The actor and musician made a cameo during J Balvin’s Sunday night set at the music festival, singing his 1997 hit “Men in Black” from the film of the same name.

Smith, who starred in three “Men in Black” movies, showed up toward the end of Balvin’s extraterrestrial-themed set, sporting the iconic look that became synonymous with the alien-fighting agents in the film.

With green aliens dancing in the background, Smith sang a portion of the catchy tune and resurrected dance moves from the music video. (Balvin’s performance and Smith’s cameo were shown on Coachella’s YouTube livestream.)

Fittingly, Smith closed his performance with a reference to the movie, whipping out a memory-erasing neuralyzer and disappearing as quickly as he appeared. This was a performance, however, that attendees and live streamers alike are unlikely to forget.

In the “Men in Black” franchise, Smith starred as Agent J, a former NYPD detective who is recruited to serve in a secret organization that deals with all extraterrestrial matters. Smith starred alongside Tommy Lee Jones.

The song that accompanied the film was from Smith’s debut solo album “Big Willie Style.”

It won Smith a Grammy Award in 1998.

But Republican leaders could still take procedural steps to send all those pieces as one package to the Senate, which could enrage the right wing of the House GOP conference.

A fourth bill will address foreign adversaries and include a ban on TikTok, the sources said.

Among the ways GOP leaders plan to address Ukraine aid: a bill to seize Russian assets, a lend-lease program for Ukraine military aid and convertible loans for humanitarian relief.

Former President Donald Trump, who recently met with House Speaker Mike Johnson at Mar-a-Lago, has expressed openness to structuring Ukraine aid as a loan.

GOP Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma told CNN that Johnson is allowing germane amendment votes on these bills as well – a process that far right Republicans had been demanding of Johnson.

In the wake of Iran’s unprecedented retaliatory strikes on Israel, Democrats have called on Johnson to bring up a Senate-passed foreign aid package that includes aid to Israel and Ukraine, but hardline conservatives have urged the Louisiana Republican against attaching Ukraine funding to any Israel aid package – a warning that comes as the speaker faces the threat of a potential vote to oust him from his leadership post.

House Republicans have also announced that a series of pro-Israel and anti-Iran bills will be taken up, including a measure condemning the attack by Iran and affirming that lawmakers stand with Israel and support its right to respond to Iranian aggression.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged immediate passage of the foreign aid package passed by the Senate in a new letter to colleagues.

“The gravely serious events of this past weekend in the Middle East and Eastern Europe underscore the need for Congress to act immediately. We must take up the bipartisan and comprehensive national security bill passed by the Senate forthwith,” Jeffries wrote.

In November, the House passed a bill to provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel, but Democrats objected to the fact that the bill did not include aid to Ukraine and would enact funding cuts to the Internal Revenue Service.

The Senate passed its bill in February – a $95.3 billion foreign aid bill with assistance for Ukraine, Israel and other priorities.

A significant number of House Republicans are opposed to sending further aid to Ukraine. Now, Johnson faces the most significant threat to his speakership to date after GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is among those who oppose additional Ukraine aid, filed a motion against him that could be used to force a vote on his ouster.

Greene told CNN on Monday that Trump’s backing of Johnson during a Friday press conference will not deter her from moving to oust the speaker.

“No, no, and as a matter of fact, there’s more people that are probably going to be angry from whatever happens this week,” she said.

Greene called the push for aid to Ukraine “the dumbest thing on the planet,” before dismissing Trump’s endorsement of Johnson.

“He also said that I’m his friend, so don’t leave that part out. No, I don’t think President Trump should have ever been put in that situation, at that press conference,” she said. “He shouldn’t have had to sit there and be questioned back and forth between myself and Speaker Johnson. I am one of President Trump’s biggest fighters here in Washington, everyone knows that.”

Johnson called Greene’s decision to file the motion to vacate a “distraction” during an interview on Fox News.

“That’s a distraction. What Marjorie has done with the motion to vacate is not helpful for our party, for our mission to save the country, because if we don’t grow the House majority, keep the House majority, win the Senate and win back the White House for President Trump, we’re going to lose the republic,” he said.

“I did not hear you take accountability in your allocution. You said you were sorry, but not (that) you were sorry for what you did,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said in announcing the sentence.

“You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon,” the judge said. “But for you, Ms. Hutchins would be alive, a husband would have his partner, and a little boy would have his mother.”

Gutierrez Reed, 26, had no visible reaction to the sentence. She was taken from the courtroom after the sentence was announced.

The verdict comes more than two years after Hutchins, 42, was killed by a live round of ammunition fired from a prop gun held by actor Alec Baldwin on October 21, 2021. The film’s director was also injured in the shooting.

As the armorer, Gutierrez Reed was responsible for firearm safety and storage on set. She became the first person to stand trial and be convicted in the case, which has captured national attention for more than two years.

At trial, prosecutors argued she repeatedly violated safety protocol and acted without caution in performing her duties, leading to Hutchins’ death. Her defense attorney argued the 26-year-old has been scapegoated for the safety failures of film set management and other crew members. Gutierrez Reed did not testify.

After hearing from more than 30 witnesses and deliberating for nearly three hours, jurors found Gutierrez Reed guilty of involuntary manslaughter on March 6. She was acquitted of a separate charge of evidence tampering.

Prosecutors had asked she be sentenced to the maximum prison time, citing a “complete and total failure to accept responsibility for her actions.” In contrast, the defense had asked she be released on probation, arguing she has no prior criminal history and has a “record of prior good works and positive things.”

She has been in custody since her conviction. Her defense attorney Jason Bowles told CNN they plan to appeal.

Baldwin, the actor and celebrity, has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter and is expected to stand trial in July. He has pleaded not guilty and has maintained he did not pull the firearm’s trigger.

A judge is currently considering a motion filed by Baldwin’s legal team to dismiss his indictment, citing alleged impropriety by the government – a motion prosecutors vehemently slammed in a rebuttal filing of their own.

Former armorer says ‘my heart aches’

Prior to the sentence, Hutchins’ family in Ukraine and friends spoke Monday about what Hutchins meant to them.

“The day of her death ruined my entire life,” her mother, Olga Solovey, said in a video with translated subtitles. “It’s heart-wrenching to see her child grow without his mother.”

Joel Souza, the “Rust” director and screenwriter who was also shot in the incident, acknowledged the physical and emotional pain he has felt in the two-and-a-half years since the shooting.

“One day the world made sense, and the next day it didn’t, and it still doesn’t, and I’m not sure it ever will again,” he said.

He described Hutchins as a great talent. “She was a touchstone for all who knew her, and those of us who were lucky enough to have shared in her fleeting time on this planet are better for it,” he said.

Gutierrez Reed, wearing a beige jail uniform, spoke in court and offered her condolences to those affected by Hutchins’ death.

“First and foremost, my heart aches for Hutchins’ family and friends and colleagues as well and it has since the day this tragedy occurred,” she said. “Halyna has been and always will be an inspiration to me. I understand she was taken too soon and I pray that you all find peace.”

She asked the judge to sentence her to probation.

“Your honor, when I took on Rust I was young and I was naïve, but I took my job as seriously as I knew how to. Despite not having proper time, resources and staffing, when things got tough I just did my best to handle it.”

“The jury has found me in part at fault for this godawful tragedy, but that doesn’t make me a monster, that makes me human,” she said.

In a sentencing memo dated April 10, Gutierrez Reed’s defense team requested she be released on probation with conditions set by the judge and undergo counseling and rehabilitative efforts. She feels “incredibly saddened and heart broken by what happened on that tragic day on the Rust set,” the memo said.

In an April 12 court filing responding to the defense memo, prosecutors requested Gutierrez Reed be sentenced to 18 months in prison, arguing she “continues to deny responsibility and blame others.” Prosecutors also cited jail calls in which Gutierrez Reed allegedly complained “about the negative affects this incident has had on her life” and called jurors derogatory names.

A native of Ukraine, Hutchins obtained a graduate degree in international journalism from Kyiv National University and worked as an investigative journalist with British documentary productions in Europe. She later moved to Los Angeles and discovered a love of cinematography.

She was credited with involvement in the production of 49 film, TV and video titles during her career, according to IMDB. She worked on movies including “Archenemy,” starring Joe Manganiello, which was released in 2020, and was named a rising star by American Cinematographer magazine in 2019.

What happened in the trial

The fatal shooting took place during a break in the filming of the Western movie “Rust” at the Bonanza Creek Ranch outside of Santa Fe.

Baldwin had been practicing for a scene and was drawing and pointing a revolver with guidance from Hutchins and Souza, according to a 2023 probable cause statement.

Baldwin drew the revolver, pointed it at Hutchins and fired the weapon shortly before 2 p.m., striking her in the chest and injuring Souza, prosecutors said in the probable cause statement. Hutchins was pronounced dead just after 3:30 p.m.

In the trial, prosecutors alleged Gutierrez Reed repeatedly violated safety protocols and neglected her responsibilities leading up to the shooting. She failed to perform safety checks on the prop weapon and the ammunition she loaded it with, handed it to a staff member who should not have been handling weapons on set and then departed the area when Baldwin ultimately fired the fatal round, prosecutors said.

“This is not a case where Hannah Gutierrez made one mistake and that one mistake was accidentally putting a live round into that gun,” Morrissey said during closing arguments. “This case is about constant, never-ending safety failures that resulted in the death of a human being and nearly killed another.”

Morrissey said Gutierrez Reed’s repeated failures allowed six live rounds to make their way onto the set and said she did not conduct safety checks that would have caught them.

“She had six, six live rounds on that movie set, the earliest date that I can track them for you is October 10, (2021),” the prosecutor said. “Six, and she failed to ferret them out for 12 days. What that means is that she wasn’t shaking any dummy rounds, she wasn’t testing anything.”

“Dummy” rounds refer to ammunition that contains no explosive elements but looks as if it was a real bullet when fired.

Bowles, the defense attorney, placed the blame elsewhere. He questioned how the live ammunition made it on set and alleged the production team created a chaotic and unsafe environment that put Gutierrez Reed under “really tough conditions to keep up with.” He also said Baldwin did not follow common-sense gun safety rules on set when he handled the firearm and acted unpredictably when he pointed the weapon at Hutchins.

“(Gutierrez Reed) could not anticipate what Baldwin would do. It was not in the script, it was not foreseeable,” he said in closing arguments. “Management was responsible for safety failures and not Hannah.”

During the armorer’s trial, assistant film director David Halls admitted he was “negligent” in checking the gun and did not properly look through all the rounds in the gun’s chamber when Gutierrez Reed presented it to him. He yelled “cold gun” before handing the weapon to Baldwin, a remark meant to indicate the firearm did not have live rounds, according to a court document.

Halls took a plea deal in 2023 for his role in the shooting, pleading no contest to one count of negligent use of a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, had to participate in a firearms safety class, complete 24 hours of community service and not use drugs or alcohol.

More than 54% of the world’s coral reef areas have experienced bleaching in the past year, affecting at least 53 countries and territories including large swaths of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, a joint statement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) said.

“It is likely that this event will surpass the previous peak of 56.1% soon,” Derek Manzello, the coordinator for NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program, said in an email to CNN. “The percentage of reef areas experiencing bleaching-level heat stress has been increasing by roughly 1% per week.”

When corals are exposed to stress from marine heatwaves, they spit out the algae living within their tissue, which provides them with both their color and most of their energy. If ocean temperatures don’t return to normal, bleaching can lead to mass coral death, threatening the species and food chains that rely on them with collapse.

This marks the world’s fourth global bleaching event, and the second in the past decade – with previous periods in 1998, 2010, and between 2014-2017.

In the past year, mass bleaching has been confirmed in regions including Florida and the wider Caribbean, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, the South Pacific, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, Indonesia, and the Indian Ocean including the east coast of Africa and the Seychelles.

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a climate scientist specializing in coral reefs based at the University of Queensland in Australia, predicted this mass bleaching event months ago.

“We knew sea temperatures were increasing rapidly, but not at this speed,” Hoegh-Guldberg told CNN on Monday. “The worrying issue is that we don’t know how long this massive temperature change is likely to last.”

The last 12 months have been the planet’s warmest on record and ocean temperatures have been surging off the charts. Global sea surface temperatures hit record highs in February and again in March, according to data from the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

In February, scientists at the Coral Reef Watch program at NOAA added three new alert levels to the coral bleaching alert maps, to enable scientists to assess the new scale of underwater warming.

Will La Niña bring relief?

El Niño, a natural climate pattern that originates in the Pacific Ocean along the equator and tends to push up global temperatures, has helped drive the unprecedented ocean heat.

NOAA predicts La Niña, El Niño’s cooler counterpart, could arrive between June and August this year, which provides “a nugget of hope” for coral reefs, NOAA’s Manzello said.

But, he added, bleaching events have still occurred during La Niña in the past few years.

“I am becoming increasingly concerned about the 2024 summer for the wider Caribbean and Florida,” Manzello said. “When we roll into summer and the bleaching season for Florida and the Caribbean, it won’t take much additional seasonal warming to push temperatures past the bleaching threshold.”

In mid-February, CNN witnessed extensive coral bleaching on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – the world’s largest coral reef system – on five different reefs spanning the northern and southern areas. A mass bleaching event was officially confirmed there last month after aerial and underwater surveys by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

“The increasing frequency and extremity of marine heatwaves driven by climate change, is testing the tolerance levels of coral reefs,” said Selina Stead, the CEO of AIMS. “Climate change is the biggest threat to coral reefs worldwide and this global confirmation illustrates just how extensive its impact has been across the last 12 months.”

“That is why it is critical the world works to reduce carbon emissions,” Stead added. “It is also important to ensure coral reefs are well managed at local and regional levels.”

The UN Environment Programme has warned that if the world fails to aggressively lower its emissions, the planet is heading towards nearly 3 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels this century.

Scientists predict that even at 2 degrees of warming — which the world could reach around 2050 — approximately 99% of corals on Earth would die.

As well as being an essential habitat for marine life, coral reefs are crucial for the world’s coastal communities — they act as a vital defense system against the threat of flooding from storms and sea level rise, and also provide livelihoods and a vital food source for an estimated billion people globally.

David Ritter, CEO of Greenpeace Australia, said reefs were facing “existential danger” and that blame lies “squarely with the main culprits fueling global warming: fossil fuel companies, and the governments who prop up this industry.”

“We are running out of runway to avoid irreversible climate disaster,” he added, “and must act quickly to ensure an immediate end to new fossil fuels.”

“This is a dark day for Syracuse. This is our worst nightmare come true. And our thoughts right now are with the families of those two officers, those heroes,” Mayor Ben Walsh said at a news conference.

The police deaths add to the at least 38 law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty so far this year, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. Last year, 136 officers died in the line of duty across the US, according to a report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a 39% decrease from 224 deaths in 2022.

The incident in upstate New York began just after 7 p.m., when two Syracuse Police Department officers tried to pull over a suspicious vehicle, Chief Joseph Cecile said at the news conference. The driver didn’t stop and the officers lost sight of the vehicle, Cecile said, but they used the license plate to link it to a home in nearby Liverpool.

The officers asked for assistance from the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office after learning the person driving the vehicle may be armed, Cecile said. Members of each department arrived at the home around the same time.

“While they were inspecting the vehicle and saw what looked to be guns inside, they heard what sounded like someone manipulating a firearm from inside the residence,” Cecile said. “Moments later, there was an exchange of gunfire between at least one suspect and the officers and the deputies.”

An officer, a deputy and the suspect were all shot and pronounced dead at a hospital, Cecile said, noting the investigation is ongoing.

The identities of the fallen officers and the suspect haven’t been released.

The officer had been on the job for about three years, Cecile said. Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley described the deputy as “seasoned.”

“With the April deadline upon us, we’re seeing a flurry of tax returns coming in during the final hours. We’ve already received more than 100 million [returns] and tens of millions more returns are being filed in the final days,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel told reporters on Friday.

So if you’re a last-minute filer, you’re in good company — and even more so if you expect a refund. Werfel noted that the agency has already paid out more than $200 billion in refunds through early April. Overall, two in three filers are owed money back, he said.

Hereare some last-minute notes and tips to help you in your down-to-the-wire quest to file your federal return or to get an extension to file without incurring financial penalties. (Check your state’s tax revenue department site to see what to be mindful of when doing the same for your state return.)

Today may not be your actual filing deadline: Yes, April 15 is the big kahuna of tax-filing deadlines for most people. But millions of Americans don’t have to file today because they have been granted automatic extensions if, for instance, they live or do business in a federally declared disaster area or were affected by the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Or if they live in Massachusetts and Maine, which observe Patriots Day on April 15, or Washington, DC, which marks Emancipation Day on April 16. Americans living abroad automatically get an additional two months to file, until June 15. However, they must pay whatever they still owe the IRS for tax year 2023 by April 15. Members of the US military stationed abroad also get that two-month extension, plus they may qualify for other extensions – including extensions to pay – if they are in a combat zone.

File for an automatic extension: Can’t get your act together in time to file your form 1040 by 11:59 pm tonight? Then request an automatic six-month extension by filling out this form, which will push your filing deadline to October 15, 2024. Werfel estimates 19 million last-minute filers will be doing so.

