea of these new mannequins, which will accompany the more traditional ones, is to stress that in the history of art, certain body types have been ignored or excluded — the corpulent body, the disabled body or the aging body, for example. But they, too, are part of the story. (The show comprises about 400 items — half art objects, and half garments from the museum’s collection, displayed in pairs.)

The aim was “to challenge a history of museum mannequin display that’s very much characterized by thin, abled and standardized bodies,” Bolton says. Rather than simply adapt existing mannequins, curators wanted to base the new mannequins “on a diverse range of real bodies with real, lived experiences.”

So, along with Stark, Bolton recruited models like Sinéad Burke, the Irish disability activist who was born with dwarfism; Aimee Mullins, the athlete, actor, model and activist who wears prosthetic lower legs; and Aariana Rose Philip, a musician and model who uses a wheelchair, among others. Nine real-life models were used to create 18 new mannequins. Seven additional mannequins represent shapes like the pregnant body and the thin male body but aren’t based on real people.

And these 25 new mannequins will not be consigned — as some are — to retirement after the show, which opens to the public May 10. When “Costume Art” ends in January 2027, they'll join the museum’s permanent collection, for future use.

This element of permanence is exciting to Stark, who has created looks for Beyoncé and has her own, body-positive line of lingerie called Panty. Her three mannequins will be wearing her own designs, and will appear in the Reclaimed Body and Corpulent Body sections.

Stark has long used corsetry techniques in unconventional ways. While corsets have traditionally been used to mold the body to classic ideas of beauty, Stark uses the same techniques “to actually emphasize those parts of the body that we’ve been conditioned to hide. It’s using the corsets to bring back power to the female form.”

Highlighting body positivity while the fashion industry is turning away

The designer feels her participation in the Met’s exhibit could not come at a more crucial moment — a time when the industry’s commitment to body positivity appears to be fading.

“It’s a really interesting moment in time for the Met to be doing this show because obviously we’ve seen the complete rapid decline of the body positivity industry,” she says. “Designers left, right, and center are just starting more and more to refuse to work with plus-size models.” Her own experience is backed up by a recent Vogue Business Size Inclusivity Report, which cited a decline in plus sizes on the runways of four major Fashion Week cities for the Fall/Winter 2026 season.

Burke concurs, calling that decline “shameful and embarrassing.”

Her organization, Tilting the Lens, aims to place disabled people in positions of power and leadership across the industry — “whether they are creative directors and designers, whether they’re CEOs, whether they are chief marketing officers,” she says.

Burke, who will attend the Met Gala as a member of the host committee, modeled for two mannequins, both to be shown in the Disabled Body section — one in a Burberry trench coat made for her, and the other in a dress by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren.

“You stood in this cage of cameras,” she said of the modeling experience. “It’s deeply uncomfortable and really vulnerable in the sense that you are in your skin and in very little else ... your body is photographed, observed, recorded from every angle, angles which you yourself may not even be familiar with.”

Nonetheless, she welcomes participation in the show, and especially the opportunity to consult with the museum on ways to present disabled people. That includes the language used. “There’s so many ways in which we could have called the disabled body something else, using euphemisms that create a distance from being disabled,” she said.

Burke is also involved in training the guides and volunteers at the museum, who can help to “make people feel seen, challenge people gently, and have a broader conversation about the connection between embodiment, fashion and art.”

Visitors can see themselves in the mannequins

The scanning process for models like Stark and Burke, at a Brooklyn company called New York Capture, was just the beginning. Artist Frank Benson then used the scans to create a sort of digital clay, molded to better display the garments. Then, the digital information went to a company in Italy, Bonaveri, to create the actual mannequins.

And there's another unique aspect to all the mannequins — just over 200 — in “Costume Art”: They've been fitted with a polished steel surface akin to a mirror, in which visitors can see themselves.

The idea, Bolton says, is that you’re looking not only at the person the mannequin is meant to embody, but also yourself.

In addition, about a third of the mannequins are placed on pedestals, with the others at ground level. Burke’s mannequin is one of those placed on a pedestal, and Bolton says that’s intentional.

“Andrew, my entire life, I’ve been looked down on, both literally and metaphorically,” he says the activist told him. She was, he said, very humbled at the idea that people would now — literally — look up to her.

The exhibit will include plenty of classical body shapes, of course, and Bolton stresses that the idea “is not to reject what came before.”

“We’re using it as an opportunity to add new voices and new silhouettes and new presences,” he says. “The figures don’t deny the past, but in a way, I suppose they complete the picture.”

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For more coverage of the 2026 Met Gala, visit https://apnews.com/hub/met-gala.

It won’t be cold behind the front since that season is behind us, but it will be a welcomed change. Highs will struggle to reach 80° through Thursday with much lower humidity. Lows at night will drop into the upper 60s.

At Sushi Cafe in Miami, inspectors found more than 35 rodent droppings along food prep areas, live and dead roaches, and mold-like buildup inside the ice machine.

Moshi Moshi had live roaches crawling inside an oven and flies swarming food storage.

Kelly’s Cajun in the Pembroke Lakes Mall was ordered shut after a consumer complaint.

Don Camaron Grill & Market racked up 33 violations, including roaches, flies landing on prep surfaces, and employees handling raw seafood and ready-to-eat food without washing hands.

At Pittzza at Ironside, inspectors documented more than 50 flies in the kitchen and food held at unsafe temperatures for hours.

A mobile vendor, El Toro Loco Ranch, was ordered shut after flies repeatedly landed on exposed bread and cooked meat was kept at dangerous temperatures.

No restaurants in the Florida Keys were ordered shut. All of these locations were allowed to reopen only after ordered cleanups and passing re-inspections.

No places in the Florida Keys were ordered shut.

All the places mentioned were allowed to re-open following an ordered cleanup and then a re-inspection.

**SUSHI CAFE

7917 NW 2ND STREET

MIAMI

ORDERED SHUT 4/15

31 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found. Observed approximately 35+ rodent droppings along wall underneath sushi counter next to, behind, and in between reach in coolers in sushi bar area.”

“Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. Observed 1 live roach crawling underneath reach in cooler across from cook line.”

“Dead roaches on premises. Observed 8 dead roaches under sushi bar counter. Repeat Violation.”

“Accumulation of dead or trapped birds, insects, rodents, or other pests, in control devices. Observed dead roaches stuck on glue trap under sushi bar.”

“Pesticide/insecticide labeled for household use only present in establishment. Observed can of household pesticide stored under shelf in sushi bar.”

“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin. Repeat Violation.”

“Buildup of food debris/soil residue on equipment door handles. Observed all reach in cooler handles soiled.”

“Ceiling/ceiling tile shows damage or is in disrepair. Observed ceiling in disrepair above walk in cooler.”

“Floor soiled/has accumulation of debris. Observed floor heavily soiled with old food debris inside of tile grouts and underneath cook line/fryer.”

“Interior of oven/microwave has accumulation of black substance/grease/food debris. Observed interior of oven and microwave soiled at sushi bar. Repeat Violation.”

“Nonfood-contact surface soiled with grease, food debris, dirt, slime or dust. Observed all reach in cooler gaskets soiled. Observed heavy grease buildup in between fryer and grill on cook line.”

“Reach-in cooler interior/shelves have accumulation of soil residues. Observed interior of all reach in coolers heavily soiled with old food debris. Repeat Violation.”

“Wall soiled with accumulated grease, food debris, and/or dust. Observed wall heavily soiled with grease in sushi bar underneath counter and hand sink. Observed wall heavily dusted in kitchen next to hood.”

“Dish machine chlorine sanitizer not at proper minimum strength. Discontinue use of dish machine for sanitizing and set up manual sanitization until dish machine is repaired and sanitizing properly. Observed Dishwasher (Chlorine 0ppm).”

“Food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime. Observed deli slicer blade heavily soiled with old food debris across from dish area.”

“Employee failed to wash hands before putting on gloves to initiate a task working with food. Observed employee changed pair of gloves and began to handle clean equipment and food without washing hands in between.”

**MOSHI MOSHI

7232 BISCAYNE BLVD.

MIAMI

ORDERED SHUT 4/14

15 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. Observed 8 live roaches inside of oven on cook line in kitchen area.”

“Live, small flying insects found. Observed 12 live flies on cases of sushi vinegar in storage room where rice is washed.”

“Wall soiled with accumulated grease, food debris, and/or dust. Observed throughout kitchen.”

“Ceiling/ceiling tiles/vents soiled with accumulated food debris, grease, dust, or mold-like substance. Observed throughout kitchen.”

“Equipment in poor repair. Observed chest freezer door in poor repair.”

“Raw animal food stored over/not properly separated from ready-to-eat food. Observed in cooler across stove: raw shrimp and beef stored behind carrots and scallions in lowboy.”

**KELLY’S CAJUN GRILL

PEMBROKE LAKES MALL

11401 PINES BLVD.

PEMBROKE PINES

INSPECTION BASED ON COMPLAINT

ORDERED SHUT 4/15

“Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. Observed 2 roaches on top of prep table in rear food preparation area.”

**EL TORO LOCO RANCH (MOBILE)

16901 SW 117TH AVE

MIAMI

ORDERED OFF THE ROAD 4/17

10 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Mobile food dispensing vehicle service opening not kept closed except during food service. Observed service window open at time of inspection. Also observed back door open at time of the inspection.”

“Stop Sale issued due to food not being in a wholesome, sound condition. Observed 4 live flies landing on an open pack of bread near service window.”

“Live, small flying insects found. Observed 4 live flies flying on an open pack of bread near service window. Observed 4 live flies landing on paper towel dispenser. Observed 3 live flies landing on clean metal container used for pepper. Observed 4 live flies landing on reach in cooler door. Observed 5 live flies landing on single service container. Observed 2 live flies landing on clean cooking pans above handwash sink. Observed 2 live fly landing on clean plastic container and cutting board above the triple sink.”

“Stop Sale issued on time/temperature control for safety food due to temperature abuse. Time/temperature control for safety food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Observed cook ground beef (50F - Cold Holding) at reach cooler dated 4-16-26.”

“Raw animal food stored over/not properly separated from ready-to-eat food. Observed in single service container raw pork stored on top mixed of onions and other chopped spices.”

“Handwash sink not accessible for employee use at all times. Observed handwashing sink used to stored buckets and other utilities.”

**DON CAMARON GRILL & MARKET

501 NW 37TH AVE

MIAMI

INSPECTION BASED ON COMPLAINT

ORDERED SHUT 4/16

33 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. Seafood prep area: 2 live roaches crawling on the floor by the prep sink and underneath a table by the prep sink.”

“Dead roaches on premises. Seafood prep area: 2 dead roaches on the floor: Back area cookline: 1 dead roach on the floor. By the large mixer nearby the walk in cooler: 1 dead roach on the floor behind the large mixer Prep table in front of the main cookline: 1 dead roach by on the table by a container without wrapped utensils. Small cook area: 1 dead fly inside the reach in cooler with bottled sodas and water bottles.”

“Live, small flying insects found. Dining room: 2 live flies landed on tables. Ceviche area, by the glass display: approximately 4 live flies on flying throughout the area and 1 on the glass display case. Seafood prep area: 4 live flies resting on the prep table and 2 live flies on the prep sink. Main kitchen: 2 live flies flying throughout the ware wash and cook line area.”

“Employee has not received adequate training related to their assigned duties as evidenced by lack of general knowledge in performing their assigned duties. Observed employee by the cookline touch raw fish place on the flat top grill and grabbed a plate put a container in the plate to hold tortillas for soft tacos without removing gloves and washing hands. Observed employee scraping a pot at the three compartment sink and then pick up strainer to take out cooked pasta noodles without removing gloves and washing hands.”

“Food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime. All food storage containers soiled, dry storage area. Cutting boards on the flip-top reach in cooler soiled.”

“Wall soiled with accumulated grease, food debris, and/or dust. Throughout the prep kitchen.

Objectionable odors in bathroom or other areas of the establishment. Back area by the dry goods storage container outside."

“Raw in-shell clams/mussels/oysters received at greater than 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Delivery, left in the kitchen: oysters (57-58F - Cold Holding), as per operator, received 30 minutes before the inspection, Operator placed inside the walk cooler, second temperature 20 minutes later, oysters (49-51F - Cooling).”

“Outer openings not protected during operation and vermin and/or environmental cross contamination present. Observed the bay doors by the small cookline/seating area at the seafood market open during operation. Advised the manager to keep the doors closed, observed fans in the outside, not on.”

**PITTZZA AT IRONSIDE

MIAMI IRONSIDE

7580 NE 4TH CT.

MIAMI

ORDERED SHUT 4/15

15 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Live, small flying insects found. Observed 4 live flies in prep area where salad coolers are stored. Observed in kitchen area above triple sink: 50+ live flies. Observed 20 live flies under triple sink in kitchen area. Observed 10 live flies where pizza prep is conducted in kitchen. Observed 5 live flies in walkway between kitchen and walk in cooler, on clean dishes and olive oil box.”

“Stop Sale issued on time/temperature control for safety food due to temperature abuse. Observed walk in cooler with ambient temp of 45F, the following TCS foods stored inside for more than 4 hours: ricotta (47F - Cold Holding); pasta sauce (53F - Cold Holding); raw beef (49F - Cold Holding); mascarpone (48F - Cold Holding); ham (50F - Cold Holding); butter (45F - Cold Holding).”

“Time/temperature control for safety food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Observed walk in cooler with ambient temp of 45F, the following TCS foods stored inside for more than 4 hours: ricotta (47F - Cold Holding); pasta sauce (53F - Cold Holding); raw beef (49F - Cold Holding); mascarpone (48F - Cold Holding); ham (50F - Cold Holding); butter (45F - Cold Holding).”

“Accumulation of debris on exterior of ware washing machine. Observed exterior soiled.”

“Employee handled soiled equipment or utensils and then engaged in food preparation, handled clean equipment or utensils, or touched unwrapped single-service items without washing hands. Observed employee on cell phone and then begin to cut pizza dough with barehand.”

**LOS LAGOS RESTAURANT

DBA (MAYAJIGUA RESTAURANT CORP.)

3828 WEST 16TH AVE.

HIALEAH

ORDERED SHUT 4.10

20 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. Observed 1 live roach behind towel paper wooden installation above hand wash sink at kitchen area. Operator killed and discarded during inspection. Also observed 4 live roaches crawling on the floor at kitchen entrance. Also observed 1 live roach crawling on the floor under dry storage shelves at kitchen area. Also observed 2 live roaches crawling on the floor next to reach in cooler at front counter.”

“Interior of oven/microwave has accumulation of black substance/grease/food debris. Observed microwave interior soiled above steam table at kitchen area. Repeat Violation.”

“Nonfood-contact surface soiled with grease, food debris, dirt, slime or dust. Observed gaskets soiled at reach in freezer and reach in cooler next to three compartment sink at kitchen area.”

“Ceiling/ceiling tile shows damage or is in disrepair. Observed several ceiling tiles with water damage and holes at kitchen area.”

“Time/temperature control for safety food, other than whole meat roast, hot held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Observed Guava and cheese pastry (126F - Hot Holding) inside hot holding unit at front counter. As per operator for less than 4 hours.”

“Raw animal food stored over or with unwashed produce. Observed raw shell eggs stored over unwashed produce on shelf at walk in cooler. Repeat Violation.”

**CAFE RUYI

5300 NW 7TH AVENUE

MIAMI

INSPECTION BASED ON COMPLAINT

ORDERED SHUT 4/14

24 VIOLATIONS FOUND

ALSO ORDERED SHUT 2/26/2019

“Live, flying insects found. Observed approximately six flies flying in the air at kitchen area Observed one live fly landed on fried rice at the cook line.”

“Stop Sale issued due to food not being in a wholesome, sound condition. Observed one live fly landed on fried rice at the cook line.”

“Food placed in soiled container/equipment. Observed cooked chicken wings stored inside cardboard boxes. Employee discarded the wings.”

“Time/temperature control for safety food thawed in an improper manner. Observed package cooked beef thawing in a container at room temperature by the entrance of the kitchen. Instructed employee on proper method.”

“Wall soiled with accumulated grease, food debris, and/or dust. Observed wall soiled throughout kitchen area.”

“Buildup of food debris/soil residue on equipment door handles. Observed reach in cooler equipment door soiled at kitchen.”

“Floor soiled/has accumulation of debris. Observed floor soiled throughout establishment.”

In the latest religious rights case for the conservative-majority court, the justices will hear from Colorado's St. Mary Catholic Parish and the Archdiocese of Denver, which are supported by the Republican Trump administration.

The schools argue that Colorado is violating their religious rights by barring them from the taxpayer-funded universal preschool program over their faith-based admission policies. They say the state has allowed other preschools to prioritize children with disabilities or those from low-income families, so admission based on religious beliefs about gender and same-sex marriage should be allowed, too.

The state said that religious schools are welcome to participate but are required to follow nondiscrimination laws. Income and disability decisions are in line with those rules, Colorado said. The program was created by a 2020 ballot measure and provides public funding for preschool at schools selected by parents.

The plaintiffs are represented by the group Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which applauded the high court’s decision to take up the case.

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that states cannot exclude families from government benefits because of their faith. We’re confident the Court will say the same thing here and put a stop to Colorado’s no-Catholics-need-apply rules,” said Nicholas Reaves, a senior counsel at Becket.

As part of the case, which will be heard in the fall, the court will consider narrowing a landmark 1990 decision over the spiritual use of peyote, a cactus that contains a hallucinogen called mescaline. That opinion, written by conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia, found religious practices don’t create exemptions from broadly applicable laws.

The justices declined a push from the schools, along with a Catholic family in Colorado, to overturn the ruling.

The high court recently has backed other claims of religious discrimination while taking a more skeptical view of LGBTQ+ rights.

The justices last month ruled against another law in Colorado that banned “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ kids after the measure was challenged by a Christian counselor.

Last year, the justices found that parents who have religious objections can pull their children from Maryland public school lessons that use LGBTQ+ storybooks. In 2022, the court found a high school football coach who knelt and prayed on the field after games was protected by the Constitution.

The court deadlocked, though, over a plan to establish a publicly funded Catholic charter school after Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself.

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

Puts into perspective the kind of roll Tyler Reddick is on right now.

The driver for the 23XI Racing team co-owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan picked up his fifth win of the season on Sunday, when he made a last-lap pass of reigning series champ and defending race winner Kyle Larson to win at Kansas Speedway.

It wasn't just Reddick's fifth win of the season. It was his fifth through nine races, a pace matched only four times in NASCAR's top series, and not since Dale Earnhardt started off the 1987 season that way. Earnhardt went on to win six more times while claiming the third of his seven championships, and there's little to make it seem that Reddick can't do the same thing.

“I mean, it's early,” Reddick said after joining Jordan in a post-race celebration. “Certainly over these next 17 races (before the playoffs), the ones that are missing it a little bit here and there are going to start hitting. I think the competition will certainly continue to tighten up as we get through this year. We've done a really good job of making the most of our days."

Scoring a lot of points, too. The revamped postseason structure means that whomever is leading before the Chase begins gets a huge advantage, and Reddick already has a big lead over Hamlin and the rest of the field in that regard.

“We’ll just try and get as comfortable a lead as possible,” he said. “If we can maintain a gap like this as we get further into the season, hopefully it puts us in position to try and steal some more wins if it’s split-strategy calls middle of the race or late in the race.”

It's not just Reddick that is running on all cylinders, though. His entire team is on a roll.

Bubba Wallace ran near the front most of Sunday and finished fifth. Riley Herbst was 14th, one spot ahead of Corey Heim, who made a spot start in the No. 67 car for the first time since the season-opening Daytona 500 yet was every bit as quick.

That's pretty strong stuff for a race team that is in just its sixth season.

“I think the missing part has been really executing across the board,” 23XI president Steve Lauletta said. "Our pit crews have taken a big step forward. Everybody worked really hard in the offseason to refine our processes and our communication.

“We're only what, nine races into our sixth season? Still a lot of work to do be done.”

Yet the work is clearly paying off.

After winning three times in 2024, Reddick was shut out entirely last year. Wallace won the team's only race at the Brickyard 400, and an organization that seemed to be ascending suddenly appeared to have leveled off a bit.

Now, 23XI is on an entirely different level. One that nobody else seems to be matching.

“I mean, again, super gratifying,” Lauletta said. “It wasn't just (Reddick) not winning, right? Just as an organization, we only won one race. It was the Brickyard, which was great. There was no heads being hung. It was just more the attitude of, ‘We’ve got to get to work,' and that was across the board. ... A lot of really good things are happening overall that started with the work that we needed to do in the offseason to kind of make sure we would be where we wanted to be as an organization this year.”

Where they wanted to be was up front. Reddick is putting them there every week.

It's not just the five wins, either. He was in contention to win a couple of weeks ago at Bristol before finishing fourth, had another top-10 run at Phoenix, and has finished in the top 15 and on the lead lap in each of the first nine races this season.

Next up is Talladega, too, where Reddick won just a couple of years ago.

“When you win,” Jordan said Sunday, “it's always fun. Right now it's fun for everybody at 23XI. Me being here (in Kansas) and being able to see all the wins, I'm so happy for the team. I just think we need to continually build on this, without a doubt.”

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

The testimony undercut a central allegation by prosecutors in the closely watched corruption trial of Nadiem Anwar Makarim, the co-founder of Gojek and the education minister at the time of the procurement. It took place during the transition to remote learning in schools when classrooms were forced to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Makarim, 41, was arrested in September following an investigation into the procurement of Chromebook laptops that prosecutors say caused $125 million in state losses.

Scott Beaumont, former president of Google Asia Pacific in 2019-2014, Caesar Sengupta, former general manager and vice president in 2018-2021, and William Florence, a former executive, testified at Jakarta’s Corruption Court on Monday via Zoom.

The case centers on the allegation that Makarim “enriched himself” in connection with the Chromebooks procurement in 2020-2021, according to the indictment. Prosecutors said he pressed Google to invest in PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa, known as PT AKAB, the parent company of Gojek.

Makarim, who was education minister in 2019-2024, allegedly favored Google’s Chromebook despite a ministry research team refusing to recommend the laptop model due to ineffectiveness in regions lacking internet access.

The purchase of more than 1.2 million Chromebooks was designed to strengthen Google’s dominance in Indonesia’s educational sector. The program was linked to Google's investments of about $787 million in PT AKAB through Google Asia Pacific, lead prosecutor Muhammad Fadli Paramajeng said.

Makarim received about 809 billion rupiah ($48.2 million) in connection with the program, prosecutors alleged.

Beaumont denied the allegation. “There was no connection at all between Google's investment in GoTo and any of the conversations with the Ministry of Education,” he told the panel of three judges. Makarim's Gojek merged with the country’s biggest e-commerce firm Tokopedia to form the GoTo Group in 2021.

Sengupta also denied the charges.

Google has previously stated that Chromebooks are designed for the realities of the classroom, including those in remote areas. While optimized for the cloud, they are offline-capable even without connectivity. It also said that Google licenses software and does not dictate Chromebooks’ pricing.

