The cylindrical object that tore through the home in Naples on March 8 was subsequently taken to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral for analysis.

The space agency said it was a metal support used to mount old batteries on a cargo pallet for disposal. The pallet was jettisoned from the space station in 2021, and the load was expected to eventually fully burn up on entry into Earth’s atmosphere, but one piece survived.

The chunk of metal weighed 1.6 pounds (0.7 kilograms) and was 4 inches (10 centimeters) tall and roughly 1 1/2 inches (4 centimeters) wide.

Homeowner Alejandro Otero told television station WINK at the time that he was on vacation when his son told him what had happened. Otero came home early to check on the house, finding the object had ripped through his ceiling and torn up the flooring.

“I was shaking. I was completely in disbelief. What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage,” Otero said. “I’m super grateful that nobody got hurt.”

In Chicago, protesters linked arms and blocked lanes of Interstate 190 leading into O’Hare International Airport around 7 a.m. in a demonstration they said was part of a global “economic blockade to free Palestine,” according to Rifqa Falaneh, one of the organizers.

Traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area was snarled for hours as demonstrators shut down all vehicle, pedestrian and bike traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge and chained themselves to 55-gallon drums filled with cement across Interstate 880 in Oakland. Protesters marching into Brooklyn blocked Manhattan-bound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. In Eugene, Oregon, protesters blocked Interstate 5, shutting down traffic on the major highway for about 45 minutes.

O’Hare warned travelers on the social platform X to take alternative forms of transportation with car travel “substantially delayed this morning due to protest activity.”

Some travelers stuck in standstill traffic left their cars and walked the final leg to the airport along the freeway, trailing their luggage behind them.

Among them was Madeline Hannan from suburban Chicago. She was headed to O’Hare for a work trip to Florida when her and her husband’s car ended up stalled for 20 minutes. She got out and “both ran and speed walked” more than a mile (1.6 kilometers). She said she made it to the gate on time, but barely.

“This was an inconvenience,” she said in a telephone interview from Florida. “But in the grand scheme of things going on overseas, it’s a minor inconvenience.”

While individual travelers may have been affected, operations at the airport appeared near normal with delays of under 15 minutes, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.

Inbound traffic toward O’Hare resumed around 9 a.m.

Near Seattle, the Washington State Department of Transportation said a demonstration closed the main road to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Social media posts showed people holding a banner and waving Palestinian flags while standing on the highway. State authorities urged people to use light rail instead.

About 20 protesters were arrested at the Golden Gate Bridge demonstration and traffic resumed shortly after noon, according to the California Highway Patrol. The agency said officers were making arrests at two points on the interstate, including one spot where roughly 300 protesters refused orders to disperse,

“Attempting to block or shut down a freeway or state highway to protest is unlawful, dangerous, and prevents motorists from safely reaching their destinations,” the agency said in a statement.

Oregon State Police said 52 protestors were were arrested for disorderly conduct following the Interstate 5 protest in Eugene, Oregon, about 110 miles (177 kilometers) south of Portland. Six vehicles were towed from the scene.

New York Police made numerous arrests, saying 150 protesters were initially involved in the march around 3:15 p.m., but that number quickly grew. The bridge was fully reopened by 5 p.m.

In Chicago, dozens of protesters were arrested, according to Falaneh. Chicago police said Monday that “multiple people” were taken into custody after a protest where people obstructed traffic, but they did not have a detailed count.

Protesters say they chose the location, in part, because O’Hare is one of the largest airports. Among other things, they’ve called for an immediate cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas.

Anti- war protesters have demonstrated in Chicago near daily since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people. Israeli warplanes and ground troops have conducted a scorched-earth campaign on the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli offensive has killed more than 33,700 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

The Marlins fell to 3-14, and their frustration boiled over in the bottom of the eighth when plate umpire Laz Díaz ejected manager Skip Schumaker. Earlier, Schumaker emerged from the dugout and had a heated exchange with Díaz but wasn’t tossed. During Nick Gordon’s pinch-hit appearance, Schumaker again stepped out of the dugout and exchanged words with Díaz before he was ejected.

Kyle Harrison (2-1) allowed three runs in six innings. The rookie left-hander gave up eight hits, walked one and struck out two.

Down 3-1, the Giants rallied with a three-run seventh against relievers George Soriano (0-1) and Andrew Nardi. Patrick Bailey’s sacrifice fly made it 3-2 before consecutive RBI singles from Lee and pinch-hitter Wilmer Flores.

Tyler Rogers relieved Harrison and threw a scoreless seventh, and Ryan Walker got the first two outs in the eighth. Camilo Doval closed, throwing the final 1 1/3 innings for his second save.

Miami’s Edward Cabrera struck out 10 and allowed one run and five hits over six innings in his season debut. The right-hander had been sidelined with a right shoulder impingement.

Cabrera became the second Marlins starter to complete six innings this season. Max Meyer did it twice before he was optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville on Monday to make room for Cabrera on the roster.

Avisaíl García’s leadoff homer and Bryan De La Cruz’s two-run double in the second put Miami ahead 3-0.

The Giants narrowed the margin on Michael Conforto’s RBI single in the fourth.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Marlins: Placed infielder Jake Burger on the injured list because of a left intercostal muscle strain and recalled infielder Otto López from Jacksonville. … LHP Braxton Garrett (left shoulder impingement) experienced “dead arm” discomfort after his bullpen session, Schumaker said. … C Christian Bethancourt (illness) was not with the club.

UP NEXT

RHP Jordan Hicks (2-0, 1.00 ERA) will start for the Giants on Tuesday. The Marlins will go with LHP Ryan Weathers (1-1, 2.57).

Police arrested a 15-year-old boy Tuesday after the attack at Christ the Good Shepherd Church. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed during a live-streamed sermon, and another priest was also injured.

Both are expected to survive.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb says the suspect’s comments pointed to a religious motive for the attack.

Live-streamed video showed a person dressed in black approach the bishop and stab him multiple times in the head and upper body at the altar. People screamed and ran toward the bishop.

THIS IS BREAKING NEWS. The previous story is below:

Horrified worshippers watched online and in person as a 15-year-old boy stabbed a bishop and a priest during a church service in Sydney on Monday evening before the congregation overpowered him, police said.

A crowd of hundreds seeking revenge gathered outside the Orthodox Assyrian church, hurling bricks and bottles, injuring police officers and preventing police from taking the teen outside, officials said.

There were no life-threatening injuries. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and priest Isaac Royel, the teen and at least two police officers were hospitalized, Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Andrew Holland told journalists.

The church in a message on social media said the bishop and priest were in stable condition and asked for people’s prayers. “It is the bishop’s and father’s wishes that you also pray for the perpetrator,” the statement said.

The Christ the Good Shepherd in suburban Wakeley streams sermons online. A video on social media shows a male dressed in black approaching the bishop at the altar and stabbing him repeatedly in the head and upper body. Members of the congregation scream and rush to stop it.

Holland commended the congregation for subduing the teen before calling police. When asked if the teen’s fingers had been severed, he said the hand injuries were “severe.”

More than 100 police reinforcements arrived before the teen was taken from the church in the hourslong incident. Several police vehicles were damaged, Holland said.

“A number of houses have been damaged. They’ve broken into a number of houses to gain weapons to throw at the police. They’ve thrown weapons and items at the church itself. There were obviously people who wanted to get access to the young person who caused the injuries to the clergy people,” he said.

Authorities did not immediately report a motive for the attack. Australians were still in shock after a lone assailant stabbed six people to death in a Sydney shopping mall on Saturday and injured more than a dozen others.

Holland suggested the weekend attack heightened the community’s response to the church stabbing.

“Given that there has been incidents in Sydney the last few days with knives involved, obviously there’s concerns,” he said. “We’ve asked for everyone to think rationally at this stage. We spoke to community leaders and members of the community to speak to their local people, to try and keep people calm.”

The premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, described the scenes as “disturbing” on social media and urged the community to remain calm and “stick together.” Religious leaders expressed shock and condolences.

Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone, leader of the neighboring municipal government, described the bishop as a community leader. “This is a very emotional situation. Obviously the community is very upset,” Carbone told Sky News.

Christ the Good Shepherd had been preparing for Palm Sunday later this month.

The bishop, described in local media as a figure sometimes seen as divisive on issues such as COVID-19 restrictions, was in national news last year with comments about gender.

A video posted in May 2023 by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation about a campaign targeting the LGBTQ+ community showed the bishop in a sermon saying that “when a man calls himself a woman, he is neither a man nor a woman, you are not a human, then you are an it. Now, since you are an it, I will not address you as a human anymore because it is not my choosing, it your choosing.”

The justices’ order Monday allows the state to put in a place a 2023 law that subjects physicians to up to 10 years in prison if they provide hormones, puberty blockers or other gender-affirming care to people under age 18. Under the court’s order, the two transgender teens who sued to challenge the law still will be able to obtain care.

The court’s three liberal justices would have kept the law on hold.

A federal judge in Idaho had blocked the law in its entirety after determining that it was necessary to do so to protect the teens, who are identified under pseudonyms in court papers.

Opponents of the law have said it will likely increase suicide rates among teens. The law’s backers have said it is necessary to “protect children” from medical or surgical treatments for gender dysphoria, though there’s little indication that gender-affirming surgeries are being performed on transgender youth in Idaho.

Gender-affirming care for youth is supported by every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association.

Medical professionals define gender dysphoria as severe psychological distress experienced by those whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth.

The action comes as the justices also may soon consider whether to take up bans in Kentucky and Tennessee that an appeals court allowed to be enforced in the midst of legal fights.

At least 23 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and most of those states face lawsuits. A federal judge struck down Arkansas’ ban as unconstitutional. Montana’s ban also is temporarily on hold.

The states that have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.

The baby orangutan was delivered by cesarean section on Saturday, weighing just over three pounds (1.3 kilograms), park officials said. The mother, Luna, is recuperating from surgery and will be reunited with the baby once she is stabilized.

These orangutans are found only on the island of Borneo and are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan, which focuses on managing threatened populations and educates visitors about the animals.

The Bornean orangutan is the largest tree-dwelling ape species and the third largest overall. The birth of this newborn is a “milestone in orangutan conservation efforts,” Busch Gardens said in a news release.

Orangutans in the wild typically live between 35 and 40 years. The newborn ape does not yet have a name. The theme park bills its zoo as one of the largest in North America, housing thousands of animals.

The promotion came with a multi-year contract extension, the terms of which were not revealed by the reigning Eastern Conference champions.

Zito’s arrival four years ago sparked a massive turnaround by the Panthers, who have made the playoffs in all four of his seasons leading the front office — a streak unlike any other in club history — and have won more than half their games in all four of those seasons. In the 26 seasons before Zito, Florida had a total of three seasons where it won more than 50% of its games.

“Obviously on a personal level, I’m thrilled and honored,” Zito said. “And I’m grateful to be able to continue to try to keep building and keep pursuing the goal of making this a destination franchise.”

It’s another example of the Panthers locking up talent for years to come, with one of owner Vincent Viola’s mandates being to assure the fan base that what’s being built in Florida is being built to last for many years.

Among those in Florida with long-term deals: Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Gustav Forsling, coach Paul Maurice, and now, the guy who got all those contracts done with the Panthers.

“From his first day as a Panther, Bill has demonstrated his complete commitment to success both on and off the ice. He has worked steadfastly and tirelessly to establish a new standard of excellence for our franchise,” Viola said. “The future has never looked brighter in South Florida and we are thrilled that Bill will continue to lead the way.”

Florida has the fifth-best record in the NHL during Zito’s tenure, plus leads the league in comeback wins, overtime wins and shots on goal. The Panthers are tied with Edmonton for No. 2 in the NHL in goals over Zito’s four seasons entering Monday; they have 1,073, three less than Colorado had.

Also under Zito, a two-time GM of the year finalist: The Panthers won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2022 and went to the Stanley Cup Final last season.

“Under Bill’s leadership we have seen renewed fan excitement, consistent playoff appearances and a sustained culture of success,” Panthers alternate governor Michael Viola said. “Through this extension, we are recommitting to stability and strength at the heart of our organization, and the continued growth of our sport throughout Broward County and South Florida.”

The Iranian attack on Saturday came in response to a suspected Israeli strike two weeks earlier on an Iranian consular building in the Syrian capital of Damascus that killed two Iranian generals. It marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles at Israel in the attack. The Israeli military said that 99% of the drones and missiles were intercepted, by Israel’s own air defenses and warplanes and in coordination with a U.S.-led coalition of partners.

Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said Monday that Israel is considering its next steps but that the Iranian strike “will be met with a response.”

Halevi gave no details. The army’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Israel will respond “at the time that we choose.”

Both men spoke at the Nevatim air base in southern Israel, which Hagari said suffered only light damage in the Iranian attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been huddling with top officials to discuss a possible response. For a second straight day, the government made no announcements on any decisions.

In a conversation with U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Netanyahu said that “Israel will do whatever is required to defend itself,” the prime minister’s office announced.

While Israeli leaders have hinted at retaliation, the government is under heavy international pressure not to further escalate the conflict — especially after the Iranian strike caused such little damage.

The U.S. has urged Israel to show restraint as it seeks to build a broad diplomatic response.

While Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said any response is up to Israel to decide, he added: “We don’t want to see escalation, but we obviously will take necessary measures to protect our forces in the region.”

Pressed at a briefing about whether such a response would jeopardize stability in the region, Ryder said the U.S. will “stay in close consultation with our Israeli partners, as we have done throughout the weekend. Again, we don’t seek wider regional conflict.”

The U.S. also has been working in recent years to strengthen ties between Israel and moderate Arab states in an alliance to counter Iran.

Much of that cooperation has been under the umbrella of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East. Centcom works closely with militaries across the region, including Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.

The U.S., Britain and Jordan — a key American ally in the region — have all said their air forces helped intercept the Iranian missiles and drones. Halevi said France and “other partners” were involved, and he noted that “Iran’s attack has created new opportunities for cooperation in the Middle East.”

The Iranian weapons also flew through Saudi skies, according to a map released by the Israeli military. Israel says most of the interceptions took place outside of Israeli airspace, indicating at least tacit cooperation with the Saudis.

A unilateral Israeli strike could strain these behind-the-scenes contacts, particularly with countries like Saudi Arabia that do not have official diplomatic relations with Israel. It also could risk opening a new front with Iran at a time when Israel is bogged down in a six-month war inside Gaza against Hamas militants.

Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout the Gaza war. The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 33,700 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and caused widespread devastation.

Throughout the war, Israel has traded fire across its northern border with Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, while Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Yemen have also attacked Israel. The friction has kept up fears of a potentially destructive all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, or a broader direct confrontation between Israel and Iran.

World leaders pressed Israel not to strike Iran.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said “all sides must show restraint” to avoid a rising spiral of violence in the Middle East. French President Emmanuel Macron said Paris will try to “convince Israel that we must not respond by escalating.”

In Washington, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby declined to say Monday whether the U.S. had been or expects to be briefed on any Israeli response plans. “We will let the Israelis speak to that,” he said.

“We are not involved in their decision-making process about a potential response,” Kirby said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. doesn’t seek escalation but said it would continue to support Israel’s security. He pledged to step up the diplomatic efforts against Iran.

“Strength and wisdom need to be different sides of the same coin,” he said.

But in the U.S., the ethos of grinding and pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps is ubiquitous, both in the country’s beginnings and our current environment of always-on technology and work hours. And getting enough sleep can seem like a dream.

The Gallup poll, released Monday, found 57% of Americans say they would feel better if they could get more sleep, while only 42% say they are getting as much sleep as they need. That’s a first in Gallup polling since 2001; in 2013, when Americans were last asked, it was just about the reverse — 56% saying they got the needed sleep and 43% saying they didn’t.

Younger women, under the age of 50, were especially likely to report they aren’t getting enough rest.

The poll also asked respondents to report how many hours of sleep they usually get per night: Only 26% said they got eight or more hours, which is around the amount that sleep experts say is recommended for health and mental well-being. Just over half, 53%, reported getting six to seven hours. And 20% said they got five hours or less, a jump from the 14% who reported getting the least amount of sleep in 2013.

