The ruling in a lawsuit brought by dozens of states won’t immediately bring relief for concertgoers who have long complained about high ticket prices. But it could cost Live Nation hundreds of millions of dollars and perhaps force the company to sell some of its concert venues when the judge hands out penalties later.

Among other things, the jury found Ticketmaster's anticompetitive practices led to people in 22 states paying an extra $1.72 per ticket, which the judge could order the companies to pay back.

A jury in New York deliberated for four days before reaching its decision. State attorneys general who sued Live Nation said the verdict could potentially lead to lower ticket prices for music fans.

Live Nation said in a statement that the verdict “is not the last word on this matter.”

The company predicted that once a remedy phase of the litigation is completed before the judge and all appeals are resolved, the outcome likely won't be much different from what the federal government achieved with a settlement it reached with the company just after the trial began.

That deal included a cap on service fees at some amphitheaters, plus some new ticket-selling options for promoters and venues — potentially allowing, but not requiring, them to open doors to Ticketmaster competitors such as SeatGeek or AXS.

The trial was a backstage pass

The trial gave fans the equivalent of a backstage pass to a business that dominates live entertainment in the U.S. and beyond.

Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino testified, answering questions about matters including the company’s Taylor Swift ticket debacle in 2022. Rapino blamed a cyberattack.

Jurors also got to see a Live Nation employee’s internal messages to another employee declaring some prices “outrageous,” calling customers “so stupid” and boasting that the company was “robbing them blind, baby.” The employee, Benjamin Baker, who has since been promoted to a position as a ticketing executive, apologetically testified that the messages were “very immature and unacceptable.”

Live Nation Entertainment owns, operates, controls booking for or has an equity interest in hundreds of venues. Its subsidiary Ticketmaster is widely considered to be the world’s largest ticket-seller for live events. Its lawyers did not immediately comment as they left the courthouse.

The verdict could cost Live Nation and Ticketmaster hundreds of millions of dollars, based on the jury's estimate that customers paid an extra $1.72 per ticket. The companies could also be assessed penalties. In addition, sanctions could result in court orders that they divest themselves of some entities, including venues such as amphitheaters that they own.

In its statement, Live Nation said the jury's award of $1.72 per ticket applied to “a limited number of tickets” sold at 257 venues and representing about 20% of total tickets sold. The company estimated the aggregate single damages figure would be below $150 million, though it would be trebled.

The civil case, initially led by the U.S. government, accused Live Nation of using its reach to smother competition — by blocking venues from using multiple ticket sellers, for example.

Live Nation denies it is a monopoly

Live Nation insisted it is not a monopoly, saying that artists, sports teams and venues decide prices and ticketing practices. A company lawyer insisted its size was simply a function of excellence and effort.

“Success is not against the antitrust laws in the United States,” attorney David Marriott said in his summation.

Ticketmaster was established in 1976 and merged with Live Nation in 2010. The company now controls of 86% of the market for concerts and 73% of the overall market when sports events are included, according to an attorney for the states, Jeffrey Kessler

Ticketmaster has long drawn ire from fans and some artists. Grunge rock titans Pearl Jam battled the business in the 1990s, even filing an anti-monopoly complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice, which declined to bring a case then.

Decades later, the Justice Department, joined by dozens of states, brought the current lawsuit during Democratic former President Joe Biden's administration.

Days into the trial, Republican President Donald Trump's administration announced it was settling its claims against Live Nation.

A handful of the states joined the settlement. But more than 30 pressed ahead with the trial, saying the federal government hadn't gotten enough concessions.

Attorneys hail verdict

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said in a release after the verdict that Live Nation's “illegal, anti-competitive practices” had driven up ticket prices and made it harder for fans to see their favorite acts.

New York Attorney General Letitia James called the verdict “a landmark victory.”

After the victory, Kessler would not say specifically what the states will seek in the next phase of the litigation, which was expected to involve another lengthy legal proceeding before penalties are decided.

But he celebrated the moment.

“It’s a great day for consumers," he said.

The first lady began working on foster care issues after President Donald Trump's first term ended in 2021. Her trip followed a similar and successful lobbying effort last year to get Congress to send legislation to the president to protect women and children from online sexual exploitation.

The visit came a week after Melania Trump's surprise on-camera statement at the White House in which she denied ties to Jeffrey Epstein and knowledge of his crimes, and urged Congress to hold a hearing for his victims. She also demanded an end to “lies” linking her to the late financier and convicted sex offender.

On Capitol Hill, she said youngsters in foster care face barriers to housing, transportation and education and other challenges outside the classroom that affect their academic performance.

“We can close this gap,” Melania Trump said. “New legislation for the foster care community is a moral imperative.”

She met Wednesday afternoon with members of the House Ways and Means Committee who introduced the new legislation, and she also heard from people who were in foster care.

Jaydan Martinez, a freshman at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, said he received just over $2,000 in support per semester, but it disappeared in the “blink of an eye.” He said he supports raising the cap on that financial support.

Jocelyn Fetting, who said she aged out of the system at 21, said thousands in foster care are doing everything right but still struggle because the “systems to support them have not kept pace with their needs.” She said she lost her parents at age 12 and, during college, worked three jobs even with scholarships to meet her housing, food and other needs.

Fetting, who is now 22 and a substitute teacher for grades pre-K through 8 as well as a peer navigator for young adults in foster care, said the proposed changes matter because "we are expecting young people to achieve self-sufficiency without providing support to do so.”

Republican and Democratic committee members have introduced several bills to update the Chafee foster care program to improve outcomes for young people aging out of the foster care system. The measures would increase their access to housing, education and workforce training programs, among other things, to help them succeed in the transition to adulthood and independence.

The bills have a long way to go toward passage in Congress since they've only just been introduced.

The program provides support to foster youth and former foster youth, ages 14 to 21, as they leave the system. The committee said the bipartisan proposals would be the most significant update since the Chafee program was created in 1999.

The Government Accountability Office published a report in January 2025 detailing how states were returning millions of dollars in unused Chafee program funds to the federal government, despite unmet needs of foster youth.

Last November, President Trump created the “Fostering the Future” program by executive order to have federal entities, nonprofits, educational institutions and the private sector work together to improve career and educational opportunities for children raised in foster care.

The first lady, who joined her husband in the Oval Office for the executive order signing, separately spearheads a broader “Fostering the Future” initiative that is part of the “Be Best” child-focused campaign she launched during his first presidential term. The program offers scholarships to current and former foster youth and has a presence on more than 20 university campuses across the United States.

National Weather Service crews were surveying damage in places, including Ann Arbor, to determine whether one or more tornadoes touched down, but none had been confirmed as of Wednesday morning. Instead, the damage appears to have been caused by a line of thunderstorms that moved into Michigan from Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois, meteorologist Sara Schultz said.

A 70 mph (112.6 kph) wind gust was reported early Wednesday at the university's football stadium, while gusts of 69 mph (111 kph) and 62 mph (99.7 kph) were reported at Willow Run Airport and Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Schultz said. Another round of strong storms with potentially damaging winds was moving into the area Wednesday from states to the west.

Streets in many southeastern Michigan communities also were left flooded Wednesday.

Some public school buildings in Ann Arbor suffered structural damage and many lost power. The district was closed Wednesday because of a fiber outage impacting fire, phone and camera systems, and building access.

Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor said structural engineers were assessing damage to a wall at the city's Veterans Memorial Park Ice Arena. Part of the roof was torn from the university's Yost Ice Arena.

Ripped away roof, fallen tree

The storm uprooted a hulking tree outside Seungjun Lee's home in Ann Arbor, barely missing his upstairs bedroom.

“If the tree fell down a couple more feet, I would not be standing here,” said Lee, a 20-year-old junior at U-M.

Lee and his roommates were awakened by a siren, then an alert blasted from their phones between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., urging them to take shelter.

“As soon as I came out, everyone else was coming out of their rooms and everyone’s like, ‘What’s going on? This is crazy,’ ” said Lee, of Ridgewood, New Jersey. “And then we looked out the window: This tree just fell down."

A roommate, Gautam Nigam, 21, said he couldn't miss class despite the mess: “I have a final presentation later today."

More rain and dead fish

The storms dumped as much as 2.5 inches (6.3 centimeters) of rain across parts of southeastern Michigan by Wednesday morning, and more was expected across the Midwest, Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions. Flood watches were issued for a big chunk of Michigan's eastern Lower Peninsula, southeastern Michigan, northern Indiana, northwestern Ohio, the Chicago area and Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers declared a state of emergency Wednesday after at least three tornadoes hit the state this week and more severe weather was expected.

Parts of Madison, the state’s capital city, saw golf ball- to baseball-sized hail Tuesday afternoon.

In northern Michigan, a power outage during a storm killed 1,750 steelhead trout at a state facility where eggs and milt are collected to produce more fish. Scott Heintzelman of the state’s fisheries division said it was a “devastating event” involving “big, beautiful fish.”

The fish naturally swim into a weir on the Little Manistee River and then move into ponds. Heintzelman said staff discovered Tuesday that a loss of electricity had stopped the flow of oxygenated water, dooming the fish.

Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources said it was watching levees around Portage, a city of about 10,000 people, as the Wisconsin River rises. As of Wednesday morning, the river there swelled to nearly 19 feet (5.7 meters), about 2 feet (0.6 meters) over flood state, and could rise to about 20 feet (6.1 meters), they said.

And after days of rainfall and winter snow melt, a “significant influx of water” is entering Black Lake, in northern Michigan, the sheriff's office said.

The lake empties into the Black River and feeds the Cheboygan River, which flows through the city into Lake Huron. Officials have been managing that flow through the city’s Cheboygan Dam by raising gates, adding pumps, raising a bridge and closing some riverfront to the public.

Flooding and unsafe travel forced Cheboygan Area Schools to cancel classes and athletic events for Thursday and Friday.

"Conditions are not improving significantly and, in some areas, continue to worsen,” the district said.

Where's all this weather headed?

Bill Bunting, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Storm Prediction Center, described a “very dynamic weather pattern” that combines very moist air with a strong jet stream across the central United States and Great Lakes to create conditions for severe thunderstorms.

As of early Wednesday afternoon, the weather service had received more than 400 reports of hail, winds above 60 mph (96.5 kph) or tornadoes, he said.

The system was stretching northward Wednesday night from central Texas into Iowa and southern Wisconsin and then eastward across parts of Michigan, Illinois, northern Indiana and Ohio on its way toward upper Pennsylvania and the Buffalo, New York, area, Bunting said.

Further east, it is expected to be as hot as a furnace, threatening record high temperatures in New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., through the weekend, forecasters say.

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Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan. Associated Press writers Ed White in Detroit and Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this story.

Glenn Juenke, who helped move some girls to a two-story building before getting trapped inside a cabin himself, also saved a group of campers when he told them to run to higher ground as flood waters rose.

He testified at the end of a three-day hearing in a legal fight between the camp operators, who want to reopen the all-girls Christian Camp this summer, and families of some of the victims who died in the July 4th flood that swept through the Guadalupe River in the predawn hours.

Juenke, called as a witness for the camp operators, said it was his decision to tell a group of campers to scramble on foot up a hillside as floodwaters rose, and was not an order from camp directors or authorities.

He did not recall camp operators ever training the campers, counselors and staff where to go in case an emergency evacuation was needed.

The camp's plan to reopen has angered families of the girls who were killed, and the camp license is still under review by state health regulators. A judge last month ordered the camp to preserve damaged areas as evidence for pending lawsuits. That ruling is under appeal.

The hearing has produced the most extensive details from camp operators of what happened in the flood, including missed chances to prepare for the storm, and the delayed decisions to evacuate.

Describing the storm that came roaring through camp, Juenke said he first joined camp directors Dick and Edward Eastland in driving some of the girls away from their cabins. But Juenke later abandoned his truck when the water got too high to drive.

Now on foot, Juenke ordered a group of young girls to run to higher ground. He returned to another cabin where he was soon trapped in waist-deep water. Storage trunks were tossed around the current before they were sucked out and away.

Juenke ordered the girls in the cabin to get on air mattresses, and they stayed floating there for several hours.

“It was a long night. We were getting bitten by fire ants. There were spiders ... The girls did everything I told them to do," Juenke said. None of the girls in that cabin died.

Juenke said they emerged around dawn. He then met up with Catie Eastland, one of the camp directors, near the two-story recreation building where about a hundred girls had escaped the flood.

“I said y'all could have had a million different evacuation plans, nothing would have worked,” Juenke testified.

Lawyers for the families have zeroed in on the lack of a detailed evacuation plan and the failure to send orders to get out of the cabins. A short emergency notice posted in cabins, one that had passed state inspection just two days earlier, had told campers to stay in their cabins until given instructions by staff.

In all, 25 campers and two teenage counselors were killed. Camp co-owner Dick Eastland also died.

“You can blame it on Mother Nature or God Almighty, but if anyone had used the speakers or walkie talkie and told them to leave before 3 (am), they would’ve survived,” said Brad Beckworth, an attorney for the family of Cile Steward, 8, the only camper whose body still has not been recovered.

Juenke defended his actions and those of the staff that night.

“We did everything we could do in the time that we had,” Juenke said.

The state’s settlement with Arizona Public Service, which previously prohibited shutoffs because of nonpayment between June 1 and Oct. 15, also called for the utility to pay $2.7 million that will be deposited into a state consumer protection fund and another $3.4 million to improve a program that lets customers designate family members or friends as emergency contacts who can receive notices in a bid to help prevent shutoffs, including sending text messages to inform customers of delinquent bills and disconnection notices.

Mayes’ office said the lawsuit grew out of concerns about disconnection practices during extreme heat, including the death of Katherine Korman at her Sun City West home.

Her service was cut off in mid-May 2024 because of nonpayment on a day when the daily high temperature in her area reached about 99 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius). She was found dead six days after her power was disconnected.

APS said it made 10 attempts to contact Korman by phone, email, door hanger and monthly bills to let her know the status of her bill and offer help. The utility said regulators who examined the case determined APS had followed the rules on customer outreach and disconnection.

“No Arizonan should be at risk because they cannot afford their electric bill,” Mayes said in a statement. “This settlement ensures that APS will no longer disconnect power based on the date on the calendar alone – if temperatures are dangerous, the power stays on.”

APS, which didn’t acknowledge any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, said in a statement that it already met or exceeded state laws and regulations in its disconnection policies and customer communications. “Our entire team at APS prioritizes customer safety and cares deeply about the well-being of our customers and community,” the utility said. The agreement specifies the payments from the settlement must come APS shareholder funds and that they can't be recovered through future rate cases or surcharges.

“If APS wants to spend additional shareholder funds, it is free to do so," Douglas Clark, executive director of the Arizona Corporation Commission, said in a statement. "The consent agreement makes it clear that this payment is outside the regulatory framework and will not be passed on to ratepayers.”

Maricopa County, which includes the city of Phoenix, confirmed 430 heat-related deaths last year, a decrease from 608 in 2024 and 645 in 2023. The county’s first confirmed heat-related death in 2026 was announced last week.

Luis Díaz and Michael Olise scored late for the Bavarian powerhouse to beat Madrid 4-3 and advance to the Champions League semifinals on Wednesday.

In the last four two-legged ties between the sides, the Spanish giant had prevailed each time.

The second-leg quarterfinal game ended in acrimony with Madrid’s players furious that referee Slavko Vinčić sent off substitute Eduardo Camavinga in the 86th minute for an innocuous challenge on Harry Kane — after being urged to show him his second yellow card by the Bayern players.

Díaz fired inside the right post three minutes later and Olise ended the contest definitively with a spectacular strike in stoppage time to give Bayern a 6-4 win on aggregate after the Bavarian powerhouse won the first leg of their quarterfinal 2-1 in Madrid last week.

Madrid’s players surrounded Vinčić after the game. Arda Guler, who scored two brilliant goals to spark the visitors’ hopes of a famed “remontada” (comeback), was shown a red card for his vehement complaints.

“Everything was over with the red card,” Madrid coach Álvaro Arbeloa said. “It’s unbelievable. You cannot send off a player for this action. It’s not fair in a match like that, and well, we are very, very upset, very angry, but also congratulations to Bayern Munich.”

Bayern will play defending champion Paris Saint-Germain in the semifinals. Also Wednesday, Arsenal advanced past Sporting Lisbon to set up a last-four showdown against Atlético Madrid.

Blistering start in Munich

Guler opened the scoring after just 34 seconds thanks to a mistake from Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer – who was outstanding in the first leg – whose attempted pass went straight to the 21-year-old Turkey star, who delayed not but fired the ball into the empty net from distance.

Bayern seemed unfazed and Aleksandar Pavlović equalized with a point-blank header from a Joshua Kimmich corner in the sixth minute. Bayern maintained its dominance with Madrid patiently looking for breaks.

Konrad Laimer did well to block Kylian Mbappé, who had an adhesive bandage above his right eye after getting a heavy blow to his face last weekend.

Guler beat Neuer with a brilliant free kick in the 29th, but Bayern had legitimate complaints it should not have been awarded with Brahim Díaz going down after minimal contact from Laimer.

Bayern again seized control and it was no surprise when Harry Kane equalized in the 38th inside the right post after being left free by English compatriot Trent Alexander-Arnold.

It was the England captain’s 12th goal in the competition this season and his 50th across all competitions for Bayern.

Vinícius Júnior then struck the crossbar before setting up Mbappé to restore Madrid’s lead on the night in the 42nd.

Bayern coach Vincent Kompany was booked for complaining about an foul from Antonio Rüdiger on Josip Stanišić in the buildup. It means he’s suspended for the semifinal first leg.

There were no more goals, however, until the late drama.

“I hope all the kids in Germany were allowed stay awake a little longer,” Kimmich said. “I hope my wife let my son stay up a bit longer and then late to school tomorrow.”

Bayern targets treble

Bayern, which smashed the Bundesliga goals record last weekend, can clinch yet another German league title on Sunday — the 13th in 14 years — if Borussia Dortmund drops points the day before.

Bayern also faces Bayer Leverkusen in the semifinals of the German Cup on April 22 as it chases a repeat of the treble it won in 2013.

Madrid and Mbappé empty-handed again

The Champions League was Madrid's best remaining chance of salvaging a trophy from a troubled season. The 15-time European champion is now facing a second year without a trophy after its fourth match without a win across all competitions.

Madrid was held 1-1 at home by Girona in La Liga last weekend, allowing Barcelona to open a nine-point lead, while it was knocked out of the Spanish Cup by second-division side Albacete Balompié in January, a result that contributed to Xabi Alonso's dismissal as coach.

Unless Barcelona squanders its sizable lead in the remaining seven rounds of the league, Kylian Mbappé's drought in major trophies since joining the club in 2024 will continue.

Arsenal in semifinals again

A 0-0 draw with Sporting Lisbon at the Emirates Stadium saw Arsenal advance 1-0 on aggregate.

Arsenal has never won the European Cup and only once reached the final. But it is now just two games away from this year’s showpiece in Budapest, Hungary.

Kai Havertz’s late winner in the first leg of the quarterfinals in Portugal last week proved to be decisive as Sporting failed to find a breakthrough in London.

It is the fourth time Arsenal has advanced to the semifinals, having lost to eventual winner Paris Saint-Germain at that stage last season.

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

Robert Hobson is accused of stabbing a woman early Tuesday in the 200 block of West Lullwood Avenue, located near Hildebrand Avenue.

The woman, 79, told her son during a phone call on Tuesday that Hobson was acting “really strange,” SAPD Public Information Officer Sharavious Jackson said.

SAPD stated that the woman asked her son to come over to check on the situation.

The son later arrived at the home and found that his mother had been stabbed multiple times on her upper body, Jackson said.

The woman was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition, police stated.

Hobson has since been charged with aggravated assault with a weapon causing serious bodily injury, according to Bexar County jail records.

He was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on a $150,000 bond, records show.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic violence, there is help for you. KSAT has a list of resources on its Domestic Violence webpage, which also explains how to identify different types of abuse.

If it’s an emergency, text or call 911. For wrap-around services, including the Battered Women and Children’s Shelter, call Family Violence Prevention Services at (210) 733-8810.

You can also contact the Bexar County Family Justice Center, which also provides wrap-around services at (210) 631-0100.

More crime coverage on KSAT:

• SAPD looking to expand investigation into local minister accused of sexual assault of a child
• SAPD: Woman murdered in shooting, found dead at Northwest Side home

Separately, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that the U.S. is preparing to ramp up economic pain on Iran by levying secondary sanctions on financial institutions that do business with the Middle Eastern nation. Bessent called the measure the “financial equivalent” of the bombing campaign.

Mediators’ efforts to extend a U.S.-Iran ceasefire made progress as the two sides are expected to hold another round of negotiations, regional officials said. But a senior U.S. official said Washington has not formally agreed to extend the ceasefire. A Pakistani delegation arrived for talks in Tehran in the latest diplomatic move.

Israel, meanwhile, is pressing ahead with its aerial and ground war against the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, a day after the two nations held their first direct talks in decades.

Military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader says he does not support extending ceasefire, according to state media

“We are subject to the decisions of the relevant officials, but personally I do not agree to extend the ceasefire,” said Mohsen Rezaei, formerly a commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps who now advises Mojtaba Khamenei on military affairs, Iranian state media reported.

Rezaei also urged officials to be more cautious than they had been before in negotiations over economic matters with the U.S.

He said Iran was setting the preconditions in the next round of talks, not the U.S.

“Unlike the Americans who are afraid of continuous war, we are fully prepared and familiar with a long war,” he said, according to the report.

Blockade ‘has been fully implemented,’ US admiral says

That’s according to Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, who says: “U.S. forces have completely halted economic trade going in and out of Iran by sea.”

The command said Wednesday that no vessels have made it past its forces during the blockade’s first 48 hours. The blockade began Monday.

Central Command noted that 10 vessels have complied with directions to turn around and return toward an Iranian port or Iran’s coastal area.

The blockade is being enforced “impartially against all vessels of all nations entering or leaving coastal areas or ports in Iran,” the Command said. Vessels avoiding Iranian ports are not affected.

The action could put serious pressure on the Iranian economy, while Tehran’s earlier cutoff of the waterway crucial to oil and gas supplies has sent energy prices higher.

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Wall Street hits a record on hopes for an end to the Iran war

The U.S. stock market hit a record Wednesday after adding to its two-week rally built on hopes the war won’t create a worst-case scenario for the global economy.

The S&P 500 rose 0.8% and eclipsed its prior all-time high set in January. After falling nearly 10% below its record in late March, the index at the heart of many 401(k) accounts has since roared more than 10% higher.

Much of the rally was due to expectations for calming tensions in the war and a resumption of the full flow of oil from the Persian Gulf. Hopes remained high as regional officials told The Associated Press that the U.S. and Iran had an “in principle agreement” to extend a ceasefire to allow for more diplomacy.

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US aircraft carrier sets deployment record

The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, broke the U.S. record Wednesday for the longest post-Vietnam War deployment, a nearly 10-month span that saw it take part in both the military raid that captured Venezuela’s leader and the Iran war.

The ship’s 295th day at sea surpassed the previous longest modern deployment by an aircraft carrier, when the USS Abraham Lincoln was sent out for 294 days in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data compiled by U.S. Naval Institute News, a news outlet run by the nonprofit U.S. Naval Institute.

Sen. Tim Kaine said the record-breaking deployment has taken “a serious toll” on the mental health and well-being of the crew.

“They should be home with their loved ones, not sent around the world by a President who acts like the U.S. military is his palace guard,” the Virginia Democrat said.

Iran’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate in ‘critical’ condition after heart attack

Narges Mohammadi ’s family and lawyers visited her in Zanjan prison twice in the last month, a statement by the Narges Mohammadi Foundation said on X Wednesday, finding that her health condition was dire. She is weak, pale and has lost weight, said the statement.

The report comes after Mohammadi had a heart attack in the prison on March 24, according to a cardiologist she saw soon after, according to the statement.

The statement said that following the heart attack Mohammadi was unconscious without anyone resuscitating her for over an hour.

Her brother, Hamidreza Mohammadi, said in the Wednesday statement that the cardiologist who saw her after the collapse told the family it was partially due to the medicines she’d been prescribed by prison doctors.

He added that she was being kept in a cell with people convicted of murder and that she’d faced threats from them on numerous occasions.

Mohammadi is a rights lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while in prison. She was arrested in December during a visit to the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad and sentenced to seven more years in prison.

Iranian state media says Iran-Pakistan talks have started

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi took part in a preliminary meeting with the Pakistani Army Chief of Staff, Asim Munir, in Tehran Wednesday, according to a report on IRIB, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.

The report said more extensive talks would continue Thursday to discuss latest communications with the US.

Pakistan is mediating talks between Washington and Tehran.

US official says Trump would welcome an end to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict

A U.S. official says President Donald Trump would welcome an end to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict as part of a broader peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon but has not specifically asked for one.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Trump administration’s position during closed-door talks between Israel and Lebanon, said an Israel-Hezbollah truce is not part of peace negotiations the U.S. is having with Iran.

Iran has demanded a truce between Israel and its proxy Hezbollah as a condition to return to talks with the United States.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday hosted the first talks in decades between high-level Israeli and Lebanese officials.

Israeli prime minister says forces will continue push in south Lebanon

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the current fighting is concentrated in the strategic south Lebanon town of Bint Jbeil, where Israeli troops are about to “eliminate this great stronghold of Hezbollah.”

Netanyahu, in a video address Wednesday evening, said he has given instructions for the military to continue to widen the security zone in south Lebanon — a reference to areas close to the border that the Israeli army now occupies — and to spread it eastward.

He said Israel is concurrently negotiating with Lebanon, with two central goals: disarming Hezbollah and a sustainable peace. “Peace through strength,” he added.

He also said the U.S. was updating Israel on the talks with Iran and that Israel was prepared for any scenario, should the fighting with Iran resume.

Senate Republicans again reject effort to halt Trump’s Iran war

The Republican-led Senate on Wednesday rejected the latest Democratic attempt to halt President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, turning aside a resolution that would require the U.S. to withdraw forces from the conflict until Congress authorizes further action.

The 47-52 vote was the fourth time this year that the Senate has voted to cede its war powers to the president in a conflict that Democrats say is illegal and unjustified. Republicans say they will keep faith in Trump’s wartime leadership, for now, citing Iran’s nuclear capabilities and the high stakes of withdrawal. But GOP lawmakers are also anxious for the conflict to end — and they may not defer to the executive branch indefinitely.

Some Republicans have already made clear that they are eyeing future votes that could become an important test for the president if the war drags on.

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Treasury sanctions Ali Shamkhani-linked network, warns of secondary sanctions

The U.S. is imposing sanctions targeting an Iranian oil smuggling network tied to the deceased senior Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani.

Sanctions include dozens of individuals and companies accused of transporting and selling Iranian and Russian oil through front companies, many of which are in the UAE.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement, that banks “should be on notice that Treasury will leverage all tools and authorities, including secondary sanctions, against those that continue to support Tehran’s terrorist activities.”

Naval expert: Evasion efforts unlikely to affect blockade enforcement

Certain ships navigating waters around the Strait of Hormuz may be disguising their identities or destinations to evade interception under the U.S. blockade, but Joshua Tallis, director of security affairs at the Center for Naval Analyses, said the U.S. Navy likely has the tools to track them, even if doing so requires more resources.

Some ships appear to have slipped through, according to maritime trackers, but the blockade’s effectiveness depends less on individual crossings than on how Washington defines success, Tallis said.

A campaign aimed at pressuring Iran back to negotiations differs sharply from one intended to inflict enough economic pain to threaten the government itself. Blockades typically operate cumulatively, with economic repercussions unchanged if a ship or two pass through, Tallis said.

US ready to hit Iran with economic pain equivalent to bombings, top Trump official says

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned on Wednesday that the U.S. is preparing to ramp up economic pain on Iran, saying the Republican administration is preparing action that will be the “financial equivalent” of the bombing campaign.

Bessent said the administration has “told companies, we have told countries that if you are buying Iranian oil, that if Iranian money is sitting in your banks, we are now willing to apply secondary sanctions, which is a very stern measure. And the Iranians should know that this is going to be the financial equivalent of what we saw in the kinetic activities.”

The warning comes the day after Treasury Department sent a letter to financial institutions in China, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman, threatening to levy secondary sanctions for doing business with Iran.

White House says talks with Iran are ongoing

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the U.S. had not “formally requested an extension of the ceasefire” with Iran.

The ceasefire announced on April 7 is currently slated to expire next Tuesday.

“At this moment, we remain very much engaged, in these negotiations, in these talks,” Leavitt said, adding that there are “discussions” about more talks being held unperson “but nothing is official until you hear it from us here at the White House.”

She said that the possible next rounds of talks “would very likely” be in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad as they were previously.

Bessent says Americans can choose if they want to use their tax refunds to buy increasingly pricey gasoline

Asked if the tax refunds would go toward gasoline averaging more than $4 a gallon, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the public is free to spend its money however it wants.

“Americans have more money. They can decide how they want to spend it,” Bessent said.

Higher prices at the pump because of the Iran war has created the risk that President Donald Trump’s tax cuts will offset the cost of fueling up autos to go to work and run errands, instead of boosting spending in ways that could help overall economic growth.

Bessent ‘optimistic’ that gasoline prices going back to $3 a gallon this summer

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that he believes gasoline prices will be closer to $3 gallon this summer, saying pumping oil can resume within a week of the Strait of Hormuz opening.

“I’m optimistic that sometime between June 20th and September 20th that we can have $3 gas again,” said Bessent.

Gas prices are averaging $4.11 a gallon, up from $3.17 a year ago, according to AAA.

US Navy says it will use force to compel compliance with Iran blockade

U.S. Navy warships are telling merchant ships in and around Iran that they are ready to board them and use force to compel compliance with the blockade on ships trading with Iran.

“Vessels will be boarded for interdiction and seizure transiting to or from Iranian port,” a Navy radio message, posted to social media by U.S. Central Command, said. A military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing military operation, confirmed the message is currently being broadcast to all ships in the region.

“If you do not comply with this blockade, we will use force,” the radio message added.

—- Konstantin Toropin

Iranian and Emirati officials discuss de-escalation efforts

UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Iran’s parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf discussed regional developments on a phone call and ways to de-escalate tensions, UAE state-run news agency WAM reported, without further details.

US bishops’ chairman on doctrine defends Pope Leo

The chairman of the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine is defending Pope Leo XIV’s comments on the church’s “just war” doctrine.

The statement doesn’t directly refer to the Iran war, President Trump or Vice President Vance. But it cites “recent public comments” regarding church teachings on war and peace. It comes after Trump blasted the pope on social media. Vance, a Catholic convert, said Leo should be “careful” addressing such matters.

Bishop James Massa said the Catholic Church has long taught that “a nation can only legitimately take up the sword ‘in self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed.’”

That, said Massa, is the basis of Pope Leo’s comment that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.’”

The pope is “not merely offering opinions on theology, he is preaching the Gospel and exercising his ministry as the Vicar of Christ,” Massa said.

UN allocates $12M for Iran aid

UN Relief Chief Tom Fletcher said $12 million has been allocated for humanitarian support in Iran.

“Thousands of civilians killed. Infrastructure destroyed. Essential services disrupted. This funding will help our partners deliver life-saving assistance at scale,” he wrote on X.

House Speaker Mike Johnson defends Trump and Vance’s swipes at Pope Leo

“If you wade into political waters, I think you should expect some political response,” the Republican leader said at the Capitol. “The pope’s received some of that.”

Johnson insisted he’s not one to criticize clerics or religious leaders, but he leaned into what he called the just war doctrine when it comes to the U.S. military action against Iran. “The stakes are so high,” he said.

“I don’t want to engage in a theological debate with the pope,” he said. “These are matters that people of good faith and good sense can debate.”

Johnson a day earlier at the Capitol said that he had asked Trump to take down a social media post that was interpreted as the president depicting himself as Jesus.

Israel to convene security cabinet to discuss developments with Lebanon

An Israeli official said the meeting would be held Wednesday evening. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The meeting comes a day after Lebanon and Israel held their first direct diplomatic talks in decades in Washington, following more than a month of war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.

—- Melanie Lidman

No ships have made it past U.S. naval blockade, military says

U.S. Central Command said in a statement Wednesday that no vessels have made it past U.S. naval forces during the first 48 hours of the blockade on ships entering and exiting Iranian ports.

Central Command also said nine vessels have complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around and return toward an Iranian port or Iran’s coastal area.

First crude tanker passes Strait of Hormuz since US blockade

A Malta-flagged vessel is the first crude oil carrier to head west through Strait of Hormuz since the United States blocked Iranian ports, according to a global shipping tracking monitor.

The Malta-flagged VLCC Agios Fanourios I is expected to arrive on Thursday in Basra, Iraq, where ports are not under U.S. blockade. Marine Traffic said the vessel attempted again a transit after anchoring in the Gulf of Oman for nearly two days.

US called on Iran to halt uranium enrichment for 20 years

The negotiating team led by Vice President JD Vance called for Iran to agree to a uranium enrichment moratorium as part of a potential deal to end the war, according to a regional official involved in the mediation efforts and a person briefed on the matter.

The Iranians rejected the U.S. plan laid out during last weekend’s talks in Islamabad and came back with a counteroffer to suspend enrichment for five years, the regional official and a person briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the negotiations.

The White House rejected the Iranian proposal that was conveyed by Tehran’s negotiators earlier this week.

The White House and the vice president’s office did not respond to requests for comment about the proposals.

The U.S. and Iranian proposals were first reported by the New York Times.

Democrats grill US envoy in first opportunity to question Trump administration on Iran

Attending a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on reforms to the United Nations, ambassador Mike Waltz unintentionally became the highest-level U.S. official to testify before Congress since U.S. and Israeli strikes started a war against Iran.

Democratic senators, including Chris Coons, Chris Murphy and Tim Kaine, took that opportunity to express their frustration with the Trump administration’s decision not to consult or further brief Capitol Hill on military action it is taking against Tehran.

“Those of us on the Democratic side do find it amazing that we still have not had an open hearing on this committee or the Armed Services Committee on this conflict,” Murphy, who represents Connecticut, told Waltz.

Asked several times about Trump’s threats last week to end Iranian civilization, Waltz defended it as “tough talk” and a “mean tweet” that yielded diplomatic results.

“They clearly got the message, and they clearly came back to the table,” he said.

3 teams of paramedics were struck, Lebanese health ministry says

The attacks in southern Lebanon killed three paramedics, wounded six others and left a fourth medic missing in the town of Mayfadoun, the health ministry said.

The ministry said Israel struck the first team of paramedics on Wednesday as it was heading to rescue wounded people, killing one paramedic. Another medical worker on that initial mission remains “missing,” the ministry said, without elaborating.

Israel struck the second team as it rushed to rescue the first, wounding three more paramedics.

In the third and final rescue attempt, Israel again hit ambulances heading to the site, killing two paramedics and wounding three more.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes.

Lebanon’s health ministry denounced Israel’s attacks as “a flagrant crime” and warned that “paramedics have become direct targets, pursued relentlessly in a blatant violation (of) … international humanitarian law.”

Event organizer Stefan Pildes was arrested Wednesday on charges that he pocketed the majority of the $2.7 million supposedly raised for charity through SantaCon events from 2019 to 2024.

Money that was supposed to be divided among neighborhood charities was instead used to renovate a lakefront property in New Jersey, buy concert tickets, pay for his fancy car, and finance extravagant meals and luxury vacations in Hawaii and Las Vegas, according to an indictment.

Pildes, 50, of Hewitt, New Jersey, didn't respond to shouted questions as he left a Manhattan courthouse following an appearance on a wire fraud charge.

Widely reviled by many New York residents for the chaos it brings to city streets and subways, the annual SantaCon bacchanal draws thousands of costumed merrymakers to Manhattan’s streets and watering holes every year, with most people dressed as Saint Nick, though there are usually a few Mrs. Clauses, elves and the occasional Grinch.

Many participants pay $10 to $20 for tickets — money organizers insisted would go to charity.

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.

The New York City version is now promoted as “a charitable, non-political, nonsensical Santa Claus convention.”

Organizers have also tried to improve the event's reputation for drunken misbehavior by instituting a “Santa code."

“Santa spreads JOY: Not terror. Not vomit. Not trash. Would you want those under YOUR tree?” reads one rule. Another admonishes participants not to urinate in the street, start fights, block streets, climb on cars or deface property — all things that have been problems some years.

As public officials pressured organizers over the years to clean up their act, SantaCon emphasized its charitable work, advertising that money raised from ticket sales would go to antipoverty groups, food banks, city parks and arts foundations.

According to an indictment, Pildes claimed he received no compensation.

“No producer received income from this event, this is a charity event,” the indictment alleges he wrote in a March 2023 email to a potential venue.