Makarim, a Harvard University graduate, co-founded Gojek in 2009, and remained until 2019, when the company was valued at over $10 billion. He stepped down to join the cabinet of former Indonesia President Joko Widodo.

Prosecutors allege his resignation from PT AKAB and Gojek was a “strategic concealment” to mask conflicts of interest while Makarim appointed close associates as directors and “beneficial owners,” allowing him to maintain indirect control over company decisions.

He faces a possible sentence of life imprisonment if found guilty.

Makarim has previously denied any wrongdoing, saying he did not personally receive funds from Chromebook procurement or related services. His defense argued that he divested from PT AKAB upon taking office, his wealth fell by more than 50% during his term and procurement decisions were made by technical teams and officials, not the minister.

The verdict could come as soon as this month. Two former Education Ministry officials and a former tech consultant also were charged in the case, while another staff member remains at large.

Mitch Winehouse, who was administrator of this daughter's estate, sued Naomi Parry and Catriona Gourlay in the High Court over the $1.2 million (890,000 pounds) they earned at auction in the U.S. from items he claimed they did not have the right to sell.

Amy Winehouse was 27 when she died from alcohol poisoning in her London house in 2011.

Parry, who was also Winehouse's stylist, and Gourlay said they either owned or were given the 150 items that included dresses, shoes, scarves, earrings and purses.

Parry earned $878,000 — including $243,200 from the silk minidress Winehouse wore at her final performance in Belgrade, Serbia — for the 56 items she sold at Julien's Auctions in Los Angeles in 2021, the court said. Gourley earned $344,000 for 85 items.

Parry applauded the decision by Deputy Judge Sarah Clarke to dismiss Mitch Winehouse's claim that the two were not entitled to sell the items and did so without his knowledge.

“The High Court has cleared my name, unequivocally and in full, after years of deeply damaging and unfounded allegations brought by Mitch Winehouse,” Parry said in a statement. “This was not a partial outcome or a matter of nuance. The claim has failed entirely. It should never have been brought.”

There is a case to be made that Pope Leo XIV, the careful, reserved, Midwestern Augustinian, found his voice on his epic trip through Africa, blasting the “handful of tyrants” and “chains of corruption” that have held parts of the continent hostage for centuries.

But the fact is, Leo has been preaching this kind of message for a while now, including in the context of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. It just took U.S. President Donald Trump’s unprecedented broadside and Vice President JD Vance's claims of theological superiority for many people to pay attention, especially American Catholics.

“Yes, Pope Leo might give the impression that he is engaging, in his quiet way and with authority, and this is how it looks to the world press and social media,” Cardinal Michael Czerny, a top Vatican official and aide to Leo, told The Associated Press.

“But in fact the Holy Father’s homilies and talks in Africa have been prepared, well in advance, in terms of the local African reality and the church," Czerny said. "So, if they seem relevant to the current wars, controversy, this reminds us of Jesus saying, ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear!’”

Leo tried to make that point when he came to the back of Air Pope One on April 18, en route from Cameroon to Angola, and complained that “a certain narrative” had taken hold suggesting he was in a feud with Trump over the Iran war and his peace messages in Africa were directed at the president.

Leo insisted his words about tyrants and the religious justification for war had been wrongly interpreted and he was referring only to the African context, and to a separatist conflict in western Cameroon, in particular.

The thin line of the pope's explanation

But Leo also was trying to have it both ways. Yes, he was talking about the separatist conflict at a peace meeting in Bamenda. Yes, he was preaching the Gospel message of peace and fraternity. But he also has been talking about Trump, a lot.

“That distancing of Pope Leo from some interpretations was really a move to de-escalate a very dangerous situation,” said Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology at Trinity College Dublin. “Because the Vatican needs the United States to restore some kind of peaceful — not order — but a horizon of peace, a hope of peace.”

Leo criticized Trump, directly, before he got to Africa. And in one remarkable comment two weeks ago, he encouraged the faithful to contact their congressional representatives to demand an end to the war.

The headline from the April 7 encounter outside Leo's country house in Castel Gandolfo was that Leo had called Trump’s threat to annihilate Iranian civilization “truly unacceptable.”

But the more significant message followed. “I would invite the citizens of all the countries involved to contact the authorities, political leaders, congressmen, to ask them, tell them to work for peace and to reject war,” Leo said.

Faggioli termed the comment “the Vatican’s nuclear option,” making a direct appeal to U.S. voters to take a stand, because it genuinely feared Trump was about to take the Iran war in a vastly more catastrophic direction.

What came before Leo's unprecedented appeal

The Holy See had never resorted to such a directly political message from a pope even at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when a Catholic president — John F. Kennedy — was on the verge of a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union, Faggioli said.

At that moment, Pope John XXIII did make a public appeal — his famous Oct. 25, 1962, radio address — with a strong, direct plea for peace including to “those who have the responsibility of power” to “do everything in their power to save the peace.”

The pope also sent private letters to Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and worked behind the scenes through diplomatic channels to de-escalate the situation. But he didn't urge U.S. voters to essentially choose which Catholic to listen to: their president or their pope.

“What is at stake now is that at a time of war, loyalties of Catholics are tested in a particular way,” Faggioli said. He added that however the situation ultimately resolves itself, the tension will complicate any future political aspirations of Catholics seeking high office, whether Vance on the Republican side or California Gov. Gavin Newsom on the Democratic side, as long as a U.S.-born pope is still in Rome.

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Global Catholic Research Initiative at the University of Notre Dame, said Leo has consistently operated “on a higher plane” but American Catholics are used to church discussion of morality in the context of sexuality, gender and abortion, and it's jarring to process foreign policy through a moral lens.

“So JD Vance can say the pope should stick to morality," she said, “but war and peace are ancient moral issues.”

The Rev. Antonio Spadaro, the under-secretary in the Vatican’s culture department, said Leo is continuing in the tradition of popes past to preach the Gospel message of peace. What has changed, he said, was how Trump reacted.

“The strong reaction arrived from America," he said. "It was America that reacted to Leo’s words, and not vice versa.”

Even with his direct comments about Trump, Leo was not engaging in an attack, Spadaro said.

“It’s very dangerous to imagine that the pope is fighting with Trump, because it means demeaning the pope to a level of contrast, one against the other, which Trump may want but that the pope has no intention of doing," he said.

New role, same Leo, Vatican official says

Spadaro added that from his perch, Leo hasn't changed at all from when he was known as Robert Prevost, the Chicago-born missionary priest.

“I see the Prevost I’ve always seen,” Spadaro said. “Let’s say it’s the backdrop that has changed, so his calm yet very direct style stands in stark contrast to a chaotic scenario, and that’s why it’s striking.”

For better or worse, the incredible saga of Trump, the war and geopolitics seems far removed from Leo’s day-to-day ministering to his flock in Africa, who have turned out in droves to welcome the American pope in each stop on his four-nation tour.

The polyglot pope has made it easy for them to hear his words, delivering speeches, homilies and prayers in the languages of the faithful: French in Algeria, English and French in Cameroon, Portuguese in Angola and, starting Tuesday, Spanish in Equatorial Guinea.

Lucineia Francisco left her family behind on Sunday so she could see Leo at the Shrine of Mama Muxima, Angola’s most popular pilgrimage destination. Some 30,000 people turned out for Leo’s rosary prayer.

“My kids were crying to come, but I said no,” Francisco said. “This is a spiritual journey that I’m really going to face on my own.”

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

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This version corrects the title for Rev. Antonio Spadaro, the under-secretary in the Vatican’s culture department

Voters in the Commonwealth will consider a ballot measure that would amend Virginia’s constitution to give the Democratic-majority General Assembly temporary power to redraw the state’s congressional districts. It’s the latest move in an escalating redistricting arms race that began in July 2025, when Texas Republican lawmakers redrew their state’s congressional map to favor Republicans at President Donald Trump’s urging.

Democrats hold six of Virginia’s 11 congressional seats, but if a plan passed by the legislature in February and signed by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger is enacted, the party could gain the upper hand in 10 districts, a net pickup of four seats.

The new boundaries would be in place in time for November’s midterm congressional elections, where just a handful of seats could determine which party controls the House for the last two years of Trump’s final term.

Under the proposal, state lawmakers would retain the power to redraw district boundaries until October 2030, when the authority would revert to the state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission.

Spanberger and former President Barack Obama are among the high-profile Democrats who have endorsed the referendum, saying it's a necessary response to Republican-initiated mid-decade redistricting in other states. But groups opposed to the measure have also prominently featured the two in campaign materials alongside their past quotes critical of gerrymandering. Former GOP Govs. Glenn Youngkin and George Allen oppose the measure.

Groups supporting the proposed amendment have far outraised those opposing it, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.

Democrats won Virginia in the past five presidential elections, but voters tend to be less party-loyal in state elections, as the governorship has changed party hands six times over the last 33 years.

If support for the measure falls mostly along party lines, the “Yes” side can expect overwhelming support in the state’s traditional Democratic strongholds of Northern Virginia and the cities of Richmond and Norfolk, while the “No” side should see wide margins in the smaller, more rural counties that make up the bulk of the state geographically.

Fairfax County, the state’s most populous, votes heavily Democratic, but Republican candidates who can chip away at the Democratic advantage there can win statewide. In 2021, Republicans Youngkin and then-attorney general candidate Jason Miyares received about 35% of the vote in Fairfax and won their races. By comparison, Trump lost Virginia in all three of his presidential campaigns, and his best showing in Fairfax was about 31% in 2024. Republican Winsome Earle-Sears received about 26% of the vote in her unsuccessful 2025 gubernatorial bid.

Other key jurisdictions to watch are Chesterfield and Stafford counties and the cities of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. Spanberger and Democratic presidential nominees Joe Biden and Kamala Harris carried all four areas in their statewide victories, but Youngkin swept the four in 2021. Majority “No” votes in any of these areas on election night could be an indicator of a very close race.

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

Virginia does not conduct automatic recounts. On ballot questions, a group of 50 or more voters may request and pay for a recount if the vote margin is 1 percentage point or less. The government will pay for the recount if the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points or the recount changes the outcome. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

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

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The proposed constitutional amendment is the only statewide contest on the ballot.

It reads: “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”

A “yes” vote would support allowing the General Assembly to redraw congressional districts ahead of the midterms. A “no” vote would leave current boundaries unchanged until the next round of regularly scheduled redistricting after the 2030 census.

Who gets to vote?

Any voter registered in Virginia can cast a ballot. Eligible voters may register on Election Day.

How many voters are there?

There were 6,386,877 registered voters as of March 1. Virginia voters do not register by party.

How many people actually vote?

About 3.4 million votes were cast in the 2025 general election for Virginia governor, which was the last statewide election. This was about 54% of registered voters at the time.

How much of the vote is cast early or absentee?

About 43% of total votes cast in the 2025 general election for governor were cast early or by absentee ballot.

As of Friday, nearly 1.2 million ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election. That’s about 80% of the total advance votes cast in the 2025 gubernatorial election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Virginia counties and independent cities vary in terms of when they release results from early and absentee voting.

Less than a third of jurisdictions release all or almost all of their early and absentee voting results in their first vote update of the night.

Nearly half the jurisdictions release no early or absentee voting results in the first vote update.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2025 general election for Virginia governor, the AP first reported results at 7:10 p.m. ET, or 10 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 1:52 a.m. ET with more than 99% of total votes counted.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 196 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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

According to an arrest report from the Miami Police Department, four ShotSpotter alerts were detected in the area of Northeast Miami Court and 71^st Street at 8:54 p.m. on Sunday.

Police said the suspect, Samuel Saint Remy, of Miami, then called 911 at about 9 p.m. and reported that he shot at a driver who had tried to hit him with their vehicle.

Responding officers found the victim seated in the driver’s seat of a blue 2020 Nissan Murano, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, authorities said.

According to the report, officers removed the driver from the vehicle and rendered aid to him until Miami Fire Rescue personnel arrived.

Police said Saint Remy was detained and a Smith & Wesson handgun was recovered, along with an empty magazine and a full magazine that were in his possession.

According to the report, detectives obtained surveillance video from the parking lot, located at 7101 N. Miami Ave., which shows Saint Remy and the victim getting into a verbal altercation.

Police said the victim then entered his SUV as Saint Remy stood in front of the vehicle.

The victim then accelerated in Saint Remy’s direction before continuing toward the parking lot’s exit, authorities said.

According to the report, Saint Remy is then seen in the video reaching into his waistband, heading toward the vehicle and then firing multiple times toward the passenger side of the SUV as it was stationary.

Police said Saint Remy then returned to his initial location in the parking lot and retrieved an unknown object from the ground.

“Due to the video lag and limited clarity, it cannot be conclusively determined whether the vehicle struck the defendant,” an officer wrote in the arrest report.

Saint Remy was taken into custody early Monday morning on charges of attempted second-degree murder, using a firearm while committing a felony and unlawful discharge of a firearm in a public place.

Despite invoking his right to remain silent, Saint Remy made “spontaneous statements” that were redacted from the publicly released report and a phone conversation with his mother in Creole was recorded. His statements to his mother were also redacted from the report.

As of Monday morning, Saint Remy was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Online jail records listed his bond as “to be set.”

Austria 's health minister told parents, kindergartens and day care centers to use utmost caution when feeding young children HiPP. The company recalled some of its baby food jars because samples there as well as in Slovakia and the Czech Republic tested positive for rat poison.

Authorities believe tampering occurred in 190-gram (6.7-ounce) jars of baby food made with carrots and potatoes for 5-month-old children that were sold at SPAR supermarkets in Austria. The first sample tested positive on Saturday.

On Monday, Austrian authorities said they were searching for a second jar of baby food that may have poison. It may have been sold at a Spar supermarket in the eastern town of Eisenstadt, Austrian news agency APA reported.

“It is deeply disturbing that someone is apparently willing to endanger the health of babies for criminal motives,” Health Minister Korinna Schumann told APA.

Slovakia and Czech Republic take action

In the Czech Republic, two jars of HiPP baby food that tested positive for the poison were found in a store in the city of Brno. The state prosecution in Brno confirmed the find but did not give further details, citing a police investigation.

The Germany-based HiPP said that besides Czechia, contaminated jars were discovered in Slovakia. The company said that “retail partners in both countries have already removed all jars of HiPP baby food from sale as a precaution.”

Slovak police said they were investigating suspicious jars from a store in the city of Dunajska Streda.

Slovenia began preemptively withdrawing all HiPP products from shelves of Spar and other supermarkets, its health inspectorate said.

Austrian authorities also reached out to Hungarian officials, saying a poisoned jar may have been purchased by people living in the border region near Eisenstadt.

Poisoned jars likely have white sticker with a red circle

Burgenland Police in Austria said the suspicious products likely have a white sticker with a red circle on the bottom of the jar. Other warning signs include a damaged or opened lid and an unusual or spoiled smell. There might not be a popping noise when the jar is first opened.

The Burgenland public prosecutor’s office was investigating the case as “intentional endangerment of the public.”

HiPP last week said the recall “is not due to any product or quality defect on our part. The jars left our HiPP facility in perfect condition.”

HiPP said it was recalling all of its baby food jars sold at Austria's SPAR supermarkets — which include SPAR, EUROSPAR, INTERSPAR and Maximarkt stores — in Austria as a precaution.

Rat poison typically includes bromadiolone, which prevents blood from clotting, according to the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety. Ingesting rat poison could lead to bleeding gums and nosebleeds as well as bruising and blood in the stool.

Symptoms could appear two to five days after ingestion, the agency said.

In Prague, Ester Svetlik Danelova, who is currently on maternity leave, told The Associated Press that “the situation is worrying,” for her family.

“I have three kids, and we definitely use this (baby food) throughout their lives,” she said, adding that “on the bright side, it means I cook more at home now.”

———

Grieshaber reported from Berlin. Associated Press journalist Stanislav Hodina contributed from Prague.

According to Hallandale Beach police, the crash occurred at the intersection of Federal Highway and Northeast Third Street.

Police said one vehicle failed to stop at a red light, resulting in the collision.

Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue personnel had to extricate one person from the second vehicle.

That individual was transported to a local hospital in stable condition.

All lanes have reopened after the crash, however police warned that drivers might still experience delays until the scene is fully cleared.

Police said the crash appears to have been related to distracted driving, but the investigation remains ongoing.

HBPD reminds drivers to:

• Keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel at all times.
• Avoid using mobile devices while driving.
• Set navigation, music, and other controls before starting your trip.
• Remain alert at intersections and always obey traffic signals.

In 2019, Jordan Avi Ogman was diagnosed with TECPR2, a fatal neurodegenerative genetic disease. His family says it took nearly four years to get that answer.

“The worst thing was four years of not knowing,” said his father, David Ogman. “And us going to every doctor in South Florida trying to figure this out. They look at Jordan. They thumb through the physician’s desk reference. They say everything’s fine. Take him home. Every kid develops at their own pace.”

Like many families dealing with rare diseases, they faced a long and difficult path to a diagnosis.

“They all pass away inner sleep from central sleep apnea. It’s a genetic brain disease, but it affects the entire central nervous system.” Ogman said.

The case highlights a broader issue in health care: parents often wait years for answers, losing valuable time as costs and emotional strain grow.

“Unfortunately, we’re 4 years behind in developing the gene therapy. I think by the time the gene therapy is developed, you know, Jordan might not be with us because we lost those 4 years,” Ogman said.

Now, a Boca Raton company says it may have a solution.

The story is also about a local innovation -- GENA, an artificial intelligence platform based in Boca Raton that aims to reduce genetic diagnosis timelines from years to seconds.

“We actually took the mind of a geneticist and put it into algorithms, and then accelerated the 3 to 4 days that it would take to diagnose one case, and we got it down to 10 seconds,” said Pete Martinez, CEO of Sivotec.

The company says it has already helped diagnose 160,000 cases involving rare diseases and hopes to expand its use beyond geneticists to pediatricians and primary care doctors.

On average, patients wait five to seven years for an accurate diagnosis. During that time, diseases can progress, and some of them are treatable.

As for Jordan, his family is praying for a miracle. They also hope their story brings awareness so others don’t have to face the unknown.

“If we had AI at our fingertips at any of these hospitals, Jordan would have been diagnosed immediately, and his cure would have already been developed,” Ogman said.

But unless a bill moving through Congress becomes law, that money could be taxed as income, taking big bites out of their payments and possibly disqualifying them from other government benefits.

“There was this terrifying disbelief,” Bree Jensen, communications director for the Eaton Fire Long-Term Recovery Group, said of informing fellow residents about the tax.

Thousands more who are suing the utility face the same prospect, as well as fire survivors in Colorado, Hawaii and Oregon after a tax exemption on wildfire-related compensation expired at the end of 2025.

In recent years, Congress has shielded wildfire settlements from taxes, but legislation to do so was short-lived and a struggle to pass, leaving gaps between laws that risk saddling some survivors with a possible tax burden on their compensation. A bipartisan House bill to extend the tax relief passed out of committee last month, but the timeline for bringing it to a floor vote and when the Senate will take action are unknown, leaving survivors in financial limbo.

“We have to assume we don’t have that money, so we’re making decisions, choosing cheaper materials, forgoing the solar,” said one Altadena homeowner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she fears compromising her expected settlement of about $700,000. If that money counts as income, she expects taxes would take 37%.

The homeowner hoped accepting a settlement would get her family home faster, after she, her husband and their four pets spent more than a year hopping between relatives' houses and rentals.

“All we wanted was to rebuild a comfortable house and get out of the situation we were in,” she said, adding their construction costs alone are estimated to reach $1 million.

As survivors watch lawmakers lock horns over the Iran war and the record-long Department of Homeland Security shutdown, some worry extending disaster tax relief will be de-prioritized.

“People have low expectations of anything actually getting done,” said Jenn Kaaoush, a 2021 Marshall Fire survivor and town council member in Superior, Colorado.

Compensation has become crucial to rebuilding

Utility equipment is believed to have sparked some of the deadliest and most destructive fires in recent years. Multibillion-dollar settlements have become common after these fires but take years to resolve.

As construction costs soar and insurance becomes more expensive and difficult to secure, compensation from lawsuits has become a critical component of how many households start over.

“It’s the difference between towns getting rebuilt and not getting rebuilt, quite frankly,” said attorney Doug Boxer, who has represented more than 17,000 Californians in cases against utilities and is part of the LA Fire Justice coalition suing Southern California Edison and its parent company, Edison International, on behalf of more than 2,000 clients.

SCE and Edison International have acknowledged their power equipment may have sparked the Eaton Fire, which destroyed 9,000 structures and killed 19 people. The utility last year announced a compensation program for those impacted, promising fast payments based on the value of one’s losses, as well as an additional premium for not joining litigation against the utility.

More than 2,800 households have applied for the compensation program. Thousands more are joining lawsuits against the utility. An investigation into the Eaton Fire's cause is ongoing.

Households can’t afford to lose a chunk of their payments to taxes, said Jensen, whose home also burned. “It sounds like a lot of money, but not in regards to how expensive it is to actually build in the community.”

A bipartisan bill would extend tax relief

Payments related to federally declared wildfire disasters from 2015 through 2026 would not count toward taxable income, according to legislation approved unanimously by the House Ways and Means Committee last month. That would apply to payouts received in 2026 and after.

The measure would extend expanded tax relief for property losses from federal disasters through this year, a provision that helped attract bipartisan support from lawmakers representing states vulnerable to hurricanes and other extreme weather.

Florida Rep. Greg Steube — a Republican who championed the 2024 tax relief bill and introduced its successor with fellow Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa, now deceased, and with Democratic Reps. Mike Thompson and Jimmy Panetta of California — told The Associated Press he expects the legislation to ultimately pass, but he acknowledged “the exact timeline remains uncertain.”

Steube, whose southwest Florida constituents could benefit from the provision deducting personal casualty losses, has vowed to push the law forward.

Two similar bills were introduced in the Senate, but further action has not been taken.

After lobbying for the past and present bills as executive director of the survivor advocacy nonprofit After The Fire, Jennifer Gray Thompson said she believes lawmakers understand the bipartisan nature of disaster tax relief.

“As these disasters come in quick succession, we are going to have to adapt on all levels, and our tax code will have to adapt along with it,” she said.

Still, Gray Thompson said she can't be sure when action will come.

Survivors in Colorado, Hawaii and Oregon would also be impacted

Maui residents face similar challenges as they await payments from a $4 billion settlement with Hawaiian Electric. Only about 180 homes have been rebuilt in Lahaina among 2,200 structures destroyed.

What Lahaina survivors need most is “certainty,” Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen wrote to lawmakers in a letter supporting tax relief.

While the majority of destroyed homes in Superior have been rebuilt, Kaaoush, the town council member, said most survivors are still catching up financially after finding themselves underinsured.

She also worries that her constituents could be knocked off income-qualified government benefits for food, health care or veterans’ support if their wildfire payments count as income.