(And just to make you feel even more tired, in 1942, the vast majority of Americans were sleeping more. Some 59% said they slept eight or more hours, while 33% said they slept six to seven hours. What even IS that?)

THE REASONS AREN’T EXACTLY CLEAR

The poll doesn’t get into reasons WHY Americans aren’t getting the sleep they need, and since Gallup last asked the question in 2013, there’s no data breaking down the particular impact of the last four years and the pandemic era.

But what’s notable, says Sarah Fioroni, senior researcher at Gallup, is the shift in the last decade toward more Americans thinking they would benefit from more sleep and particularly the jump in the number of those saying they get five or less hours.

“That five hours or less category … was almost not really heard of in 1942,” Fioroni said. “There’s almost nobody that said they slept five hours or less.”

In modern American life, there also has been “this pervasive belief about how sleep was unnecessary — that it was this period of inactivity where little to nothing was actually happening and that took up time that could have been better used,” said Joseph Dzierzewski, vice president for research and scientific affairs at the National Sleep Foundation.

It’s only relatively recently that the importance of sleep to physical, mental and emotional health has started to percolate more in the general population, he said.

And there’s still a long way to go. For some Americans, like Justine Broughal, 31, a self-employed event planner with two small children, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. So even though she recognizes the importance of sleep, it often comes in below other priorities like her 4-month-old son, who still wakes up throughout the night, or her 3-year-old daughter.

“I really treasure being able to spend time with (my children),” Broughal says. “Part of the benefit of being self-employed is that I get a more flexible schedule, but it’s definitely often at the expense of my own care.”

THERE’S A CULTURAL BACKDROP TO ALL THIS, TOO

So why are we awake all the time? One likely reason for Americans’ sleeplessness is cultural — a longstanding emphasis on industriousness and productivity.

Some of the context is much older than the shift documented in the poll. It includes the Protestants from European countries who colonized the country, said Claude Fischer, a professor of sociology at the graduate school of the University of California, Berkeley. Their belief system included the idea that working hard and being rewarded with success was evidence of divine favor.

“It has been a core part of American culture for centuries,” he said. “You could make the argument that it … in the secularized form over the centuries becomes just a general principle that the morally correct person is somebody who doesn’t waste their time.”

Jennifer Sherman has seen that in action. In her research in rural American communities over the years, the sociology professor at Washington State University says a common theme among people she interviewed was the importance of having a solid work ethic. That applied not only to paid labor but unpaid labor as well, like making sure the house was clean.

A through line of American cultural mythology is the idea of being “individually responsible for creating our own destinies,” she said. “And that does suggest that if you’re wasting too much of your time … that you are responsible for your own failure.”

“The other side of the coin is a massive amount of disdain for people considered lazy,” she added.

Broughal says she thinks that as parents, her generation is able to let go of some of those expectations. “I prioritize … spending time with my kids, over keeping my house pristine,” she said.

But with two little ones to care for, she said, making peace with a messier house doesn’t mean more time to rest: “We’re spending family time until, you know, (my 3-year-old) goes to bed at eight and then we’re resetting the house, right?”

THE TRADEOFFS OF MORE SLEEP

While the poll only shows a broad shift over the past decade, living through the COVID-19 pandemic may have affected people’s sleep patterns. Also discussed in post-COVID life is “revenge bedtime procrastination,” in which people put off sleeping and instead scroll on social media or binge a show as a way of trying to handle stress.

Liz Meshel is familiar with that. The 30-year-old American is temporarily living in Bulgaria on a research grant, but also works a part-time job on U.S. hours to make ends meet.

On the nights when her work schedule stretches to 10 p.m., Meshel finds herself in a “revenge procrastination” cycle. She wants some time to herself to decompress before going to sleep and ends up sacrificing sleeping hours to make it happen.

“That applies to bedtime as well, where I’m like, ’Well, I didn’t have any me time during the day, and it is now 10 p.m., so I am going to feel totally fine and justified watching X number of episodes of TV, spending this much time on Instagram, as my way to decompress,” she said. “Which obviously will always make the problem worse.”

The Dali left Baltimore’s port early on March 26 laden with cargo destined for Sri Lanka when it struck one of the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s supports, causing the span to collapse into the Patapsco River and sending six members of a roadwork crew plummeting to their deaths. Three of their bodies have been recovered.

The Dali experienced apparent electrical issues before leaving port, according to someone with knowledge of the situation. The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to comment, said alarms went off on the ship’s refrigerated containers while it was still docked in Baltimore, likely indicating an inconsistent power supply.

The ship’s crew was aware of the issues and indicated they would be addressed, according to the person.

Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board have said their investigation will include an inquiry into whether the ship experienced power issues before starting its voyage.

Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said last week that the investigation is focused on the ship’s electrical system generally. The ship experienced power issues moments before the crash, as is evident in videos that show its lights going out and coming back on.

Homendy said information gleaned from the vessel’s voyage data recorder is relatively basic, “so that information in the engine room will help us tremendously.”

The FBI said Monday that it is conducting a criminal investigation into the bridge collapse that is focused on the circumstances leading up to it and whether all federal laws were followed, according to a different person familiar with the matter. The person wasn’t authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.

FBI agents were aboard the cargo ship on Monday conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity, the agency said in a statement. It didn’t elaborate and said it wouldn’t comment further on the investigation, which was first reported by The Washington Post.

Meanwhile, Mayor Brandon Scott issued a statement Monday announcing a partnership with two law firms to “launch legal action to hold the wrongdoers responsible” and mitigate harm to the people of Baltimore.

Scott said the city “will take decisive action to hold responsible all entities accountable for the Key Bridge tragedy, including the owner, charterer, manager/operator, and the manufacturer of the M/V Dali, as well as any other potentially liable third parties.”

He said with the ship’s owner already seeking to limit the company’s liability, the city needs to act quickly to protect its own interests.

The Dali is managed by Synergy Marine Group and owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd., both of Singapore. Danish shipping giant Maersk chartered the Dali.

“Due to the magnitude of the incident, there are various government agencies conducting investigations, in which we are fully participating,” Synergy Marine spokesperson Darrell Wilson said in a statement Monday. “Out of respect for these investigations and any future legal proceedings, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”

The investigation comes amid concerns about the safety of thousands of U.S. bridges and days after more than two dozen river barges broke loose and struck a closed span in Pittsburgh.

It’s only a little bit of an act.

Deep down, Ward still plays with the anger that he’s had throughout his college career. A zero-star recruit coming out of high school, a product of a Wing-T offense, too short, too this, too that … Ward — who had his first spring game with the Hurricanes on Saturday after transferring in over the winter from Washington State — remembers every doubt that was cast his way.

“I carry all of that with me every day,” Ward said. “You’ve got to have something to keep you going. The time you get complacent, that’s the time you can let people pass you by.”

Ward has swagger, and that’s what the Hurricanes were looking for. There’s no FBS quarterback returning this season who averaged more yards in 2023 than Ward — his 311 yards per contest last year was behind only Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., Oregon’s Bo Nix and Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels of LSU in the national rankings.

And of all the quarterbacks expected back in college football this fall, no matter the level, only Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel has passed for more yards than Ward. Miami’s new leader has thrown for 13,876 yards and 119 touchdowns in his four college seasons — the first two at FCS member Incarnate Word, the last two at Washington State.

“I think quickly, he earned trust,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “And he earned trust in the fact that he’s up there in the office every waking free moment that he has, and he gets there early, and he leaves late. He pulls aside the receivers and the tight ends and he watched film with them, and he takes the lineman out to eat, and he spends time with the running backs …

“Trust and confidence is earned. It’s not just given away. What he has done, he has earned — earned — the trust of the people around him because of his time invested and the fact that he’s an alpha. And your quarterback needs to be an alpha.”

It was not easy for Miami to land Ward when he entered the transfer portal last winter. Ward also was considering jumping to the NFL, thinking that would have made it easier for him to satisfy his primary goal of taking care of his parents, both diabetics who have made tons of sacrifices for him and never miss his games. And for a time, it looked like he was going the pro route.

Then one Saturday night, after a workout, Ward just made up his mind. He called Miami recruiting coordinator Stephen Field and said he’d be on campus the next day. Field thought he meant to visit. Ward told him it would be for a bit longer than that.

“I feel like this was the perfect spot where God is going to prosper me,” Ward said. “I did a lot in my journey to get here. But I feel like I still have more on the table. A lot hasn’t gone my way. I feel like that’s a good thing. All that’s going to help me now.”

Miami’s concepts on offense are consistent with what Ward likes. He studied the offensive line and saw how well it protected quarterbacks last season. And if all that wasn’t enough, one thing might have truly set Miami apart from other schools — he loves the fishing in South Florida.

Without even playing in a real game yet, Ward is already the unquestioned leader of the team. He’s taken his offensive line out to all-you-can-eat steak dinners and is looking for more places where he can bring the group. He has full command of the huddle. He throws passes to little kids after practices (and tried to sneak them some footballs, something Miami’s equipment staff didn’t think was a great idea). He’s even spoken directly with some Miami fans, making sure they know that he wants the Hurricanes to have a breakthrough season in 2024 just as badly as they do.

“We have unbelievable support here,” Ward said. “It’s family. We’re all family and they want us to be successful. They put a lot into us. We’ve got to show them it’s paying off. And winning takes care of a lot of things. If we win some football games, everyone’s going to be happy.”

Two bodies were recovered in rural Oklahoma, a day after the arrests of four people in the case.

Authorities say 27-year-old Veronica Butler and 39-year-old Jilian Kelley, of Hugoton, Kansas, were driving through the Oklahoma panhandle to pick up Butler’s children for a March 30 birthday party in Kansas. They never showed up, and their vehicle was found later that day, abandoned on a rural highway near the Oklahoma-Kansas state line, with evidence of foul play.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation on Monday described an intense effort to find the women, protect the children and arrest suspects without violence.

“This case did not end the way we had hoped. It’s certainly been a tragedy for everyone involved,” OSBI Director Aungela Spurlock said.

OSBI spokesman Hunter McKee said Butler and Kelley are dead, and that the four defendants were responsible for the women going missing, but would not confirm that the bodies found were identified as the missing Kansas women, pending a report from the Medical Examiner’s Office.

On Saturday, Oklahoma authorities said they arrested and charged four people with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree: Tad Bert Cullum, 43; Tifany Machel Adams, 54; Cole Earl Twombly, 50, and Cora Twombly, 44. Court records don’t indicate whether any of the four defendants have an attorney who could speak on their behalf.

Authorities announced the next day that two bodies were recovered in Texas County. The Medical Examiner’s Office would determine their identification and cause of death, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said in a statement Sunday night.

All four suspects are being held without bond in the Texas County Jail and are scheduled to make an initial court appearance Wednesday morning, said Texas County Court Clerk Renee Ellis.

Members of the End the Corruption political committee on Friday dropped off 1,719 signatures supporting an effort to recall Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago to the city clerk’s office, the Miami Herald reported. They need 1,650 verified signatures or 5% of the city’s approximately 33,000 registered voters in the most recent municipal election to advance to the next stage, the city clerk’s office said.

A preliminary count of the signatures was conducted Friday night, and those signatures will now go to the county Elections Department for verification, the newspaper reported.

“How do I feel? Very relieved, very grateful,” End the Corruption chairwoman Maria Cruz said Friday afternoon at City Hall of the recall effort so far.

Cruz was joined by attorney David Winker, who is the registered agent for the political committee. He noted that Lago was reelected without opposition last year.

“And I think that this is residents kind of clapping back a little bit saying, like, no, we’re unhappy with the direction that the city is going,” Winker said. “I think that this is evidence of that.”

If the Elections Department verifies that the group gathered enough signatures, it will have another 60 days to collect more signatures — this time from 15% of the city’s registered voters, or about 4,950 people. If the group meets that threshold, the recall could go to a special election

In a statement released on Instagram late Friday, Lago said the recall effort “is being pursued by special interests who want to control the future of our city.”

“These pay-to-play interests are falsely portraying the recall as a resident-driven process, but the reality is far from that,” he added.

The city is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida and is located 7 miles (11 km) southwest of Downtown Miami.

City spokeswoman Martha Pantin said law enforcement is investigating the canvassing effort, though she did not provide more details. Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Lissette Valdes-Valle confirmed in an email that the office is “looking at it” with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Winker said he had not been notified of an investigation.

“No one affiliated with the recall has received any inquiry from law enforcement,” Winker said. He added: “I welcome any investigation because everything about the recall is being done in full compliance with the law.”

End the Corruption began collecting signatures in mid-March when it launched the recall effort accusing Lago of “misfeasance and malfeasance” in part because of his business ties with Miami-based real estate developer Rishi Kapoor, who’s accused of an alleged $93 million real estate investment fraud scheme.

Hiram “Ross” Grayam was delivering milk in April 1968 and failed to return home after work. Deputies later found his body and his milk truck deep in the woods in the Vero Beach area, the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. He had been shot several times.

The case went cold, and no arrests were made during the next 56 years.

“Through determination and the cooperation of witnesses, new leads emerged: Thomas J. Williams, now deceased, had confessed to Grayam’s murder, his guilt echoing from beyond the grave,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

Grayam, a decorated World War II veteran who received a Purple Heart, had become “a beloved milkman” after settling in Indian River County after the war, authorities said.

A witness told deputies she saw Grayam talking to two men who were walking on the side of the road, WPEC-TV reported.

“She said that Mr. Grayam engaged them in conversation, and announced that he would be back shortly,” Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers said. The two unidentified men and Grayam all left in the milk truck, he said.

Grayam’s family didn’t realize anything had happened, “except my father was a little late in coming home, and then a sheriff’s deputy, an investigator showed up,” Grayam’s son Larry, who was 16 at the time, told the TV station.

During a search of the area by ground and by air, the milk truck and Graham’s body were spotted by an airplane.

“When they arrived at the initial scene, Mr. Grayam was laying next to the milk truck with bullet wounds, killed execution style,” Flowers said.

In 2006, there were rumors that Williams might have been involved. So he wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper “saying that he had been accused of the murder, but he denied having knowledge of it, that he wasn’t involved in it,” the sheriff said.

The case went cold again, and Williams died in 2016.

With Williams now dead, detectives got huge breaks in the case during the past two years: Williams’ ex-wife and a friend of his sister came forward, telling investigators what they knew, the Florida TV station reported.

Flowers said that the witnesses — neither of whom know each other — told investigators that Williams had previously confessed to them that he had killed Grayam.

“These folks said, ‘I would have never said anything to you before, as long as he was alive, he was a threat to me and my family, we would have never told you,’ but the fact that he is now dead gave them the courage to come forward,” Flowers said.

Now, detectives are hoping that anyone who knows about the second man seen with Grayam before he was killed will contact them.

In other words: a familiar routine.

But inside the courtroom, which was closed to TV cameras, Trump was a different man — reserved and muted in a stark departure from his feisty approach to other legal troubles.

The contrast spoke to the gravity of his situation. Trump is now the first former president ever to stand trial on criminal charges and faces the prospect, if he loses, of becoming the first major American presidential candidate in history to run as a convicted felon.

Trump is accused in the case of falsifying business records to hide alleged hush money payments made to a porn star to keep her from going public during his 2016 campaign with allegations of an affair.

The trial is expected to last at least six weeks and Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is required to attend every day court is in session — a schedule that will dramatically alter his daily life and his ability to campaign in battleground states.

So Trump instead brought his campaign to the courthouse, delivering statements before and after the day’s proceedings, which he again cast as nothing more than a politically motivated effort by his rivals to hinder his campaign.

“This is political persecution,” he steamed after arriving with a phalanx of lawyers and several senior aides, but without his wife or other family members. “This is an assault on our country,” he went on.

Trump is already well practiced in the art of campaigning from the courtroom. In addition to appearances related to his four criminal trials, Trump this year voluntarily attended most days of his civil fraud trial as well as a defamation case brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll, who had accused Trump of rape.

Those two trials did not end well for Trump: The former president was found liable in both cases, and now owes over half a billion dollars, including interest.

During those hearings, Trump was often admonished by the judges, who instructed him to be quiet or answer questions more succinctly. At one point, the judge in the Carroll suit threatened to kick Trump out of the courtroom for speaking loudly. Another day he stormed out. Trump also openly sparred with the judge in his civil fraud case, including from the witness stand.

