Neither the U.S. nor Iran has publicly confirmed the timing of the talks in Islamabad, with Iranian state television denying any official was already in Pakistan’s capital.

Pakistan-led mediators received confirmation that the top negotiators, U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, will arrive in Islamabad early Wednesday to lead their teams in the talks, the regional officials told The Associated Press.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

A ceasefire that began April 8 was set to expire Wednesday.

Trump says he doesn't favor extending ceasefire

Both sides remain dug in rhetorically. U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that “lots of bombs” will “start going off” if there’s no agreement before the ceasefire deadline, and Iran’s chief negotiator said that Tehran has “new cards on the battlefield” that haven't yet been revealed.

The ceasefire could be extended if talks resume, though Trump said in an interview Tuesday with CNBC: “Well, I don't want to do that.”

"We don’t have that much time,” Trump said, adding that Iran “had a choice” and “they have to negotiate.”

White House officials have said that Vance would lead the American delegation, but Iran hasn't said who it might send. Iranian state television on Tuesday broadcast a message saying that “no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad … so far.”

Iranian state TV long has been controlled by hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy. The on-screen alert likely reflects the ongoing internal debate within Iran’s theocracy as it weighs how to respond to the U.S. Navy’s seizure of an Iranian container ship over the weekend.

US says its forces board sanctioned oil tanker

On Tuesday, the U.S. said its forces boarded an oil tanker previously sanctioned for smuggling Iranian crude oil in Asia. The Pentagon said in a social media post that U.S. forces boarded the M/T Tifani “without incident.”

The U.S. military did not say where the vessel had been boarded, though ship-tracking data showed the Tifani in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia on Tuesday.

The statement added that “international waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels.”

The U.S. military on Sunday seized an Iranian cargo vessel, the first interception under blockade of Iranian ports. Iran’s joint military command called the armed boarding an act of piracy and a violation of the ceasefire.

Strait of Hormuz control key to negotiations

The U.S. imposed the blockade to pressure Tehran into ending its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane through which 20% of the world’s natural gas and crude oil transits in peacetime.

Iran’s grip on the strait has sent oil prices soaring. Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at close to $95 per barrel on Tuesday, up more than 30% from Feb. 28, the day that Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran to start the war.

Before the war began, the Strait of Hormuz had been fully open to international shipping. Trump has demanded that vessels again be allowed to transit unimpeded through the waterway.

Trump confirmed to CNBC interview that the U.S. is considering a currency swap with the United Arab Emirates, whose oil-rich economy has been rattled by the Iran conflict.

In a possible swap, the UAE the would use its currency, the dirham, as collateral for a loan in U.S. dollars. The UAE relies on dollar-denominated transactions as part of its global commerce, which has been disrupted by the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

European Union transportation ministers were meeting Tuesday in Brussels to discuss how to protect consumers after the head of the International Energy Agency warned that Europe has “ maybe six weeks ” of jet fuel supplies remaining.

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

Qalibaf on Tuesday accused the United States of wanting Iran to surrender.

“We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats,” he wrote in an X post.

Pakistan hopeful talks will proceed

Pakistani officials have expressed confidence that Iran will also send a delegation to resume talks that mark the highest-level negotiations between the U.S. and Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The first round April 11 and 12 ended without an agreement.

Pakistan said Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met Tuesday with the acting U.S. ambassador in Islamabad to urge a ceasefire extension. Dar also met with the ambassador from China, a key trading partner with Iran.

Security has been tightened across Pakistan’s capital, where authorities have deployed thousands of personnel and increased patrols along routes leading to the airport.

Israel jails soldiers for defacing Jesus statue in Lebanon

Israel’s military said Tuesday it has sentenced two soldiers to 30 days in jail and removed them from combat duty for smashing a statue of Jesus Christ in Lebanon. Images of an Israeli soldier with a sledgehammer smashing the statue's head emerged over the weekend, bringing widespread condemnation.

Israel said one of the soldiers being punished hammered the statue to the ground. The other filmed the destruction.

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

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

A 10-day ceasefire began on Friday in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants broke out two days after the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran to start the war. Fighting in Lebanon has killed more than 2,290 people.

Since the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, according to authorities. Additionally, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.

___

Magdy reported from Cairo and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. David Rising and Huizhong Wu in Bangkok; Sam McNeil in Brussels and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this story.

But both sides have sent mixed messages, with U.S. President Donald Trump saying Tuesday that “I expect to be bombing” and Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf saying Tehran has “new cards on the battlefield” that haven’t yet been revealed.

Pakistan-led mediators have received confirmation that Qalibaf and U.S. Vice President JD Vance are expected to arrive in Islamabad early Wednesday, the regional officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Here is the latest:

Israel disciplines 2 soldiers for destruction of Jesus statue

Israel’s military sentenced two soldiers to 30 days in jail and removed them from combat duty for smashing a Jesus statue in southern Lebanon.

One of the soldiers sledgehammered the statue to the ground. The other filmed the destruction.

The military said it had summoned six additional soldiers who stood by without intervening for conversations with higher-ups.

The incident drew worldwide attention and condemnations from Christian religious leaders.

Pakistan calls for Iran ceasefire extension in meeting with US diplomat

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister met U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Natalie Baker on Tuesday, urging that Washington and Iran extend the ceasefire and pursue diplomacy, the Foreign Ministry said.

In a statement, it said Ishaq Dar “underscored Pakistan’s consistent emphasis on dialogue and diplomacy as the only viable means to address challenges and achieve lasting regional peace and stability.”

Baker, in response, conveyed Washington’s appreciation for Pakistan’s constructive role in supporting regional peace and facilitating dialogue, the statement said.

More on the UAE as US weighs offering it a currency swap

The United Arab Emirates, an autocratically ruled federation of seven sheikdoms on the Arabian Peninsula that’s home to Dubai, became wealthy from its oil deposits. It pegs its currency, the dirham, to the U.S. dollar.

While it has been able to send some of its oil out via a pipeline to the Gulf of Oman, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has squeezed the country’s oil exports.

The UAE has an estimated $2.5 trillion in savings and sovereign wealth funds, but may be seeking the swap to “bolster investor confidence in the UAE’s financial position if the war were to drag on,” said Jason Tuvey, an analyst at Capital Economics.

Trump says administration is weighing currency swap for UAE

Trump confirmed in his CNBC interview that he’s considering a request from the United Arab Emirates Central bank for a currency swap to help secure dollar liquidity for the oil-rich economy that’s been rattled by the Iran conflict.

The president expressed surprise that the nation needs assistance, but made clear he was open to the prospect of making the move to help meet his ally’s concerns.

“I mean I’m surprised because they are really rich,” Trump said. He added, “You know, they’re very good for this country. So, yeah, if I could help them, I would.”

Trump says he doesn’t want to extend Iran ceasefire if talks with US progress

Trump was responding to a question during a live telephone interview Tuesday on CNBC, a business news network.

Asked if he would continue the ceasefire if there’s progress in the next round of Iran talks, Trump said, “Well, I don’t want to do that. We don’t have that much time.” He said Iran “had a choice” and “they have to negotiate.”

But it remained unclear when the ceasefire actually expires. Tuesday night was the deadline when the pause was announced two weeks ago, but Trump told Bloomberg News the ceasefire will expire Wednesday night.

Trump says he’s ready to resume Iran bombardment if talks don’t go well

In an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Trump was asked directly if he’d resume strikes if there isn’t progress in the coming talks in Islamabad.

“Well, I expect to be bombing because I think that’s a better attitude to go in with,” Trump said. “But, you know, we’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go.”

Pakistan says it tests locally made anti-ship cruise missile

The navy says it successfully conducted a live firing of the Taimoor air-launched missile.

The announcement comes amid the Pakistani navy’s ongoing efforts to escort merchant vessels transiting key routes including the Strait of Hormuz.

US forces board oil tanker sanctioned for smuggling Iranian oil

The Pentagon on social media says U.S. forces “conducted a right-of-visit maritime interdiction” and boarded the M/T Tifani “without incident.” Ship-tracking data showed the Tifani in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

The announcement described the boarding as happening overnight. It added that “international waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels.”

Regional officials say US and Iran arriving Wednesday for Round Two

Neither the U.S. nor Iran have publicly confirmed the timing of talks. Iranian state television has denied any official is already in Pakistan’s capital.

Pakistan-led mediators received confirmation that the top negotiators, Vance and Qalibaf, will arrive in Islamabad early Wednesday, the officials told The Associated Press. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

A two-week ceasefire is due to expire.

— Munir Ahmed and Samy Magdy

Germany calls on Iran to head to Pakistan for talks

Germany’s top diplomat has called on Iran to come to Islamabad for negotiations with the U.S.

“We are now urgently calling on Iran to come to Islamabad and engage in constructive negotiations with the United States,” Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Tuesday on the sidelines of the European Union foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.

Wadephul pointed out that Vance is ready to travel to Pakistan and that “Iran should now take this outstretched hand in the interest of its own people.”

He also called on the American side to continue to keep its openness to negotiate with Iran.

“I believe there is still a window of opportunity to end this war through negotiations,” Wadephul said.

The German foreign minister also called on Iran “to immediately restore free and safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.”

‘Most severe energy crisis in a generation,’ U.N. chief says

The conflict in the Middle East has triggered “the most severe energy crisis in a generation,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday, speaking remotely from New York to a climate conference in Berlin.

The current crisis, he said, makes it clear that “fossil fuels are not just wrecking our planet, they are holding economies hostage.”

Guterres said that the energy crisis should be solved without exacerbating the climate crisis and that can be done by investing in homegrown renewables, developing the infrastructure to support them and providing financing for less developed economies to transition away from fossil fuels.

Climate change and fuel price chaos warning

The Iran war has locked the world in much higher fossil fuel costs for months and likely years to come, U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell said on Tuesday in Berlin.

“Fossil fuel driven stagflation is now stalking economies, driving up prices, driving down growth, pushing budgets deeper into the quagmire of debt and stripping away governments’ policy options and autonomy,” he said.

He referred to climate change and fuel price chaos as “twin reapers” and said that climate cooperation and faster investments in clean energy were needed to overcome this challenge.

15 bridges hit in Lebanon since war started

Lebanon’s public works and transport minister says 15 bridges have been damaged or destroyed during the latest war.

Fayez Rasamny told the local LBC TV channel on Tuesday that the government still doesn't have a final estimate for the damage caused by the almost seven-week Israel-Hezbollah war.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war was halted by a 10-day ceasefire that went into effect last week.

Rasamny said that he believes that the losses could be worth between $7 billion and $8 billion. He said that the government was waiting until there is a permanent ceasefire before reaching out to donors.

Israeli strikes kill 5 in Gaza

Israeli strikes killed at least five people in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, hospital authorities said.

Four suspected militants were killed when a drone strike hit a security point overnight in the southern city of Khan Younis, the Nasser hospital said.

Another man was wounded in the strike, it said.

Israel’s military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The militant-manned point was around 4 kilometers (2½ miles) west of the so-called Yellow Line, separating the Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza, according to relatives of those killed.

In the northern town of Beit Lahiya, a 30-year-old woman was killed when the Israeli navy opened fire toward tents sheltering displaced people early Tuesday, the Shifa hospital said.

The Israeli military said that it wasn’t aware of attacks in Beit Lahiya.

The deaths were the latest among Palestinians in Gaza since a fragile October ceasefire deal took hold to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas.

No delegation from Iran in Islamabad, state TV says

Iranian state television on Tuesday issued an on-screen alert saying that “no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad ... so far” as speculation about possible talks with the United States grows.

The on-screen alert likely reflects the internal debate ongoing within Iran’s theocracy as it weighs how to respond to the U.S. Navy’s seizure of an Iranian container ship over the weekend.

Iranian state television long has been controlled by hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy.

So far, no official has acknowledged that a delegation will be heading to Islamabad, where officials have been on standby for days now for the possible talks.

Vance is expected to lead an American team to the talks.

Iran has offered no word on who could lead its delegation.

Last time, Qalibaf led the Iranian side.

China says war is at ‘critical stage of transition’

China says that it hopes all parties can maintain the momentum for peace talks, as the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war is set to expire Wednesday.

“The current situation is at a critical stage of transition between war and peace. At such a moment, it is all the more necessary for all parties to show the utmost sincerity, remain committed to a political solution, maintain the momentum of the ceasefire and negotiations,” Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.

While it’s not directly involved in ongoing mediation efforts, diplomats have said that China had pressed for Iran to attend the first round of negotiations.

Pakistan says China supports efforts to facilitate talks

China has expressed support for Pakistan’s efforts to facilitate engagement between the United States and Iran for peace and stability in the region and beyond, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry said Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong conveyed the message during a meeting with Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad, where both sides discussed the latest regional developments.

Dar reaffirmed the “all-weather” Pakistan-China strategic cooperative partnership, underscoring strong bilateral ties and the importance of continued high-level exchanges, the statement said.

Thousands of security personnel deploy in Islamabad

Security has been tightened across Pakistan’s capital, where authorities have deployed thousands of personnel and increased patrols along routes leading to the airport, as U.S. and Iranian delegations are expected to arrive this week for the second round of talks, witnesses and officials said Tuesday.

Security arrangements appear stricter than those put in place during the first round of talks held in the capital on April 11 and 12, following diplomatic efforts by Pakistan and regional countries, including China, to ease tensions in the region.

Pakistan hasn't announced final dates for the talks, however.

Analysts say the scale of the security measures suggests the possibility of high-level participation if negotiations make progress.

“The arrangements this time are markedly different from those during the first round,” said Syed Mohammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security analyst.

“Pakistan appears to be preparing for the possibility of visits by top U.S. and Iranian leaders if the talks advance to a stage where an agreement could be signed,” he told The Associated Press.

EU ministers meet on energy, jet fuel concerns

Transportation ministers from across the 27-nation European Union are meeting in Brussels Tuesday to discuss spiking energy prices because of the war in Iran, and how to protect consumers at home and at the pump after the head of the International Energy Agency warned that Europe has “maybe six weeks” jet fuel supplies remaining.

“This evolving geopolitical crisis in the Middle East has highlighted that Europe may have a short-term issue in supply of fuel,” said Cyprus Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades, who is chairing the virtual meeting.

He said that there is currently no crisis, but that the bloc must prepare for the possibility of shortages.

“If this ever happens, it will affect connectivity, it will affect every citizen in the union,” Vafeades said.

“We need to be ready to avoid queues at the gas stations if this ever happens.”

Pakistan and Egyptian foreign minister speak

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday spoke with Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty to discuss the latest regional developments, as part of a diplomatic push linked to a possible second round of talks between the United States and Iran.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry in Islamabad said in a statement that both leaders emphasized the importance of dialogue and engagement for peace and stability and agreed to remain in close contact.

The statement gave no further details.

While Pakistani officials have expressed confidence that Iran will send a delegation late Tuesday, there has been no formal announcement from Tehran.

Trump said over the weekend that he's sending a U.S. delegation to Pakistan.

Russian authorities lift flight restrictions

Russia’s Transport Ministry has announced that Rosaviatsia, Russia’s civil aviation authority, “lifted recommendations for Russian airlines to temporary halt sales of tickets to flights to and from" the United Arab Emirates, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Restrictions on flights via Iranian airspace have also been lifted, the report quoted the ministry as saying in an online statement.

Flights to Iranian airports and transit flights over the country will be carried out with recommendations from local aviation authorities taken into account, the report said.

Restrictions on flights to the Middle East were introduced in February.

Man hanged over January protests in Iran

Iran said Tuesday that it hanged a man convicted after being accused of setting fire to a mosque in northern Tehran during nationwide protests in January.

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency identified the man as Amir Ali Mir Jafari.

There was no immediate information about Jafari among activists who follow Iran.

Iran has been accused of repeatedly holding closed-door trials against suspects who can’t challenge the evidence against them.

Iran already has hanged people from the January protests, something that Trump had described as a red line before the recent war.

Asian shares mixed and oil prices slip

Shares are mixed in Asia and oil prices have slipped following the latest rise of U.S.-Iran tensions.

The lackluster start to trading Tuesday followed a modest retreat on Wall Street.

On Monday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.2% from its all-time high and the Dow industrials edged less than 0.1% lower. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil remains above $95.

Trump attacked critics after a second round of talks with Iran was thrown into doubt by the U.S. Navy’s seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship.

Financial markets have had vicious swings, both up and down, since the war began because of uncertainty about how long it may last.

The fear is that a long-term disruption could keep so much oil and natural gas off global markets that it creates a punishing wave of inflation for the global economy.

A proposed constitutional amendment backed by Democratic officials would bypass the state's bipartisan redistricting commission to allow use of new congressional districts approved by state lawmakers in this year's midterm elections.

The referendum, which needs a simple majority to pass, tests Democrats' ability to push back against President Donald Trump, who started the gerrymandering competition between states after successfully urging Texas Republicans to redraw congressional districts in their favor last year. Virginia is the second state, after California last fall, to put the question to voters.

It also tests voters' willingness to accept districts gerrymandered for political advantage — coming just six years after Virginia voters approved an amendment meant to diminish such partisan gamesmanship by shifting redistricting away from the legislature.

Even if Democrats are successful Tuesday, the public vote may not be the final word. The state Supreme Court is considering whether the redistricting plan is illegal in a case that could make the referendum results meaningless.

Virginia Democrats are following California's lead

Congressional redistricting typically is done once a decade after each U.S. census. But Trump urged Texas Republicans to redistrict ahead of the November elections in hopes of winning several additional seats and maintaining the GOP's narrow House majority in the face of political headwinds that typically favor the party that is out of power during midterms.

The Texas gambit led to a burst of redistricting nationwide. So far, Republicans believe they can win up to nine more House seats in newly redrawn districts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio.

Democrats think they can win up to five more seats in California, where voters approved a mid-decade redistricting effort last November, and one more seat under new court-imposed districts in Utah. Democrats hope to offset the rest of that gap in Virginia, where they decisively flipped 13 seats in the state House and won back the governor’s office last year.

Voters focus on fairness, with different perspectives

The stream of voters was steady Tuesday at a recreation center in the Old Town area of Alexandria, Virginia.

Matt Wallace, 31, said he votes regularly but this election has additional emphasis.

“I think the redistricting issue across the country is unfortunate, that we’ve had to resort to temporary redistricting in order to sort of alter our elections across the country," Wallace said. He said he voted for the Democratic redistricting amendment "to help balance the scales a bit until things get back to normal.”

Joanna Miller, 29, said she voted against the redistricting measure, “because I want my vote to count in a fair way.” Miller said she was more concerned about representation in Virginia than trying to offset actions in other states.

“I want my vote and my representation to matter this fall,” she said.

Political parties made a big push in Virginia

Leaders of both major parties see Tuesday’s vote as crucial to their chances to win a House majority in the fall. Trump weighed in via social media Tuesday morning, telling Virginians to “vote ‘no’ to save your country!”

Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, rallied with opponents of the measure Monday night, calling the redistricting plan “dishonest” and “brazenly deceptive.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters at the Capitol earlier in the day that a vote to approve the redraw “will serve as a check and balance on this out-of-control Trump administration.”

A committee supporting the Democratic redistricting effort had raised more than $64 million — three times as much as the roughly $20 million raised by opponents, according to finance reports filed less than two weeks before the election.

The back-and-forth battle over congressional districts is expected to continue in Florida, where the Republican-led legislature is scheduled to convene April 28 for a special session that could result in a more favorable map for Republicans.

A lobster-like district could aid Democratic efforts

In Virginia, Democrats currently hold six of the 11 U.S. House seats under districts that were imposed by the state Supreme Court in 2021 after a bipartisan commission failed to agree on a map based on the latest census data.

The new plan could help Democrats win as many as 10 seats. Five are anchored in Democratic-heavy northern Virginia, including one shaped like a lobster that stretches into Republican-leaning rural areas.

Revisions to four other districts across Richmond, southern Virginia and Hampton Roads dilute the voting power of conservative blocs in those areas. And a reshaped district in parts of western Virginia lumps together three Democratic-leaning college towns to offset other Republican voters.

The Virginia redistricting plan is "pushing back against what other states have done in trying to stack the deck for Donald Trump in those congressional elections,” Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger said during an online rally last week.

Ads for the “yes to redistricting” campaign featuring former President Barack Obama have flooded the airwaves.

Opponents have distributed campaign materials citing past statements from Obama and Spanberger criticizing gerrymandering, but those were before Trump pushed Republican states to redraw their congressional maps in advance of this year's midterms.

Democrats “were all against gerrymandering before they were for it,” Virginia Republican Party Chairman Jeff Ryer said.

Virginia court weighs whether lawmakers acted illegally

Virginia lawmakers endorsed a constitutional amendment allowing their mid-decade redistricting last fall, then passed it again in January as part of a two-step process that requires an intervening election for an amendment to be placed on the ballot. The measure allows lawmakers to redistrict until returning the task to a bipartisan commission after the 2030 census.

In February, they passed a new U.S. House map to take effect pending the outcome of the redistricting referendum. Republicans have filed multiple legal challenges against the effort.

A Tazewell County judge ruled that the redistricting push was illegal for several reasons. Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. said lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session.

He ruled that their initial vote failed to occur before the public began casting ballots in last year’s general election and thus didn’t count toward the two-step process. He also ruled that the state failed to publish the amendment three months before that election, as required by law.

If the state Supreme Court agrees with the lower court, the results from Tuesday's vote could be rendered moot.

___

Associated Press writers Gary Fields in Virginia and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.

A spike in gas prices due to the Iran war, now in its eighth week, resulted in a hefty 1.7% gain in retail sales in March after a revised 0.7% increase in February, according to the Commerce Department’s report on Tuesday. The increase marked the fastest one-month increase in retail sales in more than three years.

The report marks the first read on spending to capture the effects of the Iran war.

Excluding gas prices, retail sales were up 0.6%, helped in part by government tax refunds and warm weather.

Business at gas stations rose 15.5% percent.

Elsewhere, shoppers were still willing to spend. Sales at department stores rose 4.2%, while sales at furniture and home furnishings stores were up 2.2%. Online retailers saw a 1% gain. Consumer electronics and appliance stores posted a 0.9% increase. The only area that saw a decline for March was miscellaneous retailers, according to the Commerce report.

The snapshot offers only a partial look at consumer spending and doesn’t include things like travel and hotel stays. The lone services category – restaurants – registered a more modest gain of 0.1%.

The so-called control group—which excludes food services, autos, building materials and gas station sales and is used to calculate economic growth—rose 0.7%. That offered a good sign of broad spending by consumers, economists said.

“It’s a blowout retail sales figure for March,“ Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote in a report.

She noted that the impact of tariffs is visible in the high spending on electronics and appliances due to higher prices. A small increase at restaurants may indicate some early signs of pullback as consumers have to spend more at the pump, she said.

“Overall, the American consumer is still healthy,” she added. "Extra income from tax refunds is helping many households weather this oil shock, but that extra money won’t last forever.”

The Iran war began Feb. 28 and has shut down the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.

Late last month, U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022.

Economists had believed that an unusually large jump in tax refunds would kick start spending at the start of the year. But spiking gas prices are taking a bite out of that money. And the Iran war is also further dampening shoppers' mood. Consumer sentiment plunged to a record low in April, according to a survey released earlier this month by the University of Michigan, largely because of the Iran war and concerns over higher gas prices.

Shoppers aren’t just feeling it at the gas pump, but are also starting to see unforeseen costs everywhere, including when they travel such as higher baggage fees. They will also likely see higher prices on different products ripple through the supply chain as companies start to pass on higher transportation costs to shoppers, analysts said.

The jump in gas prices caused a sharp spike in inflation last month, creating major challenges for the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve and increasing already significant political hurdles for the White House.

Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.9% in March from February, the largest such gain in nearly four years.

Heading into the war, shoppers were already cautious. But Bryan Eshelman, Americas leader of retail and a partner and managing director at consultancy AlixPartners, noted his retail clients see their customers pulling back even more now.

“Particularly in the low-end economy, people are shifting from wants to needs,” he said.

R.J. Hottovy, head of analytical research at Placer.ai, noted that for seven straight weeks, traffic at nondiscretionary retailers like grocers outpaced that of discretionary merchants. That trend was reversed the week of April 6, helped by the distribution of tax refunds and spending tied to spring break and Easter.

But after the data goes past Easter trends, future visits will largely depend on consumer sentiment regarding broader macroeconomic conditions and gas prices, Hottovy said. The firm tracks people’s movements based on cellphone usage.

The civil rights group made the announcement on Tuesday, saying President Donald Trump's administration appears to be preparing legal action against it or some of its employees.

“Although we don’t know all the details, the focus appears to be on the SPLC’s prior use of paid confidential informants to gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups,” CEO Bryan Fair said in a statement.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment.

The SPLC previously paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups and gather information on their activities, often sharing it with local and federal law enforcement, Fair said. It was used to monitor threats of violence, he said, adding that the program was kept quiet to protect the safety of informants.

“When we began working with informants, we were living in the shadow of the height of the Civil Rights Movement, which had seen bombings at churches, state-sponsored violence against demonstrators, and the murders of activists that went unanswered by the justice system,” Fair said. “There is no question that what we learned from informants saved lives.”

He said the organization “will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work.”

The SPLC, which is based in Montgomery, Alabama, was founded in 1971 and used civil litigation to fight white supremacist groups. The nonprofit has become a popular target among Republicans who see it as overly leftist and partisan.

The investigation could add to concerns that Trump's Republican administration is using the Justice Department to go after conservative opponents and his critics. It follows a number of other investigations into Trump foes that have raised questions about whether the law enforcement agency has been turned into a political weapon.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has faced intense criticism from conservatives, who have accused it of unfairly maligning right-wing organizations as extremist groups because of their viewpoints. The SPLC regularly condemns Trump’s rhetoric and policies around voting rights, immigration and other issues.

The SPLC came under fresh scrutiny after the assassination last year of conservative activist Charlie Kirk brought renewed attention to its characterization of the group that Kirk founded and led. The SPLC included a section on that group, Turning Point USA, in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024” that described the group as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said last year that the agency was severing its relationship with the SPLC, which had long provided law enforcement with research on hate crime and domestic extremism. Patel said the SPLC had been turned into a “partisan smear machine,” and he accused it of defaming “mainstream Americans” with its “hate map” that documents alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the United States.

House Republicans hosted a hearing centered on the SPLC in December, saying it coordinated efforts with President Joe Biden's Democratic administration "to target Christian and conservative Americans and deprive them of their constitutional rights to free speech and free association.”

The comments underscore the challenges face by Kevin Warsh, a former top Fed official who Trump named in January to replace the current Fed chair, Jerome Powell, whom Trump has repeatedly attacked for not cutting rates. Investors will be watching the hearing closely to see how Warsh balances Trump's demands for lower interest rates with an economy where inflation is rising as the Iran war has pushed up gasoline prices.

Higher inflation typically leads the Fed to raise rates, or at least keep them unchanged, rather than cut them. When the Fed changes its key rate, it tends to over time affect mortgages, auto loans, and business borrowing.

In a prepared statement that Warsh will deliver to the Senate Banking Committee, he said one of this top goals would be to fight inflation, which remains elevated at 3.3% annually.

“Congress tasked the Fed with the mission to ensure price stability, without excuse or equivocation, argument or anguish,” Warsh said. “Inflation is a choice, and the Fed must take responsibility for it.”

Separately, in an interview on CNBC, Trump was asked if he would be disappointed if Warsh, should he be confirmed, doesn't cut rates “right away.”

“I would,” Trump said.

Warsh would be in a tough spot if confirmed. Inflation is worsening as the Iran war has spiked gas prices, making it much harder for the Fed to implement the interest rate cuts Trump so desperately seeks. The conflict could also slow the economy as well as hiring. And if Warsh ultimately becomes chair, he may very well find his predecessor, Jerome Powell, still sitting on the Fed’s governing board, an uncomfortable arrangement that hasn’t occurred since the late 1940s.

Warsh, a former top official at the Fed and a wealthy investor, will likely face a range of tough questions at the hearing. Democrats on the committee have already signaled they will press him about what they argue is a lack of transparency regarding some of his vast financial holdings, which total more than $100 million, according to a recent disclosure.

Another top issue will be Trump's repeated demands for cuts in the Fed's short-term interest rate, which has created the perception that Warsh was nominated to do the president's bidding. Most other Fed officials have said they support keeping the central bank's key rate unchanged, now that inflation has begun to rise again.

Warsh expressed support for the Federal Reserve's independence in his opening statement.

He said such political independence is “essential,” but he also said it wasn't threatened when “elected officials — presidents, senators, or members of the House — state their views on interest rates." Trump has repeatedly urged Powell to cut the Fed's key rate from its current level of about 3.6%.

While the long-delayed hearing is a necessary step for Warsh, it's not clear when the committee may even be able to vote on his nomination. The Justice Department is investigating Powell and the Fed over a building renovation, and Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, has said he would effectively block Warsh until the probe is dropped.

“Clearly there’s a majority of the committee that’s not going to move this nomination forward, especially while this sham of a criminal investigation is going on,” Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota, told reporters on a conference call Monday. “It feels a bit like we’re going through the motions when we really have not addressed the fundamental challenges that this nomination has.”

The turmoil could make a potential transition from Powell to Warsh an unusually turbulent one for the world’s most important central bank, which has typically seen smooth transfers of power. Should the change in leadership prove particularly bumpy, it could unnerve markets and lift longer-term interest rates.

Powell's term as chair ends May 15. He said last month that he would remain as chair until a successor is named. Powell also is serving a separate term as a member of the Fed's governing board that lasts until January 2028. Fed chairs typically leave the board when their terms as chair end, but Powell also said last month he would remain on the board, even if a new chair is approved, until the investigation is dropped.

When asked about Powell's comments, Trump said he would fire Powell if he tried to stay at the Fed. Yet Trump's previous attempt to remove a Fed governor, Lisa Cook, has been tied up in courts. During oral arguments in January, a majority of justices on the Supreme Court appeared to lean toward letting Cook keep her job.

The S&P 500 added 0.2%, coming off just its second drop in 14 days, and is close to another all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 397 points, or 0.8%, as of 9:50 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher.

UnitedHealth helped lead the market with a jump of 9.4% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the beginning of the year than analysts expected. It also raised its forecast for profit over the full year of 2026.

That’s big because stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term. It’s a double-plus for investors when companies not only top earnings estimates but also forecast even better growth ahead.

Quest Diagnostics rose 5.8% after it likewise joined the fattening list of companies topping expectations for profit and revenue during the latest quarter. It also raised its forecast for profit for the full year.

They helped offset an 8.3% drop for Tractor Supply, whose profit and revenue for the latest quarter fell short of expectations.

Other signals are also indicating the U.S. economy may be doing OK despite the sharp up-and-down swings for oil prices because of the war with Iran. A report on Tuesday morning showed that U.S. retailers made more money in March, the first full month of the war, than analysts expected.

Growth was even relatively stable for retail sales when not including those from gasoline stations.

“It’s become cliched to say that the economic hit will depend on the duration of the Middle East conflict, but that cliché does ring true,” according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, dipped 0.7% to $94.78 ahead of the scheduled expiration early Wednesday, Tehran time, of a U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement. Both sides are continuing to talk tough, but hope remains after both have signaled they will hold a new round of ceasefire talks in Pakistan.

Much of the tension in financial markets has focused on what will happen to the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway off Iran’s coast that oil tankers use to exit the Persian Gulf. A long-term closure would keep crude oil pent up in the gulf and away from customers worldwide.

The price of a barrel of Brent oil has gone from roughly $70 before the war to $119 at times as worries have risen and fallen about a long-term closure for the strait.

On Wall Street, Apple slipped 0.6% after Tim Cook said he’ll step down as CEO on Sept. 1 and become the iPhone maker’s executive chairman. He’s handing control over to John Ternus, a company veteran who rose through the iPhone maker’s hardware engineering ranks.

Amazon rose 1.4% after Anthropic said it signed a new agreement and is committing more than $100 billion over the next 10 years to AWS technologies to train and run its Claude chatbot.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia. South Korea’s Kospi rose 2.7% for one of the world’s biggest moves.

In the bond market, Treasury yields edged higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.27% from 4.26% late Monday.

Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump's nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, will be speaking on Capitol Hill later Tuesday. He'll face a tightrope walk, as investors will want to see if he would keep the Fed's independence from political meddling even though Trump has been pushing hard for lower interest rates.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Adoring crowds in the largely Catholic country lined the road from the airport into the capital, Malabo, cheering the first pope to visit since St. John Paul II in 1982. Wearing his formal red mozzetta cape, Leo thrilled the flag-waving masses by arriving at the presidential palace in his open-sided popemobile.

“There is a lot of joy today because we waited 44 years for the pope to come,” said Diosdado Marques, a senior Catholic official in the country. “It’s a blessing for the country, we hope many things will change and we will deepen our faith.”

The former Spanish colony on Africa’s western coast is run by the continent's longest-serving president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been accused of widespread corruption and authoritarianism.

The discovery of offshore oil in the mid-1990s transformed Equatorial Guinea’s economy virtually overnight, with oil now accounting for almost half of its GDP and more than 90% of exports, according to the African Development Bank.

Yet more than half of the country’s nearly 2 million people live in poverty. And rights groups including Human Rights Watch — as well as court cases in France and Spain — have documented how revenues have enriched the ruling Obiang family rather than the broader population.

Leo, who arrived from Angola, met with Obiang at the presidential palace and then addressed government authorities, diplomats and civil service representatives. Noting that the encounter occurred on the first anniversary of Pope Francis’ death, Leo quoted the late pope in denouncing income inequalities that he said had been exacerbated by a global economy focused on the pursuit of profit at all cost.

“Such an economy kills,” Leo said. “In fact, it is even more evident today than in years past that the proliferation of armed conflicts is often driven by the colonization of oil and mineral deposits, occurring with no regard for international law or the self-determination of peoples.”

The Trump administration, which has announced plans to create a minerals trading bloc with its allies, has been racing to get access to Africa’s regions rich in critical minerals and to beat competition from China in a region where Beijing has long dominated.

Last year, as the administration emerged as a key broker for a peace deal to end the fighting in Congo’s mineral-rich but conflict-battered eastern region, it was also signing a partnership with Congo that would allow American companies access to those conflict minerals.

The U.S. is also investing funds in the Lobito Corridor, a major rail project in Africa that would facilitate export of minerals from mineral-rich regions in Zambia and Congo through Lobito in Angola. At the same time, the U.S. has also backed a South Africa project aimed at extracting rare earth minerals from industrial waste. The project developer has said it can extract key metals used in electronics and defense systems.

Two models of cities

The pope's meetings took place in the old presidential palace. The government has built a new capital on the mainland, named Ciudad de la Paz, or City of Peace, but the transfer of government buildings hasn’t been completed yet.

Authorities have said the decision to build the new capital was strategic, given the potential for expansion of the city carved out in the middle of a tropical forest. But critics said the relocation of the capital would exacerbate existing inequalities and give further opportunities for the presidential circle to enrich themselves

Leo referred to the new capital by citing to the famous work of St. Augustine, “City of God,” in which the 5th-century philosopher interpreted humanity through two models: The “earthly city” where people live temporarily, and the eternal “city of God,” characterized by God’s unconditional love and love of one another, especially the poor.

Leo didn't call out the corruption associated with the Obiang family or the criticism of the new capital. But he suggested Equatorial Guinea should look to the “City of God” as a model.

“The earthly city is centered upon the proud love of self, on the lust for power and worldly glory that leads to destruction,” he said. “It is essential to discern the difference between that which lasts and that which passes, remaining free from the pursuit of unjust wealth and the illusion of dominion.”

A secular but very Catholic country

Equatorial Guinea is officially a secular country, but about 75% of its population is Catholic, making it one of the most Catholic countries in Africa.

Church leaders “are very much interconnected intrinsically with the government,” said Tutu Alicante, a U.S.-based activist who runs the EG Justice rights group. “Part of it is the fear the government has instilled in everyone, including the church, and part of it is the monetary gains that the church derives from this government.”

The Rev. Fortunatus Nwachukwu, No. 2 in the Vatican’s missionary evangelization office, said the Catholic Church is present in difficult civil spaces and knows how to operate in them to carry out its mission.

“Should the church go to war against the government? Surely no,” Nwachukwu said. “Should the church swallow everything as if it were normal? No. The church has to continue preaching justice, always in defense of life, human dignity and the common good.”

In addition to official corruption, the country’s government also faces rampant accusations of harassment, arrest and intimidation of political opponents, critics and journalists.

Equatorial Guinea is also one of several African nations that have been paid millions of dollars in controversial deals with the Trump administration to receive migrants deported from the U.S. to countries other than their own.

AP reporting shows that at least 29 such migrants with no ties to the country have been deported there. Some remain in detention in Malabo with restrictions on legal and medical support, while others have been forcibly returned to their countries where they face persecution.

Leo, who will visit a prison in the port city of Bata on Wednesday, has criticized the Trump administration’s overall migration deportation policy as “extremely disrespectful.”