“This has second- and third-order impacts on their life that will do harm,” Kaaoush said.

Gray Thompson cautioned that while survivors waiting for relief can defer taxes or amend past returns, resolving issues with government programs, such as qualifying for college financial aid, is much harder. “There's no way to undo that,” she said.

Meanwhile, many in Altadena feel they’re continually facing new obstacles to returning home, said another resident who also lost his home and insisted on anonymity because of ongoing litigation.

Being taxed “would just add more pain and suffering for us, really,” he said.

It took stumbling across an article about a female chemical engineer who became a master whiskey distiller for something to click: Ireland's fellow students could go into plastics and pharmaceuticals, she was going into whiskey.

“It was kind of like a connection of, 'hey, I can see someone who looks like me, who has the same exact kind of education and background doing this job,' and kind of opened it up as an option,” said Ireland, now the chief blender behind Vermont-based whiskey brand WhistlePig.

Ireland is among a growing number of women who have become leaders inside a traditionally male-dominated industry that has not always welcomed outsiders. Increasingly, women are launching their own brands and finding new ways to innovate in distilling and blending at a time when more women are drinking whiskey.

Women are often asked: ‘Do you even like whiskey?’

There is a common, lingering doubt among some male colleagues and consumers that the women gaining expertise in the industry even like whiskey.

Becky Paskin, a journalist from the U.K. and founder of OurWhiskey Foundation, an organization that promotes and supports women in the whiskey business, said she was asked that question while serving as a judge at a whiskey tasting event.

“It is a drink that comes with certain expectations around which gender drinks it and which gender makes it,” Paskin said, adding: “Barely any other drink or food falls under such scrutiny,”

Paskin says part of her work is creating stock images of women consuming whiskey that don't present women as sex objects and are not a public service warning.

“The only images of women drinking whiskey were depicting them as being pregnant, drunk, naked; or pregnant, drunk and naked,” she said.

There's a long history of women preserving and advancing whiskey

Whiskey-making has long been considered a masculine profession in America, a drink exclusively enjoyed by men swirling golden liquid in dark, smoky rooms. But industry experts and historians are quick to point out that women have always been involved in the process and were likely key to its survival in the U.S.

The first distilling instrument was created by a woman, Maria Hebraea, an alchemist from around the 2nd century, according to Susan Reigler, a bourbon expert. From there, distilling was largely seen as women’s work as they were in charge of home brewing, making medicine and taking care of the home.

Women notably managed distilleries in the 1800s in Kentucky, where Catherine Carpenter recorded the first known recipe for sour mash, now the most common style of American whiskey. And while women led the temperance movement in the 19th and 20th centuries, some historians estimate there may have been more female bootleggers than men during Prohibition — in part because women were less likely to be searched by police, according to the book “Whiskey Women,” written by Fred Minnick.

Reigler says she often marvels at the U.S. whiskey industry's transformation, which was in a serious downturn in the 1990s when she first began reporting on it from Louisville, Kentucky. As distillers worked to make whiskey appealing to American consumers, Reigler began documenting how women contributed to that effort, ranging from the wives who made key marketing decisions that boosted distillery tourism to the female bartenders who designed new whiskey cocktails.

Three women co-founded the Kentucky Bourbon Trail — a novel idea at the time that has since been copied across the country — including Peggy Noe Stevens, the world's first female Master Bourbon Taster, who was working at Woodford Reserve, as well as Donna Nally with Maker's Mark and Doris Calhoun with Jim Beam, Reigler said.

“There have always been women in bourbon,” she said. “But a lot of them have been behind the scenes.”

Women advance innovation and creativity in whiskey

In Vermont, Ireland has been in charge of keeping WhistlePig’s whiskey consistent since 2018, but she also oversees experimental batches. Her first whiskey innovation was the Boss Hog VII that quickly attracted praise and awards for her decision to finish it in Spanish oak and Brazilian teakwood barrels.

Ireland says more women becoming involved in the industry establishes whiskey as “a drink for everyone.”

“It can be enjoyed by everyone and it’s being made by females too,” she said.

Judy Hollis Jones spent years as a senior executive in the food industry before launching a whiskey company in Kentucky in 2019. The transition to the whiskey world mimicked the boardrooms she had been in for decades, where she was often the only woman present.

Hollis Jones is the president and CEO of Buzzard's Roost, a whiskey brand she co-founded with Master Blender Jason Brauner. She describes the whiskey industry as a “tough business” that has ebbed and flowed over the years, but one thing that has steadily increased is the amount of women showing up to tastings and tours, eager to take partake in the whiskey experience.

“I’ve had people say to me, ‘Oh, well, you don’t wear jeans, boots and a cowboy hat,’” she said. “And I said: ‘No, I don’t. And every bourbon drinker female does not. We are very wide range of people that love bourbon.’”

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Associated Press reporter Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed.

Witnesses said a woman stabbed her boyfriend in a parking lot at 2266 Wilton Drive.

Police officers and fire rescue personnel responded to the area outside the Alibi nightclub.

Witnesses said police officers arrested the woman, and fire rescue personnel took the man to the hospital.

No other details were immediately released by authorities.

Local 10 News Assignment Editor Sofia Mendez contributed to this report.

Watch 9 a.m. report

Location

Sharon Lokedi joined her fellow Kenyan as a back-to-back champion, winning the women's race in 2:18:51. Zouhair Talbi and Jess McClain ran the fastest times ever for Americans, in the men's and women's races, respectively.

A year after joining his brother Wesley, the 2012 champion, as the only relatives to win the race, John Korir broke away from the pack as it headed into Heartbreak Hill in Newton and opened a 40-second lead.

He peeked behind him as he went through Kenmore Square with a mile to go, sticking out his tongue and spreading his arms as he ran down Boylston Street to beat the previous course record of 2:03:02 set by Geoffrey Mutai in 2011 by 70 seconds.

Kelvin Kiptum holds the marathon world record, with a 2:00:35 on the flatter Chicago course in 2023.

Alphonce Felix Simbu of Tanzania, 55 seconds back, and 2021 champion Benson Kipruto, another 3 seconds behind him, also were fast enough to better the previous Boston record.

Talbi, who competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics for Morocco and became an American citizen last year, was fifth in 2:03:45.

Lokedi, who broke the women's course record last year by more than 2 1/2 minutes, took the lead entering the Newton Hills and emerged from them with an expanding lead. On a day that started in the 30s but warmed to 45 degrees (7 degrees Celsius) by the start, Lokedi pulled off her gloves as she went through Coolidge Corner in Brookline and smiled her way down Boylston Street.

Loice Chemnung was second, 44 seconds back, followed by Mary Ngugi-Cooper in third. McClain was fifth.

Korir and Lokedi each won $150,000 and a gilded olive wreath sent from the plains of Marathon, Greece. Korir will receive another $50,000 for the course record.

Marcel Hug of Switzerland won his ninth wheelchair title in 1:16:06, a time second only to his 2024 course record. He is one shy of the all-category record of South African wheelchair athlete Ernst van Dyk's 10 Boston Marathon wins.

Two-time winner Daniel Romanchuk of Champaign, Illinois, was second behind Hug for the fourth straight time.

In the women's wheelchair race, Eden Rainbow-Cooper of Britain won her second Boston title, finishing in 1:30:51 to beat runner-up Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland by more than two minutes.

The athletes arrived in Hopkinton with frost on the ground and temperatures in the 30s. Although it warmed up through the day, it was the coldest starting temperature since 2018, when 38 degree temperatures combined with a headwind and driving rain that led to the slowest winning times in more than 40 years.

But the clear skies and slight tailwind on Monday had the fastest field in the 130-year history of the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon expecting fast times for the second year in a row.

Lokedi shattered the women's course record last year, and Korir posted the third-fastest time in Boston history in that race.

Jack Fultz, who was serving as grand marshal on the 50th anniversary of his “Run for the Hoses,” said the weather was the “polar opposite” from the day of his 1976 win in temperatures approaching 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius).

“I am just trying to soak it all in, to remember it all," he said before in Hopkinton on Monday. “There are almost are no words to fully describe the kind of experience. You have a dream of a lifetime and all of a sudden it comes true.”

Runners may have noticed some changes this year, with the race turning to a crowd scientist for help in spreading things out a little so they don’t face bottlenecks on the narrow streets of the eight cities and towns along the course. At the start is a new statue of and by marathon pioneer Bobbi Gibb — the first statue on the course honoring a woman.

Race Director Dave McGillivray sent a group of about 50 members of the Massachusetts National Guard members off at 6 a.m. to get the day started. Staff Sgt. Mackenzie Smith and Spec. Benjamin De Boer stepped back and forth to try to stay warm before they set off on the course, but the cold didn't dampen their enthusiasm for participating in the Boston Marathon for the first time.

“It's an honor and a blessing to be standing at the Boston Marathon start,” Smith said. “The history that goes with the marathon resonates with me, growing up in Massachusetts.”

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Associated Press Writer Jennifer McDermott in Hopkinton, Mass., contributed to this report.

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

Participants started at the Freedom Tower and took a 45-minute walk toward the Unity Line in Brickell.

The march began with community groups from across Miami, with former Miami Mayor Francis Suarez helping lead the “We Are United” march.

The event was organized by Mosaic Miami and aimed to bring people from different faiths, cultures and backgrounds together for a shared purpose: connection.

“All 47 of us have the same mission,” said Makena Johnson, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Miami. “We’re all here because we believe in unity. We’re all here because we want to be unified. We’re all here because we believe in love.”

Organizers say the goal is simple -- turning shared space into shared understanding.

As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, organizers say the event is a reminder that unity starts at the community level.

“We’re both together 47 organizations in Miami, who said enough is enough,” said Matthew Anderson of Mosaic Miami. “We need to show the nation that were stronger together. Gatherings like this are not happening across our country. With all the conflict going on we have Jews, Muslims, Christians, people who have no faith coming together. People reach across the aisle because we all have a stake in this community to survive,” said Matthew Anderson, of Mosaic Miami.

This marks the third year for the event, and organizers say it continues to grow each year.

Edgar Monserratt Martinez and Barrett Riley were both 18-year-old seniors preparing to graduate from the Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale when they died.

Riley was driving a 2014 Tesla Model S at 116 mph in a 30 mph zone when he crashed into a wall along Seabreeze Boulevard in 2018, records showed.

The grieving families claim Riley and Monserratt survived the crash on May 8, 2018, but not the fire that followed when the batteries ignited, records showed.

Riley’s parents, James and Jenny Riley, claimed Tesla had designed defective lithium-ion batteries. The lawsuit was dismissed.

Riley’s parents also claimed Tesla installed a device to prevent travel above 85 mph, and a Tesla technician in Dania Beach removed it without their consent.

Attorneys representing Tesla denied both accusations and focused on Riley’s driving record.

At the conclusion of the civil trial in 2022, a jury ruled Barrett Riley was most responsible, so Tesla was only liable for $105,000.

In the more recent civil lawsuit, Monserratt’s loved ones claimed Tesla was negligent. The civil trial is set to begin on Monday in Broward County.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel responded to mile marker 119, south of Florida City.

An MDFR helicopter also responded.

At least one person was reportedly airlifted to a local hospital.

All lanes have since reopened.

No other details were immediately released.

Local 10 News Assignment Editor Mariana Ortiz contributed to this report.

An HC-130 Hercules crew from the U.S. Air Force 31st Rescue Squadron confirmed Sunday night that the overturned ship spotted Saturday is the cargo ship Mariana, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a news release. The plane deployed divers and boats.

“If divers locate a viable access point, the team may employ an underwater remotely operated drone to further investigate the vessel,” the guard said.

Debris, including a partially submerged inflatable life raft, was spotted about 110 miles (177 kilometers) northeast of the overturned vessel, the guard said.

Guard air crews continued to search near the Northern Marianas for the missing crew members, whose nationalities weren't released. So far, the guard and partnering agencies from Guam, Japan and New Zealand have covered more than 99,000 square miles (256,000 square kilometers), the guard said.

The Mariana, a 145-foot (44-meter) dry cargo vessel registered in the U.S., suffered engine failure Wednesday as Typhoon Sinlaku bore down on the island chain, which is home to roughly 50,000 people.

After the crew reported that the ship had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, the Coast Guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel, the guard said. But contact was lost Thursday. A HC-130 plane launched that morning to conduct a search, but it returned to Guam due to heavy winds.

The Mariana’s last known position was about 140 miles (225 kilometers) north-northwest of Saipan, which is the capital of the Northern Marianas and about 3,800 miles (6,115 kilometers) west of Hawaii.

Typhoon Sinlaku triggered floods, tore off roofs and overturned cars on Saipan. The islands endured roughly 48 hours of fierce winds, which delayed responders’ ability to assess damage and help communities, officials said.

Eight months after President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency in the nation's capital and called up the National Guard, more than 2,500 troops remain, in a deployment that has grown increasingly routine, with no clear end in sight.

Deployments to other cities have ended or been paused by courts in California and Illinois, while more limited operations are ongoing in cities including New Orleans. But in Washington, guard members still walk city streets and patrol metro stations, tourist attractions, neighborhoods and parks.

Even with pivotal elections looming this year, that lingering presence is barely mentioned in city council meetings or by candidates running for mayor and Congress — perhaps reflecting both competing priorities and a sense that local officials have little power to stop it. Unless the courts step in, the guard will remain at least through the end of the year, if not longer.

“Taxpayers are paying more than a million dollars a day to have them walk around,” said Phil Mendelson, chairman of the District of Columbia Council, in an emailed response to questions.

And, he said, “the presence of armed soldiers on American streets is not a good look.”

An indefinite deployment drags on

Trump, a Republican, issued an executive order in August to deal with what he called a crime emergency. The order brought the guard in, along with hundreds of additional federal law enforcement officers.

Over the months, guard members have responded to medical emergencies, assisted with arrests, helped local police enforce the city’s juvenile curfew and carried out beautification projects. The D.C. Guard helped with snow removal during a major storm in January.

While the guard members do not make arrests, the Trump administration argues their support to the broader mission has helped reduce crime. The White House said 12,000 arrests have been made by the task force since operations began, including 62 known gang members, and thousands of illegal firearms were seized.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the president's crime task force in the city has “yielded tremendous results for local communities.”

“Every local leader should want to mimic this success in their own locales,” Jackson said.

But officials disagree over how much credit the deployment can be given in Washington, a heavily Democratic city. Figures show crime was already on the decline before, although those figures are being investigated after claims arose against local police that they may have been manipulated.

A court battle over the guard deployment is ongoing, and without a judge stepping in it could go on as long as the White House wants.

Asked how long the guard deployment would continue, Jackson said in an email that there were “no announcements to make.”

The office of D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, which is challenging the deployment in court, declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit. The National Guard Bureau at the Pentagon did not answer requests for comment.

Guard presence absent from public discourse

Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is not running for reelection, has walked a fine line on the guard's deployment and the broader federal intervention, at once appearing to work with the president but also pushing back on some of his demands, like local cooperation for immigration enforcement.

Leading candidates to replace Bowser and the city's 18-term non-voting delegate in Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, have focused on affordability, statehood and trying to hold federal agencies accountable for their role in the surge.

The District Council, which includes at least four candidates for mayor or delegate, unanimously approved a measure to increase transparency in federal law enforcement operations. While the military deployment is mentioned at times on campaign websites and in ads, it isn't currently a central campaign issue.

Other pressures on the city, including unemployment and lost revenue tied to federal workforce cuts, have taken priority. The city’s primaries are June 16, along with a special election for an at-large city council seat.

Some residents say frustrations over the guard eased after two members of the West Virginia contingent were ambushed just blocks from the White House, killing Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and severely injuring her colleague.

Kevin Cataldo, a neighborhood commissioner who joined the local Metropolitan Police on a walkalong in his neighborhood recently, said he already treated the guard members courteously, making a point to acknowledge them because they did not choose to be in the city. The shooting ambush deepened his sympathies for them. “That was just horrible,” he said.

District Council member Brianne Nadeau said constituents continue to ask why the guard is still around but the complaints are far fewer than at the start of the deployment.

“It would be great if the federal government would use its money and resources to help the District on the things we need help with and not act like an invading army,” Nadeau said in an email.

Fellow council members and mayoral candidates Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie have raised similar issues, including the high costs.

There has been little recent public polling specifically on attitudes toward the presence of uniformed personnel in U.S. cities.

With DC's limited autonomy, pushback is a challenge

Several groups are planning protests and other events on May 1 to oppose the federal surge, including the continuing presence of the National Guard, said Keya Chatterjee co-founder and executive director of Free DC, an advocacy group that fights for the city’s autonomy. Among the goals: “an end to the military occupation of D.C. before the June election.”

Chatterjee said normalizing the guard’s presence makes it easier to suppress dissent and “tilt the playing field” in elections.

The presence of guns and military personnel could create an intimidating atmosphere during elections, Chatterjee said. Citizens have to step in and “number one, we have to help our neighbors feel safe voting.”

Scott Michelman, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, said the situation underscores the city’s limits on self-governance.

Washington is a federal district with limited autonomy where Congress retains authority to review the city’s laws and control its budget and where the president has direct control of the D.C. Guard and can authorize an indefinite military deployment with little effective resistance from local authorities.

“We should have local control and local democratic accountability for the people who enforce our laws,” Michelman said. “D.C. is uniquely disempowered in our system in many ways.”

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This story has been corrected to show the spelling of the Free DC co-founder’s surname is Chatterjee, not Chatterjay.

With all the ballots counted on Monday, results showed the Progressive Bulgaria coalition receiving 44.6% of the vote, some 30 percentage points ahead of the center-right GERB party of veteran leader Boyko Borissov and the pro-Western reformist bloc led by the We Continue the Change party. Those parties ran almost neck and neck, scoring 13.4% and 12.6% respectively. Borissov conceded defeat and congratulated Radev.

Two other parties also appear to have gained seats in the 240-seat chamber, according to the latest results.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Monday congratulated Radev on his election victory.

“Bulgaria is a proud member of the European family and plays an important role in tackling our common challenges. I look forward to working together, for the prosperity and security of Bulgaria and Europe,” she posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Radev promises a “European path” but with conditions

Radev described his party’s victory as unequivocal, a “victory of hope over distrust, a victory of freedom over fear," saying Bulgaria would “make every effort to continue on its European path”.

“But believe me, a strong Bulgaria and a strong Europe need critical thinking and pragmatism. Europe has fallen victim to its own ambition to be a moral leader in a world without rules,” Radev told reporters.

During his presidency, Radev gained a reputation as being sympathetic to Russia. He repeatedly opposed EU efforts to send military aid to Ukraine for its war against Russia's full-scale invasion. He has often argued that supporting Ukraine risks drawing Bulgaria into the war and has favored reopening talks with Russia as a way out of the conflict.

Maria Simeonova, head of the Sofia Office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that although as president Radev often expressed pro-Russian statements, prompting comparisons to a “new Orbán,” given his landslide victory at home, he is likely to now seek external legitimacy through building relationships with other European leaders.

"Radev is unlikely to openly adopt an Orbán-style rhetoric, at least in his engagement with European counterparts. His criticism — particularly regarding financial and military support for Ukraine or sanctions against Russia — will be aimed primarily at the domestic audience,” said Simeonova.

Radev left the presidency to bid to be prime minister

Radev resigned from the mostly ceremonial presidency in January, a few months before the end of his second term, to launch a bid to lead the government in the more powerful role as prime minister.

The 62-year-old former fighter pilot earned a Master of Strategic Studies degree from the U.S. Air War College in 2003, before being appointed Bulgarian air force commander. His supporters are divided between those hoping he will put an end to the country’s oligarchic corruption and those lining up behind his euroskeptic and Russia-friendly views.

Bulgaria's previous conservative government collapsed in December after nationwide anti-corruption protests drew hundreds of thousands of mainly young people to the streets.

Radev’s popularity surged as he cast himself as an opponent of the entrenched mafia and their ties to high-ranking politicians. At campaign rallies he vowed to “remove the corrupt, oligarchic model of governance from political power.”

NATO and EU member Bulgaria has been repeatedly criticized for not tackling corruption and for deficiencies in the rule of law.

Vessela Tcherneva, Deputy Director of the Berlin-based European Council on Foreign Relations, said that the most important task for Radev’s government will not be foreign policy but rather freeing Bulgarian institutions from the control of Borissov and the leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Delyan Peevski, an oligarch sanctioned for corruption by the US and Britain.

“For that he would get support from the reformist pro-European coalition We Continue the Change in parliament,” Tcherneva added.

Maybe this means an end to years of fragmented parliaments

Since 2021, the nation of 6.5 million has struggled with fragmented parliaments that produced weak governments, none of which managed to survive more than a year before being brought down by street protests or backroom deals in parliament.

Tired of the seemingly never-ending election roulette, people on the street reacted with mixed feelings to the latest election results.

“Above all, we expect a more stable judicial system, and for trust in institutions to truly be restored. Until now, they have been heavily influenced by various figures, many of whom, as we can see from the current results, have now left the government,” said Nikoleta Dimitrova, a 37-year-old shop assistant from Sofia.

Accountant Cveta Gerogieva, 55, was less optimistic: “I hope that we will really live a better life, but I am not sure that there will be stability for a long period. Probably we will vote again.”

More than 60 nations sent representatives to Brussels for talks with Palestinian representatives on stability, security and long-term peace.

The European Union has largely been on the sidelines in the Middle East despite being the biggest provider of aid to the Palestinians and backing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A majority of EU member countries now recognize an independent Palestinian state after many expressed outrage over Israeli actions in Gaza. The 27-nation bloc is also Israel’s top trading partner and a major buyer of Israeli weapons.

But the EU had no role in negotiating the October ceasefire in Gaza that took effect after two years of war. And European moves to condemn or sanction some Israeli actions frequently had been vetoed by Orbán.

Now Hungary's next leader, Péter Magyar, is indicating he will act differently from Orbán on Israel. And some leaders critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, like Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, are pushing for decisive action.

Challenging Europe's agreement with Israel

Magyar has said he would seek “pragmatic relations” with Israel but also rejoin the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over Gaza. Orbán defied that warrant while hosting Netanyahu in 2025, then started the process of Hungary leaving the world’s only court for war crimes and genocide.

Magyar also said he might not continue Orbán’s policy of vetoing actions on Israel — a stumbling block that EU leaders critical of Israel have failed to overcome over the past three years of conflict in the Middle East.

After the Brussels meeting, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that without Orbán's veto action could be coming soon, such as imposing sanctions on violent Israeli settlers.

“We have 27 countries and 26 countries want to put violent settlers sanctions in place,” she said. “The one who doesn’t want the sanctions on violent settlers has gotten their upper hand. Now, this country had elections, and we’ll have a new government.”

The Spanish prime minister wants the EU to suspend its long-standing Association Agreement with Israel and has said Spain will make a formal proposal at an EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Tuesday.

However, a suspension seems unlikely because countries such as Austria and Germany tend to back Israel.

