South Florida Local News

By GAVIN DORSEY

CHICAGO — Nico Hoerner had an RBI single and Justin Turner followed with a two-run double, all in the ninth inning, as the Chicago Cubs rallied to beat the Miami Marlins 5-4 on Tuesday night.

Kyle Stowers hit a solo homer in the second and Connor Norby went deep in the seventh for the Marlins. Javier Sanoja knocked in a run with a ground out and Jesus Sanchez added an RBI single for Miami, which carried a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth.

Chicago’s comeback started when Hoerner hit a line drive to center that cut the deficit to one run. Two pitches later, pinch-hitter Turner doubled into the left field corner, scoring Vidal Bruján and Hoerner.

Pete Crow-Armstrong and Carson Kelly each had two hits for Chicago. Crow-Armstrong hit his 11th homer in the third inning.

Chris Flexen (1-0) allowed one hit over the final two innings and earned his first victory.

Miami’s Jesus Tinoco (2-1) blew the save opportunity, allowing two hits, three runs — two earned — and a walk while recording just one out in the ninth.

Key moment

Turner’s line-drive two-RBI double into left field for the walk-off win.

Key stat

The Cubs struggled with runners in scoring position before taking advantage in the ninth inning. Chicago was 0 for 4 in the first eight innings, but 2 for 2 with runners on second or third in the ninth.

Up next

The Marlins will send LHP Ryan Weather (0-0) against Chicago RHP Jameson Taillon (2-2, 4.53) in the series final on Wednesday night.

General Daily Insight for May 14, 2025

Confidence can carry us far! The exuberant Sagittarius Moon dances into a trine with energetic Mars in Leo at 4:28 am EDT, encouraging us to put ourselves out there and pursue our goals. Being in a generally positive mood is likely to help us feel good physically, so this is a great opportunity to take care of tasks that require brute strength. It’s not the most thoughtful day, but that’s okay. We can’t just live in our heads — our bodies deserve this stimulation.

Aries

March 21 – April 19

Competition could provide the adventure you currently crave. As the curious Moon in your expansive 9th house goads athletic Mars in your 5th House of Play, you may wish that a task you’re engaged in was part of a bigger story. Maybe you can informally compete against someone else to be the best at it! If you’re not able to find a willing participant, trying to beat your own past performance is an option as well. Either way, build a narrative of growth.

Taurus

April 20 – May 20

A home improvement project could be a great outlet for your energy today. However, you don’t have to do the whole thing alone. As the intimate Moon in your sharing sector aligns with brawny Mars in your domestic zone, letting a loved one work by your side will give you an opportunity to bond. Even if you end up working more than talking, learning to trust each other doesn’t require elaborate speeches. Just being there when it counts is all it takes sometimes!

Gemini

May 21 – June 20

Your bold initiative can currently ensure that a necessary conversation takes place. As the gentle Moon in your partnership sector chats with courageous Mars in your communication zone, the other person will probably be willing to talk once you get things started. That said, they’re not likely to risk bringing up the challenging topic on their own. Let your companion know that they’re not in trouble, and keep that promise — don’t make the situation any more difficult than it needs to be.

Cancer

June 21 – July 22

Your longing to make more money can push you in a productive direction today. As the perceptive Moon in your grounded 6th house supports acquisitive Mars in your 2nd House of Resources, you’re equipped to sniff out opportunities that were already lurking in your surroundings. Whether you wind up selling excess possessions or taking on a side gig, you have options. The strategy you have a chance to discover has the potential to become a regular part of your routine going forward, so start looking!

Leo

July 23 – August 22

Asking for what you want in a creative way can soften any rough edges you currently have. As the innocent Moon in your expressive 5th house reins in demanding Mars in your sign, a big desire of yours is probably putting a lot of internal pressure on you. Remember that you don’t have to pass that pressure on to everyone else. Letting them have fun while they assist you is potentially a win-win strategy. Perhaps it’ll even give you the perspective you need!

Virgo

August 23 – September 22

You can get a lot done today, but you won’t necessarily get recognition from others for it. While the devoted Moon in your private 4th house collaborates with determined Mars in your 12th House of Secrets, your energy is likely to be directed toward areas that the rest of the world doesn’t usually see. At minimum, cleaning up your personal space can soothe any internal chaos. You don’t have to share that satisfaction with anyone else unless you really want to!

Libra

September 23 – October 22

Broadening your social network is possible at this time. As the intuitive Moon in your communication sector assists intrepid Mars in your 11th House of Community, you may be up for meeting more people than usual. In a big group, there will probably be at least one person who shares your interests, but you might have to dig a bit to find them. If a conversation isn’t going anywhere interesting, feel free to let it fizzle so you can continue working the room!

Scorpio

October 23 – November 21

Working your leadership muscles could be especially rewarding at present. As the vulnerable Moon in your self-worth sector looks up to powerful Mars in your ambitious 10th house, you might be a little surprised by the position of authority you’ve landed in. Perhaps it’s time for you to update the way you view yourself! Yes, the external world’s recognition isn’t everything, but sometimes it can provide a necessary reality check. Make sure you aren’t minimizing the greatness everyone else sees in you.

Sagittarius

November 22 – December 21

Telling a new story about yourself could be an interesting challenge now. When the passionate Moon in your sign trines brave Mars in your 9th House of Adventure, you may be attracted to a narrative that makes you look like a hero on a grand scale. There might be a certain amount of truth to this (and a little exaggeration, too). As long as you’re not hurting anyone, go ahead and enjoy your fantasy. It could even spur you on to new heights of achievement!

Capricorn

December 22 – January 19

Getting to know someone better could be totally engrossing right now. Your ability to show that you’ll maintain confidentiality will probably determine how successful your efforts end up being. The other person likely values their privacy at least as much as you do! As the caring Moon in your 12th House of Secrets engages with probing Mars in your intimacy zone, you have a chance of striking the right balance. Be sure to moderate your hunger for information with your concern for your companion’s comfort.

Aquarius

January 20 – February 18

Your social life could potentially benefit from a little boldness! Perhaps you and your pals have gotten stuck in a rut that isn’t good for anyone. While the nurturing Moon in your 11th House of Friendship calls to assertive Mars in your relationship sector, you might need to start addressing the problem by dealing with members of your posse as individuals. It’s easy to coast along with unhealthy behavior when everyone is doing it. On a personal level, accountability will be harder to avoid.

Pisces

February 19 – March 20

Bringing your passion into your ongoing work can pay off for you. While the sensitive Moon in your 10th House of Goals cooperates with driven Mars in your productive 6th house, remembering the emotional reasons why you chose a particular job can motivate you to stick with it through the frustrating parts. You likely want to feel like you’re making a difference in the world in some way. Stay alert for signs that you are — those should spur you on even more!

