Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, entered the plea in Manhattan federal court after he was charged with the unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction.

He was released on $250,000 bail and his travel was restricted to portions of New York, North Carolina, California and points necessary to travel between.

Prosecutors said evidence in the case will include information resulting from grand jury subpoenas, cryptocurrency exchange records, search warrants and social media accounts.

Defense attorney Zach Intrater told Judge Margaret M. Garnett he doubts there will be many disputes arising from “the actual event,” but suspects the case will rise and fall on motions he will make on behalf of his client.

The judge ordered Van Dyke to return to court on June 8 for a pretrial conference.

The case comes during heavy scrutiny on prediction markets, which allow people to trade or wager on almost anything, as policymakers call for stricter regulation of the platforms amid concerns about insider trading.

The Trump administration has been supportive of the prediction market industry’s expansion. The president’s eldest son is an adviser for both Polymarket and its main competitor, Kalshi, and he is a Polymarket investor. Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, is launching its own prediction market called Truth Predict.

Prosecutors said Van Dyke was involved in the planning and execution of Maduro's capture and had signed nondisclosure agreements centered on the operations, but he eventually placed a series of bets related to Maduro being out of power by Jan. 31.

According to a criminal complaint, the bets totaling $33,000 were placed over a three-day period and resulted in “more than $404,000 of profits.”

Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets, flagged the suspicious activity and turned it over to the government, according to CEO Shayne Coplan.

Van Dyke, who is stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, was granted bond after a court hearing in North Carolina last week and will continue his case in New York. He was represented in court by attorney Zach Intrater.

The NCAA released a brief statement Tuesday in the wake of an ESPN report that cited unnamed sources saying a decision to add eight teams to the bracket is a mere formality that's expected in May.

“Expanding the basketball tournaments would require approval from multiple NCAA committees, including the men’s and women’s basketball committees, and no final recommendations or decisions have been made at this time,” the statement said.

Earlier this month at the Final Four, NCAA President Charlie Baker said the committees would, in fact, return to discussing the expansion once this year's tournament was over.

The tournaments have been at 68 teams since 2011, when four play-in games were added to the beginning of the first week of play. The new format would add eight more at-large teams and take eight more teams out of the main bracket for play-in games.

The expansion isn't expected to generate a lot more income because it will only add games early in the first week. The current TV deal runs through 2032 and could be tweaked slightly.

Regardless of finances, the expansion would give power conferences more chances to place teams in the bracket — a growing concern as those conferences seek more power and control over college sports in the era of name, image and likeness compensation and the transfer portal.

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

The latest figures show the average teacher pay in Florida rose to $56,663 in the 2025-26 school year — a 3.3% increase from the prior year. But adjusted for inflation, the average teacher salary has fallen 12.4% over the last decade, and Florida’s teacher pay ranking has slipped from 47th to 50th in the nation.

Education support professionals are earning even less. Their average pay sits at $34,645, well below Florida’s estimated living wage of $63,853 for a household of one adult and one child.

Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar said the teacher shortage is not just a statistic — it’s something his own family has lived through.

“In the past five years, my daughter has had her full roster of teachers for an entire school year only once. In 7th grade, she went half a year without a science teacher after hers left midyear. In 8th grade, she had no dance teacher during her final quarter of the year, and in 9th grade, she spent the first ten weeks without an English teacher. This year, her anatomy teacher left mid-year, and it took more than six weeks to find a replacement,” Spar said.

“These incidents are a disruption to her learning and, unfortunately, they’ve become the norm for far too many students across Florida. When public dollars are diverted away from public schools, and teachers can’t afford to stay in the profession, it’s students who lose. Public schools have been forced to cut essential services, lay off teachers and staff, and increase class sizes, all of which put students last.”

Higher education salaries lag at two-year colleges

The pay gap extends beyond K-12 schools. Florida ranks 12th in faculty salaries at public four-year institutions but falls to 29th for faculty at public two-year colleges — a gap of more than $40,000 between the two.

The FEA warns that lagging salaries at state colleges make it harder to attract and retain faculty, which can lead to fewer course offerings, larger class sizes and reduced academic support for students.

For the full data, visit feaweb.org/50inPay.

The concept for the special passport, including a rendering of Trump’s stern-looking visage, had been under consideration for months before finally being approved late Monday. Between 25,000 and 30,000 of the new passports will be available to applicants at the Washington, D.C., passport office beginning shortly before July 4.

It’s the latest instance of Trump having his name and likeness added to buildings, documents and other highly visible tributes. There are efforts to put Trump’s signature on all new U.S. paper currency, also a first for a sitting president, as well as to include his image on a gold commemorative coin to celebrate the country's founding.

The commemorative passport will be the default document for people applying in person at the Washington office, although those who want a standard passport will be able to get one by applying online or outside Washington, officials said.

“As the United States celebrates America’s 250th anniversary in July, the State Department is preparing to release a limited number of specially designed U.S. passports to commemorate this historic occasion,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.

“These passports will feature customized artwork and enhanced imagery while maintaining the same security features that make the U.S. passport the most secure documents in the world,” he said.

The limited release passport will feature Trump’s picture over a gold imprimatur of his signature to an interior page, while the cover will feature the words “United States of America” in bold gold print at the top and “Passport” at the bottom — a reversal of the standard cover.

In addition, a small gold laminate American flag, with the number 250 encircled by stars, will be at the bottom of the back cover.

The Bulwark reported earlier on the commemorative passports.

The only presidents featured in current U.S. passports are in a double-page depiction of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Other depictions include the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and scenes of the Great Plains, mountains and islands. Current passports also contain quotations from Martin Luther King Jr. as well as Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower.

The addition of Trump's picture and signature to the passport book is the newest step his aides have taken to increase the president's visibility, including adding his name to the U.S. Institute of Peace building and the Kennedy Center performing arts venue.

Trump also has made waves with his plans for a new White House ballroom and a massive arch to be built at one of the entrances to Washington from Virginia.

Edward Eastland’s words came as dozens of the girls’ family members sat just feet behind him during the second day of a special legislative hearing in which state lawmakers posed tough questions about Camp Mystic's lack of emergency planning before the devastating July 4 flood. A report of findings is expected later this year.

“We tried our hardest that night. It wasn’t enough to save your daughters,” said Eastland, a camp director and a member of the family that owns the 100-year-old camp along the Guadalupe River. “I’m so sorry.”

Eastland said he and his father Richard Eastland were on the campsite that night, and that they made a desperate attempt to save the girls when they realized that heavy rain had created a raging flood that ripped through the camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River. Richard Eastland died in the flood and Edward survived only after being swept into a tree.

“These girls were our youngest campers and their amazing counselors who we watched grow up,” Eastland said. “The world was a better place with them in it and the anger at us for not being able to keep them safe is completely reasonable.”

The apology came at the outset of the hearing before he and several members of the Eastland family were questioned for about four hours by state lawmakers who at times said the family remained unprepared to reopen the camp and repeatedly questioned the lack of emergency training for staff last year. Legislators also questioned several of the decisions made during the flood that delayed an evacuation and ultimately cost lives.

Lawmakers press camp owners on emergency training

Britt Eastland, another director, said the camp will dramatically improve training for counselors and stage drills for campers to prepare for floods, fire, tornadoes and intruders. Legislative investigators on Monday noted the camp’s previous lack of flood training as a critical problem that contributed to the deaths.

"All of these things should have been being done in the first place,” said Sen. Charles Perry.

The panel pressed the Eastlands on why they didn't make a last-ditch effort to get on the camp PA system and order everyone to head to higher ground.

Edward Eastland said it didn’t even occur to him to leave the girls they were trying to rescue to go back to the camp office and make such an announcement.

“Every minute was spent trying to get to the next cabin,” he said. “If we had a little more time, we could have gotten everybody out.”

Camp owners make plans to reopen

Camp Mystic’s owners want to reopen in late May and have said they will only use the parts of the camp that didn’t flood. They expect nearly 900 attendees this summer. Those plans have angered victims’ families, and some prominent state officials have called for regulators to deny or delay renewal of the camp’s license, which is under review.

Another of the sons, named Richard Eastland after his father, said while the family doesn't plan to open the camp if their license isn't renewed, they would likely appeal if that was the state's decision.

“We will not open Cypress Lake if we do not have a license,” he said.

But that seemed to spark disagreement among the victims' family members. Britt Eastland quickly interjected that it would be a “family decision.”

The special legislative committee does not control the review of Camp Mystic’s license. Because the camp has applied to renew its previous license, it could reopen while its application is pending. If denied, it still could operate while its case is under appeal.

The Eastland family also said it’s still an open question whether they would eventually try to reopen the river camp. If they do, no campers would be placed in buildings that flooded.

“We’re praying about that every day. We don’t know what to do,” Britt Eastland said.

Camp's readiness to host girls questioned

Several lawmakers questioned how the camp could be ready to reopen this summer.

State regulators last week notified Camp Mystic of 22 deficiencies in its emergency plan. Mary Liz Eastland, the camp’s medical director, acknowledged Tuesday she has not officially reported last summer’s deaths to state health officers.

“Are you ready to take on 500-plus children,” for camp this summer, asked Sen. Lois Kolkhorst. She noted state agencies have shut down licensed residential living centers for a single death, let alone dozens.

“The license is a privilege to have," Kolkhorst said.

“We are ready,” Britt Eastland said, adding that he believes Camp Mystic’s broader community will ultimately “be glad we had camp this summer.”

That drew an audible gasp from some in the room, and several of the victims' family members walked out.

Julie Sprunt Marshall, whose 9-year-old daughter was swept out of her cabin and rescued more than a mile down river, said the survivors continue to suffer trauma. She asked the lawmakers to not let the camp open under the Eastland family “who failed our daughters.”

“The camp will be conducting an incredibly dangerous experiment on children," Marshall said, “testing what will happen with the first drop of rain, the first clap of thunder, at the first time a noise startles them awake.”

U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich, a Trump appointee, wrote that Arizona's statewide voter registration list is “not a document subject to request by the Attorney General" under federal law. The judge dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice because, she wrote, “amendment would be legally futile.”

The dismissal of the Arizona lawsuit follows a string of other rulings against the Department of Justice in similar cases in other states. The DOJ has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking to force release of detailed voter data, which includes dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

In addition to Arizona, judges have rejected those attempts in Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, Michigan and Oregon. In Georgia, a judge dismissed a DOJ lawsuit because it had been filed in the wrong city, prompting the government to refile elsewhere.

The DOJ sued Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes in January for failing to comply with its request for the detailed voter information.

“This moment is a win for voter privacy,” Fontes said in a statement. “I will never comply with illegal requests that put Arizona voters in harms way.”

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At least 13 states have either provided or promised to provide their detailed voter registration lists to the department, according to the Brennan Center and Associated Press reporting: Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.

Federal officials say they need the voter data to ensure that states are complying with federal election laws related to maintaining voter registration lists. In the Rhode Island case, a Justice Department attorney acknowledged that the department was seeking unredacted voter roll information so it could be shared with the Department of Homeland Security to check citizenship status.

Democratic and some Republican officials have objected to the requests and said such a demand violates state and federal privacy laws.

The crash occurred at approximately 9:40 a.m.

Troopers say a 23-year-old Jacksonville man was driving a sedan northbound on US-1, south of Trout River Boulevard, in the inside left-turn-only lane. He attempted to turn left northwest onto Trout River Boulevard, according to the report.

At the same time, the motorcyclist — a 70-year-old Jacksonville man — was traveling southbound on US-1, north of Trout River Boulevard, in the outside lane. Troopers say the motorcycle’s front end collided with the right front of the sedan.

The sedan driver sustained serious injuries.

Charges are pending, according to the report.

NASA’s Artemis II capsule returned to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, almost a month after blasting off on humanity’s first lunar trip in more than a half-century.

Following its splashdown in the Pacific on April 10, the Orion capsule was trucked from San Diego to Cape Canaveral. Engineers will examine the capsule’s heat shield in more detail along with everything else in preparation for next year's Artemis III docking demo in orbit around Earth. The capsule's electronic boxes will be removed and recycled, along with research equipment.

The capsule, dubbed Integrity by its U.S.-Canadian crew, carried astronauts deeper into space than humans have ever traveled before. Aside from a finicky toilet, the capsule appeared to perform well during the nearly 10-day voyage, according to NASA.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen are finally getting a break after medical exams and other tests that followed their mission.

“Been waiting for this moment,” Wiseman said via X late last week, posting a video of himself relaxing on the beach. “There is a lot in my head that I must process and very little has to do with leaving the planet. Today is my first step. I have never in my life felt peace like this.”

Until Artemis II, astronauts had not flown to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Artemis III will feature a fresh capsule and crew. They will remain in orbit around Earth for docking exercises with lunar landers still in development by SpaceX and Blue Origin. That will set the stage for a moon landing by two new astronauts as early as 2028.

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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.

The two-day segment of ministers and senior officials marks the political centerpiece of the First Conference on Transitioning away from Fossil Fuels, where more than 50 countries have been discussing how to move away from oil, gas and coal — the main drivers of global warming — toward cleaner energy.

“The conclusion is unavoidable, we must transition away from fossil fuels — not just because it’s good for climate, but because it strengthens our energy independence and security,” said Stientje van Veldhoven, minister for climate policy and green growth for the Netherlands, which is co-hosting the conference with Colombia.

The meeting reflects growing frustration among some governments and advocates that decades of U.N. climate negotiations have failed to directly address fossil fuel production, prompting the Santa Marta summit to push the issue outside formal talks. Recent negotiations have acknowledged the need for a transition, but countries remain divided over how to implement it and how to finance the shift.

Before the president took the stage, members of the Indigenous Arhuaco community from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta — who have long defended their ancestral lands from outside development — opened the ceremony with a traditional harmonization ritual, a spiritual ceremony in which they spoke in their native language and played ancestral instruments.

Colombian president warns Amazon at tipping point

Speaking in the afternoon, President Petro warned that “the Amazon rainforest is burning,” adding that “without it we reach a point of no return.”

The leftist leader questioned the global economic model underpinning fossil fuel use, asking whether “capitalism can really adapt to a way of life that is not fossil-based.” He said U.N. climate talks have fallen short, arguing that “the unity of states has failed” and calling for broader action beyond governments.

Petro also linked current conflicts to energy dependence, saying “the wars we are seeing are driven by desperate geopolitical strategies around fossil resources.”

Colombia's Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres said in opening comments before Petro's address that the conflict in the Middle East has revealed that “we are not only dealing with a climate and environmental crisis, but also an economic and national security crisis.”

Petro has positioned Colombia as a leading voice calling for a global shift away from fossil fuels, while pushing for a gradual transition at home that balances climate goals with economic realities.

A key moment for international cooperation

Outside the conference venue in the morning, members of a mining union protested against Petro and the event, chanting through megaphones and holding signs that read: “I arrive at the conference by plane to criticize the oil industry,” “More oil, less Petro,” and “Defend your oil barrels.”

With elections in a month's time, outgoing Petro kept his pledge since taking office to halt new oil and gas exploration and steer the country toward a post-fossil fuel economy, even as the Andean nation remains heavily dependent on oil and coal exports.

Minister Vélez Torres framed the gathering as a key moment for international cooperation.

“Let this conference be the moment when ambition becomes solidarity and when cooperation becomes the path toward a future beyond fossil fuels,” she said on Tuesday morning. “Let’s make this a turning point in history.”

Yuvelis Morales Blanco, a 25-year-old activist from Puerto Wilches, Colombia, spoke at the opening plenary and called for urgent action and a transition rooted in communities.

“We are called to make real the world we have imagined,” she said, urging governments to take “direct and concrete actions” to move away from fossil fuels and protect nature. “We demand energy justice, climate justice and justice for youth and children.”

Discussions in Santa Marta so far have highlighted the central challenge of funding the transition, particularly for developing countries facing high borrowing costs and limited access to capital.

Van Veldhoven of the Netherlands said access to affordable financing would be critical to ensuring the transition can happen globally, particularly for developing countries facing high debt and limited fiscal space.

Participants have also debated the role of policy tools such as carbon markets and government subsidies, as well as how to ensure the transition does not repeat patterns of land use and resource exploitation that have harmed communities in the past.

Organizers say the conference will not produce binding agreements, but that it is intended to build political momentum and bring together countries willing to accelerate the transition outside the formal U.N. process. It is also seen as a steppingstone toward upcoming global climate negotiations, where financing and timelines for reducing fossil fuel use are expected to remain key points of debate.

On Monday, Tuvalu, a tiny, low-lying Polynesian island nation in the South Pacific Ocean, announced it will host the next conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels. Small island nations are highly susceptible to climate change, with Tuvalu expected to be submerged by 2100 due to rising sea levels, according to scientists and the U.N.

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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 settlement announced Tuesday allows Oakland’s airport to be called “Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport,” but it bars the city from spotlighting “San Francisco” or “San Francisco Bay” in fonts, highlights, different colors or any other way. It also requires Oakland to use the word “bay” right after “San Francisco” and bans it from using the word “International” in the airport’s name, even though it provides international flights.

The spat began in 2024 after Oakland, a diverse port city often seen as the underdog in the Bay Area compared to its richer neighbor to the west, changed its airport’s name to “San Francisco-Oakland Bay Airport,” prompting San Francisco officials to sue over what they said was a trademark violation.

The two airports are across from each other on the San Francisco Bay and about 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) driving distance.

Oakland officials said the name modification was necessary to help travelers unfamiliar with the region place the city in the Bay Area. They said visitors often fly into San Francisco’s airport even if their destination is closer to the Oakland airport. The airport’s three-letter code OAK did not change.

“We’re proud Oakland fought for, and preserved the right to retain our airport’s full name that puts Oakland first and recognizes OAK’s location on the San Francisco Bay,” Mary Richardson, attorney for the Port of Oakland, which manages the airport, said in a statement.

San Francisco argued having “San Francisco” in Oakland’s airport name would confuse travelers, especially those flying in from abroad and those unfamiliar with the Bay Area. But on Tuesday, San Francisco officials had a friendlier tone.

“We are grateful to have reached a resolution in this matter,” San Francisco International Airport Director Mike Nakornkhet said. “This agreement provides clarity for travelers to make informed decisions about travel through our respective airports.”

Neither side admitted liability, and there was no monetary settlement.

San Francisco International Airport, known as SFO, is owned by the city, though technically located south of it.

“I said ‘no’ over and over, and I tried to leave,” Jessica Mann told jurors, sobbing. “He just treated me like he owned me.”

Mann, 40, is a hairstylist and actor. She's testifying six years after she first gave jurors her account of a consensual, if complicated, relationship that veered into rape.

Weinstein — the Oscar-winning movie producer who became a symbol of the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct — looked on steadily, sometimes sipping water, as Mann detailed what she says he did to her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.

Weinstein, now a 73-year-old prison inmate, denies sexually assaulting anyone and is appealing sex crime convictions stemming from other women's accusations on two U.S. coasts. His attorneys haven't yet had their chance to question Mann at this retrial but have argued that everything that happened between the two was consensual.

He was convicted in 2020 of raping Mann, got the conviction overturned, then saw a jury deadlock on it at a retrial last year.

Testimony laced with tears

Jurors watched intently, several with pens poised to take notes, as Mann went through a second day of testimony that sometimes brought her to tears, as it did at the twoprior trials. After she declined a couple of times to take a break, the court called one when she got flustered during questions about interactions with Weinstein after the alleged rape.

Mann met Weinstein at a Los Angeles-area party around early 2013. She had done some acting work but was hoping for a big break.

Their subsequent get-togethers bounced between professional advice, invites to glitzy industry events and advances that Mann said made her uncomfortable but that she didn't refuse, though she had an emotional “meltdown” during an episode involving Weinstein and another woman.

Still, Mann decided to have a consensual sexual liaison with the then-married producer.

She explained Tuesday that she had been taught to expect such behavior from men and thought she might feel better about it if she was in a relationship with Weinstein.

Sometimes, she said, the then-studio boss was charming and made her feel validated; other times she felt demeaned by his discussions of sexual practices. And “if he was told no or something, it was just like this monster side came out” of a demanding man who flaunted his Hollywood influence.

Soon after their relationship began, Weinstein surprised Mann by showing up ahead of a planned breakfast with her and others in New York, where she'd piggybacked on a pal's work trip, she said. To Mann's dismay, Weinstein took a room at her hotel, according to her and to a former front desk employee who testified earlier.

Mann recalls ‘just shutting down’

Mann said she accompanied Weinstein to the room to sort things out privately. But he barked at her to undress, she recalled. She said she begged, “Please don't. I don't want to,” and tried twice to open the door, but the taller, heavier Weinstein slammed it shut, grabbed her wrists and held them crossed in front of her face.

“That was really scary, so I remember just like kind of like — just shutting down and giving up, because I had been fighting and arguing. So I obeyed,” by undressing and lying on the bed, she testified.

After a trip to the bathroom, where Mann said she later found a used syringe for an erectile-dysfunction drug, Weinstein returned and raped her, she said.

Mann told no one at the time. She went through with the planned breakfast, accepted Weinstein's invitation to extend her trip, attend a movie screening and have tea with him and his daughter.

“I just wanted everyone to act like everything was normal,” she said.

She continued consensual sexual encounters and friendly email exchanges with Weinstein. He helped the financially struggling Mann get hired at a hair salon, though she declined an envelope from him that she believed contained $1,000 in cash: “It felt wrong,” she told jurors.

But after Mann began dating someone she loved, she sought to stop sexual contact with Weinstein, emailing him that she needed to “respect the relationship.”

His reply message was cordial. But in person, Weinstein became enraged on learning her then-boyfriend was an actor, according to Mann.

“You owe me one more time!” Weinstein shouted before raping her again in a hotel in Beverly Hills, California, she told jurors, as she has before.

He never has been charged with any crime related to that allegation.

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they agree to be named, as Mann has done.

And there's still next week's second leg to come.

PSG built a 5-2 lead early in the second half thanks to two goals each from flying winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembélé at Parc des Princes.

“We deserved to win, we deserved to lose, we deserved to draw,” PSG coach Luis Enrique said. “It was an exceptional match, I have never experienced a match of such intensity as a coach. I have never seen a rhythm like that, it was incredible, you have to congratulate all the players.”

Down by three goals, Bayern fought back brilliantly.

Defender Dayot Upamecano’s header midway through the second half from Joshua Kimmich’s free kick gave Bayern hope and Luis Díaz’s stinging strike made it a one-goal deficit heading into next Wednesday’s return leg in Munich.

“I think something special can happen at home, there will be 75,000 people, it will be a hell of an atmosphere,” Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said. “The Allianz Arena is a mythical area where Bayern has enjoyed much success.”

Rather than scale back and defend more, Kompany said he was ready to take even more risks.

“There is no middle ground,” he said. "We will give everything, everything, everything we have. We’re waiting for them, we want this.”

Kompany was suspended and watched from the stands, so assistant Aaron Danks took over on the touchline as Bayern lost for the first time in any competition since Jan. 24.

Harry Kane's penalty gave Bayern the lead in the 17th minute and Kvaratskhelia equalized soon after for PSG. Midfielder João Neves — who is 5-foot-7 — then headed PSG ahead from a corner.

A dramatic first half saw Michael Olise equalize for Bayern after bursting into the area before Swiss referee Sandro Schärer awarded a penalty for PSG when a video review spotted a handball from Canada defender Alphonso Davies.

PSG's penalty was contested by Bayern's players. Davies turned his body to Dembélé’s right-wing cross but the ball bounced off his hip and hit his arm. Although Davies was turning away from play he failed to keep his hands behind his back.

“The rules about handball change every week," Kompany said. “The ball hits the body then the hand and you give a penalty, I don’t agree.”

Dembélé fired the penalty past Manuel Neuer — who guessed the right way — to send PSG ahead 3-2 at the break.

“Two great teams who attack and don’t question themselves,” Dembélé said. "It was an incredible match, but now we go to Munich to qualify. We won’t change our way of playing, and it will be two teams who attack.”

Bayern started well.

Moments after PSG defender Marquinhos was shown a yellow card for stopping Díaz in his tracks, the left winger earned a penalty when he was fouled by Willian Pacho, and from the spot Kane beat goalkeeper Matvey Safonov for his 13th goal of the competition — two behind Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappé — and 54th goal of another prolific season.

Safonov made a good save moments later from Olise, then Dembélé missed a one-on-one.

PSG equalized in the 24th when Désiré Doué’s pass found Kvaratskhelia on the left and the Georgia star cut inside before curling the ball into the bottom right corner for his 10th goal of the competition.

Dembélé and Doué missed further first half-chances from counterattacks which exposed Bayern’s tactic of playing with a perilously high defensive line.

The lesson was not heeded in the second half as PSG scored twice from rapid counterattacks.

Kvaratskhelia rifled in a powerful shot in the 56th after running onto a ball across the area that eluded all the defenders and Bayern’s poor defending was exposed again two minutes later. Doué was given far too much room before feeding Dembélé on the left, and he scored with a low shot off in the post for a 5-2 lead.

“You were standing on the field going ‘what’s going on here?’ because we definitely weren’t three goals worse,” Kimmich said. "It was important that we stayed relatively calm.”

But at the end, PSG was struggling and Pacho headed Kimmich’s looping header off the line with seconds remaining in stoppage time.

“It was a very, very intense game,” Bayern defender Jonathan Tah told Prime Video. “We showed what sort of a team we are, that we can cope with adversity and also with difficult refereeing decisions.”

Luis Enrique was exhausted just watching.

“I’m so tired, and I didn’t run a single kilometer,” he said. “So I don’t how the players are feeling.”

He does not expect any respite next week.

“I just asked my staff ‘ how many goals do you think we will need to win this match?’ They said ‘minimum three.' Bayern Munich in their stadium are even stronger but we will try and show the same mentality.”

Spanish side Atletico Madrid hosts London club Arsenal on Wednesday in the other semifinal first leg. The final will be played in Budapest, Hungary on May 30.

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AP Sports Writer James Ellingworth in Düsseldorf contributed.

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

Now, more than two years after DeSantis ended his presidential campaign and endorsed Trump, the governor has called a special legislative session on redistricting and other issues that will put him back in the national spotlight and maybe remind Republicans that he could lead the party one day.

But there are also risks involved for the 47-year-old governor, and they became immediately apparent after lawmakers convened Tuesday.

DeSantis is pushing lawmakers to redraw Florida's congressional map as part of a coast-to-coast redistricting battle ahead of November's midterm elections. His proposal, released the day before the session began, would make it easier for Republicans to win up to four more seats, equivalent to Democrats’ potential gains from last week’s referendum in Virginia.

The governor also wanted the GOP-dominated Legislature to adopt new regulations for artificial intelligence and loosen vaccine requirements. However, those proposals quickly hit a roadblock when House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Republican but not a DeSantis acolyte, told members he would not advance legislation on those issues.

The governor's maps are on a fast track, with a House vote planned Wednesday and the Senate set to move quickly thereafter. In Washington, GOP leaders and strategists have expressed confidence in DeSantis' maps, but some Republicans still are worried that a gerrymandered map could backfire and allow Democrats to pick up seats.

DeSantis already faces tough prospects on the national stage, even with Trump constitutionally barred from running for a third term in 2028. DeSantis has had a relatively low profile during Trump's second presidency and would likely have Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, another Floridian, to contend with in a Republican presidential primary.

“The window for Ron looks reasonably narrow at this point,” said Whit Ayres, who served as DeSantis' pollster in his first campaign for governor in 2018.

DeSantis' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. On X, DeSantis called the House move on AI and vaccines “typical political shenanigans.”

Meanwhile, the governor has embraced the national redistricting fight. When House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., last week dared Florida Republicans to go ahead with their special session, the governor punched back with the kind of aggressiveness he showed in the early days of his failed White House bid.

“I will pay for you to come down to Florida and campaign,” DeSantis said of Jeffries. “I’ll put you up in the Florida governor’s mansion. We’ll take you fishing.”

DeSantis wants four more Republican seats

DeSantis unveiled his proposed congressional map to Fox News on Monday even before it had been widely circulated to lawmakers — a point Democrats emphasized.

“Y'all should be pissed off,” Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones of Miami-Dade told his Republican colleagues. “The governor has no respect for us.”

The governor's map, if approved, would reshape districts in Democratic areas around Orlando, Tampa Bay, Miami and Fort Lauderdale. DeSantis argued that the 2020 census shortchanged the state’s population, making it necessary to redraw the lines. The changes could cost Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, among others, their seats. The current maps yielded a 20 to 8 Republican tilt in 2024. DeSantis' version would aim for an advantage of 24 to 4.

DeSantis first announced the special session in January, months after Trump started pushing Republican-run states to redraw their congressional boundaries. What followed has been a tit-for-tat battle, with each party looking for an edge in the midterms.

The Virginia referendum celebrated by Democrats faces a court challenge, and the Virginia Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to immediately lift an order from a lower court that bars the state from certifying the passage of the ballot measure. Another legal battle is playing out in Wisconsin where Democrats also hope to pick up another seat or two.

There's no guarantee that new maps will play out the way parties hope. For example, Texas based its revised lines largely on Trump’s performance in 2024, redistributing the president's voters across more districts to pull them into the Republican column. But Trump's popularity has waned since his reelection, including among Latino voters who figure prominently in the state.

Florida could face a similar conundrum. Creating more majority-Republican districts could leave margins thin enough to allow for Democratic victories, especially if there's an anti-Trump backlash at the polls this year.

Brian Ballard, an influential Florida lobbyist who has been DeSantis’ top fundraiser, said it’s worth remembering that DeSantis was the muscle behind the current map that expanded Republicans’ advantage.

“He’s incredibly smart and capable,” Ballard said. “And he doesn’t get enough credit for that map. He’s done this before.”

Florida legislative leaders are not rubber stamps for DeSantis

As it did Tuesday, the Florida House has grown more willing to buck the governor in recent sessions. Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton made clear for weeks that they were not drawing their own proposals and would react only to what DeSantis put forward.

Albritton sent multiple memos to senators reminding them of Florida’s state constitutional limits on redistricting and the requirement that it not be done as a blatantly partisan act.

Perez sidestepped questions Tuesday about whether the maps violate those requirements, which Florida voters approved by a nearly 2-to-1 margin in 2010. Democrats and political advocates have promised legal challenges and said repeatedly Tuesday that shameless partisanship is at play.

“We are here because the president of the United States gave an order,” Jones, the Democratic senator, said. “Shame on us.”

Beyond redistricting, DeSantis was effectively asking House members to approve AI and vaccine proposals that they refused even to advance out of committee earlier this year.

On AI, DeSantis wanted to require tech companies to ensure children cannot interact with chatbots without parental permission. He also wanted to prevent AI from generating harmful material for minors. That proposal put DeSantis at odds with Trump, who wants the federal government to be the regulator of AI technology. Perez said he sides with the president, calling AI a “national security issue” that is “bigger than just one state.”

On vaccines, DeSantis wanted to add a conscience-based exemption to public school vaccine requirements, similar to the existing religious exemption. That aligns him with the anti-vaccine portion of the Trump base that was instrumental in making Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the U.S. health secretary.

Perez countered that vaccine requirements in the U.S. “have been working for decades” and said he remains uncomfortable with “children being in school without measles and mumps and polio and chickenpox vaccines.”

Political observers are watching — even at the White House

Ballard downplayed any political concerns for DeSantis. What may seem to some as strained relations with certain Republican legislative leaders, he said, is simply measuring DeSantis against the opening years of his tenure.

“I mean, he went from batting a thousand to maybe batting .600,” Ballard said, using a baseball analogy for the governor who played the sport while attending Yale. “That isn’t failure.”

During the last Republican presidential primary, DeSantis initially gave conservative establishment figures and key donors an option other than Trump, who grew frustrated by the challenge and mocked the governor as “Ron DeSanctimonious.”

But Trump seemingly forgave DeSantis when he dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump following his victory in the Iowa caucuses. He even promised to call DeSantis by his actual name.

There's more bad blood within the White House, though. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, a Floridian, managed DeSantis’ razor-thin 2018 victory, only for the pair to have a falling out.

Wiles did not respond to a request for comment. But Ayres said he’s certain she’s paying attention.

“Donald Trump has a long memory, and Susie Wiles has a longer one,” he said. “And that doesn’t bode well for Gov. DeSantis to be Donald Trump’s Republican successor.”

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Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed.

The new map, if approved by lawmakers in a special session that starts Tuesday, could flip a handful of districts from Democrats to Republicans, helping the GOP retain control of the U.S. House in November.

INTERACTIVE MAP | Take a look: How the proposal from Gov. DeSantis would change Florida’s congressional district map

DeSantis released the map to Fox News first on Monday before the plan was formally sent to the Legislature.

House and Senate committees will review the proposal Tuesday ahead of a likely floor vote Wednesday.

In a memo to lawmakers, DeSantis’ general counsel, David Axelman, stated the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to knock down part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that allows districts to be drawn based on race to address historic discrimination. A ruling in a redistricting case out of Louisiana that was heard in October is still pending.

Florida voters, though, approved the Fair Districts amendments in 2010, which prohibit drawing districts to diminish the voting power of minorities or to favor a particular party. Because the Florida Supreme Court in 2025 struck down the part of the Fair District amendment (FDA) that allows districts to be drawn for racial reasons, Axelman claims all of the amendment should be null and void, allowing for partisan gerrymandering.

“The race-based requirements of the FDA also cannot be severed from the other requirements of the FDA. The FDA was sold to the voters as a package,” Axelman wrote. “There was no severability provision included in the FDA when it was presented to the voters. And because one part is unconstitutional, there’s little reason to think that voters would have approved the remaining parts by themselves.”

Read the full memorandum below.

The Legislature might have a different view of the legal landscape. When DeSantis first called the special session in January he set the date for April 20, but earlier this month he pushed the start back by one week.

At the time Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, issued a memo to members reminding them of the state constitution’s prohibition against partisan gerrymandering.

“Florida’s Constitution includes strict guidelines for what information the Legislature can and cannot consider when drawing new congressional districts,” Albritton wrote. “Regardless of the forum or format, we can only consider thoughts and feedback in keeping with constitutional standards. Senators should take care to insulate themselves from partisan-funded organizations and other interests that may intentionally or unintentionally attempt to inappropriately influence redistricting."

Democratic lawmakers decried the new map as a blatant partisan power grab.

“The fact that the Governor shared his illegally rigged Congressional map with (Fox News) before sharing it with state senators voting on them TOMORROW shows how partisan and illegitimate this process is,” state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, posted on X.

The map was drawn by DeSantis staffers over the last week.

President Donald Trump kicked off a redistricting arms race when he pushed Republican-controlled states to redraw their maps ahead of the midterm elections. GOP-heavy Texas was the first state to do so, and Democrats in California responded. Some states, such as Indiana and Maryland, have rejected the mapmaking mania, but Virginia voters last week approved a new map tilted toward Democrats.

That left Florida as the potentially last chance for Republicans to slant the midterm landscape to their favor in hopes of salvaging their narrow advantage in the U.S. House. There are currently 217 Republicans, 212 Democrats, one independent and five vacancies in the chamber.