The agreement in force since 2000 sets out the legal and institutional framework within which the bloc and Israel conduct trade and cooperation. The EU has found indications Israel had violated that agreement in its military campaign in Gaza.

Other action, such as targeted sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank, could be approved if a “qualified majority” — 15 of the 27 nations representing at least 65% of the EU's population — agree.

Ongoing attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and continued devastation in Gaza, have dimmed the prospect for a two-state solution, said Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot ahead of Monday's meeting.

“The two-state solution is being made more difficult by the day,” Prévot said. “But Belgium and many European and Arab partners continue to believe that this remains the only realistic path to a lasting peace, for Israelis, for Palestinians and for the stability of the entire region.”

Palestinian prime minister calls for unity

Gaza requires “one state, one government, one law and one goal,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa said in Brussels.

“Our common objective of achieving one security structure under the legitimate authority should guide the effective coordination between the International Stabilization Force, the Palestinian Authority, security institutions and other international actors. Security must not be fragmented,” he said.

He also called for “the gradual and responsible collection of arms from all armed groups and also the full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.” The disarmament of Hamas is a major challenge in next steps for the ceasefire in Gaza.

In the West Bank, Palestinians say Israel has used the cover of the Iran war to tighten its grip over the territory, as settler attacks surge and the military imposes additional wartime restrictions on movement, citing security.

The EU has avoided directly joining the Board of Peace created by the Trump administration to tackle Gaza, preferring the multilateralism of the United Nations and global legal norms. But the bloc is eager to not be sidelined in diplomacy in the Middle East, just across the Mediterranean.

During the Brussels meeting, Mustafa said he had met for the first time Nikolay Mladenov in the Bulgarian diplomat's role as the Trump-appointed director of Board of Peace. He said he pressed Mladenov on ongoing Israeli military action in Gaza, increasing humanitarian assistance and security in the coastal enclave. “We see eye to eye on many things, and I think that we will be meeting again in the near future,” Mustafa said.

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Associated Press writers Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal and Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary contributed to this report.

Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes of London’s Metropolitan Police Service said officers arrested two young men, aged 19 and 17, overnight in relation to the attack on the Kenton United Synagogue in the borough of Harrow. The department has made a total of 15 arrests related to six attacks on Jewish targets and a Persian-language media organization critical of Iran's government that occurred over the past few weeks, he said in an interview with the BBC.

One “serious line of inquiry” is that Iran is hiring local criminals to carry out these attacks amid tensions in the Middle East, including the U.S.-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic, Jukes said.

“We’ve seen a pattern with other actors of thugs for hire, people taking cash that looks like quick and easy money,” Jukes said. “This is part of the modern hybrid war fought by proxies.”

In the most recent incident, a bottle containing a flammable liquid was thrown through the window of the Harrow synagogue on Saturday night, causing smoke damage, police said.

Counterterrorism police are investigating the series of incidents, which began on March 23 when an arson attack destroyed four ambulances owned by a Jewish charity that serves people of all faiths in north London. No one has been injured in the incidents.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office said he “shares the country’s shock at the recent antisemitic attacks.”

“He stands with the Jewish community and he is determined to do more to give them the security they deserve," his spokesman, Dave Pares, said Monday.

Police on Friday closed Kensington Gardens, a central London park visited by thousands of tourists and local residents every day, after a group that Israel has linked to Iran posted a video claiming Israel’s nearby London embassy was going to be attacked with drones carrying dangerous substances.

Police said the embassy was not attacked, but the force shut the park as officers examined discarded items including two jars containing powder. Police said nothing harmful was found.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said on Sunday that “a sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the UK is gathering momentum."

“Thank God, no lives have been lost, but we cannot, and must not, wait for that to change before we understand just how dangerous this moment is for all of our society,” he said on X.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans said police are aware that a group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia had claimed responsibility for most of the attacks in Britain. The same group has claimed responsibility for incidents in recent months at places of worship, business and financial institutions across Europe, all of which appear to be linked to Jewish or Israeli interests, she said.

Israel’s government has described Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, whose name means the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, as a recently founded group with suspected links to “an Iranian proxy.”

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

Over the weekend, the U.S. attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel that it said had tried to evade its blockade of Iranian ports. Iran’s joint military command vowed to respond, and its foreign minister, Abbas Aragchi, told his Pakistani counterpart that American threats to Iranian ships and ports were “clear signs” of Washington’s disingenuousness ahead of the planned talks, Iran state media reported.

With tensions flaring and the ceasefire due to expire midweek, Pakistan pushed for talks to resume Tuesday as planned. Pakistan said Monday that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi held separate meetings in Islamabad with the Iranian ambassador and the acting U.S. ambassador to discuss arrangements.

Iran throttled traffic through the strait, which connects the Persian Gulf to the open seas, shortly after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war. The U.S. has also instituted a blockade of Iranian ports. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil trade normally passes through the strait.

Israel-Lebanon talked to resume, official says

Meanwhile, historic diplomatic talks between Israel and Lebanon were set to resume Thursday in Washington, an Israeli official and a U.S. official said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes talks.

There was no immediate confirmation from Lebanon.

The Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors met last week for the first direct diplomatic talks in decades. Israel says the talks are aimed at disarming Hezbollah and reaching a peace agreement with Lebanon.

A 10-day ceasefire began Friday in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants broke out two days after the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran.

Mediators said fighting in Lebanon, which has killed more than 2,290 people, was undermining efforts to end the conflict between Iran and the U.S.

Hezbollah opposes the talks but has observed the ceasefire.

Trump says the US is `highly unlikely' to renew ceasefire

U.S. President Donald Trump told Bloomberg News he was “highly unlikely” to renew the two-week ceasefire with Iran.

The New York Post reported that Trump said in a phone interview that Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, were returning to the Pakistani capital on Monday.

“They’re heading over now,” Trump was quoted as saying.

However, Vance's motorcade pulled up to the White House late Monday morning after Trump's comments were published, indicating the vice president had not left left Washington.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran on Monday that there were no plans yet to attend the talks with the U.S. But at the same time, he did not rule it out.

Two Pakistani officials said Monday that Iran has expressed a willingness to send a delegation to Islamabad. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Over the weekend, Iran said it had received new proposals from the U.S. but suggested that a wide gap remained between the sides. Issues that derailed the last round of negotiations included Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, its regional proxies and the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran says more than 3,000 have been killed in country so far

Since the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, according to a new toll released Monday in official Iranian media by Abbas Masjedi, the head of Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization. He did not break down casualties among civilians and security forces, instead just saying that 2,875 were male and 496 were female. Masjedi said 383 of the dead were children 18 years old and under.

Additionally, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.

Oil prices on the rise again after renewed conflict in Strait of Hormuz

Iran’s grip on the strait has also sent oil prices skyrocketing and given rise to one of the worst global energy crises in decades.

Oil prices recovered slightly following Iran’s announcement that the strait was being reopened following the Lebanon ceasefire announcement.

But then Trump said the U.S. blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with Washington. The U.S. military said Monday it has directed 27 ships to return to Iranian ports since the blockage began last week. The U.S. seizure of an Iranian cargo ship Sunday was the first interception under the blockade.

Iran’s joint military command called the armed boarding an act of piracy and a ceasefire violation, the state broadcaster said, and vowed to again enforce restrictions imposed early in the war. Iran on Saturday fired at ships trying to transit.

Oil prices were up again in trading on Monday, with Brent crude, the international standard, at about $93 a barrel — up from about $70 a barrel before the war started.

Iran early Monday warned it could keep up the global economic pain as ships remained unable to transit the strait, with hundreds of vessels waiting at each end for clearance.

“The choice is clear: either a free oil market for all, or the risk of significant costs for everyone,” Mohammad Reza Aref, first vice president of Iran, said in a social media post.

Israel condemns soldier defacing Jesus statue in Lebanon

In other developments, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the defacing of a statue of Jesus Christ by an Israeli soldier in Lebanon, saying he was “stunned and saddened.”

Photos surfaced over the weekend of the soldier using a sledgehammer to smash the head of a toppled Jesus statue. The Israeli military confirmed the images were genuine, setting off a wave of condemnation.

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Rising from Bangkok. Associated Press journalists Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Josef Federman in Jerusalem; Joshua Boak and Matthew Lee in Washington and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

Iran’s military has vowed to respond, throwing the fragile ceasefire into question days before it expires Wednesday.

President Donald Trump on Sunday said U.S. negotiators will be in Pakistan on Monday for another round of talks with Iran. However, he appeared to throw cold water on hopes for reaching an agreement to end the war, telling Bloomberg News on Monday that he’s “highly unlikely” to renew the ceasefire.

The escalating standoff threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy and push the two countries toward renewed fighting. Iran on Monday offered a new death toll for the war, with its forensic chief saying at least 3,375 people had been killed. His comments did not break down casualties among civilians and security forces.

Israel said it would join another round of talks with Lebanon in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. The ambassadors of the two countries met in Washington last week for the first direct diplomatic talks in decades. The Israeli official says the same representatives will join Thursday’s talks.

Here is the latest:

Vance is at the White House, not Pakistan

Reports based on Trump saying to The New York Post that Vice President JD Vance was en route to Pakistan were off by several thousand miles.

The vice president’s motorcade pulled up to the White House at roughly 11 a.m. EST on Monday, meaning that he has not left for Islamabad for talks regarding the Iran war.

US official confirms it will host another round of Israel-Lebanon talks this week

A second round of direct talks would come as uncertainty mounts over the prospects for an end to the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict and the Iran war.

The U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the talks between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States would take place on Thursday at the State Department.

The official did not say who the U.S. would be represented by, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio attended the first round last week. The main U.S. interlocuter between Israel and Lebanon has been U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa.

“We will continue to facilitate direct, good-faith discussions between the two governments,” the official said.

— By Matthew Lee in Washington

Trump says he’s ‘highly unlikely’ to prolong ceasefire with Iran that’s set to expire this week

Trump told Bloomberg News that he’s “highly unlikely” to renew the two-week ceasefire announced on April 7.

The president also said that the Strait of Hormuz would continue to be blockaded until the U.S. and Iran reach an agreement on the war.

US military says it has directed 27 ships back to Iranian ports during the blockade

The U.S. military’s blockade of Iranian-linked ships has focused on vessels entering or exiting Iranian ports. It’s an attempt to pressure Iran into reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint in the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil normally flows.

The U.S. attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel over the weekend that it said had tried to evade its blockade. Iran’s joint military command has vowed to respond.

Meanwhile, Pakistan is preparing for a new round of talks between the United States and Iran two days before a tenuous ceasefire is set to expire

Israeli official says talks with Lebanon to resume in Washington

The official says the countries are resuming their historic diplomatic dialogue on Thursday.

The ambassadors of the two countries met in Washington last week for the first direct diplomatic talks in decades. The Israeli official says the same representatives will join Thursday’s talks.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes talks. There was no immediate confirmation from the U.S. or Lebanon.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah opposes the talks, but is observing a 10-day ceasefire announced last week.

Israel says the talks are aimed at disarming Hezbollah and reaching a peace agreement with Lebanon.

— By Josef Federman

US and allied forces kick off combat drills with Philippines as China objects

The United States and the Philippines kicked off their annual display of allied military might on Monday, aimed at deterring aggression in Asia, despite Washington’s preoccupation with the war in the Middle East.

More than 17,000 American and Filipino military personnel will participate in the weeks-long Balikatan exercise, which includes mock battles and live-fire maneuvers facing the disputed South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

Nearly 10,000 U.S. military personnel will participate. “Regardless of the challenges elsewhere in the world, the United States focus on the Indo-Pacific and our ironclad commitment to the Philippines remains unwavering,” Marine Lt. Gen. Christian Wortman said in the opening ceremony.

China has objected. “Unilateralism and military bullying have already brought profound disasters to the world,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Guo Jiakun warned, without mentioning the United States.

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Trump snaps at critique that Israel dragged him into Iran war

In the leadup and throughout the seven-week war, Trump has faced criticism from the left and from some of his own supporters that he followed Israel’s lead into launching the conflict.

But Trump on social media is blaming the media for pushing what he claims is a false narrative.

“Israel never talked me into the war with Iran, the results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON,” Trump posted.

Still no commitment by Iran for Round 2 talks with US

The office of Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said he spoke Monday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, urging sustained diplomacy to address pending issues.

The Pakistan Foreign Office statement did not mention whether they discussed Iran resuming talks with the US in Islamabad, but said officials agreed to remain closely engaged going forward.

Trump says Vance is en route to Pakistan, but it’s not clear where the VP actually is

The New York Post quoted Trump in an interview claiming that Vice President JD Vance is headed to Pakistan for negotiations on the Iran War, along with special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law.

“They’re heading over now,” Trump said. “They’ll be there tonight.”

But it’s not quite clear if Trump was speaking more broadly or if the claims about Vance are accurate. Administration officials have in response to questions declined to confirm if Vance is, in fact, mid-air on the way to Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

Top Catholic leader in Israel condemns defacing of statue of Jesus in Lebanon

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, on Monday expressed “profound indignation and unreserved condemnation” of the defacing of a statue of Jesus Christ by an Israeli soldier in Lebanon, saying the act “constitutes a grave affront to the Christian faith.”

The Israeli military confirmed on Sunday that images showing an Israeli soldier smashing the head of a toppled Christ statue with a sledgehammer were genuine, setting off a wave of condemnation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had launched a criminal investigation into the soldier’s actions. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described it as “shameful” and apologized “to every Christian whose feelings were hurt.”

In a statement from Jerusalem, The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, headed by Pizzaballa, called for “immediate and decisive disciplinary action, a credible process of accountability, and clear assurances that such conduct will neither be tolerated nor repeated.”

Germany warns wars are destabilizing ‘far beyond Middle East’

The country’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, called on both Iran and the United States to cease hostilities and reach a negotiated solution in the Middle East.

He told reporters Monday in Hannover that the uncertainties created by the continuation of the conflict “have massive repercussions not only on the Middle East, not only on the Asian region, but also on the European region.”

“And the repercussions will not stop at America’s doorstep,” Merz added.

“All of this is currently jeopardizing economic development around the world and could lead to further political destabilization,” the chancellor warned. “The most important prerequisite for stability in the energy markets is an end to hostilities.”

UAE arrests people over alleged ties to Iran

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates arrested members of a unit with alleged ties to Iran, the state’s media reported.

The UAE-run WAM news agency reported Monday that those arrested had extremist views and were part of a “terrorist” unit, holding secret meetings, threatening internal security, planning to share sensitive location information and trying to recruit people to join suspicious foreign groups.

Dubai has previously shut down the city-state’s Iranian Hospital and Iranian Club, institutions that date back to the time of the shah.

Oil prices climb as US stocks give back only a bit of their record-breaking rally

Monday’s opening trades in the U.S. are a sharp turnaround from Friday, when oil prices tumbled after Iran said it was reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Now oil prices are climbing and U.S. stock prices are slipping again as the U.S. seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel on Sunday cast doubt on a second round of peace negotiations before the ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. expires on Wednesday. Airline stocks also tumbled again, as they tend to when oil prices jump.

“The problem for markets is not the absence of hope; it is the overpricing of it,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

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What captaining an oil tanker in the Mideast is like right now

Captain Rahman Al-Jubouri helms the Palau-flagged Sea Moon in one of the world’s most volatile maritime corridors, where the U.S.-Israel war with Iran has disrupted global trade and left some crews stranded and exposed to attacks.

The hostilities are not new for al-Jubouri, an Iraqi who has worked these seas during decades of upheaval, including the Iran-Iraq War and the 1991 Gulf War. Once again, he finds himself operating in high-risk waters, as military strikes threaten vessels seeking to navigate through chokepoints like Bab el-Mandeb and the Persian Gulf.

“We’re sailing over a ball of fire,” he said, speaking to The Associated Press by phone as he guides the ship from the Gulf of Aden toward the Gulf of Oman to unload oil at Ras Isa port in Yemen.

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Israel condemns a soldier defacing a statue of Jesus in Lebanon

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned an Israeli soldier filmed defacing a statue of Jesus Christ during operations in Lebanon, saying he was “stunned and saddened” by the soldier’s actions.

Photos surfaced on Sunday of a soldier smashing the head of a toppled statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer. The Israeli military overnight confirmed the images were genuine, setting off a wave of condemnation. Netanyahu said Israel had launched a criminal investigation into the soldier’s actions. The Israeli military also said it was assisting the community to restore the statue.

The military did not immediately confirm where or when the incident took place. The Israeli military controls a large swath of southern Lebanon, reaching some 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Israeli border, and has not allowed residents to return.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a staunch Christian, said Israel must take action against the “outrageous act.”

China’s Xi calls for Strait of Hormuz to reopen

It is the first time that Chinese President Xi Jinping has publicly called for the reopening of the waterway. He made the comments in a call Monday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Xi said that China supported an “immediate and comprehensive ceasefire” and backed any efforts at restoring peace in the Middle East, according to a readout of the call published by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Prince Mohammed said Saudi Arabia was committed to resolving the conflict through dialogue and hoped to avoid further escalation.

Iran willing to attend second round of talks with US, Pakistan officials say

Iranian authorities have expressed willingness to send a delegation for a second round of talks in Islamabad this week, two Pakistani officials said Monday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, said there is cautious optimism that delegations from both Iran and the United States could travel to Islamabad.

They added that Pakistan will not share details about either side’s travel plans due to security considerations.

They also urged media outlets to avoid speculation about the timing of the talks, saying the process remains fluid.

Lebanon’s president says his country will negotiate on its own

President Joseph Aoun’s comments hinted Beirut will not accept that Iran negotiates on its behalf as part of U.S.-Iran talks.

Aoun said a Lebanese delegation led by diplomat Simon Karam will lead the next round of talks with Israel, as a 10-day fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah remains in place. The date for the talks has not been confirmed yet.

“No one will participate with Lebanon in this mission or replace it,” Aoun said in a statement. He said the aim of the negotiations is to halt “hostile actions, end the Israeli occupation of southern areas, and deploy the army up to the internationally recognized southern borders.”

He said Lebanon faces two options: the continuation of the war, or negotiations to end it. Hezbollah has expressed opposition to direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel. Last week, the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to Washington held the first direct talks in decades.

An Indian-flagged oil tanker crossed Strait of Hormuz over the weekend

India’s Shipping Ministry said on Monday that the vessel carrying crude oil and 31 seafarers safely crossed of Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, the same day two other Indian vessels had to turn back after reports of Iranian gunfire.

The vessel is expected to arrive at Mumbai on Wednesday, the ministry said. It added that 10 Indian-flagged ships have so far safely crossed the strait.

Oil prices jump and stocks are mixed

Oil prices climbed more than 5% while world shares were mixed Monday as a standoff between Iran and the U.S. prevented tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. benchmark crude gained 5.3% to $87.88 a barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, was up 5.3% at $95.62 a barrel.

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Brazil’s Lula condemns massive spending on wars

Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said during a visit to Germany it is unacceptable that hunger, illiteracy and a lack of access to electricity remain unresolved for billions of people while trillions are spent on wars.

“We are experiencing a critical moment in global geopolitics, marked by great paradoxes: While astronauts fly to the moon, women and children are being killed indiscriminately in the bombings in the Middle East,” he said Sunday night at the Hannover trade fair, German news agency dpa reported.

Lula called for modern technologies to be used not for wars, but “for a more sustainable and secure world.”

China expresses concern over US seizure of Iranian ship

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed concern Monday over the U.S. seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship on Sunday.

“We hope all relevant parties will adopt a responsible attitude, abide by the ceasefire agreement, avoid escalating tensions or intensifying contradictions,” spokesperson Guo Jiakun said.

“The Strait of Hormuz is an international waterway, and ensure its unimpeded passage serves the common interests of countries in the region and the international community,” Guo said.

China has called for the resumption of the normal operation of the waterway.

Iran’s military explains why Tehran didn’t resist ship raid

Iran’s military offered an explanation Monday for why it didn’t fight back against U.S. Marines who raided an Iranian vessel in the Gulf of Oman.

The Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, which oversees operations of Iran’s regular military and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said it held back attacking the Marines because the ship’s crew had family members aboard the Touska.

“Due to the presence of some family members of the ship’s crew, they faced constraints in order to protect their lives and ensure their safety, as they were in danger at every moment,” it said.

However, Iran also has seen much of its navy and airborne assets destroyed in the war.

Khatam al-Anbiya vowed it will take “necessary action against the terrorist U.S. military” in the future, without elaborating.

Iran Foreign Ministry says no plans yet to attend talks

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei on Monday said Tehran did not have plans yet to attend any talks with the United States.

He did not rule out Iran attending talks.

Authorities in Islamabad had been making preparations for another round potentially happened there this week.

“So far, while I am here, we have no plans for the next round of negotiations and no decision has been made in this regard,” Baghaei said during a news conference.

Pakistan interior minister meets US chargé d’affaires

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Natalie Baker at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad on Monday.

The meeting focused on strengthening Pakistan-U. S. relations and preparations for a second round of talks scheduled to take place in Islamabad this week, Naqvi’s office said.

The statement did not specify when the talks are expected to begin.

Naqvi briefed Baker on security arrangements, saying special measures had been taken to ensure the safety of visiting delegations.

“We have made comprehensive security arrangements for our distinguished guests,” Naqvi said in the statement.

Baker offered an appreciation for Pakistan’s role in easing regional tensions and efforts to facilitate dialogue.

Pakistan prepares to host second round of talks

Pakistani authorities on Monday prepared to host a second round of talks between Iran and the United States, despite questions about whether the negotiations will take place.

Pakistan has intensified diplomatic contacts since Sunday with Washington and Tehran to ensure the talks proceed as soon as Tuesday, officials said on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke by phone late Sunday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Sharif’s office said in a statement that did not mention the planned talks.

Authorities began closing key roads and stepping up security in the capital Islamabad over the weekend, particularly around a luxury hotel where the delegations are expected to meet.

Authorities deployed troops at checkpoints, closed tourist sites and instructed major hotels to limit bookings to ensure availability.

Iran’s forensic medicine leader says death toll now over 3,300

Iran on Monday offered a new death toll for the war with Israel and the United States, with its forensic chief saying at least 3,375 people had been killed in the conflict.

The figure came from Abbas Masjedi, who oversees Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization.

Masjedi, quoted by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency and other outlets Monday, said only four of the dead remain unidentified.

His comments did not breakdown casualties among civilians and security forces, instead just saying 2,875 were male and 496 were female.

Masjedi said 383 of the dead were children 18 years old and under.

Masjedi’s figures raised questions about whether or not they included security force members, particularly given the levels of intense bombings targeting military bases and arsenals in the country.

Iran says it hangs 2 convicts claimed by opposition group

Iran said Monday it hanged two men it accused of setting fire to buildings on behalf of the Israeli intelligence service Mossad.

An Iranian exiled opposition group earlier claimed the men as members and alleged their charges stemmed from events that happened after they already had been detained.

The Mizan news agency of Iran’s judiciary identified the men hanged as Mohammad Masoum Shahi and Hamed Validi.

