The New York Knicks already had a coach who could take them to the Eastern Conference finals — and they fired him immediately after.

Whoever replaced Tom Thibodeau would do so knowing he was inheriting a seat that was already warm, taking an undeniable win-now job where the only way he could demonstrate he made the team better was by reaching the NBA Finals. The pressure grew even more during the season, when the owner said he believed the Knicks should play for the title.

The expectations were clear, though Brown never needed to have them explained.

“People have talked about a mandate,” Brown said recently. “Like, I’m coaching to win, so it doesn’t matter what others say. I’m disappointed if we’re not in the finals and having a chance to win it.”

He has led the Knicks back to the conference finals, where they will play either Detroit or Cleveland. They were two losses from going home in the first round in what could have been a flop worthy of a firing. Instead, he changed some things, stuck with others, and the Knicks have reeled off seven straight wins, mostly in convincing fashion.

“He’s done a great job of adjusting our team to give us the best chance to win,” center Karl-Anthony Towns said, “and the spot we’re in now is because of his courage and the trust to change what we were doing and put us in a better position.”

Brown’s resume was certainly worthy of the job. He’s a two-time NBA Coach of the Year, the latter as the first unanimous winner in 2023 after leading the Sacramento Kings to their first playoff appearance since 2006, ending what was the longest active drought in North American pro sports.

But there was going to be skepticism with any hire, in part because many people weren't sure Thibodeau should've even been fired. The Knicks won just one playoff series between 2001 and his hiring in 2020, and he brought them to the postseason four times in five years, culminating last season with their first conference finals appearance in 25 years.

Yet the Knicks wanted a coach with a different style. Someone who would be the boss without being bossy. Someone who would make decisions about the team without the feeling that only he got to decide.

Brown gives everyone from the front office to the players a say.

“He’s always wanted to have open dialogue since day one," captain Jalen Brunson said. "And obviously he’s still the coach and he’s going to make the decisions and everything. But I mean, we give our opinions, and whether they’re good or bad opinions, they’re talked about and they’re decided on later.”

Brown, of course, makes the final call. And the ones he made when the Knicks faced their only adversity thus far in the postseason clearly turned out right.

Mikal Bridges was off to a terrible start against Atlanta, and after he was scoreless in just 21 minutes in Game 3, there were cries for Brown to bench the guard who had started every game in his two seasons with the Knicks.

Brown stayed the course, and there’s no sitting Bridges down now. After scoring 24 points in the Game 6 finisher against the Hawks, he averaged 17.5 points on nearly 64% shooting in the sweep of Philadelphia, all while leading the defensive effort against 76ers star guard Tyrese Maxey.

The other decision was to have Brunson, his All-Star point guard, initiate less of the offense. Instead, the Knicks have run more by positioning Towns up high and letting him find cutters. His passing has opened up more space on the floor for Brunson and others to find easier shots.

Again, there was discussion before the decision. But, perhaps showing the players’ belief in Brown, it was apparently a short one.

“The dialogue was: ‘OK, let’s do it,’” Brunson said.

Brown led the Knicks to a 53-29 record, their best since 2012-13. Yet there were stretches of mediocrity after a strong start, and a distant third-place finish in the East despite a lineup headlined by two All-Stars felt underwhelming.

Brown responded by saying teams need to go through rocky times.

“He doesn’t listen to the outside noise and he doesn’t let that affect him,” forward Josh Hart said.

Brown said that's easy to do. He worked on title-winning teams under Gregg Popovich in San Antonio and Steve Kerr with Golden State, and he remembers people complaining about them.

“So shoot, people can talk about Mike Brown for sure,” Brown said. “But it’s my job to ignore the noise and it’s easy for me to do that because the pressure that I put on myself, that the team puts on itself, to be great or to try to be the best team in the league doesn’t even match up with what everybody else says throughout the course of the year.”

Brown said his only focus all season has been winning a championship. The way his Knicks are playing now, there's definitely a chance.

“The mandate and all that other stuff, like, that’s what I expect,” Brown said. “That’s what I want to do and hopefully it can happen, but who knows.”

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

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said contradictory messages have “made us reluctant about the real intentions of Americans.”

“We are in doubt about their seriousness,” he told reporters in New Delhi, adding that negotiations would move forward if Washington was ready for a “fair and balanced deal.”

U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this week dismissed Iran's latest formal proposal as “garbage.” While Iran was said to include some nuclear concessions, Trump has said he wants to remove highly enriched uranium from the country and prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

In separate negotiations in Washington between Israel and Lebanon, both sides agreed Friday to extend their ceasefire until early June, U.S. officials said.

With talks between Iran and the U.S. at a standstill during the shaky ceasefire, tensions remain high and threaten to tip the Middle East back into open warfare and prolong the worldwide energy crisis sparked by the conflict.

Iran still has a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway where a fifth of the world’s oil passed through before the war, and America is blockading Iranian ports.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who finished talks on Friday, agreed the strait needs to be reopened.

China could play a diplomatic role, Iran says

Araghchi said Friday that Iran would welcome diplomatic support from other countries, particularly from China, citing Beijing’s previous role in facilitating the restoration of ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Beijing has shown little public interest in U.S. requests to get more involved, even though Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Xi had in their conversations offered to help.

Pakistan said Thursday it was continuing diplomatic efforts to help ease regional tensions. But it declined to disclose details of the discussions or say whether the U.S. had formally responded.

“The clock on diplomacy has not stopped. The peace process is working,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi told reporters in Islamabad.

Iran says uranium is a sticking point

Trump has demanded a major rollback of Iran’s nuclear activities while Iran says it has a right to enrich uranium.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who launched the war with Trump on Feb. 28, also wants Iran’s highly enriched uranium removed from the country.

Iran’s foreign minister said Friday that the issue of its enriched uranium stockpile is one of the most difficult subjects in negotiations with the U.S.

Russia has previously offered to take the stockpile if Iran is willing to give it up. Araghchi said Russia’s proposal was not currently under active discussion, but could be revisited.

“When we come to that stage, obviously we will have more consultations with Russia and see if the Russian offer can help or not,” he said.

Israel and Lebanon extend ceasefire as strikes continue

Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend the expiring Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire for another 45 days to allow for negotiations on a broader peace agreement, the U.S. State Department said.

After two days of meetings, the department said it would reconvene the two sides for discussions on June 2 and 3, while a military track — between the Israeli and Lebanese armies — by the Pentagon will begin on May 29. Hezbollah opposes Lebanon’s direct negotiations with Israel and has not been part of the talks.

Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said the talks were frank and constructive. “There will be ups and downs, but the potential for success is great,” he said in a social media post. “What will be paramount throughout negotiations is the security of our citizens and our soldiers.”

The ongoing ceasefire hasn’t stopped Israel and Hezbollah from trading strikes.

The Israeli military said Friday it hit Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon after reporting hostile aircraft alerts and launches from across the border. Lebanon’s health ministry said nearly 40 people were wounded in Israeli strikes near the coastal city of Tyre. One strike “leveled” a primary health center and also damaged the neighboring Hiram Hospital, wounding six medical staff members, the statement said.

Chinese company says its ship was taken into Iranian waters

A Chinese private security company said it lost communication Thursday with a ship it was operating as an offshore work platform — the same day the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center reported that a ship anchored off the United Arab Emirates coast had been seized.

Sinoguards said it had “been informed through relevant channels" that the vessel Hui Chuan was taken into Iranian waters for documentation and compliance inspection by the authorities.

The company's emailed statement said there was no indication of any injuries on the ship and that it was cooperating.

The security company and the U.K. maritime center did not say who was behind the seizure. It happened as a senior Iranian official reiterated his country’s claim of control over the Strait of Hormuz and another said it had a right to seize oil tankers connected to the U.S.

The U.S. seized vessels in the Gulf of Oman last month and on Friday the foreign minister of Pakistan said it had secured the return of 11 Pakistani nationals and 20 Iranian citizens who were aboard those vessels. “All individuals are in good health and high spirits,” said the foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, said.

UAE speeds up construction of oil pipeline

The United Arab Emirates is speeding up the completion of a new pipeline that will allow the Gulf federation to export more oil without routing it through the Strait of Hormuz.

Sheikh Khaled bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, directed state oil company ADNOC to accelerate work on the pipeline, the Abu Dhabi Media Office said Friday.

The oil company already runs a pipeline designed to carry 1.5 million barrels a day from its oil fields to the port of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman.

The new pipeline, expected to double the company’s export capacity through that port, will become operational next year, the media office said.

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Schreck reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press reporters Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Koral Saeed in Abu Snan, Israel; Matthew Lee in Washington; and Mae Anderson in New York contributed.

The Long Island Rail Road that serves New York City’s eastern suburbs has been negotiating for months on a new contract with labor officials representing locomotive engineers, machinists, signalmen and other train workers.

A strike was temporarily averted in September when President Donald Trump’s administration agreed to help. Those efforts ended without a deal, giving both sides 60 days — ending 12:01 a.m. Saturday — to again try to resolve their differences before the union was legally allowed to go on strike or the agency could lock out workers.

Five labor unions representing about half the train system’s 7,000-person workforce warned this week that Saturday’s deadline was approaching.

The LIRR is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, carrying about 250,000 customers each weekday. LIRR workers last went on strike in 1994, for about two days. Workers nearly walked out in 2014 before then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo reached a deal with unions.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the LIRR and other area transit systems, has said it will provide free but limited shuttle buses during the morning and afternoon rush hours. The agency says the shuttles will depart from designated LIRR train stations to subway stops in the New York City borough of Queens.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has urged LIRR riders to work from home, if possible, as the free shuttles are meant for essential workers and those who cannot telecommute. The Democrat, months earlier, slammed the LIRR unions for “greedy asks” that threaten to “destabilize the local economy.”

Dispute over wages

The contract talks have stalled on the question of worker’s salaries.

The MTA argued that the union’s initial demands would lead to fare increases and impact contract negotiations with other unionized workers. The union has said more substantial raises were warranted to help workers keep up with inflation and rising living costs.

Both sides have so far agreed to contract terms calling for the same 9.5% in pay raises over three years already given to other unionized workers. But the unions have been holding out for another yearly salary increase of 6.5% — for a total raise of 16% over four years.

The MTA said earlier this week that it offered the unions what would effectively amount to a 4.5% raise in year four, in line with what federal officials had recommended. But the unions dismissed the lump sum payments as “a one-time gimmick” rather than the true wage increases they’d sought.

“The difference between those two positions is not unbridgeable,” Gary Dellaverson, the MTA’s chief negotiator, suggested during a press conference Wednesday.

Spokespersons for MTA declined to provide an update Friday, but the unions confirmed that the two sides met late into Thursday and then reconvened Friday morning at MTA headquarters in lower Manhattan.

Nick Peluso, national vice president for the Transportation Communications Union, said in a statement that the unions have lowered their initial ask of a 6.5% raise to “the upper 4s,” whereas the MTA's offer is “in the mid-3s.”

“The key question is: Will MTA and Gov. Hochul create frustration and gridlock for commuters, spend millions on buses during a strike and lose millions in revenue over what amounts to roughly a one percent difference in wages?” he said.

Commuters brace for the worst

Susanne Alberto, a personal trainer from Long Island, said she’s already made plans with her Manhattan clients to hold virtual sessions in the event of a shutdown.

She said the union likely has the upper hand, even if she believes raises should be based on job responsibilities and not made across the board.

“The MTA is going to cave, and they know that,” Alberto said. “Why don’t they just do it now instead of waiting until virtually millions of people get inconvenienced?”

Rob Udle, an electrician who takes the LIRR at least five days a week, said he’ll likely use his vacation days rather than navigate the “nightmare” of commuting into Manhattan if the rail service shuts down.

A union member, he sympathized with the unions’ affordability concerns, but said he didn’t agree with their strong-arm tactics.

“I get it, the cost of living is going up and stuff like that,” Udle said while waiting at Penn Station for a train home. “But they shouldn’t hold everybody hostage to do it. There’s a better way. You’re affecting a lot of other people.”

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The first reference to the rail system has been updated to correct to Long Island Rail Road, from Long Island Railroad.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

The existence of the secret Israeli military facility was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which described it as a base housing special forces and serving as a logistical hub for the Israeli air force.

The reports of a secret base stirred up a furor in Iraq. Officials there have said that Iraqi army forces investigated reports of an unauthorized military force in the Nukhaib desert — a barren area to the southwest of the cities of Karbala and Najaf — in early March and came under fire while en route to the location.

Iraqi officials have confirmed the presence of a small, short-term unauthorized force in the desert, but have not said that it was Israeli. However, two Iraqi security and intelligence officials and a senior U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, said that it was.

The U.S. official said of the Israeli outpost that “base is a strong word to describe it” and described it rather as a “temporary staging area or camp to support operations in Iran.”

The Iraqi intelligence official said the Israeli force had set up tents in the area and "its objective was to monitor rocket launches and drone activity conducted by some Iraqi militias.” Iraqi authorities believe the force arrived via an airdrop operation but do not know when, he said. They also disputed the description of the military presence as a “base.”

A shepherd noticed the presence of the force and reported it to authorities, officials said.

Representatives of the Israeli military declined to comment. Acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez declined to comment.

The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, triggering a regional war in which Iraq found itself caught in the crossfire. Iraq hosts a network of Iran-linked militias, which launched attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and elsewhere in the region and on Israel. U.S. and Israeli forces also struck militia sites in Iraq.

The Iraqi government, meanwhile, called on both sides to leave the country out of the conflict. The idea that an Israeli force could have been conducting military operations under their noses put Iraqi authorities in an embarrassing position.

On Tuesday, the Iraqi military sent forces into the desert, to the site of the alleged Israeli outpost, to show journalists that there was no indication of a long-term military presence there.

“We believe it was a small force that came and stayed for no longer than 48 hours,” said Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah, chief of the general staff of the Iraqi army during the visit.

Maj. Gen. Tahseen al Khafaji, a spokesperson for the Iraqi defense ministry, told the AP that on March 3, the military received information about “a small enemy force in a specific area in the Najaf desert,” and Iraqi forces went to check the site the next day.

“Within 25 kilometers, the force which went there faced an aerial attack, which led to the martyrdom of one of our fighters and injured two other fighters,” he said.

Al Khafaji said the Iraqi force pulled out after coming under attack but returned the next day and found no signs of a base and no forces present.

“It is believed that the force was there for a very short time and it was a very small force,” he said, adding that search operations “did not show anything that indicates that the force was stationed there for a long time in that area.”

Satellite images from Airbus DS taken March 8 and analyzed by the AP appear to show a human-made track dug out at the site, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of the capital, Baghdad. The track runs in a straight line in a dried-out lake bed from northwest to southeast and measures about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile). That’s long enough for takeoffs and landing for warplanes.

The nearest town, al-Nukhaib, sits about 45 kilometers (27 miles) to the northwest along a road running to the border with Saudi Arabia. That distance is far enough to likely have not drawn too much attention, though Iraq’s skies were filled with fighter jets from both the U.S. and Israel during the weeks of active war with Iran.

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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed.

The limits on “ assault firearms,” as they are described by the legislation, are among two dozen new restrictions and regulations on guns enacted by the Democratic governor in her first few months in office. That marks a sharp policy reversal from her Republican predecessor, who had vetoed many similar measures.

“Firearms designed to inflict maximum casualties do not belong on our streets," Spanberger said in a statement Friday. "We are taking this step to protect families and support the law enforcement officers who work every day to keep our communities safe.”

The new gun restrictions move Virginia closer to the likes of California, Illinois and New York, which similarly have full Democratic control of their legislatures and governors' offices. They also highlight a continued national divide on gun policy, as various Republican-led states have taken steps to relax firearm restrictions that they describe as an infringement on Second Amendment rights.

A dozen states now target semi-automatic firearms

The new Virginia law, which takes effect July 1, will make it a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine, for people to buy, sell, transfer, import or manufacture an “assault firearm.”

The measure defines that term to include semi-automatic rifles or pistols with a magazine capacity of more than 15 rounds. It also includes firearms with other characteristics, such as rifles capable of accepting a detachable magazine that have a second handgrip or a collapsible stock. The prohibition also applies to magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds. For most people, there’s no penalty for merely possessing such weapons.

Eleven other states and Washington, D.C., already have laws prohibiting the sale an manufacture of certain semi-automatic firearms, though the details vary. Hawaii, for example, prohibits certain semi-automatic pistols and high-capacity magazines, but not semi-automatic rifles.

Gun-rights groups challenge the Virginia law

Legal challenges came swiftly after Spanberger signed the legislation Thursday. The National Rifle Association, joined by other groups, sued in both federal and state court, asserting violations of the right to bear arms.

“The firearms and magazines banned in this law aren’t bizarre and unusual outliers, they’re among the most commonly owned guns and magazines in the country," said Adam Kraut, executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation, which joined the NRA in the federal lawsuit. “They’re owned in the tens of millions by peaceable Americans who use them overwhelmingly lawfully.”

The U.S. Department of Justice also vowed to sue to block the Virginia law from being enforced.

The Virginia measure would “infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens to enjoy and use AR-15 rifles for lawful purposes by making it a crime to purchase and sell them,” Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the department’s civil rights division, wrote in an April letter to Spanberger.

Courts have upheld other bans on semi-automatic weapons

So far, laws restricting certain semi-automatic firearms generally have been upheld, including by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Virginia, Maryland and several additional states.

That appellate court twice upheld a Maryland law banning dozens of types of semi-automatic weapons, describing them a 2024 ruling as “military-style weapons" that are ill-suited for self-defense. It concluded that “the Maryland law fits comfortably within our nation’s tradition of firearms regulation.”

The U.S. Supreme Court last year declined to hear a challenge in that Maryland case. But gun-rights advocates remain hopeful of a different outcome in future cases, noting that three conservative justices on the nine-member court disagreed with the decision and a fourth expressed skepticism that such firearm bans are constitutional.

A change in governor leads to a change in laws

Former Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed legislation each of the past two years that would have prohibited the sale of certain semi-automatic firearms.

But Youngkin's term ended in January, and he was succeeded by Spanberger. The transition presented a huge opportunity for advocates of gun restrictions, who already had support within the Democratic-led Legislature.

Spanberger, a former CIA officer and U.S. House member, had previously been a volunteer with Moms Demand Action, a group founded after a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut claimed the lives of 26 people in 2012. The group lists 20% of the Democrats in the Virginia House as its past volunteers.

"The fact that a former Moms Demand Action volunteer just signed an assault weapons ban in the home state of the NRA speaks volumes about how dramatically the political calculus around gun safety has shifted,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, the umbrella organization for Moms Demand Action..

Republican states act to expand gun rights

While Virginia tightens gun regulations, many Republican-led states have been expanding gun rights.

On the same day Spanberger signed the semi-automatic firearm restrictions, Missouri's Republican-led Legislature gave final approval to legislation creating a school ranger program that could let trained volunteers carry firearms in schools.

A law signed by Spanberger last month raised the age to purchase a handgun in Virginia from 18 to 21. By contrast, Republican West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed a law last month lowering the age from 21 to 18 for carrying concealed guns without a state permit.

Yet another law signed by Spanberger last month opens new grounds for lawsuits against the firearms industry. That came shortly after Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed a law limiting liability lawsuits against the firearms industry.

Republicans in Tennessee this month enacted a new U.S. House map that carves up a Cohen's majority-Black district, reshaping it to the GOP’s advantage as part of President Donald Trump’s strategy to hold on to a slim majority in the November midterm elections.

“I don’t want to quit. I’m not a quitter. But these districts were drawn to beat me,” Cohen told reporters in his Washington, D.C. office.

Cohen is challenging the state’s redistricting effort in court and said that he would reenter the race if that lawsuit succeeded in restoring his old congressional district.

He lamented that Tennessee would likely shift to an entirely Republican congressional delegation after the next election, warning that it could also leave the state out of the loop once Democrats are able to regain the White House.

Redistricting targeted Cohen's district

Tennessee was the first state to pass new congressional districts after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities. But more Southern states could follow. Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina also have taken steps toward redistricting.

Cohen has represented his Memphis-based district for about two decades, among the last of the white Democrats representing the South. He has been a longtime member of the House Judiciary Committee and has focused on strengthening voting access and civil rights.

“It’s unique in America that an African-American majority district has elected a white guy, and that we’ve got a great relationship, great amount of support,” said Cohen, who is also the first Jewish person to represent Tennessee in Congress.

He was facing a primary challenge from state lawmaker Justin Pearson, a Black Democrat who represents Memphis in the state's General Assembly. Pearson has said he will continue his campaign in the state's newly redrawn 9th Congressional District.

But Cohen predicted that it would be nearly impossible for Tennessee Democrats to win a seat in Congress with the new districts. He added there was a chance the redistricting effort could “backfire on the Republicans” but that would require an “unbelievable registration effort among Democrats” and a massive vote turnout effort.

Cohen vows to oppose Trump

Sitting in his congressional office with staff looking on, Cohen pointed to photos of Memphis and local projects that he had championed during his career and expressed worry that Memphis voters would no longer have a voice in Washington. He also recounted how he had worked with the state's Republican leaders to win funding during the Biden administration for a larger bridge to cross the Mississippi River into Memphis.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement that Cohen was “a powerful champion for civil rights” and that “the City of Memphis, the Congress and the nation are better because of Steve’s commitment to making a difference.”

Cohen said that the Republican's redistricting effort was being done “for Donald Trump to get one more vote, he thinks, to stop them from being impeached.”

Still, he vowed to use his remaining time in Congress to try to mount opposition to Trump, calling the president “the greatest threat to democracy and to decorum and grace that we’ve ever seen.”

Like many lawmakers, Cohen has often attracted attention with colorful outbursts during congressional debates and hearings. During Trump’s first term, in 2019, Cohen brought a bucket of fried chicken to a House Judiciary Committee hearing at which then-Attorney General William P. Barr was a no-show.

“The message is Attorney General Bill Barr is not brave enough to answer questions from a staff attorney and members of the Judiciary Committee,” he said in a statement at the time.

While Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 as Congress tried to certify the results of the presidential election, Cohen screamed angrily at his Republican colleagues to “Call Trump. Call your friend. Tell him to do something.”

Cohen was among the first Democrats to join impeachment efforts for Trump in his first term, and he has signed on to articles of impeachment against Trump this year as well.

Memphis activists respond to new map

Meanwhile, Memphis activists grappled with the new political realities after the Republican-led legislature’s decision to divide the city’s longtime congressional district into three neighboring districts.

Advocates said they believed they could work with — and pressure — any lawmaker who will represent the city.

“Things are going to change. We’re aware of that,” said Tierney Macon, an activist with The Equity Alliance, a local civil rights group.

Macon, who protested at the Tennessee statehouse for days following the unveiling of the redrawn maps, said that activists aimed to hold the city’s new representatives in Congress accountable no matter their party.

“We just have to be engaged,” Macon said.

Demonstrations in the statehouse included chants accusing lawmakers of resurrecting Jim Crow, a system of state and local laws that for decades enforced racial segregation and disenfranchisement across the South.

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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Lisa Mascaro and Matt Brown in Washington contributed to this report.

Mahomes tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee on Dec. 14 and has said his goal is to be back in time for Week 1 of the season. The Chiefs host the Denver Broncos on “Monday Night Football" to open the season on Sept. 14 and then play Indianapolis at home on Sunday night in Week 2.

“We didn’t know anything more than anyone else,” NFL executive Hans Schroeder said Friday.

Coach Andy Reid said on NFL Network on Friday that the NFL didn't talk to him about Mahomes' status, but is encouraged by what he has seen so far early in the offseason program.

“He’s doing great right now and that’s kind of how you gotta go about this,” Reid said. “People go ‘well, he’s ahead of schedule.’ Who made the schedule? Everybody’s different, let’s just take it day by day. Nobody is spending more time than he is rehabbing, he spends seven hours here going through it. He hasn’t missed a day and he wants more, all the things that are Patrick Mahomes. Let’s see where we are at as we go forward as we get a little bit closer to the game.”

Schroeder said he was “excited” about Reid's comments and said that the Chiefs remained a popular team among the broadcasters as evidenced by their six primetime games, including a Thanksgiving night showdown against Buffalo that is typically one of the most-anticipated matchups of the season.

Kansas City, which went 6-11 and missed the playoffs last season after making three straight Super Bowl trips, also has five additional games slotted in the high-profile late afternoon Sunday doubleheader window.

“The Chiefs are an incredible story,” Schroeder said. “They’re one of the most popular teams in the league right now. They’ve been on an incredibly successful run for a number of years now, and have built a hugely popular fan base. We went into the year planning to play the Chiefs in the same number of windows. We didn’t know anything more than then you did, but we’re certainly hoping Patrick would be back Week 1. ... We felt really good about it and certainly feel better after seeing Andy’s comments this morning with how Patrick’s rehab’s going.”

More Wednesday openers

With Labor Day falling later this year and the NFL wanting to play a Week 1 game in Australia, the opener was moved to a Wednesday for the second time in league history.

That might not be a one-off.

The league announced a new deal with Netflix through 2029 that guarantees the streamer a Week 1 game in addition to the traditional opening game on NBC for the defending Super Bowl champion. Schroeder said that could lead to a Wednesday start to the season again.

The 2026 season opens on Wednesday Sept. 9 with Seattle hosting New England on NBC, followed by a game on Netflix the next night in the United States between the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers. That game will kick off on Friday morning in Australia.

“I think you’ll see us certainly playing on a couple nights, weekday nights to start the year going forward,” Schroeder said.

The NFL played an international game in Week 1 on a Friday night the previous two seasons but can't play again on Friday night in Week 1 until 2029 because of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 that prohibits the league from televising games on Friday night starting with the second Friday of September. The Friday of Week 1 will be on the second Friday of September again in both 2027 and 2028.

The only other time before this season that the first game of the NFL season was played on a Wednesday came in 2012 when the Dallas Cowboys visited the New York Giants. The game was moved from its usual Thursday spot that year because President Barack Obama was set to speak that night at the Democratic National Convention.

Travel mitigation

The opening game in Australia gave a heavy load in terms of travel to both the 49ers and Rams.

San Francisco will set a record this season with about 38,000 miles traveled thanks to the far-flung opener and a “home” game in Mexico City in Week 11 against Minnesota. Los Angeles is close behind with about 35,000 miles traveled this upcoming season.

The two teams will return home on Friday Sept. 11, giving them a little extra time before playing Week 2. The Rams get an extra day because they will host a Monday night game against the New York Giants before back-to-back road games at Denver and Philadelphia.

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan publicly complained about the heavy travel at the league meetings earlier this offseason and general manager John Lynch said the NFL would make some considerations for them.

San Francisco will play three straight home games following the Week 1 trip and won’t leave the Pacific Time Zone again until a trip to Atlanta in Week 7. The Niners also avoided having games on either Thanksgiving or Christmas after playing on both holidays in 2023.

“I’m sure wave a magic wand, they would move a game or two on their schedule,” NFL VP of NFL broadcast planning Mike North said. “But I assume the same is true for the other 31 teams as well. We were sensitive, we were cognizant, and think we landed in a fair place, not just for the Niners and the Rams, but hopefully for everybody.”

Not ready for primetime

The days of every NFL team being guaranteed a primetime game are in the past with five teams failing to get a game in one of those high-profile windows this season.

Tennessee, Miami, Arizona, the Las Vegas Raiders and the New York Jets were all given no primetime games in the initial schedule. Those teams are five of the bottom six in terms of odds to win the Super Bowl this season after the Dolphins won seven games last season and the other four teams went 3-14.

Barring one of the teams getting flexed into a primetime window late in the season, this would be the first time since 2011 that five teams didn't get a single primetime game.

None of those five teams has an island game in another window either.

Even the addition of Heisman Trophy winning quarterback and No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza wasn't enough to get the Raiders into primetime.

This marks the second straight season that the team that picked a quarterback No. 1 overall didn't make primetime with the Titans getting no games last season after taking Cam Ward first overall.

“Not to be flippant, but we don’t draft our way into primetime. We play our way into primetime,” North said.

Rest disparity

The issue of rest disparity has gotten a lot of attention in recent years even though the NFL says its data shows the focus is overblown.

This season has a few major outliers with both the Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia playing four games against teams coming off bye weeks, while 14 teams don't do it even once. The Raiders and Los Angeles Rams each have three games against teams coming off a bye.

The Chargers will have 22 fewer days of rest than their opponents this season, the biggest discrepancy since the 2012 Eagles were at minus-23, according to ESPN.

“Rest disparity is not a thing,” North said. “You do not have a competitive advantage when you’re coming off your bye. You certainly don’t have a competitive advantage when you’re one day or two day or three days more well rested. If that data suggests that there’s a there, we will adjust.”

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

Texas Children's Hospital, based in Houston, said in a statement that it had agreed to the settlement “to protect our resources from endless and costly litigation.” The hospital, which serves more than 1 million patients annually, said Paxton's office and the U.S. Department of Justice has investigated its care for three years, forcing it to “navigate an unconscionable campaign of mistruths and mischaracterizations.”

The hospital announced in 2022 that it would stop gender-affirming hormone treatments for minors after Paxton issued a legal opinion calling such care “child abuse” and Gov. Greg Abbott directed the state's child welfare agency to investigate reports of care as abuse. In 2023, Texas became the most populous state to ban gender-affirming care for minors — at least 27 ban or restrict it — and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2025 that states can do so.

Paxton said the settlement will require Texas Children's to set up a “detransition clinic” to provide free care to transgender patients for five years to “reverse the damage” from gender-affirming care. He described it as the first “detransition clinic” of its kind in the nation, although that could not immediately be confirmed.

“This historic settlement reflects an institutional and fundamental shift away from radical ‘gender’ ideology,” Paxton said in announcing the settlement.

Paxton’s office did not release a copy of the agreement, and the statement from Texas Children’s did not discuss its specific terms.

The leader of the LGBTQ rights group Equality Texas said Texas Children's “has lost its integrity and put politics over patients” and called the settlement “embarrassing.”

“Paxton is blackmailing a hospital system into creating a resource that no one is asking for," CEO Brad Pritchett said in a statement. “It ignores the actual science and years of data about the overwhelming benefits of gender-affirming care.”

Under Trump, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has moved to use its regulatory power to block gender-affirming care for minors, and the DOJ has demanded access to providers' records. Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement Friday that the DOJ would “use every weapon at its disposal” to stop gender-affirming care for children.

Paxton is running for the U.S. Senate, and he announced the settlement less than two weeks before a May 26 runoff with him locked in a tight race to unseat GOP incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. President Donald Trump — who has aggressively sought to roll back transgender rights — has not publicly endorsed a candidate in the race.

Most major medical groups see access to gender-affirming care as important for people with gender dysphoria. Transgender youth, parents and providers have described it as life-saving for youth who are depressed or suicidal because their gender identities do not match the sex assigned them at birth.

Gender-affirming care may include counseling, medications that block puberty, hormone therapy to produce physical changes or surgeries to transform chests and genitals, although those are rare for minors.

The hospital said it fully cooperated with Paxton's office and the DOJ, produced more than 5 million documents and did its own internal investigations. All of them showed that it never violated the law, the hospital said.

“These efforts have required significant staff time and financial resources to defend ourselves,” its statement said. “This settlement will allow us to redirect those precious resources to focus on the life-saving care and groundbreaking discoveries of our exceptional clinicians and scientists.”

Paxton said the agreement also requires Texas Children's to fire — “and never again hire” — five doctors who provided gender-affirming care, agree never to provide such care and to change its bylaws so that any doctor violating the state law automatically loses any privileges at the hospital.

The $10 million payment will go to the state's Medicaid program. Paxton had accused the hospital of submitting false billings, an allegation it rejected.

In a Friday morning social media post, Trump said the National Garden of American Heroes would be built in West Potomac Park, a space near the National Mall that includes the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. The area is also home to several fields and volleyball courts regularly used by local sports groups.

Trump described the area in his post as a “totally BARREN field of Prime Waterfront Real Estate along our Mighty Potomac River.”

The president has said the garden would commemorate America's 250th anniversary with sculptures recognizing 250 prominent Americans who have made significant cultural, political and other historical contributions to the country. He first raised the idea during Fourth of July celebrations in 2020 and has framed it as a response to protests that resulted in the removal of controversial monuments, including those that commemorated slave owners and Confederate leaders.

In the final days of his first term, Trump, a Republican, signed an executive order naming 244 people including Ronald Reagan and Jackie Robinson who should be honored with statues in the garden. The idea languished under President Joe Biden, a Democrat, but Congress provided $40 million under Trump's big tax and spending cuts law last year to procure the statues included in his executive orders.

That may not be enough, however, to constitute the type of approval typically needed for major projects on or near the National Mall. Federal law requires projects and memorials to get a sign-off from multiple design and planning groups.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle said the garden will “ be built to reflect the awesome splendor of our country’s timeless exceptionalism.”

“President Trump continues to beautify and honor our Nation’s Capital during America’s historic semiquincentennial celebration,” he said.

He didn't comment on whether the administration was seeking the relevant approvals or had already awarded contracts for the statues.

Washington's monumental core is one of the nation's most closely regulated spaces, with the goal of protecting sightlines and preventing new construction that would undermine the area’s historic character. Between the approvals process, design disputes and funding challenges, changes in the area can take years — or even decades — to reach completion. One of the newest additions near the National Mall, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, took 21 years to finish after Congress initially approved it in 1999.

Trump and his supporters have shown little interest in following such procedures. He moved quickly this month to drain and repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. He suddenly demolished the East Wing of the White House last year to build a ballroom. Trump's name has been added to the facade of the Kennedy Center, which he plans to close later this summer for a two-year renovation.

Just this week, workers began preliminary surveys and testing of the proposed site of a triumphal arch that Trump is seeking between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. Part of the site was fenced off, and pink flags typically used as survey markings were planted in the grass.

And the Trump administration is moving forward with plans to transform East Potomac Park from an accessible public golf course into what Trump has described as a “U.S. Open-caliber course.” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Thursday released a design plan for the new course that he said would provide “championship-quality golf at affordable, highly discounted rates.”

The plan provided few details on how the park, which is frequently used by local runners and bikers, would remain open to the general public.

Virtually all of the projects have become subject to litigation.

The officer-involved shooting happened at a home on Eberly Drive, off St. Johns Bluff Road, around 9:20 p.m. Thursday, according to a JSO news release.

District 2 patrol officers first responded around 11:50 a.m. after a woman reported she had been battered by her partner, according to JSO. The suspect left the home before officers arrived.

Officers were in the process of obtaining an arrest warrant when the suspect, later identified as Marcus Delay, 30, returned to the home later in the afternoon, JSO said.

Police said the Delay held the woman and baby inside the home for several hours. At some point, the woman and child escaped into a nearby wooded area and called 911, according to JSO.

Before officers arrived, the suspect came out of the home and fired a rifle into the air, JSO said.

Officers located the woman and baby in the wooded area, according to JSO. During that time, police said Delay made verbal threats to shoot the woman and also said he planned to “kill everyone” if officers showed up.

JSO said the suspect later found the woman and officers in the wooded area and pointed a handgun at them. Two officers fired, striking the Delay.

He was taken into custody and transported to a hospital for treatment of his injuries, JSO said.

The officers who fired were identified as J. Jones and G. Comayagua. No officers were injured, JSO said.

Sheriff T.K. Waters said officers’ actions likely prevented a worse outcome.

“I believe they saved a couple of lives tonight. It is a really dangerous situation, a very intense situation. He was actively walking through, around, looking for the victim and that child and had made statements that he was going to kill everybody if she called police and if the police showed up. This was a very dangerous situation,” Waters said.

JSO said Delay is from Oklahoma and he hasn’t been in Jacksonville very long.

Mike Powers, a neighbor, talked about what he saw and heard.

“He shot two shots in the air, ‘who’s in my yard?’ Pop pop, ‘I gotta protect myself its my yard,’ and the next thing you know, after he shot the two shots off, it went like fireworks," Powers said.

This is the 10th officer-involved shooting involving JSO so far this year, the agency said.

The State Attorney’s Office was on scene and is investigating. After that investigation is complete, JSO will conduct its own investigation, according to the agency.

These care packages that held goodies from the U.S. were seen as an expression of support during hard economic times — as well as one of pure love.

“Balik" and “bayan,” Tagalog for “return” and “homeland," respectively, was what President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. called the tourism initiatives he established in 1973. After declaring martial law a year earlier, he wanted to compel Filipino immigrants to come back and visit and further “legitimize his new dictatorial regime,” says Adrian De Leon, an assistant professor of history at New York University and author of “Balikbayan: A Revenant History of the Filipino Homeland.”

The balikbayan program proved “incredibly profitable” for the government as middle-class Filipino Americans came and spent capital.

“The dollar stretches way more,” De Leon says. “Bulk buying becomes a way through which overseas Filipinos are incentivized to maintain an economic connection to their homeland so that the government can take cuts from it and use it for like everything.”

The practice of shipping balikbayan boxes grew from there. Initially, canned meat like Spam was a staple of these boxes. Over time, small luxuries like skin-care products, clothes and candy became sought after, too. Then American entertainment like music cassettes and movies on Betamax were tossed in.

“What might have been letters being sent back home, now with the balikbayan box, you’re sending back American pop culture," De Leon says. “Filipinos are doing the work of American soft power for Filipinos at home.”

Sending balikbayan boxes has thrived as its own industry. There are a handful of shipping companies in the U.S. that market door-to-door delivery to the Philippines. Filipino immigrants visiting the country get quicker entry at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport through a designated “balikbayan lane.”