By JESSE BEDAYN

A rock climber who fell an estimated 400 feet while descending a steep gully in Washington’s North Cascades mountains survived the fall that killed his three companions, hiked to his car in the dark and then drove to a pay phone to call for help, authorities said Tuesday.

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The surviving climber, who has not been publicly identified, extricated himself from a tangle of ropes, helmets and other equipment after the accident and made the trek despite suffering internal bleeding and head trauma, Okanogan County Undersheriff Dave Yarnell said.

Falls like this leading to three deaths are extremely rare, and many details about what led up to it still aren’t known, said Cristina Woodworth, who leads the sheriff’s search and rescue team. Seven years ago, two climbers were killed in a fall on El Capitan at Yosemite National Park.

The group of four — including the victims, aged 36, 47 and 63 — were scaling the Early Winters Spires, jagged peaks split by a cleft that’s popular with climbers in the North Cascade Range, about 160 miles northeast of Seattle. The surviving climber was hospitalized in Seattle.

The group of four met with disaster that night when the anchor securing their ropes appears to have failed as they were descending in a steep gully, trying to reach the spire’s base, Yarnell said.

They plummeted for about 200 feet into a slanted gulch and then tumbled another 200 feet before coming to rest, he said. Authorities believe the group had been ascending but turned around when they saw a storm approaching.

A three-person search and rescue team reached the site of the fall Sunday, Woodworth said. The team used coordinates from a device the climbers had been carrying, which had been shared by a friend of the men.

Once they found the site, they called in a helicopter to remove the bodies one at a time because of the rough terrain, Woodworth said.

• This 2021 photo provided by shows Monkey Flowers along the trail in North Cascades National Park Service Complex in Washington. (U.S. National Park Service via AP)
• The Okanogan County Search and Rescue team responds to a climbing accident in the North Cascades mountains in Washington on Sunday, May 11, 2025. (Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
• The Okanogan County Search and Rescue team responds to a climbing accident in the North Cascades mountains in Washington on Sunday, May 11, 2025. (Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office via AP)

Show Caption1 of 3This 2021 photo provided by shows Monkey Flowers along the trail in North Cascades National Park Service Complex in Washington. (U.S. National Park Service via AP) Expand

On Monday, responders poured over the recovered equipment trying to decipher what caused the fall, Woodworth said. They found a piton — basically a small metal spike that is driven into rock cracks or ice and used as anchors by climbers — that was still clipped into the climbers’ ropes.

Pitons are oftentimes left in walls. They can be there for years or even decades, and they may become less secure over time.

“It looked old and weathered, and the rest of their equipment looked newer, so we are making the assumption that it was an old piton,” Woodworth said.

Rock climbers secure themselves by ropes to anchors, such as pitons or other climbing equipment. The ropes are intended to arrest their fall if they should slip, and typically climbers use backup anchors, said Joshua Cole, a guide and co-owner of North Cascades Mountain Guides, who has been climbing in the area for about 20 years.

Generally, it would be unusual to rappel off a single piton, said Cole, adding that it is still unknown exactly what happened on the wall that night.

“We eventually, if possible, would like to get more information from surviving party,” Woodworth said.

The spires are a popular climbing spot. The route the climbers were taking, said Cole, was of moderate difficulty, and requires moving between ice, snow and rock.

But the conditions, the amount of ice versus rock for example, can change rapidly with the weather, he said, even week to week or day to day, changing the route’s risks.

Bedayn reported from Denver.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV has taken over the Vatican’s official social media handles, with a first Instagram post on Tuesday repeating the first words he said to the world as pope: “Peace be with you all!”

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The @Pontifex – Pope Leo XIV post featured some of the photos that have documented the first days of history’s first American pope.

The Vatican said it was archiving the posts from Pope Francis ’ 12-year papacy. On X, the new account didn’t appear to be active Tuesday.

The Vatican launched the @Pontifex handle in 2012 during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. It now comes in a variety of nine languages — English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Polish, Arabic, and Latin — and counts a combined 52 million followers.

Past popes didn’t actually send the posts, which were curated by the Vatican.

The former Cardinal Robert Prevost occasionally posted on X in an account started in 2011. It had been dormant since July 2023 but came back to life earlier this year to share criticism of Trump administration migration policies and comments by Vice President JD Vance.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plans to slash the number of senior military leaders across the services would cut more than 120 high-ranking officer jobs in the active duty and National Guard, including as many as nine top general slots.

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Based on the percentages outlined by Hegseth and his senior staff, 20% of the 44 authorized top active duty general and admiral jobs would be eliminated, along with 10% of the more than 800 one-, two- and three-star positions, according to numbers compiled by The Associated Press.

The cuts — about nine positions among four-star generals and 80 jobs across the other leadership levels — would affect dozens of active duty officers scattered across the five services as well as those who are in joint command jobs, such as those overseeing Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The changes would eliminate 33 senior National Guard positions.

The cuts are part of a broader government-wide campaign to slash spending and personnel across federal agencies that is being pushed by President Donald Trump’s administration and ally Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

According to Hegseth and others, the intent of the military job reductions isn’t to reduce the overall size of the force but to thin out the higher ranks and offset those cuts with additional troops at lower levels. While the overall number of service members may not drop, the salary costs will be lower.

Some Democratic members of Congress have criticized Hegseth’s plans as an attempt to politicize the military and oust leaders that don’t agree with the Trump administration. The changes also come as the world is roiled by conflicts, including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and as the U.S. has troops deployed in Syria and elsewhere.

Shifting leadership responsibilities

Military officials expect that as various jobs are downgraded — for example from a lieutenant general in charge to a major general or brigadier general — more leadership responsibilities will fall on colonels or Navy captains and other subordinates.

And while many of the job cuts will come through attrition, as senior officers retire or move on, the services say they will have the flexibility to move people into higher priority positions and get rid of less critical posts.

“More generals and admirals does not equal more success,” Hegseth said in a video describing his plan. “This is not a slash and burn exercise meant to punish high-ranking officers. Nothing could be further from the truth. This has been a deliberative process.”

Calling it the “Less Generals, More GIs” plan, he said the department will make “prudent reductions.”

How the cuts will hit the military services

The Army, which is the largest service, is allowed to have a maximum of 219 high-ranking general officers and is expected to absorb a higher number of the cuts, while the Marine Corps will probably see little impact at the very top. There are only two Marine four-star generals, and the tiny Space Force also only has two.

“The Marine Corps, with our general officers, like our civilians and senior executives, is by far the leanest service,” said Lt. Col. Josh Benson, a Marine spokesman. “Due to the already lean nature of the general officers in the Marine Corps, any cuts to Marine general officers will have an outsized impact to the Corps relative to other services.”

