The American leader issued the stark threat Tuesday, about 12 hours ahead of his deadline for Iran to agree to a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz or face punishing strikes.

Iran rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war as Trump's ultimatum to make a deal ticked closer with an expanded threat of strikes against the Islamic Republic to include all power plants and bridges.

Trump said Monday he is “not at all” concerned about committing possible war crimes as he again threatened to destroy Iranian infrastructure if Tehran does not meet his deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the U.S. that attacking civilian infrastructure is banned under international law, his spokesperson said Monday.

Here is the latest:

In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hezbollah militants, more than 1,500 have been killed

And more than 1 million people have been displaced, the country’s health ministry said.

Among the 1,530 killed are 102 women and 130 children are among the dead, as well as 57 children paramedics, according to the government count.

The number of Hezbollah militants killed is unclear.

More than 4,800 people were also wounded in the war.

Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.

This latest war was sparked after Hezbollah fired rockets towards northern Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran also at war with Israel and the United States.

Israel’s military says it struck eight bridges in Iran

The military gave more details on the strikes following Netanyahu’s confirmation he and Defense Minister Katz had ordered them.

In a statement, it said it struck bridges in Tehran, Karaj, Tabriz, Kashan and Qom that were being used by Iranian forces to transport weapons and military equipment.

Top Senate Democrat calls Trump ‘an extremely sick person’

Sen. Chuck Schumer responded to President Trump’s dire threat against Iran by calling on Republicans to vote against the war.

Schumer, a New York Democrat, has joined with others in his party in forcing votes on legislation that would halt Trump from ordering further attacks on Iran unless he received congressional approval. So far, though, just a few Republicans have voted to rein in Trump’s power to order the attacks.

Schumer said on social media that any Republican who declines to vote “against this wanton war of choice owns every consequence” of Trump’s actions.

Oil prices rise as US stocks dip, but markets hold mostly steady ahead of Trump’s deadline for Iran

Oil prices are rising and U.S. stocks are falling Tuesday, but the moves aren’t as dramatic as the dire talk coming from both sides in the war with Iran.

President Trump threatened that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if Iran doesn’t meet his latest self-imposed deadline at 8 p.m. Eastern time to open the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials, meanwhile, urged young people to form human chains to protect power plants Trump has threatened to bomb.

But the S&P 500 slipped just 0.5% as officials involved in diplomatic efforts said talks were ongoing, even though it was unclear if a deal would come in time to head off Trump’s threatened attacks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 271 points, or 0.6%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% lower.

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Netanyahu confirms that Israeli warplanes struck bridges and railways in Iran

In a statement released by his office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was using them to transport materials to make weapons.

He said he approved the strikes with Defense Minister Israel Katz and said they weren’t meant to target Iranian civilians but the government.

“This is no longer the same Iran, nor is it the same Israel. We are changing the balance of power from one end to the other,” Netanyahu said.

Pakistan’s military backs mediation efforts, warns attacks on Saudi Arabia risk derailing diplomacy

Pakistan’s military on Tuesday voiced support for government efforts aimed at ending the conflict in the Middle East, stressing the need for restraint and dialogue while warning that recent attacks on Saudi Arabia risk undermining ongoing diplomatic initiatives.

The remarks came during a meeting of top commanders chaired by Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, according to a statement from the military.

It said the military strongly condemned recent attacks on Saudi Arabia’s petrochemical and industrial facilities, calling them an “unnecessary escalation” that could spoil “sincere efforts to resolve the conflict through peaceful means.”

The forum noted that Saudi Arabia’s restraint “despite grave provocations” had helped enable mediation and diplomatic options but warned that continued attacks risk damaging the “conducive environment” needed for negotiations.

US didn’t target oil infrastructure in Kharg Island strikes, US official says

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, described the strikes overnight as hitting targets previously struck and not directed at oil infrastructure.

The official didn’t clarify what was specifically hit on the island.

The U.S. has already struck various targets on the island, including air defenses, a radar site, the airport and a hovercraft base, according to satellite analysis by the Institute for the Study of War and American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project.

— Konstantin Toropin

Iran has allowed two French former detainees to leave country, French President Emmanuel Macron says

They had been holed up in French diplomatic premises there since their release from prison.

“Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris are free and on route toward French territory, after three and a half years of detention in Iran,” Macron tweeted.

The green light for them to leave Iran, long sought by France, signaled how Iran is differentiating between nations, treating some favorably and others as foes, in the context of the Iran war. Macron has distanced France from the conflict, saying his country wasn’t consulted in advance about the U.S-Israel strikes and didn’t want the war.

Macron thanked Oman for playing a mediation role.

Vance seemed to confirm reports of US strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island

Responding to a question on the reported strike, he said it is “my understanding ... that we were to strike some military targets on Kharg Island. I believe we’ve done so.”

US Vice President JD Vance says he’s ‘confident’ Iran will respond to US demands by evening deadline

“I hope they’re smart,” he said.

Speaking during a news conference in Hungary’s capital Budapest, Vance said the United States had already defeated Iran’s militarily and that Iran was now “trying to exact as much economic pain on the world as possible” by keeping the Straight of Hormuz closed.

The U.S., he said, “has the ability to extract much greater economic cost on Iran than Iran has an ability to extract cost on us or on our friends in the world.”

“We feel confident that we can get a response, whether it is positive or negative, by 8 o’clock tonight,” he said referring to the 8 p.m. ET deadline set by President Trump.

US again strikes Kharg Island, a critical oil hub for Iran

That’s according to a White House official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. hit military targets on the island, the official said Tuesday. The strikes came hours ahead of a deadline Trump set for Iran to capitulate to his demands or face a major attack. He said Tuesday morning that “’whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran did not make a deal.

Trump has threatened to deploy ground troops to seize critical oil infrastructure on the island, but experts warn such an operation would cost the lives of many U.S. military members and would not be a decisive move to ending the war.

The U.S. had earlier in the war struck several targets on the island, including air defenses, a radar site, an airport and a hovercraft base, according to satellite analysis by the Institute for the Study of War and American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project.

Earlier Tuesday, the semiofficial Mehr news agency put out a report saying there had been several explosions on Kharg Island, without elaborating.

— Seung Min Kim and Michelle L. Price

Strikes on Iran’s railroads threaten to disrupt travel out of the country

Since the war shut Iran’s air travel, trains, along with buses and rented taxis, have ferried thousands of Iranians toward the Turkish border, carrying to safety those who’ve chosen to wait out the war abroad.

Passenger trains were booked through this week, one Tehran resident told The Associated Press shortly after he crossed into Turkey at the end of March. Speaking anonymously for his security, he said he had rented a taxi to travel roughly 545 miles (880 kilometers) west to the border. He planned on returning to Iran after a few months.

Earlier Tuesday, Israel’s military warned Iranians not to use train travel “for the sake of your security.”

— Amir-Hussein Radjy

Israel’s foreign ministry condemned the attack on its consulate in Istanbul

And the foreign ministry said it appreciated the action of Turkish security forces to combat it.

“Terror will not deter us,” the ministry wrote on X.

President Trump warns a ‘whole civilization’ could die but adds Iran still has time to capitulate

The American leader issued the stark threat Tuesday, about 12 hours ahead of his deadline for Iran to agree to a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz or face punishing strikes.

Trump wrote on his social media site: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

He added: “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

But Trump’s statement nonetheless kept the possibility of an off-ramp open, saying that “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen.”

Missile strikes UAE telecommunications building, injuring 2

A telecommunications building in the United Arab Emirates was struck Tuesday by an Iranian ballistic missile, injuring two people, authorities said.

The missile hit an administrative building for the Thuraya Telecommunications Company in Sharjah, the medical office said.

The two Pakistani nationals injured in the strike were taken to a hospital, the office said.

Bridges struck by airstrikes in Iran

Iranian authorities said Tuesday that a series of airstrikes took out a railway bridge in Kashan, a train station in Mashhad and highway bridge near Tabriz on Tabriz-Tehran freeway.

Neither the United States nor Israel immediately claimed the attacks.

Tehran resident fears Iran will be ‘destroyed’ by US infrastructure attacks

A northern Tehran resident says friends and family are storing water and charging phones over fears the U.S. will take out Iran’s energy infrastructure.

“By attacking infrastructure, the Islamic Republic will not be destroyed, only we will be destroyed,” the resident told The Associated Press, speaking anonymously for her safety.

The teacher in her 20s spoke to the AP in the weeks before the war when Iranians were reeling from the killing of thousands of anti-government protesters.

Many opponents of Iran’s government hoped a threatened U.S.-Israeli strike would quickly overthrow it, she said.

“Like the people who were desperate and were afraid of people getting killed again, I believed Trump’s words. I thought that he would kill a few leaders of the regime and the work of this regime would be finished,” she said Tuesday.

Now she fears U.S. and Israeli attacks will spread chaos: “If we don’t have the internet, and if we don’t have electricity, water, and gas, we’re really going back to the Stone Age, as Trump said.”

Iran’s internet remains largely blocked, throttling news as panic spreads that critical infrastructure will be destroyed in the next 24 hours.

Gunmen attack building housing Israeli Consulate in Istanbul

Three assailants opened fire at police outside a building housing the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday, sparking a gunfight that left one attacker dead, Turkish officials said.

The two other assailants were captured with injuries.

Two police officers sustained slight injuries in the clash, Istanbul Gov. Davut Gul told reporters. The assailants were carrying long-barreled weapons.

Interior Minister Mustafa Cifti wrote on X that the attackers had traveled to Istanbul from the neighboring city of Izmit in a rented car. One of the assailants was linked to a group he described as “exploiting religion,” without naming the organization.

The Islamic State group has carried out deadly attacks in Turkey in the past.

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A previous version of this item incorrectly reported two assailants had been killed.

Iran warns fuel will be cut off ‘for years’ if Trump carries out threat

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard warned Tuesday it would “deprive the U.S and its allies of the region’s oil and gas for years” if U.S. President Donald Trump carries out his threat to attack power plants and bridges if the Strait of Hormuz doesn’t open.

Multiple Iranian media outlets carried the statement.

It also issued a new threat to the Gulf Arab states.

“We have exercised great restraint and had considerations in choosing retaliatory targets, but from now on all these considerations have been removed,” the warning read.

1 wounded in northern Israel rocket attack

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said a 20-year-old woman was taken to hospital with a mild head injury from shrapnel in the northern town of Nahariya.

Several cars burst into flames and buildings were damaged from a direct impact on a residential street, medics and Israel’s Fire and Rescue service said.

Rocket and drone attacks by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah have set off sirens throughout Tuesday in Israeli communities close to the Lebanon border.

Container ship hit in Persian Gulf

A container ship in the Persian Gulf has been hit by a projectile that caused damage, the British military said Tuesday.

The attack happened in international waters south of Iran’s Kish Island, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.

It said no one was hurt and there was no environmental impact from the apparent attack.

Over 20 ships have been attacked in the Mideast by Iran since the war began.

WHO suspends Gaza medical evacuations after contractor killed

The United Nations health agency has suspended evacuations from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah Crossing with Egypt after the death of one of its contractors.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post that the contractor was killed Monday in what he described as a “security incident.”

Two WHO staffers were present but were not hurt, he said without elaborating.

The incident is being investigated and the evacuations of patients and wounded people will be halted until further notice, Tedros said.

The Rafah Crossing was reopened in February after long delays in a key but mostly symbolic step in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.

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A previous version of this item incorrectly reported two WHO staffers were wounded.

At least 4 Italian airports impose jet fuel restrictions

At least four northern Italian airports have imposed restrictions on jet fuel due to shortages, giving priority to long-haul and medical flights.

The restrictions at Milan Linate, Bologna, Venice and Treviso airports involve supplier Air Bp Italia, the British Petroleum group’s aviation division, and will remain until at least April 9.

Priority will be given to ambulance flights, state flights and flights of more than three hours, according to an official notice.

For nonpriority flights, the airports have imposed a supply ceiling of 2,000 liters (528 gallons) per aircraft.

The Venice airport has requested pilots ensure they have enough fuel from the previous airport for the following flight.

Iranians express fears, hopes ahead of US deadline

Ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Strait of Hormuz deadline, Iranians have expressed both their hopes and fears about the war.

“I had expected Trump would offer us something fancier than hell,” said Mahmoud Azimi, 35, who was carrying home milk and a sack of potatoes. “We have experienced an inferno because of many bad things like sanctions, assassinations and wars. So, at the end, hell is being replaced by hell!”

Reza Alaghemand 24, who runs an ice cream stall, urged Iran to keep fighting against Israel and the U.S.“

“If we stop the war, they soon wage another war,” he said. “Once and for all, we should teach them an unforgettable lesson not to attack us.”

Maryam Mehrabi, a 67-year-old retiree, recounted how it was the third war she’d seen in her life.

“There was the 1980s war that Iraq waged against Iran. Then the June war that the U.S. and Israel launched and I lost a close friend,” she said. “I have no idea what is waiting for us ahead of these threats.”

One young couple, in a coffee shop in central Tehran, offered their opinions on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

“I hate this situation. Why are officials on both sides only threatening to go into a deeper war with more damages?” the woman asked. “All night long, we hear the sound of strikes and bombings and then in the daytime, we are occasionally stopped by mushrooming checkpoints.”

Her partner shrugged.

“I feel we are stuck between the blades of a pair of scissors,” he said. “It is more than a month that we have had no internet and now we are going to face a power cut.”

At least 18 people killed in airstrike targeting Iran’s Alborz province

An airstrike targeting Iran’s Alborz province northwest of Tehran killed at least 18 people, state media reported Tuesday.

The strike also wounded 24 people, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.

It wasn’t immediately clear what had been targeted.

A series of intense airstrikes have pounded Iran’s capital, Tehran, including a possible weapons depot in the mountains and residential neighborhoods.

The Israelis have conducted a campaign of airstrikes killing top officials in the theocracy and its military.

Festival organizers canceled the three-day outdoor event as a result of the travel ban and said those who had bought tickets would get refunds.

Ye had been granted an electronic travel authorization which has now been withdrawn on the grounds that his presence in the U.K. would not be “conducive to the public good,” the BBC said, citing the Home Office.

The rapper, who changed his name in 2021, had been expected to play his first U.K. dates for more than a decade in front of around 150,000 revelers over three nights July 10-12 at the Wireless Festival, in London’s Finsbury Park. Other acts for the festival had not yet been announced.

The event's organizers had been under mounting pressure from sponsors and politicians to cancel the gigs by the rapper, who has drawn widespread condemnation for making antisemitic remarks and voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler.

Last year, Ye released a song called “Heil Hitler” and advertised a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website. The 48-year-old apologized in January with a letter, published as a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal. He said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.”

Wireless sponsors Pepsi, Rockstar Energy and Diageo pulled out of the festival since Ye was announced as the headliner.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the booking “deeply concerning,” and Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Tuesday that Ye should “absolutely not” play at the festival.

In a statement issued Tuesday before his travel authorization was revoked, Ye said he “would be grateful for the opportunity to meet with members of the Jewish community in the U.K. in person, to listen.

“I know words aren’t enough — I’ll have to show change through my actions,” he said. “If you’re open, I’m here.”

Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, had said the group would be willing to meet with the musician if he pulled out of the festival.

“The Jewish community will want to see a genuine remorse and change before believing that the appropriate place to test this sincerity is on the main stage at the Wireless Festival,” Rosenberg said.

Organizer Festival Republic had stood by Ye. In a statement issued Monday, managing director Melvin Benn urged people to offer the performer “forgiveness and hope.”

“We are not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions,” the statement said.

Announcing the cancellation, Festival Republic said that “multiple stakeholders were consulted in advance of booking Ye and no concerns were highlighted at the time.

“Antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent, and we recognize the real and personal impact these issues have had,” it said in a statement. “As Ye said today, he acknowledges that words alone are not enough, and in spite of this still hopes to be given the opportunity to begin a conversation with the Jewish community in the U.K.”

The Community Security Trust, which works to protect British Jews, said the government had made the right decision.

“Anti-Jewish hatred should have no place in society and cultural leaders have a role to play in ensuring that is the case,” it said in a statement.

“People who show genuine and meaningful remorse for previous antisemitic behavior will always receive a sympathetic hearing from the Jewish community, but that process must come before this kind of public rehabilitation.”

A representative for Ye didn’t reply to a request for comment.

It’s not President Donald Trump. It’s not Vice President JD Vance. It’s not Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio — the man who has quietly been doing two of the most demanding jobs in the U.S. government at the same time.

For nearly a year, Rubio has served simultaneously as secretary of state and as Trump’s national security adviser. Critics say those roles are nearly impossible to do well at the same time.

And yet, even as questions swirl about the administration’s preparation for the Feb. 28 operation and its messy aftermath — oil-price spikes, drones targeting U.S. embassies, muddled public messaging — Rubio has largely walked away unscathed.

How? That’s the question worth asking.

The criticism that never quite landed

To be fair, Rubio didn’t escape entirely without scrutiny. He raised eyebrows when he suggested Israel had pulled the U.S. into the conflict — a comment he quickly walked back.

He also faced criticism over delays in evacuating American diplomats and citizens. But neither moment gained the kind of traction that stuck to his colleagues.

Curt Mills of The American Conservative didn’t mince words about it.

“He deserved more criticism,” Mills said — before acknowledging the obvious reality shaping the conversation. There’s “a halo around the guy” in Republican circles, he added.

That halo is real, and it’s doing a lot of work. Rubio is widely seen as one of the more competent, measured voices in an administration that has not always been associated with either of those things.

That perception has become a kind of political armor.

Even Democrats seem reluctant to go after him too hard — and the reason one senator gave was remarkably candid.

“He’s the least crazy,” an anonymous Democratic senator said. “If he gets fired, Trump would replace him with someone a lot worse.”

The administration fires back

The State Department had little patience for the suggestion that Rubio was disengaged or uninvolved. Spokesperson Tommy Pigott called the premise flat-out “ridiculous.”

“Over 50,000 Americans have been provided security guidance and travel assistance by our 24/7 task force,” Pigott said.

The White House backed him up, saying Rubio is working “in lockstep” with the president. Spokeswoman Olivia Wales put it even more bluntly.

“The United States is crushing the Iranian terrorist regime,” Wales said.

A leaner NSC — critics say too lean

Here’s where things get more complicated. Reporting shows Rubio moved to shrink the National Security Council staff and scale back the kind of cross-agency meetings that typically happen before a major military operation.

Instead, sensitive discussions were funneled into the West Wing.

Critics say that left key government agencies on the sidelines — and the broader national security apparatus unprepared for consequences that, in hindsight, weren’t exactly hard to see coming.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., put it plainly: Rubio’s regime-change instincts may have quietly discouraged the kind of tough internal debate that could have caught problems before they became crises.

Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, agreed that Rubio bore some responsibility — but also acknowledged the bind Rubio was in.

“He deserved blame for not pushing a fuller process,” Daalder said, while noting the president would have quickly removed him for doing so.

It’s a damning Catch-22: push back on the president and lose your seat at the table, or stay quiet and share responsibility for what follows.

So why does the insulation hold?

The answer, really, is a mix of factors that all happen to work in Rubio’s favor at the same time"

• Public attention is squarely on Trump.
• Rubio’s reputation as a steadying hand gives him credibility to burn.
• The ambiguity of his dual roles makes it easy to blur lines of accountability.
• And both Republicans and Democrats, for different reasons, have little appetite to go after him.

Whether that shield holds is another question entirely.

The conflict with Iran is still unfolding. And if the process gaps critics are describing lead to consequences too big to ignore, the halo around Marco Rubio might not be quite so durable after all.

Our conversation

Jacksonville University political analyst Matt Corrigan joins me on this week’s episode of Politics & Power to discuss:

• How Rubio’s dual roles provide political cover amid U.S.-Iran war scrutiny
• Trump’s Iran operation fallout: Why Rubio isn’t taking the heat
• How Republican insulation, Democratic caution protect Rubio from Iran criticism
• Whether Marco Rubio, Secretary of State is competent, cautious — accountable?

Watch live at 10:30 a.m. on News4JAX+ or catch our encore shows at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. Tuesday on News4JAX+.

You can also watch any time on demand on News4JAX+, News4JAX.com and our YouTube channel.

Meanwhile, airstrikes hit two bridges and a train station in Iran, and the U.S. struck military targets on the Iranian oil hub of Kharg Island. The attack marked the second time the island was hit by American forces.

Trump has extended previous deadlines but suggested the one set for 8 p.m. in Washington was final, and the rhetoric on both sides reached a fever pitch, leaving Iranians on edge. Trump threatened to destroy all of Iran’s power plants and bridges if Tehran does not allow traffic to fully resume in the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil transits in peacetime. Iran’s president said 14 million people, including himself, have volunteered to fight.

It was not clear if the latest airstrikes were linked to Trump’s threat to attack bridges. At least two of the targets were connected to Iran’s rail network.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli warplanes struck bridges and railways in Iran. In a statement released by his office, Netanyahu claimed Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was using them to transport materials to make weapons. Israel had earlier issued a Farsi-language warning telling Iranians to avoid trains throughout the day.

Iran, meanwhile, fired on Israel and Saudi Arabia, prompting the temporary closure of a major bridge.

While Iran cannot match the sophistication of U.S. and Israeli weaponry or their dominance in the air, its chokehold on the strait is roiling the world economy and raising the pressure on Trump both at home and abroad to find a way out of the standoff.

Officials involved in diplomatic efforts said talks were ongoing, but Iran has rejected the latest American proposal, and it was unclear if a deal would come in time to head off Trump’s threatened attacks. World leaders and experts warned that strikes as destructive as Trump threatened could constitute a war crime.

As the deadline approaches, rhetoric ramps up

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if a deal isn’t reached, Trump said in a post Tuesday morning, while keeping open the possibility of an off-ramp, saying that “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen.”

Earlier, Iranian official Alireza Rahimi issued a video message calling on “all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors” to form human chains around power plants.

Iranians have formed human chains in the past around nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West. Some images of people surrounding power plants were posted by local Iranian media Tuesday, though it was unclear how widespread the practice was or if the photos were simply brief shows of government-encouraged defiance.

President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X that 14 million Iranians had answered campaigns urging people to volunteer to fight — and said he would join them — while a Revolutionary Guard general urged parents to send their children to man checkpoints.

The Guard, meanwhile, warned that Iran would “deprive the U.S. and its allies of the region’s oil and gas for years” and expand its attacks across the Gulf region if Trump carries out his threat.

In Tehran, the mood was bleak. A young teacher said that many opponents of Iran's Islamic system had hoped Trump's attacks would quickly topple it.

Now, as the war drags on, she fears U.S. and Israeli strikes will spread chaos. “If we don’t have the internet, and if we don’t have electricity, water, and gas, we’re really going back to the Stone Age, as Trump said,” she said told The Associated Press, speaking anonymously for her safety.

Trump’s threat prompts warnings of war crimes

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot joined a growing chorus of international voices and calling for restraint, saying attacks targeting civilian and energy infrastructure “are barred by the rules of war, international law.”

“They would without doubt trigger a new phase of escalation, of reprisals, that would drag the region and the world economy into a vicious circle,” the minister said on France Info television.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres also warned the U.S. that attacks on civilian infrastructure are banned under international law, according to his spokesperson.

Such cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute, and Trump told reporters he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes.

A wave of airstrikes hits Iran, which fires on Saudi Arabia and Israel

A series of intense airstrikes pounded Tehran, including in residential neighborhoods. Such strikes in the past have targeted Iranian government and security officials.

Israel’s military said it attacked an Iranian petrochemical site in Shiraz, the second day in a row it hit such a facility.

Iranian officials later said that a railway bridge, a train station and a highway bridge were among targets hit in airstrikes.

Details of the U.S. strikes on Kharg Island were not immediately available. A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, described the strikes overnight as hitting targets previously struck and not directed at oil infrastructure.

Earlier in the war, American forces hit air defenses, a radar site, an airport and a hovercraft base there, according to satellite analysis by the Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project.

Saudi Arabia said it intercepted seven ballistic missiles and four drones launched by Iran.

Saudi Arabia temporarily closed the King Fahd Causeway, the only road connection between Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and the Arabian Peninsula. Iran also fired on Israel.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.

In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, more than 1,500 people have been killed. and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.

Chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz

Iran choked off shipping through the strait after Israel and the U.S. attacked on Feb. 28, starting the war. That stranglehold and Iran’s attacks on the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbors have sent oil prices skyrocketing, raising the price of gasoline, food and other basics far beyond the Middle East.

In spot trading Tuesday, Brent crude, the international standard, was above $108 per barrel, up around 50% since the start of the war.

On Monday, Tehran rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war. But as Trump's deadline neared Tuesday, an official said indirect communications between the United States and Iran remained underway. The official said mediators from Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey “are racing against time” to reach a compromise before the deadline.

He said Iran has linked the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to sanctions relief, and the U.S. was open to easing some sanctions, especially on Iran's oil sector, in part to stabilize the global oil market.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing diplomacy.

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers David Rising in Bangkok, John Leicester in Paris, Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia, Natalie Melzer in Jerusalem, and Seung Min Kim and Michelle Price in Washington contributed to this report.

The S&P 500 fell 1% as Trump threatened that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Iran does not meet his deadline at 8 p.m. Eastern time to open the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials, meanwhile, urged young people to form human chains to protect power plants that Trump has threatened to bomb.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 397 points, or 0.9%, as of 10:10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.4% lower. Their losses likewise accelerated as the morning progressed, the latest swings to rock financial markets as doubt turns to hope and back that the war with Iran could end soon.

The moves were sharper in the oil market, where prices have spiked because the war has snarled the production and transportation of crude in the Persian Gulf. Much of that oil exits the gulf through the Strait of Hormuz to reach customers around the world, but Iran has blocked it to enemies.

The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude climbed 3.8% to $116.72. Brent crude, the international standard, added 0.7% to $110.58 and is well above its roughly $70 level from before the war in late February.

The worry in markets has been that a long-term disruption will keep oil prices high for a long time and send a painful wave of inflation crashing through the global economy. Iran on Monday rejected the latest ceasefire proposal and instead said it wants a permanent end to the war.

So far in the war, Trump has made a series of threats to blow up Iranian power plants if it doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz, but he has then delayed it several times. The possibility remains that Trump could back down again, among other scenarios, which is keeping uncertainty high.

A year ago, Trump ultimately backed off many of the stiff tariffs that he initially threatened to put on other countries’ imports, though they ended up higher than from before his second term.

“Investors are likely to remain on edge and markets unable to establish trends, probably until there is a clear outcome later this evening: a deal, the U.S./Israeli strikes intensify, or Iran’s retaliation becomes escalatory instead of proportional,” according to Paul Christopher, head of global investment strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

On Wall Street, companies with big fuel bills fell to some of the market's sharpest losses as oil prices continued their ascent.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holding dropped 4.2%, and United Airlines sank 3.3%.

Companies whose customers may get squeezed the most by the recent jump in gasoline prices were also struggling. Dollar Tree slid 4.8%, and Dollar General fell 2.2%.

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline across the country has jumped to $4.14, according to AAA. It was below $3 a couple days before the United States and Israel launched attacks to begin the war in late February.

Universal Music Group also helped to limit losses for global stock indexes after Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management offered to buy the record label behind Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny in a cash-and-stock deal valued at approximately $64 billion.

The proposed purchase, which Pershing Square argued would clear uncertainty that’s weighed on UMG’s stock, would bring the company to Nevada and move its stock listing from Amsterdam to the New York Stock Exchange.

UMG’s stock in Amsterdam jumped 9.8% but remains well below what Pershing said its bid is worth. That could indicate investor doubt that the deal will happen.

Stock indexes fell across much of Europe, which turned toward more decisively toward losses as U.S. Indexes accelerated their declines.

Asian stock indexes were a touch stronger, with South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.8% for one of the world’s bigger gains.

In the bond market, Treasury yields were holding relatively steady ahead of Trump’s looming deadline. The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged up to 4.35% from 4.34% late Monday.

It’s well above its 3.97% level from before the war. The rise has pushed up rates for mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which slows the economy.

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

Indianapolis councilman Ron Gibson said he and his 8-year-old son weren’t harmed in the incident that occurred around 12:45 a.m. Monday, but the bullets struck just steps from the dining room table where his son played with Legos the day before.

“That reality is deeply unsettling,” Gibson said. “This was not just an attack on my home, but endangered my child and disrupted the safety of our entire neighborhood.”

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement that officers called to a home on East 41st Street just after 9 a.m. Monday found evidence of gunshots being fired at a house, but no injuries were reported. Police said they believe it was an isolated, targeted incident and the FBI was assisting.

“I understand that public service can bring strong opinions and disagreement, but violence is never the answer, especially when it puts families at risk,” Gibson said on Monday. “This will not deter me. I will continue to serve the residents of this district with integrity and respect for all voices.”

Last week, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission approved a rezoning petition for a project for Metrobloks, a data center developer, in Gibson's district. Some area residents and leaders opposed to the project attended last week’s hearing, raising concerns about the project’s impact on the community, news outlets reported.

Gibson supported the commission's decision in a statement last week.

“The site has remained underutilized for years, and today’s action is an important step toward bringing it back into productive use in a way that benefits both the surrounding neighborhood and our city,” Gibson said. “As the district councilor, when this petition comes before the full Council, I do not intend to call it down.”

Offset, who was once married to Cardi B, was being treated at a hospital, the spokesperson said in a statement, although his exact condition was unknown.

More than three years ago, Offset’s cousin Takeoff, another member of Migos, was shot and killed at a Houston bowling alley.

The Seminole Police Department in Florida said one person sustained injuries that were not life-threatening Monday night at a valet area outside the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. The police department did not identify the victim.

Two people were detained by police and officials were investigating, according to a statement from the department.

“The site is secure and there is no threat to the public,” police said.

Offset, whose off-stage name is Kiari Kendrell Cephus, formed one-third of the Grammy Award-nominated Migos.

The trio, with its rapid-fire triplet flow, became known as one of the most popular hip-hop groups of all time. It broke out with the 2013 hit “Versace” and later earned Grammy nominations for best rap album with 2018’s “Culture,” while a track off it nabbed a nod for best rap performance.

Offset and Cardi B were secretly wed in September 2017 in Atlanta. In 2024, Cardi B announced that she filed for divorce. They have three children together.

The third member of Migos, rapper Quavo, sought to transform his nephew Takeoff’s tragic shooting into a force for change, holding a summit against gun violence in 2024.

Police said Takeoff was an innocent bystander when he was shot outside a Houston bowling alley after a disagreement over a dice game. Takeoff’s death was among a string of fatal shootings in recent years that involved hip-hop stars such as Nipsey Hussle, Pop Smoke, PnB Rock and Young Dolph.

Vance's two-day visit to Budapest is a bid to turn the tide in Orbán's election campaign where the long-serving leader, a close Trump ally, is trailing in the polls.

Orbán is running for his fifth-straight term as prime minister. He and his nationalist-populist Fidesz party are facing their toughest race in two decades against a center-right challenger, the Tisza party led by Péter Magyar, that could bring an end to Orbán’s 16 years in power.

The prime minister has bristled at the slightest mention of the Hungarian election by any of his partners in the European Union, decrying any expressions of support for his opponent as a grave breach of Hungary’s sovereignty and meddling in the election.

Yet speaking at a joint news conference with Orbán at his headquarters in Budapest's Carmelite Monastery, Vance campaigned openly for the prime minister, saying he wanted to “help as much as I possibly can” ahead of the April 12 vote.

Vance was scheduled to appear later on Tuesday at an election rally for Orbán dubbed a “Day of Friendship” event — an unusual step from a foreign leader and a break with the practice of most politicians who avoid taking an active role in the political campaigns of other countries.

Despite his clear endorsement of Orbán, Vance lashed out at the EU for what he said was “one of the worst examples of foreign election interference that I’ve ever seen or ever even read about.”

“I won’t tell the people of Hungary how to vote. I would encourage the bureaucrats in Brussels to do the exact same thing,” he said, adding that he was confident Orbán would win the election.

Long accused by critics of taking over Hungary’s institutions, clamping down on press freedom and overseeing entrenched political corruption — charges he denies — Orbán has become an icon in the global far-right movement.

Trump has repeatedly endorsed Orbán’s candidacy for reelection, and many in the Make America Great Again movement approve of the Hungarian leader's opposition to immigration, curtailing of LGBTQ+ rights, and capture of the media and academia.

But with most independent polls showing a double-digit deficit for Fidesz among decided voters ahead of the April 12 vote, Orbán has sought to boost his profile by appearing publicly with his international admirers.

Hungary, which has broken with most European Union countries by refusing to assist Ukraine with financial assistance or weapons to ward off Russia's full-scale invasion, has remained firmly committed to purchasing Russian energy despite EU efforts to wean off such supplies.

In November, Hungary received an exemption from U.S. sanctions on Russian oil and gas after a White House meeting between Orbán and Trump.

Yet on Tuesday, Vance seemed to contradict U.S. efforts to push its allies to break with Russian energy, excoriating other EU countries for moving to cease their imports of Russian fossil fuels in response to the war.

“It is funny to watch prime ministers and leaders in some of the Western European capitals talk about the energy crisis when frankly they should have been following the policies of Viktor Orbán,” he said.

Vance's visit wasn't the first gesture of support for Orbán's reelection.

In February, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Budapest where he enthusiastically praised Orbán and the “person-to-person connection” he’d established with the president, telling Orbán that Trump was ”deeply committed to your success, because your success is our success.”

Late last month, Orbán hosted dozens of allies from around Europe and beyond at the Hungarian iteration of the Conservative Political Action Conference, and at a meeting of the far-right Patriots for Europe party family, the third-largest group in the European Parliament.

Trump sent a video message to CPAC Hungary, saying Orbán had his “complete and total endorsement” and was a “fantastic guy.”

The Trump administration's embrace of Orbán reflects its affinity for European far-right parties broadly, and the admiration, from Spain to France to Germany and the Netherlands, has been mutual.

Still, Trump’s recent approach to foreign affairs has reverberated in Europe, with his actions over Greenland, Venezuela and Iran straining those relationships.

Orbán, however, has remained deferential, and has echoed Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election. In comments to state radio just before Trump began his second term, Orbán said Democrats “took the presidency away from Donald Trump through fraud.”

The vote is scheduled just hours before an 8 p.m. Eastern deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump for Iran to open the strategic waterway or face attacks on its power plants and bridges. One-fifth of the world’s oil typically passes through the strait, and Iran’s stranglehold during the war has sent energy prices soaring.

It’s doubtful the resolution, even if adopted, would impact the war, now in its fifth week, because it has been significantly weakened to try to get Russia and China to abstain rather than veto it.

The initial Bahrain proposal would have authorized countries to use “all necessary means” — U.N. wording that would include military action — to ensure transit through the Strait of Hormuz and deter attempts to close it.

After Russia, China and France, all veto-wielding countries on the 15-member Security Council, expressed opposition to approving the use of force, the resolution was revised to eliminate all references to offensive action. It would have authorized only “all defensive means necessary.” A vote had been expected on Saturday.

But instead the resolution was further weakened to eliminate any reference to Security Council authorization — which is an order for action — and limit its provisions to the Strait of Hormuz. Previous drafts had included adjacent waters.

The resolution to be voted on Tuesday "strongly encourages states interested in the use of commercial maritime routes in the Strait of Hormuz to coordinate efforts, defensive in nature, commensurate with the circumstances, to contribute to ensuring the safety and security of navigation across the Strait of Hormuz.”

This should include escorting merchant and commercial vessels, and deterring attempts to close, obstruct or interfere with international navigation through the strait, it says.

The resolution also demands that Iran immediately halt attacks on merchant and commercial vessels and stop impeding their freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian infrastructure.