Jamming as many gifts as possible into a balikbayan box remains culturally ingrained in the Filipino diaspora. Filipino American comedian Rex Navarrete has typically made it a stand-up bit, advising: “One thing you should never pack in a balikbayan box is air.”

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Part of a recurring series, “American Objects,” marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more American objects, click here. For more stories on the anniversary, click here.

The pushback comes after a social media post went viral, accusing the sheriff’s office of ignoring a previous traffic incident involving the man involved, identified as Lazayeous Bartley, who investigators said drove a truck through a crowd of people at the block party.

A father posted online claiming Bartley struck his 15-year-old daughter with a car in February, seriously injuring her. The father also said the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office failed to arrest Bartley, calling the earlier incident a “hit and run.” He argued that had police arrested Bartley, he would not have been behind the wheel on Saturday.

The post was shared hundreds of times, and online comments were sharply critical of Putnam County Sheriff Gator DeLoach.

RELATED: Man who plowed truck into crowd at Palatka block party released from hospital, booked into Clay County jail

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office publicly responded, saying it did not handle the February crash — the Palatka Police Department did, and Bartley was cleared of any wrongdoing.

“It has come to our attention that there is a blatantly false rumor circulating on social media regarding Lazayeous Bartley and a traffic crash involving a juvenile pedestrian on February 21, 2026,” the post said. " The crash was investigated by the Palatka Police Department, not the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. The case number is PPD26OFF000300."

News4JAX obtained the crash report that the sheriff’s office also posted to support its argument. According to the report, the teenage girl stepped into traffic at the intersection of St. Johns and South Palm Avenue while wearing headphones. The report stated Bartley had a green light when the crash occurred. Two witnesses backed up that account, and the pedestrian was listed as at fault.

The sheriff’s office also said Bartley remained at the scene and did not leave after the crash.

MORE | ‘I would have been dead’: Woman pinned under truck that plowed through Palatka block party thankful to be alive

Law enforcement said the February crash and the weekend incident are two completely separate investigations.

The Palatka Police Department declined to comment on the case, and the man who made the initial post did not respond to a request for an on-camera interview.

Bartley remains in custody following Saturday’s block party incident.

News4JAX asked for an update on the weekend incident. A spokesperson said there are two ongoing investigations with a significant amount of information to gather, review, and document. A full report is expected to be released within the next two weeks.

While the former Hollywood mogul has been convicted of other sex crimes on two U.S. coasts and remains behind bars, the mistrial leaves the New York rape charge in limbo after three trials. Weinstein appeared expressionless as court officers ushered him out in his wheelchair.

A majority-male Manhattan jury had been weighing whether Weinstein raped Jessica Mann, a hairstylist and actor. Weinstein’s lawyers argued that the encounter was consensual. It happened in 2013 during a fraught relationship between the then-married Weinstein and the decades-younger Mann.

The signs of Friday's stalemate emerged a few hours into the third day of deliberations, when jurors sent a note in the morning saying they “have concluded that they cannot reach” a unanimous verdict. Judge Curtis Farber instructed them to continue deliberating, a common step when a jury initially says it's stuck.

Jurors returned to their closed-door discussions for more than an hour before sending another note with the same message, adding: “We feel that no one is going to change where they stand.”

One juror, Josh Hadar, told reporters that nine people wanted to acquit Weinstein and three wanted to convict him.

Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo called it “a great day for our jury system.”

No immediate decision about a fourth trial

A hearing was set for June 24 to learn whether prosecutors will choose to go to a fourth trial. District Attorney Alvin Bragg said he was disappointed with the result but “we deeply respect the jury system.”

Bragg said his staff will consult Mann about another trial and also take into account what happens to Weinstein when he's sentenced in another case. Mann was not in court when the mistrial was declared.

As an Oscar-winning movie producer and studio boss, Weinstein was one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures and a significant Democratic donor before the long-suppressed sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations against him cascaded into public view in 2017. The revelations galvanized the #MeToo movement ’s demands for accountability for sexual misconduct, made Weinstein a pariah, bankrupted the studio and ultimately led to criminal charges against him in New York and Los Angeles.

He was convicted of some and acquitted of others. Yet Mann’s allegation lingered. Weinstein was convicted of the charge in 2020. Then an appeals court overturned that verdict, and jury deliberations broke down at a 2025 retrial. That paved the way for this year’s retrial.

Weinstein has said he was unfaithful to his then-wife and “acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.”

Jury heard from Weinstein's accuser

Mann, now 40, met Weinstein at a Los Angeles party in early 2013, when she hoped to build a handful of acting credits into a big career. He took interest and soon showed that it wasn’t purely professional.

She said his initial, pushy overtures discomfited her, but she acceded to them and decided to develop a relationship with him.

She was staying with a friend at a Manhattan hotel in March 2013 when Weinstein showed up early for a planned breakfast and got a room over her objections, Mann testified. She said she accompanied Weinstein to the room to talk and made it clear she didn’t want sex.

“I said ‘no,’ over and over, and I tried to leave,” she told jurors during five days of intense testimony.

She said that Weinstein blocked her from leaving and grabbed her arms. Scared, she gave up protesting, complied with his demands to undress, and laid on a bed while he went into a bathroom, she told jurors. Then, Mann said, he raped her.

Mann told no one for years about the alleged rape. Nor did she mention it in her introspective, private writing two days later. In a note to herself, she grappled with conflicted feelings about becoming “emotionally attached” in a nonexclusive relationship with a man she didn’t name.

After Weinstein’s new lawyers confronted Mann with the note, she said she hadn’t needed to write down the allegation.

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they choose to make their names public, as Mann has done.

Weinstein defense: Mann was supportive

Weinstein didn’t testify. In his lawyers’ telling, Mann was a willing partner in a close, supportive relationship with a show-business insider who opened doors for her, but she turned on him once he became an outcast.

In the months and years after the New York encounter, Mann kept seeing and communicating with Weinstein.

At times, she pulled away to pursue and preserve a relationship with a new boyfriend, according to her emails and testimony. At other times, she turned back to Weinstein, who validated her acting dreams, told her he was proud of her and responded caringly when her father was terminally ill.

“I love u. Anything u need,” Weinstein wrote.

Over the years, he helped Mann land a movie audition — it went nowhere — and a hairstyling job. She asked him for help with such things as a car problem and a club membership, though she declined a package his office tried to send in summer 2013, when she couldn’t make rent. Mann said she understood the envelope contained $1,000 in cash.

In one of her last emails to Weinstein, in February 2017, she wrote: “I love you, always do. But I hate feeling like a booty call.” When he responded by suggesting she was “joking” and should stop using his company email, she said it was a joke and apologized.

Eight months later, she saw the news reports that propelled his downfall and ultimately prompted her to go to police.

Mann never sued Weinstein, but after his 2020 conviction, she filed for and got about $500,000 from a sexual misconduct settlement fund set up during his company’s bankruptcy. The payout was mentioned at last year’s retrial, but the defense didn’t raise it this time after extensive arguments about what could and couldn’t be said.

Click here for all Julio Foolio coverage.

A jury found Isaiah Chance, 23, Sean Gathright, 20, Rashad Murphy, 32, and Davion Murphy, 29, guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy charges in the fatal shooting death of Jones on June 23, 2024, in an ambush attack while he was celebrating his birthday.

Court documents said the attack was in retaliation for an ongoing Jacksonville gang war between 6Block and allied gangs, Ace’s Top Killers (ATK), and 1200.

Jones is a known and documented member of the 6Block gang.

Prosecutors sought the death penalty for the four defendants, but the jury ultimately recommended life without parole.

The judge will sentence them in June.

In Oct. 2025, a jury found Alicia Andrews guilty of manslaughter for acting as a lookout and tracking Jones’ location before he was killed. She was set to be sentenced in Dec. 2025, but her attorneys filed an appeal saying Judge Michelle Sisco was biased and her conduct prevented them from having a fair trial.

Court records show that on Jan. 29, Judge Kimberly Fernandez was named the new judge, but a new sentencing date has not been set.

Prosecutors filed a motion to reverse the decision.

Day 10 - Closing arguments

The state showed text messages from the defendants that showed their alleged roles in the planning of the shooting.

Prosecutors said Gathright and Chance were trying to figure out where Jones was in Tampa. The state also showed text messages from Andrews, who booked the Airbnb in Tampa.

“There is a real gang war going on in Jacksonville,” the prosecutor said. “ATK and 1200 are at way with 6Block. It is blatant.”

She referenced the social media posts in the early morning hours after Jones was killed.

“You see photographs of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady [on Rashad Murphy’s Instagram], the GOAT being posted...you see laughing emojis...there is nothing fun about the gang war in Jacksonville and on June 23 in 2024, this violence spilled into Tampa,” the prosecutor said.

Rashad Murphy’s defense

Rashad Murphy’s defense attorney is arguing that he can not be placed in Tampa at 4:40 a.m. on the day of the shooting based on the evidence that was presented.

He said that Rashad Murphy’s phone was not tracked from Jacksonville to Tampa during any relevant time of the murder. Defense said that Rashad Murphy originally lied to JSO about being in Tampa when he really wasn’t because he was afraid of being tied to the shooting. But he told Detective Drabek that his account was used to book the Airbnb and he thought his silver Chevy Cruze was being used to go to Martin Correctional Institute to take items to his incarcerated brother.

Rashad Murphy was seen entering a Jacksonville Walmart a few days before buying items that were found in the car while it was in Tampa. The defense maintained that Rashad Murphy thought those items were going to his brother in the Martin Correctional Institute.

The defense showed text messages that corroborate that with his incarcerated brother asking Rashad Murphy where the items were because he never received them.

The defense attorney said that JSO Detective Ramos testified that he can not definitively prove that Rashad Murphy was in either the black Impala or the silver Chevy Cruze that traveled to Tampa or any other day relative to Jones’ murder.

“There is no video in this case at any juncture that would identify Rashad Murphy outside of a guy wearing all black,” Rashad Murphy’s defense said.

Sean Gathright’s defense

Gathright’s lawyer said that he had nothing to do with the shooting and he compared him to a puzzle piece that doesn’t fit into the larger picture.

“Law enforcement might have searched that car and searched that house and thought ‘man, we got a puzzle piece,’ but it doesn’t fit,” he said.

He also said that Gathright’s phone was never collected into evidence and that detectives relied on cell tower mappings, which detectives testified can be unreliable.

His lawyer said that Gathright’s phone pinged a cell tower on the north end of the University of South Florida’s campus.

He also showed a still from the video of an accused shooter holding a rifle and he argued that the rifles that Gathright owns and was found in his home by police, do not match the shape of the rifle that can be seen in the video.

Gathright’s defense said that he was going to his grandmother’s house in Polk County to swap out cars for his pressure washing business, then to his sister’s party in Orlando. He then went to Tampa with his friend, Chance and had no idea about the planned shooting.

His defense also established that Gathright is not a member of any of the gangs involved in the conflict.

“Detective Ramos said they didn’t know who Sean Gathright was until Tampa police brought him up,” the attorney said.

The defense said that the guns and gun parts recovered from the house that Gathright shares with his mother had no connection to the shooting in Tampa.

Isiah Chance’s defense

Chance’s lawyer said that Jones was not his rival, as the prosecution said.

The defense said that Chance was not part of a surveillance team to track Jones because Jones posted the flyer of where he was performing.

He also said Chance doesn’t legally qualify to be a documented gang member because he doesn’t have any tattoos to signify it and the arresting JSO officer didn’t document it.

He said the state can not prove that Chance knew about the shooting and they could only prove that he was in Tampa in the car with Andrews, with an unknown driver.

Davion Murphy’s defense

His defense attorney said that Davion Murphy was at the Airbnb and he drove the Chevy Cruze back to Jacksonville. The attorney maintained that he is not seen with any weapons and there is no social media posts related to the shooting attached to him, no DNA evidence found and no text messages.

His defense said that he couldn’t have been the third shooter because in an interview with JSO, he is seen writing with his left hand and the third shooter in the video is right-handed.

Day 9 - Guns and ammunition used in the shooting, Gathright traffic stop

Amara Drew of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement testified to the weapons and ammunition used in the shooting.

Detective Craig Griffin testified to the Gathright traffic stop. He was also assigned to watch the Cut Throat Committee (CTC) and 1200 gangs. Griffin also talked about the connections between Rashad and Davion Murphy.

Griffin said that Davion Murphy has tattoos of deceased 1200 gang members.

The state rested its case.

Day 8 - JSO Gang Unit detectives talk about the conflicts between gangs

JSO Detective Juan Ramos returned to the stand as he reviewed Instagram posts and text messages between the defendants and from Jones. The messages also showed that Andrews was the one who booked the Airbnb on June 21, 2024.

JSO Detective Richard Meader is assigned to watch the ATK gang and their actions. Meader also talked about Chance’s connections to ATK.

JSO Detective Trey McCullough is assigned to watch the 6Block gang and responded to the war between ATK/1200 and 6Block.

Day 7 - Witness says he talked with Rashad Murphy after the shooting

Robert Howard, also known as Kenny Caps, took the stand and talked about his connections to the people involved in the case. He said he had known Jones since they were kids, but he denied knowing Chance personally, but knew him as “Gutta.”

Howard said he went down to Tampa with Jones and described leaving a club and riding in another car toward the hotel complex where the shooting happened.

He said he heard gunshots and described what he witnessed during the shooting. He also talked with Rashad Murphy after the shooting.

Prosecutor: What did he say during the call itself?

Howard: He forgives me again. He forgives me. And where was I?

P: Did you understand where were you to be about? Or did he give you any kind of context when he said where were you?

RH: Where was I? I was around.

RH: Stuff like he seen me.

P: Where?

RH: Walking down the stairs of the club I guess. He said he seen me by the club. Seen me at the club.

P: Did he say what you were doing at the club when he saw you?

RH: He said I was paying attention.

P: Then did he make any statements about the Hotel2Suites? The homicide scene? The location?

RH: Yeah, he said that that was him in front of that car.

P: Did you have any idea what he was talking about?

RH: I kind of did yes ma’am.

During cross-examination, the defense questioned his credibility. They questioned the timing of his statements and why he waited to share this information while pointing to the federal charges he already faces.

Day 6 - Tampa police follow up with victims, Sean Gathright’s arrest

Tampa police who went to the scene and followed up with the victims testified about their findings. Detective Craig Griffin said he helped stop a gold Toyota 4Runner after receiving a tip that it may be connected to the murder.

The driver was identified as Sean Gathright. He complied with officers and exited the car. Police searched the car and found a Glock 9mm and a bag with loose ammunition, magazines and gun parts in the back seat.

A search warrant was obtained for a house linked to Chance, where Andrews was present.

Griffin said the evidence found in the car gave probable cause for Gathright’s arrest and he was taken into custody that day.

Noah Reilly, the medical examiner, took the stand and described all the gunshot wounds to Jones.

Day 5 - Defense says social media posts aren’t solid proof

JSO Gang Unit Detective Christopher Drabek returned to the stand and testified that Rashad Murphy was taken into custody by SWAT after a long standoff. Drabek said in his interview with Rashad Murphy, he initially denied key details like being in Tampa or booking the Airbnb, but he changed his story when they showed him evidence and cellphone records.

Drabek pointed out that Rashad Murphy switched hands when writing during the interview, which stood out to him because surveillance footage showed the gunman using his left hand.

Drabek also identified social media posts that he interpreted as celebrating Jones’ death and shared his findings with Tampa police.

The defense argued that the social media posts could mean different things and that Drabek couldn’t link one of the accounts to Rashad Murphy, suggesting that his findings were based on interpretation, rather than solid proof.

Day 4 - JSO detective says it’s uncertain who booked Airbnb

Detective Juan Ramos returned to the stand and identified a silver BMW linked to Isaiah Chance coming and going from a residence tied to the investigation. People associated with the investigation could be seen exiting the BMW, entering the home and unloading items into the car.

Ramos talked about how the evidence links Rashad Murphy and others to the homicide investigation. The defense questioned the weaknesses in the case, pointing to a lack of visual identification and no forensic confirmation.

Ramos acknowledged the holes in the investigation, including no search warrants for Rashad Murphy’s home and uncertainty about who booked the Airbnb.

Detective Christopher Drabek is in JSO’s gang unit and his role is to monitor gang activity on social media. He said they were aware of the planned birthday trip to Tampa. Drabek also said they recorded a Twitter Spaces argument between Jones and Chance, which showed ongoing tensions between the rival groups.

Day 3 - Defense questions JSO detective’s methods

Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Detective Richard Needer returned to the stand and talked about how “drill rap videos” are often about disrespecting rival gangs, and it doesn’t necessarily mean they committed it.

The defense said that Jones had many enemies due to what he posted on social media and his gang ties. They also said that many shootings tied to the gang feuds remain unsolved, which weakens any direct link between the lyrics and real crimes.

Attorneys questioned Needer’s methods, emphasizing that his knowledge came from social media and interpretation, not firsthand involvement in the crimes.

Needer clarified that he did not alter lyrics and only corrected obvious transcription errors and used training and experience to interpret gang-related content.

Officer Jael Bahamundi said that he helped arrest Rashad Murphy using a license plate reader alert tied to a car connected to a felony in Tampa. He said Murphy got out of the car at a hotel in Tampa and ran on foot.

Detective Angela Carter said after Rashad Murphy’s arrest, she found a phone in the car that was running a maps app and had references to Jones, an AR-style rifle photo, ID images and an Airbnb booking.

Detective Taylor Kline said he tracked the defendants’ phones and surveillance footage showed a silver Chevrolet Cruze going through a McDonald’s drive-thru with an unconfirmed number of people inside, but there was at least two. Kline also admitted that cellphone location data isn’t exact and may contain errors.

Detective Juan Ramos took the stand and identified social media posts leading up to the night of his murder. Ramos also said they reviewed surveillance footage that mapped Jones’ movements and the suspects’ cars, which shows coordinated activity leading up to the shooting.

Day 2 - Victim describes girl’s trip gone wrong

Day two included continued statements from Alverson, victims, and witnesses.

Alverson said forensics found 31 9mm shell casings and projectile fragments linking the gunfire to three shooters and two vehicles, a Chevrolet Impala and a Chevrolet Cruze.

Investigators used a Tesla’s “Sentry Mode” and hotel surveillance footage to track the shooters’ movements and the concussive blast from a rifle fired by a third shooter was powerful enough to trigger a nearby car’s alarm.

Alverson said the Dodge Charger, which Jones was in, fled under fire before stopping with him in a defensive position inside.

He said there was property damage and bullet holes in occupied hotel rooms and bystander vehicles.

Two witnesses who knew Jones, but did not want to be identified, said they traveled to Tampa from Jacksonville for his birthday celebration.

Camilla Bentley, a shooting victim, said she was in Tampa for a girls’ trip and ended up at Airbnb parties and clubs with Jones’ group through a friend. She said that she was sitting in a car at the hotel when the gunfire went off. She escaped, but was shot in the right arm during the attack. Bentley also said she never saw the shooters.

Audra Agramente was a guest in the hotel that night with her husband and her daughter’s boyfriend while helping her daughter move into the University of South Florida. Agramente said they were awakened by the gunshots and a bullet struck their room window.

Other officers and witnesses testified, including Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office detectives involved with the 2019 murder investigation of Adrian Gaynor, 17, on Jacksonville’s Northside.

Day 1 - Opening Statements

The prosecution gave opening statements saying that Jones was killed in a targeted and coordinated ambush while celebrating his birthday in Tampa. The defendants are accused of stalking and following Jones and firing dozens of rounds into his car while he was trapped inside. The state previewed evidence for the jury, including surveillance footage, phone data and videos that prosecutors said show the defendants stalking the victim to coordinate their attack. After the shooting, the accused gunmen returned to a rented Airbnb and then split up to return to Jacksonville.

Chance’s defense attorney said the prosecution can’t prove that he was involved in the murder and they blamed Rashad Murphy for the plan.

Tampa Police Officer Brian Godcharles took the stand and said he responded to a shots-fired call at the Home 2 Suites and Holiday Inn complex to secure a large crime scene.

He said he saw a black Dodge Charger with bullet holes and identified a nearby Hyundai Sonata connected to witnesses.

Godcharles said he found pistol shell casings near a portico and found car debris consistent with a possible collision and confirmed bullet damage to hotel windows, which he said indicates that shots were fired toward both vehicles and the building.

Officer Zachary Conaway responded to the scene and said officers were briefed beforehand about potential threats involving Jones and rival groups. Officers also found two gunshot victims who needed immediate medical attention.

Detective David Alverson said they reviewed surveillance footage showing suspects fleeing a vehicle and entering the hotel. They also followed a blood trail from the car through the lobby up to the third floor, where more victims were found.

Kaitlin Bennett, who identifies herself as a member of the media and whose Liberty Hangout YouTube page has over 1 million subscribers, attended a protest against fascism organized by 50501 outside the Castillo de San Marcos in January.

Bennett was not part of the protest and is known for confronting and posing questions to protesters with whom she disagrees.

Videos from the protest shows Bennett interviewing protesters before at least one person in attendance asked for her to be removed from the area where permitted protesters were standing along South Castillo Drive.

Bennett and her camera operator were then told by a National Park Service (NPS) Officer that they needed to move to the “First Amendment area.”

I was charged with a FEDERAL CRIME by @NatlParkService in St. Augustine, Florida for committing the GRAVE offense of asking Democrats questions on public property! Keep federal agents out of our cities... unless they're locking up conservatives for different opinions! 🤔 pic.twitter.com/FhrxMhzGOL

— Kaitlin Bennett (@KaitMarieox) January 22, 2026

“Yeah, this is a First Amendment area,” Bennett responded.

“You don’t have a permit here; they do, so it’s time to leave,” the officer responded. He then asked her to move multiple times.

“I want my rights to be respected. I am allowed to be on public property,” Bennett said later in the exchange.

“Right here is our First Amendment area No. 5 for small groups and counter protesters. You’re a small group, and you’re a counter protester,” the officer responded, to which Bennett said she is a member of the media.

Bennett was then told she was being detained for a ticket.

“You’re on federal land, I’m a federal officer, so you’re getting a federal ticket,” the officer tells Bennett.

“Great, I can’t wait to fight this,” Bennett says before facing the camera and saying, “The liberals here in St. Augustine, Florida, are cheering because this guy is trying to kick me off of public property.”

The exchange then got tense when the officer told Bennett to get the microphone out of his face.

The officer explained that Bennett was getting the ticket for disobeying a lawful order to leave the protest area, which he said comes with a possible $500 fine.

A YouTube video of the heated exchange had been viewed more than 250,000 times in less than 24 hours.

Bennett said she “will be fighting this bogus charge.”

News4JAX contacted the law firm she said is representing her to ask for a comment, but we did not immediately hear back.

According to Constitutional attorney Eric Friday, the case highlights ongoing questions about who qualifies as a journalist in today’s digital age. “We can all be journalists today. We all carry a camera around in our pocket and there’s no special right of access for professional journalists or for legacy media to have any special kind of access,” Friday said.

Friday emphasized that the content of questions being asked shouldn’t affect access rights, particularly when government officials are making decisions about which views can be expressed.

“The park service was treating her as a counter protester,” Friday said. “They are taking issue with the content of her questions when you have content neutral rules like nobody May engage in free speech in this place. It’s one thing when you start saying we don’t like your viewpoint, he may not protest here. Now, we’ve got a problem that the government’s deciding which views can and cannot be shared.”

It’s not the first time Bennett has had a run-in with law enforcement during a protest, which she has documented on her YouTube page.

The most alarming thing is that every single incident happened in FLORIDA! I'm grateful our Attorney General @JamesUthmeierFL has defended my rights against these tyrants, but the issues here are so deep that they've gone federal this time. The enemies of free speech won't win!

— Kaitlin Bennett (@KaitMarieox) January 22, 2026

Last time an officer thought he could boot me from public property because of a permit, it backfired so hard that I got a personal (and public) apology from the police chief. I'll be waiting for your call @NatlParkService! https://t.co/HGZQ7eVoX7

— Kaitlin Bennett (@KaitMarieox) January 22, 2026

Bennett first made headlines in 2018 when she took graduation photos with a semi-automatic rifle on the Kent State campus.

Of the 272 regular-season games next season, 22 will on a streaming service as the primary network (one more than announced last season), and 14 will be primarily on cable.

That leaves 236 games that will be on CBS, Fox, NBC or ABC, meaning 87% of the schedule will be on broadcast television, the same percentage as last year. All games in a team’s home market air on a broadcast network.

President Donald Trump recently weighed in with his dissatisfaction with the costs for fans who want access to all the games while investigations by the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice proceed.

“You have people that live for Sunday. They can’t think about anything else, and then all of a sudden, they’re gonna have to pay $1,000 a game? It’s crazy,” Trump said while being interviewed on “Full Measure” last weekend.

While fans are not paying $1,000 per game to watch at home, trying to view everything with the "NFL Sunday Ticket,” a cable or satellite package, and streaming subscriptions could total nearly $1,000 for the season.

Even with greater scrutiny of its distribution models, the league stuck to the same plan, according to Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution.

“Our focus is on getting the best games into the best windows," Schroeder said. "And even with the additional games that went to Netflix, we think we’re expanding the reach of those games.

“We love our model. Broadcast has been an incredible home to deliver our focus of reach. We also want to be on these platforms with a limited amount of our games where we know our fans are already.”

More broadcast windows, more problems?

The league was able to create new standalone windows after getting back four games that had been part of Monday night doubleheaders in previous seasons. Two went to Netflix (Thanksgiving Eve and the Saturday early game in Week 18), one to Fox (one of the international games ) and one to NBC (a Saturday game in Week 17).

CBS and Fox were able to add Saturday games in Week 15 that were Sunday regional games in past seasons. Fox also has a Christmas Day game for the first time since 2023.

While the league and ESPN thought having two Monday night games some weeks would benefit viewers, it often divided them because one game started at 7 p.m. and the other at 8:15 p.m.

“It wasn’t working as we intended. We could take these games and find a better home and broader distribution for them,” Schroeder said.

The games on Netflix should also draw a large audience, given its reach. The streamer has 81.4 million U.S. subscribers compared to 60 million for ESPN. Netflix will also be able to distribute its five-game package globally.

There will be 10 Monday night games simulcast on ABC this season. ESPN will also air the Super Bowl for the first time, while ABC will air it for the first time since 2006.

Tim Reed, ESPN’s vice president of programming and acquisitions, said he thought moving away from the doubleheaders helped “Monday Night Football” have a more complete schedule.

“The ability to streamline and simplify the schedule just helps. I assume it helped the league and makes it easier to land all the games,” he said.

With 10 broadcast windows to fill Thanksgiving week, there will be only six 1 p.m. games on Sunday, with three each on CBS and Fox. Seattle at San Francisco gets the late afternoon spotlight on Fox.

Christmas week will have 11 windows — Christmas Eve, three on Christmas Day, two on Dec. 26 on NFL Network, the CBS Sunday doubleheader plus an early game on Fox, NBC Sunday night, and ESPN Monday night. There likely will be six 1 p.m. Sunday games. San Francisco at Kansas City is the featured late-afternoon game on CBS.

“We’re probably stretched, arguably as thin as we can be, for Sunday afternoon," said Mike North, the NFL's vice president of broadcast planning. "One of the things we liked about this schedule was the fact that I think we’re still OK for CBS and Fox on Sunday afternoon. We’re still going to be able to make a half-decent map out of the 1 p.m. window.”

CBS, Fox happy with results

Despite all games being available to all networks, Fox still leans heavily into the NFC and CBS to the AFC to build their brands.

“There’s still some pride of ownership for Fox with the NFC. They still have more appearances of the Cowboys, Packers and Eagles than anybody else," North said. "And certainly for CBS with all those young quarterbacks, They’re not eager to see all the Baltimore, Buffalo and Kansas City games elsewhere.”

CBS, which had its best regular season in 2025, has the Chiefs four times and the Cowboys twice in its Sunday 4:25 p.m. doubleheader window.

Its best lineup looks to be Week 15, with Bears-Bills on Saturday, Dec. 19, at 8:20 p.m., followed by Steelers-Ravens on Sunday at 1 p.m., and Cowboys-Rams at 4:25 p.m.

“That will be a great scene in Buffalo for us, and then you go from that game to Sunday and a monster doubleheader with Ravens-Steelers early, a legendary black-and-blue game, and then having the Cowboys in LA against the Rams,” said Dan Weinberg, CBS Sports EVP of programming.

CBS also has the Cowboys in Week 3 against the Ravens, which will be played in Brazil.

By carrying the Patriots-Lions game in Munich on Week 10, Fox will have its first tripleheader since Week 8 in 2016. After the Sunday morning game, it will also feature Vikings-Packers as a showcase game at 1 p.m., followed by 49ers-Cowboys in the late afternoon slot.

Tom Brady makes his first return to Foxborough, Massachusetts, as a broadcaster when the Patriots face the Packers in Week 9.

“Sunday is still the core of the football experience and always will be. I think the league is mindful of not undermining the brand and power of Sunday football," said Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports president, insight and analytics.

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

More than a century after a U.S. Army chaplain pushed for “dog tags” to become standard issue for troops, they remain one of the most powerful links for grieving military families to their lost loved ones.

“What they’re searching for is connection,” said Air Force Chaplain and Maj, Benjamin Quintanilla Jr. at Dover Air Force Base, where U.S. casualties from the wars in Afghanistan and now Iran have been repatriated. “So these dog tags become just a sacred symbol.”

From the World Wars to Vietnam and conflicts in the Middle East, military identification tags have also been a symbol of Americans’ sacrifice in global conflicts.

It’s unclear why the small metal rounded rectangles — hanging on ball chains and listing name, rank, company and other information, depending on the era — are called dog tags, according to the Pentagon.

The need to identify those fallen in battle had been spotlighted by the American Civil War, when staggering numbers of soldiers were buried as “unknown” — such as 75% of the 17,000 Union troops at Vicksburg National Cemetery, according to the National Park Service.

At the end of the Spanish-American War, the 1898 conflict that propelled the United States into global power, Chaplain Charles C. Pierce, then in charge of the morgue in the Philippines, first requested that Army soldiers be issued tags.

By the U.S. entry into World War I, all combat soldiers were required to wear them. They were an official part of the uniform by World War II.

Today, advances in forensics make tags less crucial for identification. But the religious affiliation on them is still useful for chaplains in the battlefield to provide appropriate prayers to dying or fallen troops, Quintanilla said.

And it’s the symbolism of connection that makes them irreplaceable. Surviving families treasure the dog tags their loved ones wore — and the new ones placed in honor on the casket at dignified transfer ceremonies — so much that some keep wearing them or even have them tattooed.

For troops, they’re the simplest sign of belonging.

“I can trust somebody who is wearing the same identification as me,” said Quintanilla, who first joined the Air Force as a dental technician. “It means that I was a part of something greater than myself.”

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Part of a recurring series, “American Objects,” marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more American objects, click here. For more stories on the anniversary, click here.

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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.

One of the people told the AP that the potential indictment is connected to Castro's alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of four planes operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro was defense minister at the time.

All three people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.

The potential indictment — which would need to be approved by a grand jury — was reported earlier by CBS.

The AP reported in March that the U.S. Attorney in Miami had created a special working group of prosecutors and federal law enforcement to build cases against top Cuban officials amid calls by several south Florida Republicans to reopen its investigation into Castro’s alleged role in the 1996 shootdown. To date, the U.S. has convicted only a single person of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the shootdown.

As Trump seeks to wind down the war in Iran, speculation has been growing that he may soon turn his attention back to Cuba after pledging earlier this year a “friendly takeover” of the country if its leadership didn’t open up its economy to American investment and kick out U.S. adversaries.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials, including Castro’s grandson, during a high-level visit to the island on Thursday.

Castro, 94, took over as president from his ailing brother, Fidel Castro, in 2011, and then handed power to a handpicked loyalist, Miguel Díaz-Canel, in 2019.

While he largely has avoided the spotlight since retiring in 2021 as head of the Cuban Communist Party, he is widely believed to wield power behind the scenes, a fact underscored by the prominence of his grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, who previously met secretly with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Thierry Frémaux, the festival's artistic director, brought out the award for Travolta just before the screening of his “Propeller One-Way Night Coach.” A visibly moved Travolta clutched his chest while Frémaux presented the trophy.

“You said this would be a special night, but I didn’t know it would mean this," Travolta said to Frémaux.

“This is beyond the Oscar!” exclaimed Travolta.

Clad in a white beret, Travolta walked the Cannes red carpet with his 26-year-old daughter Ella Bleu Travolta. The actor wrote, directed and co-produced “Propeller One-Way Night Coach,” based on his own 1997 children's novel.

Cannes has sometimes previously surprised guests with an honorary Palme d'Or. It unexpectedly gave one to Tom Cruise in 2022. At this year's festival, the “Lord of the Rings” filmmaker Peter Jackson was given one in the opening ceremony. Barbara Streisand is to receive one later during the festival.

They are ridiculous. They are addictively great. Comic books, of the superhero variety, are 100% American.

Compare the thin comic book to Europe’s graphic novels, and they come off looking flimsy, infantile. Compare the American comic to Japanese Manga and they appear innocent in their fixation with heroism; they hark back to a departed American age.

Once a nickel, a dime, a quarter, now the price of a latte, they are objects of America consumer capitalism. The comic is literature in junk-food version. Candy for the eyes, candy for the mind.

Yet what truly makes them American objects is what plays out in their 32 pages month after month, decade upon decade.

When the Fantastic Four took their fateful space journey in 1961 and “cosmic rays” transformed the quartet into unwilling superheroes, comics entered a weird realm where the all-powerful were also the unwilling, decidedly modern victims of science and circumstance.

Spider-Man, the Hulk, Wolverine (the list goes on) were given supernatural abilities that made them outcasts, obliging them to be flawed messiahs.

They were, by some quirk of the American character, bound to Peter Parker’s moral imperative: “With great power comes great responsibility." They are versions of an American Sisyphus, bound to saving us over and over again.

What could be more American — that might, when lashed to a sense of justice, eventually, makes right? So honorable, so naïve.

To this day, though the tone is darker, Marvel and DC, the two mammoths of comics, continue to reimagine the American character.

Once side attractions in a world of leading white men, Gwen Stacy, Jean Grey and Susan Storm have in recent years emerged as leaders to reinvigorate the Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four sagas. Absolute Wonder Woman has broken ground with beautiful art. Miles Morales is Spidey for a new generation.

Yet the central fissures remain.

Bruce Wayne can't connect with anyone other than his butler; he is the lonely individual in an atomized America. Steve Rogers bears the burden of representing the “Greatest Generation” from World War II. He is a Captain America forever out of place, even in his own land.

And could there be a more iconic tech magnate toying with humanity's fate than Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor and his delusions of grandeur? If only our world had a bespectacled Clark Kent keeping an eye on things. Just in case.

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Part of a recurring series, “American Objects,” marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more American objects, click here. For more stories on the anniversary, click here.

Attorneys representing voters asked a state judge to block the new districts from being used in the midterm elections and instead reinstate districts used for previous elections. Such a move would create a significant wrinkle in President Donald Trump's attempt to hold on to a narrow House majority by redrawing voting districts to the GOP's advantage. The judge gave no timetable for when he will rule.

Florida's new House map is part of a national redistricting battle that gained steam last year when Trump urged Texas Republicans to redraw the state's congressional districts. On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court refused to declare that Democratic lawmakers had vacated their offices when they briefly fled the state to block a redistricting vote.

The Florida Legislature approved a new House map on April 29 — the same day the U.S. Supreme Court weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities while striking down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana. Since then, several Southern states have taken steps to try to eliminate minority districts that have elected Democrats.

On Friday, Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee announced that he is ending his reelection bid. His decision came a week after Tennessee Republicans enacted a new U.S. House map that carves up Cohen’s majority-Black district in Memphis. The new map gives Republicans a shot at winning all nine of Tennessee's U.S. House seats.

Republicans already hold 20 of Florida’s 28 U.S. House seats. New voting districts signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis after a swift two-day special legislative session could improve the GOP’s chances to win four additional seats in the November elections.

Congressional districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census, to rebalance populations. But since Trump urged mid-decade redistricting last year, Republicans think they could gain as many as 15 seats from new House maps in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama. Democrats, meanwhile, think they could gain six seats from new maps in California and Utah.

Democrats had counted on winning up to four additional seats in Virginia. But the Virginia Supreme Court last week struck down a Democratic redistricting plan approved by voters, ruling the legislature violated procedural requirements when placing it on the ballot.

Florida bans partisan map-making

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that it has no authority to decide whether partisan gerrymandering goes too far. But it said partisan gerrymandering claims could continue to be decided in state courts under their own constitutions and laws.

Florida voters approved a state constitutional amendment in 2010 that prohibits U.S. House districts from being drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or incumbent. The amendment bars districts from diminishing the ability of racial or language minorities to elect the representatives of their choice. It also requires districts to be compact and, where feasible, use existing political and geographic boundaries.

Lawsuits filed on behalf of voters seek a temporary injunction against the new House map for violating that amendment. Their arguments focus heavily on political favoritism.

Under the new House map, 82% of voters in districts represented by Republicans remain in the same districts as under the previous map, said attorney Chris Shenton, who represented Common Cause and other groups challenging it. But just 41% of voters in districts represented by Democrats are kept in their same districts, he said.

“It shows that Democratic districts are being targeted for reconfiguration. And why? To favor Republicans and disfavor Democrats. That is unconstitutional,” Shenton said.

