From clinching scenarios to first-round matchups and draft lottery order, here's what to monitor.

Fant wants to help players like Granger follow in his footsteps as a college basketball player who made it to the NFL.

From clinching scenarios to first-round matchups and draft lottery order, here's what to monitor.

Amateurism has collapsed like the house of cards it always was. It shouldn't have lasted this long.

People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 5,2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)2025-04-12T12:29:18Z TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) Israel announced Saturday it completed the construction of the new Morag corridor, essentially separating the southern city of Rafah from the rest of the Gaza Strip, further squeezing Palestinians into shrinking wedges of land, as airstrikes continued across the enclave. The forces have completed the encirclement of Rafah, a statement by the Israeli military said.Israeli troops with the 36th Division were deployed last week to Morag, the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, after the army ordered sweeping evacuations covering most of Rafah, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation. This comes as Israel has vowed to seize large parts of the Palestinian territory to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government has also imposed a monthlong blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left the territorys roughly 2 million Palestinians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime. Netanyahu had said Morag would be a second Philadelphi corridor, referring to the Gaza side of the border with Egypt farther south, which has been under Israeli control since May. Israel has also reasserted control of the Netzarim corridor, which cuts off the northern third of Gaza from the rest of the Strip. The corridors, coupled with a buffer zone, that Israel has razed and expanded, give it more than 50% control of the territory. Israels defense minister on Saturday warned Palestinians that the army was going to vigorously expand to other locations throughout Gaza, urging them to remove Hamas and release the hostages.Hamas is unable to protect the residents or the territory. Hamas leaders are hiding in tunnels with their families and in luxury hotels abroad with billions in their bank accounts, and are using you as hostages, said Israel Katz. He also said Palestinians interested in voluntarily relocating to other countries would be able to as part of a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump and Netanyahu. Palestinians have vehemently rejected the proposal, dubbed voluntary emigration, and expressed their determination to remain in their homeland.Trump and Israeli officials have not said how they would respond if Palestinians refuse to leave. But Human Rights Watch and other groups say the plan, if implemented, would amount to ethnic cleansing, the forcible relocation of the civilian population of an ethnic group from a geographic area.Meanwhile, Israeli strikes across Gaza continued Saturday, killing at least 21 people in the last 24 hours, according to Gazas health ministry, which doesnt distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel also ordered the evacuation to areas east of Khan Younis ahead of an attack there, said Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the military. He said militants had fired rockets into Israel from these areas. The Israel-Hamas war started on Oct.7, 2023, after the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israel and left some 1,200 people dead. Israels retaliatory offensive in the Gaza Strip has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry which says the majority have been women and children. The ministry said at least 1,500 people have been killed since the ceasefire collapsed last month.Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.Magdy reported from Cairo. SAM MEDNICK Mednick is the AP correspondent for Israel and the Palestinian Territories. She focuses on conflict, humanitarian crises and human rights abuses. Mednick formerly covered West & Central Africa and South Sudan. twitter SAMY MAGDY Magdy is a Middle East reporter for The Associated Press, based in Cairo. He focuses on conflict, migration and human rights abuses. twitter facebook mailto

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during a confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)2025-04-12T12:00:14Z WASHINGTON (AP) Democrats are quick to say that President Donald Trumps tariffs are horrible, awful, terrible. But Democrats are also stressing that they are not inherently anti-tariff.What Trumps political opponents say they really dislike is the chaos he has unleashed.Tariffs are an important tool in our economic toolbox, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Trump is creating chaos, and that chaos undercuts our economy and our families, both in the short term and the long term. ... Hes just created a worldwide hurricane, and thats not good for anyone.Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Democrats have a consensus around a unified concept, which is targeted tariffs can work, across the board tariffs are bad.The right targeting is in the eye of the beholder, but nobody on our side thinks zero tariffs ever, Kaine said.The Democrats message is meant to convey that they are reasonable, focused on capable governance and attuned to financial market distress. Its a pitch toward swing voters who would like to see more manufacturing yet are uncomfortable with the consequences of Trumps approach to tariffs. The risk is that it also is a nuanced argument at a time when pithy critiques travel faster and spread wider on social media than do measured policy analyses. To the Trump White House, that message is nothing but hypocrisy. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday noted that Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who would later become House speaker, was warning in June 1996 that trade with China meant higher trade deficits and job losses. It is about nothing less than our economic future, our national security and our democratic principles, said Pelosi before the House voted to not overturn then Democratic President Bill Clintons decision to extend most-favored-nation trade status for China for another year.The Trump administration views those remarks as evidence that Democrats actually back what Trump is doing, despite their stated opposition. Everyone in Washington, whether they want to admit it or not, knows that this president is right when it comes to tariffs and when it comes to trade, Leavitt told reporters. Nancy Pelosi can thank President Trump today.Not all Democrats have threaded the needle cleanly.Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gave a speech in Washington on Wednesday calling for tariffs to be used like a scalpel. Hours later, she was in the Oval Office with Trump in a moment caught on video as the president signed directives for the Justice Department to investigate two of his public critics and gave noncommittal musings on tariff negotiations.Whitmers office later said in a statement that she was surprised that she was brought in for the event after a meeting with Trump and that her presence is not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event.Trump this month unilaterally imposed sweeping tariffs on China, the European Union, Mexico, Canada, Japan and South Korea, among dozens of other nations. But on Wednesday, he suspended most of the tariffs for 90 days while applying a baseline import tax of 10% to most nations, a 145% tariff on Chinese goods and a tariff of as much as 25% on Mexico and Canada. There are also tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum, with more planned on specific products.The tariffs are expected to generate hundreds of billions of dollars annually in new revenues, but an average U.S. household could see disposable income fall by more than $4,000 as importers and companies pass along the costs of the levies. Interest rates on the U.S. debt are rising as investors worry about the soundness of Trumps policies. Major stock indexes are down and consumer sentiment is at its second lowest level in the history of the University of Michigan survey.Some Democrats are trying to keep the focus on their constituents, resurrecting talking points from Trumps tariff battles during his first term.Farmers, in particular, who were hit very hard by Trumps last trade wars, are terrified that this may be existential to their businesses, said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis. These are mostly small and medium-sized family farms. Their input costs are going to go up and their export markets are going to close down. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., said the tariffs would be catastrophic for urban and rural communities alike in her state. But Moore added that Democrats should still advocate for raising labor and product standards to keep American goods and services competitive in global markets.I know that many of our autoworkers were lured into voting for Donald Trump because they thought perhaps he was going to give them some relief, said Moore. But the prices of cars are going to go up because the component parts are everywhere. Theres no strategy for it.But not all Democrats want to hedge their response to Trumps trade tools.Im a little uninterested in what the Democratic response should be like, said Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii. Trump is intentionally destroying the American economy, and I think we should just say that and not make it very complicated. JOSH BOAK Boak covers the White House and economic policy for The Associated Press. He joined the AP in 2013. twitter mailto MATT BROWN Brown is a reporter covering national politics, race and democracy issues. twitter instagram mailto

