A further two people were wounded in the attack on the Black Sea port city, when drones hit a residential area, damaging apartment buildings, houses and a kindergarten.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia targeted Ukraine with 160 drones overnight, of which 133 were shot down or intercepted, hours before a proposed Easter ceasefire was due to come into force.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said 99 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight across Russia and occupied Crimea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declared a 32-hour ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter weekend, ordering Russian forces to halt hostilities from 4 p.m. Saturday until the end of Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised Saturday to abide by the ceasefire, describing it as an opportunity to build on peace initiatives. But he warned there would be a swift military response to any violations.

“Easter should be a time of silence and safety. A ceasefire (at) Easter could also become the beginning of real movement toward peace,” Zelenskyy wrote in an online post on Saturday.

But he added: “We all understand who we are dealing with. Ukraine will adhere to the ceasefire and respond strictly in kind.”

Ukraine earlier proposed to Russia a pause in attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure over the Orthodox Easter holiday.

Previous ceasefire attempts have had little impact, with both sides accusing each other of violations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday described Putin’s move as a “humanitarian” gesture, but said Moscow remains focused on a comprehensive settlement based on its longstanding demands — a key sticking point that has prevented the two sides from reaching an agreement.

A possible prisoner exchange over the Easter holiday has also been discussed.

Russia’s human rights ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova said last week that both sides were working on exchanges of prisoners.

Periodic prisoner exchanges have been one of the few positive outcomes of otherwise fruitless monthslong U.S.-brokered negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv. The talks have delivered no progress on key issues preventing an end to Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, now in its fifth year.

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

Guelleh, 78, has ruled the small Horn of Africa nation of about 1 million for more than two decades. Last year, the country’s lawmakers scrapped presidential age limits.

Election officials said the vote was peaceful. At the presidential palace, supporters on Saturday celebrated and offered congratulations.

Guelleh faced a single challenger, Mohamed Farah Samatar, a former ruling party member, in a race analysts say offered little genuine competition. Opposition groups frequently boycott elections, citing restrictions on political freedoms.

Guelleh succeeded his uncle, former President Hassan Gouled Aptidon, in 1999, extending a family-led system that has shaped the country’s politics for decades.

Djibouti hosts multiple foreign military bases, including those of the U.S., China, France and Japan, underscoring its strategic importance along a key global shipping route linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Revenues from these arrangements, along with port services for neighboring Ethiopia, underpin the economy.

Swalwell did not immediately heed those calls, saying on social media that he would spend the weekend with family and friends and share an update “very soon.”

“These allegations of sexual assault are flat false. They're absolutely false. They did not happen, they have never happened, and I will fight them with everything that I have,” he said.

Swalwell was among the leading Democrats in the race to replace outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom. But in just hours, he saw his most prominent supporters — including U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff and powerful labor unions — drop their endorsements and call for his exit from the race.

Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential candidate who has avoided engaging in the contest to replace him, said in a statement: “As we continue to learn more, these allegations from multiple sources are deeply troubling and must be taken seriously.”

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who hasn’t endorsed in the race, said the “serious allegations” must be investigated and that she spoke to Swalwell and suggested that be done “outside of a gubernatorial campaign.”

The allegations surfaced at a critical stage of the wide-open campaign to lead the nation’s most populous state. Voters will receive mail ballots next month in advance of the June 2 election.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday that a woman said Swalwell sexually assaulted her in 2019 and 2024. The newspaper reviewed text messages about the alleged 2024 assault and spoke to people whom she had told about it. She told the newspaper she did not go to police because she was afraid she would not be believed.

The woman worked for Swalwell in 2019, when the first alleged assault occurred, and the 2024 assault allegedly occurred after a charity gala, the newspaper reported. She said in both cases she was too intoxicated to consent to sex.

The paper didn’t name the woman, and The Associated Press has not been able to independently verify her account and identity. Her lawyer declined to comment.

Swift backlash from prominent Democrats

Schiff said in a social media post he's “deeply distressed” by the allegations, calling for Swalwell to end his gubernatorial bid.

Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who helped run Swalwell’s campaign, said he’s immediately ending his role.

“The congressman should leave the race now so there can be full accountability without doubt, distraction, or delay,” Gomez said on social media.

Powerful labor unions, including the California Service Employees International Union and the California Teachers Association, said they're suspending their support. The California Federation of Labor Unions said it’s “acting urgently” on next steps.

A spokesperson for House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said the allegations require a “serious and thorough investigation.”

Growing calls for Swalwell to drop out

Swalwell is among a handful of prominent candidates in the crowded race to succeed Newsom, and he immediately came under pressure from all other Democratic rivals to withdraw from the race. The party has been mired in a messy primary season with some leaders fearing the crowded field could cost them spot in the November general election. The state's top-two primary system sends the two highest vote getters onto the general election regardless of party.

Swalwell on Tuesday kicked off a planned series of campaign events in Sacramento, where he told reporters he’s never had a sexual relationship with a staff member or intern. He canceled the next scheduled event in Palm Springs on Thursday.

Uncorroborated and nonspecific rumors that Swalwell behaved inappropriately with female staffers have circulated on social media for weeks, but the Chronicle's story is the first reported account of someone making a direct accusation. CNN also reported that several women accused Swalwell of sending them inappropriate sexual messages.

He's suggested the allegations were part of an attack due to his campaign’s momentum.

Swalwell was elected in 2012 and represents a House district east of San Francisco. He launched a presidential run in April 2019 but shuttered it a few months later after failing to catch on with voters. Swalwell, who is married and has three children, is perhaps best known nationally as a House manager in President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial during his first term in early 2021.

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Blood reported from Los Angeles.

The ceasefire brokered by Pakistan still faces hurdles in the talks beginning Saturday, as Israel and Hezbollah militants have been trading fire along the border of southern Lebanon and Iran has set conditions before negotiations can begin.

The Iranian delegation arrived early Saturday in Islamabad, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who said on X that discussions will only take place if there is an Israeli ceasefire in Lebanon the release of blocked Iranian assets.

Hours earlier, President Donald Trump wished Vance good luck. “We’ll find out what’s going on. They’re militarily defeated.”

In Islamabad, the streets of a normally bustling capital were deserted Saturday as security forces sealed roads ahead of the talks.

Here is the latest:

Search continues for missing after Israeli strikes in Beirut

Civil defense crews used cranes on Saturday to search through partially collapsed apartments, three days after Israeli strikes hit a six-story building in Beirut’s seaside neighborhood of Caracas.

The Israeli military struck some 100 sites that it said were connected to Hezbollah in the capital and other parts of Lebanon Wednesday, killing more than 300 people, including more than 100 women and children.

Civil defense officials said six people were killed in the Caracas building and a missing teenager was believed to be buried under a collapsed roof.

Najib Merhi, the owner of a snack shop on the bottom floor, said the strike came as a shock because “this is a touristic area, a safe area, an area that is shared between all the social fabric of this country.”

Iranian negotiators meet with Pakistani prime minister

Iran's state-run television reported that Iran’s negotiating team chaired by parliament speaker Mahammad Bagher Qalibaf, met on Saturday with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Neither the Iranian delegation nor the prime minister’s office commented on the meeting in the Pakistani city city of Islamabad.

The meeting came as the U.S. and Iranian officials are set to start indirect high-stakes talks Saturday afternoon on ending the war in the Middle East.

Iranians say they're cautiously optimistic about a deal in peace talks

People in Iran’s capital say they’re hopeful that a deal can be struck in peace talks that began Saturday.

They told the Associated Press that they base that guarded optimism on both sides realizing that no one would gain from more war.

People said they’ve been worn down by weeks of airstrikes and warn that even if a deal is reached, the road to recovery will be long.

Amir Razzai Far, 62, said a peace deal isn’t enough “because we’ve been hit very hard, there have been huge costs, and the people have to pay for that.”

Shahab Banitaba also questioned whether the U.S. could be trusted to uphold any agreement.

She said even if there’s something concrete on paper, “there is still a chance that the deal falls through.”

Third-country mediators in Pakistan to assist U.S.-Iran peace talks

Officials from the region said on Saturday that Egyptian, Saudi, Chinese and Qatari officials are in Islamabad to indirectly facilitate the talks.

The officials were speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.

European airports warn of jet fuel crunch

The head of Airports Council International-Europe, Olivier Jankovec, warned the European Union that a ″systemic jet fuel shortage’’ could come within three weeks because of the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.

Jankovec said in a letter obtained by the Associated Press on Saturday that the crunch could impact the summer travel season and ″significantly harm the European economy.’′

He urged the EU to organize collective purchases of jet fuel for European countries, track stocks and identify alternative sources of jet fuel, among other measures.

The EU’s Energy Union Task Force which met Friday said there is ″no immediate risk to the EU’s security of oil and gas supply’’ from the Mideast conflicts and no need to release additional stocks.

But it warned of possible longer-term risks, and said ″jet fuel remains the primary concern’’ because of its reliance on imports.

Iran has ‘deep distrust’ in U.S., foreign minister says

Foreign Minister Abbas AraghchiIran said his country enters Saturday’s talks with the United States with “deep distrust” because the Islamic Republic was attacked twice during negotiations on its nuclear program.

Araghchi warned that his country would fight back if it was attacked, his office posted on Telegram.

The Iranian official, who spoke with German counterpart Johann Wadeful on Friday, also called for Israeli attacks on Lebanon to stop.

Pakistani analyst expects ‘good news’ in U.S.-Iran peace talks

Retired army general and senior defense analyst Tariq Rashid Khan on Saturday said “I think there will be good news, big news this week as a result of the talks."

Khan said Pakistan's Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir had played an important role in bringing the two sides to the negotiating table.

He said Pakistan offered to mediate because any further escalation could spark a wider conflict.

Iranian official says deal is possible if U.S. put ‘America First’

Mohammad Reza Aref, Iran’s first vice president, said on Saturday U.S.-Iran peace talks could produce a deal if U.S. officials worked in the interest of their country in line with President Donald Trump’s “America First” doctrine.

“However, if we face representatives of ‘Israel First,’ there will be no deal,” Aref said in a social media post.

He warned that “the world will face greater costs,” if the talks failed and the U.S. and Israel resumed the war against Iran.

Hospital says Israeli airstrike kills 6 in central Gaza

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital which received the casualties said the Israeli airstrike hit a security point in the urban refugee camp of Bureij around in the predawn hours Saturday.

The Israeli military told the Associated Press that it struck Hamas militants who allegedly came close to the so-called Yellow Line that separated the Israeli-controlled areas in Gaza from the rest of the strip.

The deaths were the latest among Palestinians in the territory since a ceasefire deal last October that aimed to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

While the heaviest fighting has subsided, Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones, killing more than 730 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.

The health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. But it does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

Militants have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to that and other violations. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.

Pakistan’s foreign and interior ministers, top soldier receive U.S. delegation

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Saturday received the U.S. delegation lead by U.S. Vice President JD Vance.

The ministry said in a statement that Dar commended the U.S. commitment to achieving lasting regional and global peace and stability.

He expressed hope that the parties would engage constructively and reiterated Pakistan’s desire to continue facilitating efforts toward a lasting and durable resolution to the conflict.

Lebanon’s state media reports 3 killed in Israeli strikes

The Lebanese National News Agency reported multiple Israeli strikes early Saturday in southern Lebanon, killing at least three people.

The three were killed when an airstrike hit and destroyed a residential building in Maifadoun town in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, according to the agency.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it fired a barrage of rockets that targeted a military facility in northern Israel.

US Vice President JD Vance arrives in Islamabad for ceasefire talks with Iran

Vance arrived in Islamabad at the head of a delegation that includes President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The Iranian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, was already in Islamabad.

Before departing for Pakistan, Vance warned Iran not to “play” the U.S. Hours later, Qalibaf said discussions would only take place if there is an Israeli ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of blocked Iranian assets.

Pakistan sets up state-of-art media center for talks

Pakistan’s government has set up a state-of-the-art media center to facilitate Pakistani and foreign journalists covering the talks between the United States and Iran, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said.

Tarar told reporters the facility at the Jinnah Convention Center offers high-speed internet and a range of free services to support media coverage. Shuttle services have been arranged to transport journalists between the media center and a hotel in the city’s main shopping mall.

Pakistan has announced visa-on-arrival for journalists and official delegations traveling from the United States and Iran for the talks, which have been dubbed the “Islamabad talks.”

Inside the media center, rows of workstations equipped with laptops and charging points allow reporters to file stories. Large screens broadcast major domestic and international television channels. The facility also has designated areas for live stand-ups, press briefings and interviews.

Islamabad appears deserted before Iran war talks

The streets of Pakistan’s normally bustling capital were deserted Saturday as security forces sealed roads ahead of talks between high-level officials from Iran and the U.S. to end their nearly six-week war. Pakistani authorities urged Islamabad residents to stay inside, leading the city to look like it was under curfew.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance is leading the American delegation, which was expected to arrive before noon.

Iranian negotiators, headed by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, arrived late Friday.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif the conflict was entering a “difficult phase” as the sides try to shift from a temporary pause in fighting to a more lasting settlement. He said they were at a “make-or-break” moment.

As the U.S. delegation led by Vice President JD Vance and the Iranian delegation led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf arrived in Islamabad, the ceasefire appeared fragile. The Lebanese state-run news agency reported Israel was pressing ahead with strikes in southern Lebanon, killing at least three people. Iran said discussions would only take place if there is a ceasefire in Lebanon and blocked Iranian assets are released.

The war has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 1,953 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. It has largely cut off the Persian Gulf from the global economy, sending energy prices soaring and damaging infrastructure in half a dozen countries in the region.

In Tehran, residents told The Associated Press they were skeptical yet somewhat hopeful about the talks and worn down by weeks of airstrikes that have carved a path of destruction across their country.

Shahab Banitaba questioned whether the United States could be trusted to uphold any agreement.

“If we get concrete and final results, there is still a chance that the deal falls through,” he said.

Officials posture over key issues ahead of talks

U.S. President Donald Trump posted repeatedly on social media leading up to Saturday, saying Iranian officials “have no cards” to negotiate with. He accused them of using the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for global energy supplies, for extortion.

“The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he wrote.

The normally bustling streets of Islamabad were deserted Saturday as security forces sealed roads ahead of the talks. Pakistani authorities urged residents to stay inside, leading the city to look like it was under curfew.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Friday the war that began on Feb. 28 was at a “make-or-break” moment.

Vance said on Friday the U.S. was optimistic about the talks, but warned: “If they’re going to try and play us, then they’re going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran was entering negotiations with “deep distrust” stemming from prior strikes on Iran during previous rounds of talks. Araghchi, who is part of Iran's delegation in Pakistan, said on Saturday that his country was prepared to retaliate if it was attacked again.

Israel and Lebanon will have direct negotiations

Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are expected to begin Tuesday in Washington, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office said Friday. Beirut is keen to hold direct talks to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah, but under a ceasefire similar to the one with Iran.

Israel wants the Lebanese government to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, much like was envisaged in a November 2024 ceasefire. But it is unclear whether Lebanon's army can establish a monopoly on arms or confiscate weapons from the militant group, which has resisted efforts to curb its strength for decades.

Israel’s insistence that the ceasefire in Iran does not include a pause in its fighting with Hezbollah has threatened to sink the deal. The militant group joined the war in support of its backer, Iran in the opening days of the war.

The day the truce was announced, Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, killing more than 300 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. It was the deadliest day in the country since the war began Feb. 28.

Trump said Thursday he had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dial back the strikes.

Strait of Hormuz remains a sticking point

Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has proved its biggest strategic advantage in the war. Commercial vessels have avoided the strait, effectively blocking the passage of oil, natural gas and fertilizer.

The spot price of Brent crude, the international standard for oil prices, was around $97 Friday, up more than 30% since the war started.

Before the conflict, around a fifth of the world’s traded oil typically passed through the strait on more than 100 ships a day, many carrying oil to Asia. With the ceasefire in place, only 12 have been recorded passing through.

Iran has floated charging ships passing through the strait as part of a peace deal, though the idea has been widely rejected by countries including the United States and neighboring Oman.

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Metz reported from Jerusalem, Castillo reported from Beijing and Magdy reported from Cairo.

She didn’t hesitate.

“I purposely drove here just for the gas,” Lewis said while filling up her Chevrolet Suburban at the Tulalip Market this week for $4.84 a gallon (3.8 liters) — about 75 cents less than prices near home. “Gas is ridiculous. But I have found, honestly, over the years, this gas station specifically is cheaper than a lot around here. Probably the cheapest.”

Lewis isn't the only driver who has discovered that some of cheapest fuel can be found on Native American reservations.

Especially in California, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma and Washington state — places with dozens of tribally owned stations, including some in busy travel corridors — tribes exempt from state fuel taxes can sell for much less than competing stations nearby.

Gas prices push the drive to find bargains

Apps such as Gas Buddy make finding the cheapest gas easier than ever.

Nationwide, gasoline prices have risen by well over $1 since the Iran war began Feb. 28, reaching an average of $4.15 a gallon, according to AAA.

Prices have been higher, topping $5 during the summer of 2022, but economists believe they will continue heading up and contribute to inflation in the weeks of ahead as geopolitical tension persists.

Deals are to be found, though, at many of the almost 500 tribally owned convenience stores with gas stations across the U.S.

Fifty-five are in California. At the Chukchansi Crossing Fuel Station & Travel Center between Fresno and Yosemite National Park, the $5.09 gas was 60 cents less than nearby stations.

New Mexico resident Jamie Cross usually finds savings on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, where gas was as low as $3.79 this week.

“I hope we don’t go any higher,” Cross said Thursday.

In eastern New York state, on Cattauragus Indian Territory between Buffalo and Erie, Pennsylvania, the cheapest gas was about $3.65 at more than half a dozen stations — 50 cents less than in towns nearby.

Tribal lands find a fuel tax escape

So how do tribes do it? Two words: Tax exemptions.

Generally tribes must pay the federal fuel tax of 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.3 cents per gallon for diesel, and pass that cost along to drivers. State fuel taxes are a different matter.

For well over a century, U.S. courts have found that states don't have authority to collect taxes from Native Americans on their land, said Dan Lewerenz, a University of North Dakota assistant law professor who specializes in Native American law.

“The Supreme Court consistently held to this view and it’s one of the most enduring principles in federal Indian law,” Lewerenz said.

Federally recognized Native American tribes are in 35 states with state gasoline taxes ranging from 9 cents per gallon in Alaska to 71 cents in California.

From there, things get complicated based on where the fuel is taxed — at fuel terminals, say, or when distributors buy or sell fuel — and depending on various agreements between states and tribes.

Court rulings come into play. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that off-reservation distributors in Kansas may charge state tax on sales to tribes for on-reservation fuel sales. But in 2019, the Supreme Court held that an 1855 treaty between the U.S. and the Yakama Nation that ensured the free travel of tribal members on roads with their goods prohibited state fuel taxes on tribal lands in Washington state.

“This is a little bit different than the principle that Indians aren’t taxed within Indian Country because this particular treaty reserved certain off-reservation rights for the Indians as well,” Lewerenz said.

Gas is just one way stores make money

Convenience store gas sales are not as profitable as bringing people inside from the pumps.

Selling snacks adds profit. But tribal businesses are increasingly offering groceries in what otherwise would be “food deserts” far from grocery stores.

“Sometimes these gas stations and convenience stores are the nearest, best place to purchase affordable food or household supplies,” said Matthew Klas, with the Minneapolis-based consultant Klas Robinson Q.E.D.

Klas does market research and consults for tribal businesses and tracks the 245 tribes nationwide that, as of 2025, operated 496 convenience stores with gas stations.

Oklahoma, California, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Michigan and New York have the most. Some tribes, including the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma and Oneida Indian Nation in New York, have their own store chains.

Drive-through smoke shops, car washes and truck stop amenities also bring in revenue. Then there are the casinos: 205 tribally owned gas stations are located at or near casinos.

Some tribal casinos are resorts with gas stations. Some tribal gas stations are casinos of a sort called “gasinos,” which only have a small number of gambling machines.

Tribally owned businesses are a major revenue generator for Native American reservations. On the Seattle area’s Tulalip Reservation, rising gas sales were being reinvested in the community, helping to cover the cost of roads, police, health care, education, housing and other needs, Tulalip Tribes Federal Corporation CEO Tanya Burns said in a statement.

“Like any government, we provide critical services to our people,” Burns said.

It's not just about savings

“It’s terrible,” Todd Hall of Paden, Oklahoma, said of diesel prices as he spent about $90 to fill up his tow truck at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation gas station about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Oklahoma City.

But, he added: "They’re cheaper here than anywhere else.”

Hall paid $4.57 per gallon for diesel, and said the price is over $5 at many locations in the area.

Mark Foster said he saves about $5 a week buying fuel at the tribally owned gas station. But he’s a faithful customer because the tribe is a good community partner, he said.

“I like the way the tribe operates,” he said. “And the price is good too.”

At the Tulalip Market north of Seattle, Jared Blankenship was griping not about prices but that he was having to pay for gas at all.

“Yeah, well, my electric car just got totaled,” Blankenship said. “So this sucks. This is new. It’s either Costco or looking wherever’s cheap, like the rez. So here we are.”

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Lindsey Wasson in Seattle; Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City; Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Savannah Peters in Edgewood, New Mexico, contributed.

The Los Angeles Dodgers star singled in the fifth inning against Kumar Rocker of the Texas Rangers, extending his streak to 44 games. It was his 13th game reaching base in as many tries this season. His streak began on Aug. 24, and lasted the final 31 games of last season.

“He’s taking walks, he’s getting hits, and he really hasn’t got going yet,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Ohtani struck out once and was intentionally walked in the eighth with runners on first and second.

“Players like to hit, they like to swing the bat, but he's smart enough to know that if they're not going to pitch to him, they're going to pitch around him, then it's a better plan to take the walk,” Roberts said.

Ohtani is tied with Len Koenecke (1934) and Zack Wheat (1919-1920) for the fifth-longest on-base streak in Dodger franchise history. He has reached base safely in each of his seven bobblehead nights as a Dodger.

“I thought he was going to hit a home run tonight,” Roberts said, "and I think he wanted a home run tonight on his bobblehead night, but it just wasn’t to be.”

Suzuki reached base in 43 consecutive games in 2009 with the Seattle Mariners. Ohtani has said he admired Suzuki while growing up.

Ohtani had already passed the Hall of Famer in another category. In 2024, Ohtani's 59 stolen bases broke Suzuki's record for steals by a Japanese-born player in a season. Suzuki had 56 in 2001.

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

“I just keep seeing a lot of different aspects of life getting more expensive, and it’s harder,” said Eble, an account manager for a public relations agency.

Car ownership has long been integral to the American dream. But as automakers slash the production of inexpensive models to cater to customers who can afford oversized pickups and sport utility vehicles, buyers find themselves facing sticker shock at the same time they are already frustrated by the lingering effects of high inflation.

Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March, the biggest yearly increase since May 2024, while new car prices were up 12.6% from a year ago, the Labor Department reported Friday.

New vehicles now sell for an average of nearly $50,000, up 30% in six years, and average monthly payments — based on 10% down and a 6-year note — recently hit $775. Looking for something on the cheap end? The share of vehicles listing for less than $30,000 is about 13% — down from 40% five years ago, per the car review site CarGurus.

To cope, buyers are spreading their payments out longer. Consumers choosing 7-year loans make up more than 12% of all sales, up from nearly 8% a year ago, according to auto buying resource J.D. Power. Such contracts wind up costing more in the long run because of interest payments.

“The ability to buy transportation is still out there. The question is just, what do you get for your money?” Charlie Chesbrough, a senior economist at Cox Automotive, said.

The rising cost of cars is contributing to increased concerns about affordability throughout American life. Consumers, especially young people, say they feel like everyday needs like housing, food, utilities and child care are getting costlier and wages aren't keeping up.

It is a vulnerable position for Republicans ahead of this year’s midterm elections, especially as the Iran war has pumped up gas prices that makes getting behind the wheel even more expensive.

Size, technology and ‘must-have’ features add to costs

Sticker prices have been rising since automakers discovered Americans are willing to pay more for bigger, more expensive SUVs and pickup trucks that bring the companies more profit from each sale. They have largely phased out smaller, cheaper sedans.

That is especially true for domestic carmakers; the average selling prices for many vehicles from Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Jeep-maker Stellantis have generally trended higher than those for Asian companies Honda, Hyundai, Mazda and Subaru.

Car companies are also savvy about placing desired options in more expensive trim levels that can lure consumers into a vehicle that costs more than they planned, said David Undercoffler, the head of consumer insights at CarGurus.

Advanced safety technology — lane-keep assist, automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, collision warnings and more — all add to the cost of a vehicle. Automakers are required by federal industry rules to add some features, such as rear-view cameras.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed up auto prices because production fell, affecting both the new and used markets. Though production recovered, other supply chain disruptions and tariffs have affected prices. Meanwhile, government data shows that car insurance prices have soared 55% compared with six years ago, or just before the pandemic, driving up the number of Americans going without. Car repairs, on average, are 48% more expensive.

The share of new car buyers earning below $100,000 fell to 37% last year, down from 50% in 2020, according to Cox Automotive.

Some carmakers have acknowledged affordability concerns. In February, Ford said it would have several vehicles prices under $40,000 by the end of the decade. GM has pointed to vehicles from Buick and Chevrolet, including the Trax, as cheaper options.

Looking to used market for relief

Chesbrough thinks consumers are sometimes unrealistic in their wants.

“There are vehicles out there for less than $30,000. What everybody wants is the mid-sized SUV with leather seats and the sunroof for $25,000, and that’s not available,” Chesbrough said.

Those buyers, he said, are being pushed into the used market.

But as those buyers shift to used, they are finding fewer affordable options there, too. The share of used vehicles priced less than $30,000 fell from 78% in 2021 to 69% in February, according to CarGurus. The average used vehicle sold for about $25,000 in February, and the average used monthly payments hit $560.

The inventory of used cars is being hit by a couple of trends. One is that consumers keen to avoid a big expense are hanging on to their cars longer — nearly 13 years on average now, 18 months longer than a decade ago, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. And a downturn in the popularity of leasing means fewer two- and three-year-old cars hitting the market after leases expire.

J.D. Power estimates that consumers might spend up to $140 less on a lease payment than the average finance commitment, a good option especially for drivers whose annual mileage is predictable. But experts say there is still an affordability challenge.

What buyers can do

Sam Dykhuis, 27, of Chicago, needed to buy her first car recently when she started a new job as a scheduler for United Airlines. She searched for something used under $20,000, and eventually paid a little more than that for a 2021 Mazda CX-5. To hold down the cost, she tapped savings to buy the car outright. She pays insurance six months at a time to save a few bucks, too.

Still, “My paycheck went down and my expenses went up,” Dykhuis said. “Certainly, I have to be more just on top of it than I was previously."

Eble, 30, and Marcus, 31, say they appreciate cool vehicles but don't consider themselves “car people" and are hoping their search is easier as a result. Still, finding something in their $20,000 to $30,000 budget might not be as easy as it once was.

They are considering cars such as a newer Trax, a Mazda or maybe an electric vehicle. New EVs generally cost more upfront, but consumers can save in the long run. The used EV market will also soon be flooded with two- or three-year-old EVs that were leased at the time federal credits were generous.

Like Dykhuis, they say they also might buy their new ride outright to avoid a new monthly payment.

“It feels like if anything happens out of our control … it just seems so much more difficult to figure out how to orient our finances," Eble said.

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Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

In Argentina, the U.S. administration worked to prop up the country’s financial markets to the tune of $20 billion -- then Trump threatened to pull the assistance if its elections didn’t go his preferred way.

And in Honduras, he backed a conservative former mayor for president — and pardoned a predecessor from the same political party as Hondurans were preparing to vote.

In his second term, Trump has made a public flex of his political influence abroad on a scale that few if any U.S. presidents have exerted, trying to marshal power that he’s used domestically to sway races in Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Using endorsements to reward loyal and like-minded leaders, he has shattered a U.S. tradition of avoiding overt involvement in the internal politics of other countries, and made the use of some foreign policy tools more about politics than about advancing U.S. interests, according to his critics.

“The impact of that is to really cheapen a relationship,” said David Pressman, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Hungary during the Biden administration. Pressman, who was on the ground in Budapest as Orban publicly backed Trump in 2024, said Hungarian positions on key issues such as Ukraine felt “infused through a political U.S. rubric,” rather than articulated as sovereign foreign policy.

The most significant test yet of Trump’s political power abroad may come Sunday, when voters in Hungary render a verdict on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's bid for a fifth term. Orbán was the first European leader to back Trump during his 2016 run and remained a close ally even during Trump’s period of political exile, making sojourns to see him in south Florida and again endorsing the Republican in his 2024 comeback race.

“I love Hungary and I love that Viktor,” Trump said this week as Vice President JD Vance, visiting Budapest, put him on speakerphone at a rally with more than 1,000 Orbán supporters.