Fair Districts Amendment called into question

Attorneys representing Florida's state lawmakers and executive officials argued that partisan intent had not been proven and that a temporary injunction against the new districts is not appropriate in advance of a fully developed trial.

Though DeSantis called lawmakers into session before the Supreme Court's ruling in the Louisiana case, he anticipated an eventual outcome weakening Voting Rights Act protections for minority districts. Among other changes, Florida's new map reshapes a southeastern district that DeSantis’ office said was created to help elect a Black representative in an attempt to comply with federal law.

DeSantis' office said no racial data was used to prepare the new map he presented to the Legislature. In a memo to lawmakers, DeSantis’ General Counsel David Axelman asserted that Florida's constitutional provision about racial redistricting violates the U.S. Constitution. If one element is invalid, Axelman wrote, then the entire 2010 amendment is void.

Attorney Mohammad Jazil, representing Florida's executive officials, emphasized a similar argument in court. He said the provision against partisan gerrymandering in Florida's Fair Districts Amendment cannot stand if the section protecting racial minorities is now invalid.

“It is intertwined, it is interlocked, it is interwoven,” Jazil said.

South Carolina meets in special session for redistricting

The South Carolina House began debate Friday on a bill that would reshape U.S. House districts to try to help Republicans to gain a seat and sweep all seven of the state's congressional districts. The proposal, pushed hard by Trump, would pull the congressional primaries out of the June 9 statewide primary and move them to August.

Debate is expected to continue into next week. Early voting for the primaries begins May 26, which many see as the deadline for a new map.

Security at the Statehouse was visibly tighter Friday, and the entrance to the House chamber was roped off.

Several Democrats gave speeches against the bill, including state Rep. Justin Bamberg, who denounced Trump's influence in the matter.

“How did we get here? One man made the call. He didn’t call every state in this country. He didn’t make calls across the North,” Bamberg said, later adding: “Where’d he go? The place that since the beginning of this country, you go to take this country backwards. He went to the South.”

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Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri, and Collins from Columbia, South Carolina.

Trump's comments on Taiwan — a self-ruled island that China claims as its own territory — came as he flew back to Washington after wrapping up critical talks in which both leaders said important progress was made in stabilizing U.S.-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers on Iran and Taiwan.

“I’ll be making decisions," Trump said. "But, you know, I think the last thing we need right now is a war that’s 9,500 miles away.”

Trump’s Republican administration in December authorized a record-setting $11 billion weapons package for Taipei, but it has yet to move forward. Lawmakers also approved a $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan in January, but the sale cannot advance until Trump formally sends it to Congress. China opposes such sales and has suggested that Washington’s relationship with the self-governing island is the key factor in U.S.-China relations.

Trump said Xi also reiterated China's strong opposition to Taiwan’s independence. “I heard him out,” Trump said. “I didn’t make a comment.”

Trump's consultation with Xi about arms sales to Taiwan may violate the so-called Six Assurances, a set of nonbinding U.S. policy principles formulated in 1982 under President Ronald Reagan that have helped guide the U.S. relationship with Taipei, according to analysts.

The second of the Six Assurances states that the U.S. “did not agree to consult with the People’s Republic of China on arms sales to Taiwan.”

Trump said the issue of the 1982 assurances came up in the talks with Xi.

Trump says Xi is ‘very positive’ about a potential nuclear deal

Trump also said he raised a potential three-way nuclear deal that would involve the U.S., Russia and China. He wants each of the three countries to sign a pact that would cap the number of nuclear warheads in their arsenals. China has previously been cool to entering such a pact.

Beijing’s arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds 600 warheads and is far from parity with the U.S. and Russia, which are each estimated to have more than 5,000 warheads. But Trump suggested Xi was receptive to the idea.

“I got a very a positive response,” Trump said. “This is the beginning.”

The last nuclear arms pact, known as the New START treaty, between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century. As the treaty was set to expire, Trump rejected a call by Russia to extend the two-country deal for another year and called for “a new, improved and modernized” deal that includes China.

The Pentagon estimates China will have more than 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.

Trump was impressed by Chinese presidential residence

Xi welcomed Trump at his official residence, Zhongnanhai, on Friday for their final engagement of the summit before the U.S. leader’s return to Washington. The leaders took a short walk through the grounds that feature ancient trees and Chinese roses, and they strolled through a covered passageway with green columns and archways painted with birds and traditional Chinese mountain scenes.

Over tea and lunch, Trump and Xi — with top aides and translators in tow — huddled for nearly three hours of talks before the U.S. leader completed his three-day visit to China.

Trump appeared impressed by the bucolic grounds, remarking that the roses were the most beautiful he had ever seen. Xi promised to send him some rose seeds.

“It’s been really a great couple of days,” Trump told reporters.

Xi, for his part, called it a “milestone” visit. “We have established a new bilateral relationship, or rather a constructive, strategic, stable relationship,” he said.

But the optimistic outlook collides with some difficult truths about the thorniest issues between the two superpowers.

Beijing has shown little public interest in U.S. entreaties to get more involved in solving the conflict in Iran, even though Trump said in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity that Xi had in their conversations offered to help.

In recent weeks, the U.S. State Department has accused Chinese firms of providing satellite imagery to the Iranian government, and the Treasury Department has moved to target Chinese oil refineries accused of buying oil from Tehran, as well as shippers of the oil.

Xi on Thursday warned Trump during private talks that their differences on Taiwan, if handled poorly, could hurtle the world's dominant powers toward “clashes and even conflicts,” according to Chinese government officials.

But Trump, as he made his way home, said he was not concerned that the U.S.-China relationship was in danger. “I think we will be fine," he said.

Taiwan remains the most important issue for China

Xi's sharp language on Taiwan loomed large over the visit, with Chinese government officials amplifying his view that differences on the island pose the biggest risk to U.S.-Chinese relations.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC News that U.S. policy toward Taiwan was “unchanged” and cautioned that it would be “a terrible mistake” for China to try to take Taiwan by force. He also framed Xi's comments as standard practice.

“They always raise it on their side. We always make clear our position, and we move on to the other topics,” said Rubio, who was among senior aides to join Trump for the talks.

Some Republicans in Congress expressed displeasure at Trump's pronouncement that he has not decided whether to move forward with the arms package for Taiwan.

“We have to support Taiwan, just like we have to support Ukraine,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican. “These are the fortresses of democracy, and they’re on the front lines, and we have to protect and defend them.”

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul said he was not surprised that Xi came out with an aggressive posture on Taiwan.

“We’ve got to arm Taiwan so they can defend themselves for deterrence,” McCaul said.

China wants the Strait of Hormuz opened

Trump said he and Xi also spoke at length about Iran.

The leaders agreed that the critical Strait of Hormuz — effectively closed since the start of the Iran conflict — needs to be reopened to support global energy demands. About 20% of the world’s oil flowed through the strait before the war started on Feb. 28.

“We feel very similar about (how) we want it to end,” the president said. “We don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon.”

White House officials said Xi was also opposed to any implementation of tolls on vessels crossing the strait and expressed interest in China potentially purchasing U.S. oil to reduce Chinese dependence on Gulf oil in the future.

Trump earlier this week downplayed the importance of talks with Xi on the 11-week-old Iran war that has led to surging energy prices and threatens to plunge the global economy into recession if the conflict does not conclude soon.

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Mistreanu reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Huizhong Wu in Bangkok and Darlene Superville, Stephen Groves and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

The deaths and suspected cases have been recorded mainly in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones, the Africa Centres for Disease Control ​and Prevention said in a statement.

The Ebola virus is highly contagious and can be contracted through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.

“Four deaths have been reported among laboratory-confirmed cases. Suspected cases have also been reported in Bunia, pending confirmation,” the agency said, referring to the capital of Ituri province, near the border with Uganda.

It said preliminary laboratory results had detected the Ebola virus in 13 of 20 samples. The results suggest some strain of the illness other than the Ebola Zaire strain, with sequencing continuing to give more clarity, the agency said. The Ebola Zaire strain has been prominent in Congo's past outbreaks.

Uganda on Friday reported one Ebola case involving a Congolese man admitted to a hospital in Kampala three days before he died. Officials said the case was “imported” from Congo, and that Uganda has not yet confirmed any local cases.

In a statement, Uganda’s Health Ministry said samples taken from the patient were tested posthumously on Friday after neighboring Congo confirmed an Ebola outbreak, and that the tests confirmed that the patient had Ebola. All contacts linked to the man have been quarantined, including a high-risk contact who is a close relative of the deceased, the agency said. The deceased’s body has been taken back to Congo.

The World Health Organization said last year that Congo has a stockpile of treatments and some 2,000 doses of the Ervebo Ebola vaccine. However, the vaccine is effective against the Ebola Zaire strain, it said.

The Africa CDC said results confirming the strain in the new outbreak are expected within 24 hours.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization director-general, told reporters Friday that the WHO last week sent a team to help Congo investigate the outbreak and collect samples. While initial results did not confirm Ebola, a new analysis on Thursday did, he said.

Congo has “a strong track record in Ebola response and control,” Tedros said, adding that the WHO is releasing $500,000 to aid Congo’s response.

Affected areas are close to Uganda, South Sudan borders

The latest outbreak comes around five months after Congo’s last Ebola outbreak was declared over after 43 deaths.

Ituri is in a remote eastern part of Congo characterized by poor road networks, more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the nation’s capital of Kinshasa.

Africa CDC said it is concerned about the risk of further spread due to intense population movement, mining-related mobility in Mongwalu, insecurity in affected areas, gaps in contact listing and control challenges.

The proximity of affected areas to Uganda and South Sudan also raises concerns, it said.

The agency said it is convening an urgent coordination meeting Friday with health authorities from Congo, Uganda and South Sudan, together with key partners including U.N. agencies and other countries.

“The meeting will focus on immediate response priorities, cross-border coordination, surveillance, laboratory support, infection prevention and control, risk communication, safe and dignified burials, and resource mobilization,” it said.

Congo has seen more than a dozen Ebola outbreaks

This is the 17th outbreak in Congo since the disease first emerged in the country in 1976. An Ebola outbreak from 2018 to 2020 in eastern Congo killed more than 1,000 people. The WHO said that outbreak was characterized by the Ebola Zaire strain.

An earlier outbreak that swept across West Africa from 2014 to 2016 also killed more than 11,000 people.

The new outbreak will create more worry for the Central African country, which has been battling various armed groups in the east, including the M23 rebel group, which launched a rapid assault in January last year and has since occupied key cities.

Ituri in particular is also battling violence from the Allied Democratic Force, an Islamic State-linked militant group which has killed dozens there and in other parts of the east.

Congo, Africa's second-largest country by land area, often faces logistical challenges in responding to disease outbreaks. During last year's outbreak, which lasted three months, the World Health Organization initially faced significant challenges in delivering vaccines due to limited access and scarce funds.

Dr. Gabriel Nsakala, a professor of public health who has been involved in past Ebola outbreak responses in Congo, said the country and health workers on the ground have a high level of experience, in addition to existing infrastructure such as laboratories.

“In terms of training, people already know what they can do. Now, the expertise and equipment need to be delivered quickly,” Nsakala added.

——

Associated Press writers Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria; Saleh Mwanamilongo in Bonn, Germany; Mark Banchereau in Dakar, Senegal; and Mike Stobbe in New York City contributed.

——

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

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

Taiwan remained the most important issue for China in the talks. Xi privately warned Trump that differences over the self-governed island, which Beijing claims as its own territory, could bring the U.S. and China into clashes or conflict.

Trump told reporters that he had not yet made a determination on whether a major U.S. sale of arms to Taiwan can move forward.

On Iran, Trump said Xi told him that China wants to help negotiate an end to the war and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has previously expressed hope that China would use its leverage as Iran’s biggest trading partner to prod Tehran into a deal on U.S. terms. Trump also said Xi assured him that China wouldn’t provide Iran with military equipment.

Here's the latest:

U.S. eyes indictment against Raul Castro amid pressure by Trump administration, sources tell AP

The Justice Department is preparing to seek an indictment against former Cuban President Raúl Castro, three people familiar with the matter tell The Associated Press.

The indictment would require approval by a grand jury. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation. One of the people said the potential indictment is connected to Castro’s alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of planes operated by the Miami exile group.

Prosecutors in Miami have been building cases against senior Cuban officials amid renewed pressure from south Florida Republicans and a pledge earlier this year by President Donald Trump to orchestrate a “friendly takeover” of the communist-run island.

Second day of Israel-Lebanon talks underway in Washington as ceasefire end looms

The State Department says the second and final of two days of talks between Israel and Lebanon are underway in Washington ahead of the weekend expiration of a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

US halts Army deployment to Poland as part of troop reduction in Europe, AP sources say

The Pentagon is drawing down thousands of troops in Europe by stopping units from deploying to Poland and Germany as opposed to yanking those already stationed there.

Several U.S. officials confirmed that 4,000 troops from an Army brigade are no longer en route to Poland this week. The Trump administration had previously said it was cutting U.S. forces only in Germany.

The canceled deployment came after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo directing a brigade combat team to be moved out of Europe, according to two U.S. officials who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.

One of them said the choice of which unit was left to military leaders. The memo also led to the cancellation of an upcoming deployment to Germany of a battalion trained in firing long-range rockets and missiles, the two officials said.

Some congressional Republicans watch with worry Trump’s deliberations on Taiwan arms sale

Lawmakers who have supported Taiwan’s efforts to build up its military defenses say that the decision to follow through with the sale of $11 billion in arms for the island should be an easy one for the president.

“We have to support Taiwan, just like we have to support Ukraine,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican. “These are the fortresses of democracy and they’re on the front lines and we have to protect and defend them.”

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said he was not surprised that Chinese President Xi Jinping had come out with an aggressive posture on Taiwan.

“We’ve got to arm Taiwan so they can defend themselves for deterrence,” McCaul said.

Vance honors fallen officers during police week

The vice president was speaking at the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service at the U.S. Capitol.

During his remarks, Vance praised the sacrifices of police officers who were killed in the line of duty, along with their families and loved ones.

“We love you, we’re thankful for you,” Vance said. “We’re sorry for what you sacrificed but we will never forget what your officer laid down.”

Vance underscored the law-and-order policies of the Trump administration and said society’s attitude toward law enforcement has now changed.

“We shifted attitudes across our society when it comes to dealing with and most importantly, honoring our law enforcement community,” he said. “We stopped handcuffing the police and started handcuffing more violent criminals.”

The vice president spoke while Trump was returning to Washington from Beijing.

Federal officials announce summertime ’law enforcement surge in Washington, DC

The Justice Department has announced a surge of law enforcement in the nation’s capital this summer timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence.

Officials made the announcement at a news conference at the Justice Department headquarters on Friday, saying there would be extra personnel on city streets and additional resources such as drones.

Congressman says Poland was ‘blindsided’ by cancelled troop deployment

“It’s an embarrassment to our country what we just did to Poland,” Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said during Friday’s House Armed Services Committee hearing.

“They called me yesterday. They did not know. They were blindsided. These are some of our best allies, and they had no idea,” Bacon said. “They still don’t know what the plan is.”

Bacon said the committee needs to hold Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accountable for the decision.

“It’s wrong,” Bacon said.

Congressman criticizes abruptness of decision to cancel troop deployment to Poland

Speaking Friday during the House Armed Services Committee hearing, Republican Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia noted how advanced elements of an Army brigade were already overseas and equipment was in transit.

Scott pressed Army leaders on when the cancellation was made. Army Secretery Dan Driscoll and Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army’s chief of staff, said discussions occurred over the last two weeks while the decision was made in the last couple days.

Scott questioned the truth behind a Pentagon statement that it was not a last-minute, unexpected decision. Driscoll said the decision was not unusual because discussions over troop deployments are happening throughout the year.

“These are major decisions that appear to many of the members of this committee to be last-minute decisions,” Scott said.

Justice Department to seek death penalty for man charged with killing 2 Israeli Embassy staffers

Elias Rodriguez faces federal hate crime and murder charges in the killings of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim as they left an event at a Jewish museum last May, prosecutors said in a court filing Friday.

Rodriguez shouted “Free Palestine” during the shooting and later told police, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.”

The charges against Rodriguez include a hate crime resulting in death. His indictment also includes notice of special findings, which allows prosecutors to pursue the death penalty.

The hate crimes charges mean prosecutors will have to prove that Rodriguez was motivated by antisemitism when he opened fire on Lischinsky and Milgrim, a young couple who were about to become engaged. Milgrim was a U.S. citizen. Lischinsky was an Israeli citizen working in the U.S.

Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen ending reelection campaign after redraw of his Memphis district

His career was upended by the redistricting battles that are sweeping the country after last month’s Supreme Court decision.

Earlier this month, Republicans in Tennessee enacted a new U.S. House map that carves up a Cohen’s majority-Black district, reshaping it to the GOP’s advantage as part of President Trump’s strategy to hold on to a slim majority in the November midterm elections.

“I don’t want to quit. I’m not a quitter. But these districts were drawn to beat me,” Cohen told reporters in his Washington, D.C. office.

Cohen is challenging the state’s redistricting effort in court and said he would reenter the race if that lawsuit succeeded in restoring his old congressional district.

▶ Read more

Texas high court rejects removal of Democratic lawmakers who led quorum break over redistricting

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday refused to declare that Democratic lawmakers who briefly fled the state in 2025 to block a vote on new congressional voting maps pushed by President Trump had vacated their office.

The all-Republican court dealt a blow to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and state Republicans in their efforts to severely punish the more than 50 Democrats who bolted for New York, Illinois and Massachusetts in a bid to stop a vote on the maps during a special session. State Republicans had sought their arrest and threatened fines to bring them back to the state Capitol.

Abbott had argued in a lawsuit filed directly to the state’s highest civil court that state Rep. Gene Wu, the leader of the House Democratic caucus, and others had effectively abandoned their office.

▶ Read more

China says two sides to set up trade and investment boards to address ag goods trade and tariffs

The two countries agreed to establish boards on trade and on investments to address each other’s concerns on agricultural goods’ market access and to promote expanded trade under a framework of reciprocal tariff reductions, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

The two sides have yet to announce any concrete trade deals, but the boards are expected to serve as a channel of communications to address economic and trade issues.

Wang said the economic and trade teams from the two sides have reached results that are “overall balanced and positive.”

Xi will have a state visit to the US this fall, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi says

President Trump extended a Sept. 24 invitation to Xi and his wife during his reciprocal toast at a banquet Thursday.

According to a readout about Wang’s briefing to media outlets on the summit, Wang said Trump and Xi agreed to keep close contact through meetings, phone calls and letters, the Chinese official news agency Xinhua reported.

Wang said both sides should work together to make thorough preparations for the leaders’ interactions and create an appropriate atmosphere to accumulate more results.

Merz says he and Trump agree that Iran must open Strait of Hormuz

Merz on Friday said he spoke to Trump on the phone as the U.S. president traveled home from China.

“We agree: Iran must come to the negotiating table now. It must open the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons,” Merz wrote on X. “We also discussed a peaceful solution for Ukraine and coordinated our positions ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara. The U.S. and Germany are strong partners in a strong NATO.”

Germany’s Merz worries about America’s ‘social climate’

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday said he wouldn’t recommend that his children work in the U.S. because of its “social climate.”

“I am a great admirer of America. My admiration isn’t growing at the moment,” he said during a panel discussion at the Catholic Congress in Wuerzburg, Germany. “So, I wouldn’t recommend to my children today that they go to the U.S., get an education there, and work there. Simply because of a social climate that has suddenly developed there.”

He added: “by the way, the question of what well-educated young people can achieve used to be answered very differently in America up until a year ago than it is today. Today, the best-educated in America have great difficulty finding a job.”

Trump says summit yielded a new Boeing deal for hundreds of planes

Trump told reporters on Air Force One that China would buy 200 planes from Boeing with the possibility of expanding the deal to 750 “if they do a good job with the 200, which I’m sure they will.”

The order would represent Boeing’s first major sale to China in nearly a decade, and it would mark a significant breakthrough for the plane maker in a market that was once central to its long-term growth.

China has high demand for new aircraft as they expand and modernize fleets, while giving Trump a high-profile win for his trade agenda.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg joined Trump on his trip to Beijing.

Trump also said China would purchase 400 to 450 engines from General Electric. He did not offer a more precise number.

Daughter of imprisoned pastor asked Trump to help free her father

Trump said Xi would consider the case of Ezra Jin Mingri of the Zion Church, who has been detained since October.

On Monday, Grace Jin Drexel, the pastor’s daughter, asked Trump to help bring back her father and other jailed activists on his trip to Beijing.

“We really plead the president will continue to raise the political prisoners, like my father, and like many of the family members here today, and bring them home,” she said. “We just would love for him to just be part of the family and, like, eat nice food with us and watch movies with us, and just, like, have a have, just live normal lives again.”

Putin set to visit Beijing ‘very soon,’ Kremlin says

The Kremlin said Thursday that President Vladimir Putin is set to visit China shortly.

Asked about a report that Putin is coming to China next Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the visit indeed will take place “very soon,” adding that Moscow and Beijing will announce its date.

Asked to comment on President Donald Trump’s visit to China, Peskov emphasized the importance of contacts between the world’s two biggest economies, adding that Russia expects to get firsthand information from China about its talks with the U.S. when Putin visits Beijing.

Trump still mulling US arms sale to Taiwan

President Donald Trump says he’s not yet made a determination on whether a major U.S. sale of arms to Taiwan can move forward, following his three-day visit to China.

Speaking to reporters as he flew back on Air Force One on Friday, Trump said he’d not decided on the sale, but added, “I will make a determination.”

The Trump administration has authorized the sale but it has yet to move forward. China opposes the deal and has suggested that Washington’s relationship with the self-governing island is the key factor in China-U.S. relations.

Trump brought up Jimmy Lai to Xi, but says it’s ‘a tough one’

Activist Jimmy Lai, a prominent critic of Beijing, was sentenced to 20 years in prison under a national security law in February in Hong Kong. His family and supporters hope Trump could help free the 78-year-old, who has spent over five years in custody.

“He told me that would be a tough one,” Trump said, referring to Xi.

Lai’s daughter Claire told The Associated Press that she was so grateful to Trump for the commitment shown to his father’s release.

“He has earned his reputation as liberating the unjustly detained and I am confident he and his administration will be the ones to free my father,” she said.

She said this is an opportunity for Xi to do “the only just and honorable thing” for a man who has given so much to Hong Kong and show a gesture of goodwill to the rest of the world.

Trump raised a potential nuclear deal between the U.S., Russia and China

Trump wants the three countries to sign a pact that would cap the number of nuclear warheads each one has in its arsenal.

China has previously been cool to entering such a pact. Beijing’s arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and is far from parity with the U.S. and Russia, which each are estimated to have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads.

But Trump suggested Xi was receptive to the idea when he raised it in their private talks.

“I got a very a positive response,” Trump said. “This is the beginning.”

The last nuclear arms pact, known as the New START treaty, between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century.

Analyst says the summit delivers a roadmap

George Chen, a partner at The Asia Group consultancy, said the summit felt like a political reality show at times and unfolded almost exactly as scripted, but it delivered symbolism, clarity and a roadmap for the months ahead.

Chen noted both sides have highlighted what they care about most: For Xi, Taiwan. For Trump, deals.

“The readouts from Beijing and the White House differ in tone and emphasis, but neither side contradicted the other’s account. That alone reflects a rare moment of mutual respect,” he said.

While the list of concrete deliverables remained limited for now, Chen said the most important development might be Xi and Trump having spent extended time together again.

“Personal rapport between leaders can shape the tone of an entire bilateral relationship,” he said.

However, Taiwan could feel uneasy after Xi warned the U.S. over it. Taipei will be watching closely for signs of Trump’s responses, he added.

Elon Musk replies to well-known Chinese dissident account on X

Elon Musk said his son is learning Chinese. The message in a public post on X Thursday quickly drew attention on Chinese social media and began to trend.

But what the state media outlets omitted was who Elon Musk responding to. He replied to Teacher Li, or Li Ying, whose X account posts news and videos submitted from users about uncensored news in China and has some two million followers.

Li himself noted the irony that Musk’s response to him was now trending on Weibo, which is managed by censors. He shared on Friday that many of the accounts that originally wrote up Musk’s comments have now deleted the posts.

A search on Weibo and local media showed that while the topic was still searchable, some websites had indeed deleted their coverage.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang takes food tour of Beijing

Jensen Huang is trying all of Beijing’s delicacies, the good and others which may be more of an acquired taste.

Huang was spotted by the public and local media at No. 69 Fangzhuanchang Noodles, for a bowl of “zhiangmian” -- a Beijing specialty that features noodles covered in a thick soybean-paste sauce mixed with vegetables and meat.

“It’s so good,” he said, as he dug into the bowl.

But it’s the “douzhi’er,” a fermented mung bean drink that’s slightly sour and gray-green in color, that made the Nvidia CEO wince. Videos of his reaction were trending on Weibo Friday afternoon. Huang then quickly reached for a sweet drink from Chinese beverage chain Mixue Bingcheng.

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This post has been updated to reflect that douzhi’er is made with fermented mung beans and not soybeans.

Xi played up a new relationship status: ‘managed stability’

China said the two leaders agreed to a new vision for dealing with their relationship issues: “a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the framework would shape ties for at least three years — the rest of Trump’s term — and would focus on cooperation, competition within proper limits, and managing differences.

The idea is “to keep the relationship on an even keel,” said Helena Legarda of the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin.

George Chen, a partner at The Asia Group consultancy, said it can be seen as progress from the Biden era, which framed the relationship as a strategic competition.

Exuberant airport send-off for Trump at end of China visit

Schoolchildren dressed in some of Air Force One’s light blue and white colors waved American and Chinese flags in a coordinated movement as the U.S. president arrived to board the plane.

“Farewell, farewell,” they chanted. “Warm farewell!”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi saw a smiling Trump off at the airport.

Trump turned at the top of the stairs and pumped his fist and waved before entering the aircraft.

He didn’t speak again before departing for home.

Trump and Xi wrap up summit

Trump has boarded Air Force One for his flight out of China.

Trump and Xi both said they made progress in stabilizing U.S.-China relations. But deep differences persist.

The leaders spent a lot of time together the past two days.

They met for about two hours at the Great Hall of the People, toured the Temple of Heaven and attended a banquet on Thursday. On Friday they walked the grounds of Zhongnanhai and had a working tea and lunch.

China has nonetheless shown little public interest in getting more involved in solving the war in Iran.

Xi also suggested differences over Taiwan could put his country and the U.S. on the path toward conflict.

Threats of each side imposing steep tariffs also still loom.

Xi says ‘landmark’ visit deepened mutual trust

While little has been announced about any potential deals as Trump and Xi held a closed-door lunch in Zhongnanhai on Friday, Xi spoke of a positive turn between the two countries.

“This visit is a historic and landmark visit. Together, we affirmed the new position of a constructive, strategic and stable China-U.S. relationship,” the Chinese president said, according to a readout from CCTV.

“The visit is also beneficial to promoting mutual understanding, deepening trust in each other, and increasing the well-being of the people of both countries,” Xi said.

The Chinese leader said both countries should carry out the “important consensus” reached during Trump’s visit and keep the relationship on the right track.

Xi hosts Trump in venues with agricultural symbolism

Trump and Xi feasted on Chinese delicacies in the Chun’ou Zhai building in Xi’s presidential Zhongnanhai compound Friday.

The name of the historic building translates to “Spring Lotus Roots” and the structure carries farm-related significance: Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century would go there to admire the ancient Chinese “Five Cattle” painting every year after the imperial sacrifice to the god of agriculture.

The two leaders on Thursday also visited the Temple of Heaven, another venue with deep agrarian symbolism

as the imperial site for rituals for agricultural prosperity.

Trump has been expected to announce business deals with China in areas such as agricultural purchases, beef exports and aviation but no concrete announcements have been made yet.

Taiwan thanks US for ‘continued support’

Taiwan Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung thanked the U.S. on Friday for the support expressed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio the previous day.

Lin thanked the U.S. for “its continued support and valuing of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

Rubio told NBC News on Thursday that U.S. policy toward Taiwan remains unchanged and it would be a “terrible mistake” for China to take Taiwan by force.

The U.S. is Taiwan’s biggest unofficial supporter and main supplier of arms for the island’s defense.

“As a responsible member of the international community, Taiwan will continue to strengthen its self-defense capabilities,” Lin said.

Trump and Xi dine on a menu including stir-fried lobster balls

While folks outside their closed lunch chowed down on McDonalds, the menu for Trump and Xi was far more formal.

The two leaders had minced codfish in seafood soup, crispy and stir-fried lobster balls and pan-seared beef fillet stuffed with morel mushrooms, according to the White House.

They also ate kung pao chicken and scallops, braised seasonal greens, bamboo shoots, mushrooms and beans, as well as stewed beef in a bun and steamed pork and shrimp dumplings.

Dessert was chocolate brownies and fruits and ice cream. Coffee and tea also was served.

After lunch, Trump is not expected to make any more public appearances before heading to the airport to fly back to Washington.

Xi highlights centuries-old trees in Zhongnanhai garden tour

Before their closed-door lunch, Xi gave Trump a tour of Zhongnanhai, the former imperial gardens and now the seat of power.

“Zhongnanhai is where the CPC Central Committee and the State Council work, and it is also where I work and live,” Xi said. “After the founding of New China, Chinese leaders including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and others all lived here.”

In the highly manicured garden, the two men walked with their interpreters as they admired the greenery.

“All these trees are 200 to 300 years old. There’s a big one that’s about 400 years old,” Xi said as he pointed out specific trees to Trump, who expressed his admiration.

“There’s even one that’s 1,000 years old. It’s somewhere else,” Xi said.

Xi said he invited Trump to the quarters in response to the hospitality Trump showed by inviting him to Mar-A-Lago in 2017.

The great horned owl somehow made his way into the truck-mounted mixer in late October and was discovered by workers pouring concrete at a resort construction site. Lucky for him, a series of people gave a hoot about his predicament.

Workers hosed the bird down before it was wrapped in a towel. It took days for employees at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab to pick the concrete from the bird's face, chest and right wing, using forceps to carefully crack the dried debris and cleaning the feathers with toothbrushes and dish soap.

The owl started its long recovery at an aviary run by the organization, and employees anxiously waited for it to grow new feathers. But the bird didn't molt as predicted. In early May, he underwent a procedure called imping, which uses adhesive to graft donor feathers onto existing shafts.

“The first few feathers were extremely nerve-wracking, but as we got into the groove, the imping became more comfortable, and everything went smoothly,” said Bart Richwalski, a supervisor at the sanctuary.

Great horned owls typically have a downy coating that allows them to fly quietly as they hunt. But the concrete frayed the rescued owl’s feathers and caused it to make a whooshing sound while flying.

To prepare for the imping procedure, sanctuary staff examined the owl's feather patterns every few weeks and snipped damaged shafts in advance. The owl was anesthetized and the donor feathers from a similarly sized owl that had died were laid out nearby to replicate each wing. The staff then cut the feathers to the necessary length, lined them up and adhered them to the bird.

By the end of the 90-minute procedure, the owl had 10 new primary feathers and a secondary feather on his right wing. But then came the real test: could he fly silently?

The bird was placed in a large aviary to recover from the anesthesia and quickly took flight after awakening. Richwalski used a decibel meter to measure the sound of the owl's wingbeat and determined its flight was quiet enough for it to safely be released. The owl hovered for a moment while the aviary roof was retracted, gained speed and then flew out into the wild.

“It feels so, so good. I think my heart finally started beating again. The nervousness was starting to overtake the excitement, but once I saw him fly out that opening in the roof, it just was, it was a sight to see. It was so fun,” said Richwalski, who has cared for the owl since picking him up at the construction site.

Karla Bloem, executive director of the Minnesota-based International Owl Center, said imping has been practiced by falconers “for eons” and is a very effective treatment.

“I've never heard of it not lasting, because you use some pretty good stuff when you're doing imping,” said Bloem, who has studied great horned owls for nearly three decades.

She added that it would be OK if a couple of the grafted feathers fell out. The bulk of them just need to stay put until the owl can grow new ones in the coming summer months.

“And now it just needs to figure out, ‘whoa, I’m back in the big world again, hunting,’" she said. “Find a territory ... you know, find one of the opposite sex and settle down and have kids.”

Researchers in China used satellites and artificial intelligence to track and analyze oxygen levels in more than 21,000 rivers across the globe since 1985. They found oxygen levels have dropped an average of 2.1% since 1985, according to a study published Friday in Science Advances. That doesn't seem like much but it adds up and if it continues or accelerates, rivers in the Eastern United States, India and across the tropics could lose enough oxygen by the end of the century to suffocate some fish and create dead zones, the study said.

Basic chemistry and physics dictate that warmer water holds less oxygen, scientists said. Warmer water, which happens with human-caused climate change, releases more oxygen into the atmosphere.

If the oxygen loss rate continues at the current pace, the world's rivers on average will lose an additional 4% of their oxygen by the end of the century, and in some cases close to 5%, the study found. That's when oxygen loss — called deoxygenation — becomes problematic for fish and people who rely on rivers, according to the study's lead author Qi Guan, an environmental scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Nanjing.

More dead zones appear

Scientists worry that oxygen levels in rivers could fall so low that dead zones appear, as they have in the Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay and Lake Erie. Those are areas where fish struggle to breathe and die.

“Deoxygenation is a very slow process. If we have a long period, the negative impact will attack the river ecosystems,” Guan said. “The low level of oxygen can cause a series of ecological crises such as biodiversity decline, water quality degradation and maybe some fish will die.”

University of Arizona geoscientist Karl Flessa, who wasn't part of the study, said in an email that losing oxygen in rivers means “a future of more stinky dead zones (hypoxia), especially during heat waves.”

Some rivers are in such bad shape that “a small change can tip them into the danger zone,” Flessa said. “if your favorite fishing hole gets too warm, oxygen levels will go down and there won't be any fish to catch.”

India, Eastern US and the Amazon are hot spots

Earlier this century, India's heavily polluted Ganges River was losing oxygen more than 20 times faster than the global average, the study said. Even with moderate-to-high increases in global carbon dioxide emission rates — not the implausible worst-case scenario — rivers in the Eastern United States, the Arctic, India and much of South America are projected to lose about 10% of their oxygen by the end of the century, the analysis showed.

Guan said he worries about tropical rivers especially, such as the Amazon in Brazil. Since 1980, the number of days with dead zone spots in the Amazon rose by nearly 16 days per decade, a study last year found.

Hydrology professor Marc Bierkens of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, said a study he and colleagues did last year showed oxygen stress in the world's rivers increased by 13 days every decade and dead zone occurrences increased by nearly three days a decade since 1980. As the world continues to warm, those numbers should jump even higher, said Bierkens, who didn't participate in the Chinese study.

Guan's study found several reasons for oxygen loss in the world's rivers, including nutrient pollution from fertilizer and urban runoff, along with dam construction, flow and wind issues. But nearly 63% of the problem is from warmer water, the study found.

Duke University ecologist and biogeochemist Emily Bernhardt, who wasn't part of the study, said “as rivers warm it becomes easier and easier for the same pollution problems as before to cause more severe, more long lasting or more widespread hypoxia and anoxia.” Anoxia is the total loss of oxygen.

“Water pollution reduction is more important than ever and will be harder as rivers warm,” she said.

___

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.

The Tigers topped Baker County 6-2 in the Region 1-4A final, and UC edged St. John Paul II 1-0 in Region 1-1A.

Columbia (27-3) has been red-hot, winning 14 straight games to barrel into the final four. It is the first state semifinal appearance for the Tigers since their only championship in 2013. Columbia will play May 21 in its semifinal game.

Carlee Conners scored the only run of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning while Dixie Tessier and Naomi Winburn combined on a one-hitter for UC. Tessier whiffed four.

The Christians will play their semifinal game on May 19. UC has been exceptional in getting to the state series round. They’ve reached at least the state semifinals in five of the six seasons that finished since 2019 (2020 was canceled by the pandemic). Their lone miss was last year. The Christians won the state championship in 2023.