In response to the U.S. and Israeli attacks beginning on Feb. 28, Iran has targeted hotels, airports, residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure in more than 10 countries, including the Islamic Republic's Gulf neighbors, some of the world’s major exporters of oil and natural gas.

Iran's blockade in the strait is seen by Gulf nations as an existential threat. Bahrain, a Gulf nation that hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet and is the Security Council’s Arab representative and its president this month, has been pressing for U.N. action.

At the same time, Trump on Monday demanded again that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz after heaping praise on the U.S. military for the daring rescue of two crewmen of a fighter jet shot down in Iran. The Republican president warned Iran that the "entire country can be taken out in one night, and that might be tomorrow night.”

He repeated the warning on Tuesday, saying a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Tehran does not meet his deadline to agree to a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia and China’s U.N. Ambassador Fu Cong have blamed the U.S. and Israel for starting the war and sparking an expanding global crisis. They told the Security Council last week that the most urgent priority now is to end military operations immediately.

In response to Iran’s strikes against its Gulf neighbors, the Security Council adopted a Bahrain-sponsored resolution on March 11 condemning the “egregious attacks” and calling for Tehran to immediately halt its strikes.

That resolution, adopted by a vote of 13-0 with Russia and China abstaining, also condemned Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz as a threat to international peace and security and called for an immediate end to all actions blocking shipping.

Two police officers sustained slight injuries in the clash, Istanbul Gov. Davut Gul told reporters. The assailants were carrying long-barreled weapons.

Interior Minister Mustafa Cifti wrote on X that the attackers had traveled from the city of Izmit, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Istanbul, in a rented car. One of the assailants was linked to a group he described as “exploiting religion,” without naming the organization.

The Islamic State group has carried out deadly attacks in Turkey in the past.

The two wounded assailants are brothers, identified as Onur C. and Enes C. The first has a criminal record related to drugs. Both are being interrogated, according to the Interior Ministry.

Video from the attack showed one assailant carrying what appeared to be an assault rifle, wearing a brown backpack and hiding behind a bus when exchanging fire with police. A police officer falls to the ground, apparently having been shot, and then rolls away to get behind a tree for cover.

One of the police officers was wounded in the leg and the other in the ear, the Interior Ministry said.

The consulate is located in a high-rise building in Levent, one of the city's main business districts. Officials said there are no Israeli diplomats present in Israeli missions in Turkey. Israel withdrew its diplomats amid security concerns and deteriorating relations with Turkey during the war in Gaza.

Turkish Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said three prosecutors, including a deputy chief prosecutor, have been assigned to lead an investigation.

Police sealed off the building and blocked several roads, while forensic experts in white protective suits combed the area for evidence.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced what he said was a “treacherous” attack.

“We will resolutely continue our fight against all forms of terrorism, and we will not allow the climate of security in Turkey to be harmed by vile and timed provocations like today’s,” he said.

The U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, condemned the assault, praising Turkish authorities for “their swift and decisive response.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry similarly condemned the attack and commended Turkish security forces for their rapid action in thwarting it.

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A previous version of this article, relying on Turkey's Haberturk news, incorrectly reported that two attackers had been killed. Only one of the three assailants was killed, while the other two were wounded and captured, according to Turkish officials.

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Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

According to an FDOT rendering of the proposed design, drivers coming from CR 2209 would no longer be able to turn left onto CR 210. Instead, drivers would continue past the intersection and make a U-turn at a signalized intersection further down CR 2209. The changes could impact how people enter into nearby businesses.

The proposed redesign aims to reduce congestion, improve traffic flow and enhance safety for drivers, people and bicyclists.

Residents will have two opportunities to learn more and make their voices heard. A virtual public meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 7, with an online open house beginning at 5:30 p.m. and a formal presentation at 6 p.m.

There will also be an in-person meeting on Thursday, April 9, at the Shearwater Kayak Clubroom, 100 Kayak Way, St. Augustine.

The open house begins at 4:30 p.m. with a formal presentation at 6 p.m.

Comments submitted by April 20, 2026, will be included in the official meeting record.

Residents may also review project information and submit comments online.

And keep in mind, the day begins with scenarios where six teams — Atlanta, Toronto, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Orlando and Miami — all have mathematical chances of finishing fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth or 10th in a muddled Eastern Conference. (Many of those chances are improbable, but they exist.)

Miami and Toronto start a two-game series in Ontario, with the Raptors trying to keep the No. 6 spot in the East and the Heat desperate to start a final-week clawing out of the No. 10 spot.

The game of the night might be in Boston, where Charlotte will pay the Celtics a visit. The Hornets are 43-36, tied with Philadelphia and Orlando for the seventh-best record in the East, and they'll hold either the No. 6, No. 7 or No. 9 spot in the conference — temporarily, anyway — when Tuesday's slate is complete.

Both Los Angeles teams are home; the banged-up Lakers could jump back into the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference with a win, and the Clippers could strengthen their tenuous hold on the No. 8 spot.

Who's in and who's out?

Here's what we know so far regarding the NBA playoff field for this season.

— Eastern Conference playoff teams: Detroit has locked up the No. 1 seed and will open the postseason on April 19. Boston, New York, Cleveland are in. At this point, Atlanta and Toronto would get the other two guaranteed spots, but those are not clinched.

— East play-in teams: Nobody is locked into the play-in yet, but entering Tuesday, the four teams headed there are Philadelphia, Charlotte, Orlando and Miami.

— East eliminated teams: Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Brooklyn and Washington.

— Western Conference playoff teams: Oklahoma City, San Antonio, the Los Angeles Lakers, Denver and Houston are in. Minnesota is likely to grab the sixth and final guaranteed spot.

— West play-in teams: Phoenix is probably going to the play-in tournament. The Los Angeles Clippers, Portland and Golden State definitely are.

— West eliminated teams: Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas, Utah and Sacramento.

Monday recap

— Knicks 108, Hawks 105: Jalen Brunson had 17 in the 4th, CJ McCollum's miracle make was too late.

— Magic 123, Pistons 107: Orlando led almost the whole way, had 40-19 edge in free throw attempts.

— Cavaliers 142, Grizzlies 126: Memphis tied the NBA record with 29 made 3s — and still lost by 16.

— Spurs 115, 76ers 102: San Antonio hits 60 wins, waiting to hear about Victor Wembanyama's ribs.

— Nuggets 137, Trail Blazers 132, OT: Portland led by 13 with 6:01 left in regulation, then fell apart.

Tuesday's schedule

— Timberwolves at Pacers: Wolves still vying to clinch 6 seed, then focus on health before Round 1.

— Heat at Raptors: Miami plays at Toronto twice in a three-day span, huge stakes for both teams.

— Hornets at Celtics: Probably game of the night, which nobody would have predicted in October.

— Kings at Warriors: This week is basically preseason for Golden State and its play-in tune-up plan.

— Thunder at Lakers: Oklahoma City on verge of getting No. 1 overall seed for second straight year.

— Mavericks at Clippers: Dallas' Cooper Flagg’s final-week rookie of the year push tour continues.

— Rockets at Suns: Kevin Durant goes back to Phoenix, one of his former stomping grounds.

— Bulls at Wizards: All about lottery odds.

— Bucks at Nets: All about lottery odds.

— Jazz at Pelicans: For Utah, all about lottery odds. (New Orleans’ pick should convey to Atlanta.)

Wednesday's schedule

— Atlanta at Cleveland: A very possible East first-round preview.

— Minnesota at Orlando: Wolves sputtering, Anthony Edwards is aching.

— Milwaukee at Detroit: Giannis Antetokounmpo still wants to play.

— Memphis at Denver: Nuggets chasing No. 3 seed, need a win here.

— Portland at San Antonio: Blazers have work to do to avoid 9-10 game.

— Oklahoma City at L.A. Clippers: Clippers have work to do to avoid 9-10 game.

— Dallas at Phoenix: Suns almost certainly will be No. 7 seed for play-in.

National TV schedule

Tuesday on NBC and Peacock: Charlotte-Boston (8 p.m. Eastern) and Houston-Phoenix (11 p.m.).

Wednesday on ESPN: Atlanta-Cleveland (7 p.m. Eastern) and Portland-San Antonio (9:30 p.m.).

Betting odds

Oklahoma City (+130) is favored to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed by San Antonio (+450), Boston (+550), Denver (+1200), Cleveland (+1200) and New York (+1900). Detroit, the No. 1 seed in the East, is +2500. The Los Angeles Lakers were +2500 before Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves got hurt; they're +45000 now.

Key dates

— Friday: All 30 teams play their 81st games of the season.

— Sunday: All 30 teams play their regular-season finales.

— April 14, 15 and 17: NBA play-in tournament dates.

— April 18 and 19: NBA playoff series openers.

— May 2, 3 or 4: Conference semifinals begin.

— May 10: NBA draft lottery.

— May 10-17: NBA draft combine.

— May 17 or 19: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.

— May 18 or 20: 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).

Numbers watch

If Denver averages 127 points in its final three games, the Nuggets would become the eighth team in NBA history to reach 10,000 points in a regular season. There have been three Western Conference teams to hit that milestone — they would be the Nuggets in 1981-82, the Nuggets in 1982-83 and ... you guessed it ... the Nuggets in 1983-84.

Stats of the day

— If Houston wins one more game this season, the NBA will have nine teams reach the 50-win mark. The last season with more than nine such teams was 2014-15, which saw 10 teams reach 50 wins. (Minnesota could get to 50 this season if it wins out.)

— Denver has allowed 134 and 132 points in its last two games, respectively, and gone 2-0. It's the seventh time a team has done that in NBA history; three of the previous six instances were done by the super-high-octane Nuggets in 1981 and 1982. San Antonio did it in 1984, Minnesota in 2021 and the Los Angeles Lakers did it in 2024.

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

As spring gets underway, retailers often start discounting products tied to outdoor living, yard work, and seasonal cleaning, making this a smart time to shop if you know what to look for.

Consumer Reports shopping expert Samantha Gordon says the beginning of spring is when shoppers can start finding deals on outdoor equipment and products meant to get patios and outdoor spaces ready for warmer weather.

It’s also spring-cleaning season, which means vacuums and other cleaning tools are often marked down.

One category to watch is carpet cleaners. If you’re planning a deep clean, Consumer Reports says it helps to think about how you’ll actually use one before buying.

If you only need to tackle occasional spills, you may not need a large, heavy-duty machine.

For bigger jobs, features like separate tanks for clean and dirty water, spinning brushes, a long cord, and a lighter overall weight can make the work much easier.

Spring can also be a good time to consider replacing drafty or aging windows.

Consumer Reports says sales this time of year may make the investment more manageable, and choosing Energy Star-certified models could save homeowners hundreds of dollars a year in heating and cooling costs.

Outdoor power equipment is another area where prices often soften in April.

Gordon says it’s a good time to start thinking about lawn care, which means retailers may offer deals on leaf blowers, string trimmers, and lawn mowers.

Before choosing a mower, Consumer Reports recommends considering the size and terrain of your yard. For smaller, flatter lawns, a basic push mower may be enough. But for larger or hillier yards—especially those over half an acre—a self-propelled model is often the better choice.

If winter left your patio, siding, or deck looking grimy, a pressure washer may also be worth a look.

Consumer Reports says performance varies widely, so it’s important to match the machine’s power to the task.

Lighter-duty models can work well for cars and outdoor furniture, while tougher jobs like concrete and decking usually require more power. Convenience features like wheels, built-in soap tanks, and onboard storage can also make a difference.

Even with spring sales underway, Consumer Reports says shoppers shouldn’t feel pressured to buy immediately.

Discounts on home and outdoor gear tend to come and go throughout the season, with Memorial Day sales just around the corner.

Taking time to compare prices and think through your needs can help you make the most of the season’s deals.

Baylee Adair lived at Spinnaker Reach Apartments on San Pablo Road with her two young sons. She says the roach problem in her unit became so severe that it was impossible to ignore.

“There were just bugs everywhere — my kids would be eating, and there would be roaches crawling on their food,” Adair said.

Her son summed it up simply.

“The bug house!” he said. “Because there were so many bugs.”

Failed inspection, broken lease

Adair says conditions worsened over time. She described waking up in the middle of the night to find bugs on the walls above her family as they slept.

“We’d wake up in the middle of the night, and there would be bugs crawling — coming down the wall. I’d look up and see them crawling down toward us while we were sleeping,” she said.

Adair says the unit ultimately failed a housing authority inspection — twice — and that property management gave her permission to leave.

Adair provided News4JAX with documentation to support her claims, including a lease stating pest control would be paid for by the apartment, and paperwork from the housing authority — filled out by the property management company — confirming she did not owe money upon breaking her lease.

Debt collection notice arrives

Despite that documentation, Adair says, she received an unexpected notice months later.

“In August or September of 2025, I received a notification from the debt collection company saying that I owed them the lease fees,” she said.

Adair now has an outstanding balance of approximately $2,000. News4JAX contacted a local real estate attorney to explore her legal options.

Zach Roth, a real estate attorney with Ansbacher Law, says the documentation Adair has could work in her favor.

“If you have a document that’s going to provide proof that if you move out, you don’t owe anything, that is almost certainly going to be covered by the doctrines of waiver — meaning that the landlord has knowingly waived the right to enforce that,“ Roth said. ”They can’t now subsequently take a position inconsistent with that position."

Current residents describe similar conditions

News4JAX visited the Spinnaker Reach Apartments, where property management declined to comment on camera, saying a media representative would follow up. That response has not yet been received.

While on the property, News4JAX was invited into the unit of current resident Michelle Martinez. The conditions she described mirrored what Adair had experienced.

“I literally came in here to get my laundry, to put my robe on, and I had four cockroaches crawling around all over me — they get in through the hole in the wall,” Martinez said.

Adair says the experience speaks to a larger issue affecting low-income renters.

“Just because someone is on low income or struggling doesn’t mean they are less entitled to living in a clean space,” she said.

Adair says she will continue to dispute the charges. News4JAX will continue reaching out to Spinnaker Reach property management for comment.

While a lot of attention is currently on fentanyl, in the past few years, a new drug has been slowly causing damage: Kratom. And — it’s legal in most of the U.S.

(NOTE: It’s banned for purchase in Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Louisiana, Indiana, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.)

Kratom is a plant that looks harmless, but when condensed, can have the same euphoric power as opioids, and you can buy it online and at smoke shops, gas stations, and health food stores.

“When it’s getting to the point where it’s a heavy usage, it can go into this euphoria that can be hallucinogenic in its nature,” said Scott Harrell, executive director & CEO of Fresh Start Ministries of Central Florida.

Kratom is a Southeast Asian plant that can be turned into powder, liquid, or tea.

It’s sold online and in gas stations and smoke shops. According to the Wall Street Journal, people use it for energy, focus, pain relief, and to get over opioid addictions.

“What I think the excuse is, is that it’s legal and because it’s legal, it’s a replacement for opioids,” explained Harrell.

And some users say that’s not all.

“It’s not alleviating pain, it’s making other people rich,” said a Fresh Start Ministries client.

Last year, the FDA recommended that 7-OH, a byproduct of kratom, be classified as a controlled substance. Fresh Start Ministries says they had to request a specialized drug test to make sure their clients aren’t using it.

“We have had… some of the guys will say, I just didn’t know it was in there,” recalled Harrell.

Harrell also says kratom is a gateway drug for younger men and can lead to use of other drugs and even overdoses.

“They’ll start with kratom for a night, and then they reach into, you know, looking for a little bit better, bigger, faster fix,” he said

“Kratom is a self-induced death sentence, period,” said a Fresh Start Ministries client.

Just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous.

Harrell has been told by his clients that withdrawal from kratom is not significantly different from withdrawal from other drugs, and Healthline says many symptoms are the same as opiate and opioid withdrawal.

Withdrawal symptoms such as muscle aches, nausea, cramps, and decreased appetite can start as soon as 12 hours after the last dose and last from 3 to 10 days.

But new research released Tuesday shows that such financial gains for many Black-led nonprofits were short-lived, if they happened at all. A subset of large, Black-led nonprofits saw only temporary funding increases between 2020 and 2022, according to the analysis by nonprofit research service Candid and Black philanthropy group ABFE. Smaller organizations saw no significant change.

The pattern of disinvestment put many community groups at a greater disadvantage when President Donald Trump’s policies curtailed funding for diversity, equity and inclusion. The nonprofit sector's struggles deepened as the administration threatened a range of social service programs, left future grants uncertain by cutting agency staff and chilled racial justice funding through anti-DEI executive orders.

Black Voters Matter co-founder Cliff Albright noted these community nonprofits are the same ones now tasked with helping more and more low-income families deal with spiking healthcare costs and rising food prices.

“We're literally being asked to do more with less resources,” Albright told The Associated Press.

Small, Black-led nonprofits tended to have to rely on new rather than continuing funders, losing out on transformational relationships that sustain their longer-term goals and cushion them through challenging periods. These small organizations — those with annual expenses of $1 million or less — got just over one-third of their funding from continuing supporters, according to the report.

The dynamic rang true for a South Side Chicago group serving a predominantly Black neighborhood among the city's most impoverished. Asiaha Butler, the CEO of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood, cofounded the nonprofit more than 15 years ago to empower her neighbors to combat their area's negative narratives.

That mission had a handful of consistent backers. But summer 2020 brought more than two dozen new funders.

“All of a sudden, we were desirable for people to fund,” recalled Butler, adding the “spurt” became a “curse” as the quick infusion of capital tapered off.

“We started seeing this revenue and thinking we're gaining really great relationships with funders," she said. "And, really, those priorities shifted quickly.”

Lacking relationships

Foundations lacked relationships with Black organizations of any scale prior to 2020, according to ABFE CEO Susan Taylor Batten.

Black philanthropy professionals say that distance created a scramble when protestors demanded businesses and philanthropies address systemic racism.

Kia Croom, whose fundraising firm works with nonprofits in Black communities, said her clients received more funding than ever from corporations. Some hired additional development staff to meet the demand — and then underwent layoffs when funds disappeared.

“It was just a very transactional gift at best,” she said.

Positive Results Center CEO Kandee Lewis oversees a Los Angeles nonprofit assisting survivors of domestic violence and other harms. It was wonderful, she said, to receive checks from new supporters. But oftentimes, the support turned out to be a one-time donation rather than the beginning of a relationship.

Lewis felt the funding came only because her group was Black-led — not because funders understood its work.

"They were so busy trying to figure out who was who that they didn’t really take time to get to know people," she said.

Limited networks

Jaleesa Hall knows philanthropy is a relationship game.

She heads Raising A Village Foundation, which aims to advance educational equity through tutoring programs. She didn't have many high net worth members in her network when she founded the Washington, D.C. nonprofit more than six years ago.

That circle made it difficult to catch the attention of foundations, which she said “haven't really cracked” how to find potential grantees outside of their existing web of connections.

“Small, Black-led nonprofits simply aren't in those rooms to begin with," Hall said.

Most of their foundation grant dollars came from first-time funders, according to the report.

Cathleen Clerkin, the associate vice president of research at Candid, said the nonprofits' work is made even more challenging by the “song and dance” necessary to secure long-term investment every year.

“They're just constantly going on first dates with new funders and hoping that somebody will invest in them and understand them,” she said.

Small nonprofit leaders are so focused on day-to-day upkeep and financial viability that they don't have time to attend networking opportunities or money to fly out for national convenings.

T’Pring Westbrook, a nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute's Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, co-founded a consulting group that works with small nonprofits. The problem isn't that foundations don't want to support marginalized communities, she said, but that they do so through “trend funding.”

“Maybe during Black History Month there will be a funding campaign,” she said. “But the thing about a campaign is a campaign doesn't build sustainability.”

Restrictive practices

Small nonprofits say they face additional barriers, regardless of race, including grant eligibility requirements. And limited staff may prevent qualifying organizations from keeping up with foundations' required weekly or monthly reports on the status of projects they’ve funded.

“It ends up feeling like a burden,” Hall explained. “The juice isn't worth the squeeze."

Philanthropy has seen a sector-wide shift towards trust-based models that offer general operating support and multi-year grants, acknowledging nonprofits' expertise on how to best fulfill their missions. But Batten, the ABFE leader, said Black-led nonprofits generally have not reaped the benefits of those best practices.

The report showed Black-led nonprofits had significantly fewer continuing funders than their non-Black counterparts. Only one-third received general operating support, compared to just over half of other nonprofits.

“We are still seeing remnants of bad practice when it comes to investing in Black communities," Batten said. "There’s just no way for a foundation to move its mission for communities in this country, let alone Black nonprofits to move theirs, if we do not evolve this sector."

‘Pulling teeth’ in Chicago

Butler, the Chicago neighborhood association leader, hears excuses now from supporters who gave at the height of the 2020 racial justice movement: “Priorities have shifted,” they tell her, or there are “new strategic goals."

“Little buzz words that just say perhaps this nonprofit -- grassroots, Black-led, very focused on the Black population -- is probably just not in peoples’ cards to continue to support,” she said.

That downturn delayed a nearly $7 million capital project building off their economic justice work after the post-George Floyd civil unrest. An 8,800-square-foot (817 square-meter) building would include a dine-in restaurant and another Black-owned business. One tenant would provide workforce development trainings. Her goal is to strengthen Englewood’s economic and social fabric through a thriving Black business district.

By 2023, she had secured a $1 million grant — her nonprofit's largest — to start the project. But she compared her search for additional funding to "pulling teeth.” Past philanthropic partners withheld support. Their prospects weren't good.

She's turning to public funding. The City of Chicago provided a $2.5 million grant and Butler said another $1.5 million state award is pending.

“Things shifted and so we didn’t want to start soliciting for a capital campaign,” she said. “The timing was off.”

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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.

The activist and former San Francisco 49ers quarterback has completed “The Perilous Fight,” to come out Sept. 15 through the Hachette Book Group imprint Legacy Lit. His memoir will come out almost exactly 10 years after he knelt before a preseason game, a protest against police violence and racial inequality that was emulated by some players and criticized by politicians, team owners and fans, some of whom booed him and burned his jersey.

Kaepernick, who has not played in the NFL since 2016, said in a statement that he wanted to offer context for what led to his taking a knee. Before that, he had remained seated during the anthem.

“People saw the moment. But they didn’t see the years that made it possible: the questions about who I was; the injustices I could no longer ignore; the voices of those who came before me that I carried into that stadium,” Kaepernick said in a statement released Tuesday. “That journey, from a Black kid navigating an identity the world didn’t always make space for, to an athlete who realized the game was bigger than football, shaped everything. When I took a knee, it wasn’t a sudden act.”

Legacy Lit is calling the book “equal parts memoir and manifesto,” tracing “the off-the-field battles that turned a single act of protest into a movement that changed American sports and culture forever.”

Kaepernick, 38, played six years for the 49ers and helped lead them to an appearance in the Super Bowl in 2013. Baltimore won the game 34-31.

Kaepernick has spoken out often on social issues, launched his own publishing imprint and co-written the picture story “We Are Free, You & Me” and the graphic novel “Change the Game.”

Updated information from JSO indicates Krause walked into the Gate not far from I-95 at 9:16 a.m., while several customers and employees were inside.

Convenience store surveillance video shows Krause walking around the store for several minutes. Five minutes after he entered the store, he pulled out an apparent handgun and pointed it at the store clerk, according to JSO.

Police said Krause demanded that the clerk call the police, stating he wanted to die and he wanted the police to kill him.

“You can go. I’m not hurting anybody. I just want to kill myself. Call the cops, please,” Krause can be heard saying on the store surveillance video. “I’m done with this ******* life.”

The customers ran out of the store, and the store clerk called 911 at 9:22 a.m.

WATCH: Full critical incident briefing with surveillance video (viewer discretion advised)

Once the employees left, Krause stayed inside and, at 9:24 a.m., opened the door and told the employees that he was going to come out shooting, police said.

JSO said officers arrived at the scene at 9:29 a.m. and when the officers got there, Krause opened the door again and yelled at the officers, “Are you ready?”

Officer H. Cascante then armed himself with his agency-approved rifle and took up a tactical position behind a patrol vehicle, while another officer ran toward people gathered at the scene outside, JSO said.

JSO said that at 9:30 a.m., Krause exited the store and began moving quickly toward Cascante with his right arm outstretched in front of his body with his weapon pointed at the officer.

Cascante fired his rifle, striking Krause, who fell to the ground, his weapon hitting the pavement. Krause died at the scene.

Investigators later learned the weapon Krause was holding was a Glock 19 replica airsoft gun.

Watch the full news conference:

Investigators said Krause never fired his gun, and the undersheriff said it appeared he wanted to provoke the officers into taking his life.

“We’re never going to let a person fire on us if we can avoid it,” Sheriff T.K. Waters said after the sixth officer-involved shooting of the year.

No officers were hurt in the encounter.

JSO said that had Krause survived his injuries, he would have been charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault and one count of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.

Cascante was hired on July 6, 2020, and this is his first officer-involved shooting, JSO said.

The State Attorney’s Office is conducting its own independent investigation. JSO will then conduct an internal review to ensure the officer acted within policy. Conclusions remain pending.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can find a list of local resources at this link.

The horn sounded, and Morez Johnson Jr. came over to share a celebratory scream and hearty hug — from one transfer to another — as the Wolverines began running toward midcourt to celebrate a national championship.

Maybe a school really can build an ideal college basketball roster amid the topsy-turvy chaos of the transfer portal, paying players and top-to-bottom overhauls.

Michigan proved it Monday night, rolling out an all-transfer starting lineup that was too big, too strong and too capable of countering anything that UConn could muster — even on a night when the 3-point shot wasn't falling and All-American Yaxel Lendeborg was hobbled by ankle and knee injuries.

The Wolverines still had enough to hold off the Huskies 69-63 and claim the program's first title in 37 years.

And they showed how second-year Dusty May assembled a resilient roster by diving all the way into the portal.

“Man, this whole year, we were a team that played together,” Lendeborg said as he stood amid the confetti on the court at Lucas Oil Stadium. “We didn't have a best player, like I said before. We have a guy that steps up big-time in these games.

“We have players that make plays when they need to make them. And we just played a full all-around team basketball game today. We did it.”

It didn't matter that the Wolverines shot just 38% while making 2 of 15 3-pointers — stunning numbers for a team that entered the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 8 nationally in KenPom's adjusted offensive efficiency (126.6 points per 100 possessions).

It didn't matter that they were outrebounded — and gave up an incredible 22 offensive boards.

Nor that Lendeborg carried an awkward gait as he grinded his way through a 4-for-13 shooting effort in 36 minutes after twisting his left ankle and spraining a knee ligament in Saturday's win over Arizona in the Final Four.

Not the way these guys complemented each other on the sport's biggest stage.

Point guard Elliot Cadeau, in his first season after two up-and-down years at North Carolina, had 19 points and was named the Final Four's most outstanding player. Johnson, in his first year from Illinois, had 12 points and 10 rebounds. The 7-foot-3 Aday Mara, in his first year from UCLA, helped hold UConn big man Tarris Reed Jr. — who had been a March Madness force — to just 4-of-12 shooting.

“Nobody cared about stats the whole season. Nobody cared about nothing but winning,” Cadeau said.

Four of Michigan's five starters were in their first year after transferring: Cadeau, Johnson, Mara and Lendeborg (UAB).

The fifth starter, Nimari Burnett, was practically a Michigan lifer by comparison; he was in his third season with the Wolverines, after starting his career at Texas Tech then spending two years at Alabama. A similar story followed Gayle, a reserve who had spent two years at rival Ohio State before these last two years in Ann Arbor.

That left only two players in Michigan's eight-man rotation who would qualify as “homegrown” talent: freshman Trey McKenney and fifth-year graduate Will Tschetter.

It's an approach that tailored to the current era of the sport, with players transferring freely between campuses and cleared to profit from the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL), along with schools able to pay athletes directly with the arrival of revenue sharing.

Purists have complained that the revolving door of players makes it harder for fans to get behind their schools than it was when most players spent multiple seasons in the same uniform. Transfers even featured prominently in an executive order signed last week by President Donald Trump seeking to reform college sports.

May shrugged off the critics on Sunday, noting, “I think we are all better in certain situations than others.”

Athletic director Warde Manuel offered a similar defense on the court Monday night after the program claimed its first national title since the Glen Rice-led Wolverines cut down the nets in Seattle in 1989.

“A lot of teams around the country benefited from transfers,” Manuel said. “You can't just say, ‘Well, Michigan had the most transfers.’ Dusty put this team together the way he did.”

And it worked to perfection.

By the end, Mara was jumping around with a few teammates after they had watched the “One Shining Moment” music montage of tournament highlights, with someone picking up a handful of confetti and tossing it into the air to flutter around them.

“It's important to get the right people on the bus,” assistant coach Justin Joyner said. “It's important to get unselfish guys that are about winning, that are about the group. We had that with the best of our players. Yaxel Lendeborg's one of the most unselfish superstars you'll ever be around.

“So when you have that from the top, it permeates through your locker room, it permeates through your group. And eventually you can become a unit that's about winning.”

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This story corrects a typo in McKenney's last name.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Troopers said a 23-year-old Jacksonville woman riding in the SUV suffered serious injuries.

According to the crash report, the SUV was headed south on North Lowder Street near Constitution Place just after 4 p.m. Monday when it traveled onto the east shoulder, hitting the fence and a tree.

The 25-year-old driver, who is from Macclenny, died at Ed Fraser Memorial Hospital, troopers said.

Both women were wearing seat belts, according to the report.

Troopers are still investigating what caused the SUV to leave the roadway.

Agyemang was visibly emotional when he was stretchered off, with his right leg strapped, after landing awkwardly in Derby’s 2-0 victory over Stoke in the second-tier English Championship on Monday.

Derby confirmed on Tuesday that the striker would miss soccer’s biggest tournament, which is being held in the U.S., Canada and Mexico in June and July.

“As a result of this injury, Patrick will unfortunately miss this summer’s FIFA World Cup,” Derby said in a statement. “At this stage it would be wrong to put a timeline on his recovery."

The club added that Agyemang would undergo more tests later on Tuesday and “further updates will be communicated in due course.”

Agyemang has helped Derby into contention for promotion to the Premier League thanks to a team-leading 10 goals since arriving last summer from Charlotte in Major League Soccer.

During the recent international break, he came off the bench for the United States and scored in a loss against Belgium and also got some minutes against Portugal.

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

Charles Faggart died days later from the injuries he suffered on April 7, 2025.

Faggart, owner of a food truck and catering company, was arrested on misdemeanor charges of simple assault and criminal mischief on April 1, 2025.

On April 10, 2025, he was officially declared dead.

Many questions remain in the case that was turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in September.

Now, exactly one year after the incident that proved deadly, Faggart’s family is taking their fight for answers to Duval County court.

READ: Full lawsuit filed by Charles Faggart’s family

Belkis Plata, the family’s attorney, filed suit on Tuesday against Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, demanding the release of “the complete public record” related to the incident and investigation, “including all video evidence.”

Formal public records requests have been made for the reports and video, but “those requests have been met with silence,” Plata wrote in a news release announcing the lawsuit.

The lawsuit accuses the sheriff and the agency of “blatantly” violating Florida’s public records laws, “denying the transparency and accountability the law requires and the public is entitled to.”

Many questions remain about Faggart’s death, days after the April 7 incident that led to the suspension of eight corrections officers and one sergeant.

The only information released so far is a heavily redacted report that says six days into Faggart’s misdemeanor jail stay, he was handcuffed for unclear reasons and began acting “aggressive, erratic and disruptive,” prompting a sergeant to order him strapped into a restraint safety chair.

The report said Faggart kept struggling with officers, but key details about what officers did are redacted; it said a mental health director later approved moving him to “self-harm housing,” and officers put an anti-spit mask on him.

The report noted that Faggart said he “did fentanyl,” but medical reports obtained through The Tributary, a Jacksonville nonprofit newsroom, stated that doctors at UF Health who evaluated him observed a broken, bruised and unresponsive Faggart. They concluded he did not have fentanyl in his system.

Faggart was taken out of the chair and put back in minutes later for a redacted reason, the report said. The remaining narrative is largely redacted.

Medical staff arrived, and the paramedics were called. The report listed a “seizure” as the medical emergency, but according to an attorney for Faggart’s family, he was “beaten.”

The UF Health records said doctors determined he did not suffer a seizure and also said a nurse flushed his eyes with saline —suggesting pepper spray—while medical records indicated lung damage.

RELATED: ‘Do your job’: Nearly 4 months after Duval County inmate’s death, his mother continues to demand accountability from JSO | Medical records shed new light on controversial jail death, contradict JSO account: The Tributary

The Jacksonville Community Action Coalition plans to hold a vigil and rally at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office headquarters Tuesday evening to demand answers in Faggart’s death. His family is expected to attend.

“The Faggart family is deeply grateful for the continued support from the community,” Plata wrote in the release. “The love and encouragement they have received, from those who knew Charles and those who did not, remain a source of strength as they continue their fight for justice.”

JSO said the corrections officers who were reassigned remain in those roles.

Also, the sheriff’s office said the internal investigation cannot begin until the criminal investigation is finished. JSO provided no additional updates, and the FBI also said it had no new information.

The proposed deal would involve Universal Music merging with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, an acquisition company approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023. Plans would include the new company being based in Nevada and moving its stock listing from Amsterdam to the New York Stock Exchange.

“UMG’s stock price has languished due to a combination of issues that are unrelated to the performance of its music business and importantly, all of them can be addressed with this transaction,” Ackman said in a statement on Tuesday.

The total cash-and-stock value of the deal is estimated at 30.40 euros per share, or $35.12. That puts Universal Music's value at approximately 56 billion euros based on its outstanding shares.

Universal Music shareholders will receive 9.4 billion euros in cash (or 5.05 euros per share) and 0.77 shares of the newly created company's stock for each share of Universal Music that they own.

Universal Music did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The proposed transaction is anticipated to close by the end of the year, according to Pershing Square.

In 2021 Ackman walked away from a deal that would have given him a 10% stake in Universal Music. At the time, Ackman cited questions from the SEC about whether the structure of a special-purpose acquisition company would allow such an acquisition under the rules of the New York Stock Exchange.

Shares of Universal rose more than 10% in midday trading in Amsterdam.

Trump's previous deadline was for March 23, but that shifted several times over the ensuing weeks as the Republican president oscillated between heated threats, announced delays and proclamations that the negotiations were going well, sometimes in the same statement.

Iran rejected the latest ceasefire proposal, the country's state-run IRNA news agency reported Monday. Shortly after, Trump gave an ominous warning to Iran if it didn’t capitulate and suggested Tuesday’s 8 p.m. EDT deadline was final.

“They’ll have no bridges. They’ll have no power plants. They’ll have no anything," he said.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the U.S. that attacks on civilian infrastructure is banned under international law, according to his spokesperson. Trump, speaking with reporters, said he's “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes with such attacks.

Here are some of Trump's deadlines and threats, and what happened next.

An ultimatum about reopening the Strait of Hormuz

On March 21, Trump posted on Truth Social that if Iran doesn't “FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS.”

Iran had until the evening of March 23.

Then 12 hours before the deadline, Trump took to Truth Social to share the good news: that both countries had productive conversations toward concluding the conflict.

“I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD,” he wrote, adding that was subject to the success of the discussions.

That pushed the deadline out to the end of that week.

A threat to target desalinization plants

Before the deadline, on March 26, Trump doubled down on his threats on Truth Social: “They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won’t be pretty!”

But later that day, he extended the deadline for another 10 days, to April 6 at 8 p.m., and said on Truth Social that negotiations were “going very well.”

On March 30, Trump put out a mixed statement: celebrating progress in the talks with Iran while also expanding his threatened bombing if a deal wasn't “shortly reached,” adding that “it probably will be."

“We will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!),” he wrote.

It's unclear how soon “shortly reached” meant for Trump, but a deal was not made as the deadline loomed.

