Former South Alabama quarterback Gio Lopez, one of the top passers in the spring transfer portal, has committed to North Carolina, he announced on social media Thursday.

In this photo released by the Italian Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps on Thursday, April 17, 2025, rescuers reach for the smashed gondola of the Mt. Faito cablecar near Naples in southern Italy.2025-04-17T17:21:52Z MILAN (AP) A cable car carrying tourists south of Naples crashed to the ground Thursday after a cable snapped, killing at least four people and critically injuring one, officials said.The snapped cable brought both the upward and downward-going cable cars to a halt as they traversed Monte Faito in the town of Castellammare di Stabia. The upward cable car eventually crashed, causing the fatalities and injury, while eight tourists and an operator were evacuated from the downward cable car, Naples Prefect Michele de Bari said. The traction cable broke. The emergency brake downstream worked, but evidently not the one on the cabin that was entering the station,' said Castellammare Mayor Luigi Vicinanza.Italys alpine rescue, along with firefighters, police and civil protection services responded to the accident. The accident occurred just a week after the cable car, popular for its views of Mount Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples, reopened for the season. Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni expressed her condolences for the victims and their families and said she was in touch with rescuers. She was in Washington, where she met with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. was ejected from the New York Yankees' 6-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday night, then appeared to violate Major League Baseball's social media policy when he posted in-game criticism online.

Bayern believe they are in pole position to sign Bayer Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz. Transfer Talk has the latest.

by Audrey Dutton ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. Just weeks after creating a $50 million tax credit to help families pay for private school tuition and homeschooling, Idaho has shut down a program that helped tens of thousands of public school students pay for laptops, school supplies, tutoring and other educational expenses.The Republican leading the push to defund Idahos Empowering Parents grants said it had nothing to do with the partys decision to fund private schools. But the states most prominent conservative group, a strong supporter of the private school tax credit, drew the connection directly.The Idaho Freedom Foundation, on its website, proposed adding the $30 million that fueled Empowering Parents to the newly created tax credit, paying for an additional 6,000 private and homeschool students to join the 10,000 already expected to benefit from the program. The new voucher-style tax credits have major differences from the grants lawmakers killed.The tax credits are off-limits to public school students, while the grants went predominantly to this group. And theres limited state oversight on how the private education tax credits will be used, while the grants to public school families were only allowed to be spent with state-approved educational vendors.Rep. Soia Galaviz, a Democrat who works in a low-income public elementary school in Boise, condemned the plan to kill the grants in a speech to legislative colleagues.I have to go back to the families that I serve, the parents that I love, the kids that I teach, and say, You no longer can get that additional math tutoring that you need, she said, that the state is willing to support other programs for other groups of kids, but not you.When states steer public funds to private schools, well-off families benefit more than those in lower income brackets, as ProPublica has reported in Arizona. The programs are pitched as enabling school choice, but in reality, research has found the money tends to benefit families that have already chosen private schools.Idaho lawmakers passed such a program this year with the new tax credit, which some describe as a version of school vouchers that parents in other states spend on schools of their choosing.The credit allows private and homeschool families to reduce their tax bills by $5,000 per child $7,500 per student with disabilities or get that much money from the state if they owe no taxes. Lower-income families have priority, and theres no cap on how many credits each family can claim. The law says funds must go to traditional academic expenses like private school tuition or homeschool curricula and textbooks, plus a few other costs like transportation. But families dont have to provide proof of how they spent the money unless theyre audited.The Empowering Parents grant program that lawmakers repealed was open to students no matter where they learn, although state data shows at least 81% of the money went to public school students this academic year more than 24,000 of them. It offered up to $1,000 per student, with lower-income families getting first dibs and a family limit of $3,000.Idaho Gov. Brad Little created a similar program in 2020 called Strong Families, Strong Students with federal pandemic funds, to help families make the abrupt shift to remote learning. State lawmakers created the current program in 2022, also using one-time federal pandemic recovery money, and liked it so much they renewed it with ongoing state funding in 2023.Charlene Bradley used the grant this school year to buy a laptop for her daughter, a fifth grader in Nampa School District. Before the purchase, Bradleys daughter could use computers at school, but there was no way to do schoolwork at home, besides my cell phone which we did have to use sometimes, Bradley said in a Facebook message.Debra Whiteley used it for home internet and a printer for her 12-year-old daughter, who attends public school in north-central Idaho. Whiteleys daughter resisted doing projects that needed pictures or graphs. Now when she has a project she can make a tri fold display thats not all hand written and self drawn, which looking back on, I didnt have a clue she may have been embarrassed about, Whiteley said in a Facebook message.Annie Coltrin used it to get much needed tutoring for her daughter, a sophomore in an agricultural community in southern Idaho. The grant paid for Coltrins daughter to receive math tutoring in person twice a week, which took her grade from a low D to a B+.Such families were on the minds of education leaders like Jason Sevy when they advocated for preserving the Empowering Parents program this year.Sevy, who chairs a rural public school district board in southwestern Idaho and is the Idaho School Boards Associations president-elect, said families in his district used the Empowering Parents grants for backpacks and school supplies, or laptops they couldnt afford otherwise.Youre looking at families with five kids that were only making $55,000 a year. Having that little extra money made a big difference, Sevy said. But it also closed that gap for these kids to feel like they were going to be able to keep up with everybody else.Few families in Sevys district will be able to use the states new tuition tax credits for private education, he said. A tiny residential school is the only private school operating in Sevys remote county. The next-closest options require a drive to the neighboring county, and Sevy worries those schools wouldnt take English-language learners or children who need special education. (Unlike public schools, private schools can accept or reject students based on their own criteria.)This is the program that was able to help those groups of people, and theyre just letting it go away to free up money for private schools, Sevy said.The freshman legislator who sponsored the bill to end Empowering Parents is Sen. Camille Blaylock, a Republican from a small city west of Boise.Blaylocks stance is that the grants arent the proper role of government.Speaking on the Senate floor in March, Blaylock highlighted the fact that the vast majority of the Empowering Parents money went to electronics mostly computers, laptops and tablets.This program has drifted far from its original intent, Blaylock said. Its turning into a technology slush fund, and if we choose to continue funding it, we are no longer empowering parents. We are creating entitlements.In an interview, Blaylock denied any desire to divert public school money to private education and said she was unaware the Idaho Freedom Foundation took that unfortunate position.The last thing I want is for this to be a taking away from public schools to give to school choice, because that is not my intent at all, Blaylock said.She told the Senates education committee this year that her hope in ending the grants was to cut government spending by $30 million. But if the savings had to go somewhere, shed want it to benefit other public school programs, especially in a year when lawmakers created the $50 million tax credit for private and homeschooling.Regardless of how the $30 million in savings will be spent in the future, Blaylocks assertion that the grants werent supposed to help families buy computers goes against whats in the legislative record.Lawmakers pitched Empowering Parents three years ago as a way to help lower-income students be on equal footing with their peers, with one legislator arguing that tablets and computers are such a part of education now that without the ability of families to afford those devices, a students learning is substantially jeopardized.Republican Sen. Lori Den Hartog, opening debate on her bill to create Empowering Parents in 2022, said it was partly to address pandemic learning loss. But, she said, its also a recognition of the ongoing needs that students in our state have, and that there is a potential different avenue to provide resources to those students.First in the list of eligible expenses Den Hartog spelled out: computer hardware, internet access, other technology. Then came textbooks, school materials, tutoring and everything else. (Den Hartog, who voted to repeal the program this year, did not respond to a request for comment.)Killing the grants also went against the praise that Little, the states Republican governor, has showered on it. He has described the program as itself a form of school choice, touting how it helped low-income parents afford better education.The grants help families take charge of tools for their childrens education things like computers and software, instructional materials and tutoring, Little said in January 2023 when announcing his intent to make Empowering Parents permanent.He called the grants effective, popular and worthy of continued investment because they keep parents in the drivers seat of their childrens education, as it should be.In the months before Idaho lawmakers voted to kill the program, Little again cited Empowering Parents as a success story, a way to ensure Idaho families have the freedom and access to choose the best fit for their childs unique education and learning needs. He pointed out that the grants mainly went to public school students. He again touted it in his State of the State address in January, not as a temporary pandemic-era program but as our popular grant program to support students education outside of the classroom.Nonetheless, the Idaho House and Senate both voted to kill the grant program by wide margins, and Little signed the bill on April 14.Blaylock disagreed that the grants creators foresaw it would be used mostly for laptops and electronics. And, despite acknowledging state lawmakers decided to make it permanent, she disagrees that it was intended to be an ongoing program. She said public schools already get $36 million a year from the state to spend on technology, which they use to furnish computers students can take home, so families dont need state money to buy more.Little, in a letter explaining his decision to join lawmakers in killing the grants, said he was proud of the positive outcomes from the program. But, he wrote: Now that the pandemic is squarely in the rearview mirror and students have long been back in school, I agree with the Legislature that this program served its purpose.When looking back at how Empowering Parents was created, Sevy, the local school board chair, suspects it was a soft attempt to get the foot in the door toward vouchers, not purely an effort to meet the needs of all students.He remembers telling Den Hartog that the program was helping low-income families in his district. She was super-excited to hear that, Sevy said. Its like, OK! And here we are two years later, just getting rid of it.