He said nearly one-third — or 21 — of Marine generals hold two or three jobs each, and as many as 10 positions are already empty.

Army leaders, meanwhile, have already developed plans to merge or close headquarters units and staff. As many as 40 general officer slots could be cut as a result, officials have said.

The joint jobs would include leaders at regional commands, such as those in Europe, the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East, as well as administrative or functional commands, such as Cyber Command and Special Operations Command.

Under the law, there currently can be no more than 232 of those joint officers, and they’re spread across all the services.

It’s unclear how many of the cuts those jobs would absorb, versus the slots in each of the services. But officials have talked about merging some commands as the Pentagon reviews its overall leadership structure.

In addition to the joint command jobs, Congress stipulates the maximum number of high-ranking general officers in the services: 219 in the Army, 171 in the Air Force, 21 in the Space Force, 64 in the Marine Corps and 150 flag officers in the Navy.

All combined, the services can’t have more than 27 four-star officers, 153 three stars, 239 two stars and 210 one stars.

National Guard review and cuts

The decrease in the National Guard stems from a review done by Guard leaders last year that identified more than 30 positions that could be cut among the 133 general officer jobs spread out across the government. There are about 30 general officers in the National Guard Bureau headquarters staff, and the rest are assigned to jobs in other federal agencies, including the FBI, CIA and the military commands.

Guard officials described their plan to Hegseth and Pentagon leaders, and it was approved. According to officials, it would result in six jobs cut from Guard Bureau staff and the rest from other military and government posts.

The adjutants general who run the Guard in each state are chosen by and work for the governors and so are not part of any cuts. They are largely one- and two- star officers.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s attorney general said Tuesday chemical manufacturer 3M agreed to pay up $450 million to resolve lawsuits over natural resource contamination stemming from PFAS — commonly referred to as “forever chemicals.”

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The settlement is subject to court approval and a public comment period, Attorney General Matt Platkin’s office said. St. Paul, Minnesota-based 3M is expected to pay $285 million this year, with additional amounts payable over the next 25 years. The total amount could reach $450 million, Platkin’s office said.

“Corporate polluters must be held accountable when they contaminate our state’s water supply,” Platkin said in a statement.

PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of chemicals that have been around for decades and have now spread into the nation’s air, water and soil.

3M said in 2022 it would end all PFAS manufacturing by the end of this year. In a statement, the company said it’s on track to do so.

“This agreement is another important step toward reducing risk and uncertainty on these legacy issues, allowing 3M to focus on its strategic priorities,” 3M said.

PFAS were manufactured by companies such as 3M, Chemours and others because they were incredibly useful. They helped eggs slide across non-stick frying pans, ensured that firefighting foam suffocates flames and helped clothes withstand rain and keep people dry.

The chemicals resist breaking down, though, meaning they linger in the environment.

Environmental activists say PFAS makers knew about the health harms of PFAS long before they were made public. The same attributes that make the chemicals so valuable – resistance to breakdown – make them hazardous to people.

PFAS accumulate in the body, which is why the Environmental Protection Agency set their limits for drinking water at 4 parts per trillion for two common types — PFOA and PFOS — that are phased out of manufacturing but still are present in the environment.

The New Jersey settlement stems from 2019 lawsuits at the nearly 1,500-acre Chambers Works site in Pennsville and Carneys Point and another location in Parlin. The settlement also resolves all other statewide claims in litigation over PFAS in firefighting material used in the state.

The lawsuits alleged the companies involved, including 3M, knew about risks from forever chemicals produced at the facilities but continued to sell them.

The attorney general said that by agreeing to settle 3M would not go to trial next week in the Chambers Works case.

New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection will use a portion of the settlement funds to “protect public health, safety and the environment from impacts caused by PFAS,” according to a joint statement from the attorney general and DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ed Martin Jr., who will be the Justice Department’s new pardon attorney after President Donald Trump pulled his nomination to be the top federal prosecutor for Washington, said Tuesday that he plans to scrutinize pardons that former President Joe Biden issued on his way out of the White House.

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“These are big moments, and so they have to be able to withstand scrutiny,” Martin told reporters on Tuesday, his last full day as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Biden pardoned his siblings and their spouses in January on his last day in office. He also pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

None of them had been charged with any crime. The pardons were designed to guard against possible retribution by President Donald Trump.

Trump pulled Martin’s nomination last week amid bipartisan opposition and replaced him with Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who is expected to be sworn into office on Wednesday.

Instead, Martin will serve as an associate deputy attorney general and pardon attorney. In his new role, Martin also will be director of the “weaponization working group” at the Justice Department.

Attorney General Pam Bondi called for creating that group in February to investigate the work of former special counsel Jack Smith, who led two federal prosecutions of Trump that were ultimately abandoned, and other examples of what Republicans claim to be unfair targeting of conservatives during Biden’s administration.

In announcing his last-minute pardons, Biden said his family had been “subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics.”

“Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end,” he said on the day of Trump’s second inauguration.

Martin told reporters that he believes Biden’s pardons “need some scrutiny.”

“They need scrutiny because we want pardons to matter and to be accepted and to be something that’s used correctly. So I do think we’re going to take a hard look at how they went and what they did,” he said.

The Constitution grants broad pardon powers to presidents and their clemency actions cannot be undone by courts or other officials. It’s not clear what action, if any, Martin believes he would be able to take regarding Biden’s pardons.

Martin said the U.S. Attorney’s office under his leadership already had been “taking a look at some of the conduct surrounding the pardons and the Biden White House.”

Trump also has used the president’s sweeping pardon powers to benefit those close to him. In his final weeks of his first term, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in law, Jared Kushner, as well as multiple allies convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

On the first day of his second term, Trump pardoned nearly all of the 1,500 people charged with crimes in the Capitol riot, freeing from prison dozens of people convicted of assaulting police.

Trump appointed Martin as acting U.S. Attorney during his first week back in the White House. Martin oversaw the dismissal of hundreds of Capitol riot cases after Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons.

But his hopes of keeping the job faded amid questions about his lack of prosecutorial experience and his divisive politics. Trump yanked Martin’s nomination two days after a key Republican senator said he could not support Martin for the job due to his defense of Capitol rioters.

“Ultimately, the president decided we didn’t want to keep going forward,” Martin said. “The president of the United States said we have other battles to do, and so I’m excited about that.”

Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.

By TODD RICHMOND

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal grand jury indicted a Wisconsin judge Tuesday on charges she helped a man in the country illegally evade U.S. immigration authorities looking to arrest him as he appeared before her in a local domestic abuse case.

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Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan’s arrest and ensuing indictment has escalated a clash between President Donald Trump’s administration and local authorities over the Republican’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Democrats have accused the Trump administration of trying to make a national example of Dugan to chill judicial opposition to the crackdown.