An expletive-filled threat to attack power plants and bridges

“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT," Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday, "Time is running out - 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”

As the deadline approached, his posts had doubled down on his threats until Sunday, when Trump pushed the deadline again in an expletive-filled post.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F——-in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell,” Trump said on Truth Social, followed by another post that specified 8 p.m. as the deadline.

Trump then suggested on Monday that Tuesday's deadline would be final, saying he'd already given Iran enough extensions.

“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said. “We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night.”

What's next for diplomacy with Iran?

Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, said Iran no longer trusts the Trump administration after the U.S. bombed the Islamic Republic twice during previous rounds of talks.

“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” he told The Associated Press.

A regional official involved in the talks said efforts had not collapsed. “We are still talking to both sides,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

On an Israeli TV station, Channel 13, the evening newscast showed a large digital clock counting down the hours and minutes to Tuesday’s deadline.

The offer was made through the United States, which has been mediating talks between delegations from Moscow and Kyiv, Zelenskyy said, as Russia’s invasion stretches into a fifth year.

“If Russia is ready to stop strikes on our energy infrastructure, we will be ready to respond in kind,” the Ukrainian leader said in a public address late Monday. "This proposal, conveyed through the Americans, has already been presented to the Russian side.”

There was no immediate comment from Moscow about the proposal. Previous attempts to secure ceasefires have had little or no impact. Russian President Vladimir Putin unilaterally declared a 30-hour ceasefire last Easter, but each side accused the other of breaking it.

Russia effectively rejected a 30-day unconditional truce proposed last year by the U.S. and Ukraine as a step toward peace, insisting instead on a comprehensive settlement, but Moscow has announced several short, unilateral ceasefires.

Zelenskyy said he doubted the Kremlin would take up his offer for the April 12 holiday pause as Russia is currently benefiting from higher oil prices driven by the Iran war.

Zelenskyy is concerned that a prolonged U.S.-Israeli war on Iran could erode America’s support for Ukraine.

The U.S.-led talks have made no progress on key issues, as Washington’s attention is held by the Middle East conflict, and the Russian and Ukrainian armies remain locked in battle on the roughly 1,250-kilometer (800-mile) front line.

At the same time, Russia has pounded Ukraine’s power grid in an effort to demoralize civilians while Kyiv’s domestically produced long-range drones have repeatedly hit Russian oil infrastructure in a bid to dent Moscow’s main export revenue.

“Ukraine’s expanding long-range strike campaign against Russian oil infrastructure is exploiting overstretched Russian air defenses and significantly damaging Russian oil export capabilities,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in an assessment late Monday.

“Russia’s geographical size poses an enormous challenge to defend, especially with traditional air defense systems on which the Russians reportedly still rely to protect against Ukraine drone salvos,” it added.

Russia is also targeting public transport, including Ukraine’s vital rail network and bus services.

On Tuesday morning, a Russian drone struck a bus as it approached a stop, killing four civilians and injuring 15 others, in the southeastern Ukraine city of Nikopol, authorities said.

“This brutal attack on civilian regular transportation occurred during rush hour, when people were just going to work,” Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote in an online post. “This is not an accident, it’s their (Russian) tactic: deliberate strikes on civilians.”

Also, Ukrainian authorities said three people were killed and three others were injured in an attack on a residential building in the southern city of Kherson. An 11-year-old boy was killed in a drone strike near the eastern city of Synelnykove, officials there said, bringing the day’s civilian death toll to eight.

Government and military authorities also reported power cuts in several eastern and southern areas in Ukraine following artillery and drone strikes.

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

As I saw on our Exact Track 4D radar this morning, rain is spreading across parts of our area, especially around St. Augustine, Palm Coast, Flagler Beach, World Golf Village, and stretching up toward Georgia.

When I drove in, some spots were dry, but that’s changing fast. Areas like Middleburg, Orange Park, Pomona Park, Palatka, and even Folkestone are expecting showers to build through the day.

For those closer to the coast—while some spots are still clear, a wind advisory is in effect right now. That means gusts strong enough to knock branches around and pose a risk to power lines.

If you see saturated ground, don’t be surprised—uprooted trees are possible as rain continues, so keep an eye out.

According to our future track, this pattern is expected to stick around right through the afternoon and into the evening.

More rain is likely Wednesday, too. It’s not the sunniest news, but this is just what we’ve been hoping for to help kick our drought.

Jacksonville’s drought and rainfall deficit

I want to be real with you: our rain deficit has been serious. The numbers and drought maps we showed this morning put much of the region solidly “in the red.”

We actually need more than 20 inches of rain to fully erase the deficit—and while this week’s forecast will help, it’s not likely to close the gap entirely.

The good news? The storms today and tomorrow are chipping away at that shortfall.

Let’s keep looking on the bright side—every drop helps, and right now, we need every one!

Cooler temps now, warmer weekend ahead

With the clouds and rain, it’s a milder start to the day—around 61 degrees as I was walking through the forecast. Most neighborhoods are waking up to 50s and 60s this week, which feels like a big shift after recent warmth!

But don’t pack away the sunglasses or short sleeves yet. Looking ahead on our 7-day, temperatures are forecast to bounce back to the 80s by the weekend and into Monday. That means beach weather is on the horizon if you’re eager to get outdoors again. First, we just need to get through these next couple of soggy days.

Have a snapshot of today’s dramatic skies or stormy scenes? Share it with our weather team using SnapJAX—we love seeing your view of Jacksonville weather!

Police have not confirmed the name of the 47-year-old former soldier who was arrested Tuesday. But he has been widely reported in the media to be Roberts-Smith, a former Special Air Service Regiment corporal who was awarded both the Victoria Cross and Medal of Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan.

Police charged him Tuesday with five counts of war crime murder. He will remain in custody overnight and make his first court appearance on Wednesday, a police statement said.

He will potentially apply for release on bail Wednesday.

Roberts-Smith is only the second Australian veteran of the Afghanistan campaign to be charged with a war crime.

Former SAS soldier Oliver Schulz, 44, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of war crime murder. He is accused of shooting Afghan man Dad Mohammad three times in the head in an Uruzgan province wheat field in May 2012.

War crime murder carries a potential sentence of life in prison. It's a federal crime in Australia, defined as the intentional killing in the context of armed conflict of a person who is not taking an active part in hostilities, such as civilians, prisoners of war or wounded soldiers.

Police arrested Roberts-Smith at Sydney Airport on Tuesday after he arrived on a flight from Brisbane, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said.

“It will be alleged that the victims were not taking part in hostilities at the time of their alleged murder in Afghanistan. It will be alleged the victims were detained, unarmed and were under the control of ADF members when they were killed,” Barrett told reporters, referring to the Australian Defense Force.

“It will be alleged the victims were shot by the accused or shot by subordinate members of the ADF in the presence of and acting on the orders of the accused,” Barrett added.

A civil court has already found similar allegations against Roberts-Smith credible in a defamation suit he brought after several newspapers published articles in 2018 accusing him of a range of war crimes. In 2023, a federal judge rejected Roberts-Smith’s claims and ruled that he likely killed four noncombatants unlawfully in 2009 and 2012.

But while the civil court found the war crimes allegations were mostly proved on a balance of probabilities, the new charges would have to be proved in a criminal court to a higher standard of beyond reasonable doubt.

In September, Australia’s High Court said it would not hear an appeal, ending his chances of overturning the ruling.

Nick McKenzie, a reporter unsuccessfully sued for defamation by Roberts-Smith who has been investigating allegations against the soldier since 2017, expected SAS colleagues to testify in the criminal trial as they had during the civil trial.

“You’re investigating conduct allegedly taken by some members of the most secretive, elite fighting force Australia has. The journalism task is difficult. What’s been really difficult, though, is those brave SAS witnesses” testifying, McKenzie told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“For them to come forward and say: ‘Well, we served our country bravely like Ben Roberts-Smith did, alongside him in Afghanistan, but we saw things with our own eyes that we feel uncomfortable about.’ These brave soldiers, some of them broke down after they testified, so difficult was it for them to stand up and speak out,” McKenzie added.

The charges follow a military report released in 2020 that found evidence that elite Australian SAS and commando regiment troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers and other noncombatants.

Barrett said few soldiers were involved in the new allegations.

“The alleged conduct related to these charges is confined to a very small section of our trusted and respected ADF which helps keep this country safe,” Barrett said.

“The overwhelming majority of our ADF do our country proud. Today’s charges are not reflective of the majority of members who serve under our Australian flag with honor, with distinction and with the values of a democratic nation,” she added.

The Office of the Special Investigator was established to work with police on the war crime allegations. The office’s director of investigations Ross Barnett said allegations of 53 war crimes had been investigated and 39 of those investigations had concluded without charges. Around 40,000 Australian military personnel served in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021, of whom 41 were killed.

Hoping to ease some pain for consumers, President Donald Trump and other heads of state have been pulling on various levers, launching more oil on the market in a bid to calm the chaos.

A group of 32 nations that are members of the International Energy Agency began releasing the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history: 400 million barrels. Trump is tapping into oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve while lifting sanctions on Russian and Iranian crude and temporarily waiving the Jones Act, a maritime law that requires ships carrying goods between U.S. ports to be U.S.-flagged.

But despite those maneuvers, crude oil has soared well past $100 a barrel and gasoline is selling for $4.14 a gallon on average in the U.S. While the stopgaps are helping, they're not adding up to enough oil to replace what's stranded, experts say.

“They're all incremental,” said Mark Barteau, professor of chemical engineering and chemistry at Texas A&M University. "You’re talking about these different patches being at the level of maybe 1 to 2 million barrels a day each, and you’ve got to get to 20, so it’s hard to see those actually adding up to the numbers that are needed. And then the question is, how long can you sustain those?”

Trapped oil

Before the war began, roughly 15 million barrels of crude oil and 5 million barrels of oil products passed daily through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, amounting to about 20% of global oil consumption, according to the International Energy Agency.

In addition to that loss, some oil producing nations in the Middle East have halted oil production because they can't ship fuel out of the Gulf and their storage tanks are full. That's taken about 10 million barrels per day off the market, the IEA said.

Then there are the eight countries around the Persian Gulf that together hold about 50% of global oil reserves. Under normal circumstances, they coordinate closely to raise or lower their output to keep prices steady, said Jim Krane, energy research fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute. Usually Saudi Arabia steps in to bring spare oil to market and calm things down, he said.

“But all of that spare capacity is also bottled up inside the Persian Gulf right now and it can’t get to market either,” Krane said. “So the main emergency response system that we have is also blocked.”

The IEA said in its recent report that “the resumption of transit through the Strait of Hormuz is the single most important action to return to stable oil and gas flows and reduce the strains on markets and prices.”

Barring that, world leaders are grasping for ways to free up more oil.

Limitations of short-term fixes

Some nations have found workarounds to move oil out of the Gulf. Saudi Arabia is using its East-West pipeline, which stretches from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, to transfer about 5 million barrels per day out of the Gulf, said Michael Lynch, distinguished fellow at Energy Policy Research Foundation, a non-partisan institution focused on energy and economics. But the nation was already using that pipeline to transport oil, so it doesn’t have a lot of spare room to move oil from stranded tankers.

Trump also temporarily lifted sanctions on approximately 140 million barrels of Iranian oil that was already in transit. But that didn’t add oil to the market — it just widened the pool of potential buyers, said Daniel Sternoff, senior fellow at the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy.

Typically, most Iranian oil was bought by private refiners in China, who purchased it at a steep discount, Sternoff said. But with sanctions lifted, others could scramble to buy the oil, which in turn raises its price to the benefit of Iran, he said.

“As soon as you are moving to waive sanctions on your adversary with whom you’re fighting a military conflict, to do something in their benefit, it just shows you that you are running out of options to try to prevent a rise in the price of oil,” Sternoff said.

The decision to lift sanctions on Russian oil could have more impact, because Russia had been storing unpurchased oil in tankers, Sternoff said. “By waiving sanctions, it will allow those barrels to clear.”

Trump’s temporary waiver of the Jones Act to allow foreign ships to temporarily transport goods between U.S. ports could potentially help ease natural gas prices by enabling companies to more efficiently ship liquefied natural gas from the Gulf Coast to New England.

But experts don’t expect the waiver to significantly impact the price of oil or gasoline. “It’s helpful, but not a game changer,” Lynch said.

Why U.S. oil production can't solve the problem

The U.S. is a major oil producer, and exports more oil than it imports. But like any other oil producing nation, it can't just ramp up production instantly to fill the void.

“If the U.S. were to try to make up the global shortfall, we would need to nearly double our production,” Barteau said. “We couldn’t drill wells that fast even if we wanted to.”

Increasing domestic production by even 1 million barrels per day, a feat the U.S. accomplished during the shale boom, would be hard to duplicate, Lynch said.

“If we run every drilling rig right now, what happens a week from now when the war is over and the price goes back down $20?” Lynch asked. “People don’t want to develop long-term production based on a short-term price spike.”

Halting exports and using that oil within the U.S. wouldn't bring down gasoline prices either, experts say.

For one, oil is traded on a global market, so events happening halfway around the globe impact prices for everyone.

In addition, the U.S. doesn't produce enough of the type of oil its refineries process. It produced about 13.7 million barrels per day of oil at the end of 2025, according to the Energy Information Administration. And refineries processed about 16.3 million barrels per day that year, relying on imports to fill in the gaps, according to the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), a trade association.

That's because nearly 70% of U.S. refineries are set up to process heavy, sour crude, according to AFPM. But much of the oil produced in the U.S. is light, sweet crude, which was unlocked during the shale revolution.

“They need different crudes than the ones that are being produced right next to them now,” Krane said.

As a result, just 60% of the crude oil processed in U.S. refineries is extracted domestically, according to the AFPM. And retooling domestic refineries would cost billions of dollars, the group said. It also would require shutting down the refinery for a period of time, which generally raises gasoline prices.

“A lot of people like the IEA are making the point that this is the biggest oil crisis ever, which is partly true, partly an exaggeration, depending on how you count things,” Lynch said. “A lot of it has to do with how long does this last ... if it goes on for another six weeks we get to be in some serious trouble.”

April 7 marks a year since an unspecified “incident” involving nine corrections officers, who were later reassigned, led to the death of a 31-year-old Charles Faggart at the Duval County Jail.

Faggart, owner of a food truck and catering company, was arrested on misdemeanor charges of simple assault and criminal mischief on April 1, 2025.

On April 10, 2025, he was officially declared dead.

Many questions remain in the case that was turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Participants at the rally are expected to demand changes to JSO’s policies and honor Faggart’s memory.

According to a heavily redacted report, six days into Faggart’s misdemeanor jail stay, he was handcuffed for unclear reasons and began acting “aggressive, erratic and disruptive,” prompting a sergeant to order him strapped into a restraint safety chair.

RELATED: ‘Do your job’: Nearly 4 months after Duval County inmate’s death, his mother continues to demand accountability from JSO | Medical records shed new light on controversial jail death, contradict JSO account: The Tributary

The report said Faggart kept struggling with officers, but key details about what officers did are redacted; it said a mental health director later approved moving him to “self-harm housing,” and officers put an anti-spit mask on him.

The report noted that Faggart said he “did fentanyl,” but UF Health records said a urine test showed no fentanyl. The report also said a nurse flushed his eyes with saline —suggesting pepper spray—while medical records indicated lung damage.

Faggart was taken out of the chair and put back in minutes later for a redacted reason, the report said. The remaining narrative is largely redacted.

Medical staff arrived, and the paramedics were called. The report listed a “seizure” as the medical emergency, but according to an attorney for Faggart’s family, he was “beaten.”

Faggart’s family will also be in attendance, according to organizers.

JSO said the corrections officers who were reassigned remain in those roles.

Also, the sheriff’s office said the internal investigation cannot begin until the criminal investigation is finished.

JSO provided no additional updates, and the FBI also said it had no new information.

Rose is 45 — only four players older than him have won major championships — and yet he prefers to refer to his “Indian summer” of playing great golf at this stage in his career. Evidence can be found three months ago when he beat a strong field at Torrey Pines.

He became a footnote in Masters history last year when Rory McIlroy beat him in a playoff, making Rose the only player to have twice lost in a playoff at Augusta National without ever having won the Masters green jacket.

The consolation — fine print, at that — is getting his name etched three times on the Masters trophy because the club lists the runner-up each year. The playoff loss to McIlroy. A more crushing playoff loss to Sergio Garcia in 2017. A runner-up by four shots to Jordan Spieth in 2015.

All that means to Rose is he knows his way around Augusta National, and that's the inspiration he brings to the Masters this year.

“I'm very aware that I've been close here,” Rose said Monday afternoon. “I'm very aware that I've had tough, tough losses here. I also am aware that I enjoy this place. I don't want to feel that those three second-place finishes need to create a different sort of feeling for me.”

The record for winning the silver salver awarded to the runner-up without ever having Tuesday night plans at the Masters Club dinner is held by the late Tom Weiskopf, four times a bridesmaid.

Weiskopf was haunted by coming close without ever winning the Masters, as were so many others over the years. Greg Norman had Larry Mize hole a miracle chip in a playoff in 1987 and blew a six-shot lead to Nick Faldo in 1996. David Duval, who had three chances in a four-year stretch. It's a long, sad list.

There is desire and obsession when it comes to the green jacket.

“I’d say firmly in the desire camp, just because I know that the latter is not going to help me,” Rose said. “It’s probably professional discipline just to keep it in the desire realm. I think I probably wouldn’t let myself go down the other path. Like I said, that probably won’t be fruitful. Professionally, I’m not going to do that.”

Rose had a two-shot lead with six holes to play and Sergio Garcia in the azaleas left of the 13th hole, but the Spaniard caught him and beat him in a playoff. Last year, Rose holed a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th and needed McIlroy to make bogey from the fairway on the 18th to get in a playoff.

Both times he lost to friends. That doesn't make it easier.

“The key is showing up. The key is to try to be as free as you can in those moments,” Rose said. “Yeah, you have to hope a little bit along the way that it’s your day. It could have been my day in a couple of major championships. Hopefully with that mindset, keep chipping away, my day might still happen where a little bit of something goes my way.”

And now he returns to Augusta National, which holds so much familiarity as the only major held on the same course every year. That's what can make it so difficult to win after coming so close. There's a lot of scar tissue built up over the years.

Rose is leaning on that half-full glass.

“I hope it only boosts my belief that I can go ahead and do it,” he said. "I feel like I’ve pretty much done what it takes to win. I just haven’t walked over the line. I feel like I’ve executed well enough to have done the job. From that point of view, I don’t feel like I have to find something in myself to do something different. I truly believe that.

“No, I don’t feel like it owes me anything. I come here with a good attitude. It’s a place that I enjoy being. There’s certain places you get to and you take a deep breath and go, ‘Right, it’s nice to be here.’ Augusta still is one of those places for me.”

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

Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd reunited to mark the show's 50th anniversary at PaleyFest LA on Monday night. They were greeted with a standing ovation and whoops and cheers from an audience at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

The hour-long crime adventure series debuted on Sept. 22, 1976, in a pre-Internet and streaming world when there were just three major television networks. It was a top-10 hit for ABC in its first two of five seasons, ending in 1981.

“I knew the show was different, special and unique,” Smith told the audience. “Three women chasing danger instead of getting rescued.”

Jackson added, “We made an impact, I think.”

Farrah Fawcett-Majors became a 1970s icon with her feathered hair and sexy swimsuit poster. She left after the first season to pursue a film career. She died in 2009.

She was replaced by Ladd, who showed up on her first day wearing a Farrah Fawcett Minor T-shirt. She had turned down producer Aaron Spelling three times, knowing how beloved Fawcett had been.

“I knew that there was nobody that was going to replace Farrah, so I made a joke of myself,” Ladd said on the red carpet. “Everybody laughed. Farrah would have done something like that.”

Jackson added, "Cheryl stepped in and we didn’t miss a beat.”

Critics weren’t kind, however, calling the show “jiggle television” because the women dressed scantily to go undercover and slamming it for vapid acting.

“It didn’t bother me,” Jackson said on the red carpet. “I knew what we were doing and Gloria Steinem knew what we were doing, and some other very impressive people knew what we were doing. We were helping to punch a hole in that glass ceiling and that makes a big difference."

Five decades later, the show remains popular in reruns and DVDs, having spawned a film series starring Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu.

"We were giving people an hour to sit back, put their feet up, forget everything and watch television,” Jackson said, “and then again just kind of subtly getting the message in there that women are just as capable, intelligent, can do anything that a man can do.”

The mostly older audience cheered and laughed as scenes from various episodes were played. Included in the highlights were Shelley Hack, who lasted one season after replacing Jackson, and the late Tanya Roberts, who appeared in the final season. Smith and the late David Doyle, who played Charlie's go-between, were on the show's entire run.

Smith, who is 80, and Ladd, who is 74, went on to prolific careers in made-for-TV movies and guesting on other shows. Jackson, who quit after three seasons, later starred in the CBS hit “Scarecrow and Mrs. King.”

Jackson left the business nearly 20 years ago to raise her son. Now 77, she said, “I’m ready to go back.”

The trio's sisterhood includes all of them overcoming breast cancer, with Ladd revealing for the first time publicly Monday that she had an aggressive form of the disease. She didn't say when it occurred.

“When Cheryl called me,” Smith said, “the first thing I did was send her my wigs.”

Smith was at Jackson's bedside during her cancer battle. Each of them urged the audience to have regular health screenings.

In one of many lighter moments, the women were asked to name their favorite outfits.

“I wore a lot of turtlenecks,” Jackson said, drawing laughs.

Smith singled out her tiny white bikini seen in the opening credits.

Ladd recalled, “Bikinis, a lot of bikinis.”

Smith joked, “Our ratings went up.”

Jackson, Smith and Ladd will reunite again on May 14 when they are among the recipients at the Paley Honors gala in New York. Smith's memoir titled “I Once Knew a Guy Named Charlie” comes out in September.

“I was really proud to be part of that show,” said Ladd, who always welcomed fans expressing their fondness for the Angels. "I felt so loved. You couldn't be in a bad mood. It was always uplifting to hear it.”

Early retirement

Early retirement — before the standard age of 65 — is an increasingly common scenario. While Social Security’s full retirement age is currently between 66 and 67, the average retirement age is 62, according to  a study from MassMutual. That’s corroborated by  Social Security filing data, which show that roughly 25% of retirees take Social Security when it’s first available at age 62, and 15% file at 63 or 64. Nearly half of the retirees surveyed by MassMutual said they had retired earlier than planned; commonly cited reasons included layoffs, being able to retire sooner than expected, or illness or injury.

Early retirement has significant implications for retirement spending, with longer drawdown periods necessitating lower spending to maintain a high likelihood of not running out later on. In our base-case spending simulation, expanding the drawdown period from 30 to 35 years reduces the starting safe withdrawal rate from 3.9% to 3.5%. Stretching the time spending horizon to 40 years takes the starting safe withdrawal rate to 3.2%.

Keeping withdrawals low in early retirement may be challenging on a few levels, however. First, individuals aren’t eligible for Medicare coverage until age 65, so bridging healthcare coverage in the intervening years has the potential to increase spending. Insurance coverage for 62- to 65-year-olds from the ACA marketplace averaged between $800 and $1,200 a month in 2025, according to  data from Boldin. Meanwhile, Cobra coverage (extending workplace-provided coverage) for people 62 to 65 averaged $700 to $1,500 a month. For a62-year-old taking a safe withdrawal rate of 3.5% ($35,000) from her $1 million portfolio, healthcare costs would consume roughly a third of those withdrawals.

Further complicating matters for young retirees is that many individuals wish to delay Social Security to increase their eventual benefits. At the same time, delaying Social Security can necessitate higher withdrawals in the early part of retirement, thereby imperiling the portfolio’s ability to last over the longer time horizon.

Long-term care spending

Just as early retirement can cause a spending shock at the front end of retirement, long-term care costs can prompt a spending shock later in life.  A 2025 report authored by Spencer Look and Jack VanDerhei of the Morningstar Center for Retirement & Policy Studies found that 43% of baby boomers will incur long-term care costs, with the average cost of that care $242,373. The likelihood of needing care correlates with longevity: While just 24% of men and 27% of women who die at age 75 will require long-term care, 52% of men and 60% of women who die at age 95 will require long-term care.

Incurring sizable long-term care costs can have catastrophic effects for a financial plan: The Morningstar study found that when long-term care costs are included in the analysis of the viability of retirement assets, 41% of older-adult households that incur long-term care costs are likely to run out of funds.

Older adults can take different approaches to address this risk. They might set aside  a separate long-term care “bucket,” separate from their spending portfolios. Others may plan to use home equity.

Alternatively, those with very tight finances might create a spending plan to cover their costs during their healthy years, then rely on government resources if they require long-term care after that.

The final option for handling the cost of long-term care is to build it into the spending plan, spending less throughout retirement to account for the possibility of a spike later in life. To help model a long-term care shock, we assumed spending in years 29 and 30 to be twice what spending was in year 28. Factoring in that type of shock, the starting safe withdrawal percentage for the person retiring and claiming Social Security at age 67 is 3.5%, versus 3.9% for our base case without that shock.

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This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more retirement content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/retirement.

ChristineBenz is director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar and co-host of The Long View podcast.

Related Links

What to Do in the Five Years Before You Retire

https://www.morningstar.com/retirement/emily-guy-birken-what-do-five-years-before-you-retire

What You Need to Know About Annuities

https://www.morningstar.com/retirement/what-you-need-know-about-annuities

10 Sources of Emergency Cash, Ranked From Best to Worst

https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/10-sources-emergency-cash-ranked-best-worst

Then again, they rarely show up with a resume like Chris Gotterup's.

The 26-year-old Gotterup already has four PGA Tour wins, meaning he'll be the third player since World War II to make his Masters debut with that many. He's already won twice this year and joins Ben Griffin and Jacob Bridgeman as the highest-ranked first-timers this week. All three are in the world top 20.

“Just embracing the whole experience,” Gotterup said. “Trying to take it all in and enjoy it while also trying to go out there and compete and give it everything I’ve got.”

Not since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 has a Masters rookie won the tournament, and before that nobody had won his debut since Gene Sarazen in the second year of the event. But favorites like Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy haven’t been all that dominant lately, and Gotterup stands out with his wins in the Sony Open and Phoenix Open earlier this year.

He also won the Scottish Open last year. The immediate reward for that victory was a trip to Royal Portrush for Gotterup's first British Open, but it also qualified him for the Masters.

Gotterup finally visited Augusta National more than a month ago. He says he didn't want to come to the Masters previously because watching — instead of playing — would be difficult to handle. And it's not as though he was being bombarded with opportunities to try out the course on his own time.

“I don’t think I’ve actually ever declined an invite. I don’t know if I’ve been invited. So you can’t turn down nothing,” said Gotterup, whose first PGA Tour win was at an opposite-field event in 2024. “I have gotten offered to come watch the tournament from sponsors or from whoever it may be, and I said I can’t go over there until I play. Or else if I’m retired, then I can go over.”

Bridgeman, who won at Riviera in February in his first attempt there, came to Augusta as an autograph-seeking 10-year-old in 2010. He got the chance to play the course when he was a freshman at Clemson, which is about 100 miles away.

“We had a couple members that hosted and we were able to bring down a group of nine of us, so I played with a roommate of mine and we had a blast.” Bridgeman said. “I remember teeing it up on (No.) 1 and there was not a soul around and I was super nervous. A little bit more comfortable this time. I don’t know what it is. I’m kind of in tournament mode.”

Griffin came to the course in November and again last week. Of course, he didn't need to see Augusta National up close to understand its history.

“Tons of memories, all the iconic shots that have been hit. The one that comes to mind first is Tiger Woods’ chip on 16 with the dramatic Nike symbol,” he said. “I feel like every hole there’s like a shot that’s been hit by someone that I’ve either heard of or seen on television that I kind of remember.”

Griffin played the back nine Monday. Gotterup played the front with veteran Justin Rose. Bridgeman's group included 18-year-old Mason Howell, last year's U.S. Amateur champion. Howell is a University of Georgia commit who figures to have plenty of support this week.

Howell is keeping expectations manageable and says his goal is to play four good rounds. Bubba Watson, a two-time Masters champ who finished tied for 20th in his first appearance, recommends that approach for any young newcomer.

“There’s very few that’s won it the first time,” Watson said. “But talent can take over and anybody can win because they’re good enough to get here, they’re good enough to win. Just enjoy it. You want your first one to be, just enjoy it, take it all in, try to learn some things and get ready for the next time you come around here.”

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

The alert, which went out at 2:45 a.m., said that Isaac Suter had last been seen Monday in the area of Stagecoach Drive.

He is described as a white male, with black hair (see below) and brown eyes, about 5 feet, 8 inches tall, and weighing 130 pounds.

He was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt with a white geometrical design, light brown sweatpants and black shoes.

The move departs from Vietnam’s tradition of shared leadership, in which the jobs have typically been held by different people, and echoes power structures in China under Xi Jinping and neighboring Laos.

It has been widely expected since Lam’s reelection as Communist Party head in January, when observers noted that his consolidation of party authority positioned him to assume the presidency as well.

Former central bank governor Le Minh Hung was elected as the country's prime minister for the next five years.

After being sworn in, the 69-year-old told the National Assembly that his top priority was to maintain peace and stability, which were the foundation for fast and sustainable growth. “We aim to improve people’s livelihoods so all can share the benefits of development,” he said.

This is To Lam’s second time holding both jobs, after briefly doing so in 2024 when his predecessor as party chief, Nguyen Phu Trong, died.

The concentration of power was significant since it meant that Lam had a “stronger mandate and far more political room to push through his agenda than any leaders” since the 1980s, when Hanoi launched reforms to shed a state-run economy in favor of a market-oriented one open to foreigners, said Nguyen Khac Giang, of Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute research center.

“The opportunity is obvious. Faster decision-making, greater policy coherence, and a better chance of pushing difficult reforms at a pivotal moment. But the risk is that concentration of power can move faster than institutional reform,” he said.

Lam's rise to the top caps the ascent of a career policeman who advanced from Vietnam’s security services to the top of the political system. This was aided by a sweeping anti-corruption campaign launched by his predecessor, which he oversaw as head of the Ministry of Public Security.

As party chief, Lam has led Vietnam’s biggest bureaucratic overhaul since the 1980s, cutting jobs, merging ministries, redrawing provincial boundaries and advancing major infrastructure projects.

He has focused on economic performance and private-sector growth, aiming to move Vietnam beyond the labor- and export-driven model that has helped lift millions from poverty and build a manufacturing-based middle class. The country is targeting 10% or higher annual economic growth over each of the next five years.

Hung, the new prime minister, said that the 10% growth target is meant to help achieve the country’s strategic goals and that the government had identified “strengthening science, technology, innovation and digital transformation as top priorities.”

But challenges remain, especially the immediate task of turning this ambitious vision into reality with the world economy upended by the energy shock from the war in Iran. Vietnam’s economy expanded at an annualized rate of 7.8% in the first three months of the year, up from 7.1% last year but below the 9.1% target and slower than in late 2025.

Giang said that Lam also faces political hurdles for reform buy-in and the challenge of maintaining Vietnam's pragmatic approach to foreign policy.

Vietnam is facing U.S. pressure over its trade surplus but also has to balance ties with China, its largest trading partner and rival claimant in the South China Sea.

“It has benefited from a careful balancing strategy in foreign policy, but maintaining that position will become harder in a more turbulent world,” he said.

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

The five fabulous transfers who make up coach Dusty May's starting lineup got down and dirty with the rest of the Wolverines — coming out with the national title trophy Monday night after muscling their way to a 69-63 victory over stingy, stubborn UConn.

Michigan only made two 3-pointers all night.

The Final Four's most outstanding player, Elliot Cadeau, led the Wolverines with 19 points, including the team’s first 3, which came 7:04 into the second half. The second 3, from freshman Trey McKenney, came with 1:50 left and felt like a dagger, giving May's team — which had scored 90 points in five straight March Madness games leading to the final — a nine-point lead.

To no one’s surprise, UConn fought to the finish. Solo Ball banked in a 3 to cut the deficit to four with 37 seconds left — and after two missed free throws, UConn’s Alex Karaban (17 points) barely grazed the rim on a 3 that would’ve cut the deficit to one with 17 seconds left.

Not until McKenney sank two free throws to bring Michigan’s shooting from the line to 25 for 28 for the night could the Wolverines (37-3) kick off the celebration for the program’s second title — the other coming in 1989, a few years before the Fab Five arrived and made two trips to the championship game, but never won a title.

“HAIL TO VICTORS!!!!” Jalen Rose, one of the Fab Five stars, posted on social media. “NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!!”

It was the first men's hoops title for the Big Ten since Michigan State in 2000. Including UCLA's win in the women's NCAA Tournament Sunday, the conference swept the football (Indiana) and basketball titles this year.

Michigan won this one with defense, holding UConn to 30.9% shooting — the fourth straight game the Wolverines held their opponent to a season-low field-goal percentage.

“These guys have done it all year,” May said. “When one side of the ball has let us down, the other side has picked it up. Our togetherness defensively ultimately got us over the hump.”

Michigan had to fight for everything. The Wolverines missed their first 11 shots from 3, finished 2 for 15 beyond the arc and won despite the struggles of their best player, Yaxel Lendeborg. Ailing with a hurt knee and foot that kept him from elevating, the graduate transfer from UAB finished with 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting.

“If you’d told me we would shoot it this poorly and (be) dominated on the glass and still find a way to win, I don’t know if I would have believed you,” May said. “This team just found a way all season.”

The two 3-pointers were tied for second fewest by a winning team in the title game, according to Sportradar. Michigan also got outrebounded 22-12 on the offensive glass by a UConn team that would not go away.

“How are you disappointed at all in your group?” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “These guys have 22 offensive rebounds versus that group of ‘mon-stars’ out there. So, proud of the guys.”

Truth be told, it wasn’t anyone’s prettiest night.

UConn’s hopes of becoming the first team since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty to win three titles in four seasons came up short, done in by massive foul trouble and its own terrible shooting.

Hurley’s team missed its first 11 shots from 3 in the second half.

Braylon Mullins, the hero of the Duke win that put UConn in the Final Four, finished 4 of 17, though he made a pair of late 3s that kept the game in reach. Tarris Reed Jr., the transfer from Michigan, finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds but never took control.

UConn (34-6) covered the 6 1/2-point spread, and Hurley kept his players out on the court to watch the podium get set up for the victors.

About the only consolation: The Huskies clogged things up, slowed things down and made Michigan beat them at their game.

“It’s complicated, because everyone’s crushed,” Hurley said. “We came here to be out there, doing what those guys are doing right now.”

Nobody did it quite like the Wolverines this year. They came into the title game shooting freely and winning big. In each of their five tournament games, they broke 90 and won by 13 or more.

In this one, they didn’t hit 70 and had to battle to the buzzer. It was ugly — the opposite of an instant classic. And yet, in almost every way, it was the prettiest of them all for Michigan — the one that gives the school what the Fab Five couldn’t manage — namely, a natty.

“Nobody cared about stats the whole season,” Cadeau said. “Nobody cared about nothing but winning. I’m just glad to be part of that.”

Style points aside, this was a championship built from outside — the best team money could buy.

All five Wolverines starters played college ball elsewhere, and all but Nimari Burnett came to Ann Arbor this season. That’s a product of the transfer portal that May has shown no reluctance to use since he arrived from Florida Atlantic two seasons ago.

His ability to form a makeshift group into a winner shows the value of a coach and a culture.

“They might be still calling us mercenaries but we’re the hardest-working team,” Lendenborg said. “We’re the best in college basketball and we’ll be one of the greatest ever.”

Pretty much everyone in the maize and blue would second that.