Trump says he loves to pick winners

Trump has long reveled in his status as kingmaker in the Republican Party. Now, he boasts that foreign leaders come to him seeking his approval.

“I love it when I give endorsements and people win,” Trump said last month at a summit with several Latin American leaders whom he had backed.

Often, his picks share his policy views, like fellow immigration hard-liners Orbán and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, or the chainsaw-wielding Argentine President Javier Milei, who used the tool to illustrate his zeal to slash spending.

Trump and his officials have often used the Conservative Political Action Conference as a stage for promoting their foreign political friends.

At a CPAC gathering in Warsaw last year, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem urged Poles to vote for conservative Karol Nawrocki, and implied that the future of the U.S. military presence in Poland could hinge on the election’s outcome. Nawrocki would go on to win.

In Hungary last month, Trump greeted CPAC attendees with a video message from behind the Resolute Desk, urging support for Orbán.

“The prime minister has been a strong leader who’s shown the entire world what’s possible when you defend your borders, your culture, your heritage, your sovereignty and your values,” Trump said. He later added, “I hope he wins, and I hope he wins big.”

The White House defended Trump’s approach as a sign of transparency.

“President Trump is a great American statesman who will speak or work with anyone, and he makes no secret about those he likes or supports,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. “Many individuals who align with President Trump’s ideology are getting elected to top offices around the world because everyone wants to replicate his immeasurable success on behalf of the American people,” she said.

Sunday's election is a big test of Trump's foreign political clout

Few foreign leaders have amassed as much political support from the Trump administration as Orbán. The U.S. president has fired off multiple Truth Social posts promoting the prime minister, whose hard-right authoritarian approach to governance has endeared him to Trump, as did his fealty to the U.S. president even when Trump was out of power.

“Hungary: GET OUT AND VOTE FOR VIKTOR ORBÁN,” Trump posted Thursday night. On Friday, he said his administration “stands ready to use the full Economic Might of the United States” to help Hungary's economy, if Orbán and Hungarians need it.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as a senator, once aired concerns about “democratic erosion” under Orbán. Nonetheless, Rubio endorsed him in February and promoted the “very, very close personal relationship and working relationship” between Trump and the prime minister.

During Vance’s two-day swing to Budapest this week, he made the administration’s endorsement of Orbán explicit even as he decried foreign election interference from the European Union.

“Of course we’re going to work with whoever wins the Hungarian election because we love the people of Hungary and it’s an important relationship,” Vance told reporters. “But Viktor Orbán is going to win the next election in Hungary, so I feel very confident about that and about our continued positive relationship.”

But Orbán had been trailing in independent polls ahead of the April 12 election and Trump — whose push to acquire Greenland and war in Iran have made him unpopular throughout Europe — may have less sway than he once had.

Past presidents have been more subtle

Past administrations have used different methods to influence power abroad. For instance, the Central Intelligence Agency under President Dwight D. Eisenhower helped engineer a 1954 coup that forced out Guatemala's president, Jacobo Arbenz.

There have been rare cases when past presidents made their support explicit, such as when former President Bill Clinton backed Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s 1993 move to dissolve parliament and set up new legislative and presidential elections.

But Trump’s political engagement abroad is without precedent, said James Lindsay, a distinguished senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“Trump is just different than other presidents, and he’s viewed differently than other presidents, and that is a strength you can take advantage of,” Lindsay said.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Trump's blatant involvement in elections abroad should be viewed as part of the what the administration called the “‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine” in its national security strategy released in December. The 1823 Monroe Doctrine, named for President James Monroe, has been used to justify U.S. military interventions in Latin America.

Kaine, who was a missionary in Honduras at a time of deep covert U.S. involvement in Latin America, called the doctrine “poison language” for the region. “It's violating best practice,” he said. “America has been deeply involved in regime support, opposition and regime change in the Americas for centuries, and it is not a legacy that we should be proud of.”

Trump has offered carrots — and sticks — during foreign races

Sometimes Trump's support for foreign candidates has come with more than an endorsement.

In October, Trump was particularly blunt about his intent to withhold assistance for Argentina if Milei's political coalition didn’t prevail in legislative elections that month. Shortly before Milei's visit, the administration had finalized a $20 billion currency swap line, aid that had drawn fierce criticism from U.S. farmers and Democratic lawmakers.

“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina. OK?” Trump told a reporter as he hosted Milei at a White House lunch.

In the final days of last year's Honduran elections, Trump not only made his preference for Nasry Asfura clear, but also emphasized that “the United States will not be throwing good money after bad” if Asfura lost. Both Milei and Asfura were successful in their respective elections.

Trump also announced a pardon for former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez for U.S. drug trafficking and weapons convictions. “This cannot be allowed to happen, especially now, after Tito Asfura wins the Election, when Honduras will be on its way to Great Political and Financial Success,” Trump wrote on social media.

Trump has repeatedly floated a pardon for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including in a formal letter and during a speech to the country’s parliament. Netanyahu is enmeshed in a far-reaching corruption case that includes allegations of fraud, breach of trust and bribery. He faces what could be a tough reelection campaign this year.

A fiery Vance speech in the early weeks of the Trump administration strained ties with Germany when, at the Munich Security Conference, he criticized mainstream German parties for refusing to work with a far-right party.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz later said it was not the place for a U.S. leader to “say something like that to us in Germany.”

“I wouldn’t do it in America, either,” Merz said.

But that wasn't the case for the past few days at the annual National Action Network conference in New York, where Democratic politicians and potential presidential candidates repeatedly made the case for diversity, equity and inclusion policies that seemed to have fallen out of favor.

“We have the high ground on this issue,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declared to a packed audience of Black activists. He criticized Republicans as “extremists” who “are trying to do an all-out assault on civil rights, on voting rights, certainly on diversity, equity and inclusion.”

“They’re not trying to celebrate merit, they’re trying to elevate mediocrity,” Jeffries contended. “They want to suggest that diversity, equity and inclusion are foreign values. They’re not foreign values, they’re American values.”

DEI initiatives became widespread in workplaces, colleges and government agencies after Black Lives Matter protests over the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

But Republican leaders, including Trump, have argued that DEI programs are divisive and discriminate against white people.

On his first day in office, Trump signed executive orders banning “illegal DEI” throughout the federal government. A March order went further by mandating that any companies that work with the federal government must also comply with the administration’s anti-DEI platform.

“We ended DEI in America,” Trump said in his State of the Union address in February.

Democrats had mixed and at times muted responses to the administration’s anti-DEI crusade over the last year, with some in the party blaming a focus on diversity and identity as a reason why the party alienated many voters across racial and socioeconomic lines.

But some Democrats discussed as potential White House contenders are promoting DEI policies.

The rhetorical shift also reflects the party’s efforts to court and energize Black voters, who often view attacks on DEI as linked to broader opposition to civil rights and economic justice.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro leaned in during his appearance on the first day of the National Action Network.

“We believe diversity is our strength in the Commonwealth,” Shapiro said. “We continue to have an Office of Diversity and Equity and Inclusion when other states have shuttered them.”

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, the nation's only sitting Black governor, touted that his state had “unapologetically” responded to the rollback of DEI policies in Washington by creating state offices focused on supporting minority businesses and social mobility while combating racial inequality. He offered his state as a model for equitable policymaking.

“We are seeing what the policies and the position are when it comes to belief in diversity from this federal administration,” Moore later told The Associated Press. “I actually think the future of how we should think about it should be seen in the present, of how places like Maryland are actually moving in this moment.”

During his remarks, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker highlighted that he’d directed his state to “set aside a whole bunch of that money to address inequities that have plagued the Black community over so many years” and defended Illinois’ policies meant to reduce socioeconomic and racial inequality.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who will address the conference Saturday, is expected to highlight his commitment to diversity despite political backlash, according to political adviser Eric Hyers.

Beshear, who leads a state Trump last carried by more than 30 points, vetoed what he described as a hateful bill from his Republican-controlled legislature last year that would have banned diversity, equity and inclusion programs from public universities. The legislature overrode the veto days later.

“He never wavered even when there was a post-2024 backlash,” Hyers said of Beshear. “He believes in his core that diversity is a strength, not a weakness.”

Rev. Al Sharpton, who founded and hosts the conference, told The Associated Press he was looking for 2028 contenders to show “that what they’re campaigning on is something that addresses the race gap in the country, specifically, not just generalizations.”

Rep. James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat and influential former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, warned that leaders in either party who do not support DEI may oppose core American values.

“DEI stands for ‘diversity, equity and inclusion.’ Who, in search for a more perfect union, would shy away from diversity equity and inclusion? If you’re against those things, you are against democracy,” he told the AP.

Iran’s theocracy is tattered but alive, with new economic leverage. The U.S. and Israel will hold elections this year, their leaders potentially facing voters having fallen short of their war aims. The NATO alliance, already strained, is under even more pressure. The Gulf Arab states face an emboldened Iran in their backyard.

At this inflection point, as the U.S. and Iran prepare for talks this weekend in Pakistan, AP journalists in the Middle East and Washington share their assessments on how the war is still reverberating across the world during the tenuous ceasefire:

Israel

If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were to be graded for the war, he would get an “incomplete.”

Netanyahu set some ambitious goals at the outset of the fighting on Feb. 28, saying he wanted to remove the threats posed by Iran’s missile and nuclear programs and its support for hostile proxy groups. He also vowed to create the conditions for a popular uprising against the Iranian government. None of these goals were fully achieved.

In a televised address after the ceasefire, Netanyahu acknowledged “we still have goals to complete.” But he nonetheless claimed “immense achievements.”

“Iran is weaker than ever, and Israel is stronger than ever. This is the bottom line of this campaign,” he said.

With elections looming later this year, the question for Netanyahu is whether the Israeli public agrees with his assessment.

Israelis overwhelmingly supported the war against archenemy Iran, especially in the early days of the campaign. But as the war dragged on, Israelis also grew tired as nonstop air-raid sirens disrupted daily life and sent people scrambling into bomb shelters around the clock.

Netanyahu is now hoping that in the coming ceasefire talks the U.S. will shore up the battlefield gains into a permanent agreement that guards Israel’s interests. He also must ensure that his relationship with President Donald Trump remains strong after an inconclusive war that was deeply unpopular in the U.S.

Otherwise, Netanyahu could find himself struggling for his job when his war-weary nation heads to the polls.

— Josef Federman, deputy news director for the Middle East

Depleted Iran finds leverage

Iran, battered by nationwide protests in January and heavy airstrikes in the war, suddenly finds itself in a position of power.

Just the threat of sea mines and possible attacks from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has ships staying away from the Strait of Hormuz, in effect keeping the waterway crucial for international energy shipments closed.

Even hard-liners have spun the killing of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei into the idea of replacing him with a younger, more hard-line version of himself in his son, Mojtaba.

The government has put forward its own maximalist demands ahead of the Islamabad talks — including continuing to enrich uranium in its nuclear program, one of the chief reasons Trump gave for going to war.

Yet Iran’s military sites now sit in ruins, its missile arsenal broadly depleted, and the threat of more protests by its people still looms in the future. That unrest could be spurred on by the sheer level of destruction in Iran’s oil and gas industry, as well as attacks targeting steel mills and other economic sites.

— Jon Gambrell, news director for the Gulf and Iran

Gulf Arab states in the middle

After insisting and pleading with Iran to leave them out of the conflict, the Gulf Arab states still found themselves targeted by Iran, which rained down drone and missile fire on airports, energy sites, military bases and civilian targets across the region.

Many had to close refineries or declare themselves unable to meet their promised oil output due to the war. Even with a ceasefire in place, Iran’s new control of the Strait of Hormuz through threats alone means Gulf states still aren’t able to get their energy shipments out to market.

They aren’t a monolith though, with opinions ranging from Oman’s efforts at diplomacy to the United Arab Emirates denouncing Iranian aggression and insisting the status quo cannot stand.

— Jon Gambrell, news director for the Gulf and Iran

Ceasefire uncertainty in Lebanon

In Lebanon, the regional war has taken a devastating toll and the prospect of a ceasefire now leaves more questions than answers.

The U.S. and Israel are at odds with Iran over whether or not their ceasefire extends to the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran says it does; the U.S. and Israel say it does not.

In the meantime, Lebanese and Israeli officials have agreed to enter into direct negotiations, which Lebanon hopes will lead to a ceasefire and Israel hopes will lead to disarmament of Hezbollah. Netanyahu said the negotiations would also include talks about a potential peace agreement between the two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations.

While the talks represent a significant step, reaching an agreement will not be easy. Lebanon wants a halt to Israeli strikes before the talks start, a condition that Israel is unlikely to agree to.

In practice, most analysts say Lebanon does not have the capacity to disarm Hezbollah by force or to enforce any ceasefire agreement that Hezbollah does not agree to.

For now, the Israel-Hezbollah war that has displaced more than a million people and killed nearly 1,900 continues.

— Abby Sewell, news director for Lebanon, Syria and Iraq

Strained NATO relations pushed to the brink

Trump has repeatedly tested the 32-member alliance.

He cut off direct U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, threatened to take the Arctic territory of Greenland from NATO ally Denmark, and cajoled members to spend more on defense.

Now, his differences with NATO allies over Iran are raising new questions about whether the alliance, created as a curative to post World War II instability, can survive.

Since launching the war, Trump has derided allies as “cowards,” slammed NATO as “a paper tiger” and compared U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to Neville Chamberlain, the former premier known for a policy of appeasement toward Nazi Germany.

Trump is angry at member countries ignoring his call to help as Iran effectively shut the the Strait of Hormuz, and at alliance members Spain and France restricting the use of their airspace or joint military facilities by U.S. forces supporting the operations in Iran.

Trump says the moment is “a mark on NATO that will never disappear.”

— Aamer Madhani, White House reporter, Washington

The United States faces economic woes

Trump won back the White House promising to curb inflation, bring down prices many Americans saw as too high and trigger a jobs boom. The war in Iran has done exactly the opposite, raising gas prices, leaving stock markets reeling and sending shockwaves through the rest of the economy as the labor market weakens and inflation begins rising anew.

With November’s midterms looming, none of that is good for Republicans trying to keep control of Congress. Trump initially tried to calm economic fears by visiting swing states. But he first scoffed at affordability worries as a hoax, then stopped those trips altogether as the war consumed his administration.

Making a ceasefire stick might eventually stabilize oil prices and financial markets, but reversing economic pain around the globe may take far longer, potentially affecting voters closer to Election Day.

Polling also shows that most Americans believe U.S. military action in Iran went too far. And the war has even caused a rift within Trump’s once seemingly unflappable MAGA base.

— Will Weissert, White House reporter, Washington

Energy prices and markets

The conflict has largely shut down the flow of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil travels, and has damaged oil and gas production facilities across the Middle East.

In response, oil prices have shot higher all over the world. Brent crude oil, the international standard, has gone from roughly $70 per barrel before the war in late February to more than $119 at times. Brent rose 0.7% to $96.58 Friday.

Prices at the pump have jumped as well, reaching about $4.15 a gallon in the U.S., up from just under $3 before the conflict began. Higher gas costs can sap Americans’ ability to spend on other goods and services, slowing the economy and threatening to worsen unemployment.

U.S. consumer prices rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier, up sharply from just 2.4% in February and the biggest yearly increase since May 2024. The surge in gas prices will stretch the budgets of lower- and middle-income households.

— Christopher Rugaber, economics reporter, Washington

—

AP writers Jonathan J. Cooper and Mike Catalini contributed.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Friday night because contracts can’t be signed until Saturday.

The 10-time All-Star spent last season with the Atlanta Dream after playing the first 11 years of her career for Phoenix, which drafted her No. 1 in 2013.

The 35-year-old Griner is from Houston and the Connecticut franchise is moving there in 2027.

The 6-foot-9 forward won a WNBA title in 2014 with Phoenix and was the league's leading scorer in 2017 and 2019. She was the defensive player of the year in 2014 and 2015.

Griner also helped the United States win gold in each of the past three Olympics.

Last season for Atlanta, she averaged 9.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks, which were all career lows.

Griner missed the 2022 season when she was detained for nearly 10 months in Russia after authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis. She was freed in a prisoner swap when the U.S. released notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

The Sun have a young nucleus that Griner will provide a veteran presence for. The team lost Marina Mabrey in the expansion draft to Toronto. Connecticut has Aneesah Morrow, Saniya Rivers and Leila Lacan, all of whom were drafted over the last two seasons. The Sun also acquired former UConn forward Aaliyah Edwards last season.

This has been a busy offseason since the league and the players’ union signed a transformational labor deal that saw average salaries rise nearly fourfold. Players can earn over $1 million annually for the first time in league history, which is more than four times the previous maximum salary. More than 80% of players in the league are free agents.

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

Except they both sat out. They weren't alone.

All the other regular starters for the Thunder and Nuggets were ruled out, too. And around the league, no fewer than 168 players — including 14 members of the Memphis Grizzlies, who used only six players in a blowout loss at Utah — were held out on Friday night because of injuries or illnesses.

Every team in the league was playing game 81 — the next-to-last game — of their seasons on Friday night. They're all off Saturday, and then all teams play again Sunday to close the regular season.

Some teams had something to play for Friday. Some did not. Sometimes, that didn't seem to matter.

“If we didn’t clinch (the No. 1 overall seed) coming into tonight, everybody would be playing,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault told reporters before the game. “We’ve earned the right through 80 games to manage their bodies and stuff like that.”

Oklahoma City already had the No. 1 seed for the entirety of the postseason wrapped up, so rest and health appear to be the priority for the Thunder.

The Nuggets entered Friday still having seeding to play for, and in Jokic's case, there's still award eligibility to obtain. He needs to play in one more game, which would have to be Sunday if he's going to get on the ballot for MVP, All-NBA and other awards.

“We're all aware of that,” Nuggets coach David Adelman told reporters before the game, then said postgame that “an adult conversation” would be had on Saturday about the best course of action.

Some players got to award eligibility with a few extra minutes to spare.

San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama, needing to play 20 minutes to reach the 65-game standard and be eligible for postseason awards, was taken out after hitting exactly that number of minutes — then went back into the game, evidently having persuaded the Spurs that he needed a bit more on-court work.

He finished with 40 points, 13 rebounds and five assists in 26 minutes.

“If I had 65 (games) before, I for sure wouldn't have played,” Wembanyama said.

Said Spurs coach Mitch Johnson: “We need as much on-the-job training, on-the-court experience together as we can. That's what we're trying to do without overdoing it.”

There was also a record shooting effort on Friday. Boston made 29 3-pointers, tying the record for 3s in a game. It was the fourth time in NBA history a team made 29, and the second time this week after Memphis did it on Monday in a loss to Cleveland.

“Hopefully, we didn't use them all up in one game,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.

Play-in dress rehearsal for Warriors?

Not everybody was resting for the playoffs.

Golden State was building for the postseason — or, at least, what it hopes will be a playoff run. The Warriors are going to the play-in tournament and tuned up by getting Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Kristaps Porzingis in the starting lineup together for the first time this season.

“We’ll just take a look at that tonight,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said before Golden State played Sacramento. “We have a season full of data and film on some of the combinations. But some of decisions we have to make, there’s no data. It’s just kind of a hunch so we have give some of that a look tonight.”

Jazz and Grizzlies combine to use 13 players

Utah — a team that seems to have spent the season ensuring it would have a bottom-four record to guarantee a top-eight draft pick — used seven players in its 147-101 win over Memphis, and was the deeper team.

Memphis had only six players.

It wasn't the game of the year, to put it mildly.

“Congrats to the Jazz,” Memphis coach Tuomas Iisalo said. “They played a really good game. Shot the ball really well. We knew we had limited bodies going into this game. Guys gave everything they had, but you could see they were extremely fatigued.”

Jazz coach Will Hardy called the game a great way to end Utah's home schedule.

“Just a fun night,” Hardy said.

Playoff picture becomes clearer

Atlanta became the 11th team to grab one of the 12 guaranteed playoff spots, rolling past a Cleveland team that sat Donovan Mitchell.

“It feels great,” guard CJ McCollum said after the Hawks clinched either the No. 5 or No. 6 spot in the East. “The guys did a great job of rallying together.”

In other playoff-related news:

— Boston secured No. 2 in the East, behind No. 1 Detroit (which had previously clinched).

— New York locked up No. 3 in the East.

— Cleveland is certain to be No. 4 in the East after that loss to the Hawks.

— Atlanta knows it will be in the playoffs, either as the No. 5 or No. 6 seed.

— Charlotte will be in the play-in tournament after falling to Detroit.

— Orlando will be in no worse than the 7-vs.-8 play-in game in the East.

— Miami is locked into the 9-vs.-10 play-in game in the East.

— Portland beat the Los Angeles Clippers, giving the Trail Blazers the inside track to the No. 8 seed in the West. The Clippers would have wrapped up No. 8 with a victory, and now need help Sunday to avoid being No. 9. The difference? The teams in the 7-vs.-8 game get two chances to win one game and make the playoffs. The 9-vs.-10 teams have to win two elimination games to advance. “It's a very important win,” Blazers star Deni Avdija said.

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AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report.

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

Leer en español

Deputies said it happened just before 4:40 p.m. near the 16500 block of Golf Club Road, near the Bonaventure Golf Club.

“I don’t know. It’s very scary. I don’t know,” said neighbor Patricia Guerrero.

Authorities said the video shows “a light-skinned male wearing a khaki hoodie and distinctive red and black pants exposing and pleasuring himself in an adjacent parking lot,” then “slowly approaching the victim, surveying his surroundings and removing his shoes before grabbing her from behind.”

“She struggled with the attacker before he got up, put on his shoes, and ran to a nearby scooter, which he used to flee the scene,” a BSO news release states.

“This is really a nice neighborhood and this never happened before,” Guerrero said.

“I hope they find the guy and they do something about it because this neighborhood is safe,” said neighbor Jose Caraballo.

Anyone with information on the suspect is being asked to call BSO Detective Michael Kravecz at 954-626-4006 or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

According to BSO, tips leading to an arrest “are eligible for a reward of up to $5,000.”

The Aces have agreed to deals with Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young, according to people familiar with the negotiations. Jewell Loyd is finalizing a deal, according to a different person familiar with the situation.

All three people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Friday because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the signings until the deals become official. None of the deals can be signed until Saturday.

The trio are free agents, along with four-time league MVP A'ja Wilson, who has said she planned on returning to the Aces.

ESPN was the first to report the deals.

Gray and Young have been there for the entire run of success by the Aces since they won their first championship in 2022. Gray, who has won four titles in her career — including one in Los Angeles — averaged 11.2 points, 5.4 assists and 3.9 rebounds for the Aces last year while playing in all 44 regular-season games. She was limited to 27 games a year earlier because of injuries.

Young averaged 16.5 points, 5.1 assists and 4.5 rebounds for the Aces last season. Las Vegas selected her with the No. 1 pick in the 2019 draft.

Loyd was acquired in a trade from Seattle before last season and was a key part of Las Vegas' championship run. She averaged 11.2 points and came off the bench for the first time in her career. She helped Seattle win titles in 2018 and 2020. The six-time All-Star led the league in scoring in 2023.

This has been a busy offseason since the league and the players' union signed a transformational labor deal that saw average salaries rise nearly fourfold. Players can earn over $1 million annually for the first time in league history, which is more than four times the previous maximum salary. More than 80% of players in the league are free agents.

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

In a five-minute AI-generated animation modeled after classic martial arts movies, China’s state media frames out an allegory for the war in Iran. A white eagle in regal attire representing the U.S. unleashes an evil laugh before his army attacks a group of Persian cats draped in black cloaks standing in for Iranians, who vow to fight after losing their leader and close off a crucial trading route.

Touching on injustice, revenge and worldly wisdom, the metaphor-rich short is the latest example of several AI-generated animations created by China's state media in recent months to mock the U.S. as a global bully, including President Donald Trump's threat to take over Greenland and his plan to exert U.S. predominance in the Western Hemisphere.

The deft use of AI animation comes after Chinese President Xi Jinping has pushed for years to boost the country's abilities to spread its messages globally, gain a greater say on world affairs and counter Western narratives that Beijing often sees as biased or even derogatory about China. Pro-Iran groups similarly have used sleek, AI-generated memes to taunt the U.S. and Trump.

It's part of an intensifying global info war in which the U.S. is vowing to up its game to counter foreign anti-American messaging and push back on worldviews against America’s interests.

Recent cables by the State Department have warned that foreign messaging campaigns, carried on digital platforms by foreign state-controlled media, “pose a direct threat to U.S. national security and fuel hostility toward American interests.”

China finds new ways to spread its worldview

AI-generated “infotainment” spread via social media is likely to be more effective in persuading younger audiences worldwide to accept Chinese viewpoints and is becoming routine in the country’s messaging, said Shi Anbin, professor and director of Israel Epstein Center for Global Media and Communications at Tsinghua University.

“It is a new way for Chinese mainstream media to engage global Gen Z audience and social media users to understand Chinese standpoint and viewpoint of international affairs,” Shi said.

The short on the Iran war probably is one of the sleekest efforts by China's state media.

Released by the state broadcaster China Central Television on social media, it has gone viral at home and garnered rave reviews from its Chinese audience for translating a complex geopolitical war into an easy-to-understand affair. It made its way to the English-language world after an X user subtitled it and posted the clip online, drawing more than 1 million views in only a few days.

“It’s hardly even like propaganda — it almost seems more just a historical fiction dramatization of the situation,” said Andrew Chubb, a senior lecturer in the School of Global Affairs at Lancaster University whose studies include political propaganda.

Messaging turns away from the dull

It's a long way from the days when China's messaging was dull. Party newspapers carried slogan-filled, hollow-sounding speeches lauding the country's merits while denouncing Western influence. Students and junior officials complained of the dry study materials they were required to learn to pass exams on party history and ideology.

As young people turned away from stiff party language, Beijing began to change.

It no longer frowns upon impish web language but embraces it to retell the party history and has turned to rap music to extol the party's feats. It now recruits pop singers and actors to star in patriotic films, counting on their popular appeal — rather than orders or free tickets — to draw young people to movie theaters. Even anti-corruption television series have become hits with intriguing plots, punchy lines and superb acting.

Urged to make messaging appealing and effective, state media are experimenting with nontraditional formats, including short-form, digitally native content using AI, said Wang Zichen, deputy secretary-general for the Beijing-based think tank Center for China & Globalization.

“Whatever one thinks about the format, the message itself clearly resonates with increasingly larger audiences, which helps explain why such content gains traction online,” Wang said.

A social media ‘matrix’ targets a global audience

China has directed money into promoting a narrative that targets a global audience, with the party building a massive “matrix” of social media accounts — managed by diplomats, state media, influencers and even bots — on various platforms, including X and Facebook. And they seize opportunities to send their message.

In February, the official Xinhua News Agency released an AI-generated music video lampooning the U.S. threat to take over Greenland.

“Anything I want, I’ll get it. One way or another, I’ll get it,” sings a bald eagle character dressed in military uniform.

In March, after Trump convened the “Shield of the Americas” summit, Xinhua posted a short video depicting a bald eagle caging small birds in the name of security.

“Sometimes, security comes with a little control,” the suited bald eagle tells the caged birds.

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Tang reported from Washington. AP writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

The heated infighting has been deepening over the Iran war and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump referred to his conservative opponents as “low IQ,” “NUT JOBS,” and “losers.”

The list of defections includes Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Stewart Rhodes, Joe Rogan, Joe Kent, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones.

The Trumpian coalition also has divides over the nature of U.S.-Israel relations, immigration law enforcement, healthcare subsidies, and affordability.

Overseas, Europe’s right wing seems to be shifting too. Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and France’s National Rally leader Marine Le Pen are among the leaders who oppose the war in Iran.

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Tell President Trump, your Congressional Rep, & your Senators that you don't support American boots on the ground in Iran.

White House Comment Line:
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This is how We the People make our voices heard. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/PO2nIxKRQt

— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) March 30, 2026

Desecrating Easter was the first step toward nuclear war. Christians need to understand where Trump is taking us.

0:00 Monologue
43:23 Paula White’s Strange Easter Sunday Service
51:17 Who Really Is Paula White?
57:24 How Did Paula Become Trump’s Spiritual Advisor?
1:00:03 The… pic.twitter.com/LurDKGg8WS

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 6, 2026

Everyone can thank Netanyahu, Lindsey Graham, Mark Levin, and Larry Loomer.
And Donald Trump for listening to these war obsessed maniacal murderers.
Also, special mention goes to weak Republicans in Congress.
Biggest opportunity in American history thrown away or bombed away. https://t.co/olhtLzg5b5

— Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@FmrRepMTG) April 7, 2026

The report assessing the blueprint adopted in Seville, Spain, last June to narrow the gap and achieve U.N. development goals for 2030 was issued ahead of next week’s spring meetings in Washington of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the main global financial institutions promoting economic growth.

The managing director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, said it had been prepared to upgrade global growth, but the Iran war has now darkened the outlook for the world economy.