Without that extension, if you simply file late and you still owe money to the IRS, you will be hit with a failure-to-file penalty plus interest on your outstanding balance.

Pay what you owe today, or at least some of it: Even if you secure an extension to file, most people are required to pay whatever they still owe the IRS for tax year 2023 by April 15.

So do your best to estimate what that amount will be and send in your payment — or at least a partial payment — tonight.Making a payment will help you avoid, or limit, the failure-to-pay penalty and interest you will be charged on your balance due. (Here are some tips for how to estimate what you still owe if you’re not filing a completed return yet.)

If that balance is unmanageable for you, there are options to work out a payment plan with the IRS to reduce your penalties and interest, which otherwise can compound quickly.

Double check your work: To prevent any delays in the processing of your return (or refund if you’re owed one), and to avoid any headache-inducing interactions with the IRS after you file, make sure you’re getting the basics right on your return.

Also make sure you answer the digital assets question on the first page of your 1040 and that you file the correct forms needed if, in fact, you had any taxable transactions with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

For instance, check that the following are correct: the spelling of your name, your address, your filing status, your Social Security number and your bank account number if you’re seeking direct deposit for a refund. Also double check your computations. Do all this even if you relied on a tax program or tax professional to prepare your return.

(Here are other last-minute tips and resources you can use from the IRS if you need help, have questions or want to file for free.)

Track your refund: If you’re among the majority of tax filers due a refund and you haven’t received it yet, you can track its status by using the IRS Where’s My Refund? tool online.

The average refund as of early April was $3,011, up $123 from a year ago. The turnaround time for the IRS to send them out can be fast.

“The IRS has done a great job of getting refunds out quickly this year. … In many cases people have been getting refunds in just over a week. That’s important because for many people, these are the biggest checks they see all the year,” Werfel said.

(Looking for some ideas for how to put your refund to good use? Here are a few.)

The world No. 1 was unshakeable at Augusta National, shrugging off attacks from multiple challengers to finish four shots ahead of Sweden’s Ludvig Åberg and add to his victory in 2022.

Scheffler had arrived at the 88th edition of the tournament as the odds-on favorite and proved bookmakers correct, a closing four-under 68 lifting him to 11-under overall and sealing his third win in just over a month, as well as a $3.6 million cut of a Masters-record $20 million prize purse.

Unmoved by blustering winds that swept away many of his big-name rivals across the week, at times it looked like the only person capable of denying Scheffler another green jacket was his imminent first child.

The Texan had vowed to abandon the tournament if his wife Meredith went into labor, with the due date expected within the next few weeks.

His ninth PGA Tour title – and third in his last four starts – the victory sees the 27-year-old become the 18th player to tally multiple Masters wins, and the fourth youngest to achieve the feat after Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros and Tiger Woods, who finished 60th – last of those to make the cut – following his 100th round at the major.

Witnesses say the man fired rounds from the roof and a balcony of a complex at Via Marina and Catamaran Street around 10:15 p.m. Saturday.

The shooter was allegedly armed with two AR-15-style rifles and a pistol and repeatedly reloaded while sheriff’s SWAT teams tried to deescalate the situation.

“It’s pretty terrifying . . .” said one resident. “We have never had any type of active shooter situation or anything at this level and it is all residential for the most part, it is very concerning.”

The suspect was later taken into custody. His identity has not been released. There are no reports of anyone hurt.

A motive for the shooting remains unclear. An investigation is ongoing.

Eilish was the surprise performer during headliner Lana Del Rey’s set, coming on stage to duet with Rey for a rendition of the latter’s signature song “Video Games.” The pair also sang together on Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes.”

Eilish is coming off the major success of winning back-to-back Grammys and an Oscar, for her song “What Was I Made For?” off the soundtrack for the 2023-defining movie “Barbie.”

Meanwhile, at Bizarrap’s performance at Coachella, superstar Shakira surprised concertgoers for a performance of “La Fuerte” as well as their hit, “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53.”

During their set, Shakira also announced some big news – she will soon embark on a new world tour, titled the “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour,” in support of her latest studio album of the same name.

No Doubt, Doja Cat and rapper Tyler, The Creator are also set to headline the Coachella festival, with other notable artists such as Peso Pluma, Ice Spice, Blur, Sublime and J. Balvin slated to take one of the fest’s many stages.

Saturday will see No Doubt’s first concert performance together in nine years.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is taking place in Indio, California over the weekends of April 12 and April 19.

The “Barbie” actor said goodbye to his Ken era during his ‘SNL’ monologue by singing a parody version of Taylor Swift’s 2012 hit “All Too Well.” While wearing a fur coat in nod to his character from the 2023 movie, Gosling sang about his “break up” with Ken to the sad tune.

At one point, Emily Blunt, who co-stars with Gosling in the upcoming film “The Fall Guy,” appeared on stage in a surprise cameo to express her anger that he was singing about Ken “again” and declared, “Ken is dead.”

When Gosling asked Blunt if she, too, missed her “Oppenheimer” character, she started singing her version of “All Too Well” to mourn Kitty Oppenheimer. The song then turned into a glorious “Barbenheimer” duet.

“Now it’s time to wish Ken, Kitty, both of us… farewell,” they sang together.

Gosling was nominated for an Academy Award in the best supporting actor category for his performance as Ken in the “Barbie” movie and performed an unforgettable live rendition of “I’m Just Ken” during the ceremony in March.

This marks Gosling’s third time hosting “SNL,” after previously taking the stage in 2015 and 2017. He also appeared on an episode earlier this month to help initiate host and legendary “SNL” alum Kristen Wiig into the five-timers club during her monologue.

“SNL” airs on NBC at 11:30 p.m. EDT/8:30 p.m. PDT. Singer Dua Lipa is set to appear as the host and musical guest on the next new episode, airing May 4.

Dave Duell was on his normal long-haul trucking route along Interstate 5 South when a 40-to-50-pound turkey flew into the roadway.

Emily-Jean Duell, the trucker’s daughter, said while the incident left her father with some pretty serious injuries the initial surprise left her feeling lighthearted.

“Laughing,” she said. “Lots of laughing. I had shown him the second I got it, the picture of the turkey looking down the barrel of the dashcam and at his windshield. Even with his broken rib, he was laughing at it. He thought it was hilarious.”

Emily said it wasn’t all a laughing matter when she got a phone call from a nurse, explaining to her that a bird had smashed through her father’s windshield and knocked him unconscious. The collision with the turkey sent his semi-hauling three trailers off the roadway in rural Oregon.

At first, all she knew was that a big bird had caused serious damage to the truck and her dad.

“I was thinking a hawk,” she said.

Emily nervously hit the road to look for her dad and found him at a Medford hospital.

She would eventually learn that it was a turkey that had flown into the roadway.

“They were cleaning his wounds and pulled out some turkey feathers,” she said.

She described her father as a goofy guy who doesn’t take anything too seriously.

He suffered a broken rib and tooth, a fractured jaw and a fractured vertebra in his neck. However, she said the worst of it is the bone around one of his eyes was shattered.

“They called it an orbital blowout,” which she said her father will need surgery for. “The entire bone behind his left eye is shattered.”

Despite the aftermath and what she describes as an emotional roller coaster, she said her father is lucky to have crossed paths with the bird and survive. She said one doctor shared with her that he could’ve easily been killed.

“It all could have been astronomically different,” she said. “The time to worry about him surviving is over and n

Between 2016 and 2020, a team of researchers fixed tags equipped with cameras onto tiger sharks so that they could view the ocean floor from a new perspective. The data they collected revealed what is the world’s largest known seagrass ecosystem, an area of up to 92,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles) in the Bahamas. According to their study, published in 2022, this extends the total known global seagrass coverage by more than 40%.

This is significant as seagrasses trap and store massive amounts of carbon in the sediment and are therefore a vital tool in mitigating climate change.

Dr. Austin Gallagher, one of the report’s co-authors and founder and CEO of ocean research organization Beneath the Waves, believes that tiger sharks and other marine life can help scientists to map ocean ecosystems and lead to other significant discoveries. As guest editor for Call to Earth, he spoke to CNN about what it’s like collaborating with tiger sharks and the importance of protecting the ocean’s carbon sinks.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

CNN: When did the idea to put a camera on a tiger shark come about?

We’ve been putting cameras on animals for decades in the scientific community and we’ve been doing that in the field of sharks for many years now. So, it wasn’t completely novel, but we wanted to advance our work on tiger sharks to get a better understanding of what a day in the life of a tiger shark looked like. To do that, we needed to be able to see what the animals were seeing because we can infer all sorts of types of patterns based on their movement: where they go and how much time they spend in certain areas and habitats. When we did that, it opened a whole Pandora’s box of new questions and it eventually put us down a path of radical discovery here in The Bahamas.

CNN: What did you discover from the tiger shark data?

We knew that tiger sharks spend a lot of time over the shallow water carbonate banks here in The Bahamas and we knew that there is an expansive seagrass ecosystem here, but it wasn’t until we got the data back from those camera-equipped tiger sharks that we really saw how important and expansive the seagrass might be. It turned the light bulb on for the first time: that we need to map out how much seagrass is here.

We knew that we had to map it out from space, because while tiger sharks gave us a dozen or so good traces with those camera tags, we had to take Earth-orbiting satellites and a remote-sensing approach to map out how much was there. It would never be possible as humans, or as tiger sharks, to do the entire exclusive economic zone of The Bahamas. So we did that and we were able to map it out. We put divers in the water to validate all the predictions from space, we took pictures ourselves of the sea floor, and we then used more data from tiger sharks, including 360-degree camera tags that gave us a full comprehensive look at what the animals were seeing.

It ended up validating a prediction of up to 93,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles) of seagrass ecosystem here in The Bahamas, which makes it by far the largest on Earth. It was hiding in plain sight.

CNN: What more is there to discover?

We’re just at the beginning of understanding how valuable and how important this seagrass asset is, and what role tiger sharks, sea turtles and other threatened biodiversity plays in that relationship. And let’s also not forget about humans and the role that we play in the future of preserving these ecosystems.

Mapping and discovering them is just one part of it. Then it’s creating new protections around them and working with governments and environmental decision makers to really put all these data into the right packages and submit them to the right bodies that will eventually issue things like carbon credits that can be used to leverage protections, but also create financial benefits and ultimately long-term financial returns for places like The Bahamas.

CNN: What is blue carbon and why is it so valuable?

Blue carbon is a term for all the carbon that ends up in the ocean. It happens naturally and it is stored and sequestered in the ocean in its various sediments, largely through plants – things like seagrasses, mangroves, salt marshes. These are what we call blue carbon ecosystems, and through natural processes like photosynthesis, these plants sequester and store massive amounts of carbon – significantly more than their terrestrial counterparts.

If we want to try and create new protections for the ocean, if we want to try and build resiliency, particularly in low-lying countries and small island developing states, we have a real objective to build resilience in the place of climate change. One of the ways that we can do that is by working in partnership with nature: seagrasses, mangroves, they are what we call a nature-based solution to climate change. If we want to try and enhance coastal protection and create benefits for communities and biodiversity, going out and quantifying how much carbon and what the extent of that looks like is incredibly important for ocean research.

CNN: What is the end goal of your scientific research and work?

The ultimate goal of the work that I’m doing is to create empathy for the ocean and to also preserve what we have for future generations. To live harmoniously with these ecosystems, to find ways to live harmoniously with sharks, to protect these ecosystems like seagrass. It’s creating marine protected areas, it’s enhancing existing conservation measures for threatened species like sharks, but it’s about making sure that the legacy of these incredible ecosystems remains as intact as possible for as long as possible.

Hackers gained access to user accounts through stolen login credentials, Roku said in a blog post. The security breach was discovered while Roku monitored account activity after a cyberattack affected 15,000 accounts earlier this year.

In each instance, fraudsters used a cyberattack method known as credential stuffing: Hackers try login and password information leaked in one data breach on a variety of users’ accounts, exploiting people who use the same credentials across different accounts. (Experts recommend people use different passwords for each of their online accounts.)

Credentials used to access Roku accounts were likely from a data breach on a different site, the company said in a statement.

“There is no indication that Roku was the source of the account credentials used in these attacks or that Roku’s systems were compromised in either incident,” the company said.

In fewer than 400 cases, hackers used Roku accounts to make purchases on streaming services and Roku products but did not gain access to sensitive financial information. Roku is reversing charges and refunding all affected accounts, the company said in a statement.

“These malicious actors were not able to access sensitive user information or full credit card information,” the company said.

User passwords have been automatically reset, and users affected by the security breach will be contacted by Roku, the company said in a statement.

Roku, a streaming giant, hosts more than 80 million users. The company announced it is implementing two-factor authentication across all Roku accounts. The two-step security confirmation prompts users on a second device whenever there’s an attempted log in.

“We sincerely regret that these incidents occurred and any disruption they may have caused. Your account security is a top priority, and we are committed to protecting your Roku account,” the company said in a statement.

The company’s stock is down nearly 3% since the security breach was announced.

Tips for securing your account

Users looking to protect their online accounts should create unique passwords that comprise a mix of letters, symbols and numbers at least eight characters long.

Be aware of internet scams, phishing emails and suspicious requests for login or financial information.

Roku users should contact customer support when in doubt and periodically log in to accounts to review purchases and subscriptions, the company said in a statement.

Police were called to Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday afternoon local time following reports of multiple people stabbed. Witnesses described scenes of panic with some forced to hide in shops as the attack unfolded.

New South Wales (NSW) police commissioner Karen Webb said four women and a man died at the shopping mall, while another woman passed away at the hospital.

She said that eight people are currently being treated for injuries in hospitals around Sydney, including a nine-month-old infant who has been in surgery.

The suspect – who police said acted alone – was shot dead at the scene by a lone officer.

NSW’s Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said a senior police inspector was nearby when the attack unfolded.

She arrived on the scene first and was alone when she engaged with the attacker. She shot the offender when he raised a knife at her.

“She discharged her firearm, and that person is now deceased,” Cooke said.

Webb told reporters that current elements do not point to a terror motive, but said that the investigation will be ongoing “for many, many days” and that it is “too early to say” what was behind the attack.

According to Webb, police believe that the suspect was a 40-year-old man but as background checks remain ongoing, she could not provide further identification details.

A law enforcement source briefed on the investigation told CNN the suspect had no prior contact with Australian counterterrorism officials, but had had at least one encounter with New South Wales Police in the past related to mental health issues.

The officer who shot him was also seen in videos on social media administering CPR to those who had been injured. Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the officer a hero who “no doubt saved lives.”

The suspect encountered nine people after he entered the mall at 3:10 pm local time, according to police. He left and reentered the mall at 3:20 pm before carrying out his attack.

‘Pandemonium’

Videos shared on social media show shoppers running from multiple exits of the shopping center, while police helicopters can be heard overhead.

CNN’s Australian affiliate, 9 News Sydney, spoke to an eyewitness who said people were running through the shopping center and falling over each other, describing the situation as “pandemonium.”

Two male eyewitnesses told 9 News they saw a baby and mother stabbed.

“We were holding the baby and trying to compress the baby,” one said. “Same with the mother, trying to compress the blood from stopping.”

Another witness described seeing a man in a green shirt stabbing others “indiscriminately.”

“[We just heard] screaming, screaming and it didn’t seem that long before we heard ‘boom boom boom’ of the gunshot and we thought, ‘We hope it’s the police,’” the witness told Australia’s state broadcaster ABC. “It was just carnage.”

In a televised address, Prime Minister Albanese said the attack was “beyond words or understanding.”

He continued: “Today Bondi Junction was the scene of shocking violence. But it was also witness to the humanity and the heroism of our fellow Australians.

“Our brave police, our first responders, and of course everyday people who could never have imagined they would face such a moment.”

Leaders and dignitaries from around the world expressed their shock at the attacks. Britain’s King Charles III, who is head of state in Australia, said he and his wife Queen Camilla are “utterly shocked and horrified” by the killings. Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened,” according to a statement from the Vatican.

Mass casualty events are rare in Australia. At least four people were killed and one injured in a mass shooting in Darwin, northern Australia in 2019.

April 1996 saw a mass shooting which became known as the Port Arthur massacre – the deadliest in Australia’s modern history – when 35 people were killed in the tourist town in the state of Tasmania.

The cruise port bus was dropping off people near a pier when a bystander informed the driver that the bus was moving forward. The driver jumped into the driver’s seat and tried to stop the bus, but pressed the gas pedal instead of the brakes, police said.

“Somebody screamed, and then I looked over and the bus hit into the crowd. It just kept going until it hit the wall there,” witness Janet Lightfoot told CNN affiliate KHNL/KGMB.

The bus struck concrete barriers and 11 people, five of whom were transported to hospitals for treatment, according to the police. One woman died from her injuries, while the others were listed in good condition, police said. Six people refused treatment.

Carnival Cruise Line said nine guests from the Carnival Miracle ship were among those involved in the accident, including the woman who died.

“She was traveling with her husband, who was also injured and is expected to recover,” the cruise line said.

Police said investigations are ongoing, but so far speed does not appear to be an issue in the accident. “It is unknown if drugs or alcohol were contributing factors to this collision,” the Honolulu Police Department said.

CNN has reached out to the shuttle bus company and is awaiting a response.

