Cellphone video captured the moment bystanders reacted, with one saying, “the trouble is over,” as the suspect fell face-first onto the road after being tased. Officers then rushed in and swarmed him.

Hialeah police say their K-9 unit was assisting Florida Highway Patrol near a Walgreens at West 68th Street and 12th Avenue when an officer spotted the man, who troopers idenfitifed as 41-year-old Yam Perera Nunez.

Florida Highway Patrol says troopers tried to pull him over during a traffic stop on Okeechobee Road in the Pembroke Road area a day earlier, but he refused to stop.

Investigators say during the pursuit Perera Nunez abandoned his truck on Northwest 137th Avenue and ran off on foot.

Sky 10 was overhead during that search and spotted troopers and ICE agents in the area looking for him before he was eventually arrested.

Authorities say this was not Perera Nunez’s first encounter with law enforcement.

Back at the multi-agency arrest outside the Walgreens, authorities were seen towing a sports car with front-end damage. Witnesses said they were stunned by what unfolded in front of them.

Authorities say Perera Nunez faces a long list of federal charges, including aggravated assault, aggravated fleeing and eluding, battery, resisting arrest with violence and grand theft.

“In Iran there are no ‘hard-liners’ or ‘moderates’. We are all Iranians and revolutionaries,” Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf wrote in almost identical social media statements.

Since the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the first strike of the war on Feb. 28, it has been unclear who in Iran wields ultimate authority over its collection of civilian figures and powerful generals who appear to be in charge.

Trump also said Thursday evening that Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House.

The standoff between the U.S. and Iran has effectively choked off nearly all exports through the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world’s traded oil passes in peacetime, with no end in sight.

Here is the latest:

Indonesian peacekeeper dies in Lebanon weeks after being wounded

The U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon, or UNIFIL, says Corporal Rico Pramudia, 31, died at a Beirut hospital after he was critically wounded following a projectile explosion in his base in Adchit al-Qusayr, southern Lebanon, on March 29.

The attack in Adchit al-Qusayr also killed an Indonesian peacekeeper.

Two other Indonesian peacekeepers were also killed in southern Lebanon shortly after.

Drones reportedly fired from Iraq struck sites in Kuwait

Kuwait says explosive drones launched from Iraq have struck two sites on the northern land border Friday morning.

The Kuwait army said on X that the drones caused material damage, but that there were no reports of casualties.

Residents frustrated with ongoing security restrictions in Pakistan

A weeklong, lockdown-like security clampdown in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad and nearby Rawalpindi has sparked frustration among residents, who urged authorities to ease restrictions so they can resume normal commutes.

Roads leading into Islamabad’s heavily guarded Red Zone have appeared deserted at times, with concrete barricades, barbed wire and security personnel dominating normally busy corridors. The absence of routine traffic has added to a sense of disruption in the twin cities.

“We were happy that Pakistan is hosting these talks to end the war between America and Iran. But now almost a week has passed, and it takes me one to two hours instead of 30 minutes, depending on traffic, to reach home from Islamabad to Rawalpindi,” said Sher Khan, a lift operator at a shopping plaza.

There is still no official word on exactly when the talks will take place.

Authorities have deployed thousands of police and paramilitary troops since last weekend.

While Pakistan is still trying to secure Iran’s participation, there has been no confirmation yet on when Tehran will send its delegation. The visit by the U.S. delegation is also on hold.

Beirut residents call for peace in south Lebanon

Some residents in Beirut believe south Lebanon should be included in a ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.

They said a deal will not be sustainable without a lasting truce between Iran and the United States.

“It is not related to Hezbollah and Israel, but to Iran and the US. If they reach an agreement, the whole of the Middle East will be calm, but if not, there will be escalation in Lebanon and the rest of the world,” Joe Ghafari said.

Diala Ammar said it is “unfair” for the south to stay at war while the rest of the country “lives normally.”

Israeli forces occupying a strip of territory extending several miles into southern Lebanon have continued strikes, while Hezbollah has attacked Israeli forces there.

Pakistan repays $3.45 billion in UAE deposits

Pakistan completed repayment of $3.45 billion in deposits to the United Arab Emirates, returning a final $1 billion tranche, Pakistan’s central bank said Friday.

Pakistan had to arrange $3 billion in fresh financing from Saudi Arabia to support its foreign reserves.

The UAE placed the deposits with Pakistan in 2018 to bolster foreign exchange reserves.

The repayment comes weeks after the UAE asked Pakistan to return the funds without publicly explaining the reason for the abrupt request.

Media reports in Pakistan suggested the UAE’s request was linked to geopolitical differences over regional developments, though the government in Islamabad has downplayed such claims, maintaining that bilateral ties remain strong..

Iran’s foreign minister talks with Pakistani officials

Iran’s top diplomat has called Pakistani officials over the ceasefire in the war with the United States and Israel.

A statement Friday said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s army chief.

Araghchi’s statement said the men spoke about “regional developments and issues related to the ceasefire,” without elaborating.

Hours later, a statement on behalf of Dar acknowledged the call, saying “both sides exchanged views on regional developments, the ceasefire, and ongoing diplomatic efforts being pursued by Islamabad in the context of U.S.-Iran engagement.”

Pakistan has been trying to get American and Iranian officials back to the negotiating table in Islamabad, where they had hoped to have talks earlier this week that didn’t materialize.

EU’s top diplomat notes risk of ‘weaker’ US-Iran deal

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said peace negotiations between the United States and Iran are at risk of forging a “weaker” agreement than one struck a decade ago.

“If the talks are only about the nuclear (issue) and there are no nuclear experts around the table, then we will end up with an agreement that is weaker than the JCPoA was,” Kallas said Friday in Cyprus, referring to a 2015 deal struck during the Obama administration that Trump pulled the U.S. out of in 2018.

Kallas said if negotiators do not table Iran’s “missile programs, their support to proxies, and also hybrid and cyber activities in Europe” there is a possibility “we will end up with a more dangerous Iran.”

Medical aid convoy departs Turkey for Iran

A medical aid convoy left Turkey headed for Iran, an official told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency on Friday.

The six trucks departed Van in eastern Turkey to pass through the Gurbulak border crossing, Van Health Director Muhammed Tosun said.

“The materials include medicines and medical supplies,” Tosun said.

“We previously sent three trucks. With today’s trucks, a total of nine trucks of aid materials will have been delivered to our Iranian colleagues to serve their citizens,” he said.

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The extension is for a proposed 20-year operating agreement for the annual downtown event.

Commissioners passed the item after amending it to examine the 20-year extension at five-year intervals.

“Originally the proposal was for two 10-year periods, so it was amended for four five years with a check-in every five years” said Ultra Chief of Security Ray Martinez. “So we have to present a report to the commission so they have to take action. Remember it is a revocable license so they are able to do it as a commission as a whole.”

The Downtown Neighbors Alliance pushed for the city to delay their vote so that residents have an opportunity to voice their concerns about continuing the partnership.

“Residents are not asking for the impossible, we are asking for a seat at the table,” said James Torres, president of the Downtown Neighbors Alliance. “A deferral is not only reasonable, it is necessary to set the right tone. If a 20-year deal is approved without engagement, what incentive will there be for Ultra to listen to residents afterward?”

Additionally, the DNA has filed a complaint against Ultra “related to its obligations under the existing settlement agreement.”

Local 10 News reached out to Ultra for comment, and their full statement can be read below:

Ultra will vigorously defend against the lawsuit filed by the Downtown Neighbors Alliance, Inc. (“DNA”).

Ultra has complied with all applicable requirements governing sound level, including those set forth in the Revocable License Agreement (“RLA”) with the Bayfront Park Management Trust and applicable City of Miami ordinances. The event has operated within the parameters established by the City, supported by continuous monitoring and real-time coordination.

Ultra has also participated in multiple community meetings, including those requested by neighborhood associations and those convened at the direction of City Commissioners, consistent with its longstanding practice of community engagement.

 For nearly three decades, Ultra has operated in the City of Miami in partnership with the City and other stakeholders, setting the standard for responsible, large-scale event production. Ultra is a signature event that has become synonymous with Miami’s culture.

Ultra’s efforts to mitigate impacts are community-wide, reflecting a commitment to all Downtown stakeholders. That approach has earned the support of the Miami DDA, the Bayfront Park Management Trust, and other significant stakeholders.

Ultra looks forward to continuing its long-standing parentship with the City and the Bayfront Park Management Trust.

Ultra will continue to act as a responsible neighbor, independent of any formal agreement or arrangement with the DNA or any other resident group, and irrespective of this lawsuit.

Ultra Music Festival

ADDITIONAL LINKS

City commission meeting agenda

Agenda summary and legislation

Washington’s premier soiree on Saturday is most identified by its modern form: a red carpet for the capital’s journalism elite, political staffers and an assortment of American business leaders and celebrities — with the leader of the free world and a comedian offering roasts.

Some years are forgettable and relegated to C-SPAN archives. Others produce viral moments — funny, cringeworthy or undeniably tense — and endure across social media.

Here’s a look at some of that history as Donald Trump prepares for the first time to attend as president:

Ronald Reagan once gave up the chance to rebut a comedian

As a former Hollywood actor, the 40th president had a magnetic stage presence and easy manner with a joke, and it was during Reagan’s presidency that comedians became an annual part of the dinner.

In 1983, Mark Russell, whose satire was a PBS staple, offered relatively tame jabs at Reagan. “There is another speaker following me,” he opened, “and so it is quite an honor for me to be doing the warmup for my chief writer here.”

When it was the president's turn, Reagan demurred. He reminded the audience that he’d made “a sad journey” to Andrews Air Force Base earlier that day to receive the remains of the Americans killed in the April 18 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon.

“I realize the original plan was that I would, in a sense, sing for my supper. In fact, I was prepared, not really to sing, but to do what you expected,” Reagan said, before explaining that it would be inappropriate for him to deliver humorous remarks. “If you’ll forgive us,” he said, “I’ll keep my script, and I hope you’ll give us a rain check, and it’ll still be appropriate next year.”

Dana Carvey and George H.W. Bush: A rare friendship

Presidents have been lampooned on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” since Chevy Chase first depicted Gerald Ford in 1975. But Dana Carvey and President George H.W. Bush set the standard.

Carvey, who also played the iconic Church Lady, embellished the 41st president’s nasal tone and patrician air to caricature his signature phrases: “Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.”

Bush became a fan. He and Carvey sat together at Bush's last dinner as president, in 1992. After he lost to Bill Clinton that November, the president invited Carvey to the White House for a Christmas party. The two remained friends.

George W. Bush jokes about weapons of mass destruction

In 2004, American forces remained in Iraq after the 43rd president ordered an invasion based on assertions that Saddam Hussein had weapons that threatened U.S. security.

By the time of the annual dinner, it was apparent those claims were overblown. Bush made light of the situation with pictures of him looking around the White House for Saddam’s weapons.

“Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere,” he said as one slide showed him looking under furniture in the Oval Office.

The audience laughed and applauded. Some veterans, including then-Sen. John Kerry, a 2004 presidential nominee, were not amused. Bush defeated Kerry that November anyway.

Colbert skewers Bush and the media

Not long into his second term, Bush sat uncomfortably as Stephen Colbert, then a Comedy Central host, hammered him with an aggressiveness unusual for the dinner.

“The greatest thing about this man is he’s steady,” Colbert said in 2006. “You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change; this man’s beliefs never will.”

He sarcastically urged Bush to ignore his approval ratings, then in the low 30s: “We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in reality. And reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

Colbert lambasted the dinner hosts, too, suggesting Washington media protected the Bush administration.

“Over the last five years you people were so good — over tax cuts, WMD intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn’t want to know,” Colbert said, “and you had the courtesy not to try to find out.”

A Trumpian dinner without Trump

During his first White House term, Trump broke the long streak of presidential attendance. Comedian Michelle Wolf targeted him anyway.

“It’s 2018, and I’m a woman, so you cannot shut me up — unless you have Michael Cohen wire me $130,000,” she cracked, referencing payments made to keep an adult film star from disclosing her allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump.

When the audience groaned at her crassness, Wolf quipped, “Yeah, shoulda done more research before you got me to do this.”

With Trump absent, his press secretary and now-Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sat at the head table and at the center of Wolf’s routine. Wolf compared Sanders’ role for Trump to being a character in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a dystopian novel about an authoritarian, misogynistic society.

Her harshest barb riffed on a famous Maybelline mascara ad.

“I actually really like Sarah. I think she’s very resourceful,” Wolf said. “But she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like maybe she’s born with it; maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies.”

Trump, who was in Michigan, called the routine “disgusting.”

Within hours, the Correspondents’ Association issued a statement saying the dinner is meant to celebrate “our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners” and saying Wolf’s monologue "was not in the spirit of that mission.”

Sanders rekindled the moment earlier this year at Washington Gridiron, another annual politics-journalism event. “I’m proud to note that color has really taken off,” she said. “In fact, it’s the exact same thing worn by Vice President JD Vance.”

Obama vs. pre-presidential Trump

Despite not yet attending as president, Trump's had his moment at the dinner.

In 2011, he helped lead the birther movement against then-President Barack Obama. Trump used social media and frequent Fox News Channel appearances to push the false narrative that the first Black president was born in Kenya and not a natural-born U.S. citizen.

But at the Washington Hilton, Obama had the lectern — and he used it with Trump sitting in front of him.

“Tonight, for the first time, I am releasing my official birth video,” Obama deadpanned, before showing the opening scene of Disney’s “The Lion King,” when the royal cub Simba is presented on the savanna.

Obama then turned his fire directly on the reality TV star.

“No one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald,” Obama said. “And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. For example, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”

As cameras captured a dour Trump, Obama mocked Trump’s role on “Celebrity Apprentice.”

“We all know about your credentials and breadth of experience,” the president said, marveling that Trump had to decide who to blame when “the men’s cooking team cooking did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks.”

“These are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night,” Obama concluded. “Well handled, sir. Well handled.”

Trump glared icily.

By November 2012, as Obama prepared for his second term, Trump had filed a trademark application for the phrase he would emboss in the national culture four years later: “Make America Great Again.”

The Las Olas Food and Wine Festival is celebrating 30 years by turning four blocks of Las Olas Boulevard into a walkable foodie playground — all for a good cause.

For one night, the street transforms into a full-scale food and wine experience, featuring more than 50 restaurants and about 200 culinary tents serving up their best bites.

“It’s such a great time. You get to see, touch, taste different foods, drink some great wine,” said Peter Lopez, director of operations at Shooters Waterfront.

As guests eat and sip their way down the street, they’re also giving back. The festival benefits the American Lung Association.

“I think it’s a great time for the community to come out for a great cause, the American Lung Association,” Lopez said. “It’s the camaraderie with the al fresco dining lifestyle that we have going on down here. You have 200 great culinarians putting their best foot forward, and you get to meet the chefs that are cooking it. And the winemakers are there.”

The event also highlights Fort Lauderdale’s growing food scene.

“There are so many great restaurants that are popping up, and some great culinarians are coming up,” Lopez said. “Fort Lauderdale wasn’t really known for its great culinary scene like Miami is, but we’re upcoming. We’re very small, but a very tight community. We’ve got some great restaurants and restaurateurs that have come in. It’s a great experience to try something you might not have had a chance to visit but have heard about.”

Among the participating restaurants is Shooters Waterfront, a South Florida staple.

“We’ve been around 44 years. We were around in the heyday when Fort Lauderdale was wild, crazy and untamed. We like to say we’ve grown up,” Lopez said. “We’ve taken our cuisine and elevated it. No more burgers, beers and bikinis — we have true culinarians. My chefs have been with me for 10 to 11 years.”

Shooters will feature dishes in the VIP section, including a lobster roll and a creamy risotto topped with sliced prime rib and veal glacé.

“Our fan favorite — how can you not go to South Florida and have a lobster roll?” Lopez said. “There are different versions out there, but for us, the lobster is the star of the show.”

In honor of its 30th anniversary, the festival will also feature a 1990s-themed area, paying homage to the era when the event was founded.

Tickets are available online, with discount code RESTAURANT by clicking here.

The crackdown, led by a U.S. government Scam Center Strike Force, includes the Treasury Department's sanctioning of a prominent lawmaker and 28 other people and companies accused of operating from Cambodia. Criminal charges also were filed against two Chinese nationals involved in a similar operation in Myanmar.

The initiative includes a warrant to seize and shut down a major online recruitment channel on the Telegram messaging app and freezing hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit assets, Pirro said in a virtual press conference connecting her from Washington to journalists in Asia.

Cybercrime has flourished in Southeast Asia in recent years, particularly in Cambodia and Myanmar, with illegal operations making mammoth profits from victims around the world, according to United Nations experts and other analysts. Americans lost nearly $21 billion to cyber-enabled crimes and online scams in 2025 alone, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The illicit industry is closely involved in human trafficking, with foreign nationals employed to run romance and cryptocurrency scams, often after being recruited with false offers of legitimate jobs and then forced to work in conditions of near-slavery.

The Scam Center Strike Force comprises Pirro’s U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service.

The most prominent target of the crackdown is Kok An, a Cambodian senator and prominent businessman described by the Treasury Department as a “scam center kingpin."

The department's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions against Kok An and associates for their roles in a network that has allegedly defrauded U.S. citizens of millions of dollars. They include blocking Kok An’s assets in the United States and prohibiting U.S. entities from doing business with him.

The Associated Press was unable to contact Kok An or any of his representatives for comment.

“His Excellency Kok An is a Cambodian Senator and he was elected by elections, and as a senator he has parliamentary immunity," said Chea Thyrith, a Cambodian Senate spokesperson, who added that only the U.S. side could speak clearly about the sanctions.

Kok An is at least the second Cambodian senator to be sanctioned by the U.S. In 2024, Washington acted against another top tycoon, Ly Yong Phat, who also was accused of being connected with forced labor, human trafficking and lucrative online scams.

Pirro said the latest crackdown was set in motion in November when FBI agents sent to Thailand accessed copious evidence seized from an abandoned scam center in Myanmar, including more than 8,000 phones and 1,500 computers.

That led to charges of wire fraud conspiracy against two Chinese nationals, Huang Xing Shan and Jiang Wen Jie, who were managers of the compound before seeking to reestablish their operations in Cambodia. They are being held by Thai authorities for immigration violations and the U.S. is seeking their extradition, Pirro said.

Cambodian lawmakers unanimously adopted a new law in March targeting online scam operations with up to life in prison, following a government pledge to shut down the centers by the end of April.

In January, Cambodia extradited to China another alleged scam kingpin, Chen Zhi, the founder of business and banking conglomerate Prince Holding Group, even though U.S. authorities had sought custody after indicting him last year for allegedly running a huge scam operation.

___

Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Michael Kunelman in Washington contributed to this report.

Trump first announced a 60-day waiver in mid-March and the move has been seen as helping to stabilize energy prices and making it easier for more ships to travel to the U.S. following the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The post on social media by a White House press aide said: “New data compiled since the initial waiver was issued revealed that significantly more supply was able to reach U.S. ports faster.”

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

ISLAMABAD (AP) —

Iran’s top diplomat is expected to travel to Pakistan by this weekend for talks, two Pakistani officials told The Associated Press on Friday.

The officials declined to provide any other details about Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s visit, other than to say he would be accompanied by a small government delegation and could arrive as soon as Friday.

Pakistan has been trying to restart ceasefire talks between Iran and the United States.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

ISLAMABAD (AP) —

Iran’s top diplomat and Pakistani officials on Friday talked over details of the ceasefire in the war with the United States and Israel, part of an effort by Islamabad to get Tehran to send a delegation for a second round of negotiations with Washington.

Pakistan has been trying to get American and Iranian officials back to the table but talks that had been hoped for earlier this week didn’t materialize. U.S. President Donald Trump announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire with Iran at Pakistan's request earlier this week as it sought more time for diplomatic outreach.

That hasn't lowered tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway though which a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas is shipped during peacetime. Iran has kept its stranglehold on traffic through the strait, attacking three ships earlier this week, while the U.S. has maintained its blockade of Iranian ports and ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines.

Washington now has three aircraft carriers in the region after the USS George H.W. Bush arrived in the Indian Ocean this week. The USS Abraham Lincoln is in the Arabian Sea and the USS Gerald R. Ford is in the Red Sea.

It is the first time since 2003 that three American carriers have been operating in the region simultaneously. The force includes 200 aircraft and 15,000 sailors and Marines, U.S. Central Command said.

The war has sent oil prices skyrocketing with Brent crude, the international standard, at more than $107 per barrel in spot trading on Friday, up nearly 50% over where it was on Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran to start the war.

Pakistan forges ahead with diplomatic efforts

In their call Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar and Pakistan's army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, talked over “regional developments and issues related to the ceasefire,” according to a statement from Araghchi, which did not go into further detail.

Later, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said that “both sides exchanged views on regional developments, the ceasefire, and ongoing diplomatic efforts being pursued by Islamabad in the context of U.S.-Iran engagement.”

It added that Dar “underscored the importance of sustained dialogue and engagement to address outstanding issues, in order to advance regional peace and stability at the earliest.”

Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, and over 2,290 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the war started, according to authorities.

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

_____

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Rising from Bangkok.

Fernando Mendoza, a former Indiana Hoosiers star and standout at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, was selected first overall by the Las Vegas Raiders following a Heisman Trophy-winning, national championship season.

The 22-year-old quarterback has remained in South Florida in recent days and is expected to celebrate the moment with family in Coral Gables rather than attend the draft in person.

“Oh this is so very exciting. We’re so proud of him,” said Enrique Espino, Mendoza’s great-uncle. “He followed the mother’s advice and the father’s restrictions and conditions -- everyone is excited about him.”

Police have blocked off a portion of the street for a private party that soon will be filled with celebration.

Plenty of friends and neighbors sharing pride in Mendoza’s hard work and dedication.

“They’re a really nice family. We’re all just thrilled they’re happy,” said Michael Brown, Mendoza’s neighbor.

Attention is also on the Miami Hurricanes, who could have as many as three — or even four — players taken in the first round.

Defensive lineman Rueben Bain Jr. and offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa are alos projected to be taken in the first round, while EDGE Akheem Mesidor and defensive back Keionte Scott could also hear their names called later in the round.

Meanwhile, the Miami Dolphins enter the night with two first-round picks, Nos. 11 and 30, giving new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley an opportunity to add immediate impact players.

Miami has seven picks in the Top 100 of the draft as of Thursday afternoon.

Miami could look to bolster its roster with local talent, depending on how the board falls.

The first round of the 2026 NFL Draft is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.

Bianca Gutierrez said she was eating bourbon chicken and noodles last week when she noticed something unusual.

“I was in disbelief. I was at a loss for words,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God.’”

What she initially thought might be a vegetable quickly turned into something far more disturbing.

“I was like, that’s not a vegetable,” she said.

Gutierrez recorded video showing what appeared to be a roach with legs and antennae in her food. In the video, she can be heard reacting in shock.

“Disgusted. Very disgusted. Disappointed,” she said.

The incident happened at the food court inside Pembroke Lakes Mall. Gutierrez said the meal came from Kelly’s Cajun Grill.

She returned to the counter immediately.

“They were shocked as well. They didn’t know what to say. They just apologized,” Gutierrez said.

According to Gutierrez, staff issued a refund. After returning home, she sent the video to Local 10 News and filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

State inspectors responded the very next day.

Records show the restaurant was ordered shut down after an inspection uncovered multiple violations, including the presence of roaches. An inspector noted finding roaches on top of a prep table in a rear food preparation area.

A Local 10 News crew later visited the restaurant and spoke briefly with a manager, who acknowledged the shutdown but declined to provide details. No one from corporate responded to a request for comment.

Gutierrez said the experience has changed her habits.

She says for now, she plans to stick to home-cooked meals until she can get the image out of her head.

Though the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was passed by the House of Commons last June, the U.K.'s revising chamber, the House of Lords, has effectively talked it out since then.

Proponents of what has been termed “ assisted dying ” — sometimes referred to as “assisted suicide” — hoped it would mark the biggest change to social policy in the U.K. since abortion was partially legalized in 1967.

But opponents in the House of Lords have managed to hold up its passing by filing more than 1,200 amendments to the bill. That is believed to be a record high number for a piece of legislation that was tabled by a backbencher rather than by the government. Bills proposed by backbenchers can only be debated on a Friday, limiting the time available.

With the current session coming to an end next week, the bill will fail. Each five-year parliamentary term is subdivided into a number of sessions of the government's calling, and bills can only become law if they are discussed and voted on within a single session.

Campaigners for assisted dying have expressed their anger at the sight of unelected politicians holding up the will of the elected chamber. They have insisted that they intend to bring the bill back in the next parliamentary session, which begins after King Charles III outlines the government's upcoming program in a speech to both houses of Parliament on May 13.

The sponsor of the bill in the House of Lords, Charlie Falconer, said he felt “despondent” that a piece of legislation, which he said was “so important to so many, has not failed on its merits, but failed as a result of procedural wrangling."

He said many terminally ill people and their relatives “have shown such courage and forbearance” and have been “utterly bewildered by the way we have behaved."

The bill that's been making its way through parliament over the past 18 months or so had proposed allowing adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death subject to the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.

Those tabling amendments in the House of Lords said they have been providing necessary scrutiny to strengthen the legislation. Some have branded it unsafe and unworkable, citing their concerns around potential coercion of vulnerable people and a lack of safeguards for those with disabilities.

Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the Bill to the House of Commons in late 2024, has said she will “keep pushing for a safer, more compassionate law until Parliament reaches a final decision."

Last month, lawmakers in the Scottish Parliament rejected legislation that would have made Scotland the first part of the United Kingdom to allow terminally ill adults to end their lives. Scotland has a semiautonomous government that has authority over many areas of policy, including health.

Assisted suicide — where patients take a lethal drink prescribed by a doctor — is legal in countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and parts of the U.S., with regulations on qualifying criteria varying by jurisdiction.

Video captures the scene as the truck plows through a concrete barrier and lands on top of an unsuspecting car. Debris -- including shattered glass, a tire and twisted metal -- is seen across the roadway as the pickup crushes the car beneath it.

The crash happened on the Friday around 5 a.m. on the Palmetto Expressway, near Northwest 36th Street in Doral.

Investigators say 26-year-old Reinerio De La Torre Toledo was driving the truck and is believed to have taken his own life moments before the vehicle went airborne.

Detectives with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office say a gun was recovered at the scene, and a witness said detectives mentioned finding bullet casings.

The driver of the other vehicle has been identified as Jorge Reales of Miramar. A GoFundMe created by a family friend says Reales is unable to work and faces an overwhelming financial burden due to extensive medical treatment.

At the time of the crash, authorities said the 57-year-old was in stable condition, though the full extent of his injuries was not immediately known.

Traffic along the southbound lanes of the Palmetto Expressway was shut down for miles and remained backed up for hours. Aerial footage showed investigators examining the wreckage near a large hole left in the concrete barrier.

Family and friends of Reales say they are grateful he survived and are asking for financial support as he recovers.

The 22-year-old national champion and his family announced the launch of the Mendoza Family Fund, a national effort in partnership with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society aimed at advancing research toward a cure for multiple sclerosis. A spokesperson for the organization confirmed the initiative.

As part of the effort, Mendoza is committing $500,000 to support multiple sclerosis research at the University of Miami Health System and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

The cause is personal for the Mendoza family.

Their mother, Elsa Mendoza, has been living with the disease, which has inspired Fernando and his brother, Alberto, to raise awareness and support others affected by MS.

The new fund builds on previous grassroots fundraising efforts that have raised more than $360,000, expanding those efforts into a national initiative.

“We’re grateful for the support of the National MS Society and the Mendoza Family Fund,” Dr. Dipen Parekh, CEO of UHealth—University of Miami Health System, said in a statement. “The University of Miami Health System and Miller School of Medicine share their commitment to a world free of MS, and we value this opportunity to accelerate our work discovering, developing and delivering treatments for all patients.”

Fernando Mendoza was selected by the Las Vegas Raiders with the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency asked prosecutors earlier this week to request a court warrant to arrest Bang, the billionaire founder and chairman of Hybe. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office said that it found that the request lacked sufficient grounds to justify his detention and instructed police investigators to strengthen their case.

Bang, who has been barred from leaving the country since August, isn't seen as a realistic threat to flee.

The 53-year-old is being investigated over allegations that he misled investors in 2019 by indicating that Hybe had no immediate plans to go public, prompting them to sell their shares to a private equity fund, shortly before the company proceeded with an initial public offering.

Police believe that the fund may have paid Bang somewhere around 200 billion won ($135 million) in a side deal that promised him 30% of post-IPO stock sale profits.

Bang denies any wrongdoing, Hybe officials say. Bang’s legal team had criticized police for seeking his arrest, saying that he has been fully cooperating with the investigation for months.

Bang’s legal troubles are a public relations setback for Hybe, coming as BTS launches a global tour after a nearly four-year hiatus as its seven members served their mandatory military service.

BTS performed in front of tens of thousands of international fans at a free comeback concert in Seoul last month and have also held concerts in South Korea’s Goyang city and Tokyo. The group will kick off a series of U.S. events with a concert in Tampa, Florida, over the weekend.

ČEZ chief executive Daniel Beneš said that the work includes the project plan and licensing documentation necessary for issuing building permits for the reactor.

Beneš said the company hopes to have all the approvals by 2030. The small nuclear reactor will be built at the site of the existing Temelín nuclear plant.

On April 13, Great Britain Energy – Nuclear, a government agency, inked a contract with Rolls-Royce SMR to begin design work for the first small nuclear reactors in the U.K.

Beneš said that the Czech small nuclear reactor will be the second one built by the British firm after the first one is completed in the U.K.

ČEZ has a 20% share in Rolls-Royce SMR and the companies had signed a deal about a strategic partnership, which should result in up to 3 gigawatt energy sources installed in the Czech Republic.

The Czech state has an almost 70% stake in ČEZ and the government is taking steps to acquire full control of the company.

Small modular reactors are a type of nuclear reactor that can generate a smaller amount of power than a traditional reactor. Developers say small reactors will be built faster and at a lower cost than large power reactors, scaling to fit the needs of a particular location.