Li Junhua, the U.N. undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs, said the geopolitical tensions were compounding the struggles of developing countries to attract financing. “This is an extremely perilous time for international cooperation, as geopolitical considerations are increasingly shaping economic relations and financial policies,” he said.

The report pointed to rising trade barriers and repeated climate-related shocks as also adding to the growing gap.

At last year’s conference in Seville, the leaders of many of the world's nations, but not the United States, unanimously adopted the Seville Commitment, which was aimed at closing the $4 trillion annual financing gap for development. It called for scaling up investments in developing countries and reforming the international financial architecture, including the World Bank and IMF.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly called for major changes to the two institutions, saying the IMF has benefited rich countries instead of poor ones, and the World Bank has failed in its mission, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, which left dozens of countries deeply indebted. His criticisms echo those of outside critics who cite frustration in developing countries with the U.S. and its European allies dominating decision-making at financial institutions.

The U.N. report on implementing the Seville Commitment said it represents “the best hope” to close the widening financial gap.

But in 2025, Li said 25 countries decreased their development assistance to poorer countries, leading to a 23% overall drop from 2024, the largest annual contraction on record. The biggest decline — 59% — was from the United States, he said.

Based on preliminary data, Li said, a further decline of 5.8% is expected in 2026.

The report said tariffs — including those imposed by the Trump administration — have had a major impact on developing countries. Average tariffs on exports from the world’s poorest nations surged from 9% to 28% in 2025, the report said, and for developing countries, excluding China, average tariffs increased from 2% to 19%.

Although Vice President JD Vance campaigned for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán this week, such a display has become the exception rather than the rule among conservatives and far-right leaders in Europe.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni refused to let the United States use an air base in Sicily to launch attacks on Iran. France’s National Rally leader Marine Le Pen described his war goals as “erratic.” And the head of Germany’s Alternative for Germany party called for American troops to leave their bases in the country.

Even with a fragile ceasefire in place with Iran, Trump’s support for Orbán may not work out for the autocratic Hungarian leader, who faces a tough election this weekend. He’s long been an icon for the global right and many American conservatives who have hoped the Trump administration could replicate the Hungarian leader’s effort to choke off immigration and restructure government to ensure his Fidesz party stays in power.

That longstanding connection could insulate Orbán from some of the anti-Trump blowback rattling the rest of Europe, but that’s not guaranteed, said Charles Kupchan, a professor of international relations at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“Getting a blessing from Donald Trump is now a mixed blessing,” he said.

Iran adds to friction over Greenland

The backlash over the war follows European broad revulsion at Trump’s threats earlier this year against NATO ally Denmark over his demand that the country give Greenland to the United States.

Trump tied the two issues together on Wednesday, complaining that NATO didn’t help more in recent weeks.

“NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN,” he wrote on social media. “REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!”

Daniel Baer, a former ambassador and State Department official in President Barack Obama’s administration, said the latest round of tension with Europe’s far right shows the limits of Trump’s hope of helping nationalist leaders worldwide.

“Building some sort of international coalition around national chauvinism is very difficult,” said Baer, now with the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. “It’s clear the majority of people in these countries, if not anti-American, have turned anti-Trump.”

Orbán has stood out for not shifting with the anti-Trump political tide in Europe.

In an interview with conservative British broadcaster GB News last month, Orbán argued that when it came to the war with Iran, “the question is whether (Trump) has started a war or a peace.”

“It hasn’t (been) decided yet, historians will make a decision on that,” Orbán said. “I think we need some time to understand whether we are moving to the peace by these strikes, or just the opposite. It’s too early to say.”

Orbán’s caution toward raising any critical word toward Trump goes beyond shared ideology. The Hungarian leader has for years sought to convince voters that his close ties with Trump — as well as with other global figures such as Russian President Vladimir Putin — make him uniquely suited to represent Hungary’s interests abroad.

Consequently, he has played up Trump’s praise of him to his base, and campaigned for reelection by assuring Hungarians that his alliance with Trump’s administration is a guarantee of security and prosperity.

Orbán risks backlash with Trump ties

Orbán reveled in the attention from Vance this week. The vice president slammed Orbán critics in the European Union for what he called “foreign interference” in the election, even as he stumped for the Hungarian leader.

On Wednesday, Vance briefly discussed what he called a “fragile truce” in the Iran war during an appearance at an elite higher education institution in Hungary, which has received generous funding from Orbán’s government and is run by the prime minister’s political director.

Vance praised the school for being “an institution that tries to build up the foundations of Western civilization.” The Trump administration has tried to exert more influence over elite universities in the U.S., echoing Orbán’s agenda in Hungary.

Some analysts are unconvinced of Orbán’s strategy, noting that perceptions of the current U.S. administration have been turning more negative even in Hungary.

“Vance’s visit could have the opposite effect on Orbán’s popularity than the one intended,” said Mario Bikarsku, senior Europe analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

Kupchan said most European far-right parties have established political staying power independent of any American influence, and may not have an incentive to go along with Trump’s agenda.

“Trump’s effort to create a transnational movement of far-right populists may affect the margins, but the main reason you’re seeing Reform U.K. and AfD and National Rally and other far-right parties prosper has little to do with Trump and more to do with national factors,” he said.

Part of that is a global backlash against any party in power. In Europe, that’s mainly benefited the out-of-power far right. But in Hungary, that’s put Orbán’s future in jeopardy — he’s been in power for 16 years.

“We’re living in an age,” Kupchan said, “where being an incumbent sucks.”

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Riccardi reported from Denver.

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Anfernee Watts, who also has a 2-year-old daughter, had already appeared in Broward bond court on Thursday. Both judges found probable cause for the charges and denied him bail.

Watts “admitted to fabricating a story to present to law enforcement, placing the deceased baby back into the playpen in an effort to make it appear as though the baby died in his sleep,” a police officer wrote, according to an arrest warrant.

Crystal Garcia was 20 years old when she gave birth to their son on July 11 at Memorial Regional Hospital, according to police.

A pediatrician reported the baby boy was in good health on July 28, according to the arrest warrant. The tragedy unfolded a few days later.

“She intentionally restrained the baby by tightly wrapping him in a blanket, securing a pacifier in his mouth, and strapping him into a car seat before placing him inside a bathtub and isolating him behind a closed door while loud music played,” and she “willfully ignored his distress and failed to check on him for several hours,” a detective wrote, according to the warrant.

Hollywood Fire Rescue personnel pronounced the baby dead at 1:50 p.m. on Aug. 1st, in a house at 6660 Thomas St., records show.

Police officers noticed a “disposable changing pad that appeared to have blood spotting on it,” and the baby “had visible foam in his mouth and cracked lips that appeared to have dried blood on them,” according to the arrest warrant.

Watts told police officers that he had attended a job interview when the baby died, but the alleged interviewee said that was false, according to the warrant.

The Broward Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the baby’s cause of death to be suffocation and the manner of death to be a homicide. The evidence also includes a video recorded by a Ring surveillance camera showing Garcia with a garbage bag before calling 911.

Watts’ mother contacted police to report that Garcia, 21, told her the baby died while pinned between the bed frame and the mattress, according to an arrest warrant.

Garcia left voicemails to police from Aug. 4 to Wednesday and admitted to lying and to report that she had “smothered” the baby, according to the arrest warrant.

“Crystal admitted she lied to the police out of fear of being arrested,” a police officer wrote, according to the arrest warrant.

The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force arrested the couple on Wednesday.

Corrections was holding Garcia without bond on Friday at the North Broward Bureau, a detention center in Pompano Beach, according to inmate records.

Garcia and Watts are each facing five charges: Obstruction of a criminal investigation, aggravated manslaughter of a child, child neglect with great bodily harm, tampering with evidence, and willfully touching, removing, or disturbing a dead body, clothing, or surrounding items without authorization.

Watt’s mother has had custody of their 2-year-old daughter since she was about 5 months old after Garcia and the baby tested positive for THC at birth, according to the arrest warrant.

Read a part of the arrest warrant

Related stories

• Couple appears in Broward court accused of 3-week-old son’s death and cover up

The world-famous DJ born in Nigeria promoted dance parties in the 1990s in Beirut, Lebanon, and techno took her to London, where she gained notoriety.

“It’s amazing being part of this community that I supported from the beginning, and that’s where I discovered myself on the dance floor,” Moudaber said. “It was at gay parties in New York.”

The celebrity is the Ambassador of the Association For Electronic Music, the host of The Mood Radio, and a Lower Eastside Girls Club advocate in New York.

Miami Beach officials displayed a rainbow crosswalks and launched PRIDE with a ceremony on Friday. Moudaber will be celebrating at M2 in South Beach.

“We have to be strong. We have to stick together, and this is what our community is all about, standing our grounds, and sticking together, and fight, fight, all the time, and we will always prevail,” Moudaber said.

M2 opens at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday at 1235 Washington Ave., in South Beach. Moudaber is set to perform during Urge Turns It Up With Pride. For more information, visit this page.

Swalwell was among the leading Democrats in the race to replace outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom. But in just hours, he saw his most prominent supporters - including U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff and powerful labor unions - drop their endorsements and call for his exit from the race.

Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential candidate who has avoided engaging in the contest to replace him, said in a statement: “As we continue to learn more, these allegations from multiple sources are deeply troubling and must be taken seriously.”

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who hasn’t endorsed in the race, said the “serious allegations” must be investigated.

“As I discussed with Congressman Swalwell, it is clear that is best done outside of a gubernatorial campaign,” she said in social media posted by her staff.

The allegations surfaced at a critical stage of the wide-open campaign to lead the nation’s most populous state. The exodus of support threatened to cripple Swalwell's campaign, less than a month before voters receive mail ballots in advance of the June 2 election.

This turmoil in the race came after the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday that a woman said Swalwell sexually assaulted her in 2019 and 2024. The newspaper reviewed text messages about the alleged 2024 assault and spoke to people whom she had told about it. She told the newspaper she did not go to police because she was afraid she would not be believed.

The woman worked for Swalwell in 2019 when the first alleged assault occurred, and the 2024 assault allegedly occurred after a charity gala, the newspaper reported. She said in both cases she was too intoxicated to consent to sex.

Swalwell denied the woman's account and suggested they were part of an attack due to his campaign's momentum.

“These allegations are false and come on the eve of an election against the frontrunner for governor,” Swalwell said in a statement. “For nearly 20 years, I have served the public — as a prosecutor and a congressman and have always protected women. I will defend myself with the facts and where necessary bring legal action. My focus in the coming days is to be with my wife and children and defend our decades of service against these lies.”

The paper didn’t name the woman, and The Associated Press has not been able to independently verify her account and identity. Her lawyer declined to comment.

The woman received a cease-and-desist letter from Swalwell’s attorney, the Chronicle reported. The attorney, Elias Debaie, confirmed he sent out at least one letter and called the allegations “baseless.”

Swift backlash from prominent Democrats

On Friday afternoon, Schiff said in a social media post he's “deeply distressed” by the allegations, calling for Swalwell to end his gubernatorial bid.

Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who helped run Swalwell’s campaign, said he’s immediately ending his role.

“The congressman should leave the race now so there can be full accountability without doubt, distraction, or delay,” Gomez said on social media.

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego and California Rep. Adam Gray also said they're yanking their support. Mark Ramos, who heads the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, called on Swalwell to end his campaign.

Powerful labor unions, including the California Service Employees International Union and the California Teachers Association, said they're suspending their support. The California Federation of Labor Unions said it’s “acting urgently” on next steps.

A spokesperson for House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said the allegations require a “serious and thorough investigation.”

“These brave women must be heard and respected,” spokeswoman Christie Stephenson said in a statement. "It is imperative that the investigation follow the facts, apply the law and take place immediately.”

Growing calls for Swalwell to drop out

Uncorroborated and nonspecific rumors that Swalwell behaved inappropriately with female staffers have circulated on social media for weeks, but the Chronicle's story is the first reported account of someone making a direct accusation. At a Tuesday campaign event in Sacramento, he told reporters he's never had a sexual relationship with a staff member or intern.

CNN also reported that several women accused Swalwell of sending them inappropriate sexual messages.

Swalwell earlier this week announced a series of campaign functions he’s planned around the state, but canceled the scheduled event Thursday in Palm Springs.

Swalwell is among several leading Democrats in the crowded field to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, and he immediately came under pressure from all other Democratic rivals to withdraw from the race.

Swalwell, originally from Iowa, was elected in 2012 and represents a House district east of San Francisco. He launched a presidential run in April 2019 but shuttered it a few months later after failing to catch on with voters. Swalwell, who is married and has three children, is perhaps best known nationally as a House manager in President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial during his first term in early 2021.

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Blood reported from Los Angeles.

The 29-year-old MacIntyre, who tied for second last week at the Texas Open, raised some eyebrows Thursday at Augusta National — where decorum is held in high esteem — when he flashed the middle finger upon hitting a ball into the water. MacIntyre also slammed a couple of clubs and muttered some curse words loud enough to be caught live by the TV mics.

It was unclear whether Augusta National took any disciplinary action.

MacIntyre finished at 7 over, missing the cut by three shots, and headed straight to the Player Services Building. At one point, someone posted to his Instagram story what appeared to be an AI-produced image of a Masters gnome in his likeness giving the bird.

Whoever it was had a sense of humor about things.

Bryson DeChambeau probably didn't find anything funny about his finish.

He was 3 over coming to the par-4 18th before hitting his drive under a pine tree. He managed to punch his next into a bunker left of the green but left the ensuing shot in the sand. His fourth rolled off the front of the green, and the bogey pitch that DeChambeau needed to make the cut never had a chance; the two-time U.S. Open champ made triple bogey and finished at 6 over.

It was a grind for many of the game's best players to make the low 50 and ties and play the weekend.

Brian Harman was a full 10 shots better than his opening round on Friday, pairing a 69 with that 79 to make the cut on the number. Rasmus Hojgaard and Jon Rahm each improved by eight shots with rounds of 70 to also make the cut on the number.

Rahm, the 2023 Masters champion, was among the favorites before his opening 78.

“Yesterday was just an anomaly where everything that could go wrong went wrong,” Rahm said. “Not that I shot myself out of the tournament but I’m going to need an absolute miracle starting today, and didn’t quite do enough. I’m going to need a heck of a round tomorrow to give myself a chance and even then, might be a little too far away.”

Or a lot too far away. Rory McIlroy finished at 12 under after rounds of 67-65, giving the defending champion a six-shot lead over his closest pursuers, Sam Burns and Patrick Reed. That set a 36-hole record for the largest lead at the Masters.

JJ Spaun, the U.S. Open champion and the winner last week in San Antonio, opened with a 2-over 74 but put himself in trouble right away with three bogeys in a four-hole span early Friday. Not even two birdies in his last three holes could save him. He finished at 5 over.

Former British Open champ Cameron Smith shot 74-77 to miss the cut for the sixth straight time in a major.

Nobody had a bigger roller coaster around the cut line than Akshay Bhatia.

Playing late in the day, the winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational was at 4 over before his bogey at the 16th. Bhatia got back on the cut line by holing out from a bunker at the 17th, then proceeded to double bogey the closing hole to miss the cut.

None of the six amateurs made the cut, including U.S. Amateur champion Mason Howell, who spent the two days playing with McIlroy. Jackson Herrington, whom Howell defeated in the finals last year, and British Amateur champion Ethan Fang fared the best among the amateurs, each finishing at 8-over par.

“Maybe if I'm allowed to come out and practice, I'll be out here tomorrow,” Herrington said. “It's the best place on Earth. I know that.”

___

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

Vineyard Wind filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Massachusetts against GE Renewables. That comes after the parent company for GE Renewables said it would be terminating its contracts for turbine services and maintenance at the end of April.

GE Vernova says Vineyard Wind owes it $300 million for work it performed. But Vineyard Wind counters that the manufacturer remains on the hook for about $545 million to make up for a catastrophic turbine blade collapse in July 2024 and the delays that caused.

Fiberglass fragments of a blade broke apart and began washing onto Nantucket beaches in July 2024 during the peak of tourist season. GE Vernova agreed to pay $10.5 million in a settlement to compensate island businesses that suffered losses.

The lawsuit states that the project already has been significantly damaged by GE Renewable's “inexcusably poor performance,” and allowing the contractor to back out now would case irreparable harm. Craig Gilvarg, spokesman for Vineyard Wind, said Friday that the lawsuit is meant to ensure that GE Renewables fulfills its obligations to the project “and to the people of Massachusetts and New England who are relying on the significant power and economic benefits this project is already providing.” He said Vineyard Wind is expected to provide $3.7 billion in savings to electric customers over the life of the project.

GE Vernova said the company is exercising its right to terminate agreements for nonpayment for work performed.

“The company remains committed to the safety of the wind farm and stands by our performance and our contractual obligations," the company said in a statement. "We will vigorously defend our position through the appropriate legal process.”

Construction finished on Vineyard Wind in March, making it the first project to reach this stage during President Donald Trump’s time in office. It had already been providing power to the grid for over a year as more turbines were finished. It is expected to reach full operations in the coming months.

According to the lawsuit, GE Renewables is the only company able to perform the remaining work, and it would be virtually impossible to find another turbine supplier willing to take its place. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

GE Vernova has said that insufficient bonding at one of its factories in Canada was responsible for the blade coming apart and that there was no indication of a design flaw. Sixty-eight out of the 72 blades that had been installed at Vineyard Wind at the time were removed and replaced. Vineyard Wind said that set the project behind nearly two years.

The Trump administration has been particularly critical of the project because of the blade failure.

It was one of five major East Coast offshore wind projects the Trump administration halted construction on days before Christmas, citing national security concerns. Developers and states sued, and federal judges allowed all five to resume construction, essentially concluding that the government did not show that the national security risk was so imminent that construction must halt.

Vineyard Wind is a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, located 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts. It has 62 turbines that will generate a total of 800 megawatts. That is enough clean electricity to power about 400,000 homes.

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U.S. District Judge Michael Liburdi's ruling means a Monday arraignment hearing for Kalshi has been called off. State prosecutors allege Kalshi is running an illegal gambling operation. The order was issued in a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration.

The judge's order said the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission had sufficiently shown that “event contracts” fall within the Commodity Exchange Act's definition of “swaps,” and that it had demonstrated a reasonable chance of success in showing that the act preempts Arizona law.

“The Act grants the CFTC ‘exclusive jurisdiction’ over the regulation of ‘swaps,’” traded or executed on a Designated Contract Markets, the order said.

Kalshi operates by allowing customers to buy and sell “Yes” or “No” contracts tied to the probable outcome of an event.

The commission had sued Arizona in response to cease-and-desist letters sent to Kalshi from state gambling regulators and the criminal charges filed against the prediction market operator. The commission argued Arizona is intruding on its exclusive federal power to regulate national swaps markets.

Liburdi had previously denied Kalshi’s attempt to bar prosecutors from moving forward with the case and declined a request from the company for a ruling saying federal law trumps Arizona’s gambling laws. Liburdi said it was too early in the case for him to rule on that issue.

State prosecutors have charged Kalshi with 20 misdemeanor counts of wagering for allegedly accepting bets on political outcomes, college sports and individual player performance.

Arizona, the first state to file criminal charges against Kalshi, prohibits operating an unlicensed wagering business and betting on elections. The criminal charges mark a new front in a high-stakes legal battle over whether prediction markets should be subject to the same rules as gambling companies.

Kalshi maintains it’s a financial marketplace rather than a gambling operation and should only have to answer to the federal Commodities Futures Trading Commission, not the state of Arizona.

“The attorney general's office disagrees with the court's ruling and we will evaluate our next steps,” said Richie Taylor, a spokesperson for the Arizona Attorney General's Office.

Robert DeNault, head of enforcement at Kalshi, said in a posting on X that the ruling is “a step in the right direction.”

“Arizona’s decision to weaponize state criminal law against companies that comply with federal law sets a dangerous precedent,” Michael Selig, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said in a statement. “And the court’s order today sends a clear message that intimidation is not an acceptable tactic to circumvent federal law.”

Kalshi has said its product is different from gambling operations because Kalshi’s customers engage in “swaps” between one another instead of betting against the “house.”

In a lawsuit filed just days before prosecutors leveled the criminal charges, Kalshi argued federal law trumps Arizona’s efforts to subject it to state statute. It also contends that shutting down its ability to offer event contracts would threaten its viability, undermine confidence in the integrity of its platform and cause other problems for the business.

The company said Arizona filed the charges to interfere with its lawsuit.

Lawyers for the state contend Kalshi has marketed itself as a platform for sports and election betting and that Arizona should be able to enforce its gambling laws to hold Kalshi accountable for flouting state law.

Kalshi sued Arizona, Utah and Iowa in attempts to stop anticipated state actions against the platform. Other states have taken some form of legal action against Kalshi.

So far, the outcomes have been mixed. Federal and state judges in Nevada and Massachusetts, respectively, issued early rulings in favor of states looking to ban Kalshi and its competitor Polymarket from offering sports being in their states, while federal judges in New Jersey and Tennessee have ruled in favor of Kalshi.

Earlier this month, the federal government filed lawsuits against Connecticut, Arizona and Illinois challenging their efforts to regulate prediction market operators.

The Trump administration has so far backed the platforms.

President Donald Trump’s eldest son is an adviser for both Kalshi and Polymarket and an investor in the latter. Trump’s social media platform Truth Social is also launching its own cryptocurrency-based prediction market called Truth Predict.

Joachin, 40, who was born in Haiti, was behind bars on Friday after killing Nilufa Easmin, who was born in Bangladesh, on April 3 in Florida’s Lee County, according to the Fort Myers Police Department.

Easmin, 51, a mother of two, was working as a clerk at a gas station’s convenience store. Fort Myers detectives arrested Joachin hours later, and Lee County correctional deputies booked him.

“Surveillance footage showed that Joachin smashed the victim’s car windshield, approached her, and repeatedly hit her in the head with a hammer—violently killing her in broad daylight," a spokesperson from Homeland Security wrote in a statement on Tuesday.

Joachin had received a final order of removal in 2022, but former President Joe Biden’s administration allowed him to stay, according to DHS.

“This animal was allowed to stay here because the Biden Administration granted him, and all Haitians, Temporary Protective Status, a massively abused and fraudulent program which my Administration is working to terminate,” President Donald Trump wrote Thursday night on Truth Social.

The Trump administration announced on Friday that Joachin’s TPS was no longer valid, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had issued a detainer on Thursday.

“Deranged Liberal District Court Judges are standing in our way. This one killing should be enough for these Radical Judges to STOP impeding my Administration’s Immigration Policies, and allow us to END THIS SCAM ONCE AND FOR ALL,” Trump wrote Thursday night.

Attorney Fritznie Jarbath, whose parents were born in Haiti, is based in Miami-Dade County. She said the association is unfair.

“It’s not uncommon for this particular administration to identify one particular person from one group and try and push a narrative,” Jarbath said, adding that this reminded her of Trump’s assertion that Haitian migrants were eating dogs.

“While that was particularly debunked,” Jarbath said. “People kept looking at Haitians, thinking, ‘Is this true? Could this be true?’”

Many issues could derail the truce and the negotiations aimed at making a broader deal to stop the fighting permanently.

Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, claimed that the talks set for Saturday would not happen unless Israel stopped its attacks in Lebanon. And U.S. President Donald Trump said on his social media platform that Iran has no leverage except to restrict ship traffic in the strait, through which 20% of the world’s traded oil once passed.

Kuwait, meanwhile, said it was targeted by seven drone attacks since Thursday that it blamed on Iran and its militia allies in the region. Though the Guard denied launching any assault, it has carried out attacks across the Mideast in the past that it did not claim.

Preparations for the talks between Iran and the U.S. appeared to be moving forward, with Vance boarding Air Force Two for the long flight to Islamabad.

Elsewhere, negotiations between Israel and Lebanon were expected to begin Tuesday in the U.S. capital, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office said Friday. Beirut is keen to hold direct talks to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah, but under a ceasefire similar to the one with Iran.

Before his departure, Vance said he believed the negotiations with Iran will be “positive.”

But he added, “If they’re going to try and play us, then they’re going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

In Islamabad, security forces locked down key parts of the Pakistani capital, erecting barricades along routes from the airport to the city.

Hours later, the Iranian delegation led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf arrived in Islamabad, Iranian state TV reported. The delegation included security, political, military, economic and legal teams. The report said negotiations will begin only if the other side accepts Iran’s preconditions.

Earlier in the day, Qalibaf posted on social media that two points he said had been mutually agreed on — a ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of blocked Iranian assets — have yet to be implemented.

“These two matters must be fulfilled before negotiations begin,” he wrote.

Israel and Lebanon will have direct negotiations

Israel’s insistence that the ceasefire in Iran does not include a pause in its fighting with Hezbollah has threatened to sink the deal. The militant group joined the war in support of its backer, Iran.

The day the truce was announced, Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, killing more than 300 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. It was the deadliest day in the country since the war began Feb. 28.

Trump said Thursday that he had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dial back the strikes.

Then on Friday, Israeli warplanes struck near a state security office in the southern town of Nabatieh, killing 13 officers, according to the Lebanese president’s office. Israeli forces said they also hit about 10 rocket launchers in Lebanon that had fired toward northern Israel.

A day earlier, Netanyahu said he authorized the negotiations with Lebanon with the aim of disarming Hezbollah militants and establishing relations between the neighbors, which have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948.

Aoun’s office confirmed that the two sides were set to negotiate after Lebanon and Israel’s ambassadors to the U.S. held a call with Washington’s ambassador to Lebanon to discuss terms. The U.S. State Department will mediate.

In a first statement since Israel announced direct negotiations with Lebanon, Hezbollah chief Naim Kassem urged Lebanese officials to stop offering “free concessions,” but he did not take a clear stance on the talks.

Two days after Israel’s barrage, people sifted through the wreckage of their homes, trying to salvage furniture and personal mementos. Some expressed gratitude that they did not lose loved ones.

“There is no substitute for family,” said Wissam Tabila, 35. “Everything else can be replaced.”

Strait of Hormuz remains a sticking point

Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent oil prices skyrocketing, driven stocks down and roiled the world economy. Tehran’s control over the waterway has proved its biggest strategic advantage in the war.

The spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was around $97 Friday, up more than 30% since the war started.

Before the conflict, over 100 ships passed through the strait each day — many carrying oil to Asia. With the ceasefire in place, only 12 have been recorded passing through.

Trump said Iran has little clout in the negotiations.

“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways,” Trump posted Friday. “The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!”

Questions linger about missile and nuclear programs

Questions also remain over the fate of Iran’s missile and nuclear programs, which the U.S. and Israel sought to eliminate in going to war.

The U.S. insists Iran must never be able to build nuclear weapons and wants to remove Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be used to make them. Iran insists its program is peaceful.

Trump has said that the U.S. would work with Iran to remove the uranium, though Tehran has not confirmed that.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, a top Iranian officer told the state-run Iran newspaper. Iran’s government has not provided any definitive death toll from the war.

In Lebanon, at least 1,953 people have been killed and 1 million have been displaced. Over a dozen people have died in Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, while 23 civilians were killed in Israel. Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed.

In other developments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces shot down Iranian‑designed Shahed drones in several Middle Eastern countries during the Iran war. The missions, carried out with domestically produced interceptor drones, were part of efforts to help partners counter the same weapons Russia uses in Ukraine, he said.

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Mednick from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Aamer Madhani in Washington; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; and Kareem Chehayeb and Hussein Malla in Beirut contributed to this report.

Relatives and colleagues remembered Mann as a stickler for details and a deeply kind person who blended his love of journalism with his empathy for everyone he worked with.

“Billy Mann was a wonderful representative for The Associated Press in global hot spots from the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos to the turbulent Middle East,” said longtime AP United Nations bureau chief Edith M. Lederer. “He was well-liked for his warm personality and admired for his deft reporting.”

A Georgia native who met his wife, Mimi, at the University of Georgia’s journalism school, Mann was a rabid Georgia Bulldogs fan. “Outside of family, it was his biggest passion,” said his daughter Samantha Rudolph.

A long journalism career took him many places

Upon graduating, Mann went to officer candidate school, became a naval officer and served for four years at a base in the Philippines and at the Pentagon.

After leaving the Navy, Mann joined the AP in Louisville, Kentucky. He worked at the agency’s New York headquarters and elsewhere in the United States before becoming Cairo bureau chief for 10 years.

“He would sit in his office in the back, smoking cigars, feet on the desk, reading copy,” his daughter remembers. “He was just surrounded by incredible people who looked up to him in every way.”

While in Cairo, an early 1990s trip to Somalia — ravaged by famine and warfare — left even the veteran correspondent traumatized.

“It was seeing the hunger and the deprivation, the remnants of war,” his daughter remembered. “He refused to talk about it. He saw things that he didn’t want to talk about.”

Mann was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2010 and died of a virus in a memory care facility, said Mimi Mann, his wife of more than 60 years.