Welcome back to the Abstract!Whatever else you think of this past week, it sure served up some ridiculously good science. Im talking about a real boffin buffet, with all the fixings. There were studies about trees spying on illegal mines. Or, an eerie rhino graveyard buried in ash 12 million years ago. Or, the first baby born from a remote and fully automated sperm injection. And those were all ones I had to regretfully leave in drafts, on account of the sheer scientific bounty.For starters, there was a whole study this week predicated on what mariners have been writing in ship logs over the past 400 years. Id have to turn myself into the authorities if I didnt highlight it, for it would indeed be a crime.Next, the universe is acting up again and refuses to conform to our meticulously curated models. I would tell the universe to go to its room, but it is the room. Then, crows continue to prove that bird brain is a compliment, actually. Last, take a few seconds for Uranus. No, I mean, literally.Do You Take Milk in Your Sea?Hudson, Justin and Miller, Steve. From Sailors to Satellites: A Curated Database of Bioluminescent Milky Seas Spanning 1600-Present. Earth and Space Science.It has happened again: A study has turned to historical documents to make scientific conclusions. As Ive mentioned previously, this is one of the absolute best flavors of research because we all get treated to a bunch of old-timey accounts of weird phenomenain this case, the entrancing spectacle of milky seas.Milky seas are produced by bioluminescent bacteria that can transform the nighttime ocean into a glowing white veneer. For centuries, seafarers have marvelled at the eerie beauty of these surreal displays, which sometimes last for months and can cover areas of 100,000 square kilometers (about the size of Iceland).Milky seas are a rare, historically fabled form of marine bioluminescence that is characterized by their steady, non-flashing, eponymous white glow, said Justin Hudson and Steven Miller of Colorado State University. Eyewitnesses have compared the experience of sailing through a milky sea to a snowy plain at night, the Twilight Zone, and even the biblical apocalypse.Despite centuries of scientific research into milky seas very little is known about the physical and biogeochemical processes which govern their formation, longevity, and size, the team continued. Scientific inquiry into milky seas has historically been held back due to the paucity of data, and the remote, ephemeral nature of the phenomenon.You know what that meanstime to hit the stacks! Hudson and Miller compiled a trove of eyewitness accounts, spanning the past 400 years, which they used to statistically examine the relationship between milky seas globally and large-scale coupled atmosphere ocean phenomenafor the first time.Milky seas observed from space. Image: Colorado State University, CIRA, and NOAAThe science here is interesting on its own merits, as the team refined predictions about where and when milky seas are most likely to occur, and linked them to broader oceanic and climatic forces. The radiant displays, powered by the marine bacteria Vibrio harveyi, are influenced by the Indian Ocean Dipole and the El Nio Southern Oscillation, and are commonly observed around the Arabian Sea and off the coast of Southeast Asia, according to the study.Given their spatial scale and biological nature, milky seas may represent a critically understudied large-scale movement of carbon and nutrients through the earth system, particularly so with bacteria playing a key role in the global carbon cycle both on land, concluded the team.But as with most studies in this category, the supplemental information is the star of the show. Its such a treat to read through all these accounts of past mariners who found themselves on the decks of their vessels at night, looking out at a surreal seascape of milk, or snow, or silver.At a quarter before eight oclock at night, a phenomenon appeared of the following nature, and to all on board of an unheard-of kind, which gave rise to transitory feelings of apprehension as to the vessels contiguity to danger, wrote an observer in the log of the H. C. sloop Clive in August 1832. (Clive is an excellent boat name, by the way).Without any indication of a change in the elements, the ship was surrounder instanter (sic) by water as white as milk or snow, continued the seafarer. No line of horizon was visible; the dead white colour of the water close to the ship as it increased in distance from her very gradually brightened until, where I supposed the horizon to be, it assumed a silvery aspect, which increasing as it ascended became brilliant and dazzling towards the zenith, obscuring the stars and clouds which had before this visitation been distinctly visible.A similar tale unfolds over the course of dozens of collected entries. Some mariners threw fireballs into the ocean to literally test the waters, and many crews reported that tiny animalcules were seen under microscopes in buckets drawn up from the milky seas.But the common theme across the centuries is an almost mystical quality to these encounters, which shines through (so to speak) in the ship logs.When looking into the sea at the height of the phenomenon, it was almost impossible to focus the eye and a slight feeling of vertigo was experienced, noted an officer of the SS Ixion in a 1967 entry about a sighting in the Indian Ocean. This eeriness could well have convinced the superstitious mariners of long ago that the ship would fall off the edge of the world during the night if navigated far from the shore.It was like we were in the "Twilight Zone" and peering at a negative of the real world, reported the crew of the USS OBrien of a 1980 sighting near the Yemeni island of Socotra. The seas were glowing with phosphorescence as far as you could see all around usThe phosphorescence was uniform and a bit lighter green or whiter than the normal screw-generated green phosphorescence (kind of like the glow-in-the-dark plastic stars you can buy your kids). There were no breaks in the phosphorescence even with the waves.I recommend reading through some of the excerpts, which are filled with expressions of wonder, premonition, and good old-fashioned scientific curiosity. You gotta hand it to Earth. She knows how to put on a show.Do These Lopsided Satellites Make Andromedas Butt Look Big?Kanehisa, Kosuke Jamie et al. Andromedas asymmetric satellite system as a challenge to cold dark matter cosmology. Nature Astronomy.The universe does not conform to our expectations. This is a common lament among cosmologists.Over the past half-century, for instance, scientists across diverse fields have developed a framework called the standard model of cosmology, also known as the Lambda cold dark matter (CDM) model, that accounts for a lot of the weird stuff we see in space. But if you search challenges to the standard model, you will get roughly a bajillion hits, as observations of the real universe frequently clash with the predictions of the standard model.One of the most interesting conflicts is the behavior of dwarf galaxies that orbit larger ones, such as Andromeda, which is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. The standard model, meanwhile, predicts that these satellite galaxies should be more or less isotropic in their distribution around their host, meaning that they should occupy a swarm of random orbits around a larger galaxy.Andromeda. Image: Luc ViatorBut in a new study, scientists found that Andromedas orbiters are weirdly clustered on one side. All but one of Andromedas 37 satellite galaxies are contained within 107 degrees of our Galaxy, said researchers led by Kosuke Jamie Kanehisa of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam.In other words, most of the orbiting galaxies are asymmetrically located on the side of Andromeda that faces the Milky Way. In standard cosmological simulations, this configuration is extremely rare, showing up in just 0.3 percent of cases. What gives?The researchers speculate that the Milky Way might be exerting a tidal influence on Andromeda, thereby pulling its orbiters in our direction. But if this were true, youd expect the satellites of the Milky Way to align in a similar asymmetry, given that Andromeda is about as massive as our own galaxy, yet theres no evidence that this is the case.At present, no known formation mechanism can explain the collective asymmetry of the Andromeda system, the team concluded.You could ask the universe, but its just not very forthcoming about this kind of thing. Indeed, this is not the first time the movements of satellite galaxies have defied the standard model; I covered this eerie discrepancy a few years ago for Motherboard.The discovery that Andromeda appears to be an extreme outlier in the prevailing cosmological paradigm is yet another sign that something is either wrong with a) the model, b) our observations, c) all of the above, or d) some other wild card that has yet to be identified. Place your bets.An (Intellectual) Feast for CrowsSchmidbauer, Philipp et al. Crows recognize geometric regularity. Science Advances.Its well-known that crows (and other corvids) are among the most intelligent animals on Earth. You can kind of intuit this fact just from looking a crow in the eyethey have that clever girl vibe to thembut studies have helpfully provided empirical evidence they are capable of tool use, abstract thinking, and epic grudges, among many other proficiencies.It got one team of scientists thinking: can crows do geometry?Animals sensitivity to geometric regularity has been found to be notably limited; nonhuman primates do not recognize geometric regularity in tests involving the perception of visual shapes, whereas humans do, said researchers led by Philipp Schmidbauer of the University of Tbingen. This result led to the interpretation that the recognition of geometric regularity could constitute a uniquely human ability.As a rule, dont call anything uniquely human until youve tried it on crows. To that end, the team presented two carrion crows (Corvus corone), aged 10 and 11 years old, with a touch-screen showing different assortments of shapes. For instance, a simple starter test displayed six non-quadrilateral shapes, such as five stars and one crescent moon. A tougher test mixed in quadrilateralssuch squares, trapezoids, rhombuseswith one irregular four-sided shape.Crows doing puzzles. Image: Schmidbauer et al., Sci. Adv. 11, eadt3718 (2025)Crows were tasked with detecting the intruder shape, which they successfully did about half the time, a rate that is well over what would be expected by chance.Our results, showing that crows spontaneously recognize geometric regularity in visual shapes, contrast with those from a study involving monkeys that failed to discriminate quadrilateral stimuli based on geometric regularity a finding that challenges the idea that intuitive shape geometry is uniquely human, the team concluded.To paraphrase a legendary animated newsman: I, for one, welcome our crow overlords.Uranus Gets its Chakras AlignedLamy, L et al. A new rotation period and longitude system for Uranus. Nature Astronomy.Last but not least, a day on Uranus just got 28 seconds longer. This is not because the planet has suddenly decided to slow down in mid-life, though it would be forgiven for the indulgence. Instead, the extra time is due to an update of its rotation period, which was measured by Voyager 2 in 1986.Data collected during that flyby determined that the Uranian day is about 17 hours, 14 minutes, and 24 seconds, give or take about a half-minute. On paper, this small margin of error for a giant planet located about two billion miles from Earth is not too shabby. But the slight imprecision has actually been bugging astronomers who study the planet for a while, prompting a lot of new rotational estimates over the years.Now, scientists have refined the Uranian day to a whopping six decimal points by tracking the planets radiant auroras for more than a decade with the Hubble Space Telescope.Here we use the long-term tracking of Uranus magnetic poles between 2011 and 2022 from Hubble Space Telescope images of its ultraviolet aurorae to achieve an updated, independent, extremely precise rotation period of 17.2478640.000010h, only consistent with the Voyager 2 estimate, said researchers led by Laurent Lamy of the Observatoire de Paris.This update brings the Uranian day to 17 hours, 14 minutes, and 52 seconds, about 28 seconds longer than Voyager 2s rotational estimate. The improved accuracy will allow the reanalysis of the whole set of Uranus observations and the novel approach stands as a new method to determine the rotation rate of any object hosting a magnetosphere and a rotationally modulated aurorae, in our Solar System and beyond.Were all in a Proustian search for lost time. Who could have guessed wed end up finding it on Uranus?Thanks for reading! See you next week.