“Go BLUE. …champions!!! Respect- Love!” was the social media post from another Fab Five icon, Chris Webber.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

The Huskies were physical, controlled the pace and held the Wolverines' potent offense in check. But this time, the big shots that propelled them to the cusp of a third national championship in four seasons simply didn't fall.

Not for fabulous freshman Braylon Mullins, not for record-breaking forward Alex Karaban, not even for Malachi Smith, who missed a layup with 7 seconds left that might have kept hope alive in Storrs, Connecticut. Instead, UConn came up short in a 69-63 loss, its first in seven title game appearances, thwarting its chance to become the first team since the UCLA dynasty of the 1960s and 1970s to win three crowns in such quick succession.

“This is where you wanted to be. It hasn’t set in yet,” Hurley said. “On the flight (Monday) it’ll set in, on the bus ride back. Eventually it’ll hit you that you were close to pulling off what would have been a historic third championship. But this team just gave us so much this year — just didn’t make enough shots.”

Karaban also had a shot to become the first player to win three titles since UCLA captured eight during a nine-season span from 1967-75. He played all 40 minutes in his finale and leaves UConn as the school's leader in games played (151), wins (126) and 3-pointers (292).

UConn picked the wrong night to shoot a season-low 30.9% from the field and a dismal 27.3% from 3-point range. The Huskies were even worse in the second half: 28.9% from the field and 4 of 18 from beyond the arc.

Maybe UConn didn't have enough fight left after it survived the tourney's top seed, Duke, with a 19-point comeback in the regional semifinals and after winning a 71-62 bruiser against Illinois on Saturday night.

This loss was UConn's first after the second round of an NCAA Tournament since 2011, ending a 19-game winning streak in the toughest parts of the bracket.

Michigan, which won its second national title and first since 1989, also brought plenty of physicality to the matchup. The Wolverines held each of their last four opponents to season-low shooting percentages.

They relied on the Big Ten's brand of bully ball to get UConn into foul trouble, win the wrestling matches for loose balls and eventually wear down the perimeter shooters who had saved UConn in its incredible 19-point comeback against Duke.

This time, it was the Huskies' shooters who came up empty.

Mullins scored 11 points on 4-of-17 shooting, including 3 of 10 on 3s. After opening the game by making his first two shots, Karaban made three of his next 12 and converted only one of his last eight 3-point attempts to finish with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Nobody else was much better. Big man Tarris Reed Jr. finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds but was 4 of 12 from the field. And while Mullins and Karaban combined for six 3s, the rest of the team was 3 of 13 beyond the arc.

“We came up short, missed some shots we normally make, but we gave it our all,” Karaban said.

The shooting woes were compounded by UConn's foul trouble.

Reed, Solo Ball and Silas Demary Jr. all finished the first half on the bench with two fouls. Ball picked up his third just 29 seconds into the second half and his fourth with 16:20 remaining.

He finished with 11 points but had no assists while playing on a sprained left foot.

“It’s definitely frustrating not being on the court for that long, and it hurts my team at the moment,” Ball sad. “But this has been the most fun year of my life with this group of guys, and I just cherish this team.”

Even though UConn held Michigan to its worst shooting of the tournament — 38.2% — the Huskies came up just short too many times.

“I’m not real emotional. Players are crying a lot more than I am,” Hurley said. “It’s hard to be upset with your team. We lost the game because we missed. We missed — we didn’t make enough shots.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

As time ticks down on U.S. President Donald Trump's latest ultimatum, their thoughts were clouded by new fears: How long will the power be out if plants are bombed? How would they leave the city if the bridges are taken out?

Five weeks on, they have grown used to the roar of American and Israeli fighter jets, the sound of explosions and sleepless nights. Like many, they've left the capital and returned in search of elusive safety. Married for over a decade, they made it through the COVID pandemic and the 12-day war last June.

They've used clear packing tape to lines the edges of their windows, a precaution against blasts. Mirrors and fragile objects have been moved or secured. A packed bag holds documents, medications and essentials, ready in case they need to leave quickly.

In an expletive-laden threat over the weekend, Trump vowed that “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day,” and that Iran's leaders will be “living in Hell” if they don't open the Strait of Hormuz.

“Honestly, the situation is really unclear,” Arghavan said. “We don’t really understand things like how long the power might go out if it does, or what life without electricity would even look like.”

Alishir said he and his wife could handle life without power — and potentially without running water — for a week at most. “If it goes on longer, we’ll definitely run into problems,” he said.

Their struggles began even before the first American and Israeli bombs slammed into Iran on Feb. 28.

The Iranian government's crackdown on nationwide protests in January severely limited internet access. The internet monitoring organization NetBlocks says it's the longest nationwide shutdown ever recorded.

Arghavan runs a small language school that teaches French to Iranians who want to live in the Canadian province of Quebec.

“We were basically an online school, and our students had classes with kids abroad,” she said. “Around 50% of our learners were outside the country. But now, with all these internet outages, it’s really disrupting our work.”

Iranians are divided over the war: Some take part in daily pro-government rallies; others quietly cheer the strikes against their leaders while condemning the deaths of civilians and damage to infrastructure.

The couple blames Israel and the U.S. for starting the war and hope for a diplomatic solution.

“I really hope an agreement is reached soon and that whatever happens, it ends up helping people, because right now people are the ones paying a heavy price,” Arghavan said.

Wembanyama took an inadvertent elbow to the ribs from Paul George when the Philadelphia forward was attempting to deflect a pass as the 7-foot-4 Frenchman was sprinting up court on a fastbreak with 10:49 remaining in the first half. Wembanyama tumbled to the court and remained down for a minute while George patted him on the backside apologetically.

The extent of the injury and whether Wembanyama will be available for the Spurs' final three games of the regular season — all at home — against Portland (Wednesday), Dallas (Friday) and Denver (Sunday) wasn't known after Monday's game.

“At halftime I was told he wasn't coming back and I honest to God haven't heard anything else up to this point,” San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said after the win.

Wembanyama subbed out of the game shortly after the collision and immediately went into the tunnel leading to the locker room while keeping his arm pressed to his side.

Wembanyama returned with 5:33 remaining in the period, but asked Johnson to take him out with 44 seconds remaining in the first half. He again went into the tunnel leading to the locker room while holding his arm to his side and was ruled out at the start the second half.

“I think it would be a positive that he felt like he could come back and he played the last four or five minutes of the half," Johnson said. “So, that’s a positive from my perspective, but I have nothing (as far a status update).”

George was not available for comment after the game.

Wembanyama had 17 points, five rebounds and three blocks while playing 15:40 in the first half.

Wembanyama has made it clear that he wants to win the league's MVP award this season. The NBA allows a maximum of two games in which a player logs between 15 and 19.59 minutes to count toward the league-required minimum of 65 games played for award eligibility.

Wembanyama has played 63 games this season, including the NBA Cup Final.

San Antonio (60-19) is is 2 1/2 games behind Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City (62-16) and assured of finishing no worse than second in the conference.

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

There's been a lot of thinking to do given the new Giants manager's frustrating 3-8 start in his jump from college coach to the major leagues.

Vitello had a little extra time following Sunday afternoon's game with a night contest the next day to ponder everything that went wrong in San Francisco's third straight defeat, when he was ejected for the first time in his career for arguing in the seventh after Jerar Encarnación was ruled out for running inside the designated lane on his way to first base.

Yes, he constantly dissects the various decisions he makes and is determined to figure this out. The Giants lost again Monday night, squandering an early four-run lead to the Philadelphia Phillies in a 6-4 setback.

“At 3-7 and how yesterday went, I didn't think yesterday was the proper time for me to go gallivanting around San Francisco, so, yeah, I was in my condo the whole night,” Vitello said beforehand. “Whether I'm there or sitting with family I apologize to them, ‘Find something better to watch if you’re watching this.' We're at dinner, I am thinking about this more than that. So, yeah, yesterday sitting at home you finish on a day game and you have a night game, you've got a lot of time to go over that stuff. You replay it all.”

Before the start of a three-game series with the Phillies, Vitello and Matt Chapman connected to discuss the third baseman getting caught stealing after his leadoff single in the ninth inning of a 5-2 loss to the Mets that gave New York a weekend sweep.

Vitello knows those kinds of mistakes would be more magnified later in the season, and said the Giants are “trying” so hard to win "it's probably something that everybody's been a little guilty of, of not going about it the way they would if they were thinking clearly but when you're trying to win games as hard as possible sometimes it actually contradicts what your end goal is.”

Coming into Monday's game, the Giants had been outscored by 25 runs over their initial 10 contests — the worst mark through 10 games for the franchise since it was minus-49 in 1896. And the club's 3-7 record was tied for its second-worst through 10 games since moving to San Francisco in 1958 — the Giants began 2-8 in 1983.

Chapman, for one, hopes a few things will go the Giants' way so they can grab some much-needed momentum to climb their way up in the powerful NL West after falling to the bottom of the standings, and he is thankful the struggles are happening now when there is plenty of time left. San Francisco has missed the playoffs the past four years.

“Whatever it is, I think it's more of an accumulation of maybe some frustrating things happening because we're right there and we're not able to get the job done,” Chapman said. “... It sucks when it looks like it's sloppy baseball and we're making some sloppy mistakes that kind of shot us in the foot last year and was one of the reasons why we probably weren't able to finish as strong. But I don't think it's going to be something that's going to be the story of our season by any means.”

After his ejection, Vitello offered a long explanation to what had upset him. The former University of Tennessee coach regularly shares stories from his experiences in the college ranks.

“I’m sure he got it exactly technically right,” Vitello said postgame Sunday. “It’s just a play I’ve got a lot of history for. A little frustrated about something else that occurred in the game. … Got a ton of history with that play. Lost a game to Lipscomb on that play, lost the game to (Oklahoma State coach) Frank Anderson and a Big 12 championship on that play. The difference between the two that I’m talking about, and I can talk about others, is the runner in Frank’s instance — and I’ve called his team cheaters — completely interfered with the throwing lane for the pitcher. So again, umpires are held accountable by what the rules are, and they enforce those rules."

Several of his players and coaches have said dating to spring training how much they appreciate the passion, energy and approach Vitello takes.

From Day 1, Vitello acknowledged he would be learning on the fly from the dugout's top step and there would be plenty of ups and downs.

“Listen, Tony's great, I like Tony, he's cool,” said center fielder Harrison Bader, who began the series batting .118 (4 for 34) with a home run and determined to get on track. “At the major league level, a little different in terms of the fans and the speed but he won at a really high level in the SEC. It's the same game, so he's familiar to winning and what it looks like to help players win and what that feeling looks like and how to maintain it. So he's in the right spot.”

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

This year’s Supreme Court election stands in stark contrast to the swing state's previous two, where national spending records were set in battles over majority control. Spending and national attention is down dramatically this year without control of the court at stake.

Democrats are looking to tighten their control of the court just months before a November election in which they seek to keep the governor's office and flip the state Legislature, where Republicans have held the majority since 2011. Democrats aspire to undo a host of Republican-enacted laws that made Wisconsin a focal point for the nation’s conservative movement in the 2010s.

In Tuesday's Supreme Court race, Democratic-backed Chris Taylor, a former state lawmaker who also worked for Planned Parenthood, faces Republican-supported Maria Lazar. Both Taylor and Lazar are state Appeals Court judges.

Liberals would increase their majority on the court to 5-2 from 4-3 with a Taylor win. That would lock in the liberal majority until at least 2030.

Liberals took control of the state's top court in 2023, ending 15 years under a conservative majority. They held onto their majority with last year's victory in a race that drew involvement from President Donald Trump and billionaires George Soros and Elon Musk, who personally handed out $1 million checks to voters in the state.

Liberals argued that democracy was at stake in the 2025 election, noting that when the court was controlled by conservative justices in 2020 it came just one vote shy of siding with Trump in his attempt to invalidate enough votes to overturn his loss in that year's presidential election.

Since liberals took control, the court has reversed several election-related rulings, including one that overturned a ban on absentee ballot drop boxes, and it is poised to once again be in the spotlight around the 2028 presidential election.

Races for the court are officially nonpartisan, but support for candidates breaks down mostly along partisan lines.

Taylor has focused much of her campaign on abortion rights, with one TV ad saying that “abortion is on the ballot.” In another ad, she criticized Lazar for calling the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 “very wise.”

Lazar, who was supported by anti-abortion groups in her run for the appeals court, tried to brand Taylor as nothing more than a politician who will push a partisan agenda on the court.

They sparred over each other's partisanship during the campaign's sole debate last week.

Lazar accused Taylor of being a “radical, extreme legislator” and a “judicial activist.” Taylor said that Lazar would bring “an extreme, right-wing political agenda to the bench.”

Lazar has had a much harder time getting her message out. Taylor had a large fundraising advantage and spent about nine times as much as Lazar on television ads, based on a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice.

The liberal-controlled court has already struck down a state law banning abortion and ordered new legislative maps, fueling Democrats’ hopes of capturing a majority this November.

Taylor has been a judge since 2020 and before that she spent 10 years as a Democrat representing the liberal capital city of Madison in the state Assembly.

Lazar, a judge since 2015, previously worked four years under a Republican attorney general in the state Department of Justice. In that role, she defended a law enacted under former Republican Gov. Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers.

A circuit court judge ruled in December that the law is unconstitutional, a decision expected to ultimately land before the state Supreme Court.

Lazar also defended laws passed by Republicans and signed by Walker implementing a voter ID requirement and restricting abortion access.

Democrats are optimistic given the past two Supreme Court elections, which saw candidates they backed winning by double digits.

The seat is open due to the retirement of a conservative justice. Another conservative justice is retiring next year, giving liberals a chance to take 6-1 control of the court if they win on Tuesday.

Raleigh’s homer was pulled deep to right field against two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom of the Texas Rangers to end a 12-pitch at-bat in the first inning. Raleigh fell behind 0-2, fouled off six pitches with two strikes and connected on a 99 mph fastball low in the zone.

His homer was Seattle's lone run in a 2-1 loss.

“Just trying to put the bat on the ball there and fight, don’t punch out,” Raleigh said. “I was able to have a pretty long at-bat, saw some good pitches and put a good swing on that last one.”

It was the second-most pitches in an at-bat that ended with a Mariners homer. Raúl Ibañez homered on the 13th pitch he saw in June 2013.

According to Major League Baseball, it was both the most pitches ever delivered to Raleigh in a plate appearance ending in a hit and the most pitches ever thrown by deGrom during an at-bat ending in a hit.

“That was just an incredible at-bat,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said, “to battle all the way through like that and foul off as many pitches as he did and then finally put that perfect pitch into the right-field seats.”

Raleigh's longest home run drought last season was eight games. He had two homers last season through 11 games, hitting No. 3 in his 14th game.

Raleigh entered batting .132 this year with only one run scored. He nearly homered on Saturday against the Los Angeles Angels in the first inning, but the ball was caught above the wall by Jo Adell, the first of three potential homers the right fielder prevented in that game.

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

Harris led a first round of voting on March 10 with 37% in the district that stretches across 10 counties from suburban Atlanta to Tennessee. While Fuller came in second in the 17-candidate all-party special election with 35%, the Republican candidates combined won nearly 60% of the vote. The 14th District is rated as the most Republican-leaning district in Georgia by the Cook Political Report.

President Donald Trump in February endorsed Fuller, a district attorney who prosecuted crimes in four counties, to succeed Greene in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. Greene, once among Trump’s most ardent supporters, resigned in January after falling out with the president.

Fuller has backed Trump to the hilt, finding no issue on which he disagreed with the president when asked in a March 23 debate.

“We need an America First fighter to stand strong for northwest Georgia," Fuller said March 23. He was a White House fellow in the first Trump administration and is a lieutenant colonel in the Georgia Air National Guard.

Trump reiterated his support for Fuller on Monday night.

"I am asking all Republicans, America First Patriots, and MAGA Warriors, to please GET OUT AND VOTE for a fantastic Candidate, Clay Fuller, who has my Complete and Total Endorsement!" the president wrote on social media.

Harris, a cattle farmer and retired general who lost to Greene in 2024, has contrasted himself with Greene’s bomb-throwing style. He said he's a “dirt-road Democrat" with common sense, and practical-minded Republicans should vote for him because he will focus on the district's interest.

“He has sold his soul to Donald Trump," Harris said of Fuller on March 23. "The reality of it is he cannot fight for you because he cannot go against the president.”

The winner will serve out the remaining months of Greene’s term. A Republican win would bolster the party’s slim majority in the House, where Republicans control 217 seats to Democrats’ 214, with one independent.

But if the winner wants to remain in Congress beyond January, he will have to run again. Republicans seeking a full two-year term are set for a May 19 party primary, and possibly a June 16 party runoff, before advancing to the general election in November. Harris is the only Democrat running, meaning he faces no primary election.

Greene was one of the most well-known members of Congress until she left in January. She remained loyal to Trump after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, promoting Trump’s falsehoods about a stolen election. When Trump ran again in 2024, she toured the country with him and spoke at his rallies while wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat.

But Greene began clashing with Trump last year after he and other Republicans pushed back against her running for U.S. Senate or governor. Greene criticized Trump’s foreign policy and his reluctance to release documents involving the Jeffrey Epstein case. The president eventually had enough, saying he would support a primary challenge against her. Greene announced a week later that she would resign.

Dakota Mortensen, who has temporary custody of his and Paul's 2-year-old son, is asking the court to turn a short-term protective order against her into a long-term one as authorities investigate domestic violence reports from earlier this year.

Paul and Mortensen are expected to participate in the hearing remotely while their lawyers appear in person at the Salt Lake City courthouse. Details of the temporary protective order have been kept sealed.

Attorneys are expected to address reports under investigation from February, not a 2023 fight that led to Paul’s arrest and resurfaced just before her “Bachelorette” season was supposed to premiere, though the older issues may be discussed.

ABC last month announced the unprecedented move of shelving an entire, already-filmed new season of “The Bachelorette” with Paul in the title role. The network and its parent company Disney blamed the cancellation on a leaked video, shot in 2023 and posted by TMZ on March 19, in which Paul appears to punch, kick and throw chairs at Mortensen while her young daughter watches and cries.

Police body camera footage of Paul's arrest in that case was featured in the series premiere of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives," which first aired in 2024. Paul is shown calling it “the worst night of my life.” Video of the fight itself, which appears to be from Mortensen's point of view, was not made public until last month's leak.

Paul was charged with aggravated assault and other offenses, including domestic violence in the presence of a child. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge, and the other counts were dismissed.

Paul has two children with her ex-husband, Tate Paul, along with the son she had with Mortensen after their 2023 dispute.

A Paul representative said after the cancellation that she had been “silently suffering extensive mental and physical abuse as well as threats of retaliation” and was “finally gaining the strength to face her accuser.”

Mortensen said in a statement that he was “used to these baseless claims about me and our relationship, which I categorically deny.”

Production has also been paused on the fifth season of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” the Hulu series that made Paul a reality star. Her casting on “The Bachelorette” offered synergy between the shows for Disney, which owns both Hulu and ABC.

She became known as an influencer in the #MomTok community, a group of women from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sharing their lives on TikTok. The group, and Paul's admissions of polyamory within it, helped spawn the hit reality show.

On Sunday, Paul announced she was leaving what is widely known as the Mormon church. She said on Instagram that she will always have love and respect for the Utah-based religious institution but, “It's time to detach myself.”

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Dalton reported from Los Angeles.

The trial started last month, nearly a year after Gerhardt and Arielle Konig went on a hike on the Pali Puka trail in Honolulu that ended with her bloodied and screaming that he tried to kill her. Gerhardt Konig has pleaded not guilty.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of domestic violence. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the national domestic violence hotline: 1-800-799-7233 in the U.S.

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The couple were on a weekend trip to Hawaii's capital city for her birthday in March 2025 while their two young sons stayed home on Maui. Near a lookout offering sweeping views, Gerhardt Konig, 47 — upset about his wife's relationship with a coworker — tried to push her off the steep trail, bashed her head with a rock and attempted to stab her with a syringe, prosecutors said.

The trial, with testimony livestreamed by Court TV, has aired the couple's marital problems leading up to the hike, along with their versions of what happened on the trail.

Gerhardt Konig testified that his wife was having an affair, which he confirmed by unlocking her phone while she slept. The relationship, which Arielle Konig characterized as an “emotional affair” involving flirty messages with a coworker, came up during the hike.

Arielle Konig testified that her husband grabbed her and moved her toward the cliff's edge, but she threw herself on the ground in an attempt to hold on. He straddled her and had a syringe in his hand, she said, but she batted it away. She bit his forearm and squeezed his testicles in attempt to get him off her, she said.

Her husband denied pushing her toward the edge and testified that she hit him with a rock on the side of her face. He wrestled the rock away and hit her with it twice in self-defense, he said.

He denied having any syringes on the mountain, or trying to stab her. His defense attorney told jurors no syringe was found at the scene.

Two hikers who heard Arielle Konig's screams helped her get down the trail.

Pali Puka, which means “pierced cliff” in Hawaiian, leads to a hole in a rock ridge through which hikers can look out over the forest to see the ocean. The trail is closed because state officials have deemed it unsafe, but hikers often enter through a small clearing, ignoring a warning sign that reads: “Area Closed! Do not go beyond this sign.”

Gerhardt Konig testified that as he watched his wife crawl away, he believed his marriage and career were over, and he decided to jump to his death. But first, he called his adult son from a previous marriage. The son told authorities that his father said he "tried to kill your stepmom” — a confession Gerhardt Konig denied having made.

He spent hours on the mountain before deciding to come down and surrender to police.

His wife has since filed for divorce.

According to AAA, the average gas price in Jacksonville was $4.21 on Monday. That 32-cent difference was enough to keep the pump lines long all afternoon, right up until the station closed at 10 p.m.

Amanda Jefferson, who drives a car that requires premium fuel, said Monday was her third attempt to get gas at the location.

“I attempted on Saturday and Sunday and the lines were just too long,” Jefferson said.

When she committed to waiting Monday, she had been in line for 30 minutes. An attendant told her the delay was tied specifically to the premium pump.

“The attendant did come through and tell us that the premium was running a lot slower - that was the delay,” Jefferson said. “So I’m hoping everybody in front of me needs the regular gas so I can get up there quicker.”

Alisha Lewis was visiting Jacksonville and made a point to stop at the Sam’s Club station. She said she had been waiting about five minutes when we met her at the back of a line.

“I’m trying to still save a lot of money, but in this particular case, coming to the Sam’s Club is helping,” Lewis said. “But at the same time, these prices from a few weeks ago is different.”

Brandi Staley agrees, saying it’s worth it to save a little extra money to wait in the line.

“It means that my gas tank will get filled up a lot cheaper,” Staley said. “So with prices of everything right now, every little buck helps.”

News4Jax reached out to the corporate offices for Sam’s Club, Costco, and BJ’s Wholesale to see if they’re seeing an increase of customers at their gas stations and how they’re addressing the increase. We’re waiting to hear back from them at this time.

“They always say, ‘I’m not trying to hit you,’’’ Contreras said after the Brewers beat the scuffling Red Sox 8-6 at Fenway Park. “That gets old. So, next time they hit me again, I’m going to take one of them out. That’s a message.”

Contreras has been hit by a pitch 131 times in his major league career, including 24 times by the Brewers — which is 10 more than he's been plunked by any other team. He has a testy history with Woodruff, who has nailed Contreras six times.

After the latest one, Contreras yelled at Woodruff from first base. Then, on a force play, Contreras slid hard into second, banging into shortstop David Hamilton’s left knee with his cleats and tearing his pants.

“I mean, we’ve been through that. It’s been like nine years for me. It seems like every year,” Woodruff said. “He’s trying to play a game and he’s trying to get his side fired up, which is fine. Once I knew what was going on, I wasn’t going to let it affect me.”

Before getting traded to the Red Sox in the offseason, Contreras spent his first 10 big league seasons in the NL Central where he played against Milwaukee a lot, first with the Chicago Cubs and then the St. Louis Cardinals.

Contreras was hit Monday night on the left hand with a fastball that grazed his fingers. Brewers manager Pat Murphy challenged the call, which was upheld following a replay review.

“I thought it wasn’t a hit by pitch,” Murphy said. “That’s why we challenged it. Those are really hard to get overturned.”

Contreras’ younger brother, William, was Milwaukee’s catcher Monday night.

Did he try to calm his big brother as he walked toward first with him?

“I tried,” he said. “He plays like that.”

Willson Contreras hit a solo homer in the ninth inning and reached base five times. He flung his bat not only after the homer, but his first-inning walk, too.

From behind the plate, his younger brother challenged a 2-0 pitch to Willson Contreras that was called a ball. The call was confirmed by ABS.

“I was going to check it whether it was my bother at the plate or not,” William Contreras said through a translator. “I saw it a little closer than it was.”

The teams have two games left in their three-game series.

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

And it wasn't enough.

Nine Grizzlies made at least one 3 in a 142-126 loss to the Cavaliers. The Grizzlies shot 49.2% (29 for 59) from deep and 45.7% (16 for 35) from inside the arc.

The 3-point record had been shared by Milwaukee and Boston. The Bucks made 29 3s in a 144-97 victory at Miami on Dec. 29, 2020, and the Celtics equaled the record in a 132-109 win against the New York Knicks on Oct. 22, 2024.

“I think we can be pretty proud of how we played with this group today on the court,” Memphis coach Tuomas Iisalo said. “Guys wanted to go for it in the end, and we were all for it. Unfortunately couldn't set a singular record, but tied it. Nonetheless, very proud of our group.”

The Grizzlies made 10 3s in the first quarter, three in the second, six in the third and 10 in the final period.

The Cavaliers went 12 for 32 from 3 for the game.

“Incredible shooting performance by the Grizzlies. Give them credit,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “They shot the heck out of the ball.”

Memphis reserves Adama Bal and Dariq Whitehead each made six 3-pointers. Lucas Williamson went 5 for 12 from deep, and Olivier-Maxence Prosper was 4 for 5.

The Grizzlies lost for the 18th time in their last 20 games. They were averaging 13.7 made 3-pointers per game coming into the day.

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

Speaking to reporters at the White House, the president refused to say whether any civilian targets would be off-limits.

Iran on Monday rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the conflict.

“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press.

Israel and the United States carried out a wave of attacks on Iran on Monday, killing more than 25 people. Iran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors.

Here is the latest:

Malaysian commercial vessel allowed to pass in Strait of Hormuz

Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that one of seven Malaysian commercial vessels stranded in the Strait of Hormuz has been allowed to pass and is now heading to its destination.

The ministry said this followed diplomatic talks with Iranian officials led by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. It didn’t give further details.

Malaysia reaffirmed its support for safe and open sea routes under international law, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It called for continued dialogue to maintain peace and stability in the region.

Japan says a Japanese national detained in Iran has been released

Japan said Tuesday a Japanese national who had been detained in Iran since January has been released on bail.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters in Tokyo that his release was confirmed Monday and that Japan is demanding a full release from Iranian authorities.

He said the Japanese ambassador to Iran met the person released and that he was in good health without providing further details.

The person is believed to be a journalist at Japan’s NHK public television.

Another Japanese national, who was detained in Iran last June, was released and returned to Japan in March.

Iran official calls for youths to form human chains around power plants ahead of threatened Trump strikes

An Iranian official early Tuesday issued a video message calling on youths of the Islamic Republic to form “human chains” around power plants in the country ahead of threatened strikes by U.S. President Donald

Alireza Rahimi, identified by Iranian state television as the secretary of the Supreme Council of Youth and Adolescents, issued the video call in a newscast.

“I invite all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors,” he said.

Gather “Tuesday at 2 p.m. around the power plants that are our national assets and capital, regardless of any taste or political viewpoint, belong to the future of Iran and to the Iranian youth.”

Iran has formed human-chain demonstrations, also known as human shields, in the past around its nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West.

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s had similar human-shield demonstrations during the 1991 Gulf War. He also dispersed foreign nationals held by his security services to possible targets of the U.S.-led campaign during the war.

Dwindling naphtha stocks strain medical supplies in South Korea

South Korean officials say the country has about three months’ worth of materials to produce intravenous fluid bags as the war in the Middle East threatens to strain critical hospital supplies.

Senior Health Ministry official Jeong Kyung-sil said Tuesday that the country has about three months’ stock of syringes, and materials for roughly two more months of production.

Health Minister Jeong Eun Kyeong said Tuesday the government is prioritizing medical supplies as it seeks to secure more naphtha, a key petroleum product used in plastics manufacturing, amid supply disruptions caused by the war.

“We will continue to secure additional supplies going forward and we are also reviewing alternative supply sources to ensure there are no issues,” the minister said.

South Korea last week said it imported 2.7 tons of naphtha from Russia as it looks to address the shortage.

South Korean chemical giant LG Chem shut down a major industrial plant in Yeosu last month, citing naphtha supply disruptions.

Israel claims recent wave of airstrikes targeting Tehran

Israel claimed the recent wave of airstrikes targeting Iran’s capital, Tehran, but offered no immediate details on what had been targeted.

Already, Israel had faced one missile barrage from Iran on Tuesday.

New Zealand describes US threats against Iranian infrastructure as ‘unhelpful’

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has described Trump’s recent threats against Iranian civilian infrastructure as “unhelpful.”

“Unhelpful because more military action’s not necessary,” Luxon told Radio New Zealand on Tuesday.

“I think the bottom line is that the focus needs to be on not seeing this conflict expand any further,” Luxon said.

“We got threats from the president over the weekend. Any of those actions including bombing bridges and reservoirs and civilian infrastructure would be unacceptable as well,” Luxon added.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ message to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a meeting in Washington, scheduled this week, would be to de-escalate the conflict, Luxon said.

Peters would “certainly be encouraging the U.S. and Iran to de-escalate quickly,” Luxon said.

UN to vote Tuesday on watered-down resolution on Strait of Hormuz

The U.N. Security Council scheduled a vote Tuesday on a resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz that was watered down for a second time because of opposition from Russia and China.

The original Bahrain-sponsored resolution would have authorized countries to use “all necessary means” – U.N. language that can include military action – to ensure transit through the vital waterway, which Iran has largely blocked, and deter attempts to close it.

The sixth revision of the initial text that will be voted on only “strongly encourages” countries using the Strait of Hormuz to coordinate defensive efforts to contribute to safe navigation in the strait.

It says this should include escorting merchant and commercial vessels, and deterring attempts to close, obstruct or interfere with international navigation through the strait.

The vote is scheduled at 11a.m. EDT, hours before an 8 p.m. EDT deadline set by Trump for Iran to open the strategic waterway, where one-fifth of the world’s oil normally passes, or face attacks on its power plants and bridges.

US Central Command says it struck over 13,000 targets

The U.S. military’s Central Command said early Tuesday that it had struck over 13,000 targets in the war so far.

Latest reports of live fire in the war

Activists reported new strikes targeting Iran’s capital, Tehran, early Tuesday morning.

The United Arab Emirates began firing its air defense Tuesday morning, while Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens in the kingdom, with both Gulf Arab countries facing a new barrage of Iranian fire.

Filipina killed in missile attack in Israel, Philippines says

The Philippine government says a Filipino national was killed in a missile attack in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa over the weekend.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila did not immediately identify the Filipina but said she was killed with her Israeli husband and parents-in-law in a residential area in Haifa on Sunday.

On Feb. 28, a Filipina caregiver, Mary Ann de Vera, was killed in a missile strike in Tel Aviv while helping bring her charge to a bomb shelter in the first known Philippine casualty of the war in the Middle East.

About 30,000 Filipinos live and work — many as caregivers — in Israel.

Drone strike kills 2 in Iraq

Two people were killed in the Kurdish region of Iraq after a home was hit by a drone that authorities said had been launched from Iran.

The drone hit the home in the village of Zargazawi in Irbil province early Tuesday, the Counter Terrorism Directorate of the northern Kurdish region said in a statement. Officials condemned the attack, calling it a violation of international law.

The strike came as Iranian forces and allied militias targeted areas across northern Kurdistan with a wave of drones, rockets and missiles.

US special forces were on the ground in Iran as part of rescue mission

The special operators were part of the teams sent in to retrieve the pilot and weapon systems officer of a downed fighter jet, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military operation.

During a briefing Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, “Our special operators, pilots and support crews performed with near perfection under fire,” but he stopped short of confirming that U.S. troops set foot on Iranian soil.

Hegseth and Trump have said they haven’t ruled out boots on the ground but also repeatedly argued that the conflict was limited in scope.

Hegseth has lambasted previous presidents who oversaw the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, insisting that the Iran war “is different. It’s laser-focused.”

— Konstantin Toropin

Shooting by Israel-backed group at a shelter in Gaza is followed by an Israeli strike, killing 8

An Israel-backed armed group in Gaza kidnapped children from a school-turned-shelter on Monday, according to a witness, after which Israel launched an airstrike on the site, health authorities said.

The Israeli military had no response when reached for comment.

An anti-Hamas Palestinian group called Abu Nusseirah posted on social media that they killed five Hamas fighters at the shelter in Maghazi.

An elderly displaced woman sheltering at the school told the AP that dozens of men stormed the site, clashed with people there and forced kids — including girls — into vehicles. Speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals, she said her son was killed in the fighting.

Bodies were taken to al-Aqsa hospital, where health officials said some had been killed in an Israeli airstrike on the school after the clashes. AP footage showed dozens of mourners gathered at the morgue.

Many displaced Palestinians say they fear the Iran war has overshadowed Gaza’s dire humanitarian situation.

3 US troops injured during fighter jet shootdown and rescue

Those injured were the weapon systems officer from the U.S. Air Force F-15E fighter jet that was shot down in Iran late last week as well as two aircrewmen from a helicopter that took fire during the initial rescue for the pilot from the downed jet.

That’s according to a U.S. official, who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military operation.

After rescuing the pilot, the HH-60 Jolly Green II helicopters were “engaged by every single person in Iran who had a small arms weapon, and one of the aircraft, the trailing aircraft, took several hits,” said Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

At the same White House briefing, Trump said the jet’s downed weapons officer was “bleeding profusely” but still able climb mountainous terrain and communicate his location.

— Konstantin Toropin

A 12-hour drive through Iran offers glimpses of destruction, defiance and daily life

A black banner hangs over a border crossing and portraits of Iran’s killed supreme leader stare down, promising vengeance against the United States and Israel.

But on the 12-hour drive south to the capital, Tehran, daily life continues, with only occasional signs of the ongoing war, including a Shiite religious center that officials say was damaged by a recent airstrike.

Associated Press reporters made the journey on Saturday after crossing into Iran from Turkey. They gained a glimpse of the country at the center of a regional war that has jolted the world economy and shows no sign of ending.

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US stocks drift higher ahead of Trump’s deadline to bomb Iranian power plants

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5%.

Like stock indexes, oil prices seesawed through the day amid continued uncertainty about what will happen in the war with Iran and how long it will slow the global flow of crude oil.

Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market.

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The US and Egypt are pushing Israel not to strike the main Lebanon-Syria border crossing, official says

That’s according to Lebanon’s General Security chief, Hassan Choucair, who said those “ongoing contacts” by Washington and Cairo aim to protect and reopen the Masnaa border crossing.

It’s been closed since Saturday after Israel warned it could be targeted over alleged weapons smuggling by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Officials in Lebanon and Syria deny that claim, saying vehicles are thoroughly inspected.

The crossing’s closure has forced travelers to take a longer northern route. More than 200,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria since the war escalated five weeks ago, many of them fleeing the conflict.

Trump details the rescue of US airmen shot down in Iran

The United States relied on dozens of aircraft, hundreds of personnel, secret CIA technology and a dose of subterfuge to rescue a two-man F-15E fighter jet crew downed deep inside Iran.

Trump and his top defense aides detailed the daring rescue operation in an unusual level of detail during a news conference at the White House on Monday.

The U.S. surged helicopters, midair refuelers and fighter jets deep into Iran to rescue the pilot within hours. But finding and picking up the jet’s weapon systems officer was a more complicated endeavor.