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Associated Press writers Monika Pronczuk in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea and Ope Adetayo in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to the reporting.

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

That home went up in flames slower because it was fortified with better materials. Add moving vegetation, mulch, wood fences and hot tubs with their highly flammable insultation several feet away and experts said you can protect houses from the increasing danger of wildfires on a warming planet.

The research is being done by workers at a remote site in South Carolina. They have set fire to 13 houses because scientists need to burn to learn.

Inside the carefully crafted home were sensors and a few cameras the site's manager said will “give their life for science.” Outside are nearly $1 million of other cameras and instruments in a fireproof building nearby and scattered around.

The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety is a nonprofit created by insurers to make houses and other buildings more resilient. The institute's 100-acre (40-hectare) site in Richburg, South Carolina, started to study hurricanes and heavy wind and rain.

As wildfire danger increased in recent years, they sometimes turn the six-story tall wall of 105 fans stacked on top of each other to blow out of the wind tunnel's massive doors and spread fire.

“We crash test houses,” said Roy Wright, the president of the institute.

Wildfires are worsening, costing more damage

From 2016 to 2025, wildfires in the United States on average burned an area the size of Massachusetts each year, slightly more than 11,000 square miles (28,500 square kilometers). That’s 2.6 times the average burn area of the 1980s, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Canada’s land burned on average for the last 10 years is 2.8 times more than during the 1980s, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

In the United States, wildfires have caused an average of $17.7 billion a year in damage since 2020, according to statistics kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the nonprofit Climate Central.

Climate change is intensifying and extending fire seasons across the U.S. and a growing population puts densely packed neighborhoods into fire-threatened areas. In the past three years, massive and devastating wildfires hit California, Maui in Hawaii and the North and South Carolina mountains.

Drought across much of the United States — especially in the West and Southeast — is at record severe levels for this time of year. Add to that record heat and unheard of levels of low moisture in the West for the first three months of 2026 and it looks like this upcoming fire season will be extraordinarily bad, unless late spring or early summer rain somehow bails out the country, said UCLA climate and fire scientist Park Williams.

Test fires lead to building changes

The institute's research has already led to some conclusions that strengthened California's fire code. New homes must have ignition-resistant walls, tempered or double paned windows and mesh over vents to prevent fire embers from getting inside.

As important is taking care of the outside. Creating a 5-foot (1.5-meter) buffer where any material that burns easy like pine straw, a hot tub, a wooden fence or overhanging branches is an important line of defense.

The fire testing makes that clear. Researchers at the test site set fire to wooden blocks that look like Jenga towers within the buffer zone. The simulated winds, which in a recent test purposefully fluctuated between 30 and 55 mph (50 to 90 kph), continually pushed the flames toward the home.

Once the windows and walls are breached, all the combustible things inside like couches, furniture, clothes and plastics quickly erupt and begin sending large showers of dangerous burning embers lofted by heavy wind, setting new fires a block or two away.

But fire standards can only help so much. “Under really severe fire conditions, especially those involving very high winds, they probably are of more limited value,” Syracuse University fire researcher Jacob Bendix said.

Home fire prevention becomes a business

Fire prevention tools and techniques are becoming a big business.

After the 2018 Woolsey fire near his home in Ventura County, California, Nicholai Allen watched firefighters use fire retardants and wondered if homeowners could do the same. He became a wildland firefighter and learned that preventing embers from getting into homes’ attics and garages are the key.

Allen now makes and sells Safe Soss (pronounced like sauce), which include carbon filters or guards for attics and vents, fiberglass heat-resistant ember-stopping tape and a spray fire retardant that can work from a garden hose, all of which recently became available at a major hardware chain.

Allen compares it to how people up north get ready for winter.

“It’s kind of like if you live in the snow, you have a snow shovel, you have scrapers, and you know that you have to take certain preventative steps in order to live in an environment that, hey, sometimes snows,” Allen said.

Trial by fire

The test fires by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety are carefully controlled. The homes are made to be as similar to regular houses as possible without electricity or plumbing.

The attention to detail and safety is exacting. The institute likes spring fire testing at its site about halfway between Charlotte, North Carolina and Columbia, South Carolina, because while summer temperatures in the South can nearly match those in the fire-prone West, the swampy humidity in July is a bad approximation to a mountain canyon.

High winds delayed last week's fire for more than six hours with anxious workers worried they couldn't wait for the next day because an outdoor burning ban was starting after an unusually dry and hot spring.

Tarps and machines heat the houses to summer levels just before the fires are set on a huge concrete pad just outside the giant hanger where the fans line one wall and the hurricane testing takes place.

Elsewhere at the site, researches have started looking into hail and how it can damage homes. Another part of the campus has dozens of roofs just sticking above the ground as the shingles freeze and bake and are soaked by Mother Nature sometimes for more than a decade for more testing.

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Borenstein reported from Washington. Associated Press journalist Erik Verduzco contributed from Richburg, South Carolina.

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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.

In a social media post, the Pentagon said U.S. forces “conducted a right-of-visit maritime interdiction” and boarded the M/T Tifani “without incident.”

It's the latest move in the U.S. war on Iran to stop any ship tied to Tehran or those suspected of carrying supplies that could help its government, from weapons and oil to metals and electronics. The announcement comes hours ahead of the expiration of an already tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, and as Pakistan attempts to broker talks between Washington and Tehran.

Ship-tracking data showed the Tifani was carrying oil in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday between Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The Pentagon described the Tifani as “stateless” despite it being a Botswana-flagged vessel. The announcement did not say precisely where or what time Tuesday the ship was boarded.

“As we have made clear, we will pursue global maritime enforcement efforts to disrupt illicit networks and interdict sanctioned vessels providing material support to Iran —anywhere they operate,” the Pentagon announcement said, echoing previous statements from Trump administration officials. “International waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels.”

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week that the U.S. blockade would extend beyond Iranian waters and the war theater under control of U.S. Central Command.

U.S. forces in other areas of responsibility, he told reporters at the Pentagon, “will actively pursue any Iranian-flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran.” He specifically pointed to operations in the Pacific and explained that the U.S. would target vessels that left before the blockade began outside the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for energy and other shipments.

The military also detailed an expansive list of goods that it considers contraband, declaring that it will board, search and seize them from merchant vessels “regardless of location.” A notice published Thursday says any “goods that are destined for an enemy and that may be susceptible to use in armed conflict” are “subject to capture at any place beyond neutral territory.”

Under a proposal submitted Monday to a state judge in Texas, The Onion would be granted an exclusive, temporary license to the intellectual property of Infowars' parent company, Free Speech Systems, allowing the outlet to put its own content on the Infowars website and social media accounts.

Ben Collins, chief executive of The Onion, said the deal could be in place around April 30, if approved by Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Austin. He said The Onion has already hired people to run Infowars as a parody site including Tim Heidecker, one half of the comedy duo Tim and Eric known for their work on the Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” shows.

“We’ll build this into a bigger comedy network,” Collins said in phone interview Monday, adding the Sandy Hook families would receive profits from the new operations.

“A big part of it for us is that the way people consume news now is they see somebody who has no idea what the (expletive) they’re talking about staring into their camera and just like coming up with conspiracy theories or telling you health hacks that will actually get you poisoned, things like that,” he said. “We’re going to create a bunch of characters and worlds around those kinds of things.”

After the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, which killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, Jones called it a hoax staged by “crisis actors” in an effort to increase gun control. Many relatives of the victims, along with an FBI agent who responded to the shooting, sued Jones and his company for defamation and infliction of emotional distress.

On his show Monday, Jones vowed to fight the licensing proposal in court but acknowledged he and his crew could be kicked out of the building at the end of the month. He said he would continue his shows in another studio he is preparing, and they would air on his personal X account and other new social media accounts and websites, as well as dozens of radio stations. He also has set up new websites for the merchandise he sells, including dietary supplements and clothing that bring in millions of dollars a year.

“I’m going to continue the exact same show,” he said. “It’ll just be called the ‘Alex Jones Show.’ So, it’s the same satellite, same system. It's a different news site and news studio. So I’m not going anywhere.”

The licensing deal with The Onion would be for six months, with the right to renew it for another six months as a court-appointed receiver works to eventually sell the assets of Infowars’ parent company, Austin-based Free Speech Systems, and give proceeds to the Sandy Hook families. The receiver is supporting the plan, which calls for The Onion to pay $81,000 a month to cover the rent for the building housing Infowars' studios, along with utilities and other costs.

During a trial of the defamation suit in Connecticut in 2022, victims' relatives testified that people whom they called followers of Jones subjected them to death and rape threats, in-person harassment and abusive comments on social media over the hoax claims. Jones argued there was never any proof that linked him to the actions of others.

A jury and judge awarded the families and the FBI agent more than $1.4 billion in damages. In a similar lawsuit in Texas, the parents of a child killed at Sandy Hook were awarded nearly $50 million. Jones appealed both awards. He lost his challenges to the Connecticut judgment, while his appeal of the Texas award is still pending.

Jones filed for bankruptcy in late 2022. In those proceedings, an auction was held in November 2024 to liquidate Infowars’ assets to help pay the defamation judgments, and The Onion was named the winning bidder. But the bankruptcy judge threw out the auction results, citing problems with the process and The Onion’s bid.

The attempt to sell off Infowars’ assets later moved to the state court in Texas, where Guerra Gamble appointed a receiver to liquidate the assets of Jones' company. Jones is also appealing that ruling, which has put a hold on the liquidation.

A lawyer for the Sandy Hook families who sued Jones in Connecticut said they support The Onion's plan.

Frosty nights aren't unusual this time of year. Across the region, the average date of the last frost ranges from mid-April to early June, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. But the first half of April was unusually warm for much of the region, and that, coupled with the quick drop in temperature, could cause some problems.

Some parts of New England saw temperatures climb into the 80s (around 27 Celsius) last week followed by snow a few days later. And the cold continued into this week: The National Weather Service issued a freeze warning for Monday night and Tuesday morning for parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.

In Ohio, the warm weather pushed peach and apple trees to start budding early at Apple Hill Orchards, which includes about 80 acres (32 hectares) in Mansfield and 110 acres (45 hectares) in Fredericktown. But the temperature then dropped into the low 20s (around minus 5 Celsius), ruining one variety of peach, said owner Anne Joudrey.

“Farming is farming, and you never know what you’re gonna get, but we had a pretty good bloom, so we were expecting a pretty good crop,” she said Monday.

The apples were doing OK, she said, and it helps that the trees are planted on high ground so cold air drains away.

“We should fare pretty well, hopefully,” she said. “But you never know.”

In Vermont, the temperature swing affected operations at Understory Farm in Bridport, which grows cut flowers. Tulips that were supposed to be ready for Mother's Day in mid-May have already bloomed in the farm's greenhouses, said owner Gregory Witscher.

“That just means that we have to harvest them all at the same time,” he said. “We have to harvest them and store them with the bulbs on in crates in a walk-in cooler for longer.”

Witscher grows about 50 varieties of flowers for wholesale markets. Weather fluctuations require flexibility, he said, and it's become more common for small vegetable and flower farms to have row covers or heaters to protect plants from cold or shade cloth for extreme heat.

“With the hot weather and then the cold weather, I think its intense, and it makes things challenging,” he said. “The longer I do this, the more I want to have as many options as possible and have a lot of tools and resources available to be extremely nimble.”

Morning drive through 9am:

The rain doesn’t waste any time Tuesday morning. By 9 a.m., widespread rain engulfs the Houston area.

Noon:

Things lighten up a little around noon, but there will still be some storms around. It’s a little more hit and miss but the gaps in the storms don’t last long.

Ride home from work 4pm to 6pm:

In the afternoon and by early evening, expect more rain to redevelop north of Houston to I-10. There may be some high water in low lying and flood prone areas, but I think most the heaviest rain will fall west of Houston.

This is good. Farmers and ranchers desperately need this kind of weather pattern and we’re getting it Tuesday.

Tuesday night:

Rain comes to an end Tuesday night. There will be more heavy rain Wednesday afternoon and night.

For a video forecast of the above information click my forecast below:

Make sure to check in with the KPRC 2 Weather Team as we update the storms throughout the day on KPRC 2 and the KPRC 2 Live Stream.

Former Foreign Office head Olly Robbins said that Starmer's office had a “dismissive attitude” to security vetting of the scandal-tainted Mandelson. The testimony increases the heat on Starmer, who is facing calls to resign over the appointment of Mandelson, a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, to one of the U.K.'s most important diplomatic posts.

The prime minister fired Robbins last week after the revelation that Mandelson was approved for the job in January 2025 against the recommendation of the government's security vetting agency.

Robbins said that the concerns about Mandelson didn't relate to his relationship with Epstein. He declined to say when questioned by lawmakers what led the government's vetting agency to flag him as a potential security risk.

Mandelson had to resign twice from senior posts in previous Labour Party governments because of scandals over money or ethics. A separate background report prepared before he was appointed ambassador flagged potential business links to Russia and China as a concern.

Robbins said that the vetting agency considered Mandelson a “borderline case” and was “leaning toward recommending against” giving him security clearance. Robbins decided to clear him anyway.

Politicians wanted appointment approved

Starmer has called it “staggering” that Foreign Office officials failed to tell him about the security concerns, which he says he only found out about last week.

But Robbins said that the rules bar details of the sensitive vetting process from being shared except in “exceptional circumstances.”

Robbins told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that there was an “atmosphere of pressure” coming from Starmer’s office to approve the appointment so Mandelson could be in the post at the start of the second term of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Starmer announced the choice of Mandelson in December 2024, before intensive security checks were carried out. Robbins said that there was “a very, very strong expectation” that Mandelson “needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible” and “a generally dismissive attitude” to the security vetting from Starmer's office.

Robbins said that he was “very conscious” that refusing Mandelson security clearance would have caused “a real problem for the government and a problem for the country” in relations with the Trump administration.

Robbins insisted that his department “did not bow to that pressure.” He said that his decision to grant Mandelson clearance was based on security advice that the risks could be managed.

Robbins declined to identify any individuals as being behind the pressure. Starmer's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, a protégé of Mandelson, resigned in February, saying he took responsibility for the decision to appoint Mandelson.

The leader of the opposition Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, said that Robbins’ testimony “is devastating to Keir Starmer.”

She said that “it is now absolutely clear that ‘full due process’ was not followed. Keir Starmer has misled" the House of Commons — generally considered a resigning offense.

Starmer, who has denied misleading lawmakers, acknowledged on Monday that he made the wrong judgment when he picked Mandelson for the job. But Starmer said that he would have withdrawn the appointment if he’d known about the failed security vetting.

Starmer fired Mandelson in September, nine months into the job, when new details emerged about his friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.

The U.K. leader has ordered a review into any security concerns arising from Mandelson’s access to sensitive information while ambassador.

Questions over Starmer's judgment

Critics say the Mandelson appointment is more evidence of bad judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps since he led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024.

He picked Mandelson as ambassador, despite being warned by his staff that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein exposed the government to “reputational risk.”

But Mandelson's expertise as a former European Union trade chief and contacts among global elites were considered assets in dealing with the Trump administration.

The scandal has caused gloom among lawmakers in Starmer’s center-left Labour Party, already anxious about its dire poll ratings. Starmer already defused one potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to resign over the Mandelson appointment.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said that he had raised concerns about the choice of ambassador, but didn’t think Starmer should resign over the debacle.

“If every time a prime minister made a mistake they resigned, we would shuttle through prime ministers like nobody’s business,” Miliband told the BBC.

Mandelson is under police investigation for suspected misconduct in public office after a trove of Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. Justice Department in January included emails suggesting that Mandelson had passed on sensitive — and potentially market-moving — government information to Epstein in 2009, after the global financial crisis.

British police launched a criminal investigation and arrested Mandelson in February. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He doesn't face allegations of sexual misconduct.

Operation Blue Santa announced it will end its holiday efforts after being informed by the Houston Police Department that officers can no longer legally provide resources to support the program.

That includes providing space, vehicles, compensatory time, allowing officers to conduct Blue Santa business while on duty, or using any department resources for the program.

Without that institutional support, program leaders say continuing operations was not possible.

Laura Reyes, a Blue Santa board member, reflected on what the program meant to those who ran it.

“We are proud and honored by how we evolved the Blue Santa Program through the years to serve children and their families throughout the year,” she said.

Blue Santa began in 1984 after Houston police officers responded to a shoplifting call and discovered a man was attempting to provide Christmas gifts for his children.

Over time, the program grew into a large-scale community effort supported by officers and volunteers.

Ternus will take over as chief executive in September for Tim Cook, who turned Apple into a $4 trillion, tech colossus during his 15-year reign after the death of co-founder Steve Jobs.

Ternus, 50, has spent almost his entire career with Apple. He joined the company 25 years ago and has spent the past five years overseeing the engineering that underlies the iPhone, iPad and Mac.

It's made him a prime contender to succeed Cook who on Monday, when Apple announced the change in leadership, hailed Ternus as “without question the right person to lead Apple into the future.”

Ternus worked on some of Apple's signature products under Cook, including the Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple Vision Pro. He was also involved in the MacBook Neo, "arguably one of the most disruptive products” that Apple has released in a while, said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight.

“This mentorship will undoubtedly ensure a smooth transition, and initially, I expect very few changes to the company’s strategy,” Wood said.

The appointment appeared to be carefully timed, following Apple's 50th anniversary celebrations and ahead of its annual WWDC developers conference in June.

The change also arrives at a pivotal time for the Cupertino, California, company. While Cook led Apple through an iPhone-fueled era of prosperity, Apple has fallen behind in the artificial intelligence race. Apple has stumbled in its efforts to deliver new features built on AI, as was promised nearly two years ago.

“The challenge for the new CEO is really to make sure Apple is able to crack AI as the new user interface and reinvent human machine interaction," Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson said.

Wood says attention at WWDC will be on the new CEO's AI strategy, and what the company will do next after turning earlier this year to Google — an early leader in the AI race — to help make the iPhone’s virtual assistant Siri more conversational and versatile.

“A big strategic question is how far Apple will invest in building its own AI platform versus relying on other companies’ models and platforms,” Wood said.

Ternus will also be tested by host of other challenges that don't involve his expertise in hardware.

“Apple faces a turbulent market amid geopolitical uncertainty and macroeconomic pressures,” Wood said. “The consumer electronics industry faces a perfect storm, with memory chip shortages and the war in the Middle East having widespread implications for consumer confidence. Apple will also need to decide how much it wants to continue its deep reliance on China for manufacturing.”

Ternus is not well known outside of the Apple universe. He joined the company in July 2001, according to his LinkedIn profile, which does not have any posts.

Before joining Apple, he spent four years as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems. He graduated in 1997 from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the swim team and for his senior project developed a mechanical feeding arm for quadriplegics controlled by head movements.

In a 2024 commencement speech to the university's engineering school, Ternus said he was intimidated when he first started working at Apple and wasn't sure he belonged. He learned to “always assume you’re as smart as anyone else in the room but never assume you know as much as they do.”

“There will always be new skills to master and new people to learn from,” he said.

Ternus said in Apple's announcement that he was "humbled to step into this role, and I promise to lead with the values and vision that have come to define this special place for half a century.”

Victor Wembanyama — as expected — was announced Monday as the league's top defensive player. The San Antonio center was second in the voting for DPOY as a rookie, was the favorite last season until a medical condition ended his season prematurely, then left no doubt this year.

At 22, he's the youngest winner of the award.

“The real struggle might have been getting to 65 games,” Wembanyama said — referring to the number he needed for award eligibility — on NBC Sports Network. “But I’m super, super happy to win this award and actually super proud to be the first-ever unanimous.”

Oklahoma City's Chet Holmgren was second and Detroit's Ausar Thompson was third after both helped their teams secure No. 1 seeds for the playoffs. But this was never in doubt, not after the 7-foot-4 — or maybe taller — Wembanyama led the NBA in blocked shots for a third consecutive season and generally terrorized opponents any time they wanted to score.

“Best player in the world,” Spurs forward Keldon Johnson said.

The NBA will continue its award announcements Tuesday when the Clutch Player of the Year — either Minnesota's Anthony Edwards, Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Denver's Jamal Murray — is revealed. Wembanyama is also a finalist for MVP, with the winner of that trophy not set to be revealed until next week at the earliest.

First, the league got this announcement out of the way. And Wembanyama's win was accompanied by a slew of milestones.

— Every other winner of the award had been at least 23. Wembanyama doesn't turn 23 until next January.

— The Spurs became the first franchise with four players to win DPOY, which was first handed out in the 1982-83 season. The others? Alvin Robertson in 1986, David Robinson in 1992 and Kawhi Leonard in 2015 and 2016.

— Wembanyama joins Robinson and Michael Jordan as the only players to win both Rookie of the Year and DPOY.

“I’ve had the chance to have great coaches over my career who have taught me great habits on defense,” Wembanyama said.

The biggest accomplishment may be this: Wemby got every voter to agree.

Golden State's Stephen Curry was the unanimous MVP in 2016 and in the 10 seasons that have followed, there have been only two instances of a player collecting 100% of the first-place votes for an award.

Those were Wembanyama for Rookie of the Year in 2024, and now this.

No player in at least the last 50 seasons — and maybe ever, since it's hard to say with certainty because some full voting results for awards handed out generations ago are not known publicly — has won two major individual awards unanimously.

It's the 10th known unanimous pick in any vote for MVP, Rookie of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Most Improved Player, DPOY or Coach of the Year. And some of biggest names, including LeBron James and Michael Jordan, never won a major award unanimously.

“I feel like he is one of the hardest workers that I’ve ever been around,” Johnson said. “He takes his craft very seriously. I feel like this is just a small token of what’s to come for Victor. He’s a special player now. He’s a special player on the court and even more special person off the court as well. This is just a small token, small flowers that’s given to him for Defensive Player of the Year.”

Holmgren and Thompson both got votes for the first time; a panel of reporters and broadcasters who cover the league were asked to pick their top three in the category, with ballots due last week before the playoffs started.

Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert — a four-time DPOY winner — was fourth, followed, in order, by Toronto’s Scottie Barnes, Boston’s Derrick White, Oklahoma City’s Cason Wallace, Houston’s Amen Thompson, Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels and New York’s OG Anunoby.

There was a three-way tie for 11th between Detroit’s Jalen Duren, Golden State’s Draymond Green — the 2017 winner — and Miami’s Bam Adebayo.

Wembanyama is an MVP finalist (along with Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning MVP, and three-time winner Nikola Jokic of Denver), which almost certainly means he'll be an All-NBA first-team selection. And the DPOY win means he'll also be on the All-Defensive team, so the Frenchman is assured of no fewer than four trophies from this year's award season.

“We often overlook the team aspect,” Wembanyama said. “I’m sitting here. I happen to be the guy who’s put in the spotlight, but I am part of a system and I couldn’t get this award and I couldn’t do what I do if it wasn’t for my teammates ... and my coaching staff.”

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AP freelance writer Raul Dominguez contributed to this report.

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

The Sentry was canceled last January on drought-stricken Maui when the grass on the Plantation course at Kapalua was dying due to restrictions brought on by a dispute with the company in charge of a century-old water delivery system.

Two staff members at Kapalua, which is operated by Troon Golf, were notified Monday of the decision not to return. The PGA Tour confirmed it when contacted by The Associated Press.

The Sony Open on Oahu was in the final year of its sponsorship. It had leaned on being the week after Kapalua since 1999 to help attract players for a two-week stay in Hawaii.

The Sony Open is working toward becoming a PGA Tour Champions event to be packaged with the Mitsubishi Electric Championship on the Big Island.

“We are grateful to The Plantation Course at Kapalua, Kapalua Resort, Maui County and the state of Hawaii for their longtime support of our season-opening PGA Tour event, as well as the fans, partners and volunteers across Maui who have supported the event throughout the years,” the tour said in a statement.

It said it would share more details on the 2027 schedule at a later date. The tour also confirmed it was in conversations with the Sony Open about a spot on the PGA Tour Champions schedule, without further comment.

Kapalua began as a winners-only start to the PGA Tour season in 1999, a favorite among players for its wide fairways and endless views of the ocean on the west end of Maui.

Wisconsin-based Sentry took over as title sponsor in 2018, and its most recent extension takes it through 2035.

The most likely landing spot for Sentry is Torrey Pines in San Diego, where several executives attended this year. The previous sponsorship for Torrey Pines with Farmers Insurance ended this year without any intention of renewing.

Stephanie Smith, the company’s chief marketing and brand officer in charge of the golf partnership, did not mention future plans, only to say Sentry was proud of its eight-year run at Kapalua.

“We have said from the beginning, we love Maui and Maui is a Sentry community not unlike our hometown of Stevens Point, Wisconsin,” she said. “We cherish the friends and partnerships we have formed over the past several years. Our commitment to the island runs deep, and we remain committed to being active in the community.”

Hideki Matsuyama was the last winner at Kapalua. The final stroke was an 8-foot birdie putt that set the PGA Tour record for score to par at 35 under.

The tour had been subsidizing the purse increase to $20 million when it became a signature event, and The Sentry was among the most expensive operations because of shipping so much equipment to Maui. Attendance was moderate at best.

The water dispute involved accusations from the Kapalua owner, Japanese billionaire Tadashi Yanai, homeowners and Hua Momona Farms that Maui Land & Pineapple had not maintained the water delivery system.

MLP then filed a countersuit and alleged Kapalua was violating water restrictions.

The Sony Open dates to 1965 and had been played continuously since 1971, played at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, along the ocean down from Diamond Head. It took over as the season opener this year when The Sentry was canceled, won by Chris Gotterup.

The most famous moment in tournament history was Isao Aoki holing out from the fairway for eagle to win in 1983. Ernie Els became the first player to sweep the tour’s Hawaii events in 2003 when he won at Kapalua and Waialae.

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

Schlittler has overcome similar threats to experience success against the Red Sox in the postseason spotlight, so he has reason to carry confidence into his first game at Fenway.

Schlittler grew up a Red Sox fan in Walpole, Massachusetts. Despite his background with the Red Sox, Schlittler told the New York Post that he and his family have received death threats leading up to Thursday night's game. He compared the threats to normal trolling from fans and said he hasn't felt the need to get police involved.

“Most normal fans could care less, right?” Schlittler told the newspaper. "It’s just those diehards that just have nothing else in their lives other than baseball or sports that really care about this, and the fact that I play for the Yankees makes it worse for them.”

After his family was targeted with hurtful comments on social media during last season's AL Wild Card Series against the Red Sox, Schlittler responded with a dominant performance. He became the first postseason pitcher with at least eight scoreless innings and 12 strikeouts without allowing a walk, pitching New York to a 4-0 clinching win over Boston in New York.

This season, the 6-foot-6 Schlittler has enjoyed more success. The 25-year-old is 2-1 with a 1.95 ERA in five games. He has 36 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings.

He says his strong start will only encourage more venom from Red Sox fans.

“It’s gonna be bad, it’s gonna be bad," Schlittler told the Post. "I’m not nervous about it, but it’s gonna be loud. ... They’re gonna probably have dudes that are my age or a little bit younger, sitting right outside the bullpen, yelling whatever, probably throwing stuff at me, trying to grab me.

“That’s kind of what I expect. So I know the guys are excited for it and I’m excited for it.”

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

The campaign is focused on preventing crashes and saving lives in active construction areas, where road crews say dangerous driving behavior remains a serious concern.

Officials point to speeding, texting while driving, and erratic lane changes as some of the most common risks.

Drivers caught breaking traffic laws in work zones can face fines that double when workers are present.

According to the Texas Department of Transportation, there were more than 28,000 crashes in Texas work zones in 2025, resulting in 203 deaths, including 7 roadway workers. Officials say most of those killed were drivers and passengers rather than construction crews.

There are more than 1,800 active work zones across Texas, meaning officials say nearly every driver is impacted at some point.

Workers describe frequent close calls on the job. One construction worker, Kyle Baldwin, recalled a near-miss when a driver came close to striking him and his crew while operating heavy equipment.

“It was probably one of the scariest moments of my life with a vehicle bearing at you at 50 to 60 miles an hour head-on with the front end loader,” Baldwin said.

TxDOT spokesperson Danny Perez says crews are often working just feet from moving traffic with limited protection.

“They don’t have an office that protects them; they’re out there. They don’t have four walls when they’re out there, so when the workers are out there, it’s really important to take their safety into consideration. They want to get home, as well,” Perez said.

Officials are reminding drivers to slow down, avoid distractions, watch for crews, never tailgate, and allow extra travel time through construction areas.

Drivers are also reminded of Texas’ Move Over or Slow Down law, which requires motorists to move over a lane or reduce speed by 20 miles per hour below the posted limit when approaching vehicles with flashing lights on the roadside.

“I think that this is the election that’s going to be the sea change, not only for getting to a pro-equality majority but for changing the momentum on this fight for equality,” said Kelley Robinson, the Washington-based organization's president, in an interview with The Associated Press. “This movement is ready for its next wind, its second wind.”

Besides eight congressional districts that could help determine control of the U.S. House, the Human Rights Campaign is also supporting Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio and Texas. The money will be spent on advertising, events and canvassers.

The LGBTQ+ movement has been reckoning with a wave of defeats on the campaign trail and in the courtroom that have left Democrats struggling to regain their footing.

President Donald Trump's Republican administration has rolled back protections for transgender people, such as banning them from serving in the military and cutting off gender-affirming care for children. The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority has upheld Republican states’ restrictions while striking down bans on “conversion therapy” practices in Democratic states.

“I believe that our movement made ourselves believe that we were closer to equality than we actually are,” Robinson said. “The last few years, we’ve been doing an incredible amount of listening, of learning, also of repositioning this work.”

After the 2024 presidential election, Democrats were divided over the role that LGBTQ+ rights played in their party’s losses. The Trump campaign ran a series of advertisements mocking Vice President Kamala Harris for supporting medical gender transitions for incarcerated people and highlighting the issue of transgender people playing on women's sports teams.

“Kamala Harris is for they/them,” said a voice-over in one national ad. “President Trump is for you.”

Robinson argued that the ad was effective because of an implicit economic message, not for its critiques of the policy toward transgender people. But conservative activists and some moderate Democrats have argued such stances are too unpopular with swing voters.

“There’s a real disconnect between most voters and the party elite," said Leor Sapir, a fellow with the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.

He added, “If I’m a Democrat consultant, my advice would be: Do everything in your power to keep this issue off the public agenda."

Robinson said her organization has been soul-searching on how to best craft winning messages on LGBTQ+ rights.

“Our job is to move away from the fireballs that our opposition wants to talk about and instead find a way to get back to the things that are impacting folks every day,” she said.

In January, the Human Rights Campaign published a guide to blunting conservative attacks on LGBTQ+ issues, citing the successful campaigns of Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

Although the guide encourages candidates to “lead with your values” and “address concerns directly," it also encourages them to “go big” and quickly pivot to issues like cost-of-living concerns.

“I think the number one way to shut out a voter is to try to make them believe that their fears are not real. So what we coach candidates on doing is listening,” Robinson said. “For folks who have questions about the issues, that’s OK. We’re in a moment where the stakes in front of us are too high to look away.”

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Follow the AP's coverage of LGBTQ+ issues at https://apnews.com/hub/lgbtq.

The America Reads the Bible event — with each participant reading a passage aloud — is being livestreamed this week from the Museum of the Bible in Washington and other locations. It is slated to feature a video of Trump on Tuesday evening reading a passage that called for national repentance in ancient Israel — words that have been used prominently for decades by those promoting the belief that America has been and should be a Christian nation.

The Bible is “indelibly woven into our national identity and way of life,” Trump said in a statement commemorating the event. The statement cited historical figures such as the Puritan leader John Winthrop as “imploring his fellow Christian settlers to stand as a beacon of faith for all the world to see.”

Critics say the event has a highly partisan list of participants and is part of a larger project to connect America's upcoming 250th birthday with a Christian nationalist vision that portrays the nation's founding as essentially Christian, something many historians dispute. White Christians, particularly evangelicals, have been crucial to Trump's electoral base.

The list of participants — which overwhelmingly includes Republican politicians and Christian supporters of Trump — shows it to be “very much a right-wing MAGA, Christian nationalist effort," said Brian Kaylor, author of “The Bible According to Christian Nationalists: Exploiting Scripture for Political Power,” referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

“If they wanted this to be a unifying American project, there would have been a whole lot more attention to getting political diversity and ideological diversity,” added Kaylor, president and editor-in-chief of Word&Way, a progressive site covering faith and politics.

Historian Jemar Tisby, whose books have challenged what he says is enduring Christian complicity in racism, criticized the event on Facebook: "You cannot quote the Bible while justifying violence, war and exclusion.”

Bunni Pounds, founder of Christians Engaged, said that reading the Bible alone isn't enough. “Faith without works is dead,” she said, adding: “We need the word first to bring faith into our life.”

Trump's latest faith-related tensions

The Bible event comes just a week after Trump drew rare criticism from his evangelical supporters for circulating a social media meme in which a white-robed Trump appeared as a Jesus-like healer surrounded by patriotic symbols. Trump removed the image from his Truth Social site while insisting he was depicted as a doctor, not Jesus.

It also comes shortly after Trump's high-profile clash with the U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war.

Other high-ranking officials have been or will be reading biblical passages in person or by video. They include Cabinet officials such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as House Speaker Mike Johnson and several other Republican members of Congress. Prominent evangelical supporters of Trump who are participating include evangelist Franklin Graham, pastor Jack Graham and pastor Paula White-Cain, who heads Trump's White House Faith Office.

Pounds said that the organization invited Democratic members of Congress as well as leaders of some denominations that might be considered progressive but that they didn’t accept.

Each speaker is taking a turn in the ongoing reading of the 66 books of the Bible as recognized by Protestants. Jews recognize the Hebrew portion of the Bible that Christians call the Old Testament but not the New Testament books centered on Jesus, while Catholics and Orthodox recognize additional books of the Bible that are not included in this reading. The event does include some Catholic representation, including the president of CatholicVote, which endorsed Trump in 2024.

The event involves a comprehensive reading of the entire Bible, from the famous verses ("Let my people go," "The Lord is my shepherd") to the obscure. Passages range from the creation of the world to bloody battles and apocalyptic destruction, from exhortations to love of God, neighbor and the needy to passages telling of Jesus' life, death and resurrection.

Trump will read from 2 Chronicles

The event organizer is Christians Engaged, a nonprofit whose stated mission includes “discipling Americans on biblical worldview and their responsibilities to pray, vote and engage.”

Trump's appearance will be from the Oval Office, where he will read from the seventh chapter of 2 Chronicles, set during King Solomon's dedication of the temple in ancient Jerusalem. In it, God promises forgiveness if a future generation rebels then repents: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

The verse has long been quoted at many conservative Christian rallies and political events such as the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Pounds noted that the Chronicles passage has for decades been a major theme at annual National Day of Prayer events and that organizers invited Trump to read from it. “It’s a powerful statement that he decided to read that passage,” she said.

The Bible-reading marathon comes just weeks before a May 17 event called a “National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving,” to be held on the National Mall. It's the climactic event of “America Prays,” a project Trump announced last year in conjunction with America 250, calling for prayer for the country and to “rededicate ourselves to one nation under God."

Several of the groups and individuals involved in America Prays are also participating in this week’s Bible reading event.

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

Authorities confirmed to KPRC 2’s Bryce Newberry that Kevin Faux, 24, was arrested without incident at an apartment in Gretna, Louisiana—an area just southeast of uptown New Orleans.

The arrest was conducted by the US Marshals Service New Orleans Task Force. There was another person inside the unit when Faux was taken into custody.

Faux had been wanted on a capital murder charge in the death of 23-year-old Ashanti Allen, who was eight months pregnant when she was reported missing on April 10.

MORE ON THE SEARCH: Search expands for missing pregnant Houston woman Ashanti Allen

Her body was found on April 16.

Faux’s arrest marks a significant development in a case that has drawn scrutiny over Faux’s criminal history and prior release from jail.

The suspect is expected to be extradited back to Texas, where he will face capital murder charges.

Authorities have not yet released details on the timeline for his transfer, but online records say he remains in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. He has a hold preventing him from bonding out.

Court records confirmed that prosecutors have filed a motion to deny Faux bail under a 2025 voter-approved Proposition 3 measure to deny bail under certain violent offenses.

MORE ON PROP 3: No bail for you: Texas law allows judges to deny bail

The investigation remains ongoing.

Disappearance and discovery

According to the Houston Police Department, Allen was last seen on April 8 and was reported missing by her mother on April 10.

Her mother told investigators she received a text message from Allen’s phone at 3:50 a.m. that morning stating, “I’m leaving I’m not coming back,” but said the message was out of character and raised immediate concern.

When she went to check on her daughter, Allen’s vehicle was missing, and her purse had been emptied, with her wallet, ID, and credit cards gone.

Six days later, on April 16, Allen’s body was found in southwest Houston near Chimney Rock.

Investigators later determined she had been strangled with a cord that was found wrapped around her neck and tied into two knots.

Surveillance video and timeline

Court documents outline a detailed timeline of events based on surveillance footage, phone data, and witness statements.