Such behavior would not be tolerated in a criminal courtroom and Judge Juan Merchan made clear Trump could be sent to jail and prosecuted separately if he were to engage in such disruptive behavior.

On Monday, Trump did not.

At times, he was seen whispering and passing notes with Todd Blanche, his lead attorney. But during other stretches, Trump slouched forward, casting his gaze toward the ceiling, or leaned back in his chair with his arms folded and his eyes closed.

Every movement was memorialized by a small pool of reporters inside. As he entered the courtroom, Trump “paused for a split second” and “licked his lips” before walking up the courtroom’s center aisle. When he was introduced as the defendant, Trump turned and gave prospective jurors “a little tight-lipped smirk.” Later, when he exited the courtroom for a break, Trump glared at a New York Times reporter who earlier had reported Trump had fallen asleep in his chair.

While his body language was carefully parsed, he was seen more than heard.

During the first day of his trial, Trump said just five words on the record — “Yes” once, and “Yes, sir” twice — as he was read his so-called “Parker warnings” informing him that his right to be present at the trial could be revoked if he acted out and that he could be sent to jail for disruptive behavior.

It remains unclear how long Trump’s restraint will last as the trial drags on.

The sterile, fluorescent-lit courtroom is a world away from the gilded Mar-a-Lago club where he has taken up residency in his post-presidential life. There he is surrounded by doting staff and ardent supporters who deliver standing ovations every night as he enters the dining room.

In the courtroom, Trump was introduced to jurors not as president — as his aides still call him — but “Mr. Donald J. Trump” — and faced restraints, including the prospect that he might not be granted permission to attend his youngest son’s high school graduation.

The judge has not ruled on the matter, but did bar Trump from traveling to Washington next Thursday, when the Supreme Court will take up his argument that, as a former president, he is immune from prosecution.

“We think that it is important for the court to remind Mr. Trump that he is a criminal defendant and that he is under the court’s supervision,” one prosecutor, Christopher Conroy, said.

With Trump stuck in New York for the foreseeable future, aides have been planning rallies and other political events on weekends and on Wednesdays, when court is not supposed to be in session. Merchan said Monday that Wednesdays could be added if he trial falls behind schedule.

Aides are also considering possible events around New York after court ends for the day. Trump has often talked about wanting to campaign in his home state, even though New York remains overwhelmingly Democratic.

He is also expected continue to speak from the courthouse and hold press conferences to spin each day’s proceedings, as he has in his other trials.

While Trump has complained about being taken off the campaign trail, he has been keeping a relatively light schedule of public events since he locked up the GOP nomination last month, with most of his rallies scheduled on weekends anyway. Instead, he has been focused on fundraising as he tries to close the gap with his Democratic rival, President Joe Biden.

He is also expected to rely more heavily on surrogates. On Monday, allies including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Rep. Byron Donalds — all potential vice presidential or cabinet picks — fanned out across cable networks to blast the case.

Trump’s indictments proved beneficial during the primaries, helping him rake in tens of millions of dollars from angry supporters and denying his GOP rivals the media spotlight as they were trying to gain traction.

It’s unclear, however, how a criminal trial and possible conviction resonate with the broader general election audience, which includes more moderate and independent voters that could decide the race.

Nearly half of registered voters, 46%, said in a recent NYT/Siena College poll that Trump “should be found guilty” in the New York trial. And about 6 in 10 said the charges were “very” or “somewhat” serious.

The details of the case are salacious — involving a porn star, tabloids and hush money payments. But the case is widely see as posing less of a legal risk to Trump than his other cases, which accuse him of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election and of charges under the Espionage Act over his hoarding of classified documents that could lead to serious jail time.

But the hush money case could be the only one that makes it to trial before November’s vote.

Biden’s campaign, meanwhile, ignored Monday’s proceedings as his aides seek to avoid the appearance of judicial interference.

Campaign officials said Monday that they will instead focus on continuing to present a political split-screen between the two men, with the president focused on governing and Trump focused on himself.

That contrast was especially striking this weekend, as Iran launched an attack against Israel and Biden worked to prevent a wider Middle East escalation, speaking by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

He’ll spend the week campaigning in battleground Pennsylvania, with events planned in Scranton, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, as Trump remains in court.

Johnson, R-La., is already under immense political pressure from his fellow GOP lawmakers as he tries to stretch between the Republican Party’s divided support for helping Kyiv defend itself from Moscow’s invasion. The Republican speaker has sat for two months on a $95 billion supplemental package that would send support to the U.S. allies, as well as provide humanitarian aid for civilians in Ukraine and Gaza and funding to replenish U.S. weapons provided to Taiwan.

The attack by Iran on Israel early Sunday further ratcheted up the pressure on Johnson, but also gave him an opportunity to underscore the urgency of approving the funding.

Johnson told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that he and Republicans “understand the necessity of standing with Israel” and he would try this week to advance the aid.

“The details of that package are being put together right now,” he said. “We’re looking at the options and all these supplemental issues.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at a news conference also said that President Joe Biden held a phone call Sunday with the top Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate, including Johnson. The New York Democrat said there was consensus “among all the leaders that we had to help Israel and help Ukraine, and now hopefully we can work that out and get this done next week.”

“It’s vital for the future of Ukraine, for Israel and the West,” Schumer said.

The White House said Biden “discussed the urgent need for the House of Representatives to pass the national security supplemental as soon as possible.”

Johnson has also “made it clear” to fellow House Republicans that he will this week push to package together the aid for Israel, Ukraine and allies in Asia and pass it through the House, said GOP Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The speaker has expressed support for legislation that would structure some of the funding for Kyiv as loans, pave the way for the U.S. to tap frozen Russian central bank assets and include other policy changes. Johnson has pushed for the Biden administration to lift a pause on approvals for Liquefied Natural Gas exports and at times has also demanded policy changes at the U.S. border with Mexico.

But currently, the only package with wide bipartisan support in Congress is the Senate-passed bill that includes roughly $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby called on the speaker to put that package “on the floor as soon as possible.”

“We didn’t need any reminders in terms of what’s going on in Ukraine,” Kirby said on NBC. “But last night certainly underscores significantly the threat that Israel faces in a very, very tough neighborhood.”

As Johnson searches for a way to advance the funding for Ukraine, he has been in conversations with both the White House and former president Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

With his job under threat, Johnson traveled to Florida on Friday for an event with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club. Trump expressed support for Johnson and said he had a “very good relationship” with him.

“He and I are 100% united on these big agenda items,” Johnson said. “When you talk about aid to Ukraine, he’s introduced the loan-lease concept which is a really important one and I think has a lot of consensus.”

But Trump, with his “America First” agenda, has inspired many Republicans to push for a more isolationist stance. Support for Ukraine has steadily eroded in the roughly two years since the war began, and a cause that once enjoyed wide support has become one of Johnson’s toughest problems.

When he returns to Washington on Monday, Johnson also will be facing a contingent of conservatives already angry with how he has led the House in maintaining much of the status quo both on government spending and more recently, a U.S. government surveillance tool.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a right-wing Republican from Georgia, has called for Johnson’s ouster. She departed the Capitol on Friday telling reporters that support for her effort was growing. And as Johnson on Sunday readied to advance the aid, Greene said on X that it was “antisemitic to make Israeli aid contingent” on aid for Ukraine.

While no other Republicans have openly joined Greene in calling to oust Johnson, a growing number of hardline conservatives are openly disparaging Johnson and defying his leadership.

Meanwhile, senior GOP lawmakers who support aid to Ukraine are growing frustrated with the months-long wait to bring it to the House floor. Kyiv’s troops have been running low on ammunition and Russia is becoming emboldened as it looks to gain ground in a spring and summer offensive. A massive missile and drone attack destroyed one of Ukraine’s largest power plants and damaged others last week.

“What happened in Israel last night happens in Ukraine every night,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

The divided dynamic has forced Johnson to try to stitch together a package that has some policy wins for Republicans while also keeping Democrats on board. Democrats, however, have repeatedly called on the speaker to put the $95 billion package passed by the Senate in February on the floor.

Although progressive Democrats have resisted supporting the aid to Israel over concerns it would support its campaign into Gaza that has killed thousands of civilians, most House Democrats have gotten behind supporting the Senate package.

“The reason why the Senate bill is the only bill is because of the urgency,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said last week. “We pass the Senate bill, it goes straight to the president’s desk and you start getting the aid to Ukraine immediately. That’s the only option.”

Many Democrats also have signaled they would likely be willing to help Johnson defeat an effort to remove him from the speaker’s office if he puts the Senate bill on the floor.

“I’m one of those who would save him if we can do Israel, Taiwan, Ukraine and some reasonable border security,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat.

Atlanta wasted a 5-1 lead and fell behind 7-5 in the sixth when Jesús Sánchez hit a tying RBI single with two outs against Charlie Morton and scored on Nick Gordon’s two-run homer off Dylan Lee.

Ozuna hit an RBI double in the seventh against Anthony Bender. Then in the ninth, Ronald Acuña Jr. singled off Scott (0-3) leading off, Matt Olson walked on four pitches with two outs and Ozuna drove a slider with an 0-2 count to center for his seventh home run this season.

“I just wanted to make good contact and tie the game because Ronny was at second,” Ozuna said. “Any bloop or base hit I could get and Ronny scores and it’s tie game.”

Ozuna, who spent the first five seasons of his career in Miami, went 7 for 12, homered twice and had eight RBIs in the series.

“This is the place that I grew up and this is the team that gave me the opportunity as a professional baseball player,” Ozuna said. “This is basically my hometown. Every time I come here, I feel good.”

Scott retired Ozuna on a double play grounder to close Miami’s win Saturday.

“I didn’t execute my pitch. I threw a bad pitch and it all falls on me,” Scott said. “I should have gotten the guy before him. That’s my mistake.”

Adam Duvall also homered for the Braves. A.J. Minter (2-1) pitched a perfect eighth and Raisel Iglesias got three straight outs for his third save.

“These guys are amazing,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “If you keep within a run or so, you’ve got a pretty good chance. It was a tough, well-fought game.”

Third baseman Jake Burger, who leads Miami with 15 RBIs, left in the third inning because of a left oblique strain. Miami dropped to 3-13.

“The way they fought was so encouraging because if they do that throughout the year, you’ll get more wins than losses,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “That’s tough. It’s going to eat at them tonight, no doubt.”

Morton gave up six runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts.

“I think they jumped me early in a couple of counts,” Morton said. “They got some pitches to hit and put barrel on the ball. There were a couple of mistakes that I made in counts and I paid for them.”

Jesús Luzardo allowed five runs and seven hits in five innings. Bryan De La Cruz also homered for the Marlins.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Marlins: INF Tim Anderson entered in the sixth after missing two games because of an illness and struck out leading off the ninth. Anderson replaced Vidal Brujan, who exited because of right knee soreness.

UP NEXT

Braves: RHP Darius Vines makes his season debut at Houston after pitching 12 innings with a 3.75 ERA for Triple-A Gwinnett. RHP Spencer Arrighetti (0-1, 21.00) starts for the Astros.

Marlins: LHP A.J. Puk (0-3, 5.91) will start Monday’s opener of a three-game series against visiting San Francisco and LHP Kyle Harrison (1-1, 4.76).

The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index, released Friday in a preliminary version, slipped to 77.9 this month, down from March’s figure of 79.4. Sentiment is about halfway between its all-time low, reached in June 2022 when inflation peaked, and its pre-pandemic averages. The survey has been conducted since 1980.

“Consumers are reserving judgment about the economy in light of the upcoming election, which, in the view of many consumers, could have a substantial impact on the trajectory of the economy,” said Joanne Hsu, director of the consumer survey.

The index had dropped to 61.3 as recently as November before jumping in the following two months by the most in more than three decades. It has since moved mostly sideways.

Stronger consumer optimism can sometimes translate into more spending, which typically boosts the economy. Most economists expect consumer spending to remain healthy as long as the job market stays strong.

“Looking beyond the recent minor monthly volatility, sentiment remains on a rising trend,” Oren Klachkin, an economist at Nationwide, said in a research note. “It’s still a positive environment for the consumer.”

Among the respondents to the survey, sentiment fell the most among Republicans. Among independents, it edged down, and it rose slightly among Democrats. Americans’ economic views have become more driven by political partisanship in recent decades.

An increase in gas prices likely contributed to the decline in consumers’ outlook, according to Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. The average national price of a gallon of gas has jumped about 7% from a month ago, according to AAA, to $3.63 a gallon.

Americans’ perceptions of future inflation also rose, probably reflecting still-high prices. Consumers expect inflation to be 3.1% a year from now, which would exceed the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Still, that would be below the current level of 3.5%.

Inflation has tumbled from a peak of 9.1% in the summer of 2022 but has remained elevated so far this year. Prices excluding volatile food and energy costs, rose 3.8% in March from a year earlier, the same as in the previous month and well above the Fed’s target.

But Israel’s War Cabinet met without making a decision on next steps, an official said, as a nervous world waited for any sign of further escalation of the former shadow war.

The military coalition, led by the United States, Britain and France and appearing to include a number of Middle Eastern countries, gave Israel support at a time when it finds itself isolated over its war against Hamas in Gaza. The coalition also could serve as a model for regional relations when that war ends.

“This was the first time that such a coalition worked together against the threat of Iran and its proxies in the Middle East,” said the Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

One unknown is which of Israel’s neighbors participated in the shooting down of the vast majority of about 350 drones and missiles Iran launched. Israeli military officials and a key War Cabinet member noted additional “partners” without naming them. When pressed, White House national security spokesman John Kirby would not name them either.

But one appeared to be Jordan, which described its action as self-defense.

“There was an assessment that there was a real danger of Iranian marches and missiles falling on Jordan, and the armed forces dealt with this danger. And if this danger came from Israel, Jordan would take the same action,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi said in an interview on Al-Mamlaka state television. U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Sunday.

The U.S. has long tried to forge a regionwide alliance against Iran as a way of integrating Israel and boosting ties with the Arab world. The effort has included the 2020 Abraham Accords, which established diplomatic relations between Israel and four Arab countries, and having Israel in the U.S. military’s Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East and works closely with the armies of moderate Arab states.

The U.S. had been working to establish full relations between Israel and regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack sparked Israel’s war in Gaza. The war, which has claimed over 33,700 Palestinian lives, has frozen those efforts due to widespread outrage across the Arab world. But it appears that some behind-the-scenes cooperation has continued, and the White House has held out hopes of forging Israel-Saudi ties as part of a postwar plan.

Just ahead of Iran’s attack, the commander of CENTCOM, Gen. Erik Kurilla, visited Israel to map out a strategy.

Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, on Sunday thanked CENTCOM for the joint defensive effort. Both Jordan and Saudi Arabia are under the CENTCOM umbrella. While neither acknowledged involvement in intercepting Iran’s launches, the Israeli military released a map showing missiles traveling through the airspace of both nations.

“Arab countries came to the aid of Israel in stopping the attack because they understand that regional organizing is required against Iran, otherwise they will be next in line,” Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israel’s military intelligence, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said he had spoken with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and that the cooperation “highlighted the opportunity to establish an international coalition and strategic alliance to counter the threat posed by Iran.”

The White House signaled that it hopes to build on the partnerships and urged Israel to think twice before striking Iran. U.S. officials said Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington would not participate in any offensive action against Iran.

Israel’s War Cabinet met late Sunday to discuss a possible response, but an Israeli official familiar with the talks said no decisions had been made. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing confidential deliberations.

Asked about plans for retaliation, Hagari declined to comment directly. “We are at high readiness in all fronts,” he said.

“We will build a regional coalition and collect the price from Iran, in the way and at the time that suits us,” said a key War Cabinet member, Benny Gantz.

Iran launched the attack in response to a strike widely blamed on Israel that hit an Iranian consular building in Syria this month and killed two Iranian generals.

By Sunday morning, Iran said the attack was over, and Israel reopened its airspace. Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, claimed Iran had taught Israel a lesson and warned that “any new adventures against the interests of the Iranian nation would be met with a heavier and regretful response from the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

The foes have been engaged in a shadow war for years, but Sunday’s assault was the first time Iran launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran said it targeted Israeli facilities involved in the Damascus strike, and that it told the White House early Sunday that the operation would be “minimalistic.”