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Israeli TV station counts down to Trump deadline

As reporters spoke on air, Channel 13 TV’s evening newscast showed a large digital clock marking down the hours and minutes until Tuesday night’s deadline.

Trump lashes out at Pacific allies for not assisting in Iran fight

The president continued to grumble about NATO allies’ refusal to get involved in reopening the Strait of Hormuz and their hesitance to assist U.S. offensive operations against Iran.

As he wrapped up his lengthy news conference Monday, he also fumed about the lack of support from Pacific allies.

“You know who else didn’t help us? South Korea didn’t help us,” Trump said. “You know who else didn’t help us? Australia didn’t help us. You know who else didn’t help us? Japan. We’ve got 50,000 soldiers in Japan to protect them from North Korea. We have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect us from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well.”

Trump says it would take 4 hours to destroy Iran’s bridges and power plants

The president described the consequences that Iran would face if it didn’t reach a deal with the U.S. by Trump’s 8 p.m. Tuesday deadline.

“We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night,” Trump said during his Monday news conference.

Power plants in Iran, he continued, would be “burning, exploding and never to be used again.”

Trump refused to say whether any civilian targets would be off limits in the U.S. response.

UN chief warns the US not to strike Iran’s civilian infrastructure

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the U.S. that attacking civilian infrastructure is banned under international law, his spokesperson said Monday.

“Even if specific civilian infrastructure were to qualify as a military objective,” spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, an attack would still be prohibited if it risks “excessive incidental civilian harm.”

A court would need to decide whether such attacks were war crimes, he said.

Trump dismisses that his threatened attacks on Iran’s infrastructure would be war crimes

Trump says he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes as he continues to threaten the destruction of Iran’s bridges and power plants if they don’t meet a Tuesday evening deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“I hope I don’t have to do it,” Trump added.

Israeli military is preparing for weeks of battle against Iran

The military’s chief spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, says the army’s chief has approved battle plans for the next three weeks in the absence of a ceasefire.

“Every day that passes, we hit them more and more. Already we have very good achievements, and we want to reach excellent achievements,” he told a press conference Monday.

Israel’s defense industry to export a $750 million rocket system to Greece

The Israeli and Greek defense ministries signed the four-year export agreement Monday in Athens, said a statement from Israel’s defense ministry.

The Precise & Universal Launching System, is built to launch rockets of different ranges, the statement said.

Israeli defense giant Elbit Systems will supply the rocket launchers and the warheads to Greece. Greek defense industries are expected to produce some parts of the system.

US fighter jet was downed by shoulder-held missile launcher, Trump says

Trump said the F-15E fighter jet that set off a two-day search-and-rescue operation was downed by a shoulder-launched rocket.

Trump described the weapon as a “hand-held shoulder missile — heat-seeking missile.”

The president went on to suggest that the fighter jet was ultimately downed not by the explosion but because of related damage to the aircraft’s engines.

“They shot it and it got sucked in right by the engine,” Trump said.

Trump insists Iranian civilians want the US to keep bombing

Asked why Iranians would want him to follow up on his threat to blow up the country’s infrastructure, Trump says everyday citizens are “willing to suffer ... in order to have freedom.”

“‘Please keep bombing. Do it,’” Trump claimed U.S. officials have heard Iranians say via “intercepts.”

“And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding,” he said.

US warplane that crashed amid search for downed aviators was hit by enemy fire, general says

A U.S. aircraft that crashed amid the search for the downed airmen was hit by enemy fire while engaging Iranian forces, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday.

Caine, speaking at a briefing at the White House, said that a U.S. A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft was “violently suppressing and engaging the enemy in a close-in gunfight to keep them away” from the pilot of a downed F-15 fighter jet while also being “primarily responsible for communicating with the downed pilot.”

Caine said that after being hit, “this pilot continued to fight, continued the mission, and then upon exit, flew his aircraft into another country and determined that the airplane was not landable.”

The pilot then decided to eject over friendly territory and, according to Caine, “was quickly and safely recovered, and is doing fine.”

Hegseth describes ‘unblinking’ mission in coordination call

The defense secretary said the coordination call held by national security officials during the daring mission to rescue the U.S. airmen lasted nearly two days straight.

“For 45 hours and 56 minutes, we held that call open for coordination,” Hegseth said, describing the call that was held in a secure facility. “Our mission was unblinking.”

CIA Director John Ratcliffe says top-secret technology led to rescue of downed airman

Speaking at a White House press conference, Ratcliffe said the agency used “exquisite technologies that no other intelligence service” possesses to locate the aviator after the F-15 was shot down in Iran.

At the same time, the CIA mounted a deception operation to mislead the Iranians who were looking.

Ratcliffe said the search and rescue operation was “comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert.”

The CIA declined to respond to questions Monday about the kind of technology used to locate the airman.

Hegseth draws parallels between the story of Easter and rescued airman

The Defense secretary, who has frequently infused his leadership of the Pentagon with references to Christianity and the language of his faith, said the airman who evaded capture for more than a day was shot down on Good Friday, “hidden in a cave” on Saturday, and on Easter Sunday, “a pilot reborn, all home and accounted for.”

Hegseth said that when the airman was finally able to activate an emergency transponder, his first transmitted message was: “God is good.”

Trump threatens to jail journalist who first reported on downed airman

Trump threatened to jail the journalist who first reported that U.S. forces were searching for an F-15 weapons officer shot down in Iran, if they don’t reveal their sources.

“The person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say, and that doesn’t last long,” Trump said.

Trump didn’t name the journalist or news organization. He said the leak tipped off the Iranians, endangering the officer and his rescuers. He called the leaker “a sick person.”

Iran’s supreme leader issues a rare public statement

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei expressed condolences over the killing of the Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence chief.

In a written social media post, Khamenei said Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi joined a “steadfast line of warriors and fighters” to sacrifice their lives. Israeli strikes have killed dozens of top Iranian leaders, including Khamenei’s father.

The younger Khamenei has not been seen or spoken in public since he succeeded his father as supreme leader.

Trump offers more details of dramatic airman rescue

The president described the scale of the operation undertaken by the U.S. to rescue the second airman from the downed aircraft.

The operation included 155 aircraft — four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, and 13 rescue aircraft, among others, Trump said.

Much of it was an effort to throw off the Iranians, who were also looking for the missing crew member, the president said.

“We were bringing them all over and a lot of it was subterfuge,” Trump said. “We wanted to have them think he was in a different location.”

Trump says downed officer rushed to get away from the crash site

Trump says the downed weapons officer followed his training to get as far away from the crash site as possible.

When a plane crashes in hostile territory, “they all head right to that site, you want to be as far away as you can,” Trump said.

Trump says the officer was “bleeding profusely” but was able climb mountainous terrain and contact U.S. forces to communicate his location. Rescuers mobilized a massive response that included subterfuge to confuse the Iranians about where they were looking.

Trump says 21 aircraft came to help rescue airmen who crashed in Iran

The president began describing the rescue efforts from Friday and over the weekend after two airmen ejected and landed alive “deep in enemy territory” in Iran.

Trump said 21 aircraft were deployed to help with the search and rescue in the first wave, flying for hours under “very, very heavy enemy fire.” He said the U.S. has one helicopter with many bullets in it.

Trump news conference begins

He is accompanied by his top national security advisers, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and special envoy Steve Witkoff. Also in attendance are his children, Eric and Tiffany Trump, as well as their spouses.

Declaring that “this was one of our better Easters,” Trump started his news conference by speaking about the dramatic rescue of two U.S. airmen in Iran over the weekend.

Trump, with Easter bunny nearby, talks Iran war

In a surreal scene on the White House lawn with flowers and Easter decor, Trump decided to give reporters an update on the Iran war.

With children waiting nearby, someone in a bunny costume steps away, and soft, cheerful music in the background, the president spoke about the rescue of a missing airman shot down in Iran, defended his expletive-laden threats on social media, and warned that Iran should capitulate or face threats to its bridges and power plants.

Turkey’s president says his country has intensified push to end the war

“We are striving to seize any chance, however small, for hostilities to cease and negotiations to open,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised address following a Cabinet meeting. He did not provide details.

Erdogan, a vocal critic of Israel, again accused the country of undermining all attempts to stop the fighting.

Trump defends his use of vulgar language in a social media post

The president used profanity in a Sunday social media posting warning Iran he was serious about targeting the country’s infrastructure if it doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz by his Tuesday deadline. He ended the short post by saying, “Praise be to Allah.”

Asked by a reporter about his language, Trump responded he used it “only to make my point.”

Trump added about his use of an expletive, “I think you’ve heard it before.”

Trump suggests Kurdish groups have held onto guns meant for Iranian protesters

Trump appeared to confirm that the U.S. had intended to arm Iranian protesters after mass demonstrations against the government broke out throughout Iran in late 2025 and continued early into this year.

Thousands of anti-government protesters were killed during the crackdowns by government forces. Fox News reported on Sunday that Trump had told the network’s Trey Yingst in a telephone interview that Kurdish groups who were supposed to be delivering the U.S.-provided weapons held on to them.

“They were supposed to go to the people so they could fight back against these thugs,” Trump told reporters on Monday about the weapons intended for protesters. “You know what happened? The people that they sent them to kept them because they said, ‘What a beautiful gun. I think I’ll keep it.’ So, I’m very upset with a certain group of people and they’re going to pay a big price for that.”

Trump says he’d prefer to ‘take the oil’

Trump said he’d prefer to use U.S. military power to take control of Iran’s vast oil reserves, but he acknowledged there’s not much appetite for such a move among the American electorate.

“Take the oil because it’s there for the taking,” Trump said. “There’s not a thing they can do about it. Unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home. If it were up to me, I’d take the oil. I’d keep the oil. I would make plenty of money.”

Trump warns Iran they’re making a mistake by not capitulating

Shortly after state media reported Iran had rejected a ceasefire proposal, Trump offered a new harsh warning to Iran.

“They just don’t want to say ‘uncle,‘” Trump told reporters as he and first lady Melania Trump hosted the White House Easter Egg Roll. “They don’t want to cry as the expression goes ‘uncle,’ but they will. And if they don’t, They’ll have no bridges. They’ll have no power plants. They’ll have no anything.”

He added another ominous warning: “I won’t go further because there are other things that are worse than those two.”

A regional official involved in the ceasefire talks says the efforts haven’t collapsed

“We are still talking to both sides,” he says, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door diplomacy.

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu says petrochemical attack weakens Iran’s Revolutionary Guard

He said Monday’s strike on an Iranian petrochemical facility is part of a systematic campaign aimed at destroying the Guard’s “money machine.”

“We are destroying factories, we are eliminating activists and we continue to eliminate senior figures,” he said in a videotaped statement.

An Iranian university student asks the world: ‘Stop this war’

A resident of Tehran in his early twenties says U.S.-Israeli strikes on civilian infrastructure and Trump’s intensifying threats have “terrified” people.

“Everyone is very anxious and scared that the water, power and gas will be cut,” he said, speaking anonymously for his security.

The student first spoke with The Associated Press on the eve of the war, when he participated in anti-government protests at his Tehran university’s campus. At the time, he described heated disagreements with friends who said they hoped a threatened Israeli-U.S. attack would overthrow the Islamic Republic.

“Those who were supporting the war are no longer supporting it,” he said Monday.

— Amir-Hussein Radjy

Key Federal Reserve official open to possible rate hikes amid gas price spikes

Beth Hammack, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press that if inflation remains persistently above the Fed’s 2% target, the central bank should consider lifting its benchmark interest rate.

While Hammack also said the Fed might have to cut its rate if higher gas prices caused the economy to slow and unemployment to rise, a potential rate hike is a noticeable shift for the Fed from before the Iran war, when officials forecast two rate cuts this year. A hike could lift longer-term interest rates for things like mortgages and auto loans.

“My baseline is that we’re on hold for quite some time,” Hammack said, “but I can foresee scenarios where we would need to reduce rates ... if the labor market deteriorates significantly. Or I could see where we might need to raise rates if inflation stays persistently above our target.”

Houthis claim they hit military sites in Israel

The Iran-backed Houthis said they launched a barrage of cruise missiles and drones at several military sites in southern Israel, “successfully achieving its objectives,” according to the group’s military spokesperson.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency says Tehran has rejected the latest ceasefire proposal

The agency said it had has conveyed its response to the U.S. through Pakistan, a key mediator.

“We won’t merely accept a ceasefire,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press on Monday. “We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again.”

Israel to ramp up production of air defense interceptors

Israel’s ministry of defense said Monday that the country’s defense industries would “significantly increase” production and stockpiling of missile interceptors as the war with Iran stretches on.

In a statement, the ministry said production of missile interceptors for the Arrow system, which defends against long-range ballistic missiles, would be sped up. Arrow has been critical in Israeli air defense during the current war, throughout which Israeli authorities have maintained there’s no shortage of interceptor missiles.

Israel’s military says it struck 3 Tehran airports overnight

The military says the strikes hit dozens of helicopters and aircraft it said belonged to the Iranian Air Force. It said the strikes targeted Bahram airport, Mehrabad airport and Azmayesh airport.

US-Israeli assault brings ‘destruction and bloodshed’ to Iran’s capital, resident says

A resident of central Tehran has described living with “anxiety and fear” as U.S.-Israeli strikes pummel the capital.

“Constantly, there is the sound of bombs, air defenses, drones,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for her safety.

At least one strike hit near her home, waking her on Wednesday, she said. Rushing into the neighboring street, she saw it “filled with people in pajamas, some of them wrapped in blankets, some of them crying with fear.”

She also described her anger at the popular satellite channel, Iran International, which is based abroad. She said its coverage had amplified exiled Iranian voices supporting strikes on the Islamic Republic. “Some people thought war might bring good things, but war doesn’t bring anything but destruction and bloodshed.”

— Amir-Hussein Radjy

“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said. He suggested that his Tuesday 8 p.m. EDT deadline was final, saying he'd already given Iran enough extensions.

The U.S. has told Iran to open the crucial Strait of Hormuz to all shipping traffic or see power plants and bridges wiped out, sparking warnings about possible war crimes.

Israel piled on pressure by attacking a major petrochemical plant and killing the intelligence chief for the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Tehran with its rejection conveyed its own, 10-point plant to end the fighting through Pakistan, a key mediator, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said.

“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press. He said Iran no longer trusts the Trump administration after the U.S. bombed the Islamic Republic twice during previous rounds of talks.

A regional official involved in talks said efforts had not collapsed. “We are still talking to both sides,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

And even Trump said negotiations with Iran continued.

Activists reported a new wave of strikes on Tehran early Tuesday. Israel claimed credit but offered no immediate details on what had been targeted.

Meanwhile, Japan said Tuesday a Japanese national who had been detained in Iran since January has been released on bail.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters in Tokyo that his release was confirmed Monday and that Japan is demanding a full release from Iranian authorities. He said the Japanese ambassador to Iran met the person released and that he was in good health without providing further details.

The person released is believed to be a journalist at Japan’s NHK public television. Another Japanese national, who was detained in Iran last June, was released and returned to Japan in March.

Trump says Iranians ‘willing to suffer’ for freedom

Trump has issued ultimatums to Iran before, only to find ways to back off. But he was more explicit this time on plans to follow through.

“Every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night,” he said, and all power plants will be “burning, exploding and never to be used again.”

Asked if he was concerned about accusations of war crimes, Trump responded, “No, not at all." He suggested that Iranians want the U.S. to carry out its threats because it could lead to the end of their current leadership.

Iranian citizens are “willing to suffer," he said, "in order to have freedom.” But there has been no sign of an uprising in Iran as residents shelter from bombardment.

International warnings piled up against expanded strikes. “Any attack on civilian infrastructure is a violation of international law and a very clear one,” United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric later told journalists.

Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators had sent Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff a proposal calling for the ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, two Mideast officials told the AP. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.

Iranian and Omani officials also were working on a mechanism for administrating the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime. Iran’s grip on it has shaken the world economy.

Tehran has refused to let U.S. and Israeli vessels through after they started the war on Feb. 28.

Iran's new supreme leader makes rare statement

Israel struck a key petrochemical plant in the South Pars natural gas field, saying it was aimed at eliminating a major source of revenue for Iran. The field, the world’s largest, is shared with Qatar and is Iran’s biggest source of domestic energy for its 93 million people.

The strike appeared to be separate from Trump’s threats. An earlier Israeli attack there in March prompted Iran to target energy infrastructure in other Middle East countries, a major escalation.

Israel also killed the head of intelligence for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, according to Iranian state media. And Israel said it killed the leader of the Revolutionary Guard’s undercover unit in its expeditionary Quds Force, Asghar Bakeri.

“We will continue to hunt them down one by one,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said of top Iranian officials.

New Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who still has not been seen or heard in public, issued a rare statement expressing condolences over Khademi. Israeli strikes have killed dozens of top Iranian leaders, including Khamenei’s father.

Israel’s military also said it struck three Tehran airports overnight — Bahram, Mehrabad and Azmayesh — hitting dozens of helicopters and aircraft it said belonged to the Iranian Air Force.

A Tehran resident said “constantly there is the sound of bombs, air defenses, drones,” speaking on condition of anonymity for her safety. Another detailed taking sleeping pills to get through nightly bombardments, and said people worry about power, gas and water cuts.

Airstrikes kill at least 29 across Iran

Smoke rose near Tehran’s Azadi Square after an airstrike hit the grounds of the Sharif University of Technology. Multiple countries have sanctioned the university for its work with the military, particularly on Iran’s ballistic missile program.

Authorities and Iranian state media reported at least 29 people killed across the country by strikes.

In Lebanon, where Israel has launched air attacks and a ground invasion that it says target the Iran-linked Hezbollah militia, an airstrike hit an apartment in Ain Saadeh, a predominately Christian town east of Beirut. It killed an official in the Lebanese Forces, a Christian political party strongly opposed to Hezbollah, his wife and another woman.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.

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Weissert reported from Washington, Magdy from Cairo and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Isabel DeBre in Ain Saadeh, Lebanon, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo and Josh Boak and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this story.

The government in partnership with the World Health Organization, the U.N. children's agency and the Gavi vaccine alliance began working to vaccinate children age 6 months to 5 years old in 18 high-risk districts Sunday and will expand nationwide in phases from next month, a joint statement said.

A UNICEF official said the agency was deeply concerned about the sharp rise in cases, which was putting the youngest and most vulnerable children at serious risk. “This resurgence highlights critical immunity gaps, particularly among zero-dose and under-vaccinated children, while infections among infants under nine months, who are not yet eligible for routine vaccination, are especially alarming,” said Rana Flowers, the agency's representative in Bangladesh.

More than 900 cases of measles have been confirmed among 7,500 suspected cases reported since March 15, according to the official data in the South Asian nation of more than 170 million people.

Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease causing fever, respiratory symptoms and a characteristic rash and can sometimes have severe or fatal complications, especially in young children, according to WHO.

Vaccination is crucial to preventing the spread of measles, but the WHO says 95% of the population has to be vaccinated in order to stop the disease from spreading.

Bangladesh’s Health Minister Sardar Mohammed Sakhawat Husain responding to questions in Parliament said Monday that the new outbreak was caused by the mismanagement and failures of past governments.

He said the previous government of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and an interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus failed to make proper decisions regarding vaccine stockpiles, causing shortages affecting vaccines for measles and six other diseases.

The vaccination campaign for measles was disrupted during Bangladesh's recent political upheavals. Hasina was ousted in a mass uprising in 2024, and Yunus led an interim administration that transferred power to an elected government after an election in February.

Authorities are advising parents to go to hospitals whenever someone is suspected to have measles.

““They should avoid taking medicine from shopkeepers unnecessarily. If a child has a fever, especially high fever — 101, 102, 3, 4 (Fahrenheit, or higher than 38.3 Celsius) — they should not rely on medicine from local shops,” said F. A. Asma Khan, deputy director of the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Dhaka.

“Instead, they must take the child to a hospital as soon as possible, because our medical officers are capable of providing proper basic treatment,” she said.

Since the launch of a massive immunization campaign in 1979, Bangladesh has made remarkable progress — raising the coverage of fully immunized children from just 2% to 81.6%.

But UNICEF warned last year that while Bangladesh has made strong strides to increase immunization coverage, stark disparities persist.

Their flyby of the moon — NASA’s first return since the Apollo era — even included some celestial sightseeing besides yielding rich science. It was a significant step toward landing boot prints near the moon's south pole in just two years.

A total solar eclipse greeted the three Americans and one Canadian as the moon temporarily blocked the sun from their perspective. Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn nodded at them from the black void. The landing sites of Apollo 12 and 14 also were visible, poignant reminders of NASA’s first age of exploration more than half a century ago.

In an especially riveting retro throwback, Artemis II shattered the distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. NASA’s Orion capsule reached a maximum distance of 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers) from Earth before hanging a U-turn behind the moon, 4,101 miles (6,600 kilometers) farther than Apollo 13.

“It is blowing my mind what you can see with the naked eye from the moon right now. It is just unbelievable,” Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen radioed. He challenged “this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.”

Artemis II astronauts get an Apollo wake-up message

Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell wished the crew well in a recording made two months before his death last August. Mission Control beamed up his message to commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Hansen, before their fly-around began.

“Welcome to my old neighborhood,” said Lovell, who also flew on Apollo 8, humanity’s first lunar visit. “It’s a historic day and I know how busy you’ll be, but don’t forget to enjoy the view.”

The Artemis II astronauts carried up with them the Apollo 8 silk patch that accompanied Lovell to the moon. “It’s just a real honor to have that on board with us,” Wiseman said.

Artemis II is using the same maneuver that Apollo 13 did after its “Houston, we’ve had a problem” oxygen tank explosion wiped out any hope of a moon landing.

Known as a free-return lunar trajectory, this no-stopping-to-land route takes advantage of Earth and the moon’s gravity, reducing the need for fuel. It’s a celestial figure-eight that put the astronauts on course for home once they emerged from behind the moon Monday evening.

Astronauts lock in on lunar observations

Artemis II’s lunar fly-around and intense observation period lasted seven hours, by far the highlight of the nearly 10-day test flight that will end with a splashdown in the Pacific on Friday.

Venturing as close as 4,067 miles (6,545 kilometers) to the gray dusty surface, the astronauts zipped through a list of more than two dozen targets, using powerful Nikon cameras as well as their iPhones to zoom in on impact craters and other intriguing lunar features.

Before getting started, they requested permission to name two bright, freshly carved craters. They suggested Integrity, the name of their capsule, and Carroll, commander Wiseman’s wife, who died of cancer in 2020.

Wiseman wept as Hansen put in the request to Mission Control, and all four astronauts embraced in tears.

“Such a majestic view out here,” Wiseman radioed once he regained his composure and started picture-taking. The astronauts called down that they managed to capture the moon and Earth in the same shot, and they provided a running commentary to scientists back in Houston on what they were seeing.

At one point, Koch reported an overwhelming sensation of emotion for a second or two while zooming in on the moon. “Something just drew me in suddenly to the lunar landscape and it became real,” she said.

The Artemis II astronauts made their closest approach to the moon and reached their maximum distance from Earth while they were out of contact. Their speed at closest approach: 3,139 mph (5,052 kph). The spacecraft accelerated as it appeared from behind the moon and the planned communications blackout and made tracks for Earth.

An Earthrise came into view showing Asia, Africa and Oceania as Mission Control called out: “We are Earthbound and ready to bring you home.” Flight controllers in Houston flipped their mission patches over to signify the return leg.

President Donald Trump phoned the astronauts following the flyby, calling them “modern-day pioneers.”

“Today you’ve made history and made all America really proud, incredibly proud,” the president said, adding that more lunar traveling is coming and ultimately "the whole big trip to Mars.”

Wiseman and his crew spent years studying lunar geography to prepare for the big event, adding solar eclipses to their repertoire during the past few weeks. By launching last Wednesday, they ensured themselves of a total solar eclipse from their vantage point behind the moon, courtesy of the cosmos.

Topping their science target list: Orientale Basin, a sprawling impact basin with three concentric rings, the outermost of which stretches nearly 600 miles (950 kilometers) across.

Their moon mentor, NASA geologist Kelsey Young, expects thousands of pictures.

Artemis II is NASA’s first astronaut moonshot since Apollo 17 in 1972. It sets the stage for next year’s Artemis III, which will see another Orion crew practice docking with lunar landers in orbit around Earth. The culminating moon landing by two astronauts near the moon’s south pole will follow on Artemis IV in 2028.

While Artemis II may be taking Apollo 13’s path, it’s most reminiscent of Apollo 8 and humanity’s first lunar visitors who orbited the moon on Christmas Eve 1968 and read from the Book of Genesis.

Glover said flying to the moon during Christianity’s Holy Week brought home for him “the beauty of creation.” Earth is an oasis amid “a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe” where humanity exists as one, he observed over the weekend.

“This is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing and that we’ve got to get through this together,” Glover said, clasping hands with his crewmates.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

RELATED: Anonymous text targets JEA CEO amid ongoing political tensions

Rules Committee Chair Chris Miller said he marked both items for deferral to “tap the brakes” while multiple reviews play out, including an Inspector General-led effort tied to disputed capacity fees and a council special investigatory committee examining workplace culture allegations.

“My mind as the rules chair, I thought it was smart, prudent for us to tap the brakes,” Miller said. “Let’s slow down a little bit and not affect the changes of leadership until we know a little bit more about what’s going on.”

MORE|Timeline: How ‘big favor’ texts sparked a JEA board shakeup and allegations about utility leadership|Jacksonville City Council president issued subpoena after controversial ‘big favor’ text sent to JEA board member

When asked, Miller said his intent is to defer the items for one council cycle. But other council members in attendance said they are open to a longer wait period.

The deferred items involve Wyse replacing board member Arthur Adams and DiSalvo’s reappointment.

Miller told the committee there is “a lot going on” with JEA — including questions about leadership, employee surveys and ongoing investigations.

“To say there’s a lot going on with JEA right now is a gross understatement,” Miller said.

Several councilmembers joined the conversation to support Miller’s decision.

Councilmember Joe Carlucci said he supports Wyse but wants more time to get answers.

“We just don’t know until things continue to unfold but I’m going to use that time to get my answers to the questions I have,” he said.

The decision comes as the two nominations were set to go through final review at the Rules Committee ahead of a full vote from city council.

So far, the Special Investigative Committee on JEA has held two meetings to review workplace culture and disputes over capacity fees. A survey is set to go out to employees for review.

“There’s a lot of drama,” Howland said. “I think we should make decisions when we can cut the drama out and decide based on facts and evidence. And right now is not the time.”

Councilmember Michael Boylan encouraged the committee to continue deferring the nominations until the issues are resolved.

“I encouraged that you continue to defer it to such time that we have a solution to the matters at hand,” Boylan said.

Other members said the delay was about timing rather than the nominees.

“I do have full confidence in Mr. Wyse’s abilities,” Councilmember Mike Gay said. “So it’s no reflection on him whatsoever. But I do think it’s wise for us to just take our time.”

The deferral comes after the Jacksonville NAACP asked Council President Kevin Carrico to wait to appoint the next board member until investigations were complete.

It also follows a March 27 statement from Councilmember Matt Carlucci calling for a pause on appointments.

“In light of unfolding issues surrounding JEA, the City Council should pause appointments to the JEA Board until active investigations by the State Attorney and Inspector General are complete,” Carlucci said.

Until any changes are made by city council, Adams and DiSalvo will continue to serve in their current roles as JEA board members. The process could potentially continue at the next Rules Committee meeting on April 20.

In a statement, the mayor’s office said Deegan supports delaying appointments.

“Mayor Deegan supports a pause on all JEA board appointments until the active investigations are complete, and she looks forward to Board Member DiSalvo serving another term once that process concludes,” the statement said.

News4JAX has reached out to Carrico for comment on his appointment and will update this story when a response is received.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the school hasn't publicly discussed its search. Malone would replace Hubert Davis, who was fired March 24 after five seasons as the successor to retired Hall of Famer Roy Williams.

ESPN was the first to report UNC moving toward hiring Malone.

The 54-year-old Malone spent 12 seasons as a head coach in the NBA, including a 10-year run in Denver. He led the Nuggets to the 2023 championship behind three-time league MVP Nikola Jokic.

The Nuggets fired Malone last spring with less than a week left in that regular season. Almost a year to the day, in another surprise move, Malone is on the verge of taking over a blue-blood program with six national titles, a record 21 appearances in the Final Four and alums including Michael Jordan, James Worthy Vince Carter and Atlantic Coast Conference career scoring leader Tyler Hansbrough.

UNC now has big-name former pro coaches leading its two highest-profile programs. The Tar Heels hired six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick as their football coach in December 2024. Belichick struggled to a 4-8 record in his debut season.

Davis’ firing opened one of the top jobs in college basketball for only the fourth time since the late Hall of Famer Dean Smith’s retirement after 36 seasons in October 1997.

The job had stayed in the “Carolina Family” ever since. Longtime assistant Bill Guthridge replaced Smith, followed by former UNC player Matt Doherty, former Smith assistant Williams and then Davis, who played under Smith and worked on Williams' staff.

Names like Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd, Michigan’s Dusty May and Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan — who led Florida to the 2006 and 2007 NCAA titles — had been linked to the job since Davis’ firing. Lloyd announced Friday at the Final Four that he would return to the Wildcats while praising UNC for “the way they’ve handled this.”

Three days later, the search had turned in an unexpected direction with Malone, who has never been a college head coach and has spent most of his career in the NBA. His primary connection to UNC athletics is the presence of daughter Bridget on the Tar Heels’ volleyball team.

During an October appearance on the UNC athletic department’s “Carolina Insider” podcast, Malone recalled hearing his late father, NBA coach Brendan Malone, talk often about Smith and UNC basketball. He also mentioned attending multiple recent practices and Davis asking him to speak to the team at least once.

“I’ve always been a Carolina fan,” Malone said. “And when (Bridget) decided to come here that made it even that much more special, because now I’m ‘Go Heels’ for everything. I root for all the teams, have fallen in love with Chapel Hill.”

Malone's time in the NBA included a brief stint in Sacramento, where he was fired in December 2014, just 24 games into his second season. He also worked as an assistant with the New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Hornets and Golden State Warriors.

Malone had stints in college as an assistant at Oakland, Providence and Manhattan. He spent only one season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, working as director of men's basketball administration at Virginia under Pete Gillen in 1998-99.

David Adelman, Malone's successor in Denver, said he was happy for his friend, adding that Malone would be comfortable with players earning big money through name, image and likeness deals.

“It’s more of a professional environment now, especially at schools like that, where you have to look at it like these guys are under contract now,” Adelman said. “And I think a lot of NBA coaches understand what it means to coach somebody that’s making money.”

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AP freelancer Michael Kelly in Denver contributed to this report.

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U.S. forces rescued the pilot within hours of the F-15E Strike Eagle going down late Thursday, surging helicopters, midair refuelers and fighter aircraft deep into Iran after confirming his location, Trump said in a valedictory news conference at the White House, describing the military operation in an unusual level of detail.

The second aviator aboard the aircraft — the weapons systems officer — was rescued nearly two days later.

Trump boasted of the military resources surged and coordination across U.S. agencies to pull off the daring mission to recover the troops in enemy territory, describing the shootdown of the jet by Iran as “a lucky hit” after claiming in a national address last week to have “beaten and completely decimated Iran.”

Another jet is downed in the rescue for the F-15 pilot

The search and rescue operation began in daylight over Iran, with helicopters and other aircraft flying low for seven hours, “at times facing very, very heavy enemy fire,” Trump said.

An A-10 Warthog, which was the attack aircraft primarily responsible for keeping in contact with the downed F-15 pilot on the ground, was hit by enemy fire while engaging Iranian forces, said Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The A-10 was “not landable,” Caine told reporters, but the pilot continued fighting before flying to a friendly country and ejecting. He was quickly rescued and is doing fine.

After rescuing the F-15 pilot, HH-60 Jolly Green II helicopters were “engaged by every single person in Iran who had a small-arms weapon, and one of the aircraft, the trailing aircraft, took several hits,” he said. The crew members received minor injuries and were going to be OK, Caine said.

The rescue of the fighter jet pilot, who was flying under the call sign Dude-44 Alpha, occurred before the Iranians could marshal a comprehensive search of their own, but finding and bringing home the weapon systems officer was an even more complicated endeavor.

An anchor on a channel affiliated with Iranian state television had been urging residents in the mountainous region of southwest Iran where the fighter jet went down to hand over any “enemy pilot” to police and promised a reward for anyone who did.

The weapon systems officer, who rode in the backseat of the F-15 under the call sign Dude-44 Bravo, was injured but followed his training to get as far from the crash site as possible.

Second airman climbs into the mountains to hide out

“Bleeding profusely,” in Trump's telling, the aviator managed to climb mountainous terrain and call for help Saturday using “a very sophisticated beeper-type apparatus.”

When a plane crashes in hostile territory, “they all head right to that site, you want to be as far away as you can,” Trump said.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the spy agency used “exquisite technologies that no other intelligence service” possesses to locate the aviator. At the same time, the CIA mounted a deception operation to mislead Iranians who also were trying to find him.

Ratcliffe said the search and rescue operation was “comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert.”

The CIA declined to respond to questions Monday about the kind of technology used to find the airman, but Trump colored in some details.

He said intelligence officials noticed something moving in the dead of night, in the mountains where they were surveilling. Trump said officials kept a camera on the moving object for 45 minutes and when it was no longer moving, they thought maybe they had it wrong.

But “it was the head of a human being,” the president said. “And then all of a sudden, 45 minutes later, he moved a lot, stood up, and they said, ‘We have him.’”

He added, “And that was really at the beginning of something incredible.”

Protected by an “air armada” of drones, strike aircraft and more, rescuers moved in on Sunday. Cargo planes flew in three small helicopters and assembled them near the patch of mountains where the missing airman was concealing himself inside a cave or crevice.

But when it came time to leave, the cargo planes were too weighed down by equipment and personnel to take off from the sandy terrain. The downed airman and his rescue team were picked up by three “lighter, faster aircraft” and the equipment on the ground was blown up to keep it out of Iranian hands, Trump said.

US makes several efforts to throw off Iranian forces

Many of the dozens of aircraft that were part of the operation were there for deception, Trump said.

“We were bringing them all over, and a lot of it was subterfuge,” Trump said. “We wanted to have them think he was in a different location.”

Back in Washington, national security officials coordinated on a call, keeping the phone line open for nearly two days straight.

“From the moment our pilots went down, our mission was unblinking," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. “The call never dropped. The meeting never stopped, the planning never ceased.”

As Trump detailed the operation, his penchant for boasting and flair for dramatic imagery bumped up against some of his aides' instinct to protect military and intelligence secrets. At one point, Trump turned to Caine, his top military adviser, and asked, “How many men did you send altogether, approximately, for the operation?”

Caine equivocated, responding, “Uhhh, I’d love to keep that a secret, Mr. President.”

“OK, well, we are," Trump continued. "But I will tell you — the number, I’ll keep it a secret, but it was hundreds.”

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Cooper reported from Phoenix, and Amiri from New York. Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.

Windy conditions with increasing rain chances will persist through Thursday. Temperatures will stay below seasonal averages as onshore winds increase to 15-20 mph, gusting into the 30 - 40 mph range.

The increasing wind will create marine and coastal hazards, including a high risk of rip currents, high surf reaching the beaches tomorrow, Small Craft Advisories, and Gale Warnings starting Tuesday through Wednesday night. A Wind Advisory for coastal northeastern Florida is in effect for Tuesday and may need to extend into Wednesday.

Even with rising rain chances, a Fire Weather Watch has been issued for inland Southeast Georgia on Tuesday as Extreme to Exceptional Drought conditions continue.