But authorities said Pildes, who was freed on $300,000 bail, siphoned more than half of the proceeds raised each year to an entity he controlled, using those funds for personal expenses.

Those included $365,000 to renovate a lakefront property, $124,000 on leasing a luxury Manhattan apartment, a $100,000 investment in a boutique resort in Costa Rica founded by a personal friend and a nearly $3,000 birthday dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Manhattan.

"Instead of donating the millions of dollars he raised, he ran his own con game,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a news release.

Pildes was president of and controlled Participatory Safety Inc., the nonprofit entity that organized SantaCon, authorities said.

According to the indictment, he solicited dozens of bars and restaurants to participate and donate 10% to 25% of their food and beverage sales to his charity organization.

On Wednesday, Comal County Sheriff Mark Reynolds confirmed to KSAT the teacher, who has not been identified, was released from the hospital as of last week.

>> What we know about the deadly shooting at Hill Country College Preparatory High School near Bulverde

Authorities believe the student shot himself after shooting the teacher on March 30. The student has not been publicly identified.

Earlier this week, the Comal County District Attorney’s Office asked the Texas Attorney General’s Office whether the county has to release the student’s identity.

KSAT Investigates has submitted requests to multiple agencies, including the Comal County Sheriff’s Office and Comal County Justice of the Peace Precinct 2, for the student’s identity since the shooting.

The sheriff’s office said its investigation remains ongoing.

KSAT continues to follow developments in the Hill Country College Preparatory High School shooting. Read more of our reporting:

• Comal County DA seeks AG’s guidance on whether to identify Hill Country Prep shooter, release records to KSAT
• Hill Country College Prep shooting: Resources for families, how to talk to students
• Agencies refuse to identify student who shot teacher at Hill Country College Preparatory High School
• Classes resume at Hill Country College Preparatory High School after deadly shooting on campus
• Parents, student express safety concerns after student shoots teacher at Comal ISD campus

The White House said any further talks would likely take place in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, though no decision had been made on whether to resume negotiations.

The U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports continued for a third day. The Trump administration warned of new economic sanctions on countries doing business with Iran, saying the Islamic Republic would feel the “financial equivalent” of a bombing campaign.

Pakistan has emerged as a key mediator in the conflict after it hosted rare direct talks between the U.S. and Iran in Islamabad, a move authorities said helped narrow differences between the two sides. Mediators are seeking a new round before a ceasefire is set to expire next week.

The Pakistani military said the delegation sent to Iran included the country’s interior minister and other senior security officials, but provided no details.

Officials say US and Iran are making progress

Even as the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports and renewed Iranian threats strained the ceasefire agreement, regional officials reported progress, telling The Associated Press the United States and Iran had an “in principle agreement” to extend it to allow for more diplomacy. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.

Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, took part in a preliminary meeting with Asim Munir, Pakistan's army chief of staff, Iranian state media reported. It said talks would continue Thursday.

But even as mediators worked for peace, tensions simmered.

The commander of Iran’s joint military command, Ali Abdollahi, threatened to halt trade in the region if the U.S. does not lift its naval blockade.

In a move aimed at inflicting more economic pain on Iran, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the White House has warned countries and private companies they could face sanctions for doing business with Tehran.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the U.S. had not “formally requested an extension of the ceasefire" with Iran, which is set to expire Tuesday.

"At this moment, we remain very much engaged in these negotiations, in these talks,” Leavitt said, adding that any further in-person talks “would very likely” return to Islamabad.

Mediators seek compromise on sticking points

Mediators are pushing for a compromise on three main sticking points that derailed direct talks last weekend — Iran’s nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and compensation for wartime damages, according to a regional official involved in the mediation efforts.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Iran is open to discussing the type and level of its uranium enrichment, but his country “based on its needs, must be able to continue enrichment,” Iranian state media reported.

The negotiating team led by Vice President JD Vance urged Iran to agree to a 20-year moratorium on uranium enrichment as part of a potential deal to end the war, according to the regional official and a person briefed on the matter.

The Iranians countered with an offer to suspend enrichment for five years, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the negotiations.

The White House rejected that. The dueling proposals were first reported by The New York Times.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Trump says Iran wants a deal

The war has jolted markets and rattled the global economy as shipping has been cut off and airstrikes have torn through military and civilian infrastructure across the region. Oil prices have fallen amid hopes for an end to fighting, and U.S. stocks on Wednesday surpassed records set in January.

Yet the future of the fragile ceasefire still hung in the balance as the U.S. pressed ahead with its blockade, which threatens to sever Iran from economic lifelines.

“I think they want to make a deal very badly,” U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview Wednesday on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria."

In a social media post, Trump said China has agreed not to provide weapons to Iran as reports circulated that Beijing has considered transferring arms.

China has long supported Iran’s ballistic missile program and backed it with dual-use industrial components that can be used for missile production, according to the U.S. government.

US military says no ships got past blockade

U.S. Central Command said Wednesday that no ships made it past the blockade in the first 48 hours, while nine merchant vessels complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around and reenter Iranian waters.

The blockade is intended to pressure Iran, which has exported millions of barrels of oil, mostly to Asia, since the war began Feb. 28. Much of it has likely been carried by so-called dark transits that evade sanctions and oversight, providing cash that’s been vital to keeping Iran running.

Since the war began, Iran has curtailed maritime traffic as most commercial vessels have avoided the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil transits in peacetime. Tehran's effective closure of the strait sent oil prices skyrocketing, raising the cost of fuel, food and other basic goods far beyond the Middle East.

Strikes continue in Lebanon after Washington talks

Meanwhile, Israel pressed ahead with its aerial and ground war in Lebanon. The country's National News Agency reported airstrikes and artillery shelling throughout southern Lebanon on Wednesday, including near Bint Jbeil, where Israeli forces have encircled fighters with the militant group Hezbollah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli troops were about to “eliminate this great stronghold of Hezbollah” and would continue expanding their control of areas in southern Lebanon.

The fighting continued after Israeli and Lebanese officials concluded their first direct talks in decades. Netanyahu said negotiations are continuing, with disarming Hezbollah a key goal.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said Israel struck three different teams of paramedics Wednesday in southern Lebanon, first hitting one team and then two more that rushed to help. The attacks killed three paramedics and wounded six others, the ministry said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel and Lebanon have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948, and Lebanon remains deeply divided over diplomatic engagement with Israel.

___

Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, Ahmed from Islamabad and Corder from The Hague, Netherlands. Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Aamer Madhani and Joshua Boak in Washington; Julia Frankel in New York and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

As in past quarters, Cornyn’s fundraising apparatus — which includes his campaign committee and two joint fundraising committees with entities like the National Republican Senatorial Committee — outpaced Paxton’s.

Cornyn raised about $9 million and had nearly $8.2 million in cash on hand across the accounts under his control, according to his first quarter campaign finance reports. The Cornyn campaign said that $3.4 million of that haul was raised in the weeks after the March 3 primary.

“The Cornyn campaign continues performing at a high level, building off the overperformance in the March 3rd primary to announcing a massive fundraising haul in the first quarter of 2026,” Cornyn campaign manager Andy Hemming said in a statement.

The senior senator collected checks from a number of notable Texas politicos and business figures, including former President George W. Bush, operative Karl Rove and former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus.

The Cornyn campaign spent over $17 million across its committees in the first quarter.

Paxton raised about $2.2 million across his campaign committee and a new joint fundraising committee, according to campaign finance filings. He has over $2.6 million in cash on hand across the two accounts.

“The people of Texas are ready for change, and the strength of our movement is a testament to that,” Paxton said in a statement. “My campaign will be entering the May runoff in an even stronger financial position than we did in March, and we will continue to highlight John Cornyn’s record of failing Texans.

But Paxton, whose fundraising efforts had decreased each quarter since his launch last April, brought in his biggest haul since spring 2025, when he entered the race.

Across his campaign committee and joint fundraising committee, Paxton spent about $3.2 million in the first quarter.

After the March 3 primary, a neck-and-neck contest in which Cornyn received 42% to Paxton’s 41%, Paxton built out a more robust fundraising operation, including a joint committee with Lone Star Liberty PAC, the main super PAC supporting him, and a leadership PAC.

Both Cornyn and Paxton’s fundraising efforts paled in comparison to the Democratic nominee, State Rep. James Talarico. Talarico raised $27 million in the first quarter, triple what Cornyn raised. And while the two Republicans will need to continue spending the money they’ve raised to beat one another, Talarico — having won his primary — can focus on fundraising and building up his war chest for the general.

In the battle of allied super PACs, the biggest pro-Cornyn spender, Texans for a Conservative Majority, bested Lone Star Liberty PAC, the main organization supporting Paxton.

The pro-Cornyn PAC raised about $9.5 million in the first quarter, while the pro-Paxton PAC took in about $2.1 million.

Several prolific donors to the pro-Cornyn super PAC gave more money after the primary, including Houston businessman John Nau. Nau gave another $1 million to the PAC, bringing his total for the cycle to $3.9 million.

Texans for a Conservative Majority also went into the final two months of the runoff with more than double the war chest of its pro-Paxton counterpart, with nearly $2.9 million in cash on hand to Lone Star Liberty PAC’s about $1 million.

Conservative Texans PAC, a group that spent in the run-up to the primary against dark horse candidate Wesley Hunt and has since been spending in support of Cornyn, raised over $5 million in the first quarter and has about $1.95 million in cash on hand.

All of the group’s funding comes from an organization called Conservative Americans PAC, which itself receives all of its funding from a nonprofit that does not need to disclose its donors.

Spending is expected to ramp up in the final six weeks of the runoff, as Cornyn and Paxton finally have the head-to-head contest they’ve been building towards for over a year. In the primary, Cornyn used his financial advantage — and well-heeled allies — to overcome an early polling deficit.

Airing mostly positive ads beginning last summer, Texans saw over $70 million in pro-Cornyn spending throughout the primary, compared to just $4.4 million for Paxton. PACs in both the Cornyn and Paxton camps spent late against Hunt to drive down his vote share.

But with Hunt out of the way, the runoff spending thus far has been largely negative attack ads against Paxton from the pro-Cornyn PAC.

Through Tuesday, Texans for a Conservative Majority had spent or booked $2.85 million worth of ads, according to media tracking firm AdImpact. The Cornyn Lonestar Victory Committee, one of the joint fundraising committees for Cornyn’s campaign, has spent an additional $545,000, among other pro-Cornyn spenders.

Lone Star Liberty PAC, by contrast, has only spent about $22,000 on the airwaves during the runoff.

Around 9:50 a.m. Wednesday, authorities were called for a welfare check in the 15600 block of Market Hill Boulevard, near North Loop 1604 West.

Police said the woman had lived at the apartment, which was supposed to be vacant at the end of March.

Management attempted to contact the woman multiple times and called for a welfare check to make sure she was OK.

Police and the San Antonio Fire Department arrived at the complex to breach the door. As they were attempting to breach the door, police said the woman started swinging a knife, striking a San Antonio firefighter.

The firefighter sustained minor injuries and was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Authorities arrested the 30-year-old woman, who has not been identified as of Wednesday afternoon.

There have previously been other calls to the location, according to police.

A woman who told KSAT she is the former roommate of the suspect said she reported the suspect multiple times.

“They still wouldn’t do anything. It took one of my roommates being assaulted by her to have all of us, besides (the suspect), move to other apartments,” the former roommate said.

Additional information was not immediately available.

Read also:

• Leon Valley police arrest man in connection with deadly hit-and-run crash; held on $250K bond
• SAPD confirms identity of suspect, 82, arrested in connection with North Side stabbing
• Parents shaken after former teacher accused of threatening North Side charter school

The killing of the DHS worker, Lauren Bullis, and shootings of the two other victims on Monday led Homeland Secretary Markwayne Mullin to issue a statement raising concerns that the 26-year-old defendant, U.K.-native Olaolukitan Adon Abel, was granted U.S. citizenship in 2022, when Democrat Joe Biden was president.

“These acts of pure evil have devastated our Department and my prayers are with the families of the victims,” Mullin wrote in a statement posted on social media, cataloging a litany of the defendant's previous alleged crimes but not specifying whether they happened before he was granted citizenship.

Authorities have said they believe at least one of the victims, the man who was wounded, was targeted at random. They said they were still looking into whether the other two victims were also picked randomly.

A morning of violence

The first victim was found with multiple gunshot wounds near a restaurant in the Decatur area at around 1 a.m. Monday. She was taken to a hospital but died, DeKalb County Police Chief Gregory Padrick said at a news conference. Police have not publicly identified her.

About an hour later in Brookhaven, another Atlanta suburb about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of the first attack, a 49-year-old homeless man who was sleeping outside of a grocery store was shot multiple times, Brookhaven Police Chief Brandon Gurley said. The man, whose name hasn't been released, remains hospitalized in critical condition.

“It is apparent to us that it was a completely random attack on a member of our unhoused community,” Gurley said.

Just before 7 a.m. and more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) away in the suburb of Panthersville, officers responding to a call found a woman with gunshot and stab wounds, Patrick said. The woman, Bullis, died at the scene. Investigators in Brookhaven determined that the three attacks were connected, Gurley said.

Adon Abel was taken into custody later Monday during a traffic stop in Troup County, which borders Alabama. He is charged with two counts of malice murder, aggravated assault and firearms counts, court records show. He waived an initial court appearance on Tuesday. Court records don’t list an attorney who might speak on his behalf.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Toyin Adon Abel Jr. said he didn’t want to talk about his brother. But he expressed sympathy for the victims: “I feel terrible for the victims, their families and their connections. It’s a horrible thing,” he said.

Remembered for her warmth and compassion

Bullis served in multiple roles at DHS Office of Inspector General, including as an auditor in the Office of Audits and as a Team Leader in the Office of Innovation, DHS posted on social media, saying she brought “warmth, kindness, and a genuine sense of care to her colleagues each day.”

In a statement, Bullis' family remembered her as “selfless, kind and compassionate.”

"She deeply loved her family and found joy in running, reading and traveling,” the family said. “Her warmth and generosity touched everyone surrounding her.”

Fellow DHS auditor Ashley Toillion of Denver said she met Bullis at a work conference last year. The two became fast friends as they bonded over running and quickly made plans to have Bullis join Toillion in a race at Walt Disney World.

“You couldn’t meet her and not be her friend,” Toillion said, choking back tears. “She was just the nicest, sweetest, most encouraging person I’ve ever met.”

Mullin, who took over DHS last month after Kristi Noem was fired, said in his statement that Olaolukitan Adon Abel has a criminal record that includes a sexual battery conviction, though he didn't say which year he was convicted. Online court records show that someone listed as Adon Olaolukitan, who has the same birth date as Adon Abel, pleaded guilty last June in Chatham County, Georgia, to four misdemeanor counts of sexual battery.

In his statement, Mullin noted that since President Donald Trump took office, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which DHS oversees, has worked to ensure that people with criminal histories don’t attain citizenship. But the U.S. has long barred people convicted of most violent felonies from becoming citizens, and it wasn't immediately clear if Adon Abel — or Adon Olaolukitan, if it's the same person — had a criminal record that predated him becoming a citizen in 2022.

In response to a request for further details about the case and the defendant's criminal history, DHS referred The Associated Press to its post about Bullis and her death.

___

Brumfield reported from Cockeysville, Maryland. Associated Press reporter Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.

Branden Javier Rosario faces multiple charges, including manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance, delivery of marijuana and prohibited substance in a correctional facility.

Just after 2 p.m. on Tuesday, staff at the Karnes County Detention Center notified the sheriff’s office about a suspicious person who fled the scene after attempting to throw items into the fence line of the detention center.

The sheriff’s office said Rosario dropped items at the location, including a ghillie suit he was wearing.

Rosario was quickly found and detained, the sheriff’s office said.

When deputies searched the area they found “various forms” of drugs.

The sheriff’s office said Rosario was coordinating with people inside the Karnes County Detention Facility to recover the drugs.

Rosario was arrested and booked into the Karnes County jail. The sheriff’s office said additional charges and arrests are expected.

Read also:

• Leon Valley police arrest man in connection with deadly hit-and-run crash; held on $250K bond
• SAPD confirms identity of suspect, 82, arrested in connection with North Side stabbing

Painted Tree Boutiques announced that it would be closing all locations across the nation on Tuesday.

Vendors at the marketplace in San Antonio said they received an email Tuesday informing them the store would shut down effective immediately and that they needed to dismantle their shops.

“We are all feeling a rollercoaster of emotions,” said Erika Montes, a vendor at the market.

For Montes and others like Angel Contero, the closure is more than a temporary setback. Many are now trying to determine their next steps while facing uncertainty about their finances.

“Just seeing everybody’s dreams, just like pop, it’s just a very weird feeling,” Contero said.

According to vendors, the email announcing the shutdown did not address whether they would receive money from recent sales. The company also posted on social media that the closure came as a shock to employees.

“Nobody knows about funds. Nobody knows if we’re getting paid. Nobody knows that we’re going to get deposits back, if we are going to be charged rent or anything like that,” said Contero, who owns Que Bonita Crafts.

Inside Painted Tree Boutiques, vendors rented retail space, often investing their savings, time and creativity into their businesses.

Since the closure, many business owners have turned to social media to update videos for customers and encourage them to continue supporting their brands as they search for new locations.

“I’m just trying to figure it all out, trying to figure out first where to store this and then next. I don’t know where I’ll be,” said Montes, who runs Lotus Craft Company. “Everybody does not know what the future holds.”

Despite the uncertainty, vendors say community support has been strong. Some San Antonio businesses have offered free space to help displaced sellers continue operating.

“Luckily, I’ve been inundated with messages from local businesses, allowing me to set up for free, no cost, outside the shops and things like that,” Contero said.

Attempts to reach Painted Tree Boutiques for comment, including questions about whether vendors will receive payment for recent sales, were unsuccessful.

On Wednesday the San Francisco-based company said it had signed a definitive agreement with an unnamed institutional investor for $50 million in financing to shift its business to AI infrastructure. It will also have a new name: NewBird AI. It plans to use the proceeds to purchase graphics processing units, known as GPUs. The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of this year.

“The rise of AI development and adoption has created unprecedented structural demand for specialized, high-performance compute that the market is struggling to meet,” the company said in the release. “NewBird AI is being built to help close that gap.”

The drastic change of direction has some industry watchers scratching their heads.

“On the surface, it’s a strange pivot,” said AI infrastructure expert Bill Kleyman. “I’ve been in this industry a while, and a company like Allbirds moving from shoes into AI infrastructure is not a very natural adjacency.”

It’s unclear how Allbirds will reinvent itself as a “GPU-as-a-service” business that rents out computing power to AI companies. That means selling access to a huge number of graphics processors, or other specialized AI computer chips designed by companies like Nvidia or AMD, that operate in big data centers typically run by cloud computing giants like Amazon or Oracle.

The business of running physical AI infrastructure “requires access to GPUs in a constrained market, long-term power agreements, advanced cooling strategies, and a credible operating model,” said Kleyman, CEO and co-founder of Apolo.

The announcement comes more than two weeks after Allbirds sold its intellectual property and certain other assets and liabilities to American Exchange Group, a leader in accessories design, licensing and manufacturing, for $39 million. The company owns such retail brands as Aerosoles, White Mountain, Jonathan Adler and Ed Hardy.

That's a dramatic fall from the Allbirds' peak in valuation at $4 billion in late 2021. The company had said that it would not be issuing its quarterly earnings report that was set for March 31.

The latest development marks a dramatic departure from when the company was founded in 2015 by former professional soccer player Tim Brown and renewable resources expert Joey Zwillinger. Its mission: to create footwear from natural material, not synthetics. A year later, Allbirds launched its iconic wool runner shoe. But the company overexpanded, like many dot.com brands that opened physical stores. And many consumers lost interest.

In February, the brand shuttered most of its remaining stores to focus on e-commerce, partnerships with stores and international distributorship. It still operates two outlet stores in the U.S. and two full-price stores in London.

Shares of Allbirds soared more than 600% on Wednesday’s news and were hovering nearly $18 in late afternoon trading. A few days ago, the stock was trading at $3. It once traded at $520 per share.

Kleyman said the stock market surge looks “more like initial excitement and speculative momentum tied to anything AI rather than validation of execution.”

Kleyman also noted that $50 million is not a lot to enter into an infrastructure-heavy market and added that it seems everybody wants to be an AI company.

“Some of those shifts are real and strategic,” he said. “Others feel more reactive. In this case, I think it’s fair to say it can come across as a bit desperate. The underlying business struggled, and AI presents a compelling narrative reset.”

The attempt at a pivot shows that the demand for AI computing power is real, “but so is the hype,” said Jim Piazza, who worked on computing infrastructure at social media giant Meta and now is the chief AI officer at IT services firm Ensono.

Piazza said building a real AI infrastructure business “takes deep capital, technical expertise and disciplined execution,” something that is already “crazy hard for tech-savvy companies” and will be “an impossible challenge” for someone outside of it.

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AP Technology reporter Matt O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

The court's newest justice, Jackson delivered a lengthy assessment of roughly two dozen court orders issued last year that allowed President Donald Trump to put in place controversial policies on immigration, steep federal funding cuts and other topics, after lower courts found they were likely illegal.

While designed to be short-term, those orders have largely allowed Trump to move ahead — for now — with key parts of his sweeping agenda.

Jackson spoke for nearly an hour on Monday at Yale Law School, which posted a video of the event on Wednesday.

Last week, Justice Sonia Sotomayor similarly talked about emergency orders in an event Tuesday at the University of Alabama that also took issue with the conservatives' approach.

Jackson has previously criticized the emergency orders both in dissenting opinions and in an unusual appearance with Justice Brett Kavanaugh last month. But her talk at Yale, addressing the public rather than the other eight justices, was notable.

She referred to orders, which often are issued with little or no explanation as “back-of-the-envelope, first-blush impressions of the merits of the legal issue.”

Worse still, she said, was that the court then insists that “those scratch-paper musings” be applied by lower courts in other cases.

The orders suffer from an additional problem, she said, a failure to acknowledge that real people are involved, making them “seem oblivious and thus ring hollow.”

She also pushed back on the court's assessment that preventing the president from putting his policy in place also is a harm that often outweighs what the challengers to a policy might face.

“The president of the United States, though he may be harmed in an abstract way, he certainly isn't harmed if what he wants to do is illegal,” Jackson said during a question-and-answer session with law school dean Cristina Rodriguez.

The court used to be reluctant to step into cases early in the legal process, she said. “There is value in avoiding having the court continually touching the third rail of every divisive policy issue in American life,” Jackson said.

While she said she couldn't explain the change, “in recent years, the Supreme Court has taken a decidedly different approach to addressing emergency stay applications. It has been noticeably less restrained, especially with respect to pending cases that involve controversial matters.”

Jackson, often joined by Sotomayor and Justice Elena Kagan, has frequently dissented.

There have been conversations about emergency orders among the justices, Jackson said, but she decided to speak publicly with the goal of being “a catalyst for change.”

Also on Wednesday, Sotomayor issued a rare public apology to another justice, Kavanaugh, for what she termed “hurtful comments" she made last week during an appearance at the University of Kansas law school.

Referencing an opinion Kavanaugh wrote in an immigration case where the court granted an emergency order sought by the administration, Sotomayor said her colleague “probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.” Her remarks were reported by Bloomberg Law.

A strike would be the first in 35 years and would affect 1.5 million renters, co-op owners and condo dwellers across the city, according to the workers' union, called 32BJ SEIU. Residents could have to take on such tasks as staffing doors, sorting packages, mopping hallways, sweeping sidewalks and hauling trash to the curb.

If no contract deal is reached, a strike could start as soon as midnight Monday, when the current contract expires.

The union says building owners are trying to squeeze 34,000 workers who already are struggling to afford the pricey metro area on salaries that average about $62,000 a year for doorpersons; averages vary for other jobs. Building owners, represented by an umbrella group called the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, want the workers to start paying health insurance premiums and want new hires to come in under a new job classification that the union says would be lower-paying.

Union President Manny Pastreich said the owners' association "wants to cut costs on the backs of workers.”

“We won't allow it!” he added in a statement ahead of the rally and vote Wednesday afternoon. Pastreich emphasized that the city “is becoming more unaffordable for working people every day,” even as building owners have hiked rents in recent years — at least for market-rate apartments, in Manhattan especially.

While battling owners’ health care and new-hires proposals, the union is pushing to increase pensions and increase wages, although it has yet to make an exact proposal on pay.

The Realty Advisory Board says building owners are facing a squeeze themselves, particularly in light of Mayor Zohran Mamdani's push to freeze rent on the city's roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments. The board notes that few U.S. workers enjoy health benefits without paying premiums.

“Without meaningful movement to address costs ... the long-term sustainability of the industry and its workforce is at risk," board President Howard Rothschild said in a statement. He called for negotiating "a contract that reflects these realities and supports a viable path forward.”

Mamdani and other elected Democrats joined the union’s demonstration Wednesday on Manhattan’s Park Avenue, home to a classic stretch of tony apartment buildings that boast doorpersons — many New Yorkers still call the mostly male workers “doormen” — and other staffers.

While “doorman” might conjure a white-gloved fellow ceremoniously opening an ornate door, the job often involves other functions (and uniforms aren't always quite so formal). Besides providing basic security in buildings that can have hundreds of residents, doorpersons field package and food deliveries that have mushroomed since the COVID-19 pandemic and help people with strollers and walkers navigate lobby stairs. In some buildings, the workers also clean, shovel snowy sidewalks and wrestle bins of refuse out of basements and alleys for pickup.

Superintendents, meanwhile, oversee maintenance and repairs in buildings that may be a more than a century old.

Some building managers already have told residents they may need to postpone renovations, moves and major deliveries and minimize deliveries and visitors, among other steps, if there is a strike.

The union's last strike, in 1991, lasted 12 days. Over the years since then, the union has at times voted to authorize a strike but then reached contract deals.

A key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act permits the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and other agencies to collect and analyze vast amounts of overseas communications without a warrant. It incidentally sweeps up the conversations of any Americans who interact with those foreigners targeted for surveillance.

The program expires Monday, and critics want changes, including a requirement for warrants before authorities can access the emails, phone calls or text messages of Americans. They also want limits on the government's use of internet data brokers, who sell large volumes of personal information gleaned online, offering the government what critics say amounts to an end-run around the Constitution.

Planned votes on the legislation were canceled Wednesday as an agreement between House Republican leaders and some rank-and-file members remained elusive. Members have pushed back despite a pressure campaign that included a trip to the White House and direct involvement from CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

The chances of significant changes, however, seem to have dropped since Trump announced his support for the program's renewal, saying it had proved its worth in supplying information vital to recent U.S. actions in Venezuela and Iran.

“The fact is, whether you like FISA or not, it is extremely important to our military,” Trump said on social media Tuesday.

Trump calls for another extension of the program

U.S. authorities say the program, known as Section 702 of the law, is essential to national security and has saved lives by uncovering terrorist plots. Critics question what they say is a dangerous infringement on civil liberties and privacy.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said a different FISA provision was used to spy on his 2016 campaign but that he supported Section 702's renewal despite misgivings that political adversaries could use parts of the law against him in the future. He urged lawmakers to extend the foreign surveillance program for 18 more months.

“My administration has worked tirelessly to ensure these FISA reforms are being aggressively executed at every level of the Executive Branch to keep Americans safe, while protecting our sacred Civil Liberties guaranteed by our Great Constitution,” Trump wrote.

The Republican president is a longtime critic of the nation's intelligence services and was once opposed to Section 702 before he reversed himself. His director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, sponsored legislation to repeal Section 702 as a Hawaii congresswoman but now supports it. She says new protections added since her time in Congress helped change her mind.

Some Republican House members who have opposed the extension without changes went to the White House late Tuesday to discuss the matter. Ratcliffe also met with lawmakers early Wednesday.

“I am asking Republicans to UNIFY, and vote together on the test vote to bring a clean Bill to the floor,” Trump said Wednesday. “We need to stick together.”

Greater protections are sought

for Americans' communications

In addition to a requirement for a warrant to access Americans' data, critics also want greater protections on how the FBI or other agencies can search communications and how that is reported to the public.

“Journalists, foreign aid workers, people with family overseas, all could have their communications swept up in this surveillance merely because they talked to someone outside of this country,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. He is pushing for changes that he said will ensure the government is not violating civil rights in secret.

Several Republicans also have suggested changes, such as the warrant requirement.

“National security and civil liberties are not mutually exclusive,” said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. “We can give our intelligence professionals the tools they need to target foreign threats while ensuring that Americans are not subjected to unconstitutional surveillance.”

Gabbard's office releases an annual report showing the number of foreign surveillance targets and number of searches likely to identify an American. For 2025, the number of foreign surveillance targets increased to nearly 350,000 from almost 292,000 in 2024. Searches using terms likely to identify an American decreased slightly to 7,724 from 7,845 in 2024.

The totals are incomplete because agencies such as the FBI have found ways to access the data without reporting the searches publicly, said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when searching for intelligence related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and racial justice protests in 2020, according to a 2024 court order.

“It’s reminiscent of J. Edgar Hoover's tenure at the FBI,” Goitein said, referring to the FBI's founding director who used illegal surveillance to harass and spy on Americans. “They can pretty much target anyone."

There's little time to make changes to the law

Despite bipartisan concerns about the law and its implications for civil liberties, time is running out for Congress to make any changes before Monday's expiration.

Trump's support also reduces the odds that enough Republicans will break ranks and join Democrats to push for an overhaul.

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, announced a proposal Tuesday that would require the Justice Department to seek a court order before the FBI could access search results involving Americans. Himes said in a statement that he wants to see Section 702 renewed with new protections.

It “is too critical to allow it to expire, but the legitimate concerns about the possibility of abuse also demand that we consider additional reforms,” he said.

The best chance for inserting changes likely is the House, where a large number of lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns.

But Rep. Rick Crawford, an Arkansas Republican who leads the House Intelligence Committee, is backing Trump's call for an 18-month renewal.

Crawford has said he believes the government can empower spy agencies while also holding them accountable.

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Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

A 0-0 draw with Sporting Lisbon at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday saw Arsenal advance 1-0 on aggregate to set up a clash with Atletico Madrid in the last four of European club soccer’s top competition.

“To go back-to-back is an amazing achievement for this group,” Declan Rice told TNT Sports. “We want to now go one step further than last year and get to the final.”

A Premier League and Champions League double remains possible for Mikel Arteta’s team, despite a slump in form in recent weeks.

Bayern Munich beat Real Madrid 4-3 in Wednesday's other second-leg quarterfinal to advance 6-4 on aggregate. The Germans face defending champion Paris Saint-Germain in the semifinals.

Arsenal has never won the European Cup and only once reached the final. But it is now just two games away from this year’s showpiece in Budapest, Hungary.

Kai Havertz's late winner in the first leg of the quarterfinals in Portugal last week proved to be decisive as Sporting failed to find a breakthrough in London.

It is the fourth time Arsenal has advanced to the semifinals and the first time it has gone back-to-back having lost to eventual winner Paris Saint-Germain at that stage last season.

“To be part of those (final) four teams, it’s something very special,” Arteta said. “It comes down to making the last step. We are making the steps that haven’t been done in this club for 140 years, so players deserve credit for what they’re doing.”

The result was the perfect way for Arsenal to start a crucial week in which it also plays Premier League title rival Manchester City on Sunday.

There have been signs of the tension getting to Arteta's players as the season enters the closing stages, having lost the English League Cup final against City and then crashing out of the FA Cup at the hands of second-division Southampton.

Defeat at home in the league against Bournemouth last weekend only added to the sense that it was faltering at a critical time.

“Who cares what people think? All that matters is what this group thinks, what the manager thinks and we’re in another semifinal,” Rice said. “Bring on the last few weeks. It’s a roller coaster, no one’s going to hand you anything in this game, so just keep going and, what will be will be.”

It was another tight encounter between Arsenal and Sporting with chances rare.

Substitute Leandro Trossard came closest to winning it for Arsenal on the night by heading against the post late on. Geny Catamo had hit the woodwork for Sporting in the first half.

Arsenal and Atletico have already faced each other in the Champions League this season, with the English club winning 4-0 in the league phase.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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

In the nation's capital, forecasters were calling for a high temperature of 93 degrees (33.9 Celsius) late Wednesday afternoon and another high of 93 on Thursday.

The heat is unusual for April, not only because it is scorching much of the nation so early in the year but also for its expected duration. The near-record temperatures are expected to last into this weekend, forecasters say.

On the Jersey Shore, hundreds of people took advantage of the gorgeous spring day Wednesday to stroll along boardwalks. Temperatures soared into the 80s in some inland areas, but was about 15 degrees cooler along the water, as a slight breeze blew.

“After all the nasty cold and snow we had to deal with this winter, this is our payback,” New Yorker Javier Estrada, 19, said while taking a break from a beach football game in Seaside Park, New Jersey.

“I’m here with my buds, we’re having a blast and God is smiling on us,” he said. “What more can you ask for?”

The potentially dangerous heat comes as pieces of the roof of Yost Ice Arena, one of the nation's oldest college hockey arenas, were found scattered by a storm Wednesday in nearby yards in Ann Arbor, Michigan. That arena and another one in the same community — a city ice rink — were both damaged by the severe weather that struck Michigan overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning. Severe storms earlier this week also tore through Kansas, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

While it's not unprecedented to see high temperatures climb toward 90 degrees (32 Celsius) on an April day, the length of such an April heat wave is rarely seen, experts say.

“That’s borderline unprecedented as far as the duration of it this time of year,” said John Feerick, senior meteorologist at the forecasting firm AccuWeather.com.

Feerick said that starting Wednesday “we're going to have records challenged from basically Georgia all the way up through the New York City area and back toward the Ohio Valley.”

The National Weather Service is projecting a high temperature of around 86 degrees (30 Celsius) for Central Park in New York City on Wednesday. The record high for the date is 87, set in 1941.

Even hotter weather is expected in Philadelphia, where Wednesday's high is expected to be 92 degrees (33 C). Other likely hot spots include Washington, D.C., which could see a high of 94 (34 C); and Atlanta, where the high is projected to be 88 (31 C).

“It's really some very impressive heat for the middle of April, for sure,” Feerick said.

“The good thing about this is that the humidity is not summertime levels,” he added. That means it won't feel as hot as a sizzling July day.

The early-season heat can be more stressful on people's bodies since they haven't had a chance to acclimate.

Heat is the No. 1 weather-related killer in the U.S., the weather service warns. Infants and young children; older adults, people with chronic medical conditions and pregnant women are especially vulnerable to heat-related injuries and death.

A strong ridge of high pressure fueling moisture into the southern plains was responsible for bringing the unusual heat to the eastern U.S., the weather service said.

Though Wednesday is a day when many records could fall, the heat wave will continue through Friday in many areas, forecasters said.

“Widespread lower to even middle 90s are expected Friday across the lower elevations of the Carolinas, which could set additional daily records and perhaps come close to some monthly records,” the agency's Weather Prediction Center wrote in a memo.

The heat wave should finally be breaking down by Sunday as a strong cold front moves toward the Eastern Seaboard, and then it should be “pleasantly cooler” by Monday with the front heading out to sea, the weather service said.

In Seaside Park, Tom Larkin, 48, of Toms River, New Jersey, and his 3-year-old Labrador retriever, Vader, were among those strolling on the boardwalk.

“He just loves to see people and get petted, so what should be a 20-minute walk usually ends up taking about an hour and a half at least,” Larkin joked as Vader made friends with passersby.

“But on a day like this I don’t mind the extra time here," he said. "The people are great and the scenery is gorgeous, and it’s not too crowded yet, like it will get after Memorial Day.”

—

Martin reported from Atlanta.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at a White House briefing Wednesday that the U.S. plans to ramp up economic pain on Iran, and said the new moves will be the “financial equivalent” of a bombing campaign.

The threat of secondary economic sanctions on countries doing business with people, firms, and ships under Iranian control — including allies like the United Arab Emirates and competitors like China — represents an escalation of sanctions that the U.S. is already employing.

Bessent said the administration has “told companies, we have told countries that if you are buying Iranian oil, that if Iranian money is sitting in your banks, we are now willing to apply secondary sanctions, which is a very stern measure. And the Iranians should know that this is going to be the financial equivalent of what we saw in the kinetic activities.”

The Treasury Department warns China, Hong Kong, the UAE and Oman

The warning comes the day after the Treasury Department sent a letter to financial institutions in China, Hong Kong, the UAE, and Oman, threatening to levy secondary sanctions for doing business with Iran, and accusing those countries of allowing Iranian illicit activities to flow through their financial institutions.

It's part of an economic playbook that President Donald Trump still can use to pressure Iran to accept U.S. proposals to limit its nuclear ambitions, a person familiar with the administration's thinking told The Associated Press. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private discussions on the record.