But U.S. officials said Iran’s intent was to “destroy and cause casualties” and that if successful, the strikes would have caused an “uncontrollable” escalation. At one point, at least 100 ballistic missiles were in the air with just minutes of flight time to Israel, the officials said.

Israel said more than 99% of what Iran fired was intercepted, with just a few missiles getting through. An Israeli airbase sustained minor damage.

Israel has over the years established — often with the help of the U.S. — a multilayered air-defense network that includes systems capable of intercepting a variety of threats, including long-range missiles, cruise missiles, drones and short-range rockets.

That system, along with collaboration with the U.S. and others, helped thwart what could have been a far more devastating assault at a time when Israel is already deeply engaged in Gaza as well as low-level fighting on its northern border with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran.

While thwarting the Iranian onslaught could help restore Israel’s image after the Hamas attack in October, what the Middle East’s best-equipped army does next will be closely watched in the region and in Western capitals — especially as Israel seeks to develop the coalition it praised Sunday.

In Washington, Biden pledged to convene allies to develop a unified response. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. would hold talks with allies. After an urgent meeting, the Group of Seven countries unanimously condemned Iran’s attack and said they stood ready to take “further measures.”

Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israel’s war in Gaza. In the Oct. 7 attack, militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, also backed by Iran, killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 33,000 people, according to local health officials.

Hamas welcomed Iran’s attack, saying it was “a natural right and a deserved response” to the strike in Syria. It urged the Iran-backed groups in the region to continue to support Hamas in the war.

Hezbollah also welcomed the attack. Almost immediately after the war in Gaza erupted, Hezbollah began attacking Israel’s northern border. The two sides have been involved in daily exchanges of fire, while Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have launched rockets and missiles toward Israel.

And they’ll have two chances, if necessary.

Thomas Bryant scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 18 points and the Heat tuned up for a trip to the play-in tournament by beating the Toronto Raptors 118-103 on Sunday.

Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro each scored 17 for Miami, while Jimmy Butler scored 15, Caleb Martin 12 and Delon Wright finished with 11 points and five steals for the Heat (46-36). Miami goes to Philadelphia to open the play-in tournament on Wednesday, with the winner securing the No. 7 seed.

“Should be a lot of fun,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

The loser of the Miami-Philadelphia game will play host to either Atlanta or Chicago on Friday to determine the No. 8 seed and who’ll face No. 1 seed Boston in Round 1.

“We’ve just got to go out there and compete, play basketball the right way and do something very difficult — which is to win on Philly’s floor,” Butler said. “But it’s the time of the year where you’ll have to do that anyways if you want to win a championship. Obviously, we’ll have to do it if we want to get to 7.”

Gary Trent Jr. scored 18 points for Toronto. Jordan Nwora and Gradey Dick each scored 14, Kelly Olynyk scored 11 and Ochai Agbaji added 10.

Toronto finished 25-57, the fifth-worst record in franchise history. There was some early hope; the Raptors started 8-8 and a three-game winning streak in late February pushed their record to 22-36.

They went 3-21 the rest of the way, playing much of that final stretch without Scottie Barnes — a former rookie of the year who made his first All-Star team this year — because of injury.

“I think we managed to keep the group together and keep high spirits and really focused on player development of our young core,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said. “So, there is a lot of positive things that we’re going to embrace and look for going for into the future.”

It was tied after one quarter and the intrigue didn’t last much longer. Miami outscored Toronto 43-22 in the second to build a 67-46 halftime lead. The 21-point margin in the second quarter was Miami’s second-biggest of any period this season; the Heat outscored Portland by 24 in the second quarter of what became a 60-point win on March 29.

It’s the biggest R-rated opening of the year to date and a record for A24, the studio behind films like “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and “The Iron Claw.” “Civil War” also unseated “Godzilla x Kong” from its perch atop the box office. The titan movie from Warner Bros. had held the No. 1 spot for the past two weekends.

“Civil War,” starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura and Cailee Spaeny as front-line journalists in the near future covering a devastating conflict in the U.S. and trying to make their way to Washington, D.C. The story, written by Garland, who is also the mind behind “Ex Machina” and “Annihilation,” imagines a U.S. in which California and Texas have united against a president who has disbanded the FBI and given himself a third term.

Though entirely fictional, “Civil War” has been inspiring debates since the first trailer that have extended beyond the musings of film critics and traditional reviews. This weekend, The New York Times ran two opinion pieces related to the movie, one by Stephen Marche and another by Michelle Goldberg. There were also pieces on CNN and Politico.

Going into the weekend, projections pegged the film to debut in the $15 to $24 million range. The studio said “Civil War” overperformed in markets “from LA to El Paso.” The data analytics company EntTelligence reported that the film has attracted over 1.7 million patrons this weekend and that the top three markets were Los Angeles, New York and Dallas.

“The title alone is enough to spark a conversation in a year where the political discourse is top of mind,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “And they couldn’t have picked a better date. This movie is perfectly timed in a month that is very quiet.”

The film opened on 3,838 screens in the U.S. and Canada, including IMAX. It’s the most expensive movie that the studio has ever made, with a production budget of $50 million, which does not account for millions spent on marketing and promotion.

IMAX showings of “Civil War,” which was playing on 400 of the large format screens, accounted for $4.2 million, or 16.5% of the domestic total.

Reviews have been largely positive. It’s currently at 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 77% audience score. Its CinemaScore was a B-, which has sometimes indicated that word of mouth might not be strong going forward. But that might not be the case with “Civil War,” which doesn’t have a tremendous amount of competition over the next few weeks until “The Fall Guy” opens on May 3.

“You have to take all the metrics together, including the competitive landscape,” Dergarabedian said.

But it is a notable win for the studio, which doesn’t always open films nationwide out of the gates. Before “Civil War,” A24’s biggest debut was the Ari Aster horror “Hereditary,” which opened to $13.6 million in 2018.

“This isn’t destined to be a $200 million global blockbuster. But it’s a very high-profile win for A24,” Dergarabedian said. “They’re a studio that pushes the envelope. They’re a brand associated with a certain level of quality and filmmaking expertise, pushing boundaries and taking risks. It’s well-earned over the years.”

Second place went to “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” which earned $15.5 million in its third weekend to bring its running domestic total to nearly $158 million. Another “Empire” movie, Sony’s “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” took third place in its fourth weekend with $5.8 million. It’s now at $160 million worldwide.

Rounding out the top five was Universal and DreamWorks’ “Kung Fu Panda 4,” in fourth with $5.5 million in weekend six, and “Dune: Part Two” with $4.3 million in its seventh weekend. “Dune 2” has now earned $272 million domestically.

This weekend also saw the box office year-to-date comparisons take a big hit. Last year, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” brought in over $92 million in its second weekend in theaters. On the same weekend in 2023, the top 10 accounted for over $142 million, compared to this year’s $68.4 million. The year to date is back down to 16% after seeing some recovery with the success of “Dune: Part Two.”

“The box office has been a seesaw,” Dergarabedian said. “But we all knew this was going to be a rough month for comps because of ‘Mario.’”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Civil War,” $25.7 million.

2. “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” $15.5 million.

3. “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” $5.8 million.

4. “Kung Fu Panda 4,” $5.5 million.

5. “Dune: Part Two,” $4.3 million.

6. “Monkey Man,” $4.1 million.

7. “The First Omen,” $3.8 million.

8. “The Long Game,” $1.4 million.

9. “Shrek 2,” $1.4 million.

10. “SUGA – Agust D Tour ‘D-DAY’ The Movie,” $990,881.

Baltimore police say the girl was shot Saturday afternoon at Mondawmin Mall. According to police, two groups at the mall got into an altercation, and an unidentified male fired a shot as he was running away that struck the girl in the upper body.

The girl, who was at the mall with her mother, was not the intended victim, officials said.

Police said she was taken to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds and was in critical but stable condition Saturday evening.

Authorities were searching for the suspect Sunday.

In December, a man delivering packages at the mall was shot in the ankle at the mall’s parking lot when he became caught between two groups of boys who were shooting at each other.

Many of the 72,610 who filled Arrowhead Stadium to see Messi weren’t disappointed as he delivered deft passes to create scoring chances — and had a highlight-reel goal.

Messi’s left-footed blast from the top of the penalty arc pushed Miami CF (4-2-3) in front 2-1 in the 51st minute. It was his fourth straight MLS game with a goal.

“It was an amazing goal,” Miami midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi said. “He does this all the time, so it doesn’t surprise me at all. It’s normal from a guy like him.”

With Inter Miami CF trailing 1-0 in the 18th minute, Messi assisted on Diego Gómez’s first-touch right-footer in the middle of the box to tie it.

“The pass that Messi makes and the second goal, the ball that he hits where he hits it from, you don’t see that much in the MLS,” Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes said. “They can punish you.”

After a defensive mistake by Sporting KC, Suárez converted Gómez’s crossing pass inside the 6-yard box for the lead. It was Suárez’s team-leading sixth of the season and tied him for the league lead.

“We lost the ball three times,” Vermes said. “And they have the quality that when you do, they can punish you.”

Inter Miami CF leads the MLS in goals, with 19, and in assists, with 29.

Messi had an excellent chance in the 27th minute on a left-footer from 12 yards, but it was smothered by Kansas City’s Tim Melia.

Messi’s free kick in the 41st minute from 25 yards barely missed wide right.

“Unbelievable player and he can create something out of thin air,” Sporting KC forward Daniel Salloi said. “It was a great experience to play against these guys.”

Erik Thommy opened the scoring for Sporting KC (2-2-4) in the sixth minute on a 16-yard strike. He scored again in the 58th minute on a rebound off Salloi’s corner kick to tie it at 2.

Thommy’s goals were his second and third of the season — and first since opening day.

“I had to take the risk, on the corner,” Thommy said. “I had the confidence and had a good feeling.”

The crowd was 20,000 larger than the previous Sporting KC record set in 2010 during a friendly against Manchester United.

“The environment was out of this world fantastic,” Vermes said. “This was incredible.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Sporting KC midfielder Remy Walter left in first-half stoppage time with a lower leg injury.

UP NEXT

Inter Miami FC: hosts Nashville SC on April 20.

Sporting KC: hosts St. Louis City SC on April 20.

Financial stress during tax season can manifest in different ways, whether that’s procrastinating on your tax return until the last minute or experiencing intense stress about filing incorrectly. If you’re dealing with financial stress right now, you’re not alone.

“Many Americans experience high stress during tax times, and many Americans are dealing with financial stress,” financial wellness expert Joyce Marter said.

You might think emotions and money don’t go together, but they often affect each other, said Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, financial therapist and founder of Mind Money Balance.

“Our money and mental health intersect because they’re two parts of our overall wellness,” said Bryan-Podvin.

Here are recommendations from experts to reduce financial stress during tax season while still getting your return done by the deadline:

Don’t avoid, plan

Financial stress can happen all year long. While tax season is only a window of time, it comes with something that can be daunting: a deadline. Some might find a deadline motivates them to get things done, while others can feel paralyzed by it, said Dr. Tanya Farber, psychologist at McLean Hospital, a mental health facility in Massachusetts.

“If we’re overwhelmed by our anxiety, that’s where it may lead us to avoid thinking about finances or trying to avoid thinking about taxes,” Farber said.

Although you do have an option of filing for an extension, Farber doesn’t recommend prolonging the period when you have to worry about taxes. Instead, a good first step is to make a detailed plan to tackle them.

Farber recommends you break down all of the steps and start completing them one by one. A key step is to start gathering all of your documents, such as your W-2 or 1099 forms, savings and investment records, eligible deductions and tax credits, ahead of sitting down to file your taxes. Once you have a list of steps, scheduling times to complete the tasks will make it easier to build momentum.

While the required documents might depend on your individual case, here is a general list of what everyone needs:

If you need help making a plan, search for tax checklists, which can be a great tool to make sure you have everything you need.

Face your fears

For many, anxiety over filing taxes comes from fear, Farber said. Whether it’s fear of making a mistake in your return or unexpectedly owing thousands of dollars, these fears can overwhelm you to the point of avoiding even looking at your taxes.

If you identify that fear is what’s stopping you from filing, Farber recommends that you ask yourself if whatever you’re afraid of is likely to happen.

“When we have fears, they’re possible, probable or definite,” Farber said. “And oftentimes anxiety is the highest when we’re assuming the worst-case scenario.”

If thinking about your fears by yourself is not helping, Bryan-Podvin recommends you discuss them with a friend or a family member. In many cases, talking with someone else might help you focus on what might actually happen rather than focusing on the worst-case scenarios.

Focus on self-care

If tax season brings a lot of financial stress for you, Bryan-Podvin recommends that you increase the amount of self-care activities you’re doing. Activities such as taking a walk, spending time with your dog or getting enough sleep can help soothe stress.

“We are going to be doing things that are difficult and depleting and anxiety-provoking so doing more things that are restorative can help us balance that,” Farber said.

Doing restorative activities can work as a toolbox of coping skills when you’re in the middle of a stressful situation, like filing taxes.

Ask for support

You might feel like you’ll be judged if you talk about money, but that’s often not the case. Talking about finances with your friends or family can be a moment to receive support, she said.

“Talking with others is going to give you access to more information and resources and also helps remove the shame and stigma because you’re not alone,” Marter said.

Whether it’s talking with a tax professional or reaching out to your most tax-savvy family member, proactively seeking support will help you avoid being stressed if you’re filing very close to the deadline.

Additionally, if you are experiencing mental health struggles, there are several resources you can use to find professional help.

In the U.S., you can dial 211 to speak with a mental health expert, confidentially and for free.

Other mental health resources include:

Veterans Crisis Line: call 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Crisis Text Line: Text the word ‘Home’ to 741-741

The Trevor Lifeline for LGBTQ Youth: 1-866-488-7386

The Trans Lifeline: 1-877-565-8860

“I will be forced to sit fully gagged. I’m not allowed to talk. They want to take away my constitutional right to talk,” said Trump, who has been barred from publicly discussing potential witnesses and jurors but not the judge or prosecutors.

“I’m proud to do it for you,” Trump told a crowd in northeast Pennsylvania. “Have a good time watching.”

Trump spoke as Israel was fighting off a retaliatory drone attack from Iran that threatened to tip into a regional war in the Middle East. After a short mention of the attack, which he claimed wouldn’t have happened if he were president, Trump turned to an extended tirade against his own legal troubles.

He went after Judge Juan M. Merchan, whom he called “corrupt,” and District Attorney Alvin Bragg, declaring himself a victim of Democrats bent on blocking his return to the White House.

Trump is navigating four separate criminal prosecutions while running to avenge his loss to President Joe Biden, creating an unprecedented swirl of legal and political chaos.

Jury selection starts Monday in New York in his trial where he is charged with seeking during his 2016 campaign to bury stories about extramarital affairs by arranging hush money payments.

It will be the first criminal trial ever of a former U.S. president. And it will limit Trump’s availability on the campaign trail, though he is expected to speak to the media after court often and has for months fundraised and campaigned on the felony charges he faces.

Trump spoke at the Schnecksville Fire Hall in Lehigh County, where a long line formed outward three hours before Trump’s planned appearance. It was Trump’s third visit this year to the vital swing state, one that could decide who wins this year’s presidential race. He also plans to attend a fundraiser in nearby Bucks County before the event.

Pennsylvania is a critical battleground in the rematch between Trump and Biden, with both candidates expected to visit the state frequently through November. Trump flipped the state to the Republican column in 2016 but lost it four years after to Biden, who was born in the northeast city of Scranton and has long talked about his roots in the city. Biden plans to deliver a major address Tuesday in Scranton on tax fairness.

Bob Dippel, 69, retired after working as a chief financial officer for several small businesses. He said he didn’t think the upcoming trial “would matter too much” to independent voters because “people are starting to see the mockery being made” of the legal system.

Biden has argued Trump’s lies about losing the 2020 election are dangerous for the country. He has said Trump poses a fundamental threat to democracy and U.S. alliances abroad — rhetoric that Trump has argued applies to Biden.