Despite the disease, she said, “he kept his love of journalism.”

In Egypt, Mimi Mann remembered, she fought to cover archaeology, becoming one of the first people to cover the field for a major news service. When French scientists started making discoveries using sonar in the pyramids, she said, the AP told her, “No one cares about the pyramids.”

“I said, ‘Well I do,’" Mann said, and she went on to become known as a wordsmith documenting a field that few laypeople knew about.

“He was good at interviewing but he would always say that my mom was 1,000 times better,” Samantha Rudolph said. “She was the real reporter.”

A 'stickler for details’ with a soft spot for a certain boxer

Bill Mann’s most fondly remembered interview took place when he was working at the AP’s Louisville, Kentucky, bureau and met boxer Cassius Clay, who went on to become world champion Muhammad Ali.

“He interviewed countless heads of state, talked to everybody and what stood out was Muhammad Ali,” his daughter Rudolph said. “He always said that without a doubt his best and favorite interview was Muhammad Ali.”

Ken Guggenheim, one of Mann’s former editors, said that, “Billy was just the consummate AP man. He was just a stickler for details, determined that the grammar was right, the style was right and that the story would be perfect when it would hit the wire.”

Above all, however, Mann’s kind and generous personality set him apart, they said.

“Everyone loved Billy,” Guggenheim said. “He was someone who showed you could be a great journalist and a great person at the same time.”

Mann is survived by his wife, daughter, son and four grandchildren.

The building is scheduled to come crashing down in a controlled implosion.

Miami police say the entrance to Brickell Key will be closed from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

Police will be in the area, along with Miami Fire Rescue in case of any emergencies and onlookers will be kept back at least 800 feet as the concrete structure is already armed with multiple explosives.

“We expect that there’s going to be a lot of dust, but these companies have planned vigorously to make sure that this goes on without any harm to the surrounding buildings, to the atmosphere,” Officer Michael Vega, a spokesperson for the Miami Police Department, told Local 10 News.

The implosion is only slated to last 20 seconds as the building falls in place, all to make room for ultra luxury residences and a hospitality site that will bear the same Mandarin Oriental name.

It’s slated to stand 66 stories at its highest point. Neighbors are being asked to prepare.

“Between eight and maybe nine, that they should not use air conditioning,” Vega said. “Make sure that all their doors are closed, make sure that all their windows are closed.”

Residents are also being advised to be mindful of their pets, who may be scared by the implosion.

Tsvia Kol, 37, of Hallandale Beach, and Jimmy Sanchez, 38, of Spring Valley, California, both pleaded guilty to using a firearm to cause death and conspiring to distribute at least 500 grams of methamphetamine.

Investigators said the two were among those responsible for shooting and killing Julio Gonzalez, 46, of Hialeah Gardens, at the Aladdin Hotel, located at 901 S. Royal Poinciana Blvd. in Miami Springs — about a block away from the airport — on Nov. 29, 2022.

Investigators said the killing was linked to a “missing package containing about 11 pounds of methamphetamine, the street value of which totaled approximately $90,000,” which the duo mistakenly believed that Gonzalez stole. Instead, law enforcement officials had seized the meth.

They said Kol and Sanchez, the latter of whom had flown in from San Diego to MIA the night of the killing, arranged a 12-hour room rental to confront, and later kill, Gonzalez.

Kol had been described in a Miami-Dade arrest warrant as “a known high-ranking Sinaloa cartel member with a history of international organized crime syndicate that specializes in illegal drug trafficking and money laundering” and the ex-wife of Wilfredo Nunes Gallardo, another high-ranking member of the Sinaloa cartel.

The criminal organization was once run by the infamous Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

The case was originally investigated by what was then the Miami-Dade Police Department before turning federal.

“This started as a drug deal gone wrong and ended in an execution,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said in a statement. “The defendants armed themselves, set up the victim, and carried out a killing over a missing drug package that had already been seized by law enforcement.”

Prosecutors said Kol received a nearly 20-year sentence while Sanchez received a sentence totaling more than 27 years.

Reding Quiñones said that the sentences “reflect the seriousness of that violence.”

Engel died Friday at a Bronx hospital of complications of Parkinson’s disease, according to his family.

“During his over 44 years in public service, Eliot Engel fought tirelessly for his constituents at home and for peace and security around the world,” the family said in a statement.

Engel won his first congressional election in 1988, defeating a 10-term incumbent on an insurgent, reformist platform. More than 30 years later, he left office in similar fashion after losing a 2020 primary to now-former Rep. Jamaal Bowman in a race seen as a progressive upset over the party’s pragmatic wing.

A former teacher and state Assembly member, Engel rose through the ranks of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, eventually becoming its chair in 2019. He was a strong supporter of Israel and one of the first lawmakers to call for military intervention on behalf of Kosovo, then a province where ethnic Albanians were seeking independence from Serbia, in their war in the 1990s. A U.S.-and-U.K.-led NATO bombing campaign opened the way for Kosovo's eventual independence nine years later.

Engel was "a fierce advocate for Kosovo and the Albanian community at a time when few others were paying attention,” U.S. Rep. Richie Torres, a fellow Bronx Democrat, said in a statement Friday.

Engel also helped negotiate the Harkin–Engel Protocol, an international agreement that aimed to eliminate the “worst forms of child labor” on cocoa farms in West Africa.

And he headed the Foreign Relations Committee as it worked on the 2019-2020 impeachment inquiry into Trump over the Republican's efforts to prompt Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to scour for dirt on Trump's then-rival Joe Biden.

After Trump was impeached and then acquitted in February 2020, Engel vowed not to abandon the issue, saying there were “a lot of unanswered questions that the American public deserves to know” answers to.

Soon after, the COVID-19 pandemic set in — and with it, questions, spurred by an article in The Atlantic, about Engel's absence from his district.

That scrutiny grew following a hot mic incident in which Engel was heard trying to convince another Bronx official to let him speak at a news conference, saying: “If I didn’t have a primary, I wouldn’t care.”

During his years in office, Engel became known for waiting for hours to get an aisle seat in the House chamber for the State of Union address, so he could greet the president — in full view of TV cameras — as the chief executive entered.

But Rep. George Latimer, a Democrat who now holds what was Engel's seat, said “his legacy consists of hard work on issues and kindness to all.”

The officers, who are part of the department’s homeless outreach team, was responding to a situation at a shopping center when one of them noticed a man recording.

“Hi … you good?” an officer is heard saying on the video.

Moments later, the tone escalates.

“You want to get arrested,” the officer says.

“Why am I being arrested?” the bystander responds.

“You’re interfering with my investigation,” the officer says.

“No, I’m not,” the bystander replied.

Video shows the man standing more than 25 feet away as officers ordered a woman, who officers described as someone frequently seen at the shopping center, to leave the property.

The situation intensifies when a bystander asks, “What did she do?”

“You don’t know the law,” the officer is heard saying repeatedly.“You’re gonna be trespassed from this property. If you return, you’re gonna be placed under arrest.”

Plantation Mayor Nick Sortal and the city’s police chief said from the outset that recording from that distance is within a person’s rights.

“You can’t come up to people and put your finger in their face and say stop videoing,” Sortal said. “I wish that whole part hadn’t happened.”

Officials noted that the officer had a point after referencing that the bystander was obstructing traffic, but that observation came after the initial confrontation.

Police supervisors have since counseled the officer involved, and city leaders say they are taking accountability.

“If we messed up, we’re going to tell you to your face, we messed up,” Sortal said. “We’re going to try to do better.”

Miami-Dade and Broward counties can expect scattered clouds Friday night with the slight chance for a passing sprinkle or light shower. Generally, winds will be sustained 10 to 20 mph with gusts to 25 mph.

Similar conditions are forecast for Saturday and Sunday, northeast to east-northeast winds sustained around 15 mph with gusts to 25 mph.

Both days will feature a sun/cloud mix -- can’t rule out a quick-moving, random shower. Plan for seasonable temperatures, lows near 70°F, highs around 80°F.

For some, it’s their first experience taking in the beachfront music scene, while others make the trip year after year.

“This is our third year in a row,” said Susie Magendantz, a visitor from Daytona Beach. “It’s our happy space. It’s my peaceful place. We love coming here,” added Eric Magendantz.

With the good times comes a focus on safety.

Uniformed officers from the Fort Lauderdale Police Department are stationed throughout the area, making it clear they’re there to help festivalgoers.

Police are also sharing safety tips with the public.

They say to be cautious in crowded areas due to the potential for pickpocketing and to keep phones and valuables close.

Festivalgoers are urged to stay aware of their surroundings and to know their entrances and exits.

Officials also warn not to accept drinks from strangers and not to leave drinks unattended.

People are encouraged to travel in groups with friends and not to leave anyone behind.

Police add that attendees should use official rideshare services only and verify the license plate, make and model of the car before getting in.

Road closures are also planned.

Seabreeze Boulevard and Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard will shut down around 10 p.m. to allow people to leave the area.

Anyone in the area who is not attending the festival is urged to be mindful of those closures.

Miami Beach police arrested Corey Hutterli, 37, of Parkland, on a second-degree murder charge on Wednesday.

He’s accused of killing Zelin, 35, by throwing him off the balcony of his own 25th-floor unit at the Akoya Condominium, located at 6365 Collins Ave. on Mid-Beach.

Police said Zelin could be heard in a struggle with Hutterli in a 911 call moments before his death. The connection between the two remains a mystery.

“It’s one of those things where the more answers you get, the more questions you have,” Zelin’s friend Amit Jolly said.

Jolly, speaking to Local 10 News in Hollywood on Friday, said he wants Zelin to “be memorialized for so much more than just the final moments of his life.”

“He was yet a big presence in the Jewish community, a big presence in the biotech community,” Jolly said. “What he has done in terms of his line of work has saved many lives.”

Jolly said the killing left Zelin’s family heartbroken.

“On the night of the funeral the rabbi asked the father to write some words about his son and he said, ‘I don’t have the words for my son, because I don’t believe my son is dead,’” Jolly said.

Jolly shared photos of Zelin with Local 10 News.

“These final moments were very painful,” Jolly said. “I think it’s very important to have Justin be remembered for something so much more than just those final moments, just as (with) anyone when they pass away.”

Hutterli, meanwhile, remained held without bond at Miami-Dade County’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Friday.

His attorney argued during a court appearance Thursday morning that the case against Hutterli is purely circumstantial.

Surveillance video shows Carey, 22, was driving a black 2016 Nissan Maxima northbound on Northwest Ninth Avenue early Wednesday morning with a broken light and damage, according to deputies.

Crime scene technicians found Carey’s Nissan Maxima’s headlight assembly, a driver’s side view mirror, and exterior black trim pieces where the woman died, according to Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies.

“Carey stated he was driving home last night and as he passed under the bridge, something hit his vehicle ... he looked around and did not see anyone or anything, so he continued driving home ... he saw the damage to his vehicle and covered it with a tarp to hide it from his parents,” a deputy wrote, according to an arrest report.

At about 12:20 a.m. on Wednesday, the woman was crossing Ninth Avenue’s northbound lanes at the 4400 block, and after the Nissan struck her, she “came to a final rest in the southbound lanes,” according to deputies.

BSO deputies pronounced the woman dead at 12:24 a.m. and found Carey and his damaged Nissan Maxima hours later in North Lauderdale, according to deputies.

Deputies arrested Carey at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, and corrections booked him at the Broward County Main Jail.

Carey faced charges of failure to stop and remain at the scene of an accident, a first-degree felony, and tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony.

During a hearing, a bond court judge ordered Carey to avoid driving, surrender his passport, stay in Broward, and remain on house arrest with a GPS.

According to court records, Broward County Circuit Judge Peter Holden was set to preside over the case.

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

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According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, Maria Del Carmen Alvarez-Concepcion, 57, was arrested Thursday afternoon on charges of soliciting/accepting kickback payments, organized fraud and second-degree grand theft.

An arrest report states that a current board member and homeowner at the Greynolds Park Club Condominium Association, located at 17890 W. Dixie Highway, contacted MDSO about concerns he had regarding the mismanagement of association funds by certain members of the board of directors and the on-site building manager, identified as Alvarez-Concepcion.

Detectives said the board member told detectives that on Jan. 23, he was approached by a contracted vendor who reported that Alvarez-Concepcion had been soliciting and accepting kickback payments “in the form of cash and Zelle transfers.”

The report states that the board member “further reported longstanding concerns regarding the defendant’s exclusive control over multimillion dollar contracts, lack of financial transparency, questionable fees, missing records, and the exclusion of certain board members from major association decisions.”

According to the report, the vendor who spoke with the board member met with detectives on Feb. 13 and corroborated the information initially provided by the board member.

Detectives said that the vendor claimed that between March 7, 2025, and Dec. 5, 2025, Alvarez-Concepcion repeatedly solicited and accepted kickback payments, saying that he paid her about $19,910 in cash and Zelle transfers during that time period.

Authorities said the payments were not authorized by the association and were “intentionally concealed from the board of directors.”

According to the report, between Feb. 18 and March 19 of this year, Alvarez-Concepcion accepted an additional $1,000 in kickback payments.

In total, she is believed to have accepted $20,910 in “undisclosed kickback payments,” authorities said.

According to the arrest report, Alvarez-Concepcion was located Thursday afternoon in the parking lot of the condominium community and was taken into custody.

Detectives said she provided them with a “self-serving” statement, in which she “admitted to accepting kickback payments while acting in her position as an on-site manager.”

“This arrest reflects our commitment to protecting residents and holding accountable those who exploit positions of trust, and we will continue to aggressively combat association fraud in our community,” Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said in a statement.

As of Friday morning, Alvarez-Concepcion was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Online jail records listed her bond at $10,000, which she has since posted.

Ambas sedes diplomáticas se sumaron a la misión en el país de la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA) que el miércoles, el mismo día en que Mazariegos fue reelecto como titular de la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC), presentó un informe en el que condenó la violencia hacia la comunidad estudiantil que pedía elecciones democráticas.

La tensión se elevó el martes cuando los estudiantes universitarios exigieron que se abrieran las puertas del campus. Las autoridades académicas habían ordenado clases virtuales y cerrado el lugar para supuestos trabajos de mantenimiento para evitar protestas contra la reelección.

Desde dentro de la universidad hombres vestidos de negro y armados con palos tiraron bombas incendiarias y gas pimienta a los estudiantes que protestaban, de los cuales algunos resultaron heridos. Tras varios intentos los estudiantes derribaron los portones y tomaron las instalaciones.

El miércoles cientos de estudiantes protestaron por la elección que se llevó a cabo en un hotel en Antigua Guatemala, a unos 45 kilómetros de la capital, donde los aliados de Mazariegos votaron por su reelección y les fue negada la entrada a varios electores.

En el lugar hubo incidentes y guardias de seguridad de Mazariegos hicieron disparos. Nadie resultó herido y no hubo detenidos.

Los electores a los que no se les permitió el ingreso eligieron simbólicamente como rector a Rodolfo Chang, un veterinario y catedrático.

Estudiantes, particulares y diputados buscan que la fiscalía investigue a Mazariegos y sus allegados por presunto fraude.

Mazariegos fue sancionado en 2023 por el gobierno de Estados Unidos por socavar las instituciones democráticas al aceptar el cargo también en un cuestionado proceso electoral.

La Constitución establece que la USAC, con más de 300 años de antigüedad, es autónoma, recibe un 5% del presupuesto anual de la nación y no puede ser intervenida.

La USAC es una de las instituciones que este año renuevan autoridades en Guatemala, entre ellas la Corte de Constitucionalidad y la Fiscalía General.

Los agentes indicaron que ocurrió poco antes de las 4:40 p.m. cerca de la cuadra 16500 de Golf Club Road, en las inmediaciones del Bonaventure Golf Club.

Las autoridades dijeron que el video muestra “a un hombre de tez clara, vestido con una sudadera con capucha color caqui y pantalones distintivos rojos y negros, exponiéndose y tocándose en un estacionamiento cercano”, y luego “acercándose lentamente a la víctima, observando a su alrededor y quitándose los zapatos antes de sujetarla por detrás”.

“Ella forcejeó con el atacante antes de que él se levantara, se pusiera los zapatos y corriera hacia un scooter cercano, que utilizó para huir de la escena”, señala un comunicado de BSO.

Cualquier persona con información sobre el sospechoso debe llamar al detective de BSO Michael Kravecz al 954-626-4006 o a Broward Crime Stoppers al 954-493-8477.

Según BSO, las pistas que conduzcan a un arresto “pueden ser elegibles para una recompensa de hasta $5,000 USD”.

Oneka Davis is an example of that.

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She’s a mom whose love and perseverance carried her family through the darkest of times.

Three years ago, the 38-year-old mother of six girls was abandoned by the person she trusted most.

“My husband decided he no longer wanted to pay bills. He no longer wanted to help,” Oneka said. “So he packed up and he left me with our daughters.”

He also left them without a home. Oneka’s salary as a full-time county track repair technician wasn’t enough to cover the rent.

“We stayed at hotels,” she said. “From there, it was back to square one, living out of my car.”

“Your daughters are with you in your car?” Local 10’s Mayte Padron asked.

“Yes,” Oneka said.

“So, it’s you and your six daughters?” Padron asked.

“Yes,” Oneka responded.

Oneka’s daughter, Melanie, 15, shared what it was like for her.

“At first, I didn’t understand. I was very confused,” she said. “It was very hard. We would search for a place, but then they would turn us down.”

The family lived this way for 2 1/2 years. And during that time, they were hit by another crisis. Oneka’s youngest daughter, Noa, was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

“She had brain surgery at 3 years old,” Oneka said. “Everything was removed successfully.”

“She made it through. She’s healthy,” Oneka added.

And it was the love of family and love of community that changed the course of the family’s lives.

“My union got involved and my union reached out to Chapman Partnership and Chapman immediately stepped in to help,” Oneka said.

Chapman Partnership is a leading emergency housing provider in Miami-Dade County.

“We are just incredibly blessed to be able to help families, like Oneka and her family, to transition themselves very rapidly into stable housing,” Kavaja Sarduy, Vice President of Operations for Chapman Partnership, said.

“I am so thankful to have a roof over my head, to be able not to worry about them being safe. I know that they are safe,” Oneka said.

Natalia, Melanie, Paris, Hazel, Justise and little Noa are indeed safe, happy and very grateful for their mom.

“Mom, I want to tell you that you are a vessel in my life and I love you dearly,” Natalia said.

This is only the first chapter in Oneka’s story and we hope to bring you another update soon.

Until then, it’s important to point out that Oneka does not receive any government assistance -- not for food or for rent.

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Oneka Davis es un ejemplo de ello.

Es una madre cuyo amor y perseverancia sacaron a su familia adelante en los momentos más difíciles.

Hace tres años, la madre de 38 años y seis hijas fue abandonada por la persona en la que más confiaba.

“Mi esposo decidió que ya no quería pagar las cuentas. Ya no quería ayudar”, dijo Oneka. “Así que empacó sus cosas y me dejó con nuestras hijas”.

También las dejó sin hogar. El salario de Oneka como técnica de reparación de pistas del condado a tiempo completo no era suficiente para cubrir el alquiler.

“Nos quedamos en hoteles”, dijo. “De ahí, volvimos al punto de partida, viviendo en mi carro”.

“¿Tus hijas estaban contigo en el carro?”, preguntó Mayte Padron de Local 10.

“Sí”, respondió Oneka.

“¿Eran tú y tus seis hijas?”, preguntó Padron.

“Sí”, respondió Oneka.

La hija de Oneka, Melanie, de 15 años, compartió cómo fue esa experiencia.

“Al principio, no entendía. Estaba muy confundida”, dijo. “Fue muy difícil. Buscábamos un lugar, pero nos rechazaban”.

La familia vivió así durante 2 años y medio. Y durante ese tiempo, enfrentaron otra crisis. La hija menor de Oneka, Noa, fue diagnosticada con un tumor cerebral.

“Tuvo una cirugía cerebral a los 3 años”, dijo Oneka. “Todo fue removido con éxito”.

“Salió adelante. Está saludable”, agregó.

Y fue el amor de la familia y de la comunidad lo que cambió el rumbo de sus vidas.

“Mi sindicato se involucró y contactó a Chapman Partnership, y Chapman intervino de inmediato para ayudar”, dijo Oneka.

Chapman Partnership es uno de los principales proveedores de vivienda de emergencia en el condado Miami-Dade.

“Nos sentimos increíblemente bendecidos de poder ayudar a familias como la de Oneka a hacer una transición rápida hacia una vivienda estable”, dijo Kavaja Sarduy, vicepresidenta de operaciones de Chapman Partnership.

“Estoy muy agradecida de tener un techo sobre mi cabeza, de no tener que preocuparme por su seguridad. Sé que están seguras”, dijo Oneka.

Natalia, Melanie, Paris, Hazel, Justise y la pequeña Noa están seguras, felices y muy agradecidas con su madre.

“Mamá, quiero decirte que eres una bendición en mi vida y te amo mucho”, dijo Natalia.

Este es solo el primer capítulo en la historia de Oneka y esperamos poder traer otra actualización pronto.

Hasta entonces, es importante señalar que Oneka no recibe ninguna asistencia gubernamental, ni para alimentos ni para el alquiler.

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Sunrise police identified the suspect as 24-year-old Thomas Jamaine Roberson.

On Thursday, the victim told police about a domestic violence incident involving her boyfriend, Roberson, with whom she had been in a relationship for five to six months, according to the report.

Police said the victim is about 10 weeks pregnant with Roberson’s child, and the two lived together as a family.

The victim said that around midnight Thursday, she asked Roberson to return her cellphone after the couple got into an argument at a home in Sunrise.

Roberson initially denied having the phone but later retrieved it from under a pillow inside the home they shared, the report states.

Shortly after, police said Roberson left the home and took the victim’s vehicle, which was registered to her grandmother but in the victim’s care, along with her cellphone and other property.

About an hour later, they said Roberson returned to the home but refused to give the phone back.

The victim then reminded Roberson that she was pregnant, to which he responded, “I don’t care,” the report states.

Sunrise police said the victim later found Roberson’s loaded gun hidden inside the home in a laundry basket under clothing.

Shortly after, they said Roberson then pulled the victim, tearing her shirt and causing her to fall onto her neck.

The report states that Roberson refused to call 911, and the victim remained on the floor for about an hour after the incident.

Police said the victim attempted to flee the home multiple times, but at least twice Roberson “restrained her and brought her back inside against her will.”

The victim later fell asleep, then woke up and requested her phone. Roberson gave it to her after she handed him the gun, according to the report.

Police said the victim then gathered her two children, ages 2 and 3, and attempted to leave on foot when Roberson used his vehicle to block her path and “forcibly took both children from her custody without her consent, placing them into the vehicle without proper constraints.” Investigators noted Roberson is not the father of the children.

The victim then attempted to call 911 using her laptop, but Roberson allegedly grabbed it and threw it to prevent her from calling, police said.

They said the victim later fled and located her two children inside a vehicle before driving away and calling 911.

While on the phone with dispatchers, police said Roberson located the victim, forcibly entered her vehicle to turn off the ignition and took her phone.

He then attempted to remove her from the vehicle and threatened to kill her before fleeing with the vehicle while one of the children was still inside, according to the report.

A short time later, police said Roberson released the child to the victim and returned to the home, where she observed “extensive property damage, including overturned furniture, destroyed food items, and damaged electronics valued in excess of $1,000.”

Roberson was later located in Fort Lauderdale, where police said he fled from a traffic stop, leading to a pursuit that ended in a rollover crash near Powerline Road and Northwest 12th Street.

Fort Lauderdale police said the crash involved a vehicle, which overturned after being struck. They said several people, including Roberson, were taken to Broward Health Medical Center with minor injuries.

Jail records show Roberson is facing charges including robbery with carjacking, aggravated battery of a pregnant female, obstruction of justice, grand theft of a vehicle, child neglect and interfering with custody of a minor.

As of Friday morning, he was being held without bond at the Broward County Main Jail and ordered to have no contact with any victims or to possess firearms, weapons or ammunition.

La policía de Sunrise identificó al sospechoso como Thomas Jamaine Roberson, de 24 años.

El jueves, la víctima informó a la policía sobre un incidente de violencia doméstica con su novio, Roberson, con quien mantenía una relación de cinco a seis meses, según el informe.

La policía indicó que la víctima tiene aproximadamente 10 semanas de embarazo de Roberson y que ambos vivían juntos como familia.

La víctima dijo que alrededor de la medianoche del jueves le pidió a Roberson que le devolviera su teléfono celular después de una discusión en una vivienda en Sunrise.

Roberson inicialmente negó tener el teléfono, pero luego lo sacó de debajo de una almohada dentro de la casa que compartían, según el informe.

Poco después, la policía indicó que Roberson salió de la vivienda y se llevó el vehículo de la víctima, registrado a nombre de su abuela pero bajo su cuidado, junto con su teléfono y otras pertenencias.

Aproximadamente una hora después, regresó a la vivienda, pero se negó a devolver el teléfono.

La víctima le recordó que estaba embarazada, a lo que él respondió: “No me importa”, según el informe.

La policía de Sunrise indicó que la víctima luego encontró el arma cargada de Roberson escondida dentro de la casa en una canasta de ropa debajo de prendas.

Poco después, dijeron que Roberson la jaló, rompiéndole la camisa y provocando que cayera sobre su cuello.

El informe indica que Roberson se negó a llamar al 911 y que la víctima permaneció en el suelo durante aproximadamente una hora tras el incidente.

La policía dijo que la víctima intentó huir de la vivienda en múltiples ocasiones, pero al menos dos veces Roberson “la retuvo y la llevó de regreso al interior en contra de su voluntad”.

La víctima se quedó dormida y luego despertó y pidió su teléfono. Roberson se lo devolvió después de que ella le entregó el arma, según el informe.

La policía indicó que la víctima reunió a sus dos hijos, de 2 y 3 años, e intentó irse a pie, cuando Roberson utilizó su vehículo para bloquearle el paso y “le quitó por la fuerza a ambos niños sin su consentimiento, colocándolos en el vehículo sin las debidas sujeciones”. Los investigadores señalaron que Roberson no es el padre de los menores.

La víctima intentó llamar al 911 usando su computadora portátil, pero Roberson presuntamente la tomó y la lanzó para impedir la llamada, según la policía.

Posteriormente, la víctima logró huir, encontró a sus dos hijos dentro de un vehículo y se fue conduciendo mientras llamaba al 911.

Mientras hablaba con los operadores, la policía indicó que Roberson la localizó, entró por la fuerza al vehículo para apagarlo y le quitó el teléfono.

Luego intentó sacarla del vehículo y la amenazó de muerte antes de huir con el auto mientras uno de los niños aún estaba dentro, según el informe.

Poco tiempo después, la policía dijo que Roberson devolvió al menor a la víctima y regresó a la vivienda, donde ella observó “daños extensos a la propiedad, incluyendo muebles volcados, alimentos destruidos y aparatos electrónicos dañados valorados en más de $1,000 USD”.

Roberson fue localizado más tarde en Fort Lauderdale, donde la policía indicó que huyó de una parada de tráfico, lo que provocó una persecución que terminó en un choque con volcadura cerca de Powerline Road y la calle 12 del noroeste.

La policía de Fort Lauderdale indicó que el choque involucró a otro vehículo que volcó tras ser impactado. Varias personas, incluido Roberson, fueron trasladadas al Broward Health Medical Center con heridas leves.

Registros de la cárcel muestran que Roberson enfrenta cargos que incluyen robo con robo de vehículo, agresión agravada contra una mujer embarazada, obstrucción de la justicia, hurto mayor de un vehículo, negligencia infantil e interferencia con la custodia de un menor.

Hasta la mañana del viernes, permanecía detenido sin derecho a fianza en la cárcel principal del condado Broward y se le ordenó no tener contacto con las víctimas ni poseer armas de fuego, armas o municiones.

Scheffler hit 3-iron into a tributary of Rae's Creek on the par-5 13th, and his second shot into the par-5 15th went over the green and rolled into the pond on the 16th hole.

Both led to bogeys, and he didn't recover. His 2-over 74 was his first round over par at the Masters since a 75 in the second round in 2023.

“It was frustrating to get it back to even, have a couple of par 5s in front of me, and then not do many things I felt wrong and wasn't able to convert basically anything coming down the stretch,” said Scheffler, who was at even-par 144.

The water balls stand out. Scheffler tried to play a draw into the 13th, a deceptively difficult shot because the ball is slightly above the feet but a shot not cleanly struck tends to stay out to the right, and that's where the trouble is.

“I just tried to kind of swing it with the slope and just didn’t catch it that solid and kind of hung out there,” Scheffler said. “But that was one ... to that pin specifically that’s a shot that I could get in there close, so I felt like it was worth the risk of going for it.”

The real problem was his putting. He didn't make many, mainly an issue of speed more than line.

“I felt like I definitely played better than my score,” he said.