Prosecutors charged Dugan in April via complaint with concealing an individual to prevent arrest and obstruction. In the federal criminal justice system, prosecutors can initiate charges against a defendant directly by filing a complaint or present evidence to a grand jury and let that body decide whether to issue charges.

A grand jury still reviews charges brought by complaint to determine whether enough probable cause exists to continue the case as a check on prosecutors’ power. If the grand jury determines there’s probable cause, it issues a written statement of the charges known as an indictment. That’s what happened in Dugan’s case.

Dugan faces up to six years in prison if she’s convicted on both counts. Her team of defense attorneys responded to the indictment with a one-sentence statement saying that she maintains her innocence and looks forward to being vindicated in court. She was scheduled to enter a plea on Thursday.

Kenneth Gales, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Milwaukee, declined to comment on the indictment Tuesday evening.

Dugan’s case is similar to one brought during the first Trump administration against a Massachusetts judge, who was accused of helping a man sneak out a courthouse back door to evade a waiting immigration enforcement agent. That case was eventually dismissed.

Prosecutors say Dugan escorted Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer out of her courtroom through a back jury door on April 18 after learning that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were in the courthouse seeking his arrest.

FILE – A sign is posted outside of county Judge Hannah Dugan’s courtroom at the Milwaukee County courthouse, April 25, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Andy Manis, File)

According to court documents, Flores-Ruiz illegally reentered the U.S. after being deported in 2013. Online state court records show he was charged with three counts of misdemeanor domestic abuse in Milwaukee County in March. He was in Dugan’s courtroom that morning of April 18 for a hearing.

Court documents suggest Dugan was alerted to the agents’ presence by her clerk, who was informed by an attorney that the agents appeared to be in the hallway. An affidavit says Dugan was visibly angry over the agents’ arrival and called the situation “absurd” before leaving the bench and retreating to her chambers. She and another judge later approached members of the arrest team in the courthouse with what witnesses described as a “confrontational, angry demeanor.”

After a back-and-forth with the agents over the warrant for Flores-Ruiz, Dugan demanded they speak with the chief judge and led them away from the courtroom, according to the affidavit.

She then returned to the courtroom and was heard saying words to the effect of “wait, come with me” and ushered Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out through a back jury door typically used only by deputies, jurors, court staff and in-custody defendants, according to the affidavit. Flores-Ruiz was free on a signature bond in the abuse case at the time, according to online state court records.

Federal agents ultimately captured him outside the courthouse after a foot chase.

The state Supreme Court suspended Dugan from the bench in late April, saying the move was necessary to preserve public confidence in the judiciary. A reserve judge is filling in for her.

By DIDI TANG

WASHINGTON (AP) — Online shoppers in the U.S. will see a price break on their purchases valued at less than $800 and shipped from China after the Trump administration reached a truce with Beijing over sky-high tariffs.

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An executive order Monday from President Donald Trump said the tariffs on low-value parcels originating from China and coming through the U.S. Postal Service will be lowered to 54%, down from 120%.

It also says a per-package flat rate — as an alternative to the value-based tariff — will be kept at $100, rather than being raised to $200 on June 1 as previously decreed. Packages shipped by commercial carriers are subject to the general tariff, which also has been cut.

The new rules go into effect Wednesday.

They are part of a broader agreement by the Trump administration to drastically lower import taxes on all Chinese goods from 145% to 30% following weekend talks in Switzerland with Chinese officials. China issued a public notice on Tuesday lowering its own tariffs on U.S. goods to 10%, down from 125%.

However, the reductions are temporary, allowing the two sides to negotiate a longer-term deal in the next 90 days.

Izzy Rosenzweig, founder and CEO of the logistic company Portless, said U.S. brands are “very excited” about the broader tariff cut. The import tax is still high, but not as prohibitive as when it was 145%, which amounted to a trade embargo.

On the low-value shipments, online purchases had been coming into the U.S. duty-free for several years under the de minimis rule, which exempted them from the import tax.

Popular shopping sites such as Shein and Temu that offer ultra-low prices took advantage of the duty-free rule by shipping directly from China to U.S. buyers, bypassing more cumbersome customs paperwork.

President Donald Trump terminated the exemption on such parcels originating from China and Hong Kong on May 2, following criticism that it not only resulted in lost tariff revenue but also allowed illicit drugs and unsafe products to flow into the U.S. without adequate scrutiny.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said as many as 4 million low-value parcels were coming into the U.S. every day — many of which originated from China.

Shortly before the exemption ended on May 2, prices on many items sold by Shein rose. Temu apparently halted shipments from China and tapped its existing inventory in the U.S.

John Lash, group vice president of product strategy at the supply chain platform e2open, said he expected the volume of low-value packages would now rise but not back to previous levels. The $100 flat rate, he said, means that higher-value packages could get less of a hit, because the effective duty rate could be as low as 13%.

Neither Shein nor Temu immediately responded to requests for comment Tuesday about the lower tariffs.

Broward County schools are scrambling for a way to teach sex education during the final weeks of the school year after the district was unable to get state approval for its curriculum.

The School Board wanted to offer a comprehensive program that taught about consent as well as contraception to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. But the state has been steering school districts toward programs that focus mainly on abstinence.

John Sullivan, the district’s chief communication officer, sent board members an email on Monday night saying there’s not enough time to offer a curriculum before the school year ends. The last day of school is June 3 for most students. Seniors take their final exams next week.

“We received feedback from the State on the latest version of our Health and Disease Prevention curriculum,” Sullivan wrote in the email. “Given the scope of the feedback and the limited time remaining in the school year, we will not be able to implement the curriculum at this time.”

But on Tuesday, School Board members said they weren’t ready to give up. They directed Superintendent Howard Hepburn to ask the state for permission to use an already approved curriculum from another district and quickly teach the class over the next couple of weeks.

“I think it’s really important that we ask the question to the state, what can we teach?” Board member Lori Alhadeff said. “There has to be a curriculum that was approved. … There’s a sense of urgency. I truly believe that this board has to expedite that for this school year.”

Sex ed is normally taught in May, toward the end of the school year, and parents must be given the opportunity to opt out. Board members say they think there is still time for this school year.

A spokesperson for the state Department of Education didn’t provide a comment on Tuesday afternoon.

This is the second time in three years that Broward has struggled to teach sex ed. In 2023, the district realized the comprehensive curriculum that it had offered for years didn’t comply with new state laws banning instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in most grades.

The School Board refused to approve a heavily redacted version of its longstanding curriculum and directed the superintendent at the time to find a new curriculum. But that never happened before the school year ended.

The district spent much of the summer and fall of 2023 working with a district committee to draft a new curriculum. The School Board approved it in October 2023, but a state law passed that year required additional approval from the state Department of Education. The state never approved any district sex ed programs for the 2023-24 school year but still allowed districts to teach the material, so Broward taught sex ed in May 2024.