“We’re going to win in the biggest landslide in history, because we’re the ones who are fighting to save our democracy and Joe Biden is a demented tyrant,” Trump said.

Iran’s attack on Israel, in apparent retaliation for a strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed 12 people, may once again push foreign policy and the Middle East into the center of the presidential campaign.

It marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel, where officials have vowed to strike Iran directly in response to any attack from Iranian soil.

Prior to Saturday, Trump has recently said Israel needs to “finish up” its offensive in Gaza, warning the country is “absolutely losing the PR war ” as deaths mount and images of mass destruction proliferate. Israeli forces are going after Hamas after militants staged an Oct. 7 attack in which they killed an estimated 1,200 people and took 250 hostages.

“Get it over with, and let’s get back to peace and stop killing people. And that’s a very simple statement,” Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt earlier this month. “They have to get it done. Get it over with, and get it over with fast because we have to — you have to get back to normalcy and peace.”

Trump recently said that any Democratic-leaning voters who support Israel should back him instead, as Biden has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions in his war against Hamas. The Republican said Wednesday that “any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat or votes for Biden should have their head examined.”

During his presidency, he moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and facilitated the normalization of relations between Israel and several Arab states through a series of agreements known as the Abraham Accords. He pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama, a move that Israel welcomed.

The deal lifted sanctions on Iran, which agreed in exchange to limit its nuclear program and allow inspections. Trump said it was too generous to Iran, while supporters of a deal said it was the best option to forestall a nuclear-armed Iran.

Reinhart got his 55th goal of the season with 1:02 left in overtime, and the Panthers clinched home ice for at least Round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs by beating the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 in the next-to-last regular-season game for both teams on Saturday.

“We’re excited about the challenge ahead,” Reinhart said. “It’s starting for real pretty soon. Do what you can to get home-ice advantage. That’s the beauty of playoffs; at the end of the day, it’s a battle, it’s a war, Game 1. And we’re looking forward to that.”

Reinhart took a pass from Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov and delivered the winner. Anton Lundell and Kevin Stenlund also scored for Florida, and Matthew Tkachuk had an assist — his 60th of the season, the third straight year he’s had that many.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 27 shots for Florida, getting the win in his 700th career game. He’s the 32nd goalie in league history to hit that milestone, and one of three still active.

“An incredible accomplishment,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.

Tyson Jost and Jack Quinn scored for Buffalo, which got 39 saves from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. The Sabres got a point off Florida for only the second time in the teams’ last 11 meetings; they’re 1-9-1 in that span.

Florida had a 5-minute power play in the third after Buffalo defenseman Connor Clifton was given a match penalty for an illegal check to the head of Panthers’ center Nick Cousins. But the Panthers got nothing past Luukkonen, who stopped seven shots to preserve what was a 2-2 tie.

The Sabres came through with another penalty kill with the game on the line. Buffalo’s Alex Tuch took a high-sticking penalty with 34.9 seconds left in regulation. Florida didn’t get a shot on goal before the third period expired, then had a 4-on-3 advantage to begin overtime as the power play continued — and the Sabres thwarted them again.

“The penalty kill was very good and looked very confident,” Sabres coach Don Granato said.

The teams combined to score four goals — two for Florida, two for Buffalo — in a 6:49 span of the first period, all on seven combined shots. It was 2-2 by the midpoint of that opening period, making it seem like a wild one was brewing.

But there was no more scoring until the end.

Jost was credited with his first goal since Dec. 2 when he deflected a shot by Rasmus Dahlin past Bobrovsky at 2:59 of the first, ending Florida’s bid for a third straight shutout. Lundell tied it for Florida at 5:02, with Tkachuk getting one of the assists on that goal.

Stenlund scored short-handed about three minutes later, before Quinn knotted things up on the power play.

UP NEXT

Sabres: Visit Tampa Bay on Monday night in their season finale.

Panthers: Host Toronto on Tuesday night in their regular-season finale.

Bell hit a fly ball off Braves starter Chris Sale that sneaked over the left-field wall of a windy loanDepot Park in the first inning. It was Bell’s second home run of the season.

Meyer (2-0) continued his strong start, limiting the Braves’ high-powered offense to one run on six hits while striking out a career-high seven batters and not issuing a walk.

Meyer picked up his first career win last Sunday against St. Louis with six innings of one-run ball on three hits. The 25-year-old Meyer, who is ranked as Miami’s third-best prospect by MLB Pipeline, missed last season recovering from Tommy John surgery.

“I felt good. I was pretty much just following Bethancourt (Marlins catcher Christian Bethancourt) the whole day,” Meyer said. “I liked his gameplan. He really made it easy on me. We were dialed in the whole game, attacked the zone. I didn’t get as many first-pitch strikes as I wanted to, but I was able to bounce back and get some swings and misses too.”

Bryan De La Cruz gave the Marlins a 5-0 lead with a two-out, bases-loaded double in the fifth off Sale, who recorded outs against the first two batters he faced in the inning and then allowed a single and consecutive walks. Luis Arraez, Bell and Jake Burger scored.

“That was really the only inning that kind of got away,” Sale said. “Even the following two innings, when I was still kind of steaming, I felt like my command was there. For whatever reason that one inning, it fell apart. I wasn’t able to limit the damage.”

De La Cruz has a hit in 12 of Miami’s 15 games this season and leads the club in hits with 17, two of which came Saturday.

“This is who we are, actually,” De La Cruz said through a translator. “If you see the way we play out there as a unit — this is actually the way we play the game. This is what actually got us to the playoffs last year. And that’s what we’re trying to emulate.”

Atlanta’s Austin Riley hit a leadoff triple off Meyer in the sixth and scored on a groundout by Marcell Ozuna.

Ozuna extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a leadoff single in the second.

RHP Calvin Faucher, who was recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville ahead of the game, replaced Meyer and pitched a perfect seventh. Anthony Bender was perfect in the eighth, and Tanner Scott rounded out a solid bullpen effort for the Marlins, recording the final three outs.

Sale (1-1) allowed five hits and five runs with seven strikeouts and three walks over seven innings.

The Marlins were 0-8 at home entering Saturday’s game.

“It’s not like we’re going to stop playing hard and stop fighting,” said Braves manager Skip Schumaker. “I know it’s not what everybody wants the start to be, but that’s a really good team that we have out there.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Marlins: Tim Anderson missed his second straight game with an illness. … RHP Matt Andriese was designated for assignment.

UP NEXT

Right-hander Charlie Morton (1-0, 3.18 ERA) will start Sunday’s series finale for the Braves against Marlins left-hander Jesús Luzardo (0-2, 7.20).

Officials at Lake Mead National Recreation Area said the damage happened during a recent weekend near the Redstone Dune Trail on the north side of the lake. The petrified red dunes found there make it one of the most popular hiking spots in the park.

A video shows two men shoving chunks of sandstone off the edge of an outcropping as a girl screams. Park officials called the behavior appalling, saying the damage can’t be fixed.

“It’s one of my favorite places in the park and they’re up there just destroying it. I don’t understand that,” John Haynes, public information officer at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, told television station KVVU.

Destruction like this at federally protected sites can result in felony charges that come along with potential fines and jail time, Haynes said.

Spanning 2,344 square miles (6,071 square kilometers) of mountains and desert canyons, the Lake Mead National Recreation Area just outside of Las Vegas draws around 6 million visitors every year. Officials said staffing levels mean park officials often rely on the public to also keep watch over resources within park boundaries.

Authorities said visitors can use their cellphones to capture any video or photos of suspicious activity if it’s safe to do so and to collect any information, such as a license plate, that might help to identify offenders. The National Park Service operates a tipline that receives thousands of submissions each year.

“It’s really important to let us know,” Haynes said.

There also have been others cases of vandalism on federal land across the West over the past decade, with visitors defacing petroglyphs, toppling rock features and pounding climbing bolts into centuries-old rock art.

Calling the outcome “a very significant strategic success,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Iran fired 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles. Of those, several ballistic missiles reached Israeli territory, causing minor damage to an air base.

Rescuers said a 7-year-old girl in a Bedouin Arab town was seriously wounded in southern Israel, apparently in a missile strike, though they said police were still investigating the circumstances of her injuries.

In Washington, President Joe Biden said U.S. forces helped Israel down “nearly all” the drones and missiles and pledged to convene allies to develop a unified response.

The Iranian attack, less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria that killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building, marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Condemnation from the United Nations chief and others was swift, with France saying Iran “is risking a potential military escalation,” Britain calling the attack “reckless” and Germany saying Iran and its proxies “must stop it immediately.”

Hagari said the vast majority of the intercepts came outside Israel’s borders, including 10 cruise missiles that were intercepted by warplanes.

“A wide-scale attack by Iran is a major escalation,” he said. Asked whether Israel would respond, Hagari said only that the army “does and will do whatever is required to protect the security of the state of Israel.” He said the incident was not over, and dozens of Israeli warplanes remained in the skies.

Israel’s military said its Arrow system, which shoots down ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, handled most interceptions and noted that “strategic partners” were involved.

“At my direction, to support the defense of Israel, the U.S. military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week,” Biden said in a statement. “Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our service members, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a separate statement that U.S. forces “intercepted dozens of missiles and UAVs en route to Israel, launched from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.”

Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke early Sunday, Israeli time, their governments said. Biden said in his statement that he reaffirmed “America’s ironclad commitment” to Israel’s security — a departure from his growing criticism of Israel’s conduct in its war on Hamas in Gaza.

Iran had vowed revenge since the April 1 airstrike in Syria, which Tehran accused Israel of being responsible for. Israel hasn’t commented on it.

Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israel’s six-month war against Hamas militants in Gaza. The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. An Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused widespread devastation and killed over 33,000 people, according to local health officials.

Almost immediately after the war erupted, Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, began attacking Israel’s northern border. The two sides have been involved in daily exchanges of fire, while Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have launched rockets and missiles toward Israel.

In a statement carried late Saturday by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged launching “dozens of drones and missiles towards the occupied territories and positions of the Zionist regime.”

In a later statement, the Revolutionary Guard issued a direct warning to the U.S.: “The terrorist U.S. government is warned any support or participation in harming Iran’s interests will be followed by decisive and regretting response by Iran’s armed forces.”

IRNA also quoted an anonymous official saying ballistic missiles were part of the attack. A ballistic missile moves on an arch trajectory, heading up into space before gravity brings the weapon down at a speed several times faster than the speed of sound.

Israel has a multilayered air-defense network that includes systems capable of intercepting a variety of threats including long-range missiles, cruise missiles, drones and short-range rockets. However, in a massive attack involving multiple drones and missiles, the likelihood of a strike making it through is higher.

Iran has a vast arsenal of drones and missiles. Online videos shared by Iranian state television purported to show delta-wing-style drones resembling the Iranian Shahed-136s long used by Russia in its war on Ukraine. The slow-flying drones carry bombs. Ukraine has successfully used both surface-to-air missiles and ground fire to target them.

Some Israelis watched the interceptions light up the night sky.

Air raid sirens were reported in numerous places including northern Israel, southern Israel, the northern West Bank and the Dead Sea near the Jordanian border.

Israel’s army ordered residents in the Golan Heights — near the Syrian and Lebanese borders — as well as the southern towns of Nevatim and Dimona and the Red Sea resort of Eilat into protective spaces. Dimona is home to Israel’s main nuclear facility, and Nevatim has a major air base. Loud booms were heard in Jerusalem and northern and southern Israel.

The army’s Home Front Command canceled school Sunday and limited public gatherings to no more than 1,000 people. Israel and some other countries in the region closed their airspace.

Earlier, Netanyahu warned: “Whoever harms us, we will harm them.”

In Washington, Biden convened a principals meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the attack.

Gen. Erik Kurilla, the head of the U.S. military’s Central Command, was in Israel over the weekend consulting with Israeli defense officials. The Central Command oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations issued a warning to both Israel and the U.S. “Should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran’s response will be considerably more severe,” it wrote online. “It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the U.S. MUST STAY AWAY!”

For days, Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had threatened to “slap” Israel for the Syria strike.

In Iran’s capital, Tehran, witnesses saw long lines at gas stations early Sunday as people appeared worried about what may come next. Dozens of hard-liners demonstrated in support of the attack at Palestine Square.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported heavy Israeli airstrikes and shelling on multiple locations in south Lebanon following Iran’s launch of drones. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched “dozens” of Katyusha rockets at an Israeli military site in the Golan Heights early Sunday. It was not immediately clear if there was any damage.

Iranian missiles or drones were intercepted in the sky above the Jordanian capital, Amman. In Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, and elsewhere in the country, residents reported seeing missiles in the sky and hearing explosions, likely from interceptions. In Syria, explosions were heard in the capital, Damascus, and elsewhere. Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Syrian air defenses tried to shoot down Israeli attempts to intercept Iranian missiles.

According to the police official, the abduction took place on Friday in Baluchistan province, which has long been the scene of an insurgency by separatists fighting for independence.

Deputy Commissioner Habibullah Mosakhail said the gunmen set up a blockade, then stopped the bus and went through the passengers’ ID cards. They took eight people with them, all from the eastern Punjab province, fleeing into the mountains, he said.

Police later recovered eight bodies under a bridge about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the highway. Earlier on Friday, the same gunmen had opened fire at a vehicle that failed to stop for their blockade, killing two and wounding six.

A search for the perpetrators was underway, Mosakhail said. The bus was heading from the provincial capital of Quetta to Taftan, a town bordering Iran.

Abductions are rare in Baluchistan, where militants usually target police forces and soldiers or infrastructure.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killings. Police said there was no ransom demand and no indication of a motive for the attacks.

Fried (1-0) entered with an 18.00 ERA after a pair of rough starts to open the season, but limited the Marlins to four hits while striking out four and walking one. The 30-year old left-hander was replaced by Pierce Johnson after giving up back-to-back hits in the seventh.

Ozuna blasted a solo shot 446 feet to center field in the ninth for his sixth home run — tying him with Boston’s Tyler O’Neill and the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout for the major league lead — and the second-longest homer hit at loanDepot park this year. Ozuna was 3 for 4 with three RBIs.

Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia led off a five-run seventh with a double off reliever George Soriano, who then walked Ronald Acuña Jr. and hit Ozzie Albies with a pitch to load the bases. Andrew Nardi replaced Soriano and gave up a bases-loaded walk to Matt Olson and a two-run single to Ozuna.

Nardi exited to some boos before Burch Smith gave up a pair of RBI singles to make it 7-0. Smith got Travis d’Arnaud to ground out to end the inning.

Arcia also doubled to start the fifth and scored on Albies’ single that put Atlanta up 2-0.

Olson, d’Arnaud and Austin Riley also doubled for the high-powered Braves, who have an MLB-leading 38 doubles. Acuña stole two bases, giving him six on the season.

Marlins starter Trevor Rodgers (0-2) allowed eight hits and two runs with five strikeouts and a walk in five innings.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled in the seventh against Fried, then scored Miami’s only run on a single by Emmanuel Rivera.

The Marlins lost their 12th game and remain winless at home after opening with an 0-7 homestand.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Braves: C Sean Murphy (oblique strain) threw flat-footed before Friday’s game and is increasing his activity. Manager Brian Snitker said it was a “good sign.” … RHP Darius Vines was recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett. … RHP Allan Winans was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett following Thursday’s loss to Mets.

Marlins: SS Tim Anderson was given the day off because of an illness. … LHP Braxton Garrett (shoulder) threw six innings in a rehab start with the Triple- A Jacksonville on Friday. Garrett gave up four runs and six hits while striking out four. … RHP Edward Cabrera (shoulder impingement) is scheduled to pitch six innings with Triple-A Jacksonville on Wednesday.

UP NEXT

Left-hander Chris Sale (1-0, 3.38 ERA) will start for Atlanta against Marlins right-hander Max Meyer (1-0, 2.45).

As long as they’re clicking, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra will like their chances.

Nikola Jovic scored 22 points, Jaime Jaquez Jr. had 20 points and nine assists, and the Heat kept hope alive of escaping the play-in tournament by topping the Toronto Raptors 125-103 on Friday night.

Bam Adebayo scored 19 points, Tyler Herro scored 18, and Jimmy Butler and Kevin Love each scored 14 for the Heat (45-36). Miami still could get out of the play-in with a win in a rematch against the Raptors on Sunday and some help.

