Keldon Johnson had 21 points, De’Aaron Fox added 18 and Stephon Castle had 17 as San Antonio moved a game away from the Western Conference finals. The Spurs can advance to face Oklahoma City with a victory in Game 6 on Friday in Minneapolis.

>> Where to score free food, coffee after each Spurs playoff win

Anthony Edwards, who was limited to eight points in the first half, finished with 20 points for Minnesota. Julius Randle and Jaden McDaniels added 17 points apiece.

Wembanyama returned after his ejection early in the second quarter of Minnesota’s 114-109 victory Sunday during Game 4 in Minneapolis. Wembanyama received a Flagrant 2 foul after elbowing Naz Reid in the throat.

Both teams continued to hammer each other, with Reid receiving a technical foul for pushing Wembanyama in the back on a Minnesota free throw with 2:24 left in the first half.

The foul fired up Wembanyama, not that he needed any additional motivation.

Wembanyama was 6 for 8 from the field and 2 for 3 on 3-pointers in scoring 18 points in the opening quarter.

After being approached by Minnesota’s Ayo Dosunmu after getting tangled up with McDaniels in the first quarter, Wembanyama would run untouched to the rim for an emphatic windmill dunk.

The Timberwolves opened the third quarter on a 14-2 run to tie the game after trailing by 18 points in the first half. Minnesota tipped away three attempted alley-oop passes to Wembanyama before they reached the 7-foot-4 post.

The Spurs recaptured a double-digit lead in the third spurred by Keldon Johnson’s block on Rudy Gobert’s attempted dunk followed by his short jumper after bodying Edwards under the rim.

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AP NBA: apnews.com/hub/nba

More Spurs coverage on KSAT:

• WATCH: Ernie Zuniga joins Spurs fans at The Rock at La Cantera ahead of Game 5 against Timberwolves
• South Side boutique becomes go-to spot for custom Spurs fashion in San Antonio
• SW Military neighbors, Spurs fans react to viral playoff celebrations

The festival launched with a tribute to director Peter Jackson, handing the “Lord of the Rings” filmmaker an honorary Palme d’Or. He was introduced by actor Elijah Wood, who played Frodo Baggins in Jackson's fantasy franchise, one of many notable faces on the Cannes red carpet, including Bong Joon Ho, Joan Collins, Heidi Klum and James Franco.

“I've never figured out why I'm getting a Palme d'Or. I'm not a Palme d'Or sorta guy,” said the shaggy haired New Zealand filmmaker.

Jackson was then serenaded with a rendition of the song “Get Back,” a nod to his lauded 2021 documentary about The Beatles. The director sat stage right mouthing the lyrics.

Jane Fonda and Gong Li officially opened the festival, with Fonda declaring: “Cinema has always been an act of resistance.”

It was a fitting observation for a film festival that has already seen politics take center stage. At the introduction of the jury that will decide the Palme d’Or, Cannes’ top honor, jury members spoke bluntly about holding a film festival during a time of geopolitical conflict.

The Palme d'Or jury weighs politics in film

Paul Laverty, the Scottish screenwriter known for his films with director Ken Loach, pointed toward this year's Cannes poster, of “Thelma and Louise,” while discussing attending Cannes during what he called “genocide in Gaza.” Quoting “King Lear,” he said: “Madmen lead the blind.”

“Cannes has a wonderful poster,” said Laverty. “Isn’t it fascinating to see some of them like Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem and Mark Ruffalo blacklisted because of their views in opposing the murder of women and children in Gaza? Shame on Hollywood people who do that.”

The nine-member jury is being presided over by Park Chan-wook, the South Korean filmmaker of “Oldboy” and “No Other Choice,” who said that politics and cinema go hand in hand.

“Art and politics are not concepts that are in conflict with each other,” said Park. “One cannot disqualify a film on the pretext that it has a political message. Just as one cannot reject a film because it would not be political enough.”

Other jury members include Chloé Zhao, Stellan Skarsgård, Ruth Negga and Demi Moore, who two years ago was celebrated in Cannes for her comeback performance in “The Substance.”

Moore spoke about a topic that's already dominated conversation at this year's festival.

“AI is here, and so to fight it is to, in a sense, to fight something that is a battle that we will lose,” she said. “So to find ways in which we can work with it, I think, is a more valuable path,” she said. “Are we doing enough to protect ourselves? I don’t know. My inclination would be to say probably not.”

Hollywood takes a hiatus

What isn’t at Cannes has been as buzzed about as much as what is. Hollywood is largely absent this year.

While recent blockbusters like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Elvis” have touched down at previous incarnations, studio films this year have been either scared away by the possibility of a rocky reception or by the high cost of flying in A-listers to the Cote d’Azur. The closest thing in Cannes' slate is an anniversary celebration for “Fast & Furious.”

Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux said Hollywood “is reshaping” in the midst of Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

“I hope the studio films will come back,” Frémaux told reporters on Monday.

Oscar season starts early

Cannes has become better known for its lengthy standing ovations than its boos.

This year, a long list of big-name filmmakers will have center stage. Among the filmmakers set to unveil new movies are Pedro Almodovar (“Bitter Christmas”), James Gray (“Paper Tiger”), Na Hong-jin (“Hope”), Pawel Pawlikowski (“Fatherland”) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“All of a Sudden”).

If Cannes has waned as a global launchpad for studio releases, it has grown as a breeding ground for Oscar contenders.

Two years ago, Sean Baker’s “Anora” won the Palme before winning best picture. Last year, Cannes selections like “Sentimental Value,” “The Secret Agent” and “It Was Just an Accident” went on to play prominent roles in awards season.

More often than not, the specialty distributor Neon has been at the forefront of the Cannes-to-Oscars pipeline. Neon has backed the past six Palme d’Or winners, an unprecedented streak that it may be poised to extend. The company is attached to more than a quarter of the 22 films in competition for the Palme d’Or.

While Cannes may be light on big Hollywood movies, it isn’t lacking in stars. Set to appear over the next two weeks are Kristen Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Adam Driver, Javier Bardem, Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Rami Malek, Sebastian Stan, Sandra Hüller and many others.

How much any of this will serve as backdrop for “The White Lotus” remains to be seen. The fourth season of Mike White’s acclaimed HBO series is based around a trip to Cannes. Last month, the show began shooting on the French Riviera.

The car was eventually recovered from Salado Creek days later. No one was inside the Waymo car at the time.

The company said the voluntarily recall was for the software that allowed that car to drive into high water and not the vehicles themselves.

A spokesperson for the company said the software recall affected all of Waymo’s nearly 3,800 vehicles nationwide.

The official said a fix is in the works, but an interim software remedy has already been applied to its vehicles.

Waymo cars have resumed autonomous driving in San Antonio, but they will not transport passengers in San Antonio until further notice. It’s unclear as to when that might resume.

Read also:

• ‘I would probably give it a high B’: San Antonio driving expert weighs in on Waymo’s driving skills

Also, after every Spurs “W” throughout the playoff season, Animal Care Services is offering $0 adoption fees drop the next day for all available dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens. ACS is located at 4710 State Hwy 151.

Here’s where you can score free food after a Spurs win:

Big Lou’s Pizza

The day after a playoff win, people can get a free one-topping medium pizza with the purchase of a large pizza. The pizza joint is located at 2048 S WW White Rd.

Taco Palenque

Taco Palenque will give out a free breakfast taco after every Spurs playoff win, according to a news release. Customers must use the coupon code “SPURSWIN” in the Taco Palenque app or present it in the restaurant.

The Taco Palenque offer is available at all of its locations from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., even outside of San Antonio, the release said.

La Panadería

La Panadería will give out Fiesta-themed mini conchas for free at every La Panadería location after a Spurs win.

The promotion is only available for the first 50 customers who purchase an additional item.

Eightball Coffee

Eightball Coffee, which is located at 1432 S. St. Mary’s St., partnered with San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson to provide free coffee the following day after each San Antonio win from 8-10 a.m.

La Popular Bakery

Multiple La Popular Bakery locations are offering one free glazed doughnut on each day after a San Antonio playoff win from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m.

The locations participating in the free doughnut offer include 2505 West Avenue and 1318 Cupples Road.

La Michoacana Meat Market

All La Michoacana Meat Market locations in San Antonio are handing out one free breakfast taco from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. after every Spurs win in the playoffs.

Read more Spurs coverage from KSAT:

• Former Spur Tiago Splitter to face San Antonio in 2026 NBA Playoffs
• NBA announces tipoff times, TV networks for first 4 Spurs-Trail Blazers playoff games
• NBA playoff odds show Spurs as No. 2 favorite to take home title

Trumpleaves on Tuesday for Beijing to meet with President Xi Jinping. Aside from discussions about Iran, the two leaders are expected to discuss trade and artificial intelligence.

Here's a look at some of the executives according to the White House official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Elon Musk

Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, led Trump's Department of Government Efficiency until leaving in the spring of 2025 before the controversial pop-up agency was shuttered in November. The billionaire, who also owns the social media platform X, feuded with Trump last summer in a war of words that included Musk claiming without evidence that the government was concealing information about the president’s association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Musk eventually said that he regretted some of his posts on X about Trump.

Since then, Musk has refocused his energy on Tesla and his other companies. Tesla has operations in China and Musk has visited there. He's also been dealing with French prosecutors seeking charges against him and X for child sexual abuse images on the platform, deepfakes, disinformation and complicity in denying crimes against humanity by the platform’s artificial intelligence system, Grok. There's also trial pitting Musk against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Tim Cook

Cook remains busy as his tenure at Apple winds down. The CEO announced last month that his 15-year reign as the head of the technology company will come to an end on Sept. 1, when he turns the CEO duties over to Apple’s head of hardware engineering, John Ternus. During Cook's years as the top executive, Apple saw the its market value soar by more than $3.6 trillion during an iPhone-fueled era of prosperity. Cook will remain with the company as executive chairman.

Apple’s reliance on overseas manufacturing required Cook to master the art of political diplomacy, particularly while Trump waged trade wars with China during both his terms in the White House. After persuading Trump to exempt the iPhone and other products from Trump’s first-term tariffs, he faced a more daunting challenge during the current administration.

While insisting that Apple shift its iPhone manufacturing from China to the U.S., Trump imposed some tariffs on the device this time around. But Cook still managed to minimize the fees by shifting the production of iPhones destined for the U.S. market to India and also winning some exemptions after promising Apple would invest $600 billion in the U.S. during Trump’s second administration.

Kelly Ortberg

Robert “Kelly” Ortberg, a former CEO at aerospace manufacturer Rockwell Collins, became CEO of Boeing in 2024. He's spent time focusing on Boeing's recovery, as the aerospace company was dealing with legal, regulatory and production problems and mounting financial repercussions when he took over.

A year ago Ortberg said that he didn't expect the U.S. trade war with China to forestall Boeing's financial recovery, nor prevent it from reaching aircraft delivery targets with Chinese airlines that were refusing to accept its planes. Beijing increased its import tax on American goods to 125% in April 2025 in retaliation for Trump raising the tariff on products made in China to 145%. China’s tariff would more than double the cost of passenger jets that Boeing, the U.S.’ largest exporter, sells for tens of millions of dollars. But Beijing is less of a threat to Boeing now that it used to be, as it has started to send fewer of its finished planes there over time.

Boeing has been in ongoing talks with China over a possible large aircraft sale.

Who else is going

Nvidia President and CEO Jensen Huang

Blackrock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink

Blackstone Chairman, CEO and co-founder Stephen Schwarzman

Cargill Chairman and CEO Brian Sikes

Citi Chairman and CEO Jane Fraser

Coherent CEO Jim Anderson

GE Aerospace Chairman and CEO H. Lawrence Culp

Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO David Solomon

Illumina CEO Jacob Thaysen

Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach

Meta President and Vice Chairman Dina Powell McCormick

Micron Chairman, President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra

Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon

Visa CEO Ryan McInerney

———-

Aamer Madhani in Washington D.C. contributed to this report.

The 29-year-old Clarke was found dead Monday at a home in the Los Angeles area and emergency personnel who responded to the scene found drug paraphernalia in the home, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because those details were not released publicly.

Neither the Grizzlies nor Clarke's agency, Priority Sports, provided any details about the cause of Clarke's death.

“We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke. Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten," read a statement from the Grizzlies.

His agents wrote on social media that they were “beyond devastated.”

“He was so loved by all of us here and everyone whose life he touched,” read the statement from Priority Sports. “He was the gentlest soul who was the first to be there for all of his friends and family.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver expressed sympathies to Clarke’s family and friends and the Grizzlies organization.

“We are devastated to learn of the passing of Brandon Clarke,” Silver said. “As one of the longest-tenured members of the Grizzlies, Brandon was a beloved teammate and leader who played the game with enormous passion and grit.”

Clarke was the 21st overall pick out of Gonzaga in the 2019 NBA draft by Oklahoma City, which dealt his rights to the Grizzlies.

He was fourth in the 2019-20 Rookie of the Year balloting — his Grizzlies’ teammate Ja Morant was the overwhelming winner of that award — and also was 11th in the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year voting for the 2021-22 season.

Clarke averaged 10.2 points and 5.5 rebounds in 309 career NBA games.

He averaged 16.9 points in his one season at Gonzaga, transferring there after starting his college career at San Jose State. At Gonzaga, he was a huge part of a team that also had Rui Hachimura — now with the Los Angeles Lakers — and went 33-4.

“He had such a kind, gentle and warm soul, and I will remember the great smile he had on his face whenever you were around him,” read a statement from Gonzaga and its coach, Mark Few. “BC was one of the most easygoing players we have ever had, and he was part of one of the greatest teams in our program’s history.”

Clarke was arrested April 1 in Arkansas for speeding and possession of a controlled substance that was reportedly kratom, an herbal supplement promoted as an alternative pain remedy that becomes illegal in Tennessee as of July 1. He was released on bond a day later.

Health officials have been warning about the risks of an opioid-related chemical known as 7-hydroxymitragynine and a component of kratom. The plant native to Southeast Asia has gained popularity in the U.S. as an unapproved treatment for pain, anxiety and drug dependence.

A federal report in 2019 found overdose deaths involving the herbal supplement kratom were more common than previously reported. Most who died had also taken heroin, fentanyl or others, though officials counted a few instances in which kratom was the only substance listed.

“love you broski. gone way too soon,” Morant wrote in an Instagram post Tuesday.

Clarke joined Morant on the NBA's All-Rookie team in 2020, and the Grizzlies gave him a multiyear contract extension in October 2022.

But injuries dogged him for more than three years. He tore his left Achilles tendon on March 3, 2023, in a loss to the Denver Nuggets in a showdown of what were then the top two teams in the Western Conference. Injuries limited him to 72 of a possible 246 games over the past three seasons, including only two this season.

“This is an incredible loss for the brotherhood," the National Basketball Players Association said. "We will remember Brandon not only for the immense joy he brought to so many throughout his career, but for the genuine friendships he built far beyond basketball.”

Clarke was under contract for the 2026-27 season with Memphis, which went 25-57 this season. The San Antonio Spurs paid tribute to Clarke with a moment of silence — both for him and former NBA player Jason Collins, whose death was announced Tuesday — before a playoff game Tuesday night.

Clarke's “leadership and passion earned him respect throughout the Memphis community and around the league,” the Spurs said.

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AP Sports Writers Teresa M. Walker and Anne M. Peterson contributed to this report

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

A seventh person, who is a Mexican resident believed to be connected to those found in Laredo, was discovered along railroad tracks in southwest Bexar County on Monday, according to Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar.

The seventh person has not yet been identified.

According to a Tuesday news release from the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office, the identities of five people found in Laredo are:

• 56-year-old man from Mexico
• 45-year-old man from Mexico
• 29-year-old woman from Mexico
• 24-year-old man from Honduras
• 14-year-old boy from Honduras

Six of the bodies were discovered just after 3:30 p.m. Sunday during a rail yard inspection in north Laredo.

The Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that the woman from Mexico died due to hyperthermia. While exams for the other five people remain pending, officials believe it is likely they all suffered the same cause of death.

Salazar said his office believes the train originated in Del Rio and had a door open to allow people to load in before the train split, with half going to Houston and half going to Laredo.

The medical examiner’s office said it believes the “individuals originated from Mexico and Honduras.” The office said it is working closely with the Mexican Consulate to facilitate communication with families of the deceased.

The Department of Homeland Security is investigating the case as a potential human smuggling event, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson.

The discoveries took place a little more than a year after two guilty verdicts were reached in the 2022 migrant smuggling tragedy along Quintana Road, which left 53 people dead, making it the nation’s most deadly.

Referencing Sunday’s tragedy, Laredo Mayor Victor D. Treviño said in a statement that it is “a reminder of the ongoing humanitarian challenges along the border and the need for solutions that prioritize both security and human life.”

Read more:

• 6 found dead inside railroad boxcar, Laredo police say
• Body found near railroad tracks in southwest Bexar County, sheriff’s office says

On Monday, the global tribunal in The Hague unsealed an arrest warrant for Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, a former national police chief who first enforced then- President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drugs crackdowns in which thousands of mostly petty suspects were killed.

Originally issued in November, the warrant charges dela Rosa with the crime against humanity of murder of “no less than 32 persons” between July 2016 and the end of April 2018 in the Philippines.

“If I have something to answer for, I will face those in our local courts and not before foreigners,” dela Rosa told reporters in the Senate, which took him into “protective custody” Monday when he reappeared after months of absence.

“I will avail of all legal processes,” he said, and pleaded to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.: “Don’t bring me to The Hague.”

After winning the presidency in 2016, Duterte designated dela Rosa, a loyal ally, as head of the national police force, which enforced the brutal campaign against illegal drugs.

Dela Rosa also once headed the police force in the southern city of Davao, where Duterte was a longtime mayor and built a political name for his extra tough approach to crimes.

“My role was to lead the war on drugs, and that war on drugs was not meant to annihilate people,” dela Rosa said when he was asked about the huge death toll.

“When the lives of police officers came under threat, of course they needed to defend themselves,” dela Rosa said.

Duterte’s six-year term ended in mid-2022. He was arrested last year and detained by the ICC in the Netherlands, where he is awaiting trial for alleged crimes against humanity in connection with several killings under his crackdowns.

Duterte withdrew the Philippines in 2019 from the ICC, in a move human rights activists say was aimed at escaping accountability. The court, however, said it retained jurisdiction over crimes committed when the Philippines was still a member.

Asked if the Philippines will enforce the ICC’s arrest warrant against dela Rosa, officials suggested they were ready and could surrender him to the global court’s jurisdiction like Duterte under a Philippine law enacted to address crimes against humanity like genocide.

“We have an obligation that all those who should be held to account should be held responsible,” Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said in a news briefing.

Dela Rosa cannot invoke a privilege of immunity from arrest while attending formal sessions or staying within the Senate because the crimes he allegedly committed were serious and punishable by a long prison term, Castro said.

Police have deployed nearly 350 law enforcers outside the Senate, sparking concerns from dela Rosa and allied senators, but officials said they were assigned to keep order and not to eventually help arrest the senator.

State Sen. John Cavanaugh and political activist Denise Powell were seen as the top contenders in the Democratic primary as their party looks to the Omaha-area district, where Republican U.S. Rep. Don Bacon is retiring, as one of its top targets in the November general election.

The winner will face Republican Brinkner Harding, who ran unopposed in the GOP primary. The Omaha City Council member is endorsed by President Donald Trump.

The district draws national attention because Nebraska is one of just two states that splits its electoral votes in presidential elections. The 2nd District has gone to Democratic presidential candidates three out of five times since 2008 — a “blue dot” in an otherwise sea of red.

Some Democrats contended that the very survival of the “blue dot,” a point of intense local pride, was at stake on Tuesday.

Some argued that a Cavanaugh primary victory would jeopardize the district's special status because he'd be leaving his valuable state legislative seat, making it easier for Republicans in the Nebraska Legislature to change the law that allows the state to split its electoral votes.

The issue has defined the primary contest, where the leading candidates have much in common ideologically, perhaps more than any other.

Outside an Omaha polling place, Beth Pepitone said she voted for Powell because she wanted someone who would stand up to Trump.

“I just think we’re going in the wrong direction and it’s very sad,” said Pepitone. “I want to preserve the ‘blue dot.’”

Opponents say the ‘blue dot’ is in danger

The Democratic argument against Cavanaugh has little to do with his politics or policies.

His opponents and groups backing them have flooded mailboxes, airwaves and social media warning that if he wins the congressional primary, Nebraska's Republican governor would appoint a conservative Republican to replace him in the Legislature.

That move, they say, could give state Republicans enough votes to enact a conservative wish list that includes stricter limitations on abortion and transgender rights.

It could also empower Republicans to enact midcycle redistricting or change the state's unusual system of splitting presidential electoral votes, some Democrats argue. Republicans failed in 2024 to pass a bill that would have made Nebraska the 49th state to award its Electoral College votes on a winner-take-all basis.

“Our Blue Dot. We fought hard for it. But if John Cavanaugh goes to Congress, it could all fall down,” cautions one TV ad by the super PAC New Democrat Majority.

EMILY’s List, a national group that supports women running for office, has put its reach and money behind Powell, calling Cavanaugh’s candidacy “a gift to MAGA Republicans.”

Republican groups also target Cavanaugh

Republican groups have sent out mailers and social media posts claiming Cavanaugh “is in agreement with President Donald Trump” and showing a photo of Cavanaugh overlaid on a photo of the president, making it appear as if the two are standing together.

“Clearly, the Republicans know that I’m the strongest general election candidate,” Cavanaugh said. “And so they’re trying to hurt me.”

The attacks on Cavanaugh show Democrats and Republicans believe he has the best chance of winning the general election, said Paul Landow, a former Nebraska Democratic Party executive director.

He called the “blue dot” attacks disingenuous, noting Republicans already have a filibuster-proof majority in the Legislature but have still failed to pass key elements of their agenda because it is unpopular even among GOP lawmakers. The argument that a Cavanaugh win could weaken the state’s “blue dot” also assumes Democrats won’t pick up additional legislative seats this year, he said.

“There’s so many things that have to fall into place for this alleged danger to the ‘blue dot,’” Landow said. “It’s just wild speculation.”

The Democratic primary grows contentious

While all the Democratic contenders cite affordability and opposition to Trump administration policies — from immigration and healthcare to military actions — the top contenders began attacking one another more aggressively in the days leading up to the primary.

Powell co-founded Women Who Run Nebraska, a political action committee that supports progressive female candidates, and she has a decade of Democratic political activism. She's never held office but said her deep connections have helped her with independents and third-party voters who make up nearly 30% of the district's electorate.

“My name recognition has increased dramatically,” Powell said, adding that "people are really connecting with my message.”

The winner of Tuesday's primary will head to a highly competitive general election.

Trump won the district in 2016, and the retiring Bacon, who has clashed with Trump, has held the House seat for five terms.

At an Omaha polling place, independent Hayden Kephart said her biggest concern is inflation.

“Obviously the price of everything has really gone up,” she said. “And the price of oil can be a factor in everyday life and travel plans.”

Other Tuesday contests

U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts won Tuesday's GOP primary in his bid to seek a full term following his 2023 appointment and 2024 special election victory to replace Republican Ben Sasse.

Ricketts was already looking ahead to an expected general election contest against independent candidate Dan Osborn, an industrial mechanic and military veteran who came within 7 points of defeating Republican U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer in her 2024 reelection bid. Cindy Burbank won the Democratic primary.

In the race for governor, incumbent Republican Gov. Jim Pillen won his party’s primary, while former state Sen. Lynne Walz won the Democratic nomination.

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Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writer Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.

“We're the two superpowers,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House on Tuesday. “We're the strongest nation on Earth in terms of military. China’s considered second.”

While Trump likes to project a sense of strength, the visit occurs at a delicate moment for his presidency as his popularity at home has been weighed down by the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran and rising inflation as a consequence of that conflict. The president is seeking a win by signing deals with China to buy more American food and aircraft, saying he'll be talking with Xi about trade “more than anything else.”

The Trump administration hopes to begin the process of establishing a “Board of Trade” with China to address differences between the countries. The board could help prevent the trade war ignited last year after Trump's tariff hikes, an action China countered through its control of rare earth minerals. That led to a one-year truce last October.

But Trump comes to Beijing at a time when Iran continues to dominate his domestic agenda. The war has led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, stranding oil and natural gas tankers and causing energy prices to spike to levels that could sabotage global economic growth. The U.S. president declared that Xi didn’t need to assist in resolving the conflict, even though Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Beijing last week.

“We have a lot of things to discuss. I wouldn’t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control," Trump told reporters Tuesday.

Taiwan and trade are high on the agenda

The status of Taiwan also appears to be a major topic as China is displeased with U.S. plans to sell weapons to the self-governing island that the Chinese government claims as part of its own territory.

Trump told reporters Monday that he would be discussing with Xi an $11 billion weapons package for Taiwan that the U.S. administration authorized in December but has not yet begun fulfilling.

The U.S. leader has demonstrated greater ambivalence toward Taiwan, an approach that’s raising questions about whether Trump could be open to dialing back support for the island democracy.

At the same time, Taiwan — as the world's leading chipmaker — has become essential for the development of AI, with the U.S. importing more goods so far this year from Taiwan than China. Trump has sought to use Biden-era programs and his own deals to bring more chipmaking to America.

Trump says relationship with Xi is on solid footing

But Trump was already portraying the trip as a success before he left White House grounds. He openly mused about Xi's planned reciprocal visit to the U.S., lamenting that the ballroom under construction would not be completed in time.

“We’re going to have a great relationship for many, many decades to come,” Trump said of the U.S. and China. “As you know, President Xi will be coming here toward the end of the year. So that would be exciting. I only wish we had the ballroom finished.”

Trump said he had spoken with the Chinese leader and the meeting would be “positive" as he embarked on Air Force One with a coterie of aides, family members and business world titans, including Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Tesla and SpaceX's Elon Musk. He will arrive in China on Wednesday evening and, after a ceremonial greeting, go to his hotel. He will attend a state banquet Thursday and have a working lunch with Xi on Friday before returning to the U.S.

Despite Trump’s outward confidence, China appears to be entering the meeting from “a much stronger place," said Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser on Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

China would like to reduce tech restrictions on accessing computer chips and find ways to reduce tariffs, among other goals.

“But even if they don’t get much on any of those things, as long as there’s not a blow-up in the meeting and President Trump doesn’t go away and look to re-escalate, China basically comes out stronger,” Kennedy said.

Trump wants a three-way nuclear arms deal

Trump also intends to raise the idea of the U.S., China and Russia signing a pact that would set limits on the nuclear weapons each nation keeps in its arsenal, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters ahead of the trip. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.

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

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

The Pentagon estimates China has more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and will have over 1,000 by 2030.

___

Boak reported from Washington.

Rather than waning, a national redistricting battle that began 10 months ago has intensified — inflamed by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened the federal Voting Rights Act and provided grounds for states to try to eliminate voting districts with large minority populations.

Republican lawmakers in Louisiana are wrestling with how politically aggressive to be when redrawing House districts after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a majority-Black district as an illegal racial gerrymander.

The ripples of the Louisiana ruling already have led to new U.S. House districts in Tennessee and have extended to Alabama, where Republican Gov. Kay Ivey announced an Aug. 11 special primary for four of the state’s seven congressional districts. That came after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday overturned an order mandating use of a map with two largely Black districts. The state plans to switch to a map passed in 2023 that has only one majority-Black district, giving Republicans a chance to win an additional seat.

Republicans think they could gain as many as 14 seats from new House maps enacted so far in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and Tennessee. Democrats, meanwhile, think they could gain six seats from new maps in California and Utah. The Virginia Supreme Court last week struck down a redistricting effort that could have yielded four more winnable seats for Democrats.

Missouri court upholds split of Kansas City

Missouri was the second Republican state, after Texas, to redraw its congressional districts at Trump’s urging last year.

Tuesday's two unanimous state Supreme Court decisions, delivered just hours after arguments, “are a complete victory for Missouri and for the people's elected representatives,” Republican Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said in a statement.

The rulings sided “against voters in every respect,” the ACLU and Campaign Legal Center, which represented suing voters, said in a joint statement. “This state — and our democracy — are worse off for this outcome.”

Attorneys challenging Missouri's new map had focused on changes to a Kansas City-based district long represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who previously was the city’s first Black mayor.

The new map takes a compact urban district that covered 20 miles (32 kilometers) and two counties and stretches it 200 miles (322 kilometers) over 15 counties, distorting it “into a sprawling behemoth that cuts clear across the state to unite territories that share nothing in common,” said Abha Khanna, a partner in the Elias Law Group, a Democratic firm.

But the Supreme Court upheld a March decision by a lower court, which found the map as a whole satisfied the compactness requirement even though the Kansas City district looks less compact. No Missouri court has ever struck down a congressional map for not being compact, said attorney John Gore, who defended the districts on behalf of the Republican Party.

A second case heard by the high court centered on whether the new map took effect in December, as asserted by Hanaway and Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, or whether it should have been suspended when referendum signatures were submitted.

To suspend the map before validating the signatures would let activists temporarily undercut laws by submitting boxes of fraudulent signatures, Missouri Solicitor General Lou Capozzi argued.

But to not immediately suspend the map “would dilute the referendum right, if not destroy it altogether,” said attorney Jonathan Hawley, arguing for voters who sued.

The Supreme Court agreed with Republican officials, who contend the new districts can be suspended only after Hoskins determines the petition meets constitutional requirements and has enough valid signatures. Hoskins has until Aug. 4, the day of Missouri’s primary elections, to make that determination.

South Carolina senator sees risk in redistricting

Trump urged South Carolina to redraw its congressional districts ahead of the November elections in an attempt to help Republicans win another seat.

A House committee endorsed a map Tuesday that could eliminate the state's only Democratic-held seat, and the chamber voted previously to let lawmakers return after their regular work ends Thursday to further consider redistricting.

But the Senate had to give permission too. The 29-17 vote failed, coming just two votes short of the two-thirds needed, as five Republicans joined all Democrats in opposition.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said he expects redistricting to come up again in some way before the June 9 primary.

Trump had said on social media that he was closely watching the redistricting vote, urging South Carolina senators to “be bold and courageous” and to delay the congressional primaries so new districts can be drawn.

Although Republicans have a supermajority in the chamber, some GOP senators weren’t sure the proposed map would guarantee the party could unseat longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn. They also said it could push enough Democrats into other districts to backfire, resulting in a 5-2 or even a 4-3 Republican split.

Massey acknowledged the pressure from Trump but said he doesn’t like being asked to bend to someone’s will instead of doing what’s best for his state.

“I got too much Southern in my blood,” Massey said. “I’ve got too much resistance in my heritage.”

Louisiana teen recounts family's fight

A state Senate committee was considering how to reshape congressional districts — currently represented by four Republicans and two Democrats — in response to the Supreme Court ruling.

Republican-backed options aimed to eliminate either one or both of those Democratic seats.

But Democrats backed a map that still would allow for two majority-Black districts centered on Baton Rouge and New Orleans. They argued that would comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling while retaining fairness.

As a hearing stretched late into Tuesday night, Josiah Hardy, a high school sophomore, told lawmakers that his great-grandfather fought for civil rights and equal representation in Louisiana when Black voters were disenfranchised.

“Why are we still fighting the same fight decades later,” Hardy said. “My great-grandfather believed democracy is stronger when more people are included, not excluded. Further generations should not have to keep fighting the same battles for fairness and voting rights that leaders before us have already fought.”

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Brook reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Chandler from Montgomery, Alabama, Collins from Columbia, South Carolina, and Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri.

The Spurs are returning to the Frost Bank Center to face the Timberwolves on Tuesday night.

The series is tied 2-2 after Victor Wembanyama was ejected early in Game 4 for elbowing Timberwolves forward Naz Reid.

The winner of the series will face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals.

Ernie also joined fans ahead of last week’s Spurs games. Watch the full livestreams below:

More Spurs coverage on KSAT:

• What to know before going to Spurs watch parties at The Rock at La Cantera
• How to watch the Spurs in the NBA playoffs: Streaming options, watch parties and more
• SCHEDULE: NBA announces TV schedule, tip times for first 4 games of Spurs-Timberwolves series

Richins, 35, faces several decades to life in prison on five felony convictions, including aggravated murder.

Prosecutors said she laced her husband Eric Richins’ cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in 2022 at their home near the ski town of Park City. She then published a children’s book about a boy coping with the death of his father shortly before her arrest in 2023.

Richins' attorneys declined to comment Tuesday before her sentencing hearing, which falls on the day her husband would have turned 44.

The statements from their sons, who were ages 9, 7 and 5 when their father died, came in a memo from prosecutors urging Judge Richard Mrazik to sentence Richins to life without parole.

The oldest child, now 13, said he wants the court to know that he does not miss his mom.

“I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family," he said. “I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us.”

Prosecutors allege that the boy suffered emotional and physical abuse from his mother, which they say is supported by findings from the Utah Division of Child and Family Services that are contained in a sealed court document. Agency officials could not comment on the allegations, as most records concerning minors are heavily protected, spokesperson Josh Loftin said.

Richins was a real estate agent with a house-flipping business who was millions in debt and planning a future with another man, prosecutors said. She had opened numerous life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge and falsely believed she would inherit his estate worth more than $4 million after he died.

Her aggravated murder conviction alone is punishable either by a range of 25 years to life in prison, or a life sentence without parole. Prosecutors did not push for the death penalty.

Jurors also found Richins guilty of other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him black out.

The Richins' middle child, now 11, refuted his mother's claim that she slept in his bedroom with him on the night of his father's death. He recalled unusual circumstances from that night, like being put to bed early without a bath, his parents' bedroom being locked and the television blaring from inside. The boy said his mother yelled at him to go away after he used a broom to try to reach a key to their bedroom, where Richins later told a 911 operator she found her husband cold to the touch.

The 11-year-old told the judge he is sad that his dad can no longer take him camping and fishing, coach him in sports or be present for major milestones. Like his older brother, he said he would feel unsafe if his mom wasn't behind bars.

“With (her) in jail, I will be able to continue to feel safe and live a happy and successful life without fear of (her) hurting me or anyone I love,” his statement read.

The youngest son said he feels “hateful and ashamed” when people talk about his mom because “she took away my dad.” He said he would be ”so scared" if his mother got out of prison.

“Once she is gone I will feel happy and I will feel safer and relaxed and trust people more,” said the boy, whose current age was not included in the memo.

Richins also faces more than two dozen money-related criminal charges in a separate case that has not yet gone to trial.

On Tuesday, the city said San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge concluded his review of the March 14 arrests, and officer Jaciel Cortina will be required to complete retraining on “de-escalation and investigative practices” as a result.

Just before 4 a.m. on March 14, officers were notified of a 15-year-old girl attempting to leave her mother’s house and get into a red pickup truck outside. The girl’s mother told police she believed an older man, whom she did not know, was trying to leave with her daughter, the city said.

Before officers were dispatched, it was unclear whether the girl was still at the house or whether she had left in the truck, according to the city.

The city said officers found a truck that matched the mother’s description, but the driver — later identified as Esteban Reyes, 17 — did not respond after he was asked to exit the vehicle multiple times.

According to the city, officers called for backup and approached the driver’s seat, including Cortina.

The city said Esteban Reyes’ father, Gerardo Gonzalez Reyes, 44, who was in the passenger seat, “held onto (his son’s) arm and attempted to keep the driver inside the truck.” Esteban Reyes was physically removed from the truck, but the city did not specify which officers opened the door and removed him.

Cortina was placed on administrative leave the following month.

The 15-year-old girl was not in the red pickup truck that was described to officers, police said. After an investigation, officers confirmed the 15-year-old girl never left the mother’s house, according to a City of San Marcos spokesperson, and no crime had occurred.

Both Esteban Reyes and Gerardo Gonzalez Reyes were booked into the Hays County Law Enforcement Center for interfering with public duties.

The city said Cortina, the arresting officer, discovered Gerardo Gonzalez Reyes had an immigration detainer issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after he was booked.

An immigration detainer is a request sent from ICE to law enforcement agencies, including jails, to notify the immigration agency before releasing an immigrant and hold them for up to 48 hours.

“The arresting officer was not aware of the detainer while on the scene of the traffic stop,” the city said in April.

On Tuesday, the city said an internal investigation of the arrests found three San Marcos Police Department policy violations:

• Policy 5.1: Departmental records related to an inaccurate statement on the probable cause affidavit
• Policy 6.1: Response to resistance and aggression related to a failure to articulate the basis for detention
• Policy 7.40: Investigations related to a failure to verify the juvenile subject’s location and investigative questioning prior to making arrests

Standridge also provided recommendations that will be implemented by the department, the city said, including:

• Establishment of mandatory supervisory and command protocols for significant incidents
• Adoption of a policy governing departmental protocols for Immigration and Customs Enforcement administrative warrants and detainers
• Amendments to existing departmental policies to require articulation of the basis for detention and arrests and clarify requirements for report accuracy
• Requirements for use of a standard translation application
• Creation of a public-facing dashboard for use of force, de-escalation, and dignity in policing metrics
• Establishment of a formal San Marcos Police Department Leadership Academy

“The City of San Marcos acknowledges the concerns expressed by the family and members of the public related to this case and expects officers to act to the highest professional standards at all times,” the city said Tuesday.

In another statement Tuesday, the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT) said the accusations were “unfounded and unsubstantiated” and said CLEAT attorneys are representing Cortina.

Read also:

• What we know about 6 people found dead in a Laredo boxcar, another found near Bexar County railroad

“Some things you got to take away, you know, make up for the inflation,” Luis Velazquez told KSAT as he left a grocery store on the South Side, listing children’s toys as an example.