But in August, the state Department of Education started reviewing curricula and providing extensive feedback to districts. The department didn’t issue written rules or guidance on what specific sex ed topics are allowed or banned, instead giving districts verbal guidance.

The Broward school district reported in a presentation in September that it was told to remove pictures of sexual/reproductive anatomy, to not identify specific types of sex, such as anal, oral and vaginal and to not include pictures, demonstrations or activities that include contraception.

Hepburn said his staff spent the entire year trying to get the curriculum approved.

“They would send it up, we’d get feedback, we’d make adjustments, we’d send it up, get feedback, and make more adjustments,” he told the School Board. “So this last round of feedback and the adjustments that would need to be made could not be completed in the time frame necessary to teach in during this particular school year.”

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Board member Sarah Leonardi said at the meeting she was frustrated that the district’s solution to the state’s feedback was to offer no sex ed.

“I will present a very real scenario in which a third-grade girl gets her period, and she has not learned anything about that at home or at school and she is terrified,” Leonardi said. “If students aren’t getting that instruction, this is a massive disservice to our students.”

Palm Beach County schools also had a tough time getting a comprehensive curriculum approved by the state. So that district decided to limit its teaching to material already included in the regular science curriculum in fifth and sixth grade, as well as in high school biology and a high school health class. Human anatomy and physiology, an elective class, also covers some material. The state approved that curriculum Sept. 17, a Department of Education spokeswoman said in March.

Some Broward School Board members said the district should lobby the state Legislature to allow more comprehensive sex ed.

“Comprehensive sex education saves lives,” Board member Rebecca Thompson said. “We all know that. Will it pass in the current political climate? Probably not, but this is a value that Broward County, that our constituents value, that we want to keep our kids safe.”

Trudy Jermanovich, a retired teacher, urged the School Board to take action on sex ed.

“We need to do something other than just keep submitting a program which will not be passed by the very conservative Florida State Board of Education,” she said during public comments. “Please encourage the Superintendent to tell us the plan at this meeting, so we know that future Broward County students won’t be denied this important information.”

Today is Tuesday, May 13, the 133rd day of 2025. There are 232 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter’s Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Ağca. (Ağca was sentenced to life in prison in Italy in July 1981, but was pardoned in 2000 at the Pope’s request.)

Also on this date:

In 1846, the United States Congress formally declared war against Mexico, following battles along the disputed U.S.-Mexico border in the preceding weeks; the Mexican-American War would continue for nearly two years until the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in February 1848.

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In 1940, in his first speech to the House of Commons as British prime minister, Winston Churchill said, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

In 1973, in tennis’ first so-called “Battle of the Sexes,” Bobby Riggs defeated Margaret Court 6-2, 6-1 in Ramona, California. (Billie Jean King soundly defeated Riggs at the Houston Astrodome later that year.)

In 1980, a tornado struck downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan, killing five people and injuring 79.

In 1985, a confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as a police helicopter dropped two bombs onto the group’s row house, igniting a fire that killed 11 people (including five children) and destroyed 61 homes.

In 2016, the Obama administration issued a directive requiring public schools to permit transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their chosen gender identity.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor Harvey Keitel is 86.
• Musician Stevie Wonder is 75.
• Screenwriter-producer David Simon (“The Wire”) is 66.
• Basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman is 64.
• TV host/comedian Stephen Colbert is 61.
• Musician Darius Rucker (Hootie and the Blowfish) is 59.
• Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is 48.
• Actor Samantha Morton is 48.
• Actor-writer-director Lena Dunham is 39.
• Actor Robert Pattinson is 39.
• Actor Debby Ryan is 32.
• Country musician Morgan Wallen is 32.

By MATT CARLSON

CHICAGO — Dansby Swanson and Seiya Suzuki homered in the fifth inning to help the Chicago Cubs beat the Miami Marlins 5-2 on Monday night.

Miguel Amaya went 3 for 3 for Chicago, and Kyle Tucker hit an RBI triple. The NL Central leaders had dropped four of five.

Cubs right-hander Colin Rea (3-0) allowed two runs and six hits in a season-high 6 2/3 innings.

Rea was replaced by Daniel Palencia after Derek Hill hit a two-run homer for Miami. Palencia got four outs before Drew Pomeranz handled the ninth for his first save since 2020.

Last-place Miami lost for the 12th time in 15 games.

Marlins right-hander Cal Quantrill (2-4) was charged with three runs and four hits in 4 1/3 innings.

The Cubs grabbed control in the fifth. Nico Hoerner singled and scored on Swanson’s ninth homer, a drive to left-center. Tucker tripled home Amaya and Suzuki followed with his 10th homer against Anthony Veneziano.

Hill returned on Monday after missing 22 games with a left wrist sprain.

Key moment

Miami put a runner on with two out in the ninth when Connor Norby reached on a pinch-hit single. But Pomeranz struck out Hill looking.

Key stat

The Cubs entered with an NL-leading 233 runs, but they had scored two or fewer runs in four of their previous seven games.

Up next

Miami RHP Valente Bellozo (0-2, 3.50 ERA) faces Chicago RHP Ben Brown (3-3, 4.95 ERA) on Tuesday.

General Daily Insight for May 13, 2025

Being sensitive isn’t bad, but we must be able to manage it. Today, the watery Scorpio Moon trines stable Saturn, reining in our excess passions. Luna then shifts into optimistic Sagittarius at 4:35 am EDT, inspiring confidence and helping us see the best in whatever we face. When the Moon goes on to trine relationship planet Venus, we’ll be in a favorable position to build alliances with people who want the same things we do. It’ll likely turn out that pleasure shared is pleasure multiplied!

Aries

March 21 – April 19

Taking a break from your usual surroundings could reboot your confidence today. Perhaps you’ve gotten in a rut with the people you typically spend time with — you’ve known each other for so long that they tend to cast you in a certain role no matter how you’ve changed. As the spontaneous Moon in your 9th House of Exotic Experiences trines appealing Venus in your sign, a new crowd might meet the current you without such baggage. Try this on and see how it feels!

Taurus

April 20 – May 20

Stepping out of the spotlight can currently help you acquire the information you need. While the inquisitive Moon in your intimacy zone aligns with benevolent Venus in your 12th House of Secrets, someone may be willing to tell you everything they know as long — as no one else finds out they’re spilling the beans. Even if maintaining this level of privacy seems inconvenient or excessive to you, it could be the price of getting what you want. You might as well pay it!

Gemini

May 21 – June 20

Working a room could come easily to you now. You are, of course, allowed to be interested in looking good at a gathering. You’re also equipped to chat people up in a way that makes them feel personally heard as the attentive Moon in your relationship sector aligns with attractive Venus in your community zone. This approach doesn’t only benefit whoever you’re talking to — they’ll potentially respond in kind. Perhaps you’ll wind up making a connection that you’ll genuinely want to keep going forward!