Scheffler, trying to win his third Masters in the last five years, now has a big climb. The two times he won, he went into the weekend with at least a share of the lead.

Li feels sick but still shows major form

The majors seem to bring out the best in Haotong Li of China, even when he's so sick he wonders if he can even play.

Such was the case Friday at the Masters. Li said he was in the bathroom most of the night and “kind of live in the toilet” even when he got to Augusta National. And then he made four straight birdies on the back nine and shot 69 to finish at 4-under 140.

“I didn’t hit many balls on the driving range. I was feeling really, really bad,” Li said. “No energy, fuzzy, want to throw up something. I actually just planned to play a few holes, see how it goes. If really sick, then I probably just decide not to. So glad I survived today.”

Li closed out the 2017 British Open at Royal Birkdale with a 63. Three years later, he opened 67-65 at Harding Park in the PGA Championship to become China's first player to lead after any round of a major championship.

No low amateur this year

For the second straight year, none of the amateurs will be sticking around for the weekend.

That's not to suggest they all are leaving disappointed, and some of them are not in any hurry to leave at all.

“My friends were telling me, ‘Thank you for inviting me, it was awesome to see you.’ Yeah, I would love to have played better, but it's fine,” Mateo Pulcini of Argentina said after going 81-78. “We're going to keep having fun. We're going to come to watch tomorrow and Sunday and enjoy the moment and the tournament.”

Amateurs have access to stay in the Crow's Nest in the top of the clubhouse even if they fail to make the 36-hole cut.

Fifa Laopakdee of Thailand, who won the Asia-Pacific Amateur, had rounds of 80-75. He also had the pleasure of spending two rounds with Fred Couples, who even at 66 oozes charisma and cool.

“Oh, man, if you give me an hour I can write 100 bullet points what I learned this week,” said Laopakdee, who plays at Arizona State. “Play with Freddie and Min Woo (Lee), I learned a lot. If you watch Freddie first 14 holes (Thursday), it was perfect golf.”

Koepka is in the mix

Brooks Koepka's first mission was to get in the mix in his return to the PGA Tour after four years with Saudi-funded LIV Golf. He didn't think it would take until the Masters, but here he is.

Koepka has made 11 birdies through two rounds, enough to offset some soft bogeys. He had a 69 on Friday and goes into the weekend at 3-under 141. Key to his second round was changing the setting on his driver and getting the ball in play.

“Ball-striking has been really good this week. Putted better today. Short game has been kind of iffy,” he said. “But I like the way I’m playing right now. Just need to be a little bit more aggressive.”

Tom Watson was critical of the PGA Tour for letting Koepka return under a program that kept Koepka from getting equity grants for five years and not having access to bonus money this year. Watson felt the tour reneged on its promise to ban LIV players for life. If anything, he said Koepka or anyone else should have spent a year on the Korn Ferry Tour.

“I would have to look at exactly what he said. Just going off your summary, everybody is entitled to their own opinion,” Koepka said. “He’s not the first person that’s thought that. I’m just grateful to be out here. The people that make those decisions let me out here. If you’re going to get the opportunity to come back out, you’re going to take it.”

___

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

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Wilton Manors police say Katherine Luciano left the kittens at Donn Eisele Park around 10 a.m. on Sunday. Surveillance video from a nearby home shows a red sedan pulling up, with a taped cardboard box inside.

Moments later, the five baby kittens spill out onto the ground as the woman walks away.

“While walking back to the car, the defendant is heard asking the male she is with, ”There were five total correct," her arrest report states.

The two then got back into the vehicle and left the park, abandoning the five kittens with no access to food, water, or shelter.

Peter Carey, who was walking his dog at the time, told Local 10 that he witnessed the kittens being abandoned.

“I was really focused on the cats, but it kept my anger from being focused on her,” he said. “Because I really wish that I could just put her in a box and dump her in a field so she could see how it felt. That’s how I feel.”

Carey rescued four of the kittens, while the fifth was found later.

All five have since been adopted.

“Happy to say that they’ve all been adopted,” Carey said. “I dropped off the last kitty last night to a nurse that lives in Aventura.”

After seeing her mugshot, Carey said, “It looks like her. And I hope I never see her again.”

Zachary Rinkins at Broward County Animal Care says they have resources to help shelter or house animals — even strays.

Luciano appeared to smirk when a judge on Friday morning told her that she is not allowed to have an animal while on pre-trial release.

Luciano remained at the Broward County Main Jail on five counts of animal abandonment and five counts of conservation of animals: torment, deprive, mutilate or kill. Her total bond was set at $5,000.

It’s not clear if the passenger in the car will face any charges.

Investigators said people were killed and six others were injured in the attack, which happened nearly a year ago.

The material, released by the State Attorney’s Office, include body camera video showing officers rushing to the scene, confronting the suspected gunman and taking him into custody.

Recordings of 911 calls capture the urgency of the moment.

“Can you tell me exactly what’s happening?” a 911 dispatcher asked the caller.

“There’s a shooter at the FSU Student Union” the caller responded.

Authorities later identified the suspect as Phoenix Ikner, who was 20 years old at the time of the shooting.

Records related to his parent’s custody dispute show Ikner’s identity before 2020 was Christian Gunnar Eriksen, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Norway, and included allegations that he had been diagnosed with “several health and mental issues” by the time he was 11 years old, ABC News and First Coast News.

After the FSU shooting, Leon County Sheriff Walter A. McNeil said Ikner was a “long-standing” member of The Leon County Sheriff’s Office Youth Advisory Council and identified, Jessica Ikner, a deputy who served in LCSO for over 18 years, as his mother..

“Her son had access to one of her weapons and that was one of the weapons that was found at the scene,” McNeil said referring to the deputy’s stepson.

Newly released court documents also detail Eichner’s alleged conversations on the day of the shooting with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, including questions about the university and prompts such as when the FSU student union is busiest.

Attorneys in Tallahassee have since filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT on behalf of one of the victims. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier also announced an investigation into the company this week.

Investigators said Eichner faces nine charges, including first-degree murder. His trial is expected to begin in October.

Local 10 digital journalist Andrea Torres contributed to this story.

Según la sentencia, fechada el 31 de marzo y a la que tuvo acceso The Associated Press el viernes, el perito independiente solicitado por el juez dio la razón a los demandantes y estableció que el siniestro ocurrido en mayo de 2018 fue un “accidente institucional", es decir, que se gestó dentro la compañía por las negligencias en el mantenimiento y colocó a los pilotos como "la última barrera de defensa y a quienes desafortunadamente no les fue posible controlar el desplome a baja altura" de la aeronave.

Por eso, el juez ordenó a la empresa, Aerolíneas Damojh, pagar 1,5 millones de dólares por familia de los cuatro miembros de la tripulación que fueron los primeros en demandar. La compañía no se presentó al juicio y fue juzgada en rebeldía. La empresa que aseguraba el avión también fue demandada pero quedó exenta de multas.

El avión, un Boeing 737, se estrelló sobre un campo de yuca poco después de haber despegado del aeropuerto internacional José Martí en La Habana en lo que fue una de las peores tragedias aéreas de la isla en décadas. Aunque algunas personas fueron hospitalizadas, finalmente solo sobrevivió una mujer.

Un año después del accidente, Cuba dijo que el siniestro se debió a errores de cálculo de la tripulación. Previamente las autoridades de aviación civil mexicanas habían suspendido temporalmente a la empresa, que había tenido irregularidades en el pasado, y abrió una investigación sobre el caso.

L a AP preguntó por la situación actual de dichas pesquisas a la Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes pero no recibió respuesta de manera inmediata.

Damojh utilizaba el nombre comercial de Global Air y rentaba el avión con tripulación incluida a la aerolínea estatal de la isla, Cubana de Aviación, que era la que operaba el vuelo.

“Es una sentencia ejemplar... que se logró probar después de muchísimos esfuerzos”, dijo uno de los abogados litigantes, Samuel González. Según explicó, el juez confirmó lo que el jefe de mantenimiento de la empresa dijo a varios familiares desde el primer día, “que el avión no podía volar”, máxime porque días antes había tenido un golpe.

”Ese avión voló por la cabeza de todos nosotros durante diez años sin mantenimiento", agregó. “Cayó en Cuba... pero pudo haber caído en cualquier parte”.

La sentencia todavía puede ser apelada. González cree que Damojh está tramitando su quiebra, “que puede ser una quiebra fraudulenta, en cuyo caso también denunciaremos”.

Además de esta primera demanda de familias de la tribulación, el abogado señaló que hay una acción civil colectiva ya en trámite en representación de todas la víctimas y una denuncia penal por homicidio contra la empresa y todo aquel que resulte responsable ante la Fiscalía General de la República.

Esta última investigación está ralentizada, según González, porque las autoridades cubanas no han aportado la información solicitada. La fiscalía no respondió de manera inmediata a la AP sobre el estado de este caso.

Queda por verse si hubo responsabilidad por acción u omisión de autoridades mexicanas, aunque el equipo litigante ya interpuso denuncias en otras dependencias, entre ellas la fiscalía anticorrupción, contra quienes autorizaron el vuelo y dieron el certificado de aeronavegabilidad al avión.

The FAA and Defense Department have signed an agreement outlining the safety precautions that they say will protect travelers anytime these lasers are used, but their statement didn't spell out what those safeguards will be.

The FAA didn’t immediately respond to questions seeking more details about the agreement.

In early February, the FAA closed the airspace around the El Paso airport for several hours after another agency used a counter-drone laser without notifying the aviation safety regulator. That left many travelers scrambling to find new flights. A second, more limited airspace closure later that month followed the military shooting down a drone owned by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

A demonstration of the lasers conducted last month at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico convinced the FAA that they can be used safely.

"We will continue working with our interagency partners to ensure the National Airspace System remains safe while addressing emerging drone threats,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement.

Drones are commonly used along the border by Mexican cartels looking to deliver drugs or surveil officers. Officials told Congress last summer that more than 27,000 drones were detected within 1,600 feet (500 meters) of the southern border in the last six months of 2024.

The use of armed drones regularly carry out devastating attacks in the Ukraine and Iran wars highlights the threat.

Lawmakers in Congress said they are glad to see the agencies working together better now. But Democratic senators who raised questions after the anti-drone laser uses in February say they need detailed answers before they can be sure the lasers are safe. The FAA has not yet held a briefing for Congress.

“It is absolutely critical that meaningful interagency collaboration continues — the FAA must be at the table whenever any counter-UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) is deployed that could impact the safety of our national airspace,” said Rep. Rick Larsen, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

In the second incident, the military used the laser to shoot down a “seemingly threatening” drone flying near the U.S.-Mexico border on Feb. 26. It turned out the drone belonged to Customs and Border Protection, lawmakers said.

That led the FAA to close the airspace around Fort Hancock, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of El Paso.

The Trump administration has said it was working to halt an incursion by Mexican cartel drones. U.S. Army Brigadier General Matt Ross said that this agreement will allow the use of the most advanced tools to defend the homeland.

“By working hand-in-hand with the FAA and our interagency partners, the Department of War is proving that these cutting-edge capabilities are safe, effective, and ready to protect all air travelers from illicit drone use in the national airspace,” Ross said.

The U.S. government has handed out more than $250 million to help states prepare to respond to drones before hosting World Cup matches and celebrations planned this summer for the country's 250th birthday.

Another $250 million in grants will be awarded later this year to strengthen the nation’s drone defenses.

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At The Berry Farm in southwest Miami-Dade, children and parents spread out across 40 acres Saturday for the farm’s annual Eggstravaganza.

Kids of all ages raced through egg hunts, played on playgrounds, visited baby animals and posed for photos with the Easter Bunny.

“We actually live in Chicago,” said Christine Burger, a grandmother attending the event. “And the weather is better than Chicago. It’s a whole lot of outdoor activities for us to do today too.”

Karl Wiegandt of The Berry Farm said the event has grown over the years and has become a tradition for many families.

“This is the sixth year we’ve done the egg hunts here at the berry farm and we’ve really learned a lot,” Wiegandt said. “We do 39 egg hunts to keep organization, enough eggs for all the kids, and really for parents to be able to get those pictures where it’s not a congestion of kid running at the same time.”

“We always say we try to create that forever moment and picture and those memories. I think we’ve done a great job of it,” he added.

The event continues on Easter Sunday.

In Broward County, families gathered in Plantation for the city’s annual Royal Easter Egg Hunt at Pop Travers Park.

Children from toddlers to 10 years old were split into age groups, each taking turns running across the field to collect eggs.

“It was very nice to come out on a Saturday. I got up really early to do it. I wasn’t expecting this but it was really good. The kids enjoyed it,” said Ambria Butts.

After the hunt, families stayed to enjoy inflatables, games and a visit from the Royal Easter Bunny.

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Investigators said it happened on Feb. 24 near suspect Joel Xavier McNeil’s home in the county’s unincorporated West Little River area.

According to an MDSO arrest report, the victim told investigators that she had arranged a “quick visit out call” with McNeil early that morning, in which she would drive to him and have sex with him.

Authorities said the woman picked McNeil up near his home and the two drove close to a Dollar General, but McNeil had her turn around and head back to where she picked him up, near his home.

Deputies said at around 7:30 a.m., he had the victim pull over along the side of the road near Northwest 18th Avenue and 93rd Terrace, and “began to rub (her) inner thigh.”

According to the report, after she asked McNeil to pay first, he “stopped, used his phone, then pulled out a pistol from his waistband and pulled the slide backwards to chamber a round.”

The report states that he then told her “that he was police and (he) was going to need her to wait right there.”

Authorities said the woman put her hands up and asked what McNeil what he was doing and he asked her, “Where is the money?”

Deputies said the victim told him she had no money and showed her empty purse. At that point, they said McNeil, listed in the report as 6-foot-5 and 200 pounds, grabbed hold of the woman’s jacket as she tried to leave the vehicle and held her at gunpoint.

Authorities said she briefly got back in the vehicle, then ran out again and broke free from McNeil’s grip as another car headed her way.

“The victim then walked in front of the passing vehicle and asked for them to help her and call the police, however the vehicle continued driving away, not assisting (her),” the report states. “The victim then used her cellphone camera to record (McNeil) in her vehicle as he continued to ask her to come back into the vehicle. (He) then jumped over to the drivers side of the vehicle, closed the door and drove off in an unknown direction.”

On Thursday, authorities said McNeil’s father had called MDSO regarding a dispute over McNeil leaving their home in the 1800 block of Northwest 93rd Street.

Deputies said a check revealed an unrelated domestic violence warrant and a probable cause message in connection with the escort robbery.

As four deputies tried taking McNeil into custody, he started “pulling his hands away and rolling on the ground in an effort to avoid being handcuffed,” a separate arrest report states.

He was eventually taken into custody on charges of armed robbery, false imprisonment with a deadly weapon, falsely personating an officer with a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony and resisting an officer without violence.

Appearing in court on Friday, a Miami-Dade judge ordered he be held without bond.

As of Friday afternoon, McNeil was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, online records show.

Bowser’s proposal makes education and health care spending — especially for Medicaid — priorities but would cut funding for several areas, including $127 million set aside for future collective bargaining agreements and non-union pay increases for city employees.

Notable in the proposal is the decrease in the proposed general funds budget to $12.7 billion, a 3.3% cut from 2026. General funds are what pay for city services. Bowser said the cuts are necessary because of a drop in revenue due in part to federal workforce reductions and rising costs, including higher Medicaid expenses and higher administration costs for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), because of a change in federal law that shifted some costs to states.

Bowser, speaking to the Council, assured members the city is “not broke” as she walked them through what she called the three periods of her tenure, the days of growth, the COVID-economic years and post-COVID.

“We are adjusting to what DOGE has done to our workforce and commercial corridor,” she said, referring to the Trump administration's efforts to shrink the federal government. She said the rising costs and decreased revenue have left the city with an estimated budget gap to address.

“I think we all have to be clear-headed about where we are and what it will take to keep growing,” said Bowser, who has served as mayor since 2015 and has announced she will not be running for reelection this year.

Members of the council questioned Bowser and members of her staff on proposed targets, including taking aim at programs intended to help defray the cost of child care in a city where a family pays on average more than $25,000 a year for infant care, according to the advocacy group Child Care Aware of America.

The plan would cap the District’s child care subsidy program, which helps the city’s poorest families afford care, at 6,000 children. Families currently receiving the subsidies would continue to receive them. And it would eliminate a program that supplemented the wages of child care providers, a measure passed during the pandemic to help attract and retain workers to a field with historically low wages.

Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said the council would likely vote on the budget in June.

Washington's budget has been complicated in the last two years. In 2025 the House passed a federal government funding bill that would force the district’s government to revert to its 2024 budget parameters, effectively cutting $1.1 billion from its previously balanced budget midway through the financial year.

The remaking of the federal workforce by the Department of Government Efficiency heavily impacted the Washington region. Terry Clower, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University, estimated more than 50,000 jobs were lost in the region. Clover said those job losses meant more than lost salaries and income taxes for the workers, also hitting businesses that support those workers.

The D.C. Office of Revenue Analysis estimated that Washington had a net loss of 22,000 federal jobs at a combined annual pay of more than $3 billion.

City Administrator Kevin Donahue said the reduction in the federal workforce, primarily by DOGE, cost about $325 million in lost revenue from cuts in jobs and the accompanying consumer spending. Those losses will be even higher in the 2027 fiscal year.

Los investigadores dijeron que el hecho ocurrió el 24 de febrero cerca de la vivienda del sospechoso, Joel Xavier McNeil, en el área no incorporada de West Little River.

Según un informe de arresto de MDSO, la víctima dijo a los investigadores que había coordinado una “visita rápida a domicilio” con McNeil esa mañana, en la que ella conduciría hasta él para tener relaciones sexuales.

Las autoridades indicaron que la mujer recogió a McNeil cerca de su casa y ambos condujeron hacia un área cercana a un Dollar General, pero McNeil le pidió que diera la vuelta y regresara al lugar donde lo había recogido.

Los agentes dijeron que alrededor de las 7:30 a.m., él le indicó a la víctima que se detuviera a un lado de la vía cerca de la avenida 18 del noroeste y la terraza 93, y “comenzó a tocar la parte interna de su muslo”.

Según el informe, después de que ella le pidiera que pagara primero, él “se detuvo, usó su teléfono y luego sacó una pistola de la cintura y deslizó la corredera hacia atrás para cargar un proyectil”.

El informe indica que luego le dijo “que era policía y que iba a necesitar que se quedara allí”.

Las autoridades dijeron que la mujer levantó las manos y le preguntó qué estaba haciendo, a lo que él respondió: “¿Dónde está el dinero?”

Los agentes dijeron que la víctima le indicó que no tenía dinero y le mostró su bolso vacío. En ese momento, McNeil, descrito en el informe como de 6 pies y 5 pulgadas de estatura y 200 libras, sujetó la chaqueta de la mujer cuando ella intentó salir del vehículo y la mantuvo a punta de pistola.

Las autoridades indicaron que ella volvió brevemente al vehículo, luego salió corriendo nuevamente y logró soltarse del agarre de McNeil cuando otro vehículo se acercaba.

“La víctima caminó frente al vehículo que pasaba y les pidió ayuda y que llamaran a la policía, sin embargo, el vehículo continuó su marcha sin asistirla”, señala el informe. “Luego, la víctima utilizó la cámara de su teléfono celular para grabar a McNeil en su vehículo mientras él continuaba pidiéndole que regresara. Posteriormente, él se pasó al lado del conductor, cerró la puerta y se fue conduciendo en dirección desconocida”.

El jueves, las autoridades dijeron que el padre de McNeil llamó a MDSO por una disputa relacionada con que su hijo había salido de la vivienda en la cuadra 1800 de la calle 93 del noroeste.

Los agentes dijeron que al verificar, encontraron una orden de arresto por un caso no relacionado de violencia doméstica y una causa probable vinculada al robo de la escort.

Mientras cuatro agentes intentaban detener a McNeil, este comenzó a “retirar las manos y a rodar en el suelo en un intento de evitar ser esposado”, según otro informe de arresto.

Finalmente fue puesto bajo custodia y enfrenta cargos de robo a mano armada, privación ilegal de la libertad con arma mortal, hacerse pasar por agente con arma mortal durante la comisión de un delito grave y resistirse a un agente sin violencia.

Durante su comparecencia en corte el viernes, un juez de Miami-Dade ordenó que permaneciera detenido sin derecho a fianza.

Hasta la tarde del viernes, McNeil permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, según registros en línea.

Mayor Quinton Lucas and nine of 12 City Council members introduced a proposed ordinance Thursday to allow the city manager to negotiate with the Royals over a new stadium near the city's historic Union Station and its World War I museum, about 6 miles northwest of the Royals' current Kauffman Stadium.

The city expects the new stadium to cost $1.9 billion, and Missouri last year enacted a law allowing the state to cover half, or $950 million. If Kansas City issued its bonds, the Royals would need $350 million in private funds.

Kauffman Stadium sits beside the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium in the Truman Sports Complex, owned by Jackson County, Missouri, and home to both teams since 1973. Their stadium leases expire in 2031, and in April 2024, county voters rejected extending a tax that would have helped pay for renovations of both.

The Royals also have considered another site for a new stadium about 5 miles north in neighboring North Kansas City.

Kansas legislative leaders who would have to approve a deal to attract the Royals have shown little appetite for one after the state committed in December to issuing $2.4 billion in bonds to cover 60% of the cost of a new, $3 billion domed stadium for the Chiefs in Kansas City, Kansas. Two of them, House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Republican, and Minority Leader Brandon Woodard, a Democrat, issued a joint statement Friday congratulating Missouri, adding, “We're looking forward to what's ahead.”

The Kansas City, Missouri, City Council could vote on the proposed ordinance as early as Thursday, but City Manager Mario Vasquez said the work toward keeping the team “is just beginning.”

The team said in a statement Friday: "We are grateful for their engagement in this process, as well as for the critical work of the State of Missouri, and look forward to more detailed conversations as we consider solutions that are best for our team, our fans, and our community.”

Economists who have studied pro sports teams have concluded for decades that subsidizing stadiums isn’t worth the cost for their communities because the venues pull economic activity away from other parts of the area instead of expanding the overall economy. Yet states and cities continue providing subsidies to renovate stadiums or build new ones.

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe called the Royals “a key economic catalyst” for his state.

“The State of Missouri is committed to continue working alongside the Kansas City Royals organization and the City of Kansas City to ensure the Royals remain in Missouri — where they belong," Kehoe said.

Of the 60 stadiums used by MLB and NFL teams, 49 are publicly owned or sit on public land.

New York state and Erie County together chipped in $850 million, or 40% of the cost, for the Buffalo Bills' new $2.1 billion NFL stadium. Ohio state and local governments have pledged $1.2 billion to cover half the cost of a new stadium for the NFL's Cleveland Browns, though the state's portion is held up by a lawsuit.

Kansas officials have described the Chiefs' stadium as the largest economic development project in state history. The team also plans a retail district around the stadium and a new training complex in Olathe, Kansas.

“It’s only been four months,” she said as her husband, Brian, tugged on some rigging as they got ready to set sail.

The “Gulf Crossing” video more than three years ago marked the start of a sailing adventure — chronicled on Facebook — for a couple who are now at the center of criminal investigations after Lynette went missing in the Bahamas.

A few days after Lynette disappeared, police in the Atlantic Ocean island nation arrested Brian. He denies causing his wife's death and has been cooperating with law enforcement, his attorney, Terrel Butler, said.

On Friday, Brian's attorney reiterated his innocence and said his wife has not been found. She said police had just finished an intensive 4-hour interview with him in which she described him as continuously asking about his wife.

“He was a bit puzzled because he was uncertain as to why they were questioning him about causing harm or possible murder when they had not given him any information in terms of where she is, if they had recovered her,” she said.

Brian Hooker had told police that his wife of more than 20 years fell overboard Saturday night from a small motorboat that was carrying the couple from Hope Town to Elbow Cay, small islands on the eastern end of the Bahamas. He said Lynette, 55, had the keys and the boat's engine shut off.

“Strong currents subsequently carried her away, and he lost sight of her,” police said in a statement Saturday.

He paddled to shore and alerted others early Sunday, said authorities, who arrested and questioned him Wednesday.

The U.S. Coast Guard has opened an investigation separate from the one by Bahamas authorities.

Karli Aylesworth, Lynette's daughter, has said it's unlikely her mother would “just fall” from a boat.

And while the couple is seen smiling, laughing and joking in social media videos of their voyage, they have a history of contention.

Brian and Lynette Hooker accused each other of assault in 2015, according to a Kentwood, Michigan, police report obtained by NBC News.

Brian Hooker, who was intoxicated and bleeding from the nose, told police his wife had struck him multiple times in the face, the report said. He told officers Lynette also was drunk. She was arrested for assault and spent the night in jail. A warrant was denied because it wasn't clear “who started the assault.”

Aylesworth also told NBC that the couple’s relationship was volatile and that they have a “history of not getting along, especially when they drink.”

The couple’s home is in Onsted, about 72 miles (117 kilometers) southwest of Detroit. The closest big body of water is Lake Erie, about 60 miles (72 kilometers) southeast of Onsted.

Lynette Hooker's mother, Darlene Hamlett, said Wednesday that the family “grew up on water” and that her daughter's life has been “near lakes, on boats, sailing and swimming.”

The couple posted videos of their years sailing around the Caribbean on their “Sailing Hookers” Facebook page.

Lynette, in the March 2023 video, describes the start of the couple's voyage aboard the Soul Mate as the sailboat slips through the Kemah, Texas, fog and into the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

“Pretty cool,” Lynette said as Brian blared the Soul Mate's foghorn. Later, while changing an engine alternator belt, he looks up at his wife and says, “Hi sexy.”

In an earlier video, the couple explains how they bought the Soul Mate in the coastal town of Rockport, Texas, and fixed it up.

“After several years of driving around the country, looking for our perfect sailboat, we finally found her in Texas,” Lynette said in that eight-minute video, posted in January 2023. “She was a little rough on the edges. The decks needed to be redone, but we knew we were up for the task.”

That video shows them working together, scraping, priming and painting. “The decks are done! we're still married! party time!” is printed in a message on the video.

A video posted two years ago shows them using their smaller motorboat to buy food on land. The video doesn't give the couple's location.

“We got the grub,” Brian says into the camera, which shifts to a case of beer at his feet and bags of groceries in the bow. “Delivery ... the way of life, man.”

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Associated Press writers R.J. Rico and Dánica Coto contributed to this report. Freelance videographer Keith Gomez also contributed to this report.

Anfernee Watts, quien también tiene una hija de 2 años, compareció el jueves ante la corte de fianza de Broward, donde un juez le negó la fianza.

Watts “admitió haber fabricado una historia para presentar a las autoridades, colocando al bebé fallecido de nuevo en el corral con la intención de hacer parecer que murió mientras dormía”, escribió un agente, según la orden de arresto.

Crystal Garcia tenía 20 años cuando dio a luz a su hijo el 11 de julio en el Memorial Regional Hospital, según la policía.

Un pediatra reportó que el bebé estaba en buen estado de salud el 28 de julio, según la orden. La tragedia ocurrió pocos días después.

“Ella restringió intencionalmente al bebé envolviéndolo firmemente en una manta, asegurando un chupón en su boca y sujetándolo en un asiento de auto antes de colocarlo dentro de una bañera y aislarlo detrás de una puerta cerrada mientras sonaba música a alto volumen”, y “ignoró deliberadamente su angustia y no lo revisó durante varias horas”, escribió un detective, según la orden.

Personal de Hollywood Fire Rescue declaró muerto al bebé a la 1:50 p.m. del 1 de agosto en una vivienda ubicada en 6660 Thomas St., según los registros.

Los oficiales notaron una “almohadilla desechable para cambiar pañales que parecía tener manchas de sangre”, y el bebé “tenía espuma visible en la boca y labios agrietados que parecían tener sangre seca”, según la orden de arresto.

Watts dijo a los agentes que había asistido a una entrevista de trabajo cuando ocurrió la muerte, pero el supuesto entrevistador indicó que eso era falso, según la orden.

La Oficina del Médico Forense de Broward determinó que la causa de la muerte fue asfixia y la clasificó como homicidio. La evidencia también incluye un video de una cámara de vigilancia Ring que muestra a Garcia con una bolsa de basura antes de llamar al 911.

La madre de Watts contactó a la policía para reportar que Garcia, de 21 años, le dijo que el bebé murió atrapado entre el marco de la cama y el colchón, según la orden.

Garcia dejó mensajes de voz a la policía desde el 4 de agosto hasta el miércoles y admitió haber mentido y haber “asfixiado” al bebé, según la orden.

“Crystal admitió que mintió a la policía por miedo a ser arrestada”, escribió un agente, según la orden.

El Grupo de Trabajo de Fugitivos de los U.S. Marshals arrestó a la pareja el miércoles.

Registros carcelarios indican que Garcia permanecía detenida sin derecho a fianza el viernes en el North Broward Bureau, un centro de detención en Pompano Beach.