Privately, the argument being made to Trump is that the Iranians think they can weather the storm — but if they cannot pay their loyalists, that could pressure Iran to the table.

And some in the administration believe there are still more economic targets that can be hit that would put the economic hurt on Iran, including bonyads, the charitable trusts that account for a significant percentage of the Iranian economy.

Bessent told reporters that two Chinese banks have received warnings about handling Iranian money. Trump is preparing to visit Beijing next month for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Bessent also said that Iran’s Gulf neighbors are now willing to look at freezing Iranian money in their banks because of Iran's aggression during the war.

More sanctions could be ineffective or risk blowback, say experts and lawmakers

Still, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Banking Committee, argued that any new economic sanctions would be effectively offset by the financial windfall that Iran was seeing in the aftermath of the war.

“Instead of circumstances where we can keep sanctions on Iran and constrict their economy, the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz — combined with the sharply rising price of oil — has helped Iran’s economy,” Warren said, adding, “What Secretary Bessent is trying to do is mop up the mess that Donald Trump has created by initiating this war.”

Daniel Pickard, a sanctions attorney, said imposing secondary sanctions could result in “diplomatic and economic blowback” from allies that could hurt efforts to build coalitions against Tehran.

“A lot of our trading partners have been outspoken in regard to their opposition to the conflict in Iran," Pickard said. “Most economic sanctions professionals would agree that when you get more people on the team, the chances of your economic sanctions being effective or greater."

On Wednesday, the U.S. imposed sanctions on an oil smuggling network connected to the deceased senior Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani, who was a close adviser to the former Supreme Leader of Iran. Sanctions include dozens of individuals, companies, and vessels involved in secretly transporting and selling Iranian and Russian oil through front companies, many of which are in the UAE.

“Treasury will continue to cut off Iran’s illicit smuggling and terror proxy networks," Bessent said in a statement. "Financial institutions should be on notice that Treasury will leverage all tools and authorities, including secondary sanctions, against those that continue to support Tehran’s terrorist activities.

The administration believes the momentum has shifted

Trump administration officials have also signaled growing confidence that the ceasefire and a blockade of shipments from Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz have shifted momentum in Trump’s favor.

Iran has endured tens of billions of dollars in damage during the bombardment to the country's infrastructure — including setbacks to its oil industry, the heart of its fragile and long-isolated economy — that could take years to repair.

Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday said Trump “doesn’t want to make, like, a small deal. He wants to make the grand bargain.”

"That’s the trade that he’s offering,” Vance said. “If you guys commit to not having a nuclear weapon, we are going to make Iran thrive.”

The president's deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, offered a more caustic assessment of the moment, suggesting that Trump had “played the checkmate move" on Iran by implementing the blockage in the strait.

“If Iran chooses the path of a deal that's great for the world, that's great for everybody. If Iran chooses the path of economic strangulation by blockade, then the world will pass Iran by,” Miller said in a Fox News appearance Tuesday evening. "New energy routes will be established. New supply chains will be established. Other nations throughout the region — throughout the world, and especially America — will power the world and Iran will become a footnote.”

Some Republicans are skeptical that more sanctions will work

Some Republicans believe that any tactic to exert more pressure on Tehran is worth trying.

“I would support anything,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. “If the administration came up with the ideas, I would support all of the above. More pressure, the better.”

Others were skeptical, noting that Tehran was already facing a litany of economic penalties that had little impact on its behavior.

“I’m not sure if it’s sanctions that’ll do it. I think we’re putting some pretty heavy sanctions on right now,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., a member of the Banking and Armed Services Committees. “I personally am just not optimistic that we actually can fix this thing without a regime change.”

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, a think tank that has been critical of Trump's decision to launch the war, says that Trump had been “politically cornered and strategically constrained" before he announced the ceasefire. But now, Parsi argues, Trump may have altered the difficult dynamic and created a situation where “Iran now appears to need an agreement more than the United States does.”

“The window now open offers Tehran a chance to convert battlefield leverage into lasting strategic gain," Parsi wrote in a new analysis. "To let it close would mean forfeiting not just incremental progress, but the possibility of reshaping its economic and geopolitical position. By contrast, the United States, having already secured a tenuous exit ramp through the ceasefire, has less at stake in the short term.”

The S&P 500 rose 0.8% and eclipsed its prior all-time high set in January. After falling nearly 10% below its record in late March, a drop steep enough that Wall Street calls it a “correction,” the index at the heart of many 401(k) accounts has since roared more than 10% higher.

Much of the rally has been due to expectations for calming tensions in the war and a resumption of the full flow of oil from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. Hopes remained high Wednesday as regional officials told The Associated Press that the United States and Iran had an “in principle agreement” to extend a ceasefire to allow for more diplomacy.

To be sure, stocks could easily get back to falling if those expectations get undercut, which has happened before in the war. Oil prices drifted up and down Wednesday and showed that caution remains in financial markets. Stock indexes around the world also made only modest movements following their big gains in recent weeks.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, added 0.1% to settle at $94.93. That’s still well above its roughly $70 price from before the war, though it’s down from its $119 peak when worries about the fighting have been at their heights.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 72 points, or 0.1%, while the Nasdaq composite gained 1.6%.

But if U.S.-Iran talks do happen and if they are successful, the war could end up being just a temporary setback for the global economy instead of a new normal of very high oil prices and inflation. And that in turn could allow investors to return their attention to what matters most for stock prices: money.

Through all the day-to-day noise that can affect investors’ opinions, stock prices tend to move with the direction of corporate profits over the long term. And positive trends there had stock markets doing well before the war began. Analysts also see continued growth ahead, for now at least.

Bank of America rose 1.8% after saying it made $8.6 billion in profit during the first three months of the year, more than analysts expected. CEO Brian Moynihan also said the bank saw signs of a “resilient American economy,” including solid spending by U.S. consumers.

Morgan Stanley jumped 4.5% after the investment bank likewise delivered a better-than-expected quarter of results.

Companies hurt earlier in the year by worries about artificial-intelligence technology also rose to recover more of their losses for 2026. Some of the concerns were about companies potentially spending too much to build out AI capabilities, while others focused on businesses that may go obsolete because of AI-powered competition.

The worries got so deep that they shook private-credit companies that have lent money to software businesses and others potentially under threat because of AI.

ServiceNow climbed 7.3%, Oracle rose 4.2% and Ares Management gained 5.9% for some of Wednesday’s bigger gains in the S&P 500. All are still down between 12% and 39% for the year so far.

With stock prices overall back to where they were in January, and with analysts’ expectations for upcoming profits from big U.S. companies only rising since then, optimists say many stocks look less expensive than they did a few months ago.

“Today, we see compelling opportunity potential” to shift into areas of the market that look like better buys than earlier this year, such as technology stocks, said Mason Mendez, investment strategy analyst at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

The stock price of Allbirds surged 582% to nearly $17 after the company said it’s shifting gears and moving into the AI compute infrastructure industry, while changing its name to NewBird AI. The Allbirds name will stay with the shoe brand that the company has already agreed to sell to American Exchange Group.

Nike rose 2.8% after CEO Elliott Hill and Tim Cook — a Nike director and the CEO of Apple — disclosed that they purchased a combined 48,000 shares of the athletic shoe maker at a cost of about $1 million each. Nike shares are still down nearly 29% this year.

On the losing end of Wall Street was Live Nation Entertainment. It fell 6.3% after a jury found the concert giant and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had a harmful monopoly over big concert venues.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 55.57 points to 7,022.95. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 72.27 to 48,463.72, and the Nasdaq composite rose 376.93 to 24,016.02.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following modest gains in Asia. South Korea’s Kospi was an outlier and jumped 2.1%.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.28% from 4.26% late Tuesday.

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

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This version corrects the last name of Nike’s CEO, which is Hill.

“This settlement will create a safer environment for our children online, and I hope that it will serve as a bellwether for how online interactive platforms allow our state’s youth to use their products,” the Democratic attorney general said Wednesday.

Roblox, which is used by nearly half U.S. children under 16, will give $10 million over three years to support programs like the Boys & Girls Club and other nondigital activities, Ford said. It will also fund a law enforcement liaison position to respond to safety concerns about the platform and fund an online safety awareness campaign, Ford said.

The settlement, which was agreed upon in lieu of litigation, includes enhanced protections for minors who use the app, such as requiring age verification for all users and restricting nighttime notifications for minors. The gaming platform faces litigation in other states, including Texas and Kentucky, which allege it fails to protect children.

“Roblox is proud to have worked alongside Attorney General Ford to reach this landmark agreement, which builds on our work to establish a new standard for digital safety,” Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said in a statement.

Kaufman said the agreement creates a blueprint for how industry and regulators can work together to protect children.

The settlement comes as prosecutors have filed lawsuits against social media companies over the role they play in children’s lives. Last month in California and New Mexico, social media companies like Meta and YouTube were found liable for designing their platforms to hook young users and were ordered to pay over $375 million in penalties.

Ford also has lawsuits pending against Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and Kik, alleging the companies failed to implement safety measures for children.

As part of the agreement, Roblox will implement facial age estimation technology to limit younger users’ chats to only those in similar age groups. Adult users and users under 16 will not be allowed to chat unless they are communicating with a trusted friend, Ford said. A trusted friend can be added through a QR code or their phone contacts to ensure the child knows the person outside of the platform, he said. The company will also monitor activity to see if a user lied about their age, he said.

Roblox will create kids accounts for users under ages 16 that blocks access to adult-rated content and provides games vetted for suitability. The agreement also expands parental oversight to users under 16. That oversight was previously available for users under 13.

Donch’e King, supervising criminal investigator at the attorney general's office, said half a million online predators pursue children at any given moment, often across multiple platforms. The majority of predatory contact occurs through chat rooms and instant messaging, he said. He urged parents to communicate frankly with their children about the platforms they are on and to report concerns to law enforcement.

“Protecting Nevada’s children is not an option; it’s our duty,” King said.

Portland won at Phoenix on Tuesday night, 114-110, to earn the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference and a first-round matchup with the second-seeded Spurs.

Here’s how the Spurs fared against the Trail Blazers during the 2025-26 regular season. San Antonio won two of three head-to-head matchups versus Portland.

Regular season results

Game 1 at Portland — Nov. 26, 2025: Spurs 115, Blazers 102

This was an NBA Cup group stage contest. Victor Wembanyama sat out with a left calf strain.

De’Aaron Fox led the Spurs with 37 points. San Antonio shot 22 of 25 (88%) from the free throw line. The Spurs trailed for most of the first half, but they needed a second-half surge to come away with the win.

Game 2 at San Antonio — Jan. 3, 2026: Blazers 115, Spurs 110

Wembanyama sat out again — this time with left knee soreness. Devin Vassell did not suit up, either, due to a strained left adductor.

Trail Blazers All-Star Deni Avdija posted a triple-double with 29 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Portland made 19 3-pointers compared to the Spurs’ 10 threes.

Game 3 at San Antonio — April 8, 2026: Spurs 112, Blazers 101

As was the case for the first two games, Wembanyama did not face the Blazers due to injury. Stephon Castle also sat out with right knee soreness.

Fox led the Spurs with 25 points. Sixth Man of the Year candidate Keldon Johnson added 20 points off the pine. San Antonio had six players score in double figures to help offset Wembanyama’s absence.

Notes on the Trail Blazers

Don’t let the No. 7 seed fool you. Interim head coach Tiago Splitter has Avdija, two-time NBA champion Jrue Holiday and a hungry young roster ready to give his former team everything it can handle.

Avdija led the Trail Blazers in scoring (24.2 points per game) and assists (6.7 per game) during the regular season. He faced the Spurs in all three games and averaged 31.7 points per game — his best average against any team he faced three or more times this season.

Now in his second NBA season, center Donovan Clingan played in 77 games and averaged 12.1 points and 11.6 rebounds. Though he never squared up against Wembanyama this season, he posted 14.7 points and 11.3 rebounds in three games against San Antonio.

Clingan will also share the court against friend, ex-college teammate and budding Spurs guard Stephon Castle. Both Clingan and Castle helped the UConn Huskies capture their second of back-to-back national titles in 2024.

Holiday, a veteran guard, is in his first season with the Blazers. He averaged 16.3 points and 6.1 assists per game in the regular season. The 17-year NBA veteran brings championship pedigree to Portland.

The Trail Blazers are led by Splitter, a former Spurs forward.

On Oct. 23, 2025, Splitter was named interim head coach after Chauncey Billups was arrested in connection with a federal gambling investigation and placed on administrative leave by the NBA.

The Spurs selected Splitter with the 28th overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. He developed into a key part of San Antonio’s 2014 NBA championship team.

San Antonio holds homecourt advantage in the best-of-seven series. Game 1 will be tip at 8 p.m. on Sunday at the Frost Bank Center.

More recent San Antonio Spurs coverage on KSAT:

• NBA announces tipoff times, TV networks for first 4 Spurs-Trail Blazers playoff games
• Spurs hold first practice ahead of playoffs, leaning on 2 NBA champions to prepare young core
• Spurs guard Devin Vassell serves up heat at Panda Express meet-and-greet ahead of playoffs
• Spurs’ playoff return coincides with Fiesta, igniting San Antonio spirit
• NBA playoff odds show Spurs as No. 2 favorite to take home title

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Duran made the gesture as he returned to the dugout after a fifth-inning groundout in Boston’s 6-0 loss to Minnesota on Tuesday night at Target Field.

“We were made aware of the situation late last night and are looking into it,” Twins senior vice president of communications and public affairs Dustin Morse said. “There's no place in our game for conduct like that.”'

MLB confirmed its own investigation, per standard practice of reviewing the conduct of both the player and the fan before determining any potential discipline.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.

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“Somebody just told me to kill myself. I’m used to it at this point, you know?” Duran said after the game, adding that he "shouldn’t react like that, but that kind of stuff is still kind of triggering.”

Duran discussed bouts with severe depression and a suicide attempt in a Netflix documentary series that debuted last year.

“Honestly, it’s my fault for talking about my mental health because I kind of brought in the haters. So I’ve just got to get used to it,” Duran said. “I was just trying to hold it in and not really bring that up to the team. I mean, we’re trying to win a game. I shouldn’t even bring that up to anybody. ... It just happens.”

Red Sox manager Alex Cora said after the game he hadn’t witnessed the confrontation or reviewed video of it, but he shared his thoughts with reporters ahead of the series finale on Wednesday.

“I know the Twins are all over the case and trying to find out who he was, and hopefully they find the person," Cora said, adding that if found “it’s probably the last big-league game that that person is going to attend.”

“We have Jarren’s back. Like I said last year, for him to open up, he saved lives,” Cora added. "And it’s not easy. It’s not easy because, like he said, we’re in the business of winning games, and he doesn’t want to be a distraction. And he’s not a distraction. He’s not. He’s just a player that plays for the Red Sox and has our full support.”

Duran played all nine innings in left field on Wednesday, going 0 for 5 with a run scored in Boston's 9-5 victory.

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AP Sports Writers Ronald Blum in New York and Dave Campbell in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

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

As a result, some of your favorite ABC and local programs will be shown at a different time than usual.

Here are the TV listings with the dates and times for the shows scheduled to be preempted by KSAT’s Fiesta coverage:

Thursday, April 16: Fiesta Fiesta (8-10 p.m.)

• “911 Nashville” will air on KSAT 12 from 1:35 a.m. to 2:35 a.m. Friday, April 17
• “RJ Decker” will air on KSAT 12 from 1:35 a.m. to 2:35 a.m. Saturday, April 18

Monday, April 20: Texas Cavaliers River Parade (7-10 p.m.)

• “American Idol” will air on KSAT 12 from 1:05 a.m. to 3:05 a.m. Tuesday, April 21
• “The Rookie” will air on KSAT 12 from 1:35 a.m. to 2:35 a.m. Wednesday, April 22

Friday, April 24: Battle of Flowers Parade (10 a.m.)

• “The View” will air on KSAT 12 from 1:35 a.m. to 2:35 a.m. Saturday, April 25.

Saturday, April 25: Battle of Flowers Band Festival (2 p.m.)

• The 2026 NFL Draft (Rounds 4-7) will air on KSAT 12 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., then continue on MeTV from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. The broadcast will be simulcast with ESPN.

Saturday, April 25: Fiesta Flambeau Parade (7 p.m.)

• ABC’s NBA Playoffs coverage of Game 4 of the Denver Nuggets-Minnesota Timberwolves series will air in its entirety on MeTV from 7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 26: First Baptist Church (11 a.m.)

• UFL: Columbus Aviators at Houston Gamblers will air in its entirety on MeTV from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• UFL: Columbus Aviators at Houston Gamblers will join in progress on KSAT 12 from noon to 2 p.m., following First Baptist Church.

Additional preemptions will be added from 7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on April 25.

Click here to view program listings on KSAT.

📺 Watch Fiesta anywhere with KSAT

Fiesta starts on Thursday, April 16 and ends on Sunday, April 26, bringing 11 days of food, music and culture to San Antonio.

Here’s when you can watch some of the biggest events on KSAT 12, KSAT Plus (our free streaming app), YouTube and KSAT.com.

• Thursday, April 16: Fiesta Fiesta, 8-10 p.m. at Travis Park. — Watch on KSAT 12, KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.
• Monday, April 20: Texas Cavaliers River Parade and River Parade en Español, coverage starts at 7 p.m., followed by the SA Live River Parade After Party. — Watch on KSAT 12, KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.
• Thursday, April 23: Battle of Flowers Band Festival, coverage starts at 7 p.m. at the Alamo Stadium. — Watch on KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.
• Friday, April 24: Battle of Flowers Parade and Battle of Flowers en Español, coverage begins at 10 a.m. — Watch on KSAT 12, KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.
• Saturday, April 25: Fiesta Pooch Parade, coverage starts at 7:30 a.m. at Heights Pool in Alamo Heights. — Watch on KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.
• Saturday, April 25: King William Fair Parade, coverage begins at 8 a.m. — Watch on KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.
• Saturday, April 25: Battle of Flowers Band Festival, 2-5 p.m. (rebroadcast) — Watch on KSAT 12, KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.
• Saturday, April 25: Fiesta Flambeau Parade and Flambeau en Español, coverage starts at 7 p.m. — Watch on KSAT 12, KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.

You can get more information about how to stream KSAT 12 for free here.

Read also:

• 🎊 ¡Viva! Your guide to Fiesta 2026 in San Antonio

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Marie-Therese Ross in Alabama on April 1 after she overstayed her 90-day visa, according to DHS. Ross is now being held at a federal immigration detention facility in Louisiana.

Ross is among the thousands of people targeted by the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda that has detained the spouses of U.S. soldiers and military veterans who previously received greater leniency under scrapped policies.

Rodolphe Sambou, Consul General of France in New Orleans, told the AP that the French government has “fully mobilized” to push for her release. He said he has visited her in detention twice so far.

“Given her age, we really want her to get out of this situation as soon as possible,” Sambou said. “We want to get her out of jail.”

Sambou said that he has been communicating frequently with Ross’ family and French officials in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Paris to try and coordinate Ross’ release and ensure she has access to sufficient food and health care. He said the French government has also contacted DHS.

He declined to comment on her legal status or other details of her case.

Ross married Alabama resident William Ross in April last year, Calhoun County marriage records show. Ross died in January, according to an obituary from his family, which says he was a former captain in the U.S. Army.

A lawyer who is representing Ross in a separate legal matter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ross' family did not respond to requests for comment.

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Associated Press writer Samuel Petrequin contributed reporting from France.

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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

The meeting announcement Wednesday follows repeated pledges by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to loosen regulations on peptides, which are often pitched as a quick way to build muscle, heal injuries or appear younger. There's little research behind those claims and most peptides have not been reviewed for safety by the FDA.

Kennedy has discussed using peptides for his own injuries. And some major supporters of his Make America Healthy Again movement are big proponents of them, including Gary Brecka, a self-described “longevity expert" who sells various peptide formulas through his website.

The FDA said in a federal notice Wednesday it will ask a panel of outside advisers to review seven peptides at a meeting in July, specifically whether they should be added to a list of substances that can be safely produced by pharmacies. In the meantime, the agency said it would soon remove the chemicals from a restrictive list reserved for unapproved, high-risk drugs. The peptides under discussion include some of the most popular among influencers, such as BPC-157, which is marketed to heal injuries and reduce inflammation.

“The Wild West is about to become wilder,” said Dr. Peter Lurie, a former FDA official who now leads the Center for Science in the Public Interest. In an interview, Lurie said allowing peptides on the market without clinical testing poses a “profound threat” to FDA's decades-old system for vetting drugs.

“I don’t see why one would take the path of a proper drug approval if there is now this less rigorous, alternative path to market,” he said.

Under President Joe Biden, the FDA added nearly 20 peptides to the federal list of substances that should not be produced by compounding pharmacies — businesses that mix medications that aren't available from drugmakers.

At the time, the FDA's panel of pharmacy advisers voted overwhelmingly that the peptides did not meet the criteria for substances that can be safely compounded. And FDA regulators agreed, saying later that the substances “present significant safety risks,” because most have not been extensively tested in humans.

Many of the FDA advisers and internal staff who oversaw those decisions no longer work for the agency. The FDA's pharmacy panel currently has a number of vacancies, which Kennedy could fill before the July meeting.

Kennedy previewed Wednesday's move in an interview with podcast host Joe Rogan. Both men have repeatedly spoken about peptides and claimed to have benefited from their use.

RFK Jr. claims personal benefit from peptides

“I’m a big fan of peptides,” Kennedy told Rogan. “I’ve used them myself and with really good effect on a couple of injuries.”

Given Kennedy's statements, Lurie said it was doubtful the drugs would receive real scrutiny from FDA.

“Everybody knows the outcome that the secretary wants,” Lurie said. “I don’t believe for one moment that what’s going on here is an honest investigation of whether these products should be compounded.”

Scott Brunner of the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding said the coming meeting will be the start of a “protracted process.” Even if the panel votes to make the peptides available, and FDA agrees, the agency will still have to draft and publish rules on the change, he noted.

Peptides are essentially the building blocks of more complex proteins. Inside the human body, peptides trigger hormones needed for growth, metabolism and healing.

In recent years peptides have become widely known through the blockbuster success of GLP-1 medications, which the FDA has approved for treating obesity and diabetes. Other FDA-approved peptides include insulin for diabetics and hormone-based drugs for several medical conditions.

But many of the peptides promoted online have never been approved, making them technically illegal to market as drugs. Several peptides, such as BPC-157 and TB-500, are banned by international sports authorities as doping substances.

But that has not stopped them from gaining a foothold in the burgeoning marketplace for wellness hacks and alternative remedies.

“I think this is a disaster in the works,” said Dr. Eric Topol of Scripps Research Translational Institute, who has studied the issue. “These peptides have no data to support their safety and efficacy.”

Meanwhile, some dietary supplement makers have begun mixing peptides into capsules, protein powders and gummies. At a recent FDA meeting, the industry argued for expanding the federal definition of supplements to permit the use of newer ingredients like peptides in their products.

Safety risks were cited previously

When the FDA added a number of injectable peptides to its list of restricted substances in 2023, it cited safety risks including cancer and liver, kidney and heart problems.

That triggered pushback from wellness entrepreneurs, compounding pharmacies and their allies in Washington.

Last year several members of Congress, including Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, sent letters to Kennedy asking him to lift limits on peptide production.

Some in the compounding industry argue that FDA's restrictions have given rise to an illicit market of imported chemicals from China and other countries, which are not subject to U.S. drug standards.

Kennedy has echoed those concerns.

“With the gray market you have no idea if you’re getting a good product,” Kennedy told Rogan. “And a lot of this stuff that we’ve looked at is just very, very substandard.”

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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.

This is the famed “Saturday Night Live” set at New York City's 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and Anitta is running through two new songs — “Choka Choka” featuring Shakira, and “Varias Quejas,” a Spanish-language version of an Olodum classic, a cultural group from Bahia, Brazil — during rehearsal last week.

Both songs are standouts from her forthcoming album, “Equilibrium,” an eclectic mix of Brazilian funk, samba, bossa nova, semba, reggae, electronic pop, Portuguese, Spanish and English — the kind of release that could only be made mainstream by Brazil’s most globally popular musician since Astrud Gilberto sang “The Girl From Ipanema” over six decades ago.

“I think this is the most Brazilian thing I've ever, ever done on television in America,” Anitta told The Associated Press in the NBC offices shortly thereafter.

And “Equilibrium?” “100% my most Brazilian album,” the artist born Larissa de Macedo Machado says. “I really wanted to do an album honoring my roots.”

An evolving sound

“Equilibrium” is a sonic jump from her last release, 2024's “Funk Generation.” That was a full-on tribute to Brazilian funk — what is frequently referred to as funk carioca or baile funk and is heard in working-class neighborhoods known as favelas around Rio de Janeiro. It's a combination of Brazilian rhythms, African and electronic music and rap that has been stigmatized like hip-hop and reggaetón before it. The genre still exists on “Equilibrium,” but so does a myriad sounds — and beliefs — from her homeland.

“Some of the songs are honoring some entities from Yoruba culture, from Orishas,” she says, referring to the religion that originated in West Africa and its divine spirits, like on the track “Nanã.” “One of the songs talks about God and how do I see God in life.”

It should come as no surprise to Anitta fans: In 2024, she released a music video for the song “Aceita,” which featured a video depicting rituals of the Afro-Brazilian faith Candomblé, sparking controversy in a country where religious intolerance is all too common. Elevating marginalized populations, religious groups and also women, residents of favelas, LGBTQ+ and Black people has always been a core feature of Anitta's public persona.

Going global by going home

Naturally, “Equilibrium” is also a full-on embrace of community. The album is stacked with Brazilian collaborators, like the rising songwriter Melly, Liniker's award-winning samba rock-and-then-some, the Brazilian reggae band Ponto de Equilíbrio and countless others. Even “Choka Choka,” the assertive single with Colombian superstar Shakira, is a love letter to Anitta's culture: The “She Wolf” singer performs in Portuguese.

“Anitta wanted to create something for Brazil, but with an international touch,” said “Choka Choka” co-producer Daramola in a press statement. Its Brazilian funk percussion “has a lot of energy, a lot of intensity. And who better to represent that sound than Anitta and Shakira?”

The song, like the rest of “Equilibrium,” seeks to deliver a universal message with regional sounds. Where she could've leaned into conventional, commercial music trends, she doubled down on what makes Anitta, Anitta instead. Clearly the world — and “Saturday Night Live” — are paying attention.

In the past, “If I wanted to reach certain audience, I would do more English or Spanish or whatever,” she says. “And I just think … I don't know if people are accepting better. I don’t care that much as I used to.”

She still sings in three languages, but Portuguese takes a front seat. That may be because this is the freest Anitta has sounded on record. Consider a song like the syrupy “Vai Dar Caô” featuring rapper Ebony and producer Papatinho, with its sample of DJ Mandrake and MC Tikão's “A Pedido,” built over a late-night-at-the-club interpolation of Art of Noise's 1984 New Age classic “Moments In Love.” Anitta's raps are earned show boasts, something that doesn't feel out of place next to the nylon-string classical guitars of a softer song, like “Ternura.”

On “Equilibrium,” specificity and storytelling is key. “The last song, we also bring a mantra from the God Tara, which is a female God, from another type of religion,” she says.

Anitta is referring to “Ouro,” a collaboration with the Brazilian duo Emanazul who describe their work as medicine music. She calls the song a “meditation.”

“I don’t want people to think this is one type of thinking, one direction. I like to join forces," she says. "I think that’s what this album is about: honoring Brazilian roots, honoring everything that I think can make us feel elevated.”

If she sounds self-actualized, that's because it is her ambition for the album. “I think the main message is, like, we are all one. We live in a planet, Mother Earth. It’s our home. We’re supposed to just live in harmony with each other, respect each other’s flavors, decisions, ways of communicating. We should be just, like, admiring our differences,” she says.

It's a deep message but one delivered in a pop package. “I think the album brings a lot of fun instruments, percussions, all that, but also brings like moments for us to … find the balance, the middle term, the middle way of doing things,” she smiles. “That’s the secret.”

The 47-52 vote was the fourth time this year that the Senate has voted to cede its war powers to the president in a conflict that Democrats say is illegal and unjustified. Republicans say they will keep faith in Trump’s wartime leadership, for now, citing Iran’s nuclear capabilities, the potential for ongoing talks and the high stakes of withdrawal.

Still, GOP lawmakers are anxious for the conflict to end, and some are eyeing future votes that could become an important test for the president if the war drags on. And the outcome of a war powers vote in the House, expected this week, is uncertain.

Under the War Powers Act of 1973, Congress must declare war or authorize use of force within 60 days of its start — a deadline that will arrive at the end of this month. The law provides for a potential 30-day extension of that deadline, but lawmakers have made clear that they want the administration to soon lay out a plan for the end of the conflict.

After the 60-day or 90-day deadline, “it’s time to fish or cut bait,” said Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. “I think that the administration would be wise to put together what would look like a well-founded authorization of military force and a funding strategy."

Republican senators mull a war powers resolution

While voting against the Democratic efforts to stop the war, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has been talking to her GOP colleagues about a resolution that would authorize the conflict beyond the 60-day deadline.

She said last month that the Democratic measures would hurt the troops by prompting an abrupt withdrawal. But she said that Congress should eventually draft an authorization of force and vote on it “so the American people know the limits and objectives of this military operation.”

“There is no question that the president should have sought authorization from Congress before striking Iran on this scale, likewise bringing in our allies ahead of time as they now are equally in danger," she said at the beginning of March.

Utah Sen. John Curtis said Wednesday that he had looked at Murkowski's draft and provided feedback, but would not share details. “I think we are all watching” the war and its timeline, Curtis said, adding that he hopes it ends before the deadline.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., also said he would like to see the war end in the coming weeks. If not, he said, “at the end of 60 days, I think we need to vote on a military authorization.”

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said that the president's power “is not unlimited as commander in chief.”

“If this conflict exceeds the 60 days specified in the War Powers Act, or if the President deploys troops on the ground, I believe that Congress should have to authorize those actions," Collins said in a statement.

Republican leaders are noncommittal

It remains unclear if Republican leaders would go along with a vote to authorize the war. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said this week that “at this point most of us I think feel pretty good about what the military has achieved" in Iran.

But Thune did say that “they do need a plan for how to wind this down, how to get an outcome that actually leads to a safer, more secure Middle East and, by extension, a stronger national security position for the United States.”

Thune said another “inflection point” will be an eventual White House request for war funding. Congress is still waiting for the request, which could total hundreds of billions of dollars.

That is a “power that Congress has to influence what happens there,” Thune said.

Republican Sen. Jim Lankford of Oklahoma said that war funding will “be the big vote." He added that the question, then, will be: “Is it going to happen or is it not going to happen?” Lankford said.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said that at the 60-day deadline, Congress isn’t going to “jump up and say that’s it, it’s one second past 60 days, everybody come home.”

Some of the people who want a vote just want to embarrass Trump, Kennedy said.

“I want to see us achieve our objective in Iran,” Kennedy said. “And then I want to see us get out.”

Democrats say war is illegal, unnecessary

Democrats have vowed to force votes on the Senate floor as long as the war continues.

“As our troops continue to sacrifice whatever is asked of them, we senators need to do the absolute minimum required of us,” said Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, an Iraq war veteran who lost both legs in combat, before Wednesday’s vote.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that with gas prices climbing, “the American people literally cannot afford for Republicans to forgo another opportunity to work with Democrats to end Trump’s disastrous war.”

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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim and Steven Sloan contributed to this report.

Neither did the young women she was hired to lead.

Yes, there was a jolt of excitement. There was also a dash of anxiousness. One of the most decorated programs in the history of NCAA gymnastics had fallen off considerably since winning the last of its record 10 national titles in 2009.

The worry that Landi might lean heavily into the transfer portal in search of a quick fix was real. It also turned out to be fleeting.

Minutes into the first meeting that Landi and co-head coach Ryan Roberts had with the team, Landi made it clear she had no interest in blowing everything up and starting over.

“Gymnastics is not rocket science,” Landi said. “It’s about consistency and being fair and working hard and working smart.”

A lifetime in the sport — from competing for her native France at the 1996 Olympics to two-plus decades in coaching — had taught her the value of dreams and the empty feeling that comes when they are taken away. Several college-bound athletes Landi mentored at WCC saw their opportunities altered or pulled outright when a new coach took over. Landi wanted no part of that.

The talent to get the program back to being a factor on the national stage was in the room, she told them. We can do this, and we can do this together.

“I wanted to give everyone a chance and embrace the change and follow the culture we were building,” she said. “I was not going to bring in 10 kids. The kids who committed two years prior, they had that goal. I've had athletes at the club level who had that taken away. It was really, really hard.”

Less than two years after that initial sit-down, the Bulldogs will walk onto the floor at Dickie's Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, on Thursday for the NCAA semifinals for the first time since 2019 with legitimate hopes of reaching Saturday's finals.

A more level playing field?

They will do it with a roster that has largely remained intact since Landi's arrival, led by senior floor specialist Eryn Williams and senior Ja'Free Scott. And they will do it with a sense of confidence they lacked a year ago, when a resurgent season ended early after a jittery performance in regionals.

Those days appear over. Georgia advanced to nationals by having perhaps its best meet of the season at regionals, finishing second to a powerhouse Florida team loaded with former elites that will look to spoil Oklahoma's bid for its fourth NCAA championship in five years.

While the Sooners have been dominant, the playing field in women's college gymnastics may be starting to level out. The eight-team field at nationals includes the Bulldogs, ninth-seeded Arkansas and 13th-seeded Minnesota, a close runner-up to star-laden UCLA at regionals.

The programs that didn't make it to Fort Worth include longtime NCAA fixtures Utah, runner-up a year ago, as well as Alabama and California.

“It's not going to be the same eight every year like it used to be,” Landi said. “I like that it gives an opportunity to other teams. But it makes it harder because we always have to be better. It also makes it more exciting because you know you can have that chance, you can be there.”

Arkansas rebounds

It's a belief that Arkansas coach and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Jordyn Wieber instilled in her program after the Razorbacks didn't advance out of regionals a year ago, ending an eventful season that included Wieber publicly calling out the NCAA for not allowing Arkansas to schedule a late-season dual meet with Oregon State after it failed to qualify for the SEC championships.

“It was just about the unfairness to our athletes and wanting them to have another competitive opportunity and them to say no for maybe not the best reason,” Wieber said. “We're grateful we’re on the other side of that for sure.”

There were no such scheduling issues this time — the SEC adjusted its parameters to allow all nine schools to compete for a league title — and Arkansas advanced out of the competitive Lexington regional by holding off Missouri with a steady performance on beam in the final rotation, proof of just how far the Razorbacks have come.

“I just feel like we’re building to peak at the right time,” Wieber said. “And their performance at regionals was remarkable.”

Having Morgan Price helped. The senior, who spent the first three years of her career competing at Fisk University — the first historically Black college and university to field a women's artistic gymnastics team — joined Arkansas to compete alongside older sister Frankie.

All she's done over the last four months is record the first perfect 10 in program history with a dazzling performance on vault in a meet against Kentucky in February.

“She’s a great competitor, she’s got swagger and she knows how to put up great scores,” Wieber said. “What people don’t see is who she is on a daily basis. She’s one of the most consistent workers and teammates and strives to be a great leader.”

Price's journey will end this weekend. Just as it will for Williams and Scott and the other seniors at Georgia, who have spent years competing underneath the banners at Stegeman Coliseum that beckon to the program's run of greatness, wondering when their time will come.

Turns out, that time is now.

“We were this amazing team with this legacy so many years ago,” Williams said. “I think for a while, it got lost. People forgot about us. ... I think a lot of them need a reminder of who we are."

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AP Sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports

The testimony from Russell Vought jump-starts the White House's push to increase defense spending to nearly $1.5 trillion in the next budget year, up from nearly $1 trillion this year, while cutting health research, heating assistance and scores of other domestic programs by about 10% overall. Such cuts do not cover mandatory spending, which includes such programs as Social Security and Medicare.

The debate over Trump's proposal underscored the sharp divide that will shape some of the most significant policy debates going into a midterm election that will give voters the ultimate say on the direction of the country.

“For the industrial base to double or triple and build more facilities, not just add shifts, it requires multiyear agreements to purchase into the future,” Vought told lawmakers. “That cost has to be booked in this first year.”

The White House is calling for about $1.1 trillion for defense through the regular appropriations process, which typically requires support from both parties for approval. An additional $350 billion would come through a separate bill that Republicans can accomplish on their own, through party-line majority votes.

Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the ranking Democratic member of the committee, said he believes in a strong national defense. But he said the idea of increasing defense by more than 40% while cutting programs that people need shows that the Republican administration's priorities are "out of whack.”