“Sometimes you got to tell them, ‘Well, can’t get that right now. We got to put it towards gas, electric, water bill,’ you know, stuff like that.”

The pinch isn’t just local. The Consumer Price Index for April 2026 released Tuesday showed a 3.8% increase over the last 12 months. Energy and fuel prices in particular have skyrocketed, with the CPI showing a 28.4% increase in gasoline across all types.

“For a year-over-year, 3.8 might not sound like a scary number, but when you compound it over the last five years of inflation we’ve been experiencing, that’s where the hit really starts to become apparent,” said professor Taylor Collins, chairman of the University of the Incarnate Word Department of Economics.

KSAT previously interviewed Collins about a 2025 report that put San Antonio as the 10th-cheapest metro area — a metric that he stressed on Tuesday does not mean the cost of living is low.

“Relative to a lot of other cities we’re doing well,” he said. “That’s still not a huge relief when people are already spending at their limit and now experiencing these additional costs on top of it.”

San Antonians also have more local, potential price increases to consider.

The City of San Antonio is mulling the first increase to its property tax rate in 33 years. The San Antonio Water System wants to raise rates. And though CPS Energy hasn’t presented a rate proposal yet, the possibility has come up.

One spot of potential relief for San Antonians is the cost of housing.

Rents at multifamily developments fell 3.4% over the past 12 months and are now at an average of $1,251, according to Apartments.com. Meanwhile, home prices have fallen 0.6% since last year with an average home price just below $310,000, according to Homes.com.

However, that comes with a caveat. Collins said housing has been the biggest stressor for the past five years or so. Prices rose “significantly” after the pandemic, he said, with rental prices rising with them.

“Even though we’re seeing a little relief there, it’s relief from a very high starting point,” he said.

And how affordable something is still depends on how much you have to spend on it. According to the same report on affordable metro areas that put San Antonio as the 10th cheapest, a single adult would need just over $90,000 to live comfortably here.

The area median income for a single person in 2025, though, was less than $68,000, and the city had the third-highest poverty rate among the 25 biggest metro areas in 2023 and 2024.

Ana Nuñez spoke with KSAT as she sold fruit cups out of the back of an SUV with her mother outside a South Side laundromat.

San Antonio is “definitely” affordable compared to other cities, she said, “but it’s also like you have to put into perspective that San Antonio doesn’t pay much.”

Nuñez said she’s job hunting at the moment, but a lot of the employment that is offered is about $15 to $18 per hour.

She studied at the University of Texas at Austin and said her friends “don’t move to San Antonio to ... get their dream job. They usually move out, unfortunately.”

Whatever your paycheck, the rise in costs likely isn’t over, Collins said.

“Something we know in economics is that people respond to future expectations,” he said. “So, in part, prices are going to today because people expect them to go up in the future, and as that cycle continues, we can expect the stretch to get harder and harder.”

For those who can afford it, Collins recommended trying to save money. For those who are already at their limit, he recommended looking at “whatever public support programs might be available to supplement for people who need that.”

“If you can prepare yourself, that is always the preferable place to go,” he said. “If you’re in an emergency situation, that’s what the programs are available for.”

Read also:

• Rising beef and milk prices driven by drought, supply shortages

The City Council voted 7-2 Tuesday to give initial approval to a water curtailment plan that would set water limits for different customers, ranging from residents and local businesses to large oil companies. The council is expected to take a final vote adopting the curtailment plan on May 19.

City leaders for months have been bracing for a Level 1 water emergency — the point when the city’s supply is projected to be 180 days away from falling short of demand. If there’s no significant rainfall soon, experts are predicting that may be around four months away. 

Under an updated recommendation from the city’s water department that was given preliminary approval Tuesday, residents’ baseline was set at 8,000 gallons a month. Under an emergency, that allotment would fall 25% to 6,000 gallons a month. An earlier proposal set the emergency limit at 5,250 gallons for residential customers. 

The city is also working on creating an online portal where residents can track water use. 

In addition, the water department now recommends that during a Level 1 emergency, residents be allowed to wash vehicles at home with five-gallon buckets as well as hand-held hoses with a shut-off nozzle. Under previous recommendations, all car and boat washing would have been prohibited. 

For industrial and wholesale customers such as the cities of Alice, Beeville and Mathis, the city would require 25% reductions based on a three-year average of water use. That amount would also take into account changes in usage based on the season. 

“Water customers are not subject to violations, penalties, or enforcement for exceeding their baseline or exceeding their allocation,” read an addition to the ordinance that received initial approval Tuesday. 

The water department previously recommended that violations be considered a Class C misdemeanor, subject to a fine of up to $500, with a second violation potentially leading to the city cutting off a customer’s water for at least one monthly billing cycle. 

Customers still can be cited for prohibited practices during a Level 1 water emergency, such as landscape watering, according to a Tuesday news release from the city.

The tentatively adopted curtailment strategy also includes additional fees that could be charged to all types of customers that use more water than allowed, starting with $4 per 1,000 gallons over their allocation and subsequently rising to $8 per 1,000 gallons over their baseline. Federal and state government users, however, would be exempt from these surcharges. 

The council still has to consider approving these fees separately by resolution, the city’s news release said.

The region has been in the grips of a brutal drought that has caused the city’s main reservoirs to reach historic lows. More than 95% of the city’s water supply comes from surface water, primarily lakes and reservoirs, according to the state’s 2022 water plan. The combined capacity of Lake Corpus Christi and Choke Canyon Reservoir has dropped to around 8.5%, prompting city leaders to scale up drought contingency plans.

The 76ers were easily ousted by the New York Knicks to end Morey's sixth season in charge, and the organization quickly decided that someone else would lead the basketball operations department.

Sixers managing partner Josh Harris said in a statement that he and Morey had spoken and decided it was time for a fresh start.

Bob Myers, the former Golden State Warriors general manager, will lead the search for Morey's replacement and will oversee the department in the interim.

“To our fans, your frustration and disappointment are understandable and warranted,” Harris said. “We have fallen well short of our own expectations and failed to deliver in the way this city deserves. That bothers me deeply and I have confidence in Bob to establish a path forward for our franchise.”

The Sixers went 270-212 in the regular season under Morey but just 28-26 in the postseason, failing to advance past the second round. They returned to the playoffs this season after missing them for the only time in Morey's tenure in 2024-25, when they went 24-58.

Myers built the Golden State teams that won NBA championships in 2015, ’17, ’18 and ’22. He worked as a commentator at ESPN after leaving the Warriors before joining Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment in October 2025 as president of sports.

Morey joined the 76ers in 2020 after 14 seasons with the Houston Rockets, including 13 as their general manager. The Rockets made the playoffs in his final eight seasons and he was voted the NBA's executive of the year in 2018 after Houston went 65-17 and reached the Western Conference finals.

In 2019, he sent a tweet in support of anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, angering Chinese officials and wrecking the NBA's lucrative relationship with the country. The Rockets had previously enjoyed enormous popularity in China after drafting Yao Ming with the No. 1 pick in 2002.

Morey, best known for his analytical approach — he has an MBA from MIT and serves as the co-chair of the school’s annual Sports Analytics Conference — failed to build a title contender around oft-injured center Joel Embiid. He acquired James Harden, his former star in Houston, and later added another high-priced veteran in Paul George.

He did well with recent draft choices Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, last year's No. 3 pick. But he also made a heavily criticized deal this season when he sent Jared McCain, a 2024 first-round pick, to Oklahoma City. McCain averaged 11.5 points in the defending champion Thunder's second-round sweep of the Lakers.

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

In this week’s episode of the TribCast, the crew speaks with Texas Tribune Politics Editor Jasper Scherer about the upcoming primary runoffs. Will Donald Trump endorse in the U.S. Senate race? Has a candidate for railroad commissioner pushed too far to the right even for the Texas Republican primaries? And what are some of the other races that have the attention of our team?

Watch the video above or subscribe to the TribCast on iTunes, Spotify, or RSS. New episodes every Tuesday.

Collins spent 13 years as a player in the league for six different franchises. He revealed in 2013 that he was gay, an announcement that came toward the end of his playing career.

Collins had been diagnosed with Stage 4 glioblastoma, which has an extremely low survival rate. He was 47.

“Jason changed lives in unexpected ways and was an inspiration to all who knew him and to those who admired him from afar," Collins' family said in a statement released through the NBA. "We are grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers over the past eight months and for the exceptional medical care Jason received from his doctors and nurses. Our family will miss him dearly.”

Just last week, Collins received the inaugural Bill Walton Global Champion Award at the Green Sports Alliance Summit. He was too ill to attend and his twin brother, former NBA player Jarron Collins, accepted for him.

“I told my brother this before I came here: He’s the bravest, strongest man I’ve ever known,” Jarron Collins said while accepting that award.

Jason Collins averaged 3.6 points and 3.7 rebounds in his career. He helped the New Jersey Nets reach two NBA Finals and in his best season averaged 6.4 points and 6.1 rebounds for them in 2004-05.

“Jason Collins’ impact and influence extended far beyond basketball as he helped make the NBA, WNBA and larger sports community more inclusive and welcoming for future generations,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. “He exemplified outstanding leadership and professionalism throughout his 13-year NBA career and in his dedicated work as an NBA Cares Ambassador. Jason will be remembered not only for breaking barriers, but also for the kindness and humanity that defined his life and touched so many others.

“On behalf of the NBA, I send my heartfelt condolences to Jason’s husband, Brunson, and his family, friends and colleagues across our leagues.”

Jason Collins spent the bulk of his career with the Nets, and also played for Atlanta, Boston, Memphis, Minnesota and Washington.

“This one hurts,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd, a former teammate and coach of Collins, wrote on X. “Jason Collins was a pioneer. He had courage like you’ve never seen. He was an incredible teammate. And having him in Brooklyn at the start of my coaching journey meant so much. Those who knew him were blessed to call him a friend. You are already missed my brother. Rest in power.”

Jason Collins revealed his sexuality in a first-person account for Sports Illustrated in April 2013. He was a free agent at the time, said he wanted to keep playing, and went on to play in 22 games with Brooklyn the following season.

“If I had my way, someone else would have already done this,” he wrote at that time. “Nobody has, which is why I’m raising my hand.”

His decision was widely lauded, with star players such as Kobe Bryant quickly speaking out in support of Collins. There was even support from the White House and then-former President Bill Clinton — whose daughter, Chelsea, went to Stanford with Collins. At Stanford, Collins was roommates with someone who was part of another American political dynasty, that being Joe Kennedy III, who spent eight years in Congress representing Massachusetts.

Collins, in the piece for Sports Illustrated, wrote that he realized he needed to go public about his sexuality when Kennedy walked in Boston’s gay pride parade in 2012 — but Collins couldn’t do the same.

Until then, Collins kept his feelings about gay rights close to the vest. He wore jersey No. 98 for the majority of his final three playing stints with Boston, Washington and Brooklyn — a nod to the year that Matthew Shepard, a gay college student in Wyoming, was killed. He also wore 46 in one game for the Nets, since it was the only jersey the team had available when he signed.

Tributes poured in Tuesday from around basketball and beyond. The Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights advocacy group, released a statement that said in part, “stepping forward as he did boldly changed the conversation. He was and will always be a legend for the LGBTQ+ community.”

Added Arn Tellem, the agent who represented Collins: “Representing Jason Collins was one of the great honors and privileges of my life — not only as an agent, but as a counselor and confidant. ... The courage he showed changed lives and transcended our game. His impact reached far beyond basketball.”

A moment of silence was held Tuesday before the Minnesota at San Antonio playoff game, in tribute to both Collins and Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke — whose death was announced Tuesday as well. The Spurs lauded Collins not just for breaking barriers, but for “his bravery and kindness.”

Collins made nearly 61% of his shots in his career at Stanford, which remains a school record. He was an honorable mention selection for The Associated Press' All-America team in 2001, a few months before the Houston Rockets took him with the 18th pick in that year's NBA draft.

“It’s a sad day for all of us associated with Stanford basketball when we lose one of the program’s greats," former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said. “We all have great memories of Jason and the kind of person he was. It’s hard to separate Jarron and Jason because they thought so alike, but even though he was an identical twin, Jason was unique in his own way. The impact he had on Stanford was immense, as he could match up against anyone in the country because he was big, smart, strong and skilled, all while being a very bright and nice person.”

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

Defensive Player of the Year Victor Wembanyama was ejected from Game 4, uncharacteristically, after getting a Flagrant 2 foul for throwing an elbow out of frustration at Timberwolves forward Naz Reid.

At Timberwolves shootaround, the team emphasized balancing physicality and keeping Wembanyama out of the paint.

“It’s similar to baseball. If a pitcher hits a batter, then the next inning, if they retaliate right away, then they tend to get the harsher punishment,” Timberwolves guard Ayo Dosunmu said. “So it’s about just playing smart,” he added.

“We have to use that experience. If it’s one of those games that’s going to get called tighter, you’ve got to play with that physicality,” said Timberwolves veteran guard Mike Conley. “Can’t be two games ago, can’t be last game. We have to be ready for what’s called tonight. We’ve handled that well.”

Both teams are painfully aware they have to stay disciplined. The Timberwolves know that if they want to continue playing in the postseason, they have to win at least one more time in the Alamo City.

Tipoff for Game 5 is at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Frost Bank Center.

More Spurs coverage on KSAT:

• Ernie Zuniga to join Spurs fans at The Rock at La Cantera ahead of Game 5 against Timberwolves
• Wembanyama won’t face ‘further discipline’ following ejection-worthy elbow in Game 4, ESPN reports
• SW Military neighbors, Spurs fans react to viral playoff celebrations

“I will not be tarnished by baseless allegations and fraudulent statements from the media,” Patel told Sen. Chris Van Hollen during a testy exchange that began when the Maryland Democrat confronted him about a recent article in The Atlantic magazine that painted an unflattering portrait of his leadership of the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency.

Patel has filed a $250 million lawsuit over the story. The Atlantic has said it stands by its reporting and would vigorously defend against the “meritless lawsuit.”

Patel shouted over Van Hollen and sought to turn the tables by accusing him of “slinging margaritas on the taxpayer dime” in El Salvador, a reference to a visit the Democrat paid last year to Kilmar Abrego Garcia while he was jailed there following his mistaken deportation to the country.

“The only person who has been drinking during the day on the taxpayer dime was you,” Patel said.

“Director Patel, come on,” Van Hollen said. “These are serious allegations that were made against you.”

He at one point asked Patel if he was willing to take a test meant to measure whether an individual has a drinking problem, prompting Patel to shoot back, “I’ll take any test you’re willing to take.”

The senator called Patel's claims of margaritas in El Salvador “provably false.” After last year's meeting, Van Hollen publicly accused El Salvador’s government of having misrepresented the nature of his encounter with Abrego Garcia, saying officials there had staged the meeting with drinks appearing to be alcohol and angled to set the meeting by a hotel pool.

The testy exchange occurred at an annual Senate subcommittee budget hearing featuring Patel and other senior law enforcement leaders. The director used the forum to tout what he described as major crime-fighting achievements since he took the position and received a friendly reception from Republican senators who praised his leadership.

Democrats, by contrast, pressed Patel on headline-generating travel that has blended his professional duties with private leisure — including a trip to the Winter Olympics in Italy, where he partied with the U.S. men's hockey team after their gold medal win — as well as the mass terminations of agents who worked on investigations into President Donald Trump.

“You attended the Olympics in Milan,” said Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat. “How much did your trip cost and to what extent did that help you carry out your mission as director of the FBI?”

Patel responded that the FBI was responsible for security at the Olympics and asserted that his trip to Italy helped facilitate the transfer of a Chinese cybercriminal to U.S. custody, who had been detained by Italian authorities.

’’Children crying, and even babies,” said Ross, the French widow of a U.S. military veteran, whose arrest last month as part of the Trump administration’s i mmigration crackdown made international headlines.

Ross spoke to The Associated Press on Monday about her 16 days in federal immigration custody after being arrested on April 1 in Alabama following an alleged visa overstay, and the late-in-life love story that brought her to the United States. She has been released and returned to France.

The experience in detention, she said, changed her, and her view of politics.

She was held in a dormitory-style room with 58 other women, mostly mothers. ‘’Some of them didn’t know where their children were,'' she said. ‘’I think it’s terrible for a woman not to know where her children are.”

Her arrest in Alabama unfolded so quickly that she barely understood what was happening. Five men, who identified themselves as immigration officers, banged on her door and windows at 8 a.m. before handcuffing her and placing her in a vehicle, she said. She was still wearing her bathrobe, slippers and pajamas.

She was transferred two days later to a facility in Basile, Louisiana. Later that month, she was freed. She is now recovering in a suburb of Nantes in western France with her family. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot had publicly called for her release, saying that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement methods are “not in line” with French standards.

Ross had entered the U.S. to start a new life with William B. Ross, a retired U.S. soldier she had met when he was stationed in France in the 1950s and she was a secretary at NATO.

Between 1962 and 2022, they stayed in touch via William's wife, who was friends with Marie-Therese. “After we both became widowed, we decided to spend holidays together,'' Marie-Therese Ross said. ‘’Then feelings came back, and we decided to marry last year.'' She crossed the Atlantic and moved in with him in Anniston, Alabama.

After he died of natural causes in January, a dispute emerged over his estate.

His sons rerouted mail from the Alabama residence, leading their stepmother to miss an immigration-related appointment, an Alabama judge noted in a court order. The judge accused one son — a former Alabama State Trooper who now works as a federal employee — of using his position to prompt the detention of his stepmother, and urged a federal investigation into what happened.

The stepson denied involvement in her arrest. Marie-Therese described warm relations with William's sons before he died. After his death, she said, they ‘’transformed.''

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that Ross overstayed her 90-day visa and that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities are “regularly audited and inspected” to comply with national standards.

“All detainees are provided with proper meals, quality water, blankets, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers. ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens," the department said.

At the detention facility in Louisiana, Ross described strict rules, constant shouting from guards and condescending treatment.

“The prison was clean, the food was OK, but it was the way they spoke to us,” she told the AP. “The guards could not speak without yelling.”

She described the place as noisy. ’’Everybody was talking loudly so everybody could hear what they were saying, but when silence came, you could hear children crying and even babies crying,″ she said. ’’There’s babies in this jail.″

Despite the conditions, Ross described moments of solidarity among detainees. “During the night, if my bed cover slipped away, I felt a small hand putting it back,” she said. “I didn’t know who it was, but they pampered me because I was older than them.”

She said the women called her “Grandma.” She kept a handmade friendship bracelet given to her by another detainee, woven from strips of colored plastic, a gift she wears today.

Family members said Ross is still struggling with memory gaps and emotional distress following her detention. She said she wants to seek medical follow-up in France to address symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress and is receiving support.

Ross said she continues to think about the women she met in custody, most of them from South America. Many were mothers separated from their children.

Her experience changed the way she sees the United States and its immigration policies, Ross said. Her husband was a Trump supporter and they used to watch Fox News together. But she was shocked to learn firsthand how immigrants are treated inside immigration facilities.

She used to view the U.S. as a “country of freedom, where people are not arrested based on how they look, and where those who are detained are treated fairly and with respect.” But the women she met did not deserve to be detained, she said. “Their only fault was to be South American.”

As she recovers in France, Ross still thinks about them: “When I left this jail in Louisiana, I told them that if I ever had the chance to speak about them, I would do it, to help them.”

The reigning National League Cy Young Award winner struck out 10 and walked none while facing the minimum 19 batters before Moniak stepped to the plate with one out in the seventh. Moniak hit a sinking line drive to left-center that bounced in front of centerfielder Oneil Cruz.

Skenes retired the next two batters to preserve a 2-0 lead.

The 23-year-old Skenes' only miscue before Moniak singled came when he hit Troy Johnston on the left foot with a 2-1 pitch in the fifth. Johnston was caught trying to steal second, ending the inning.

Skenes threw 62 of 89 pitches for strikes through seven innings. He struck out his first six batters before Willi Castro led off the third by laying down a bunt. The bunt went right back toward Skenes, who easily scooped it up and threw to first as the crowd at PNC Park booed.

Only three Rockies have managed to get the ball to the outfield before Moniak's hit, none of which came particularly close to falling safely.

The Pirateshaven't thrown a no-hitter since Francisco Córdova and Ricardo Rincón combined in a 10-inning victory over Houston on July 12, 1997.

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

President Donald Trump announced plans on Monday to suspend the federal gas tax as fuel prices rise during the ongoing war with Iran. The proposal would still require approval from Congress before taking effect.

If approved, drivers could temporarily save 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon on diesel fuel, according to Patrick De Haan, petroleum analyst for Gas Buddy. The federal tax is separate from state gas taxes, which are often higher.

“Even those few dollars, to some people it makes all the difference,” driver Madison Eubanks said.

Eubanks said high fuel prices are already taking a toll on her finances.

“Paying more than $5 a gallon is a lot,” she said. “I’m spending at least $100 every time I fill up.”

Other drivers agree and mentioned they are also making changes to cope with rising fuel costs.

“I have to go to different gas stations just to save money,” one driver said.

That same driver said she traded in her truck for a more fuel-efficient vehicle.

De Haan said a federal gas tax suspension could lower prices relatively quickly — possibly within a day of taking effect — because the tax directly affects fuel as it is sold.

However, he said global oil prices will ultimately determine how much relief drivers actually see.

“It’s really what’s going on in the backdrop,” De Haan said. “Is the price of oil going up at the same time that this tax suspension becomes effective?”

De Haan said rising wholesale gasoline prices could offset the savings from the tax suspension, making any decrease at the pump less noticeable for consumers.

“If oil prices are falling at the same time of the suspension, then you could see the reduction at the pump,” De Haan said. “It really depends on timing.”

At current national averages, De Haan said the savings could still add up for drivers who fill larger vehicles or commute long distances.

“At $4.48 per gallon, an 18.4 cent reduction would still add up to a few dollars every fill-up, depending on how big your tank is,” he said.

The federal gas tax has remained unchanged since 1993 and serves as a major source of funding for highways, interstates and public transportation projects across the country. The tax generates more than $23 billion annually for federal transportation programs.

According to De Haan, suspending the tax could cost the federal government around $2.1 billion in lost revenue every month the suspension remains in place.

“The Federal Highway Trust Fund is already relatively low,” he said. “Gasoline and federal diesel taxes have not been increased since 1993.”

While lawmakers from both political parties have discussed ways to provide relief to drivers during periods of high fuel prices, the proposal would still need congressional approval before consumers see any changes at the pump.

For drivers like Eubanks, though, every dollar matters.

“Money that’s not going toward this can go to bills, rent, whatever,” Eubanks said.

Read also:

• ‘It’s not worth it’: San Antonio drivers stunned as gas prices surge above $4 per gallon

The runway fatality underscores the longstanding challenge of keeping intruders out of major airports. Denver International Airport sprawls across 53 square miles (138 square kilometers) — twice the size of Manhattan — on open prairie northeast of the city center.

The 41-year-old trespasser triggered an alarm as he crossed into the airport in a remote area about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the terminal late Friday night. But security personnel mistakenly attributed that alarm to a herd of deer that was nearby and the airport did not find out about the intruder until after the fact, when the pilot notified the control tower that the plane had hit somebody.

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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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Authorities said the man died by suicide. However, no note from the victim was immediately recovered. The manner of death was determined based on the investigation at the scene, a records review and a postmortem examination, said Sterling McLaren, chief medical examiner for the city and county of Denver.

The collision involving the Frontier Airlines plane as it was taking off for Los Angeles sparked an engine fire that forced passengers to evacuate via slides. Twelve people sustained minor injuries and five were taken to hospitals. Four have since been released, said airport Chief Executive Officer Phillip Washington.

A black-and-white video released by the airport shows, from a distance, a figure walking toward the runway with arms swaying. The person crosses onto the runway at a slight angle and seconds later the plane is seen speeding past. It strikes the person with its right engine, which bursts into flame.

Federal officials notified the airport

A few minutes before the man scaled the 8-foot (2.4-meter) fence, a ground-based radar system activated in the area, triggering an alarm. A worker at the city-owned airport checked a surveillance camera and saw a herd of deer in the same area but did not initially see the trespasser, Washington said.

"The camera view was alternating between the wildlife and the individual. There are some ditches in the area, so the person was out of view for a bit as well,” Washington said.

The man crossed about 650 feet (200 meters) from the fence to the runway and was inside the perimeter for only two minutes before being struck by the Frontier Airlines plane that was traveling at 150 mph (240 kph), he said.

Emergency personnel were dispatched to the scene after air traffic controllers were notified by the pilot about the collision, airport representatives said in response to questions from The Associated Press.

The airport declined to provide details on their procedures for dealing with trespassers or how often they enter its grounds.

The plane’s engine caused the man’s death, McLaren said. She described it as “a purposeful act with a foreseeable fatal outcome.”

Denver police Chief Ron Thomas said investigators were contacting the man’s family and those who knew him to seek more information about his motivations.

Trespassers breaching airport perimeters is a regular problem, with perhaps dozens annually nationwide, said security expert Jeff Price, who was assistant director of security at the Denver airport in the 1990s. The airport is surrounded by about 36 miles (58 kilometers) of perimeter fence, which airport officials say is continuously inspected.

The vast majority of airport trespassers are intoxicated or simply “messing around just to see if they could do it,” said Price, adding that they typically don't pose a real threat. Denver also gets the rare individual who will jump the fence seeking to prove a long-running conspiracy theory about there being a UFO base at the airport, he said.

The Transportation Security Administration oversees airport security programs, including perimeter security requirements.

“It's really not that difficult to jump an airport perimeter fence,” Price said. “They meet the standards for TSA, but the standards are not that robust.”

The fences are typically 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 meters) tall with barbed wire at the top, he said. They must be approved by federal inspectors, but there are no set rules on their construction. Major airports such as Denver typically also have intrusion detection systems that include cameras and motion sensors, he said. Some systems detect the seismic impact of people dropping to the ground, Price said.

Evacuation under scrutiny

The person was killed on the airport’s easternmost north-south runway and at least 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) from any airport buildings. Empty fields and croplands surround Denver International Airport in most directions. Distant trees and structures in the video showed that the person was headed toward the airport when they crossed the runway.

The National Transportation Safety Board on Sunday said it is gathering information about the plane's evacuation.

An agency spokesperson said an investigation would be launched if it's determined the injuries meet the agency's definition for “serious." That can include a person requiring hospitalization for more than 48 hours, suffering a broken bone, or second- or third-degree burns affecting more than 5% of their body.

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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

Host city Vienna has been bedecked in hearts and the contest’s “United by Music” motto for a week in which singers and bands from 35 countries will compete onstage for the continent’s musical crown. But divisions are clouding the contest’s 70th anniversary edition, with five countries — Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland — boycotting to protest Israel’s inclusion.

Despite the absentee nations, thousands of ebullient fans from across Europe and beyond packed the Wiener Stadthalle arena for the first semifinal. Some had flags painted on their faces or clothes in national colors, others wore sequins and spangles for a contest that celebrates the kitschy, infectious power of pop.

Security is tight across the city, with police from across Austria deployed in the capital, and support from forces in neighboring Germany. Awareness of risk is high after a 21-year-old Austrian man accused of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group pleaded guilty to plotting to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna in 2024.

Israel through to the Eurovision final

Acts from 15 countries performed their 3-minute songs onstage – often with eye-catching choreography and pyrotechnics – in a bid for votes from juries in participating nations and viewers around the world.

Israeli singer Noam Bettan was met with shouts of protests amid the cheers in the auditorium when he performed the rock ballad “Michelle,” but was one of 10 acts voted into Saturday's final.

Finland, the favorite on betting markets, made the cut with “Liekinheitin,” or “Flamethrower,” a mashup of pop singer Pete Parkkonen’s anguished vocals and violinist Linda Lampenius’ fiery fiddling.

Joining them in the final are Greece’s Akylas with party-rap track “Ferto," or "Bring It”; Serbian goth metal band Lavina with “Kraj Mene”; Moldovan folk-rapper Satoshi with “Viva, Moldova!”; and “Andromeda” by Croatian female ensemble Lelek.

Soulful Polish singer Alicja, Lithuanian performer Lion Ceccah, Swedish singer Felicia and Belgium’s Essyla also made the final. Estonia, Georgia, Montenegro, Portugal and San Marino were eliminated — despite a guest appearance by 1980s icon Boy George on singer Senhit's San Marino song, “Superstar.”

Ten more finalists will be chosen in a second semifinal Thursday. The U.K., France, Germany and Italy automatically qualify for the final because they are among the contest’s biggest funders. Austria, last year’s winner, gets a place in the final as host country.

Protesters urge artists to withdraw

Long a forum for good-natured — and sometimes more pointed — national rivalries, Eurovision has found it hard to separate pop and politics in recent years. Russia was expelled in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The 2024 contest in Malmo, Sweden, and last year’s event in Basel, Switzerland, saw pro-Palestinian protests that called for Israel to be expelled over the conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza and allegations it ran a rule-breaking marketing campaign to get votes for its contestant.

The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, has toughened voting rules in response to the vote-rigging allegations, halving the number of votes per person to 10 and tightening safeguards against “suspicious or coordinated voting activity.”

But the EBU declined to kick Israel out, spurring five countries to announce in December that they would not participate this year.

Several pro-Palestinian demonstrations are planned during Eurovision week, including a musical event dubbed No Stage for Genocide. Its backers urged Eurovision performers to pull out of the competition.

“I think it is a moral obligation for each and every artist to take action and step away from the competition,” said Congolese-Austrian activist Patrick Bongola.

Israel strongly denies committing genocide in Gaza. Demonstrations in support of the country’s participation are also planned this week in Vienna.

The five-country boycott is a revenue and viewership blow to an event that organizers say was watched by 166 million people around the world last year. Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania have returned after skipping the event for artistic or financial reasons in recent years, but the number of participants, at 35, is still the lowest since 2003.

Jonathan Hendrickx, a media researcher at the University of Copenhagen, said any more boycotts will stress the structure of the contest and raise doubts about its future.

“They really are at their limits now, in terms of what they can handle with the current format,” Hendrickx said.

Dean Vuletic, the author of “Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest,” is confident Eurovision can weather the latest storms.

“If you look at the history of Eurovision, it’s gone through so many crises, so many political challenges, so many geopolitical changes in Europe, and it’s always managed to survive,” he said.

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Associated Press writer Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.

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For more coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/eurovision-song-contest

The 3-2 vote by county commissioners in Hill County, roughly 55 miles south of Fort Worth, appears to be the first by a Texas county to issue a moratorium on the rapidly expanding industry.

Residents and local officials had aired concerns about how a proposed 300-acre development by the Dallas-based developer, Provident Data Centers in north Hillsboro could impact the quality of life in the rural county through noise pollution and consuming large amounts of water and electricity.

“The data center folks have found a sweet spot in the state that has limited regulations, limited enforcement, limited code, and they’re coming faster than we can keep up with,” said Hill County Commissioner Jim Holcomb. “I think it’s imperative … that we tap the brakes and we get our arms around what we’re faced with and do the research, do the studies.”

Holcomb, who voted for the pause, said the move was in “no way, shape or form a push to impair anyone’s right to do with their own property what they want to do with it.”

County Judge Shane Brassell said the temporary pause will allow officials time to study the effects of data centers before projects move forward.

Representatives of data center developers pleaded with the county to reject the moratorium and said they are bringing money to the county for schools and roads.

Before commissioners voted, County Attorney David Holmes cautioned them that they risk being sued by passing a moratorium. “You’re damned if you and damned if you don’t,” Holmes said.

The decision comes amid a growing statewide battle over Texas’ data center boom, particularly in rural counties where projects are rapidly moving into unincorporated areas with no zoning. In neighboring counties, residents have increasingly voiced frustration that projects are advancing faster than public understanding or oversight.

Other Texas counties, including Hood and Hays counties, have explored similar moratoriums. In Hood County, where at least eight large data center projects are pending, efforts to slow development drew pushback from state leaders.

Houston-area state Sen. Paul Bettencourt sent a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on the day of the Hood County vote, claiming that counties have no constitutional or statutory authority to impose development moratoriums and asking Paxton to investigate counties that passed one. Hood County commissioners rejected the pause.

The way the U.S. views Taiwan under the “One China” policy recognizes the Chinese position that Taiwan is part of China, while still allowing for informal U.S. relations with the self-governing island.

It is intended to be vague -- built on what's become known as strategic ambiguity. That is, the U.S. has agreed to ensure Taiwan has the resources to defend itself if China attempts to force a unilateral change, without saying how far it will go militarily to counter Beijing.

As assistant U.S. defense secretary Joseph Nye said in 1995 to Chinese officials wondering how the U.S. would react to a Taiwan crisis: “We don’t know, and you don’t know.”

“The idea was, stick to the very careful language that’s been crafted and don’t vary,” said Mike McCurry, former White House press secretary under Bill Clinton. “Because there are too many people listening and paying attention.”

Carefully balanced to protect Taiwan’s security and sovereignty without promising too much but also not irking Beijing, the policy could again be pushed into the spotlight during President Donald Trump’s visit to China this week. In the past, some U.S. officials have flubbed it, requiring swift diplomatic cleanup.

“It’s the precision of the words,” said John Kirby, who served across multiple Democratic administrations as a spokesman at the State Department and Pentagon and at President Joe Biden’s White House. “They just have to be so extraordinarily precise when you’re talking about Taiwan because, quite frankly, the stakes are enormously high.”

A look at how the Taiwan policy has tripped up presidents:

Biden went too far repeatedly

He suggested four times that the U.S. would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan, forcing White House officials to clarify that he wasn't undoing decades of precedent.

During an August 2021 ABC News interview, Biden talked about a U.S. commitment to respond militarily if NATO allies were attacked and added, “Same with Taiwan.” The White House later said that U.S. policy toward Taiwan hadn't changed.

Biden said during a CNN forum that October that the U.S. was committed to defending Taiwan should China attack, resulting in similar White House backtracking.

In a May 2022 news conference in Tokyo, Biden said “yes” when asked if he was willing to use the military to defend Taiwan. “That’s the commitment we made,” he added, forcing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to reaffirm U.S. commitment to the “One China” policy.

And Biden suggested similarly during a September 2022 interview with CBS' “60 Minutes,” prompting more White House clarifications.

Trump's first administration had flubs

Trump was president-elect in 2016 when he took a call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen — likely the first president to do so since the U.S. severed diplomatic relations with the island in 1979. He later scoffed at the hubbub, posting: “Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call.”

The following year, the Trump White House issued a statement about a meeting in Germany between Xi and Trump that described Xi as president of the Republic of China, the formal name for Taiwan — not the correct People’s Republic of China. The event's White House transcript was later altered to fix the mistake.

“There is a lot of difficulty to navigate a lot of these concepts. However, the reason why that is the case — a lot of misunderstanding and misspeaking — is because those concepts are conceptual traps set up by China,” said Miles Yu, who was principal China policy adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during Trump’s first administration. “You cannot explain something that’s unexplainable.”

Yu, now a senior fellow and director of the China Center at the Hudson Institute, has advocated for more firmly stating the U.S. commitment to defending Taiwan. He said the concept of a “One China” policy or a “One China” principle, as Beijing calls its insistence that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, was “completely of Chinese making.”

“No one inside the Chinese high command has ever believed there is any ambiguity as to America’s resolve to defend Taiwan,” Yu said.

Instead, he said, the U.S. has long adhered to plans to defend Taiwan in proportion to Chinese threats, as evidenced by Washington repeatedly mobilizing forces to the Taiwan Strait over the years amid heightened tensions.

Today, the Trump White House says there's been no change in policy but scoffs at the idea of verbal gymnastics required in stating it, noting that Trump has approved major arms sales to Taiwan over the years.

The policy was always hard to articulate

After the Chinese civil war ended in 1949, Washington recognized Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists as China’s leaders, even after that government fled from Beijing to Taiwan. But, under an agreement with Beijing beginning in 1979 with Jimmy Carter, the U.S. began adhering to the “One China” policy.

Carter’s administration spent months in secret negotiations with China to reach the agreement. Yet Carter later said that it “does nothing to prevent” a future president or Congress from “even going to war” to protect Taiwan.

Bill Clinton, during a 1998 roundtable in Shanghai, said he supported the “three no’s”: The U.S. not supporting Taiwan independence; not supporting the “two Chinas” idea, which would be a separate China and Taiwan; and not backing Taiwan’s admittance into international organizations.

But the following year, Clinton said, “You know what I’ve done in the past,” seeming to point to previous U.S. military interventions and suggesting he could do something similar involving Taiwan.

During a 2001 interview with The Associated Press, George W. Bush was asked whether the U.S. might use military force to counter a Chinese attack on Taiwan and answered, “It’s certainly an option.” Bush later told CNN that didn’t mean the U.S. was toughening its stance, saying, “I have said that I will do what it takes to help Taiwan defend itself.”

Five years later, during a state visit to Washington by then-Chinese President Hu Jintao, Bush's White House announcer mistakenly said the national anthem of the Republic of China would be played, instead of the People’s Republic of China. The correct anthem was ultimately played.

Some stayed on message

In 1989, George H.W. Bush said during a banquet in China that while the U.S. adheres to “the bedrock principle that there is but one China, we have found ways to address Taiwan constructively without rancor.”

During a 2014 joint news conference in Beijing with Xi, Barack Obama said, “We encourage further progress by both sides of the Taiwan Strait towards building ties, reducing tensions and promoting stability on the basis of dignity and respect.”

Still, getting it right can be tricky.

“Anybody who has been at the State Department, the Pentagon or even the White House podium can tell you: When the issue of Taiwan came up, you went to your notes,” Kirby said. “You didn’t freelance it.”