The Carnival Miracle is midway through a 15-day sailing journey that left Long Beach, California.

Crews with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Ehattesaht First Nation made the decision Friday afternoon the orca calf was not ready to be moved and stood down from their rescue attempt, according to a news release from the department.

The calf became stranded in the Zeballos lagoon after its mother got trapped on a sandbar in the lagoon’s shallow waters and died on March 23. The mother was pregnant at the time of her death.

Crews tried several methods to coax the calf into the shallow area of the lagoon but she refused, the release said. Friday’s operation was the result of almost a week of planning and the work of 50 people, including six boats and 15 people in the water. Meanwhile, the whale has received an outpouring of love from the surrounding community as they hope for it to be reunited with its family.

“It is during efforts like this that many of us are truly humbled at the intelligence, adaptability and resilience of the orca,” department officials said in the statement. “No matter how much we study these amazing creatures the more we realize how little we know.”

Officials have been monitoring the calf daily and working to formulate the best plan to relocate the animal and reunite it with its family pod. The orca is still in good health and swimming well, according to veterinarians who assessed the animal.

Dr. Martin Haulena, a veterinarian with the Vancouver Aquarium, said the veterinary team got a closer look at the whale than they have in the past. The orca is “doing very well” and there are no critical animal health concerns, but its skin is turning a little white, which might have to do with the lagoon’s salinity, Haulena said. It is difficult to tell whether the calf is eating, though there are duck, seals and fish in the lagoon, so the immediate need is to provide her nutrition in some way.

“This is not a spot where she should normally be and she is not with the whales that she should normally be accompanied by. And she’s a very young whale that would normally still be very close to her mother and depending on her mother for things,” Haulena said at a news conference Friday. “In the long-term, this is not a great situation by any stretch.”

Crews are taking Friday afternoon to work on planning the next steps for the rescue operation. They have tried multiple methods to get the calf to leave the lagoon on its own, including “acoustic playbacks” – playing the sounds of other orca whales, but nothing worked, Paul Cottrell with Fisheries and Oceans Canada said earlier Thursday.

“Some of the techniques that we’ve been using in the past, they’re less effective, unfortunately, as we use them more,” Cottrell said at a news conference Friday. “So we are looking to change our approach going forward to maybe a different tactic and we’re gonna be working on that in the next while to see if we can implement that, some planning and logistic changes, to see if we can help this poor calf get back to its family.”

With the orca reluctant to leave the area, Cottrell said, they will have to work within the space to see if they can isolate the whale.

Officials initially planned to transport the calf using a helicopter, but pivoted to using a truck and boat to avoid stressing the animal. They hope to eventually lure the calf into an area where they can move it onto a truck then drive the animal and place it on a boat, which would bring it into a net pod, Ehattesaht First Nation Chief Simon John said. They plan to continue the rescue operation within a few days, John said Friday.

The orca, which locals have named “Little Brave Hunter” or “Kʷiisaḥiʔis” in the Ehattesaht First Nation language and writing system, will then wait in the net pen until its family passes by. It will hopefully be released and reunite with its relatives, John explained. The net pen is planned to be in Esperanza, southeast of Zeballos.

Officials hope they can implement the plan within the next week. “It’s a huge effort and we have a long way to go,” Cottrell said. “We’re hoping for the best possible outcome.”

The orca’s family pod was last spotted March 30.

“There’s a lot of eyes and ears that are looking out for the related pod,” Cottrell said Friday. “There’s a very high likelihood in a short amount of time there will be some sort of interaction or reunion and that’s what we’re hoping for.”

Bay Cetology, one of the organizations working to coordinate the rescue, told CNN the orca is “robust, showing no immediate signs of emaciation.” There have been attempts to feed the calf, but it’s unclear if it has eaten anything, according to the organization.

“This whale’s skin has just started to slough in sizable patches along the top of the head and base of the dorsal fin on each side perhaps due to the freshwater runoff into the lagoon it is in,” says the organization.

Moving the orca calf “will require a lot of patience as well as cooperation from the whale,” Bay Cetology added.

Orcas – also known as killer whales – are found in all the world’s oceans, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They are highly social, living in family pods of up to 20 or more whales. Calves typically stay with their mothers for the first two years of life, according to the agency.

This is not the first time officials in Canada have strategized to rescue a solitary and stranded orca calf. In 2002, an orca calf who came to be named Springer was spotted alone in Puget Sound, prompting an extensive capture and relocation effort. She is considered the first orca in history to successfully rejoin a wild population after human intervention.

The deal is significant, not just for the future of what is still a key US industry central to building everything from cars to appliances to roads and bridges, it is also at the center of election year politics and relations between the United States and Japan, a major ally.

The company announced that 98% of shares voted on the measure were in favor of the $14 billion deal.

“The overwhelming support from our stockholders is a clear endorsement that they recognize the compelling rationale for our transaction with Nippon Steel,” said US Steel CEO David Burritt. “This is an important milestone. This transaction truly represents the best path forward for all of US Steel’s stakeholders – union and non-union employees, customers, communities and stockholders – and for the United States.”

But the deal faces significant opposition from the United Steelworkers union and politicians on both sides of the aisle.

“We are not surprised by stockholders electing to cash in and sell out the iconic American company’s employees and retirees, along with the communities where we live and work,” said a statement from the USW. “Wall Street investors and U.S. Steel executives obviously stand to gain the most from Nippon … while leaving union members in the cold. Thankfully, today’s vote isn’t the end of the story: The decision ultimately isn’t simply up to shareholders and executives.”

For the deal to close, it needs approval from both the Justice Department, which enforces antitrust laws, and the normally low profile but powerful Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, made up of members of the President Joe Biden’s cabinet, including the secretaries of Treasury, Commerce, Defense, State, Homeland Security and the Attorney General.

And last month Biden came out publicly against the proposed deal.

“It is important that we maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steelworkers,” he said. “US Steel has been an iconic American steel company for more than a century, and it is vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated.”

Experts said opposition from Biden and other politicians — both Republican and Democrats — make it unlikely the deal will win approval.

“It’s readily apparent … that electoral politics has overwhelmed any serious evaluation of this deal’s national security risk,” said Michael Leiter, head of the CFIUS and national security practices at law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. “That’s regrettable, but if you’re a US Steel shareholder it is impossible to ignore when evaluating the diminishing likelihood of a successful sale.”

Impact on US-Japanese relations

Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, who is on a state visit to the United States this week, both dodged questions about the deal at a joint press conference Wednesday.

“We understand that discussions are underway between the parties,” said Kishida. “We hope that discussion will unfold in a direction that will be positive for both sides. Japan believes that appropriate procedures based on law is being implemented by the US government.”

“I stand by my commitment to American workers,” said Biden. “I’m a man of my word. I’m going to keep it. And in regards to that, I stand by our commitment to our alliance. This is exactly what we’re doing with a strong alliance as well.”

A senior administration official, in a briefing with journalists before the prime minister’s visit, said the administration’s opposition to the deal shouldn’t hurt relations between the countries.

“The relationship between the United States and Japan is far bigger and more significant than a single commercial deal,” said the official, who spoke on background. “Six weeks ago, the United States gave Mitsui, a Japanese company, a $20 billion deal to build a crane factory here in the United States and replace all our port cranes throughout the United States. Nothing says ‘trusted ally’ like a $20 billion contract with a Japanese company.

“Everybody understands where we are,” the senior official continued. “We’re in a different place fundamentally. And I just think that this single commercial transaction does not define not only the visit, but the relationship.”

Concern for union jobs

In his statement last month, Biden acknowledged that opposition to the deal by the United Steelworkers union was part of the reason for his decision.

“I told our steelworkers I have their backs, and I meant it,” he said.

And a week after Biden came out against the deal, the USW endorsed Biden for re-election.

It’s not just Biden opposing the deal. Numerous Republicans, including Ohio Senator JD Vance, have also denounced the deal, and this week charged that US Steel misled shareholders when seeking support for the deal because it failed “to accurately convey the significant political obstacles and regulatory risks the merger faces.”

Shares of US Steel stock plunged Thursday in the wake of Biden’s comment, closing 23% below Nippon’s $55 a share asking price. It made shareholder approval a virtual certainty ahead of the vote, said Phil Gibbs, steel analyst with KeyBanc, even if the deal is eventually blocked. Share were down nearly 3% in afternoon trading Friday even after the vote.

“The stock was trading at $20 a share not long ago. Of course they they think it’s a great deal,” he said.

What happens next?

If the deal ends up being blocked, it’s not clear what happens next.

The nation’s automakers wrote to the White House after Biden announced his opposition to the Nippon-US Steel deal to say a Cleveland Cliffs-US Steel deal would place 65% to 90% of steel used in vehicles under the control of a single company. It said it therefore supported the Nippon deal for US Steel instead.

US Steel rival Cleveland Cliffs, the nation’s other major unionized steelmaker, tried to buy US Steel last summer, only to have its $32.53 a share cash-and-stock offer rejected by the company. And Gibbs said despite the support such a deal would have from the USW, it’s not clear it would be able to win approval from antitrust regulators.

“American jobs … rely on a fair and competitive steel industry too,” the auto industry trade group said in its letter to the White House. “If the administration has concerns about the Nippon Steel deal, it must seriously consider alternative outcomes. One option that should not be on the table is an arrangement that creates a market concentration of domestic steel production in a single company.”

Different ways to make steel

Neither US Steel nor Cleveland Cliffs are the largest American steel company today. That would be Nucor, which makes steel with electric furnaces that melt scrap and other raw materials, rather than with the massive blast furnaces used by US Steel and Cleveland Cliffs.

Electric furnaces are more efficient, both in energy use and labor needed, than traditional integrated steel mills that use blast furnaces to make steel from raw materials like iron ore. But Nucor and other steelmakers using electric furnaces have been unable to produce the quality of steel needed by the auto industry — despite decades of trying — partly because their business model means its more profitable to make mass quantities of lower grade steel, said Gibbs.

“Auto steel is still a relatively niche product,” he said. “I think new mills are working in that direction. But it’s not something they can do overnight. Nucor has been working on this for a long time.”

He said Nucor could make automotive quality steel, but it just can’t make much money doing it.

“In this market, it hasn’t been a good use of their time,” he said.

US Steel has purchased its own electric furnaces to make steel in Arkansas, a nonunion operation that is valued more highly by Nippon in this deal than its unionized blast furnace operations, to which it has assigned relatively little value.

That’s a major reason the USW so strongly opposes the deal, the fear that Nippon would eventually close the blast furnaces operations that employ its members. Nippon insists it will honor US Steel’s contracts with the union should the deal go through.

US Steel still wants the deal

US Steel said last month in the wake of Biden’s comments that it is still hopeful the deal will be approved and close.

“The President said he has the backs of the steelworkers. So do we,” US Steel said in a statement. “As part of this investment to grow US Steel and the American steel market, it has been made clear that there will be no job losses, no plant closures and no transfer of production resulting from this transaction.”

“US Steel’s union commitments will be honored and benefit from increased financial strength. US Steel products, supported by significant capital investments from Nippon Steel, will remain mined, melted and made in America,” the company said. “We strongly believe this is the best path forward for employees, customers, stockholders and the United States.”

But the USW said there is nothing in the negotiation behind the deal that would lead it to trust either company to live up to its commitments. It said a letter it received last month from Nippon was “nothing more than another collection of empty promises and open-ended language that would enable it to skirt obligations to workers and retirees.”

“Essentially, the loss of critical natural resources and the loss of capital needed to produce it is a national security issue,” said KeyBanc’s Gibbs. “It’s a building block for anything you want to do from infrastructure to consumer durables.”

The national security concerns of the union and politicians opposed to the deal are legitimate, even if steel isn’t thought of as a military asset the way computer chips or other technology might be, according to Gibbs. The loss of the ability to make steel from raw materials — and have the workers trained to make that steel — would have a significant impact, he said.

And given the election year politics, the USW and its ally at Cleveland Cliffs have a fair amount of leverage in fighting this deal, said Gibbs.

“I don’t think the union has held this much leverage in a transaction like this. It’s decided it might as well use it,” he said.

“I don’t want to get into secure information but my expectation is sooner than later,” Biden said to reporters when asked how imminent an Iranian attack on Israel would be.

Asked what his message to Iran is right now, the president said, “Don’t.”

In response to more shouted questions from reporters in the room, including CNN’s MJ Lee asking if American troops were at risk – Biden returned to the podium and said that the United States is “devoted” to the defense of Israel.

“We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel we will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” Biden said.

The US has been on high alert for a significant Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel in recent days as fears grow of a wider regional war.

There remains a “real,” “credible” and “viable” threat of Iran launching strikes, the White House said Friday, following Israel’s attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria last week that killed three Iranian generals.

Biden, who warned this week that Iran was threatening a “significant attack” on Israel, has been receiving constant updates on the situation from his national security team.

The US and several other countries, including Britain and France, issued new travel guidelines for government employees in Israel as the Iranian threat loomed.

“We’re watching this very, very closely,” said John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, who declined to provide information about the expected timing of the threat.

The US will attempt to intercept any weapons launched at Israel if it’s feasible to do so, two US officials told CNN, an indication of the level of ongoing cooperation between the two militaries.

US Navy forces in the Red Sea have previously intercepted long-range missiles launched from the Houthis in Yemen towards Israel. US forces in Iraq and Syria could also potentially intercept drones and rockets targeting northern Israel, depending on the location from which they’re launched.

The Defense Department is also moving additional assets to the Middle East region “to bolster regional deterrence efforts and increase force protection for US forces,” a US defense official told CNN, as Israel and the US brace for a potential Iranian attack.

The Pentagon has been working specifically to bolster air defenses for the US troops stationed in Iraq and Syria who came under attack by Iran-backed proxy forces over 100 times between October and February. In January, three US servicemembers were killed when a drone got through US air defenses at the Tower 22 base in Jordan.

The US is not anticipating that Iran or its proxies will attack US forces as part of its retaliation but is moving the assets just in case.

“It would be imprudent if we didn’t take a look at our own posture in the region to make sure that we’re properly prepared,” Kirby said.

CNN reported last week that the US was on high alert and actively preparing for an attack by Iran targeting Israeli or American assets in the region. Officials said such an attack could come within the week.

Sources say Iran wary of dramatic escalation
CNN reported earlier this week that an Iranian attack on Israel would likely be carried out by Iranian proxy forces in the region rather than by Iran directly, according to two people familiar with US intelligence on the matter.

Tehran is wary of a dramatic escalation in the fighting, the sources said, and does not want to give the US or its allies an excuse to attack Iran directly.

The sources said Iran and its proxy militia groups do not appear poised to attack US troops or other assets in the region, but they noted that Iran does not have perfect command and control over all its proxy forces, so the possibility of an attack on US assets cannot be completely ruled out.

The sources told CNN that US intelligence assesses that Iran has urged several of its proxy militia groups to simultaneously launch a large-scale attack against Israel, using drones and missiles, and that they could attack as soon as this week.

“The threat is very clear and credible,” said one of the sources. “They have put the pieces in place to conduct the attack now. Just waiting for the right time.”

Biden spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, about the threat of an Iranian attack during a telephone call last week.

A direct strike on Israel by Iran is one of the worst-case scenarios the Biden administration is bracing for, as it would guarantee rapid escalation of an already tumultuous situation in the Middle East. Such a strike could lead to the Israel-Hamas war broadening into a wider, regional conflict – something Biden has long sought to avoid.

Biden is receiving briefings multiple times a day on the situation, Kirby said.

Kirby said Friday that US officials were in “constant communication” with their Israeli counterparts about the matter and that steps were underway to ensure Israel is able to defend itself.

“We are certainly mindful of a very public and what we consider to be a very credible threat made by Iran in terms of potential attacks on Israel,” Kirby said Friday.

He pointed to a visit to Israel on Friday by US Central Command chief Gen. Erik Kurilla to have “those conversations directly with his IDF counterparts.”

Kurilla’s trip to Israel was moved up because of the expectation of an Iranian response to Israel’s targeting of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria last week.

There have also been a number of conversations in which US officials have urged Israel not to escalate the situation in retaliating against Iran, according to one of the US officials said.

Separately, US officials were frustrated with their Israeli counterparts over the lack of information Israel shared prior to carrying out the strike in Damascus last week, sources told CNN. Israel only informed a US official when its planes were already in the air en route to Syria, another US official said.

“We were not aware that Israel was going to carry out this airstrike in advance,” the official said. “Minutes before it happened and when Israeli planes were already in the air, Israel reached out to a U.S. official to say they were in the process of conducting a strike in Syria. It did not include any details on who they were targeting or where it would be conducted, and the strike was already underway before word could be passed through the U.S. government.”

Diplomatic pressure
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with the foreign ministers of Turkey, China and Saudi Arabia to urge them to press Iran not to escalate the conflict in the Middle East after threats made by Iran against Israel, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Thursday.

Miller said the US has also “engaged with European allies and partners over the past few days” to deliver a similar message on Iran. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron have both spoken to the Iranian foreign minister in recent days.

Blinken “has been making clear to every country that has any semblance of a relationship with Iran that it is in their interest to use that relationship to send a message to Iran that they should not escalate this conflict. But I will let those countries speak for themselves about what action they may or may not take,” Miller said.

