Daniel Lopez said he was working when a surveillance video showed him doing his job, and police have the wrong person.

“I believe I was set up ... a lot of people working over there,” Lopez said on Tuesday, adding that he had been fired from his job.

On Thursday, a property manager at Bijou Bay Harbor, at 9521 East Bay Harbor Drive, reported finding “a safe that had been forced,” according to a police report.

It belonged to a property owner who lived outside of the U.S., according to police.

On Friday, a detective found the surveillance video showing Lopez walking out of the elevator and toward the apartment, according to police.

Lopez told the detective that he was working the front desk overnight when someone called for help, so he “signed out the unit keys from the building’s secured key box,” according to police.

Lopez “was not able to explain what he saw or did when entering ... could not advise who this caller was or provide a phone number ... did not notify his supervisors or anyone else,” according to the police report.

Police officers arrested Lopez on Friday at the Bay Harbor Islands Police Department, and corrections booked him at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center near Doral. He faced a second-degree felony charge of burglary of an unoccupied dwelling.

Related story: Police: Video shows valet turned burglar in Bay Harbor Islands

Según un informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de Miami, el robo ocurrió la noche del 11 de abril en los condominios Paraiso Bayviews, ubicados en 501 NE 31st St.

La policía dijo que la víctima conoció a Nicole Cano, de 30 años, en Instagram y ella lo invitó a su condominio a “tomar unos tragos”.

Según el informe, la víctima llegó al edificio de gran altura poco después de las 8 p.m. y estaba admirando la vista desde el balcón cuando dos mujeres desconocidas salieron de una habitación.

La policía dijo que las tres mujeres le exigieron dinero a la víctima y él comenzó a gritarles de inmediato que no tenía dinero con él.

Según el informe, la víctima intentó salir del condominio, momento en el que se produjo un breve forcejeo y las mujeres le dijeron que “iba a pagar”.

La policía dijo que una cadena de oro de la víctima fue arrancada de su cuello durante el forcejeo, pero logró conservarla, aunque un colgante de cruz de oro valorado en $300 USD fue robado antes de que la víctima pudiera huir del condominio y pedir ayuda a gritos.

La víctima luego identificó a Cano ante los detectives en una rueda fotográfica.

Cano fue detenida el lunes y aceptó proporcionar una declaración a los detectives, según el informe.

La policía dijo que ella admitió haber iniciado el encuentro con la víctima, pero negó las otras acusaciones en su contra.

Cano fue arrestada por cargos de robo por la fuerza y privación ilegal de la libertad.

Hasta la tarde del lunes, permanecía detenida en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Los registros carcelarios en línea indicaban que su fianza total estaba “por determinar”.

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According to an arrest report from the Miami Police Department, the robbery occurred the night of April 11 at the Paraiso Bayviews condos, located at 501 NE 31^st St.

Police said the victim met Nicole Cano, 30, on Instagram and she invited him to her condo to “have drinks.”

According to the report, the victim got to the high-rise building shortly after 8 p.m. and was admiring the view from the balcony when two unknown women exited a bedroom.

Police said all three women demanded money from the victim and he immediately began shouting at them that he didn’t have any money on him.

According to the report, the victim tried leaving the condo, at which time a brief struggle ensued and the women told him he was “going to pay.”

Police said the victim’s gold chain was pulled from his neck during the struggle, but he was able to hold onto it, although a $300 gold cross pendant was taken before the victim was able to flee the condo and scream for help.

The victim later identified Cano to detectives in a photo lineup.

Cano was taken into custody Monday and agreed to provide detectives with a statement, according to the report.

Police said she admitted to initiating a meeting with the victim, but denied the other accusations against her.

Cano was arrested on charges of strongarm robbery and false imprisonment.

As of Monday afternoon, she was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Online jail records listed her total bond as “to be set.”

La policía detuvo a Michael Alvarez, maestro en First United Methodist Christian School, ubicada en 622 N. Krome Ave., por un cargo de agresión el lunes.

Los investigadores dijeron que Alvarez, de 34 años, llevó al menor al pasillo y le colocó cinta de pintor sobre los labios después de que se riera en clase durante una lectura de la Biblia.

Los padres del menor dijeron que el joven de 13 años nunca le dio permiso a Alvarez para ponerle cinta en la boca.

Hasta la tarde del martes, aún no había pagado fianza para salir del Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

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Police took Michael Alvarez, a teacher at First United Methodist Christian School, located at 622 N. Krome Ave., into custody on a battery charge on Monday.

Investigators said Alvarez, 34, took the boy into the hallway and put painter’s tape over his lips after he laughed in class during a Bible reading.

The boy’s parents said the 13-year-old never gave Alvarez permission to put tape over his mouth.

As of Tuesday afternoon, he had yet to bond out of the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Devenski intentionally threw at Stewart in the top of the seventh inning of Pittsburgh’s 17-7 win at PNC Park on Saturday. He was ejected following the incident.

Pirates manager Don Kelly was also suspended for one game and received an undisclosed fine, MLB senior vice president for on-field operations Michael Hill announced.

Devenski's suspension is set to start on Tuesday night, when the Pirates open a road series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. If Devenski appeals, the suspension would be put off during that process. His fine was not disclosed.

Kelly was also set to serve his suspension on Tuesday night.

___

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

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It’s not the first time Nathaniel Sanders II has been in the news. In March, the 31-year-old was accused of causing damage to a South Beach smoke shop and was arrested on a criminal mischief charge.

He now faces much more serious allegations: charges of threats against the president and interstate threatening communications.

In a federal criminal complaint, filed on Friday and later made public, investigators said they first began monitoring Sanders on Jan. 28 after he made a post to social media platform X stating, “Imma bomb the f---ing White House you f---ing pedophile.”

Authorities said on Instagram, he posted a serious of videos “complaining and speaking angrily about his hatred” for Trump, Rubio and Bondi.

In an April 10 video, authorities said Sanders posted a video to Instagram saying, “Your fake husband gotta be the biggest pedophile in the f---ing world bro. I don’t know what to do Melania, like, all I got is a gun. It’s the only thing I can use now is a gun.”

Two minutes later, they said he posted a threat against Rubio, mixing English and Spanish.

“One thing about it Marco, b---, yo no tengo miedo de nadie (I’m not scared of anyone) because we all f---ing bleed b----,” agents said he posted. “Like a lot of people be forgetting they bleed just like everybody else. Like when I get my hands on him, I’m gonna hurt him. Simple as that.”

Authorities said a week later, he posted a video calling Trump a “fata-- orange pedophile a-- pervert” and said “imma stomp your f---ing head in imma step on your throat and I’m going to kill you in the worst f---ing way.”

Two days later, on April 19, authorities said Sanders then posted another video making threats against Bondi and the officials in general.

“Pam, when I see you b----, imma put my foot in your f---ing c---, you stupid h--, and imma wear you like a boot,” he said, according to the complaint. “You pedophile a-- b----. Imma kill all y’all pedophiles. I don’t give a f--- y’all. B----, keep playing with me h--. Imma kill you.”

Authorities said he continued to post videos threatening Trump.

Agents said they later went to Sanders’ home, which was listed in a recent local arrest report as an apartment near 15th Terrace and West Avenue on South Beach, to question him about the posts.

Authorities said he called Trump and the other officials “pedophiles” and then “terminated the encounter.”

Records show Sanders was being held in the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami as of Tuesday.

No es la primera vez que Nathaniel Sanders II aparece en las noticias. En marzo, el hombre de 31 años fue acusado de causar daños a una tienda de humo en South Beach y fue arrestado por un cargo de daño criminal.

Ahora enfrenta acusaciones mucho más graves: cargos por amenazas contra el presidente y comunicaciones interestatales amenazantes.

En una denuncia penal federal, presentada el viernes y luego hecha pública, los investigadores dijeron que comenzaron a monitorear a Sanders el 28 de enero después de que hiciera una publicación en la red social X diciendo: “Voy a bombardear la maldita Casa Blanca, maldito pedófilo”.

Las autoridades dijeron que en Instagram publicó una serie de videos “quejándose y hablando con enojo sobre su odio” hacia Trump, Rubio y Bondi.

En un video del 10 de abril, las autoridades dijeron que Sanders publicó: “Tu falso esposo tiene que ser el pedófilo más grande del maldito mundo, bro. No sé qué hacer, Melania, lo único que tengo es un arma. Lo único que puedo usar ahora es un arma”.

Dos minutos después, dijeron que publicó una amenaza contra Rubio, mezclando inglés y español.

“Una cosa sobre eso, Marco, yo no tengo miedo de nadie porque todos sangramos igual”, dijeron los agentes que publicó. “Mucha gente olvida que sangra igual que los demás. Cuando lo tenga en mis manos, le voy a hacer daño. Así de simple”.

Las autoridades dijeron que una semana después publicó un video llamando a Trump “pervertido pedófilo naranja” y dijo: “te voy a aplastar la cabeza, te voy a pisar la garganta y te voy a matar de la peor maldita manera”.

Dos días después, el 19 de abril, las autoridades dijeron que Sanders publicó otro video haciendo amenazas contra Bondi y los funcionarios en general.

“Pam, cuando te vea, te voy a pisar… Te voy a matar a todos ustedes pedófilos. No me importa… Te voy a matar”, dijo, según la denuncia.

Las autoridades dijeron que continuó publicando videos amenazando a Trump.

Los agentes dijeron que luego fueron a la casa de Sanders, que según un informe de arresto reciente es un apartamento cerca de 15th Terrace y West Avenue en South Beach, para interrogarlo sobre las publicaciones.

Las autoridades dijeron que llamó a Trump y a los otros funcionarios “pedófilos” y luego “dio por terminado el encuentro”.

Los registros muestran que Sanders permanecía detenido en el Centro de Detención Federal en el centro de Miami hasta el martes.

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The Dania Beach-based company filed an official layoff notice with the FloridaCommerce, the state’s lead agency for workforce. It included cuts at both the Miami and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood international airports.

Sandra Gonzalez and Denise Pool were both dealing with the devastation of sudden job loss on Tuesday at the CareerSource Broward South Center.

“It’s super emotional to be here, seeing all of my co-workers that we have been together for so long, and now we are together at the unemployment office,” Pool said.

Gonzalez and Pool were among the former Spirit Airlines employees who participated in the FloridaCommerce’s events on Monday and Tuesday at the CareerSource Broward center at 7550 Davie Road in Hollywood.

“We didn’t intentionally sell any tickets thinking we weren’t going to be here. We thought we were going to get the liquidity we needed,” Dave Davis, the Spirit Airlines chief executive officer, told The Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Spirit Airlines had suffered more than $2.5 billion in losses since 2020, and filed for bankruptcy in 2024 and 2025 before a last-minute $500 million government bailout proposal failed.

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

Without creditors’ agreement on the bailout, Spirit Airlines flights were grounded by 3 a.m. on Saturday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the airline’s shutdown hours later.

Spirit Airlines employees’ health insurance ended on Saturday. American Airlines and JetBlue Airways offered to help Spirit Airlines pilots and flight attendants who were stranded over the weekend.

Trump and Duffy criticized former President Joe Biden’s administration for blocking the $3.8 billion sale of Spirit Airlines to JetBlue in 2024. At FLL, on Monday, JetBlue announced 11 additional locations.

Gonzalez and Pool are among the Spirit Airlines former employees who are hoping to find jobs in the industry.

“Moving forward, it’s hard to see me do anything didfferent,” Gonzalez said, about working as a flight attendant.

Related records

Related link: Spirit Airlines launches restructuring page

Related stories

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

Resources

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

Tarija, Oruro y Potosí, al sur; Cochabamba, en el centro, y Beni, La Paz y su vecina de El Alto, al norte, amanecieron sin autobuses del transporte público.

La policía reportó por la mañana al menos 70 puntos de bloqueo que afectaban los accesos entre el oriente y occidente.

El paro se da en medio de una escalada de conflictos contra Paz, cuyo gobierno intenta dialogar con los diferentes sectores.

En La Paz el centro estaba paralizado nuevamente en exigencia de gasolina de mejor calidad, por lo que la mayoría de las unidades educativas optaron por dar clases virtuales.

En Santa Cruz, el motor económico del país, los conductores no acataron el paro, pero en ciudades vecinas sí se registraron bloqueos, en su mayoría de motocicletas que se usan de taxi.

“Estamos cansados de las promesas del gobierno en papeles. La gasolina continúa mala”, dijo el secretario general de la Confederación de Choferes de Bolivia, Víctor Tarqui.

Desde comienzos de año los transportistas denuncian que la mala calidad de la gasolina ha dañado sus vehículos. El gobierno sostuvo que se trató de un sabotaje y ha ofrecido un resarcimiento que no termina de convencer a los transportistas.

A las protestas se sumó una marcha de trabajadores de la Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) por aumentos salariales y en rechazo a una eventual privatización de empresas públicas.

La dirigencia de la COB era cercana a los gobiernos de los progresistas Luis Arce (2020-2025) y Evo Morales (2006-2019).

Paz ha pedido un diálogo con todos los sectores y ha logrado desactivar algunos conflictos.

Funcionarios de Hialeah Fire Rescue dijeron que las unidades respondieron a un incendio poco después de las 11 a.m. en una casa en la cuadra 5300 de West 14th Avenue, cerca de West 60th Street.

Las unidades indicaron que al llegar encontraron un incendio activo y humo saliendo de la vivienda.

Durante una búsqueda primaria, los bomberos dijeron que localizaron a la anciana en el interior, donde sufría de inhalación de humo y fue declarada alerta de trauma antes de ser trasladada en helicóptero al Ryder Trauma Center del Jackson Memorial Hospital para evaluación y tratamiento.

Sky 10 sobrevoló la escena alrededor de las 12:20 p.m., y el incendio parecía estar extinguido. También se vio un vehículo de prevención de incendios de HFR fuera de la vivienda.

Funcionarios de bomberos dijeron que la causa del incendio está siendo investigada por la Oficina del Jefe de Bomberos del Estado de Florida.

No se dieron a conocer de inmediato más detalles sobre el incendio o la víctima.

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Hialeah Fire Rescue officials said crews responded to a fire just after 11 a.m. at a home in the 5300 block of West 14th Avenue, near West 60th Street.

Crews said they arrived to find an active fire and smoke coming from the home.

During a primary search, firefighters said they located the senior inside, where she was suffering from smoke inhalation and was declared a trauma alert before being airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center for evaluation and treatment.

Sky 10 flew over the scene around 12:20 p.m., and the fire appeared to be extinguished. An HFR fire prevention car was also seen outside the home.

Fire rescue officials said the cause of the fire is being investigated by the Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office.

No other details about the fire or victim were immediately released.

La empresa con sede en Dania Beach presentó un aviso oficial de despidos ante FloridaCommerce , la principal agencia estatal encargada de la fuerza laboral.

Incluía recortes en los aeropuertos internacionales de Miami y Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood. Sandra González, una ex auxiliar de vuelo, dijo estar devastada.

y Denise Pool,

Para algunos empleados, la búsqueda de empleo estuvo marcada por la tristeza en los eventos de FloridaCommerce que se llevaron a cabo el lunes y el martes en el CareerSource Broward South Center, ubicado en 7550 Davie Road en Hollywood.

“No vendimos boletos intencionadamente pensando que no íbamos a estar aquí”, declaró Dave Davis, director ejecutivo de Spirit Airlines, al Wall Street Journal el lunes. “Pensábamos que íbamos a obtener la liquidez que necesitábamos”.

Spirit Airlines sufrió pérdidas superiores a los 2.500 millones de dólares desde 2020 y se declaró en bancarrota en 2024 y 2025 antes de que fracasara una propuesta de rescate gubernamental de última hora por valor de 500 millones de dólares. Los vuelos de Spirit Airlines fueron suspendidos a las 3 de la madrugada del sábado. El secretario de Transporte, Sean Duffy, anunció el cierre de la aerolínea horas después.

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

El seguro médico de los empleados de Spirit Airlines finalizó el sábado. American Airlines y JetBlue Airways ofrecieron ayuda a los pilotos y auxiliares de vuelo de Spirit Airlines que quedaron varados durante el fin de semana.

Trump y Duffy criticaron al gobierno del expresidente Joe Biden por bloquear la venta de Spirit Airlines a JetBlue por 3.800 millones de dólares en 2024. El lunes, en el aeropuerto de Fort Lauderdale (FLL), JetBlue anunció 11 ubicaciones adicionales.

Registros relacionados

Enlace relacionado : Spirit Airlines lanza una página sobre su reestructuración.

Historias relacionadas

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

Recursos

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

Tensions were evident as Ukrainian artists stood by a truck that had brought a statue of an origami deer from the war-ravaged eastern front to the Biennale's storied Giardini, or gardens. Just meters (yards) away, a handful of participants in the Russian Pavilion danced to house music played by an Argentine DJ.

At the same time, group of Palestinians marched through the Giardini wearing the names of artists who have been killed in Gaza. More protests were expected as the preview week continued.

The developments have put pressure on Biennale’s structure — with 100 national pavilions showing alongside a curated exhibition featuring 110 artists and artist groups — and raised old questions: Is the representation of nations outmoded in a globalized system where artists often operate internationally and does it give states an undue platform for propaganda?

Divisions shake the Biennale

Marie Helene Pereira, one of the five curators of the main exhibition “In Minor Keys,” said she believes that the turmoil surrounding the Biennale shows that "the existence of the nation state within the space of the exhibition’’ is now contested.

“We can see how much that can bring tension, especially in the midst of the political chaos we find our selves,” Pereira said.

Pereira, one of five curators who have taken up the mantle of Koyo Kouoh who died a year ago as she was preparing the exhibition, said that it was "important to be able to rethink structure, rethink institutions, in a way that allows for them to cater more to artists and artmaking.

That didn’t mean that art should be void of politics, she added.

Ahead of its resignation, the jury had said it would not award prizes to countries whose leaders were under investigation by the International Court of Justice, which singled out Russia and Israel.

Some participants welcomed the resignation. Israeli artist Belu-Simion Fainaru said he thought it was “a fair one.”

“I should be treated as an equal artist, and I should not be discriminated because of my race, that I am a Jew, and not because of my nationality or passport. I have to be seen as I am. I am an artist that wants to show my art, and I have the right to be evaluated,” he said standing in front of his installation rooted in the Kabbalah.

The Biennale, he said, should be “a place where you can feel safe to create and do whatever you believe in.”

Giardini on the front lines

Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadryova created “The Origami Deer” to take the place of a nuclear-capable Soviet fighter jet that had long stood in a park in Pokrovsk, in the Donbas region of Ukraine.

Curators of the Ukrainian Pavilion — its third since Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion — evacuated the statue from the park in 2024, with the front line just 5 kilometers (3 miles) away.

Co-curator Ksenia Malykh fiercely opposed the Biennale’s decision to allow Russia to open its pavilion, calling it “a false attempt to stay neutral.”

“You can’t stay neutral in these times. You can’t be neutral when people are dying every day because of Russians,’’ Malykh said.

“Nobody is talking about their art,” she added. “They are only talking about the statement that they are here, and I am absolutely sure this was their goal.”

The Russian Pavilion will only be open to visitors during previews that run through Friday and will not be open to the public after the Biennale opens for its 6 ½ month run on Saturday. The pavilion has organized a series of performers for this week, and had an open bar upstairs near a flowering tree.

Curators were not available for interviews.

Russia’s opening cost the Venice Biennale 2 million euros ($2.3 million) in EU funding over three years. The Biennale has defended the decision, saying that any country with relations with Italy was free to open a pavilion, a position that has put it at odds with the government in Rome.

Still, the official catalog had a place-saving entry where the Russian text should have been, noting that Russia’s participation was “under review” at the time of publication.

No jury, no Golden Lions

Without a jury of peers, there will be no Golden Lion for best national pavilion or best participant in the main curated exhibition — a highly prestigious prize has led some to lien the Biennale to the Olympics of art.

Instead, visitors to both the Giardini and Arsenale sites will choose two winners, for best national participant and best main show participant, to be awarded Nov. 22, the closing day of the Biennale.

The Ukrainian artist Malykh said that lack of professionally awarded prizes damaged the Biennale.

“It’s an important moment. If the prize is given by the public... It’s not a professional institution after that,” Malykh said.

The draft resolution, co-sponsored by the United States and Gulf nations and obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, also demands that Iran “immediately participate in and enable” United Nations efforts to establish a humanitarian corridor in the strait to enable the delivery of vital aid, fertilizer and other goods.

It is the latest diplomatic effort by the U.S. and its Gulf allies after a watered-down resolution aimed at opening the strait was vetoed by China and Russia hours before Washington and Tehran announced a temporary ceasefire in early April.

U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz told reporters he believes the new, narrow proposal will gain the necessary support it needs to pass the 15-member council, without triggering opposition or a veto from Iran’s allies.

The U.S. and Gulf nations proposed the new draft as the Trump administration tries to restore freedom of navigation in the strait, which carried about 20% of the world’s crude oil before the U.S. and Israel began the war on Feb. 28. A shaky ceasefire remains in effect.

The proposed resolution, which was drafted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter and thus could be enforced militarily, threatens “effective measures that are commensurate with the gravity of the situation, including sanctions” if Iran doesn’t comply.

It reaffirms the right of all countries to defend their vessels from attacks and provocations, and orders all other countries not to assist Iran in closing the strait or levying tolls.

The draft also “welcomes ongoing efforts to deconflict and coordinate safe and secure transit passage through the Strait of Hormuz, expresses support for ongoing efforts to seek a durable peace in the region, and encourages member states in the region to strengthen dialogue and consultations in this regard.”

___

Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.

The artwork itself faced an unknown future in 1942, when it was acquired in Paris for Adolf Hitler, one of countless works swept up in the Nazi plunder of European Jews.

On Tuesday, it went on permanent display in a new room at the city's Musée d’Orsay as part of France’s long-delayed reckoning with Nazi-era looting. The gallery is the first in the museum's history given over to the orphaned masterpieces of the Nazi era.

It is also the first such display in France where the paintings are hung so visitors can read the backs. The stamps, labels and inventory marks map how each piece of art moved from private homes into Nazi hands.

The painting by Belgian artist Alfred Stevens was originally earmarked for the Führer’s planned museum in Linz, Austria. But by 1943, it was reassigned to Hitler’s mountain home in the Bavaria region of Germany. The museum was never built following Germany's defeat.

Allied recovery teams — the Monuments Men made famous by the 2014 George Clooney film — finally found the painting after the war.

No heir came forward, and no one knows who owned it before 1942.

A collection of unclaimed art

The 1891 Stevens painting is not unique. It is one of 2,200 such artistic orphans in France — known as MNR, short for Musées Nationaux Récupération, or National Museums Recovery. These artworks were retrieved from Germany and Austria after 1945 and entrusted to French national museums in the early 1950s.

They were never claimed. The state does not own them but holds them in trust for heirs who may yet appear. The Musée d’Orsay holds 225 such pieces.

Marie Duboisse, a retired schoolteacher from Lyon, paused Tuesday in front of the Stevens painting.

“I have seen those three letters — M, N, R — at the Louvre. I never knew what they meant. I thought it was a donor,” she said.

Last month, the museum launched its first research unit dedicated to tracing the orphans’ rightful heirs, file by file. The effort involves six Franco-German researchers led by Ines Rotermund-Reynard, the Orsay’s head of provenance research.

The new gallery displays 13 such works.

France’s long-delayed reckoning

France is reckoning, in plain sight, with one of the longest silences in its postwar memory: the looted, sold and lost art of the Nazi era — and the French hands that helped move it.

Starting in the late 1960s, documentaries and historians began naming what France had done under the Vichy government that cooperated with the Nazis, including helping to send 80,000 Jews from France to their deaths and presiding over a Paris art market that grew rich on the property of the dead.

In July 1995, President Jacques Chirac stood at the site of the Vél d’Hiv roundup — the 1942 mass arrest in Paris of Jews who were then deported to Nazi camps — and said, for the first time, that the French state itself bore responsibility. In 1997, France launched a national inquiry into the plundering of artwork from Jews.

About 100,000 cultural objects were declared looted from France during the war. Some 60,000 were recovered. About 45,000 went home.

Roughly 15,000 had no identified owner. The 2,200 MNR artworks were chosen from that remainder.

For four decades, they were largely a dormant file. Between 1954 and 1993, France returned only four.

Chirac’s mea culpa, and the country’s slow reckoning with its own role, changed that.

The Orsay has returned 15 since 1994.

The market that fed the plunder

The most recent pieces of art to be returned — by Alfred Sisley and Auguste Renoir, given to the heirs of Grégoire Schusterman — went home in 2024.

Inside the new gallery, the histories hang on the wall.

There is a piece by Edward Degas, a copy he made of a Berlin ballroom scene around 1879. The Jewish collector Fernand Ochsé bought it in 1919. Ochsé was deported to Auschwitz and killed.

There is another Renoir, a portrait of the writer Alphonse Daudet’s wife, sold to a Cologne museum in November 1941. No record names the seller.

There is also a painting by Paul Cézanne that was dismissed as a fake by a Louvre curator in the 1950s. Recent study suggests it may be real.

Daniel Lévy, a software engineer visiting from Strasbourg, stood at the Cézanne, looking at its back.

“You walk past these labels your whole life and you do not read them. Now I will read them," he said. "My grandmother lost some of her family in the camps. Some of these paintings were probably hanging in homes like hers.”

Paris was Western Europe's richest art hub in the early 20th century.

The Hôtel Drouot, the city’s main auction house, reopened in autumn 1940 and ran briskly through the Nazi occupation.

French dealers were among the conduits. German museums sent buyers, and Hitler’s agents took the best.

“The most important art market in Europe was concentrated in Paris,” Rotermund-Reynard said. “The moment the Nazis arrived in occupied territory, they had enormous buying power. They threw themselves at the market.”

Germans were eager buyers

Almost every museum in Nazi Germany, Rotermund-Reynard said, sent buyers to Paris to expand its collections. Those buyers drew on a market thick with looted and forced-sale property.

“Hitler himself wanted to build the world’s largest museum, in Linz, the city in Austria where he grew up,” she said.

Hermann Göring, Hitler’s deputy, traveled 21 times to Paris during the occupation to help himself to works taken from Jewish collectors.

“There was an enormous thirst,” Rotermund-Reynard said, “both for the possessions of Jewish collectors, and for acquisitions to expand the German museums.”

For Rotermund-Reynard, the works cannot be separated from the genocide.

“All of this is part of the history of the Shoah,” she said, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust. “When you try to understand this drive to take from Jewish families, it is part of the terrifying Nazi ideology to erase Jewish life.”

Antisemitic acts in France — home to Europe’s largest Jewish community — hit 1,320 in 2025, according to the French Interior Ministry. Those near-record levels followed a sharp surge after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

The gallery was not built to fight antisemitism, said François Blanchetière, the Orsay’s chief sculpture curator and co-curator of the gallery. But the consequences of the Holocaust must be repaired, he said.

“There is no statute of limitations on these crimes," he said.

The GOP bill released late Monday would designate the money for the U.S. Secret Service for “security adjustments and upgrades” related to the ballroom project, which Trump and Republicans have been pushing since Cole Tomas Allen allegedly stormed the April 25 media dinner at the Washington Hilton with guns and knives. The legislation says the money would support enhancements to the ballroom project, “including above-ground and below-ground security features,” but also specifies that the money may not be used for non-security elements.

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle praised Republicans for including the money for the “long overdue” project, saying it would “provide the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely harden the White House complex, in addition to the many other critical missions for the USSS.”

The money is part of a larger bill to pay for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, as Democrats have been blocking funds for both agencies since mid-February. Congress passed bipartisan legislation to fund the rest of the Homeland Security Department on April 30 after a record-long shutdown, but Republicans are using a partisan budget maneuver to push through the ICE and Border Patrol dollars on their own. The House has not released its bill yet, but the Senate is expected to start voting on its version of the legislation next week.

It is unclear exactly how the $1 billion would be used, and the amount far exceeds the proposed $400 million for construction of the ballroom. The White House has said in court documents that the East Wing project would be “heavily fortified,” including bomb shelters, military installations and a medical facility underneath the ballroom. Trump has said it should include bulletproof glass and be able to repel drone attacks.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued to block construction of the project, but a federal appeals court said last month that it can continue in the meantime.

The White House has said that private money would pay for the construction but public money would be used for security measures. Some Republicans have suggested that public money pay for all of it, arguing the security breach at the dinner shows the president needs a secure place to host events.

“It would be insane” to hold the dinner at a hotel again, said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who introduced a bill to pay for the ballroom’s construction with Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala.

Democrats have said they will oppose any efforts to pay for the ballroom.

“While Americans are struggling to make ends meet as a result of President Trump’s failed policies, Republicans are focused on providing tens of billions of dollars for the President’s vanity ballroom project and cruel mass deportation campaign,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the U.S. Secret Service.

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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract hasn’t been finalized.

Fowler, 31, played for the Dallas Cowboys last year and had three sacks in 17 games, starting in 11 of those.

Fowler should help Seattle replace edge rusher Boye Mafe, who signed a three-year, $60 million deal with the Cincinnati Bengals in free agency. Mafe had 20 sacks in four seasons for Seattle.

Fowler was the No. 3 pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2015 NFL draft. He has racked up 58.5 sacks across 10 seasons. In addition to the Jaguars and two stints with the Cowboys, Fowler has played for the Los Angeles Rams, Atlanta Falcons and Washington Commanders.

In 2024 with Washington, Fowler recorded 10.5 sacks, his second-most in a single season. He had 11.5 with the Rams in 2019.

Seahawks president of football operations John Schneider said shortly after the team decided not to select an edge rusher in this year’s draft that they would consider adding a player in free agency. Fowler fits the bill of what Seattle was looking for at edge rusher, and joins an inexperienced group that includes linebackers Jared Ivey, Jamie Sheriff, Connor O’Toole and Jalan Gaines.

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

Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton took questions Tuesday at LIV Golf Virginia after LIV CEO Scott O'Neil spoke to reporters about his efforts to court investors for a league that is losing its chief financial backer, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, at the end of the season.

Both players declined to speculate on their future and noted that they remain under contract with LIV for years to come.

“As of right now I have several years on my contract left, and I’m pretty sure they did a pretty good job when they drafted that, so I don’t see many ways out,” Rahm said.

Asked whether Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund had committed to honoring contracts beyond 2026, O'Neil said, “I don’t even know how to think about answering.”

The Saudis have spent $5 billion on LIV Golf over five years without achieving profitability, including $1 billion on player contracts. Players compete for $30 million purses at each event on the LIV schedule, an amount that could be reduced next year without Saudi funding.

The PGA Tour does not allow players to compete on both circuits. However, LIV players have been welcomed back to the European tour after paying fines for playing in conflicting events.

Rahm refused to pay the fines and the resulting standoff put at risk his participation in next year's Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in Ireland.