In February, Iowa became the first state to remove gender identity protections from its civil rights code. This decision, which strips transgender and nonbinary Iowans of legal protections from gender-based discrimination, was signed into law by the states Republican Governor Kim Reynolds.In a video posted to X, Reynolds echoed much of President Donald Trumps rhetoric about the trans community, stating that the civil rights code blurred the biological line between the sexes and has also forced Iowa taxpayers to pay for gender reassignment surgeries, and thats unacceptable to me.Uncloseted Media wanted to understand how trans Iowans are reacting and coping in the current political climate. Dawn, Selina, Luke, Max and Jo agreed to speak with us andwith intense candortold us about the struggles of being a trans Iowan in America today.Subscribe nowWatch the full interview above or read the transcript here:Spencer Macnaughton: Hi, everyone. I am here today with a panel of five trans people who live in Iowa right now. Iowa is under fire with a litany of anti-trans laws. So we wanted to speak to the folks who live in Iowa and who are directly affected. So everyone, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. So I want to start by just asking a kind of warmup, basic question. As someone who's never been to Iowa, tell me about Iowa as a state. How does it differ from the rest of the United States?Maxwell Mowicz: A thing that I think is interesting about our state overall is that we tend to have a relatively progressive history. We have a progressive past in terms of LGBTQ rights and access. So we were the third state in the country to access same-sex marriage. And so for me, when I think about Iowa and how it's kind of unique in the Midwest is that, we do tend to have more progressive history and policies and as we're seeing that rolling back right now, we're really realizing how much we had to lose. But I also think like we're just kind of a scrappy little state, just like in the middle of the Midwest. So I love that for Iowa as well.SM: So to take a little bit of a turn, obviously the federal government has been attacking trans rights since the first day in office with numerous executive orders that aim to eliminate the idea that trans people even exist and you all do live in a red and rural state where your lawmakers are passing even more aggressive laws. How are you guys as trans-Iowans holding up in the current climate? How are you doing?Dawn: For me, it's been pretty rough. There's a lot of despair out there, a lot of helplessness, confusion about what some of the legislation means and how it's directly going to affect us. You know, it's pretty hard. It's hard to stay positive when it feels like you're being attacked constantly.Selina Ulvanova: It's definitely been causing a lot of anxieties, worries. The rural area where I live here has had a very unfortunate history with the LGBT community. Someone I personally knew in high school was. Ugh. He didn't exactly make it. And I'm really worried with the way the rural community is, with the possibility of a dark alley, a little after sundown, that kind of stuff. Violence is a very real possibility.SM: Tell me more about that in the rural areas, what it's like.SM: These small rural towns out here are very tight-knit communities. Everybody knows everyone. You got maybe one or two churches in the town that just about everyone goes to. Personally, something I've always thought with the rural communities, especially over the last few election cycles, is just how disconnected things are out here. People get certain ideas in their head. Its hard for them to break it because they just aren't around as much diversity. It's mostly just cis, white folk out here, and it's really easy for them to basically just have their own echo chambers in the real world, not just online. I've definitely had to deal with and listen to a lot of hurtful and just generally unpleasant degradations.SM: I'm so sorry. It's not okay and it's not fair at all and it shouldn't be this way. A bunch of LGBTQ-specific laws have been passed in Iowa in recent years. These include a ban on teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation before the seventh grade, a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, a ban on allowing students and adults from using school bathrooms that match their gender identity, requiring school officials to get permission from parents before using a student's chosen name, and a ban on trans girls from participating in high school and college sports. It feels relentless nationally right now but you guys in Iowa are in the belly of the beast. Tell me about, granularly, for you on a personal level, how all these laws affect you in your day-to-day.Luke: So I'm in college, and if I wanted to go into a sport, I'm not even sure if I would be allowed to. Because the actual wording of the bill is just very vague when it comes to trans people. And I don't wanna go into sport only for them to say, Oh, you're not allowed, or Oh, you can't be here, but then it's like, Where do I go? Because you're not gonna let me in this women's team because I look like this. But if I go on the men's team, you guys are gonna throw an uproar. I just want to have fun and make friends, that's basically what I wanna do.Subscribe nowDawn: I'm an elementary teacher and I just came out over the past few months, so it's really hard especially for me not being allowed to teach about how everything's working. So it's just the kids and everyone has just kind of seen the changes going on, but I can't just sit down with the classroom and say, This is who I am, this what it means, this exactly what's going on. So I just share the very basics. The furthest I've gone is just that change that I'm doing right now, just going from Mister to Miss with the kids. And they wanna know why, and I don't know clearly legally what I can say, so I just don't touch the subject at all.SM: What do you think it would do if you were able to tell your students, Hey, this is who I am, I'm trans, and let me explain to you what that means?Dawn: I think it would just give them a little more clarity about what's going on. Just that it's really not that big of a deal. It's not a huge mystery. We have wonderful, amazing kids at my school and I think they would really understand. You know, and as things have changed and kids have figured it out without saying anything, I've had nothing but acceptance and love from them along with the other teachers at my school and my administration. So, I just think it would be less confusing for them.SM: Being a teacher, the rhetoric about grooming, indoctrination, obviously these things that are not rooted in any truth, how has that affected you as a trans teacher?Dawn: It's absolutely terrifying. When I first accepted that I was trans about two years ago, my first thought was, I have to quit. I can't safely do my job. And I spent hours and hours in therapy trying to figure out some path forward for that. And eventually I kind of set on the goal to just do like a slow-motion transition and try to last until I retire and, you know, then transition at that point. And as that went on, just the really low dose of hormone therapy I was on had such amazing mental effects for me that I knew I couldn't drag it out for seven or eight more years. So I just moved faster. I started sharing with some co-workers just at the end of last school year and then gradually this year, sharing it with everybody. But it's terrifying.SM: As you all know, in February, Iowa became the first state to remove gender identity protections from its civil rights code. And this bill will make it much harder for trans folks to bring forth claims of discrimination in areas such as employment, housing, wages, public accommodations like bathrooms. This is the first state to do this in the nation. It made national news. How did you guys react when you learned this news? And what does that mean for you?SM: My first reaction was to just break down crying, honestly. What little of the future I had been looking forward to and could plan for had just shattered. And after that, I had immediately fallen into a depressive episode. I stayed in bed, didn't eat for days afterwards before I could just pull myself back up and start looking into other solutions. It's been a lot of weight weighing down on me.Luke: I was watching it and was like, Oh, this is bad. And then, Oh this has got worse. And then it was, Oh, now I really need to get out of this state but we don't have the funds to move. And it just kind of like fight or flight kicked in. And I felt I needed to leave but I don't know anybody in any other state that I could live with.SM: Why does this bill take it to the next level? What about it goes to that extra level that makes it more dangerous and more scary for trans folks right now?MM: I think part of the reason that this threat feels more heightened is because when you remove, of course, a protected class from the Iowa Civil Rights Code or any civil rights code, it really is a day-to-day issue. And I think the interesting thing about the bill and now the law is that it's anyone that's trans or perceived to be trans, and so this also impacts people that are not in the trans community that could be perceived as being trans, like masculine women, for example. But all of this is to say that it makes it legal for someone to deny someone a car loan. It makes it legal for someone to deny someone access to a coffee shop. It can make it possible if I drive to rural Iowa, which I often do for my job, and I walk into a hotel, and they perceive me as trans, they can deny me access to that hotel. And so I think the reason that this feels even more scary is because it genuinely is more dangerous. I do think this is whole scale something that is really going to impact people's day to day. I think this really kind of preys on some of the fears around trans people and gives folks a blank check to discriminate. And that's really just not acceptable.SM: Your governor, Republican Kim Reynolds, said in a video that this bill she signed into law is safeguarding the rights of women and girls and that it's common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women and necessary to secure genuine equal protection for women and girls. I want to hear what you make of that response and what would you say to Governor Reynolds if you could sit down and talk to her?Luke: Where's the concern about our safety? Where's the concern about our