The committee chairman, Rep. Jodey Arrington predicted the hearing would be more “amped up” than usual, and that proved to be true, beginning with his opening statement focused on criticizing Democrat Joe Biden's presidency. Arrington, R-Texas, said he did not know of any president in his lifetime who “inherited such a complete and utter mess as President Trump did in January of last year.”

Since then, Arrington said, Trump has secured the border, cut taxes and constrained nondefense spending.

It was the beginning of several back-and-forths at the hearing.

“You know how bad this economy is when we hear Joe Biden being invoked, we hear trans people being invoked. I was waiting for Jimmy Carter to be blamed next," Boyle said in response to Arrington's opening remarks.

Boyle said consumer confidence is plummeting under Trump and noted a gas station he passed in Philadelphia recently was selling gas at $4.11 a gallon versus less than $3 a gallon some six weeks ago because of Trump's “war of choice in Iran.”

Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., called the proposed defense spending increase shocking.

“We've never in the history of this country seen spending like this, paid for by slashing health care, education and housing,” Balint said. “Mr. Vought, yes or no, is $350 billion for the war in Iran lowering costs for Americans?”

“It is certainly not defunding child care. We fully fund child care in this budget,” Vought said, not directly answering the question.

Balint went on to incorporate Trump's “America First” mantra in her questioning.

She said $350 billion could pay for an enhanced health insurance tax credit for 10 years and that her constituents are asking how the country can continue to spend money on wars and not find a solution to helping people afford health care.

Vought said the president has made clear he was not going to let Iran have a nuclear weapons, missiles and a navy that affect U.S. national security.

“He is doing what is necessary to keep us safe, while at the same time trying to pursue diplomacy so that we can get out of wars and lower those costs over time,” Vought said.

Vought said it was unclear how much the administration would seek to fund the war during the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30. That money would be part of an emergency supplemental spending bill and would be on top of the funds the White House is seeking to boost defense spending next year.

“Would it be more than $50 billion?” asked Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas.

“We're still working on it," Vought said. “I don't have a ballpark for you.”

The guards targeted Katherine Blankenship's clients and other detainees at the facility after they complained about not having phone access on April 2, Blankenship said in a court declaration.

The phones, which weren't functioning, are the primary way for detainees to communicate with family and their attorneys while in the detention center. The guards began taunting the detainees, who were in a cell, then became “more aggressive and were yelling and threatening to enter the cage,” Blankenship wrote.

When one detainee approached a guard, he was punched in the face. The guards then started beating other detainees in the cell. One of Blankenship's clients was punched in the right eye, thrown to the floor and beaten by several guards. He was kicked in the head and his shoulder and arm were injured. A guard put his knee on the detainee's neck while restraining him, according to the attorney's declaration, which included a photo made during a video call almost a week later showing the detainee with a bruised eye.

“The officers beat several people during this incident and broke another detained individual’s wrist,” Blankenship wrote. The detainee whose wrist was broken is not one of her clients.

Phone service was restored the next day without any explanation for why it was cut off.

The Florida Department of Emergency Management didn't respond to questions emailed Wednesday about the incident.

Blankenship's declaration was included in a court filing accusing state and federal officials of failing to comply with a federal judge's preliminary injunction last month ordering detention center officials to provide access to timely, free, confidential, unmonitored and unrecorded outgoing legal calls. U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell in Fort Myers, Florida also said facility officials must provide at least one operable telephone for every 25 people held in the facility.

The judge's order came in a response to a lawsuit that claimed detainees' First Amendment rights were being violated.

State officials have denied restricting detainees' access to their attorneys and cited security and staffing reasons for any challenges. Federal officials who also are defendants denied that detainees’ First Amendment rights were violated. State officials last week filed a notice that they plan to appeal the judge's order.

The Everglades facility was built last summer at a remote airstrip by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to support President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Florida also has built a second immigration detention center in north Florida.

During a visit last week to the detention center, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, said she wasn't given the chance to talk to detainees. She described conditions at the detention center as “inhumane.”

“The way the detainees are housed is cruel and unnecessary,” she said.

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Associated Press journalist Gisela Salomon in Miami contributed.

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Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social.

Terms were not released, per club policy, but ESPN reported it was a three-year, $5 million supermax contract that is the most lucrative in WNBA history.

“A’ja is truly one of one, who has led this franchise to where it is today,” Aces president and general manager Nikki Fargas said in a statement. “Not only has she catapulted into the history books and surpassed almost every record in existence, but she does so with the utmost confidence, authenticity and grace. We look forward to continuing to see her thrive in an Aces uniform.”

In addition to Wilson — last season named WNBA MVP and The Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year — the Aces have re-signed stars Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray and Jewell Loyd, among other key contributors to their third title in four seasons.

Also Wednesday, the Aces signed guard Chennedy Carter to a training camp contract. She last played in the WNBA in 2024 with Chicago and averaged 17.4 points and 3.4 assists. She also had a high-profile takedown of Caitlin Clark and has been dogged by issues with teammates over her career.

A veteran team led by Wilson, whose leadership last season took the Aces from potentially not making the playoffs to a 16-game winning streak and eventual championship, likely wouldn't tolerate unneeded distractions.

Wilson is building a case as the WNBA's best-ever player, and coach Becky Hammon has said her superstar forward is alone on Mount Everest.

No player can match Wilson's four MVP awards. She also took home the trophy in 2020, 2022 and 2024 and was the unanimous choice in 2024.

Wilson also was named the league co-Defensive Player of the Year last season, sharing the honor with Minnesota’s Alanna Smith. It was Wilson's third such award in four years.

She led the WNBA last season in scoring with 23.4 points per game and in blocked shots with a 2.3 average.

It was the second year in a row Wilson averaged at least 20 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks and a steal. She is the only WNBA player to do that even once while playing at least 15 games.

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

If you're worried that you still might not be able to finish your taxes in time, you also can file for an extension, which will give you until Oct. 15 to file.

Here's what you need to know about Wednesday's deadline — and a few tips to keep in mind.

What do I need to file my tax return?

Generally, every tax-filer needs the following at hand

— your Social Security number

— W-2 forms, if you're employed

— 1099-G forms, if you're unemployed

— 1099 forms, if you're self-employed

— Savings and investment records

— A sense of any eligible deductions, such as education expenses, medical bills or charitable donations.

— A sense of relevant tax credits, such as the child tax credit or a retirement savings contributions credit.

To find a more detailed document list, visit the IRS website.

Tax professionals recommend gathering all your documents in one place before you start your tax return — as well as having documents from the year prior, if your financial situation has changed drastically. Experts also suggest creating an identity protection PIN number with the IRS to guard against identity theft. Once you create a number, the IRS will require it to file your tax return.

How do I file for an extension?

If you run out of time to file your tax return, you can file for an extension to take more time by using your preferred tax software, with the IRS Free File tool, or via mail.

However, it’s important to remember that the extension is only to file your tax return, not to pay owed taxes. If you owe taxes, you should pay an estimated amount before the deadline to avoid paying penalties and interest. If you expect to receive a refund, you’ll still receive your money when you file your taxes.

The deadline to file for an extension is Wednesday, which will give you until Oct. 15 to file.

The IRS notes some taxpayers — including members of the military and people who live and work outside of the U.S. — get an automatic, two-month extension to file until June 15. But again, most payments are still due April 15.

How can I avoid mistakes filing my taxes?

Many people fear getting in trouble with the IRS if they make a mistake. To avoid common errors:

— Double check your name on your Social Security card.

You'll want to make sure the name on your tax return matches what's on your Social Security card. Some people may have taken a new last name after marriage, for example, but if that hasn't been updated with the Social Security Administration yet, the IRS notes you'll need to use your former name to avoid delays.

And if you get a W-2 from an employer with a name that no longer matches your Social Security card, the IRS says you should contact your employer to fix it.

— Search for tax statements if you've opted out of paper mail.

While many important tax documents are still sent out on physical paper, people increasingly are opting out of snail mail these days. If you're not seeing it in your mailbox, check your online accounts.

“If you didn’t get anything in the mail doesn’t mean that there isn’t an information document out there that you need to be aware of and report accordingly,” Tom O’Saben, director of tax content and government relations at the National Association of Tax Professionals, previously told The Associated Press.

— Report all of your income.

If you had more than one job in 2025, you need the W-2 forms for each.

What resources are available?

For those who made $89,000 or less last year, IRS Free File offers free guided tax preparation that does the math for you. And if you have questions while working on your tax forms, the IRS also offers an interactive tax assistant tool.

Beyond TurboTax and H&R Block, taxpayers can also hire licensed professionals, such as certified public accountants. The IRS offers a directory of tax preparers across the United States.

The IRS also funds two types of programs that offer free tax help: Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and the Tax Counseling for the Elderly program (TCE). People who earn $69,000 or less a year, those who have a disability, and those who speak limited English all qualify for the VITA program. Those who are 60 or older qualify for the TCE program. The IRS has a site for locating organizations that host VITA and TCE clinics.

If you have a tax problem, there are also clinics around the country that can help you resolve these issues. Generally, these tax clinics also offer services in other languages such as Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese.

____

AP Business Writer Wyatte Grantham-Philips contributed to this report.

___

The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. He went on to win Rookie of the Year honors, become a six-time All-Star and the 1949 National League MVP. He played in six World Series, and won his only championship in 1955 with the Dodgers.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets will hold a joint reflection ceremony Wednesday at the centerfield statue of Robinson at Dodger Stadium.

“A special day, especially for me as a Latino. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't because of him,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Talk about dealing with pressure at this level, imagine what he dealt with back in the day."

Two of Robinson's granddaughters will join the teams at Dodger Stadium, not far from Robinson's adopted hometown of Pasadena. He was a four-sport star at Pasadena Junior College before going on to UCLA, where the Georgia native was better known for football than baseball.

Also on hand in Los Angeles will be recipients of scholarships from the Jackie Robinson Foundation.

For the first time in at least two decades, the percentage of Black players on opening day rosters increased this season. Major League Baseball says 6.8% of players on opening day rosters, injured lists and the restricted list were Black, up from 6.2% at the start of the 2025 season and 6.0% at the start of 2024.

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

The Vatican had said fighting corruption in the mineral-rich central African country would be one of the themes of Leo’s visit, and the American pope didn’t hold back in addressing Biya and government authorities in an address at the presidential palace.

“In order for peace and justice to prevail, the chains of corruption — which disfigure authority and strip it of its credibility — must be broken,” Leo said. “Hearts must be set free from an idolatrous thirst for profit.”

Biya, who at 93 is the world’s oldest leader, sat passively as Leo read his speech in French. Cameroonian television halted its live feed for parts of Leo’s speech, but it wasn’t clear if technical issues were to blame.

The Vatican has made clear that Catholic social teaching disapproves of the types of authoritarian leaders that Leo is encountering on his four-nation African visit.

The highlight of Leo’s visit will be a “peace meeting” on Thursday in Cameroon’s northwest city of Bamenda, which has been plagued by separatist violence.

Pope calls for a ‘bold leap’

Biya has led Cameroon since 1982 and just Tuesday signed into law a bill that reintroduces the vice president position, a move the opposition says will further strengthen his grip on power.

Cameroon’s opposition has contested the result of the Oct. 12 election that secured another victory for Biya. His rival Issa Tchiroma Bakary claims to have won and has called on Cameroonians to reject the official result.

Leo told Biya that Cameroon needed to take “a bold leap forward” to impose transparency in public finances and integrate civil society organizations into the fabric of daily life.

Young people in general — and women in particular — had a vital role to play in bringing Cameroon into a new dawn, he said.

“Their commitment to education, mediation and the rebuilding of the social fabric is unparalleled and serves to curb corruption and abuses of power. For this reason, too, their voice must be fully recognized in decision- making processes,” Leo said.

The pope, who wrote his canon law dissertation on the wielding of authority by Augustinian religious superiors, cited St. Augustine on the correct role of political leaders that he said was relevant today.

“Those who rule serve those whom they seem to command; for they rule not from a love of power, but from a sense of the duty they owe to others,” he said, quoting Augustine.

He added: “From this perspective, serving one’s country means dedicating oneself, with a clear mind and an upright conscience, to the common good of all people in the nation.”

'Light entering a dark room'

Cheering Cameroonians gave Leo a raucous welcome, the first pope to visit since Pope Benedict XVI in 2009. They lined the road into the capital Yaounde from the airport, two and three deep in places, dancing and waving palm fronds as the pope's motorcade whizzed by.

Many women dressed in identical bright dresses and stood behind banners announcing the name of their parish, while billboards splashed posters of the pope and Biya under the banner “Land of Hope.”

Gerald Mambeh, a Catholic teacher in Yaounde, said the pope’s visit needs to spark genuine dialogue and accountability to achieve lasting peace.

“This visit feels like light entering a dark room … but peace will not come from symbolism alone,” said Mambeh. “In a country where many feel abandoned, his presence feels like God has not forgotten us. Let the pope hear this beyond the politics: Cameroonians are not asking for miracles, we are asking for fairness, dignity, and a future.”

'Share in the national cake'

Cameroon has significant reserves of oil, natural gas, cobalt, bauxite, iron ore, gold and diamonds. The extractive sector accounts for nearly a third of the country’s exports, according to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

But rights groups and the Catholic Church say revenues from extraction rarely reach the rural and indigenous communities that live closest to mining and drilling operations, while foreign companies and a small national elite capture most of the profits.

Leo said such a status quo cannot remain.

“Transparency in the management of public resources and respect for the rule of law are essential to restoring trust,” he said. “It is time to examine our conscience and take a bold leap forward.”

Public official Angelica Ambe Mundi said she was touched by Leo's message. After he finished, she stepped forward and gently touched his chair before pressing her hand to her chest. She then knelt in quiet reverence.

“He spoke about the even distribution of state resources… violence comes when people feel disgruntled, when they are marginalized,” she told The Associated Press.

For her, his words cut to the core of Cameroon’s unrest: “People get violent when they are hungry. To stop violence, every Cameroonian must feel they belong — and share in the national cake.”

Pause in fighting

English-speaking separatists launched a rebellion in 2017 with the stated goal of breaking away from Cameroon's French-speaking majority and establishing an independent state. The conflict has killed more than 6,000 people and displaced over 600,000 others, according to the International Crisis Group, a think tank.

On the eve of Leo’s arrival, the English-speaking separatists announced a three-day pause in fighting to allow “safe travel” for his visit.

The Unity Alliance, which includes several separatist groups, said in a statement Monday that the pause reflects the “profound spiritual importance” of the pope's visit and is intended to allow civilians, pilgrims and dignitaries to travel safely.

Biya, who has shunned dialogue with the English-speaking separatists, spoke of a world in need of tolerance and hope as a replacement for “the voice of arms.”

“The world needs the message of peace, justice, tolerance, forgiveness, and love that you embody,” he told Leo.

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

A 21-year-old infielder, McGonigle had four hits in his major league debut on March 26 and entered Wednesday hitting .311 with one homer, eight RBIs and a .417 on-base percentage in 17 games.

“As soon as we saw this kid play and saw the way he commands the strike zone, fights for every pitch and uses the whole field, it was like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty interesting for an 18-year-old kid,’" Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris said. “We knew he could play the infield and he had the right physical gifts.

“It was just about how quickly everything would come together, and they came together more quickly than I ever thought.”

McGonigle became the fourth top prospect to get a big-money deal since late March following a $140 million, nine-year contract for 19-year-old Pittsburgh shortstop Konnor Griffin, a $95 million, eight-year agreement for 20-year-old Seattle shortstop Colt Emerson and a $50.75 million, eight-year pact for 21-year-old Milwaukee shortstop Cooper Pratt.

“If you think about it, this is a kid who would be eligible for this year’s draft if he had gone to college,” Harris said. “Now, he’s up here with a long-term contract, so I guess he made the right decision.”

McGonigle has a one-year contact for 2026 paying the $780,000 minimum while in the major leagues and $127,100 while in the minors.

His new deal calls for a $14 million signing bonus, including $8 million payable within 30 days of the contract's approval by Major League Baseball and $6 million on March 31, 2028. He gets salaries of $1 million next year, $7 million in 2028, $16 million in 2029, $21 million in 2030, $22 million in 2031 and $23 million each in 2032, 2033 and 2034.

“I had the confidence to think there was a possibility for something like this to happen,” McGonigle said. “I'm just super pumped and super excited to spend the next nine years here helping this team win.”

Escalators could increase his salaries in the final three seasons, capped at $25 million in 2032, $26 million in 2033 and $28 million in 2034. The escalators, based on accomplishments starting in 2026, are $2 million for winning an MVP, $1 million for finishing second through fifth in voting, $500,000 for sixth through 10th, $500,000 for making the All-MLB first or second team, $250,000 for being elected or selected an All-Star and $250,000 for winning a Silver Slugger.

He would get a $5 million assignment bonus each time he is traded.

McGonigle's deal covers the first three seasons after he would have been eligible for free agency.

McGonigle was selected by the Tigers at No. 37 in the 2023 amateur draft out of Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast High School in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania.

“Ever since I picked up a bat, this was always a dream,” he said. “Definitely at a young age, I'd say I knew I had the opportunity to play at a high level.”

He has reached base in 13 consecutive starts and 15 of 16 games. He is one of only 10 players in the major leagues with more walks (11) than strikeouts (eight) among players with at least 11 walks.

“What he is doing right now is remarkable,” Harris said. "We studied young hitters and their adjustment periods to the majors, and right down the line, they really struggled for the first 150 plate appearances in the big leagues.

“Clearly, (Kevin) hasn't. I can't remember a debut that I was this impressed with through 17 games.”

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

The program serves girls in third through eighth grade and creates a supportive space where participants can develop both physically and emotionally.

A Girls on the Run practice is more than just an after-school activity; it’s a lesson in confidence.

“It’s a group of 10 girls doing a lesson from our new curriculum that helps them learn how to be bold, have confidence and be good friends to each other,” said Executive Director Minka Misangyi at a practice at Los Reyes Elementary, which is one of the dozens of sites that the organization has partnered with this year.

Through guided discussions and team-building exercises, students learn how to navigate challenges, build friendships and believe in themselves.

Natalie Schultz is a Girls on the Run Junior Coach at Los Reyes Elementary. She was once a student at the school and participated in the program.

“It’s a full circle moment because I was a part of the Girls on the Run at this school, Los Reyes,” said Schultz. “It’s my elementary school, and it was something that I really enjoyed when I was in the program, and it’s something I wanted to do, to come back.”

Schultz credits the program with teaching her valuable life skills at a young age.

“It definitely taught me to listen to others, to be more confident in myself, and how to make friends,” she said.

This year marks a significant milestone for the organization. Over the past 15 years, it has reached nearly 9,000 girls across 31 schools in Bexar, Kendall, and Comal counties.

The impact has been made possible with the help of nearly 800 volunteer coaches.

“It makes me really proud of the community here in San Antonio,” Misangyi said. “It’s taken a whole community to really get this program going and bring it together, and it’s exactly the kind of community we’re trying to create, where people feel that they’re a part of something.”

Each season of Girls on the Run builds toward a celebratory 5K event, which provides participants with a tangible goal and a sense of accomplishment. This year, that milestone run carries even more meaning for Schultz, whose younger sister is now part of the program.

“It’s fun to watch her grow up and do the exact same thing that I did and have a great time with it and do it with her friends,” she said.

The season will wrap up with a community 5K on May 2, where participants will put their training and confidence to the test. Click here for registration details.

FORECAST HIGHLIGHTS

• ISOLATED RAIN THIS EVENING: One or two storms are possible again later today
• THURSDAY & FRIDAY: Warm & humid. Near 90°.
• SATURDAY COLD FRONT: Light rain, falling temps from 70s to upper-50s
• DAMP RIVER PARADE: Light rain possible again on Monday, with cool temps

FORECAST

REST OF TODAY

A few showers and even a rumble of thunder or two is possible. You can see live radar in the video above. Otherwise, warm and humid.

QUIET, HOT START TO FIESTA

Expect a hot Thursday and Friday, with generally rain-free conditions. With highs near 90 and humid conditions, prepare to sweat as Fiesta gets underway. These conditions will not last...

SATURDAY COLD FRONT

A stout cold front, at least by April standards, will slide through Saturday morning. With the front, we’ll see spotty light rainfall throughout the day and falling temperatures. We’ll go from 70s in the morning to 60s and even 50s by the evening.

What does this mean for Fiesta events? The rain should be light enough where it won’t be a washout, but an umbrella is a good idea. So is a jacket. It’ll get chilly by the day’s end!

CHILLY, DAMP MONDAY

After a cloudy and cool Sunday, showers return to the forecast on Monday. This will keep us well below average with regards to temperatures. In fact, some spots will struggle to escape the 50s! Spotty light rain will be possible throughout the day. If you are headed to the Texas Cavaliers River Parade, prepare for chilly and potentially damp conditions.

QUICK WEATHER LINKS

• WATCH LIVE: Doppler Radar
• Hourly and 10-Day Forecast
• Download FREE KSAT Weather Authority App: Up-to-date forecast information and livestreams from trusted local meteorologists.
• KSAT Connect: Share your weather photos.

In the letter sent to Frio County commissioners, city council members allege non-Pearsall taxpayers are experiencing an unspecified level of favoritism compared to Pearsall residents.

“Our request is straightforward: the City of Pearsall is seeking the same level of service, benefits and flexibility afforded to the unincorporated areas and other law enforcement agencies that utilize the Frio County Jail,” a portion of the city council’s letter read.

In the letter, council members agreed that they made multiple attempts to discuss the contract with the county but “little to no action has been taken to meaningfully respond to the City’s requests.”

The letter, which was sent on Tuesday, serves as an official notice to the county.

At this time, it is unclear when Pearsall inmates will be transferred from the Frio County Jail and where they would go next.

In a statement sent to KSAT on Wednesday, a city spokesperson said “conditions and operational changes” at the jail have continued to worsen since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The City determined that it was necessary to move in a different direction to ensure reliable and efficient services,” the spokesperson said.

According to the City of Pearsall, it is currently working to implement a plan for the inmate housing situation.

The city’s decision prompted Frio County Sheriff Peter Salinas to share his disappointment and concern in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

“As a taxpaying citizen of the City of Pearsall and your elected Sheriff, I am deeply concerned about the lack of transparency and the absence of clear plans for addressing the issue of suspected criminals in our city,” Salinas said in the post. “I am now concerned about the potential impact of the city’s decision on the safety and security of our citizens.”

Salinas, the former police chief in Pearsall, said he is fully aware and “navigated the contract and had no problems abiding by it.”

“The agreement for jail services has been in place since 2012, and it has been a successful partnership that has provided law enforcement services to our community without any changes, cost increases, or issues,” Salinas said.

The sheriff said Frio County Sheriff’s deputies and EMS officials will continue to serve the community, despite the city’s decision.

“It is my privilege to serve as your Sheriff, and I am committed to breaking through the unnecessary burdens that the administration is placing on the people who pay their salaries,” Salinas said.

More recent news coverage on KSAT:

• SAPD confirms identity of suspect, 82, arrested in connection with North Side stabbing
• How much caffeine is too much for teens? San Antonio cardiologist shares warning signs

A Democratic victory in the Democratic-leaning district would further narrow the slim majority Republicans hold in the chamber.

The major party nominees to replace Sherrill are Democrat Analilia Mejia, a longtime progressive organizer and former Labor Department official, and Republican Joe Hathaway, a member of the Randolph Township Council.

Mejia, who had the early backing of progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, narrowly won the Feb. 5 Democratic special primary against a crowded field that included former Rep. Tom Malinowski and former Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way. Malinowski was attempting a comeback after losing a neighboring House seat in 2022.

Hathaway ran unopposed for the Republican nomination.

The war in Gaza, which began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and support for Israel have been major issues in the campaign. A super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent more than $2.3 million to defeat Malinowski, who had questioned providing unconditional aid to the Israeli government. During a primary campaign forum, Mejia was the only candidate to indicate she believes Israel committed genocide in Gaza. She has also called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal. Hathaway has said the U.S. should stand “ in lockstep ” with Israel and opposes putting conditions on aid to an ally.

Mejia had raised about $1.1 million for the special primary and special election and had about $374,000 in her campaign account as of March 27. Hathaway had raised about $525,000 for his campaign and had about $109,000 in the bank.

Democrats have held an advantage in general elections in the district. Sherrill won reelection in 2024 with about 57% of the vote, while Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris carried the district with 53% at the top of the ballot.

More than half of the district’s 588 precincts are in Morris County, with about 39% in Essex County and 9% in Passaic County. The district’s portion of Essex County is heavily Democratic: Harris carried the area with 64% in 2024. President Donald Trump narrowly won the district’s share of Morris County by about 1 percentage point. He carried the district’s small portion of Passaic County with about 57% of its vote.

The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

New Jersey does not have automatic recounts, but candidates and voters may request and pay for them, with the cost refunded if the outcome changes. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 8 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The AP will provide vote results and declare a winner in the special congressional election in the 11th District. In addition to the candidates named on the ballot, voters also have a write-in option.

Who gets to vote?

Any voter registered in the 11th District may participate in the special election.

What do turnout and advance vote look like?

As of April 1, there were about 603,000 registered voters in the 11th Congressional District. Of those, about 230,000 were Democrats, about 165,000 were Republicans and about 204,000 were not affiliated with any party. The remainder were registered with various minor parties.

More than 68,000 ballots were cast in the Feb. 5 Democratic special primary and about 16,000 in the Republican contest.

About 394,000 votes were cast in the 2024 general election, with nearly half cast before Election Day.

As of Tuesday, about 58,000 votes had already been cast, including about 36,000 from Democrats, about 15,000 from Republicans and nearly 8,000 from unaffiliated voters.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the Feb. 5 special primary, the AP first reported results at 8:04 p.m. ET, or four minutes after polls closed. The last update of the night was at 10:30 p.m. ET with about 91% of total votes counted. The AP called the race at 5:34 p.m. on Feb. 12.

When are early and absentee voting results released?

All counties in New Jersey release most or all the results from early and absentee voting in the first vote update of the night, before any in-person Election Day results are released.

Are we there yet?

As of Thursday, there will be 201 days until this seat is up again in the 2026 midterm elections.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

On March 4, Gonzales admitted to the affair with Regina Santos-Aviles in an interview on a YouTube talk show. One day later, Gonzales announced he was no longer seeking reelection for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District.

Amid calls for his expulsion, Gonzales announced on April 13 he will file for retirement from Congress. The following day, on April 14, Gonzales officially resigned from office.

KSAT Investigates has spent months requesting records, making calls and gathering documents to gather a greater picture of what led up to Santos-Aviles’ death by suicide.

Here’s a timeline outlining what we know so far:

November 2021: Regina Santos-Aviles was hired to serve as Gonzales’ Regional Director in Uvalde.

May 2024: Adrian Aviles, Santos-Aviles’ husband, discovered sexually explicit texts between her and Gonzales. He believes the two were engaged in an affair.

June 1, 2024: Adrian Aviles texted several of Gonzales’ staffers. He said Santos-Aviles had “been having an affair on me with your boss Tony Gonzales for some time now.”

Fall 2024: Santos-Aviles and Aviles separated, according to Aviles’ attorney Bobby Barrera.

Sept. 13, 2025: Uvalde police responded to Santos-Aviles’ home where officers discovered she had poured gasoline on herself and lit herself on fire.

Sept. 14, 2025: Santos-Aviles died at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, according to her family.

Sept. 17, 2025: Gonzales told KSAT Investigates he is “heart-stricken” by Santos-Aviles’ death.

Sept. 19, 2025: KSAT 12 and other media outlets were barred from an event in San Antonio were Gonzales made an appearance.

Sept. 23, 2025: Uvalde police told KSAT Investigates that Santos-Aviles was alone when she started the fire.

Oct. 30, 2025: City of Uvalde and Aviles asked the Texas Attorney General’s Office to block the release of 911 calls and police reports connected to Santos-Aviles’ death.

Nov. 10, 2025: The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Santos-Aviles died by self-immolation and ruled the death a suicide.

Nov. 11, 2025: Gonzales refused to answer KSAT Investigates’ questions about the alleged affair with Santos-Aviles, which was also reported by the Daily Mail.

Nov. 13, 2025: Gonzales said “the rumors are completely untruthful” at a Texas Tribune event. Gonzales’ office did not respond to KSAT’s question. He asked for clarification regarding the context of those “rumors.”

Nov. 25, 2025: Adrian Aviles received a letter from The Office of Congressional Conduct asking for “any evidence” related to the affair, according to Aviles’ attorney.

Dec. 19, 2025: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ruled the 911 calls and video related to Santos-Aviles’ death can remain sealed.

Feb. 17, 2026: Gonzales’ former staffer shared a text message with the San Antonio Express-News. The message showed Santos-Aviles admitting to an affair with Gonzales.

Feb. 18, 2026: Adrian Aviles’s attorney told KSAT Investigates he believes the affair played a role in Santos-Aviles’ suicide.

Feb. 19, 2026: Gonzales accused Adrian Aviles of trying to profit from wife’s death. The representative called for the release of the police report. Gonzales said he would not be “blackmailed.”

Feb. 23, 2026: Adrian Aviles shares sexually explicit texts between his wife and the congressman with KSAT Investigates.

• Uvalde police released a 23-page report on Santos-Aviles’ death.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson declined to call for Gonzales’ resignation despite other Republicans doing so.

Feb. 24, 2026: Gonzales refused to address the affair allegations in the halls of Congress.

Feb. 25, 2026: In his first public interview with CNN, Adrian Aviles said he is “exhausted and tired” of recent statements made by Gonzales. He accused the congressman of lying in the aftermath of Santos-Aviles’ death.

Feb. 26, 2026: Gonzales gave Santos-Aviles a 26% salary boost in 2024 — the same year as the affair — according to a report from the Uvalde Leader-News.

March 3, 2026: Gonzales was forced into a runoff against gun activist and YouTube personality Brandon Herrera.

March 4, 2026: The House Ethics Committee announced it will investigate Gonzales to determine whether he violated the code of conduct amid the allegations that he had an affair with Santos-Aviles.

Gonzales also addressed the accusations — saying he “made a mistake” — during the affair with Santos-Aviles. The congressman made the comments during an interview on the “Unshaken and Unafraid with Joe Pags” YouTube show.

March 5, 2026: House Republican leaders issued a statement that urged Gonzales to drop out of his bid for re-election.

Later that day, Gonzales announced he will not seek re-election.

April 6, 2026: Gonzales allegedly asked a different female staffer for nude photos and attempted to start a sexual relationship with her, according to a report.

April 13, 2026: Amid bipartisan calls for his expulsion from Congress, Gonzales announced he plans to file for retirement but did not say when it would take effect.

April 14, 2026: Gonzales officially resigned from office. His resignation went into effect later that night.

Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.

“I was expecting it to smell bad, but it smelled genuinely like rotting flesh,” said Nyx DelPrado, a first-year student at Mount Holyoke College who visited its Talcott Greenhouse this week to see the blooming of a corpse flower. “Its name is accurate,” DelPrado added with a laugh, nose wrinkled, adding that it reminded them of the scent of a dissection.

The corpse flower, or Amorphophallus titanum, is a rare tropical plant known for its foul odor. It's native to the rainforests of Sumatra and blooms infrequently and for only a brief window, releasing a pungent scent meant to mimic decaying flesh and attract pollinators such as flies and beetles. Nicknamed “Pangy,” the plant first bloomed at Mount Holyoke College in 2023, and its latest appearance has once again drawn crowds eager to witness — and smell — the fleeting spectacle.

What appears to be a single bloom is actually an enormous inflorescence, a cluster of many tiny flowers at the base of a tall central column called the spadix and surrounded by a deep purple, velvety spathe. Although the towering inflorescence withers after a few days, the same plant survives underground and can bloom again in future years.

A repellent smell designed to attract

Tom Clark, director and curator of the Mount Holyoke College Botanic Garden, said the plant’s infamous odor serves an important evolutionary purpose and has inspired a wide range of descriptions from visitors.

“A few people who have come in since have described the smell as being unbearable, tangy, like a trash can — it’s overwhelming,” Clark said. “But that odor is there for a purpose. It’s there to attract pollinators, flies in particular.”

The timing of corpse flower blooms is difficult to predict, often following years of dormancy. Over the past six weeks, Pangy grew rapidly, at times shooting up several inches a day before unfurling. The flower finally opened overnight Monday, and he and other staffers were met with its powerful scent as soon as they got to work the next day.

“Walking through the front door, we could smell it,” he said. “As we walked back to the greenhouse where it’s growing, the smell became stronger and stronger. It was just overwhelming — literally unbearable — to be back there with it. If you weren’t aware of this plant and walked into the greenhouse, you’d say, ‘What died in here?’”

From shock to wonder

“I didn’t know what the name meant. I thought it would smell like a corpse, but I don’t know what a corpse smells like,” said Mount Holyoke student Maheen Siddiqi, laughing after waiting in a growing line of people hoping to take a whiff of the flower. “And I smelled it and it smelled like really bad eggs or sulfur or something.”

Student Bryn Wickere said the smell was less overwhelming than anticipated. Still, Wickere described the towering bloom as “magnificent,” noting its deep color and velvety texture.

“I was actually expecting the smell to fill up the whole room, but it was more when you got up close and personal with her,” Wickere said.

Others found the smell more familiar than shocking.

“I would say it smells kind of like a compost pile, a little bit like a working farm,” said Caroline Murray, a Mount Holyoke senior. “I’m from Vermont, so I’m very used to the smell of the farm and manure.”

The spectacle drew visitors from near and far, including Michael Breton, who drove two hours and took a vacation day to see the bloom after tracking news alerts for years.

“If you see a news article, and it’s from two days ago, it’s gone, so you gotta run quick,” he said. He compared the scent to “a stinky diaper that’s been left out in the sun,” adding that despite the odor, the plant was “bright, beautiful and colorful. It’s a lovely plant.”

A fleeting bloom, an enduring mission

Clark said the bloom highlights the broader mission of the Talcott Greenhouse, which he called a “plant museum” that houses about 2,000 plant species — a small fraction of the estimated 350,000 to 400,000 plant species worldwide.

He called the event a “special opportunity" to impress upon visitors the diversity of the plant world, and some of the amazing adaptations species have to survive in their environment in unique ways.

By midday Tuesday, the odor had begun to dissipate as greenhouse vents were opened, offering visitors a less intense — though still memorable — experience. After the brief flowering period, the plant will gradually deteriorate and collapse. Because corpse flowers cannot pollinate themselves, seeds will only form if pollen from another titan arum is available.

For Namuuna Negi, a Mount Holyoke junior, the fleeting nature of the bloom added to the experience.

“The impermanence of it, I think. People like to be in on what’s happening,” Negi said. “If they hear something’s going to die soon, they want to go see it before that happens so they can talk about it later.”

Two prosecutors and an investigator from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office were turned away on Tuesday by a building contractor and referred to Fed attorneys, one of the people said. The two people familiar with the visit spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation.

The visit underscores that the Trump administration is not backing down from its investigation of the Fed and its chair, Jerome Powell, even though the probe has delayed the confirmation of a new chair nominated by President Donald Trump. The investigation is focused on cost overruns and brief testimony about the project last summer by Powell. Trump confirmed in an interview that aired Wednesday on Fox Business that he wants to continue the probe.

Last month, during a closed-door hearing before a federal judge, a top deputy from Pirro’s office conceded that they hadn’t found any evidence of a crime in their investigation of the headquarters project.

Robert Hur, an attorney for the Federal Reserve board of governors, sent an email to Pirro’s prosecutors about their visit and their request for a “tour” to “check on progress” at the construction site. Hur’s email, which The Associated Press has viewed, noted that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg concluded that their interest in the Federal Reserve’s renovation project was “pretextual.”

“Should you wish to challenge that finding, the courts provide an avenue for you; it is not appropriate for you to try to circumvent it,” Hur wrote.

Republican Tillis is key vote

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who is a key member of the Senate Banking Committee, has vowed to vote against Kevin Warsh, Trump's nominee to replace Powell as Fed chair, until the investigation is dropped. With the committee closely divided on partisan lines, Tillis' opposition is enough to block Warsh from receiving the committee's approval.

Tillis on Wednesday criticized the investigation as “bogus, ill-timed, ill-informed” and repeated that seven Republican members of the banking panel have said they do not believe Powell committed a crime when he testified last June.

Tillis also said there aren’t enough votes on the committee or in the broader Senate to do an end-run around the committee and get Warsh confirmed some other way.

“There really is no path,” he told reporters, adding that Pirro and her aides were “asleep at the switch” because the investigation has essentially delayed Powell's departure from the Fed, despite Trump's obsessive criticism of the Fed chair. Powell has now said he won't leave until the investigation is resolved.