Cancer

June 21 – July 22

Being recognized for your hard work is possible at present. While the devoted Moon in your 6th House of Daily Routines supports favorable Venus in your reputation zone, it may be obvious to onlookers that the effort you put in on a regular basis adds up — you get stuff done! On account of that, you’ll potentially be asked to take on another role with higher status or additional rewards. As you decide whether to accept, don’t forget about its day-to-day responsibilities.

Leo

July 23 – August 22

Making time for fun should be worth the trouble today. As the impressionable Moon in your playful 5th house harmonizes with abundant Venus in your 9th House of Expansion, you’re likely to be drawn toward the sort of pleasure that involves learning something new. Whether you’re reading an informative book or covering fresh territory physically, being stimulated in this way can nourish your growth as a person. Don’t worry about achieving measurable goals right now, though — just enjoy the journey.

Virgo

August 23 – September 22

Staying in could be especially rejuvenating for you at this time. While the cozy Moon in your domestic 4th house supports relational Venus in your 8th House of Intimacy, you might want to find a quiet moment at home to connect deeply with a loved one. When you focus on your bond without distractions, you may be ready to talk about challenging subjects you don’t usually cover in daily life. In comfortable surroundings, a tough discussion can lean on a foundation of safety.

Libra

September 23 – October 22

Opening up more than usual could currently help you find people who are compatible with you. While the vulnerable Moon passes through your 3rd House of Communication, it might be especially easy for your true feelings to leak out in conversation. That’s not always a bad thing! You can’t always please everyone, and this way, those who share your sentiments will be able to find you. Knowing you already agree on something important will be a solid beginning for any connection.

Scorpio

October 23 – November 21

Lightening your load may be worth what it costs in the moment. As the nourishing Moon in your resource zone uplifts ease-seeking Venus in your 6th House of Responsibilities, you might come to realize that some of the tasks on your list don’t have to be done by you. Paying another person to do a job you find difficult or unappealing can free you to pursue your natural strengths. Avoid letting your ego get in the way of a good outcome for everyone.

Sagittarius

November 22 – December 21

Following your recent instincts should feel good. With the primal Moon in your sign, your emotions may be close to the surface. Although this might include a bit of chaos, the greater result of your increased openness is more likely to be joy. Don’t worry too much about seeming out of step with the people around you. Leaning fully into what you have going on, whatever it is, can put you in a strong position to lift the mood of everyone else!

Capricorn

December 22 – January 19

Letting your mind roam could be fruitful at the moment. As the fluctuating Moon flits through your 12th House of Contemplation, indulging in your daydreams might not immediately seem to be productive. Still, checking items off your to-do list isn’t necessarily what you need most urgently. The effort you throw into any aspect of your life will ultimately accomplish more if you know what you’re doing and why. Achieving that clarity can’t be rushed — sometimes it just takes however long it takes!

Aquarius

January 20 – February 18

Your attention to your friends may pay off in new ways. As the perceptive Moon in your social sector soothes gentle Venus in your communication zone, you’re likely to pick up on a pal who could use a pep talk. Saying something kind and encouraging will benefit more than the intended recipient. Beyond that, it might direct your focus toward what’s good in the world. You have positive things happening in your life, and once you start to look, they’ll become more and more noticeable!

Pisces

February 19 – March 20

Picking up on a promising professional opportunity is presently possible. This might be something you have to act on quickly before it passes! While the fast-moving Moon in your 10th House of Career vibes with fortunate Venus in your money zone, there’s a chance of a financial benefit for you, though not necessarily a life-changing one. Even if you don’t wind up sticking with this job forever, consider the value of letting abundance flow your way for the time being.

MIAMI — The Miami Heat would have been the No. 11 seed in Monday night’s NBA draft lottery had they not advanced to the playoffs from their 37-45 regular-season finish.

Instead, the Dallas Mavericks were the No. 11 seed.

As in the No. 11 seed that won Monday night’s NBA draft lottery.

As in the team that now on June 25 will select generational draft prospect Cooper Flagg, the versatile forward out of Duke who stands by himself at the top of the Class of 2025.

For the Heat it was a gut punch arguably as staggering as being blown out of the first-round of the NBA playoffs by a record margin by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Had the Heat lost either of their play-in games, they would have missed the playoffs and been slotted into the No. 11 lottery seed.

Instead they won on the road against the Chicago Bulls to remain alive in the play-in round.

Then they won in overtime on the road against the Atlanta Hawks to secure a playoff berth from a 10th-place finish in the Eastern Conference.

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And, so, a Mavericks team that finished at 39-43 and was eliminated in the play-in round, got to celebrate months after dealing Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers.

While the Heat, seeking a reset of their own after trading Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors, are left to contemplate all of the what-ifs of Monday night’s lottery moment.

The Heat have never held the No. 1 pick in the franchise’s 37 seasons and have never moved up in the lottery during their 11 visits to the random-but-weighted process.

The Heat’s lone pick in this year’s draft is the No. 20 selection acquired from the Warriors in the Butler trade.

The Heat, by making the playoffs, wound up at No. 15 in the draft order, with that selection now belonging to the Oklahoma City Thunder, to complete a previous trade obligation.

Almost all of the same four-digit numerical combinations assigned to the Mavericks at No. 11 would have been the Heat’s lottery tickets had they not instead gone on to endure the ignominy of a series against the Cavaliers that ended with a 55-point loss.

With only the first four picks in the draft allocated in the random portion of the weighted draw, the No. 11 pick set up with a 2% chance at the No. 1 overall pick, a 2.2% chance at the No. 2 pick, a 2.4% chance at No. 3 and a 2.8% chance at No. 4, for an 9.4% overall chance at a top-four selection.

The Heat have been in the lottery 11 times, holding their seed five times (Tyler Herro at No 13 in 2019; Bam Adebayo at No. 14 in 2017; Justise Winslow at No. 10 in 2015; Caron Butler at No. 10 in 2002; Kurt Thomas at No. 10 in 1995), dropping one spot four times (Michael Beasley at No. 2 in 2008; Dwyane Wade at No. 5 in 2003; Lindsey Hunter at No. 10 in 1993; and Mahmoud Andul-Rauf at No. 11 in 1990); and falling three spots twice (Steve Smith at No. 5 in 1991; and Glen Rice at No. 4 in 1989). Hunter and Abdul-Rauf were traded in pre-arranged draft deals.

By CHRIS MEGERIAN, ZEKE MILLER and BERNARD CONDON

WASHINGTON (AP) — For President Donald Trump, accepting a free Air Force One replacement from Qatar is a no-brainer.