The US State Department has restricted the travel of US government personnel in Israel in the wake of public threats against Israel by Iran.

“Out of an abundance of caution, U.S. government employees and their family members are restricted from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv (including Herzliya, Netanya, and Even Yehuda), Jerusalem, and Be’er Sheva areas until further notice,” a security alert posted by the US Embassy Thursday said, “U.S. government personnel are authorized to transit between these three areas for personal travel.”

“The security environment remains complex and can change quickly depending on the political situation and recent events,” the alert noted.

France has advised its citizens to “absolutely refrain” from traveling to Iran, Lebanon, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories due to the risk of “military escalation,” the French Foreign Ministry said Friday.

The ministry added that families of diplomatic staff in the Iranian capital Tehran will be returned to France and civil servants will be banned from work missions to those countries and territories.

The French foreign minister issued the new recommendation following a crisis meeting on the region, the ministry said in a post on X.

These animals that look like a shark with a chainsaw-like mouth, are a part of a group of fish called elasmobranchs that include rays, skates and sharks, and they can live for several decades under normal circumstances. Typically, about five mature adults are lost each year, mostly when they are accidentally caught in fisheries.

But so far this year, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said they’ve lost 38, according to Wednesday’s report, six of which came in just the previous week.

It is still a mystery as to why the sawfish have been dying in record numbers. But divers and anglers have also reported seeing a variety of other species behaving in a highly erratic manner: spinning in circles rather than swimming. Some sawfish, too, have been spotted spinning before dying.

Spinning fish reports began in the fall of 2023. The spike in sawfish mortalities began in January 2024. It’s “possible that these two events could be related,” the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says.

One such distressed sawfish was spotted in Cudjoe Bay in the Florida Keys on April 5. Biologists with the commission and the Mote Marine Laboratory transported the sawfish to a temporary tank at the Mote facility where it was observed. The fish’s condition stabilized, and on Thursday it was transported by Ripley’s Aquariums Conservation Team to a more permanent Mote quarantine facility for rehabilitation.

The commission and Florida’s Bonefish and Tarpon Trust have recorded more than 200 incidents with more than 30 species swimming in this unusual way. This is happening mostly in the Florida Keys, but there have also been reports as far north as the Miami area.

The smalltooth sawfish was the first marine fish to receive federal protection through the Endangered Species Act in 2003. The animal used to live in waters all throughout the Gulf of Mexico and along the East Coast from Florida to North Carolina, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but their small numbers generally are now only found off the coast of Florida.

In addition to the spinning, recent reports from anglers and divers in Florida say they have seen the sawfish beach themselves.

A team of local, state, and federal wildlife experts are scrambling to find out what’s causing the animals to go into these dangerous death spirals.

“Typically, when we think of fish acting strangely or dying we either think of low oxygen conditions in the water or red tide and so we saw neither,” Mike Parsons, a marine scientist at Florida Gulf Coast University told CNN’s Bill Weir. Parsons wonders if the hot temperatures in the ocean waters are to blame.

Most tests for toxins have been negative, but scientists have seen an unusually high number of algae called gambierdiscus that can produce a wide variety of neurotoxins that can be harmful to fish and dangerous to humans.

Gambierdiscus is normally found in tropical and subtropical waters all around the world, but the algae can grow quickly when waters are warmer than usual. The climate crisis has brought record-hot temperatures to the waters around southern Florida.

Gregg Furstenwerth, a lifelong diver in the Florida Keys, said he feels unnerved seeing fish swim in circles and stingrays swimming upside down

“It’s like I’m in the middle of a disaster movie and I’m that guy yelling from the mountaintop trying to get people to pay attention,” Furstenwerth told CNN’s Bill Weir.

The uncertainty of what is causing the problem bothers him.

“There is no concrete, conclusive proof of what is happening yet and that is still to be determined, which is quite terrifying,” said Furstenwerth. “If it continues, it is going to be the end of this ecosystem as we know it.”

Trump, who is supposed to be in court and does not have the option of skipping any of the estimated six-to-eight week trial, is now the presumptive Republican nominee set to rematch President Joe Biden in November – a key difference from his attendance during a civil fraud case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James that inherently raises the stakes and will mean a more robust security package.

The hallmark of the strategy is a combination of extra staffing, strategically placed frozen zones, high-tech deployments and intelligence, which includes monitoring social media for anything ranging from lone wolf threats to major politically themed protests and disturbances, the officials said.

“Obviously, the threat picture is bigger,” said New York Police Department Assistant Chief John Hart, commanding officer of the NYPD’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division, who added that they did a similar security ramp up around Trump when he became the GOP nominee in 2016.

“We had to set up a whole infrastructure around Trump Tower, which we will have to rebuild for this,” Hart said of the security posture around the former president. “We’re going to be looking at the threat picture on a constant basis. Social media scrubbing, just listening to people making calls or making threats online, all of those things.”

The NYPD will monitor security at the criminal court in lower Manhattan from two main locations: a mobile command center, which will be a short walk from 100 Centre St. where high-ranking NYPD officials will be stationed and manage deployments, and the Joint Operations Center, a massive intelligence hub where police can access over 50,000 cameras in the city. Hart called the hub the “nerve center of the city” and said they’ll be in communication with the mobile command center. Officers in both the command center and the Joint Operations Center will listen to radio channels tethered to Trump’s movements, follow cameras along his route and even zoom in on unruly crowds and troublesome incidents around Trump Tower and the courthouse.

Other federal law enforcement agencies that help monitor from the Joint Operations Center for big events will be present starting on Monday, Hart said. Even specialized NYPD units that aren’t usually present will be there because of the trial.

The security package for Trump during the civil fraud trial and his brief appearance at Manhattan criminal court served as a precursor for law enforcement to build upon before the main event starts on Monday, Hart said.

“This is six to eight weeks of a trial, jury selection and then a trial, of unprecedented scale,” Hart said. “A former president running for president on trial here in New York City. It’s a big challenge. It’s a lot of moving parts. He’ll be also moving in and out of the city on a regular basis so we are working with all of our partners, our federal partners, our New York State court officers, all the people on the ground that are going to help us manage that stuff.”

The security plan has taken shape during the last several months at regular meetings between the Secret Service, the NYPD, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, and the New York State Office of Court Administration, according to officials.

The Secret Service will primarily be in charge of transporting the former president, taking him from Trump Tower to the courthouse on Centre Street, according to officials.

“The route is going to be up to the Secret Service,” said NYPD Assistant Chief James McCarthy, commanding officer of Patrol Borough Manhattan South who will oversee the NYPD’s presence at Trump Tower, the courthouse and the route the motorcade will travel. “I’m sure it’s going to change up. It’s not going to be the same every day.”

Most of the perimeter of the courthouse will be frozen, including the back entrance and the side entrance at Hogan Place where court staff and even Trump has been known to enter from, McCarthy said.

The NYPD will focus on street closures leading from Trump Tower to the courthouse and will have a heavy presence outside the building. There, they will make sure areas are frozen along key routes to and around the courthouse, while potential demonstrations will be relegated to Collect Pond Park, located right across from the courthouse.

“It all depends on where he is at the time,” McCarthy said. “Once he’s in I’d like to make things as back to normal as possible. Once he’s in, we’re good. When he’s leaving, we’re frozen, but I want to make that time as small as possible.”

Once Trump gets into the building, court officers will be concerned with the former president’s movements in the building. An elevator will be frozen inside the courthouse and will be Trump’s designated lift that will take him to the 15th floor, which will also be frozen and where the courtroom is located, according to a law enforcement official.

Secret Service agents, who have been seen going in and out of the courthouse for months, making sure that they have the former president’s exact route inside the building planned, even down to the stairwell he would take in an emergency, will be sitting right behind him, the official said. Some agents will even be sprinkled throughout the courtroom and will be undercover, according to another law enforcement official.

To handle the need for extra security, court officers who worked security during Trump’s civil fraud trial are now being used to help bolster the staff during the hush money trial, the officials said. They will be sitting in each bench in the courtroom closest to the center aisle, serving as a buffer between Trump and anyone else inside as he walks down the aisle, the official said.

The challenge for court staff will be running the trial while the rest of the courthouse remains active. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sent a letter to staff telling them of revised and updated security protocols for the Trump trial, which included moving screenings by the clerk’s office for grand juries as well as other additional security measures for employees, visitors and witnesses.

“Our priority is the safety of the thousands of New Yorkers, including Manhattan D.A. employees, court staff, crime victims, and witnesses, who come through our courthouse doors,” spokesperson Danielle Filson said in a statement. “We’re especially grateful to our law enforcement partners at the NYPD, as well as OCA for their tireless efforts to maintain a safe environment for us and to protect the integrity of all ongoing court proceedings.”

Anyone going into the courtroom will pass through two magnetometers, one in the lobby and one right outside the courtroom, according to the law enforcement official.

And while the courtroom is full, bomb sniffing dogs from the court officers and the NYPD will be patrolling the halls and the grounds. The NYPD will also be using its drones, barricades and extra police officers to keep the location safe.

“We use drones, they’ve been very effective for us,” McCarthy said. “You’re going to see a lot of toys out there.”

Archaeologists working at the world-famous site have uncovered a banqueting hall with black-painted walls covered with frescoes of mythological characters associated with the Trojan War.

The ornately decorated room provided an elegant setting for entertainment or conversation during banquets, the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, which oversees the site, said.

“The walls were painted black to prevent the smoke from the oil lamps being seen on the walls,” Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the archaeological park, said in a news release Thursday.

“People would meet to dine after sunset; the flickering light of the lamps had the effect of making the images appear to move, especially after a few glasses of good Campanian wine,” he continued.

One of the frescoes depicts a meeting between Helen and Paris, son of the Trojan king, Priam, identified by a Greek inscription of his other name, “Alexandros.” In Greek mythology, Paris’ abduction of Helen from her Greek husband, Menelaus, led to the Trojan War.

Another shows a downcast Cassandra, daughter of Priam, with the god Apollo.

As legend has it, Apollo promised Cassandra the gift of prophecy but, as she did not yield to his desires, punished her by also ordaining that her prophecies would never be believed. Her warning of the fall of Troy, for example, went unheeded.

The newly revealed dining room is about 15 meters long (49 feet) and six meters wide (20 feet) and opens onto a courtyard with a long staircase leading to the second floor, according to the release.

On the fresh plaster of the arches of the staircase, someone had used charcoal to draw two pairs of gladiators and what seems to be a huge, stylized phallus.

Beneath the arches, a large pile of building materials was found.

The ancient Greco-Roman city of Pompeii was buried under ash and volcanic glass during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E. and since the 1700s, archeologists have been unearthing the city that’s been frozen in time.

The site contains 1,070 homes with more than 13,000 rooms, as well as public and sacred spaces, according to the archeological park. This latest discovery was made during a large, ongoing excavation.

Other finds revealed in the excavation area so far include two interconnected houses, a bakery, a laundry room and a beautifully frescoed living room.

The mission also unexpectedly turned into a family reunion.

The three men had been planning to fish the waters around the Pikelot Atoll, part of Micronesia, on March 31 when their 20-foot open skiff was caught by swells and its outboard motor was damaged, according to US Coast Guard officials.

They scrambled ashore on uninhabited Pikelot, but their radio ran out of battery power before they could call for help.

So the castaways gathered palm fronds from the 31-acre island, arranged them to spell out “HELP” on the beach, and waited, according to a Coast Guard statement.

The names of the stranded men have not been released by the Coast Guard, and CNN attempts to contact their relatives have not gotten replies.

For a week, the men lived off coconut meat, but they did have fresh water from a small well on the island, which is sometimes visited by fishers in the region, Coast Guard officials said.

The search for the men began on April 6, when one of their relatives called rescue officials in the US Pacific territory of Guam, saying they had not returned to Polowat Atoll, an island more than 100 miles away, where the three started their voyage on Easter Sunday.

It is difficult to overstate just how remote Piklelot is. The island is part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a Pacific nation between the Philippines and Hawaii that is made up of more than 600 islands scattered across about 2.5 million square kilometers of ocean.

The Coast Guard said a US Navy P-8A reconnaissance jet dispatched from Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Japan, spotted the palm-frond “HELP” sign on the beach on April 7.

Lt. Chelsea Garcia, the search-and-rescue mission coordinator on the day the trio was located, said the sign was “crucial” to finding them in a search area that covered more than 103,000 square miles.

“This act of ingenuity was pivotal in guiding rescue efforts directly to their location,” Garcia said in a statement.

The Navy jet dropped survival packs to the three men and relayed their location to the rescue center.

A day later, a Coast Guard HC-130 flying from Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii dropped a radio to the men, who were able to tell the crew they were in good shape and eager for help to get back to Polowat.

When the Coast Guard cutter Oliver Henry reached Pikelot on April 9, the story took another twist.

One of the first rescuers on the beach was Petty Officer 2nd Class Eugene Halishlius. The stranded men were surprised to see that Halishlius was Micronesian and spoke the local language.

“I could see on their faces, ‘Whoa! Who’s this guy pulling up that can speak our language?’” Halishlius told CNN in an interview from the Oliver Henry, which was at sea on Thursday after dropping the men off at Polowat.

When he gave his name to the first of the stranded men to reach the rescue boat, the castaway was stunned: they were related.

“It’s a crazy world, I actually found out I’m related to them!” Halishlius said.

“He couldn’t believe I’m with the Coast Guard trying to rescue them.”

The man was a third cousin, the others fourth cousins, he said.

Amazingly, this was not the first rescue of castaways from Pikelot.

In 2020, three other men traveling between two Micronesian atolls found themselves washed up there after their boat ran out of fuel during their voyage.

Those three spelled out “SOS” on the beach, a message that was spotted by the crew of a US Air Force tanker operating out of Andersen Air Force Base on Guam, which then directed Coast Guard, Micronesian and Australian naval units to get the men from the island.

How does this happen on the same island twice in four years?

“It could be coincidence,” said Chief Warrant Officer Sara Muir, public affairs officer for US Coast Guard Forces Micronesia.

“The people of Micronesia frequently travel island to island, and do so with a great deal of skill and experience,” she said.

But occasionally, accidents happen. And so do unexpected family reunions.

That number runs very close with TSA interceptions in the first quarter of 2023, in which 1,508 firearms were intercepted, the agency said in a news release.  Overall, 2023 set a record for the number of firearms uncovered by officers at security checkpoints.

To help those numbers sink in, the 2024 interceptions come out to an average of 16.5 detections per day from January to March. For the first quarter of 2023, the interceptions came out to an average of 16.8 detections per day.

Even though the number of firearms discovered was nearly steady, that average first quarter rate was lower in 2024 because some 15 million more passengers were screened than the comparable period last year. More people plus roughly same number of firearms equals a lower rate.

But there’s a shocking stat that has stayed the same – in both time periods, 93% of those intercepted firearms were loaded with ammo.

“While it is certainly promising that the rate of passengers bringing firearms to the checkpoint has decreased, one firearm at the checkpoint is too many,” said TSA Administrator David Pekoske in the news release.

“The demand for air travel is as strong as ever and security is always our number one priority. Every time we discover a firearm at the checkpoint, the security screening process is slowed down for all.”

The rules of firearms and flying

People are allowed to ferry their firearms on flights, but they are “prohibited at security checkpoints, in the secure area of an airport and in the passenger cabin of an aircraft, even if a passenger has a concealed carry permit or is in a constitutional carry jurisdiction,” TSA said.

Instead, the firearm “must be packed properly as checked baggage and declared to the airline at the ticket counter,” Pekoske said.

TSA said passenger should follow these steps to lawfully shepherd a firearm through an airport:

• Secure the firearm in checked baggage
• Unload the firearm and lock it in a hard-sided case
• Declare the firearm to the airline when checking the bag at the ticket counter

Ammunition is not allowed in carry-ons, but it is allowed in checked baggage. But it must be properly stored and cannot be loaded in a firearm. Get more details here.

TSA said that it “does not confiscate or seize firearms. If a passenger brings a firearm to the security checkpoint on their person or in their carry-on luggage, the officer will contact local law enforcement to safely unload and take possession of the firearm.”

Stiff fines and arrest are possible if you’re discovered with a firearm at a security checkpoint.

“We always recommend passengers start with a clean bag when they pack to ensure no firearms, weapons or other prohibited items are present,” Pekoske said.

The rockers wrote that they’re “thrilled” to announce the rescheduled dates for the tour in an Instagram post on the band’s official page on Wednesday.

The tour will kick off in Pittsburgh, PA on September 20 and will run through February 26 of next year, when they’ll play their final show in Buffalo, NY. The Black Crowes will return as Aerosmith’s special guests along the tour.

In September 2023, the band announced that Steven Tyler, Aerosmith’s famed lead singer, has suffered a vocal chord injury in a statement posted to Aerosmith’s Facebook page. As a result, they postponed the rest of their 2023 “Peace Out” farewell tour dates after playing only three shows.

“To our fans: Unfortunately, Steven’s vocal injury is more serious than initially thought. His doctor has confirmed that in addition to the damage to his vocal cords, he fractured his larynx which requires ongoing care,” the statement read.

“I am heartbroken to not be out there with Aerosmith, my brothers and the incredible Black Crowes, rocking with the best fans in the world,” Tyler wrote in a personal note to his fans at the time. “I promise we will be back as soon as we can!”