Garcia y Watts enfrentan cada uno cinco cargos: obstrucción de una investigación criminal, homicidio agravado de un menor, negligencia infantil con gran daño corporal, manipulación de evidencia y alterar o manipular un cadáver, su vestimenta o elementos circundantes sin autorización.

La madre de Watts tiene la custodia de la hija de 2 años desde que tenía aproximadamente 5 meses, luego de que Garcia y la bebé dieran positivo a THC al nacer, según la orden de arresto.

Lea una parte de la orden de arresto

Historia relacionada: pareja comparece en corte de Broward acusada por la muerte de su hijo de tres semanas y encubrimiento

Reading prepared remarks at the White House on Thursday, Melania Trump said she and her attorneys were fighting back against “unfound and baseless lies” in regards to her connections to the late financier, a convicted sex offender who leveraged connections to the rich, powerful and famous to recruit his victims and cover up his crimes.

“The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” she said. “The individuals lying about me are devoid of ethical standards, humility and respect. I do not object to their ignorance, but rather I reject their mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation.”

The first lady didn't take questions from the press after her statement, leaving many with questions:

Why now?

It's unclear.

The message came as her husband, President Donald Trump, and his administration had finally seemed to move past more than a year of controversy surrounding Epstein, especially as the Iran war had become all-consuming in Washington.

The first lady’s comments almost assuredly will serve to push the story back into the political spotlight even as the president urged the public and media to move on from the case.

Who was Melania Trump responding to?

Melania Trump seemingly referenced a brief email from 2002 with the sender and recipient blacked out. It begins, “Dear G!” and ends “Love, Melania,” and compliments the recipient on a magazine article about “JE.”

“I know you are very busy flying all over the world,” it says. “How was Palm Beach? I cannot wait to go down. Give me a call when you are back in NY.”

That email was sent the same month that a New York Magazine article was published about Epstein in which Trump called him a “terrific guy.”

Melania Trump said Thursday that she was not friends with Epstein or his confidant and onetime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, but was in overlapping social circles in New York and Florida. She described an email reply she sent to Maxwell as “casual correspondence” without elaborating.

“My polite reply to her email doesn’t amount to anything more than a trivial note,” she said.

Among other documents released was an image from Epstein’s home showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Donald Trump alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Maxwell.

Melania Trump noted Thursday that several individuals and organizations have had to apologize for their “lies about me.” Of the examples she cited, the most recent was in October. In that case, book publisher HarperCollins UK apologized to the first lady and retracted passages from a book suggesting Epstein played a role in introducing her and Donald Trump.

What did President Trump say about his wife’s comments?

MS ​NOW ​reporter Jacqueline Alemany said on social media Thursday that President Trump told her he ⁠did ​not “know anything ​about” ​Melania ​Trump’s statement about ⁠Epstein.

The White House press office did not respond to requests for comment.

Nick Clemens, a spokesperson for the first lady, said the West Wing was aware beforehand that she was making a statement. But he deferred to the West Wing on whether the content of what Melania Trump planned to say was known.

In recent weeks President Trump’s public appearances have largely centered around the war in Iran.

What is the status of the release of the Epstein files?

The first lady brought Epstein back to the forefront months after federal authorities released millions of pages of documents under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law enacted after months of public and political pressure. It requires the government to open its files on the late financier and Maxwell.

Lawmakers initially complained when the Justice Department made only a limited release, but officials said more time was needed to review additional documents that were discovered and to ensure no sensitive information about victims was released.

Did anyone get punished after the files were made public?

Several key leaders in Europe have been punished for their affiliation with Epstein but there have been no comparable prosecutions in the U.S.

Most notably, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — Britain's former Prince Andrew — was arrested in February following the most recent trove of files that were released. Mountbatten-Windsor's name frequently appeared in the files, depicting a close relationship with Epstein.

But his arrest didn't have anything to do with sexual impropriety. Instead, he was arrested for allegedly sharing confidential trade information with Epstein.

Melania Trump called on Congress to hold a public hearing centered on survivors of Epstein’s crimes, with a chance to testify before lawmakers and have their stories entered into the congressional record.

“Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public if she wishes,” she said. “Then, and only then, we will have the truth.”

The unveiling of Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki's statue had an unforced error on Friday — a broken bat.

As broadcaster Rick Rizzs declared “we're going to count down from 51!” — a nod to Suzuki's jersey number, which was retired by the Seattle Mariners — the curtain covering the bronze statue was pulled down, and so, too, went the bat.

A snapping noise could be heard as the bronze bat flopped down and confetti sprouted up.

“Here it is! The statue of one of the greatest players in the history of the game!” Rizzs declared as the curtain was pulled and a celebratory tune played outside of T-Mobile Park.

The statue depicts Suzuki in his batting stance. He appeared to find the mishap to be hilarious, and joked through an interpreter that New York Yankees Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera got the best of him again.

“I didn’t think Mariano would come out here,” Suzuki said with a smile, “and break the bat.”

It did not take long for the Mariners to fix the statue; Suzuki’s bat was soon turned upright and reconnected at the handle. The statue was sculpted by Chicago-based Lou Cella, who also produced statues of Mariners greats Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez, University of Washington football coach Don James, Seattle Storm legend Sue Bird, and former Seattle SuperSonics player and coach Lenny Wilkens.

Suzuki said he wore a jersey from the 2001 season, when he won both AL MVP and Rookie of the Year, for a photo shoot with Cella.

“I can say I was happy that I was still able to fit into that uniform, and probably could say Junior and Edgar probably couldn’t do that,” Suzuki said. “So, I was happy about that.”

Suzuki was inducted into the Hall of Fame last summer and last year became only the third Mariners player to have his jersey retired by the franchise, joining Griffey (No. 24) and Martinez (No. 11).

Griffey and Martinez joined Suzuki for the ceremony and helped him pull the curtain off the statue.

“To have this moment with them, I look back at how it all started,” Suzuki said. “And it’s just been an unbelievable experience.”

Suzuki made history as the first Japanese-born player inducted into the Hall of Fame, earning a near-unanimous 99.7% of the vote from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

The way the jovial Suzuki saw it, his statue having an imperfection was only fitting.

“In the Hall of Fame, I was short one vote,” Suzuki said. “Today, the bat was broke. It kind of lets me know that I’m still not there, that I still need to keep going. So, this is a good example of that.”

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

Adams, a Democrat, received the honorary citizenship “at his request,” according to an official decree from the country’s president, Bajram Begaj.

The news was first reported in the Albanian press and confirmed by a spokesperson for Adams, who said the ex-mayor had “long been a friend and ally of the Albanian-American community.”

“The decision by the Republic of Albania to grant Mayor Adams citizenship reflects that enduring relationship and mutual respect,” the spokesperson, Todd Shapiro, said in a text message, adding that the recognition “further strengthens the bond between New York and Albania.”

Adams, who once described himself as an “international mayor,” has previously expressed an affinity for the small Balkan nation. His adult son lived in the country while competing in Albania’s version of “American Idol." Adams traveled there himself in October — one of several international trips taken in his final months in office.

The purpose, he said at the time, was “to say hello to a friend and learn from a friend and build a relationship with a friendship that will not allow our oceans or seas to divide us.”

It wasn’t immediately clear what, if anything, Adams planned to do with his new citizenship. But he has previously expressed a desire to move far from his hometown of New York City.

“When I retire from government, I’m going to live in Baku,” Adams, then Brooklyn Borough President, said at an event honoring the Azerbaijan community in 2018. A few years later, in an interview with a Jewish publication, Adams said he would like to retire in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

As mayor, Adams' penchant for international trips to Turkey prompted a federal indictment focused, in part, on allegations that he accepted improper travel benefits from foreign nationals.

Adams denied the allegations, and the case was later ordered dropped by President Donald Trump’s Justice Department. Adams later met with Trump administration officials about the possibility of taking an ambassadorship, which did not materialize.

Shortly after dropping his ailing bid for reelection, Adams embarked on a four-day trip to Albania, meeting with the country’s Prime Minister Edi Rama and members of his Cabinet, along with local business leaders. The trip was paid for in part by the Albanian government.

Since leaving office, Adams has been spotted in Dubai and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He also told reporters that he planned to fly to Senegal for a business opportunity, which he declined to discuss further.

In January, he launched a cryptocurrency coin that he said would beat back antisemitism and “anti-Americanism,” but it drew scrutiny after losing millions of dollars in value.

The team announced that Conine was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring tear after attempting to make a diving catch in left field during Thursday’s series finale win against the Cincinnati Reds.

Conine is batting .273 with a .951 OPS, six hits, two home runs, and four RBIs in 22 plate appearances this season.

It is still unknown how long he will be out.

The Marlins also recalled infielder Deyvison De Los Santos from Triple-A Jacksonville.

Imanaga struck out nine and walked one. He threw 100 pitches, 68 for strikes.

O’Hearn greeted Thielbar with a liner to right on a 1-1 slider. Bryan Reynolds drove Thielbar's next pitch deep to left for his third homer, lifting the Pirates to a 2-0 lead on a chilly afternoon at Wrigley Field.

Pittsburgh got its first baserunner when Oneil Cruz walked with two down in the second. Imanaga then fanned rookie Konnor Griffin for the final out of the inning.

The 32-year-old Imanaga went 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA in his first two starts of the season.

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

Schaefer still has three-time All-American Madison Booker to build around, but the departures were jarring. A program coming off consecutive Final Four appearances was expecting to refresh and reload behind Booker, a group of seasoned veterans and one of the top recruiting classes in the country.

Texas was already losing starting point guard Rori Harmon and center Kyla Oldacre, as well as key reserve forward Teya Sidberry as all three had expired their college eligibility.

But soon after the transfer portal opened, a trio of players who were expected to be major contributors next year bolted.

Sophomore Jordan Lee, the team’s second-leading scorer who started 38 games and averaged 13.2 points and was the team's top 3-point shooter, was among them. So was Aaliyah Crump, who was one of the top recruits in the country in 2025. She missed 15 games last season with a foot injury but played in 24, averaging 7.9 points.

And sophomore Justice Carlton, who flashed moments of brilliance but also struggled with consistency, started 28 games and averaged 8.5 points. Also transferring is Aaliyah Moore, who missed last season with an injury.

Carlton posted on social media that she had wanted to play her entire career at Texas.

“I never imagined I'd transfer,” she wrote, “But some things just don't work.”

Schaefer did not plan to make a comment on the departures, a team spokesman said.

The players transferring out leave a team that has rocketed into the national elite in Schaefer's six seasons. In that span, Texas returned to the Final Four for the first time since 2003 and advanced to the Elite Eight three other times.

Texas won a share of the Southeastern Conference regular-season title in 2025 and won the league tournament this past season. Texas also earned No. 1 seeds for the NCAA Tournament the last three years.

Schaefer has proven to be a demanding coach to play for, and willing to publicly criticize his players.

After an 18-point loss in Nashville on Feb. 12, he went on a postgame rant that questioned his team’s heart and called the Longhorns “probably the softest team I’ve had in years.”

They didn't lose again until the Final Four. Schaefer's comments followed the team to Phoenix, where Harmon and Booker said the players had responded well to their coach's rebuke.

The roster needs an overhaul for next season but is far from bare. Schaefer's incoming recruiting class is ranked among the best in the nation, highlighted by guard Addison Bjorn and forward Brihanna Crittendon.

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Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball

Las autoridades indicaron que los agentes acudieron al área de la calle 58 del suroeste y la avenida 120 del suroeste, en el vecindario de Kendale Lakes.

La escuela, que abarca desde prekindergarten hasta grado 12, está ubicada cerca de la intersección.

Sky 10 sobrevoló la escuela a las 2:53 p.m., donde se observaba a agentes y equipos de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue en la escena.

Las autoridades informaron que los agentes realizaron una revisión de seguridad exhaustiva del campus siguiendo los protocolos establecidos.

Posteriormente, los equipos de respuesta concluyeron la inspección y determinaron que la llamada fue un incidente de “swatting”.

Los estudiantes y el personal ya regresaron a la escuela.

No se divulgaron más detalles de inmediato.

Leer en español

Authorities said MDSO deputies were called to the area of Southwest 58th Street and Southwest 120th Avenue in the Kendale Lakes neighborhood.

The pre-kindergarten–12 school is located near the intersection.

Sky 10 flew over the school at 2:53 p.m., where deputies and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews were at the scene.

Authorities said deputies conducted a comprehensive security sweep of the campus while following established safety protocols.

First responders later concluded the sweep and determined the call was a swatting incident. Students and staff have since returned to the school.

No other details were immediately released.

The 12-page plan released by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts shows the arch will stand 250 feet tall (76.2 meters) from its base to the tip of the winged figure's torch, with “One Nation Under God” and “Liberty and Justice for All” inscribed in gold atop either side of the monument.

The plan indicates the structure would stand between the Lincoln Memorial in the east and Arlington National Cemetery toward the west and within a traffic circle connecting Washington with northern Virginia. The arch would dwarf the Lincoln Memorial, which stands at 99 feet tall (30.2 meters).

Trump wrote on social media that it “will be the GREATEST and MOST BEAUTIFUL Triumphal Arch, anywhere in the World. This will be a wonderful addition to the Washington D.C. area for all Americans to enjoy for many decades to come!”

Trump has said he wants to build the arch near the Lincoln Memorial and argued that the nation’s capital first sought such a monument 200 years ago.

“It was interrupted by a thing called the Civil War, and so it never got built,” Trump said in February. “Then, they almost built something in 1902, but it never happened.”

Trump has said that major cities around the world have such monuments, and Washington is the only one without one.

The arch is one of several architectural changes Trump is making in his second term. In addition to building a large ballroom at the White House, he's also made changes to the Oval Office and converted the Rose Garden into a stone-covered patio.

The arch goes beyond the White House, giving Trump a chance to leave another lasting monument in a city known for them. It would expand on his earlier talk of sprucing up the city by replacing its “tired” grasses, and broken signage and street medians.

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An earlier version of this story mistakenly cited the “Commission on Fine Arts.” The plan was released by the Commission of Fine Arts.

Rolbert Joachin, 40, was arrested and charged with killing a woman on April 2 in Fort Myers, about 160 miles northwest of Miami. Authorities said the man was from Haiti and arrived in the U.S. in 2022. The woman who was killed was identified as a 51-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh and a mother of two adult daughters.

Trump, who posted the video late Thursday to his Truth Social account, has often sought to portray immigrants as bringing crime to the U.S., and the video emerging from the Florida attack presented him with a new, particularly graphic opportunity to do so. Trump also often paints Democrats and his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, as allowing in immigrants who posed a criminal or national security threat to the U.S.

“The video of her brutal slaying is one of the most vicious things you will ever see,” Trump said in his post, describing the man as an “animal."

Critics say the president unjustly paints all immigrants as criminals in an effort to bolster his immigration agenda, when studies have found that people living in the U.S. illegally are less likely than native-born Americans to have been arrested for violent, drug and property crimes.

“Our hearts are with the family of the victim during this unimaginably painful time," said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, which advocates for Haitian immigrants. “We condemn this act of violence in the strongest possible terms. But we must also be clear: one individual’s actions do not define an entire people. The exploitation of this tragedy to demonize Haitian immigrants and dismantle humanitarian protections is both unjust and deeply harmful.”

Graphic video captured woman's killing

The woman who was killed was working as a clerk at the convenience store of the gas station, according to court documents. The killing happened outside the store and the man was arrested the same day.

In security camera footage of her killing posted on the Department of Homeland Security's X feed, the man can be seen repeatedly slamming the hammer into a black vehicle parked in front of the gas station. Eventually, a woman in black pants and a pink shirt comes out and appears to question him.

The man, wearing a yellow shirt and black shorts, walks up to the woman and immediately swings the hammer at her head. The woman falls down on the sidewalk in front of the gas station’s front doors. The man attacks the woman with the hammer multiple times before stepping over her unmoving body and walking away, out of the frame of the camera.

The victim was later ıdentified in a police report as Nilufa Easmın, 51. A GoFundMe started by Samir Bahadur Syed, the President of the Bangladesh Association of Southwest Florida, described her as a "devoted mother who worked tirelessly to provide for her two young daughters."

Syed said that Easmin arrived in the United States about three decades ago and resided in Miami and Palm Beach before moving to Florida’s west coast. She was a single mother, and her two daughters — one 23 years old and the other about 26 — were born in the U.S., Syed told The Associated Press.

He added that Easmin had been working at the convenience store for nearly five months and that she also held another job.

Fort Myers police said they responded to a report of a woman being hit with a hammer at a Chevron gas station. When officers arrived, they found a woman on the ground with blood around her head and multiple cuts.

Officers later located Joachin walking on the street and took him into custody. The police said he has confessed. He was charged with murder and property damage and appeared in court on Wednesday. His arraignment is set for May 4.

An email message sent to the public defender listed in court records as Joachin’s lawyer seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Trump administration criticizes temporary deportation protections

Trump blamed Biden for granting the man temporary protection to stay in the U.S.

Kelei Walker, acting field office director for ICE enforcement and removal operations in Miami, said during a news conference Friday that Joachin arrived in a “water vessel” near Key West, Florida, in August 2022. He was arrested and given Temporary Protective Status in 2023. That status was revoked this week, Walker said.

“We’ll make sure he never gets to the streets of the United States and gets back to his home country,” she said.

The Trump administration has harshly criticized the use of Temporary Protected Status, which can be granted by the administration to citizens of a country experiencing turmoil or strife. Immigrants who qualify are allowed to stay in the U.S. and work for a temporary period, although Republican critics contend that the Biden administration misused its TPS authorities to broadly allow hundreds of thousands of people to stay in the country.

There are several lawsuits in the federal courts challenging Trump's efforts to terminate TPS for more than one million people, including 350,000 Haitians. In March, a federal appeals court sided with a lower judge’s ruling against the end of temporary status for Haitians, and the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on April 29.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Trump administration have often highlighted crimes committed by immigrants and created a website where people can look up people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the crimes they’ve committed in the U.S.

The administration often highlights “Angel Families” who have lost family members to crimes committed by immigrants.

On Thursday, ICE held an event marking the one-year anniversary of the reopening of an office dedicated to assisting those families, including emotional testimony from some of the surviving family members.

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the first name of the acting director of ICE's Miami field office. It is Kelei, not Kelly.

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Bellisle reported from Seattle and Santana from Washington.

Y según analistas consultados el viernes, el conflicto no muestra señales de resolverse en el corto plazo.

La tensión está causando graves afectaciones a los sectores productivos de ambos países, especialmente en la zona fronteriza, donde hasta hace unos meses el comercio, el transporte de mercancías, de bodegas y servicios eran incesantes.

La guerra arancelaria comenzó a fines de enero, cuando Ecuador le reclamó a Colombia por la falta de control de su lado de la frontera, donde actúan con relativa libertad grupos armados y del narcotráfico, y se quejó de una balanza comercial negativa de casi 1.000 millones de dólares anuales.

Afectaciones económicas y comerciales

La víspera, Ecuador subió al 100% los aranceles a los productos colombianos, y la respuesta no tardó en llegar. El Ministerio de Comercio colombiano anunció el viernes que aumentaría el arancel a las importaciones provenientes de Ecuador del 30% al 100%, en una propuesta que, antes de poderse implementar, primero tiene que pasar a un comité para su aprobación. Dicha propuesta busca "restablecer las condiciones equitativas en el intercambio comercial”.

El presidente colombiano Gustavo Petro matizó la medida, al asegurar en la red social X que su país permitirá que la producción ecuatoriana necesaria ingrese “a cero por ciento de arancel”, sin dar más detalles. Hasta ahora, Colombia sólo ha puesto aranceles a decenas de productos ecuatorianos.

El secretario de la Comunidad Andina de Naciones, Gonzalo Gutiérrez, exhortó a los mandatarios de ambos países a retomar el diálogo directo de manera “urgente”, y adelantó la posibilidad de que la banca multilateral apoye con fondos para incrementar “las capacidades de ambos países en las zonas de frontera”, indicó un comunicado.

Gutiérrez advirtió sobre los “efectos adversos” de la guerra de aranceles para los dos países y para la subregión andina, ya que podrían incidir en compromisos internacionales adquiridos, agregó el reporte. Recordó también que el hecho de que la comunidad tenga casi 60 años de haber sido fundada permitió el crecimiento de las exportaciones en su interior desde casi 53 millones de dólares a más de 9.000 millones de dólares.

“Es un mensaje concreto de querer aniquilar totalmente el mercado de exportaciones entre Colombia y Ecuador, porque con un arancel del 100% obviamente saca de competitividad a las empresas colombianas”, advirtió a The Associated Press Oliva Diazgranados, directora ejecutiva de la Cámara Colombo Ecuatoriana, con sede en Bogotá.

Vaticinó que la mayoría de las compañías no lograrán sobrevivir hasta agosto, cuando se lleve a cabo el cambio de gobierno en Colombia, y estimó que ya han perdido cerca de 800 millones de dólares de intercambio comercial.

Expectativa por el cambio político en Colombia

El presidente ecuatoriano Daniel Noboa lamentó el jueves en X que no se pueda llegar a acuerdos “con quien no tiene el mismo compromiso para luchar contra el narcoterrorismo”, aunque evitó mencionar a su par colombiano. Aseguró que espera que en el futuro pueda “conversar con un gobierno que sí esté comprometido con combatir la delincuencia y el narcotráfico”.

Colombia elegirá al sucesor de Petro el 31 de mayo, y en caso de que ningún candidato alcance la cantidad de votos exigida por la ley, se llevará a cabo un balotaje en junio. En la carrera presidencial compiten 14 candidatos, entre ellos el senador Iván Cepeda, del partido de Petro; la senadora Paloma Valencia y el ultraderechista Abelardo de la Espriella.

Gustavo Isch, analista político y profesor de la Universidad Andina, dijo que ve "imposible una salida en el corto plazo” a la crisis bilateral, porque Ecuador tiene una política internacional y comercial “anclada a Estados Unidos y ese país no es afín al gobierno colombiano”.

Mientras Noboa le reclamaba a Colombia por no actuar con eficacia contra el crimen en la frontera, anunció operaciones conjuntas con Estados Unidos contra el crimen organizado.

“Esa alianza se está fortaleciendo y están tomando ventaja del antipetrismo de oficiales dentro del Departamento de Estado (estadounidense), para ser aún más audaces con Colombia porque saben que Estados Unidos los va a apoyar”, dijo a la AP Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, directora para los Andes de la Oficina en Washington para Asuntos Latinoamericanos (WOLA, por sus siglas en inglés).

Una frontera compleja

La extensa y porosa franja limítrofe ha sido usada durante años por grupos armados ilegales colombianos vinculados al tráfico de drogas, la minería ilegal, el contrabando y la trata de personas, los cuales se asocian con bandas locales ecuatorianas, según el gobierno de Noboa.

La tensión política podría tener consecuencias “muy serias” en el ámbito de la seguridad, advirtió Grace Jaramillo, analista internacional y catedrática de Universidad de la Columbia Británica en Vancouver, Canadá.

Jaramillo explicó que, cuando no hay confianza bilateral, “no hay inteligencia compartida, seguridad, control del tráfico de narcóticos, de armas, de movimientos del crimen organizado. Eso es gravísimo”.

Organismos internacionales han advertido que el 70% de la droga que llega a Ecuador se produce en Colombia. Petro ha dicho que su gobierno le ha dado prioridad a la incautación de droga, logrando resultados récord y aumentando la presencia militar en la frontera compartida, y a la vez cuestionó que Ecuador “debilitó la vigilancia en los puertos marítimos”.

Jaramillo aseguró que la crisis podría resolverse si Noboa elimina la tasa a los productos colombianos que “nunca debió comprometer el comercio con otro país” y que afecta especialmente a Ecuador.

El mercado colombiano recibe 1.150 productos ecuatorianos y es el quinto destino de sus exportaciones no petroleras, entre las cuales se destacan las grasas y aceites vegetales, las conservas de atún, la madera, el camarón y minerales. Al menos 620 empresas ecuatorianas están vinculadas con la exportación a Colombia, según la Federación Ecuatoriana de Exportadores.

El exministro de Economía de Ecuador, Fausto Ortiz, aseguró a la AP que, debido a la magnitud de la economía colombiana, es “más fácil que asimile el impacto de las medidas impuestas por Ecuador".

“Es un desgaste innecesario” que causa un efecto que “tomará un proceso largo para ser restaurado" a partir de que haya una solución”, aseguró Ortiz, quien advirtió que la incertidumbre paraliza las empresas, causa despidos y alienta el contrabando.

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Suárez reportó desde Bogotá.

Offset, one-third of the influential hip-hop trio Migos, was shot Monday night following a fight at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, just north of Miami.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Offset confirmed that the rapper was in stable condition, but his exact condition was unknown. Police said the injuries were not life-threatening.

“Offset has been released from the hospital and he is up and walking," a representative for Offset said on Friday. "We’re incredibly grateful to the doctors, nurses, and the entire hospital staff who took such great care of him.”

The rapper shared his own statement on social media Friday, writing, “Thank you to everyone who’s checked in on me and showed me love! I’m good….but I’m planning to be better! I’m focused on my family, my recovery, and getting back to the music…realizing that life is made up of quiet wins and loud losses...”

“Life’s a gamble and I’m still playing to win,” he concluded.

Earlier this week, officers detained two people. The rapper Lil Tjay, born Tione Jayden Merritt, was arrested in connection with the altercation that occurred before the shooting, the Seminole Police Department in Florida said. He was charged with disorderly conduct and operating a vehicle without a valid license.

The second person detained at the scene has not been charged and investigators were working to identify others involved, police said in a statement Tuesday.

Offset, born Kiari Kendrell Cephus, launched his career with Migos, one of the most popular hip-hop groups of all time. The Atlanta trio is celebrated for their rapid-fire triplet flow, an often-imitated delivery that changed the trajectory of trap.

The group had several multiplatinum selling singles, including “Bad and Boujee,” which went No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart, “Stir Fry,” and “Narcos." Migos released four full-length albums across their career.

More than three years ago, Offset’s cousin Takeoff, another member of Migos, was shot and killed at a Houston bowling alley.

As a solo artist known for his idiosyncratic style — a melodic, aggressive finesse — Offset has released three full-length albums.

He was also previously married to the rapper Cardi B. The pair were secretly wed in September 2017 in Atlanta. In 2024, Cardi B announced that she filed for divorce. They have three children together.

The White Sox announced on Friday that they will hand out pope-themed hats to all fans who attend their Aug. 11 game against Cincinnati. The promotional item was originally limited to fans who had purchased specialty theme night tickets.

“The fans have spoken, and unlike some of our more limited quantity promotions, the White Sox Pope Hat is one we believe all fans should have the opportunity to take home,” Brooks Boyer, the chief revenue and marketing officer for the team, said in a release. “We viewed the promotion as a creative way to celebrate one of the franchise’s most popular fans, and by the overwhelming response we received, White Sox fans certainly agreed.”

The hats are shaped like the Pope’s miter, with the team’s sock logo in the middle. The White Sox said fans who had already purchased the specialty tickets would receive the hat and an additional item.

The pope, the former Robert Prevost, attended Chicago's 2005 World Series opener against Houston and watched as his beloved team beat the Astros 5-3 on the way to a four-game sweep and its first title since 1917.

In May, the White Sox unveiled a graphic installation near the seat paying tribute to Pope Leo and that moment. The pillar artwork features a waving Pope Leo XIV, along with a picture from the TV broadcast of the future pope sitting with good friend Ed Schmit and his grandson, Eddie.

In June, Rate Field hosted an event honoring his election as the first American pope. A month later, at a pregame ceremony honoring the 2005 team, White Sox great Paul Konerko was presented a jersey signed by the pope, a gift from one No. 14 to another.

Pope Leo broke Vatican protocol by donning a White Sox cap last year. In October, he shouted “they lost” to someone who screamed “go Cubs.” And a few weeks ago, he gave a thumbs up to someone who yelled “God bless the White Sox!”

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

Researchers looked at 1,600 tropical cyclones — the broader category of storms that includes hurricanes — that made landfall since 1981 and found those that went over the extra-hot water were more likely to intensify rapidly, a problem that's becoming more frequent. This resulted in 60% more disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage — adjusted for inflation — when they hit land, according to a study in Friday's journal Science Advances.

A better understanding of how marine heat waves amplify hurricanes could help forecasters, emergency officials and long-term planners prepare for future storms.

The study defined marine heat waves as long-lasting, large areas of water in the top 10% of historical heat. They are becoming more of a danger with climate change and ever hotter oceans, study authors said. Warm water is fuel for hurricanes.

“These marine heat waves affect more than half of landfalling tropical cyclones,'' said study co-author Gregory Foltz, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “They're happening closer to land and more frequently, so I think people need to pay attention and know that these are more likely to result in extreme damages when they make landfall.”