Tillis suggested Pirro blindsided the White House with her investigation. “They should have consulted with the White House, because I’m sure if they would have, (the White House) would have said, ‘no, we can wait,'” until Powell steps down.

But Kevin Hassett, the Trump administration's top economist, said Wednesday that the Justice Department got involved because “the president wanted to investigate the cost overrun,” Axios reported.

The Banking panel said Tuesday that it will hold a hearing on Warsh's nomination April 21. Powell's term as Fed chair ends May 15, but Powell said last month he would remain as chair until a replacement is named.

Powell is serving a separate term as a member of the Fed's governing board that lasts until January 2028. Chairs typically leave the board when their terms as chair end, but they can remain on the board if they choose. Powell has said he won't leave until the investigation is resolved. If he remains it would deny Trump the opportunity to appoint someone else to the seven-member board.

Late Tuesday Tillis posted a link on social media to The Wall Street Journal’s article on the visit below an image of the Three Stooges and wrote, “The U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. at the crime scene.”

Investigation centers on building renovations

The investigation centers on an appearance by Powell before the Banking Committee last June, when he was asked about cost overruns on the renovations. The most recent estimates from the Fed suggest the current estimated cost of $2.5 billion is about $600 million higher than a 2022 estimate of $1.9 billion.

“It is probably corrupt, but what it really is, is incompetent,” Trump said. “Don't you think we have to find out what happened there?”

The president's support for the investigation threatens a timeframe set out by Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican who chairs the Banking Committee. Scott said Tuesday on Fox Business that he believed the investigation would be “wrapped up in the next few weeks,” allowing Warsh to be confirmed soon after.

Threat to fire Powell

News of the unannounced visit by prosecutors comes as Trump has again threatened to fire Powell, if the Federal Reserve Chair decides to stay on the central bank's governing board after his term as chair expires next month.

“Well then I’ll have to fire him, OK?” Trump said.

Trump has for months wanted to remove Powell, saying he has been too slow in orchestrating interest rate cuts that would give the U.S. economy a quick boost. Powell has said the investigation is a pretext to undermine the Fed's independence to set rates.

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said Trump can only fire Powell “for cause,” meaning some kind of misconduct, “so that's a pretty tall order.”

Supreme Court weighing another Trump removal

Trump’s threat to fire Powell comes as the Supreme Court is weighing the president’s effort to remove another central bank governor, Lisa Cook. Lower courts have so far allowed Cook to remain in her job while her legal challenge to the firing continues. The Supreme Court also seemed likely to keep her on the Fed when the court heard arguments in January. A decision could come any time.

The issue in Cook’s case is whether allegations of mortgage fraud, which she has denied, is a sufficient reason to fire her or a mere pretext masking Trump’s desire to exert more control over U.S. interest rate policy.

The Supreme Court has allowed the firings of the heads of other governmental agencies at the president’s discretion, with no claim that they did anything wrong, while also signaling that it is approaching the independence of the nation’s central bank more cautiously, calling the Fed “a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity.”

___

AP Writers Seung Min Kim, Mark Sherman, Paul Wiseman, Alanna Durkin Richer, and video journalist Nathan Ellgren contributed to this report.

• 📍 Location: Cavender Grande Ford
• 📅 Date: April 17th
• ⏱️ Line starts: 9:00 a.m.
• 🎁 Medal giveaway starts: 10:00 a.m.
• 🎟️ Cost: FREE to the first 200 people in line

Arrive early, grab your place in line, and get ready to shout “¡Viva Fiesta!” as you snag this year’s Texas Eats medal. Once they’re gone, they’re gone, there are no more Texas Eats medal giveaways. Dust off your flower crowns, throw on your brightest Fiesta gear, and meet David Elder at Cavender Grande Ford for Fiesta vibes and KSAT fun!

You can read the Official Rules & Regulations here.

General. By appearing in person at the designated location and time, an entry to the Texas Eats Medal Giveaway at Cavender Grande Ford sweepstakes (“Sweepstakes”), brought to you by KSAT12 (“Sponsor”) and Cavender Grande Ford (the “Co-Sponsor”), entrant acknowledges and agrees that entrant has read, understands, and agrees to be bound by these official Sweepstakes rules (“Official Rules”). By entering the Sweepstakes, entrants agree to waive any right to claim any ambiguity or error in these Official Rules, or the Sweepstakes itself, and agree to be bound by all decisions of the Sponsor, whose decisions are binding and final in all matters related to the Sweepstakes. Failure to comply with these Official Rules or any Sponsor instructions relating to the Sweepstakes’ Official Rules may result in disqualification from the Sweepstakes.

Eligibility. The Sweepstakes is open only to legal U.S. residents who are a minimum of 18 years of age or older at time of entry and reside in Sponsor’s Designated Market Area, as defined by Nielsen Media Research, Inc. (“DMA”). Interested entrants must appear at Co-Sponsor site within designated time to be eligible. Employees of Sponsor and Co-Sponsor and each of their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, advertising agencies, promotion agencies, prize suppliers, and any other vendors providing services in connection with this Sweepstakes and members of these employees’ immediate families (spouses, parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings and their spouses) and those living in the same household with these employees, are not eligible to enter or win.

How To Enter. The Sweepstakes begins at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, April 17, 2026, and runs through the duration of availability on the same day. (the “Sweepstakes Period”). Sponsor’s time clock will be the official time clock of the Sweepstakes. To enter, you must appear at the designated Co-Sponsor site and be among the first two hundred entrants. Entrants must be the natural person assigned to any submitted email account by the provider responsible for the assigning email addresses for the domain associated with such email account. Entrant must also be an authorized account holder for any submitted telephone number. Limit one entry per person during the Sweepstakes Period. Any attempt by any entrant to obtain more than the stated number of entries using multiple identities, or any other methods will void such entries and that entrant may be disqualified if discovered by Sponsor.

Selection of Winners. The first two hundred potential winners will be selected by a KSAT representative according to time of arrival at Co-Sponsor site on Friday, April 17, 2026.

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Prize(s) One Texas Eats 2026 Fiesta Medal to the first two hundred entrants at Co-Sponsor site. Approximate Retail Value (“ARV”) of prize: $10.00. ARV of all prizes: $2000.00 Unless otherwise stated, subject to winner verification and compliance with these Official Rules, all prizes will be awarded on site directly to winning entrant. Sponsor and Co-Sponsor are not responsible for loss, delay, or damage. There will be no substitution, transfer, or cash equivalent for prizes, except at the sole discretion of Sponsor, which may substitute prizes of comparable value. Limit one prize per person and per household. Payments of all federal, state, and local taxes related to the award of the prize are solely the responsibility of the winner. Prizes may not be sold, bartered, or auctioned. Prize is awarded “as is” with no warranty or guarantee, either express or implied. All properly claimed prizes will be awarded provided a sufficient number of eligible entries are received, but in no event will Sponsor award more prizes than are provided for in the Official Rules. Unclaimed prizes will not be awarded.

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Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any individual from participation in the Sweepstakes if Sponsor concludes, in its sole discretion, that such person: (a) has attempted to tamper with the entry process or other operation of the Sweepstakes; (b) has failed to comply with or has attempted to circumvent these Official Rules; (c) has committed fraud or attempted to undermine the legitimate operation of the Sweepstakes; or (d) has acted toward Sponsor, any other entity affiliated with the Sweepstakes, or any other entrant in an unfair, inequitable, threatening, disrupting, or harassing manner. If a dispute arises regarding compliance with these Official Rules, Sponsor may consider, in its sole discretion, data reasonably available to Sponsor through information technology systems in Sponsor’s control, but Sponsor will not be obligated to consider any data or other information collected from any other source. Any failure by Sponsor to enforce any of these Official Rules will not constitute a waiver of such Official Rules. If there is a conflict between any term of these Official Rules and any marketing or entry materials used in connection with the Sweepstakes, the terms of these Official Rules will govern.

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The state is accepting applications from education-related vendors who want to serve families using TEFA funds. The list is broad with tutoring, therapy services and even items like uniforms and school supplies. However, educators may be especially well-positioned to apply.

Ehizogie Ero-Brown, a certified educator who already works as a private tutor, said she recently applied to become a TEFA-approved vendor so her business, “Learn and Play,” can be listed on the state’s vendor database.

Ero-Brown said the application was simple. So far, her only cost has been $37 for the required fingerprinting. Now, she’s waiting to hear whether she qualifies.

“Yes, go ahead, register, and then when you’re ready, you’re already on the database,” Ero-Brown said. “You can market yourself and say I’m TEFA’s trusted. I’m on the vendor list for TEFA.”

Ero-Brown is part of the School Discovery Network online community. She said many teachers there have questions about what the state requires and what the process entails.

Her advice is to apply early, even if you’re not ready to launch services right away.

Ero-Brown said she was told it may take about four to six weeks to receive a decision from the state. If approved, her name and business will appear on the TEFA website.

However, she emphasized that being listed is only part of the equation. Each vendor is still responsible for marketing and finding clients.

To help educators get practical guidance, the School Discovery Network is hosting a teacher town hall called “Beyond the Classroom: Building Your Educational Business with TEFAs.”

The event is scheduled from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 16, at 3011 N. St. Mary’s Street.

The session will include tips on the vendor application process, ways to market tutoring and other education services after approval.

There is no deadline for vendors to apply.

Authorities were just beginning to assess the damage left behind by Super Typhoon Sinlaku, which first hit the islands Tuesday night local time and continued with a barrage of fierce winds and relentless rains for hours Wednesday.

Power was out and many of the roads were impassable across Saipan, a U.S. territory that's the largest of the Mariana Islands and home to about 43,000 people, according to local officials.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said water outages were reported on some of the islands. The agency planned to send more personnel to the region and ramp up shipments of supplies.

The storm also battered Guam, another U.S. territory and the site of several American military bases, with tropical force winds.

The typhoon — the strongest tropical cyclone on Earth this year — was packing sustained winds of up to 150 mph (240 kph) when it made landfall on the islands, the National Weather Service said.

The monster storm still had winds of 125 mph (200 kph) late Wednesday night as it pulled away to the north from the islands of Saipan, Tinian and Rota, the weather service said. Sinlaku is expected start curving toward sparsely populated volcanic islands in the far northern Marianas.

It was still very windy and rainy roughly 24 hours after the typhoon rattled the islands, but much better than the previous night, said Jaden Sanchez, spokesperson for the Saipan mayor’s office.

Preliminary reports include a lot of flooding, uprooted trees and downed power lines, but no deaths, he said.

Images from Saipan showed residential lots littered with debris and mangled trees. Winds crumbled metal bleachers at a sports field.

Resident Dong Min Lee shot video of a car sitting on top of two others in his apartment building’s parking lot. The winds tore off part of his balcony railing.

The American Red Cross and its partners were sheltering more than 1,000 residents across Guam and the Northern Marianas, agency spokesperson Stephanie Fox said.

___

Associated Press writers Jennifer Sinco Kelleher and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu; and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.

Leon Valley police arrested Matthew Valerio, 27, and booked him into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on Wednesday morning, jail records show. He is facing a collision involving death charge, a second-degree felony.

Valerio is also facing multiple, unrelated outstanding charges out of La Salle and San Patricio counties, according to jail records. A Bexar County judge set his bond for the collision involving death charge at $250,000, court records indicate.

Leon Valley and San Antonio police were initially dispatched on a crash call just before 8:30 a.m. on March 7 in the 5600 block of Grissom Road, which is located near Timberhill Drive.

When officers and other first responders arrived, Leon Valley Police Chief David Gonzalez told KSAT that they found a woman who was believed to be in her 30s. She was pronounced dead at the scene, the chief said.

Three days after the crash, Leon Valley police identified the woman as Rose Marie Jones, 43.

In an affidavit obtained by KSAT on Wednesday, Jones was struck by a 2018 silver Audi registered to Valerio. A witness, who saw the crash, took a picture of the Audi before it fled the scene. The witness shared the photo with Leon Valley police, investigators said.

Police said Valerio abandoned the Audi at a nearby apartment complex shortly after he struck Jones and began fleeing on foot.

Officers obtained a still image of a man running on security surveillance video. According to his arrest affidavit, a relative of Valerio confirmed Valerio as the man in the still image.

Investigators said Valerio continued running eastbound on Grissom Road and made a left on Poss Road. While on Poss, a white SUV picked Valerio up and drove away, the affidavit states.

Valerio is expected back in court on July 14, according to court records.

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

• Driver accused of hitting, killing pedestrian in Leon Valley fled crash scene, police say

Russian strikes hit more than a half-dozen areas of Ukraine behind the front line on Tuesday and Wednesday. An 8-year-old boy was killed in the central Cherkasy region and a woman was hit in southern Zaporizhzhia, according to Zelenskyy and local officials.

“Every day we need air defense missiles — every day Russia continues its strikes,” Zelenskyy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

With no plans announced for further U.S.-mediated talks with Russia, Zelenskyy was visiting three European capitals in 48 hours to try to secure promises of further military and financial support. Germany and Ukraine agreed on a defense package valued at 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion), and Norway has pledged 9 billion euros in assistance, Ukrainian officials said. He visits Italy on Wednesday.

After more than four years of fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has battle-tested drone interceptor expertise and has developed groundbreaking air defense technology, but it lacks the money to scale up production to levels that would press its advantage.

Zelenskyy said he is asking European countries to keep adding money to a fund that allows the purchase from the United States of American-made weapons for Ukraine, especially the Patriot air defense system that can stop Russian cruise and ballistic missiles.

Between November and March, Russia launched 27,000 Shahed-type drones, nearly 600 cruise missiles and 462 ballistic missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said.

Zelenskyy is also championing joint weapons production agreements, including for drones and missiles, while pushing for the European Union to move quickly on providing a promised 90 billion euro ($106 billion) loan.

‘Unpredictable consequences’

Defense leaders from about 50 nations who regularly gather to coordinate weapons aid for Kyiv held an online meeting Wednesday chaired by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and British Defense Secretary John Healey. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also attended.

Ahead of the meeting, Britain announced it will send 120,000 drones to Ukraine this year, its biggest delivery of the weapons so far. Officials didn’t say how soon they will be sent.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the European nations' decision to ramp up drone production for Ukraine was a “deliberate step leading to a sharp escalation of the military-political situation across the entire European continent and the creeping transformation of these countries into Ukraine’s strategic rear area.”

The ministry warned that attacks on Russia involving the drones manufactured in Europe for Ukraine are fraught with “unpredictable consequences.”

“Instead of strengthening the security of European states, the actions of European leaders are increasingly drawing these countries into a war with Russia,” it said.

It published a list of branches of Ukrainian drone-producing factories in the U.K., Germany, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic as well as factories producing components in Germany, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Israel and Turkey.

“The European public should not only clearly understand the true causes of the threats to their security but also know the addresses and locations of ‘Ukrainian’ and ‘joint’ enterprises producing drones and components for Ukraine on the territory of their countries,” the ministry said.

Dmitry Medvedev, the hawkish deputy head of Russia's Security Council, followed up with a more explicit threat on social media: “Russian Defense Ministry’s statement must be taken literally: the list of European facilities which make drones and other equipment is a list of potential targets for the Russian armed forces. When strikes become a reality depends on what comes next.”

Ukrainian deep strike operations

Ukraine’s war effort has gained momentum in recent weeks, according to Western officials and analysts. Its short-handed troops have disrupted Russia’s spring offensive, thanks in part to drones and ground robots, and its long-range strikes have dented Russian oil exports and some manufacturing output.

Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Wednesday that last month Ukrainian troops recaptured nearly 50 square kilometers (20 square miles) of territory from Russian forces. Also in March, Ukrainian deep strike operations hit 76 Russian targets, including 15 oil refining facilities, he said.

But the Iran war drains stockpiles of advanced air defense missiles that Ukraine needs, and Kyiv’s money is running short.

“We cannot lose sight of Ukraine” amid the Middle East conflict, NATO chief Rutte said.

Russia and Ukraine continue strikes

Russia launched 324 drones and three ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said, in its biggest barrage in almost two weeks. Air defenses intercepted 309 of the drones.

Russia also fired a powerful FAB-1500 glide bomb, weighing 1.5 metric tons, at the central part of Sloviansk before dawn Wednesday, the Sloviansk City Military Administration head Vadym Liakh said. The blast destroyed a children’s sports facility that was a city landmark, he said.

In a strike on the southeastern city of Dnipro, Russian hit two universities overnight, damaging academic buildings, dormitories and nearby homes, Mayor Borys Filatov said. The blast wave shattered more than 1,000 windows in surrounding buildings, he said, adding that there were no military targets in the area.

Ukraine proceeded with its long-range drone attacks, with the Russian Defense Ministry reporting Wednesday that its air defenses intercepted 85 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Ukrainian drones targeted an industrial facility in Sterlitamak, a Russian city about 1,300 kilometers (roughly 800 miles) east of the border with Ukraine, local authorities said.

Radiy Khabirov, governor of the Bashkortostan region where Sterlitamak is located, said in an online statement Wednesday that several drones were shot down over Sterlitamak’s “industrial zone,” and debris fell on one of the facilities there, starting a fire. One person died in the attack, he said.

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Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.

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

The legislation arose in a state that isn't necessarily a destination for the computer-stocked warehouses that power artificial intelligence, but a couple of proposals there generated intense community backlash and helped propel a measure quickly through the state's Democratic-controlled Legislature. Lawmakers on Tuesday approved sending the bill to Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat who is running for U.S. Senate.

It's the latest sign that increasingly stiff opposition at the local level is gaining a foothold higher up the political ladder. Tech giants and the data centers they are building have high-level support from President Donald Trump's administration and many governors, who see them as economic engines and essential for winning the artificial intelligence race with China, even as voters raise concerns about the enormous amount of power data centers use. Analysts also warn of the possibility of blackouts in the mid-Atlantic grid in the coming years.

Proposals to slap a moratorium on data centers have been introduced in at least a dozen states, but other than Maine’s, none have even passed a legislative chamber. That's as some states struggle to meet clean energy goals and the centers emerge as a barrier.

Maine's legislation would institute a moratorium for more than a year on data centers above a certain size, and create a special council to help towns vet potential projects. Mills’ office did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday on whether she plans to sign the bill.

“It's not that there's no place for data centers in Maine,” said Democratic Rep. Melanie Sachs, who sponsored the measure. “Frankly, the tradeoffs have not been shown to be of benefit to our ratepayers, water usage or community benefit in terms of economic activity.”

Why Maine?

Despite Maine's relatively low profile among developers of massive data centers, called hyperscalers, supporters of the projects said the moratorium will still matter long into the future to all sorts of industries.

“It says that the state is willing to essentially put a blanket ban on you if it decides that you may be politically unfavorable,” said Dan Diorio of the Data Center Coalition, a trade association that includes tech companies and developers.

They said it could deter data center developers from going to Maine and deprive the state of a long-term economic development anchor that attracts other industries. It also means local builders and labor unions won't develop the skills necessary to build the facilities and might leave them lagging behind other states, they said.

“We think that these data centers could bring good jobs, good opportunities to these regions,” said Montana Towers, a policy analyst with the free market Maine Policy Institute. “And a lot of these concerns about them are luddite in nature.”

Nonetheless, several communities in Maine have raised concerns about a lack of transparency in potential data center projects. The Maine moratorium is largely about getting those communities to have input in the development process, said Joe Oliva, a spokesperson for the Maine Broadband Coalition and GrowSmart Maine, which both supported the moratorium.

“If this is going to come, we want to be in early and often on the conversation," Oliva said.

Growing opposition

Since last summer, community opposition has become a serious concern for data center developers, with numerous municipalities defeating their proposals in planning and zoning board votes before packed rooms of angry residents.

A handful of counties and municipalities in the U.S. have imposed a moratorium, and some bills emerged in states where development is brisk such as Virginia, Michigan and Wisconsin. Voters in Festus, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, replaced half of their city's eight-member city council this month amid a backlash over a data center project.

Some bills died without action, like one in Georgia, a data center hotspot. Other states have explored other ways to rein in data centers, such as by imposing tougher standards around water and energy use, transparency and protection of ratepayers and communities.

In Ohio, residents are trying to bypass the Legislature and get a measure on the ballot in November that is designed to permanently ban hyperscale data centers. They'll need to gather more than 400,000 voter signatures by July 1 in what is perhaps the strictest measure of any under consideration.

Public officials, developers and other interests could otherwise “make this state a virtually unbroken field of data centers,” said Austin Baurichter, a Cincinnati-area lawyer who is helping organize the effort.

In South Dakota, a one-year moratorium bill failed in a state Senate committee amid opposition from power plant owners and data center developers. The governor also opposed it, telling senators that such planning is best done at the local level and that a statewide moratorium holds back municipalities that want a data center.

The sponsor, Republican Sen. Taffy Howard, told senators that “citizens are asking for this” and that the opponents are all lobbyists, "billion-dollar corporations" and government officials.

"Are you going to listen to the people or the paid lobbyists?” she asked.

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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

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Follow Patrick Whittle on X at https://x.com/pxwhittle and Marc Levy at https://x.com/timelywriter

The layoffs announced during a call with staff are the biggest in more than a decade at the U.K. national broadcaster.

"I know this creates real uncertainty, but we wanted to be open about the challenge,” interim Director-General Rhodri Talfan Davies said in a staff email.

Davies said that the reductions were driven by inflation, pressures to license fee and commercial income and a turbulent global economy.

The BBC said earlier this year that it faced “substantial financial pressures” and wanted to cut about a tenth of its budget by 2029. The bulk of the cuts are to be made in the next fiscal year beginning April 1, 2027.

The cuts come as former Google executive Matt Brittin is scheduled to take over as director-general next month.

He will fill the vacancy left after Tim Davie, and head of news Deborah Turness resigned over a misleading edit in a documentary about U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech on Jan. 6, 2021, before his followers stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Trump is suing the BBC for $10 billion for defamation.

The BBC is both a beloved and oft-criticized cultural institution funded by an annual license fee, which recently rose to 180 pounds ($244), paid by all U.K. households who watch live television or any BBC content.

Opponents of the fee, including rival commercial broadcasters, have grown louder in an era of digital streaming, when many people no longer have television sets or follow traditional television schedules.

The center-left Labour government has vowed to ensure that the BBC has “sustainable and fair” funding, but hasn't ruled out replacing the license fee with another funding model.

The BBC was founded in 1922 as a radio service to “inform, educate and entertain.” It now operates 15 U.K. national and regional television channels, several international channels, 10 national radio stations, dozens of local radio stations, the globe-spanning World Service radio and extensive digital output, including the iPlayer streaming service.

Encompassing 10,000 different products, Great Value is Walmart's biggest store brand and one of the largest food and consumer packaged goods labels in the U.S. The revamp announced Wednesday comes as shoppers have increasingly treated private-label foods not as a stepdown from national brands, but more as an equivalent.

The new cartons, boxes, bags and other containers will start to appear on Walmart store shelves next month, said Scott Morris, senior vice president of Walmart’s U.S. private brands division. The overhaul does not involve any changes to the products themselves, he said.

The updates include images that are intended to make the product inside more tempting to shoppers. For example, a Great Value frozen lasagna will show a the pasta garnished with a basil leaf, served on a full plate and displayed on a red checkered tablecloth against a red background, according to Walmart executives. The current box features the lasagna against a white background.

Walmart also is moving nutritional information to the upper right hand corner of Great Value food packages, Dave Hartman, Walmart’s vice president of creative design, said. The information previously had no standard location, he said.

U.S. consumers have become more picky about the ingredients in their food, looking for protein-packed meals or items without gluten, for example. Walmart said its customers, as well as the workers who have to pick items off shelves quickly to assembly online orders, need to be able to spot ingredient lists quickly to speed up their shopping or production.

Bags of Great Value chicken nuggets will have “11 grams of protein per serving” printed in the upper right hand corner. The photo on the bag shows the nuggets on a plate with a container of red sauce in the middle. The packages currently in stores don't mention the protein content or feature an entire plate.

Walmart launched Great Value 33 years ago, and the latest changes represents the brand's first full redesign in more than a decade.

“We’re offering this great product at a very affordable price, but there was always this kind of lagging feeling that a customer was buying this product that felt like they had to compromise,” Hartman said. “So that was one of the key impetuses in terms of redesigning the brand.”

Industry analysts have said that challenging economic conditions in recent years pushed more consumers to buy store brands instead of familiar name brands, which tend to be more expensive.

Private brands accounted for 23.9% of the packaged food and beverage products sold in the U.S. last year, up slightly from 23.7% in 2024, according to market research firm Circana. That compares with 76.1% for national name brands last year, down from 76.3% in 2024.

Walmart said its store label brands account for about a quarter of the company's U.S. merchandise sales. The company declined to provide sales figures for Great Value products but has repeatedly said that shoppers are increasingly gravitating toward its store brands.

Other food companies are also redesigning their packaging. PepsiCo. announced earlier this month a refreshed design for Tostitos to highlight claims about colors, flavors or preservatives.

Redesigning Great Value's packaging follows other moves by Walmart to invest in its store label products. The company said last fall that it planned to remove synthetic dyes from its food private brands by 2027.

On Wednesday, the pop superstar announced she'll release a new album, “Confessions on a Dance Floor: Part II,” on July 3 via Warner Records — 21 years after the original.

It's exciting for a number of reasons: The album is a sequel to her 2005 release, “Confessions on a Dance Floor,” and her first full-length in seven years, since 2019's “Madame X.” The Associated Press characterized the latter album as a misstep, however, the original “Confessions” has been widely regarded as a return to the top of her pop powers. The critically acclaimed release, which produced such hits as “Hung Up,” “Sorry,” “Get Together” and “Jump,” was dance-pop disco for a new era of clubgoers. It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and won a Grammy for best electronic/dance album in 2006.

Madonna has previously teased a second “Confessions” work. In December 2024, she shared an Instagram video of herself in the studio with the original album's producer, Stuart Price.

In the official press announcement, Madonna shared a manifesto that she and Price had for the album.

“We must dance, celebrate, and pray with our bodies. These are things that we’ve been doing for thousands of years — they really are spiritual practices. After all, the dance floor is a ritualistic space. It’s a place where you connect — with your wounds, with your fragility. To rave is an art. It’s about pushing your limits and connecting to a community of like-minded people,” she wrote. “Sound, light, and vibration reshape our perceptions, pulling us into a trancelike state. The repetition of the bass, we don’t just hear it but we feel it. Altering our consciousness and dissolving ego and time.”

Many of the families have disabilities or medical conditions that require electricity. Concern is growing that the U.S. will abandon them as chronic power outages persist and the Atlantic hurricane season officially nears — it runs from June 1-Nov. 30.

“For them in particular, whether they get a (solar) system or not is something that is really life or death,” Charlotte Gossett Navarro, Puerto Rico chief director for the Hispanic Federation, said in a phone interview.

The nonprofit group is among the organizations that signed a letter released Wednesday to Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González and U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

The Hispanic Federation is one of seven organizations that were going to help install the solar systems and educate families about their use. Some of those groups are now formally objecting to the cancellation of the funds or negotiating with the U.S. Department of Energy.

González has said that her administration “had no choice,” because the federal government decided it wouldn't give Puerto Rico those funds. The money is expected to now be invested in the island's crumbling power grid, which was razed by Hurricane Maria in 2017 but was already deteriorated given a lack of investment and maintenance.

Installations of rooftop solar panels have grown in the past three years across Puerto Rico, with an average of 3,850 systems installed per month in 2025, for an overall total of nearly 192,000 by year's end, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Meanwhile, more than 171,000 households and businesses have distributed battery storage systems.

But not everyone can afford such systems on the Caribbean island of around 3.2 million people with a more than 40% poverty rate.

Gossett Navarro said that they haven’t received any answers to pending questions about the funding as a May 9 deadline approaches, marking the end of the program that for some hasn’t even started.

Crews had already installed solar systems in more than 6,000 households as part of the program, but another 12,000 families now remain in limbo.

Yvette Rodríguez, 61, is among them. She needs a sleep apnea machine, and her husband, Luis Soler, a 67-year-old veteran and double amputee, relies on an electric adjustable bed.

“There’s a big need for those solar panels,” said Rodríguez, who resides on the small Puerto Rican island of Culebra with her husband. He needs air conditioning because he has heart problems and lives in a region where heat warnings are common.

She also lamented that ongoing outages force them to throw out food.

“We’re affected economically in a big way because we have to spend what little money we have so that we can eat,” she said.

María Pérez, 80, and her 88-year-old husband, have also been hit by the cut in federal funding. She has high blood pressure and heart problems that have led to several hospitalizations. She also has eyedrops for her cataracts that required refrigeration.

“I put them on ice, but it’s not the same,” she said. “They have us suffering with that money that they took away from us. It’s not fair.”

Pérez gets $364 a month via a Social Security check, but like many Puerto Ricans, her power bill is often the same amount.

Gabriela Joglar Burrowes, executive director of Puerto Rico’s Statewide Independent Living Council, was among those who signed the letter to the governor and Wright.

She said that having solar panels not only would have provided constant electricity, but also peace of mind.

“If you’re a person who depends on equipment like a ventilator, a dialysis machine or medicine that requires refrigeration, the lack of consistent energy represents a risk that could lead to even death,” she said.

Joglar Burrowes, who is disabled, said that thousands of families had been waiting a long time for the solar systems and shouldn’t be forgotten.

“It seems like sometimes we’re disposable, and we’re not,” she said.

Some of the 12,000 families have received the initial eligibility screening, while others have already received a home visit or started repairing their roofs in preparation for a solar system.

Most families live in rural communities, including mountainous towns like Adjuntas, Jayuya and Orocovis.

“It’s even more concerning,” Gossett Navarro said. “It’s hard to get out of the mountains when there’s a disaster.”

The U.S. Department of Energy states on its website that some people will get a system, but officials haven’t said who or when.

Reps. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, and Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican, both announced within hours of each other Monday that they were leaving Congress. Their decisions came the day before the House returned to Washington and as both faced the prospect of being expelled from the chamber by their colleagues.

It was a reckoning of sorts for Capitol Hill, the most striking since the careers of roughly a dozen male politicians were toppled during the heights of the #MeToo movement. Yet some congresswomen said that the pair of resignations took too long and proved what they've long been saying: that more must be done to rid Capitol Hill of sexual predation.

“Today was an important turning point,” said Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. “That it should — that abuse of power — should never be accepted, and above all, in public office. And so, I think this is an important resetting point for the institution.”

A bipartisan group of congresswomen had threatened on Tuesday to file resolutions that could have forced votes on expelling Swalwell and Gonzales. Their moves forced the two men to act and came swiftly after the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN had reported Friday that a woman said Swalwell sexually assaulted her.

The initial allegations against Swalwell date back to 2019 and 2024; they were followed with other allegations of inappropriate behavior made by other women. Swalwell has denied engaging in any sexual misconduct but acknowledged mistakes in judgment. Gonzales for months had resisted calls for his resignation after he admitted to a 2024 affair with a staff member who later died by suicide.

“Accountability can happen. We can hold men accountable when they abuse women, and we’re going to do more of it,” said Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, who chairs the Democratic Women’s Caucus.

House rules forbid relationships with staff

It is against the House Code of Conduct for any member to have a sexual relationship with their staff members.

Following the #MeToo movement, the House changed its rules to require annual trainings on sexual harassment and discrimination for members. The House also approved legislation to speed the slow-moving process for harassment complaints, require more disclosure of settlements and force lawmakers to personally pay any penalties they’re required to make.

Former Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat who led the movement for reforms around sexual assault, told The Associated Press that problems still persist after those reforms.

“What we do in Congress is basically look the other way,” she said, adding that she was calling on House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries to “really tighten the rules and create a safe environment for these women to report.”

While Johnson said he did not talk with the lawmakers before they announced their resignations, he told reporters that the episode had played out “appropriately.”

“This is the right thing for the institution," he said.

How the push for accountability has grown

Sexual abuse has been top of mind for lawmakers as they investigate the actions of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. A handful of Republican women, mostly hailing from the right wing of their party, played crucial roles in forcing Congress to take up the issue.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, alongside Rep. Lauren Boebert and then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, rebuffed pressure from President Donald Trump and Johnson last year as they joined with Democrats and forced a vote on a bill mandating the release of many of the case files on Epstein.

Mace, who in 2019 shared her own account of surviving rape, has continued an outspoken campaign advocating for victims of sexual assault. She and Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna had repeatedly called for Swalwell and Gonzales to resign.

Mace has also extended that demand to Republican Rep. Cory Mills, who is facing an ethics investigation on allegations of sexual misconduct and violence against an ex-girlfriend. Mills has said he will disprove the allegations.

Meanwhile, Mace and Luna are also calling for the resignation of Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Florida Democrat. The House Ethics Committee found evidence that she broke campaign finance law related to a mistaken overpayment of $5 million from the state of Florida to her family's health care business. She has said she did nothing wrong.

“Clean house. Expel them. Hold every last one accountable,” Mace said on social media. “The American people are watching.”

At the same time, Mace herself is under investigation by the ethics panel for allegations she improperly claimed housing reimbursements. She has denied wrongdoing.

Swalwell allies are facing close scrutiny

As accusations of sexual abuse continued to land against Swalwell, some Democrats found themselves in a moment of reflection and contrition, especially those who kept close company with him.

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, a close friend of Swalwell’s who chaired his presidential campaign, called reporters to his office on Tuesday for an emotional press conference.

“I messed up. I’m human. I trusted this man,” a teary-eyed Gallego said.

Under intense questioning from reporters, Gallego acknowledged that he had heard rumors about Swalwell being “flirty,” but contended that he trusted him as a close family friend.

“I definitely look at the world in a different way now,” Gallego said. “I personally am going to make sure that I’m going to take personal steps and office steps to make sure that we don’t even get close to a gray line.”

Policing behavior in Congress presents challenges

Speier, who entered politics by first working as a congressional aide and experienced harassment from a supervisor, said that part of the problem in Congress is that members are given wide latitude to run their offices. All 535 lawmakers are bosses of their own hand-selected staff.

“There’s really no one overseeing you," Speier said. "There’s a sense of entitlement that kind of overtakes many of these members.”

Speier, alongside then-Rep. Bradley Byrne, led the effort to pass legislation to make it easier to report sexual harassment and discrimination, including banning nondisclosure agreements to protect members of Congress.

Since the 2018 reforms began requiring the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to report awards and settlements related to formal complaints, there have been eight payments made by House members' offices, totaling just over $400,000. Those payments cover all types of violations of workplace rights, not just sexual harassment, and the violations could have been committed by other congressional staff in the office.

Speier said that it was crucial to keep making it easier for survivors to report sexual abuse.

"Unless someone comes forward, you know the conduct continues,” she said.

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Associated Press Chief Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

More than 53 million filers claimed a deduction under one of those provisions from Republicans' massive tax and spending law, a Treasury official told reporters Tuesday before the deadline, with 6 million people claiming no tax on tips, 21 million claiming the overtime deduction and 30 million older Americans claiming the enhanced deduction.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the numbers, said the 2026 filing season was a success from the administration's perspective.

Still, the latest data comes as most Americans, or 7 in 10, still think their taxes are too high, according to recent polling, despite the passage of the Republican tax law which promised big savings for taxpayers.

As the tax season kicked off in January, the White House boasted that average refunds were projected to rise by at least $1,000. But currently, the average refund amount is $3,462, according to the latest IRS data, which is up 11% or about $350 from last tax year’s $3,116 average refund payment.

In an interview that aired on Wednesday, President Donald Trump claimed much bigger results. “People are getting refunds of $5,000, $8,000, $11,000 that they had no idea they were getting,” he told Fox Business News. “It’s turned out to be better -- as good or better than I said it would be.”

Treasury says tax refunds this season are up 24% compared with the four-year average of refunds before Trump took office.

The White House has been trying to promote Trump's tax cuts as a way to get voters more enthusiastic about the way he's handling the economy before November's midterm elections, but the message has been overshadowed for weeks by higher gas prices caused by the war in Iran.

Republicans on Capitol Hill took advantage of Tax Day to focus on the tax breaks.

“Lower taxes, bigger refunds and more money in the pockets of hardworking Americans,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on the Capitol steps, flanked by Republican lawmakers and Americans he said are benefitting, including a restaurant server, a farmer, and small business owners.

“We don’t believe you should send it all here to Uncle Sam,” Johnson said. “We want you to keep it.”

But Democrats said Americans are reeling from inflation and the high cost of living as Trump focuses his attention on the Iran war. “Hardworking families are watching as the Trump administration spends billions to bomb Iran, yet they can’t seem to find any funding for health care, housing or food for hungry children,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, the Democratic caucus chairman.

The 2026 season comes as the IRS has gone through a leadership turnover and reduced its workforce by 27% over the past year through cuts brought on by the Department of Government Efficiency.