“I’m focused on my team. All I’m focused on (is) we can get to a place where we’re connected and playing for each other and playing a spirited game where it’s to our identity,” Spoelstra said. “That’s all I care about right now, because when we get to that, we feel like we can beat anybody, anywhere, any time.”

It’s the 14th time in Heat history that the team won 45 games in a season; all 13 of the previous squads made the playoffs.

RJ Barrett had 35 points and a season-high 11 rebounds for the Raptors, who lost for the 18th time in their last 20 games. Immanuel Quickley scored 15 points, Bruce Brown scored 14 and Kelly Olynyk grabbed 11 rebounds for Toronto.

“They’re a good team. They were moving the ball. Our first and second efforts were good, actually,” Barrett said. “They just kept going all the way into the shot clock and somehow would find an open 3.”

The Heat made 17 3s on Friday, and now will wait until Sunday to learn their playoff — or play-in — fate.

Orlando, Indiana, Philadelphia and Miami will finish No. 5, No. 6, No. 7 and No. 8 in the Eastern Conference, in some order. The Magic, Pacers and 76ers are all 46-35; the Heat are 45-36 going into Sunday’s finales.

Before the Heat-Raptors game went final on Friday, there were other outcomes that affected Miami’s playoff possibilities. Philadelphia won its seventh straight game by topping Orlando but remained seventh in the East. Indiana lost to Cleveland, a game that allowed the Cavaliers to clinch a top-four spot in the East.

The Heat never trailed, building an 11-point lead after one quarter and stretching it to 19 before settling on a 66-50 lead at the half. The lead eventually reached 25 and no Heat player logged more than 32 minutes.

“It matters … being able to rest, really recoup, get extra treatment, extra recovery and still cheer on your team,” Adebayo said.

The loss ensured that Toronto (25-56) will finish the season with the fifth-worst mark in franchise history, regardless of what happens in its finale at Miami on Sunday.

It’ll be Toronto’s worst season since going 22-60 in 2010-11.

UP NEXT

The teams meet again Sunday in Miami to end the regular season.

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika’s ruling increases the prospect that Biden could face trial in the case as early as June, in the midst of his father’s reelection campaign. His efforts to scuttle the other criminal case he faces in California involving tax allegations have also failed.

Norieka denied several defense requests to dismiss the case charging Biden with lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days.

His lawyers had argued the case was politically motivated and asserted that an immunity provision from an original plea deal that fell apart still holds. They had also challenged the appointment of Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss as special counsel to lead the prosecution.

Noreika, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump, has not yet ruled on a challenge to the constitutionality of the gun charges.

Biden has pleaded not guilty. A representative for his legal team didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

The president’s son has acknowledged struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine during that period in 2018, but his lawyers have said he didn’t break the law and another nonviolent, first-time offender would not have been charged.

The yearslong investigation had looked ready to wrap up with a plea deal last year, but the agreement imploded after a judge raised questions about it. Biden was subsequently indicted.

Under the deal, he would have gotten a plea deal in which he would have gotten two years’ probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor tax charges. He also would have avoided prosecution on the gun charge if he stayed out of trouble. He was subsequently indicted.

Hunter Biden’s attorneys have argued that prosecutors bowed to political pressure to indict the president’s son amid heavy criticism of the plea deal from Trump and other Republicans.

Prosecutors countered the evidence against him was “overwhelming,” including cocaine residue found in the pouch where he stored his gun, and noted that charges had been filed during the presidency of his father, Joe Biden.

Norieka said in her ruling that Biden’s team provided “nothing concrete” to support a conclusion that anyone actually influenced the special counsel’s team.

“The pressure campaign from Congressional Republicans may have occurred around the time that Special Counsel decided to move forward with indictment instead of pretrial diversion, but the Court has been given nothing credible to suggest that the conduct of those lawmakers (or anyone else) had any impact on Special Counsel,” the judge wrote. “It is all speculation.”

Hunter Biden faces separate tax counts in Los Angeles alleging he failed to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes over three years while living an “extravagant lifestyle,” during his days of using drugs. The judge overseeing that case knocked down eight motions to dismiss those charges earlier this month. That trial is scheduled to begin in June.

The Border Patrol made 137,480 arrests of people entering from Mexico, down 2.3% from 140,638 arrests in February, the first time since 2017 that arrests fell in March from the previous month. Crossings typically rise as temperatures turn warmer.

Mexico detained migrants 240,000 times in the first two months of the year, more than triple from the same period of 2023, sending many deeper south into the country to discourage them from coming to the United States. While Mexico hasn’t released figures for March, U.S. officials have said Mexican enforcement is largely responsible for recent declines.

“Encounters at our southern border are lower right now, but we remain prepared for changes, continually managing operations to respond to ever-shifting transnational criminal activities and migration patterns,” said Troy Miller, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The March arrest tally is one of the lowest of Joe Biden’s presidency after a record high of nearly 250,000 in December. While conditions quickly change, the decline is welcome news for the White House at a time when immigration has become a top voter concern in an election year. Biden said this month that he is still considering executive action to suspend asylum at the border if crossings hit a certain threshold.

Tucson, Arizona, was again the busiest of the Border Patrol’s nine sectors on the Mexican border in March, a position it has held since summer, followed by San Diego and El Paso, Texas. Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal crossings for much of the last decade, is fifth busiest, signaling how quickly routes are changing.

The arrest tally excludes new and expanded paths to enter the country legally under presidential powers, known as parole, which allow people to stay temporarily and apply for work permits.

U.S. authorities granted entry to 44,000 people at land crossings with Mexico in March through an online appointment system, CBP One. More than 547,000 have been allowed in the country through CBP One since it was introduced in January, led by Venezuelans, Haitians and Mexicans.

More than 400,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela have been allowed to enter the U.S. through March after applying online with a financial sponsor and arriving at an airport, paying their way.

The case will force the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to juggle campaigning with sitting in a Manhattan courtroom for weeks to defend himself against charges involving a scheme to bury allegations of marital infidelity that arose during his first White House campaign in 2016.

It carries enormous political ramifications as potentially the only one of four criminal cases against Trump that could reach a verdict before voters decide in November whether to send him back to the White House.

Here’s what to know about the hush money case and the charges against Trump:

WHAT’S THIS CASE ABOUT?
The former president is accused of falsifying internal Trump Organization records as part of a scheme to bury damaging stories that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign, particularly as Trump’s reputation was suffering at the time from comments he had made about women.

The allegations focus on payoffs to two women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said they had extramarital sexual encounters with Trump years earlier, as well as to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child he alleged Trump had out of wedlock. Trump says none of these supposed sexual encounters occurred.

Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 and arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer supermarket tabloid to pay McDougal $150,000 in a journalistically dubious practice known as “catch-and-kill” in which a publication pays for exclusive rights to someone’s story with no intention of publishing it, either as a favor to a celebrity subject or to gain leverage over the person.

Prosecutors say Trump’s company reimbursed Cohen and paid him bonuses and extra payments, all of which were falsely logged in Trump Organization records as legal expenses. Cohen has separately pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance law in connection with the payments.

WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?
Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The charge carries up to four years in prison, though whether he will spend time behind bars if convicted would ultimately be up to the judge.

The counts are linked to a series of checks written to Cohen to reimburse him for his role in paying off Daniels. Those payments, made over 12 months, were recorded as legal expenses in various internal company records.

To win on the felony charge, prosecutors must show that Trump not only falsified or caused business records to be entered falsely — which would be a misdemeanor — but that he did so with intent to commit or conceal a second crime.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg did not specify the other crime in Trump’s indictment, but has since said that evidence shows his actions were meant to conceal state and federal campaign finance and tax crimes. Some experts argue it’s an unusual legal strategy that could backfire.

HOW WILL JURY SELECTION WORK?
The process to choose 12 jurors, plus six alternates, will begin with Judge Juan M. Merchan bringing scores of people into his courtroom to begin weeding out people for potential biases or other reasons they cannot serve. The judge has said he will excuse anyone who indicates by a show of hands that they can’t serve or can’t be fair and impartial before calling groups of those who remain into the jury box to answer 42 questions. Potential jurors will be known only by number, as the judge has ordered their names to be kept secret from everyone except prosecutors, Trump and their legal teams.

Among the questions potential jurors will be asked: Whether they follow the former president on social media, have ever worked for a Trump organization and have ever attended a Trump rally — or anti-Trump organizations or rallies and whether potential jurors are supporters or followers of far-right groups, such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, whose members were among the pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, or of the far-left-leaning collective known as antifa, which resists fascists and neo-Nazis, especially at demonstrations.

WHO’S EXPECTED TO TESTIFY?
Cohen, a Trump loyalist turned critic, is expected to be a key prosecution witness, as he was the one who orchestrated the payoffs. Before testifying in front of the grand jury that brought the indictment last year, Cohen said his goal was “to tell the truth” and insisted he is not seeking revenge but said Trump “needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds.” Cohen served prison time after pleading guilty in 2018 to federal charges, including campaign finance violations, for arranging the payouts to Daniels and McDougal.

Other expected witnesses include Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Daniels alleges that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 that she didn’t want, but didn’t say no to. Trump says it never happened.

WHAT WILL TRUMP’S DEFENSE BE?
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has slammed the case as an effort to hurt his 2024 presidential campaign. Trump has acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment and that it was designed to stop Daniels from going public about the alleged encounter. But Trump said in 2018 it had nothing to do with the campaign.

Trump’s lawyers will likely attack the case by trying to undermine the credibility of prosecution witnesses like Cohen and Daniels. Trump has described the two as liars, testing the limits of a gag order that the judge imposed. It seeks to curtail the president’s inflammatory rhetoric about the case. Trump’s lawyers are expected to paint Cohen as a con man and point to his conviction on multiple federal crimes as well as his disbarment to try to persuade jurors that he can’t be believed.

Trump recently posted on social media a picture of a 2018 written statement from Daniels, in which she denied they had a sexual relationship. Not long after, Daniels recanted the statement and said that a sexual encounter had occurred. She said her denials were due to a non-disclosure agreement and that she signed the statement because the parties involved “made it sound like I had no choice.”

WHAT ABOUT TRUMP’S OTHER CASES?

Trump’s three other criminal cases have gotten bogged down in legal fights and appeals, which may mean jurors won’t hear about them before the November election.

The 2020 election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith remains on hold while Trump pursues his claim that he is immune from prosecution for actions he took while in the White House. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the matter in late April.

The other case brought by Smith accuses Trump of illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The trial had been scheduled to begin in May, but the judge heard arguments last month to set a new trial date and has yet to do so.

No trial date has been set in the Georgia case accusing Trump and his allies of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. Prosecutors have suggested a trial date of August, but defense attorneys are now urging an appeals court to consider whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from the prosecution over a romantic relationship she had with a former top prosecutor who recently withdrew from the case.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in all three cases and says he did nothing wrong.

It’s the latest in a string of delay denials that Trump has gotten from various courts this week as he fights to stave off the trial’s start Monday with jury selection.

Among other things, Trump’s lawyers had argued that the jury pool was deluged with what the defense saw as “exceptionally prejudicial” news coverage of the case. The defense maintained that was a reason to hold off the case indefinitely.

Judge Juan M. Merchan said that idea was “not tenable.”

Trump “appears to take the position that his situation and this case are unique and that the pre-trial publicity will never subside. However, this view does not align with reality,” the judge wrote.

Pointing to Trump’s two federal defamation trials and a state civil business fraud trial in Manhattan within the past year, Merchan wrote that the ex-president himself “was personally responsible for generating much, if not most, of the surrounding publicity with his public statements” outside those courtrooms and on social media.

“The situation Defendant finds himself in now is not new to him and at least in part, of his own doing,” the judge added. He said questioning of prospective jurors would address any concerns about their ability to be fair and impartial.

There was no immediate comment from Trump’s lawyers or from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the case.

In a court filing last month, Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche had argued that “potential jurors in Manhattan have been exposed to huge amounts of biased and unfair media coverage relating to this case.

“Many of the potential jurors already wrongfully believe that President Trump is guilty,” Blanche added, citing the defense’s review of media articles and other research it conducted.

Prosecutors contended that publicity wasn’t likely to wane and that Trump’s own comments generated a lot of it. Prosecutors also noted that there are over 1 million people in Manhattan, arguing that jury questioning could surely locate 12 who could be impartial.

Trump’s lawyers had lobbed other, sometimes similar, arguments for delays at an appeals court this week. One of those appeals sought to put the trial on hold until the appellate court could give full consideration to the defense’s argument that it needs to be moved elsewhere, on the grounds that the jury pool has been polluted by news coverage of Trump’s other recent cases.

Trump’s lawyers also maintain that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee faces “real potential prejudice” in heavily Democratic Manhattan.

All this week’s appeals were turned down by individual appellate judges, though the matters are headed to a panel of appeals judges for further consideration.

Trump’s hush money case is the first of his four criminal indictments slated to go to trial and would be the first criminal trial ever of a former president.

Trump is accused of doctoring his company’s records to hide the real reason for payments to his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who helped the candidate bury negative claims about him during his 2016 campaign. Cohen’s activities included paying porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to suppress her story of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier, which Trump denies.

Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.

The violence was the latest in an escalation in the West Bank that has accompanied the war in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli rights group said the settlers were searching for a missing 14-year-old boy from their settlement. After the rampage, Israeli troops said they were still searching for the teen.

The killing came after an Israeli raid overnight killed two Palestinians, including a Hamas militant, in confrontation with Israeli forces.

Palestinian health officials say over 460 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces since the war erupted in October.

The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said that settlers stormed into the village of al-Mughayyir late Friday, searching for the Israeli boy. The group said that settlers were shooting and setting houses on fire in the village.

Videos posted to X by the rights group showed dark clouds of smoke billowing from burning cars as gunshots rang out. A photo posted by the group showed what appeared to be a crowd of masked settlers.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that one man was brought dead to a hospital and 25 were treated for wounds. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said eight of the injured were hit by live fire from settlers.

The deceased man was later identified by his family as 26-year-old Jehad Abu Alia. His father, Afif Abu Alia, said he was shot and killed but was unsure whether the fatal bullet was fired by an armed settler or an Israeli soldier.

“My son went with others to defend our land and honor, and this is what happened,” Afif Abu Alia said from a hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where his son’s corpse had been transported.

The attack was condemned by Mohamed Mustafa, the new Palestinian prime minister.

The Israeli army said it was searching for the 14-year-old boy, and that forces had opened fire when stones were hurled at soldiers by Palestinians. It said “hits were identified,” and soldiers also cleared out Israeli settlers from the village.

“As of this moment, the violent riots have been dispersed and there are no Israeli civilians present within the town,” it said.

U.S. officials, including President Joe Biden, have repeatedly raised concerns about a surge in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank since Israel’s war with the militant Hamas group in the Gaza Strip began. Rights groups have long accused the military of failing to halt settler violence or punish soldiers for wrongdoing.

Earlier on Friday, two Palestinians were killed in confrontations with Israeli forces in the northern West Bank, Palestinian medics and the military said. Hamas said one of those killed was a local commander.

The military said the target of the soldiers’ raid was Mohammed Daraghmeh, a local Hamas commander. It said Daraghmeh was killed in a shootout with Israeli soldiers who discovered weapons in his car. The army alleged that Daraghmeh had been planning attacks on Israeli targets but provided no evidence. It also said assailants hurled explosives at soldiers.

The Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, in a surprise attack and incursion into southern Israel. Around 250 people were seized as hostages by the militants and taken to Gaza.

Israel said Friday it had opened a new crossing for aid trucks into hard-hit northern Gaza as ramps up aid deliveries to the besieged enclave. However, the United Nations says the surge of aid is not being felt in Gaza because of persistent distribution difficulties.

Six months of fighting in Gaza have pushed the tiny Palestinian territory into a humanitarian crisis, leaving more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation.

Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 33,600 Palestinians and wounded over 76,200, the Health Ministry says. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

Israel says it has killed over 12,000 militants during the war, but it has not provided evidence to back up the claim.