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“I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,” the Republican told reporters on Monday. “I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’”

Critics of the plan worry that the move threatens to turn a global symbol of American power into an airborne collection of ethical, legal, security and counterintelligence concerns.

“This is unprecedented,” said Jessica Levinson, a constitutional law expert at Loyola Law School. “We just haven’t tested these boundaries before.”

Trump tried to tamp down some of the opposition by saying he wouldn’t fly around in the gifted Boeing 747 when his term ends. Instead, he said, the $400 million plane would be donated to a future presidential library, similar to how the Boeing 707 used by President Ronald Reagan was decommissioned and put on display as a museum piece.

“It would go directly to the library after I leave office,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t be using it.”

However, that did little to quell the controversy over the plane. Democrats are united in outrage, and even some of the Republican president’s allies are worried. Laura Loomer, an outspoken conspiracy theorist who has tried to purge disloyal officials from the administration, wrote on social media that she would “take a bullet for Trump” but said she’s “so disappointed.”

Congressional Republicans have also expressed some doubts about the plan.

“My view is that it would be better if Air Force One were a big, beautiful jet made in the United States of America. That would be ideal,” said Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.

And Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul flatly said he was a “No” on whether Trump should accept the plane. When asked to elaborate on his reasoning, Paul replied: “I don’t think it looks good or smells good.” The Republican shrugged when asked by a reporter if there were “constitutional questions.”

Trump will likely face persistent questions about the plane in the coming days as he travels to the Middle East, including a stop in Qatar.

Why does Trump want the Qatari plane?

The two planes currently used as Air Force One have been flying for nearly four decades, and Trump is eager to replace them. During his first term, he displayed a model of a new jumbo jet in the Oval Office, complete with a revised paint scheme that echoed the red, white and dark blue design of his personal plane.

Boeing has been working on retrofitting 747s that were originally built for a now-defunct Russian airliner. But the program has faced nearly a decade of delays — with perhaps more on the way — from a series of issues, including a critical subcontractor’s bankruptcy and the difficulty of finding and retaining qualified staff who could be awarded high-level security clearances.

The new planes aren’t due to be finished until near the end of Trump’s term, and he’s out of patience. He has described the situation as “a total mess,” and he has complained that Air Force One isn’t as nice as the planes flown by some Arab leaders.

“It’s not even the same ballgame,” he said.

Trump said Qatar, which hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, offered a replacement plane that could be used while the government was waiting for Boeing to finish.

“We give free things out,” he said. “We’ll take one, too.”

He bristled at suggestions that he should turn down the plane, comparing the potential gift to favors on the golf course.

“When they give you a putt, you pick it up and you walk to the next hole and you say, ‘Thank you very much,’” he said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota expressed skepticism.

“I understand his frustration. They’re way behind schedule on delivering the next Air Force One,” the Republican told reporters. “Whether or not this is the right solution or not, I don’t know.”

Mississippi GOP Sen. Roger Wicker said that any plane “needs to be gifted to the United States of America.”

He added that it whether the U.S. should accept a Qatari plane warranted further inquiry. “There’ll be some questions about that, and this issue, I expect, will be vetted by the time a decision needs to be made.”

Will the new plane be secure?

The Qatari plane has been described as a “palace in the sky,” complete with luxurious accommodations and top-of-the-line finishes.

FILE – A 13-year-old private Boeing aircraft that President Donald Trump toured on Saturday to check out new hardware and technology features, and highlight the aircraft maker’s delay in delivering updated versions of the Air Force One presidential aircraft, takes off from Palm Beach International Airport, Feb. 16, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

But security is the primary concern when it comes to presidential travel. The current Air Force One planes were built from scratch near the end of the Cold War. They are hardened against the effects of a nuclear blast and include a range of security features, such as anti-missile countermeasures and an onboard operating room. They are also equipped with air-to-air refueling capabilities for contingencies, though it has never been utilized with a president on board.

A former U.S. official briefed on the Air Force One replacement project said that while it would be possible to add some features to the Qatari jet, there was no way to add the full suite of capabilities to the plane on a tight timetable.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive program, said it would be a risk for presidents to fly on such a jet.

One of the most important features of Air Force One is the communications capabilities. Presidents can use the plane as a flying Situation Room, allowing them to respond to crises anywhere on the globe.

However, on Sept. 11, 2001, Republican President George W. Bush was frustrated by communications issues and ordered up massive technology upgrades over subsequent years to improve the president’s ability to monitor events and communicate with people around the world.

The new ones under development by Boeing are being stripped down so workers can replace the standard wiring with shielded cabling. They’re also modifying the jet with an array of classified security measures and communications capabilities.

Because of the high standards for ensuring a president can communicate clearly and securely, there are fears that Trump would be compromising safety by rushing to modify the Qatari jet.

“Disassembling and evaluating the plane for collection/spy devices will take years,” William Evanina, who served as director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center during Trump’s first term, wrote on social media.

He said the plane should be considered nothing more than “a gracious presidential museum piece.”

Is any of this legal or ethical?

Even for a president who has blurred traditional lines around public service and personal gain, Trump’s plans to receive a jumbo jet as a gift has rattled Washington.

The Constitution prohibits federal officials from accepting things of value, or “emoluments,” from foreign governments without congressional approval.

“This is a classic example of what the founders worried about,” said Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and former White House ethics chief under Bush. “But I don’t think the founders anticipated it would get this bad.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Monday that the details of the donation are “still being worked out” but would be done “in full compliance with the law.”

She dismissed idea the idea that Qatar wanted to influence Trump.

“They know President Trump, and they know he only works with the interests of the American public in mind,” she said.

Trump faced a legal fight over emoluments during his first term, when he opened the doors of his D.C. hotel to lobbyists, business executives and diplomats. His lawyers argued that the founders didn’t intend to ban transactions representing an exchange of a service like hotel space for money, only outright gifts. But some ethics lawyers disagreed, and it’s not clear if Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and other countries were paying full price or more for when they used the hotel.

In his second term, Trump’s family business has been very busy overseas. In December, it struck a deal for two Trump-branded real estate projects in Riyadh with a Saudi firm that two years earlier it had partnered with for a Trump golf resort and villas in Oman. And in Qatar, the Trump Organization announced last month another Trump branded resort along the coast.

Four Democratic senators on the Foreign Relations Committee — Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Chris Coons of Delaware, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Chris Murphy of Connecticut — issued a statement saying Trump’s plan “creates a clear conflict of interest, raises serious national security questions, invites foreign influence, and undermines public trust in our government.”

“No one — not even the president — is above the law,” they said.