well-being, our mental health?SM: If I could, I would just bluntly put it [out] there that her views and opinions on our community are directly contradictory to the facts. It's not supported by the science or the evidence. It's supported by a fear-mongering attitude and a religious doctrine that's supposed to be separate from our government. And honestly, I think she's unfit for office just on those grounds alone.MM: So there's kind of two parts, of course, like within my professional role, I have to interact with the legislature and her more often than I would love to. We have tried every message. And so I'm very aware of the fact that if I sat down with her, nothing that I said would impact the way that she feels. And I think that ultimately, I'd probably take the perspective of what it means, Iowan to Iowan, how it feels and why it is that she is moving so far away from actual Iowa concerns. We have farmers that aren't able to make their mortgage payments. We have people that are dying of cancer. We're the worst in the country for cancer and cancer care. We're shutting down maternity wards. Like, why are we focusing on trans folks?Jo Allen: I wanna bounce off your back a little bit there with that, because we can have however many people testify, share their personal stories, speak about whatever, and she's just not gonna listen.SM: Why do people put so much focus on this community when it's 1% or less in many states across this country? What's the point?JA: It is that ignorance that some of us just are raised up with. I will say that I grew up in a Catholic environment. Don't know if anyone else here in a Catholic environment, but yeah, you get a lot of things ingrained into you and you have to really bloom and grow from those dark spaces.Uncloseted Media is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.SM: Nearly half of trans people in the U.S. have considered moving to another state because of legislation, and this is actually data from pre-Trump 2.0. I want you guys just to raise your hands if you have considered recently moving out of state or out of country because of the spate of anti-trans legislation. So raise your hand if you've thought about that. Everyone but Max raises their hand. Talk to me a little bit more about that, about your thoughts on thinking about having to move out.Dawn: For me, it's a safety issue. I wanna live somewhere where I'm welcomed and accepted and safe. But at the same time, I love my job. This is my 27th year of teaching. I've been at my school literally since we opened the doors. So I don't wanna give that up. And I'm gonna try to make it work as long as I can. It's hard, but I feel like I have to try. So much of my life has changed since I started transitioning. I've lost family, lost friends. My marriage is ending. I don't wanna give up the job that I love on top of everything else.SM: I'm sorry you're going through all that and you're obviously, I'm sure, an amazing teacher. Where would you move and why if you were to?Dawn: I've looked into Canada. There is some demand for teachers there. So, you know, I would have a chance to immigrate there. I lived in Germany when I was a child, I think it would be kind of cool to live in Europe again, but I would rather visit. I'd rather not be forced out of my home.SM: It sounds like you're a proud Iowan and you're a proud teacher in Iowa.Dawn: I'm a proud teacher, yeah, and I'm not so proud of Iowa anymore.SM: Selina, why did you raise your hand?SM: Like I said, I live in a rural area here, and it's pretty poor and impoverished. Like I mostly get by thanks to supportive family, friends, odd jobs that I can manage. And those are probably going to dry up pretty fast when I come out more publicly. I am still pretty closeted, really only told like the closest of the close people I can trust. So, it's mostly a financial [issue] for me on top of, again, the threats of violence, the being a pariah from these tiny tight-knit communities, the discrimination. I don't really want to have to leave, this is where I was born and raised and everyone and everything I've ever known is out here. But if I have to, I have to.JA: My partner and I are both trans and we have been here all our life, for them 25 years, for me 27. And I think the hardest thing is leaving Iowa not on my own accord, not on their accord. My partner and I have made the decision that we will be leaving. This wall behind me is actually a countdown until July 1st hits and we've been ripping down the days until I leave. I think we started at 130 days, something like that. And so we've been ripping down the days. Our friends have been ripping down day by day as it goes by. And it's just unfortunate because the community here that I've built over the course of my entire life, I feel like I'm at the peak of it right now. And even though I'm leaving, I'm being introduced to so many queer people at this time. And it feels so unfortunate that there's this home that I have to pull away from. Because if it was my choice, I would stay here a little bit longer if I could. But I don't feel like it's gonna get safer. I've already dealt with harassment in public spaces. And at the end of the day, I just want to know that my rights are protected, my basic human rights are protected in a blue state. And that's all that I can ask for. And Iowa, unfortunately, cannot provide that anymore for me and my partner. It's just unfortunate because we don't have the funds to move. I do not have the money to move. I think most of us can say that we do not have the funds to move. And so it puts us in a very difficult state of just trying to survive financially, but also like we need to get out of here and get elsewhere, but that has a burden of cost as well.SM: From the president of the United States down to state lawmakers, there has been a dis- and misinformation campaign about trans folks, a monstor-fication of trans folks. What can we do at this point to combat this miss and disinformation?MM: One of the things that our org has a rich history of is telling peoples stories and we did that when we were fighting for marriage equality but now we really focus on that with trans folks. Because at the end of the day everyone here is a lot more than just a trans person. You're a teacher, you're an artist, and it's something that I think is so special when we are able to harness the power of peoples stories, and not just like really sad stories but also all the things that make someone excited or all the things that they do in their community that I think is really beautiful. And we've been able to especially kind of shift perspectives on that when we're able to talk about the experiences of rural LGBTQ Iowans. Because a lot of these legislators think that there are no trans people in their district and that's not true. And so when they do meet a trans person from their district, it changes their world. When I'm thinking about it, I'm trying to figure out how can we humanize folks without using their stories in ways that don't feel comfortable to them. Like empower people to share their stories as it feels good and to let people know that were just trans folks that also go home and hang out with our dog and like need the exact same things that everyone else needs. So I think that's really powerful.Dawn: More than half of the people I came out to directly, I was literally the first trans person they had ever known or even met. And this is in the Des Moines area. That's one of the things that's kind of motivated me to be fairly open about my transition is just letting people see that I'm just a person. There are things changing about me, but there's a lot that's not. You know, I still have a lot of the same hopes and dreams that I did before, just being accessible to people and answering questions. Sometimes some of the more intrusive questions come up, but I just kind of roll with those because I know a lot it is coming out of ignorance. And I think it helps open their eyes a little bit about our existence. Just seeing and hearing some of the things that we have to go through just to live our lives.SM: Who or what are you leaning on in this difficult time? What are your coping mechanisms?JA: I've been just trying to find more communal spaces for my community to meet, finding joy and laughter there. I remember after the bill passed, I was having a really hard time too. I definitely went into a depressive episode and it's to me, it's being able to tell my friends like, Hey, I know you've been waiting on me all day, you know, to get going, but can you just give me 15 minutes to shower? Because I don't remember the last time I showered. And it's friends that are like, Yeah, of course, go ahead, instead of getting mad at me because I'm taking all day. It's just, I need that extra time. And it just means a lot to me to have people that understand me right now and that are able to support me, because it's a lot.SM: How about allies in folks' corner right now? Does anyone have any stories about allies being there for you and what that's meant?Luke: My family and my grandmother especially have been really good at supporting me.JA: I don't think I would ever imagine myself using the word ally for him, but my dad has, in a way, become an ally. A Black Catholic man raised in the 70s, so trans to him is not really even a word that he uses. But when I post about what's going on in our community in Des Moines on Facebook, he's there. He's like, Here's money to help your friends do this, or Here's money to, you know, print this off. It's like a very indirect weird way of him like showing up without ever having to say the word trans, you know, like he's there and he just understands that people are people and that it's not right what's happening to us. Because at the end of the day we're humans and that's at least what he has learned through his religion and through his time with God.SM: Amazing. Yeah, I think if there's ever a moment for allies and folks to step up and support trans, non-binary folks, it's right now. It's yesterday. Luke, Max, Dawn, Joe, Selina, thank you all so much for coming to speak with me and Uncloseted Media today. It means so much and I think it's so important to center trans voices, especially trans voices in Iowa, in this moment in time. So thank you.SU: It was a pleasure to be here.If objective, nonpartisan, rigorous, LGBTQ-focused journalism is important to you, please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor, Resource Impact, by clicking this button:Donate to Uncloseted Media