Among those in the firing line is Spain, which has refused to allow U.S. forces involved in the war to use bases on its territory or airspace. Spain says that U.S.-Israeli actions in the Iran war contravenes international law.

France and the U.K. also refuse to give U.S. forces free rein to use their territory for the bombing campaign.

The Pentagon is reported to be mulling whether to suspend Spain from NATO, according to an unidentified U.S. official referring to a U.S. Defense Department email, and quoted by the Reuters news agency.

“Well, we do not work with emails," Sánchez told reporters at a European Union summit in Cyprus. "We work with official documents and positions taken, in this case, by the government of the United States.”

“The position of the government of Spain is clear: absolute collaboration with the allies, but always within the framework of international legality,” he said.

The email also suggested reassessing U.S. support for the United Kingdom's claim to the Falkland Islands, near Argentina, which are also known as Islas Malvinas.

NATO staying out of the war

NATO operates by consensus, and all 32 member countries must agree for it to act.

The trans-Atlantic alliance's founding treaty has no mechanism for suspending or ejecting any of the members, although nations may leave of their own accord one year after notifying the other allies. As an organization, NATO has no direct role in the Iran war except to defend its own territory.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been angered by what he sees as the failure of some NATO members to back American actions in the Iran war and to help police the Strait of Hormuz, a major trade route. He has questioned the purpose of U.S. membership in the military organization.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas appeared perplexed by the U.S. criticism, given that the United Kingdom and France are leading an effort to help secure trade in the strait once the war is over.

“When we have had contacts with the American counterparts, then actually their asks for us have been exactly what we are able to offer after the cessation of hostilities,” she said. “Demining, escorting of ships, all of this that we have been discussing.”

But the United States has “long-standing arrangements and agreements with European allies on overflight, on basing” that should be respected, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said, in implicit criticism of some allies like Spain, but also France.

While Spain restricted U.S. military activity related to the Iran war, U.S. warplanes have flown over other NATO allies’ airspace and used U.S. bases in other NATO countries for war-related operations.

Trump has even threatened to cut trade with Spain over its refusal to allow the use of its bases and airspace. More broadly, Spain has also disappointed its allies by failing to commit to spend as much as they plan to do on defense.

Security without the US

As the reality sinks in that the U.S. commitment to NATO and Europe’s security under Trump has waned, the EU leaders debated how best to use European laws to come to each other’s aid should one of them come under attack.

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, whose country holds the bloc’s presidency until July, said that the leaders had tasked the European Commission to “prepare a blueprint on how we respond” should a member seek help under Article 42.7 of the EU treaties.

It's only ever been used once, by France after the Paris terror attacks in 2015.

EU envoys and ministers are set next month to conduct “table-top exercises” to game out how the treaty article might be used, drawing on the bloc’s military capacities, but also other assets not available to NATO, like trade, border and visa policies.

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Lorne Cook reported from Brussels.

Authorities are seeking to remove at least 10 tons (9 metric tons) of the fish from Jakarta's waterways, an effort officials hope will restore balance to the Ciliwung River and renew public attention on water quality.

From the polluted river to the concrete embankments and skyscraper-lined canals of the city’s heart, the dark shapes of the fish cling tightly to the river walls. At first glance, they appear almost prehistoric, with armored bodies gleaming a dull brown beneath the murky surface.

Janitor fish, or suckermouth catfish, known scientifically as Pterygoplichthys and locally as “sapu-sapu,” aren't native to Indonesia. Imported decades ago for aquariums because of their ability to consume algae, they were later released and found a home in Jakarta’s heavily polluted rivers. The fish can grow up to 50 centimeters (nearly 20 inches) and live for 10-15 years.

Experts have long warned that unchecked populations of invasive species can destabilize freshwater ecosystems, particularly in densely populated urban areas like Jakarta.

Dian Rosleine, an ecologist from the Bandung Institute of Technology, said that the adaptability of janitor fish is very high, so that even in polluted conditions, it can survive when other species can't.

“So, these fish are biological indicators that the water is in poor condition,” she said.

The Ciliwung once carried clear water from the mountains of West Java into Jakarta. Today, it flows through dense neighborhoods, carrying untreated household waste and industrial runoff. Concrete walls replaced riverbanks. During dry months, the water warms and slows — conditions that favor janitor fish over native species, Rosleine said.

Jakarta authorities have responded with mass removals, targeting the janitor fish in city waterways. The campaign began last week.

The cleanup drive, ordered by Jakarta Gov. Pramono Anung, was carried out simultaneously in all five administrative cities of the capital, involving hundreds of personnel, including firefighters, disaster officers and local residents. They have netted and buried more than seven tons of janitor fish across the city within a week.

The cleanup on Friday at a 6-meter-deep (19-foot-deep) reservoir in East Jakarta’s Ciracas neighborhood drew curious crowds as city workers collected about 320 kilograms (705 pounds) of the fish.

Piles of wriggling janitor fish filled red barrels along the reservoir — tangible proof that something, at last, was being done.

“The janitor fish populations have reproduced at a notable level while also feeding on native species," East Jakarta's mayor, Munjirin, told reporters when visiting Friday's cleanup. “The impact extends beyond ecosystem destruction, contributing to structural damage to riverbank and embankment walls.”

Munjirin, who like many Indonesians uses a single name, said that the coordinated operation marks the beginning of a sustained effort to control the species, with regular monitoring and removal planned to prevent further ecological damage.

However, he vowed a review of the program’s method after the Indonesian Ulema Council, or MUI, raised concerns over perceived cruelty, pledging that all fish will be dead before burial.

While endorsing the cleanup, MUI’s fatwa commission warned that burying the janitor fish alive amounts to a violation of animal rights enshrined in Islamic teaching.

Authorities are still cautious about what happens next. As janitor fish are edible in some countries, concerns over heavy metal contamination mean they won't be immediately approved for consumption in Jakarta. Instead, officials are exploring alternatives, including processing the fish into animal feed or fertilizer.

Anung said that the cleanup method will require the fish to be dead before burial at designated sites, with hygiene standards applied to block their return to rivers or trade.

The Jakarta governor noted that buried janitor fish can serve as natural compost and suggested adopting Brazil’s model, where the fish are turned into charcoal to generate greater economic benefits.

Yet experts caution that removal is only a beginning. Without improving wastewater management and reducing pollution, the river could quickly return to the same condition.

“The Ciliwung River requires rehabilitation, our major challenge that must be addressed,” Rosleine said. “Addressing the symptoms without tackling the root causes will not provide a lasting solution.”

“The Tale of KAHO,” which is scheduled to be released July 3 in print and digital formats, centers on a 26-year-old picture book author named Kaho.

The new novel is Murakami’s first in three years. His previous novel, “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” is a story of a male protagonist searching for love, loss and the boundaries between real and subconscious worlds.

Kaho is the first lone, woman protagonist featured in a full-length novel by Murakami, Shinchosha Publishing Co. said Thursday in a statement.

Initially, the novel started as a short story titled, "Kaho," which Murakami rehearsed at a book reading event two years ago at Waseda University, his alma mater in Tokyo, with Mieko Kawakami, a renowned female author and fan of his work. The story was published in the June 2024 edition of the monthly Shincho magazine.

The character Kaho, who has average looks and intelligence, is a curious person. One day she dines with a man who tells her, "I've never seen one as ugly as you.” Not outraged but baffled, curious Kaho tries to find out his hidden message.

Soon she starts encountering bizarre things in her life.

“I must find the way out of this world,” a brief promotional teaser released by the publisher says. “Murakami world is in full force.”

Murakami has since released three subsequent “Kaho” series stories in Shincho magazine, most recently in the March edition. They include “The Anteater of Musashi-sakai,“ “Kaho and the Termite Queen” and “Kaho and the Motorcycle Man, and Scarlett Johansson.”

The English version of the first piece, translated by Philip Gabriel, was published in The New Yorker magazine in 2024.

Murakami brings the four parts together and gives them new life in the 352-page new novel, the publisher said.

DeepSeek’s V4 has been keenly anticipated by users keen to test how it compares to U.S. competitors like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini. Anthropic and OpenAI have accused DeepSeek of unfairly building its technology off their own.

Some industry analysts had expected the new model to arrive more than a month earlier at the start of the Lunar New Year.

DeepSeek says the new V4 open-source models, which include “pro” and “flash” versions, have big improvements in knowledge, reasoning and in their “agentic” capabilities – the ability to perform complex tasks and workflows autonomously.

V4 is a successor to V3, an AI model that DeepSeek released in late 2024.

But it was DeepSeek’s specialized “reasoning” AI model, called R1, that took markets by surprise with its release in January 2025. DeepSeek claimed it was more cost-effective than OpenAI’s similar model and it became a symbol of how China was catching up with the U.S. in technological advancements.

DeepSeek said the “V4 Pro Max” version has “superior performance” in terms of standard reasoning benchmarks relative to OpenAI’s GPT-5.2 model and Google’s Gemini 3.0-Pro. It falls “marginally” short of GPT-5.4 and Gemini 3.1-Pro, it said.

In terms of “agentic” capabilities, the Chinese company said the V4 “pro” version could outperform Claude’s Sonnet 4.5 and approaches the level of Claude's Opus 4.5 model based on its own evaluation.

The “flash” version of V4 performs on a par with the “pro” version on simple agent tasks and has reasoning capabilities closely approaching it, DeepSeek said.

“Based on the benchmark results, it does appear DeepSeek V4 is going to be very competitive against its U.S. rivals,” said Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at the technology research and advisory group Omdia.

Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, said DeepSeek's V4 rollout is as a “pivotal milestone for China’s AI industry”, especially as global competition intensifies in the pursuit of self-reliance in critical technologies.

DeepSeek offers a free‑to‑use web and mobile chatbot. Unlike the top models from Anthropic, Google and OpenAI, it describes its technology as “open source” in the way that it enables developers access to modify and build on its core technology.

Both the V4's “pro” and “flash” versions have a 1 million token context window, a parameter of how much information an AI model can process and recall, and run on a more efficient basis, the startup said. That is a significant improvement from before, since the V3 supported a 128,000 token context window.

A report from Microsoft in January showed use of DeepSeek has been gaining ground in many developing nations.

However, some analysts remain skeptical. Ivan Su, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said while V4 is a “competent” follow-up, it’s not as big a breakthrough as the rollout of R1.

“Domestic competition has intensified significantly since R1’s release,” Su said. “Against U.S. models, DeepSeek’s own evaluation suggests its capabilities largely match on most fronts, but independent evaluations are needed before final conclusions can be drawn.”

In February, Anthropic accused DeepSeek and two other China-based AI laboratories of “industrial-scale campaigns” to “illicitly extract Claude’s capabilities to improve their own models.” It said they did that using a technique called distillation that “involves training a less capable model on the outputs of a stronger one.” OpenAI made similar allegations in a letter to U.S. lawmakers.

This week, Michael Kratsios, chief science and technology adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, also accused foreign tech companies “principally based in China” of distilling leading U.S. AI systems and “exploiting American expertise and innovation.”

China’s embassy in Washington hit back at the allegations, describing them as “unjustified suppression of Chinese companies by the U.S.”

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O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

The serac between base camp and Camp One is unstable and is risky for climbers, said Himal Gautam of Nepal's Department of Mountaineering.

Officials are working with climbers and expedition organizers to assess the situation as hundreds of climbers and their guides wait at base camp unable to move up the mountain.

According to the department, 410 foreign climbers have been issued permits to attempt to reach the Everest summit during the spring climbing season, which ends at the end of May.

The “Icefall Doctors,” the elite guides who lay the yearly climbing route by setting ropes and securing aluminum ladders over crevasses usually finish the task by mid-April.

The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which would deploy the team to lay the route, plans to assess the serac by aerial survey. The risk of avalanche is high and they are waiting for the serac to melt down on its own to a safe level, committee Chairman Lama Kazi Sherpa said.

The serac is part of the Khumbu Icefall, a constantly shifting glacier with deep crevasses and huge overhanging ice that can be as big as 10-story buildings. It is considered one of the most difficult and trickiest sections of the climb to the peak.

In 2014, a chunk of the glacier sheared away from the mountain, setting off an avalanche of ice that killed 16 Sherpa guides as they carried clients’ equipment up the mountain. It was one of the deadliest disasters in Everest climbing history.

Hundreds of foreign climbers and about the same number of Nepalese guides and helpers are expected to attempt to scale the mountain next month when there are a few brief windows of favorable weather.

Thousands of people have climbed the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) high peak since it was first climbed on May 29, 1953, by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay.

Yoon is charged with benefiting an adversary and abusing his powers, which are among a long list of indictments against the conservative former leader over his short-lived imposition of martial law in South Korea in December 2024.

The request came in the closing stages of a trial at the Seoul Central District Court, where a team of investigators led by special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk said that Yoon and his top defense officials were responsible for alleged drone infiltrations into North Korea, about two months before he imposed martial law, while portraying the liberals as North Korea-sympathizing, “anti-state” forces.

Yoon’s legal team said in a statement to reporters that he never ordered the alleged drone flights over North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, or retroactively approved such action, and said that prosecutors are failing to back their “speculation and delusion” with evidence.

In February, the court sentenced Yoon to life in prison after finding him guilty of the more serious rebellion charge. That verdict was appealed both by Yoon and prosecutors, who had sought a death sentence.

Cho’s team said in a statement Friday that Yoon tried to create a warlike situation between the Koreas while plotting an authoritarian push to remove his political opponents and “monopolize and extend his power.” Prosecutors are seeking a 25-year prison term for Yoon’s former defense minister, Kim Yong Hyun, a key confidant who helped plan and mobilize forces for the martial law declaration.

North Korea accused Seoul of flying drones over Pyongyang to drop propaganda leaflets three times in October 2024. Kim initially made a vague denial, but Seoul's Defense Ministry later switched to saying it couldn’t confirm whether or not the claims were true. Tensions with North Korea rose sharply at the time.

Yoon proceeded with his late night martial law declaration on Dec. 3, 2024, delivering a televised address in which he criticized liberals over a range of issues, but largely over their impeachments of his top officials and cuts to his government’s budget bill.

The decree lasted about six hours until a quorum of lawmakers broke through a blockade of heavily armed soldiers and police Yoon had deployed to the National Assembly. They then voted to overturn it, forcing his Cabinet to lift the measure.

Yoon was suspended from office on Dec. 14, 2024, after being impeached by the liberal-led legislature and was formally removed by the Constitutional Court in April 2025. He was arrested in July that year and has been undergoing various criminal trials since.

Though brief, Yoon’s martial law decree threw the country into a severe political crisis, paralyzing politics and high-level diplomacy and rattling financial markets. The turmoil eased only after his liberal rival, Lee Jae Myung, won an early presidential election in June.

Shortly after taking office, Lee approved legislation that launched independent investigations into Yoon’s martial law stunt and other criminal allegations involving him, his wife and associates.

They dashed in vans to hangars where their prepped and armed Rafale jets awaited, clambered into the cockpits and fired up the engines, which puffed and screamed.

Within minutes of takeoff from the Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania, they were over the Baltic Sea, first intercepting a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft and then tailing supersonic Russian bombers and their fighter escorts that neared the airspace of multiple NATO countries.

In a conflict situation, things could quickly get heated. But for the moment, with Russia and the military alliance at odds over Ukraine but not at war, pilots on both sides just watched and filmed each other — keeping their distance like wary tomcats with claws unsheathed, their missiles visible but not used.

One of the points of the posturing — in aerial ballets that take place away from public gaze hundreds of times a year — is to try to ensure that the frostiness between NATO and the Kremlin over Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine doesn't tilt into open hostility.

Commanders and pilots flying NATO air-policing missions on the eastern flank of the 32-nation military alliance say that their goal is to deter, not provoke. They believe their presence is reassuring for Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — that border Russia and its ally Belarus but don't themselves have airpower to fight off any Russian attack, if it ever came to that.

“It's a game of cat and mouse, or rather cat and cat,” said Lt. Col. Alexandre, commander of a French air force wing of four Rafales that is sharing the Lithuanian base with another fighter detachment from Romania. Citing security concerns, the French military withheld the commander's surname.

“We watch each other, scrutinize each other and try to make sure that it doesn't go any further," he said.

Alliance members take turns policing Baltic skies around the clock, seven days a week. The French inherited the building that now serves as their temporary headquarters from a Spanish detachment. They will hand it over to Italian replacements in August. Successive teams leave plaques and badges on a wall that records their passage.

NATO scrambles jets to identify and possibly take other action when Russian planes fly in Baltic airspace without switched-on transponders and without filing flight plans or communicating by radio with air traffic controllers.

“There are plenty of times in which, on purpose or not, they’re not really respecting the ICAO — the International Civil Aviation Organization — rules, regarding flight plans and behavior," said Col. Mihaita Marin, commanding the Romanian detachment of six F-16s.

“So obviously we are forced to take off and just make sure that they are who they say they are and their intention is peaceful,” he said.

The arrival of spring, bringing better flying conditions, means French and Romanian flyers have been busy since they deployed at the start of April on four-month NATO rotations.

Marin said interceptions “are getting close to daily" and "that will definitely increase as the weather is getting better."

French aircrews — watched by an Associated Press journalist who was reporting at the airbase — had their busiest day so far on Monday.

Scrambled under NATO command, French Rafales met and observed a pair of Russian Tu-22M3 bombers carrying supersonic, anti-ship missiles from their bellies that Russia has also used in Ukraine, repurposing them to attack ground targets, and which can be equipped to carry a nuclear warhead.

The strategic bombers' more than four-hour flight from an airbase near St. Petersburg, escorted by Su-30 and Su-35 fighters, remained in international airspace but took them past the coasts of NATO countries Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, doubling back when they approached Denmark.

The French detachment said the Russian planes didn’t have switched-on transponders, file flight plans or enter into radio contact. Fighter jets from Sweden, Finland, Poland, Denmark and Romania also went airborne to keep watch, according to the French. NATO didn't respond to requests for comment.

The French commander, Lt. Col. Alexandre, said it isn't clear why Russian pilots behave in ways that could endanger other users of Baltic airspace.

“We don’t know if it’s lack of professionalism or just a means for them to test us," he said.

“But what is sure is that we need to go every time," he added. "We cannot say, 'OK, that's usual, this time we will just let them pass.'”

Aunque el paso por la vía navegable suele tener una tarifa fija previa reserva, las compañías que no tengan una pueden cruzar pagando un cargo adicional en una subasta de cupos, que se adjudican al mejor postor en lugar de esperar durante días frente a la costa de la Ciudad de Panamá.

Ese precio se ha multiplicado en las últimas semanas mientras Irán y Estados Unidos bloquean la crucial ruta del estrecho de Ormuz, y la demanda de esos cupos se ha disparado. Cada vez son más buques los que cruzan por el canal de Panamá a medida que se redirigen los envíos y los compradores adquieren productos en otros países para evitar el comercio a través de la ahora peligrosa vía marítima de Oriente Medio.

"Con todos los bombardeos, los misiles, los drones (...) las empresas dicen que es más seguro y más barato cruzar por el canal de Panamá", apuntó Rodrigo Noriega, abogado y analista en la Ciudad de Panamá. “Todo esto está afectando las cadenas de suministro globales”.

Mientras, según Noriega, el gobierno de Panamá está “maximizando lo que puede ganar con el Canal de Panamá”.

El precio medio para cruzar por el canal oscila entre los 300.000 y 400.000 dólares, dependiendo de la embarcación. Antes, para obtener un cruce más temprano, las empresas pagaban entre 250.000 y 300.000 dólares adicionales. En las últimas semanas, el costo adicional promedio se ha incrementado hasta rondar los 425.000 dólares.

Ricaurte Vásquez, administrador del canal, indicó que otra empresa, cuyo nombre no quiso revelar, pagó 4 millones de dólares extra cuando su buque cisterna tuvo que cambiar de destino debido a las tensiones geopolíticas.

“Era un barco que llevaba combustible a Europa, y lo redirigieron a Singapur, y necesitaba llegar allí porque Singapur se está quedando sin combustible”, señaló.

Otras petroleras pagaron más de 3 millones de dólares, además de la tarifa de cruce, para acelerar su paso ante el alza de los precios del petróleo.

Vásquez apuntó que los barcos no se han aglomerado en el canal, sino que los costos pueden atribuirse a cambios de última hora y a una mayor urgencia de las embarcaciones que necesitan ir de un punto a otro más rápido en medio del caos comercial.

Según Vásquez, los costos no son una tarifa general del mercado, sino un peaje temporal asumido por las empresas.

“Ellos deciden hasta qué precio llegar”, manifestó.

Al tiempo que obtiene más dinero por el nuevo negocio, el gobierno de Panamá también ha sufrido un revés por la pugna geopolítica.

El miércoles, la cancillería del país acusó a Irán de incautar ilegalmente un buque con bandera panameña de la empresa italiana MSC Francesca en el estrecho de Ormuz.

Panamá, uno de los países con más buques registrados en el mundo, dijo que la embarcación fue “tomada por la fuerza” por Irán. No estaba claro si el barco seguía bajo custodia iraní.

La incautación “representa un grave atentado contra la seguridad marítima y constituye una escalada innecesaria en momentos en que la comunidad internacional aboga por que el estrecho de Ormuz se conserve abierto a la navegación internacional sin amenazas ni chantajes de ningún tipo”, indicó el ministerio en un comunicado.

Noriega señaló que la cantidad que las empresas pagan para cruzar el canal podría seguir aumentando si el conflicto se prolonga, ya que los precios del petróleo ya se están disparando. El precio de un barril de crudo Brent superó brevemente los 107 dólares esta semana, frente a los alrededor de 66 dólares que costaba hace un año.

“Nadie previó realmente los posibles efectos (de la guerra) sobre el comercio mundial”, afirmó Noriega.

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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.

While passage through the waterway usually comes at a flat rate via reservations, companies without reservations can cross by paying an additional fee in an auction for slots, which are awarded to the highest bidder rather than waiting for days off the coast of Panama City.

That price has ballooned in recent weeks as Iran and the United States have bottlenecked the key shipping route, the Strait of Hormuz, and demand for those slots has skyrocketed. Ships have increasingly traveled through the Panama Canal as shipments are rerouted and buyers purchase from other countries to avoid commerce through now-treacherous Middle Eastern waterway.

"With all the bombings, the missiles, the drones ... companies are saying it's safer and less expensive to cross through the Panama Canal," said Rodrigo Noriega, said lawyer and analyst in Panama City. “All of this is affecting global supply chains.”

Meanwhile, Noriega said Panama's government is “maximizing what it can earn from the Panama Canal.”

The average price to cross through the canal ranges between $300,000 and $400,000 depending on the vessel. Previously, to get an earlier crossing, businesses would pay an additional $250,000 to $300,000. In recent weeks, the average additional cost has jumped to around $425,000.

Ricaurte Vásquez, the canal’s administrator, said another company that he would not name paid an extra $4 million when its fuel vessel had to change its destination because of ongoing geopolitical tensions.

"It was a ship carrying fuel to Europe, and they redirected it to Singapore, and it needed to get there because Singapore is running out of fuel,” he said.

Other oil companies paid an excess of $3 million in addition to the crossing fee to accelerate their passage in the face of soaring oil prices.

Vásquez said that ships have not piled up at the canal, but rather the costs can be attributed to last-minute shifts and greater urgency by vessels needing to get from one point to another faster in the wake of larger trade chaos.

Vásquez emphasized that the costs were not a blanket market rate, but rather a temporary toll shouldered by companies.

"They decide how high a price to go,” Vásquez said.

At the same time it's earning more money from the new business, Panama's government has also been dealt a blow by the geopolitical struggle.

On Wednesday, the country's foreign ministry accused Iran of illegally seizing a Panama-flagged vessel from the Italian company, MSC Francesca, in the Strait of Hormuz.

Panama, a country with one of the world's largest ship registries, said the ship was “forcibly taken" by Iran. It wasn’t immediately clear if the boat remained in Iranian custody.

“This represents a serious attack on maritime security and constitute an unnecessary escalation at a time when the international community is advocating for the Strait of Hormuz to remain open to international navigation without threats or coercion of any kind,” it said.

Noriega, the analyst, said that the amount companies are paying to cross the Panama Canal may only go up if the conflict continues to stretch on, as oil prices are already skyrocketing. The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil briefly jumped above $107 this week, soaring from around $66 a barrel a year ago.

“No one really foresaw the potential effects (the war) would have on global trade,” Noriega said.

Gabriel Landeskog and Artturi Lehkonen scored on fortunate deflections for the Presidents' Trophy-winning Avalanche, who went up 3-0 in the series with another narrow win over the persistent Kings.

With Wedgewood backstopping the defense in his first playoff series, Colorado has allowed just four goals in three games by defense-minded Los Angeles, which has held superstar Nathan MacKinnon without a goal so far.

“It’s been tough sledding to create offense, but we have different guys stepping up on different nights and scoring in different situations,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “That’s been able to make the difference.”

Trevor Moore and Adrian Kempe scored and Anton Forsberg stopped 19 shots, but the Kings are a loss away from being eliminated in the first round for the fifth consecutive season.

Game 4 is Sunday in Los Angeles. A loss would end the 20-year career of Kings captain Anze Kopitar, who is retiring after the season.

Los Angeles scored two goals for the first time in the series, but couldn't find a tying goal after Kempe scored on a power play with 4:03 to play. Instead, Brock Nelson scored into LA's empty net with 2:18 left.

“We’ve just got to continue to find ways to break them down,” Makar said. “I feel like tonight, we got a lot of chances and capitalized on a few. Still, I feel like there’s areas for improvement, for sure.”

Los Angeles hasn't won a playoff round in six previous tries since raising the Stanley Cup in 2014, and this loss was the Kings' seventh straight postseason defeat dating to last spring.

After grinding out a pair of 2-1 victories in Denver, the Avalanche again took care of business in LA with fundamentally sound hockey — and a good bit of luck this time.

Landeskog put the Avs ahead in the opening minutes with a fluke goal when his wrist shot hit the end boards and caromed back perfectly to deflect in off Forsberg’s skate.

Colorado then got another fortunate bounce during a Kings power play in the third period. When Lehkonen and Logan O’Connor broke out on an odd-man rush, Lehkonen’s pass deflected off the back of Kempe’s skate and ricocheted through Forsberg’s legs with 12:21 to play.

Offense remains the fatal flaw of the Kings, who were the only team in the bottom third of the NHL in scoring to make the playoffs. Los Angeles has four goals on 76 shots against Colorado.

“We've got to find ways to score,” Kings interim coach D.J. Smith said. “I mean, we had looks. You can give them credit, but we missed the net 13 times leading into the third period.”

Makar put Colorado ahead in the second, dangling just inside the blue line and firing a brilliant wrist shot through traffic. The perennial Norris Trophy candidate has 23 playoff goals — second-most among active defensemen — in 82 career games, memorably scoring eight in his Conn Smythe Trophy-winning performance during the Avs' championship run in 2022.

Colorado defenseman Josh Manson left Game 3 early with an upper-body injury. He'll be re-evaluated before Sunday, Bednar said.

___

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

U.S. futures also wavered after Wall Street pulled back from its all-time highs. The future for the S&P 500 edged 0.1% higher, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2%.

In early European trading, Germany's DAX lost 0.2% to 24,106.17 and the CAC 40 in Paris dropped 1% to 8,147.70. Britain's FTSE 100 sagged 0.6% to 10,397.64.

During Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 1% to 59,716.18, led by heavy buying of technology stocks. On Thursday, it hit a record intraday high above 60,000.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng reversed earlier losses to add 0.2%, closing at 25,978.07, while the Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% lower to 4,079.90.

South Korea’s Kospi closed nearly unchanged at 6,475.63.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.1% to 8.786.50.

Taiwan’s Taiex jumped 3.2% as computer chipmaker TSMC, which makes up a key part of the index, gained 5.1%.

India's Sensex lost 1.4%.

Progress on another round of peace talks between the United States and Iran was limited even after President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. was indefinitely extending a two-week ceasefire with Iran, a day before it was originally set to expire.

The Strait of Hormuz, a key passageway for global energy where roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas normally passed through before the war, remains largely closed and a U.S. sea blockade of Iranian ports is still in effect. After the U.S. imposed a blockade on Iranian ports last week, Iran attacked three ships in the strait on Wednesday and seized two of them.

Trump said Thursday that the U.S. military was intensifying its mine-clearing efforts in the strait and he ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats laying mines in the area.

Oil prices have remained elevated since the Iran war began on Feb. 28.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude to be delivered in June rose 3.1% on Thursday to settle at $105.07 and at one point topped $107. The price for a barrel of Brent to be delivered in July, which is the more popular contract for traders, settled at $99.35 after rising as high as $101.

Early Friday, Brent crude was up 98 cents at $100.33 a barrel. U.S. benchmark crude picked up 81 cents to $96.66 per barrel.

The global energy shock caused by the Iran war has threatened to worsen inflation in many countries and shaken world markets. But Wall Street has still hit record highs, helped by strong corporate earnings and some optimism that the war will end soon.

On Thursday, the benchmark S&P 500 dropped 0.4%, halting a weekslong rally that lifted it to new all-time highs. The Dow industrials also declined 0.4%, while the technology stocks-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 0.9%.

Shares of Tesla sank 3.6%, dragging the market lower despite strong-than-expected quarterly results as investors focused on a big jump in capital expenditures as the company pivots towards artificial intelligence and robotics.

Paramount Skydance lost 4.5%, following approval by Warner Bros. Discovery's shareholders of its merger with Paramount. Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery fell 1.6%.

In other dealings early Friday, the U.S. dollar rose to 159.74 Japanese yen from 159.71 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1687, down from $1.1683.

The confirmed tornado Thursday moved across parts of Enid, a city of about 50,000 people near the state's northern border, according to the National Weather Service. Video showed a rapidly rotating column of air touching down along with totaled homes.

There were no immediate reports of fatalities and only minor injuries hours after the tornado passed through, according to the Garfield County Sheriff's Office. Authorities were going door-to-door in some neighborhoods to check on residents.

Enid Mayor David Mason said some residents were trapped in their homes by debris and had to be rescued.

Some of the worst damage happened in Gray Ridge, a neighborhood on the south side of the city, he said. “We have quite a few homes knocked down in there,” he told KOCO-TV.