DeSantis has also pointed to a faulty 2020 census that added one more congressional district to Florida’s delegation, but DeSantis claims the state should have been given another. Also, Florida has added 2 million people since the 2020 census and the districts are now lopsided.

But Florida has had rampant growth in its recent history and hasn’t conducted mid-decade redistricting, and DeSantis hasn’t suggested redrawing the legislative districts, just the U.S. House districts.

The new maps, if passed and signed into law, are likely destined for the courts, but even with DeSantis having appointed six out of the seven members of the Florida Supreme Court, it’s unclear whether the new districts would get knocked down.

Under current precedence, courts have leaned on the Purcell principle, which holds that courts shouldn’t make changes to election laws close to an election. But unlike after a new census, Florida already has a district map upheld by the courts if the new map is struck down.

“In 2022 you needed a map. Florida had added a new congressional district, the old map was invalid,” Democratic redistricting consultant Mat Isbell said. “We have a valid map that we’re currently using.”

The Florida Democratic Party is hosting a virtual organizing event Monday at 6:30 p.m. against Republican efforts to redraw the state’s congressional maps.

“The Florida Constitution is explicit: maps cannot be drawn to favor a political party. That protection was written into law by Florida voters through the 2010 Fair Districts Amendment. Now, Republicans are trying to throw it out because they do not like the maps they are stuck with,” the Florida Democrats said in a press release.

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McDavid, who led the NHL in points this season, did not participate in the team's morning skate ahead of a must-win game for Edmonton.

The Oilers are trying to avoid elimination and rally from a 3-1 deficit in the best-of-seven series. Edmonton reached the Stanley Cup final in each of the last two seasons before losing to the two-time champion Florida Panthers.

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch also said the status of forward/center Jason Dickinson would be decided before the game and that Connor Ingram would start in net.

The 29-year-old McDavid has looked uncomfortable at times since rolling his ankle in the second period of Game 2 when he collided with teammate Mattias Ekholm.

McDavid, who led the league with 138 points, scored his first goal in Game 3 and had his first multi-point games in the third and fourth games of the series in Anaheim. McDavid didn’t participate in Saturday’s off-day skate in Anaheim.

McDavid was nominated Tuesday for the Ted Lindsay Award, along with San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov. The award is for the league’s “most outstanding player” as voted by NHL players. McDavid is a four-time winner.

Ingram returns to the Edmonton net on Tuesday after Tristan Jarry made 34 saves in a 4-3 overtime loss in Game 4. Ingram started the first three games of the series. He earned a 4-3 victory in Game 1 before allowing 11 goals in consecutive losses behind a leaky Edmonton defense.

“Nothing against Jarry,” Knoblauch said. “I thought he had a solid game the other night, but going down this last few weeks or months, Ingram’s been our starter. He’s been our guy. Now that our season’s on the line, we felt that we would go with our guy.”

Dickinson sat out the second and third games of the series due to injury. He scored twice in Edmonton’s win in the opener and assisted on the Oilers’ first goal in the Game 4 loss.

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

Click here for more Brantley County wildfire coverage.

In a Facebook post, the agency said it is supporting the state-led response through the Fire Management Assistance Grants Program to help reimburse fire suppression efforts.

Elijah Johnson moved to Brantley County a few months ago from Alaska to start a business. He said he’s lived near massive wildfires in the nation’s biggest state, but said the property loss in Brantley is devastating.

“Coming from Alaska and we’re used to wildfires, it could’ve been better,” Johnson said. “They were super delayed, at one point, we weren’t getting updates.”

Johnson said he’s surprised that a federal disaster hasn’t been declared with the number of homes lost, but at the same time, he isn’t because of the wildfire’s size.

For FEMA to declare a federal disaster, it needs to be determined that Georgia can’t cover the losses in the fire and Governor Brian Kemp must request the federal money for the residents.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock addressed FEMA funding during an interview.

“We have a lot of resources at the federal level,” Warnock said. “I’ve been working very hard to make sure that we get the necessary declarations made, declaration of emergency, the governor’s done that. But as we get these declarations, that unleashes certain parts of the government to respond with resources, both for the community in general, but also to help families as they try to dig their way out of this hole.

Warnock said he’s been doing everything in his power to escalate “whatever requests are made to the federal government.”

Local residents are watching what happens as dozens of homeowners are returning to their properties, many without a place to live anymore.

“I don’t know it’s up to the insurance companies if they pay for it or not covered because it’s an act of God,” Ricky Snead said.

Brantley County Manager Joey Carson sought to calm the rumors, saying officials had reached a compromise to stagger shifts so crews could get rest and attend to family needs.

Carson spoke alongside a member of the Georgia Incident Management Team, Maj. Oliver, who is working with the team providing structural protection. Carson said local firefighters had been working for seven days and he initially considered pulling them off the line to ensure their safety and well-being.

“We’re going to start working for the local firefighters and shifts as I can get through,” Carson said, adding the change was meant to “ensure that they’re getting plenty of rest and time to be with some of their families.”

Carson said some of the confusion stemmed from the scale of the response. “We’ve got 550 people here,” he said, and most movements on the incident “are for specific reasons,” often tied to safety. He noted the operation includes aircraft, drones and highly trained personnel to monitor conditions and protect people and property.

“We’re not going to take a chance on getting somebody hurt,” Carson said, urging residents to disregard rumors and thanking the public for its cooperation.

Many of the locals said they think the response to the wildfires has been great.

“I actually think the community came together and is helping so much,” Kaylee Young said.

Jeff Houston said that his property was saved.

“It got 100 feet from my property and these people right here saved it,” Houston said.

Totally Hooked Plumbing says it is owed about $5,000 for emergency repairs completed at Grassy Pond Apartments, where a large sinkhole caused a water main break that left residents without running water for four days during the holiday season.

Owner Tyler Bodager said his crew worked late into the night on Dec. 23 to restore service.

“We wanted to get people water as quick as possible too, so the holidays aren’t messed up,” Bodager said. “We had guys there till midnight on the 23rd to try to get these people water.”

RELATED: A troubled Westside apartment complex was overrun by squatters. New owners promise change

Residents at the time described the conditions as unbearable, especially for vulnerable tenants. One pregnant resident said she just wanted to be able to shower, cook and wash dishes after days without water.

City officials ultimately intervened after News4JAX alerted them to the outage, issuing a citation to the property owner and a 48-hour deadline to restore water service.

Bodager said the company received an initial deposit but has been unable to collect the remaining balance despite repeated attempts to contact the property’s former ownership group, People’s Choice Apartments, now operating as Legacy Family Communities.

“Since then it’s been ghost mode,” Bodager said. “We haven’t heard anything.”

Call logs reviewed by News4JAX show numerous attempts by the company to reach representatives, including phone calls and voicemails requesting payment. In one recorded exchange, a representative told Bodager, “I literally just work for the company,” when asked for information about ownership.

Efforts by News4JAX to reach the company for comment were unsuccessful.

Complicating the situation, the apartment complex changed hands after a foreclosure was finalized in January. Under the previous owner, Jarek Tadla, tenants had long complained of unsafe and deteriorating conditions, including reports of squatters and repeated utility disruptions.

Bodager said his company has avoided placing a lien on the property to prevent impacting the new ownership.

“We don’t want to hurt the new owner,” he said. “We’re really just trying to pursue Jarek. It’s not the new owner’s responsibility or fault.”

The company is now considering legal action to recover the unpaid balance.

“Anytime we don’t get paid on a large job that we try to help everybody on, it really hurts us,” Bodager said. “We’re not a private equity company. It’s me, my sisters, my dad and our employees.”

The dispute comes as multiple properties formerly owned by Tadla and People’s Choice Apartments face foreclosure proceedings, following months of reporting on deteriorating living conditions and prolonged service outages at several complexes.

News4JAX has not received a response from the former ownership regarding the outstanding bill.

The vote on the war powers resolution showed how Republicans continue to stand behind Trump as he acts unilaterally to exert American force in a range of global conflicts, including Venezuela, Iran and Cuba — one of the U.S.'s closest neighbors yet a longtime adversary.

Democrats have repeatedly forced votes on legislation to put a check on the president's ability to deploy military force in those conflicts, but none have succeeded. Tuesday's vote was the first pertaining to Cuba and would have forced the president to get approval from Congress before launching any attacks on the island nation.

To dismiss the resolution, Republicans said that it was out of order because the U.S. is not engaged in outright hostilities with Cuba. Their maneuver to dismiss the legislation succeeded on a 51-47 tally. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat who voted to dismiss the resolution, while Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky were the only Republicans to support it.

The Caribbean island is suffering from water and power outages as the U.S. imposes sanctions and interrupts oil shipments from Venezuela. The Trump administration is pressing Cuba's leadership to end political repression, release political prisoners and liberalize its ailing economy.

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who introduced the war powers resolution, said the blockade had caused “humanitarian crises across Cuba," including disrupting medical care, leaving millions of people without clean water and spiking food prices.

“My argument is that under the terms of the resolution we are already engaged in hostilities with Cuba because we are using American force, primarily the Coast Guard, but other assets as well, to engage in a very devastating economic blockade of the nation,” Kaine said.

Trump has said that after the war with Iran, he will turn his attention to Cuba. He pledged “a new dawn for Cuba” during a speech at a Turning Points USA event last week.

Democrats argued that the war powers resolution was also necessary to head off the potential for Trump to launch a military campaign against the nation.

“The United States and Cuba need to find a way to peacefully coexist,” said Sen. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat.

Democrats have tried to mount political opposition to Trump's military actions by forcing votes through the War Powers Act of 1973, which was intended to assert congressional power over the declaration of war.

Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida accused Democrats of ignoring the human rights abuses of Cuba's leadership.

“President Trump is doing everything he can to bring back freedom and democracy all across Latin America, and we should do everything we can to support him,” Scott said.

“It wasn’t a controversy, it was absolutely the right call,” Bettman said in meeting with Associated Press Sports Editors at the NHL headquarters in New York City. “Because of the technology that we currently use and the cameras that we have inside the net, you could see it, knew for certain that it would be in and over the line.”

Bettman’s response comes two days after Ryan Poehling’s goal was extensively reviewed to determine whether it fully crossed the goal line, before being allowed to stand in a 4-3 win. The Ducks lead 3-1 and have a chance to clinch the series in playing Game 5 at Edmonton on Tuesday night.

Though on-ice officials ruled Poehling scored, questions were raised as to whether there was enough visible evidence to show the puck crossing the line 2:29 into overtime.

Poehling’s sharp-angle shot hit an Edmonton player’s skate in front and trickled under goalie Tristan Jarry. The puck creeped through Jarry’s legs, appearing to barely cross the goal line, though the top portion of the puck was hidden by the goalie’s skate blade.

NHL replay officials determined there was no reason to overturn the on-ice call.

“I thought I saw some white (between the puck and the goal line) when I was behind the net,” Poehling said. “Then everyone was celebrating. Did it go in? I’m like, ‘I think so?’ But yeah, I thought so right away.”

Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch was not convinced.

“I can’t see it going in,” Knoblauch said. “I can’t see the line. ... The (initial) goal call on the ice was probably about 60 to 90 seconds after (the shot), maybe even more. They huddled when they got to center ice and then they made the (initial) call that it was a good goal. I don’t know. Wasn’t very definitive.”

Bettman on Tuesday said the NHL is currently testing technological advancements that would further assist replay officials in determining goals. He didn’t reveal any details or provide a timeline on when the technology would be introduced.

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

The hearing Tuesday was the first of two back-to-back court hearings on lawsuits over changes at the Kennedy Center. It ended with U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper taking no action after firing questions at plaintiff and defense attorneys alike, making it difficult to predict how he might rule.

Cooper asked the government’s attorney, Brantley Mayers, where in its argument or submissions was the administration’s analysis of the cost of the closure so the center can be renovated, including the loss of sponsorships, bookings and revenue. “I didn’t see any numbers,” he said.

Cooper also wanted to know why the government might oppose renovating the building in stages, an attitude he said had been the “status quo” until it suddenly changed its mind and opted for closure.

Tuesday’s hearing centered on a lawsuit filed last year by Rep. Joyce Beatty. The Ohio Democrat sued President Donald Trump and other members of the administration in her capacity as an ex officio trustee of the Kennedy Center. Beatty’s lawsuit expanded to include the decision in February to close the center for two years for renovations starting in July.

Since returning to office last year, Trump has taken particular interest in the Kennedy Center. He ousted its previous leadership and replaced it with a handpicked board that named him chairman, changes that prompted an outcry from many artists and exacerbated the operation’s financial challenges. Trump, whose name was later added to the building's facade, announced the renovations earlier this year.

Cooper spent more than half of the two-hour hearing grilling Nathaniel Zelinsky, senior counsel at the Washington Litigation Group, with technical questions relating to Beatty's ability to bring forth the lawsuit.

The judge held off on taking any action, including a possible injunction against the center's name change.

During Tuesday's hearing, Norm Eisen, a board member at Democracy Defenders Action who is co-counsel with Zelinsky, pointed to dozens of statutory refences that made clear the name was intended to be the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Following the hearing, Beatty said she was “very fearful that we’ll see what happened with the East Wing and what happened with the Rose Garden” if the center is closed, referring to major changes the president has made at the White House.

Despite statements from its new executive director, Matt Floca, that work would be done appropriately, Beatty said she doesn't trust the president. “We went through the same thing at the White House. I was right outside there when we saw the bulldozers.”

Another hearing is set for Wednesday, this one the result of a lawsuit by a group of eight cultural preservationist groups who also oppose the closure and renovations.

Cooper said during Tuesday's hearing that he had questions he wanted answered at the upcoming hearing — especially by the defense -- on what will happen to the Kennedy Center if it is closed, including whether there would be any public access.

Dave Dombrowski, the Phillies’ president of baseball operations, wanted to know if Rob Thomson was fired, would Cora be interested in taking over a team with a $284.7 million payroll and World Series expectations that had slogged through April as one of the worst teams in baseball.

Cora ultimately declined, citing family reasons, and a potential reunion with Dombrowski eight seasons after they won the World Series together in Boston was on hold.

Rebuffed by Cora, the Phillies looked down the bench to Don Mattingly.

Only four months after he was hired as Philadelphia's bench coach, Mattingly was named interim manager to replace Thomson, who was fired Tuesday after the Phillies lost 11 of 12 games and began the day tied for last place in the majors.

“Alex wasn’t going to take the job at that point; should we still make the change? We came to the final conclusion that we were going to make the change, and that it was the best for the club,” Dombrowski said.

Thomson led the Phillies to four straight playoff appearances, including the 2022 World Series, and consecutive NL East titles, but couldn't lead high-priced talent that included Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner back to the top of the standings through the first month of the season.

“I still think, and I hope because I love these guys, that this team is going to turn this thing around,” Thomson said hours after he was fired. “They're going to get hot. There's a bunch of different reasons why, but one is the fact there's a lot of talent in there.”

Dombrowski, who has led baseball operations for Montreal, Miami, Detroit and Boston, winning World Series titles with the Marlins in 1997 and Red Sox in 2018, made it clear Tuesday that Cora was his first choice to succeed Thomson.

“We never got down to the nuts and bolts of things,” Dombrowski said. “He called me Saturday night as a friend. I guess he calls me one of his mentors and we talked because he never had been through that before. We talked Sunday morning.

“I came to conclusion that if he took it, I would make a change. I thought he would take it. Until Monday morning it was apparent from his perspective he wanted to take time with his family. He wanted to be a father first and foremost and so that’s what he had decided.”

Mattingly will now work for his son

Mattingly, the former New York Yankees great, was named interim manager through the end of the season and third base coach Dusty Wathan was promoted to bench coach. Mattingly will now work for one of his sons — Preston Mattingly is the Phillies general manager — in what is believed to be the first father-son GM/manager combination in baseball history.

Mattingly said there was no awkwardness about essentially working for his son because they both had the same vision for the franchise.

“We both want to win games,” Mattingly said. “We’re like every player. We’re here to win.”

Thomson is the second manager fired in baseball this season after the Red Sox fired Cora and five coaches on Saturday.

Dombrowski gave Thomson a vote of confidence last week during their losing streak. Dombrowski stood behind Thomson’s work and said he’d been a good manager since replacing Joe Girardi in 2022.

Thomson went 355-270 and orchestrated a baseball resurgence in Philadelphia. The 62-year-old, a baseball lifer finally promoted to his first managerial stint in 2022, signed a contract extension in the offseason running through the 2027 season and was again expected to lead the Phillies into World Series contention.

Thomson made the rare move for a fired manager to address the media one final time and said he was so grateful for his time with the Phillies, he would like to stay connected to the organization in the future.

“I don't want to go anywhere else,” Thomson said. “Maybe right now isn't the right time. But yeah, I'm all in on that.”

The Phillies instead have been one of the biggest flops in baseball and lost 10 straight games before ace Zack Wheeler led them to a win against Atlanta on Saturday. The Phillies lost to Atlanta on Sunday and fell to 9-19 overall, tied with the division rival New York Mets.

Thomson led Philadelphia to the 2022 World Series after taking over for Girardi, losing to the Houston Astros in six games. Since then, the club has regressed in the postseason. It lost in the NL Championship Series in 2023 in seven games, and the NL Division Series in 2024 and ’25 in four games.

Nicknamed Topper, Thomson has been with the club since the 2018 season, when he was hired as bench coach under former manager Gabe Kapler.

He was with the New York Yankees from 1990-2017, including 10 seasons on the major league coaching staff as bench coach (2008, 2015-17) and third base coach (2009-14). He earned his nickname in the Yankees organization for always being on top of details.

Thomson became only the fourth manager in big league history to reach the postseason in each of the first four full seasons to begin a managing career, joining Dave Roberts, Aaron Boone and Mike Matheny. He became only the third manager in Phillies history to win consecutive division titles, joining Charlie Manuel and Danny Ozark.

“I've played for a lot of guys over my 15-year career, and Topper is definitely one of the guys at the top,” Harper said.

Phillies season goes off the rails

The Phillies have been awful in what was supposed to be a celebratory season with the franchise set to host the All-Star Game and surrounding festivities. Instead, they have collapsed in every aspect of the game, with regulars Alec Bohm and Schwarber both hitting under .200, while starters Jesús Luzardo, Aaron Nola and Andrew Painter all have 5.00-plus ERAs.

The Phillies recently released high-priced bust Taijuan Walker in the final year of a four-year, $72 million contract and outfielder Nick Castellanos was released in February as he entered the final year of a five-year, $100 million deal.

The Phillies haven’t won the World Series since 2008 and had last made the playoffs in 2011 until Thomson led them to the surprise run to the 2022 World Series dubbed Red October that rejuvenated the fanbase and made 90-plus win seasons the norm.

The Phillies now will turn to Mattingly, who kept the coaching staff intact, to resuscitate their season and try to at least keep them in the hunt for an NL wild-card spot.

Mattingly is ready to lead Phillies into contention

Mattingly, spending his 23rd straight season as a major league manager or coach, had his mind set on retirement after he left his role as Toronto’s bench coach under manager John Schneider following the World Series.

He reversed course after a talk with his family and latched on with the Phillies, enticed by the chance to work with his son and Thomson, his friend from their Yankees days.

Mattingly managed the Dodgers from 2011-15 and the Marlins from 2016-22. He was the 2020 NL Manager of the Year after he led the Marlins to their first playoff appearance since 2003.

He said when the Phillies hired him in the winter that he no longer had interest in managing again. Mattingly said ahead of Tuesday's game against the Giants those comments were largely out of deference to Thomson's presence and that he indeed had the spark and desire to help bring the Phillies back into the playoff race.

“I’ve always felt good. I’ve been pretty healthy,” Mattingly said. “I feel like I have energy. But I did want to say that from the standpoint that Thom’s here. I didn’t want anyone feeling like I was here to do something like this. So, I really wanted to leave it like that.”

Mattingly played 14 seasons as a first baseman in the major leagues, all for the Yankees, from 1982-95. He was a six-time AL All-Star and the 1985 AL Most Valuable Player. Mattingly captained the Yankees in his final five seasons.

Much like Thomson did in 2022, Mattingly believes he can return the Phillies to greatness as an interim manager.

“We’re talented enough,” he said. “We know that. We believe that."

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

The 32nd-ranked Baptiste rallied to a 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6) victory — her first over a top 5 opponent. She will play in a WTA 1000 semifinal for the first time.

The result ended a 15-match winning streak for Sabalenka, who was the defending champion in Madrid.

The 24-year-old Baptiste is the first player to beat Sabalenka from match points down since Iga Swiatek did it in the 2024 final in Madrid.

“It was a tough match. She played great,” Sabalenka said. “I played great. I think I had some opportunities in the third set. I felt like I was maybe a little bit rushing the point over there. But it’s OK, sometimes I guess you have to learn, take the bad stuff from this week and move on.”

Baptiste will face No. 8 Mirra Andreeva, who advanced to her first Madrid semifinal with a straight-set win over Leylah Fernandez.

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

The criminal case is the second in months against Comey and is part of the Trump administration Justice Department's relentless effort to prosecute political opponents of the Republican president. The seashells photo was posted nearly a year ago, but the indictment was secured at a time when acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, a Trump loyalist who previously served as his personal lawyer, aims to prove to the president that he is the right person to hold the job permanently.

The fact that the Justice Department pursued a new case months after a separate and unrelated indictment was dismissed could expose the government to claims of a vindictive prosecution and to arguments that it is going out of its way to target Comey, who as FBI director had overseen the early months of an investigation into whether Trump's 2016 campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of that year’s election.

Comey was fired by Trump months into the president’s first term as that investigation was underway, and they have openly feuded ever since.

The prosecution arises from a May post on Instagram in which Comey shared a photo of seashells he saw on a walk in the arrangement of “86 47.” He has said he assumed that the numbers reflected a political message, not a call to violence. Comey deleted the post shortly after it was made, writing: “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence” and “I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

Nonetheless, Comey was swiftly interviewed by the Secret Service after Trump administration officials asserted that he was advocating the assassination of Trump, the 47th president.

The case was filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the state where Comey found the seashells.

“Well, they’re back – this time about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina beach a year ago, and this won’t be the end of it,” Comey said in a video statement Tuesday. “But nothing has changed with me. I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary. So let’s go.”

The two-count indictment charges Comey with “knowingly and willfully” making a threat to “take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon" Trump and with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. It does not provide evidence that Comey knowingly threatened Trump, especially since Comey has said the opposite, but suggested a “reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret” the message as a threat.

At a news conference Tuesday, Blanche refused to elaborate on any evidence of intent the government has but said: “How do you prove intent in any case? You prove intent with witnesses, with documents, with the defendant himself to the extent it's appropriate. And that's how we'll prove intent in this case.”

And in an effort to rebut claims that Comey was being selectively prosecuted, Blanche contended the case against the former FBI director was similar to other threats cases the department routinely brings against the lesser known.

“While this case is unique and this indictment stands out because of the name of the defendant, his alleged conduct is the same kind of conduct that we will never tolerate and that we will always investigate and regularly prosecute,” Blanche said.

Comey's legal team said in a statement that they “will contest these charges in the courtroom and look forward to vindicating Mr. Comey and the First Amendment.” They said he “vigorously denies” the charges.

What 86 means

Merriam-Webster, the dictionary used by The Associated Press, says 86 is slang meaning “to throw out,” “to get rid of” or “to refuse service to.” It notes: “Among the most recent senses adopted is a logical extension of the previous ones, with the meaning of ‘to kill.’ We do not enter this sense, due to its relative recency and sparseness of use.”

Trump, in a Fox News Channel interview in May, accused Comey of knowing “exactly what that meant."

“A child knows what that meant,” Trump said. "If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.”

Comey's first indictment

The former FBI director was indicted in September on charges he lied to Congress in 2020 about whether he had authorized information about an investigation to be provided to a journalist. He denied any wrongdoing. The case was dismissed after a judge concluded the prosecutor who brought the indictment was illegally appointed.

Comey was the FBI director when Trump took office in 2017, having been appointed by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and serving before that as a senior Justice Department official in President George W. Bush’s Republican administration.

But the relationship was strained from the start, including after Comey resisted a request by Trump at a private dinner to pledge his personal loyalty to the president -- an overture that so unnerved the FBI director that he documented it in a contemporaneous memorandum.

Trump fired Comey in May 2017 amid an FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s campaign. That inquiry, later taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller, found that while Russia interfered in the 2016 election and the Trump team welcomed the help, there was insufficient evidence to prove a criminal collaboration.

Other politically charged prosecutions

Blanche was elevated earlier this month from deputy attorney general to acting attorney general, replacing Pam Bondi, who had frustrated Trump with the department's struggles to build successful criminal cases against his adversaries.

Blanche since then has moved quickly to accelerate politically charged prosecutions, including a case last week against the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center, which is accused by the Justice Department of misleading donors by using their money to pay informants who served as leaders in the hate groups the organization was founded to fight. The group has denied any wrongdoing.

Comey is among many Trump foes to face scrutiny over the last year.

The Justice Department, for instance, is also pursuing a criminal investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan, another key figure in the Russia investigation -- one of Trump’s chief grievances and a saga he and his supporters have long sought retaliation for. Brennan has denied doing anything wrong.

CNN was the first to report the second indictment against Comey.

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Follow the AP's coverage of former FBI Director James Comey at https://apnews.com/hub/james-comey.

The “3-2-1 Lottery” proposal, which was reviewed by the league’s general managers, will be further discussed before it goes the Board of Governors for a final vote that is expected next month. It will not change the current format, which will likely be utilized for the final time when the lottery for this year’s draft is held May 10. This would go into effect next year.

The proposed plan will be discussed again at a competition committee meeting on Thursday. It would add two teams to the current 14-team lottery structure and incentivizes winning even for teams that aren’t still in the race for play-in or playoff spots.

The 16 teams in this proposal would all get somewhere between one and three lottery balls — hence the 3-2-1 name that has been attached to the plan — and the awarding of those balls would be broken down thusly:

— The losers of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in games in both conferences would get one lottery ball each.

— The No. 9 and No. 10 seeds going into the play-in tournament would get two lottery balls each.

— The remaining 10 teams that miss the playoffs and the play-in would all get three lottery balls — with the exception of the three worst teams in the standings. They would enter “draft relegation” and have one of their lottery balls taken away, which the NBA hopes would keep teams from trying to lose as many games as they can for the worst possible record. That practice, the so-called “tanking,” has been rewarded in the current system by better lottery odds.

The league was furious this season at how some teams were clearly prioritizing their draft spot over winning, even fining the Utah Jazz $500,000 “for conduct detrimental to the league” over the way two top plays were held out of the fourth quarter of a pair of games — one of which the Jazz actually won.

There was a clear race to the bottom this season with five teams — Washington, Indiana, Utah, Memphis and Brooklyn — all having winning percentages below .180 after the All-Star break. There has never been a season in NBA history, until now, where so many teams lost that often after the break.

“The incentives are not necessarily matched here,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in February when discussing the correlation between the teams with the worst records having the best lottery odds. “I think the tradition in sports where the worst-performing team receives the first pick from their partners, when any economist comes and looks at our system, they always point out you have the incentives backwards there. That doesn’t necessarily make sense.”

Silver has vowed that the league — which has changed the lottery system several times over the past decades — would strongly address the tanking issue before next year.

Odds of winning

The teams that finish with the three worst records would all have a 5.4% chance of winning the No. 1 pick, and could not fall below the No. 12 pick.

But the best odds of winning No. 1 would go to the other seven teams that miss the play-in and the playoffs — with those clubs all having an 8.1% chance of finishing with the No. 1 selection.

The No. 9 and No. 10 play-in seeds would also have a 5.4% chance of winning the lottery, and the losers of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in games would both have a 2.7% chance.

Major changes to odds

The three worst teams this season — Washington, Indiana and Brooklyn — have 14% odds of winning the lottery and are guaranteed a top-seven pick. (In Indiana’s case, if the Pacers finish with the fifth or sixth pick, it would convey to the Los Angeles Clippers because of a previous trade.)

In the proposed system, those teams would have a 5.4% chance of winning and could fall as low as 12th in the first-round draft order. There would be a 72% chance that those teams would fall outside the top five.

“This is a decision that needs to be made at the ownership level,” Silver said earlier this year. “It has business implications, has basketball implications, has integrity implications for the league. It’s one that we take very seriously. We are going to fix it, full stop. I want to say that directly to our fans. ... Incentives need to be fixed. We will fix them. I’m looking forward to that.”

Other proposed changes

More elements within the 3-2-1 proposal include:

— No team could win back-to-back No. 1 picks or have three consecutive picks in the top five.

— No protections in trades would be allowed for picks that fall between Nos. 12 and 15.

— The league would have “expanded disciplinary authority” to address tanking, with potential moves including lowering teams’ lottery odds or even changing draft positions.

— The proposed plan, if approved, would sunset after the 2029 draft and require the Board of Governors to vote to either continue the system or make changes yet again.

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

The unanimous ruling from a panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City sets the stage for a possible U.S. Supreme Court appeal. That's because panels on the 8th and 5th circuit courts have already upheld the policy put in place by President Donald Trump's administration last July.

“Today, although we part ways with two other circuits that have addressed this question, we join the overwhelming majority of federal judges across the Nation to consider it and conclude that the government’s novel interpretation of the immigration statute defies their plain text,” Judge Joseph F. Bianco wrote for the panel, which included Judges Alison J. Nathan and Jose A. Cabranes.

Mandatory detention for all is a new and contentious approach

Under the policy, the Department of Homeland Security has been denying bond hearings to immigrants arrested across the country, including those who have been in the U.S. for years without any criminal history. That's a departure from the practice under previous administrations, when most noncitizens with no criminal record who were arrested away from the border were given the opportunity to request a bond hearing while their cases moved through immigration court.

In those cases, bond was often granted to people who were deemed not to be flight risks, and mandatory detention was limited to those who had just entered the country.

Federal courts are flooded with detainees seeking relief

The new approach has strained the federal courts, with judges across the country facing more than 30,000 lawsuits from immigrants locked up under the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign. Left with no way to request bond in immigration court, many immigrants have turned to the federal courts instead, requesting bond through a process known a habeas corpus petition.

Attorneys for the Trump administration say the mandatory detention policy is legal under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act passed in 1996. That law streamlined the process to deport people who were newly arriving in the U.S. without permission, but immigrants who were already in the country were still allowed to seek bond from an immigration judge under a different law.

That changed in July, when Todd Lyons, acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said all immigrants targeted for deportation would be treated the same way as new arrivals.

The three-judge panel found that the government’s interpretation of the 1996 law defies the plain text of the law, its purpose and its history, and noted that Congress had set up a tiered system for immigration cases based in part on how long an immigrant had been in the country.

The lower courts have widely rejected mandatory detention

So far, more than 370 federal judges — or about 90% — to consider those habeas cases have also rejected the government's new approach, Bianco wrote. Bianco was nominated by Trump, Nathan by former President Joe Biden and Cabranes by former President Bill Clinton.

The 2nd Circuit case involves a man from Brazil who entered the U.S. around 2005, applied for asylum in 2016 and was granted work authorization while his application was under review.

Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha has never been arrested or charged with a crime, owns his own home in Massachusetts where he lives with his wife and two U.S. citizen children, and runs a small construction business. He was arrested on an administrative warrant in September 2025 and placed in removal proceedings, and filed a habeas petition after an immigration judge found he was subject to mandatory detention.

The mandatory detention of noncitizens like Barbosa da Cunha for a substantial period of time would “raise serious constitutional questions, especially because the government has failed to explain how it would bear a ‘reasonable relation’ to any legitimate, non-punitive purpose,” Bianco wrote.

DHS suggests an appeal could be coming

“Today’s ruling rightly affirms that the Trump administration’s policy of detaining immigrants without any process is unlawful and cannot stand,” said Amy Belsher, director of Immigrants’ Rights Litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “The government cannot mandatorily detain millions of noncitizens, many of whom have lived here for decades, without an opportunity to seek release. It defies the Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and basic human decency.”

In a statement emailed to The Associated Press, the Department of Homeland Security pointed to a Board of Immigration Appeals ruling upholding the mandatory detention policy, and said Trump and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin “are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe.”

“Regarding decisions from federal courts about mandatory detention, judicial activists have been repeatedly overruled by the Supreme Court on these questions. ICE has the law and the facts on its side and will be vindicated by higher courts,” DHS said.

___ Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.

The jury began deliberating after hearing attorneys' closing arguments in the federal trial of Mohammad Sharifullah, whose capture was heralded by President Donald Trump as he addressed a joint session of Congress last year. Jurors deliberated for roughly five hours without reaching a verdict and are scheduled to resume Wednesday.

Approximately 160 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members were killed in the attack on Aug. 26, 2021, when a lone suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device near an airport entry point known as Abbey Gate.

Defense attorney Lauren Rosen argued that prosecutors failed to present any evidence tying Sharifullah to the bombing besides his own words to FBI agents during hours of interrogation. She said her client lied about scouting a route for the suicide bomber to the airport, where U.S. troops were conducting an evacuation operation after the longest war in American history.

Rosen said Sharifullah told FBI agents what he thought they wanted to hear, possibly because he was afraid of being tortured in Pakistani custody before he was brought to the U.S.

“The problem was, he didn't know much about what actually happened that day,” Rosen told jurors. “The government has told you nothing about how this attack actually happened.”

Justice Department prosecutor Ryan White said Sharifullah played a crucial role in planning the Abbey Gate bombing and was involved in several other attacks by an Islamic State regional branch known as ISIS-K, including its March 2024 attack at a Moscow concert hall that killed roughly 140 people.

“The defendant thought nothing of killing,” White said. “For him, it was just another day at the office.”

Sharifullah, who didn't testify at his weeklong trial, is charged with one count of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization resulting in death. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

White said Sharifullah told a journalist that he wanted to “catch and kill the crusaders” from the U.S. for invading his country after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“This case is not complicated,” White said. “The defendant told you everything you need to know.”

Rosen said U.S. authorities accepted ISIS propaganda at face value when the group took responsibility for the airport bombing. She suggested that militants from a Taliban offshoot were manning Abbey Gate and could have been involved in the attack.

“You can't base your verdict on mere conjecture and speculation,” Rosen said. “That's what the prosecution is asking you to do.”

A review by U.S. Central Command found that the Abbey Gate bomber was Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State militant who had been released from an Afghan prison by the Taliban. Sharifullah recognized the alleged bomber as an operative he had known while incarcerated, according to an FBI affidavit.

A former Marine testified to Congress that he and others had spotted two possible suspects behaving suspiciously on the morning of the bombing but didn’t get permission to act. However, the Central Command review concluded that the snipers hadn’t seen the actual bomber and that the attack was not preventable.

A prosecutor assigned to the Abbey Gate case was fired last year after a right-wing commentator publicly criticized him over his work during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration. Michael Ben’Ary’s ouster was part of a broader purge of Justice Department veterans deemed to be insufficiently loyal to Trump, a Republican.