Yet Kirby recalled that he “got cocky once and didn't,” mischaracterizing the policy and causing “a little kerfuffle.”

Any big error usually first draws complaints from U.S. policy officials, Kirby said, who aren't shy with their displeasure: “You’ll be highly encouraged to make a statement correcting it right away.”

Monique Verdieux, 56, fled to the highway after watching armed men burning houses in her neighborhood. Her family scattered in different directions and she said she's not sure where they are.

“I am now sleeping in the street,” Verdieux said, noting it was unsafe to return.

Gangs have overtaken more than 70% of Port-au-Prince since the assassination of President Jovenal Moïse in July 2021 at his home. That number was as high as 90% but has dropped. Police say they have expanded their activities — including looting, kidnapping, sexual assaults and rape — into the countryside. Haiti has not had a president since the assassination.

In a statement released Monday, the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders announced the evacuation of its hospital in Cité Soleil following intense clashes in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood on Sunday. The organization, known by its French acronym MSF, reported treating over 40 gunshot victims within 12 hours while providing temporary shelter to 800 people fleeing the violence. One of those injured was a security guard who was hit by a stray bullet in the hospital's grounds.

“We managed to evacuate him and his condition is now stable,” said Davina Hayles, MSF’s head of mission in Haiti. “But it is unthinkable that our teams and civilians should become victims of these clashes.”

For the past two weeks, Haitian rum maker Barbancourt and two of the nation's largest bottlers have also warned about deteriorating security conditions near Port-au-Prince's Toussaint Louverture International Airport, where operations are now severely restricted.

In a statement released on Sunday, the companies said that the government's response to the crisis has been “largely insufficient,” and noted that the poor state of the roads leading to the airport makes it difficult for Haitian security forces to patrol the area. The companies are among Haiti’s main fiscal contributors.

“You cannot secure an airport if you allow the roads around it to degrade,” the statement read.

In April, the first foreign troops linked to a U.N. force arrived in Haiti to help quell ongoing violence.

The U.N. Security Council in late September approved a plan to authorize a 5,550-member force, which has not fully arrived in the island nation. An unknown number of troops from Chad have so far been deployed.

A report published earlier this year by the International Organization for Migration found that gang violence has displaced more than 1.4 million people in Haiti, with approximately 200,000 of them now living in crowded and underfunded sites in the nation's capital.

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

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This story clarifies that gangs control 70% of Port-au-Prince, down from 90% previously.

Joe Louis Ash, 53, was taken into custody and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, jail records show.

Officers were notified about the crash on Thursday, May 7, while students were entering the campus in the morning at the rear stadium parking lot.

In a news release, the constable’s office said video evidence showed a parent, later identified as Ash, driving through the parking lot after dropping off a child.

According to an arrest affidavit, the assistant principal reported the student was walking with friends through the parking lot when he was struck by Ash’s black Ford Raptor truck.

Surveillance video showed the students walking in the main lanes of the parking lot when the vehicle approached them from the rear. Ash slowed behind the group for a few seconds before he accelerated, hit the student, and left the campus, the affidavit states.

Several witnesses told investigators that Ash honked his vehicle horn before hitting the student and then fled the scene afterward. The affidavit states a witness also reported seeing Ash make a “shoo” motion with his hand before accelerating.

The student was struck on the left side of his body. A school nurse evaluated the student, who was later released to his parents. The constable’s office said he reported pain and sustained multiple scrapes.

The affidavit states the student refused an ice pack or any medication.

At around 10:20 a.m. on May 7, the affidavit states that Ash returned to the school because he “heard something happened in the parking lot.”

Investigators spoke with Ash, reviewed his Miranda warning, and asked whether he wanted to answer a few questions about the crash.

Ash responded with, “I guess with that being read, I guess not,” the affidavit states. “I guess with you reading that, anything I say can be used against me. I think I want my lawyer.”

Ash was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on Tuesday, jail records indicate. His bond amount is set at $75,000.

Pieper High School is located in the Comal Independent School District.

Read also:

• Body found near Bexar County railroad believed to be connected to Laredo boxcar deaths, sheriff says
• Public Works to review East Side intersection after major crash outside burger joint

Secret Service Director Sean Curran attended the closed-door party lunch and talked through the request as a number of Republicans have questioned it in recent days. According to a handout he gave to senators obtained by The Associated Press, the $220 million would go to harden the ballroom addition, including “bulletproof glass, drone detection technologies, chemical and other threat filtration and detection systems and a host of other national security functions.”

The rest of the money would go for other security improvements, according to the document, including $180 million for a new, “long overdue” White House visitors screening facility and $175 million for “investments to train USSS agents in the modern threat environment.”

The Secret Service request comes after a man was charged with trying to assassinate Trump at the White House Correspondents Association dinner last month. Trump has said repeatedly that the ballroom construction would be paid for with $400 million in private funds, but the White House hadn’t previously disclosed the budget for security costs.

Republican senators have said they are supportive of a boost in security for the president, but several said that Curran's breakdown was too vague — and they want to know more about how the money would be spent.

“I want more information,” said Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a close ally of the president. “I ran companies, okay? If somebody came to me and said they were going to spend a billion dollars on something, I’d get more detail.”

GOP pushback could endanger immigration enforcement funding

Republicans have added the security money to a partisan spending bill that would restore funding for immigration enforcement agencies after Democrats have blocked that funding since February. But questions within the party about the White House funding proposal could jeopardize the legislation, which GOP leaders are trying to pass without Democratic votes.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, questioned why all of the security improvements weren’t in Trump’s budget released by the White House earlier this year. She said she asked for “a lot more data" in the meeting.

Indiana Sen. Todd Young said he could be supportive of "a certain measure of ballroom funding, which I think is defensible, but they need to go back and get us more detail about how exactly they arrived at the figures.”

The information provided to the senators was “broad categories,” Young said.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Monday, ahead of the meeting, that he believes the funding should be private. “That’s still my preference,” Paul said, adding that Congress had also increased the Secret Service budget after another attempted assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, during the 2024 campaign.

“Was it spent wisely? Do they really need more at this time?” Paul asked.

Secret Service cites 'evolving threats' in funding request

Beyond the White House improvements, the Secret Service said it is requesting $175 million for “enhancements for protectee security,” $150 million for “evolving threats and technology,” including countering drones and airspace incursions, and $100 million for security at high-profile “events of national significance.”

The budget bill introduced by Republicans last week has far less detail. It would designate the money for Secret Service “security adjustments and upgrades” related to the ballroom project, “including above-ground and below-ground security features." But it specifies that the money may not be used for non-security elements.

The White House has said in court documents that the East Wing project would be “heavily fortified,” including bomb shelters, military installations and a medical facility underneath the ballroom.

Democrats push back

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats will push the Senate parliamentarian to strike the security money from the bill. Under the rules for budget reconciliation, the complicated process that Republicans are using to pass the immigration enforcement money, the parliamentarian must review the text and can rule certain provisions in or out.

“Americans want lower costs, not a gold-plated ballroom for our billionaire president,” Schumer said.

If the security money stays in the bill, Democrats plan to offer amendments on the Senate floor that force Republicans to vote on it. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada, said that she will offer two amendments to redirect the $1 billion to money for a criminal justice program or law enforcement officers' benefits.

There are also concerns about the money in the House, where Republicans have not introduced their own version of the bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also attended the GOP lunch on Tuesday.

“We're waiting on the Senate product,” Johnson told reporters later in the day when asked if the security funding was proving to be a hard sell with House Republicans. “They're working through all that, and then we'll see what bill we get."

If doubts about the proposal persist, Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota suggested the security plan could potentially be pared down, punting some of the request to future annual spending bills.

Still, Rounds said it’s possible Republicans will approve the entire request once they have more details, so it gets done quickly.

“I think as more of the information begins to come out, I think people are going to feel a lot more comfortable with what they are requesting,” Rounds said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has backed the legislation, arguing that the Senate should pass it now, “given the obstruction that the Democrats have posed and their unwillingness to fund law enforcement.”

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This story has been updated to correct the last name of the Secret Service director. It is Curran, not Callan.

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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

Three people on the cruise died, including a Dutch couple that health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America.

The French passenger hospitalized in Paris has a severe form of the disease that has caused life-threatening lung and heart problems, said Dr. Xavier Lescure, an infectious disease specialist at Bichat Hospital.

He said the woman is on a life-support device that pumps blood through an artificial lung, providing it with oxygen and returning it to the body. The hope is that the device relieves enough pressure on the lungs and heart to give them some time to recover. Lescure called it “the final stage of supportive care.”

With the evacuation of all passengers and many crew members completed, the MV Hondius is now sailing back to the Netherlands, where it will be cleaned and disinfected.

The director of the World Health Organization said confirmed and suspected cases have only been reported among the cruise ship's passengers or crew.

“At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general. He added: “But of course the situation could change, and given the long incubation period of the virus, it’s possible we might see more cases in the coming weeks.”

The latest person confirmed to be infected is a Spanish passenger who tested positive for hantavirus after being evacuated from the ship, Spain’s health ministry said Tuesday. The passenger was in quarantine at a military hospital in Madrid.

Health authorities say it is the first hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. While there is no cure or vaccine for hantavirus, the WHO says early detection and treatment improves survival rates.

Argentina sending experts to investigate source of outbreak

Argentina’s health ministry said Tuesday a team of scientific experts will be dispatched in the coming days to investigate the origin of outbreak.

A Dutch couple, identified by the WHO as the first cruise passengers infected with hantavirus, spent several months in Argentina and neighboring South American countries before boarding the cruise ship. The husband and wife later died.

Argentine officials have said the couple took a bird-watching tour that included a stop at a garbage dump where they may have been exposed to rodents carrying the infection. The health ministry said its team will investigate the landfill and other locations the couple visited where rats known to carry the virus are found, although local officials in the province where the cruise departed have challenged the theory it began there.

The evacuation of the MV Hondius is complete

A total of 87 passengers and 35 crew were escorted from the ship to shore in Tenerife by personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks in a carefully choreographed effort that ended Monday night.

Two aircraft arrived in the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven overnight carrying Dutch nationals as well as passengers from Australia and New Zealand and crew members from the Philippines. All were placed into quarantine, according to the Dutch government.

Some crew stayed aboard the ship and set course for the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, said ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions.

Hantavirus usually spreads from rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms — which can include fever, chills and muscle aches — usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

WHO chief Tedros has advised that returning passengers should stay in quarantine, either in their homes or in other facilities, for 42 days. He added that WHO cannot enforce its guidance, and that different countries may handle the monitoring of passengers without symptoms in different ways.

Dutch hospital staff quarantined

Twelve employees at a Dutch hospital where a passenger from the Hondius is being treated have to quarantine for six weeks after improperly handling bodily fluids, Radboud University Medical Center said in a statement Monday night.

The “risk of infection is low” the hospital said, but it was requiring the dozen employees to go into preventive quarantine as a “precaution.”

The hospital in the eastern city of Nijmegen received a passenger last week from one of the evacuation flights that landed in the Netherlands and the person has since tested positive for hantavirus.

Blood and urine from the patient should have been handled “according to a stricter procedure,” the hospital said.

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This story has been corrected to show that the WHO says nine hantavirus cases have been confirmed worldwide. Two suspected cases have been reported but not confirmed. ___

Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press writers Mike Corder and Molly Quell in The Hague, Netherlands; Suman Naishadham in Madrid; Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Lauran Neergaard in Washington; and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the couple as Armando Hernandez and Elia Zereth Hernandez, who were both 46. SAPD initially said both were found with apparent gunshot wounds and pronounced dead in a vehicle on May 6 along Southwest Loop 410 near Valley Hi Drive.

The son requested that his identity not be shown during the news conference.

“We are still trying to process the devastating loss together,” the son said surrounded by family. “We hope they will be remembered — not for the tragedy of how they passed, but for the way they lived: with love for their family, compassion for others and the light they brought into so many peoples’ lives.”

Two days after the shootings, the medical examiner’s office ruled Armando Hernandez’s death a suicide and ruled Elia Zereth Hernandez’s death a homicide on Friday.

Armando Hernandez was a Southwest ISD police corporal, according to the district and online licensing records. He worked for the department for more than 15 years.

Elia Zereth Hernandez was listed as Armando Hernandez’s wife, according to records obtained by KSAT from the Bexar County Clerk’s Office.

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.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health or thoughts of suicide, call 988 or text TALK to 741-741.

You can also reach out to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) or the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) at 210-223-7233 (SAFE) or 800-316-9241. You can also text NAMI to 741-741.

More recent coverage of this story:

• Southwest ISD police corporal killed wife, then self in murder-suicide on Loop 410, medical examiner rules
• SAPD: Murder-suicide investigation underway after 2 found dead at Southwest Side crash scene
• At least 2 dead in Southwest Side crash, SAPD says

News of Makary's departure Tuesday came just 13 months after he was confirmed to lead the powerful regulatory agency.

A surgeon and health researcher, Makary came to prominence among Republicans as an outspoken critic of public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he frequently appeared on Fox News Channel. But he struggled to manage the FDA’s bureaucracy and failed to win the confidence of its staff after mass layoffs, leadership upheavals and a series of controversies in which the agency’s scientific principles appeared to be overridden by political interests, including those of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“He’s a great doctor, and he was having some difficulty,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “But he’s going to go on and he’s going to do well.”

Trump later confirmed in a social media post that Kyle Diamantas, the agency’s chief for foods, is expected to take over as acting commissioner. Diamantas is an attorney with personal ties to Donald Trump Jr.

In that post, the president included what appeared to be a text message from Makary submitting his resignation. In it, he noted: “I announced 50 major FDA reforms. Joe Biden's FDA had none.” He thanked Trump for the chance to serve.

The FDA commissioner, as the leader of an agency that regulates billions of dollars in consumer goods and medicines, is often required to juggle competing priorities that straddle science and politics.

Makary faced a unique challenge in balancing calls by Trump and other Republicans to cut red tape at the FDA, while also tending to Kennedy’s interest in scrutinizing the safety of vaccines, drugs and food additives. The decision to get rid of Makary was made by Kennedy, and then the White House signed off on it, according to an administration official who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to describe internal dynamics.

Virtually all of the FDA’s senior career officials resigned, retired or were forced out in the first year of the second-term Trump administration, leading to a steady stream of leaks and negative stories in the media cataloging low morale, dysfunction and frustration among staff.

Makary’s handpicked deputy, Dr. Vinay Prasad, was pushed out of the agency twice in less than a year for running afoul of specialty drugmakers and groups for patients with rare diseases. Makary appeared poised to weather the controversy, despite an ongoing pressure campaign calling on Trump to fire him.

Recent weeks brought fresh criticisms from other interest groups that the White House considers key to Republican chances in November elections.

Anti-abortion groups have accused Makary of slow-walking an internal review of the abortion pill mifepristone, which has been on the market for 25 years but remains a target for conservative activists. They are seeking to roll back FDA rules that currently allow the pill to be sent through the mail.

“We look forward to a new FDA commissioner who will put an end to the mail-order abortion drug regime,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

Vaping executives told Trump that Makary was blocking approval of their products, including new flavored e-cigarettes seen as crucial to the industry's survival.

Last week, the agency abruptly changed course, authorizing the first fruit-flavored e-cigarettes and issuing guidelines that loosened marketing for major manufacturers. But it wasn't enough to keep Makary in the job.

A permanent replacement for the FDA job will need to be nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate.

Faster drug reviews are overshadowed

As a former regular on Fox News, Makary was aggressive about promoting his accomplishments on cable television and podcasts and in online opinion pieces.

A string of initiatives from Makary aimed to speed up or streamline FDA drug reviews, including dropping certain study requirements, incorporating artificial intelligence into drug evaluations and offering expedited reviews to medicines that support “national interests.”

But pharmaceutical executives rely on the predictability and consistency of FDA decisions, even more than speedy reviews. Makary’s efforts on drug reviews were overshadowed by internal conflicts and disputes that created headaches for drugmakers, investors and patients.

More than a half-dozen drugmakers studying therapies for rare or hard-to-treat diseases said they received rejection letters or requests to run additional studies for drugs that had previously been given the go-ahead by FDA staff. Those drugs were primarily overseen by Prasad, who stepped down for a second time from his role as the FDA’s vaccine and biotech chief in April.

Vaccine moves denounced

Prasad repeatedly overruled vaccine staffers to restrict eligibility for new coronavirus shots. In February, Prasad initially refused to even consider Moderna’s mRNA shot for flu. The FDA was forced to reverse itself after Moderna pledged to formally challenge the decision and called for intervention by the White House.

Some of Makary and Prasad’s most controversial vaccine proposals never came to fruition, despite stoking confusion and anxiety within the FDA and beyond.

In an internal memo in November, Prasad claimed — without publishing evidence — that the FDA had linked COVID-19 shots to the deaths of 10 children. Prasad used that to justify a planned overhaul of the agency’s approach to approving vaccines.

A dozen former FDA commissioners issued a scathing denunciation of the plan, warning it would “undermine the public interest” and decimate vaccine development. The FDA has not released its analysis of the deaths or its plan for the vaccine overhaul.

FDA's drug center had a revolving door

In the FDA’s drug center, which is the agency's largest division, Makary oversaw a revolving door of leadership changes. Six people served as director over the course of one year.

Makary’s initial pick for the job, Dr. George Tidmarsh, was forced to resign after allegations that he used his FDA position to pursue a personal vendetta against a former business partner.

His replacement, longtime FDA cancer specialist Dr. Rick Pazdur, announced he would retire after just three weeks on the job, after clashing with Makary on multiple issues surrounding drug reviews.

With Makary's departure, the fate of many of his fledgling initiatives is uncertain.

Most of the programs Makary introduced have not gone through federal rulemaking required to enshrine them in U.S. law. Democrats in Congress have questioned the legality of some of those efforts, including a program that offers drugmakers expedited reviews for innovative medicines.

___

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.

Some customers even traveled from outside the city for a chance to shop the boutique’s custom designs.

PinkBerry Boutique, located on South Hackberry Street, has spent the past two years building a loyal following with custom San Antonio Spurs-inspired clothing and accessories.

Owner Wendy Guiterrez said demand for the store’s exclusive game-day apparel has surged during the Spurs’ playoff run this season.

“It’s still surreal for me,” Guiterrez said. “It’s been crazy. It’s been a very busy season.”

The boutique offers everything from jewelry and hats to custom airbrushed shirts and one-of-a-kind apparel designed specifically for the shop.

“You will not find another airbrush shirt in town,” Guiterrez said. “These are all specifically made for PinkBerry.”

Guiterrez said an artist creates original designs for the boutique before adding her own personal touches to the pieces.

The shop’s growing popularity has also attracted members of the Spurs players’ families. Guiterrez recently created custom designs for the families of Spurs players Jordan McLaughlin and Keldon Johnson.

Guiterrez said the business’s success has been rewarding, especially as more customers tell her they are excited to see a trendy shopping destination thrive on the South Side.

“I’ve had several customers reach out to me, and they’re like, ‘Thank you for being on the South Side,’” Gutierrez said. “Now they have somewhere that they can come in and get cute stuff.”

Like many of her customers, Guiterrez said she hopes the Spurs continue winning.

“Oh, absolutely,” she said. “We’re big Spurs fans.”

Read also:

• Spurs guard’s wife Anissa McLaughlin’s posts brings fans inside NBA family life, motherhood
• San Antonio vendors affected by Painted Tree Boutiques closure face limited protections, expert says

The April 14 indictment alleged Grief misused his position as executive director of the now-shuttered Texas Lottery Commission to defraud the state during the Lotto Texas drawing on April 22, 2023. That $95 million drawing was the subject of intense scrutiny after a Houston Chronicle investigation revealed that one group, led by an overseas gambler, used dozens of lottery ticket printers in four different locations to buy almost all of the 26 million possible number combinations.

The one-page indictment included no details about the allegations beyond accusing Grief of misusing “government property, services, personnel, or a thing of value belonging to the government.” Three days after the indictment was filed in district court, it was dismissed at the request of Travis County Assistant District Attorney Rob Drummond. The Travis County district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Grief and Sam Bassett, an attorney who previously represented Grief, also did not immediately respond to requests to comment.

Grief resigned from the lottery commission in February 2024 before the circumstances behind the Lotto Texas jackpot became widely known. The lottery commission was dissolved by the state Legislature in May 2025 amid concerns over the scheme and the proliferation of online “lottery courier” companies, some of which were involved in assisting with the mass-printing of tickets in 2023. The state’s lottery is now run by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation with much of the same staff.

The Department of Public Safety and the Texas attorney general’s office have been investigating the Texas Lottery since March 2025 but have not released any additional information since their investigations were announced. DPS did not immediately respond to questions about whether the indictment was related to its investigation.

In March, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who heavily criticized the lottery during the last legislative session, charged state senators with checking on how TDLR has been operating the Texas lottery.

While the Pentagon chief softened his tone from hearings before Congress nearly two weeks ago, notably avoiding the same pointed criticism of lawmakers, he got far more pushback from members of his own Republican Party about the levels of U.S. munitions used in the Iran war and President Donald Trump’s intense criticism of traditional allies for not taking part in the conflict.

“I take issue with the characterization that munitions are depleted in a public forum,” Hegseth said. “That’s not true.”

Even as he insisted that the U.S. military has plenty of missile defense systems and other munitions for the Iran war or future conflicts, Hegseth told House and Senate lawmakers overseeing defense spending that the Trump administration is working to ramp up production of weapons.

Pentagon officials also told lawmakers that the cost of the Iran war has risen to about $29 billion, the vast bulk of which — roughly $24 billion — is related to replacing munitions and repairing equipment but also includes operational costs to keep forces deployed. That is up from the overall total of $25 billion that Pentagon comptroller Jay Hurst revealed nearly two weeks ago. He said the updated estimate does not include the cost to repair or rebuild U.S. military sites damaged in the region.

Republicans tout the importance of American allies

Hegseth faced notable pushback from Republicans on the Trump administration's straining of relations with longtime allies, with Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell telling Hegseth, “NATO is the most important military alliance in world history.”

“It seems to me that a lot of the European countries think that we’re reducing our influence there, they’re sort of on their own,” said McConnell, the GOP chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on defense.

Trump has assailed NATO allies and others for not helping reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global shipping corridor, or otherwise offering more support, saying he plans to pull thousands of troops out of Germany in the coming months.

Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, voiced his concerns in a separate hearing, saying, “America First has never meant American alone.”

“American power is most effective when it’s exercised in concert with like-minded nations who share our interests and our values,” Cole said.

Hegseth gets bipartisan pushback on munition stockpiles

The hearings before the powerful House and Senate Appropriations defense subcommittees spanned four hours as they reviewed the Trump administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which calls for a historic allocation of $1.5 trillion.

The discussions quickly veered into the handling of a war that appears locked in a stalemate as higher fuel prices pose political problems for Republicans in the midterm congressional elections.

California Republican Rep. Ken Calvert, the House subcommittee's chair, asked about the impact of the Iran war on military funding as well as weapons stockpiles drawn down from the conflict.

“Questions persist about whether we are building the depth and reliance required for a high-end conflict,” Calvert said.

Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum, the defense subcommittee's ranking Democrat, pressed Hegseth on whether the military has a plan to draw down troops in the Middle East if Congress passes so-far-unsuccessful efforts to end the Iran war.

“We have a plan to escalate if necessary," Hegseth said. "We have a plan to retrograde if necessary. We have a plan to shift assets.”

He said he would not reveal any next steps publicly. Noting repeated questions from lawmakers over weapons stockpiles, Hegseth said the concerns have been “unhelpfully overstated” and "we have plenty of what we need.”

He said the defense industry has been told to "build more and build faster,” blaming the military industrial base's inadequate capacity on previous administrations and U.S. aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has painted an alarming picture of U.S. stockpiles of munitions, including interceptors that can defend against incoming enemy missiles on land and sea.

The think tank said in an April analysis that American forces “expended more than half of the prewar inventory” on four key weapons systems and that rebuilding to adequate levels for a possible war with China “will take additional time.”

Trump administration faces pressure from the economic impact of the Iran war

Trump is facing increasing pressure from the economic shocks of Iran effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world's oil normally flows. The U.S. military in turn has blockaded Iranian ports and the two sides have traded fire, with American forces thwarting attacks on their warships and disabling Tehran-linked oil tankers.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, questioned whether the Trump administration anticipated Iran’s closure of the strait, which has surged gasoline prices.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the president is briefed with carefully considered military options.

“It seems to me that there’s been a different plan almost daily of, with dealing with this problem, which is why I ask,” said Collins, who joined Democrats last month in a failed vote to halt the conflict and is facing a tough reelection fight.

Democrats in both hearings repeatedly questioned what the cost of the war would be, from repairing damaged military installations in the Middle East to the rising fuel prices.

"You’re spending families’ hard-earned tax dollars on a war that many strongly oppose, and you’re forcing people to pay more at the pump,” said Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington state. “And yet you’re not even providing a real breakdown for the cost of this war.”

Hegseth responded rhetorically: “What is the cost of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon? And the fact that this president has been willing to make a historic and courageous choice to confront that it comes with cost — and we recognize that.”

Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, the ranking Democrat on the Senate's subcommittee, repeatedly asked how the Trump administration will reopen the strait to commercial shipping.

“If we control it, how do we reopen it?" Coons pressed Hegseth in a tense exchange.

Hegseth responded defensively, saying the senator was being disingenuous and ignoring the “incredible battlefield successes.”

Coons shot back that he was worried that “you’ve achieved a series of tactical successes but are on the verge of a strategic loss.”

——

Barrow reported from Atlanta.

• WARMING: A little hotter each day this week
• MORE HUMIDITY: Dewpoints increase by the end of work week
• NEXT RAIN CHANCE: Storms possible Monday into Tuesday

FORECAST

MORE HUMIDITY

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. By Friday, humidity will start to surge back, making for a sticky weekend and much warmer mornings. This will also start our typical pattern of morning clouds followed by afternoon sunshine.

RAIN CHANCES

At this point, the weekend looks dry, as a stout cap on the atmosphere will keep storms from developing. A pattern change early next week should change that. Look for storms to flare up Sunday night through Tuesday in our area. We don’t have enough data yet to say when or where, but with it being spring, these storms could be strong. More updates to come!

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Putin said that the nuclear-armed Sarmat missile would enter combat service at the end of the year. It was built to replace the aging Soviet-built Voyevoda.

“This is the most powerful missile in the world,” Putin declared, adding that the combined power of the Sarmat’s individually targeted warheads is more than four times higher than that of any Western counterpart.

The Russian leader has repeatedly brandished the nuclear sword after sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022 to try to deter the West from ramping up support for Ukraine.

After overseeing a military parade on Red Square on Saturday commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, which for the first time in nearly two decades didn’t include heavy weapons, Putin declared the conflict in Ukraine is coming to an end.

Since coming to power in 2000, Putin has overseen efforts to upgrade the Soviet-built components of the Russian nuclear triad — deploying hundreds of new, land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, commissioning new nuclear submarines and modernizing nuclear-capable bombers.

Russia’s effort to revamp its nuclear forces pushed the United States to launch a costly modernization of its arsenal.

The last remaining nuclear arms pact between Russia and the U.S. expired in February, leaving no caps on the world's two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century and fueling fears of an unconstrained nuclear arms race.

The Sarmat — designated “Satan II” in the West — is meant to replace about 40 Soviet-built Voyevoda missiles. Its development began in 2011 and before Tuesday, the missile had only one known successful test and reportedly suffered a massive explosion during an abortive test in 2024.

Putin said Tuesday that the Sarmat — part of a slew of new weapons that Putin revealed in 2018, claiming they would render any prospective U.S. missile defenses useless — is as powerful as the Voyevoda but with a higher precision. It is capable of suborbital flight, he said, giving it a range of more than 35,000 kilometers (21,700 miles) and an extended capability to penetrate any prospective missile defenses.

Moscow's new weapons include the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, capable of flying 27 times faster than the speed of sound. The first vehicles have already entered service.

Russia has also commissioned the new nuclear-capable Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, and used its conventionally-armed version twice to strike Ukraine. Oreshnik's range of up to 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) makes it capable of reaching any target in Europe.

Putin also announced Russia was in the “final stages” of the development of the nuclear-armed Poseidon underwater drone and the Burevestnik cruise missile powered by miniature atomic reactors.

The Poseidon is designed to explode near enemy coastlines and cause a radioactive tsunami. The Burevestnik has virtually unlimited range thanks to nuclear propulsion, allowing it to loiter for days, circling air defenses and attacking from an unexpected direction.

Putin has described those new weapons as part of a Russian response to the U.S. missile shield that Washington developed after its 2001 withdrawal from a Cold War-era U.S.-Soviet pact that limited missile defenses.

Russian military planners have feared a missile shield could tempt Washington to launch a first strike that would knock out most of Moscow’s nuclear arsenal in hopes of intercepting a small number of surviving missiles fired in retaliation.

"We were forced to consider ensuring our strategic security in the face of the new reality and the need to maintain a strategic balance of power and parity,” Putin said.

U.S. consumer prices climbed sharply again last month as the 10-week war with Iran delivered higher gasoline prices and more pain for Americans, according to data released Tuesday.

Senators from both parties grilled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the Iran war ’s unclear endgame and spiraling costs, as he defended the Pentagon’s historic $1.5 trillion budget request for 2027.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office reports that Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense program could cost $1.2 trillion over 20 years, far more than he initially said.

Also Tuesday, a White House official said the head of Trump's Food and Drug Administration is resigning after a rocky tenure. Dr. Marty Makary drew months of complaints from health industry executives, anti-abortion activists, vaping lobbyists and other allies of the president.

Here's the latest:

FEMA’s temporary leader again replaced as agency awaits permanent administrator

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is under new temporary leadership for the fourth time in Trump’s second term.

Longtime FEMA official and regional Administrator Robert Fenton has replaced Karen S. Evans as temporary leader while the agency awaits a Senate confirmation hearing for Trump’s new pick for permanent FEMA administrator, Cameron Hamilton.

In recent months, Evans’ correspondence with DHS officials on her personal cellphone using the commercial messaging app Signal has been a focal point in a lawsuit brought by labor unions and others against the Trump administration.

Her departure was first reported by Politico’s E&E News.

Trump’s redistricting push fizzles in South Carolina Senate but wins in Missouri’s top court

The president’s efforts to reshape U.S. House districts have seen mixed outcomes.

South Carolina senators defied his push Tuesday, while Missouri’s top court upheld a new map backed by Trump that could benefit Republicans in the midterm elections.

The national redistricting battle has been raging for 10 months. But it became more intense after the U.S. Supreme Court recently weakened the federal Voting Rights Act.

The ruling has led Republicans in states such as Louisiana, Tennessee and Alabama to push for new districts. South Carolina senators expressed concerns that redistricting could backfire, resulting in losses to Democrats.

Push for South Carolina to join congressional redistricting battle fails as Republicans question map

The Republican push for South Carolina to join the national redistricting battle by redrawing its U.S. House map fizzled Tuesday as an initial vote in the state Senate fell short.

President Donald Trump had urged South Carolina to redraw its congressional districts ahead of the November elections in an attempt to help Republicans win another seat in the closely divided chamber. The state House had voted in favor of letting lawmakers return after the regular session ends this week to consider redistricting, and had proposed a new map that could eliminate the state’s only Democratic-held seat.

But the Senate had to give permission to take up redistricting, too.

The 29-17 vote failed, with just two votes short of the two-thirds needed. Five Republicans joined all the Democrats in the chamber to reject the proposal.

Appeals court spares Trump from paying $83 million defamation award to E. Jean Carroll — for now

Trump won’t have to pay the defamation award to the longtime advice columnist until the U.S. Supreme Court reviews the case or rejects an appeal.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to a court entry Tuesday, has agreed to let Trump delay payment to E. Jean Carroll as long as he posts a $7.4 million bond to cover interest accruing through October.

The appeals court in late April refused Trump’s request for all its judges to hear an appeal of a three-judge panel’s affirmance of the January 2024 verdict.

Trump has called Carroll’s claims, first made publicly in 2019, that she was sexually attacked by him in a luxury department store dressing room in 1996 a “made up scam.”

The award to Carroll, 82, came from a jury that briefly heard Trump testify and observed his animated behavior for several days.

▶ Read more

Patel denies drinking allegations in testy Senate hearing

FBI Director Kash Patel angrily lashed out at a Democratic lawmaker during a budget hearing Tuesday, calling allegations that he drinks excessively on the job and has been unreachable at times to his staff “unequivocally, categorically false.”

“I will not be tarnished by baseless allegations,” Patel told Sen. Chris Van Hollen when the Maryland Democrat confronted him about a recent article in The Atlantic magazine that painted an unflattering portrait of his leadership of the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency. Patel has sued over the story.

Patel shouted over Van Hollen and sought to turn the tables by accusing him of “slinging margaritas” in El Salvador, a reference to a visit the Democrat paid last year to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was jailed there following his arrest in Maryland.

The director of Melania Trump’s movie is aboard Air Force One for the president’s trip to China

Also meeting Trump in Beijing are more than a dozen CEOs of such American corporations as Apple, Boeing, Goldman Sachs, and others, according to the White House.

Trump’s friend Elon Musk — of Tesla, SpaceX and the social platform X — is also expected to join.

Brett Ratner directed “Melania,” released in January, about the first lady’s life in the weeks before her husband began his second term as president.

It was Ratner’s first project since he was accused of sexual misconduct in the early days of the #MeToo reckoning. His lawyer has denied the allegations.

Ratner is also director of the “Rush Hour” movie series, including a fourth installment that Trump is said to be interested in.

Ratner paid a brief visit to the press cabin on Air Force One before it took off on the trip to China.

Trump renews his threat to decimate Iran if there’s no agreement on its nuclear program

“We have Iran very much under control,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a summit in Beijing. “We’re either going to make a deal or they’re going to be decimated. One way or the other, we win.”

Trump said he would be thinking about the fate of the ceasefire during his flight to China and “for the next little while.”

“We’re going to see what happens,” he said.

Trump says trade will be focus of Beijing visit, plays down discussions on Iran

The president said he would have a “long talk” about Iran with Chinese leader Xi Jinping but added that trade would be the central issue.

“We have a lot of things to discuss. I wouldn’t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control,” Trump said as he departed the White House for Beijing on Tuesday.

Trump said he spoke with Xi and both are looking forward to the visit.

“He’s been a friend of mine. He’s been somebody that we get along with. And, I think you’re going to see that good things are going to happen.”

▶ Read more

Trump’s proposed ‘Golden Dome’ is estimated to cost $1.2 trillion for 20 years, far more than he initially said

A new Congressional Budget Office analysis released Tuesday suggests a far heftier sum than the initial $175 billion price tag Trump gave last year for his plan to put weapons in space, called the “Golden Dome for America” missile defense program.

The system, inspired by Israel’s “Iron Dome,” aims to detect and intercept missiles at all stages of an attack. Congress has already approved about $24 billion for the initiative.

Trump ordered the system during his first week in office, expecting it to be operational before his term ends in January 2029.

With Makary’s departure from the FDA, the fate of many fledgling initiatives is uncertain

Most of the programs Makary introduced have not gone through federal rulemaking required to enshrine them in U.S. regulations and could easily be overturned by his successors.

Democrats in Congress have questioned the legality of some of those efforts, including a program that offers drugmakers expedited reviews for innovative medicines.

▶ Read more

Marty Makary is out as Trump’s Food and Drug Administration head

That’s according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak ahead of an official announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday.

Makary, a surgeon and health researcher, had drawn complaints from health industry executives, anti-abortion activists and other Trump allies.

He came to the attention of Republican operatives as an outspoken critic of COVID-19 health measures during the pandemic when he appeared frequently on Fox News Channel.

But at the FDA, Makary failed to win the staff’s confidence after mass layoffs, leadership changes and a series of controversies in which the agency’s scientific principles appeared to be overridden by political interests.

— By Matthew Perrone and Seung Min Kim

Hegseth hearing concludes with questions on long-term strategy in Iran war

The defense secretary’s hearing for a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee has concluded with Democratic senators repeatedly asking the defense secretary for clarity on what the plan is to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Hegseth was defensive and countered that the questions were ignoring the U.S. military’s successes in the war.

Sen. John Kennedy offers encouragement and warning to Hegseth

The Republican from Louisiana did not echo the administration’s claims of victory in Iran, noting the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.

But Kennedy agreed with Trump that the U.S. has long-term leverage with its blockade of Iranian ships and those aligned with Tehran. And Kennedy pushed back at Democrats that he accused of suggesting the U.S. already has lost.

“You’re not going to win over my Democratic friends,” Kennedy told Hegseth. “It’s not worth getting your blood pressure up. Focus on other things.”

Kennedy added a muted endorsement of international alliances. He wasn’t as direct as McConnell, but he concluded with advice:

“America First does not have to mean America alone,” he said. “We need all the friends we can get. They need to carry their own weight. They need to pay their bills. But the more the better.”

Democratic senator closely questions Hegseth on strategy to reopen Strait of Hormuz

Sen. Chris Coons had some intense questions for the defense secretary after he claimed that the U.S. essentially controls the Strait of Hormuz.

Coons repeatedly asked what the Trump administration’s strategy is for reopening the waterway to commercial shipping.

“If we control it, how do we reopen it? And your average American is seeing this at the gas pump every single day as the cost of gas continues to rise,” Coons told Hegseth.

Hegseth responded defensively, saying the senator was being disingenuous and ignoring the U.S.’s “incredible battlefield successes.”