Mourners carry white sacks covering the bodies of members of the Abu Al-Rous family, killed when an Israeli airstrike struck their displacement tent overnight, during their funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)2025-04-18T09:37:55Z DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) Israeli airstrikes across Gaza killed at least 17 people early Friday including children, hospital workers said, as the new U.S. ambassador to Israel made his first public appearance in Jerusalem. Among the dead were 10 people in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, including eight from the same house, according to the Indonesian Hospital, which received the bodies. In the southern city of Khan Younis, seven people were killed, one of them a pregnant woman, according to Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were brought. The strikes came a day after more than two dozen people died in Gaza as Israel ramps up attacks, pressuring Hamas to return the hostages and disarm. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Friday appeared at the Western Wall, the holiest Jewish prayer site in Jerusalems Old City. Huckabee inserted a prayer into the wall, which he said was handwritten by U.S. President Donald Trump. Those are his initials, D.T., said Huckabee while showing the note to the media. In his first act as ambassador, Huckabee said Trump told him to take his prayer and pray for the peace of Jerusalem, he said. Huckabee also said every effort was being made to bring the remaining hostages held by Hamas home. A one-time presidential hopeful, Huckabee has acknowledged his past support for Israels right to annex the West Bank and incorporate its Palestinian population into Israel but said it would not be his prerogative to carry out that policy. During his first term, Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital over Palestinian objections and moved the embassy from Tel Aviv. Palestinian seek the eastern part of the city that Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war as their future capital. Huckabees arrival comes at a pivotal time in the 18-month war, as international mediators including the U.S. are trying to get a broken ceasefire back on track. Israel is demanding that Hamas release more hostages at the start of any new ceasefire and ultimately agree to disarm and leave the territory. Israel has said it plans occupy large security zones inside Gaza. Khalil al-Hayya, head of Hamas negotiating delegation, said Thursday the group had rejected Israels latest proposal along those lines. He reiterated Hamas stance that it will return hostages only in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a lasting truce, as called for in the now-defunct ceasefire agreement reached in January. Hamas currently holds 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive. The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Most of the hostages have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.Israels offensive has since killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gazas Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The war has destroyed vast parts of Gaza and most of its food production capabilities. The war has displaced around 90% of the population, with hundreds of thousands of people living in tent camps and bombed-out buildings. On Thursday, aid groups raised the alarm over Israels blockade of of Gaza, where it has barred entry of all food and other goods for more than six weeks. Thousands of children have become malnourished, and most people are barely eating one meal a day as stocks dwindle, the United Nations said.Israels Defense Minister says the blockade is one of the central pressure tactics against Hamas, which Israel accuses of siphoning off aid to maintain its rule. Aid workers deny there is significant diversion of aid, saying the U.N. closely monitors distribution. Rights groups have called it a starvation tactic.-Khaled reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.___Follow APs war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center, and Germany's Political Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Gunter Sautter, right, attend a meeting on Ukraine and its security, in Paris Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Julien de Rosa, Pool via AP)2025-04-18T07:29:24Z PARIS (AP) U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the U.S. may move on from trying to secure a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there is no progress in the coming days, after months of efforts have failed to bring an end to the fighting.He spoke in Paris after landmark talks among U.S., Ukrainian and European officials produced outlines for steps toward peace and appeared to make some long-awaited progress. A new meeting is expected next week in London, and Rubio suggested that could be decisive in determining whether the Trump administration continues its involvement.We are now reaching a point where we need to decide whether this is even possible or not, Rubio told reporters upon departure. Because if its not, then I think were just going to move on.Its not our war, Rubio said. We have other priorities to focus on. He said the U.S. administration wants to decide in a matter of days. His comments came as the U.S. and Ukraine are nearing a long-delayed deal granting the U.S. access to Ukraines vast mineral resources, which has been intertwined with President Donald Trumps peace push. Trump said Thursday, We have a minerals deal,' and Ukraines economy minister said Friday that the two countries signed a memorandum of intent ahead of a possible fuller agreement later. The framework of the mineral deal had stalled in February following a contentious Oval Office meeting between Trump, U.S. Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Negotiations have since resumed. Despite apparent growing U.S. impatience with the peace efforts, Rubio called Thursdays Paris talks constructive. Nobody rejected anything, nobody got up from the table or walked away.Rubio didnt single out Russia or Ukraine as blocking peace efforts. He said he informed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about the outlines that emerged when they spoke after the Paris talks, but wouldnt say how Lavrov reacted. After weeks of tensions with European allies, Rubio said the European negotiators proved helpful. The UK and France and Germany can help us move the ball on this.The talks came as European concerns grow about Trumps readiness to draw closer to Russia. They marked the first time since Trumps inauguration that top American, Ukrainian and European officials met to discuss an end to the war, which has posed the biggest security challenge to Europe since World War II.The meetings addressed security guarantees for Ukraine in the future, but Rubio wouldnt discuss any possible U.S. role in that. Some kind of U.S. support for Ukraine is seen as crucial to ensuring that Russia would not attack again after a peace deal is reached.Rubio and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff have helped lead U.S. efforts to seek peace, and Witkoff has met three times with Putin, Rubio said. Several rounds of negotiations have been held in Saudi Arabia. Moscow has effectively refused to accept a comprehensive ceasefire that Trump has pushed and Ukraine has endorsed. Russia has made it conditional on a halt in Ukraines mobilization efforts and Western arms supplies, which are demands rejected by Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia kept up a series of deadly strikes on Ukrainian cities, according to officials there, wounding scores of civilians days after missiles killed at least 34 during Palm Sunday celebrations in the northern city of Sumy. One person died and over 60 others were hurt as Russia hit Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, early in the day, Ukraines Emergency Service reported. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said cluster munitions struck a densely populated neighborhood four times. Russian drones also targeted a bakery in Sumy, less than a week after the deadly Palm Sunday strike there, killing a customer and wounding an employee, the regional prosecutors office said. Photos released by the agency showed rows of Easter cakes stacked inside a devastated building, covered in thick dust, as a huge hole gaped in the wall behind them and rubble piled up on the floor. Last Sundays strike on Sumy, resulting in mass casualties, was the second large-scale missile attack to claim civilian lives in just over a week. Some 20 people, including nine children, died on April 4 as missiles struck Zelenskyys hometown of Kryvyi Rih. The U.S.-Ukraine minerals agreement, which Ukrainian Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said she signed with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, is expected to pave the way for significant investments, infrastructure modernization, and long-term cooperation.Arhirova reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Illia Novikov in Kyiv and Joanna Kozlowska in London contributed to this report. HANNA ARHIROVA Arhirova is an Associated Press reporter covering Ukraine. She is based in Kyiv. twitter instagram mailto

Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk have committed their futures to Liverpool, but how did the club convince them to stay? And will that persuade Trent Alexander-Arnold to snub Real Madrid?