Video from Allen’s apartment complex reportedly captured Allen and Faux walking to her car at around 2:20 a.m. on April 10. License plate readers captured the vehicle minutes later on the South Loop West service road.

A witness told investigators she met Faux on the night of April 9, and he left at around midnight, saying she was returning to his mother’s house.

She said he later called her on FaceTime at around 3:17 a.m.

She described him as sweating and frantic in a wooded area, where he allegedly told her he had “killed a motherf-----r” and showed her what appeared to be a lifeless body on the ground.

Text messages recovered by investigators show Faux later saying he “had to fight for [his] life” and “Imma felon then I killed a [expletive].”

The messages stopped at 3:46 a.m., just minutes before Allen’s mother received the “I’m leaving” text from her daughter’s phone.

Evidence tied to suspect

Allen’s brother later tracked her phone to a home connected to Faux’s mother.

While Allen’s brother was present, Faux’s mother called Faux and put the phone on speaker, and he allegedly denied seeing Allen and claimed he had not been in contact with her.

Detectives later recovered Allen’s vehicle parked near that home and tracked her phone to a nearby park. On April 15, a city employee found her phone at Edgewood Park.

Doorbell camera footage from the residence showed Faux arriving and leaving his mother’s residence multiple times on April 10. Allen’s vehicle was seen parked at the home, and later footage showed Faux returning with a backpack and large container.

Investigators said Allen’s phone location data aligns with Faux’s movements captured on surveillance video.

Additional video from a nearby business reportedly showed a man wearing clothing consistent with Faux dragging what appeared to be a body to the location where Allen was later found.

Out-of-state movements

According to court records, Faux reached out to a woman in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, on April 10, saying he had purchased a bus ticket to come visit her. He had previously connected with the woman online, but they had never met in person.

The woman told investigators he arrived at around 5 a.m. on April 12 and mentioned being involved in a missing persons investigation in Houston.

Authorities say Faux denied involvement when questioned and told her not to look up the case online.

She still decided to look up the case online and was concerned by the news reports. She became more suspicious after she noticed Faux using Allen’s debit card, records showed.

A short time later, an anonymous tipster alerted investigators that Faux had been seen recently leaving a residence in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. He was ultimately arrested shortly afterward.

Faux’s history of violence and early release

Court records show Faux had multiple prior assault-related cases, including:

• A 2019 aggravated assault with a deadly weapon
• A 2021 misdemeanor assault involving another woman
• Two assault charges involving Allen in 2025

In Sept. 2025, Faux was jailed in connection with assaults against Allen and later sentenced in February to 280 days behind bars.

However, records indicate he received a “two-for-one” credit—commonly used to manage jail populations—which cut his sentence in half.

READ MORE: Ashanti Allen case highlights safety planning after pregnant woman’s death

He was released months earlier than expected.

Family demands accountability

Speaking with KPRC 2 last week, Allen’s family said they were unaware of the full extent of the danger she may have been facing before her death.

“We need to know what’s happening behind closed doors with our kids,” her father previously said. “If we only knew what was going on, we would not be standing here talking to you.”

READ MORE: Ashanti Allen murder suspect Kevin Faux still at large; Family questions how man with violent history is free

History’s first American pope is visiting the continent against the backdrop of his calls for peace that have sparked a feud with U.S. President Donald Trump over the war in Iran.

Leo is now in Equatorial Guinea, the final stop of his tour, after visiting Algeria, Cameroon and Angola. His trip is so dizzying in its complexity it recalls some of the globe-trotting odysseys of St. John Paul II in his early years.

In meetings with leaders and with Africa's young population, the pope has also focused on themes including Christian-Muslim coexistence, the overexploitation of the region’s natural and human resources, corruption, migration and the legacy of colonialism.

Here’s a country-by-country look at each destination and highlights of the itinerary:

ALGERIA: April 13-15

In Algeria, Leo walked in the footsteps of his spiritual father, St. Augustine, making a pilgrimage to the archaeological ruins where the fifth-century titan of early Christianity lived, died and wrote some of the most important works in Western thought.

The Algeria stop clearly carried the most personal importance for Leo, given his ties to St. Augustine, the inspiration of his Augustinian religious order.

Migration and Christian-Muslim coexistence were other top themes in Algeria, a former French colony which is a majority Sunni Muslim nation on North Africa’s Mediterranean coast. Leo also paid homage to migrants killed in shipwrecks trying to reach Europe and visited the Great Mosque in Algiers.

In Annaba, the modern-day Hippo, Leo met with a small community of Augustinians and celebrated Mass at the Basilica of St. Augustine, the 19th century basilica overlooking the ruins of Hippo where thousands of pilgrims including Muslims visit every year.

CAMEROON: April 15-18

A major highlight of Leo's visit to Cameroon were his remarks at a “peace meeting” in the western city of Bamenda, the epicenter of Cameroon's separatist conflict. There, he blasted the “handful of tyrants” who are ravaging the planet with war and exploitation.

Although the remarks were directed at the separatist conflict, considered one of the world’s most neglected crises, Vatican officials have said the pope's Gospel-mandated message of peace on this trip is meant for all those responsible for wars and exploitation.

Leo met with both religious and political leaders including Cameroon's 93-year-old president, Paul Biya, the world's oldest leader. He called for an end to the “chains of corruption” and for upright leadership.

Biya has been accused of using corrupt means and the targeting of opponents to remain in power.

Cameroon sits atop significant reserves of oil, natural gas, cobalt, bauxite, iron ore, gold and diamonds. But revenues rarely reach rural and Indigenous communities and mostly benefit only foreign companies and a small national elite, activists say.

The pope also visited an orphanage for children taken off the streets after suffering abandonment or maltreatment from their parents.

He celebrated a Mass before thousands of people in the economic hub of Douala, where he urged young people to resist the temptation of corruption.

ANGOLA: April 18-21

As Leo headed for Angola, he again addressed the back-and-forth with Trump, saying it was "not in my interest at all” to debate the American president over the Iran war, but he would continue preaching a message of peace.

In Angola, where around 58% of the population is Catholic, Leo prayed at the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, a Marian shrine that has become one of the most important Catholic pilgrimage sites in Angola.

That church also has deep links to Angola's history of slavery. It was first built around the end of the 16th century by Portuguese colonizers after they established a fortress at Muxima, and became a key point in the Portuguese trans-Atlantic human trade as a place where enslaved people were baptized before they were sent on ships to the Americas.

While Leo didn't directly address slavery, his visit to the small town of Muxima drew reflections on his own complex heritage after research last year showed the first American pope has both Black and white ancestors who include enslaved people and slave owners.

Angola today is an oil- and mineral-rich country, yet many of its 38 million people live in poverty. Previous leaders have been accused of large-scale corruption, while the country still bears the scars of a 27-year civil war that began straight after independence from Portugal in 1975.

At a meeting with Angolan President Joao Lourenco, Leo challenged current Angolan leaders to break the “cycle of interests” that have exploited Africa and its people for centuries.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: April 21-23

Equatorial Guinea, the last stop, presents the pope with perhaps the most delicate diplomatic challenge of his tour.

The overwhelmingly Catholic former Spanish colony has been led for nearly 50 years by a president who is accused of widespread corruption and holding on to power through the harassment, arrest and intimidation of political opponents, critics and journalists.

Equatorial Guinea's leader, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, is Africa’s longest-serving president and has been in power since 1979.

The discovery of offshore oil in the mid-1990s transformed Equatorial Guinea’s economy virtually overnight, with oil now accounting for almost half its GDP and more than 90% of exports, according to the African Development Bank.

Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have documented how revenues have enriched the ruling Obiang family rather than the broader population, where at least 70% of the country’s nearly 2 million people live in poverty.

In addition to the negative impacts of the extraction industries, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Leo would raise issues of corruption and the proper role of governing authorities during the trip to Africa.

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

The six were all in custody. A seventh suspect, former Bayelsa state Gov. Timpre Sylva, is accused of helping to conceal the plot and is still at large.

In the 13-count charge sheet, authorities said suspects “conspired with one another to levy war against the state to overawe the president of the Federal Republic."

The Nigerian government first said it had foiled a coup attempt in January, when it announced that several military officers would stand trial. They were part of a group of 16 military officers arrested in 2025 over what military authorities described as “acts of indiscipline and breaches of service regulations," which fueled rumors of a coup plot that the government initially denied.

Africa's most populous nation experienced five coups in the 20th century but has not seen one since it transitioned to democracy in 1999.

The alleged coup plot comes on the heels of a surge in coups and attempted coups in West and Central Africa, the latest in Benin and Guinea-Bissau late last year. The military takeovers, experts say, follow a pattern of disputed elections, constitutional upheaval, security crises and youth discontent.

Constable Mark Herman is reminding residents and businesses to take advantage of the holiday to prepare for emergencies.

During the three-day period, qualifying emergency supplies can be purchased without paying state sales tax. The tax-free items include equipment and basics commonly used during storms, power outages and other emergencies.

Emergency supplies can help support employee safety and speed up business recovery, but officials note they work best when they’re part of a larger emergency plan. The message: prepare now and stay ready.

What’s tax-free?

• Portable generators
• Fire extinguishers
• First aid kits
• Radios, batteries and phone chargers
• Tarps and emergency lighting

The steady sound of rain tapping against your window this morning may have made it tempting to stay under the covers, and honestly, in weather like this across Houston, it’s hard to blame you. But for most of us, Tuesday is still moving forward, and so is the soggy forecast.

A slow-moving system is bringing rounds of showers and heavier downpours across the Houston area, creating a damp start and a messy commute for many. Rain is expected to continue on and off through the morning and into the afternoon, with pockets of heavier rainfall that could lead to ponding on roads and slower travel times. If you’re heading out, it’s worth planning for extra time and staying alert for changing conditions.

Unfortunately, there’s little relief in sight for today; this looks to be a persistently wet Tuesday from start to finish. For a full breakdown of timing, impacts, and when we might finally start to dry out, check out our detailed forecast below.

To read more, click here.

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YOUR MORNING FORECAST ☀️

TODAY:72° TONIGHT: 66°

KPRC 2 Meteorologist says:

“Rain gear will become your best friend, as another wave of rain pushes into SE Texas on Tuesday morning. The main concern is excessive rainfall. Give yourself some extra time to get to work as thunderstorms start moving in around 7 am. Street flooding is a concern for Houston. An area of low pressure is responsible for the storms with rain possible off and on all day long! The heaviest rain should fall west of Houston, with totals ranging between 2 and 4 inches. While Houston itself is forecast to get around half an inch to an inch, localized downpours could deliver higher totals in some areas.”

Get your forecast details here.

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TIMELINE: A Tuesday washout with heavy rain in the morning and afternoon in Houston

The rain doesn’t waste any time on Tuesday morning. Heavier showers are expected to move in by 7 a.m., especially in western communities. By 9 a.m., widespread rain engulfs the Houston area. And by noon, Things lighten up a little around noon, but there will still be some storms around. It’s a little more hit and miss, but the gaps in the storms don’t last long.

LIVE RADAR: Heavy rain hits Houston area today

See where rain is falling hardest across the Houston area so you can better plan your commute. It’s also helpful to check when storms are expected to reach your neighborhood, giving you time to prepare before heading out.

🚧 Houston Road Closures & Traffic Watch

If you’re heading out today, it’s worth checking live conditions from Houston TranStar, which tracks real-time incidents, closures, and construction across the region.

Right now, the system shows a mix of ongoing construction and lane closures on major corridors, including parts of I-10, I-45, and the 610 Loop. Some closures are long-term—lasting months or even years—while others shift daily depending on construction schedules.

You’ll also find updates on:

• Crashes and stalled vehicles affecting lanes in real time
• Planned construction closures and detours
• High-water alerts during heavy rain events (none reported at last check)

💡 Why it matters: Even minor incidents or single-lane closures can quickly snarl traffic—especially during bad weather or peak commute hours.

👉 Check the latest conditions before you go: View Houston road closures

ARE YOU A KPRC 2 INSIDER? HERE’S SOME EXCLUSIVES

Chris Shepherd shares two of his favorite Houston-area spots for a great meal with friends

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According to the Houston Police Department, the incident occurred around 3:36 a.m. on the eastbound U.S. 290 exit ramp near Windfern Road.

Investigators say a sedan, possibly a Mazda CX-5, crashed into a divider under unclear circumstances.

Details about how many people were inside the vehicle have not been released, and it remains unknown whether the driver was the sole occupant.

Police confirmed the crash was fatal but have not yet shared the identity of the victim.

Units from the department’s Vehicular Crimes Division responded to the scene and have launched an investigation into what caused the crash.

As a result of the incident, the eastbound lanes of U.S. 290 were shut down for several hours.

The feeder road, however, remained open to traffic.

No additional information has been released as the investigation continues.

Rain gear will become your best friend, as another wave of rain pushes into SE Texas on Tuesday morning. The main concern is excessive rainfall. Give yourself some extra time to get to work as thunderstorms start moving in around 7 am. Street flooding is a concern for Houston. An area of low pressure is responsible for the storms with rain possible off and on all day long!

The heaviest rain should fall west of Houston, with totals ranging between 2 and 4 inches. While Houston itself is forecast to get around half an inch to an inch, localized downpours could deliver higher totals in some areas.

Wednesday:

The weather action doesn’t stop there; another round of storms is forecast for Wednesday afternoon into the evening. Wednesday morning looks calmer before things ramp up again later in the day.

Since this pattern is driven by a low-pressure area (not a cold front), the rain will be more hit and miss, but still capable of creating trouble spots with heavier downpours.

Your extended forecast:

Looking ahead past Wednesday, the organized rain systems leave our area. Small rain chances, around 20%, could linger thanks to the warmth and humidity, but no organized storm systems are expected after mid-week.

Temperatures are also on the rise. Highs go from the 70s on Tuesday and Wednesday to the lower-80s by Thursday, setting up a warmer stretch as the weekend approaches.

Have storm or flood photos from your neighborhood? Share what you’re seeing with the KPRC 2 Weather Team through Click2Pins at click2houston.com/pins/.

Universities are incorporating artificial intelligence into education more every year, while admissions to computer science programs are down roughly 20% in Texas and nationally as hiring slows for software engineers.

Students are experiencing those changes in real time as they prepare to enter an uncertain job market in a rapidly changing industry.

“At the very beginning, it was a joke,” said Derek Do, a third year computer science major at the University of Texas at Austin. “The industry took it seriously, but a lot of the students didn’t.”

A computer science degree, previously seen as a reliable path to a well-paying tech job, doesn’t seem like such a sure thing to many students who worry that they will be the first victims of a future built around AI.

“I’ve applied to a billion jobs, as everyone has too,” added Do, who was recently able to secure an internship with a top tech company.

Some of the highest unemployment rates for recent college graduates are degree holders in computer science and computer engineering, at 7% and 7.8% respectively, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York study.

Postings for software development jobs in the U.S. have plunged since a 2022 hiring boom, according to data from Indeed compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

This uncertainty comes on the heels of a golden age for tech in the U.S. following the Great Recession of 2008, when six-figure starting salaries were almost a guarantee for students graduating from top computer science programs. The demand was such that major U.S. tech companies launched a campaign in the early 2010s encouraging high schoolers to learn to computer code, promising lucrative, stable careers once they finished college.

Now, Texas universities are reworking their computer science curricula in response to the fast-changing job market.

Computer science students are taught to write the instructions computers use to operate. As artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated, it’s now able to do much of that coding work with a speed and accuracy human software developers can’t match.

Chairs of computer science departments at UT Austin, the University of Texas at San Antonio and Baylor University said the changing job market is a frequent topic of discussion among their students and faculty.

“The students are anxious, the faculty are anxious, it’s a natural human tendency when things are uncertain,” said Peter Stone, chair of UT Austin’s computer science department.

Company lays off workers after adopting AI

Parth Patki, a spring 2025 graduate from UT Austin’s computer science program, has personally experienced the tumult of being a software engineer in the age of AI.

During his time at UT, Patki followed the same path as so many computer science majors before him, including an internship at an international cybersecurity firm. That was followed by a job offer to be a software engineer at the same company upon his graduation.

The use of artificial intelligence was essential to his work, and Patki said the six months he spent working there opened his eyes to the power of the new tools. New software engineers are commonly given space to make mistakes and learn from more senior engineers, Patki said.

“I learned so many things at that company I would never have learned in college, but the amount of time and mistakes that I made were plentiful,” Patki said. “The amount of time for AI to do the same thing that I was doing, making no mistakes, or very few, doing it in seconds instead of a week. It was wild.”

Patki was laid off in December along with about half of the software engineers working in his office. He said his bosses told them the company decided to restructure and slim down the company because of the efficiencies AI had introduced to the workplace.

Thrust back into the job market, Patki said he applied to an average of 25 jobs a day over the course of two months before receiving an offer from one of only two companies that called him back for an interview.

Professors see reasons for optimism

Professor Fred Martin, chair of the computer science department at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said the job market is changing for software developers as the use of AI becomes more common. He also noted that the Federal Reserve of New York study on employment for recent college graduates shows some positives for those entering the industry.

The median wage for early career graduates in computer science and engineering is still higher than any other degree, while the Fed’s “underemployment rate,” or the percentage of students working jobs unrelated to their degree, is also lower for computer science grads than most other degree fields.

“Definitely, it’s harder to get jobs,” Martin said. “There’s no question about that. But our kids, the ones who have internships, who know how to talk to people and have the chops, they totally have jobs. They get great jobs.”

Martin pointed to the burst of hiring that many top tech companies did in the wake of COVID lockdowns ending. Many companies are now realizing they simply have a glut of employees and are hesitant to continue hiring amid an uncertain economy still grappling with elevated inflation and hiring slowdowns across the board, Martin said.

Martin said he hopes enrollment in computer science programs is simply stabilizing after being elevated for an extended period.

Professor Jean Gao, chair of the Baylor University computer science department, argued that AI may create more jobs in software development as it makes it cheaper and easier for companies outside of the tech industry to incorporate the tools into their business. Students pursuing the field in hopes of simply landing a high paying job may not find the same level of success as a student that is truly passionate about software development in a tighter job market, but that is a reality faced by most other job fields, Gao added.

“Computer science is just like glue, in every field you need it, like health care, insurance, finance, cyber security, everywhere needs computer science,” Gao said. “So that’s why students need to make themselves different. They don’t want to be like so many other similar candidates with no differentiations.”

All three department chairs said they have introduced new curricula in response to AI’s increasing use in the workplace. Gao and Stone said they both have introduced classes for all undergraduate students that teach the foundation of AI use.

Students adapting to changing job market

Vivian Tran, a senior at UTSA and president of the campus’ Association for Computing Machinery chapter, said she and her peers are constantly talking about the job market and how they should respond to the changes caused by AI.

She said most of her friends opted to stay in school and pursue master’s degrees rather than entering the job market now “just because they wanted to avoid the job market for now,” Tran said.

During her time at UTSA, Tran has seen AI go from a gimmick that had limited use for class assignments to a powerful tool that can save her hours of coding work.

Tran has experienced that difficult job market personally, submitting 250 internship applications before securing a summer internship as a software engineer at Uber, something she hopes will turn into a full time job with the ride share company.

Tran agreed that the job market is not impossible, but it is certainly more difficult.

“On one end, there’s people that, you know, just focus on the degree. And that’s completely fine. I understand everyone has different … circumstances, but obviously that isn’t cutting it anymore,” Tran said. “The other end of the spectrum, there’s people that are solely …dedicated to the grind: doing elite code problems and building projects to put on your resume, networking events, and just [becoming] like the general, ‘LinkedIn warrior.’”

Danielle Nyame, a freshman computer science major at UT, said she’s still optimistic and hopes to land a job at the intersection of business or social justice, using AI to power technology that will help society.

“AI will not be able to take over every single aspect of this field, but it will be able to help aid with the work that is done in this field,” she said.

Patki, the recent UT graduate who was laid off last year, now works as a machine learning engineer at Paypal and uses AI every day to create new software faster than he ever thought possible.

That has opened his eyes to the ways AI could change work in other industries.

“I think there’s a lot to learn and still a lot for AI to grow,” Patki said. “It’s both as bad and not as bad as people think.”

The work is exciting and interesting, he said, but he now prioritizes building up his savings account in case of another layoff.

“I know that I’m replaceable,” Patki said. “Every day, I’m reminded that I’m replaceable.”

Disclosure: Baylor University, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas at San Antonio have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency confirmed that it has asked prosecutors to request a court warrant for arresting Bang, the billionaire founder and chairman of Hybe.

Bang’s legal team in a statement to The Associated Press did not directly address the accusations but expressed regret that police were seeking his arrest “despite our full and consistent cooperation with the investigation over an extended period.”

“We will continue to cooperate with all legal procedures and make every effort to clearly explain our position,” the statement said.

Bang, who has been barred from leaving the country since August, is being investigated over allegations that he misled investors in 2019 by telling them Hybe had no plans to go public, prompting them to sell their shares to a private equity fund, before the company proceeded with an initial public offering. Police believe that the fund may have paid Bang around 200 billion won ($136 million) in a side deal that promised him 30% of post-IPO stock sale profits.

Hybe officials say Bang denies any wrongdoing.

Bang’s legal troubles are a major public relations setback for Hybe, coming as BTS embarks on a global tour after a nearly four-year hiatus as its seven members served their mandatory military service, which is required for most able-bodied South Korean males.

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

Bang, a music executive and producer who founded Hybe as Big Hit Entertainment in 2005, is widely seen as one of the most powerful figures in K-pop and has sought to capitalize on the global success of BTS to build his company into an international pop powerhouse.

In 2021, Hybe spent about $1 billion to purchase Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, securing the management rights to artists like Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.

While Hybe’s roster includes some of K-pop’s biggest acts, such as Seventeen, Le Sserafim and Katseye in addition to BTS, the company has seen turmoil in recent years, including a highly public fallout between Bang and star producer Min Hee-Jin over the popular girl group NewJeans.

The rift erupted in 2024 when Hybe attempted to remove Min as CEO of Ador, the subsidiary managing NewJeans, while accusing her of illegally attempting to take control of that company. Min, in turn, accused Bang of hostile treatment and of undermining NewJeans in favor of other groups, as the dispute moved into courts. Members of NewJeans, who have described Min as a mentor, tried to leave the label following her ouster, but a court last year ruled they must honor their contract through 2029.

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The study comes 10 years after the Tax Day Flood, a storm researchers say is often overshadowed by Hurricane Harvey, but remains one of the most dangerous scenarios for the region.

Researchers at Rice’s Center for Coastal Futures and Adaptive Resilience say the Tax Day flood is especially concerning because of how quickly it developed.

“Houston really should take possible storms as seriously as probable storms,” said co-director Dominic Boyer.

Unlike hurricanes, which come with days of warning, the Tax Day storm dumped nearly two feet of rain overnight in parts of the region, catching many off guard.

Researchers say that kind of fast-moving storm could be even more dangerous today.

What the new maps show

Using advanced modeling, researchers simulated what would happen if a Tax Day-level storm hit different parts of Houston today.

They found that shifting the storm just miles could dramatically increase the number of homes impacted.

In one example, about 3,600 homes would have flooded in a Clear Creek scenario—but if the storm’s center shifted, that number jumps to more than 13,000.

In denser areas like Hunting Bayou, nearly half of homes in the watershed could see flooding.

“This could happen overnight without a whole lot of warning,” said co-director Jim Elliott.

A “dangerous illusion” about flood risk

Researchers say one of the biggest concerns is a widespread misunderstanding about who is at risk.

“Our data shows a massive blind spot. 92% of at-risk homes do not have flood insurance coverage,” said researcher Yilei Yu. “It’s a very dangerous illusion.”

Many homeowners rely on FEMA flood maps, but experts warn those maps don’t tell the full story.

“Floodwaters are not going to respect the boundaries,” Elliott said. “They’re going to extend beyond.”

In fact, during Hurricane Harvey, about 75% of flooded homes were outside designated flood zones.

A Meyerland family’s reality

For one Meyerland family, that risk became reality.

Michael and Freda Wadler say their home had never flooded when they bought it 30 years ago.

Then, in less than a decade, it flooded three times, during the Memorial Day flood, the Tax Day flood, and Hurricane Harvey.

“I don’t know if anybody’s really safe in Houston, you never know,” Michael Wadler said.

Living with the anxiety of flood season

The couple says flood season used to bring constant stress—not just for them, but for their family.

“You don’t realize the post-traumatic stress that you’ve got,” Wadler said. “It was always nerve-racking.”

Even their children would call and warn them when storms were approaching.

Now, their home is being elevated six feet above ground with the help of a FEMA grant.

“It feels like a miracle. It’s long overdue,” Wadler said.

The change is already making a difference.

With more intense storms, rapid development, and aging infrastructure, researchers warn that risk is growing.

“We’ve had multiple ‘500-year’ events in just a few years,” Boyer said. “We’re moving outside the boundaries of prediction.”

What homeowners should do

Researchers urge residents not to rely solely on flood maps, and to take steps to understand their individual risk.

“Do not rely solely on FEMA flood maps,” Elliott said. “Even if you think you’re outside the floodplain… think seriously about protection.”

That includes considering flood insurance and using new tools, like Rice’s interactive maps, to assess potential risk.

You can explore the interactive flood simulation maps from Rice University here.

Four years after the queen’s death, the shop is doing a brisk business in mugs, tea towels and key rings bearing the likeness of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch as the nation marks the centenary of her birth on Tuesday. Items featuring her son King Charles III? Well, not so much.

“We still sell more than the king any day,’’ said Ismail Ibrahim, the store’s manager.

The late queen’s memory looms over the monarchy after a 70-year reign that saw her evolve from the glamorous young sovereign who cheered Britain during the gloomy post-war years to the beloved national grandmother who rallied the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still ‘the queen’

When she died in September 2022, Elizabeth was the only monarch most Britons had ever known. Even now, mention of “the queen” is more likely to evoke thoughts of Elizabeth than of Queen Camilla, Charles' wife.

But the passage of time has also tarnished the late queen’s legacy. While she is celebrated as a symbol of tradition and continuity who helped unite Britain as the end of empire, economic struggles and mass migration changed the nation’s perception of itself, revelations about the former Prince Andrew’s links to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have raised questions about why she let the problem fester for years.

“Despite her absence, Elizabeth II remains this key presence whenever we think about the monarchy,’’ Ed Owens, author of “After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?’’ told The Associated Press.

“She’s certainly the most significant figure in the history of the institution in the last 100 years and, I think, therefore deserves probably the attention that’s going to be focused on her in connection with what would have been her 100th birthday.”

The festivities include a Buckingham Palace reception where Charles will congratulate centenarians who share the late monarch's birthday, and the dedication of a memorial garden at Regent's Park in central London. An exhibit of the queen's fashions is already underway.

An unexpected reign

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor wasn’t meant to wear the crown. Born on April 21, 1926, she started her long life not in a castle but at 17 Bruton St., a townhouse in London’s Mayfair district.

As the elder daughter of King George V’s second son, Elizabeth was expected to live the life of a minor royal. Dogs and horses, a country house, a suitable match — a comfortable but somewhat anonymous life — seemed her future.

But destiny intervened. A decade after Elizabeth’s birth, her uncle King Edward VIII abdicated to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Elizabeth’s father became King George VI, thrusting the young princess into the spotlight as heir to throne.

Elizabeth became queen the day her father died on Feb. 6, 1952. Just 25, she heard the news in Kenya and hurried home to take up her duties.

Global ambassador

For decades, she presided over the annual opening of Parliament in crown and ermine robe, hosted banquets for visiting leaders at Buckingham Palace and made thousands of appearances across the U.K., often wearing brightly colored suits to make sure the people could catch a glimpse of their queen.

She also became a global ambassador for brand Britain, making more than 200 overseas trips that helped bolster ties with one-time colonies from India to Tanzania, former enemies Germany and Japan and long-time friends such as the United States.

Late in life, the queen became an internet star when she and James Bond star Daniel Craig used moviemaking sleight of hand to parachute into the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics and teamed up with Paddington Bear to celebrate her 70 years on the throne.

The king recalled his mother's impact on people around the world in a video tribute released Tuesday.

“Millions will remember her for moments of national significance; many others for a fleeting personal encounter, a smile, a kind word that lifted spirits, or for that marvelous twinkle of the eye when sharing a marmalade sandwich with Paddington Bear in the final months of her life,'' he said.

In a world of relentless change, she moved with the times — applauding the nation’s successes and consoling Britons during difficult times, while remaining above the fray of politics, Robert Hardman, author of “Elizabeth II: In private. In public. The Inside Story,’’ told the AP.

Scandal's shadow

But those accomplishments make her failure to end the scandal surrounding her second son even more glaring.

Despite concerns about his boorish behavior, questionable business dealings and unsavory friends, Andrew spent 10 years as Britain’s special envoy for international trade and remained a prince of the realm until the details of his relationship with Epstein were revealed last year. In an effort to shield the monarchy from the continuing fallout, Charles fi nally stripped his younger brother of his princely title. He is now known simply as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

“He was problematic and that gave her cause for worry,’’ Hardman said. “But I do think people let him have an easy ride because they thought if they came down hard on him, they might somehow upset the queen. Now that’s partly attributable to her, but partly attributable to others.”

Besides, her “great achievements’’ far outweighed any errors, Hardman said.

Elizabeth took the throne as a young woman with two small children at a time before jet travel existed and no one had even thought of going to the moon, then remained a constant presence in British public life across generations.

“She just reigned through this vast span of the ages and was as authoritative and loved and respected at the end as she was at the beginning,” Hardman said. “And she was working till the very end, ‘til her last day.”

As historians debate the queen’s legacy, members of the public are making their own judgements.

Take Sylvie Deneux, and her daughter Clara, who stopped by Cool Britannia during a visit to London from their home in Lille, France.

They praised the late monarch for her elegance and described her as an icon. But when asked about Mountbatten-Windsor, Sylvie Deneux, 49, paused and looked at her daughter. Failing to quickly quash the scandal was a mistake, she said. But Deneux could still muster sympathy for Elizabeth, because she made those decisions as a mother, not as a queen.

“Can we blame her?’’ she asked. “I’m not sure.”

The vote was held behind closed doors during a routine meeting of Luxon’s center-right National Party lawmakers and was sought by the Prime Minister himself. Luxon emerged afterward to read a brief statement announcing the vote and departed without taking questions from reporters.

“The last week, there has been intense media speculation about my leadership,” Luxon said, adding that he had called for a confidence vote “to put that media speculation to rest.”

His party caucus had “answered clearly and decisively,” the Prime Minister said. “It has backed my leadership.”

He did not say that the vote had been unanimous. Nicola Willis, the party's deputy leader, said later Tuesday that vote had been a secret ballot with only scrutineers knowing the final tally, but that Luxon must have received a majority.

The confidence vote happened months ahead of New Zealand’s next national election, scheduled for Nov. 7. Recent drops in the polls for National had prompted speculation from analysts that he would face a leadership challenge.

That was seen by party lawmakers as an unwelcome distraction in an election year for National, which has governed New Zealand in a right-wing coalition government since the 2023 vote. Luxon, a former airline executive who entered Parliament in 2000, has led the party since 2021.

While two recent New Zealand prime ministers — National's John Key and Labour's Jacinda Ardern — have voluntarily quit the post, it would have been extremely unusual for lawmakers to oust a sitting prime minister.

Luxon blamed reports of unrest within his party's ranks on news outlets, but one political poll released days ago appeared to have made a discussion of leadership unavoidable. The 1News-Verian poll suggested slumping support for Luxon and for National in a hypothetical election.

The levels of support in the most recent poll implied the right-wing bloc led by his party could come in behind the left-wing bloc led by Labour if an election were held immediately, though the vote won’t occur for more than another six months.

“If the media want to keep focusing on speculation and rumor, I am not going to engage,” Luxon said Tuesday.

This time, they overcame a 19-point deficit, rallying past the Nuggets 119-114 on Monday night behind 30 points from Anthony Edwards and 24 from Julius Randle to tie their first-round playoff series at one game each.

“Just coming together, staying poised within those moments," Edwards said.

Jamal Murray scored 30 points for Denver, which had won 13 straight games since losing on March 18. The Nuggets jumped out to a 44-25 lead early in the second quarter only to see a potential laugher quickly turn into a head-scratcher.

After outscoring the Wolves 39-25 in the first, the Nuggets watched Minnesota flip that exact score in the second period.

“So, basically same quarters, first and second, just opposite teams,” said Nikola Jokic, who had 24 points, 15 boards and eight assists for the Nuggets.

After a slow start, Edwards looked much better than he did during his 22-point effort in Game 1, when his rust from a bum knee was apparent. This time, he drove to the basket more instead of settling for jumpers, fueling the comeback.

“He was awesome. It was unbelievable,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “Also in that (first) period when we were down, he was great on the bench. Great leadership, positive. He recognized he needed to get into attack mode and get downhill a little bit more. He did that."

Denver blew a chance to take control against its Northwest Division rival. The Nuggets are 8-0 in their history when winning the first two games of a playoff series, and the Wolves are 0-8 when dropping Games 1 and 2.

Edwards turned the ball over with 31 seconds left and Christian Braun got fouled at the other end after Jokic passed up a floater to tie it. Braun missed one of two free throws, leaving Denver trailing 115-114 with 19 seconds remaining.

Randle then sank two free throws and Donte DiVincenzo added a breakaway dunk to cap the comeback.

“I trust C.B. to make free throws,” Denver coach David Adelman said. “It rimmed out. That happens in the NBA. You're going to have moments that you don't want to remember. That's a tough moment for C.B. after playing such a good game."

Murray sank a 51-foot 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to tie it at 64. Jokic came on strong after a quiet start, scoring 16 points in the third quarter when Denver took a 93-90 lead. But the Nuggets' All-Star duo shot a combined 2 for 12 in the fourth quarter as the Wolves evened a best-of-seven series that shifts to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Thursday night.

“I feel like we had the game in hand,” Murray said, “and then we just didn't make our shots.”

Jaden McDaniels, who added 14 points for the Wolves, said the key to Minnesota's bounce-back was going "after Jokic, Jamal, all the bad defenders. Tim Hardaway, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, the whole team, just go at them. Yeah, they’re all bad defenders.”

Before tipoff, Finch complained for a third straight day about the free-throw disparity in Game 1, when the Nuggets outscored Minnesota 30-14 from the stripe. He cracked that maybe his players need to “start flopping, too.”

Each team went to the line 30 times Monday night.

___

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

Many Iran-backed militias are funded through the Iraqi state budget and embedded within the security apparatus, drawing criticism from the United States and other countries that have borne the brunt of their attacks and say Baghdad has failed to take a tougher stance.

Despite mounting pressure from the U.S., Baghdad has struggled to contain or deter the groups. The most hard-line factions now operate under Iranian advisers using a decentralized command structure, the five officials told AP, each on condition of anonymity to speak freely about sensitive matters.

“The various forces have been granted the authority to operate according to their own field assessments without referring back to a central command,” said one militia official, who didn't have permission to speak publicly.

The war in the Middle East has exposed the fragility of Iraq’s state institutions and their limited ability to restrain these groups. A parallel confrontation between Washington and the militias has deepened the crisis, with factions acting as an extension of Iran’s regional campaign and escalating attacks on U.S. assets in Iraq before a tenuous ceasefire deal was reached in April.

Even if the ceasefire agreement holds, Washington is expected to intensify efforts against the groups militarily and politically, particularly as they gain latitude to operate more independently, officials and experts said. On Friday, the U.S. imposed sanctions on seven commanders and senior members of four hard-line Iran-backed Iraqi militia groups.

“The U.S. is still going to feel it has the freedom of action to hit Iraqi militias,” said Michael Knights, head of research for Horizon Engage, a geopolitical risk consulting firm, and an adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “That may well play out into an effort to try and guide a less militia-dominated government formation.”

For Iran-backed militias in Iraq, a move to decentralized control

Days into the war sparked by U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, an Iranian delegation arrived in Iraq’s Kurdish region and delivered a blunt message: If militia attacks escalated near U.S. military bases, commercial interests and diplomatic missions, Iraqi Kurdish authorities should not come to Tehran with complaints, as there was little they could do about it.

“They said they’ve devolved authority to regional Iranian commanders,” a senior Iraqi Kurdish government official said on condition of anonymity, citing the subject's sensitivity.

In the past, Kurdish leaders in Iraq would call Iranian officials after attacks to ask why they had been targeted. “This time, they wanted to preempt that by saying, ‘We can’t help you with the groups in the south right now,’” the official said.

This shift reflects lessons drawn from the 12-day war in June, the official said. Militia officials corroborated the claim. During that war, operations were tightly centralized. In its aftermath, greater autonomy was granted in the field.

A spokesperson for Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, among the Iran-backed militia groups that have attacked the U.S. in Iraq, said there was “coordination” with Iran in launching attacks but didn't give details.

"Since we are allies of the Islamic Republic, we have coordination with our brothers in the Islamic Republic,” Mahdi al-Kaabi said.