Tonight: Beneficial rainfall with isolated thunderstorms possible.

Tuesday: Showers likely with a slight chance of thunderstorms in the morning, then a chance of showers in the afternoon. Expect breezy conditions with highs in the upper 60s. Northeast winds 15 to 25 mph, with gusts up to 35 mph. Chance of rain 60 percent. Breezy and cloudy overnight with a chance of showers. Lows in the upper 50s to 60s.

Wednesday and Thursday: Showers with isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon, 60 percent. Breezy with highs around 70. Northeast winds 20 to 25 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with showers and isolated thunderstorms in the evening, then a chance of showers after midnight. Lows in the upper 50s to 60s. Northeast winds 15 to 25 mph, gusting up to 30 mph in the evening.

Looking ahead: Weather improves and it becomes less windy starting Friday and through the weekend.

Sunrise: 7:09 a.m.

Sunset: 7:50 p.m.

Judge Alan Schneider told the “Old Town Road” rapper and singer on Monday that if he sticks to his treatment program and obeys all laws for two years, his four felony counts will be dismissed.

The court found that the incident was the result of his since-diagnosed bipolar disorder and was an aberration from his usual behavior.

The program, formally known as postponement of prosecution probation, also requires that he not possess guns or threaten violence.

Authorities allege that the 26-year-old was walking naked down a street in LA’s San Fernando Valley in August, and charged at police officers who were responding to calls about him. A criminal complaint says three officers were hurt. Photos and video apparently shot before the police confrontation showed him walking in the street in only white briefs and white boots.

He pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of battery with injury on a police officer along with one count of resisting an executive officer.

A few days later in a video posted to Instagram, Lil Nas X, who was free on bail, said “these last four days have been terrifying” but reassured fans that he would be fine.

Outside court on Monday he told Rolling Stone, which first reported on the diversion agreement, that he is “thankful. Just very thankful,” and that it “could have been much worse.”

The District Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Atlanta artist is best known for 2018's country and hip-hop merging “Old Town Road,” which spent a record 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won him two Grammys.

Known for his genre-bending, innovating sounds and style, Lil Nas X's first full studio album, 2021’s “Montero,” went to No. 2 on the Billboard album chart and was nominated for a Grammy for album of the year. Other hits have included “Industry Baby” and “Montero (Call Me by Your Name).”

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office responded to a person shot around 4 p.m. When officers arrived, a teen was found suffering from a gunshot wound to the shoulder.

JSO said a homeowner walked into his home when he encountered an intruder and confronted them, which led to the shooting.

JSO said investigators were trying to understand the exact circumstances that happened and did not specify who the shooter was.

The teen was taken to the hospital in a life-threatening condition.

All parties involved were cooperating with police, and there is no threat to the community, according to JSO.

If you have any information that can assist in this investigation, call 904-630-0500 or Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS.

Co-owner David Blitzer announced Monday that a decision had been made for Fitzgerald to leave the organization. Fitzgerald had been GM since January 2020 and got the title president of hockey operations early in 2024, along with a contract extension.

“Tom and I had a thoughtful conversation today and agreed it was time to move in a new direction,” Blitzer said. “Tom changed the trajectory of our team here, including setting a franchise record for points in a season and helping make New Jersey a hockey destination. He is a well-respected leader across the Devils’ organization and NHL, and I am grateful for our friendship."

Fitzgerald was responsible for building much of the core of the roster around top picks Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes, who were drafted when he was an assistant to Ray Shero. The 57-year-old endured criticism in recent months for signing players to contracts with restrictive no-trade clauses and for extending Jacob Markstrom early, before the goaltender's struggles.

“After talking with David Blitzer, it was apparent to everyone that the best course of action is to move on for the benefit of the team,” Fitzgerald said. “The Devils are fortunate to have a core of great players, vocal and passionate fans, but most importantly, tremendous people who worked with me toward a common goal. I’ve always said that New Jersey is a hidden gem, and I’m proud of the effort that we put in to raise the standard and make it a destination."

New Jersey made the playoffs twice in the five seasons with Fitzgerald in charge, losing in the second round in 2023 and bowing out in the first round last year.

“As we prepare to move forward, it is important I acknowledge our fans: I recognize we have not delivered in the way you expect and deserve and I understand and share in your frustration,” Blitzer said. "This is a critical offseason for our franchise, and we will explore all avenues that best position the Devils to compete for a Stanley Cup once again.”

It's unclear what this means for the future of coach Sheldon Keefe, who is nearing the end of his second season. Fitzgerald hired Keefe in May 2024.

Fitzgerald, who was part of USA Hockey's management group that constructed the roster that won gold at the Milan Cortina Olympics, could immediately become a candidate for one of the other GM vacancies around the league. The Nashville Predators with Barry Trotz retiring and Toronto Maple Leafs after firing Brad Treliving are currently searching for a new head of hockey operations.

“I am incredibly appreciative to David, Josh Harris, and the entire New Jersey Devils organization for being a part of my life for the past decade," Fitzgerald said. "I look forward to the next step in my hockey career and will always look back fondly on my time with the Devils.”

Fitzgerald spent time in Nashville and Toronto during his playing career. He was the first captain of the Predators, wearing the “C” from 1998-02 while Trotz was coaching the team and played two seasons with the Maple Leafs from '02-04.

After going into management, Fitzgerald was director of player development when Pittsburgh won the Stanley Cup in 2009. He joined the Devils in 2015.

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

On Thursday morning, about 30 kindergarteners from San Pablo Elementary School were on board the Duval County School Bus headed to the Jacksonville Zoo when the semi crashed into the bus as it crossed the train tracks on Zoo Parkway.

Four children were injured and taken to the hospital and the crash report notes a fifth person was also transported for their injuries. The injuries range from two broken legs to cuts to the head and chest pain. No updates have been released regarding the students’ current conditions.

According to the report, the semi truck driver told police that he saw the bus stopped at the railroad tracks, tried to step on the brakes, but his “brakes were not working,” causing the semi to swerve to the inside in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid hitting the bus.

The driver was cited for careless driving but officers note he was not distracted at the time of the crash.

Dalya Farah, an attorney with Farah and Farah who is representing the families of three of the injured students, said the next step is a deeper investigation into the truck itself.

“We will most likely inspect the truck. There’s a lot of information on semi-trucks that we can’t obtain otherwise,” Farah said.

Farah said inspection records and maintenance history will be critical in determining what caused the crash.

“When it comes to a semi case, there could be a lot of factors that go into fault,” she said. “We’re looking into whether there was a brake failure, whether the truck was properly maintained, or if distracted driving played a role.”

The News4JAX I-TEAM also uncovered a history of crashes tied to the trucking company.

Using the USDOT number on the truck, records show five other crashes linked to the same company over the past two years. It is unclear who was at fault in those incidents or whether the same driver was involved.

Records also show 74 inspections were conducted during that time frame, though that number may reflect inspections across the company’s entire fleet.

Farah said those inspection records could provide key insight into whether the crash could have been prevented.

“It’s definitely terrifying,” Farah said. “I can’t imagine a kindergartener going through that trauma, especially on a trip to the zoo.”

News4JAX reached out to the trucking company, Universal Logistics Holdings, about the reported brake failure. A manager declined to answer questions.

The investigation is focused on determining the cause of the crash, including whether the truck driver was distracted or if there were mechanical failures.

It’s unclear how this information would add to the lawsuit.

RELATED: Former JEA chief of staff tells City Council committee employees are ‘scared for their job’ as probe continues

The message targets JEA CEO Vickie Cavey, who is not an elected official.

Unlike typical mass political texts that urge recipients to vote or support a candidate, this message specifically criticizes Cavey, alleging mismanagement and highlighting planned rate increases.

The message reads in part: “Another JEA rate hike under Vickie Cavey. Annual increases. Ongoing scandals. Mismanagement. Her compensation: $700K salary + $500K pension. Yours: higher bills. STOP to opt-out.”

News4JAX has learned the message was sent using a “spoofed” number, allowing the sender to mask their identity through multiple carriers.

MORE|Timeline: How ‘big favor’ texts sparked a JEA board shakeup and allegations about utility leadership|Jacksonville City Council president issued subpoena after controversial ‘big favor’ text sent to JEA board member

The text comes amid ongoing political tensions surrounding JEA, including investigations into workplace culture and a separate probe involving Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico. Carrico was recently subpoenaed by the state attorney’s office to turn over phone records and electronic communications after attempting to help a former associate secure a position on the JEA board.

Nate Monroe, Executive editor of the Tributary, said the message reflects a broader political climate in Jacksonville.

“We live in a different political time,” Monroe said. “It seems like campaigns are never-ending.”

Monroe, who has extensively covered JEA, including the events leading to the conviction of former CEO Aaron Zahn, said the message is unusual because it lacks a clear call to action.

“Normally when you’re solicited by a campaign, they’re asking for your vote, a donation or volunteer help,” Monroe said. “This one had no ask. It was just pointing out what it claims are problems. That is unusual.”

He added that anonymous messages like this are often tied to so-called “dark money” efforts and are becoming more common.

JEA Board Chair Joe DiSalvo said recently that criticism of Cavey intensified after JEA chose not to renew a contract with a local lobbying firm connected to former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, who has denied involvement.

Monroe said he believes the controversy gained traction after Carrico sent a text message to a board member about helping an associate — a message that later became public.

State and federal laws require political text messages to disclose who paid for them. News4JAX has confirmed the Federal Trade Commission has received complaints related to the messages.

While JEA is not commenting on the text messages they released this statement about rate changes.

As a municipal utility, JEA is committed to keeping costs as low as possible while providing the reliable services our customers depend on every day. Like many industries, rising operating costs driven by inflation, stricter regulatory requirements, and growing demand are increasing the cost to serve our community.

While rate adjustments implemented in 2025 helped better align revenue with the cost of service, a recent cost-of-service study projects FY27 revenue shortfalls of $19.6 million for water, $26 million for sewer, and $61.5 million for electric.  Additional capacity charges and for capacity used above 20% of initial paid capacity that is currently at issue does not impact these projections or the potential need for future rate adjustments. 

The JEA Board of Directors will convene on April 14 for a rates and capacity fee workshop to evaluate options and determine the best path forward for JEA and its customers. The Board is expected to consider next steps, including a potential rate hearing on May 19, a budget workshop on June 9, and a public rate hearing on June 30.

To continue delivering safe, reliable service, future rate adjustments will be necessary. Even with potential adjustments, JEA’s rates are expected to remain among the lowest in the state. However, we recognize the impact changes to utility bills can have on our customers. That’s why we will remain committed to providing tools, solutions, and assistance programs to help customers manage their monthly expenses.

JEA spokesperson

“With sharp and striking prose, ‘Small Scale Sinners’ performs the magical feat of encompassing every aspect of humanity in a slim volume of stories, which reveals the hearty landscape of desire, rage, love, and loss contained in nearly every life,” PEN/Faulkner Awards Committee Chair Lauren Francis-Sharma said in a statement released Monday.

Sohail is from Pakistan and now lives in Washington, D.C. In a statement Monday, she said worked on the book for a decade to “map out possible ways of being an independent woman in the world.”

She will receive $15,000 for the award, which in previous years has been given to authors including Philip Roth,Don DeLillo and Ann Patchett among others.

Trump posted late Sunday on his social media platform Truth Social that he has known Hilton for years and called the conservative commentator “a truly fine man” who could turn around a state beset with notoriously high taxes. California, Trump wrote, “has gone to hell.”

“With Federal help, and a Great Governor, like Steve Hilton, California can be better than ever before!” Trump added.

The endorsement — coming about a month before mail ballots go to voters in advance of the June 2 primary — will help Hilton coalesce conservative support in a race with no clear leader. However, Trump is widely unpopular in heavily Democratic California outside his conservative base and Trump's backing would become a liability if Hilton faces a Democrat in the November election.

With a large field, Democrats have been fearful that a quirk in the state's unusual “top two” primary system could allow only two Republicans to reach the November general election ballot — Hilton and GOP rival Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff. Trump's decision — a strong signal to undecided conservative voters — will make that outcome less likely by helping Hilton lure additional support.

Democratic consultant Paul Mitchell called Trump's decision “the safe bet” for Republicans. Rather than cling to a long shot hope that both Republicans reach the November ballot — or risk that both Hilton and Bianco fall short — Trump's blessing should consolidate support behind Hilton and allow him to emerge from a large primary field and reach November.

“Having a Republican on the top of the ticket is essential” to drive turnout in critical down-ballot races, with control of the U.S. House in play,” Mitchell added. In an unpredictable, wide-open race, the smart play for the GOP is to “get one Republican on the ballot.”

There are more than 50 candidates on the ballot — including eight established Democrats and along with Hilton and Bianco, the two leading Republicans. An all-GOP general election is possible in California, which puts all candidates on one primary ballot and only the top two vote-getters advance to November, regardless of party.

Polling in early February by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found the field had broken into two distinct groups, with Bianco, Hilton and three Democrats — U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Rep. Katie Porter and billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer — in close competition, with other candidates trailing.

In a statement, Hilton, who hosted a Fox News show for six years and worked as an adviser to former British prime minister David Cameron, thanked Trump for his support and promised to grow jobs and bring down the state's punishing cost of living. “Together we can turn things around,” Hilton said.

Republicans have not won a statewide election in California in two decades. Registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in the state by nearly 2-to-1.

Bianco — Hilton's chief GOP rival — said in a video posted on X that “This race is about the future of California, not any one endorsement.” He also posted a photo of Hilton hugging outgoing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom at a 2016 charity event.

“I have repeatedly said that a Fox News host courting a president's endorsement will never win in California,” Bianco said in the video.

Back home for the first time in 561 days after Hurricane Milton shredded the roof and caused extensive damage throughout the stadium, the Rays beat the Chicago Cubs 6-4 on Monday in front of a sellout crowd of 25,114.

“It felt pretty good to say the least,” Baker said of his reaction to the final pitch. “I think that was an encapsulation of how everybody felt getting back in this building and playing in front of these fans. To get out there and seal the deal for the boys was really fun.”

It cost nearly $60 million to replace the titled roof and rebuild the Trop after a hurricane swept through downtown St. Petersburg on Oct. 9, 2024.

High wind ripped sections of the original roof, allowing rain to fall into the stadium bowl for months. Water caused mold and damage to electrical, sound and broadcast systems.

The new roof was installed last August while the Rays played their 2025 season across the bay in Tampa at Steinbrenner Field — the spring training home of the New York Yankees.

The final panel was put in place Nov. 21. Luxury suites and the stadium video board also were upgraded. Players enjoyed playing on the new artificial turf and welcomed upgrades that include new clubhouse carpet and lockers.

“It was an important day for Rays baseball and unique for what we’ve gone through,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Very well done.”

The Rays don’t often draw well but it was the 20th consecutive sellout for a home opener, excluding the 2020 season when fans weren’t allowed to attend because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was great. Shout out to the city of St. Pete and the fans for showing up for us after everything they’ve been through,” said Chandler Simpson, who had two hits and two stolen bases.

Tampa mayor Jane Castor and St. Petersburg mayor Kenneth Welch threw out the first pitches, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also was in attendance.

It was the first home win for the team’s new owners. A group led by Florida-based real estate developer Patrick Zalupski purchased the Rays for $1.7 billion last year. Zalupski and top executives Ken Babby and Bill Cosgrove are pursuing a new ballpark that would be built in Tampa, in the shadows of the Yankees’ spring training complex and across the street from Raymond James Stadium, home to the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Rays are under lease to play at the Trop through at least the 2028 season.

“The fans’ support was amazing,” said Junior Caminero, who hit one of three home runs for Tampa Bay. “It was exciting to be back at Tropicana.”

The Rays debuted the newly renovated “Cownose Clubhouse,” home to the seven cownose stingrays from The Florida Aquarium who weathered Hurricane Milton. After the storm, the stingrays returned to The Florida Aquarium. In January, they were at TECO’s Manatee Viewing Center at Apollo Beach, before making their return to their permanent home at Tropicana Field ahead of the opener.

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

The issue could turn on whether the power plants were legitimate military targets, whether the attacks were proportional compared with what Iran has done and whether civilian casualties were minimized.

Trump's threat was so broad it did not seem to account for the harm to civilians, prompting Democrats in Congress, some United Nations officials and scholars in military law to say such strikes would violate international law.

The president's eventual actions often fall short of his all-encompassing rhetoric in the moment, but his warnings about the power plants and bridges were unambiguous both on Sunday and Monday as he set a deadline of Tuesday night for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned that attacking such infrastructure is banned under international law.

“Even if specific civilian infrastructure were to qualify as a military objective,” Stephane Dujarric said, an attack would still be prohibited if it risks “excessive incidental civilian harm.”

Rachel VanLandingham, a Southwestern Law School professor who served as a judge advocate general in the U.S. Air Force, said civilians are likely to die if power is cut to hospitals and water treatment plans.

“What Trump is saying is, ‘We don’t care about precision, we don’t care about impact on civilians, we’re just going to take out all of Iranian power generating capacity,’" the retired lieutenant colonel said.

Shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint in the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world's oil normally flows, has been all but halted, sending oil prices soaring and roiling the stock market.

Trump said Monday that he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes as he continues to threaten destruction. He also warned that every power plant will be “burning, exploding and never to be used again.”

“I hope I don’t have to do it,” Trump added.

When asked for further comment Monday, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said “the Iranian people welcome the sound of bombs because it means their oppressors are losing.”

“The Iranian regime has committed egregious human rights abuses against its own citizens for 47 years, just murdered tens of thousands of protestors in January, and has indiscriminately targeted civilians across the region in order to cause as much death as possible throughout this conflict,” Kelly wrote in an email.

‘Clearly a threat of unlawful action’

As the conflict has entered its second month, Trump has escalated his warnings to bomb Iran's infrastructure, including Kharg Island, central to Iran’s oil industry, and desalination plans that provide drinking water.

In a Truth Social post on March 30, Trump warned that the U.S. would obliterate "all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.’“

On Easter Sunday, Trump threatened in an expletive-laden post that Iran will face "Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one,” while adding that “you’ll be living in Hell” unless the strait reopens.

“This strikes me as clearly a threat of unlawful action,” said Michael Schmitt, a professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College and an international law professor at the University of Reading in Britain.

A power facility can be attacked under the laws of armed conflict if it provides electricity to a military base in addition to civilians, Schmitt said. But the strike must not "cause disproportionate harm to the civilian population, and you’ve done everything to minimize that harm.”

Harm does not include inconvenience or fear, said Schmitt, who has taught military commanders. But it does mean severe mental suffering, physical injury or illness.

Schmitt said military commanders should consider alternatives, such as targeting a substation or transmission lines that feed electricity to a base, before destroying an entire power plant.

“If you look at the operation and you’ve got a valid military objective, but it’s going to cause harm to civilians and you go, ‘Whoa, that’s a lot,’ then you should stop,” Schmitt said. “If you hesitate to take the shot, don’t take the shot.”

‘He’s using that leverage'

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said Monday that Trump is “absolutely not” threatening a war crime when he said he might bomb civilian infrastructure.

The infrastructure is also used by the military, Ernst said, and “it’s an ongoing operation.“

“If he needs leverage, he’s using that leverage,” she said while presiding over a brief pro forma session of the Senate.

But Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, also in the Capitol for the brief session, said it would be a “textbook war crime.”

“If you target civilian infrastructure for the purposes the president was talking about, it clearly is a war crime,” Van Hollen said.

Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, said the question of whether attacks on civilian infrastructure would be considered war crimes would have to be decided by a court.

However, Katherine Thompson, a senior fellow in defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said any accountability would more likely come from Congress.

She said thinking otherwise would mean believing that the U.S. would allow its president to be held accountable by foreign entities.

“This is the persnickety, inconvenient truth about international law: It only works if sovereign nations are willing to cede their sovereignty to a foreign body for accountability,” she said.

But Congress would have to say the president has gone too far. And then both houses would have to take action and with enough support to overcome a presidential veto, a highly unlikely prospect.

Trump also appears to have broad legal immunity under the Supreme Court’s ruling in the criminal case before his reelection, said VanLandingham. And the president could also grant preemptive pardons to top officials if needed.

‘We’re giving them a gift'

Even if technically justified under the law of war, strikes that bring harm to civilians could backfire for the U.S. long term, VanLandingham said.

“There's a lot of violence that can still be justified as lawful, but lawful can still be awful,” VanLandingham said. “How far did that get us in Iraq? How far did that get us in Afghanistan? How far did that get us in Vietnam?”

Trump’s rhetoric risks spreading fear among regular Iranians and communicating that the U.S. isn’t worried about their well-being, VanLandingham said. The country’s leaders could use it as propaganda to create and harden opposition, contributing to a longer, tougher war.

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Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Edith M. Lederer in New York and Mary Clare Jalonick and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

Florida authorities determined Woods was impaired March 27 when his Land Rover struck a trailer and flipped on its side on a residential street. They found two painkiller pills in his pocket. Woods was arrested and briefly jailed for refusing to submit to a urine test.

“He's just a human being like everyone else and we have struggles,” Day said. "It's unfortunate. The only thing that I don't understand is that it's a little bit selfish of him to drive and put other people in harm's way, as well.

“But when you're the player that he was and how strong-willed he is, he thinks he can do almost anything,” Day said. “And that's probably why he's driving and a little bit under the influence.”

This is the second straight year Woods has missed the Masters, under entirely different circumstances. He had ruptured his Achilles tendon in March of 2025 and didn't even make it to the Masters Club dinner for champions.

Woods entered a plea of not guilty last week, and then sought — and was granted — a motion to seek treatment outside the country.

“He was my hero — he's my hero,” said Day, the Australian who reached No. 1 in the world a decade ago. “The reason why I play golf is because of this tournament and Tiger. It’s hard to see him go through what he’s going through, and especially under the microscope. It must be hard to be who he is and have everything, everyone look on, kind of down on him.

“Some people want him to fail. Some people obviously want him to succeed,” Day said. “It’s really difficult for me to go through that and watch him, and I know that he’s getting the help now, which is good. I’m just hoping he comes out on the other side and is better.”

Woods is a five-time champion at the Masters, the last one in 2019 to complete a most remarkable comeback in golf. In the 14 years between winning green jackets, he had reconstructive knee surgery (2008) and four back surgeries (2014-17), and one arrest for taking what he said was a bad mix of painkillers when he was found asleep behind the wheel of his running car (2017).

Since winning his last Masters, his right leg and ankle were crushed in 2021 when his SUV going about 85 mph ran over a median and tumbled down a hill on a coastal road in Los Angeles. He also had surgery on the Achilles tendon and a seventh back surgery last year.

Nick Faldo was particularly critical of Woods in an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph last week when he said, “There are two sides to this right now. There’s one side that’s like ... let’s care for Tiger. And then there has got to be a responsibility and an accountability side as well.”

“Forget about golf. We are not meant to be on the streets with two pills in our pocket,” Faldo said. "The bottom line is that I really think that this is a serious issue and something should be done that is a little bit more serious than waving him off to a tropical island and saying, 'Welcome back,’ in three or four months or whatever it might be.”

Phil Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion who was a runner-up in 2023 at age 52, also is skipping the Masters as he deals with a family health matter at home. It's the first time since 1994 neither Woods nor Mickelson was at Augusta National for the first major of the year.

Mickelson is with LIV Golf and plays on a big stage only four times a year at the majors. Jacob Bridgeman, one of the 22 newcomers to the Masters, didn't know Mickelson wasn't playing and is young enough in golf to have only played two majors with him last year.

Woods is a huge part of the Masters, not only from the records he shattered in 1997 at age 21 but recently with his work on a short course during the refurbishing of a municipal course in town known as “The Patch.” He also is opening a TGR Learning Lab in Augusta.

“He’s such a legend in this game, somebody I looked up to,” Harris English said. “Watching him win around this place in ’97 is kind of the reason I started getting into golf. I know he’s going to get through this. He has a big fight ahead of him. He’s a fighter. That’s what he does.”

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

The effort to remove the soldier's wife, who was born in Honduras and remained in a federal immigration detention center Monday, has drawn backlash from military family advocates who called the detention demoralizing in a time of war and warned that deporting spouses could undermine recruitment.

Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank said he brought his wife, Annie Ramos, 22, to his base in Fort Polk, Louisiana, last Thursday so that she could begin the process to receive military benefits and take steps toward a green card. The couple married in March.

Federal immigration agents detained Ramos as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda, which legal experts say has dispensed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's practice of leniency toward families of military members.

“I never imagined that trying to do the right thing would lead to her being taken away from me,” said Blank, 23, in a statement to The Associated Press. “What was supposed to be the happiest week of our lives has turned into one of the hardest.”

Ramos' detention was first reported by The New York Times.

Ramos entered the U.S. in 2005, when she was younger than 2 years old. That same year, her family failed to appear for an immigration hearing, leading a judge to issue a final order of removal, according to DHS.

“She has no legal status to be in this country,” DHS said in an emailed statement. “This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.”

In 2020, Ramos applied to receive Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, but her husband says her application has remained “in limbo” amid legal fights to end the Obama-era program.

Last April, DHS eliminated a 2022 policy that considered military service of an immediate family member to be a “significant mitigating factor” in deciding whether or not to pursue immigration enforcement. The administration’s new policy states that “military service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

Prior to the Trump administration's mass deportation push, DHS generally allowed the spouses of active-duty military members to gain legal status through policies like parole in place and deferred action that military recruiters promote, according to Margaret Stock, a military immigration law expert.

Ramos' case would have been easy to resolve in the past, Stock said, but instead DHS now appears to be focusing on detaining members of military families whenever the opportunity arises — including when, like Ramos, they are attempting to apply for legal status.

“It doesn’t make any sense — they’re going to get arrested for following the law? That's stupid," Stock said. “It's bad for morale, it disrupts the soldiers' readiness.”

In September, more than 60 members of Congress wrote to DHS and the U.S. Department of Defense warning that arrests of military personnel and veteran's family members was “betraying its promises to service members who play a key role in protecting U.S. national security."

The Pentagon declined to comment.

Lydiah Owiti-Otienoh, who runs an advocacy group called the Foreign-Born Military Spouse Network, said she's anecdotally seen an increase in cases where the lives of military families have been upended by tightening immigration restrictions. She believes the federal government is undermining its own interests by attempting to deport military spouses.

“It just sends a really bad message — we don’t care about you, about your spouses, anything you are doing,” Owiti-Otienoh said. “If military families are not stable, national security is not stable.”

Blank’s mother, Jen Rickling, told the AP in a statement that her daughter-in-law, a Sunday school teacher and biochemistry major, had been everything she hoped for — someone who “loves my son with her whole heart.”

“We absolutely adore her,” Rickling said. “I believe in this country. And I believe we can do better than this — for Annie, for other military families, and for the values we hold dear.”

Blank says he had been eager to start building a life and with Ramos on the base while he served his country.

“I want my wife home," Blank said. “And I will not stop fighting until she is back where she belongs, by my side.”

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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

The decision removes the federal obligations for the schools to keep up measures such as faculty training on abiding by a students' preferred name and pronouns and allowing students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

One of the school systems, Delaware Valley School District in rural eastern Pennsylvania, received notice of the change from the Trump administration in February and has since voted to roll back its antidiscrimination protections for transgender students. Another district, Sacramento City Unified, said Monday it "remains committed to the support of our LGBTQ+ students and staff.”

The other affected districts are Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware, Fife School District in Washington, and La Mesa-Spring Valley School District and Taft College in California.

Under the Biden and Obama administrations, the department interpreted Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education, to include protections for transgender and gay students.

The Trump administration has penalized schools that have made efforts to accommodate students based on their gender identity. It has filed lawsuits in California and Minnesota over state policies permitting transgender students to participate in interscholastic sports, and opened civil rights investigations into schools and universities over their policies on transgender students.

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said the action reflects the administration’s efforts to keep transgender students from participating in girls’ and women’s sports teams and accessing shared locker rooms.

“Today, the Trump Administration is removing the unnecessary and unlawful burdens that prior Administrations imposed on schools in its relentless pursuit of a radical transgender agenda,” she said in a written statement.

Rescinding civil rights agreements is an unusual step, but one the Trump administration has taken before on education issues. Last year, the Education Department terminated one agreement involving books removed from a school library in Georgia, and another targeting harsh discipline and unequal education opportunities for Native students in the Rapid City Area School District in South Dakota.

The rescission of the agreements would mean a step back from protecting vulnerable students in schools, said Shiwali Patel, senior director of education justice at the National Women’s Law Center.

“This is part of the Trump administration’s assault on education and assault on those who are most vulnerable to experiencing discrimination and harassment, including trans students,” Patel said. “They’ve made their intention very clear in wanting to erase protections for trans people.”

Taft College, a community college in California’s Central Valley, settled a case in 2023 with the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights after a student accused faculty of discrimination that included refusing to use the student’s preferred pronouns. The college agreed to faculty training on Title IX and a revision of college policies to clarify that refusal to use a person’s preferred name and pronoun could constitute harassment.

The agreement with Sacramento City Unified School District stemmed from a complaint brought in 2022 by a student after a teacher refused to use preferred pronouns or to place the student, who identified as male, in a boys’ group for a class activity. The 2024 resolution agreement mandated training for employees on civil rights law, sexual harassment and how to handle formal complaints.

Under a settlement the Delaware Valley School District reached with the Obama administration, the district was required to permit students to use bathrooms that aligned with their gender identity.

In February, the Trump administration sent the district a letter saying it was rescinding the settlement. The administration went further, requiring the district to roll back antidiscrimination protections for transgender students.

The school board voted in late March to change its transgender student policies to abide by the Trump administration’s demands.

Since the day he returned to the White House more than a year ago, Trump and his administration have aimed at the rights of transgender people in several ways — and not just in schools.

He has tried to end participation of transgender women and girls in women’s and girls' sports competitions and has sued states that don’t comply. He’s also blocked transgender and nonbinary people from choosing the sex markers on passports. His administration has also tried to stop those under 19 from receiving gender-affirming medical care. ___

Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco, Moriah Balingit in Washington and Geoff Mulvihill in Haddonfield, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press’ education 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.

Melvin Benn, the managing director at Festival Republic, shared a statement on Monday backing his company's decision to book Ye.

“Forgiveness and giving people a second chance are becoming a lost virtue in this ever-increasing divisive world,” he wrote. "I would ask people to reflect on their instant comments of disgust at the likelihood of him performing (as was mine) and offer some forgiveness and hope to him as I have decided to do.”

Ye, who changed his name in 2021, is booked to perform in front of around 150,000 revelers over the course of the festival’s three nights, July 10 - 12.

The rapper has drawn widespread condemnation in recent years for antisemitic remarks and voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler. Last year, he released a song called “Heil Hitler” and advertised a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website. The 48-year-old apologized this past January for his antisemitic remarks in a letter, published as a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal. He said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.”

Wireless sponsors Pepsi, Rockstar Energy and Diageo have pulled out of the festival since Ye was announced as the headliner, although lead sponsor Pepsi didn't offer a reason. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the booking “deeply concerning.”

“Ye’s music is played on commercial radio stations in this country. It is available via live streams and downloads in this country without comment or vitriol from anyone and he has a legal right to come into the country and to perform in this country,” Benn's statement said.

“We are not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions,” the statement continued.

Last week, Ye held two concerts at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, marking his first major U.S. performances in nearly five years. There, fans appeared to separate his personal beliefs and public statements from his music — and were ready to forgive after his January apology letter.

“I don’t really bring into politics or the way someone’s personal opinion are. I’m into the music artistry," said Yovani Contreras, one fan in attendance. "Like, I just, to me, Ye is always gonna be Ye. Kanye is always gonna be Kanye.”

A representative for Ye didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment Monday.

The Bulls fired executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley on Monday, ending a six-year run that produced just one playoff appearance.

Chicago was 224-254 during their tenure. The Bulls entered Monday sitting in 12th place in the Eastern Conference at 29-49 and missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year.

President and CEO Michael Reinsdorf said in a statement that Karnisovas and Eversley “led with a deep commitment to the Chicago Bulls” and that the change is “about positioning our team for sustained success moving ahead.”

“I want our fans to know that I hear you and understand your frustration," Reinsdorf said. "I feel it as well. I know this will take time, and I am fully committed to getting this right. At the Chicago Bulls, our focus remains on building a team that can compete at the highest level and ultimately contend for championships. We are committed to taking the necessary steps to move the Bulls forward in a way that makes our fans proud.”

The Bulls tore up their roster leading up to the trade deadline in February, dealing Nikola Vucevic to Boston, Kevin Huerter to Detroit, Coby White to Charlotte and Chicago product Ayo Dosunmu to Minnesota in an effort to shake up a franchise mired in mediocrity. They hung on to Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey with the idea of building around those two. The Bulls have the salary-cap room to make some big moves this offseason.

“Being in the middle is what we don’t want to do,” Karnisovas said at the time. “I think we’ve seen that for the past four years and we want to change that.”

That's mostly where the franchise has been since Karnisovas was hired out of Denver's front office in April 2020. The Bulls brought in Eversley from Philadelphia a few weeks later and hired coach Billy Donovan that September. Donovan's future is uncertain.

The Bulls' lone playoff appearance since all three were hired came during the 2021-22 season, when they finished sixth in the Eastern Conference at 46-36 and got knocked out by Milwaukee in the first round. The Bulls lost point guard Lonzo Ball to a knee injury during that season, and he missed the next two years.

Chicago's most recent All-Star was DeMar DeRozan in 2023. The lack of a franchise cornerstone player was glaring, and Karnisovas' reluctance to launch into a major rebuild was a big source of frustration among Bulls fans. Rather than give the team the best shot at winning the lottery, he stressed patience and not skipping steps.

That changed this year when Karnisovas made seven trades before the deadline. The Bulls mostly loaded up on second-round draft picks and didn't get any first-rounders in return.

Among the players they acquired were Jaden Ivey from Detroit, hoping the No. 5 pick in the 2022 NBA draft could regain the form he showed before knee surgery. But the Bulls waived him last week following anti-LGBTQ+ comments about religion he made in videos posted on his Instagram account.

Ivey had been sidelined since Feb. 11 and appeared in just four games for Chicago. His contract was set to expire at the end of the season.

The 60-year-old Donovan, meanwhile, got a contract extension last offseason. He could seek another NBA coaching job or return to the college game if he doesn’t remain in Chicago. If he stays, the Bulls could give him a bigger say in basketball operations while remaining their coach.

Donovan has consistently said he still has a passion for coaching, is committed finishing the season and will then discuss the direction of the franchise with management and ownership. He did it again prior to the Bulls' win over Phoenix on Sunday.

“I love the organization,” he said. “I love the relationship with Jerry and Michael Reinsdorf and the relationship with the front office. All those things have been great, the players have been great.”

Donovan has a 467-411 record in 11 seasons as an NBA head coach. He was arguably the top candidate on the market when the Bulls hired him in September 2020 to replace the fired Jim Boylen following a five-year run in Oklahoma City. He led the Thunder to a 243-157 record and playoff appearances each season while working with stars such as Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Chris Paul.

Donovan previously coached for 19 seasons at the University of Florida and won back-to-back NCAA titles. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in September.

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

Beth Hammack, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said in an interview with The Associated Press that her general preference is for the Fed keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged “for quite some time."

And she also said the Fed might have to cut its rate if higher gas prices caused the economy to slow and unemployment to rise. But if inflation remained elevated, a rate hike could be needed, she said.

“I can foresee scenarios where we would need to reduce rates ... if the labor market deteriorates significantly,” Hammack said. "Or I could see where we might need to raise rates if inflation stays persistently above our target.”

Hammack's comments suggest a growing concern among at least some policymakers that inflation, which was elevated before the Iran war, may require rate hikes to tame further. Rate increases by the Fed would be a sharp shift from late last year, when the central bank cut its key rate three times. Rate hikes could lift borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, including for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards.