IRS CEO Frank Bisignano testified to the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, extolling the IRS' implementation of the Republican tax law.

However, Democratic lawmakers have been zeroing in on IRS disclosures of confidential taxpayer information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of an agreement between ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to share information for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S.

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AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed.

Health systems in the continent of 1.5 billion people face growing uncertainty following the U.S. pullback from global health funding under President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy, alongside disruptions linked to the war in the Middle East that are straining aid budgets and supply chains.

Announcing its first-ever comprehensive analysis of immunization in the region, the WHO said more than 500 million children have been reached through routine vaccination since 2000, preventing over 4 million deaths each year.

Overall, it said vaccines have saved more than 50 million lives in Africa over the past five decades, “gaining an estimated 60 years of life expectancy for each infant life saved” during that period.

In 2024 alone, vaccines saved nearly 2 million lives, the agency said, pointing to key milestones including the eradication of wild poliovirus in 2020, “a historic milestone for Africa,” and the elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus in most countries.

Vaccines against malaria, a disease that kills more than 400,000 people annually, most of them children under five in Africa, are now being introduced in 25 countries. Mohamed Janabi, the WHO regional director for Africa, called that “a major scientific and public health breakthrough” during an online press briefing.

But he also warned that “progress is uneven and in some places really slowing,” after the COVID-19 pandemic increased the number of children who have never received a single vaccine.

Ten countries account for 80% of children who haven’t received any vaccine in the region, he said, describing it as “a profound equity issue.”

“These immunization outcomes reflect very different realities, and we have more work to do to ensure we are consistently able to reach children, even in the most fragile and remote contexts,” said Sania Nishtar, chief executive of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which partners with WHO in vaccination efforts.

Aid cuts since Trump returned to the White House in 2025 have been devastating, Janabi said. The U.S. withdrawal from WHO in January resulted in the loss of about 40% of the agency’s overseas development funding, he said, and urged African governments to increase domestic health financing to mitigate the impact.

The U.S-Iran war, which has disrupted supply chains and increased gas prices, is concerning for a continent where “many of our facilities depend on generators,” said Adelheid Onyango, the WHO Africa director for health systems and services. She said the agency is yet to quantify the war's impact.

Health experts such as Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccinology and dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand, say funding is emerging as the “biggest threat” to Africa's immunization efforts as the U.S. and other Western donors tighten aid to poorer countries.

In many countries, aid-funded programs have already scaled back or shut down, reducing access to basic health services, including clinics, health workers, cold-chain infrastructure and outreach services that vaccination campaigns rely on.

“It can’t be that we continue relying on the likes of Gavi Vaccine Alliance, which has done a tremendous amount of work in terms of ensuring that there’s increasing uptake of new vaccines,” said Madhi. “The Gavi Vaccine Alliance itself is already experiencing a financial crunch. What we need to start putting on the table is what percentage of the immunization program should be funded by countries ... to ensure that not just a few children are getting vaccinated.”

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

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

Leo spoke to journalists en route to Cameroon as he continued his Africa visit.

He made no mention of Trump’s latest social media post or the suggestion by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, that he should “be careful” when speaking about theology.

Leo took no questions. Rather, he focused on his first stop in Algeria and the teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo, the inspiration of his religious order and his own spirituality.

But Leo spoke in terms that suggested the Trump administration's criticism of the pope's calls for peace in the Iran war hadn't gone unnoticed. He spoke exclusively in English.

Trump has issued repeated broadsides this week against history’s first U.S.-born pope, accusing him of being weak on crime and a captive to the left, and asserting that Leo owed his papacy to Trump. Trump also posted, then took down, an artificial intelligence-generated, Christ-like image of himself that drew widespread condemnation, even from many supporters.

Trump’s attacks on Leo began after the pope amplified criticism of war and asserted that God doesn’t bless those who drop bombs. Leo also called Trump’s threat to annihilate Iranian civilization “truly unacceptable.”

Overnight, Trump posted “Not good!!!” in response to a post citing social media posts by Leo before he was pope that were critical of Trump. And he wrote: “Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable.”

Leo points to St. Augustine and ‘search for truth’

Leo drew attention to his visit Tuesday to Annaba, the ancient city of Hippo where St. Augustine, the theological and philosophical giant of the early church, lived as a bishop for more than 30 years.

“His writings, his teaching, his spirituality, his invitation to search for God and to search for truth is something that is very much needed today, a message that is very real for all of us today as believers in Jesus Christ, but for all people,” Leo said.

By going to Hippo, Leo said that he wanted to offer the church and the world a vision that St. Augustine offers in terms of seeking "unity among all peoples and respect for all people in spite of the differences.”

He recalled that the vast majority of Algerians are Muslim, but that they respect and honor St. Augustine as “one of the great sons of their land.” Such an attitude, he said, helps to build bridges between Christians and Muslims and promote dialogue.

And he recalled his visit to the Great Mosque of Algiers, where he stood in silent prayer.

“I think the visit to the mosque was significant to say that although we have different beliefs, we have different ways of worshiping, we have different ways of living, we can live together in peace,” he said.

“And so I think that to promote that kind of image is something which the world needs to hear today.”

While being on the receiving end of Trump's criticisms online, Leo pointed to the respectful way that the Algerian government had received him on the first-ever papal visit — with a full military airborne escort through Algeria's airspace.

“It’s a sign of the goodness, of the generosity, of the respect that the Algerian people and the Algerian government have wished to show to the Holy See and to myself,” Leo said.

A debate about ‘just war’

The Vatican's editorial director, Andrea Tornielli, was more pointed than Leo in his rebuttal of Vance, who had argued that the Catholic Church had a long tradition of endorsing so-called “just wars,” when war can be morally justified.

Tornielli noted that the “just war” theory was developed centuries ago, when wars were fought with swords, not machine-guided drones.

“This teaching has gradually been enriched and deepened, to the point of recognizing how increasingly difficult it is to claim that a ‘just war’ exists,” Tornielli wrote on Vatican Media. Modern warfare poses a "reality that raises moral questions of dramatic intensity.”

“There has been a growing awareness that war is not a path to be followed,” he wrote.

U.S. Cardinal Robert McElroy, the archbishop of Washington, has said the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran failed to meet the minimum criteria for the war to be considered morally just. Such criteria would have included that it was a response to an imminent threat, that the U.S. and Israel had clearly articulated their intentions or that the benefits would outweigh the harm.

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

House Democrats launched Wednesday what they call a task force to overhaul ethics rules and protect access to the ballot. They also want to highlight the Trump family's business dealings and the president's transformation of the federal government.

The task force, which will include a mix of progressive and moderate members, could become a central part of Democrats' messaging as they try to claw back control of Congress from Republicans.

Rep. Joe Morelle, top Democrat on the House Administration Committee and a longtime ally of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, will spearhead the effort. He said Jeffries “fears that we’re losing Americans' faith and trust in government and institutions” because so often "decisions are made based on the personal interests of the members or the president and with little regard for Americans.”

Morelle floated a ban on stock trading for all members of the executive branch, Congress and federal courts as a policy. He added that a code of ethics and term limits for Supreme Court justices were other possible proposals.

Democrats have frequently accused Trump's second term of being “the most corrupt administration in American history," a characterization the White House denies.

“President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public," said Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson. “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest.”

A little over a year into the president’s second term, his family’s Trump Organization has conducted deals in eight foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Vietnam. All the deals are ostensibly in compliance with the Trump company's self-imposed rule not to do business directly with foreign governments.

But it's not sure that matters, given that many such authoritarian and one-party states rarely take a hands-off approach in private business deals, especially when the business belongs to a sitting president.

Anti-corruption pledges have been heard before

Promises to clean up Washington are nothing new. Trump campaigned in 2016 and 2024 on a vow to “drain the swamp.” Democrats won back control of the House in 2018, at the midpoint of Trump's first term, with an anti-corruption message.

“I don’t know that we start with people’s trust. I certainly think that’s probably not the case,” said Morelle. “The question is, will we earn it? Can we earn it? And we’re prepared to place significant emphasis on this.”

Reps. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrats on the House Oversight and Judiciary committees, respectively, are on the task force.

So are Reps. Greg Casar, D-Texas, leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Brad Schneider, D-Ill., head of the moderate New Democrats. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., one of the caucus' most prominent members, is a member as well.

The group's regional and ideological diversity could ensure a broad base of support for the new initiative, or it could make it harder to find a unifying message and agenda.

“The challenge is almost there’s too much to do, and they are going to need to focus on a couple of things,” said Justin Florence, co-founder of Protect Democracy, a group that says it combats authoritarianism in the U.S. and is consulting with Democrats on their strategy.

The group believes the Hungarian elections offer a successful model.

“It just shows that this messaging has to be loud, it has to be colorful, it has to be engaging,” said Ben Raderstorf, a strategist with Protect Democracy, on how Orbán’s opponents spread their anti-corruption message. “It can’t just be staid hearings, it’s about breaking through attention cycles.”

While Democrats debated after the 2024 election whether their warnings that democracy was imperiled resonated with Americans, many in the party say Trump's actions have shifted public opinion.

Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Ga., one of the task force’s co-chairs, said the president is “actively meddling in our elections and attempting to impose a Jim Crow 2.0 era through intimidation and suppression." She vowed the task force will “hold Trump accountable for his corrupt schemes, expose them to the American people, and present the alternative they deserve.”

Anti-corruption groups are hoping the messaging effort will transfer to a meaningful plan to curb corruption in Washington.

“The hope is that it’s broad, and that it’s serious policymaking and not just talking points,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, a watchdog group that has been in talks with the task force.

The goal, he said, is to address "not just the Trump administration’s extreme abuses, but the systemic rigging of the political process in Washington.”

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Associated Press writer Bernard Condon contributed from New York.

In a wild sequence, Ball avenged two critical mistakes just seconds earlier by scoring on a driving right-handed layup with 4.7 seconds left, and Charlotte prevailed after Miles Bridges blocked Davion Mitchell’s layup attempt on the other of the court as time expired. That set off a wild celebration on the court involving players, coaches and fans as the team earned its first home postseason win in a decade.

Ball celebrated at midcourt, flexing after the winning layup. Local television station WBTV caught video of the hyped point guard delivering two seemingly playful blows at Hugo before embracing teammate Coby White in a bear hug. Hugo simply walked away.

Ball was the center of attention all night, and it remained uncertain if he could face disciplinary action from the league ahead of Charlotte's next play-in game on Friday night after it appeared he took a swipe at the leg of Bam Adebayo early in the second quarter, causing the Heat center to fall on his back.

Ball was not called for a foul and play continued. Adebayo did not return because of a lower back injury, playing just 11 minutes.

Afterward, Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said Ball should have been ejected.

Ball apologized after the game and said he was disoriented on the play after getting hit in the head seconds before on a drive to the basket.

The ninth-seeded Hornets play on the road against the loser of Wednesday’s night game between Orlando and Philadelphia as they look to snap a 10-year playoff drought.

“We drew up a good play, I feel like. Just orchestrated it and it worked," Ball said of the winning shot.

Ball was not asked about punching the mascot after the game; the video of it had not surfaced at that point.

“The crowd was amazing," Ball said of the sold-out crowd. "Everyone who came out today was real loud, so it was a good crowd.”

Charlotte was able to get to overtime after White hit an off-balanced 3-pointer from the corner with 10.8 seconds left to tie the game, and Miami's Tyler Herro missed a jumper at the end of regulation.

The Hornets surrendered a five-point lead in OT behind two Ball blunders.

After Herro drained a turnaround 3 in the corner, Ball turned the ball over at midcourt and then fouled Herro on a 3-point attempt. Herro made all three free throws to briefly give Miami a 126-125 lead, setting up Ball's theatrics on an inbounds play.

“We just stayed together throughout it all, it was an up-and-down game. But that’s what the play-in is about," Bridges said. "... We did a great job executing on offense, LaMelo did a great job getting a layup, and then we executed on defense on the other end.”

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

It's a clever way of connecting the past iconic musical theater show with its reimagined, cooler sister now playing at the Broadhurst Theatre. But there's an even more thrilling connection between these two shows:

That DJ? He starred in the original cast.

Ken Ard is making a triumphant return to Broadway after being away for 25 years in the same show where his career exploded in the early 1980s, now dancing with performers 40 years his junior.

“It’s amazing to have this full circle moment in my life,” he says from his dressing room. “I knew it was right for me then and I knew it was right for me now.”

‘The most spectacular reinvention’

Ard's return to “Cats” is a story of redemption and resilience, echoing the recovery of New York after the 2001 terror attacks. Ard lived close to ground zero, and the horror of that day left him with PTSD and dented his confidence. He went from an It boy to deeply shaken. “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” is his first Broadway show since the attacks.

“My first audition after 9/11, I burst into tears and left the room because I had no idea what to do or how to feel,” he recalls. “I just was not getting booked anymore. And before that I was getting booked all the time.”

Ard, who grew up in California, studied dance and tried his luck in New York, inspired by shows like “The Wiz” and “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and by performers like Ken Page and Andre De Shields, the latter who is now his co-star.

He made his Broadway debut in the chorus of “Marlow” in 1981, and “Cats” was his third show. “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” is actually his fourth production for Andrew Lloyd Webber, following “Starlight Express” and “Song and Dance.”

“His music does speak to me in a certain way,” he says. “There’s something about his shows that are whimsical and fun, and I guess I just have been able to fit into them.”

The original “Cats” — for which Ard played Macavity as well as Plato and Rumpus Cat — was a cultural phenomenon, attracting celebrities, soaring ticket sales and a devotion that's hard to explain. It was the “Hamilton” before “Hamilton.” Ard recalls meeting Diana Ross and Cary Grant.

Ard wasn't a big fan of the 2016 “Cats” revival — “It was a museum piece,” he says — or the 2019 movie — “a debacle,” he declares — so he didn't have much hope when he checked out “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” last year at the Perelman Performing Arts Center, which just happens to be at ground zero.

“I went in and I saw this show with my arms crossed, like, ‘What are they going to do with ’Cats?'” he says. “I had not gone back downtown in years and years and years. ‘Cats’ was what got me down there.”

What he saw was a show that transports viewers into the Black and Latino queer ballroom scene of Harlem, which was the inspiration for “Paris Is Burning” and later “Pose.”

“It’s really just the most spectacular reinvention of a show I have ever seen,” says Ard, who says he bawled his eyes out and returned to see it two more times. “All of that trauma was washed away by this show.”

No more peeling potatoes

The music remains the same — albeit with thumping house beats — but the show has a fabulous energy. It's directed by Zhailon Livingston and Bill Rauch, with choreography by Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons.

The original musical — based on poems by T.S. Eliot — is about felines competing to get into kitty heaven. Ard says the new version is about people competing for a prize. “It makes so much sense,” he says. “It’s not your grandma’s ‘Cats.’”

When he heard it might transfer to Broadway, Ard reached out and was offered the now-enlarged role of DJ Griddlebone, the ball's sort of hype man, a trickster who pops up in various costumes and dances.

“Having Ken Ard in rehearsal was a magic portal to the original production,” Rauch says. “He gave us thrilling perspective on the original staging and the artists’ intentions from 45 years ago. At the same time, Ken was completely present in every sense of the word, helping us to shape our radically new revival.”

Ard calls the show a celebration of gay and trans joy without any preaching: “I think it’s going to introduce a whole new generation to ‘Cats’ and musical theater. People who haven’t seen themselves on stage are really going to be inspired.”

The show that changed his life once has now done it again. Ard had been working in corporate kitchens for the past decade but hopes his time peeling potatoes is done.

“I think those days are over, really,” he says. “I’m going to manifest that they are because, basically, I’ve been wanting to get back to Broadway ever since my last show.”

While details remained sketchy, Bangladesh Coast Guard spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Sabbir Alam Suzan told The Associated Press on Wednesday that nine people, including three Rohingya and six Bangladeshis, were rescued on April 9. Suzan said that the Bangladesh flag carrier M.T. Meghna Pride rescued the nine people when the crew found them floating at sea after the capsizing.

The status of any search on Wednesday or when the boat sank weren't immediately clear.

UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, and the International Organization for Migration, or IOM, said in a joint statement on Tuesday that the trawler departed from Teknaf in the southern Bangladeshi district of Cox’s Bazar carrying a large number of passengers to Malaysia.

The IOM said Wednesday in a new statement that the boat reportedly sank on April 9.

Overcrowding, strong winds and rough seas caused the vessel to lose control and sink, the agencies said.

A Rohingya woman who survived the capsizing and was rescued narrated her ordeal on Wednesday. The survivor said that she set out for Malaysia on April 4, and about 20 women were on board when the boat sank.

“I drifted in the sea for two days and one night," said Rahela Begum, who was brought to a refugee camp. "There were many people on the trawler, but after it sank, I have no idea what happened to them or where they went,"

“After drifting in the sea for two days and one night, the piece of wood I was holding onto also flipped over and I lost it. At that point, I lost consciousness. When I regained consciousness, I saw that Allah had sent a ship. The ship rescued me," she said.

Shari Nijman, a UNHCR communication officer in Cox’s Bazar, said Wednesday that the agency had no other updates.

Another coast guard media official told the AP by phone Wednesday that the rescued people, eight men and one woman, were all safe, after being handed over to the coast guard, which brought them to the police in Teknaf.

The official said that the rescue wasn't part of any official search operation, because the area is outside Bangladeshi territory, and that the crew of the M.T. Meghna Pride saved the people while it was on its way to Indonesia from Bangladesh's Chittagong.

The official spoke by phone on condition of anonymity in line with official policy.

UNHCR and IOM said that the disappearance reflected the protracted displacement of Rohingya people and the absence of durable solutions.

They said that ongoing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state has made the Rohingya’s safe return to Myanmar uncertain, while limited humanitarian assistance, as well as restricted access to education and employment in refugee camps, continue to push vulnerable Rohingya refugees to choose risky sea journeys, often based on false promises of higher wages and better opportunities abroad.

“This incident is a stark reminder of the grave risks people continue to face when undertaking dangerous sea journeys in search of safety and better opportunities,” IOM spokesperson Mohammedali Abunajela said in a statement on Wednesday. “No one should have to choose between remaining in situations of profound hardship or embarking on a journey that may cost them their lives.”

UNHCR and IOM urged the international community to strengthen funding and solidarity to ensure lifesaving assistance for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, which has sheltered more than 1 million Rohingya from Myanmar.

In 2025, more than 6,500 Rohingya refugees embarked on dangerous maritime journeys from Bangladesh and Myanmar, almost 900 of whom lost their lives, the IOM said. On the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal specifically, deaths and disappearances increased by more than 40% compared with 2024 figures, the U.N. organization said.

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Suzauddin Rubel reported from Cox's Bazar.

Moments after the Portland Trail Blazers outlasted the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, the NBA released tipoff and broadcast information for the first four games of the Spurs’ first-round series against Portland.

The 2026 postseason is the first since the NBA’s new long-term television contracts with ESPN/ABC, NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime Video went into effect.

Due to the new TV deals, first round playoff series will no longer have local and national broadcasts. All playoff games will air exclusively with the league’s national broadcast partners: ESPN/ABC, NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime Video.

The NBA previously announced Game 1 of Spurs-Trail Blazers will tip at 8 p.m. Central time from the Frost Bank Center and air on NBC.

The NBA has since revealed dates, start times and network designations for Games 2, 3 and 4.

Game 2 in San Antonio is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. and will again air on NBC.

The series will shift to the Moda Center in Portland for Games 3 and 4.

The pivotal Game 3 is set to start at 9:30 p.m. on Friday and air on Amazon Prime Video. Game 4 will be at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. ESPN will broadcast Game 4.

If Spurs-Trail Blazers series goes beyond the guaranteed four games, the league will announce tipoff and broadcast times for Games 5, 6 and 7 at a later date.

Below is the full first round schedule:

*if necessary

TBD = To Be Determined

More recent San Antonio Spurs coverage on KSAT:

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• Spurs guard Devin Vassell serves up heat at Panda Express meet-and-greet ahead of playoffs
• Spurs’ playoff return coincides with Fiesta, igniting San Antonio spirit
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Although Israeli strikes on Beirut have eased since last week's shattering 10-minute bombardment without warning killed over 350 people across the country, southern Lebanon remains under attack.

The Israeli military has periodically issued warnings urging residents to flee wide swathes of southern Lebanon as it targets the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, but tens of thousands of people have stayed — either because they don't want to leave their homes or because they have nowhere to go.

Tyre, too, is under Israeli evacuation order, but many displaced families had seen it as a refuge of last resort, removed from the heaviest clashes closer to the Israeli border. Increasingly, though, residents say nowhere even in Tyre feels safe.

Across the city, the war was visible in shattered buildings, mounds of rubble and debris-strewn streets. Residents moved cautiously along wreckage-lined roads.

Mourners gathered for the funeral of 19-year-old Ghadir Baalbaki, killed overnight in an Israeli drone strike just outside Tyre’s city center. It was not immediately clear who was targeted, but witnesses said Baalbaki had been sitting outside her house when the drone hit nearby.

“I hugged Ghadir because I thought she had fainted. I kept trying to wake her up," Mariam Hamoud, her aunt, recalled from the temporary graveyard where Baalbaki was buried. Many families can't return to home villages to bury their dead because they are too close to the front lines.

Baalbaki’s father, Mohammed Baalbaki, stood beside the grave in tears.

“We cannot adapt to life without her," he said.

Across southern Lebanon, Israeli forces said they had struck more than 200 Hezbollah targets over the past 24 hours. Hezbollah claimed rocket attacks on military targets in northern Israel and on Israeli forces in the town of Khiam near the border, which has seen intense fighting in recent weeks.

Tuesday's talks between Lebanon and Israel in Washington have drawn backlash from Hezbollah and its supporters.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah on Wednesday castigated Lebanese authorities for what he called the “disgraceful image” of direct negotiations with Israel “at a time when it is killing Lebanese people and committing massacres." He called on the government to hold a popular vote on the future of Hezbollah's arsenal rather than decide its fate in talks with Israel.

Lebanon's government seeks the disarmament of Hezbollah, but the group has long defied such efforts.

“If it truly wants to prove it reflects the aspirations of the Lebanese people, then (the government) should accept a public referendum. We are ready for a referendum on these choices,” Fadlallah told reporters, saying he expected the results to show that a majority of Lebanese people support Hezbollah's militant activities.

On the streets of Beirut, Lebanese were divided on the talks. Some agreed with Hezbollah that Israel can only be stopped through military force.

“These negotiations do not represent us … it’s as if they never existed," said Mustafa Alaa Al-Din, who was displaced from southern Lebanon.

Others welcomed the talks, expressing support for any initiative that promises to hasten the end of the war.

“The negotiations are more in our interest than in Israel’s interest because we are the ones whose country is being destroyed, we are the ones suffering losses,” said Mohamed Saad, a Beirut resident.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began when Hezbollah fired missiles across the border days after the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran. Israel responded with an intense aerial campaign and ground invasion.

At least 2,167 people have been killed in Israeli strikes, Lebanon's health ministry said Wednesday, including 260 women, 172 children and 91 medical workers. More than 1 million Lebanese have been displaced.

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Associated Press writers Fadi Tawil and Isabel DeBre in Beirut contributed to this report.

Times have “ radically changed," Hochul said, since 2019, when the state set a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030.

She's proposed giving the state years more to comply, saying pursuing that goal now by imposing planned fees on polluters would lead to crushing energy prices.

“I cannot in good conscience — knowing the moms and dads and the seniors and the families that are struggling, paying their bills now — I cannot do something I know at this very moment that’s going to raise those prices,” Hochul said at a recent rally.

Hochul, who is running for reelection this year, is among several Democratic leaders trying to balance the party’s traditional support for clean energy policies with the current political imperative to deliver “affordability” agendas.

Several states — particularly in the Northeast — are reassessing clean energy targets. Others are looking at shaving extra charges on utility bills that help fund efficiency programs.

The shifts have alarmed environmentalists, who call them shortsighted. They note that other states, including California, have remained committed to similar policies designed to lessen dependence on fossil fuels.

“She’s looking to, ultimately, keep New Yorkers on gas longer when it’s the very fuel that’s causing their bills to rise,” Liz Moran of the environmental group Earthjustice said of Hochul's proposals.

Hochul insists she isn’t abandoning efforts to fight climate change. But she and other Democrats complain that cuts to clean energy grants under President Donald Trump’s administration raised the cost of meeting state climate goals. The Republican president has been hostile to some clean energy sources, particularly offshore wind farms, which his administration has sought to block.

Affordability concerns edge out climate worries

Meanwhile, U.S. residential electricity prices rose 27% on average from 2019 to 2024, with some of the most pronounced increases in California and Northeast states, according to a study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Analysts cite multiple reasons for higher prices, among them increased demand from data centers and the price of natural gas, which often is used to generate electricity.

Power bills were a key issue in the governors’ races won by Democrats last year in New Jersey and Virginia. And that was before the Iran war sent gasoline prices soaring.

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee has proposed pushing a 2033 deadline to reach 100% renewable energy sources to 2050, part of his plan to lower energy costs by $1 billion over five years.

Last year, Connecticut lowered its 40% renewable energy goal for 2030 to 29%. Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said at the time that “electric bills are too damn high.”

Massachusetts and New Jersey are among the states looking at lowering charges on utility bills that help fund efficiency programs.

“It is hard to talk about climate at times, because everyone is very laser-focused on affordability and customer bills,” said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director for the Acadia Center. “So climate, while still important, is getting kind of pushed aside, unfortunately.”

Cap and invest in practice

One of New York's key mechanisms for reducing emissions was supposed to be a “cap-and-invest” system, in which polluters buy allowances for their emissions and the revenue is invested in things like clean technology and renewable energy.

In California, cap-and-invest is crucial to achieving goals that include reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. The state has used proceeds from cap-and-invest to direct billions of dollars to things like public transit and clean-vehicle incentives.

California regulators on Tuesday proposed cap-and-invest changes in response to concerns from lawmakers about electricity prices and economic worries from industry. Business incentives and electric bill relief would be increased under the proposals.

The program costs Californians an extra 24 cents a gallon at the pump and slightly more on their utility bills, though the state provides a regular “climate credit” on their bills, said Kyle Meng, associate professor of economics at UC Santa Barbara.

“When you make things more expensive, people conserve. It’s like Econ 101 and that’s the basic idea behind a cap-and-trade program,” Meng said.

New York officials, however, missed a 2024 deadline to create regulations detailing how such a system would work in their state. Without those rules in place, the system never launched. Environmentalists successfully sued the state over its failure to meet the deadline, which Hochul has mentioned in seeking a delay.

The governor’s new proposal, currently under consideration by legislative leaders, would give the state until 2030 to come up with regulations. And the state would set new targets for 2040 emissions levels.

Environmentalists dispute cost claims

If those deadlines are not moved, consumers will pay a cost, Hochul has said. Her administration estimates that implementing a cap-and-invest system now would pass along costs of more than $4,000 a year for some households.

Environmental advocates say the governor is estimating what an “extreme” version would cost, and that the analysis ignores the benefits of incentivizing polluters to move away from fossil fuels.

They also point to Washington, where voters in 2024 decided to keep that state’s cap-and-invest program by a wide margin.

“The sky has not fallen,” said Caitlin Krenn of Washington Conservation Action, “and the program is working as intended.”

Bruce Blakeman, a Republican county executive running for governor against Hochul, said he’d get rid of the state’s plan altogether if he wins this fall.

“Delaying the pain won’t make it disappear — it just leaves bigger bills down the road,” Blakeman said in a statement.

The dog bite happened before 9 p.m. in the 300 block of Noria Street, which is located near South Navidad Street.

A female dog, a black and white Labrador mix, bit the woman’s legs multiple times, ACS said in a statement to KSAT.

The woman was later transported to a local hospital for treatment and has since been released, ACS said.

Criminal citations are pending. The dog has since been taken into ACS custody, according to an agency spokesperson.

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The 14-year-old gunman was killed. He arrived at the school armed with guns believed to belong to his father, a retired police officer, Kahramanmaras provincial Gov. Mukerrem Unluer said. He was carrying five firearms and seven magazines.

The motive of the attack wasn't immediately known. It was not clear whether the gunman was killed by police or killed himself.

Six of the 13 people wounded were in serious condition, Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said.

The attack came a day after 16 people, mostly students, were wounded when a former student opened fire at a high school in nearby Sanliurfa province. The assailant later killed himself.

Until this week, school shootings were rare in Turkey.

State-run broadcaster, TRT, identified the latest shooter as Isa Aras Mersinli and said his father was detained for questioning.

Turkish authorities imposed a ban on the broadcast of “traumatic” images from the shooting, warning media organizations to limit coverage to statements from officials.

Parents rushed to the school in Kahramanmaras’ Onikisubat district after hearing reports of an armed attack, NTV television reported.

The Austin Democrat’s haul is the largest-ever sum for a Senate candidate — in any state — in the first quarter of an election year. He outraised other Democrats this cycle who posted impressive hauls of their own in competitive Senate races where Democrats have better odds, including Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, and more than doubled the totals of former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and former Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola.

Talarico significantly outpaced Texas’ last two Democratic Senate candidates to win their primaries outright — both strong fundraisers. Colin Allred raised over $9.5 million in the first quarter of 2024, and Beto O’Rourke brought in $6.7 million in 2018 — though both ultimately lost.

The massive haul will bolster Democrats’ hopes about making Talarico the first Democrat to win a statewide race in Texas in over three decades — an uphill battle in any cycle and an expensive proposition in a massive state with 20 media markets.

“Winning in Texas will require unprecedented resources,” said Seth Krasne, Talarico’s campaign manager. “This grassroots fundraising haul puts our movement in a strong position to spread our message in some of the most expensive media markets in the country. But we can’t take our foot off of the gas.”

Talarico spent much of the first quarter in a tight primary against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, contributing to his massive haul. But his campaign says he raised over $10 million since the March 3 primary.

The $27 million quarter brings Talarico’s total fundraising for the race, since he got in last September, to over $40 million. Talarico’s campaign said that over the course of the race, he has received donations from over 540,000 individual contributors, and from 246 of Texas’ 254 counties, according to his campaign.

Talarico also continued his streak of outraising his potential Republican opponents. Sen. John Cornyn, who is locked in a bitter runoff battle with Attorney General Ken Paxton, raised nearly $9 million in the first quarter across his fundraising apparatus, including $3.4 million in the weeks after the primary, his campaign announced. Paxton has not yet reported his first quarter total, but has trailed Cornyn in every quarter this cycle.

Texas’ record for U.S. Senate fundraising is O’Rourke’s 2018 third quarter, when he posted a $38 million haul.

Between crowded streets, limited parking and rising rideshare costs, transportation can quickly turn into a headache before the festivities even begin.

This year, VIA Metropolitan Transit is offering a simpler option: Park & Ride service designed to get people to Fiesta events without the hassle.

A stress-free way to get to Fiesta

VIA’s Park & Ride service allows riders to park at designated locations and take a direct bus to some of Fiesta’s most popular events.

Instead of navigating traffic or searching for parking downtown, riders can leave their cars behind and take advantage of a more streamlined experience.

The service is available for major Fiesta events, including:

• St. Mary’s Oyster Bake (April 17-18 -- operating at Crossroads Park & Ride and Brooks)
• A Taste of New Orleans (April 17-19 -- operating at Crossroads and Stone Oak Park & Ride and Brooks)
• Texas Cavaliers River Parade (April 20 -- operating at Crossroads and Stone Oak Park & Ride and Brooks)
• A Night in Old San Antonio (April 21–24 -- operating at Crossroads Park & Ride and Brooks)
• Battle of Flowers Parade (April 24 -- operating at Crossroads and Brooks)
• King William Fair (April 25 -- operating at Crossroads and Stone Oak Park & Ride and Brooks)
• Fiesta Flambeau Parade (April 25 -- operating at Crossroads and Brooks Park & Ride and Brooks)

Affordable and accessible transportation

In addition to convenience, VIA’s Park & Ride service is designed to be budget friendly.

Fares are $1.30 each way, with discounted rates available for children, seniors, students and active-duty military members. Children under age 5 and VIAtrans customers ride free.

VIA bus passes and U-Passes are also accepted, which gives frequent riders even more flexibility.

For those who need additional accessibility support, VIAtrans service is available to registered patrons, following standard reservation policies.

A bonus for Fiesta-goers

Riders who use Park & Ride to attend Fiesta events may also receive a limited-edition VIA Fiesta medal -- a popular tradition among San Antonio residents and collectors.

Medals are available while supplies last and can be picked up when using the Park & Ride service to eligible events.

Passengers can purchase Park & Ride fare at VIA customer service windows ahead of time or at ticket kiosks located at Park & Ride sites on the day of the event.

More ways to get around downtown

For those already in the city center, VIA also offers additional transportation options.

VIA Link Downtown and VIA Primo Route 100 provide service throughout downtown San Antonio, including Market Square, for $1.30 per trip. These options can be useful for navigating between Fiesta events without needing a vehicle.

Planning ahead

With large crowds expected throughout Fiesta, planning transportation in advance can help avoid delays and make the overall experience more enjoyable.

Riders can plan their trip using the Transit app or contact VIA’s goLine at 210-362-2020 for assistance.

Making the most of Fiesta

Fiesta San Antonio is one of the city’s most celebrated traditions, drawing thousands of attendees each year.

By offering accessible, affordable and convenient transportation, VIA aims to make it easier for residents and visitors to enjoy everything the event has to offer, without the added stress of traffic and parking.

For many, the takeaway is simple: when it comes to getting to Fiesta, Park & Ride may be the easiest way to join the celebration.

Click or tap here to learn everything you need to know about VIA rides to Fiesta.

Follow Via Metropolitan Transit on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter for the latest updates before and during Fiesta.

The possible change is alarming environmental advocates who say it would lead to more dangerous pollution spewing into communities, with fewer or no checks at the federal level. The plastics industry disputes that, saying it would clear up confusion while still controlling emissions.

The world is pumping millions of tons of plastic pollution into the environment every year. While dozens of countries and many environmental groups have urged caps on production, industry and several big oil-producing countries have resisted, arguing instead for improvements in reuse and recycling.

Chemical recycling uses heat or chemicals to break down plastics. The main method, a process known as pyrolysis, has long been regulated as incineration by the Clean Air Act. The EPA limits emissions from incinerators of nine air pollutants, including toxic particulates, heavy metals and dioxins.

The agency says a potential new rule could instead recognize pyrolysis as manufacturing.

The American Chemistry Council, an industry group, has long argued for such a change.

“The definition of incineration is to destroy it, right? You’re literally trying to make it go away,” said Ross Eisenberg, president of America’s Plastic Makers, who leads ACC’s plastics advocacy. “That’s not what they’re doing here. They are trying to preserve it and recover the materials, which is recycling, which is manufacturing.”

Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator who now heads up Beyond Plastics, opposes what she said would be a “much weaker level of environmental protection.”

“Chemical recycling companies know that if they want to operate, they need to get this essential Clean Air Act permit and they don’t like it,” she said. “They have spent decades trying to convince EPA to change the rules of the game. Republican and Democratic administrations have declined to do this. But they have hit the jackpot with the Trump administration.”

Alarm over changing how pyrolysis is regulated

The EPA regulates pyrolysis under section 129 of the act, which reduces air pollution from four categories of solid waste incineration units. The agency told The Associated Press that a final rule in 2005 that included “pyrolysis/combustion units” under that section was vague and caused confusion for the industry.

EPA said it's taking public comment for a potential rule that could recognize pyrolysis as manufacturing under a different section, 111, of the Clean Air Act.

John Walke, who leads the Natural Resources Defense Council’s national clean air advocacy, said Section 111 doesn't regulate as many pollutants as 129. He also argued that EPA's plan is skipping crucial steps in a lengthy, required rulemaking process.

Walke also said the EPA move would amount to the immediate deregulation of these facilities under the act. He said it would take several years to follow the legal process to regulate the industry under another section, leaving a gap where no federal emissions standards would apply.

“You could have a facility that was controlled on a Monday, preventing those hazardous air pollutants from being emitted into the atmosphere, and on Tuesday, the facility would have legal permission to turn off installed pollution controls to allow the unlimited release of hazardous air pollution into the same community that was better protected on Monday,” he said. “Why would they do that? Why would they turn off an installed pollution control device? Because it costs money to operate them.”

Eisenberg disputed that. He said other sections of the Clean Air Act would still apply, and facilities get state permits, so the emissions would still be controlled and surrounding communities would be safe. They are “so heavily regulated,” Eisenberg said.

Recycling rates for plastic waste are tiny

More than 90% of plastics aren't recycled, according to the American Chemistry Council. It promises that chemical, or advanced, recycling can change that. As a complement to traditional mechanical recycling, chemical recycling can help dramatically reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills while generating a diverse range of products, the ACC says.