In the recent war, key Iraqi militia leaders appeared to step back from the latest phase and didn't appear to be directly involved in operations, Knights said. U.S. strikes largely killed mid-level commanders, according to militia officials.

“None of the first-line leaders have been killed,” said a second militia official, who wasn't authorized to brief reporters.

Rather than targeting top figures, the U.S. also focused on Iranian Revolutionary Guard advisory cells, said Knights, who tracked the attacks. In one strike in Baghdad’s upscale Jadriya neighborhood, three Guard advisers were killed at a house used as their headquarters during a meeting, according to the second militia official.

Pressure on Iraq is intensifying

At the heart of government efforts to rein in militia groups lies a paradox: The factions the government says it cannot control are tied to political parties that brought it to power.

The Coordination Framework, an alliance of influential pro-Iran Shiite factions, helped install Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as prime minister in 2022. He now serves as caretaker premier amid a prolonged political deadlock.

Militia forces carrying out attacks on U.S. targets aren't rogue actors; they're part of the state’s Popular Mobilization Forces, created after the fall of Mosul in 2014 to formalize volunteer units that were critical in defeating the Islamic State.

The PMF has evolved into a powerful force that surpasses the Iraqi army, with fighters receiving state salaries and access to government resources, including weapons and intelligence. The result, critics say, is a deep contradiction: Certain state-funded groups operate in line with Iranian priorities, even when doing so undermines Iraq’s national interests.

Al-Sudani’s office didn't respond to the AP’s requests for comment on the decentralized control of militia groups.

The U.S. is focused on curbing the power of these groups in Iraq, the senior Iraqi Kurdish official and a Western diplomat said, which will put increasing pressure on the government, still functioning in caretaker status. The diplomat also spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't permitted to brief reporters.

Last week, Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S. was summoned to Washington to hear U.S. condemnation of attacks by Iran-backed factions on American personnel and diplomatic missions, according to State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Bigot.

“The Deputy Secretary affirmed that the United States will not tolerate any attacks targeting its interests and expects the Iraqi Government to take all necessary measures immediately to dismantle Iran-aligned militia groups,” Bigot said in a statement.

Militias resist steps from Iraq's government

Al-Sudani has taken limited steps to curb militia influence, including further institutionalizing the PMF and occasionally removing commanders who act outside state authority. The efforts have met significant resistance from militia groups.

Further institutionalizing them has deepened their entrenchment within the state. The U.S. may seek to isolate the most hard-line factions — including Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba, and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada — from others more embedded in Iraq’s political system. “The bad militias from the worse militias,” the senior Iraqi Kurdish official said.

Harakat al-Nujaba spokesperson al-Kaabi offered a dual framing of the group’s position, stressing both its alignment with Iran and its claim to Iraqi state legitimacy.

“To put it bluntly, we are allies of the Islamic Republic,” he said. He described the group as part of Iran’s regional “axis” alongside Hezbollah in Lebanon and Ansar Allah in Yemen.

At the same time, he insisted the group operates within Iraq’s political order, supporting the state and government when they serve national interests.

“It’s true we’re not affiliated with the government or the prime minister, but we respect the law and the constitution,” he said.

Chavez-DeRemer is the third Trump Cabinet member to leave her post after Trump fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March and ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month.

In a statement posted on social media, Chavez-DeRemer praised Trump and wrote, “I am proud that we made significant progress in advancing President Trump’s mission to bridge the gap between business and labor and always put the American worker first.”

Unlike other recent Cabinet departures, Chavez-DeRemer’s exit was announced by a White House aide, not by the president on his social media account.

“Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said on the social media site X. “She has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives.”

He said Keith Sonderling, the current deputy labor secretary, would become acting labor secretary in her place. The news outlet NOTUS was the first to report Chavez-DeRemer's resignation.

Labor chief, family members faced multiple allegations

Chavez-DeRemer’s departure follows reports that began surfacing in January that she was under a series of investigations.

A New York Times report last Wednesday revealed that the Labor Department’s inspector general was reviewing material showing Chavez-DeRemer and her top aides and family members routinely sent personal messages and requests to young staff members.

Chavez-DeRemer’s husband and father exchanged text messages with young female staff members, according to the newspaper. Some of the staffers were instructed by the secretary and her former deputy chief of staff to “pay attention” to her family, people familiar with the investigation told the Times.

Those messages were uncovered as part of a broader investigation of Chavez-DeRemer’s leadership that began after the New York Post reported in January that a complaint filed with the Labor Department’s inspector general accused Chavez-DeRemer of a relationship with the subordinate.

She also faced allegations that she drank alcohol on the job and that she tasked aides to plan official trips for primarily personal reasons.

Late Monday, on her personal X account, Chavez-DeRemer posted, “The allegations against me, my family, and my team have been peddled by high-ranked deep state actors who have been coordinating with the one-sided news media and continue to undermine President Trump's mission.”

Both the White House and the Labor Department initially said the reports of wrongdoing were baseless. But the official denials got less full-throated as more allegations emerged — and when Chavez-DeRemer might be out of a job became something of an open question in Washington.

At least four Labor Department officials have already been forced from their jobs as the investigation progressed, including Chavez-DeRemer’s former chief of staff and deputy chief of staff, as well as a member of her security detail, with whom she was accused of having the affair, The New York Times reported.

“I think the secretary demonstrated a lot of wisdom in resigning,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Monday after her departure was made public.

She enjoyed union support — rare for a Republican

Confirmed to Trump’s Cabinet on a 67-32 vote in March 2025, Chavez-DeRemer is a former House GOP lawmaker who had represented a swing district in Oregon. She enjoyed unusual support from unions as a Republican but lost reelection in November 2024.

In her single term in Congress, Chavez-DeRemer backed legislation that would make it easier to unionize on a federal level, as well as a separate bill aimed at protecting Social Security benefits for public-sector employees.

Some prominent labor unions, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, backed Chavez-DeRemer, who is a daughter of a Teamster, for Labor Secretary. Trump’s decision to pick her was viewed by some political observers as a way to appeal to voters who are members of or affiliated with labor organizations.

But other powerful labor leaders were skeptical when she was tapped for the job, unconvinced that Chavez-DeRemer would pursue a union-friendly agenda as a part of the incoming GOP administration. In her Senate confirmation hearing, some senators questioned whether she would be able to uphold that reputation in an administration that fired thousands of federal employees.

She was a key figure in Trump's deregulatory push

Aside from reports of wrongdoing in recent months, Chavez-DeRemer had been one of Trump’s more lower-profile Cabinet picks, but took key steps to advance the administration’s deregulatory agenda during her tenure.

For instance, the Labor Department last year moved to rewrite or repeal more than 60 workplace regulations it saw as obsolete. The rollbacks included minimum wage requirements for home health care workers and people with disabilities, and rules governing exposure to harmful substances and safety procedures at mines. The effort drew condemnation from union leaders and workplace safety experts.

The proposed changes also included eliminating a requirement that employers provide adequate lighting for construction sites and seat belts for agriculture workers in most employer-provided transportation.

During Chavez-DeRemer’s tenure, the Trump administration canceled millions of dollars in international grants that a Labor Department division administered to combat child labor and slave labor around the world, ending their work that had helped reduce the number of child laborers worldwide by 78 million over the last two decades.

In her statement Monday, Chavez-DeRemer said, “While my time serving in the Administration comes to a conclusion, it doesn’t mean I will stop fighting for American workers.”

The Labor Department has a broad mandate as it relates to the U.S. workforce, including reporting the U.S. unemployment rate, regulating workplace health and safety standards, investigating minimum wage, child labor and overtime pay disputes, and applying laws on union organizing and unlawful terminations.

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Associated Press writers Steven Sloan and Will Weissert in Washington and Cathy Bussewitz in New York contributed to this report.

The shooter was identified as 27-year-old Julio Cesar Jasso of Mexico, a state official told the AP on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak about the case. Jasso later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said, and security officials found a gun, a knife and ammunition. Jasso was the sole assailant in the attack, the State of Mexico government confirmed on Monday night.

The local government said seven people were wounded by gunshots. How the other people were injured was not disclosed, but a number of people fell when shooting started, some while climbing on the pyramids.

Those taken to hospitals for treatment were six Americans, three Colombians, one Russian, two Brazilians and one Canadian, the local government said. The youngest person who was injured was 6; the oldest was 61, Mexican authorities said.

Video and photos published by local media showed a man, later identified as Jasso, standing with a gun on top of a pyramid while people ducked for cover. A number of gunshots rang out in the videos.

The Teotihuacan pyramids, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are a series of massive structures on the outskirts of Mexico City built by three different ancient civilizations. As one of Mexico’s most important touristic destinations, the site drew more than 1.8 million international visitors last year, according to government figures.

The shooting took place shortly after 11:30 a.m. when dozens of tourists were at the top of the Pyramid of the Moon. The standing on the structure’s platform began firing upward, according to a tour guide who was at the scene and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

“Some people, because they were scared ... threw themselves face down on the ground, and the rest of us started to go down,” the guide said, recounting how the shooter, upon seeing the tourists descending the pyramid’s steps, began firing.

Another group of visitors lay motionless on the pyramid’s platform to avoid being targeted by the shooter, who authorities have not yet identified.

Brenda Lee, of Vancouver, British Columbia, said she was waiting to buy a souvenir when she and others in her group thought they heard firecrackers.

"Before we knew it, someone said, ‘No, that’s gunfire, run,’ and we saw people coming off the top,” she told CTV News, one of Canada’s national television broadcasters.

“There were thousands of people there and there were a lot of gunshots that just kept coming,” Lee said.

The scene quickly turned chaotic as people tried to escape, Lee said.

“And then a fellow jumped,” she said. “It was someone trying to get away, and he dropped to the next level, but he fell on his back, and it was ... it just was awful.”

In past years, staff at the archaeological site carried out security scans before people entered the area but have since stopped, one local guide noted.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote on social media that the shooting would be investigated and that she was in touch with the Canadian Embassy.

“What happened today in Teotihuacán deeply pains us. I express my most sincere solidarity with the affected individuals and their families,” she wrote.

Anita Anand, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, said on X that as a “result of a horrific act of gun violence, a Canadian was killed and another wounded in Teotihuacán” and that her “thoughts are with their family and loved ones."

Later in the evening U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson also expressed “deep concern” and sadness over the deaths and numerous injuries, and said on a post on X that the U.S. is “ready to provide support as needed while Mexican authorities continue their investigation.”

The National Institute of Anthropology and History said in a statement that the Teotihuacán archaeological site will remain closed until further notice.

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

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AP journalist Jim Morris contributed to this story from Vancouver, British Columbia.

Martinook — who was stopped on a penalty shot in the first OT — kept the winning play alive by chasing down a loose rebound toward the boards to keep the possession in the offensive zone. Moments later, Nikolaj Ehlers found Martinook between the circles to beat Ullmark, who was partially shielded by Carolina captain Jordan Staal at the top of the crease.

That set off a mob celebration by the Hurricanes around Martinook in a corner of the ice, ending a game that saw them hang on despite blowing a 2-0 lead and having an apparent winner by Mark Jankowski waved off in the first overtime due to an offside call on review.

The Hurricanes still had a chance to win it after the overturned goal, only for Ullmark to stop Martinook on the NHL's first OT postseason penalty-shot attempt since 2020.

“I didn't feel very good about myself after that penalty shot, and that intermission felt really long," Martinook said. “That was cool. I'm happy it worked out that way. It didn't matter who scored, but it was going to be a long night if that penalty shot came back to bite me.”

The Eastern Conference's top seed managed to protect home-ice advantage — barely — as the series moves to Canada’s capital for Game 3 on Thursday.

“That’s the toughest thing: You have it won, a hard-fought game, and then to have it turned over," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "You’ve got to give the guys tons of credit, because our game didn’t change. We actually got better, I think, in the second overtime.”

Logan Stankoven and Sebastian Aho also scored for Carolina, while Frederik Andersen shook off giving up two second-period goals to finish with 37 saves and multiple key stops late.

Drake Batherson and Dylan Cozens scored for Ottawa, while Ullmark finished with 43 saves and was terrific all night. He had multiple big stops in the second period, one when he extended his glove to knock down a hammered one-timer from Taylor Hall as the puck shifted cross-ice to his left side. Another came in the final seconds of regulation when he got his left shoulder on Staal's shot from the top of the crease.

“A hell of an effort,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “Playoffs are hard sometimes. Some of the games you lose, they sting. This one's going to sting.”

The Hurricanes appeared to have pushed through late in the first OT, with Jankowski skating in to pounce on a loose rebound and beat Ullmark on the left side with 2:42 left to send the home crowd into a frenzy. But officials reviewed the sequence and determined that Staal didn’t have possession and control of the puck as he entered the zone, coming as Martinook skated through the middle across the blue line for a 1-on-1 chance on Ullmark.

That sequence ultimately led to a hooking penalty on Warren Foegele, with Carolina scrambling an extra attacker and getting Jankowski’s offside-overturned score and then Martinook's penalty shot.

“Hockey’s crazy, sports are crazy,” Martinook said. “Being able to score after that, I’ll tell my grandkids about that one, that’s for sure.”

The Senators played without defenseman Artem Zub, who left Game 1 with an undisclosed injury. He had been considered a game-time decision.

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

The Texans’ wide receiver is participating in the offseason conditioning program that launched Monday, lifting weights and working out alongside his teammates.

Sidelined after a devastating injury that involved a dislocated knee, torn anterior cruciate, medial collateral and lateral collateral ligaments while catching a touchdown pass against the Kansas City Chiefs in December 2024, Dell is officially on the comeback trail.

Dell is making tangible progress.

Texans coach DeMeco Ryans emphasized how proud he is Dell and how hard he’s working to get back. Nonetheless, the focus is on the big picture. The Texans won’t be rushing back Dell.

They want him to be fully healthy before they clear him for football practice. He won’t be pushed back into organized activities until he’s ready.

“Tank has been around, working out all throughout the offseason while no one else was here,” Ryans said. “Tank has been here working, grinding in the background. I’m excited to see Tank when it is his time to get back out and play football, as is everybody here. We all love Tank. We’ve seen the ability that he has, the big playmaking ability.

“Nobody loves Tank more than me. I’m hopeful that we can get him back to playing, back to the level that he was playing. But I think it’s also, we know how devastating of an injury that was for Tank. So, I’m proud of the young man. For him just working in the background, working in silence to be back here working out with the guys and having that opportunity to go play again.”

Texans general manager Nick Caserio said last week that the team will evaluate where Dell stands after spring workouts to determine his activity level at training camp. He was noncommittal on a timeline.

“With Tank, honestly, it’s probably a day-to-day, we’ll kind of see where he is,” Caserio said. “Probably have a better idea as we get through the spring of what his availability is going to be in training camp. He’s been here pretty religiously, since he’s been able to do more once he’s gotten out of the rehab stage.”

Dell has fought through all of the doubt and frustration of an injury that interrupted the dynamic start to his NFL career, leaning on faith, hard work, family, friends and coaches like Ryans to remain positive and optimistic.

Dell called it the hardest year of his life.

The Texans are optimistic about Dell’s medical outlook. Dell has posted several workout videos showing himself cutting and catching passes and lifting weights as he works his way back from the injury.

Do the Texans need to hold Dell back?

“With Tank, he has outstanding energy,” Ryans said. “Always big, bright smile. He’s always eager to go. You always have to pull him back when he needs to be pulled back. But our team has done a great job, our sports performance team, they’ve done a great job of individualizing a plan for each player. Tank’s no different.

“Tank falls in that category where he has an individual plan that he’s working on. Our team does a great job of just remaining consistent and understanding the big picture. Everybody’s excited. Offseason program, we start, but we don’t play football today. So, there is a process, there is a long-range view that we’re working to get Tank back to playing football.”

Caserio emphasized they won’t hesitate to draft a wide receiver, but that decision won’t be determined by how Dell is doing.

“As far as a receiver position, if there is a receiver that we like that we feel we want to add to the team then we’re going to take him independent of what’s going on,” Caserio said. “In the end, the competition will sort itself out. DeMeco and I talk about this all the time. Get them in the building, they’ll figure it out. Not us.

“Ultimately, it’s going to be up to the performance of the players. We try to stay true to that and not get so, ‘Well, we have this.’ Well, honestly, that could change in a heartbeat. You always want to be prepared and have some contingencies in place, but I would say a person’s individual situation doesn’t necessarily correlate to, well, we have to draft this over here. If you draft it, you draft it.”

Dell is looking forward to making a healthy return and get back to playing the game he loves.

“What I’ve been through is something that taught me to be humble and just keep working, I’m back, I’m feeling good right now,” Dell said while hosting a shopping spree at Academy Sports and Outdoors for athletes from Boys & Girls Club of Greater Houston in honor of National Women’s and Girls Sports Day. “Once the season comes, I’m gonna cook up.”

Running free, catching touchdown passes, bolting past coverage.

That’s the vision for Dell. The comeback trail is being paved month by month for Dell as he continues to strengthen his surgically repaired knee after a devastating knee injury a year ago that sidelined him for the entire season.

Dell tried to make a return for the end of the season as the Texans made another playoff run that ended in the divisional round, but it was regarded as too soon for him to get back out there.

“I was making a push, I wanted to be out there with the guys,” Dell said. “Last year, that football season alone, was the hardest year of my life. Just sitting out of football for a year straight. Been playing football since I was five and that was my first year I ever had to sit out of football so that was hard. I tried to make a push back, it didn’t go as planned. I got time now and I’ll be ready.”

Dell is rehabbing from injuries sustained while catching a touchdown in December 2024 against the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.

“He worked very hard,” Texans general manager Nick Caserio said last season. “I think our performance group, they do a really good job. I would anticipate him being available for the offseason and then really April, May and June we’ll probably have a better idea. Knowing Tank, he’s probably cautiously optimistic that he’s going to be able to go out there and be Tank Dell.

“I think everybody is hoping that’s the case, but you never know. None of us control injuries and what happens. but I think everybody is rooting for Tank. He’s worked very hard and had a great attitude. I’m excited to see him out there moving around. Nobody is more excited than he is, so it will be good once we start getting on the field and getting on the grass to see what that looks like.”

When Dell got hurt, Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud was inconsolable as he burst into tears. It was a traumatic experience for Dell and his best friend.

Stroud supported Dell, just as Dell is now behind the embattled former NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year after he had five interceptions and five fumbles, and seven total turnovers in two playoff games. The Texans’ season ended in a loss to the New England Patriots as Stroud threw a career-high four interceptions in one half at Gillette Stadium.

Stroud was the subject of heavy criticism locally and nationally and on social media with lots of cruel jokes and commentary surrounding one of the most successful young quarterbacks in the league.

“In every way possible, like he was there for me,” Dell said of his support for Stroud. “People can say what they want about seven, you know. They sitting on the couches just typing on the computer, typing on their phones. But everybody knows who seven is.

“Especially in the facility, we know who he is. And when we get back out there with him, it’s going to be special. So, we can let them say what they want about him.”

Dell had a good time supporting the athletes from Boys & Girls Club of Greater Houston.

“It’s fun,” Dell said. “My sister used to do sports and I just know how she felt about sports. So, it’s fun to just see them have a future in sports. I feel like it’s a good thing and I’m excited.”

One of the biggest elements that the Texans’ offense was missing all season: the presence of a dangerous slot receiver.

That’s because Dell missed the entire season.

Dell tried to make it back for the end of this season, but the plan was always for him to spend the season sidelined after undergoing several surgeries to repair a dislocated knee.

Now, Dell is poised to make a healthy comeback for the 2026 season. He has remained in good spirits throughout a long, grueling rehabilitation process.

“Very supportive, you know, from top to bottom,” Dell said. “Everybody in the facility, from the coaching staff to even our cooks in the facility, everybody was supportive of me. Praying for me, of course, keeping me in their prayers, and especially my teammates and my closest people.”

The Texans missed the spark Dell provides to the offense with his outstanding route running skills and explosiveness after the catch.

He has caught 98 career passes for 1,376 yards and 10 touchdowns in 25 career games.

The knee injury marked the latest adversity for Dell whose dynamic rookie season was ended prematurely by a broken fibula that required surgery to repair the damage. Months later, Dell was the victim of a gunshot wound in his leg during a mass shooting in Florida while attending a party as an innocent bystander.

Then, he injured his knee in Kansas City after taking over as a starter when Stefon Diggs tore his anterior cruciate ligament and caught 51 passes for 667 yards and three touchdowns.

Stroud, coming off an erratic performance in the playoffs against the Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers, is thrilled to have one of his best friends back for next season.

“Tank is a brother of mine, somebody who’s like blood to me,” Stroud said. “To see what he’s gone through the last two years has been heartbreaking and he’s been through a lot. But I know he’s grown a lot as a person and as a young man, especially as a man of God. So, I’m proud of him. The smile he continues to have on his face is contagious.

“I think for him too, being here every day putting in the work and putting his best foot forward in some situations that were out of his control, I think is amazing to see him do that. So, I’m super proud of him and I can’t wait to get him on the field. You all know the connection we have.”

Dell is inspirational to his teammates, including Pro Bowl wide receiver Nico Collins.

“Yeah, man, you know, Tank, he wants to be out here,” Collins said this past season. “We got to continue to keep his spirits up, tell him we out here for you. Be in his corner no matter what. You know, like nobody want to miss the game you love. It’s heartbreaking, it’s crushing when you can’t be out there with your brothers.

“You see them every day and you’re like, dang, I miss you bro, you know what I’m saying. We know in spirit he’s getting better, so we’re going to go out here keep spinning it for him and make plays for him and keep his spirits up. We going to pick up where we left off. He’s in great spirits, though.”

• ‘Encouraging and uplifting,’ how presence of injured wide receivers Tank Dell, Stefon Diggs fired up Texans in win
• Sources: Texans’ Tank Dell tore medial collateral, lateral collateral, as well as ACL, dislocated knee, meniscus damage

PREVIOUS: A crushing blow for Texans: Tank Dell suffers ‘significant’ knee injury, a dislocated knee cap, team upset, emotional

“You all know the connection we have and I know he’s getting his No. 1 back, so he’s happy about that,” Stroud said of Dell wearing his college jersey next year after wearing No. 3 previously. “I’m happy for him to get Uno back. So, we’re going to be coming back trim and I can’t wait to get my brother back on the field. I think our connection, hopefully our chemistry picks right back up where we left off.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com

Owners of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week announced the newspaper's sale to a nonprofit foundation that said it was committed to keeping it open. A news outlet that predates the U.S. Constitution was due to close on May 3, which would have made the Steel City the nation's largest community without a city-based paper.

Weeks earlier, the alternative Pittsburgh City Paper, whose staff learned on New Year's Day that it was closing after 34 years, roared back to life under new ownership.

They were rare positive developments for a local news industry that has seen its share of the opposite over the past two decades — newsrooms shuttered or thinned out, journalists thrown out of work, consumers drifting away. No one is pretending that a true turnaround will be easy in Pittsburgh. One thing that may help is that the city faced a news abyss and was forced to prepare for it.

“It's human nature that sometimes you have to be shaken a bit to realize what's important in your life,” said Halle Stockton, co-executive director and editor-in-chief of the digital news outlet Public Source.

The many incarnations of the Post-Gazette

The Pittsburgh Gazette was born on July 29, 1786, the first newspaper west of the Allegheny Mountains. It went through several names with the expansion and contraction of a newspaper market that supported seven at the beginning of the 20th century. There was The Commercial Gazette, the Gazette-Times and, briefly, the Pittsburgh Gazette and Manufacturing and Mercantile Advertiser.

A consolidation caused by the closing of the Pittsburgh Post in 1927 made it the Post-Gazette, which has remained its name for 99 years.

It had a solid reputation, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2019 for its coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. “The Post-Gazette is really the paper of record for this city,” said Kevin Acklin, chief of staff to a former Pittsburgh mayor and former president of the Penguins hockey team. The other longtime “paper of record,” The Pittsburgh Press, closed in 1992 after a Teamsters Union strike.

Labor woes marred the Post-Gazette's last few years as well. Much of the staff was on strike between 2022 and 2025, though the newspaper limped along. Its owner, Block Communications, Inc., announced the closing on the same January day that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected its appeal of a ruling on health benefits seen as favorable to former strikers.

Since then, rumors about its future ebbed and flowed. Acklin worked this winter with other investors to buy the newspaper, but a potential deal fell through when Block insisted the union not be part of it.

To anyone watching closely, a clue to the newspaper's future was revealed across town in mid-March.

“You thought we were dead and gone, didn't you?” Ali Trachta, top editor at the Pittsburgh City Paper, wrote on the outlet's revived website. “So did I. But, to be honest, only very briefly.” She announced that the paper was returning to cover community news, politics, the arts “and the creative, weird and uniquely Pittsburgh stories” that have defined it since its founding in 1991.

A new nonprofit, Local Matters, led by a former engineering manager at Apple, had gathered investors to buy the City Paper. It would return to printed editions on a monthly basis and was launching a membership program for readers to pledge support. Most of its staff would return. The paper used to print weekly until its previous owner in 2025 said it would shift to only four printed editions a year.

That former owner? Block Communications.

A new nonprofit enters Pittsburgh's civic arena

When Block announced its sale of the Post-Gazette last week, it was also to a nonprofit. The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, which publishes the digital success story The Baltimore Banner, bought the Post-Gazette even though Block said it was not the highest bidder. Many in Pittsburgh feared it would be sold to a hedge fund notorious for stripping newspapers of resources.

Does that make Block, long seen as a villain in the local journalism industry, a hero in this story?

“For better or worse, the Blocks will never get credit for that," said Andrew Conte, a journalism professor at Point Park University who runs Pittsburgh's Center for Media Innovation. “But it does seem like they made an effort to come up with the best outcome they could as they were leaving Pittsburgh. They could have just walked away and said, ‘You know, we’re done.'”

Now the work begins. Venetoulis officials did not return inquiries from The Associated Press. The institute's benefactor, hotel magnate Stewart Bainum Jr., has said that he plans to invest $30 million in both the Banner and Post-Gazette over the next five years. The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh said it hopes to be part of the process of rebuilding. Whether the union will be invited is uncertain.

“This is going to be one of the most closely-watched newspaper acquisitions in years,” said Tim Franklin, founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University. “Can a money-losing newspaper with serious labor strife be saved and resurrected as a non-profit? If Stewart Bainum and his team pull this off — and I hope they do — it could be a model for the nation.”

Anticipating a Pittsburgh without the Post-Gazette, other news sources in the city had begun making plans to fill gaps in the marketplace, and they're not necessarily changing them because of the sale.

Another area newspaper, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, will reinstate a Sunday print edition in Pittsburgh on May 9. It had stopped printing in the city a decade ago. The Trib is also going ahead with adding about a dozen new journalists to boost its coverage of business, health care, transportation and education, said Jennifer Bertetto, its CEO. Based in Greensburg, 30 miles to the east of Pittsburgh, some city residents view the Trib as an outsider.

Stockton's Public Source, launched in 2011 primarily as a home for investigative news stories, is widening its outlook. The outlet has also convened town halls over the past few months for residents to talk about what they want in local news, and published a list of 40 to 50 small news outlets in the region that focus on subject areas like the arts and business, or different neighborhoods and towns.

People less engaged in news were looking for new ideas. “People are actively interested in where they get their information and who they can trust for it,” Stockton said. “So we're leaning into that.”

With their careers in limbo the past several months, Post-Gazette content editor Erin Hebert and photographer Steve Mellon were among several journalists meeting regularly as the Pittsburgh Alliance for People-Empowered Reporting, or PAPER, seeing if they could create a digital news site. Hebert said it hasn’t been decided what will happen now with those plans.

Conte can walk a few blocks from the university to show office space set aside for journalists from small, local publications. He hopes to convince the Tribune-Review to print a periodic insert featuring the best reporting from these outlets.

Talk to someone young, and the challenge is obvious

A clue to the challenge faced by news organizations in 2026 is obvious when speaking to students in Conte’s journalism class. When they're asked how many had checked the Post-Gazette's website that morning, only a couple of hands tentatively go up.

Sites like Instagram or TikTok are often their destinations for news. It’s more convenient and without pay walls, said Gabriela Wait. The journalism students know to check with more reliable sources if they’re not sure they can believe what they see. Many of their friends don’t.

Makenna Smith recalled her grandparents and parents reading newspapers when she was growing up, keeping them informed and entertained. Few people her age have the same habit.

A study released earlier this month by the Pew Research Center showed that public interest in news is a problem for all ages. Pew found that 37% of Americans in 2016 said they followed local news very closely. That dropped to 21% in 2025.

To Conte, that reinforces the need for news organizations to cooperate. A former Trib reporter, he recalled his paper's bitter competition with the Post-Gazette.

“Literally, they were trying to kill each other,” he said. “I don't think any of us want to go back to a point where we're doing that. We've evolved. We're trying to work together. Even if we're competing for scoops and clicks and dollars, there's also a benefit to having us get around the same table once a month.”

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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

Since Weinstein became a major target of the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct nearly a decade ago, he has been convicted of some sexual assault charges and acquitted of others in trials on two U.S. coasts. But the rape charge involving a 2013 encounter in a Manhattan hotel has lingered, due to an overturned conviction followed by a jury deadlock.

Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and denies ever having nonconsensual sex. He said in court in this winter that he had been unfaithful to his then-wife and “acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.”

The jury — seven men and five women — was selected over several days last week. Weinstein's last New York jury was majority-female, but his first was mostly male.

The current jurors were questioned about, among other things, their familiarity with Weinstein and whether they could be fair and impartial regardless of what they might have heard.

Now a 73-year-old prison inmate, Weinstein was once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. An Academy Award-winning producer and a studio boss, he helped bring such acclaimed films as “Pulp Fiction,” “Shakespeare in Love” and “Gangs of New York” to movie houses and the popular reality series “Project Runway” to TV. He also was a prominent Democratic donor.

His career collapsed in 2017, when decades of Hollywood whispers about his behavior toward women became public accusations in news and social media. Criminal charges followed in New York and Los Angeles.

His accuser in this trial, Jessica Mann, was a hairstylist hoping to break into big-time acting when she met Weinstein at a Los Angeles-area party in late 2012 or early 2013.

She has testified that she was looking for a professional connection but ended up, ambivalently, in a consensual relationship with the then-married Weinstein.

During a New York trip with a friend in March 2013, she arranged a breakfast for both of them with Weinstein, she said. According to Mann's prior testimony, Weinstein ultimately trapped her in a hotel room, ignored her protestation that “I don't want to do this,” demanded she undress and grabbed her arms, and she succumbed because she “just wanted to get out.”

Weinstein’s former lawyers emphasized that Mann kept seeing him, accepting invitations, asking him for career help and sending warm messages to him. He has switched legal teams for this retrial, and it remains to be seen how their approach may differ.

The trial is expected to take up to four weeks.

McCollum led a late surge that was almost for naught when he missed two free throws with 5.6 seconds remaining. The Knicks rushed the ball up the court without any timeouts left, but Mikal Bridges missed a jumper as time expired.

“It’s a long game,” McCollum said. “You’ve got to play to zero.”

The Hawks had trailed the whole second half and were down 12 after three quarters. Atlanta chipped away and a basket by McCollum gave the Hawks a 101-100 lead — their first of the series in the second half — with 2:09 to play. He made another for a three-point lead, and after Jalen Brunson tied it with a 3-pointer, McCollum answered with another jumper to make it 105-103 with 33 seconds to play.

Jonathan Kuminga added 19 points off the bench and Jalen Johnson scored 17, including a basket with 10 seconds left for a four-point lead for the No. 6 seeds, who host Game 3 on Thursday.

Brunson had 29 points for the Knicks and Karl-Anthony Towns added 18.

The Knicks are trying to reach the second round for a fourth straight season, their longest stretch since the 1991-92 to 1999-2000 seasons, and seemed well on their way.

“This is a game we should have won,” New York's Josh Hart said. “In the playoffs you can’t give away games.”

The Knicks had been 40-1 in the postseason since the advent of the shot clock in 1954-55 when leading by 12 or more after three quarters. The only loss was when Reggie Miller scored 25 points in the fourth for Indiana in Game 5 of the 1994 Eastern Conference finals.

Towns, who had four points in the first half, scored 14 in the third quarter as the Knicks extended the lead to 78-64. They were still ahead by eight with under five minutes remaining.

But their young players who sparked the Hawks' surge after the All-Star break finally made some plays before McCollum — ignoring profane jeers after he and Jose Alvarado went nose-to-nose and were each given technical fouls in the third quarter — then closed it out.

McCollum was acquired from Washington in the January trade for Trae Young, the Hawks star who was a former playoff villain at Madison Square Garden. He filled the role perfectly Monday, outplaying Brunson in the second half and stealing a game that looked lost.

Hart had 15 points, 13 rebounds and six assists.

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

Many advocates in the aftermath of the deadly shootings have said the tragedies pointedly highlight troubling underlying trends where Black women are more likely to experience domestic violence — and they see the killings as an opportunity to confront how disparities in access to care and resources make some women and children more vulnerable to violence in the home.

On Sunday morning, a man police identified as Shamar Elkins fatally shot seven of his children and another child in Shreveport, Louisiana. A relative has said Elkins was in the midst of separating from his wife who was wounded.

And last Thursday, police found the bodies of former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and his estranged wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, in their suburban Washington, D.C., home. Justin Fairfax shot his estranged wife and then himself, and their two children in the home at the time were unhurt, police said. Like Elkins, Fairfax was in the process of separating from his wife and had faced a judge's upcoming deadline to move from the house.

While it's not clear what prompted the Shreveport killings or the apparent murder-suicide in Annandale, Virginia, experts say that the harrowing details of the killings echo familiar patterns that play out in homes across the country — and underscore the need for solutions that address the root causes of the disparate violence.

A ‘silent epidemic’

Sunday wasn’t the first time that Elkins’ family had suffered from gender-based gun violence: Shaneiqua Elkins and the other woman who was shot, Keosha Pugh, were sisters, and lost their mother to gun violence when they were under age 10, according to their uncle Lionel Pugh.

“It’s sad. It just breaks you down," Pugh said.

Shreveport Councilman Grayson Boucher said at a news conference Monday that the Louisiana killings were emblematic of “a true epidemic of domestic violence" across the small southern city of roughly 180,000 people.

Those trends go well beyond Shreveport as experts have pointed out how both race and gender make Black women in particular more vulnerable to domestic violence.

More than four in 10 Black women experience physical violence from an intimate partner during their lifetimes — a much higher rate than women who are white, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander — according to a 2014 study by the Centers for Disease Control.

Paméla Tate is the executive director of Black Women Revolt, which runs programs to prevent abuse and offers survivors' resources. She said a logical skepticism about police and government child services agencies based on a history of institutionalized racism makes Black women reluctant to seek help — and especially vulnerable to domestic violence.

Additionally, Black women are two times more likely to be murdered by men than their white counterparts, according to a 2025 study published by the Violence Policy Center, based on federal government data from 2023. Those men are more often than not familiar to their victims, according to the study, which found that more than nine in 10 Black female victims knew their killers, with the majority of those killings being carried out with guns.

Ultimately, Tate said, “domestic violence doesn't see color," and is primarily driven by the prevalent belief among men — across racial demographics — that women are subjects or property.

“Domestic violence is about exerting power over someone that you profess to love and controlling their behavior,” Tate said.

Lack of resources for Black men

There has been intense speculation about the role that mental health crises might have played in both shootings.

A relative of Elkins' wife told The Associated Press that Elkins had voluntarily checked into a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in January for about a week and a half for mental health help.

In Virginia, Justin Fairfax was a rising star in the Democratic Party until two women accused him of sexual assault, casting doubt on his trustworthiness as a political leader. The former lieutenant governor's “mental and emotional health” suffered before he killed his wife and himself, according to court documents, which say he drank heavily and withdrew from his family after the allegations were made public in 2019.

Adult and child psychiatrist Christine Crawford hasn’t examined the killings in Shreveport or Annandale, but said financial troubles, marital issues and problems at work — in addition to underlying mental health vulnerabilities — can lead someone to “crack."

“It makes some think about the amount of pain, distress and hopelessness they found themselves in at that time,” said Crawford, who practices at the Webster Clinic in Boston and is interim chief medical officer at the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

She noted many Black people find themselves priced out of programs and care for mental health for such reasons as private care costs and a lack of insurance.

That level of desperation can make some people feel “completely out of options on how to deal with the pain he was in at that moment," Crawford said. T

Some have said that there are social dimensions to these economic trends, too.

“Mental health disparities in the Black community is not accidental,” said University of Michigan Social Work Professor Daphne C. Watkins. “They are the predictable result of structural racism” in schools, employment and other aspects of society.

Watkins, founder of the YBMen Project which provides young Black men with a safe place to discuss their mental health, manhood and social support, said studies show that 10% of Black adults experience moderate to severe depression, while 18% experience anxiety disorders.

But Black men tend to forego mental health treatment due to cultural expectations, in addition to costs, said Watkins. Without an outlet, stressors from family, work and relationships can pile up.

“For a long time, in the Black community, we didn’t talk about anxiety. Now, you have to talk about it hand in hand along with depression.”