During his most recent presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly condemned Biden for his role in the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal and blamed him for the Abbey Gate attack.

Rival Democrats and Republicans — some still little-known to voters — will be making the case to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is barred from seeking a third term.

The contest in the nation's most populous state is unfolding at a time when Sacramento is struggling with a long-running homeless crisis, wildfire insurance shortages, projected budget shortfalls and staggering housing costs. Voters, meanwhile, are saddled with growing everyday costs for groceries, utility bills and gas.

The 90-minute debate will bring together the two leading Republicans, conservative commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, and six Democrats, including former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter,billionaire Tom Steyer, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, former Biden administration Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state schools superintendent Tony Thurmond.

In an email to supporters, Porter said she was going on stage “to fight for lowering costs for working families and Californians.”

“Because right now, Californians are getting crushed,” Porter added.

A debate last week, without Villaraigosa and Thurmond on stage, proved largely inconclusive, with no candidate managing a breakaway moment.

President Donald Trump — who has a long-strained relationship with the heavily Democratic state — is likely to figure prominently in exchanges again. Hilton and Bianco support the president — Hilton has his endorsement — while Democrats have vowed to stand in the way of federal immigration raids and Trump's conservative agenda.

California puts all candidates on a single ballot and the two with the most votes go to the November general election, regardless of party. Democrats have been fretting their crowded field could result in two Republicans advancing, a result that would be a historic calamity for Democrats.

Democrats have dominated state government in California for years. Republicans haven’t won a statewide election in two decades, and registered Democrats outnumber Republicans about 2-to-1 statewide.

Steyer, a former hedge fund manager turned liberal activist, has used to personal fortune to dominate TV advertising but has not broken away from the field.

The race was reordered earlier this month after the dramatic downfall of U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell over sexual assault allegations. When he left the race — and then Congress — he was among the leading contenders.

The debate is being hosted by CBS and will air on its state TV stations and websites.

___

Austin reported from Sacramento, California.

Iran offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country and ends the war in a proposal that would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, two regional officials said Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to rule out any deal that excludes Iran’s nuclear program.

Here is the latest:

An Israeli military contractor is killed by drone strike in Lebanon

A brief statement by the Israeli army said the civilian employee of an engineering company was working with the military on projects in southern Lebanon.

An Israeli military official confirmed the contractor was a civilian and died in a drone attack. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under military briefing rules.

Despite a ceasefire in Lebanon, Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have been intermittently attacking each other in the south, where Israeli soldiers are occupying a slice of territory along the border. — By Josef Federman

Israeli strike on a Lebanese army patrol killed 5, including 3 paramedics, and wounds 2 soldiers

That’s according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, which said the toll is still preliminary. The Israeli strike was in the southern town of Majdal Zoun, near the coastal city of Tyre.

Israeli forces hit an army patrol that was accompanying Civil Defense medical teams and bulldozers during a rescue operation at the site of a previous Israeli strike, the Lebanese army and Civil Defense said. Some of the responders were trapped under rubble by the second strike, they said.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the strike, saying it was part of a pattern of Israeli attacks on rescue and emergency workers in violation of international law.

The Western-backed Lebanese army has largely stood on the sidelines during the recent rounds of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, although dozens of its soldiers have been killed.

Israeli president invites Netanyahu and prosecutors for talks on settling corruption charges

President Isaac Herzog’s office asked for a response by Sunday to his invitation, which came days after he announced he would not decide on Netanyahu’s request for a pardon and instead urge the sides to reach a settlement.

Netanyahu asked Herzog last November to cancel his trial, saying that dropping the charges would help unify the country. Trump has made multiple appeals to Herzog to end the trial.

Herzog’s invitation says he believes that efforts to reach a settlement “must be exhausted first” before he can consider the pardon request. There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office or the attorney general’s office.

Netanyahu is charged with breach of trust, fraud and accepting bribes in three separate cases accusing him of exchanging favors with wealthy associates. He denies all charges.

The trial has dragged on for six years in a case that has bitterly divided the Israeli public. Netanyahu and his supporters claim he is the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt by the media, police and prosecutors.

Gulf Arab countries jointly condemn Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz

The leaders of several wealthy Gulf nations rejected Iran’s “illegal actions” to close the strait and threaten navigation, warning against any disruption to shipping or charging fees for safe passage.

The statement followed a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and attended by leaders from Qatar and Bahrain, Kuwait’s crown prince, and the United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister.

They called for restoring “security and freedom of navigation” to prewar levels and urged deeper military integration, including joint infrastructure projects and a ballistic missile early warning system.

US budget airlines seek billions in aid amid soaring fuel costs

Their trade group is asking the Trump administration for $2.5 billion to offset rising jet fuel costs and keep ticket prices affordable. The Association of Value Airlines said smaller carriers are being hit hardest by the jump in fuel prices, despite carrying more than 90 million passengers last year.

“Temporary government support” would help “preserve vital industry competition,” the association said.

The trade group represents Frontier, Allegiant, Avelo and Sun Country. Another member, Spirit, is separately in talks with the U.S. government on a potential financing deal aimed at keeping the struggling carrier flying as it navigates fuel price shocks during its second bankruptcy since 2024.

Protesters urge boycott of Eurovision Song Contest over Israel’s participation

Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Serbian state RTS broadcaster on Tuesday, waving Palestinian flags and accusing Israel of atrocities in Gaza while demanding that the Balkan country pull out of the Eurovision Song Contest because of Israel’s participation.

The year’s main competition with 35 competing countries is scheduled to be held May 12-16 in Vienna. Serbia, which has close ties with Israel, will be represented by Lavina, a six-member metal band.

The contest strives to put pop music before politics but has repeatedly been embroiled in world events. Russia was expelled in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The decision to allow Israel to compete prompted the walkout of Slovenia, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain.

RTV Slovenia said it will air a Palestinian program at the time of the Eurovision contest.

Israeli ambassador says Lebanese government must disarm Hezbollah

Lebanon’s government has demanded that Hezbollah disarm, but Israel says this has not happened. A ceasefire in the latest Israeli-Hezbollah conflict was recently extended for three weeks.

Danon said that if the U.N. Security Council wants to help Lebanon, it should ask the government how many Hezbollah weapons it has seized, “which tunnels have been destroyed and what is being done to stop arms smuggling from Iran.”

“International support for Lebanon must depend on results on the ground and not more empty statements,” Danon said.

Israel’s UN envoy says Lebanon won’t have sovereignty 'as long as Hezbollah controls the territory’

Ambassador Danny Danon said it’s impossible to talk about peace in Lebanon without mentioning Hezbollah, the militant group with areas of influence in the south bordering Israel and elsewhere in the country.

“Lebanon will not be able to talk about sovereignty as long as Hezbollah continues to fire on Israeli civilians and operate without interference,” he told a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

Palestinian minister tells UN that Israel must stop killing civilians

Varsen Aghabekian accused Israel of seeking the collapse of the Palestinian Authority and Israeli settlers of terrorizing Palestinians in the West Bank on a daily basis.

“This has to stop immediately,” she said. “The situation of the Palestinian civilian population must be a top priority.”

Aghabekian said there is no justification for Israel preventing shelter materials from entering Gaza and restricting aid and access for humanitarian workers.

Palestinian minister says 'Palestine must remain a priority’ for action toward an independent state

Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian said the ceasefire in Gaza must be upheld and Israel’s pursuit of “forcible displacement and annexation,” not only in Gaza but in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, must be stopped.

As phase two of the Gaza peace plan gets underway, she said, “We reiterate our vision of one state, one government, one law and one gun and the need for full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.”

Aghabekian told a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that Gaza’s transition must be in line with its reunification with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority, “leading to Palestinian self-determination and independent statehood.”

Gaza hospital director’s detention is extended

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel says a court in Israel has indefinitely extended the detention of Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, who became the face of health workers’ struggle in Gaza to keep treating patients under Israeli bombardment.

The Israeli military has said Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, was being investigated on suspicion of cooperating with or working for Hamas. Staff and international aid groups that worked with him have denied the claims.

The rights group in a statement Tuesday says he is held in harsh conditions in Negev Prison. It says the Beersheba District Court approved the extension of his detention without charges having been filed, after his defense had sought his immediate release.

BP earns online backlash as its profit more than doubles during Iran war

The British energy giant reported quarterly earnings Tuesday of $3.84 billion, or $1.47 per share, far exceeding last year’s $687 million, or 26 cents per share. The huge profits beat analysts’ heightened expectations and generated immediate online vitriol.

“Families are being pushed to the brink by spiraling energy bills, while fossil fuel companies turn a war into a windfall,” wrote Clémence Dubois, global campaigns director at 350.org.

“These astronomical profits are a startling reminder that when conflict drives up the price of oil and gas, energy companies profit and households pay,” wrote Simon Francis, coordinator with End Fuel Poverty Coalition.

BP shares rose more than 1%, close to a 52-week high, as did shares of other major oil producers. It was BP’s first earnings report since the Iran war began, previewing what to expect when Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips report earnings later this week.

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Israeli strike wounds two soldiers, traps three rescuers in southern Lebanon

Two Lebanese soldiers were wounded and three Civil Defense personnel were trapped under rubble after an Israeli strike targeted an army patrol accompanied by rescue teams and two bulldozers in the southern town of Majdal Zoun, near Tyre, according to the Lebanese Army and Civil Defense.

The strike hit during a rescue operation, the statements said, adding that Civil Defense crews were working to extract those still trapped.

The Israeli army has not immediately commented on the attack, which came as clashes and intermittent air strikes continue despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

At least seven Lebanese army soldiers have been killed since the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on March 2.

Israeli strike wounds two soldiers, traps three rescuers in southern Lebanon

Two Lebanese soldiers were wounded and three Civil Defense personnel were trapped under rubble after an Israeli strike targeted an army patrol accompanied by rescue teams and two bulldozers in the southern town of Majdal Zoun, near Tyre, according to the Lebanese Army and Civil Defense.

The strike hit during a rescue operation, the statements said, adding that Civil Defense crews were working to extract those still trapped.

The Israeli army has not immediately commented on the attack, which came as clashes and intermittent air strikes continue despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

At least seven Lebanese army soldiers have been killed since the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on March 2.

Oil prices climb again amid more uncertainty over the Iran war

Another climb in oil prices because of the Iran war is helping to halt Wall Street’s record-setting rally. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil to be delivered in June climbed 2.7% to $111.18. Brent to be delivered in July, which is where traders are focusing more in the oil market, rose 2.6% to $104.33 Tuesday.

After sitting around $70 in late February, Brent prices are moving closer to their peak of $119, reached when worries about the war were at their heights.

The Trump administration seemed unlikely Tuesday to accept Iran’s offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade. Iran also wants to postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, which Rubio appeared to rule out.

Average U.S. gasoline prices reached $4.18 a gallon on Tuesday, the most since 2022, according to the auto club AAA.

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US envoy says Hamas is the ‘obstacle’ to Palestinians in Gaza living in peace and prosperity

Ambassador Mike Waltz urged countries with influence on Hamas to press the militant group to demilitarize and accept that it will not have a direct or indirect role in Gaza “through weapons and terrorism and violent intimidation.”

“The moment Hamas agrees to demilitarize, a new chapter in Gaza’s history will be written,” he told a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the Middle East.

“Every day we either move closer to a future where Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank live in freedom and prosperity, at peace with Israel — or we drift back toward chaos, rockets, hostages and rubble,” Walz said.

He said there is a plan for reconstruction and development of Gaza and financing, and there is a pathway to peace and eased security restrictions, but Hamas is holding Gaza back.

Netanyahu says drones are Israel’s next target in Lebanon

The Israeli leader says “we are not done yet” after destroying the Hezbollah tunnels in southern Lebanon.

“I gave instructions a few weeks ago for a special project to eliminate the drone threats. It will take time — but we will blow that up too,” he says.

US military boards another ship as it enforces blockade on Iranian ports

The U.S. military said Tuesday in a social media post that it boarded and released another commercial ship that was suspected of heading for Iran.

The post by U.S. Central Command on X included a video showed marines fast-roping from a helicopter onto the vessel, which it said was the Comoros-flagged M/V Blue Star III. It happened in the Arabian Sea, east of the Strait of Hormuz.

“U.S. forces released the vessel after conducting a search and confirming the ship’s voyage would not include an Iranian port call,” the command said.

The command said it has now redirected 39 vessels since start of the blockade on ships going to and from Iranian ports.

Head of international group backing Palestinians urges Hamas to decommission weapons `without delay’

Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza hinges on Hamas’ disarmament, which “must be a sequential process.”

He called on the Palestinians to continue their reform efforts and prepare to resume governing Gaza as called for in the peace plan.

Eide called on Israel to lift restrictions on aid deliveries, ensure revenue is sent to the Palestinian Authority, which faces a financial crisis, and reverse its expansion of settlements.

Speaking at a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, Eide said he's made “crystal clear” that there are transitional arrangements in Gaza but the Palestinian Authority is the only recognized government.

Israel destroys alleged Hezbollah tunnel network in southern Lebanon

The military detonated a large explosion late Tuesday in Qantara, and Israel’s Geological Survey said the blast was so powerful it registered as a “seismic event.”

The army said the network included two large tunnels — one about 800 meters (yards) long and the other 1.2 kilometers (0.7 miles) — that were equipped with sleeping rooms, toilets, kitchen facilities and launchers aimed at Israel. It released photos and video footage of what it said were the tunnels.

An Israeli military official said the network included large rooms where over 100 Hezbollah fighters could gather at once. He also said it ran underneath and alongside a mosque, school and soccer field.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity under military briefing rules.

In a statement, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the army has been instructed to destroy any Hezbollah infrastructure it finds, “just like in Gaza.”

— By Josef Federman

Amnesty International urges Israel to stop destroying civilian property in southern Lebanon

The human rights organization made the statement Tuesday after a video circulated on social media showing Israeli military excavators destroying solar panels for the Lebanese border village of Debel and its water station.

On Saturday, the Israeli military said it was investigating the incident after the footage emerged. Debel is the same village where a soldier was filmed earlier this month smashing a statue of Jesus, prompting international condemnation.

“Amnesty International has previously documented extensive destruction by the Israeli military along Lebanon’s border before and after the November 2024 ceasefire,” the group said, adding it had called for reparations and war crimes investigations. “So far, neither has appeared.”

Israeli strike in northern Gaza kills 4 Palestinians

Shifa Hospital said the Israeli airstrike hit a car in Gaza City on Tuesday, killing four men, about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the so-called Yellow Line separating Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza. The Israeli military said it struck “a terrorist” but provided no further details.

Although a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October eased large-scale fighting after two years of war, Israeli forces still carry out near-daily strikes and fire around military-held zones of the tiny Palestinian territory. Since the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 818 people in Gaza, including 226 children and 179 women, according to health officials there.

Away from the spotlight, the situation in Gaza and the West Bank is ‘steadily worsening,’ UN official says

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari said Gaza is facing “ongoing and deadly Israeli strikes and dire humanitarian conditions,” with 1.8 million people — nearly its entire population — living in camps and dependent on aid.

He told a U.N. Security Council ministerial meeting Tuesday that in the West Bank, “violence, including rampant settler attacks, displacement and accelerating settlement activity, is threatening entire communities and further eroding prospects for a political process” toward a two-state solution.

In Gaza, he said, “the ceasefire is increasingly fragile as Israeli strikes and armed activity by Hamas and other groups continue.”

Khiari, whose portfolio includes the Middle East, warned that while diplomatic efforts are underway to consolidate the ceasefire and implement Phase II of the peace plan, “talks on the disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups have thus far not resulted in an agreement, raising concerns over the potential return to widespread hostilities.”

Red Cross aims to assess the humanitarian situation in Iran and encourage respect for the rules of war

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross has arrived in Iran to meet with officials and local affiliates and assess the war’s humanitarian consequences.

Mirjana Spoljaric will also discuss efforts of the Geneva-based humanitarian organization to ship more relief supplies to Iran, notably through the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

The ICRC says it delivered more than 170 tons of essential relief items to help people affected by the conflict this month, with more medical items and forensic supplies on their way.

Her visit is part of a trip through the region that involves bilateral discussions to help ensure respect for the rules of war, the organization said.

US consumer confidence inches higher in April despite Iran war and soaring gasoline prices

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index inched up to 92.8 from 92.2 in March, despite growing anxiety over soaring energy prices brought on by the war in Iran. It remains mired near its lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s the first read on inflation to capture the effects of the Iran war. The surge in gas prices to an average $4.18 a gallon this week, up more than a dollar since before the war, will stretch budgets and erode incomes, making it harder for lower- and middle-income American households to afford food and rent.

“Consumers are singing the blues,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “They aren’t happy with high prices for gas, housing, electricity and many other items. It’s clear consumers aren’t going to feel much better until there’s an end to the Middle East conflict.”

▶ Read more

Without OPEC production limits, UAE could help lower postwar oil prices

The announcement doesn‘t change anything regarding the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, but could help speed the oil market’s return to lower prices after the war, said Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone foreign exchange brokerage.

Once the war ends, the UAE could reach its pre-conflict goal of increasing production to 5 million barrels per day, “in turn helping crude benchmarks to normalize in shorter order once the ongoing Middle East conflict comes to an end,” he said.

The UAE’s exit from OPEC won’t expand global oil supplies right away

The UAE’s move appears to be part of an effort to assert themselves as leaders and independent actors in the region, and sell oil and gas when and how they see fit, said Karen Young, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

“This exit of OPEC fits into the UAE need for flexibility with key energy consumers as well — including a future relationship with China and a more competitive relationship with Saudi Arabia,” she said.

The exit won’t immediately change export capacity, since the UAE’s lone pipeline around the Strait of Hormuz to the port at Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman is already running at full capacity, she noted.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry raises death toll of Israel-Hezbollah war to 2,534

The ministry added on Tuesday that 7,863 have been wounded since the war broke out on March 2.

The war has displaced more than 1 million people and caused destruction worth billions of dollars.

Peak oil means sell barrels now or leave money on the table

Leon said the approaching peak in global oil demand has shifted the incentive for producers from collective restraint to earning money from their reserves now.

He said the UAE, with its 4.8 million barrels per day of production capacity and potential to increase output, is “particularly well positioned to pursue such a strategy outside the group.”

An OPEC without the UAE could increase global energy supply volatility, analyst says

The UAE’s withdrawal removes one of OPEC’s few members with ability to quickly increase production — the mechanism through which the cartel manages oil prices, said Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy.

“A structurally weaker OPEC, with less spare capacity concentrated within the group, will find it increasingly difficult to calibrate supply and stabilize prices,” Leon said. “The net effect points to a more fragmented supply landscape and a potentially more volatile oil market over time as OPEC’s capacity to smooth imbalances diminishes.”

Trump claims Iran has ‘just’ informed the US it’s in a ‘State of Collapse’

“They want us to “Open the Hormuz Strait,” as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their leadership situation,” Trump posted on social media.

He added that he believes they will be able to sort out reported divisions within the Islamic Republic government about negotiations with the U.S.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about who on the Iranian side delivered the message, who in the Republican administration received it and whether the communications were conducted directly with the U.S. or through an intermediary.

Israel to investigate ship carrying what Ukraine says is ‘stolen grain’

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday that Israel’s tax authority has opened an investigation into a ship expected to dock in the Haifa port that Ukraine said carries stolen grain.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X that Ukraine is preparing sanctions against companies that profit from grain harvested from areas of Ukraine under Russian control. Saar dismissed Zelenskyy’s comments as “Twitter diplomacy” and said Ukraine had not provided information about the cargo’s contents or a request for legal assistance.

“The vessel has not entered the port and has yet to submit its documents. It is not possible to verify the truth of the Ukrainian claims regarding the forgery of the bill of lading,” Saar said.

▶ Read more

Israel has ‘no territorial ambitions’ in Lebanon, Israel’s foreign minister says

Gideon Saar said the Israeli military-occupied “buffer zone” that stretches 10 kilometers (6 miles) into Lebanon is necessary to protect residents in Israel’s north.

“Hezbollah has transformed the entire front line of southern Lebanon into a network of terrorist infrastructure, and this threat has not been properly addressed by the Lebanese government,” he said during a press conference with Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Đurić in Jerusalem.

Saar refused to comment on the fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah, which both sides have violated multiple times since Trump announced it last week, and whether Israel might expand its military operations beyond southern Lebanon. He did note Israel’s first direct negotiations with Lebanon in decades.

Iran’s economy has been battered. Its leaders still think Trump will blink first

U.S. and Israeli airstrikes crippled thousands of factories in Iran, and the economic damage is reverberating — millions more Iranians could lose their jobs. Most damaging, Israeli strikes knocked out most steel and petrochemical production, causing a surge in prices for metals and plastic. Things could get worse as the U.S. blockades Iranian ports. Economic woes sparked the mass protests that were crushed before the war, and could again push Iranians into the streets. But Iran’s leaders are betting that economic self-reliance built under decades of sanctions can help them endure the pain longer than Trump. ▶ Read more

A school resource deputy met with the student and a parent at Flagler-Palm Coast High School after the student said he had posted the message at the end of the school day on April 27. The student told deputies he wrote in a group chat with 13 other students, “slimeyou out #dontcome to school,” and said “slimeyou” meant to hurt or shoot. He said he was removed from the group and later rejoined, then apologized and called the message a joke.

Screenshots provided by another student in the chat contradicted that account, showing messages that read, “Everybody getting shot up,” “#Don’tComeToSchoolTomorrow” and “I’m joking,” the sheriff’s office said.

When confronted with the screenshots, the student told deputies he had tried to be “edgy” with dark humor and now understands the seriousness of the messages.

Deputies arrested the student on a charge of making a written or electronic threat to kill, do bodily injury, or conduct a mass shooting or act of terrorism. He was taken to the Sheriff Perry Hall inmate detention facility and later transferred to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy for threats to schools,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “This is not a joke; it is not funny. All threats will be taken seriously and will be investigated, and those who make them will be arrested. Parents, be the sheriff of your home and teach them that words have consequences and know what your children are saying and doing online.”

No details about possible crimes were disclosed, though armed agents were seen at childcare centers in the Minneapolis area. KSTP-TV said one crew even had a battering ram.

The searches occurred months after right-wing influencer Nick Shirley posted a video that said members of Minnesota’s Somali community were running fake childcare centers to collect federal subsidies. It caught the attention of the Trump administration and conservative activists, though inspectors said the centers were operating as expected.

Minnesota has been dogged by fraud: At least 65 people, many of them Somali Americans, have been convicted of ripping off a federal program that was meant to provide food to children. The investigation began during the Biden administration.

Separately, a federal prosecutor in December said as much as $9 billion in federal funds that supported 14 Minnesota-run programs since 2018 may have been stolen.

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who has been on the defensive about not doing enough to root out fraud, welcomed the raids Tuesday. Minnesota’s child welfare agency said it shared key information with law enforcement to “hold bad actors accountable.”

“We catch criminals when state and federal agencies share information. Joint investigations work, and securing justice depends on it,” Walz said.

The searches were being conducted at daycares, businesses and some residences, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation.

Various state and federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, participated in searches. At least two of the sites were in Shirley's video. Officers from Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were removing boxes at some locations.

“The American people deserve to know how their taxpayer money was abused. ... No stone will be left unturned,” said DHS, which also noted the cooperation of local and state authorities.

On social media, FBI Director Kash Patel mocked Walz for taking credit "while we smoke out the fraud plaguing Minnesota under your governorship.”

Jason Steck, an attorney who represents childcare centers, said some of the targeted businesses were operated by Somali immigrants. They were not his clients.

“A few childcare centers, a few autism centers, a few healthcare agencies of some type," Steck said, adding that it appeared to be a "particular sweep for fraud.”

The executive director of Child Care Aware of Minnesota, a nonprofit that serves childhood educators, said the publicity is unflattering.

“The majority are in business to do good business. You’re going to come across individuals who try to capitalize on systems that are broken and need to be fixed," Candace Yates said.

Walz ended his bid for a third term as governor in early January amid President Donald Trump’s relentless focus on fraud allegations and the state’s Somali community. Trump has used dehumanizing rhetoric, calling Somali immigrants “garbage” and “low IQ.”

Tensions between Walz and the federal government subsequently rocketed during an extraordinary immigration crackdown that led to the deaths of two people before Operation Metro Surge was eased in February.

In February, Vice President JD Vance said the government would temporarily halt $243 million in Medicaid funding to Minnesota over fraud concerns. Minnesota sued in response, warning it may have to cut healthcare for low-income families, but a judge on April 6 declined to grant a restraining order.

Walz told Congress in March that he wanted to work with the federal government in fraud investigations, but that the immigration surge had made it more difficult.

“The people of Minnesota have been singled out and targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale,” he said at the time.

___

Durkin Richer reported from Washington. AP reporters Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis and Corey Williams and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this story.

Speaking on Tuesday to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, Charles repeatedly highlighted the historical and cultural ties that he said have cemented an enduring bond between the United States and the United Kingdom. But even as he spoke in unifying, optimistic terms, he delivered a series of nuanced warnings encouraging leaders in the U.S. to remain collaborative and engaged in global affairs.

He said the alliance between the U.S. and the U.K., tested anew by President Donald Trump's war in Iran, “cannot rest on past achievements.” Charles urged “unyielding resolve” in backing Ukraine against Russia and heralded the NATO alliance that Trump has consistently undermined.

The king praised religious pluralism and interfaith dialogue in terms that are rare in Trump's Washington. As the White House rolls back regulations aimed at denting climate change, the king encouraged those in power to “reflect on our shared responsibility to safeguard nature, our most precious and irreplaceable asset.”

At one point, the king traced the notion of checks and balances on executive power to the Magna Carta, the foundational legal document sealed by King John in 1215. Trump told The New York Times earlier this year that he was constrained only by “my own morality.”

And acknowledging a scandal that has roiled politics in both the U.S. and U.K., he subtly alluded to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender with ties to British officials, including the king's brother, Andrew.

King celebrates independence and focuses on repairing a frayed relationship

Charles is on a four-day visit to the U.S. intended to both celebrate American independence and to repair the country's fraying relationship with the UK. He hardly arrived in Washington as an oppositional figure to Trump. Joined by Queen Camilla, Charles had a warm greeting with the president and first lady Melania Trump at the White House earlier Tuesday.

In his welcome remarks, Trump also highlighted the shared history between the two countries.

“American patriots today can sing, ’My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty,’ only because our colonial ancestors first sang, ‘God save the king,’” Trump said.

The leaders met privately in the Oval Office for a meeting Trump later described as “really good,” adding that Charles is a “fantastic person.” Trump will host the royal couple for a state dinner later Tuesday before they continue their U.S. tour with stops in New York City and Virginia.

The 20-minute speech to Congress may amount to the most extensive public remarks Charles will deliver during his trip. And though the king, who is expressly apolitical, never directly criticized Trump, the contrast was apparent at times. Some British commentators described his speech as more political than they had expected.

Just two months earlier, Trump stood at the same lectern and chided Democrats for not standing during part of his State of the Union address. The king, for his part, elicited multiple standing ovations from Democrats and Republicans who listened with rapt attention.

Charles is just the second British monarch to address a joint session of Congress. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, delivered a similar speech in 1991 highlighting the historic ties between both countries and the importance of their democratic values.

Charles acknowledges a ‘more volatile and more dangerous’ world

While the king paid tribute to those remarks, he acknowledged that today's environment is “more volatile and more dangerous than the world to which my late mother spoke."

Many of the lawmakers in the room were at Saturday's White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which was disrupted by a shooting that authorities have described as an attempted assassination against Trump.

“Let me say with unshakeable resolve,” Charles said. “Such acts of violence will never succeed.”

Meanwhile, Trump's up-and-down relationship with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has taken a particularly sour turn over the past several months as the Republican president has sought to rally international support for the war in Iran. Trump criticized Starmer, who has largely resisted his overtures, by saying, “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”

Trump has also imposed tariffs on the U.K. and warned of additional levies despite a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that has made such unilateral moves more challenging. Trump threatened just last week to slap a “big tariff” on the U.K. if it doesn’t scrap a digital services tax on U.S. technology companies.

Trump has more broadly challenged the traditional trans-Atlantic alliance with efforts to annex Greenland and threats to walk away from NATO. He has repeatedly imposed tariffs on and taunted Canada, a member of the British Commonwealth.

Ahead of his speech, the king faced some calls on Capitol Hill to meet with Epstein's victims while he is in the U.S. He didn’t make a direct mention of the convicted sex offender, but did reference the “collective strength” in the U.S. and the U.K. to “support victims of some of the ills that, so tragically, exist in both our societies today.”

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna had said ahead of the speech he was told by the British ambassador that that the king would speak to Epstein in his remarks before Congress.

___

Associated Press writers Stephen Groves and Aamer Madhani in Washington and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.

Judge Jesse M. Furman rejected an argument by the Justice Department that Comey’s complaint about her dismissal last year should be moved out of court and handled instead by an administrative panel.

Furman in Manhattan noted in a written ruling that the sole reason provided for Maurene Comey's firing last year was Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which vests “executive power” in the president.

He said that reason takes her case outside the process that channels many, if not most, categories of disputes between federal employers and employees to avenues of administrative and judicial review outside of district courts.

Maurene Comey’s lawyers said in a statement that they were “thrilled” with Furman’s ruling because their client’s “lawless, unconstitutional termination” belongs in a federal court where questions about the constitutional separation of powers are commonly litigated.

“No president can ignore the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and federal law to fire a career federal employee based solely on her last name,” attorneys Ellen Blain and Nicole Gueron said.

The Justice Department didn’t immediately comment.

Furman’s ruling came the same day that Maurene Comey's father was indicted again, this time in an investigation over a social media photo of seashells arranged on a beach that officials said constituted a threat against Trump. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new prosecution against James Comey came months after a separate and unrelated indictment was dismissed. Trump fired him in 2017.

Maurene Comey sued after her summer firing — soon after she led the prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Combs and won a conviction on prostitution-related charges — contending that she was improperly removed solely or substantially because of who her father is or because of her perceived political affiliation or beliefs, Furman said.

Furman wrote that Comey “was, by all accounts, an exemplary Assistant United States Attorney” who in nearly a decade as a prosecutor “was assigned some of the country’s highest profile cases, and she consistently received the highest accolades from supervisors and peers alike.”

During oral arguments in December, Furman refused to let Comey immediately gather evidence to learn who ordered her firing and how it transpired, saying the government had made serious arguments that her firing must first be considered by the federal Merit Systems Protection Board.

Furman set a May 28 hearing for an initial pretrial conference in the civil case.

Starbucks said Tuesday that its global same-store sales for the January-March period rose 6.2%. That was higher than the 4% increase Wall Street was anticipating, according to analysts polled by FactSet. In the U.S., same-store sales jumped 7%.

Unlike fast food companies, which have been piling on discounts to win back lower-income consumers, Starbucks said it continues to see traffic from people of all ages and income levels.

“What we see with folks is, when you give them an experience that they feel is unique, differentiated, special, a little touch of luxury, it goes a long way. And we’re seeing that play out with every income cohort,” Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol said during a conference call with investors. “We have to demonstrate to people that it’s worth it.”

Still, Niccol said the company is being cautious with its financial guidance because it's not sure how consumer behavior might change if costs continue to rise.

“As you know, these issues continue to happen, whether it shows up in gas prices or utilities in other ways or other input costs,” he said.

Starbucks said it now expects both global and U.S. same-store sales to rise 5% for the full year, up from previous guidance of 3%. The company also raised its full-year earnings guidance to $2.25 to $2.45 per share, up from $2.15 to $2.40 per share.

Starbucks shares rose more than 5% in after-hours trading.

Over the last year, Starbucks has been adding employees to stores during rush times and using technology to better sequence its in-store and mobile orders. Niccol said 80% of U.S. company-owned stores are now meeting Starbucks' goal of in-store or drive-thru service within 4 minutes and mobile order pickups within 12 minutes.

It has also encouraged friendlier service and is redesigning stores and adding seating to give them a cozier, coffeehouse feel. Niccol said around 300 U.S. stores have been redesigned so far and 1,000 will get that treatment by the end of this year.

Starbucks has also shuttered underperforming stores and cut corporate jobs. Last year, the company closed hundreds of stores in the U.S., Canada and Europe and laid off at least 2,000 nonretail employees.

Niccol said that leaner structure is allowing the company to innovate more quickly. He cited premium bakery items that were introduced during the second quarter, including a strawberry matcha loaf and a yuzu-flavored croissant.

New drinks, like protein-enhanced lattes and energy refreshers, are also drawing in customers. Niccol said he isn't worried about growing competition from brands like McDonald's, which recently announced its own menu of refreshers and handcrafted sodas.

“What my experience has been is when the category starts being talked about, the market leader benefits. And, you know, that’s going to be us in this scenario,” Niccol said.

Starbucks said its revenue rose 9% to $9.5 billion for the second quarter. That was also ahead of analysts' forecast of $9.2 billion.

Adjusted for one-time items, the company earned 50 cents per share. That also came in ahead of analysts' forecast of 43 cents.

Resorts World, a slots parlor in Queens, officially cut the ribbon on an expanded gambling area featuring more than 200 games with live dealers, including blackjack, craps, baccarat and roulette, as well as more than 2,500 slot machines.

The company says it will bring more tables and slot machines online later in the year. It has also promised to build a new hotel, restaurants, a 7,000-seat entertainment venue and more than 12 acres of new public green space on the 72-acre site.

“With our planned $5.5 billion expansion, this is only the beginning of something much bigger for Resorts World and for New York,” said Robert DeSalvio, president of Genting Americas East, a division of the Malaysia-based Genting Group that operates the casino in Queens.

Resorts World New York City has been operating for more than a decade next to the Aqueduct Racetrack near the John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens.

Company executives, elected officials and local residents marked the milestone Tuesday with a ceremonial dice roll. Rapper Nas, who is a partner in the development, was among those in attendance.

Resorts World is one of three projects recently awarded state gambling licenses to operate full-scale casinos in New York City.

Billionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen has proposed a $8.1 billion Hard Rock casino complex next to the baseball team's Citi Field ball park in Queens that would include a performance venue, hotel and retail space.

Bally’s has proposed a roughly $4 billion casino at the Ferry Point golf course in the Bronx that would include a hotel, event center, meeting spaces, restaurants and other amenities.

Those two other projects, though, are years away from completion.

The three approved projects bested several other proposals during the high-stakes competition for a casino license for the lucrative New York City area, including three casinos that had been proposed for Manhattan.

Four full casinos, all upstate, currently offer table games. The state also runs nine gambling halls without live table games, many of them also miles away from Manhattan.

For many, the experience has been overwhelming.

“It’s been very scary, very nerve-racking, very stressful, not knowing if our home was going to make it,” said Hailey Johnson, who lives along Highway 110 West. “It’s been devastating for the people who have lost their homes. It’s heartbreaking.”

MORE: Full coverage of Highway 82 Fire

Johnson has been away from her home for more than a week as the wildfire spread through the area, forcing repeated evacuations and leaving families in limbo.