Video from the scene showed piles of rubble where homes once stood. Other buildings appeared to be leveled.

Amy Kuntz, who was driving home to Enid, was calming her daughter over the phone during the storm.

“She said, ‘I don’t know what to do,’ And then I was like, ‘Get in the bathtub.’ So she got in the bathtub and not even a minute later, she's like, ‘Mom, the roof’s gone,’” Kuntz told KFOR-TV.

Fences and some equipment were knocked down at Vance Air Force Base, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) north of Oklahoma City. The base closed until further notice “due to ongoing power and water restoration efforts,” it posted online Friday.

“Please join me in praying for the Enid community, which has been severely impacted by tonight’s tornado,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt posted on social media.

More storms are possible through Friday night across south-central and southeast Oklahoma, the National Weather Service in Norman said. Strong to severe thunderstorms are expected to develop Saturday, including in the Enid area.

It was a stormy night for other states, too. In Kearney, Missouri, north of Kansas City, officials reported downed trees, debris blocking roadways and damage to homes on Thursday night after storms passed through the area. Officials said in a social media post that no injuries had been reported. Crews worked to make roads passable by early Friday and were expected to continue cleanup efforts during the day.

But that might only be Trump's first step. A new administrative hearing slated for the end of June could result in the reclassification of marijuana more broadly, granting tax and other benefits to state-licensed recreational markets, too.

“This is a signal that this administration means business on getting this done,” said Boston-based cannabis industry attorney Jesse Alderman, of the firm Foley Hoag.

The order issued Thursday does not legalize marijuana for medical or recreational use under federal law, and it is likely to face legal challenges.

But it does change the way marijuana is regulated, shifting licensed medical marijuana from Schedule I — reserved for drugs without medical use and with high potential for abuse — to the less strictly regulated Schedule III.

A long-sought shift

It was a significant policy shift for a U.S. government that has been steadfast in its prohibition of pot, even as all states but two — Idaho and Kansas — have approved cannabis in some form since California became the first to OK the medical use of marijuana in 1996.

Two dozen states plus Washington, D.C., have authorized adult recreational use of marijuana, raising billions in tax revenue. Forty have medical marijuana systems, and eight others allow low-THC cannabis or CBD oil for medical use.

The order noted that regulation of medical marijuana has come a long way, with comprehensive licensing polices from cultivation to sales in most states.

Douglas Hiatt, a longtime Seattle marijuana defense attorney, recalled the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and '90s, when police regularly raided grow operations designed to support patients.

He joined one client, a disabled medical marijuana activist named JoAnna McKee, as she met in the woods with members of the Hells Angels motorcycle club to procure cannabis for other patients after a police raid — just one example of the desperate lengths that were sometimes required to procure pot back then, he said.

“We were watching all these guys die from this horrible disease, and the only thing that helped them keep their pills down was marijuana, and the cops were going after anyone who helped them get it,” Hiatt said in a phone interview Thursday. “It was crystal clear from the beginning that it had medical uses. For the feds to admit that now is great. It's surreal."

Critics express doubts

Some health experts have suggested that legalization in the states has led to stronger and stronger cannabis products, which need to be researched rather than categorized less strictly than before.

Taking marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug implies that it’s useful as a treatment, but there are no “massive medical indications for cannabis,” said Dr. Smita Das, an addiction psychiatrist at Stanford University. Further, cannabis use disorder — which affects about 3 in 10 people who use pot, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — has been on the rise, she said.

“We’ve already had kind of a decrease in risk perception related to cannabis over the years with the state legalization," Das said. "This will probably just add to that.”

The reclassification is a far cry from what many critics of the drug war still long to see: full legalization, with measures to address the harms caused by prohibition, especially in minority communities that were disproportionately affected. Many states have already taken steps such as expunging criminal records.

There is confusion for some dispensaries

Now, state-licensed medical operators can finally deduct business expenses on their federal taxes, a crucial financial benefit.

But in a number of recreational pot states, licensed dispensaries serve both markets — making it an accounting nightmare to ascertain how much of their business expenses might stem from the medical side, and thus be deductible.

“If this artificial distinction between medical and recreational is maintained, it raises all sorts of questions,” noted sociology professor Josh Meisel, who co-founded the Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.

Trump told his administration in December to work as quickly as possible to reclassify marijuana, following up on stalled efforts launched during the Biden administration. On Saturday, as the Republican president signed an unrelated executive order about psychedelics, he seemed to express frustration that it was taking so long.

‘Giving a tax break to Big Weed’

The president of the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp, Michael Bronstein, called the order “the most significant federal advancement in cannabis policy in over 50 years."

But marijuana legalization opponent Kevin Sabet, CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said that while marijuana research is necessary, “there are many ways to increase our knowledge without giving a tax break to Big Weed.”

Trump has made his crusade against other drugs, especially fentanyl, a feature of his second term, ordering U.S. military attacks on Venezuelan and other boats the administration insists are ferrying drugs.

___

Johnson reported from Seattle.

Associated Press reporter Laura Ungar contributed.

McDaniels had 20 points and 10 rebounds, Ayo Dosunmu added 25 points and nine assists off the bench, and Donte DiVincenzo had 15 points and four steals as the surging Timberwolves built a 27-point lead in the third quarter and finished with a 68-34 advantage in points in the paint.

Rudy Gobert followed his inspired Game 2 effort against Nikola Jokic by stifling the three-time MVP again on an ugly 7-for-26 shooting night, and the Timberwolves established a postseason franchise record by allowing the Nuggets just 11 points in the tone-setting first quarter.

“The shooting really put us behind the 8-ball to start the game,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said. “We only gave up 25 points in the first quarter. That’s actually a very good number. We just had a hard time making shots tonight. Our physicality offensively has got to get better."

Jokic finished with a too-little-too-late 27 points and 15 rebounds for the Nuggets, who were missing Aaron Gordon to a calf injury and all the energy he provides from his starting power forward spot.

“He’s the greatest offensive player I’ve guarded in my whole career,” Gobert, the four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year who had 10 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks, said of Jokic. “Just trying to enjoy the challenge.”

Jamal Murray had 16 points on just 5-for-17 shooting as the league's best 3-point shooting team during the regular season struggled again from deep. The Nuggets have hit 30% of their 3s in the series, going 33 for 109.

But the Timberwolves did even more damage with the ball.

“They’re kind of pushing the pace, playing faster,” Jokic said. “Don’t let us set our defense, and then just driving the ball and trying to be aggressive.”

McDaniels, who flatly answered a question about Minnesota's offensive strategy after Game 2 by labeling all of Denver's players “bad defenders,” proved to be more prescient than reckless with his assessment. Rather than irking the Nuggets, he had himself and his teammates fired up as the series shifted to their home court.

The Wolves turned loose their primary wing players — McDaniels, DiVincenzo and Dosunmu — to repeatedly attack the basket as they raced around the Nuggets at every turn in the first half on the way to a 61-39 lead.

“We're being decisive," Dosunmu said. "That's what it's all about.”

McDaniels delighted the crowd with a 3-pointer from the top of the key and a one-handed slam in traffic over Jokic and Spencer Jones down the stretch in one of his finest performances in the postseason for Minnesota. Several fans clutched signs honoring McDaniels and his blunt "bad defenders" quote, a cheeky tribute that made even the stone-faced sixth-year player smile afterward.

“I thought it was a very emotionally sound game for him," Gobert said. "That’s huge for him to just stay locked in, stay present, not getting frustrated.”

___

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

China on Friday announced it will send two giant pandas to Zoo Atlanta in the U.S. in Beijing's latest efforts of panda diplomacy despite tensions with Washington, less than a month before a much-anticipated visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing.

The China Wildlife Conservation Association said in a statement that male panda Ping Ping and female panda Fu Shuang, from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, will kick off a decade-long conservation partnership under an agreement it signed with the zoo last year.

The association did not specify the pandas' departure date but said the U.S. side was carrying out facility upgrades, among other preparation work, to create a more comfortable and safer environment for the pair. Chinese experts provided technical guidance on the upgrades, it said.

The announcement came weeks ahead of Trump's planned visit to China in mid-May, during which he is expected to discuss various issues, including trade, with his counterpart, President Xi Jinping.

Zoo Atlanta said Thursday that it was delighted and honored to be trusted as stewards of the pandas and to partner with the association.

“We can’t wait to meet Ping Ping and Fu Shuang and to welcome our members, guests, city, and community back to the wonder and joy of giant pandas,” the zoo's president, Raymond B. King, said in a statement.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters that the new round of cooperation on conservation would help improve the health and well-being of the giant pandas, advance global biodiversity protection and strengthen the friendship between the Chinese and American people.

During an earlier giant panda agreement between the zoo and China that concluded in 2024, pandas Lun Lun and Yang Yang gave birth to seven bears, the zoo said. Lun Lun and Yang Yang and their two youngest offspring left Atlanta for China in October 2024, where the rest of their offspring reside, it said.

Giant pandas have been a symbol of the U.S.-China friendship ever since Beijing gifted a pair of pandas to the National Zoo in Washington in 1972, and China has long used its giant panda loan program as a tool of Beijing’s soft power diplomacy worldwide.

Beijing could also be renewing its cooperation with U.S. zoos at a time of otherwise sour relations in a bid to boost conservation efforts for the mammals.

The association said Friday that the new round of cooperation will help China and the U.S. to advance in areas ranging from disease prevention and treatment to scientific exchanges.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, a leading international group, took pandas off its endangered list in 2016 and classified them as “vulnerable" instead.

In 2024, the National Zoo in Washington and the San Diego Zoo also received pandas from China.

Researchers blame a number of factors including climate change causing fuel to dry out and be more flammable, a record drought, tens of millions of tons of dead trees from Hurricane Helene and just the large area where dense forests and high numbers of people try to coexist.

So far this year, 2,802 square miles (7,258 square kilometers) of the United States has burned in wildfires — much of it in Nebraska, an unusual area for massive wildfires — that's 88% more than the 10-year average for this time of year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. That's happening as significant chunks of the country set records for the warmest winter and March and April drought.

“The warmer we get, the more fire we see. Longer fire seasons, more lightning possibly, and drier fuels,” said fire scientist Mike Flannigan of Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, Canada. “I think we're going to see more fire in the East. We're seeing more intense fires.”

Fires are increasing in the East

The number of large fires, likelihood of them happening and amount of land burned has increased in most of the Southeast United States from 1984 to 2020, according to a 2023 study by University of Florida fire ecologists Victoria Donovan and Carissa Wonkka.

“The fires in the East historically and today are a lot smaller than in the Western United States, so they might not always grab as much attention as those out West. But we’re starting to see now this shift in dynamics in the East, we’re starting to quantify it,” Donovan said Thursday. “Even though the changes that we're seeing in the East are much smaller than we're quantifying out West, we think it's extremely important to start to get ahead of this problem now.”

Three months ago, Donovan, Wonkka and other fire scientists created a new network for fire researchers to study Eastern fires because some of the issues that experts have learned out West may not apply in the East, Wonkka said.

Even though the West has bigger and more noticeable fast-spreading fires, the East has more people in the way of flames in something scientists call the wildland-urban interface or WUI.

“We found that 45% of all large wildfires in the East burn some portion of the wildland-urban interface and 55% of the area burned so that a lot of these large wildfires are associated with WUI fires,” Donovan said.

Add to that the forests in the East are denser and less likely to be thinned out than those in the West, Donovan said.

Hurricane Helene created a ‘ticking time bomb’

A week ago, federal and state official looked at the drought, the weather and the millions of dead trees from Hurricane Helene in 2024 and issued an advisory to watch out for fires, said Nick Nauslar, a National Weather Service fire science and operations officer at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

“They are thinking, you know, they could see more fires, more resistance to control with the fires that they get,” Nauslar said. “It has been warmer and drier than normal across many of the areas where Helene caused damage. So there’s the potential there. You have an excess of fuel available because now (the trees are) dead and at the mercy of weather and climate. And then if you get dry and windy conditions, if you get an ignition, it’s more likely to ignite and spread.”

In Georgia alone, 13,954 square miles (36,142 square kilometers) of forest land was hit by Hurricane Helene, downing more than 26 million tons of pine and 30 million tons of hardwood, according a November 2024 University of Georgia and Georgia Forestry Commission timber damage assessment.

“Many of us have worried about fuel buildup post-Helene. It’s a ticking time bomb,” University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd said.

Dry air makes it worse

But it's not just downed trees — it's also dry air increasing the likelihood of fires. It's not just a lack of rain, but the air itself is less humid, which causes problem, Nauslar and Flannigan said.

“As we warm … the atmosphere’s ability to suck moisture out of dead fuel, not live fuel, but dead fuel, increases almost exponentially as temperature increases,” Flannigan said. “The drier the fuel, the easier it is for a fire to start, means more fuel dried and is available to burn, which leads to higher intensity fires that are difficult to impossible to extinguish.

“That's what we're seeing now starting to make inroads into the East,” Flannigan said. Human-caused climate change is clearly playing a role, he said.

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The mission would mark the end of an era for the American space program, but Schmitt already was looking to the future. His voice crackling over a high-frequency radio signal that day, he shared his thoughts with Cernan and those listening in at Mission Control.

“Well, I tell you Gene, I think the next generation ought to accept this as a challenge. Let's see them leave footsteps like these someday,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt, 90, is one of the four Apollo moonwalkers still alive today. A field geologist, he was the first scientist to set foot on the moon and his expertise helped answer questions about the origin of that big rock up there and what it tells us about the solar system.

Schmitt felt the thrill again when the Artemis II crew rocketed into space on a historic lunar flyby. Pure excitement and the potential for so much more. And he's hopeful as new generations get back to the moon and beyond.

Interviewed by The Associated Press, the former U.S. senator from New Mexico spoke about everything from the importance of having a lunar base to tapping new energy sources and whether we’re alone in the universe. Dark matter and quantum entanglement also were mentioned, with Schmitt saying many discoveries are yet to come.

“You’ve just got to remember," he said, “what used to be called supernatural probably should be called unknown physics.”

This interview has been edited for brevity.

Q: What about having a lunar base?

Well, I think a lunar base makes a lot of sense and it always has for a lot of reasons. One is geopolitical. Probably the most important one is a geopolitical presence in deep space — and in preparation for going on to Mars.

The moon has resources that are going to reduce the cost of actually going to Mars and it gains experience. One of the things people keep forgetting about is you’ve gone through several generations and the new generation has to gain experience — psychologically as well as practically about how you work in deep space. And they’re doing that. That was probably the most important part of Artemis II, is it gave the ground people, Mission Control and others, the experience now to really have the risk as real rather than as part of a simulation.

Q: What was your mission during Apollo 17?

I had a lot of understanding of what other crews had learned, what had been learned from some of the early sample analyses and so we were trying to put sort of the frosting on the cake of answering questions in a very complex geologic area called Taurus-Littrow.

Taurus-Littrow actually is deeper than the Grand Canyon and so it has a three-dimensional aspect to it that we hadn’t had on other missions. And plus having a field geologist like myself on board meant that we should be more efficient at gathering samples that had a meaningful aspect to our further understanding of the origin of the moon, its relationship to the Earth and, it turns out, also its relationship to the history of the sun.

Q: So we're building upon our knowledge of the universe around us?

Well there’s no question that the moon has a history to tell us.

It’s been recording the history of the solar system ever since the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago. That is really what the moon gives us — that library of knowledge, of potential knowledge about how the solar system evolved and then what the sun has been doing in that 4.5 billion years.

In the recent work that I’ve been doing in that layer of debris, the regolith, we find that the sun became even more active than it had been about the same time as we had an explosion of life in the oceans on Earth, and so the oceans may have been and almost certainly were warming to that more active sun and life likes warmth. So it multiplied not only in quantity but in diversity. The mammals started to appear soon after that, life started to move up onto the continents that had formed so things were really starting to move about a half-billion years ago.

Q: Tell us about the moon rocks

This is a sample of a basalt lava and we have a lot of basalt lavas here in New Mexico. This is different in that it is rich in titanium, more rich than most terrestrial basalts. And that titanium turns out to be very important in terms of the resources that are available on the moon. It has a property of concentrating some of those resources, particularly hydrogen and helium.

There’s an isotope called helium-3 and that is going to be, I think, ultimately very, very important in the production of energy. It’s going to be extremely useful in quantum computing, in cancer therapy and other things here on Earth. We just don’t have much on Earth, so the moon is going to be a our reservoir, our source of this very important isotope of helium-3.

Q: How important will this isotope be in the future?

Helium-3 offers a possibility of having nuclear energy without nuclear waste. We’ve known that for decades, and so the moon now offers that opportunity to begin to substitute a nuclear form of energy that doesn’t produce nuclear waste for what we have today.

Q: Is it just as much an energy race as a space race?

There’s no question about it. China is interested in it, we’re interested in it. And that’s probably one of the big technological drivers of this new race to the moon, a new space race, a Cold War that’s on now primarily involving China and I think helium-3 is a big actor in that right now.

Q: What was it like in the Taurus-Littrow Valley?

First of all, we were in a valley deeper than the Grand Canyon. The mountains on either side were as high as the Grand Canyon from the bottom. Secondly, you’re in one-sixth gravity so that means you can walk much more easily than you could here on Earth. Now we were covered by a pressure suit but still walking around was like being a kid again, just one-sixth of your height and if you fell you didn’t fall very hard and you certainly didn’t cry about it. But the moon is really a very easy place to work so as long as you have the right equipment surrounding you. You have to have that atmosphere of course to breathe.

Q: Any downsides to working in a weightless environment?

For me, it was a very comfortable environment to be in and you get a little bit lazy. For example, if you’re taking notes with a pad of paper and a pen or pencil and somebody says would you take the SCS switch to off, well you just let go and it floats there and you go over to the switch and come back and start to dictate those notes again.

You’ve got to be careful though because you’re brain gets lazy. When I got on the carrier after splashdown, I was taking my first drink of water and I just let go of the cup and of course it broke on the floor. Human beings tend to take advantage of their environment very quickly and the brain does get a little bit lazy like that. It took about three days to get comfortable again back here on Earth.

Q: So we'll have no problem living on the moon?

No, I think living on the moon is going to be very good. Now long term civilization on the moon, there’s still some major issues. The radiation issue has to be dealt with and we can. There are ways to do that. Going to Mars is another issue and that’s why you’ll almost certainly need fusion rockets to cut that time frame.

Q: We've heard a lot lately about UFOs. What are your thoughts on that?

Well there are billions of sunlike stars out there and so you just have to imagine that life may have originated on some other planet, although the conditions for life to originate here on Earth are really unique. Everything sort of fit together and creation for us sort of leads to you thinking of an infinitely intelligent being that made it all happen. But the technical potential statistically is very high that you could have had the similar kind of conditions develop elsewhere in the universe.

Now are they visiting us? My feeling is if they’re really so advanced they could be here, they'd communicate better than they have and so I just don’t know. But it’s plausible. Let’s put it that way. Unlikely maybe, but plausible.

Q: Would you take the opportunity to go back to the moon or to Mars?

Oh surely. Teresa, my wife, would like very much to go with me — that would be one condition. But I think a trip to Mars is going to be fantastic for those people.

So youth is extremely important and the education of those youth particularly in mathematics is extraordinarily important, and NASA now has a younger agency than they had grown to be during the shuttle era.

Look what has happened since Apollo. The commercial sector has developed new technologies, new ways of doing things and NASA is now trying to integrate those into a new approach to deep space exploration.

A plea agreement calls for Carie Hallford to receive from 25 to 35 years in prison during her appearance before District Judge Eric Bentley in Colorado Springs.

Her ex-husband, Jon Hallford, received a 40-year sentence on corpse abuse charges at a February hearing in which he was called a “monster” by family members of those whose bodies were left to rot.

Carie Hallford was the public face of Return to Nature, dealing with bereaved customers at the couple's funeral home in Colorado Springs. Jon, still her husband at the time, performed much of the physical work at another location south of Colorado Springs in Penrose, where neighbors in 2023 noticed a foul odor and complained.

Authorities found bodies piled throughout the bug-infested Penrose building in various states of decomposition.

The case became the most egregious in a string of criminal cases involving Colorado funeral homes as details emerged about the Hallfords’ lavish spending and their pattern of defrauding customers.

Just months before the bodies were found in Penrose, a mother and daughter who operated a funeral home in the western Colorado city of Montrose were sentenced to federal prison after being accused of selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes.

In 2024, authorities in Denver arrested a financially troubled former funeral home owner who kept a deceased woman’s body in a hearse for two years at a house where police also found the cremated remains of at least 30 people.

And last year, state inspectors found 24 decomposing bodies and multiple containers of bones behind a hidden door of a Pueblo funeral home owned by the Pueblo County coroner and his brother. It was the first ever inspection of that mortuary under new rules that allow all funeral homes to be routinely inspected.

Carie Hallford asked for leniency in March when she was sentenced in a related federal fraud case, saying she was a victim of abuse and manipulation in her marriage.

But she enters Friday’s hearing with limited sympathy from victims such as Crystina Page, whose son, David, died in 2019. His body languished for years inside the room-temperature building in Penrose with other corpses before their discovery.

Jon Hallford “was the monster under the bed, but Carie was the one who fed the monster,” Page said. Page and others received fake ashes instead of the cremated remains they were promised.

The Hallfords, who divorced following their arrest, received prison sentences in the related federal fraud case — 18 years for Carie and 20 years for Jon. They have each appealed.

State officials and industry representatives said this week that industry reforms adopted by Colorado lawmakers are making a difference.

In response to the Hallford case, the state mandated inspections and adopted an industry licensing system. The changes put Colorado “in the middle of the pack” compared to regulation in other states, acknowledged Sam Delp with the state Department of Regulatory Agencies, which oversees the funeral industry.

“We were the only state in the country that didn’t regulate them,” said Delp, who directs the agency's Division of Professions and Occupations.

Matt Whaley, president of the Colorado Funeral Home Directors Association, suggested that customers have become more cautious after years of news coverage about Return to Nature and other businesses where crimes occurred.

More often now, family members ask to be present for a loved one’s cremation rather than just receive the ashes after the fact, Whaley said.

“The confidence level of a funeral professional in the state of Colorado is questioned, and we’ve got to work hard, one family at a time, to build that trust back,” he said.

Blanca Eberhardt, a licensed funeral director who previously practiced mortuary science in Indiana, Texas and Hawaii, recalled moving to Colorado and being appalled at the mistreatment of some corpses inside a funeral home where she worked in Pueblo. For Eberhardt, the experience confirmed Colorado's reputation for lacking basic rules such as licensing for funeral home directors and routine inspections.

“The joke has been for the last 40 years if you lose your license in another state, just move to Colorado," she said.

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Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Associated Press journalist Thomas Peipert contributed to this story.

It’s a spectacle that once brought 1,000 or more tourists each year to Kaktovik, the only settlement in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in a phenomenon sometimes called “last chance tourism” — a chance to see magnificent sights and creatures before climate change renders them extinct.

The COVID-19 pandemic and an order from the federal government halting boat tours to see the bears largely ended Kaktovik's polar bear tourism amid concerns that the tiny village was being overrun by outsiders.

But Kaktovik leaders are now hoping to revive it, saying it could be worth millions to the local economy and give residents another source of income — provided the village can set guidelines that protect its way of life and the bears themselves.

“We definitely see the benefit for tourism,” said Charles Lampe, president of the Kaktovik Inupiat Corp, which owns 144 square miles (373 square kilometers) of land. “The thing is, it can’t be run like it was before.”

Visitors overwhelm a tiny village

As far back as the early 1980s, anyone in Kaktovik with a boat and knowledge of the waters could take a few tourists out to watch the bears as they lumbered across the flat, treeless barrier islands just off the coast or tore into the ribs of a bowhead whale left by subsistence hunters.

Tourism in Kaktovik soared in the years after federal officials declared polar bears a threatened species in 2008. The rapid warming of the Arctic is melting the sea ice that the bears use to hunt seals, and scientists have said that most polar bears could be wiped out by the end of the century.

As visitation boomed, the federal government imposed regulations requiring tour operators to have permits and insurance, and that began to squeeze locals out of the industry, Lampe said. Larger out-of-town operators moved in, and before long, crowds of tourists were coming to Kaktovik — a village of about 250 people — during the six-week viewing season.

The town’s two hotels and restaurants lost out on some business when large operators began flying tourists in from Fairbanks or Anchorage for day trips. Locals complained that tourists gawked at them or traipsed through their yards.

Small plane capacity became an issue, with residents sometimes battling tourists to get on flights to or from larger cities for medical appointments, forcing those left stranded in the cities to get expensive hotel rooms for the night.

Renewing polar bear tourism, with changes

When the pandemic struck, Kaktovik paused visitation. Then in 2021, the federal government, which manages polar bears, halted boat tours, mostly over concerns about how tourists were affecting bear behavior and overrunning the town.

Alaska Native leaders are now in talks with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to address those concerns and reignite the industry, perhaps as early as 2027. The agency told The Associated Press in a statement that it’s working with Kaktovik “to ensure that any future opportunities are managed in a way that prioritizes visitor safety, resource protection, and community input.”

Among the changes Kaktovik leaders want to see is a limit on how long a boat can sit in the water near the bears. Too long, Lampe said, and the bears get used to humans — making for a dangerous situation when bears wander into town looking for food.

During the height of the tourism boom, it became tougher to haze bears out of town, even with the town’s bear patrol shooting at them with nonlethal rounds. The patrol had to kill about three or four bears per year, compared with maybe one per year before the boom, Lampe said.

“Our safety was at risk,” Lampe said.

In 2023, a 24-year-old woman and her 1-year-old son were killed in a polar bear attack in Wales, in far western Alaska. It was the first fatal polar bear attack in nearly 30 years in Alaska, the only U.S. state home to the species.

Since the boat tours in Kaktovik were halted, the bears once again seem more fearful of humans, Lampe said.

Encouraging respectful visits in the Arctic

Polar bear tourism coincides with Kaktovik’s subsistence whaling season. When a crew lands a whale, it's usually butchered on a nearby beach. While the community encourages visitors to watch or even help, some were recording or taking pictures without permission, which is considered disrespectful, Lampe said.

Sherry Rupert, CEO of the American Indigenous Tourism Association, suggested that Kaktovik market itself as a two- or three-day experience.

Native communities that are ready for tourists "want them to come and be educated and walk away with a greater understanding of our people and our way of life and our culture,” she said.

Roger and Sonia MacKertich of Australia were looking for the best spot on the planet to view polar bears in the wild when they came to Kaktovik in September 2019. They spent several days in the village, took a walking tour led by an elder and bought souvenirs made by local artists, including a hoodie featuring a polar bear.

For Roger MacKertich, a professional wildlife photographer based in Sydney, the highlight was the boat tours to see bears roaming on the barrier islands or taking a dip in the water. The bears paid them no attention.

“That’s nearly as good as it gets,” he said.

Shapiro, who is just beginning to hit the campaign trail, wants voters to give Democrats control of the state legislature for the first time in decades. And he's pushing his favored candidates in competitive congressional primaries, an attempt to mold his party's slate in the midterm elections that will determine control of Washington.

All of this means that, much like other potential Democratic presidential candidates, Shapiro is testing his political capital in ways that could shape his future and the party’s.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker successfully boosted his favored candidate in his state's U.S. Senate primary. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore failed to convince lawmakers to redraw the state's congressional map, while California Gov. Gavin Newsom achieved redistricting through a voter referendum last year.

Shapiro brushed off questions — and Republican criticism — about burnishing his credentials for a White House run.

“The only thing I am focused on is beating my opponent for governor and helping other Democrats get elected here and sending a clear message to Donald Trump that the chaos, cruelty and corruption that he’s been engaged in is not something that we support here in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro told The Associated Press after speaking to Democrats at a packed coffee shop in small-town Lock Haven.

Shapiro has never said whether he's interested in running for president. But he does say he wants a voice in his party's future. Democrats need to figure out how to “get stuff done” to make people’s lives better, he said, and he wants to be “part of that conversation.”

Stacy Garrity, the Republican state treasurer who is running for governor, said Shapiro can't hide his ambition — and it's bad for the state.

"We all know that he’s more interested in Pennsylvania Avenue than helping Pennsylvania families,” she said in an interview. “He thinks if he can hand Pennsylvania on a platter to the Democratic Party, then maybe they take a harder look at him.”

An opportunity to demonstrate strength

They just might.

Pennsylvania is a hard state to succeed in politically, and Democrats around the country are taking note of Shapiro because of that, said Paul Begala, a Democratic campaign strategist, commentator and senior aide to Bill Clinton when he was president.

The election gives Shapiro an opportunity to demonstrate strength.

“Right now, Democrats, the thing they want the most is a winner, and a very close second is a fighter,” Begala said. “This election is an opportunity for him to show that.”

Ahead of this year's campaign, Shapiro put his stamp on the Pennsylvania Democratic Party by getting committee people to elect his hand-picked chair and plunging more than $900,000 so far this election cycle into the organization's accounts.

He’s on track to break his own state fundraising record and tells voters that Pennsylvania is the “center of the political universe” in the fight for control of the U.S. House.

Democrats want to flip four House seats in Pennsylvania. Shapiro's endorsed candidates include Paige Cognetti, mayor of Scranton; Bob Brooks, president of the state firefighters' union; and Janelle Stelson, a former television news personality who narrowly lost two years ago.

Shapiro already cut an ad for Brooks, who is running in a hotly contested four-way primary for the chance to challenge freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie.

Contested primaries and GOP surrogates

Shapiro's endorsements haven't scared off Democratic rivals.

Ryan Crosswell, a former federal prosecutor running against Brooks, issued a campaign memo that — in a veiled reference to the governor — said Crosswell has “no party machine behind him, no power broker network, no favors to call in.”

For his part, Shapiro said: “I’m just focused on trying to elevate good people. Hopefully they’ll all win.”

Republicans, meanwhile, have their own surrogates.

Garrity said the White House asked her for a list of people she wants to visit in Pennsylvania.

Trump, Vice President JD Vance and a number of Cabinet secretaries have already visited the state's contested congressional districts. Earlier this month, House Speaker Mike Johnson made a fundraising swing through Pennsylvania.