Still, Coons said he was worried that “you’ve achieved a series of tactical successes but are on the verge of a strategic loss.”

Hegseth suggests Iran is accessing old drone supplies, not replenishing

Some Democrats pushed back against Trump’s claims of victory and Hegseth’s assertions that Iran’s military has been obliterated.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, noted Iran’s continued use of drones, which are inexpensive assets compared to what the U.S. has used to prosecute the war.

Hegseth retorted that “pulling a drone out of a cave that’s been collapsed” is not the same as “producing more drones.”

Shaheen was unmoved, joining colleagues who have put Hegseth on the defensive deep into his testimony.

“But if Iran still has almost 50% of their capacity and the ability to pull drones out of caves and still injure our allies and U.S. service members, then we have not won the war,” she said.

Defense secretary tells senators Trump has authority to resume war

That posture has resulted in some tension between the Republican-controlled Congress and White House.

Presidents are required by law to gain authorization from Congress after 60 days of starting a war. However, the White House has argued that the 60-day deadline no longer applies because the war is currently in a ceasefire.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski voiced some skepticism to that argument. Pointing to the troops and warships deployed to the region, she said, “It doesn’t appear that that hostilities have ended.”

Murkowski has hinted she may bring legislation that would authorize the use of military force against Iran.

Hegseth claims the US controls the Strait of Hormuz

He claimed to senators that “ultimately we control the Strait, because nothing’s going in that we don’t allow to go in.”

It was a striking statement from the defense secretary at a time when Iran has seized control of the waterway, causing a global spike in fuel prices that’s rippled through other economic sectors. In response, the U.S. has tried to cut off all Iranian traffic through the strait as well.

Hegseth claimed “the economic pressure that creates on them greatly outstrips the pressure on us.”

Cuban diplomat slams Hegseth’s testimony that Havana poses a threat to the US

Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, the Cuban ambassador to the U.N., said Tuesday that it is the U.S., not the small island country, that poses “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to the world and international law.

“Its acts of aggression and threats against Venezuela, Iran, Greenland, Canada, His Holiness the Pope, Palestine, Mexico, Cuba — and an endless list of others — demonstrate this to be true,” Guzman said in a statement.

His comments came hours after Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, asked Hegseth in a congressional hearing whether he believed the Cuban government poses a national security threat to the U.S. The Pentagon chief responded, “I do.”

GOP senator pushes for the military to take a harder line on Iran

There are plenty of lawmakers, including Republicans, who are uneasy with President Donald Trump’s war with Iran. GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham isn’t one of them.

He drew a tough line as he questioned the Trump administration’s efforts to draw down the conflict and questioned the decision to use China and Pakistan as intermediaries in peace negotiations with Iran.

Graham’s ire was mostly aimed at efforts by previous Democratic presidents to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. He said those efforts had “failed.”

Graham praised the current war with Iran as “spectacular” and said there should be “more to come.”

White House holds off on beef executive orders

The president on Monday had planned to sign two directives meant to address short-term supply issues in the U.S. beef market.

But the White House is saying it’s reworking the orders a bit.

A White House official, noting that Trump is “committed” to lowering the cost of beef and other groceries, said Tuesday the administration is “accordingly finetuning potential executive actions.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

The two executive orders that had been on tap were meant to expand beef imports and support the renewal of America’s domestic cattle herd.

— Seung Min Kim

Hegseth offers no timeline on details for how Ukraine aid funds will be spent

The defense secretary wouldn’t offer lawmakers a timeline on delivering a plan for what the military will buy with the $400 million that was set aside for Ukraine aid by Congress at the start of the year.

Hegseth said he wanted to make sure U.S. European Command, which has been tasked with determining what the money will be spent on, “is fully informed in how they want to spend this.”

However, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons noted that “it’s May and this has been the law since January, and you or your representatives have been asked this repeatedly on a bipartisan basis by members of this committee.”

Hegseth has only publicly confirmed that he’ll spend the money about two weeks ago when he last appeared before Congress and just a day after Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell called out the Pentagon for withholding the funds in an editorial in The Washington Post.

Sen. Susan Collins critiques Trump administration’s shifting strategy on the Strait of Hormuz

The Republican, who’s in the midst of a reelection campaign for her Maine Senate seat, questioned whether the military anticipated Iran could take actions to blockade the Strait of Hormuz.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, told her the military’s briefings to the Trump administration “cover and consider the full range of things all the time in our careful consideration of military actions.”

But Collins, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, responded with criticism for the Trump administration’s current strategy.

“It seems there has been a different plan almost daily with dealing with this problem,” she said.

Collins late last month also joined Democrats to vote for failed legislation that would have forced Trump to halt the war with Iran.

Hegseth treads carefully on China but says the US works with regional partners

When pressed by Sen. McConnell about U.S.-China relations, the defense secretary said he wouldn’t speak for the president ahead of his Beijing summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

But Hegseth said the U.S. has “worked very hard in that region, in the Indo-Pacific, with Japan, with the Philippines and others” to prioritize U.S. security and security for its allies around China.

Hegseth said U.S. interests are “amplified by burden sharing of partners who recognize the shared threats that we face and are willing to invest alongside us.”

He insisted that “every aspect” Trump does regarding China “is to ensure that American interests are advanced.”

McConnell had asked explicitly whether Trump is trying “to preserve American primacy or simply to accommodate China’s rise?”

The senator also asked about Trump’s commitment to navigational freedom in the South China Sea. Hegseth said, “Americans ships should — should sail freely. So should others.”

McConnell warns against the administration’s budget approach

The Kentucky Republican got into the weeds on the president’s budget request, noting it’s not a $1.5 trillion annual baseline. Instead, he noted it’s a roughly $1.1 trillion request plus a supplemental bill.

The latter can be passed by “reconciliation,” a process that allows the Republican majority the easiest way to bypass Democrats’ objections. But McConnell suggested the White House think about future years when Republicans may not have the Senate majority.

He said the Pentagon’s approach means it’s putting necessary ongoing funding requests in the supplemental, one-time measure.

McConnell alluded to “continuing resolutions” that have become a common budget device for a divided Congress to extend agencies’ funding even without a larger budget deal. But one-time funding, McConnell noted, cannot be included in those CRs.

“I’m confused by the administration’s failure to prioritize” ongoing funding, the senator said.

Anti-war protester interrupts Hegseth’s opening statement

As Hegseth started his opening statement, a woman stood up and pronounced, “I am an Iranian American and against this war of aggression.”

Within moments, she was removed from the hearing room by Capitol police officers , but she continued to tell the hearing room she was opposed to the war with Iran.

There are a handful more anti-war protesters wearing pink shirts sitting in the back row of the Senate hearing room, but they remained silent. Several of them stood and walked out while Hegseth was talking.

Senate Democrat overseeing defense spending says administration ‘distracted’ from military priorities

Democratic Sen. Chris Coons launched into a wide-ranging critique of how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is leading the military and raised concerns that his decisions are undermining U.S. military priorities.

“I am concerned that we have a distracted administration and a distracted department,” Coons said, adding that “We have a president who seems more focused on a $1 billion ballroom and a victory arch, rather than achieving actual victory.”

Coons also questioned why the administration has withdrawn support from allies in Europe, including Ukraine, at a time when their drone defenses could aid U.S. efforts to counteract drone attacks from Iran.

Sen. Mitch McConnell emphasizes the need for US alliances in a rebuke of Trump’s approach

Without naming Trump, McConnell sternly critiqued the president’s belligerent approach to traditional U.S. allies and he advocated for NATO and defending Ukraine.

The former Republican Senate leader now chairs the Senate’s Appropriations subcommittee. McConnell told Hegseth that strained relationships with democratic allies “only serves our adversaries’ interests and limits our capacity and deterrent power globally.”

McConnell, who voted against Hegseth’s confirmation in 2025, said he wanted to see U.S. assistance previously approved for Ukraine “reach their destination without further delay.”

The senator said such aid is not “charity,” but part of cultivating relationships that can benefit the U.S. in the future.

“I want to hear about the future of capacity building with committed allies and partners,” he said.

“We have things to learn from our friends,” McConnell added, alluding to Ukraine’s success in drone warfare.

Hegseth’s Senate hearing gets underway

The defense secretary has started his hearing before a Senate appropriations panel after spending several hours Tuesday morning testifying before House lawmakers.

The hearing room is packed and there are a handful of anti-war protesters in the audience as well.

Republican Sen. John Kennedy greeted Hegseth with some friendly advice before the hearing got underway. “Don’t let them get you down,” Kennedy told Hegseth.

House panel adjourns with a final push for more information from the Pentagon

The budget subcommittee adjourned with a final bipartisan push for the Pentagon to provide more details about its $1.5 trillion budget request for the coming year.

The leading Democrat and Republican also noted the more professional tenor of the hearing, which did not feature the name-calling and other tense exchanges that have defined Hegseth’s previous Hill appearances.

“This is the way these hearings should be conducted, especially when it’s dealing with national defense,” said McCollum, the ranking Democrat, after urging Hegseth to answer the panel’s questions by the end of next week.

“I thank everyone for a respectful hearing, but we need the information, Mr. Secretary,” she added.

Rep. Ken Calvert, the Republican chair, clarified that the committee wants details both for the Pentagon’s more immediate supplemental funding request and the larger proposal for fiscal 2027.

The subcommittee plans to more formally consider the administration’s requests on June 11.

In a heated second leg that saw both coaches square up to each other at one point, Southampton rallied for a 2-1 victory at its home stadium at St. Mary's and seal a win on aggregate by the same score. The decisive goal — scored by Shea Charles when his cross curled into the bottom corner — came with four minutes left of extra time.

The two games were played under a cloud, with Southampton having been charged by the English Football League with a breach of its regulations following accusations that unauthorized filming of Middlesbrough’s training took place last week.

The EFL requested that an independent disciplinary commission undertake a hearing “at the earliest opportunity” but Southampton asked for more time to complete an internal review into the issue, meaning any punishment would likely be meted out before the playoff final with Hull on May 23.

That final is the richest one-off game in world soccer, with the winner assured a windfall of at least 200 million pounds ($270 million) in future earnings via things like prize money and broadcast revenue in the Premier League.

Tensions between Southampton and Middlesbrough boiled over at the end of the first half when the respective coaches — Tonda Eckert and Kim Hellberg — got in each other's faces on the touchline while being spoken to by the referee. After the first leg, which finished 0-0, Hellberg said he “couldn’t believe my eyes or ears” when he heard about the spying allegations and accused Southampton of trying to “cheat.”

Following another first-half exchange — between Middlesbrough's Luke Ayling and Southampton’s Taylor Harwood-Bellis — the BBC and Sky Sports reported that Ayling accused Harwood-Bellis of using discriminatory language.

Southampton is seeking an immediate return to the Premier League after relegation last season. Before that, it was in the top flight from 2012-23.

Hull was last in the Premier League in 2017.

___

Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

___

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

Judge Darren Steele approved an agreement between Woods' defense attorney and prosecutors following a four-minute hearing in Martin County circuit court, just north of Palm Beach County.

Prosecutors had issued a subpoena seeking copies of all prescription medication records for the legendary golfer at a Palm Beach pharmacy from the start of the year through the end of March. Defense attorney Doug Duncan had previously argued that Woods has a constitutional right to privacy when it comes to his prescription medications, but he acknowledged during the hearing that the right is not absolute and that prosecutors could make a compelling argument for why they were needed.

Meanwhile, prosecutors agreed to Duncan's request for a protective order limiting the release of records only to prosecutors, law enforcement officers, state experts and Woods' defense team.

Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University who is not connected to the case, said the agreement and the judge's approval seems normal for DUI case, particularly one that involves drugs instead of alcohol. Florida law considers a driver with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08% or higher to be impaired, but there's no clear, measurable standard to determine impairment for other drugs. That means prosecutors will have to use field sobriety tests, officer testimony and other evidence to convince jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that Woods was impaired.

Jarvis said there's no indication so far that Woods is receiving special treatment, either more harsh or more lenient, because of his celebrity status.

“We don’t know if the prosecutor offered a plea, and a typical defendant would have taken the plea, and Tiger Woods decided not to take the plea,” Jarvis said. “But other than that, I think that this is what would happen no matter who the defendant was.”

Woods has pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence. A sheriff’s office report said deputies found two pain pills in his pocket, and he showed signs of impairment after his SUV clipped a truck's trailer and rolled onto its side.

Woods was traveling at high speeds on a beachside, residential road on Jupiter Island with a 30 mph (nearly 50 kph) speed limit when his Land Rover caused $5,000 in damage to the truck, according to an incident report. Woods agreed to a Breathalyzer test that showed no signs of alcohol, but refused a urine test, authorities said.

Woods has traveled outside of the United States to seek treatment at an inpatient treatment facility, according to court records.

Weinstein, the former Hollywood honcho who has been imprisoned on various sex crime convictions since 2020, watched quietly as the two sides made their closing arguments about whether he raped hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in a New York hotel in March 2013.

“She has taken on a false narrative about all of this,” Weinstein lawyer Marc Agnifilo said.

“She has absolutely no motive to lie. None,” prosecutor Nicole Blumberg countered, noting that Mann went through five days of grueling, deeply personal testimony.

Jurors are expected to start deliberating Wednesday. They will have to sift through the complexities of a yearslong relationship between Weinstein, 73, and Mann, 40.

They met in early 2013, when she was trying to make it big in Hollywood. She testified that she anticipated a professional connection, was taken aback when he started making sexual advances but decided to have a relationship with the then-married, Oscar-winning producer.

A few weeks later, according to Mann, Weinstein abruptly took a room at a hotel where she and a friend were staying. She testified that she accompanied Weinstein upstairs to tell him she didn't want a sexual interlude, but he trapped her in the room, grabbed her arms, insisted she undress, went into the bathroom for a time, and then raped her.

“He just treated me like he owned me,” she testified last month.

Weinstein didn't testify, but his defense contends the encounter was consensual and part of a caring, if on-and-off, relationship that Mann valued until Weinstein’s #MeToo downfall in 2017. That was when news reports about allegations against him propelled a global campaign against sexual assault and sexual harassment. He has said he behaved “wrongly” but never assaulted anyone.

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

In summations Tuesday, Agnifilo portrayed Mann as an unreliable witness making an ill-supported, implausible accusation. He cited her uncertainty about various dates and details in the years-old events, and he recalled a point when she said she was struggling to stay focused during cross-examination, prompting court to end early for the day.

Agnifilo underscored Mann's warm email exchanges and get-togethers with Weinstein before and after the alleged rape — and a musing, diary-like note she wrote to herself two days after the encounter. In the note, she expresses her misgivings about her emotional attachment in a nonexclusive relationship, asks whether she loves “him or the idea of him,” questions her “woulds and would nots,” and worries about being “a ‘bad’ person.”

The note doesn't name the man, but Agnifilo asserted that it was about Weinstein and that its silence about the alleged assault spoke volumes.

“This is how she's falling in love with him,” the defense lawyer argued.

The prosecutor's rebuttal: “She’s burying what the defendant did to her, and she’s struggling with the good parts of the defendant and the awful, the evil parts of the defendant.”

Over the years, Weinstein encouraged Mann’s acting ambitions, helped her land a hairstyling job, provided emotional support during her father’s terminal illness and tried to send her money — which she declined — when she was broke, according to trial testimony and exhibits.

To Weinstein's attorney, it amounted to “a sweet, loving, supportive relationship.”

But to Blumberg, “This was a woman who got manipulated by that man.”

While Mann acknowledged she loved “a part” of Weinstein, she testified that she begged him not to do anything sexual that day in the Manhattan hotel.

“No means no — to everyone except Harvey Weinstein,” Blumberg said, adding: “Jessica Mann deserves closure and justice.”

At points during her summation, Weinstein shook his head slightly and exchanged glances with his lawyer.

Whatever the outcome of the trial, the former studio boss still will stand convicted of other sex crimes in New York and California, though he is appealing those convictions. If convicted in the current trial, Weinstein could face up to four years in prison — less time than he already has served.

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

Bullets tore through at least a dozen cars, including a state police cruiser, in the Monday afternoon attack as panicked drivers abandoned their vehicles seeking cover, prosecutors and state police said.

The gunman fired more than 60 rounds as he walked beside the road before he was shot and fell wounded, according to authorities. They said the two motorists were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

The shooting happened on a heavily traveled road along the Charles River in Cambridge, home to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sidewalks and riverside paths in the area are often bustling with pedestrians, joggers and cyclists.

“While people were jumping from their cars, scattering in various directions … both that trooper and that civilian, rather than going in one direction, went toward the suspect with their weapons to try to end that situation,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said later Monday night.

The suspect, Tyler Brown, 46, of Boston, faces two counts of armed assault with intent to murder and six other charges, including possessing a gun without a license. Court documents show Brown had recently been released from a psychiatric hospital.

About an hour before the shootings, he connected with his parole officer via video conference. Armed with a gun, he said on video that he had relapsed and wanted to end his life. The parole officer called police, who began searching for Brown and found him in Cambridge using phone records.

Witnesses describe chaotic scene

Armando Zona, whose apartment overlooks the scene, initially thought he was hearing construction equipment when banging noises started. But when he went onto his balcony to check, he saw the gunman firing at cars.

“He took a glance towards here, I'm quite sure about that, and I ran," he said. As Zona yelled to his wife to hide in the bathroom, he heard another bang.

“I turned around, I see the window splattered,” he said. “I could not comprehend, how can this be? This is a bullet that just came into my house.”

Rachael Saveriano said she was trapped in her car as Brown walked toward her, waving his gun. A man later described as the Marine veteran helped her escape, she told The Boston Globe.

“It doesn’t feel like you should get out of the car when there is a shooter coming toward you, but there was a man next to me,” she said. “He opened my car door, pulled me out, and told me to run.”

Saveriano said she saw the man shooting at Brown as she fled.

“He is an incredible hero,” she said. “He was so calm, and he didn’t hesitate.”

The Marine veteran told investigators he had been driving southbound when he saw cars turning around and heard gunfire. A former firearms instructor, he retrieved his pistol from a safe in his backseat and — after the gunman got closer — fired eight rounds, according to a criminal complaint.

Court documents include criminal history, mental health issues

The complaint describes what led up to the shootings. According to investigators, Brown had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression and had been released Friday from a psychiatric hospital.

According to the complaint, Brown is on parole and probation for offenses including armed assault to murder and other gun-related convictions. His parole was set to end this week, though his probation continued.

In 2020, Brown was arrested after firing several rounds at Boston police officers, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors said then that he should serve at least 10 years in prison, due to the “level of brazen violence” and because he was on probation for a 2014 conviction on assault and witness intimidation charges. A judge instead ordered Brown to serve five to six years in state prison and three years of probation with credit for nearly 18 months spent in custody.

At the time, the judge’s decision sparked outrage and criticism among local officials concerned that violent offenders weren’t being held accountable. Those same concerns returned Monday.

“Talk about a ball drop,” said the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association in a statement on social media. “The fact that the judicial system thought it was prudent to show leniency to a wannabe cop killer 5-years ago is not only the definition of insanity but an undeniable insult to those who put their lives on the line everyday.”

Joey Bennett, a friend of Brown's who rode his bike to the scene after hearing about the shooting, said that he “can't make sense of it.”

“Only thing that makes sense to me is that he was struggling,” Bennett said, adding that his friend “had a good heart” and that “we all get stigmatized by our past.”

“He obviously was going through a moment because the person that I know, I don’t understand why he would be right here doing what he did," he said. "I mean, he could have made other decisions other than doing what he did . But the only thing I can say is that mental health is real. Mental health is not taken seriously across the United States until there always is a shooting or something that happens to innocent people.”

No connection found between shooter, victims

Ryan, the district attorney, said investigators found no connection between Brown and those targeted Monday. She renewed her call for harsher penalties on people who fire weapons disregarding the risk of serious injury.

“What happened today cannot stand,” she said.

Brown was not medically ready to go to court for an arraignment, the Cambridge District Court said Tuesday. The Committee for Public Counsel Services confirmed it has been appointed to defend him but declined to comment. A message was also left at a phone number listed for Brown and a potential family member.

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Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

The unlikely pair came together Tuesday not for a most unusual duet, but instead to praise ongoing efforts to find new homes for roughly 1,500 beagles purchased from dog breeder and research facility Ridglan Farms outside of Madison.

Forget Black Sabbath’s anti-war anthem “War Pigs.” This day was all about the dogs — more specifically, the beagles.

“It was so profound to be able to hold each of these dogs in our arms and be able to assure them that their new life was starting,” Gibson said. “Today was a very emotional day.”

Gibson and Butler pet the beagles taken from research facility

Both Gibson and Butler held beagles from Ridglan Farms that had been transported from the facility to the humane society on Tuesday.

“They’ve never let me down,” Butler said of his pet dogs at the Dane County Humane Society, which is working to find new homes for 500 beagles. “They’re always loving.”

As they and others spoke in the humane society's barn, beagles from Ridglan Farms sat in the arms of volunteers as they waited to be seen by veterinarians for a health check, vaccinations and other care.

Beagles bought following violent clash with police

The Washington, D.C.-based Center for a Humane Economy and Florida's Big Dog Ranch Rescue, which both oppose using animals in research, struck the deal last month to buy the dogs for an undisclosed amount from Ridglan Farms.

The deal was announced just days after a violent clash between animal welfare advocates and police outside of the Ridglan Farms facility. Police used tear gas and pepper spray to turn back activists who said they were there to take the dogs. Protesters also broke into the facility in March and took 30 dogs.

Numerous groups are working to transfer the 1,500 dogs bought from Ridglan to facilities where they will get veterinary care and be prepared for transport to shelters around the country, where they will eventually be put up for adoption.

Demand is high to adopt the beagles

More than 1,300 people have expressed interest to the Dane County Humane Society alone in adopting the dogs, said Amy Good, the society's director of marketing.

“It’s not a tough sell to get beagles into homes," said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Center for a Humane Economy. "The response across the nation has been overwhelming.”

The first 1,000 dogs were removed earlier this month and are in temporary shelters with agencies partnering with Big Dog Ranch Rescue. The Dane County Humane Society began receiving the remaining 500 dogs this week.

Ridglan Farms agreed in October to give up its state breeding license as of July 1 as part of a deal to avoid prosecution on felony animal mistreatment charges. The firm has denied mistreating animals, but a special prosecutor determined that Ridglan Farms was performing eye procedures that violated state veterinary standards.

Butler, who said he has five dogs and five cats at home, called it a historic day for the end of experimenting on animals.

“This is just the beginning,” he said.

Gibson, who released her debut album at age 16 in 1987, said she planned on fostering and possibly adopting one of the beagles she met on Tuesday.

“This little guy was the last one put in my arms, and I couldn’t put him back in a cage,” she said, holding the beagle as she spoke.

Asked whether they will ever work together on a song about dogs, Butler and Gibson chuckled.

“Maybe,” Butler said with a smile and a beagle still on his lap.

Musk, the world’s richest man, is seeking Altman’s ouster from the company leadership as part of a civil lawsuit accusing him of betraying their shared vision for OpenAI. Since its start as a nonprofit funded primarily by Musk, OpenAI has evolved into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.

In the third week of the trial in a federal courthouse in Oakland, California, neither of the tech titans has emerged as an overly sympathetic character. But nobody has more to lose than Altman.

Even if Musk loses the case, the trial has invited further scrutiny of Altman’s leadership at a crucial time for the company and its competition with Musk’s own AI firm and another rival, Anthropic, formed by a group of seven ex-OpenAI leaders. All three firms are moving toward planned initial public offerings that are expected to be some of the largest ever.

Under a barrage of questions by a lawyer for Musk, Altman said he did not agree with trial testimony that depicted him as dishonest.

“I believe I am an honest and trustworthy businessperson,” Altman said.

A jury that’s already heard about Altman’s character from a parade of his former allies and adversaries will ultimately decide the verdict. But the repercussions could reverberate widely.

“This is not looking good for any of them, and I think that that’s a little bit unfortunate for the AI industry at a time when the public perception of AI is quite negative and seems to be getting worse,” said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute.

Testimony about Altman has been a font of social media memes

The lawsuit accuses Altman and his top lieutenant, Greg Brockman, of double-crossing Musk by straying from the San Francisco company’s founding mission to be an altruistic steward of a revolutionary technology. The lawsuit alleges they shifted into a moneymaking mode behind his back. Musk is seeking an unspecified amount of money to be paid to fund the altruistic efforts of OpenAI’s charitable arm.

While Musk, the head of SpaceX, Tesla and a slew of other companies, was well known by the San Francisco Bay Area jury pool, fewer knew who Altman was before the start of the trial, even if they were familiar with ChatGPT.

Since the start of the trial, testimony about Altman’s turbulent tenure at OpenAI has become prime fodder for internet jokes. One piece of evidence that has inspired countless memes was a text exchange between Altman and a company officer, Mira Murati, in 2023 during his short-lived ouster as CEO, when Altman asked if things were moving “directionally good or bad” and she wrote back: “Sam this is very bad.”

Jurors have heard from witnesses including OpenAI ex-board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley, who spoke about the decision to fire Altman in 2023 before they were themselves ousted from the board when Altman returned to his role.

In video testimony last week, Toner said a starting point for the decision to oust Altman was when OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, a respected AI scientist, reached out to confide some of his own concerns.

“A phrase we used was ‘a pattern of behavior,’ so no one single cause,” Toner said. “The pattern of behavior related to his honesty and candor, his resistance of board oversight.”

Sutskever was instrumental in the unsuccessful attempt to oust Altman but later said he regretted his role in the shakeup. In his own testimony Monday, Sutskever confirmed that he wrote a 2023 memo to OpenAI’s board that characterized Altman as pitting his executives against one another and exhibiting a “consistent pattern of lying” that was causing a loss of trust and productivity.

Altman has cast Musk as bent on control of OpenAI

The trial has carried risks for Musk's reputation as well. Sutskever testified to his early admiration for Musk as an entrepreneur but said that once they were working together as co-founders, Musk's push for a controlling stake in the startup “just felt aggressive to me.”

OpenAI has brushed off Musk’s allegations as an unfounded case of sour grapes that’s aimed at undercutting its rapid growth and bolstering Musk’s own xAI, now part of SpaceX.

Altman and Musk both vied to be OpenAI's CEO in its early years. In his testimony Tuesday, Altman said he had concerns about Musk’s attempts to gain more control over OpenAI, which was aiming to safely build a better-than-human form of AI called artificial general intelligence.

“Part of the reason we started OpenAI is we didn’t think AGI could be under the control of any one person, no matter how good their intents are," Altman said.

He described what he called a “particularly hair-raising moment when my co-founders asked Mr. Musk about, well, ‘If you have control, what happens when you die?’”

Altman said Musk’s response was that maybe “control of OpenAI should pass to my children.” Altman said he did not feel comfortable with that.

Altman said Musk was known to be “fairly mercurial” and only trusted himself to make decisions. He said Musk made repeated attempts to have his car company Tesla absorb OpenAI, a proposal Altman said would not have aligned with OpenAI’s mission.

Despite Musk's claims in the lawsuit about a violation of the nonprofit's purpose, Altman testified that OpenAI has ended up creating “through a ton of hard work, this extremely large charity.”

Near the end of his testimony, Altman said he had thought incredibly highly of Musk during his early involvement with OpenAI, before things turned sour.

“I felt like he had abandoned us, not come through on his promises, put the company in a very difficult place, jeopardized the mission, didn’t really care about the things I thought he cared about,” Altman said. “It’s been an extremely painful thing for me ... to have someone that I respected so much not acknowledge that and continue to publicly attack us."

He attributed Musk's leaving OpenAI and the ongoing conflicts to "jealousy, as we got more and more successful, in trying to beat us down as he was starting a competitor.”

____

O'Brien contributed from Providence, Rhode Island.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to a request by one of Trump's lawyers that it let the president delay the payment to E. Jean Carroll, though it required that Trump post a $7.4 million bond to cover any additional interest costs, a request Carroll's attorney had made.

The appeals court late last month refused Trump’s request for a rare meeting of the full 2nd Circuit to hear an appeal of a three-judge panel’s affirmance of the January 2024 verdict.

Afterward, Trump attorney Justin D. Smith asked the 2nd Circuit to stay the effect of its decision upholding the award so that Trump would not be forced to pay the judgment before the high court has a chance to consider an appeal.

Smith said last week there was a “fair prospect” that the Supreme Court will find in favor of Trump, who has called Carroll’s claims first made publicly in 2019 that she was sexually attacked by Trump in a Manhattan luxury department store dressing room in spring 1996 a “made up scam.”

The $83 million award to Carroll, 82, came from a jury that briefly heard Trump testify and observed his animated behavior for several days.

In upholding the verdict, a 2nd Circuit panel wrote last September that Trump continued his attacks against Carroll for at least five years, making them “more extreme and frequent as the trial approached.”

“He also continued these same attacks during the trial itself,” the appeals court said. “In one such statement, issued two days into the trial, Trump proclaimed that he would continue to defame Carroll ‘a thousand times.’ ”

The jury had been instructed to accept the findings of a jury that in May 2023 awarded Carroll $5 million after concluding Trump sexually abused her in the department store and then defamed her after she published her account of it in a 2019 memoir.

Trump is challenging the $83 million award on several grounds, asserting “absolute immunity” for comments he made while president as he disavowed knowing Carroll and attacked her motivations, saying they were politically driven or arose from a desire to promote her memoir.

Trump said he would have a “long talk” about Iran with Chinese President Xi Jinping but said trade would be a bigger focus. As he left for the summit, Trump again threatened Iran if its leaders don’t reach an agreement on its nuclear program.

“We have Iran very much under control,” Trump said. “We’re either going to make a deal or they’re going to be decimated. One way or the other, we win.”

Iranian state media quoted the country's foreign ministry as calling “baseless” the allegation by Kuwait, which came under attack by Iran in the war and during the shaky ceasefire that is still holding. But the allegation and ongoing attacks in the region have threatened to reignite open warfare.

The narrow Strait of Hormuz remains in Iran's chokehold, the U.S. is maintaining a blockade against Iran and negotiations between the two countries appear at a standstill.

“True peace cannot be built with a literature of humiliation, threats, and coercive score-settling,” Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian diplomat, said Tuesday on X.

With the risk of the conflict breaking out again, Israel has sent Iron Dome air-defense weapons and personnel to operate them to the United Arab Emirates, the U.S. ambassador to Israel said.

It was the first publicly acknowledged deployment of Israel’s military to the Emirates — home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai — and underlined the growing relationship between Israel and the UAE.

Also very late on Tuesday night, a magnitude 4.6 earthquake shook parts of Iran, followed by several aftershocks, according to Iranian state media. Witnesses felt the temblor in the capital of Tehran, where some people sought refuge in the streets. Iranian state TV said there were no reports of casualties.

Kuwait alleges Iran planned attack

Kuwait said a paramilitary Revolutionary Guard team tried to infiltrate Bubiyan Island in the northwest corner of the Persian Gulf near Iraq and Iran on May 1.

Four men were detained and two escaped when Kuwait's forces disrupted the attack, it said.

A statement that Iranian media attributed to the foreign ministry in Tehran said four officers on a “conventional maritime patrol mission” had entered Kuwait's waters because of “a disruption in the navigation system." It denied any hostile intent and called for the men's release.

Bubiyan Island is home to Mubarak Al Kabeer Port, which is under construction as part of a Chinese plan to build infrastructure across the world. It also came under Iranian attack during the war.

Kuwait provided no reason for why it delayed linking the attack to Iran after initially announcing it on May 3 without any details. Trump is traveling this week to China for a summit where Iran will likely be a main topic. Beijing long has been a buyer of sanctioned Iranian crude oil and has been hurt by the strait's closure, which has sparked a global energy crisis.

Huckabee says Israel deployed to UAE

U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee revealed at a conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, that Israel has sent Iron Dome air-defense to the UAE.

The United Arab Emirates diplomatically recognized Israel in 2020. That drew criticism from Iran, long Israel's main regional enemy. Iran didn't immediately respond to Huckabee's remarks, though it has repeatedly suggested over the years that Israel maintained a military and intelligence presence in the Emirates.

The Israeli military declined to comment on Huckabee’s statement about the Iron Dome while the UAE didn't immediately respond.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, was quoted as making comments similar to Huckabee's during an event at the Israeli mission — suggesting the release of the information was intentional, likely with the Emiratis' and Israelis' blessing.

The UAE has faced Iranian missile and drone fire even after the ceasefire was reached last month. It has been trying to signal to nervous investors and the public that it remains open for business and safe.

Hegseth tells Congress: ‘We control the strait’

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told members of Congress Tuesday that the military has plenty of bombs and missiles despite concerns about its stockpiles.

He also maintained that the U.S. is in control of the Strait of Hormuz, even as Iranian attacks — and threats — have disrupted the shipment of oil and other products through the vital waterway.

“Ultimately we control the strait, because nothing’s going in that we don’t allow to go in,” said Hegseth, who faced tough questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers who oversee defense spending.

Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, asked what the Trump administration’s strategy is for reopening the waterway. “Your average American is seeing this at the gas pump every single day as the cost of gas continues to rise,” Coons said.

Hegseth avoided specifics about the next steps in Iran. The Pentagon’s top budget official told Congress that the cost of the war is close to $29 billion so far — that’s up from an estimate of $25 billion just two weeks ago.

Norway has some 25 stranded vessels

One of Norway’s top diplomats met Tuesday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran, pressing for the need to open the strait.

Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Kravik stressed that the attacks on commercial shipping and obstruction of the passageway must end, his minister, Espen Barth Eide, said in an email.

Kravik said Iran’s actions affecting third-party countries are “completely unacceptable” and noted that Norway has some 25 vessels stranded, according to Eide.

___

Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press reporters Sam Metz in Ramallah, West Bank, Collin Binkley and Konstantin Toropin in Washington, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Switzerland, and Giovanna Dell'Orto in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

Runner-up to Rory McIlroy at the Masters. Playoff loss to Matt Fitzpatrick at the RBC Heritage. Runner-up (by six shots) to Cameron Young at Doral.

“Last week my wife was like, ‘Hey, Scottie. You’re like the first guy in PGA Tour history to have three solo runner-ups in a row.' I'm like, ‘Yeah, it’s probably because the guy that was playing that good figured out a way to win one of those,'” Scheffler said Tuesday.

It hasn't put much of a dent in his confidence going into the second major of the year. Scheffler is fierce when it comes to competition, hates losing even in friendly matches with his caddie and still has come to appreciate that winning isn't always easy.

He has a firm hold on the No. 1 world ranking — he is approaching three straight years at the top of golf — despite not winning since his season debut in the California desert.

“You know you're playing good golf, and you'd love to get some wins,” he said. “Finishing second hurts, but I think when you reflect and you're looking at things to work on, there's a lot less to clean up when you're finishing second than there is when you're finishing 30th.”

Not that he has a lot of experience with the latter — Scheffler hasn't finished 30th or worse since August 2024.

To end that run of silver medal this week at Aronimink would allow him to join Brooks Koepka (2018-19) and Tiger Woods (1999-00 and 2006-07) as the only players to win back-to-back in the PGA Championship in stroke play.

In his way is a course has plenty of room off the tee and little room for error when it comes to hitting the correct spot on the large, severely contoured greens.

He also faces the strongest field of the four majors, with 98 of the top 100 in the world, which includes the last three players to beat him — McIlroy (No. 2), Young (No. 3) and Fitzpatrick (No. 4).

McIlroy came up to Aronimink two weeks ago for a peek at the course he had not played since the BMW Championship in 2018, when it was so soft and mushy from rain that the event couldn't finish until Monday. The hope this week is for minimal rain and firm, dry conditions.

“For the most part, it should be a bit drier, which really brings out the character of the greens,” McIlroy said. “The greens seem to be the big defense and the big talking point of the golf course.”

McIlroy had his practice round cut short on Tuesday with a blister on his right toe that was causing some discomfort last week at the Truist Championship.

Not since Jordan Spieth in 2015 has anyone captured the first two majors of the season, and McIlroy has a chance to do that. The majors have become his focus of late, especially now that he finally has the career Grand Slam from winning the Masters a year ago.

McIlroy and Spieth are in the same group when the PGA Championship begins Thursday, along with Jon Rahm of LIV Golf. Spieth lacks only the PGA Championship to complete the career slam.

For all the talk about bunker complexes that seem to line every landing area — there are 20 bunkers on the 11th hole alone — players have been talking about the greens all week, particularly if the rain holds off and the course gets firm.

“Greens are diabolical. Should be a really good test,” Xander Schauffele said. "You can make it as easy or difficult on yourself as you’d like. If you get aggressive to certain pins and short-side yourself, you’re going to hit it to 20 or 30 feet at best, just based on how fast and firm it is and how much it runs away from you. But at the same time, there's certain pockets where ... you can hit a really good shot and get rewarded for it.

“The greens are definitely the thing to prepare for this tournament. I think it will be fun to watch.”

Scheffler and McIlroy have combined to win four of the last five majors — McIlroy at Augusta National the last two times, Scheffler at the PGA Championship and British Open last year.

Scheffler is more about precision, though he certainly has enough length. McIlroy feasts on wider fairways as one of the best drivers of the ball. Aronimink could test a little of each, though McIlroy was more concerned about the second shot.

“I think in this day and age I’m not sure if it’s going to test all aspects of your bag,” McIlroy said. "Strategy off the tee is pretty nonexistent. It's basically bash driver down there and then figure it out from there. ... When these traditional golf courses take a lot of trees out, it makes strategy not as much of a concern off the tee.