The process breaks plastics down into liquid and gas to produce an oil-like mixture or basic chemicals, that can be used to make new plastics or fuels. It's like “unbaking a cake,” Eisenberg said.

Environmental groups say advanced recycling is waste disposal, not recycling, and a distraction from real solutions like producing and using less plastic.

There are six pyrolysis plants, operating in Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Indiana and Georgia, plus one under construction in Arizona and another in West Virginia, and a small test project in Maryland, according to the American Chemistry Council. The ACC has been lobbying states and Congress to pass laws to regulate chemical recycling as manufacturing. Twenty-five states now do, and legislation is pending in Congress.

Despite that legislative success, Eisenberg said the number of proposals to build these plants has dwindled in recent years, in part because of the permitting process.

“I often ask people to take a step back,” he said. “Do you want more recycling? If the answer is yes, then we should do what we can to make sure that you can bring more recycling online.”

Eisenberg said they've made clear to the Trump administration that revising the Clean Air Act is a priority. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin toured ExxonMobil's Baytown, Texas, facility to see chemical recycling in person last year.

Critic says notice of possible change was buried

In March, the EPA published a notice requesting comment on a proposed rule to consolidate regulations for another type of incinerator, with a small section soliciting comment on removing the reference to pyrolysis. The EPA mentioned it at the end of its press release on air curtain incinerators, too.

Enck said it was a bombshell paragraph, buried in a rulemaking notice. The EPA dismissed the criticism, highlighting the press release.

At a public hearing last week, many people urged the EPA to keep pyrolysis units regulated as incinerators, including about a dozen speakers from the nonprofit Moms Clean Air Force. Kiya Stanford, the group's Georgia state organizer, said in her testimony that changing it “feels like a move to prioritize polluters over people,” offering the plastics industry a cheap way to make waste disappear from sight by spewing it into the air as toxic pollution.

The agency proposed a similar change in 2020, during President Donald Trump's first term. The Biden administration withdrew the proposed modification.

Walke said that if the EPA finalizes the rollback now, the NRDC would plan to challenge it in court.

___

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.

San Antonio police officers found the couple after 8 a.m. Tuesday inside their home on West Lullwood Avenue, near Hildebrand Avenue.

Public Information Officer Sharavious Jackson said the couple’s son called 911 after making the discovery.

“The mom called the son, letting the son know that, ‘Hey, your dad is acting really strange,’” Jackson said.

Within minutes, officers assembled outside the home along with an ambulance. SAPD then took the woman’s 82-year-old husband, identified as Robert Hobson, into custody.

According to Bexar County jail records, Hobson was charged with aggravated assault with a weapon causing serious bodily injury.

“I came out, and there were police cars up and down the entire street. There were probably at least 10 police cars,” said Pam Flather, a neighbor who has known the couple for about 20 years. “I know that she had been bedridden for a long time, so I just thought that she’s probably not doing well.”

Flather said she was shocked to later learn about the stabbing.

Police did not say right away what type of weapon Hobson used, but the stabbing left the woman in critical condition.

Neighbors gathered near the crime scene on Tuesday wondered aloud what they might have been able to do to help the couple.

What happened, Flather said, seems out of character for Hobson, who she said was a dedicated caretaker for his wife.

“I could see if he was disoriented or something like that, but never in his regular capacity could he ever do any harm,” Flather said.

Letty Inabinet and her husband own Visiting Angels in Windcrest, an organization that provides in-home help to local veterans and seniors.

The work they do also helps to take a bit of the burden off loved ones of those patients.

“It is a lot for families to bear,” said Inabinet, who, herself, is a veteran. “When they take that scope of responsibility, it does become overwhelming, and it could lead to burnout or something more tragic.”

Inabinet advises families not to wait too long to explore other options for help.

The Alamo Area Council of Governments’ (AACOG) Alamo Service Connection recommends the following tips to manage caregiver stress:

• Prioritize self-care: Your needs are as important as the needs of the person you care for. These needs include doing the things that interest you and bring you joy.
• Recognize when you need to take breaks: Schedule respite time for yourself and honor each appointment.
• Admit when you need help and accept it: Create a plan that works for you and allow others to assist.
• Build a strong support system: Connect with a trusted friend or confidant who genuinely listens. Also, consider joining a caregiver group to reinforce your support network.
• Get connected to local resources: Contact your local Area Agency on Aging by calling the Alamo Service Connection at 210-477-3275.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic violence, there is so much help for you. KSAT has a list of resources on its Domestic Violence webpage, which also explains how to identify different types of abuse.

If it’s an emergency, text or call 911. For wrap-around services, including the Battered Women and Children’s Shelter, call Family Violence Prevention Services at (210) 733-8810.

You can also contact the Bexar County Family Justice Center, which also provides wrap-around services at (210) 631-0100.

Read also:

• Chilaquiles Buen Dia near Pearl temporarily closes due to vandalism
• SAPD: Woman murdered in shooting, found dead at Northwest Side home
• ‘It’s mind-blowing’: Man, 31, charged with tampering his father’s dead body, SAPD says

Their lawyer, Marco Mellone, argued before the Cassation Court that the law should apply only to people born after it took effect, potentially opening a pathway to citizenship for millions of people living in the United States and parts of Latin America. Another lawyer represented Italian descendants from Venezuela.

A decision by an expanded panel, which makes the ruling binding in lower courts, is expected in the coming weeks.

A decree by the conservative government in March 2025 put the brakes on previous rules allowing anyone who could prove ancestry after Italy’s formation in 1861 to seek citizenship. Italy’s constitutional court last month ruled the new law is valid, but Mellone said the supreme court has the power to clarify the scope of the law.

“The families involved in this case are simply descendants ... from an Italian ancestor who emigrated in the late 19th century to the United States, like millions of other people, of other Italians,’’ Mellone said before the hearing. "Today they are invoking their right to Italian citizenship.''

Mellone’s case would clarify the citizenship rights of the descendants of some 14 million Italians who emigrated between 1877 and 1914, according to Foreign Ministry statistics, and beyond.

While Mellone’s case involves two families, another dozen people whose citizenship claims were stopped by the law were present outside the courthouse in solidarity.

Karen Bonadio said she hopes one day to move to Italy on the strength of her ancestry. She brought photos of her as a young girl alongside her Italian-born great-grandparents, who emigrated from Basilicata in southern Italy to upstate New York, along with their birth certificates.

“The new law says, ‘all these great-grandchildren didn’t know their great-grandparents.' This is from 1963, I think I was 3 ½,’’ she said, showing the photograph.

At least one of Mellone’s cases had been rejected in lower courts before the new law, hinging partially on rulings that Italian emigrants who took on another citizenship before having children cannot pass on Italian citizenship.

Jennifer Daley’s case has been working its way through the Italian bureaucracy for nearly a decade. Her grandfather, Giuseppe Dalfollo, immigrated to the U.S. in 1912 from the northern province of Trento when it was under Austro-Hungarian control. He later married an Italian woman and brought her over, and at some point became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Daley said she always had a strong Italian identity that transcended her last name anglicized by U.S. immigration officials. She petitioned for citizenship because “it is truly a recognition of who I am, where I am from. It’s so much more than citizenship. It’s everything,'' Daley, a historian, said by phone from Salina, Kansas.

Outside the courthouse, Alexis Traino said great-grandparents on both her maternal and paternal sides had come from Italy, where she now lives, mainly in Florence.

“My entire life, I grew up knowing — and my parents always emphasized — that I was Italian. I had a very, very strong connection with Italy," said Traino, 34, who was waiting for documents from Italy and the U.S. when the law passed, blocking her case.

“I want to be Italian. I want to contribute to Italy and be a citizen,’’ she said.

___

Barry reported from Milan.

———

This story was updated on Apr. 15, 2026 to correct the spellings of the names of a U.S. citizen seeking Italian citizenship and her grandfather. It is Jennifer Daley, not Jennifer Daly, and Giuseppe Dalfollo, not Giuseppe Dallfollo. Daley is a historian, rather than a retired history professor.

“I can't blow my nose for six weeks, because one of the fractures is kind of like where my orbital bone is,” he said before a 4-3 loss to Arizona. “If I blow my nose, it's going to go up into my eye.”

Albernaz said he has more than a half-dozen fractures in his cheek area and a broken jaw, but he was relieved to avoid surgery and said he doesn't need his jaw wired. Albernaz joked that he might grab a Ravens helmet from his desk to wear in the dugout.

Albernaz, in his first season as Baltimore's manager, was in the part of the dugout closest to the on-deck circle when Jeremiah Jackson's foul ball struck him in the fifth inning Monday night. He returned to the dugout an inning later when Jackson hit a grand slam, but he ultimately ended up listening to the game on the radio en route to a hospital, where he says he remained until about midnight.

“I was trying to get back out there after my concussion protocol was fine, but they wanted me to get a CT scan,” Albernaz said. “I was trying to get it after the game, but obviously the medical team has better judgment than I do.”

He was back in the dugout Tuesday, but the healing process could take time.

“Six weeks of soft foods,” Albernaz said. “Can't do anything strenuous.”

Including argue with umpires?

“Medically speaking, yeah I probably shouldn't,” he said. “I think everything gets thrown out the window when that first pitch happens.”

The Orioles also announced that infielder Jackson Holliday was recalled from his rehab assignment Monday because of mild right wrist soreness. The team said that's not uncommon following hamate surgery. He will be shut down for a few days.

Albernaz has been loath to give timelines on players returning from injury so as not to create added pressure.

“I said I don't believe in timelines, and this is a perfect example of that. It all depends on the player,” he said. “It's great to see Jackson being communicative and open at every turn.”

___

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

But instead of showcasing the youthful energy that the organization harnessed to return President Donald Trump to the White House less than two years ago, there was a mostly empty arena, awkward questions and unusually sharp criticism.

The event affirmed Trump's difficulty selling the war and how much he’s complicated his own political fortunes by assailing Pope Leo XIV and posting a social media meme that depicted himself as Jesus.

“I did vote for Trump. I am not a Trump supporter anymore,” said Joseph Bercher, a Catholic who said he was glad that Leo has expressed opposition to the war with Iran.

Bercher said the Jesus meme, which the president took down Monday after a rare conservative backlash, was a “red flag” indicating Trump's true character.

“He sees himself as like a demagogue or someone to be worshipped," Bercher said.

C.J. Santini, a recent graduate of Liberty University, an evangelical school in Virginia, said he didn't have an opinion on whether Iran was truly close to manufacturing a nuclear weapon and thus needed to be attacked. But he laughed and shook his head when asked about Trump attacking Leo.

“It’s just stupid. Stupid,” he said, calling it a “distraction” from Trump’s agenda in Iran and at home.

Mostly empty arena contrasts with 2024 rallies

Many of the college-age attendees donned Turning Point attire, Trump hats and red-white-and-blue paraphernalia for the event. Yet they were outnumbered more than 2-to-1 by empty seats in what is not even the largest arena on this sprawling campus that sits about a 90-minute drive from downtown Atlanta.

A Marine veteran who served in Iraq, Vance acknowledged that not all young conservatives are enamored with another U.S. war in the Middle East.

“I’m not saying you have to agree with me on every issue,” Vance told the young crowd. “What I’m saying,” he added, “is don’t get disengaged.”

The vice president took questions from Turning Point executive Andrew Kolvet instead of Erika Kirk, who began leading the organization after the assassination of her husband Charlie Kirk. Kolvet said Erika Kirk canceled her plans to be on stage because of unspecified threats she had received.

Vance, whose presence ensured significant Secret Service and other law enforcement protection around the venue, said he’d been worried that the event would be canceled altogether.

Kolvet asked Vance directly about the war and Trump’s back-and-forth with Leo. Audience questions were more aggressive. Vance jousted with at least one heckler over the war in Gaza, and he was pressed by another person over the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case files.

In the audience, even some of Vance’s sympathetic listeners offered caveats and critiques.

“The pope needs to stay out of politics,” said Jessie Williams, a Methodist. But he noted his mother is Catholic, and he said he understands why Catholics recoil at Trump calling the pope “weak” and suggesting that the first U.S.-born pontiff was chosen only as a counter to Trump.

Williams called Trump’s meme distasteful.

“I don’t like it, but it’s — what can we do?" Williams said. "He’s a grown man, he’s gonna do what he wants.”

Blake McCluggage, a Baptist, said he did not approve of the meme or Trump’s profane Easter Sunday message that threatened widespread destruction of Iran’s civilian infrastructure.

The threat, plus Trump’s follow up message that a “whole civilization” would die, prompted escalating criticism from Leo, with the pope calling the president’s comments “truly unacceptable.”

However, McCluggage said, “you can still be a Republican” despite disagreeing with Trump.

Vance adjusts his comments about the pope

A day before coming to Georgia, Vance tried to laugh off the meme as a joke that “a lot of people weren’t understanding.” The vice president also seemed to echo Trump’s assertion that Leo should concentrate less on global affairs.

“It would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of what’s going on in the Catholic church and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” Vance said in a Fox News interview.

On stage in Athens, he shifted his arguments, saying he welcomes Leo’s comments even if he disagrees with them.

“At the very least, it invites conversation,” said Vance, who converted to Catholicism as an adult.

Still, Vance questioned Leo anew, pushing back specifically at the pope’s Palm Sunday assertion that God does not hear the prayers of those who make war. Leo was quoting scripture from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Vance asked whether God was on the side of Allied forces in World War II as they liberated Jewish survivors of Nazi extermination camps.

“I certainly think the answer is yes,” Vance said. When Leo mixes global affairs and complex theology, Vance said, “it’s very important for the pope to be careful.”

Mary Liz Eastland, a member of the family that owns and operates Camp Mystic, was questioned in a legal fight between the camp operators and families of victims who have filed lawsuits and want the camp to preserve damaged areas as evidence. The hearing over the past two days has produced the most extensive details from camp operators of what happened in the July 4 predawn flood on the Guadalupe River, and the delayed decisions to evacuate until it was too late.

While the deaths of 25 campers and two teenage counselors at the all-girls Christian camp have been widely reported and are not in question, the Texas administrative code requires camps to report deaths to state health regulators within 24 hours.

“I did not think of this requirement in the moments happening after the flood,” Eastland said, adding she also had not done so leading up to camp’s March 31 application to reopen.

Eastland could not recall exactly when she learned campers had died, saying it could have been a day, or several days, after the flood. Richard Eastland, her father-in-law, also was killed.

When pressed if she should formally report the deaths now with the camp license pending, Mary Liz Eastland said, “I guess so.”

It was unclear if the failure to report would affect the camp’s license application. A copy of the camp’s application includes lists of camp officers and flood plain maps. Operators are also required to submit a detailed safety plan, but that is shielded from public view.

State regulators will visit the camp during the license review. The agency has also said it is reviewing hundreds of complaints filed against the camp and has invited the Texas Rangers investigative unit to help. State lawmakers also are conducting a seperate investigation of the flood.

“DSHS will consider any findings from the inspection and investigation when making the determination on the renewal application,” the agency said Tuesday.

The camp’s plan to reopen part of the campus this summer and host nearly 900 girls has outraged families of the girls killed. The family of 8-year-old Cile Steward, the only camper still missing, filed the lawsuit that prompted this week’s hearing.

The Steward family has said the camp should not be allowed to reopen under the continued leadership of the Eastland family. Separately, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said no license should be issued until all the investigations are complete.

Mary Liz Eastland’s testimony came after her husband Edward Eastland spent hours under questioning Monday and Tuesday about missed weather warnings, the delayed decision to evacuate, and desperate attempts to save children as the water ripped through the camp with enough force to create rapids that swirled around the cabins.

He tearfully described grabbing two girls and another who jumped on his back before they were all washed away.

“A genuine hero testified today,” said Mikal Watts, one of the attorneys for the Eastlands. ”He told a gripping story of saving lives in an unprecedented tsunami. I am proud to represent Edward Eastland and his family.”

Mary Liz Eastland recounted her steps that night when she and her children left their house to join her mother-in-law. She described water pouring into the house and breaking a window to escape. The family was able to get to higher ground.

She also described what she saw at sunrise when she went toward the river bank, “seeing girls in trees.” She and other staff gathered survivors for a head count, checking names against cabin rosters.

“I had to figure out who we had and didn’t have at that point,” she said.

But she also acknowledged never trying to get to the low-lying areas to evacuate campers in the early moments of the storm, saying she could not pass through the rising floodwaters. She was also pressed as to why, as the camp’s chief medical officer, did she not try to call or alert other medical staff to get to the campers before disaster struck.

Steward family attorney Christina Yarnell noted Eastland had been at Camp Mystic as a camper, counselor or staff member since 2002.

“You knew the property. You knew the flood lines. You knew access points,” Yarnell said. “Your children knew them. These were first-year campers … Cile needed your help and you abandoned her, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Eastland said.

Dr. Ravi Ashwath told KSAT that more teens are coming in with a racing heart or palpitations, anxiety, chest pain and shortness of breath.

“Yes, we are seeing more palpitations in teenagers,” Ashwath said. “And when we really dig deep in and understand what can be leading to it, energy drinks are one of the culprits.”

Ashwath said high school students can be drawn to caffeine as they juggle sports pressures, homework and heavy marketing that promises quick energy.

“Energy should not come from the can,” Ashwath said, in part. “It should come from health.”

How much caffeine is too much?

Experts discourage caffeine use in teens, but if they do consume it, Ashwath said it should be limited. A commonly cited cap is less than 100 milligrams per day for teens.

For context:

• An 8-ounce cup of coffee: about 60 to 100 milligrams of caffeine
• Alani Nu (12 ounces): up to 200 milligrams of caffeine
• Monster (16 ounces): about 160 milligrams of caffeine

Ashwath said parents should start talking early with their children about caffeine, what it does and the potential side effects.

“Parents have to start the discussion early in life about the use of caffeine,” Ashwath said. “I don’t think one would say that no caffeine is the rule. So we have to say what is the ideal amount of caffeine?”

Ashwath said the way teens consume caffeine can make a difference. Coffee and tea are often sipped over time. However, energy drinks are often consumed quickly, which can hit the body harder.

“I’ll just basically let ChatGPT know my status, how I’m feeling,” said the 42-year-old in Mesquite, Texas. “I use it for anything that I’m experiencing.”

Turning to artificial intelligence tools for health advice has become a habit for Davis and many other Americans, according to a West Health–Gallup Center on Healthcare in America poll published Wednesday. The poll, conducted in late 2025 and backed up by at least three other recent surveys with similar findings, found that roughly one-quarter of U.S. adults had used an AI tool for health information or advice in the past 30 days.

Dr. Karandeep Singh, chief health AI officer at the University of California San Diego Health, said AI tools, many of which now incorporate web search, are an upgraded version of Google health searches that Americans have been doing for decades.

“I almost view it like a better entry portal into web search,” he said. “Instead of someone having to comb through the top, you know, 10, 20, 30 links in a web search, they can now have an executive summary.”

Most recent AI health users are looking for quick answers

Most Americans using AI tools for health purposes say they want immediate answers. In some cases, it helps them evaluate what kind of medical attention they need.

“It’ll let me know if something’s serious or not,” Davis said of ChatGPT, which she typically consults before scheduling medical appointments.

The Gallup survey found about 7 in 10 U.S. adults who have used AI for health research in the past 30 days say they wanted quick answers, additional information or were simply curious. Majorities used it for research before seeing a doctor or after an appointment.

Rakesia Wilson, 39, in Theodore, Alabama, said she recently used AI to better understand her lab results after an endocrinologist visit. She also regularly uses ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot to decide whether she needs to take time off for a doctor's appointment or can simply monitor an ailment.

“I just don’t necessarily have the time if it’s something that I feel is minor," said Wilson, who said she sometimes works up to 70-hour weeks as an assistant principal.

Younger adults and lower-income users have used AI to bridge care gaps

On the whole, the findings suggest that the rise of AI tools hasn't stopped people from seeking professional medical care. About 8 in 10 U.S. adults say they have sought out a doctor or other health care professional for health information in the past year, while about 3 in 10 say that about AI tools and chatbots, according to a KFF poll conducted in late February.

Similarly, a Pew Research Center survey conducted in October found that about 2 in 10 U.S. adults say they get health information at least sometimes from AI chatbots, while about 85% said the same about health care providers.

But there are indications that some Americans are using AI for health advice because they are struggling to obtain professional medical care, at a time when federal policy and market factors are worsening health costs and creating obstacles to access around the country.

A small but significant share of respondents in the Gallup study say they used AI because accessing health care was too expensive or inconvenient. About 4 in 10 wanted help outside of normal business hours, while about 3 in 10 did not want to pay for a doctor’s visit. Roughly 2 in 10 did not have time to make an appointment, had felt ignored or dismissed by a provider in the past or were too embarrassed to talk to a person.

The KFF survey found that younger adults and lower-income people were more likely to say they used an AI tool or chatbot for health information because they could not afford the cost of seeing a provider or were having trouble accessing health care.

Americans are divided on whether AI medical advice can be trusted

Tech experts often warn that AI chatbots don’t think for themselves — and therefore can sometimes spout false information. Those concerns have trickled down even to frequent AI users.

About one-third of adults who had recently used AI for health information said they “strongly” or “somewhat” trust the accuracy of health information and advice generated by AI tools, according to the Gallup poll. About the same share, 34%, distrusted it, and another 33% neither trusted it nor distrusted it.

Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, an ear, nose and throat doctor and the president of the American Medical Association, said he loves when patients come in and have “more evolved questions than they used to have” because they used AI for research. But he said AI should be considered a tool and not a stand-in for medical care.

“It is an assistant but not an expert, and that’s why physicians need to be involved in that care,” he said.

There are also concerns about privacy, according to KFF. About three-quarters of U.S. adults said they are “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about the privacy of personal medical or health information that people provide to AI tools or chatbots.

Singh, of UC San Diego Health, said most AI tools have settings users can toggle to prevent their data from being used to train future models. But that requires user vigilance — and not being careful can have consequences.

Last summer, for example, internet sleuths on Google discovered private ChatGPT conversations that had been indexed on a public website without the users realizing it.

Tamara Ruppart, a 47-year-old director in Los Angeles, said she is lucky enough to have doctors in her husband’s family that she contacts instead of turning to AI. With her family history of breast cancer, using a chatbot for health advice feels too risky.

“Health care is something that’s pretty serious,” she said. “And if it’s wrong, you could really hurt yourself.”

___

Sanders reported from Washington.

At B.Link inside La Villita, Brandy Garcia, Mujeres Gonzalez Art Owner Dolores Gonzales and Princess and the Monkey Owner Stephanie Peña shared simple do-it-yourself ways to repurpose old medals.

The repurpose methods involve deconstructing the medals into a larger medallion to turn ribbons into hat flair, or key chains, purse chains and even wreaths.

Not ready to craft? Goodwill San Antonio states that community members can donate medals at any of its 24 stores. The medals are then resold at a lower price and sometimes include rare finds, like a vintage Selena medal.

More Fiesta 2026 coverage on KSAT:

• San Antonio high school students get first look at Battle of Flowers Parade floats
• Fiesta parades: How to choose where to sit?

Meat raffles have been popular in pockets of the U.S. for decades, offering a fun way to raise money for charities while handing out prizes ranging from ground beef and hot dogs to chicken breasts and steaks. But while inflation has surged and meat prices have soared, Minnesota's $70 per-event prize limit hasn't changed in nearly 40 years.

The deeply divided Minnesota Legislature hasn't been able to agree on much this year, but it's almost a sure bet to respond by upping the cap to $200. That will allow charities to offer more and bigger grill packs, and thicker, fancier steaks, while funding local youth sports teams and other causes. And it will ensure that the state’s beloved if quirky tradition of gambling for meat products will remain viable.

“This is probably the best feel-good bill that we have going on in the Legislature right now,” said Republican Rep. Jim Nash, lead House author of the meat raffle legislation.

Even with the lower prize limit, Andrea “Mama” Avaloz scored with a $2 bet. Game organizers spun a wheel and landed on her number 5, making her a winner of the American Legion Post 150 in the lakeside town of Waconia, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Minneapolis.

“So I have a little fajita meat. We are set to go!” Avaloz said as she picked up her plastic-wrapped prize. “Beef sticks! Love them!”

Moments later she realized there was a surprise hidden beneath her beef and sausages.

“Oh my God, I have pork chops!” she exclaimed. “I picked a good one! I’m so excited!”

Meat raffles originated during World War II as a response to wartime rationing in the United Kingdom. They spread to Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and eventually migrated to Minnesota, Wisconsin, western New York and a few other states.

Nash, who represents Waconia, said he expects a vote in the House next week to expand the prize cap and approval soon after in the Senate.

“It’s an opportunity for bipartisanship,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to do good things.”

The service organizations that run meat raffles and other charitable gambling in Minnesota put the proceeds back into their communities. The bars and restaurants that host them benefit from bigger crowds that buy more burgers and beer.

Joe Gifford, commander of Post 150, which was founded in 1920, said those sales mean even more money to support Legion baseball and softball teams, and to maintain veterans' monuments.

“Every dollar we raise here, after we pay our bills, actually goes right back into all those different services for community, veterans, and active duty military,” Gifford said. “And the meat raffle is a part of that. It’s one of the instruments where we actually draw crowds in on a Friday.”

In Minneapolis, meat raffles are held each Friday night in the 1029 Bar, a spot often patronized by police officers. Behind the bar there's a squad car door hanging that's riddled with bullet holes.

Roberta Rodriguez, site manager for the Northeast Minneapolis Lions Club, runs the charitable gambling operation at the bar, which like Post 150 also includes other games, like bingo and pull-tabs.

“We have a lot customers that come every week,” Rodriguez said. “So they get to know each other, they tease each other when someone wins too much.”

Ashley Burris hadn't heard of meat raffles until she moved to Minnesota from Virginia. Now she seeks out bars that offer them.

“It’s kinda my vibe,” she said during a break in the action.

Burris said she hadn't heard of the legislation — or the idea that prizes might be too small. She was focused more on the fun.

“It’s never crossed my mind — although you can never have too much rib-eye,” she said.

The 11-day celebration will feature dozens of events, including performances by major artists at several festivities.

>> 🎊 ¡Viva! Your guide to Fiesta 2026 in San Antonio

Some concerts will be held during Fiesta Oyster Bake at St. Mary’s University while others will be at Fiesta De Los Reyes at Market Square.

Switchfoot, Erick Y Su Grupo Massore and Gary Hobbs are among some of the performers to expect at this year’s Fiesta musical lineup.

Check out some of the major performers taking the stage at this year’s Fiesta events:

Fiesta De Los Reyes

Fiesta-goers can enjoy live music from two stages, sample a variety of food and more at Market Square from April 17-26.

The Fiesta event will be open daily. Click here to learn more about the new gate fee.

Below is a list of some artists performing at the family-friendly event:

Friday, April 17

• Jase Martin Band - 6:30-9 p.m. at North San Saba Stage
• Jay Perez - 9:30-11 p.m. at Gateway Stage
• Sandy G Y Los Gavilanes - 9:30-11 p.m. at North San Saba Stage

Saturday, April 18

• La Dezz - 6:30-9 p.m. at North San Saba Stage
• Gary Hobbs - 9:30-11 p.m. at Gateway Stage
• David Farias - 9:30-11 p.m. at North San Saba Stage

Sunday, April 19

• Delta Boys - 6:30-9 p.m. at North San Saba Stage
• Special Show Tribute - 9-11 p.m. at Gateway Stage
• Chente Barrera - 9:30-11 p.m. at North San Saba Stage

Monday, April 20

• Los Sabrosos De La Cumbia - 6:30-9 p.m. at North San Saba Stage
• Erick Y Su Grupo Massore - 9:30-11 p.m. at Gateway Stage
• El Gran Sabor De Adrian Diaz - 9:30-11 p.m. at North San Saba Stage

Tuesday, April 21

• Tributo a Mana Y Shakira - 5:30-8 p.m. at North San Saba Stage
• Spazmatics - 8:30-11 p.m. at Gateway Stage
• Lon Duk Don - 8:30-11 p.m. at North San Saba Stage

Wednesday, April 22

• Destiny Navira - 7:30-9 p.m. at North San Saba Stage
• David Lee Garza Y Los Musicales - 9:30-11 p.m. at Gateway Stage
• LA 45 - 9:30-11 p.m. at North San Saba Stage

Thursday, April 23

• David Marez - 9:30-11 p.m. at North San Saba Stage
• Ricardo Castillon Y La Diferenzia - 9:30-11 p.m. at Gateway Stage

Friday, April 24

• Jaime De Anda - 9:30-11 p.m. at North San Saba Stage
• Latin Breed - 9:30-11 p.m. at Gateway Stage

Saturday, April 25

• Liberty Band - 8:15-10 p.m. at North San Saba Stage
• Tortilla Factory - 8:30-10 p.m. at Gateway Stage
• Ruben Ramos - 10:30 p.m. to midnight at Gateway Stage
• Monica Saldivar - 10:30 p.m. to midnight at North San Saba Stage

Sunday, April 26

• Los Desperadoz - 7:30-9 p.m. at North San Saba Stage
• Tropa Estrella - 9:30-11 p.m. at Gateway Stage
• Ram Herrera - 9:30-11 p.m. at North San Saba Stage

Fiesta Oyster Bake

Fiesta-goers can catch live music alongside thousands of oysters and chicken on a sticks at the Oyster Bake.

The Oyster Bake is scheduled from 5-11 p.m. on Friday, April 17, and from noon to 11 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, at St. Mary’s University, located at 1 Camino Santa Maria.

Here’s some artists performing at this year’s Oyster Bake event:

Friday, April 17

• Switchfoot
• Drake Milligan
• Saliva
• David Farias y La Tropa F
• David Lewis

Saturday, April 18

• Candlebox
• Pecos & the Rooftops
• Tanner Usrey
• Dorothy
• Jay Perez

A two-day pass costs $45. For a full schedule of performers and the stages where they will be appearing, click here.

La Semana Alegre

La Semana Alegre returns to Hemisfair, marking its first year as an official Fiesta event.

The two-day festival will take place from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on April 23-24 at 210 S. Alamo St.

Below is a list of some performers taking the stage at Civic Park at Hemisfair:

Thursday, April 23

• A Flock of Seagulls
• Men Without Hats
• Bow Wow Wow
• Tommy Tutone
• Girl in a Coma

Friday, April 24

• Ghostland Observatory
• 54 Ultra
• Los Retros
• La Santa Cecilia
• The Bright Light Social Hour

Single-day general admission tickets cost $26 per person and two-day tickets cost $42.

To view a full list of bands performing during the two-day festival, click here.

A Night in Old San Antonio is also expected to have an entertainment lineup from April 21-24. Click here to view the list of performers.

📅 Daily event guides

Planning your Fiesta schedule? KSAT once again provides daily guides for each day of Fiesta 2026:

• Fiesta events for April 16: Fiesta Fiesta, Taste of the Republic
• Fiesta events for April 17: Oyster Bake, Fiesta De Los Reyes, A Taste of New Orleans
• Fiesta events for April 18: OLLU Confetti 5K Fun Run, Fiesta De Los Niños, Chanclas Y Cervezas
• Fiesta events for April 19: A Day in Old Mexico, Fiesta Flotilla, UT San Antonio Fiesta Arts Fair
• Fiesta events for April 20: Texas Cavaliers River Parade, Pilgrimage to the Alamo
• Fiesta events for April 21: NIOSA, Fiesta Especial Celebration Day, Fiesta Cornyation
• Fiesta events for April 22: Coronation of the Queen, Fiesta Gartenfest
• Fiesta events for April 23: Battle of Flowers Band Festival, Fredstock, La Semana Alegre
• Fiesta events for April 24: Battle of Flowers Parade, Fiesta Jazz Festival, Incognito
• Fiesta events for April 25: Fiesta Pooch Parade, Flambeau Parade, Fiesta De Animales
• Fiesta events for April 26: Festival De Cascarones, MissionFest

📺 Watch Fiesta anywhere with KSAT

Here’s when you can watch some of the biggest events on KSAT 12, KSAT Plus (our free streaming app), YouTube and KSAT.com.

• Thursday, April 16: Fiesta Fiesta, 8-10 p.m. at Travis Park. — Watch on KSAT 12, KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.
• Monday, April 20: Texas Cavaliers River Parade and River Parade en Español, coverage starts at 7 p.m., followed by the SA Live River Parade After Party. — Watch on KSAT 12, KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.
• Thursday, April 23: Battle of Flowers Band Festival, coverage starts at 7 p.m. at the Alamo Stadium. — Watch on KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.
• Friday, April 24: Battle of Flowers Parade and Battle of Flowers en Español, coverage begins at 10 a.m. — Watch on KSAT 12, KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.
• Saturday, April 25: Fiesta Pooch Parade, coverage starts at 7:30 a.m. at Heights Pool in Alamo Heights. — Watch on KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.
• Saturday, April 25: King William Fair Parade, coverage begins at 8 a.m. — Watch on KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.
• Saturday, April 25: Battle of Flowers Band Festival, 2-5 p.m. (rebroadcast) — Watch on KSAT 12, KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.
• Saturday, April 25: Fiesta Flambeau Parade and Flambeau en Español, coverage starts at 7 p.m. — Watch on KSAT 12, KSAT.com and KSAT Plus.

You can get more information about how to stream KSAT 12 for free here.

For anyone interested in attending any Fiesta events, KSAT has created a guide to everything you need to know about the 11-day celebration.

And don’t forget: the weather can quickly change, be sure to check forecasts from the KSAT Weather Authority before heading out to the party.

If you’re planning to head to Fiesta, submit your photos and videos on KSAT Connect!

More Fiesta coverage on KSAT:

• Where to watch ABC programming preempted by KSAT’s Fiesta 2026 coverage
• Spurs’ playoff return coincides with Fiesta, igniting San Antonio spirit

Trump commuted the prison sentences of several Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders last January in a sweeping act of clemency for all 1,500-plus defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

The request by the Justice Department would go a step further and erase all the convictions for extremist group leaders, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who didn't receive pardons last January.

The move to abandon the convictions represented a stunning reversal from the Biden administration, which hailed the guilty verdicts as a crucial victory in its bid to hold accountable those responsible for what prosecutors described as an attack on the heart of American democracy. It’s part of the Trump administration’s continued efforts to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack and downplay the violence carried out by the mob of Trump supporters that left more than 100 police officers injured.

In court filings, prosecutors asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate the convictions so that the government can permanently dismiss the indictments.

“The government’s motion to vacate in this case is consistent with its practice of moving the Supreme Court to vacate convictions in cases where the government has decided in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of a criminal case is in the interests of justice — motions that the Supreme Court routinely grants,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing signed by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.

Juries in Washington, D.C., convicted the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after Trump's 2020 election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.

The department's dismissal request also includes the convictions of Oath Keepers members Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson and Jessica Watkins and Proud Boys members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.

Other extremist group members, including former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio, received pardons from Trump on the first day of his second term in the White House.

Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison after he and several lieutenants were convicted in one of the most consequential cases arising from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.

Prosecutors said Rhodes and his followers stockpiled guns for possible use by “quick reaction force” teams at a Virginia hotel, but they never deployed the weapons.

Nordean's attorney, Nicholas Smith, said they are grateful to the Justice Department for its “wise decision" in seeking dismissal of the convictions.

“We don't want a precedent that says that any physical confrontation between protesters and law enforcement means a crime akin to treason, such as seditious conspiracy,” Smith said.

Former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who was dragged into the mob and suffered a heart attack after a rioter shocked him with a stun gun, was disappointed but not surprised by the latest milestone in the dismantling of Capitol riot prosecutions.

“I would remind Americans that these were traitors to this country," Fanone said. “They planned, incited and carried out an insurrection."

“They’re ready to sit down and see how they can assist Houston,” the veteran Democrat said after he won the election. “From day one, there is going to be much better cooperation between the state and the city, and Houston will benefit.”

This week that collaborative spirit imploded into a controversy over the Houston Police Department’s role in immigration enforcement.

Days after the Houston City Council — with Whitmire’s support — ratified an ordinance to minimize Houston police cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Texas attorney general’s office launched an investigation into the city that could lead to an effort to remove local officials from office.

Then the governor’s office told the city it is on the brink of losing more $100 million in funding because the ordinance violates state grant agreements.

The political whirlwind encapsulates a tension simmering in city halls across the state’s left-leaning urban cores. From McAllen to Dallas, residents infuriated with President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown are demanding their city leaders take action to protect them and their neighbors from ICE.

But those elected officials are largely limited in what they can do by a 2017 state law that sought to ban “sanctuary cities,” and they may not want to invite scrutiny from state leaders — who support Trump’s immigration crackdown — or the White House, which last year directed federal prosecutors to probe any local officials who obstruct the president’s mass deportation effort.