“We know the majority runs through Pennsylvania and the speaker is focused on doing everything he can to help those members defend their seats,” said Greg Steele, a spokesperson for Johnson’s political operation.

It’s quite likely Johnson will be back: Pennsylvania was his last campaign stop before the 2024 election.

Trump and Vance could return, too, and in the meantime, the president is keeping an eye on Pennsylvania. On Tuesday night, he took to social media to take credit for a decision by owners of two coal-fired power plants not to close in what he called a “BIG WIN for the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which I love.”

Shapiro starts hitting the campaign trail

As he begins to campaign, Shapiro is proving himself to be a draw even in Pennsylvania’s out-of-the-way areas. Earlier this month, he helped pack a ballroom for Centre County Democrats and the coffee shop for Clinton County Democrats.

“I saw brand-new people, I saw people who have not been engaged in the party in years,” Bre Brannan, Clinton County's Democratic Party chair, said. The crowd included Republicans and independents, too, she said.

With a Democratic "trifecta," Shapiro tells audiences he could get more done, citing legislation Republicans have stalled. That includes raising Pennsylvania's rock-bottom minimum wage and expanding legal protections for LGBT residents. He also has a housing affordability plan he's pushing this year.

Consolidating control of the state Legislature would be no small feat. Democrats hold a one-seat majority in the state House and haven’t held the state Senate majority in over three decades.

Few Democrats in the party's 2028 presidential sights have an opportunity to demonstrate political strength and party-building aptitude in swing states.

The opportunity could help Shapiro prove his mettle when the presidential campaign season cranks up and would-be candidates go in search of institutional support, endorsements and donor commitments.

Pouring money into down-ballot races and flipping seats may not help Shapiro with the average voter. But activists, donors and other elected officials care a great deal about that, strategists say.

Success would strengthen Shapiro’s hand at a time when candidates are trying to win the “perception campaign” that they are the strongest candidate, Democratic campaign strategist Mike Mikus said.

“It doesn’t guarantee anything,” Mikus said. "But it is definitely something to bring to the table when you’re lining up donors, endorsements and finance chairs, things like that. It’s compelling to them.”

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

Offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa was taken No. 10 overall by the New York Giants, defensive lineman Rueben Bain Jr. went No. 15 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Akheem Mesidor was selected No. 22 by the Los Angeles Chargers.

Bain and Mesidor anchored Miami’s defensive line during its national championship run, combining for 117 tackles, 22 sacks and five forced fumbles last season.

Mesidor led the duo with 63 tackles and 12.5 sacks, while Bain added 54 tackles and 9.5 sacks.

The pair also made their presence felt on the biggest stage, generating 33 pressures and seven sacks across three College Football Playoff games.

Miami defensive line coach and Pro Football Hall of Fame edge rusher Jason Taylor said earlier this month that both players are built for the next level.

“They got everything,” Taylor said.“They have the mental makeup. They love football. Those two guys love ball.”

Taylor dismissed concerns about Bain’s measurables, including his 30⅞-inch arm length, and Mesidor’s age, pointing instead to their production and consistency.

“I don’t give a damn how long somebody’s arms are,” Taylor said. “Put on the tape.”

On offense, Mauigoa entered the draft with some injury concerns. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported he has a herniated disk in his back, a factor teams evaluated leading up to the draft.

Despite that, analysts view him as a plug-and-play lineman.

Listed at 6-foot-6 and 325 pounds, Mauigoa brings extensive experience at right tackle with a powerful frame, strong hands and the ability to anchor in pass protection. His footwork also gives him the versatility to potentially move inside to guard.

With three first-round selections, Miami once again is well represented on draft night.

The Hurricanes have a long history of producing NFL talent.

At least one Miami player has been selected in 51 consecutive NFL drafts, a school record.

Proctor, 20, is 6-foot-7 and 359 pounds and is expected to compete for the right tackle spot currently held by Austin Jackson. He said he’s ready to contribute wherever needed.

“I feel comfortable playing anywhere. Wherever coach needs me to play, I’ll be there,” Proctor said during a Zoom call with reporters.

Proctor said he quickly connected with Miami’s staff.

“We hit it off right away and I liked the coaching staff right away,” he said.

Known for his size and physicality, Proctor emphasized his approach in the run game and what it means to block for Pro Bowl running back De’Von Achane.

“Physicality, running the s--- out of the ball. It feels good blocking for a guy that has grit and toughness,” Proctor said. “He’s going to make plays.”

Proctor is Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley’s first draft selection with the team.

Miami received the No. 12 overall pick, along with picks No. 177 and No. 180 in the fifth round, in the trade with Dallas.

The Cowboys selected Ohio State defensive back Caleb Downs with the 11th pick.

Proctor said the moment was emotional as he looks ahead to joining the organization.

“I go out there and try to handle my business,” he said. “Tears flowing down my face, I’m ready to get down there and build a great bond.”

He added that he feels confident in multiple blocking schemes, including zone, and is eager to get on the field.

Proctor also acknowledged his past weight — once reaching 400 pounds while at Alabama under coach Nick Saban — but said he has a plan in place to maintain his conditioning and perform at a high level.

The Dolphins also traded to pick 27 with the San Francisco 49ers in the first round and selected San Diego State cornerback Chris Johnson.

As of Thursday, the Dolphins’ draft capital includes:

• Round 1, pick 12: Alabama OT Kadyn Proctor

• Round 1, pick 27: San Diego State cornerback Chris Johnson (Trade with San Francisco)

• Round 2: No. 43

• Round 3: Nos. 75, 87, 94

• Round 4: Nos. 130, 138

• Round 5: Nos. 151, 177 (Dallas), 180 (Dallas)

• Round 7: Nos. 227, 238

Miami traded its sixth-round pick to the New York Giants in exchange for tight end Darren Waller.

Miami acquired picks No. 27 and No. 138 in the deal, sending the 49ers its first-round pick (No. 30) and third-round pick (No. 90).

Johnson joined the Aztecs in 2022 and made an immediate impact, appearing in 12 games as a freshman before earning a larger role in the seasons that followed. He began to emerge in 2024, recording one interception, 67 total tackles and three forced fumbles.

His senior season marked a true breakout.

Johnson started 11 games and recorded four interceptions, 49 tackles (36 solo), one sack, 13 passes defended, and 1 forced fumble. He also had two interceptions returned for touchdowns.

He was named a second-team All-American, co-Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year, first-team All-Mountain West, and his two interceptions returned for touchdowns were tied for the most in the FBS.

Miami also selected Alabama offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor with pick No. 12 in the first round after trading back with the Dallas Cowboys.

Proctor and Johnson are Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley’s first two draft selections with the team.

As of Thursday, the Dolphins’ draft capital includes:

• Round 1, pick 12: Alabama OT Kadyn Proctor

• Round 1, pick 27: San Diego State cornerback Chris Johnson (Trade with San Francisco)

• Round 2: No. 43

• Round 3: Nos. 75, 87, 94

• Round 4: Nos. 130, 138

• Round 5: Nos. 151, 177 (Dallas), 180 (Dallas)

• Round 7: Nos. 227, 238

Schlittler limited the team he rooted for growing up to four hits over eight innings, and the Yankees rallied twice to beat the Boston Red Sox 4-2 on Thursday night for a three-game sweep and a season-high six-game winning streak.

A Red Sox fan who grew up in Walpole and played college ball at Northeastern, Schlittler told the New York Post ahead of the game that he and his family had received death threats.

With Cody Charneski, a Yankees producer of digital and social content, joining him in the bullpen for his warmup, Schlittler said his reception from Fenway fans in person wasn't too out of line.

"There was a couple things but, again, Cody is out there with the camera, so I think that’ll limit that,” Schlitter said, "Not too bad. I think you overestimate how many genuine people are out there compared to online. So it’s a good feeling. I had a lot of buddies out there watching.”

Schlitter's family and friends were noticeably excited when he struck out his final batter, Jarren Duran, with his 96th pitch.

Schlittler (3-1) allowed two runs — one earned — over eight innings while striking out five, walking one and lowering his ERA to 1.77.

It was the longest outing in 20 regular-season starts for the 25-year-old right-hander, who pitched eight shutout innings to beat the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium in last year’s AL Wild Card Series.

“He’s got a great demeanor about him. He’s very even keeled and very adaptable, but also competitive and very confident. All great traits,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s always looking forward to his day out there. He’s a very confident guy and I think it’s meaningful for him to come back to where he grew up.”

Schlittler tossed a ball to a fan in the front-row of the right field seats before heading to the bullpen. Another fan in close proximity to the bullpen held up a yellow sign that stated, “Walpole Loves Schlittler.”

“For the most part, really respectful,” Schlittler said.

The public-address announcement of Schlitter as New York’s starting pitcher drew a mixture of cheers and boos. Cody Bellinger, whose two-run single as a pinch-hitter put the Yankees ahead a three-run seventh, was impressed with how Schlitter responded this week.

“I think he handled it great," Bellinger said. "He's such a young kid, and this rivalry, it is —- it's different when you wear these two uniforms and he’s just done a tremendous job pitching and handling everything that comes with it.”

Schlitter struck out 12 against the Red Sox in the postseason game that ended Boston's 2025 season.

“There were plenty of distractions to be had before his playoff start last year, and he obviously handled that really well,” Boone said.

“He was throwing hard that day,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora recalled before the series finale. “From pitch one, we had to be almost perfect. We didn’t put too much pressure on him.”

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

Fans say they don’t just listen to Springsteen’s music -- they absorb it, adding that his songs never seem to age.

They’re here for The Boss.

One of the most iconic voices in rock ‘n’ roll is bringing the E Street Band to South Florida, with guitars, drums and a lineup expected to include hits like Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A..

Doors opened at 6:30 p.m., but some fans -- more like superfans -- showed up early, trying to catch a glimpse of Springsteen near the back entrance.

Among them were Denise Blatz of North Port and Taylor Davis of Palm Beach, who said they just met at the arena while bonding over their shared love of Springsteen.

Maybe they’ll be heading to future concerts together.

As of this evening, tickets are still available, with single seats going for about $85 and others listed around $590.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office says deputies found 23 dogs being neglected at Jamar Clair’s home.

Working with Broward County Animal Care and Adoption, an arrest report states deputies found nine adult pit bulls and pit bull mixes, along with 14 puppies estimated to be 3 to 4 weeks old on the property. Investigators said 13 dogs were in the front yard and seven more were in the backyard.

Deputies said one of the dogs had a severe eye infection and needed medical treatment, adding all seven dogs in the backyard showed signs of abuse and neglect.

A woman who identified herself as Clair’s fiancée spoke but did not want to show her face.

She said she feeds the dogs twice a day and argued the animals were not neglected, adding some were only being kept temporarily for a friend.

According to the report, some of the puppies were removed before a follow-up visit by law enforcement. During a final follow-up, investigators took the remaining five dogs from Clair’s home.

Investigators described the property as unkempt, with feces and flies present. When asked about those conditions, the woman said the dogs were in their own environment and kept in cages with locks.

Authorities say Clair has faced similar accusations before. Last year, police said a dog was found tethered outside on a short chain in 87-degree weather.

He was also accused of similar allegations in 2024.

In this case, investigators say Clair refused to appear in bond court. He is being held on a $75,000 bond and is accused of not cooperating with police.

After starring in a Game 2 stunner at Madison Square Garden, McCollum got the ball with his team trailing by a point. He came through again from 15 feet, finishing with 23 points.

Hawks coach Quin Snyder called it “a great shot,” but stressed the effort of his entire team.

“They work, they share,” Snyder said. “That's the thing about this group that I've enjoyed so much.”

The Hawks led nearly the entire game, building an 18-point lead in the first half. But New York rallied for a 108-105 edge on Jalen Brunson's three-point play with 1:03 remaining.

After Jalen Johnson, who led the Hawks with 24 points, rolled in a shot, Josh Hart missed a 3-pointer for the Knicks. New York got the offensive rebound, but couldn't get off a shot ahead of the 24-second clock.

“You couldn't ask for anything better than that,” Knicks coach Mike Brown lamented. “Less than a minute to go in the game and a chance to go up by three.”

The Knicks failed to get off a shot at the end, either, as Brunson turned the ball over and the horn sounded.

Jonathan Kuminga had a huge night for the Hawks off the bench, finishing with 21 points.

OG Anunoby led the Knicks with 29 points, Brunson had 26 and Karl-Anthony Towns chipped in with 21. It wasn't enough for New York.

Brown griped about the officiating, believing the refs missed some calls at the basket. But he stressed that his team must make better decisions going forward.

Game 4 is Saturday in Atlanta.

“They're closing out hard," Brown said of the Hawks. ”It's a tough game for the officials to officiate, but I know we got fouled on a few of the tries that didn't get called."

McCollum picked up were he left off at Madison Square Garden, hitting a step-back jumper beyond the arc for Atlanta's first points. He had 16 by the halftime break.

McCollum showed off more than his offensive skills. After Hart scooped up a loose ball and drove toward the hoop with only the Atlanta guard to beat, McCollum blocked the shot and sent the ball off Hart's foot to give possession back to the Hawks.

The Hawks outscored the Knicks 27-12 over the final seven minutes of the opening quarter, turning the game in their favor with an 11-0 spurt and closing the period with three straight 3-pointers. The first was by little-used center Mouhamed Gueye, left wide open by the New York defense, followed by two straight from backup forward Kuminga to send the State Farm Arena crowd into a frenzy.

But, with the Hawks on the verge of blowing the game open late in the first half, New York closed the the period on a 12-2 run. Atlanta went to the locker room with a 58-50 lead.

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

Alex Lyon stopped 24 shots in his first start of the postseason and the Sabres, who snapped an NHL-record 14-year playoff drought by winning the Atlantic Division, regained home-ice advantage in the best-of-seven series. Game 4 is Sunday in Boston, with the Bruins needing a win to assure themselves of another home game.

Jeremy Swayman made 25 saves, and Tanner Jeannot scored early in the second period for the Bruins as they opened the scoring for the third straight game. But they missed a chance to go up 2-0 when Viktor Arvidsson's penalty shot went wide.

“Definitely a turning point,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said.

Boston had a chance to go up 2-0 when Mattias Samuelsson’s stick broke right in front of the Buffalo net, for a turnover that gave Arvidsson an open lane on the net. Rasmus Dahlin took him down, leading to a penalty shot.

Arvidsson circled wide and came in slowly but Lyon left him no opening.

“I try not to overthink the penalty shot too much,” Lyon said. “Kind of the same situation as the shootout and just try to kind of be in the moment. That’s when practice comes through. So you've just got to trust your instincts and lean on those.”

About a minute later, Byram one-timed a shot past Swayman to tie it.

“Yes, it was a big swing. Absolutely,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm said. “The bench was not the same, let’s put it that way.”

Tuch made it 2-1 when he grabbed a loose puck and fired it past a screened goalie, and Noah Ostlund added an empty-netter with 1:24 left.

The teams split the first two games in Buffalo, with Boston taking the lead both times before Buffalo rallied in the last half of the third period. In Game 1, the Sabres came back to win 4-3, but they were too far back after a 4-0 deficit in Game 2 and lost 4-2.

The early struggles doomed Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to backup. He won the playoff starting job by closing the regular season 12-2-1 but was pulled after allowing the fourth goal early in the third period on Tuesday night.

Lyon went 20-10-4 during the season.

“I think getting in for a few minutes of the last game was really helpful,” he said. “Before that, it was probably two weeks since I had played. So just to get the feel of the game, I think that set me up nicely for today.”

Buffalo continued to struggle on the power play. After failing to score on the last 22 chances in the regular season, the Sabres have misfired on their first 13 man advantages in the series, including four Thursday.

“Our power play let Swayman off the hook,” Ruff said. “But there was some good stuff there. And both goaltenders made some big saves at key times.”

Up next

Game 4 is Sunday before the series shifts back to Buffalo for Game 5 on Tuesday night.

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

Periodistas de The Associated Press tuvieron acceso en la jornada a uno de los pabellones del Centro de Confinamiento Contra el Terrorismo (CECOT), donde en completo orden sentados en sillas plásticas los pandilleros participaban de forma virtual frente a grandes pantallas del desarrollo del proceso en su contra.

Vestidos con pantalones cortos y camisa blanca, con tatuajes que los identifican como miembros de la Mara Salvatrucha, rapados por completo, esposados y con grilletes, en total silencio, escuchaban los testimonios de quienes los involucran en los supuestos crímenes. El juicio a 486 pandilleros tiene lugar en el Tribunal Sexto Contra el Crimen Organizado de San Salvador, la capital.

Es el segundo juicio masivo a integrantes de estos grupos, luego que en marzo de 2025 se realizó el primero que resultó en la condena de 52 miembros de la pandilla Barrio 18 que habían sido capturados en los primeros días de vigencia del régimen de excepción impulsado por el presidente Nayib Bukele para enfrentar a las pandillas y que está vigente desde marzo de 2022.

En noviembre del año pasado un tribunal declaró culpables a 45 pandilleros de ese grupo por varios delitos, entre ellos extorsión y homicidio, e impuso una condena de 397 años de prisión a uno de los cabecillas.

Múltiples crímenes

El Ministerio Público dice que los pandilleros están siendo procesados por más de 47.000 delitos que van desde homicidio, feminicidio, extorsión, tráfico de armas y hasta desaparición de personas. En el caso de los señalados como cabecillas —poco más de una veintena— están vinculados presuntamente a más de 9.043 delitos, entre ellos el asesinato de 80 policías.

El fiscal adjunto contra el Crimen Organizado, Max Muñoz, explicó a través de un video difundido por la Fiscalía que a los jefes de las pandillas se les pretende responsabilizar de todos los hechos delictivos, cometidos supuestamente entre el 2012 y finales de marzo de 2022, incluidos los 86 asesinatos que propiciaron que el presidente Bukele impulsara el régimen de excepción.

"Todas esas muertes se van a atribuir a los ranfleros (jefes) históricos que son 22”, aseguró el fiscal.

Los llamados cabecillas históricos nacionales y fundadores de la pandilla escuchan la audiencia a través de pantallas de televisión en pequeños salones del CECOT, ubicado en una zona rural del distrito de Tecoluca, departamento de San Vicente, a 81 kilómetros al este de la capital.

El CECOT —la megacárcel construida por el gobierno de Bukele— aparentaba diferente el jueves. Las celdas del pabellón número tres estaban vacías, ya que los miembros de las pandillas Barrio 18 fueron trasladados a otro pabellón, mientras que los de la Mara Salvatrucha participaban del juicio de manera virtual.

Este tipo de proceso colectivo tiene lugar luego de una reforma del Código Penal realizada en julio de 2023 que establece que los detenidos bajo el régimen de excepción, que suspende derechos fundamentales, sean agrupados según sus grupos o territorios.

Las autoridades dicen haber capturado desde que entró en vigor ese régimen a 91.300 personas acusadas de pertenecer supuestamente a las pandillas o tener vínculos con esos grupos criminales. Bukele ha dicho que 8.000 personas que eran inocentes han sido liberadas. Organizaciones de derechos humanos, en tanto, aseguran que han registrado más de 6.000 denuncias por víctimas bajo ese régimen y documentado la muerte de al menos 488 personas bajo custodia.

Los cabecillas

Entre los cabecillas que están siendo procesados, según la fiscalía, están Dionisio Arístides Umanzor Osorio, alias “El Sirra de Teclas; Borromeo Henríquez Solorzano, alias “Diablito de Hollywood"; Carlos Tiberio Ramírez Valladares, alias “Snayder” y César Antonio López Larios, alias “Greñas”.

Ellos formaron parte del grupo que participó en las negociaciones con el entonces gobierno del presidente Mauricio Funes, del exguerrillero Frente Farabundo martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), según las autoridades.

Otros cabecillas históricos ya han sido procesados, unos guardan prisión en el CECOT y en otra cárcel de máxima seguridad salavadoreña conocida como Zacatraz. Otros guardan prisión en Estados Unidos o están huyendo de la justicia mientras son procesados en ausencia.

Patty Tavatanakit, who won this major as a rookie in 2021 when it was the ANA Inspiration in the California desert, played bogey-free for a 67 and was two shots back along with Somi Lee, who bogeyed her final hole on the par-3 ninth.

Farah O'Keefe, the junior at Texas, missed a 5-foot par putt on her last hole to fall back into the group of players at 68.

“Just day one out of four — a lot can happen,” Korda said after her best opening round in a major since a 64 in the 2022 Evian Championship. “So happy to be in this position and hoping to move forward.”

Korda has been building toward the first major of the LPGA season, playing in the final group in each of her four tournaments this year and winning the season opener.

She started on No. 10 and the American star was in full flight after making the turn on a rain-soaked course that got little roll in the fairway. She made birdie on the three par 5s on the front nine and really shined on the tough par 3s — a 6-iron to 4 feet on No. 2, a 5-iron to 5 feet on No. 7.

Equally important was keeping bogeys off her card — her first bogey-free round in a major since the second round of the 2024 Women's British Open — especially on the front nine.

“Made a really long one on my first hole which could have started out the day with a bogey and I didn’t. I made a really solid putt,” she said. “Even on the second hole where I saved a 5-footer for par. Made some good saves for par.”

She also took advantage of the par 5s, which she often does when contending in majors (she was 21 under on the par 5s in her major wins at The Chevron in 2024 and the KPMG Women's PGA in 2021). They didn't always go as planned.

Korda couldn't get to the par-5 first hole (her 10th) in two because of a drive that strayed to the right. And when she hammered a drive with the wind at her back on the par-5 third, she had 6-iron to the green that came up short of a green with a back pin.

“Chunked it,” Korda said. “But I birdied both, so we're good.”

But it was the par 3s coming in that stood out, especially No. 2. Korda hit 6-iron from a slightly elevated tee over the bunker complex to 4 feet, a shot she considered her best of the day.

She prefers to hit a draw, and the wind gusting off the left made that uncomfortable for her. She had to carry a big slope, and the pin was tucked behind a bunker on the right, a bad place to miss.

“So really dialed into my target ... just left of the pin and the wind took it nicely and it dropped right next to the hole,” she said. “One, it took really nice. Two, it landed absolutely the perfect number. So those are the shot that you're like, ‘Oh, God, I love golf.’

“And then I hit a chunk on the next hole.”

The easy laugh was another indication Korda is in a happy place in golf and in life, coming off a winless season that also included her getting engaged.

Also having a great time was O'Keefe, who didn't get an invitation to The Chevron until after the Augusta National Women's Amateur. She chipped in for birdie on the par-4 fourth hole (her 13th) to reach 5 under and her name on the leaderboard — right up there with Korda — was quite a moment.

“It's a dream,” O'Keefe said. “It's something that you think about every once in a while and hope for, but I feel like I’m trying to stay composed. There is a lot more golf left to be played. The job is not done and I’m just going to keep doing what I have been doing because it just happens to be working.”

The Chevron is at Memorial Park — also site of the Houston Open on the PGA Tour last month — for the first time after three years at Carlton Woods. The course is listed at just over 6,800 yards on the scorecard, though some tees were moved up because of soft conditions from two days of rain.

Thirty-seven players in the 132-player field broke par. Jeeno Thitikul was not among them. The No. 1 player in women's golf had four bogeys over her last eight holes and shot 74. In her quest to win her first major, she started out nine shots behind Korda with her first goal to make the cut.

Minjee Lee, the Women's PGA champion trying to win her fourth of the LPGA's five majors, also opened with a 74.

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

The picks kicked off what should be a busy early stretch for New York, which has four selections in the first 44 spots in the draft. The Jets also have the first pick in the second round Friday night (No. 33) and No. 44.

Bailey gives coach Aaron Glenn and the Jets a big-time pass-rushing presence for a defense that was among the NFL’s worst last season.

“I feel like this organization is trending in the right way,” Bailey said. “I’m just ready to work.”

Bailey is the highest-selected defensive player by the Jets in the NFL draft since the 1970 merger.

With Las Vegas long linked to quarterback Fernando Mendoza at No. 1 overall, the most suspense centered on what New York would do one pick later. In the last few weeks, Bailey and Ohio State edge rusher Arvell Reese were most often linked to the Jets — and it was just a matter of which one they’d select, if they didn’t trade the pick.

General manager Darren Mougey stayed at No. 2 and took Bailey, who’ll be expected to help boost a pass rush that ranked 31st in the NFL with only 26 sacks. The crosstown-rival Giants drafted Reese with the fifth overall pick.

New York then addressed its offense 14 picks later, giving new quarterback Geno Smith a pass-catching tight end in Sadiq. It was largely assumed the Jets would go after a wide receiver in that spot — Indiana's Omar Cooper Jr. and USC's Makai Lemon were still available. Instead, they went with Sadiq, who set a school record last season for tight ends with 51 receptions.

Bailey was a force last season for Texas Tech, tying for the FBS lead with 14 1/2 sacks. He also ranked second with 19 1/2 tackles for loss, three forced fumbles and three pass breakups in 14 games, including 13 starts.

With the Jets, Bailey will help replace edge rusher Jermaine Johnson, who was traded to Tennessee for defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat in February.

“That feeling, it's like no other,” Bailey said of getting sacks. “It's really what I be chasing. I have a lot of motivations for why I play the game. That's one of them. That feeling when you get a sack and the crowd is on your side, especially during a home game — but regardless, home or away — it's one of the best feelings. I take a lot of pride in that.”

After three seasons at Stanford, the 22-year-old Bailey transferred to Texas Tech and was an AP All-America pick, the Big 12 defensive lineman of the year, the conference’s newcomer of the year and a finalist for the Lombardi Award as the country’s top lineman.

The Jets canceled their top-30 visit with Bailey last week, leading some to speculate that the team had waning interest. But Mougey said Tuesday at New York’s pre-draft news conference that wasn’t the case.

“In regards to David, we had good touch points with him at the combine, we went to his pro day, had a good dinner with him,” Mougey said. “We were just kind of juggling our 30 and how to use them and I wouldn’t look too much into a cancellation because there were other ones we may have changed, as well.”

Bailey will get his visit to the Jets' facility, after all. As New York's top draft pick.

“I had a great interaction with them at the combine,” Bailey said. “Obviously, they canceled the 30 visit, but other than that, man, I had a great FaceTime with Mougey and everybody.”

It’s the fourth time in franchise history that the Jets picked second overall and first since they took quarterback Zach Wilson in 2021. Running back Blair Thomas (1990) and wide receiver Johnny “Lam” Jones (1980) were the others.

The 6-foot-3, 241-pound Sadiq joins Jeremy Ruckert and Mason Taylor — the team's second-round pick last year — in the Jets' tight ends room.

Sadiq is considered a versatile tight end with terrific athleticism who should be able to help in both the passing and running games.

“I can create separation," Sadiq said. “But I can also go hit someone.”

He's the third-highest tight end taken by the Jets in NFL draft history, behind only Kyle Brady, who went ninth overall in 1995 and Johnny Mitchell, who was 15th overall in 1992.

Sadiq opened eyes at the NFL combine, running a 4.39 40-yard dash — a blazing speed for a tight end his size. He led FBS tight ends with eight touchdown catches last season, his first as a full-time starter for the Ducks.

“I play fast and I play hard," he said, "and that's two things I pride myself on.”

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

El 23 de marzo, el Hércules C-130 de matrícula 1016 de la Fuerza Aérea Colombiana se accidentó segundos después de su despegue en Puerto Leguizamo, en el departamento sureño Putumayo en la Amazonia colombiana, precipitándose cerca de la pista.

Según el informe de la Fuerza Aeroespacial Colombiana (FAC) que dio a conocer en rueda de prensa el coronel Luis Giraldo, director de Seguridad Operacional, cuatro segundos después el despegue, la aeronave impactó con tres árboles que se encontraban en la trayectoria de salida de la pista.

El material vegetal afectó a los motores con “pérdida significativa de potencia” e incidió “en el control de la aeronave”, que luego de 36 segundos “impactó en el suelo… generándose el incendio posterior”, detalló el coronel Giraldo.

Consultado sobre una posible falla humana, el director a cargo de la investigación declinó señalarlo como la causa determinante y aseguró que es parte de la investigación en curso.

Pese a ello, Giraldo subrayó que los hallazgos determinaron que “previo al vuelo la aeronave se encontraba perfectamente”, y que contaba con el certificado vigente de aeronavegabilidad. Agregó que tampoco tenía un mantenimiento pendiente “que impusiera restricciones” para su vuelo y que el peso en la aeronave y las condiciones meteorológicas eran adecuadas.

Los últimos segundos en el avión antes de su impacto, de acuerdo con los instrumentos de vuelo analizados revelaron, según contó la autoridad aeroespacial, que “solo hay una exclamación de sorpresa” y que el piloto y la tripulación se concentraron en intentar mantener el control de la aeronave.

El informe preliminar recomienda el retiro de los árboles en la zona pues representan “un riesgo” para otras aeronaves.

En el siniestro fallecieron 61 miembros del ejército, seis de la Fuerza Aeroespacial Colombiana y dos de la policía nacional.

El accidente aéreo considerado uno de los más graves en el país andino encendió el debate sobre el estado de la flota aérea colombiana. El presidente Gustavo Petro insistió en la necesidad de renovarla, pues, según dijo, la aeronave fue fabricada en 1983 y donada por Estados Unidos.

Gray worked a perfect inning in his debut for the Texas Rangers on Thursday night, getting a groundout on his first pitch in the majors and ending the 6-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates with a strikeout of Konnor Griffin, the highly touted shortstop playing the day before his 20th birthday.

“That makes me feel pretty old,” Grey said with a smile. “Getting my first career strikeout on him is pretty cool.”

The Rangers promoted Gray from Triple-A Round Rock earlier Thursday when placing left-handed reliever Robert Garcia on the 15-day injured list because of left shoulder inflammation after he hadn't pitched in a week. Gray was the fourth reliever they used after two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom recorded his 62nd career 10-strikeout game, getting those in 5 2/3 innings.

“It was awesome, and I was getting chills,” Rangers manager Skip Shumaker said. “The journey that he had to get to this spot, you could probably write a book about it.”

Gray found out about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night, after Round Rock was rained out for the second day in a row in Sugar Land, Texas, that he was going to join the Rangers. He then called his parents in Columbus, Indiana, and they made the more than 900-mile drive to be at their son's big-league debut.