“There is no longer a standoff. We were able to reach an agreement. There were some concessions on both sides, and I offered some, they extended an olive branch,” Rahm said. “So that will not be a stress anymore.”

Rahm said he plans to play European tour events this fall, including the Spanish Open, unless family considerations get in the way. He and wife Kelley are expecting their fourth child.

The two-time major champion has played only six European tour events since joining LIV in late 2023. LIV has no events on its schedule between the U.S. Open and the British Open, and Rahm's settlement would allow him to play the Scottish Open, which is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour, the week before the year's final major.

Speaking in Spanish at the end of his availability, Rahm said he knew there was risk in coming to LIV and compared his situation to a soccer team knowing its coach was leaving at the end of the season.

“You know you have to play, but there is ambiguity because maybe you are not going to follow the same system,” Rahm said before making a reference to PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, known as “His Excellency,” who has stepped down as LIV's chairman.

“It was a surprise for everyone. We didn't expect it, after the support that His Excellency has given us.”

O'Neil makes a pitch for LIV's value

O'Neil took questions from a LIV media official for 28 minutes inside the tennis building at Trump National Golf Club outside Washington before answering reporters' questions for 17 minutes.

Behind him was a screen with the names of six sponsors, four of which are owned or backed by the PIF: Maaden, Riyadh Air, Roshn Group and Aramco.

O'Neil mentioned sponsorships, ticket sales, television contracts and the league's global footprint as reasons for optimism that it could secure funding. The league plans to take its 13 franchises to market, and O'Neil said those teams would be offered to potential buyers with players in place.

“The way the process will typically work — I may be getting ahead of myself — is that we're going to create a business plan, we're going to lock arms with the players, we will go to market and raise money on a top level, and then we will get investors in teams in that order,” O'Neil said. “The players on the team should be locked in.”

Rahm acknowledged that players might have to accept less money to keep the league going.

“I do believe that for the business plan to change, whatever they're coming up with, there will need to be some concessions on (players') part, yeah,” he said.

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This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of Tyrrell Hatton's first name.

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

They also released a new single, titled “In The Stars.”

To celebrate, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood will attend an album announcement event in Brooklyn Tuesday afternoon.

The Stones' last album was 2023's “Hackney Diamonds.” It was their first album of original material in 18 years — since 2005’s “A Bigger Bang.” It was also their first full-length release since the death of drummer Charlie Watts in 2021. He appeared posthumously on two of that album's 12 tracks.

According to press materials for the album, “Foreign Tongues” will also include a special appearance from Watts from one of his final recording sessions before his death, as well as contributions from Steve Winwood, Paul McCartney, The Cure’s Robert Smith and The Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith.

“I love doing these recording sessions in London at Metropolis. It was a very intense few weeks recording Foreign Tongues,” Mick Jagger said in a statement. “We had 14 great tracks and we went as fast as we could. I like the room there as it’s not too big so you can feel the passion in the room from everyone.”

The Stones worked closely with Oscar-winning pop producer Andrew Watt (known for his work with Post Malone and Justin Bieber, to name a few) on “Hackney Diamonds,” and that continues with “Foreign Tongues.”

A taste of 'Foreign Tongues'

Speculation surrounding a new Stones album has been going around for weeks. First, posters appeared around London with the band name “The Cockroaches,” a pseudonym the Stones' have used in the past, along with a QR code. The code led to ‘thecockroaches.com’ and a sign-up page. Once a user had signed up, they received a confirmation message from Universal Music — the Stones' label. Representatives did not provide The Associated Press with comment or confirmation at the time.

Eventually it led to a white label, vinyl-only release of the track “Rough and Twisted” using The Cockroaches name — the first true tease of “Foreign Tongues” decipherable only by their most dedicated fans.

Then, in the week leading up to their announcement, billboards with the band's iconic mouth and tongue logo began appearing in major cities around the world with the words “Foreign Tongues” in various languages: “Fremmede Sprog,” “Vreemde Tongen,” “Dayuhang Dila,” “외국어,” and “Langues Étrangères” among them. Around the same time, the Rolling Stones' official website was updated to feature video clips stylized to look like surveillance footage of them in the studio.

On Sunday, the band shared a slide puzzle graphic fans believed to be the album artwork, depicting a cartoonish collage of the members' faces. (They were correct; it was the official album cover.) There was also a short video clip, just 10-seconds long, that appeared to tease a new song.

The June 5 event put on by Heritage Auctions will benefit the Matthew Perry Foundation, which works to destigmatize addiction and aid in recovery from substance abuse.

“Matthew believed addiction should be met with compassion and science, not stigma and silence,” the foundation’s CEO Lisa Kasteler Calio said in a statement. “This auction fuels the Foundation’s work to expand access to evidence-based care and confront stigma. It is one more way we ensure that no one has to fight this disease alone.”

Items from Matthew Perry's collection that will be sold

— A collection of 26 of Perry’s “Friends” scripts from key episodes, including “The One With Ross’s Tan,” “The One Where Joey Speaks French” and the two-part series finale.

— Scripts from the pilot and part one of the series finale signed by Perry and co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer, donated by Warner Bros., which produced the series.

— A 1995 Screen Actors Guild Award, which Perry won for best performance by an ensemble in a comedy series.

— Perry's personal replica of the yellow peephole frame from Monica and Rachel's apartment on “Friends.”

— Perry's “Friends” photo album, titled “The One With the Last Supper.”

— Works of art by Banksy and Mel Bochner that Perry owned.

About the Matthew Perry charity auction

The auction site opened Tuesday. Items will be on display from May 18 to May 29 in Beverly Hills before the June 5 auction that will be held at Heritage Auctions’ Dallas showroom and online.

Net proceeds will go to initiatives supported by the foundation. They include the Matthew Perry Fellowship in Addiction Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, grants to organizations that work directly with recovering addicts, and Healing Appalachia, a recovery-focused sober music festival.

Perry played Chandler Bing for a decade from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s culture-changing sitcom “Friends.” It made him one of the biggest television stars of his generation.

Perry was found dead in the hot tub of his Hollywood home at age 54 on Oct. 28, 2023. The medical examiner determined that the acute effects of the anesthetic ketamine were the primary cause.

Five people have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the investigation of his death, including two doctors and an admitted drug dealer. His personal assistant and a friend who acted as a middleman are still to be sentenced later this month.

Según la policía, el hecho ocurrió aproximadamente a las 6:20 p.m. del domingo en el área de Northwest 187th Street y 44th Avenue.

La policía indicó que la víctima se había citado con un adolescente para venderle un reloj, pero el joven sacó un arma y trató de arrebatárselo.

Según la policía, la víctima empujó entonces al sospechoso y disparó un tiro, alcanzando al adolescente en la mano.

El personal de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue respondió al lugar y trasladó al sospechoso en helicóptero al HCA Florida Aventura Hospital en estado estable.

La identidad del sospechoso aún no ha sido divulgada.

On Tuesday, burglars shattered the windows of six cars at the Pembroke Villas Apartments near Southwest 52nd Avenue.

A witness “observed an unidentified male wearing a ski mask and dressed entirely in black clothing, who concealed himself beneath a yellow cab parked,” a police officer wrote in a statement to Local 10 News.

In February, police officers responded to the Pembroke Villas Apartments after a victim saw one of two burglars rummaging through his parked Chevrolet Suburban.

Police officers asked anyone with information about the vehicle burglaries to call 954-374-8639 or Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 to remain anonymous.

Related story: After a rash of burglaries, Pembroke Park police officers ask public to avoid leaving valuables in cars

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Jail records show Nazia Badal, 44, of Arlington, Texas, was taken into custody around 9:20 p.m. on Thursday by U.S. Marshals and the Miramar Police Department.

Authorities said she had an active Broward County warrant on two counts of DUI manslaughter and is being held without bond.

The charges stem from a June 16, 2013, crash near the 2300 block of Red Road in Miramar that killed a man identified by loved ones as Jose Francisco Zamora.

An arrest report states that Badal, who worked as a waitress at Tootsie’s Cabaret at the time of the crash, was driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.15% — nearly twice the legal limit — and about 15 mph over the speed limit at the time of the crash, which occurred near the intersection of Red Road and Renaissance Boulevard.

“At the time of the crash, the defendant had an unlawful blood alcohol concentration that impaired her normal faculties and ability to safely operate a motor vehicle,” an officer wrote in her 2013 arrest report.

Investigators said the crash resulted in “multiple blunt force injuries” to Zamora, causing his death.

The report states that a witness told police that Badal had been driving erratically before slamming into Zamora’s vehicle in what was described as an “explosion.”

The witness said Badal’s vehicle came to a stop with severe damage, while Zamora’s car was reduced to “mangled metal,” leaving him trapped inside, according to the report.

Investigators said Badal had a “strong odor of an alcoholic beverage,” which became more pronounced when she spoke, and that her eyes appeared “glassy and red.”

According to the report, when authorities told Badal a criminal investigation was underway, she responded, “for what, nobody died,” and “who’s going to pay for my car?”

Police also wrote that Badal “seemed to be oblivious to the seriousness of the crash and showed absolutely no concern for the other driver, only for her vehicle.”

A toxicology report revealed that Zamora had no drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of the crash.

The victim’s niece told Local 10 News that the the case had largely gone unpublicized since the fatal crash.

Jail records show Badal was initially arrested in 2014 and later released on bond. Authorities said she failed to appear in court in 2017, leading to an outstanding warrant for her arrest.

Records show Badal, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, has been placed on an immigration hold and is being held without bond at the Paul Rein Detention Facility.

Court records show she is scheduled to appear for a hearing Tuesday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The men were described as people contracted to clean up after baseball games. They didn't work directly for the MLB team.

“This could have happened anywhere, but what happened tonight was a dispute between two people. Unfortunately, it happened at a treasured St. Louis staple,” said Mitch McCoy, spokesperson for St. Louis police.

The Cardinals said it was an “isolated altercation.”

Police were summoned around 3 a.m. Monday. The victim was a 27-year-old man. The suspect, a 65-year-old man, was interviewed by investigators.

The Cardinals earlier played the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday. The fatality had no impact on the Monday game against Milwaukee.

Macron was joined by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on drums and celebrated jazz musician Vahagn Hayrapetyan on piano on Monday night in Yerevan. In addition to “La Bohème,” which was recorded by Armenian-French musician Charles Aznavour in 1965, Macron also sang “Les Feuilles Mortes" by Yves Montand.

The event at Armenia’s presidential residence on Monday night was held in Macron's honor. The French leader was in town for a state visit that coincided with a gathering of the European Political Community and a historic European Union summit.

Pashinyan, who took office in 2018, more regularly flexes his musical prowess as part of his musical group Varchaband. It held its debut concert in Yerevan at the end of January.

The Armenian leader is also well known for posting videos of himself listening to music on Instagram, with his musical taste seemingly spanning from Taylor Swift to Travis Scott and A$AP Rocky.

El personal de Miami Fire Rescue declaró muerto a Jaheim Pierre, de 23 años, en un apartamento el sábado por la tarde, en 5329 NW 17 Ave., según los registros.

Tras el tiroteo, Antwan Carter se dirigió a un oficial de policía y dijo: “Fui yo; tengo el arma”, según un informe policial.

Carter entregó una pistola Glock 43 de 9mm que llevaba en el bolsillo derecho, de acuerdo con el informe.

Una mujer con los pies y la ropa “cubiertos de sangre” se acercó a un oficial y dijo que el tirador era su novio de cuatro años y que los dos heridos eran sus hermanos, según el informe policial.

La mujer dijo que sus hermanos estaban preocupados por ella como posible víctima de violencia doméstica, que se presentaron en su apartamento, y que se produjo una discusión y una pelea, según la policía.

Carter dijo que salió del apartamento, regresó y disparó contra ambos hermanos, según la policía. El personal de rescate encontró a Gianni Pierre, de 28 años, sangrando junto a un sofá, y a Jaheim Pierre, de 23 años, sangrando dentro de un clóset.

El personal de rescate trasladó de urgencia a Gianni Pierre al Centro de Trauma Ryder del Jackson Memorial Hospital, donde un médico lo declaró muerto.

Carter enfrenta dos cargos de asesinato en primer grado.

Según el informe, Jennifer Frost, de 44 años, de Collins, Iowa, estuvo acompañada por su abogado el lunes cuando se entregó en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Frost enfrenta un cargo de agresión agravada tras el incidente del 19 de marzo a bordo del barco Sunrise de Carnival.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade, la víctima y su familia estaban en el crucero cuando ella se encontró con Frost dentro del restaurante Lido Market.

La víctima dijo a los agentes que estaba haciendo fila con un grupo de amigos y familiares cuando fueron abordados por Frost, quien parecía estar intoxicada e intentó meterse en su conversación, fingiendo reír como si fuera parte de su grupo.

La víctima dijo que trató de ignorar a Frost porque se sentía “muy incómoda”, y Frost finalmente se alejó.

Según el informe, Frost luego se acercó repentinamente a la víctima en el otro lado del restaurante después de que la víctima tomó helado y la golpeó en la cara, causando que la nariz de la víctima sangrara abundantemente.

Frost luego huyó del área, pero varios testigos la siguieron mientras otros contactaron a la seguridad del barco, dijeron las autoridades.

Los agentes dijeron que el equipo de seguridad del barco detuvo a Frost, y fue captada en video de cámara corporal admitiendo haber golpeado a la víctima en la cara y expresando satisfacción con sus acciones.

Las autoridades dijeron que el video de vigilancia del crucero también captó el ataque.

Según el informe, aunque Frost fue inicialmente detenida en el barco, de alguna manera pudo desembarcar en PortMiami sin tener contacto con las autoridades.

Los agentes dijeron que Frost viajó de regreso a Iowa, pero luego contrató a un abogado y aceptó regresar a Miami para entregarse, señala el informe.

Hasta la mañana de este martes, Frost permanecía en TGK. Los registros carcelarios en línea indicaban que su fianza estaba “por determinar”.

The Real Madrid and France forward is sidelined by a left hamstring issue which is casting doubt about his availability for Sunday's clasico in Barcelona, the biggest match in Spanish soccer.

During his time off, Mbappé reportedly traveled to Italy with actress Ester Expósito last weekend, prompting criticism in Spanish media that he may not be taking his rehabilitation seriously. Madrid fans also questioned why the league's best striker was on holiday ahead of the clasico.

Mbappé denied any wrongdoing through a statement from his representatives sent to The Associated Press.

“Part of the criticism is based on an overinterpretation of elements related to a recovery period strictly supervised by the club, without reflecting the reality of Kylian’s commitment and the work he puts in every day for the team,” the statement read.

Unhappy Real Madrid supporters believe Mbappé is saving himself for the World Cup that begins in five weeks.

He also drew criticism earlier this season when he couldn't play because of a knee ailment.

Madrid has little to play for in the final stretch of the season. It has been eliminated in the Champions League and the Copa del Rey, and is virtually out of contention in La Liga as it trails Barcelona by 11 points with four rounds remaining. Barcelona could clinch on Sunday.

Madrid has yet to say whether Mbappé will be fit and available for the clasico. Spanish media say Mbappé went to Madrid’s training center on a day off to continue his recovery.

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AP Sports Writer Tales Azzoni in Madrid contributed.

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

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According to the report, Jennifer Frost, 44, of Collins, Iowa, was accompanied by her attorney Monday as she surrendered at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Frost faces an aggravated battery charge following the March 19 incident onboard Carnival’s Sunrise ship.

According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, the victim and her family were onboard the cruise when she encountered Frost inside the Lido Market restaurant.

The victim told deputies that she was standing in line with a group of friends and family members when they were approached by Frost, who appeared to be intoxicated and tried to insert herself in their conversation, pretending to laugh as if she was part of their group.

The victim said she tried to ignore Frost as she felt “very uncomfortable,” and Frost eventually walked away.

According to the report, Frost then suddenly approached the victim on the other side of the restaurant after the victim got ice cream and punched her in the face, causing the victim’s nose to bleed heavily.

Frost then fled the area but several witnessed followed her while others contacted ship security, authorities said.

Deputies said the ship’s security team detained Frost, and she was captured on body-cam footage admitting to punching the victim in the face and expressing satisfaction with her actions.

Authorities said surveillance video from the cruise ship also captured the attack.

According to the report, while Frost was initially detained on the ship, she somehow was able to disembark the ship at PortMiami without making contact with law enforcement.

Deputies said Frost traveled back home to Iowa, but later hired an attorney and agreed to travel back to Miami to surrender herself, the report stated.

As of Tuesday morning, Frost remained at TGK. Online jail records listed her bond as “to be set.”

The analysis obtained by The Associated Press includes the first economy-wide projections behind a policy at the core of Trump’s pitch to voters going into November’s midterm elections for control of the House and Senate. Democratic lawmakers have been doubtful about the savings claimed by Trump and these new numbers are likely to trigger additional questions about the data.

Cost-of-living issues are at the forefront of voters’ concerns and higher energy prices tied to the Iran war have deepened the public’s anxiety. Trump has tried in part to address affordability concerns by focusing on his efforts to cut deals with companies so that the cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. would no longer be dramatically higher than in other affluent nations.

“Now you have the lowest drug prices anywhere in the world,” Trump said at a Friday rally before a crowd of seniors in Florida. “And that alone should win us the midterms.”

The analysis was done by administration officials for the White House Council of Economic Advisers. They also estimated that federal and state governments could save a combined $64.3 billion on Medicaid during the next decade because of what Trump calls his “most favored nation” policy on drug prices.

Few of the details of the deals struck by the Trump administration and 17 leading pharmaceutical companies have been made public, making it hard to independently verify the projected savings. The White House analysis sought to estimate the prospective savings as more medications come onto the market and fall under Trump’s framework — with one model in the report tallying the possible savings at $733 billion over a decade.

Trump and his Department of Health and Human Services have touted his drug-pricing deals as transformative and urged Congress to codify their principles into law. Democratic lawmakers have challenged the administration’s claims of savings. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and 17 Senate Democrats in April proposed a measure requiring the administration to disclose the terms of the agreements signed by pharmaceutical companies.

“If these deals are so great, why is the Trump administration afraid of showing them to the public?” Wyden said when announcing the measure. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his team would share details that didn’t include proprietary information or trade secrets.

The White House said it has not shared the text of the agreements because they include highly sensitive data that could move financial markets.

The potential savings estimated by the Trump administration would be substantial as Americans spent $467 billion on prescription drugs in 2024, according to the most recent government data available. The analysis is premised on the idea that foreign countries would also pay more for their prescription drugs, which would diversify drugmakers’ sources of revenue and preserve their ability to innovate with new treatments.

Outside economists have caveated that any savings might not flow directly to patients, many of whom already pay discounted prices for their drugs through their insurance coverage.

The Congressional Budget Office in October 2024 estimated that a plan similar to what Trump ended up adopting could reduce prescription drug prices by more than 5%, though the decrease “would probably diminish over time as manufacturers adjusted to the new policy by altering prices or distribution of drugs in other countries.”

The scope of the savings claimed by the Trump administration are likely to intensify the scrutiny by Democrats, who counter that any price reductions would be offset by higher costs for prescription drugs not covered by the “most favored nation” framework. One of their main critiques is that pharmaceutical companies have increased their profit margins while working with the administration.

In April, staff working for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., released an analysis that looked at 15 of the companies that have agreed to this drug-pricing plan and found that their combined profits jumped 66% over the past year to $177 billion. The report noted that the tax cuts Trump signed into law last year “exempted or delayed many of the most expensive drugs” from price negotiations with Medicare.

The Trump administration has countered that they consider Sanders’ critique to be flawed, saying that it’s based on the list prices for pharmaceutical drugs instead of the actual price that patients pay.

Employers posted 6.87 million jobs in March, compared to 6.92 million in February, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

The job market has been up and down so far this year after a dismal 2025. And the Iran war, which began Feb. 28, has clouded the outlook for the economy and hiring.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that layoffs rose in March. But hiring improved: Employers added 5.55 million gross jobs, most since February 2024. More Americans also quit their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects.

Job openings have come down more or less steadily since peaking at a record 12.3 million in March 2022 as the U.S. economy bounded back from COVID-19 lockdowns. High interest rates, a response to an outburst of inflation in 2021-2022; uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s policies; and, potentially, the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence have discouraged robust hiring.

Last year, employers added fewer than 10,000 jobs a month, weakest hiring outside a recession since 2002. So far in 2026, job creation has bounced around — strong in January (160,000 new jobs) and March (178,000) but weak in February when employers slashed 133,000 jobs.

The Labor Department issues its job report for April on Friday. According to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet, it is expected to show that companies, nonprofits and government agencies added a steady 57,000 net jobs last month and that the unemployment rate remained at a low 4.3%.

Partly because of Trump's immigration crackdown, fewer people are competing for work. That means the economy doesn't need as many new jobs to keep the unemployment rate from rising. A year ago, economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis estimated that the "break-even'' rate of monthly hiring was 153,000. In an update published in March, St. Louis Fed economist Alexander Bick calculated that it could be as low as 15,000 jobs a month.

Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a commentary that Tuesday's JOLTS report showed a “steady labor market.'' But he cautioned that ”this picture of the labor market will change as the economy adjusts to $100+ a barrel oil, higher inflation, possibly tighter monetary conditions and global recession starting in Asia,'' which is dependent on disrupted supplies of oil and natural gas from the Persian Gulf.

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It will take place on Saturday and Sunday along the coast in Fort Lauderdale Beach.

The headliners are the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.

They arrived on Monday ahead of the annual spectacular show in the sky.

Local 10’s Jason Carter caught up with the Thunderbirds and his report can be seen at the top of this page.

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Hernandez said she joined the airline when she was 19 years old. A few years ago, she suffered a traumatic brain injury during a car crash, and she credits the company for helping her to recover.

“We have become like family. I am going to miss it so much,” Hernandez said. “I am really sad about it.”

After a $500 million government bailout proposal failed, Spirit Airlines flights were grounded by 3 a.m. on Saturday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the airline’s shutdown hours later.

“We are looking for help,” Bryce said. “I really love the job, and I enjoy doing it ... We went to work one day, and then we were out of work the next.”

CareerSource Broward offers services such as job placement and career coaching at three centers at 4941 Coconut Creek Parkway, 2550 West Oakland Park Boulevard, and 7550 Davie Road Extension in Hollywood.

Related link: Association of Flight Attendants offers help

Without much warning, Spirit Airlines employees’ health insurance was cut off on Saturday. A few dozen employees marched on Monday morning outside of the airline’s headquarters in Dania Beach.

There had been hope of a government bailout. On April 23, at the White House, a reporter asked President Donald Trump if his administration had plans to buy “a stake” in Spirit Airlines. Trump said it was under consideration.

“We have 18,000 people that live in this country that are great people and great employees,” Trump said. “We are thinking about doing it ... I’d love to be able to save those jobs. I’d love to be able to save an airline.”

Related document: Airlines For America plan

Dave Davis, the Spirit Airlines chief executive officer, told The Wall Street Journal that the Iran war’s surging energy prices caused the plan to fail.

“We didn’t intentionally sell any tickets thinking we weren’t going to be here,” Davis told The WSJ. “We thought we were going to get the liquidity we needed.”

American Airlines and JetBlue Airways were working to help Spirit Airlines pilots and flight attendants who may have been stranded during the shutdown.

Related link: Spirit Airlines launches restructuring page

“There’s a demand for aviation workers. So, even American and United have drafted or crafted microsites for Spirit employees to potentially jump the line, jump the queue, and get preferential treatment in the application process for the many airlines that are now hiring, whether it’s pilots, flight attendants, baggage workers or even those who have worked in the call centers. You can go to the individual websites to see what’s offered by each of the individual airlines,” Duffy said.

Trump and Duffy criticized former President Joe Biden’s administration for blocking the $3.8 billion sale of Spirit Airlines to JetBlue in 2024, which they say could have prevented the failure.

Related stories

• Jobless former Spirit Airlines employees march in Dania Beach
• Spirit Airlines asks guests not to go to the airport, or expect rebookings

Resources

• American Airlines launches “Supporting Spirit” career page
• United Airlines launches program to prioritize former Spirit Airlines employees when hiring. Here is the career page >
• Southwest Airlines was recruiting on this page.
• JetBlue announced an extension of the “jumpseat agreement for the next two weeks, subject to space availability and limited to cabin seating” for those who were stranded while working for Spirit Airlines, and also announced “preferential employment interviews.”
• For more information about help from the Association of Flight Attendants, call 1-800-385-3920
• Career Source Broward runs three career centers with services to help job seekers. The centers also use the Employ Florida resources.
• To file an unemployment benefits claim in Florida, call 1-800-204-2418 or visit this page.
• Find your local food bank, on this Feeding America page

Related social media

pic.twitter.com/Wz3ilRHD2z

— Spirit Airlines (@SpiritAirlines) May 2, 2026

Se llevará a cabo el sábado y domingo a lo largo de la costa en Fort Lauderdale Beach.

Los protagonistas principales son los Thunderbirds de la Fuerza Aérea de Estados Unidos.

Llegaron el lunes antes del espectáculo aéreo anual.

Jason Carter de Local 10 conversó con los Thunderbirds y su reportaje se puede ver en la parte superior de esta página.

A study released Tuesday by the nongovernmental organization Amazon Conservation, in partnership with Brazilian nonprofit Instituto Socioambiental, found illegal mining sites drove clear-cutting inside three conservation areas in the Xingu region, one of the world’s largest expanses of protected forest, spanning the states of Para and Mato Grosso. The analysis combined satellite imagery with ground research.

The Terra do Meio Ecological Station recorded its first cases of illegal mining in September 2024. By the end of 2025, mining-related deforestation there had spread to 30 hectares (74 acres). At the Altamira National Forest, illegal mining accumulated 832 hectares (2,056 acres) of deforestation between 2016 and September 2025. A new mining front that opened in 2024 expanded to 36 hectares (89 acres) by October 2025, accounting for nearly half the mining-related deforestation recorded in the unit during that year.

Satellite monitoring also detected a clandestine airstrip used by illegal miners at the Nascentes da Serra do Cachimbo Biological Reserve last year. Illegal mining in the reserve grew from 2 hectares (5 acres) to at least 26.8 hectares (66 acres) in 2025.

Most deforestation from mining is illegal, group says

In 2023, Amazon Conservation teamed up with Earth Genome and the Pulitzer Center to develop the Amazon Mining Watch, a platform that uses satellite imagery to track mining across the Amazon since 2018. About 496,000 hectares (1,225,640 acres) of rainforest have been cleared for mining since then, including approximately 223,000 hectares (551,045 acres) in the Brazilian Amazon. Amazon Conservation estimates that 80% of mining-related deforestation in Brazil carries a high risk of taking place illegally.

Mining remains a relatively small driver of deforestation in Brazil, where forest loss is largely linked to agribusiness expansion. In 2025, for example, some 579,600 hectares (1,432 acres) of the Brazilian Amazon were cleared, according to official data. About 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) were related to mining, according to the Mining Watch.

“What makes mining particularly problematic is that it targets protected areas and Indigenous territories,” said Matt Finer, director of Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andes Amazon program.

Protecting Indigenous territories is widely seen as an effective way to curb deforestation in the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest and a key regulator of global climate. Researchers warn that continued forest loss could accelerate global warming.

Enforcement is often a ‘cat-and-mouse’ game

In 2023, Brazilian authorities launched a major crackdown on illegal gold mining in the Yanomami Indigenous territory in Roraima state, along the border with Venezuela, after a surge led to a humanitarian and health crisis. Annual growth in newly mined areas there fell sharply after that year, according to Amazon Conservation data. Although mining has not been fully eliminated, nearly all deforestation inside the Yanomami territory — about 5,500 hectares (13,590 acres) — had taken place by 2023.

Still, localized enforcement has not curbed illegal mining across the Amazon. When authorities destroy dredges and equipment in one region, miners often relocate or resume operations once officials leave. Federal prosecutor André Luiz Porreca, who investigates illegal mining in the western Brazilian Amazon, described enforcement as a “cat-and-mouse game.”

“Last year, I took part in an operation that destroyed more than 500 dredges on an Indigenous land,” Porreca said. “The following week, Indigenous people showed me photos proving the miners had already returned.”

Porreca said illegal gold mining is financed by Brazil’s largest criminal organizations, including the Red Command and the First Capital Command, or PCC, which operate in about a third of the cities in the Brazilian Amazon. “They have the money to bankroll these operations. Some dredges cost as much as 15 million reais."

While enforcement eased pressure in Yanomami territory, illegal mining has intensified elsewhere, particularly across Indigenous lands in the Xingu River basin. The most critical situation is on the Kayapo Indigenous land, where roughly 7,940 hectares (19,620 acres) of rainforest have been cleared by illegal mining, the largest such area in the Brazilian Amazon.

Gold has driven mercury contamination

Record-breaking gold prices, driven largely by investor demand for safe assets amid rising global risks, have provided a strong incentive for illegal mining.

“It’s basic market logic. With more buyers, there are more people exploiting gold,” Porreca said. He said Brazil’s mineral export control system remains weak, allowing laundering schemes that give illicit gold the appearance of legality.

Environmental damage extends beyond deforestation. Illegal mining operations dump mercury into rivers, contaminating waterways and accumulating in fish consumed by riverine and Indigenous communities.

In April, Porreca submitted a report to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights describing widespread mercury contamination in the Amazon. The report cited a study by Fiocruz, a state-run research institution, which found that 21.3% of fish sold in public markets across the Amazon exceeded mercury limits set by the World Health Organization. Children ages 2 to 4 were consuming mercury at levels up to 31 times higher than the recommended maximum.

Mining an increasing concern among environmentalists and Indigenous

Under Brazilian law, mining is prohibited on Indigenous lands. The Ministry of Indigenous peoples said in a statement that combating illegal mining on Indigenous lands is a priority of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration. The ministry said mining invasions are sustained by criminal networks and confronting them requires dismantling those economic and logistics chains.

The Ministry of Environment said mercury contamination from illegal gold mining remains a persistent problem in the Amazon, adding that it is expanding scientific monitoring while supporting enforcement efforts.

Brazil’s Federal Police did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

___

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

Hernández contó que se unió a la aerolínea cuando tenía 19 años. Hace unos años, sufrió una lesión cerebral traumática en un accidente automovilístico y le agradece a la compañía por haberla ayudado en su recuperación.

“Nos hemos convertido en una familia. Lo voy a extrañar muchísimo”, dijo Hernández. “Estoy muy triste por esto”.

Tras el fracaso de una propuesta de rescate gubernamental de 500 millones de dólares, los vuelos de Spirit Airlines fueron suspendidos a las 3 de la madrugada del sábado. El secretario de Transporte, Sean Duffy, anunció el cierre de la aerolínea horas después.

“Estamos buscando ayuda”, dijo Bryce. “Me encanta mi trabajo y lo disfruto mucho... Un día tuvimos trabajo y al día siguiente nos quedamos sin él”.