Regional finals

Thursday, May 14

Region 1-4A

(1) Columbia 6, (2) Baker County 2

Region 1-3A

(1) Wakulla 13, (2) Paxon 2

Region 1-2A

(1) North Bay Haven 8, (2) Baldwin 3

Region 1-1A

(1) University Christian 1, (3) St. John Paul II 0

Regional semifinals

Region 1-7A

Thursday, May 12

(1) Lake Brantley 9, (4) Atlantic Coast 2

Region 1-6A

(3) Navarre 9, (2) Tocoi Creek 4

Region 1-5A

(2) Chiles 3, (6) Middleburg 2

Region 1-4A

(1) Columbia 11, (4) Arnold 1

(2) Baker County 6, (3) Fort Walton Beach 5

Region 1-3A

(1) Wakulla 4, (5) Yulee 1

(2) Paxon (4, (6) West Florida 0

Region 1-2A

(1) North Bay Haven 4, (5) Bolles 2

(2) Baldwin 5, (3) Episcopal 0

Region 1-1A

(1) University Christian 6, (4) Christ’s Church 0

Region 1-4A

Regional quarterfinals

Wednesday, May 6 results

(1) Columbia 14, (8) Escambia 0

(4) Arnold 2, (5) Clay 1

(2) Baker County 11, (7) Menendez 0

(3) Fort Walton Beach 3, (6) St. Augustine 1

Region 1-3A

(1) Wakulla 8, (8) Wolfson 0

(5) Yulee 3, (4) West Nassau 2

(2) Paxon 8, (7) Suwannee 2

Region 2-3A

(2) Eustis 14, (7) Palatka 0

Region 1-2A

(5) Bolles 4, (4) Bozeman 3

(2) Baldwin 13, (7) Trinity Christian 0

(3) Episcopal 7, (6) Bishop Snyder 1

Region 2-2A

(2) Montverde 7, (7) Keystone Heights 0

Region 1-1A

(1) University Christian 16, (8) Rocky Bayou Christian 0

(4) Christ’s Church 12, (5) St. Johns Country Day 2

(2) North Florida Christian 15, (7) Harvest Community 0

(3) St. John Paul II 13, (6) Peniel Baptist 2

Region 1-7A

Regional quarterfinals

Thursday, May 7

(1) Lake Brantley 12, (8) Sandalwood 0

(4) Atlantic Coast 4, (5) Creekside 3

Region 1-6A

(1) Pace 9, (8) Nease 0, Wednesday

(2) Tocoi Creek 6, (7) Ocala Forest 1

Region 1-5A

(1) Niceville 3, (8) Fleming Island 0, Wednesday

(4) Gulf Breeze 7, (5) Ponte Vedra 4

(6) Middleburg 17, (3) Lincoln 3

Rural

Regional semifinals

(2) Branford 9, (3) Union County 3

(1) Madison County 10, (4) Hilliard 0

Speaking a day after the body of a fifth member of the dive group was recovered on Thursday, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said despite the poor weather conditions everything possible would be done to bring the victims home.

The cause of the deaths remained under investigation. The recovery operation is expected to resume on Saturday.

“Unfortunately, the searches are suspended due to bad weather, but we will do everything possible to recover the bodies of our compatriots," Tajani told a political event in Italy.

Italy’s Foreign Ministry said the dive group had “apparently died while attempting to explore caves at a depth of 50 meters (164 feet)” in the Vaavu Atoll on Thursday.

The victims were identified as Monica Montefalcone, an associate ecology professor at the University of Genoa, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, marine biologist Federico Gualtieri, researcher Muriel Oddenino and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, according to the Maldivian government.

Benedetti’s body was recovered on Thursday.

Montefalcone’s husband, Carlo Sommacal, said he believed something unexpected must have occurred and ruled out recklessness on her part.

“Something must have happened,” he told Italian TV channel Rete 4. He said his wife was a disciplined diver who carefully weighed risks before each descent. He recalled her telling him at times: “This one I can do, you can’t.”

Cave diving is a highly technical and dangerous activity that requires specialized training, equipment and strict safety protocols. Risks increase sharply in overhead environments and at depth, particularly when conditions deteriorate. Experts say it’s easy to become disoriented or lost inside caves, particularly as sediment clouds can sharply reduce visibility.

Diving at 50 meters also exceeds the maximum depth recommended for recreational divers by most major established scuba certifying agencies, with depths beyond 40 meters considered technical diving, which requires specialized training and equipment. The recreational diving limit in the Maldives is 30 meters.

Sommacal said his wife survived the 2004 tsunami while diving off Kenya, resurfacing with other experienced divers despite the danger, and later returned to diving after a lengthy recovery from serious health complications. “She had two lives — one on land and one in her environment, the water,” he said.

Maldivian presidential spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef said eight divers took part in Friday’s search and, working in pairs, explored the depths and drew up a map to continue the mission on Saturday.

He said Benedetti’s body was found near the mouth of the cave and authorities believed the remaining four had entered the cave.

Two Italians — a deep-sea rescue expert and a cave diving expert — are expected to join the recovery effort, Shareef said.

Italian officials said around 20 other Italians who were on the same expedition aboard a vessel named the “Duke of York” were safe. Italy’s embassy in Colombo was providing assistance to those onboard and had contacted the Red Crescent, which offered to deploy volunteers to help provide psychological aid.

The vessel was searching for safe harbor from poor weather conditions, and was waiting for conditions to improve before returning to Male, the Italian ministry said.

Greenpeace Italia, the environmental organization, paid tribute to Montefalcone as a passionate advocate for marine protection, saying it would miss “her professionalism and her advice immensely” and “that special light she had in her eyes when she spoke about the wonders of the sea and the importance of protecting them.”

The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology offered condolences for all the victims. It said Montefalcone had been widely recognized for her work studying and protecting the marine environment.

The Italian ministry said it was coordinating with Divers Alert Network, a specialist diving organization, to support recovery operations and the repatriation of the bodies.

It said the cave entered by the five divers is divided into three large chambers connected by narrow passages. Recovery teams explored two of the three chambers, but the search was limited due to considerations over oxygen and decompression.

On Saturday, they will explore the third chamber, the ministry added.

Italian officials and the honorary consul are in contact with the victims’ families to provide assistance.

___

Zampano reported from Rome. Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi and Krishan Francis in Colombo contributed to this report.

Coast Guard officials said crews will deploy the 87-foot cutter Coho, with about 11 personnel, and a 29-foot response boat from Station Mayport with a four-person crew. Local public-safety partners, including the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, will also assist, officials said.

“Our number one priority for the event is the safety of the swimmers,” a Coast Guard official said, adding that the agencies will work together to keep the river clear for athletes.

What to know

• Safety zone: From Main Street to just past the Mathews Bridge on the St. Johns River.
• Hours: 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday. Boats should avoid the area during those times; emergency responses will still be handled by Coast Guard and local agencies.
• Scope: About 1,900 athletes are registered for the event.
• Today: Operations are expected to be normal; closures apply to race day only.

All along the north bank and downtown, thousands of people are expected to watch the action, but Riverside is a key transition zone of the race. Athletes will get out of the water, come to Memorial Park, and start the 112-mile bike journey into St. Johns County and back.

Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Chief Percy Golden said the department has been preparing for five months leading up to the Ironman, keeping an eye on both athletes and spectators.

“We’re going to have a huge presence out here,” Golden said.

JFRD operations will have:

• 4 Swift Water Boats
• Ocean Rescue Jet Ski
• 2 Marine Units

Totaling up to 24 JFRD personnel.

“Just stay hydrated,” Golden said. “That goes for the athletes and also the spectators. Stay hydrated, and make sure you find a shady spot if you need to if you’re a spectator.”

Coast Guard officials said partnerships with local agencies are critical to managing the large area and diverse missions required to keep competitors and the public safe

Although Starmer vowed to fight on after a bruising week in which one Cabinet member resigned, dozens of lawmakers called for the prime minister to quit and his new policy proposals were largely ignored, some observers believe it’s only a matter of time before he steps aside.

The message of the past week “is that Labour seems to have made up its mind that Keir Starmer is going to have to go,” said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “And he’s going to have to go reasonably quickly, and he’s going to have to be replaced by someone who can, unlike him, connect with the public.”

Cabinet resignation adds pressure on Starmer

Weeks of speculation about Starmer's future broke into open rebellion Thursday when Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigned in preparation for a possible leadership bid and the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, declared his intention to return to Parliament. Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced she had cleared up a tax issue that forced her to resign from the Cabinet last year, thus freeing her up as well.

Starmer is under growing pressure to step down after Labour performed dismally in local and regional elections last week, hemorrhaging votes to both the anti-immigrant Reform UK party on the right and the Green Party on the left. The electoral drubbing cemented doubts among many party members about Starmer’s judgment, vision and leadership less than two years after he led Labour to a landslide victory.

But the potential contest to unseat him is on hold for now as the party waits to see if Burnham can win a special election for a seat in Parliament that would allow him to enter the race. If he returns to the House of Commons, Burnham is widely expected to challenge Starmer.

On Friday, Labour's executive body approved Burnham to run for the seat that became available when a Labour lawmaker resigned to make way for the Greater Manchester mayor. That election is expected to be in the next five or so weeks.

As and when a challenge to Starmer emerges, Labour’s National Executive Committee will set the timetable for any leadership election. The most recent contest lasted three months.

The government’s borrowing costs rose Friday and the pound weakened on investor concern about continued disarray in Westminster. The pound has dropped 1.3% against the U.S dollar this week.

Starmer's supporters urge rivals to think again

Housing Secretary Steve Reed on Friday appealed to party members to step back from the brink of a divisive leadership contest that he said would prevent the government from tackling issues like the cost of living crisis and bolster the prospects of Reform UK.

“This weekend people just need to take a breath, look at what’s gone wrong this week, and come back next week ready to do what we said we’d do — country first, party second — and focus on delivering the change we were elected to deliver,” he told the BBC.

That plea came after a week of political jockeying that overshadowed everything else in Westminster.

The infighting reached a crescendo on Thursday morning when Streeting resigned. While praising Starmer’s “courage and statesmanship” in international affairs, Streeting said he had lost confidence in the prime minister’s leadership because of missteps on domestic issues.

“Where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift,” Streeting wrote in a stinging resignation letter.

“Leaders take responsibility, but too often that has meant other people falling on their swords,” he added. “You also need to listen to your colleagues, including backbenchers, and the heavy-handed approach to dissenting voices diminishes our politics.”

Opportunity knocks for the popular mayor of Greater Manchester

Streeting stopped short of putting himself forward as the best candidate to lead the party at the next general election, suggesting Starmer should step aside to allow a “broad” field of candidates to debate the future of the party.

That seemed to be a nod to Burnham, a former Cabinet minister who left Parliament in 2017 to run for mayor of Greater Manchester. Burnham has been looking for a way to return to the House of Commons so he can challenge Starmer for the top job.

Josh Simons, a Labour lawmaker from Northern England, provided that opening on Thursday by resigning his seat explicitly to make way for Burnham. But that was only the first step for Burnham. Before he can return to Westminster, Burnham must win a special election to represent Makerfield, a community where Reform UK posted strong results in last week’s local elections.

Burnham acknowledged those challenges on Thursday when he announced his candidacy for the seat.

“I truly do not take a single vote for granted and will work hard to regain the trust of people in the Makerfield constituency, many of whom have long supported our party but lost faith in recent times,” he said in a statement.

The starting forward missed the final two games of the Knicks' second-round sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers after straining his right hamstring late in Game 2. He took part in some of practice when the Knicks returned on Wednesday, but sat out the portions when they went full speed.

But coach Mike Brown said Anunoby did everything with the team on Friday.

The Knicks would host Game 1 of the East finals on Sunday if Cleveland beats Detroit in Game 6 on Friday night. If that series goes the distance, Anunoby wouldn't have to be ready until Tuesday.

Anunoby is averaging 21.4 points per game in the postseason while shooting 61.9% from the field and 53.8% from 3-point range.

___

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

The Canadian Olympian goaltender, and first woman to appear in an exhibition game of any of North America’s four major sports, has spent the past four years working in the NHL's Los Angeles Kings hockey operations department. And Rheaume’s hiring represents a homecoming for the 54-year-old, who spent 11 years in a developmental role for the Detroit-based Little Caesars youth hockey girls’ program.

“She brings an unmatched resume, a championship mindset and a lifelong commitment to growing the women’s game,” said Jayna Hefford, PWHL executive vice president of hockey operations, who oversees the hiring process.

“Her experience at every level of hockey, combined with her leadership and vision, makes her the perfect person to lead PWHL Detroit into its inaugural season,” Hefford added.

Rheaume’s hiring comes a little more than a week after the league announced Detroit as an expansion team. The PWHL has since added two more franchises in Las Vegas and Hamilton, Ontario, and is planning make one more addition in growing to a 12-team league for next season.

Of the PWHL’s nine GMs now in place, seven are women.

“I’m incredibly honored to join the PWHL and help build something special in Detroit,” Rheaume said. “The city has such a deep hockey tradition, and the passion for hockey here is truly special.”

Among her first duties is preparing for an expansion free-agent signing process tentatively scheduled to begin on May 28, followed by the league’s draft, which will be held in Detroit on June 17.

Rheaume is from Beauport, Quebec, and began making her international mark in the early 1990s by signing with Trois-Rivieres of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. In 1992, she tried out for the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning, and allowed two goals on nine shots in one period of a preseason game against St. Louis. A year later, she made a second preseason game appearance against Boston.

Rheaume went on to win a silver medal representing Canada at the 1998 Nagano Games, the first to feature a women’s tournament. She also won gold medals at the 1992 and ’94 world championships.

___

AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey

According to a complaint unsealed Friday in federal court in Manhattan, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi sought to attack a New York City synagogue last month and provided an undercover law enforcement officer with photos and maps of Jewish centers in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona, that he planned to target.

He is also accused of involvement in two recent attacks in Canada: an attack on a synagogue and a shooting at the U.S. consulate in Toronto in March.

Al-Saadi is charged with conspiracy to provide material support to Kata’ib Hizballah, an Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militant group, and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, both of which have been designated by the U.S. government as foreign terrorist organizations.

He is also charged with conspiring and providing material support for acts of terrorism and conspiring to bomb a place of public use.

Al-Saadi did not speak at his initial court appearance, but through his lawyer claimed that he is a political prisoner and a prisoner of war and that he is being persecuted by U.S. authorities for his relationship with Qasem Soleimani, the Revolutionary Guard leader who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.

Al-Saadi was not required to enter a plea. He will remain jailed but could ask for bail in the future.

Al-Saadi’s lawyer, Andrew Dalack, said Al-Saadi was arrested in Turkey and turned over to U.S. authorities. Al-Saadi has been kept in solitary confinement since he was brought to a federal jail in Brooklyn on Thursday night, Dalack said.

Elias Rodriguez faces federal hate crime and murder charges in the killings of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim as they left an event at the museum last May. Rodriguez shouted “Free Palestine” during the shooting and later told police, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” according to his indictment.

The charges against Rodriguez include a hate crime resulting in death. The indictment also includes notice of special findings, which allows prosecutors to pursue the death penalty.

“My message to anyone who seeks to commit political violence in this district -- D.C. is not the place. You will be held accountable and you will face the full wrath of the law,” Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said at an unrelated news conference Friday in which she revealed the Justice Department’s death penalty decision.

The hate crimes charges mean prosecutors will have to prove that Rodriguez was motivated by antisemitism when he opened fire on Lischinsky and Milgrim, a young couple who were about to become engaged. Milgrim, 26, was a U.S. citizen and Lischinsky, 30, was an Israeli citizen working in the U.S.

Prosecutors have described the killing as calculated and planned, saying Rodriguez flew to the Washington region from Chicago ahead of the May 21 event at the Capital Jewish Museum with a handgun in his checked luggage.

Witnesses described him pacing outside before approaching a group of four people and opening fire. Surveillance video showed Rodriguez advancing closer to Lischinsky and Milgrim as they fell to the ground, leaning over them and firing additional shots. He appeared to reload before jogging off, officials have said.

After the shooting, authorities say Rodriguez went inside the museum and said, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, I am unarmed,” according to court documents. He also told detectives that he admired an active-duty Air Force member who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in February 2024, describing the man as “courageous” and a “martyr.”

In Friday's court filing, prosecutors said Rodriguez's actions were “motivated by political, ideological, national, and religious bias, contempt, and hatred.” He “targeted individuals whom he perceived to have attended an event for young Jewish professionals ... to amplify the effect of his crimes,” they wrote.

Attorneys for Rodriguez didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Several weeks before Friday's announcement, defense attorneys had a meeting with Justice Department officials where they could present evidence that they believe would weigh against seeking the death penalty in the case.

The next court appearance for Rodriguez is set for June 30. A trial date hasn't been scheduled yet.

___

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

Several U.S. officials confirmed that 4,000 troops from the Army's 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division were no longer en route to Poland this week. The Trump administration had previously said it was cutting U.S. forces only in Germany, and the decision spurred questions and criticism in both Warsaw and Washington.

Two officials told The Associated Press that the deployments were canceled after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo directing the Joint Chiefs of Staff to move a brigade combat team out of Europe. One of them said the choice of which unit was left to military leaders.

Besides the Army combat team based in Fort Hood, Texas, the memo also led to the cancellation of an upcoming deployment to Germany of a battalion trained in firing long-range rockets and missiles, according to the two officials, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.

Three U.S. officials said the changes were part of an effort to comply with a presidential order issued at the beginning of May to reduce the number of troops in Europe by about 5,000. The reasoning does not appear to have been well communicated because others based in Europe said they did not know if the halted deployment to Poland was part of the previously announced reduction.

Trump and the Pentagon have said in recent weeks that they were cutting at least 5,000 troops to Germany after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticized Washington’s lack of strategy in the war.

The drawdown reflects a growing rift between the administration and traditional European allies, with the U.S. leader repeatedly criticizing fellow NATO members for a lack of support for the Iran war.

Polish officials on Friday insisted that the U.S. withdrawal was not targeted directly at Poland but was a consequence of Trump’s decision to reduce the number of troops in Germany.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he “received assurances” that the decision was of a logistical nature and said it does not directly impact deterrence capabilities and Poland’s security.

Military officials say the decision to halt unit to Poland made recently

Joel Valdez, a Pentagon spokesman, said “the decision to withdraw troops follows a comprehensive, multilayered process” and he argued that it was “not an unexpected, last-minute decision.”

Speaking to Congress in a hearing Friday, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army’s chief of staff, told lawmakers that discussions around the halted deployment occurred over the past two weeks but noted the decision itself was made in the past couple days.

Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said he spoke with Polish officials on Thursday and they noted they were “blindsided.”

The move also left many U.S. military personnel in Europe in the dark about how the Trump administration was reducing forces. A U.S. official based in Europe said a meeting was called with 20 minutes notice on Monday to discuss the cancellation of the deployment to Poland.

At that time, troops had already been sent to Poland and some, still in the U.S., were told shortly before departure not to travel to the airport, that official said. Another official said most of the Army unit’s equipment had already made it to Europe and was sitting in ports.

Change to troop deployment to Poland draws bipartisan criticism

The reductions drew criticism from Democratic and Republican lawmakers about the move sending the wrong signal both to allies and Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces this week have launched one of the deadliest attacks on the Ukrainian capital in the 4-year-old war.

At the House Armed Services Committee hearing Friday, LaNeve said he worked with U.S. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, commander in Europe of both U.S. and NATO forces, after Grynkewich received the instructions for the force reduction.

“I’ve worked with him in close consultation of what that force unit would be, and it made the most sense for that brigade to not do its deployment in theater,” LaNeve said.

Bacon called the decision “reprehensible” and said it was “an embarrassment to our country what we just did to Poland.”

Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, who chairs the committee, said the military is required to consult with lawmakers and that did not happen.

“So we don’t know what’s going on here,” Rogers said. "But I can just tell you we’re not happy with what’s being talked about.”

A State Department official said Friday at a security conference in Tallinn, Estonia, that the U.S. reductions in Europe were “right there in black and white” but also noted that “the U.S. isn’t going anywhere.”

“We’ll continue to work with the Pentagon and work with our partners to make sure we get the right fit and right mix of what’s happening here on the ground,” said Thomas G. DiNanno, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.

NATO says the change in Poland won't affect defense

With the halted deployments, the U.S. military presence in Europe will now be at pre-2022 levels, before Russia commenced its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, one U.S. official said.

European countries have been bracing for a U.S. reduction since Trump returned to the White House, with the administration warning that Europe would have to look after its own security, including Ukraine's, in the future.

A NATO official said the U.S. decision to cancel its rotational deployment to Poland would not impact NATO's deterrence and defense plans. Canada and Germany have increased their presence on the alliance's eastern flank, which contributes to NATO's overall strength, the official said, insisting on anonymity in line with NATO regulations.

Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe, said the move “reinforces the perception that the United States just does things without consultation with allies,” which ultimately “damages cohesion inside the alliance.” The decision would in the long run harm the U.S. defense industry as it reduces the trust of partners, he said.

Around 10,000 U.S. troops are typically stationed in Poland, the majority of them present in the country on a rotational basis. Only about 300 troops are permanently stationed in the country, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.

Polish officials had hoped they would be spared from any cuts as Poland spends the most in NATO on defense as a proportion of its economy — around 4.7% in 2025. Hegseth has called it a “model ally” in NATO for spending so much on defense.

When Poland’s conservative president, Karol Nawrocki, visited the White House in September, Trump said he didn't intend to pull U.S. troops out of Poland. “We’ll put more there if they want,” Trump said at the time.

___

Burrows reported from Tallinn, Estonia, and Ciobanu from Warsaw, Poland.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said China reserved the right to buy as many as 750 Boeing aircraft as part of a deal reached during the summit. The White House did not specify the types of planes or provide any other details.

Neither the Chinese government nor Boeing issued statements confirming the purchase agreement, which would mark a significant breakthrough in a market that was once central to the U.S. aerospace company's long-term growth.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg was among a large group of American CEOs who joined Trump during the president's trip to Beijing, seeking to sell products and services to China.

Trump said the potential aircraft deal also would benefit General Electric, which he said would supply 400 to 450 engines to China. GE Aerospace Chairman and CEO H. Lawrence Culp also joined the president on his trip. The company did not immediately comment on the agreement.

While there were some hopes that the summit would result in concrete announcements of deals, the trip ended with a lot of uncertainty about what the two sides agreed on, said Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund.

“I think we really have to wait until we hear numbers from Boeing or from the Chinese,” Glaser told a media briefing Friday, saying there had been little concrete information about any trade agreements from the summit, including on Chinese purchases of U.S. exports such as soybeans, liquefied natural gas and beef. “All that we have is really what the president has told the world that China has agreed to.”

Since Trump returned to the White House, his administration has made Boeing a focus of its plans to revive U.S. manufacturing. A visit to the Middle East a year ago culminated in major aircraft agreements, including a Qatar Airways order for up to 210 Boeing jets in what the planemaker described at the time as its largest-ever widebody aircraft order. Saudi Arabia also placed commercial jetliner orders during the trip.

Other major Boeing agreements have followed meetings between Trump and foreign leaders. In August, Korean Air formalized a roughly $50 billion deal to buy more than 100 Boeing aircraft, spare engines and long-term maintenance services during South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s visit to Washington. The following month, a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with Trump in Washington, Turkish Airlines said it planned to add 225 Boeing aircraft to its fleet.

In another win for Boeing, the biennial Dubai Air Show opened in November with hometown airline Emirates ordering 65 of Boeing’s upcoming 777-9 aircraft. Days later, FlyDubai, the lower-cost sister carrier of Emirates, announced it had ordered 75 additional Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, roughly a third of the narrowbody airliners Boeing delivered went to China. But the company's business there plummeted as U.S.-China relations soured.

China was the first country to ground the 737 Max in 2019 after two of the then-new models crashed less than five months apart in Indonesia and Ethiopia, killing 346 people. Chinese airlines did not resume Max flights until January 2023, much later than carriers in many other countries.

Last month, Ortberg expressed confidence that any broad U.S.-China trade agreement to emerge when Trump and Xi met would be a “meaningful opportunity” for Boeing.

“President Trump has been very focused on supporting us in international campaigns, and he’s been very successful in doing that,” Ortberg told investors.

Ortberg took over as Boeing's CEO in 2024, a calamitous year for the company. In January of that year, a panel known as a door plug blew off a 737 Max shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon. Boeing faced mounting financial pressure as it came under intensifying scrutiny over alleged production and quality failures.

Months later, the U.S. Justice Department revived a criminal case against Boeing tied to the two fatal Max crashes, although prosecutors later reached an agreement with Boeing to dismiss the case, committing the company to an additional $1.1 billion in fines, compensation for victims’ families and internal safety and quality improvements.

Then an eight-week strike stretching through the fall by machinists who assemble the 737 Max in Washington state disrupted production and added to the company’s financial strain.

—- Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Kelvin Chan in London contributed to this story.

Now, as Powell steps down from the post after eight tumultuous years, the U.S. economy is transformed: Inflation soared after the pandemic and has remained above the Fed's 2% target for more than five years, angering voters and making rents, cars, and groceries harder to afford. The Fed's key short-term rate rose to a two-decade high in 2023, even as unemployment fell to a half-century low.

Along the way, Powell shrugged off relentless personal attacks from President Donald Trump that began just months after his appointment. But in January, he pushed back against an unprecedented legal investigation by the Justice Department, becoming one of the few top officials in Washington to stand up to the Trump White House.

Powell said he will continue serving on the governing board until he is confident the Fed’s independence is truly restored. His success at protecting the central bank from day-to-day politics will be a key part of his legacy.

“It is not an unblemished record, but in an extremely challenging context, he’s performed exceedingly well," said David Wilcox, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and director of research at Bloomberg Economics. “And my overall assessment is that the country has been lucky indeed to have him as chair.”

Unlike many of his predecessors, Powell, 73, is not a trained economist, but a lawyer who also worked in finance before joining the Fed's board of governors in 2012. Unassuming in public and private, Powell often introduces himself as “Jay” and would display his guitar-playing skills, honed as a student busking through Europe, at the Fed's holiday parties.

‘Transitory’ inflation proved persistent

An inescapable part of Powell's legacy will be the post-pandemic inflation surge, when consumer prices rose by a four-decade high of 9.1% in June 2022.

Overall prices are now 27% higher than just before the pandemic six years ago, a staggering change for a country that had experienced little inflation for generations. Prices rose just 10% in the six years before the pandemic. Groceries are 30% more expensive than six years ago, after they rose just 3.6% in the six years preceding COVID.

Powell and other Fed officials — and indeed most economists — initially said the inflationary surge was “transitory,” a result of supply chain snarls brought about by the pandemic, as COVID shut down factories and slowed ports around the world.

Their immediate priority was supporting the economy in a crisis.

In two moves in March 2020, they slashed their benchmark interest rate by 1.5 percentage points to near zero. The Fed also bought large amounts of Treasury debt and government-backed mortgage securities to reduce longer-term interest rates and took other steps to pour money into the financial system to keep credit markets functioning during pandemic chaos.

In April 2020, Powell said that the Fed would "continue to use these powers forcefully, proactively, and aggressively until we are confident that we are solidly on the road to recovery.''

Even as inflation zoomed past the Fed's 2% target in 2021, the central bank kept its key interest rate near zero until March 2022, when inflation hit 6.9%, according to the Fed's preferred measure.

The Fed's delay in raising rates was largely informed by a traditional economic view that inflation, stemming from a supply shock, would be temporary and if a central bank cranked up borrowing costs to fight it, the higher rates would just harm the economy and lift unemployment even as the supply crunch faded.

Misreading tea leaves

Meanwhile, the Trump and Biden administrations pumped about $5 trillion in government spending into the economy, in the form of multiple stimulus checks, support for small businesses, and other aid. The flow of dollars fueled a spending spike just as supply chains were unable to deliver on the demand.

By keeping its key rate near zero for so long, Powell's critics charge, the Fed contributed to that excess spending and worsened inflation.

“Even though there was all the evidence there in the data that aggregate demand was going through the roof, they still said it was a transitory supply shock,” said Mickey Levy, a former top economist at Bank of America and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. “The Fed contributed to that inflation and completely misread the tea leaves.”

As inflation began to spread into items such as apartment rents and surveys showed Americans increasingly worried it would last, Powell pivoted and oversaw the sharpest increase in interest rates since the early 1980s to combat the price spike.

Still, many leading economists, including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, worried that defeating inflation would require a recession and a sharp increase in unemployment. Instead, inflation dropped to 2.3% by September 2024, according to the Fed's preferred measure, nearly reaching its 2% target.

By reducing inflation without a sharp economic downturn, Powell largely achieved an elusive “soft landing." Inflation then moved higher after Trump imposed sweeping tariffs last April.

Focusing on unemployment

Fighting inflation was a sharp shift for a Fed chair that began his term more focused on the Fed's mandate to pursue maximum employment. Before the pandemic, Powell often lauded the benefits of a strong job market for disadvantaged workers, winning plaudits from many progressive economists.

Yet some economists argue the Fed's focus on employment contributed to its delayed response to post-COVID inflation. In an August 2021 speech, Powell said the then-elevated unemployment rate of 5.4% was a reason to avoid hiking rates too early.

Still, many analysts defend Powell's support for the maximum employment mandate. Julia Coronado, president of MacroPolicy Perspectives and a former Fed economist, said Powell was right to keep rates low before the pandemic, even as unemployment steadily declined, because there were no signs inflation was worsening.

“If you can actually push a little harder for a little longer with no consequences for inflation, then you should damn well do it,” she said. “He was absolutely right about that. He’s still right about that.”

For his part, Powell said in late April that “overweighting the employment market” had nothing to do with the inflation spike.

“It was a global shock that happened essentially very, very similarly all over the world,” he said.

Fighting for Fed independence

Last July, in an image that will likely prove the most enduring of his time as Fed chair, Powell and Trump stood before cameras in hard hats at the site of the Fed's extensive $2.5 billion building renovation, which Trump had criticized as excessive.

Trump claimed the project would cost even more -- $3.1 billion — and showed Powell a paper listing the costs. Powell took out his reading glasses and corrected the president, on camera, by noting that he had included a third building that had already been renovated.

It was emblematic of Powell's willingness to push back against Trump's unprecedented attacks. Economists have long supported an independent Fed because it allows the central bank to take difficult steps — such as sharply raising interest rates to combat inflation — that politicians often oppose because they can be painful.

Powell benefited from strong relationship-building with Congress. Research by University of Maryland economist Thomas Drechsel has found that Powell met with senators more than twice as often as his two predecessors, with the meetings evenly split between both parties.

During one visit, Powell even endeared himself to North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis' dog, a move that paid huge dividends. Tillis essentially blocked Senate approval of Kevin Warsh, Trump's pick to replace Powell, until the investigation of the building project was dropped. The Justice Department eventually gave up on its probe.

Even those who fault Powell on some policy decisions credit him for defending the Fed.

“The big plus is the way he has protected central bank independence,” said Don Kohn, a former vice chair of the Fed. “That is the most important thing for the future of the Federal Reserve and for protecting the public interest in having an independent central bank.”

Powell hasn't said when he may leave the Fed, though he could remain on the governing board until January 2028.

“You want people to ... set interest rates to benefit the general public," Powell said at his last news conference, "and focus only on that and ignore political considerations. This isn’t bipartisan, this is nonpartisan.”

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AP Economics Writer Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this story.

The S&P 500 fell 0.8% from its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 390 points, or 0.8%, as of 1:25 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was down 0.9% from its own record.

Technology stocks tumbled in a sharp turnaround from their meteoric rises for much of the year, which had carried markets worldwide to records but also raised criticism that they had gone too far.

Nvidia, the stock that quickly became the face of the AI revolution, dropped 2.9% and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500. It had come into the day with a gain of more than 26% for the year so far.

Applied Materials fell 0.6% even though it reported stronger profit growth for the latest quarter than analysts expected, thanks to the global build out of AI. The company, whose products help make chips and displays, came into the day with a gain of more than 70% for the year so far.

“To us, it looks like markets have pushed into overbought territory,” according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. He said the strong corporate profits and durable U.S. economy that launched U.S. stocks to records remain intact, but “the path is unlikely to be smooth. Periods like this call for discipline more than hope.”

In the meantime, rising oil prices are raising the pressure after already worsening inflation by more than economists had feared. The war with Iran is continuing, and the Strait of Hormuz remains shut to oil tankers, which is preventing them from delivering crude to customers worldwide and driving up oil’s price.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 3% to $108.87 and is well above its level of roughly $70 from before the war.

Many big U.S. companies have been saying their customers have been able to keep spending on their products and services despite having to pay higher prices for gasoline. But U.S. households have also been telling surveys they’re feeling discouraged about the economy and the pressures building on them because of the war and tariffs.

The worries were most clear Friday in the bond market, where Treasury yields climbed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.58% from 4.47% late Thursday. That’s a notable move for the bond market, and it’s well above its 3.97% level from before the war. The yield on the 30-year Treasury is near its highest level since 2023 after breaking above 5%.

Higher yields can make mortgages and other kinds of loans going to U.S. households and businesses more expensive, which slows the economy. They also tend to push downward on prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.

Stocks of smaller companies had some of Friday’s sharpest drops. Many of them need to borrow cash to grow, which means higher borrowing costs can hurt them more than their big rivals. The Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks fell 2%, more than double the S&P 500’s loss.

Yields have been climbing since the war on worries about higher inflation and how it may tie the Federal Reserve’s hands when it comes to short-term interest rates. Not only have traders abandoned virtually all expectations that the Fed will resume its cuts to interest rates this year, they’ve been building some bets that it may even hike rates in 2026, according to data from CME Group.

A couple of reports on the U.S. economy that came in better than expected also helped to lift yields. One said U.S. industrial production improved by more last month than economists expected, while another said manufacturing in New York state is expanding at a faster rate.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell sharply across Europe and Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi dropped 6.1% for one of the biggest moves. It had been reaching records this year because of the influence of AI beneficiaries like SK Hynix. But it quickly reversed momentum Friday after briefly topping the 8,000 level for the first time.

Some on Wall Street have been warning about a possible break in momentum for tech stocks in general and AI winners in particular.

“If nothing else this should be a ‘shot across the bow’ for how volatility works both ways,” according to Jonathan Krinsky, chief market technician at BTIG.

___

AP Business Writer Chan Ho-him contributed.

Marcel Plowden, 40, was arrested Wednesday afternoon, after returning to the residence. He faces one count of aggravated animal cruelty and five counts of animal abandonment during a state of emergency — also known as Trooper’s Law.

Plowden was booked into the Putnam County Jail and held on $30,000 bond.

Click to see the video from the Putnam County Sherriff’s Office. Some viewers may find the video difficult to watch.

According to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, the dog that underwent surgery may also have a foreign object lodged in her stomach and remains under veterinary care.

“It is our hope she is able to pull through this horrid ordeal because despite being in severe pain she allowed Animal Control and veterinarian staff to help her,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

The remaining four dogs were transported to Animal Control, where they were being treated for dehydration and other symptoms related to neglect.

The leaders of Meta, Alphabet, TikTok and Snap were invited to testify next month before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a committee spokesperson confirmed Friday.

The hearing comes at an inflection point for social media as court cases, proposed legislation and increased advocacy place mounting pressure on the tech companies behind these platforms to protect children and teens who use them by making material changes to how they operate.

“Americans are realizing more and more every day that they cannot trust the CEOs at the helms of these companies because they do not put our safety first,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of watchdog group The Tech Oversight Project. “If it feels like the pace is accelerating, it’s because it is.”

The CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X and other social media companies were last called to testify before the same committee in January 2024, when lawmakers grilled them on questions about the exploitation of children on their platforms and social media's effects on young people’s lives.

The June 23 hearing is titled “Examining Tech Industry Practices and the Implications for Users and Families: Is This Social Media’s Big Tobacco Moment?” The executives were invited by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet and Google, which owns YouTube, Shou Zi Chew of TikTok and Evan Spiegel of Snap received the invitations for the upcoming hearing. Meta declined to comment. Representatives from the other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a hearing on Wednesday held by the Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, senators heard from advocates and experts on children’s social media use, including parents who have lost their children to social media-related harms.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. said at the hearing, “I think it’s time for us, on a bipartisan basis, to call these CEOs back and to ask them what’s happened in two years, to talk to them about the losses that have occurred and ask them what they’re doing.”

Social media companies have disputed allegations that they harm children’s mental health through deliberate design choices that addict kids to their platforms and fail to protect them from sexual predators and dangerous content. This year, several state and federal court cases are heading to trial, and while the details of each case vary, they are seeking to hold companies responsible for what happens on their platforms.

Two court case verdicts that came days apart in March held social media companies, and Meta in particular, accountable for harm to children using its services. A California jury determined that both Meta and YouTube designed their platforms to hook young users without concern for their well-being. TikTok and Snap were also named defendants in that case, but they settled before the trial began.

The day before the California verdict was reached, a New Mexico jury determined that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

The date of the hearing has significance for advocates. In 2024, Senators Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced a resolution to designate June 23 as Social Media Harms Victim Remembrance Day. The resolution encouraged the “government, industry and community stakeholders to take action to prevent social media-related harm.”

The remembrance day was put forward by families who trace the death of their children to social media harms. The mothers of Carson Bride and Alexander Neville, who both died on June 23, lead the initiative. Carson died by suicide at age 16 after severe cyberbullying and Alex was 14 when a drug dealer connected with him on Snapchat and sold him the pill that killed him.

There are 25 languages, from Albanian to Ukrainian, sung onstage this year at the sequin-drenched international music competition, which reaches its finale in Vienna on Saturday. Eurovision performers increasingly want to share their mother tongues with the world.

“It’s easier to talk about your feelings in your native language,” said singer Pete Parkkonen, half of the Finnish duo who are oddsmakers’ favorite to win with scorching voice-violin duet “Liekinheitin,” or “Flamethrower.”

“And the main language is love, obviously," he said.

Eurovision once mandated that acts perform in an official language of their country, but since 1999 they have been able to choose any language. For many in the years that followed, English was an obvious choice for artists seeking an international audience.

Cultural anthropologist Andrew J. Green of King’s College London found that 20 of the 26 Eurovision winners between 1999 and 2024 were in English, but that the number of non-English songs has been growing in the past decade.

In 2016 there were only three songs with no English, and four in 2017. This year, contest organizer the European Broadcasting Union says there are 12 songs with no English, 16 entirely in English and seven that are multilingual.

The 35 acts competing at this year’s contest — 25 of whom made it through to the final — sing in languages including Spanish, German, Croatian, Azerbaijani, Latvian, Lithuanian and Romanian.

Eurovision fans around the world are learning, and singing, words like “Jalla” — a Cypriot term meaning “more,” and the name of the song by Cyprus’ contestant Antigoni — and “ferto,” or “bring it,” the title of Greek contestant Akylas’ infectiously catchy party rap song about overconsumption.