“It’s been stressful, devastating, heartbreaking, it’s been a lot. A lot of emotions, a lot of anxiety, a lot, it’s been a lot,” she said.

She described the uncertainty as one of the hardest parts.

“Not knowing what’s coming, not knowing where the fire is, all of the smoke, not knowing anything is very stressful,” Johnson said.

That uncertainty is something many residents share.

Morse Carter, who also lives along Highway 110 West, said the past several days have blurred together as evacuation orders came and went.

“The days have been so together, we started evacuating Wednesday evening, we were able to get back Thursday, stayed until Friday around 3 o’clock. Then the fire was back around us again. They had mandatory evacuations again. We left and haven’t been able to get back until yesterday,” Carter said.

At one point, he said, the fire came dangerously close to his home.

“Everything is good, it probably got within a half mile of our place. Thank God it seems to be under control now,” Carter said.

Even as some areas were spared, the damage across the county is evident. Residents around Highway 110 say that area took the brunt of the damage.

“It’s bad, it looks like a warzone driving toward the east side. But luckily, they kept it off the west side,” Carter said. “Thank God, our prayers were answered again. I just had a heart attack three weeks ago. It’s just hard to describe what we have been through. We just want to thank God, all the firefighters, and forestry people who have been.”

As residents begin to assess the damage, there are signs of cautious relief.

“I think we are good now, they plowed around us real good, and it seems like the rain Sunday helped out, so I didn’t see too many smoldering spots,” Carter said.

Timmy Baxley said he feels positive that he’s able to come back to his home.

“Everything is so much better than it was the day before. They seem to be getting their job done. They’re doing a fantastic job,” Baxley said.

Like many others, Tim evacuated for a few days and stayed with family, but he constantly checked in and cleared debris and did what he could to protect his property.

“Where I’m at, everything is fine. It jumped the road at one point, but just here right there, that one area across from Fort McIntosh where I live, and they took care of it,” Baxley said.

Still, officials warn that the situation remains fluid, and residents returning to their homes must stay alert as conditions can change quickly.

His testimony at the Oakland, California, federal courthouse kicked off a legal drama that is expected to brim with intrigue and potentially embarrassing details about the two tech moguls. Musk filed the lawsuit against Altman and his top lieutenant, Greg Brockman, along with Microsoft over its investments in OpenAI, in 2024.

“Fundamentally, I think they’re going to try to make this lawsuit ... very complicated, but it’s actually very simple,” Musk said. “Which is that it's not OK to steal a charity.”

The nine-person jury was selected Monday and the trial is scheduled to take three weeks.

In the civil lawsuit, Musk accuses Altman and Brockman of double-crossing him by straying from the San Francisco company’s founding mission to be a steward of a revolutionary technology. In his opening statement, Musk's attorney, Steven Molo, quoted OpenAI’s mission statement when it was created as a nonprofit for the benefit of humanity, not constrained by the need to generate financial enrichment for anyone.

Altman and Brockman, aided by Microsoft, stole a charity “whose mission was the safe, open development of artificial intelligence,” Molo said. Musk is seeking damages and Altman’s ouster from OpenAI’s board.

OpenAI has brushed off Musk’s allegations as a case of sour grapes aimed at undercutting its rapid growth and bolstering Musk’s own xAI, which he launched in 2023 as a competitor.

Both sides recount the start of a bitter divide

In his opening statement, OpenAI lawyer William Savitt told jurors “we are here because Mr. Musk didn’t get his way with OpenAI.”

Savitt said Musk used his promises of funding to bully OpenAI founding members and tried to take control of OpenAI and merge it with Tesla. In fact, he said Musk wanted to form a for-profit company and own more than 50% of it.

There is no record, Savitt said, of promises made to Musk that OpenAI was going to remain a nonprofit forever. What Musk ultimately cared about, he said, was not OpenAI’s nonprofit status but winning the AI race with Google.

Musk's attorney said the case is not about Musk, but rather Altman, Brockman and Microsoft.

By 2017, about two years after OpenAI's founding, it became clear that OpenAI would need more money, and Molo said the founders eventually settled on the idea of creating a for-profit arm of OpenAI that would support the nonprofit. Terms were capped for investors so they “couldn't make infinite profit.”

“There is nothing wrong with a nonprofit having a for-profit subsidiary, but (it) has to advance the mission,” Molo said.

Microsoft initially invested $2 billion in OpenAI. Then, in 2022, news spread that OpenAI had done a deal with Microsoft and it was a “game-changer," Molo said, which violated “every commitment” OpenAI made not just to Musk but to the world. It was no longer open source, it became a for-profit company for the benefit of the defendants and Microsoft was going to have control, through licensing, of much of its intellectual property, Molo said.

After opening statements, Musk's side began presenting a tale of alleged betrayal, deceit and ambition that caused OpenAI to pivot from its founding mission as an altruistic startup to a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.

Musk testifies on how he sees AI evolving

Musk was the first to testify, with his lawyer starting off asking about his life story. This included details about his move, at 17, from South Africa to Canada where for a time Musk said he worked as a lumberjack among other odd jobs, then to the U.S. He recounted the slew of companies he founded and runs, including SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company, Neuralink and others.

Asked how he has time for everything, Musk said he works 80 to 100 hours a week, doesn't take vacations and owns no vacation homes or yachts.

Molo also asked Musk about his views on AI. Musk said he expects AI to be “smarter than any human” as soon as next year. Musk said a longstanding concern about AI is the question of what happens when computers become much smarter than humans. Comparing it to having a “very smart child,” Musk said when the child grows up “you can't control that child,” but you can instill values such as honesty, integrity and being good.

Musk recounted his version of OpenAI's founding, which he said essentially happened because of a discussion he had with Google co-founder Larry Page, who called him a “specieist" for elevating the survival of humanity over that of AI.

The kinship between Musk and Altman was forged in 2015 when they agreed to build AI in a more responsible and safer way than the profit-driven companies controlled by Google's Page and Sergey Brin and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, according to evidence submitted ahead of the trial.

At that time, Musk said, Google had all the money, all the computers and all the talent for AI. “There was no counterbalance.”

Musk recalled there was discussion early on about alternative sources for funding OpenAI beyond donations, and he wasn't opposed to it having a for-profit arm, but “the tail shouldn't wag the dog.” There would be a profit limit, and once artificial general intelligence, or AGI, was “figured out,” the for-profit would cease to exist.

Musk is expected to continue testifying Wednesday.

Altman, OpenAI's CEO, is also expected to testify, along with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, one of the technology leaders who helped fund the late 2022 release of ChatGPT, the chatbot that unleashed the current AI boom that has propelled the stock market to record heights.

Altman’s court appearance likely made him unavailable to attend an Amazon event across San Francisco Bay on Tuesday at which both companies announced an expanded partnership.

“I wish I could be there with you in person today,” Altman told attendees of Amazon’s event in San Francisco via a prerecorded video message. “My schedule got taken away from me today.”

___

AP Technology Writer Matt O'Brien contributed to this story from Providence, Rhode Island.

“Sometimes it feels a little ridiculous,” she told The Associated Press, “but it’s something I understand is going to happen. That's not what my primary focus is ever on.”

Pichardo has grown accustomed to being the only girl on her baseball team during her years in Little League, high school and travel ball. Four years ago she tried out for the Brown University team, made it and early in her freshman season became the first woman to appear in a Division I game when she pinch-hit against Bryant.

On her senior day last Saturday, she became the first woman to pitch in a Division I game when she got the final out in a key win over Cornell.

“I feel like sometimes it might distract a bit too much from the success of our team,” Pichardo said. “We just made the playoffs for the first time since 2007, so that’s a huge accomplishment, and I wouldn’t want to take away from that."

Pichardo was listed as an outfielder and pitcher her first three years and focused only on pitching this season. The fact she stuck it out four years might seem surprising. Brown has played 151 games since Pichardo arrived, and she has appeared in only six. She pinch-hit once as a freshman, once as a sophomore and three times as a junior, when she also played right field for an inning and caught two flies.

Until Saturday, she hadn't appeared in a game this season, let alone warmed up in the bullpen. With Brown leading Cornell 16-3 in the ninth inning, coach Frank Holbrook's plan was to have little-used reliever Ty Harris get the first two outs and have Pichardo finish.

The 5-foot-7, 165-pound Pichardo has a four-pitch repertoire that includes a low-80s four-seam fastball to go with a sinker, changeup and curve. She entered with the bases loaded and threw two fastballs to Tyler Beaulieu, who grounded out to short to end Brown's 16-4 win.

Pichardo said she has never had any problem melding with her teammates. She prefers just being one of the guys and not taking spotlight away from the team. She does, however, understand the magnitude of what she’s accomplished, not just in college but also in summer ball. In 2023, she became the first woman to hit a home run in a summer league, connecting for Sag Harbor in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League.

“It’s important for inspiring the younger generation of female baseball players, give them some kind of hope, I guess, that if they want to play at the collegiate level, no matter what division, that door is open for them and it is possible,” she said.

Pichardo, who graduates this spring with a degree in business economics, has been able to capitalize on name, image and likeness opportunities as the most visible woman in college baseball. She's in her third year as an endorser for the baseball equipment and apparel company Warstic Sports and she has a deal with Topps Allen & Ginter baseball cards.

Once Brown's season ends, she'll turn her attention to trying out for the U.S. women's team that will play in the group stage of the 2027 World Cup. She has been a regular on Team USA since 2022 and pitched against Japan in the 2024 World Cup in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Pichardo said she's been grateful for every baseball opportunity since her father signed her up for a league in her hometown of Queens, New York, when she was 6.

“He didn't have any sons, so I like to say I was his designated son,” she said. “I've always been able to play at every level that I've progressed to, so there was never any reason for me to stop playing baseball just because I didn't see other women in the same space as me. It was my first sport, my first love and I knew I wanted to try and play at the highest level possible.”

___

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

In the filing, the victim describes what she said happened to her as a teenager.

“When I was 15 years old the respondent was my pastor and he sexually assaulted me for about five years. He groomed me for several years from 2016-2022 and then sexually assaulted me for several years. What the respondent did to me as a teenager is starting to resurface as an adult,” she wrote in the injunction.

Trent, 42, was arrested and booked into the Duval County Jail. Police said the abuse began with hugs and escalated over time to intimate touching and sexual acts at multiple locations, including the parking lot of the ChurchTrac business and in his office, according to the arrest report.

The report also stated that investigators believe Trent gained trust because he was viewed as a “man of God.”

According to a LinkedIn page that has since been deleted, Trent worked as a youth pastor at Hillcrest Baptist Church from 2015 to 2016 and served as vice president of ChurchTrac, a software company that serves houses of worship.

In the injunction, the victim also alleges Trent used threats of self-harm to keep her from leaving.

“The respondent mentioned killing himself. I didn’t leave the respondent for several years. While being sexually assaulted, he would tell me that if I did leave or stop, he would kill himself, and it would be my responsibility that his children didn’t have a father,” she wrote.

Investigators say the victim later made a phone call to Trent in January while police monitored the conversation. Trent acknowledged the sexual relationship, according to the sheriff’s office.

News4JAX spoke with defense attorney Shannon Schott, who is not associated with the case, about the charges. Schott said additional charges could be filed as investigators and prosecutors continue reviewing the allegations, including potential sexual battery charges that can carry a life sentence.

The sheriff’s office said the investigation remains open and that investigators do not currently know of additional victims. Trent has been released on a $400,000 bond and is prohibited from being around children other than his own, according to authorities.

Trent was also investigated in 2021 over allegations of child pornography possession but was not charged, according to the report.

News4JAX reached out to Trent and his attorney for comment. No responses had been received as of publication.

Hillcrest Baptist Church sent us this statement after we reached out about the arrest:

We are aware of the recent news regarding charges involving a former employee. The situation is deeply concerning and grieves our hearts.

First and foremost, our prayers and concern are with those affected. We are committed to supporting those involved with compassion, care, and respect for their privacy.

We take matters like this seriously. The individual is no longer associated with our church and has not been since 2018. We are fully cooperating with the authorities as they conduct their investigation, and we remain committed to integrity, safety, and accountability in our ministry.

Hillcrest Baptist Church

Reaves expressed cautious optimism Tuesday when he spoke to reporters for the first time since getting hurt April 2 at Oklahoma City. The Lakers' second-leading scorer was listed as questionable for the past two games of their first-round playoff series against Houston, but ultimately didn't play while Los Angeles split the contests to take a 3-1 series lead.

“I want to get back out there as fast as I can,” Reaves said at the Lakers' training complex. “I feel good. Trending in the right direction. I can't wait to get up (Wednesday) and attack another day.”

Lakers coach JJ Redick gave no hints about the team's mindset around Reaves, saying his availability will be "based on whether he’s good to go. We’ll talk through that.”

Reaves has tried to stay even-keeled during the second major injury absence of his otherwise outstanding season. He averaged 23.3 points, 5.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds, but played in just 51 games largely thanks to the oblique injury and a strained left calf that sidelined him for 19 straight games from Christmas to February.

Although Reaves finished the game in which he got hurt in Oklahoma City, he knew the injury was significant because he registered it over his own high pain tolerance. NBA scoring champion Luka Doncic also left that game with a strained hamstring, and neither high-scoring guard has played for the Lakers since then.

But their teammates have done much better than many expected without them, and Reaves is impressed.

“Basically the message from that day forward was that they were going to do everything as a team to give us an opportunity to come back and play, and they’ve done exactly what they said," Reaves said.

LeBron James and his supporting cast won the first three games of its first-round series and pushed the favored Rockets to the brink of elimination, even stealing Game 3 in overtime after trailing by six points with 30 seconds left in regulation.

“It’s been a lot of fun, just seeing the determination, the togetherness, and just the joy of them playing basketball together (and) competing every single possession," Reaves said. “It’s been a lot of fun. Me and Luka talk about it every time we’re watching — just how hard we’re playing, the attention to detail and the togetherness.”

Doncic isn't yet close to a return, but both teams could be without their top scorers once again in Game 5. Rockets star Kevin Durant has missed three of the four games in the series with injuries, and he didn't participate in practice in Houston on Tuesday before the team flew to Los Angeles.

___

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

Delta is offering discounted SkyMiles award fares on flights departing from Jacksonville International Airport (JAX) to several U.S. and Latin America destinations. The deals must be booked by April 30, 2026.

What’s included in sale

Four destinations are featured in the flash sale for JAX travelers, spanning the Caribbean and South America:

• St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (STT): Travel May 2–8, 2026. Starts at 32,500 miles + $16 (Main Basic) or 44,500 miles + $16 (Delta Main) — round trip.
• Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (GCM): Travel May 22–28, 2026. Starts at 44,000 miles + $121 (Main Basic) or 56,000 miles + $121 (Delta Main) — round trip.
• Bridgetown, Barbados (BGI): Travel May 18–31, 2026. Starts at 48,000 miles + $132 (Main Basic) or 60,000 miles + $132 (Delta Main) — round trip.
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (GIG): Travel June 19–25, 2026. Starts at 104,000 miles + $42 (Main Basic) or 120,000 miles + $42 (Delta Main) — round trip.

What travelers should know before booking

Not all tickets are created equal. Delta Main Basic fares — the lowest-cost option — come with notable restrictions. Those tickets are non-refundable, do not include a seat assignment until after check-in, and are not eligible to earn SkyMiles or count toward Medallion Status.

Checked baggage fees also vary depending on destination and fare class. For the St. Thomas route, the first checked bag runs $45 and the second is $55. For the Rio de Janeiro route, Main Basic travelers can expect to pay $70 for the first checked bag and $100 for the second.

Deals can be booked here.

The project, funded through a voter-approved half-cent sales tax, replaces the original school with a fully modernized elementary campus. The district said the facility will include three early-learning classrooms and nine specialized spaces intended to support a range of student needs.

The district said to date, the half-cent sales tax has supported the completion of five new schools since its passage in November 2020: Rutledge Pearson Elementary, Highlands Estates Elementary, Chaffee Trail Middle, Southside Estates Elementary and Ribault High School.

Quick facts

• Opening date: August 2027
• Student capacity: approximately 930
• Negotiated cost: about $43.7 million
• Designer: Bhide & Hall Architects
• Contractor: Batson-Cook Company
• Project managers: Jacobs Engineering

The district said construction includes demolition of the original Hogan-Spring Glen building to make way for the new campus.

For more information, contact the Duval County Public Schools Communications Department at (904) 390-2126, dcpsnews@duvalschools.org or visit duvalschools.org.

Timothy Hudson's trial on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse will start June 1 in Miami, U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom said in an order Monday.

The 16-year-old was initially charged as a juvenile before the case was transferred to adult court. He entered a written plea of not guilty last week. Minors are rarely prosecuted in federal court.

His stepsister, Anna Kepner, had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November with her family, including Hudson. Before the ship was scheduled to return to Florida, her body was found concealed under a bed in a room she was sharing with Hudson and another teen, a criminal complaint said.

The cause of Kepner's Nov. 6 death was determined to be mechanical asphyxia, which is when an object or physical force stops someone from breathing.

Kepner's father, Christopher Kepner, released a statement, saying the family was placing “trust in the justice system to pursue the truth with care and integrity.”

“The situation is deeply painful and complex for the entire family,” Kepner said.

Anna Kepner was a high school cheerleader at Temple Christian School in Titusville, Florida, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Orlando. At her memorial service in November, family members encouraged people to wear bright colors instead of the traditional black “in honor of Anna’s bright and beautiful soul.”

U.S. Central Command said on social media that Marines boarded the Blue Star III on Tuesday but “released the vessel after conducting a search and confirming its voyage would not include an Iranian port call.” An accompanying video showed American forces fast-roping from a helicopter onto the vessel.

The Blue Star is at least the fourth merchant ship to be boarded since the Trump administration began the blockade of Iranian shipping more than two weeks ago, but it is the first to not be taken into U.S. custody. The U.S. blockade aims to squeeze Iran amid a ceasefire in the war as Tehran's cutoff of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for energy shipments, ripples across the global economy.

Data from ship tracking websites shows that the Blue Star departed the Pakistani port of Qasim and was en route to the port of Sohar, Oman.

The military offered no information about what prompted it to suspect the ship. U.S. Central Command has become more aggressive in making the case that the blockade works amid skepticism from outside experts.

The military command that oversees the Middle East has not only provided regular updates on the number of merchant ships it says the blockade has turned around but also claimed Tuesday that “U.S. forces cut off economic trade going into and coming out of Iran.”

Shortly after the blockade began, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the enforcement actions would extend beyond Iranian waters and the area under control of U.S. Central Command.

The military also detailed an expansive list of goods that it considers contraband, declaring that it will board, search and seize them from merchant vessels “regardless of location.”

A notice says any “goods that are destined for an enemy and that may be susceptible to use in armed conflict” are “subject to capture at any place beyond neutral territory.”

However, shipping experts like Salvatore Mercogliano, a professor at Campbell University, have said Iranian ships have several ways to sneak through the blockade, including spoofing their location tracking data or traveling through Pakistani territorial waters.

Mercogliano also noted that the sheer volume of shipping traffic that the military needs to screen is a challenging task.

Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the boarding of the Blue Star on Tuesday “demonstrates our thorough enforcement of the blockade.”

The S&P 500 fell 0.5% from its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 25 points, or 0.1%, while the Nasdaq composite fell 0.9% from its own record.

Stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry led the way lower. Chip company Broadcom was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 after sinking 4.4%. Drops of 1.6% for Nvidia and 3.9% for Micron Technology also undercut the market.

The weakness came after a report in The Wall Street Journal said some leaders at OpenAI are concerned about whether it can support its massive spending on data centers after missing targets for new users and revenue. If the maker of ChatGPT pulls back on its investments, it could bolster criticism that the entire AI industry is in a bubble of over-the-top spending that may not produce the profits and productivity that would make it all worth it.

The drops came just a day before several of the biggest spenders on AI are scheduled to report their latest results for the start of 2026. They could offer more clues on whether all the investment in AI is producing the kind of returns that shareholders care about.

Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Microsoft are all reporting their latest quarterly results on Wednesday.

Also weighing on the stock market was another rise for oil prices on continued uncertainty about what will happen with the Iran war.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil to be delivered in June climbed 2.8% to settle at $111.26. Brent to be delivered in July, which is where more of the trading is happening in the oil market, rose 2.7% to $104.40.

After sitting around $70 in late February, Brent prices are moving closer to their peak of $119 reached when worries about the war have been at their heights.

The focus is on the Strait of Hormuz, whose effective closure is keeping oil tankers stuck in the Persian Gulf instead of heading to customers worldwide. The Trump administration seemed unlikely Tuesday to accept Iran’s offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country.

The proposal would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, something that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to rule out in a Fox News interview Monday.

Meanwhile, the average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States reached $4.18 on Tuesday, the most since 2022, according to the auto club AAA.

Expensive fuel was one of the reasons JetBlue Airways reported a worse loss for the start of 2026 than analysts expected.

But its stock nevertheless rose 1.2% after CEO Joanna Geraghty said the airline saw demand from customers strengthening through the quarter. JetBlue also announced moves to rein in fuel costs, such as cutting some flying.

Another stock helping to limit Wall Street’s losses was Coca-Cola’s. It rallied 3.9% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, thanks in part to strength from China, the United States and India.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 35.11 points to 7,138.80. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 25.86 to 49,141.93, and the Nasdaq composite sank 223.30 to 24,663.80.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report showed U.S. consumers are feeling slightly more confident in April, when economists expected to see a decline. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.35%, where it was late Monday.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve is set to announce its latest decision on short-term interest rates. The widespread expectation is that it will hold the federal funds rate steady and hold off on resuming its cuts. Lower interest rates would help the economy, but they also risk worsening inflation when oil is expensive and tariffs are threatening to push prices higher.

Also Wednesday, the Senate Banking Committee will vote on whether to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee, Kevin Warsh, to succeed Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The committee is expected to approve Warsh and send his nomination to the full Senate.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 sank 1% for one of the world’s larger losses after the Bank of Japan opted in a split vote to keep its key interest rate unchanged.

“There are various risks to the outlook,” it said in a statement. “For the time being it is necessary to pay particular attention to the impact of the future course of the situation in the Middle East.”

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

The Highway 82 Fire that sparked in Brantley County on April 20 now exceeds 22,600 acres (more than 35 square miles) and is now 32% contained.

At least 90 homes or businesses and about 55 small structures have been destroyed, and hundreds of residents in Georgia have been displaced, officials said.

In the last 24 hours, no other structures had been lost, according to Incident Commander Josh Graham.

Deputies are issuing placards to residents to get past the security checkpoint, and they will remain in the area to direct residents and ensure everyone is safe.

One of the locations to pick up your pass is the Satilla Grocery store on Highway 82.

That’s where News4JAX reporter Briana Brownlee met Morse Carter, who said his family evacuated multiple times, once with the fire just a half a mile from his home.

Now, as people return, many are seeing firsthand the damage left behind—some areas still heavily impacted, while others were spared.

“Thank God, our prayers were answered again. I just had a heart attack, three weeks ago,” Carter said. “It’s just hard to describe what we have been through. We just want to thank God, all the firefighters, and forestry people who have been here.”

RELATED: Full coverage of Brantley County fire

Although some residents are being allowed limited entry during a break in fire weather, anyone returning should be ready to evacuate again if conditions worsen because there are still active fire hot spots across the area, particularly along the fire’s northern edge north of Highway 32, officials said.

INTERACTIVE MAP: Highway 82 fire

The guidelines for reentry are as follows:

Highway 110 corridor:

• Residents must show proof of residence at either Satilla Grocery/HWY 259 or Highway 32/301 (open lot west of 301) to receive a placard for entry
• Residents only; no commercial vehicles.
• Children under 18 must be with an adult at all times in the voluntary evacuation area.

The previous mandatory evacuation zone and road closures from the eastern county line, extending north from Hwy 82 to Hwy 32 and across to Boots Harrison Road, are also being modified.

The following roads have reopened:

• Post Road (side roads off Post that are not through roads are open)
• Eastern portion of Albert Gibson (west of Boots Harrison remains closed)
• Eastern portion of Murphy Road to Mineral Springs

Brantley County remains under a mandatory curfew from 8:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., and a burn ban is in place for all counties in south Georgia.

Officials have created a Facebook page to share updates on the ongoing firefight: www.facebook.com/Hwy82fire.

Officials believe the Highway 82 fire was started by a foil balloon hitting live power lines, which created an electrical arc that ignited combustible material on the ground.

Challenging conditions

Blackened trees and charred palmetto fronds lined the shoulders of U.S. 82 on Monday in Brantley County, where Georgia’s second-largest blaze, the Highway 82 Fire, has been tearing through the forest.

Smoke poured from the ground in several spots beside the highway — a sign that fire still smoldered beneath the dirt.

Highway 82 in Brantley County is about 35 miles north of the state line with Florida, and the fire is mainly impacting the communities of Atkinson and Waynesville.

The Latest: Evacuations, road closures, shelters & more as battle to save homes from Highway 82 Fire continues

The National Guard has been actively supporting firefighting operations, according to fire officials.

Officials pointed out that the entire state of Georgia is in a drought, with Brantley County being in an exceptional drought.

The drought conditions, along with hot and dry weather, have been making firefighting efforts challenging, but an update Tuesday morning sounded promising.

“Low temperatures and high relative humidity kept fire behavior to a minimum,” officials shared.

Engines were out overnight, extinguishing hot spots around structures and dozer lines.

Officials told News4JAX that containment had increased dramatically from 6% to 32% overnight.

Firefighters will be continuing to improve roads and lines on Rayonier lands to the north of Hwy 32 between Fen Dig and Browntown roads on Tuesday.

Along the Hwy 110 corridor from Fin Dig Road down to Campbell and Stewart roads, firefighters will be continuing to identify all areas of heat and extinguishing them with a focus around structures.

Improving and widening containment lines west of Boots Harrison Road will continue and tractor plows and dozers will be adding additional containment lines between Boots Harrison and Post roads.

Firefighters and engines will be extinguishing all areas of heat that are identified or show themselves as vegetation continues to dry back out after the rain on Sunday night.

Around the entire fire area, firefighters will be identifying and removing trees that are weakened and removing any that could impact homes, roadways and containment.

Wind gusts in the 15-25 mph range are expected to stick around through Wednesday, according to The Weather Authority. No rain is expected through Wednesday but good to excellent humidity recovery should continue at night, officials said.

Emergency crews have set up a staging area at the local airport as they work around the clock to suppress the fires that have caused critical damage to homes and communities in Brantley County.

Marty and I were with those on the ground helping the victims of the South Georgia wildfires yesterday, thanking the volunteers, first responders, and listening to the community leaders who are showing the very best of what it means to be a Georgian. We’re so thankful for their…

— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) April 27, 2026

As of Saturday, the fire had destroyed at least 87 homes, including some belonging to first responders who continue to work despite their personal loss.

“It’s very important to understand, No. 1, we’ve got some heartbroken folks working this fire. They’ve been here almost a week. No. 2, you need to know we care,” Brantley County Manager Joey Cason said.

Evacuations

Cason and other county officials urge community members to take action and follow evacuation orders if they receive a warning.

“We had folks that did not evacuate, and they almost got caught by that fire,” Cason added. “It’s going to be another potential bad fire day as the winds pick up later in the day.”

All homes, roads and properties within the following boundaries in Brantley County are under mandatory evacuation:

• North: Wayne County line
• South: Highway 82
• West: See map below
• East: Old Post Road

For information about evacuations and road closures in Brantley County, call the Sheriff’s Office at 912-674-5878 or 912-674-0195.

Glynn County (glynncounty.org/wildfires) evacuations include the following:

Voluntary Evacuation / Prepare to Leave

• Old Post Road to Highway 32
• Highway 32 to Thalman Park Lane
• Thalman Park Lane to Bladen Road
• Bladen Road to Old Post Road
• Alpine Road
• Gilley Road
• Boones Branch Road
• Sallie Cline Road
• Mauney Street
• Chelsea Circle
• Post Road north of Highway 82
• Old Post Road north of Highway 32

Residents in voluntary evacuation areas should prepare essential items and be ready to leave if conditions worsen.

Road closures

These road closures remain in effect:

Glynn County

• Highway 32 closed between Highway 301 and Highway 99 (GDOT)
• Highway 110 closed between Highway 32 and Highway 82 (GDOT)

Brantley County

• Browntown Road from Wayne County Line to Highway 82
• Highway 32 from Post Road to Highway 301
• Post Road from Highway 82 to Highway 32
• Little Memorial Road from Highway 32 to Wayne County Line
• Highway 110W from Highway 82 to Highway 32
• Crandall Road
• Gallberry Road
• Shady Oaks Circle at Highway 259 (residence access escorted only)
• Hawthorne Road
• Brushy Creek Road
• Fendig Road
• Mumford Road
• Albert Gibson Road
• Murphy Road
• Boots Harrison Road
• Bladen Road at Post Road

Wayne County

• Manningtown Road at Ron Road
• Post Road at Ten Mile Road to Wayne-Brantley Line
• Wire Road to Brantley Line
• Mt. Pleasant Road at Browntown Road
• Highway 110 closed between Highway 32 and Highway 82 (GDOT)

MORE: Latest road closures

“Do not attempt to enter closed or restricted areas,” the Sheriff’s Office warned. “We understand the importance of access, and we will provide updates as soon as assessments are complete and it is safe to reopen roadways.”

The Georgia Department of Transportation and Georgia State Patrol are closely monitoring the smoke and fog conditions, which could cause intermittent closures of Highway 82 if visibility conditions deteriorate.

Schools

Brantley County Schools remain closed Tuesday through Friday for students, but employees will return on Thursday and Friday.

Officials will continue to provide updates as the conditions change.

Glynn County Schools will be open as normal, but if the smoke worsens, outdoor activities will be limited or suspended. Any students affected by mandatory evacuations will receive an excused absence.

Closures

There is a temporary flight restriction over the fire area to avoid conflict between personal aircraft and firefighting efforts.

This includes all recreational and professional unmanned aircraft (drones).

Polls will be open at the normal location: Elections Office, 10305 N Main St., Nahunta, Ga. 31553.

Shelters

Glynn County has coordinated with the American Red Cross to establish a 24/7 shelter at Selden Park to support individuals affected by the fires in Brantley County.

The address is 100 Genoa Martin Drive, Brunswick, Georgia.

RELATED: Brantley High impact rally brings donations and support for families affected by ongoing wildfires | ‘Love on everybody’: How Brantley County is showing up for neighbors displaced by the Highway 82 Fire

The shelter will also have an air-conditioned mobile unit to house small pets (dogs/cats) in crates. Bedding and crates can be provided.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture Facebook page has listed evacuation locations for large animals.

Day shelters are also available at:

• Nahunta Methodist Church, 107 E Cleveland St, Nahunta
• Southside Baptist Church, 550 School St, Nahunt

Pets are only allowed at the Red Cross Shelter in Brunswick.

Donations

For affected community members, the following locations are accepting donations:

• Brantley Gas, 114 Satilla Ave., Nahunta (new or gently used clothing, hangers, hygiene items, empty totes with lids)
• H&S Haulers, 125 Industrial Park, Nahunta (nonperishable items and pet food)
• Brantley County Family Connections, 10305 Main St., Nahunta (all donations)

The Brantley County Sheriff’s Office said donations can no longer be accepted at the command post at the airport.

“Moving forward, all donations will be coordinated through Brantley County Family Connection. They will serve as the central point for receiving and distributing donations to and from the Command Post to ensure everything is managed safely and efficiently‚” the Sheriff’s Office said.

Air quality concerns

Smoke conditions can change quickly as wildfire activity and wind patterns shift. Residents should monitor air quality and take precautions when smoke is present.

Current Air Quality Resources

• AirNowCheck current air quality and smoke conditions in your area. View AirNow 

Sensitive groups should take precautions

• People with asthma
• COPD / respiratory conditions
• Heart conditions
• Older adults
• Children

Recommended actions

• Stay indoors when possible
• Keep windows and doors closed
• Run filtered air / HVAC if available
• Limit outdoor activity during heavy smoke
• Follow your provider’s guidance if symptoms worsen

On April 16, investigators say Gonzalez picked up multiple vehicles from the Port of Brunswick, in Georgia. He departed the Brunswick port headed South for Miami, Florida, the drop off location for the vehicles.

Timeline of disappearance

At approximately 1:21 a.m., the FBI says Gonzalez arrived at a truck stop in Brevard County, Florida, where he rested for several hours. At 7:49 a.m., GPS from the truck driven by Gonzalez indicates the truck drove South one exit and then turned North towards Jacksonville. Soon after, Gonzalez became unreachable and the truck was reported missing.

On April 17, the truck was located in Port Wentworth, Georgia, however Gonzalez was not located in the truck. Additionally, several vehicles were missing from the hauler. Since the discovery of the truck, three vehicles have been located in Florida. Others are still missing, along with Gonzalez.

The FBI is seeking photos and video footage from any people located in or around the Brevard County Rest Area in Grant-Valkaria, Florida, between the hours of 1 a.m. and 8 a.m., on Friday, April 17, specifically focusing on the southern portion of the rest area near the ramp that enters back onto I-95 South.

The public is encouraged to share those photos and videos here.

Judge Colleen McMahon said each year she feels “assaulted by SantaCon” and must stay home on the day when “drunken kids who are wearing Santa costumes” crowd the city’s sidewalks.

McMahon made her observations as the event’s organizer, Stefan Pildes, appeared before her for the first time.

The 50-year-old Hewitt, New Jersey, resident was arrested a week ago and freed on bail.

His lawyer, Noam Biale, said in a statement that Pildes “did not defraud anyone.”

He added: "Every participant in SantaCon got exactly what they bargained for: mirth, merriment, and drunken debauchery. We look forward to advocating on Stefan’s behalf.”

Pildes did not comment as he left McMahon's Manhattan courtroom.

A prosecutor said the government would build its case on financial institution records, information from a ticketing company, and evidence collected from dozens of bars and restaurants that pledged to donate 10% to 25% of their sales during SantaCon to charity.

Prosecutors allege in the indictment that Pildes gave only a small portion of the $2.7 million raised from 2019 to 2024 to charity. They say he diverted more than half of the money he raised to finance various personal ventures and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars more on himself.

Pildes used money earmarked for charities on extensive renovations to a lakefront property in New Jersey, concert tickets, luxury vacations, extravagant meals and a luxury vehicle, prosecutors contend.

The event traces its origins to a 1994 flash mob-style event in San Francisco dubbed “Santarchy,” intended to mock Christmas consumerism. As the idea spread to cities nationwide, it moved away from its countercultural origins and became more of a mass bar crawl.

While some New York residents decry SantaCon for the chaos it brings to city streets and subways, others are amused by thousands of costumed merrymakers crowding Manhattan’s streets with numerous Saint Nicks, along with a few Mrs. Clauses, elves and the occasional Grinch.

The filing submitted Monday by the Justice Department is chock-full of the kind of Trumpian touches the president uses in written communication, such as erratic capitalization, exclamation points, non sequiturs, rhetorical questions, praise for the president and accusations that his opponents are insane.