The 67-year-old finished one stroke outside the cut line at his 41st and final Masters, capping off a career that spanned eras.

Manchester City boss Nick Cushing expects Vivianne Miedema to miss the rest of the season through injury.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, speaks during an anti-abortion rally on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)2025-04-12T12:48:48Z WASHINGTON (AP) As Kristan Hawkins, president of the national anti-abortion group Students for Life, tours college campuses, she has grown accustomed to counterprotests from abortion rights activists.But more recently, fellow abortion opponents, who call themselves abortion abolitionists, are showing up to her booths with signs, often screaming baby killer at her while she speaks with students. Hawkins has had to send alerts to donors asking them to help pay for increased security.Im pretty sure they protest me more than they protest Planned Parenthood, Hawkins said. Believe it or not, I now know the price of a bomb dog.Hawkins encounters, which she related during an interview with The Associated Press, are just one example of what many people involved in the abortion debate have described as the widening influence of a movement that seeks to outlaw all abortions and enforce the ban with criminal prosecution of any women who have abortions. It began gaining momentum after the Supreme Courts 2022 ruling overturning Roe v Wade and has accelerated since Republicans won full political control in Washington in last years elections. The movements impact also is beginning to show up in statehouses around the country. Mainstream anti-abortion groups have largely shied away from legislation that would punish women for having abortions, but abortion abolitionists believe abortion should be considered homicide and punished with the full force of the law. In many states, they have been advocating for legislation to do just that. A split within the anti-abortion movementMainstream anti-abortion groups have tried to play down any divisions and instead, at various rallies this spring, have emphasized their unity behind other goals, such as defunding Planned Parenthood.Experts say the abortion abolitionist movement, once considered fringe, is growing and getting louder, empowered by recent victories for abortion opponents.With the reversal of Roe v. Wade, now states can pass the most severe abortion bans, which has galvanized the anti-abortion movement as a whole, including this part of it, said Rachel Rebouche, dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia. Certainly the fall of Roe has brought abortion abolitionists one step closer to what they want banning abortion nationwide.In February, Hawkins posted on X, saying the people I fear getting shot by, most of the time, are not abortion rights activists but abortion abolitionists.Then came the replies: Demon, Ungodly, An accessory to murder, Enemy of God. Her post opened a fire hose of online barbs from abortion abolitionists. Some called for her to resign and asserted that women should not have roles outside the home, let alone leading national anti-abortion groups.Some conservative podcasts and online figures have hosted abortion abolitionists or echoed similar disdain for the larger anti-abortion movement. Ben Zeisloft, a podcaster for TheoBros, a network of Christian nationalist influencers, blamed feminism for abortion and said, We need Christian men leading the fight against abortion. The comments reflect a broader uptick in misogynistic rhetoric and align with the religious doctrines motivating many in the abortion abolitionist movement, said Laura Hermer, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota.She said members of the movement have been emboldened by the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which had granted a constitutional right to abortion for half a century, and recent actions by Republican President Donald Trump. More state bills seek to criminalize women who get abortionsThose actions include pausing some family planning grants pending investigations, pardoning anti-abortion activists who blockaded clinics and signing an executive order that uses fetal personhood language similar to verbiage in state laws declaring that a fetus should have the same legal rights as a person. The laws are supported by both abortion abolitionists and mainstream anti-abortion groups.Trumps rhetoric on abortion has been mixed. In 2016, he backtracked after saying there should be some form of punishment for women who have abortions. He has recently pledged to protect in vitro fertilization, a fertility treatment that has been threatened by fetal personhood laws.Still, several experts said many state lawmakers have taken Trumps return to the White House as a green light to pursue more aggressive anti-abortion policies.So far this year, bills introduced in at least 12 states Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas would allow prosecutors to charge those who have abortions with homicide. In some of those states, women could be subject to the death penalty if the bills were to become law.Most of those states already ban abortions in most cases, but the restrictions have typically penalized providers, rather than those seeking the procedure. This past week, Alabama lawmakers filed legislation that would consider abortion as murder. In Georgia last month, protesters massed at the Capitol to oppose legislation that would classify abortions from the point of fertilization as homicide. The bill had nearly two dozen Republican co-sponsors.Nearly 8 in 10 Americans opposed laws making it a crime for women who get abortions that would result in either fines or prison time, according to a KFF poll conducted in September 2022, a few months after the Roe ruling.Dana Sussman, senior vice president at Pregnancy Justice, which tracks this type of legislation, said she is seeing more of those bills than ever before. Sussman said it was a remarkable increase and a sign that the rhetoric of abortion abolitionists is having an impact. In 2022, when one such bill passed a Louisiana state House subcommittee, it sparked national outcry, she said. Thats no longer the case.Now, because they are normalizing this idea, what was shocking then is no longer shocking, Sussman said.This is how change happensDusty Deevers, a Republican state senator who co-sponsored the bill in Oklahoma, said he ran his campaign on a platform of abolishing abortion. He said he feels a sense of duty to his constituents and his Christian faith to pursue this type of legislation.The bill died in Oklahoma after some local anti-abortion organizations spoke out against it. Deevers, who also has advocated against contraception, expressed frustration with mainstream anti-abortion groups.Politics and compromise have corrupted their mission, he said, adding that he was encouraged that his bill received a hearing. This is how change happens. When were dealing with controversial issues, change may not happen quickly Its not the result we wanted, but it is progress.The North Dakota Legislature voted down a similar bill after a staff member from the national anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America testified against it and read from a 2022 letter signed by more than 70 national and state anti-abortion groups that urged state lawmakers not to pass bills criminalizing women for abortions.Were all trying to get to the same goal, said North Dakota Rep. Matt Ruby. I think there are some abolitionists whove forgotten that and, in their anger, are trying to tear other organizations down. But that does nothing for the movement.Hawkins, from Students for Life, said there are three camps within the anti-abortion movement: one that seeks to prosecute abortion patients, one that would never want to prosecute patients and one somewhere in between. The in-between group opposes prosecution now but acknowledges that this might change as culture and laws shift.Hawkins said she is in the third category, while maintaining that abortion abolitionists today are not representative of the broader anti-abortion movement.If you want more pro-abortion Democrats to win future elections, then keep talking about putting women in jail, by all means, Hawkins said.