CareerSource Broward ofrece servicios como colocación laboral y orientación profesional en tres centros ubicados en 4941 Coconut Creek Parkway, 2550 West Oakland Park Boulevard y 7550 Davie Road Extension en Hollywood.

Enlace relacionado: La Asociación de Auxiliares de Vuelo ofrece ayuda.

Sin previo aviso, el sábado se suspendió el seguro médico de los empleados de Spirit Airlines. El lunes por la mañana, varias decenas de empleados se manifestaron frente a la sede de la aerolínea en Dania Beach .

Existía la esperanza de un rescate gubernamental. El 23 de abril , en la Casa Blanca, un periodista preguntó al presidente Donald Trump si su administración tenía planes de comprar una participación en Spirit Airlines. Trump respondió que la opción estaba en consideración.

“Tenemos 18.000 personas que viven en este país que son gente estupenda y excelentes empleados”, dijo Trump. “Estamos pensando en hacerlo... Me encantaría poder salvar esos empleos. Me encantaría poder salvar una aerolínea”.

Documento relacionado : Plan de aerolíneas para Estados Unidos

Dave Davis, director ejecutivo de Spirit Airlines, declaró a The Wall Street Journal que el aumento vertiginoso de los precios de la energía debido a la guerra con Irán provocó el fracaso del plan.

“No vendimos entradas intencionadamente pensando que no íbamos a estar aquí”, declaró Davis a The WSJ . “Pensábamos que íbamos a conseguir la liquidez que necesitábamos”.

American Airlines y JetBlue Airways estaban trabajando para ayudar a los pilotos y auxiliares de vuelo de Spirit Airlines que pudieran haber quedado varados durante el cierre.

Enlace relacionado : Spirit Airlines lanza una página sobre su reestructuración.

“Hay demanda de trabajadores de aviación. Por eso, incluso American y United han creado micrositios para que los empleados de Spirit puedan saltarse la fila y obtener un trato preferencial en el proceso de solicitud de empleo en las numerosas aerolíneas que están contratando, ya sean pilotos, auxiliares de vuelo, personal de equipaje o incluso personas que hayan trabajado en centros de atención telefónica. Pueden visitar los sitios web de cada aerolínea para ver las ofertas disponibles”, dijo Duffy.

Trump y Duffy criticaron al gobierno del expresidente Joe Biden por bloquear la venta de Spirit Airlines a JetBlue por 3.800 millones de dólares en 2024, lo que, según ellos, podría haber evitado el fracaso.

Historias relacionadas

• Ex empleados desempleados de Spirit Airlines marchan en Dania Beach.
• Spirit Airlines pide a los pasajeros que no acudan al aeropuerto, o de lo contrario, no se realizarán cambios de reserva.

Recursos

• American Airlines lanza la página de empleo “Supporting Spirit”.
• United Airlines lanza un programa para dar prioridad a los exempleados de Spirit Airlines en sus contrataciones. Aquí está la página de empleo >
• Southwest Airlines estaba reclutando en esta página .
• JetBlue anunció una extensión del “acuerdo de asientos auxiliares durante las próximas dos semanas, sujeto a la disponibilidad de espacio y limitado a los asientos de cabina” para aquellos que quedaron varados mientras trabajaban para Spirit Airlines, y también anunció “entrevistas de empleo preferenciales”.
• Para obtener más información sobre la ayuda que ofrece la Asociación de Auxiliares de Vuelo , llame al 1-800-385-3920.
• Career Source Broward gestiona tres centros de empleo con servicios para ayudar a quienes buscan trabajo. Los centros también utilizan los recursos de Employ Florida .
• Para presentar una solicitud de beneficios por desempleo en Florida, llame al 1-800-204-2418 o visite esta página .
• Encuentra tu banco de alimentos local en esta página de Feeding America.

Redes sociales relacionadas

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— Spirit Airlines (@SpiritAirlines) May 2, 2026

The analysis obtained by The Associated Press includes the first economy-wide projections behind a policy at the core of Trump's pitch to voters going into November’s midterm elections for control of the House and Senate. Democratic lawmakers have been doubtful about the savings claimed by Trump and these new numbers are likely to trigger additional questions about the data.

Cost-of-living issues are at the forefront of voters' concerns and higher energy prices tied to the Iran war have deepened the public's anxiety. Trump has tried in part to address affordability concerns by focusing on his efforts to cut deals with companies so that the cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. would no longer be dramatically higher than in other affluent nations.

“Now you have the lowest drug prices anywhere in the world,” Trump said at a Friday rally before a crowd of seniors in Florida. “And that alone should win us the midterms.”

The analysis was done by administration officials for the White House Council of Economic Advisers. They also estimated that federal and state governments could save a combined $64.3 billion on Medicaid during the next decade because of what Trump calls his “most favored nation” policy on drug prices.

Few of the details of the deals struck by the Trump administration and 17 leading pharmaceutical companies have been made public, making it hard to independently verify the projected savings. The White House analysis sought to estimate the prospective savings as more medications come onto the market and fall under Trump's framework — with one model in the report tallying the possible savings at $733 billion over a decade.

Trump and his Department of Health and Human Services have touted his drug-pricing deals as transformative and urged Congress to codify their principles into law. Democratic lawmakers have challenged the administration's claims of savings. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and 17 Senate Democrats in April proposed a measure requiring the administration to disclose the terms of the agreements signed by pharmaceutical companies.

“If these deals are so great, why is the Trump administration afraid of showing them to the public?” Wyden said when announcing the measure. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his team would share details that didn’t include proprietary information or trade secrets.

The potential savings estimated by the Trump administration would be substantial as Americans spent $467 billion on prescription drugs in 2024, according to the most recent government data available. The analysis is premised on the idea that foreign countries would also pay more for their prescription drugs, which would diversify drugmakers' sources of revenue and preserve their ability to innovate with new treatments.

The Congressional Budget Office in October 2024 estimated that a plan similar to what Trump ended up adopting could reduce prescription drug prices by more than 5%, though the decrease “would probably diminish over time as manufacturers adjusted to the new policy by altering prices or distribution of drugs in other countries.”

The scope of the savings claimed by the Trump administration are likely to intensify the scrutiny by Democrats, who counter that any price reductions would be offset by higher costs for prescription drugs not covered by the “most favored nation” framework. One of their main critiques is that pharmaceutical companies have increased their profit margins while working with the administration.

In April, staff working for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., released an analysis that looked at 15 of the companies that have agreed to this drug-pricing plan and found that their combined profits jumped 66% over the past year to $177 billion. The report noted that the tax cuts Trump signed into law last year “exempted or delayed many of the most expensive drugs” from price negotiations with Medicare.

The Trump administration has countered that they consider Sanders' critique to be flawed, saying that it's based on the list prices for pharmaceutical drugs instead the actual price that patients pay.

The 33-year-old German man was arrested on Monday afternoon in the car that authorities say he had driven several hundred meters through a street in a busy central shopping area. Two people — a 63-year-old woman and a 77-year-old man, both of them German — were killed. Six other people were injured, two of them seriously.

The suspect is under investigation on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Authorities believe that it was a deliberate rampage, but were still investigating his motive on Tuesday.

Police and prosecutors said in a statement that there was no evidence at present of a political or religious motive. They said he had come to authorities' attention this year because of threats and “defamatory offenses.”

They said that police were deployed on April 17 because of a phone call from the suspect, following which he was admitted to a specialist hospital with his consent because of his “psychological condition.” He was treated there until Wednesday last week. He had no previous convictions and there were no other pending cases, the statement said.

The social affairs ministry in Saxony state said that the man had posed no danger to himself or others while being treated, and there had been no medical reason to prevent him from leaving, German news agency dpa reported.

Lawyers for the county filed a motion on Monday night to quash a grand jury subpoena that asks for the names and personal contact information of county employees and volunteer poll workers. This latest action comes after the FBI in January went to a Fulton County elections warehouse and seized ballots and other documents from the 2020 election, which Georgia’s certified totals showed Trump lost in the state to Biden by 11,779 votes out of nearly 5 million cast. Trump, a Republican, still insists the election was stolen from him even though judges and his own attorney general concluded otherwise.

Monday's court filing says the subpoena is meant to “target, harass and punish the President's perceived political opponents.” The request is “grossly overbroad and untethered to any reasonable need,” the county's lawyers argue. It “cannot yield any evidence that could result in a criminal prosecution," they wrote, arguing that the statute of limitations on any federal crime related to the 2020 election has already expired.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.

County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts, in an emailed statement, called the subpoena “yet another act of outrageous federal overreach designed to intimidate and chill participation in elections.”

“Let me be crystal clear. Fulton County will not be intimidated,” said Pitts, a Democrat who’s running for reelection.

Since the 2020 election, Trump “has obsessively propagated the debunked conspiracy theory that Fulton County ‘stole’ the 2020 election from him,” the county’s lawyers wrote. “And he has made it clear that he seeks retribution against those who refuse to indulge his baseless claims.”

Trump has already targeted individual poll workers like Ruby Freeman, who was attacked by him and his supporters after the election. Freeman, who's Black, has said she was forced to flee her home after false claims of election fraud against her led to racist threats and strangers showing up at her home.

The grand jury subpoena, dated April 17, was served on the county's director of elections on April 20, the county's court filing says. It seeks the “name, position/function, residential and email addresses, and personal telephone number(s)” for thousands of election workers “ranging from county employees who assisted on election day, to bus drivers who operated a mobile voting location, to volunteers and temporary poll workers,” the filing says.

The subpoena “is a chilling escalation in the campaign to terrorize Fulton County election workers," the county's lawyers wrote, adding that threats arising from the current political environment have caused election workers to “fear for their physical safety.” That and other stresses “including the likelihood of being scapegoated by public officials” are causing election workers to leave their jobs “in unprecedented numbers,” they wrote.

The county's lawyers note that the subpoena directs the county to provide the records not to the grand jury but to an out-of-state Justice Department lawyer or to the FBI agent who wrote the affidavit used for the seizure of the county's 2020 ballots in January.

The January seizure of the ballots and other records from Fulton County was one in a string of moves by Trump's administration to obtain past election records from critical swing states. The FBI in March used a subpoena to get records related to an audit of the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County in Arizona. And the Justice Department in April demanded that Michigan’s Wayne County turn over its ballots from the 2024 election, which Trump won against Biden's vice president, Kamala Harris.

The Justice Department is also fighting numerous states in court for access to voter data that includes sensitive personal information. Election officials, including some Republicans, have said handing over the information would violate state and federal privacy laws.

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Miami Fire Rescue personnel declared Jaheim Pierre, 23, dead at an apartment on Saturday afternoon, at 5329 NW 17 Ave., records show.

After the shooting, Antwan Carter turned to a police officer and said, “I am the one; I have the firearm,” according to a police report.

Carter surrendered a 9mm, Glock 43, firearm from his right pocket, according to the police report.

A woman with her feet and clothing ”covered in blood” approached a police officer and said the shooter was her boyfriend of four years, and the two shot were her brothers, according to a police report.

The woman said her brothers had been concerned about her being the victim of domestic violence, showed up at her apartment, and there was an argument and a fight, according to police.

Carter said he left the apartment, returned, and shot both brothers, according to police. Fire rescue personnel found Gianni Pierre, 28, bleeding next to a couch, and Jaheim Pierre, 23, bleeding in the closet

Fire rescue personnel rushed Gianni Pierre, 28, to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where a doctor pronounced him dead.

Carter faced two counts of first-degree murder.

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On Monday, the Homestead Police Department announced the arrest of Michael Alvarez, a teacher at First United Methodist Christian School, located at 622 N. Krome Avenue.

According to authorities, officers responded to the school Monday after receiving reports of a battery.

Officers met with the parents of a student who said their child’s mouth had been taped shut by a teacher following a disagreement, authorities said.

Following an investigation by Homestead police detectives, Alvarez was arrested and is facing a charge of simple battery.

He was taken to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where he remained as of Monday night on a $1,000 bond.

El lunes, el Departamento de Policía de Homestead anunció el arresto de Michael Alvarez, maestro en First United Methodist Christian School, ubicada en 622 N. Krome Avenue.

Según las autoridades, los agentes acudieron a la escuela el lunes tras recibir reportes de una agresión.

Los agentes se reunieron con los padres de un estudiante, quienes dijeron que la boca de su hijo fue sellada con cinta por un maestro tras un desacuerdo, indicaron las autoridades.

Tras una investigación de detectives de la Policía de Homestead, Alvarez fue arrestado y enfrenta un cargo de agresión simple.

Fue llevado al Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, donde permanecía hasta la noche del lunes con una fianza de $1,000 USD.

Ese hallazgo surge tras una confrontación captada en video dentro de un parque público, que ahora está generando preguntas más amplias sobre cómo se ejerce la autoridad policial en público sin un requisito claro de identificación.

El video, que ha atraído atención nacional, muestra al investigador de Local 10 News Jeff Weinsier intentando cuestionar a la alcaldesa de Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, durante un evento público cuando un hombre vestido de civil interviene, le ordena retroceder y hace contacto físico.

Weinsier intentaba cuestionar a la alcaldesa sobre millones de dólares de los contribuyentes gastados en autobuses de tránsito eléctricos que luego fueron retirados de servicio. Local 10 News contactó a Levine Cava múltiples veces solicitando una entrevista, pero su equipo de comunicaciones declinó.

“No me empujes… no me empujes”, se escucha decir a Weinsier en el video.

El hombre, que no estaba visiblemente identificado como agente del orden, responde: “Necesitas retroceder”, y luego preguntó: “¿Quieres ir a la cárcel?”

El encuentro llevó a Local 10 News a preguntar a la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade qué políticas o procedimientos requieren que un agente de civil se identifique antes de emitir órdenes o usar la fuerza.

La Oficina del Sheriff confirmó que no tiene una política, procedimiento o protocolo operativo estándar específico que regule esa situación.

El agente involucrado fue identificado posteriormente como Lester Aguilar, quien forma parte del equipo de seguridad de la alcaldesa en un rol especializado de sargento de armas. En una respuesta por escrito, la Oficina del Sheriff dijo que el agente estaba “operando en una capacidad de protección especializada” y que quienes están asignados a ese rol “a menudo deben operar de manera discreta que no lo identifique de forma prominente como agente del orden”. La agencia dijo que ese enfoque “es intencional y necesario” en entornos públicos dinámicos.

A pesar de esa explicación, el agente sigue siendo un oficial juramentado con autoridad para detener o arrestar. La Oficina del Sheriff no señaló ninguna política escrita que describa cuándo o cómo esa autoridad debe ser claramente identificada ante el público.

Local 10 News compartió el video y los hallazgos con Andrew Scott, doctor en justicia penal, ex jefe de policía y consultor nacional en prácticas policiales.

“El agente debió haberse identificado de inmediato”, dijo Scott.

Scott señaló que la falta de identificación puede crear rápidamente conflictos innecesarios.

“No tiene sentido que este conflicto innecesario haya ocurrido… particularmente cuando el agente no se identifica”, dijo.

Advirtió que situaciones como esta pueden escalar.

“Podrías terminar siendo empujado… puesto en esposas o peor”, dijo.

Scott indicó que el problema no es solo lo que ocurrió en este caso, sino la ausencia de reglas claras que lo regulen.

“Si esas acciones… no estaban sustentadas por una política escrita… eso sí crea un problema”, dijo.

Dijo que le sorprendía que esa guía no exista.

“Me sorprende… que no esté específicamente delineado en la política”, dijo. “Se requiere que los agentes del orden se identifiquen… particularmente si no llevan uniforme evidente”.

Scott también dijo que no vio nada inapropiado en la conducta de Weinsier.

“Lo único que hiciste fue hacerle preguntas”, dijo. “No vi nada de tu parte que creara un problema o una amenaza”.

Añadió que el agente no estaba operando de manera encubierta.

“No estaba profundamente encubierto”, dijo Scott. “Solo estaba trabajando en un equipo de seguridad y debió haberse identificado”.

Scott dijo que la situación resalta una brecha que podría abordarse con una guía escrita clara.

“Todo esto podría haberse evitado si hubiera protocolos adecuados”, dijo. “Lo veo como una solución sencilla… solo hay que ajustar la política”.

Agregó: “Tiene sentido aclarar las cosas por escrito y capacitar a sus miembros”.

También señaló que las expectativas deben definirse claramente sobre cómo los equipos de seguridad interactúan con los medios.

“Debe haber algo claro… para entender cuáles son las acciones y qué es apropiado”, dijo.

Tras el informe original, otra periodista dijo a Local 10 News que experimentó una situación similar con un agente de civil, lo que genera preocupaciones más amplias sobre cómo el público puede saber cuándo alguien que da órdenes es un agente del orden.

Local 10 News solicitó una entrevista con la sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz para discutir si deberían implementarse políticas más claras. La solicitud fue rechazada. La Oficina del Sheriff dijo que la sheriff no estaba disponible y añadió que continúa revisando sus prácticas y permanece abierta a considerar mejoras cuando sea apropiado.

Local 10 News también contactó a la Asociación Benevolente de la Policía de Miami-Dade, que representa a los agentes. El sindicato declinó participar.

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That finding comes after a confrontation captured on video inside a public park, which is now raising broader questions about how law enforcement authority is exercised in public without a clear requirement for identification.

The video, which has drawn national attention, shows Local 10 News investigator Jeff Weinsier attempting to question Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava during a public event when a man in plain clothes steps in, orders him back and makes physical contact.

Weinsier was trying to question the mayor about millions of taxpayer dollars being spent on electric transit buses that were later taken out of service. Local 10 News reached out to Levine Cava multiple times requesting an interview, but her communications staff declined.

“Don’t push me… don’t push me,” Weinsier is heard saying in the video.

The man, who was not visibly identified as law enforcement, responds, “You need to back away,” and later asked, “You want to go to jail?”

The encounter prompted Local 10 News to ask the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office what policies or procedures require a plainclothes deputy to identify themselves before issuing commands or using force.

The Sheriff’s Office confirmed it does not have a specific policy, procedure or standard operating protocol that governs that situation.

The deputy involved was later identified as Lester Aguilar, who is part of the mayor’s security detail in a specialized Sergeant-at-Arms role. In a written response, the Sheriff’s Office said the deputy was “operating in a specialized protective capacity” and that those assigned to that role “must often operate in a low-profile manner that does not prominently identify him as law enforcement.” The agency said that approach “is intentional and necessary” in dynamic public settings.

Despite that explanation, the deputy is still a sworn law enforcement officer with the authority to detain or arrest. The Sheriff’s Office did not point to any written policy outlining when or how that authority must be clearly identified to the public.

Local 10 News shared the video and findings with Andrew Scott, a doctor of criminal justice, former police chief and national consultant on police practices.

“The officer should have immediately identified himself,” Scott said.

Scott said the lack of identification can quickly create unnecessary conflict.

“It doesn’t make sense that this unnecessary conflict occurred… particularly when the officer doesn’t identify himself,” he said.

He warned that situations like this can escalate.

“You could wind up being pushed down… placed in handcuffs or worse,” he said.

Scott said the issue is not only what happened in this case but the absence of clear rules governing it.

“If those actions… were not predicated by a written policy… that does create a problem,” he said.

He said he was surprised such guidance does not already exist.

“I’m surprised… it’s not specifically delineated in policy,” he said. “Law enforcement officers are required to identify themselves… particularly if they’re not in obvious police garb.”

Scott also said he saw nothing inappropriate in Weinsier’s conduct.

“The only thing you did was ask her questions,” he said. “I didn’t see anything on your part that created an issue or a threat.”

He added that the deputy was not operating in a covert or undercover capacity.

“He was not in deep undercover,” Scott said. “He was just working in security detail and should have been identified.”

Scott said the situation highlights a gap that could be addressed with clear written guidance.

“This whole thing could have been avoided if there were appropriate protocols,” he said. “I see it as an easy fix… you just augment the policy.”

He added, “It makes sense to clarify things in writing and to train its members.”

He also said expectations should be clearly defined for how security details interact with the media.

“There needs to be something clear… to understand what the actions are and what’s appropriate,” he said.

Following the original report, another journalist told Local 10 News she experienced a similar situation involving a plainclothes officer, raising broader concerns about how members of the public are expected to know when someone giving orders is law enforcement.

Local 10 News requested an interview with Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz to discuss whether clearer policies should be implemented. The request was declined. The Sheriff’s Office said the sheriff was not available and added it continues to review its practices and remains open to considering enhancements where appropriate.

Local 10 News also contacted the Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association, which represents deputies. The union declined to participate.

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John Andrew Spillman, 33, of Marble Falls, Texas, is accused of indecent exposure.

According to an arrest report, MDSO deputies responded to the DoubleTree hotel, located at 711 NW 72nd Ave., just after midnight in reference to a naked man in the hallway on one of the floors of the hotel.

When deputies arrived in the hallway, they saw Spillman masturbating, authorities said.

According to the report, Spillman was taken into custody before the victim exited her room and told deputies that she was downstairs in the hotel lobby before Spillman followed her upstairs.

She said she immediately entered her room when she got to her floor and then saw Spillman masturbating next to her room.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Secret Service confirmed to Local 10 News that Spillman is a Secret Service officer based in Washington, D.C., but he was working in Miami at the time of his arrest “as part of a detail that provided exterior security screening for an event.”

His assignment had concluded the day prior and he was off-duty at the time of his arrest, officials said.

According to the spokesperson, after his arrest, Spillman was immediately placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the criminal case and an internal review.

Secret Service Chief of Police Richard MacAuley released a statement to Local 10 News which read:

“We are aware of the arrest of an off-duty Secret Service officer by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office. The alleged conduct is unacceptable and stands in stark contrast to the professionalism and integrity that I demand of our personnel. This agency takes these matters with the utmost seriousness; consequently, the individual has been placed on administrative leave pending the results of this criminal matter and a complete and thorough internal investigation.”

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According to Hollywood Fire Rescue officials, the fire was reported at 3:36 a.m. at a home in the 6700 block of Harding Street.

Firefighters said the home was vacant at the time and no injuries were reported.

Steven Llerena, who lives next door, told Local 10 News that he and his family did whatever they could to stop the flames from reaching their home.

“It was crazy because I walked outside and the fire wasn’t that big yet, but something exploded and it started getting bigger and bigger, and then me and my dad were trying to wet the whole backyard, everything, to make sure that our house didn’t catch fire,” he said.

His mother, Daire Llerena, got emotional once everything was settled and they were alright on the other side.

“Everything is past now and I suppose I feel better because I see my house and it’s safe – it’s amazing, it’s a miracle,” she said.

Según funcionarios de Hollywood Fire Rescue, el incendio fue reportado a las 3:36 a.m. en una casa en la cuadra 6700 de Harding Street.

Los bomberos dijeron que la vivienda estaba vacía en ese momento y no se reportaron heridos.

Steven Llerena, quien vive al lado, dijo a Local 10 News que él y su familia hicieron todo lo posible para evitar que las llamas alcanzaran su casa.

“Fue una locura porque salí y el fuego aún no era tan grande, pero algo explotó y comenzó a crecer y crecer, y luego mi papá y yo estábamos tratando de mojar todo el patio trasero, todo, para asegurarnos de que nuestra casa no se incendiara”, dijo.

Su madre, Daire Llerena, se mostró emocionada una vez que todo se calmó y estaban a salvo.

“Todo ya pasó y supongo que me siento mejor porque veo mi casa y está segura, es increíble, es un milagro”, dijo.

Charles, who had 4,262 rebounds in her career, also finished as the league's No. 2 all-time scorer behind Diana Taurasi. The 15-year veteran scored 8,396 points in the regular season.

“Today, I officially announce my retirement from basketball. Fifteen years at the professional level and a lifetime of love for this game," Charles wrote in her post. "I’ve experienced the highest highs and the lowest lows, and I’m thankful for all of it. Through it all, I learned how to show up. When doubt got loud and narratives were written about me, I kept showing up. That’s the New Yorker in me, where resilience is built, not talked about.”

Charles was the No. 1 pick by the Connecticut Sun in 2010 after helping the UConn Huskies win consecutive NCAA championships in 2009 and 2010. She was the AP Player of the Year in 2010.

She played with the Sun until 2013 before a blockbuster trade sent her home to New York.

“She is undeniably one of the most impactful players to ever wear a Liberty uniform and one of the most accomplished athletes our league has ever seen,” Liberty CEO Keia Clarke said. “Her excellence on the court, her leadership in the locker room and her unwavering commitment to pouring so much into the New York community, the city that raised her will endure for generations.”

Charles starred in her hometown through the 2019 season. She sat out the WNBA bubble season the next year before playing in Washington, Phoenix, Seattle and Atlanta. Charles came back to Connecticut last season and started 42 games while averaging 16.3 points and 5.8 rebounds.

“Tina Charles has been one of the most prolific scorers and rebounder our league has ever seen and her impact in the community has been just as powerful as her impact on the floor,” Atlanta Dream GM Dan Padover said. “Tina had a historic career and was a cornerstone player during an important time of our league's growth.”

The 37-year-old center helped the U.S. win three Olympic gold medals as well as three World Cup championships. She earned WNBA MVP honors in 2012 and was the league's top scorer in two seasons. The one thing Charles never had a chance to do was play in a WNBA Finals.

“This game gave me everything, and I’ll miss it deeply,” Charles said. “But my mom always taught me, don’t stop at what you’ve done, keep going toward what you still see. And I still see so much. There are still dreams in my heart waiting to be lived, and I can’t wait to share that journey with you all.”

Besides her impact on the court, Charles has left a lasting one off of it, helping to save countless lives for more than a decade with her charity — Hopey's Heart Foundation. She's donated 500 AEDs (automated external defibrillators) through the organization that started in 2013 and is named in honor of her aunt.

It's dedicated to curbing deaths in the United States from sudden cardiac arrest. The organization works to ensure schools and public places have lifesaving equipment such as defibrillators on hand.

Charles said that before she started the foundation she didn’t realize how common and deadly sudden cardiac arrest could be until she read about Wes Leonard, a high school basketball player who suffered a heart attack and died after basketball practice in 2011.

And when her aunt died a few years later from organ failure, Charles committed herself to helping to solve the problem.

In 2017, when Charles was playing for the New York Liberty, she was surprised by the team by a man who was saved by one of the AEDs that the star had donated.

“Beyond her extraordinary accomplishments, Tina has represented the very best of the WNBA throughout her career," WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement. "Through her leadership and dedication to giving back — including her work with her Hopey’s Heart Foundation — she has made a meaningful impact far beyond the game, earning the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award twice.

"Her legacy will be defined not only by her excellence on the court, but by the standard she set as a leader, a teammate, and a champion for the communities she touched.”

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

John Andrew Spillman está acusado de exposición indecente.

Según un informe de arresto, agentes de MDSO respondieron al hotel DoubleTree, ubicado en 711 NW 72nd Ave., poco después de la medianoche en referencia a un hombre desnudo en el pasillo de uno de los pisos del hotel.

Cuando los agentes llegaron al pasillo, vieron a Spillman masturbándose, dijeron las autoridades.

Según el informe, Spillman fue detenido antes de que la víctima saliera de su habitación y le dijera a los agentes que ella estaba abajo en el lobby del hotel antes de que Spillman la siguiera.

Ella dijo que entró de inmediato a su habitación cuando llegó a su piso y luego vio a Spillman masturbándose junto a su habitación.

Un portavoz del Servicio Secreto de Estados Unidos confirmó a Local 10 News que Spillman es un agente del Servicio Secreto con base en Washington, D.C., pero que estaba trabajando en Miami al momento de su arresto “como parte de un operativo que brindaba seguridad exterior para un evento”.

Su asignación había concluido el día anterior y estaba fuera de servicio al momento de su arresto, dijeron las autoridades.

Según el portavoz, después de su arresto, Spillman fue puesto de inmediato en licencia administrativa, en espera del resultado del caso penal y de una revisión interna.

El jefe de policía del Servicio Secreto, Richard MacAuley, emitió un comunicado a Local 10 News que decía:

“Estamos al tanto del arresto de un agente del Servicio Secreto fuera de servicio por parte de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade. La conducta alegada es inaceptable y contrasta marcadamente con el profesionalismo e integridad que exijo de nuestro personal. Esta agencia toma estos asuntos con la mayor seriedad; en consecuencia, el individuo ha sido puesto en licencia administrativa en espera de los resultados de este asunto penal y de una investigación interna completa y exhaustiva.”

Hedman, in a statement released by the Lightning, did not provide specifics about what he has been dealing with. He didn't play in Tampa Bay's final 22 games of the season, including the seven playoff matchups in a first-round loss to the Montreal Canadiens.

Hedman, 35, had been around the team in recent weeks, even taking part in some skates. But the defenseman's last game was in mid-March.

“Over the past couple of months, I made the decision to step away and focus on my mental health,” Hedman said. "It was not an easy decision, but it was the right one.

“I’ve always believed that being a leader means doing what’s best for the team. In this case, it also meant doing what was necessary to take care of myself, so I can be the best player, teammate, husband and father I expect to be.”

Hedman missed significant time earlier in the season with an elbow injury that required surgery in December. He returned before the Olympics and played for Sweden until tweaking something in pregame warmups before the quarterfinal against the U.S., which kept him from participating.

He told reporters at Tampa Bay's exit-interview day that he leaned on best friend and former Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, as well as Ottawa goaltender Linus Ullmark, who also spent time away from the Senators to address his mental health.

Hedman — the No. 2 pick in the 2009 draft — has been with the Lightning for all 17 of his NHL seasons, helping the franchise win back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 2020 and 2021. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in the 2020 pandemic “bubble.”

He played in only 33 games this season, by far the fewest of his career, because of the injury and this subsequent absence.

Hedman thanked his teammates, the Lightning organization, his family and his therapist for their support and said he’s “in a much better place today.”

“This is something that exists in our game more than people see,” Hedman said. “If this moment helps make it easier for others to take care of themselves when they need to, that matters.”

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

Kimes, whose hiring was announced Tuesday, becomes the first celebrity host for the bee since LeVar Burton in 2022. That was the year Scripps took over the broadcast from ESPN, its longtime TV home, and began airing it on ION and Bounce, both of which are owned by the Cincinnati-based media company.

Scripps has also brought in a new production team for the broadcast, led by Michael Davies — currently the executive producer of “Jeopardy!” — as it seeks to reverse a decline in ratings.

This year's bee runs from May 26-28 at a new venue, Constitution Hall in downtown Washington, with 247 spellers competing for a trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes.

“My goal in this is to give it the big-game feel,” Kimes told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the announcement. “Any event that requires skill and knowledge and preparation can have that feel if it's presented with enough care and pride on television.”

Davies, whose credits also include “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” “Reading Rainbow” and “Good Morning Football,” shares Kimes' appreciation for the bee, and he told AP his goal is to “make it bigger and make it more famous.”

“We really need to focus the entire broadcast and everything we're doing around the stakes of the competition and the incredible winning moment, the winning word that happens at the end of the final,” he said.