Man United almost lost to 10-man Lyon before waging a thrilling comeback. The flaws make United's Europa League run what it is.

by Alec MacGillis ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. More children ages 1 to 4 die of drowning than any other cause of death. Nearly a quarter of adults received mental health treatment in 2023, an increase of 3.4 million from the prior year. The number of migrants from Mexico and northern Central American countries stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol was surpassed in 2022 by the number of migrants from other nations.We know these things because the federal government collects, organizes and shares the data behind them. Every year, year after year, workers in agencies that many of us have never heard of have been amassing the statistics that undergird decision-making at all levels of government and inform the judgments of business leaders, school administrators and medical providers nationwide.The survival of that data is now in doubt, as a result of the Department of Government Efficiencys comprehensive assault on the federal bureaucracy. Reaction to those cuts has focused understandably on the hundreds of thousands of civil servants who have lost their jobs or are on the verge of doing so and the harm that millions of people could suffer as a result of the shuttering of aid programs. Overlooked amid the turmoil is the fact that many of DOGEs cuts have been targeted at a very specific aspect of the federal government: its collection and sharing of data. In agency after agency, the government is losing its capacity to measure how American society is functioning, making it much harder for elected officials or others to gauge the nature and scale of the problems we are facing and the effectiveness of solutions being deployed against them.The data collection efforts that have been shut down or are at risk of being curtailed are staggering in their breadth. In some cases, datasets from past years now sit orphaned, their caretakers banished and their future uncertain; in others, past data has vanished for the time being, and its unclear if and when it will reappear. Here are just a few examples:The Department of Health and Human Services, now led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., laid off the 17-person team in charge of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which for more than five decades has tracked trends in substance abuse and mental health disorders. The departments Administration for Children and Families is weeks behind on the annual update of the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, the nationwide database of child welfare cases, after layoffs effectively wiped out the team that compiles that information. And the department has placed on leave the team that oversees the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, a collection of survey responses from women before and after giving birth that has become a crucial tool in trying to address the countrys disconcertingly high rate of maternal mortality.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has eviscerated divisions that oversee the WISQARS database on accidental deaths and injuries everything from fatal shootings to poisonings to car accidents and the team that maintains AtlasPlus, an interactive tool for tracking HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to stop requiring oil refineries, power plants and other industrial facilities to measure and report their greenhouse-gas emissions, as they have done since 2010, making it difficult to know whether any of the policies meant to slow climate change and reduce disaster are effective. The EPA has also taken down EJScreen, a mapping tool on its website that allowed people to see how much industrial pollution occurs in their community and how that compares with other places or previous years.The Office of Homeland Security Statistics has yet to update its monthly tallies on deportations and other indices of immigration enforcement, making it difficult to judge President Donald Trumps triumphant claims of a crackdown; the last available numbers are from November 2024, in the final months of President Joe Bidens tenure. (While we have submitted reports and data files for clearance, the reporting and data file posting are delayed while they are under the new administrations review, Jim Scheye, director of operations and reporting in the statistics unit, told ProPublica.)And, in a particularly concrete example of ceasing to measure, deep cutbacks at the National Weather Service are forcing it to reduce weather balloon launches, which gather a vast repository of second-by-second data on everything from temperature to humidity to atmospheric pressure in order to improve forecasting.Looked at one way, the war on measurement has an obvious potential motivation: making it harder for critics to gauge fallout resulting from Trump administration layoffs, deregulation or other shifts in policy. In some cases, the data now being jettisoned is geared around concepts or presumptions that the administration fundamentally rejects: EJScreen, for instance, stands for environmental justice the effort to ensure that communities dont suffer disproportionately from pollution and other environmental harms. (An EPA spokesperson said the agency is working to diligently implement President Trumps executive orders, including the Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing. The spokesperson added: The EPA will continue to uphold its mission to protect human health and the environment in Trumps second term.) The White House press office did not respond to a request for comment.Laura Lindberg, a Rutgers public health professor, lamented the threatened pregnancy-risk data at the annual conference of the Population Association of America in Washington last week. In an interview, she said the administrations cancellation of data collection efforts reminded her of recent actions at the state level, such as Floridas withdrawal in 2022 from the CDCs Youth Risk Behavior Survey after the state passed its law discouraging classroom discussion of sexual orientation. (The states education secretary said the survey was inflammatory and sexualized.) Discontinuing the survey made it harder to discern whether the law had adverse mental health effects among Florida teens. States have taken on policies that would harm people and then are saying, We dont want to collect data about the impact of the policies, Lindbergsaid. Burying your head in the sand is not going to be a way to keep the country healthy. (HHS did not respond to a request for comment.)Making the halt on data gathering more confounding, though, is the fact that, in some areas, the information at risk of being lost has been buttressing some of the administrations own claims. For instance, Trump and Vice President JD Vance have repeatedly cited, as an argument for tougher border enforcement, the past decades surge in fentanyl addiction a trend that has been definitively captured by the national drug use survey that is now imperiled. That surveys mental health components have also undergirded research on the threat being posed to the nations young people by smartphones and social media, which many conservatives have taken up as a cudgel against Big Tech.Or take education. The administration and its conservative allies have been able to argue that Democratic-led states kept schools closed too long during the pandemic because there was nationwide data the National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka the Nations Report Card that showed greater drops in student achievement in districts that stayed closed longer. But now NAEP is likely to be reduced in scope as part of crippling layoffs at the Department of Educations National Center for Education Statistics, which has been slashed from nearly 100 employees to only three, casting into doubt the future not only of NAEP but also of a wide array of long-running longitudinal evaluations and the departments detailed tallies of nationwide K-12 and higher education enrollment. The department did not respond to a request for comment but released a statement on Thursday saying the next round of NAEP assessments would still be held next year.Dan Goldhaber, an education researcher at the University of Washington, cast the self- defeating nature of the administrations war on educational assessment in blunt terms: The irony here is that if you look at some of the statements around the Department of Education, its, Weve invested X billion in the department and yet achievement has fallen off a cliff. But the only reason we know that is because of the NAEP data collection effort!Shelly Burns, a mathematical statistician who worked at NCES for about 35 years before her entire team was laid off in March, made a similar point about falling student achievement. How does the country know that? They know it because we collected it. And we didnt spin it. We didnt say, Biden is president, so lets make it look good, she said. Their new idea about how to make education great again how will you know if it worked if you dont have independent data collection?Reality has a well-known liberal bias, Stephen Colbert liked to quip, and there have been plenty of liberal commentators who have, over the years, taken that drollery at face value, suggesting that the numbers all point one way in the nations political debates. In fact, in plenty of areas, they dont.Its worth noting that Project 2025s lengthy blueprint for the Trump administration makes no explicit recommendation to undo the governments data-collection efforts. The blueprint is chock full of references to data-based decision-making, and in some areas, such as immigration enforcement, it urges the next administration to collect and share more data than its predecessors had.But when an administration is making such a concerted effort to stifle assessments of government and society at large, it is hard not to conclude that it lacks confidence in the efficacy of its current national overhaul. As one dataset after another falls by the wayside, the nations policymakers are losing their ability to make evidence-based decisions, and the public is losing the ability to hold them accountable for their results. Even if a future administration seeks to resurrect some of the curtailed efforts, the 2025-29 hiatus will make trends harder to identify and understand.Who knows if the country will be able to rebuild that measurement capacity in the future. For now, the loss is incalculable. Jesse Coburn, Eli Hager, Abrahm Lustgarten, Mark Olalde, Jennifer Smith Richards and Lisa Song contributed reporting.