The rescheduled 40-date North American tour is billed as both a celebration of Aerosmith’s 50 years together and as the band’s final touring farewell.

All previously purchased tickets will be honored for the rescheduled shows, according to the band’s post on Wednesday, and tickets will go on sale on Friday at 10 a.m. in the purchaser’s timezone.

A prize pot of $2.4 million has been set aside by WA from the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) revenue share allocation it receives every four years to reward athletes.

Athletes who win gold in each of the 48 track and field events in Paris will receive $50,000. Relay teams will receive the same amount to share amongst the athletes.

“The introduction of prize money for Olympic gold medalists is a pivotal moment for World Athletics and the sport of athletics as a whole, underscoring our commitment to empowering the athletes and recognizing the critical role they play in the success of any Olympic Games,” WA president Sebastian Coe said in a statement.

“While it is impossible to put a marketable value on winning an Olympic medal, or on the commitment and focus it takes to even represent your country at an Olympic Games, I think it is important we start somewhere and make sure some of the revenues generated by our athletes at the Olympic Games are directly returned to those who make the Games the global spectacle that it is,” Coe added.

Traditionally, Olympic medal winners don’t receive prize money as the event originated as an amateur competition.

WA says it is committed to extending the bonus initiative to Olympic silver and bronze medalists at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The reward structure and format for those Games will be confirmed at a later stage.

Coe later told reporters that he disagreed that this financial incentive would promote cheating, instead stressing the importance of highlighting the abilities of the world’s best athletes.

“It reflects World Athletics’ view that the athletes – our athletes make up 20% in numbers at an Olympic Games – should be recognized,” he said.

“I recognize that many Olympic champions will be in receipt of monies, financial support, from a range of organizations, whether it’s governments, whether it’s the National Olympic Committee, whether it’s commercial partners, this isn’t in any way to overshadow the Olympic Games, it is just World Athletics, one federation, and I’m only responsible for that.”

The Olympic Games officially get underway in Paris on July 26 and run until August 11.

“Antarctica, a desert of ice, provides an ideal background for meteorite recovery — go to the right place, and any rock you find must have fallen from the sky,” said Valdes, who visited the region as part of an expedition team in late 2022 and early 2023 for her work at the museum’s Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies. The international team found five meteorites.

“We stumbled across an enormous brown stone sitting by itself in the middle of an ice field. It was a little bit smaller than a bowling ball and quite heavy — 7.6 kg (about 17 pounds),” she said via email. “I had seen and handled so many meteorites in my career, but finding one yourself is such a different feeling.”

Formed from extraterrestrial bodies such as the moon, Mars or large asteroids, each meteorite tells a unique tale about the solar system and how it was formed. But the climate crisis threatens this trove of scientific information, according to a new study. Meteorites are disappearing into the ice, putting them out of the reach of scientists.

“As the climate continues to warm, Antarctic rocks are sinking into the ice at an increasing rate. Over time, this will make many meteorites inaccessible to scientists,” said Valdes, who wasn’t involved in the latest research. “We lose precious time capsules that hold clues to the history of our Solar System.”

As Earth warms, about 5,000 meteorites could disappear from the surface of melting ice sheets every year, according to the study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change. To date, more than 48,000 meteorites have been discovered in Antarctica, accounting for about 60% of specimens found globally.

How to find a meteorite

Meteorites, lumps of rock that fall from space through Earth’s atmosphere randomly, do not fall in an evenly scattered pattern across the frozen continent. Concentrations emerge in certain locations because of geography and weather patterns, Valdes explained.

Meteorites are particularly plentiful in blue ice fields. In these areas, a combination of ice flow processes and local weather conditions remove layers of snow and ice from the surface, exposing meteorites that were once embedded in the ice. The windblown ice tends to look blue compared with the surrounding surface snow.

“Over significant stretches of time (tens or hundreds of thousands of years) phenomenal concentrations of meteorites can develop, as high as 1 per square meter in some locations,” she said.

Researchers have identified areas of meteorite-rich blue ice mostly by luck. However, to systematize the search, Veronica Tollenaar, a doctoral researcher at Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, and her colleagues used a machine-learning algorithm to create a “treasure map” of probable meteorite-rich zones, based on factors including surface temperature, surface slope, surface cover and ice flow movement.

That research, published in January 2022 in the journal Science Advances, identified 600 zones and suggested that 300,000 meteorites are still present at the surface of the ice sheet. Valdes said in 2023 she and her colleagues used the information to help inform their decision on exactly where to search during their expedition.

“Our experience … indicates that so far, Tollenaar’s approach only works to a first order. Local parameters such as topography and wind directions that can redistribute meteorites from blue ice fields into local meteorite traps have to be considered as well,” Valdes said.

In the new study, co-lead author Tollenaar and her team projected the loss of meteorites under different climate change scenarios by combining climate modeling with their work from the 2022 paper.

The meteorites can sink into the ice even if temperatures are below zero degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit). The sun heats up the dark rock, which absorbs solar radiation more easily because of its color, which melts the surrounding ice. “With that heat, it can locally melt the ice and slowly disappear from the surface,” Tollenaar said.

Harry Zekollari, who was co-lead author along with Tollenaar on the new study, said that cold surface temperature was one of four factors linked to a potential meteorite cluster.

“It’s really important that it’s cold and if your surface temperature starts changing, even if it’s going from minus 12 C to minus 9 C, it’s crossing a magic threshold where you’re starting to lose meteorites,” said Zekollari, an associate professor of glaciology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Under current policies, which the study said may result in a warming of 2.6 degrees Celsius to 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.7 F to 4.9 F) above preindustrial levels, the researchers estimated that 28% to 30% of the meteorites in Antarctica could become inaccessible. Under a high-emission scenario, the estimate increased to 76%. Only at elevations above 2,500 meters (8,202 feet) will meteorites losses be less than 50%, the study said.

Matthias van Ginneken, a research associate at the University of Kent’s Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science in the UK, said the work “made a lot of sense considering how global warming seems to affect Antarctica.”

However, van Ginneken, who wasn’t involved in the study, said he wished the authors had talked more about uncertainties in their model and conducted lab experiments to simulate how global warming affects meteorites, which would support the results of the algorithm.

“It is certainly worrying, but there will still be thousands of meteorites to find per year,” he said via email.

“The main worry is the logistical aspect of searching for Antarctica meteorites, which is already difficult today due to the remoteness of Antarctica. Should the results of this study prove to be true, it will force scientists to explore new areas, potentially even further away from scientific bases than those that are commonly explored. It would make this treasure trove even more inaccessible and, thus, necessitate more funding and logistical support.”

What we’ve learned from Antarctic meteorites

Meteorites discovered in the southernmost reaches of the planet have taught us a lot, said Kevin Righter, a planetary scientist at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston in a commentary published alongside the research. He was not involved in the new study.

Scientists recognized meteorites collected in the region in 1979 and 1981 as originating from the moon, Righter noted. Before these finds, the only samples from the moon were from the Apollo and Luna landing sites. The meteorite samples have resulted in a more random and comprehensive sampling of the entire lunar surface. Other meteorites have been connected to Mars.

“All of this recent research history indicates that with continued collection, new meteorite types are likely to be found — including perhaps pieces of Mercury or Venus that might have been ejected from their surface following impacts.”

Righter, along with the study authors, called for collection efforts to be ramped up and prioritized. “If meteorites are not collected quickly enough, they will be a lost resource for present and future planetary science,” he added.

The survey, which was conducted by Gallup in conjunction with the Walton Family Foundation, collected data from more than 2,000 Americans from Generation Z (ages 12 to 26). It is one of a series of four surveys about Gen Z, said survey author Zach Hrynowski, a senior researcher at Gallup.

“What we’re trying to do is put together a complete picture of what does Gen Z’s life look like? What’s important to them? How do they project their futures?” he said.

Of the people surveyed, about 75% reported being at least somewhat happy, the data showed. The number went down significantly as the kids and teens reached adulthood, however.

Gen Z people who are 18- to 26-years-old are less likely to rate their lives positively than older generations when they were in that age range, Hrynowski said, noting this analysis didn’t do a direct comparison but used previous surveys to assess happiness levels of Gen Z and its predecessors.

Two factors were heavily correlated with Gen Z happiness: how much time they got for weekend sleep and relaxation, and even more important was their sense of purpose, he said.

Happiness was most predicted by a feeling of waking up each day and feeling like work or school is interesting and important, Hrynowski said.

“What is important to Gen Z is whether they feel like their life matters and they’re making a difference, more so than, ‘Am I going to work making a ton of money, getting a big promotion,’ things like that,” he added.

Purpose is more than chasing good feelings

Happiness is not made up of chasing as many positive emotions as possible, said Dr. Chloe Carmichael, a clinical psychologist in New York and author of “Nervous Energy: Harness the Power of Your Anxiety.”

It’s about having a purpose and understanding that there will be ups and downs as you pursue it, she added.

Purpose also means pursuing things that deeply connect with one’s sense of self, said Dr. Broderick Sawyer, a clinical psychologist in Louisville, Kentucky. Even if you aren’t in a place where you can directly pursue your purpose, practicing skills or gaining education toward it can make what you do feel purposeful, he said.

“In essence, developmental years need to feel like they are going somewhere, rather than useless, aimless, or aligned with social or parental expectations,” Sawyer said in an email.

Purpose doesn’t have to center around a job, either. It can be about causes you support or the relationships you form, Carmichael added. In those cases, responsibilities like your career can feel more fulfilling because they are helping you work toward that purpose in some way.

Making health a priority

Better sleep means better rizz (as her kids would call it), said Dr. Rachel Salas, professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Insufficient or poor quality sleep can lead to lower mood and more irritability as well as issues with memory, concentration and focus, she said.

“Basically, (poor sleep) can affect their relationships and interactions with people around them which can affect their happiness,” Salas said.

You might not be able to add more hours into your day for sleep, but you can make it a priority, she said.

“Disconnect from your electronics (an) hour before bedtime, don’t sleep with your smart phone near you, limit screen time and be consistent with your bedtime and awakening time,” Salas said in an email.

Gen Z puts a lot of effort into skin care and mental health, but bad sleep means looking tired and feeling badly, Salas said.

“If you are serious about your health, prioritize it,” she said.

Lunchables developed two new versions of the snack kit specifically to be available nationally as part of school lunch programs for the first time last year. But a new report from Consumer Reports said it recently compared the nutritional profiles of two Lunchables kits served in schools and found they have even higher levels of sodium than the Lunchables kits consumers can buy in stores.

Consumer Reports said sodium levels in the store-bought lunch and snack kits it tested ranged from 460 to 740 milligrams per serving, or “nearly a quarter to half of a child’s daily recommended limit for sodium.” The group found that sodium levels in the turkey and cheddar school versions of Lunchables contained 930 mg of sodium compared to 740 mg in the store-bought version.

Consumer Reports said it tested 12 store-bought versions of Lunchables and similar ready-to-eat meal kits, including from Armour LunchMakers, Good & Gather, Greenfield Natural Meat Co. and Oscar Mayer, and also found lead, cadmium, or both in all, although none of the kits exceeded any federal limit. The testing also surfaced high levels of sodium in the other lunch kits.

Cadmium has been linked to kidney and bone disease and cancer, according to the World Health Organization.  As natural elements, heavy metals such as lead and cadmium are in the soil in which crops are grown and thus can’t be avoided. Some crop fields and regions, however, contain more toxic levels than others, partly due to the overuse of metal-containing pesticides and ongoing industrial pollution.

There is no safe level of lead for children, however, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lead bio-accumulates in the body, which means it stays and builds up over time, so ongoing exposure, even at extremely low levels, can become toxic. Children, especially infants, are particularly vulnerable because a smaller dose of lead can have a larger health effect on them compared with adults.

Consumer Reports’ tests also detected at least one type of phthalate or phthalate replacement chemical in every kit it tested, except for Lunchables Extra Cheesy Pizza, it said. Lead and cadmium can cause developmental problems in children over time, even in small amounts.

Called “everywhere chemicals” because they are so common, studies have linked phthalates to childhood obesity, asthma, cardiovascular issues, cancer and reproductive problems such as genital malformations and undescended testes in baby boys and low sperm counts and testosterone levels in adult males.

The non-profit consumer group said it has petitioned the US Department of Agriculture, which oversees the federally assisted school meal program, to remove Lunchables food kits from school cafeterias, as a result.

“Lunchables are not a healthy option for kids and shouldn’t be allowed on the menu as part of the National School Lunch Program,” Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, said in a statement. “The Lunchables and similar lunch kits we tested contain concerning levels of sodium and harmful chemicals that can lead to serious health problems over time. The USDA should remove Lunchables from the National School Lunch Program and ensure that kids in schools have healthier options.”

Lunchables, made by Kraft Heinz, took its packaged ready-to-eat kids meals directly into K-12 school lunchrooms nationwide through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) for the first time last year. The NSLP, established in 1946, provides lunch daily to nearly 30 million students in public and non-profit private schools and residential child care institutions.

But the company first had to re-formulate the ingredients to ensure the products met federal guidelines.

The rollout included two specially-created Lunchables options for schools (separate from Lunchables sold in grocery stores) – labeled “turkey and cheddar” and “extra cheesy pizza.” Kraft Heinz told CNN that the turkey and cheese option contains 6 grams of saturated fat and 930 milligrams of sodium while the extra cheesy variety contains 7 grams of saturated fat and 700 milligrams of sodium.

Kraft Heinz said both options were made using “a specialized recipe that incorporates more protein and whole grains to keep kids powered throughout the day, reduced saturated fat and sodium, and an increased serving size.”

The Lunchables pizza variety for schools (with 700 mg of sodium) compared to 510 mg in the store version. Eating foods with too much sodium can lead to high blood pressure and hypertension, Consumer Reports said.

The introduction of Lunchables in schools came amid proposed changes to school food guidelines by the USDA, which oversees the federally assisted school meal program. The proposed changes aimed to reduce added sugars and sodium levels in school-provided lunches. The standards would reduce sodium limits gradually over several school years.

The USDA in a statement to CNN late Tuesday said the agency “takes very seriously our responsibility to ensure school meals are of the highest nutritional quality.”

At the same time, it said the USDA doesn’t allow or disallow individual food items. “Our requirements address the overall content of meals – some of them on a daily basis and others on a weekly basis. So, the Lunchables described in the article would need to be paired with fruit, vegetables and milk. In addition, a school who wanted to serve a higher sodium product one day has to balance that with lower sodium items on others.”

Kraft Heinz told CNN in a statement Tuesday the company has taken steps to improve the nutrition profile of Lunchables. The effort, it said, includes launching Lunchables with fresh fruit, in partnership with Fresh Del Monte, and “reducing the sodium in all Lunchables crackers by 26%.”

“All our foods meet strict safety standards that we happily feed to our own families. We are proud of Lunchables and stand by the quality and integrity that goes into making them,” the company said.

Presence of additives

Consumer Reports also pointed to concerning additives included in many of the Lunchable products. Additives are ingredients added by manufacturers to stimulate appetite and extend shelf life.

The presence of additives is a key indicator of whether a food is ultraprocessed, said Carlos Monteiro, emeritus professor at the school of public health at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 2009 Monteiro created NOVA, a system of classifying food into categories from minimally processed to ultraprocessed.

“In terms of food processing, additives are essential to creating ultraprocessed foods,” Monteiro said. “Additives in ultraprocessed foods are those that use color, texture, flavor, and everything people like. So these products are made appealing not with real food, but with additives,” he said.

Such additives include preservatives to resist mold and bacteria; emulsifiers to keep incompatible ingredients from separating; artificial colorings and dyes; de-foaming, bulking and bleaching agents; and added or altered sugar, salt and fats intended to boost flavor to a “bliss point” that is hard to resist.

Food additives are considered “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) by the US Food and Drug Administration, but not everyone agrees. Watchdog groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) provide lists of concerning chemicals found in food, as well as added sugars, salt and fats. A growing number of grocery stores and a few restaurants have also taken steps to ban worrisome chemicals from foods they sell.

According to ingredients listed on the Kraft-Heinz “Away from Home” website, CNN found the turkey and cheese Lunchables contains tertiary-butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ), a petroleum-based chemical found in pesticides. Studies have found TBHQ may lower immune response to flu and Covid-19 vaccines, may various roles in the development of cancer, and may even alter DNA.

The Lunchables also contains the pesticide sodium diacetate, which adds sourness and fights fungus and bacteria, carrageenan, which has been shown to create inflammation and digestive issues in animals, and sodium nitrate, a preservative used in cured deli meats, hot dogs, bacon and sausage that has been linked to cancer and other diseases.

The music icon paused her “Celebration” tour concert in Miami on Tuesday night to call attention to the over 100 survivors and victims’ family members that she invited to the show, making a powerful speech to urge people to “remember that you have the ability to shine light in the world and to make a difference.”

“Nightclubs, music and dance are what bring us together,” Madonna said, according to footage posted to social media from the concert. “They shouldn’t be places or things that we do that bring us sadness and tragedy and murder and death and pain and suffering and trauma.”

“But unfortunately,” she continued, “human beings are still stuck in some kind of a rut.”