The 16-page filing, which was signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and submitted by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, is a sign of the extraordinary degree to which the president has demolished the wall of independence that the Justice Department has historically had separating itself from the White House.

"The National Trust for Historic Preservation' is a beautiful name, but even their name is FAKE because when they add the words ‘in the United States’ to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it makes it sound like a Governmental Agency, which it is not," the filing's first sentence reads.

The Trust sued in December after the White House demolished the East Wing to make room for a ballroom that Trump said would fit 999 people. Trump says the project is funded by private donations, but public money is paying for security upgrades and an underground bunker.

The Trust argues in its lawsuit that Trump overstepped his authority by moving forward with the project without getting approval from Congress and key federal agencies.

Trump and Republicans have made a renewed push for the ballroom in the wake of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, arguing it showed the need to have a secure facility for large events. The Justice Department asked the Trust to withdraw its complaint, but it has declined.

“What Saturday’s awful event does not change is that the Constitution and multiple federal statutes require Congress to authorize construction of a ballroom on White House grounds, and that Congress has not done so,” the Trust's attorney Gregory Craig wrote in a reply to the government.

The Justice Department on Monday said the court should dismiss the lawsuit, saying it “greatly endangers the lives of all Presidents, current and future.”

When asked about the court filing, the White House did not deny that the president had a role in drafting or editing the Justice Department's arguments.

“President Trump is intimately involved in the ongoing disgraceful lawsuit brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and is working diligently with his team of lawyers to bring this charade to an end," White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement.

The Justice Department did not respond to a message seeking comment.

The filing comes as the department in Trump's second term has fired employees involved in cases that were criticized by conservatives or because they were perceived as insufficiently loyal to Trump’s agenda. The department has also pursued aggressive investigations of the president's perceived enemies, including the unveiling Tuesday of a second criminal indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.

Trump shared the filing on social media Tuesday morning, posting screenshots of each of the 16 pages without comment.

In the filing, the Justice Department said that the Trust is “very bad for our Country," a phrase the president uses repeatedly. The filing twice accuses the Trust of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly referred to as TDS,” a fictitious and satirical malady that the president has used to diagnose his critics.

Trust attorney Craig — a former White House counsel — is described in the filing as “the lawyer for Barack Hussein Obama.” Trump has for years used the former president's full legal name, a usage that recalls his longtime questioning of Obama's loyalties, his faith and birth in the United States.

The Justice Department also argued in the filing that, “because it is DONALD J. TRUMP, a highly successful real estate developer, who has abilities that others don’t, especially those who assume the Office of President, this frivolous and meritless lawsuit was filed. Again, it’s called TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”

___

Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.

Officials said the incident did not involve a weapon being brought or found on campus. The district emphasized the importance of students and parents saying something if they see something and using the FortifyFL tool.

Read the full message from Principal McKenzie below.

Hello Fletcher Middle School families, this is Principal McKenzie. I regret having to interrupt your day, but I want to ensure you are informed about an important security matter. Thanks to multiple reports from students, our school police conducted an investigation and arrested a student for allegedly making a serious threat of violence against our school and being in the possession of contraband. The student is now facing serious criminal charges and school disciplinary consequences. It is never easy to see a child leave our campus in police custody. However, threats that endanger the safety of our students and staff will be taken seriously and addressed with zero tolerance. I ask that you use this as an opportunity to speak with your child, and discuss the severe, life-changing consequences from making a threat. I do want to recognize and thank the students who immediately reported this situation to faculty and staff. Their actions made a difference. “See Something, Say Something” remains one of our strongest safeguards. Please continue to encourage your child to share any safety concerns with a trusted adult or report them through the Fortify Florida app. Thank you for your continued partnership in keeping Fletcher Middle School a safe and supportive learning environment for all students.

Principal McKinzie

The visit comes at a challenging moment for U.S.-UK relations. U.S. President Donald Trump’s up-and-down relationship with Prime Minister Keir Starmer has taken a particularly sour turn over the past several months as the president has sought to rally international support for the war in Iran.

The king, accompanied by Queen Camilla, will begin his day with a meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump around 10:35 a.m. ET. The King is then scheduled to address the U.S. Congress at 3 p.m. ET, the body’s first address from a British monarch since Queen Elizabeth II ’s in 1991. The day will end with an expectedly buzzy dinner at the White House.

Here’s the latest:

King Charles III urges ‘unyielding resolve’ in defense of Ukraine, heralds NATO

The monarch reminded the audience that the only time that the NATO military alliance’s collective defense has been invoked was after the the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

“Today, Mr. Speaker, that same, unyielding resolve is needed for the defense of Ukraine and her most courageous people. It is needed in order to secure a truly just and lasting peace,” King Charles III told the lawmakers and other dignitaries in the chamber.

The reminder seemed a subtle defense of the transatlantic military alliance that Trump has soured on and repeatedly threatened to pull the U.S. out of.

“We do not embark on these remarkable endeavors together out of sentiment,” he said. “We do so because they build greater shared resilience for the future, so making our citizens safer for generations to come.”

King Charles III says US-UK alliance ‘cannot rest on past achievements’

The call on the allies to continue work on their alliance comes as differences over the Iran war tests the relationship, perhaps the lowest point in the so-called “special relationship” since the 1956 Suez Crisis, when the U.S. opposed Britain’s attempt to seize the Suez Canal.

Charles then went on to quote British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who Trump has sharply criticized for Britain’s refusal to provide greater support to the U.S. and Israel in its war against Iran.

“As my Prime Minister said last month: ’ours is an indispensable partnership. We must not disregard everything that has sustained us for the last 80 years. Instead, we must build on it,” Charles added.

King Charles III decries ‘acts of violence’ after White House Correspondents’ Dinner incident

Charles nodded to what law enforcement authorities say was an attempt to assassinate Trump over the weekend when he attended a dinner with members of the White House press corps.

“We meet, too, in the aftermath of the incident not far from this great building that sought to harm the leadership of your Nation and to foment wider fear and discord,” he said. “Let me say with unshakeable resolve: such acts of violence will never succeed.”

Trump was on stage at the head table at Saturday’s dinner when Secret Service personnel apprehended a man armed with a gun after he broke through a security checkpoint.

Selfies with the King

King Charles III received an extended standing ovation from members of Congress when he walked into the House chamber, with many lawmakers filming his entrance on their phones or taking selfies.

It’s an unusual display of unity in the chamber — very different from the annual State of the Union, when half of the room is usually clapping and the other sitting down.

King Charles speaks of ‘interlinked’ destinies of US and UK

King Charles III acknowledged “times of great uncertainty” as he expressed gratitude to the American people and marked the 250th anniversary of independence from Britain in a speech to the U.S. Congress that highlighted the bonds between the two countries at a time of political turmoil.

“For all that time,” Charles said, “our destinies have been interlinked.”

Charles is only the second British monarch to address a joint session of Congress. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, delivered a similar speech in 1991 highlighting the historic ties between both countries and the importance of their democratic values.

All the King’s escorts...

King Charles III will be accompanied by an “escort committee” of lawmakers when he enters the chamber to address Congress. That includes leadership from both parties and other members chosen for the occasion.

Also in attendance at the speech are members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, military leaders, select ambassadors and former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

Members of the House and Senate gathering ahead of King Charles III’s address

As is customary for any joint address, the Senate walked across the Capitol and filed into the House chamber together, taking seats in the front of the room.

Military leaders were also in attendance, sitting near the rostrum where the king will speak. Lawmakers mingled across the aisle as they prepared to greet the king, a rare bipartisan moment amid the usual tensions in the Capitol.

King Charles III has arrived in the US Capitol and is meeting with congressional leaders

House Speaker Mike Johnson walked through the Capitol with the king and escorted him to a reception room just outside the House chamber where he will address a joint session of Congress at 3 p.m.

The two then met with other congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

Johnson engaged in friendly conversation with the king at the beginning of the meeting, where he appeared to be explaining something to him.

Trump returns to his hospitality sector roots with King Charles III’s visit

With a background in casinos, hotels and golf clubs, Trump seemed to enjoy hosting King Charles III at the White House.

The president often reverts to his hospitality sector roots when VIPs visit, whether they’re championship sports teams, business titans or foreign leaders that merit some pomp.

Trump guided the British monarch along the White House South Lawn to inspect the honor guard formations. His speech was all charm, as he called the king “very elegant.” And in what was supposed to be a private moment, Trump and his wife, Melania, escorted the king and Queen Camilla to an awaiting BMW just outside the Oval Office.

The queen showed her appreciation by politely waving her hand before the sedan departed, with Trump giving his signature thumbs up as it moved along. Construction of the White House ballroom continued during the visit, a sign of Trump’s ambitions as a host going forward.

In UK, coverage of Charles’ visit overshadowed by headlines on Starmer political storm

While King Charles visits the White House, back in the U.K. the news headlines are dominated by the continuing fallout over Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision to appoint the scandal-tainted politician Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington.

British lawmakers are debating Tuesday whether Starmer should face a parliamentary probe on whether the right procedures were followed in the appointment of Mandelson, a friend of Jeffrey Epstein.

Starmer fired Mandelson in September, but the relentless questions over his judgment has left the prime minister fighting for his job.

Spruced up tennis pavilion takes center court during royal visit

The first lady took on the project of refurbishing the White House tennis courts during Trump’s first term, building a pavilion inspired by the East and West Wings to replace a smaller structure.

Planning for the project -- which was paid for by private donations -- began in early 2018, followed by approval in June 2019 by the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission.

Trump hosts King for brief Oval Office meeting

Trump said the meeting with Charles was “really good” and said the king is a “fantastic person.”

The president has made a habit during his second term of turning Oval Office meetings with foreign officials into freewheeling events full of criticism about how leaders are managing their national affairs.

But Tuesday’s Oval Office meeting was held largely out of public view, reducing the potential of such an exchange with the king.

Epstein survivors speak at Capitol ahead of King’s visit

Several survivors of sexual abuse from Jeffrey Epstein spoke at the Capitol ahead of an address from King Charles III on Tuesday afternoon.

They called for further legislation to protect victims of sex trafficking and a deeper acknowledgement from those in power.

Sky Roberts, the brother of the late Virginia Giuffre who was a prominent abuse survivor, said that survivors are “still fighting to be heard, still pushing for real accountability, while many of the powerful connected to these systems remain just out of reach, unable to acknowledge survivors face to face.”

First lady and Camilla talk to students about history — and AI

The queen and the first lady joined students at the tennis pavilion of the White House. The students looked at a World War II map, a portrait of President John Adams, and a letter from Queen Elizabeth II to President Dwight Eisenhower with AI-enabled glasses and headsets -- an exercise the first lady’s office said explored the history of the bilateral relationship.

Melania Trump has made artificial intelligence part of her portfolio of issues.

Later on, the king was slated to meet a group of chief executives from the technology sector to talk about investments, according to his schedule. Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang was spotted among the guests for the official arrival ceremony.

What to expect from the King’s speech to Congress

The king’s speech to Congress will likely mark his most extensive public remarks during his four-day visit to the U.S.

He’s expected to address the Saturday shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in a sign of solidarity and support.

He will also acknowledge tensions that have surfaced between Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, noting that the two countries have not always agreed but “have always found ways to come together.”

King Charles is expected to acknowledge Epstein survivors

King Charles III is expected to acknowledge the survivors of abuse from Jeffrey Epstein when he speaks to Congress on Tuesday afternoon, but declined to meet with survivors of his abuse, according to Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who has been a leader of the charge on Capitol Hill for a reckoning over Epstein.

Khanna had pushed for the king to meet with the survivors during his visit, but said that he was told by the British ambassador to the U.S, that instead there would be an acknowledgement of the survivors.

Allegations of sexual abuse had roiled the British royal family, and King Charles eventually stripped his brother, the former Prince Andrew, of his royal titles and privileges over his links to Epstein.

“I thought it would have been a incredible moment and statement to show that it doesn’t matter how much wealth you have, how much power you have, no human being is dispensable and the survivors deserve justice.”

UK envoy’s unguarded comments are leaked

As King Charles III celebrates the transatlantic relationship, Britain’s ambassador in Washington has appeared to downplay the uniqueness of the so-called “special relationship” in leaked comments.

Ambassador Christian Turner told a group of British students that “I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States — and that is probably Israel.”

He said, though, that the U.K. and the U.S. share “a deep history and affinity,” and that “particularly on our defense and security, we are intertwined.”

A recording of the comments was published Tuesday by the Financial Times, which said they were made in February.

Turner also called it “extraordinary” that scandals around Jeffrey Epstein had brought down a member of the royal family and senior officials in Britain – and could yet topple Prime Minister Keir Starmer – “and yet here in the U.S., it really hasn’t touched anybody.”

The Foreign Office said “these were private, informal comments” and “certainly not any reflection of the U.K. government’s position.”

Trump says he wanted to go to the Capitol for the King’s speech

Trump said he wanted to be there for the first address to a joint meeting of Congress by a British king, but he’ll stay behind and watch instead.

“I was thinking of going, but they said, I don’t know, that might be a step too far. I would love to go. It’s not supposed to be protocol, but I would love to be with you,” Trump said during his own speech at the welcome ceremony for Charles and Camilla.

Trump says the magic words: ‘our special relationship’

Part of the king’s mission on this state visit is to try to mend a rift over issues including the Iran wa r and bolster what is known as the “special relationship” between the two countries. In his remarks, Trump explicitly linked Charles to that relationship.

“Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt famously met on a ship in the North Atlantic to outline a vision for the free world after World War Two. That understanding of our nation’s unique bond and role in history is the essence of our special relationship, and we hope it will always remain that way,” Trump said.

“The ship where the two great leaders met was called the Prince of Wales, the very title that His Majesty the king held longer than any other individual in British history,” he said.

Trump tells Charles his mother ‘had a crush’ on him

Trump talked about his late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who was born in Scotland and loved watching the royal family on television at ceremonies and events.

“I also remember her saying very clearly, ‘Charles, look young Charles, he’s so cute,’” Trump said, looking back at the king sitting behind him on the dias.

“My mother had a crush on Charles -- can you believe it?”

‘What a beautiful British day this is,’ Trump quips

Trump welcomed the king and queen noting the drizzle weather that had guests wiping off seats and huddling under umbrellas.

Trump paid tribute the Brits who first traveled to America, then a “wild and untamed continent,” and walked through a history of the “special relationship” between the two nations.

Trump says it’s a ‘tremendous privilege’ to host King Charles

The president paid homage to the king’s mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, as he welcomed the royal couple to the White House.

Trump said Elizabeth was “an incredible woman who I had the privilege of getting to know,” noting that she planted a tree at the White House years ago.

“Look at it now,” he said.

The remarks were part of a broader effort by Trump to note the long history between the U.S. and the U.K.

“Like our nation itself,” Trump said of the tree, “it was laid with British hands but grew in American soil.”

Ballroom construction keeps going during royal visit

Nothing gets in the way of the president’s ballroom construction. Not even a visit from Britain’s king and queen.

Work on the project was continuing ahead of the royal visit to the White House. Ballroom construction cranes were swinging and the sound of clangs could be heard.

In the wake of Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Trump has said the ballroom is needed to hold secure events. The construction, however, is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit.

Grey skies in Washington ahead of White House welcome

Washington’s finicky spring weather is on display ahead of King Charles and Queen Camilla arriving at the White House. They’ll be greeted by President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on the South Lawn.

Ahead of their arrival, skies are grey with a light breeze. Drizzle and rain is possible over the next hour.

Members of the audience are shielding themselves with umbrellas to stay dry as the Marine band plays.

Trump delights in allegedly being a 15th cousin of King Charles III

Is the U.S. president actually a distant royal?

The U.K.-based Daily Mail reported this week that Trump and King Charles III have a shared distant ancestor that would make the two 15th cousins.

According to research conducted for the tabloid, Trump and Charles are both related to the 3rd Earl of Lennox, who is a great-grandson of King James II of Scotland.

“Wow, that’s nice. I’ve always wanted to live in Buckingham Palace!!!” Trump posted on his social media site Tuesday morning shortly before he was to formally greet the king and Queen Camilla at the White House. “I’ll talk to the King and Queen about this in a few minutes!!!”

Charles has faced some calls to meet with victims of Jeffrey Epstein

Charles has faced some calls on Capitol Hill to meet with victims of Jeffrey Epstein while he is in the U.S. There’s no indication that he will do so, even as the scandal involving the convicted sex offender has ensnared his brother, the former Prince Andrew, who was arrested in February over misconduct allegations, which he denies.

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., urged the king over the weekend to at least address the issue during his congressional speech.

Trump has maintained warm relations with the King

The president has spoken in glowing terms about Charles, repeatedly referring to the monarch as his “friend” and a “great guy.”

He also continues to mention his “amazing” trip to the U.K. in September with Melania Trump for an unprecedented second state visit. Starmer hand-delivered the invitation from the king in the Oval Office five weeks after Trump returned to office, in a very public attempt to woo the Republican president.

The U.K. royal family laid on pomp and pageantry for the Trumps, with scarlet-clad guardsmen, brass bands and a sumptuous banquet at Windsor Castle.

“President Trump has always had great respect for King Charles, and their relationship was further strengthened by the president’s historic visit to the United Kingdom last year,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Associated Press.

The visit comes at a challenging moment for US-UK relations

Trump’s up-and-down relationship with Prime Minister Keir Starmer has taken a particularly sour turn over the past several months as the president has sought to rally international support for the war in Iran. Trump lamented that Starmer, who has largely resisted his overtures, was “no Churchill.”

Trump has also imposed tariffs on the U.K. and warned of additional levies despite a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that has made such unilateral moves more challenging. Still, Trump threatened just last week to slap a “big tariff” on the U.K. if it doesn’t scrap a digital services tax on U.S. technology companies.

Trump has more broadly challenged the traditional trans-Atlantic alliance with efforts to annex Greenland and threats to walk away from NATO. He has repeatedly imposed tariffs on and taunted Canada, a member of the British Commonwealth.

A rare royal address to Congress

King Charles III will become the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress since his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1991. Her speech highlighted the shared history of both countries and the importance of their democratic values, themes Charles will likely reinforce on Tuesday.

Such addresses are an opportunity afforded to only the most prominent world leaders, including Pope Francis, Václav Havel and Winston Churchill. It will likely mark the most extensive public remarks Charles will deliver during a four-day visit to the U.S. that’s intended to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary of independence from Britain.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla head to the White House

The king, accompanied by Queen Camilla, will begin his day with a meeting at the White House with Trump. The Oval Office encounter offers the potential for the freewheeling, sometimes controversial meetings with foreign leaders that have become routine during Trump’s second term.

Given the expressly apolitical nature of the British monarch and Trump’s fondness for the royal family, the likelihood of an awkward meeting may be reduced.

Trump will host Charles on Tuesday evening for a state banquet at the White House.

Now the administration is scrambling to put more durable tariffs in place to keep revenue flowing into the U.S. Treasury and to shore up the president’s protectionist wall around the American economy.

Starting this week, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will begin hearings in two investigations that are expected to lead to a new round of U.S. tariffs — taxes paid by importers in the United States and usually passed on via higher prices to consumers who are already fed up with the high cost of living.

Trump’s newest tariff push is sure to face more challenges in court but is likely to prove sturdier than the one the Supreme Court tossed out.

First up is a hearing Tuesday and Wednesday into whether 60 economies — from Nigeria to Norway and accounting for 99% of U.S. imports — do enough to prohibit the trade in products created by forced labor.

“For too long, American workers and firms have been forced to compete against foreign producers who may have an artificial cost advantage gained from the scourge of forced labor,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in March. The administration could punish scofflaws with new tariffs.

Then, next week, the administration will hold hearings on whether 16 U.S. trading partners — including China, the European Union and Japan — are overproducing goods, driving down prices and putting U.S. manufacturers at a disadvantage. The economies being investigated account for 70% of U.S. imports, according to Erica York of the Tax Foundation. Again, the probe could result in new tariffs.

Most major economies, including China, the EU and Japan, are on both lists.

Trump's top trade official insists he won't prejudge the investigations

The administration has brought the cases under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which authorizes tariffs and other sanctions against countries found to engage in “unjustifiable,” “unreasonable” or “discriminatory” trade practices.

U.S. Trade Representative Greer, who is overseeing the investigations, has insisted he won’t prejudge them.

But importers and foreign countries have doubts the process will be fair. After all, Trump’s Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, did not wait for the investigations to be completed to proclaim that the U.S. government will replace its original tariff revenues with new import taxes, including ones to be imposed under Section 301. The president himself has said that new tariffs “are going to get us more money.’’

“If you believe the Treasury secretary and the president, then the cake is already baked,” said Scott Lincicome of the libertarian Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies. “These investigations will result in tariffs that approximate what the Supreme Court overruled in February.’’

On Feb. 20, the high court ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority by invoking the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose double-digit tariffs on almost every country on Earth. Trump had used the act to plaster taxes on imports with eager abandon. For example, he conjured up a new tariff on Canada (though he never actually imposed it) because he didn’t like a Canadian television ad criticizing his trade policies.

He used the threat of IEEPA tariffs to strong-arm top U.S. trading partners – including the EU, Japan and South Korea – into accepting lopsided trade agreements. The levies also brought in a lot of revenue -- $166 billion – before the Supreme Court shut them down, ruling that IEEPA couldn’t be used to impose tariffs. Now the federal government must refund money to importers who paid those tariffs.

Tariffs remain Trump's go-to

Trump had a handy way to quickly recoup some of the lost revenue — which had been expected to hit $1.6 trillion over the next decade – at least temporarily. Section of 122, also of Trade Act of 1974, allows the president to impose global tariffs as high as 15% for up to 150 days.

The administration wasted no time. Two days after the Supreme Court decision, it slapped 10% Section 122 tariffs on imports. Trump said he’d raise the levies to the maximum 15% but hasn’t.

The clock runs out on those tariffs July 24. Congress could extend them. But lawmakers have little enthusiasm for approving what amounts to a big tax as November’s midterm elections approach: American voters are already furious about the high prices, for which tariffs are at least partly to blame.

Section 301 offers another opportunity to replicate the the protectionist impact of the IEEPA tariffs. There are no limits on the size of Section 301 tariffs. They expire after four years but can be extended.

Perhaps best of all, from the Trump administration’s perspective after its Supreme Court defeat, Section 301 tariffs withstood legal challenges when the president used them in his first term to pound China in a dispute over Beijing’s sharp-elbowed policies to promote its own tech companies.

Any new 301 tariffs are sure to be challenged again in court. But judges might not throw them out.

“Even if it is a veiled — or less-than-veiled — attempt to reinitiate the IEEPA tariffs, he still has the cover of the process itself,’’ said trade lawyer Joyce Adetutu, a partner at law firm Vinson & Elkins.

Importer calls investigation a "sham''

Critics have latched onto the speed with which Trump’s latest investigations are proceeding. Imposing the Section 301 tariffs against China in the president’s first term took nearly a year of investigation and public comment. If the latest investigations produce new tariffs in time to replace the expiring Section 122 levies, the process will have taken less than half that long.

“It’s such a short timeframe,’’ said Kenya Davis, a partner at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner who has done pro bono work on human trafficking and forced labor. “It’s so condensed that it doesn’t make a lot of sense that they can do it that quickly.’’

Importers bracing for the return of painful tariffs can take some comfort in knowing that Trump’s Section 301 tariffs likely won’t be as erratic as his IEEPA levies. He has to follow procedures before imposing them.

“One of the reasons Trump used IEEPA is because it was just a complete blank slate’’ — or seemed to be before the Supreme Court ruling, Cato’s Lincicome said, describing it as “a little tariff switch in the Oval Office that Trump could flip on and off anytime he wants; he wakes up in the morning and he doesn’t like a Canadian television commercial, he flips the switch ... You really can’t do that with 301.’’

“A little bit of rain is going to help us, but it’s not going to get us out of this situation,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp told a news conference after touring the fire areas Tuesday. “We’re going to be in this for a while.”

A fire that has burned roughly 35 square miles (90 square kilometers) and destroyed more than 80 homes in rural Brantley County was 32% contained, the command team overseeing the fire response said Tuesday. That's up from just 6% containment reported Monday.

Rains on Sunday slowed the fire enough to give crews an opening to widen containment lines along the perimeter and to snuff out some smoldering pockets, said Johnny Sabo, director of the Georgia Forestry Commission.

“As that number increases, our confidence at holding it in that footprint increases,” Sabo told reporters. He added: “We have a long way to go. I just want to stress that.”

A larger wildfire in sparsely populated Clinch and Echols counties has charred more than 50 square miles (130 square kilometers) at the Georgia-Florida line. Sabo said crews have held that fire to roughly the same footprint for four days. It was considered 23% contained Tuesday.

One home and several dozen sheds and other smaller structures were destroyed, said Don Thomas, a Georgia Forestry Commission spokesperson.

An unusually large number of wildfires are burning this spring across the Southeast. Scientists say the threat of fire has been amplified by a combination of extreme drought, gusty winds, climate change and dead trees and other vegetation.

No fire injuries or deaths have been reported in Georgia. A volunteer firefighter in Nassau County, Florida, died last week after suffering an unspecified medical emergency while suppressing a brush fire.

Progress made against the Brantley County blaze prompted local officials to lift evacuation orders Monday for roughly 1,500 people who had fled their homes. About 2,500 remained displaced, said Susan Heisey, a spokesperson for the fire command team.

Local officials have warned people returning home to be prepared to evacuate again if necessary.

Both Georgia fires ignited as the state's worst drought in two decades has rendered vast pine forests and swampy lowlands tinder dry and highly combustible.

Investigators concluded the Brantley County fire began April 20 when a foil balloon touched a power line, creating an electrical arc that set the ground ablaze. The fire in Clinch and Echols counties started April 18 by a falling spark as a man was welding a gate, according to state officials.

Forecasts showed a high chance of more rain over the fires this weekend. There's also a possibility of thunderstorms, which can produce lightning that causes new fires.

Officials haven't said how long the Georgia fires might burn, only that it will take significant rainfall to extinguish them.

Sabo noted that a vast fire sparked by lightning in the nearby Okefenokee Swamp in 2011 burned for just shy of a year.

He tried a sport and then Kailani gave it a shot, too. It was almost like a sibling tradition. So when Keon, two years older than his sister, gave wrestling a shot, it was only a matter of time before Kailani tried it.

“So, I got involved because I was watching my brother do wrestling because he started first,” Barrientos said.

“And then my mom was like, ‘oh, you should try it out, too.’ And I usually try out the same sports as my brother. So, I was like, okay, why not? And then after the first practice, I just fell in love with the sport.”

Barrientos, the Varsity 4 All-News4JAX girls wrestler of the year, made the right decision. Just over four years after she first tried wrestling, Kailani has carved a legacy all her own at Oakleaf.

She followed in the footsteps of her brother, Keon, a three-time state wrestling qualifier, not only picking up the sport but excelling in it. Barrientos ended her career with a 22-1 record and first state wrestling championship in Oakleaf history.

Barrientos had three pins in the state tournament, and capped her sterling final season with an 8-2 decision win in the final. Barrientos’ only loss came in the third round of the Knockout Girls Christmas Classic last December.

“I was just shocked. I was just surprised that this didn’t feel real because I’ve been wanting it to be in the state finals and win states since freshman [year],” she said.

Varsity 4 All-News4JAX girls wrestlers of the year

“Because my coaches said that I could be there and I could win state as a freshman, but I guess I wasn’t in the right mindset then. But now, it’s just so odd to me that I can’t believe this happened.”

Girls wrestling is still in its early stages. The sport wasn’t officially sanctioned and given its own standalone tournament until 2022. But not all schools have been able to field their own full girls programs yet.

That meant Barrientos got her start competing against boys since there were programs that didn’t have female wrestlers. Now, she’s left her own legacy at Oakleaf for future female wrestlers to look up to.

“I’m glad that this sport has grown a lot. And I’m glad I get to wrestle girls instead of guys my whole year. I’m just like glad that it grew,” she said.

Varsity 4 All-News4JAX wrestling team

First team

Weight, Name, School, Class

100: Lily Bradshaw, Middleburg, Sr.

34-10, Region 1 qualifier (reached blood round), District 3 champion

105: Sophia Wojnar, Bartram Trail, Fr.

39-10, Eighth in state, third in Region 1, District 3 champion

110: Memphis Moses, Middleburg, Sr.

32-13, Sixth in state, third in Region 1, District 3 champion

115: Fallon Dames, Middleburg, Fr.

44-7, Third in state, Region 1 champion, District 3 champion

120: Anjana Sermadevi, Fernandina Beach, Jr.

17-7, Region 1 qualifier (reached blood round), District 2 champion

125: Leilah Carter, Fleming Island, Sr.

21-7, State qualifier, third in Region 1, District 3 champion

130: Aidan Arthur, Fletcher, Sr.

26-10, State qualifier, third in Region 1, District 2 runner-up

135: Kailani Barrientos, Oakleaf, Sr.

22-1, State champion, Region 1 champion, District 3 champions

140: Anslee Crawford, Tocoi Creek, So.

26-11, State qualifier, fourth in Region 1, District 3 champion

145: Alisha Vilar, Flagler Palm Coast, Jr.

28-5, Third in state, third in Region 1, District 4 champion

155: Lilian Ison, First Coast, So.

30-3, Region 1 qualifier (reached blood round), District 2 champion

170: Alexa Calidonio, Flagler Palm Coast, Sr.

25-4, State runner-up, Region 1 champion, District 4 champion

190: Khyra Lewis, Westside, So.

19-6, State qualifier, third in Region 1, District 2 runner-up

235: Hanalee Corbin, Suwannee, Fr.

UNK, State qualifier, second in Region 1, District 2 champion

Second team

Weight, Name, School, Class

100: Leialoha Lopez, Bartram Trail, Sr.

27-11, Region 1 qualifier, District 3 runner-up

105: Joslyn Johnson, Flagler Palm Coast, Sr.

23-5, State qualifier, third in Region 1, District 3 champion

110: Juliana Mills, Flagler Palm Coast, So.

22-10, State qualifier, Region 1 runner-up, District 4 champion

115: Hannah Deruiter, St. Augustine, So.

27-8, Region 1 qualifier, District 3 runner-up

120: Annyka Watt, Ponte Vedra, So.

24-8, Region 1 qualifier (reached blood round), District 3 runner-up

125: R’Cardenay Michel, Matanzas, Sr.

34-8, State qualifier, fourth in Region 1, District 4 runner-up

130: Isabel Flowers, Sandalwood, Jr.

27-9, State qualifier, fourth in Region 1, District 2 champion

135: Sarah Walsh, Middleburg, Sr.

35-8, Third in state, Region 1 runner-up, District 3 runner-up

140: Bella Guerrier-Lajoir, Columbia, Sr.

31-2, Region 1 qualifier (reached blood round), District 2 champion

145: Taylor Pelchat, St. Augustine, Sr.

38-3, State runner-up, Region 1 champion, District 3 champion

155: Isabelle Schneider, Beachside, Jr.

30-9, Region 1 qualifier, District 3 champion

170: Taniyah McKinstry, Ed White, So.

17-4, Region 1 qualifier, District 2 champion

190: Amariah Handy, Suwannee, Fr.

State qualifier, fourth in Region 1, third in District 2

235: Briana Durry, Matanzas, Jr.

14-6, State qualifier, third in Region 1, District 4 runner-up

Third team

Weight, Name, School, Class

100: Casen Gaskins, West Nassau, So.

23-10, Region 1 qualifier, District 2 champion

105: Abigail Ciarletto, Sandalwood, Jr.

24-9, Region 1 qualifier (reached blood round), District 2 champion

110: Lola Jones, Fletcher, So.

26-12, Region 1 qualifier, District 2 champion

115: Jaleah Terry, Westside, Sr.

16-6, Region 1 qualifier, District 2 champion

120: Kylie Rodriquez, Beachside, Sr.

27-11, Region 1 qualifier, third in District 3

125: Donavanne Hofmann, Ponte Vedra, Sr.

23-15, Region 1 qualifier (reached blood round), District 3 runner-up

130: Riley Toomey, Middleburg, Sr.

17-11, Region 1 qualifier (reached blood round), District 3 runner-up

135: Kylee Hopkins, Baker County, Sr.

25-8, Seventh in state, third in Region 1, District 2 runner-up

140: Jahzara Lightfoot, Riverside, So.

15-8, Region 1 qualifier, third in District 2

145: Zoe Goode, Oakleaf, So.

24-12, State qualifier, Region 1 runner-up, District 2 runner-up

155: Kayleene Felix, Oakleaf, So.

19-14, Region 1 qualifier, District 3 runner-up

170: Lamees Hudson, Oakleaf, So.

23-7, Region 1 qualifier, District 3 champion

190: Izabella Bentancourt, Bartram Trail, Sr.

33-9, Region 1 qualifier (reached blood round), District 3 champion

235: Kailey Baker, Middleburg, Jr.

13-7, State qualifier, fourth in Region 1, District 3 champion

Honorable mention

Bartram Trail: Vivian Williams (145, Jr.)

Beachside: Zoey Albers (105, Jr.); Gabriela Gill (130, Jr.)

Columbia: Leah Brown (190, Fr.)

Creekside: Violet Reach (190, So.)

Ed White: Lasharon Williams (140, Sr.)

First Coast: Marley Young (145, Jr.)

Fletcher: Nicole Anderson (125, Sr.); Ilah Washington (235, Sr.)

Matanzas: Jayme McDannell-Vale (100, Fr.); Susie Tuton (135, Fr.)

Middleburg: Toni Silcox (105, Jr.); Lorena Chaput (140, Sr.); Cyndi Almonte (145, So.)

Oakleaf: Sophia Walther (100, So.); Tatyana Centeno (140, So.)

Raines: Maryah Jones (125, Sr.)

Ridgeview: Shyann Schioppa (120, Fr.); Zoey Fowler (130, Sr.)

Riverside: Siniayra Thomas (145, Sr.); Paris Robinson (155, Jr.); Jade Savage (170, Sr.)

Sandalwood: Ainsley Ciarletto (110, Sr.); Nevaeh Baisden (125, Jr.); Sara Goodman (135, Sr.), Isabella Argueta (145, Sr.)

St. Augustine: Gwen Pelchat (110, Fr.)

Parker: Journi Huggans (110, Sr.)

Tocoi Creek: Makayla Cortez (235, Jr.)

Yulee: Journey Flannery (120, So.)

The row of paintings, like much of Gaza life itself, was displayed outdoors, open to the weather and curious stares. There was a painting of a dove, a bullet hole, a person’s silhouette in a territory where the war between Israel and the militant Hamas group has killed well over 70,000 people.

It was a sunny day in Bureij in central Gaza. Children shouted and played as admirers of the paintings took photos and reflected.

“They painted their feelings, their ambitions, their hopes, their visions, over four months during a continuous workshop in my studio,” said Ghanem Al-Din, who organized the exhibit of dozens of paintings.