The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq opposition group identified Shahi as Nima Shahi.

The MEK said the men had been “subjected to interrogation and torture.” This brings to eight the total number of MEK members executed since the start of the war.

Activists and rights groups say Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face.

Hezbollah claims it destroyed Israeli tanks

Hezbollah said it detonated explosives Sunday afternoon in an attack against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

The group said in a statement Monday that bombs planted by Hezbollah fighters exploded and destroyed four tanks in a convoy of eight tanks that was passing the village of Deir Siryan.

It was the first claim of an attack by Hezbollah since a 10-day ceasefire went into effect at midnight Thursday.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

Tehran says restrictions on Iranian oil come with a price

Iran’s first vice president, Mohammad Reza Aref, says global fuel prices could stabilize only if economic and military pressures on Iranian oil exports end.

“One cannot restrict Iran’s oil exports while expecting free security for others,” Aref wrote on X. “The choice is clear: either a free oil market for all, or the risk of significant costs for everyone.”

Wembanyama was making his playoff debut against Portland for a franchise and city that is longing for postseason success after six seasons of futility.

Spurs Hall of Famers Gregg Popovich, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and George Gervin were in attendance amongst a sell-out crowd at the Frost Bank Center adorned in a sea of bright T-shirts in the team's Fiesta colors.

Was the pressure of having the hopes of a city and so many Hall of Famers on his shoulders too weighty for the 22-year-old Wembanyama?

“I wouldn’t say weight. I would say it feels safe,” Wembanyama said. “It feels like if you trip, there’s a lot of hands that’s ready to catch you.”

And that’s how the Spurs feel with Wembanyama patrolling the court.

Wembanyama scored 35 points in a 111-98 victory over the Trail Blazers, setting a Spurs franchise record for the most in a playoff debut, surpassing Duncan’s 32 in 1998. Wembanyama’s 21 first-half points set an NBA record for the most in the opening half of an NBA playoff debut since the league’s play-by-play era began in 1997.

“I thought he was ready,” San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said. “He probably settled in a little bit later when he made some shots and his talent popped, but I thought he really settled in there at a point when our defense kicked into another gear.”

The Spurs played a video prior to the game that included Kendrick Lamar’s “tv off,” with the lyrics “It’s not enough” imposed on Wembanyama’s highlights. It was appropriate for Wembanyama and the Spurs.

San Antonio had not participated in the playoffs since 2019, a six-season postseason drought that came immediately after San Antonio won five NBA championships while appearing in a league-tying 22 straight postseasons.

Wembanyama made it a successful return, going 5 for 6 on 3-pointers and finishing 13 for 21 from the field.

“We put different guys on him," Portland coach Tiago Splitter said. "He had an amazing game, of course. 35 points, 5 for 6 from 3s. It’s really hard to take him out of the paint. I think we did a good for the most part taking him out of the paint. Of course he rolled a couple of times with a small on him and that’s a bucket. But those five 3s really hurt us.”

Wembanyama had a series of highlights, which is nothing unusual during his three seasons. The highlights have become so routine that Wembanyama can't recall at times when asked about a particular one.

“I don’t remember,” Wembanyama said. “Was it a two or a three?”

A rundown of how he dribbled behind his back to avoid Avdija at halfcourt, spun around him to run free to the rim for a two-handed dunk midway through the first quarter didn't jog his memory.

“Yeah. I have to look again,” Wembanyama said.

As likely will millions of fans, who had 2.43 billion views of Wembanyama on NBA social media this season, second only to Lakers star LeBron James' 2.85 billion views.

Wembanyama may take a look back just to further take in the atmosphere and excitement of Sunday's victory.

“It’s great to see this many people wear their shirts,” Wembanyama said. “I love the animation (on the video boards) when they say, ‘Wear your shirt.’ Yeah, you should absolutely wear your shirt if you’re coming to the game. But now at first, I mean, the first time I stepped on the court for warmups, I felt the atmosphere was different. Everybody’s ready. I mean, the fans were ready. It’s probably the most excited I’ve seen this year in this arena.”

While the crowd left with free T-shirts, the Spurs received more extravagant clothing from Kelly Olynyk, who celebrated his 35th birthday Sunday by handing out gifts.

Wembanyama and the entire Spurs' roster came to the game in matching, custom-made black suits, purchased by Olynyk.

“That’s Kelly," Wembanyama said. “Happy birthday, by the way. He took the initiative to make us all wear the same thing. That’s good. It’s a good team thing.”

So is Wembanyama.

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

The large-scale combat drills between the U.S. and Philippines will expand this year to include other militaries, including from Japan, France and Canada, which have signed visiting forces agreements with Manila, the Philippine military said.

More than 17,000 American and Filipino military personnel will participate in the Balikatan — Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder — exercise. The event will last nearly three weeks and will include mock battle scenarios and live-fire maneuvers in locations including Philippine provinces facing the disputed South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

Nearly 10,000 U.S. military personnel will take part in the combat drills, a major deployment that U.S. military officials said underscores Washington’s commitment to Asia despite its preoccupation with the war against Iran.

“Regardless of the challenges elsewhere in the world, the United States focus on the Indo-Pacific and our ironclad commitment to the Philippines remains unwavering,” Marine Lt. Gen. Christian Wortman said in the opening ceremony.

Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner said the multinational combat drills build deterrence and resilience against aggression in the region. He did not mention any country in his speech but in the past, he has strongly criticized China for its increasingly assertive actions against Philippine navy and coast guard forces in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also lay claims to the waters, a key global trade route, but territorial confrontations have particularly spiked between Chinese and Filipino forces in recent years.

China has objected to the U.S.-Philippine drills, saying they are aimed at containing its global rise. The Philippine military, however, has insisted the exercise does not target any country and is also needed to prepare allied forces to respond to natural disasters.

The U.S. has repeatedly warned China that it is obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces come under an armed attack in disputed waters.

“We remain guided by a shared commitment to uphold international law, to respect sovereignty and to contribute to a free and open Indo-Pacific where nations can thrive without coercion,” Brawner said.

During the drills, Japanese forces will fire missiles from a coastal area in the northwestern Philippine province of Ilocos Norte to help sink a mock enemy ship about 40 kilometers (25 miles) away in the peripheries of the South China Sea, Philippine marine. Col. Dennis Hernandez told The Associated Press.

U.S. forces will use a marine drone laden with explosives to further bombard the enemy ship, Hernandez said.

Last year, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth assured Philippine officials while visiting Manila that the Trump administration would work with allies to ramp up deterrence against threats across the world, including China’s aggression in the South China Sea.

“Friends need to stand shoulder to shoulder to deter conflict, to ensure that there is free navigation whether you call it the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea,” Hegseth told Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

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AP writers Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.

The violence that unfolded early Sunday across two houses in Shreveport, Louisiana, was one of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings in recent years.

The gunman's wife, who family members say is the mother of some of the children, and another woman were critically wounded, according to the Shreveport Police Department. The police said in a statement Monday that they are hopeful both women will recover.

The shooter, identified as Shamar Elkins, died after fleeing and a police pursuit that ended with officers firing on him.

Officials said the children — three boys and five girls — ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old. Another person jumped off the roof of the house and was expected to survive.

“I just don’t know what to say, my heart is just taken aback,” Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said. “I cannot begin to imagine how such an event could occur.”

Elkins and his wife, identified by family members as Shaneiqua Elkins, were separating and had been due in court Monday, said Crystal Brown, a cousin of a woman shot in the attack. She said the couple had been arguing about the separation before the shooting.

“He murdered his children,” Brown said.

Family members described Shaneiqua Elkins as a doting mother, who celebrated her children’s success in school and carefully dressed them before family events.

“She raised those kids right,” said Lionel Pugh, Shaneiqua Elkins' uncle. “They were the center of her universe.”

The violence started before sunrise Sunday

Authorities said the shooting erupted before dawn, when Elkins shot a woman at a home in a neighborhood south of downtown. He then went to the other house a few blocks away and began shooting the children, police said. Elkins' nephew was among the slain children, according to the Caddo Parish coroner’s office.

Liza Demming, who lives two houses down from where most of the victims were shot, said her security camera captured video of the suspect running away along with the sound of two shots.

“That’s pretty much all I saw, was him running out of the house and the cars leaving,” she said.

Demming later went outside and saw the covered body of a child on the home’s roof.

State Rep. Tammy Phelps said some children tried to get away through the back of the house. “I can’t even imagine what the police officers, first responders actually dealt with when they got here today,” she said.

Mourners laid flowers outside the single-story house on 79th Street and others lit candles for the victims in the parking lot of a nearby shopping plaza.

“It just makes you take your children and hug them and hold them and tell them how much you love them,” said Kimberlin Jackson, who attended the vigil.

Gunman had no recent arrests for domestic violence, police say

Investigators were not aware of other domestic violence issues involving Elkins, said police spokesperson Chris Bordelon.

Elkins had served in the Louisiana National Guard from 2013 to 2020 as a signal support system specialist and a fire support specialist, said guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Noel Collins. Elkins held the rank of private and had no deployments, Collins said.

He did not appear to have an extensive criminal history in court records, which showed he was placed on probation in 2019 after pleading guilty to illegal use of weapons. In that case, Elkins fired five rounds at a vehicle and told police that someone inside it had pulled a gun on him, according to a police report.

Brown, the cousin of one of the women who were shot, said she was at church Sunday morning when the pastor told congregants about the shooting at the end of the service. She described the children as happy and friendly.

“They worked, came home, they stuck to themselves," she said. “Just an everyday family.”

The mayor of Shreveport, a city about 180,000 residents in northwestern Louisiana, called it a tragic situation. “Maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had,” said Tom Arceneaux.

The shooting in Shreveport was the deadliest in the U.S. since January 2024, when eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

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Contributing were Associated Press reporters Jack Brook in New Orleans; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Jake Offenhartz in New York; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; Terry Tang in Phoenix, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.

“I didn’t do a lot, to be honest,” Dowd said. “It’s probably better if it gets on and off my stick that quick. ... I just found a little bit of space. Everywhere across the league, there’s limited space out there. Guys are playing their best hockey defensively because everything matters that much more. It was a bang-bang play.”

Game 2 is Tuesday night in Las Vegas.

The Golden Knights, who twice trailed before scoring three third-period goals, have not lost in regulation since John Tortorella (8-0-1) took over as coach.

The Mammoth lost in the franchise's first playoff game since 2020. They are in their second season in Utah after leaving Arizona.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. “It was physical. It was intense. Every inch was contested.”

Colton Sissons had a goal and assist for the Golden Knights and Mark Stone and Ivan Barbashev also scored. Carter Hart stopped 32 shots. Hanifin had two assists.

Logan Cooley and Kevin Stenlund scored for the Mammoth. Karel Vejmelka, playing in his first playoff game after five years in the Utah/Arizona organization, made 27 saves. Captain Clayton Keller, who closed the regular season with 16 assists over a 10-game streak, failed to record one in this game.

The Golden Knights took the fight to the Mammoth from the beginning and finished with 52 hits to 29 for Utah. Vegas' high in the regular season was 36 against Los Angeles in the Oct. 8 opener.

Both teams breaking into several fights including one after the final buzzer.

“We played physical,” Tortorella said. “We have some things to work on, but it was good to see us bang around a little bit. It's a long series. You just keep on trying to do the things you think you need to grind away.”

Former Golden Knight Nate Schmidt delivered a tremendous cross-ice pass to Cooley, whose one-timer from the right circle put the Mammoth on the scoreboard first with just 11 seconds left in the first period.

Sissons scored the equalizer at 3:44 of the second period, jamming in the puck after a backhand pass from Cole Smith. Utah retook the lead not even two minutes later when Hart found himself out of position and Vegas defenseman Kaeden Korczak knocked the puck into his own net, though it was officially credited to Kevin Stenlund.

“We didn't really pay attantion to it,” Barbashev said. “Our guys did a really good job to get one back on the power play.”

That happened when the Golden Knights again tied the game when Stone put a rebound into the open net for a power-play goal 5:33 of the third period. They then soon had the lead when Utah defenseman MacKenzie Weegar turned over the puck in his zone, and Dowd knocked in Hanifin's shot.

Barbashev closed the scoring with an empty-netter.

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

The world’s richest man and Linda Yaccarino — the former CEO of X — have been summoned for “voluntary interviews," while other employees of the platform are scheduled to be heard as witnesses throughout this week, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

It remains unclear whether Musk and Yaccarino will travel to Paris. A spokesperson for X did not respond to questions from The Associated Press and Yaccarino’s current company, eMed, did not answer a request sent to the press email.

French prosecutors also suspect that controversy around the platform’s AI system Grok's deepfakes was concocted to boost the value of Musk-owned companies ahead of a key market listing, and alerted U.S. authorities. Musk welcomed a report that U.S. justice officials refused to help French investigators, posting on X, “This needs to stop.”

The reason for summoning Musk

Musk was summoned after a search took place in February at the French premises of X as part of an investigation opened in January 2025 by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office. Musk and Yaccarino have been invited in their capacities as managers of X at the time of the events investigated. Yaccarino was CEO from May 2023 until July 2025.

“These voluntary interviews with the executives are intended to allow them to present their position regarding the facts and, where appropriate, the compliance measures they plan to implement,” prosecutors said. “At this stage, the conduct of this investigation is part of a constructive approach, with the ultimate objective of ensuring that platform X complies with French law, insofar as it operates within the national territory.”

The Paris prosecutor's office said Musk and Yaccarino's potential no-show on Monday “is not an obstacle for investigations to continue.”

What is being investigated

French authorities opened their investigation after reports from a French lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms on X likely distorted the functioning of an automated data processing system. It expanded after the AI system, Grok, generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a crime in France, and spread sexually explicit deepfakes.

It’s looking into alleged “complicity” in possessing and spreading pornographic images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organized group, among other charges.

Grok, which was built by xAI and is available through X, sparked global outrage this year after it pumped out a torrent of sexualized nonconsensual deepfake images in response to requests from X users.

Grok also wrote in a widely shared post in French that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than for mass murder — language long associated with Holocaust denial.

In later posts on X, the chatbot reversed itself and acknowledged that its earlier reply was wrong, saying it had been deleted, and pointed to historical evidence that Zyklon B was used to kill more than 1 million people in Auschwitz gas chambers.

French prosecutors alert U.S. authorities

In March, the Paris prosecutor’s office alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — the U.S. federal agency responsible for regulating and overseeing financial markets — suggesting "that the controversy surrounding sexually explicit deepfakes generated by Grok may have been deliberately orchestrated to artificially boost the value of the companies X and xAI — potentially constituting criminal offenses," prosecutors said.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said this could have been done "ahead of the planned June 2026 stock market listing of the new entity formed by the merger of Space X and xAI, at a time when company X was clearly losing momentum.”

Justice Department brushes off French call

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department told French law enforcement authorities it wouldn’t facilitate their efforts to investigate Musk’s X. The newspaper reported that the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, in a two-page letter last week, accused the French of inappropriately using its justice system to interfere with an American business.

The letter also said France’s requests for U.S. assistance “constitute an effort to entangle the United States in a politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at wrongfully regulating through prosecution the business activities of a social media platform.”

French judicial authorities didn’t respond to requests for comments.

Investigations launched into several internet platforms

The cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor's office has launched in recent years a series of investigations focusing on internet platforms' suspected illegal activities.

French-language website Coco, which was cited in the landmark trial that turned Gisèle Pelicot into a global icon against sexual violence, closed in 2024 as its manager is accused of complicity in spreading child pornography and trafficking of children for sexual purposes, among other things.

Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app, was handed preliminary charges and placed under judicial supervision for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the platform, including child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking.

The Paris prosecutor’s office opened last year an investigation into TikTok over allegations that the platform allows content promoting suicide and that its algorithms may encourage vulnerable young people to take their own lives.

Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it has lodged a new complaint against X with the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office targeting "the platform’s policies that allow disinformation to flourish.''

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Associated Press reporter Kelvin Chan in London contributed to this story.

Residents lined the narrow streets as the rider passed, some lifting phones to record while others waved, clapped and called out, “Here he comes!” and “We love you, Paul!”

The ride cut through dense city blocks where everyday life continued alongside the spectacle — people walking dogs, jogging and moving through parks and apartment-lined streets, some pausing to watch, others carrying on.

Mary McCabe, who came from Lowell with her daughter Cecily, said it was interesting “just to see how different messages traveled back then.”

Cecily, who said she loves learning about the American Revolution, said seeing the reenactment in person made history feel more real.

“It’s really cool because I can actually see it with my own eyes,” she said.

More than a century-old tradition

Brig. Gen. Richard Reale Jr. of the National Lancers, part of the Massachusetts Organized Militia, portrayed Revere, riding from the North End through Charlestown, Somerville, Medford and Arlington on his way to Lexington. He said the act serves as an important tribute to “tradition and patriotism” as America marks 250 years since the nation’s founding.

“The unit’s been doing this for well over 100 years, and I believe the same thing: It’s important to remember our patriots on a day like today — those who helped found this country and those who continue to preserve it. We thank our armed forces.”

Clad in a Boston Bruins jacket, Arlington resident and onlooker Vernon Brown said the reenactment resonates deeply in a place tied to the Revolution’s earliest fighting.

“It’s Patriot’s Day — one of the great holidays of Massachusetts. We love it,” he said. “I think in Arlington here, where the Revolution really started — the first pitched battle was here — seeing Paul Revere just brings home how great America is and how everybody really does love this country.”

A Revolution turning point

Revere's ride took place on April 18, 1775, when the silversmith and express rider was dispatched to Lexington to warn Revolutionary leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the British were coming to arrest them. He then headed to Concord to warn about raids on military stockpiles.

Revere reached Lexington around midnight, and another rider, William Dawes, got there along a different route soon after with the same message.

Their efforts resulted in militiamen, muskets in hand, confronting a much larger contingent of British regulars marching from Boston on the Lexington Battle Green. The British regulars were eventually chased back to Boston, where militias pinned them down for 11 months in what became known as the Siege of Boston.

“It’s important because you have to have someone to meet the British troops,” said Nina Zannieri, executive director of the Paul Revere Memorial Association, which owns and operates the Paul Revere House. “It becomes a turning point. If no patriots had turned out on the green and the British had just rolled into town, it would have been different. But they actually meet resistance.”

The reenactor, dressed in Colonial costume and accompanied by another horseman, is tracing the route taken by Revere 251 years ago. The ride began in Boston’s North End and continues through Charlestown, Somerville, Medford and Arlington before finishing in Lexington — all communities where Revere alerted militias about British movements.

Some aspects of the historic night are not part of the event, such as Revere taking a boat to Charlestown before starting his ride.

Nor is there Revere’s brief detention by a British patrol on his way to Concord after leaving Lexington. Revere was ultimately let go without his horse after convincing the British that hundreds of patriots were waiting for them, and he returned to Lexington to see the end of the battle.

“It’s basically important that he leaves Boston. He rides. He’s alerting people. Other people are out,” Zannieri said. “He starts a chain reaction, and he accomplishes his mission even though he gets stopped and held. He’s lucky he wasn’t killed.”

Then and Now

While Revere dodged patrols and contended with rutted and muddy roads, his 21st-century counterpart has it easier, traveling on pavement and passing through a world of stoplights, car dealerships and bustling downtowns that Revere never could have imagined. The 2026 Boston Marathon is taking place at the same time, though the routes do not overlap.

Michelle DiCarlo-Domey, who organizes the ride each year for the National Lancers, the state’s historic mounted cavalry unit, said thousands come out to see history come alive and show their patriotism. The National Lancers have been holding the Revere and Dawes ride for over 110 years.

“Whenever you can interact with the riders and the horses, it can help carry history on,” DiCarlo-Domey said. “Kids can relate to what they learn in school. And where else do you see two horses running down the street?”

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AP journalist Leah Willingham contributed from Boston.

Starmer said he would have withdrawn the appointment if he'd known Mandelson had failed security checks, as he tried to explain why Mandelson was given the U.K.'s most important diplomatic post. Starmer placed blame squarely on Foreign Office officials who he said failed to tell him about the security concerns and approved Mandelson's appointment despite them.

Starmer told lawmakers in the House of Commons that ”I would not have gone ahead with the appointment” had he known the truth. He called it “frankly staggering” that officials didn’t tell him about the failed vetting.

“At the heart of this, there is also a judgment I made that was wrong,” Starmer added. “I should not have appointed Peter Mandelson.

“I take responsibility for that decision, and I apologize again to the victims of the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who were clearly failed by my decision.”

Starmer fired Mandelson in September, nine months into the job, when new details emerged about his friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.

His explanation was greeted with jeers from opposition lawmakers, incredulous that the nation's leader hadn't known about the failed security vetting.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said Starmer's lack of curiosity was hard to believe.

“It doesn’t appear that he asked any questions at all. Why? Because he didn’t want to know," she said.

Starmer denies misleading Parliament

Starmer was attempting to set the record straight after repeatedly telling lawmakers that “due process” was followed when Mandelson was appointed.

Though he apologized for his error of judgment, he denied misleading Parliament, which is usually considered a resigning offense.

Starmer fired the top Foreign Office civil servant, Olly Robbins, within hours of the revelation by The Guardian last week. But allies of Robbins say he never would have been able to share sensitive vetting information with the prime minister.

Robbins is expected to give his own version of events to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

Badenoch noted that Robbins is the latest high-profile government departure linked to Mandelson. She said that instead of taking responsibility for his mistakes, Starmer "has thrown his staff and his officials under the bus.”

Ed Davey, leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, said Starmer “gives every impression of a prime minister in office but not in power.” Davey said appointing Mandelson was "a catastrophic error of judgment. And now that it’s blown up in his face, the only decent thing to do is to take responsibility."

Senior government colleagues have defended the prime minister. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said that if Starmer had known about the failed security vetting, “he would never, ever have appointed him ambassador.”

But lawmakers in Starmer’s center-left Labour Party, already anxious about its dire poll ratings, are restive. Starmer already defused one potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to resign over the Mandelson appointment.

He could face a new challenge if, as expected, Labour takes a hammering in local and regional elections on May 7, which give voters a chance to pass a midterm verdict on the government.

Warnings about Epstein ties went unheeded

Critics say the Mandelson appointment is more evidence of bad judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps since he led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024.

Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living, and has been forced into repeated policy U-turns.

He picked Mandelson as ambassador despite being warned by his staff that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein exposed the government to “reputational risk.”

Mandelson’s business links to Russia and China also set off alarm bells. But his expertise as a former European Union trade chief and contacts among global elites were considered assets in dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

A trove of Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice in January included emails suggesting Mandelson had passed on sensitive, and potentially market-moving, government information to Epstein in 2009, after the global financial crisis.

British police launched a criminal probe and arrested Mandelson in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.

Starmer said he had ordered a review into any security concerns arising from Mandelson’s access to sensitive information while ambassador.

Many questions remain unanswered after Starmer's 2 1/2-hour question-and-answer session, including why Mandelson failed the vetting and whether officials felt political pressure to approve the appointment.