A Yale-educated journalist, the 40-year-old Kimes is known for using extensive research and study of game video to explain the strengths and weaknesses of NFL players and coaches. She said her preparation for the bee has been similar.

“It honestly does feel a little bit like watching game tape because I really think these kids are elite competitors, not just in terms of being the best of the best, but you can see all of the work that they so clearly put in,” Kimes said. “The way they get to the right answer is fascinating to me and the more you watch, the more you see the way their brains work. I see a lot of similarities to what I do with football, and I'm so pumped to be a part of this.”

Although she never competed on the national stage, Kimes has a history in spelling, winning bees at the school level in the second, third and fifth grades.

Spellers qualify for the National Spelling Bee by winning regional bees around the country and are eligible to compete through the eighth grade. Even the most gifted kids, many of whom study and train year-round under the tutelage of paid coaches, often get only one or two chances to win the most prestigious spelling competition in the English language before they age out.

Over the last few years, Scripps has relied mostly on former spellers as on-air hosts and commentators. Longtime analyst Paul Loeffler, a sports broadcaster, former speller and the brother of bee executive director Corrie Loeffler, will return in that role.

While Scripps touted bigger potential audiences from its move to ION, which is available in more households than ESPN, ratings have been stagnant and dipped slightly over the past two years, according to Nielsen data. The combined audience for the primetime finals on ION and Bounce was 609,000 in 2022, 641,000 in 2023, 461,000 in 2024 and 488,000 last year.

The bee drew over 1 million viewers on ESPN in 2012. The finals of the last three pre-pandemic bees on ESPN had viewership of 606,000 (2017), 550,000 (2018) and 559,000 (2019).

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Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow him at https://x.com/APBenNuckols

What was once considered a pastime passed down through generations is now having a distinctly modern revival, fueled by social media, celebrity fascination and a booming local appetite for in-person connection.

Mahjong clubs are popping up across South Florida and Mahjong Club Miami is hosting packed lessons weekly and social play events.

The club started with something much smaller: a small group of friends playing for fun. The group of five met weekly, rotating home to home for intimate Mahjong meetups until word spread too far.

“People wanted to come play with us at our house,” said co-founder Gabriela Leon. “So it started to become bigger and bigger and bigger until one day we were like, ‘No wait, we cannot invite more people here. We cannot.’”

Leon said her own curiosity about mahjong was sparked years ago by a memorable pop culture moment - the dramatic closing scene of the 2018 film “Crazy Rich Asians,” in which the game takes center stage.

She learned to play, taught her friends, and before long, the small home gatherings turned into something much larger.

By way of word-of-mouth and social media, the friends became instructors, attracting newcomers from across South Florida who wanted to learn the game and join the growing community surrounding it.

“We’re not on our phones,” Leon said. “We’re just connecting with the people we are with, so it’s about community.”

We attended the Mahjong Club Miami event at Ironside Cafe Bistro, which has become a major south Florida hub for social gatherings of all kinds — from chess clubs and game nights to public market socials. You can check them out on Instagram by clicking here.

Mahjong blends memory, strategy and speed — often described by enthusiasts as a mix of chess, poker, dominoes and rummy.

But for many players, the draw goes beyond the tiles.

As mahjong clubs, themed events and beginner lessons continue multiplying nationwide, the game has become both social outlet and status symbol — equal parts tradition, competition and conversation starter.

In South Florida, that means one thing is clear: The oldest game in the room may just be the newest obsession.

To submit an idea for What Connects Us, email whatconnectsus@wplg.com.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the forces prefer a peaceful effort to “guide” the more than 22,500 mariners stuck on more than 1,550 vessels out of the Persian Gulf, but are ready if needs change. “This is a temporary mission for us,” Hegseth said. “We expect the world to step up.”

It is unclear what will follow. The U.S. Central Command said Iran earlier launched multiple cruise missiles, drones and small boats at civilian ships under the U.S. military’s protection, and that U.S. helicopters sank six small boats involved in the attacks. It denied Iranian reports that American vessels had been struck. Caine and Hegseth said the ceasefire is not over. Shortly thereafter, the United Arab Emirates said it was defending against more Iranian strikes.

Trump Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Rome and Vatican City this week in a bid to ease rising tensions between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV, Trump has lashed out at the pope again, misrepresenting the pontiff’s laments about the Iran war and accusing him of “endangering a lot of Catholics.”

Here is the latest:

Trump offers an optimistic take on China’s position on Iran

The president in an exchange with reporters said that China hasn’t “challenged” him as he continues to press Iran even as Beijing has repeatedly criticized the U.S. and Israel military action against Iran.

“You know, in all fairness, he gets, like, 60% of his oil from (the Strait of) Hormuz,” Trump said of President Xi Jinping.

China, in fact, imported about half of its crude oil and almost one-third of its liquefied natural gas from the Middle East, according to China’s General Administration of Customs.

Trump offered a more measured take than Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who a day earlier said the administration wants to see Beijing “step up” and pressure Iran to open the strait. Bessent in an interview with Fox News said Iran would be high on Trump’s agenda when he travels to Beijing next week for a summit with Xi.

Pakistan military urges restraint as US-Iran tensions rise

Pakistan’s top military leadership on Tuesday urged restraint to help ease rising tensions between the United States and Iran.

The call came during a Corps Commanders Conference chaired by army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir.

Munir since last month has been in contact between the U.S. and Iranian officials as part of Pakistan’s efforts to end the conflict.

In a statement, the military said participants reviewed the evolving security environment amid Pakistan’s outreach to Washington and Tehran, adding that lasting peace depends on collective restraint, responsibility and respect for sovereignty.

French president says Trump’s tariff threats are wasting time

Europe and the United States have more important things to do, Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday, after Trump announced higher duties on European vehicles.

Trump said on Friday that he would increase the tariffs charged on cars and trucks from the European Union this week to 25%, a move that could further harm the global economy as it reels from war in the Middle East. EU and U.S. trade officials were due to meet in Paris on Tuesday to discuss the issue.

“Especially in the geopolitical period we are experiencing, allies like the United States of America and the European Union have much better things to do than to stir up threats of destabilization,” Macron told reporters in Armenia, adding that he hopes “reason will prevail soon.”

JD Vance woos Republican voters, including farmers who want the war to end

Vice President JD Vance heads to Iowa on Tuesday, his first visit since taking office to the state where Republicans in less than two years will cast the initial votes to pick their party’s next presidential nominee.

Seen as one of the GOP’s strongest potential candidates for president in 2028, Vance stopped first in Cincinnati to vote in the primary, saying he picked Vivek Ramaswamy for governor. He’s also holding a fundraiser in Oklahoma City as finance chair of the Republican National Committee.

Higher prices for gas and fertilizer and Trump’s tariffs have been hitting voters hard, and Vance’s political prospects are complicated by the war in Iran. Vance has seemed a reluctant defender of the 9-week-old war, for which Trump has struggled to find an off-ramp.

Iowa’s farmers have steadfastly supported the president, but they’ve been looking for assurances that the troubles won’t last.

Rubio to brief at White House with press secretary on maternity leave

The secretary of state is putting on yet another Trump administration hat — White House spokesperson.

Rubio is scheduled to fill in Tuesday for White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is on leave awaiting the birth of her second child. His briefing is scheduled for 3 p.m. EDT.

The nation’s top diplomat already doubles as Trump’s national security adviser and for a while was the acting archivist of the United States and the acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

His last formal briefing for reporters was at the State Department briefing room in December.

Scuttlebutt around the White House has been that Rubio will be among a handful of high-level administration officials leading the press briefings while Leavitt is away.

Proposed UN resolution demands Iran halt attacks on ships in Strait of Hormuz and stop `illegal tolls’

The proposed Security Council resolution, co-sponsored by the United States and Gulf nations, threatens Iran with sanctions or other measures if it doesn’t restore freedom of navigation and immediately disclose where sea mines have been placed in and around the vital waterway.

The draft, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, also demands that Iran “immediately participate in and enable the United Nations efforts to establish a humanitarian corridor in the strait” to enable vital aid, fertilizer and other goods to transit.

The proposed resolution was drafted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which can be enforced militarily. It threatens “effective measures that are commensurate with the gravity of the situation, including sanctions” if Iran doesn’t comply.

A previous resolution aimed at opening the Strait of Hormuz, where about 20% of the world’s crude oil had transited, was vetoed by Russia and China.

Oracle is one of 8 firms providing AI capabilities to the US military

Software behemoth Oracle really is among the tech firms providing artificial intelligence capabilities to the U.S. military over classified computer networks.

The Defense Department has been ramping up its use of AI to fight wars and to more efficiently perform other operations. The Pentagon announced Friday that it’s contracting with seven companies to use their infrastructure. Oracle was not initially on the list. The others are Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Nvidia, OpenAI, Reflection and SpaceX.

Oracle, now based in Texas, said the military’s use of its AI over classified systems will “enhance situational awareness and strengthen warfighter decision-making in complex operations.”

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to an email seeking clarity on why Oracle was left off Friday’s news release announcing the contracts. The news release was later updated to include Oracle.

Former military officers say reopening the strait remains a daunting task

Former military officers who have served on the Strait of Hormuz have said opening it would be dangerous and highly challenging, even with military escorts, which the U.S. isn’t providing now.

There’s little room to maneuver in the narrow waterway, and Iran can reach all of the strait and its approaches with anti-ship cruise missiles. It also can target vessels with longer-range missiles, drones, fast attack craft and naval mines.

Experts say reducing the threat would involve targeting offensive installations on the ground inside Iran and having constant surveillance and patrols.

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Insurance broker says it’s too early to know how US military effort will affect shipping through the strait

Marcus Baker, global head of marine, cargo and logistics for insurance broker and risk adviser Marsh Risk, said it would take a few days to see how the insurance market reacts.

“We just have to see what happens, whether the Iranians keep the peace, whether the Americans keep the peace, and exactly what that’s going mean for shipping,” he said.

“There’s rhetoric from both sides on this, and we’ve just got to be mindful of that,” he added. But he said “anything that starts to increase certainty around safety has got to be a good thing.”

One of the world’s largest container shipping companies says Hormuz transits not yet possible

“At this point in time our risk assessment remains unchanged,” the Hamburg, Germany-based shipping company Hapag-Lloyd AG said in a statement. “Transits through the Strait of Hormuz are for the moment not possible for our ships.”

With another boat strike, death toll in Latin American waters reaches 188

The Trump administration’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters has persisted since early September.

Despite the Iran war, the strikes have ramped up again in recent weeks to stop what the administration calls “narcoterrorism” in the Western Hemisphere. The U.S. military has not provided evidence that any of the vessels were carrying drugs.

In the latest attack Monday, 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.

UAE is under Iranian attack again, defense ministry says

The United Arab Emirates is “actively engaging” with missile and drone attack from Iran, the country’s defense ministry said on X Tuesday evening.

It said sounds heard in parts of the Gulf federation are related to the interception of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones.

US job openings were unchanged at 6.9 million in March but hiring improved

U.S. job openings were essentially unchanged at 6.9 million, another sign the American labor remained sluggish even before the full impact of the Iran war hit the economy.

The job market has been up and down so far this year after a dismal 2025. And the Iran war has clouded the outlook for the economy and hiring.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that layoffs rose in March. But hiring improved, and more people quit their jobs — a sign of confidence in the economy.

Trump’s drugmaker deals may save economy $529B over 10 years, White House says

White House economists estimate the deals with pharmaceutical companies to drop some U.S. prescription drug prices to what they charge in other countries could save $529 billion over the next 10 years.

The analysis obtained by The Associated Press includes the first economy-wide projections behind a policy at the core of Trump’s pitch to voters going into November’s elections for control of the House and Senate. Democratic lawmakers have doubted Trump’s claims, and these new numbers are likely to trigger additional questions about the data.

Cost-of-living issues are at the forefront of voters’ concerns and higher energy prices tied to the Iran war have deepened the public’s anxiety. Few of the details of the deals struck by the Trump administration and 17 leading pharmaceutical companies have been made public, making it hard to independently verify the projected savings.

Death toll in Lebanon reaches 2,702 since Israel-Hezbollah war began

The Health Ministry in Beirut said Tuesday that 8,311 people were wounded during the same period.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war started on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel following the U.S. and Israel’s attacks on Iran.

A ceasefire has been in place since April 17 but both Israel and Hezbollah have been carrying out daily attacks since then.

Analyst: the situation around the Strait of Hormuz remains highly uncertain

That’s because Iran still clearly intends to attack ships that try to transit without going through the Iran-approved route near the Iranian coastline, said Torbjorn Soltvedt, principal Middle East analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

“This initiative alone isn’t something that looks like it’s going to open the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. Shipping and insurance companies “still have to wait and see how this plays out.”

Taking the northern route involves going through vetting by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and payment, in at least some cases. The U.S.-guided “Project Freedom” route goes through territorial waters of Oman to the south.

Reopening the strait “can really only be done through either an agreement between the United States or Iran,” or if the U.S. significantly diminishes Iran’s ability to attack using drones, missiles and small boats, he said.

French president says Iranian president asked to talk

“I will be speaking with the Iranian president shortly at his request,” Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday.

″France has maintained a consistent position from the start. We call for the cessation of all hostilities, the return to diplomatic negotiations, and respect for all countries in the region,” Macron said. “Tthe only possible option is the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz ... and the absence of any tolls or coercive measures.”

“Any unilateral escalation against tankers, container ships, or third countries is a mistake that fuels war and leads to escalation,” Macron said.

Hegseth says Iranians still had ‘will’ to develop nukes

After the bombing of nuclear sites last summer, Hegseth says U.S. forces participated in new strikes this year alongside Israel because the Iranians’ “will was still there to seek a nuclear bomb.”

The secretary was asked about intelligence reports showing that, despite the initial bombing in Operation Midnight Hammer, the timeline for Iranian nuclear weapon development remained at 9 to 12 months.

“The obliteration of those facilities set back their program,” Hegseth said. “Hopefully Iran chooses a deal that they give up those ambitions, give up those capabilities.”

Hegseth also says ceasefire is not over

The defense secretary confirmed that the ceasefire remains in effect despite some Iran strikes and the ongoing U.S. blockade.

“No, the ceasefire is not over,” Hegseth said, reaffirming Caine’s earlier statements.

Caine lays out US forces manning Strait of Hormuz

Saying that more than 100 U.S. military aircraft are patrolling the skies “24 hours a day,” Gen. Dan Caine said Tuesday marked a “quieter” period in the Strait.

Caine added that there were 22,500 mariners on more than 1,550 vessels in the Persian Gulf, unable to transit.

He went on to commend the troops of the 82nd Airborne Division, who he said were using “next generation tactical networks” to “seamlessly synchronize” efforts in support of military activity.

Joint Chiefs Chairman says Iran attacks do not necessarily mean they violated ceasefire

Dan Caine told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday that Iran’s recent acts of aggression are below the threshold of “major combat operations.”

That means Tehran, in the Trump administration’s view, has not violated the tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.

“Since the ceasefire was announced, Iran has fired at commercial vessels nine times and seized two container ships, and they’ve attacked U.S. forces more than 10 times – all below the threshold of restarting major combat operations at this point,” Caine said.

The administration has cited the ceasefire in asserting that the president does not have to give a formal update to Congress on the war under the War Powers Resolution. That law typically requires presidential updates on war activities 60 days after beginning military action.

Defense secretary says US forces remain ‘locked and loaded’ to safeguard Strait of Hormuz

Hegseth said in a Pentagon briefing Tuesday that U.S. military forces would prefer the new effort to “guide” stranded ships through the Strait of Hormuz to be peaceful — but are ready if needs change.

“This is a temporary mission for us,” Hegseth said, adding that the intent remains to hand control of the strait back to countries that need the waterway “a lot more than we do. … We expect the world to step up.”

Iran has denounced the move as a ceasefire violation.

Trump says Pope Leo is ‘endangering Catholics’

Trump is renewing his criticism of Pope Leo XIV even as Rubio prepares to visit Vatican City, ostensibly to ease tensions between Washington and the Holy See.

The president misrepresented the pontiff’s laments about the Iran war in an interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, while saying Leo is aiding Tehran and making the world less safe.

“The pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “And I don’t think that’s very good. I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people.”

Leo has not said Iran should obtain nuclear weapons. He’s called for more peace talks, criticized war generally and lambasted Trump’s specific threats of mass civilian strikes.

The pope also has emphasized that he’s reflecting biblical and church teachings, not speaking as a political rival to Trump.

Rubio plans to visit the Vatican this week as tensions between Trump and the pope rise

Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Rome and Vatican City this week in a bid to ease rising tensions between Trump and Pope Leo XIV over U.S. policies, particularly the Iran war.

The State Department said Monday that Rubio, a Catholic who with this trip will have visited Italy or the Vatican at least three times as the Republican president’s top diplomat, would be in Italy on Thursday and Friday. The Vatican announced that Rubio would meet with Leo, the first American pontiff, on Thursday.

“Secretary Rubio will meet with Holy See leadership to discuss the situation in the Middle East and mutual interests in the Western Hemisphere,” the department said. “Meetings with Italian counterparts will be focused on shared security interests and strategic alignment.”

The trip comes as Trump has criticized Leo for his stances on the Middle East and elsewhere and as the president has drawn pushback for posting a social media image likening himself to Jesus Christ.

▶ Read more

Negotiations make little progress

Iran’s latest proposal for ending the war calls for the U.S. to lift sanctions, end the blockade, withdraw forces from the region and cease all hostilities including Israel’s operations in Lebanon, according to the semiofficial Nour News and Tasnim agencies, which have close ties to Iran’s security apparatus.

Iranian officials over the weekend said they were reviewing the U.S. response. Tehran has claimed its proposal does not include its nuclear program and enriched uranium, long a driving force in tensions with the U.S. and Israel.

Iran wants other issues resolved within 30 days and aims to end the war rather than extend the ceasefire. Trump expressed doubt over the weekend that the proposal would lead to a deal.

Sabalenka and fellow No. 1 Jannik Sinner were among leading players — most of them ranked in the top 10 — who issued a statement on Monday expressing “deep disappointment” over the French Open prize money.

“Without us there wouldn’t be a tournament and there wouldn’t be that entertainment. I feel like definitely we deserve to be paid more percentage,” Sabalenka, a four-time Grand Slam champion, said on Tuesday at the Italian Open.

“I think at some point we will boycott it. I feel like that’s going to be the only way to fight for our rights,” Sabalenka added on her 28th birthday.

The players are also seeking better representation, health options and pensions from the four Grand Slam tournaments: Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open.

French Open organizers announced last month they were increasing overall prize money by about 10% for an overall pot of 61.7 million euros ($72.1 million), with the total amount up 5.3 million euros from last year. But the players’ statement said “the underlying figures tell a very different story,” claiming they will receive a smaller share of tournament revenues.

The players claim their share of Roland Garros revenue has declined from 15.5% in 2024 to 14.9% projected in 2026.

Gauff, the defending French Open champion, cited a landmark new WNBA collective bargaining agreement reached in March as an example of the benefit of working together.

“From the things I’ve seen with other sports, usually to make massive progress and things like this, it takes a union,” Gauff said. “We have to become unionized in some way. ... We definitely can move more as a collective."

Regarding a boycott, Gauff said, “If everyone were to move as one and collaborate, yeah, I can 100% see that.” But she added she hasn't heard of any discussions about a walkout.

“I definitely think there’s a consensus around that this needs to be addressed for all players of all levels, especially the lower-ranked players, too,” Gauff added. "I want to leave the sport better than I found it. If I can say I played my part when I retire, that’s something I can be proud of.”

Rybakina, a two-time Grand Slam champion who won the Australian Open this year, would follow the other players.

“If the majority say we are boycotting, we are not playing, then of course I’m up for it,” Rybakina said. “It’s not only on the Grand Slams and it’s not only about raising the prize money. A lot of people are not aware that there is taxes which are big. You even make more prize money, but you giving it all to the taxes.”

Paolini, the Italian who reached the final of the French Open and Wimbledon in 2024, also believed in a boycott option.

“If we’re all in agreement and I think we are — the men and the women are united right now — it’s something we could do,” Paolini said.

Paolini added that the WTA and ATP Tours — which organize all of the other tournaments — have done more than the Grand Slams to provide players with benefits, such as maternity leave, and retirement plans.

“There’s a lot of things that the Slams are not doing,” Paolini said, “that the WTA and I think the ATP are doing.”

Iga Swiatek, a four-time French Open champion, said “the most important thing is to have proper communication and discussions with the governing bodies so we have some space to talk and maybe negotiate.

“Hopefully before Roland Garros there’s going to be opportunity to have these type of meetings and we’ll see how they go,” Swiatek added. “But boycotting the tournament, it’s a bit extreme kind of situation.”

The players' statement said Roland Garros generated 395 million euros in revenue in 2025, a 14% year-on-year increase, yet prize money rose by just 5.4%, reducing players’ share of revenue to 14.3%.

“With estimated revenues of over 400 million euros for this year’s tournament, prize money as a percentage of revenue will likely still be less than 15%, far short of the 22% that players have requested to bring the Grand Slams into line with the ATP and WTA Combined 1000 events,” the players said.

French Open organizers did not respond to a request for comment after the players issued their statement.

The Australian Open this year increased the players’ compensation by 16%, and the U.S. Open prize money last year went up by 20%.

The French Open starts on May 24 and the singles champions will each receive 2.8 million euros and the runners-up 1.4 million euros. Semifinalists earn 750,000 euros and first round losers get 87,000 euros.

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

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 188 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 recent weeks, 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 Monday, 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.

Giuliani, 81, remains in critical but stable condition at a Florida hospital and is being monitored as a precautionary measure, spokesperson Ted Goodman said.

Goodman said Giuliani’s condition was exacerbated by restrictive airway disease attributed to his exposure to dust and toxins from the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center.

Giuliani’s hospitalization, near Palm Beach, Florida, came after he was heard coughing Friday on his nightly online talk show and hoarsely told viewers that his voice was “a little under the weather.”

“This condition adds complications to any respiratory illness, and the virus quickly overwhelmed his body, requiring mechanical ventilation to maintain adequate oxygen and stabilize his condition,” Goodman said in a statement.

He described Giuliani as “the ultimate fighter” and said, “he is winning this battle.”

Giuliani’s family and primary medical provider are by his side, Goodman added. He said the former mayor’s family thanked well-wishers for an “outpouring of love and support.”

Among them: President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and two of Giuliani’s successors, former Mayor Eric Adams and current Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

“The mayor believes in the power of prayer, and we are feeling that strength today,” Goodman said.

Giuliani’s eight years as mayor of the nation’s largest city was punctuated by the 9/11 attack just months before he left office. He was celebrated as “America’s mayor” for his leadership, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and named Time magazine’s Person of the Year.

Giuliani, a Republican, later unsuccessfully ran for president and was an adviser to Trump, spearheading his efforts to stay in office after his 2020 election loss.

Last year, Trump said he was awarding Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Giuliani coughed as he began his nightly online show “America’s Mayor Live” on Friday. As he spoke, he sounded more raspy than usual. Before launching into a commentary on the Iran war, he remarked: “My voice is a little under the weather, so I won’t be able to speak as loudly as I usually do, but I’ll get closer to the microphone.”

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called Giuliani “a True Warrior, and the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR.”

“What a tragedy that he was treated so badly by the Radical Left Lunatics, Democrats ALL — AND HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!" Trump wrote Sunday. “They cheated on the Elections, fabricated hundreds of stories, did anything possible to destroy our Nation, and now, look at Rudy. So sad!”

As Trump’s personal attorney and adviser, Giuliani became a vocal proponent of the president’s allegations of fraud in the 2020 election, which was won by Democrat Joe Biden. Trump and his backers lost dozens of lawsuits claiming fraud, and numerous recounts, reviews and audits of the election results turned up no signs of significant wrongdoing or error.

Two former Georgia election workers later won a $148 million defamation judgment against Giuliani. As they sought to collect the judgment, the former federal prosecutor was found in contempt of court and faced a trial this winter over the ownership of some of his assets.

Giuliani ultimately struck a deal that let him keep his homes and various belongings, including prized World Series rings, in exchange for unspecified compensation and a promise to stop speaking ill of the ex-election workers.

Giuliani was previously hospitalized last September after suffering a fractured vertebra and other injuries in a car crash in New Hampshire.

A native New Yorker, Giuliani was elected mayor in 1993 after serving as one of the nation’s highest-profile federal prosecutors, taking on mobsters and crooked Wall Street traders.

He ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000 but abandoned his race against Hillary Rodham Clinton after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

In 2007, Giuliani ran for president. Buoyed by his post-9/11 popularity, he started as the front-runner for the Republican nomination. But that was short-lived. He withdrew from the race after struggling in the primaries amid GOP concerns about his past support for abortion rights, gay rights and gun control, and questions about his personal life and business ties to the Middle East.

He toyed with running for other offices before pivoting to political commentary.

In 2016, Trump leaned on Giuliani’s political acumen and loyalty and put him to work as a surrogate leading attacks on Clinton, his Democratic rival. After Trump won, Giuliani continued as his attack dog, even traveling to Ukraine to seek damaging information about Biden’s son Hunter.

The comments by Zambia’s foreign affairs minister, Mulambo Haimbe, on Monday brought into the open simmering tensions over President Donald Trump’s “America First” strategy, which is reshaping aid to Africa into transactional agreements.

Some African leaders and health experts have criticized the new U.S. stance and its demands for sensitive health data in exchange for badly needed support for health systems strained by the Trump administration's dismantling of foreign aid. Some say they would not receive access to health innovations like vaccines in return.

The U.S. is also seeking to challenge China, a dominant player in Zambia and much of Africa, whose minerals are critical to the green energy transition, including inputs for solar panels, electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems.

Zambia says talks stalled over data-sharing demands

In a statement, Haimbe described the accusations of Zambian graft and negotiation inertia by outgoing U.S. ambassador Michael Gonzales as “mischievous” and “deeply regrettable, undiplomatic and inconsistent with the spirit of mutual respect.”

Haimbe also accused the U.S. of tying access to critical minerals to the conclusion of the health deal, which Gonzales earlier dismissed as “alarmist allegations” that he called “disgusting” and “absolutely and patently false.”

Negotiations have continued for months to conclude the deal, one of dozens the Trump administration is pursuing in some of the world's most aid-dependent countries.

Gonzales in late April said Zambian leaders had “abdicated their responsibilities, letting the United States pay for healthcare while officials diverted government funds to their own pockets.” He said Zambian authorities had “ignored” U.S. overtures to conclude a new deal.

But Haimbe said negotiations had stalled over “unacceptable” data-sharing demands “in violation of our citizens’ right to privacy” and “the insistence on preferential treatment of U.S companies over Zambia’s critical minerals.”

Zambia "takes the view, first and foremost, that Zambians must have a say on how her critical minerals are used, and second that no one strategic partner is to be treated preferentially to others,” he said.

The U.S. Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US says its approach aims to reduce donor dependency

The U.S. approach replaces decades of engagement anchored in the now-dismantled United States Agency for International Development and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.

In their place, U.S. officials are negotiating country-by-country agreements that recast aid as a transaction, tying funding to conditions including commercial provisions, domestic financing commitments, disease surveillance, pathogen sharing and even religion.

Since late last year, the U.S has signed agreements with about 30 countries, many in Africa. Washington says the approach is meant to reduce donor dependency, promote local ownership and safeguard American interests, including against an aggressive China that dominates trade in Africa but contributes less aid.

There has been pushback.

Ghana last week said it had rejected a proposed deal over provisions granting broad access to sensitive health data without safeguards. Zimbabwe walked away from a $367 million package over similar concerns. In Kenya, a $2.5 billion agreement signed in December has been put on hold after a court challenge arguing it violates data protection laws.

In Lesotho, draft U.S. proposals sought 25 years of access to health data and biological samples before local officials secured a shorter five-year deal.

Health experts say data would largely flow one way

Critics say the data-sharing demands tilt toward U.S. interests and warn the information-sharing would largely go in just one direction: toward Washington.

The new agreements aim to ensure the flow of disease surveillance data and biological samples, but through bilateral channels, after the U.S withdrew from the World Health Organization in January, said Asia Russell, executive director of advocacy group Health GAP.

Countries currently report disease outbreaks primarily through the WHO, which coordinates responses and is negotiating new frameworks on pathogen-sharing and equitable access to vaccines.

The U.S, now outside those talks, is pursuing direct access instead.

“They (the U.S.) want to understand what’s actually happening,” said Jen Kates, a senior vice president at the Washington-based non-profit KFF. “But they are trying to do it in a very different way.”

Health advocates say this risks creating a parallel global health system. In Zimbabwe, a government spokesperson in February said the government terminated negotiations because the U.S. was not offering a “corresponding guarantee of access to any medical innovations — such as vaccines, diagnostics, or treatments — that might result from that shared data.”

“That raises serious concerns about who benefits,” said Atilla Kisla of the Southern Africa Litigation Center.

Advocates point to the harsh experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, when African countries contributed data and samples but were largely last in line for vaccines.

Experts warn against health as a ‘bargaining chip’

The agreements with the U.S. are drawing criticism for closed-door negotiations and limited public scrutiny.

“Secrecy is at the center of this. That puts accountability for results at risk,” said Health GAP's Russell. “It’s impossible to evaluate these deals properly without seeing the full terms. Part of what made PEPFAR successful was transparency. Now that’s been taken away.”

The deals also come with tighter financial conditions. Many include reduced funding compared to previous levels of U.S. assistance, while requiring countries to increase domestic health spending, with aid at risk if targets are not met.

“These are going to be very heavy lifts,” said KFF’s Kates. “Countries are already under strain.”

Critics say some agreements also advance U.S. commercial and political interests, blurring the line between aid and transactional diplomacy.

“When health becomes a bargaining chip, everyone becomes less safe,” Russell warned.

___

Keketso Phakela in Maseru, Lesotho, contributed to this report.

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For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

“In a very classist country, Oprah's club was one of the very first things that said books are for everyone. It was a powerful thing,” the 49-year-old author told The Associated Press during a recent interview at a hotel lounge in downtown Manhattan.

Stuart has since ascended high into a culture he once thought wanted no part of him. Best known for “Shuggie Bain,” he's a bestseller, winner of the Booker Prize and Dayton Literary Peace Prize and he has seen his novels translated into dozens of languages. A few months ago, he found himself in unexpected conversation with the celebrity who had helped inspire him to read: Stuart was the recipient of what people refer to as “the call,” when Winfrey notifies an author that she has chosen their work for her club.

On Tuesday, Winfrey announced the selection of Stuart's “John of John.” Published this week, it's his third novel, and returns to the country and themes of “Shuggie Bain” and its successor, “Young Mungo.” The setting is an isolated community in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, where art school student John-Calum “Cal” MacLeod returns from Edinburgh to live with his troubled father and beloved, but ailing grandmother. He re-encounters the conflicts that helped convince him he needed to leave: Catholics vs. Protestants, parents vs. children, traditional gender roles vs. the forbidden and sometimes dangerous love between men.