One artist was displaced seven times

Obay Al-Qarshali, 21, was one of the artists. He said he fled his home in Gaza City in late 2023 after the war began, sparked by the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. He took only what he could in his hurry, leaving over 30 of his paintings behind.

They are now lost in the bombing and destruction, he said.

His painting on display showed broken glass, cars topped with mattresses and other belongings and the debris of buildings. All are too familiar for him and hundreds of thousands of fellow Palestinians who have been displaced, often more than once.

Al-Qarshali said he had changed locations at least seven times in the war.

“Because of how much we were displaced and suffered in moving and carrying our belongings, the tents, the crowds, and so much more, I wanted to express something that deeply troubled me: that we left our homes and our safe places, forced to flee, scatter, and change our location. This piece expresses so much,” he said.

The timing of next steps in Gaza's ceasefire is unclear. The disarming of Hamas is a major challenge before the territory’s shift in governance, stabilization and reconstruction can begin in earnest.

“Critical demilitarization talks with Hamas are continuing," former British prime minister Tony Blair, a key member of the U.S.-created Board of Peace meant to focus on Gaza, told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Tuesday.

Reconstruction likely will cost over $70 billion and take a decade, a report by the United Nations and the European Union said last week.

It said Gaza’s economy has contracted by 84%. More than 371,000 housing units have been destroyed. Over half of Gaza’s hospitals are “non-functional.” Nearly all schools are destroyed or damaged in the territory of over 2 million people.

In a report on Tuesday, Doctors Without Borders said Israel has destroyed or damaged about 90% of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure. And a Mercy Corps study found only 7% of Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure remains functional.

A child collecting firewood is among the dead

While large-scale fighting has eased since the ceasefire took effect in October, Israeli forces have continued near-daily strikes and fire around military-held zones, killing over 800 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike hit a car in Gaza City, killing four men, according to Shifa Hospital.

The strike happened away from the so-called Yellow Line that separates Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza. Israel’s military said it struck a “terrorist” in the location, with no details.

The bodies were wrapped in white and placed on the ground, outdoors, so a crowd could mourn.

And a 9-year-old boy was killed by Israeli fire while gathering firewood in the southern city of Khan Younis, about 400 meters (1,312 feet) west of the Yellow Line, Nasser Hospital said. Israel’s military did not immediately comment.

Associated Press video showed siblings crying over the boy at the morgue.

“What is the guilt of those children,” a woman said during the funeral. “God is plaguing you, Israel.”

The models are all pointing to increasing rainfall totals as a couple of cold fronts move through Thursday and this weekend. There are positives and negatives as these fronts swing through.

The biggest positive is the needed rainfall. Models all show between 1 and 3 inches of beneficial rain through Sunday evening. The negatives will be the strong and gusty wind on Saturday and the thunderstorms that could develop along the front. If we could order the weather à la carte, we would ask for the water, without the electricity.

Near record highs are expected on Wednesday with a steady southwest breeze. Above average highs, in the upper 80s to low 90s, with a record of 93 degrees set in 1991.

Tonight: Partly cloudy with light wind. Patchy to areas of smoke-enhanced fog.

Wednesday: Near record highs under mostly sunny to partly cloudy skies. Morning lows in the upper 50s to 60s. Highs in the upper 80s to low 90s inland, 70s to low 80s along the beaches. Wind: SW 10-15 mph.

Thursday: Scattered showers with isolated thunderstorms, 40-60 percent. Becoming cloudy with a chance of showers and storms moving in after 10 a.m. Morning lows in the 60s. Afternoon highs in the 80s inland, 70s to low 80s along the beaches. Wind: NW 5-10 mph.

Looking ahead: A mild Friday will wrap up the week as we get ready for rounds of rain this weekend.

Sunrise: 6:45 a.m.

Sunset: 8:04 p.m.

But after his playing and coaching days ended, Jones betrayed the game he loved, solemnly admitting in court Tuesday that he exploited his fame and insider access to profit from sports betting and rigged poker games.

Jones, 49, became the first person to plead guilty in a gambling sweep that led to the arrests of more than 30 people, including reputed mobsters and other basketball figures. Sports bettor Marves Fairley is poised to become the second.

During back-to-back hearings in Brooklyn federal court, Jones entered guilty pleas to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in schemes to defraud major sportsbooks, including DraftKings and FanDuel, and filch millions of dollars from unwitting poker players.

Sitting alongside his lawyer and reading from a prepared statement, Jones acknowledged that he aided the betting conspiracy with “insider information that I obtained as a result of my relationships as a former player.”

“I would like to sincerely apologize to the court, my family, my peers and also the National Basketball Association,” Jones told Magistrate Judge Joseph Marutollo.

Jones said the sports betting conspiracy, which ran from December 2022 to March 2024, involved using his knowledge of nonpublic information about injuries to NBA stars, including his one-time teammate, LeBron James, to gain an edge in sports bets.

Jones acknowledged that his actions not only broke the law, but that they also violated the NBA’s code of conduct and the sports betting websites' terms of service.

A ‘face card’ for rigged poker games

At the second of his two hearings, Jones admitted he was paid to act as a “face card” at poker games in Miami and the Hamptons by using his NBA celebrity to “lure high-end bettors” to the table.

“I knew these games were rigged and that players were being cheated," Jones said as he read from another statement. He apologized again, telling Marutollo: “I’m really sorry to everyone involved for my actions.”

Jones and his lawyer, Kenneth Montgomery, declined to comment as they left the courtroom. Swarmed outside by reporters, photographers and TV cameras, Jones said only: “To God be the glory.”

He remains free on bail and won't be sentenced until early next year, Marutollo said.

Jones is scheduled for back-to-back sentencing hearings on Jan. 6 — before Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall in the sports betting case and before Judge Ramon Reyes in the poker games case.

In the sports betting case, sentencing guidelines call for a punishment of 21 to 27 months in prison. In the poker games case, Jones would face 63 to 78 months in prison, but prosecutors agreed to subtract 15 months from the sentence in exchange for Jones pleading guilty before April 30. That would put his potential sentence at 48 to 63 months in prison if the judge follows the guidelines.

Jones faces a longer prison sentence in the poker games case in part because it involved more than 10 victims and a loss to them of more than $9.5 million.

As part of his plea agreements, Jones agreed to give up a total of $73,000 and, at sentencing, could be ordered to pay additional sums as restitution.

The first defendant to plead guilty

None of Jones' co-defendants have shown a willingness to plead guilty. On Monday, prosecutors said they were seeking more charges against another sports betting defendant, former Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier.

Jones was arrested in October along with Rozier and Chauncey Billups, who was head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and is a Basketball Hall of Famer.

Others charged include reputed members of the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno crime families, which benefited from the poker scheme and used violence and threats to ensure the repayment of debts and success of the operation, prosecutors said.

Jones was one of three people charged in both the poker and sports betting schemes.

Originally from Galveston, Texas, Jones earned more than $20 million playing for 10 teams in 11 seasons from 1999 to 2009. He and James played together in Cleveland from 2005 to 2008, and Jones served as an unofficial assistant coach for James’ Los Angeles Lakers during the 2022-2023 season.

According to prosecutors, Jones sold or attempted to sell nonpublic information to bettors that James was injured and wouldn’t be playing in a Feb. 9, 2023, game against the Milwaukee Bucks, texting an unnamed co-conspirator: “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out" and “Bet enough so Djones can eat.”

James wasn’t listed on the Lakers’ injury report at the time of the text, but the NBA’s all-time scoring leader was later ruled out of the game because of a lower body injury and the Lakers lost the game 115-106, according to prosecutors.

On Jan. 15, 2024, Fairley, the sports bettor, paid Jones approximately $2,500 for a tip that Anthony Davis, a Lakers’ forward and center at the time, would see limited playing time against the Oklahoma City Thunder because of an injury, prosecutors said.

Fairley then placed a $100,000 bet on the Thunder to win, prosecutors said, but the tip was wrong. Davis played his usual minutes, scored 27 points and collected 15 rebounds in a 112-105 Lakers win, prompting Fairley to demand a refund of his $2,500 fee, prosecutors said.

In a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors said Fairley intends to plead guilty in the sports betting case and a separate case in which he and others are accused of scheming to obtain nonpublic information to bet on college basketball and Chinese Basketball Association games.

A message seeking comment was left for Fairley's lawyer.

In the poker scheme, prosecutors say Jones was among former NBA players used to lure unwitting gamblers to poker games that were rigged using altered shuffling machines, hidden cameras, special sunglasses and even X-ray equipment built into the table.

According to the indictment, Jones was paid $2,500 for a game in the Hamptons where he was instructed to cheat by paying close attention to others involved in the scheme. When in doubt, Jones was told to fold his hand, prosecutors said.

In response, according to prosecutors, Jones texted: “Y’all know I know what I’m doing!!”

___

Associated Press reporters Emily Wang Fujiyama in New York and Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the collaboration with Amazon's cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services, would involve co-developing a new platform for AI agents that can do computer-based work on people's behalf.

Altman spoke via prerecorded video message to an Amazon event in San Francisco at the same time as he was appearing in federal court across San Francisco Bay in Oakland for a civil trial brought by rival OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk.

Microsoft had said Monday it will no longer pay a share of its revenue to ChatGPT maker OpenAI, the latest move to untether a close partnership that helped unleash an artificial intelligence boom.

OpenAI relied exclusively on Microsoft’s investments in cloud computing services to build the technology that helped make ChatGPT a household name. Microsoft, in turn, relied on OpenAI’s technology to build its own AI assistant Copilot.

But the partnership has evolved as San Francisco-based OpenAI, founded as a nonprofit, has shifted to a capitalistic enterprise on a path toward an initial public offering on Wall Street and has balanced its reliance on Microsoft with other cloud partners like Amazon, Google and Oracle.

OpenAI said Monday it will continue to pay Microsoft a share of its revenue through 2030, though the rate will be capped. OpenAI has been on a race to boost sales of its AI technology by focusing on big business customers. Its chief revenue officer, Denise Dresser, also spoke at the Amazon event.

Microsoft remains the primary cloud computing partner for OpenAI, and products made by the AI company will ship first on Microsoft’s cloud platform, called Azure, “unless Microsoft cannot and chooses not to support the necessary capabilities,” both companies said.

Altman suggested in his remarks Tuesday that Amazon had those capabilities.

“These systems need to run reliably and robustly,” Altman said. "They need to be secure, they need to scale, and they need to fit in the environments where companies already run their businesses. And they need infrastructure that customers already trust for their most important workloads. That’s what makes this partnership with AWS so important."

These laws cover a wide range of issues, including traffic offenses, body cameras, and public records, among others.

Many of these laws will take effect on July 1, though a select few went into play immediately upon being signed.

The full list of newly signed laws is as follows:

HB 35 — Traffic Offenders

House Bill 35 revises the term “habitual traffic offender” to add the offense of driving without a valid license.

This crime will be added to the list of offenses for which a certain number of convictions in a five-year period requires the state to designate the person as a habitual traffic offender.

Once a person is designated as a habitual traffic offender, he/she can generally be prosecuted for a third-degree felony for driving a motor vehicle thereafter.

The law will take effect on July 1.

SB 52 — Security Services

Senate Bill 52 refers to a state statute that regulates private investigative and security services.

More specifically, the law expresses that this statute doesn’t apply to volunteers who provide armed security services at churches, mosques, synagogues or other places of worship.

The law will take effect on July 1.

SB 422 — Airport Broadcasts

Senate Bill 422 prohibits airports from using information derived from automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) systems emitted from certain aircraft as a means of collecting fees from owners.

This rule is limited to aircraft with a gross weight of 12,499 pounds or less operating under FAA rules and applies under the following two scenarios:

• The operation for which a fee would be assessed is a departure or a landing, including touch-and-go landings
• The fee would be assessed based on an aircraft entering into the airspace of the airport where the fee is assessed

The law will take effect on July 1.

SB 504 — Body Cameras

Senate Bill 504 requires governmental agencies that allow code inspectors to wear body cameras to set up policies addressing proper use and storage of these cameras, as well as the recorded data.

The law will take effect on July 1.

SB 506 — Public Records (Body Cameras)

Senate Bill 506 creates a public records exemption for code inspectors’ body camera recordings if the footage is recorded:

• Inside a private residence
• Inside a facility that offers health care, mental health care, or social services
• In a place that a reasonable person would expect to be private

The law will take effect on July 1.

SB 598 — Funeral Services

Senate Bill 598 makes several revisions to a state statute that regulates funeral and cemetery services.

For example, the law prohibits licensees from contracting to become the sole provider of funeral services for any firm that provides medical or end-of-life care to the public.

Furthermore, SB 598 allows licensees to dispose of human remains that have been in their lawful possession for at least 90 days if the legally authorized person of the decedent fails to direct the disposition.

The law will take effect on July 1.

HB 4037 — Pasco County

House Bill 4037 revises term limits for board members on the Pasco County Mosquito Control District from two terms to three terms, starting with the 2026 general election.

The law took effect upon being signed.

SB 7000 — Public Records (Emergency Shelters)

Senate Bill 7000 continues a public records exemption for addresses and telephone numbers of those who provide public emergency shelter during a storm or catastrophic event.

The law took effect upon being signed.

SB 7026 — Public Records (Trade Secrets)

Senate Bill 7026 continues a public records exemption for trade secrets held by an agency, which are kept confidential.

The law took effect upon being signed.

Poczobut, a correspondent for the influential Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and a leading figure among Belarus’ Polish minority, was serving eight years in prison in a case condemned as politically motivated.

His 2021 arrest after covering pro-democracy rallies in Belarus drew widespread criticism. He later was awarded the Sakharov Prize, the European Union’s most prestigious human rights award.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski called Poczobut a symbol of the fight for freedom in Belarus but also of the effectiveness of the Polish state in leaving no one behind.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who welcomed Poczobut at the border about midday Tuesday, posted on X that the journalist was “unwavering.” Poczobut’s first words to him were about his chances of returning home to Belarus, Tusk wrote, and said he replied: “Only you decide. You’re a free man now.”

Appearing at the border, Poczobut had noticeably lost weight, his face was gaunt and his head had been shaved. Bartosz Wieliski, the deputy editor in chief of Gazeta Wyborcza who met Poczobut there, said the journalist went straight to a hospital for a checkup. He added that Poczobut had lost over 19 kilograms (nearly 42 pounds) behind bars.

The swap was the latest in a series of U.S.-negotiated prisoner releases that have marked stronger relations with Minsk under U.S. President Donald Trump.

A Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman said three of the five prisoners released by Belarus came to Poland in exchange for three sent by Poland to Belarus, with a total of 10 involving other countries.

Included in the swap were Grzegorz Gawel, a Roman Catholic friar from the Carmelite order in Krakow, and a “Belarusian citizen who cooperated with our secret services,” Tusk said at a news conference, without identifying the latter.

Tusk described organizing the swap as a “complicated and sensational story,” saying a previous agreement to free Poczobut was derailed after Minsk backed out with less than 24 hours to go. Tuesday's exchange was ultimately possible due to prisoners viewed as important by Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan and held by Poland, he said.

Speaking of Poczobut’s release, Tusk said: “There were a few tough men present there and they all had tears in their eyes.”

Moldovan President Maia Sandu said two Moldovan citizens working for its intelligence services who were held in Russia had been released, although she did not identify them. She said they were exchanged for Russian citizen Nina Popova, who allegedly was “acting against” the state of Moldova, and Alexandru Balan, a former Moldovan intelligence official accused of treason in support of the Belarusian security services.

“For our country, it is a gain that cannot be measured by a simple mathematical equation,” Sandu said. “We brought home two citizens who work for the Republic of Moldova, giving up, in return, (two) prisoners who worked against the Republic of Moldova.”

The Russian state news agency Tass identified one of those released by Poland as Alexander Butyagin, a Russian national due to be extradited to Ukraine on allegations he conducted excavations involving artifacts at a site in Crimea that Kyiv considers part of its cultural heritage.

Belarus’ presidential press service said the negotiations had involved intelligence services from seven countries. It described some of the prisoners who returned to Minsk as having "carried out particularly important missions in the interests of ensuring the national security and defense capability of our country.”

Seeking better relations

In March, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the release of 250 political prisoners as part of a deal with Washington that lifted some U.S. sanctions.

A close ally of Russia, Minsk has faced isolation for years. Lukashenko has ruled the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, and the country has been sanctioned repeatedly by Western countries — both for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory in the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Writing on X, Trump’s special envoy for Belarus, John Coale, said three Poles and two Moldovans had been released as part of the swap. He thanked Poland, Moldova, and Romania for what he called “their invaluable support,” along with the willingness by Lukashenko "to pursue constructive engagement with the United States.”

Poczobut became a symbol of repression

Large portraits of Poczobut had appeared regularly at the Poland-Belarus border, a reminder of the large-scale political repression in Minsk and of tensions on the EU and NATO frontier.

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press that Poczobut was a hero who had never betrayed his principles.

"After years of unjust detention and isolation, he can breathe freely," she said, while calling for the release of the hundreds of political prisoners in Belarus.

Poczobut’s arrest followed his coverage of the pro-democracy rallies that engulfed Belarus in 2020 after the disputed presidential election that kept Lukashenko in office.

He decided to stay in Belarus despite the brutal crackdown that followed, resulting in over 65,000 arrests, thousands of police beatings and tens of thousands fleeing abroad.

Poczobut was sent to one of the country’s harshest maximum-security prisons to serve his sentence, despite ongoing worries for his health.

The Belarusian human rights group Viasna said he repeatedly was denied essential medications and refused contact with his wife and children. It also reported that he had been placed in solitary confinement for several months after refusing work that he was unable to perform due to his health.

“For Poland, Poczobut is a national hero. For Belarus, he’s a reminder that a state cannot be built on fear,” said Andżelika Borys, head of the Union of Poles in Belarus, who spent over a year in prison. “For Europe, he’s a witness to the fact that the struggle for freedom continues not in the pages of textbooks but in the prison cells of the 21st century.”

Viasna believes Belarus still holds 832 political prisoners. Its head, Nobel Peace laureate Ales Bialiatski, pledged to keep fighting until all were freed.

“Poczobut is a true hero, but let’s not forget that hundreds more political prisoners are still in prison awaiting release," he told AP.

—-

Karmanau reported from Tallinn, Estonia, and Davies reported from Manchester, England.

—-

This version corrects the spelling of Carmelite friar’s name to Grzegorz Gawel, not Grzegorz Gawej.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range attack drones struck a Russian oil refinery and terminal on the Black Sea for the third time in less than two weeks, prompting the evacuation of local people and a Russian warning of possible “environmental consequences.”

Ukraine has developed cutting-edge and battle-tested drone technology that has proved essential in holding back Russia’s bigger army and has drawn military interest from around the world.

Interceptor drones as part of a comprehensive air defense system are now being sought by Middle East and Gulf countries amid the Iran war, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukraine is scaling up supplies of interceptor drones to thwart Russian aerial attacks, and its military has introduced a new command within the air force to boost the country’s capabilities, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in a post on Telegram late Monday.

Ukraine says its deep-strike range is growing

Ukraine’s offensive capabilities have also improved, with the Defense Ministry saying Tuesday that the country’s forces have more than doubled the range of their deep-strike capabilities since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

At that time, Ukrainian forces were able to hit military targets about 630 kilometers (400 miles) away, it said. They are now striking targets as far as roughly 1,750 kilometers (1,100 miles) behind enemy lines, the ministry said in a statement.

That improvement has allowed Ukraine to hit Russian oil installations that provide crucial revenue for Moscow’s war effort. It has also targeted manufacturing plants that supply Russia’s armed forces.

A Russian refinery is struck

Ukraine struck a Russian oil refinery at the Black Sea port of Tuapse for the third time this month in a coordinated operation involving multiple branches of the country’s defense and security services, its Unmanned Systems Forces said Tuesday.

The two strikes earlier this month destroyed 24 oil storage tanks and damaged four others, it said. Independent verification of the claims was not possible.

Video from Tuapse released Tuesday by Krasnodar regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev showed a massive plume of black smoke rising from the refinery and black, steaming puddles on an adjacent street. An emergency official reported to the governor that boiling oil products had spilled onto the street from one of the oil tanks, damaging several cars.

People who live near the Tuapse refinery were being evacuated, Kondratyev said. He didn’t provide details about how many were evacuated or for how long.

Speaking about the strikes on Tuapse, Russian President Vladimir Putin said they could “cause serious environmental consequences,” Russian news agency Interfax reported.

Putin also said Kondratyev had reported there were no serious threats in Tuapse and people were "dealing with the challenges they face on the ground.”

Both sides carry out drone attacks

The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday its air defenses overnight intercepted 186 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the annexed Crimea and the Black and the Azov seas.

In the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, three people were killed and three more were wounded in a drone attack, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Russian drone attacks on Ukraine, meanwhile, killed three civilians and wounded five others, Ukrainian authorities said.

Two people were killed in the city of Chuhuiv in the northeastern Kharkiv region, according to the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov.

A 40-year-old man died and five other men sustained injuries in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

A rare daytime drone attack on Kyiv on Tuesday wounded two people, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Another Russian attack on Konotop, in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, knocked out the city’s power and water supply.

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

The lawsuits, which were filed last week in Rhode Island Superior Court, allege that the unnamed plaintiffs have suffered because Brown failed to maintain “reasonable and appropriate security measures.”

“As direct and proximate result of Brown’s aforementioned acts of negligence, Plaintiff suffered and became afflicted with grave and severe personal injuries, causing Plaintiff to suffer great pain of body, mind, nerves and nervous system,” one of the lawsuits states.

The plaintiffs behind the lawsuits are unnamed.

A spokesperson for Brown University said they were reviewing the complaints “carefully and promptly.”

“Out of respect for the privacy interests of the plaintiffs, we have no details to share on the merits of the litigation at this time,” spokesperson Brian Clark said in a statement.

According to law enforcement, gunman Claudio Neves Valente, 48, entered a study session in a Brown academic building on Dec. 13 and opened fire on students, killing 19-year-old sophomore Ella Cook and 18-year-old freshman MukhammadAziz Umurzokov and wounding nine others.

Two days later, authorities say, Neves Valente, who had been a graduate student at Brown studying physics about 20 years ago, also fatally shot Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at Loureiro’s Boston-area home.

Neves Valente, who had attended school with Loureiro in Portugal in the 1990s, was found dead days later at a New Hampshire storage facility. Authorities say he killed himself. An autopsy determined that Neves Valente died Dec. 16, the same day Loureiro died in a hospital.

The lawsuits claim that Brown's campus security was alerted by a custodian that Neves Valente had been “casing” the building but the school did not investigate the reports.

Shortly after the shooting, Brown's president placed the campus police on leave amid a review of the school's security policies.

Much of the focus has centered on whether the Ivy League school had security cameras installed in the building where the attack took place in and the overall ease of accessing campus buildings.

Joshua Trent, 42, was arrested April 12, at a local restaurant on Normandy Boulevard, according to court records. He is being held without bond on two counts of felony sexual battery.

According to his arrest report, the case began on Jan. 16, 2026, when JSO detectives received a First Coast Crime Stoppers tip alleging that Trent had sexually abused a victim over a period spanning 2016 to 2022. The alleged abuse is said to have begun when the female victim was a minor.

Detectives with JSO’s Special Assault Unit launched a formal investigation on Jan. 20, 2026. Through social media research, investigators were able to identify and contact a witness who provided them with the victim’s contact information.

On the same day investigators reached out, the victim came forward and agreed to be interviewed.

Church, software company named as key

According to the arrest report, Trent had served as a youth pastor at a Jacksonville-area church where the victim and her family were members. Investigators say Trent used his position of trust within the church to build a close personal relationship with the victim over time.

Trent was also employed as a vice president of a church software company located on Normandy Boulevard. Investigators say the alleged abuse occurred at multiple locations, including the company’s office and Trent’s home.

Trent was terminated from the software company in November 2021 — approximately two weeks after two detectives visited the business to investigate a separate matter tied to Trent involving a computer’s IP address. Police say the company’s owner confirmed that Trent and the victim were frequently seen alone together in Trent’s closed-door office.

Investigators point to a pattern of grooming

Investigators say Trent used his role within the church, combined with the victim’s family circumstances, to establish what the report describes as a “custodial relationship” — a key legal element of the charges filed against him.

Detectives say the pattern began with seemingly innocent contact, including text messages and physical interactions during church activities, before escalating over time. Court documents indicate the victim was a minor with no prior sexual experience when the alleged abuse began.

When the victim attempted to resist, investigators say Trent threatened self-harm to coerce her compliance, referencing a firearm he was said to carry with him regularly.

Recorded conversation, prior cyber tip bolster case

According to his arrest report, on Jan. 28, 2026, the victim participated in a recorded investigative call with Trent. During the conversation, Trent made statements that detectives say confirm his awareness of and participation in specific incidents described by the victim. According to the report, he told the victim, “I think about you 100% of everyday ... I still saved all the emails so I can go back and read them.”

Investigators also uncovered a prior CyberTipLine report, filed by Instagram on May 3, 2021, which flagged an account linked to Trent for child exploitation material. JSO records show the 2021 investigation was closed without criminal charges after Trent told detectives at the time that the recipient of the material was an adult with whom he had been having an affair. Investigators in the current case say a review of the victim’s birth date contradicts that claim.

Arrest made at local restaurant

Police say Trent was located on Sunday, April 12 by detectives with JSO’s Community Problem Response Unit, who had been actively searching for him on an active arrest warrant issued April 9. Investigators spotted Trent leaving a church on Herlong Road and followed his black Ford Bronco to a Larry’s Giant Subs on Normandy Boulevard, where he was apprehended.

Trent told detectives he wanted his lawyer and declined to speak with investigators. He was transported to the Duval County Jail.

Still, the club gave itself a little bit of protection in case he does not.

Pittsburgh placed the unrestricted free-agent tender on the four-time MVP on Monday, meaning the Steelers would be entitled to a compensatory draft pick if Rodgers doesn’t sign with them and instead lands elsewhere during the 2026 season.

General manager Omar Khan and first-year head coach Mike McCarthy remain very optimistic that the 42-year-old will be back after leading them to an AFC North title last winter.

The line of communication between both sides has been wide open since the end of the season, and Khan said after the NFL draft that the selection of former Penn State star Drew Allar in the third round does not affect Pittsburgh's interest in having Rodgers back.

The tender does not preclude Rodgers from signing with another team or even give the Steelers the ability to match an offer to him if one is made before July 22.

What it does do is give them some coverage if he signs elsewhere before training camp opens in late July. After camp begins, the Steelers would have exclusive negotiating rights with Rodgers.

The tender also slots in Rodgers' salary. Under the rules, Rodgers would be entitled to a 10% raise over his 2025 salary if he comes back for a 22nd season.

Rodgers said in January that he would make a decision “down the line.” The Steelers had expressed hope that Rodgers would be able to provide clarity before the NFL draft, but that did not happen.

Pittsburgh begins organized team activities — which are voluntary — on May 18. Mandatory minicamp is set for June 2-4.

Rodgers skipped OTAs entirely last year, signing a one-year deal with the Steelers not long after minicamp wrapped up.

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

According to his arrest report, the 44-year-old man was taken into custody Friday, April 24, after Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office detectives located him driving a black 2016 Chrysler 200 near the intersection of Pearl Street and Water Street.

What led to the arrest

The incident that triggered the investigation occurred Sunday, April 19. According to the warrant affidavit, a woman reported to dispatch that the suspect had taken a child — described as being under 13 years old — in a Chrysler 300 and left her behind at a church on Lane Ave.

Witnesses in the church parking lot told law enforcement that the suspect may have changed clothing after the incident. According to the affidavit, a witness was in the church parking lot when a vehicle quickly pulled in and parked.

“I need him out of my car,” the woman reportedly yelled to the witness before the suspect exited the front passenger seat and left with the child and vehicle.

The affidavit states the woman told investigators she had not given the suspect permission to operate her vehicle or be alone with the child at any time. She also told investigators the suspect had a history of drug use — specifically cocaine — and had been violent toward her in the past.

Child found safe; search for suspect

About 40 minutes after the initial report, at approximately 11:49 a.m., a man identified called JSO to report a child roaming near W. 9th St. with no parent in sight. Officers responded, recovered the child, and confirmed the child was the missing victim.

According to the affidavit, the witness said he observed the child attempting to get inside a black Chrysler near that address. He knocked on doors in the neighborhood trying to locate the child’s parents before leaving the child with a woman on W. 10th St.

Police say the black Chrysler 300 was recovered abandoned in front of an address on W. 9th St. — a residence belonging to the suspect’s brother. The brother cooperated with investigators and provided a statement.

Warrant issued, suspect arrested days later

Arrest warrants were issued April 22, 2026, and returned April 24, 2026. That same day, JSO’s Community Problem Response Unit was deployed in District 1 as part of a violence reduction strategy, with detectives actively searching for the suspect.

Detectives located the suspect at the intersection of Pearl Street and Water Street and took him into custody.

The suspect faces three felony charges: kidnapping of a child under 13 without consent (first-degree felony), grand theft auto (third-degree felony) and child neglect (third-degree felony). He was booked into the Pretrial Detention Facility at 9:04 p.m. and is being held on a combined bond of $450,006.

Larry Darnell McDaniel, 23, was sentenced to 15 years on each count, with 64 days’ credit for time served, JSO said. The sentences will run concurrently.

According to the reports, surveillance video from the Herlong Road business shows two men — later identified as McDaniel and his brother, Christopher McDaniel — approach the front door on Aug. 4, 2023.

The security guard, identified in the report as Calvin Johnson, tried to stop them. One of the suspects was seen holding a bag that concealed a handgun, and the report says Larry McDaniel pulled out a gun and fired multiple rounds.

Johnson suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the abdomen and was taken to UF Health with life-threatening injuries and survived.

Detectives used photo lineups and said Johnson identified both brothers as the suspects. The sheriff’s office issued a warrant Aug. 24, 2023, and arrested Larry McDaniel on Aug. 28 after officers located him at an apartment complex, the reports said.

At the time of the 2023 arrest, bond was set at $200,003 with conditions including GPS monitoring, no contact with the victim or witnesses or co-defendants, and no firearms or weapons. In April 2026, McDaniel pleaded guilty to both counts.

Environmentalists fear the move will create a precedent for wiping out other protections for public lands across the country. Twin Metals Minnesota LLC, a subsidiary of Chile-based Antofagasta Minerals, has been looking to dig for copper, nickel and other precious metals in the Superior National Forest since 2019.

The canoe area lies in the national forest just downstream from the mine site, raising concerns that digging could create pollution that would contaminate one of the nation's last remaining wild areas.

Former President Joe Biden's administration in 2023 imposed a 20-year moratorium on mining in the national forest, putting Twin Metals plans on hold. But Trump has called for boosting domestic energy and mineral production, and congressional Republicans sent him a resolution to lift the moratorium earlier this month, promising the move would create jobs and reenergize the mining industry in Minnesota's Iron Range. The president signed the resolution on Monday.

“Today is a dark day for America's most beloved Wilderness area, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and a stark warning call for public lands nationwide,” Ingrid Lyons, executive director the group Save the Boundary Waters, said in a statement. “Minnesotans and the American public writ large have been loud and clear -- this iconic place needs to be protected. Today, by the very people who claim to represent them, they were ignored, and even worse, silenced. But of course, it's not over, and we will always keep fighting.”

Twin Metals spokesperson Kathy Graul said in a statement to The Associated Press that lifting the moratorium creates an opportunity to strengthen mineral supply chains but stressed that the company still must go through a rigorous permitting process that could last years.

Indeed, the mine site stands on a patchwork of state, federal and private land, creating a regulatory labyrinth.

The first hurdle for the company is reestablishing a right to mine after officials in Biden's Department of the Interior terminated its federal site leases in early 2022. Twin Metals filed a federal lawsuit seeking a declaration that the leases are still valid but a judge threw the case out in 2023. The company is appealing that decision.

Twin Metals also would have to win a mining permit from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources by showing that the company can prevent water pollution, safely store waste rock and restore the land after the mine is played out. The company also will need state water and air permits. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who voted against lifting the moratorium, could be a serious roadblock for the company if she wins her bid for the governor's office in November.

Environmental groups and tribes could conceivably challenge every permit in court, potentially blocking Twin Metals' plans for years. Friends of the Boundary Waters, for example, has said litigation remains “under active consideration.”

And Canadian officials could raise concerns about whether the mine could create cross-border pollution that violates treaties with the U.S. The Boundary Waters separates northeastern Minnesota from northwestern Ontario, hence the name.

The area remains largely untouched by humans. Logging is prohibited, planes must obey minimum altitude limits when flying over it, and motorized boats are limited to certain areas. The U.S. Forest Service issued about 776,000 visitor permits between 2020 and 2024.

The justices are reviewing an appellate ruling that would allow the lawsuit against Cisco to go forward in U.S. courts.

The company argues that it cannot be held liable under two separate laws for aiding and abetting human rights violations. The laws are the 18th-century Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), first enacted in 1991.

The main questions among the court's conservative majority seemed to be how broadly to rule for Cisco and whether lower courts are allowing too many similar suits to proceed. Justice Neil Gorsuch at one point asked whether the courthouse door is “not closely guarded.”

In recent years, the Supreme Court and presidential administrations of both parties have been skeptical of lawsuits seeking to use U.S. courts as a venue to seek justice over the acts of foreign governments, especially those that took place abroad. To try to overcome that skepticism, Falun Gong members have argued that a substantial portion of Cisco’s activities involving China took place in the United States.

An Associated Press investigation last year showed that American tech companies, to a large degree, designed and built China’s surveillance state, encouraged by Republican and Democratic administrations, even as activists warned such tools were being used to quash dissent, persecute religious groups and target minorities.

In 2008, documents leaked to the press showed Cisco saw the “Golden Shield,” China's internet censorship effort, as a sales opportunity. The company quoted a Chinese official calling the Falun Gong an “evil cult.” A Cisco presentation reviewed by AP from the same year said its products could identify over 90% of Falun Gong material on the web.

Other presentations reviewed by AP show that Cisco represented Falun Gong material as a “threat” and built out a national information system to track Falun Gong believers. In 2011, Falun Gong members sued Cisco, alleging the company tailored technology for Beijing that it knew would be used to track, detain and torture believers.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson seemed most willing to allow the lawsuit to continue.

Cisco was a willing partner with the Chinese government, Sotomayor said. "It knew that those people will be tortured,” she said.

Not true, said Cisco lawyer Kannon Shanmugam. "Cisco vigorously disputes those allegations,” Shanmugam told the justices.

A decision is expected late June.

In a boost for the prime minister, the House of Commons rejected a move by opposition politicians to trigger a parliamentary standards investigation into Starmer. But a former senior official said he could not confirm that “due process” was followed when Mandelson, a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, was given the key diplomatic job despite failing security checks.

Reverberations from the ill-fated appointment have left Starmer fighting for his job, and at odds with his civil service. The prime minister is angry he wasn’t told that Mandelson had failed security vetting, while senior officials say they felt pressure from Starmer’s office to confirm the appointment quickly at the start of President Donald Trump ’s second term.