The likeness of George Washington is seen on a U.S. one dollar bill, March 13, 2023, in Marple Township, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)2025-04-18T10:00:07Z NEW YORK (AP) Among the threats tariffs pose to the U.S. economy, none may be as strange as the sell-off in the dollar.Currencies rise and fall all the time because of inflation fears, central bank moves and other factors. But economists worry that the recent drop in the dollar is so dramatic that it reflects something more ominous as President Donald Trump tries to reshape global trade: a loss of confidence in the U.S. The dollars dominance in cross-border trade and as a safe haven has been nurtured by administrations of both parties for decades because it helps keep U.S. borrowing costs down and allows Washington to project power abroad enormous advantages that could possibly disappear if faith in the U.S. was damaged.Global trust and reliance on the dollar was built up over a half century or more, says University of California, Berkeley, economist Barry Eichengreen. But it can be lost in the blink of an eye. Since mid-January, the dollar has fallen 9% against a basket of currencies, a rare and steep decline, to its lowest level in three years. Many investors spooked by Trump dont think the dollar will be pushed quickly from its position as the worlds reserve currency, instead expecting more of a slow decline. But even that is scary enough, given the benefits that would be lost. With much of worlds goods exchanged in dollars, demand for the currency has stayed strong even as the U.S. has doubled federal debt in a dozen years and does other things that would normally send investors fleeing. That has allowed the U.S. government, consumers and businesses to borrow at unnaturally low rates, which has helped speed economic growth and lift standards of living. Dollar dominance also allows the U.S. to push around other countries like Venezuela, Iran and Russia by locking them out of a currency they need to buy and sell with others. Now that exorbitant privilege, as economists call it, is suddenly at risk.The safe haven properties of the dollar are being eroded, said Deutsch Bank in a note to clients earlier this month warning of a confidence crisis. Added a more circumspect report by Capital Economics, It is no longer hyperbole to say that the dollars reserve status and broader dominant role is at least somewhat in question.Traditionally, the dollar would strengthen as tariffs sink demand for foreign products.But the dollar not only failed to strengthen this time, it fell, puzzling economists and hurting consumers. The dollar lost more than 5% against the euro and pound, and 6% against the yen since early April.As any American traveler abroad knows, you can buy more with a stronger dollar and less with a weaker one. Now the price of French wine and South Korean electronics and a host of other imports could cost more not only due to tariffs but a weaker currency, too. And any loss of safe-haven status could hit U.S. consumers in another way: Higher rates for mortgages and car financing deals as lenders demand more interest for the added risk. More worrisome is possible higher interest rates on the ballooning U.S. federal debt, which is already at a risky 120% of U.S. annual economic output.Most countries with that debt to GDP would cause a major crisis and the only reason we get away with it is that the world needs dollars to trade with, says Benn Steil, an economist at the Council on Foreign Relations. At some point people are going to look seriously at alternatives to the dollar. They already have, with a little help from a U.S. economic rival.China has been striking yuan-only trading deals with Brazil for agricultural products, Russia for oil and South Korea for other goods for years. It has also been making loans in yuan to central banks desperate for cash in Argentina, Pakistan and other countries, replacing the dollar as the emergency funder of last resort. Another possible U.S. alternative in future years if their market grows: cryptocurrencies.Said BlackRock Chairman Larry Fink in his annual shareholder letter about dollar dominance, If deficits keep ballooning, America risks losing that position to digital assets like Bitcoin. Not everyone is convinced that a big reason the dollar is falling is because of lost faith in the U.S.Steve Ricchiuto, an economist at Mizuho Financial, says dollar weakness reflects anticipation of higher inflation due to tariffs. But even if investors arent as comfortable holding dollars, he says, they really dont have much of a choice. No other currency or other asset, like yuan or bitcoin or gold, is vast enough to handle all the demand.The U.S. will lose the reserve currency when there is someone out there to take it away, Ricchiuto says. Right now there isnt an alternative.Maybe so, but Trump is testing the limits.Its not just the tariffs, but the erratic way hes rolled them out. The unpredictability makes the U.S. seem less stable, less reliable, and a less safe place for their money. There are also questions about his logic justifying the policy. Trump says the U.S. needs tariffs to drive down its trade deficits with other countries. But most economists believe those deficits, which measure trade in goods, not services, are a bad measure of whether a country is ripping off America, as Trump puts it.Trump has also repeatedly threatened to chip away at the independence of the Federal Reserve, raising fears that he will force interest rates lower to boost the economy even if doing so risks stoking runaway inflation. That is a sure fire way to get people to flee the dollar. After Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that he would wait to make any rate moves, Trump blasted him, saying Powells termination cannot come fast enough!Economists critical of Trumps April 2 tariff announcement recall another event, the Suez Crisis of 1956, that broke the back of the British pound. The military attack on Egypt was poorly planned and badly executed and exposed British political incompetence that sank trust in the country. The pound fell sharply, and its centuries-long position as the dominant trading and reserve currency crumbled.Berkeleys Eichengreen says Liberation Day, as Trump called it, could be remembered as a similar turning point if the president isnt careful.This is the first step down a slippery slope where international confidence in the U.S. dollar is lost. BERNARD CONDON Condon is an Associated Press investigative reporter covering breaking news. He has written about the Maui fire, the Afghanistan withdrawal, gun laws, Chinese loans in Africa and Trumps business. twitter facebook mailto

People walk and drive along Santa Fe County Road 98 to get to the Santuario de Chimayo during a Good Friday pilgrimage, Friday, April 7, 2023. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, file)2025-04-18T04:10:58Z SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) A unique Holy Week tradition is drawing thousands of Catholic pilgrims to a small adobe church in the hills of northern New Mexico, in a journey on foot through desert badlands to reach a spiritual wellspring.For generations, people of the Upper Rio Grande Valley and beyond have walked to reach El Santuario de Chimay to commemorate Good Friday.Pilgrims, some walking for days, were on track to arrive Friday amid a forecast of cool temperatures and sprinkles of rain. Some travelers are lured by an indoor well of dirt believed to have curative powers. Throughout the year, they leave behind crutches, braces and canes in acts of prayer for infirm children and others, and as evidence that miracles happen.Easter week visitors file through an adobe archway and narrow indoor passages to find a crucified Nuestro Seor de Esquipulas at the main altar. According to local lore, the crucifix was found on the site in the early 1800s, a continent away from its analog at a basilica in the Guatemalan town of Esquipulas. A spiritual placeChimay, known for its artisan weavings and chile crops, rests high above the Rio Grande Valley and opposite the national defense laboratory at Los Alamos that sprang up in the race to develop the first atomic weapon.The iconic adobe church at Chimay was cast from local mud at the sunset of Spanish rule in the Americas in the early 1800s, on a site already held sacred by Native Americans.Set amid narrow streets, curio shops and brooks that flow quickly in spring, El Santuario de Chimay has been designated as a National Historic Landmark that includes examples of 19th century Hispanic folk art, religious frescoes and saints carved from wood known as bultos.One votive room is filled with notes of thanks from those who say they had ailments cured.A separate chapel is dedicated to the Santo Nio de Atocha, a patron saint of children, travelers and those seeking liberation and a fitting figure of devotion for Chimay pilgrims on the go. Hundreds of childrens shoes have been left in a prayer room there by the faithful in tribute to the holy child who wears out footwear on miraculous errands. There are even tiny boots tacked to the ceiling.Pueblo people who inhabited the Chimay area long before Spanish settlers believed healing spirits could be found in the form of hot springs. Those springs ultimately dried up, leaving behind earth attributed with healing powers.A way of lifePhotographer Miguel Gandert grew up in the Espaola valley below Chimay and made the pilgrimage as a boy with his parents.Everybody went to Chimay. You didnt have to be Catholic, said Gandert, who was among those who photographed the 1996 pilgrimage through a federal grant. People just went there because it was a powerful, spiritual place.Scenes from that pilgrimage on display at the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe include children eating snow cones to keep cool, men shouldering large wooden crosses, infants swaddled in blankets, bikers in leather and weary pedestrians resting on highway guardrails to smoke. A generation later, Good Friday pilgrims still haul crosses on the road to Chimay, as families leave behind cars, push strollers and allow time for older hikers. Throngs of visitors often wait hours for a turn to file into the Santuario de Chimay to commemorate the crucifixion.Its just one of hundreds of adobe churches anchoring a uniquely New Mexican way of life for their communities. Many are at risk of crumbling into the ground in disrepair as congregations and traditions fade.A journey on footPilgrims from nearby towns set out for Chimay in the predawn hours. Some have walked 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Santa Fe, while others traveled for days from Albuquerque and elsewhere.Vendors sell religious trinkets, coffee and treats. State transportation workers, law enforcement agencies and other volunteers are stationed along the roadway to ensure safety from oncoming traffic, the outdoor elements and exhaustion.Pilgrims traverse an arid landscape speckled with juniper and pion trees and cholla cactus that finally give way to lush cottonwood trees and green pastures on the final descent into Chimay. The magnitude of the religious pilgrimage has few if any rivals in the U.S. Many participants say their thoughts dwell not only on Jesus Christ but on the suffering of family, friends and neighbors with prayers for relief.___Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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Visitors view the frescoes at the South Solon Meeting House, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Solon, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)2025-04-18T04:15:19Z SOLON, Maine (AP) From the outside, it looks like any other New England church building: a boxy, white structure with a single steeple surrounded by an old stone wall, set against rolling hills and pine forest.Inside, though, the South Solon Meeting House has a secret unknown even to some who drive through the tiny Maine town every day. The interior of the building is covered in 70-year-old fresco murals that encourage some in the states art community to describe it as Maines Sistine Chapel.The murals were painted by artists in the 1950s and, while they have long been appreciated by visitors, the recent creation of a website dedicated to them by students at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, has generated new interest in the paintings.Vronique Plesch, a Colby professor of art, hopes the building inspires more appreciation of frescoes. I fell in love with the place, because I have studies frescoes all my life, said Plesch, who is a member of the board of the historical society that cares for the meeting house. She added that the paintings should stay in public places and not be in private institutions. The meeting house was built in 1842 and hosted church services until the 1940s, though there were periods of closure, such as times of war. A decade later, Margaret Day Blake found the building in a state of disuse and the former student at the nearby Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture put out a call for young artists to paint frescoes under the schools supervision in 1951. The artists were given creative freedom and told there would be no limits to subject matter, but that Biblical scenes would offer rich and suitable imagery. The interior was covered in such scenes from 1952 to 1956 and the walls remain adorned with frescoes, including one that references Leonardo da Vincis The Last Supper.Another fresco depicts the binding of Isaac, in which a hooded Abraham prepares to sacrifice his son on Gods orders. The Great Flood is depicted as it was by Michelangelo at the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. Two of the 13 artists Sigmund Abeles of New York City and Sidney Hurwitz of Newton, Massachusetts both in their 90s, are still living. Both spoke fondly about their time at the meeting house.We would go out there and paint and then take a lunch break in the cemetery behind the building. It was a very idyllic time, Hurwitz said. I very much enjoyed it.Today, the meeting house, which is open to the public without locks on its doors, serves as a community gathering and performance space. Many of its old features, including box pews made for smaller people of a different time, are still intact.Abeles recalled painting the scene of Jacob wrestling with the angel from the Book of Genesis.Its a very, very special place, and it was a unique experience to work on the frescoes, Abeles said.On a recent Sunday morning, Plesch gave a lecture at the meeting house before a group of members of the Maine Art Education Association as part of the groups spring conference. Long ago, attendants of the building might have been preparing for an Easter service, but on this day it was full of teachers fascinated by the frescoes. Suzanne Goulet, an art teacher at a nearby high school, said she was previously aware of the frescoes and confessed she had peaked into the windows of the old building, adding that its great the paintings are still inspiring art lovers decades later.The inspiration is that we bring it back to our students, Goulet said. PATRICK WHITTLE Whittle is an Associated Press reporter based in Portland, Maine. He focuses on the environment and oceans. twitter mailto