“It’s so important, because we’re all here to communicate our cultures, our languages, who we are," Akylas said.

“Bella,” by singer Aidan from Malta, mixes English and Maltese lyrics, to the delight of fans from the Mediterranean island nation.

Joseph Pace, who traveled to Vienna to cheer for Malta, said it’s “amazing” to hear fans from other countries try to sing along in Maltese.

“That we will listen to our language on an international stage, on a huge competition like this, it’s amazing,” he said.

Then there are the songs that mix multiple languages.

“Michelle,” the ballad by Israel’s Noam Bettan, has lyrics in Hebrew, French and English. Rapper Satoshi includes shout-outs in Romanian, English, Italian, French and more on raucous crowd-pleaser “Viva, Moldova.” Italian crooner Sal da Vinci sings in both Italian and the dialect of his native Naples on “Per Sempre,” his smooth-as-silk Eurovision entry.

Even the infamously monolingual U.K. is getting in on the act, showing Brits can count to three in German with “Eins, Zwei, Drei” by techno enthusiast Look Mum No Computer.

“People want Eurovision to be different from other song contests,” said Dean Vuletic, an academic expert on the contest's history. “They look for meaning in Eurovision because it is a showcase of cultural diversity.

“It’s countries competing against each other. And we want to see meaning in their entries. We want to see them say something about the countries and the cultures that they are representing.”

Some performers say it’s still useful to use English. Ukrainian singer Leléka usually performs only in her native language, but wanted her song “Ridnym” and its message of hope and renewal to reach the widest possible audience.

“It really has a very deep message that means the world to me, and I really want people to understand it,” she said.

___

Hilary Fox and Philipp Jenne in Vienna contributed to this story.

But Global Citizen is preparing for its most ambitious production yet: the first-ever FIFA World Cup halftime show on July 19, curated with help from Coldplay vocalist Chris Martin. Super Bowl-style performances — uncommon in soccer — will feature Madonna, Shakira and BTS. Also Thursday, Shakira released the official World Cup song “Dai Dai” featuring Afrobeats giant Burna Boy.

Organizers plan to direct the tournament's billions of projected viewers worldwide toward a humanitarian initiative launched alongside soccer's international governing body. Leveraging what Global Citizen founder Hugh Evans called the “complementary” unifying powers of soccer and music, the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund aims to raise $100 million for grassroots groups providing underserved children with access to education and sports.

“I hope that on the world’s biggest stage, finally, the importance of investing in education steals the show,” Shakira told the Global Citizen NOW summit in New York on Thursday. Later, she told The Associated Press in an interview that she wanted to help the “many children who are being left behind.”

"That should be our first concern,” Shakira said. “I’m so excited that finally we’re gonna use a global event like this one as a platform to discuss what’s most important: kids’ education.”

That push could be complicated, however, by the staggering cost of match attendance. A dollar from every World Cup ticket sale will go toward the education fund. But with tickets selling for four- to five-figures, not to mention the high price of travel and lodging, some host cities are lowering their attendance expectations.

Further complicating that humanitarian image are FIFA's agreements with countries such as Saudi Arabia, whose sovereign wealth fund became an official World Cup supporter on Thursday. Critics say the kingdom uses sports to distract from its human rights record.

And the message of unity could be hindered by FIFA President Gianni Infantino's connection to President Donald Trump, whose restrictive immigration policies and recent military pursuits amount to what critics consider an unwelcoming environment atypical of an international sporting event.

Infantino awarded FIFA’s new peace prize to Trump in December. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, was also appointed to the education fund's board.

Evans is not focused on politics, though. “I’m a pragmatist," he told the AP. “I’ve always believed that if we can do something so unbelievably positive, it has the potential to unite people at a time when the world needs it most.”

The summit's speakers emphasized their ability to build cross-sector support for causes like the education fund. The annual spring gathering draws entertainers, business executives and world leaders to discuss shared solutions to ending extreme poverty, oftentimes aligned with the United Nations’ ambitious list of “sustainable development goals” ranging from eliminating hunger to achieving gender equality.

They've raised $47 million so far for the education fund, according to a Thursday announcement. Corporate sponsors Bank of America, MetLife and Cisco put in $15 million between them, according to Evans. MetLife is donating an additional $5 for every video that fans post online of themselves juggling a soccer ball with the hashtag #FootworkForFutures.

Indian education entrepreneur Sunny Varkey and his Varkey Foundation contributed $3 million. Also being donated are ticket proceeds from The Weeknd’s high-grossing world tour as well as the joint tour recently announced by Usher and Chris Brown. Shakira announced Thursday she will donate 100% of her “Dai Dai” proceeds plus $1 from every ticket to her newly expanded tour in the United States.

Evans is now turning to heads of state for more financial support. He invited existing or future World Cup host countries to supplement funding.

“It has the potential to say to the whole world: We are global citizens... We’re all on this amazing planet together. Let’s solve the world’s biggest problems together," Evans said, adding that the move can foster a human approach rather than a “nationalistic” one.

Evans cited the 27 inaugural FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund grantees, released earlier this week, as inspiration. Among the recipients was Hit the Books, a Harlem-based nonprofit that uses mixed martial arts as the hook to provide students with additional educational resources.

The grants range from $50,000 to $250,000. Jhae Thompson, executive director of Hit the Books, said the support is meaningful because many nonprofits support hundreds of children on incredibly small budgets.

“What we are really leveraging is the foundation of what a young person needs in order to build character, to build discipline, to build confidence,” Thompson told the Global Citizen NOW audience.

Global Citizen has pursued partnerships in new regions as traditional actors including the U.S. cut their international aid budgets. That expansion includes the Middle East, represented by the addition of 2PointZero Group Vice Chair and Managing Director Mariam AlMheiri to their board.

AlMheiri, who heads the International Affairs Office at the Presidential Court of the United Arab Emirates, emphasized that “when you look at a football, everyone's happy" — a positive association she hopes will translate into support for the education fund.

Marcus Samuelsson, a multiple James Beard Award-winning chef and avid soccer fan, noted that this World Cup is spread across three different countries: the United States, Mexico and Canada. The tournament, he added, has expanded from its origins as a competition largely between South American and European nations to represent countries in Africa and Asia, too.

He hopes that wide geographic spread inspires curiosity about global issues.

“You start thinking about these countries. You maybe want to go there on vacation, maybe you want to go there, volunteer and help out. Whatever gets you going,” Samuelsson told AP. "And it can start by falling in love while watching them.”

___

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits 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. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

“I really felt like my body was in a state of convulsion,” says Schoenbrun.

The day after the premiere of “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” a bold, bloody queer slasher film starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, Schoenbrun and their co-stars were still buzzing from the ecstatic response. The movie, one of the most prominent American films in Cannes this year, gave the festival a gonzo jolt.

For Schoenbrun, the leading trans filmmaker of their generation, the film extends their intensely personal exploration of gender and the movies that defined their youth. But their first two films — 2024’s “I Saw the TV Glow” and 2021’s “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” — were the raw, burning products of Schoenbrun’s transition. “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” drawn from Schoenbrun’s happy, exploratory post-transition life, isn’t that.

It’s about desire and sex. It’s a biting satire of reboot-mad Hollywood. It’s a schlocky and subversive slasher movie homage. It’s a lot of fun, and quite tender, even when bodies are blood-spurting geysers.

“This is the first movie that feels like it represents the fullness of who I am,” Schoenbrun says.

But Wednesday's moment of triumph in Cannes was hard-won. Ten years ago, Schoenbrun, now 39, was working in the film industry in a job they hated.

“The first time I came here, I just felt like, ‘Oh my, god. I can’t believe I’m in Cannes.’ I went to, like, ‘The Lobster,’ at the Palais in my boy tux. I was like: ‘This is it. I’ve done it,’” says Schoenbrun. “Then the next year I came back and I was so depressed. I decided to quit my job. If I’m depressed at Cannes, there’s something that needs to change. I know I want to be here but I need a better reason to be here.”

They pause and then smile. “I just can’t believe that it ended up working out.”

Einbinder (“Hacks”) plays Kris, an indie filmmaker hired to direct a reboot of “Camp Miasma,” a decades-spanning slasher series. Studio executives are looking for a fresh origin story. For Kris, it’s a dream job. Since seeing the first movie on VHS as an 8-year-old, she’s been obsessed with the movies.

While visiting the iconic camp of the film, she encounters Billy Presley (Anderson), the Final Girl from the first movie. Their unfolding relationship opens up both inspiration for the movie Kris (but not executives) wants to make, as well as her own sexual anxieties.

“I wanted to be part of a thing that I thought would be important to exist in the world,” says Anderson. “This film is really important and I think it’s going to rectify a lot of things.”

The film industry satire of “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” has some real-world echoes. Even though “TV Glow,” released by A24, was an indie event, Schoenbrun’s third film was turned down everywhere but Mubi, which releases it Aug. 7.

“It was kind of shocking to me that it was just pass after pass after pass,” Schoenbrun says. “You don’t know, in the way you never know as a trans person. You’re like: ‘Maybe there’s something about my otherness that you’re not into.’ Hollywood can feel like a mafia. I think it was a f---ing shame.”

For Schoenbrun, the kind of cultural assumptions about what’s mainstream can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Your movie is not commercial because they think it’s not commercial,” they say, citing the white men who dominate Hollywood executive ranks. “We’re in such a bled-dry moment. You can really feel it with the s--- that’s coming out.”

Einbinder, starring in her first film, was drawn to the deeply felt nature of Schoenbrun’s work.

“There is fiction around it, but Jane is a personal filmmaker and these movies are allegorical to their experience in many ways,” she says. “That affected me.”

Schoenbrun was determined to make it, regardless. “How much did they make the original ‘Friday the 13th’ for?” they asked. Remaining resolute was the key, just as it was for Schoenbrun in writing a soon-to-be-released 600-page fantasy novel — just as it was in changing their fate in Cannes 10 years ago.

“My movies are obsessed with this idea of what it takes to make something real,” says Schoenbrun. “I have a tattoo to make sure I wrote my book that says ‘Make it real.’ This is very much an ideology: We can remake ourselves and the world around us.”

The cruise missile hit the nine-story corner apartment block Thursday during what the Ukrainian air force said was Russia’s biggest barrage on the country of the full-scale invasion. Emergency workers finished digging through the rubble searching for victims after more than a day, Zelenskyy said on X.

Crowds of grieving people — many of them children — streamed toward a makeshift memorial beneath a tree near the destroyed building.

Teenagers clutching bouquets arrived in groups and broke into tears as they approached the growing mound of flowers and stuffed toys beside photographs of the dead. A portrait of a girl in a school uniform, posed against a bright yellow backdrop, was among the photos.

Zelenskyy and other top government officials visited the site to pay tribute to the dead, as did Kyiv-based foreign diplomats.

Russia has hammered Ukraine with large-scale aerial attacks in the days since a May 9-11 ceasefire that U.S. President Donald Trump said he asked Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to observe. Fighting continued over those 72 hours, although reportedly on a lesser scale.

This week’s attacks ran counter to recent suggestions from Trump and Putin that the war is close to ending.

The assault mostly targeted the Ukrainian capital, where 48 people were wounded, including two children, Zelenskyy said.

He said Moscow had launched more than 1,560 drones against Ukrainian population centers since Wednesday, adding that about 180 sites across the country were damaged, including more than 50 residential buildings.

Previously, the biggest Russian drone attack was on March 23-24 when Moscow’s forces fired nearly 1,000 drones and missiles at Ukraine. Thursday's death toll in Kyiv approached one from July 2024 that killed 32 civilians and injured another 85.

Russia reports a Ukrainian attack on Ryazan

Ukraine has also built up significant long-range capabilities, and Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday that its air defenses downed 355 Ukrainian drones overnight in one of the largest barrages of the war. Several airports suspended flights overnight because of the attacks.

A Ukrainian drone struck Ryazan, a city about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Moscow, killed four people, including a child, regional Gov. Pavel Malkov said. Massive plumes of black smoke rose from a fire at an oil refinery. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities to try to deny vital revenue for Moscow and rattle the Kremlin.

Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment on the Ryazan strike.

The cruise missile that hit the Kyiv apartment building was built in the second quarter of this year, Zelenskyy said, apparently after Ukrainian experts analyzed the wreckage.

“This means Russia is still importing the components, resources and equipment necessary for missile production in circumvention of global sanctions,” he said in another post on X late Thursday. “Stopping Russia’s sanctions evasion schemes must be a genuine priority for all our partners.”

Also on Friday, Russia and Ukraine swapped 205 prisoners of war, one of an occasional exchange.

Zelenskyy said it was the first phase of a planned swap of 1,000 POWs from each side. Some of the Ukrainians have been held by Russia since 2022 and fought in some of the war’s fiercest battles, he added.

Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the exchange and thanked the United Arab Emirates for helping to broker it.

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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.

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

The all-Republican court dealt a blow to Gov. Greg Abbott and state Republicans in their efforts to severely punish the more than 50 Democrats who bolted for New York, Illinois and Massachusetts in a bid to stop a vote on the maps during a special session.

The Texas redistricting effort kick-started cascading efforts by both parties across the country to redraw voting maps ahead of this year's midterm elections: Republicans, pushed by Trump, seek to hold their slim majority in Congress as Democrats try to counter them.

Those efforts have gained new intensity after the U.S. Supreme Court further weakened the Voting Rights Act by no longer allowing race to be considered in how congressional and other districts are drawn.

In Texas, Abbott had argued in a lawsuit filed directly to the state’s highest civil court that state Rep. Gene Wu, the leader of the House Democratic caucus, and others had effectively abandoned their office.

If successful, they hoped to wield a new hammer to threaten lawmakers considering any future quorum breaks.

Wu had argued that he was not abandoning his office, but was exercising a right to dissent.

In denying Abbott’s request, the court opinion written by Justice James Blacklock noted that the Republican-majority Legislature had adequately resolved the problem itself through measures such as fines against the missing lawmakers, and it noted they eventually returned on their own within a few weeks.

“In the end, a quorum was restored in two weeks’ time, without judicial intervention, by the interplay of political and practical forces,” Blacklock wrote.

“Courts have uniformly recognized that it is not their role to resolve disputes between the other two branches that those branches can resolve for themselves,” the opinion said.

If the issue rises again and the Legislature cannot effectively compel lawmakers to return, the court may someday consider whether the courts should step in, the opinion said.

“When Greg Abbott threatened to arrest and expel us for denying him a quorum, we told him he should ‘come and take it.’ He tried!” Wu said in a statement Friday. “Abbott was wrong, weak, and after all his bluster, he couldn’t come and take a damn thing.”

Wu and the other lawmakers eventually returned to Texas, and the new map was passed and signed into law by Abbott.

Wu had argued that because he had returned to the Capitol and the map was eventually signed into law, there was no longer any reason for the court to weigh in.

If lawmakers leave again, the governor will bring the same issue back to the court, Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said Friday.

“No elected official has the right to abandon their duties, flee the state and shut down the people’s business,” Mahaleris said. “Governor Abbott’s legal action is what brought derelict Democrats back to Texas to do their jobs and pass the Big Beautiful Map.”

The state constitution requires that at least 100 of the 150 House members be present to conduct business, and the quorum break effectively shut down a special legislative session Abbott had called to address redistricting and other issues.

And Texas has a history of walkouts.

In 2021, the court ruled that the Texas Constitution enables the possibility of a quorum break but also allows for consequences to bring members back.

Last year's Democratic walkout was the third since 2003, when lawmakers bolted to stop a vote on a redistricting bill. They did it again in 2021 over an elections bill. In both cases, they were temporary victories as Democrats eventually returned and the Republican majority in the Legislature ultimately passed both measures into law.

The problem? It’s not real.

A release has apparently been making the rounds online, claiming to be a release signed by DeSantis himself.

That document alleges that DeSantis signed House Bill 626 into law this week, which prohibits “aimless driving” in Florida as of Friday. This includes joyriding, driving without a destination, and even just “cruising around.”

“Violators may face a $1,000 fine if caught driving without a destination,” the supposed release reads.

As of Thursday evening, one X post that shared the release had already gained over 125,000 views.

However, there is no House Bill 626 on record this year. House Bills are typically odd numbers - not even.

There was a Senate Bill 626, but that dealt with school attendance immunizations, and it died back in March.

Regardless, DeSantis responded to the viral notice on X, claiming, “If you are dumb enough to think that is authentic then you are too dumb to be driving a car.”

If you are dumb enough to think that is authentic then you are too dumb to be driving a car. https://t.co/hVQBl31UhN

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) May 14, 2026

For a full list of real Florida laws that have been approved so far in 2026, click here.

Weekend temperatures reach 90 degrees

Southeasterly winds on Saturday will bring warmer, more humid weather. IRONMAN Jacksonville competitors and volunteers will need to stay hydrated with temperatures rising into the upper 80s throughout the day.

Sunday will see afternoon rain and isolated thunderstorms to develop inland along the sea-breeze convergence.

The National Transportation Safety Board was leading the review in Akron, alongside the Federal Aviation Administration and Ohio State Highway Patrol, officials said.

The white and blue Piper PA-28-180 took off from Akron Fulton Airport at around 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, according to flight logs, staying aloft for about an hour before crashing into a residential area of the city and catching fire.

Dark black smoke could be seen towering into the air near the crash, which was first reported by witnesses at the nearby Firestone Country Club.

The house that was hit, and a second home, had to be evacuated due to the fire, according to the Akron Fire Department. No one inside the homes, nor any bystanders, were injured.

The Summit County Medical Examiner’s office said Friday that authorities had yet to identify the bodies of the two people who were killed or to notify their families.

The Highway Patrol said in a statement that investigators were continuing to review flight data, witness statements, and aircraft records to determine what happened. The NTSB has scheduled an update for Friday afternoon.

The nearby American Winds College of Aeronautics alerted staff, students and families on Facebook late Wednesday that all of its airplanes were safe. Denise Hobart, of the North East Ohio Pilots Association, said on behalf of the school that they were praying for the pilot, anyone on board and their families.

“I will be gone for the next three weeks,” Snody said. “I have been put on active duty orders, and I will be back on Monday, June 8, back on the morning show.”

Snody, a human resources officer, said much of her work involves personnel issues and administration, though she sometimes gets the chance to take part in field activities. She said she could not discuss specifics of the Guard’s current mission.

Asked about the change, Snody said serving with the Guard requires balancing two roles.

“When duty calls, that means you have to go,” she said.

Her parents live near her guard base in Maryland, and she said it will be nice for them to see her in person while she is on orders.

Snody said she looks forward to returning to the Morning Show on June 8.

The closure begins at 9 p.m. Friday, May 15, and the bridge is expected to reopen by 4 a.m. Sunday, May 17.

Drivers are encouraged to use alternate routes during the closure. FDOT recommends using the Buckman Bridge or the Memorial Bridge in Palatka, and drivers should allow additional travel time to reach their destinations.

Within weeks, the neighborhood was a ghost town and the playground was empty.

What prompted the mass exodus was a bungled message from the housing authority in Port Isabel, a South Texas community of 5,000 people, many of whom are immigrants working at hotels and restaurants on the beaches of nearby South Padre Island. The Port Isabel Housing Authority indicated a Trump administration proposal was about to take effect that would end housing assistance to families with at least one member in the country illegally. The events that followed provided a glimpse of what could happen in communities across the U.S. if the proposed rule is actually finalized.

“The impact was not limited to undocumented immigrants, but really to immigrants who are here legally as well as people within their families who are citizens,” Marie Claire Tran-Leung, senior staff attorney at National Housing Law Project, said.

For decades, families with at least one legal or eligible resident have been allowed to live in public housing provided those who are here illegally or are otherwise ineligible due to their immigration status pay a full, unsubsidized share of rent. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to reverse that.

Advocates estimate up to 80,000 people would be kicked out of their homes nationwide under the measure that is part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. They include U.S. citizens, many of them children born in this country but whose parents were not.

A message from the Port Isabel Housing Authority

On Feb. 3, the Port Isabel Housing Authority sent residents a letter saying that the Trump administration wanted every household member to prove legal status within 30 days or face eviction. Three weeks later, the agency sent a note of “clarification” that no such proof was required.

It was already too late.

Half of residents living in Port Isabel public housing left within a month of receiving the first letter. The occupancy rate plunged from 91% in January to 43% in May, far below the national average of 94%.

The proposed rule from HUD still has not taken effect.

The housing authority gave no explanation for the initial misunderstanding and officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Rumors and panic

Fears about eviction and rumors that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement might get involved prompted panic among some residents.

“My kids and I spoke and wondered what we were going to do, but then we said it’s better to leave and avoid any retaliation,” a single mother from Mexico raising two teenagers who are U.S. citizens told The Associated Press. She, like other former residents, spoke on condition of anonymity due to fears of being deported.

She turned to legal service organizations that told her and others they could stay in public housing. But she and her children decided it was too risky and left their home of nearly a decade, finding an apartment within the same school district that costs about $500 more per month.

The move also added about 10 minutes to the commute to the island, where both the mother and her daughter work. The 18-year-old gets home from school at 4:30 p.m. and grabs a quick dinner before her mom drives her to a job that starts at 5 p.m. The daughter is a top student in her senior class and plans to go to college in the fall with help from scholarship offers, but she worries how her family will make ends meet. Her brother was laid off, and their mom underwent cancer treatment last year, depleting her energy and straining their finances.

Other families face even greater challenges.

A mother of three said she moved her family into a one-bedroom trailer home illegally parked between two other trailer homes. Her oldest son sleeps in the living room.

Another family of three sold beds and other furniture so they could squeeze into a small trailer home, only to find out the landlord wouldn't let them use the mailing address, affecting her children’s school and health insurance.

“Since we got the letter, everything changed from one day to the next. It wasn’t the same anymore. Before the letter, the kids were happy, playing outside,” the mother of two said.

A preview of a Trump administration proposal

The Trump administration proposed in February that any household with one ineligible resident would disqualify an entire family, estimating that 24,000 recipients were ineligible in 20,000 households.

“We have zero tolerance for pushing aside hardworking U.S. citizens while enabling others to exploit decades-old loopholes,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said at the time.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which advocates for low-income families, estimates that 79,600 people could be forced to leave their homes, with a disproportionate impact on children and Latinos.

The rule drew more than 16,000 public comments, many of them critical, including from city leaders across the U.S.

For example, the New York City Council told HUD that an estimated 12% of city of households have at least one member who lacks legal status. Some 240,000 children are in those homes.

“This proposed rule will unequivocally lead to increased displacement, homelessness, poverty, and decreased educational and health outcomes,” the council wrote.

HUD is expected to publish a final version of the rule after considering public comments.

It is almost certain to face legal challenges.

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This story has been updated to correct the name of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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Associated Press writers Michael Casey in Boston and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this story.

Ofcom said X's public commitments include restricting access in the U.K. to accounts operated by or on behalf of terrorist groups that the country has banned.

The platform also promised to review suspected illegal terrorist and hate content within 24 hours on average, and to assess 85% of the material no more than 48 hours after users have flagged it, officials said.

A spokesperson for X in the U.K. did not respond to a request for comment.

In response to concerns from some civil society groups that X failed to follow up after illegal content was flagged by users, X will engage with experts on how to improve its reporting systems, Ofcom said. X will submit quarterly performance data over a 12-month period so the regular can compare its performance against these targets.

The regulator said there's evidence that terrorist content and illegal hate speech is “persisting” on social media sites and that it expects tech companies to take “firm action.”

“This is of particular importance in the U.K. following a number of recent hate motivated crimes suffered by the country’s Jewish community,” Oliver Griffiths, director of Ofcom's online safety group, said.

Britain’s Jewish community, which numbers about 300,000 people, has faced growing attacks online and in the streets, including a string of arson attacks and a double stabbing that have sparked fear and anger among Jews.

X and Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok faced intensifying global scrutiny earlier this year over after Grok, which can be accessed through X, pumped out nonconsensual deepfake images.

Ofcom responded by launching an investigation into whether Grok failed to protect users from illegal content, which Griffiths said was ongoing.

The Grok controversy also resulted in European Union regulators targeting X over whether it has done enough to contain the spread of illegal content. French prosecutors, meanwhile, sought charges last week against Musk and X including denial of crimes against humanity.

Hundreds of volunteer dentists with the Florida Dental Association Foundation and the Florida Mission of Mercy opened the clinic at 7 a.m. Friday and will continue through Saturday. Gates at the convention center, 1000 Water St., open at 5 a.m.; doors open at 7 a.m.

The event, billed as the largest charitable dental clinic in Florida, offers a range of services including cleanings, fillings, extractions, partial dentures and care for children. Organizers said they are also treating patients in pain and checking vital signs such as blood pressure.

“Many people come in with pain, and oral health is tied to overall health, including the heart,” said Sarah Hagerty, a dentist with Florida Mission of Mercy. She urged patients to bring any medications and personal supplies they may need while at the clinic.

Patients are seen on a first-come, first-served basis. Early arrivals receive tickets and are asked to return at an assigned time to avoid long waits, organizers said. Veterans were among those who were pre-screened and prioritized to be seen early Friday.

Follow-up care is available through volunteer providers on call, and some medications may be supplied when needed, Hagerty said.

The program has operated for 11 years and has returned to Jacksonville for the third time; organizers said next year’s clinic will be in Tallahassee.

Speaking to reporters as he flew back from a trip to China, Trump said Xi told him he would give serious consideration to the case of Ezra Jin Mingri, pastor of an underground church detained in China in October in what observers have called an escalating crackdown on religious freedom.

“He said he’s gonna strongly consider the pastor," Trump said.

Trump said that the case of Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy Apple Daily who was accused of anti-China activities, was much more difficult for the Chinese president. “He told me that would be a tough one,” Trump said.

The families of both Jin and Lai said they appreciated Trump for raising their cases with Xi.

Jin's Zion Church is among the largest so-called underground or house churches that are unregistered with the Chinese authorities. They defy Chinese government restrictions requiring believers to worship only in registered congregations.

His daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, said Friday that the family and supporters are “overjoyed” to hear what Trump had said about her father.

“It’s truly nothing short of miraculous!” she wrote to The Associated Press in a message. “We could not be more grateful to President Trump and his skillful administration for pressing the case!”

Despite Trump's far less optimistic tone on Lai, the former media mogul's daughter, Claire Lai, said she also was grateful to Trump and his administration for the commitment shown to her father’s release.

“He has earned his reputation as liberating the unjustly detained and I am confident he and his administration will be the ones to free my father,” she said in a message to the AP.

She called this moment an opportunity for Xi to do “the only just and honorable thing” for Lai and to show a gesture of good will to the world by releasing a man she said had dedicated himself to Hong Kong.

Activists say Beijing is becoming less willing to release prisoners who have confronted the government over human rights under Xi’s rule. In 2017, the Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo died at a hospital in northeast China even after foreign governments urged China to release him for cancer treatment abroad.

Before his arrest, Lai, 78, was critical of Xi and the ruling Communist Party. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February under a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 that has virtually silenced dissent in Hong Kong.

Lai was found guilty of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and conspiring with others to publish seditious articles. His pro-democracy Apple Daily was shut down during a crackdown following massive anti-government protests that rocked the city in 2019.

Observers said Lai’s plight symbolizes a decline in freedoms that Beijing had promised when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Foreign governments, including the U.S. and U.K., have raised concerns about Lai for years. But the Hong Kong government insists his case had nothing to do with press freedom.

On Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry said Lai had been a key planner of anti-China activities that aimed at destabilizing Hong Kong, and said that the city’s affairs are China’s internal affairs.

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Tang reported from Washington. AP journalist Emily Wang in Washington contributed.

Longet's nephew, Bryan Longet, announced her death in a social media post on Thursday. “You have been a true inspiration in my life and you will always be," he wrote. "Another star in the sky. Thank you for everything, my aunt.”

Reached by phone by The Associated Press, he confirmed Longet had died but did not reveal the cause of her death.

Longet was a native Parisian who had been acting since childhood. She appeared in numerous TV shows, recorded such hit albums as “Claudine” and was widely known for the bossa nova-style ballad “Nothing to Lose,” a highlight of the 1968 movie “The Party” that starred Longet and Peter Sellers.

At the time, she was married to singer Andy Williams, whom she had met in the early '60s while dancing in a Las Vegas revue. But by the mid-1970s, she and Williams were divorced and she was living near Aspen, Colorado, with Sabich, who had competed for the United States in the 1968 Olympics.

On March 21, 1976, a day that would long be scrutinized, she shot him at their home with a Luger pistol that she would contend he had been showing her and fired accidentally. Sabich, 31, died of a single shot to his abdomen; Longet had accompanied him in the ambulance to the hospital.

Her trial in Aspen attracted worldwide attention. Williams was among those present, escorting her to and from the courthouse, paying for her legal fees and otherwise supporting his former wife and the mother of their three children.

“I thought it was unfair, I thought she was innocent, I thought it was an accident,” Williams told “CBS This Morning” in 2009.

Longet had been charged with reckless manslaughter, but law enforcement officials made such critical errors as taking a blood sample from Longet without a warrant. After four days of deliberation in January 1977, the jury found her guilty of negligent homicide. She was given two years’ probation, fined $250 and sentenced to 30 days in jail, eventually served on dates of her choosing.

Longet's career in entertainment was effectively over, though, and for a time she was the subject of mockery in popular culture, from a skit on “Saturday Night Live” to the Rolling Stones rocker “Claudine,” which featured a taunting refrain, “Claudine's back in jail again.” (The song was unreleased for decades).

Longet later married her defense attorney, Ron Austin, and lived with him in Aspen. After Sabich's family filed a $1.3 million lawsuit in 1977 against her, the two sides reached a settlement that barred Longet from ever discussing Sabich or the trial.

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Associated Press writer Samuel Petrequin in London contributed to this report.

In New Delhi, gasoline prices rose to 97.77 rupees ($1.17) a liter, while diesel climbed to 90.67 rupees ($1.09) a liter.

India imports about 90% of its oil and has been hit hard by rising energy prices and supply disruptions linked to the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. It had until now avoided raising retail fuel prices despite sharp increases in energy costs, making it one of the last major economies to pass higher crude prices on to consumers.

The price increases came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indians to adopt voluntary austerity measures.

Modi on Sunday called on people to work from home where possible, limit foreign travel and reduce purchases of gold. He described fuel conservation and saving foreign exchange as an act of “patriotism,” and encouraged greater use of public transportation, carpooling and lower fertilizer consumption.

Opposition leaders said Modi’s appeal came only after a key round of state elections had concluded, noting that fuel prices were kept unchanged during the campaign.

Manoj Kumar, a 48-year-old taxi driver in New Delhi, said the rise in fuel prices was adding to the strain on working-class people.

“For common people like us, even one rupee has great value. People work so hard from morning till evening just to make ends meet. The government is not seeing this," he said.

Earlier this week, India also raised import duties on gold and silver to 15% in an effort to curb demand for imports that drain foreign exchange reserves.

The Indian rupee has fallen to record lows in recent weeks as higher oil prices increased pressure on imports and foreign exchange reserves.

Meanwhile, India’s capital has become the first state to roll out austerity measures.

Authorities in New Delhi on Thursday announced fuel-saving measures, including mandatory work-from-home days for some government employees. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the 90-day campaign aims to reduce official fuel use and encourage people in the capital to rely more on public transportation instead of private vehicles.

Under the plan, employees whose work can be done remotely will work from home two days a week, while private companies are being encouraged to adopt similar measures voluntarily.

India has also accelerated ethanol blending in gasoline as part of its push to cut crude oil imports.

Most fuel stations across the country now sell gasoline blended with 20% ethanol, and the government has proposed expanding the use of fuels containing 85% — or even 100% — ethanol in compatible vehicles.

Energy experts said blending biofuel can help shield from global energy shocks but can lead to further stressing already depleting groundwater resources, encroach on land meant for food crops and impact older vehicles’ engines.

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AP journalists Sibi Arasu in Bengaluru, India and Shonal Ganguly in New Delhi contributed to this report.

Jacksonville will open the season at home against Cleveland on Sept. 13 and close it with an AFC South rival Indianapolis. Jacksonville’s first-place AFC South schedule features a wicked first six games, including four against playoff teams from last season.

The Jaguars have their first primetime game in Week 9 at Baltimore, a Thursday night game on Amazon Prime (Nov. 5). They’re back on “Monday Night Football” for the fourth year in a row, this time against the Steelers at EverBank Stadium on Dec. 14 in Week 14. Two weeks later on Dec. 27, Jacksonville visits the Cowboys (Dec. 27 for a Sunday night football game on NBC.

There’s an imposing slate of games after Jacksonville’s back-to-back home game slate in London (Eagles on Oct. 11 in Week 5 and the Texans on Oct. 18). Jacksonville’s bye is in Week 7. The Jaguars then have to play 11 straight games to finish out the regular season.

Jaguars 2026 schedule

Week 1, Sept. 13, vs. Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m.

Week 2, Sept. 20, at Denver Broncos, 4:05 p.m.

Week 3, Sept. 27, vs. New England Patriots, 1 p.m.

Week 4, Oct. 4, at Cincinnati Bengals, 1 p.m.

Week 5, Oct. 11, vs. Philadelphia Eagles (at Tottenham Hotspur, London), 9:30 a.m.

Week 6, Oct. 18, vs. Houston Texans (at Wembley Stadium, London), 9:30 a.m.

Week 7, Oct. 25, OFF

Week 8, Nov. 1, vs. Indianapolis Colts, 1 p.m.

Week 9, Nov. 5, at Baltimore Ravens, Thursday Night Football, 8:15 p.m.

Week 10, Nov. 15, at Tennessee Titans, 1 p.m.

Week 11, Nov. 22, at New York Giants, 1 p.m.

Week 12, Nov. 29, vs. Tennessee Titans, 4:05 p.m.

Week 13, Dec. 6, at Chicago Bears, 1 p.m.

Week 14, Dec. 14, vs. Pittsburgh Steelers, Monday Night Football, 8:15 p.m.

Week 15, Dec. 20, at Houston Texans, 1 p.m.

Week 16, Dec. 27, at Dallas Cowboys, Sunday Night Football, 8:20 p.m.

Week 17, TBD, vs. Washington Commanders, TBD

Week 18, TBD, at Indianapolis Colts, TBD

That goes some way to explaining this month's showdown with a champion kickboxer in Egypt on May 23. Just don't expect to see him in the ring with YouTube star Jake Paul anytime soon.

“I don't know because Jake (is) my friend now,” Usyk told The Associated Press when discussing the potential of following Anthony Joshua and taking on the influencer-turned-prizefighter. “With Jake (a) fight is not possible, I think.”

Not that Usyk — the unified heavyweight world champion — is dismissive of the growing trend for boxers to take on ever more unusual and lucrative fights against opponents from different sports or different worlds entirely.

Jake and his brother Logan Paul found fame as YouTubers with millions of followers on the video-streaming platform and have gone on to fight legendary boxers Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather. Mayweather also fought UFC champion Conor McGregor and kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa.

In December, Jake Paul took on his most audacious challenge yet when he was knocked out by Joshua, the former two-time heavyweight champion.

The fight demanded attention around the world because, unlike Tyson and Mayweather, Joshua is 36 and still competing at the top of the sport for the biggest titles. Jake Paul was knocked out in six rounds and said his jaw was broken in two places.

Usyk says he understands the appeal of such fights, even if they are criticized by some boxing purists.

"It’s a media fight aimed at drawing even more people into professional boxing and combat sports in general. You know how it was when we were kids watching movies. ‘Who’s stronger, (Jean-Claude) Van Damme or Chuck Norris? Or (Sylvester) Stallone, or someone else?’

“Everything that happens in today’s world is a show, it’s all like a movie. And we are simply actors in that movie.”

The undefeated Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) is 39 and nearing the end of his career. He is planning three more fights ending with his “last dance” against Tyson Fury, who he has already defeated twice.

First up, however, is a title defense against Rico Verhoeven at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

The 37-year-old Verhoeven is a champion kickboxer from the Netherlands, who has only fought once professionally as a boxer in 2014. He won that fight and is 66-10 with 21 KOs as a kickboxer.

Usyk describes it as another “very good media fight” even if he has had to defend his decision to take on such a boxing novice, rather than leading challengers for his belts like WBO champion Fabio Wardley.

“Rico is the absolute world champion in kickboxing and I am in boxing. For the fans, that’s not bad,” Usyk said. “Most people don’t really understand professional sports. They just watch the picture, and people want bread and circuses. We, in turn, went through a certain period of conquering and achieving results. Now we’ll make some noise for a while and then return to specifically boxing opponents because there is a certain plan that we are building for ourselves.”

Even if many people see the fight as a mismatch, Usyk says his preparations are as serious as ever and he has been working on cognitive training techniques to further improve his skills.

According to the British Psychological Society, cognitive training is about treating the brain like a muscle and regularly exercising it via methods such as games or problem solving.

Usyk says it speeds up his decision-making in the ring.

“Boxing is not chess — you have to think quickly in there,” he says.

He has taken a role as chief discipline officer for language learning app Promova, which he says he incorporates into his training regime.

“For example, someone says a word to me in Ukrainian and I have to answer in English, or he says something in English and I have to translate it. All of this keeps intensifying, and your head feels like it’s exploding,” he said.

With all that brain training, getting into the ring is almost a relief.

“In the ring, when I’m boxing, for me, that’s where I’m really ecstatic," Usyk said. "I don’t like training. I don’t like doing this incredible work every single day. But I know it will simply help me perform better in the ring.”