“I felt transported,” Winfrey said in a statement Tuesday. “I could feel every aspect of this remote community where tradition and judgment quietly shaped everyone’s life. Douglas Stuart brilliantly weaved a layered, compelling and yet so intimate a story of identity, what it means to belong, and the courage to claim your own truth.”

Stuart's book club interview can be seen on Winfrey's YouTube channel and other podcast outlets.

A sense of perspective

A longtime New Yorker, Stuart knows he's upholding a tradition of artists who leave their place of birth, but revisit it in their minds long after. Like Cal, he is an art school graduate who needed more space than his hometown could offer. But Stuart has otherwise proved more fortunate. While Cal struggles to support himself, Stuart had a long and successful career in design before finding even greater success as a novelist. He draws upon firsthand memories in “John of John” but also upon the perspective gained from setting abroad.

“I love the Salman Rushdie quote that you cannot see a painting until you’re outside the frame,” he said. “Leaving filled me with a huge homesickness, but it also gave me the ability to see things from a distance. I was able to understand that I wasn't the only person with pain in my life. All the people around me were also carrying pain.

Stuart, born in 1976, was raised by a single mother who died from alcoholism and poverty when he was 16, a tragedy revisited in “Shuggie Bain.” Discouraged by teachers to pursue a literary career, he attended the Scottish College of Textiles (now Heriot-Watt University) and received a master’s degree from the Royal College of Art in London. He moved to New York in his mid-20s and within a few years had risen to senior director of design at Banana Republic. He was a great success to those who knew him, but not to himself. By age 30, he was quietly carving out a new path.

A fateful party

Like so many of his peers, he became a writer because he had to. His week was mostly filled by his job at Banana Republic, but the story which became “Shuggie Bain” so compelled him that for a decade, he devoted much of his free time to it, recalling the “joy” of having even moments to think and reflect. He had no real publishing connections, but he did have the luck of a well-placed neighbor — Tina Pohlman, an industry veteran who has worked as an editor, agent and consultant. She and Stuart lived in the same building in Greenwich Village and met during a holiday party. Both remember Stuart telling her that he had written a book and was hoping she would look at it, the kind of request Pohlman rarely wanted to hear.

“I was immediately filled with dread,” Pohlman says. “Anytime that anyone at a party tells you they have a novel, it's tricky. You have to be polite. I told him I would look at it, but that it will take a long time. I guess I was trying to make it as difficult for him as possible.”

But Pohlman decided to give the manuscript a quick look, loved it from the opening page and helped Stuart find an agent. After dozens of publishers turned him down, some, apparently believing that the public wasn't ready for the occasional passage of local dialect, Grove Atlantic vice president-deputy publisher Peter Blackstock signed it up. “Maybe because I’m from England, or maybe it’s also because I'm gay, it resonated with me,” Blackstock told the AP.

“Shuggie Bain” was released on the eve of the pandemic in 2020 and steadily gained attention even as bookstores worldwide were shut down. By the fall, his novel was a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Booker, an unusual achievement for a debut novel. It has since sold more than a million copies worldwide and helped convince Stuart that he could no longer regard himself as an outsider,

Stuart's imagination often resides in Scotland, but he calls himself an American and feels very much a part of his adopted country, living in the Greenwich Village with his husband, Michael Cary. While long past the illusion that the U.S. has been spared the class system of the United Kingdom, he still finds a spirit of optimism and possibility.

“I love the feeling that success is not being something to be ashamed of,” he says. “I love that I got to start over here. Nobody knew who I was. Nobody knew where I came from. I got to completely reinvent myself.”

When it comes to humans, kids and adults go crazy watching the jets and the military formations, but it’s our pets that are driven crazy by the extra loud and scary sounds.

One of those pets is 6-year-old Bentley.

“He’s just the sweetest thing,” said owner Genine Blue. “He’s always been a really good dog, very personable, loves people.”

But the 70-pound goldendoodle does not like loud noises.

“Thunder, lightning, anything loud, car backfires, fireworks, any of that, he started like getting scared, shaking, you know hiding,” said Blue.

The Blue family lives in a high-rise on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale.

The whole family loves time outside on the balcony, which has a stunning view.

“Last year, we ended up going away for the weekend and taking him with us because we didn’t want to have to deal with all the planes from the air show,” said Blue.

Dr. Sagen Woolery, the medical director at Blue Pearl Pet Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, has seen a huge increase in pet medical issues due to fireworks and sonic booms.

“The issue is not necessarily the sound itself, it’s the fear and the panic that the sound puts into animals, both pets and wildlife,” she said. “The most common things that were seeing here in the emergency room are things like animals that have been hit by a car because they panicked and they ran into traffic, we’re seeing animals that have some cardiac problems, we’re seeing animals go into seizures.”

And if the air show is loud for you, imagine how your dog feels.

A pup’s hearing is four times more sensitive than a human’s, and let’s not forget, there are usually a few days of the pilot’s practicing and then a few more days of the show event itself.

Pet anxiety can go as high as those planes.

“That stress is cumulative, so a one-time firework is going to be stressful for an animal, but five days of fireworks or sonic booms is exceedingly stressful, particularly in geriatric animals too,” said Woolery.

Some helpful tips to help keep your furry friends safe in these situations is to give your pet added comfort by swaddling them in a tight sweater or a T-shirt, which gives added security. Soft music always helps too.

And when those noises get way too loud, your best bet is to put your pets in a dark, quiet, windowless room, and if all else fails, call your vet for a prescription.

“While this is really fun for all of us to see and witness and we all enjoy celebrating, it’s not fun for animals,” said Woolery. “They don’t understand and it’s not an enjoyable experience for them.”

They came by bus to Loxahatchee’s Big Dog Ranch Rescue to start a new journey with a new purpose.

“In total, over 1,500 dogs have been rescued, and they’re all finding themselves to new rescues and shelters,” said Big Dog Ranch Rescue VP of Development Evan Nader.

In a violent clash in Wisconsin earlier this spring, animal welfare activists from across the country made their way to Ridglan Farms.

The beagle breeding and research facility was facing charges of felony animal mistreatment and gave up its state breeding license to avoid prosecution.

Local 10 News spoke to one activist from Miami in April who traveled to Wisconsin with the mission of saving the dogs.

“We looked at it as doing what needed to be done to save dogs that are criminally abused,” said Ella Magers.

Since March, protesters were tear gassed, pepper sprayed and arrested by Wisconsin law enforcement while trying to get the dogs out.

Big Dog Ranch Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy negotiated a confidential agreement to buy the 1,500 dogs from Ridglan Farms.

“Every day at Big Dog Ranch Rescue, we conduct life-saving work,” said Nader. “We are America’s largest cage-free, no-kill rescue. But I think this rescue mission is probably one of our most special, one of the biggest in American history as well.”

The first 200 dogs were taken from the facility last Friday and more are scheduled to come to Big Dog Ranch Rescue and to other rescues soon.

“If you’re interested in adopting, you can go to our website, BDRR.org,” said Nader. “They’re about two to three weeks before they’re available for adoption.”

Wu Yize beat Shaun Murphy 18-17 in a dramatic world championship final on Monday to follow in the footsteps of compatriot Zhao Xintong, who became Asia’s first ever world champion 12 months ago.

Britain has long been snooker’s traditional stronghold but China — where there are around 300,000 recognized snooker clubs — is the growing force in the game, providing 11 of the 32 players in the main draw of the worlds over the last two weeks and five in the top 16 of the world ranking.

Snooker failed in bids to get onto the Olympic program for the first time for the Games in 2021 and 2024, and could launch another attempt ahead of the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.

Jason Ferguson, chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, said the IOC “definitely has got eyes on our sport” and the recent successes of Chinese players at the Crucible Theatre can only help.

“It's vitally important,” Ferguson told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “China is a very important country to the IOC — it has been a host of the Games on many occasions and they are heavily invested in sports, in IOC terms.

“So the fact that China is a key market for snooker is a really important part about any Olympic bid.”

The growth of snooker in other markets — notably in eastern Europe, with Poland having its first player competing in the world championship in Antoni Kowalski this year — is highlighted by the fact there are almost 100 countries with some kind of national infrastructure for the sport, Ferguson noted.

“When we started this idea of going to the Olympics, we only had a handful of countries playing,” he said.

“But we are ready (to be in the Olympics). And that’s an exciting proposition.”

Ferguson said the WPBSA was working on making its final applications to get snooker into the Paralympics, too. Snooker was on that program from 1960-88.

The IOC will likely finalize its program of sports to be added to the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics by next spring, around the time of the next world snooker championship. Strong support from Brisbane officials should be crucial to any sport’s ambitions to get Olympic status.

Australian snooker player Neil Robertson was the world champion in 2010 and is the current world No. 2.

Wu's rapid rise after relocating to Britain

At age 22, Wu became the second youngest player to win snooker's biggest prize and did so in a flamboyant style that has marked him out for many, including the great Ronnie O'Sullivan, as a likely world champion.

Six years ago, Wu relocated to Britain from his hometown of Lanzhou to pursue his dream of becoming a professional. He came across with his father — his mother stayed in China — and they shared a small, windowless flat that was in such “poor condition,” Wu said, that it might have given him acne because of the poor air quality.

“If you really love snooker," he said, "it is the path you have to go through and fight through.”

His victory at the Crucible Theatre was something of a surprise, as Wu had never won a match at the worlds before this year.

Like Zhao, Wu — the new world No. 4 — wants his journey to be an inspiration for all Chinese players back home.

“I hope younger players can stay true to their passion, be a bit braver, and go after their dreams," he said.

___

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

The Boater Safety and Bay Education Taskforce on Monday wrapped up a lengthy look at some of the issues that contribute to fatal boating accidents in the county.

“We need safety education, rules and regulation regarding our waterways,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. “And the goal of this taskforce has been to not see so many tragedies that we’ve seen just in the last couple of years.”

Lucy Fernandez was a victim in one of those incidents on Labor Day weekend in 2022.

Her father, Andy Fernandez, now chairs the taskforce along with a number of other county leaders.

The group highlighted a need for increased boater education, better legislation and waterway management to focus on.

“What we’re trying to do is expand boater education requirements, to see how we could expand it here at the local level where more boat operators are required to obtain more boater education requirements,” said Fernandez. “We want to help obtain more funding for law enforcement.”

A final report stated “a persistent and alarming trend is the lack of formal training among vessel operators.”

As a result, the taskforce is now pushing mandatory training for operators and passengers and increased accountability through law enforcement efforts to deter unsafe and impaired boating.

In addition, they are pushing for new legislation to close regulatory gaps for long-term improvements and a sharp improvement in waterway management to shore up navigational guides and traffic patterns.

“Some of those signs are old, they’re faded,” said DERM Director Loren Parra. “We can’t ask people to follow the rules if they can’t see them, so we want to make sure we’re doing that, of course working with all of our different municipalities to strengthen all of our marine patrol.”

The information has officially been submitted to the county, and the next steps will be for county leaders to work to implement the recommendations as policy.

Three passengers have died and at least four people are sick in what health officials say is an outbreak of hantavirus, which usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings. The World Health Organization said passengers are isolating in their cabins and that the vessel — in the Atlantic off Cape Verde — might be moved to Spain’s Canary Islands. But Spanish officials said Tuesday that they were monitoring the situation and haven't made a decision.

The MV Hondius, a Dutch ship on a weekslong polar cruise, departed April 1 from Argentina for Antarctica and several isolated islands in the South Atlantic.

“Our days have been close to normal, just waiting for authorities to find a solution,” passenger Qasem Elhato, 31 — who sent AP the video footage — said via WhatsApp. “But morale on the ship is high and we’re keeping ourselves busy with reading, watching movies, having hot drinks and that kind of things.”

Helene Goessaert, another passenger, told Belgian broadcaster VRT that everyone onboard is “in the same boat, literally.”

“You don’t embark on a trip with the idea that one of your fellow passengers won’t make it,” she said.

“We receive information at regular intervals. It is accurate. For the rest, it is a waiting game,” she added. “Today we received fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. That was very important to us.”

Evacuation plans are still unclear

Authorities in Cape Verde have said they sent teams of doctors, surgeons, nurses and laboratory specialists to the Hondius. They were seen in Elhato's video footage — wearing white overalls, boots and face masks as they disembarked to a smaller vessel.

Officials in Cape Verde’s capital of Praia, a city of less than 200,000 people, said they have stepped up safety protocols, particularly near the port, as a precautionary measure against the rodent-borne illness — which doesn't usually spread person to person, though health authorities say it might be possible.

Elhato said passengers were wearing masks and social distancing — practices that became hallmarks of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions said it had implemented its highest level of response plan, with isolation measures, hygiene protocols and medical monitoring.

WHO said late Monday that sick passengers would soon be evacuated to the Netherlands for medical care. But it remained unclear Tuesday when any evacuations would happen.

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the ship would “continue on to the Canary Islands.”

“We’re working with Spanish authorities, who will welcome the ship,” Van Kerkhove said, emphasizing that sick passengers would first be moved.

But Spanish health officials said in a statement that they were monitoring and that "the most appropriate port of call will be decided. Until then, the Ministry of Health will not adopt any decision, as we have informed the World Health Organization.”

WHO notes 7 cases in all in its latest update

WHO said Tuesday that it's looking at seven cases in all — three people who have died, one critically ill passenger who was previously taken off the ship, and three onboard reporting mild symptoms.

Two of the cases — a woman who died and the evacuated man — tested positive for hantavirus.

A Dutch man was the first death, on April 11. His body was taken off the vessel nearly two weeks later, on the British territory of St. Helena, some 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) off the African coast, according to South Africa’s Department of Health.

His wife traveled by plane from St. Helena to South Africa; she collapsed at a Johannesburg airport and died at a hospital on April 26, according to WHO and the South African Department of Health.

The ship sailed on to Ascension Island, an isolated Atlantic outpost about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the north, where a sick British man was taken off the ship and evacuated first to Ascension Island and then to South Africa by plane. He is in intensive care in a South African hospital, according to WHO.

Van Kerkhove said that WHO is investigating possible human-to-human transmission on the ship, and that officials suspect the first infected person likely contracted the virus before boarding. She said officials have been told there are no rats on board.

Officials in Argentina — where hantavirus led to 28 deaths nationwide last year, according to the health ministry — said they confirmed no passengers had symptoms when the Hondius departed. Symptoms can appear up to eight weeks after exposure, officials have said.

In South Africa, authorities said they have started contact tracing — another practice used extensively in the coronavirus pandemic. But officials have emphasized that the chance of a major public health threat is low.

___

Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria; Risemberg from Dakar, Senegal. AP journalists Suman Naishadham in Madrid; Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg, South Africa; Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands; and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.

Gates and a lock on the front of the former temple in the Whitechapel area of east London had minor damage, but no one was injured, Metropolitan Police said.

The incident is the latest since four ambulances owned by a Jewish charity were torched in March. Since then, a synagogue was firebombed and other Jewish sites have been targeted in attempted arson. Last week, two Jewish men were stabbed in what police have called an act of terror.

“It is part of a pattern of rising antisemitism that has left our Jewish communities feeling frightened, angry and asking whether this country, their home, is safe for them,” Starmer told community leaders. “These disgusting attacks are being made against British Jews. But, make no mistake, this crisis — it is a crisis for all of us.”

The number of antisemitic incidents reported across the U.K. has soared since the attack by Hamas-led militants on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza, according to the Community Security Trust charity. The group recorded 3,700 incidents in 2025, up from 1,662 in 2022.

Hate-crime prosecutions will be fast-tracked to deal with the spike in antisemitic incidents, Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said.

The attacks have occurred since the Feb. 28 start of the Iran war and police are looking into whether they are the work of Iranian proxies.

A pro-Iran group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia — or Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right — has claimed responsibility for several of the attacks. It has also acknowledged being behind 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.

“One of the lines of inquiry is whether a foreign state has been behind some of these incidents,” Starmer said. “Our message to Iran, or to any other country that might seek to foment violence, hatred or division in society, is that it will not be tolerated.”

Starmer promised to take action to tackle antisemitism, including requiring universities to publish the scale of the problem and take steps to stop it. Arts funding will be withdrawn from anyone promoting antisemitism.

Britain raised its terror threat level from substantial to severe — the second-highest on a five-point scale — after the stabbings. The rating means intelligence agencies consider an attack highly likely in the next six months.

The change was not solely due to the knife attacks but also “from Islamist and extreme right-wing terrorist threat from individuals and small groups based in the U.K,” the government said.

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According to an arrest report from MDSO, Brian Pfeiffer, 50, and his wife, who have one child in common, were involved in a verbal dispute overnight inside their home when Pfeiffer became enraged.

Noon report:

Deputies said he grabbed his wife’s wrist, “forcibly ripped” her cellphone from her hand, and then continued to argue with her before placing her phone on the kitchen counter and leaving their home.

According to the report, Pfeiffer returned home during the investigation and was detained.

He was transported to the MDSO Robbery Bureau for a formal interview, where he denied any wrongdoing and “provided a self-serving statement,” the report stated.

Pfeiffer was arrested on a strongarm robbery charge.

MDSO confirmed Pfeiffer is a lieutenant with the agency, who was hired in May 1999.

He is currently relieved of duty with pay.

Pfeiffer was released from the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center late Tuesday afternoon after posting bond.

“I am disappointed to learn that two of my deputies were arrested in separate domestic related incidents. Our deputies are held to the highest standards, and I expect more responsible behavior!” Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said in a statement. “Domestic violence has no place in our community, and seeking help is a sign of strength. Help is available, you are not alone!”

Defense attorneys pressed Jamila “Mila” Adams about money she said she was owed after working as a live-in chef. She testified she was paid about $2,000 a week and believed she had not been fully compensated after being sent home. They pointed to a $19,000 demand and said the amount increased over time, with her attorney later seeking $5.5 million.

Diggs has pleaded not guilty to a felony strangulation charge and a misdemeanor assault and battery charge stemming from a December incident at his home.

When asked about the $5.5 million claim, Adams said, “I can’t speak on that,” and at other points told jurors, “I don’t understand the question” and “I don’t know how to answer the question.”

Defense attorneys also questioned Adams about a public statement she issued Feb. 13 in which she said, “I have never sought money to settle this matter,” and about hiring a lawyer by mid-April. Adams said she retained an attorney for a workers’ compensation claim, saying she believed she had been injured on the job.

They challenged her accounting of what she was owed, presenting records of payments and suggesting she had sought compensation for weeks she did not work. Adams said she had been confused about the amount and “sent the incorrect amount,” maintaining she believed she was owed money.

Prosecutors pushed back on the defense’s financial-motive argument— Adams testified the dispute was about wages, not a settlement. She said her statement that she had “never sought money to settle this matter” referred to the criminal case and that she later retained an attorney for a workers’ compensation claim after she was injured on the job.

At times during her second day on the stand, Adams was instructed by the judge to answer questions directly and not include additional details beyond what was asked. Portions of her responses were struck from the record as nonresponsive, with jurors told to disregard them.

“This is not an opportunity for you to interject your own narrative,” Judge Jeanmarie Carroll, told her at one point, warning that continued nonresponsive answers could result in her testimony being stricken.

Kenneth Ellis, the Dedham police officer who took Adams’ initial report about the assault, testified that she arrived at the station visibly upset, telling jurors she “sat down on the bench and she was crying.” The officer said Adams initially asked to speak with a female officer before later agreeing to give a statement and identifying Diggs as the person involved.

The officer said he did not observe visible injuries, collect photographs or speak with other witnesses, and that his investigation relied largely on Adams’ account and text messages she provided.

The testimony followed sharply conflicting accounts presented to jurors a day earlier.

Adams testified Monday that Diggs “smacked me with an open hand” before wrapping his arm around her neck and choking her, leaving her struggling to breathe. She described what she called a “complicated” relationship, saying it had previously been sexual but was not at the time of the alleged assault. She said she lived in his home, preparing meals and snacks, and had known him for more than four years.

Defense attorneys told jurors the alleged attack never happened, pointing to a lack of medical records, photos or video documenting injuries and saying no one else in the home reported seeing or hearing anything unusual. They also suggested Adams had a financial motive.

Prosecutors say the case centers on what happened on Dec. 2, when they allege Diggs entered Adams’ bedroom, slapped her and put her in a headlock that made it difficult to breathe.

A jury was seated Monday in Norfolk County District Court in Dedham.

“The Lost Boys,” an adaptation of a 1987 teen movie vampire thriller, and “Schmigadoon!,” an adaptation of an Apple TV series that gently mocks Broadway musicals, were followed by a revival of “Ragtime,” a big, soaring musical celebrating early 20th-century America, with 11 nominations, and “Death of a Salesman,” Arthur Miller’s masterpiece that looks at the unraveling of the American Dream, starring Nathan Lane, which nabbed nine nods.

Twenty-four shows got at least one nomination across the 26 Tony categories, a revival of “Chess,” the Cold War-set love triangle between two chess grand masters and the woman who loved both, and “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” which reimagines Andrew Lloyd Webber's classic feline musical into a celebration of queer ballroom culture.

“I'm over the Jellicle moon about this!” said Bill Rauch, who secured his first Tony nomination for co-directing the reimagined “Cats.” “I’ve spent my whole career trying to connect the dots between classics and the place and time we’re living in, and so to have ‘Cats’ have this life on Broadway right now just really feels like an affirmation of everything I’ve been trying to do for decades.”

Best new musical and play nominees

The best new musical crown will be between “The Lost Boys,” “Schmigadoon!,” “Titanique,” a camp musical comedy that reimagines the 1997 megahit movie “Titanic,” and “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York),” an opposites-attract rom-com set during a New York City weekend.

Ali Louis Bourzgui, nominated for best featured role in a musical playing a seductive vampire in “The Lost Boys,” took a bite on why his show was so well received: “I think that people, including myself, love a villain that they can care for,” he said. “Some of my favorite performances are technically villains on paper, but the person who’s playing them actively makes them a full 3D person that you can root for. I think that’s the most interesting kind of character.”

The best new play nominees are the John Lithgow-led “Giant,” which explores accusations of antisemitism against children’s author Roald Dahl; “Liberation,” about a consciousness-raising women’s group in 1970s Ohio that won the Pulitzer Prize for drama on Monday; “The Balusters,” a wry comedy about a small-town neighborhood association that descends into chaos over whether to install a stop sign; and “Little Bear Ridge Road,” about a struggling writer who returns to his rural hometown to settle his dead father’s estate.

Playwright Mark Rosenblatt conceived of “Giant” in 2018 and started writing it in 2020, and it seems remarkably relevant in 2026, following the fallout from the war in Gaza and the spotlight on antisemitism in America.

“The ideas in the play, the concerns in the plays, the pain in the play, is perennial,” he said. “But I could never have imagined that it would, when it finally was produced, would be playing against the backdrop of what’s happening now.”

“The Fear of 13,” the true story of a man who spent more than two decades on death row, didn't get any acting nods, despite starring Adrien Brody and Tessa Thompson in their Broadway debuts. Former “Glee” star Lea Michele will still be seeking her first Tony nomination after having missed out for her work on “Chess.”

Squibb is now the oldest Tony-nominated actor in history, besting the record set by Lois Smith, who was 89 when she was nominated in 2020 for “The Inheritance.” Squibb's Broadway resume reaches back to a stint in the original production of “Gypsy” in 1960 with Ethel Merman, and she recalls rehearsing a musical by dancing on a concrete floor. It is her first Tony nomination.

In Jordan Harrison’s play “Marjorie Prime,” a widow played by Squibb is brought an artificial companion who looks precisely like her dead husband. Premiering in 2014, the work in 2026 capitalizes on the recent frenzy over technological advancements like ChatGPT. Squibb said she saw the original, but only now fully comprehends the implications of things like AI.

As for her age, she said she doesn't really think about it: “I can’t ignore my body is different than it was when I was young. And when I read a script now, I have to think can I physically do what they’re asking me to do. And that’s about it,” she said. “As long as it’s not dancing on concrete floors.”

Burstein becomes the most-nominated male actor in Tony history with nine nods after his work in “Marjorie Prime,” beating the record set by Jason Robards. Kelli O’Hara got her ninth career nomination for a revival of the comedy “Fallen Angels,” tying her with Rosemary Harris for third on the all-time acting nominations list.

Who lost out?

A trio of actors from the hit TV series “The Bear” struck out in their Broadway debuts this season — Ayo Edebiri in a revival of “Proof” and Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach who both appeared in “Dog Day Afternoon,” an adaptation of Sidney Lumet’s 1975 bank robbing drama.

Others who missed out this year include Bobby Cannavale, Byrne’s partner, who starred in a revival of “Art” with Neil Patrick Harris and James Corden that was snubbed by the nominators. “Bill & Ted” stars Keanu Reeves and Alex Winters reuniting for a revival of “Waiting for Godot,” were also left off, although Brandon J. Dirden was nominated for a featured role. Laurie Metcalf was in a position to earn two but will have to settle with a featured role nod for “Death of a Salesman.”

Nominations include a return

The best play revival category is stacked with well-received work: “Every Brilliant Thing”; “Death of a Salesman”; “Oedipus,” a modern retelling of Sophocles’ classic tragedy set on election night in a modern campaign office; “Becky Shaw,” Gina Gionfriddo’s dark comedy about a newlywed couple who decide to play matchmaker; and “Fallen Angels,” Noël Coward’s alcohol-fueled competition between two upper-crust ladies over the attention of a former lover.

Daniel Radcliffe secured a nomination for “Every Brilliant Thing,” a one-person show that explores the antidotes to depression.

Rose Byrne, the “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” star who plays one of those upper-crust ladies in “Fallen Angels,” secured a nomination for best actress in a play, becoming the 22nd actor in history to be Oscar- and Tony-nominated in the same year. In addition to Byrne and O’Hara, Lesley Manville secured a nod for “Oedipus,” Susannah Flood for “Liberation” and Carrie Coon for her work in her husband Tracy Letts' play “Bug.”

O’Hara — winner for the 2015 “The King and I” revival — said there will be no chill descending between her and her co-star: “I’m moving with great bravery because of someone who’s brave right next to me. And if she takes home that prize, it would mean we both win.”

Lithgow, who has two Tonys already, will get his third if he beats leading actor in a play nominees Lane, Radcliffe, Mark Strong in “Oedipus” and Will Harrison from “Punch,” which looks at restorative justice following the death of a man from a physical punch.

Best actor in a musical nominees include Joshua Henry and Brandon Uranowitz, both from “Ragtime,” Sam Tutty in “Two Strangers,” Nicholas Christopher in “Chess” and Luke Evans from “The Rocky Horror Show.”

On the women’s side, the nominees are: Caissie Levy from “Ragtime,” Marla Mindelle for “Titanique,” Christiani Pitts from “Two Strangers,” Sara Chase from “Schmigadoon!” and Stephanie Hsu in “The Rocky Horror Show.”

The nominations also seemed to be an official welcome back to producer Scott Rudin, who scored nods for “Death of a Salesman” and “Little Bear Ridge Road.” In 2021, Rudin said he was stepping back after allegations of bullying.

The Tony Awards will be handed out June 7 at Radio City Music Hall during a telecast hosted by Pink. The awards will air live on CBS and stream on Paramount+.

Last year’s show — hosted by “Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo — drew 4.85 million viewers to CBS, its largest broadcast audience in six years, according to Nielsen.

The no-confidence vote was a blow to Bolojan, who came to power with the aim of ending one of Romania’s worst political crises in its post-communist history.

The Social Democratic Party, or PSD, and the nationalist opposition Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party, or AUR, jointly submitted the motion to Parliament on April 28. PSD withdrew from the coalition last month. On Tuesday, 281 lawmakers voted in favor and four voted against.

Lawmakers from Bolojan’s National Liberal Party, or PNL, and coalition partners, Save Romania Union party and the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR party, abstained.

Romanian President Nicusor Dan called for calm on Tuesday, saying that while it is “not a happy moment … it is a democratic decision by Parliament,” and that negotiations and informal consultations to form a new government are underway.

“We will have a new government within a reasonable time,” Dan said. “I exclude the scenario of early elections. And I emphasize: at the end of these procedures, we will have a pro-Western government — we will calmly get through this.”

Unrest grips the EU member country

Romania has faced a long period of instability after the annulment of a presidential election in December 2024. The country has also grappled with one of the highest budget deficits in the European Union, rampant inflation, and a technical recession. In June, when the coalition was voted in, it pledged to reduce the budget deficit, marking it a top priority.

The PSD had often found itself at loggerheads with Bolojan over austerity measures, including tax hikes, public-sector wage and pension freezes, and cuts to state spending and public administration jobs.

Last week, the party accused Bolojan of “failing to implement any genuine reform” in his 10 months leading the government, and said Romania needs a leader who is “capable of collaboration.” Bolojan said that he took tough but necessary fiscal measures that effectively “regained the trust of the markets in the Romanian government.”

Bolojan also called the no-confidence motion “cynical and artificial” and said before the vote that it “seems to be written by people who were not in government every day and did not participate in all the decisions.”

“It is cynical, because it does not take into account the context in which we find ourselves,” he said. “I assumed the position of prime minister, being aware that it comes with enormous pressure and that I would not receive applause from the citizens. But I chose to do what was urgent and necessary for our country.”

PSD calls for an interim president

The PSD party's president, Sorin Grindeanu, said Bolojan should appoint an interim prime minister until one is voted into office by lawmakers. He also said he expected Romanian President Nicusor Dan to consult PSD.

“I would like us to quickly find a solution … together with the other parties and move forward,” Grindeanu said. “All options are open.”

The secretary-general of Bolojan's party, Dan Motreanu, posted on social media, saying PSD and AUR “have a duty to take over the government, to come up with a prime minister candidate and a clear program,” accusing the two parties of “playing political theater.”

“You cannot overthrow a government and then run away from accountability,” Motreanu wrote, adding that “any signal of political chaos” negatively affects the country's economy and people.

The PSD would be needed to form a pro-European parliamentary majority. The party has previously ruled out forming a government with AUR, whose leader, George Simion, said Tuesday that voters had “supported and wanted water, food, energy,” but had “received taxes, war and poverty.”

Cristian Andrei, a Bucharest-based political consultant, said the crisis will likely lead to a stalemate, since “no one has a majority, or a coalition, and it will take the president ... weeks to find such a majority and name a new prime minister, prolonging the indecision.”

“At this moment, there are two tentative options for a new Cabinet, both difficult to achieve; either a reshuffled coalition, without Bolojan, in the same formation ... or a minority Cabinet, rather led by PSD and satellites from populist parties, like AUR, or other small groups,” he said. “A PSD-AUR official Cabinet is not a possibility today because the president will not endorse it.”

The prime ministerial position was set to be rotated in 2027 from Bolojan to a PSD premier as part of a power-sharing agreement. A general election is scheduled for 2028.