This combo shows Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, pictured in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025 and Steve Witkoff, right, White House special envoy, pictured in Washington, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photos Stringer, Mark Schiefelbein)2025-04-18T08:32:23Z DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) As far as biographies go, the two men in charge of the delicate negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehrans rapidly advancing nuclear program couldnt be more different. On the American side, billionaire real estate magnate Steve Witkoff leads the effort by President Donald Trumps administration to restrict Tehrans atomic program, which they fear could allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon. The Bronx-born developer finds himself tapped by Trump to deliver on the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas war as well two conflicts that show no signs of stopping. Representing Iran is Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who like many of his generation is a veteran of the bloody Iran-Iraq war. He rose through the ranks of Irans diplomatic corps and served as a trusted negotiator during the talks that led to Irans 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Whether the two men find common ground in the high-stakes negotiations, with a second round due to take place Saturday in Rome, could mean success or failure in the talks. At risk is a possible American or Israeli military strike on Irans nuclear sites, or the Iranians following through on their threats to pursue an atomic weapon. Abbas Araghchi, 62Arriving in Tokyo as Irans new ambassador in 2008, Araghchi received the equivalent of a diplomatic rave review from the U.S. Embassy of all places.Araghchi is a young, personable, polished and accomplished diplomat. ... Anyone with a limited understanding of the facts would walk away after hearing him with the idea that Iran has bent over backwards and tried everything possible to please the West without result, a March 2008 cable on Araghchi released by WikiLeaks reads. Even when he expressed Irans willingness to defy the international community his message was delivered evenly and in a rational tone. He exudes an air of understated yet passionate belief in the position he is arguing. The low-key style has been a trademark of Araghchi, who has carefully walked the line between hard-liners and reformists within Irans theocracy. It starkly contrasts with the more emotional style of then-Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who reached the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and struck a close relationship with then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Araghchi, who handled some negotiations for the deal, remarked on the magnitude of their work the closer the deal came to fruition, describing the accord as one of the most important documents in Irans history.Two and a half years of intense negotiations had reached their nerve-wracking final moments, Araghchi wrote in a portion of A Sealed Secret: The JCPOA: A Great Effort for the Rights, Security and Development of Iran, a book in Farsi on the talks. Our nightly sleep was reduced to about one hour. Hundreds of millions of people around the world were watching, and 80 million Iranians were anxious and waiting.Born in Isfahan into a wealthy, religious merchant family, Araghchi bears the the honorific seyed, marking him as a direct descendant of Islams Prophet Muhammad. He was a teenager when the 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew the shah and installed the countrys theocracy. Araghchi joined the Revolutionary Guard and fought in the 1980-88 war against Iraq, though details about his service arent publicly known. The Guard then was not the massive organization it is today, a paramilitary arm of Iran overseeing its ballistic missile arsenal with deep interests in the countrys economy. While broadly avoiding controversy, politics have affected his career in the past. Under hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Araghchi found himself posted to Japan in the first place as part of a power struggle within the government over nuclear negotiations at the time.Put Araghchi aside, Mr. Ahmadinejad had told Irans foreign minister at the time, Araghchi recounted in Iran-Taishi: Memoirs of Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Ambassador of Iran to Japan, a memoir of his time in Tokyo. Not only from the negotiators team but also from the position of deputy foreign minister in charge of international affairs. Steve Witkoff, 68Speaking before the Republican National Convention in July 2024, Witkoff found himself fully catapulted from the world of real estate into politics. But it was talking about his son Andrew, who died in 2011, that humanized him to delegates.When I lost my boy Andrew to an opioid overdose, the pain was unbearable, Witkoff told the thousands there. But as usual, Donald Trump showed up.That long, close relationship with Trump includes being with the president on a Florida golf course when he was targeted in an assassination attempt in September. And the president since has entrusted Witkoff with some of the most-challenging situations he faces when it comes to global geopolitics. To Trump, whose whole identity as a businessman and politician has revolved around making deals, Witkoff represents someone he can understand. Forbes estimates Witkoffs wealth at around $2 billion, made through his Witkoff Group, which has developed apartment buildings, golf courses and hotels in the U.S. and internationally. Hes also done business with Mideast sovereign wealth funds which often serve as direct vehicles of the regions autocratic rulers. After Trump won the election, Witkoff worked with the outgoing Biden administration to secure a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip in January. Witkoff, who is Jewish, worked on convincing Israel to agree to the terms. Israel is Irans archenemy in the Mideast and has threatened to destroy it repeatedly over the years.The ceasefire collapsed, however, on March 18 after Israel launched a wave of airstrikes that killed hundreds of Palestinians across Gaza. Both Israel and the U.S. blamed the renewed hostilities on Hamas refusal to release more hostages before negotiations on ending the war proceed which was not part of the ceasefire agreement.Then theres the high-level negotiations over Russias war on Ukraine. So far, that war has yet to end despite Trumps diplomatic campaign, particularly a series of talks held in Saudi Arabia. Witkoff has met Russian President Vladimir Putin himself as part of that push. Witkoff attended talks on the war in Ukraine with European allies just before the second round of negotiations with Iran.While successfully making it through the first round of negotiations with Araghchi and meeting him face to face Witkoff has faced the challenge of negotiating over Iran. He made a television appearance in which he suggested 3.67% enrichment for Iran could be something the countries could agree on. But thats exactly the terms set by the 2015 nuclear deal struck under U.S. President Barack Obama, from which Trump unilaterally withdrew America. Witkoff hours later issued a statement underlining something: A deal with Iran will only be completed if it is a Trump deal.Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program, Witkoff added. That immediately drew rounds of criticism from Iran, which long has maintained it should have access to enrichment. ___Vahdat reported from Tehran, Iran. Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this report.___The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.___Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/ JON GAMBRELL Gambrell is the news director for the Gulf and Iran for The Associated Press. He has reported from each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran and other locations across the world since joining the AP in 2006. twitter instagram mailto