In June 2016, An American-born man who’d pledged allegiance to ISIS gunned down 49 people at Pulse, an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Orlando, and injured over 50 people. Authorities at the time said it was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States and the nation’s worst terror attack since 9/11.

At her show this week, Madonna went on to say that “people getting together to dance in a club that is inclusive, full of love – it was Latin night, people were dancing for Latin music – and some motherf— came in there with two guns and just starts shooting at people.”

“I’m very emotional about this,” she said, her voice cracking. “My job is to bring you together, to make people dance, to make people happy, to not judge. This s— is not supposed to happen.”

The “Vogue” singer named a number of the survivors in the audience and mentioned their harrowing survival stories.

“When are we going to learn?” she asked.

Madonna then prompted her concertgoers to turn their cell phone lights on to “light up this room so that we are all reminded that their lives were not taken in vain and that we are reminded that each and every one of us have the ability to shine our own light on each other.”

With her acoustic guitar slung around her, she began to sing an emotional rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” as the audience cheered and sang along. She transitioned into singing her 1986 hit “La Isla Bonita” and snippet of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” which was featured in the Madonna-starring 1996 movie “Evita.”

At the end of the medley, Madonna, along with her audience, collectively chanted, “no fear.”

This is not the first time the “Ray of Light” hitmaker has spoken out about gun violence and gun control.

In 2019, for her album “Madame X,” Madonna released a harrowing music video for her song “God Control,” which was directly inspired by the tragedy in Orlando.

On her official YouTube page for the song, she wrote, “This is your wake up call. Gun violence disproportionately affects children, teenagers and the marginalized in our communities. Honor the victims and demand GUN CONTROL. NOW. Volunteer, stand up, donate, reach out. Wake up and insist on common-sense gun safety legislation. Innocent lives depend on it.”

Madonna heads to Austin, Texas for her next “Celebration” tour show on Sunday.

In February, the Australian Parliament approved a motion calling for Assange to be released to his home country of Australia.

Asked Wednesday about Australia’s call to end Assange’s prosecution, Biden told reporters at the White House, “We’re considering it.” CNN has reached out to the National Security Council for additional comment on the president’s remark.

US authorities say Assange, 52, put lives at risk by publishing secret military documents and have for years been seeking his extradition on espionage charges. Assange is being pursued by the US for publishing confidential military records supplied by former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010 and 2011.

In 2019, prosecutors in Virginia charged Assange with 18 offenses including one charge of conspiracy to attempt to hack a computer in connection with the 2010 release of classified military material obtained through Manning and 17 additional counts under the Espionage Act.

The prosecution alleges that Assange goaded Manning into obtaining thousands of pages of unfiltered US diplomatic cables that potentially endangered confidential sources, Iraq war-related significant activity reports and information related to Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Each of those counts carries a potential sentence of 10 years, meaning that if convicted, Assange could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.

Assange has fought extradition for the last five years from London’s Belmarsh prison, and for seven years before that was holed up as a political refugee at the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK capital. His case has sparked condemnation from free speech advocates who say if his extradition is allowed it will have a chilling effect on press freedoms.

Last month, he fought off a threat of immediate extradition in a hearing in London, where he is being held.

Assange sought permission to appeal the UK’s 2022 approval of his extradition, arguing the case against him was politically motivated and that he would not face a fair trial. A panel of two judges said Assange, an Australian citizen, would not be extradited immediately and gave the US three weeks to give a series of assurances around Assange’s First Amendment rights, and that he would not receive the death penalty.

If the US fails to give these, Assange would be allowed to appeal his extradition at a hearing in May. The ruling potentially offers Assange an extraordinary lifeline in a years-long saga that saw him shoot to global prominence for revealing what he described previously to CNN as “compelling evidence of war crimes” committed by US-led coalition and Iraqi government forces.

“He’s committed to helping Trump in any and every way,” said Texas businessman Roy Bailey, who attended the retreat. “We are going to follow his lead, and we’re excited to do everything we can to get Trump elected.”

“If we can unlock and motivate our donors for Trump and put more fuel in his tank, that’s what we want to do, and that’s what we need to do to make sure [President Joe] Biden is not reelected,” Bailey said.

The appreciation retreat, which was held at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, was for large donors, major fundraisers and finance committee members of the DeSantis campaign. DeSantis and his wife, Casey, attended. It was held on the same weekend the Trump campaign announced a record $50.5 million haul at a fundraiser in Mar-a-Lago.

Upon ending his bid for the White House in January, DeSantis endorsed Trump in the Republican primary, but he has not appeared with the former president at any campaign events since. At a news conference in Florida in March, DeSantis was asked if he would join Trump on the campaign trail and he emphasized how Florida was not as competitive a state anymore.

“This is not going to be a state that’s competitive in November, and that’s just the reality. So I don’t anticipate there being much campaign here for the top of the ticket,” DeSantis said. “How I can help nationally, I want to be able to do that, I don’t know exactly.”

NBC News was first to report that DeSantis plans to help fundraise for Trump.

Weisselberg was charged with five counts of perjury, but under a deal with prosecutors, he agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts relating to testimony he gave during a 2020 deposition with the attorney general’s office. Weisselberg also admitted to testifying falsely at the civil fraud trial last fall but that is not among the charges to which he pleaded guilty.

As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to recommend Weisselberg serve a sentence of five months in jail.

Weisselberg testified falsely about his knowledge of the size of Trump’s apartment triplex and how the value of that apartment was inflated on Trump’s financial statements for years based on the incorrect square footage.

Per his recent agreement with prosecutors, Weisselberg did not plead guilty to perjury at Trump’s civil fraud trial over the triplex, and the parties agreed he wouldn’t be sentenced for that conduct, which could be considered a violation of his parole in connection to his 2022 guilty plea.

After the sentence was handed down Wednesday, Weisselberg was handcuffed and escorted out of the courtroom.

It is the second guilty plea by Weisselberg, who in 2022 pleaded guilty to 15 counts of tax fraud and testified in the trial of two Trump Org. entities. He served roughly four months in prison.

Weisselberg had been in plea talks with Manhattan prosecutors for several weeks relating to his testimony taken during the New York attorney general’s civil investigation into the former president in 2020 and when he testified last year, several people familiar with the investigation previously told CNN.

As part of the plea talks, Weisselberg was not expected to turn on Trump and will not testify against him at the New York criminal hush money case, the people said.

Trump is indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment and reimbursement before the 2016 presidential election. Weisselberg was central to the financial dealings but neither prosecutors nor Trump’s attorneys said they plan to call him as a witness. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In the hush money case, Weisselberg helped arrange the reimbursement to Michael Cohen, the ex-president’s former lawyer, who advanced $130,000 to Stormy Daniels to stop her from going public about an affair with Trump. Trump has denied the affair.

The payment initially drew scrutiny of federal prosecutors who gave Weisselberg limited immunity for his testimony before a federal grand jury. Prosecutors moved forward with charges against Cohen.

The two-time Oscar-winner will star in “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy,” according to a news release. The film is based on author Helen Fielding’s best-selling novel of the same name.

Hugh Grant, who costarred Daniel Cleaver in 2001’s “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and 2004 sequel “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” is returning to the franchise to star alongside Zellweger in “Mad About the Boy.”

Grant did not appear in the third installment of the franchise, 2016’s “Bridget Jones’s Baby,” despite his character being part of that film’s plot.

Also returning to the franchise is Emma Thompson – who appeared as Dr. Rawlings in “Bridget Jones’s Baby” and is credited as a writer on that film – alongside franchise newcomers Chiwetel Ejiofor and “White Lotus” star Leo Woodall.

Zellweger was nominated for a lead actress Oscar in 2002 for her performance in “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” before going on to win for best supporting actress in 2004 for “Cold Mountain” and in 2020 for lead actress for “Judy.”

The first film introduced us to Jones, a befuddled news assistant who keeps a confessional diary as she navigates the trials and tribulations of love, career and life in general.

Fielding’s novel “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” picks up 14 years after Jones lands Mark Darcy – played in the films by Academy Award-winner Colin Firth – according to an official synopsis of the book.

“To Leslie” director Michael Morris is attached to direct the new movie, with Fielding serving as an executive producer and Miramax co-financing the project.

“Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” will premiere in theaters internationally and on Peacock in the US on February 14, 2025.

Lady Gaga is making her long-awaited debut as Harley Quinn alongside Joaquin Phoenix’s reprisal of his Oscar-winning Joker in the first trailer for “Joker: Folie à Deux” released on Tuesday.

The teaser trailer begins with Phoenix’s cuffed and plain-faced Joker – whose name is Arthur Fleck – being escorted through a facility he’s being held in. As he walks through the corridor, his eyes catch Quinn’s as she stands in what appears to be a choir room.

“I’m nobody,” Gaga’s Quinn later says, as she is seen miming a gun to her head and pulling the trigger. “I haven’t done anything with my life like you have.”

The clip goes on to show sequences of the villainously-in-love pair waltzing around with each other on the street, dodging explosions, running from mobs and kissing each other through Fleck’s jail cell, all backed by a haunting rendition of the classic song “What the World Needs Now is Love.”

“I’ll tell you what’s changed,” Fleck says at one point. “I’m not alone anymore.”

In DC comic book lore, the Joker and Harley Quinn have often been each other’s love interests, with Quinn introduced as the villain’s therapist in Arkham Asylum.

Details of how director Todd Phillips will present these legacy characters in his sequel have yet to be released, but based on how he treated the Joker in the hit 2019 film, it’s safe to say “Folie” will represent a departure from what the comics contain.

“Folie” also stars Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener and Zazie Beetz as Fleck’s neighbor Sophie.

The billion dollar-grossing movie “Joker” won two Oscars in 2020, including one for Phoenix for best actor.

“Joker: Folie à Deux” will premiere in theaters on October 4.

The game has been around for more than 75 years, entertaining and infuriating players in equal measure with the simple premise of competing to see who can make the highest scoring words from a random selection of letters.

Now, an updated game named Scrabble Together adds “a second side to the board that is collaborative and faster-paced to make gameplay more accessible for anyone who finds word games intimidating,” according to a statement from Mattel published Tuesday.

Instead of competing, players collaborate to complete goal cards, and there are helper cards if assistance is required.

The aim is that the new game mode “brings people together,” Ray Adler, Global Head of Games at the company, said in the statement.

“Scrabble has truly stood the test of time as one of the most popular board games in history, and we want to ensure the game continues to be inclusive for all players,” he said. “For anyone who’s ever thought, ‘word games aren’t for me’, or felt a little intimidated by the Classic game, Scrabble Together Mode is an ideal option.”

Mattel said it conducted research among British board-gamers that shows that competitiveness is perceived as declining in younger generations. Of the 2,000 people surveyed, 35% believed baby boomers are the most competitive, followed by millennials on 31% and Gen-Z on 29%.

“The game speaks to a trend in younger people who want to avoid competitive games, instead favouring teamwork and collaboration working towards a fun goal together,” Brett Smitheram, the current UK number one Scrabble player and 2016 World Scrabble Champion, said in the statement.

Scrabble Together will be available across Europe, a Mattel spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday.

The updated version of the game won’t be available in the United States, however, as Mattel does not hold the license there.

While this is the first major change to the look of the Scrabble board, the game regularly adds new words to its official dictionary in order to keep up as the English language evolves.

In November 2022, more than 500 new words were added to the seventh edition of the dictionary, which now includes words that weren’t commonly used when the game was first created in the 1930s, like “adorbs,” “dox” or “zoodle.”

For the fortunate folks who witnessed the rare solar event, there may not be a need to throw out gently used pairs of solar eclipse viewing glasses.

Eclipse glasses that meet a specific safety standard, known as ISO 12312-2, are safe to reuse, according to the American Astronomical Society. That means the same glasses worn during the 2024 total solar eclipse will serve as effective protection during the next total solar eclipse in 2026 that will be visible over Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia and a small portion of Portugal and appear as a partial eclipse in parts of Europe, Africa and North America.

The glasses can also shield eyes in 2044 during the next total solar eclipse that will be visible from the contiguous United States, over North Dakota and Montana.

“It’s best to store eclipse glasses away from anything sharp that could scratch or puncture the filters, and if there’s any doubt about the safety of your glasses by the time of the next eclipse, it’s best to discard the glasses and get a new pair,” said Dr. Kerry Hensley, editor of AAS Nova and the society’s deputy press officer, in an email.

Do not reuse the glasses if the lenses appear to be scratched, ripped or punctured, or if the solar filter is detached from the frame, Hensley added. Dispose of damaged or scratched solar eclipse glasses by removing the lenses and recycling the cardboard, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

The American Astronomical Society advises against using any water or liquid glass cleaner to clean the lenses, as this may ruin the cardboard and cause the lenses to detach.

While some glasses may include a warning to discard them if they are more than three years old, the society states that the warning is outdated and does not apply to eclipse glasses that meet the safety standard.

Where to donate solar eclipse glasses

If the owner of a pair of solar eclipse glasses is not planning on globe-trotting to catch a glimpse of the upcoming solar eclipses, there are several organizations collecting viewers with the aim of donating to those who will be on the path of upcoming events.

Eclipse Glasses USA, a retailer of eclipse glasses approved by the American Astronomical Society, is collecting used but undamaged glasses to send to schools in Chile and Argentina that will be within the path where the October 2024 annular eclipse, otherwise known as the “ring of fire,” will be visible.

Astronomers Without Borders, a nonprofit organization that collected more than 2 million glasses after the 2017 total solar eclipse and redistributed hundreds of thousands of pairs before the 2024 eclipse, has a growing list of drop-off locations for donations of gently used glasses.

Rescue dogs play a crucial role in helping to locate both stranded people and bodies, and teams of capable canines were quickly deployed by Taiwanese authorities after last Wednesday’s deadly tremor.

The quake that hit the island’s rugged eastern coast, Taiwan’s strongest in 25 years, triggered deadly landslides in a scenic national park and caused several buildings to partially collapse.

Roger, 8, was among the dogs put to work, helping to locate the body of one of the 13 people killed in the quake, according to authorities and local media.

He and his handlers ventured into the Shakadang Trail of the heavily damaged Taroko National Park and found the body of a missing 21-year-old woman, according to Taiwan’s official Central News Agency (CNA).

While other dogs also played similar roles and were paraded for the media, Roger captured the island’s imagination — partly because of his backstory of an initial career failure.

Roger was born into a training center for drug-sniffing dogs. But his love for fun, food and people got the better of him, distracting his ability to pay attention and react to his trainers’ commands, CNA reported.

As a result, Roger failed to become a drug detective.

But his ebullient personality and intelligence made him a much better candidate to be a rescue dog, which was the career that was then chosen for him.

That excitedness was on full display during a media interview with his handler when Roger, tail wagging, lunged at a reporter’s microphone.

Chen Chih-san, captain of the rescue dog unit of the Kaohsiung Fire Department, told reporters that Roger was transferred to the rescue training school when he was 1 year old.

“I’m not saying he was not good or that he didn’t get along with others. But the requirement for narcotic detection dogs is that they can’t be too restless and independent,” Chen said.

“But (these attributes) are what we want in rescue dogs.”

The dogs have provided some much needed relief for Taiwan’s social media in the aftermath of the quake.

“Keep it up, heroes and little heroes,” one person wrote. Another said: “Roger is the pride of Taiwan.”

Roger is now something of an earthquake veteran. CNA said he had taken part in seven operations during his career, including a debut mission in the aftermath of a deadly 6.4-magnitude quake that hit the same region in 2018.

According to the Kaohsiung City Government, Roger was certified by the International Rescue Dog Organization in 2022, an accolade last achieved by a Taiwanese rescue dog in 2019.

But retirement is looming for Roger, with the Kaohsiung Fire Department sending rescue dogs to a suitable home once they reach age 9, CNA said, citing Chen.

“To ensure the Senate has adequate time to perform its constitutional duty, the House will transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week. There is no reason whatsoever for the Senate to abdicate its responsibility to hold an impeachment trial,” Taylor Haulsee, a spokesperson for House Speaker Mike Johnson, told CNN in a statement.

House Republican leaders had initially planned to transmit the articles to the Senate on Wednesday, but some Senate Republicans had been urging Speaker Mike Johnson to delay the transfer, as they try to build more support for blocking an expected motion from Democrats to dismiss the trial.

Louisiana GOP Sen. John Kennedy said on Tuesday, “We have asked – and I understand this is public now – the speaker, we asked him to delay sending over the articles until Monday to at least give us a full week. We’ll see if Senator Schumer honors the extra time.”

Senate Republican Whip John Thune explained why some Senate Republicans are pushing for a delay in the impeachment articles being sent over from the House. He also said some members of his conference have been communicating with the House about the matter.

“If we want to have the opportunity in the Senate to have a more fulsome discussions about this when the articles come over, there are times when that could probably happen better than having them come over tomorrow night and having to deal with it Thursday afternoon.”

He added: “It’s the speaker’s call, but clearly our members want to have the opportunity not only to debate, but to have some votes on issues they want to raise, in some cases those will be points of order.”

Asked if Johnson is considering a delay, Thune said, “That’s a question for him. We have members who have been communicating with the House about this, but the only thing I can tell you is what he’s said already and that is the intention is to send it over here tomorrow.”