It's important for meteorologists forecasting the storm track to see if these hurricanes go over a marine heat wave because it is more likely to intensify rapidly which “can potentially have a bigger impact on landfall,” Foltz said.

Just look at damaging hurricanes that smacked the United States in 2023, said study co-author Hamed Moftakhari, a coastal engineering professor who studies compound hazards at the University of Alabama.

“The story of Helene and Milton is that if you've got a warmer ocean, you've got the fuel to supercharge tropical cyclones even in a cascade. So within a few weeks you could get two rapidly intensified hurricanes making landfall in the west coast of Florida,” Moftakhari said. “This is shocking but should also be alarming for people.”

The study also points to October 2023's Hurricane Otis, which rapidly intensified from a tropical storm to a top level Category 5 hurricane in one day, then caused about $16 billion in damage and 52 deaths when it made landfall near Acapulco, Mexico, with 165 mph (265 kph) winds.

Researchers said the higher damage, compared with storms that didn’t cross marine heat waves, wasn’t driven by increased coastal development. Storms that crossed hot water and hit developed coasts were contrasted with other storms that hit similarly urbanized areas but without crossing hot water, said study lead author Soheil Radfar, a scientist who does hurricane hazard modeling at Princeton University.

Science has long known that warm water fuels and often strengthens tropical cyclones, providing more of a link on causation.

That means the future looks more dangerous, Radfar said.

“All these pieces of the puzzle are going to be really challenging for the coastal environment in the next four decades when you have more rapid intensification, more marine heat waves," Radfar said. This “is going to be really costly and frightening for the coastline environment, and it’s going to cause more billion-dollar disasters in the future.”

Moftakhari said “from a coastal engineering and risk management perspective, this has important implications for how governments plan, design, and respond to these hazards.”

Evacuation planning must account for storms that cross ocean hot spots being more likely to intensify rapidly and pose greater threats, according to Moftakhari. Earlier warnings and triggers on when people leave may be needed when there are marine heat waves. Designs for flood protection, drainage system, sea walls all have to be updated to the new worsening storm reality, he said.

Outside scientists said the study fits with the known physics of hurricanes and climate change, while putting a more specific number on the likelihood for mega-damage when marine heat waves are present.

“Climate change is causing stronger and longer-duration marine heat waves. Tropical cyclones draw their energy and produce heavy rain via evaporation from warm ocean waters,” said University at Albany atmospheric sciences professor Brian Tang, who wasn't part of the study. “It’s reasonable that marine heat waves are turbocharging hurricanes, provided other environmental conditions are favorable for hurricanes to intensify. In effect, the dice is being loaded.”

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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.

MLB said that 6.8% of players on opening day rosters, injured lists and the restricted list were Black, up from 6.2% at the start of the 2025 season and 6.0% at the beginning of 2024.

This year's 0.6% increase was the most in a season since a 0.7% rise from 2017 to 2018.

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida issued annual studies that showed the percentage was 18% when its reports started in 1991.

Twenty of the 64 Black players had been in programs such as the MLB Youth Academy, Breakthrough Series, DREAM Series, Nike RBI and the Hank Aaron Invitational.

MLB said the total includes 22 players 25 or younger and eight older than 32. The average age of Black players was 27.8 and the overall average 29.25.

In addition, 17 Black players assigned to the minor leagues were on opening day 40-man rosters, including seven from MLB development programs. That group included Milwaukee outfielder Blake Perkins, who was brought up to the Brewers on March 26.

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

Karl Jordan Jr. had been positioned for release as soon as Friday. But then federal prosecutors appealed a judge's decision granting him bond with electronic monitoring, and the judge agreed Friday to put it on hold while that appeal plays out.

A message seeking comment was sent to Jordan's attorneys. Prosecutors declined to comment.

Jordan and another man, Ronald Washington, were convicted in 2024, more than two decades after the Run-DMC turntable ace was gunned down in his recording studio. Both men had pleaded not guilty.

This past December, a judge overturned Jordan’s conviction and acquitted him, while upholding the verdict against Washington.

Prosecutors argued that Jordan should remain behind bars while they appeal his acquittal and he awaits trial on unrelated drug charges. He has pleaded not guilty to those.

Jordan's lawyers said the 42-year-old, who was seriously wounded in a stabbing in Brooklyn’s troubled federal jail, ought to get bond. A roster of loved ones has agreed to co-sign the bond and to put up properties amounting to everything they have, his attorneys said.

Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, and his fellow Run-DMC members helped launch rap into music’s mainstream with 1980s hits including “It’s Tricky” and a remake of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”

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According to police, the boy, who was initially believed to be named Lucas or Legacy, was found at about 11 p.m. Wednesday by the man, wandering around the area of Northwest Seventh Avenue and 17^th Street.

“God sent me there. I had to do what God say to do,” Arnett Johnson said.

Johnson has been sleeping on a bench in the area for six months after serving time in prison.

He told Local 10 that you see a lot of things go down in the area, but don’t often see a child by themselves.

“I’m looking around for a parent, but I looked and I don’t see nobody. You know what I’m saying? So I’m like, what is this kid doing out here outside at this time of night?” Johnson said.

Johnson said he immediately knew something was wrong, so he called police and stayed with the young boy until authorities arrived.

“This was a good Samaritan that was sleeping in the streets, and he called us and gave us that information. You know, kudos to him. We don’t know what would have happened if he would have remained on the streets,” Miami police Officer Mike Vega said.

Investigators say the child told them, “Mommy drop me off and left me.”

Police said the boy has delayed speech, which made it difficult for them to get information from him.

However, an officer from Miami-Dade Schools Police called the Miami Police Department shortly after 10:34 a.m. Thursday and was able to identify the boy after seeing the “need to identify” flyer.

According to the report, police were then able to make contact with a witness who told them she has known the mother, Annie Rivera, 30, for a few years and Rivera and the boy recently moved in with her and her children.

Police said she went to bed at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and noticed that Rivera and her son were not home.

She said she heard the front door open in the middle of the night and assumed it was Rivera so she went back to sleep, authorities said.

Police said the witness woke up at about 6 a.m. Thursday to get her kids and herself ready for the day when they went downstairs and saw Rivera sleeping.

According to the report, one of the witness’ children asked where the boy was and the witness said she didn’t know and assumed he was at his godmother’s home.

Police said Rivera was found at about 11:40 a.m. Thursday and was taken into custody.

Rivera claimed to have had no idea that her son was gone, police said.

The full statement she made to detectives was redacted from the publicly released report.

Rivera is facing a charge of child neglect without bodily harm.

The boy, whose name has not been publicly released, is now in the care of the Florida Department of Children and Families.

“It’s dangerous everyday out here, right here,” Johnson said. “Especially, we got homeless people all together, and you’ve got fixed minds -- it’s dangerous.”

Rivera cried in front of a Miami-Dade County judge in bond court Friday, where she was ordered held on a $2,500 bond, which she has since posted.

It’s a story that could have gone much worse, but didn’t -- all because of an unlikely guardian angel.

“Probably anyone would have done the same thing I did, you know?” Johnson said.

Según la policía, el menor, que inicialmente se creía que se llamaba Lucas o Legacy, fue encontrado alrededor de las 11 p.m. del miércoles por el hombre, caminando por el área de la Séptima Avenida del noroeste y la calle 17.

“Dios me envió allí. Tenía que hacer lo que Dios me dijo que hiciera”, dijo Arnett Johnson.

Johnson ha estado durmiendo en un banco en el área durante seis meses después de cumplir tiempo en prisión.

Le dijo a Local 10 que en el área se ven muchas cosas, pero no es común ver a un niño solo.

“Estoy mirando alrededor buscando a un padre, pero miro y no veo a nadie. ¿Entiendes? Entonces pienso, ¿qué hace este niño aquí afuera a esta hora de la noche?”, dijo Johnson.

Johnson dijo que de inmediato supo que algo estaba mal, por lo que llamó a la policía y permaneció con el menor hasta que llegaron las autoridades.

“Este fue un buen samaritano que estaba durmiendo en la calle, y nos llamó y nos dio esa información. Reconocimiento para él. No sabemos qué habría pasado si el niño hubiera permanecido en la calle”, dijo el agente de la policía de Miami Mike Vega.

Los investigadores dicen que el niño les dijo: “Mami me dejó aquí y se fue”.

La policía indicó que el menor tiene retraso en el habla, lo que dificultó obtener información de él.

Sin embargo, un agente de la Policía Escolar de Miami-Dade llamó al Departamento de Policía de Miami poco después de las 10:34 a.m. del jueves y pudo identificar al niño tras ver el volante de “necesidad de identificación”.

Según el informe, la policía pudo entonces contactar a una testigo que dijo conocer a la madre, Annie Rivera, de 30 años, desde hace algunos años, y que Rivera y el niño se habían mudado recientemente con ella y sus hijos.

La policía dijo que la mujer se fue a dormir alrededor de las 9:30 p.m. del miércoles y notó que Rivera y su hijo no estaban en la vivienda.

Indicó que escuchó la puerta principal abrirse en medio de la noche y asumió que era Rivera, por lo que volvió a dormirse, según las autoridades.

La policía dijo que la testigo se despertó alrededor de las 6 a.m. del jueves para preparar a sus hijos y a ella misma para el día, y cuando bajaron, vieron a Rivera dormida.

Según el informe, uno de los hijos de la testigo preguntó dónde estaba el niño, y ella respondió que no sabía y asumió que estaba en la casa de su madrina.

La policía dijo que Rivera fue localizada alrededor de las 11:40 a.m. del jueves y fue puesta bajo custodia.

Rivera afirmó no tener idea de que su hijo no estaba, según la policía.

La declaración completa que hizo a los detectives fue censurada en el informe público.

Rivera enfrenta un cargo de negligencia infantil sin causar daño corporal.

El niño, cuyo nombre no ha sido divulgado públicamente, está ahora bajo el cuidado del Departamento de Niños y Familias de Florida.

“Es peligroso todos los días aquí”, dijo Johnson. “Especialmente, hay personas sin hogar juntas, y hay mentes inestables — es peligroso”.

Rivera lloró frente a un juez del condado Miami-Dade durante la audiencia de fianza el viernes, donde se le impuso una fianza de $2,500 USD, la cual ya pagó.

Es una historia que pudo haber terminado mucho peor, pero no fue así, todo gracias a un inesperado ángel guardián.

“Probablemente cualquiera habría hecho lo mismo que yo, ¿sabes?”, dijo Johnson.

Rozier was with the Heat for one game this season — the opener at Orlando on Oct. 22, a contest in which he did not play. He was arrested by federal officials at the team hotel the following morning on charges that he offered information to help people win bets on his stat totals in a 2023 game when was with the Charlotte Hornets.

Miami will convert two-way player Jahmir Young to a standard contract, meaning he'll be eligible to play in the postseason. The Heat will open play in the play-in tournament either Tuesday or Wednesday — and if they win two play-in games, they'll begin the playoffs against Detroit on April 19.

Rozier was placed on leave by the NBA shortly after his arrest. He has collected his $26.6 million salary this season; the Heat were first paying it into an interest-bearing account, and an arbitrator later ruled that Rozier should be getting the money despite his legal issues.

The Heat traded for Rozier in January 2024, unaware of the gambling probe. Miami sent Kyle Lowry and a 2027 first-round pick to Charlotte in return for Rozier; last month, the Hornets wound up giving Miami a second-round pick in this year's draft, a largely unprecedented move presumably to close the dispute over what wasn't disclosed at the time of the original deal.

Miami, like all teams, had until 5 p.m. Friday to waive a player with either an expiring contract or one where the team held an option for next season. The Heat, albeit in name only, have continued listing Rozier on injury reports as “not with team” all season, and his nameplate has even remained over his stall in the team locker room even after it became obvious that he would not be with the team again.

It's not known how much contact Rozier — who was in the final year of his four-year, $96.2 million contract — has had with the Heat since his arrest. He did reach out to some in the organization via text in celebration of Bam Adebayo's 83-point game against Washington, but hasn't been known to have been around the team in any way since October.

The NBA was aware of unusual prop bet activity surrounding Rozier’s performance in that March 23, 2023, game he played with Charlotte against the New Orleans Pelicans; it was flagged by sportsbooks that afternoon, but a league probe — not the federal investigation — found no reason at that time to keep him from playing.

Rozier was in the starting lineup for Charlotte for that game and played reasonably well in 9 1/2 minutes of action, with five points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal. That remains one of only two times in his career that he had that many points, rebounds and assists in a first quarter.

Rozier cited foot pain as his reason for not returning to that game. The Hornets have not said publicly if they were aware of any federal probes into Rozier’s conduct at that time.

Rozier has averaged 13.9 points per game in his career, which includes stops with Charlotte and Boston before coming to Miami. He appeared in 95 games with the Heat.

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

Yelitza Pérez, the 29-year-old mother of two girls, said President Donald Trump’s administration deported her husband to Venezuela, and she couldn’t afford to stay in the U.S. without him.

Pérez opted to self-deport. But once she arrived to her connecting flight at Miami International Airport, the airline did not allow her to board her flight to Venezuela without a safety pass.

“Oh my God! I almost wanted to die,” Pérez said.

The only way the airlines would allow her to fly to Venezuela was if she was able to get a pass or “salvoconducto” from a Venezuelan consulate or embassy, but those were closed in 2019.

Pérez was part of a larger group of Venezuelans who slept with their children at MIA, where they were unable to afford a hotel or food.

“I sat with my children to cry,” a mother, who asked to be referred to as Jennifer, said.

Pérez and Jennifer said they reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to explain the dilemma. A CBP representative told Jennifer that CBP couldn’t help her.

“They couldn’t help me without a passport,” Jennifer said.

Jennifer reached out to a stranger on TikTok, who promised to help her in exchange for cash. The opportunistic fraudster stole her $520.

Miami-based nonprofit Hermanos De La Calle helped the vulnerable Venezuelans to get a place to stay and food while they remained stuck in a hopeless limbo.

Homeland Security has yet to respond to a request for information about the cases. A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar said she and her team were trying to find solutions.

Read the statement from DHS

In coordination with the Department of State, DHS actively engages with foreign governments to facilitate the travel documents for voluntary self-deportations. In some instances, however, the issuance of those documents is determined by the receiving country and cannot be compelled by the United States. DHS provides information and case-specific guidance to illegal aliens seeking to self-deport. Voluntary self-deportation remains subject to commercial carrier requirements and the admission requirements of the destination country.

DHS continues to support lawful and orderly departures and to work with interagency and international partners to mitigate documentation challenges where possible. We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure by utilizing the CBP Home app to receive a free flight home and $2,600.

Source: Steve Sapp, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection

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• Legal advocates seek to halt CBP policy pressuring unaccompanied children to self-deport
• Noem repurposes asylum seekers app to encourage undocumented migrants to ‘self-deport’

Police officers reported attempting a traffic stop. The driver of the car that had been reported stolen out of Plantation sped away, according to police.

The driver crashed into a fence and damaged a parked car at 660 Long Island Ave., according to Casey Liening, a spokeswoman for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.

After the crash, the driver attempted to flee again, but he didn’t get far — a police dog helped the officers to find him, according to Liening.

The Plantation Police Department was dealing with the carjacking case.

Local 10 News Senior Assignment Editor Frine Gomez contributed to this report.

Location

Miami Beach officials made their message loud and clear.

“We have worked hard in this community, we are a vibrant part of this community, we help make this thing work,” Palace performer Tiffany T. Fantasia said.

Friday marked a resurrection of the nearly 4,000 pavers that were removed by the Florida Department of Transportation from the crosswalk at 12th Street and Ocean Drive.

“It’s so exciting because this is what it’s all about. This is about representing our community in the way our residents, our visitors, our businesses want to be represented,” Miami Beach Commissioner Tanya Katzoff Bhatt said.

Earlier this year, Katzoff Bhatt brought forth the idea of bringing the LGBTQ+ symbol back on city property.

“Some people say that this is just a road. It’s more than that,” State Sen. Shevrin Jones said.

Jones, a Democrat, was vocal in his stance against Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order banning any road designs linked to social, political or ideological messages, citing safety concerns.

“To be able to have a seat at the table and to even fight against things like this – it’s an honor to be able to push back on bigotry,” Jones said.

Friday’s unveiling marks a new chapter in Miami Beach with a plaque memorializing the history of the crosswalk.

The talks are set to begin Tuesday in Washington and will be mediated by U.S. diplomats, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's office said in a statement, citing the outcome of a call Friday among Israeli, Lebanese and U.S. ambassadors. The statement reiterated Beirut's position that the talks be held under a ceasefire or truce.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter later issued a statement describing next Tuesday's talks as “formal peace negotiations," but said a ceasefire was not on the agenda, in a stark contradiction to Aoun's remarks.

“Israel refused to discuss a ceasefire with the Hezbollah terrorist organization, which continues to attack Israel and is the main obstacle to peace between the two countries,” the statement read.

At least 13 members of Lebanon's State Security forces were killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Friday, while Hezbollah claimed an attack targeting a naval base in the Israeli port city of Ashdod some 145 kilometers (90 miles) from the border.

Israel launched strikes across several towns in southern Lebanon, including one on a government building in the southern city of Nabatieh that killed the government security personnel. Hezbollah claimed 31 other attacks on northern Israel and on Israeli ground troops that have invaded southern Lebanon.

Israel launched its latest aerial campaign and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon after Hezbollah fired rockets toward northern Israel in solidarity with Iran, its key ally and patron, on March 2.

At least 1,953 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes, according to the Health Ministry. At least 303 were killed in a rapid series of 100 strikes that hit the country — including multiple areas in dense residential and commercial areas in central Beirut — in 10 minutes on Wednesday, the bloodiest day in the latest war between the two sides. Civil Defense first responders are still searching for bodies trapped under the rubble in the Lebanese capital.

Meanwhile, officials at Beirut's main government-run hospital on the southern edge of the capital fear it could be in the line of fire after the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for the surrounding suburbs, including the busy neighborhood of Jnah where the hospital is located. Israel has launched attacks in Jnah, both with and without warning.

The World Health Organization has since called for the Rafik Hariri University Hospital to be spared from attacks and not to evacuate, and WHO officials said Friday that they received assurances that it would not be struck. The hospital has not evacuated, though staff are fearful, as getting to work now requires them to drive on roads that can be struck at any time says Dr. Mohammad Cheaito, who heads the emergency department.

“The entire zone around the hospital was threatened and deemed dangerous,” he told The Associated Press. “But at the end of the day, we have a humanitarian duty.”

Lebanon hopes for truce while Hezbollah supporters reject talks

Lebanon's authorities have not yet commented on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement on Thursday of the decision to go ahead with talks. Netanyahu said the talks would revolve around disarming Hezbollah and establishing “peaceful relations” between the two countries.

A Lebanese official in government familiar with the developments said that a halt in the fighting is a critical condition for the country to engage in direct talks with Israel, similar to the one between the U.S. and Iran. It has yet to appoint a representative for negotiations. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Aoun had initially proposed the direct talks early on in the war on similar terms, at the time hoping for Israel to stop an escalation in airstrikes and to not invade the country. At the time, with only the backing of France, that failed.

On Wednesday, the U.S. and Iran announced a temporary ceasefire in the war that began on Feb. 28. It included Lebanon and other countries impacted in the wider regional conflict, mediator Pakistan announced. However, Israel — and later the United States — denied this. They want to separate the diplomatic tracks of the two wars.

Hezbollah considers Israel's attacks on Lebanon to be a violation of the ceasefire, while Beirut, in a bid to disarm Hezbollah and assert its full sovereignty over the country, says it wants to be included in talks related to Lebanon.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Kassem in a statement broadcast Thursday did not directly mention the prospect of Israel-Lebanon talks, but called on the Lebanese government to “stop giving free concessions” to Israel.

Dozens of supporters of the Iran-backed group protested outside of the Lebanese prime minister's office in central Beirut. They see the scheduled direct talks as a surrender to Israel, which says its troops will stay in the country indefinitely.

“Our blood has been spilled on this land, and our state is conspiring against us,” said protester Hassan Shuaib. “Our state wants to kill us; our state wants to strip us of our weapons.”

———

Associated Press producer Malak Harb and video journalist Fadi Tawil in Beirut, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

According to police, the boy, who was initially believed to be named Lucas or Legacy, was found at about 11 p.m. Wednesday by a man, wandering around the area of Northwest Seventh Avenue and 17^th Street in the city’s Allapattah neighborhood.

“This was a good Samaritan that was sleeping in the streets, and he called us and gave us that information. You know, kudos to him. We don’t know what would have happened if he would have remained on the streets,” Miami police Officer Mike Vega said.

According to an arrest report, police interviewed the boy and he said, “Mommy drop me off and left me.”

Police said the boy has delayed speech, which made it difficult for them to get information from him.

However, an officer from Miami-Dade Schools Police called the Miami Police Department shortly after 10:34 a.m. Thursday and was able to identify the boy after seeing the “need to identify” flyer.

According to the report, police were then able to make contact with a witness who told them she has known the mother, Annie Rivera, 30, for a few years and Rivera and the boy recently moved in with her and her children.

Police said she went to bed at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and noticed that Rivera and her son were not home.

She said she heard the front door open in the middle of the night and assumed it was Rivera so she went back to sleep, authorities said.

Police said the witness woke up at about 6 a.m. Thursday to get her kids and herself ready for the day when they went downstairs and saw Rivera sleeping.

According to the report, one of the witness’ children asked where the boy was and the witness said she didn’t know and assumed he was at his godmother’s home.

Police said Rivera was found at about 11:40 a.m. Thursday and was taken into custody.

Rivera claimed to have had no idea that her son was gone, police said.

The full statement she made to detectives was redacted from the publicly released report.

Rivera is facing a charge of child neglect without bodily harm.

The boy, whose name has not been publicly released, is now in the care of the Florida Department of Children and Families.

According to the arrest report, a DCF investigation involving Rivera was opened last year as well for allegations of “inadequate supervision.”

As of Thursday evening, Rivera was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Online jail records listed her bond as “to be set.”

Sentebale, which supports young people living with HIV in Botswana and Lesotho, filed suit last month in London’s High Court, according to court records viewed Friday. Online filings show Harry and his friend, Mark Dyer, a former trustee at the charity, are being sued for either libel or slander. No documents were available.

“The charity seeks the court’s intervention, protection, and restitution following a coordinated adverse media campaign conducted since 25 March 2025 that has caused operational disruption and reputational harm to the charity, its leadership, and its strategic partners,” Sentebale said Friday in a statement on its website.

A spokesperson for Harry and Dyer said the pair “categorically reject these offensive and damaging claims.”

The lawsuit puts the Duke of Sussex in an unaccustomed position as a defendant in the High Court. Over the past three years, he has repeatedly been on the other side of litigation as the leading claimant in invasion of privacy suits against Britain's most prominent tabloids over allegations of phone hacking and unlawful snooping by journalists and the private eyes they hired.

Harry co-founded Sentebale, which means “forget me not” in the language of Lesotho, about 20 years ago in memory of his mother, who was a prominent advocate for treatment of HIV and AIDS and helped reduce stigma around the disease. Prince Seeiso of Lesotho was the co-founder.

Disagreements at the charity surfaced in 2023 over a new fundraising strategy, and the two founders stepped down as patrons in March 2025 in support of trustees who had quit.

At the time, they said the relationship between the board and its chair, Sophie Chandauka, was beyond repair. Chandauka later accused Harry of orchestrating a campaign of bullying and harassment to try to force her out.

As the dispute unfolded, Chandauka told Sky News that filming for one of Harry's Netflix programs had interfered with a scheduled fundraiser for Sentebale and that an incident with his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, became a source of friction.

The Charity Commission for England and Wales investigated and criticized both sides for allowing the issue to become public and damaging the organization’s reputation, but found no evidence of widespread bullying or misogyny at Sentebale.

“Sentebale’s problems played out in the public eye, enabling a damaging dispute to harm the charity’s reputation, risk overshadowing its many achievements, and jeopardizing the charity’s ability to deliver for the very beneficiaries it was created to serve,” commission CEO David Holdsworth said in a statement in August 2025.

Harry’s spokesperson had criticized the commission’s report while Chandauka welcomed it.

___

Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa, contributed to this report.

“I might. I am thinking about it,” Harris told Rev. Al Sharpton after he asked directly whether she was going to run for president in 2028.

Harris’ comments came during the National Action Network’s annual convention, where more than a half-dozen potential candidates appeared this week , hoping to make inroads among Black voters — who comprise one of Democrats’ most powerful blocs.

The Democrats' next presidential primary season won’t begin in earnest until after November’s midterm elections, but this week’s conference showcased a collection of Democrats already jockeying for position in what promises to be a crowded competition.

For now, at least, there is no clear early favorite. But there did appear to be a favorite at Sharpton's conference.

Harris, the nation's first Black female vice president and the Democrats' presidential nominee in 2024, earned the only standing ovation and the largest crowd of any other 2028 prospect this week.

Sharpton noted that Harris earned more votes in her losing 2024 campaign than even former Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

“Whatever she decides to do, she made a point in history,” Sharpton said.

Harris has raised the possibility of another presidential bid before in the 15 months since she left office. She also recently launched a political action committee and began to travel across the United States to support Democrats, especially across the South.

Still, some in the party have shifted their focus to a new generation of Democratic leaders given Harris' struggle in the last presidential contest.

The convention lineup this week featured Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Rep. Ro Khanna of California, and Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego.

Buttigieg, speaking shortly after Harris left the stage, received soft applause from a room that was about half-empty. Some cheered when he mentioned supporting federal workers and minority businesses, but many attendees had streamed out of the packed auditorium after Harris’ speech in an effort to grab a selfie with the former vice president.

Buttigieg, like many other 2028 prospects this week, laughed off a question about whether he would seek the presidency again.

Harris was more explicit.

Three times she repeated, “I'm thinking about it,” when Sharpton asked her about a 2028 White House run.

“I served for four years being a heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States. I spent countless hours in my West Wing office footsteps away from the Oval Office. I spent countless hours in the Oval Office and the situation room. I know what the job is, and I know what it requires,” Harris said.

She continued: “I am thinking about it in the context of who and where and how can the best job be done for the American people. That’s how I’m thinking about it. I’ll keep you posted."

The charges stem from a grand jury indictment related to the July 1 explosion that injured two others, Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Clara Nabity said. One of the people charged with murder is Samuel Machado, who was a Yolo County Sheriff's Department lieutenant at the time of the explosion. He illegally stored more than 1 million pounds (453,000 kilograms) of fireworks at his property and used his position at the sheriff's office to evade scrutiny as the operation grew, she said.

The explosion near the community of Esparto, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Sacramento, sparked a massive fire and led to nearby Fourth of July celebrations being called off.

"Samuel Machado’s participation included using his role as a trusted lieutenant to help shield the conspiracy as it expanded, and the expansion was significant," Nabity said, adding that the warehouse went from having 13 fireworks storage containers in 2015 to 50 last year.

It was not immediately clear if Machado has an attorney who can speak on his behalf. A telephone number listed for him went answered Friday.

Machado's sprawling 5,000-square-foot (465-square-meters) warehouse property was used to store and sell fireworks by other men indicted in the case.

Nabity said a total of eight people face 30 charges in the case, including murder, conspiracy to commit a crime, possession of illegal assault weapons, illegal explosives possession, insurance fraud, child endangerment and animal cruelty.

All those charged are scheduled to be arraigned in Yolo County on Monday.

Machado’s wife, Tammy Machado, was also arrested Thursday but was released after posting bail. She was a non-sworn administrative employee at the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office at the time of the explosion. Both Samuel and Tammy Machado were put on leave after the incident. She faces charges of mortgage fraud, filing a willfully wrong tax return and endangering a child by storing illegal explosives next to a family pool, according to the indictment.

Others indicted include Kenneth Chee, owner of Devastating Pyrotechnics, whose illegal fireworks were being stored at Machado's warehouse, has also been charged with murder and was arrested in Florida. He appeared in a Florida courtroom Friday and was told he will be extradited to California within the week, KCRA-TV reported.

Authorities also arrested Jack Lee, the operations manager for Devastating Pyrotechnic, and Gary Chan Jr., whose name is on the company’s federal license. Both also face murder charges. The fifth person charged with murder is Douglas Tollefsen, who was arrested in Northern California but has yet to be taken to a Yolo County jail, Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig said. Tollefsen stored and sold fireworks at Machado's warehouse, according to the indictment.

“This is not a case just about fireworks,” Nabity said. “They are devices that have so much more explosive fireworks than the law allows that they can’t be considered fireworks.”

Machado, Chee, Lee, Chan and Tollefsen were arrested Thursday along with Craig Cutright, the owner of Blackstar Fireworks, which operated at the Esparto property. Cutright, was a volunteer firefighter for the Esparto Fire District and was also listed as an employee of Devastating Pyrotechnics.

One of Cutright’s employees, Ronald Botelho III, has been in custody since December. More than a dozen new charges were filed against him Thursday, jail records show.