“But the greens are the main focus this week, and I think getting yourself in the right sections of the greens, making sure you leave yourself below the hole for the most part. That’s the key.”

___

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

Members voted 4-3 in favor of ending Valeria Acevedo’s tenure with the city at a council meeting Monday night.

Acevedo was believed to be at the center of how the city interpreted its recent mayoral election results.

In the race, the city announced challenger Michael French (49.18% of the vote) as the winner on May 2 over incumbent Mayor Neal Linnartz (38.25%) and two other candidates because — as the city charter dictates — French was the candidate who earned the most votes (plurality).

However, on May 4, the city’s outside legal counsel informed the City Attorney’s Office about the discrepancy between the city charter and the Texas Constitution, which states that any office term longer than two years “must be elected by a majority vote (50% of the vote + one vote).”

Later that night, the city reversed course and announced a runoff.

What led to the confusion

While the plurality rule was in effect, the city said last week that every mayoral election since 1995 was won by a candidate who earned the majority vote.

Each February, the City Council approves an ordinance recognizing the state Legislature’s dates for municipal elections, which is typically the first Saturday in May.

In last Friday’s news release, the city acknowledged that the city secretary “discovered that previous ordinances stated the Mayor would be elected by majority and was inconsistent with the City Charter.”

After a discussion with the city attorney, this year’s ordinance was “written to be consistent with the City Charter,” officials said.

“The ordinance (#2026-05) stating that the 2026 Mayoral election would be decided by plurality was approved by City Council on February 9, 2026 as part of the Consent Agenda,” according to the news release.

When the ordinance was approved, the city said Linnartz, City Council and city staff were not aware that New Braunfels’ charter was “in conflict with” the Texas Constitution.

‘We must follow the law’

Acevedo, who had served as New Braunfels’ city attorney since November 2011, spoke to the council and residents during the Monday meeting.

“In New Braunfels, for the last 31 years, the mayor has been elected under the understanding that it was ‘plurality,’” Acevedo told the council. “‘Why those ordinances have said, ‘majority’? Nobody knows.”

Acevedo counted herself among those at City Hall who had no knowledge of the city charter-Texas Constitution conflict.

“I did not know there was such restriction on the City of New Braunfels due to our (mayoral) term limits being longer than two years,” Acevedo said. “Again, as stated in the May 4th press release, I learned of the conflict by that phone call — that phone call that’s changed, seemingly, my life, and the life of many other good, hardworking people.”

Despite the error, Acevedo insisted that the city continue forward with a runoff election.

“We must follow the law. I am duty-bound, as I was then, to tell you that is the law,” Acevedo said. “And we must follow it.”

Acevedo requested that any decision made on her job status be done in public as opposed to a closed-door executive session.

When the vote was held, the first six votes were split down the middle: three votes in favor of firing Acevedo, and three votes opposing her termination.

Linnartz, who served as the tiebreaking voter on the council, was the fourth and final “yea” vote.

In a social media post early Tuesday morning, District 4 Councilman Lawrence W. Spradley said the election error happened because of “complacency.”

“Never take anything for granted and question abnormalities. In this case, she (Acevedo) had many small issues that should have been enough to raise questions & resolved with a simple phone call to outside counsel,” Spradley said. “She fell back on that it’s been this way for 30 years and nothing was questioned. Well, I guess it was just lucky nothing happened until now.”

“This decision was not an easy one, nor was it about personalities, (Val is a wonderful person) or politics just for politics’ sake,” Spradley continued. “It is truly only about accountability, transparency, and restoring public confidence after this complete unacceptable breakdown in the matter of our elections.”

What’s next

French and Linnartz are headed to a runoff. During the same meeting, council members decided that the mayoral runoff will be held on June 13.

In the aftermath of Acevedo’s firing, an interim city attorney has not yet been appointed.

Because city attorney is a position overseen by City Council, a city spokesperson told KSAT that any future item related to the role “will need to be addressed at a future City Council meeting.”

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

• ‘A significant mistake’: New Braunfels mayoral race heads to runoff after results announcement conflicted with state law

The nonpartisan CBO report, published Tuesday, is described as an analysis that reflects “one illustrative approach rather than an estimate of a specific Administration proposal.”

The futuristic system was ordered by Trump in an executive order during his first week in office. He said then that he expected the system to be “fully operational before the end of my term,” which wraps up in January 2029.

“Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems,” Trump said in his executive order, justifying the need for the missile defense system.

The CBO’s estimates are in part based on a lack of details from the Defense Department about what and how many systems will be deployed, “making it impossible to estimate the long term cost” of the Golden Dome system, the report says.

The concept for the missile system is at least partly inspired by Israel’s multitiered defenses, often collectively referred to as the “Iron Dome,” which played a key role in defending it from rocket and missile fire from Iran and allied militant groups as it prosecutes the war on Iran alongside the U.S.

The U.S. Golden Dome is envisioned to include ground- and space-based capabilities able to detect, intercept and stop missiles at all major stages of a potential attack.

Congress has already approved roughly $24 billion for the missile defense initiative through Republicans' massive tax and spending measure signed into law last summer.

Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, director of the Golden Dome project, testified last month about its costs. He told lawmakers that various groups estimating costs “just take the cost of a legacy system and they multiply it out and they get these really large numbers and they say, well, that must be it.

"That is not what Golden Dome is doing,” the U.S. Space Force general said. “We are laser focused on affordability.”

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who requested the estimate from the CBO, said in response to the report that the missile defense project is “nothing more than a massive giveaway to defense contractors paid for entirely by working Americans.”

Last May, the president said the Golden Dome would cost $175 billion. The CBO last year estimated that just the space-based components of the Golden Dome could cost as much as $542 billion over the next 20 years.

Patrons at Taco Joint near the University of Texas at Austin were greeted Tuesday by the surprise entrance of Barack Obama along with James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominees for U.S. Senate and governor, respectively.

The trio went from booth to booth for around 30 minutes of retail politicking, discussing issues ranging from data centers to voting and taking group photos with a mostly younger crowd that yelped with excitement when the former president appeared. Obama asked one group if they knew Hinojosa and Talarico, referring to them as the state’s “next governor and senator” as the two Austin Democrats stood nearby.

The former president did not make any public remarks or formally endorse either Democrat.

“Sorry, my hands are so sweaty,” one woman apologized as she shook Obama’s hand. “I miss you so much,” another gushed as they went in for a hug.

The former president’s appearance was a notable show of national support for the two Democrats at the top of Texas’ ticket this election cycle, when Democrats hope backlash to the Trump administration will help sweep them to their first statewide victory since 1994. Both races will be expensive, uphill battles. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton are locked in a fiercely competitive runoff election for the GOP Senate nomination, while Gov. Greg Abbott is running for a fourth term with $96 million in his campaign coffers.

“Hope @jamestalarico also brings President Obama along with @BernieSanders to campaign with him in the general election,” Cornyn posted on social media after the event. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, is set to appear as a keynote speaker at the Texas Democratic Convention next month.

Obama previously called Talarico a “terrific, really talented young man” in an early boost to Talarico’s national profile.

Obama’s Taco Joint order, after settling on getting a “sampling”: street tacos and fish, mole and shrimp tacos. The cashier recognized Talarico and knew his regular: two potato, egg and cheese breakfast tacos. Hinojosa got two street tacos, no onions. The former president paid in cash, no change.

Latino influencer Carlos Eduardo Espina was also there taking videos and standing at the ready behind the cashier, who warned she might faint when taking Obama’s order.

Also joining were Talarico’s parents, sister and baby niece, Jane, who brought along a copy of a children’s book with quotes from former first lady Michelle Obama. Obama signed the book, writing in Sharpie, “To Jane — dream big dreams!”

“Remember to vote!” Obama called out to cheers as he walked out with the two candidates, tacos in hand.

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin 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.

An initial session of about two hours took place at the office of the Major League Baseball Players Association, a five-minute walk from Major League Baseball's headquarters in Manhattan's Rockefeller Center. The meeting lasted about two hours and was scheduled for initial presentations from each side on their view of the sport and its economics. No proposals were made.

Players who attended included Mets infielder Marcus Semien, a member of the union's eight-man executive subcommittee, along with Mets teammates Clay Holmes, David Peterson, Austin Slater and Sean Manaea. Several Detroit Tigers, who were in town to play the Mets, also were at the meeting and additional players joined via video conference.

“It’s the first one I’ve been at, so I don’t really have much to compare it to," Holmes said. "It was just kind of initial meetings, first time the sides were getting together and kind of sharing their thoughts on kind of where they thought things were at and what they thought was best for kind of the game moving forward.”

The sport's five-year labor contract expires Dec. 1, and baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has said repeatedly that management prefers offseason lockouts to in-season strikes, aiming to prevent the loss of regular-season games. Baseball has not lost regular-season games to a work stoppage since a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95 that caused the first cancellation of the World Series in 90 years.

Talks for the last agreement began in April 2021 and ended with a deal on March 10, 2022 that preserved the 162-game schedule only after the sides bargained past several deadlines and Manfred announced the cancellation of 184 games, which were restored.

Bruce Meyer will lead negotiations for the union, as he did in 2021-22, but in his new role as interim union head. He moved up from deputy director in February after the forced resignation of Tony Clark, a former All-Star first baseman who took over following the death of Michael Weiner in 2013.

Deputy commissioner Dan Halem heads MLB's negotiations team, as he did in talks for the previous two agreements.

MLB and Meyer declined to comment on the session.

“I think just player engagement as a whole, it just seems like there’s a lot of it right now,” Holmes said. “Guys are wanting to hear and guys are wanting to be there and so, just to be able to kind of be there and pass along things that you may see or learn or just have conversations there.”

Some major league owners have said a salary cap system that also contains a floor is needed and would improve the sport. MLB, unlike the NFL, NBA and NHL, has not had a cap system, but since 2003 has had a luxury tax designed to slow spending.

“When I talk to the players, I don’t try to convince them that a salary cap system would be a good thing,” Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America last summer. “I identify a problem in the media business and explain to them that owners need to change to address that problem. I then identify a second problem that we need to work together and that is that there are fans in a lot of our markets who feel like we have a competitive balance problem."

Restraints had not appeared to have had much impact on the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets in recent years. The Dodgers shattered MLB's spending records with a combined $515 million in payroll and luxury tax last year en route to their second straight World Series title, according to final figures compiled by the commissioner’s office, and Los Angeles is projected for the highest total again in 2026. The ratio of the five highest spenders to the five lowest increased from 3.6 in 2021 to a record-high 4.7 last year.

The union maintains a cap system decreases spending on players, while management argues a cap and a floor would benefit most players.

Players increased their potential war chest of cash and investments ahead of collective bargaining to $415 million heading into 2026. MLB also has been accumulating cash ahead of bargaining, about $75 million per club in withheld central fund distributions.

___

AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick contributed to this report.

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

This year, the Alamo City will welcome some of the biggest names such as AC/DC and Romeo Santos at venues across the city, including the Frost Bank Center, Alamodome and more.

Here’s a look at the concerts to look forward to in San Antonio in 2026.

January

• Saturday, Jan. 10: Morrissey - Boeing Center at Tech Port
• Saturday, Jan. 24: Led Zeppelin 2 - Aztec Theatre
• Saturday, Jan. 24: Matt Pryor - Paper Tiger
• Saturday, Jan. 31: Parker McCollum - Frost Bank Center

February

• Thursday, Feb. 5: Gipsy Kings featuring Nicolas Reyes - Majestic Theatre
• Thursday, Feb. 12: Russell Dickerson - Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Friday, Feb. 13: Hank Williams Jr. - Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Friday, Feb. 13: Los Lonely Boys - Aztec Theatre
• Saturday, Feb. 14: Ty Myers and Midland - Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Sunday, Feb. 15: Brad Paisley and Pat Green - Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Sunday, Feb. 15: Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan - Majestic Theatre
• Monday, Feb. 16: Shenandoah - Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Tuesday, Feb. 17: Hudson Westbrook- Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Wednesday, Feb. 18: Miranda Lambert- Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Thursday, Feb. 19: Robert Earl Keen- Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Friday, Feb. 20: Gary Allan - Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Saturday, Feb. 21: Dos Borrachos, featuring Kevin Fowler & Roger Creager and Cody Jinks - Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Sunday, Feb. 22: Braxton Keith and Banda Los Recoditos - Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Monday, Feb. 23: Terri Clark - Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Tuesday, Feb. 24: 49 Winchester - Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Wednesday, Feb. 25: Dierks Bentley - Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Thursday, Feb. 26: Sheryl Crow - Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Friday, Feb. 27: Black Label Society - Boeing Center at Tech Port
• Friday, Feb. 27: Ludacris - Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)
• Saturday, Feb. 28: The Droptines and Shane Smith & the Saints - Frost Bank Center (San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo)

March

• Sunday, March 1: Camila - Boeing Center at Tech Port
• Sunday, March 1: Secondhand Serenade - Paper Tiger
• Thursday, March 5: Pat Metheny - Charline McCombs Empire Theatre
• Friday, March 6: Buttercup - Charline McCombs Empire Theatre
• Saturday, March 7: Chicago - Majestic Theatre
• Saturday, March 7: Moonchild - Charline McCombs Empire Theatre
• Sunday, March 8: Patti Labelle - Majestic Theatre
• Friday, March 13: Pancho Barraza - Boeing Center at Tech Port
• Friday, March 20: Bad Omens - Frost Bank Center
• Saturday, March 21: Humbe - Majestic Theatre
• Saturday, March 21: Zach Bryan - Alamodome
• Wednesday, March 25: Ricardo Arjona - Frost Bank Center
• Friday, March 27: Los Ángeles Azules - Freeman Coliseum
• Sunday, March 29: Carlos Santana - Majestic Theatre

April

• Thursday, April 9: Brandon Lake - Frost Bank Center
• Sunday, April 26: Boys Like Girls - Boeing Center at Tech Port

May

• Friday, May 1: Grupo Duelo - Freeman Coliseum
• Saturday, May 2: Romeo Santos and Prince Royce - Frost Bank Center
• Friday, May 8: Cazzu - Boeing Center at Tech Port
• Thursday, May 21: Triumph - Frost Bank Center
• Sunday, May 24: Carín León - Frost Bank Center
• Saturday, May 23: Jason Isbell - Majestic Theatre

June

• Saturday, June 6: Yellowcard, New Found Glory and Plain White T’s - Freeman Coliseum
• Sunday, June 14: Don Toliver - Frost Bank Center
• Friday, June 19: Joe Jackson - Charline McCombs Empire Theatre

July

• Sunday, July 19: Grupo Frontera - Frost Bank Center
• Friday, July 24: AC/DC - Alamodome

August

• Friday, Aug. 14: Hermanos Espinoza - Freeman Coliseum
• Thursday, Aug. 20: Benson Boone - Frost Bank Center

September

• Wednesday, Sept. 2: Karol G - Alamodome
• Saturday, Sept. 12: My Chemical Romance - Alamodome
• Sunday, Sept. 13: J. Cole - Frost Bank Center
• Wednesday, Sept. 16: Guns N’ Roses - Alamodome
• Wednesday, Sept. 23: Bruno Mars - Alamodome
• Wednesday, Sept. 23 and Friday, Sept. 25: Rush - Frost Bank Center
• Sunday, Sept. 27: Chayanne - Frost Bank Center
• Tuesday, Sept. 29: Iron Maiden - Alamodome

October

• Monday, Oct. 5: Usher Raymond and Chris Brown - Alamodome
• Friday, Oct. 9: Los Tigres Del Norte - Boeing Center at Tech Port
• Saturday, Oct. 10: Journey - Frost Bank Center
• Saturday, Oct. 17: Lil Wayne - Frost Bank Center
• Thursday, Oct. 22: Young Miko - Freeman Coliseum
• Monday, Oct. 26: Three Days Grace - Frost Bank Center

November

• Friday, Nov. 6: Banda MS - Freeman Coliseum
• Friday, Nov. 6: Doja Cat - Frost Bank Center

Read also:

• 🎆 Things to do in January: DreamWeek San Antonio, MLK March, Cowboy Breakfast

Tuesday’s ruling is a procedural setback in an ongoing free speech lawsuit Ellen “Ellie” Fisher filed last month to stop Texas Tech from putting the reprimand in her law school record and alerting the Texas Board of Law Examiners, saying the discipline could hurt her ability to become a lawyer.

However, before U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr ruled on her emergency request, Texas Tech did both, and also recommended against her admission to the State Bar of Texas.

Starr noted in his ruling that he could not make Texas Tech take it back. He wrote that sovereign immunity, which can shield states and their officials from certain federal court orders, barred him from doing so.

Fisher’s First Amendment lawsuit can continue as a claim for monetary damages against law school officials and Honor Council members sued in their individual capacities, he added.

Fisher, a third-year law student, Texas Tech undergraduate alum and founder of the campus’ NAACP chapter, says news of Kirk’s death broke at the end of a Race and Racism class on Sept. 10 and discussions among students and faculty continued throughout the day in faculty offices and legal clinics, where law students meet clients and work on real cases. Even so, the lawsuit argued, Fisher was the only student investigated and punished.

The lawsuit, filed April 12 in federal court in Lubbock, also says that nearly two months after Kirk’s death on Nov. 6, someone scrawled a racial slur on Fisher’s car while it was parked on Texas Tech property.

After Fisher reported that incident, the lawsuit said, the school told her it was “irrelevant” and proceeded with a monthslong Honor Council investigation into whether Fisher acted unprofessionally when she discussed Kirk’s killing in classrooms and clinic offices.

The process ended March 11, when the Honor Council panel of faculty members and a student found Fisher responsible for violating the law school’s honor code after concluding her comments appeared “loud, happy and celebratory” and made some people uncomfortable. The lawsuit disputes that characterization, arguing witness accounts conflicted and that some testimony described Fisher’s comments as neither unusual nor unprofessional.

Specifically, the lawsuit says some witnesses alleged Fisher made comments, including using profanity to describe Kirk as well as “I’m in the best mood ever” and “They got him … this is great.” But another professor recalled her saying only, “Have you heard that Charlie was shot?” and “It looks bad,” according to the suit. Other witnesses said they did not hear her celebrate Kirk’s death.

The council recommended a written reprimand be placed in her permanent school record, which the lawsuit says could damage her legal career because she would have to disclose it to the Texas Board of Law Examiners.

After Fisher sued but before the defendants were formally been served, law school Dean Jack Nowlin issued the reprimand, reported it to the board and filed a recommendation against Fisher’s admission to the State Bar of Texas, according to Starr’s ruling.

Fisher’s lawsuit still seeks a ruling that Texas Tech violated Fisher’s constitutional rights and asks for monetary damages. Starr did not decide on whether Texas Tech violated her rights, writing only that her entitlement to emergency relief was “anything but clear” at this stage.

In an interview with The Texas Tribune in March, Michael Thad Allen, Fisher’s attorney, said the case raises a basic question about legal education. “What kind of lawyers are they going to produce at the Texas Tech School of Law?” he said. “They can’t be made to feel uncomfortable? That is infantilizing.”

The Tribune requested comment from Allen, Texas Tech University System, Texas Tech University and the law schoolabout Tuesday’s ruling.

The lawsuit comes after top Texas Republicans pushed universities to punish students over speech about Kirk’s death. Last fall, Gov. Greg Abbott called for a Texas State University freshman to be expelled, and Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office would investigate the University of North Texas for not disciplining students accused of celebrating Kirk’s shooting.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

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

Where that game will be played was not part of Tuesday morning's announcement. The location has not been determined yet with the NFL still finalizing things ahead of Thursday night's 2026 season schedule release.

The Cincinnati Bengals will play the Atlanta Falcons in Madrid on Nov. 8 as part of the NFL-record nine international games in 2026 spanning span four continents, seven countries and eight stadiums. This game announced Tuesday afternoon will be played at Bernabéu Stadium, home of Real Madrid C.F.

The NFL will be playing at Bernabéu Stadium for a second straight season. Miami beat Washington in Madrid last year.

Another unknown is whether two-time NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes will be available for the Chiefs' season opener. His goal is to be ready for Week 1. The Chiefs quarterback tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee on Dec. 14 in the final minutes of a loss to the Chargers, which effectively eliminated the Chiefs from playoff contention.

Quarterback Bo Nix is expected to be ready for training camp after breaking a bone in his right ankle on Jan. 18 during the AFC playoffs. Denver finished last season losing the AFC championship game to New England.

More matchups will be revealed before the NFL releases the complete schedule Thursday night.

The trio of games announced Monday came as NBC, Fox and Prime Video made their upfront presentations to advertisers. The Buffalo Bills’ first regular-season game in their new stadium will be against the Detroit Lions on Sept. 17 and will kick off Amazon Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” schedule.

The Dallas Cowboys were part of the other two unveilings. The Cowboys will visit the New York Giants in the first NBC “Sunday Night Football” game of the season on Sept. 13 and they will host the Philadelphia Eagles on Fox on Thanksgiving Day on Nov. 26.

___

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

The company, which revolutionized online shopping in 2005 with two-day deliveries for Prime members, is rapidly opening small order-processing hubs in dozens of U.S. and foreign cities to cater to shoppers who can't or don't want to wait for cough medicine to relieve flu symptoms or tomatoes for tonight's dinner salad.

The ultrafast service, called Amazon Now, first launched in India last June. Amazon says 30-minute deliveries now are also available in urban areas of Brazil, Mexico, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The mini-warehouses devoted to Amazon Now are about the size of a CVS drugstore. They stock about 3,500 products for expedited delivery, including beer, diapers, pet food, meat, nonprescription medications, playing cards and cellphone charging cables.

“We know that customers love speed and always have,” Beryl Tomay, Amazon’s head of transportation, told The Associated Press on Monday. “What we see customers doing, when we offer faster speeds, are they purchase more from Amazon. And Amazon becomes more top of mind for that or other types of items as well.”

In the U.S., the company first tested Amazon Now in Seattle, the home of its headquarters, and in Philadelphia. Most residents of Atlanta and the Dallas-Fort Worth area now have access as well. The service is also live in Houston, Denver, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Florida, and dozens of other cities, Amazon said, with New York City and others expected by year-end.

The service charges for Amazon Now start at $3.99 for Prime members, who pay an annual fee of $139, and $13.99 for non-members. A $1.99 small basket fee applies to orders under $15, Amazon said.

The company's bet on a need for speed also comes as some consumers are rebelling against rushed deliveries as they weigh the potential impact on the environment and the workers tasked with preparing orders at a rapid rate.

Amazon’s approach

A relentless focus on speed helped Amazon build a logistics and e-commerce empire. After it made two days the new delivery time normal, Amazon moved into one-day and same-day deliveries for its Prime members. This spring, the company began making 90,000 products available in one hour or three hours at an extra cost.

The scaled down and sped up microhubs that are designed to handle 30-minute orders represent another step in Amazon's pursuit.

Only a handful of people prepare orders from aisles of shelves in the 5,000- to 10,000-square-foot facilities, unlike the sprawling fulfillment centers storing millions of items where Amazon employs a mix of human workers and robotics to pick and pack orders.

Amazon tailors the product inventory to each location and uses artificial intelligence and other technology to analyze what customers buy, as well as when and how often. The most popular U.S. purchases so far include soap, toothpaste, mouthwash, toilet plungers, bananas, limes and wireless earbuds, Amazon said.

The competition

Amazon’s attempt to up the instant gratification ante provides direct competition to on-demand food delivery platforms like Instacart, Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub, which don't have the scale of the e-commerce titan, according to independent retail analyst Bruce Winder.

“What Amazon brings is their prowess in supply chain,” Winder said.

These smaller companies said they don't see Amazon as a threat, though, citing the hundreds of thousands of items they are able to deliver to users' doorsteps by partnering with various merchants and restaurants.

“DoorDash has a mission to empower grocers and retailers and augment their existing footprint, not to replace them,” DoorDash spokesperson Ali Musa said in an emailed statement. “We win only when they win, which is how we can offer over half a million grocery and retail items in under an hour across the country.”

Amazon also is in a race with Walmart to become the retailer that reliably gets orders to online shoppers in under an hour.

For an additional $10 on top of standard delivery charges, shoppers can place Walmart Express Delivery orders from among more than 100,000 products that are guaranteed to arrive in an hour. Many customers, however, are receiving the items under 30 minutes, Walmart CEO John Furner told analysts in February.

Domino's cautionary tale

Companies have promised deliveries in 30 minutes or less before, but the landscape also is littered with failed attempts to break the speed barrier.

The COVID-19 pandemic produced a flurry of companies that promised 10- to 15-minute grocery deliveries from microwarehouses in dense neighborhoods, according to Sucharita Kodali, an analyst at market research firm Forrester Research.

But soaring operating costs, low customer loyalty and the drying up of investor money ultimately caused most to fail before the pandemic was over, analysts said.

Domino’s in 1984 pushed a guarantee that customers would receive their pizzas for free if they weren't delivered in under a half-hour. The company amended the “30 minutes or it’s free” policy after two years, providing only a $3 discount for late deliveries.

The promotion helped Domino’s win market share, but it ended up tarnishing the company's reputation. It dropped the guarantee in December 1993 after a string of crashes and lawsuits involving drivers racing to meet the deadline.

Brad Jashinsky, a retail analyst at information technology research and consulting firm Gartner, said he thinks Amazon should take the pizza chain's experience as a cautionary tale.

“You get in trouble when you start overpromising something like that,” he said.

Amazon won't be making any time guarantees and instead plans to keep customers who chose the 30-minute delivery option updated on the progress of their orders, Tomay said.

“There's no rushing either in our building workers or the gig workers,” she said.

Taking it slow

Kodali thinks Amazon will need a lot of people placing orders around the same time from the same or adjacent apartment buildings for the 30-minute service to be cost-effective.

Consumers may appreciate rapid receipt of products like toilet paper and batteries, but retailers and logistics experts said they also see some online shoppers, especially members of Generation Z, choosing no-rush shipping for products they don't need in a hurry.

Amazon for several years has invited customers to skip one- or two-day delivery and to receive their orders on the same day in as few parcels as possible. Consolidating orders into fewer packages by electing to have them delivered at the same time cuts down on boxes, shipping envelopes and fuel use, analysts said.

“The millennials who came to age in an era that was on fast delivery came to expect it de facto, whereas ... Gen Z is more accepting of a slower speed than previous generations before them,” said Darby Meegan, a general manager at Flexport, a supply chain and logistics company that fulfills orders for thousands of online merchants.

Still, Amazon executives have cited positive early results for Amazon Now in India, where they said Prime members tripled their requests for 30-minute deliveries once they started using the service.

Amazon Now also is attracting more repeat American customers, Tomay said.

“It’s in early days and time will tell,” she said. “I think that it will be interesting to see how it evolves.”

Location: Remote in one of GMG’s markets Detroit, MI; Houston or San Antonio TX; Jacksonville or Orlando, FL; Roanoke, VA.

Description

The Ad Operations team supports our sales teams by fulfilling all post-sale digital advertising campaigns. The Digital Campaign Specialists process all orders and enter into owned and operated (O&O), or extension partners’ platforms. They monitor campaigns throughout delivery looking at pacing and performance. They analyze reporting and provide campaign optimization options to the Client Experience team.

Responsibilities

• Processing and fulfillment of digital campaigns for all GMG properties including O&O in Google Ad Manager, SpringServe and third-party vendors.
• Map data connections in TapClicks for Client Reporting Dashboard setup
• Regular monitoring of campaigns, making minor optimizations automatically and communicating more strategic recommendations to Account Manager
• Work collaboratively with Order Entry, Client Success and Sales teams.

Requirements

• 3+ years managing digital advertising/marketing campaigns
• Excellent communication skills and comfortability upholding processes and business rules
• Able to analyze reporting data and create strategies for improvement based on client goals
• Adapts appropriately to new technology and process updates
• Familiarity with Google ad products including Ad Manager, Analytics, Tag Manager
• Strong digital marketing ideation skills.
• Proven ability of successfully handling digital pre-sales and post-sales processes
• Demonstrable characteristics of a self-starter including, but not limited to, being self- directed, taking initiative, being accountable, having problem-solving and decision- making skills and having the ability to operate with minimal supervision.
• Completion of a bachelor’s degree and a multidisciplinary background preferred, ideally in a related major such as marketing, strategy, psychology, sociology or related work experience

Contact: Jessica Benavides, Campaign Operations Manager

jbenavides@grahammedia.com

Graham Media Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In addition to complying with the requirements of federal law, GMG will comply with applicable state and local laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Any offer of employment is conditional upon the successful completion of a pre-employment drug screening, investigative background check, employment/education verifications and reference checks.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2% from its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 56 points, or 0.1%, while the Nasdaq composite sank 0.7% from its own record.

Some of the sharpest drops hit chip companies and stocks that had been on electric runs because of the artificial-intelligence boom. Intel slumped 6.8% after its stock had more than tripled so far this year. Micron Technology dropped 3.6% after coming into the day with a gain of nearly 180% for the year to date, and CoreWeave sank 6.1% to cut into its gain of 60% for 2026.

The pullback for AI stocks began earlier in the day in Asia, where South Korea’s Kospi index sank 2.3% from its all-time high on worries that the government may redistribute windfall AI profits from companies to its citizens.

Also weighing on Wall Street was another rise in oil prices as the war with Iran threatens to drag on. The price for a barrel of Brent crude climbed 3.4% to settle at $107.77 as a fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire looks more tenuous. The war has essentially shut the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, keeping them stuck in the Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude to customers worldwide.

The resulting leap for crude oil prices, with Brent up from roughly $70 per barrel before the war, caused inflation in the United States to worsen last month by more than economists expected, according to a report released Tuesday. In another discouraging signal, price increases accelerated by more in April than economists expected even after excluding gasoline and food costs.

That could be a result of tariffs and bad weather also pushing prices higher, according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management.

Treasury yields rose in the bond market following an initial zigzag, suggesting traders suspect the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates high to combat inflation.

The Fed has been keeping its cuts to interest rates on hold recently, as it waits to see how high inflation will go because of the war with Iran and the tariffs introduced by President Donald Trump. That’s because lower rates can worsen inflation at the same time that they give the economy a boost.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.45% from 4.42% late Monday and remains well above its 3.97% level from before the war.

Traders still largely expect the Fed to keep its main interest rate steady this year, but they’re now betting on a better than 1-in-3 chance that it could hike rates by December, according to data from CME Group. Higher rates tend to push down on stock prices, while also slowing the economy.

Despite the climbs for Treasury yields, oil prices and uncertainty because of the Iran war, the U.S. stock market has remained remarkably resilient recently, in large part because companies keep producing bigger profits than analysts expected.

Zebra Technologies became the latest company in the S&P 500 to top analysts’ expectations for earnings, and its stock leaped 11.4%. The company, which helps customers digitize and automate their workflows with bar code scanners and other products, also gave a forecast for profit over the full year that topped analysts’ expectations.

But Under Armour sank 17% after reporting a worse loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Kevin Plank said the company is continuing steps to “reset the business and restore the discipline required to operate as a best-in-class brand.”

Outside of earnings reports, GameStop fell 3.5% after eBay rejected a buyout offer from the much smaller company, calling it “neither credible nor attractive.” It highlighted uncertainty about how GameStop would raise the money to pay for the purchase, among other challenges for the deal, and eBay’s stock rose 2.1%.

Beazer Homes USA fell 7.3% after likewise rejecting an unsolicited buyout offer. It said that Dream Finders Homes has repeatedly undervalued it in its attempts to buy the homebuilder, including with its latest bid, which offered less than prior offers.

Dream Finders dropped 13.4%.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 11.88 points to 7,400.96. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 56.09 to 49,760.56, and the Nasdaq composite sank 185.92 to 26,088.20.

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

Besides South Korea’s tumble, losses of 1.6% for Germany’s DAX and 0.9% for France’s CAC 40 were some of the world’s sharpest.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.5%.

___

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

General manager Rob Pelinka and coach JJ Redick affirmed their desire to keep James in a Lakers uniform on Tuesday. James' eighth season with the club ended Monday night with a heartbreaking 115-110 loss and a second-round sweep at the hands of the powerhouse champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

The 41-year-old James just completed his unprecedented 23rd NBA season, and he says he doesn't know whether he'll keep going.

"Any team, including ours, would love to have LeBron James on their roster,” Pelinka said. “That’s a blessing in itself, just with what he does.”

The top scorer in league history is an unrestricted free agent this offseason, so James can choose his destination if he postpones retirement for another year — although not every team has the payroll flexibility to pay him something near his worth. The Lakers have significant salary cap room and many decisions to make, but they're hoping James will choose to remain a part of their attempt to build a championship-contending roster around Luka Doncic.

“He’s given so much to his teammates, to this organization, and the thing we want to do more than anything else is honor him back," Pelinka said.

Pelinka spoke repeatedly of his desire to “honor” James' decision process. That means waiting until James tells them what's happening, and the Lakers appear to be content to wait for weeks to come.

“The first order of business there is allowing him to spend the time he needs to decide what his next steps are,” Pelinka said. “Does he want to play another year in the NBA? That’ll be (determined through) family time, I think, time with his inner circle, and we just want to honor that for him.”

James is eight seasons into his longest continuous stint with one team, and his family is happily settled in Los Angeles, where he has won a championship and set multiple NBA career records. What's more, his 21-year-old son, Bronny, is two seasons into a career as a backup guard with the Lakers, allowing LeBron to play alongside his son — most notably in several significant stretches together in these playoffs.

James missed 22 games this season because of injuries, and he scored a career-low 20.9 points per game while frequently serving as the Lakers' third offensive option behind Doncic and Austin Reaves — filling that role for the first time in his basketball life, he said with a laugh. But James seemed to thrive in that secondary playmaking role, particularly when Los Angeles was playing its best basketball in March.

The Lakers won 53 games and the Pacific Division title despite losing Doncic for the season and Reaves for nearly a month to injuries in the same game April 2. While the season ended with a four-game sweep at the hands of the strong favorites to win the NBA title, the Lakers are headed into the offseason with optimism about their ability to get even better next season — particularly if James sticks around.

But Pelinka also made it clear that the Lakers are building around the 27-year-old Doncic, who won the NBA scoring title and appeared to be ramping up for a formidable playoff run before a hamstring strain sidelined him.

“The archetype of the roster that we want is going to be retrofitted around Luka and the things he needs,” Pelinka said. ”Clearly he’s that leader and player for the future that we want to build the right way around.”

The Lakers' largest offseason transaction is likely to be a new contract for Reaves, the former undrafted free agent who has become one of the NBA's most prolific scorers in five seasons with Los Angeles. Reaves is expected to decline his player option for next season, and Pelinka confirmed that both sides expect the guard to sign a massive deal to stay with the Lakers.

“He started his journey here as a Laker and has made it very clear to us that he wants his journey to continue as a Laker, and we feel the same way,” Pelinka said. “We want his odyssey to continue to unfold in the purple and gold. Both sides have made it abundantly clear that we want to work something out.”

The Lakers' other unrestricted free agents including forward Rui Hachimura, who likely earned a big payday with his strong postseason play after long stretches of offensive passivity in the regular season; shooting guard Luke Kennard, a late-season trade pickup who made big contributions while Reaves was injured; and backup center Jaxson Hayes.

Starting center Deandre Ayton has an $8.1 million player option, and he said Monday that he hasn't even begun to think about whether to pick it up. Marcus Smart, another big-time playoff contributor, has a $5.4 million player option that he seems likely to decline for a bigger deal.

“Being here in LA, the crowd and everybody has been amazing,” Ayton said. “I wouldn't change it for nothing, to be honest.”

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

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche called it a “preventable tragedy of enormous consequence.”

The indictment names Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., based in Singapore, and Synergy Maritime Pte Ltd., based in Chennai, India. Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, 47, an Indian national who was technical superintendent for the Dali container ship, was also charged.

Synergy Marine expressed disappointment and accused the U.S. Justice Department of turning an accident into a crime.

“This was a maritime casualty that should be assessed through the full factual, technical and regulatory record, rather than through selective mischaracterizations in a criminal indictment. ... Synergy will vigorously defend itself against these inaccurate allegations," the company said.

Nair's lawyer, David Gerger, had a similar response, saying his client “thinks about this accident every day, but he certainly did not cause it.”

Disaster began with a loose wire

The Dali, bound for Sri Lanka, lost power twice in a four-minute span as it moved to sea from the Port of Baltimore, causing it to crash into the Key Bridge in the early hours of March 26, 2024. Investigators say a loose wire in a switchboard likely caused the first power loss that led to its steering failure.

After regaining power, the ship found itself in trouble again. The Dali turned to a certain pump to supply fuel to two generators but the pump was not designed to automatically restart after the first blackout, so a second blackout occurred, the indictment says.

If the Dali had used the proper fuel pumps, according to the indictment, the vessel would have regained power in time to safely get under the bridge. Instead, it crashed into a supporting column of the bridge, killing six construction workers who had been filling potholes.

“As alleged, the bridge was struck and collapsed because those who were responsible for the ship’s operation deliberately cut corners at the expense of safety,” said Jimmy Paul, head of the FBI’s Baltimore office.

The government alleges that the same problem occurred with same type of pump on two of the Dali's sister ships.

Grand jury returns 47-page indictment

The companies and Nair are charged with conspiracy, misconduct causing death, failing to immediately inform the U.S. Coast Guard of a hazardous condition, obstructing the National Transportation Safety Board and making false statements.

The Synergy companies are also charged with misdemeanors for the release of pollutants into the Patapsco River, including shipping containers and their contents.

The FBI's investigation focused on the vessel’s operations and whether the crew knew of critical systems issues before leaving port. The NTSB found that the two electrical blackouts disabled the controls of the huge cargo ship before it crashed into the bridge.