Each time the phone rang in the Rangers bullpen Thursday night, Gray got antsy thinking it could be his moment.

“When it was finally my turn, it was awesome. I wasn’t nervous I was more excited, prepared,” said Gray, who was asked later why he didn't feel nervous. “I think I visualized this moment so many times throughout my life. ... I feel like I’ve been a big leaguer already. I just haven’t been able to be on this stage yet.”

After needing only one pitch to get his first out, Gray got a flyout before facing Griffin, the teenager who two weeks ago agreed to nine-year, $140 million contract with the Pirates. The swing-and-miss for strike three was on an 83.4 mph changeup that catcher Danny Jansen blocked and then threw to first base to end the game.

“This game is amazing. I love this game so much because of stories like that,” Schumaker said. “You’re seeing a kid that just came out of high school not too long ago, and then another guy that has spent (time) trying to get his moment. ... For him to get a strikeout against a future All-Star over there. That’s what the beautiful part of this game is, you don’t see that in every sport. That just doesn’t happen. So yeah, pretty cool moment.”

After being in the Rangers’ minor league system last season, Gray impressed them in spring training this year as a non-roster invite. He had 2.53 ERA in nine appearances with 18 strikeouts and one walk over 10 2/3 innings.

The pitcher who will turn 31 on June 2 began this season at Triple-A Round Rock, where he threw 12 2/3 scoreless innings over seven games, going 1-0 with two saves, 15 strikeouts and two walks.

“Being the 30-year-old non-roster invite that doesn’t have any big league time, I don’t think they expected me to put up as many zeroes and throw as many strikes as I did,” Gray said in the Rangers clubhouse before his MLB debut. ”So I think I surprised them. I might have surprised myself a little bit too.”

After pitching at Florida Gulf Coast University, Gray’s professional debut was a short season with the Colorado Rockies’ affiliate in the Northwest League in 2018, and he stayed in their organization in 2019.

He spent 2021 in the Kansas City Royals’ organization, that between three different seasons for the Milwaukee Milkmen in the independent American Association. He pitched in the Dominican last winter, after the previous three winters in the Mexican Pacific League.

“That’s awesome. 30 years old, that it’s a long time and been through a lot,” deGrom said of Gray. “So for him to get up here and get to the major leagues is just a testament to how hard he has worked throughout the minor leagues and stuff. So very happy for him.”

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

The five-member Florida Public Service Commission met on Thursday in Tallahassee for a hearing about the Andytown-Oasis project to place four transmission lines from Broward to Miami-Dade.

A representative of the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization based in New York, was critical of the proposal.

“FPL did not conduct a full evaluation of alternatives,” David Cranston, EDF’s Florida clean energy manager, said during the meeting.

Related document: EDF’s prehearing statement

Ted Thomas, a Florida-based energy consultant and a former chairman of the Arkansas Public Service Commission, highlighted issues with cost and technology.

“FPL is asking you to approve a nearly billion-dollar capital expenditure based on an outdated silo approach to transmission planning,” Thomas told the Florida PSC panel during the meeting.

Despite the controversy, Gov. Ron DeSantis’s appointees to the Florida PSC, Gabriella Passidomo Smith, Mike La Rosa, Gary F. Clark, Ana Ortega, and Bobby Payne did not have any questions during the meeting.

The Florida PSC members will receive post-meeting notes next week, and they will have to decide if there is a public need for FPL’s proposed project.

Related document: Procedure for petition for determination of need

FPL reported that the transmission lines are meant to deal with “an increase of approximately 220,000 new customers” from 2026 to 2033 in Miami-Dade, which will translate into an 11% load increase.

One of the four transmission lines would start at FPL’s existing Andytown substation in Broward and end at FPL’s planned Oasis substation in Miami-Dade, according to the Florida PSC.

In Miami-Dade, a second line would start at FPL’s Quarry substation and end at the Oasis substation. Two other lines would start at Oasis, but one would end at Quarry and the other at the Levee substation.

According to FPL, after completing the design and permitting phase in 2028, construction is set to begin in 2029 and end in late 2033.

Related document: South Florida Regional Planning Council (April 20)

Related presentation: SFRPC guest speaker (April 20)

Location: Andytown

According to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board, the truck drove through the airport's version of a stop light and the vehicle lacked a transponder, hampering a crash warning system. There was also extra heavy air traffic and an emergency involving another plane at the time.

Air Canada Express Flight 8646, a regional jet from Montreal with 76 people aboard, slammed into the fire truck seconds after landing on March 22. Pilots Antoine Forest, 30, and Mackenzie Gunther, 24, were killed, and 39 people were taken to hospitals with injuries, including the two people in the fire truck.

It was the first deadly crash at LaGuardia in 34 years. Here are some key takeaways from the NTSB's report.

Busy air traffic controllers

Two air traffic controllers were on duty on the night of the crash, consistent with normal scheduling.

But LaGuardia was busier than usual because flight delays pushed the number of arrivals and departures after 10 p.m. to more than double what was scheduled, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Planes were landing every few minutes in the lead up to the crash. At the same time, the controllers had to shuffle their duties because of an emergency involving a strong odor on a departing United Airlines jet. The fire truck involved in the collision was leading a convoy of vehicles responding to the emergency.

While the more senior controller was coordinating the United emergency response, the other controller took over directing vehicles on the ground while continuing to authorized takeoffs and landings.

“These controllers were just way busy, just too busy,” aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said.

No transponder on the fire truck

LaGuardia is one of 35 major U.S. airports with an advanced surface surveillance system that combines radar data with information from transponders inside planes and ground vehicles to help prevent collisions. Controllers have a display in the tower that’s supposed to show the location of every plane and vehicle.

The fire truck involved in the crash — and the others in the convoy — were not equipped with transponders that would have enabled the system, known as ASDE-X, to precisely track their movements.

The system's radar had trouble distinguishing the fire truck and the other vehicles, and the radar targets intermittently merged on the display. As a result, it didn’t sound an alarm to alert controllers.

Red lights were on

According to air traffic control transmissions, the Air Canada flight was cleared to land at 11:35 p.m. About two minutes later, 25 seconds before the crash, the fire crew asked to cross the same runway.

The flight was about 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground when an air traffic controller cleared the fire truck to cross. At the time, a system of red lights on the runway that act as a warning for crossing traffic were still lit up.

They remained illuminated until the truck reached the edge of the runway — about three seconds before the collision. By design, the lights turn off two or three seconds before a plane reaches a runway intersection, the report said.

The truck should have never entered the runway while the warning lights were on, even though the controller cleared it to cross, according to former airline pilot John Cox, CEO of Safety Operating Systems.

“That’s an automated system so even though the controller says you’re cleared to cross, the lights mean that there’s an airplane that is either on the runway or about to be,” Cox said.

Guzzetti said it may have been hard to see the runway lights before the crash because it was dark and the pavement was wet.

‘Stop, stop, stop’

Nine seconds before the crash, the controller realized the plane and truck were set to collide and told the fire crew: “Stop, stop, stop, stop. Truck 1. Stop, stop, stop, stop.”

The fire truck's turret operator told investigators that he recalled hearing “stop, stop, stop” but didn't know who the words were intended for until subsequently hearing “Truck 1."

He then noticed the truck had already entered the runway. As they turned left, he said he could see the plane's lights on the runway.

It’s understandable that the driver didn’t realize the controller's initial stop call was meant for the truck, Cox said, since he was giving instructions to multiple different vehicles in succession.

“Now we know who he’s talking to, but the first three stop, stop, stop there is ambiguity, if you were listening to it, who he’s talking to,” Cox said.

But Cox said he's not sure the truck would have been able to stop in time even if the driver had slammed on the brakes at the first call to stop, because the NTSB said it had reached 29 mph (47 kph) before it entered the runway.

Given the truck's speed and weight, Cox said, the vehicle “isn’t going to stop on a dime."

The president announced the renovation at an Oval Office event Thursday, saying the coating had already begun. He was inspired to tackle the project after a friend visited from Germany and lamented that the water was filthy and looked disgusting, Trump said.

“And I went over there with Secret Service in tow, and I said, isn’t that a shame? That’s terrible,” Trump said, showing reporters a photo of the site as it undergoes work.

The project is one more makeover refashioning the nation’s capital to Trump’s liking, following others such as the demolition of the White House's East Wing to make room for a new ballroom.

Lined with stately elm trees between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, the reflecting pool is one of the most iconic sites in the capital. It’s where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.

In Trump’s telling, the reflection pool project is a case study in business acumen. The president said he scrapped plans to have the granite replaced, which he said was estimated to cost $301 million and would take at least three years.

Instead, Trump said he called a few pool contractors he knows from past real estate projects — “I have a guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools up the road,” Trump said.

The president went with a plan to clean the granite and lay down a new “industrial grade pool” surface for $1.5 million, he said. All told, it would take a few weeks. Trump noted it would be ready well before July 4, when the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of its independence.

Trump brought up the project unprompted and spoke about it for several minutes at a White House event on efforts to reduce drug prices. He said he initially wanted a turquoise-colored surface “like in the Bahamas” but was sold when a contractor suggested “American flag blue.”

“You’re going to end up with a beautiful, beautiful reflecting pool,” Trump said, “the way it’s supposed to be, much better than it ever was.”

Smalley and Springer matched the tournament record with a 58.

“We’ve got a long way to go before the tournament is over, but it’s a fun format,” Smalley said about the PGA Tour's only team event. “It’s nice to kind of mix it up a little bit, to have a team event like this instead of doing the same monotonous thing that we do week in and week out, just kind of doing our own thing, playing our own ball.”

Shane Lowry and Brooks Koepka, who comprise the most accomplished team at the par-72 TPC Louisiana, shot a 66 to leave them outside the top 40 and in danger of missing the cut — unless they can make a strong push Friday in alternate-shot play.

The format returns to better ball Saturday, and back to alternate shot Sunday.

“The biggest thing is getting those two rounds under your belt, seeing where you lie, and kicking on from there,” Matt Fitzpatrick said.

Davis Thompson and Austin Eckroat were a shot behind after a round in which they followed Eckroat's eagle on the par-5 seventh with eight straight birdies.

Three teams were tied for third at 60: Sam Stevens and Zach Bouchou, along with Eric Cole and Hank Lebioda, and Nick Dunlap and Gordon Sargent.

Billy Horschel — the only player to win the Zurich in both single-play and team formats — was again in the hunt when after he and Tom Hoge shot a 61 — highlighted by Hoge's eagle on No. 2 — to put them in a seven-way tie for sixth.

Aaron Rai and Sahith Theegala each made eagles — Rai by spinning in a 106-yard approach shot on the par-4 13th — and posted a 62.

Defending Zurich champs Ben Griffin and Andrew Novak shot a bogey-free 65 and will need to move up some to make the cut in the only team event of the season.

Smalley, who has never won on the PGA Tour, made a 19-foot eagle put on the par-5 second hold after sinking a 16 1/2-footer to bridie No. 1. His tee shot on No. 3 landed within 7 feet to set up another birdie to put his team at 4 under.

“It’s nice to have another player to lean on a little bit,” Smalley said. ”

The pair of 29-year-old Americans then combined to birdie 10 of their final 14 holes. Springer, also seeking a maiden tour triumph, accounted for the final four birdies, highlighted by his 36-foot putt on the par-3 17th.

A large gallery gathered at the first hole to watch the Fitzpatricks tee off in the same group with Lowry and Koepka on a sunny, breezy, 80-degree afternoon.

Koepka — in his first season back on the PGA Tour after four years with LIV Golf — entered the week needing a good showing to earn his first exemption for a signature event, the next of which takes place next week at Trump National Doral in Miami.

Lowry carried their team early, with birdies on five of the first eight holes. Koepka finally pitched in with a 31 1/2-foot birdie putt on 10, but the pair did not better that par the rest of the way.

The Fitzpatricks, playing together a fourth straight year in New Orleans, got to 9-under with Matt Fitzpatrick's three straight bridies on the 15th through 17th holes. But then both hit their second shots in the water on the par-5 18th and closed with a bogey.

“Really disappointing way to end with two balls in perfect position,” Matt Fitzpatrick said. “It’s not good enough, really.”

A shirtless Michael Brennan made a splash — literally and otherwise — when he elected to hit a ball on the water's edge on 18 and sent muddy water flying everywhere while his ball popped straight up and plopped back in the water.

Still, he and teammate Johnny Keefer finished the round just three shots behind the leaders.

“I was dropping it if I was just playing in a normal tournament,” Brennan said. “But Johnny had a birdie putt on the green. So I was, like, ‘Well, I guess we can try it.’ But, yeah, it was fun.”

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

The Lakers made the designation on their high-scoring guard Thursday while the team flew to Houston. Los Angeles has a surprising 2-0 series lead heading into Game 3 on Friday night despite playing without Luka Doncic and Reaves, its top two scorers.

Reaves hasn't played since he strained his oblique muscles and Doncic strained his hamstring in a game at Oklahoma City on April 2, but Reaves returned to on-court basketball activities over the past few days. Before the Lakers' flight, coach JJ Redick said he had no update on the schedule for his injured starters' return to play.

Reaves averaged 23.3 points, 5.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds during an impressive regular season for the Lakers, although he played in only 51 games due to two lengthy injury absences. In his fifth season with Los Angeles, the former undrafted free agent cemented his status as a prolific secondary scorer and dependable offensive facilitator while the Lakers won 53 games and the Pacific Division.

But Reaves and NBA scoring champion Doncic were both injured during the Lakers' blowout loss to the Thunder three weeks ago.

Doncic is still out for Game 3, but Redick said earlier this week that the Slovenian superstar is expected to begin initial on-court work soon. The Lakers haven’t publicly speculated on the date of either guard’s return.

After losing three straight games following the injuries, the Lakers have regrouped and won five in a row. Los Angeles stunned the NBA by claiming the first two games of its first-round series at home over the Rockets, who were perceived as the strong favorites in the series due to the Lakers' injury problems.

Although 41-year-old LeBron James is leading the way, Luke Kennard and Marcus Smart also have stepped up impressively in the absence of the Lakers' starting backcourt. Kennard scored 27 points in Game 1 and 23 in Game 2, and Smart scored 25 points with five 3-pointers in Game 2 while leading Los Angeles' impressive defensive effort against Kevin Durant, who managed only three points after halftime.

Reaves will be eligible for a big new contract this summer if he declines his option for next season, as expected. Both Reaves and team officials have said they believe the guard will remain with the Lakers, his favorite team since childhood.

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

During a Thursday event announcing a deal with drugmaker Regeneron to lower the cost of its pharmaceutical products, Trump defended his past claims that prices on prescription medications had been cut by well over 100% — something that is mathematically impossible without manufacturers dropping prices to zero and then presumably paying consumers to use their product.

Trump acknowledged having boasted that his efforts to lower drug prices had reduced what consumers pay by “500%, 600%.” But he added, “We also sometimes say 50%, 60%” and called it a "different kind of calculation" that could go up to "70, 80 and 90%."

“People understand that better,” Trump said. “But they're two ways of calculating” and “either way, it doesn't make any difference.”

There could indeed be two ways of calculating such things — but the difference is very important. One is correct. The other is nonmathematical.

It was one of several times Trump used his own — but incorrect — math during the drug pricing event. He claimed the 7 1/2-week-and-still-going Iran war actually fell within the four- to six-week timeline he predicted early on. The president also brought up the crowd size for his 2017 inauguration — a subject that led onetime top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway to unwittingly make the phrase “ alternative facts ” famous.

Trump’s incorrect take on percentages — something he has long repeated — came just after his health chief, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., brought up the issue on his own during the same Oval Office event Thursday.

Kennedy noted that he was reminded of his exchange the previous day with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., at a congressional hearing when she said that claiming price cuts exceeding 100% might suggest “companies should be paying you to take their drugs.”

Kennedy said during the hearing that Trump “has a different way of calculating.”

On Thursday, Kennedy argued that drug manufacturers had raised prices on popular medications by more than 100% and that Trump was then cutting the price down substantially — meaning he was wiping out percentages of costs worth more than 100%.

“If the drug was $100, and it raised the price to $600, that would be a 600% rise,” Kennedy said — even though that's incorrect. Six hundred is indeed 600% of the original 100 value, but the increase from one to the other is actually only 500%.

Kennedy then continued, “And the president used that mathematical device.”

But no such device exists for the way Trump characterizes it — at least not when math is done correctly.

Something can increase in price by more than 100%. A product that increases from $1 to $2.10 has increased by 110%. But prices cannot be reduced by more than 100% without being pushed to a value of $0 — or reduced 100% of the full price — and then into negative territory, where consumers presumably would need to be paid for using a product.

In a subsequent question-and-answer session with reporters during the price announcement event, meanwhile, Trump offered another dash of fake math for how long the war in Iran, which began Feb. 28, had been going on.

Asked about the war having exceeding the four to six weeks he originally suggested it would last, Trump argued that he'd actually met his own timeline because Iran's military was “decimated” by then.

The U.S. and Iran agreed to a ceasefire this month, and Trump announced this week that he was extending it. But neither side says the war is over, and a conclusion that hasn't been achieved certainly didn't occur in the four to six weeks that have already elapsed.

Trump also brought up his 2017 inaugural crowd size issue on Thursday, when talking about renovations at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. He noted that Martin Luther King Jr. had drawn hundreds of thousands of people to the National Mall for his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 and claimed: “I had the same exact crowd. Maybe a little bit more,” arguing that pictures of both events backed him up.

“I actually had more people," Trump added. “But that’s OK.”

Commissioner Roberto J. Gonzalez, an attorney who was elected in 2024 to represent District 11, which includes parts of West Kendall, stood in opposition.

“West Kendall is already burdened with congestion, and adding more without a clear, realistic mitigation plan is not responsible,” Gonzalez wrote in a statement released on X after the vote.

The redevelopment project has been at the center of a long and tedious fight between a group of residents trying to protect their neighborhood’s quality of life and an influential group of investors.

“I have been advocating for seven years now,” Amanda Prieto, the leader of Save Calusa, a nonprofit grassroots residents’ organization, told commissioners during the meeting on Thursday.

The Calusa Country Club, at 9400 SW 130th Ave., opened in 1968 with a legally-binding land covenant that banned redevelopment until 2067.

“This is designated parks and rec land that was intended to be preserved for 100 years,” Prieto told commissioners during the meeting.

Facundo Bacardi, of the family-owned spirits company founded in Cuba, purchased the 169-acre golf club in 2003 and closed it in 2011. Commissioners lifted the covenant in 2020.

In 2021, Bacardi sold the golf course to Sunrise-based GL Homes for $32 million, and commissioners voted to rezone it in favor of the redevelopment’s vision of a community of single-family homes.

“In 2021, the commission passed it, this was a reconsideration of that,” Richard Norwalk, a senior vice president at GL Homes, said about the commissioners’ vote on Thursday.

Prieto filed a lawsuit against the county to invalidate the 2021 rezoning vote. The Florida Supreme Court sided with Prieto, who had claimed the county had failed to notify residents about the hearing.

“I am proud of my community,” Prieto said about Save Calusa’s efforts to protect the golf course. “We made tremendous progress over the last seven years.”

After the court’s ruling, Norwalk went back before the commission and had the application reheard.

“Notice wasn’t done correctly, so we are glad that once again they saw their way to approving this community and providing more housing for Miami-Dade,” Norwalk said after the commissioner’s zoning vote.

The developers’ proposals have ranged from 1,300 houses to the most recent 524, which makes up three units per acre.

Aside from traffic, Prieto and the Save Calusa members have also raised concerns about a loss of green space and impacts to local wildlife, including a bird rookery.

Wildlife expert Ron Magill sided with Save Calusa over concerns about bonneted bats and tricolored herons. The developer hired environmental consultants.

There were some concessions. The developer also committed to working with the Tropical Audubon Society to protect the rookery.

“The revised plan expands the lake,” Norwalk told commissioners during the meeting.

The development is within Commissioner Raquel A. Regalado’s District 7.

“I am very happy with the agreement with Audubon, and I think that a lot of the concessions that have been made make this a very different and much better application,” Regalado said during the meeting before moving the item.

Commissioner Oliver G. Gilbert seconded the item with Kendall Associates I, 9800 Calusa Club Drive, and Home at 9810 as the applicants.

Prieto said she was disappointed that she couldn’t agree with the developer on density, and that despite this, eight commissioners bent to the will of the developer.

“We got some rookery protections. I think our voices were heard, but ultimately, this decision, and their legacy, will lie on the shoulders of the commissioners that voted today,” Prieto said.

Related document: County staff recommendations summary (553 pages)

THE 8-5 VOTE

Eight who voted to pass it: Gilbert, Regalado, and Commissioners Keon Hardemon, Vicki L. Lopez, Natalie Milian Orbis, Marleine Bastien, Juan Carlos “JC” Bermudez, and Kionne L. McGhee

Five who voted against it: Gonzalez, and Commissioners René Garcia, Danielle Cohen Higgins, Anthony Rodriguez, and Micky Steinberg.

Watch the meeting

Related stories

• Kendall’s Calusa development proposal postponed after community concerns
• Florida Supreme Court hands victory to Calusa homeowners
• Worried residents hope Miami-Dade County mayor can save Calusa
• New drone video of construction on Calusa golf site causes concern among residents

Related social media

Statement on the Calusa Development Application… pic.twitter.com/BpEuNnx4x7

— Commissioner Roberto J. Gonzalez (@RobJGonzalezFL) April 23, 2026

In a Thursday memo, Michael Kratsios, the president's chief science and technology adviser, accused foreign entities “principally based in China” of engaging in deliberate, industrial-scale campaigns to “distill,” or extract capabilities from, leading AI systems made in the U.S. and “exploiting American expertise and innovation.”

The administration, Kratsios wrote, will work with American AI companies to identify such activities, build defenses and find ways to punish offenders.

The memo arrives at a time when China is challenging U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence, an area where the White House says the U.S. must prevail to set global standards and reap economic and military benefits. But the U.S.-China gap in performance of top AI models has “effectively closed,” according to a recent report from Stanford University's Institute for Human-Centered AI.

China's embassy in Washington said it opposed “the unjustified suppression of Chinese companies by the U.S.”

“China has always been committed to promoting scientific and technological progress through cooperation and healthy competition. China attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights,” said Liu Pengyu, the embassy spokesperson.

In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters Friday that the U.S. claims are groundless and were smearing the achievements of China's artificial intelligence industry.

“China firmly opposes this. We urge the U.S. to respect facts, discard prejudice, stop suppressing China’s technological development, and do more to promote scientific and technological exchange and cooperation between the two countries,” he said.

Kratsios' memo also came the same week that the House Foreign Affairs Committee offered unanimous, bipartisan support for a bill to set up a process to identify foreign actors that extract “key technical features” of closed-source, U.S.-owned AI models and to punish them with measures including sanctions.

“Model extraction attacks are the latest frontier of Chinese economic coercion and theft of U.S. intellectual property,” said Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., who sponsored the bill. “American AI models are demonstrating transformative cyber capabilities, and it is critical we prevent China from stealing these technological advancements.”

Last year, the Chinese startup DeepSeek rattled U.S. markets when it released a large language model that could compete with U.S. AI giants but at a fraction of the cost.

David Sacks, then serving as President Donald Trump's AI and crypto adviser, suggested that DeepSeek copied U.S. models. “There’s substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here is they distilled the knowledge out of OpenAI’s models,” Sacks said then.

In a February letter to U.S. lawmakers, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, made similar allegations and said China should not be allowed to advance “autocratic AI” by “appropriating and repackaging American innovation.”

Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, in February accused DeepSeek and two other China-based AI laboratories of engaging in campaigns to “illicitly extract Claude’s capabilities to improve their own models” using the distillation technique that “involves training a less capable model on the outputs of a stronger one.”

Anthropic said distillation can be a legitimate way to train AI systems but it's a problem when competitors “use it to acquire powerful capabilities from other labs in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the cost, that it would take to develop them independently.”

But it can go both ways. San Francisco-based startup Anysphere, maker of the popular coding tool Cursor, recently acknowledged that its latest product was based on an open-source model made by Chinese company Moonshot AI, maker of the chatbot Kimi.

Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Washington-based think tank The Brookings Institution and an expert on China's technology development, said it will be like “looking for needles in an enormous haystack” to separate unauthorized distillation from the vast volume of legitimate requests for data. But information sharing and coordination among U.S. AI labs could help, and the federal government can play an important role in facilitating anti-distillation efforts across labs, Chan said.

It's hard to assess how far the House bill can go, but Chan said Trump may not want to rock the boat with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of a planned mid-May state visit to Beijing.

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AP Technology Writer Matt O'Brien contributed to this report from Providence, Rhode Island.

Pickens has yet to sign the one-year, fully guaranteed contract but intends to put the issue to rest as the Cowboys go into the NFL draft, the people told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the signing isn't official.

The move by Pickens comes a day after executive vice president of personnel Stephen Jones said the Cowboys planned for Pickens to play on the tag this season. The sides would have had until July 15 to try to reach agreement on a long-term deal.

By signing the agreement, Pickens can be fined for not showing up at mandatory minicamp in June or for training camp in July. But getting under contract allows the 25-year-old to participate in the offseason program, which starts Monday.

The timing of Pickens’ decision — just two hours before the start of the draft — raised speculation about a trade. Jones shut it down.

“We’ve got every reason in the world to believe that hopefully he's ready to go to work," Jones said after the first round of the draft. “But we have zero intention of moving George Pickens.”

Pickens, acquired last offseason in a trade with Pittsburgh, had career highs in catches (93), yards receiving (1,429) and touchdowns (nine) for one of the best offenses in the NFL last season. Dallas had one of the worst defenses in the league and finished 7-9-1, missing the playoffs for the second year in a row.

The 2022 second-round pick out of Georgia thrived alongside CeeDee Lamb, who is going into the second year of a $136 million, four-year contract that currently ranks him third among NFL receivers with an average annual value of $34 million.

There is incentive for Pickens to take the guaranteed money under the tag because it's a huge payday compared to the total earnings of $6.8 million on his four-year rookie deal.

Quarterback Dak Prescott and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence played a season under the franchise tag within the past eight years for Dallas before reaching long-term deals. Tight end Dalton Schultz and running back Tony Pollard also played under the tag before leaving in free agency the next year.

Jones said the “newness” of Pickens' tenure with the Cowboys was a factor in the decision to stick with a one-year deal for now and not a longer contract.

Pickens’ talent was on display during three seasons with the Steelers, but so were enough instances of petulant or indifferent behavior for then-coach Mike Tomlin to question his maturity.

Brian Schottenheimer never took issue with Pickens publicly in his first season as a head coach after a quarter-century as an NFL assistant. But Pickens and Lamb were benched for the first series in Las Vegas after missing curfew following a casino visit the night before the game.

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

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On Thursday, Broward County prosecutors filed a third-degree felony case with 41 charges against Jamar Clair, a convicted felon who was born in Fort Lauderdale and lives in Oakland Park, records show.

Clair is “believed to be the owner of 9 adult pitbull and pitbull mix dogs, 14 pitbull puppies/dogs estimated to be between 3-4 weeks old,” a deputy wrote, according to an arrest report in the case.

Clair refused to appear in bond court on Thursday morning. Broward County Circuit Judge Corey B. Friedman, who was presiding, allowed his relatives to speak during the bond court hearing.

“My dad is a caring and supportive person ... Those were not his dogs, and I do not believe that he harmed any animals,” Clair’s daughter Jamilia Clair told Friedman in court.

Relatives said Clair was doing the dogs’ owner a favor. A prosecutor told Friedman during the hearing that “once someone accepts the responsibility of caring for animals, it is their responsibility whether they were the original dog owner or not.”

Friedman said BSO deputies reported Clair refused to cooperate during the investigation, and he ordered him to stay away from animals.

“This was going on for months involving many different dogs,” the prosecutor told Friedman.

Deputies reported there was a “strong odor of animal feces” inside Clair’s house and “piles of dog feces” in the yard, according to the deputy’s arrest report.

“Some of the dogs you could see their rib cage. One of the pit-bull dogs had a severe eye infection,” a deputy wrote, according to the report.

A deputy reported there were 13 puppies inside a medium-sized cage.

“The cage had no water, and fresh feces scattered throughout,” the deputy wrote. “The inside was so small the puppies were having to climb over each other.”

Deputies reported visiting the house and returning the next day to learn that someone had removed 14 puppies and three adult dogs, and there were still four adult dogs in the backyard and two adult dogs inside.

“There was still evidence of ongoing abuse and neglect,” a deputy wrote, according to the arrest report.

Clair was the subject of animal control complaints in the last few years. On July 28, 2025, Broward County’s Animal Care Division issued Clair a citation for cruelty to animals in Fort Lauderdale, according to court records. The case remained open on Thursday.

“A dog was tethered on a short chain, kept in a crate outside, sores on the ears, and flies all over him,” a deputy wrote about a visit to the house in 2025, according to a deputy’s report.

In 2024, the Broward County Animal Care removed a puppy and three adult dogs from Clair’s home that were neglected, according to an arrest report.

The Florida Department of Corrections released Clair from prison on Oct. 17, 2020, after he was convicted of a robbery in Broward County and sentenced to six years and eight months in prison, records show.

On Thursday evening, Clair was at the Broward County Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale.

Clair is facing 18 counts of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, a third-degree felony.

Clair is also facing 23 counts of tormenting, depriving of sustenance, mutilating, or killing an animal, a first-degree misdemeanor.

Clair’s bond was $75,500. Broward County Circuit Judge Francis I. Viamontes was set to preside over the case.

Watch the bond court hearing

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

Deputies later identified the pair involved.

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Investigators with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said the shooting happened in a home near Southwest 168th Street and 92nd Avenue, where deputies were called to just after 4:45 p.m. in reference to a reported domestic dispute.

They said they took David Ronald McPeck, 75, into custody outside of the home after he fatally shot his 47-year-old son, David Dylan McPeck.

Deputies said Thursday afternoon that they later released the elder McPeck “and at this time no formal charges have been filed.”

Deputies said they’ve responded to the house before for mental health calls.

A woman who identified herself as David Dylan McPeck’s sister told Local 10 News that her family has “seen this coming for years.“

“We’ve made plenty of phone calls, trying to get help,” she said.