The grand jury concluded that the initial blast caused the death of seven people, Nabity said. Those killed included four workers: 18-year-old Jesus Ramos and his 22-year-old Jhony Ramos, of San Pablo, California; 28-year-old Joel Melendez, of Sacramento, and 43-year-old Carlos Javier Rodriguez-Mora, of San Andreas, California. Christopher Goltiao Bocog and Neil Li of San Francisco and Angel Mathew Voller, of Stockton, California, were also killed.

People living nearby described the blast being so strong that it blew open the doors of homes.

Nisa Gutierrez told the Sacramento CBS affiliate KOVR-TV that she and her daughter were in their yard and were nearly knocked over as their pony and goats scattered.

“We hear like a big boom, and feel the wave,” Gutierrez said. “I thought it was a bomb.”

After the explosion, officials in nearby Sutter and Yuba counties announced they would find alternatives for Fourth of July celebrations after their fireworks were destroyed in the blast.

The Frontier pilot was alarmed and used an expletive as he told the tower he had to slam on the brakes to avoid a collision late Wednesday. “It was real close. The closest I have ever seen,” he said in audio posted by ATC.com.

No one was hurt in the incident that is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration. The agency said several vehicles on a service road crossed in front of the plane around 11:25 p.m. Wednesday.

“We thank our crew for their vigilance and professionalism,” Frontier Airlines said in a statement.

On March 22, an Air Canada jet carrying 76 people collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, killing both pilots and injuring dozens of people.

In that crash, an air traffic controller cleared the fire truck to cross the runway less than 20 seconds beforehand. Then seconds later the controller frantically called for the fire truck to stop.

The incident in Los Angeles appears to have happened in an area of the airport where the planes are communicating with air traffic controllers about their movements, but ground vehicles are simply supposed to yield to any planes, which are typically moving only about 15 mph (24 kph). Airport officials didn't respond immediately to questions about what happened and what procedures are in place to prevent collisions.

Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo, who was a longtime United Airlines pilot, said these kind of incidents happen daily on taxiways across the country, but don't normally get any attention because the collision is avoided. The issue will undoubtedly get more attention now.

“Multiple incidents, accidents happening, just in March alone, I think it’s time to put some serious eyes on what’s going on on the ramp,” Arroyo said.

The crew and spacecraft will perform a third burn shortly after 1:50 p.m. on Friday. The re-entry procedures will follow, as a U.S. Navy ship awaits in the Pacific Ocean.

If all goes as planned, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at 23,840 mph in self-flying Orion’s capsule, Integrity, which has a shield to withstand the high heat.

NASA expects Integrity to slow down to a 19 mph splashdown shortly after at 8:05 p.m. on Friday off the coast of San Diego. The USS John P. Murtha and crew will be doing the pickup.

The weather will be cooperating.

NASA plans to celebrate the Artemis II astronauts as the first human crew in history to have ever flown 252,756 miles from Earth. Wiseman will return to his family after having named newly discovered moon craters after his late wife, Carroll, who died of cancer.

The program will continue to make improvements for Artemis III around the Earth’s orbit in 2027, and an actual moon landing with Artemis IV in 2028.

Interactive graphic: Access the best high-resolution Artemis II photos

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• Artemis II’s grand moon finale is almost here with a Pacific splashdown to cap NASA’s lunar comeback
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Eight state attorneys general and DirecTV sued to block the merger between the local television giants, arguing that it would raise consumer prices and harm local journalism. They asked U.S. District Court Chief Judge Troy L. Nunley in Sacramento, California, to halt the merger until their antitrust lawsuit is resolved.

Nexstar's attorneys say the deal will lead to expanded local journalism and programming, not a reduction.

Nunley extended the temporary restraining order until April 17, saying the extension would give him time to prepare a ruling on whether a longer preliminary injunction is needed. The judge also modified the order so both companies could take “reasonable steps” to handle regular business matters like meeting federal debt reporting deadlines.

The deal, announced last year and approved by the Federal Communications Commission, would create a company that owns 265 television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, most of them local affiliates of one of the “Big Four” national networks: ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.

The merger needed the approval of the Republican Trump administration’s FCC because the government had to waive rules limiting how many local stations one company can own.

When the judge issued the original temporary restraining order in the case, he said the merger could give Nexstar the power to demand higher fees from multichannel video programming distributors like DirecTV, because if the distributors refuse to pay the increases they could risk subscribers losing access to things like Sunday NFL football games.

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Deputies with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said the suspect, Bentoria King, was arrested Thursday in connection with the stabbing.

According to an arrest report, the stabbing occurred around 4:20 p.m. Feb. 14 near the intersection of Northwest 51st Street and Northwest 21st Avenue.

Investigators said King and the victim, who were previously in a relationship and had lived together but are now homeless, got into an argument over a Valentine’s Day gift.

The dispute escalated when deputies said King allegedly armed herself with a silver homemade knife and stabbed the victim “multiple times throughout his body.”

They said the victim suffered puncture wounds to the left side of his neck and back, the top of his head, and a laceration behind his right ear. He was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where he underwent surgery, the report states.

Deputies said King fled the scene on a bicycle before officers arrived at the scene. They also confirmed that portions of the incident were captured on surveillance video and on cellphone video.

On Thursday, deputies said they located King at an Extended Stay America Premier Suites in Doral and took her into custody.

After being read her rights, King admitted to being involved in an altercation with the victim but denied stabbing him, according to the report.

King’s arrest report did not specify what the gift was before the reported stabbing occurred.

Jail records show she is facing one count of attempted felony murder causing injury.

As of Friday morning, she was being held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. She was also ordered to stay away from the victim.

Records also show she was previously arrested on charges of child neglect without great bodily harm and committing or engaging in prostitution.

Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade dijeron que la sospechosa, Bentoria King, fue arrestada el jueves en relación con el apuñalamiento.

Según un informe de arresto, el incidente ocurrió alrededor de las 4:20 p.m. del 14 de febrero, cerca de la intersección de la calle 51 del noroeste y la avenida 21 del noroeste.

Los investigadores dijeron que King y la víctima, quienes anteriormente mantenían una relación y habían vivido juntos pero ahora están sin hogar, tuvieron una discusión por un regalo de San Valentín.

La disputa se intensificó cuando, según los agentes, King presuntamente se armó con un cuchillo plateado de fabricación casera y apuñaló a la víctima “múltiples veces en distintas partes del cuerpo”.

Indicaron que la víctima sufrió heridas punzantes en el lado izquierdo del cuello y la espalda, en la parte superior de la cabeza y una laceración detrás de la oreja derecha. Fue trasladado al Ryder Trauma Center del Hospital Jackson Memorial, donde fue sometido a cirugía, según el informe.

Los agentes dijeron que King huyó de la escena en una bicicleta antes de que los oficiales llegaran. También confirmaron que partes del incidente fueron captadas en video de vigilancia y en video de teléfono celular.

El jueves, los agentes dijeron que localizaron a King en un Extended Stay America Premier Suites en Doral y la detuvieron.

Tras leerle sus derechos, King admitió haber estado involucrada en un altercado con la víctima, pero negó haberlo apuñalado, según el informe.

El informe de arresto no especifica cuál era el regalo antes de que ocurriera el apuñalamiento.

Registros de la cárcel muestran que enfrenta un cargo de intento de asesinato grave que causó lesiones.

Hasta la mañana del viernes, permanecía detenida sin derecho a fianza en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight. También se le ordenó mantenerse alejada de la víctima.

Los registros también muestran que previamente fue arrestada por cargos de negligencia infantil sin causar gran daño corporal y por cometer o participar en prostitución.

The U.S. Court of International Trade, a specialized court in New York, heard oral arguments Friday in an attempt to overturn the temporary tariffs Trump turned to after the Supreme Court in February struck down his preferred choice — even bigger, even more sweeping tariffs.

In his first attempt to impose global tariffs, the president last year invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), using the law to declare America's longstanding trade deficit a national emergency and to impose double-digit worldwide taxes on imports to combat it. He interpreted the law broadly to justify tariffs of whatever size he wanted, whenever he wanted to impose them, on whatever country he wanted to target.

The Supreme Court struck those tariffs down on Feb. 20, saying IEEPA did not authorize the use of tariffs to counter national emergencies.

But Trump had alternatives to IEEPA. The quickest option was Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to impose global tariffs of up to 15% for 150 days, after which congressional approval is needed to extend them. After his defeat at the Supreme Court, Trump quickly announced 10% Section 122 tariffs. He said he'd raise them to the maximum 15% but hasn't yet done so. The tariffs are scheduled to expire July 24.

Two dozen states and some businesses quickly challenged the new tariffs in court. Friday's hearing lasted more than three hours as a three-judge panel tried to assess a provision that had never been used before to impose tariffs and to analyze congressional decisionmaking from more than a half century ago.

The judges intensely questioned lawyers for both the plaintiffs and the government about what certain terms mean including what precisely the term “balance-of-payments deficits” meant when it was used in the Trade Act of 1974 and what it means today.

“I think the judges asked tough questions of all sides and were genuinely trying to find out what Congress meant when it passed section 122,” said Jeffrey Schwab, senior counsel and director of litigation for Liberty Justice Center, which represents some of the plaintiffs.

“I would be stunned if the challengers prevail,’’ said trade lawyer Ryan Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding law firm and a former U.S. trade official.

The trade court's judges, he said, are likely to defer to the president and allow the Section 122 tariffs to stay, considering that they will expire in three and a half months anyway. “I just don’t see them sticking their neck out on this one, given how temporarily it’s in place and how much discretion these courts give to the president,’’ he said.

Section 122 is aimed at what it calls “fundamental international payments problems.’’ At issue is whether that wording covers trade deficits, the gap between what the U.S. sells other countries and what it buys from them.

The provision arose from the financial crises that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s when the U.S. dollar was tied to gold. Other countries were dumping dollars in exchange for gold at a set rate, risking a collapse of the U.S. currency and chaos in financial markets. But the dollar is no longer linked to gold, so critics say Section 122 is obsolete.

Awkwardly for Trump, his own Justice Department argued in a court filing last year that the president had needed to invoke IEEPA because Section 122 did “not have any obvious application’’ in fighting trade deficits, which it called “conceptually distinct’’ from payments problems.

Awkwardly for the plaintiffs challenging his use of the temporary tariffs, the trade court itself wrote last year in its own decision striking down IEEPA tariffs that Trump didn’t need them because Section 122 was available to counter trade deficits.

Last May, the trade court issued a decision striking down Trump’s IEEPA tariffs about two weeks after hearing oral arguments in the case. Attorney General Dan Rayfield of Oregon, one of the states challenging Trump’s latest tariffs, is eager for another speedy ruling. “We are hopeful to get a result sooner than later,’’ he said. “When the president continues to do an unlawful action and take money out of the pockets of Americans, we want a response as quickly as we can from the courts.’’

____

Paul Wiseman reported from Washington.

AP Writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this story.

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The suspect was identified by Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies as 36-year-old Marshaun Altarol West Jr.

According to an arrest report, the shooting occurred Oct. 27, 2019, around 8:10 p.m. near Northwest 76th Street and 17th Avenue in the county’s Gladeview area.

Investigators said the victim, who wasn’t publicly identified, was riding a bicycle and stopped near a group of people gathered in the roadway when an argument broke out between him and West.

During the argument, deputies said West grabbed a gun from another individual and began shooting, striking the victim multiple times.

Authorities said West fled the scene before emergency personnel arrived.

Medics took the victim to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where doctors pronounced him dead.

Detectives identified West as the shooter after interviewing multiple witnesses. Investigators said their statements were also corroborated by surveillance video that captured the incident.

Jail records show West, who is facing charges of second-degree murder with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, is being held without bond at the Metrowest Detention Center, as of Friday morning.

Records show West was previously convicted of attempted felony murder and aggravated battery with a firearm causing bodily harm in an unrelated case.

A motive for the 2019 shooting remains unclear at this time.

El sospechoso fue identificado por agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade como Marshaun Altarol West Jr., de 36 años.

Según un informe de arresto, la balacera ocurrió el 27 de octubre de 2019, alrededor de las 8:10 p.m., cerca de la intersección de la calle 76 del noroeste y la avenida 17, en el área de Gladeview del condado.

Los investigadores dijeron que la víctima, que no fue identificada públicamente, iba en bicicleta y se detuvo cerca de un grupo de personas reunidas en la vía cuando se desató una discusión entre él y West.

Durante la discusión, los agentes indicaron que West tomó un arma de otra persona y comenzó a disparar, impactando a la víctima varias veces.

Las autoridades dijeron que West huyó de la escena antes de que llegara el personal de emergencia.

Paramédicos trasladaron a la víctima al Ryder Trauma Center del Hospital Jackson Memorial, donde los médicos lo declararon muerto.

Detectives identificaron a West como el tirador tras entrevistar a múltiples testigos. Los investigadores dijeron que sus declaraciones también fueron corroboradas por video de vigilancia que captó el incidente.

Registros de la cárcel muestran que West, quien enfrenta cargos de asesinato en segundo grado con arma de fuego y posesión de arma de fuego por un ex convicto, permanece detenido sin derecho a fianza en el Centro de Detención Metrowest hasta la mañana del viernes.

Los registros indican que West fue previamente condenado por intento de asesinato grave y agresión agravada con arma de fuego que causó lesiones corporales en un caso no relacionado.

El motivo de la balacera de 2019 sigue sin estar claro por el momento.

The states argue in the civil case that the company and its ticketing arm, Ticketmaster, are monopolizing the industry and driving up prices to see live music.

Live Nation contends there is more competition than ever and the company plays fair amid a U.S. booming concert business.

Soon after starting deliberations the jury in Manhattan federal court told the judge it wanted to review certain testimony given at the five-week trial.

The states carried on with their case after the federal government settled last month.

The Justice Department said it had won important concessions from Live Nation, particularly in the sale of tickets at dozens of the company’s amphitheaters.

A lawyer for the states said in closing arguments on Thursday that Live Nation controls 86% of the market for concerts and 73% of the overall market when sports events are included.

Live Nation’s lawyer said the company isn’t hiding from the fact that it’s the biggest entertainment company and ticketer in the country. But, the lawyer said, “success is not against the antitrust laws in the United States.”

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FBI agents said Tommy Duwayne Dennis, 56, blamed his behavior on crack cocaine.

According to a federal criminal complaint, Dennis walked in to the TD Bank at 1 N. State Road 7 just before 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday and wrote a note on a debit slip reading, “This is a Robbery give me the money and no one will get hurt.”

Investigators said he said nothing as he handed it to a teller, who, in fear for her life, handed him $600 and a “bait bill tracker.”

The complaint states that the tracker led police to a red Kia Soul in the area of Northwest Fifth Street and 31st Avenue in Lauderhill.

As police watched the vehicle, agents said “a brown bag containing the tracker was thrown from the Kia.“ And that’s not all.

The complaint states that an unknown woman, whom Dennis ”later identified as a prostitute," got out of the Soul while Dennis “continued to flee at a slow rate of speed.”

“Law enforcement officers attempted a traffic stop by initiating emergency lights and sirens. The Kia did not stop or yield to law enforcement,” the complaint states. “Law enforcement officers conducted a Precision Immobilization Technique (PIT) on the Kia, but it did not stop. The Kia continued to flee and a second PIT was executed.”

Agents said two law enforcement officers in an unmarked vehicle attempted to block the Kia and Dennis then struck the vehicle. After a third PIT at around 4:52 p.m., Dennis crashed his Kia Soul into a concrete wall at a home at the corner of Northwest 31st Avenue and Second Street.

Authorities took Dennis into custody and took him to Broward Health Medical Center, where investigators interviewed him, according to the complaint.

The complaint states that Dennis told detectives he “was smoking crack all day” and “lost his judgement and made a mistake,” saying he “went to the bank to get some money.”

Agents said he also “admitted to writing the demand note on the deposit slip and throwing the note out of the car prior to police chasing him” and identified himself in CCTV footage from the bank.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Dennis was still in the hospital as of Friday morning; he did not appear in Broward or federal jail records.

Additionally, his federal court file lists no scheduled hearings. His case has been assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Panayotta Augustin-Birch, who sits in Fort Lauderdale.

Dennis could face up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.

Agentes del FBI dijeron que Tommy Duwayne Dennis, de 56 años, culpó su comportamiento al consumo de crack.

Según una denuncia penal federal, Dennis entró al TD Bank en 1 N. State Road 7 poco antes de las 4:30 p.m. del miércoles y escribió una nota en un comprobante de débito que decía: “Esto es un robo, dame el dinero y nadie resultará herido”.

Los investigadores dijeron que no dijo nada al entregarla a una cajera, quien, temiendo por su vida, le entregó $600 USD y un “rastreador de billete señuelo”.

La denuncia indica que el rastreador llevó a la policía a un Kia Soul rojo en el área de Northwest Fifth Street y 31st Avenue en Lauderhill.

Mientras la policía vigilaba el vehículo, los agentes dijeron que “una bolsa marrón que contenía el rastreador fue lanzada desde el Kia”. Y eso no fue todo.

La denuncia indica que una mujer desconocida, a quien Dennis “posteriormente identificó como una prostituta”, salió del Kia mientras Dennis “continuaba huyendo a baja velocidad”.

“Los agentes del orden intentaron detener el vehículo activando luces de emergencia y sirenas. El Kia no se detuvo ni cedió ante las autoridades”, indica la denuncia. “Los agentes realizaron una maniobra PIT contra el Kia, pero no se detuvo. El Kia continuó huyendo y se ejecutó una segunda maniobra PIT”.

Los agentes dijeron que dos oficiales en un vehículo no identificado intentaron bloquear el Kia y Dennis chocó contra ese vehículo. Tras una tercera maniobra PIT alrededor de las 4:52 p.m., Dennis estrelló su Kia Soul contra un muro de concreto en una vivienda en la esquina de Northwest 31st Avenue y Second Street.

Las autoridades detuvieron a Dennis y lo trasladaron al Broward Health Medical Center, donde los investigadores lo entrevistaron, según la denuncia.

La denuncia señala que Dennis dijo a los detectives que “había estado fumando crack todo el día” y que “perdió el juicio y cometió un error”, afirmando que “fue al banco a buscar dinero”.

Los agentes dijeron que también “admitió haber escrito la nota de demanda en el comprobante de depósito y haberla arrojado del vehículo antes de que la policía lo persiguiera”, y se identificó en imágenes de vigilancia del banco.

No estaba claro de inmediato si Dennis seguía en el hospital hasta la mañana del viernes; no aparecía en los registros de la cárcel del condado Broward ni federales.

Además, su expediente en la corte federal no muestra audiencias programadas. Su caso fue asignado a la jueza magistrada de EE.UU. Panayotta Augustin-Birch, con sede en Fort Lauderdale.

Dennis podría enfrentar hasta 20 años de prisión federal si es declarado culpable.

For the whipped feta:

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

½ cup Greek yogurt 1 lemon, juiced

½ cup of your favorite tahini2 tablespoons water (if needed)salt & pepper to taste

For the salad:

1 pound mixed ripe tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped

½ head radicchio, chopped

fresh oregano leaves, optional garnish

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

To make whipped feta and tahini, combine feta cheese, Greek yogurt, HALF of the lemon juice and the tahini in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper, adjust lemon as desired. If the dip is too thick, add 1-2 tablespoons of water to loosen it and blend again. If it’s too thin, add 1-2 tablespoons more tahini or feta.

Place the radicchio on the base of a salad bowl, top with tomatoes. Spoon 3 scoops of whipped feta dip over the top of the salad.

Drizzle with the oil, season with salt, pepper and a garnish with fresh oregano leaves, if desired.

2 pounds very ripe tomatoes (any type or size work as long as they are ripe and juicy)

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

5 garlic cloves, minced using a microplane

2 bunches basil, leaves torn

salt and black pepper, to taste

1 pound of your favorite pasta

freshly grated parmesan cheese, if desired

Finely dice the tomatoes. Transfer to a bowl and add the oil, garlic and basil leaves. Add at least.

½-1 teaspoon salt, toss well to combine everything and allow to just macerate for 30 minutes.

Cook the pasta until al dente in salted, boiling water, reserving about 1 cup of pasta water. Add the just cooked pasta to the bowl with the tomatoes and add a little of the pasta water until you reach the consistency you desire. Taste for seasoning, adjust if desired.

Serve topped with a little parmesan if desired.

3 pounds fresh very ripe tomatoes, cored and quartered

1 yellow onion, peeled and quartered or cut into 1/6ths

12 garlic cloves, smashed a little with the side of a knife

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

salt and black pepper, to taste

2-3 cups chicken or veggie broth, as needed

fresh basil leaves

fresh oregano, if available

⅓-½ cup heavy cream

½ teaspoon granulated sugar, if needed

Preheat your oven to 400°F. Toss the tomatoes, onion and garlic with the oil, and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil and roast for 12-15 minutes or until a bit caramelized.

Remove and place all contents of the baking sheet into a saucepan. Add the broth and simmer for 10 minutes. Add a few basil leaves and oregano leaves and simmer for a couple more minutes.

Blend using an immersion blender. Add the heavy cream and simmer until warmed through. Taste for salt and sweetness and adjust as desired, you may need ½ teaspoon granulated sugar if the tomatoes are not at their height of sweetness and ripeness.

Ogwumike spent the first 12 seasons of her career in Los Angeles after she was drafted No. 1 by the team in 2012. She won the MVP in 2016 and helped the franchise win the WNBA championship that season.

The veteran forward posted on social media a 45-second video that showed her intentions to return to the Sparks, which her agent confirmed was accurate. Free agents can't sign until Saturday.

“It was always see you later, now I’ll see you soon…” Ogwumike wrote in the post. The video showed highlights of her time in Los Angeles.

The 35-year-old Ogwumike averaged 18.3 points and 7.0 rebounds for Seattle last season — her second with the Storm.

It's been a busy offseason for Ogwumike. She presided over collective bargaining negotiations as president of the union and helped get a transformational new deal that saw average salaries rise nearly four-times what they were in the previous CBA.

The Sparks have a talented group to go with Ogwumike as the team gave the franchise tag to guard Kelsey Plum, who is also on the union's executive committee, as well as young star Cameron Brink.

This is the busiest offseason in WNBA history with 80% of the players in the league being free agents.

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

Premiering in 2019, this is the series that showcased the rising careers of Zendaya, Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney — all of whom have since become bona fide stars.

The dark suburban teen drama has also featured more established figures like Colman Domingo, who has received two best actor Oscar nominations in the last few years, and the late Eric Dane. And it’s given visibility and recognition to other actors: Hunter Schafer, Alexa Demie, Maude Apatow and Barbie Ferreira. Angus Cloud, another of its breakout performers, died in 2023.

Series creator Sam Levinson says it's a thrill to see many cast members thriving.

“The thing is when you’re casting, every person that walks in, you’re hoping this is the person, this is going to be the character,” he told The Associated Press at the season premiere. “And sometimes when they do, they walk in, they have the talent, they’ve got the passion, the enthusiasm for it, and they inspire you.

“To see them working with such incredible filmmakers like (Christopher) Nolan and (Guillermo) del Toro ... it's just exciting.”

Here’s a look at how some of the “Euphoria” stars got their starts — and how they've been keeping busy since we last saw their characters four years ago.

Zendaya (Rue Bennett)

She soared, quite literally, as a trapeze artist in “The Greatest Showman” in 2017, two years before “Euphoria” premiered.

But Zendaya has soared far higher in the seven years since she first played Rue Bennett.

The actor began as a Disney Channel star and went on to play MJ in “Spider-Man” movies opposite her eventual partner, Tom Holland. She won her first Emmy in 2020 for “Euphoria” — the youngest to win for lead actress in a drama. The following year, she became the youngest two-time winner.

Then came the “Dune” movies, the sexy, tennis-themed “Challengers” — and more “Spider-Man.”

She's currently appearing in “The Drama,” a controversial film in which she and Robert Pattinson play a couple whose impending nuptials are thrown into chaos following a dark revelation.

There were mixed reviews for the movie, but not for her fashion choices: She teased the movie’s bridal theme on carpets around the world by wearing something old, then something new, then something borrowed — and a spectacular, feathered Schiaparelli couture ball gown that was, yes, blue.

Jacob Elordi (Nate Jacobs)

Launched by “The Kissing Booth” and shortly thereafter “Euphoria,” Elordi has become nothing less than a monster star — and an Oscar nominee, as the Creature in del Toro’s “Frankenstein, ”

But before that, his achievements were already pretty, well, monstrous.

In 2023, Elordi channeled a magnetic Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola’s biopic “Priscilla.” Then, he made waves — are there waves in a bathtub? — with his memorably rakish appearance as golden-boy rich kid Felix in Emerald Fennell’s salty “Saltburn.”

Other major roles followed, including another TV series, “The Narrow Road to the Deep North,” playing a medical officer forced to work on the Thai-Burma railway during World War II. And then, Fennell’s recent “Wuthering Heights,” where in a smoldering turn as Heathcliff, he somehow managed to pick up co-star Margot Robbie by her corset strings.

Sydney Sweeney (Cassie Howard)

Before her breakout “Euphoria” role, for which she earned an Emmy nod — along with another for “The White Lotus” — Sweeney was perhaps best known for her role as tragic teen Eden Spencer in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” In a story arc bleak even for that show, she was forced to marry an uninterested Nick Blaine, and later punished for falling in love with someone else, leading to a horrific watery demise.

Sweeney played a teenager in a psychiatric ward in “Sharp Objects,” and appeared as a Manson family member in “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” the same year she joined the “Euphoria” cast.

In recent years, her career has blossomed, with her most challenging role coming in a movie she produced, “Christy,” playing boxer Christy Martin, a trailblazer for women in the sport who also suffered horrific abuse at the hands of her trainer and husband. The film tanked at the box office but Sweeney received critical praise — and indeed, Oscar buzz — for her immersion in the difficult role.

On the other side of the box office spectrum, Sweeney struck gold with “The Housemaid” — Paul Feig's psychological thriller that took a satirical look at the depravity of the ultra-rich.

Alexa Demie (Maddy Perez)

Demie — an actor, singer-songwriter, and designer — made her feature debut in the 2017 movie “Brigsby Bear.” She appeared in Jonah Hill’s skate movie “Mid90s” and then “Waves,” a 2019 drama by writer-director Trey Edward Shults.

That same year Demie became a breakout star of “Euphoria,” playing Maddy Perez, who is involved in an abusive relationship with Elordi’s Nate.

In 2020, Demie appeared in Gia Coppola’s “Mainstream,” with Andrew Garfield.

In September 2021, she released the single “Leopard Limo (Archive LL11).” Her previous single, “Girl Like Me,” was released in 2016.

Hunter Schafer (Jules Vaughn)

Schafer started her career as an activist and model, and made her acting debut with “Euphoria.” She followed up in 2023 as Tigris Snow in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.”

The following year she appeared in both the science-fiction horror film “Cuckoo” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness.”

This year, she appears in the yet-to-be-released “Blade Runner 2099” opposite Michelle Yeoh, and later this month in psychological thriller “Mother Mary,” with Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel.

Colman Domingo (Ali Muhammad)

An established actor well before he began playing Ali in “Euphoria,” Domingo soared to two consecutive best actor Oscar nominations in 2023 and 2024, for playing Bayard Rustin in “Rustin” and then a prison inmate in “Sing Sing.” He’s also had a host of other accolades, including an Emmy win for “Euphoria” (2022) and a nomination for “The Four Seasons” (2025).

The actor-director-producer stars as Joe Jackson in the Jackson biopic “Michael” later this month.

But perhaps his most high-profile move comes this Saturday — he’ll be hosting “Saturday Night Live” for the first time.

Maude Apatow (Lexi Howard)

The daughter of Judd Apatow appeared in her father’s “Knocked Up,” “Funny People,” “This is 40” and later, “The King of Staten Island.” She also appeared in the TV series “Girls.”

Later movies included “Other People” (2016), “The House of Tomorrow” (2017) and “Assassination Nation” (2018) — the last written and directed by Levinson, who then cast her in “Euphoria.”

Apatow’s feature directorial debut, “Poetic License,” stars her mother, Leslie Mann, and is awaiting release.

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Associated Press journalist Leslie Ambriz contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

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The crash occurred near Powerline Road and Northwest 12th Street, according to Fort Lauderdale police.

Police said the suspect, Thomas Jamaine Roberson, fled when officers attempted a traffic stop, leading to a pursuit that ended when the suspect crashed into a civilian vehicle, causing it to overturn.

They said Roberson, 24, and the occupants of the other vehicle were taken to Broward Health Medical Center with minor injuries.

Jail records show he is facing one count each of robbery with carjacking, aggravated battery of a pregnant female, obstruction of justice, grand theft of a vehicle, criminal justice, child neglect, interfering with custody of a minor.

As of Friday morning, he was being held without bond at the Broward County Main Jail. He was also ordered to have no contact with any victims, not to drive, and not to possess firearms, weapons or ammunition.