The ship had experienced two blackouts in port a day earlier, but Synergy didn’t investigate or report those as required and provided false information to the NTSB, the government alleges.

Maryland officials estimate it could cost between $4.3 billion and $5.2 billion to replace the bridge, which is expected to be open to traffic in late 2030.

“The altered skyline is a constant reminder of this tragedy,” Paul said.

But the true cost of the collapse was far greater, according to the Maryland Attorney General’s Office. It halted shipping at the Port of Baltimore, disrupted the livelihoods of thousands, rerouted road traffic through communities already bearing disproportionate burdens and triggered economic problems statewide.

More legal action

The indictment follows a $2.25 billion settlement between the state of Maryland, Synergy Marine and Grace Ocean Private Limited, the Singapore-based ship owner. The deal was announced in April but the amount was not disclosed until Tuesday.

That lawsuit claimed the crash was the result of negligence, mismanagement and the reckless operation of a vessel that was not seaworthy and should never have left port. Plaintiffs included the owners of cargo aboard the ship and local governments seeking damages for economic losses. Some portions of the lawsuit remain unresolved.

Meanwhile, there's civil litigation pending on behalf of people who died while on the bridge. Trial is scheduled for June 1, though the indictment could cause a delay.

“The biggest takeaway is: ‘Will we get justice now?’ That's the common question we get from our clients daily,” said attorney L. Chris Stewart, who represents four families and a man who survived the bridge crash.

He described the indictment as a “bombshell.”

The bridge, a longstanding Baltimore landmark, was a vital piece of transportation infrastructure that allowed drivers to easily bypass downtown. The original 1.6-mile (2.6-kilometer) steel span took five years to build and opened to traffic in 1977.

___

White reported from Detroit.

Trump has been unsuccessfully pressing Xi to use China's considerable leverage to prod Iran to agree to U.S. terms to end the more than 2-month-old war — or, at the very least, reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

But just before he left the White House on Tuesday for his flight to Beijing, Trump sought to downplay differences with Xi over Iran and the shadow the conflict is casting on global oil markets.

“We’re going to have a long talk about it. I think he’s been relatively good, to be honest with you," Trump said of his plans to discuss the conflict with Xi. Minutes later, he added, “We have a lot of things to discuss. I wouldn’t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control."

But Trump over the course of the conflict has veered between venting that China, the world’s biggest buyer of Iranian oil, hasn't done more to get the Islamic Republic in line and acknowledging that Xi's government helped de-escalate the conflict last month by nudging Tehran back to ceasefire talks when negotiations wobbled.

Ahead of the visit, Trump sought to minimize the need to persuade Xi to change China's posture on Iran.

Instead, Trump's Republican administration seems determined not to let differences on Iran overshadow efforts to make headway on other difficult matters in the complicated relationship — ranging from trade to further Chinese cooperation to block exports of fentanyl precursors.

“I don’t think we need any help with Iran,” Trump said when asked by a reporter if he would press Xi to pressure the Islamic Republic.

US administration sanctioned China ahead of the trip

Beijing publicly insists that it wants to see the war end and has been working diplomatically behind the scenes to help its ally Pakistan push to broker a peace agreement. It has also sent a “subtle message of discontent to Iran” for closing the Strait of Hormuz and to the U.S. for its blockade of Iranian shipping, said Ahmed Aboudouh, a specialist on China’s influence in the Middle East with the London-based Chatham House think tank.

“They are very cautious, risk averse, and they don’t want to be involved in anything that would drag them into something that they don’t consider their problem,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kuwait on Tuesday accused Iran of dispatching an armed paramilitary Revolutionary Guard team to launch a failed attack earlier this month on an island in the Middle East nation that is home to a China-funded port project. Iran didn’t immediately acknowledge the allegation by Kuwait, which came under repeated attack by Iran in the war and even during the shaky ceasefire still holding in the region.

In recent days, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have stepped up their calls for China to use its influence to help reopen the strait, through which about 20% of the world's crude flowed before the war began.

The State Department announced on Friday it was sanctioning four entities, including three China-based firms, for providing sensitive satellite imagery that enables Iranian military strikes against U.S. forces in the Middle East. Earlier, the Treasury Department moved to target Chinese oil refineries accused of buying oil from Tehran, as well as shippers of the oil. The sanctions cut off the companies from the U.S. financial system and penalize anyone who does business with them.

Beijing has called the sanctions “illegal unilateral pressure” and enacted a blocking statute — passed in 2021 and never used until now — that prohibits any Chinese entity from recognizing or complying with the sanctions.

Ahead of Trump's arrival, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week hosted his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, in Beijing. The Chinese foreign minister used the moment to defend Iran’s right to develop civilian nuclear energy.

Xi has also offered implicit criticism of the U.S. over the war. He has said that safeguarding international rule of law is paramount, adding it “must not be selectively applied or disregarded,” nor should the world be allowed to revert “to the law of the jungle.”

China and the US want to avoid a return to a tariff war

Like Trump, Xi also has plenty of reason to not let differences over Iran impact other facets of the relationship, analysts say.

Beijing wants to guard against further deterioration of the U.S.-China relationship — something that would add further challenges to its economy.

Yet, since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran in late February, there have been difficult moments between Trump and Xi that threatened to set back the relative stability in their relationship.

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.

Last month, Trump threatened to impose a 50% tariff on China after reports that Beijing was preparing to deliver a shipment of new air defense systems to Iran, but he later backed away from the threat, claiming that he had received written assurance from Xi that he would not provide Tehran with weaponry. Days later, Trump said cryptically that the U.S. Navy had intercepted a Chinese vessel carrying a “gift” for Iran. He has not offered further explanation.

Both Trump and Xi may be eager to avoid creating dark economic clouds, as they did last year, when the two powers appeared on the precipice of a massive trade war.

Trump had set tariffs on Chinese goods at 145%, and China announced a further tightening of rare-earth export controls that would have hurt U.S. industry — before the governments backed off from inflicting maximalist penalties on each other. The two sides reached a fragile truce in their long-running trade disputes in October.

Trump and other administration officials have made the case that the Iran conflict — particularly the closure of the strait — has caused greater harm to China and its Pacific neighbors than it has to the United States, which is far less dependent on Middle East oil and has an export-driven economy.

“You can’t buy from them if you can’t ship it there, and you can’t buy from them if your economy is being destroyed by what Iran is doing,” Rubio told reporters last week, making the case that it was in China’s interest for Iran to let traffic resume.

But for now, China has shown little interest in wading deeper into the conflict and has appeared reluctant to be seen siding with Washington.

“It will be difficult to get the Chinese deeply involved under any circumstances,” said Kurt Campbell, a former deputy secretary of state during President Joe Biden's Democratic administration and chair of The Asia Group. “They will want to be careful because they can see political quicksand as well as the next guy.”

___

Madhani reported from Beijing. Associated Press writers Didi Tang in Washington, Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.

A day before the state opening of Parliament when the government will present its legislative program for the coming year, Starmer tried to shore up support within his Cabinet.

Starmer's future has become a hot topic over the past few feverish days following historic losses for the Labour Party in local elections last week, which if repeated in a national election that has to be held by 2029, would see it overwhelmingly ejected from power.

Though no Cabinet member has quit or publicly stated the prime minister should step aside for a change in leader, there's growing speculation that the ambitious health secretary, Wes Streeting, will inform Starmer that his days are numbered when they meet on Wednesday.

Streeting has many supporters within the parliamentary party, including some of those who resigned from Starmer's government on Tuesday, which stoked speculation that Starmer could suffer the fate of Boris Johnson in 2022 when dozens of ministers quit en masse and forced his departure.

While more than 100 members of Parliament signed a letter saying it was "no time for a leadership contest,” about 90 others said Starmer should stand down or at least set out a timetable for his departure.

That's not enough to trigger a leadership contest, though, as no candidate has issued a challenge to the prime minister. Under Labour party rules, a fifth of its lawmakers in the House of Commons, or 81 members, must publicly give their backing to a single candidate for a leadership election to take place.

First resignations

On Tuesday, several junior ministers, some of whom were elected for the first time in Labour's landslide election victory in July 2024, resigned and urged Starmer to do the same.

Miatta Fahnbulleh, minister of housing, communities and local government, was the first to quit, urging Starmer “to do the right thing for the country.”

She was followed by Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister and a prominent member of the Labour Party. In her resignation letter, she described Starmer as a “good man fundamentally” but unable to make bold changes.

“I know you care deeply, but deeds, not words are what matter,” Phillips said. “I’m not sure we are grasping this rare opportunity with the gusto that’s needed and I cannot keep waiting around for a crisis to push for faster progress.”

Despite the party's dominant win driving out the Conservatives after 14 years in power, Labour’s popularity has plunged and Starmer is getting much of the blame.

The reasons include a series of policy missteps, a perceived lack of vision on the prime minister's part, a struggling British economy and questions over his judgment. Starmer's choice of Peter Mandelson as U.K. ambassador to Washington despite ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has continued to haunt him.

Starmer defiant

At the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Starmer said he took responsibility for the losses in last week’s elections but would fight on.

Labour was squeezed from the right and the left, losing votes to both anti-immigrant Reform UK and the Green Party, as well as nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales. The result reflects the increasing fragmentation of U.K. politics, long dominated by Labour and the Conservatives.

Starmer told his Cabinet that there’s a process to oust a leader and it hadn't been triggered.

“The country expects us to get on with governing,” Starmer said. “The past 48 hours have been destabilizing for government and that has a real economic cost for our country and for families.”

That cost was evident in financial markets on Tuesday, with the interest rate charged on British government bonds up by more than those of comparable nations. That shows investors think it's increasingly risky to hold British government debt.

Embattled PM wins support

As Cabinet members left 10 Downing Street, some voiced their support for the embattled prime minister.

Works and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said nobody publicly challenged Starmer at the meeting, while Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the prime minister was showing “really steadfast leadership.”

Later, Starmer's deputy David Lammy warned Labour lawmakers that the only beneficiary of the party's “navel-gazing” is the populist right and the leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, in particular.

“He has my full support, and what I say to colleagues is, look, let’s just step back," he said. “Take a breath.”

Potential candidates

Health Secretary Wes Streeting, long believed to be preparing for a leadership challenge against Starmer, was among senior ministers who dodged a barrage of shouted questions from a gaggle of reporters outside.

“Wes Streeting, do you want the job, or not?” a man yelled from across the street. “Are you measuring the curtains?”

Streeting is expected to meet Starmer early on Wednesday, before King Charles III outlines the government's program, to discuss the future.

The other two names often touted as possible successors are Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister who had to quit last year over an unpaid tax bill. She has long set herself apart as a different kind of politician with a compelling personal story, brought up in social housing and leaving school at 16 as a teen mother.

Andy Burnham, the popular mayor of Greater Manchester, is widely perceived to be one of the strongest candidates but is not currently eligible because he’s not in Parliament. To get in the race, he'll have to find a seat where he can be elected.

That may involve a close ally of Burnham's in the northwest of England vacating their seat for him to stand for election. However, he may be blocked as was the case earlier this year or could even lose, if last week's results are any guide.

___

Danica Kirka and Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.

The lawsuit argues that Netflix uses “intentional engineering” to track users’ viewing habits, preferences, devices, household networks, application usage and other data.

“Every interaction on the platform became a data point revealing information about the user,” the release said, in part. “This tracking applied to not only to adults’ accounts, but also kids’ profiles.”

Netflix then shared the data information with commercial data brokers and advertising technology companies, Paxton said in the lawsuit.

“Netflix has built a surveillance program designed to illegally collect and profit from Texans’ personal data without their consent, and my office will do everything in our power to stop it,” Paxton said.

The lawsuit also alleges Netflix deliberately engineered its platform to be addictive, citing its autoplay feature as a tool designed to keep users — including children — watching for extended periods.

The lawsuit requests that Netflix stop collecting and disclosing user data without consent, and disable autoplay by default on children’s profiles.

Paxton is seeking to hold Netflix accountable under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

In a statement to KSAT, a Netflix spokesperson said the lawsuit “lacks merit and is based on inaccurate and distorted information.”

The company’s entire statement can be read below:

Respectfully to the great state of Texas and Attorney General Paxton, this lawsuit lacks merit and is based on inaccurate and distorted information. Netflix takes our members’ privacy seriously and complies with privacy and data‑protection laws everywhere we operate. We look forward to addressing the Texas Attorney General’s allegations in court and further explaining our industry-leading, kid‑friendly parental controls and transparent privacy practices.

Netflix

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Here are five things that happened on Cannes' opening day:

Peter Jackson received an honorary Palme d'Or

The French Riviera festival began with a tribute to Jackson, handing the “Lord of the Rings” filmmaker an honorary Palme d’Or. He was introduced by Elijah Wood, who played Frodo Baggins in the films.

“I’ve never figured out why I’m getting a Palme d’Or. I’m not a Palme d’Or sorta guy,” said the shaggy-haired New Zealand filmmaker.

Jackson was then serenaded with a rendition of the Beatles’ “Get Back,” a nod to his lauded 2021 documentary. The director sat stage right mouthing the lyrics.

Jane Fonda and Gong Li declared the festival open

The task of declaring the festival officially open fell to the 88-year-old Fonda and Gong, the Chinese-Singaporean actor.

“Cinema has always been an act of resistance,” said Fonda.

Politics dominated the jury introduction

At the introduction of the jury that will decide the Palme d’Or — Cannes’ top honor — jury members spoke bluntly about holding a film festival during a time of geopolitical conflict.

Paul Laverty, the Scottish screenwriter known for his films with director Ken Loach, pointed toward this year’s Cannes poster, of “Thelma and Louise,” while discussing attending Cannes during what he called “genocide in Gaza.”

Quoting “King Lear,” he said: “Madmen lead the blind.”

“Cannes has a wonderful poster,” said Laverty. “Isn’t it fascinating to see some of them like Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem and Mark Ruffalo blacklisted because of their views in opposing the murder of women and children in Gaza? Shame on Hollywood people who do that.”

The nine-member jury is being presided over by Park Chan-wook, the South Korean filmmaker of “Oldboy” and “No Other Choice,” who said that politics and cinema go hand in hand.

“Art and politics are not concepts that are in conflict with each other,” said Park. “One cannot disqualify a film on the pretext that it has a political message. Just as one cannot reject a film because it would not be political enough.”

Other jury members include Chloé Zhao, Stellan Skarsgård, Ruth Negga and Demi Moore, who two years ago was celebrated in Cannes for her comeback performance in “The Substance.”

James Franco turned up on the red carpet

Cannes has sometimes been known for hosting personalities that find a less welcome reception in Hollywood. Three years ago, the festival famously opened with the Johnny Depp film “Jeanne du Barry.”

On Tuesday, James Franco was an unexpected guest at the opening ceremony. The 48-year-old actor also appeared in Cannes in 2024.

In 2021, Franco and his co-defendants agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a lawsuit alleging he intimidated students at an acting and film school he founded into gratuitous and exploitative sexual situations.

Guillermo del Toro presented a restored ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’

Twenty years after Guillermo del Toro premiered his lauded fable, “Pan's Labyrinth,” he returned to Cannes on Tuesday to screen a 4K restoration of it. The filmmaker said the movie, about a young girl and fascist captain in 1940s Spain, remains timely.

“We are, unfortunately, in times that make this movie more pertinent than ever because they tell us everything is useless to resist, that art can be done with a —-ing app,” said del Toro.

Naturally, he was upset the No. 20 car wound up parked next to the concrete wall near Indianapolis Motor Speedway's famed yard of bricks. What really irked him, though, was waiting another lap for a full-course caution to come out.

IndyCar Officiating heard the complaints and responded Tuesday by announcing the series would no longer consider race order or pit window status to determine whether to employ a full-course yellow or a local caution.

Drivers almost universally lauded the move, just hours before their first Indianapolis 500 practice.

“I was surprised it took so long to be thrown,” Marcus Armstrong of Meyer Shank Racing said Tuesday. “But there was also debris on the track at the time on the race line, which is what they threw the yellow for at Long Beach, so I thought a yellow would be thrown for that. Not sure why it wasn't, but I think it should be totally yellow when there is danger for drivers. Rossi trying to jump out of his car — safety needs to be the priority.”

The rule change won't impact the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, scheduled for May 24, because there are no local yellows on ovals.

But it's intended to avoid a repeat of Saturday's scary scene when Rossi climbed out of his cockpit and across the wall separating the racetrack from pit lane before walking to his pit stall. Rossi waited for the full-course caution to come out and when it didn't the 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner, who now drives for Ed Carpenter Racing, left nobody guessing about his thoughts.

"It's pretty annoying to have failures on the car because of a product that we didn't ask for, that doesn't improve the racing, so that's frustrating," Rossi told Fox's pit reporter. “Second, the fact it took that long to throw a full-course yellow when a car is on the front straight, people are going 175 mph, also seems insane when they didn't let us run in the rain (Friday). So I don't know where the priorities lie.”

The series' Independent Officiating Board tried to clarify what happened Tuesday, saying in a news release Rossi's car was out of the normal racing line and that Saturday's decision to throw a local yellow was based on a standard set of factors that included both pit windows and running order.

Moving forward, though, those two factors will not be used in the equation of when a full-course yellow is needed.

“The Lap 21 incident on Saturday made clear there needs to be a cleaner standard for how race control moves from a local to a full-course yellow,” said Raj Nair, the chairman of the new board. “IndyCar Officiating, with IndyCar’s full support, has made this change of approach to ensure that the only inputs to the full course yellow escalation are safety ones.”

It's the second rule change the series has made since the season moved to the historic Brickyard for May. But it's one everyone seems to believe is warranted.

“The most important job in race control is to ensure the safety of our drivers, crews, safety workers and fans,” IndyCar President Doug Boles said in a news release. “Saturday highlighted we must not waver from that central mission, and aligning everyone on that philosophy was critical to discuss over the last 48 hours.”

The drivers concur.

“I heard there was something that came out this morning," said Josef Newgarden, a two-time 500 champion who drives for Team Penske. "Every incident is different, but I think IndyCar has always tried to optimize the show versus safety and whatever they've tried to do, I fully support.”

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

The Associated Press was allowed to witness the Swedish-led military exercise this week as Europe faces not only the threat of Russia but the wavering of NATO’s most powerful member, the United States.

The war game that also involved U.S. forces played out with a real threat in mind. For months, Russia has ramped up sabotage including cyberattacks against critical infrastructure and disinformation against countries across Europe, as detailed by an AP investigation.

The war game scenario — with the Swedish island of Gotland in theory facing power outages and food shortages because of sabotage — tested what NATO members might do before NATO’s collective defense clause, Article 5, has been invoked.

“In theory, it could happen tomorrow,” said Rear Adm. Jonas Wikström, director of the exercise.

Europe considers Trump's volatile approach to NATO

Sweden’s chief of defense, Gen. Michael Claesson, noted that the U.S. is Europe’s most militarily capable ally so “any change in the American presence” affects the overall dynamics. He told the AP that announcements by U.S. President Donald Trump of troop reductions in Europe are interpreted “as the Americans are leaving — and they are not.”

Europe’s military leaders, however, are watching closely how Trump and his administration treat NATO, which Trump has described as a “paper tiger.” Most recently, he has ordered the withdrawal of at least 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany and threatens to remove more.

Trump also has criticized allies, and NATO, for not coming to the aid of the U.S. in the Iran war, while U.S. air defense systems and missiles have been moved toward the Middle East from Europe, raising concerns about gaps in protection. Some European nations have been told they will face delays to their orders of U.S. weapons.

Claesson denied that recent announcements — including plans for a “hybrid navy” between a group of Nordic and Baltic nations, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, as announced by Gen. Sir Gwyn Jenkins, the U.K's First Sea Lord — were a hedge against a possible future where the U.S. does not come to the aid of NATO allies.

But, he said, “everything that offers European allies freedom of action is good.”

The U.K. and Norway also aim to build a combined frigate fleet, said Marte Gerhardsen, state secretary at the Norwegian Ministry of Defense.

Ukrainian drone forces destroy Swedish troops in exercise

Since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, he also has paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine and at times aligned with Moscow in negotiations to end the war.

In the war game scenario this week, Ukrainian forces had a chance to demonstrate what they have learned on the battlefield and why their country might be a worthy NATO member.

A group of Ukrainian drone pilots, invited to teach Western forces how to win at drone warfare, destroyed Sweden’s troops in an exercise where the Ukrainians played the role of the aggressor, a 24-year-old drone pilot told the AP.

“They stopped the training three times” for troops to work out what to do better, but if it were real life they would have been dead, he said, giving his call sign Tarik in line with Ukrainian military regulations.

Swedish troops have potential but need to improve their drones and tactics and commanders need a deeper understanding of drone warfare, said another pilot with the call sign Karat.

He described flying small, first-person-view attack drones on the front line against Russian forces. Sometimes drone pilots are supported by reconnaissance drone teams but other times they are “working blindly.”

Western forces cannot understand what it is like, he added: “You need to see this with your own eyes.”

All Western forces need to “learn rapidly” how to perform drone and counter-drone operations, and the “fastest” way is to listen to the Ukrainians, Claesson said.

“What they’ve taught us is you have to really focus on your survivability and how you can’t be detected,” said Brig. Gen. Curtis King with the U.S. military. At the same time, he said, Western nations need to focus on “deep” detection capabilities to spot drones from far away.

Such knowledge is desperately needed along Russia’s border with NATO where there has been a spate of drone incursions in recent months, including from Ukrainian drones sent off course by Russian jamming.

The goal is to have systems that work together so that radar made by different companies in different countries can be integrated to share data and track threats, King said. That process has started but, “we’re not there yet.”

Putin could use Gotland to test the alliance

The war game focused on the Swedish island of Gotland because it is strategically located in the Baltic Sea between the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad — where Moscow has stationed missiles — and Sweden.

“If you control Gotland, you pretty much control the central part of the Baltic Sea,” Claesson said.

The Baltic Sea is a financial lifeline for Russia as vessels with its “shadow fleet” carry oil and liquefied natural gas that Moscow uses to fund its war in Ukraine.

After the Cold War, Sweden effectively abandoned its military presence on Gotland but Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 prompted a rethink and a strengthened military presence there. And Sweden, along with Finland, decided to join NATO in 2024.

“A very reasonable scenario” is that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use Gotland to test NATO by trying to take a thin sliver of alliance territory to probe the collective reaction, Claesson said.

___

Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.

Kelvin Evans, 41, entered guilty pleas in Fulton County Superior Court to entering an automobile and criminal trespass. He was sentenced to two years in prison, according to news outlets. He was scheduled to go on trial this week.

Evans broke into a parked Jeep Wagoneer last July that was rented by a choreographer and a dancer for Beyoncé.

Christoper Grant, the choreographer, and Diandre Blue, the dancer, told Atlanta police they returned to the vehicle on July 8 to find the trunk window damaged and two suitcases gone.

Stolen items included hard drives containing unreleased music, footage plans and concert set lists, according to a police report. The theft occurred two days before Beyoncé kicked off four nights of concerts at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium as part of her “Cowboy Carter” tour.

Surveillance cameras captured the break-in. Police arrested Evans in August.

They have not recovered the hard drives or other stolen items.

Bravo announced a new series set in Boerne with the working title “Secrets, Lies, Texas Wives.”

According to network officials, the show will follow a close-knit group of friends as they balance family life, rodeo, relationships and their social calendars.

Bravo says viewers can expect plenty of drama, including shifting friendships and forbidden romances.

The network has not yet announced the cast lineup or a premiere date for the series.

Bravo announced the new series on Monday during NBCUniversal’s 2026 Upfronts presentation in New York City.

Read also:

• The Cannes Film Festival is about to begin. Here are the key films making their debut
• ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ bests ‘Mortal Kombat II’ at the box office

The Labor Department's consumer price index rose 3.8% from April 2025, the biggest jump in three years, and up from a 3.3% year-over-year gain in March. On a month-to-month basis, April prices rose 0.6% from March as gasoline prices rose 5.4%, according to the data released Tuesday. The month-over-month gain was down from a 0.9% increase in overall prices from February to March, when the initial financial shock from the war hit the U.S. economy.

Labor Department figures showed that gasoline prices are up more than 28% compared with a year ago. However, the AAA motor club listed the average regular gallon of gasoline above $4.50 on Tuesday, about 44% more than it cost last year at this time.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called consumer core prices rose 0.4% last month from March and 2.8% from April 2025, relatively modest readings that suggest the energy price burst has yet to spill over more broadly into prices for other goods.

Grocery prices rose 0.7% from March to April as meat prices rose after they had declined slightly in the month before.

Prices are rising at a time when Americans are already frustrated by the high cost of living. Affordability is likely to be a key issue when voters go to the polls Nov. 3 to determine whether President Donald Trump's Republican Party maintains control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

“Inflation is the key drag on the U.S. economy now,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote. “There is a real financial squeeze underway. For the first time in three years, inflation is eating up all wage gains. This is a setback for middle-class and lower-income households and they know it. They are having to cut back on spending and stretch every dollar.”

In April, average hourly wages fell 0.3% from a year earlier after accounting for inflation – the first year-over-year drop in three years.

Inflation had been dropping more or less steadily since peaking with a 9.1% year-over-year spike in June 2022, a surge caused by supply chain bottlenecks at the end of COVID-19 lockdowns and a jolt for energy prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But inflation has remained above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

Then, the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, and Tehran responded by shutting off access to the Gulf of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes. That has sent oil prices, and most visibly gasoline, racing higher.

The Fed, which had been expected to cut its benchmark interest rate in 2026, has turned cautious as it waits to see how long the conflict lasts and whether higher energy prices spill over into other products and cause a broader inflationary outbreak.

Trump has lambasted the Fed and its outgoing chair, Jerome Powell, for refusing to slash rates to boost the economy. Kevin Warsh, the president’s hand-picked choice to succeed Powell, is expected to be confirmed by the Senate this week; but it’s unclear whether Warsh would pursue lower rates given the uncertainties arising from the war — or whether he could persuade his colleagues on the Fed’s rate-setting committee to go along if he tried.

Some companies are also starting to feel the pain.

Whirlpool, which makes KitchenAid and Maytag appliances, reported last week that revenue dropped nearly 10% in its most recent quarter and said that the war has caused a “recession-level industry decline″ that has undermined consumer confidence.

Grace King of Ames, Iowa, said that higher prices in the food aisle and at the pump are making her cut back on spending for things like clothing. The administrative assistant, 31, used to spend $200 per month on clothing, mostly on Amazon, but not anymore.

“There’s pressure basically everywhere from the groceries that I buy to the gas to fill up the tank,” she said. “I’ve severely cut back on my frill spending.”

For example, King noted that while it’s only a five-minute drive to work, she makes the trip twice a day. And if she needs to do any big shopping, that’s a 40-minute drive to malls in Des Moines, Iowa.

____

AP Retail Writer Anne D'Innocenzio in New York contributed to this story.

Today on Texas Eats NOW:

CAPO’S PIZZERIA

4263 Northwest Loop 410, Ste 100, San Antonio, TX 78229

Capo’s Pizzeria is a family-owned San Antonio restaurant known for bringing authentic Buffalo-style pizza to South Texas. Since opening in 2015, the local favorite has built a loyal following with its signature thick-yet-crispy crust, slightly sweet tomato sauce, and classic Cup & Char pepperoni. Inspired by traditional pizzerias in western New York, Capo’s delivers a casual, neighborhood atmosphere filled with sports memorabilia, hearty comfort food, and a welcoming family vibe.

Beyond pizza, Capo’s serves crispy chicken wings tossed in house-made sauces, loaded subs, pasta dishes, and Loganberry drinks that pay tribute to Buffalo roots. With several locations across San Antonio, including spots on Broadway and Babcock Road, the restaurant has become a go-to destination for diners craving an authentic Northeast-style pizza experience. Fans regularly praise the generous portions, affordable lunch specials, and nostalgic flavor combinations that continue to make Capo’s a standout in the city’s growing pizza scene.

GATHER BREWING COMPANY

210 E Aviation Blvd, Universal City, TX 78148

Gather Brewing Company is a family-owned brewpub in Universal City known for pairing craft beer with elevated comfort food in a welcoming, community-focused setting. Located across from Randolph Air Force Base, the veteran-owned brewery has become a popular neighborhood destination thanks to its scratch-made menu, relaxed atmosphere, and rotating lineup of house-brewed beers. Designed as a social gathering space, Gather features a spacious patio, communal seating, board games, and a family-friendly environment that encourages guests to slow down and connect.

The menu blends traditional pub fare with bold global flavors, offering dishes like Korean chicken sandwiches, bulgogi cheesesteaks, hand-tossed pizzas, and weekend brunch favorites. Behind the kitchen is a former Coast Guard Culinary Specialist whose chef-driven approach helps set the brewery apart from a typical taproom. Guests can pair their meals with a variety of lagers, IPAs, and Belgian-style brews, including the popular Universal City Lager. With regular live music, local markets, and community events, Gather Brewing Company continues to establish itself as one of the area’s most unique food and drink destinations.

Follow Texas Eats and David Elder on Facebook and Instagram for more food info, pictures, videos and giveaways.

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Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, said in an online post that it “reached an agreement with the unauthorized actor involved in this incident.”

The company didn’t provide any details on the agreement, including whether it involved a payment, and didn’t elaborate who was behind the hack. Instructure temporarily took the system offline while it investigated, locking out students and faculty.

A hacking group named ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for last week's breach, threatening to leak data involving nearly 9,000 schools worldwide and 275 million individuals if schools did not pay a ransom by May 6. The group then extended the deadline, indicating some schools had engaged with them to negotiate.

ShinyHunters also was behind a smaller breach of Infrastructure last year. A lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Utah alleged Instructure did not do enough to protect the platform used by millions of students and made itself “easy prey for cybercriminals.”

As part of the deal, the data was returned to Instructure. The company said Monday that it also received “digital confirmation" that the hackers destroyed any remaining copies, in the form of "shred logs.”

The company acknowledged that there was no way to be sure that the data was erased for good, and said it took action because of concerns about potential publication of the data.

“While there is never complete certainty when dealing with cybercriminals, we believe it was important to take every step within our control to give customers additional peace of mind, to the extent possible,” Instructure said.

Cybersecurity experts were skeptical it was the end of the attack. Cynthia Kaiser, a former deputy director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, said the reported deal suggests that a ransom was likely paid.

“What victims must understand is that payment does not end the threat,” Kaiser, now the senior vice president of the Halcyon Ransomware Research Center, said in a written statement. "Stolen data will be used against clients and users for as long as it remains profitable to do so.”

The data breach appeared to involve student ID numbers, email addresses, names and messages on the Canvas platform, Instructure’s chief information security officer, Steve Proud, said earlier this month. The company found no evidence that passwords, dates of birth, government identification or financial information were compromised, it said.

The company said it was working with "expert vendors" to do a forensic analysis, “further harden” its systems, and carry out a “comprehensive review of the data involved.”

The disruption caused panic last week among students and faculty members when they were locked out of a platform they rely on to manage grades and access course notes and assignments.

Schools and universities use Canvas to manage nearly all aspects of instruction. The platform acts as a gradebook, a hub for digital lectures and course materials, a discussion board for classroom projects, and a messaging platform between students and instructors.

Some courses also give quizzes and exams on the platform, or use it as a portal where final projects and papers are submitted on deadline.

___

Heather Hollingsworth contributed to this report.

He had speaking lines — pulling off a “Saved by the Bell” joke — in Adam Sandler's “Happy Gilmore 2” and even snagged a bit part for his wife alongside him for a party scene in the recent Anne Hathaway movie “The Devil Wears Prada 2.”

There's something about sequels that fits McIlroy just fine these days.

No red carpet needed.

Try green jackets. Two of them, after he joined Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus as the only repeat winners of the Masters.

The 37-year-old McIlroy is living his best life ahead of this weekend's PGA Championship, feeling at ease as he navigates not only the pressures of trying to win another major, but time management that comes with outside opportunities, as well — running the gamut from movie cameos to schmoozing with the Kelce brothers on their podcast to a state dinner during the visit of King Charles III at the White House with President Donald Trump.

“Sometimes you have to enjoy the perks,” McIlroy said, “because I know that isn't going to last forever.”

McIlroy, winner of the 2012 and 2014 PGA Championships, even found time to squeeze in rounds two weeks ago at Aronimink Golf Club to get a feel for the course before the first round starts Thursday. McIlroy played his only rounds at the suburban Philadelphia course at the 2018 BMW Championship and found the early visits can sometimes give him a bit of an edge headed into otherwise unfamiliar courses for the bulk of the field.

“I definitely think courses we don’t see very often, whether it’s here or Shinnecock or Frisco, it certainly has benefited me over the years,” McIlroy said. “I remember the first time I did it for a major championship was Congressional in 2011 on the back of a recommendation from Jack Nicklaus. So, it’s helped me over the years.”

The advice from Nicklaus for the early trip to Congressional Country Club was a success — McIlroy won the 2011 U.S. Open by eight strokes.

McIlroy is trying to join Ben Hogan (1953), Arnold Palmer (1960), Jack Nicklaus (1972), Tiger Woods (2002) and Jordan Spieth (2015) as the only golfers to win the first two majors of the year in the modern rotation.

“Coming into this tournament feels a lot different than what it did last year,” McIlroy said. “I feel like I’ve got some nice clear road ahead to try to get some more of these majors.”

For as much has gone right for McIlroy — and at only 37, he shows no sign of slowing down — he's happy to admit when he gets something wrong.

LIV Golf had a seemingly endless supply of Saudi money that suddenly is coming to an end. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia bankrolled LIV and seemingly had a deal in place to join commercial forces with the PGA Tour. The Saudis walked away from LIV and McIlroy admitted Tuesday at Aronimink that he never should have advocated for them to invest in the tour.

“I can admit when I’m wrong, and that was one that I did get wrong,” McIlroy said. “I think it was always a possibility to happen. I think everyone knows like with everything that’s happening in the Middle East, that had a lot to do; but whenever you have funding tied so much to the geopolitical landscape in the world, that’s a tricky road to navigate.”

McIlroy, the only European with the career Grand Slam, hasn't found much else to worry about this year.

He played last weekend at Quail Hollow (one of his favorite courses), making the Truist Championship his lone tournament since he won at Augusta.

“I need to take the time after the Masters to reset and decompress and get myself in the right mental space again to get myself up for this tournament and keep going for the U.S. Open and The Open Championship,” he said.

Scottie Scheffler is the betting favorite to win at Aronimink, followed by McIlroy.

After a career full of chasing, chasing, chasing and falling short at Augusta, McIlroy was about swallowed by the enormity last year of actually winning the Masters.

The fulfilment of a career Grand Slam left him wondering, what's next?

Turned out, the answer was as simple as winning Augusta again.

He now has six majors, tied with Nick Faldo, Lee Trevino and Phil Mickelson. The professional bucket list is about full — how about a gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics? — and the only real challenge is to see how high he can rise among the career major winners.

McIlroy's not even close to yelling, “Cut!” on his career. But if there are more film projects out there looking for an actor to play, well, give the Northern Irishman a shout.

“There’s going to be a day where I’m not sitting up here and I’m not competing for major championships and I’m not doing what I’m doing,” he said. “I guess while I’m doing it, I have to enjoy it, as well.”

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

Macron said the Africa Forward Summit marked a financial shift in relations between France and African nations, including those that were once its colonies. Kenya, which was not a French colony, co-hosted the gathering with France.

Investments worth 23 billion euros ($27 billion) will fund various sectors in Africa, including energy, artificial intelligence and agriculture, Macron said, adding that 14 billion euros ($16.4 billion) will come from French companies and 9 billion euros ($10.5 billion) from African entities.

Kenyan President William Ruto, mentioned the word sovereignty eight times in his speech Tuesday.

New partnerships between the African nations and France “must not be built on dependency but on sovereign equality, not on aid or charity but on mutually beneficial investment, and not on extraction or exploitation but on win-win engagements," Ruto said.

The gathering in Nairobi, Kenya's capital, comes at the height of a fallout between France and its former colonies, mostly in West Africa. France has long maintained a colonial-era policy of economic, political and military sway dubbed Françafrique, which included keeping thousands of troops in African countries it once controlled.

After years of criticism from leaders and opposition parties in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso over what they described as a demeaning and heavy-handed approach, France has withdrawn its troops from those countries and last July, completed its withdrawal from Senegal.

Macron said Paris will respect each African country's independence, adding that “sovereignty and autonomy are shared, and your success is our success.”

The “days of offering assistance are behind us,” Macron said as he lauded the strong display of unity among African heads of state and government at the summit. "I’d like to focus on co-investment.”

Among those who attended were Senegal, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Rwanda — parts of Francophone Africa — and Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and Botswana, all Anglophone countries.

Patricia Rodrigues, Africa director for Control Risks, said France was rebalancing its ties after losing influence to Asian and Middle Eastern countries.

“By organizing an Africa-France summit on the continent, rather than requiring African heads of state to travel to Paris to sign agreements, Macron is seeking to demonstrate that commitment to equality,” said Rodrigues, an expert at the global risk assessment group.

Kenyan economist Wangari Muikia said Africa was diversifying by collaborating with non-European nations, emphasizing growth partnerships rather than historical influence.

“China, the Gulf (Arab) states, and others have expanded aggressively into (African) infrastructure, energy, and manufacturing, offering governments alternative sources of finance and partnership,” she said.

Muikia said the biggest question would be whether these new partnerships with France would move away from exploiting raw materials.

“Without that structural shift, the legacy of Françafrique will continue to shape perceptions of France’s engagement, regardless of how the new model is presented,” she said.