In Houston, Whitmire called a special meeting scheduled for Friday for the city council to reconsider the immigration order — which nullifies a police policy requiring officers to hold people for ICE — following the governor’s threat to cancel state public safety funding.

“It does not matter what a council member’s legal opinion is,” Whitmire told reporters Tuesday. “There’s only one opinion that matters, and that’s the governor’s.”

Feds used civil warrants to flag undocumented immigrants

Houston is not the only city under state leaders’ microscope for a local immigration policy but it is the recipient of the most aggressive state response during Trump’s second term.

The origins of the friction trace back to the president’s first term, when Democrat-run cities and counties often emerged as the loudest critics and opponents to Trump’s immigration policies, and many instructed their police departments to avoid cooperating with federal immigration authorities — for example, by refusing to hold undocumented immigrants in local jails until ICE can pick them up for deportation.

In 2017, amid that local pushback, the state Legislature passed a law that prohibited local officials from creating policies that did not let police officers ask people about their legal status or work with federal immigration authorities. Under the law, known as Senate Bill 4, the attorney general is required to try booting violators from office by filing a petition in court, leading to a hearing on whether the official should be removed from office.

When Trump returned to the White House last year and launched a nationwide mass deportation effort, one of the ways his administration sought to use local police to help find and apprehend undocumented immigrants was by adding hundreds of thousands of federal immigration warrants — which are typically civil offenses — to a crime database routinely used by police across the nation.

“If they pop up with a warrant, then we have no alternative but to take those people into custody,” Douglas Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, said shortly after the change. He is among the critics of the city council’s ordinance.

Almost immediately, stories surfaced around the country of undocumented immigrants being pulled over for minor traffic infractions and then facing deportation after an officer entered their name in the database. Elsewhere, domestic abuse victims have ended up in deportation proceedings after calling police.

“Those outcomes are the consequence of policies that the Trump administration and Gov. Abbott, and the Legislature passed at different times,” said Nick Hudson, senior manager of policy and advocacy at the ACLU of Texas. “It’s just important to me that people understand how our state leaders and the federal government are working together in a way that is causing enormous harm.”

Cities try to thread a needle with policies

As a result, city leaders in Austin, Houston and beyond have tried crafting policies to instruct officers on what is permissible for them to do under law and assuage residents’ worries while avoiding a showdown with state leaders.

Houston’s ordinance, for example, nullified a Houston Police Department policy instructing officers who encounter a person with an immigration warrant to wait at least half an hour for ICE to pick up the immigrant.

The ordinance sought to ensure officers do not violate a person’s constitutional rights by holding them longer than “reasonably necessary” to complete the initial reason for stopping them. It passed after a string of news reports by the Houston Chronicle documented how Houston police collaborated with ICE, even as Whitmire initially insisted that was not the case — he later admitted police were working with ICE.

One report revealed officers had personally delivered two immigrants to ICE, which legal experts said could be a violation of a person’s constitutional rights because the ICE warrants are not grounds for arrest. Another detailed the case of a woman who called 911 to report domestic abuse, only to have Houston police call ICE on her.

The ordinance passed with the mayor’s backing. After receiving a letter from Gov. Greg Abbott’s office threatening to cut off the state funds and learning of Attorney General Ken Paxton’s investigation, Whitmire blamed the three council members who had introduced the proposal for the state backlash.

“We had a reasonable ICE policy,” Whitmire said. “But three council members that are running for office decided to make this a higher profile issue.”

At a Tuesday city council meeting, Alejandra Salinas, one of the three council sponsors, got into a fiery exchange with Whitmire and urged the mayor to stand by the ordinance and fight back in court.

“It would be a great mistake to do anything else,” Salinas said.

Other cities have tried different approaches. El Paso leaders passed a resolution opposing a proposed ICE detention center, while San Antonio officials are trying to offer residents transparency by releasing information about when local police help ICE.

Paxton’s office, which did not respond to requests for comment, is also reportedly investigating Austin over a new ordinance limiting police cooperation with ICE.

Austin leaders passed their own measure following a town hall held by three council members in February after police officers responding to a domestic disturbance called ICE on a woman and her daughter, who were swiftly deported to Honduras. The town hall saw angry residents demanding that they stand up against ICE.

Vanessa Fuentes, one of the council members, said that incident and the subsequent outrage led to the city council approving a policy that aims to ensure residents feel safe seeking help from police but also follows the 2017 law.

The policy requires officers to talk to a supervisor before turning an immigrant over to ICE and clarified that an ICE warrant alone was insufficient to detain or arrest someone. If a supervisor approves, an officer can wait for ICE to respond.

Austin police are “first and foremost … here to provide safety for our community,” Fuentes said in an interview before Paxton’s probe. “It really has been really challenging.”

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

The Grateful Dead cover band Splintered Sunlight jammed out to hits from the 1970s and graybeards old enough to remember the Flyers' Stanley Cup victories swayed in their tie-dyed T-shirts. Just down the concourse, Flyers Hall of Famer Joe Watson signed copies of his autobiography and all-time great Bobby Clarke was all smiles as he filled his cup — soda, not Stanley — at the press box fountain station.

The good old days.

The Flyers remained tethered for decades to the glory days like a dog on a leash because, well, what was there to really celebrate?

At last, plenty — and an unbridled optimism that even better seasons were ahead.

The youth moment skated at full blast on the ice Tuesday night in a 4-2 win over Montreal a day after the Flyers clinched their first playoff berth since 2020 and their first home playoff series since 2018.

Philadelphia's first goal was scored by 19-year-old sensation Porter Martone, who just weeks ago starred at Michigan State and now could be a dangerous weapon in the first-round series against Pittsburgh. Martone deflected a point shot from Matvei Michkov, the 21-year-old Russian who navigated an uneven first half of the season only to heat up as the games heightened in importance down the stretch.

Michkov scored the Flyers' third goal unassisted (20th overall) as one fan raised a “We Want More!” sign.

Architects of the lengthy rebuild, general manager Danny Briere and team president Keith Jones, could bask in the credit tossed their way from social media to talk radio to even the written word for never wavering from their plan to build a playoff team through the draft and shrewd acquisitions for 20-somethings over making moves for quick-fix veterans with no long-term fit.

Take a look at the clincher against Carolina: 2020 first-round pick Tyson Foerster, still just 24, scored the shootout winner that ignited pandemonium on the ice and in the stands.

Just how young are the Flyers?

Their last home playoff series came in the Year 2018 BG.

Before Gritty.

Gritty, the wild-haired, googly-eyed, fuzzy faced mascot, got his playoff reps in Tuesday night when he hurled a cake into the face of an unsuspecting (ahem) fan dressed in Penguins gear.

Gritty smashed dessert. Dan Vladar, the goalie who won the Bobby Clarke Trophy as the team’s most valuable player, spilled the tea.

Briere, who sparked the Flyers to their last Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2010, had publicly downplayed playoff possibilities all season.

He had a more upbeat message inside the Flyers' locker room.

“He told us at the beginning of the year, I hope he’s not going to get mad at me, but he said the goal is to make the playoffs,” Vladar said. “There was always a belief in this room. Obviously, we knew that, even if it was the media or outsiders who didn’t really believe in us, we always had the belief here since Day 1.”

Flyers captain Sean Couturier was once a key cog in rebuilding — back when he was the eighth overall pick in the 2011 draft. Couturier made his debut that season and has largely remained a steady presence in the lineup — save for injuries that cost him the 2022-2023 season — and is the only Flyer still here from their last home playoff series victory against, yes, the Penguins in 2012.

“You want things to turn around,” Couturier said. “I think that the management, the organization has done a great job of being patient and building assets and putting us in a great spot here for now and the future.”

The now actually seemed dire before the Olympic break when the Flyers lost 11 of their last 14 games before the shutdown and dropped one more once play resumed.

Whatever defensive adjustments coach Rick Tocchet made during the layoff worked.

The Flyers' season caught fire when they won three straight road games against the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks and they ended the season on an 18-6-1 tear that propelled them to 98 points and into third place in the Metropolitan Division.

Who knows, maybe it was the suburban Philadelphia family that gifted Pope Leo XIV his own customized Flyers jersey that truly the blessed the team.

The regular-season finale served more as a joyous pep rally than a game with any real consequences. The fans dancing to the Dead cover band cheered as the singer paused during “Jack Straw” after he hit the lyric “sun so hot, the clouds so low, the eagles filled the sky” in appreciation of the NFL team across the street.

The rest of the night belonged to the orange and black.

Gritty once issued a warning to the Penguins: “Sleep with one eye open tonight, bird.”

Led by one of the youngest teams in the NHL, the Flyers are going into the playoffs with eyes wide open and ready to prove to their fans, don’t you worry any more.

___

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

The decision by Ye came a week after he was banned from entering the U.K., where he was scheduled to headline the Wireless Festival in July, following a backlash over the artist’s history of antisemitic remarks.

“After much thought and consideration, it is my sole decision to postpone my show in Marseille, France until further notice,” Ye wrote Wednesday on the social network X. “I know it takes time to understand the sincerity of my commitment to make amends."

The rapper, who changed his name in 2021, had been expected to play at Marseille's Stade Vélodrome on June 11.

French Interior minister Laurent Nuñez had pledged to explore “all possibilities” to make sure the show would not go on as planned, according to his office.

Earlier this year, Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan opposed the rapper’s visit to one of France’s most multicultural cities, which has a history of immigration stretching back centuries.

“I refuse to let Marseille be a showcase for those who promote hatred and unabashed Nazism,” Payan said. “Kanye West is not welcome at the Vélodrome, our temple of community and home to all Marseillais.”

Ye has drawn widespread condemnation for making antisemitic remarks and voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler.

Ye released a song called “Heil Hitler” and advertised a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website last year. Officials in Australia canceled the musician’s visa in July after the release of the single.

The 48-year-old apologized in January with a letter published as a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal. He said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.”

Ye said in his latest message on X, “I take full responsibility for what’s mine but I don’t want to put my fans in the middle of it. My fans are everything to me. Looking forward to the next shows. See you at the top of the globe.”

Every Tuesday, Servín loads a van with picks, shovels, water and lunches. He commends himself to God. He picks up his three teammates for the day. Then they venture forth into areas where the ground beneath their feet may sometimes hide the bodies of the missing — the victims of foul play in a Mexican state rife with drug cartel violence.

They call themselves the Guerreros Buscadores — the “Searching Warriors." There is much to search for, and dozens of groups like theirs do: More than 130,000 people have been reported missing since 2006, according to official records.

Balancing the search efforts with daily obligations is not easy. Servín lost his job when he started looking for his missing son. Now he works as a waiter on weekends.

But the most difficult parts also offer ways forward — news that arrives via a skull, a mutilated body, evidence of closure in many respects of the word. There is even joy now and then — even if it comes from a pit.

On those difficult days, Servín, 54, comes to grips with a jarring fact: Sometimes, in the end, the worst-case scenario can become the best possible outcome.

Searching, waiting, hoping

Servín's life is filled with mixed-feeling moments not easy to witness. On a recent day, these Guerreros agreed to be shadowed by an Associated Press photojournalist to see what they do — and why it matters. They set out to cover several locations on the outskirts of Guadalajara, the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco and a World Cup host city.

Servín and the women go alone, unaccompanied by any protection. The only semblance of an authority is a “panic button” held by Servín that connects to a federal network to protect rights activists.

It is perilous work in a perilous environment. Mexico is neither at war nor under a military dictatorship, yet thousands of people disappear every year amid cartel violence. Clandestine graves are discovered on a semiregular basis; more than 70,000 unidentified remains have piled up in morgues and cemeteries.

The previous administration recognized the magnitude of the problem and launched official search commissions, but high levels of impunity and inaction persist. The current government has said missing information for one-third of those disappeared makes it impossible to search for them at all. Families remain the main driving force behind the searches and the findings.

The group heads to several locations based on anonymous tips received on the Guerreros Buscadores website. These often come from people who heard screams or gunshots or who saw something but fear going to the authorities.

On their previous outing, they dug down more than a yard (meter) at four locations. Nothing. Sometimes they find bloodstains or shell casings. They check every tip anyway. Says Servín: “There cannot be room for doubt."

He receives a call. An informant says there is a body buried in a residential area. The information seems reliable, so they change their plans. This time they won't be able to check the area in advance, a security measure to avoid encountering drug cartel lookouts or gunmen who could drive them off with shots into the sky. That has happened before.

Arches mark the entrance to the residential complex identified by the informant. It sits next to a commuter train line on the outskirts of Guadalajara, a city plastered with fliers of missing people. Jalisco state, a stronghold of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, is an epicenter of disappearances.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum visited the area following the violence that erupted in February over the killing of the cartel's leader. She insisted that security for the World Cup would be guaranteed.

The search collectives want to take advantage of the world’s focus on Mexico to draw attention to their reality. “I love soccer," Servín says, “but that’s not going to stop me from going out to search.”

A lullaby for the dead

Caps and scarves shield the searchers from the sun. Each wears a personalized T-shirt with a photo of their loved one. Servín’s reads “Searcher Dad.”

The group prepares their equipment. A metal rod they call “the seer" is a must-have: For over a decade, it has been the searchers’ rudimentary yet indispensable tool. They stick it into the ground and then sniff. If there’s an organic smell, there’s a clue.

They begin digging in a small dirt area at one residential corner. They dig and dig some more. Nothing.

Then, after hours of no progress, Servín steps outside the apartment complex and walks between the wall and the tracks. The ground is soft. “I saw a hole with small rocks; it was strange.”

Years ago, his heart would have raced. Now he says, “I don’t get nervous anymore.”

He kneels and grips his shovel. A train passes. First he sees part of a skull. He begins to dig out the soil with his shovel and hands.

“We’ve got a positive!” he shouts.

The four don masks and gloves. A jawbone appears. There is no doubt: It is a human being.

Servín shows his colleagues the head, holding it with the utmost delicacy. They decide to keep digging to look for the full body. A bag of bones appears. Then a shoe. Then a pelvis. They carefully place each outside the pit. If any bone looks the same, it would be placed elsewhere because it could belong to a second person.

The women’s voices mingle like lullabies. “Hi baby, you’re going home soon.” “Your family is waiting for you.” One lights a candle at the edge of the pit.

To someone unfamiliar with violent environments, the scene might seem macabre. To those who witness it, it’s an act of tremendous tenderness and solidarity carried out by people who were re-victimized by the authorities for years. In 2021, a prosecutor handed a woman the remains of her relative in a trash bag. A photo of her with a vacant stare over the huge black bag at her feet went viral.

Criminals hide their victims because if there’s no body, there’s no crime. Nearly 20,000 missing people have been found dead since 2010. So finding a body can be dangerous.

Servín activates his panic button that many searchers carry. Since 2010, at least 36 searchers have been killed, according to civil society organizations. The latest was in mid-March.

Servín talks to the federal officials on the line, confirms his identity with a password, explains what he found and notes the location. He requests hourly monitoring, which means a call to confirm everything is all right.

Then he phones the police.

Navigating the aftermath — logistically and emotionally

One of the women prepares to go live on Facebook. It’s a way to leave a record. If they hadn’t gone live when they found a ranch used by the Jalisco Cartel, it would have been difficult to get people to believe what they discovered. It also helps people recognize things.

“There’s a pair of gray underwear that says ‘Sport’ in orange letters, some size 5 brown boots,” one of the searchers explains. “There’s the skull, it still has some hair. … There’s the pelvis.”

The phone zooms in to show the details of the shoe, of the jawbone missing a tooth. Any detail might help. One woman hopes that the “little person” will soon be with loved ones. They pray.

Servín begins answering questions online. He’s no expert, but his experience tells him the body might have been buried about 18 months ago. It cannot be his son, but hope is never entirely lost; two weeks ago, a mother found her son after seven years of searching. He thanks God that there are remains for DNA testing.

When the Guerreros find bodies “in pieces,” Servín feels like crying. “What hits us hardest is to think that our children might be in those conditions.”

But he also feels good. Because he knows there are answers there.

While waiting for the authorities, the searchers sit down to rest. It is a moment of intimate conversation among people united by grief and their mission.

A woman from the neighborhood arrives with her son. She has a missing child and wants to see if he recognizes anything. An hour later, another mother arrives. The searchers embrace her and advise to go to the attorney’s office for a DNA test. Emotion overflows.

When the police arrive, Servín answers their questions. Mistrust, though, persists because he knows some officers work for the cartel. He says that “some time ago” the authorities accused them of contaminating crime scenes, but the collectives have gradually earned respect.

As evening falls, the forensic team begins its job. In Mexico, the results of a genetic test can take days or years. The remains of one searcher's brother — a searcher who is also Servín's partner — have been at the forensic institute for six years. There has been a match, but the experts haven’t finished processing the remains from all the bags found back then. “It’s illogical,” he says. His anguish is evident.

At 9 p.m., Servín presses the panic button one more time to check in that he is home. “I arrive feeling at peace," he says, "knowing the day was fruitful."

——

Verza reported from Mexico City.

“860,” written and performed by the Tony- and Emmy-winner, will begin previews this October at a theater to be revealed later. The title comes from the street address for the home Crystal and his family lived in for 46 years, a house lost in last year's devastating Palisades fires.

“I invite you to come inside 860 and I’ll tell you all the funny and touching things that happened there, not only in my career but to our family,” Crystal said in a statement. “It’s a joyous and heartfelt visit, about how with the love of family and friends and your inner strength, you can get through tough times.”

This is Crystal’s first return to Broadway following his “Mr. Saturday Night,” which he premiered in 2022 and earned Tony nominations for best book and lead actor in a musical. Scott Ellis will direct his new work.

Crystal has had success with one-man shows before. He turned his memoir “700 Sundays” into a stage show — in 2004 and revived in 2013 — that won him a Drama Desk Award in 2005.

The Palisades and Eaton fires erupted in Jan. 7, 2025, killing 31 people and destroying about 13,000 homes and other residential properties. The fires burned for more than three weeks and clean-up efforts took about seven months.

At the televised fundraising concert FireAid, held at the end of January, 2025, Crystal appeared as the first host in the same clothes he was wearing when he fled his family home.

Crystal said he returned to the wreckage of his home and began to wail: “I had not cried like that since I was 15 and I was told that my father had just died.” His daughters soon found a rock in the wreckage with the word “Laughter” engraved in it.

Crystal made a name for himself first in comedy, from stand-up to TV’s “Soap” to the films “When Harry Met Sally” and “City Slickers.” Then in 1992, he got serious with the movie “Mr. Saturday Night,” which he directed, co-wrote and starred in.

Ball fell to the floor after missing a shot on a drive to the basket early in the second quarter, and appeared to reach out with his left arm and grab Adebayo's left leg, causing the big man to fall on his back.

Ball was not called for a foul, and Adebayo remained on the floor as play continued. He eventually got up and walked to the locker room under his own power but did not return.

“He should have been thrown out of the game for that,” Spoelstra said. “There is no place in the game for that.”

Adebayo did not speak to reporters.

Ball, who scored 30 points and made the go-ahead layup with 4.7 seconds left in overtime, apologized for his role in Adebayo’s injury but said he was disoriented because he had been hit in the head on the drive.

“I apologize on that one,” Ball said. “I got hit in the head and didn’t really know where I was. But I’m going to check on him and see if he is OK and everything.”

When asked if he intentionally grabbed Adebayo’s leg, Ball said he hadn’t seen a replay and added, “Like I said, I got hit in the head and didn’t know where I was and was just playing basketball. But like I said, sorry, and I’m going to check on him.”

Ball remained in the game and was not immediately checked for a concussion.

“I don’t think it’s cute, and I don’t think it’s funny,” Spoelstra said after the loss, which ended Miami's season. “I think it’s a stupid play. It’s a dangerous play and obviously our best player was out. I’m not making an excuse. The Hornets played great and made those plays down the stretch. We had opportunities to win.

“That’s a shame. He should be penalized for that. I don’t think that belongs in the game, you know, tripping guys, shenanigans.”

Official Zach Zarba explained in a pool report why the play was not reviewed.

“The play wasn’t whistled in real time. Play continued with a fast break. And because play wasn’t stopped immediately, and there was no whistle on the play, the window to review the play was closed,” Zarba said. “Play was stopped, after a change of possession, and then a timeout. So, by rule, our window to review that play then is closed.”

Zarba said the officiating crew reviewed the play at halftime.

When asked if Ball should have been assessed a flagrant foul, Zarba said, “At this point, that goes to league operations, and they’ll make a determination on that in the coming days. So, they will make that determination and go from there.”

Ball had only one flagrant foul this season, on Feb. 5 against Houston.

Andrew Wiggins said seeing Adebayo go down was a “gut punch” for the Heat.

“To lose the leader of the team, the captain of the team, seeing him go down was definitely tough and guys had to rally around that,” Wiggins said.

Despite the loss of Adebayo, who scored 83 points in a game last month, Miami had a chance to win at the end of regulation, but Tyler Herro missed a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

In overtime, Herro put the Heat up by one when he made three free throws with 8.7 seconds left after getting fouled by Ball following a Hornets turnover. Before that play, Herro hit a turnaround corner 3.

But Ball's driving layup saved the day for the Hornets.

Miami's Davion Mitchell said he hadn't seen video of the play where Adebayo was hurt, but called it a “high-intensity game.”

“I didn’t grab nobody’s ankle, but I grabbed somebody’s shirt,” Mitchell said. “I just think it was just a physical game because we were both fighting for our lives just to stay in. Obviously you don’t want to see Bam get hurt, especially like that, but it was a physical game.”

___

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

U.S. President Donald Trump said a second round of talks could happen "over the next two days," telling the New York Post the negotiations could be held again in Islamabad.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres concurred, saying it’s “highly probable” that talks will restart. He cited a meeting he had with Pakistan’s deputy prime minister, Ishaq Dar.

Meanwhile in Washington, the first direct talks in decades between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the U.S. concluded on a productive note, according to the U.S. State Department.

Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said the two countries are “on the same side of the equation” in “liberating Lebanon” from the militant Hezbollah group. Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad called the meeting “constructive” but urged an end to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. Since March, that war has displaced more than 1 million people in Lebanon.

Israel and Lebanon have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948, and Lebanon remains deeply divided over diplomatic engagement with Israel.

First round of talks failed to end conflict

Last weekend in Pakistan, an initial round of talks aimed at permanently ending the U.S.-Iran conflict failed to produce an agreement. The White House said Iran’s nuclear ambitions were a central sticking point.

“I think they want to make a deal very badly,” Trump said in an excerpt from an interview with Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria" scheduled to air Wednesday morning. He added: “I view it as very close to over.”

A U.S. official said Tuesday that fresh talks with Iran were still under discussion and that nothing has been scheduled. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive negotiations.

Muhammad Aurangzeb, Pakistan’s finance minister, told The Associated Press that “our leadership is not giving up” on efforts to help the U.S. and Iran end the conflict.

Though the ceasefire appeared to hold, the showdown over the strategic Strait of Hormuz risked reigniting hostilities and deepening the regional war's economic fallout.

The war, now in its seventh week, has jolted markets and rattled the global economy as shipping has been cut off and airstrikes have torn through military and civilian infrastructure across the region.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Tankers turned around after blockade took effect

The blockade is intended to pressure Iran, which has exported millions of barrels of oil, mostly to Asia, since the war began Feb. 28. Much of it has likely been carried by so-called dark transits that evade sanctions and oversight, providing cash that’s been vital to keeping Iran running.

U.S. forces enforcing the blockade will operate in the Gulf of Oman, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations. Ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz must cross the Gulf of Oman to reach the open sea.

The official said the move will allow the U.S. military to observe vessels subject to the blockade leaving Iranian facilities and clearing the strait before they are intercepted and forced to turn around.

U.S. Central Command said Tuesday no ships made it past the blockade in the first 24 hours, while six merchant vessels complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around and reenter Iranian waters.

Tankers approaching the strait Monday turned around shortly after the blockade took effect, though one reversed course again and transited the waterway.

The tanker Rich Starry had been waiting off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to shipping data firm Lloyd’s List, which cited data from the energy cargo-tracking firm Vortexa. It was not immediately clear whether the tanker had earlier docked in Iran. Yet it was listed by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control as linked to Iranian shipping.

Lloyd’s List, citing ship registry and tracking data, reported that the vessel is owned by a Chinese shipping company and was ultimately bound for China with a stopover in an Omani port, south of the strait. The vessel updated its broadcast signal on Tuesday evening to no longer show it was headed for Sohar, Oman, according to tracking data reported by maritime analytics firm MarineTraffic.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Chinese tankers will not be allowed passage through the strait. "So they're not going to be able to get their oil,” he told reporters Tuesday.

In a comment seemingly seemingly directed at Trump without naming him, Chinese President Xi Jinping said nations should “oppose the world’s retrogression to the law of the jungle.”

Since the war began, Iran has curtailed maritime traffic, with most commercial vessels avoiding the waterway. Tehran's effective closure of the strait, through which a fifth of global oil transits in peacetime, has sent oil prices skyrocketing, pushing up the cost of gasoline, food and other basic goods far beyond the Middle East.

Israel and Lebanon conclude talks

The Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington were “productive,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement, adding that “all sides agreed to launch direct negotiations at a mutually agreed time and venue.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who facilitated the talks, had downplayed expectations for any immediate agreement.

Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S, said after the talks that both countries saw eye-to-eye in several areas.

“The Lebanese government made it very clear that they will no longer be occupied by Hezbollah," he said.

Moawad, Lebanon's top U.S. envoy, said in a brief statement that she had called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and the return home of Lebanese displaced by the fighting.

After the ceasefire in Iran, Israel pressed ahead with its air and ground campaign in Lebanon. It has, however, halted strikes in Beirut, the country’s capital since April 8, after a deadly bombardment that hit several crowded commercial and residential areas in central Beirut and killed more than 350 people in one day.

The deaths sparked an international outcry and threats by Iran that it would end the ceasefire.

Lebanese officials have pushed for a ceasefire. Israel has framed the negotiations around Hezbollah’s disarmament and a potential peace deal, without publicly committing to halting hostilities or withdrawing its forces.

Israel wants Lebanon’s government to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, much as was envisaged in a November 2024 ceasefire. But the militant group has survived efforts to curb its strength for decades and said on Monday that it will not abide by any agreements that may result from the talks.

___

Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Matthew Lee, Fatima Hussein, Collin Binkley, Chris Rugaber, Will Weissert and Konstantin Toporin in Washington; Sylvie Corbet in Paris; Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo; Natalie Melzer in Jerusalem; Edith Lederer and Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations, and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

These changes are part of a plan to address a budget deficit that also includes staffing cuts.

“The first step in our journey is campus consolidations,” Interim Superintendent Robert Jaklich said.

The district approved the revised map at a special-called board meeting on Tuesday, April 14. Under the changes, some students who were previously zoned to attend Veterans Memorial High School will now be zoned to attend Judson High School.

High School Proposed Plan 1 by akmoreno

“We did a redesign so we could be sure that we have two middle schools each that fed into our campuses while meeting our goals of maintaining campus size, looking at equitable use of our facilities, and making sure we are utilizing our campuses to the best of the ability,” said Lacey Gosch with Judson ISD.

Proposed Middle School Plan 8 by akmoreno

School board trustees Jose Macias Jr. and Laura Stanford said some families said they felt decisions were moving forward without enough community input.

“I had an opportunity to speak to the parents that put the town hall together, and one of their disappointments is that they walked away from that meeting, town hall feeling like the decision was already made, and so there’s now some disappointment that now their voice does not matter,” Macias said.

One guardian in the district shared a message with KSAT, writing, “If the changes go through, (their student) will be set to go to Judson High School. This puts him at a school with more students and a school with lower scores.”

Proposed Elementary Plan 4B by akmoreno

Judson ISD offers school choice, which allows students to attend schools outside their assigned boundary, but transportation will be a challenge.

“They no longer will be able to take a bus to Veterans Memorial,” Macias said. “We’re still a school of choice so parents can still pick whatever school they’d like to attend, but without transportation, it makes it difficult for parents to make sure their child can go to the school that they would like them (to go to).”

School Board President Monica Ryan agreed with Jaklich’s plans to change campus boundaries. However, she said comments online, specifically comments about people not wanting their students to attend certain schools in the district, brought her to tears.

“If you think you’re too good for a certain school, then maybe this isn’t the place for you because that is not the culture that we are building in Judson,” Ryan said.

In addition to the boundary changes, the board also voted to eliminate a few hundred positions.

“In order for us to get to a balanced budget, in order for us to go from 91% in personnel to 84% in personnel, we must eliminate 536 positions,” Jaklich said.

The district said many of those jobs are currently vacant, but 77 cuts will come from current staff. Jaklich said they hope to find other jobs for the people in those 77 positions once they’re identified.

The district has not yet determined which employees will be affected.

All of these initial steps to make these changes were approved during the April 14 special-called board meeting to address the district’s budget deficit.

Read also:

• Administration, staff cuts approaching for Judson ISD to manage budget deficit
• Teacher raises, no funding increase contribute to $37 million deficit, Judson ISD trustee says

The Spurs will host the first two games of their first-round series against the winner of the play-in game between the Phoenix Suns and Portland Trail Blazers.

While the Spurs’ first winning season in six years has built excitement around the young roster, the postseason presents a far greater test of endurance, mentality and physicality.

Two players with NBA championship experience — guard/forward Harrison Barnes and center Luke Kornet — are playing key roles in preparing the Spurs for the playoffs.

“It’s a battle of wills,” 2015 NBA champion Barnes said. “Who is going to have the will to — every single possession, every single night — commit to that process, commit to winning? I think sometimes, especially when you see a team in a regular season, you think it might be the same as when you see them in the playoffs, right? But, it’s different.”

Kornet, who won a title with the Boston Celtics in 2024, shared that the additional time to prepare for an opponent and make in-series adjustments is a big difference in itself.

“The ability for teams to really just be able to prepare and game plan and then also things and figure things out throughout the course of a series — you kind of see, like how you really line up and stack up and if things are going well you try to keep doing that, but also if you’re struggling, then teams are going to try whatever might work," he said.

“I think that ability to kind of do that game after game just, just kind of that puts you through the furnace a little bit better.“

After struggling in recent seasons, the club posted one of the best records in franchise history this year, clinching the Southwest Division and the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.

The Silver and Black host Game 1 at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday inside the Frost Bank Center.

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• Spurs guard Devin Vassell serves up heat at Panda Express meet-and-greet ahead of playoffs
• Spurs’ playoff return coincides with Fiesta, igniting San Antonio spirit

Brian Joseph Ciaravino, 50, was arrested March 31 and charged with making terroristic threats against public servants, a third-degree felony, according to Bexar County court records. The charge stems from alleged threats directed at the BASIS San Antonio Primary North Central Campus.

According to an arrest affidavit, the San Antonio Police Department was called to the campus on March 30 after staff reported receiving multiple threatening text messages from a number believed to belong to Ciaravino.

Police said at least six messages were reviewed, including statements such as, “I’m killing everyone in there but the kids and you,” along with references to someone being shot. Investigators believe Ciaravino sent those messages after mentioning failing a breathalyzer test.

Staff members who received the texts told officers they feared for their safety and appeared visibly shaken, according to the affidavit.

The charter school sent KSAT the following statement:

“The individual is a former employee, and we are fully cooperating with law enforcement to support their investigation and the continued safety of our school community.”

The allegations have unsettled families with children at the school, some of whom said the situation has been difficult to process given Ciaravino’s prior role as an educator.

“It’s been really upsetting for my child because he has such a positive view of him,” one parent said, who did not want to be identified.

The same parent said the news has shaken confidence in the school environment.

“I really like all the staff and teachers here, so I can’t imagine how that feels for them,” the parent said. “It is really upsetting to know that someone with that thought process was working directly with children.”

Bexar County jail records show Ciaravino’s bond was set at $50,000, which he posted before being released from custody. He is scheduled to make his next pre-indictment court appearance on June 9.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Read also:

• ‘Someone is getting shot’: Former employee accused of threatening San Antonio charter school, SAPD says

The resignation letter, which goes into effect at 10:59 p.m. central time, was read on the House floor by reading clerk Tylease Alli on Tuesday afternoon.

“It has been my privilege to serve the residents of Texas’ 23rd Congressional district,” wrote Gonzales.

The Republican representative dropped his bid for re-election shortly after confessing to the affair. At the time, he said he would serve the rest of his term in Congress.

Gonzales posted on X on Monday afternoon that he planned to file for “retirement” once Congress returned to session on Tuesday.

The post, which was published at 5:30 p.m. Monday, came as bipartisan support mounted for expulsion measures against both Gonzales and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.

Gonzales’ announcement came about an hour after Swalwell also said he planned to resign from Congress. Swalwell is facing his own allegations of sexual misconduct.

Gonzales has been scrutinized for months following the affair with Uvalde-based staffer Regina Santos-Aviles and calls to drop his bid from House Republican leadership.

Gonzales, who avoided answering KSAT Investigates’ questions about his affair with Santos-Aviles for months, told reporters in February he would “not resign.”

The San Antonio Express-News reported that Gonzales also allegedly asked a separate staffer for nude photos and attempted to start a sexual relationship with her during his 2020 campaign.

Gov. Greg Abbott has the authority to call a special election to fill his seat — should he choose to do so.

KSAT reached out to Abbott’s office on Tuesday. A spokesperson for his office said, “An announcement on the seat will be made at a later date.”

Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.

The 18-year-old attacker fired randomly inside a vocational high school in Siverek, Sanliurfa province. He later killed himself with the same shotgun after being “cornered by police,” Gov. Hasan Sildak said.

The attack wounded 10 students, four teachers, a canteen employee and a police officer, Sildak said. While most of them were being treated in Siverek, five of the teachers and students were transferred to a hospital in the provincial capital because their conditions were more serious, the governor said.

The motive for the attack was unclear. School shootings are rare in Turkey.

The attacker did not have a criminal record, Sildak said. The school had been declared safe and no permanent police officer was assigned to protect it, he added, calling the shooting an “isolated incident.”

NTV television and other media reports said the assailant had threatened an attack on the school on social media prior to the shooting.

One student told the state-run Anadolu Agency that he and a friend jumped out of their classroom window to flee the attacker.

“He suddenly entered the classroom and fired. He fired four or five times. Two people were hit. He then went into the next classroom,” Anadolu quoted Omer Furkan Sayar as saying. “We first threw ourselves to the ground and then two of us jumped out of the window.”

Sayar continued: “He didn't say anything, he entered and started to shoot directly.”

Earlier, media reports said all students were evacuated and police special operations units were deployed after the assailant refused to surrender.

“The individual was cornered inside the building through police intervention and died after shooting himself," Sildak told reporters, adding that a “comprehensive” investigation into the shooting would be carried out.

Video footage showed dozens of students running out of the school toward the gate and onto the street.

The Council Consideration Request asks that Splashtown Drive be renamed to Willie Mitchell Drive. Splashtown, which closed in September 2021, was a water park that opened in San Antonio as Waterpark USA in 1985.

The former park property adjacent to Splashtown Drive has been redeveloped into a car dealership, yet the street name remains.

McKee-Rodriguez’s request stated that District 2 met with neighbors of the United Homeowners Improvement Association and businesses to come up with an “appropriate name that reflects the area and its history.”

“District 2 states that nearby residential neighbors would like to honor an important member of this community, and the broader San Antonio community, by renaming the street to Willie Mitchell Drive,” the release states.

According to San Antonio Sports, Willie Mitchell is one of the top 50 high school players in San Antonio history.

Mitchell attended and played football at Wheatley High School on the East Side before it was closed in 1970. He was drafted to the Kansas City Chiefs in 1964 and was named an all-pro cornerback the following year.

Mitchell helped the Chiefs reach the first-ever American Football League World Championship, now known as the Super Bowl, in 1967 against the inaugural winner, the Green Bay Packers.

He later won his only gridiron ring against the Minnesota Vikings in 1970.

After eight seasons with the Chiefs, he was traded to the Houston Oilers, where he had career-ending knee surgery, forcing him to retire.

McKee-Rodriguez stated that Mitchell is a pillar of the East Side community and that the designation would reflect his contributions.

“I’m proud to honor one of San Antonio’s own East Side heroes, Mr. Willie Mitchell, who not only demonstrated excellence and commitment in athletics, but also continues to make San Antonio proud by giving of his time and experience to continue serving as a leader here in our city,” McKee-Rodriguez said in the release.

Councilmembers Sukh Kaur (D1), Edward Mungia (D4), Teri Castillo (D5) and Ric Galvan (D6) supported McKee-Rodriguez’s request, according to the release.

The next step in the process is a hearing of a staff recommendation at the next available Governance Committee meeting. A date has not been set.

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