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This article was produced in collaborationwith Court Watch, an independent outlet that unearths overlooked court records.Subscribe to them here.A judge in Nevada has ruled that tower dumpsthe law enforcement practice of grabbing vast troves of private personal data from cell towersis unconstitutional. The judge also ruled that the cops could, this one time, still use the evidence they obtained through this unconstitutional search.Cell towers record the location of phones near them about every seven seconds. When the cops request a tower dump, they ask a telecom for the numbers and personal information of every single phone connected to a tower during a set time period. Depending on the area, these tower dumps can return tens of thousands of numbers.Cops have been able to sift through this data to solve crimes. But tower dumps are also a massive privacy violation that flies in the face of the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unlawful search and seizure. When the cops get a tower dump theyre not just searching and seizing the data of a suspected criminal, theyre sifting through the information of everyone who was in the location.A Nevada man, Cory Spurlock, is facing charges related to dealing marijuana and a murder-for-hire scheme. Cops used a tower dump to connect his cellphone with the location of some of the crimes he is accused of. Spurlocks lawyers argued that the tower dump was an unconstitutional search and that the evidence obtained during it should not be. The cops got a warrant to conduct the tower dump but argued it wasnt technically a search and therefore wasnt subject to the Fourth Amendment.U.S. District Juste Miranda M. Du rejected this argument, but wouldnt suppress the evidence. The Court finds that a tower dump is a search and the warrant law enforcement used to get it is a general warrant forbidden under the Fourth Amendment, she said in a ruling filed on April 11. That said, because the Court appears to be the first court within the Ninth Circuit to reach this conclusion and the good faith exception otherwise applies, the Court will not order any evidence suppressed.Du argued that the officers acted in good faith when they filed the warrant and that they didnt know the search was unconstitutional when they conducted it. According to Du, the warrant wasnt unconstitutional when a judge issued it.Dus ruling is the first time the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled on the constitutionality of tower dumps, but this isnt the first time a federal judge has weighed in. One in Mississippi came to the same conclusion in February. A few weeks later, the Department of Justice appealed the ruling.Theres a decent chance that one of these cases will wind its way up to the Supreme Court and that SCOTUS will have to make a ruling about tower dumps. The last time the issue was in front of them, they kicked the can back to the lower courts.In 2018, the Supreme Court considered Carpenter v. United States, a case where the FBI used cell phone location data to investigate a series of robberies. The Court decided that law enforcement agencies violate the Fourth Amendment when they ask for cell phone location data without a warrant. But the ruling was narrow and the Court declined to rule on the issue of tower dumps.According to the court records for Spurlocks case, the tower dump that caught him captured the private data of 1,686 users. An expert who testified before the court about the dump noted that the wireless company users whose phones showed up in the tower dump data did not opt in to sharing their location with their wireless provider, and indeed, could not opt out from appearing in the type of records received in response to [the] warrant.

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Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., speaks to campaign workers, June 5, 1968, as his wife Ethel, left, and California campaign manager and speaker of the California Assembly, Jesse Unruh, look on, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. (AP Photo)2025-04-18T14:38:11Z WASHINGTON (AP) Approximately 10,000 pages of records related to the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were released Friday, continuing the disclosure of national secrets ordered by President Donald Trump.The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration posted roughly 229 files containing the pages to its public website. Many files related to the senators assassination had been previously released, but others had not been digitized and sat for decades in storage facilities maintained by the federal government.Nearly 60 years after the tragic assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the American people will, for the first time, have the opportunity to review the federal governments investigation thanks to the leadership of President Trump, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said in a statement. Gabbard also said the files release shine a long-overdue light on the truth.The release of the RFK files comes a month after unredacted files related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy were disclosed.Trump, a Republican, has championed in the name of transparency the release of documents related to high-profile assassinations and investigations. But hes also been deeply suspicious for years of the governments intelligence agencies, and his administrations release of once-hidden files opens the door for additional public scrutiny and questioning about the conclusions and operations of institutions such as the CIA and the FBI. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a son of the Democratic New York senator who now serves as the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, commended Trump and Gabbard for their courage and dogged efforts to release the files.Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government, the health secretary said in a statement.___AP writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers gives the annual State of the State address, Jan. 22, 2025, at the state Capitol in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)2025-04-18T14:26:58Z MADISON, Wis. (AP) The Democratic governor of Wisconsins creative use of his uniquely powerful veto can lock in a school funding increase for 400 years, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.The 4-3 ruling from the liberal-controlled court affirms the partial veto power of Wisconsin governors, which is the broadest of any state and has been used by both Republicans and Democrats to reshape spending bills passed by the Legislature.Wisconsin is the only state where governors can partially veto spending bills by striking words, numbers and punctuation to create new meaning or spending amounts. In most states, governors can only eliminate or reduce spending amounts.The courts four liberal justices ruled Friday that the state constitution allows the governor to strike digits to create a new year or to remove language to create a longer duration than the one approved by the Legislature. We are acutely aware that a 400-year modification is both significant and attention-grabbing, Justice Jill Karofsky wrote for the majority. However, our constitution does not limit the governors partial veto power based on how much or how little the partial vetoes change policy, even when that change is considerable. Justice Brian Hagedorn, writing for the three-justice conservative minority, said Wisconsin was now in a fantastical state of affairs that allows the governor to write new law through the use of his partial veto. One might scoff at the silliness of it all, but this is no laughing matter, Hagedorn wrote. The decision today cannot be justified under any reasonable reading of the Wisconsin Constitution.Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican legislative leaders did not immediately return messages seeking reaction.The ruling came in a case against Evers that was supported by the Republican-controlled Legislature. It is one of two lawsuits pending before the court dealing with vetoes by the governor. Republicans this year also introduced a constitutional amendment intended to curb veto powers. Everss partial veto in 2023 increased how much revenue K-12 public schools can raise per student by $325 a year until 2425. Evers took language that originally applied the $325 increase for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years and instead vetoed the 20 and the hyphen to make the end date 2425, more than four centuries from now.Evers told lawmakers at the time that his partial veto was intended to give school districts increases in funding in perpetuity.The Legislature, along with the states largest business lobbying group Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, argued that the court should strike down Evers partial veto and declare it unconstitutional. They argued that the Evers veto was barred under a 1990 constitutional amendment adopted by voters that removed the ability to strike individual letters to make new words known as the Vanna White veto, named the co-host of the game show Wheel of Fortune who flips letters to reveal word phrases.Finding otherwise would give governors unlimited power to alter numbers in a budget bill, they argued. But Evers countered that the Vanna White veto ban applies only to striking individual letters to create new words, not vetoing digits to create new numbers. Evers said that he was simply using the longstanding partial veto process allowed under the law.Wisconsins partial veto power was created by a 1930 constitutional amendment, but its been weakened by voters over the years, including in reaction to vetoes made by former Republican and Democratic governors. The Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2020, then controlled by conservatives, undid three of Evers partial vetoes, but a majority of justices did not issue clear guidance on what was allowed.Reshaping state budgets through the partial veto is a longstanding act of gamesmanship in Wisconsin between the governor and Legislature, as lawmakers try to craft bills in a way that is largely immune from creative vetoes.Republican legislative leaders have said they were waiting for the ruling in this case and another pending case affecting the governors veto powers before taking up spending bills this session, including the two-year state budget. The other case centers on whether Evers properly used his partial veto power on a bill that detailed the plan for spending on new literacy programs. The Legislature contends that Evers partial veto was unconstitutional because the bill did not appropriate money. Evers contends the Legislature is trying to control how the executive branch spends money and limit his partial veto power.If the court sides with Evers in that case, it could greatly expand the kinds of bills subject to partial vetoes in the future. SCOTT BAUER Bauer is the APs Statehouse reporter covering politics and state government in Madison, Wisconsin. He also writes music reviews. twitter mailto