Mental health not an excuse, some say

Others have emphatically said that mental health is not an excuse for domestic violence.

“To say they’re mentally ill, that doesn’t cut it,” Tate said. “There are people who are depressed or people who have schizophrenia and don’t harm the their partners, much less kill them.”

Shaneiqua Elkins and Cerina Fairfax could have been struggling with mental health challenges too, Tate added, and they both “had the same access or ability to go and purchase a gun” but chose not to.

“The mental illness is not what we’re talking about here,” she said.

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Associated Press writer Sophie Bates contributed in Shreveport, Louisiana.

The procedure will be performed Wednesday at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic in Los Angeles, and Díaz is not expected back until the second half of the season.

The Dodgers placed the 32-year-old right-hander on the 15-day injured list and recalled left-hander Jake Elder from Triple-A Oklahoma City. Elder, was acquired from the Washington Nationals on April 1 for cash, has allowed two runs in 5 1/3 innings this season with Oklahoma City.

Díaz is 1-0 with a 10.50 ERA, 10 strikeouts and four saves in five opportunities over seven appearances. He gave up three runs without recording an out in Sunday's 9-6 loss at Colorado. He has allowed three earned runs in each of his past two appearances.

“It gives other guys opportunities, but losing your closer is a big loss,” manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers beat the Rockies 12-3 on Monday night. “Other guys are going to have to step up. Fortunately for us, we’ve got a lot of depth and we’ve got some other guys who should be coming here in the next few weeks.”

The Dodgers signed the three-time All-Star to a three-year, $69 million deal last December after he opted out of the final two years and $38 million of his contract with the New York Mets.

The two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers split their four-game series at Colorado. Their seven-game trip continues with a series at San Francisco that starts Tuesday.

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

Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather. Willacy was sentenced to death a year later upon a 9-3 jury recommendation after being convicted of first-degree murder, burglary, robbery and arson.

Court records indicate Sather had returned to her Palm Bay home for her lunch break in September 1990 and found Willacy burglarizing her home. He struck her in the head with a blunt object, fracturing her skull, and then bound her hands and ankles with wire and tape, according to investigators.

Willacy attempted to strangle Sather with a telephone cord, and when that didn’t work, he doused her in gasoline and set her on fire, records show. An autopsy determined that Sather had died from smoke inhalation, indicating she was still alive when she was set ablaze.

Willacy also stole Sather’s car and other items from her home, and used the woman’s ATM card to steal cash, officials said. When Sather failed to return from her break, her employer caller her family. Her son-in-law went to check on her and found her body.

The Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing in 1994 because the trial judge failed to allow defense attorneys a chance to rehabilitate a potential juror who indicated she could not recommend the death penalty. Willacy was resentenced to death in 1995 with an 11-1 recommendation by a new jury.

This would be Florida’s fifth execution in 2026 following a record 19 executions in the state last year. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.

The Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Willacy last Wednesday. He had made claims based on the state's refusal to grant public records requests about executions and lethal injection.

Willacy's final appeals were pending before the U.S. Supreme Court as the execution date loomed.

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a long line of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each.

Another execution has been scheduled in Florida for later this month. James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, is scheduled to received a lethal injection on April 30. He was convicted of beating and choking his 13-year-old niece to death.

All Florida executions are by lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The thin line of the pope's explanation

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

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

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

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

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

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

What came before Leo's unprecedented appeal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New role, same Leo, Vatican official says

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evan Mobley had 25 points and eight rebounds for the Cavaliers, who had at least three players score at least 25 points in a postseason game for the second straight season and fourth time overall.

“They threw the kitchen sink at us, gave us a lot of different looks and (we) kept our poise,” Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Donovan and James closed it for us, but I thought our defense kind of forced them to go small. This is what the playoffs are about. They came at us hard and we responded.”

Cleveland — which never trailed — has won 12 straight playoff games against Toronto, tying the NBA postseason record for consecutive wins against an opponent. The streak began in the 2016 Eastern Conference finals, when the Cavaliers took the final two games. Cleveland swept Toronto in four games in the second round in 2017 and '18.

The Cavaliers also have 12-game winning streaks against Detroit and Atlanta, while the Los Angeles Lakers had a 12-game run against Seattle from 1980 through '89.

Scottie Barnes led Toronto with a playoff career-high 26 points. RJ Barrett had 22 points and nine rebounds.

The Raptors had 16 fast-break points after being held to a season-low three on Saturday. But Toronto committed a season-high 22 turnovers that led to 22 Cavaliers points.

“The only time the game got away was when we made a lot of turnovers. We played super hard, we adjusted to how the game was going, and did certain things that helped us,” Barnes said.

The series shifts to Toronto for Game 3 on Thursday night.

Harden had four assists to move into seventh place on the playoff career list with 1,139. He also had five steals, the fourth time he’s had at least that many in a playoff game.

A driving layup by Barnes got Toronto within 99-90 midway through the fourth quarter. Mitchell responded with seven straight points to put it away.

The Cavaliers had a 73-57 advantage midway through the third quarter before the Raptors countered with a 16-6 run.

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

“Braylon, he’s not here,” she recalled one of her students saying Monday.

Braylon Snow, who just turned 5, was one of seven siblings who were fatally shot Sunday by their father in an attack that also killed their cousin. The shooting rattled classrooms in Shreveport where teachers like Hall on Monday came face-to-face with distraught parents and a messy stew of emotions.

In Hall's classroom at Johnnie L. Cochran Head Start, it's likely students noticed Braylon's absence immediately. Each day, Hall instructs her students to look around for friends who aren't there.

“When they come back tomorrow, we can tell them, ‘Hey, we missed you, we’re glad you’re back'” she tells them.

But Hall wasn't ready to tell the students that the boy she described as a “cool little dude” wasn't returning. She kept circle-time moving. Numb and heartbroken, she lasted until noon and then went home.

“I’m no good to my babies right now because I just feel like I need to be in a moment of silence and just pray,” she said.

Preschool comes to an end

At Head Start, preparation's for next month's graduation ceremony have been in full swing. Hall, an organist and pianist at her local Baptist church, wrote a song for the ceremony.

Students, who dress in caps and gowns for the festivities, have been busy learning the words, excited about the prospect of starting kindergarten in the fall. Hall was working hard to make sure they were ready.

Just last Thursday, she pulled Braylon's mother aside during morning drop-off, boasting that Braylon was writing his first and last name. Braylon also was getting so independent, squirting syrup for his pancakes onto his plate by himself. He didn't even need a reminder to wash his hands.

“Braylon doesn’t give me any problems,” she told his mother.

Braylon greeted Hall — known to her students as “Mrs. Hall” — each day with a small wave.

As the year progressed, she nudged more gap-toothed smiles from him. He loved his time on the playground — playing chase, tag and even partaking in "a little wrassling.” She laughed as she remembered it.

“He was for the majority of the time kind of a quiet little soul in the classroom," she said. "When he did get a little extra energy or something, it was just a joy to see him smile and laugh."

News of the shooting emerges

But then came Sunday. After church, she went to her mother's house. It was then that she stumbled across an article about the shooting.

The number of victims was so high she struggled to comprehend it. Then she learned Braylon was among the victims. She also knew one of his brothers. He had been a Head Start student at the school last year.

“I just broke down and just started crying,” she said.

The same thing happened Monday morning at drop off when she locked eyes with a parent. Neither could say anything; the preschoolers were all around them.

“I just immediately broke down,” she said. So too did the parent and a teacher's aide.

She is relying on her faith now. She prays for the dead, for the families and also for the teachers.

“And I’m just praying for all the educators that were connected to these children because it’s tough because my parents’ babies, they become my babies. And I treat them like they’re my own. So I’m just really praying that he sustains us all during this time.

“Just give us that strength."

Hours later, the team released footage of Stroud running sprints with the same steadfast, locked-in look. Stroud also appeared to be in optimal condition, lean and moving fast.

Throughout the past few months, the Texans have repeatedly emphasized that the former NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year is locked in and focused on the task at hand.

After a rocky playoffs that included a career-high four interceptions in an AFC divisional round loss to the New England Patriots, Stroud is determined to deliver a season and postseason filled with winning performances.

Consider Texans coach DeMeco Ryans impressed with Stroud.

C.J., he shows up here, he’s looking like he’s in great shape," Ryans said as the Texans opened their annual offseason conditioning program. “He’s revved up. He’s ready to go. It all starts with your mindset, how you’re attacking the offseason. C.J. is going to attack it the right way, so I’m excited to see him continue to work, continue to grow as a player, as a leader.

“He’s eager to do that. It’ll be an exciting offseason for him just to be here putting in the work, continuing to put in the work because he’s been working. Right after the season he has been dedicated himself to working, doing things the right way. When you see a young man working the way he’s working, I know what that looks like on the other side and its only positive things that can come from that.”

Phase 1️⃣ Day 1️⃣ pic.twitter.com/MedOsjl7qs

— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) April 20, 2026

The Texans exercised a $25.9 million fifth-year club option to secure Stroud through the 2027 season.

Although the Texans are not expected to engage with Stroud in long-term contract negotiations this year necessarily, they are expected to try to extend Stroud next offseason depending on how he does this season.

“I don’t really think that affects his future,” Texans general manager Nick Caserio said. “He’s our quarterback. We’ve said that from the beginning. I think that was really more of a procedural thing. I don’t want to say it was a no-brainer, but it was kind of a no-brainer, so we’re glad he’s here.

“Again, it’s more of a part of the process. So, we’re excited about his offseason. I think he’s had a good approach, had a good attitude here. I think he’s put a lot of work in from March and April. I’m so excited to have him around here in the spring and I’m excited to keep moving forward.”

Previously at the NFL scouting combine in February, Caserio threw cold water on unfounded trade speculation surrounding Stroud.

Stroud was named in trade rumors previously dismissed by KPRC 2 as completely unfounded. Stroud will remain the Texans’ QB1 going forward.

While the Texans aren’t engaging in contract negotiations at this time, they can shift that approach anytime. Ideally, they would be happy to reward Stroud provided he proves himself this season after being intercepted a career-high four times in an AFC divisional round loss to the New England Patriots.

“It’s moronic,” Caserio said in response to a question from KPRC 2. “We’re not trading him. He’s our quarterback. He’s going to be playing quarterback for the Houston Texans in 2026. Anything beyond that, you guys can speculate on that, but we’re not trading C.J. Stroud.”

Stroud has been the subject of heavy criticism since that game. However, the organization has had his back. It was an uncharacteristically sloppy performance from Stroud, who completed 64.5 percent of his throws as he passed for 3,041 yards, 18 touchdowns and eight interceptions while missing three games due to a concussion.

A former Pro Bowl selection who declined an alternate invitation to the Pro Bowl, Stroud has passed for 10,876 yards, 62 touchdowns and 25 interceptions in three NFL seasons.

Stroud led the NFL in touchdown to interception ratio with a 23:5 clip as a rookie, passing for 4,108 yards.

“He’s been a good player, and won a lot of football games,” Caserio said. “Quarterback is the hardest position to play in sports. He had some ups and downs. That’s natural for a position, but, overall, he’s had a pretty significant impact on what we are as a program. He’s not going anywhere.

Since the playoffs, the Texans and Stroud have taken several steps to move on from the New England game.

The steps include adjusting his offseason approach, improving the supporting cast on offense, and making a coaching change. Jerry Schuplinski has been named quarterbacks coach, replacing Jerrod Johnson.

“C.J. is a young quarterback,” Ryans said during NFL meetings at the Arizona Biltmore. “Being early in his career, he’s gained a ton of valuable experience, including in the playoffs. It hasn’t gone as we would like it to there. You always want to win it all.

“But when you go through those difficult moments, those tough times, you learn from them. I know C.J. has learned from those moments. Now, we’ve got to go out and improve and show it on the field. The way he’s attacked the offseason, working hard, throwing every day, staying dialed in. I’m excited to see how that translates into a really great year for us.”

Without getting into specifics about future plans, the McNair family made it clear how highly they value All-Pro defensive end Will Anderson Jr. in advance of his record-setting $150 million contract extension and Stroud.

“We’ll let DeMeco and Nick make the football decisions there, but they’re exciting, really good young players,” Texans chairman and CEO Cal McNair said. “We hope to have them around for a long, long time.”

PHOENIX -- #Texans Cal McNair and Hannah McNair on potential long-term deals for Will Anderson Jr., C.J. Stroud: 'Exciting, really good players, we'll hope to have them around a long, long time. .. It's a good problem to have when you have so many guys you want to keep under… pic.twitter.com/WunQinzX0g

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) April 1, 2026

A year from now, cornerback Kamari Lassiter and safety Calen Bullock will be eligible for extensions. Both were named Pro Bowl alternates after the 2025 season.

“It’s a good problem to have when you have so many guys you want to keep under contract,” Hannah McNair said. “If we keep drafting the way we do, this is going to be something we talk about every year.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com

The 19-year-old Martone became the sixth-youngest player in NHL history to score in each of his first two playoff games when he beat Stuart Skinner deep into the second period to put Philadelphia in front. Garnet Hathaway added a short-handed goal a few minutes later, and Luke Glendening chipped in an empty-netter late in the third.

Vladar made it stand up as the red-hot Flyers, who needed a scorching finishing stretch just to reach the playoffs, frustrated the suddenly offensively challenged Penguins all night.

“He’s been like that all year for us,” Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet said of Vladar. “Guys enjoy playing for him.”

Game 3 is Wednesday night in Philadelphia.

Pittsburgh, the NHL's third-highest scoring team during a resurgent regular season, again struggled to get pucks on net against Vladar. The Penguins, who had just 17 shots in a Game 1 loss on Saturday night, vowed to come out with more jump.

While Pittsburgh controlled long swaths of the game after another slow start, including sustained pressure in the third, it could not find a way to slip the puck past Vladar.

“(We) should be frustrated, we just lost two games at home,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. "But with frustration it’s how are you going to respond. ... Nobody is happy. Nobody should be.”

The 28-year-old Vladar, who had never won a playoff game in his six-year career before this series, held firm as the Flyers headed home with momentum.

Pittsburgh shuffled its top two lines midway through the game looking for a jolt. While it created more opportunities, it did not result in more goals. The Penguins went 0 for 5 on the power play to fall to 0 for 7 with the man advantage during the series.

Stuart Skinner made 20 saves for the Penguins, including a couple of breakaways that could have broken things open, but it wasn't against the young Flyers, who seem to be gaining confidence with each passing game.

Martone, who was playing collegiately at Michigan State last month, scored his fifth goal in 10 games as a pro when a rebound off a Travis Konecny shot came right to his stick. Martone powered it into the open net to put Philadelphia in front with 6:21 to go in the second.

“I made this jump because I believed I could help this hockey team,” Martone said. "I hopped on a moving train and it’s been good ever since.”

The Flyers were on the penalty kill just over four minutes later when they doubled their lead. Owen Tippett fought off a pair of Penguins to keep the puck in the Pittsburgh zone and then fed Hathaway, who deposited it into the open net on a night the only place Philadelphia dominated was the scoreboard.

“Sometimes in the playoffs you have to win those ugly games,” Tocchet said. "It was an ugly game for us. ... Sometimes you’ve got to win games like that.”

___

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

“I felt like I was back in the Northwest League,” manager John Schneider said before Monday night’s series opener against the Los Angeles Angels. “But we made the best of it, we all got here safe, and we’re ready to go.”

Schneider said he was informed by Blue Jays traveling secretary Rodney Hiemstra of the mechanical problem at about 4 p.m. on Sunday, as the Blue Jays were finishing a 10-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“There was an issue with the joystick, which is pretty important — apparently, it’s used for takeoffs and landings,” Schneider said. “So the options were to get a new plane, which would have had to fly down from Vancouver and wouldn’t have landed until 10 p.m., or drive. We took a team vote, and the team voted to bus.”

While pitcher Dylan Cease, who was Monday night's scheduled starter, flew commercial from Phoenix to Orange County, the team had to unload all the luggage and food from the charter plane and drive it all back to Chase Field. There, it was loaded onto three buses — two for players and one for the rest of the traveling party of about 40, which included the coaching staff.

“The math was a little off,” Schneider said. “It worked out way better for the players, but there was a whole lot of doubling up for us. I had my own two seats, and I still had cases of water around me, and you feel bad reclining on people.”

Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer was on the losing side of the vote — he preferred the team fly to Orange County — but the veteran right-hander was still able to find some humor in the situation.

“I got reprimanded by Max for electing to travel that way,” Schneider said as he showed reporters a letter Scherzer printed out for the manager. “So we’re going to go to a trial in kangaroo court.

“I was like, ‘Max, why don’t you just buy a plane? You've got plenty of cash.’ Most of the guys who were playing (Monday night) wanted to get out of there.”

___

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

Inside Rudder Auditorium, the same man interrupted Pence twice, shouting profanity first after Pence voiced support for recent U.S. military action against Iran and again when Pence invoked conservative activist Charlie Kirk while condemning political violence. After the second interruption, officers removed and arrested the man, who the university said was not a student.

Pence said he was able to forge warm relationships in Congress with people he thought “were wrong about everything” because they still shared common ground in caring deeply about their faith, families and their country.

“I think the key for us going forward is to stop talking at each other and start listening to each other,” he said, arguing that government should reflect “the decency and the generosity and the respectfulness of the American people.”

The event — meant to teach students how to disagree agreeably — was the latest in a five-campus Texas A&M System series that leaders framed as helpful preparation for engaging despite differences in polarized times. But critics saw a contradiction in teaching students about effective dialogue after restricting information that can be taught and canceling classes based on their content.

Pence, once among Trump’s closest political allies, became a target of Trump and his supporters when he refused to block the certification of the 2020 election. Monday marked at least his third visit to Texas A&M since 2019, and one of several college appearances he has made ahead of the June 2 release of his new book, “What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience.”

At Texas A&M, he blamed some of the country’s growing political division on social media, saying it reinforces people’s existing views and gives foreign actors another way to deepen distrust. He also praised U.S. Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, and Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, for working across the aisle on efforts to force the sale or ban of TikTok’s Chinese parent company.

Pence’s afternoon session and the morning discussion with McCaul and Cuellar were both moderated by leaders in student government. But across both sessions, speakers spoke in general terms about civility, political courage and listening across differences without directly addressing the campus controversies hanging over the event.

Those controversies grew out of Texas A&M’s response to lecturer Melissa McCoul’s classroom discussion on gender identity last fall, which led first to heightened scrutiny of course content and later new limits on what professors could teach. System leaders ordered a review of all courses, and regents barred most courses from teaching race or gender ideology or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity unless a campus president approved an exception in writing.

The death of Kirk, who had visited Texas A&M months earlier, widened the debate beyond the classroom. After reports that some students at other universities had mocked or celebrated his death, lawmakers created a committee to review civil discourse and freedom of speech on college campuses.

McCaul, whose district includes College Station, and Cuellar spoke about moments when they took heat from their own parties. McCaul pointed to his vote to certify the 2020 election, while Cuellar cited his 2005 support for the Central America Free Trade Agreement.

Only afterward, in response to a question from The Texas Tribune, did the lawmakers address the fight over what can be taught in classrooms.

“I’m one of those big believers that you’ve got to have public expression, that freedom, and we’ve got to be very, very careful not to cross those lines,” Cuellar said.

McCaul also said he would not want to see free speech chilled at universities and that students should have a voice, but he also said universities must follow the law. He did not name a specific law.

No state or federal law currently bans college faculty from teaching about race, gender or sexuality, and the executive order McCaul appeared to reference governs federal funding, not classroom instruction.

The university said about 2,000 people registered to hear Pence speak.

Outside, roughly 30 to 40 students and faculty stood in light rain with “Aggies for Academic Freedom” signs, protesting what they saw as a gap between the symposium’s message and the university’s recent actions. One sign, decorated with googly eyes, read, “Our eyes see through TAMUS lies.” Another asked, “Are we a force for good … yet?” a pointed riff on the university’s “A Force for Good” branding. Protesters also chanted, “Aggies gig ‘em, we don’t gag them.”

Mitchel Cepale, a sophomore political science major who said he attended the morning session before joining the protest, said civil discourse was a worthy goal, but argued the event itself felt like a “facade of civil discourse” built around preplanned questions and broad concepts.

Student protester Leah Tolan said she wanted to represent students and faculty who were too scared to speak publicly.

“We’re showing the Board of Regents that we’re not backing off,” said Tolan, a sophomore sociology major who said she did not attend the symposium because she had class.

Another student protester, Yousef Mahdy, pointed to the university’s ongoing investigation into his own speech as part of what he and other protesters see as a broader crackdown on views those in power do not like.

Earlier this month, Mahdy, who is a junior studying petroleum engineering, filmed himself approaching two students on campus at a Students Supporting Israel table. He called them “genocide supporters” and “stinky Zionists,” and told them to “get the hell out of our country.”

The video was posted to X by the StopAntisemitism account, which tagged Chancellor Glenn Hegar and asked why the conduct was allowed. Hegar replied that same day, “Harassing others with hateful and demeaning language is unacceptable. … We are reviewing the facts, and we will act if our policies have been violated.”

In an interview with the Tribune, Yousef said he was not antisemitic and that criticizing Zionism is not the same as attacking Jewish people. On Monday, he told protesters, “How do they expect me to have civil discourse when my discourse is being silenced?”

Martin Peterson, the philosophy professor who told the Tribune in January that he had been ordered to remove material from Plato and other sources related to race and gender, said the system’s rules now keep professors from teaching what they believe students need to learn, weakening the value of a Texas A&M education.

Peterson, who is leaving Texas A&M for Southern Methodist University, framed his departure as a handoff to others still on campus, urging them to keep pushing back.

“I really hope someone else will take up the fight,” he said. “I love you. I will miss you.”

In a statement to the Tribune before Monday’s event, Hegar said the symposiums were meant to expose students to “substantive discussion in an appropriate setting” and to reinforce that “disagreement does not have to devolve into hostility.” He said it was “entirely fair for critics to voice objections” but called it hypocritical to dismiss civil discourse while “rejecting engagement out of hand.”

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Disclosure: Southern Methodist University and Texas A&M University System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

The crash, following an operation to destroy a clandestine drug lab in a rural area, has reignited a debate over the extent of U.S. involvement in Mexican security operations. Speculation was only fueled by Sheinbaum, local officials and the U.S. Embassy appearing to contradict each other and at times themselves, and offering sparse details about the U.S. officials who died.

“It was not an operation that the security cabinet was aware of,” Sheinbaum told journalists. “We were not informed; it was a decision by the Chihuahua government.”

It comes at a key moment for the relationship between the two neighboring nations as Mexico faces escalating pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump crack down on cartels and Sheinbaum underscores Mexico’s sovereignty.

Sheinbaum said her government would investigate the incident to ensure no laws were broken after the deaths on Sunday, adding that state governments must have authorization from Mexico's federal government to collaborate with U.S. and other foreign entities “as established by the Constitution.”

A mountainside car crash

Chihuahua Attorney General César Jáuregui said Sunday the officials died while returning from the operation to destroy labs of criminal groups. They were driving in the middle of the night through rugged mountain territory connecting Chihuahua to the state of Sinaloa, when the truck “appears to have skidded at some point and fell into a ravine, exploding.”

He said the four who died were two local Mexican investigative officials and two U.S. Embassy instructors who were participating in routine “training work.”

The U.S. Embassy on Monday declined to identify who the U.S. officials were or which entity of the U.S. government they worked for, but said the officials were “supporting Chihuahua state authorities’ efforts to combat cartel operations.” U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson expressed his condolences on social media but he and other officials provided few details of the incident.

Jáuregui said that the operation came following months of investigation by state prosecutors and Mexico's federal military, indicating there was at least some level of involvement in the operation from Sheinbaum’s security forces. Hours later, the Mexican Security Cabinet confirmed that the army and state prosecutor’s office carried out a joint operation over the weekend in Chihuahua dismantling drug labs in the same location, Morelos.

After locating the labs using drones, officials found tons of material to manufacture drugs but no people, who were likely alerted beforehand and fled, the prosecutor added.

The local official later backtracked and clarified to press that there “were no U.S. agents in the operation to secure the narco-lab," and said the embassy officials joined the group after the operation and were several hours away from where the action took place.

A resurfaced debate

Sheinbaum said her government would provide more information when it has more details, but insisted Monday that “there are no joint operations on land or in the air" in Mexico. She said there is only sharing of information between her government and the U.S., carried out within a “well-established” legal framework.

While U.S. officials’ training of Mexican security forces is common, their presence on Mexican territory has been the subject of ongoing debate, which has intensified after Trump’s military actions in Venezuela and Iran.

Trump has repeatedly offered to take action on Mexican cartels, intervention which Sheinbaum has said was “unnecessary. ” The Trump administration has already launched joint military operations in Ecuador, a country that has been roiled by violence by drug gangs in recent years.

Last year, Sheinbaum said the U.S. had conducted surveillance drone flights at Mexico’s request after a series of conflicting public statements on the issue, also sparking alarm among observers.

The most recent controversy surfaced in January over the detention in Mexico of former Canadian athlete Ryan Wedding, one of the United States’ most wanted fugitives. While Mexican officials claim he surrendered at the U.S. Embassy, U.S. authorities have described his capture as the result of a binational operation.

The recent debacle comes at a pivotal time in U.S.-Mexico relations. The second round of negotiations between the United States and Mexico on the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, the USMCA, was slated to begin in Mexico City. The U.S. delegation is led by Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who was scheduled to meet with the president on Monday.

That same day, the Trump administration also announced it was imposing visa restrictions on family members of the Cartel de Sinaloa.

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

The swearing-in ceremony, held Monday evening at the Missouri City Community Center, drew such a large crowd that attendees lined up outside to enter, underscoring strong community interest in the department’s new leadership.

OUR FIRST REPORT: Troy Finner hired as Missouri City Police Chief nearly 2 years after HPD scandal, retirement

Missouri City Mayor Pro Tem Lynn Clouser, who served as master of ceremonies, described the event as a “momentous occasion” and highlighted the significance of the role in shaping the city’s future in public safety.

City Manager Angel Jones said Finner was selected following a nationwide search that drew more than 50 applicants. She said the city prioritized finding a leader with the experience and judgment to move the department forward while maintaining accountability and public trust.

Finner was formally sworn in by Missouri City Mayor Robin Elackatt, taking the oath of office alongside family members who joined him on stage for the ceremony.

In remarks following the oath, Finner thanked city leaders, law enforcement colleagues and his family, and emphasized his commitment to community-focused policing.

“My number one goal and priority is fighting violent crime,” Finner said. “But you do it in a way, best practices around the nation, building partnerships and trust.”

Finner also stressed the importance of community relationships, officer wellness and investing in youth programs, urging leaders not to cut resources for young people.

“Don’t cut back on the youth. They need us,” he said.

Speakers throughout the ceremony pointed to Finner’s decades of experience and leadership style centered on visibility, trust and engagement.

Houston Mayor Pro Tem Martha Castex-Tatum, who has worked alongside Finner, said his approach to policing goes beyond enforcement.

“It’s about relationship. It’s about trust. It’s about people,” she said.

Finner previously served as Houston police chief after being appointed by then-Mayor Sylvester Turner in 2021. He retired from that role in 2024.

Missouri City officials have said they conducted a thorough review of Finner’s background before selecting him to lead the department.

Mayor Elackatt said the city expects Finner to strengthen trust between officers and residents while advancing community-focused policing.

“With Chief Finner now leading Missouri City, I’m confident we will continue to strengthen that trust and raise the bar for excellence,” Elackatt said.

The ceremony ended with a reception and opportunities for community members and media to meet Finner, marking the beginning of what city leaders described as a new chapter for public safety in Missouri City.

The Monday decision by U.S. magistrate Elizabeth Chestney in San Antonio is a major development in the nearly year-long saga of the family who has for months raised alarms about the treatment at the facility, including medical neglect, rotting food, impotable water, and disrespect for their Muslim faith as they begged for their release. Last week the family’s lawyers said the mother was rushed to the emergency room, after months of suffering from an unidentified bump, which she feared may be cancerous due to her family history and possibly heightened by the lack of medical care at the detention center. 

“A federal court has ruled that the Trump administration is violating the Constitution by detaining the El Gamal family,” the family’s lawyer, Michigan-based Eric Lee, said in a statement. ”We feel vindicated, but despite the court’s ruling, the family has not yet been released. After 10 and a half months we demand the executive branch release them immediately.”

In a statement Monday evening, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson described the ruling as a judge wanting to “release this terrorist’s family onto American streets.” The spokesperson also said the agency would “continue to fight for the removal of those who have no right to be in our country, especially national security threats.”

Spokespeople for the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the immigration courts, did not immediately respond to questions.

A hearing before U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio is scheduled for Thursday. The decision by the magistrate judge argues that the family is wrongfully detained, known in legal proceedings as a habeas petition. Such claims have escalated in recent months, specifically seeing a dramatic spike in the Western District of Texas overseeing both the Dilley facility and El Paso’s Camp East Montana that holds adults. 

The El Gamal family, who came to the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2022 and later applied for asylum, have been detained since last June after the father, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was charged with attacking mostly Jewish protesters in Boulder, Colo., accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at demonstrators supporting Israeli hostages. He allegedly wounded at least 29 people and an 82-year-old woman died from her injuries. The father, who pleaded not guilty, remains in federal custody on more than 100 charges related to the incident. 

His wife, who said she met her husband in an arranged marriage when she was young, and her five children, have not been charged with any crimes. They have repeatedly maintained that they did not know about Soliman’s plans and had an estranged relationship with him. The family has since disavowed the father and is no longer in contact with him, their attorney said, and his wife has filed for divorce.

Nevertheless when the family was detained last June, the White House tweeted, “Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon.”

The family garnered widespread public attention this year after their lawyers shared heartbreaking accounts in the children’s own words and drawings of the harm they said they were suffering at Dilley.

“We have been here for nine months. I really miss playing with my toys and my watch,” wrote the 9-year-old in accounts first shared with The Texas Tribune. “Please get us out of here.”

The 16-year-old wrote, “I have seen with my own eyes, food that has mold in it. I even saw food with actual worms.”

He described suffering from appendicitis, writing that he began feeling “severe abdominal pain” one morning and was unable to walk to the medical unit. Hours later, he was brought in a wheel chair to see a nurse who he said told him, “‘I can’t help you. Go and come back if you still have pain in 3 days.’” He said he threw up and only then was transferred to the emergency room.

Together, the children’s accounts offered a bleak view of life inside an immigrant detention facility, which generally is not intended for children. The Trump administration is appealing a decades-old federal court settlement to allow them to detain children, like the El Gamal siblings, for longer than 20 days, which according to the existing agreement is typically the maximum time kids held with their parents can be imprisoned. For more than a decade, medical experts and child advocates have testified about the long-lasting harm suffered by children when they are detained. 

Since the El Gamal family spoke out earlier this year, their attorneys said that conditions have deteriorated for them. The eldest sister, who last year was chosen as one of the “best and brightest,” students in Colorado and recognized by a picture with the mayor with a scholarship from the local paper, was separated from her mother and youngest siblings after telling reporters about their poor treatment. 

Their plight helped renew attention on the conditions at the controversial Dilley facility, which opened in 2014 under former President Barack Obama and has long been plagued with problems. Former President Joe Biden shuttered it in 2021 but President Donald Trump reopened it last year. 

The detention center, which has been the focus of mass media coverage and spurred nationwide protests, including in Texas, reentered the public consciousness earlier this year after photos of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, wearing a blue hat and Spider-Man backpack, went viral following his January arrest in Minneapolis. He and his father were sent to the Dilley facility, but following widespread public alarm, quickly released while their asylum cases proceeded in the courts. 

The majority of families detained at Dilley have not faced that same fate. Instead attorneys said they have suffered as bouts of measles spurred the facility into lockdown. Several children, lawyers and advocates said, have become so disillusioned that they attempted to self-harm. 

A 13-year-old friend of the El Gamal family, for example, was deported to Colombia earlier this year after attempting suicide, the family’s attorney said. He said he worried every day that one morning he would wake up to learn that one of the El Gamal children had suffered the same fate.

Monday’s ruling brings hope, but the family’s prospects are far from certain, Lee said. 

“We won’t rest until this innocent family is free,” he said, adding that the government “continues to detain them even though a court has held that their prolonged detention violates the Constitution.”

The violence reverberated across Shreveport a day after the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in two years. Schools brought in counselors for the victims' young classmates and community leaders called for a city-wide reckoning on stopping domestic violence.

“We cannot afford to wait until the next crisis,” said Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn. “We owe it to the eight children who were lost.”

The shooter, identified as Shamar Elkins, killed seven of his children and a nephew, police said. His wife and another woman were also shot and wounded.

Shooter ‘just snapped,’ brother-in-law says

Elkins had voluntarily checked into a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in January for just over a week for mental health treatment, said his brother-in-law, Troy Brown, who lived in the house with his wife, Keosha Pugh, and was at work during the attack. Elkins appeared “better when he came home,” he said.

Elkins' wife was seeking a divorce, which was causing him stress, Brown said. But everything seemed calm in the house when Brown left for work Saturday night, with the children playing games or watching TV.

“All I know is he just snapped,” Brown told The Associated Press. “If I wouldn’t have been at work, he was going to kill everybody in the house and that includes me."

Brown's wife, who made a series of frantic calls for help when the shooting started, and their 12-year-old daughter escaped through the home's roof, he said. His wife broke her pelvis after falling and has since had surgery, he said.

“She said she was running for her life,” said Lionel Pugh, an uncle of the two women shot. “The only ones he didn’t kill was the ones who got away.”

Elkins died after fleeing and a police pursuit. It was not clear whether he was killed by officers who fired or from a self-inflicted gunshot, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said.

Officials said the children who died — three boys and five girls — ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old.

Brown said his 10-year-old son, who loved to go outside and run around and play with friends, was killed.

“I'm never going to get to throw the football with him again," he said “I’m never going to get to hear him say, ‘Dad, can I get this bag of chips?'”

Elkins and his wife, identified by family members as Shaneiqua Elkins, were separating and had been due in court Monday, said Crystal Brown, a cousin of a woman shot in the attack. She said the couple had been arguing about the separation before the shooting.

Family members described Shaneiqua Elkins as a doting mother, who celebrated her children’s success in school.

“She raised those kids right,” Pugh said. “They were the center of her universe.”

Gunman had no recent arrests for domestic violence, police say

While the shooter did not appear to have a long criminal history, court records showed Elkins was placed on probation in 2019 after pleading guilty to illegal use of weapons. In that case, Elkins fired five rounds at a vehicle and told police that someone inside it had pulled a gun on him, according to a police report.

Based on Louisiana law, a person convicted of certain violent felonies — including illegal use of weapons — are banned from having a gun for at least 10 years after completing their sentence and probation.

Authorities said Monday that how and when Elkins got the gun is being investigated.

Louisiana, a reliably red state, has expanded access to guns in recent years. For years, Democrats in Louisiana have proposed bills to tighten gun control — or at least put “red flag” measures in place. But Republicans have routinely blocked such legislation.

Investigators were not aware of other domestic violence issues involving Elkins, said police spokesperson Chris Bordelon.

Elkins had served in the Louisiana National Guard from 2013 to 2020, said guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Noel Collins. Elkins held the rank of private and had no deployments, Collins said.

The violence started before sunrise Sunday

Authorities said the shooting erupted before dawn at two homes.

Elkins shot a woman in a neighborhood south of downtown, and opened fire a few blocks away at the home where the children were targeted, police said.

One of the victims, 5-year-old Braylon Snow, was getting ready for preschool graduation next month, said Laurance Guidry, president and CEO of Caddo Community Action Agency, which runs the Head Start program where Braylon was a student.

“They have the cap and gowns just like you would have when you were graduating from high school,” Guidry said.

Gov. Jeff Landry said during a news conference Monday that he thought he had seen evil up close after a truck attack last year on Bourbon Street left 14 dead. “But the tragedy that unfolded this weekend seems to have eclipsed that,” he said.

Landry announced that the foundation created by the state’s first lady will pay the children’s funeral expenses.

A relative says they were a joyful family

Francine Monro Brown, a cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she would often see the children playing in the yard on Sunday mornings when she drove past the house on her way to church.

“Happy children, joyful children. Shaneiqua is a great mother, She provided a great home for the kids,” Brown said as she stood near a growing memorial of stuffed teddy bears, flowers and pink and blue balloons.

Betty Pugh, another cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she was always with her children. “That was the way we were taught: to love our kids, to take care of our kids. And that’s what she did,” Pugh said.

The mayor of Shreveport, a city of about 180,000 residents in northwestern Louisiana, called it one of the city's worst days.

The shooting was the deadliest in the U.S. since January 2024, when eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

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This story has been updated to correct that Shaneiqua Elkins' sister was not shot, she was injured escaping, and a second woman who authorities have not identified was also shot.

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Brook reported from New Orleans. Contributing were Associated Press reporters Gerald Herbert in Shreveport; Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Jake Offenhartz in New York; and Hallie Golden in Seattle.