“I was presented with a decision and told to get on with it,” said Philip Barton, who was top civil servant in the Foreign Office when the choice of Mandelson was announced in December 2024. “The prime minister had been made aware of the risks and had accepted the risks.”

Starmer’s former top aide says sorry

Starmer’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, acknowledged Tuesday he’d made a “serious mistake” by recommending Mandelson, but denied pressuring officials to ignore security concerns.

McSweeney told lawmakers on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that “the prime minister relied on my advice, and I got it wrong.” He apologized to Epstein’s victims, saying “I am sorry for any part this controversy has played in causing further hurt or distress.”

But he insisted that he didn’t “ask officials to ignore procedures, request that steps should be skipped, or communicate explicitly or implicitly that checks should be cleared at all costs.”

Starmer fired Mandelson in September after new details emerged about the ambassador’s friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.

Police opened an investigation into Mandelson in February over allegations that he passed sensitive government information to Epstein when he was a member of the U.K. government in 2009. He denies wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged.

McSweeney, who called Mandelson an adviser and confidant, resigned in February, saying he took responsibility for the ambassadorial appointment.

McSweeney said that he felt Mandelson’s experience as a former European Union trade commissioner would serve the U.K. well in striking a trade deal with the Trump administration.

“I don’t think the prime minister would have chosen Mandelson if Kamala Harris had been elected president,” he said.

Government denies pressuring officials

But McSweeney denied allegations that Starmer’s staff pressured officials to rush through the confirmation.

He said that at the time of the appointment, he had the impression that Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein was “a passing acquaintance.” When emails were published showing the friendship was close, “it was a knife through my soul,” McSweeney said.

Starmer fired top Foreign Office official Olly Robbins earlier this month after the revelation that Mandelson was approved for the job against the recommendation of the government’s security vetting agency. Starmer has called it “staggering” that Robbins failed to tell him about the security concerns.

Robbins says he was bound by confidentiality rules. He has said the concerns didn’t relate to Epstein, though he hasn’t disclosed what they were about.

It’s rare but not unknown for U.K. ambassadors to be political appointees rather than career diplomats. Barton, who was Robbins’ predecessor at the Foreign Office until January 2025, told the Foreign Affairs Committee that he was concerned Mandelson’s known links to “toxic, hot potato” Epstein “could become a problem.”

“There was pressure to get everything done as quickly as possible,” said Barton – though he denied there was pressure for a specific outcome.

Starmer has denied that anyone in his office put pressure on the civil service.

Opponents tried to force an inquiry

Critics say Starmer’s decision to appoint Mandelson is evidence of bad judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps since he led the center-left Labour Party to a landslide election victory in July 2024.

Starmer already defused one potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to quit over the Mandelson appointment. He could face a new challenge if, as expected, Labour takes a hammering in May 7 local and regional elections, which give voters a chance to pass a midterm verdict on the government.

He managed to win a vote Tuesday in the House of Commons, where lawmakers rejected by 335 votes to 223 a demand by the opposition Conservative Party for Parliament’s Privileges Committee to investigate Starmer’s claim that “due process” was followed in Mandelson’s appointment.

The committee has the power to suspend lawmakers, including the prime minister, for breaches of the rules, and a finding of deliberately misleading Parliament is usually a resigning offense.

“It’s clear that full due process was not followed,” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said, adding that “appointing a known national security risk to be ambassador to the United States is a profound failure of government.”

Badenoch urged Labour lawmakers not to be complicit in a “cover-up.”

Starmer urged Labour legislators to “stick together” and vote against the motion, calling it a “stunt” timed to damage the party before the May elections.

Many heeded the call, but several criticized Starmer during debate in the House of Commons. Labour lawmaker Emma Lewell said that “like the public, I feel let down, disappointed and I am angry.

“Peter Mandelson should never have been appointed,” she said. “This was a fundamental failure of judgment.”

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Associated Press writer Sylvia Hui contributed to this story.

Dr. David Morens, 78, is accused of using his private email account to intentionally circumvent public records laws while employed at the National Institutes of Health. The Justice Department alleges that he concealed or destroyed records of discussions related to COVID-19 research grants, including an effort to revive a controversial coronavirus grant.

“These allegations represent a profound abuse of trust at a time when the American people needed it most — during the height of a global pandemic,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement Tuesday. "Government officials have a solemn duty to provide honest, well-grounded facts and advice in service of the public interest — not to advance their own personal or ideological agendas.”

Morens faces charges of conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting, according to a Justice Department news release. If convicted, he could face decades in prison. An attorney for Morens declined to comment.

The indictment reflects Republicans’ long-held belief that the federal government covered up key information about COVID-19 as the pandemic unfolded. Despite numerous probes, the origins of COVID have never been proven. Scientists are unsure whether the virus jumped from an animal, as many other viruses have, or came from a laboratory accident. A U.S. intelligence analysis released in 2023 said there is insufficient evidence to prove either theory.

Blanche said Morens' alleged conduct was part of an effort to "suppress alternative theories" about COVID-19's origins. The Justice Department also accused Morens of having an improper relationship with a collaborator, including allegedly accepting a gift of wine and discussing COVID-19 research and potential publications in a prominent medical journal.

The indictment follows a probe by House Republicans into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that scrutinized Morens' email communications and accused him of intentionally concealing records. In congressional testimony, Morens denied attempting to evade federal transparency laws by using his personal email.

Several factors lead to a fire becoming larger. They include drought, overgrown forests, wind and extreme heat.

Most of our area is in an exceptional drought, and the wind has been elevated over the past few days, which has made containment difficult.

It has also been very dry, and you may have heard of the term “relative humidity.”

The humidity has been critically low over the past few days, generally below 30%. What exactly is relative humidity, and how does it impact how a fire spreads?

There’s water vapor in our atmosphere because of a process called evaporation.

This is when water changes from a liquid to a gas.

Water “evaporates” from the oceans, lakes, rivers, plants and the ground.

The relative humidity is one metric used to measure the amount of water in the air as a percentage. In other words, when the air is completely full of water vapor, that would be 100%.

Warmer air can hold more moisture than cold air, so if you have the same amount of absolute humidity, colder air will have a higher relative humidity and warm air will have a lower relative humidity.

The relative humidity can dampen or dry out potential fuel, basically anything that is combustible.

We had several days last week and this week where the relative humidity was below 30%. That means it was very dry, which helped the fire expand rapidly.

You may be wondering how exactly the relative humidity percentage differs from the dew point.

Dew point is another metric that measures the amount of moisture in the air.

The dew point marks the temperature at which water vapor turns into liquid water droplets.

If the dew point is less than or equal to 55, it is dry and comfortable. Between 55 and 65, you will likely notice the air becoming sticky.

Over 65 is when there’s a lot of moisture in the air, and it is more uncomfortable.

Humidity plays a critical role in whether a fire spreads or becomes more contained, but it’s not the only thing.

That’s why officials look at a combination of humidity, wind speed and direction, among other factors, to come up with the best plan on fighting a fire.

The UAE's decision had been rumored as a possibility for some time, as it pushed back in recent years against OPEC production quotas it felt had been too low — meaning it wasn't able to sell as much oil to the world as it had wanted.

“Having invested heavily in expanding energy production capacity in recent years, the bigger picture is that the UAE has been itching to pump more oil,” Capital Economics wrote in an analysis. “The ties binding OPEC members together have loosened,” it said, particularly after Qatar withdrew from the cartel in 2019.

Regional politics are also likely at play. The UAE has had increasingly frosty relations with Saudi Arabia, OPEC's largest producer, over political and economic matters in the Mideast, even after both came under attack by fellow OPEC member Iran during the war.

No immediate impact likely for world oil markets

The UAE’s withdrawal from OPEC won’t necessarily have any immediate effects in markets. That’s because world oil supplies are sharply constrained by the war in Iran, which has closed off the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which one-fifth of global oil supplies — including much of the UAE's — is transported. On Tuesday, Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded above $111 a barrel, or more than 50% above its prewar price.

OPEC accounts for roughly 40% of the world's oil output, but its market power had been waning in recent years as the United States ramped up production. While Saudi Arabia had been producing more than 10 million barrels of oil a day before the war, the U.S. pumps more than 13 million barrels a day.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been a steady critic of the cartel during his two terms in the White House.

The UAE, which joined OPEC through its emirate of Abu Dhabi in 1967, had been producing around 3.4 million barrels of crude a day just before the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on Feb. 28. Analysts say it has capacity to produce roughly 5 million barrels a day.

In its announcement on Tuesday, made via its state-run WAM news agency, the UAE said it also would leave the wider OPEC+ group, which Russia had led to try to stabilize oil prices.

“This decision reflects the UAE’s long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile, including accelerated investment in domestic energy production,” the UAE said, adding that it would bring "additional production to market in a gradual and measured manner, aligned with demand and market conditions.”

The UAE’s withdrawal removes one of OPEC’s few members with the ability to quickly increase production, said Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy.

“A structurally weaker OPEC, with less spare capacity concentrated within the group, will find it increasingly difficult to calibrate supply and stabilize prices," he said.

Saudi Arabia, UAE increasingly at odds

Saudi Arabia and the UAE increasingly have competed over economic issues and regional politics, particularly in the Red Sea area. The two countries had jointly fought against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels in 2015. However, that coalition broke down into recriminations in late December, when Saudi Arabia bombed what it described as a weapons shipment bound for Yemeni separatists backed by the UAE.

As tensions rose in recent months, Saudi broadcasters long based in Dubai, the economic hub of the UAE, have pulled back to the kingdom.

“This exit of OPEC fits into the UAE need for flexibility with key energy consumers as well -- including a future relationship with China and a more competitive relationship with Saudi Arabia," said Karen Young, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

While Saudi Arabia and OPEC had no immediate reaction, Emirati Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei insisted his country's decision did not stem from any dispute with its Gulf neighbor.

“We’ve been working together for years and years. We have the highest respect for the Saudis for leading OPEC,” al-Mazrouei told CNBC.

However, the UAE sent its foreign minister rather than its ruler to a Gulf Arab leaders' meeting held Tuesday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The UAE hosted the United Nations COP28 climate talks in 2023, a conference that ended for the first time with a pledge by nearly 200 countries to move away from planet-warming fossil fuels. But the UAE still plans to increase its production capacity in the coming years, even as it pursues more clean energy at home, a move decried by climate activists.

“The demand for power is going to go up and up and up,” U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told an Abu Dhabi oil conference in November. “Today’s the day to announce that there is no energy transition. There is only energy addition.”

He drew widespread applause from his Emirati hosts.

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Associated Press writer David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed to this report.

Gov. Ron DeSantis issued the proclamation calling the special session earlier in the year, and offered a proposed map on Monday, just one day before the session was set to begin.

State lawmakers last redrew district lines in 2022, following the 2020 Census. Reapportionment, the process of redistributing seats in the U.S. House based on population, resulted in Florida’s U.S. House delegation increasing to 28 seats that year.

Currently, 20 seats are held by Republicans, with eight held by Democrats. The proposed map is expected to give Republicans a greater advantage, widening the margin to 24 to four.

The proposal leaves North Florida’s districts untouched, but makes changes in Central and South Florida, with Democrats potentially losing one seat in the Orlando area, one in the Tampa area, and two in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area.

Note: If the map doesn’t appear to be working correctly, refresh your browser window.

Tuesday morning, she still wasn’t sure what was left of it.

She and her son’s family and their three dogs had to relocate for five days after mandatory evacuations were ordered for the Highway 82 Fire.

READ: Full coverage of Brantley County wildfire

Turner’s son was able to get back to his property off Highway 110 on Monday night, when authorities started issuing passes for residents to re-enter evacuation zones.

But Turner hadn’t yet seen her own home when she stopped Tuesday morning to speak with News4JAX reporter Briana Brownlee and photojournalist Jesse Hanson.

RELATED | ‘It’s been a lot’: Brantley County residents return home after days of wildfire evacuations, unsure of what they’ll find

Turner wanted to thank the pair for a report they shared last week from a small neighborhood cemetery.

Brownlee and Hanson were able to show that despite the ground being scorched throughout the cemetery, all the gravestones were left unharmed.

“That was my grandson’s lot behind you,” an emotional Turner told Brownlee. “My daughter is in Atlanta, and she saw your interview, and she got to see her baby’s cemetery lot, that it was fine.”

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Turner said she appreciated the news crews, volunteers, firefighters and everyone who has shown up to help her community.

“We appreciated y’all so much for that coming and putting y’allself in danger and all these people who’ve come here to help, and then the support to help feed them and everything,” Turner said. “People just don’t know how much we appreciate everybody coming to our little neck of the woods to help us.”

Officers went to a residence on Beaverbrook Place after an initial complaint on Oct. 20, 2025, alleging the animals were being neglected and abused. Animal Care and Protective Services responded and found dogs in wire crates, barking and howling, and a “heavy odor of feces” coming from the home, the report said.

A civil search warrant was executed at the address on Oct. 22, 2025. Animal care officers took custody of nine dogs and three cats and transported them to ACPS for veterinary care, the report said. Cruelty exams were completed Feb. 20 and misdemeanor arrest warrants were sought based on the findings, the affidavit said.

The woman was taken into custody on April 25 after officers confirmed an active warrant and transported her to the pretrial detention facility. She faces 12 misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals, the report shows. Bond was set at $5,003.

JSO listed the case under its animal care and protective services investigation; the matter remains under investigation, according to the report. It was not immediately clear whether the woman had an attorney who could comment.

“It wasn’t the plan,” he said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “But it wasn’t not the plan.”

Stanton has done other things than think about Woody and Buzz for the past 34 years. At Pixar, he made “A Bug’s Life” and two Oscar-winners: “Finding Nemo” and “WALL-E.” But “Toy Story” was the movie that started it all. The one he and his peers couldn’t believe they got to make. Everything that’s happened since, he said, has been gravy.

The new film, in theaters June 12, is widely expected to be one of the summer’s biggest hits. The past two movies made more than a billion dollars and this one is likely on the same path. But while there is a business driving many of the decisions regarding the series, Stanton said they’ve also had a lot of time to think about where the story should go. It’s show business, yes, but they always try to put the “show” first.

Remember, there was an 11-year gap between “Toy Story 2” and “Toy Story 3,” and nine more years before the fourth movie. It was around 2008, when they’d finally cracked the story for three, and decided that it would be the end of their time with Andy as he went off to college, that Stanton started to think wider.

“What if it went farther? What if it was a trilogy with one kid, closed that up, handed it off to another kid and started another one?” Stanton said. “That seemed really exciting to me because that’s the way life really goes with toys and mementos. They get passed down as hand-me-downs; they go from one kid to another.”

Midway through the Bonnie era

One thing Stanton doesn’t love about the Toy Story movies are the numbers. Toy Story isn’t Rocky — it’s something else.

“They make it sound like old blockbuster thinking,” Stanton said. “The culture’s changed in the last 15 years. We all understand binging now. We all understand episodic stories. Not everything’s great for it, but some are and the Toy Story world is meant for that kind of lengthy thinking.”

Thus, four was the beginning of the Bonnie years. Though some of the actors were publicly saying it was the last Toy Story, as Woody went off with Bo Peep and the rest of the toys stayed with Bonnie, Stanton was pretty sure it was going to keep going. Bonnie’s arc wasn’t over yet. He just didn’t know they would come knocking on his door to figure out how.

“I was skeptical at first because I didn’t know if where I would want to see it go would match with where the studio would want to see go,” he said. “I cautiously said, let me write the crappy first draft, because I always write a crappy first draft, but at least I’ll figure out myself where I’d like to see it go just as a fan, let alone somebody that’s been behind the camera with it. And if we agree on that fundamentally then can we start working on it and I’ll take the job.”

He also wanted a collaborator by his side, so Kenna Harris (“Ciao Alberto”) joined as cowriter and director. Harris was around the same age Stanton was on “Toy Story,” which, he said, felt like kismet. In Harris, he found someone who he could pass knowledge to and learn from as someone who grew up in a different era. Together, they found more commonalities than differences.

“It’s really trying to find the things that are timeless, you know? Because childhood is gonna keep happening,” Stanton said.

The screentime conundrum

The fifth film sees the arrival of a new thing that is taking Bonnie’s attention away from her toys: The Lilypad. Stanton kept checking with the lawyers to make sure it wasn’t copyrighted or a real thing. It wasn’t, they assured him.

While the screentime conversation might not be new, how it affects playtime with these toys is something they hadn't yet explored.

“I feel like we’re kind of late to the party. I was worried there would be some sort of resolution to it before we finished and there wouldn’t be so much dramatic controversy about it, but it’s a legitimate concern that has no complete, finite answer,” Stanton said. “That’s drama, it’s in the gray. It is like how do you navigate something that you have to deal with? It’s not just ‘get rid of it.’”

There were similar conversations about television for kids of his era, and he knew that like TV, technology is not going away.

“Toy Story 5” also places more direct emphasis on the power of play and imagination, something they dabbled with in the opening of “Toy Story 3,” but that they really get to lean into here.

Making ‘Toy Story’ for the grandkids

Stanton doesn’t think too much about box office anymore; At Pixar, always been aiming higher than that. On the first film, he liked to say that they were making films for the grandkids. It might have been a bit of magical thinking for a fledgling studio and a man with a very young family, but in three decades, it’s come true. Stanton’s grandchild is now watching the Pixar movies he helped create.

Just recently, Stanton was at Skywalker Ranch finishing the mix for “Toy Story 5.” It’s the first time he’s gotten to step back and take it in as a movie and not the jigsaw puzzle he’s been building for so long.

“That’s when it kind of breaks my brain. I’m going, ‘Oh my God, there’s all the characters just living their lives’,” Stanton said. “And that’s the magic of movies. You forget that anybody behind the scenes made it and you just believe, and that’s the real drug.”

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For more coverage of this summer’s upcoming films, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/movies

Durant didn’t participate in practice with the Rockets on Tuesday before they left for California, trailing 3-1 in the first-round series. But he was seen running on an anti-gravity treadmill as the team wrapped up its work before heading to the airport.

Coach Ime Udoka was asked if there was a possibility that Durant would play in Game 5 after missing the last two games with a sprained left ankle and bone bruise.

“We’ll see,” Udoka said. “It is day to day, game to game. But we’ll have to get on the court and do some things, and he didn’t participate in practice today. But he’s doing the conditioning and other aspects to try to get back.”

Durant has missed three games in this series after he sat out the opener with a bruised right knee. He returned for Game 2, scoring 23 points in 41 minutes of the 101-94 loss, during which he injured his ankle late in the game.

The Rockets won Game 4 115-96 despite missing their superstar to avoid elimination.

Durant's injury problems this postseason came after the 37-year-old ranked second in the league in the regular season by playing 2,840 minutes.

Durant, who is in his first season in Houston after an offseason trade from Phoenix, is the fifth-leading scorer in NBA history.

___

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

He’s being recognized for using his success, resources and community connections to make a real impact across Northeast Florida — especially for women, children and young people in need.

His motto is simple: If I have it, I’m going to give it away.

Building more than homes

Shee made his name in the building industry, co-founding MasterCraft Builder Group in 2011. But today, his focus is less about construction — and more about community.

“I really believe God has given me resources and success so that I can recycle them and give them back,” Shee said. “It’s what we do here on earth that really makes the biggest impact, and I want to make sure I make a big impact.”

That impact is already taking shape.

At the Alpha Omega Miracle Home campus, Shee is helping bring a new housing community to life — 20 units with 52 bedrooms designed for women and children experiencing homelessness.

“It’s crazy to me that we live in such a wealthy county… and we have women that are sleeping in cars, sleeping on park benches,” Shee said. “It just breaks my heart. And I know I can’t fix it all over, but I’m going to try to fix it here in our hometown.”

The goal is not just shelter — but stability, dignity and a fresh start.

Creating opportunities

Shee is also supporting projects aimed at young people transitioning into independence.

At St. Augustine Youth Services, he’s helping build an Independent Living Village — a space where young men aging out of care can take their next steps while still having support nearby.

It’s part of a broader mission: meeting people where they are and helping them move forward.

A platform for giving back

Beyond construction, Shee and his wife use their property, Heritage Farms’ Tringali Barn, as a hub for community giving.

Roughly half of the events hosted there benefit nonprofits — raising millions of dollars over the years through events like Clays for a Cause and Concerts for a Cause.

“We’ve raised millions of dollars in this barn, and I want to continue using it to serve the community and give back,” Shee said.

Shee has also been a longtime supporter of Best Buddies, an organization that creates opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

His involvement earned him a Hometown Hero Award, recognizing his continued advocacy and support.

Leading with purpose

Inside one of the housing projects he supports, messages of encouragement and scripture are built into the space — even within the foundation itself — as a reminder to future residents that they are valued and not alone.

For Shee, the mission is deeply personal.

“The Bible tells us to help orphans and widows in distress,” he said. “To me, that’s women and children. And that’s what I do.”

Shee says giving back doesn’t require wealth — just willingness.

“You just have to step into faith,” he said. “Set the distractions of the world aside, focus on helping others… and just start. I’m telling you, it will make your life so much more fulfilling.”

Through his work, Chris Shee is proving that success isn’t just measured by what you build — but by who you lift up along the way.

Unbeaten Ponte Vedra, which has been either No. 1 or No. 2 all season in the Varsity 4 Super 6 rankings, is the top seed in Region 1-3A. The Sharks (17-0) open on Tuesday night against Nease. In Region 1-4A, Mandarin (14-2) earned a top seed but must travel to Ocoee in the opener.

Bolles, in its first season of flag football, earned a No. 2 seed in Region 1-1A and will host FAMU DRS in the opener on Tuesday.

Flag football regional quarterfinals

Region 1-4A

Wednesday, April 29, 7 p.m.

(1) Mandarin (14-2) at (8) Ocoee (10-8), 6 p.m.

(4) Flagler Palm Coast (12-5) at (5) Ocala Forest (14-3)

(6) Tocoi Creek (9-7) at (3) Timber Creek (14-2)

Region 1-3A

(8) Nease (10-6) at (1) Ponte Vedra (17-0), April 28

(5) Bartram Trail (16-2) at (4) Oviedo (11-1)

Region 1-2A

Tuesday, April 28

(8) Menendez (5-6) at (1) Choctawhatchee (14-3)

(5) Booker T. Washington (10-2) at (4) St. Augustine (12-5)

(6) Yulee (10-6) at (3) Arnold (13-3)

(7) Godby (9-8) at (2) Paxon (14-2)

Region 2-2A

(6) Citrus (11-6) at (3) Clay (13-1)

Region 1-1A

(8) West Nassau (10-4) at (1) Florida High (13-2)

(4) Destin (10-5) at (5) Bradford (11-4)

(6) University Christian (7-5) at (3) Eagle’s View (17-5)

(7) FAMU (10-7) at (2) Bolles (14-2)

That's boosted the Detroit auto maker's outlook for 2026. On Tuesday, GM said it's now looking to rake in $13.5 billion to $15.5 billion in earnings before interest and taxes this year — up from previous forecasts of $13 billion to $15 billion.

The refund is set to ease the company's total tariff expenses some. GM anticipates paying $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion in tariff costs for 2026, the company said Tuesday, down from an original estimate of $3 billion to $4 billion.

“We are clearly operating in a very dynamic environment, which isn’t unusual for this industry,” CEO Mary Barra wrote in a letter to shareholders. Still, she maintained the company was seeing solid growth and a strong balance sheet "to achieve our long-term goals.”

For the first quarter of 2026, GM reported earnings of $2.63 billion and a revenue of $43.62 billion.

GM confirmed to The Associated Press that it hasn't received the refund yet, and doesn't have a specific estimate for when it will, but $500 million is what it expects following the decision from the Supreme Court. The court in February ruled that the levies Trump imposed using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, were illegal.

Companies both big and small are seeking refunds for IEEPA tariffs they've already paid. The Customs and Border Protection agency launched an online system for claims last week.

If CBP approves a claim, it will take between 60 and 90 days for a refund to be issued, the agency said. But the system is being rolled out in phases, and only some tariff refunds will be returned in the first phase.

CBP said in court filings that over 330,000 importers paid a total of about $166 billion on over 53 million shipments.

The now-overturned IEEPA tariffs included so-called “reciprocal” tariffs that Trump slapped on nearly every country in the world a year ago and “trafficking tariffs” on imports from Mexico, Canada and China — as well as separate duties on countries like Brazil and India, all of which the president imposed by declaring a national emergency.

February's Supreme Court decision marked a significant blow to Trump's economic agenda. But many other tariffs remain in effect — including punishing sectoral levies that Trump imposed using another law (Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act) on foreign steel, aluminum, cars and other products. And companies like GM are continuing to pay those costs.

The administration has also signaled that more new duties are on the way.

Trump has publicly attacked companies who have warned of price hikes spanning from tariffs — and at times used the threat of new import taxes to strike deals. Last week, the president also said he'll “remember” those that do not seek refunds from his IEEPA tariffs.

“I think it’s brilliant if they don’t do that,” Trump told CNBC of companies that hadn't yet sought reimbursements. “If they don’t do that, they got to know me very well.”

____

AP Business Writer Mae Anderson in New York contributed to this report.

The animals are part of an interactive installation by American artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) currently showing at Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie.

Each printed image shows a snippet of reality transformed by AI to resemble the personality of the dog or, in other words, the worldview of the human figure on its shoulders (i.e., the Picasso dog will produce images in Cubist style and Warhol's in pop art).

It's a commentary on how our perceptions are shaped by algorithms and technology platforms, the organizers of the exhibition write in the description of the event.

“In the past, our view of the world was shaped in part by how artists saw the world,” Beeple told the AP. “How Picasso painted changed how we saw the word, how Warhol talked about consumerism, pop culture, that changed how he saw those things.”

Now our view of the world is shaped by tech billionaires who own powerful algorithms that decide what we see and what we don’t see, the artist added.

“That's an immense amount of power that I don’t think we’ve fully understood, especially because when they want to make a change, they don’t need to lobby the U.N. They don’t need to get something through Congress or the EU, they just wake up and change these algorithms.”

The dogs also wear heads in Beeple’s own image.

Lisa Botti, the curator of the exhibition in Berlin, said that artificial intelligence was one of the phenomena most impacting our lives today and that “museums are the places where society can reflect” on such transformations, which is why she wanted to have Beeple’s work shown.

The work, entitled “Regular Animals,” was first shown at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025.

Beeple is a graphic designer from South Carolina who does a variety of digital artwork. He is one of the founders of the “everyday” movement in 3D graphics: For years, he has been creating a picture every day and posting it online without missing a single day.

According to Christie's, he is the third most expensive living artist to sell at auction, after David Hockney and Jeff Koons.

In the spring of 2021, Christie’s opened bidding for Beeple's digital collage entitled “Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” with the sale ultimately closing at over $69 million. The auction house described the artwork as “critiques of modern society, the government and social media” in the form of “grotesque, dystopian futures, often featuring celebrities like Donald Trump and Kanye West.”

Christie’s said the sale marked the first time a major auction house offered a digital-only artwork with a non-fungible token as a guarantee of its authenticity, as well as the first time cryptocurrency has been used to pay for an artwork at auction.

Non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs, are electronic identifiers confirming a digital collectible is real by recording the details on a digital ledger known as a blockchain. The tokens have swept the online collecting world recently, an offshoot of the boom in cryptocurrencies.

At the Art Basel 2025 event, Beeple gave away the photos pooed by his dogs to audience members, accompanied by a certificate that read “100% organic GMO-free dog shit.” Some prints had QR codes that gave access to free NFTs, which in practice meant Beeple was giving away his digital art for free for people (sometimes the subjects of the photos themselves) to potentially monetize.

——

Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.

The plot was thwarted, but Austrian authorities still canceled Swift’s three performances in August 2024. The singer’s fans, known as Swifties, who had flown to Austria from across the globe to attend a performance of her record-setting Eras Tour were devastated, but rallied to turn Vienna into a citywide trading post for friendship bracelets and singalongs.

The defendant, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen known only as Beran A. in line with Austrian privacy rules, faced charges including terrorist offenses and membership in a terrorist organization. He could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, and has been in custody since August 2024.

The Vienna plot drew comparisons to a 2017 attack by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people. The bomb detonated at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving, becoming the deadliest extremist attack in the United Kingdom in recent years.

Defendant regrets his actions

Anna Mair, his defense attorney, said her client pleaded guilty to the charges related to the concert plot.

“Of course, he deeply regrets it all,” Mair said outside the court, adding that “he says it was the biggest mistake of his life.”

Austrian media reported that he also pleaded guilty to being a member of a terrorist organization.

Beran A. is facing trial alongside Arda K., whose full name also has not been made public. They, along with a third man, planned to carry out simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates during Ramadan in 2024 in the name of the Islamic State group. Beran A. and Arda K. never carried out their attacks.

Only Beran A. was charged in connection with the concert plot. He pleaded not guilty to the charges related to the plot for simultaneous attacks.

He allegedly planned to target onlookers gathered outside Ernst Happel Stadium — up to 30,000 each night, with another 65,000 inside the venue — with knives or homemade explosives. The suspect hoped to “kill as many people as possible,” authorities said in 2024. The U.S. provided intelligence that fed into the decision to cancel the concerts.

Beran A. also allegedly networked with other members of the Islamic State group ahead of the planned attack. Prosecutors say they discussed purchasing weapons and making bombs, and that the defendant also sought to illegally buy weapons in the days ahead of the performance. In addition, he swore allegiance to the militant group.

Authorities searched his apartment on Aug. 7, 2024, and found bomb-making materials. The concerts were scheduled to begin the next day.

“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating,” Swift wrote in a statement posted to Instagram two weeks later. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”

A representative for Swift did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.

The trial is being held in Wiener Neustadt, about an hour south of Vienna. The proceedings are set to continue May 12.

Three attacks planned in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and UAE

Prosecutors have also filed terrorism-related charges against Arda K. in the trial in connection with the plan for simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The third man in that plot, Hasan E., allegedly stabbed a security guard with a knife at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on March 11, 2024. He was arrested and remains in pretrial detention in Saudi Arabia, Austrian prosecutors said.

Beran A. and Arda K. did not carry out their plans in Turkey and the UAE. Beran A. returned to Vienna and then allegedly began plotting to attack a Swift concert there.

___

Dazio reported from Berlin. Daniel Niemann in Cologne, Germany, contributed to this report.

Two of the applications filed Friday are sound trademarks covering her voice, one of her saying “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift,” and the other is “Hey, it’s Taylor.”

The third application is for a visual trademark, described in the filing as “a photograph of Taylor Swift holding a pink guitar, with a black strap and wearing a multicolored iridescent bodysuit with silver boots. She is standing on a pink stage in front of a multicolored microphone with purple lights in the background.”

The filings were made on behalf on Swift’s TAS Rights Management. All three have been approved and are currently awaiting assignment to an examining attorney.

The Associated Press has reached out to a representative for Swift as well as Rebecca Liebowitz, partner at law firm Venable, who is listed as the attorney on the filings. Requests for comment were not immediately returned.

News of Swift's new trademark filings made the rounds on Monday after first being noticed by intellectual property attorney Josh Gerben. In a blog post shared Monday, Gerben theorized that the trademarks are “specifically designed to protect Taylor from threats posed by artificial intelligence,” in response to growing concerns that AI could challenge celebrities' abilities to control their voices and likenesses without their consent.

In his post, Gerben explained that “Right of Publicity” laws — which protect celebrities from having their images or likenesses used to sell products without their permission — offer some protection against unauthorized use of a celebrity's likeness, but trademark filings like Swift's can offer additional protection.

Swift has been a target of AI misuse in the past. Pornographic deepfake images of her have circulated online, making the singer the most famous victim of a scourge that tech platforms and antiabuse groups have struggled to fix. In another instance, the superstar was shown in a fake endorsement of President Donald Trump during his 2024 campaign, which the then-candidate reposted and shared as genuine.

“The Life of a Showgirl” singer is not the only celebrity to pursue these kinds of trademarks. In January, attorneys for actor Matthew McConaughey secured eight trademarks from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office including a sound trademark of his catchphrase “Alright, alright, alright.”

Attorneys for the entertainment law firm Yorn Levine, which represented McConaughey, told Variety the trademarks were filed in an attempt to protect his voice and likeness from unauthorized use by AI, and to protect him in developing new opportunities using AI.

Last year, McConaughey made a deal with voice-cloning company ElevenLabs that will allow its artificial intelligence technology to replicate his voice.

On the same day that the British energy giant reported a banner financial performance, gasoline prices in the U.S. hit new multiyear highs, a point of increasing agitation for travelers, households and also businesses that are particularly sensitive to higher energy prices, such as airlines.

The near closure of the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Iran is a flashpoint in the war and the source of much of the economic pain being felt globally. The Trump administration appeared unlikely Tuesday to accept Iran’s offer to end the war and reopen the strait if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country.

About 20% of the world’s oil passes through the strait on a typical day, but the passage has been choked off since the war began in late February. The price for a barrel of Brent crude that cost about $73 on the day before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, was trading for more than $104 Tuesday.

Given soaring energy costs the stellar performance from BP was anticipated, yet it still exceeded the heightened expectations of industry analysts for both profit and revenue.

It was BP’s first earnings report since the war began and the company is the first of the oil majors to post its financial performance, providing a preview of what to expect when other big drillers like Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips report earnings later this week.

BP earned $3.84 billion, or $1.47 per share, for the first three months of the year, far exceeding last year’s $687 million, or 26 cents per share, the company said Tuesday. BP's underlying replacement cost profit, which more closely mimics net income reported by U.S. companies, was $3.2 billion. BP has an expansive oil trading operation, so it may outpace other oil giants due to the current volatility in energy markets.

“The Middle East conflict created significant crude and refined products dislocations that BP’s integrated supply chain was positioned to monetize,” wrote James West, managing director and head of Energy and Power Research at Melius.

The London exploration and production company called the performance of its trading desk “exceptional.”

The average price of gasoline in the U.S. hit $4.18 on Tuesday, according to motor club AAA. That is the highest level since 2022, when Ukraine was invaded by Russia, and well over dollar more than a gallon cost one month ago. The war in Iran had been going on for a month at that time, but a gallon still cost less than $4.

Inflation in the U.S. rose sharply last month during largest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor. The surge in gas prices has squeezed the budgets of lower- and middle-income families, making it more difficult to pay for necessities.

But it’s disrupting businesses as well, particularly those sensitive to higher fuel costs. Airlines worldwide have begun canceling flights as the war in the Middle East strains jet fuel supplies and pushes up ticket prices.

The huge profits from BP generated online vitriol almost immediately.

In addition to posts from individual social media accounts, organizations weighed in as well.

“Families are being pushed to the brink by spiraling energy bills, while fossil fuel companies turn a war into a windfall,” wrote Clémence Dubois, global campaigns director at 350.org. “This is not just unjust, it’s unacceptable.”

Simon Francis, coordinator with End Fuel Poverty Coalition, wrote on Tuesday that, “These astronomical profits are a startling reminder that when conflict drives up the price of oil and gas, energy companies profit and households pay.”