___The Associated Pressreceives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about APs democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Visitors walk up and down the steps of the William McKinley Memorial on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 in Canton, Ohio. (AP Photo/Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos)2025-04-12T11:51:46Z CANTON, Ohio (AP) If youve been intrigued by President Donald Trumps praise of his long-ago White House predecessor William McKinley and yearn to know more, its time you head to Ohio.Americas 25th president was born and is buried in the Buckeye State, where museums and monuments to him abound. Websites promoting the states McKinley attractions have seen a surge in page views since Trump began highlighting McKinleys Gilded Age presidency, which ran from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. Officials hope a bump in summer tourism will follow. I dont think there has been as much interest in William McKinley in at least a century, in terms of kind of the public consciousness, said Kevin Kern, an associate professor of history at the University of Akron. The last time was in 1928, when McKinleys face was printed on the $500 bill. While Trump has attached himself to McKinley, Kern says the two Republicans political positions are, in many respects, really apples and oranges. In McKinleys day, the United States was just becoming the worlds foremost manufacturing power. Tariffs were viewed as a way to protect that momentum. Today, the economy is global. Kern also noted that Republicans took huge losses in the 1890 election after the imposition of the McKinley Tariff, and that McKinley appeared to change his tune on tariffs in a speech delivered the day before he was assassinated in 1901. Within an easy drive of Cleveland, you can find a host of sites for learning more about McKinleys politics and personal life. Heres a closer look: A monument to McKinleys birth McKinley was born in 1843 in Niles, a Youngstown suburb about 70 miles (112.65 kilometers) east of Cleveland. Here, youll find the National McKinley Birthplace Memorial, a classical Greek marble monument that sits on the site of McKinleys former one-room schoolhouse. A McKinley statue stands at the center of the well-manicured Court of Honor, which is flanked by a small museum and the communitys library. The McKinley birthplace home and research center sits nearby. Tackling McKinleys legacy in CantonCanton is perhaps best known for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, The city, about 60 miles (96.56 kilometers) from either Cleveland or Niles, is where the kindly and mild-mannered McKinley spent most of his adult life. A young McKinley settled here after serving in the Civil War, began his law career and married Ida Saxton McKinley. The McKinley Presidential Library and Museum is a great place to dig into the shared policy goals especially tariffs and territorial expansion that attract Trump to McKinley. An animatronic William and Ida McKinley greet visitors to the museums McKinley Gallery, which features interactive opportunities as well as historical furnishings, clothing, jewelry and campaign memorabilia. The building also houses a presidential archive and a science center complete with dinosaurs and a planetarium. The sites dominant feature, however, is the imposing McKinley Monument, which looms on a hill atop 108 stone steps. It houses the mausoleum where the McKinleys and their two young daughters are buried. More McKinley memorabilia is on display at the Canton Classic Car Museum. A McKinley statue buffeted by historyThe residents of Arcata, California, were not so enamored of McKinleys imperialist legacy. In 2018, amid national soul-searching over historical monuments, the liberal college town decided to remove an 8-foot sculpture of McKinley, the annexation treaty for Hawaii in his hand, from their town square. Over a century old, the statue had been moved to Arcata from San Francisco, where it was toppled in the 1906 earthquake. It now stands at the stately Stark County Courthouse in downtown Canton, where McKinley worked as a county prosecutor before being elected a congressman and Ohio governor. It was placed there in 2023 after being bought back from Arcata by a Canton foundation and restored. Glimpsing the McKinleys home life A three-block walk from the courthouse is the Saxton-McKinley House, part of the National First Ladies Historic Site operated in partnership with the National Park Service. Originally Idas home, the elegant Victorian mansion was the couples residence at different times during their marriage. Its not the house from which McKinley conducted his fabled front porch campaign of 1896; that was demolished in the 1930s. A replica of the porch and the actual chair McKinley sat in can be found at the McKinley museum, however, and a tabletop replica of his campaign house is on view at the Stark County District Library, which now sits on the site.If youd like to see the porch where another Ohio president carried out his front porch campaign, try the James A. Garfield Historic Site in Mentor, about 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) northwest of Cleveland.Tale of two churchesThe granddaughter of John Saxton, a city pioneer and founder of the Canton Repository newspaper, Ida Saxton attended Cantons First Presbyterian Church, a few blocks from their home. Now known as Christ Presbyterian Church, this is where the McKinleys were married in 1871, the new stone buildings tower yet uncompleted. Williams church was the nearby Crossroads United Methodist. Ida had a series of stained glass panels depicting the phases of her husbands life installed there after this death. For the hardy traveler If youre willing to travel a bit farther afield, several other sites could add to your McKinley experience. First is the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums, located about 85 miles (136.79 kilometers) east of Cleveland in Fremont. Known as Spiegel Grove, the site established in 1916 is home of the nations first presidential library. Its museum explores Hayes service in the Civil War, when he was McKinleys commander. In Columbus, about 150 miles (241.40 kilometers) southwest of Cleveland, a McKinley statue in front of the Ohio Statehouse faces west. This was where McKinley, then governor, would stand to doff his hat to Ida as she looked out the window of their apartment at the Neil House. The legendary hotel was torn down in 1980 to make way for the Huntington Center now dominating that block. Rounding out the timeline of McKinleys life, a 96-foot tall obelisk memorializing him sits on Niagara Square in Buffalo, New York. He was assassinated by an anarchist while appearing at the Pan-American Exposition there in 1901. JULIE CARR SMYTH Smyth has covered government and politics from Columbus, Ohio, for The Associated Press since 2006. twitter mailto