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McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.

Still, the fragile truce reached nearly a month ago appeared to be holding as U.S. forces pressed ahead with efforts to reopen the strait, a vital waterway for global energy. On Monday, the U.S. said it had opened a lane and sunk six small Iranian boats that had threatened commercial ships.

So far, only two merchant ships are known to have passed through the new U.S.-guarded route, with hundreds more bottled up in the Persian Gulf. Shippers are still wary, and it's unclear whether U.S. military action can reassure them without reigniting the conflict that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28.

Iran’s effective closure of the strait, through which major oil and gas supplies passed before the war, along with fertilizer and other petroleum products, has sent fuel prices skyrocketing and rattled the global economy. Breaking Iran's grip would deny its main source of leverage as U.S. President Donald Trump demands a major rollback of its disputed nuclear program.

Iran says new US effort violates ceasefire

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the U.S. military’s top officer, told a news conference Tuesday that Iran’s renewed attacks hadn’t reached the threshold of what Caine called “major combat operations.” He said Tuesday marked a “quieter” day in the strait.

“No, the ceasefire is not over,” Hegseth said, affirming Caine’s assessment. They spoke before the latest attacks on the UAE.

Iran has said the new effort does violate the ceasefire. Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, signaled that Iran has yet to fully respond to the U.S. attempt to reopen the waterway.

“We know full well that the continuation of the status quo is intolerable for America; while we have not even begun yet,” he said in a post on X. His statement did not mention negotiations with the U.S. that are now in the form of passing messages via Pakistan.

Disputing Washington’s claim of sinking six boats, an Iranian military commander said two small civilian cargo boats were hit on Monday, killing five civilians, Iran’s state TV reported.

Caine, the top U.S. general who serves as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said more than 100 U.S. military aircraft are patrolling skies around the strait.

The Trump administration has cited the April 8 ceasefire in asserting that the president does not have to give a formal update to Congress on the war under the War Powers Resolution. That law typically requires presidents to seek formal approval from Congress for war activities 60 days after beginning military action.

Shippers remain wary

So far, just two civilian vessels, both U.S.-flagged merchant ships, are known to have passed through the strait as part of the lane the U.S. says it has created. Shipping company Maersk said one of them, a vehicle carrier that it operates, exited the strait safely with U.S. military assistance on Monday.

Former military officers who have served on the strait have said opening it would be dangerous and highly challenging, even with military escorts, which the U.S. isn’t providing now.

There’s little room to maneuver in the narrow waterway — just 21 miles (34 kilometers) wide — and Iran can reach all of the strait and its approaches with cruise missiles. It also can target vessels with longer-range missiles, drones, fast attack craft and mines.

“At this point in time our risk assessment remains unchanged,” Hapag-Lloyd AG, one of the world’s largest container shipping companies, said in a statement. “Transits through the Strait of Hormuz are for the moment not possible for our ships.”

Ship tracking data showed a Panamanian-flagged crude oil tanker heading toward the center of the strait Tuesday after leaving an anchorage in the Persian Gulf, though it was unclear if it would try to pass through.

Iran has attacked ships that try to transit without going through its own route in the northern part of the strait along its coastline. That involves being vetted by Iran's Revolutionary Guard and payment in some cases.

The U.S.-approved route goes through territorial waters of Oman to the south.

“For shipping companies and for insurance companies, they still have to wait and see how this plays out,” said Torbjorn Soltvedt, principal Middle East analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

“This initiative alone isn’t something that looks like it’s going to open the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

The UAE bore the brunt of Iran’s retaliation

The United Arab Emirates said Monday its air defenses had engaged 15 missiles and four drones fired by Iran. Authorities in the eastern emirate of Fujairah said one drone sparked a fire at a key oil facility, wounding three Indian nationals. The British military reported two cargo vessels ablaze off the UAE, also on Monday.

On Tuesday, the UAE's Defense Ministry said it was responding to another Iranian drone and missile attack.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the targeting of UAE civilians and infrastructure “unacceptable.” Pakistan and Saudi Arabia also condemned the strikes.

Tehran did not confirm or deny the attacks. But Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tuesday on X that the U.S. and the UAE “should be wary of being dragged back into quagmire.”

Strait of Hormuz closure has far-reaching consequences

Closing the strait has squeezed countries in Europe and Asia that depend on Persian Gulf oil and gas, raising prices far beyond the region.

The U.S. has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports since April 13. It also has warned shipping companies they could face sanctions if they pay Iran for transit of the strait.

The blockade has deprived Tehran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy. U.S. officials have expressed hope the blockade will force Iran to make concessions in talks on its nuclear program and other longstanding issues.

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Finley reported from Washington and Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut, Lebanon; Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi; Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina; Bill Barrow in Atlanta; David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany; and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

On Tuesday afternoon, powerful Russian glide bombs smashed into the eastern city of Kramatorsk, the southern city of Zaporizhzhia and the northern city of Chernihiv, killing at least 17 civilians and wounding 45 others, officials said.

Attacks the previous night killed five people and wounded 39, according to authorities.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rebuked Moscow for what he said was its “utter cynicism” in launching the attacks after Russia announced a unilateral ceasefire over two days later this week while it marks the 81st anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

“Russia could cease fire at any moment, and this would stop the war and our responses,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X. “Peace is needed, and real steps are needed to achieve it. Ukraine will act in kind.”

The Russian Defense Ministry declared a unilateral ceasefire in Ukraine for Friday and Saturday, but said that it would strike back at the country, if it tries to disrupt the festivities on Victory Day, which Russia marks annually on May 9.

Zelenskyy replied that Ukraine would observe a ceasefire beginning at the end of Tuesday and would respond in kind to Russia’s actions from that moment on. He didn’t put an end date on the move.

Moscow's proposal to stop fighting follows a familiar pattern of Russia declaring short unilateral ceasefires during the war timed to various holidays, most recently Orthodox Easter. Those suspensions of combat don't produce any tangible results amid deep mistrust between Moscow and Kyiv more than four years after Russia launched an all-out invasion of its neighbor. U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the war have come to nothing.

Ukrainian leader expands Gulf cooperation

Zelenskyy was in Bahrain on Tuesday where he met with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, proposing a bilateral drone defense partnership amid the Iran war.

The Ukrainian leader said that he offered to share Ukraine’s air defense expertise with Bahrain, drawing a parallel between Iranian attacks on Gulf states and Russia’s daily aerial strikes on Ukrainian territory, which often use Shahed drones initially developed by Iran.

Zelenskyy said last month that Ukrainian officials are helping Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan with drone expertise and air defense.

Ukraine's power grid targeted again

Russian forces fired 11 Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 164 strike drones at Ukraine overnight from Monday to Tuesday, including a jet-powered Shahed drone variant, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

Air defense units stopped 149 drones and one missile, but others got through, it said. Two ballistic missiles failed to reach their targets, the air force said without elaborating.

Russia has repeatedly hammered Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the war, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. It hit natural gas production facilities in Ukraine’s central Poltava and northeastern Kharkiv regions, state energy company Naftogaz Group said.

Since the start of the year, Naftogaz facilities have come under attack 107 times, the company said.

Zelenskyy said that the Poltava attack was “especially vile,” because Russia launched a second missile at the same target when emergency rescuers were working at the scene.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said that Russia’s main targets were energy facilities, oil and gas infrastructure, railways and industrial sites, although the attacks also damaged homes, businesses and the transportation network.

Russia’s ceasefire proposals “remain only statements,” Svyrydenko said.

Russian territory hit by Ukrainian cruise missiles

Ukraine also kept up the pace of its long-range attacks on Russian rear areas, apparently aiming at more oil facilities in an effort to further disrupt Moscow's war economy.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its forces destroyed 289 Ukrainian drones overnight in 18 Russian regions. Drones were also intercepted over the occupied Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and over the Azov Sea, it said.

During the night, Ukraine launched its F-5 Flamingo cruise missiles at targets, including military-industrial complex facilities in Cheboksary, located more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) away, Zelenskyy said.

The plant supplied navigation components for the Russian navy, the missile industry, aviation and armored vehicles, he said.

The regional health ministry said that a Ukrainian drone attack wounded three people in the city of Cheboksary.

Ukrainian drones also attacked the Kirishi oil refinery in the Leningrad region close to St. Petersburg, sparking a blaze in the town’s industrial zone, local Gov. Alexander Drozdenko said.

Drozdenko said on social media that 29 Ukrainian drones had been shot down during the attack. No casualties were reported.

Ground robot operations

Ukraine doubled its midrange strikes on Russia in April compared with March and quadrupled them compared with February, according to a monthly battlefield report from Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov published Tuesday.

The midrange attacks were focused on enemy warehouses, command posts, air defense systems and supply lines up to about 100 miles (160 kilometers) behind the front line.

Also, Ukrainian ground robots completed 10,281 resupply and evacuation missions in April, an average of almost 343 per day, according to Fedorov.

It wasn't possible to independently confirm the claims.

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

Now both are within reach, starting with the second leg of their semifinal at home against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.

The first leg ended 1-1 in Madrid last week after offsetting penalties for two teams looking for a first European Cup title. Arsenal will be hoping its home field advantage at Emirates Stadium makes the difference in the return.

“After 20 years to be in this position again,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said. "We are so hungry to get the game that we want (Tuesday) and go through to that final.”

Arsenal routed Atletico 4-0 at home in the league phase in October, but expect Diego Simeone's side to be a lot more solid defensively in the return to London.

“I’m going to try to tell the team to play like they did in the second half (in Madrid)," Simeone said. "If it’s that easy it would be great. We have a lot of faith in what we’re doing.”

Both teams have been boosted by injury returns as forward Julian Alvarez is expected to play for Atletico and Arteta said captain Martin Odegaard and forward Kai Havertz are both available.

Atletico reached the final twice under Simeone, in 2014 and 2016, losing both times to crosstown rival Real Madrid.

Arsenal lost its only final in 2006 to Barcelona. This time, defending champion Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich will await the winner. Those two play their second leg on Wednesday after a pulsating 5-4 win for PSG in the first leg.

Arsenal's quest for a first Premier League title was also boosted on Monday by Manchester City drawing at Everton 3-3, meaning the Gunners can clinch the trophy by winning their last three games.

Atletico is only fourth in La Liga, 25 points behind leader Barcelona.

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

This might have been the most movement by All-Stars during an offseason in WNBA history. Not that it comes as a huge surprise. More than 80% of the players in the league were free agents after last season, knowing a huge pay day awaited with the new collective bargaining agreement that was signed in March.

With the money about the same, moving closer to home was one factor in players' decisions.

Ogwumike returns to Los Angeles

The 2016 MVP has long considered Los Angeles home after getting drafted No. 1 by the Sparks in 2012. She helped the franchise win a championship in 2016. The 10-time All-Star left the Sparks for Seattle in 2024 and spent two seasons with the Storm before returning to L.A.

The Sparks are trying to get back to the top of the league.

“It was always see you later, now I’ll see you soon…” Ogwumike wrote on social media when announcing her decision to return to Los Angeles.

Ogwumike joins a strong core in Los Angeles, including Kelsey Plum, Ariel Atkins, Dearica Hamby and Cameron Brink.

Diggins gets fresh start close to home in Chicago

Diggins grew up in South Bend, Indiana — a 90-minute drive from Chicago. The six-time All-WNBA player and seven-time All-Star is still looking for her first championship in the league and may be hard-pressed to get it in the Windy City. The 35-year-old guard spent the last two seasons in Seattle.

She'll provide veteran leadership for the Sky and eventually pair in the backcourt with Courtney Vandersloot, who is recovering from an ACL injury.

Griner moves to Connecticut with eye on Houston

The No. 1 pick in the 2013 draft will be playing for her third team in three seasons. Griner spent the first 12 years of her career in Phoenix, which selected her with the top pick. She moved on to Atlanta last season and now is in Connecticut. The Sun will be moving to Griner's hometown of Houston next season.

Griner, a 10-time All-Star, was excited for the chance to be a veteran leader for the Sun before eventually getting to play back home in Houston next year.

“Coming here for the one year with hopes of next year being in Houston and having that opportunity to potentially play in front of my family, play at home, it means a lot to me, means a whole lot to me,” Griner told The Associated Press.

Sabally lands in New York, gets ‘closer to my own home’

Sabally was born in New York, so joining the Liberty was a homecoming for her. Her family moved to Germany when she was young. Being on the East Coast makes it easier for the German star to get to Europe than it was while playing in Phoenix. It also puts her in a time zone that is more friendly for talking to her family in Germany.

“Phoenix was very far away from home for me as an international player. Like, nine-hour time difference. I could only talk to my little brothers before practice,” Sabally said. “So I think it was a personal decision just to get closer to my own home.”

The three-time All-Star played with Sabrina Ionescu in college at Oregon. Their senior season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, but now the duo will try to win a WNBA championship together with the Liberty.

Fresh start for Reese with the Dream

Atlanta acquired Reese from the Sky on April 6 for draft picks. One of the WNBA’s most recognizable stars, Reese led the league in rebounds in each of her two seasons with the Sky. The Dream hope she's the missing piece that can get them back to the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2013.

“I am not satisfied with what I am as a player and I felt like being around these kinds of players would help me be better," said Reese, who added she is happy to be with an organization “that really cared” about its players.

“I can help them in different ways to ... win, and that’s all I ever wanted,” Reese said. “I don’t care about anything else. ... I want to win.”

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

“It’s … BIG,” the Olympic skater finally said with a grin.

But what Liu, dressed in a blood-red custom Louis Vuitton gown with a full skirt and huge ruffles, couldn’t quite get was how big SHE had become. Even at a party full of very, very famous people, everyone wanted to greet her.

Some Met Gala guests have been famous for many years. Others have achieved fame with dizzying speed. For Liu, all it took was a gold-medal performance that charmed the whole world.

“Everybody recognizes me!” she said, with genuine surprise, of the crowd packed into the airy Charles Engelhard Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “It’s crazy. Imagine that overnight, suddenly everyone knows who you are!”

And then America’s skating sweetheart was off, soon to be spotted laughing with Connor Storrie of “Heated Rivalry,” another star of the night who also arrived from an ice rink.

Some more scenes from inside the Met Gala:

Under a full moon, the strains of harp music

After guests made their way up the carpeted steps to the museum, they entered into the Great Hall, which had been transformed into “a Northern Italian garden,” in the museum’s words. There was a huge moon hanging and swaying from the ceiling, and below it a floral centerpiece surrounded by cypress branches.

A half dozen harpists serenaded the guests, who waited to shake the hands of the gala co-chairs — Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, Vogue’s Anna Wintour, and honorary chair Lauren Sánchez Bezos — but not, for now, the late-arriving Beyoncé.

The receiving line was a long wait, reported Sarah Paulson.

“I waited 45 minutes,” the actor said, explaining why she hadn’t made it yet to the Conde M. Nast Galleries to see the fashion exhibit, “Costume Art,” which examines the dressed body through centuries of art history. Her feet hurt. “You could cut my legs off at the ankle,” she said.

Lobster crostini and tomato-mozzarella pillows

As the Engelhard court gradually filled, guests milled about snacking on lobster crostini or tomato and mozzarella “pillows.”

Zoë Kravitz, who headed the host committee, greeted Storrie — did we mention he was a top attraction? — and complimented him on his work. Bradley Cooper and Gigi Hadid sat quietly chatting on the sidelines, hand in hand.

Near them, Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster did the same. Jackman stood up when skier Lindsey Vonn came by, giving her a hug. Vonn, who suffered a traumatic leg injury at the Winter Olympics, used only a cane and sparkled in a Thom Browne gown.

Billionaires, he’s seen ‘em before

Ever since Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and wife Lauren Sánchez Bezos had been announced as honorary chairs, there had been anti-billionaire backlash in liberal New York City. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he would not come. A group called Everyone Hates Elon — a reference to Musk — had plastered posters at bus stops, like one on the East Side saying “Dress code: Willful ignorance,” and on subways.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, though, had a different take. He'd attended a few Met Galas, and said billionaires were nothing new.

“There have always been billionaires here,” Sharpton said. “I may not agree with everything Bezos does, but do I abandon Beyoncé and Venus Williams?” He also praised Wintour for paying attention to diversity. “I opted to come.”

He said the gala “brings a cultured meeting space” for people who haven't yet met.

A date night for Jon Batiste

At previous galas, Jon Batiste has performed, sometimes leading a musical band with his melodica to get crowds to head to dinner. This time around, he had no gala responsibilities — and he was happy.

After all, he said, “it’s date night” with his wife, Suleika Jaouad. “A night in the museum,” he quipped. The couple were dinner guests of Wintour herself.

Batiste wore a look by Eli Russell Linnetz that he said echoed the work of late Black portraitist Barkley L. Hendricks — a long white coat and white ensemble underneath. Hendricks often juxtaposed Black skin with white clothes, Batiste noted. Jaouad wore a sumptuous Christian Siriano gown.

Progress in the fight for diversity

Sinéad Burke, the Irish disability activist, said that when she was first approached to be on the host committee, “I said no.”

Unless, she says she told organizers, they made the gala fully accessible.

They did, Burke says, arranging for a step-free entrance for guests who need it, south of the main entrance.

Burke ended up working closely with the museum for 18 months before the gala. She made sure there was room for disabled press to cover the gala carpet. She and her organization, Tilting the Lens, also helped train guides who will assist the public when they view “Costume Art,” which has a large section on the disabled body.

And Burke herself, who was born with dwarfism, agreed to pose for a custom mannequin; two outfits are displayed on mannequins created in her image.

“I’m proud of the small moments,” she said.

But a step backward, elsewhere

Model Lauren Wasser, also on the host committee, attended in a custom Prabal Gurung ensemble all in gold, including her trademark gold prosthetic legs.

She said she was glad the museum was shining a light on diversity in body types. But she cautioned that in the outside world, things are looking bleaker. (Research has found that designers are starting to turn away from using plus-size models, for example.)

“I want to see it in real life, too,” Wasser said of such diversity. “We had a moment. But we’ve taken a step back.”

Wearing silver, feeling golden

The songwriter who won an Oscar for “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters” was wearing, well, silver. But she said she was feeling golden.

In fact, EJAE, part of the team that won best original song for the impossibly catchy tune, said she was trying to channel a specific lyric with her gown, a Swarovski number dripping with crystals.

“I’m done hidin’, now I’m shinin’ like I’m born to be,” the song goes.

“I wanted to literally be shining,” EJAE said. Mission accomplished.

Sarah Paulson has the Met’s secrets — remember?

This wasn’t the first rodeo for Paulson. In fact in was her sixth Met Gala, she said.

But Paulson has more after-hours experience at the Met. She shot the movie “Ocean’s 8” there, a film about a heist during … the Met Gala.

“I spent a lot of time here — I know the secrets,” Paulson said. “They should watch out!”

Asked if six Met Galas got a little tiresome, Paulson said they did not.

“You can’t really believe the people here and the oxygen you’re sharing,” the actor said. “People from all the great talents of the world.”

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky are Heidi Klum fans

Dinner was under way. Beyoncé had arrived, with Jay-Z and Blue Ivy.

But the assembled media on the carpet and various staffers in the museum lobby weren’t breaking for the night. There was one more big arrival to come. Yes, Rihanna.

When she and partner A$AP Rocky arrived in the Great Hall, they stopped for photos quickly and then headed toward the Temple of Dendur for dinner. But then they ran into Heidi Klum, who knows her way around a costume, virtually unrecognizable as a marble statue.

The couple spent 10 minutes or so laughing with Klum and complimenting her.

“This is the coolest outfit tonight, ain’t gonna lie,” A$AP Rocky noted.

“Oh my god, I can’t stand you!” Rihanna said admiringly.

“How much did they pay you to just stand here for the rest of the night?” the singer asked the statue. They all laughed.

“I think it’d be a nice little tip of the cap to John and what he meant — so much to this franchise and this fan base. I think it would be pretty cool,” Judge said after the Yankees routed Baltimore 12-1 on Monday night to complete a four-game sweep on the day of their famous broadcaster's death.

Following the final out, Sterling's familiar call that punctuated Yankees wins was played over the ballpark’s public-address system.

After a pregame tribute to Sterling, who died at age 87, Judge put New York ahead in the first inning with his major league-leading 14th homer and added a two-run single in the eighth for a four-RBI night.

Sterling called games on radio broadcasts from 1989 to 2024. As Judge circled the bases after his two-run drive off Shane Baz, he thought of the home run call Sterling coined for him: “A Judgian blast! All rise! Here comes the Judge!”

“Definitely seeing that tribute hit home because he loved the Yankees,” Judge said. “He loved this team. He loved this franchise. He loved the fans. He loved everybody he talked to on a nightly basis. So to do that there in the first, just kind of was chuckling around the bases thinking what he was probably saying.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone revealed before the game he's been paying tribute to Sterling in the dugout for a couple of years by yelling “Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theee Yankees win!” before starting handshakes.

This time, fans also bellowed along as the PA system sounded Sterling's baritone at raised decibels.

“It drowned me out a little bit, happily,” Boone said.

Like Judge, he hopes Sterling's voice at the end becomes routine.

”Yeah, I'd love it," the manager said. “Right on into Frank.”

Judge leads the majors with six first-inning homers this year and has 91 in his career, trailing only Babe Ruth’s 126 and Mickey Mantle’s 103 among Yankees. The home run was Judge’s 53rd in 124 games against the Orioles.

“It’s a pretty good advantage to have that guy coming up in the first inning for you,” Boone said.

Judge, who was tied for the major league home run lead by Munetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox later Monday, is batting .272 with 27 RBIs.

Coming off his first batting title last season, when his average was .427 through April, Judge slumped early this year and was hitting .212 with three homers and seven RBIs after his first 14 games. Since then, the three-time AL MVP is batting .329 with 11 homers and 20 RBIs in 21 games.

“Even if I’m hitting .400 in April, I’m tinkering with something new every single day. It could be something subtle with hands or feet, the sights, approach," Judge said. “When you stink, you’re trying to get better. When you’re doing well, you're also trying to get better.”

Like all Yankees, Judge had a cap with Sterling's “JS” initials stitched onto the back. At the behest of the Yankees front office, a Bronx vendor quickly sewed the tribute.

“I thought it was a nice little touch for John,” Judge said.

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

The EU-Armenia summit in Yerevan follows the eighth gathering of the European Political Community, or EPC, which brought dozens of European leaders to the Armenian capital on Monday to address European defense issues and the Iran war.

Meanwhile, Tuesday's bilateral meeting saw Armenia and the EU sign a connectivity partnership to strengthen economic ties and deepen security cooperation.

The two events underscore how Armenia is seeking to turn westward and shed Russia's influence. Armenia’s relations with Moscow, its longtime sponsor and ally, have grown increasingly strained since 2023, when neighboring Azerbaijan fully reclaimed the Karabakh region and ended the decadeslong rule by ethnic Armenian separatists.

Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers who were deployed to the region of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s onslaught. Moscow, busy with the war in Ukraine, rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.

The war was “a belated demonstration that Russia is dangerously unreliable as a partner,” Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center in Yerevan, told The Associated Press.

Pursuing ties with Europe

Since then, the government of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has pursued closer ties with the West, a move welcomed by the 27-nation EU.

The opening ceremony of the EU-Armenia summit on Tuesday saw European Council President António Costa walk the red carpet side by side with Pashinyan and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, while a military band played in front of Armenian and EU flags.

In her opening statement, von der Leyen said that Europe was ready to aid Armenia in becoming a regional hub for global trade routes, including the building of physical infrastructure.

“We’re ready to invest in the local energy production and the energy links across the Black Sea, and we are ready to connect your booming digital scene to Europe’s digital market and turn Armenia’s position at the heart of this region into a motor of growth,” she said.

The new EU-Armenia connectivity partnership will focus on strengthening transportation, energy and digital links. Meanwhile, EU investments in Armenia are expected to reach 2.5 billion euros ($2.9 billion) under its global gateway infrastructure program, both sides said in a joint statement.

“Today’s EU-Armenia summit sends a clear signal of the EU’s firm commitment to deepen our relations with Armenia, and to strengthen cooperation across many new areas,” Costa said. “Bringing Armenia and its people closer to the European Union.”

Symbolic moves

The EU, rather than the United States, has stepped into the vacuum left by Russia, Giragosian said.

“EU engagement is much more prudent and much more productive than the U.S. becoming involved, simply because European engagement is less provocative to Russia over the longer term,” he said.

In 2025, Armenia's parliament passed a law formally declaring the country’s intention to seek EU membership.

However, Giragosian described Tuesday’s summit as “a focus on deepening the preexisting relationship” rather than a step toward candidacy, referencing the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement that has governed EU-Armenia ties since fully taking effect in 2021.

“The symbolic significance is much greater as a message to Russia,” he said.

Armenia has also taken other symbolic steps. It joined the International Criminal Court in 2023, a move that Moscow condemned as an “unfriendly step.” The court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

Armenia also froze its participation in the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization in 2024.

However, Armenia remains a member of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, or EEU, a single market allowing the free movement of goods, capital and labor. The organization also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan — and Putin has made the trade-offs plain.

Speaking at talks with Pashinyan in Moscow earlier this year, Putin warned that Armenia couldn't simultaneously belong to both the EEU and the EU, noting that Yerevan currently receives Russian natural gas at prices far below European market rates. Pashinyan acknowledged the incompatibility, but said that Armenia could, for now, combine EEU membership with deepening EU cooperation.

Pashinyan, who has been in office since 2018 and faces a parliamentary election in June, stands to benefit politically from the international profile of the European meetings. Giragosian said that Pashinyan's government is likely to be reelected largely by default, with the opposition unable to offer a credible alternative program.

But Giragosian warned against framing Armenia’s foreign policy as purely a pivot from Russia to the West.

“Armenia is also pivoting beyond the black and white zero-sum game paradigm,” he said, pointing to significant diplomatic investment in Asia, including with Japan, South Korea and China. “This is not about replacing Russia with the West. This is much more innovative, much more sophisticated.”

Heightened tensions

The summit also comes at a moment of diplomatic strains between Azerbaijan and the EU. Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the EU ambassador last week to protest a European Parliament resolution demanding the release of Armenian prisoners of war and criticizing the treatment of Armenians in Karabakh. Lawmakers in Azerbaijan subsequently voted to suspend all cooperation with the European Parliament.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who addressed the EPC conference via video link, accused the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe, or PACE, of “double standards” for placing sanctions on Azerbaijan's delegation.

There were also protests outside the EPC summit venue, which was surrounded by tight security. Demonstrators held photos of Armenian prisoners being held in Azerbaijan.

Opposition leader Aram Sargsyan, head of the Democratic Party of Armenia, told the Armenian Press Agency that the European officials were voicing support for Pashinyan before the election and have “forgotten about the Armenians in prison in Azerbaijan.”

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Elise Morton reported from London. Avet Demourian in Yerevan, and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.

The teams notified the league on the injury reports they turned in on Monday.

Doncic was injured in Oklahoma City about a month ago and hasn’t played since. The league scoring champion averaged 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists in the regular season.

Lakers coach JJ Redick hadn't said if or when Doncic could return from an injury that sometimes requires two months of recovery. Doncic shot 3-pointers with his teammates Monday while they wrapped up a workout before their flight to Oklahoma City.

Williams, a 2025 All-Star, missed the last two games of the first-round series against Phoenix with a left hamstring injury. Thunder coach Mark Daigneault did not declare him ready for a return, saying Monday only that Williams is progressing.

Williams averaged 17.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.5 assists in an injury-plagued regular season. He averaged 20.5 points on 61.5% shooting from the field through Oklahoma City's first two playoff games before the injury during the third quarter of Game 2. Ajay Mitchell entered the starting lineup and helped the Thunder sweep the series.

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AP Sports Writer Greg Beacham in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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

The beginning of it anyway, when they were run off the floor in Game 1.

The 76ers made a huge comeback after that blowout to win the series and they will have to play from behind again in the Eastern Conference semifinals after the New York Knicks routed them 137-98 on Monday night.

“Same as last series. They don’t get any extra points for going up big tonight,” 76ers veteran Paul George said. “We’ll be ready for Game 2.”

Joel Embiid and the 76ers appeared on fumes while playing just two nights after winning Game 7 in Boston to complete the NBA's 14th comeback from a 3-1 deficit. Coach Nick Nurse said before the game he didn't know what effect the short turnaround would have, saying sometimes it's better when a team is winning to just keep on playing.

But it didn't take long to see that wasn't the case.

“You can’t make excuses, that’s for sure,” Nurse said. “We knew it might be difficult, but you’re never going to go into the game and say this is going to happen. You've got to see it play out.”

The 76ers narrowly avoided the worst playoff loss in their franchise history, when they fell 121-81 to Boston in 1982. They came back to win that series, so perhaps that's a good omen on a bad night.

This comeback against the Celtics looked improbable after the Sixers lost Game 1 by 32 points, then lost by 32 again in Game 4, when Embiid returned after a late-season appendectomy.

So they know they can dig themselves out of holes. And the Knicks didn't need long to throw them into one.

The Knicks led 74-51 at halftime after shooting 65.9% from the floor and the only good thing was the game was so out of hand that Nurse was able to give his overworked starters some extra rest.

“Coming from the series we had and the physicality we displayed, I would like to think that maybe guys were tired,” Embiid said. “But it’s not an excuse, though. On to Game 2.”

Embiid played only 24 minutes, shooting 3 for 11 for his 14 points. Tyrese Maxey, who averaged 26.9 points in the first round, didn't even have a basket until five minutes into the second quarter and finished with 13 points on 3-for-9 shooting.

Their diminished offensive production wasn't the only problem. The Knicks took advantage of Embiid's limited mobility to repeatedly find open shots and ran whenever they could, with a 16-3 advantage in fast-break points.

“Yeah, we had breakdowns tonight, but they also shot the (heck) out of the ball,” George said. “They were hot.”

George wouldn't use fatigue as an excuse, but acknowledged that the 76ers did face what he called a mental rollercoaster.

“You go from a Game 7 and then one day off and then you’re right back into a matchup,” he said. “There was some carryover of us trying to get up and get prepared for this next matchup, but we should have came out and did a better job.”

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

Game 2 in the best-of-seven Western Conference series is Wednesday night in Las Vegas.

Barbashev took advantage after officials did not call icing, which didn't sit well with Ducks coach Joel Quenneville. It was Barbashev's pass from behind the red line to teammate Jack Eichel, who was battling Anaheim's Jackson LaCombe for the puck, that linesman Bevan Mills waved off for icing.

Officials declined to comment to a pool reporter.

“Clearly, I disagreed with the call,” said Quenneville, who said he did not receive an explanation from the officials. “Their guy stopped skating, which really made me annoyed.”

Golden Knights coach John Tortorella said he couldn't see the play from his spot behind the bench. Barbashev kept skating once no call was made as Ducks players appeared to slow up.