The Education Department announced the latest round of cancellations Friday in an update on the progress of its SAVE Plan. More people are becoming eligible for student loan cancellation as they hit 10 years of payments, a new finish line for some loans that’s a decade sooner than what borrowers faced in the past.

Casting a shadow over the cancellations, however, are two new lawsuits challenging the plan’s legality. Two groups of Republican-led states, fronted by Kansas and Missouri, recently filed federal suits arguing that the Biden administration overstepped its authority in creating the repayment option.

“From day one of my Administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “I will never stop working to cancel student debt — no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us.”

With the latest action, the Education Department has now approved cancellation for about 360,000 borrowers through the new repayment plan, totaling $4.8 billion.

The SAVE Plan is an updated version of a federal repayment plan that has been offered for decades, but with more generous terms.

Congress created the first income-driven repayment option in the 1990s for people struggling to afford payments on standard plans. It capped monthly payments to a percentage of their incomes and canceled any unpaid debt after 25 years. Similar plans were added later, offering cancellation in as little as 20 years.

Arguing that today’s borrowers need even more help, the Biden administration merged most of those plans into a single repayment option with more lenient terms.

The SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education) Plan allows more borrowers to pay nothing until their income rise above certain limits. It also lowers payments more than past plans, eliminates interest growth and cancels unpaid debt in as little as 10 years.

Biden announced the plan in 2022 alongside his broader proposal for a one-time cancellation of up to $20,000 for more than 40 million people. While the one-time cancellation was struck down by the Supreme Court, the SAVE Plan moved forward and initially escaped legal scrutiny.

The repayment plan opened for enrollment last fall, with certain provisions scheduled to be phased in later this year. The faster path to cancellation was among those slated to start this summer, but the Biden administration fast-tracked that benefit early this year, announcing forgiveness for 153,000 borrowers who had hit 10 years of payments.

Almost 8 million Americans have enrolled in the plan, including 4.5 million who pay nothing because they have lower incomes.

In a call with reporters, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the plan provides relief and prevents borrowers from falling behind on their loans.

“Now they have some money back in their pockets, instead of a bill that too often competed with basic needs like groceries and health care,” he said.

Under the plan, borrowers who originally borrowed $12,000 or less are eligible for forgiveness after 10 years. Those who took out more than $12,000 can get cancellation but on a longer timeline. For each $1,000 borrowed beyond $12,000, it adds an additional year of payments on top of 10 years.

The Biden administration says it’s designed to help those who need it most. Counterintuitively, those with smaller student loan balances tend to struggle more. It’s driven by millions of Americans who take out student loans but don’t finish degrees, leaving them with the downside of debt without the upside of a higher income.

In two separate lawsuits, Republican attorneys general in 18 states are pushing to have the plan tossed and to halt any further cancellation. They say the SAVE Plan goes beyond Biden’s authority and makes it harder for states to recruit employees. They say the plan undermines a separate cancellation program that encourages careers in public service.

It’s unclear what the suits could mean for loans that have already been canceled. A court document filed by Kansas’ attorney general says it’s “unrealistic to think that any loan forgiveness that occurs during this litigation will ever be clawed back.”

The lawsuits don’t directly address the question, and the attorneys general didn’t immediately respond to an Associated Press request.

The Education Department says Congress gave the agency power to define the terms of income-driven payment plans in 1993, and that authority has been used in the past.

Along with the repayment plan, Biden is trying again at a one-time student loan cancellation. In a visit to Wisconsin on Monday, he highlighted a proposal to reduce or cancel loans for more than 30 million borrowers in five categories.

It aims to help borrowers with larges sums of unpaid interest, those with older loans, those who attended low-value programs, and those who face other hardships preventing them from repaying student loans. It would also cancel loans for people who are eligible for other forgiveness programs but haven’t applied.

The Biden administration says it will accelerate parts of the proposal, with plans to start waiving unpaid interest for millions of borrowers starting this fall. Conservative opponents have threatened to challenge that plan, too.

On Friday the administration also said it’s canceling loans for 65,000 borrowers who are enrolled in older income-driven repayment plans and hit the finish line for forgiveness. It also announced cancellation for another 5,000 borrowers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Through a variety of programs, the Biden administration says it has now provided loan relief to 4.3 million people, totaling $153 billion.

A bill signed Thursday bans local governments from requiring heat and water breaks for outdoor workers. And a bill DeSantis signed Friday strips local citizen police oversight boards from investigating officers.

OUTDOOR WORKER SAFETY

In a bill DeSantis signed Thursday, Florida, one of the hottest states in the country, local governments will be banned from requiring heat and water breaks for outdoor workers.

It was a direct response to Miami-Dade County’s effort to require shade and water for construction, farm and other outdoor workers.

But in a state where construction and farming are huge industries — Miami-Dade estimates more than 325,000 workers in that county alone — critics lambasted the bill that keeps local government from protecting workers from heat and sun. Democratic state Sen. Victor Torres called the new law an attack on workers.

Asked about the bill Friday, DeSantis said it was an issue raised by Miami-Dade County lawmakers.

“It really wasn’t anything that was coming from me. There was a lot of concern out of one county — Miami-Dade,” DeSantis said. “They were pursuing what was going to cause a lot of problems down there.”

But the law will now keep Florida’s 66 other counties from requiring similar worker protections.

POLICE OVERSIGHT

Separately, DeSantis signed a bill Friday that would ban local policy advisory commissions from initiating disciplinary actions against officers, instead limiting the citizens boards to making recommendations on policy. DeSantis was surrounded by law enforcement officers and in front of cheering supporters as he signed the bill to ban citizens oversight boards from investigating complaints about police officers.

DeSantis said some counties have commissioners that appoint activists to oversight boards and use them as a political weapons for an anti-police agenda.

“They’re not free to use law enforcement as political pinatas, they’re not free to create false narratives, they’re not free to try to make it miserable to work in uniform,” DeSantis said. “They are not able to initiate disciplinary proceedings. We have other ways to do that.”

The law also requires the oversight boards to be appointed by and under the direction of sheriff’s and police chiefs. At least one member of oversight boards must be a retired law enforcement officer.

Trump and Johnson appeared side-by-side at the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago club, a rite of passage for the new House leader as he hitches himself, and his GOP majority, to the indicted Republican Party leader ahead of the November election.

“I stand with the speaker,” Trump said at an evening press conference at his gilded private club.

Trump said he thinks Johnson, of Louisiana, is “doing a very good job – he’s doing about as good as you’re going to do.”

“We’re getting along very well with the speaker — and I get along very well with Marjorie,” Trump said.

But Trump flashed some criticism over efforts to oust the speaker calling it “unfortunate,” saying there are “much bigger problems” right now.

The visit was arranged as a joint announcement on new House legislation to require proof of citizenship for voting, but the trip itself is significant for both. Johnson needed Trump to temper hard-line threats to evict him from office. And Trump benefits from the imprimatur of official Washington dashing to Florida to embrace his comeback bid for the White House and his tangled election lies.

“It is the symbolism,” said Charlie Sykes, a conservative commentator and frequent Trump critic.

“There was a time when the Speaker of the House of Representatives was a dominant figure in American politics,” he said. “Look where we are now, where he comes hat in hand to Mar-a-Lago.”

While the moment captured the fragility of the speaker’s grip on the gavel, just six months on the job, it also put on display his evolving grasp of Trump-era politics as the Republicans in Congress align with the “Make America Great Again” movement powering the former president’s re-election bid.

Johnson and Trump underscored their alliance Friday by using similar wording to describe one part of their campaign strategy — pummeling President Joe Biden with alarmist language over what Republicans claim is a “migrant invasion.”

By linking the surge of migrants coming to the U.S. with the upcoming election, Trump and Johnson raised the specter of noncitizens from voting — even though it’s already a federal felony for a noncitizen to cast a ballot in a federal election and exceedingly rare.

Trump called America a “dumping ground” for migrants coming to the U.S., and revived pressure on Biden to “close the border.”

The speaker nodded along. “It could, if there are enough votes, affect the presidential election,” warned Johnson, who had played a key role in challenging the 2020 election that Trump lost to Biden, previewing potential 2024 arguments.

In fact, Trump had made similar claims of illegal voting in 2016 but the commission he appointed to investigate the issue disbanded without identifying a single case. A previous voter crackdown risked striking actual citizens from the voting rolls.

Ahead of the meeting, the Trump campaign sent a background paper that echoed language from the racist great replacement conspiracy theory to suggest that Biden and Democrats are engaging in what Trump’s campaign called “a willful and brazen attempt to import millions of new voters.”

Some liberal cities like San Francisco have begun to allow noncitizens to vote in a few local elections. But there’s no evidence of significant numbers of immigrants violating federal law by casting illegal ballots.

Afterward, Trump’s team said the speaker agreed to hold a series of public committee meetings over the next two months ahead of the new House legislation.

Greene, a top Trump ally, said on social media that while she is “working as hard as possible” to elect Trump, “I do not support Speaker Johnson.”

In the Trump era, the sojourns by Republican leaders to his private club in Palm Beach, Florida, have become defining moments, amplifying the lopsided partnership as the former president commandeers the party in sometimes humiliating displays of power.

Such was the case when Kevin McCarthy, then the House GOP leader, trekked to Mar-a-Lago after having been critical of the defeated president after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. A cheery photo was posted afterward, a sign of their mending relationship.

Johnson proposed the idea of coming to Mar-a-Lago weeks before Greene filed her motion to vacate him from the speaker’s office, just as another group of hardliners had previously ousted McCarthy. The visit comes days before the former president’s criminal trial on hush money charges gets underway next week in New York City.

The speaker’s own political future depends on support — or at least not opposition — from the “Make America Great Again” Republicans who are aligned with Trump but creating much of the House dysfunction that has brought work there to a halt.

Johnson commands the narrowest majority in modern times and a single quip from the former president can derail legislation. He was once a Trump skeptic, but the two men now talk frequently.

“I think it’s an emerging relationship,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who served as interior secretary in the Trump administration.

Even still, Trump urged Republicans this week to “kill” a national security surveillance bill that Johnson had personally worked to pass, contributing to a sudden defeat that sent the House spiraling. The legislation was approved Friday in a do-over but only after Johnson provided his own vote before departing for Florida.

Johnson understands he needs Trump’s backing to conduct almost any business in the House — including his next big priority, providing U.S. aid to Ukraine to fight Russia’s invasion.

In a daring move, the speaker is working both sides to help Ukraine, talking directly to the White House on the national security package that is at risk of collapse with Trump’s opposition. Greene is warning of a snap vote to oust Johnson from leadership if he allows any U.S. assistance to flow to the overseas ally.

“We’re looking at it,” Trump said about the national security package.

On the issue of election integrity, though, Johnson is leading his House GOP majority to embrace Trump’s lies about a stolen election and laying the groundwork for 2024 challenges.

Trump continues to insist the 2020 election was marred by fraud, even though no evidence has emerged in the last four years to support his claims and every state in the nation certified their results as valid.

As he runs to reclaim the White House, Trump has essentially taken over the Republican National Committee, turning the campaign apparatus toward his priorities. He supported Michael Whatley to lead the RNC, which created a new “Election Integrity Division” and says it is working to hire thousands of lawyers across the country.

Tired of the infighting and wary of another dragged-out brawl like the monthlong slugfest last year to replace McCarthy, few Republicans are backing Greene’s effort to remove Johnson, for now.

But if Trump signals otherwise, that could all change.

The use of party funds to cover Biden’s legal bills is not without precedent and falls within the bounds of campaign finance law, but it could cloud Biden’s ability to continue to hammer former President Donald Trump over his far more extensive use of donor funds to cover his legal bills.

The former president has tapped more than $100 million in donor money for a web of legal challenges, ranging from his upcoming criminal trial in New York over hush money payments to ongoing prosecutions over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection and his refusal to turn over classified documents to the federal government after leaving office.

For months, Biden aides and advisers have criticized Trump and Republicans for their spending on the former president’s legal issues, which has left the GOP campaign cash-strapped and diverted resources from battleground states.

“We are not spending money on legal bills or hawking gold sneakers,” Biden campaign finance chair Rufus Gifford told MSNBC last week.

The payments to Biden attorney Bob Bauer and the law firm Hemenway & Barnes were disclosed in regular campaign finance reports to the Federal Election Commission. Two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the payments, confirmed the money went for work on the Biden probe. Axios first reported on the payments.

The money for Biden’s legal team came from the Democratic National Committee’s legal account, according to the people. That account is primarily funded by high-dollar donors who have already met federal contribution limits for the party’s political activities.

“If these corrupt Democrats didn’t have HYPOCRISY, they’d have NOTHING!” the Republican National Committee said in a post Friday on X.

The intentional crash into the single-story brick building off a highway in Brenham, a rural town outside of Houston, littered debris in the parking lot and left a gaping hole in the entrance. The crash damaged the front of the red semitrailer, which was hauling materials on a flatbed.

After crashing into the building the first time, the driver backed up the truck with the intention of smashing it again before being detained, Brenham Mayor Atwood Kenjura said.

“It’s unfortunate that we are here gathered for a really senseless tragedy,” Kenjura said.

The driver — identified as Clenard Parker, 42 — was pulled out of the truck by authorities at the Texas Department of Public Safety office. Authorities say Parker did not resist when he was taken into custody and would face multiple felonies, but did not specify the charges.

On Thursday, Parker was told by employees at the office that he would not be eligible to renew his commercial driver’s license, Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Justin Ruiz said. He did not elaborate as to why Parker’s renewal was rejected.

One employee in the building was trapped “for a period of time” after the crash but no one who worked at the driver’s license office suffered serious injuries, Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst said.

It was unclear Friday afternoon where the person who was killed was located at the time of the crash.

Following the crash, two people were flown to a hospital in Bryan and another to Houston. Three people were transported to local hospitals but later released, and eight others were treated on the scene.

Parker, who lived in Chappell Hill about 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of the crash site, was being held without bail Friday in the Washington County jail in Brenham on two initial charges — suspicion of evading arrest causing serious bodily injury and unauthorized use of a vehicle.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Parker had a lawyer or would be appointed one at a future court appearance. The jail’s website didn’t list an attorney or pending court date.

Ruiz said he didn’t know if Parker had a criminal record. He said they were still investigating whether he was armed at the time of the crash. He said they also were investigating whether his actions might be considered an act of terrorism.

“We’re trying to figure that out,” Ruiz said. He said the FBI was assisting in the investigation.

A heavy presence of police surrounded the building and drivers were urged to steer clear of the area on Friday. Brenham, a city of about 19,000 residents, is about 80 miles (128 kilometers) miles west of Houston.

Kolkhorst and Kenjura said the quick response by law enforcement helped avert a greater tragedy.

“We’re blessed more weren’t injured in this act of violence,” Kolkhorst said.

Kenjura said a fire department official told him if Parker had “veered to the left” and succeeded in striking the building again, “there would have been a collapse of the building resulting in more injuries and possibly death.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety is a sprawling agency and one of the largest state law enforcement operations in the country. It includes troopers who are a central part of a massive border security operation on the U.S.-Mexico border as well as the Texas Rangers, the state’s top criminal investigators. But the department also has offices across the state that issue driver’s licenses.

The Texas Rangers were leading the investigation into the crash, Ruiz said.

The bill was approved on a bipartisan basis, 273-147, though it will have to clear the Senate to become law. The surveillance program is set to expire April 19 unless Congress acts.

Passage of the bill represented a much-needed victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has been wrangling with conservative critics of the legislation for months. A group of 19 Republicans revolted to block the bill from coming to the floor earlier in the week, forcing Johnson to make late changes to secure their support.

The legislation approved Friday would extend the surveillance program two years, rather than the five first proposed. Johnson hoped that the shorter timeline would sway GOP critics by pushing any future debate on the issue to the presidency of Donald Trump if he were to win back the White House in November.

Still, the legislation teetered precariously Friday morning as lawmakers voted on an amendment — vociferously opposed by Johnson, the White House and sponsors of the legislation — that would prohibit the warrantless surveillance of Americans.

The amendment failed by the narrowest of margins, in a 212-212 tie. Supporters breathed a sigh of relief as the vote was gaveled to a close.

The vote on the amendment cut across party lines, uniting progressives and conservatives who agree on little else, but are skeptical of the government’s surveillance powers.