• Singer D4vd pleads not guilty to murder in death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez

Prosecutors say the case involves the prolonged abuse and killing of a child.

Burke was charged and arrested for the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas.

Prosecutors said Burke killed Rivas on or about April 23, 2025.

The complaint states the killing was intentional and carried out with “malice aforethought.”

It also alleges several aggravating circumstances that could increase penalties if proven in court.

Those include claims that the killing was:

• Committed for financial gain
• Carried out by lying in wait
• Done to silence a witness to a crime

Under California law, those factors can elevate the severity of the charge and potential punishment.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said prosecutors are looking to enhance charges based on these claims, in a press conference on Monday.

The complaint alleges that between September 2023 and September 2024, Burke engaged in three or more acts of sexual conduct and lewd acts involving the child.

It further states that Burke resided with or had recurring access to the victim, a key element in continuous abuse charges.

If convicted, the charge would require mandatory sex offender registration and carries the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence.

Accused of mutilating remains

A third charge alleges Burke mutilated the victim’s remains on or about May 5, 2025.

Prosecutors also allege he used a sharp instrument, which is considered a deadly weapon, in committing that act.

No bail recommended

Court records show Burke is currently in custody, with prosecutors recommending no bail.

The case was investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division.

If convicted on the charges, Burke faces significant prison time, including the possibility of death penalty.

Burke has not yet been indicted by a grand jury.

Attorney Kent Schaeffer, representing Burke’s family, sent the following statement:

“The Burkes are not surprised but are terribly disappointed that the District Attorney chose to charge David. Nevertheless they support and stand by him one hundred percent.”

According to court documents, Burke was the target of a grand jury investigation in February and his family members were called to testify but they were fighting it in Texas Supreme Court.

Defense attorneys Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter stressed that Burke has only been detained under suspicion and they plan to vigorously defend his innocence.

A court date has been set for Thursday.

The charges revealed key details and were among the first concrete public moves made in a grisly and horrific case that had been under a largely secret investigation in the seven months since Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found dead.

The 21-year-old D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, was charged with first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a body, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said. A defense lawyer entered not guilty pleas to all counts on behalf of Burke, who made his first court appearance Monday. He appeared behind glass in a custody area, dressed in black. A judge said he would continue to be held without bail.

The girl's parents appeared at the hearing. They looked down as they entered the courtroom and sat in the audience. They did not speak to reporters outside court.

Alleged child sex abuse during a career on the rise

Authorities alleged the Houston-born alt-pop singer killed Rivas Hernandez to protect a career on the rise after she threatened to report their sexual relationship. His debut album, “Withered,” was released just two days after authorities said she was last known to be alive. She was reported missing by her family in 2024, when she was 13. That was her age when, according to allegations in a criminal complaint, the singer engaged in continuous sexual abuse of her for at least a year from September 2023 to September 2024. California law penalizes abuse of a child under 14 especially harshly.

Authorities, who described her Monday as a “runaway,” said Rivas Hernandez was 14 when she was killed with a sharp object on or around April 23, 2025, a day she was at Burke's house in the Hollywood Hills.

Prosecutors allege Burke mutilated her body about two weeks later.

The murder charges include special circumstances — lying in wait, committing crime for financial gain and murdering the witness in an investigation — that could carry the death penalty. Prosecutors haven’t announced whether they will seek it.

The witness Burke is alleged to have killed is Rivas Hernandez herself, who could have given testimony about the sex crime allegations.

Defense says D4vd ‘did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez’

“We believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez,” lead defense attorney Blair Berk said in court. “We would like to have the evidence come into the light of day.”

Berk told the judge that after media reports of months of secret grand jury proceedings, she would like a public preliminary hearing to take place as soon as possible so a judge can decide whether there is enough evidence for trial.

Burke is entitled under California law to have the evidentiary hearing within 10 court days of his arraignment. Nearly all defendants waive their right to have it happen that fast, but he didn’t. A hearing to work out what will happen next was scheduled for Thursday.

“We’ll be very happy to put on the evidence that we’ve collected," said Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman, the lead prosecutor.

A missing child and the grisly discovery of a body

The case is a “a parent’s nightmare,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said at a news conference Monday announcing the charges.

The long-dead body of Rivas Hernandez was found inside a Tesla that was towed from the Hollywood Hills on Sept. 8, when Burke was on tour in support of his album. It was a day after she would have turned 15.

Her family had reported her missing from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.

The singer had been under investigation by an LA County grand jury looking into the death. The probe was officially secret, but its existence — and Burke's designation as its target — was revealed in February when his mother, father and brother objected in a Texas court to subpoenas demanding they testify. The 2023 Tesla Model Y was registered in the singer’s name at their address, according to court filings. Authorities did not publicly acknowledge him as a suspect until his arrest Thursday.

Police investigators searching the Tesla in a tow yard found a cadaver bag “covered with insects and a strong odor of decay,” court documents said. Detectives partially unzipped the bag and found a head and torso.

Investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office removed the bag and “discovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body,” according to court documents. A second black bag was found under the first, and dismembered body parts were inside it. No cause of death has been publicly revealed, and police got a judge to block the release details of the autopsy. The court order was expected to be lifted after the charges.

“I had the chance to meet with some of the family members of Celeste and their grief is incalculable as to what happened to their daughter,” Hochman said.

D4vd was a social media-savvy singer making breakthroughs

D4vd, pronounced “David,” gained popularity among Gen Z for his blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit “Romantic Homicide,” which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. He then signed with Darkroom and Interscope Records and released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns” and a follow-up, “The Lost Petals,” in 2023.

The Associated Press confirmed that D4vd was dropped by Interscope last year.

When the body was discovered, the singer continued his North American tour, but when reports of his possible involvement spread widely, he canceled the final two shows and a European tour that was to follow.

On April 11, about two weeks before the killing, he made his debut appearance at the Coachella music festival, where he talked to the AP.

“I was such an internet kid. The internet is really what I claim as my home,” he said. “My neighborhood was Instagram and the society was the internet.”

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AP Music Writer Maria Sherman in New York contributed to this report.

Burrows instructed lawmakers to study ways to strengthen child safety and accountability for virtual gaming, singling out Roblox, an online platform and community where people can play and design their own games. In a news release, he call Roblox a place where “exploitative content and nominal safeguards are exposing Texas children to ongoing endangerment.” The charge adds to a list of policy priorities Burrows has focused the House around ahead of next year’s legislative session.

“Turning an unspeakable act of violence, whose scars remain across the Uvalde community, into entertainment is a profound moral failure,” Burrows said in a statement. “The State of Texas demands accountability — not a system that profits from violence and provocation while exposing young minds to hateful content. Lawmakers cannot stand by while a platform aimed at children enables and monetizes this kind of abuse.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Roblox in November for allegedly exposing children to sexually explicit content and exploitation. The company has faced a flurry of lawsuits from states and local governments, including Los Angeles County, alleging child endangerment.

Burrows instructed the House State Affairs Committee to evaluate “content moderation practices, enforcement gaps and the adequacy of existing child safety protections, noting that nearly 40% of Roblox’s 144 million daily users are under the age of 13.

He directed lawmakers to recommend proposals to “enforce accountability that are unconstrained by federal preemption or immunity defenses,” assess the possible civil and criminal liability of third-party content developers on platforms like Roblox, study the potential applicability of age verification and parental consent laws to gaming platforms, and “determine the extent to which platforms prioritize user engagement over safety.”

Rep. Don McLaughlin, who represents Uvalde and was mayor of the city at the time of the shooting, thanked Burrows for “recognizing the seriousness” of child safety in a statement on Monday and condemned the Roblox simulation of the 2022 shooting.

“Turning the murder of innocent children and teachers into virtual content is beyond sick, and the fact that this kind of material can exist on a platform used by millions of kids is a staggering failure,” McLaughlin said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Northern Marianas' government on Sunday requested an expedited major disaster declaration. If approved, it would include assistance for survivors and public infrastructure as well as hazard mitigation funding, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Monday.

Running water was slowing being restored in some villages, thanks to generators from FEMA, Ed Propst, a former lawmaker who works in the governor's office, said Tuesday.

But because tap water isn't potable, residents typically buy drinking water, which is in short supply now, he said.

The Marianas are also typically very hot and humid, so a lack of air conditioning is making life extra uncomfortable, he added. “Last night there was no breeze,” he said. “Everything is just so still.”

There have been no official updates on electricity restoration, he said.

And flooding has exacerbated the mosquito problem: “It's pretty bad at night,” Propst said.

The ruling by a divided seven-judge panel of the appellate-level Commonwealth Court is a major victory for Planned Parenthood and abortion clinic operators who first sued Pennsylvania over its Medicaid funding restrictions in 2019.

While the case initially centered over state Medicaid limitations, the stakes significantly expanded after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 ended nearly a half-century of federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade.

The court's finding on Monday marks the first time that the right to an abortion is protected by the Pennsylvania constitution, joining a handful of states where reproductive rights advocates have found success in protecting abortion access by pointing to state constitutions.

The case could still be appealed to Pennsylvania's Supreme Court.

“Today, our Commonwealth Court, looking at the Pennsylvania constitution, held that there is a right to reproductive autonomy, and it’s the highest possible level of a right,” said Susan Frietsche, executive director of the Women's Law Project, which helped represent the clinics.

A spokesperson for Attorney General David Sunday, a Republican, said the office was reviewing the decision and did not say whether it would appeal.

Democrats roundly praised the decision, as did abortion rights advocates.

“I’ve long opposed this unconstitutional ban, and as Governor, I did not defend it — because a woman’s ability to access reproductive care should never be determined by her income,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement.

The likely Republican nominee to challenge Shapiro in the fall general election, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, said in a statement that the court's decision “to force our tax dollars to pay for abortions is not only misguided, it is immoral.”

In 2019, plaintiffs asked the court to order the state’s Medicaid program to begin covering abortions, without restriction, arguing that a 1982 Pennsylvania law restricting state Medicaid funding violated the constitutional equal protection rights of low-income women.

The case has since taken several turns, with a lower-court ruling in 2021 that the plaintiffs did not have standing and also saying that they were bound by a state Supreme Court 1985 decision upholding the 1982 law.

However, in 2024, the state Supreme Court overturned the lower court's ruling and also determined that previous court decisions did not fully consider the breadth of state constitutional protections against discrimination beyond those provided by the federal constitution.

The seven judges on the lower court who heard the case largely sided with the plaintiffs on Monday. The majority opinion said the state should invest in maternal and infant health care and other resources if it believes that women should carry a pregnancy to term.

The attorney general's office had argued that the state had an interest in “protecting fetal life” and that the Medicaid coverage exclusion helped support that goal.

“If the state believes certain medical procedures may psychologically harm women, the state can license, regulate, and educate around such care. That is less intrusive than taking an entire medical procedure off the table categorically for some women, some of whom may benefit from that procedure — a fact the Attorney General does not dispute," the majority opinion said.

Abortion opponents quickly criticized Monday's decision.

“By declaring a sweeping constitutional ‘right to reproductive autonomy’ and mandating taxpayer-funded abortion through Medicaid, the court has overstepped its authority, ignored the plain text of our state constitution, and forced millions of Pennsylvanians who believe life begins at conception to subsidize the killing of unborn children," said Michael Geer, president of Pennsylvania Family Institute, which opposes abortion rights.

In Pennsylvania, abortion is legal under state law through 23 weeks of pregnancy.

The charges were filed Monday, but the allegations in the disturbing case stretch back to 2023 — just a year after the singer's first single made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The 21-year-old's defense attorney pleaded not guilty on his behalf during an arraignment Monday afternoon.

Here's a look at the timeline of the investigation, the allegations and the career of D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke.

2022: Burke's music goes viral

Burke, a content creator who began making his own music to accompany the video game montages he would post online, goes viral on TikTok for his song “Romantic Homicide.” The song ultimately peaks at No. 4 on Billboard's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, and Burke signs with Darkroom and Interscope Records.

Sept. 7, 2023: Prosecutors say the abuse begins

Burke allegedly begins the continuous sexual abuse of Rivas Hernandez, who had just turned 13, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office. The girl has been described by authorities as a runaway, and court documents say she lived with Burke in Los Angeles.

April 5, 2024: Rivas Hernandez is reported missing

Rivas Hernandez's family reports the seventh grader missing from her home in Lake Elsinore, a town about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, for the last time. They had reported her missing several times before.

April 11, 2025: Burke makes his Coachella debut

Burke performs at the music festival Coachella and goes viral again — this time for face-planting hard on the stage during a failed backflip attempt. In an interview with The Associated Press during the festival, Burke talked about using social media feedback from fans to refine his set lists. “I am my fans and my fans are me. And we work in tandem with each other and it's such a beautiful poetic kind of thing that we have,” he said.

April 23, 2025: Rivas Hernandez is last known to be alive

The charging documents filed by prosecutors in the case against Burke have few details, but they do allege he killed Rivas Hernandez “on or about” April 23, the day they say she was last heard from. Prosecutors say Burke killed Rivas Hernandez because she posed a threat to his career.

April 25, 2025: Burke releases debut album, ‘Withered'

Burke releases his first album, “Withered.” In social media posts and media interviews, he describes using a recurring motif in his music and videos — an alter ego character he calls “IT4MI,” after “itami,” a Japanese word for pain. “He's basically like the evil version of me," Burke said in a YouTube interview with the “Tape Notes” podcast published May 2025. Burke's videos sometimes depict the character blindfolded, in a shirt that appears covered in blood.

May 5, 2025: Authorities say Rivas Hernandez's remains are mutilated

One of the felony charges against Burke is “unlawful mutilation of human remains." Prosecutors say Rivas Hernandez's arms and legs were severed from her body on or around May 5.

Aug. 5, 2025: Burke launches tour

Burke's tour for the album “Withered,” begins with a show in Del Mar, California. He also released an official Fortnite anthem, “Locked & Loaded,” on Sept. 3. The collaboration with video game creator Epic Games echoed his start in the music world, when he would create and post Fortnite montages online.

Sept. 8, 2025: Celeste Rivas Hernandez's body is discovered

One day after she would have turned 15, Rivas Hernandez's badly decomposed remains are discovered in body bags inside the trunk of a Tesla registered to Burke, prosecutors say. The 2023 Tesla Model Y had been towed from an upscale neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills where it had been sitting, seemingly abandoned. Police searching the vehicle found a cadaver bag covered in bugs with Rivas Hernandez's head and torso inside. A second bag containing her arms and legs was found underneath the first, according to court documents.

Sept. 19, 2025: Burke’s remaining tour dates are canceled

The remaining dates of Burke's tour, which had been scheduled to wrap up Nov. 4 in Warsaw, Poland, are canceled. The Associated Press confirmed that D4vd was also dropped by his label, Interscope Records, at some point in 2025.

Oct. 6, 2025: A funeral service is held for Rivas Hernandez

Multiple news outlets reported that Rivas Hernandez's family held a funeral service for her on at the Queen of Heaven Cemetery and Mortuary in Rowland Heights, California.

Nov. 24, 2025: Police block release of coroner's report

In an unusual move, police block the release of the coroner's report on Rivas Hernandez's death. The medical examiner's office said in a statement that it had received a “court order, initiated by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), to place a security hold” on the case. The order said no records or details, including the cause and manner of death, could be released until further notice.

February 2026: Burke revealed as the target of a secret grand jury probe

The grand jury investigation into the case was kept under seal, as is standard in grand jury proceedings. But some documents were made public by an appeal of subpoenas by Burke's mother, father and brother that was filed in Texas. The court filings said the Tesla was registered in Burke's name at the address of his subpoenaed family members, and that the “target may be involved in having committed the following criminal offenses against the laws of the State of California, to wit: One count of murder.”

April 16, 2026: Burke is arrested

Burke is arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with Rivas Hernandez's death and is held without bail. The Los Angeles Police Department announces the arrest on social media pages, posting photos of several officers wearing tactical gear and holding weapons approaching a home.

April 20, 2025: Burke is charged with murder

Burke is formally charged with murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a body. The charging documents also allege several factors connected to the crimes that could lead to a harsher sentence if Burke is convicted. Those circumstances include allegations that Burke was “lying in wait” for Rivas Hernandez, who entered his home and was never seen again; that she was a witness to an investigation into the lewd and lascivious acts committed against her; and that Burke allegedly killed her for financial gain.

“When she threatened to expose his criminal conduct and devastate his musical career, Burke allegedly murdered her,” the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office wrote in a statement.

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Boone reported from Boise. AP Music Writer Maria Sherman and journalist Liam McEwan contributed.

Crews with Ezee Fiber have been working in the Briarhills subdivision, near Addicks-Howell Road in the Energy Corridor. While the company says it is expanding high-speed internet access, some residents say the work has come at a cost.

“I would give them an F,” one homeowner said.

Several residents, who asked not to be identified, told KPRC 2 they are dealing with property damage, lack of communication, and difficulty getting responses to their concerns.

“They have the attitude that your land is my land,” one neighbor said. “You have a right of way, but we have some rights too. You can’t just go up there and do anything you want to do.”

Homeowners say they were not properly notified before construction began.

“I asked the POA, and they said they knew nothing about this,” one resident said. “They should have contacted our POA and given us maybe a month’s notice.”

Others describe confusion and disorganization.

“From what I’m seeing, it’s like the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand’s doing,” another neighbor said.

One resident who spoke with a company representative during KPRC 2’s visit described the interaction as unhelpful.

“He sounded like a robot,” the homeowner said, later adding, “They just don’t seem like they know what they’re doing.”

In an email to KPRC 2 News, one viewer described what they called widespread issues tied to construction, including cracked driveways, damaged utility lines, and debris left behind.

“They wreak havoc in every community they enter,” the viewer wrote. “They don’t fix what they break.”

The viewer also claimed crews damaged water and cable lines, disrupted service, and failed to follow up on repairs.

Company responds, says concerns addressed

In a statement, an Ezee Fiber spokesperson said the company is committed to respecting homeowners and addressing issues.

“Ezee Fiber is committed to building Houston’s fiber internet network with respect for our neighbors and their properties,” spokesperson Jim Schwartz said.

The company says it made multiple attempts to contact a homeowner who raised concerns, reaching out five times in April. It also says it repaired affected property, including replacing sod, and stands by that work.

Ezee Fiber added that residents with concerns are encouraged to contact its customer support team.

BBB accreditation revoked amid complaint pattern

The company has also faced scrutiny from the Better Business Bureau.

According to the BBB, Ezee Fiber’s accreditation was revoked in June 2025 due to a pattern of complaints. Those complaints include allegations of property damage, poor communication, unfulfilled repair promises, and aggressive sales tactics.

The BBB notes it does not independently verify third-party complaints.

Ezee Fiber says it plans to reapply for accreditation.

While the company says it has been responsive, some homeowners strongly disagree.

“Ezee is saying that they have been responsive to concerns homeowners in the neighborhood have had,” KPRC 2’s Rilwan Balogun said.

“They have not,” a homeowner responded.

“That’s not your experience?” Balogun asked.

“That’s not my experience,” the resident said.

The complaint stems from a massive leak in a 72-inch (183-centimeter) pipeline, called the Potomac Interceptor. The pipe collapsed Jan. 19, shooting sewage out of the ground and into the river just north of Washington in Montgomery County, Maryland. The leak spilled 244 million gallons (924 million liters) of raw sewage into the Potomac River and shined a fresh light on the country's aging infrastructure.

The local water authority, DC Water, said it knew the pipe, first installed in the 1960s, was deteriorating, and rehabilitation work on a section about a quarter-mile (400 meters) from the break began in September and was recently completed.

The complaint alleges that DC Water failed to properly operate and maintain its sewer system in a manner that keeps untreated sewage out of the Potomac River and tributaries, and other areas with risk of human contact.

“After decades of use and years of neglect, including at least eight years of DC Water knowing about severe corrosion requiring immediate repair, a section of the Potomac Interceptor known by DC Water to be severely corroded catastrophically failed,” the filing said.

"DC Water's failure to maintain the Potomac Interceptor resulted in raw sewage flowing into the Potomac River and the surrounding environment, posing a direct risk to public health," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson in a statement. “As cities grow and infrastructure ages, cities must invest in their wastewater system to prevent such catastrophes.”

The complaint was one of two filed against DC Water Monday. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown filed a separate action in Montgomery County Circuit Court seeking civil penalties and damages for costs from the contamination of the river.

“The utility must take full responsibility for the damage caused and take immediate and lasting action to prevent future spills," said Maryland Department of the Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain in a statement.

DC Water said in a statement that it was “fully committed to the long-term rehabilitation” of the Potomac Interceptor. The agency added that its highest priority was to contain the overflow and repair the damaged section of the pipe, which it did in fully stopping “all discharges to the Potomac River within 21 days. The repairs of the affected segment were completed in 55 days. DC Water is working now to accelerate the rehabilitation of more than 2,700 linear feet of pipeline in this area that was previously scheduled for improvement.”

The statement declared that both lawsuits were “under review.”

The leak sparked political recriminations from President Donald Trump — who blamed local Democratic leaders, focusing especially on Maryland's Democratic Gov. Wes Moore. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser declared an emergency in February and asked Trump for help. He issued an emergency declaration days later that provided a rush of federal assistance.

The pipe was returned to operation last month after emergency repairs were completed.

The leak is largely under control, but it could take months to fully repair the pipe. DC Water, along with the EPA, has been working to repair the leak and monitor the impact on the river.

Winston-Salem police Capt. Kevin Burns said a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old died at the scene after being shot around 10 a.m. at Leinbach Park, near a middle school. Five others between the ages of 14 and 19 were shot and suffered injuries ranging from critical to minor, Burns said at a news conference. Four of those victims are female, officials said.

Officials said multiple people fired guns during the shooting. Winston-Salem police Chief William Penn said no one was in custody but authorities believe some of those injured may have also been involved in the shooting.

“I feel like everyone else. I’m frustrated, I’m angry, I’m sad. This didn’t have to happen,” Penn said.

Penn said he couldn’t immediately answer whether the teens who died were the ones scheduled to fight. The police chief also said “no” when asked if it was known what the fight was about.

Officials said schools near the park were safe.

The shooting happened in a park in a suburban and residential area northwest of downtown Winston-Salem, a city of about 250,000 known for decades as the home of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

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Associated Press writers Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, contributed to this report.

County Road 57 stretches from Highway 521 in Fort Bend County to Highway 288 in Iowa Colony in Brazoria County. Residents who use the road regularly say its condition has deteriorated as traffic in the area continues to increase.

“It’s ruined,” said David Guajardo, who lives along County Road 57. “Every time it rains, it just makes potholes.”

Drivers point to potholes, loose gravel and uneven pavement as ongoing hazards. Some say the road’s narrow design adds to the danger.

“It becomes a hazard for us,” said Marcela Guajardo.

Marcela Guajardo said she and her husband often help drivers along County Road 57 who end up with flat tires or disabled vehicles.

“There have been accidents because of the narrowness. People have been knocked into the ditches,” she said.

David Guajardo said he has personally helped pull vehicles out after drivers lost control.

“As you can see, this dip here causes people to go into the other lane,” he said.

Residents say they have raised concerns before but were previously told little could be done. However, local officials now say the issue is being addressed.

Iowa Colony City Council member Arnetta Murray visited the road and said work is in progress.

“They’re working on it. It’s on schedule to fix this,” Murray said, adding that infrastructure improvements are needed before repairs can be completed.

Murray said the city is coordinating with developers, and repairs could take six to eight months.

“I’m going to vow to make sure that happens,” she said.

Brazoria County Commissioner David Linder said county officials are also working with the city.

“The county engineer reached out and spoke with the city of Iowa Colony, and I have a plan to speak with the mayor,” Linder said.

On the Fort Bend County side, Commissioner Grady Prestage said the issue is now on his radar. He said mobility bonds approved by voters could help fund improvements to that portion of the road.

Officials encourage residents experiencing similar road issues to report them directly to their city council members and county commissioners and to document any damage with photos and receipts.

For now, drivers along County Road 57 say they are hoping repairs come soon as the area continues to grow.

The enormous hot air balloon, with a pilot and passengers in the basket, descended perfectly Saturday on a small plot of grass at a home in Temecula. Hunter Perrin said he had no idea that he had visitors until a neighbor alerted him.

“I was watching TV and my wife was doing yoga,” Perrin told The Associated Press. “There was a man standing in front of my door saying, ‘They just landed.’ What? I was very confused.”

But there they were, a group of anxious people suddenly relieved to be on solid ground. Perrin's grassy backyard patch is only about 10 feet (3 meters) wide.

“It was unbelievable, like something out of a Disney fairy tale,” Jenna Perrin said. “The balloon didn't hit our house or our trees. It was kissing the fence.”

Brianna Avalos and her husband were riding in the balloon to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. She said the pilot informed passengers that he needed to make an emergency landing because of low fuel and a shift in winds.

“At first I was like, ‘Oh my God! We’re in a backyard! This is crazy!’” Avalos told KABC-TV.

The blue balloon with gold stars and a crescent moon image was a spectacle as it came to rest in the backyard, towering over Perrin's home. The pilot disembarked the passengers, returned aloft and then landed the balloon nearby in the street, where it was dismantled.

“He was an amazing pilot,” Avalos said.

Denni Barrett, the owner of Magical Adventure, which provides the balloon rides, declined to identify the pilot but said he had “exercised great judgment” and “done the right thing.”

“Most of our landings are in wine country,” Barrett said, referring to vineyards in California's Riverside County. “Usually they're bigger backyards.”

Anderson is pivotal to the Texans’ present and future as a game-wrecking defensive end capable of harassing quarterbacks and shutting down runs, doubling as a team captain and leader.

Anderson signed a three-year, $150 million contract extension that makes him the highest paid defensive player in the league in terms of new money average. He received a $32 million signing bonus and is now under contract through the 2030 season. He received $134 million total guaranteed, $100 million fully guaranteed and a rare no-trade clause on a blockbuster deal negotiated by agent Nicole Lynn of Klutch Sports and Texans general manager Nick Caserio

And hammering out this contract couldn’t have made Texans coach DeMeco Ryans any happier. Earned, not given embodies the situation.

“Will is an outstanding young man, outstanding player,” Ryans said Monday as the Texans launched their offseason conditioning workout program. “He shows up every single day, working how we expect guys to work and doing all the things a leader does. He’s a guy that you want guys following.

“He embodies everything that it means to be a Texan and he’s definitely deserving of the contract situation that he’s gotten. He’s earned it and he’s done an outstanding job of leading.”

The blockbuster deal exceeds a previous record-setting deal signed by Green Bay Packers pass rusher Micah Parsons last year, a four-year, $188 million contract with $120 million fully guaranteed and $136 million total guaranteed for a $46.5 million annual average.

Although the Texans ultimately lost in the AFC divisional round playoffs to the New England Patriots, it wasn’t because of Anderson. He recorded three sacks, two forced fumbles and two tackles for losses.

The extremely high value of Anderson as a pass rusher and run-stopper was underscored again, just as it was all season during a breakout year. He finished the regular season with a career-high 12 sacks, 54 tackles, 20 tackles for losses and 23 quarterback hits.

Anderson, a former third overall pick acquired after a trade with the Arizona Cardinals, has proven himself at every turn on and off the field as a team captain and feared pass rusher and run-stopper.

Trading a first-round draft pick to land Anderson has proven to be an extremely wise investment as they selected him one pick after quarterback C.J. Stroud.

“The 2023 draft is probably one of the most exciting drafts that I’ve been a part of, and I would say one of the most exciting drafts in Texans history,” said Ryans, a former NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year selected in 2006 out of Alabama. “It was exciting just to know what we were doing. We pick C.J. at the second pick and to know we’re back on the phones trying to trade up to get Will, it was just an exciting moment, a tense moment.

“The adrenaline is pumping in the room. It was awesome. Nick executed the trade. It was about the guy we were getting. As we all see, fast forward to where we are now, it was well worth the move. We knew the type of man that Will was, and it was worth moving up to get him and it has paid off big time for us.”

In just three NFL seasons, Anderson already has recorded 30 sacks, 136 tackles, 46 tackles for losses and 64 quarterback hits.

According to Next Gen Stats, Anderson finished with the second-most quarterback pressures in the NFL with 85 overall and the third-highest pressure rate, a 20.5 percent clip. He also set the NFL record for most third-down pressures with 48 in a single season in the Next Gen Stats era.

“Of course,” Anderson said when asked by KPRC 2 after the season about his desire for a new deal with the Texans. “I want to be here my whole career. I love the Texans. I love everything about them. You know, they traded up and got me, man.

“But, you know I don’t really like to speak on all these things. But, of course I would love to be here, man, and if it’s in God’s will to happen, it’ll happen.”

Without getting into specifics about future plans, the McNair family made it clear how highly they value both Anderson and quarterback C.J. Stroud, who was secured with a $25.9 million fifth-year club option through 2027 and isn’t expected to get an extension this year. The Texans and Stroud are open to future negotiations, though.

“We’ll let DeMeco and Nick make the football decisions there, but they’re exciting, really good young players,” Texans chairman and CEO Cal McNair said. “We hope to have them around for a long, long time.”

PHOENIX -- #Texans Cal McNair and Hannah McNair on potential long-term deals for Will Anderson Jr., C.J. Stroud: 'Exciting, really good players, we'll hope to have them around a long, long time. .. It's a good problem to have when you have so many guys you want to keep under… pic.twitter.com/WunQinzX0g

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) April 1, 2026

A year from now, cornerback Kamari Lassiter and safety Calen Bullock will be eligible for extensions. Both were named Pro Bowl alternates after the 2025 season.

“It’s a good problem to have when you have so many guys you want to keep under contract,” Hannah McNair said. “If we keep drafting the way we do, this is going to be something we talk about every year.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com

Court records indicate the trial date for Lee Mongerson Gilley has been set for June 8.

He is accused of killing his wife, Christa Gilley, who was about eight weeks pregnant at the time she died.

• RELATED: Houston husband charged with capital murder in pregnant wife’s death in The Heights

It happened on Oct. 7, 2024. Officers first went to a home on Allston Street in The Heights to the report of a suicide, where Gilley reportedly told officers he found his wife unresponsive.

Court records show Gilley said his wife had overdosed and he attempted CPR.

Paramedics rushed the woman to the hospital where she died.

Hospital staff indicated Christa Gilley had bruising and apparent trauma to her face.

• RELATED: Lee Gilley facing capital murder charges in pregnant wife’s death in The Heights

An autopsy by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled Christa Gilley’s death was a homicide “due to compression of the neck,” or injuries consistent with strangulation.

Gilley was arrested several days later.

Records show he later admitted his wife was not suicidal and was not a drug user. He reportedly told police he and his wife had been arguing and then she went to bed. Three hours later, he says he found her unresponsive. The records also show two small children were inside the house when this all occurred.

Gilley was later indicted on the capital murder charge in April 2025.

The revisions to the federal lending system follow the passage of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” last year and other policy changes.

Borrowers will be glad to know that one key safety net remains intact: your first bill likely won’t be due until six months after you graduate due to the government’s grace period. If you loans are subsidized, the government will pay the interest during that six-month window.

Starting July 1^st, borrowers can enroll in the the new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP). Monthly payments will typically range from 1% to 10% of your earnings. In other words, the more you make, the higher your monthly payment will be.

Also beginning July 1^st, students who plan to return to school and are taking out loans will have more limited repayment options. They’ll only have access to RAP and the new Tiered Standard Plan, a new, non-income-driven federal student loan repayment option featuring fixed payments over 10 to 25 years based on total loan balance.

It replaces the traditional 10-year standard plan for new borrowers and those with new loans, offering lower monthly payments for higher debt.

Certified Financial Planner with Outlook Wealth Advisors, Michael Neuenschwander, says it’s important to think about how much your loan will cost you long-term.

“Don’t focus on just the monthly payment. You rally want to look at what it will cost you over the life of the loan,” he said. “On average, most people take 20 years to pay back a student loan. So it’s not just about what’s the lowest payment, it’s about the real cost of the loan over that time frame.”

After graduating, check to see if you’re eligible for any state or federal debt forgiveness programs. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF), signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007, allows government and non-profit employees to have their federal student loans canceled after ten years of payments. But President Trump signed an executive order last year that narrows eligibility. The order is currently facing legal challenges by nearly two dozen attorneys general and it remains unclear exactly which organizations will no longer be considered a qualifying employer for PSLF.

For help estimating monthly payments, the government has a loan calculator here Loan Simulator | Federal Student Aid. And to check out monthly payment and long-term costs, go here Home | Federal Student Aid

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

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

“As I told Trent when we started this thing, my hope is that his name, his number, are up in those rafters with a lot of great players that have played here,” general manager John Lynch said. "There’s a buzz in the building, the players are back, it’s the first day back for phase one. But, there’s a buzz because what Trent means to this place. So, we’re very excited.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“We’re fired up,” quarterback Brock Purdy said. “It’s going to be good getting back. He’s got a lot left. I know he’s going to have a chip on shoulder to go out and get a ring for him and his resume and his career and I want to help him do that.”

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

Only two tackles in the last 20 seasons — Andrew Whitworth and Jason Peters — have played more than 125 snaps on offense in a season after turning 38, but San Francisco is counting on Williams to do that.

“We did a two-year deal with Trent with great confidence that Trent’s going to be here for a couple years," Lynch said. "The way he takes care of himself, where his heart’s at. In the inception of this offseason, I sat down with Trent, 'Where you at, man, what’s on your mind, what’s on your heart?’ That gave us a great feel. I think there’s going to be more and more cases of guys playing to this level with just the way they are taking care of themselves. I have a high degree of confidence that Trent can and will do that for us.”

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

Prosecutors say 50-year-old Quoc Viet Ngo believed he was communicating online with a 15-year-old girl, who was actually an undercover detective. Investigators say the case began as part of an operation targeting online predators.

Ngo appeared in court as a judge approved new restrictions to his bond. He is now barred from accessing the internet and is limited to using a phone equipped with software that blocks online activity.

• FIRST REPORT: Houston Police lieutenant arrested in online solicitation of minor case

Authorities say the investigation was led by the Harris County Precinct One Constable’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Unit, working alongside a regional task force.

According to investigators, Ngo allegedly sent sexually explicit images and later showed up at a home in an unmarked Houston Police Department vehicle, expecting to meet the teen for sexual activity. Deputies say condoms, alcohol, and his service belt were found inside the vehicle. When he was taken into custody, officers used his own handcuffs to arrest him.

Precinct One Constable Alan Rosen said, “Lt. Ngo was sworn to protect the very people that he was targeting.”

Ngo was previously featured in a 2018 KPRC 2 community story about “Boots for Cops,” a program that provides custom western boots to law enforcement officers.

If convicted, Ngo could face up to 20 years in prison. He has since been relieved of duty.

His next court appearance is scheduled for May 21.

Pittsburgh general manager Omar Khan said Monday the team remains in regular communication with the four-time MVP, who guided the Steelers to the AFC North title in 2025.

“Nothing's changed,” Khan said. “It's all been positive and good. He knows how we feel about him and we know how he feels about us."

It just hasn't rendered any definitive answer from Rodgers, and none appears to be coming before the NFL draft descends on Pittsburgh on Thursday. The 42-year-old quarterback didn't sign with Pittsburgh until just before the start of mandatory minicamp last June. Rodgers' uncertain status, however, is unlikely to play a factor in what the Steelers plan to do with their 12 selections that begin with the 21st overall pick.

“That doesn’t change our evaluation process,” Khan said. “We’re still putting the guys up where they need to be and we’ll just see how it shakes out.”

What was once considered a quarterback-rich draft a year ago looks far different now, with no safe bets outside of Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza of Indiana going No. 1 to Las Vegas.

The Steelers currently only have two quarterbacks under contract in last year's sixth-round pick Will Howard — whose rookie season a year ago was marred by a hand injury sustained early in training camp — and longtime backup Mason Rudolph.

Pittsburgh will almost certainly add to that depth in the draft. Penn State's Drew Allar, Miami's Carson Beck and North Dakota State's Cole Payton have all been in for pre-draft visits, though all figure to be later-round selections whenever they hear their name called.

Mike McCarthy, a Pittsburgh native hired to replace Mike Tomlin in January, has a lengthy resume as quarterback whisperer of sorts. The list of players McCarthy has worked with in the past include Rodgers, Dallas' Dak Prescott and former No. 1 overall pick Alex Smith, who spent a year with McCarthy in San Francisco in 2005.

“We speak on it as being the most important position in football,” McCarthy said. “And I think it’s important to always try to add to it if you can (but) it has to fit.”

The Steelers do have several needs outside of a young quarterback, including a versatile receiver to team with veterans DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr., and at offensive tackle, a position that's in a state of flux as left tackle Broderick Jones — their first-round pick in 2023 — recovers from a neck injury that forced him to miss the last seven games of 2025.

There is no timetable on when Jones might be ready, though he was with his teammates on Monday as part of the “medical group” as the Steelers held informal workouts.

Khan said Jones was still “early in the process” and the injury means Pittsburgh will almost certainly decline Jones' fifth-year option for 2027, meaning they might head into the draft eyeing a longer-term solution to protect whoever might end up being the franchise quarterback the club has been searching for since Ben Roethlisberger's retirement in early 2022.