She returned to the family home Thursday morning.

“I’m sorry that it has come to this. I don’t know what else to say,” the woman said. “This is so tragic that it ended this way. I can’t even begin to tell you what this is doing to my family.”

Deputies still haven’t elaborated on exactly what led up to Wednesday’s shooting.

“(I’m) very shocked, because Mr. McPeck is very nice,” neighbor Victoria Delgado said. “They care a lot about the house and with us, we talk.”

Delgado said she last saw MDSO deputies at the home months ago. She said she would frequently see the younger McPeck outside, yelling.

“I know they have kind of some problem, because the day before yesterday, he was running and screaming, very high,” she said.

Records show that in a 2021 incident, the younger McPeck was accused of attacking his father and violating a restraining order.

Deputies said the investigation into the shooting continued Thursday afternoon.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke was part of the operation to capture Maduro in January and used his access to classified information to make money on the prediction market site Polymarket, the federal prosecutor’s office in New York said.

He has been charged by the Justice Department with unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction. He could face years in prison.

Van Dyke, 38, was involved in the planning and execution of capturing Maduro for about a month beginning Dec. 8, 2025, according to the federal prosecutor’s office. Even though he signed nondisclosure agreements promising to not divulge “any classified or sensitive information” related to the operations, prosecutors say the Army soldier used this information to make a series of bets related to Maduro being out of power by Jan. 31, 2026.

“This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post to social media.

A telephone number listed for Van Dyke in public records was not in service. There was not yet an attorney listed for him in court documents.

Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets in the world, said it had found someone trading on classified government information, alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and “cooperated with their investigation.”

“Insider trading has no place on Polymarket,” the company said in a statement.

Second complaint filed against the soldier

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets, announced Thursday it had filed a parallel complaint against Van Dyke.

That complaint alleges that Van Dyke moved $35,000 from his personal bank account into a cryptocurrency exchange account on Dec. 26 — a little over a week before U.S. forces would fly into Caracas and seize Maduro.

Van Dyke used more than $32,500 to make a series of bets on when Maduro might be removed from power, according to the complaint. He placed those bets between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, with the vast majority occurring the night of Jan. 2 — just hours before the first missiles would fall on Caracas.

In the early hours of Jan. 3, President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform a photo of the now-captured Venezuelan leader, wearing a gray sweatsuit, headphones and a blindfold.

The bets Van Dyke made on Maduro leaving power resulted in “more than $404,000 of profits," the complaint said. Bets on three other Venezuela-related contracts netted the solider more than $5,000, according to the document.

“The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about U.S. operations and yet took action that endangered U.S. national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way," said Michael Selig, the commission's chairman.

The massive profits from the well-timed bets aroused public attention days after the raid and brought bipartisan calls for stricter regulation of the markets where people can wager on just about anything.

Officials allege that shortly after the operation, Van Dyke put most of the money he won in a foreign cryptocurrency vault and then into a new brokerage account. He also asked Polymarket to delete his account, saying he had lost access to his email associated with the account, according to the federal prosecutor’s office.

Trump, when asked about the case Thursday, drew parallels between the embattled soldier and late professional baseball player Pete Rose, who was banned from the sport amid accusations that he placed bets on his own team.

“The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino, and you look at what’s going on all over the world and Europe and every place, they’re doing these betting things,” Trump told reporters.

The Trump administration has been a key ally of the growing prediction market industry in a critical legal fight with states seeking to ban the platforms. The president’s eldest son is an adviser for both Polymarket and its competitor Kalshi, and a Polymarket investor. Trump’s social media platform Truth Social is also launching its own cryptocurrency-based prediction market called Truth Predict.

Nearly two decades in the Army

Van Dyke joined the Army in 2008 and, in 2023, was promoted to the rank of master sergeant, the second-highest enlisted rank in the Army, according to the indictment. Federal prosecutors said he was part of the special forces community and was stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, but their indictment offered little other details about his military service.

The document said Van Dyke was photographed following the raid on the deck of a ship “wearing U.S. military fatigues, and carrying a rifle, standing alongside three other individuals wearing U.S. military fatigues."

The Pentagon referred questions on the case to the Army and the Justice Department.

Army officials declined to provide Van Dyke's service record. Typically, the military services are reticent to offer details about members of the special forces and take measures to keep their identities secret.

Bets on geopolitical tensions draw scrutiny

The high-profile indictment comes as bipartisan lawmakers are considering legislation to ban prediction markets from allowing bets on war, assassinations or terrorist attacks.

Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that a group of new accounts on Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for the new customers. On the same day the AP published the report, the White House warned staff against using private information to trade on prediction markets.

On Wednesday, Kalshi fined and suspended three congressional candidates who the company said wagered on the outcome of their own elections.

__

Golden reported from Seattle, and Schoenbaum from Salt Lake City.

Many can be surgically repaired, but for really large tears, there’s a minimally invasive way to get patients back in the game.

Fifty-year-old Jon Kikel is no weekend warrior. For him, physical activity happens seven days a week.

He played both high school and college hockey.

“I love playing hockey, it’s been a passion of mine since I was five years old,” he said. “I do that one or two times a week in a men’s league. I love to go to the gym, be outdoors, go to the beach.”

Last year, when Kikel experienced a painful rotator cuff injury after a bike accident, the result was devastating.

“After that, it got to the point that I could barely lift a plate and get it on a shelf,” he said. “I couldn’t go to the gym or play hockey. I knew I had to seek some help.”

Several doctors told Kikel that because the rotator cuff tear was so large, he would need a full shoulder replacement, an invasive surgery that would greatly limit his activity.

Then Kikel met Dr. Keith Hechtman with Baptist Health Orthopedic Care, and he had another option: a tuberoplasty.

“It gave him the option that he could still live the life you want to live without the restrictions or fear that he has a prosthetic there, something that is very delicate,” said Hechtman.

Since the bone touching bone is what causes the pain, in a tuberoplasty, the doctor actually reshapes the bone to improve function and reduce pain.

“We actually shave the ball, so that it doesn’t hit at the top,” said Hechtman. “It shaves the edge here so it doesn’t stick up.”

After surgery, Kikel did physical therapy and was back on the ice about three months later.

“I’d say I’m about 90%,” he said. “I still have some rebuilding to other parts of my shoulder, but I’m extremely happy and I feel very blessed that I found this solution.”

The tuberoplasty is a minimally invasive procedure that is done arthroscopically, where a tiny camera and shaving device is inserted through small buttonhole sized incisions.

Kikel went home the very same day he had the surgery.

The 4-year-old named Appie was shot while responding to a burglary in Fort Lauderdale neighborhood of Lauderdale Manors. While running after the suspect, he was shot.

Fast forward to Thursday, where Appie was met with thunderous applause as he exited Blue Pearl Pet Hospital.

“Today, needless to say, is a powerful and emotional day for out department and community as we welcome home K-9 Appie,” said Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Bill Schultz.

Schultz said the K-9 was a hero.

“Appie represents the very best in law enforcement,” he said. “Courage, loyalty, steadfast commitment to protect protecting others at great personal risk.”

On Saturday, Appie was rushed to an emergency veterinary clinic after being shot in the shoulder while chasing down a suspect.

“There was some blood loss and he did have some life-threatening changes to his heart rhythm,” said veterinarian Dr. Sagen Woolery. “The team did an amazing job at keeping him safe. He underwent surgery to repair a fractured arm. “

Despite the lengthy five-hour surgery, the bone was repaired almost back to perfect, medical staff says.

“We’re hopeful that Appie is going to make a full recovery,” said Woolery. “We hopeful he’ll be able to go back to work when this time is done.”

While recovering, Appie received plenty of love from his partner, Officer Guzman.

Meanwhile, suspect Christian Bouie is facing several charges, including possible federal charges, in connection to the shooting that injured Appie.

“Most people look at them as dogs, but he’s one of us,” said Fort Lauderdale Police Sgt. Don Geiger. “He’s an officer with us. He’s a partner.”

Medical officials believe Appie will be recovering for around three-to-four months.

Meanwhile, PETA sent the department a letter urging Appie to be retired.

PETA said it wants FLPD to “replace K-9s with state-of-the-art policing technology, such as tactical robots, drones, and/or portable mass spectrometers.”

Schultz was asked about PETA’s letter.

“It’s totally up to the handler,” he said. “Appie, his recovery, his ability to return to full duty, we do give the option. Regarding the entire program, our animal partners are extremely important to our agency.”

En una ceremonia en el palacio presidencial donde no hubo presencia de la prensa, Balcazar juramentó a Carlos Pareja, un diplomático de carrera que fue embajador en Estados Unidos entre 2016 y 2018, que abarcó parte de los gobiernos de los presidentes Barack Obama y la primera gestión de Donald Trump.

La víspera, el mandatario nombró en Defensa a Amadeo Flores, un abogado cercano al partido Fuerza Popular, que lidera la candidata Keiko Fujimori. También ha sido asesor de la legisladora fujimorista Rosangela Barbarán y de una comisión parlamentaria dirigida por Fuerza Popular en 2018.

El miércoles, Hugo de Zela renunció al cargo de canciller, mientras Carlos Díaz al ministerio de Defensa. Ambos discreparon con Balcázar quien buscaba aplazar para el siguiente gobierno la decisión de comprar 24 aviones F-16. Los renunciantes revelaron que militares firmaron la compra de las aeronaves el lunes, sin obedecer los pedidos de Balcázar.

Balcázar había declarado a radios locales que al ser presidente interino no tenía “legitimidad” para endeudar a la próxima gestión, que asumirá a fines de julio, por 3.500 millones de dólares.

Lockheed Martin dijo el jueves en un comunicado que con la compra “Perú se une a otras 29 naciones y a una flota mundial de más de 2.800 F-16 que operan actualmente". El embajador de Estados Unidos en Perú Bernie Navarro indicó a la radio local Exitosa que las primeras unidades de la flota de F-16 será entregada en 2029.

En 2024, durante la gestión de la impopular presidenta Dina Boluarte (2022-2025), se anunció que Perú había decidido destinar 3.500 millones de dólares a la compra de los aviones de combate por un “endeudamiento interno” de 2.000 millones de dólares en 2025 y 1.500 millones de dólares en 2026. Entre las compañías que presentaron ofertas estaban, además de Lockheed Martin, la sueca Saab y la francesa Dassault Aviation.

Las compras precedentes de aviones de caza en la década de 1980 y 1990 estuvieron manchadas por escándalos de corrupción por los que fueron condenados varios funcionarios y jefes militares.

Messi, who opened the scoring when he converted a penalty kick in the 13th minute, scored the go-ahead goal in 79th minute. After a Colorado turnover near midfield, Messi cut back near the right corner of the penalty box and flicked a rising shot that split a pair of defenders and slipped inside the back post.

Messi has seven goal this season, tied with Sam Surridge and Petar Musa for most in MLS.

Miami (4-1-3) hasn’t lost since a season-opening 3-0 defeat to Los Angeles FC.

Yannick Bright was shown a straight red car in the 87th minute and Miami played a man down the rest of the way.

The Rapids (4-4-0) had won back-to-back games and three of their last four

Bright drew a penalty conceded by Josh Atencio and Messi converted from the spot to open the scoring.

Mateo Silvetti, along the right end line, played an arcing cross to the back post where Berterame slammed home a header to make it 2-0 in the fifth minute of first-half stoppage time.

Bertarame made his first career start and scored his first goal in MLS last time out in a 2-2 tie with the New York Red Bulls.

Rafael Navarro scored in the 58th minute for the Rapids. The 26-year-old forward scored two goals in a 6-2 win over Houston last time out and has six goals this season.

Darren Yapi subbed on for Hamzat Ojediran and, moments later, scored on the counter-attack to make it 2-2 in the 62nd minute.

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

It’s previously been blocked by Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

Company representatives said their development project, located in west Miami-Dade near Northwest 137th Avenue and the end of the Dolphin Expressway, will bring much-needed jobs.

Company owner Chris Kelly added the county has allowed another private business to develop a property right next to the proposed location of their development project.

“The county commission three years ago passed the Tamiami 137, which is a truck terminal with plans show a terminal with parking for trucks, and so we kind of followed that application because it’s pretty much right next door to ours,” Kelly said.

Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins pushed back on that comparison.

“So if it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander? He is operating under logic that’s rather linear,” Cohen Higgins said. “That application was different. It’s not the exact same application. The difference with that truck parking application is that we really did at that time have a true need for legal truck parking in our community.

“Our residents were experiencing heavy truck parking that was unauthorized and that in and of itself created extraordinary environmental damage, not to mention disruption in traffic and quality of life.”

While some commissioners raised concerns over the proposal, others expressed support, including Commissioner JC Bermudez.

“I don’t think there’s any problem with this project,” Bermudez said.

Some commissioners expressed concern about the process this application took to reach County Hall — via text amendment — which, in effect, moves the county’s Urban Development Boundary designed to prevent urban sprawl and protect natural resources, including the county’s aquifer, in an area flanked by “two environmental extraordinary precious resources,” Cohen Higgins said — the Everglades and Biscayne Bay.

“We need to put a stop to this,” Cohen Higgins said. “And my concern regarding precedent is that if we continue to have applications that come in the form of text amendments, as opposed to applications to move the Urban Development Boundary, we’re going to get a plethora of them. And our Urban Development Boundary is going to cease to exist.”

Levine Cava, in vetoing the amendment, said the project should have been a UDB proposal, which would have required more data and specifics.

The item was deferred to the full board meeting on May 5.

“The applicant would need nine votes, as opposed to the general majority votes, as long as the mayor vetoes,” Bermudez said. “If the mayor vetoes, you need a supermajority to override the veto. So that’s the real issue at hand.

“But in the end, we need to make a decision and we need to move on.”

According to the Hold the Line Coalition, the project will remove “247 acres of land available for agriculture” located “within the North Trail Basin and contains Wetlands of Regional Significance.”

It’s also within “the core foraging area of the federally threatened wood stork, within consultation area for the endangered Florida bonneted bat as well as just east of the (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) Florida Panther Focus Area,” according to the group.

Commissioner Raquel Regalado pitched a different path forward to protecting the wetlands and mitigating disruptions to the county’s aquifer.

“My request at the last meeting (was) to create a habitat with a corridor to protect the wetlands, to increase the covenant, and to give ownership of the wetlands to Miami-Dade County is the path forward,” she added. “We cannot prevent property owners from wanting to do things on their property, even if that is outside the UDB, including building homes. They can do certain things.

“We need to preserve our wetlands for our aquifer. And that I agree with the mayor on. We just disagree on how we get there.”

That comes as an NCAA panel has discussed the revamp that would give athletes five years of eligibility with the clock starting when an athlete turns 19 or graduates from high school, whichever is earliest.

“Coach perspective is vital to any legislative reform – on matters of eligibility that immediately impact roster management, the NABC views collaboration and communication with coaches as non-negotiable," Robinson said in Thursday's statement. "As the NCAA expedites this review, the NABC urges that all stakeholders be brought to the table – coaches included – to identify potential unintended consequences and to ensure these generational changes are structured correctly.”

The rule would offer limited exceptions, such as for injuries in what has been a common reason for athletes to ask for and receive extra eligibility.

NCAA president Charlie Baker talked at the men's Final Four in Indianapolis earlier this month, pointing to the need to build a simpler eligibility process.

He backed the plan weeks later in a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, saying: "It became pretty clear, pretty quickly, that a lot of people really appreciated the simplicity of (the concept) and the fact that it creates kind of a clock.”

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

“If I had to go farther, I would have,” Aaron Beggs said in an interview Thursday. “It's fight or flight, and I decided to fight and help him get to our destination.”

Beggs, of Northern Ireland, and Robson De Olivera, of Brazil, sprang into action Monday when Ajay Haridasse collapsed about 1,000 feet (305 meters) from the end of the course. Beggs also had been feeling sick and exhausted, but was reminding himself of all the people in his running club who might never get to experience such an iconic race.

“Then when I came down and up towards Boylston Street, the crowd started cheering and I just turned the corner and happened to see Ajay fall,” he said. “I looked at my watch, and I looked at him again, and the natural instinct was just to go and pick him up.”

For Beggs, the moment capped what already had been an incredible experience, from being cheered on by local college students to chatting with a fellow runner wearing his father's name on his shirt just to hear onlookers call it out.

“We were shaking hands as we were running, and was like, ‘We’ve got this. Let's do this together',” he said. “It's not like in shorter races where you're head-to-head trying to beat people. In the marathon, you're cheering each other on and encouraging everybody.”

Video of the runners' good deed has gone viral. Beggs said he has been in touch with Haridasse, a Massachusetts native and student at Northeastern University, and hopes to reconnect with Robson as well. Their finishing time was good enough to qualify for next year's race.

“Three strangers, three different countries, and we'll have a story for the rest of our lives,” he said. “We all need just a nice story in our lives, just to make us smile, bring a tear to your eye with happiness. And it's nice to be nice.”

___

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Aaron's last name to Beggs, not Breggs.

The entire department has been shut down since mid-February as Democrats have demanded policy changes in the wake of fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents. Republicans are now trying to fund the two immigration enforcement agencies through the complicated, time-consuming process called budget reconciliation, a maneuver that they also used to pass President Donald Trump’s package of tax and spending cuts last year with no Democratic votes.

“We have a multistep process ahead of us, but at the end Republicans will have helped ensure that America’s borders are secure and prevented Democrats from defunding these important agencies,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

The budget process only requires a simple majority in the Senate, bypassing filibuster rules that require Republicans to find 60 votes on most bills when they only hold 53 seats. But it also comes with increased scrutiny from the Senate parliamentarian and a long, open-ended series of amendment votes at the beginning and the end of the process.

The Senate held the first series of votes through the night, starting Wednesday evening and into early Thursday morning, with Democrats proposing amendments to lower health care expenses and other costs in an effort to contrast with Republicans’ focus on Trump’s campaign of immigration enforcement.

“Instead of pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into ICE and Border Patrol, Republicans should be working with Democrats to lower out-of-pocket costs,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

The Senate adopted the final resolution 50-48, just past 3:30 a.m.

A lengthy effort to reopen Homeland Security

Once the House approves the framework and the Senate Parliamentarian approves it, the two chambers can then move to pass the measure.

The Senate has already voted on a bipartisan basis to reopen the rest of the department, but Republican leaders in the House say they won’t take that bill up until the Senate shows progress toward funding ICE and Border Patrol, as well.

The $70 billion budget resolution would fund the two agencies for three years, through the rest of Trump’s term. Thune and other GOP leaders say they hope to keep the bill narrowly focused on ICE and Border Patrol and get it to Trump’s desk in the coming weeks, along with the rest of Homeland Security Department funding that has already passed the Senate.

But that could prove difficult as many in the party see the budget bill as the last real chance this year to enact their priorities. Republicans in both the Senate and House have pushed to add other items, including money for farmers and Trump’s proof of citizenship voting bill, called the SAVE America Act.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., briefly held up the vote series late Wednesday, frustrated that the bill would not include parts of the SAVE America Act or other legislation.

“This is the last train leaving the station,” Kennedy said, predicting they would not be able to pass any other major bills ahead of November’s midterm elections. But he withdrew his objections and allowed the voting to proceed.

Democrats say reform needed at ICE and Border Patrol after shootings

Democrats say any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department should place restraints on federal immigration authorities, including better identification for federal officers and more use of judicial warrants, among other asks.

After federal agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, Trump agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security bill be separated from a larger spending measure that became law. But bipartisan negotiations went nowhere, and the DHS funding lapsed with no agreement on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.

In March, the Senate passed the legislation by voice vote that would separate out ICE and Border Patrol and fund the rest of the department, including the Transportation Security Administration as security lines grew long at some airports. But Republicans in the House refused to consider it, saying they wouldn’t support any bill that didn’t include money for immigration enforcement.

Congress then left town for a two-week recess, leaving the issue unresolved. Trump has used executive orders to pay some department salaries in the meantime, but the future of those paychecks is uncertain.

Potential roadblocks in the House

During the recess, Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that they would pursue a two-track approach — pass the Senate bill that includes most of the department’s funding through regular order and use the party-line bill to pass ICE and CBP funding.

Weeks later, though, Johnson has still not said when the House will take up the Senate’s legislation that would fund the rest of the department. And it is unclear if members of his GOP conference will unite behind the narrowed budget bill as some House Republicans have argued, like Sen. Kennedy, that they should add other priorities to the legislation.

Johnson said this week that the sequencing of the two bills is important. House lawmakers don’t want to see the rest of the department funded without ICE and Border Patrol, he said.

But Thune warned after the Senate vote that other parts of the Homeland Security Department may run out of money before they are able to finish the winding budget process and fund those two agencies. He said he hopes the adoption of the budget resolution is a signal to the House that “we’re going to be following through.”

“We’ll see what they can do with it,” Thune said. “And if they can’t, I guess we will go to the next plan.”

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Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

Carlos Ruiz Massieu told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council that staggered deployments from Chad and other countries are expected to continue in the coming months with all 5,500 members on the ground “between the fall and the end of the year.”

The United States and Panama proposed the new gang suppression force in early September 2025 to replace a Kenya-led multinational force plagued by a lack of funding. Its strength hovered around 1,000, rather than the desired 2,500. The U.N. Security Council authorized the 5,500 strong force on Sept. 30, with the new power to arrest gang members.

More than $200 million has been pledged by 13 U.N. Security Council member states, of which $59 million has been disbursed, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, known as BINUH. U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said Thursday that Qatar confirmed a pledge of $30 million to the trust fund for the force, with $10 million to be paid over three years.

‘Expectations remain high’

Jacques Christofides, the force’s special representative, told the U.N. Security Council meeting that the framework for how the mission will operate has been finalized, and that the multinational force is working with Haitian National Police to establish procedures for operations, detentions and other actions.

“Expectations remain high. Many view the GSF as a potential turning point,” he said, referring to the gang-suppression force.

More than 2,400 people were killed across Haiti between December and February, many of them suspected gang members as police operations intensify, according to a new report released Thursday.

The number represents a 23% increase in killings compared with the previous period, with anti-gang operations killing at least 158 civilians and injuring more than 100 others, according to the BINUH report.

Overall, more than 1,300 suspected gang members were killed and 140 firearms seized.

Ongoing gang violence has displaced a record more than 1.45 million people, more than half of them children.

Last year, more than 9,000 people were killed across Haiti, with the country now reporting a homicide rate of 76 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the world’s highest, according to the report.

“The people of Haiti have endured far too much for far too long,” Christofides said. “The scale of violence and displacement are simply unacceptable.”

Gangs have grown in power since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 at his private residence. Police say they control more than 70% of the capital and have expanded their activities, including looting, kidnapping, sexual assaults and rape, into the countryside. Haiti has not had a president since the assassination.

Christofides, a longtime U.N. expert on peace-building from South Africa, said efforts are continuing to broaden participation in the force and ensure it is equipped with the capabilities and expertise it needs. He said maritime and border support will be particularly important to help Haiti manage its ports and commercial entry points.

He stressed the importance of effective coordination with the United Nations — which will provide logistical and operational support to the force — the Haitian government, and the region, including the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Looming elections

Special envoy Ruiz Massieu told reporters the government's current idea is to have the first round of elections at the end of the year and the second round early next year, but he said that depends on improved security and freeing areas under gang control so candidates can campaign and Haitians can vote freely.

“We have reasons to be an optimist that the situation can improve in the short and medium term,” Ruiz Massieu said.

In a video posted Thursday, Haiti’s National Police said it was seizing territory once under gang control, including a large school that was severely damaged.

An official narrating the video asserted that a growing number of Haitians were returning to their communities after police cleared them of gangs.

“It’s been over six months since I last came to this area,” said one unidentified man who was videotaped by police. “We’re going to start cleaning to see if I can come back home.”

Meanwhile, Ruiz Massieu noted that the council of ministers have been meeting at Haiti’s National Palace in downtown Port-au-Prince, which has been largely controlled by gangs. He said the location of those meetings “is not only symbolic. It is also a powerful signal of the State’s gradual return.”

Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said the transition government “remains fully committed to help Haiti emerge from this crisis" and noted that it plans to increase the number of police officers and soldiers.

“The state is taking up its rightful place again,” he said. “Haiti shall not perish.”

U.S. Deputy Ambassador Jennifer Locetta told the council that operations to fight back gangs have shown measurable but fragile progress.

“We are not measuring success by what international forces can achieve in Haiti,” she said. “We are measuring success by how quickly Haiti will no longer need them.”

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Coto reported from Havana.

Fancy Johnson was last seen around 5 p.m. on March 20 in the 1400 block of Northwest 72nd Street, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators said she has not contacted her family since.

They said Fancy is 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighs about 110 pounds, and has brown eyes and black hair. She was last seen wearing a white shirt, white and black shorts, and white slides.

Authorities said she may be in need of services.

Anyone with information is urged to contact MDSO Deputy D. Guzman at 305-715-3300 or Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

At Fire Station No. 5 -- the busiest in the city -- the problems are hard to miss. Built 50 years ago, the fire chief says it’s so outdated that modern fire trucks can barely fit inside. There are visible signs of decay throughout, and the air conditioning is out.

Staff brought in a portable unit, but that required a generator because the electrical panel is also outdated.

“The circuitry is so old they don’t make the parts anymore. We have to go online and find used parts,” Miami Fire Chief Robert Hevia said.

Conditions appear even worse at Fire Station No. 1. Built in 1964, the building has rust, mold and leaks.

Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins has proposed taking out a nearly $450 million loan to build new facilities, saying voters should decide on the issue in August.

A separate measure under consideration by the city commission could address other stations currently operating out of trailers -- including Fire Station No. 16 in Brickell and Fire Station No. 15 near Bayside.

At Station 15, firefighters must run from a trailer, down a dock, to reach their fire boats -- a setup sources say delays response times.

But Thursday afternoon, as commissioners prepared to vote on putting the bond measure on the ballot, the mayor made an unexpected request to delay.

“I’ve had a number of conversations, as the city manager has, about the bond referendum. I would respectfully ask that we defer this item to the next commission meeting,” she said.

After it launched in December, Lutnick said that the government had sold $1.3 billion “worth” in just several days, as Trump stood by holding up the gilded ticket and said, “essentially it's the green card on steroids.”

Lutnick did not address the apparent discrepancy in an exchange with a congresswoman at Thursday's committee hearing.

Trump pushed the idea last year, initially suggesting a cost of $5 million, and arguing that it would entice foreign talent to U.S. shores and fill out federal coffers. It's meant to replace the EB-5 program, a decades-old program that offered U.S. visas to people who invested about $1 million in a company with at least 10 employees.

Though only one person has been approved, “there are hundreds in the queue that they are going through,” said Lutnick, appearing pleased with the program's results, at a congressional committee hearing Thursday.

“They’ve just set it up, and they wanted to make sure they did it perfectly,” he said.

A year ago, Lutnick said at a cabinet meeting that the gold card would raise $1 trillion in revenue and help “balance the budget.” The publicly held debt is $31.3 trillion and outside projections by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget are that this fiscal year’s annual budget deficit will be roughly $2 trillion.

The commerce secretary noted that each applicant pays a $15,000 fee, on top of their million bucks, which allows for “rigorous vetting” of those applying to the program that eventually opens a path to U.S. citizenship. It also allows corporations to spend $2 million for a foreign-born employee, along with a 1% annual maintenance fee.

It boasts a glitzy government website with the phrase “Unlock life in America” above a depiction of a gold card: Trump’s stern visage, aside a bald eagle, the Statue of Liberty, and his squiggled signature. The website also touts the upcoming $5 million “Trump Platinum Card,” which offers up to 270 days in America without being taxed on non-U. S. income.

While Trump has created a presidential identity partially around deporting immigrants without legal status, he has repeatedly supported skilled immigration to the U.S., which the gold card program could facilitate.

When asked how the proceeds will be spent, Lutnick said: “That will be determined by the administration, and its terms are for the betterment of the United States of America.”

The idea is relatively common around the world, with dozens of countries offering versions of “golden visas” to wealthy individuals, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Malta, Australia, Canada and Italy.

Police officers arrested Kiara Johnson, of Hollywood, on Wednesday at Target, at 21265 Biscayne Boulevard, in Aventura, according to a police report.

The victim told police officers that she was inside her parked car when Johnson parked her car next to her, according to a police arrest report.

The victim reported that Johnson had parked so close to her car that she decided to move, which upset Johnson, and there was an argument, according to police.

The victim reported Johnson then “pulled out a firearm from her purse” and told her to get out of the car, according to the police report.

The victim called 911, and she “described the firearm as black with either yellow or orange on it” after “feeling her life was in danger,” according to police.

Johnson walked out of Target and she “admitted to having a firearm inside her purse,” which “she normally carries,” according to police.

“She confirmed both parties got into an argument over the close parking,” but she denied using the gun to threaten the victim, according to police.

Corrections booked Johnson at 5:10 p.m. on Wednesday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where she remained on Thursday evening.

Johnson faced a charge of aggravated assault with a firearm. Her bond was $5,500.

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According to ESPN, as part of the deal, Pearce must stay away from his ex-girlfriend, WNBA player Rickea Jackson, and participate in therapy.

The outlet reported that Pearce attended Thursday’s hearing via videoconference.

His next court date to finalize the details of the deal is scheduled for May 7.

A spokesperson for the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office confirmed that the case will remain open until the pre-trial diversion program is completed.

Pearce was arrested in February and charged with three felonies -- aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, fleeing and eluding police and resisting an officer with violence. A fourth charge of stalking was brought as a misdemeanor and an additional charge of aggravated battery of an officer was dropped.

According to Doral police, Jackson told authorities she attempted to drive away from Pearce on Feb. 7, and was driving toward the Doral police station to seek help when Pearce “intentionally collided into the rear of her vehicle with his SUV” before police arrived.

Pearce allegedly refused an initial order from police to “get on the floor,” according to details of the arrest in an affidavit. The police account said Pearce then drove away and hit a police officer’s left knee with his vehicle “intentionally in an attempt to evade arrest.”

According to police, Pearce wrecked his vehicle and then continued in his attempt to elude police by running before being apprehended following a “short struggle.”