“I tried to put the puck deep and I thought I saw Jack on the far side going deep and I thought for a second he (beat LaCombe) and that's why they waved it off,” Barbashev said. “Jack put pressure on him, they turned it over and Pav made a great play.”

Vegas' Brett Howden extended his goal streak to a career-best four games, his fifth during that span. Mitch Marner, who assisted on Howden's goal early in the second period, added a 162-foot empty-net goal with 6 seconds left, and Carter Hart stopped 33 shots for the Golden Knights.

Mikael Granlund scored for Anaheim, and Lukas Dostal made 19 saves.

The Golden Knights prevailed despite being outshot 34-22.

“They were the better team tonight,” Tortorella said. “I thought as the game went on, we started finding our game, but we couldn't find it completely. ... It's a find-a-way league. We found a way to win, and I'm certainly not going to apologize for the win.”

Vegas’ penalty kill continued to shine, extending its stretch to 14 straight without giving up a goal by keeping the Ducks off the scoreboard on four chances. Anaheim converted 8 of 16 power plays in the first round against Edmonton. The Golden Knights are 19 of 20 on penalty kills.

Golden Knights center William Karlsson, out since sustaining a lower-body injury Nov. 8 against the Ducks, returned to the lineup. The crowd roared when Karlsson was shown on the video board after taking the ice less than three minutes into the game.

The Ducks dominated the early action, outshooting Vegas 11-6 in the first period and then controlling the puck to open the second. But the Golden Knights scored first with their first shot on goal in the second when Marner made a pinpoint pass from the right circle to Howden, who scored easily from the left side of the net.

It didn’t appear the lead would last long when Ducks top-line center Leo Carlsson made a dazzling spin move to set up LaCombe with an an open net. LaCombe, however, inexplicably passed up the shot for a pass, and the Golden Knights avoided what appeared would be a sure Ducks goal.

Just as time was starting to run out on the Ducks in the third, they didn’t waste their next opportunity. LaCombe made up for his previous gaffe by walking in on Hart before delivering a pass to Granlund, who was open in the right circle and scored at 13:57.

The tie didn’t last long, with Dorofeyev passing to Barbashev to put the Golden Knights ahead 2-1 just 65 seconds later.

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

Edwards was expected to miss at least the first two games of the series after suffering a bone bruise and hyperextending his left knee on April 25 during Game 4 of Minnesota’s opening-round series against Denver. But he had 11 points in the fourth quarter as Minnesota held on to hand San Antonio only its second loss in its last 17 series openers at home.

“Nobody expected him to play,” Timberwolves veteran Mike Conley said. “It was just his level of commitment to the game. Not just to the game, but to his teammates. It showed a lot.”

Wembanyama had 11 points and 15 rebounds and set an NBA postseason record with 12 blocks. He's the third player to get a triple-double in the playoffs including blocks since the league began tracking blocks in 1973-74.

San Antonio cut the deficit to 104-102 on a steal by Devin Vassell and layup by Dylan Harper with 31 seconds remaining. Following a miss by Minnesota's Julius Randle, Julian Champagnie couldn't connect on a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“We have to be better,” Wembanyama said. “It shows up on the stat sheet. We need to figure out before 48 hours what we can do better and I’ve got no doubt that we will. I trust us.”

Randle finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Timberwolves. Harper scored 18 points and Champagnie and Stephon Castle had 17 each for the Spurs.

Edwards worked diligently to return for Minnesota with guards Donte DiVincenzo (torn right Achilles tendon) and Ayo Dosunmu (right calf soreness) out with injuries.

“I know for a fact, just me being out there, it calms everybody down," Edwards said. “Not saying there’s any pressure on any of my teammates, but it takes pressure off of everybody just knowing that I’m out there, I’m available to play, yeah. And just doing what I do best, just trying to put the ball in the hoop.”

After draining a stepback 3-pointer early in the game, Edwards looked toward the Spurs bench and screamed: “I’m back! I’m back!”

He definitely was.

Edwards did not start, entering the game with 6:53 remaining in the first quarter and the Timberwolves trailing 11-8. He finished 8 for 13 in 25 minutes.

Game 2 is Wednesday in San Antonio.

Wembanyama had seven blocks in the first half. The NBA Defensive Player of the Year opened the game by blocking a pair of driving layups from Terrence Shannon Jr. on consecutive possessions. Two minutes later, he blocked Gobert’s driving layup just under the rim.

Wembanyama finished 5 for 17 from the field.

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

The S&P 500 rose 0.8% and was on track to top its all-time high set at the end of last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 263 points, or 0.5%, as of 12:52 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was heading toward its own record after climbing 1%.

Stocks got a boost after oil prices gave back some of their big jumps from Monday. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 3.4% to $110.56 after briefly topping $115 on Monday, though it’s still well above its roughly $70 price from before the war with Iran.

U.S. military leaders said Tuesday that a ceasefire with Iran remains in effect, even though Iran was blamed for attacks against the United Arab Emirates the day before. The U.S. military is meanwhile trying to force open a path in the Strait of Hormuz, which would allow oil tankers to resume shipments from the Persian Gulf and hopefully bring down the price of crude.

Even with the war ongoing, the U.S. stock market has remained remarkably resilient on its record-setting run. That’s in large part due to the strong profits that U.S. companies have reported for the start of 2026 despite the rise in oil prices since the end of February.

“This has been a ‘why ask why’ market,'” according to Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “You just have to go with it.”

Even though many risks are still weighing on the market, “investors are looking at earnings” and how much companies are spending on AI data centers and other investments, he said.

DuPont’s stock rallied 7.6% after the chemical giant led another cavalcade of companies reporting better-than-expected profits for the latest quarter.

DuPont said its water technologies business felt some impact from the war due to logistics disruptions in the Middle East. But it nevertheless raised its forecasts for financial results over the full year.

Other winners included American Electric Power Co., which rose 2.3%, and Cummins, which added 2.1%, after they likewise made more money during the first three months of the year than analysts expected.

Pinterest soared 8.6% after the online bulletin board topped Wall Street’s first-quarter sales and profit targets as its number of active monthly users jumped 11% to 631 million.

AB InBev likewise topped analysts’ profit forecasts, and it credited growth for its Corona, Stella Artois and Michelob Ultra brands outside of their home markets. “Cheers to beer,” CEO Michel Doukeris said, as the company’s stock that trades in the United States jumped 9.5%.

They helped offset a drop for Palantir Technologies, which fell 6.6% even though it reported stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its stock has struggled this year with worries about increased competition, like many software companies have. Its stock is also coming off a huge run where it more than doubled in each of the last three years.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe. The CAC 40 rose 1.1% in Paris, but the FTSE 100 fell 1.4% in London. Many Asian markets were closed for holidays, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.8%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2% after the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 4.35%, saying conflict in the Middle East had sharply increased fuel and commodity prices that were already adding to inflation.

In the U.S. bond market, Treasury yields eased after oil prices gave back some of Monday’s gains and reports on the U.S. economy came in mixed.

One said that growth for U.S. services businesses unexpectedly decelerated last month, with some companies saying the war is slowing spending. A separate report said U.S. employers were advertising slightly more job openings at the end of March than economists expected, an encouraging signal for the job market.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.41% from 4.45% late Monday. That’s still well above its 3.97% level from just before the war began. That rise has made mortgages and other kinds of loans for U.S. households and businesses more expensive.

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AP Writers Chan Ho-him, Matt Ott and Rod McGuirk contributed.

In neighboring Ohio, primaries for U.S. Senate and governor will lock in the candidates for two major races with national implications.

And in Michigan, voters in a bellwether district will fill a vacancy in the state Senate, a race with implications for the balance of power in a battleground state.

Here's what to watch for.

How strong is Trump's grip on the Republican Party?

Trump is taking aim at seven Republican state senators in Indiana who opposed his plan to redraw congressional district boundaries to help the party gain seats in the U.S. House.

Groups allied with the president have spent millions on advertising, an extraordinary flood of cash and attention into races that are typically low profile.

The races are a test of Trump's enduring grip over his party as Republicans grow increasingly anxious about the midterm elections in November.

The results will signal to Republicans everywhere about how big a price they'll pay with their voters if they distance themselves from Trump even as his popularity fades. And it will show the president whether he can still credibly threaten consequences for Republicans who cross him.

The Trump-targeted state senators all represent districts he carried in 2024, mostly by 20 percentage points or more.

The key races to watch are districts 1, 11, 19, 21, 23, 38 and 41.

Ohio races get started in earnest

The state's primary is the wind up to the big show. Although Ohio has become increasingly conservative, Democrats believe their path back to a U.S. Senate majority runs through the state.

They're putting their hopes behind former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost Ohio's other Senate seat to Bernie Moreno in 2024.

He's expected to face off with Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed last year to fill the vacancy created when JD Vance became vice president.

The race is a special election to fill the last two years of Vance's term.

In the campaign for governor, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy has parlayed his national name recognition, tech industry connections and alliance with Trump into a record fundraising haul. He's largely ignoring Republican rival Casey Putsch, focusing his rallies and television ads on the general election.

An engineer and vehicle designer who calls himself “The Car Guy,” Putsch has attracted fans with provocative YouTube videos that troll Ramaswamy and criticize national Republicans over their handling of the Epstein files, positions on energy-guzzling data centers and support for Israel.

Amy Acton, Ohio's former public health director, is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination. She played a key role in the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Will Democrats sweep another special election?

The special election for a state Senate seat in central Michigan carries outsized importance.

It's another test of enthusiasm in a series of special elections that have swung almost universally toward Democrats since Trump returned to the White House. It also could affect the balance of power in the Michigan State Capitol. A Democratic victory would give the party a firm majority in the state Senate, while a Republican win would deadlock the chamber in a 19-19 tie.

The district is closely matched. Democrat Kamala Harris beat Trump there by less than 1 point in the 2024 presidential election.

The seat has been vacant for more than a year, since Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet resigned to take a seat in Congress.

Democrats are showing surprising strength in special elections and off-year contests across the country, winning races in unexpected places and significantly narrowing the gap, even when they fall short.

There's no guarantee the trend will continue through the midterms, when turnout will be much higher, but it has nonetheless energized Democrats and spooked Republicans worried about keeping their congressional majorities.

She is among a number of Mexican American business owners who've become more vocal about also honoring Mexican history and the significance of the holiday, as a way to combat anti-immigrant sentiments amid heightened immigration enforcement efforts that have targeted Latino communities.

Mendoza, owner of Cuernavaca’s Grill in Los Angeles, said she prefers a celebration that reflects “everything that as a community we’re enduring today.” So, Mendoza will host Cinco de Mayo festivities at her restaurant that, along with traditional mariachi and Mexican cuisine, will include a nod to Mexican perseverance over the French in the Battle of Puebla over 160 years ago.

“Just looking at how much they did with very little resources,” she said. “It just showed resilience. So, on Cinco de Mayo we always make it a testament of our resilience.”

Restaurants owners aren't the first Latino community leaders to reclaim Cinco de Mayo in the U.S. — moving away from a flattening of Mexican culture toward highlighting history and community. This year, the celebrations are noticeably embracing traditional Mexican culture and focused on preservation, said Sehila Mota Casper, director of Latinos in Heritage Conservation.

“These are just incredible moments of educating and knowledge sharing,” Mota Casper said. “The more we educate, the more knowledge we share, the better a community and people we become.”

Restaurants emphasize authenticity over tequila shots

Hispanic-owned firms accounted for 8.4% of 5.9 million U.S. employers in 2024, according to the Census Bureau's annual survey of businesses. They also were approximately 18% of all restaurant businesses in the United States last month, according to the National Restaurant Association, which uses census data.

U.S. revelers hoping to crowd restaurants and toss back shots of tequila may find more wholesome and intentionally planned offerings, said Raul Luis, who owns the Birrieria Chalio Mexican Restaurant, with locations in Los Angeles and Fort Worth, Texas. On Cinco de Mayo, he wants his customers to eat and drink the types of “guisados” — traditional Mexican braises or stews served as taco filling — that one would eat when invited into a Mexican family's home.

Well-made, traditional cooking will keep customers coming back, even if they aren’t Hispanic, Luis said.

“It’s the ultimate opportunity for restaurants to take advantage of that moment and bring them in and entice them to authentic Mexican food,” Luis said.

What Cinco de Mayo celebrates

Cinco de Mayo marks the anniversary of the 1862 victory by Mexican troops over invading French forces at the Battle of Puebla. The triumph over much larger French troops who were better-equipped was an enormous emotional boost for Mexican soldiers led by Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza.

In Mexico, historical reenactments are held annually in the central city of Puebla to commemorate the victory. Participants dress as Mexican and French troops and as Zacapoaxtlas — the Indigenous and farmer contingent that helped Mexican troops win.

In the U.S., May 5 is seen as a day to celebrate Mexican American culture, stretching back to the 1800s in California. Festivities typically include parades, street food, block parties, mariachi competitions and baile.

Folklórico, or folkloric ballet, features whirling dancers in bright, ruffled dresses and their hair tied with shiny ribbons.

The day often is mistaken for Mexican Independence Day, which is on Sept. 16.

Latino activists and scholars say that disconnect in the U.S. is bolstered by the hazy history of Cinco de Mayo and marketing that plays on stereotypes that include fake, droopy mustaches and gigantic, colorful sombreros.

A testament to Mexican resilience

Since returning to the White House in 2025, President Donald Trump has continued to label Mexican immigrants as criminals and gang members, and Latino communities have been a target of his hard-line immigration tactics. Memes shared from official White House social media accounts perpetuate negative stereotypes about Latinos, while a federally led English-only initiative and ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs all seem to target communities of color.

All together, it's generated a great deal of fear in Latino communities.

Mendoza, the Los Angeles restaurant owner, said it’s also been a hard time for the restaurant industry because of rising costs. But in spite of it all, Cuernavaca’s Grill will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

As part of the restaurant's Cinco de Mayo festivities, she'll invite customers to contribute to a food and toy drive meant to support those who are struggling in the current climate.

“This is a testament of our resilience,” Mendoza said. “It’s a testament of our hard work. It is pride to our community and everything that we’ve accomplished.”

Twenty-one Republican senators voted against redistricting in December, including eight running for reelection this year. Trump has endorsed primary challengers against seven, and the president's allies have spent millions of dollars on races that rarely get much attention from Washington.

It's become a costly and unprecedented intraparty battle that has exacerbated tensions among Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith said the primary is about how far the party will go to get an edge over Democrats — a contest between “the Republicans who tend to want to avoid the fight and the Republicans who feel like we need to fight."

“So the only question is, ‘Will you fight or will you get trampled by the other side?’” said Beckwith, who is supporting the Trump-backed challengers.

Indiana rejected Trump on redistricting

Trump began leaning on Republican-led states last year to redraw their congressional maps to make it easier for his party to hold its thin majority in the U.S. House. Although redistricting is normally done once a decade, after a new census, Trump wanted to abandon tradition to gain a political edge.

Texas was the first to follow through, and the White House pressured Indiana to go along too. Vice President JD Vance met with state politicians in Washington and Indianapolis, and Trump weighed in by conference call.

However, Indiana senators rebuffed the effort, one of the president's first significant political defeats of his second term.

The redistricting fight divided Republicans in Indiana, a state Trump won three times by no less than 16 points. Republican Gov. Mike Braun, U.S. Sen. Jim Banks and organizations such as Turning Point Action have worked alongside Trump to unseat the incumbents.

Jim Bopp, a prominent Indiana attorney who leads a political action committee aligned with Braun, predicted that Trump’s support will carry the day for the challengers.

“Republican voters overwhelmingly support Trump, and when they find out Trump has endorsed a particular Senate candidate, they swing their support behind them,” he said.

Indiana opposition came from constituents, former governor

Opposition to the effort came from anti-Trump Republicans and those wary of the president reaching so deeply into state decision-making. Former Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, who had stepped away from politics after leaving the governorship in 2015, reemerged to help raise money for targeted incumbents.

The senators who broke with Trump said they were listening to constituents who were overwhelmingly against his redistricting plan. Some said they didn’t like Trump's aggressive tone in pushing the plan.

“We hate to be told what to do,” said Mike Murphy, a former Republican state representative. “We’re very independent-thinking people. So when Donald Trump and his goons come in and try to tell us that we need to redistrict to help his political future, that’s the worst thing you can do.”

He said Trump and those spending big money to take out the incumbents don’t understand Indiana politics.

“There’s just so many misjudgments on people’s part because they tend to fly at the 50,000-foot level, and they don’t go to the barbecues and the church fish fries and the things that make Indiana politics,” Murphy said.

Bopp, who supports the Trump-backed challengers, said the primary is a chance for Indiana Republicans to express how important it is to redraw the congressional lines there.

“It’s not a matter of Trump’s power,” Bopp said. “It’s about Republican primary voters who support his agenda and don’t want a Democratic House that will be hugely destructive to the Trump presidency and the country.”

Vance, who is seen as one of the GOP’s strongest potential candidates for president in 2028, is making the trip to campaign on behalf of Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, who faces a competitive race to keep his Des Moines-area seat in the November midterms.

Vance, a former U.S. senator who represented Ohio and became vice president before the end of his term, departed Washington accompanied by one of his young sons. He stopped first in Cincinnati to vote in Ohio's primary elections and told reporters he was voting for Vivek Ramaswamy in the governor's race. Asked about U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, who's running in a special election to serve out the remainder of Vance’s term, Vance said he thinks Husted's “going to do a great job” and has been “good for Ohio.”

His 6-year-old son, meanwhile, filled out a ballot for children, which the vice president showed to the poll workers when he cast his own ballot. “He voted for the Easter bunny over the tooth fairy,” he said of his son, who's also named Vivek.

Before arriving in Iowa, Vance also was set to appear in Oklahoma City to hold a fundraiser in his role as finance chair of the Republican National Committee.

But the visit to Iowa offers Vance an opportunity to test his reception before Iowa’s voters, whose leadoff caucuses give them an outsized role in determining the next presidential nominee. Campaigning for a local congressman in his role as the sitting vice president gives him an opening chance to make an impression on Iowa Republicans, seasoned evaluators of those who seek the nation’s highest office before the campaign begins in earnest.

Vance’s appearance comes days after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is also considered a possible 2028 candidate, spoke to a group of evangelical Christians who are influential in Iowa’s GOP contest.

Des Moines-based Jimmy Centers, a Republican political consultant, said the 2028 contest is “light-years away” but said the Republicans who hear Vance speak on Tuesday will be evaluating how he might measure up in an election for the White House.

“I certainly think, as of right now, Vice President Vance would probably be a straw-poll winner of Iowa Republicans for 2028. But I don’t think anyone is saying, ‘We won’t consider anybody else,’” Centers said.

Vance's visit comes as higher prices for gas and fertilizer hit Iowans

Vance, who has not said whether he will run for the presidency in 2028, is scheduled to appear with Nunn at a manufacturing facility in Des Moines. His office did not comment on the trip's impact on Vance's political future.

The vice president’s visit follows a trip President Donald Trump made in January to tout the administration’s tax cuts, part of a string of stops they’re making this year on economic issues before midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

But Vance’s visit comes when his own political prospects — and the message he’s expected to deliver on the economy — have been complicated by the war in Iran.

The vice president, who has long been skeptical of foreign military interventions, has seemed a reluctant defender of the 9-week-old war, for which Trump has struggled to find an off-ramp. Iowans, like much of the rest of the country, are grappling with higher gas prices because of the conflict. But the state’s farmers are also feeling the pinch of high fertilizer costs from the war and have been hurt by tariffs Trump has imposed.

While Iowa’s farmers have steadfastly supported the president, they have been looking to the White House for assurances that the current troubles won’t last.

Vance’s visit to Iowa was originally scheduled for last week, but the timing shifted because the House moved to pass a sweeping farm bill that Nunn was due to vote on.

The vice president also had been slated to appear last week at an Iowa State University event with Turning Point USA, but the organization said it was not able to reschedule the event with the university until the fall.

It's ‘awfully, awfully early’ in the road to 2028

Kim Schmett, a longtime Iowa GOP activist, said the presidential cycle starts “deceptively slow.”

Republican figures testing the waters often drop by the Westside Conservative Club, which Schmett hosts, but he said it's still too far out from the caucuses, which are typically held in January of the presidential election year.

He said Trump’s Make America Great Again political movement “is very alive and going here” in Iowa, which would benefit Vance — as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also thought to be a potential candidate.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of MAGA support,” he said. “And Vice President Vance and Marco Rubio seem to be the recipients of where that is going at the moment.”

But Schmett cautioned, “it’s awfully, awfully early in the process.”

On the Democratic side, at least half a dozen presidential prospects have been making visits to the states with the earliest presidential primary contests, including recent visits to Iowa by former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Michigan U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin.

Meanwhile, potential Republican presidential candidates “are treading very lightly,” said GOP strategist Alex Conant, who worked on Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign.

“I think Republicans are going to be very reluctant to get in Trump’s way until Trump gives the green light for the campaign to start,” Conant said.

That means much of the groundwork to meet with donors or activists or recruit political staffers might happen slowly and subtly – for now.

After the midterms? Conant said: “It’ll be irresistible.”

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Price reported from Washington.

Industrial-leaning synth-pop strains might seem incongruous with such a vista, but it was the alternative rock band's homage to Route 66 that seduced David J. Schwartz. With camera in hand he has made 42 trips over two decades along the celebrated highway, qualifying himself for the job of creating postage stamps commemorating the Mother Road's centennial.

The U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday is releasing eight stamps marking significant parts of the road in each of the states it traverses, passing by vintage diners, gas stations and motels — many since preserved or restored — along with breathtaking vistas and wide horizons of the open road.

Route 66 is paved with history, from its early days as an escape from the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, through serving as a vital supply route during World War II, to its mid-century role as an antidote for wanderlust. A symbol of freedom and mobility, it has evolved into a time capsule of Americana, steeped in nostalgia and neon.

‘Road trips, big cars, neon signs’

As teenagers in 1988, Schwartz and his best friend had planned a road trip after girlfriends introduced them to Depeche Mode, where they discovered a cover of Bobby Troup's 1946 pop standard, “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66.” Schwartz's mother nixed his participation, delaying his first taste of the open road until 2004.

To Schwartz, the road — stretching 2,448 miles (3,940 kilometers) — represents a significant piece of a newly mobile 20th century America, from its debut in 1926 to its decommissioning in 1985: “Road trips, big cars, neon signs.” Though retired from the federal highway system, vast stretches of the route are still in use and a favorite of road warriors and tourists to this day.

“So much to explore. You start here in Illinois on 66 and you’re cruising through prairie land,” Schwartz said during a recent interview in Springfield. “By the time you get out west, you're in the desert or you’re in mountains through hairpin turns. It’s just an incredible journey and you just get such a beautiful slice of America going through it.”

Tired of retail management, Schwartz went back to school to study photography and had the idea of Route 66 stamps as early as a decade ago. He was tapped for the project in 2023. He recalls thinking, “Here is my moment to bring Route 66 to the masses.”

Greg Breeding, a USPS art director for stamp design, was working on a graphic showing a map of the road when he discovered Schwartz’s photos. They were beautifully photographed, not commercial and slick.

“They’re as if you were there,” he said, “which makes them especially useful for stamps.”

The USPS plate contains 16 stamps, two of each one representing Route 66 host states. A ninth photo serves as selvage, or the image surrounding the block. It's the scene of that empty Arizona highway, shot in 2023 near Seligman, Arizona, when Schwartz and his high school friend finally took that trip 35 years in the making.

‘Feel the land as you’re traveling'

But a road is a road, isn't it? Why can't a traveler get the same view standing on one of the interstate highways that ultimately bypassed Route 66?

“You'd probably get run over,” Schwartz said dryly.

“Interstates are designed to move traffic quickly. They cut through the sides of mountains, they do not follow the contour of the land ...,” he added. “On Route 66, you’re actually part of the landscape as you move through it. You feel the land as you’re traveling.”

Breeding and Schwartz steered clear of the fabled highway’s most popular spots, not only because those are tougher to get permission to use, but also because they wanted to give people a “fresh look,” Breeding said. The stamps are devoid of people, he said, in part to create a sense of allure rather tourist trap vibes.

To that end, the blocks capture both the continuing commerce and the roadside relics that hint at their former vibrancy. Take for example the Conoco Tower Station and U-Drop Inn in Shamrock, Texas, a neon-adorned Art Deco beauty whose luminous lights come alive at dusk.

In Yucca, Arizona, Schwartz photographed the dilapidated “Motel” sign in the relentless noonday sun, revealing desert desolation but also “the enduring pulse of the open road.”

Among his favorites is the Illinois entry, a friend's 1929 Model A Ford rumbling down the only remaining section of Route 66 composed of hand-laid brick in Auburn, just south of Springfield. The goal? Create an image that would make viewers feel as if they were there for the birth of Route 66.

“We wanted to show it to be colorful. We wanted to show the quirkiness. We wanted to show the age,” Breeding said. “It’s like a sort of show, the idea that Route 66 is a living history of the United States, from the past to the present.”

Schwartz said he's amazed that the stamps boasting his work will “travel all over the United States and end up in people's mailboxes.”

He added: “I hope they really inspire people to get out there and travel the road and support the Mom and Pop businesses and keep Route 66 alive for another 100 years.”

Democrat Chedrick Greene and Republican Jason Tunney are vying for the 35th state Senate district seat left vacant in January 2025. Also running is Libertarian candidate Ali Sledz. The district is located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Detroit and includes Saginaw, Bay City and Midland.

Whitmer, a Democrat, is term-limited, setting up a competitive race in November to succeed her. With Democrats currently controlling the state Senate 19-18, Tuesday's outcome will be key for the state's legislative agenda in the months before she leaves office in January.

Beyond the immediate stakes, political insiders are watching the race for clues about November’s midterms in this battleground state. The district includes part of Saginaw County, the only Michigan county to back the winning presidential candidate in each of the past five national elections.

“It’s really this microcosm of the Midwest, frankly,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet of the seat she left upon entering Congress. “Given how much it resembles so many other places across the country, we have to look at it and say, this is an indicator of how things are going to go in November.”

Greene is a fire captain and Marine veteran who campaigned on lowering costs while emphasizing his union backing. Tunney, a former prosecutor, has run as a conservative Republican, highlighting his local roots in Saginaw.

Republicans also have made the timing of the special election a central issue, arguing Whitmer, a Democrat, waited too long to call it — leaving the district without representation in the state Senate for nearly 500 days.

A victory by Greene would keep Democrats in the majority. If Tunney wins, the Senate would be tied, making it tougher for Democrats to advance their agenda. While Democratic Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II would serve as the tiebreaking vote, Republicans could effectively block any measure from passing by not having all members vote. The Michigan House is controlled by Republicans.

The term at play in Tuesday’s special election is only through the end of the year, meaning the seat will again be up for reelection in November. Nonetheless, the race is being watched as a test of voter sentiment ahead of the midterm elections, when Democrats are looking to regain power in Congress.

Some strategists caution against overinterpreting the results, noting heavy Democratic spending and high-profile visits by such figures as former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee said in February that the special election would “set the tone for midterms" while announcing a $250,000 investment to help Michigan Democrats retain their Senate majority in May and November.

“This is a tough race to win in any environment, but they’ve stacked the deck with the spending. And you layer the overall political environment on top of it, it’s going to be tough,” said Jason Roe, a Republican strategist in the state.

Although Republican Donald Trump carried all three counties in the 2024 presidential race, the portions of the counties that fall within District 35 are more competitive. McDonald Rivet won the seat in 2022 with 53% of the vote. Democrat Kamala Harris barely edged Trump in the district in 2024, 49.7% to 48.9%, on the strength of her 17-percentage-point lead in the Saginaw portion of the district.

Once a hub of the auto industry, the region includes a large share of union-affiliated voters and a sizable Black population, surrounded by more conservative rural areas.

Cory Smidt, interim director at Michigan State University’s Institute of Public Policy and Social Research, said the district “looks like the state as a whole.” Though he cautioned against viewing the outcome as a clear signal for the midterms, he said turnout and voting patterns among different groups could offer valuable insights.

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Associated Press reporter Robert Yoon contributed from Washington.

Friday’s ruling from a federal appeals court restricted mail access to mifepristone prescriptions, one of the most common abortion methods around the country, in the biggest shift to federal abortion policy since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision allowing states to enforce abortion bans.

The Supreme Court then temporarily restored broad access to the drug on Monday while it further considers the case, setting the stage for a potential decision that could have wide-ranging consequences for patients and providers.

It’s too early to say whether the latest rulings will affect the outcome of races this year, when issues around affordability are expected to take top billing for voters. But advocates on both sides of the issue are hoping it will sway voters their way.

Some abortion rights groups already are strategizing ways to reach voters they think may be more motivated to turn out for Democrats because of the possibility of further restrictions. Meanwhile, abortion opponents who say the GOP-led federal government hasn’t done enough to ban the pills are warning their typically loyal Republican voters could sit out future elections, with a leading anti-abortion advocate calling it “a five-alarm crisis” for the GOP.

Democrats say the abortion issue presents an opportunity

After the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, several states voted to enshrine abortion rights into their own constitutions, driving historic turnout that sometimes contributed to Democratic wins elsewhere on the ballot.

But Democratic pollster Celinda Lake believes the issue had lost some of its potency among voters, not because Democrats don’t care, but because they have a sense that the “damage has been done.”

Though Friday’s ruling has been temporarily halted, it reminded voters that their access to abortion medication through telehealth isn’t guaranteed, even in states where abortion rights are, Lake said. That created a tremendous but “horrific” opportunity to tell voters what could be at stake in this year’s midterms, she said.

Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of the abortion rights group Reproductive Freedom for All, said outreach to voters about the volatility of abortion access will be part of her group’s strategy in the midterms. That includes contacting voters who supported Trump but also abortion rights in their state elections in 2024.

“The only way for us to really stop this back and forth is to have abortion access be legal in all 50 states,” she said. “The only way we do that is through federal legislation, which makes the midterm elections even more urgent.”

Republicans face fracturing over abortion politics

The Republican coalition, meanwhile, is contending with an increasingly agitated right flank of abortion opponents who expected Trump to fulfill his promise to be the “most pro-life president in history” but say they haven’t seen it yet.

Most urgently at issue is a Food and Drug Administration safety review of mifepristone that anti-abortion groups hope will result in further restrictions, including blocking its prescribing via telehealth platforms. Anti-abortion groups have urged FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary to complete the review sooner, while the administration says it “is taking care to do this study properly and in the right way.”

On Monday, the anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America further ratcheted up its messaging, calling for Makary's firing over the issue.

“This is a five-alarm crisis for the pro-life movement and for the GOP,” the group's president Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement. “The GOP cannot win without its base and simply will not get the enthusiasm that drives turnout without leadership from the top.”

Trump, whose first-term nominations set the stage for the Supreme Court that voted to overturn Roe, has taken some steps that abortion opponents have cheered, including an effort to withhold funds from Planned Parenthood and launching investigations into states that require state-regulated health insurance plans to cover abortion.