BP shares rose more than 1% Tuesday, close to a 52-week high, as did the shares of other major oil producers.

At an automation facility in Forsyth County, Georgia, Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler touted hiring gains tied to the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act.

Still, she admitted the economy faces real “headwinds” that are slowing progress, while expressing confidence that the policies will eventually deliver “positive results.”

Tariffs taking toll

That optimism, however, collides with the daily realities facing small business owners on the ground.

Georgia business owner Travis Reid described the direct impact on his operation.

“When I directly import some of our goods from China, India, there’s been a tax that’s increased, which is averaging probably around 20%, as high as, you know, last year, it was as high as 50% on some goods,” Reid told reporters.

For small firms already operating on thin margins, a 20% average tax increase on imported goods isn’t an abstraction — it’s the difference between profit and loss.

Fuel prices add to squeeze

The pain doesn’t stop at the port.

According to AAA, the national gas average has climbed above $4 per gallon — roughly $1 higher than a year ago.

That spike ripples through transportation and supply-chain costs, ultimately landing on small business balance sheets.

For businesses that depend on delivery, logistics or any form of goods movement, higher fuel costs compound the tariff burden — driving up the total cost of doing business before a single product reaches a customer.

Mixed signals

Florida’s labor market is adding another layer of uncertainty to the regional economic picture.

The Florida Department of Commerce reports the state’s unemployment rate ticked up to 4.5% in January — pushing Florida above the national average for the first time in years.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott called the report “concerning,” urging swift action to ensure Florida remains “the best place in the country to live, work, and raise a family.”

Not everyone is sounding the alarm just yet.

Florida State University business analyst Wayne Hochwarter urged caution in interpreting the data.

“What we’re seeing now is just a blip,” Hochwarter said, noting the figures are from January and don’t capture the effects of later travel disruptions or the war in Iran.

That lag in data is itself part of the problem. By the time state and federal policymakers respond to economic signals, the conditions on the ground may have already shifted.

What’s at stake

The broader picture emerging from these regional snapshots is one of uneven pressure on small businesses — pressure that experts warn could accelerate without targeted relief.

Small firms carry thin margins and limited cash reserves, meaning sudden cost increases can quickly force difficult choices: layoffs, price hikes or, in some cases, closure.

When businesses pass higher input and transportation costs on to consumers, the result is added inflationary pressure — a dynamic already playing out at the pump and on store shelves.

State budget debates complicate the response further. Delayed economic data makes it harder for local officials to craft well-timed, targeted policy interventions, leaving many small employers to navigate the turbulence largely on their own.

Policy conversations are beginning to take shape around several key questions: whether tariffs should be recalibrated to shield small importers, what short-term relief measures — such as tax credits, grants, or fuel support — could provide meaningful help to Main Street, and how state budgets should adapt to slowdowns in tourism and construction.

For now, small business owners aren’t waiting on Washington for answers. They’re recalculating costs, renegotiating supplier contracts and trying to stay afloat in an economic environment that shows little sign of stabilizing soon.

Bottom line

Main Street is already paying the price of trade and geopolitical choices. Without targeted relief, smarter tariff calibration, or budget measures to support local employers, small businesses risk fewer hires, higher prices for consumers, and weaker regional economies.

Our conversation

Hochwarter joins me on this week’s episode of Politics & Power to discuss:

• Whether tariffs should be adjusted to shield small importers
• What short‑term relief (tax credits, grants, fuel support) would help Main Street
• How state budgets should adapt to tourism and construction slowdowns

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

You can also catch up any time on demand on News4JAX+, News4JAX.com or our YouTube channel.

Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud was convicted of torture, religious persecution and other inhumane acts in 2024 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Judges found he was a key figure in a reign of terror after Islamic extremist rebels overran Timbuktu in 2012.

“Mr. Al Hassan, as the person found responsible for the crimes, which caused the harm to the victims, is the person financially liable for the cost of repairing the harm,” Presiding Judge Kimberly Prost said, addressing the courtroom in the Dutch city of The Hague.

While the court has declared Al Hassan liable, it won't be able to collect the money from the 49-year-old, who was declared indigent and represented by a court-funded lawyer during his trial.

Instead, reparations for the more than 65,000 victims will be paid by the Trust Fund for Victims, set up by the court’s member states to distribute the funds.

We are “one of the many innovations of the Rome Statute,” the fund’s executive director, Deborah Ruiz Verduzco, told The Associated Press. Under the statute, the court’s founding treaty, the fund “responds to the harm resulting from the crimes under the jurisdiction.”

The 24 staff members in Ruiz Verduzco’s office are tasked with assisting victims and their families, establishing programs in communities destroyed by violence and drumming up financial support.

In its two decades of operation, the trust fund has received money from perpetrators in only one case.

“Substantial fundraising will need to take place,” Prost said.

The bulk of the money will come from the court’s member states, though the fund also accepts private donations. In March, Germany gave 40,000 euros ($46,000). Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands are the three biggest supporters.

Judges guide how the reparations money will be allocated, though they solicit input from the victims through their lawyers and the trust fund.

In the Al Hassan case, the reparations will be used for “socioeconomic support, educational programs or trainings and psychological support,” according to the decision. Projects should target women and girls, who suffered disproportionately under the extremist groups.

Communities in Mali already have seen some restitution. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2016 for destroying historic mausoleums in Timbuktu. In 2021, the trust fund began a project to repair ruined buildings.

Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, for over a decade has battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Following coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance instead.

Tuesday's decisions comes days after an alliance of al-Qaida-linked militants and separatists carried out the largest coordinated attack in Mali in over a decade.

The withdrawal of nominee Scott Socha comes as the park service has been shaken by widespread firings as part of the Trump administration's pledge to sharply reduce its size.

Socha said in a statement that he was dropping out of consideration for the post for personal reasons.

The park service is currently overseen by an acting director, agency comptroller Jessica Bowron. It did not have a Senate-confirmed director during Trump's first term, when it was led by a series of acting directors.

Socha is president for parks and resorts at Buffalo, New York-based Delaware North, which has service contracts with numerous parks and describes itself as one of the world's largest privately owned entertainment and hospitality companies. A White House spokesperson had said when he was nominated in February that Socha was “totally qualified” to execute Trump’s plans for the park system.

But some conservation groups had questioned whether Socha's private sector work provided the experience he would need to oversee hundreds of national parks and monuments that range from the Statue of Liberty and other cultural sites to remote sites in the Utah desert.

The Associated Press sent email messages to the White House and the Interior Department seeking comment on Socha's withdrawal.

Thousands of employees have been fired or otherwise left the park service since Trump took office.

Emily Douce with the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group, said Monday that the next director for the service needs to “undo the damage.”

“It’s very unfortunate that our parks have gone more than a year without a permanent director at a time when they need strong, steady leadership the most,” Douce said.

The Republican administration's proposed budget for next year would reduce staffing to 9,200 employees. That's down almost 30% compared to 2025 levels.

The park service's operating budget would be cut by more than $1 billion, to $2.2 billion, for the 2027 fiscal year that starts in October.

Similar cuts proposed for 2026 were blocked by lawmakers in Congress after park supporters and former employees warned the administration's proposal would have effectively gutted the agency.

The administration also has faced blowback for the removal or planned removal of national park exhibits about slavery, climate change and the destruction of Native American culture. In February, a federal judge said an exhibit about nine people enslaved by George Washington must be restored at Washington's former home in Philadelphia after the Trump administration had taken it down.

Administration officials have said they are removing “disparaging” messages under an order last year from Trump. Critics accuse it of trying to whitewash the nation’s history.

Under Trump's interior secretary, Doug Burgum, the park service has started charging millions of international tourists who visit U.S. parks each year $100 each to visit sites including Yellowstone and Grand Canyon. The service also has put Trump's image onto its annual passes for U.S. citizens, drawing a lawsuit from environmentalists who said the move was illegal.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index inched up to 92.8 in April from 92.2 in March.

Though the gauge measuring American consumers' confidence has ticked up the past two months, the reading remains mired near its lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Respondents’ comments about prices, oil, gas and the war increased in April as the national average for a gallon of gas in the U.S. rose to $4.18 this week, up more than a dollar since before the war began. The last time U.S. drivers were collectively paying this much at the pump was nearly four years ago, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The largest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades caused a sharp spike in inflation last month, creating major challenges for the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve.

Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department reported earlier this month, up sharply from just 2.4% in February and the biggest yearly increase since May 2024. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.9% in March from February, the largest such increase in nearly four years.

It’s the first read on inflation to capture the effects of the Iran war. The surge in gas prices will stretch the budgets of lower- and middle-income households as it erodes their incomes, making it harder to afford other necessities such as food and rent.

“Consumers are singing the blues,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “They aren’t happy with high prices for gas, housing, electricity and many other items. It’s clear consumers aren’t going to feel much better until there’s an end to the Middle East conflict.”

Government data from earlier this month showed that the inflation gauge closely monitored by the Federal Reserve moved 2.8% higher in February from a year ago, a sign that prices were persistently elevated even before the Iran war caused spikes in oil and gas costs.

Those higher prices and the prospect of even higher inflation due to the Iran war makes it unlikely that the Federal Reserve will cut its benchmark interest rate when it wraps up its two-day meeting on Wednesday.

The Fed cut its benchmark interest rate three times to close 2025 in an attempt to support a flagging labor market. However, because lower rates can exacerbate inflation, which remains above the Fed’s 2% target, the Fed has left its overnight lending rate alone at its past two meetings.

In the Conference Board's report Tuesday, a measure of Americans’ short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market rose 1.2 points to 72.2, but remained well below 80, a marker that can signal a recession ahead. It’s the 15th consecutive month that reading has come in under 80.

The index for consumers’ assessments of their current economic situation fell by 0.3 points to 123.8.

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For the third time in three years, Trump has come under threat from an attacker.

News4JAX political analyst Rick Mullaney, director of the Jacksonville University Haskell Public Policy Institute, joined us on The Morning Show to discuss the growing issue of political violence.

Mullaney says the events of April 25 at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner underscore how dangerous this political moment is in the United States.

For filmmaker Christopher Nolan, “The Odyssey,” out July 17, isn't just a story. It's the story: A foundational piece that deserved to be done on the biggest possible scale, with all the resources modern Hollywood had to offer.

“There’s a massive amount of pressure,” Nolan told The Associated Press. “Anyone taking on ‘The Odyssey’ is taking on the hopes and dreams of people for epic movies everywhere and that comes with a huge responsibility.”

It's a familiar feeling, though. He did three Batman films after all.

“What I learned from that experience is that what people want from a movie about a beloved story, a beloved set of characters, is they want a strong and sincere interpretation,” Nolan said. “They want to know that a filmmaker has gone to the mat for it. I really tried to make the best film possible.”

Three summers ago, “Oppenheimer” made nearly a billion dollars. “The Odyssey” has battles, gods, creatures and an army of movie stars — Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya and Tom Holland included. It's also the first movie shot entirely on IMAX film. Tickets for some IMAX 70 mm showings sold out in under an hour a full year in advance.

“The Odyssey” will be shorter than “Oppenheimer”; Three hours is the longest they’ve been able to get onto an IMAX film projector, after all.

“It’s an epic film, as the subject matter demands,” Nolan said. “But it is shorter.”

Summer movie season's fashionable kickoff

Hollywood may not save all its blockbusters for the hottest months anymore, but the 18 week corridor running from the first weekend in May through Labor Day remains the industry’s most important, accounting for around 40% of the year’s box office. And it's only surpassed $4 billion once since the pandemic, in 2023.

Marvel movies often kick off the season, but last year filmmaker David Frankel got a call from Disney: “Avengers: Doomsday” wasn’t going to be ready by the first weekend in May; Could “The Devil Wears Prada 2” step up?

May 1 is just days before the Met Gala and it would give the movie a long runway to play, he figured. It would also require a bit of a sprint — they finished the film just weeks ago. But the enthusiasm was motivating, from fans snapping photos of Hathaway and Meryl Streep on the New York streets, to support from Anna Wintour.

Love for “Prada” isn’t the only thing that’s changed in 20 years; Magazines have also become an endangered species.

“How does Miranda Priestly deal with this changing world and what’s her future?” Frankel said. “The same with Andy Sachs: If all your ambition has been funneled in this one direction, what happens when you have to pivot and how do you adapt?”

The $4 billion question

The movie industry is also adjusting to a new paradigm. Box office is down over 20% from pre-COVID levels. The rise in streaming, the pandemic and shifting theatrical windows altered people’s moviegoing habits, perhaps permanently. And there may be one less major studio if Paramount acquires Warner Bros.

But, as James Cameron said, “hope springs eternal.

“We still have a very robust theatrical industry at a time when it was kind of almost pronounced dead,” Cameron said.

The gap is not widening. Studios are committing to longer exclusive theatrical windows. Original movies and premium formats are drawing crowds. And the market continues to expand globally.

Cameron is behind one of those only-in-a-theater experiences with the 3D Billie Eilish concert film (May 8). Using new technology, they used 17 camera systems to capture four nights of her Manchester shows last year.

“Seeing it in 3D is astonishing,” Cameron said. “You really feel an intimacy with her and yet you feel the scale of the spectacle.”

A summer for heavyweights

Nolan isn’t Universal’s only giant of cinema on its summer roster: Steven Spielberg is also returning to one of his most beloved genres with “Disclosure Day” (June 12). There are superhero movies as well, with “Supergirl” (June 26), which DC Studios co-head Peter Safran said is “is something cool and original and we haven’t seen before,” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” (July 31). The last Spidey film, which made over $1.9 billion, ended with Holland’s Peter Parker erasing himself from everyone’s memory.

“This is a blockbuster action movie with all the humor and emotion we love about Spider-Man,” director Destin Daniel Cretton said. “But at its heart, it’s a story about learning how to reconnect with the ones you love.”

A lot of power recently has shifted to PG-rated offerings. This summer has “Toy Story 5” (June 19), “Minions & Monsters” (July 1) and a live action “Moana” (July 10), which could all very well hit a billion dollars each.

One non-franchise family friendly film is “The Sheep Detectives” (May 8), in which the animals (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston) investigate the death of their beloved owner (Hugh Jackman). Writer Craig Mazin understands the hurdle: There have been a lot of stupid talking animal movies. But this one is different, he said, it's not just silly sheep doing silly things.

“There are some really beautiful moments and themes and things that parents can talk about with their kids,” Mazin said. “And most importantly, it is legitimately a movie that is meant for everyone.”

Then there's “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” (May 22), which is rated PG-13 but has an impossibly cute alien going for it. It’s also one of several made for IMAX.

“People have got great TVs at home,” said director Jon Favreau. “You’ve got to give them a reason to go out.”

The scary movies

Movie studios also continue to lean into horror and this summer has both franchises, like “Evil Dead Burn”(July 10) and “Insidious: Out of the Further” (Aug. 21) and unnerving indies, including the “conversion therapy” horror “Leviticus,” “Rose of Nevada” (both June 19), “Backrooms” (May 29) and a new Jane Schoenbrun, “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” (Aug. 7).

And then there is “Scary Movie 6" (June 5), which sees the return of Regina Hall and Anna Faris, as well as Marlon and Shawn Wayans, who haven't been involved in the franchise they helped create since the 2001 sequel. And there were so many movies ripe for parody, like “M3GAN,” “Get Out,” “Weapons,” the just-released “Michael,” and “Sinners,” which Marlon Wayans was most excited about.

“Mockery is the greatest form of flattery,” Wayans said. “Sending up their movie was definitely tipping our hat to them.”

The festival darlings and other gems

Audiences want more than brands and blockbusters though. This year moviegoers have already proven they’ll turn out when the buzz is right, whether it’s for a big crowd pleaser like “Project Hail Mary” or for something more challenging like “The Drama.”

One that has the potential to break through is Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite” (June 26), a chamber dramedy about two very different couples (Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) over one wine-filled night that sparked a bidding war at the Sundance Film Festival. Wilde was heartened that most studios were offering theatrical releases, and ultimately chose A24. They’ve even made a 35 mm print.

“The whole project for me is really tipping my hat to Mike Nichols,” Wilde said. “We thought of the audiences that have always loved those films.”

There are plenty of indies and originals to choose from throughout the summer, including Daniel Roher’s “Tuner,” about a piano prodigy turned safecracker, Boots Riley’s colorful shoplifting movie “I Love Boosters,” (both May 22) a John Carney musical with Paul Rudd (“Power Ballad,” June 5) and David Wain’s wholesomely raunchy comedy “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” (July 10).

As Wilde said, there’s room for both originals and franchises.

“The audience really likes to recognize risk,” she said. “There’s something exciting about that.”

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For more coverage of this summer’s upcoming films, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/movies

The attack took place late on Sunday in Guyaku, a village in the Gombi local government area in the country’s Adamawa state, according to the state governor.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on the Telegram messaging app.

Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri denounced the attack as tragic and unacceptable during a visit to the village on Monday.

Nigeria is facing myriad security challenges, especially in the north, where an insurgency has simmered for more than two decades. In February, the United States sent troops to the West African nation to help advise its military on the fight against insecurity.

There are two major IS-backed militant groups in Nigeria but it wasn't immediately clear which one was behind the attack in Guyaki.

The Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP, is known to be operating in the northeast, including in Adamawa state, while another IS-linked group known locally as Lakurawa often attacks villages further away in the northcentral states of Sokoto and Kebbi.

The Guyaki attack occurred on the same day that gunmen raided an orphanage in north-central Nigeria and abducted 23 pupils. Fifteen were later rescued and the government said “intensive operations” were underway to "secure the safe return of the remaining eight victims and apprehend the perpetrators.”

Students’ kidnappings have come to define the insecurity in Nigeria, where analysts say armed gangs see schools and students as “strategic” targets to draw attention.

The attack took place in an “isolated area” of Lokoja, capital of Kogi State, according to a statement by the state’s commissioner, Kingsley Femi Fanwo. The facility, Dahallukitab Group of Schools, was operating illegally, he said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in a region has seen an increase in kidnappings for ransom. The statement did not say how old the abducted children are, but the term “pupil” in Nigeria usually refers to someone in kindergarten or primary school, covering ages up to 12.

___

Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal.

First-gen college students broke through the barrier to make family history.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 8.2 million undergraduate students are first-generation, and one-third of all college students in the United States are first-generation.

While the achievement is historic, the transition can be tough, and success comes with pressure.

Only about 27% of first-gen students graduate in four years. Research also shows that up to 1 in 3 leave college within their first three years.

One of the biggest hurdles is independence.

“In high school, their high school communicates frequently with their parent and their parent then reaches out to them. In college, that piece is taken away,” said Ashley Maddox, First Generation Program Coordinator at Seminole State College.

Finances are a top concern for first-gen students, with 56% coming from the lowest income quartile. Maddox advises students in this category to look for financial literacy workshops or one-on-one budgeting support.

“They’ll walk you through financial aid. FAFSA is a great resource. There’s a lot of how-to videos out there that can help,” explained Maddox.

“Imposter syndrome” is when first-gens doubt their abilities and feelings. Like they don’t belong in the academic world.

But research shows students who build connections with just one faculty member or campus group are more likely to persist and graduate.

So, what can you do?

“Ask questions when they don’t understand what’s expected of them,” said Maddox.

First-gen students may start without a roadmap, but with the right support, they can lead the way for everyone who follows.

Many first-gen students also juggle work and family responsibilities, which can make internships or campus activities harder to pursue.

Career experts suggest volunteering even once a month, joining virtual clubs, seeking micro-internships, or looking for paid research or on-campus jobs tied to your major.

staughumane.org

Last week, the sheriff’s office warned people about some online fundraising accounts that are not official or verified.

In response, GoFundMe, the top crowdfunding online platform, launched a centralized hub featuring campaigns for wildfire families that have been vetted by GoFundMe staff.

The Georgia Wildfire Relief Hub can be found at gofundme.com/communities/georgia-wildfire-relief-2026.

The platform says similar hubs have been created during other major disasters.

“GoFundMe has been a resource for people who have been affected, as you mentioned, by natural disasters and other crises,” said Angelique McNaughton, GoFundMe senior communications manager. “In fact, last year during the LA wildfires, more than $250 million was raised for those who have been impacted by the wildfires and for the nonprofits that were providing on the ground relief.

“So GoFundMe has really become an amazing resource for people who are seeking help, but on the other side, for people who are wanting to give help to those who have been impacted,” McNaughton added.

A GoFundMe spokesperson previously told News4JAX that they have a team working around the clock to review fundraisers for wildfire relief and prevent misuse.

“During humanitarian disasters and other crises, our team proactively monitors and verifies fundraisers so the communities impacted can receive the quick and trusted support they need,” they said in a statement. “This process includes both a robust human review from our world-class Trust & Safety experts as well as technical tools designed to catch misuse.”

You can also donate to the American Red Cross and specify that your gift is for the Brantley County wildfire relief.

Donation drop-offs

For those wanting to donate items that families might need as they recover from the wildfires, all donations are being coordinated through the Brantley County Family Connection.

A donation drive also began at 8 a.m. Tuesday at Brantley Gas off Satilla Avenue in Nahunta.

Organizers are specifically requesting undergarments, laundry detergent sheets, reusable bags, new towels, washcloths, and men’s shampoo and body wash.

As of Friday, there is no room left for general clothing donations, but organizers say essential, everyday items are still urgently needed.

The effort has drawn an outpouring of support. Organizers say roughly 300 volunteers have shown up to help, and approximately 150 families have visited the site seeking items they need.

The drive began after an organizer posted a request on social media last week.

If you are looking to donate, here’s where you can drop off donations:

Brantley Gas

• 114 Satilla Avenue, Nahunta, Georgia
• Contact: Emerald Heinritz – 850-694-9400
• Items Needed:
• • Empty 27-gallon totes with lids
  • Hangers
  • Hygiene items
  • New or gently used clothing

H & S Car Haulers

• 125 Industrial Park, Nahunta, Georgia
• Contacts:
• • Jessica Johns – 912-288-5697
  • Amanda Herrin – 912-288-3993
• Items Needed:
• • Pet food
  • Non-perishable food items

Donations at these locations are being managed and distributed locally to reach those in need as quickly and efficiently as possible.

For questions regarding specific needs or large donations, please contact City Hall at 912-458-2171.

The city of Hoboken put out a call on its Facebook page that anyone looking to volunteer should head to Brantley County Family Connection at 10305 N Main St., Nahunta, 31553.

Hoboken also collected donations for wildfire relief, including snacks, canned goods, non perishable food items, baby wipes/diapers, hygiene products (soap, shampoo, deodorant, etc), all sizes of new underwear, socks, and household items (paper towels, toilet paper, laundry detergent).

Brantley County High School is also collecting donations and offering support for families affected by the wildfire.

“During difficult times like these, we want to make sure every student and family feels supported and cared for,” the school wrote.

Follow them on social media at @jaxparkscoj for the latest on all community programming, schedules, and upcoming fun.

Law enforcement authorities said the suspect was arrested near the city of Patra, some 210 kilometers (130 miles) west of the Greek capital.

The gunman initially opened fire at the social security office, wounding an employee, police said. Police officers who arrived at the scene treated the man, but the gunman fled the scene.

Local media aired security camera footage that it said was from a local store near the social security office, which showed a man walking calmly across the street carrying what appears to be a short-barreled shotgun in his right hand.

The same man was suspected of later opening fire on the ground floor of a court building in another part of central Athens, with several people wounded there, police said, adding that authorities had found the shotgun.

Television footage showed ambulance crews transporting at least three people from the courthouse to waiting ambulances.

The head of the Athens Judicial Employees Union, Stratis Dounias, said that initial information indicated that the man had shot at the floor inside one of the offices in the court building. At least three female court employees were slightly wounded by ricocheting shotgun pellets, while media reports said that a fourth female employee was transported to a hospital without physical injuries.

The motive for the shooting was unclear. State broadcaster ERT said that the gunman had reportedly left envelopes with documents after the shooting at the courthouse, saying those were the reasons for his actions.

Alexandros Varveris, head of the National Social Security Fund known by its Greek acronym EFKA, said the gunman had gone to the fourth floor of the social security fund's offices in the Kerameikos area of central Athens and opened fire after calling out to an employee to duck. His shot hit another employee, who was wounded in the leg, Varveris said, adding that the gunman had been wearing a trench coat under which he had hidden the shotgun.

“He went in, went up to the fourth floor, raised his shotgun, told an employee to duck and hit another one,” Varveris told ERT radio. He said the gunman didn't appear to specifically target the employee he hit.

The wounded employee was transported to a hospital, after police applied a tourniquet to his leg at the scene.

Gun violence is relatively rare in Greece, where firearm ownership is allowed but tightly regulated.

A passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta gave birth to a healthy 5-1/2 pound (2.5-kilogram) girl just before the Boeing 737 landed at Portland International Airport in Oregon on Friday night. Two paramedics who happened to be on the flight assisted, borrowing blankets from other passengers and using a shoelace to tie off the umbilical cord.

Baby Brielle Renee Blair came in about two weeks ahead of schedule; the plane, about 20 minutes.

Her mom, Ashley Blair, who is from Tennessee, was flying to Oregon to be with her own mother for the birth, but didn't quite make it. She went into labor about half an hour from Portland.

One of the paramedics, Tina Fritz, told The Associated Press on Monday that she and the other paramedic, Kaarin Powell, were returning home after vacationing in the Dominican Republic. They had been helping a nurse attend to the medical needs of another passenger at the back of the plane when a flight attendant asked them to check on Blair.

They found Blair was indeed in labor and contractions were getting close. It was a full flight with 153 passengers on board — soon to be 154 — so they began moving the passengers next to Blair back to their seats to make room for the delivery.

They asked flight attendants for blankets and an obstetrical kit, a sterile set of medical tools used in emergency childbirth. Fritz said they had to improvise when neither was available.

They got blankets from other passengers and a shoestring from a flight attendant to tie off the umbilical cord. Powell tore out one of her own shoes laces to use as a tourniquet to start an IV.

Then, Fritz recalled, the mother yelled: “OK, it’s time. I got to push.”

As she was doing so, flight attendants told Fritz and Powell they needed to sit, because the plane was about to touch down.

“We’re like, ‘No! No!’” she said.

Blair gave three “super, really good pushes, and the baby came out really quickly,” Fritz said. “It was nice.”

Powell cut the umbilical cord and sat down while holding the baby. Fritz sat down next to her, and the wheels hit the runway.

“Baby pinked up right away,” Fritz said. “She was gorgeous. Mom was a rock star.”

After the plane began taxiing to the jetway, they handed the baby to Blair, and everyone celebrated by taking photos.

A responding crew from Portland Airport Fire & Rescue “found the mother and baby healthy, and the new family was transported to a local hospital for observation,” Port of Portland spokesperson Molly Prescott said in an email to The Associated Press.

In a statement, Delta said a doctor and two nurses assisted flight attendants, but Fritz said there was no doctor and the only nurse stayed with the first ailing passenger. Delta didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking clarification.

“We extend our sincere thanks to the crew and medical volunteers on board who stepped in to provide care to a customer onboard prior to landing in Portland. The health and safety of our customers is always our top priority, and we wish the new family all the best,” Delta said in the statement.

Blair didn’t return messages from the AP. Fritz, who has been keeping in touch with Blair since the birth, said she's been a little overwhelmed by all the attention.

“I feel like we’re friends now forever,” Fritz said.

___

Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.

What homeowners do in the early moments after a loss can significantly impact how much they recover.

For those who have lost everything, the first step is straightforward but critical.

“Contact your insurance company and get that process started,” said Mark Goldwich, president and CEO of Goldstar Adjusters. He added that safety comes first, making sure family members and pets are secure, before turning to financial recovery.

What to do now:

• Contact your insurer immediately to start a claim.
• Document everything with photos and videos — inside and outside the home, including open drawers and overall room shots.
• Use existing images, such as family photos or real estate listings, to show what was in the house.
• Gather proof of ownership: credit card records, receipts and online purchase histories (Amazon, Walmart, etc.).
• Get your policy in writing and review coverage limits, including any additional living expenses you may be owed if displaced.
• Keep every receipt; insurers typically reimburse based on documentation.

Experts say filing a claim as soon as possible can help avoid delays in what is often a lengthy process.

Just as important is documenting what was lost.

Public adjuster Peter LaFramboise says homeowners should gather as much evidence as possible to support their claim, even if they no longer have receipts.

“Images from your phone, family photos to see what was in each room … and then prove or establish as much of that stuff existed through credit card receipts, your Walmart account, your Amazon account,” LaFramboise said.

Even homeowners whose properties are still standing should take action now if they are in the path of a wildfire.

Adjusters recommend taking photos and videos of both the inside and outside of the home, including opening drawers and capturing overall room conditions to create a record before any potential damage occurs.

Homeowners should also review their insurance policies carefully. That includes understanding coverage limits and requesting a full copy of the policy in writing. Experts say many people overlook coverage for additional living expenses, which can help pay for temporary housing, meals and other costs if they are forced to evacuate.

Keeping receipts is another key step, as insurance companies typically reimburse expenses based on documentation.

Still, even with preparation, the claims process can take time.

“You should be expecting a long process,” Goldwich said. “These tend to not be over quickly.”

He advises homeowners to stay organized by keeping detailed notes of damages, conversations and repair estimates and to seek professional help if needed.

Public adjusters can work on behalf of homeowners to negotiate with insurance companies, though they typically charge a percentage of the claim.

Experts also caution against accepting early settlement offers too quickly. Initial payouts may be lower than what homeowners are entitled to receive, particularly if their policy includes replacement cost coverage rather than depreciated value.

Above all, adjusters say, focus first on immediate needs.

“Take care of yourself and your family first,” Goldwich said. “Then document everything and get help if you need it.”

He was 10 and half when the first film was released in theaters in 1977, which he went to see with his dad. From the opening shot of that Imperial Star Destroyer filling the screen, he was forever changed. It made him fall in love with the movies: The wonder, the world, the spectacle and the shared experience.

By the time “Return of the Jedi” came out he’d even found a job that was a little closer to the action: Movie theater usher.

For a screenwriter, director, actor and producer who has a billion-dollar film to his name, in addition to all that comes with being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he’s always been ready to raise his hand when it comes to Star Wars. He voiced a Mandalorian in “The Clone Wars,” played an alien in “Solo” and helped create “The Mandalorian” series and his immensely popular counterpart, Grogu (aka Baby Yoda). But believe it or not, he only ever got to direct one episode of the show (the first of the second season). So, yes, Favreau has paid his dues and now, at 59, he finally has a Star Wars movie of his own coming to theaters on May 22.

Inviting a new generation to Star Wars

“Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” is not simply Season 4 of the show on the big screen. Favreau should know, since he wrote both. And, perhaps more importantly, he knew there couldn’t be any presumption of Mandalorian knowledge. Writing a show, he said, you can assume that the audience will have seen the prior season. A movie is different; it has to be if it’s going to be a blockbuster.

“Even though in our hearts we are Star Wars fans, we make it for Star Wars fans, and we know that there’s a certain set of expectations around what Star Wars should be that we collectively hold, there is the responsibility to invite a whole new generation of people into Star Wars,” Favreau said. “That means that if a Star Wars fan brings somebody who’s not, they’ve got to have as good of a time as the fans do.”

It’s been nearly seven years since there was a new Star Wars movie released in theaters. That means there’s a whole group of a six-and-a-half-year-olds who’ve yet to have a first time experience of their own.

“I want to make the next generation feel the way about Star Wars that I did when I saw it for the first time,” Favreau said.

It can be intimidating going into a movie knowing that there were three seasons of television leading up to it. But the nice thing about Star Wars is, even people who don’t know it at least kind of know it. Remember, Favreau said, George Lucas plopped audiences in the middle of an adventure in 1977 without a lot of explanation.

“George has always understood that you have to fit into the mythic structure,” Favreau said. “There are certain story types that we connect with and understand and even if we might not know the particulars of the story he’s telling, we could drop right in and understand and know who to cheer for.”

For this film, Favreau is pretty sure that most people have heard of Baby Yoda and can pick up on the dynamic between the little green guy and his enigmatic bounty hunter counterpart, played once again by Pedro Pascal. If you are a newcomer, that’s pretty much all that you need to know. Also, the Mandalorian has a name: Din Djarin.

Din Djarin is a bit different

Season three left Din Djarin and Grogu at peace, at least for a moment. He's adopted Grogu as his son and apprentice, and they plan to live in a small cabin and take some jobs here and there to help protect the Outer Rim.

“He made it clear that he was only going to work for the good guys now,” Favreau said. “We switched the Western archetype from the bounty hunter to the guy who’s hunting down the bad guys in the wanted posters on the post office wall for the sheriff.”

When we meet him again in the film, “he’s a bit different from when we first met him, but he’s still, at his heart, a gunfighter and a warrior,” Favreau said. They're hunting down ex-Imperial warlords who seem to be organizing. (Remember, these events happen after “Return of the Jedi” and before “The Force Awakens.” )

And he’s not exactly thrilled about his new assignment which will put him back in the orbit of the Hutt family. Yes, Jabba the Hutt had a son, his name is Rotta, he is played by internet boyfriend Jeremy Allen White — and he's a gladiator.

“That’s one of those fun things for people who may have been following along since the first ‘Clone Wars’ film,” Favreau said. “If you don’t know who he is, you’re going to figure it out pretty quick. And he’s a lot different than people remember, and I think we have a bit of fun with that.”

Also, for superfans, Favreau is pretty sure they don’t ever refer to him by his nickname, “Stinky.”

White isn’t the only Star Wars newcomer. Sigourney Weaver plays a New Republic leader; Martin Scorsese is an alien shopkeeper.

Upping the spectacle for IMAX

“The Mandalorian” always felt more cinematic than your average television show thanks to its innovative virtual sets known as the Volume, but the big screen demands something spectacular. And it turns out, more time, space and money help out quite a bit in making something worthy of the theater.

“With the bigger screen and the larger production value, we were able to dip into another one of George Lucas’ influences, which is the Flash Gordon-style space opera where you get big monsters and creatures and worlds,” he said. “We get to do a lot more than we had the ability to do when we had to turn the show around in a year and fit it onto a television screen. Now we’re in IMAX, we had several years to do it. We got to build sets, we got to build miniatures, we got to have stop motion set pieces … it opened up a lot of opportunities to do things that we never got to do before.”

Favreau said they had a whole backlot to work with and a set of stages to build on. They could play with water and snow and environments that just weren’t possible with the show.

The future of Star Wars

The Star Wars galaxy is in a time of transition as everyone figures out what the next era of films might look like under its new leadership team of Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan. Earlier this year it was announced that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who produced “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu,” was stepping down after 13 years.

“She’s definitely a Mount Rushmore producer,” Favreau said. “I also think she did a wonderful job preparing the next generation.”

He’s still working closely with Kennedy, and Filoni, to bring the Mandalorian movie to theaters. He's not too worried about the box office side of things.

“All of it comes down to seeing it with an audience,” Favreau said. “That’s the part I’m looking forward to.”

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