Since November, he has faced five separate civil lawsuits accusing him of a range of sexual misconduct and other illegal activity. One of those cases has already been settled, but the others remain active.

Several of the lawsuits allege misconduct was captured on video. In addition, some were filed under the New York Adult Survivors Act, which created a one-year window for adult victims to file a lawsuit against their alleged abusers and the institutions that enabled them, regardless of statutes of limitations. This one-year window ended November 24, 2023.

Authorities searched Diddy’s homes on Monday because he is a target of a federal investigation carried out by a Department of Homeland Security team that handles human trafficking crimes, according to a senior federal law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The investigation stems from many of the same sexual assault allegations put forth in the civil lawsuits, according to a second law enforcement source familiar with Monday’s searches.

The music mogul’s attorney, Aaron Dyer, issued a statement Tuesday, calling the searches a “gross overuse of military-level force.”

“This unprecedented ambush – paired with an advanced, coordinated media presence – leads to a premature rush to judgment of Mr. Combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits,” he said. “There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations. Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name.”

Here’s a closer look at each of the lawsuits, what they allege and how Diddy has responded.

Ventura v. Combs

The basics: Casandra Ventura, the R&B singer known as Cassie who previously dated Diddy, filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of New York on November 16, 2023, against Diddy and the companies Bad Boy Records, Bad Boy Entertainment, Combs Enterprises, Epic Records and Doe Corps. 1-10.

The allegations: Ventura alleged she was raped and subjected to years of violent abuse by Diddy. The lawsuit specifically accuses him of sex trafficking, human trafficking, sexual assault and battery, gender-motivated violence, sexual harassment, gender discrimination and a hostile work environment.

Diddy’s response: Attorney Ben Brafman said in a statement emailed to CNN via Diddy’s publicist, “Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations.”

The statement continued, “For the past 6 months, Mr. Combs, has been subjected to Ms. Ventura’s persistent demand of $30 million, under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail. Despite withdrawing her initial threat, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’ reputation and seeking a pay day.”

Where the case stands: The lawsuit was settled “amicably” just a day afterward, both sides said. “A decision to settle a lawsuit, especially in 2023, is in no way an admission of wrongdoing,” Brafman said.

Dickerson-Neal v. Combs

The basics: Joi Dickerson-Neal filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court on November 23 against Diddy, Bad Boy Entertainment doing business as Bad Boy Records, and Combs Enterprises LLC.

The allegations: Dickerson-Neal accused Diddy of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 1991, when she was a Syracuse University student who had appeared with Combs in a music video. She also alleged she was a victim of “revenge porn,” saying he filmed the assault and showed it to others.

Diddy’s response: A spokesperson said the allegations are “made up and not credible,” adding the move is “purely a money grab.”

“This last-minute lawsuit is an example of how a well-intentioned law can be turned on its head,” the spokesperson said. “Mr. Combs never assaulted her, and she implicates companies that did not exist.”

Where the case stands: Defendants’ response is due April 12.

Gardner v. Combs

The basics: In a lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court on November 23 and in an amended complaint on March 12, Liza Gardner sued Diddy, Aaron Hall, MCA Inc., MCA Music Entertainment Group, Geffen Records, Universal Music Group NV, John and Jane Does 1-10 and ABC Corps. 1-10.

The allegations: Gardner accused Combs and Aaron Hall, a member of the R&B group Guy, of battery and sexual assault in 1990, when she was 16 years old.

She alleged that after they gave her alcoholic drinks, Diddy forced her into having sex and Hall pinned her down and forced her to have sex. The next day, Diddy assaulted her and choked her until she passed out, the lawsuit states.

Diddy’s response: In December, Diddy posted on Instagram denying the claims.

“Enough is enough. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy,” he said. “Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”

CNN has reached out to Hall for comment. He has not yet publicly spoken about the allegations.

Where the case stands: Defendants’ response to the complaint is not yet due.

Jane Doe v. Combs

The basics: An anonymous woman using the name Jane Doe filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of New York on December 6 against Diddy, Harve Pierre, an unnamed third assailant, Daddy’s House Recordings Inc. and Bad Boy Entertainment Holdings Inc. Doe filed an amended complaint on March 29.

The allegations: Doe accused Diddy, Pierre and a third person of sex trafficking and gang rape in 2003, when she was a 17-year-old high school student.

Diddy’s response: In court filings, Diddy formally denied the allegations and told the court the lawsuit should be dismissed because the woman’s “decision to wait more than two decades to file her complaint has prejudiced” him because he has “lost the ability to defend himself fully and fairly.” He also argued the evidence may now be “unavailable, lost, or compromised” and that “witness identification, availability, and recollections are likely compromised due to the substantial passage of time.”

Pierre, the former president of Bad Boy Records, filed a 15-page response asking the court to dismiss the complaint. He said he “never participated in the sexual assault of the Plaintiff nor did he ever witness anyone else sexually assaulting the Plaintiff.”

Daddy’s House Recordings Inc. and Bad Boy Entertainment Holdings Inc. have also filed motions asking the court to dismiss the case.

Where the case stands: Defendants’ response to the amended complaint is not yet due.

Lil Rod v. Combs

The basics: Rodney Jones, a music producer and videographer who went by Lil Rod, filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of New York on February 26 against Diddy and a number of other defendants. The suit was refiled on March 4, and proposed amended complaints were filed on March 25 and March 27.

The allegations: The lawsuit specifically accuses Diddy of racketeering, sexual assault and sex trafficking in 2022 and 2023 as Jones worked on Diddy’s most recent album “Love.” Jones also alleges Combs did not compensate him for his music producing work.

In addition, the lawsuit accuses Cuba Gooding Jr. of sexual assault and makes reference to several other celebrities by name and by description.

Diddy’s response: Diddy’s attorney denied the allegations and called Jones’ claims “lies.”

“His reckless name-dropping about events that are pure fiction and simply did not happen is nothing more than a transparent attempt to garner headlines. We have overwhelming, indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies,” attorney Shawn Holley said.

An attorney for Gooding has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.

Where the case stands: Some of the defendants have moved to dismiss the case, and the deadline to respond to the allegations has not yet arrived.

O’Marcaigh v. Christian and Sean Combs

The basics: Grace O’Marcaigh, who worked as a crew member and bartender on a yacht leased by Diddy and his family in December 2022, names Sean Combs and his son Christian Combs in a lawsuit filed April 4 in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The allegations: Christian Combs is accused of sexual assault in the lawsuit. His father is accused of premises liability and aiding and abetting his son.

The lawsuit alleges the yacht experience was “sold as a wholesome family excursion” but turned into a “hedonistic environment” where suspected sex workers and other celebrities were often brought aboard.

In the early morning of December 28, Christian Combs pressured O’Marcaigh to drink a shot of tequila and shortly thereafter he assaulted her, the lawsuit says. O’Marcaigh believes the tequila, which she says Christian Combs brought aboard, may have been laced with drugs, according to the lawsuit.

On the yacht, Christian Combs “cornered” O’Marcaigh in a room and “became physical and extremely aggressive,” the lawsuit states. The alleged sexual assault stopped only when another yacht employee entered the room.

Diddy’s response: Aaron Dyer, an attorney for Combs and his son, said in a statement the lawsuit contains “manufactured lies and irrelevant facts.”

Where the case stands: Dyer said he will seek to “dismiss this outrageous claim.”

Beginning May 1, the airline will board customers by numbered zones, a change that largely reverts back to process it used until early 2019, before changing to its current process of boarding by named categories (i.e. cabins, status and ticket types).

Delta will maintain the same boarding order, but the categories will be called “zones,” beginning with zone 1 and ending with zone 8.

For example, “Pre-Boarding” and “First Class” categories will be called zone 1, the “Comfort+” category is being changed to zone 3 and the “Main Cabin” groups will now be grouped in zones 5 through 7, before ending with “Basic Economy” now in zone 8.

The airline said in a statement that the new numbered boarding zones “provide customers with more clarity” about the boarding process and will be used on all Delta flights.

The new numbered zones will be printed on customers’ boarding passes.

End of a five-year system

Next month’s changes means the end of a five-year boarding process that Delta changed to board its plane on the branded fares that customers’ purchased as part of an effort to bring “consistency, simplicity and clarity to the gate and boarding experience.”

It also introduced colors on gate screens and electronic boarding passes to the boarding process to help flyers identify their zone, which the airline will keep using.

“Zone boarding, an aviation standard for decades, will soon be a thing of the past for Delta customers,” the airline said in a 2018 release. It also expanded the number of boarding groups to “encourage fewer customers to line up in the gate area at any one time.”

Delta will be keeping the same number of zones, too.

Every minutes counts when boarding

Of course, any flyer knows that boarding is usually a chaotic process that no US carrier has exactly nailed down.

United Airlines recently changed its boarding procedure for economy class passengers, with window seat passengers boarding first, followed by middle seat and then aisle seats. The airline said the process saves “up to two minutes of boarding time.”

“Saving even one minute in airplane turn time can sum up to several hundred million dollars per year for a large airline,” John Milne of Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, previously told CNN. Milne’s co-authored more than 20 journal articles on the topic of airplane boarding.

Milne says the time savings come down to better utilizing a key airline resource –airplanes – adding “particularly large savings for an airline result when the boarding time reduction leads to offering an additional flight during the day.”

American Airlines switched to a nine-group boarding system in 2017 and made some tweaks to that system in 2023.

The law, which can be traced to as early as 1864 and was codified in 1901, also carried a prison sentence of two to five years for abortion providers. There is a 14-day stay on the law.

Arizona’s near-total abortion ban will be one of the strictest in the nation, placing it alongside Texas, Alabama and Mississippi, where there are abortion bans in place with almost no exceptions.

In its decision, the court said, “Physicians are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman’s life, are illegal,” adding criminal sanctions may now apply for abortions performed after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Arizona’s Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs blasted the decision, noting people in Arizona were living under unacceptable restrictions on abortion prior to the decision.

“Let me be clear. Arizona’s 2022 abortion ban is extreme and hurts women, and the near total Civil War era ban that continues to hang over our heads, only serves to create more chaos for women, and doctors in our state,” Hobbs told reporters shortly after the decision was released Tuesday.

“Millions of Arizonans will soon live under an even more extreme and dangerous abortion ban, which fails to protect women even when their health is at risk or in tragic cases of rape or incest,” President Joe Biden said Tuesday in a statement.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement that her office won’t be enforcing the law, writing, “Let me be completely clear, as long as I am Attorney General, no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law in this state.”

The case is the latest high-profile example of the battle over abortion access that has played out across several states since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 2022. Since that decision, nearly two dozen states have banned or limited access to the procedure. Providers have warned that restrictive policies on abortion access place patients at risk of poor health outcomes and doctors at risk of legal liability.

“A couple of weeks ago, I had an abortion – a safe, legal abortion here in Arizona for a pregnancy I very much wanted, a pregnancy that failed,” Arizona Sen. Eva Burch said Tuesday at a news conference. “Somebody took care of me. Somebody gave me a procedure so that I wouldn’t have to experience another miscarriage – the pain, the mess, the discomfort. And now we’re talking about whether or not we should put that doctor in jail.”

Reproductive rights advocates have condemned the ruling and pledged to fight for abortion rights.

“This ruling will cause long-lasting, detrimental harms for our communities. It strips Arizonans of their bodily autonomy and bans abortion in nearly all scenarios,” Planned Parenthood Arizona said in a statement.

In a notice Monday, the Arizona court indicated it will file an opinion in Planned Parenthood of Arizona vs. Mayes/Hazelrigg at approximately 10 a.m. PT Tuesday.

Justices heard opening arguments in the case last December, when abortion rights opponents claimed the state should revert to the 1901 ban, and advocates asked the court to affirm the 2022 law allowing abortions up to 15 weeks, CNN previously reported.

When he signed the law in March 2022, then-Gov. Doug Ducey stated the 2022 law would not override the older law.

In late 2022, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled both abortion laws in the state must be reconciled, or “harmonized,” and that abortion is legal through 15 weeks when provided by licensed physicians in compliance with the state’s other laws and regulations, CNN previously reported.

The state Supreme Court was asked for clarity following months of uncertainty and legal wrangling over which law should apply in the state.

Last week, Arizona for Abortion Access, a group of abortion rights organizations, announced it had gathered enough signatures for a November 2024 ballot measure that would ask voters to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution.

The push is part of a massive effort to get abortion on the 2024 ballot in several states, a move abortion rights advocates are hopeful will restore some power to voters rather than state courts.

Alyssa Zinger appeared in a Hillsborough County courtroom for her pre-trial detention hearing on Monday.

She faces charges including lewd or lascivious molestation with a defendant over 18 and victims between 12-15, lewd or lascivious battery, possession of child pornography, sexual cyberharassment, and others.

In the pre-trial hearing, Tampa detective Amanda Baranowski testified that investigations uncovered Zinger posing as a home-schooled 14-year-old on social media sites TikTok and Snapchat.

She allegedly tricked at least five boys between 13 and 14 into “dating” her. Baranowski said even family and friends of those boys met Zinger under the guise that she was a teenager.

Detectives found sexually explicit videos of Zinger and the victims, as well as text messages.

One victim told detectives Zinger got jealous of his new girlfriend and started sharing revenge porn.

“He indicated that a sexually explicit video of himself and another minor was being circulated through Snapchat,” Baranowski said.

Throughout the testimony, Judge Ward took note of Zinger’s response to the allegations.

“Every time something happens that the state puts on that maybe you disagree with you shake your head no,” she said. “You don’t seem to understand that the problem is not who recorded the video. The problem is you are in multiple videos with young boys 13 and 14 years old, you are an adult, you are manipulating, taking advantage of these young boys.”

She also called out Zinger’s parents, who were present in the courtroom. Prosecutors showed body camera video from a search warrant visit to get Zinger’s phone.

“What I can’t understand is when they are trying to help you to the extent that it interferes with a criminal investigation and to the extent that it helps you evade accountability and responsibility,”

Zinger’s phone was never turned over. Detective Baranowski testified she told law enforcement the phone was lost after they determined the phone they initially received didn’t belong to her. Any evidence they’ve seized so far comes from the victims and Zinger’s iCloud.

Prosecutors would not say if criminal charges are possible for her parents.

Meanwhile, the investigation to find if there are more victims continues.

Zinger has an arraignment scheduled for April 16th.

The deadly encounter happened in a residential neighborhood on March 21. In one video, an officer approaches the driver of a white vehicle with dark-tinted windows. “Roll the window down. Roll the window down,” she tells the driver. But he keeps rolling the window up.

“What are you doing?” the officer asks. “Don’t roll the window up. Do not roll the window up!”

The officer pulls on the driver’s locked door handle and draws her gun.

“Unlock the doors now! Unlock the doors now!” she screams, as another officer shouts the same demands.

The driver apparently says, “OK, I’m trying to.” But seconds later, gunfire breaks out.

Dozens of gunshots are then heard in rapid succession. Reed’s body is later found lying face down behind the vehicle.

Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability released the video.

“COPA’s administrative investigation of the officers’ use of deadly force began immediately following the shooting and remains ongoing,” the accountability office said in a statement Tuesday.

“Preliminary reports indicate that this incident began when five Chicago Police officers assigned to an 11th District tactical unit engaged in a traffic stop of Dexter Reed, Jr. for purportedly not wearing a seatbelt,” COPA said.

“Upon stopping Mr. Reed, multiple officers surrounded his vehicle while giving verbal commands. When Mr. Reed did not comply with these commands, officers pointed their firearms at Mr. Reed and ultimately there was an exchange of gunfire which left Mr. Reed dead and an officer shot in the forearm. Review of video footage and initial reports appears to confirm that Mr. Reed fired first, striking the officer and four officers returned fire,” the office said.

It was not immediately clear from CNN’s review of bodycam footage who fired first.

“Available preliminary evidence also confirms that officers returned fire approximately 96 times over a period of 41 seconds, including after Mr. Reed exited his vehicle and fell to the ground. Mr. Reed was struck by gunfire multiple times and was transported to the hospital and later pronounced deceased. A gun was recovered on the front passenger seat of Mr. Reed’s vehicle.”

Police bodycam footage has played an increasing role in raising awareness and understanding about officer-involved shootings. Such evidence has been used to help convict some officers of crimes, while other officers have avoided criminal charges after the release of bodycam footage.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Jury selection was set to begin Monday in a wrongful death suit filed by the family of a former Apple engineer who died after his Tesla Model X crashed while the Autopilot feature was engaged. The trial could have lasted several weeks, but the parties settled Monday.

Walter Huang was killed when his Tesla struck a concrete highway median in Silicon Valley on March 23, 2018. The National Transportation Safety Board, in its investigation, found that Autopilot was engaged for nearly 19 minutes before the fatal crash, when the car, traveling at 71 mph, veered off the highway.

The settlementmarks another crucial moment for an embattled company that has lost popularity and a third of its market value this year. CEO Elon Musk and the company say that its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technologies are ahead of the competition and a big reason why Tesla has become the world’s largest electric vehicle maker — just ahead of Chinese rival BYD. But Huang’s family said Tesla oversold its Autopilot technology’s capabilities, and that it is not as safe to use as advertised.