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Comic books are displayed in Gene Yang's home Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)2025-04-18T12:01:23Z Superman was born Kryptonian, raised Methodist and sketched into existence by two Jewish teens in 1930s Cleveland. Faith and morality are his DNA.There are no overt religious references in Superman comics. But over eight decades, hes been viewed as a divine entity, a savior figure his sacrifice Christ-like, his will to lead as strong as Moses parting the Red Sea, and his compassion akin to a bodhisattva, an enlightened being who guides Buddhists on the spiritual path.While scholars, comic book writers and fans alike are struck by the religious undertones in Superman comics, they say what separates Superman from the ever-growing pack of superheroes is his singular ability to bring hope in a hopeless world. James Gunns Superman sparks conversationAs fans celebrate Superman Day on Friday, marking the 87th anniversary of the original superheros birth, they are also eagerly anticipating James Gunns film Superman set for release on July 11. This version starring David Corenswet, the first Jewish actor to play Superman in a major film, promises a return to a version of a vulnerable Man of Steel who is rooted in values espoused by most faiths goodness, compassion and hope. The film has sparked a conversation about the place of Superman in the world and his personal code of ethics after several recent depictions of superheroes as anti-heroes. Corenswet said in a recent interview to Fandango that what captivates him about Superman is how he chooses to see good in people and not dwell on the negative. Why think about all the terrible things when we can focus on the good things we did today? he said. In the same interview, Gunn said his Superman will reinforce the characters core value of preserving life at any cost.He believes that the sanctity of life is of the utmost importance, Gunn said, noting the contrast with Supermans archnemesis Lex Luthor, who values scientific advancement over life. Symbol of hope and positive masculinityIt was precisely this benevolent, hopeful version of Superman that inspired Robert Revington, who teaches at the Vancouver School of Theology at the University of British Columbia, to go skydiving in a Superman costume on his 28th birthday. And yet Revington, a Christian, balks at Christ-like portrayals of his favorite superhero.I like Superman and I like Jesus, he said. I dont necessarily want to conflate the two. To me, the best depiction of Superman is as a symbol of hope.Revington also sees Supermans relevance today as an example of positive masculinity.Hes this version of strong, but compassionate masculinity, which several prominent figures dont necessarily embody, he said.Revington and many others beloved iteration of Superman appeared in All-Star Superman, a 12-issue series published by DC Comics between 2005 and 2008. The superhero saves a young person who is about to take their own life with the endearing message: You are stronger than you think you are. Grant Morrison, who wrote those comics, has said his view of Superman was shaped by Giovanni Pico della Mirandolas Oration On The Dignity of Man, which argues that humans ought to be more virtuous than angels. Superman speaks to our better angelsHumans, Morrison said in a 2008 interview, become what they imitate, which is why he made Superman an inspirational character.We live in the stories we tell ourselves, he told Newsarama, a comic book website, and can choose to be the astronaut or the gangster. The superhero or the super villain. The angel or the devil. Its entirely up to us.As a result, said Matthew Brake, founder and editor of Pop Culture and Theology, Superman is an idea that can inspire us to be our best selves.Supermans character is also shaped by his upbringing as a Kansas farm boy, raised by kindly parents Jonathan and Martha Kent. They are portrayed as Methodists in the comics.Superheroes, in recent decades, have received less-than-flattering treatment. In The Boys, a comic book turned Amazon Prime series, the Superman-like character, Homelander, is a government-sponsored hero whose smiling exterior conceals the heart of a sadist. Invincible, a comic turned television series from Robert Kincaid, author of the Walking Dead, features Omni-man, a Superman-like character who turns out to be an alien invader bent on conquest. The main character, Invincible, is Omni-mans son, and must choose between protecting the Earth or taking his fathers side.Dune, the famed sci-fi book adapted into blockbuster movies, warns of superheroes frailtyHeroes are painful, superheroes are a catastrophe, Dunes author Frank Herbert once wrote. The mistakes of superheroes involve too many of us in disaster.A relatable superheroBut Superman has cemented his place in pop culture not just as a beacon of hope, but also as a character relatable to many, regardless of race or ethnicity. Gene Luen Yang, who has written several Superman comics, is best known for his 2020 graphic novel Superman Smashes the Klan, a story about a Chinese American family moving to Metropolis in 1946 and facing discrimination from the Klan. The story follows the Lee family as they confront the white supremacist group with Supermans help. Yang sees his own experience as a Chinese American mirrored in Supermans story.The idea that you have to hide who you are or that youre caught in between cultures, he said. Superman has two names Kal-El, his Kryptonian name and Clark Kent, his American name. I had a Chinese name at home and an American name in school. So even though Im a practicing Catholic, I was more drawn to his Jewish roots because thats where I could relate more.Yang sees Superman as the original superhero who inspired almost religious fervor in the geekdom, featuring cosplayers who reenact scenes as a Christian might reenact biblical episodes around Christmas or Easter. A trip to a comic convention is like a pilgrimage where followers collect original art and all kinds of relics.Stories in pop culture also draw from older storytelling traditions, often rooted in religions.In some ways, you can think of religions as communities that are built around stories that last centuries, Yang said. The idea of self-sacrifice, the idea that you do good deeds without the desire to gain recognition. Thats the whole point of secret identities.While his Catholic faith is an important facet of his life, Yang said he never forced religion into his Superman comics.I write more about my life and my lived experience of faith, with the doubts and the ragged edges, he said.Characters like Superman, while not themselves religious, provide a portal to the sacred through the profane, said A. David Lewis, a Boston-based graphic novelist and comic book writer.I love that people take something from popular culture and find some level of spirituality or find a greater connection to some divine source through it, he said. But I would never say Superman is just of the Jewish or Christian people. Like some of the best narratives out there, Superman gives us access to something transcendent.Supermans strong Jewish rootsSamantha Baskind, professor of art history at Cleveland State University, is Jewish; she sees numerous parallels between Supermans story and the history of Jews. Supermans solitary flight from Krypton in a little spacecraft is reminiscent of how Moses mother placed him in a papyrus basket and left him on the Nile, seeing it has his best chance of survival.Some also compare Supermans backstory to the Kindertransport, she said, referring to a rescue program that transported nearly 10,000 children, mostly Jewish, from Nazi-controlled territories to Great Britain in 1938 and 1939.In Supermans Kryptonian name, Kal-El, chosen by his original Jewish creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the El in Hebrew connotes God. In DC Comics, Superman also frequents the Bottle City of Kandor, a Kryptonian city shrunk down and placed in a bottle, representing a fragmented piece of Kryptons history. Baskind said to her it is reminiscent of how diaspora Jews visit Israel.Theres also the thinking that Siegel and Shuster created Superman because they were these two, skinny, young Jewish men who couldnt go out and fight Hitler, but Superman fought Nazis on the cover of their comic books, she said. In some early editions, Superman held Hitler by his Nazi uniform as he begged for mercy. Appeal to the religiously unaffiliatedDespite the religious undertones, Supermans appeal to those growing religiously unaffiliated remains strong, said Dan Clanton, professor of religious studies at Doane University in Nebraska. He says its because Supermans story truly encapsulates American civil religion.This idea that there are practices and beliefs that provide all, regardless of religious identity, with a sense of being part of something bigger than themselves, he said.Neal Bailey, a contributor for over a decade to Superman Homepage and an atheist, believes Superman at his best is a philosophical pragmatist solving the most complex problems with the least amount of harm.He actually goes beyond religion to see our commonalities, he said. Superman wouldnt care about peoples religious beliefs. He would care more about whether they are living up to their human potential.___Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

We're excited to share audio and video of our panel at SXSW, where Jason, Sam, and our friend Brian Merchant of Blood in the Machine discuss how AI slop has taken over the internet, how it is a brute-force attack against the algorithms that control what we see on social media, and what we can do to fight back against it. Here's the panel: It's better with the video, because there are some visual aids, but we also released an audio-only version of this on our podcast feed: This was our first big live event, and we hope to do more in the future. If you're throwing a conference or event, hit us up! We had a wonderful time talking about AI spam, labor, and the future of the internet. Thanks to everyone who came out to meet and party with us. This panel was held at Speakeasy in Austin, Texas at SXSW on March 10, 2025. Thanks to our friends at Flipboard for giving us the space and to DeleteMe for sponsoring the event. SPONSORED This segment is a paid ad. If youre interested in advertising, let's talk.Your Personal Data May Not Be Hidden. Take Control with DeleteMe.Don't want just anyone finding your information on Search Engines? Remove your personal information from Data Brokers using DeleteMe. Use code 404MEDIA for 20% off Learn more And here's a bunch of photos, taken by Case Hartsfield:

Jake Paul will step back in the ring in early summer when he faces former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in a cruiserweight bout on June 28 in Anaheim.