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Associated Press reporter Illia Novikov in Kyiv contributed to this report.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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

At a Seattle sports bar on a recent Saturday night, hundreds of very tall people got to experience something rare: blending in. Women in their highest heels craned their necks to look at someone taller. Men who usually duck under doorways looked ordinary. For once, nobody had to explain why they don’t play basketball.

Welcome to Tall Tour, a traveling meetup drawing thousands across the United States to celebrate the one physical trait that has made them stand out — for good and ill. Since launching last summer, the tour has visited 19 cities, with crowds swelling from an initial 30 people in Tampa, Florida, to some 4,000 in Orlando, according to organizers. Seattle drew around 750, they said.

“You’re walking around and there’s people your height and people taller than you when you thought you were just this giant freak,” said Tyler Bergantino, the tour’s 6-foot-9 founder who wears a size-16 shoe. “That’s something that I think is very healing for tall people.”

The concept emerged almost accidentally. Bergantino, 32, a former software salesman turned TikTok creator, posted a casual invitation on social media while traveling through Texas. He wanted content. Instead, he sparked a movement.

“It created itself,” he said. “I can’t really take credit for it.”

Each stop follows a similar format: Tall people gather, take photos, share recommendations for shoe shopping and swap stories about hitting their heads on door frames and cramming into airplanes.

For many women, the night’s biggest draw is the speed dating component and the hope of meeting someone comfortable dating a taller woman — whether that means matching their height, exceeding it or simply being open to it. Many bonded over the shared challenge of navigating a dating culture that still favors petite women.

“Dating as a tall woman, you feel like you’re intimidating to people,” said 25-year-old Ksenia Protasenko, who's 6 feet tall. “There’s this association with you being a warrior type, but it’s not true. It’s tough to have your height as the first thing people notice about you because it feels like people are not really seeing any vulnerable parts of you.”

Protasenko said men often ask whether she plays basketball. She usually has a reply ready.

“I tell them, ‘Yeah, sure,’ even though I don’t,” she said. “Then I ask them if they play mini golf. That seems to straighten them right up.”

Crowning the royalty of the tall

The highlight comes when organizers crown the tallest man and woman in attendance. In Seattle, those titles went to a mother and son. Susan Mullendore, 44 and 6-foot-5, stood beside her son Grayson, 19 and 7 feet tall, as the crowd erupted.

“As a mom, just seeing Grayson having this experience meant the world to me,” Susan said. “To be able to be crowned with him was really special. It was nice to have our height celebrated.”

For Grayson, a college freshman, the evening offered something rare: a feeling of normalcy. When in public, he said, strangers make comments and photograph him without asking. “People think that because we’re tall they can say whatever they want or do whatever they want, like we’re zoo animals almost,” he said.

At Tall Tour, the dynamic flipped.

“It was insane to feel small for once,” he said, noting the event's 7-foot-3 and 7-foot-4 co-hosts known as the Tall Boys. “It was so surreal to be able to have a conversation and look people in the eyes.”

That commonality runs deeper than shoe size. Attendees describe a lifetime of social hyper vigilance — raising their voices a few pitches to sound less intimidating, slowing down around corners so they do not startle strangers, slouching to fit in.

“You’re hyper-fixated on making sure that people don’t see you as a threat,” Bergantino said.

Tall people often feel isolated and out of place, particularly around puberty, he said, noting he reached 6-foot-9 at age 16. But at Tall Tour, people can finally feel what it’s like to fit in.

“It heals a portion of your inner child,” he said. “Everyone’s walls come down, and it’s like we’re all one family.”

Susan knows the feeling.

“Sometimes you just want to go through the airport and be left alone. And that doesn’t happen for us. We usually get a lot of whispers,” she said. “We get it. It’s shocking to see tall people. But sometimes it does get old.”

The challenges extend beyond social awkwardness. Finding clothes and shoes that fit can be a mission. Susan, who wears a size-14 shoe, orders clothes from a specialty brand in the United Kingdom. To fit in his dorm bed, Grayson added a mattress extender and three sheets of plywood for support. He still hangs off the edge.

What began as a meetup has become a fast-growing business

Bergantino quit his sales job two years ago and now runs Tall Tour full time with a small team that includes his brother, who handles video and social media, a chief executive officer and a chief operating officer.

Even celebrities have taken notice. Seven-foot-6 basketball player Mamadou Ndiaye attended the Los Angeles event and the team has been in contact with 7-foot-1 NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal.

Future plans include expanding speed dating, launching a fashion show featuring height-inclusive brands and models, and adding spinoffs such as Tall Tour at Sea. International stops in Canada, Dubai, London, Australia, the Netherlands and Japan are also on the wish list. Bergantino says he wants to build “the tall-person ecosystem” — advocacy for exit row seating, better clothing options and even a phone app.

For now, the reward comes in smaller moments, like watching women in heels celebrate the height that once caused shame.

“The most joy of the day comes from the Tall Queen when she gets her crown and everyone’s going crazy,” he said. “It gets me every time.”

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Tall Tour will run through May with two more stops in Houston and Dallas, Texas. Follow Annika Hammerschlag on Instagram.

Georgia's current secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, became a household name when he defended the state's election results against Trump's false claims about widespread voter fraud and resisted the president's urging to help “find” enough ballots to win the race.

Now that Raffensperger is stepping down to run for governor, election oversight is a key issue in the race to replace him. Some Republican candidates are endorsing the same distortions that Trump did six years ago. The president has stocked the federal government with people who echo his conspiracy theories, and election denial has spread through state offices as well.

A looming deadline over vote counting

The race comes at a time when lawmakers have made a contradictory mess of state law governing how votes are counted. Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday called lawmakers into special session on June 17 for redistricting but also to address a looming deadline on voting.

Georgia’s touch-screen voting machines print a paper ballot that includes a human-readable list of voters’ selections and a QR code that a scanner reads to count votes. Lawmakers two years ago passed a law saying QR codes could not be used for the official vote count after July 1 of this year.

However, they've failed to agree on an alternative method since then, causing uncertainty and the potential for lawsuits over Georgia elections until that's sorted out.

While the special session may resolve the question temporarily, the next secretary of state will likely be involved in implementing a new voting system by 2028.

The shadow of the 2020 election

Gabriel Sterling, who was one of Raffensperger’s top aides, is the only Republican secretary of state candidate actively defending the state’s 2020 election results.

He rose to prominence by imploring Trump to help discourage threats of violence against election workers, and he said in a recent Atlanta Press Club debate that the state has “the best and safest elections in America.”

But others continue to echo Trump’s claims.

Vernon Jones, who was elected as a state representative and DeKalb County CEO as a Democrat and then switched parties to become a Republican and fervent Trump supporter, is maybe the harshest critic.

“I believe there were many irregularities. I believe violations have taken place,” Jones said, adding, “I stand with those who believe there was election fraud.”

Kelvin King, a general contractor who previously ran for U.S. Senate and is married to State Election Board member and conservative commentator Janelle King, is only a little more reserved.

“I think 2020 is still in question to be frank with you,” King said.

State Rep. Tim Fleming said he believes there were some “irregularities" in 2020 and that “great strides” have been made to address the issues. He said he's “not running on conspiracy theories” and is focused on the future.

What they're saying

Fleming said he believes he and his fellow lawmakers need to find a “temporary fix” during the special session to remove the QR code from the ballot in a way that is “least disruptive for the county elections officials.” But ultimately, he said, he also wants to see the state move to hand-marked paper ballots, a position supported by many other Republicans.

Fleming previously worked for the secretary of state's office while Brian Kemp, now the outgoing Republican governor, held the position. He led a study committee on Georgia's election system last summer, but the committee produced only the briefest of reports.

Jones and King and Ted Metz, who has previously run for governor and secretary of state as a Libertarian, have criticized Raffensperger's record as secretary of state. They have decried what they say is incompetence, which he denies, and a lack of transparency and are calling for a switch from touch-screen voting machines to hand-marked paper ballots. They have extended that criticism to Sterling, who oversaw the implementation of the state's current voting system and continues to defend it.

Sterling, for his part, has insisted he is best positioned to beat a Democrat in the fall. He endlessly repeats the refrain that he has defended Georgia's election laws and policies against attacks from “Stacey Abrams, Joe Biden's Justice Department and the woke world.”

Cole Muzio, president of Frontline Policy, a Christian conservative group, said he believes Jones has “traction” in the closing days of the race, but said he believes that in any runoff, rank-and-file Republicans are likely to rally behind anyone who is opposing Jones. Muzio said despite Jones’ outspoken pro-MAGA position, questions about his party switch could intensify in a runoff, particularly over Jones’ switch from vociferously defending legal abortion to opposing it.

The Democrats

On the Democratic side, the candidates have stressed protecting the right to vote and fighting attacks on the state's elections.

The Democrats running for secretary of state include certified financial planner and political organizer Cam Ashling; Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett; nonprofit founder Adrian Consonery Jr; and former Fulton County State Court Judge Penny Brown Reynolds.

Two weeks after Cherie DeVaux became the first woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner with Golden Tempo and after Jenna Antonucci won the 2023 Belmont with Arcangelo, Russell has the chance to complete the Triple Crown sweep of female trainers when she saddles Taj Mahal in the 151st running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

“It would sort of feel probably a little fairytale-like," Russell said. "Jena opened the door just a couple years ago with Arcangelo, and Cherie got it done in the Kentucky Derby. The fact that I feel like I have a live one in the Preakness here, look, there’s some pressure and I certainly hope we can do it, but it would mean an awful lot.”

Where the race is taking place and who will be aboard could make it mean even more. The Preakness is being run at Russell's home track, Laurel Park, for the first time, and husband Sheldon is the jockey. They would be the first married couple, at least as trainer and jockey, to win a Triple Crown race.

“The dream, the goal was always to get one that would take us to one of the big races, and he’s sort of taken us there,” Sheldon Russell told The Associated Press. “Just like a normal day, really.”

Most weekends, the Russells take their children to Laurel Park, which is just off I-95 between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and 6-year-old daughter Edy and 4-year-old son Rye are expected to be in attendance.

They were a little younger when they went to the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar in Southern California, in the fall of 2024 when Post Time, trained by their mother and ridden by their father, finished second in a world championship mile-long dirt race. It was a cross-country introduction to the sport.

“That was a big event for them,” Sheldon Russell said. “They didn’t really understand what we were doing there until we sort of got there. (This time) it’s not like we have to travel.”

And, unlike the usual Maryland-based horses who go into the Preakness as long shots, Taj Mahal is right in the mix of contenders in the wide-open field of 14 that does not include Golden Tempo. He opened at odds of 5-1, just behind morning line favorite Iron Honor.

Taj Mahal is unbeaten in three races, all at Laurel Park, including going wire to wire to win the Federico Tesio Stakes on April 18 by more then eight lengths.

“Immediately everybody started talking, just the way that horse won it,” Maryland Jockey Club president and CEO Bill Knauf said. “To have Brittany as our leading trainer for many years now here, she’s obviously one of the best in the country, and Sheldon has done an unbelievable job.”

Brittany Russell called it a dominant effort, and she hopes the home track advantage could be a major one. Her husband rides most of her horses, and that's another relationship edge they have over everyone else as they watch replays together and discuss strategy.

“Most of the time, it’s great,” Brittany said. "Now, look, does everything go to plan? Is everything always perfect? No, and it can be a little tricky. But at the end of the day, it’s horse racing and some things are out of our control. In this particular instance, I think it’s great. He knows the horse. He’s won on it three times. He knows the racetrack better than anybody. I think it’s a good thing.”

This is Brittany Russell's first Preakness horse in her eighth year of training. It's her husband's fourth chance to ride in the middle leg of the Triple Crown after finishing fifth aboard Chase the Chaos in 2023, sixth aboard Excession in 2020 and 10th aboard Concealed Identity in 2011.

This is different, though Sheldon Russell said he has not pondered the big-picture ramifications. His thoughts keep coming back to the little things, like, “We have a chance.”

“I guess if it happened, it’s going to be something,” he said. "We both know that he has a decent chance of showing up on the big day.”

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

Season 4 of “The White Lotus” will be set around the Cannes Film Festival, bringing one the most acclaimed TV series into the heart of cinema’s French Riviera playground. The Hôtel Martinez, one of the iconic luxury hotels that line the beach in Cannes, will be a central location in Mike White’s HBO series, fictionally renamed the White Lotus Cannes.

Shooting has begun along the Riviera. But four days into the Cannes Film Festival, “The White Lotus” production has yet to materialize in town. The festival runs to May 23, so there’s still plenty of time. But the prospect of it turning into a live backdrop for “The White Lotus” may be unlikely.

As tantalizing as the prospect of cast members — including Steve Coogan, Heather Graham, Kumail Nanjiani and Rosie Perez — mixing into red carpet premieres during the festival may be, Cannes is vigilant about keeping attention focused on its film selections.

Representatives for HBO and festival organizers declined to comment.

When cameras turn on Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival has often been an irresistible setting for movies and series. A trip to Cannes made for some of the best moments in the French series “Call My Agent!” Some movies have been shot guerrilla-style around the festival, like the 1996 cameo-rich mockumentary “Cannes Man.”

But most have relied on a mix of exterior footage shot from the event with staged interior scenes apart from the festival. “Mr. Bean's Holiday,” the 2007 comedy that culminates with Mr. Bean bumbling into Cannes, is, surprisingly, among the most seamless recreations.

Some of this season's “White Lotus” cast members are appearing in Cannes on their own, for other projects they're a part of. Vincent Cassel walked the red carpet Thursday night for the premiere of Asghar Farhadi's “Parallel Tales.” Laura Dern, who joined the cast after the departure of Helena Bonham Carter, is attending later in the festival for the documentary “Dernsie,” about her father, Bruce Dern.

After location scouting, producers settled on the Martinez and another hotel south of Cannes in Saint-Tropez: the Airelles Château de la Messardière. It will be renamed the White Lotus du Cap. In real life, the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, in Antibes, can function like a swanky satellite to Cannes during the festival, and hosts the annual amfAR gala.

Last month, “The White Lotus” producer David Bernad said the setting for Season 4 came out of a trip he and White took to the Cannes Film Festival in 2021.

“We went to dinner and we had a really specific experience with a waiter and a maître d’, and it was the stereotype. It was a very funny moment,” Bernad said at the Canneseries Festival. “And I think that it suddenly unlocked what the show is and the dynamics of the show.”

Their festival experience convinced them to bring “The White Lotus” to Cannes.

“The energy around it was so intoxicating and this season will have elements of that,” said Bernad. “It’s really about the people’s stories, them navigating Cannes, and the ups and downs of the festival. It’s the beating heart of everything in this season.”

A plum role for the Martinez

Meanwhile, the Martinez awaits its close-up. But the Hyatt-owned hotel, which first opened in 1929, is already at the heart of the festival. Like several of the other hotels on the Croisette, the Martinez hosts waves of stars for the festival. Glamour shots on its spiral staircase are an indelible feature of Cannes. Hordes of onlookers camp outside its doors hoping for a glimpse of a celebrity or an autograph.

“We are the biggest player in town in terms of the number of rooms,” says Michel Cottray, general manager of the Martinez. “The film festival started in 1946, but we have ever since been fully engaged and in complete partnership with the festival.”

On nights during the festival, the Martinez's lobby swells with attendees in formal wear heading to the evening premieres. Often, that includes casts and filmmakers who pile into the official festival motorcade that ferries them down the Croisette to the Palais des Festivals.

Right now, keeping that nightly ritual humming, and catering to its A-list guests, is the main concern of the Martinez. “The White Lotus” will come later.

“We are gearing up to the shooting,” Cottray says. “I think it will be in a couple months’ time and then it will be a big experience for all of us. But we are ready for that.”

Some floors of the hotel will be completely sold out and inaccessible to the public during the shooting. Filming will take place throughout the Hyatt-owned hotel. “It will be things happening a bit everywhere,” said Cottray.

Cottray spoke in the hotel’s Michelin-starred La Palme d’Or restaurant, where movie memorabilia adorns the vintage yacht-styled interiors: the boxing shorts from “Raging Bull,” a plate from “Titanic,” the ice pick from “Basic Instinct.”

In the same room, the Martinez every year hosts a private dinner at the beginning of the festival for the jury that will decide the Palme d’Or. This year, that includes Demi Moore, Chloé Zhao, Stellan Skarsgård and jury president Park Chan-wook. A meal is always tailored to the president of the jury. For the South Korean filmmaker of 2003 thriller “Oldboy,” octopus was naturally on the menu.

Hosting such a crowd — and with such a classic murder weapon near at hand, too — sounds straight out of “The White Lotus.”

“There are always unexpected issues happening,” says Cottray. “We have to react quickly. I will not drop names, but, clearly, we are ready for the unexpected.”

The University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab surveyed 823 registered voters and found that while sports betting is widely used, most Floridians are not calling for expansion.

Only 15% of voters say Florida should expand legal sports betting. Instead, 46% say the state should restrict or limit it, while 37% say current rules should stay in place.

The results point to a state divided between participation and policy preference, with the strongest sentiment leaning toward tighter regulation rather than broader access.

Sports betting use is most common among younger voters, men, and residents of South Florida. About 29% of voters ages 18 to 34 say they have placed an online bet, compared with 16% of those 55 and older. Roughly 30% of South Florida voters report betting online, compared with 20% in North Florida.

Among those who bet, the market is heavily concentrated on a small number of platforms. About 67% say Hard Rock Bet is their primary app, followed by 12% for DraftKings and smaller shares for other services.

The NFL dominates betting activity. Eight in 10 online bettors say they have placed wagers on professional football in the past year. College football, the NBA or WNBA, and Major League Baseball follow behind.

Most bets are relatively small. About 43% of bettors typically wager $1 to $10, while 30% bet between $10 and $20. Only 10% say they usually place bets of $50 or more.

Still, losses can add up. About 30% of bettors say their largest single-day loss exceeded $100, including 7% who say they lost more than $500 in one day.

Confidence in long-term winnings is low. Only 10% of bettors say they are very confident they can consistently make money betting on sports. A majority say they are not confident, and 83% report taking a break from betting for more than a month at some point in the past year.

Advertising and promotions also appear to play a role in behavior. Nearly all bettors (96%) say they have seen sports betting ads. About 73% say they have placed a bet because of a promotion or bonus offer.

Concerns about integrity remain widespread. More than 80% of voters say increased sports betting makes them question whether player or referee decisions are influenced by gambling. About 63% say reports of illegal betting or match-fixing have reduced their trust in professional sports leagues.

Overall, 49% of voters say sports betting has had a negative effect on sports, compared with 7% who say it has had a positive effect. A majority (56%) say it increases fan engagement.

The survey was conducted Jan. 30 through Feb. 3, 2026, among 823 registered Florida voters. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

The Colombian superstar Shakira and Afrobeats icon Burna Boy have teamed up for “Dai Dai,” the official song for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

It's a mesh of their musical landscapes: Afrobeats and Latin rhythms, an undeniably global, multilingual pop track. In one verse, they name a number of the world's most famous soccer players and countries competing in this year's World Cup: “Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia,” Shakira cheers. “Mexico, Japan, Korea, Netherlands.”

After the first chorus, Shakira and Burna Boy take turns tackling their own verses, singing back and forth, before joining in a duet.

The song arrived shortly after it was announced that Shakira, Madonna and K-pop group BTS will co-headline the FIFA tournament's first-ever final halftime show on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just outside New York City. The lineup was curated by Coldplay's Chris Martin.

The show will support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which is raising $100 million to help children access education and soccer.

Shakira first teased “Dai Dai” last week, sharing a minute-long teaser clip of her dancing in the center of the field of Maracaná Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. She included a snippet of the opening verse: “Here in this place / You belong,” she sang in English, a male voice harmonizing with her now identifiable as Burna Boy. “What broke you once / Made you strong.”

She is no stranger to World Cup anthems. Her song “Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)” was the official song of the 2010 World Cup held in South Africa and is widely regarded as one of the best.

It's also not uncommon for sponsors of the FIFA World Cup to release their own singles for the tournament. In March, Coca-Cola shared its own official anthem for the World Cup, a reimagination of Van Halen’s “Jump” that features Colombian singer J Balvin, drummer Travis Barker, pop/R&B singer Amber Mark and guitarist Steve Vai.

It is similarly multilingual: Balvin wrote a new verse in Spanish for the anthem, bringing in Brazilian funk and hip-hop to the classic rock staple. “‘Jump’ is not a fútbol song,” he told The Associated Press about the original track, using the Spanish word for soccer. “So that’s why I had to put the Latin love and passion for fútbol (in the lyrics).”

The World Cup is co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico and runs through June and July.

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

No coffeehouse employees are affected, the company said. The cuts will impact employees in support functions like marketing, human resources and supply chain management. No international employees are affected for now, but Starbucks said it is also reviewing its corporate structure outside the U.S.

Starbucks said it’s also closing underused offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago and other cities. The Seattle-based company recently announced that it's opening a corporate office in Nashville, Tennessee, that will employ up to 2,000 people within five years.

Starbucks expects to the moves to result in $400 million in restructuring charges, including $120 million in employee separation benefits.

Starbucks has been trying to reduce costs and complexity under Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company in 2024. Last year, the company laid off 2,000 corporate employees and closed hundreds of stores in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Niccol said last month that the simplified structure is helping the company innovate more quickly. Starbucks is also investing in its remaining stores to improve customers' experience. It plans to redesign 1,000 U.S. stores this year to give them a cozier, more comfortable feel, and it's also hiring baristas to ensure faster service during busy times.

The efforts appear to be paying off. In the January-March period, Starbucks said its U.S. same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, jumped 7%. Niccol called the quarter “the turn in our turnaround.”

“Our focus now is on sustaining our momentum and making our results repeatable and durable, all while delivering a healthy cost structure that supports profitable growth,” Niccol said during a conference call with investors. “It’s how we turn progress into consistent results.”

Monica Elfriede Witt, 47, was indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2019 on charges of espionage, including transmitting national defense information to the government of Iran. She remains at large.

Witt “allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution more than a decade ago by defecting to Iran and providing the Iranian regime National Defense Information and likely continues to support their nefarious activities,” Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division, said in a news release Wednesday.

“The FBI has not forgotten and believes that during this critical moment in Iran’s history, there is someone who knows something about her whereabouts.”

It wasn't immediately known why the FBI was bringing attention to Witt's case. The United States and Iran have been at war since Feb. 28.

Witt served in the Air Force between 1997 and 2008, where she was trained in the Farsi language and was deployed overseas on classified counterintelligence missions, including to the Middle East. She later found work as a Defense Department contractor.

The Texas native defected to Iran in 2013 after being invited to two all-expense-paid conferences in the country that the Justice Department says promoted anti-Western propaganda and condemned American moral standards.

Before that, Witt had been warned by the FBI about her activities, but told agents that she would not provide sensitive information about her work if she returned to Iran, prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, Witt placed at risk "sensitive and classified U.S. national defense information and programs,” the news release said.

“Witt allegedly intentionally provided information endangering U.S personnel and their families stationed abroad. She also allegedly conducted research on behalf of the Iranian regime to allow them to target her former colleagues in the U.S. government,” it said.

President Trump also played up his personal relationship with Xi and showered the leader with praise.

Dennis Wilder, a former senior American intelligence official and currently a senior fellow of Georgetown Universities Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues, joined News4JAX Anchor Bruce Hamilton on The Morning Show. They discussed the biggest takeaways from the historic meeting.

No games were scheduled for Thursday — the league's first day with no games in a month — meaning the playoffs will resume Friday with two games.

Detroit, trying to keep its season alive, will play in Cleveland. And Minnesota, trying to keep its season alive, will play host to San Antonio.

The Cavaliers and Spurs hold 3-2 leads in those series. If Game 7s are needed, they would be Sunday in Detroit and San Antonio.

Saturday is another day with no games on the schedule.

Friday's schedule

— Game 6, Detroit at Cleveland, 7 p.m. EDT (Prime)

Series: Cleveland leads 3-2.

Odds: Cleveland by 4.5.

The Pistons are already 3-0 when facing elimination in these playoffs, with one of those wins coming on the road — the one where they rallied from 24 points down in the second half to beat Orlando in Game 6 of Round 1. If the line holds at Cleveland -4.5, it would mark just the fifth time this season that the Pistons are such a big underdog.

— Game 6, San Antonio at Minnesota, 9:30 p.m. EDT (Prime)

Series: San Antonio leads 3-2.

Odds: San Antonio by 5.5.

Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs are one game away from a showdown with Oklahoma City. Minnesota let Game 5 get away in a hurry in the second half but remains alive in the chase for what would be its third consecutive appearance in the Western Conference finals.

Saturday's schedule

— No games scheduled

Wednesday's recap

— Cavaliers 117, Pistons 113, OT for a 3-2 series lead. The Pistons are in trouble.

Conference finals schedule

The NBA Finals will start on June 3. And there is a chance that we won't know where Game 1 of that series is going to be until June 1.

Conference finals schedules are out, with start dates contingent on Friday's results. Here are the scenarios:

— If Detroit-Cleveland ends in six games, then the Cleveland-New York series (with the Knicks having home-court) would be played May 17, 19, 23, 25, 27, 29 and 31.

— If Detroit-Cleveland ends in seven games, then the Cavs/Pistons winner-New York series (with either the Pistons or the Knicks having home-court) would be played May 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29 and 31.

— If San Antonio-Minnesota ends in six games, then the San Antonio-Oklahoma City series (with the Thunder having home-court) would be played May 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, and 30.

— If San Antonio-Minnesota ends in seven games, then the Timberwolves/Spurs winner-Oklahoma City series (with the Thunder having home-court) would be played May 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, and June 1.

Awards watch

A breakdown of this season's NBA awards:

— Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year: DeAndre Jordan, New Orleans.

— Hustle Award: Moussa Diabaté, Charlotte.

— Defensive Player of the Year: Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio.

— Clutch Player of the Year: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City.

— Sixth Man of the Year: Keldon Johnson, San Antonio.

— Sportsmanship Award: Derrick White, Boston.

— Most Improved Player: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta.

— Rookie of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Dallas.

— Executive of the Year: Brad Stevens, Boston.

Among the announcements still to come:

— Most Valuable Player: Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver's Nikola Jokic.

— Coach of the Year: Johnson, Detroit's J.B. Bickerstaff, or Boston's Joe Mazzulla.

Betting odds

Defending champion Oklahoma City (-170) is favored to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.

The Thunder are followed by San Antonio (+325), New York (+600), Cleveland (+3500), Detroit (+5000) and Minnesota (+12500).

Key dates

— Sunday or Tuesday: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.

— Monday or Wednesday: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.

— June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).

— June 23: Round 1, NBA draft.

— June 24: Round 2, NBA draft.

Quote of the day

“It was preparing for moments like this. I knew that I was going to come back this season. I knew that this team was good enough to make a run and I was just preparing myself, preparing my body, preparing my mind for these moments, to be the best player that I can be to help us win.” — Cleveland's Max Strus, on how he handled missing 70 regular-season games but was ready for the playoffs.

Stats of the day

— Cleveland's James Harden is up to 4,144 career playoff points, three away from tying Golden State's Stephen Curry for 10th on the all-time playoff list. Harden would move into third among active players if he passes Curry, behind only LeBron James (8,521) and Kevin Durant (5,008).

— San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama is up to 14 3-pointers and 38 blocks so far in these playoffs. Every other player with that many 3s and blocks in a single postseason — Rasheed Wallace in 2004 and 2005, Draymond Green in 2016 and Myles Turner and Chet Holmgren last year — saw their teams reach the NBA Finals. (Wembanyama is the first player to have that many 3s and blocks in just the first two rounds of the playoffs.)

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

Cody Nusbaum endured hundreds of treatments and surgeries after being ambushed in 2011. While his physical wounds have healed, he continues to battle post-traumatic stress disorder — and is now exploring alternative treatments that aren’t yet legal in the United States.

Nusbaum recalled the moment his life changed forever.

“We were ambushed — they had Afghan police uniforms on, so I thought he was on our team. And then he was about 10 feet away from me when he started shooting. He shot me 11 times. And then he ended up shooting me down up in the leg. One went through me and hit my squad leader,” Nusbaum said.

Even in the chaos of being medically evacuated, Nusbaum said he held onto a sense of certainty.

“For some reason, I knew I wasn’t gonna die. I don’t know why,” he said.

Nusbaum was flown to a hospital in Germany, where he received his Purple Heart under extraordinary circumstances.

“When I was in Germany, one of the 10th Mountain commanders came in the middle of the night to give me my Purple Heart,” he said.

His wife, Ashley Nusbaum, explained why the presentation happened at that hour.

“He wanted to come in the middle of the night because they told Cody he wasn’t going to make it through the night. They told him he would never walk. He can run. They told him, like, he would never be able to have kids. We have five,” Ashley said.

The Nusbaums live in Jacksonville with their five children. Despite Cody’s remarkable physical recovery, PTSD makes even simple daily tasks a significant challenge for the family.

Ashley shoulders much of the household responsibility.

“I pay all the bills. I pay, like, I make dinner, I clean. I do everything. Pretty much every single thing,” she said.

Now, the family is exploring ibogaine — a psychedelic currently being studied for its potential to treat brain injuries and PTSD. The drug is currently illegal in the United States. According to LegalClarity.org, ibogaine is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance in the United States and has a high potential for abuse.

However, the landscape may be shifting. An executive order signed by President Trump in April, could enhance research on psychedelic drugs and mental health treatment access.

Nusbaum said he’s heard encouraging things from fellow veterans.

“I’ve talked to a lot of guys who have done it, and they swear by it. So, they said, I mean, a lot of SF, Special Forces,” he said.

For now, the family plans to seek ibogaine treatment in Mexico, where the drug is legal.

Ashley Nusbaum has launched a website sharing her husband’s story, along with a donation drive.

He said the treatment could be life-changing — not just for him, but for his entire family.

“I feel like if I would be more independent, and that would be great for us. You know, I could be a better role model for my kids,” he said.

The family says every donation, regardless of size, would help cover the cost of treatment. A link to their website is available here: About Ibogaine | Help A Purple Heart

You also must figure some things out. Like how to productively pass the time while sitting in a long chemo session.

And one more thing, you wouldn’t believe how a Publix grocery shopping bag, yeah, the plastic ones. It becomes a protective cover for a medically necessary device.

Oh, the things I do when I’m “Fighting Cancer on My Terms.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy is running for a third term but first must overcome a Republican primary field that includes state Treasurer John Fleming and U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who was endorsed by Trump in January.

The primary is the president’s latest opportunity to exact retribution from his perceived political enemies, including fellow Republicans he considers disloyal. Cassidy has been near the top of that list since his vote more than five years ago to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial following the insurrection by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump was acquitted.

Louisiana is not among the states Democrats are targeting in their effort to retake the U.S. Senate. A Cassidy defeat in the primary would likely result in a Senate GOP caucus even more unified behind Trump and further demonstrate the strength of the president’s grip on the party.

Voters will also decide primary contests for state Supreme Court, Public Service Commission and state school board, along with five proposed state constitutional amendments.

Louisiana’s primaries for U.S. House were postponed after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state’s current congressional map, which includes a majority Black district that favors Democrats. U.S. House races will still appear on ballots, but any votes cast in those contests will not be counted.

In another key departure from previous Louisiana primaries, contenders in Saturday’s contests will run in separate party primaries, rather than in one jungle primary in which all candidates appear on the same ballot. State lawmakers adopted the new system for certain offices in 2024, but the law didn’t go into effect until 2026.

U.S. House races were originally slated to use the new primary system under the 2024 law, but state Republicans on Thursday adopted legislation to reinstate the jungle primary for U.S. House races, citing a compressed schedule after the Supreme Court decision. Just as in previous cycles, the jungle primary will be held on Nov. 3 alongside the general election.

East Baton Rouge Parish, home to Baton Rouge, and Jefferson and Orleans Parishes in the New Orleans area are the most populous in the state, but St. Tammany Parish, north of New Orleans along the Mississippi border, contributed the most votes in the 2016 and 2024 Republican presidential primaries.

Caddo Parish in the northwest, home to Shreveport, and Lafayette Parish also tend to play a bigger role in Republican primaries than in Democratic ones.

Trump narrowly won a four-way primary in 2016, powered in part by a large margin in Jefferson Parish and overcoming losses in East Baton Rouge and Caddo Parishes to Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. He swept the state eight years later in the 2024 primary against former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who had dropped out of the race by the time of the primary but was still posting stronger-than-expected showings in other states.

Cassidy’s previous victories in 2014 and 2020 were under the old primary system, in which his main opposition on the ballot came from Democrats.

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 8 p.m. local time (CT), which is 9 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, state Supreme Court, state Public Service Commission and state school board, as well as five statewide ballot measures.

Who gets to vote?

Registered party members may vote only in their own party’s primary. In other words, Democrats can’t vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may participate in either primary. Voters registered with other parties may only vote on nonpartisan contests.

How many voters are there?

As of May 1, there were about 3 million registered voters in Louisiana. Registered Democrats and Republicans numbered about 1.1 million each, with registered Democrats at a slight advantage. About 813,000 voters were not registered with any party. The remainder were registered with other parties.

How many people actually vote?

Louisiana’s new primary system is closer in format to the 2024 presidential primaries than to previous state primaries. About 192,000 votes were cast in the Republican primary and about 167,000 in the Democratic contest. Each primary represented about 6% of registered voters.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 41% of the Republican primary vote and about 45% of the Democratic primary vote in 2024 was cast before primary day.

As of Thursday, about 255,000 ballots had already been cast in Saturday’s election, about 44% from Democrats and about 41% from Republicans.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Results from early and absentee voting are usually released by each parish in the first vote update, as separate totals from in-person Election Day vote results.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 general election, the AP first reported results at 9:32 p.m. ET, or 32 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 11:56 p.m. ET, with more than 99% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

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

How do recounts work?

There are no automatic recounts in Louisiana, but a candidate may request and pay for a recount of absentee and early votes. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Saturday, there will be 42 days until the June 27 primary runoff if needed, 171 days until Nov. 3 general election and the rescheduled U.S. House jungle primaries and 210 days until the Dec. 12 runoff.

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

The auction on eBay was intended to revive an event that Buffett hosted for more than two decades that raised $53 million for the GLIDE Foundation homeless charity in San Francisco. This year's auction that wrapped up Thursday night also raised month for Curry's Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation that he established with his wife, Ayesha.

The anonymous winner paid $9,000,100 to win a private lunch with Buffett and the Currys in the 95-year-old investor's hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, next month.

"We’re overwhelmed with gratitude for this opportunity, which reflects a shared belief that when different generations and institutions come together with purpose, we can create deeper and more lasting impact for the people who need it most,” the Currys said in a statement.

The Buffett auctions started in 2000 and continued every year until the pandemic prompted a couple years off. Starting in 2008, every winning bid for lunch with the investing giant topped $1 million. He discontinued the event after someone paid $19 million for a lunch in 2022.

A follow-up auction in 2024 raised $1.5 million for a lunch with software titan Marc Benioff, but that version of the event didn't last.

Buffett reached out to the Currys earlier this year to ask them to join the lunch auction this year. Curry missed 27 games this year before returning to help the Golden State Warriors down the stretch.

Buffett stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway in January after six decades of leading the conglomerate. He remains chairman, but just sat through his first annual shareholder meeting — sitting in the audience instead of leading the event from stage.

The village, al-Joura, was demolished by the Israeli military at the time. It has since vanished under neighborhoods of the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and the grounds of a national park.

The neighborhood where Abu Hamam’s family ended up — and where he spent most of his life — now lies also largely in ruins. Buildings in the Shati Camp in the northern Gaza Strip have been razed and wrecked by Israeli bombardment and demolitions during the past 2½ years of war.

On Friday, Abu Hamam and millions of Palestinians mark the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” referring to the mass expulsion and flight of some 750,000 Palestinians from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. It’s the third commemoration of the Nakba since the war in Gaza began.

The 78-year-old Abu Hamam, one of a dwindling number of Nakba survivors, says the current war is an even greater catastrophe.

Israel’s military has pushed deep into Gaza, now controlling 60% of the territory, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday, during a Jerusalem Day celebration.

"Today it is 60%, tomorrow we will see, tomorrow we will see,” he told a cheering crowd in Jerusalem.

More than six months after an October ceasefire, Gaza’s more than 2 million people are now crammed into less than half of the 25-mile-long strip along the Mediterranean coast, surrounded by the Israeli-controlled zone.

“There is no country left,” Abu Hamam said, speaking next to his home, which was heavily damaged by Israeli shelling earlier in the war. “A square kilometer and a half extending from the sea, this is what we are living in … It’s indescribable, unbearable.”

What was the Nakba?

For Palestinians, the Nakba meant the loss of most of their homeland. Some 80% of the Palestinians who lived in the area that became Israel were driven from their homes by forces of the nascent state before and during the war. The fighting began when Arab armies attacked following Israel’s establishment as a home for Jews in the wake of the Holocaust. Palestinians who remained behind hold Israeli citizenship.

After the war, Israel refused to allow Palestinian refugees to return to ensure a Jewish majority within its borders. Palestinians became a seemingly permanent refugee community that now numbers some 6 million, with most living in refugee camps in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Gaza.

Around 530 Palestinian villages in what became Israel were destroyed, according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics.

Abu Hamam’s birth village was one of them. Al-Joura was seized by the Israeli military as it advanced against Egyptian forces in November 1948. Soldiers were ordered to destroy every home in al-Joura and neighboring villages to ensure their Palestinian populations couldn’t come back, according to military archives cited by Israeli historian Benny Morris.