Several lawmakers asked why Starmer chose Mandelson for the job despite red flags.

“I’m interested in his judgment,” said Scottish National Party lawmaker Stephen Flynn. "Does he believe himself to be gullible, incompetent or both?”

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Sylvia Hui and Brian Melley in London contributed reporting.

Chile’s former President Michelle Bachelet — one of two women and one of three from Latin America — will be the first to face ambassadors from the U.N.’s 193 member nations during a three-hour question-and-answer session on Tuesday. Bachelet will be followed by U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Mariano Grossi of Argentina.

On Wednesday, U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan will take center stage in the General Assembly hall, and finally, Senegal’s former President Macky Sall.

In 2016, a hotly contested race drew 13 candidates. What has changed?

For starters, the deeply polarized and conflict-wracked world of 2026 is far different from the more peaceful global climate in 2016, the year Donald Trump was elected president for the first time.

Add to that the diminished stature of the United Nations. A decade ago, the world organization was basking in its success in helping achieve the Paris climate agreement to curb global warming and an agreement by world leaders on 17 goals to promote global economic growth, preserve the environment and close the growing gap between rich and poor nations.

Today, the divisions among world powers are so deep that the U.N. has been unable to fulfill its primary role in ensuring global peace and security. The once powerful Security Council has been blocked from acting to halt wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran, among other conflicts, leaving the U.N. on the sidelines of major global crises.

The International Crisis Group’s Richard Gowan, a U.N. watcher and program director, said the current geopolitical scene has affected the race to succeed Guterres, whose second five-year term ends on Dec. 31.

He said 10 years ago, many candidates entered the race knowing they had little chance of winning, but used it to raise their profiles.

“There was no real cost associated with losing,” Gowan said. (asterisk)This time around, potential candidates and the governments who sponsor them are much more cautious. There is a feeling that if a candidate puts a foot wrong and offends Washington or Beijing, it could cause real diplomatic damage.”

How the selection worked in 2016

In 2016, there was intense pressure to choose the first woman to lead the United Nations. Seven of the 13 candidates were women. But there was widespread agreement that Guterres performed best in what the U.N. calls the “interactive dialogue” with General Assembly members.

The U.N. Charter says little about choosing the secretary-general except that the General Assembly, which includes all members, should do so upon the recommendation of the Security Council. That gives the five permanent members of the U.N.’s most powerful body — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — the decision-making role and veto power over the selection.

By tradition, the secretary-general rotates by region. Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister and U.N. refugee chief representing Europe, succeeded former South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, who represented Asia. He followed Ghana’s Kofi Annan, who represented Africa.

Now, it should be Latin America’s turn, though Eastern Europe has never had a secretary-general and lost out in 2016.

Under U.N. rules, candidates must be nominated by a member nation — not necessarily their own. There is no time limit for nominations, and more candidates could appear, but in 2016 the Security Council started doing “straw polls” among the 13 candidates in late July, which basically served as a cutoff.

How the four candidates were nominated

During their sessions this week, the four candidates are likely to be asked about their vision for the job, global hot spots and the future of the United Nations — but anything goes.

Bachelet, 74, who was the U.N. high commissioner for human rights after serving two non-consecutive terms as Chile's president, was initially nominated by Chile, Brazil and Mexico. But after Chile’s far-right leader, José Antonio Kast, became president in March, his government withdrew its support for Bachelet, a leftist, though she remains a candidate because of nominations from Brazil and Mexico.

Grossi, 65, a former Argentine diplomat who has been director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency since 2019, was nominated by his home country.

Grynspan, 70, a former vice president of Costa Rica, has been secretary-general of the U.N. Trade and Development agency, UNCTAD, since 2021 and was also nominated by her country.

Sall, 64, was nominated by Burundi, but his home country, Senegal, told the African Union that it had not endorsed him. Neither did the divided 55-nation regional organization.

A fifth candidate, Argentine diplomat Virginia Gamba, a former U.N. representative for children in armed conflict, was nominated by the Maldives, but the Indian Ocean nation withdrew her candidacy in late March without giving a reason.

While there are only two female candidates, pressure for a madam secretary-general continues, including from Guterres, who has sought to achieve gender equality in his administration. Britain and France have also said they would like to see a woman at the helm.

The global advocacy group 1 for 8 Billion and GWL Voices, an organization of nearly 80 global female leaders, have been campaigning for a woman. GWL’s president and co-founder, Susana Malcorra, a former Argentine foreign minister and senior U.N. official, was a candidate for secretary-general in 2016.

Bachelet, however, already faces US opposition

In a March 25 letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 28 Republican Senate and House members asked the United States to veto Bachelet, calling her “a pro-abortion zealot intent on using political authority to override state sovereignty in favor of extreme agendas.”

Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was asked at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last week by Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska — one of the letter’s signatories — about Bachelet’s fitness for the job. Waltz responded that he wasn’t in a position to say whether the U.S. would support or oppose her, but he said, “I share your concerns.”

Gowan said the odds that a woman would be chosen were seen as changing sharply when Trump returned to the White House.

“Before that, there was a feeling that this time a woman had to win, but now a lot of diplomats assume that Washington will insist on a male secretary-general on principle,” he said. “I am not sure that is necessarily correct.”

Pese a que ha transcurrido una semana desde los comicios presidenciales, el conteo oficial de votos avanza a cuentagotas en su fase final, en medio de investigaciones de la Fiscalía por los reclamos de una presunta demora en la entrega de material electoral.

Contabilizadas el 93,5% de las actas, la derechista Keiko Fujimori lidera con 17,05% de votos, el nacionalista Roberto Sánchez es segundo con el 12,00% y le pisa los talones el ultraconservador López Aliaga con 11,92%, según la Oficina Nacional de Procesos Electorales (ONPE).

López Aliaga insistió ante cientos de asistentes concentrados en el denominado Campo de Marte —en el centro de Lima— que más de un millón de peruanos no votaron porque supuestamente “el material no estuvo listo”.

En su discurso el candidato por Renovación Popular exigió a las autoridades convocar a “elecciones complementarias antes del 3 de mayo para que voten todos los peruanos que no han votado”.

López Aliaga no ha respaldado con pruebas su denuncia de “fraude”. Una misión de observadores de la Unión Europea negó en días anteriores tal posibilidad.

En tanto, el candidato progresista por el movimiento Juntos por el Perú llamó la víspera a sus seguidores a vigilar los votos y defender “la voluntad del pueblo”, desestimando las denuncias de su contendor.

“Hacemos un llamado a la comunidad internacional y a nuestros electores que estemos atentos”, dijo el candidato Sánchez, al considerar que la “voluntad del pueblo” ya ha sido expresada.

El ajustado margen de diferencia entre Sánchez y López Aliaga podrá resolverse cuando se incorporen los votos del extranjero y se solventen inconsistencias en miles de actas electorales.

Perú irá a un balotaje a inicios de junio porque ningún candidato ha logrado el 50% más uno de los votos válidos que exige la ley para ganar en primera vuelta.

Wembanyama's 21 first-half points set an NBA record for the most in the opening half of an NBA playoff debut since the league's play-by-play era began in 1997. His 35 total points set a Spurs franchise record for the most in a playoff debut, surpassing Tim Duncan’s 32 in 1998.

“It is obviously different, but we’ve been really good in the regular season,” Wembanyama said. “So, we have no reason to act differently or do anything different.”

Game 2 is Tuesday night in San Antonio before the series heads to Portland for Games 3 and 4.

Stephon Castle and De'Aaron Fox each added 17 points and combined for 15 assists for San Antonio.

Deni Avdija had 30 points and 10 rebounds to lead Portland, which beat Phoenix 114-110 in Tuesday’s play-in game to earn the No. 7 seed.

Scoot Henderson, the No. 3 pick in the 2023 draft behind Wembanyama and Charlotte’s Brandon Miller, added 18 points.

The Spurs responded to the Trail Blazers' physicality while holding them to 10-for-38 shooting on 3-pointers and had a 45-38 rebounding advantage.

“The Spurs put you in tough positions,” Portland coach Tiago Splitter said. “Against them, you've got to shoot the ball well from 3s. We didn't. We've got to shoot the ball better.”

The Spurs and the sell-out crowd — which included Duncan and former teammate and fellow Hall of Famer David Robinson sitting together courtside — at the Frost Bank Center were primed for the franchise’s first playoff game since 2019. The six-season postseason drought came immediately after San Antonio won five NBA championships while appearing in a league-tying 22 straight postseasons.

Spurs fans are again dreaming big — and it’s because of their 7-foot-4 post player from France who is a finalist for the NBA's MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards.

Wembanyama’s highlights included dribbling behind his back to avoid Avdija at halfcourt, backing him down to the top of the key, spinning around him and running free to the rim for a two-handed dunk midway through the first quarter.

San Antonio clamped down defensively to regain their double-digit lead in the third quarter, with Devin Vassell blocking Donovan Clingan and Jrue Holiday while scoring eight straight points.

“That’s what we’ve talked about, just not giving up on the play,” Vassell said. “Every possession matters, whether it’s the first possession in the first quarter or the last possession in the fourth quarter. Play to the whistle.”

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

The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% from its all-time high and is on track for just its second drop in 14 days after the United States seized an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel that it said had tried to evade its blockade of Iranian ports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 71 points, or 0.2%, as of 12:43 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, climbed 5.3% to $95.21 on worries that Iran could keep petroleum pent up in the Persian Gulf if it continues to block tankers from exiting the Strait of Hormuz.

It’s a turnaround from the last trading day on Wall Street, when stocks soared and oil prices tumbled Friday after Iran said it was reopening the strait to commercial traffic. That enthusiasm vanished quickly after Iran closed the strait again Saturday following the U.S. decision to press ahead with its blockade of Iranian ports.

The next big deadline is looming on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern time, which is early Wednesday Tehran time, when a ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran is scheduled to expire.

Still, oil prices remain well below the high points reached so far in the war. Brent crude’s price briefly got above $119 per barrel when fears were at their highest. And the S&P 500 is still above where it was before the war.

The muted moves suggest investors still see a possibility of a U.S.-Iranian agreement that could get oil flowing again from the Middle East to customers worldwide. It would be in both countries’ economic interests to end the war.

Companies with big fuel bills fell to some of Wall Street’s larger losses following the rise in crude’s cost, as they have through much of the war.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings dropped 4.4%, and Carnival lost 1.4%.

United Airlines slipped 2.6%, and American Airlines fell 4.7% after American said it’s not interested in a merger with United. Airline stocks had flown higher last week following a report saying United wanted to combine with its rival.

On the winning side of Wall Street was TopBuild, a distributor of insulation and building products, which jumped 17.7%. QXO is buying it in a deal valued at roughly $17 billion.

QXO said the deal would make it the continent’s second-largest publicly traded building products distributor, and its stock fell 5.8%.

One big reason the U.S. stock market has been so strong recently is the big profits that U.S. companies have been reporting for the first three months of 2026, as well as expectations for continued growth.

While reporting stronger profits for the latest quarter than analysts expected, several of the biggest U.S. banks said recently that they see the U.S. economy remaining resilient, particularly because of solid spending by U.S. consumers.

“Despite geopolitical risks, the earnings recovery remains intact,” according to Morgan Stanley strategists led by Michael Wilson. It’s remained so solid that analysts have even raised their profit expectations since the war began for the spring of 2026.

Along with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and other big banks, about 10% of companies in the S&P 500 have already reported their results for the start of 2026. Nearly nine out of 10 have delivered a bigger profit than analysts expected, according to FactSet.

If the rest of the companies in the index just match analysts' expectations, overall earnings per share for S&P 500 companies will end up 13% higher than a year earlier, according to FactSet.

That's big because stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term. Other big companies scheduled to report their results this week include UnitedHealth Group on Tuesday, Tesla on Wednesday and Procter & Gamble on Friday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a better finish in Asia. Germany’s DAX lost 1.2%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.8% for two of the world’s bigger moves.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Detroit went into the postseason as the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference, openly talking about exceeding modest expectations and winning the franchise's fourth championship.

If the Pistons don't play better than they did in a 112-101 loss to Orlando on Sunday night in Game 1, they might get knocked out in the first round again.

“We’re sick about losing this one,” Cade Cunningham said after scoring a playoff career-high 39 points and not getting much help from his teammates. “It's a long series.”

Detroit, which has lost an NBA-record 11 straight home postseason games, hosts the Magic again on Wednesday night.

The Pistons have not won a home playoff game since 2008, which is also the last year they advanced in the playoffs.

They were sluggish early against the Magic and had a built-in excuse, playing for the first time in a week.

“We didn’t come out with the right energy,” Cunningham said.

They were flat early in the third quarter, too, and that's tougher to explain.

“We were chasing them all night,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We made some runs to get ourselves back in the ballgame.”

The Magic, meanwhile, looked ready to play just two nights after routing Charlotte in an elimination game to earn a spot in the playoffs.

“They’ve been off and we’ve found a little bit of a rhythm,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “That always plays a part in it.”

Detroit never had the lead.

Cunningham made a 3-pointer to pull the Pistons into a tie midway through the third quarter, but they wasted the opportunity by giving up 14 of the next 17 points and couldn't recover.

Detroit finished with a season-low 31 baskets, connecting on just 40% of its shots. Tobias Harris scored 17 points as the only double-digit scorer other than Cunningham, but he missed 10 of 15 shots.

All-Star Jalen Duren, who averaged nearly 20 points in the regular season, was limited to four shots and eight points.

“They packed the paint,” Bickerstaff said. “They’re going to put a bunch of bodies in the paint to try to make it difficult on him.”

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

Tage Thompson scored goals 3:42 apart to tie it, and Alex Tuch sealed the victory by scoring into an empty net with 1:12 left in nearly blowing the roof off the arena.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 17 shots.

Buffalo hosts Game 2 of the first-round series Tuesday night.

The playoff win was Buffalo’s first at home — and first overall — since a 1-0 victory over Philadelphia in Game 4 of a first-round series April 20, 2011. The Sabres proceeded to lose the series in seven games. The Sabres won their first Atlantic Division this season and snapped an NHL-record 14-season playoff drought.

Thompson dismissed the narrative of the team lacking playoff experience by saying players drew on the frustrations of going so long without a postseason appearance.

“I think eight years of adversity is enough experience to get you ready for something like this. I think any time you go eight years not making playoffs and then it’s finally here, the last thing you want is regret,” Thompson said. “There’s just a heightened feeling of hunger. You just don’t want to let this opportunity slip. I thought tonight was really important to make a statement and set our standard.”

David Pastrnak scored with seven seconds remaining, and had two assists for Boston. Morgan Geekie and Elias Lindholm also scored for the Bruins. who finished the regular season 33-2-4 when leading after two periods. Jeremy Swayman made 34 saves.

“I really don't know," Bruins coach Marco Sturm said, when asked what happened.

“I thought we were in the perfect spot. We were exactly where we wanted to play, being in that position five or six minutes left in the game,” the first-year coach said. “That’s something we have to learn again the hard way. We just have to stick with it for 60 minutes.”

After going 5,473 days between playoff games the Sabres delivered a stunning victory.

Trailing 2-0 after Lindholm scored 1:08 into the third period, Buffalo finally caught a spark from Thompson, who led the team with 40 goals this season.

Thompson’s first goal came on a wrap-around backhander with 7:58 remaining. He then tied it by getting to a loose puck to the left of the Boston net, and firing a low shot inside the far post with 4:16 remaining.

With the crowd still buzzing, Samuelsson scored 52 seconds later. Teammate Jack Quinn got to the puck deep in the Bruins zone and fed Samuelsson, who snapped a high shot in from the left circle.

“I don’t think the belief that was ever wavered,” Samuelsson said. “I just think we just had a lot of belief within the group. Just tried to ride the momentum with the fans and it worked out nice.”

This marked just the second time Buffalo overcame a two-goal third-period deficit. The other time also happened against Boston in a Game 4 first-round series-clinching first-round 6-5 overtime win in 1993. It’s best remembered in Buffalo as the “May Day!” game with Brad May scoring the decisive goal to secure the Sabres' first playoff series victory in a decade.

The Bruins, the Eastern Conference’s seventh-seeded team, unraveled in making their return to the playoffs following a one-year hiatus.

“We just couldn’t finish it. That’s the frustrating point, but it’s a long series,” Sturm said. “We’re prepared. We came to Buffalo wanting to get a win. We didn’t get one today, but we’re going to try our best to get one the next game.”

Pastrnak’s three-point outing upped his career playoff total to 90 points, and moved him ahead of Cam Neely and Wayne Cashman for ninth on the team list, and two back of Bobby Orr.

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

The Trump administration's campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters has persisted since early September and killed at least 181 people in total. Other strikes have taken place in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Despite the Iran war, the series of strikes have ramped up again in the past week or so, showing that the administration's aggressive measures to stop what it calls “narcoterrorism” in the Western Hemisphere are not letting up. The military has not provided evidence that any of the vessels were carrying drugs.

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

In the latest attack Sunday, U.S. Southern Command repeated previous statements by saying it had targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. It posted a video on X showing a boat moving along the water before a massive explosion engulfs the vessel in flames.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and fatal overdoses claiming American lives. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

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

Six strokes behind playing partner Sei Young Kim for a few moments on the 11th green, Green closed with a 4-under 68 to match Kim (70) and Jin Hee Im (67) at 17-under 271 on the tree-lined layout.

In the playoff on the par-4 18th, Green hit a wedge from 130 yards and curled in the right-to-left breaking putt after Kim — eight strokes ahead with five holes to go Saturday in the third round — left a 35-foot birdie try short.

“I had that putt, obviously very similar line in regulation, so I felt somewhat comfortable,” Green said. “It still was a tough putt, so really glad it went in the hole.”

Im — penalized a stroke for slow play Saturday — reached the green in three after hitting her drive to the right.

Green also won the event in 2023 and 2024 at Wilshire Country Club. The 29-year-old Australian player joined Hyo Joo Kim as the only two-time winners this season on the LPGA Tour and ran her worldwide 2026 victory total to four.

Green has eight career LPGA Tour victories. She won the tour's HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore early last month and also took the Women’s Australian Open and Australian WPGA.

Sei Young Kim took a two-stroke lead into the round and had a three-shot edge on the back nine.

“Just little disappointed because I had a good chance for the win,” she said. "Yeah, but she’s play well. Strong finish back nine.

The tournament was played at El Caballero for the second straight year because of course renovations at Wilshire.

After Sei Young Kim chipped in for eagle on the 11th to leave Green six shots back, Green followed with a birdie on the hole to get a shot back.

“I honestly didn’t think I was in the tournament still,” Green said. “I was just like, `Oh, well just go for as many pins as possible.′”

She birdied Nos. 13-16 — missing a 5-foot eagle putt on 16 — and pulled even with Sei Young Kim and Im — who made a 60-footer for eagle on 16 — when Sei Young Kim bogeyed the par-3 17th.

“Got on a nice stretch there,” Green said. "I kind of thought the putt that I missed on 16 was the crucial moment. I mean, I’m just fortunate enough that I at least got into the playoff.”

The Chevron Championship, the first women’s major of the year, will start Thursday in Houston.

“It’s going to be really hard to come back down to earth next week, so it’s going to be my next challenge,” Green said. “I’m going to be on a flight tonight to Houston, so I don’t know if I’m getting much rest."

Ina Yoon was a stroke out of the playoff after a 69. She eagled the 16th, birdied the 17th and nearly holed a 30-foot birdie try on 18,

Former UCLA star Patty Tavatanakit (70) was 14 under with Haeran Ryu (66). First-round leader Chizzy Iwai (70) was 12 under with Minami Katsu (68).

Amateur Asterisk Talley tied for 13th at 9 under after a 70. The 17-year-old Talley played her first event since losing the lead on the back nine in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

“It’s great just to get to play with the pros and get some learning experience,” said Talley, also in the field for The Chevron.

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

Detroit has dropped 11 straight home games in the postseason, a drought that dates to 2008.

The Pistons will get another chance against Orlando on Wednesday night in Game 2.

Detroit's Cade Cunningham scored a playoff career-high 39 points and Tobias Harris added 17 for the Pistons, but the rest of their teammates were quiet offensively.

Franz Wagner scored 11 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter to help seal the victory for the Magic, who never trailed. Orlando’s Desmond Bane and Wendell Carter scored 17 points each and Jalen Suggs had 16.

The Pistons haven’t advanced beyond the first round in the postseason in 18 years and the Magic haven’t since 2010.

Orlando looked ready and Detroit looked rusty early.

The Magic, coming off a rout of Charlotte in a play-in game on Friday, led 18-5 midway through the first quarter after holding the Pistons to 1-of-6 shooting with four turnovers in their first game in a week.

Detroit rallied to pull within two before Orlando closed with six straight points to lead 35-27 after Banchero and Suggs combined to score 20 points.

The Magic led 55-51 at halftime.

The Pistons came out flat in the second half and Orlando took advantage, scoring eight of the first nine points and prompting Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff to call a timeout.

Detroit scored 10 straight points and 13 of 15 to pull into a 65-all tie on Cunningham’s 3-pointer.

Banchero answered with a long jumper over Jalen Duren and Bane followed with a 3-pointer over Cunningham, leading to the Magic restoring a double-digit lead. Orlando led 81-74 going into the fourth quarter.

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

Slafkovsky fired a snap shot from the left circle that beat Andrei Vasilevskiy to the far side for his first career postseason hat trick.

“It's pretty nice. I like that feeling,” he said. “Obviously, we don't want to go to overtime. Hopefully we close out games before that. But now we have to focus on the next game.”

Game 2 is Tuesday night at Benchmark International Arena, where Tampa Bay has lost nine of its last 10 home games in the postseason. The Lightning are 1-11 in their last 12 overtime games in the playoffs.

“We took four offensive zone penalties,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “That wasn't over-aggression. That was stupidity. This is the Stanley Cup playoffs. This isn't game 62. That's extremely disappointing.”

Josh Anderson also had a goal for Montreal, and rookie goalie Jakub Dobes made 20 saves.

“His style of play and energy and speed and physicality is perfect for playoff hockey,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said of Anderson. “He had a big night for us.”

Brandon Hagel scored two goals and Darren Raddysh also scored for Tampa Bay.

The Lightning have been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round three straight seasons after falling two wins shy of a three-peat in 2022.

The Canadiens, coached by Lightning icon and Hockey Hall of Famer Martin St. Louis, are seeking their first Stanley Cup since winning their NHL record 24th in 1993. They haven’t won a playoff series since the Lightning beat them in the Cup Final in 2021.

Hagel’s power-play goal — a tip-in off a precise pass by Jake Guentzel 8:58 into the third — tied it at 3-3 a few minutes after Slafkovsky put Montreal ahead.

Slafkovsky’s shot from the high slot slid under Vasilevskiy’s left pad for a short-lived lead. He one-timed a perfect seam pass from Ivan Demidov into the net from the right circle to make it 2-2 in the final minute of the second.