Opponents of the legislation weren’t giving up. In a surprise move after the vote was closed on the overall bill, a Republican made a procedural motion preventing the legislation from being sent to the Senate. An additional vote will be needed next week.

The legislation approved Friday would permit the U.S. government to collect, without a warrant, the communications of non-Americans located outside the country to gather foreign intelligence. The reauthorization is currently tied to a series of reforms aimed at satisfying critics who complained of civil liberties violations against Americans.

But far-right opponents have complained that those changes did not go far enough. The vocal detractors are some of Johnson’s harshest critics, members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, who have railed against the speaker the last several months for reaching across the aisle to carry out the basic functions of the government.

To appease some of those critics, Johnson also plans to bring forward next week a separate proposal that would close a loophole that allows U.S. officials to collect data on Americans from big tech companies without a warrant.

Though the program is technically set to expire next Friday, the Biden administration has said it expects its authority to collect intelligence to remain operational for at least another year, thanks to an opinion earlier this month from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which receives surveillance applications. But officials say that court approval shouldn’t be a substitute for congressional authorization, especially since communications companies could cease cooperation with the government.

First authorized in 2008, the spy tool has been renewed several times since then as U.S. officials see it as crucial in disrupting terror attacks, cyber intrusions and foreign espionage. It has also produced intelligence that the U.S. has relied on for specific operations.

But the administration’s efforts to secure reauthorization of the program have repeatedly encountered fierce, and bipartisan, pushback, with Democrats like Sen. Ron Wyden who have long championed civil liberties aligning with Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump, who in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday stated incorrectly that Section 702 had been used to spy on his presidential campaign.

“Kill FISA,” Trump wrote in all capital letters. “It was illegally used against me, and many others. They spied on my campaign.” A former adviser to his 2016 presidential campaign was targeted for surveillance over potential ties to Russia under a different section of the law.

A specific area of concern for lawmakers is the FBI’s use of the vast intelligence repository to search for information about Americans and others in the U.S. Though the surveillance program only targets non-Americans in other countries, it also collects communications of Americans when they are in contact with those targeted foreigners.

In the past year, U.S. officials have revealed a series of abuses and mistakes by FBI analysts in improperly querying the intelligence repository for information about Americans or others in the U.S., including about a member of Congress and participants in the racial justice protests of 2020 and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Those violations have led to demands for the FBI to have a warrant before conducting database queries on Americans, which FBI director Chris Wray has warned would effectively gut the program’s effectiveness and would also be legally unnecessary given that the information in the database has already been lawfully collected.

“While it is imperative that we ensure this critical authority of 702 does not lapse, we also must not undercut the effectiveness of this essential tool with a warrant requirement or some similar restriction, paralyzing our ability to tackle fast-moving threats,” Wray said in a speech Tuesday.

Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira are charged with conspiring with Trump to obstruct an FBI investigation into the hoarding of classified documents at the former president’s Palm Beach estate. All three have pleaded not guilty.

Lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira are set to ask U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon during a Friday afternoon hearing to throw out the charges they face, a request opposed by special counsel Jack Smith’s team, which brought charges against them and Trump. It’s unclear when the judge might rule.

The two Trump aides are not charged with illegally storing the documents but rather with helping Trump obstruct government efforts to get them back.

Prosecutors say that Nauta in 2022 moved dozens of boxes from a storage room at Mar-a-Lago to Trump’s residence in an apparent effort to prevent their return to the government and that he and De Oliveira conspired with Trump to try to delete surveillance video that showed the movement of the boxes and that was being sought by the FBI.

Lawyers for the men argue that there is no allegation that either man knew that the boxes contained sensitive government records.

“The Superseding Indictment does not allege that Mr. De Oliveira ever saw a classified document. It does not allege that Mr. De Oliveira was aware of the presence of any classified documents in the boxes that he moved,” lawyers for De Oliveira wrote in court filings.

They also say there’s no evidence that he was aware of any government investigation at the time he helped move boxes inside the property.

Trump, Republicans’ presumptive presidential nominee, has separately filed multiple motions seeking to dismiss charges against him. Cannon has denied two that were argued last month — one that said the Espionage Act statute at the heart of the case was unconstitutionally vague, the other that asserted that Trump was entitled under a 1978 law called the Presidential Records Act to retain the classified files as his personal property after he left the White House following his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvias, 31, of Homestead, was attacked and kidnapped at gunpoint Thursday afternoon at an intersection northeast of Orlando, Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said during a news conference on Friday.

“What we are now investigating is a homicide,” said Lemma.

Video showed the moment the victim was hijacked in the Winter Springs area of Seminole County. A man with am automatic 10 mm gun appears to approach the woman’s white Dodge SUV, opens the driver’s door, unlocks the doors and gets into the vehicle with her.

A witness called police about the scary sight.

“There’s a guy going down East Lake Drive in Seminole County, he was chasing a car, hit the car, got out of his car wit a hood over his face, and he had a machine gun, it looked like,” said the caller.

Lemma said investigators found what they believe was her burning SUV with her body inside less than two hours later in a rural area of Osceola County, just south of Orlando.

This comes after people nearby heard gunshots and saw smoke.

“Something exploded,” said a woman in cellphone video showing the smoke.

“By the time authorities with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office arrived there, there was so much damage to the vehicle, you could not positively identify the vehicle,” said Lemma. “But they also discovered that one person was deceased and found in that vehicle.”

Near the vehicle, authorities said, they found 12 shell casings of 10 mm rounds.

Investigators will use dental records and DNA to confirm the body’s identity.

Authorities said they are searching to confirm many other details as well, like why was Guerrero De Aguasvias in Seminole County?

“We were told she was here visiting family. We were not able to confirm that she has any family member here,” said Lemma.

Guerrero De Aguasvias was at an intersection just outside of Winter Springs when a green Acura began to ram her SUV prior to the carjacking, Lemma said.

“At that time, she picks up the phone and called her husband, told her husband that she was being rammed, that there was somebody there that was following her,” said Lemma.

Guerrero De Aguasvias’ husband told her not to stop, authorities said.

“To not call 911 is something that, again, I don’t know the answer to that,” said Lemma.

Neither called the authorities, Lemma said. Another motorist called 911 and took a cell phone video of the carjacking. The video shows a passenger from the Acura pointing a gun at Guerrero De Aguasvias and then jumping in the back seat of her SUV before they drive off, followed by the Acura.

Lemma said investigators believe Guerrero De Aguasvias was targeted by the occupants of the Acura, but they don’t have a motive for the carjacking.

“She called her husband; husband said, ‘Don’t leave the car,’ no reports to law enforcement, that this was not a random act of violence, that the perpetrators knew who they were going after,” said Lemma. “Why they were going after them is something that is part of our ongoing, continuing investigation.”

Guerrero De Aguasvias has had no criminal history since moving to the U.S. five years ago, Lemma said.

Authorities urge anyone with information about the green older model Acura sedan to call 911.

Meanwhile, Guerrero’s family members have been gathering at a home in Homestead.

Neighbors said they devastated. One of them spoke to 7News through a translator.

“She was a good person. I went to give the family my condolences, and they are heartbroken, and so am I,” he said.

Family members said investigators have advised them not to speak with the media.

Deputies believe this was a targeted attack, as they continue to investigate.

A spokeswoman for Rice’s attorney confirmed to The Associated Press that Rice turned himself in at the Glenn Heights Police Department. Rice is being represented by Texas state Sen. Royce West.

Rice was booked into the Regional Jail in DeSoto, and West said he was released on bond Thursday night.

In an emailed statement, West emphasized what he called Rice’s “continued cooperation with law enforcement.”

“Mr. Rice acknowledges his actions and feels deeply for those injured as a result of this accident,” the lawyer said.

Rice said last week on Instagram that he was taking “full responsibility” for his part in the wreck.

On Wednesday, Dallas police said arrest warrants had been issued for Rice, 23, for one count of aggravated assault, one count of collision involving serious bodily injury and six counts of collision involving injury.

West said previously that Rice was driving a Lamborghini sport utility vehicle when the crash happened March 30.

Theodore Knox, 21, was driving the other speeding sports car, a Corvette, police said, and arrest warrants were issued for Knox on the same range of counts as for Rice. Dallas police said Thursday night that Knox was not currently in custody.

Southern Methodist University said earlier in the day that, after learning of the arrest warrant, Knox had been suspended from its football team. Knox’s attorney, Deandra Grant, said her client was cooperating with law enforcement.

Police have alleged that Rice and Knox were speeding in the far left lane when they lost control, and the Lamborghini traveled onto the shoulder and hit the center median wall, causing a chain collision.

Rice and Knox allegedly left following the crash without determining whether anyone needed medical attention or providing their information, according to police. Four people involved in the crash had minor injuries, police said.

Rice grew up in the Fort Worth suburb of North Richland Hills and played college football at nearby Southern Methodist, where a breakout senior season in 2022 put him on the radar of NFL teams.

The Chiefs selected him in the second round of last year’s draft, and he became one of the few dependable options in their passing game.

Manuel Rocha, 73, will also pay a $500,000 fine and cooperate with authorities after pleading guilty to conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed more than a dozen other counts, including wire fraud and making false statements.

“Your actions were a direct attack to our democracy and the safety of our citizens,” U.S. District Court Judge Beth Bloom told Rocha.

Rocha, dressed in a beige jail uniform, asked his friends and family for forgiveness. “I take full responsibility and accept the penalty,” he said.

The sentencing capped an exceptionally swift criminal case and averted a trial that would have shed new light on what, exactly, Rocha did to help Cuba even as he worked for two decades for the U.S. State Department.

Prosecutors said those details remain classified and would not even tell Bloom when the government determined Rocha was spying for Cuba.

Federal authorities have been conducting a confidential damage assessment that could take years to complete. The State Department said Friday it would continue working with the intelligence community “to fully assess the foreign policy and national security implications of these charges.”

Rocha’s sentence came less than six months after his shocking arrest at his Miami home on allegations he engaged in “clandestine activity” on Cuba’s behalf since at least 1981, the year he joined the U.S. foreign service.

The case underscored the sophistication of Cuba’s intelligence services, which have managed other damaging penetrations into high levels of U.S. government. Rocha’s double-crossing went undetected for years, prosecutors said, as the Ivy League-educated diplomat secretly met with Cuban operatives and provided false information to U.S. officials about his contacts.

But a recent Associated Press investigation found red flags overlooked along the way, including a warning that one longtime CIA operative received nearly two decades ago that Rocha was working as a double agent. Separate intelligence revealed the CIA had been aware as early as 1987 that Cuban leader Fidel Castro had a “super mole” burrowed deep inside the U.S. government, and some officials suspected it could have been Rocha, the AP reported.

Rocha’s prestigious career included stints as ambassador to Bolivia and top posts in Argentina, Mexico, the White House and the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

In 1973, the year he graduated from Yale, Rocha traveled to Chile, where prosecutors say he became a “great friend” of Cuba’s intelligence agency, the General Directorate of Intelligence, or DGI.

Rocha’s post-government career included time as a special adviser to the commander of the U.S. Southern Command and, more recently, as a tough-talking Donald Trump supporter and Cuba hardliner, a persona that friends and prosecutors said Rocha adopted to hide his true allegiances.

Among the unanswered questions is what prompted the FBI to open its investigation into Rocha so many years after he retired from the foreign service.

Rocha incriminated himself in a series of secretly recorded conversations with an undercover agent posing as a Cuban intelligence operative. The agent initially reached out to Rocha on WhatsApp, calling himself “Miguel” and saying he had a message “from your friends in Havana.”

Rocha praised Castro as “Comandante” in the conversations, branded the U.S. the “enemy” and boasted about his service for more than 40 years as a Cuban mole in the heart of U.S. foreign policy circles, prosecutors said in court records.

“What we have done … it’s enormous … more than a Grand Slam,” Rocha was quoted as saying.

Even before Friday’s sentencing, the plea agreement drew criticism in Miami’s Cuban exile community, with some legal observers worrying Rocha would be treated too leniently.

“Any sentence that allows him to see the light of day again would not be justice,” said Carlos Trujillo, a Miami attorney who served as U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States during the Trump administration. “He’s a spy for a foreign adversary who put American lives at risk.”

“As a Cuban I cannot forgive him,” added Isel Rodriguez, a 55-year-old Cuban-American woman who stood outside the federal courthouse Friday with a group of demonstrators waving American flags. “I feel completely betrayed.”

Dunn is one of the biggest reasons why Cullop became a coach. So, it made sense that one day, she’d coach at Miami.

“It is a full-circle moment,” Cullop said Thursday at her introductory news conference with the Hurricanes, one coming about a week after she accepted the Miami job and ended a highly successful 16-year run at Toledo. Cullop won 353 games at Toledo, going 86-17 in the last three years.

High-major schools had come calling before over the years — Wisconsin and Michigan were mentioned as potential landing spots during Cullop’s tenure at Toledo — but no place had successfully lured her away from that program. And then Miami called. A deal got done within days.

“It was how she built the program that really stood out,” Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich said. “She recruited well. She developed well. She scheduled tough. Her players performed in the classroom and connected with the community. She engaged the students, faculty, alumni, donors and media to create a gameday atmosphere second to none. In short, she continually delivered on the motto that drives her: to invest, improve and inspire.”

The first three recruits are already signed. Cullop announced that associate head coach Fitzroy Anthony — who is beloved by players — is returning, along with assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Lonnette Hall, and director of basketball operations Margie Gill. Miami had only 10 players take the floor this season; of those, it’s reasonable to think five or six will return as well.

Keeping Anthony was critical, Cullop said. She drove to Cleveland for the women’s Final Four last weekend not to see Caitlin Clark — but to convince Anthony to stay.

“I think I may have scared him a little bit because I was so intent on keeping him,” Cullop said.

At Miami, Cullop is replacing Katie Meier, who retired last month to end a 19-year stint where she led the program to the NCAA Tournament 10 times and guided the Hurricanes to the Elite Eight in 2023. Meier, the 2011 Associated Press Coach of the Year who had four years remaining on her contract with the Hurricanes, will remain with the university as a special adviser and ambassador for the athletic department. She was 362-208 at Miami.

Meier gave Cullop’s opening news conference high marks.

“Knocked it out of the park,” she wrote on X.

Cullop packed two bags for the move and is staying in a hotel for the time being. There’s no time to house-hunt yet — there’s a staff to finish hiring and a roster to continue filling. And she’s already picked up on one of Miami’s top selling points, that the university says it sees sunshine at least 284 days a year.

“Who can’t sell this? Any time I call recruits, all I have to do is walk outside and FaceTime or send them a couple of pictures,” Cullop said. “I mean, this is an unbelievable place.”

More than 112,000 children age 4 or younger were overlooked in Florida during the 2020 tally which helps determine federal funding and political power every 10 years, according to Demographic Analysis estimates using administrative records to estimate the population’s size.

The Demographic Analysis is one of the tools the Census Bureau uses to calculate how good a job it did of counting every U.S. resident during a census that determines how many congressional seats each state gets.

Vermont had the smallest undercount of young children during the 2020 census, with a negligible rate of 0.02%, the equivalent of six children.

Preschool-age children are the most difficult age group to count and are regularly missed during the nation’s head count, an oversight that can shortchange communities of federal funding for programs like Head Start. During the 2020 census, an estimated 1 million children age 4 and under nationwide were overlooked, an undercount of almost 5.5%.

Parents often don’t know they should include their babies on the census forms, and, at other times, young children are missed in multigenerational households or if they live in two households because of joint custody.

“We know these undercounts are often correlated with undercounts of certain race and ethnicity groups along with other factors that we were not able to measure directly,” Census Bureau Director Robert Santos said in a statement. “We are diligently working to address this issue.”

CONCACAF, the regional governing body for soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, cited unspecified incidents that occurred after Miami’s 2-1 loss. CONCACAF did not detail the amount of the fine in its announcement Wednesday.

The team led by Lionel Messi was eliminated 5-2 on aggregate following a 3-1 loss Wednesday night in Mexico.

“The committee has warned Inter Miami CF that more severe sanctions could be taken should incidents occur during their future matches in CONCACAF club competitions,” the governing body said.