Coates' shot was both a source of frustration for him and the reason for his sudden fame.

Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for the third day of jury selection in his retrial, Thursday, April 17, 2025 in New York. (Steven Hirsch /New York Post via AP, Pool)2025-04-18T16:25:27Z NEW YORK (AP) Harvey Weinstein has been moved to a New York City hospital after a judge approved the ailing ex-studio bosss request to stay there rather than in jail when hes not in court for his #MeToo retrial.Judge Paul Goetz late Thursday ordered that Weinstein be immediately relocated from the citys notorious Rikers Island jail complex to the prison ward at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan so he can receive necessary medical treatment.Weinsteins lawyers lobbied for the move as jury selection got underway this week. They argued in court papers that being locked up in a sometimes freezing jail cell was exacerbating the Oscar-winning producers health issues, which include chronic myeloid leukemia, diabetes and walking difficulties that require a wheelchair to get in and out of court.Goetzs order will remain in effect at least until next Thursday, when he is set to hold a hearing to discuss the matter further. A different judge, Curtis Farber, is presiding over Weinsteins retrial. The case will resume Monday with more jury selection after nine jurors were picked this week. In all, 12 jurors and six alternates need to be seated.Weinstein is being tried again on rape and sexual assault charges after New Yorks highest court, the Court of Appeals, last year overturned his 2020 conviction and 23-year prison sentence and ordered a new trial, finding that improper rulings and prejudicial testimony tainted the original one. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and denies raping or sexually assaulting anyone.Weinstein has been back and forth numerous times to Bellevue in recent months for treatment of various maladies. At a pretrial hearing in January, he railed against his treatment at Rikers, telling Farber he wanted to get out of this hellhole as quickly as possible.Weinsteins lawyers filed a legal claim against New York City last November, alleging he was receiving substandard medical treatment in unhygienic conditions at Rikers. The claim, which seeks $5 million in damages, argues that Weinstein has been returned to Rikers each time before fully recovering at the hospital.The troubled jail complex has faced growing scrutiny for its mistreatment of detainees and dangerous conditions. Last year, a federal judge cleared the way for a possible federal takeover, finding the city had placed inmates in unconstitutional danger. MICHAEL R. SISAK Sisak is an Associated Press reporter covering law enforcement and courts in New York City, including former President Donald Trumps criminal and civil cases and problems plaguing the federal prison system. twitter mailto

A security officer works inside of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) building headquarters Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)2025-04-18T16:04:15Z WASHINGTON (AP) A federal judge who blocked President Donald Trumps administration from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ruled Friday that the bureau cant go forward immediately with plans to mass fire hundreds of employees.U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she is deeply concerned that Trump administration officials arent complying with her earlier order that maintains the bureaus existence until she rules on the merits of a lawsuit seeking to preserve it.During a hearing, Jackson said she will bar officials from carrying out any mass firings or cutting off employees access to bureau computer systems on Friday.Jackson scheduled a hearing on April 28 to hear testimony from officials who were working on the reduction in force, or RIF, procedures.Im willing to resolve it quickly, but Im not going to let this RIF go forward until I have, she said. Roughly 1,500 employees are slated to be cut, leaving around 200 people.Trump, a Republican, has sought to reshape the federal government, saying its rife with fraud, waste and abuse. Conservatives and businesses have often chafed at the bureaus oversight and investigations, and Trump adviser Elon Musk made it a top target of his Department of Government Efficiency.

The postseason Thunderdome is about to open its gate. Which team will emerge as the 2025 Stanley Cup champion?

The former boxing champ uses her brain injury to call for systemic changes to improve the health and education of fighters.

2025-04-18T17:51:55Z WASHINGTON (AP) The federal judiciary is warning that Congress is not providing enough money for judges security, at a time of escalating threats and chilling efforts at intimidation.More than five dozen judges handling lawsuits against the Trump administration are receiving enhanced online security screening that typically includes scrubbing their personal information from the internet, two federal judges appointed by Republican presidents wrote on behalf of the judiciary in a letter to congressional appropriators.President Donald Trump, senior aide Stephen Miller and billionaire Elon Musk have railed at judges who have blocked parts of Trumps agenda, threatening impeachment and launching personal attacks. Trumps call to impeach the judge who temporarily halted deportations using an 18th century wartime law prompted a rare quick response from Chief Justice John Roberts. Roughly 50 people have been charged with crimes in connection with the threats, U.S. Circuit Judge Amy J. St. Eve and U.S. District Robert J. Conrad Jr. said. Trump appointed St. Eve to the federal appeals court in Chicago during his first term. In extreme cases, the U.S. Marshals Service has been required to take extraordinary measures to ensure the safety of judges, St. Eve and Conrad wrote.Authorities have yet to make any arrests in hundreds of increasingly unsettling and unwanted pizza deliveries to the homes of judges and their children, U.S. District Judge Esther Salas said during an online forum on Tuesday. The most recent deliveries, this week, have been sent in the name of Salas late son, Daniel Anderl, who was shot dead at the family home by a disgruntled lawyer in 2020.The message is unmistakable, Salas said. I know where you live, I know where your kids live, and do you want end up like Judge Salas. Do you want to end up like her son? she said. Last month, a sister of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was the victim of a bomb threat in Charleston, South Carolina, police said. No bomb was found, police said.The judges letter was sent last week, but posted online Friday by the judiciary. It calls the current funding levels unsustainable, nearly $50 million less than what the courts requested just for security.

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss Palantir scoops, coping mechanisms, and feeling God in this Samsung television. JOSEPH: Im going to talk about how our Palantir leak story came about, Leaked: Palantirs Plan to Help ICE Deport People, because I think it shows the value of just hammering on a broader story, finding a way in, then getting more and more specifics on it.It really starts with Jasons story on April 9 called Inside a Powerful Database ICE Uses to Identify and Deport People. This was about ICEs tool called the Investigative Case Management (ICM) system. The tool was not new. It had been around for multiple years and other outlets had covered it. What was new was that we got to see actual parts of the database. This provided an opportunity for us to cover it in new, specific detail.

Cubs left-hander Justin Steele underwent elbow surgery on Friday, he announced on social media. A former All-Star, the Chicago ace was 3-1 in four starts this season.

The Buffs take the field without their biggest stars, Michigan has a new QB, and more spring storylines.

Nature, Published online: 18 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01252-3The off-the-charts saturated greenish hue called olo has been seen by only five study participants.

Chavez's best day are in his rearview mirror, but this matchup is a big step up in competition for Paul.

Eric Karabell looks into the crystal ball to tell fantasy baseball managers what might come to pass in the not-too-distant future.

Alexander Zverev was heckled by a spectator during Friday's Munich Open quarterfinal, and the top seed asked the chair umpire to eject the individual, who alluded to domestic abuse allegations against the German.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was taken to a hospital after an incident at a restaurant Tuesday but is now home and doing fine, a source confirmed to ESPN.

Kiley McDaniel ranks the best college starting pitchers by who he'd want to see in Omaha.

The Lakers have signed Rob Pelinka to a multiyear contract extension and added to his title by naming him president of basketball operations and general manager.

Easter signals springtime and provides an opportunity to gather with loved ones to celebrate. However, hosting the get-together – whether brunch, lunch or dinner – requires planning and preparation to ensure the event is enjoyable. From the guest list and menu to the decor and activities for the kiddos, consider these steps to get ready for Easter hosting duties.Make a Guest...

The Ardennes Offensive, commonly known as the “Battle of the Bulge,”  stands as the single bloodiest battle fought by the United States during World War II. Waged in the bitter cold of mid-December 1944, it took the Allies a month to secure victory. The cost was staggering: nearly 20,000 Americans were killed in action, close to 50,000 wounded and another 20,000 captured. In...