Raddysh tied it at 1 with a powerful slap shot in the second. The Lightning went ahead 2-1 just 29 seconds later when Hagel picked up a loose puck from the side of the net and backhanded a shot past Dobes.

Montreal’s fourth line gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead in the first when Anderson flipped a top-shelf shot into an open net.

Anderson also had a goal overturned by video review midway through the second period. He deflected Mike Matheson’s slap shot past Vasilevskiy but it was waved off because his stick was above the crossbar.

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

The Recycled Orchestra from Cateura, Paraguay, brought its unique performance to Miami Dade College’s North Campus on Sunday.

The musicians are known for creating instruments out of materials collected from a landfill in Cateura, transforming everyday items into working violins, cellos and more.

“The front part is made up of a paint can. This part was a pizza pan that you would cook a pizza on. Holding the strings is a fork and a spoon,” said Amara, a violinist.

The internationally known group performs around the world and stopped in Miami for a special one-hour show as guests of the South Florida Youth Symphony.

“This leads to many more opportunities for our kids that don’t understand how the rest of the world really lives and what they have to go through to make their dreams come true,” said Marjorie Hahn, executive and music director of the South Florida Youth Symphony.

The 10-person orchestra showed how they turn what many would see as trash into something joyful through music.

“So special because we make the trash music and that is so inspiring and so cool!” Amara said.

It was a unique moment as students and musicians from across the world came together, inspiring young performers in Miami during an evening of music.

El hospital presentó su nuevo departamento de emergencias de 178,000 pies cuadrados, convirtiéndolo en uno de los más grandes del país. Es tres veces el tamaño de la sala de emergencias actual, que ya es una de las más concurridas de la nación, marcando una expansión significativa en atención y capacidad.

Local 10 News obtuvo un adelanto exclusivo del interior antes de la apertura oficial.

El CEO de Jackson Health System, David Zambrana, dijo que la apertura se realizará por fases. En la primera fase, habrá 134 habitaciones disponibles. Aseguró que los pacientes pueden esperar tiempos de espera más cortos, mayor privacidad y triaje personalizado.

“En la fase dos, tendremos más de 200 camas en nuestro departamento de emergencias”, dijo Zambrana. “En nuestro segundo piso, tendremos una unidad de observación de 57 camas para pacientes que necesiten pasar, digamos, una o máximo dos noches en el hospital, brindándole a cada paciente una experiencia privada y de última generación para atención de emergencias.”

La fase dos también incluirá una nueva sala de emergencias pediátricas con 24 camas de última generación.

Las nuevas instalaciones incluyen salones privados y áreas de espera para familiares, y están equipadas con una segunda plataforma de aterrizaje para helicópteros.

Se describe como la próxima era de la atención médica, y el Centro de Trauma Ryder no desaparecerá.

“El departamento de emergencias ciertamente atenderá todo tipo de condiciones de sala de emergencias, pero el Centro de Trauma Ryder continuará atendiendo el trauma de nivel uno para adultos y niños”, dijo Zambrana.

La nueva sala de emergencias abrirá el 23 de abril, y se espera que el proyecto completo esté terminado en 2027.

Edgar Monserratt Martinez y Barrett Riley eran dos jóvenes de 18 años que se preparaban para graduarse de Pine Crest School en Fort Lauderdale cuando fallecieron.

Riley conducía un Tesla Model S 2014 a 116 mph en una zona de 30 mph cuando chocó en 2018 contra un muro a lo largo de Seabreeze Boulevard, según los registros.

Las familias afectadas alegan que Riley y Monserratt sobrevivieron el choque del 8 de mayo de 2018, pero no el incendio que siguió cuando las baterías se encendieron, según los registros.

Los padres de Riley, James y Jenny Riley, alegaron que Tesla había diseñado baterías de iones de litio defectuosas. La demanda fue desestimada.

Los padres de Riley también alegaron que Tesla instaló un dispositivo para impedir que el vehículo superara las 85 mph, y que un técnico de Tesla en Dania Beach lo retiró sin su consentimiento.

Los abogados que representan a Tesla negaron ambas acusaciones y centraron su defensa en el historial de manejo de Riley.

Al concluir el juicio civil de 2022, el jurado determinó que Riley era el principal responsable, por lo que Tesla solo fue declarada liable por $105,000.

En la demanda civil más reciente, los seres queridos de Monserratt alegan que Tesla fue negligente. El juicio civil está programado para comenzar este lunes en el condado Broward.

It's already pretty noisy.

New York dropped its 11th consecutive game when closer Devin Williams blew a ninth-inning lead in a 2-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs in 10 innings Sunday. It’s the longest slide for the club since it lost 11 in a row from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 in 2004.

“We've just got to stick together and stay within ourself and fight,” Lindor said. “Fight.”

Led by Lindor and Juan Soto, the Mets began the season with World Series aspirations. They had an opening-day payroll of $352.2 million, tops in the majors.

Soto strained his right calf during a 10-3 victory at San Francisco on April 3 — the beginning of a four-game win streak that lifted New York to a 7-4 record.

That seems like a long time ago.

The Mets have been outscored 62-19 during their losing streak. They are batting .145 with runners in scoring position during the skid after going 0 for 9 in those situations in the series finale against the Cubs.

“We didn't hit that many balls hard today,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “So yeah, we've got to get better at-bats, for sure.”

The Mets became the first team to lose 11 or more games in a row in April since the 2022 Cincinnati Reds. The last 12-game slide for the franchise was in August 2002.

Only four teams have reached the postseason after going through a double-digit losing streak, including the Cleveland Guardians last year and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2017.

“I think it does compound as you continue to lose, but that's for us to stop it and get ourselves going on the right track,” Mets pitcher David Peterson said.

Most of the noise Lindor mentioned likely will focus on Mendoza, who was hired in November 2023. But president of baseball operations David Stearns backed Mendoza on Friday, and Lindor offered a strident defense of his manager after Sunday's loss.

“Mendy's our guy. He's our leader,” the All-Star shortstop said. “He's in control and he's done a tremendous job. We just haven't executed. It would be unfair to put everything on him because at the end of the day he has gotten the ship in the right direction. The people that are paddling, we've got to paddle and execute.”

Even with the team's struggles at the plate, New York was in position to salvage the finale of its six-game trip.

The Mets had a 1-0 lead before Williams gave up pinch-hitter Michael Conforto's tying double in the ninth. Craig Kimbrel was saddled with the loss when Nico Hoerner drove in Pete Crow-Armstrong with a sacrifice fly in the 10th.

The 31-year-old Williams signed a $51 million, three-year contract with the Mets in free agency.

“I'm really, really disappointed,” Williams said. “They gave me a lead. It's my job to hold it, and I made a mistake. It cost us the game today.”

The Mets are off Monday before beginning a nine-game homestand Tuesday night against the Minnesota Twins. Soto is expected to return at some point during the homestand, but Lindor & Co. know the slugger can only help so much.

“It's going to lengthen our lineup, but even when he comes, we've still got to get it done,” Lindor said. “It would be unfair to just throw everything on him. As a team, we've got to come together and execute.”

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

For the first time since Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades engulfed his apartment building in November, Mak stepped into his former home again Monday. His social worker had previously shown him a photo of the devastation.

The ceiling of the apartment where he and his wife lived for over 40 years and raised their children was burned so badly that steel rebar was visible. The floor was littered with broken tiles and parts of the apartment needed reinforcement to prevent collapse.

After the return visit to his charred home on the first floor with his family, the 78-year-old was left disappointed.

“All things were burned and turned into ashes,” Mak said.

The fire spread rapidly across seven of the eight buildings in the apartment complex in the suburban district of Tai Po, killing 168 people. Starting Monday, the thousands of residents displaced by the fire were returning to see what is left of their homes and retrieve their belongings. The process is expected to continue into early May.

Hong Kong Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk said over 1,400 people registered for the return are 65 or older, public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong reported. He said over 260 people returned to the complex Monday and police received some requests for help from residents who suspected their assets had been lost.

As the investigation into the cause of the fire continues, survivors have been living as best they can, scattered across the city, many in temporary housing as they wait to find out where they can resettle.

Loss of valuables in the ruins

The exteriors of some buildings remained blackened from the flames, a reminder of the tragedy.

The return will be particularly difficult for many of the complex's older residents, who made up over a third of some 4,600 people who lived there before the blaze.

With elevators out of service, some have been training to improve their fitness in preparation for climbing the stairs up the 31-story buildings.

There were many items in Mak’s apartment that the family cherished and longed to retrieve: a fishing rod Mak’s son bought him as a gift, wedding photos from half a century ago, letters from their son. All of them were destroyed. They were able to retrieve some charred photo albums with pages stuck together and faces damaged beyond recognition.

Mak's wife, Kit Chan, 74, likened their home to ruins. A box that stored her jewelry including two diamond rings was empty and she suspected theft. The family reported their losses to the authorities.

“My mood is not so good because when I think of valuable, worth remembering items, they are all lost,” she said, pointing to a red cloth with guest signatures from her wedding.

Other residents found items including a painting, wedding rings and a damaged jewelry box.

Former residents have complex feelings

Steven Chung said the staircases were blackened when he climbed several flights and found some valuable belongings he wanted to retrieve. But he had concerns beyond his possessions.

“I worry about another problem because housing prices are increasing rapidly these days,” he said.

Cyrus Ng, 39, lived on the 10th floor of the Wang Fuk Court complex with his parents for over a decade before moving out.

In the immediate aftermath of the fire, he couldn’t sleep, feeling angry, sad and worried about his parents. Nearly five months later, he is more emotionally settled but has not fully accepted what happened.

“We know there are suspicious issues behind this,” he said. “I hope we can really find the truth.”

A lawyer representing an independent committee conducting an ongoing inquiry into the fire’s cause has said almost all fire safety systems failed on the day of the blaze because of human error.

Ng has mixed feelings about returning next week to their apartment, which was spared the worst damage. He fears the emotional impact on his parents, but looks forward to the chance to retrieve their title deed, old photos, clothes and other valuable items.

He also said he is worried about theft after months of vacancy. Police arrested three men in March on suspicion of stealing from the site.

Mixed responses to resettlement offers

The government previously said repairing the damaged buildings cost-effectively would be difficult. Officials were inclined to demolish the seven fire-ravaged buildings, and have proposed to buy back the homeownership rights from the fire victims.

They cited results from a residents' survey, dashing hopes for those who want their homes on the site rebuilt.

Some residents questioned that stance. Data from the fire inquiry showed that only half of some 1,700 apartments in the seven buildings were damaged, to varying degrees.

Ng wondered if some of the buildings could be repaired to allow some residents to return, though his parents were already considering the government’s offer of an apartment elsewhere. He plans to take photos of his apartment during his return to document its condition and help prove that some homes were unaffected.

Other residents who lived in the only building in the complex that escaped the fire face the trauma of living with nightmarish memories.

Stephanie Leung, a resident of that block, is reluctant to live in the same apartment again. She said her family would face great mental stress every time they looked out over the seven other buildings where their former schoolmates or friends died.

She hopes the government will include her block in the same plan as the other buildings, while allowing those who want to remain to stay.

“Whenever I go back, I want to cry,” she said.

It was practically a repeat from three years ago, right down to the shot into the 18th hole that Fitzpatrick said was “out of this world.”

The 31-year-old from England quieted the crowd with a 4-iron from 204 yards, a little more left than he intended but no less magnificent. It covered the bunker, rolled past the pin and settled 13 feet away for a birdie to beat Scheffler and win the RBC Heritage for the second time.

The playoff was almost a repeat from when Fitzpatrick defeated another American favorite, Jordan Spieth, in a playoff at the RBC Heritage three years ago. That time, he hit 9-iron with the wind at his back that rolled out to a few inches for the winning birdie.

This time the closing hole was a brute, the toughest at Harbour Town on Sunday.

“It was quite funny that the playoff was just going to keep playing on 18. I was thinking it was going difficult in a way to separate ourselves because it’s such a difficult hole,” Fitzpatrick said. “To do it how I did was special.”

Scheffler, trailing by three shots with four holes to play, forced a playoff with a pair of late birdies for a 4-under 67 and some help from Fitzpatrick, who hit a poor chip from right of the green and missed a 20-foot par putt for his only bogey of the day and a 70.

The gallery that was allowed to come onto the fairway short of the 18th green in regulation filled the Calibogue Sound with endless chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” They returned outside the ropes to see Fitzpatrick hit 4-iron into a stiff breeze to a pin just over the bunker.

Scheffler followed with his worst swing of the day, a 6-iron he fanned so badly that it came up 37 yards short of the hole. He hit a superb pitch to 8 feet, but never had to putt when Fitzpatrick made the winning putt.

“A lot of grit,” Fitzpatrick said of holding on for the win.

His reaction was muted, lightly touching his finger to his right ear in a friendly response to the crowd. Fitzpatrick knew what he was up against, having gone through a similar atmosphere when Cameron Young beat him at The Players Championship.

“I didn't get out of line in terms of no one was shouting on backswings or anything like that, which was great," Fitzpatrick said. "I'm all for it. I love the people ... they're supporting Scottie. You want golf to have an atmosphere. I'm paid so much money to be out there in front of those crowds. Having them chanting at you every week, it’s great feeling.

“However,” he said with a smile, “there's no better feeling than coming out on top against that.”

It was the second straight runner-up finish for Scheffler, who came from 12 shots behind going into the weekend to finish one back of Rory McIlroy at the Masters. This time, he was seven behind Fitzpatrick through 36 holes and finished 64-67.

“In both weeks I put myself behind the 8-ball going into the weekend and had really nice Saturdays and Sundays in order to get myself into contention,” Scheffler said. "On Sunday it’s a shot here or there that makes a difference. This was one of those weeks where anytime Fitzy needed something to happen, he made something happen.

“He definitely earned the win, and he just played great golf.”

It was great theater, but only at the end.

Fitzpatrick started with a three-shot lead and birdied two of the opening three holes, never letting anyone closer than three shots all round until Si Woo Kim birdied the par-5 15th to get within two shots, and then Scheffler came on late with an up-and-down from a bunker for birdie on the 15th, and a bold drive and approach to 10 feet for birdie at the 16th.

That cut the lead to one shot, and both players missed the 18th green well to the right. Scheffler capped off a perfect day of scrambling — 8 for 8 — with a chip that settled a foot from the hole. Fitzpatrick faced his first chip into the grain and came up well short.

They finished at 18-under 268. Kim closed with a 68 to finish alone in third, his fourth top 10 of the year.

Fitzpatrick won for the second time in the last month. After his runner-up finish at The Players, he won the Valspar Championship on the tough Innisbrook track. He has won nearly $8.3 million in his last four tournaments.

The victory, his fourth on the PGA Tour and 13th worldwide, moves him to a career-high No. 3 in the world ranking.

Fitzpatrick’s family used to take holidays to Hilton Head Head when he was a boy, for the golf and tennis and beaches. He came to the tournament and thought it would be cool to win it one day, and now he has done it twice.

“It means the world,” he said. “This is a tournament I wanted to win growing up more than any of the majors before I understood more about the game. To go toe-to-toe with Scottie and get it over the line is special.”

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

Scattered evening showers will gradually fizzle overnight. Additional showers will move through Monday to cool us off this week. A cold front is on the move, and we will see much needed rain take over Monday. Up to an inch of rainfall cannot be ruled out. Isolated tiny showers to start the day will give way to scattered showers and downpours by the afternoon and evening.

Afternoon highs by then will drop slightly below normal into the upper 70s Tuesday. Gusty winds will take over then too. Expect winds to gust up to 30 mph then.

And for the eighth consecutive year, the MVP will be an international one.

Gilgeous-Alexander — the reigning NBA MVP — is one of the finalists for this year's top individual honor, along with Denver's Nikola Jokic and the Spurs' Wembanyama, who is also a finalist for defensive player of the year.

The NBA's run of international MVPs started in 2019 and 2020 with Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is of Greek and Nigerian descent. Jokic, a Serbian, won in 2021, 2022 and 2024. Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, who was born in Cameroon but since became a U.S. citizen, won the award in 2023, and Canada's Gilgeous-Alexander won last year.

Gilgeous-Alexander is also a finalist for Clutch Player of the Year this season.

The NBA announced the finalists for seven individual awards Sunday night and will start announcing winners on Monday. The Defensive Player award — widely expected to be going to Wembanyama — comes out then, followed by Clutch Player on Tuesday and Sixth Man on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the appeal that got the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic onto the award ballots might earn him All-NBA, but did not lead to him getting his first MVP award. He was not among the top three in the balloting for MVP; voters cast their ballots last week after Doncic and Detroit's Cade Cunningham won appeals that got them on the ballot even though they didn't satisfy the terms of the NBA's 65-game rule for eligibility in most cases.

Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards lost his appeal — but might get an award after all.

Edwards is a finalist for Clutch Player of the Year. He wasn’t on the ballot for MVP, All-NBA and other honors, but was on the Clutch ballot because those nominees were selected by the league’s coaches.

The finalists

— MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City; Nikola Jokic, Denver; Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio.

— Defensive Player of the Year: Wembanyama; Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City; Ausar Thompson, Detroit.

— Clutch Player: Anthony Edwards, Minnesota; Gilgeous-Alexander; Jamal Murray, Denver.

— Most Improved Player: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta; Deni Avdija, Portland; Jalen Duren, Detroit.

— Sixth Man: Tim Hardaway Jr., Denver; Jaime Jaquez Jr., Miami; Keldon Johnson, San Antonio.

— Coach of the Year: J.B. Bickerstaff, Detroit; Mitch Johnson, San Antonio; Joe Mazzulla, Boston.

— Rookie of the Year: VJ Edgecombe, Philadelphia; Cooper Flagg, Dallas; Kon Knueppel, Charlotte.

MVP

Gilgeous-Alexander is trying to go back-to-back, Jokic — who has been first or second in five straight seasons, entering this year — is seeking his fourth MVP in six years and Wembanyama is a finalist for the first time.

Coach of the Year

Bickerstaff won the award from the National Basketball Coaches Association, selected by his peers, and is the likely favorite for the official NBA honor. Johnson and Mazzulla both led teams that widely exceeded most preseason expectations.

Rookie of the Year

This will likely be a two-person race in the end, with Flagg and Knueppel — both former Duke players — the presumed frontrunners. That would suggest Edgecombe likely finishes third.

Defensive Player of the Year

Wembanyama was the likely frontrunner to win it last season, but wound up falling short of eligibility after being diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis at the All-Star break and missing the rest of the season.

Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert’s bid for a fifth DPOY award — which would break a record — will continue for at least one more year.

Clutch Player

Gilgeous-Alexander led the league in clutch scoring per game, with Edwards second. Denver had two legitimate candidates with Murray and Nikola Jokic; voters clearly gave Murray the edge.

Clutch scoring is defined as points that come in the final five minutes of a game where the point differential between teams is five or less.

Sixth Man of the Year

Jaquez averaged 15.4 points in 74 appearances off the bench, Johnson averaged 13.2 points — after playing in all 82 Spurs games as a reserve — and Hardaway also averaged 13.2 points in the 74 games where he came off Denver’s bench.

The winner will be a first-time selection for the award.

Most Improved Player

Avdija averaged 24.2 points and led Portland’s surge to the playoffs, while Alexander-Walker — bidding to give Atlanta its second consecutive MIP winner after Dyson Daniels last season — averaged 20.8 points, by far the most his career.

Duren was a first-time All-Star selection and averaged 19.5 points, almost double what he averaged last season despite playing basically the same amount of minutes.

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

The price of U.S. crude oil increased 6.4% to $87.90 per barrel an hour after trading resumed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 5.8% to $95.64 per barrel.

The market reaction followed more than two days of lifted hopes and dashed expectations involving the strait. Crude prices plunged more than 9% Friday after Iran said it would fully reopen the strait, which it effectively controls, to commercial traffic.

Tehran reversed that decision and fired on several vessels Saturday after President Donald Trump said a U.S. Navy blockade of Iranian ports would remain in effect. On Sunday, Trump said the U.S. attacked and forcibly seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that allegedly tried to get around the blockade. Iran’s joint military command vowed to respond.

Sunday's higher prices wiped out much of the declines seen Friday, signaling renewed doubts about how soon ships will again transport the vast amounts oil the world gets from the Middle East.

The US-Israeli war against Iran, now in its eighth week, has created one of the worst global energy crises in decades. Countries in Asia and Europe that import much of their oil from the Gulf have felt the most impact of halted supplies and production cuts, although rapidly rising gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices are affecting businesses and consumers worldwide.

Asked when he thought U.S. motorists would again see gas cost less than $3 a gallon on average, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said prices at the pump might not go down that much until next year.

“But prices have likely peaked, and they’ll start going down,” Wright told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

The price of crude oil — the main ingredient in gasoline — has fluctated dramatically since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, and as Iran retaliated with airstrikes on other Gulf states. Crude traded at roughly $70 a barrel before the conflict, spiked to more than $119 at times, and previously closed Friday at $82.59 for U.S. oil and $90.38 for Brent.

Industry analysts have repeatedly warned that the longer the strait is closed, the worse prices could get.

A fragile, two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is set to expire Wednesday, while escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz puts the fate of new talks to end the war into question.

Even if a lasting deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz emerges, analysts say it could take months for oil shipments to return to normal levels and for fuel prices to go down. Backed-up tanker traffic, shipowners concerned about another sudden escalation, and energy infrastructure damaged during the war are factors that could impede production and shipment volumes from returning to pre-war levels.

A gallon of regular gas cost an average of nearly $4.05 a gallon in the U.S. on Sunday, according to motor club federation AAA. That’s about 8 cents lower than a week ago, but far higher than $2.98 before the war.

The hospital unveiled its new 178,000-square-foot emergency department, making it one of the largest in the country. It’s three times the size of the current ER, which is already one of the busiest in the nation, marking a major expansion in care and capacity.

Local 10 News got a sneak peek inside ahead of the official opening.

Jackson Health System CEO David Zambrana said the opening will happen in phases. In phase one, 134 rooms will be available. He said patients can expect shorter wait times, more privacy and personalized triage.

“By phase two, we’ll have over 200 beds in our emergency department,” Zambrana said. “On our second floor, we’ll have a 57-bed observation unit for patients that need to spend, you know, one max two nights in the hospital and really giving each and every patient a private state-of-the-art experience for emergency care.”

Phase two will also include a new pediatric emergency room with 24 state-of-the-art beds.

The new facility includes private lounges and waiting areas for loved ones and is equipped with a second helicopter landing pad.

It’s being described as the next era of care, and the Ryder Trauma Center is not going anywhere.

“The emergency department will certainly care for all other types of emergency room conditions, but the Ryder Trauma Center will continue to care for level one adult and pediatric trauma care,” Zambrana said.

The new ER will open on April 23, and the entire project is set to be complete in 2027.

The reigning league MVP made just 5 of 18 field goals but went 15 of 17 at the foul line before sitting out the fourth quarter.