As the summit wrapped up, a joint declaration by all 30 heads of state and government that attended, pledged cooperation in sectors such as energy, technology, agriculture and health.

Officers responded to the shooting around 2:45 a.m. Friday in the 800 block of Babcock Road, located near Overbrook Drive.

According to a preliminary report, a 48-year-old man and a 42-year-old man were sitting in a vehicle outside the apartment complex.

Two suspects approached the vehicle and started to fire gunshots at it, the report said.

The 48-year-old man, later identified as Daniel Almaguer, was shot multiple times. SAPD said he was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office, Almaguer’s cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head.

Police said the 42-year-old man attempted to escape, but he was also shot. He was later taken to a local hospital in critical condition.

The two suspects fled the scene before officers arrived, according to the report.

KSAT obtained the calls of service for the complex and discovered police received 533 calls in 2026.

Among the calls included disturbances, assaults, burglaries, shots fired, and 911 hang-ups.

More crime coverage on KSAT:

• 1 dead after shooting at East Side apartment complex, police say
• Man accused of sexually assaulting 15-year-old girl arrested, BCSO says

Officers responded to the crash just after 7 a.m. Tuesday in the 2100 block of Roosevelt Avenue, located near McDonald Avenue.

According to an SAPD preliminary report, the motorcyclist was heading southbound when the other vehicle in the opposite direction attempted to turn left on McDonald Avenue.

The motorcyclist and the other vehicle then collided with each other, the report said.

Officers said the driver of the other vehicle remained on the scene and assisted with the investigation.

Further information was not readily available.

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Scheffler has been there ever since.

As for Rahm? He can only wonder which direction his career would have gone had he not bolted from the PGA Tour at the end of 2023 to take the Saudi riches of LIV Golf.

He firmly dismissed the notion Tuesday that his departure — six months after the PGA Tour tried to strike a deal with the Saudis — was an attempt to force the two circuits to unite.

“I was never thinking that I was going to be any sort of weight that would tip the scales to make things come together," Rahm said. “That was never an argument in my mind.”

The Spaniard prefers not to look back — not at any shot or any round that cost him a chance to win any tournament. And certainly not a decision that is starting to look worse by the day as LIV's future no longer includes financial backing from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.

“I've made a lot of decisions in my life, and I've never gone back thinking, ‘Oh, had I know this again, I would do ’x' and ‘y’ different. I could do that about 15 different golf shots on the golf course every single day," Rahm said. "If I lived my life like that as a golfer, I would be a very pessimistic person.

“So we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, and all we can do is learn from things that happen in the past good and bad,” he said. “Just to speculate on what could have done, what could have been different doesn’t really make much sense.”

Three years ago can seem even longer considering where he was.

Scheffler won the Phoenix Open — Rahm finished third — to return to No. 1 in the world, which lasted all of one week until Rahm won at Riviera. Three weeks later, Scheffler went back to No. 1 by winning The Players Championship and stayed there for a month until Rahm won the Masters.

Back and forth they went — Rory McIlroy joined the fray in the summer — until December when Rahm famously wore that black letterman's jacket during the announcement that he had joined LIV.

Where are they now?

Scheffler has been No. 1 since that 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill, the longest streak of anyone other than Tiger Woods since the ranking began in 1986.

Rahm is at No. 20, a ranking that comes with an asterisk because LIV Golf started getting ranking points only last year, and then at a reduced rate because of the size and strength of its field. Only the top 10 on LIV receive points, but Rahm has never finished out of the top 10. Moot point.

Rahm, though, is keenly aware of the perception.

He referred to himself as being under the radar at the Masters this year, and then lived up to that by nearly missing the cut.

But he has a point because he hasn't been part of the conversation about the best golf. Despite two wins and four runner-up finishes in the seven LIV events this year, the talk of golf is Scheffler and McIlroy, with Cameron Young and Matt Fitzpatrick on the fringes.

“As good as I played this year, nobody’s expects anything from me this week,” Rahm said. “It’s just funny, in that sense. ... I think as players, we usually have a fairly good assessment of where we stand. I don’t really necessarily need a ranking to tell me where I’m at or where I feel like I’m at.”

And where is that?

Rahm wasn't about to attach a number to where he thinks he should be. That's asking for a debate he doesn't want.

“I will just say I feel like the way I’ve played, including the last three years, I feel like I'm playing better than the ranking I have now,” he said.

That makes weeks like this so important for Rahm.

It's only four weeks a year that he gets a crack at a full field of golf's best players, and it hasn't gone very well for him since he left a full schedule of top competition.

In the eight majors Rahm has played since leaving for LIV, he has finished out of the top 30 in half of them, including a missed cut.

He has had three top 10s but only one serious chance of winning. That was last year in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow when he rallied from five shots back of Scheffler, only for his Sunday charge to stall. He played the last three holes in 5 over when the tournament already was decided and wound up in a tie for eight, seven shots behind.

He also tied for seventh in the U.S. Open, though he started the final round 11 shots behind. He tied for seventh in the 2024, eight shots behind.

Rahm described his form as “very, very comfortable.”

“I've been playing — obviously besides the Masters — pretty good golf up until now,” he said.

The Masters is where he gets the true measure. The PGA Championship is no different. Winning won't return him to No. 1 in the world or get him close to Scheffler or even McIlroy. But it might at least get him back in the conversation.

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On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

The Cote d’Azur spectacular plays host — starting on Tuesday — to some of the most anticipated movies of the year in a constant parade of red carpets and megawatt premieres. This year, Hollywood studios are mostly on the sidelines. But for more than 78 years, Cannes has been an unparalleled showcase, and sun-dappled circus, for some of the best in cinema.

Last year that included Oscar nominees like “Sentimental Value,” “The Secret Agent” and “It Was Just an Accident.” This year is just as likely to produce a crop of contenders. In recent years, movies like “Parasite” and “Anora” have launched at Cannes and gone on to win best picture at the Academy Awards.

Presiding over the jury deciding the Palme this year is South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook. At the opening ceremony Tuesday, Cannes will also bestow an honorary Palme d’Or on Peter Jackson. Later, Barbra Streisand will get one, too.

So there will be much to keep an eye on at this year’s Cannes, including “The White Lotus.” The HBO series has come to the Croisette — the Mediterranean city's famous promenade — to shoot its fourth season.

On the screen, these are some of the movies that should stir Cannes.

“Hope”

Na Hong-jin isn’t as well known as some of his fellow Korean filmmakers, but he may be poised for a breakout moment this year. His latest is a long-gestating sci-fi thriller that Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux said “constantly changes genres.” The cast has both Korean and Hollywood stars, including Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Jung Ho-yeon, Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Taylor Russell.

“Paper Tiger”

Though not initially announced as part of the festival competition slate, James Gray’s latest Queens-set drama was subsequently added. And it instantly became one of the most anticipated and star-studded American films at the festival. Gray, the filmmaker of “Armageddon Time” and “The Immigrant,” tells a story about two brothers (Adam Driver, Miles Teller) who become mixed up with the Russian mafia. Scarlett Johansson co-stars.

“Fjord”

The Romanian director Cristian Mungiu is a heavyweight of European cinema because of films like the 2007 Palme d’Or winner “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” and 2022’s “R.M.N.” Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve star in his latest as a Romanian-Norwegian couple who move to the wife’s remote Norwegian hometown.

“Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma”

Jane Schoenbrun has quickly established themselves as a vital voice in contemporary American film with 2024’s “I Saw the TV Glow” and 2021’s “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.” Playing in the Un Certain Regard section, Schoenbrun’s new one stars Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in a movie about the making of a slasher film.

“Fatherland”

Polish filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski is best known for a pair of black-and-white, powerfully succinct period dramas: “Ida” and “Cold War.” His latest makes it three. It stars Hanns Zischler as the German author Thomas Mann on a road trip following World War II. Accompanying him is his daughter, played by Sandra Hüller.

“All of a Sudden”

The Japanese auteur Ryusuke Hamaguchi makes his French-language debut. Hamaguchi’s 2021 opus “Drive My Car” made history as the first Japanese film nominated for best picture. His 2023 follow-up, “Evil Does Not Exist,” was also acclaimed. “All of a Sudden,” starring Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto, is about a nursing home director and a terminally ill Japanese playwright.

“Sheep in the Box”

Long revered for his delicate humanism, the Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda will unveil his latest. Kore-eda has already won the Palme d’Or, for 2018’s “Shoplifters.” But his three decades of moviemaking have made him a never-to-be-missed filmmaker of exquisite tenderness. The sci-fi “Sheep in the Box” is about a couple, grieving the loss of their son, who adopt an infant humanoid robot.

“The Man I Love”

Before Gray’s film entered the competition, Ira Sachs' “The Man I Love” was the sole American selection. Coming quickly on the heels of Sachs’ “Peter Hujar’s Day,” with Ben Whishaw, “The Man I Love”’ stars Rami Malek as a an actor with a life-threatening illness in 1980s New York, preparing for what could be his final performance.

“The Unknown”

The French filmmaker Arthur Harari three years ago co-wrote the Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall” with his partner, Justine Triet. In “The Unknown,” Harari directs and cowrites a film about a photographer who, after photographing a woman at a party and then following her, wakes up in her body. Starring Léa Seydoux.

“Minotaur”

The Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev has been behind some powerfully potent dramas, including 2014’s “Leviathan” and 2017’s “Loveless” — both of which were Oscar nominated. After a near-death experience during the pandemic, Zvyagintsev returns to Cannes with a business executive in crisis in rural Russia.

“John Lennon: The Last Interview”

Steven Soderbergh's documentary about John Lennon’s final interview, granted at the Dakota in New York just before he was killed, drew headlines after Soderbergh acknowledged using artificial intelligence to illustrate some of Lennon’s more philosophical musings. But the film, playing in Cannes as a special screening, promises to lend unparalleled intimacy with the great Beatle.

“Bitter Christmas”

Pedro Almodóvar is among the most regular filmmakers in Cannes. This festival, he'll debut “Bitter Christmas,” a multilayered melodrama about filmmaking, grief and aging. After making his English-language debut with “The Room Next Door,” starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, Almodovar is back in his native Spain with one of his most personal films yet.

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This story first moved May 10, 2026. It was updated May 12, 2026 to reflect the festival has started.

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For more coverage of this year's Cannes festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival

Dozens of Labour lawmakers are calling on Starmer to resign, though several ministers publicly spoke of their support for Starmer as they left a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The prime minister has insisted he has no intention of resigning. Starmer could be forced out if one-fifth of sitting Labour lawmakers, or at least 80 or them, agree to back a lawmaker to challenge him. So far, no formal leadership challenge has been triggered.

In a blow to Starmer, a junior minister became the first member of his government to quit on Tuesday.

Here's the latest:

Deputy leader says Starmer has his full support

David Lammy, the deputy prime minister, has urged lawmakers to step back from calling for Starmer to step down and to stop benefiting their political rivals.

Starmer “has my full support, and what I say to colleagues is, look, let’s just step back. Take a breath,” Lammy told reporters. “Let’s get on with the business of running this country.”

“I urge colleagues to step back and not benefit Nigel Farage and Reform,” he added, referring to the hard-right, anti-immigration party that made major gains in local elections last week.

Starmer could be latest PM turned out by revolving door of British politics

If Keir Starmer steps aside, Britain could get its fifth prime minister in four years.

Starmer’s Labour Party ousted the Conservatives in 2024 following 14 years in power that saw a series of chaotic leadership changes.

Liz Truss replaced Boris Johnson in September 2022 but only lasted 45 days after announcing unfunded tax cuts that spooked markets.

The party elected Rishi Sunak to succeed her, but he failed to rally public support for the Tories who were badly beaten by Starmer’s party in the general election.

US ambassador to London speaks about ‘frequent turnover’ of British leaders

Ambassador Warren Stephens was asked about whether political instability in the U.K. makes it more difficult for Washington to work with the British government.

“I don’t really think so. I think the policies don’t really change that much so long as the party in power is still in power,” he told LBC Radio.

“But certainly the ability to have personal relationships matters, and to the extent that there’s frequent turnover, that’s a problem,” he said.

Stephens added that the special U.K.-U.S. relationship “goes on regardless of who our political leaders are.”

Doctor quits Starmer’s government

A junior health minister is the latest to quit Keir Starmer’s government, blaming him for massive election losses last week in Scotland.

In a letter to Starmer, Dr. Zubir Ahmed wrote that at “door after door your name was specifically cited as the driving reason” Labour voters in Scotland had turned away from the party.

“It is clear from recent days, that the public across the U.K. has now irretrievably lost confidence in you as Prime Minister,” Ahmed said.

He said the U.K. government had inadvertently been the “midwife” that delivered the Scottish National Party to a fifth term leading the parliament in Scotland, which he said was “as intolerable as it was avoidable.”

Ahmed said he was resigning with a “heavy heart” after his achievements were “dwarfed and undermined by a lack of values-driven leadership.”

More than 100 Labour lawmakers reportedly sign a statement rejecting a leadership contest

Amid a flurry of calls within Starmer’s Labour Party for him to step down, British media report that some 100 lawmakers signed a statement supporting the prime minister.

The BBC, Press Association and others reported that lawmakers urged party members to “work together to deliver the change the country needs” after Labour suffered heavy losses at local elections across the U.K. last week.

“We must focus on that. This is no time for a leadership contest,” the statement reportedly said.

Downing Street statement silent on political chaos

In a statement about the Cabinet meeting earlier Tuesday, Starmer’s office said senior ministers are focused on the conflict in the Middle East and getting the Strait of Hormuz reopened.

It made no mention of the growing calls from Labour lawmakers for Starmer to resign, or his pledge to “get on with governing.”

Starmer appeared to be carrying on with the business of government, chairing a committee on responding to the Middle East conflict around noon.

Another minister resigns

Alex Davies-Jones, the minister for tackling violence against women and girls, wrote in a letter to Starmer to “act in the country’s interest and set out a timetable for your departure.”

She called Starmer a “good and honest man,” but described the scale of Labour’s defeat at last week’s local elections as “catastrophic.”

“The country has spoken and we must listen,” she wrote. “We waited fourteen years to get into power and change the lives of those we represent. The time now is for bold, radical action.”

“We have needed to do more and therefore it is with a very heavy heart that I feel I have no choice but to resign,” she said.

Second minister resigns from Keir Starmer’s government

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has lost a second member of his government amid a growing chorus of Labour Party members to resign.

Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, announced her resignation in a letter Tuesday.

“I think you are a good man fundamentally, who cares about the right things,” she wrote. “However I have seen first-hand how that is not enough.”

“I know you care deeply, but deeds, not words are what matter,” she added. “I want a Labour government to work and I will strive as I always have for its success and popularity, but I’m not seeing the change I think I, and the country expect, and so cannot continue to serve as a minister under the current leadership.”

The king’s speech

The political crisis engulfing Starmer’s government comes just hours ahead of the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday.

King Charles III will deliver the King’s Speech to mark the beginning of a new parliamentary year. The speech, which is written by officials but read out by the monarch, will set out the government’s legislative agenda for the coming months.

“As far as I’m aware, the King’s Speech is going ahead tomorrow,” Starmer’s chief secretary, Darren Jones, said.

Growing number of lawmakers demand Starmer stand down

At least 80 out of Labour’s 403 lawmakers have now demanded the prime minister stand down, or at least set out a timetable for his departure, after Labour suffered heavy losses in local elections last week.

However, so far no Labour lawmaker has announced they will challenge Starmer for the leadership.

What to know about contenders who could replace Starmer as Britain’s Labour leader

While there is no clear frontrunner to replace Starmer, here are some of the leading contenders for the top job:

1. Wes Streeting - The health secretary is widely regarded as one of the government’s best communicators and has led on one of its key pledges, improving the creaky National Health Service.

2. Angela Rayner - the former deputy prime minister has long set herself apart as a different kind of politician with a compelling personal story. She was brought up in social housing and left school at 16 as a teen mother.

3. Andy Burnham - The former cabinet minister has long been seen as a potential rival for Starmer. But his leadership prospects were dented after Labour blocked him from standing as the party’s candidate for Parliament.

4. Ed Miliband - The energy secretaryis a former Labour leader, but his five years at the top of the party ended in the party’s 2015 election defeat.

5. Shabana Mahmood - The home secretary has become a favorite of many on the right of the Labour Party with her moves to tighten border controls and crack down on immigration.

British minister says ‘cabinet united’ around Starmer

A cabinet member in Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government said there was no direct challenge to his leadership at Tuesday’s meeting.

Jenny Chapman, minister of international development, said she did not think Starmer’s authority had been destroyed by dozens of Labour Party members calling for him to step down.

“That’s not what I have just seen around the Cabinet table,” she told reporters outside 10 Downing St. “I saw a Cabinet united and focused on dealing with the issues that are confronting the British people.”

UK health secretary ignores shouted questions

U.K. Health Secretary Wes Streeting, long believed to be preparing for a leadership challenge against U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, didn’t comment as he left the Cabinet meeting at Downing Street.

“Wes Streeting, do you want the job, or not?” one person yelled from across the street. “Are you measuring the curtains?”

He was among senior ministers who dodged a barrage of shouted questions from a scrum of reporters gathered outside.

Starmer showing ‘steadfast leadership,’ Cabinet minister says

U.K. Business Secretary Peter Kyle has voiced support for embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Starmer is showing “really steadfast leadership,” Kyle told reporters as he left the Cabinet meeting.

Kyle says the meeting discussed the economy and issues facing society. He said that he was on his way to Brussels to deepen the U.K. relationship with the European Union — one of the goals Starmer announced Monday as he delivered a speech aimed at winning back support.

No one has made a leadership challenge yet, official says

A U.K. official says that nobody had yet made a challenge to the leadership of U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

“The prime minister talked about the challenges we faced as a country, the crisis in the Middle East and the impact on the cost of living here,” Liz Kendall, the secretary of science, innovation and technology, told reporters as she left a Cabinet meeting.

“This government will do what we were elected to do, which is serve the British people. The prime minister has my full support in this,” Kendall said.

“There is a process to challenge the leader. Nobody has made that challenge,” she said.

Treasury chief pulls out of business event

U.K. Treasury chief Rachel Reeves won’t be taking part in a London risk summit that she was due to appear at after attending a Cabinet meeting.

Her place will be taken by Treasury minister Lucy Rigby.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government is in turmoil as dozens of Labour Party lawmakers joined calls for him to quit, after poor local election results for the party last week.

UK housing secretary urges support for Starmer

Housing Secretary Steve Reed has urged Labour Party colleagues to support Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he faces calls to step down.

Reed posted a message on social media during a meeting of Starmer’s Cabinet.

“This is not a game,” Reed said on X. “This instability has consequences for people’s lives. The people who will be hurt most will be those that elected us less than two years ago. We must unite behind the Prime Minister.”

Treasury chief pulls out of business event

The Treasury confirmed that Rachel Reeves has pulled out of a London risk summit she was expected to take part in after attending a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Her place will be taken by Treasury minister Lucy Rigby.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government is in turmoil as dozens of his Labour Party lawmakers joined calls for him to quit Tuesday.

Starmer resolves to stay in office

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer doubled down Tuesday on his resolve to stay in office, despite calls to step down.

Starmer told Cabinet ministers that he took responsibility for devastating losses that his center-left Labour Party suffered in last week’s local elections across the U.K., but he would fight on.

Starmer said there’s a process to oust a leader and that hadn’t been triggered.

“The country expects us to get on with governing,” he said. ”That is what I am doing and what we must do.”

Junior minister quits UK government

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer lost the first member of his government Tuesday as he faced pressure to step down following losses in local elections.

Housing, communities and local government minister Miatta Fahnbulleh stepped down and urged Starmer “to do the right thing for the country” and set a timetable to step aside.

Fahnbulleh, a junior minister who is considered to be on the left of the party, said that she was proud of her service, but that the government hadn't acted with the vision, pace and mandate for change it had been given by voters.

How Starmer could be replaced

The next U.K. national election doesn’t have to be held until 2029, but British politics allows parties to change leader midterm without the need for a general election.

If it comes to it, the simplest option would be for U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to announce his intention to resign, triggering an election for the Labour leadership. A resignation announcement could possibly come if members of his Cabinet tell Starmer in their regular meeting on Tuesday that he has lost too much support within the party.

If Starmer doesn’t resign, he could face a challenge from one or more Labour lawmakers.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band is scheduled to perform hits from their classic catalogue on Oct. 10 at the Frost Bank Center, the release states.

Journey originally started the “Final Frontier Tour” in early February, a Facebook post shows.

Texas is well represented on the tour, with shows scheduled for Corpus Christi on July 1, Laredo on July 2, Houston on Nov. 18 and Dallas on Nov. 20.

General tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday. For exclusive presale ticket access, sign up at the Frost Bank Center’s all-access newsletter and select the “Rock” genre.

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Amnesty International in a statement Monday said a military airstrike on Sunday hit a market in Tumfa in Zamfara state. A Red Cross official in the state, Ibrahim Bello Garba, confirmed the strike to The Associated Press and said “multiple civilians” were killed.

"In one village alone, 80 people were buried and there is no evidence that any of those people killed is a bandit. They are all civilians. The majority of them are young girls and small boys,” Amnesty International Nigeria director Isa Sanusi told the AP.

Nigeria's military confirmed an airstrike to the AP but said “no verifiable evidence of civilian casualties as being suggested in the media has been established.”

“Civilians are not the target, and everything is being done to avoid civilian casualties,” said a spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Michael Onoja, who said military operations continued in the area.

The Amnesty allegation is the latest related to an accidental military airstrike hitting civilians in the West African nation that faces threats from militant groups including Boko Haram.

Last month, an accidental strike by Nigeria's air force killed 100 people.

Analysts blame a lack of coordination between the air force and personnel on the ground for such strikes, which have killed hundreds of civilians. Nigerian officials have maintained that targets are members of armed groups.

Armed groups often mix with locals in areas where they operate, complicating efforts to target them.

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Omolehin reported from Sokoto, Nigeria.

Room bookings have been lighter than expected in most of the 11 U.S. cities hosting the world’s most watched sporting event, according to an April survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

In several cities, including Kansas City, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle, a majority of hotel operators said bookings were actually running behind typical seasonal demand. In others, including New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston, demand was flat so far compared with a regular spring and summer, according to the association.

The hotel association blamed travel concerns from international fans, worries about wait times for a U.S. visa and the cost of attending the tournament — including high ticket prices and transit costs in some cities— as major factors in the softer-than-expected demand.

“I think everyone had hoped the games would lead to an influx of bookings, but with all going on in the world and the USA’s involvement, events are playing out differently for everyone,” said Michael Black, general manager at the Cloud One hotel in Manhattan.

Concerns about softer-than-expected bookings extend to Mexico, which is co-hosting the games with the U.S. and Canada. Hotels in Mexico City, which hosts the tournament’s opening match on June 11, are about 30% to 36% booked, according to the Asociación de Hoteles de Ciudad de México.

High prices may be a factor

Many hotels jacked up their prices after the tournament's schedule was announced, anticipating that soccer fans would pay exorbitant rates if they were able to score tickets to a match.

Near MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, for example, one hotel that normally charges around $200 a night was advertising a rate of $800 on nights around June World Cup matches. The costs soar to more than $1,300 a night ahead of the July 19 final.

Many seasoned fans are probably still waiting for those prices to drop, said Ronan Evain, executive director of Football Supporters Europe, a Germany-based fan advocacy group.

“Fans that are used to traveling for tournaments know that this price will always go down,” Evain said. “There are many examples of hotel owners regretting that they priced too high and then panicking at the last minute and reducing prices.”

Others have already likely secured cheaper lodging farther from the stadiums or through Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms, he added.

Indeed, the metropolitan regions around Kansas City, Seattle, San Francisco, Dallas/Fort Worth and Miami/Ft. Lauderdale are all enjoying an uptick in short-term rental bookings compared with the same period last year, according to a recent report from AirDNA, a rental data firm that tracks bookings on Airbnb and Vrbo.

Airbnb said last week that the number of guests expected to stay at its rental listings during the tournament is expected to exceed earlier estimates and even end up surpassing the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris as the biggest hosting event in the company’s history.

Unrealistic expectations

More than 5 million tickets have been sold for the tournament so far, out of the more than 6 million expected to be offered for all 104 matches, according to FIFA.

While many of those attending the tournament will be travelers who need hotel rooms, global events like the World Cup also tend to discourage other types of visitors, said Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College in Massachusetts.

“The general problem is that soccer tourists — and expected congestion, high prices and security concerns — push away normal business travel and tourism,” he explained.

Vijay Dandapani, president of the Hotel Association of New York City, said city hotels are seeing a modest upswing in summer bookings -- around 10% compared with the previous year — but nowhere close to the windfall promised by FIFA and other tournament boosters.

In Vancouver, Canada, which is hosting seven matches, hotel occupancy is down from the same time last year, but the industry is optimistic business will pick up closer to the games, says Paul Hawes, CEO of the British Columbia Hotel Association.

In Kansas City, where some 90% of respondents to the American Hotel & Lodging Association survey reported bookings below expectations, tourism officials are still holding out for a record-breaking number of visitors.

“While hotel occupancy in Kansas City has not followed the trajectory originally predicted by FIFA, there are positive indicators for Kansas City on the horizon,” said Derik Detter, market research director at Visit KC.

Jon Bortz, CEO of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, a real estate investment company that owns dozens of hotels nationally, is equally positive.

Overall, he said, occupancy rates are up at its many host city properties compared with last year, though he acknowledged cities like Boston with more marquee matchups are performing better than cities like San Francisco that host less in-demand games.

“We haven’t seen anything that would cause us to think it’s going to be less than what we were expecting,” he said. “Maybe other people had much grander expectations.”

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Associated Press reporters David Skretta in Kansas City, Missouri, Carlos Rodriguez in Mexico City and Jim Morris in Vancouver contributed to this story.

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

On Tuesday, researchers said a single dose of those revved-up cells strongly suppressed HIV in two people — one for nearly a year and the other for nearly two years — without requiring their usual medicines.

Larger and longer studies are needed to prove if what's called CAR-T cell therapy might really offer long-lasting help for HIV, cautioned Dr. Steven Deeks of the University of California, San Francisco, who led the research.

“We find the fact that two people have had such a really sustained response provocative,” he said. “There is a real need for a one-and-done, safe and scalable cure ... and this is one of the strategies that we’re pursuing.”

The data is being presented at a meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy in Boston.

There are nearly 40 million people living with HIV around the world. Today’s medicines have turned the virus that causes AIDS from a fast killer into a manageable chronic disease, often keeping the virus at undetectable levels, but only if people can afford the drugs and stick with them. The virus hides out in reservoirs in the body and rebounds fast if people stop treatment.

Researchers have long hunted an elusive cure, pursuing such clues as a rare gene mutation that makes some people naturally resistant to HIV or how a handful of HIV patients who also had certain cancers were declared cured or in long-term remission after receiving a stem cell transplant, something too risky for most people.

CAR-T therapy involves taking immune soldiers called T cells out of a person’s blood, genetically engineering them into “living drugs” and infusing them back into the patient. They’re widely used to cure certain types of cancer and are being studied for other diseases.

For HIV, scientists at the nonprofit drug developer Caring Cross created CAR-T cells with dual features. They're programmed to better find and kill HIV-infected cells — and engineered with protection against infection by the very virus they’re supposed to fight.

With that added armor, they should be able to reproduce enough to keep HIV in check, said Caring Cross executive director Boro Dropulić.

Deeks’ early-stage experiment tested different dosing strategies in people who stopped their HIV medicine the day they received their CAR-T cells. There were no serious side effects. The first three recipients showed no response and resumed their usual medicines.

Six others received a small amount of chemotherapy to make space for the new T cells. Those two strong responders saw their HIV drop to undetectable levels, inching up only occasionally when the CAR-T cells presumably got to work again. A third patient had a temporary response and resumed regular HIV treatment.

Those three patients all had started their original HIV treatment soon after they'd been infected, Deeks said. That makes sense because people treated early tend to have less HIV hiding in the body and a healthier immune system.

“This is certainly very fascinating that they’ve had this positive response,” said Dr. Hans-Peter Kiem, a gene therapy expert at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center who wasn’t part of the new study. He cautioned that it will take additional research to prove if CAR-T really works.

But the strategy is exciting because it’s “boosting what our body, our immune system, can already do,” said Andrea Gramatica, vice president for research at amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, which is funding some work to create easier-to-use versions.

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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.

“I even picture the scenario in my head: I’m sitting out there alone, and a beam of light comes down,” he says. “It’s not a spacecraft that’s hovering over me. It’s just a beam of light from space. And I just get lifted up into that beam of light, and I appear in a new place.”

America’s favorite astrophysicist has turned that lifelong fascination into a book, “Take Me to Your Leader: Perspectives on Your First Alien Encounter,” which — like that beam of light — illuminates what we know about possible space critters and what we can anticipate if they ever come calling.

“Even if it doesn’t actually happen, there’s value to going through the thought experiment of what could happen,” he says. “Maybe there’s some takeaways that offer insights into how you think about the world, how we think about each other and the future of our civilization.”

The book, out Tuesday, is a unique road map into the prodigious brain of Tyson, who has an ability to blend pop culture with quantum physics. Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

“Take Me to Your Leader” references evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould and Cartoon Network’s “Rick and Morty” and weaves ideas from both the French philosopher Voltaire and lyrics by Katy Perry. It mixes the physics of invisibility with “Star Trek” and has digressions into multispectral vision, how Superman — an alien, remember? — could kill us all just by farting and why supersonic planes “look badass.”

They're going to be smart

Tyson concludes that if aliens were to arrive on Earth, they are likely to be much more advanced than humans. He writes it would be like trying to teach a chimp long division.

“They’ll not only be brilliant, but they’ll be way more powerful than us in practically any way that matters, which is why it’s so laughable when you see in Hollywood movies some mothership arrives and people pull out their pistols and start shooting guns at it. Like, ‘Really? Have you thought this through?’”

During first contact, he advises against trying to shake hands or raising a hand in a sign of hello. “Leave all your habits at home, until you learn a thing or two about theirs,” he writes.

The book arrives during a spasm of interest in aliens. The Pentagon has begun releasing a new batch of files on UFOs, “Project Hail Mary” was a smash and Steven Spielberg prepares his alien movie “Disclosure Day,” while former President Barack Obama declared on a podcast that aliens are real. (He later clarified that he had seen no evidence but that “the odds are good there’s life out there.”)

Tyson decided to write his book after watching recent congressional hearings on UFOs, noting that both Republicans and Democrats seemed unified in finding the truth.

“They had a common subject that they’re both interested in,” he says. “When I saw it hit that level, I realized I have something to contribute.”

A book of etiquette

It is the first book under Simon & Schuster's new Simon Six imprint led by Jonathan Karp, Tyson's editor, who called the scientist “the Bruce Springsteen of astrophysicists.”

“You name a respected scientist who has ever written a book of etiquette on how to meet aliens. It hasn’t been done. This is truly terra incognita,” Karp says.

The aliens will, of course, not speak any Earth languages, but Tyson thinks we can still communicate via science — universal constants like the speed of light, Newton’s laws of motion and gravity and Einstein’s relativity. The aliens may even recognize our periodic table — not the names or symbols — but the simple organization, which they may likely also have done.

He also concludes that they won't be tiny or enormous, citing brain-to-body-weight ratios. Too big and they collapse under their own body weight. Too small and they couldn’t construct a spaceworthy vehicle. “The laws of physics greatly restrict the likelihood of Earth being visited by, much less invaded by tiny aliens,” he writes.

If they're monitoring us, though, there's a good chance they'll want to be taken to our apparent leader — Taylor Swift. Instead, Karp says Tyson should be the point man for the human race and the book is his calling card.

“I think this is the funniest factual book that anyone will ever read on aliens and that’s quite a statement,” says Karp. “There’s so much chaos and conflict in the world, and it's a book on aliens that has the potential to bring us all together. He’s clearly been thinking about aliens his entire life, and he’s managed to write about them with the acuity of a scientist and the appeal of an entertainer. That’s a powerful combination.”

The Webb County Medical Examiner said two of the deceased individuals found inside a shipping container at the Union Pacific Railyard on Sunday were from Honduras: a 14-year-old male and a 24-year-old man. Three others were from Mexico: A 29-year-old woman and two men, 45 and 56 years old.

The nationality of the remaining male has not been determined, according to the medical examiner.

The medical examiner determined that the woman died due to hyperthermia, or overheating. Hyperthermia is also suspected to have caused the death of the other five individuals, though formal examinations for them are still pending, according to a news release issued by the county.

Corinne Stern, the county’s medical examiner, found identification cards and cellphones that indicated the individuals were from Mexico and Honduras, according to the Associated Press. Their fingerprints were also shared with the U.S. Border Patrol to help confirm their identities and nationalities through the Missing Alien Program.

The medical examiner’s office is also working with the Mexican Consulate to confirm the identities of individuals, notify their families, and repatriate their remains.

Laredo Mayor Victor D. Trevino issued a statement lamenting the deaths, which he called a “tragedy.”

“In our close-knit binational community, every loss is felt deeply,” Treviño said. “Our hearts are with the families and loved ones affected, and we thank our first responders for their efforts during this difficult time. Our community stands united in prayer and compassion.”

The six people were discovered at approximately 3:30 p.m. on Sunday in a Union Pacific train boxcar. It is unclear where the train’s route originated or when the individuals boarded the train.

Union Pacific did not respond to questions but issued a statement saying the company “is saddened by this incident and is working closely with law enforcement to investigate.”

Migration to the U.S. continues to be a high-risk endeavor.

Immigrant deaths are a common occurrence for the Webb County Medical Examiner’s office, which serves 11 counties on the South Texas border, Stern told the AP.

“This spring has been busier than it was this time last year,” she said.

In 2025, at least 131 people died along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the International Organization for Migration. About 15% of those cases were due to extreme environmental conditions and lack of access to water, food, and shelter.

In 2022, 53 people from Mexico and Central America died after being transported in a sweltering tractor trailer the driver abandoned in Southwest San Antonio.

In that case, considered by officials to be the deadliest migrant smuggling case in U.S. history, 64 migrants were packed into the trailer without water or air conditioning, on a June day that reached 100 degrees.

Federal prosecutors indicted two Texas men over the deaths. Both of them pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

Alex Nguyen contributed to this story.

Because these symptoms can be less obvious, care is often delayed.

“There are studies that show women tend to present later to the emergency room during a heart attack,” said Dr. Ildiko Agoston, a University Health cardiologist specializing in women’s heart health. “That delay can lead to more serious complications.”

The differences in heart attack symptoms are just one example of how heart disease can appear different in men and women and why Dr. Agoston led the effort to launch the University Health Women’s Heart Center. She identifies some of the myths about women’s heart health in a recent blog article.

While women and men share many of the same traditional risk factors -- high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, age and family history -- women also face additional risks tied to their biology and life stages.

“Men and women have different hormonal makeup,” Dr. Agoston said. “Not just the way we look, but how we are built, that affects our cardiovascular risk.”

Pregnancy can place stress on the heart and reveal future risks.

One of the most important cardiovascular turning points for women is pregnancy.

Preeclampsia, a serious condition that usually begins after 20 weeks of pregnancy, can result in high blood pressure that soars beyond the normal range, and high levels of protein in the urine indicating possible kidney damage.

Gestational diabetes is another complication that can affect the health of the mother and fetus if left untreated. It triggers higher blood glucose levels and increased blood vessel inflammation.

The risk for both increases when a woman gets pregnant over the age of 35. Both conditions can create a higher likelihood of cardiovascular disease later in life.

“I joke with my patients that pregnancy is like a stress test,” Dr. Agoston said. “I look at these risk factors as opportunities to intervene early. If they know they have these risk factors, they can work towards living healthier,” she said.

The risk doesn’t necessarily end with delivery. Postpartum preeclampsia -- when blood pressure rises after birth -- is a serious and often overlooked condition that can develop within the first several weeks after giving birth. It can lead to stroke or death. Follow-up care after delivery is critical for the baby and the mother.

Menopause marks another shift

Menopause is another major life stage that can influence heart health.

“As we go through menopause, our cholesterol profile changes,” Dr. Agoston said.

As hormone levels shift, some of the natural cardiovascular protection women experience earlier in life begins to decline. That can result in higher cholesterol that can damage blood vessels and make it easier for dangerous plaques to form in arteries.

Dr. Agoston emphasized that awareness should start early: By age 21, women should talk with a primary care physician who can provide a heart risk assessment that includes checking cholesterol and blood pressure.

Annual checkups and conversations about family history and lifestyle can help identify potential concerns before they become serious.

Conditions more common in women

There are other heart conditions more likely to affect women.

One is stress cardiomyopathy, also known as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, which can be triggered by intense emotional stress and may initially resemble a heart attack.

“I’ve seen it in women who went through that because their husband died, and then they were admitted with what they thought was a heart attack,” Dr. Agoston said. “Well, they had a minor heart attack, but the reason for that was they had this stress cardiomyopathy, which is a reversible condition.”

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is a rare but serious condition that can cause heart attacks in younger women, particularly during or shortly after pregnancy.

In addition, autoimmune and inflammatory conditions -- more common in women -- can increase long-term cardiovascular risk. Conditions like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and scleroderma should be part of ongoing health discussions.

Prevention should start before symptoms

Not every woman who visits the Women’s Heart Center has an existing condition. Many are focused on understanding and reducing their risk before symptoms appear.

“Some women come to me before they even have any manifestation of a disease, just out of concern because they want to stay healthy,” Dr. Agoston said. “I do a lot of preventative work in my clinic.”