Refugees swelled the population of the tiny patch of territory along the southern coast that became the Gaza Strip. They stayed in tent camps, run by a newly created U.N. agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, which provided aid and schooling. Those camps, like Abu Hamam’s Shati Camp, grew into dense urban neighborhoods over the decades, before many were flattened during the latest Gaza war by Israeli bombardment.

In Gaza, Palestinians live a new Nakba

The ancestors of Ne’man Abu Jarad and his wife, Majida, were already living in what would become the Gaza Strip in 1948. They both recall stories from their families about refugees streaming in by foot from areas further north, like the village Abu Hamam came from.

Though they avoided the original Nakba, there was no escaping from what Majida now calls “our Nakba.”

Their hometown has been wiped off the map. Over the past year, Israeli bulldozers and controlled detonations have razed nearly every building in the northern Gaza towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun. A new Israeli military base stands about 700 meters (765 yards) from where the Abu Jarads’ house once stood, according to satellite photos.

Also gone is the southern Gaza city of Rafah, once home to a quarter million people, and other villages and neighborhoods located in the Israeli-held half of the Gaza Strip. The military says it is destroying positions used by Hamas and preparing the area for reconstruction. Satellite photos show nearly every structure reduced to rubble.

Over the last 31 months of war, the Abu Jarads and their six daughters have been displaced more than a dozen times as they fled Israeli bombardment and offensives. They currently live in a camp in the southern city of Khan Younis. Their tent offers little shelter from biting winter winds or summer heat, Majida said.

Their daughters have been out of school for over two years now.

“The Nakba of ’48, I don’t think it can be compared to our Nakba,” Majida said. “In ’48, they say people were displaced once and settled in one place, and they are still there until now. But our Nakba, honestly, is more severe because our displacement has happened multiple times. There is no stability.”

Around 90% of Gaza’s more than 2 million people have lost their homes, according to U.N. estimates, with most of them now sheltering in huge tent camps with rat infestations and pools of sewage. They are dependent on aid to survive.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 72,700 Palestinians, according to local health officials. It was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people. Militants also abducted 251 hostages.

In the northern West Bank, tens of thousands of Palestinians are entering their 15th month of displacement, after the Israeli military ordered them out of their refugee camps as it launched an operation it said was targeting militant groups.

Since then, troops have demolished or heavily damaged at least 850 structures across the refugee camps of Nur Shams, Jenin and Tulkarem, according to an analysis of satellite imagery by Human Rights Watch released in December.

Saving what was lost, again and again

The 1948 Nakba also brought the loss of Palestinians’ history, as those fleeing struggled to keep hold of the documents and possessions tying them to their homes.

One of the largest archives of Palestinian documents dating back to the Nakba belongs to UNRWA.

UNRWA staff members, who fled their offices in Gaza after Israel ordered the north evacuated, had to leave behind the agency’s extensive archive.

The staff then launched a mission to rescue the most crucial documents — birth, death and marriage certificates and refugee registration cards, according to Juliette Touma, a former senior UNRWA official.

Without those documents, Palestinians could lose their rights and refugee status. Staffers crammed their personal suitcases full of papers and carried them through checkpoints and out of the territory, Touma said.

The current war has cost Palestinians in Gaza what little remained of their personal histories. Majida’s parents’ home in Beit Hanoun was destroyed, and with it family photos.

“There is nothing left,” she said.

Abu Hamam, too, says everything has been lost.

“When this war came, it devoured trees, stones and people,” he said. “Entire families were erased from the civil registry. Hundreds of families are still buried under the rubble.”

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Associated Press writer Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

The gift will support a range of campaign initiatives and continues a long history of Nimnicht family philanthropy at the university, including namesakes on campus and family-funded scholarships.

Gilmore, known as the “A-Train,” was the driving force behind JU’s run to the 1970 NCAA championship game and helped the Dolphins finish 27-2 that season. His college rebounding average of 22.7 per game remains the highest in NCAA Division I history. After leaving JU, Gilmore played 17 seasons in the ABA and NBA and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.

“Jacksonville University has given me so much — a place to grow, a team to believe in, and a community that never stopped believing in me,” Gilmore said. “Those years as a Dolphin shaped everything that came after. This is where my heart is. To know that a piece of that will live on permanently on this campus is something I never could have imagined, and I am truly humbled by it.”

Gilmore has remained closely connected to the university, serving as special assistant to the president and as an ambassador for the school and the city of Jacksonville.

“In 92 years, Jacksonville University has honored only one person with a permanent statue on this campus, our matriarch Dr. Frances Bartlett Kinne, and now we are proud to add a second, the greatest JU student‑athlete ever, Artis Gilmore,” Jacksonville University President Tim Cost said. “He elevated this university onto the national stage as a student‑athlete and has remained a treasured ambassador for our institution for more than five decades. Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Lee and Becky Nimnicht, future generations of Dolphins will always know his legacy.”

Lee Nimnicht, a 1990 Jacksonville University graduate, has been a longtime supporter of the school. The Nimnicht name appears across campus, including the Billy Nimnicht Jr. Court inside Swisher Gymnasium and the Nimnicht Fitness Center, and the family has established scholarships that have benefited many students. Nimnicht’s son, Lee Nimnicht Jr., is currently a JU student and a graduate assistant in the athletics department.

“Jacksonville University has been a part of my family for as long as I can remember, and that connection only deepens with time,” Lee Nimnicht said. “Artis Gilmore is the reason so many people first heard the name Jacksonville University. He helped put Jacksonville on the map, and we are proud to play a role in honoring his legacy in this way.”

The bronze sculpture will be created by Hanlon Sculpture Studio, led by master sculptor Brian Hanlon. Based in Toms River, New Jersey, Hanlon is the official sculptor of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and has completed more than 550 permanent installations worldwide, including tributes to Shaquille O’Neal, Dominique Wilkins and Charles Barkley.

Traffic anchor Sophia Vitello joined the JSO DUI Enforcement Team for a ride-along with Officer Ernesto Valerio, a 22-year veteran who said he has made about 1,400 DUI arrests.

During the shift, Officer Valerio stopped a driver for speeding — clocked at 93 mph near Beach Boulevard — and pointed out other risky behavior on the roads, including drivers failing to move over for a traffic stop. He also cited a commercial driver, noting CDL holders face stricter consequences for violations.

Later, the team responded to a crash in which Officer Valerio said a vehicle struck a guardrail, hit another car and ended up pinned against the barrier. He said multiple open containers were found, including what appeared to be a large, opened bottle of vodka.

Officers arrested the driver at the scene. Video from the ride-along showed officers struggling with the suspect before placing the person in a patrol vehicle.

“We have the suspect under arrest for DUI, DUI property damage twice,” Officer Valerio said as they headed to the Duval County jail. Cameras were not allowed inside the booking area.

Officer Valerio said impaired driving is more common than many people realize, estimating the average person drives impaired 80 times a year. Remember, impaired driving doesn’t mean just alcohol, it also means prescription drugs, over the counter medicines, cannabis, or illicit drugs.

The rest of the NHL can't get rid of the Knights that easily, and their ridiculous roll has extended all the way into yet another Western Conference finals.

The Knights won their 14th playoff series when they finished off the upstart Anaheim Ducks with a 5-1 victory in Game 6 of the second round Thursday night. No team has won more postseason series since Vegas entered the league in 2017, and the Knights are in the third round of the playoffs for a jaw-dropping fifth time in nine seasons.

This charmed club is halfway to its second Stanley Cup title, but it isn't just luck driving Sin City's team deep into seemingly every postseason while the rest of the West looks on in frustration and envy.

Vegas' win-at-all-costs philosophy has required years of expensive signings and high-profile talent acquisitions. It led to a shocking coaching change this spring. It has also depended on that talent's ability to coalesce when games mean the most — a feat that even great teams sometimes can't pull off.

So far, the Knights' pot hasn't gone empty — and their luck is holding strong.

“Just proud of the guys,” said defenseman Shea Theodore, an original member of the Knights. “I think it comes right from (owner) Bill Foley up top. That's the message going into every year, is to win Cups, and I think we've put ourselves in great positions. Guys put the work in.”

With a pair of six-game series victories over the Utah Mammoth and the Ducks, Vegas has improved to 15-4-1 since the franchise pulled the stunning move of firing Bruce Cassidy, its Stanley Cup-winning coach, and hiring John Tortorella with just eight games left in the regular season.

“Torts has been a good change coming in, just getting us the right mindset going into each game, each playoff series," Theodore said. "I feel like we have the right tools going in and guys have been executing.”

The Knights had been in an 8-15-4 slump before they took the extraordinary step of turning over the team to a 67-year-old journeyman coach in late March. Tortorella hasn't made massive changes to the Knights' structure, but his new voice must have been heard: Vegas immediately surged past Anaheim and Edmonton to win the Pacific before speeding down this division's comparatively smooth path to the conference finals.

“I think we were maybe doubting a little bit of ourselves about what we were trying to do out there, and sometimes that happens,” said Mitch Marner, who scored the opening goal in the clincher in Anaheim after getting a hat trick on the same ice in Game 3. “Torts came in and, I think, brought our swagger back to where it needed to be, and playing the way that we wanted to play. And obviously since that change, I’ve really liked our game as a team. I think we all have. We’re playing a fast-paced game. We’re doing all the little things right, and that’s what it takes.”

Marner's first season in Vegas has been “a roller coaster ride,” according to the longtime Toronto forward who left for Vegas last summer amid fan discontent with him while the Maple Leafs failed to reach a conference finals. While the Leafs imploded this season, Marner started relatively slowly out West by his lofty standards before getting on the roll of his career in the playoffs.

Marner had a goal and an assist in the Game 6 clincher, giving him an NHL-best 18 points in the postseason so far. The Toronto fans who thought he was a playoff underachiever must look for somebody else to blame, because Marner has been aces in Vegas.

“Individually wise, it feels great to be going on to the next round with this team,” Marner said. “And the work now really just keeps getting harder, and we’re excited for it.”

Indeed, the Knights flew out of Southern California knowing that their path to the Stanley Cup Final is blocked by the Colorado Avalanche, who have been the NHL's best team for most of the season.

Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar have led their group to eight wins in nine playoff games against the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the conference standings. Vegas is facing long odds as it attempts to separate the Avs from their apparent destiny.

But the players who wear the Golden Knights sweater have been on a collective lucky streak since they entered the NHL, and that success breeds a confidence that money can't buy.

“We're playing a very high-talented team coming up here, so we've got to make sure we're doing all those things right,” Marner said. “And then when we get our opportunities, capitalize on them.”

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

A rocky start that wasn’t entirely Dobes’ fault, led to the goalie regaining his form and confidence. He stopped Buffalo's final 32 shots in a 6-3 win on Thursday night that gave Montreal a 3-2 lead in its second-round playoff series.

“I told him thank you for leaving me and trying to prove myself," Dobes said, referring to St. Louis. "That’s a big part, to have (the) trust of your coach, and I will never disrespect it. I appreciate it and the only thing I was trying to do just give some momentum back to the team and try to keep it tight, and it worked out.”

Game 6 is at Montreal on Saturday night.

Whatever struggles Dobes had to open a game in which the Sabres led 3-2 by the 10:15 mark of the first period, the 24-year-old from Czechia reassured his team he had rediscovered his groove.

That was particularly evident some four minutes into the second period in stopping Tage Thompson on a breakaway after the Sabres caught Montreal on a line change. Buffalo’s regular-season scoring leader drove in from the left wing, cut across the crease only to have Dobes stay with him and stop Thompson’s shot with his left pad.

Montreal responded with three goals over the final 12 minutes of the period in building a 5-3 lead.

“It was a huge save,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “We never lost confidence in him. Everyone was struggling in that first period. And I just thought that was a big moment for us.”

For Dobes, who went 29-10-4 in his first full NHL regular season, the down-then-up outing was a lesson in not giving in to frustration. The goalie acknowledged he sagged after rookie Konsta Helenius beat him through the legs on Buffalo’s third goal.

“The one lesson I learned from today was just got to have a better body language for the boys — don’t let them know that I’m not feeling maybe my best,” Dobes said, noting he was reminded of that during a first-intermission discussion. Dobes has been Montreal's starter since the playoffs opened, and is now 7-5 in which he's allowed 28 goals.

St. Louis said it was goalie coach Marco Marciano’s decision to not pull Dobes.

“Ultimately, it’s probably my decision right? But I feel like the goalie position is probably the one position that I can help much,” said St. Louis, a former NHL forward. “So I try to stay out of it and not be emotionally driven, and being upset that we’re down.”

St. Louis described the conversation over the radio with Marciano, who was watching from the press box, as being brief.

“He said, 'No, keep him in.’ OK, let’s move on,” St. Louis said.

Forward Juraj Slafkovsky defended Dobes by saying Buffalo’s first goal pinballed in by deflecting off Sabres forward Jason Zucker and then a Montreal defender. And Dobes was screened when Josh Doan beat him to put Buffalo up 2-1.

“We didn’t help him there, but then he came back and he was in a game, and he was once again really good,” said Slafkovsky, who had three assists. “It’s just Marty trusting him. I think it’s huge for confidence of (Dobes). And we all trust him as well.”

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

It wasn't immediately clear who was behind these incidents, but they happened as a senior Iranian official reiterated his country’s claim of control over the waterway and another said it had a right to seize oil tankers connected to the U.S.

The turmoil in the strait, which a fifth of the world’s oil passed through before the war, has been a sticking point for weeks in talks between the U.S. and Iran to end the conflict. Iran's grip on the vital waterway has jolted the world economy and spiked fuel prices far beyond the Middle East.

The ongoing instability in the region came as U.S. President Donald Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing. The White House said both sides had agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open.

Just last week, tensions flared in the strait when U.S. forces fired on and disabled Iranian oil tankers that they said were trying to breach its blockade of Iran’s ports.

Seizures and attacks in Hormuz ongoing

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said it received reports that the ship seized Thursday was taken by unauthorized personnel while anchored 38 nautical miles (70 kilometers, 44 miles) northeast of the UAE port of Fujairah, an important oil export terminal that has been repeatedly attacked during the war with Iran.

The U.K. maritime center did not name the ship seized Thursday and said it is investigating. The British military said the vessel is heading toward Iranian waters.

Indian authorities said Thursday that an Indian-flagged cargo ship sank off the coast of Oman after an attack sparked a fire aboard the vessel while it was en route from Somalia to Sharjah, another UAE port. They did not say who attacked the ship.

The attack on the Indian-flagged cargo ship Haji Ali occurred Wednesday, according to Mukesh Mangal, a senior official in India’s shipping ministry. He said all 14 Indian crew members were rescued by Oman’s coast guard and were safe.

India’s foreign ministry called the incident “unacceptable” and condemned continued attacks on commercial shipping and civilian mariners. The ministry did not identify who carried out the attack.

Seizures come at tense diplomatic moment

Iranian semiofficial news agencies reported that Chinese ships began passing through the strait Wednesday night under new Iranian protocols. According to the reports, Tehran agreed to facilitate the passage of several Chinese vessels after requests from China’s foreign minister and Beijing’s ambassador to Iran. The ships began their passage as Trump arrived in China.

The seizure of a ship off the coast of the UAE happened hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he had quietly visited the country during the Israeli-U.S. war with Iran, though the UAE swiftly denied it.

The Gulf nation normalized relations with Israel in 2020. Iran has criticized that agreement and has repeatedly suggested over the years that Israel maintained a military and intelligence presence in the UAE.

Netanyahu’s decision to go public with the sensitive meeting was likely an effort to drum up support for his flagging party ahead of Israeli elections, said Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at the Institute of National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

“It’s amazing, it’s the deepest cooperation we’ve ever had … that during a war, Israel is defending an Arab state against Iran. It shows how complicated the Middle East is,” he said.

The UAE is trying to highlight its cooperation with Israel but not with Netanyahu and his government, Guzansky said, because many in the UAE are against Israel’s policies in Gaza.

“They’re trying to differentiate between security cooperation and cooperating with this government,” said Guzansky, who previously worked for the national security council within the Israeli prime minister's office.

Iran sets demands for new talks

Iran said it will not enter more talks with the United States unless five conditions are met, including paying reparations for the war and accepting Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency reported, citing an informed source.

The White House is again unlikely to accept those demands, which would essentially formalize Iran's control over a waterway that was open to international traffic before the war.

Iran’s senior vice president, Mohammadreza Aref, said Thursday that the strait belongs to Iran and that Tehran would not give it up “at any price,” state TV reported. “It has always been our property,” Aref said.

Iran defends right to seize ships

Iran’s judiciary spokesperson told the state-owned Iran Daily newspaper on Thursday that Iran has the legal and judicial right to seize oil tankers in the strait that are connected to the U.S. because the U.S. has violated international maritime laws and committed piracy. The spokesperson, Asghar Jahangir, did not explicitly refer to the tanker seized on Thursday.

Iran seized a number of ships, including a tanker identified as the Ocean Koi, last week, saying it was attempting to disrupt oil exports and Iranian interests, according to the official IRNA news agency. It said the tanker was seized in the Gulf of Oman and carrying Iranian oil when it was taken to Iran’s southern coast.

The U.S. sanctioned the Ocean Koi in February as part of a “shadow fleet” transporting Iranian oil.

Top US military leader says Iran's threats impact shipping

The top U.S. commander in the Middle East said Thursday he believes Iran’s military capabilities have been “dramatically degraded,” but its leaders are impacting shipping in the strait with rhetoric alone.

“Their voice is very loud, and the threats are clearly heard by the merchant industry and the insurance industry,” Adm. Brad Cooper told lawmakers in Congress.

He said the U.S. has the military power to permanently reopen the strait and escort ships. But he deferred to policymakers about the best path forward amid a “time of sensitive negotiations.”

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Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.

Today, the 60-year-old dancer and choreographer from Havana is far from the big stages where he once thrived and rehearsed alongside professional artists. Instead, he spends his days conducting dance workshops and classes for children and coordinating performances within his community.

Like many Cubans navigating one of the island's worst economic crises in decades, Mas' daily life has been upended by persistent blackouts, water outages, soaring costs and a lack of transportation.

But for artists like him, the situation is a little worse, compounded by the cancellation of shows, a lack of production budgets and a mass exodus from the cultural sector. In fact, he was recently notified that his teaching contract with the National Theater of Cuba has been suspended.

“The outlook for the arts is complex and bleak,” said essayist and arts journalist Michel Hernández. He noted that Cuba’s cultural spaces — once affordable and state-run — have deteriorated significantly, leaving artists with few venues beyond a handful of expensive private spaces.

Yet, Mas won't give up.

“I am very interested in staying in Cuba,” he told The Associated Press on a recent Saturday as he prepared for a rehearsal with children from a nearby community. “Were I to emigrate, I would lose contact with that ‘Cubanness’ that exists here, with the audience, the people, the folks next door.”

Transforming a street corner into a dance stage

Born in Havana in 1965, Mas trained as a dancer and choreographer under the tutelage of Laura Alonso, a renowned ballerina, and Ramiro Guerra, the father of contemporary dance on the island. He also studied with the Cuban-American dancer and choreographer Lorna Burdsall, who encouraged him to persevere despite the discrimination he faced from dance schools because he weighed 160 kilograms (352 pounds).

He made his debut in 1996 with his own company, Danza Voluminosa (or Voluminous Dance), which remained active until 2024 and provided a home for dancers whose bodies diverged significantly from the industry’s prevailing aesthetic norms. He also worked as an actor and in 2025 he starred in “Cherri,” a fictional film based on his own life experiences.

These days, to supplement the modest income he makes working with children, Mas leases a small area of his home for business use and hosts weekend garage sales featuring curated recycled clothing, tableware and household goods.

Since his sister and teenage nephew relocated to Spain last year, he has lived alone and managed his expenses by shopping at a local farmers’ market just two blocks away. Conveniently, he also accesses subsidized medications at a state-run pharmacy directly across the street.

On a recent morning, water bottle in hand to ward off the heat, Mas walked six blocks to the lively Marianao district, where a crowd of 30 children and their mothers awaited his arrival.

The group suddenly transformed a street corner into a stage and for a full 90 minutes, the air filled with music as the little ones performed their songs and showed off their dance moves dressed as bees and other colorful characters.

Against all odds, Mas highlighted the importance of staying connected to his community.

“It’s about bringing the knowledge of art to these children and lifting them out of a reality defined by conflict,” he said.

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

Captain and Liverpool defensive midfielder Wataru Endo and veteran fullback Yuto Nagatomo were included.

The 28-year-old Mitoma suffered a hamstring injury during Brighton’s 3-0 win over Wolves in the Premier League last weekend.

“The medical team assessed that it would be difficult for him to get back to fitness during the tournament,” Moriyasu said.

Monaco forward Takumi Minamino also missed out after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in December.

In 2022 in Qatar, Japan won its group after upset victories over Germany and Spain before losing in the round of 16 on penalties to eventual semifinalists Croatia.

Japan is on a five-match winning streak heading into its final pre-World Cup friendly against Iceland in Tokyo on May 31.

The streak started last October with a 3-2 win over Brazil in Tokyo when the home side came back from 2-0 down to beat the South Americans for the first time.

It was also the last time Japan conceded a goal. Japan also beat England 1-0 on March 31 at Wembley after defeating Scotland 1-0 at Glasgow three days earlier.

Japan qualified for its first World Cup at France in 1998 and co-hosted the event with South Korea in 2002. This year marks Japan's eighth World Cup tournament in a row.

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Japan squad:

Goalkeepers: Zion Suzuki, Keisuke Osako, Tomoki Hayakawa.

Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo, Shogo Taniguchi, Ko Itakura, Tsuyoshi Watanabe, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Hiroki Ito, Ayumu Seko, Yukinari Sugawara, Junnosuke Suzuki.

Midfielders/forwards: Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Daichi Kamada, Koki Ogawa, Daizen Maeda, Ritsu Doan, Ayase Ueda, Ao Tanaka, Keito Nakamura, Kaishu Sano, Takefusa Kubo, Yuito Suzuki, Kento Shiogai, Keisuke Goto.

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

The Gulfstream long-range business jet carrying them from the Netherlands landed at RAAF Base Pearce outside the Western Australia state capital, Perth. The passengers, crew and a doctor who accompanied them were taken by bus to the nearby Bullsbrook quarantine facility.

Australian Health Minister Mark Butler said the government would implement one of world's strongest quarantine responses to the outbreak.

He said passengers of the cruise ship MV Hondius who returned to the United States and most European countries would spend a few days in a quarantine center before they were sent home.

"We have taken the decision to take a stronger approach to quarantine arrangements than that because we are determined to ensure there is no risk at all of any transmission of this virus into the Australian community,” Butler told reporters in his hometown of Adelaide.

The five Australians and one New Zealand citizen will spend the three-week quarantine period in the facility that had remained largely unused since it was built in 2022 is response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A decision had yet to be made on what precautions should be taken for the remainder of the 42-day period of potential incubation that the World Health Organization had identified, Butler said.

The six passengers all tested negative for the virus before they left the Netherlands, had been assessed by a doctor during the flight and would undergo more detailed health assessments at Bullsbrook, Butler said.

The MV Hondius ship was on a cruise from Argentina to the Antarctic and then to several isolated islands in the South Atlantic Ocean when the hantavirus outbreak was identified. Three people among the 11 cases from the ship have died.

With the evacuation of all passengers and many crew members completed, the MV Hondius is now sailing back to the Netherlands, where it will be cleaned and disinfected.

Brett Howden scored his third short-handed goal of the playoffs and Shea Theodore got a power-play goal during a 3-0 first period for the Golden Knights, who reached the third round of the NHL postseason for the first time since they won their lone Stanley Cup championship in 2023 — and for the fifth time in this charmed expansion franchise’s nine seasons of existence.

“You go into it and you want to score first, especially being on the road,” said Theodore, an original member of the Knights after Anaheim traded him to Vegas in 2017. “I thought we responded well. We played great the first 15 minutes, and that's what we had to do. ... Just a veteran group. We had the right mindset coming in, and it was good to see the results.”

Marner played a role in all three of Vegas' first-period goals while raising his NHL-leading playoff point total to 18, and Game 5 overtime goal-scorer Dorofeyev put the game away with a huge third period. Carter Hart made 31 saves as the veteran-laden Golden Knights ended the upstart Ducks' first playoff appearance since 2018.

“It obviously feels great,” said Marner, who got labeled a playoff underachiever while his Toronto Maple Leafs never reached a conference final. “We worked extremely hard for all these little goals that we set throughout the year, and another one (is) achieved. But obviously the work just keeps getting harder and harder.”

Vegas will face an exponentially bigger challenge in the Colorado Avalanche, who won the Presidents' Trophy and then improved to 8-1 in the postseason on Wednesday by ousting Minnesota in five games.

Mikael Granlund scored a power-play goal for the Ducks, whose return from a seven-year playoff drought ended when their young roster was unable to match the veteran Knights’ playoff poise in three losses over the final four games.

Lukas Dostal stopped 16 shots for Anaheim, which couldn't overcome another poor first period in Game 6, ending their encouraging first season under coach Joel Quenneville.

“Vegas got better every single game,” Quenneville said. “They played well. They checked well. They deserved to win. Tonight was kind of what happened too many times this year, where we give up a couple of quick ones early, and it's a tough comeback against a team that knows how to play hockey.”

The Knights are 15-4-1 since John Tortorella replaced Cup-winning coach Bruce Cassidy on March 29, surging past the Ducks to claim the Pacific Division title before beating Utah and Anaheim in the first two playoff rounds.

The 67-year-old Tortorella refused to speak to the media after the game.

Marner set the tone for Game 6 very early: The Anaheim crowd hadn’t calmed down from the pregame festivities before William Karlsson found Marner behind the defense at the blue line. Marner fought off Jackson LaCombe while driving the net and somehow got turned around, only to flip a shot between his legs and past Dostal for his seventh goal of the postseason and fifth of the series.

“I just tried to make a move," Marner said. “Dostal had me covered, I thought, on the backhand, so I tried to do that move, and luckily it worked out.”

Eight minutes after Marner's opening goal, he found an unmarked Howden for his eighth goal and the Knights' NHL-best fourth short-handed goal of the postseason.

Theodore then got a long shot through Marner's screen and over Dostal's shoulder just 5 seconds into a power play, silencing Honda Center.

Troy Terry found Granlund for the Finn's fifth goal of the playoffs, in the second period, but Dorofeyev got his eighth goal of the postseason early in the third after John Carlson's giveaway. Dorofeyev added another with 6:28 to play, fooling Dostal with a sneaky shot and giving him five goals in the past four games.

Vegas played without suspended defenseman Brayden McNabb, whose illegal hit on Ryan Poehling in Game 5 injured and sidelined the Ducks’ penalty-killing forward indefinitely.

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

“That one was,” the coach said, “something.”

Something, indeed.

The Avalanche advanced to the Western Conference final for the eighth time since relocating to Denver courtesy of a Brett Kulak goal in a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild in Game 5. It's just the second time in the last nine playoff appearances the Avalanche have made it past the second round.

On the other occasion, in 2022, the team went on to capture the Stanley Cup championship.

With a team led by Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, it's always a Cup-or-bust scenario. This team especially, given a regular season with captain Gabriel Landeskog on the ice, their depth — the Avalanche had 16 different players score in the Wild series — and the play of their stars.

Stanley Cup favorite

Among the preseason favorites, they led the NHL most of the regular season in capturing their fourth Presidents’ Trophy, which goes to the team with the best record.

Like Carolina, the Avalanche are rolling into the conference finals. The Hurricanes advanced with a pair of sweeps while the Avalanche required nine games, including a first-round sweep of the Los Angeles Kings. As of Thursday, Colorado is a slight favorite over the Hurricanes to win the Cup.

Next up for Colorado is Vegas, with Game 1 on Wednesday night in Denver. Colorado was 2-0-1 against the Golden Knights in the regular season.

Bednar understands the lofty expectations year in and out, given his talented roster. Criticism comes with the territory.

“It's hard to win,” Bednar said. "But I wouldn't want it any other way. I don't think our players would want it any other way.

“People are going to get on you because you didn't win the Cup. I'd still rather be fighting for that, having earned that type of reputation because of the way you play through the regular season and the group that you put together as an organization and the high expectations, rather than, “Let’s just try and make the playoffs.'”

Not much rattles the Avalanche these days. Not even a three-goal hole, which set up a frantic finish and the overtime winner from Kulak, who took a pinpoint pass from Martin Necas and lined it into the net to send the capacity crowd into a frenzy.

It was Kulak's first goal since Jan. 19 when he was with Pittsburgh before being traded to Colorado the following month. It was also the first time the Avalanche won a series on home ice since 2008, when they beat the Wild in Game 6 of the conference quarterfinals.

“In an environment like this, where the building felt like it was going to start shaking at any moment, it was exciting," said Landeskog, who played in his first regular season since 2022 after being sidelined with a knee injury. “Now, it’s kind of a sigh of relief.”

Banged-up Avalanche have chance to heal

The Avalanche have a few days to heal. They were without forward Artturi Lehkonen and defenseman Sam Malinski the last two games of the Wild series due to upper-body injuries. Makar momentarily left Wednesday's game after a collision, but returned.

“The playoffs are a long grind and you want to keep your focus narrow," said Kulak, who made the Stanley Cup Final with Edmonton last season. “We can get some rest.”

Colorado is 3-4 in the conference finals since arriving in town before the 1995-96 season. All three times the team has advanced, though, a banner has followed — 1996, 2001 and 2022.

“They’re a really good team,” Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes said.

Depth on display

A strength of Colorado has been its depth. The 16 different players to score in the second round is tied for the most in a singles series, according to NHL Stats.

“The depth is what's going to win, coming down the stretch here in the playoffs,” Landeskog said. “Guys are stepping up all over the place.”

In net, too, even if a goalie dilemma may now be a storyline.

Scott Wedgewood took over in the second period after Mackenzie Blackwood surrendered three first-period goals. Wedgewood stopped all seven shots he faced in the second and third periods (he saw none in OT).

“Just proud,” Wedgewood said of making the conference final. "Proud of our group ending it and finding a way to do that because we knew going into the series, it wasn’t going to be an easy out. There’s a long road ahead, a lot of stories to write and just preparing for that.”

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

Just six months earlier, thousands of miles away, this same young man was pulling all-nighters to play Madden NFL on his Xbox at his home near Minneapolis. Sometimes he'd pause to snack on pizza rolls and Diet Coke, or check his texts for the next hangout at TopGolf or Buffalo Wild Wings.

Two separate worlds. Both are home to Jalue Dorje.

A typical American teen, he grew up loving rap music, video games and football. He is also an aspiring spiritual leader who, from an early age, was recognized by the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist leaders as a reincarnated lama.

Now he’s 19. He graduated from high school last year and moved to northern India to join the Mindrolling Monastery, about 7,200 miles (11,500 kilometers) from his home in Columbia Heights. Recently, he came to Nepal to meet his parents, who flew from Minneapolis, and attended sacred rituals and teachings conducted by the abbot of Shechen Monastery.

Maroon and golden monastic robes had replaced his usual hoodies and sweatpants. But he still quoted from Drake (the rapper) and Shantideva (the 8th-century Indian monastic). And beneath his robes, he wore white Crocs decorated with Jibbitz charms of “The Simpsons.” He wore them often at Shechen Monastery, near the 1,500-year-old Boudhanath stupa, one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most sacred sites.

Each morning, he’d awake at dawn. After prayers, he walked from his hotel through crowded Kathmandu streets lined with fruits, incense and spices, dodging mopeds near the soaring white dome and spire of Boudhanath with its colorful Tibetan prayer flags and the painted, ever-watching eyes of the Buddha.

On a recent day, he strode to the monastery and took off his Crocs before entering a prayer hall reserved for monks with doctorates and lamas like himself. Incense wafted. The sound of ancient instruments — cymbals, bells and drums — punctuated the monastic chants.

Standing before three huge gold statues of the Buddha, Dorje bowed to Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, the monastery’s spiritual head, and presented him with a golden plate that symbolizes the entire universe, and a “khata” — a white Tibetan ceremonial scarf.

It was the first mandala, or offering, Dorje had made since his long journey to follow his predestined spiritual path. It was a moment, he says, when he realized how far he’d come.

“This is the real one, you know? We’re here and this is really happening,” he says. “I’m doing what the prophecy fulfilled.”

A reincarnation cycle dating to 1655

Since the Dalai Lama recognized him at age 2, Dorje had spent much of his life training to become a monk, memorizing sacred scriptures, practicing calligraphy, learning the Buddha’s teachings.

The process of identifying a lama is based on spiritual signs and visions. Dorje was four months old when he was identified by Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, a venerated master of Tibetan Buddhism. He was later confirmed by several lamas as the eighth Terchen Taksham Rinpoche — the first was born in 1655.

Jalue Dorje’s parents took him to meet the Dalai Lama in 2010 when Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leader visited Wisconsin. The Dalai Lama cut a lock of Dorje’s hair in a ceremony. He advised the parents to let their son stay in the U.S. to perfect his English and then send him to a monastery.

“From my parents’ end, educating me was a really big one,” Dorje says. “They followed the words of his holiness; he laid the foundation, and they took that gamble.”

As a child, he often wondered why he couldn’t sleep later on weekends and watch cartoons like other kids. One day, it would pay off, his dad would tell him, “like planting a seed that one day would sprout.”

He remembered the early mornings of recitation and memorization. He recalled people who posted messages online doubting that he was a reincarnated lama, and how that troubled his parents. And how they both worked hard cleaning hotel rooms and doing laundry at hospitals while raising him.

“It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns every day,” Dorje says. “We overcame a lot.”

Fluent in English and Tibetan, Dorje excelled in public school. Although he was officially enthroned as a lama in a 2019 ceremony in India, his parents let him stay in the U.S. until graduation.

Growing up, he kept a photo of the Dalai Lama in his room above DVD collections of “The Simpsons,” “South Park,” and “Family Guy,” next to the manga graphic novel series ″Buddha.”

On his bedside table, he kept a journal where he diagramed plays he’d like to try as a left guard with his school football team. On a wall in his living room he hung a poster with his senior year photo wearing sunglasses and his football uniform, touching thumb tips to index fingers in a meditation gesture.

He had a deal with his father, who would give him Pokémon cards in return for memorizing Buddhist scriptures. He collected hundreds, sometimes sneaking them in his robes at ceremonies. “I remember,” he says, “when I first learned my Tibetan ABCs, when I was able to recite it all by memory, my dad was so happy.”

A love of sports

The days were long. Every morning he awoke to recite sacred texts. Then school, followed by football practice. He returned home for tutoring on Tibetan history and Buddhism. At night, he practiced calligraphy or listened to rappers. When he got his license, he drove around listening to Taylor Swift.

What would he have been if not a spiritual leader? “Sports journalist would have been cool,” he says. He loves to write. An avid fan, he roots for the Atlanta Hawks in basketball, Real Madrid in soccer, and the Atlanta Falcons in football.

His favorite athlete is U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu: “She brings so much swagger, but it doesn’t overshadow the sports.” In high school, he wrote an award-winning story about Tibet for the student newspaper.

On the football field, his teammates praised his positivity; he reminded them to have fun and keep losses in perspective. But in the final game of his senior season, he shed tears, realizing it would likely be his last game ever.

He often helped with events representing the local Tibetan community. For his 18th birthday, more than 1,000 people gathered at the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota for the last party before joining the monastery in India.

Finding his groove

On the long plane ride, his mind wandered.

“I was like, ‘Dang! I’m missing the first week of NFL!’” He packed light: headphones, laptop, a fantasy football magazine and a book on Guru Rinpoche, the Indian Buddhist master who brought Tantric Buddhism to Tibet.

His parents flew with him to New Delhi and then drove north to Dehradun, near the Himalayan foothills, in the equivalent of a college dropoff. They bought him a larger bed. They painted his monastic room and erected a shrine where he could pray at dawn and dusk.

He is an only child, and his parents cried when saying goodbye. The farthest and longest that he'd gone from home on his own previously was a three-day camping trip in northern Minnesota.

“Everything leading up to this point in the history of all your lifetimes — the billions and billions of lifetimes you accumulated — leads to your family,” Dorje says. “To have such great parents is a result of a great past life’s merit. But not only past life merit, but the connection of karma — and love.”

Early on, his mother, Dechen Wangmo, worried about her then-toddler son during long prayer sessions.

“Would he be hungry? What if he fell asleep?” she recalled thinking. She kept worrying about him as a teenager: “He’s a tulku,” she says, using the Tibetan term for a reincarnated lama, “but he’s my son.”

To her relief, he thrived. While his friends attended history, science and literature classes in U.S. colleges, he took lessons on Buddhist philosophy, and practiced his calligraphy and chanting in India.

“He’s kind of found his groove at the monastery,” says Kate Thomas, one of his tutors in Minneapolis.

Becoming a ‘leader of peace’

Despite the 10-hour time difference, he kept in contact with friends back home through texts and WhatsApp. On time off, he built Legos, walked to an arcade to play the FIFA soccer video game and watched Marvel superhero films and NBA and NFL games on his laptop. He was especially psyched about the halftime Super Bowl show: “That was an incredible performance by Bad Bunny — I can ’t lie!”

It was his first time experiencing a life of asceticism, eating a daily ration of rice and lentils and washing his own clothes by hand. But he adjusted, getting along with monks from all over Asia, discussing spirituality, popular culture and sports.

“Dudes are dudes!” he says.

It was the first time that he was hanging out with other “tulkus' — reincarnated spiritual masters around his own age. Among them was Trulshik Yangsi Rinpoche, 13. He's believed to be the reincarnation of Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche — the Tibetan Buddhist master who first recognized Dorje as a tulku at four months old.