The East bracket is set. The West's ... is not. Meanwhile, lottery races across the league will be decided Sunday.

Tennessee is moving on from starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava, sources told ESPN, in the wake of his decision to not attend practice Friday amid NIL contract discussions with the school.

The East bracket is set. The West is not. Meanwhile, lottery races across the league will be decided Sunday.

Oscar Piastri put a gap between himself and the competition as McLaren continued its dominance in final practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday.

Kevin De Bruyne and goalkeeper Ederson showed their worth to Man City again, as they continued to notch up the assists.

Kevin De Bruyne helped Manchester City stage a superb comeback from 2-0 down as he scored one and helped create two goals in an emphatic 5-2 win over Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday.

Tennessee is moving on from starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava, sources told ESPN, in the wake of his decision to not attend practice Friday amid NIL contract discussions with the school.

2025-04-12T14:38:41Z The Trump administration says electronics like smartphones and laptops will be excluded from reciprocal tariffs, a move that could help keep prices down for popular consumer electronics that arent usually made in the U.S.The announcement on Friday would also benefit big tech companies like Apple and Samsung.The U.S. Customs and Border Protection said items like smartphones, laptops, machines used to make semiconductors and flat-panel monitors would be exempt. MAE ANDERSON Anderson reports for The Associated Press on a wide range of issues that small businesses face. She is based in New York. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Rick Woldenberg, CEO of Learning Resources, an educational toy company whose products are manufactured in China, stands at a warehouse in Vernon Hills, Ill., Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)2025-04-12T10:12:38Z WASHINGTON (AP) Rick Woldenberg thought he had come up with a sure-fire plan to protect his Chicago-area educational toy company from President Donald Trumps massive new taxes on Chinese imports.When he announced a 20% tariff, I made a plan to survive 40%, and I thought I was being very clever, said Woldenberg, CEO of Learning Resources, a third-generation family business that has been manufacturing in China for four decades. I had worked out that for a very modest price increase, we could withstand 40% tariffs, which was an unthinkable increase in costs.His worst-case scenario wasnt worst-case enough. Not even close.The American president quickly upped the ante with China, raising the levy to 54% to offset what he said were Chinas unfair trade practices. Then, enraged when China retaliated with tariffs of its own, he upped the levies to a staggering 145%. Woldenberg reckons that will push Learning Resources tariff bill from $2.3 million last year to $100.2 million in 2025. I wish I had $100 million, he said. Honest to God, no exaggeration: It feels like the end of days. Addicted to low-price Chinese goodsIt might at least be the end of an era of inexpensive consumer goods in America. For four decades, and especially since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, Americans have relied on Chinese factories for everything from smartphones to Christmas ornaments.As tensions between the worlds two biggest economies and geopolitical rivals have risen over the past decade, Mexico and Canada have supplanted China as Americas top source of imported goods and services. But China is still No. 3 and second behind Mexico in goods alone and continues to dominate in many categories. China produces 97% of Americas imported baby carriages, 96% of its artificial flowers and umbrellas, 95% of its fireworks, 93% of its childrens coloring books and 90% of its combs, according to a report from the Macquarie investment bank. Over the years, American companies have set up supply chains that depend on thousands of Chinese factories. Low tariffs greased the system. As recently as January 2018, U.S. tariffs on China averaged just over 3%, according to Chad Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.American consumers created China, said Joe Jurken, founder of the ABC Group in Milwaukee, which helps U.S. businesses manage supply chains in Asia. American buyers, the consumers, got addicted to cheap pricing. And the brands and the retailers got addicted to the ease of buying from China.Slower growth and higher pricesNow Trump, demanding that manufacturers return production to America, is swinging a tariff sledgehammer at the American importers and the Chinese factories they rely on.The consequences of tariffs at this scale could be apocalyptic at many levels, said David French, senior vice president of government affairs at the National Retail Foundation.The Yale University Budget Lab estimates that the tariffs that Trump has announced globally since taking office would lower U.S. economic growth by 1.1 percentage points in 2025. The tariffs are also likely to push up prices. The University of Michigans survey of consumer sentiment, out Friday, found that Americans expect long-term inflation to reach 4.4%, up from 4.1% last month.Inflations going up in the United States, said Stephen Roach, former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and now at Yale Law Schools China Center. Consumers have figured this out as well.No business can run on uncertaintyIts not just the size of Trumps tariffs that has businesses bewildered and scrambling; its the speed and the unpredictability with which the president is rolling them out.On Wednesday, the White House said the tariffs on China would hit 125%. A day later, it corrected that: No, the tariffs would be 145%, including a previously announced 20% to pressure China to do more to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States.China in turn has imposed a 125% tariff on the U.S. effective Saturday.There is so much uncertainty, said Isaac Larian, the founder of MGA Entertainment, which makes L.O.L. and Bratz dolls, among other toys. And no business can run on uncertainty. His company gets 65% of its product from Chinese factories, a share he is trying to winnow down to 40% by the end of the year. MGA also manufactures in India, Vietnam and Cambodia, but Trump is threatening to levy heavy tariffs on those countries, too, after delaying them for 90 days.Larian estimates that the price of Bratz dolls could go from $15 to $40 and that of L.O.L. dolls could double to $20 by this years holiday season.Even his Little Tikes brand, which is made in Ohio, is not immune. Little Tikes depends on screws and other parts from China. Larian figures the price for its toy cars could rise to $90 from a suggested retail price of $65.He said MGA would likely cut orders for the fourth quarter because he is worried that higher prices will scare off consumers. Calling off China production plans Marc Rosenberg, founder and CEO of The Edge Desk in Deerfield, Illinois, invested millions of dollars of his own money to develop $1,000 ergonomic chairs, which were to start production in China next month.Nows he calling off production and exploring markets outside the U.S., including Germany and Italy, where his chairs wouldnt face Trumps triple-digit tariffs.He had looked for ways to make the chairs in the United States and had discussions with potential suppliers in Michigan, but the costs would have been 25% to 30% higher.They didnt have the skilled labor to do this stuff, and they didnt have the desire to do it, Rosenberg said.Making Chinese imports go kaputWoldenbergs company in Vernon Hills, Illinois, has been in the family since 1916. It was started by his grandfather as a laboratory supply company and evolved over the years into Learning Resources.The company specializes in educational toys such as Botley: The Coding Robot and the brainteaser Kanoodle. It employs about 500 people 90% in the United States and makes about 2,400 products in China.Woldenberg is reeling from the size and suddenness of Trumps tariffs.The products I make in China, about 60% of what I do, become economically unviable overnight, he said. In an instant, snap of a finger, theyre kaput.He described Trumps call for factories to return to the United States as a joke.I have been looking for American manufacturers for a long time ... and I have come up with zero companies to partner with, he said.The tariffs, unless theyre reduced or eliminated, will wipe out thousands of small Chinese suppliers, Woldenberg predicted. That would spell disaster for companies like his that have installed expensive tools and molds in Chinese factories, he said. The stand to lose not only their manufacturing base but also possibly their tools, which could get caught up in bankruptcies in China.Learning Resources has about 10,000 molds, weighing collectively more than 5 million pounds, in China. Its not like you just bring in a canvas bag, zip it up and walk out, Woldenberg said. There is no idle manufacturing hub standing fully equipped, full of engineers and qualified people waiting for me to show up with 10,000 molds to make 2,000 products.___DInnocenzio reported from New York. ANNE DINNOCENZIO DInnocenzio writes about retail, trends, the consumer economy and hourly workers for The Associated Press. twitter mailto

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Wrexham's automatic promotion hopes took a hit on Saturday as they played out a goalless draw with Wigan Athletic.

Aggie Beever-Jones scored a dramatic injury-time winner to put Chelsea into the FA Cup final and keep their quadruple hopes alive this season.