Jackson, in a petition for protection against Pearce filed in February, expressed fears for her safety that predated the incident for which he was arrested and charged.

“Due to his obsessive, insecure, violent and aggressive behavior, ending the relationship has been difficult and I am afraid for my life,” Jackson said in the petition filed in the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County. “James has threatened to kill me, James has threatened to harm me, James has threatened to injure me, James has threatened to place a bag over my head, and James has verbally and physically abused (me).”

Jackson in the petition said Pearce snatched her phone, pulled her hair and took her belongings, at which point she decided to end their relationship.

She described a pattern of harassing behavior leading up to Feb. 7, including Pearce offering her $75,000 to visit him and $200,000 to remain in a relationship with him, according to the petition. Jackson said she was driving when she noticed Pearce following her in his car before he “began driving his vehicle erratically, at high speeds chasing after me.”

Jackson said in the petition she began driving to the Doral Police Department because she feared Pearce would hurt her. She said Pearce repeatedly struck her vehicle with his before she got to the station.

Jackson, 24, is two years into her WNBA career. She said she and Pearce began dating when they were at the University of Tennessee together.

Pearce, 22, was the No. 26 pick in the NFL draft last year. He had 10 1/2 sacks and his 45 quarterback pressures set a Falcons rookie record.

The 22-year-old right-hander rebounded to win his debut, leading the Atlanta Braves over the Washington Nationals 7-2 on Thursday for their eighth win in nine games.

“One pitch into it I was like, ‘Oh no,’ but after that I bounced back really well,” Ritchie said. “Honestly, probably for the next year I will hate it. Then after that it will be like a funny, ‘Hey, first pitch of my big league career I gave up a nuke.’”

Ritchie, who was selected 35th in the 2022 amateur draft, allowed just one more run over seven innings. He gave up five hits, struck out seven and walked two, throwing 54 of 89 pitches for strikes. Ritchie averaged 94.4 mph with 24 fastballs and also mixed in 25 curves, 19 changeups, 10 sliders, seven cutters and four sinkers.

Ritchie (1-0) became the first Braves pitcher to allow two runs or fewer over seven-plus innings in his debut since Matt Wisler in 2015.

“Kids got a lot of weapons man, for right and left handed hitters,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “He’s in total control out there. That’s got to shake you up a little bit, first pitch you throw in the big leagues and it gets hit for a homer. But right back on the mound and attacking with all his stuff.”

Ritchie got a call from Triple-A Gwinnett manager Kanekoa Texeira at 8 p.m. Wednesday night telling him of the promotion, and he arrived in Washington around 2 a.m.

Wood homered on a 93.5 mph fastball down the middle and CJ Abrams went deep on a changeup below the strike zone in the fourth.

Washington did not get a hit after Daylen Lile’s two-out single in the fourth.

Ritchie started the season at Triple-A Gwinnett and went 3-1 with a 0.99 ERA in five starts. Atlanta selected the contracts of Ritchie and right-hander Carlos Carrasco from the Stripers before the game, optioned right-hander Didier Fuentes to Gwinnett and placed left-hander Dylan Dodd on the 15-day injured list retroactive to Wednesday because of left spine inflammation.

When asked whether Ritchie will make another start for Atlanta, Weiss said the team will make a decision in the next day or two.

“The kid did a heck of a job and made a great case for himself," Weiss said with a smile.

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

The groups said the advisory was necessary “in light of the deteriorating human rights situation in the United States and in the absence of meaningful action and concrete guarantees from FIFA, host cities, or the U.S. government.”

The advisory says visitors may be arbitrarily denied entry to the country, detained in “inhumane” conditions or subjected to invasive phone and social media searches. It points to the aggressive immigration surges in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis that led to accusations of racial profiling and the violent suppression of protests.

The message was condemned by tourism officials, who said the groups were threatening the livelihoods of service industry workers in an attempt to achieve their political goals.

Geoff Freeman, president & CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, said there are legitimate concerns about U.S. entry policies but they're being blown out of proportion. There were 67 million international travelers to the United States last year, he said in a statement.

“The notion that visiting America poses a meaningful safety risk is not a good-faith warning, it’s a political tactic designed to cause economic harm,” Freeman said.

A FIFA spokesperson pointed to several statements and policies, including the federation's governing documents, which say, “FIFA is committed to respecting all internationally recognized human rights and shall strive to promote the protection of these rights."

The U.S. has seen a decline in international travelers since Trump returned to the White House last year and offended U.S. allies with talk of making Canada a U.S. state, taking control of Greenland and questioning the value of NATO. The tourism industry is counting on a major boost from World Cup visitors, even as Trump's travel ban for citizens of 19 countries has injected further uncertainty.

The administration is betting that its push to expedite visa processing for visitors and excitement about the tournament will outweigh concerns that Trump’s immigration messaging undercuts the theme of global unity that the World Cup is meant to represent.

The tournament kicks off June 11 with games spread across North America, including 11 stadiums in the U.S. along with two in Canada and three in Mexico.

Vrabel spoke for just over seven minutes prior to the start of Thursday's NFL draft. He vowed to prioritize his family by beginning counseling this weekend and stepping away from the team for the draft's final day Saturday.

“I understand that there are questions. I take accountability for my actions, and the actions that caused a distraction to the people that I care most about — my family, this football team, the organization and our fans,” Vrabel said. “My previous actions don't meet the standard that I hold myself to. They don't.”

Vrabel said at a news conference earlier this week that he’s had “difficult conversations with people I care about,” including his family, his coaching staff, team officials and players following the publication of the photos by the New York Post.

On Thursday, he called his family and the Patriots the most important things in his life and said he was dedicated to taking steps to giving them “the best version of me.” He said he is committed to that process for “however long it takes.”

“And that's what we're going to do,” Vrabel said.

Asked about the timing of stepping away from the team on Saturday, Vrabel said it was solely family-related.

“When you prioritize your family first, and your job, that’s what’s required. And that’s what was necessary,” he said.

Vrabel said he was unsure if this would be the last time he planned to step away from the team.

The photos of Vrabel and Russini were taken in Sedona, Arizona, before the annual NFL meetings that began in Phoenix on March 29, according to the Post. The NFL has said it is not investigating Vrabel’s behavior. Vrabel and Russini are both married. Russini resigned from The Athletic last week.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated in an interview with ESPN that the league is not looking into the situation.

“This is not a personal conduct policy as we know of today,” Goodell said Thursday. “It’s a personal matter and we’ll leave it at that.”

Goodell added, “I think the teams handle these matters when they are personal matters. They have a lot more information that can benefit people involved.”

The Patriots said in a statement earlier in the day that they support Vrabel stepping away from the team on Saturday.

“Mike has been open with us about his commitment to being the best version of himself for his family, this team and our fans, and we respect the steps he is taking to follow through on that commitment,” the statement said in part. "We are confident in the leadership and communication Mike has established with our personnel staff throughout this pre-draft process. While he will not be present at the facility on Saturday, we know the draft evaluations are complete and Eliot Wolf and his personnel staff are prepared to execute our draft as planned this weekend.”

Vrabel declared his intension to sit out the final day of the draft in a late-night statement Wednesday.

The Patriots entered the draft holding 11 picks. That included the Super Bowl runner-up’s one scheduled pick (No. 31) in Thursday’s first round. They traded that pick and one in the fourth round to Buffalo to move up and take Utah offensive tackle Caleb Lomu at No. 28. They have one pick each in rounds 2 and 3 on Friday.

But the bulk of their selections will be Saturday when Vrabel won’t be in the draft room. That’s when they are scheduled to select twice in the fourth round, once in the fifth, four times in the sixth and once in the seventh round.

Vrabel was still present in the Patriots team facility Thursday after addressing reporters. Prior to meeting with them, he spoke briefly with season ticket holders at a draft night party. He also was spotted briefly sitting in the middle seat in the team draft room as they celebrated selecting Lomu.

Executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and fellow personnel vice president Ryan Cowden will run the draft room with Vrabel away.

Wolf expressed confidence that remaining members of front office will be able to manage Day 3 with Vrabel away. Wolf will have final say on picks during Vrabel's absence. Vrabel will still be in communication with the team via Zoom at times on Saturday.

“Not too worried about that as far just as the process we have in place. The people that we have in place,” Wolf said. “It’s going to be different without his presence there. But we feel really good about the people that we have in place to make up for it.”

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

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The dispute centers on a $3,001.90 reimbursement tied to a business class upgrade during a Sept. 14 through 19, 2025 trip to Japan for a Sister Cities program.

City records show the reimbursement was issued Dec. 4, 2025, but a later internal review found the expense fell outside the parameters of Florida law and city policy governing travel spending, according to a letter sent to the mayor.

In that April 1 letter, the city demanded repayment within 30 business days, stating the upgrade was not authorized and must be personally covered.

By the April 21 commission meeting in North Miami Beach, the money still had not been repaid, prompting Vice Mayor Fortuna Smukler to introduce a resolution to reprimand the mayor.

“I brought this forward because the city has been asking for and I’m going to round it up by 10 cents, for $3,002 for a travel upgrade that was never approved when the trip to Japan was approved. It is not something the city has ever done, at least to my knowledge had never done in the past,” Smukler said.

She pressed the mayor directly.

“So Mayor Joseph are you going to pay this back or is this…?”

Joseph said he does not oppose repayment, but objected to how the issue is being handled.

“Well the request was made on the first of April. Then you made this resolution for today for 30 business days. This is related to that investigation. I gave that initial request to my attorney, who said this can have further implications.”

He added he did not want repayment to be seen as an admission of wrongdoing.

“I have no problem putting money in escrow because I have no issues with that, but what I don’t want is to have us make it appear like I am admitting to something that I know I didn’t do,” he said.

Joseph also disputed any suggestion he refused to pay.

“The letter says I refused to pay but that hasn’t even happened,” he said.

Commissioners made clear they believe repayment should have already occurred.

“The point is we shouldn’t have to ask you, you should just pay it back,” Smukler said. “Regardless, it doesn’t matter of the outcome. The money still needs to come back to us.

“Either way the money belongs to the city of North Miami Beach. Either way the money is ours. That’s it.”

Commissioner Phyllis Smith pointed to public reaction.

“What I find to be unsettling is you hear the rumble, you are not deaf,” she said. “You have been out in the public. You hear the rumble of the disdain of spending $3,000, not 30, not 300, but $3,000 on quite a luxury.

“That was something that maybe you should not have done and the public thinks you shouldn’t have done so pay it. Just pay it and be done with this conversation.”

Commissioner Jay Chernoff said the issue comes down to policy.

“We, as commissioners and mayor, know the policy of travel. The policy of travel is to travel in the middle, in coach, not in first class,” he said. “You paid it out of your pocket, I understand. You asked for it to be reimbursed. You should have said no. It was wrong.”

When Joseph questioned that, Chernoff responded, “Technically you have,” later adding the issue is “not paying it back.”

Joseph said he initially paid for the upgrade himself.

“I myself used my Amex card to pay for the upgrade because of the long hours, 14-plus hours between Atlanta and Seoul,” he said. “I paid that up front.”

Joseph said the reimbursement came later after being told it might qualify.

“Then finance tells my aide because it’s a 14-hour flight you can possibly get this reimbursed,” he said. “I’m like whatever, here are the receipts. I get reimbursed.”

Law and policy at issue

Florida law does not explicitly require officials to choose the absolute cheapest airfare, but it does require travel expenses to be authorized, necessary, and reasonable under Florida Statute 112.061.

City policy goes further, requiring the use of the most economical travel options and placing the cost of upgrades for personal convenience on the traveler.

Commissioners said the upgrade was never approved and should not have been submitted for reimbursement.

Questions about the trip

Commissioner Lynn Su said more than $9,000 in taxpayer funds were spent, but she still does not know what was accomplished.

“We don’t have a new sister city. We don’t know what the mayor did while he was in Japan,” Su said, calling the upgrade “excessive luxury under the taxpayers dime.”

Ongoing investigation

Joseph confirmed during the meeting that he is under investigation, though details have not been publicly released.

“This is related to that investigation,” he said.

According to reporting by the Miami Times, an interim investigative report commissioned by the city includes allegations from employees accusing the mayor of bypassing government procedures and attempting to influence procurement decisions.

That report has been referred to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and the Florida Commission on Ethics for further review, and the matter is also being examined by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Public Corruption Unit, according to the same report.

Joseph has denied the allegations and has pushed for the release of supporting documents, arguing the lack of transparency undermines public trust.

Joseph said he intends to repay the money.

“I have no issues, let me be very clear, paying though,” he said.

He later indicated repayment would be made by the end of the month.

Commissioners voted to table the reprimand resolution until then, but made clear their position that the reimbursement was improper and should already have been returned.

La disputa se centra en un reembolso de $3,001.90 USD relacionado con una mejora a clase ejecutiva durante un viaje del 14 al 19 de septiembre de 2025 a Japón por un programa de Ciudades Hermanas.

Registros de la ciudad muestran que el reembolso se emitió el 4 de diciembre de 2025, pero una revisión interna posterior encontró que el gasto estaba fuera de los parámetros de la ley de Florida y la política de la ciudad que rige los gastos de viaje, según una carta enviada al alcalde.

En esa carta del 1 de abril, la ciudad exigió el reembolso dentro de 30 días hábiles, indicando que la mejora no estaba autorizada y debía ser cubierta personalmente.

Para la reunión de la comisión del 21 de abril en North Miami Beach, el dinero aún no había sido devuelto, lo que llevó a la vicealcaldesa Fortuna Smukler a presentar una resolución para reprender al alcalde.

“Presenté esto porque la ciudad ha estado pidiendo, y voy a redondearlo a 10 centavos, $3,002 USD por una mejora de viaje que nunca fue aprobada cuando se aprobó el viaje a Japón. No es algo que la ciudad haya hecho nunca, al menos que yo sepa, nunca se había hecho en el pasado”, dijo Smukler.

Ella presionó directamente al alcalde.

“Entonces, alcalde Joseph, ¿va a devolver este dinero o esto es…?”

Joseph dijo que no se opone al reembolso, pero objetó la forma en que se está manejando el asunto.

“Bueno, la solicitud se hizo el primero de abril. Luego usted hizo esta resolución para hoy por 30 días hábiles. Esto está relacionado con esa investigación. Le di esa solicitud inicial a mi abogado, quien dijo que esto puede tener implicaciones adicionales.”

Añadió que no quería que el reembolso se viera como una admisión de culpa.

“No tengo problema en poner el dinero en depósito en garantía porque no tengo problema con eso, pero lo que no quiero es que parezca que estoy admitiendo algo que sé que no hice”, dijo.

Joseph también cuestionó cualquier sugerencia de que se negó a pagar.

“La carta dice que me negué a pagar, pero eso ni siquiera ha ocurrido”, dijo.

Los comisionados dejaron claro que creen que el reembolso ya debería haberse realizado.

“El punto es que no deberíamos tener que pedírselo, usted simplemente debería devolverlo”, dijo Smukler. “Independientemente, no importa el resultado. El dinero aún tiene que regresar a nosotros.

“De cualquier manera el dinero pertenece a la ciudad de North Miami Beach. De cualquier manera el dinero es nuestro. Eso es todo.”

La comisionada Phyllis Smith señaló la reacción pública.

“Lo que encuentro inquietante es que se escucha el murmullo, usted no es sordo”, dijo. “Ha estado en público. Escucha el murmullo del descontento por gastar $3,000 USD, no 30, no 300, sino $3,000 USD en un lujo.

“Eso fue algo que tal vez no debió hacer y el público cree que no debió hacerlo, así que páguelo. Simplemente páguelo y terminemos con esta conversación.”

El comisionado Jay Chernoff dijo que el tema se reduce a la política.

“Nosotros, como comisionados y alcalde, conocemos la política de viajes. La política de viajes es viajar en clase económica, no en primera clase”, dijo. “Usted lo pagó de su bolsillo, lo entiendo. Solicitó el reembolso. Debió haber dicho que no. Estuvo mal.”

Cuando Joseph cuestionó eso, Chernoff respondió: “Técnicamente lo ha hecho”, y luego añadió que el tema es “no devolverlo”.

Joseph dijo que inicialmente pagó la mejora él mismo.

“Yo mismo usé mi tarjeta Amex para pagar la mejora por las largas horas, más de 14 horas entre Atlanta y Seúl”, dijo. “Yo lo pagué por adelantado.”

Joseph dijo que el reembolso llegó después de que le dijeron que podría calificar.

“Luego finanzas le dice a mi asistente que, como es un vuelo de 14 horas, posiblemente puede ser reembolsado”, dijo. “Yo dije, como sea, aquí están los recibos. Me reembolsan.”

Ley y política en cuestión

La ley de Florida no exige explícitamente que los funcionarios elijan el pasaje aéreo más barato, pero sí requiere que los gastos de viaje sean autorizados, necesarios y razonables bajo el Estatuto de Florida 112.061.

La política de la ciudad va más allá, exigiendo el uso de las opciones de viaje más económicas y colocando el costo de mejoras por conveniencia personal en el viajero.

Los comisionados dijeron que la mejora nunca fue aprobada y no debió presentarse para reembolso.

Preguntas sobre el viaje

La comisionada Lynn Su dijo que se gastaron más de $9,000 USD de fondos públicos, pero aún no sabe qué se logró.

“No tenemos una nueva ciudad hermana. No sabemos qué hizo el alcalde mientras estaba en Japón”, dijo Su, calificando la mejora como “lujo excesivo a costa de los contribuyentes”.

Investigación en curso

Joseph confirmó durante la reunión que está bajo investigación, aunque los detalles no se han hecho públicos.

“Esto está relacionado con esa investigación”, dijo.

Según reportes del Miami Times, un informe investigativo provisional encargado por la ciudad incluye acusaciones de empleados que acusan al alcalde de eludir procedimientos gubernamentales e intentar influir en decisiones de contratación.

Ese informe ha sido remitido a la Fiscalía Estatal de Miami-Dade y a la Comisión de Ética de Florida para una revisión adicional, y el asunto también está siendo examinado por la Unidad de Corrupción Pública de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade, según el mismo reporte.

Joseph ha negado las acusaciones y ha pedido la publicación de documentos de respaldo, argumentando que la falta de transparencia socava la confianza pública.

Joseph dijo que tiene la intención de devolver el dinero.

“No tengo problema, déjenme ser muy claro, en pagar”, dijo.

Posteriormente indicó que el reembolso se realizaría antes de fin de mes.

Los comisionados votaron aplazar la resolución de reprimenda hasta entonces, pero dejaron claro su postura de que el reembolso fue inapropiado y ya debería haber sido devuelto.

The person spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because no hire had been announced. ESPN first reported that the Bucks were finalizing a deal with Jenkins.

Jenkins coached the Memphis Grizzlies from 2019-25 and posted a 250-214 record that included three straight playoff appearances from 2021-23. The Grizzlies fired him with nine games left in the 2024-25 season and went on to get swept by eventual champion Oklahoma City in the first round of that year’s playoffs.

This would represent a return to Milwaukee for Jenkins, who was an assistant coach on Mike Budenholzer’s staff during the 2018-19 season. The Bucks posted an NBA-best 60-22 record that season before blowing a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals to the eventual champion Toronto Raptors.

Jenkins would be taking over a Bucks team that is entering a critical summer after going 32-50 this season, ending a streak of nine straight playoff appearances.

The Bucks announced Rivers’ departure as coach on April 13, the day after their season ended. The 64-year-old Rivers had mentioned during the final stages of the season that he wanted to spend more time with his grandchildren.

Rivers went 97-103 in 2 1/2 seasons with the Bucks. He owns a 1,194-866 overall record and ranks sixth in NBA career coaching wins.

Milwaukee’s main offseason concern regards the future of two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has spent his entire 13-season NBA career with the Bucks.

Antetokounmpo, 31, is eligible to become a free agent after next season if he doesn’t sign a four-year, $275 million contract extension in October. Or the Bucks could trade him beforehand if they don’t believe he will sign that extension.

Antetokounmpo was asked after the Bucks’ season finale whether he’d sign an extension.

“It’s something I have to sit down with my family and see what’s best for me, what’s best for my family,” he replied.

By the end of the season, Antetokounmpo and the Bucks were at odds over the nine-time All-NBA forward's health status. Antetokounmpo played a career-low 36 games this season.

Antetokounmpo said late in the season that he wanted to play and was healthy enough to do so, while the Bucks were ruling him out due to a left knee hyperextension and bone bruise. The NBA was investigating the matter.

Jenkins worked with Antetokounmpo during his earlier stint with the Bucks. He had been on Budenholzer's staffs both in Atlanta and Milwaukee before the Grizzlies hired him in 2019, the same year they selected Ja Morant with the No. 2 overall pick in the draft.

Memphis reached the second round of the playoffs under Jenkins in 2022 and lost in the first round in 2021 and 2023. Jenkins' 250 career coaching wins with the Grizzlies are the most in franchise history.

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AP Pro Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.

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

The Marlins signed Slater, 33, on March 25 to a one-year, $1 million contract, two days before the club opened its season at loanDepot park against the Colorado Rockies.

It was a disappointing showing for the veteran, who finished his tenure with the Marlins with a .174 average, four hits in 23 plate appearances - all singles - four walks and one RBI in 12 games.

Slater is expected to clear waivers and, because of his MLB service time, has the right to reject an outright assignment to the minor leagues and become a free agent.

With no minor league options remaining, the Marlins decided it was best to move on, allowing the club to open a roster spot for outfielder Esteury Ruiz (oblique), who has been on the injured list and has yet to play this season.

Sources say Ruiz will join the club in San Francisco, where the Marlins open a three-game weekend series Friday at 10:15 p.m. ET against the Giants.

The Marlins officially made both moves Thursday afternoon.

Georgia Republican Rep. Rich McCormick said Thursday he introduced the Make DC Square Again Act, a bill that would undo the 19th century return of the southwestern part of the district to the state of Virginia, known as retrocession.

“The Make DC Square Again Act restores the original ten-mile-square District and ends the artificial advantage Virginia Democrats have recently gained from all the federal bureaucrats moving into Virginia," McCormick said in a statement.

The measure's prospects are unlikely in a Congress that can barely keep the lights on. But it's the latest partisan salvo in an effort to gain the upper hand in the closely divided House ahead of this year's contested midterms elections.

Proponents of statehood for the federal district are critical of the measure, saying it shows how Washington can be used as a “political football.”

“The residents of the district are not fully participating in the democracy of this country because we are not allowed to,” said Alicia Yass, advocacy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of D.C. “Bills like this that mess around with the district just show how important it is for D.C. to have the full benefits and rights of a democracy.”

Critics of Virginia’s referendum are calling on President Donald Trump to issue an executive order declaring the pre-Civil War return of Alexandria and Arlington to Virginia unconstitutional.

“This order would be on better legal footing than many of President Joe Biden ’s most egregious orders,” former Trump Justice Department chief of staff Chad R. Mizelle wrote in a Fox News opinion article.

Here's a closer look at the issue.

What even is this? Retro-retrocession?

Retrocession refers to the reincorporation into Virginia of the land it gave for the federal capital. Beginning in 1846, Congress voted to allow 31 square miles (80 square kilometers) of the District of Columbia to return to Virginia. That included the City of Alexandria and the areas that now include the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery.

Virginia and Maryland had given over the land decades before to form the nation’s capital, but resident's rumblings over a trailing local economy and fears that Congress would ban slavery in the district fueled the return to Virginia in 1847, according to the City of Alexandria. Virginia would go on to secede from the United States, with the Confederacy’s capital in Richmond.

The discussion over reversing retrocession has kept up in the decades since. Proponents argue that Congress never had the power to cede back the land and that the local referendum failed to meet the voting requirements outlined by Congress for retrocession.

Whether Congress could vote to bring parts of Virginia back into the federal district isn't clear. George Derek Musgrove, an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, was skeptical of McCormick's effort because the congressman said the measure stemmed from the results of the Virginia referendum, which could benefit Democrats.

“It’s not even a retrocession bill. It’s really a Virginia voter suppression bill,” he said.

The text of the measure wasn't immediately available.

Why does it matter now?

The area holds the separate municipalities of the City of Alexandria and Arlington County, which are packed with Democratic voters. In the 2024 presidential election in both places, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris won 77% of the votes cast, with Donald Trump pulling only about 20%.

The region's blue voters helped bolster Virginia's redistricting referendum, approved by voters Tuesday to boost Democrats' chances of winning four additional seats in the U.S. House. But if the entire area was ceded back to the District of Columbia, the electoral advantage in the new districts would be dulled and new districts would be drawn in light of the state's shrunken footprint.

The region's approximately 400,000 residents would also likely lose full representation in both the U.S. Senate and House.

Other possible pathways

McCormick's legislation invokes making the district “square” again and refers to how the boundaries would look on the map if they're restored. It's not the only proposal out there.

The American Capital Project, a little-known group that advocates for the land to be returned to the District of Columbia, says the path forward is through a presidential executive order declaring the original law void. That would eventually push the question in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, forcing it to rule on the legality of the original law.

It's unclear who funds or manages the American Capital Project. Its website does not list any contact information nor the names of the people or groups behind it.

There have also been efforts, pushed by Democrats, to grant the district statehood. In 2021, the Democrat-led House passed such a bill, but it did not advance out of the Senate. At the time some Senate Republicans suggested returning the current district to Maryland as a way to give voters their a chance for full representation in Congress.

The president confirmed his continued interest in offering Spirit a financial lifeline after a lawyer told a U.S. Bankruptcy Court that the airline was in advanced talks with the U.S. government on a financing deal that would allow Spirit to emerge from Chapter 11 protection.

“They have some good aircraft and good assets, and when the prices of oil goes down, we’ll sell it for a profit,” Trump said, speaking at an unrelated Oval Office event. “I’d love to be able to save those jobs. I’d love to be able to save an airline.”

Trump stoked speculation of a deal to save Spirit on Tuesday when he encouraged a buyer to rescue the airline and suggested the federal government could help keep it afloat.

The White House has attempted to blame Spirit’s predicament on the Biden administration, which in 2023 sued to stop JetBlue Airways from buying Spirit for $3.8 billion. A little more than a year before Trump replaced Joe Biden as president, a federal judge in Dallas blocked a proposed Spirit-JetBlue merger, saying it would drive up airfares for passengers.

Trump said he had “a smart person” in mind who could potentially run Spirit and that he believed the airline could get back on solid financial footing.

“And they have some very good slots too, which are pretty valuable,” the president added, referring to scheduled times allocated for airlines to take off or land at airports when demand exceeds available capacity.

Spirit has struggled with losses for years. The airline filed for Chapter 11 protection in November 2024 and again in August 2005. With the Iran war driving up jet fuel costs for all airlines, creditors earlier this month expressed doubts about Spirit’s ongoing viability, raising the possibility the airline recognized for its bright yellow planes would be forced to sell its assets and cease operating.

Before Trump's comments about the government buying the airline outright, Marshall Huebner, a lawyer with Davis Polk who is representing Spirit, said during a U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing in New York that government financing would a reorganization possible and help Spirit be more competitive.

Details of a potential deal were shared with all three of the company’s primary creditor groups, Huebner said.

It was not immediately clear how a federal acquisition would differ from the terms that were under discussion. The size and terms of the financing aid were not shared publicly. The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, both reported an amount of $500 million that would give the government an option to acquire a sizable stake in the airline, which has its headquarters in Florida.

Earlier this week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy voiced skepticism about the government stepping in to keep Spirit alive. In a CBS interview that aired Tuesday night, Duffy questioned whether a deal would set a broader precedent.

“Then who else comes to my door?” he said, referring to other airlines potentially requesting government aid. “The question will be, can we do anything to save Spirit and make it viable, or would we be putting good money into a company that inevitably is going to be liquidated?”

Several lawmakers, both Republican and Democrats, also balked at the idea of a bailout. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas wrote on X on Wednesday that a deal for Spirit would be a “terrible idea.”

“If Spirit’s creditors or other potential investors don’t think they can run it profitably coming out of its second bankruptcy in under two years, I doubt the US Government can either,” Tom Cotton, a senator from Arkansas, posted. “Not the best use of taxpayer dollars.”

The union that represents the airline's pilots, on the other hand, voiced “strong support” for a rescue deal.

“Spirit is the reason so many Americans can afford to visit family, travel for work, or take a vacation,” said Capt. Ryan P. Muller, chair of the Spirit Airlines ALPA Master Executive Council. “When Spirit enters a market, fares go down.”

Spirit’s relatively young fleet has made it an attractive acquisition target. But previous buyout attempts from budget rivals like JetBlue and Frontier were unsuccessful both before and during Spirit’s first bankruptcy.

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Madhani reported from Washington. AP writers Josh Boak in Washington and Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Wind farms are taking shape and operating along the East Coast, even as President Donald Trump seeks to end the U.S. offshore wind industry. He often talks about his hatred of wind power and calls turbines ugly.

The Associated Press traveled roughly 100 miles (161 kilometers) and saw three of the five wind farms in the area. Two of the five are fully operational, two are nearly done, and one is about halfway built.

The first turbines from the Revolution Wind project were clearly visible from about 5 nautical miles away, and can be seen from farther away on clear days. They stretched across the horizon, massive structures evenly spaced in rows, some spinning in the light winds.

The enormity of the turbines was evident from even a mile out.

Wind farms under construction

Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind are offshore wind projects being built to power about 1 million homes across Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York.

It took about an hour and a half to reach the Revolution Wind site, more than 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of the Rhode Island coast.

Some of the blades started to turn as the early morning winds picked up. Workers were inside the central hub of the wind farm, a large gray substation.

Revolution Wind is more than 90% complete. It recently began delivering power to New England’s grid, and it’s on track to be completed this year.

Nearby at Sunrise Wind, construction is nearly 50% complete. Orsted is developing both projects. Sunrise Wind is a mix of installed turbines and empty yellow foundations that still await their towers and blades. A vessel with giant cranes to install the offshore wind components was parked nearby.

The tip of a spinning turbine appeared to touch the clouds.

The first large U.S. offshore wind farm

The first large U.S. offshore wind farm to open, South Fork Wind, borders the Revolution Wind site.

Now in its second year of operating commercially, its 12 turbines can send enough power to New York for more than 70,000 homes.