But he has also often sought to steer clear of the abortion issue, saying he thinks it should be left to the states. The president publicly supported abortion rights until he entered politics in 2015, and his wife, Melania Trump, announced her broad support for abortion rights in 2024.

Abortion opponents say they have no plans to let Trump avoid the issue for the remainder of his term. Marc Wheat, general counsel at former Vice President Mike Pence’s political advocacy group Advancing American Freedom, said his group will increase pressure on the administration. That will include urging the FDA to speedily release documents about mifepristone that it owes the group through a lawsuit.

“President Trump thinks that pro-life is a loser,” Wheat said. “He might see that the pro-lifers may not turn out in the numbers that he needs.”

Americans largely oppose a nationwide ban on mifepristone

Even as Trump and the Republican-led Congress face mounting pressure from the right to restrict access to medication abortion, Republicans around the country are far from united in taking that position.

About two-thirds of Americans opposed nationwide bans on mifepristone, according to a KFF poll conducted late last year. Most Democrats and independents objected to such bans, while Republicans were more split.

Americans’ overall opinions on abortion remain complex, with about two-thirds of U.S. adults saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to AP-NORC polling. Relatively few think abortion should be illegal in all cases.

At least one abortion opponent, Americans United for Life CEO John Mize, said he is focused on incremental victories over the sweeping changes that some of his allies are calling for. While he wishes the FDA would move faster on its safety review, he recognizes that not all Americans are in the same place that he is.

“I think there is advancement being made in a positive direction,” he said. “While it might not meet the pace that many in the pro-life movement want to see, I think it meets the acceptable place of where we're at culturally."

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Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

Contests on the ballots also will set the stage for Ohio's third competitive U.S. Senate race in the last four years, as well as a handful of U.S. House races that are expected to be closely fought in the fall.

Every statewide executive office is open this year due to term limits, but the governor's race has captured the bulk of the attention so far.

Ramaswamy, a 2024 GOP primary presidential candidate, swept onto the state's political scene early last year as a mad shuffle was taking place. Then-Sen. JD Vance was ascending to the vice presidency and front-running gubernatorial candidate Jon Husted was being appointed to replace him in Washington.

That opened a window of opportunity at the top of Republicans' statewide ticket.

Primary sets up marquee fall matchups for governor, Senate

Though he is a newcomer in state politics, Ramaswamy's national profile, tech industry connections and proximity to Trump landed him the Ohio Republican Party's endorsement. With it, he cleared a prospective field that included the sitting state attorney general, state treasurer and lieutenant governor.

But Democrats also saw opportunity with the open governors seat, even as the state, a former bellwether, has tipped convincingly toward Republicans during the Trump era. The president’s lagging approval ratings on the economy and dissatisfaction over the war in Iran are contributing to a competitive contest.

Acton, a physician and public health expert, emerged as their choice. She became a household name across Ohio in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as she stood alongside Republican Gov. Mike DeWine during daily coronavirus broadcasts. Her comforting presence during the crisis made her a beloved figure with many Ohioans.

But the administration's aggressive actions — including shuttering businesses, closing schools and canceling an election — also earned Acton plenty of enemies and made her the occasional target of people upset about pandemic policies, with some armed protesters showing up outside her home.

Ramaswamy's campaign has sought to capitalize on the lingering anger over pandemic restrictions with attacks on Acton's role early in the crisis. Ramaswamy was advising the lieutenant governor at the time — Husted — on virus-related economic issues and he founded a company that profited off its role developing vaccines.

Acton is unopposed in the Democratic primary, while Ramaswamy faces a long-shot challenge from Casey Putsch. The engineer and car designer is a YouTube provocateur who has trolled Ramaswamy incessantly over his Indian heritage and Hindu faith and painted him as an out-of-touch billionaire “tech bro.”

Husted is unopposed in the GOP primary for Senate, a special election to fill the remainder of the six-year Senate term Vance won in 2022. Husted's likely opponent will be Democrat Sherrod Brown, a former three-term senator who lost a reelection bid against Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024, a contest where spending hit $500 million. Brown faces a minor primary challenge from first-time candidate Ron Kincaid.

Early voting began April 7 under some new election laws, including citizenship checks and elimination of the four-day grace period for receiving mailed ballots. There have been no reports so far of any widespread problems for voters related to the changes.

Republicans see some Democratic-held House seats as vulnerable

In the wake of a new round of redistricting that slightly favored Republicans, the state also has numerous partisan congressional primaries.

The most heated GOP primary is in the Toledo area’s 9th District for the chance to take on Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in Congress.

The five-way contest includes former state Rep. Derek Merrin, whom Kaptur defeated by less than a percentage point in 2024, as well as an Air National Guard veteran, a healthcare industry worker, a sitting state representative and the former deputy director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Madison Sheahan.

In Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman's Cincinnati-area district, which his party considers a “must-hold,” the three-way Republican primary includes Eric Conroy, a CIA and Air Force veteran who has been endorsed by Trump, Vance and Moreno.

Landsman also faces a primary challenge from Damon Lynch IV, the grandson of a prominent civil rights leader. Lynch has criticized Landsman for his initial vote against a war powers resolution on the war in Iran, which Landsman later followed up with a favorable vote.

In the Akron area's 13th District, five Republicans including business owner Neil Patel, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate, are vying for the opportunity to face Democratic U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes.

Democrats think new House maps give them a shot to regain seats

As a Trump-backed national effort to remake congressional maps in Republicans' favor was underway, Ohio Democrats took a could-have-been-worse approach and passed the map they were given unanimously.

Now party candidates are crowding congressional primaries across the state for the chance to take on sitting Republican representatives, who hold 10 of Ohio's 15 seats.

The newly redrawn 7th District in the Cleveland area has attracted eight Democrats hoping to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Max Miller, a former senior Trump adviser, in November. Among them is former Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, the Democratic nominee for governor in 2014.

In northeast Ohio's 14th District, former state Supreme Court Justice William O'Neill is among three Democrats seeking to take on Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce. Joyce also has two primary challengers.

Meanwhile six Democrats are on the ballot in the Dayton-area 10th District of Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Turner. There are seven in GOP U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli's 6th District along the Ohio River and five in the 5th District of Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Latta.

International Youth Service, the agency that matched us up 40 years ago, has long since folded, but other pen pal programs have survived — or even began during — the internet age. And even though New Zealand's postal system has reduced home delivery days, Denmark has stopped delivering letters altogether and Canada is moving in that direction, some see signs of a letter-writing resurgence.

“The hunger is there,” said Rachel Syme, a writer for The New Yorker magazine who created a pen pal program during the COVID-19 pandemic and later published a book encouraging others to take up handwritten correspondence.

More than 15,000 people signed up for Syme’s Penpalooza project in 2020, and she still gets hundreds of takers when she coordinates a new round of matchmaking every few months. She also gets requests for pen pals at book signings for “Syme’s Letter Writer – A Guide to Modern Correspondence,” and the stationery stores she frequents in New York City are always crowded with customers.

“People are very interested in physical, analog things right now,” she said. “I think it really has an appeal especially to a younger generation who grew up with a phone glued to their hand, to do something that’s more tactile, slower, more intentional, more mindful, but also just disconnected from the internet in every way.”

“Yours (hopefully)”

I was still 10 years away from connecting to the internet when I opened my first aerogramme from New Zealand, a sheet of pale blue paper that served as both writing surface and envelope adorned with a 45-cent stamp. That missive ended with a formal “Yours (hopefully) Molly Nunns,” but within a year, she was signing off with “Lots and lots of love” or “Your friend forever.”

In letter after letter, Molly drew little hearts on the tails of y’s in both of our first names, asked for updates on my middle school crushes and shared stories about her classmates and family. I could clearly picture her life, though it was hard in snowy New Hampshire to imagine celebrating Christmas during the summer.

“I am thinking of you heaps and I wonder what you are doing because you’re a SUPER pen friend and I hope that we never stop writing to each other and that one day we will get to meet each other,” she wrote in early 1986.

Julie Delbridge, 65, fostered similar friendships after joining International Pen Friends as a teenager in 1979. Writing to pen pals in more than a dozen countries from her home in Australia was such a positive experience that she began working for the organization as an adult and took over as its president in 2001. While she loved sharing photos, postcards and treats with her pen friends, it also was a therapeutic experience at a time when her parents were going through a bitter divorce.

“It was a pastime that I totally immersed myself into in a positive way and gained a lot of enjoyment from,” she said. “There was an abundance of non-judgmental friendship, fun and different perspectives.”

Over its 59-year history, IPF has provided pen pals to more than 2 million people ages 8 to 80+, she said. Membership peaked in the late 1990s but surged again during the pandemic, and this year, there’s been an increase in people ages 21-26 joining.

Pen pals in the classroom

In 2021, the U.S. Postal Service sent cards and envelopes to 25,000 elementary school classrooms for a pen pal project, but older students also are putting pen to paper.

In Texas, a group of medical students created an anonymous pen pal program to promote peer support and personal reflection. At Villanova University, professor Kamran Javadizadeh requires students to send letters to each other as part of a literature class called “Letters, Texts, Twitter” that examines different forms of epistolary communication in literature.

“I make them put pieces of paper in envelopes and take them to the post office and send them to each other even though they could just as easily hand it to the person in class,” he said. “Something is lost when you have instantaneous communication. So I’m interested in the relationship between synchronous kinds of intimacy and asynchronous forms of intimacy.”

Gordon Alley-Young, dean of communications at New York’s Kingsborough Community College, believes letters are like vinyl records — they’re coming back into fashion as young people explore a tangible medium from the past. He has both studied the history of letter writing and used it to teach students empathy.

In an interpersonal communication class, he noticed that students analyzing case studies about relationship problems offered matter-of-fact, almost insensitive diagnoses. But when he re-wrote the case studies in the form of letters from friends and had students respond in kind, they began sharing their own feelings and offering more open-ended advice.

“We really want students to connect to what they’re looking at,” he said. “And letter writing encourages that.”

Pen pals in the digital age

An app called Slowly seeks to combine modern technology with the old-fashioned anticipation inherent to the pen pal relationship. Users send messages digitally, but delivery is delayed from an hour to several days to mimic snail mail.

“This delay naturally encourages longer, more thoughtful messages because you wouldn’t just say ‘hi’ if you know you have to wait days for a reply,” said cofounder JoJo Chan.

Since 2017, the app has gained 10 million users in more than 160 countries, most in their 20s and 30s. One user said he was curious about pen pals after hearing about them from his grandparents, Chan said.

“Slowly offers a convenient way and a modern way for them to try that experience,” she said.

Syme, however, is all about the tangible aspects of letter writing. Her book includes advice on paper and pens plus all kinds of goodies that can be tucked into envelopes.

“There is joy to be had once you fully embrace the medium’s outdated extravagance,” she writes.

But letter writing, she said in an interview, is like a swimming pool, both shiny and deep. The frippery and embellishments don’t matter in comparison to what you actually put on the page.

“That’s where I think it can get very real, very quickly,” she said.

A special connection

Molly and I had been writing for 15 years by the time we met in person, spending a day together in New York when she toured the U.S. in May 2000. We crossed paths in London a few years later, and in 2018, she and her family visited New Hampshire.

“Who would have thought when we started writing in 1985 that one day you’d be sitting here? It’s quite amazing,” she said during my recent visit. “We’ll always have a special connection, I’m sure.”

In addition to the sunglasses, I also gave Molly a bound book of 200 pages of her letters that I scanned and printed. At age 13, I never could have imagined that someday I’d have searchable PDFs of our teenage scribblings that could be summarized in 10 seconds by artificial intelligence. But what amazes me more is the depth of the connection I felt during our tearful airport goodbye.

We will for sure meet again. Until then, lots and lots of love, Holly.

The latest state to jump on the redistricting bandwagon is Tennessee, where a special legislative session is to begin Tuesday, a day after a similar session kicked off in Alabama. In Louisiana, lawmakers also are making plans for new U.S. House districts after the Supreme Court last week struck down the state's current map.

The high court’s ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling significantly altered a decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans in various states grounds to try to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats.

It could lessen congressional representation for Black Americans and other minorities, reversing decades of gains in minority voting rights.

President Donald Trump has been encouraging more states to join in redistricting as Republicans seek to hold on to their narrow House majority in this year’s elections.

Tennessee plan targets Memphis district

Republican Gov. Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special session to consider a plan urged by Trump that could break up the state’s lone Democratic-held U.S. House district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis.

On the first day of the session, a Republican-led rules committee brushed aside a Democratic attempt to slow down the process. A group of protesters in the room stood up and began singing the “Star Spangled Banner” while some shouted obscenities at committee members.

Martin Luther King III sent a letter to Tennessee legislative leaders expressing “grave concern” about the plan to divide Memphis’ congressional representation.

“This decision undermines the work that my father, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., carried out to help secure passage of the Voting Rights Act,” he wrote, noting that his father was assassinated in Memphis. He added: “Do not dismantle the only Congressional district that provides Black voters in Memphis a fair opportunity to have a voice in our democracy. Do not take this nation back to the days of Jim Crow.”

The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6.

Alabama looks at setting a new primary

Alabama legislative committees swiftly advanced legislation Tuesday that would allow a special congressional primary, if the Supreme Court clears the way for the state to change its U.S. House districts.

In light of the court's ruling on Louisiana's districts, Alabama officials have asked the high court to set aside a judicial order to use a U.S. House map that includes two districts with a substantial number of Black voters and instead let the state revert to a map passed in 2023 by Republican lawmakers. That map could help the GOP win at least one of those two seats currently held by Democrats.

Alabama's primaries are scheduled for May 19. If the Supreme Court grants the state's request after or too close to the primary, the legislation under consideration would ignore the results of that primary and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under the revised districts.

“This is an opportunity for the voters to vote in the districts drawn by legislators in 2023,” said Republican state Rep. Chris Pringle, the bill's sponsor.

During a House committee hearing, several Black residents urged lawmakers not to change the current congressional districts.

“Representation matters — not just politically but in access, in power and in who gets to be heard,” said Eliza Jane Franklin, of rural Barbour County.

Democrats denounced legislation as a Republican power grab that harkens back to the state’s shameful history of denying Black residents equal rights and representation.

Republicans are “working to secure an electoral victory by taking Alabama back to the Jim Crow era, and we won’t go back,” Democratic U.S. Rep Terri Sewell told a crowd gathered outside the Alabama Statehouse.

Advocates urge Louisiana voters to cast ballots

After last week’s Supreme Court decision, Louisiana moved to delay its May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts.

Louisiana state Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, a Republican who chairs a Senate committee tasked with redistricting, told The Associated Press that his committee plans to hold a public hearing Friday. Kleinpeter said lawmakers are still weighing their options, including bills that would eliminate one or both of the state’s two majority-Black Congressional districts.

Democrats and civil rights groups have filed several lawsuits challenging the suspension of Louisiana's congressional primary. They are encouraging people in Louisiana — where early voting already is underway — to go ahead and cast votes in the congressional primaries in case courts later allow them to be counted.

A national redistricting battle expands

Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn only once a decade, after a census, to account for population changes. But Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw U.S. House districts to give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded by doing the same, and then other states joined in.

Florida became the eighth state to enact new House districts when Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Monday he had signed a redrawn map passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature. It could help Republicans win as many as four additional House seats. The new map was immediately challenged in court as a partisan gerrymander that violates a Florida constitutional provision against drawing districts that favor one political party over another.

All told, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats from new congressional districts in five states, while Democrats think they could pick up as many as 10 seats from new districts adopted in three states. The newly proposed redistricting in Southern states could add to the Republicans’ tally.

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Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama, and Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press writers Jack Brook in New Orleans and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

La mayoría de los periodistas indicaron que pudieron entrar a la Casa Rosada por primera vez desde el 23 de abril. Pero las autoridades negaron el ingreso a dos canales de televisión acreditados sin dar explicaciones, e introdujeron nuevas restricciones al movimiento físico de los reporteros dentro de la residencia de gobierno, al cerrar pasillos e instalar vidrios esmerilados en las ventanas.

El cierre el mes pasado de la sala de prensa, utilizada durante décadas por reporteros acreditados para cubrir las actividades del presidente, se sumó a una lista de ataques y represalias contra organizaciones de noticias por parte de Milei, cuya hostilidad hacia la prensa refleja el enfoque agresivo de su aliado y poderoso partidario, el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump.

Los periodistas y sus defensores reprocharon la medida por considerarla un ataque a la libertad de prensa en Argentina. Las condenas llegaron desde cámaras empresariales, la Iglesia católica y políticos de diversas tendencias.

El gobierno de Milei se defiende

El jefe de Gabinete de Milei, Manuel Adorni, respondió a los críticos en una inusual conferencia de prensa el lunes.

En declaraciones a los reporteros, dijo que el gobierno está totalmente a favor de la libertad de expresión, pero no va a permitir que se cometan actos que pongan en riesgo la seguridad nacional a espaldas del mismo.

Las autoridades justificaron las restricciones para los aproximadamente 60 integrantes del cuerpo de prensa de la Casa Rosada como una medida de seguridad necesaria, luego de acusar de espionaje a un canal local de televisión por usar gafas inteligentes para videograbar partes de la sede sin autorización.

El canal, Todo Noticias, sostiene que recibió permiso oficial para captar las imágenes, y que las tomas de pasillos y espacios de reunión emitidas en el segmento televisivo han estado accesibles al público desde hace tiempo.

Al ser consultado sobre por qué a colegas de Todo Noticias y de Canal 13, otra cadena líder, se les seguía impidiendo ingresar a la Casa Rosada el lunes, Adorni respondió que no estaba al tanto del tema y que no debería haber ninguna limitación.

Sobre las nuevas restricciones —que incluyeron controles de seguridad exhaustivos en la entrada, barreras levantadas apresuradamente que bloqueaban escaleras y pasillos, vidrios esmerilados que impedían ver el balcón, y la exigencia de que los periodistas entreguen sus credenciales de prensa a las autoridades al salir del edificio—, Adorni señaló que el gobierno simplemente está haciendo cumplir las normas.

Los periodistas en Argentina enfrentan hostilidad del gobierno

Durante los últimos dos años, la posición de Argentina se ha desplomado en un índice de libertad de prensa elaborado por Reporteros Sin Fronteras, informó la organización no gubernamental la semana pasada. Cayó del puesto 66 al 98, entre los mayores descensos de cualquier país de Sudamérica.

En un informe publicado la semana pasada, el grupo indicó que había registrado un “aumento de la hostilidad del gobierno hacia la prensa y de la presión sobre ella” por parte de los más fervientes partidarios latinoamericanos de Trump: Milei y el presidente de El Salvador, Nayib Bukele.

“Los insultos, la difamación y las amenazas desde el gobierno de Javier Milei hacia periodistas y medios críticos de su gobierno se han vuelto habituales desde que asumió el cargo”, añadió.

En conflicto con la prensa en un grado no visto desde el restablecimiento de la democracia argentina en 1983, Milei ha intensificado sus ataques contra los medios en las últimas semanas, mientras flaquean sus emblemáticas campañas contra la corrupción y la inflación.

El lunes por la noche recurrió a las redes sociales para fustigar a quienes acusan al gobierno de censura y de violaciones a la libertad de expresión.

En “un mercado verdaderamente libre”, manifestó el mandatario, “sería la propia sociedad la que se encargaría de limpiar el sistema mandando a la quiebra a aquellos medios que publican falsedades, operaciones e injurias de manera constante”.

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

The Knicks became the first team in NBA history to win three straight postseason games by at least 25 points, continuing a wave that began midway through the first round against Atlanta by shooting 63% from the field and leading by 40 points.

“We’re playing well, but it doesn’t mean anything if we can’t find a way to get three more wins,” Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns said. “So, we've just got to stick to the task at hand.”

OG Anunoby added 18 points on 7-for-8 shooting, while Towns and Mikal Bridges both had 17, with Towns adding six rebounds and six assists in just 20 minutes.

After trailing 2-1 against Atlanta, the Knicks have won four straight games by a total of 135 points. They are the first team since detailed play-by-play began in 1996-97 to lead three straight playoff games by at least 30 points, according to Sportradar.

Brunson said the Knicks' focus and attention to detail have been better since they fell behind.

“Yes, it’s turned into obviously big wins, but those attention to detail things are going to help us in the close ones as well,” Brunson said.

Game 2 is Wednesday night before the series shifts to Philadelphia — with Joel Embiid already pleading with 76ers fans not to sell their tickets to Knicks fans when it does.

But the 76ers didn't exactly give their fans much reason to want to keep them Monday.

Paul George scored 17 points for Philadelphia. Embiid shot just 3 for 11 for his 14 points and Tyrese Maxey had just 13, not making his first basket until five minutes into the second quarter.

The 76ers had just one full day off after winning in Boston on Saturday night to complete the NBA's 14th comeback from a 3-1 deficit. But they looked more like the team that lost twice by 32 points in the first four games to fall into that deficit.

The Knicks had a much easier first round — and finished it with one of the easiest games in NBA playoff history. They crushed Atlanta 140-89 on Thursday in Game 6, setting a postseason record by building a 47-point halftime lead.

There were long stretches Monday that looked similar.

“They were obviously picking us apart, moving a lot better than we were,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said.

The Knicks scored eight straight points midway through the second quarter to extend a 10-point lead to 57-39, and Brunson scored their final 11 points, capped by a 3-pointer with 0.3 seconds remaining, to make it 74-51 at halftime.

Towns' 3-pointer made it 90-60 about five minutes into the second half and it was mostly reserves from there. Brunson played only 31 minutes, perhaps the only reason he didn't reach 40 points for a fourth straight playoff game against the 76ers.

He averaged 35.5 points in a first-round series against the 76ers in 2024 and closed it with three straight 40-point games, including a franchise playoff-record 47 in Game 4.

The 76ers still haven't figured out a way to stop him.

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

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They were also among the dozens who put on their Spirit Airlines uniforms to march outside of the company headquarters on Monday in Dania Beach.

“It wasn’t until midnight on Friday night that we learned,” De León said. “When we see the board with no flights for the next day — that we were done for that day.”

Related link: Association of Flight Attendants offers help

There had been hope of a government bailout. On April 23, at the White House, a reporter asked President Donald Trump if his administration had plans to buy “a stake” in Spirit Airlines. Trump said it was under consideration.

“We have 18,000 people that live in this country that are great people and great employees,” Trump said. “We are thinking about doing it ... I’d love to be able to save those jobs. I’d love to be able to save an airline.”

Related document: Airlines For America plan

The $500 million government bailout proposal failed. Dave Davis, the Spirit Airlines chief executive officer, told The Wall Street Journal that the Iran war’s surging energy prices caused the plan to fail.

“We didn’t intentionally sell any tickets thinking we weren’t going to be here,” Davis told The WSJ. “We thought we were going to get the liquidity we needed.”

Spirit Airlines flights were grounded by 3 a.m. on Saturday.

American Airlines and JetBlue Airways were working to help Spirit Airlines pilots and flight attendants who may have been stranded during the shutdown.

De León said she and other employees weren’t expecting any of it.

“We started asking via e-mail, via text, phone calls, and they kept on saying, ‘There’s nothing wrong. Pay no mind. It’s just rumors. We’re fine. We’re going to be fine.’ And so, you know, you trust what management tells you,” De León said.

Related link: Spirit Airlines launches restructuring page

Soon after, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy held a news conference at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

“There’s a demand for aviation workers. So, even American and United have drafted or crafted microsites for Spirit employees to potentially jump the line, jump the queue, and get preferential treatment in the application process for the many airlines that are now hiring, whether it’s pilots, flight attendants, baggage workers or even those who have worked in the call centers. You can go to the individual websites to see what’s offered by each of the individual airlines,” Duffy said.

Trump and Duffy criticized former President Joe Biden’s administration for blocking the $3.8 billion sale of Spirit Airlines to JetBlue in 2024.

Related story: Spirit Airlines asks guests not to go to the airport, or expect rebookings

As the industry faces the fuel crunch from the war in Iran, Roman said anguish prevailed.

“There’s a lot of people that are going to struggle, and there’s no way around that,” Roman said. “There’s just not enough jobs in this industry for the type of work that we do.”

Spirit Airlines employees’ health insurance was cut off on Saturday.

“This is not like any other industry. You do not take your work experience with you. You start right back at the bottom, so if you’ve been here 30 years, it means nothing,” Roman said. “Myself: 10 and a half years, it means nothing. You start right back at the bottom with the lowest pay, lowest seniority.”

Dahlia Fountain spent the last decade flying the skies with Spirit.

“It never felt like work, not once, even when we had delays upon delays, it just felt exciting,” said Fountain.

She says she and other flight attendants learned Spirit was shutting down just like everyone else.

“Then we saw on the news, that before 3 a.m. Spirit will shut down, and we’re like, really?” she said.

Resources

• American Airlines launches “Supporting Spirit” career page
• United Airlines launches program to prioritize former Spirit Airlines employees when hiring. Here is the career page >
• Southwest Airlines was recruiting on this page.
• JetBlue announced an extension of the “jumpseat agreement for the next two weeks, subject to space availability and limited to cabin seating” for those who were stranded while working for Spirit Airlines, and also announced “preferential employment interviews.”
• For more information about help from the Association of Flight Attendants, call 1-800-385-3920
• To file an unemployment benefits claim in Florida, call 1-800-204-2418 or visit this page.
• Find your local food bank, on this Feeding America page

Related social media

pic.twitter.com/Wz3ilRHD2z

— Spirit Airlines (@SpiritAirlines) May 2, 2026

GoFundMe Pages

Standing with Us in Tough Times organized by William Roman

Apoyo a Empleados de Spirit organized by Milagros De Leon

Hall took a short feed from Sean Walker and carried the puck in on the left side before being knocked to his knees near the top of the crease. But Hall hopped up as Jackson Blake battled for the loose puck, corralled it and beat Vladar to cap a night that saw the Hurricanes fall behind 2-0 quickly for their first deficit of the postseason.

Afterward, Hall said he didn't even realize he had fallen down until he watched a replay afterward.

“When you score in overtime, it seems like parts of your memory kind of go,” Hall said, adding later: “I was in another time zone there for a second.”

The series shifts to Philadelphia for Thursday’s Game 3.

Seth Jarvis had the third-period goal that forced overtime for Carolina, while Nikolaj Ehlers also scored. Frederik Andersen finished with 34 saves to help the Hurricanes improve to 6-0 in the postseason.

Still, this one was anything but easy compared to the smothering first-period that paved the way to a 3-0 win in Monday's Game 1. Flyers coach Rick Tocchet had talked about the need for his players to react quicker against Carolina's aggression and speed, and carry the puck more into the tough areas of the ice.

The Flyers did that early, with Jamie Drysdale and Sean Couturier scoring in a 39-second span of the first period for the Flyers. And they outshot Carolina 15-8 in the overtime in a much more assertive showing, but the Flyers couldn't beat Andersen again after that flurry in the first 5 minutes.

Vladar had 40 saves, including twice stopping Carolina's Eric Robinson on second-period breakaways. He also got a timely bit of help in that period from Travis Sanheim, who cleared a loose puck that had slipped behind Vladar in the crease to deny Carolina a tying score.

Tocchet felt more energy from his Flyers — in their first postseason since 2020 — in the aftermath of the Game 1 loss.

“I thought the young guys competed,” he said. “I'm really proud of these guys. They just made the play at the end, that's it.”

Ehlers' one-timer on the power play got Carolina on the board in the first. Then Ehlers fed a trailing Jarvis to beat Vladar from the right side midway through the third period, ultimately forcing OT.

It was a penalty-filled night with the teams combining to go 2 for 13 with the man advantage, which derailed either team from getting in much of a 5-on-5 rhythm and leaving Vladar and Andersen to come up with big stops the entire night.

“Goaltending was not the issue tonight for any team,” Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said.

Philadelphia played a second straight game without regular-season goals leader Owen Tippett due to an undisclosed injury, while Carolina defenseman Alexander Nikishin took warmups but didn't play as he continues his recovery from a concussion suffered in the clinching game of the first-round sweep of Ottawa.

___

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

The costars turned courtroom adversaries settled the civil case two weeks before they were to go to trial in New York on Lively’s claims that Baldoni conspired with publicists to preemptively destroy her reputation after she privately accused him of sexually harassing her on the movie set.

“Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors — and all survivors — is a goal that we stand behind," Lively and Baldoni said in a joint statement issued through their lawyers.

“It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online.”

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Lively, 38, sued Baldoni, 42, and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, at the end of 2024. Weeks later, Baldoni sued Lively, accusing her, her husband — “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds — and their publicist of defamation and extortion.

Baldoni, who directed the dark romantic drama and starred in it with Lively, had denied harassing her or orchestrating a smear campaign. He’d claimed the complaints about his behavior were made up by Lively as part of an effort to seize creative control of the movie.

Monday’s settlement came after a federal judge in Manhattan tossed some of each actors’ claims.

Last June, Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed Baldoni’s defamation and extortion lawsuit. In April, he threw out Lively’s sexual harassment claims, ruling that she couldn’t pursue them under federal law because she was an independent contractor rather than an employee on the movie set.

In their joint statement, the parties said they recognize that Lively’s concerns “deserved to be heard” and that they ”remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments."

The trial, now no longer necessary, had been scheduled to begin with jury selection on May 18.

“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel about a relationship devolving into domestic violence, was released in August 2024 and exceeded box office expectations despite criticism that it glorified abuse. Lively and Baldoni’s fractious falling out took attention away from the film, overshadowing its message and success.

“The end product — the movie ‘It Ends With Us’ — is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life,” Lively and Baldoni said in their statement.

Lively said in her lawsuit that during filming, Baldoni made inappropriate comments about her appearance, violated physical boundaries while filming a love scene, and pushed for nudity — against Lively’s wishes — during a scene in which her character was giving birth.

Baldoni denied doing anything outside the realm of the normal creative process of making a movie.

The judge, in the decision tossing out the sexual harassment claims, acknowledged the complexity of the matter, noting that creative artists “must have some amount of space to experiment within the bounds of an agreed script without fear of being held liable for sexual harassment.”

The trial was to focus on Lively’s claim that Baldoni and the studio retaliated against her sexual harassment complaints by hiring publicists to turn the public against her. Her lawyers said that campaign including hiring a “digital army” to post bogus negative content about Lively on social media platforms, and feeding “manufactured content to unwitting reporters.”

The lawsuit said the purpose was to “retaliate against Ms. Lively by battering her image, harming her businesses, and causing her family severe emotional harm.”

Baldoni’s lawyers have claimed it was Lively who was strategically manipulating Baldoni’s public image, partly by leveraging help from her famous friends.

Lively appeared in the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and the TV series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012 before starring in films including “The Town” and “The Shallows.”

Baldoni starred in the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the 2019 film “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book challenging traditional notions of masculinity.