Other Fed officials have recently opened the door to rate hikes, including Austan Goolsbee, president of the Chicago Fed. And minutes of the Fed's meeting in late January said that several of the 19 officials on the rate-setting committee supported altering the post-meeting statement to reflect the possibility of “upward adjustments” to rates.

A rate hike would almost certainly prompt President Donald Trump to lash out at the Fed, which he has harshly criticized for not cutting rates further. He has called for the central bank's key rate to be lowered to 1%, down from its current level of about 3.6%.

The government will update two inflation measures this week, though only one will likely reflect the impact of the jump in gas prices since the Iran war began Feb. 28. Gas prices averaged $4.12 a gallon nationwide Monday, according to AAA, up 80 cents from a month earlier.

On Friday, the government will issue the March inflation report, providing a first read on the impact of higher gas and energy prices. Economists forecast that annual inflation will worsen significantly, jumping to 3.1% from 2.4% in February, according to a survey by data provider FactSet. On a monthly basis, they expect consumer prices rose 0.8% in March from February, which would be the biggest increase in almost four years.

The Commerce Department will report the Fed's preferred inflation gauge for February on Thursday, though that won't incorporate any impact from the Iran conflict.

Hammack said that the Cleveland Fed's own estimates show inflation could reach 3.5% in April, which would be the highest since 2024. Inflation spiked to 9.1% in June 2022 before slowly declining.

“Inflation has been running above our target for more than five years now,” Hammack said, and a further increase would mean it is “moving in the wrong direction, away from our 2% objective.”

The Federal Reserve is required by Congress to seek low inflation and maximum employment, and higher gas prices could threaten both those mandates, creating a challenging situation for Fed officials.

Consumers may react to higher gas prices by cutting back on their spending elsewhere in the economy, Hammack said, which could lead to weaker growth and layoffs, which the Fed would need to respond to with rate cuts.

How the war impacts the economy will depend on how long it lasts and how high it lifts gas prices and other costs, Hammack said. Now in its sixth week, the conflict has already lasted longer than she expected when the Fed last met March 17-18, Hammack said.

Hammack said rising gas prices stemming from the Iran war are “the No. 1 thing” she hears about from people in her district, which covers Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

“We know that causes a lot of pain personally, as it eats up a bigger and bigger share of people’s paychecks. So it’s important for us to stay focused on it,” she added.

The Rays were back in their domed stadium after playing the 2025 season across the bay in Tampa at Steinbrenner Field — the spring training home of the New York Yankees — because Hurricane Milton destroyed the Trop’s roof and caused extensive damage.

A sellout crowd of 25,114 welcomed the Rays home.

Shane McClanahan, making his first start at the Trop since July 22, 2023, allowed two runs and one hit in four innings. He struck out five and walked four.

McClanahan returned to the mound last week for the first time after a series of injuries forced him to miss two full seasons. The lefty underwent his second Tommy John surgery in August 2023 and then missed the entire 2025 season due to an inflamed nerve in his left triceps.

Kevin Kelly (1-1) pitched a perfect fifth to earn the win and Bryan Baker finished for his first save, yielding Matt Shaw's solo shot in the ninth.

Mullins lined a 3-2 changeup into the seats in right field to tie it at 2 in the bottom of the second inning against Jameson Taillon (0-1).

Taylor Walls then drove a double to left-center, and scored when shortstop Dansby Swanson made a throwing error on Yandy Diaz’s infield single.

Caminero blasted a solo shot to left, extending Tampa Bay’s lead to 4-2 in the third.

Michael Busch’s sacrifice fly in the sixth cut it to 4-3.

Aranda connected off Phil Maton in the seventh to put the Rays up 6-3.

Nico Hoerner’s two-run single with two outs in the second inning gave the Cubs a 2-0 lead.

Taillon allowed four runs — three earned — and seven hits in six innings.

Up next

RHP Javier Assad makes his season debut for the Cubs against Rays RHP Drew Rasmussen (0-0, 1.80) on Tuesday night. Assad, who has a 3.43 ERA across four seasons, is taking Matthew Boyd's spot in the rotation. Boyd was placed on the 15-day injured list with a a left biceps strain.

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

Football fans in Orlando are understandably excited for the Jaguars arrival in 2027, while many fans in Jacksonville see it as a short sacrifice that will pay off with a shiny new stadium with protection from the hot Florida sun they have been asking for for years.

But the Washington Post Editorial Board used news of the announcement to highlight what it calls “the ongoing shakedown” of Duval County taxpayers.

In an opinion piece published Friday, the board said it believes that “Jacksonville taxpayers are getting fleeced.”

“Taxpayers are shelling out a massive amount of money to get slightly less football in the same place,” the board wrote. “On top of playing the 2027 season in a different city, the 2024 stadium renovation agreement also said that the Jaguars will play one of their home games in London every year. At least when other cities give taxpayer money to a team, they play all their home games at home."

The board also argued that other than temporary construction jobs, renovating the stadium has little impact on employment growth for the city. It pointed to economic research that found stadium subsidies are terrible public investments and argued that “the purpose of government isn’t to build fancy stadiums.” The board noted that less fans will have access to the games, since stadium capacity will be reduced to 42,000 this season and from 67,814 to 63,000 when the new stadium opens.

News4JAX reached out to the Jags, who pointed us to their Stadium of the Future section on their webpage. On economic impact, it says the one-time capital expenditure direct spending impact of $1.4 billion is expected to generate an estimated total economic impact of $2.4 billion for the Jacksonville economy. This impact will support 17,760 full and part-time jobs and generate an estimated $70.7 million in state and local taxes.

Jacksonville City Council finalized a $1.45 billion package of legislation in 2024 to modernize the stadium and keep the Jaguars in Jacksonville for 30 years. That legislation included $775 million in public funding for the stadium’s makeover and $56 million for riverfront parks and a stadium-adjacent flex field. ESPN reported that the city also agreed to pay $150 million over the 2025-26 seasons on maintenance and repairs to prepare the stadium for construction, which means the city will be responsible for 55% of the total cost.

Part of the stadium deal included a community benefits agreement, which will distribute $40 million from the deal to the Eastside neighborhood in the coming years, aimed at revitalizing the area near the stadium. The Jaguars committed to spending $2.5 million in the Eastside annually for the next 30 years.

RELATED:‘We deserve it’: Eastside residents hopeful ‘Community Benefits Agreement’ deal pans out

“I feel pretty darned proud,” Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan said after the deal was finalized. “This is a historic day.”

News4Jax Sports Anchor Jamal St. Cyr, who was critical of the story, said that while the board noted the stadium is projected to be $100 million over budget, it failed to make clear that any overages will be paid for by the Jaguars. St. Cyr also said what the board failed to highlight was all the construction happening around the stadium, an area that hasn’t seen new construction in decades.

“The Stadium of the Future is creating numerous positive benefits for Jacksonville taxpayers: a world class venue for major non-NFL events, the largest Community Benefits Agreement in NFL history, much-needed growth of the local construction workforce, and significant contributions to Downtown Jacksonville’s momentum. We chose to be an NFL city more than 30 years ago. City leaders renewed that commitment with an investment that will pay dividends in Jacksonville’s future,” the mayor’s office said in a statement on Monday. “The $300 million Community Benefits Agreement (with $150 million coming from the Jaguars) attached to the stadium deal is the largest in NFL history and will invest in affordable housing, homelessness, workforce and economic development programs in the Eastside neighborhood and across the city. The CBA also funds completion of our riverfront park system downtown with the completed parks already receiving tens of thousands of visitors each month. The renovated stadium joins these parks, the Four Seasons, Museum of Science and History, UF graduate campus, and many more residential and commercial developments that are driving Downtown Jacksonville’s renaissance.”

The mayor’s office added that the stadium is a city-owned facility that, without renovation, would have passed its useful life.

In 2026, the team is scheduled to play two games in London. Jaguars President Mark Lamping said the two games would allow for extra progress on stadium construction.

The 2026 London games will take place in back-to-back weeks – one as the Jaguars’ yearly game there and one to meet a separate league requirement that teams play one international game every four years.

Lamping said the Jaguars were leaving the door open to playing two London games in 2027. The Jaguars have not agreed to play their annual London game in 2027, but they have scheduled their NFL-required game in England that year, Lamping said.

The video — from a city-owned security camera — captured part of the incident in which federal officers chased a Venezuelan man to his residence. Another Venezuelan man who lives there was shot during the confrontation. Federal authorities in February dropped all charges against the two immigrants and opened a criminal investigation into whether two immigration officers lied under oath about what had happened.

The city released the video after the New York Times, which obtained a copy earlier, reported that the footage raised questions about why it took weeks for the federal government's case against the two men to collapse. The Times reported that federal investigators had access to the video within hours of the Jan. 14 shooting, but did not watch it until nearly three weeks after they had charged the two men.

“The video makes it crystal clear that, just like in other situations during Operation Metro Surge, the federal government’s account of what happened simply does not match the facts,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement.

Federal authorities initially accused Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis of beating an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel during the incident. The officer fired a single shot from his handgun, striking Sosa-Celis in his right thigh. Protesters quickly flocked to the scene and clashed with other officers, who were wearing gas masks and helmets.

The city provided no narrative on what the video depicts except to say that it was “related” to the shooting. A statement added, “The City has no additional information and will not be making further comments at this time.”

The video, shot from a distance in the dark, appears to show a person standing with a snow shovel outside the house, near the street, then retreating toward the house and tossing the shovel into the yard. This happens as a person being chased by another person runs up from the street, falls on the sidewalk, gets up, and keeps heading toward the house.

The three appear to scuffle near the front steps for about 10 seconds. The exact moment when Sosa-Celis is shot isn’t clear. A car with flashing lights pulls up, and another person walks up.

The camera actively panned over to view the street where the incident happened before any vehicles arrived, indicating that someone may have been manually controlling it in real time.

The cases against Aljorna and Sosa-Celis were dropped after a highly unusual motion from the chief federal prosecutor for Minnesota, U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen, who said “newly discovered evidence” was “materially inconsistent with the allegations” that were made in the criminal complaint and with evidence presented at a hearing at their preliminary hearing. He said dismissal with prejudice, which meant the charges couldn't be refiled, “would serve the interests of justice.”

Rosen and other federal prosecutors involved in the case, as well as the Department of Justice, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press on Monday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not mention the video in a statement, but reaffirmed its earlier statement that two officers involved appeared to have given untruthful testimony under oath, and that they were immediately placed on administrative leave pending completion of an internal investigation. Their names were not made public.

“Lying under oath is a serious federal offense. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is actively investigating these false statements,” the ICE statement said. “Upon conclusion of the investigation, the officers may face termination of employment, as well as potential criminal prosecution.”

The statement did not elaborate on the status of their case.

Aljorna's attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Sosa-Celis' attorney, Robin Wolpert, said, “The video is evidence in ongoing state and federal investigations so I can't comment."

Both men are free while they seek legal status. They were ordered released even before the criminal charges were dropped, but ICE took them back into custody for alleged immigration violations before releasing them, again under court order.

State and county prosecutors have been frustrated by the refusal of federal authorities to share information on the incident, as well as the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers. They sued the Trump administratio n late last month for access to evidence they say they need to independently investigate the three shootings.

The Hennepin County Attorney's Office declined to comment on the video, citing the active investigation.

The decision for now vacates a lower court judge's temporary blocks on the law.

The measure was first approved by Republican majorities in the Iowa House and Senate and GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds in 2023, which they said reinforced age-appropriate education in kindergarten through 12th grades. It’s been a back-and-forth battle in the courts in the three years since lawsuits were filed by the Iowa State Education Association, major publishing houses and bestselling authors, as well as an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, Iowa Safe Schools.

The law was in effect for part of the 2024-2025 school year until last March, when a federal judge reissued a temporary block on the book ban provision, which prohibits books containing specific sex acts from appearing in school libraries or classrooms. In a separate decision in May, U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher said Iowa could restrict mandatory instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in schools up through the sixth grade but could not enforce the restriction on any “program” or “promotion,” saying those terms were too broad.

Iowa asked the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn both decisions, which a three-judge panel did Monday. The cases will continue in the district court while the law is in effect.

“This is a huge win for Iowa parents,” Iowa’s Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird said in a statement. “Parents should always know that school is a safe place for their children to learn, not be concerned they are being indoctrinated with inappropriate sexual materials and philosophies.”

Iowa’s measure was enacted in 2023 amid a wave of similar legislation around the country, driven by Republican lawmakers, to prohibit discussion of LGBTQ+ identities and restrict the use of restrooms in schools. Many of those laws prompted court challenges. The decision comes as Trump's administration said Monday it has terminated agreements adopted under previous administrations that upheld rights and protections for transgender students.

Teachers and others say the book ban is overly broad

The Iowa law states that K-12 school libraries cannot include materials with descriptions or visual depictions of six different sex acts. The state's defense argued that the law outlines the restrictions explicitly and that the state, in its mission of advancing children's education, has legitimate reason to ensure public school materials are appropriate.

But the teachers union, as well as publishers and authors, have maintained that the law is overly broad, reaching “far beyond obscenity to prohibit any book with any description of a sex act for any age,” their lawsuit stated. Plus, they argued, libraries are places of voluntary learning, not existing exclusively to advance the school's educational mission.

The appeals court sided with the state, saying the restrictions are not amorphous and the books in a school library can be considered part of the school's curriculum. For that reason, the court notes that the claims from the authors and publishers that the law infringes on First Amendment rights will likely not hold up.

The ruling also said: “The First Amendment does not guarantee students the right to access books of their choosing at taxpayer expense."

State insists gender identity restrictions apply to mandatory K-6 instruction

The law also prohibits “any program, curriculum, test, survey, questionnaire, promotion, or instruction relating to gender identity or sexual orientation." Attorneys for the state maintained that that text, as written, means mandatory school curriculum. Opponents argued the law is vague enough to limit any information accessed or activity engaged in at the school.

"Reading the plain language," the appeals court decision said, “we cannot say the State’s assertion is wrong.”

Locher's decision last May had granted a partial injunction, saying the state could restrict such topics when it comes to curriculum, tests, surveys, questionnaires or instruction but not any “program” or “promotion.”

Locher laid out specifically what that meant: “Students in grades six and below must be allowed to join Gender Sexuality Alliances (‘GSAs’) and other student groups relating to gender identity and/or sexual orientation.” And the district, teachers and students “must be permitted to advertise” those groups.

In vacating Locher's partial block, the appeals court said Locher wrongly focused on the two words — program and promotion — in interpreting "an expansive view of the law's scope.”

Because Iowa Safe Schools and the students asked the court to block the law on face value, not because of specific claims that it infringed on their rights, the appeals court said their complaint will likely fail on merits.

The appeals court also said the state could enforce a provision that requires school administrators to notify parents if a student makes a social transition, and wants to go by a different pronoun or name at school.

The decisions Monday are a setback but “not the end of the fight,” said Nathan Maxwell, senior attorney at Lambda Legal, one of the legal organizations representing Iowa Safe Schools.

It “is a cruel and unconstitutional law that silences LGBTQ+ children, erases their existence from classrooms, and forces educators to expose vulnerable students to potential harm at home," Maxwell said. "We will continue to use every legal tool available to protect these young people.”

Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Country hitmaker Ella Langley releasing her sophomore album, Nintendo dropping the monster combat game Pokémon Champions and “Malcolm in the Middle” fans getting a four-episode revival with Frankie Muniz, Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek.

New movies to stream from April 6-12

— Sydney Sweeney stars as real-life boxing legend Christy Martin in David Michôd’s “Christy” (HBO Max, Friday, April 10). The film, which Sweeney also produced, drew some of her best reviews. Her distinctly unglamorous performance spans Martin’s small-town West Virginia beginnings to a professional career shadowed by her abusive manager-turned-husband (Ben Foster). In her review, AP’s Jocelyn Noveck wrote that Sweeney “imbues her no-holds-barred portrayal of Martin with both sweetness and rage, with brio and real vulnerability.”

— One of the highlights of last year, Akinola Davies Jr.’s tender father-son drama, “My Father’s Shadow,” begins streaming Friday, April 10, on MUBI. The film, penned by Davis and his brother, Wale, is loosely autobiographical. Their father died when they were young. But in “My Father’s Shadow,” two Nigerian boys have unexpected day with their father ( Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù ) in Lagos, at a pivotal time for the country. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr called it “a gem, a deeply felt memory piece and vibrant portrait of Nigeria in 1993.”

— Jonah Hill made his directorial debut with the coming-of-age skate film “Mid90s.” He returns to directing in “Outcome,” a Hollywood satire starring Keanu Reeves as a movie star named Reef Hawk who fears a video could destroy his reputation. Hill, who co-wrote the movie, also co-stars as Reef’s crisis-management lawyer. It debuts Friday, April 10, on Apple TV.

— AP Film Writer Jake Coyle

New music to stream from April 10

— A chart-topping country hitmaker preps her sophomore album: Ella Langley — known for such radio mainstays like the throwback “You Look Like You Love Me” with Riley Green and the George Strait-referencing No. 1 “Choosin’ Texas,” co-written with Miranda Lambert — will release a new record on Friday, April 10. If the whole of “Dandelion” is anything like those songs, she’s got a long career ahead of her.

— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

New series to stream from April 6-12

— “The Boys” launches its fifth and final season Wednesday on Prime Video. The critically acclaimed series is based on comic books and follows villainous superheroes and the crew trying to thwart them. Series regulars Jack Quaid, Karl Urban, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty and Jessie T. Usher and Chace Crawford are all returning, as are more recent additions played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jensen Ackles. “Hamilton” star Daveed Diggs also joins the cast.

— Hulu’s sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” called “The Testaments,” also premieres on Wednesday. Ann Dowd reprises her Aunt Lydia character from the original and is now in charge of a school for girls that basically prepares them for adulthood, marriage and babies. These young women have never known anything other than Gilead. It stars Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday and is also based on a novel by Margaret Atwood.

— Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen lead a new sci-fi comedy, “The Miniature Wife,” for Peacock. They play a couple working on their marriage when their lives are further complicated after an unusual accident. It premieres Thursday.

— Another series launching its fifth and final season is “Hacks” on HBO. The show, debuting Thursday, follows the love-hate relationship between a legendary comedian (Jean Smart) and a talented writer played by Hannah Einbinder. The series has racked up a lot of hardware, including an Emmy for outstanding comedy series. Smart has won four consecutive Emmys for the show while Einbinder has taken home one.

— Do you ever wonder how your favorite former TV stars would fare in the present day? “Malcolm in the Middle” fans are getting their wish. Twenty years after their show went off the air, Frankie Muniz, Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek return to TV for a revival where Muniz’s character is now a dad to a teenage girl. The four episodes of “Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair” premiere on Friday, April 10, on both Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

— Alicia Rancilio

New video games to play from April 6-12

— Nintendo is pulling out all the stops to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pokémon. Just a month after releasing the cozy community-builder Pokémon Pokopia, it’s dropping the considerably less comfortable Pokémon Champions. This time it’s all about the combat, as you recruit and train monsters before pushing them into the arena to fight other trainers’ creatures. You can compete in ranked events with players from around the world, or enjoy casual or private battles that won’t affect your ranking. It’s a free-to-start challenge, but you may want to set some cash aside for in-app purchases. The fight club opens Wednesday on Switch and Switch 2, with iOS and Android versions coming later in 2026.

— Annapurna Interactive’s People of Note tells the tale of a pop singer named Cadence who decides she wants to start a band. That means she’ll need to trek across the world of Note, where each city is defined by its own style of music. In her travels, though, Cadence learns that a Harmonic Convergence is disrupting music itself, and she and her bandmates will have to solve puzzles, explore dungeons and fight tone-deaf villains to stop Note from going silent. Los Angeles-based Iridium Studios promises that “each battle is an interactive musical performance,” and you can pump up the volume Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.

— Lou Kesten

Two Jacksonville vendors talked about how they’re navigating the financial pressure — and what it could mean for your next meal on the go.

Steven Holmes, owner of At This Point Let’s Eat food truck, said the costs hit from the moment he opens for business.

“Every time we open this window, it costs us,” Holmes said. “Whether we get one customer, we get 100 customers. It costs us because you got propane burning, you got gas to get to where you’re going and you got a generator running.”

Holmes said he’s now spending between $700 and $800 a month on gas — nearly double what he paid before prices climbed.

“Good, four to five. It’s definitely doubled,” he said.

Jeff Lavender, owner of Gumbo Man Food Truck, said high fuel costs are limiting where he can take his business.

“It’s hurting my business a lot because I’m not able to go to the places that I would like to go,” Lavender said. “It’s just holding me back because like the other day I paid over $100 just to fill up my truck.”

According to AAA, Florida gas prices are running higher than the national average — sitting at $4.18 for regular and $5.81 for diesel.

To cope, Lavender said he’s had to gradually raise his prices.

“I had to go up on prices, but not to the — you just ease up a little bit at a time,” he said. “You don’t want to hurt the people and you don’t want to run your business off.”

Holmes said his operation is trying a different approach — adjusting the menu rather than passing the full cost to customers.

“We’re not necessarily going up, but we try to play with the menu a little bit so that we don’t have to put the cost on the customer as much,” Holmes said. “But sometimes you have no choice.”

If gas prices continue to rise, Lavender said vendors will have to make even tougher calls — including cutting premium ingredients.

“You just got to figure it out as you go,” he said. “Sometimes you have to cut back on your high-end meats. Like I do oxtails and things of that nature, my gumbo. I hate — I’m not going to cut back on my gumbo because I’m the Gumbo Man.”

Holmes said community support can make a real difference for small businesses trying to stay afloat.

“The more they help us advertise, the more we can open,” Holmes said. “Tell a friend and tell a friend — it don’t hurt to share a post here and there because it helps small businesses. The gas prices are really affecting small businesses.”

The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, coming off its first winning week in the last six. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 165 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5%.

Oil prices likewise rose after seesawing through the day amid uncertainty about what will happen in the war with Iran and how long it will slow the global flow of oil and natural gas. Iran on Monday rejected the latest ceasefire proposal and instead said it wants a permanent end to the war.

“We won’t merely accept a ceasefire,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press. “We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again.”

Fighting continued in the war, meanwhile, including an Israeli attack on an Iranian petrochemical plant. And in the background was the clock ticking toward a deadline, one that Trump has moved multiple times, where he has threatened to attack Iranian power plants if it does not open the Strait of Hormuz. A fifth of the world’s oil typically sails through the strait during peacetime.

Trump on Monday suggested that his latest deadline of Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern time will be the final one, saying he’d already given enough extensions. “The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said.

Monday also offered the first chance for U.S. stock prices to react to a report from Friday that said U.S. employers hired more workers last month than economists expected. The unemployment rate unexpectedly improved.

They’re encouraging signals for an economy that’s had to absorb painful leaps in costs for gasoline since the war’s beginning. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is nearly $4.12 across the country, according to AAA. It was below $3 a couple days before the United States and Israel launched attacks to begin the war in late February.

For countries that don’t produce as much oil as the United States, the pain has been even worse. That’s because they are more reliant on oil coming from the Middle East, and the war has blocked in much of the crude produced in the Persian Gulf area. That oil typically gets to customers around the world by exiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 0.8% to settle at $112.41 after erasing an earlier modest dip. Brent crude, the international standard, added 0.8% to $109.77 per barrel and remains well above its roughly $70 price from before the war.

On Wall Street, a split performance for the Big Tech stocks that dominate the U.S. market kept things in check. Apple rose 1.1%, and Amazon added 1.4%. Tesla slid 2.2%, and Microsoft fell 0.2%.

Bank stocks were strong, including a 1.3% rise for JPMorgan Chase.

CEO Jamie Dimon said in his annual letter to shareholders released on Monday that the U.S. economy continues to be resilient, and businesses still look healthy. He, though, also acknowledged that prices for stocks and other assets are high, which could imply “anything less than positive outcomes could have a dramatic impact on global markets.”

All told, the S&P 500 rose 29.14 points to 6,611.83. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 165.21 to 46,669.88, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 117.16 to 21,996.34.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The 10-year Treasury yield was sitting at 4.33%. That’s still well above its 3.97% level from before the war. The rise has pushed up rates for mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which slows the economy.

A report on Monday said that finance, transportation and other U.S. businesses in services sectors grew in March for a 21st straight month of expansion. But the growth was slightly slower than economists expected, and a measure of prices accelerated at its fastest pace since 2022 in a potentially discouraging signal for inflation.

In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.5%, and South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.4%. Many other markets in Europe and Asia were closed for holidays.

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

The overall success rate in the Automated Ball-Strike System was 55.2% (299 of 542), with fielding teams winning 59.7% of challenges (175 of 293), including 60.4% by catchers (169 of 280).

“I like it a little more. I was pretty staunch against it, which I still may be to some degree,” New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

There were just 13 challenges by pitchers, who won six. Batters were successful on 49.8% (124 of 249).

“I think it’s fun. It’s its own game inside the game, almost," Tampa Bay catcher Hunter Feduccia said.

Success rate was up from 49.5% last year at Triple-A, where defense won 53.7% and batters 49.5%

Detroit won the highest percentage of calls at 75% (15 of 20) while Arizona was at 71%, and Baltimore and Cincinnati both 67%.

Minnesota called for the most challenges with 32, winning 20 for a 63% success rate. Texas had the fewest, winning 4 of 10.

Cleveland was the least successful at 32%, with Washington at 38% and St. Louis and Texas at 40%

Detroit catchers were 8-0, with seven wins by Dingler.

ABS' impact could be seen when Atlanta played at Arizona last Thursday. The Braves were ahead 2-1 when the Diamondbacks' Ryne Nelson threw a 3-2 curveball on the upper, outside corner to Ozzie Albies that was called a strike by Malachi Moore. Albies challenged and headed toward first even before ABS showed the pitch missed the strike zone by 1.1 inches. The walk started an eight-run rally in a 17-2 romp.

“In some of these games, it’s had a more of a swinging effect on outcomes of at-bats and how things change than maybe even you thought,” Miami manager Clayton McCullough said.

Logan O’Hoppe of the Los Angeles Angels had the most victories, successful on 10 of 12. The Marlins’ Agustín Ramírez won 7 of 9 and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Will Smith 8 of 11.

Seattle’s Cal Raleigh won 4 of 9 and the Athletics’ Shea Langeliers 3 of 9.

Among batters, Mark Vientos of the New York Mets and Iván Herrera both went 3-0. Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels was 3-1 along with Philadelphia's Kyle Schwarber and Tampa Bay's Jake Fraley.

Colorado's Hunter Goodman and Washington's Luis García Jr. were both 0 for 3.

Boone said Yankees staff and players daily review challenges made and opportunities missed.

Players still are getting used to ABS. Washington's Jorbit Vivas tapped his helmet signaling for an appeal on March 31 when the Nationals already had exhausted their two challenges.

Among umpires, Mike Estabrook had 11 of 12 calls overturned (91.7%), Andy Fletcher had 15 of 17 (88.2%), Ron Kulpa and Paul Clemons each 7 of 9 (77.8%) and Chris Segal 10 of 13 (76.9%), according to taptochallenge.com.

Will Little had just 1 of 10 calls reversed while Erich Bacchus was perfect with no overturned calls in five challenges. Others with low overturn rates with at least five challenges included Emil Jiménez (1 of 5), Jordan Baker (2 of 8), Ryan Additon and Nick Mahrley (both 2 of 7) and David Rackley (3 of 10).

Offense at record low

Offense again lagged through the first 139 games of the 2,430-game season.

The .234 big league batting average is down from .239 through 12 days last year (including the two games in Japan), when it finished at .245. The average usually increases as the weather warms. The full-season low of .237 was set in 1968.

Runs per game averaged 8.8, up from 8.7, and stolen bases dropped to 1.4 per game from 1.6

Fastball velocity at record high

Average fastball velocity is 94.6 mph, up from 94.1 mph through the first full week last year. The final figure increased in each of the last five seasons to a record 94.5 mph in 2025. It was 91.9 mph when MLB first started tracking in 2008.

“I wish I was facing the same pitching as I did my rookie year back when guys were throwing 88-mile-an-hour sinkers over the plate," said 33-year-old Cleveland catcher Austin Hedges. “That pitch doesn’t exist anymore.”

Game time

The average time of a nine-inning game is 2 hours, 43 minutes, up from 2:37 at this point last year, when it finished at 2:38.

Pitch clock violations averaged 0.17 per game, down from 0.22 through 139 games last year.

Attendance

MLB's average crowd of 31,725 through 138 dates was up 1.5% over 31,255 for the same period last year.

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AP Sports Writers Dan Gelston and Steve Megargee, and AP freelance writer Tom Withers contributed to this report.

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

Necessity so that he can start playing closer to home again.

One of the early and polarizing defectors to LIV Golf a few years ago, the 2018 Masters champion made the similarly difficult decision to leave the lucrative, Saudi-backed tour earlier this year and return to the PGA Tour. But under the terms of his reinstatement, Reed cannot play in its events until after Aug. 25, which means most of this season will be spent on the European tour.

Where he already has won twice ahead of his return to Augusta National this week.

“Everyone kind of gets to be a creature of habit, and wants to eat what they're comfortable with and go," Reed said after a practice round Monday, “but I like checking out all the local places and really experiencing the culture."

Pimento cheese sandwich, anyone?

The truth is as much as Reed enjoyed playing in Dubai and Qatar, where he packed wins around a playoff loss in Bahrain — 1,200 miles (7,500 km) from home, wife Justine and their two kids — there are few things Reed loves more than walking among the Georgia pines.

It's not exactly home; that's The Woodlands, Texas. But it sure feels like it.

Reed played college golf down the road at Georgia, and he recalls practice rounds spent at Augusta Country Club, where certain holes offer a teasing glimpse through the trees of the par-5 13th hole of its much more famous neighbor.

“There's just something so special about this place, the traditions behind it, and then on top of it, it's the one major that stays in the same place,” Reed said. “All the way back from when I played my first time ever here, even when we played in November that one (COVID) year, and any time I’ve come back and played it, it’s always in perfect shape. It’s one of those golf courses that you can’t hit just one golf shot. You have to play golf kind of old-school way. You have to hit shots, different shapes, different flights.”

Indeed, the Masters has been one of the few constants on Reed's ever-changing global calendar.

When he resigned from the PGA Tour, Reed effectively said farewell to familiar, high-profile places like Pebble Beach and Bay Hill for LIV events in far-flung corners of the world. But his status as a former Masters champion meant that, despite the deep rift that once appeared to threaten the game itself, Reed was always welcomed back to Augusta National.

He tied for fourth a few years ago. He was third last year.

"I feel like it’s the best test of golf we play all year round," Reed said. “For a guy that’s played just about everywhere in the world — just about — it’s one of those places that I say, hands down, it’s the best test of golf and best golf course I’ve ever played.”

Reed acknowledged Monday that LIV had presented him with a contract earlier this year to remain one of its biggest stars. But when he talked with his family, “I felt like the best decision for us was to come back and join the PGA Tour.”

Even when he left, Reed said, he always considered the PGA Tour to be the best barometer of golf greatness.

“I’ve played now every tour. I’ve played on every single one of them,” Reed said. "That’s the place that I feel like is best for us to go and compete against the top guys year in and year out, week in and week out, but at the same time, to be able to spend more time closer to home makes it a lot easier to spend time with the kids.

“My daughter is now 11. My little man's 8. It seems like time has flown," the 35-year-old Reed said. "I definitely want to watch them grow up and be home a little bit more, yet still at the same time to play against the best guys.”

Reed will be able to do that this week. And again on a weekly basis soon enough. But until his PGA Tour return this fall, Reed is building out a DP World Tour schedule that includes a few weeks spent on the road followed by a few spent at home.

It's a work-life balance that seems to work at this point in his life.

“You not only sharpen your game, but you get a lot of family time," Reed said. “Those travels overseas, it’s going to be a lot this year, but at the same time, I can’t wait to obviously go out there and compete, but at the same time, come home and see the family.”

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

The News Media Guild, the union that represents AP journalists, said more than 120 of the staff members it represents received buyout offers on Monday.

The news organization is becoming more focused on visual journalism and developing new revenue sources, particularly through companies investing in artificial intelligence, to cope with the economic collapse of many legacy news outlets. Once the lion’s share of AP’s revenue, big newspaper companies now account for 10% of its income.

“We’re not a newspaper company and we haven’t been for quite some time,” Julie Pace, executive editor and senior vice president of the AP, said in an interview.

Despite changes – the company has doubled the number of video journalists it employs in the United States since 2022 – remnants of a staffing structure built largely to provide stories to newspapers and broadcasters in individual states have remained.

That has its roots well back in American history; the AP was started in the mid-19th century by New York newspapers looking to share the costs of reporting outside their immediate territory.

Exact numbers of staff reduction unclear

The number of AP journalists who will lose jobs is murky, in part intentionally. The AP does not say how many journalists it employs, though it has a large international presence as well as its U.S. staff. Pace said the AP's goal is to reduce its global staff by less than 5%.

Since buyouts are being offered now to only U.S. journalists, it stands to reason that the cut among that workforce will be more than 5%. Whether there are layoffs depends on how many people take the offer, Pace said.

“The AP employs hundreds of talented journalists who are willing and able to adjust to the changing media landscape,” the union said in a statement. “However, the company refuses to offer them appropriate training and tools. Instead, AP continues to get rid of experienced staff and flirt with artificial intelligence — ignoring the opportunity to differentiate AP news stories as ones that are and always will be created by human journalists.”

The union said AP ignored a request last week to bargain over artificial intelligence. The news outlet had no immediate comment on that claim, or the union's estimate of how many people were offered buyouts. It's not clear whether the buyout offers were concluded by Monday afternoon.

Over the past four years, the AP’s revenue from newspapers has declined by 25%. Gannett and McClatchy, two of the largest traditional newspaper publishers, dropped AP in 2024.

In recent days, the company learned that Lee Enterprises — publishers of newspapers like The Buffalo News, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Richmond Times-Dispatch — is seeking an early exit from a contract due to expire at the end of 2026.

Pace said the buyout plan was in the works before learning about Lee Enterprises. “We made a decision earlier this year that we needed to be bolder in this transformation,” she said.

An even higher focus on the day’s biggest stories

Besides the transition to more video capabilities, the AP is deploying rapid-response teams where staff members, no matter their geographic base, contribute to the day’s big stories, she said. The AP is putting more journalists on beats to break news on topics of known customer interest. But it is committed to maintaining a presence in all 50 states.

“The AP is not in trouble,” Pace said. “We’re making these changes from a position of strength but we’re doing so now to recognize our changing customer base.”

Those customers now are dominated by broadcast, digital and technology companies, an illustration of where people are getting news. The AP has seen 200% growth in revenue from technology companies over the last four years, said Kristin Heitmann, senior vice president and chief revenue officer.

The AP was among the first news outlets to make a deal with an AI company, agreeing in 2023 to lease part of its text archive to OpenAI as it built out its capabilities. The AP launched on Snowflake Marketplace last year to license data directly to enterprises building their own system. It has launched AP Intelligence, a division designed to sell data to financial and advertising sectors, for example.

Google contracted with AP last year to deliver news through the Gemini chatbot, the tech giant’s first deal with a news publisher.

“If you can think of a large technology company,” Heitmann said, “they are a customer of ours.”

Predictions markets now part of the picture for AP

Last month, the AP agreed to sell U.S. elections data to Kalshi, the world’s largest predictions market.

AP’s long tradition in counting and analyzing elections data is another growth area; the company saw a 30% increase in customers between the 2020 and 2024 cycles. It got an additional boost last year when ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN signed on to the service.

The company, traditionally a wholesaler of news to other companies, has also seen growing interest in its direct-to-consumer product, apnews.com, which provides revenue through advertising and donations.