A ship that serves as a floating home base for technicians working on wind farms was next to one of the turbines on Thursday. The technicians had used the ship's gangway to walk onto the turbine and stood at its base, or foundation.

When South Fork opened in 2024, Biden administration officials said it was just the beginning — major new wind farms would dot U.S. coastlines to confront climate change, create jobs and accelerate the nation’s transition to clean energy.

Less than a year later, Trump returned to office and ordered a temporary halt to leasing and permitting for wind energy projects. His administration has paused work wind farms under construction, arranged a $1 billion payout to a French energy company to walk away from U.S. offshore wind development and added an extra layer of review for wind and solar projects. Federal judges have struck down some of his orders blocking wind energy development, including a ruling Tuesday stopping the administration from implementing some of the policies slowing the development of clean energy.

At the same time wind energy is being held back, the demand for electricity in the United States is skyrocketing and there are limited options in land-constrained coastal states for new, large energy projects in the next few years, which drives up utility bills, said Hillary Bright, executive director of the offshore wind advocacy group Turn Forward.

“These energy policies are really hitting people at home, in their pocketbooks,” she said. “Offshore wind ultimately can be a part of that solution.”

The first five turbines

The closest site to the coast is the Block Island Wind Farm. It's in state waters near Block Island, Rhode Island.

These five turbines began spinning in 2016, making this the first offshore wind farm in the United States. Its turbines are shorter than those installed at successive projects, but still look enormous up close. They replaced polluting diesel generators that were powering Block Island.

The first wind farm to finish construction during Trump's tenure

Construction finished on Vineyard Wind in March. It was the first wind farm to reach this stage during Trump’s time in office.

It is expected to reach full operations in the coming months, to power over 400,000 Massachusetts homes and businesses.

There are two other major U.S. offshore wind farms under construction: a New York offshore wind project, Empire Wind, and a Virginia offshore wind project, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind.

“This is a major commercial industry in the United States of America," Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, said in an interview. “Whether the president is enthusiastic about it or not, we have massive energy projects that are either bringing power to the grid or near completion.”

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

Majority of it will miss South Florida to the south, but we still expect some spotty showers moving through. This means the Keys will have the highest chance of rain and some of the downpours could be heavy there.

Only a few showers will be around for the weekend with temperatures noticeably warmer in the middle 80s. This warming trend will continue into next week with our first 90s in the forecast.

Police said they responded to the Macy’s at Broward Mall, located at 8000 W. Broward Blvd., on April 9 after receiving reports of an unknown suspect allegedly recording a woman inside a fitting room.

Investigators said CCTV footage showed Derrick Jordan Wright Jr. walking away from the dressing room area and exiting the store around 4:40 p.m.

The victim told police she was inside a changing room when she noticed a man, who police identified as Wright, recording her over the top of the partition.

She said she attempted to confront Wright, who was in an adjacent dressing room, but he denied the allegation and left the store, according to the report.

Investigators added that Wright had previously been arrested in Plantation for “the same behavior.”

The report states the victim later met with police and identified Wright in a photo lineup.

In a prior case reported in December 2025, Wright was arrested after Plantation police said he secretly recorded a woman inside a fitting room at a Kohl’s store, later allegedly showing her a video and fleeing before being tracked down and taken into custody.

Jail records show he is facing one count of digital voyeurism of a victim 19 years or older.

As of Thursday, Wright was being held at the Broward County Main Jail on a $15,000 bond under conditions that prohibit contact with the victim, bar him from returning to the incident location, and prevent him from possessing or using any recording devices.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Cuban Ambassador to the U.N. Ernesto Soberón Guzmán said internal issues regarding detainees “are not on the negotiating table.” The release of political prisoners was a key U.S. demand as the longtime adversaries held discussions in Cuba this month for the first time in a decade.

“We have our legal system, like here in the U.S., they have their legal system,” he said. “So we have to respect both of our internal affairs.”

In response, the State Department said in a statement that the administration remains “committed to the release of all political prisoners.”

“The Cuban regime should stop playing games as direct talks are occurring. They have a small window to make a deal,” the statement continued.

An American delegation arrived for secret meetings in Havana on April 10 in a diplomatic push to urge Cuba to make major changes to its economy and political governance or face continued economic pressure and potentially risk U.S. military escalation. Neither side has named who took part, but Guzmán said it was at the undersecretary of state level for the Americans and deputy foreign minister level for the Cubans.

Despite the recent revival in diplomatic relations, tensions between the two countries have steadily increased in the last few months over a U.S. energy blockade that has further strained economic and other crises in the Caribbean country.

Trump has threatened tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba and said the U.S. might have “the honor of taking Cuba” following military operations in Venezuela and Iran. The State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Guzmán's remarks.

The blockade, coupled with the island’s severe water and power shortages, has deepened poverty and increased hunger across Cuba as severe blackouts persist.

In late March, a Russian tanker carrying 730,000 barrels became the first fuel shipment Cuba had received in three months. Guzmán said that the shipment has been able to fulfill only a fraction of what the country needs to operate.

Other concerns the U.S. raised during the meeting this month centered on the influence of foreign powers on the island, the AP has reported. The Americans also discussed proposals to compensate hundreds of thousands of legal claims by Cuban Americans whose homes, businesses and land were seized after revolutionary leader Fidel Castro took power in 1959.

Guzmán confirmed that such compensation was among the topics at the meeting and that Havana is receptive to it. But, he added, that it could only happen in conjunction with reciprocal economic relief for the decadeslong economic embargo against Cuba.

“There is not only this claim but also the claim from our side because the embargo has an economic impact,” he said. “This is a highway with two directions.”

Asked whether Cuban officials can trust diplomatic efforts amid U.S. threats, Guzmán said that while they are optimistic about creating a “new approach” to U.S.-Cuban relations, the Trump administration's foreign policy approach in the last year has put them on high alert.

“We have been seeing what is happening all around the world, in our region, in the Middle East, so we are not a naive person,” he said. “We are preparing for all the scenarios. And I insist, our first option — what we really want — is a successful dialogue with the U.S. government.”

But, he added, if U.S. military aggression were to happen, “we are ready to fight back.”

The company said it was making the cuts for the sake of efficiency and to allow new investments in parts of its business, as first reported by Bloomberg, which also said the company will leave about 6,000 jobs unfilled.

Also Thursday, Microsoft said it was offering voluntary buyouts to thousands of its U.S. employees.

The software giant plans to make the offers in early May to about 8,750 people, or 7% of its U.S. workforce, according to two people familiar with the plan who were not authorized to speak about it publicly.

While an alternative to the sudden layoffs removing tech workers from peers like Meta and Oracle, the savings are likely tied to a similar industry upheaval that is requiring huge spending on the costs of artificial intelligence. Meta has already warned investors that its 2026 expenses will grow significantly — to the range of $162 billion to $169 billion — driven by infrastructure costs and employee compensation, particularly for the artificial intelligence experts it’s been hiring at eye-popping pay levels.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives welcomed Meta’s cuts in a note to investors Thursday.

He said he sees it as part of a strategy of using AI tools to “automate tasks that once required large teams, allowing the company to streamline operations and reduce costs while maintaining productivity driving an increased need for a leaner operating structure.”

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, has spent billions of dollars operating an ever-expanding global network of data centers powering cloud computing services, AI systems and its own suite of productivity tools, including the AI assistant Copilot.

CNBC reported earlier Thursday on a memo from Microsoft's chief people officer, Amy Coleman, announcing the voluntary retirement plan.

“Our hope is that this program gives those eligible the choice to take that next step on their own terms, with generous company support,” Coleman wrote, according to CNBC.

Según el Departamento de Policía de Hialeah, el abuso se produjo después de que la madre de la niña permitiera que Enrique Domínguez Rodríguez, de 48 años, viviera con su familia en una habitación del Casanovas Boutique Motel, ubicado en 1775 W. Okeechobee Road.

La policía informó que las acusaciones salieron a la luz después de que la madre de la niña fuera arrestada por negligencia infantil, luego de que sus abuelos encontraran a los niños solos en el motel. Las autoridades indicaron que todos terminaron en un hogar de acogida.

Después de que el Departamento de Niños y Familias de Florida denunciara el caso a la policía, las autoridades dijeron que programaron una entrevista forense para el 19 de marzo con el personal de Kristi House, que se especializa en el tratamiento de víctimas de abuso sexual infantil.

La policía informó que la niña, que ahora tiene 10 años, describió al entrevistador forense cómo Domínguez, a quien solo conocía como “Ricky”, la agredía y abusaba de ella en el motel.

Según un informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de Houston (HPD, por sus siglas en inglés), la niña le dijo al entrevistador que los incidentes ocurrieron entre 10 y 20 veces y que le causaban mucho dolor.

La policía dijo que la niña hizo un dibujo espontáneo que mostraba lo que “Ricky” le haría.

Las autoridades indicaron que la madre de la niña identificó a Domínguez durante una entrevista el miércoles, y afirmó que lo conocía como cliente habitual de su lugar de trabajo y que lo dejó vivir con su familia después de que se quedara sin hogar.

La mujer dijo que, al enterarse de las acusaciones, empezó a preguntar y a buscar a Enrique y descubrió que había sido arrestado recientemente por una pelea.

Las autoridades indicaron que una revisión de los registros reveló que Domínguez había sido arrestado en Hialeah el 11 de abril por un cargo de agresión y que aún permanecía recluido en el Centro de Detención Metrowest.

Ahora se enfrenta a cargos adicionales de violación y abuso sexual de menores.

Los registros muestran que un juez ordenó su detención sin fianza y que permanecía en el MWDC hasta el jueves por la mañana.

La policía dijo que llevó a cabo el operativo en un hotel no revelado con la ayuda del Grupo de Trabajo contra la Trata de Personas de la Fiscalía Estatal de Miami-Dade.

Según los informes de arresto, los detectives publicaron un anuncio en línea haciéndose pasar por la madre de dos niñas, de 13 y 15 años, y dijeron a quienes respondieron que “estaban disponibles para servicios sexuales a cambio de dinero”.

Las autoridades dijeron que organizaron reuniones con los hombres para pagar por sexo con una o ambas niñas y los arrestaron después de que entraron a la habitación del hotel.

La policía dijo que arrestó a los siguientes sospechosos por cargos de tráfico sexual infantil y delitos informáticos:

• Josue Donis Castanon, 20, de Fort Lauderdale
• Edgardo Arturo Donaire, 49, de Miramar
• Roberto Antonio Guido Rojas, 38, de Miami
• Miles Simyon, 22, de Sweetwater
• Marvin Geovanny Torres, 43, del suroeste de Miami-Dade

Los investigadores señalaron específicamente que Torres llevó más de una docena de condones, varios lubricantes y lociones, así como múltiples objetos sexuales, incluidos artículos de “bondage”.

“Él seguía repitiendo, en español, ‘yo lo sabía’, ‘yo sabía’, ‘yo sabía que era esto’”, escribió un detective en el informe de arresto de Torres.

Castanon, un nacional guatemalteco; Donaire y Torres, ambos nacionales hondureños; Guido Rojas, un nacional nicaragüense; y Simyon, un nacional de Botsuana, estaban todos detenidos en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center hasta la tarde del jueves.

Castanon y Guido Rojas además tienen retenciones de inmigración.

La policía dijo que respondió al Macy’s en Broward Mall, 8000 W. Broward Blvd., el 9 de abril tras recibir reportes de un sospechoso desconocido que presuntamente grababa a una mujer dentro de un probador.

Los investigadores dijeron que imágenes de cámaras de vigilancia mostraron a Derrick Jordan Wright Jr. alejándose del área de los vestidores y saliendo de la tienda alrededor de las 4:40 p.m.

La víctima dijo a la policía que estaba dentro de un probador cuando notó a un hombre, identificado por la policía como Wright, grabándola por encima de la partición.

Indicó que intentó confrontar a Wright, quien estaba en un vestidor adyacente, pero él negó la acusación y salió de la tienda, según el informe.

Los investigadores añadieron que Wright había sido arrestado previamente en Plantation por “el mismo comportamiento”.

El informe señala que la víctima posteriormente se reunió con la policía e identificó a Wright en una rueda fotográfica.

En un caso previo reportado en diciembre de 2025, Wright fue arrestado después de que la policía de Plantation dijera que grabó en secreto a una mujer dentro de un probador en una tienda Kohl’s, y luego presuntamente le mostró un video antes de huir, siendo posteriormente localizado y detenido.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que enfrenta un cargo de voyeurismo digital de una víctima de 19 años o más.

Hasta el jueves, Wright permanecía detenido en la cárcel principal del condado Broward con una fianza de $15,000 USD bajo condiciones que le prohíben tener contacto con la víctima, le impiden regresar al lugar del incidente y le prohíben poseer o usar cualquier dispositivo de grabación.

The child was returned to their biological mother this week when President Donald Trump’s administration took the unusual step of sending a government plane to Cuba to retrieve the child. Federal officials cited concerns that the child had been taken to Havana for gender transition surgery.

It's not clear from court documents if the defendants, Rose Inessa-Ethington — a transgender woman and the child's biological father — and partner Blue Inessa-Ethington actually planned on getting the child surgery, which isn't legal for children in Cuba.

A Canada camping trip turns into a flight to Cuba

Rose Inessa-Ethington had shared custody under a court agreement and had arranged to take the child along with Blue Inessa-Ethington and Blue's 3-year-old child to Calgary, Canada, last month, ostensibly to go camping, authorities said.

Instead they went hundreds of miles away to Vancouver, Canada, and boarded a flight to Mexico City. On April 1, they flew to Cuba, authorities said.

When the group failed to return as expected on April 3, the child's mother contacted police in Logan, Utah, alleging Rose Inessa-Ethington, her ex-spouse, had violated their custody agreement. Police found out the group had not gone to Calgary, and reached out to the Department of Homeland Security's investigations branch for assistance, according to court documents.

Investigators, who determined the group had walked into Canada at the Peace Arch Bridge south of Vancouver, obtained search warrants for Rose and Blue Inessa-Ethington's emails, cellphones and social media accounts. Then investigators used their internet activities to track the group to Cuba.

On April 8, at the request of Cache County Attorney Dane Murray, a Utah state judge issued arrest warrants for the couple alleging custodial interference, a third-degree felony. Judge Brian Cannell set bail at $5,000 each.

Logan City Police spokesperson Sgt. Brandon Bevan said that during interviews with the family of the child, one person raised the possibility that the missing child could be subjected to gender affirming surgery. Bevan said there was no physical evidence offered.

On April 13, Cannell issued an order for the child to be returned immediately and granting the biological mother sole custody.

How did this become a federal case?

Three days after Cannell's order, an FBI agent filed an affidavit in U.S. District Court in Utah alleging Rose and Blue Inessa-Ethington were likely not planning to return to the U.S.

The affidavit requested a federal warrant for Rose and Blue Inessa-Ethington's arrest on charges of international parental kidnapping.

The return of kidnapped children taken overseas often is settled through negotiations, or by the aggrieved parent filing a civil petition under an international agreement, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

But in the Utah case, federal officials worked with Cuban law enforcement to locate and deport Rose and Blue Inessa-Ethington. DOJ officials sent one of its aircraft to Cuba to retrieve the child.

The use of the plane came as the Trump administration has sought to block access to gender-affirming care for minors and pressured health care providers over the issue.

What evidence has been released showing surgery was the goal?

The child, identified in court documents as MV 1, was assigned male at birth but identifies as a girl because of what family members believed to be “manipulation” by Rose Inessa-Ethington, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit stated that “concerns exist that MV 1 was transported to Cuba for gender reassignment surgery prior to puberty.”

The FBI said that Blue Inessa-Ethington withdrew $10,000 from her checking account before leaving. Agents also found at the couple's home a note with instructions from a mental health therapist in Washington, D.C., “to send the therapist the $10,000.00 and instructions on gender affirming medical care for children.” The note didn’t mention Cuba.

Officials have not said whether the couple actually planned on getting the child gender-affirming surgery in Cuba or how they would get it.

Federal officials have declined to comment on the case beyond what’s contained in court documents and a news release issued upon the child’s return.

Gender-affirming surgery is rare among U.S. children, research shows. Among the youngest patients, the most common surgeries are breast and chest procedures — most likely transgender males who graduated from high school and have breast removals. Major medical organizations call for caution around surgery for minors.

In Cuba, gender-affirming surgeries are performed for adults through the public health system under strict supervision. They must be authorized by a medical commission following a comprehensive review of the patient’s file. That process often takes years and requires a wide range of medical and psychological evaluations.

Back to Utah to face charges

After being flown back to the U.S., the two defendants made an initial appearance Tuesday in federal district court in Richmond, Virginia, and were ordered to be detained.

A court-appointed attorney for Blue Inessa-Ethington declined to comment. The Associated Press left email and telephone messages for Rose Inessa-Ethington’s public defender.

Richmond is only a temporary stop until the defendants are returned to Utah to face charges. The timing for that is uncertain.

Authorities described the shooting inside the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge as a confrontation between two groups of people and not a random attack. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said some innocent bystanders were struck by gunfire.

Police Chief TJ Morse said five people were in custody, and there was no ongoing threat to the public.

“This was a disagreement, a fight, between two different groups of people that we are still trying to unravel, and unfortunately innocent victims got caught in the crossfire," Morse said in a news conference.

Three high school seniors from Ascension Episcopal School were among the victims of the shooting, according to a Facebook post from Lafayette Parish President Monique Blanco Boulet.

“We are heartbroken by the senseless violence that happened today at the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge,” she said, adding that she was asking her community to “join us in holding all of these families close in prayer.”

Rachel Delcambre, a spokesperson for the school, said in an email that the school would not be giving additional information at this time “out of deep respect for the families and the sensitivity of this situation.”

Authorities initially said as many as 10 people had been injured but later revised that number. Morse did not immediately say what set off the shooting at the mall in the Louisiana capital. He said police would not release the names of victims until families have been notified.

Alex Theriot, a commercial electrician, was working on a construction project in the mall a few hundred feet from the food court when gunfire erupted and he heard what sounded like plates of glass shattering. Thinking a shooter might be going store to store, he quickly screwed the door shut of his work site and hunkered down with two other workers. They waited and hoped for the best.

“Everybody was running and screaming,” Theriot told The Associated Press. “I thought it could have been a terrorist attack.”

Desire Batton, who works at a clothing store, said she and other workers dashed inside a breakroom to protect themselves.

“We hid in there until cops came and got us,” Batton said.

The shooting began around 1:30 p.m. when the two groups argued inside the food court and started shooting at each other, Morse said. An officer was already present at the mall and ran toward the gunfire, he said. The chief made public appeals for witnesses to come forward with any video of the shooting.

By late afternoon, dozens of police cars still were clustered in the parking lot, multiple helicopters hovered overhead and armed officers in bulletproof vests patrolled the area.

Mall spokesperson Lindsay Kahn called it a “frightening day” for everyone there and said the mall would not reopen Thursday.

Kennedy Barnum, 22, said she had gone to the mall to get lunch at the food court when she heard a woman on the phone outside say, “I’ll call you back. There’s an active shooter in the mall.”

Within five minutes, Barnum said, law enforcement had swarmed the mall. She saw people running and crying, including one girl she described as “hysterical.”

“We spoke to a security guard there and she told us that there was an active shooter there, people were shot and injured, and we should leave immediately,” Barnum said.

It’s at least the second high-profile case of gun violence in Louisiana this week. A father fatally shot eight children, including seven of his own, in an attack on his family Sunday morning that stretched across two houses in a Shreveport neighborhood, police said. Two women, including the gunman’s wife who was the mother of their children, were critically wounded.

___

Associated Press writers Jack Brook in New Orleans, Jim Mustian in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed.

Vestidas con sus trajes regionales y con la vara —símbolo de autoridad indígena— marcharon hasta la sede del Ministerio Público para pedir que se termine con la criminalización de los pueblos indígenas. Luego fueron a la Corte de Constitucionalidad donde exigieron que se declare inconstitucional un pasaje del Código Penal que se utilizó, según ellos, para solicitar las detenciones de los dirigentes y la presidencia donde fueron atendidos por el mandatario Bernardo Arévalo.

Ambos líderes permanecen en prisión sin una acusación firme, juicio o sentencia. El proceso en su contra se ha retrasado por diversos recursos legales.

El jueves, la Sala Tercera de la Corte de Apelaciones que tiene a su cargo el expediente del proceso notificó a la defensa de los detenidos que autorizaba una prórroga para mantenerlos en prisión por cinco meses más, emitida por el juez Fredy Orellana.

Luis Pacheco y Héctor Chaclán, que en 2023 eran presidente y tesorero de la organización los 48 Cantones de Totonicapán —una de las organizaciones indígenas más grandes de Guatemala— fueron detenidos el 23 de abril de 2025 tras varios allanamientos ordenados por la fiscalía, que los acusó de los presuntos delitos de terrorismo, asociación ilícita y obstaculización a la acción penal en relación con las protestas en 2023 que paralizaron el país durante 20 días.

Ambos líderes, que siguen a la espera de un juicio, afirmaron la víspera a The Associated Press que son inocentes y que no cometieron actos de terrorismo. Señalaron que las protestas de ese año fueron en defensa de la institucionalidad y democracia en el país ante las acciones de la fiscalía que buscaban impedir el arribo al poder de Arévalo.

“No vamos a permitir que la prisión preventiva (que tienen Pacheco y Chaclán) se convierta en una condena anticipada”, dijo Eduardo Crecencio Tax, actual presidente de 48 Cantones, en declaraciones junto al presidente Arévalo.

El mandatario señaló que la detención de ambos activistas indígenas por parte del Ministerio Público fue “por defender nuestra democracia, por personas cuyo régimen de abuso y miedo está por terminar”. Fue una referencia al fin del mandato de Porras previsto para mediados de mayo.

“La criminalización ha causado dolor a muchas familias”, afirmó el presidente. Durante la gestión de Porras, que lleva ocho años en el cargo, por lo menos 130 ex operadores de justicia, periodistas, defensores de derechos humanos se han exiliado del país.

Pacheco y Chaclán permanecen en un centro de detención preventiva dentro de un complejo militar en Ciudad de Guatemala, vigilados por guardias penitenciarios.

“No hay ningún arrepentimiento, nunca hicimos nada malo”, sostuvo Pacheco a la AP el miércoles. “No fue algo personal, fue una acción delegada por la comunidad en asamblea, un servicio al pueblo”, y que "gracias a ellas muchas autoridades lograron tomar posesión de sus cargos y los ejercen hoy”.

En diciembre del año pasado, la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos advirtió sobre una crisis institucional, especialmente por acciones de la fiscalía y la persecución judicial a operadores de justicia, periodistas, defensores de derechos humanos y líderes sociales, mencionando en particular el caso judicial de Pacheco y Chaclán.

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Police said they conducted the sting at an undisclosed hotel with the help of the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office Human Trafficking Task Force.

According to arrest reports, detectives posted an online advertisement posing as the mother of two girls, aged 13 and 15, and told those responding that they “were available for sexual services in exchange for money.”

Authorities said they arranged meetings with the men to pay for sex with one or both of the girls and arrested them after they entered the hotel room.

Police said they arrested the following suspects on child sex trafficking and computer crimes charges:

• Josue Donis Castanon, 20, of Fort Lauderdale
• Edgardo Arturo Donaire, 49, of Miramar
• Roberto Antonio Guido Rojas, 38, of Miami
• Miles Simyon, 22, of Sweetwater
• Marvin Geovanny Torres, 43, of southwest Miami-Dade

Investigators specifically noted that Torres brought along more than a dozen condoms, several lubricants and lotions as well as multiple sexual objects, including “bondage” items.

“He kept repeating, in Spanish, ‘I knew it,’ ‘I knew,’ ‘I knew that it was this,’” a detective wrote in Torres’ arrest report.

Castanon, a Guatemalan national; Donaire and Torres, both Honduran nationals; Guido Rojas, a Nicaraguan national; and Simyon, a Botswanan national, were all being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Thursday afternoon.

Castanon and Guido Rojas additionally have immigration holds.

WK Kellogg Co. said Thursday it's including toys with some of its breakfast cereals for the first time in more than a decade.

Starting on Sunday, special edition boxes of Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, AppleJacks and Corn Pops will have plastic toys shaped like characters from Disney and Pixar's “Toy Story 5.” The movie is scheduled to hit theaters in June.

Plastic toys used to be a mainstay in breakfast cereal. On Ebay Thursday, collectors were selling a Batman coin bank from a 1989 box of Ralston cereal, a miniature stuffed bear from a 1980s box of Post Super Golden Crisp and even a tiny plastic “atomic submarine" from a 1950s box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes.

But the toys gradually disappeared as manufacturers tried to cut costs and consumers worried about choking and other hazards. Kellogg was criticized in 2004 for including Spider-Man watches with mercury batteries in its cereal boxes, for example. And in 1988, the company recalled “cool flute” and “binoculars” toys after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission deemed them a choking hazard.

Toys do occasionally make a limited-time comeback. General Mills introduced a “Cereal Squad” set of toy figurines in 2020, for example.

Kellogg said it thought “Toy Story 5" was a good fit for the reintroduction, since it explores the role of toys in a tech-driven world.

“Bringing toys back inside the box reintroduces that sense of discovery through a simple, screen-free moment of play that parents can now share with their own kids,” said Laura Newman, a vice president of brand marketing at Kellogg.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio said Hayam El Gamal and her five children can be released from a family immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas, as long as El Gamal and her oldest child, who is 18, wear electronic monitoring. Biery denied the government's request to stay his ruling so it could appeal. One of the family's lawyers, Eric Lee, posted on X that they were released later in the day.

El Gamal was born in Saudi Arabia and is an Egyptian national. She and her family have been in immigration detention since June after her husband, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was accused of throwing two Molotov cocktails at people demonstrating for awareness of Israeli hostages in Gaza. An 82-year-old woman who was injured in the attack later died. El Gamal has said she was shocked by the attack.

Soliman is an Egyptian national who federal authorities say was living in the U.S. illegally. He is being prosecuted in both state and federal court for the attack, which prosecutors say injured a total of 13 people. Investigators say he planned the attack for a year and was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people.” He has pleaded not guilty to state charges, including a murder charge, and federal hate crimes charges.

After the attack, the Trump administration claimed the family was being rushed out of the country. The White House said in social media posts that they “COULD BE DEPORTED AS EARLY AS TONIGHT” and that six one-way tickets had been purchased for them, with their “final boarding call coming soon.”

Biery decided to release the family even though an immigration appeals court had dismissed their case to stay and issued a deportation order for them. That came after a federal magistrate judge recommended on Monday that they should be released.

Lawyers for the family claim the deportation order was directed by the “political leadership” in Washington, which the government's lawyer, Anne Marie Cordova, denied. People who have final deportation orders are normally subject to mandatory detention.

In a statement, acting assistant Homeland Security Secretary Lauren Bis criticized Biery's ruling.

“Despite receiving full due process and a final order of removal, this activist judge appointed by Bill Clinton is releasing this terrorist’s family onto American streets,” Bis said.

Biery had barred the family from being deported until he could hold Thursday's hearing. One of the family's lawyers, Chris Godshall-Bennett, told Biery they will also ask the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to stop the family from being deported while they seek asylum and permission to remain in the United States.

Another federal judge blocked their immediate removal after the attack. Since then, the family has tried several times to be released on bond and return to Colorado while their asylum application is considered.

The magistrate judge recommended this week that they be released after their attorneys argued they have not been treated fairly in immigration proceedings.

A complaint filed in federal court charges the suspects — Huang Xing Shan and Jiang Wen Jie — with wire fraud conspiracy. They’re accused of managing the industrial-scale Shunda Park compound in the village of Min Let Pan before it was seized in November 2025 by armed forces in Myanmar.

Cyberscam centers have proliferated near Myanmar’s border with Thailand. And they have persisted despite a vow by Myanmar’s military leadership to wipe them out, The Associated Press has found.

Both suspects charged in Washington are in government custody in Thailand for illegally entering that country, a court filing says. They had relocated to another scam compound in Cambodia but were arrested by Thai authorities on immigration charges earlier this year, the filing alleges. It's unclear when they could be brought to the U.S. for prosecution.

FBI agents reviewed thousands of electronic devices found at the Shunda compound and interviewed some of its former workers. Scammers posing as law-enforcement or bank officials used fraudulent websites disguised as legitimate investment platforms to defraud victims across the globe by duping them into sending cryptocurrency, according to an FBI agent's affidavit.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who announced the charges at a news conference in Washington, said the type of scam perpetrated at the Shunda compound is among the fastest-growing and most financially devastating forms of cybercrime, costing Americans billions of dollars in losses.

“This isn't abstract. It is hitting your neighbors', your friends' and your parents' retirement accounts,” Pirro said. “Some of these victims are so distraught that they end up taking their own lives. This is economic homicide.”

Compound workers told the FBI that they were held against their will and forced to participate in the scams under the threat of violence.

“The criminal syndicates behind these compounds often lure unsuspecting persons to travel to nearby Thailand with the offer of high-paying technical jobs. However, many of these persons instead have their identification documents seized and are trafficked to (Myanmar) to work in these scam compounds,” the FBI affidavit says.

Online court records don't list any attorneys for the defendants, Huang and Jiang.

Pirro also announced Thursday that authorities have taken down hundreds of scam-related websites and seized a channel on the Telegram messaging app that she said was used to recruit human trafficking victims to a compound in Cambodia.

“These criminals thought they were untouchable because they were overseas,” Pirro said. “Today, we are proving them wrong, and we are just getting started.”

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According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, the stabbing was reported at 12:37 p.m. at the bus stop located at 1176 NW 79th St.

Deputies responded to the scene and found a man suffering from stab wounds.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded and transported the victim to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center in critical condition.

The suspect was taken into custody a short time later.

No other details were immediately released.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade, el incidente fue reportado a las 12:37 p.m. en la parada ubicada en 1176 NW 79th St.

Agentes respondieron al lugar y encontraron a un hombre con heridas de arma blanca.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue acudió a la escena y trasladó a la víctima al Ryder Trauma Center del Jackson Memorial Hospital en condición crítica.

El sospechoso fue detenido poco tiempo después.

No se han revelado más detalles de inmediato.