Pittsburgh's dozen picks give Khan the option to use some of them as collateral if the team decides to trade up. There's also the chance he could trade down early in the draft to accumulate more capital.

McCarthy seems fine either way. While he called the current roster a “nice mix” of older and younger players, the chance to add quality depth is never a bad thing.

“Being above 10 (picks) I think would be awesome personally,” McCarthy said. “I’ve always felt that the more players you have to develop, I think it definitely is, for the long term, a good process.”

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

Cook, 65, will turn the CEO duties over to Apple’s head of hardware engineering, John Ternus, on Sept. 1 while remaining involved with the Cupertino, California, company as executive chairman. That’s similar to the transitions made by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Netflix’s Reed Hastings after they ended their highly successful tenures as CEO.

To allow Cook to assume his new job, Arthur Levinson will relinquish his role as Apple's non-executive chairman while remaining on its board of directors.

“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company," Cook said in a statement. “I love Apple with all of my being, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with a team of such ingenious, innovative, creative, and deeply caring people.”

Ternus, 50, has been with Apple for the past quarter century, including the past five years overseeing the engineering underlying the iPhone, iPad and Mac — a role that made him a prime candidate to succeed Cook.

“I am profoundly grateful for this opportunity to carry Apple’s mission forward,” Ternus said in a statement.

Cook and Ternus may have more to say about the changing of the guard on April 30 when Apple is scheduled to release its financial results for the first three months of the year.

The transition to a new CEO comes at a pivotal time for Apple. Artificial intelligence has unleashed the most upheaval within the industry since Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007. Apple has gotten off to a rough start in AI after stumbling in its efforts to deliver new features built on the technology, as promised nearly two years ago.

Earlier this year, Apple finally turned to Google — an early leader in the AI race — for help making the iPhone's virtual assistant Siri into a more conversational and versatile helper.

“Cook created a major legacy at Apple but it was ultimately time to pass the torch to Ternus with the AI strategy now the focus,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said.

Although he never shook the perception that he lacked Jobs’ vision, Cook leveraged the popularity of the iPhone and other breakthroughs orchestrated by his predecessor to lift Apple to heights that seemed unfathomable when it was on the brink of bankruptcy during the mid-1990s.

Not long after Cook took over, Apple became the first publicly traded company to be valued at $1 trillion, then became the first to be valued at $2 trillion and $3 trillion, too.

But after Apple's slow start in AI, chipmaker Nvidia rode the feverish demand for its processors that power that technology to be the first company to reach the $4 trillion threshold and then the first to break through the $5 trillion barrier, too. Apple is currently valued at $4 trillion, up from $350 billion when Tim Cook took over in August 2011, shortly before Jobs died after a long bout with cancer.

“Steve Jobs was never going to be an easy act to follow, yet Tim Cook took Jobs’ legacy and transformed Apple into a durable, resilient financial powerhouse,” said Forrester Research analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee.

Besides guiding Apple to a phenomenal run of financial success, Cook also made his mark in an October 2014 essay acknowledging his homosexuality – a disclosure by the leader of a renowned company that was hailed as a breakthrough for the gay rights movement.

Before his death, Jobs spent time grooming Cook to be his successor – a move that reflected the Apple co-founder’s respect and admiration for an executive that he hired in 1998 to oversee the company’s supply chain. Knowing his successor would likely be measured against his legacy, Jobs advised Cook to be guided by his own instincts and never bother musing, “What would Steve do?”

Cook, an Alabama native who previously worked at Compaq Computer and Apple’s former nemesis, IBM, masterminded the intricacies of an international supply chain that plumbed the cheaper labor and efficiency of China’s manufacturing plants. It has played an instrumental role in the production of the Mac computers, iPods, iPhones, iPads and other products that account for most of Apple’s annual revenue of $416 billion – up from $108 billion when Cook became CEO.

But most of Apple’s best-selling devices were all conceived while Jobs was still CEO, raising questions about whether Cook was more of a logistics man than an idea man.

“While Cook has kept Apple’s growth trajectory moving at a steady clip, he has not overseen a step-change innovation that would reset Apple’s competitive position for the next two decades, as Jobs did with the iPhone,” Chatterjee said.

The company did create the two popular new product lines – the Apple Watch and wireless AirPod headphones – and a still-niche Vision Pro headset for experiencing virtual reality, but none of them have been the kind of breakthroughs that became Jobs’ trademark. Meanwhile, other ballyhooed projects such as Apple’s effort to build a self-driving car never materialized after years of research and investments.

Apple’s reliance on overseas manufacturing required Cook to master the art of political diplomacy, particularly while President Donald Trump waged trade wars with China during both his terms in the White House. After persuading Trump to exempt the iPhone and other products from Trump’s first-term tariffs, he faced a more daunting challenge during the current administration.

While insisting that Apple shift its iPhone manufacturing from China to the U.S., Trump imposed some tariffs on the device this time around. But Cook still managed to minimize the fees by shifting the production of iPhones destined for the U.S. market to India and also winning some exemptions after promising Apple would invest $600 billion in the U.S. during Trump’s second administration.

Mohammad Sharifullah is accused of scouting the bomber's route to the airport before the attack that killed nearly 200 people, including 13 U.S. service members, at the end of America’s longest war. FBI agents interviewed him for hours over the course of several days after his capture.

But one of Sharifullah's lawyers said he had no role in the bombing plot and suggested that the Afghan national gave a false confession.

“The U.S. government got the wrong man,” defense attorney Geremy Kamens said during the trial's opening statements. “That is why we are proud to represent Mohammad Sharifullah in this trial.”

Justice Department prosecutor John Gibbs said Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, spoke to a journalist about killing American “crusaders” who invaded his home country after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

“The feeling was just to catch the crusaders and kill them,” Sharifullah told the journalist, according to Gibbs.

Sharifullah told FBI agents that he joined an Islamic State regional branch known as ISIS-K around 2016. Although he denied having a planning role in the Kabul airport bombing, he told the agents that he had done “a lot of other things” on behalf of ISIS-K, Gibbs said.

President Donald Trump announced Sharifullah’s capture during his State of the Union address in March 2025. Sharifullah arrived in the U.S. a day later to face prosecution and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Twelve jurors and three alternates were picked Monday in Alexandria, Virginia, for Sharifullah's federal trial on one count of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization resulting in death. The trial is expected to last about a week.

U.S. troops were conducting an evacuation operation at the Kabul airport on Aug. 26, 2021, when a lone suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device near an entry point known as Abbey Gate. Approximately 160 Afghans were killed in the attack along with the 13 U.S. service members.

A review by U.S. Central Command found that the Abbey Gate bomber was Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State militant who had been released from an Afghan prison by the Taliban. Sharifullah recognized the alleged bomber as an operative he had known while incarcerated, according to an FBI affidavit.

A former Marine testified to Congress that he and others had spotted two possible suspects behaving suspiciously on the morning of the bombing but didn't get permission to act. However, the Central Command review concluded that the snipers hadn't seen the actual bomber and that the attack was not preventable.

Still, the carnage led to sharp criticism of how Democratic President Joe Biden's administration handled the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan after a war spanning two decades. On the campaign trial, before he won a second term in the White House, Trump repeatedly condemned Biden’s role in the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal and blamed him for the Abbey Gate attack.

One of the prosecutors assigned to the Abbey Gate case was fired by the Justice Department last year after a right-wing commentator publicly criticized him over his work during the Biden administration. Michael Ben’Ary's ouster was part of a broader purge of Justice Department veterans deemed to be insufficiently loyal to Trump, a Republican.

Sharifullah is accused of participating in other attacks linked to ISIS-K. The FBI said he provided instructions on the proper use of firearms before other ISIS-K members carried out a March 2024 attack at a Moscow concert hall that killed roughly 140 people.

Kamens suggested that Sharifullah gave a false confession under duress while in Pakastani custody. The defense lawyer told jurors that the airport bombing was likely an “inside job” aided by sympathetic Taliban extremists who were in power and helping with airport security that day.

“The Pakistanis wanted him to confess, and their intelligence service tortures people,” Kamens said.

With the 14-day ceasefire to expire Wednesday, Trump whipsawed in telephone interviews and social media posts between measured optimism that a deal could soon be reached and warning that “lots of bombs” will “start going off” if there's no agreement before the ceasefire deadline.

Trump indicated that he still expects to dispatch his negotiating team, led by Vice President JD Vance, to Pakistan's capital of Islamabad for a second round of talks, even as Iran insisted it would not take part until Trump dialed back his demands.

Iran’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker, Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, accused the United States of wanting Iran to surrender and added that on the contrary, Iran has been preparing “to reveal new cards on the battlefield."

“We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats,” Qalibaf wrote in a post on X early Tuesday.

Trump insisted he feels no pressure to end the war until Iran agrees to his terms.

“I am under no pressure whatsoever,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform, “although, it will all happen, relatively quickly!”

Pakistani officials moved ahead with preparations for a new round of talks between the U.S. and Iran as the tenuous ceasefire was further strained over the weekend by renewed conflict around the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump told Bloomberg News he was “highly unlikely” to renew the ceasefire.

Iran holds out on resuming negotiations

Tensions flared after the U.S. Navy attacked and seized a ship on Sunday that it said was trying to evade its blockade of Iranian ports. On Saturday, Iran fired at vessels and abruptly stopped traffic in the strait, abandoning its promise to allow some ships to pass and claiming the U.S. was not holding up its side of the ceasefire.

The U.S. actions are “incompatible with the claim of diplomacy,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Monday in a social media post.

He gave no indication what Iran will do after the ceasefire expires or whether Iran will return to a second round of negotiations with the U.S.

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

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

Trump swipes at war critics, seeks to calm investors

The U.S. president lashed out at war critics at home who are urging him to wrap up the conflict that began more than seven weeks ago.

“How bad is it that when you are in the middle of negotiations and you have got the Iranians in a perfect position, including being militarily defeated, and you have Democrats and some Republicans asking to settle it now?” Trump told the New York Post.

Even as Trump bristled at his detractors, he sought to soothe jittery investors as U.S. stocks slipped modestly Monday, following the chaotic weekend in the Persian Gulf.

The president found himself remonstrating his energy secretary, Chris Wright, who on Sunday said American motorists might not see gas prices fall back into the $3 per gallon range until late this year or next year.

“I disagree with him totally. I think it’ll come roaring down if it ends,” Trump told PBS. “If we end it, if Iran does what they should do, it will come roaring down.”

Israel-Lebanon talks to resume, official says

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

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

A 10-day ceasefire began Friday in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants broke out two days after the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran. Fighting in Lebanon has killed more than 2,290 people.

In two separate encounters on Monday, the Israeli air force struck and killed Hezbollah militants that the military said approached its troops in a threatening way. Israel has carried out several airstrikes since the ceasefire went into effect.

Hezbollah said it detonated explosives Sunday in an Israeli convoy inside Lebanon.

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

Since the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, according to a new toll released Monday in official Iranian media by Abbas Masjedi, the head of Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization.

He did not break down casualties among civilians and security forces, saying instead that 2,875 were male and 496 were female. Masjedi said 383 of the dead were children 18 years old and younger.

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

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

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

Oil prices were up again Monday, with Brent crude, the international standard, at just over $95 a barrel — up from about $70 a barrel before the war started.

Iran said it had reopened the strait to ships Friday, but traffic halted after Trump refused to lift the U.S. blockade.

Sunday's U.S. seizure of the Iranian cargo was the first such interception under the blockade. Iran’s joint military command called the armed boarding an act of piracy and a ceasefire violation.

Trump said the blockade will remain “in full force” until Tehran agrees to a deal. The U.S. military said on Monday that it has directed 27 ships to return to Iranian ports since the blockade began last week.

___

Ahmed reported from Islamabad, and Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press journalists Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; David Rising in Bangkok; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Josef Federman in Jerusalem; Joshua Boak and Matthew Lee in Washington; and Giovanna Dell'Orto in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

The attack on Sunday morning unfolded in two homes in a Shreveport neighborhood. The gunman, identified as 31-year-old Shamar Elkins, died after a police pursuit that ended with officers firing on him, authorities said.

Police have not provided a motive for the killings. Family members said Elkins and his wife were separating and community leaders called for a reckoning over domestic violence as the shooting reverberated across the city, including in the classrooms where the children attended school.

Here's what to know about the attack.

Shootings began before sunrise

The attack began before dawn in a neighborhood south of downtown Shreveport.

Police received the first report around 5:55 a.m. from a caller stating they were on top of a house where someone had been shot, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said. Five minutes later, police were told that Elkins had shot everyone inside the 79th Street house.

Troy Brown, Elkin's brother-in-law, said his wife and his 12-year-old daughter had escaped through the home’s roof.

Officers arrived within minutes but another call at 6:07 a.m. reported a second attack on nearby Harrison Street, where the caller said Elkins had shot her before fleeing, according to Smith. Police then received word the gunman had stolen a car, leading to a pursuit and eventually an exchange of gunfire.

Elkins was pronounced dead about an hour after police received the first call. It was not clear whether he was killed by officers or from a self-inflicted gunshot, Smith said.

Gunman had felony gun conviction

Court records showed that Elkins was placed on probation in 2019 after pleading guilty to illegal use of weapons. A police report for that case said Elkins fired five rounds at a vehicle and told police that someone inside it had pulled a gun on him.

Under Louisiana law, a person convicted of illegal use of a weapon is banned from having a gun for at least 10 years after completing their sentence and probation. Investigators were not aware of other domestic violence issues involving Elkins, said police spokesperson Chris Bordelon.

Authorities have not said how or where Elkins obtained the weapon used in Sunday's attack.

Elkins had served in the Louisiana National Guard from 2013 to 2020, held the rank of private and had no deployments, a guard spokesperson said. He was a signal support system specialist and a fire support specialist.

Elkins had voluntarily checked into a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in January for just over a week, according to Brown. He said Elkins appeared “better when he came home” and seemed fine a day before the shooting.

The murdered children were all under 12

The eight children ranged in age from 3 to 11. Besides Elkins' seven children, his nephew was among the slain, according to the Caddo Parish coroner’s office.

Family members described the gunman’s wife, Shaneiqua Elkins, as a doting mother who celebrated her children’s success in school and carefully dressed them before family events.

Francine Monro Brown, a cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she would often see the children playing in the yard on Sunday mornings when she drove past the house on her way to church. She called them “happy” and “joyful.”

Family member says couple was separating

Elkins and his wife were separating and had been arguing about their relationship before the shooting, said Crystal Brown, a cousin of a woman shot in the attack.

The shooting in Shreveport was the deadliest in the U.S. since January 2024, when eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

Trump said Vice President JD Vance, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff would be going Monday to Islamabad, where Pakistani officials were preparing the venue, but Iranians made no commitment to a second round of talks with the U.S., and Vance's motorcade was later spotted at the White House. Trump said he’s “highly unlikely” to renew the ceasefire before it expires at 0000 GMT Wednesday (8 p.m. ET Tuesday.)

The escalating standoff threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy after nearly two months of fighting that Iran's forensic chief has killed at least 3,375 people in Iran.

Israel and Lebanon meanwhile said they would join another round of talks in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, continuing their first direct diplomatic talks in decades.

Here is the latest:

Iran’s chief negotiator seems to cast more doubt on a second round of talks with the US

“We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats,” Parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf wrote early Tuesday morning in Tehran in a social media post on X.

He accused the United States of wanting Iran to surrender and said that on the contrary, Iran has been preparing “to reveal new cards on the battlefield.”

Oil prices rise and US stocks give back a bit of their record-breaking rally

Oil prices climbed Monday following the latest rise of tensions between the United States and Iran, but the moves were more modest than they were earlier in the war.

U.S. stocks, meanwhile, gave back a bit of their record-breaking rally.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, climbed 5.6% to settle at $95.48 on worries that Iran could keep petroleum pent up in the Persian Gulf if it continues to block tankers from exiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% from its all-time high for just its second drop in 14 days after the United States seized an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel that it said had tried to evade its blockade of Iranian ports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 4 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.

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Iraq and Syria tout their reopened border crossing as an alternative oil route

Iraq and Syria have reopened a key border crossing between the two nations for the first time in more than a decade, with officials highlighting its potential for trade and oil exports.

They say it offers an alternative to the embattled Strait of Hormuz at the focus of the Iran war — though overland oil transports are far inferior to pipelines and oil tankers at sea.

At the opening ceremony on Monday, Nadia al-Jubouri, a member of Iraq’s provincial council of Nineveh, said the crossing will allow for “trade exchange and oil transportation toward this great gate.”

Iran’s foreign minister says US actions are ‘incompatible with the claim of diplomacy’

Abbas Araghchi says he relayed his message in a phone call with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.

In a social media post, Araghchi gave no indication as to what Iran will do after the ceasefire expires Wednesday or whether Iran will return to a second round of negotiations with the U.S.

He says his country “will monitor the behavior of the other side and take the appropriate decision to protect its interests and national security.”

Experts vary on whether US broke ceasefire with Iran

The U.S. did not violate the ceasefire because it was limited to bombing Iran, not enforcing the American blockade against Iranian-linked vessels, according to Michael O’Hanlon, a defense and foreign policy analyst at the Brookings Institution.

“We agreed to stop dropping bombs on them, and that’s the basic thing they wanted,” O’Hanlon said. They U.S. still had to enforce the blockade “if you’re going to make it mean anything,” he said.

But Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and a senior defense adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said a violation is up for interpretation because there were no defined terms.

“Trump announced it. The Iranians agreed. But there’s no formal agreement,” Cancian said. “So whether it broke the ceasefire or not depends on your perspective ... Nothing was written down.”

Trump offers mixed messages about path ahead

The U.S. president has made a series of statements Monday about next steps in the U.S. war against Iran, declaring that he's in no rush to end the conflict while also expressing confidence that more negotiations with Tehran will soon happen in Pakistan.

Trump whipsawed in telephone interviews and social media posts between measured optimism that a deal could soon be reached and warning that “lots of bombs” will “start going off” if there’s no agreement before the ceasefire expires at 0000 GMT Wednesday (8 p.m. ET Tuesday.)

“I am under no pressure whatsoever,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform, “although, it will all happen, relatively quickly!”

UN and EU report says Gaza recovery and reconstruction will cost $71.4 billion over 10 years

The report by the United Nations and the European Union with input from the World Bank says the total includes $26.3 billion in the first 18 months to restore essential services, rebuild critical infrastructure and support economic recovery.

The damage to physical infrastructure is estimated at $35.2 billion, and economic and social losses at some $22.7 billion since the war began following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks in southern Israel, the report says.

Gaza’s economy has contracted by 84%, more than 371,000 housing units in Gaza have been destroyed, over half of Gaza’s hospitals are “non-functional” and nearly all schools are destroyed or damaged, it says.

Trump gets defensive on Iran strategy

In a pair of social-media posts, the U.S. president lashed out at Democrats — calling them “TRAITORS, ALL” — and the media for their criticism and skepticism about his handling of the war in Iran.

Trump accused Democrats of doing “everything possible” to hurt the administration on Iran and he stressed that he wouldn’t be rushed into a deal “that is not as good as it could have been.”

“This is being perfectly executed, on the scale of Venezuela, just a bigger, more complex operation. The result will be the same,” Trump wrote, insisting that “time is not my adversary.”

Lebanese official confirms next meeting with Israel set for Thursday

A Lebanese official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, confirmed Monday that the next second scheduled session for direct talks between Israeli and Lebanese officials will take place in Washington Thursday.

The ambassadors of Lebanon and Israel to the U.S. met last week, the first such direct, face-to-face talks to take place in decades. The Lebanese official said the second session will focus on solidifying the 10-day truce currently in place between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and on the logistics and timing of wider negotiations that will take place at a later date over the two countries’ relations.

The two countries have had a rocky and often hostile relationship since Israel’s inception in 1948. Like the majority of Arab countries, Lebanon has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel.

Israeli airstrike wounds six people in southern Lebanon

The Lebanese Health Ministry said Monday’s strike hit the southern village of Qaaqaait al-Jisr.

Since a 10-day ceasefire went into effect at midnight Thursday, there have been several Israeli strikes. Meanwhile, the Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it detonated explosives Sunday in an Israeli convoy inside Lebanon.

The U.S. State Department said Thursday that according to the ceasefire agreement, Israel reserves the right to defend itself “at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks.”

Despite ceasefire, Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon kill several people the army says were militants

The Israeli military said the two separate strikes in southern Lebanon on Monday killed an unspecified number of people who the army said had approached its soldiers in a threatening manner.

There was no immediate comment from Lebanese authorities or from the Hezbollah militant group.

Israel has launched multiple airstrikes since a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon took effect Friday. Israel says the people it targeted were violating the truce by operating in what it calls a “Forward Defense Area” in territory that Israeli forces still occupy. The ceasefire text published by the U.S. State Department does not mention such an area.

The military said Monday’s strikes took place in Bint Jbeil, a village that saw fierce fighting before the ceasefire, and in the Litani area.

EU hosts Palestinian peace conference as it seeks greater sway in the Middle East

Europe turned its attention to the Palestinians on Monday as the election defeat of Israel ally Viktor Orban in Hungary gives new momentum to efforts addressing Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

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

The European Union has largely been on the sidelines in the Middle East despite being the biggest provider of aid to the Palestinians and backing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The 27-nation bloc is also Israel’s top trading partner and a major buyer of Israeli weapons.

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

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Vance is at the White House, not Pakistan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— By Matthew Lee in Washington

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Israeli official says talks with Lebanon to resume in Washington

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

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

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

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

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

— By Josef Federman

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

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

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

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

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

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Trump snaps at critique that Israel dragged him into Iran war

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

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

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

Still no commitment by Iran for Round 2 talks with US

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

UAE arrests people over alleged ties to Iran

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

▶ Read more

Israel condemns a soldier defacing a statue of Jesus in Lebanon

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

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

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

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

Launches of the huge New Glenn rocket are grounded until Blue Origin and the Federal Aviation Administration complete their investigation.

The rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sunday. The recycled first-stage booster performed well, landing on an ocean barge several minutes into the flight. But the upper stage was unable to put the satellite into a high enough orbit to begin operations.

Preliminary data indicate that one of the upper stage engines failed to produce enough thrust, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said.

The satellite was supposed to join AST SpaceMobile's orbiting network of satellites designed to provide direct space-to-smart phone service.

The rocket’s upper stage and satellite reentered the atmosphere Monday, according to the U.S. Space Force. No additional detail was available.

It was only the third flight for New Glenn, Blue Origin's hulking rocket for delivering spacecraft to orbit. NASA is counting on New Glenn to launch Blue Moon lunar landers for the Artemis moon program. SpaceX's Starship is also in the running to land astronauts on the moon as early as 2028.

Towering more than 320 feet (98 meters), the rocket is named for John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth in 1962.

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

Residents lined the narrow streets as the rider passed, some lifting phones to record while others waved, clapped and called out, “Here he comes!” and “We love you, Paul!”

The ride cut through dense city blocks where everyday life continued alongside the spectacle — people walking dogs, jogging and moving through parks and apartment-lined streets, some pausing to watch, others carrying on.

Mary McCabe, who came from Lowell with her daughter Cecily, said it was interesting “just to see how different messages traveled back then.”

Cecily, who said she loves learning about the American Revolution, said seeing the reenactment in person made history feel more real.

“It’s really cool because I can actually see it with my own eyes,” she said.

More than a century-old tradition

Brig. Gen. Richard Reale Jr. of the National Lancers, part of the Massachusetts Organized Militia, portrayed Revere. He said the act serves as an important tribute to “tradition and patriotism” as America marks 250 years since the nation’s founding.

“The unit’s been doing this for well over 100 years, and I believe the same thing: It’s important to remember our patriots on a day like today — those who helped found this country and those who continue to preserve it. We thank our armed forces.”

The reenactor, dressed in Colonial costume and accompanied by another horseman, traced the route taken by Revere 251 years ago as he alerted militias about British movements.

Accompanied by a police escort, Reale made his way through the narrow streets of Charlestown, under an expressway to Somerville and then along the main streets of Medford and Arlington — passing salons, laundromats, restaurants and plenty of Dunkin’ stores.

People along the route popped out of their homes or stopped their cars to watch him pass. Trotting along on his horse, the rider repeatedly yelled, “Regulars are coming" and "Redcoat are out" while occasionally urging people to grab their muskets.

Large crowds greeted the rider in Medford, where he stopped at the site of what once was a tavern that Revere visited and quizzed the crowd on what they knew about the silversmith.

Outside Arlington town hall, resident Vernon Brown said the reenactment resonates deeply in a place tied to the Revolution’s earliest fighting.

“It’s Patriot’s Day — one of the great holidays of Massachusetts. We love it,” he said. “I think in Arlington here, where the Revolution really started — the first pitched battle was here — seeing Paul Revere just brings home how great America is and how everybody really does love this country.”

A second rider finished his ride in Lexington, where he met up with a reenactor playing another midnight rider, William Dawes.

A Revolution turning point

Revere's ride took place on April 18, 1775, when the silversmith and express rider was dispatched to Lexington to warn Revolutionary leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the British were coming to arrest them. He then headed to Concord to warn about raids on military stockpiles.

Revere reached Lexington around midnight, and Dawes got there along a different route soon after with the same message.

Their efforts resulted in militiamen, muskets in hand, confronting a much larger contingent of British regulars marching from Boston on the Lexington Battle Green. The British regulars were eventually chased back to Boston, where militias pinned them down for 11 months in what became known as the Siege of Boston.

“It’s important because you have to have someone to meet the British troops,” said Nina Zannieri, executive director of the Paul Revere Memorial Association, which owns and operates the Paul Revere House. “It becomes a turning point. If no patriots had turned out on the green and the British had just rolled into town, it would have been different. But they actually meet resistance.”

Some aspects of the historic night are not part of this year's event, such as Revere taking a boat to Charlestown before starting his ride.

Nor is there Revere’s brief detention by a British patrol on his way to Concord after leaving Lexington. Revere was ultimately let go without his horse after convincing the British that hundreds of patriots were waiting for them, and he returned to Lexington to see the end of the battle.

“It’s basically important that he leaves Boston. He rides. He’s alerting people. Other people are out,” Zannieri said. “He starts a chain reaction, and he accomplishes his mission even though he gets stopped and held. He’s lucky he wasn’t killed.”

Then and now

While Revere dodged patrols and contended with rutted and muddy roads, his 21st century counterpart had it easier, traveling on pavement and passing through a world of stoplights, car dealerships and bustling downtowns that Revere never could have imagined. The 2026 Boston Marathon took place at the same time, though the routes did not overlap.

Michelle DiCarlo-Domey, who organizes the ride each year for the National Lancers, said thousands come out to see history come alive and show their patriotism.

“Whenever you can interact with the riders and the horses, it can help carry history on,” DiCarlo-Domey said. “Kids can relate to what they learn in school. And where else do you see two horses running down the street?”

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AP journalist Leah Willingham contributed from Boston.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% from its all-time high for just its second drop in 14 days after the United States seized an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel that it said had tried to evade its blockade of Iranian ports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 4 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, climbed 5.6% to settle at $95.48 on worries that Iran could keep petroleum pent up in the Persian Gulf if it continues to block tankers from exiting the Strait of Hormuz.

It’s a turnaround from the prior trading day on Wall Street, when stocks soared and oil prices tumbled after Iran said Friday it was reopening the strait to commercial traffic. That enthusiasm vanished quickly after Iran closed the strait again Saturday following the U.S. decision to press ahead with its blockade of Iranian ports.

The next big deadline is looming on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern time, which is early Wednesday Tehran time, when a ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran is scheduled to expire.

Still, oil prices remain well below the high points reached so far in the war. Brent crude’s price briefly got above $119 per barrel when fears were at their highest. And the S&P 500 is still above where it was before the war.

Monday’s relatively muted moves suggest investors still see a possibility of a U.S.-Iranian agreement that could get oil flowing again from the Middle East to customers worldwide. It would be in both countries’ economic interests to end the war.

Companies with big fuel bills fell to some of Wall Street’s larger losses following the rise in crude’s cost, as they have through much of the war.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings dropped 3.5%, and Royal Caribbean Group lost 1.1%.

United Airlines sank 2.8%, and American Airlines fell 4.2% after American said it’s not interested in a merger with United. Airline stocks had flown higher last week following a report saying United wanted to combine with its rival.

On the winning side of Wall Street was TopBuild, a distributor of insulation and building products, which jumped 19.4%. QXO is buying it in a deal valued at roughly $17 billion.

QXO said the deal would make it the continent’s second-largest publicly traded building products distributor, and its stock fell 3.1%.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 16.92 points to 7,109.14. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 4.87 to 49,442.56, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 64.09 to 24,404.39.

One big reason the U.S. stock market has been so strong recently is the big profits that U.S. companies have been reporting for the first three months of 2026, as well as expectations for continued growth.

While reporting stronger profits for the latest quarter than analysts expected, several of the biggest U.S. banks said last week that they see the U.S. economy remaining resilient, particularly because of solid spending by U.S. consumers.

“Despite geopolitical risks, the earnings recovery remains intact,” according to Morgan Stanley strategists led by Michael Wilson. It’s remained so solid that analysts have even raised their profit expectations since the war began for the spring of 2026.

Along with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and other big banks, about 10% of companies in the S&P 500 have already reported their results for the start of 2026. Nearly nine out of 10 have delivered a bigger profit than analysts expected, according to FactSet.

If the rest of the companies in the index match analysts’ expectations, overall earnings per share for S&P 500 companies will end up 13% higher than a year earlier, according to FactSet.

That’s big because stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term. Other companies scheduled to report their results this week include UnitedHealth Group on Tuesday, Tesla on Wednesday and Procter & Gamble on Friday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a better finish in Asia. Germany’s DAX lost 1.2%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.8% for two of the world’s bigger moves.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Wolves cannot amass enough points in its last five games to avoid the drop and will return to the Championship for the first time since 2018.

Relegation looked inevitable for the Midlands club for most of a woeful season but even a string of more encouraging performances over the last couple of months could not save it.

The end came far from home in a listless match in south London.

West Ham had the better of the opening exchanges but the scoreline remained goalless at halftime. Although Palace perked up in the second half it did not create many chances and neither goalkeeper was very busy.

The point was nevertheless welcomed by the Hammers, who moved two clear of Tottenham Hotspur in 18th place.

“A point at the end of the day isn’t the worst thing in the world,” captain Jarrod Bowen said.

“We’re trying to keep West Ham in the Premier League. We can’t rely on anyone else, we need to look at ourselves and keep fighting to stay in the Premier League.”

Palace, which has won only three of its last 26 Monday night games in the Premier League, remained in 13th.

Goalkeeper Dean Henderson’s shutout was Palace’s 12th clean sheet of the season, a record bettered only by the top two Arsenal and Manchester City.

“(That record) is an unbelievable return for our league position,” Henderson said. "The defensive unit is so good, anyone who steps in has been excellent. That’s the foundations we’ve built and hopefully add some goals at the other end."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

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

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

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

Who gets to vote?

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

How many voters are there?

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

How many people actually vote?

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

How much of the vote is cast early or absentee?

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

As of Monday, about 1.4 million ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election. That’s about 93% of the total advance votes cast in the 2025 gubernatorial election. In-person early voting concluded on Saturday.

When are early and absentee votes released?

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

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

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

How long does vote-counting usually take?

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

Are we there yet?

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

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

Ariyoshi, a Democrat who led the state from 1973 to 1986, died peacefully while surrounded by family on Sunday night, according to a statement Monday from current Gov. Josh Green.

“Governor Ariyoshi devoted his life to Hawaiʻi with humility, discipline and an unwavering sense of responsibility to the people he served,” Green said. “He led our state during a pivotal moment with quiet strength and integrity, and his legacy as a trailblazer and public servant will endure for generations."

Ariyoshi was a three-term governor who first rose to the position in October 1973. Three years earlier, he had been elected lieutenant governor, and he then became acting governor when Gov. John Burns fell ill with cancer.

Ariyoshi won the office outright in 1974 and was reelected in 1978 and 1982. Hawaii governors are now subject to a two-term limit. His political career coincided with the Democratic Party's rise to power in Hawaii.

Democrats wrested control of the Legislature from Republicans in 1954, the year Ariyoshi won the first of two terms in the Territorial House of Representatives. He won a territorial Senate seat in 1958, becoming a state senator the following year when Hawaii became a state.

Ariyoshi won three more state Senate races — in 1964, 1966 and 1968 — before becoming lieutenant governor.

Ariyoshi was born March 12, 1926, in a two-room tenement near Honolulu Harbor to parents who immigrated to Hawaii from Japan. He grew up in the hardscrabble neighborhood of Kalihi, near downtown Honolulu.

His father, Ryozo, a sumo wrestler from Fukuoka Prefecture, became a stevedore and owner of a dry cleaning shop in Hawaii. His mother, Mitsue, came from Kumamoto, Japan.

In his 1997 autobiography, “With Obligation to All,” Ariyoshi wrote about growing up with a lisp.

“The fact that we had no money did not seem to be a barrier, but I had a barrier of a different kind," he wrote, describing how he wanted to grow up to become a lawyer if he could learn to speak properly.

Following graduation from McKinley High School in 1944, Ariyoshi served as an interpreter with the U.S. Army's Military Intelligence Service in Japan at the end of World War II.

After the war, Ariyoshi attended the University of Hawaii before transferring to Michigan State University, where he received a bachelor's degree in history and political science in 1949. Ariyoshi earned a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1952.

Going to school on the U.S. mainland, Ariyoshi didn’t feel a sense of being treated differently. “On the contrary, I enjoyed the fact that Hawaii had a reputation even then for people of different backgrounds coming together and living harmoniously,” he wrote in his book.

He began practicing law in Hawaii the year after he graduated from law school. Ariyoshi withdrew from private practice and resigned various corporate directorships after he was elected lieutenant governor.

He said his decision to seek the position was influenced by a desire to break the barrier for minorities.

“The new state of Hawaii had produced United States representatives and senators of Caucasian, Chinese and Japanese ancestry, reflecting our diversity,” he wrote. “But only Caucasians had been governor.”

Ariyoshi’s time as governor was marked by Hawaii becoming a tourist destination and a booming population. “I was convinced that neither our infrastructure nor our environment would support this rate of growth,” he wrote.

In 1975, Ariyoshi and his wife, Jean Hayashi Ariyoshi, attended their first National Governor’s Conference in Washington, D.C., where they were invited by President Gerald Ford to a black-tie dinner at the White House.

Jean Ariyoshi wrote in her book, “Washington Place: A First Lady’s Story,” that as the couple jitterbugged on the dance floor, she stood on tip-toe and whispered in his ear: “Look at the little girl from Wahiawa dancing at the White House.”

He replied: “And she’s dancing with the kid from Kalihi.”

John Waiheʻe, who became Ariyoshi’s lieutenant governor in 1982, went on to be elected the first governor of Native Hawaiian ancestry in 1986 with Ariyoshi’s support.

In addition to his wife Jean, Ariyoshi is survived by daughter Lynn and sons Donn and Ryozo.

The 46-year-old author and the vice chair of the Clinton Foundation ran the 26.2-mile (42.195-kilometer) race in 3 hours, 40 minutes, 52 seconds. Joining former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to meet her at the finish line was 2014 champion Meb Keflezghi — the last American man to win the race.

According to athlinks.com, Chelsea Clinton has run six other marathons, including New York four times, and Monday's run was a personal best.

Other notable participants who ran in Monday's record-setting race included astronaut Suni Williams, who finished in 5:52:49; hockey Hall of Famer Zdeno Chara, who ran it in 3:18:00; 2018 Boston winner Des Linden, who finished second in the women's masters division in 2:35:49; and 1968 men's winner Amby Burfoot, who finished in 5:11:29.

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

An estimated 1,000 activists from around the country came to Ridglan Farms in rural Blue Mounds in an attempt Saturday to free an estimated 2,000 beagles kept there about 25 miles (about 40 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Madison. They were met by police who repelled them with tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray. The Dane County Sheriff's Department said 29 people were arrested.

More than 100 protesters were met outside of the Capitol hallway that leads to the offices of Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul by police officers who handed out constituent contact forms for Wisconsin residents to complete.

Evers and Kaul did not immediately return messages seeking comment. No one from their offices spoke directly to the protesters, some of whom carried pictures of Evers, Kaul and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin interacting with dogs.

Aidan Kankyoku, a co-leader of the Coalition to Save the Ridglan Dogs that organized the effort, said they were hoping that both Evers and Kaul would break their silence about the dog breeder. Kankyoku said activists also wanted Kaul to execute a search warrant on the facility to investigate allegations of ongoing animal cruelty.

Ridglan has denied mistreating animals but agreed in October to give up its state breeding license as of July 1 as part of a deal to avoid prosecution on animal mistreatment charges. A special prosecutor determined that Ridglan was performing eye procedures on the dogs that violated state veterinary standards.

Under that settlement, Ridglan will no longer be able to sell beagles to outside researchers starting July 1.