At the monastery, they bonded over their love of Tintin comics. Dorje became his English teacher.

“I think of him as my spiritual teacher,” Dorje said after sharing a meal with the younger lama. “I’m profoundly grateful that I get to repay my debt to the one who found me and improving his English.”

Yangsi Rinpoche smiled, then reflected: “He’s my best friend.”

Just hours after Dorje blessed thousands — including his parents — on the last day of the 12-day rituals, the family awoke before dawn to visit the ancient Maratika or Halesi Mahadev Caves, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Mount Everest. They drove for eight hours on dirt roads, crossing mountains and valleys, for a pilgrimage to caves sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists.

After exploring the caves in awe, Dorje sat cross-legged on the rocky ground next to his father, Dorje Tsegyal. They prayed together, as they had done almost daily since his childhood.

Following several years of contemplation and asceticism, Dorje hopes to return to the United States to teach in Minnesota’s Buddhist community at the Nyingmapa Taksham Buddhist Center. His goal: become “a leader of peace,” following the example of the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Gandhi.

It’s a long path that began soon after his birth. He feels ready. “This,” he says, “is just the beginning.”

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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’s the mantra of a multiracial group of civil rights leaders and activists organizing opposition to a mostly white conservative alliance dismantling the Voting Rights Act and political districts that allowed Black and other nonwhite voters to choose more of their elected leaders for the last half-century.

“We have to respond as quickly as possible,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in an interview. “The real question,” Johnson told The Associated Press, “is how do we as a country really address the effort to shrink us backwards into a 1950s reality?”

Johnson’s 117-year-old association, which was at the forefront of legal and legislative fights for Black political rights in the 20th century, is among scores of groups coming together Saturday in Alabama for a rally and tribute to the Civil Rights Movement that helped bring about the 1965 Voting Rights Act. They plan events in Selma, where voting rights advocates were attacked by white law enforcement officers on Bloody Sunday, and Montgomery, where a rescheduled march concluded two weeks later.

Unlike 61 years ago, the Alabama events are not the pinnacle of a protracted movement. Instead, civil rights activists hope they serve as a catalyst for a renewed crusade after the U.S. Supreme Court, two weeks ago, further weakened the VRA by no longer allowing race to be considered in how congressional and other districts are drawn.

They acknowledge difficulty in countering a white-dominated conservative network entrenched in the White House, Capitol Hill, federal courts and many state legislatures of the Old Confederacy, where a majority of Black Americans still live.

The VRA “was the foundational nucleus of the Civil Rights Movement,” said Jared Evans of the Louisiana-based Power Coalition for Equity and Justice. “They’ve taken that from us,” he said, with the recent Louisiana v. Callais decision on congressional districts and the earlier Shelby v. Holder decision in 2013 that rolled back federal oversight of election procedures in states and localities with a history of discrimination.

Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, said from his pulpit that the result is “Jim Crow in new clothes.”

Warnock pointed to King and the last voting rights movement. “We need political power. We need economic power. We need personal power,” he said, assuring parishioners that “your adversaries know that your voice matters” because they're “bending over backwards” to diminish it.

Evans reached further back into history to say what must happen next.

“Our response must be and will be a second Reconstruction period,” Evans said.

Some Democrats want an answer from Congress

The ultimate goal, organizers said, is to win more elections, sway policy fights and protect diverse political representation at all levels.

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, a Black lawmaker who represents Selma, Alabama, said an immediate priority is to “reform and reintroduce” Democrats' flagship voting bill, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act.

Sewell, whose seat ultimately could be threatened under redistricting, said Democrats want to “completely” eliminate partisan gerrymandering.

She also said the legislation would “bring back pre-clearance,” the requirement for certain federal approvals that the court struck down in Shelby.

“We need to come up with a modern-day formula for showing just how egregious the behavior of these state actors is,” Sewell said.

The Supreme Court ruled in Callais that states do not have to draw majority nonwhite districts under the Voting Rights Act and, in fact, should not consider race at all when drawing boundaries. By arguing that the law's remedies to combat discrimination had themselves become racist, the decision allows states to redraw heavily Black districts that have historically elected Democrats while arguing that the designs are based on party interests, not race.

President Donald Trump praised the decision as “a BIG WIN for Equal Protection under the Law, as it returns the Voting Rights Act to its Original Intent, which was to protect against intentional Racial Discrimination.”

Groups mobilized for redistricting sessions

Many of the same groups who’ll be in Alabama on Saturday have already gone to Southern statehouses, where white Republican lawmakers moved swiftly to redraw congressional districts after Callais.

Alabama and Louisiana lawmakers reverted to a single majority-Black district, each scrapping a second district that had been ordered by lower federal courts under now-reversed VRA interpretations. Tennessee lawmakers gutted a majority Black district by splitting greater Memphis into three different sprawling districts — itself an obvious racial gerrymander the court had previously forbidden, Evans said.

Anticipating the Callais outcome, Florida and Texas proceeded with redistricting before it came down. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a term-limited Republican, has called a June session to redraw congressional lines for the 2028 cycle. Mississippi and South Carolina have delayed the matter for now.

South Carolina state Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey was among the few white Republicans who pushed back against GOP redistricting plans. He said that not even pressure from Trump could sell him on disenfranchising Black South Carolinians instead of doing what's best for his state.

Other white conservatives are still talking openly about ousting Reps. Jim Clyburn and Bennie Thompson, the only Black U.S. House members from South Carolina and Mississippi, respectively.

Evans, the Louisiana activist, predicted the fight ahead won't just be about congressional representation.

“Look for them to go after state house and state senate seats — and then it will be the local level,” he said, adding that “it’s going to be an entire erasure of Black representation.”

The issue is more than a partisan Washington fight

Heavily minority districts drawn under the VRA before Callais nearly always elect Democrats. Black Americans have overwhelmingly aligned with the party since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, sparking a decades-long migration of most white Southern politicians to the Republicans. Latino and Hispanic voters still lean Democratic in most places as well.

The immediate fight shapes the midterm campaign scramble for control of the U.S. House during the final years of Trump’s presidency. Trump initially pushed Republican-run states to redistrict to protect the party's fragile House majority.

But Johnson, the NAACP leader, said all voters should see more than partisan warfare or a regional battle over race.

Beyond party allegiance, Johnson argued, white conservatives want to curtail a range of rights “depending on how you pray, depending on who you love,” while also pushing economic policies that punish workers across racial and ethnic lines. From legislation to the confirmation of federal judges who decide constitutional questions, those policy outcomes start with election results.

“It’s not a Black problem,” Johnson said. “That’s an American problem.”

There is no singular movement or leader yet

Evans, Johnson and others acknowledged the complexity in harnessing disparate organizations and galvanizing voters on issues like redistricting and gerrymandering. But they insist the brazen nature of Republicans' course has spurred engagement.

Johnson said he was on an organizing call in Mississippi this week that had 8,000 participants. Evans pointed to packed hallways in the state Capitols in Baton Rouge and Nashville, respectively.

The NAACP and allies have challenged new maps in multiple states, despite Callais. Many groups want to spur midterm turnout among Black voters, and others are disenchanted with white conservatives’ maneuvers in racially diverse places.

Johnson stressed the need for perseverance.

The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was seismic, with a unanimous court declaring segregated public schools unconstitutional and reversing 19th-century precedents denying Black Americans' fundamental rights.

But it took 17 years — and many more court battles — for it to be implemented in most Southern school districts. Fights over mandated student busing continued beyond the South. It was a decade after Brown before Congress and Johnson enacted the movement’s seminal laws.

There's no clear leader of a modern movement.

Johnson said it’s worth remembering that even with King at the helm before his assassination, “there was tension around strategy” in the 1950s and 1960s.

But even “through that tension, through many episodes, we were able to get directly in the right place.”

Grabbing viewers’ attention as one of 25 acts competing in quick succession in Saturday’s grand final in Vienna means pulling out all the stops, both musically and visually.

In the case of this year’s favorites to win, the Finnish duo of pop singer Pete Parkkonen and classical violinist Linda Lampenius, that involves jets of flame, a valuable 18th-century violin and a team of “ninjas” working to avert disaster.

The pair’s song “Liekinheitin,” or “Flamethrower,” is a favorite with both fans and betting markets with its melding of pop and classical influences — and its spectacular staging.

Here’s what it takes to create the eye-catching performance.

Permission to play

Parkkonen and Lampenius dub their sound “new pop with a classical touch." Their song of burning love is an explosion of energy in which Parkkonen’s passionate vocals act as counterpoint to Lampenius’ frenetic fiddling.

The Finnish delegation had to secure special permission for Lampenius to play live. Eurovision rules state that lead vocals must be performed live, but instruments are prerecorded, to help speed changeovers between songs.

Lampenius says “Flamethrower” was “written as a duet,” and both performers need to be live for it to work.

“It’s a woman and a man, it’s a female voice and a male voice. So I do all my lyrics through my violin, by playing, and you (Parkkonen) are singing it with words. But we are talking. We are (equally) as important, both of us.”

The pair were not certain when they arrived in Vienna that Eurovision organizers would allow the request. They were only given final approval after performing in front of an audience in a live rehearsal.

The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, said contest rules allow that “live audio capture of instruments may exceptionally be permitted where artistically justified.”

Lampenius had brought two violins just in case – a treasured Gagliano made in 1781 so live performance would “sound perfect,” and a cheaper instrument to use if she had to rely on playback. That would remove any risk to the Gagliano from the slightly hazardous staging.

Practice makes perfect

Lampenius and Parkkonen say they have been rehearsing for this moment since November. They won Finland’s national selection contest for Eurovision in February and say by now they have performed the song hundreds of times.

It is crucial to get it right. The performance builds to a climax that sees jets of flame spurt from a stage on which Lampenius, fanned by a leaf blower and wearing a flowing dress, is playing her precious violin.

Lampenius concedes it's “a bit scary when you think of it."

But she says she is secure in the knowledge she has black-clad stagehands who call themselves “ninjas” on hand to keep her dress away from the flames – an essential piece of the performance that goes unseen by viewers watching at home.

“They’re running with me – first one guy carrying my dress when I’m running, then the other one catching me during my run,” she said. “And he helps me also when I jump up on the stage and do the pirouette.”

For the striking final pose in which Lampenius perches atop chairs in high heels, violin aloft, Parkkonen combines singing with his role as a security spotter, there to catch her if she topples over.

“That’s my work,” the singer said.

“The history of nature is made up of both extreme beauty and violence, volcanoes and butterflies, shifting tectonic plates and marsupials, the bones of the stegosaurus and the light of Milky Way,” the author and bookseller said Thursday night as she stood before hundreds at the Manhattan-based cultural institution museum and accepted the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award.

“To spend a day in this museum is to understand that the world had plenty of action before we got here, and it will continue to have plenty of action. And so, let us marvel that people still want to write books, and that we want to read them.”

Patchett and film producer Jason Blum were among the featured speakers and Amy Tan, Walter Isaacson and Rebecca Yarros among the table hosts for the fundraising dinner, which raised more than $2 million for the century-old literary and free expression organization. The gala took place as writers and journalists face persecution worldwide and after recent reports from PEN and the American Library Association documenting the continued surge in book bans in the U.S., with thousands of works being pulled from schools and libraries.

“First, they come for your freedom of expression. Without that freedom to raise your voice, it is much easier to strip away all of your other rights,” PEN co-CEO Summer Lopez said during her remarks. “We believe that hidden in the horrors of this moment is also an opportunity — to mobilize people and ignite a movement for free expression, here and everywhere."

Blum, the producer whose credits range from Jordan Peele's Oscar-nominated “Get Out” to such horror franchises as “Halloween” and “Paranormal Activity,” received PEN's Business Visionary award. He was introduced by the actor-singer Maya Hawke, who remembered him as a cherished childhood friend — he is her godfather — and an ongoing role model who “builds a safe and boundaried structure and then gives creatives freedom and control within that. Like a good father, or godfather.”

Blum wryly noted that horror films don't have a rich history of critical praise. He read off some of the insults he had come across, or alleged he came across: “For the young, the ignorant, and the idle" and “Extremely provocative of that sensation in the palate and throat which leads to nausea.”

But those remarks, he added, date back to the 19th century, and they were directed at the mass market sensation of the time — the novel.

“So all forms of storytelling, especially when they’re new and different, need protection from the forces of snobbery and suppression," he said.

The PEN gala, hosted by author-actor B.J. Novak, has long been a mix of star power and social causes. The Iranian writer-dissidents Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee and Ali Asadollahi were this year's recipients of the PEN/Barbery Freedom to Write Award, given to writers who have faced government harassment and imprisonment. PEN President Dinaw Mengestu, pointing out that neither was able to attend and that their absence was signified by two empty chairs, asked the audience to imagine a time of no empty chairs “on this stage or on any stage in this world.”

One of the night's longest ovations was given to the Tennessee-based activists Tatiana Silvas and Keri Lambert, whose anti-censorship Rutherford County Library Alliance has fought book bans in the Rutherford area. The library alliance was this year's winner of the PEN/Benenson Courage Award

“Libraries are not simply buildings filled with books. They are one of the few institutions that truly belong to everyone, regardless of age, income, background or beliefs,” Lambert said. “Defending libraries is really about defending democracy itself. A healthy community depends on informed citizens, open dialogue and the freedom to explore ideas. Libraries make all of that possible.”

The deal was signed in Amman, Jordan, after 14 weeks of negotiations observed by U.N. officials and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the deal and called on the parties to move swiftly toward implementing it so families could soon be reunited, a U.N. spokesperson said.

Abdelkader al-Murtada, the Houthi head of the National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs, who was involved in the talks, said that 1,100 of the almost 1,700 detainees are Houthi-affiliated, while seven Saudis and 20 Sudanese are among the 580 detainees that will be released by the other side.

The head of the government delegation, Yahya Kazman, said in a post on X that a “number of politicians and media professionals" held by the Houthis will also be released. He did not give details.

U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said the deal covered the largest release of “conflict-related detainees.” The ICRC in a statement said both sides agreed on the identities of the detainees to be released, and added that the Geneva-based organization is ready to facilitate their repatriation.

It was not immediately clear when the release would start.

Guterres also called on the government and the Houthis to build on the positive momentum generated by the deal and to engage constructively toward an inclusive political process for a just and lasting peace in Yemen, Guterres’ deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said.

“The Secretary-General further urges the Houthis to immediately and unconditionally release all arbitrarily detained personnel from the United Nations, NGOs, civil society and diplomatic missions,” Haq said.

The agreement builds on negotiations held in Oman in December 2025, Grundberg said. Both sides at the time discussed the release of 2,900 detainees.

Yemen plunged into civil war in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen and forced the government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition, including the United Arab Emirates, intervened the following year in an attempt to restore the government to power.

The conflict has pushed the economy to the brink of collapse and caused severe food insecurity in northern provinces, according to the World Food Program.

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Chehayeb reported from Beirut.

Suzuki and Jake Evans capped a three-goal second period surge by scoring 68 seconds apart in a 6-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night, giving the Canadiens a 3-2 lead in their second-round playoff series.

Montreal didn't lead until Evans swept a loose puck over the goal line behind Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to put the Canadiens up 4-3 with 3:45 remaining in the second period. Ivan Demidov set up the goal when his shot glanced off Luukkonen’s glove and then dribbled behind him.

Suzuki then scored 10 seconds into a power-play opportunity by converting Juraj Slafkovsky’s one-handed pass from the end boards and beating Luukkonen through the legs with a shot from the lower right circle.

“The power-play goal was huge, felt like it gave us a little bit of breathing room,” Suzuki said. “Just kept trying to put the foot on the gas a little bit, too.”

Demidov, Cole Caufield, Josh Anderson and Alexandre Texier also scored for Montreal, which will host Game 6 on Saturday night.

Dobes allowed three goals on the first four shots he faced before stopping the final 32. The rookie goalie was pleased with coach Martin St. Louis' decision to keep him in the game, especially after Dobes acknowledged he sagged after rookie Konsta Helenius beat him through the legs to put Buffalo up 3-2.

“I told him thank you for leaving me and trying to prove myself,” Dobes said. “I’m really proud of myself too for not giving up and keep making saves.”

Josh Doan and Jason Zucker also scored for the Atlantic Division champions, who are facing elimination for the first time this postseason.

Luukkonen allowed five goals on 23 shots, and was pulled after two periods -- the second time he’s been yanked this postseason. Alex Lyon mopped up, allowing a goal on three shots. Lyon is potentially in line to regain the starting duties after losing the job following a 6-2 loss in Game 3.

“It’s not good enough. Not good enough,” Sabres forward Alex Tuch said. “I thought we had a pretty good start actually, too. We should have locked it down better and played better defensively. It’s frustrating.”

The Sabres have dropped two of three at home in the series, and are 2-4 overall in the playoffs. On the bright side, they’re 4-1 on the road, including a 3-2 win at Montreal on Tuesday.

Montreal finally got much-needed production from its top line, with Suzuki (goal, two assists), Slafkovsky (three assists) and Caufield getting on the scoresheet. The trio had combined for four goals and five assists in the first four games of the series.

Most encouraging was Caufield’s goal being the line’s first in a five-on-five situation in the series.

“Very good for the confidence,” said Slafkovsky. “We stuck with it, and it’s good for confidence. But it doesn’t matter. In two days, we got to do it again and play our best game of the season.”

Montreal is one win from advancing to the semifinal round of the playoffs for the first time since the Covid pandemic altered 2021 playoffs. The Canadiens eventually reached the Stanley Cup Final and lost to Tampa Bay in five games.

Buffalo and Montreal combined for five goals in the first 10:15, including Doan and Texier scoring nine seconds apart.

The five goals were scored in a span of 8:15, which ranks 11th on the playoff list of fastest between two teams.

Buffalo’s deficiencies continue being exposed. After allowing 12 goals in six games of their first-round series against Boston, the Sabres have allowed 21 already to Montreal — and 19 in the past four.

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

FIFA announced Thursday that, for the first time, the final at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on July 19 will include a Super Bowl-style concert.

Soccer's governing body said the show would support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which is raising $100 million to help children access education and soccer.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said it would bring together “music and football on the biggest stage in sport for a very special cause.”

“When you have a position of responsibility, you want to do everything you can to have a real impact,” Infantino said at the Global Citizen NOW conference in New York on Thursday. “Not everyone can become a world champion, but everyone can become a little bit better by having the right education. So we embrace that.”

The show will be curated by Coldplay's Chris Martin, who came up with the idea four years ago while watching the previous World Cup, said Hugh Evans, CEO of the nonprofit Global Citizen, which has partnered with FIFA on the halftime show and the education fund.

Shakira said at the conference that she’s spent her entire adult life “making songs and building schools,” referring to the work of her nonprofit, Barefoot Foundation.

“Finally, during this World Cup, those two paths meet,” said the “Hips Don't Lie” superstar, who added she is hoping for her homeland of Colombia to make it to the World Cup final.

The Super Bowl is famed for its halftime show, attracting the world's biggest stars for spectacular performances. This year featured Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny. Previous headliners included Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Prince, Bruce Springsteen and Rihanna.

But halftime shows are not commonplace in soccer, with events such as the Champions League final featuring a prematch concert. On May 30, the Killers will headline a concert before European club soccer's biggest game between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest.

Evans told The Associated Press in an interview that everyone involved in the halftime show are huge soccer fans who wanted to ensure the performances would be “significantly shorter than the 15-minute mark,” which is the traditional interval in a match. “Soccer fans around the world can be rest assured knowing that we’re very respectful of the game," Evans said.

Hamish Hamilton, who directed the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony and most Super Bowl halftime shows in recent memory, will direct the World Cup halftime show, said Evans.

The World Cup is co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico and runs through June and July.

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

Edward Busby Jr. was pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m. following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay over his disabilities claims. The execution capped a series of last-minute legal efforts by Busby's attorneys seeking to spare his life.

Busby was condemned for the suffocation death of Laura Lee Crane, a retired professor from Texas Christian University. Prosecutors said she was abducted from a grocery store parking lot in January 2004 and left to suffocate in the trunk of her car with duct tape wrapped heavily around her face, covering her mouth and nose.

The execution was the 600th in Texas since it resumed carrying out the death penalty in 1982. Busby also was the fourth person executed this year in Texas and the 12th nationwide. Earlier Thursday, Oklahoma executed Raymond Johnson for killing his ex-girlfriend and her 7-month-old daughter nearly 20 years ago.

When asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Busby repeatedly apologized and asked for forgiveness.

“I am so sorry for what happened,” he said while strapped to the death chamber gurney. “Miss Crane was a lovely woman. I never meant anything bad to happen to her.” He said he wished he could “take it all back” and added he had “no right to get in that car.”

“I’ll take the blame if that helps."

He said he had surrendered his life to God and urged a sister, who was praying and watching through a window a short distance away, to find a church and “pick up your cross.”

"I’m here because this is the will of God,” he said before the injection got underway.

As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began flowing, he took a sharp breath, closed his eyes and gasped. Then he made snoring sounds that got progressively quieter. Within 40 seconds, all movement and sounds ceased. He was pronounced dead 38 minutes afterward.

Busby’s execution had been in doubt after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week issued a stay of execution to further review his claims of intellectual disability. But the Supreme Court overturned the stay Thursday at the request of the Texas Attorney General’s Office. The attorney general’s office had argued that similar appeals were previously rejected and were “meritless” and based on “conflicting evidence.”

Busby’s lawyers quickly sought another stay but it was denied by a lower court.

The Supreme Court in 2002 had barred the execution of intellectually disabled people. But it has given states some discretion to decide how to determine such disabilities.

Busby's attorneys had argued against putting him to death because a defense expert as well as one hired by the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case, both found he was intellectually disabled.

The district attorney’s office had previously recommended Busby’s sentence be reduced to life in prison. But the trial judge in Busby’s case disagreed with the findings of intellectual disability and in 2023 upheld the death sentence.

In a statement Wednesday, the district attorney's office said it requested Thursday's execution date because it believed that under current law Busy was not intellectually disabled.

Two other prior execution dates for Busby had been delayed by courts.

Prosecutors have said Busby and his co-defendant, Kathleen Latimer, abducted Crane in her car from a Fort Worth grocery store parking lot and later put in her vehicle’s trunk as they drove around. Prosecutors said she died in the trunk after suffocating from having 23 feet (7 meters) of duct tape wrapped over her entire face.

Busby was subsequently arrested in Oklahoma City driving Crane’s car and led authorities to her body in Oklahoma just north of the state line with Texas.

Latimer is in prison serving a life sentence for murder.

Bryan Mark Rigg, an author and historian who represented the Crane family as a witness to the execution, said they “neither support or oppose the death penalty. However, they are united in their respect for the rule of law.”

Rigg said as a child he was a student of Crane, who for decades helped children overcome learning disabilities and “was discarded in a field like a piece of trash.” He said the execution was not about vengeance but “accountability under the law and about remembering the life of an extraordinary educator.”

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Lozano reported from Houston. Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://x.com/juanlozano70

Angela Kearse, 58, who admitted to stealing more than $60,000 worth of medical equipment from St. Vincent’s Hospital, was sentenced to 36 months (three years) in prison with a 10-year probation and $65,000 resitiution.

She faced a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

In court, the mother of two and grandmother of five granddaughters addressed the judge in her final plea before the sentencing.

She described herself as someone who has worked in healthcare for decades, pointing to the other character letters that were read in court and her longtime community involvement.

She said she also apologized to hospital leadership, asking for their forgiveness.

“They was very shocked that it was me,” Kearse said to the judge. “That had done anything out of the ordinary because I’m not the type of person that stays in the office or carry on any kind of wrongness that goes on in the hospital.”

When she was questioned about her actions, she claimed she was “forced” or pressured by someone else involved, saying that she feared harm if she did not follow suit.

She ended her plea expressing remorse for her actions and asking for leniency so she could “get back on track.”

According to court documents, Kearse worked at St. Vincent’s Hospital but stole expensive medical robot arms.

According to an arrest and booking report, Kearse worked as a surgical assistant at St. Vincent’s Hospital.

On Jan. 29, she entered a guilty plea for thefts that occurred in 2024.

In 2024, hospital staff noticed that surgical robotic arms had been missing for months from the Southside location.

A photo taken on Dec. 24 to document inventory looked very different just two days later on Dec. 26, showing over half of the property missing.

Kearse worked at the Riverside location but used her badge to access the Southside location on weekends and holidays when fewer people were present.

Security reviewed surveillance footage and badge entrance logs.

They found Kearse leaving on Dec. 25 around 3 a.m., carrying duffel bags and cardboard boxes filled with the missing medical robot arms valued at over $60,000.

Police say she admitted to taking the items and had an accomplice. There is no public record that the other person was arrested.

News4JAX reached out to St. Vincent’s Hospital for comment, and received the following response.

Immediately upon discovery of the theft, we separated the individual from our health system.

We are cooperating fully with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. Any additional questions should be directed to their department.

Spokesperson for St. Vincent's Hospital

The Reggio Approach, used in public daycare centers and preschools in the northern city of Reggio Emilia, values a child’s inherent curiosity and potential, with teachers acting as facilitators, not instructors, and parents and the surrounding community actively involved. And Princess Catherine, who has made early development her signature cause, is spending two days seeing it up close.

“I love that you put children and childhood at the heart of the community, and I’m really fascinated to learn more about it,” she said as she arrived at one of the town’s preschools on Wednesday.

Reggio partially grew out of the Montessori philosophy and both Italian approaches have spread around the world, standing as counterpoints to models in places like the U.S. and Britain that emphasize standardization and testing for children so young they haven’t begun to read.

Reggio appeals to some Italian parents who themselves received education with rote learning — but only to a point, according to Kathryn Ramsay, a longtime early-childhood educator who runs a Reggio-inspired project north of Rome.

“When the children are 3 or 4, they’re totally fine with it,” Ramsay said. “And then when they hit 5, they (the parents) start getting a little twitchy because they’re thinking about Grade 1,” when children have to sit still for longer periods and learn to read and write.

A postwar approach to childcare

The Reggio Approach was born as Italy began to rebuild after World War II and a group of mothers in hard-hit Reggio Emilia, a center of anti-Fascist resistance, banded together.

“They sold the metal from a German tank for funds and they hand-carried stones from the river to reconstruct a place for the children to be cared for while the rest of the village went about the business of putting life back together,” said Margie Cooper of the North America Reggio Emilia Alliance.

An innovative pedagogical expert, Loris Malaguzzi, built on Montessori and other educational reform movements to help articulate Reggio’s child-centered approach, which covers children aged 0-6.

His poem exploring how young children communicate and make sense of their world through drawing, painting, dancing and singing served as something of a manifesto. Valuing the capacities and experiences of children was unheard of at the time.

“The child was only an adult in formation and didn’t have things to say or competencies already realized,” said Roberta Cardarello, senior professor of didactical and special pedagogy at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.

The Reggio Approach spread to other towns, especially in the north’s left-leaning municipalities. But Italy’s central government in Rome — headed by conservative Christian Democrats until the 1990s — resisted promoting it widely, perhaps because of its association with Reggio Emilia’s communist history.

Today, that red scare is gone, but the model’s adoption often depends on whether cash-strapped local administrations invest in training or teachers have trained independently, according to Elisabetta Nigris, professor of didactic programs and evaluation at the University of Studies Milan-Bicocca.

How Reggio works and what are its outcomes

Reggio employs features common in high-quality programs, including a focus on adults and children in relationship that promotes social and emotional well-being, according to Sylvi Kuperman, senior researcher at the Center for the Economics of Human Development at the University of Chicago. Her 2017 study on Reggio in Italy found greater high school graduation and employment outcomes compared to kids who didn’t receive formal childcare.

Children typically spend multiple years with the same teacher, she said. They participate in meal preparation. Classrooms feature windows and natural materials, like wood. Gardens and artwork are a staple.

On Thursday, Catherine visited the “Salvatore Allende” daycare and preschool in Reggio Emilia, playing with children in the garden, using a magnifying glass to look in the grass and at one point letting a slimy newt crawl in her hand.

“In London, we have newts like this too,” she said.

Catherine’s visit is significant for Britain, since the Reggio Approach isn’t recognized in its national educational policy, and most early childhood programs are run by private organizations for profit, said Peter Moss, emeritus professor at the University College London’s Institute of Education.

But he stressed that Reggio developed in a very particular time and context that is hard to replicate.

“Reggio Emilia is a reaction to 20 years of authoritarian rule under Mussolini and, after that fell, of course a lot of places in Italy were asking the question ’How do we make sure that never happens again?’”

A Reggio-inspired center called Wild Joy

At Ramsay’s Reggio-inspired, bilingual project north of Rome, there is a large grassy garden but no typical playground equipment or bright decorative posters lining the schoolhouse walls. Rather, the tiny log cabin with a covered porch is spare and neutral-toned. Most learning takes place outside: the “mud kitchen,” where kids play at a table with dishes, a digging pitch, a big rock to climb up and slide down in the dirt. Called “Wild Gioia” (Wild Joy), it currently has five children enrolled, aged 3-6.

Ramsay points to evidence suggesting that the best preparation for reading and writing is play, because it teaches children to concentrate.

“They don’t learn to concentrate by being told what to concentrate on,” she said. “They’re learning to concentrate by having the freedom to be able to follow their own interests.”

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Winfield reported from Rome. Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri.

Leo’s speech at Rome’s La Sapienza University marked the first time a pope has visited the campus since Pope Benedict XVI called off a planned speech there in 2008 in the face of protests from faculty and students.

The American pope was warmly welcomed on Thursday, including by some of Sapienza’s newest students: Young Palestinians who arrived in Italy this week on a “humanitarian corridor” from Gaza to continue their studies at the university. The Italian government, working with Catholic organizations, has brought hundreds of Palestinians to study and receive medical care in Italy since the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza began in 2023.

Leo met some of the Gaza students during a brief greeting at the campus chapel, and again after his speech in the main lecture hall of the university, which was founded by Pope Boniface VIII in 1303.

In his speech, Leo denounced how military spending had increased dramatically this year, especially in Europe, at the expense of education and healthcare, while “enriching elites who care nothing for the common good.”

He called for better monitoring of how AI was being developed and used in military and civilian contexts “so that it does not absolve humans of responsibility for their choices and does not exacerbate the tragedy of conflicts.”

“What is happening in Ukraine, in Gaza and the Palestinian territories, in Lebanon, and in Iran illustrates the inhuman evolution of the relationship between war and new technologies in a spiral of annihilation,” he said.

The pope said education and research must move instead in the opposite direction that values life “the lives of peoples who cry out for peace and justice!”

Leo has identified AI as one of the most critical matters facing humanity, especially its application in warfare and everyday life. They are themes he’s expected to explore more fully in his first encyclical, due to be released in the coming weeks.

Nada Rahim Jouda, 19, was one of the Gazans who met Leo, just two days after she arrived in Italy. She was still marveling at her new life studying business science in Rome, a city that she said was “like heaven for me.”

“Everything here is green and it’s not gray and troubles everywhere and miserable people in the streets,” she said.

But Jouda remains concerned for the family she left behind: her mother, recovering from leukemia, and younger sisters aged 17 and 13. Over the course of the war in Gaza, the family was forced to move four times, and her mother was unable to receive care or check-ups for her cancer.

“They all rely on me. I’m the only hope that they have,” she said.

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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.

Ratcliffe met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the head of Cuban intelligence services, and discussed intelligence cooperation, economic stability and security issues. A CIA official confirmed the meetings to the AP.

Ratcliffe was there "to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes,'' the CIA official said.

An official statement from Cuba's government noted that Thursday's meeting "took place ... against a backdrop of complex bilateral relations.”

While the U.S. stressed that Cuba cannot continue to be a “safe haven for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere,” the Cuban delegation insisted that the island presents no threat to U.S. security. Cuban officials also took issue with the nation's continued inclusion on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Rodríguez Castro previously secretly met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of a Caribbean Community summit in St. Kitts in February. While he’s never occupied a government post, he served as his grandfather’s bodyguard and later as head of Cuba’s equivalent of the Secret Service.

U.S. and Cuban officials also met earlier this year i n Cuba. The ongoing meetings between U.S. and Cuban officials mark the first U.S. government flights to land in Cuba other than at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay since 2016.

Thursday's meeting comes weeks after the Cuban government confirmed that it had recently met with U.S. officials on the island as tensions between the two sides remain high over the U.S. energy blockade of the Caribbean country and as Cuba’s power grid has collapsed and energy to its eastern provinces has been cut. The U.S. blockade of fuel to the island has heightened its economic woes, with reduced work hours and food spoilage as refrigerators stop working.

Earlier this week, the U.S. State Department reiterated that the U.S. will provide Cuba with $100 million in humanitarian assistance and support for satellite internet “if the Cuban regime will permit it.”

In late January, Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba. Though Trump also has threatened to intervene in the country, and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said recently that his country was prepared to fight if that should happen, sources told the AP earlier this month that military action is not imminent.

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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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Tucker reported from Washington, D.C.

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This version is corrected to show that the U.S. aid offer is $100 million.

Her resignation came after Latvia’s Defense Minister Andris Spruds, from the Progressives Party, was forced to resign last week over the government’s handling of multiple incidents involving stray drones suspected to be from Ukraine crossing into Latvian territory. Silina said at the time Spruds had lost her trust and that of the public.

The drones incidents "clearly demonstrated that the political leadership of the defense sector has failed to fulfill its promise of safe skies over our country,” Silina said on Sunday, explaining Spruds' resignation.

On May 7, two suspected Ukrainian drones entered Latvia, one of them crashing at a fuel storage facility. Spruds said they were likely Ukrainian drones targeting Russia, which ended up in Latvia by mistake.

Multiple Ukrainian drones headed for Russia had hit the territories of the three countries in the Baltic region since March. Critics say the incidents have shown weaknesses in Latvia's ability to respond to military threats.

The Latvian governing tripartite coalition, which also included an agrarian party, had been under strain for months over multiple issues.

Silina's resignation comes just months ahead of general elections due in October.

“My priority has always been, and remains, the well-being and security of Latvia’s people,” Silina wrote on X on Thursday. “Parties and coalitions change, but Latvia endures. And my responsibility to society comes above all else.”

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics, tasked with appointing a new head of government, is set to meet with representatives of all parliamentary parties on Friday.

On Sunday, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the incidents in Latvia were “the result of Russian electronic warfare deliberately diverting Ukrainian drones from their targets in Russia.” He offered Ukraine's help to the Baltic states and Finland to prevent such incidents in the future.

They also made sure to poke plenty of fun at upcoming opponents, themselves and offseason flubs.

The Indianapolis Colts pointed the finger at themselves in their Simpsons’ cartoon. First, they referenced the long drought since their last win in Jacksonville along with Homer Simpson disappearing into the hedge for the team’s road game against the Jaguars.

The video also had Bart Simpson writing repeatedly on the chalkboard: “We will not include Tyreek Hill in these videos.”

The New York Jets went with a “ football is ART (craft blend)” approach mixing uniquely named daubs of paint colors to mix and draw out their opponents by the date.

Their season opener against the Titans features colors “Dolly Denim” and “Bachelorette Blush” for a team in a town known for Dolly Parton and bachelorette parties. Playing the Dolphins uses spray tan, del boca vista, major key and finkle — a reference to the Ray Finkle character in the 1994 movie “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" — and raspberry beret and minnetonka blue for the Vikings.

New Orleans used a “season forecast” approach that included people such Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel. The Los Angeles Rams tapped the movie “Napoleon Dynamite” for “A Dynamite schedule” reveal.

The Buccaneers went with a nod to the TV show “Baywatch" protecting Tampa Bay, while Las Vegas used Kirk Cousins and rookie Fernando Mendoza in the Raiders' take on the 2008 movie “Step Brothers.”

Pittsburgh went long with a video lasting more than 4 minutes, 36 seconds that leaned into local style, customs, food and “Pittsburghese” with “Ready to yinzify your DNA, n'at?" Actor Billy Gardell, a Pittsburgh native, walks a new security guard through it all with the schedule buried at the end.

Video game style

The Los Angeles Chargers went even longer using Halo Infinite for a reveal video lasting 6:12 and they opened with a post asking if they should make their schedule release video with the game spelling out “NO” with the words “yes.”

The Chargers reminded Baltimore of the Ravens backing out of their trade with the Raiders for Maxx Crosby.

They also made an apparent reference to Patriots coach Mike Vrabel's offseason in the headlines with a mention of "Next Photo Dump 1 Mile.”

Smells like a champion

The reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks had actor Josh Lucas introducing the schedule in the form of a cologne commercial, with opponents having their own signature scents such as “Substation” for the San Francisco 49ers.

Short but sweet

Jacksonville took advantage of perhaps the most famous offseason haircut with quarterback Trevor Lawrence getting his long locks cut short on camera after introducing the Jaguars' schedule that then plays out on the screen edited down to less than 2 minutes.

Fan assistance

The Tennessee Titans went back to the streets quizzing random people in their schedule reveal in a twist to the team's 2023 schedule reveal. This time, the Titans went with “You never know who you'll see on the street” set to the Who song “Who Are You” asking random people if they were a big name with a specific opponent.

Artistic reveal tease

The Atlanta Falcons tapped the approach used by the social media account (at)ArtButMakeItSports to preview their schedule release. The Falcons had a thread Thursday morning using “Art but make it our 2026 opponents” featuring paintings for each team.

For the actual release, Atlanta went with a Falcons style “This is SportsCenter” series of commercials.

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