The new business frontiers do not indicate a weakening in the AP’s standards of providing fast, accurate, non-biased news, leaders said. “If anything, it makes it more important that we retain these values as we make the transition,” Pace said.

The AP is trying new forms of fact-checking, including use of video, and more often putting its journalists in public to explain how they got particular stories, she said.

“I think that authenticity, and the fact that you can associate a real person who is often quite experienced and quite deep on their beats … it builds more credibility,” she said. “We’re really trying to embrace that because I do think it’s vital when there is so much misinformation out there.”

RELATED | ‘Going that extra mile’: Parents say DCPS adding stop-arm cameras to buses gives them peace of mind

The cameras are supposed to capture footage of motorists who drive past stationary school buses with their “stop arm” extended, a violation of state law in most instances. Instead, the cameras fined many drivers who were following the law.

Miami-Dade’s sheriff suspended the program indefinitely last April after a joint Florida Trib and Miami Herald investigation discovered that police personnel who were supposed to review all violation notices and weed out those improperly issued were overwhelmed by the sheer volume – more than 400 a day.

Read previous Florida Trib reporting about BusPatrol at www.floridatrib.org/buspatrol.

Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz identified further problems with the system, including incorrect numbers on violation notices and overbilled fine amounts, calling them “unacceptable.”

The vendor hired by both Duval County and Miami-Dade public schools – BusPatrol America – has touted its product as a lifesaver for schoolchildren by preventing motorists from running over kids as they exit buses along busy roads.

At a Duval school board workshop on Jan. 20, members were told that bus-mounted cameras had achieved “mixed results” in other counties, and that “some had to shut it down.” No details were offered about those problems in the video archive of the workshop, and no one asked why those districts had to end the program.

The artificial-intelligence-powered cameras are designed to activate, reading a vehicle’s license plate, whenever a motorist rolls past a school bus with its “stop arm” extended, indicating that students may be entering or exiting.

Florida law requires motorists heading in either direction to stop when the arm is extended. But there is an exception in the case of a divided roadway with a raised median. On such roadways, oncoming traffic on the opposite side of the median can proceed.

The Trib and Herald investigation found that motorists passing legally on the opposite side of the upraised median were nonetheless being fined. Motorists issued violation notices receive still images and video of their supposed violation, and some were shocked to see they had been improperly ticketed. Miami-Dade had set up no system for motorists to challenge the violations.

After the publication of The Trib’s reporting, at least 1,000 Miami-Dade drivers, who felt they did nothing wrong, contested their violation notices.

Last fall, BusPatrol America was ranked first among the six vendors seeking the contract for Duval’s School Bus Stop Arm Camera Violation Program. The contract between the district and BusPatrol was finalized in February.

In March, Virginia-based BusPatrol began to install the school bus cameras on over 900 buses across the district.

The program is now in full operation, but with warning notices rather than violations carrying fines.

Starting May 1, Duval County motorists will face $225 fines if they are caught by the cameras.

BusPatrol, which installed the cameras at no cost to the Duval district, expects to generate millions of dollars in revenue for both the schools and the company.

Before the indefinite suspension by the sheriff’s office in Miami-Dade, the school district indicated the program grossed $19.5 million in just the first six months, with the bulk of the money going to BusPatrol.

The Miami-Dade sheriff’s office spokesperson did not respond last week to requests for comment from The Florida Trib.

Even after Miami-Dade suspended the program, problems persisted. An audit found that drivers were not told that the fines had been forgiven.

Last week, The Florida Trib asked Steve Randazzo, BusPatrol’s chief growth officer, whether the company has corrected any of the issues that plagued its relationship with Miami-Dade. Randazzo acknowledged receipt of the question but did not answer.

Unlike in other counties, school police personnel in Duval will be responsible for reviewing footage captured by cameras before a violation is issued, according to a fact sheet issued by the district.

“All recorded violations will be reviewed by school police before a citation is issued to certify that a violation has occurred,” Duval schools spokesperson Sonya Duke-Bolden said.

The district did not respond to The Florida Trib’s inquiry about how many police personnel will be allotted to the task of reviewing videos.

The school district’s fact sheet makes no mention of the appeal process for motorists who feel they were unjustly ticketed, although that was identified as a “major concern” during public discussions between BusPatrol and the board.

District 1 School Board member Anthony Ricardo said BusPatrol was chosen because it was “one of the better ones considered by our technical people that would take care of what we wanted without overburdening our system and without having issues with fitting [the cameras] to the buses, and costing the district an unusually high amount of money.”

Ricardo liked that BusPatrol offered free installation of the cameras.

“With some of these other companies, there’s an installation charge per bus, and that was not the case here. So this is cost-neutral to us.
So that’s a big selling point right there. And, it gets the job done that we need it to do,” Ricardo added.

The district will receive 50% of the proceeds from the fines, a larger share than in Miami-Dade, which was to get 30% for the first two years, before that percentage increased under its contract.

According to the agreement between the Duval district and BusPatrol, the company will collect all fines and penalties, paying the district its share on a monthly basis.

While both the school board and BusPatrol expect to generate significant revenue from the traffic fines, they say the safety of students is what matters.

“My primary responsibilities are student safety and academic excellence, and both begin with ensuring our students are safe,” said Darryl Willie, District 4 School Board member.

“Through our ‘Be Safe Be Seen’ campaign, we’ve been working to build awareness and shared accountability across our community. This program is a continuation of that effort, and we have done our due diligence to get to this point.”

Trinity Webster-Bass is The Tributary’s inaugural Investigative Journalism Fellow. You can reach her at trinity.webster-bass@floridatrib.org.

Karl Jordan Jr. wasn't automatically let go because he still faces drug charges unrelated to the pioneering DJ's 2002 death. For now, Jordan remains behind bars while prosecutors decide this week whether to appeal the bond decision. If they don't, he'll go free as soon as his bond paperwork is in order.

“There's a real chance, Mr. Jordan, that you may be released in the very near term,” U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall said. If that happens, she added, “I wish you luck. And you will stay out of trouble.”

Jordan quietly agreed as more than a dozen of his relatives and supporters looked on from the audience. Some have attended nearly six years of court dates in his case and 17 agreed to cosign his bond. Jordan’s loved ones also agreed to put up Southern properties worth a total of $525,000. If released, he will be under electronic monitoring.

His lawyers declined to comment after court.

Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, was fatally shot in his New York City recording studio in 2002. As the DJ in Run-DMC, he helped rap reach music's mainstream with 1980s hits including “It’s Tricky” and a remake of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.” He later mentored up-and-comers including a young 50 Cent.

After the case went cold for years, Jordan and Ronald Washington were arrested in 2020. Washington, now 61; and Jordan, 42, denied the charges.

A jury convicted the men in 2024, after hearing eyewitness testimony that Jordan shot Mizell while Washington blocked the door. But in December 2025, DeArcy Hall unraveled Jordan’s conviction and acquitted him, while upholding the verdict against Washington.

Her reasoning centered on whether prosecutors had proven that the killing was narcotics-related, a requirement of the federal murder charge in this case. Witnesses testified that after Run-DMC’s heyday, Mizell dabbled in cocaine deals to pay his bills and was providing drug-trade opportunities to Jordan and Washington — the DJ's godson and old friend, respectively.

The judge concluded that the jury heard sufficient evidence that Washington was bitter at Mizell about the collapse of a planned drug transaction in Baltimore. But there wasn't such proof, “just conjecture," that Jordan had the same animus, DeArcy Hall wrote.

Prosecutors are appealing her decision to acquit Jordan of Mizell's killing.

Jordan's attorneys argued that he ought to get bond while that appeal and the outstanding drug and weapons charges play out.

Jordan, whose girlfriend is a city jail official, “is not a danger to the community. But his continued detention is a danger to Mr. Jordan," lawyer John Diaz said at a March 13 hearing. Jordan was stabbed and seriously wounded in Brooklyn’s troubled federal jail last year; other inmates were charged with assaulting him.

Prosecutors deplored the stabbing but urged the judge to continue detaining Jordan, maintaining that he remained a flight risk.

DeArcy Hall concluded Monday that Jordan's bond package outweighed concerns that he might flee. But she told him, “At the end of the day, sir, bond is about you giving me your word.”

“Yeah, I'm aware of that,” he replied.

Turning toward the audience, she sought to make sure his family also got the message that Jordan needs to comply with bond conditions.

“You all know I do not play,” the judge warned. “We all understood, folks?”

A collective “yes, your honor” rose from the audience.

Meanwhile, prosecutors are in plea talks with a third man charged in Mizell's killing, prosecutors and his lawyers told the judge in a March 12 letter. The third man, Jay Bryant, was indicted in 2023 after his DNA was found on a hat at the shooting scene. He has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors claimed that Bryant slipped into the studio building and opened a back door for Jordan and Washington, having met them through a mutual acquaintance. Jordan's lawyers have argued that the case against Bryant raised doubts about the now-dismissed allegations against Jordan.

Beltrán will become the ninth player in franchise history to have his number retired. Previously, Tom Seaver (41), Mike Piazza (31), Jerry Koosman (36), Keith Hernandez (17), Willie Mays (24), Dwight Gooden (16), Darryl Strawberry (18) and David Wright (5) had their numbers retired.

The Mets also have retired the numbers of former managers Gil Hodges (14) and Casey Stengel (37) and all major league teams have retired No. 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson.

Mets outfielder Tyrone Taylor, who currently wears No. 15, will change his number to 28.

Beltrán was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame earlier this year. He announced he would wear a Mets cap on his plaque. The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be on July 26.

Beltrán was hired as the New York Mets’ manager on Nov. 1, 2019, then fired on Jan. 16, 2020, without having managed a game. New York announced its decision three days after he was the only Astros player mentioned by name in a report by Major League Baseball regarding the team’s illicit use of electronics to steal signs during Houston’s run to the 2017 World Series championship — his final season.

He was hired by the Mets as a special assistant to the general manager in February 2023. He continues to work as a special assistant to president of baseball operations David Stearns.

Mets owners Steve and Alex Cohen released a statement on Monday praising Beltrán as “one of the greatest offensive players in team history, combining power and speed with elite defense.”

Beltrán said having his number retired and entering the team's hall of fame is "the highest possible tribute, and I truly feel blessed. The Mets hold a special place in my heart. This summer will be incredibly meaningful, from my induction into the baseball Hall of Fame to this Mets hall of fame honor, with the cherry on top being my number retirement. I’m deeply grateful.”

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

The Mets announced Monday that scheduled night games against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday and Wednesday have been changed to afternoon games because of expected cold and windy conditions.

The Mets scheduled the first pitch for each game for 4:10 p.m. ET. The games had been set for 7:10 p.m. starts.

Tuesday’s game between the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Guardians has been moved up five hours to a 1:10 p.m. ET first pitch. The change was made because temperatures are expected to be below freezing at night.

The time change was also made to avoid a backlog in the schedule or another doubleheader early in the season. Kansas City had a twinbill against Milwaukee on Saturday after Friday’s game was postponed, while Cleveland is coming off a doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs on Sunday when Saturday’s game was rained out.

Meanwhile, the White Sox moved up the first pitch for Tuesday's game against the Baltimore Orioles from 6:40 p.m. CT to 2:10 p.m. because of expected cold temperatures.

The Mets said in appreciation for the fans' “understanding, commitment and flexibility” the team was offering a limited number of complimentary tickets to each game.

The Mets said the complimentary tickets to the afternoon games will be offered on a first-come, first-served bases. Fans can log onto Mets.com/Tickets and enter code THANKYOU to claim up to four tickets for each game.

Additionally, the Mets are offering vouchers to a future game to fans who have already purchased tickets for the Tuesday or Wednesday games. The vouchers will be good for home regular-season games scheduled for Monday through Thursday.

All tickets for the previously scheduled night games will be valid for the afternoon games.

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

The Think Bold Festival and conference is back — a multi-day experience blending culture, business, technology, and community — all designed to help people not just dream bigger but actually build something from it.

And at the heart of it all are co-founders Troy McNair and Maurice “Mo” Henderson — cultural architects and innovation strategists who have worked across music, entrepreneurship, and community development — helping shape how cities connect with the next generation. These two guys didn’t just create an event; they built an ecosystem — one that’s already impacted hundreds of entrepreneurs and thousands of young people.

This week — that vision comes to life right here in Jacksonville with everything from artificial intelligence masterclasses and real estate power brunches to fireside chats on turning struggle into success and creativity into ownership. McNair and Henderson take us inside the mission — and the moments you won’t see unless you’re in the room.

Watch the full interview above.

Think Bold Festival and Conference takes place Thursday-Sunday at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront.

Tickets available on Think Bold Festival.

Despite an intense search involving thousands of law enforcement officers and volunteers, there has been no sign of the 84-year-old mother of three since she was reported missing Feb. 1. Her children, including the NBC host, have made heartbreaking video pleas for help, but to no avail.

Here is a timeline of events:

Saturday, Jan. 31

5:32 p.m. — Nancy Guthrie takes an Uber to her family’s home for dinner.

9:48 p.m. — Guthrie is dropped off at her Tucson-area home by a family member. The garage door opens and closes minutes later.

Sunday, Feb. 1

1:47 a.m. — The doorbell camera is disconnected.

2:12 a.m. — The camera’s software detects movement. Investigators initially said there was no video available since Guthrie didn’t have an active monitoring subscription. But digital forensics experts kept working to find images in backend software that might have been lost, corrupted or inaccessible.

2:28 a.m. — Her pacemaker app disconnects from her phone.

11:56 a.m. — Her family checks on her after learning she didn't attend church. Moments later, they call 911 to report her missing.

12:15 p.m. — Investigators arrive and launch a search operation, including the use of drones and dogs.

Monday, Feb. 2

Authorities say they believe Guthrie was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will.

KOLD-TV says it received an email Monday night that appears to be a ransom note. It includes a demand for money with a deadline set for 5 p.m. Thursday and a second one for Monday, investigators say.

Tuesday, Feb. 3

A person familiar with the investigation tells The Associated Press that investigators found signs of forced entry at Nancy Guthrie’s home.

President Donald Trump tells reporters the situation is “terrible.”

Wednesday, Feb. 4

After allowing Guthrie's family back on her property earlier in the week, authorities return for a “follow-up investigation.”

That evening, Savannah Guthrie posts video on social media in which she tells her mother’s kidnapper that her family is ready to talk but wants proof she is alive.

Thursday, Feb. 5

Officials reveal that DNA testing determined that blood found on the home's front porch was Nancy Guthrie's.

The FBI offers a $50,000 reward for information about Guthrie’s whereabouts.

Friday, Feb. 6

Tucson TV station KOLD receives an email tied to the Guthrie case. The station didn't disclose it's contents and forwarded the message to federal investigators.

Investigators return to Guthrie’s neighborhood to gather more evidence.

Saturday, Feb. 7

Savannah Guthrie post another social media video aimed at her mother’s potential abductors.

“We received your message, and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her,” she said. “This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”

Monday, Feb. 9

Savannah Guthrie posts another video, saying her family is at an “hour of desperation” and believes her mom is still alive. She asks for prayers and for people to report anything they might see or hear to law enforcement.

An FBI spokesperson says the agency was not aware of ongoing communication between Nancy Guthrie’s family and the possible kidnappers, despite a deadline set for Monday evening.

Later, in a March interview, Savannah Guthrie clarifies that some of the purported ransom notes were fake, but that she believes the two that she and her siblings responded to were real.

Tuesday, Feb. 10

The FBI says it managed to recover doorbell camera video of what it describes as an armed person tampering with a camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door.

Video shows the person wearing a backpack and balaclava who tries to cover a camera near the front door with their gloved hand before ripping out a plant from the yard to block the camera’s view.

Following the FBI’s announcement, Savannah Guthrie posts images of the apparent kidnapper on Instagram. She writes: “We believe she is still alive. Bring her home,” and includes phone numbers for the FBI and sheriff.

Later, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department says a person was detained for questioning during a traffic stop south of Tucson. The man is released. He tells reporters that he made deliveries in the Tucson area.

The sheriff’s department also says it searched a location in Rio Rico, a city south of Tucson, with the help of the FBI.

Wednesday, Feb. 11

Authorities confirm that the man detained a day earlier was released but do not say what led them to stop him.

FBI agents and sheriff’s deputies knock on doors and search the desert terrain in the neighborhoods surrounding the homes of Nancy Guthrie and her oldest daughter, Annie Guthrie, whom she had visited hours before disappearing.

Thursday, Feb. 12

Investigators ask residents in a 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) radius of Nancy Guthrie’s home to share any camera footage and report any suspicious activity they noticed in the month before she disappeared.

The FBI later doubles the reward, to $100,000, for information that would lead to Nancy Guthrie or an arrest and conviction.

It also describes the person seen in the video from Guthrie’s porch the night she went missing as a male with an average build and about 5-foot, 9-inches (175 centimeters) tall. In the video, the FBI says he is wearing a black, 25-liter “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack.

Sunday, March 22

Savannah Guthrie posts a family statement on Instagram urging the public to think back to Jan. 31 — when her mom was last seen — and Feb. 1, as well as the evening of Jan. 11.

“Please consult camera footage, journal notes, text messages, observations, or conversations that in retrospect may hold significance. No detail is too small,” the statement says.

The family also acknowledges that Nancy Guthrie might not be alive.

Monday, March 26

The “Today” show airs the first television interviews with Savannah Guthrie since her mothers disappearance.

“We are in agony,” she tells NBC News colleague Hoda Kotb, saying she wakes up every night thinking about what her mother went through.

She also shares new investigation details, including that her mom's home's back doors were found propped open and her phone and purse were found inside.

Monday, April 6

Savannah Guthrie returns to the “Today” show, which she has co-hosted since 2012.

“Here we go, ready or not,” Guthrie says as it opens. “Let’s do the news.”

After running through a series of headlines, Guthrie says “we are so glad that you started our week with us and it’s good to be home.” Her co-host, Craig Melvin, says “It’s good to have you back at home.”

The 40th Annual Celebrity Chefs Tasting and Silent Auction is back—and while the food always draws a crowd, it’s the mission behind it that truly matters.

NeeCee Lee, past president of the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary—the group helping power this event year after year shares a deeper look.

Watch the full interview above.

The Celebrity Chefs Tasting and Silent Auction is happening Thursday at the Prime Osborn Convention Center from 10:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Every ticket helps The Salvation Army continue serving families right here in our community.

The nation's second-leading scorer is one of more than 1,100 Division I women's basketball players who entered the portal after it opened just after midnight, according to an Associated Press review of the portal.

In January, the NCAA approved moving the portal's opening to the day after the national championship game for a 15-day window. It didn't take long for players to enter.

The portal used to be open after the second round of the NCAA Tournament for 30 days until the change this year. Last year there were 1,570 Division I women's basketball players in the portal in the entire time it was open.

President Donald Trump signed an order last week intended to stabilize college sports that included limiting athletes to one transfer, with another available once they get a four-year degree.

With revenue sharing and name, image and likeness deals, players have been able to make more money while playing college sports. Financial incentives is one of the top reasons players change schools.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said at the NCAA Tournament's Sacramento Regional last month that money is now one of the top questions in conversations with transfers and high school players.

“How much is it going to cost us? That’s the conversation. You’ve got to lead with that,” Staley said. “Because you don’t really want to waste your time. You either are going to have enough to pay players, or you don’t. And you move on.”

Iowa State wasn't the only school hit hard by the transfer portal. Tennessee already has five of its players in the portal: Talaysia Cooper, Kaniya Boyd, Alyssa Lathan, Lauren Hurst and Jaida Civil.

Civil was part of coach Kim Caldwell’s highly ranked recruiting class for 2025. Other Lady Vols freshmen Mia and Mya Pauldo announced their intent to enter the portal last week on social media.

Miami and Georgia each have eight players in the portal. The Lady Bulldogs made a coaching change over the weekend. Stanford has four players in the portal, including star Nunu Agara.

UCLA coach Cori Close said she was going to be very active in the portal after winning the national championship Sunday. She needs to replace the six seniors who scored all the Bruins' points in the Final Four and title games.

She said, smiling: “transfer portal just got easier.”

There were nearly 900 players combined from Division II and III in the portal already as well by Monday afternoon.

Last season the portal allowed movement among many top stars, including Ta'Niya Latson from Florida State to South Carolina; Olivia Miles from Notre Dame to TCU, MiLaysia Fulwiley from South Carolina to LSU and Cotie McMahon from Ohio State to Mississippi.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Jonathan Jackson of Illinois met with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and members of Parliament during a five-day trip that ended Sunday.

Díaz-Canel wrote on X Monday that upon meeting with Jayapal and Jackson, he “denounced the criminal damage caused by the #blockade, particularly the consequences of the energy embargo imposed by the current U.S. administration and its threats of even more aggressive actions.”

Díaz-Canel added: “I reiterated our government’s willingness to engage in serious and responsible bilateral dialogue and find solutions to our existing differences.”

Both the U.S. and Cuba have acknowledged recently that talks are ongoing at the highest level, but no details have been disclosed.

Jayapal told reporters she believes that recent steps taken by Cuba, such as opening the economy to certain investments by Cuban Americans living abroad; the recent announcement that more than 2,000 prisoners would be pardoned; and the arrival of an FBI team to collaborate in the investigation of a fatal shooting involving a U.S.-flagged boat, “indicate that the moment is here for us to have a real negotiation between the two countries and to reverse the failed U.S. policy of decades, a Cold War remnant that no longer serves the American people or the Cuban people.”

Cuba's government has released the pardoned prisoners who were accused of a variety of crimes, although none so far appear to be political prisoners.

In late January, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on any country that would sell or provide oil to Cuba, although he made an exception for a Russian ship that reached the island last week with 730,000 barrels of crude oil. It was the first petroleum shipment in three months to dock in Cuba, which produces only 40% of the oil it needs.

“This is cruel collective punishment — effectively an economic bombing of the infrastructure of the country — that has produced permanent damage. It must stop immediately,” Jayapal and Jackson said in a statement released Sunday.

Critical oil shipments from Venezuela were halted after the U.S. attacked the South American country in early January and arrested its then-leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Cubans already suffering from five years of economic crisis have acutely felt the impact of the fuel shortage: national blackouts, gasoline shortages and rationing, lack of public transport, cuts in working hours, paralyzed hospitals and surgeries, and suspension of flights, among other things.

Russia has promised a second delivery of petroleum, although it’s not clear when it might arrive. Experts have said that the first shipment could produce about 180,000 barrels of diesel, enough to feed Cuba’s daily demand for nine or 10 days.

Jayapal said that while such shipments are critical, they are only temporary solutions: “We need a longer, permanent solution for the Cuban people and the American people.”

Meanwhile, Jackson compared the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s coast to the oil blockade in Cuba, adding that the island “is the most sanctioned part of Earth.”

“Our government is fighting to keep the Strait of Hormuz open so there is a free flow of oil around the world. We want, for humanitarian reasons, a free flow of oil, fuel, and energy in our own hemisphere,” he said.

Jackson and Jayapal said they would prepare a report and continue to work on initiatives proposed by fellow members of the U.S. House of Representatives to lift sanctions against Cuba to alleviate the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

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Watch the full interview above.

You can help solve cold cases by calling the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office or if you would like to remain anonymous call First Coast Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS (8477).

The law, criticized by free speech advocates, allows a top official at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to designate a group as a domestic or foreign terrorist organization, with the governor and three other members of the Florida Cabinet approving or rejecting the designation. Besides the governor, the Cabinet is made up of the state attorney general, the chief financial officer and the agriculture commissioner, all of whom are elected separately.

Once designated a terrorist organization, a group can be dissolved and it can no longer receive any state funding through school districts or state agencies. Universities also would have to report the status of expelled students attending on visas to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“So this will help the state of Florida protect you. It’ll help us protect your tax dollars,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Tampa. “It’ll help us protect things that should not be happening in the United States of America, but certainly shouldn’t be happening in the free state of Florida.”

DeSantis last December designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhoods as foreign terrorist organizations. A federal judge last month temporarily blocked the enforcement of DeSantis' executive order.

PEN America, a free speech advocacy group, said the new law has vague language that could restrict education programs deemed to be “promoting” terrorism and that it could target student protesters who criticize Florida officials.

The new law “could chill education at every level,” said William Johnson, PEN America's Florida director. “The implications are fraught.”

The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Monday because discussions were not being made public.

Lawrence has played his first seven NFL seasons with the Giants since they selected him with the 17th pick in the 2019 draft out of Clemson.

Now 28, he still has two years left on his contract, set to earn $20 million and $19.5 million in each of the next two seasons.

Coming off a dislocated left elbow from a game on Thanksgiving in 2024, Lawrence started all 17 games last season. He finished with a career-low 31 tackles and a half-sack for a defense that ranked 30th out of 32 teams in the league.

Lawrence has 341 tackles and 30 1/2 sacks in 109 regular-season games in the league. He made 12 more tackles in two playoff games.

The Giants began spring workouts Tuesday under new coach John Harbaugh, who along with general manager Joe Schoen hired Dennard Wilson as the team's defensive coordinator. They have the fifth pick in the upcoming draft after going 4-13.

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

New York put the four-time All-Star on the 10-day injured list Monday, a move retroactive to Saturday. The Mets said the typical timeframe for a return to play for this type of injury is about two to three weeks.

Infielder Ronny Mauricio was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse.

Soto, 27, is in the second season of a record $765 million, 15-year contract. He is hitting .355 with one homer and five RBIs in eight games after batting .263 with 43 homers, 105 RBIs, 38 stolen bases, 127 walks and a .921 OPS in his first season with the Mets.

Soto was hurt Friday night trying to run from first to third during the Mets’ 10-3 win at San Francisco.

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

The Florida Department of Transportation opened the ramps less than a week ago at the interchange of State Road 23 (First Coast Expressway) and SR-16, a long-awaited change aimed at easing the backups that have plagued the fair for years.

On Easter Sunday, many fairgoers said the difference was noticeable.

“I came to Clay Fair, I want to say maybe in 2020. Traffic was a little crazy — today, actually wasn’t bad,” said Latoya Williams, who attended the fair Sunday.

For years, drivers often faced long waits because the main entrance relied heavily on a narrow stretch of SR-16, creating a bottleneck during peak hours. With the new ramps now open, drivers have additional options — including access to the First Coast Expressway — that can help spread out traffic.

Haley Heminger said the extra lanes and improved flow helped ease her concerns about crowds, especially with major events happening at the fair.

“We pulled right up,” Heminger said. “I was a little nervous with there being a concert, but we pulled right in.”

Not everyone found the new setup intuitive right away. Williams said the changes appear helpful but may take some getting used to for drivers arriving from different directions.

“I came actually through 17 straight the Westside of Jacksonville here,” she said. “It’s good, but it can be a little confusing.”

Law enforcement leaders said they are already seeing fewer backups than in past years. Sgt. Ray Kittles with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office said traffic has been moving more efficiently, with improved signal timing helping keep cars flowing into the fairgrounds.

“We have not had as much backup,” Kittles said. “Right now, we’re crediting it to the light cycling properly … giving westbound traffic an opportunity to get in without a whole lot of assistance from us.”

The sheriff’s office said deputies are also monitoring traffic in real time using cameras and can adjust traffic light cycles if needed to keep vehicles moving.

Sergeant Kittles adds that congestion on SR-16 has been limited to just a few minor instances so far. While directing traffic, he asked drivers about their wait time and was told many were waiting less than 10 minutes to get in.

Officials say it’s still early, but the initial turnout suggests the new ramps are already helping reduce the usual fair traffic frustrations. The Clay County Fair runs through April 12.

The broader First Coast Expressway construction project, running from north of SR-16 to east of County Road 209, is estimated to be completed sometime this

After running through a series of news headlines, Guthrie said that “we are so glad that you started our week with us and it's good to be home.” Her co-host, Craig Melvin said that “it's good to have you back at home.”

She greeted longtime co-worker Al Roker with “Good morning, Sunshine,” when he noted that it was good to see her on the set. At the end of the first 25-minute portion of the show, she offered Melvin a high-five.

Emotions got the better of her before the last half hour, when she joined her colleagues in front of fans gathered at the show's Rockefeller Center studio. She fought back tears when one fan was seen with a “Welcome home Savannah” shirt, and clutched colleague Jenna Bush Hager's arm and thanked people for their support.

Guthrie says it's hard to go forward not knowing what happened

Guthrie, one of morning television's most recognizable faces, has been a “Today” host since 2012. She has acknowledged that she's a changed person and that it's hard to go forward not knowing what happened to Nancy Guthrie, who authorities believe was taken against her will from her Arizona home.

Despite an intense search involving thousands of federal and local officers and volunteers, there has been no sign of the 84-year-old mother of three since she was reported missing Feb. 1.

The “Today” show has followed the story closely for the past two months, but it wasn't mentioned during the first hour of her return on Monday. Bringing things back to normal was clearly intentional: Her return wasn't referenced during interviews with NBC's Gabe Gutierrez at the White House and military analyst Steve Warren on the show's set.

Hoda Kotb, the former anchor who had filled in for Guthrie for much of the past two months and interviewed her former colleague, wasn't on set Monday.

“Today” has seen a ratings boost over the past two months and has even eclipsed ABC's “Good Morning America” as the leader in the morning show ratings. The shows aren't the profit generators they once were for the networks, but the rivalry is still intense.

“Today” averaged 3.1 million viewers for the first three months of the year, up nearly 9% in an era most broadcast programs lose viewers. It's hard to tell how much the Guthrie story had to do with that: NBC also aired the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics in February, and both events tend to help a morning show's ratings.

“Good Morning America” averaged 2.93 million viewers, up 2% over 2025 while “CBS Mornings” plunged 17% to 1.76 million, according to the Nielsen company.

As part of a video message released by her New York church on Easter Sunday, Guthrie spoke about feeling “moments of deep disappointment with God, the feeling of utter abandonment.” But she said the resurrection is not fully celebrated “if we do not acknowledge the feelings of loss, pain, and yes, death.”

In announcing her return to NBC's flagship morning show, Guthrie said she was uncertain whether she'll feel like she still belongs.

“It’s hard to imagine doing it because it’s such a place of joy and lightness,” she said just over a week ago on “Today” during her first interview since the disappearance. “I can’t come back and try to be something that I’m not. But I can’t not come back because it’s my family.”

She didn't anticipate faking her way through the show, which is normally light-hearted with a mix of serious, breaking news.

Guthrie's mom had made occasional visits to show's set

There had been a great deal of speculation about whether she would return.

“I want to smile, and when I do it will be real,” she told Hoda Kotb, who came back to “Today” to fill in while Guthrie focused on the search. “Being there is joyful, and when it's not I'll say so.”

Nancy Guthrie made occasional appearances on “Today” over the years, once taking part in a cooking demonstration and surprising her daughter on the set. When Savannah Guthrie returned to her hometown of Tucson in 2025 for a segment recorded for the show, the two visited one of their favorite restaurants and talked about their love of Arizona.

The Guthrie family has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of their mother.

Authorities believe Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will after finding blood near the doorstep of her home in the foothills outside Tucson. The FBI later released surveillance videos showing a masked man on the porch that night. Volunteers and search teams scoured the nearby desert terrain filled with cactuses, bushes and boulders in the first weeks after she vanished.

But attention has faded from an investigation that was declared to be a top priority for the FBI and local authorities. Investigators have not released new evidence in weeks and say the number of tips has slowed. The FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department both said late last week that they had no updates.

Early on, some media outlets reported receiving ransom messages tied to the case. Guthrie said she and her siblings responded to two that they believed were real and offered to pay.

Guthrie said her celebrity status might be the reason her mother was taken, but said that possibility was “too much to bear.”

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Associated Press correspondents John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Sarah Brumfield in Washington contributed to this report.

The team announced the launch of the Jax Ballpark Pass, a specially priced option that gives fans access to every home game at VyStar Ballpark for one flat rate.

A new way to experience every home game

The Jax Ballpark Pass includes a General Admission Grass Berm ticket to all home games during the 2026 season.

Fans can choose between two options:

Individual Ballpark Pass

• $99 for the season
• Access to attend all home games
• Ability to book up to four games at a time
• Option to upgrade to box seats for an additional cost

Family Ballpark Pass

• $199 for the season
• Includes four tickets per game
• Access to all home games
• Ability to book up to four games at a time
• Option to upgrade seating for an additional cost
• Opportunity to purchase additional guest passes at a special rate

Flexible and fan-friendly

According to the team, the pass is built to give fans flexibility throughout the season. Pass holders can reserve games in advance — up to four at a time — making it easier to plan around busy schedules while still enjoying multiple trips to the ballpark.

Fans also have the option to enhance their experience by upgrading to premium seating when available.

Focused on affordable family fun

The Jumbo Shrimp say the new pass is part of their continued effort to deliver “Affordable Family Fun” to Northeast Florida.

With dozens of home games, weekly promotions like fireworks and giveaways, and family-friendly experiences throughout the season, the pass provides a cost-effective way for fans to take part in everything the team has to offer.

How to get the pass

Fans can purchase the Jax Ballpark Pass online through the team’s FanRally platform.

For questions or additional information, fans can contact the Jumbo Shrimp at (904) 358-2846 or by email at Peter@jaxshrimp.com.

Atlanta also receives the right to swap second-round picks with Chicago in 2028.

The 6-foot-3 Reese averaged 14.1 points and 12.9 rebounds in her two seasons with Chicago, earning All-Star honors each year while finishing as the runner-up for rookie of the year in 2024.

"Angel is a dynamic talent and a perfect fit for what we are building in Atlanta,” general manager Dan Padover said in a statement released by the Dream. “She has already proven herself as one of the most impactful players in the league, and her competitiveness, production and drive to win align seamlessly with our vision. This is an exciting moment for our organization and our fans.”

Reese, 23, was the No. 7 overall pick by Chicago in the 2024 WNBA draft after leading LSU to the 2023 national championship.

The trade comes after Reese expressed frustrations late in last season's 10-34 finish for the Sky. She told the Chicago Tribune that she “might have to move in a different direction and do what’s best for me” if the team didn't improve its outlook. She later apologized to the team for the comments.

“I’m not settling for the same ... we did this year,” Reese told the newspaper. “We have to get good players. We have to get great players. That’s a non-negotiable for me. I’m willing and wanting to play with the best. And however I can help to get the best here, that’s what I’m going to do this offseason.

“So it’s going to be very, very important this offseason to make sure we attract the best of the best because we can’t settle for what we have this year.”

The Sky suspended Reese for half of a game for comments deemed “detrimental to the team.” The team listed her as dealing with a back injury for its final three games, raising speculation about her long-term future in Chicago.

"This trade is designed to achieve roster balance and represents a great opportunity for all parties,” Chicago general manager Jeff Pagliocca said in a statement released by the Sky.

“Angel has achieved many record-breaking milestones in her first two years in the WNBA and has been a competitive force for the Sky. We are thankful for her many important contributions to this league and this game, and we know she will continue to have a big impact on the court and beyond. We wish Angel all the best in her next chapter.”

Reese averaged 14.7 points last season and led the WNBA with 12.6 rebounds per game. She joins an Atlanta roster that boasts other established stars and flourished under the leadership of coach Karl Smesko.

Allisha Gray finished fourth in the MVP voting last season. Rhyne Howard became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 300 career 3-pointers. Naz Hillmon was named Sixth Player of the Year and Brionna Jones was an All-Star.

“I’m beyond grateful for the opportunity to join the Atlanta Dream organization,” Reese said. “I’m focused on continuing to grow my game, competing at the highest level, connecting with the fans, and giving everything I’ve got to the Dream.”

Atlanta set a franchise record with 30 wins in 2025. Smesko said Reese will add elite skills.

“Angel’s ability to impact the game on both ends of the floor is elite,” Smesko said. “Her energy, toughness and instincts will thrive in our system, and we’re excited to integrate her into the style of play we are constructing here in Atlanta.”

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