Mother and brother cry at the coffin of Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Samoilovich, 18, of 1st Separate Assault Regiment of Dmytro Kotsiubailo, during farewell ceremony in Slavuta, Ukraine, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anna Donets)2025-04-12T14:43:07Z Russia and Ukraines top diplomats on Saturday used a high-level conference in Turkey to once again trade accusations of violating a tentative U.S.-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure, underscoring the challenges of negotiating an end to the 3-year-old war.The two foreign ministers spoke at separate events at the annual Antalya Diplomacy Forum, a day after U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met with with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss peace prospects. Ukraines European allies on Friday promised billions of dollars to help Kyiv keep fighting Russias invasion. While Moscow and Kyiv both agreed in principle last month to implement a limited, 30-day ceasefire, they issued conflicting statements soon after their separate talks with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia. They differed on the start time of halting strikes, and alleged near-immediate breaches by the other side. The Ukrainians have been attacking us from the very beginning, every passing day, maybe with two or three exceptions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, adding that Moscow would provide the U.S., Turkey and international bodies with a list of Kyivs attacks during the past three weeks.A representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry separately told state media Saturday that Moscow has been sharing intelligence with the U.S. regarding more than 60 supposed breaches of the deal by Kyiv. Trump says Russia has to get movingLavrov on Saturday insisted Russia had stuck to the terms of the deal. His Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, fiercely contested that claim, saying Russia had launched almost 70 missiles, over 2,200 (exploding) drones, and over 6,000 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine, mostly at civilians, since agreeing to the limited pause on strikes. This clearly shows to the world who wants peace and who wants war, he said.Russian forces hold the advantage in Ukraine, and Kyiv has warned Moscow is planning a fresh spring offensive to ramp up pressure on its foe and improve its negotiating position. Ukraine has endorsed a broader U.S. ceasefire proposal, but Russia has effectively blocked it by imposing far-reaching conditions. European governments have accused Putin of dragging his feet.Russia has to get moving on the road to ending the war, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on social media Friday. He said the war is terrible and senseless.Lavrov on Saturday reiterated that a prospective U.S.-backed agreement, also discussed in Saudi Arabia, to ensure safe navigation for commercial vessels in the Black Sea could not be implemented until restrictions are lifted on Russian access to shipping insurance, docking ports and international payment systems.Details of the prospective deal were not released, but it appeared to mark another attempt to ensure safe Black Sea shipping after a 2022 agreement that was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey but halted by Russia the following year. Ukraine reports death of F-16 pilotUkraines air force said a second F-16 fighter jet supplied by Western allies has been lost and its pilot, 26-year-old Pavlo Ivanov, killed. Ukraines General Staff said the F-16 crashed while repelling a Russian missile strike. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday offered condolences to Ivanovs family, saying, We are proud of our soldiers. We will give a strong and apt response. Ukraine said the first F-16 was shot down last August, after it intercepted three Russian missiles and a drone. Since last July, Ukraine has received multiple batches of the fighter jets from Denmark and the Netherlands, with U.S. approval. Their total number has not been disclosed.Meanwhile, Russian drones killed at least two civilians in Ukraines southern Kherson region on Saturday, according to local Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin. ___Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

The United States Hockey League on Saturday named Ethan Wyttenbach of the Sioux Falls Stampede the inaugural winner of the Gaudreau Award in honor of the late Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau.

The Celtics are filling their final roster spot, converting G League MVP JD Davison to a standard two-year NBA contract, his agent told ESPN.

The Los Angeles Angels have placed hard-throwing right-hander Ben Joyce on the 15-day injured list with inflammation in his throwing shoulder.

The United States Hockey League on Saturday named Ethan Wyttenbach of the Sioux Falls Stampede the inaugural winner of the Gaudreau Award in honor of the late Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau.

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Pep Guardiola has admitted that no player can replicate the "incredible" Kevin De Bruyne after the departing Manchester City midfielder starred in the 5-2 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday.

The Masters has raised its prize money by $1 million for this year, making the total purse $21 million with $4.2 million going to the winner.

The Rockies will debut their threads on April 18 against the Washington Nationals.

Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who is nearing the end of his 20-game suspension for a failed drug test, says he has a "lot of regret" but is hoping to "move forward" once his ban ends.

Carlos Sainz has scored only a point since joining Williams from Ferrari but team boss James Vowles says the Spaniard is already delivering beyond expectations and they are getting more than they paid for.

Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe has been hospitalised and will miss Sunday's game against Manchester United, the Premier League club have confirmed.

Ever want to know what the best soccer players in the world look like as action figures? We hop on the latest Artificial Intelligence social media trend.

This is a locator map for Sudan with its capital, Khartoum. (AP Photo)2025-04-12T17:19:01Z CAIRO (AP) Sudans notorious paramilitary group launched a two-day attack on famine-hit camps for displaced people that left more than 100 dead, including 20 children and nine aid workers, in the Darfur region, a U.N. official said Saturday.The Rapid Support Forces and allied militias launched an offensive on the Zamzam and Abu Shorouk camps and the nearby city of el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province, on Friday, said U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami.El-Fasher is under the control of the military, which has fought the RSF since Sudan descended into civil war two years ago, killing more than than 24,000 people, according to the United Nations, though activists say the number is likely far higher.The camps were attacked again on Saturday, Nkweta-Salami said in a statement. She said that nine aid workers were killed while operating one of the very few remaining health posts still operational in Zamzam camp. This represents yet another deadly and unacceptable escalation in a series of brutal attacks on displaced people and aid workers in Sudan since the onset of this conflict nearly two years ago, she said. Nkweta-Salami didnt identify the aid workers but Sudans Doctors Union said in a statement that six medical workers with the Relief International were killed when their hospital in Zamzam came under attack on Friday. They include Dr. Mahmoud Babaker Idris, a physician at the hospital, and Adam Babaker Abdallah, head of the group in the region, the union said.It blamed the RSF for this criminal and barbaric act. The offensive forced about 2,400 people to flee the camps and el-Fasher, according to the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees, a local group in Darfur.Zamzam and Abu Shouk shelter more than 700,000 people who have been forced to flee their homes across Darfur during past bouts of fighting in the region, Nkweta-Salami said. Late last month, the Sudanese military regained control over Khartoum, a major symbolic victory in the war. But the RSF still controls most of Darfur and some other areas.The two camps are among five areas in Sudan where famine was detected by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, IPC, a global hunger monitoring group. The war has created the worlds largest humanitarian crisis, with about 25 million people half of Sudans population facing extreme hunger. SAMY MAGDY Magdy is a Middle East reporter for The Associated Press, based in Cairo. He focuses on conflict, migration and human rights abuses. twitter facebook mailto

A view of the Jet Set nightclub days after its roof collapsed, killing more than 200 people, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)2025-04-12T16:51:10Z SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) Four people hospitalized after being rescued from the rubble of a roof collapse at a popular nightclub in the Dominican Republic died overnight, raising the death toll to 225, health officials said Saturday.Officials said 189 people were rescued alive from the rubble of the popular venue in the capital Santo Domingo. More than 200 were injured, with 15 of them still hospitalized, including five in critical condition.Early on Tuesday, the roof at the nightclub Jet Set collapsed during a merengue concert. Politicians, athletes and a fashion designer were among those enjoying live music when disaster struck.As of Saturday morning, people remained at a forensics institute waiting for the return of their loved ones bodies. Later in the day, health authorities said all 225 bodies had been returned to the victims families. Health minister Victor Attalah told journalists Saturday there was a delay in identifying victims because the majority of them had to be matched using biometric data. Victims identified so far include former Major League Baseball players Octavio Dotel and Tony Enrique Blanco Cabrera. Nelsy Cruz, the governor of the northwestern province of Montecristi whose brother is seven-time MLB All-Star Nelson Cruz also died. Officials have said it is too soon to determine why the roof fell, although prosecutors visited the scene on Thursday after rescue crews began packing up and removed heavy equipment. On Thursday, President Luis Abinader and First Lady Raquel Arbaje attended the burial of singer Rubby Prez in Santo Domingos National Theater. Prez had been performing on stage at the packed Jet Set club early Tuesday when dust began falling from the ceiling and, seconds later, the roof caved. Mourners clad in black and white streamed into the theater and some doubled over in tears as a recording of Prez singing the national anthem played.

Semi-automated offside technology has arrived in the Premier League, and it's all thanks to iPhones.

Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who is nearing the end of his 20-game suspension for a failed drug test, says he has a "lot of regret" but is hoping to "move forward" once his ban ends.

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott says his recovery from a season-ending hamstring injury is going well, adding "If I had to play a game today, I definitely could do that."

The Cardinals placed shortstop Masyn Winn on the 10-day injured list Saturday after he left Friday night's game against the Phillies with back spasms.

Oscar Piastri claimed a tighter-than-expected pole position for McLaren ahead of George Russell's Mercedes.

United States midfielder Weston McKennie is among 13 soccer players being investigated for illegal online betting in Italy, according to widespread media reports.

Four Atltico Madrid fan groups have said they will take legal action against UEFA over Julin lvarez's disallowed penalty in the Champions League.