Ridglan says it has served as a biomedical research facility “that supports health studies benefitting both humans and animals” for more than 60 years. Nearly all of its current research is aimed at improving veterinary medicine, according to its website.

Ridglan said in a statement Monday that activists “have spread false and highly misleading claims about our research and our deep commitment to animal welfare, fueling dangerous levels of anger and hatred.” Ridglan said staff members have been threatened and followed as they leave the facility.

Many of those who were at the facility on Saturday returned to the Capitol on Monday to decry law enforcement’s reaction. Some of them showed off bruises they said were caused by rubber bullets.

Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett defended the actions of his officers, telling The Associated Press on Monday that their response was “appropriate and decisive” to the risk posed by between 300 and 400 protesters who attempted to break into the facility.

“We were outnumbered,” Barrett said of the 26 officers on scene.

The activists were organized into three groups, with one willing to commit felony breaking and entering, another willing to be arrested for trespassing, while others were there to peacefully protest, the sheriff said.

The sheriff's department released a video that showed a truck driving through Ridglan's gate, which Barrett said put officers and Ridglan staff who were in its path at risk. Barrett said another video released Monday showed an activist taking a baton away from an officer as protesters tried to rush the gate to the facility.

Protesters previously broke into the facility in March and took 30 dogs. Twenty-seven people were arrested on trespassing and other charges.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan last week questioned U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. during a House Appropriations Committee hearing about federal grants going to organizations that use beagles from Ridglan Farms.

Kennedy said he had a hard time believing what Pocan was telling him but that he would look into it.

Pocan on Sunday called on state officials to work with Ridglan on a plan for releasing the dogs that won't overwhelm placement groups and prevent the beagles from being euthanized.

Kankyoku said if Ridglan would release the dogs, homes and veterinary care could be found for them.

“We just want the dogs out,” he said.

—-

This story has been updated to correct that Pocan's social media post was Sunday, not Monday.

The subpoenas were issued in recent days and represent an effort by the Justice Department to press forward with the investigation even as a Florida-based career prosecutor who'd been helping lead the inquiry left the case after expressing doubts about the legal viability of a potential criminal prosecution.

Joseph diGenova, a former Justice Department lawyer who served as a top prosecutor in the 1980s and later supported legal efforts by President Donald Trump to overturn his 2020 election loss, has since been sworn in to serve as a special counselor to the attorney general, and is expected to work on the investigation.

The months-old Brennan investigation is one of several criminal probes the Justice Department has opened over the last year against Trump's perceived adversaries. It centers on one of the Republican president's chief grievances — a U.S. intelligence community finding that Russia interfered on his behalf during his successful 2016 presidential campaign.

The subpoenas were described by people with knowledge of them who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation. At least three were said to have been issued, said two of the people. CBS News earlier reported the issuance of subpoenas.

Brennan served as CIA director under President Barack Obama and was in that role when the intelligence community in January 2017 published an assessment detailing Russian interference aimed at helping Trump defeat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. An investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that Russia meddled on Trump's behalf and that his campaign welcomed the assistance, but it did not find sufficient evidence to prove a criminal conspiracy.

The Justice Department last year received a criminal referral from Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, alleging that Brennan made false statements before the panel in 2023 about the preparation of the intelligence community assessment. Brennan and his lawyers have vigorously denied any wrongdoing and have called the investigation politically motivated.

The investigation has been unfolding for months in Florida, with investigators lining up interviews and issuing subpoenas for records. The latest subpoenas seek grand jury testimony in Washington, an indication that prosecutors expect they would have to bring any criminal case in Washington since that is where Brennan's testimony took place.

On Friday, it was revealed that a key national security prosecutor in Florida who'd been handling the investigation, Maria Medetis Long, left the case. She expressed doubts about the case and was removed, another person familiar with the matter said.

The Justice Department has tapped diGenova, 81, a Trump loyalist who served as the U.S. Attorney in Washington for part of the 1980s, to serve as a special counselor to the attorney general. He was sworn in Monday in Florida and is expected to work on the Brennan investigation.

DiGenova supported Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. He made headlines that year when he said Chris Krebs, a top Trump administration cybersecurity official who had determined that the 2020 election was free of major fraud or interference, should be killed. diGenova later apologized and a lawsuit filed against him by Krebs was withdrawn.

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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.

Speaking with KPRC 2 News, The Woodlands Fire Chief Palmer Buck said the response started as a rescue but ultimately turned into a recovery operation.

On Monday, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office identified the victim as Mara Flavia Souza Araujo, a 38-year-old athlete from Brazil.

The cause of death was confirmed to be drowning.

Buck said crews were notified around 7:30 a.m. of a “lost swimmer” in Lake Woodlands near Northshore Park and launched a water rescue response.

“We already had a rescue boat on the scene; they were out as part of the racecraft working the event. They let us know as we were arriving on scene that they were searching near a buoy for a lost swimmer. We coordinated all of our resources to around that buoy,” Buck said.

As the race continued, Buck said responders had to work through challenging conditions, including heavy activity on the water from other swimmers and support craft.

Buck said a second rescue boat equipped with side-scan sonar was brought in and, just after 8 a.m., crews began focusing their search after seeing potential targets.

The swimmer was located and identified around 9 a.m., Buck said, and at that point the operation shifted from rescue to recovery.

• MORE NEWS: High water shuts down East Freeway in both directions at McCarty Street in Houston

With underwater visibility described as “zero,” Buck said they waited for a dive team from the North Montgomery County Fire Department to assist.

He said a member of the race support staff reported seeing a swimmer go under, which prompted the emergency response.

“The victim was found in about 10 feet of water on the bottom of the lake,” Buck said. “The dive team accessed the victim, brought her up about 9:37 and then brought her over to the shore where she was pronounced DOS (deceased on scene).”

In a release, the sheriff’s office confirmed the participant drowned during the swim portion of the event and said Major Crimes detectives are on scene and will continue the investigation “per normal protocols.”

IRONMAN also confirmed the death in a statement provided to KPRC 2 News.

We are saddened to confirm the death of a race participant during the swim portion of today’s IRONMAN Texas triathlon. We send our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the athlete and will offer them our support as they go through this very difficult time. Our gratitude goes out to the first responders for their assistance. Out of respect for the athlete and their family, we will have no further comment.

IRONMAN

The incident occurred around 7:30 p.m. on April 19, 2026, in the 3500 block of Greenhouse Road when Harris County Sheriff’s Office District 4 deputies responded to reports of a shooting involving multiple vehicles traveling southbound.

Investigators said a dispute began between occupants of two vehicles while driving, which quickly escalated when firearms were displayed and shots were fired.

One of the cars contained a juvenile female and a 9-year-old child. Officials stated this vehicle was not directly involved in the exchange of gunfire.

During the confrontation, one vehicle reportedly collided with another, causing it to overturn. Authorities have not confirmed which vehicle initiated the collision.

No gunshot injuries were reported.

Arrests and charges

Following the investigation, authorities identified and arrested three individuals connected to the incident:

• Legace Davis-McVade, 19
• Shannon McVade-Francis, 37
• Marquis Francis, 38

Shannon McVade-Francis
12-27-88

Legace Davis-McVade
7-1-06 https://t.co/Ft44WJ7zVi pic.twitter.com/cTayod1Zks

— Ed Gonzalez (@SheriffEd_HCSO) April 20, 2026

Marquis Francis 2-19-88. https://t.co/kIrvsx8NeI pic.twitter.com/tDhqNynWCA

— Ed Gonzalez (@SheriffEd_HCSO) April 20, 2026

Davis-McVade and McVade-Francis were charged with aggravated assault, while Francis was charged with tampering with evidence.

All three individuals were taken into custody and booked into the Harris County Jail.

According to information released by officials, the sequence of events began when Davis-McVade allegedly pulled alongside another vehicle and pointed a handgun at the driver.

The victim reportedly responded by firing multiple rounds as the vehicles moved through the area.

Shortly after, Shannon McVade-Francis is accused of striking the victim’s vehicle from behind, with investigators reporting a second impact that led to her vehicle overturning.

Authorities say Davis-McVade later returned to the crash site and fired additional shots toward the victim’s vehicle.

He also reportedly returned to check on occupants of the overturned vehicle, which included his parents.

Last year, an American Airlines jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, D.C., killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft. That crash on Jan. 29, 2025, put the spotlight on midair collisions, which are rare in commercial flights where the planes are equipped with systems to alert pilots about a potential collision.

Most of the close calls that happen every year involve small planes that don’t have those systems, but the Federal Aviation Administration couldn’t immediately provide a number for how many happen annually. There are typically several collisions involving small planes every year like the one that happened in February 2025 in Arizona that killed two people.

Both of the Southwest pilots involved in this incident over the weekend told the air traffic controller that they received alarms from their collision avoidance systems that directed them to take action with one plane climbing while the other descended to avoid the potential midair collision, according to audio posted by www.LiveATC.net.

Location data from these two planes show their flight paths converging after one pilot decided to abort landing and circle around to try again. The controller directed that plane to turn into the path of the other Southwest plane that had just taken off. By the time the controller recognized the threat and tried to direct the plane that had just taken off to stay below 2000 feet (609 meters), the pilot reported that he was already above that level.

That location data appears to show these planes getting as close as 500 feet (152 meters) apart with one of them flying just over the top of the other plane, according to FlightRadar24, so that would fit the official definition of a near midair collision. But it may not be clear exactly how close they planes got until after the incident is reviewed.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating. The agency said the pilot of Southwest flight 507 “received instructions from air traffic control that put the flight in the path of another airplane that was departing from a parallel runway. Both flight crews responded to onboard alerts.”

But the FAA did not say how close the planes got during the incident that happened around 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

Southwest Airlines spokesperson Lynn Lunsford said gusty winds at the Nashville International Airport prompted the first pilot to perform a go around. He said both pilots followed the directions from the air traffic controller and their onboard collision avoidance systems to avoid running into each other.

“Southwest appreciates the professionalism of its pilots and flight crews in responding to the event. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees,” Lunsford said in a statement.

Talbi finished in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 45 seconds in the men's race. McClain finished in 2:20:49 in the women's competition. There were seven American men and 12 American women in the top 20, including four women in the top 10.

“I think we’re in an era in distance running, on the men and women’s sides, but especially the women’s side, where we’re all making each other so much better every time we line up with one another,” McClain said. “And I think it’s just going to get stronger and stronger.”

That's what's it's going to take, Talbi said, to take American distance running to the next level.

“We need to push each other, everyone needs to be in the pack,” said Talbi, who competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics for Morocco and became an American citizen last year.

Both were pleasantly surprised by their fast times. Talbi said he was more focused on trying to catch the runner ahead of him, which pushed him to run faster. McClain said she tries to ignore her watch during a race.

Talbi won the Houston Marathon in January in 2:05:45, a course record. He said he felt confident heading into Boston since he had achieved his personal best times at races this year.

“Everything was clicking, everything was good,” he said. “And I was like, this is the day.”

McClain finished seventh in her Boston debut last year and was the top American woman that time, too.

“Obviously I wanted to come in and defend the first American title, and to do that on a day like today with amazing conditions and to run the time that I knew was in me, at some point in the wheelhouse of what I can do, is really awesome,” she said.

Defending champion John Korir broke the Boston Marathon course record to win the men's race in 2:01:52 — the fifth-fastest marathon of all time. Sharon Lokedi joined her fellow Kenyan as a back-to-back champion, winning the women’s race in 2:18:51.

Last month at the U.S. half marathon championships in Atlanta, McClain was ahead by a wide margin with about 1.5 miles to go when she and three other runners followed the guide vehicle on a wrong turn. Track and field’s international governing body decided to allow seven Americans — instead of the usual four — to compete at the world championships in Denmark.

McClain said she made a far smaller U-turn on Monday, too. She dropped her bottle and went back to pick it up, then had to catch up with the lead pack.

“We all know what happened in Atlanta, I’ve been a half mile off course, so a few seconds is not going to throw me,” she said.

The previous records for American runners in Boston were set by Ryan Hall in 2011 and Shalane Flanagan in 2014.

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This story corrects that four American women finished in the top 10, not five.

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

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

His behavior, including “both conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences,” has alarmed officials at the FBI and Department of Justice, leading one official speaking anonymously to say that worry about what would happen in the case of a terrorist attack in the U.S. “keeps me up at night,” the magazine said.

Patel still described as pivotal for Trump White House

The White House told The Atlantic that Patel remains a critical player on President Donald Trump's law and order team and credited him for decreases in the crime rate. Trump's team is also said to be pleased by Patel's willingness to go after the president's rivals.

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

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

The lawsuit said Patel's lawyers asked The Atlantic for more time to respond to accusations but the magazine did not reply. “It is among the strongest possible evidence of actual malice,” it said.

Atlantic outlines behavior it says witnesses saw

The Atlantic said Patel had been spotted drinking heavily at the private club Ned's in Washington and at the Poodle Room in Las Vegas, where he often spends time on the weekends. Six people told the magazine that briefings and meetings involving Patel had to be rescheduled for later in the day because of drinking the night before.

It said that on “multiple occasions” Patel's security team had difficulty waking him and at one point requested equipment designed to forcibly open a building when Patel was unreachable behind closed doors.

With his lawsuit, Patel is following a playbook used by his boss to fight back against damaging stories. Last week, a judge in Florida dismissed Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over its report about a risqué birthday greeting he had sent to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The judge said Trump had not plausibly alleged the story was published with actual malice, the standard for a libel finding.

Last September, another judge dismissed Trump's $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times and some reporters for a story critical of the president's business acumen. Trump was allowed to file an amended lawsuit, which he did.

Trump also sued CBS News and ABC News for stories he didn't like before taking office again for his second term. Both of those news organizations paid a settlement out of court to Trump before the cases could go to trial.

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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

Chile’s former President Michelle Bachelet — one of two women and one of three from Latin America — will be the first to face ambassadors from the U.N.’s 193 member nations during a three-hour question-and-answer session on Tuesday. Bachelet will be followed by U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Mariano Grossi of Argentina.

On Wednesday, U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan will take center stage in the General Assembly hall, and finally, Senegal’s former President Macky Sall.

In 2016, a hotly contested race drew 13 candidates. What has changed?

For starters, the deeply polarized and conflict-wracked world of 2026 is far different from the more peaceful global climate in 2016, the year Donald Trump was elected president for the first time.

Add to that the diminished stature of the United Nations. A decade ago, the world organization was basking in its success in helping achieve the Paris climate agreement to curb global warming and an agreement by world leaders on 17 goals to promote global economic growth, preserve the environment and close the growing gap between rich and poor nations.

Today, the divisions among world powers are so deep that the U.N. has been unable to fulfill its primary role in ensuring global peace and security. The once powerful Security Council has been blocked from acting to halt wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran, among other conflicts, leaving the U.N. on the sidelines of major global crises.

The International Crisis Group’s Richard Gowan, a program director and U.N. watcher, said the current geopolitical scene has affected the race to succeed Guterres, whose second five-year term ends on Dec. 31.

He said 10 years ago, many candidates entered the race knowing they had little chance of winning, but used it to raise their profiles.

“There was no real cost associated with losing,” Gowan said. "This time around, potential candidates and the governments who sponsor them are much more cautious. There is a feeling that if a candidate puts a foot wrong and offends Washington or Beijing, it could cause real diplomatic damage.”

How the selection worked in 2016

In 2016, there was intense pressure to choose the first woman to lead the United Nations. Seven of the 13 candidates were women. But there was widespread agreement that Guterres performed best in what the U.N. calls the “interactive dialogue” with General Assembly members.

The U.N. Charter says little about choosing the secretary-general except that the General Assembly, which includes all members, should do so upon the recommendation of the Security Council. That gives the five permanent members of the U.N.’s most powerful body — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — the decision-making role and veto power over the selection.

By tradition, the secretary-general rotates by region. Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister and U.N. refugee chief representing Europe, succeeded former South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, who represented Asia. He followed Ghana’s Kofi Annan, who represented Africa.

Now, it should be Latin America’s turn, though Eastern Europe has never had a secretary-general and lost out in 2016.

Under U.N. rules, candidates must be nominated by a member nation — not necessarily their own. There is no time limit for nominations, and more candidates could appear, but in 2016 the Security Council started doing “straw polls” among the 13 candidates in late July, which basically served as a cutoff.

How the four candidates were nominated

During their sessions this week, the four candidates are likely to be asked about their vision for the job, global hot spots and the future of the United Nations — but anything goes.

Bachelet, 74, was the U.N. high commissioner for human rights after serving two non-consecutive terms as Chile's president. After Chile’s far-right leader, José Antonio Kast, became president in March, his government withdrew its support for Bachelet, a leftist. However, she remains a candidate because of nominations from Brazil and Mexico.

Grossi, 65, a former Argentine diplomat who has been director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency since 2019, was nominated by his home country.

Grynspan, 70, a former vice president of Costa Rica, has been secretary-general of the U.N. Trade and Development agency, UNCTAD, since 2021 and was also nominated by her country.

Sall, 64, was nominated by Burundi, but his home country, Senegal, told the African Union that it had not endorsed him. Neither did the divided 55-nation regional organization.

A fifth candidate, Argentine diplomat Virginia Gamba, a former U.N. representative for children in armed conflict, was nominated by the Maldives, but the Indian Ocean nation withdrew her candidacy in late March without giving a reason.

While there are only two female candidates, pressure for a madam secretary-general continues, including from Guterres, who has sought to achieve gender equality in his administration. Britain and France have also said they would like to see a woman at the helm.

The global advocacy group 1 for 8 Billion and GWL Voices, an organization of nearly 80 global female leaders, have been campaigning for a woman. GWL’s president and co-founder, Susana Malcorra, a former Argentine foreign minister and senior U.N. official, was a candidate for secretary-general in 2016.

Bachelet, however, already faces US opposition

In a March 25 letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 28 Republican Senate and House members asked the United States to veto Bachelet, calling her “a pro-abortion zealot intent on using political authority to override state sovereignty in favor of extreme agendas.”

Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was asked at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last week by Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska — one of the letter’s signatories — about Bachelet’s fitness for the job. Waltz responded that he wasn’t in a position to say whether the U.S. would support or oppose her, but he said, “I share your concerns.”

Gowan said the odds that a woman would be chosen were seen as changing sharply when Trump returned to the White House.

“Before that, there was a feeling that this time a woman had to win, but now a lot of diplomats assume that Washington will insist on a male secretary-general on principle,” he said. “I am not sure that is necessarily correct.”

Importers and their brokers could begin claiming refunds through an online portal beginning at 8 a.m., according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency administering the system.

It's the first step in a complicated process that also might eventually lead to refunds for consumers who were billed for some or all of the tariffs on products shipped to them from outside the United States.

Companies must submit declarations listing the goods on which they collectively put billions of dollars toward the import taxes the court struck down on Feb. 20. If CBP approves a claim, it will take 60-90 days for a refund to be issued, the agency said.

The government expects to process refunds in phases, however, focusing first on more recent tariff payments. Any number of technical factors and procedural issues also could delay an importer's application, so any reimbursements businesses plan to make likely would trickle down to consumers slowly.

The co-owner of a clothing company based in Washington, D.C., said the system seemed buggy on Monday when she tried to create an account on the portal, which was required before companies could do anything else. A lawyer in Northern Virginia said his clients reported some system delays and lag time.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court found that Trump usurped Congress' tax-setting role last April when he set new import tax rates on products from almost every other country, citing the U.S. trade deficit as a national emergency that warranted his invoking of a 1977 emergency powers law.

Although the court majority did not address refunds in its ruling, a judge at the U.S. Court of International Trade determined last month that companies subjected to IEEPA tariffs were entitled to money back.

Not all taxed imports immediately eligible

Customs and Border Protection said in court filings that over 330,000 importers paid a total of about $166 billion on over 53 million shipments.

Not all of those orders qualify for the first phase of the refund system's rollout, which is limited to cases in which tariffs were estimated but not finalized or within 80 days of a final accounting.

To receive refunds, importers have to register for the CPB's electronic payment system. As of April 14, 56,497 importers had completed registration and were eligible for refunds totaling $127 billion, including interest, the agency said.

System requires accuracy

Meghann Supino, a partner at Ice Miller, said the law firm has advised clients to carefully list in their declarations all of the document numbers for forms that went to CBP to describe imported goods and their value.

“If there is an entry on that file that does not qualify, it may cause the entire entry to be rejected or that line item might be rejected by Customs,” she said.

Supino thinks the portal going live will require composure as well as diligence.

“Like any electronic online program that goes live with a lot of interest, I would expect that there might be some hiccups with the program on Monday,” she said. “So we continue to ask everyone to be patient, because we think that patience will pay off.”

Nghi Huynh, the partner-in-charge of transfer pricing at accounting and consulting firm Armanino, said most companies claiming refunds will have imported a mix of items, and not all will qualify right away.

“It’s about having a clear process in place and keeping track of what’s been submitted and what’s been paid, so nothing falls through the cracks,” she said. “Each file can include thousands of entries, but accuracy is critical, as submissions can be rejected if formatting or data is incorrect.”

Patience with the process

Small businesses have eagerly awaited the chance to apply for refunds. Rebecca Melsky, co-owner of the clothing brand and online store Princess Awesome, said she was unable to register for a portal account Monday despite trying to submit her CPB import code and company information using two different web browsers.

She said Princess Awesome would file for a refund eventually. The company imports some of its clothes from factories in Bangladesh, China, India and Peru. Melsky estimated it paid $32,000 in IEEPA tariffs.

“My expectations have been pretty low about whether we were actually going to see any money back to us,” she said. “I’m heartened by the fact that there’s any system at all, but I’m only slightly more optimistic than I was last week, which was not very."

Justin Angotti, an associate attorney in the international trade practice of global law firm Reed Smith, said his clients ultimately had their declarations accepted Monday, even if it might have taken a few attempts.

“So far, Customs has been very responsive in trying to troubleshoot the issue,” Angotti said.

Will consumers see refunds?

Tariffs are paid by importers, and some companies pass on the tax costs to consumers via higher prices.

The system starting up Monday will refund tariffs directly to the businesses that paid them, which are not obligated to share the proceeds with customers. However, class-action lawsuits that aim to force companies, ranging from Costco to Ray-Ban maker Essilor Luxottica, to reimburse shoppers are winding their way through the U.S. legal system.

Individuals may be more likely to receive refunds from delivery companies like FedEx and UPS, which collected tariffs on imports directly from consumers. FedEx has said it would return tariff refunds to customers when it receives them from the CPB.

“Supporting our customers as they navigate regulatory changes remains our top priority,” FedEx said in a statement. “We are working with our customers as CBP begins processing refunds and plan to begin filing claims on April 20.”

The defending champion rode a tailwind on Monday to the fastest finish in the race's 130-year history, winning in 2 hours, 1 minute, 52 seconds. That was 70 seconds faster than Geoffrey Mutai's then-world best in 2011, and the fifth-fastest marathon of all time.

Korir said he knew he was on a record pace at the 40-kilometer mark, but he didn't bother to check the clock as he crossed the finish line. He was informed of his accomplishment by Boston Athletic Association president Jack Fleming, and jumped for joy.

“When they told me I had run the course record, that’s when I started to be happy,” said the 29-year-old Kenyan, who last year joined his brother to become the first relatives to win the race. “I knew I would defend my title. But I didn’t know I could run that fast.”

Sharon Lokedi joined Korir as a back-to-back champion, winning the women's race in 2:18:51 — a year after she shattered the course record by more than 2 1/2 minutes. The winners receive $150,000 and a gilded olive wreath sent from the plains of Marathon, Greece; Korir will receive another $50,000 for the course record.

Alphonce Felix Simbu of Tanzania, who was 55 seconds back, and 2021 champion Benson Kipruto, another 3 seconds behind him, also were fast enough to beat the previous record on the hilly course that typically rewards racing strategy more than footspeed.

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

"Boston is not (usually) about time," Kipruto said. “Today, it was about time.”

Zouhair Talbi and Jess McClain ran the fastest times ever in Boston for Americans — leading the seven U.S. men and 12 U.S. women who finished in the top 20.

Talbi, who competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics for Morocco and became a U.S. citizen last year, was fifth in 2:03:45; McClain, who crossed in 2:20:49, also finished fifth.

“I think we’re in an era in distance running, on the men and women’s sides, but especially the women’s side, where we’re all making each other so much better every time we line up with one another,” McClain said. “And I think it’s just going to get stronger and stronger.”

Korir recovered after falling at the start last year to claim the title won by his brother Wesley in 2012.

This year, he broke away from the pack as it headed into the Newton hills and opened a 40-second lead. Korir peeked behind him as he went through Kenmore Square with a mile to go, sticking out his tongue and spreading his arms as he ran down Boylston Street.

Lokedi moved toward the front of the pack around Mile 17 and charged up Heartbreak Hill to pull ahead. On a day that started in the 30s but warmed to 45 degrees (7 degrees Celsius) by the start, Lokedi pulled off her gloves as she went through Coolidge Corner in Brookline and smiled her way down Boylston Street.

“I didn’t know how fast I was going. I just wanted to run as fast as I could,” said Lokedi, who realized on the bus to the start that she forgot her watch and had to borrow one. “I just wanted to get to the finish line as fast as possible.”

Loice Chemnung was second, 44 seconds back — a performance that would have been a course record before Lokedi's 2:17:22 last year. Mary Ngugi-Cooper was third, completing the Kenyan sweep of the women's podium.

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

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

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

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

But the clear skies and a tailwind on Monday had the fastest field in the event's history expecting fast times for the second year in a row.

“Obviously the tailwind played into a lot of the approach,” McClain said. ”You don’t get these conditions every year, so if you’re going to go full send and ‘Carpe Diem,’ this is the year to do it. And that was kind of the mindset.”

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

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

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

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Associated Press Writer Jennifer McDermott contributed to this report.

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

Starmer said he would have withdrawn the appointment if he'd known Mandelson had failed security checks, as he tried to explain why Mandelson was given the U.K.'s most important diplomatic post. Starmer placed blame squarely on Foreign Office officials who he said failed to tell him about the security concerns and approved Mandelson's appointment despite them.

Starmer told lawmakers in the House of Commons that ”I would not have gone ahead with the appointment” had he known the truth. He called it “frankly staggering” that officials didn’t tell him about the failed vetting.

“At the heart of this, there is also a judgment I made that was wrong,” Starmer added. “I should not have appointed Peter Mandelson.

“I take responsibility for that decision, and I apologize again to the victims of the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who were clearly failed by my decision.”

Starmer fired Mandelson in September, nine months into the job, when new details emerged about his friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.

His explanation was greeted with jeers from opposition lawmakers, incredulous that the nation's leader hadn't known about the failed security vetting.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said Starmer's lack of curiosity was hard to believe.

“It doesn’t appear that he asked any questions at all. Why? Because he didn’t want to know," she said.

Starmer denies misleading Parliament

Starmer was attempting to set the record straight after repeatedly telling lawmakers that “due process” was followed when Mandelson was appointed.

Though he apologized for his error of judgment, he denied misleading Parliament, which is usually considered a resigning offense.

Starmer fired the top Foreign Office civil servant, Olly Robbins, within hours of the revelation by The Guardian last week. But allies of Robbins say he never would have been able to share sensitive vetting information with the prime minister.

Robbins is expected to give his own version of events to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

Badenoch noted that Robbins is the latest high-profile government departure linked to Mandelson. She said that instead of taking responsibility for his mistakes, Starmer "has thrown his staff and his officials under the bus.”

Ed Davey, leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, said Starmer “gives every impression of a prime minister in office but not in power.” Davey said appointing Mandelson was "a catastrophic error of judgment. And now that it’s blown up in his face, the only decent thing to do is to take responsibility."

Senior government colleagues have defended the prime minister. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said that if Starmer had known about the failed security vetting, “he would never, ever have appointed him ambassador.”

But lawmakers in Starmer’s center-left Labour Party, already anxious about its dire poll ratings, are restive. Starmer already defused one potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to resign over the Mandelson appointment.

He could face a new challenge if, as expected, Labour takes a hammering in local and regional elections on May 7, which give voters a chance to pass a midterm verdict on the government.

Warnings about Epstein ties went unheeded

Critics say the Mandelson appointment is more evidence of bad judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps since he led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024.

Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living, and has been forced into repeated policy U-turns.

He picked Mandelson as ambassador despite being warned by his staff that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein exposed the government to “reputational risk.”

Mandelson’s business links to Russia and China also set off alarm bells. But his expertise as a former European Union trade chief and contacts among global elites were considered assets in dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

A trove of Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice in January included emails suggesting Mandelson had passed on sensitive, and potentially market-moving, government information to Epstein in 2009, after the global financial crisis.

British police launched a criminal probe and arrested Mandelson in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.

Starmer said he had ordered a review into any security concerns arising from Mandelson’s access to sensitive information while ambassador.

Many questions remain unanswered after Starmer's 2 1/2-hour question-and-answer session, including why Mandelson failed the vetting and whether officials felt political pressure to approve the appointment.

Several lawmakers asked why Starmer chose Mandelson for the job despite red flags.

“I’m interested in his judgment,” said Scottish National Party lawmaker Stephen Flynn. "Does he believe himself to be gullible, incompetent or both?”

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Sylvia Hui and Brian Melley in London contributed reporting.

All day long, she'd labored to understand when to speak up or stay silent in meetings. She replayed conversations in her head, worrying she'd misunderstood or said the wrong thing. Noisy environments distressed her. She watched her peers receive promotions when she didn't.

“I would come home burnt-out, anxious," Pilatzke said of her days working as an insurance claim specialist. "That just kept going, week after week, day after day.”

Her communication difficulties, sensitivity to noise and other problems at work began to make sense following her diagnosis, she said.

Pilatzke, 36, now spends her days teaching employers how to make workplaces more accommodating for people on the autism spectrum. She works as an inclusion specialist at Specialisterne Canada, a nonprofit that helps organizations to better support employee neurodiversity.

She also reframed the way she thinks about traits often associated with autism, viewing her ability to focus intensely and provide honest, direct feedback as strengths.

Below are some ways to make meetings and other work rituals more accessible for autistic people, according to several adults with autism and neurodiversity experts.

It begins with understanding

Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder that affects about 1 in 45 adults in the U.S., according to Autism Speaks, a nonprofit organization that supports autistic people and their families by funding research, providing resources and doing advocacy work.

It presents in a variety of ways but can create challenges with social skills, speech and nonverbal communication. Some common characteristics include repetitive behaviors and sensitivity to noise.

“Start by learning about different communication styles and being open-minded,” Subodh Garg, who appeared in the first season of the Netflix reality TV show “Love on the Spectrum,” said. “Inclusion begins with giving people a chance and making space for diverse ways of thinking and working. Employers can start with small intentional steps.”

Garg works part-time at a Southern California deli, where he handles invoices and restocks pastries. He also is studying to earn a bachelors degree and is a “champion of change” advocate at Autism Speaks.

Employers may have preconceived ideas about what autism means, when “the reality is, it is a massive spectrum,” said Rita Ramakrishnan, who is autistic and founded a consulting company that provides leadership coaching for neurodivergent executives. “There’s a community of people with much higher support needs, and then there are folks who are twice exceptional or otherwise extraordinarily high functioning. Their support needs are not as high, and their production capabilities are different. But they’re all valid autistic experiences.”

Organizations should consult autistic employees when crafting policies that are designed to make workplaces more inclusive, Ramakrishnan said.

“No one’s expecting you to be an expert in this, but we are expecting a level of curiosity, not judgment, and we would love the ability to have a conversation around our needs,” she said. “It doesn’t mean you have to accommodate all of them or redesign for all of them, but at least listening is the first step.”

Making meetings more accessible

Face-to-face communication can be difficult for some people with autism, so having the ability to participate in meetings online or through writing can be helpful, experts said.

“Changing the expectations for social engagement during a meeting is really important,” Ramakrishnan said. “In a neurotypical normative situation, things like eye contact are highly prized. I trust someone who makes eye contact with me. But for an autistic person, that is a scary thing.”

Making camera use optional during virtual meetings is a useful accommodation since said people with autism often feel pressure to “mask” their natural behaviors by mimicking the facial expressions of neurotypical colleagues, Pilatzke said.

“Things like that can actually cause a lot of anxiety for individuals that are neurodivergent,” she said. “So having that pressure removed can be helpful.”

Some people with autism find it’s easier to focus during virtual or in-person meetings when they’re doodling or walking around, said Natalie Longmire, a professor of organizational behavior at Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business. Managers can make it explicit that those behaviors are accepted, she said.

Employees also can seek and normalize these types of accommodations by saying something like, “Hey if I get up and walk around, I’m doing that so I can be more engaged in what you’re saying,” Longmire suggested.

Share agendas in advance

Keith Wargo, president & CEO of Autism Speaks, said his organization sends out meeting agendas in advance and sometimes shares additional details.

“That kind of clarity is really helpful, ... even sometimes sort of saying, ‘This is going to be a 45-minute meeting and we’re breaking it down into five parts,’” Wargo said. “We may deviate from that a little bit, but having that kind of structure is good practice.”

Allowing written input before and after meetings — and not prioritizing only what is spoken out loud during the allotted time — enables organizations to honor and take advantage of autistic individuals’ contributions, Ramakrishnan said.

“Be explicit about, for each agenda item, is this a discussion? Is this a brainstorm? Are we making a decision here?” Ramakrishnan added. “That gives an autistic person the chance to prepare what they need to."

“These are the folks that are going to come up with the ideas that nobody else thinks about,” she added.

Enable various modes of communication

Have multiple lanes available to participate in meetings, such as chat windows for attendees to type their contributions, said Abigayle Jayroe, senior vice president for strategic operations at NEXT for Autism. “There may be people who just don’t feel comfortable speaking,” Jayroe said. Turning on captions can help people who prefer to process information by reading, she added.

Normalizing the use of noise-canceling headphones and written communication can help, experts say. To reduce feelings of sensory overwhelm, an autistic participant could try saying, “I might ask a question over chat instead of raising my hand because it’s easier for me,” Longmire said.

Garg, who was diagnosed with autism when he was 3 years old, said he was non-verbal early on but learned over time how to communicate and connect with other people.

“One of the biggest challenges has been interviews because they focus a lot on social skills instead of the actual work,” he said. “Sometimes people misunderstand my communication style or underestimate what I can do. Even small things like clear instructions or written feedback really help me do my best.”

Encouraging naysayers

An issue some autistic people encounter at work or in social situations is having their tendency to speak in a forthright way misinterpreted as callousness, Ramakrishnan said. Colleagues can be explicit about whether it’s OK to be direct or whether they need to soften the language, she said.

In Pilatzke's view, many autistic people possess a strong sense of right and wrong, and feel a need to speak up when they perceive injustices. “I describe myself as a blunt person. I’m very honest. I’m going to say what I think,” she added.

Organizations can benefit from staffers' frankness by building a culture where everyone isn't expected to agree. Have a designated naysayer or devil’s advocate in brainstorming meetings, Jayroe suggested.

“The best ideas are built off of poking holes in what everyone agrees on. So it lays the groundwork longer term for a company to have their employees feel comfortable raising red flags or building on ideas," she said.

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Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

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This story was first published on Apr. 16, 2026. It was updated on Apr. 20, 2026 to correct how the organization Autism Speaks structures its meetings.

Article Overview:

• Future-track is showing the peak time for heavy rain around 4–5 am for areas to the west
• More concentrated focus on Houston around sunrise
• More widespread around noon.

You can track radar here: Before you leave your house Tuesday morning.

Tuesday’s Severe Weather Threat:

The main concern is excessive rainfall. The NWS Service defines a Marginal Risk as a 1 out of 4 for excessive rainfall — that’s at least a 5% chance that rainfall will exceed local flash flood guidance in some spots. Meaning, we’re tracking isolated instances of high water, flash flooding, or just excessive runoff.

Localized heavy rain could lead to minor flooding, with rainfall rates possibly peaking in the 2–3 inches per hour range.

• That means those intense downpours can hit the ground so fast that they quickly overwhelm streets and create rapid runoff. 

WATCH: So what does it mean when we say the ground is saturated?! How does it relate to a flood risk.

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Now that you know our weather risk for Tuesday, let’s talk about timing:

This can still change, but it gives you a good idea of the pattern so you can plan your day.

While we’ll see the chance for rain throughout the day on Tuesday, right now the future-track is showing the peak time for heavy rain around 4–5 a.m. for areas to the west. That activity then shifts east, with a more concentrated focus on Houston around sunrise and becoming more widespread around noon.

Weather and Traffic Together:

One 2025 study on crash risk during rainfall in Texas, looking at data from 2006 to 2021, found that rain significantly elevates crash risk. I don’t think that’s a surprise, but I was interested in the numbers.

The study showed rain increases crash risk by an average of 38%, and that risk peaks sharply in the early morning hours from 4 to 8 a.m. That’s because of reduced visibility during the night-to-morning transition, lower driver alertness, and the slippery, dangerous conditions rain creates on our roadways.

Take it slow on the roadways Tuesday morning!

Brittany