Jalen Williams scored 22 points and Chet Holmgren added 16 for the top-seeded Thunder, who will host Game 2 on Wednesday.

Devin Booker scored 23 points and Dillon Brooks scored 18 on 6-of-22 shooting for the Suns, who shot 34.9% from the field. Jalen Green, who scored 35 and 36 points in Phoenix’s two play-in games, had 17 on 6-for-16 shooting.

It was the third straight year that the Thunder earned the top seed and had to wait through the play-in tournament to learn their first-round opponent. Two seasons ago, Oklahoma City beat New Orleans 94-92 in Game 1. Last year, the Thunder routed Memphis 131-80 in Game 1 on their way to the title.

Phoenix claimed the No. 8 seed by defeating the Golden State Warriors on Friday night. The Suns took an early 5-0 lead Sunday as the Thunder started cold following a week off.

The Thunder heated up quickly. Brooks was called for a flagrant-one foul in the first quarter for hitting Holmgren in the face. The Thunder went on a 12-2 surge after that to take a 24-14 lead.

In the closing seconds of the quarter, Oklahoma City's Jaylin Williams threw a pass about three-quarters of the length of the court. Holmgren caught it with his back to the basket, took one dribble to his right, then turned and drained a 3-pointer as time expired to put Oklahoma City up 35-20.

Oklahoma City extended the advantage to 65-44 at halftime. Holmgren had 16 points and Gilgeous-Alexander had 15 at the break.

Gilgeous-Alexander converted a three-point play to push Oklahoma City's lead to 90-63 late in the third quarter, and the Thunder took a 97-66 edge into the fourth.

Nine Oklahoma City players saw at least 13 minutes of action.

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

O'Connor's third-period tally was his first since Game 4 of a playoff series against Dallas on April 26. He missed most of this season with a hip injury. Artturi Lehkonen had a second-period goal for the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche.

“Super happy to get it out of the way,” said O'Connor, who underwent hip surgery in early June. "For us, our game translates well to the playoffs. It’s a lot of simplicity and muck it up and just wear teams down. It was nice to get that one out of the way and finish the job off.”

Wedgewood got the nod in net over Mackenzie Blackwood after leading the league in goals-against average and save percentage. Wedgewood made four career playoff appearances in relief before Sunday's start.

At 33 years, 248 days old, Wedgewood became the third-oldest goaltender in league history to pick up a win in his first career playoff start, according to NHL stats.

“Obviously, a long career to get to this point,” Wedgwood cracked.

Game 2 is Tuesday night in Denver.

Artemi Panarin scored a power-play goal with 2:22 left to make it 2-1. Shortly after, forward Joel Armia was called for high-sticking and the Kings were unable to tie it up.

“We were kind of coming there late and couldn’t get enough,” forward Scott Laughton said.

Anton Forsberg stopped 28 shots in his NHL postseason debut.

“We’re comfortable in low-scoring games,” Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “We've got to try and keep it tight.”

Nathan MacKinnon had an assist on Lehkonen's goal to give him 32 career points in Game 1s. He trails only Joe Sakic (42) for the most Game-1 points in franchise history.

The game got chippy in the third period, with Cale Makar taking a shove to the back by Adrian Kempe. Captain Gabriel Landeskog later stood up for Makar and got into it with Kempe. Both drew roughing calls.

There were a combined 84 hits.

“We know teams are going to want to push us out of games,” said O'Connor, whose team was 0 for 4 on the power play. “We feel as though we can push back just as hard. That’s one great thing about our group: the versatility within our locker room. You want to go a 1-0 game? We like to think we can beat you at that. Track meet, if it happens? We’ve got that. Physicality, we have guys who are willing to step up.”

Colorado nearly scored earlier in the second when O'Connor sent a shot past Forsberg. But as the goal horn sounded, the officials signaled no goal. It was ruled Jack Drury made contact with Forsberg following a collision with Drew Doughty. The Avalanche challenged but the call stood.

“I’d like to see it count,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “They saw it different — not losing any sleep over it.”

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

___

This story has been corrected to show Logan O’Connor’s last goal was April 26.

Pinch-hitter Michael Conforto tied it for Chicago in the ninth with an RBI double off closer Devin Williams.

Pete Crow-Armstrong opened the 10th on second as the Cubs' automatic runner. Dansby Swanson fouled off two bunt attempts before Kimbrel (0-1) threw a wild pitch, moving Crow-Armstrong to third.

After Swanson struck out swinging, Hoerner lofted a flyball to right and Crow-Armstrong scored easily.

Caleb Thielbar (1-1) worked a scoreless 10th for Chicago, which posted its season-high fifth straight win.

MJ Melendez homered for New York, which finished with six hits. David Peterson pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings of bulk relief after manager Carlos Mendoza decided to go with Tobias Myers as an opener.

It’s the longest losing streak for the Mets since they also dropped 11 in a row from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 in 2004. They have been outscored 62-19 during the slide, and they are averaging just 2.9 runs over 17 games in April.

The Cubs rallied in the ninth against Williams. Ian Happ hit a leadoff single and pinch-runner Scott Kingery scored from first on Conforto's one-out double into the right-field corner against his former team. Conforto was stranded when Williams struck out Carson Kelly and Crow-Armstrong, both swinging.

Melendez began the fifth with a drive to right-center on a full-count fastball from Javier Assad. It was his first homer since he was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse on Wednesday.

Chicago had at least one baserunner in each of the first seven innings.

Crow-Armstrong hit a leadoff triple in the third, but Peterson retired Swanson on a grounder to third before Hoerner lined to second for an inning-ending double play.

Up next

Mets: Following an off day, RHP Nolan McLean (1-1, 2.28 ERA) starts Tuesday night against Minnesota in the opener of a nine-game homestand. RHP Mick Abel (1-2, 3.98) goes for the Twins.

Cubs: RHP Colin Rea (2-0, 3.63 ERA) starts Monday night in the opener of a four-game series against Philadelphia.

___

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

The suspect died after a police pursuit, and the victims — who ranged in age from 1 to about 14 years old — included children related to the gunman, said Shreveport Police Department spokesperson Chris Bordelon. Investigators did not say what may have set off the attack.

The mass shooting was the deadliest in the U.S. in more than two years.

“This is an extensive scene unlike anything most of us have ever seen,” Bordelon said.

Officers fired at the suspect during a chase after he carjacked a vehicle at gunpoint while leaving the scene, Bordelon said.

Police said the attacks began in a neighborhood south of downtown Shreveport when the suspect shot a woman at one home and then drove to the other location “where this heinous act was carried out.”

State Rep. Tammy Phelps said some children tried to escape out the back door. “I can’t even imagine what the police officers, first responders actually dealt with when they got here today,” she said at a news conference.

Authorities did not release the name of the gunman but did say he was an adult male.

Liza Demming, who lives two houses down from where most of the victims were shot, said her security camera captured video of the suspect running away along with the sound of two shots.

“That’s’ pretty much all I saw, was him running out of the house and the cars leaving,” she said.

Demming later went outside and saw the covered body of a child on the home’s roof. She said she did not know the gunman’s name.

“He looks like the dad that comes over here,” she said, adding that he was just with the children a few days ago.

Pastor Marty T. Johnson Sr., of nearby St. Gabriel Community Baptist Church, who owns one of the homes where the shootings occurred, said a person who works for him had rented it to the family, but he never had dealings with them.

“I don’t really know them, I really don’t,” he said. “I do plan on having a prayer vigil for the family, and anything I can do, with so many children, to help them bury the children, I’m going to do so.”

The Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office released a statement on Sunday saying it was not yet releasing any of the children’s names because identification of the victims was pending.

Police said two women who were shot and wounded were being treated for serious injuries.

It was the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. since eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb in January 2024, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

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At a news conference outside the residence where one of the shootings occurred, officials appeared stunned, requesting patience and prayers from the community as they sorted through multiple crime scenes.

“I just don’t know what to say, my heart is just taken aback,” Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said. “I cannot begin to imagine how such an event could occur.”

“This is a tragic situation — maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had,” said Tom Arceneaux, mayor of the city in northwestern Louisiana with about 180,000 residents. “It’s a terrible morning.”

Louisiana State Police say their detectives have been asked by Shreveport police to investigate. In a statement, state police say no officers were harmed in the shooting that involved an officer after a police pursuit into Bossier City on Sunday morning.

State police are asking anyone with pictures, video or information to share it with state police detectives.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is from Shreveport, said in separate statements that they were heartbroken and praised law enforcement for their response.

“We’re holding the victims, their families and loved ones, and our Shreveport community close in our thoughts and prayers during this incredibly difficult time,” Johnson said in a statement.

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Luego de visitar “rodas” (ruedas) en Río como las del barrio de Lapa, la de Samba do Trabalhador, en Andaraí, y la de Bip Bip, en Copacabana, y admirar a los músicos que cantan y tocan sus instrumentos sentados en torno a una mesa, estos productores de 31 años crearon la Rueda de Candombe, una cita que transcurre de similar manera todos los lunes en una plaza de Montevideo al ritmo de tambores, guitarras y acordeón.

Amado, productor del espectáculo, explicó a The Associated Press que lo que nació para tocar "entre amigos, se volvió visible sin intención”.

El último calor del otoño atrajo otra gran convocatoria. Cerca de un millar de personas con mate o cerveza en mano bailaron entre amigos, con niños sobre los hombros, con desconocidos, o solos, hasta el último acorde. El grupo aprovechó el suceso para recaudar alimentos para una olla popular que alimenta a personas en situación de calle.

“Soy parte de la cultura afro, y lo formo parte de una comparsa. Me parece que darle este espacio a lo que es la música afro, que no está como bien valorada, me parece que está demás, y que pueda llegar a todo público que no es parte del candombe, y me parece genial”, dijo Agustina Rodríguez, de 25 años.

Martín de León, empleado público, define a “La Rueda” como “una cápsula que también puede ser enviada al mundo, una buena pantalla, una ventana al mundo, para que se conozca más el candombe y la música popular uruguaya”.

El domingo fue la última presentación en la Plaza de España de Rueda de Candombe, en la que Fernández tocó el bajo. El grupo está integrado por seis músicos, entre ellos Diego Paredes, Darío Terán, y Alejandro Luzardo, muy reconocidos en la escena musical uruguaya.

Los temas que interpretaron pertenecen al candombe, género musical con el que se identifica el país sudamericano y que está reconocido como Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial de la Humanidad.

De un bar a la plaza

En noviembre de 2024, un centenar de personas colmaban el pequeño bar Santa Catalina, situado en una esquina de Montevideo, para escuchar lo que empezaban a llamar la Rueda de Candombe. Al mes, el creciente interés en torno al grupo lo obligó a mudarse a la cercana Plaza España. El éxito enseguida se extendió y comenzaron a llegar furgonetas con turistas.

Las redes sociales hicieron el resto y la Rueda atrajo a reconocidos artistas. En septiembre pasado actuaron junto al célebre cantautor uruguayo Jorge Drexler en el mítico Estadio Centenario y grabaron una colaboración para su disco Taracá.

En 2025 llegó la invitación para representar a Uruguay en el Festival de Cine de Cannes, que se nutre de muestras cinematográficas de distintos países para organizar números artísticos. El festival de la ciudad uruguaya de Punta del Este los había promocionado para que actuaran en mayo de ese año en el marco del certamen europeo.

Lo hicieron tres veces: en un barco, en el Petit Majestique —un bar emblemático de Cannes— y en la vía pública.

No obstante, Amado y Fernández no se dan importancia y dicen sentirse “convidados de cartón” en el género. “Si un alemán quiere conocer el candombe, no lo llevo a la Rueda; lo llevo un domingo acá abajo a ver una comparsa”, dijo Amado en referencia a los barrios Sur y Palermo de Montevideo.

Candombe, el ritmo de raíces africanas

Desde el siglo XVIII, el candombe es pilar de la cultura uruguaya. Comenzó en la misma Plaza España, lugar de desembarco de los esclavos provenientes de África que mantenían sus ritos al latido del tambor.

Esta cultura musical se basa en tres tambores —chico, repique y piano— y celebra su fiesta máxima cada febrero, cuando decenas de comparsas desfilan durante el carnaval en los barrios Sur y Palermo.

A mediados del siglo XX, el candombe-canción sumó instrumentos y se fusionó con el jazz y la música popular. Presente en sobremesas —similares a las que organiza la Rueda—y otras reuniones, el género funcionó también como una herramienta de resistencia política durante las décadas del 60 y 70.

Rubén Rada, Jaime Roos o los hermanos Fattoruso son las referencias más conocidas del género, pero, según Fernández, “hay mucha más gente que estuvo atrás construyendo el repertorio candombero”, como Jorginho Gularte, Roberto Darvin, Eduardo Da Luz, Mariana Ingold, Rodolfo Morandi o Pedro Ferreira, cuyos temas suenan en la Rueda a lo largo de 4 horas.

El espacio público, todo un reto

Montevideo destaca por sus espacios públicos y su rambla adyacente al Río de La Plata de 22 kilómetros, que congrega a miles de personas. Sin embargo, a diferencia de otras capitales, no suelen ser escenario para artistas callejeros.

Fernández considera que habitar calles o plazas es más desafiante en la capital uruguaya que en Buenos Aires o Río de Janeiro, debido a su baja población. Caleb recordó que el propio Lobo Núñez, leyenda del candombe, le confesó que "con (Rubén) Rada y Jaime (Roos) tuvimos que levantar shows porque no había público”.

La próxima temporada de frío encontrará a los dos amigos en Montevideo, porque la Rueda, lejos de hibernar, se prepara para nuevos proyectos, entre ellos conquistar otras plazas de la ciudad.

___

La periodista de Associated Press Matilde Campodónico colaboró con este despacho.

Jaylen Brown scored 26 points and Neemias Queta added 13 for the second-seeded Celtics.

Tatum scored 21 points in the first half, playing in just his 17th game this season following surgery last May to repair his Achilles tendon.

“I’m still rehabbing,” Tatum said. “I still attack rehab every single day except for when we have off days. ... Still trying to ramp up.”

Boston never trailed, building a 35-point lead as coach Joe Mazzulla gave minutes to 12 players. The Celtics connected on 16 3-pointers.

“That was Celtics basketball,” Brown said. “We’ve been the harder-playing team all year. That can’t change now that the playoffs have started.”

Game 2 is Tuesday night in Boston.

Tyrese Maxey had 21 points and eight assists for the 76ers, who played without Joel Embiid. The 2023 MVP continues to recover following an appendectomy on April 9. It's unclear when he will be able to return.

Paul George scored 17 points and V.J. Edgecombe added 13. Philadelphia was 4 of 23 from 3-point range.

Maxey was hounded by a Celtics defense that contested 12 of his 14 shot attempts in the first half and held him to 8 of 20 from the field.

Philadelphia’s 64-46 halftime deficit was its largest in a playoff game against Boston since 1982. Coach Nick Nurse called the Sixers' effort “absolutely unacceptable.”

“We just didn't do enough at either end to settle into the game,” he said.

Tatum had 10 first-quarter points, punctuated with an emphatic two-handed dunk, to help the Celtics end the period with a 33-18 lead.

Philadelphia struggled at the outset to keep pace with Boston’s shooting, making one of its first nine attempts from 3. The Sixers also had issues keeping Boston out of the paint after Embiid's understudies, Adem Bona and Andre Drummond, each picked up two quick fouls.

That prompted Nurse to bring in Dominick Barlow, who played just 10 minutes in Philadelphia's play-in victory over Orlando.

___

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

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Shamim Mafi will face charges that she brokered the sale of “drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition” between Iran and the Sudanese Armed Forces, First U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Sunday on social media.

A phone number for Mafi could not be located and it wasn't known Sunday if she has an attorney who could speak on her behalf.

Essayli posted a photo of someone in an FBI jacket escorting a woman into the back of a sedan outside a terminal at LAX.

Mafi is an Iranian national who became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 2016, Essayli said.

A criminal complaint dated March 12 alleges that Mafi and an unnamed co-conspirator operated a company in Oman called Atlas International Business through which weapons and ammunition were trafficked. The company received over $7 million in payments in 2025.

Separately, Mafi and the co-conspirator brokered the sale of 55,000 bomb fuses to the Sudanese Ministry of Defense, according to the court documents.

“In connection with the transaction, Mafi submitted a letter of intent to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ('IRGC') to purchase the bomb fuses for Sudan,” the complaint said.

Mafi is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday. If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison.

The Sudanese civil war has created a humanitarian crisis in the North African country where food supplies are dwindling and millions of people have fled their homes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Watch the morning report

Importers and their brokers will be able to begin claiming refunds through an online portal beginning at 8 a.m., according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency administering the system.

It's the first step in a complicated process that also might eventually lead to refunds for consumers who were billed for some or all of the tariffs on products shipped to them from outside the United States.

Companies must submit declarations listing the goods on which they collectively put billions of dollars toward the import taxes the court subsequently struck down. If CBP approves a claim, it will take 60-90 days for a refund to be issued, the agency said.

The government expects to process refunds in phases, however, focusing first on more recent tariff payments. Any number of technical factors and procedural issues could delay an importer's application, so any reimbursements businesses plan to make to customers likely would trickled down slowly.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court on Feb. 20 found that Trump usurped Congress' tax-setting role last April when he set new import tax rates on products from almost every other country, citing the U.S. trade deficit as a national emergency that warranted his invoking of a 1977 emergency powers law.

Although the court majority did not address refunds in its ruling, a judge at the U.S. Court of International Trade determined last month that companies subjected to IEEPA tariffs were entitled to money back.

Not all taxed imports immediately eligible

Customs and Border Protection said in court filings that over 330,000 importers paid a total of about $166 billion on over 53 million shipments.

Not all of those orders qualify for the first phase of the refund system's rollout, which is limited to cases in which tariffs were estimated but not finalized or within 80 days of a final accounting.

To receive refunds, importers have to register for the CPB's electronic payment system. As of April 14, 56,497 importers had completed registration and were eligible for refunds totaling $127 billion, including interest, the agency said.

System requires accuracy

Meghann Supino, a partner at Ice Miller, said the law firm has advised clients to carefully list in their declarations all of the document numbers for forms that went to CBP to describe imported goods and their value.

“If there is an entry on that file that does not qualify, it may cause the entire entry to be rejected or that line item might be rejected by Customs,” she said.

Supino thinks the portal going live will require composure as well as diligence.

“Like any electronic online program that goes live with a lot of interest, I would expect that there might be some hiccups with the program on Monday,” she said. “So we continue to ask everyone to be patient, because we think that patience will pay off.”

Nghi Huynh, the partner-in-charge of transfer pricing at accounting and consulting firm Armanino, said most companies claiming refunds will have imported a mix of items, and not all will qualify right away.

“It’s about having a clear process in place and keeping track of what’s been submitted and what’s been paid, so nothing falls through the cracks,” she said. “Each file can include thousands of entries, but accuracy is critical, as submissions can be rejected if formatting or data is incorrect.”

Patience with the process

Small businesses have eagerly awaited the chance to apply for refunds. Brad Jackson, co-founder of After Action Cigars in Rochester, Minnesota, said he starting compiling records and preparing to enter information into the system the minute CPB announced the launch date.

The company imports cigars and accessories from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. Last year, it paid $34,000 in tariffs and absorbed much of the cost instead of raising customer prices, Jackson said.

Last spring, he had a two-week delay in a shipment due to a missing document, so he is being more careful with refund documents, he said.

“My main concern is the turnaround time,” Jackson said. “A refund process that takes several months to complete doesn’t solve the cash flow problem that it is supposed to fix.”

Will consumers see refunds?

Tariffs are paid by importers, and some companies pass on the tax costs to consumers via higher prices.

The system starting up Monday will refund tariffs directly to the businesses that paid them, which are not obligated to share the proceeds with customers. However, class-action lawsuits that aim to force companies, ranging from Costco to Ray-Ban maker Essilor Luxottica, to reimburse shoppers are winding their way through the U.S. legal system.

Individuals may be more likely to receive refunds from delivery companies like FedEx and UPS, which collected tariffs on imports directly from consumers. FedEx has said it would return tariff refunds to customers when it receives them from the CPB.

“Supporting our customers as they navigate regulatory changes remains our top priority,” FedEx said in a statement. “We are working with our customers as CBP begins processing refunds and plan to begin filing claims on April 20.”

Tamke Wardlaw said the fundraiser was an opportunity for her to stand in solidarity with her father, who is undergoing treatment.

“He is doing better, thank God,” Wardlaw said. “He is actually in Baltimore, Maryland, and I am just happy to support him.”

Wardlaw joined a team of 30 other walkers who all donated in honor of Wardlaw’s father, who has survived

For more information about how to join the effort, visit this page.

They were with Lee Gottlieb, the founder of Adopt A Dune, a non-profit that protects coastlines.

“I have been doing this 30 years,” Gottlieb said, adding that he and his teams plant sea oats to create resilient dune systems.

For more information about the rehabilitation events, visit this page.

In the 10-minute address, Carney spoke about his government’s efforts to strengthen the Canadian economy by attracting new investments and signing trade deals with other countries.

“The world is more dangerous and divided,” Carney said. “The U.S. has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression.

“Many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become weaknesses. Weaknesses that we must correct.”

Carney said tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump have affected workers in the auto and steel industries. He added that businesses are holding back investments “restrained by the pall of uncertainty that’s hanging over all of us.”

Many Canadians have also been angered by Trumps comments suggesting Canada become the 51st state.

Carney said he plans to give Canadians regular updates on his government’s efforts to diversify away from the U.S.

“Security can’t be achieved by ignoring the obvious or downplaying the very real threats that we Canadians face,” he said. “I promise you I will never sugarcoat our challenges.”

It’s not the first time Carney, who served as a central bank governor, first at the Bank of Canada and later with the Bank of England, has spoken about a shift in world power.

During a speech in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he received widespread praise for condemning economic coercion by great powers against small countries.

His remarks brought a rebuke from Trump.

“Canada lives because of the United States,” Trump said after the speech. “Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

Carney’s comments came days after securing a majority government following special election wins and as the opposition Conservatives push him to deliver a U.S. trade deal, which was among his promises in last year’s election.

A review of the current version of the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico is scheduled for July.

In his address, Carney said he wants to attract new investments into Canada, double the size of clean energy capacity and reduce trade barriers within the country. He also emphasized Canada’s increased defense spending, reduction in taxes and efforts to make housing more affordable.

“We have to take care of ourselves because we can’t rely on one foreign partner,” he said. “We can’t control the disruption coming from our neighbors. We can’t control our future on the hope it will suddenly stop.

“We can control what happens here. We can build a stronger country that can withstand disruptions from aboard.”

Carney said simply hoping the “United States will return to normal” is not a feasible strategy.

“Hope isn’t a plan and nostalgia is not a strategy,” he said.

Carney said Canada has “been a great neighbor” standing with the U.S. in conflicts including Afghanistan, plus two World Wars.

“The U.S. has changed and we must respond,” he said. “It’s about taking back control of our security, our borders and our future.”