For women in their 40s and beyond, additional tools like coronary calcium scoring can help detect early plaque buildup in the arteries.

“If somebody has a high calcium score, they have coronary artery disease,” she said. “They may not have an obstructive disease, so the plaques may not be obstructing the arteries, but the plaques are there.”

That insight can guide more proactive treatment of cholesterol, blood pressure and other factors to prevent progression.

For Dr. Agoston, the goal is not to create fear, but to encourage action.

“If we educate our community, women will feel empowered to not be afraid to ask questions when they see their doctor -- not just when they are sick, but to prevent being sick,” she said.

Women’s heart health requires earlier attention, greater awareness and care that reflects realities of women’s bodies and lives. From pregnancy to menopause and beyond, understanding those differences can make a critical impact.

Start your journey or learn more at University Health.

U.S. District Judge Alan Albright ordered Texas State officials to maintain Idris Robinson’s employment contract, pay and university affiliation for one year or until the case is resolved, whichever is sooner, according to a news release from the Texas State Employees Union. A written order had not been issued as of Tuesday morning.

Jayme Blaschke, Texas State’s director of university communications and public relations, said school officials will decide next steps after reviewing Albright’s written order.

Robinson, a tenure-track philosophy professor, sued the university in March, alleging officials violated his First Amendment rights by punishing him for a talk he gave during an anarchist book fair in North Carolina.

His lawsuit is at least the second recent lawsuit accusing the university of firing a professor over speech made outside the classroom.

Robinson gave a talk titled “Strategic Lessons from the Palestinian Resistance” in June 2024 at the Another Carolina Anarchist Book Fair in Asheville. The event was recorded, and a scuffle broke out afterward, which local police investigated but did not link to Robinson, according to the lawsuit.

Nearly a year later, on June 5, 2025, a pro-Israel activist posted video from the talk on Instagram, accusing Robinson of inciting violence and calling on the university to fire him, the lawsuit says. The post drew about 1,500 likes and 220 comments. The next day, the university placed Robinson on paid administrative leave and barred him from communicating with students and colleagues, the lawsuit says. In July 2025, the university notified him that his contract would not be renewed and that his employment would end on May 31, 2026, without providing a reason. Robinson appealed the decision through the university’s grievance process, but officials upheld it.

Robinson joined Texas State in 2022 as a tenure-track professor and had received consistently positive performance reviews. In 2024, he was rated “excellent,” and the talk was not mentioned, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit argues Texas State violated Robinson’s First Amendment rights by retaliating for speech made as a private citizen, not as part of his job duties.

Monday’s ruling does not resolve those claims, but allows Robinson to remain employed while the case proceeds.

The lawsuit follows another recent free speech case involving a Texas State professor.

Last fall, university leaders fired tenured history professor Thomas Alter after online activists amplified remarks he made at a socialist conference and called for his firing. His lawsuit in Hays County district court is ongoing.

The Texas State Employees Union issued a statement saying the court’s “willingness to intervene at this early stage sends a powerful message” to other universities. Union officials said the ruling could have implications for other free speech disputes involving Texas public universities, including Alter’s.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

All three are expected to be fine in time for the World Cup, but others have not been so fortunate.

France's Hugo Ekitike sustained an Achilles injury in April that could take more than six months to fully recover, ruling him out of the tournament co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico and possibly the start of next season.

Brazil stars Rodrygo and Éder Militão are definitely out. So is Bayern Munich and Germany forward Serge Gnabry after injuring his adductor in training.

Arsenal defender Ben White is out of contention for the World Cup after sustaining medial ligament damage. The Premier League leader confirmed the injury on Tuesday and said the England international would be out for the rest of the season.

Players and coaches have increasingly warned about the impact of an ever-packed playing schedule, and the expanded World Cup comes a year after the relaunched, supersized Club World Cup. The Champions League has also been expanded in recent years.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta describes the demand on players as “an accident waiting to happen."

With the World Cup just around the corner and the biggest club prizes up for grabs in the final weeks of the season for many top leagues, players are walking a tightrope to avoid injury before the tournament kicks off.

Players definitely ruled out of the World Cup

Argentina: Joaquín Panichelli (ACL)

Brazil: Éder Militão (hamstring), Rodrygo (ACL)

England: Ben White (medial ligament)

France: Hugo Ekitike (Achilles)

Germany: Serge Gnabry (adductor)

Netherlands: Xavi Simons (ACL)

United States: Cameron Carter-Vickers (Achilles), Patrick Agyemang (Achilles)

Ones to watch

Algeria: Goalkeeper Luca Zidane, the son of France icon Zinedine Zidane, is a doubt after a facial injury during an on-field collision last month.

Argentina: Cristian Romero has been ruled out for the season with a knee injury. It has not yet been confirmed if he is out of the World Cup, with Tottenham not giving a timeframe for his recovery.

Canada: Star left back Alphonso Davies injured his hamstring with just over a month to go before the tournament starts when he was hurt during Bayern Munich's exit to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League semifinals.

Croatia: Veteran midfielder Luka Modrić broke his cheekbone last month but is expected to be available for the World Cup. Defender Joško Gvardiol returned to training for Manchester City in earlier May after four months out with a broken leg.

Morocco: Paris Saint-Germain defender Achraf Hakimi has been sidelined with a right thigh injury.

United States: Midfielder Johnny Cardoso sprained his right ankle five weeks before the World Cup while training with Atletico Madrid.

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

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

As of Monday, organizers are looking for more than 500 volunteers (551) to place flags and another 650 to remove the flags following the holiday.

The nonprofit has previously struggled with getting volunteers, who place flags at national cemeteries in Texas, Colorado and Florida, among other states.

The organization will need volunteers to sign up before May 24.

Click here to register.

More recent news coverage on KSAT:

• What we know about 6 people found dead in a Laredo boxcar, another found near Bexar County railroad
• Upper Guadalupe River Authority prepares to install river warning sirens
• Affidavit: 4 accused of stealing $16K+ worth of items at Ulta Beauty stores across Bexar County

Officers responded to the alleged assault just after 3:40 a.m. in the 600 block of Olive Street, which is located a few blocks east of the Alamodome.

While he was getting the haircut, the victim told SAPD that he and the suspect’s father got into a verbal argument.

The suspect, identified in the SAPD report as a 35-year-old man, then stabbed the victim in his upper body.

Police said the victim also told officers that the suspect and several others began punching him repeatedly with closed fists.

The victim then left the scene and contacted police at a separate location. He was later taken to a local hospital for injuries sustained in the alleged attack.

According to the report, no arrests have been made. SAPD said its investigation is ongoing.

More recent crime coverage on KSAT:

• FedEx driver accused of selling drugs out of delivery truck in Gillespie County, deputies say
• Affidavit: 4 accused of stealing $16K+ worth of items at Ulta Beauty stores across Bexar County

The 81-year-old was sworn in Tuesday for a seventh consecutive term to extend his presidency over a further five years that may well be his last — although not necessarily for the Museveni family.

Army chief Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the president's son and presumptive heir, oversaw dayslong rehearsals of the military parade that animated the inauguration of Museveni, with Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets flying noisily over official ceremonial grounds in Kampala, the Ugandan capital.

Museveni took the oath of office and received the ceremonial instruments of power while being cheered by thousands attending the event in the Kampala suburb of Kololo. The president urged Ugandans to work hard and build wealth for their families, citing the stories of individuals whose entrepreneurial spirit had paid off.

“No more excuses,” he said.

Many Ugandans now accept that Museveni’s presidency — the only one that many millions of them have known — is nearing its end.

What remains uncertain is the nature of the transition and how orderly things would be in the time he has left in office.

Two possible routes to the top

Kainerugaba looks poised to take over. He has declared his wish to succeed his father and said recently that the mission is unstoppable.

Still, his path is narrow and could follow one of two ways: either a bloodless but unconstitutional takeover by Kainerugaba or a constitutional amendment that allows lawmakers with the ruling party — which has an overwhelming majority — to pick him as Museveni’s successor. An electoral win is seen as a hurdle too high for Kainerugaba, whose challengers would include opposition leader Bobi Wine, the popular entertainer who has twice run for president and rejected the outcome of the January election that gave Museveni his next term.

Anita Among, the parliamentary speaker, said last month that legislators would do everything possible to assist Kainerugaba in his pursuit of the presidency.

“For the sake of MK, just assure MK that we will do whatever it takes,” Among told a group of lawmakers celebrating the general's birthday, mentioning Kainerugaba's initials. “In the 11th parliament, the opposition got swallowed. In the 12th parliament, it is going to be walloped.”

In addition to the speaker, many other leaders have been scampering to show allegiance to Kainerugaba. While their moves display a quest for political survival, they also underscore Kainerugaba’s rise as Uganda’s de facto leader as his father ages and relies more on the army chief to exercise authority.

“Many Ugandans close to power have learned this lesson. That the president is old and exhausted, both intellectually and physically,” Andrew Mwenda, a close ally and friend of Kainerugaba, wrote last month in The Independent online newspaper. “He has a limited ability to monitor many things across a large spectrum of sectors.”

Kainerugaba, 52, joined the army in the late 1990s, and his rise to the top of the armed forces has been controversial, with critics dubbing it the “Muhoozi Project” to prepare him for the presidency.

Museveni and Kainerugaba denied the existence of such a scheme, but it has become apparent in the last two years that hereditary rule is possibly what the president prefers.

Museveni, who has not said when he will retire, has no rivals within the ruling party — the reason many believe the military will have a say in choosing his successor.

“While people are waiting for the legal transition from Museveni, the de facto transition has already happened,” said Angelo Izama, an analyst who runs the Uganda-based Fanaka Kwawote think tank. “Kainerugaba, more than the president, is the final voice on defense and security matters.”

A more confrontational style than his father's

Kainerugaba’s associates describe him as a dedicated military officer who often eschews ostentatious displays of wealth. He attended military schools in the U.S. and Britain before taking charge of a presidential guard unit that has since been expanded into an elite group of special forces.

In addition to his military duties, he is the founder of a political activist group known as the Patriotic League of Uganda. Its members and well-wishers range from government ministers to businesspeople.

But Kainerugaba lacks the public charisma and folksy style of Museveni, who has kept power in part by striking deals with his political rivals and even convincing some to serve in his government. Kainerugaba's style is more confrontational, expressed often in harsh online posts that can give offense. He has ordered the arrest over alleged corruption of multiple generals, including some known to have once been his friends.

Museveni first took power by force in 1986 as the leader of a guerrilla force whose goal was to democratize Uganda after years of chaos and civil war. He said at the time that Africa’s problem was leaders who overstayed their welcome. Much later, he changed his stance to say his criticism was of leaders who prolonged their rule without an electoral mandate.

Museveni, a U.S. ally on regional security, is often credited with presiding over relative peace and stability. But many others see an increasingly authoritarian streak at odds with his early promise of democracy. Term and age limits have been scrapped and some opponents jailed or sidelined.

Lawmakers recently passed a punitive bill whose stated purpose is to deter foreign interference, but which drew widespread concern over its potential to hurt the work of non-governmental organizations and opposition groups.

The legislation forbids an “agent of a foreigner” from obtaining grants or other monetary support from external sources exceeding 400 million Ugandan shillings — roughly $110,000 today — within a 12-month period without the approval of the interior minister.

Wine's party, the National Unity Platform, condemned the legislation as “unconstitutional, irrelevant and brought in bad faith to further persecute those with divergent views.”

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Tuesday, May 12

Three westbound lanes of Interstate 10 at W.W. White Road are closed after a crash on the East Side, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

A San Antonio Police Department spokesperson told KSAT that the crash involved a charter bus and an SUV.

One person has been taken to a local hospital for treatment, the spokesperson said.

Drivers are urged to use alternate routes.

For more information on traffic, you can click here to view our traffic page on KSAT.com. To view more on the current weather conditions, click here.

Click the links below for current road closures.

• San Antonio road closures
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• TxDOT highway conditions

Andriy Yermak is suspected in an alleged 460-million-hryvnia ($10.5 million) money-laundering scheme, the agencies announced late Monday.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy met with the CEO of Palantir Technologies, part of Ukraine’s growing cooperation with the U.S. defense sector, as a three-day U.S.-brokered ceasefire that decreased the fighting but failed to stop it altogether ended Monday.

Russia’s invasion of its neighbor is now in its fifth year, with no sign of a peace settlement within reach.

Graft investigation embarrasses Zelenskyy

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office said in a Telegram announcement that the investigation into Yermak is ongoing.

The move is a step short of formally charging Yermak, who resigned in November. He was the country’s lead negotiator in talks with the U.S and left during the scandal that brought the biggest threat to Zelenskyy’s government since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The investigation is deeply embarrassing for the Ukrainian leader as he pushes for his country’s admission to the European Union, a process that will likely take years. Endemic corruption is one of the obstacles slowing Ukraine’s admission.

Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council and a key negotiator in U.S. diplomatic peace efforts, has been questioned and is a witness in the case revolving around a luxury real estate development near the capital, prosecutors told a media briefing in Kyiv.

Several other senior officials, including former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Chernyshov, are “implicated” in the case, according to the prosecutors, as is prominent Ukrainian businessman Tymur Mindich.

The graft investigation also involves suspected wrongdoing in Ukraine’s energy sector, the defense industry, and the procurement of drones and other military equipment, they said.

Yermak was a trusted confidant of Zelenskyy, who resisted persistent pressure to replace him, and a powerful figure in the government. Investigators searched his home in November.

Zelenskyy made no public comment on the anti-graft agencies’ announcement, but his press officer, Dmytro Lytvyn, said: “The investigation is ongoing, it’s early to draw conclusions.”

Yermak’s attorney, Ihor Fomin, called the suspicion notice groundless and denied his client’s involvement in the alleged laundering of 460 million hryvnias ($10.5 million) through an elite construction project outside Kyiv.

“In my view, this entire situation has been provoked by public pressure,” Fomin said in an interview with Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne.

A decision on whether to bring formal charges against Yermak could still take months.

Zelenskyy holds talks with CEO of US firm Palantir

Zelenskyy said Tuesday he met in Kyiv with Alex Karp, as part of Ukraine’s growing cooperation with the U.S. defense sector.

The Ukrainian leader said in a social media post that Ukraine and Palantir “can be useful to each other.”

“We discussed directions of technological development both in the context of combat operations and civilian needs,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app.

Palantir Technologies is an artificial intelligence software company that helps global defense agencies. It specializes in software platforms that collate and analyze large volumes of data and has partnered with Ukraine for several years.

AI can help combatants quickly sift and decipher a huge volume of battlefield information, enabling more accurate attacks, among other things.

Ukraine Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said after meeting with Karp that cooperation with the company is giving Ukraine a technological edge in the war.

It has enabled detailed analysis of air attacks, AI solutions for handling large volumes of reconnaissance data, and the integration of technology in the planning of Ukraine’s deep-strike operations on Russian soil, Fedorov said on Telegram.

Also, Ukraine and Palantir have created a platform for developers to get battlefield data to train AI models, with more than 100 companies currently involved, he said.

Russia launches strikes on Ukraine after relative lull

Ukraine offered to extend the pause in hostilities, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said. But he reported Tuesday that Russia launched over 200 drones against Ukraine overnight, striking civilian infrastructure and killing at least one person and wounding another six.

“It is time to strengthen our positions and force Moscow to end the war,” Sybiha said on X. Russian President Vladimir Putin “must realize that it will only get worse for him.”

Western analysts and officials say Ukraine’s battlefield position has recently improved as it deploys cutting-edge drone technology to hold Russia’s bigger army at bay.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who visited the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions of Ukraine on Tuesday, said he thinks that “the Ukrainians really have momentum” at present.

“Russia is having a phase of weakness, economically as well as in domestic political terms and on the battlefield,” Pistorius said, according to German news agency dpa.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its air defenses intercepted 30 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions on the border with Ukraine.

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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.

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

Deputies took Kenneth Ray Hicks III into custody on two counts of delivery of a controlled substance, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

In March, GCSO said its narcotics division developed information that Hicks was selling drugs out of a FedEx truck while he delivered packages in the Fredericksburg and Gillespie County area.

Investigators later contacted Hicks and purchased cocaine, crystal MDMA and THC from him multiple times, GCSO said.

Narcotics investigators and Texas Department of Public Safety special agents also conducted a warrant service on Hicks while he was delivering a package in the area of West Trailmoor Drive.

Authorities noticed cocaine and a THC vape on the dashboard of Hicks’ delivery truck in plain view, the release states.

During a probable cause search of the vehicle, GCSO said that two more THC vapes were located in Hicks’ lunch bag. A third THC vape was found in the front pocket of a FedEx shirt that Hicks was wearing, according to the sheriff’s office.

The approximate weight of the cocaine was 25.85 grams, investigators said. The vape boxes indicated that each device contained two grams of THC concentrate, GCSO stated.

More crime coverage on KSAT:

• Affidavit: 4 accused of stealing $16K+ worth of items at Ulta Beauty stores across Bexar County
• South Side home buyer finds man killed by gunshot wound to head, SAPD says

For many women, the first 12 weeks after delivery can feel like a blur of recovery, sleep deprivation, feeding schedules, hormonal shifts and emotional adjustment. It’s often described as a joyful time -- and it can be -- but it’s also one of the most physically and emotionally demanding transitions a woman will experience.

Dr. Nichole Van De Putte, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist at Methodist Hospital | Metropolitan, said there’s one message she wants every new mother to hear before they enter that phase: “You will make it.”

But she’s quick to follow that reassurance with something equally important.

“Allow yourself an opportunity to breathe, and give yourself a little grace,” she said. “It’s a challenging period of time where there’s a great deal of adjustment to family dynamics and to changes physiologically. You should feel better every day when recovering from childbirth, and if you start to feel like you’re going in an opposite direction, reach out to your health care provider.

Expectation vs. reality

Many women enter postpartum expecting a period defined mostly by joy -- the long-awaited reward after months of anticipation and planning.

While that can certainly be part of the experience, reality tends to be more layered. Instead, what follows is a full-body and full-life adjustment.

“We don’t really talk as much as we need to about the postpartum period; it really is a transition, and it is going to have unique challenges,” Van de Putte said.

That transition touches everything at once: physical healing, emotional shifts, sleep, feeding and a completely new daily rhythm.

And importantly, no two experiences look the same.

Recovery isn’t a timeline -- it’s a process

That unpredictability is one reason the traditional six-week checkup mindset falls short.

“A lot of women think, ‘As long as I see my doctor by six weeks,’” Van De Putte said. “But really, what’s important is to come back within three weeks.”

Early follow-up allows providers to check healing, address concerns and catch complications -- especially for women recovering from a C-section or managing conditions like hypertension.

However, recovery doesn’t neatly resolve at one visit.

“Some women may need several visits during that time frame,” she said.

Postpartum care, she emphasized, should be individualized, not reduced to a single milestone.

What physical recovery really feels like

From there, recovery becomes very real -- and very physical.

For women who had a vaginal delivery, that can mean soreness, cramping and gradual healing. For those recovering from a C-section, it also includes surgical recovery.

Even within vaginal births, experiences vary widely.

“Vaginal tears are very common,” Van De Putte said. “This will happen to upwards of 80% of women.”

While that statistic can sound alarming, most tears are less severe and heal well.

“The vagina typically recovers very well as the blood supply is robust and encourages tissue healing,” she said.

Cramping is another common -- and often unexpected -- part of recovery.

“The uterus is going to contract to bring itself back down to a non-pregnant state… and those contractions feel like heavy menstrual-type cramping,” she explained.

Other normal symptoms can include bleeding that’s similar to a moderate period, breast tenderness and mild discomfort.

But there is a clear boundary between expected discomfort and something more serious.

“You should not be having excruciating pain anywhere,” she said.

Heavy bleeding, fever and severe pain or difficulty with basic bodily functions should always be evaluated.

The part no one prepares you for: exhaustion

As physical recovery is happening, another challenge hits at the same time: sleep deprivation.

“Sleep deprivation has a profound impact on mood, resilience and your ability to feel as if you’re thinking clearly,” Van De Putte said.

Newborns wake frequently, and many moms find themselves stuck in a cycle where rest never feels sufficient.

“You feel like you’re never catching up,” she said.

This is where support becomes essential. Some might find this easier said than done, but Van de Putte advised if you can: “Please sleep when baby sleeps.”

This is the perfect time to accept help from friends or family.

“Have someone help with everything else, if you can, so you can rest.”

The good news: this phase evolves.

“Usually by week 10 to 12, babies are sleeping in longer intervals,” she said.

Feeding pressure and finding what works

At the same time, many women are navigating feeding -- often with pressure to get it “right.”

“Breastfeeding is challenging, and it requires a lot physically of mom,” Van de Putte said.

It can involve soreness, engorgement, latch issues and concerns about supply, especially in the early weeks.

The good news is that preparation can help tremendously.

“Talk about breastfeeding early in your pregnancy and set expectations and a support structure,” she said.

Also, be sure to take advantage of lactation specialists before you’re discharged from the hospital. Ask questions and let them help you with every aspect of breastfeeding.

Van de Putte emphasized hydration and consistency, as well.

“It really comes down to supply and demand,” she said. “You need to be nursing or pumping every three to four hours. And drink a great deal of water.”

But she was equally clear that there isn’t one right path for everyone. Each mom should take the path that works for them.

“It comes down to what works for that family,” she said

The connection most women miss

One of the most important -- and often overlooked -- aspects of postpartum recovery is that it doesn’t start after delivery -- it should begin during pregnancy.

“Going into childbirth as healthy as you possibly can is really important,” Van De Putte said.

That includes staying active, building core strength and supporting pelvic floor health.

“Having a strong pelvic floor is important in all aspects of reproductive health,” she said.

Those habits can directly influence recovery, especially when it comes to strength, healing and issues like urinary incontinence.

Van de Putte recommended exercises like Pilates, yoga and barre, which are inherently focused on strengthening the pelvic floor. However, aerobics, dancing and other cardiac exercise are encouraged. Make sure to tell your instructor about your pregnancy and they can help modify the exercise to meet your needs and prevent injury or strain.

When emotions shift -- and when to pay attention

Alongside the physical changes, emotional shifts are also part of the postpartum experience.

“Baby blues is really common; up to 85% of women will experience it in some form,” Van De Putte said.

These feelings typically show up in the first 10 days and may include sadness, feeling overwhelmed or emotional mood swings.

However, if those feelings linger or intensify, it could indicate something more serious is going on.

“Baby blues are temporary,” she said. “On the other hand, depression tends to get worse and affects your quality of life.”

Warning signs of postpartum depression include difficulty functioning, struggling to bond with the baby, neglecting self-care or feeling unable to cope.

“Seeking help early will optimize outcomes,” she said.

Risks that shouldn’t be ignored

While many aspects of postpartum recovery are expected, some risks require urgent attention.

The most serious she noted is postpartum hypertension and preeclampsia.

It is crucial that pregnant women are educated regarding preeclampsia and associated symptoms,” Van De Putte said. “It’s the second highest cause of death for women in the post-partum period, and the deaths are largely preventable.”

Symptoms like severe headache, vision changes, nausea, abdominal pain or elevated blood pressure should never be dismissed.

“If you have a blood pressure of 160/110 -- that requires emergency evaluation,” she said.

Blood pressures of 140/90 with associated symptoms of headaches, vision changes, abdominal pain or other clinical problems also requires emergent evaluation.

Heavy bleeding, passing large clots and fever or severe pain also warrant immediate care.

Methodist Healthcare has emergency room locations across the city. Click here to find the nearest you.

The takeaway: Prepare for postpartum, not just birth

For all the time spent preparing for delivery, Van De Putte said postpartum deserves just as much attention.

“The more you come up with a plan for the postpartum period, the more prepared you’ll feel,” she said.

That includes understanding recovery, recognizing warning signs, building a support system and knowing when to seek help.

Because while the first 12 weeks can feel overwhelming, they are temporary.

And through all of it, her message remains the same: “You will make it.”

For women who want to better understand postpartum recovery, prepare for delivery or access support after birth, Methodist Healthcare offers comprehensive maternity and postpartum care designed to guide patients through every stage.

To learn more about services, resources and support available, visit Methodist Healthcare’s website.

Three separate arrest affidavits filed in March reveal six new Class A misdemeanor charges against retired SAFU president Christopher Steele, 59.

Four of the charges stem from evidence showcased in Steele’s 2024 arrest and accusation of attempting to frighten Valarie Frausto, who was the San Antonio Fire Department’s interim deputy chief at the time, out of applying for the fire chief’s position.

The remaining charges accuse Steele of conducting the same act on a separate woman with “intent to harm of defraud” her, according to an affidavit.

Steele faces the following six Class A misdemeanor charges:

• Three counts of online impersonation
• Three counts of impersonating a private investigator

If convicted, Steele could face jail time and a fine determined by a judge.

“The newly filed charges reflect the seriousness of the alleged actions and the importance of holding individuals accountable, particularly when the evidence shows laws were clearly violated,“ Frausto said in an email to KSAT.

KSAT reached out to Steele’s lawyer for comment but had not received a response as of Monday afternoon.

San Antonio fire union President Joe Jones sent the following statement to KSAT on Monday:

The San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association is thankful our District Attorney’s office continues to pursue justice in this case. The environment Mr. Steele and his associates created within our department was an unhealthy and extremely toxic situation that our Firefighters and Paramedics were forced to endure. While these new charges do not address the multiple perversions of professionalism, high standards, and subcultural norms that occurred and persist to this day, we sincerely hope Fire Chief Frausto will feel some level of satisfaction in knowing that legal justice is still a possibility.

Joe Jones, San Antonio Fire Union President

More coverage of this story on KSAT:

• Ex-San Antonio fire union president’s stalking charge against current SAFD chief dismissed
• Former fire union boss indicted for stalking current San Antonio fire chief
• Why is a former fire union boss’ arrest not in Bexar County’s public court records?
• Former fire union president arrested for trying to scare highest-ranking female firefighter out of applying for chief
• Former San Antonio firefighters union president arrested on stalking charge

The Thunder — who trailed in the fourth quarter for the first time in these playoffs — eliminated LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night, winning 115-110 to close out another four-game sweep.

Oklahoma City also swept Phoenix in Round 1.

The Thunder join the New York Knicks as teams in the conference finals. Their opponents won't be known for at least a couple of days — with both remaining series tied at 2-2.

Game 5 in the Western Conference matchup between San Antonio and Minnesota is on Tuesday. Game 5 in the Eastern Conference semifinal between Detroit and Cleveland is on Wednesday.

Tuesday's schedule

— Game 5, Minnesota at San Antonio, 8 p.m. EDT (NBC, Peacock)

Series: Tied, 2-2.

Odds: San Antonio by 10.5.

San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama — who will play, after the NBA said nothing more than an ejection was merited after he elbowed Minnesota's Naz Reid in Game 4 — is about to face the most pressure-packed game of his career, with the Spurs looking to keep home-court advantage against the Timberwolves.

Wednesday's schedule

— Game 5, Cleveland at Detroit, 8 p.m. EDT (ESPN)

Series: Tied, 2-2.

Odds: Detroit by 3.5.

Home teams are 4-0 in this series, and the Pistons need to continue that trend. Everyone knows Game 5 in a tied-up series is a swing game, but the Pistons — who fended off elimination three times in the Round 1 win over Orlando — are used to playing amid pressure.

Monday's recap

— Cavaliers 112, Pistons 103 to tie series at 2-2. Donovan Mitchell ran wild after halftime.

— Thunder 115, Lakers 110 to win series 4-0. And now, all eyes are on LeBron James' future.

Sleepy, you have company

Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell backed up his talk.

He told teammates at halftime Monday night that he had to be better — so he went out and scored 39 of his 43 points in the second half to lead the Cavs to a Game 4 win.

Mitchell's 39 points tied the NBA record for points in a playoff half. Sleepy Floyd also had 39 in the second half for Golden State against the Lakers on May 10, 1987 — a record that was unmatched for, ironically enough, 39 years (and one day).

Charles Barkley (for Phoenix against Golden State on May 4, 1994) and Kevin Durant (for Golden State against the Los Angeles Clippers on April 26, 2019) both had 38-point first halves in playoff games.

Awards watch

A breakdown of this season's NBA awards:

— Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year: DeAndre Jordan, New Orleans.

— Hustle Award: Moussa Diabaté, Charlotte.

— Defensive Player of the Year: Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio.

— Clutch Player of the Year: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City.

— Sixth Man of the Year: Keldon Johnson, San Antonio.

— Sportsmanship Award: Derrick White, Boston.

— Most Improved Player: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta.

— Rookie of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Dallas.

— Executive of the Year: Brad Stevens, Boston.

Among the announcements still to come:

— Most Valuable Player: Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver's Nikola Jokic.

— Coach of the Year: Johnson, Detroit's J.B. Bickerstaff, or Boston's Joe Mazzulla.

Betting odds

Defending champion Oklahoma City (-165) is favored to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.

The Thunder are followed by San Antonio (+350), New York (+600), Detroit (+2000), Cleveland (+4000) and Minnesota (+5000).

Key dates

— Through Sunday: NBA draft combine.

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

— May 18 or 20: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.

— June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).

— June 23: Round 1, NBA draft.

— June 24: Round 2, NBA draft.

Quote of the day

“They threw a lot of pitches at us, and I think we’re a better team at the end of the series than we were at the beginning. And that’s a credit to them. So, just a tip of the hat to them. Deep respect.” — Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault, on the Lakers.

Stats of the day

— Oklahoma City got its first fourth-quarter comeback win of these playoffs — because the Thunder had not trailed in the fourth quarter in any of their first seven playoff games this year.

— LeBron James got his 147th playoff double-double Monday night, breaking a tie with Wilt Chamberlain for third-most in NBA postseason history. Only Tim Duncan (164) and Magic Johnson (157) have more.

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

The University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs polled likely voters in two Houston-area contests — the heavily Democratic 18th Congressional District, where Green and Menefee are running, and the red-leaning 9th Congressional District’s Republican runoff between state Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, and Army veteran Alex Mealer.

In the 18th District, the poll found Menefee garnering 50% of the vote to Green’s 43%. The poll was conducted from May 5 to 8 and included a sample of 800 likely voters. It has a margin of error of +/-3.46 percentage points.

The two are running against one another after Texas GOP legislators redrew the state’s congressional map last summer, moving the 9th District, which Green has represented for over 20 years, to new territory that favors the GOP, and in the process putting a large share of Green’s current constituents into the new 18th District.

The race pits the 38-year-old Menefee, who was elected in January to finish out the late Sylvester Turner’s term in the 18th District, against the 78-year-old Green.

In the March primary, Menefee finished first with 46% of the vote to Green’s 44.2%. The winner will be decided in a May 26 runoff because neither won a majority of the vote in round one.

The UH poll found Green narrowly leading, 48% to 45%, with Black voters, who make up a majority of the district and especially of the Democratic primary electorate. But Menefee is up by a 33-point margin with white voters and by 18 points with Latino voters.

Long a bastion of Black political power in Houston, the 18th Congressional District is one of two majority-Black districts in Texas’ new map. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s dismantling of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which has kicked off a mad dash among Republican-led Southern states to break up majority-Black seats, the contest has taken on new resonance. And the politics of age have played a prominent role throughout the primary, given that two of the district’s representatives have died in office in the past two years.

The poll found that Menefee leads heavily with voters under 55, while the over-55 vote is split close to evenly.

In the 9th District, the UH poll found Mealer, a former Harris County judge GOP nominee, leads the Republican runoff against Cain, 50% to 41%.

The two emerged from a crowded March primary in which Mealer finished first with 36% and Cain came in second with 31%. The poll was fielded from May 5 to 9 with a survey population of 400 likely runoff voters and a margin of error of +/-4.9 percentage points.

The 9th District was completely redrawn by the Texas Legislature to favor Republicans, with a new makeup that would have voted for Donald Trump by a 19-point margin in 2024. Narrowly majority-Hispanic, it encompasses eastern parts of Harris County, including the Houston Ship Channel, Pasadena and Deer Park, as well as heavily Republican Liberty County.

Mealer is well-known from her 2022 challenge to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, in which she came within 2 percentage points of flipping the seat, and received a boost in February when Trump endorsed her. Cain, who has represented Deer Park and La Porte in the Legislature for a decade, is backed by Gov. Greg Abbott.

The UH poll found Mealer winning women, white voters, voters older than 55 and independents by double-digit margins.

Third-place candidate Steve Stockman, a former representative who won 16% of the vote in March, endorsed Cain on Monday. The poll, which was conducted before the endorsement, found Stockman voters breaking close to evenly: 46% for Cain and 44% for Mealer.

Democrat Leticia Gutierrez, an environmental advocate, is waiting for the Republican nominee on the other side of the runoff.

Disclosure: University of Houston 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 matchup was one of three announced by the NFL on Monday as NBC, Fox and Prime Video made their upfront presentations to advertisers.

The Dallas Cowboys were part of the other two unveilings. The Cowboys will visit the New York Giants in the first NBC “Sunday Night Football” game of the season on Sept. 13 and they will host the Philadelphia Eagles on Fox on Thanksgiving Day Nov. 26.

The full schedule will be released on Thursday with other matchups revealed in the coming days.

The Bills are one of 10 teams to have new coaches this season with Joe Brady taking over after Sean McDermott was fired after nine seasons. The game will feature two of the top quarterbacks in the league with Josh Allen and the Bills hosting Jared Goff and the Lions. Detroit is looking to bounce back after missing the playoffs last season.

The NFL has traditionally used Week 2 to showcase new stadiums in a primetime game.

This is the eighth time in the past 15 years the Cowboys and Giants are opening the season against each other. It also marks the 15th time the NFC East rivals are meeting on NBC's Sunday night package, the second-most played matchup since the network started the package in 2016.

Dallas is always a national television draw as “America's Team,” and New York could get more primetime exposure with Super Bowl winner John Harbaugh in his first year coaching the Giants and Jaxson Dart established as the franchise quarterback coming off his eventful rookie year.

This also could be the NFL debuts for a pair of former Ohio State teammates: Giants linebacker Arvell Reese, taken with the fifth pick, and Cowboys safety Caleb Downs, drafted not long after at No. 11.

This will only be the third time, and first since 2014, that the Eagles will be the Cowboys' Thanksgiving opponent.

Dallas has won its past four Thanksgiving games, including a 31-28 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs last year.

The late afternoon Thanksgiving game is traditionally the most viewed of the regular season. Last year’s game averaged 57.23 million viewers on CBS, making it the most-watched regular-season game in league history.

This will be the second straight season Philadelphia will have the spotlight on Thanksgiving week. Jalen Hurts and the Eagles hosted last year's Black Friday game and lost to the Chicago Bears 24-15.

Monday's announcements mean the Cowboys know the dates for three of their 17 games. It was announced a couple of weeks ago their game in Rio de Janeiro against the Baltimore Ravens will take place in Week 3 on Sept. 27 and air on CBS.

Dallas at New York in Week 1 also means neither of those teams will be the visitor at Seattle on Wednesday night, Sept. 9, when the defending champion Seahawks unveil their Super Bowl banner and kick off the season. Chicago, Arizona, Kansas City, the Los Angeles Chargers or a title-game rematch against New England are the remaining possibilities.

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

The matchup was one of three announced by the NFL on Monday as NBC, Fox and Prime Video made their upfront presentations to advertisers.

The Dallas Cowboys were part of the other two unveilings. The Cowboys will visit the New York Giants in the first NBC “Sunday Night Football” game of the season on Sept. 13 and they will host the Philadelphia Eagles on Fox on Thanksgiving Day Nov. 26.

The full schedule will be released on Thursday with other matchups revealed in the coming days.

The Bills are one of 10 teams to have new coaches this season with Joe Brady taking over after Sean McDermott was fired after nine seasons. The game will feature two of the top quarterbacks in the league with Josh Allen and the Bills hosting Jared Goff and the Lions. Detroit is looking to bounce back after missing the playoffs last season.

The NFL has traditionally used Week 2 to showcase new stadiums in a primetime game.

This is the eighth time in the past 15 years the Cowboys and Giants are opening the season against each other. It also marks the 15th time the NFC East rivals are meeting on NBC's Sunday night package, the second-most played matchup since the network started the package in 2016.

Dallas is always a national television draw as “America's Team,” and New York could get more primetime exposure with Super Bowl winner John Harbaugh in his first year coaching the Giants and Jaxson Dart established as the franchise quarterback coming off his eventful rookie year.

This also could be the NFL debuts for a pair of former Ohio State teammates: Giants linebacker Arvell Reese, taken with the fifth pick, and Cowboys safety Caleb Downs, drafted not long after at No. 11.

This will only be the third time, and first since 2014, that the Eagles will be the Cowboys' Thanksgiving opponent.

Dallas has won its past four Thanksgiving games, including a 31-28 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs last year.

The late afternoon Thanksgiving game is traditionally the most viewed of the regular season. Last year’s game averaged 57.23 million viewers on CBS, making it the most-watched regular-season game in league history.

This will be the second straight season Philadelphia will have the spotlight on Thanksgiving week. Jalen Hurts and the Eagles hosted last year's Black Friday game and lost to the Chicago Bears 24-15.

Monday's announcements mean the Cowboys know the dates for three of their 17 games. It was announced a couple of weeks ago their game in Rio de Janeiro against the Baltimore Ravens will take place in Week 3 on Sept. 27 and air on CBS.

Dallas at New York in Week 1 also means neither of those teams will be the visitor at Seattle on Wednesday night, Sept. 9, when the defending champion Seahawks unveil their Super Bowl banner and kick off the season. Chicago, Arizona, Kansas City, the Los Angeles Chargers or a title-game rematch against New England are the remaining possibilities.

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