Representatives for Huang’s family and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Tesla has come under intense scrutiny for its Autopilot technology over the six years since Huang’s fatal crash. After a two-year investigation that analyzed 1,000 Tesla crashes while vehicles had Autopilot engaged, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the Autopilot system can give drivers a false sense of security. It can be easily misused in certain dangerous situations when Autopilot may be unable to safely navigate the road, NHTSA found in December 2023.

NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board have also been investigating crashes involving Tesla vehicles using the various driver assist features, including a series of crashes into emergency vehicles on the scene of other accidents.

Immediately following the December NHTSA report, Tesla recalled all 2 million of its cars in the United States, giving drivers more warnings when Autopilot is engaged and they are not paying attention to the road or placing their hands on the wheel.

Yet the company maintains that the technology is safe to use when used correctly and reduces fatalities. Autopilot requires drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and Tesla says people who use the automated-driving technology should keep their eyes on the road.

That didn’t happen in the case of Huang’s crash, Tesla has said. In a March 30, 2018, blog post, Tesla said Huang’s hands were not detected on his car’s steering wheel for six seconds prior to the crash. The company said it believes Huang was responsible for the crash because investigators found he was playing a video game on his phone while Autopilot was engaged. Huang did not brake or attempt to steer his car away from the concrete barrier before it crashed.

Although Huang’s family acknowledges he was distracted while the car was driving, they argued Tesla is at fault because it falsely marketed Autopilot as self-driving software. They alleged Tesla knew that Autopilot was not ready for prime time and had flaws that could make its use unsafe.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations.

“Mrs. Huang lost her husband, and two children lost their father because Tesla is beta testing its Autopilot software on live drivers,” said B. Mark Fong, the lawyer who brought the suit filed in California state court in a May 2019 complaint.

If a jury had found in favor of Huang’s family, Tesla could have been forced to pay damages, and they could have added up quickly. Wrongful death suits involving big companies have at times resulted in awards north of $1 billion.

Autopilot’s promise has also helped to boost Tesla’s stock in recent years to make it the most valuable automaker in the world — even as its stock is among the worst-performers in 2024. Musk in October 2023 on a call with analysts said autonomous driving “has the potential to make Tesla the most valuable company in the world by far.”

The “Bad Guy” singer announced on her Instagram page on Monday that her third studio album, titled “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” will release on May 17.

Eilish shared a photo of herself underwater, appearing to fall out of an open door. She wrote in the caption that she, along with her brother and frequent collaborator Finneas O’Connell, “truly could not be more proud of this album and we absolutely can’t wait for you to hear it.”

She also shared that she won’t be doing a traditional rollout by releasing singles ahead of the album’s debut date. Instead, she wrote, “I wanna give it to you all at once.”

On Sunday, Eilish teased the announcement in a video, backed by what is presumably a snippet from one of her new songs.

The new album follows Eilish and O’Connell’s Oscar win in March for their “Barbie” movie track, “What Was I Made For.” The duo previously won the Oscar for original song in 2022 for “No Time to Die.”

In 2020, Eilish made history at the Grammy Awards when she swept the four biggest prizes of the night – best new artist, record of the year, song of the year and album of the year – for her debut album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”

At the time 18, she became the youngest solo performer ever to win album of the year, breaking Taylor Swift’s record, who at 20 won the category for “Fearless.”

The album, along with her second studio album, 2021’s “Happier Than Ever,” was co-written and produced by O’Connell.

The new set of proposals, which CNN reported on Friday, have yet to be finalized. It’s President Joe Biden’s second attempt to implement broad student loan forgiveness after his first plan was struck down by the Supreme Court last summer. The president traveled to Wisconsin on Monday — a key swing state this November — to announce the plan.

“While a college degree is still a ticket to the middle class, that ticket’s becoming much too expensive,” Biden said in remarks at a technical college in Madison.

“Too many people feel the strain and stress, wondering if they’re going to get married, have their first child, start a family. Because even if they get by, they still have this crushing, crushing debt. It’s not just a drag on them, it’s a drag on our local economies,” he added.

The new policies, when combined with the more narrow actions already taken by the Biden administration to cancel student debt, would benefit more than 30 million Americans, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House.

That means that nearly 70% of all federal student loan borrowers would see their debt reduced or fully canceled due to Biden’s policies.

But first, the plans must be finalized – a process that could take months – and must withstand any potential legal challenges.

Biden’s new student loan forgiveness proposals could set up another fight with Republicans. Several conservative-led states and groups sued the Biden administration over the first student forgiveness program, arguing that the executive branch had overstepped its authority.

“President Biden will use every tool available to cancel student loan debt for as many borrowers as possible, no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stand in his way,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Sunday on a call with reporters.

After the Supreme Court rejected Biden’s first plan last year, the president vowed to pursue another pathway to delivering student loan debt relief. Since then, the Department of Education has been conducting a formal and lengthy process, known as negotiated rulemaking, to develop a new student loan forgiveness program.

It’s a different process from what the Biden administration used in its first attempt to provide sweeping loan forgiveness, which would have canceled up to $20,000 in student loan debt for borrowers earning $125,000 or less a year.

The new plans target specific groups of borrowers. If implemented as proposed, borrowers could see relief if they fall into any of the following categories:

• Those who have balances bigger than what they originally borrowed due to interest.
• Those who already qualify for student loan forgiveness under existing programs but have not applied.
• Those who entered repayment at least 20 years ago.
• Those who enrolled in “low financial value” programs, which left students in debt but without good job prospects.
• Those experiencing financial hardship.

The new proposals unveiled Monday must still go through a public comment period. Then, after reviewing those comments, the Department of Education will publish a final version of the rule.

Typically, if a final rule is published after going through negotiated rulemaking by November 1, it can take effect on July 1, 2025.

But some exceptions are allowed, and parts of the rule could be implemented early. For example, the Biden administration implemented parts of the SAVE Plan – an income-driven student loan repayment plan – last year while other parts of the plan won’t take effect until July.

In the case of the new student loan forgiveness proposals, the Department of Education could start canceling accrued interest for qualifying borrowers this fall, according to the White House.

There are more than 25 million borrowers who owe more than they initially borrowed due to interest accumulation, and they could see debt relief starting this fall if the new proposals are enacted. Low- and middle-income borrowers could see the entire accumulated amount of interest waived, while higher-income borrowers could see up to $20,000 wiped away.

Even though Biden’s sweeping student loan forgiveness got knocked down by the Supreme Court, his administration has still canceled more student loan debt than under any other president – mostly by using existing programs. His administration has made it easier for certain groups of borrowers – such as public-sector workers, including teachers; disabled borrowers; and people who were defrauded by for-profit colleges – to qualify for student loan debt forgiveness.

So far, 4 million people have seen their federal student debt canceled under Biden, totaling $146 billion.

If it succeeds, the proposal could establish the US equivalent of the European Union’s landmark privacy law known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and rein in what privacy advocates say is a lawless and unregulated space where Americans’ personal data can too easily be shared and sold to the highest bidder.

The proposed agreement would create an unprecedented, single federal standard governing digital privacy in the United States and reflects a significant breakthrough after years of stalled negotiations between Republicans and Democrats. But it could also override some of the toughest state-based privacy laws in the nation, such as in California.

The deal comes as personal data has increasingly become the lifeblood of the modern economy and as artificial intelligence companies have raced to hoover up as much of it as they can to train sophisticated AI models that could transform society.

On Sunday, the lawmakers involved — Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the Democratic chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the Republican who leads the House Energy and Commerce Committee — announced a proposal they said would return control of personal data to American consumers.

The discussion draft, which was released over the weekend but has not yet been formally introduced as legislation, covers data brokers, tech platforms, telecom providers and virtually every other type of organization an internet user might interact with on a daily basis, with the exception of small businesses and government contractors.

The lawmakers’ proposed American Privacy Rights Act would ban the transfer of Americans’ sensitive personal data to third parties — including geolocation histories, financial data, biometric information and calendar and phone logs — unless a user provides explicit approval for the data or the sharing is for one of several specific purposes allowed under the bill, such as preventing fraud.

It would let users opt out of targeted advertising altogether and require companies to collect only enough data as they need to do their business. And it would guarantee Americans the right to request copies of their data, to correct it or even to have it deleted from a company’s records.

And, in a nod to growing concerns about whether Americans’ personal data may be available to foreign adversaries such as China and Russia, the legislation would require companies to disclose to US consumers whether their information may be sent to, stored or processed in one of those countries. US officials have voiced concerns about whether TikTok user data could be accessed by the Chinese government, but it doesn’t stop there: The Biden administration and US lawmakers have also highlighted data brokers as another potential way for foreign governments to obtain Americans’ personal data.

The draft legislation breaks a yearslong deadlock between Republicans and Democrats over the scope of any national privacy bill. The two parties had long disagreed over two key issues: Whether a federal privacy law should override existing state privacy laws that may provide tougher protections, and whether private citizens should be able to bring their own lawsuits against companies accused of violating their privacy.

This week’s agreement appears to resolve both issues. It would preempt more than a dozen state privacy laws already on the books in states such as California, Texas and Virginia. And it would enable individuals to sue companies for violations of the proposed law.

“This bipartisan, bicameral draft legislation is the best opportunity we’ve had in decades to establish a national data privacy and security standard that gives people the right to control their personal information,” said McMorris Rodgers and Cantwell in a statement.

The legislation has a long road ahead: It must still clear both of the lawmakers’ committees and pass both chambers of Congress in order to make it to President Joe Biden’s desk. Policy experts have predicted low odds of Congress passing much legislation in the months leading up to the 2024 election.

McMorris Rodgers has also announced she will not run for reelection, which could complicate the bill’s future after one of its most powerful co-sponsors leaves the House.

Titled “Dignitas Inifinita” (Infinite Dignity) the declaration focuses on what it describes as a range of threats to human dignity, including poverty, the death penalty, war, assisted dying, abortion, sexual abuse and the abuse of women.

The text, published by the Vatican doctrine office on Monday, states that attempts to obscure “the sexual difference between man and woman,” including gender-affirming surgery, should be rejected. “It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” it adds.

The document is largely a re-stating of Catholic teaching on these topics but does not seek to isolate one issue – such as abortion – but says it emphasizes the equal dignity of all people, regardless of their circumstances. On abortion, it strongly reiterates what the pontiff has said in the past, that the “defense of unborn life is closely linked to the defense of each and every other human right.”

The pope has spoken out strongly against gender ideology in the past, describing it as “ugly” for erasing what he says are distinctions between men and women. The latest Vatican document quotes Francis by describing it as a form of “ideological colonization.”

It states that gender theory “intends to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference” which it says is “the most beautiful and most powerful of them.” Gender-affirming surgery, it adds, is to be avoided because “the body serves as the living context in which the interiority of the soul unfolds and manifests itself” but the document says medical intervention is permitted for those with “genital abnormalities.”

While Francis has been critical of gender theory, he also provided pastoral support for transgender Catholics. The pontiff has met a group of transgender Catholics from Torvaianica, south of Rome, meeting them regularly, inviting them to a lunch in the Vatican along with 1,200 marginalized and homeless people and giving them front-row seats at one of this audiences.

The Vatican’s doctrine office – now led by a close ally of Francis, Argentinian Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández – has also recently allowed for transgender people to act as godparents at baptisms and witnesses to marriages, a change to a ruling in 2015 when the Vatican said transgender people could not act as godparents.

Not all Catholics have agreed with the Vatican’s criticisms of gender theory. The document was criticized by one LGBTQ+ Catholic group which said it “fails terribly” by only offering transgender and non-binary people “limited” dignity.

“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” Francis DeBernardo, of New Ways Ministry, wrote.

The latest Vatican document identifies various “violations” to human dignity, including in the digital world, pointing to the trends where people’s personal lives are laid bare and “combed over” anonymously.

It cites the death penalty, which Francis has repeatedly condemned, and which it says “violates the inalienable dignity of every person.” The pope has changed Catholic teaching to make the death penalty “inadmissible”  although this has been criticized by some conservative Catholics.

The document also addresses surrogacy, which it says “violates” both the dignity of the child and the woman, who “becomes a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others.” Pope Francis has recently called for the practice of surrogacy to be banned.

On assisted dying, the document reiterated the church’s opposition to euthanasia. “There is a widespread notion that euthanasia or assisted suicide is somehow consistent with respect for the dignity of the human person,” the document states. “However… it must be strongly reiterated that suffering does not cause the sick to lose their dignity, which is intrinsically and inalienably their own.”

Opposing criminalization of homosexuality

The Vatican explained that the 20-page document has been in preparation for five years and underwent various modifications to include “grave violations of human dignity in our time” and the pope’s teaching in this area.

The text strongly opposed the criminalization of homosexuality, something Francis spoke out against ahead of trip to Africa in 2023.

“It should be denounced as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation,” the text stated.

Cardinal Fernández, the prefect of the Vatican’s doctrine dicastery, presented the document to journalists at the Vatican, explaining that human dignity is a “central pillar” of Christian thinking.

On homosexuality, the cardinal said “even some Catholics” defend laws criminalizing homosexuality and said he was “shocked” to read a document from some Catholics supporting such legislation.

The latest document comes after Cardinal Fernández’s department sent shockwaves through the church by approving the move to allow the blessings of same-sex couples. He began his presentation at the Vatican on Monday by defending that document and insisting that an understanding of doctrine can develop and deepen.

He also pointed out that church opposition to abortion is not down to “fanaticism” but a consistent defense of the human person. He pointed out that the new document lists violence against women before abortion in its list of violations against human dignity.

Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling, Jon Hamm, Martin Short, Paul Rudd, Will Forte, Fred Armisen and legendary “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels – who rarely makes on-screen appearances – all appeared during this week’s episode to award Wiig with her dark blue velvet members-only jacket.

While Wiig was getting excited to receive the honor, she was soon interrupted by Rudd, donning one of the jackets himself, to say he “heard a rumor” that she might be doing “one of those five-timer sketches featuring awesome celebrity cameos,” and asked if there’s “like, a script or something I could look at for that?”

Wiig sheepishly replied, “Oh, no. I’m sorry, I don’t think we’re doing one of those…”

Paula Pell, a longtime former “SNL” writer, also made an appearance and joked that she thinks it’s cute Wiig is so excited about her jacket, because “they basically hand those out to everybody like free maxi pads.”

Damon then appeared wearing a five-timer jacket, which confused Wiig because he’s only hosted twice. But, he said, “Lorne said the first time that I hosted it was so good, it counted for three” – and that his second time wasn’t as good but it still counted as two – and that by his math, “that’s five, baby.”

Wiig joked that it “doesn’t really seem fair” that Damon would get a jacket for only hosting twice. “I earned this, right? I mean, doesn’t this jacket have any meaning anymore?”

Hamm, Forte, Short and Armisen then appeared all wearing five-timers club jackets, surrounding Michaels, frustrating Wiig even more since none of them have hosted five times.

“Yeah, but together we’ve hosted five times,” Forte said.

Deflated, Wiig said she felt like her initiation wasn’t even “that special” anymore, but Damon then returned to the stage to tell her, “You should really feel proud of yourself.” He then hilariously proceeded to say Wiig is the youngest to join the club, which Wiig said isn’t true, as the younger Emma Stone was just inducted not too long ago. Damon then nonsensically suggested that Wiig is the first woman to join.

Eventually, all of Wiig’s special guests joined her on stage to sing a song. “And there’s one thing I know is true, I wouldn’t be here without all of you,” Wiig sang, soon getting cut off yet again, this time by next week’s host, Gosling.

The “Barbie” star was confused that he was wearing a jacket as well, appearing onstage next to Michaels. “Are you sure?” he asked Michaels, who nodded affirmatively. “I mean, I haven’t even hosted three times yet, it seems unfair,” he said.

Gosling then ran over to Wiig and had the honor of finally giving her a jacket of her own. He even lint rolled it for her.

Wiig joins Rudd, Stone, Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Ben Affleck and Melissa McCarthy, among others, as members of the exclusive club.

The “Palm Royale” star served as a cast member on “SNL” for seven years between 2005 and 2012. Following her exit as a series regular, she returned to host in 2013, 2016 and twice in 2020.

Gosling is set to host the next episode of “SNL” on April 13 with musical guest Chris Stapleton.

Scientists, engineers, doctors, artists, and philosophers will be granted “full citizen status” including voting rights, the president said in a statement posted to X.

El Salvador will also help their relocation by eliminating taxes and tariffs on “moving families and assets” such as equipment, software, and intellectual property.

Bukele wrote that the the group’s contributions would have a huge impact on the future of the Central American country.

CNN has reached out to El Salvador’s government for details on the plan.

El Salvador has seen multiple radical and often controversial reforms under the strong-arm president’s leadership.

In 2021, El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender alongside the US dollar. But the International Monetary Fund has repeatedly recommended that the country ditch the cryptocurrency, citing risks including high volatility.

Last year, the legislative assembly approved a migration law meant to expedite citizenship to foreigners who support social and economic development programs by donating Bitcoin, Reuters reported.

Bukele has also overseen a brutal and widely criticized crackdown on crime, which he claims has significantly improved security, but opponents say it has resulted in large-scale human rights abuses, including mass detentions and alleged torture in jails.