Condon reported from New York. Associated Press writers Matt Brown, Lolita Baldor and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

By AAMER MADHANI and DARLENE SUPERVILLE

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump set out on a three-nation visit to the Middle East on Monday, a trip he had originally intended to use to focus on his efforts to press wealthy Gulf nations to pour billions in new investment into the United States.

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But now Trump finds himself navigating a series of geopolitical crises — and searching for glimmers of hope in the deep well of global turmoil — that are casting greater import on the first extended overseas trip of his second term.

“This world is a lot safer today than it was a week ago,” Trump crowed to reporters as he sized up the foreign policy challenges he’s facing as he heads to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. “And a lot safer than it was six months ago.”

The president was brimming with an overabundance of confidence about some of the world’s most intractable problems, from tensions in South Asia to the future of sanctions in Syria to the war in Ukraine.

But behind closed doors, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim al-Thani, and Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed will be looking to get a bead on how Trump intends to push ahead on resolving the war in Gaza, dealing with Iran’s rapidly progressing nuclear program and addressing India-Pakistan tensions.

And after weeks of threats and cajoling, it remains to be seen if Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will listen to Trump, who is demanding they meet in Istanbul this week to discuss ending Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Trump, for his part, projected confidence that the meeting will happen and even seemed somewhat optimistic that the end to the conflict is near. He floated the idea of making a detour from his itinerary to visit Turkey if he thinks his presence would be constructive.

“I was thinking about flying over. I don’t know where I am going be on Thursday,” Trump said. “I’ve got so many meetings. … There’s a possibility there, I guess, if I think things can happen.”

But Ukraine’s allies remained deeply skeptical Monday about prospects for talks and whether Putin was serious about peace.

“If there is no ceasefire there cannot be talks under fire,” European Union commission vice president Kaja Kallas told reporters at a meeting on Ukraine in London. “We want to see that Russia also wants peace. It takes two to want peace, it takes only one to want war, and we see that Russia clearly wants war.”

Trump sees opening in Gaza

Just as Trump was preparing to depart Washington for the Saudi capital of Riyadh, the last living American hostage in Gaza, Edan Alexander, was released.

Trump and administration officials framed the moment — a goodwill gesture toward Trump by Hamas — as a chance to get foundering peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas back on track.

“This was a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators — Qatar and Egypt — to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved one,” Trump posted on social media after Hamas extended the offer Sunday. “Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict.”

While Trump pumped up Alexander’s release as a potential turning point, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was far more subdued. Israel, notably, has not stepped back from plans to expand its war in Gaza.

Netanyahu’s office, in a statement Monday, underscored it had “not committed to a ceasefire of any kind or the release of terrorists” in exchange for Alexander.

“The negotiations will continue under fire, during preparations for an intensification of the fighting,” the prime minister’s office statement said.

Trump takes a different tone on Syria

As he prepared to leaved Washington, Trump also said he’s weighing removing sanctions on the Syrian government. It’s an issue that’s top of mind for the three Gulf leaders, who have rallied behind the new government in Damascus and will want Trump to follow through.

President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on his way to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

“We may want to take them off of Syria, because we want to give them a fresh start,” said Trump, adding that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged him to do so.

The comments marked a striking change in tone from Trump, who has been deeply skeptical of Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa.

Al-Sharaa took power after his Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led an offensive that toppled former President Bashar Assad in December.

The Trump administration has yet to formally recognize the new Syrian government. Sanctions imposed on Damascus under Assad also remain in place.

Cajoling India and Pakistan with trade

Trump also took credit for his administration keeping India and Pakistan from returning to a state of all-out war amid the deadliest fighting in six years between the nuclear armed neighbors.

The president said he and aides were ultimately able to talk sense to India and Pakistan’s leadership and guide them away from further escalation by dangling carrots, while also threatening both nations with sticks.

“I said, ‘Come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys,’” Trump said. “’If you stop it, we’ll do trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade.’ People never use trade the way I used it.”

The situation remains tenuous. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday that his country has only “paused” its military action and will “retaliate on its own terms” if there is any future terror attack on the country.

Big differences remain in Iran nuclear talks

The president will arrive in the region after his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, held the fourth round of nuclear talks Sunday in Oman with Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.

As the talks continue, the Trump administration has sent mixed messages about what nuclear work Iran would be allowed to do under a potential deal.

Senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have said that Tehran would be required to import enriched material to run nuclear reactors for civilian purposes. Trump, however, said this past week that his administration hasn’t made a decision on the issue.

It’s also unclear if Trump will insist that Tehran give up support of Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi militants in Yemen as part of any nuclear deal.

Whatever his negotiating frame may be, Trump seemed confident that Iran is engaging rationally, and that he will cement a deal soon.

“You can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said of his demand for Iran. “But I think that they are talking intelligently.”

However, the two sides still appear a long way from any deal, even as time passes on a two-month deadline imposed by Trump.

Madhani reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. AP writer Jill Lawless contributed from London.

TALLAHASSEE — Backers of a renewed attempt to pass a recreational-marijuana constitutional amendment have joined a court challenge to a new law that makes it harder for groups to place initiatives on the ballot, saying the measure imposes “draconian restrictions on Floridians’ sovereign” right to change the state Constitution.

The law (HB 1205), finalized by the Legislature on May 2 and immediately signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, includes sweeping changes to the initiative process that make it more difficult for signature gatherers to collect petitions, create new crimes and heighten existing penalties for wrongdoing and shorten the time frame for petitions to be submitted to supervisors of elections.

The Republican-controlled Legislature approved the changes following fierce fights over ballot proposals in November 2024 aimed at allowing recreational use of marijuana and placing abortion rights in the Constitution. DeSantis led crusades to defeat the measures, which fell short of receiving the required 60 percent approval to pass, and pushed state lawmakers to impose stricter regulations on the ballot-initiative process.

Smart & Safe Florida, the political committee behind the 2024 marijuana proposal, is trying to place a similar recreational weed measure on next year’s ballot, and has about 219,000 valid signatures for the effort. The group is also launching a proposal that would allow medical-marijuana patients to grow their own cannabis.

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker on Monday granted a request by Smart & Safe Florida to join a lawsuit filed last week by Florida Decides Healthcare, a committee backing an initiative aimed at expanding Medicaid coverage.

In court documents filed Saturday, lawyers for Smart & Safe Florida argued that the new law “changes the law at halftime” for sponsors already working to place initiatives on the 2026 ballot.
“Worse, the most burdensome of those changes took effect immediately upon becoming law on May 2, 2025, with no warning nor opportunity to appropriately prepare,” Glenn Burhans and other attorneys with the firm Stearns Weaver Miller Alhadeff & Sitterson, P.A. wrote.

The law is the latest effort by the Legislature and business groups such as the Florida Chamber of Commerce to make it harder for groups to place initiatives on the ballot. Supporters of the restrictions have argued, in part, that policy changes should be made by the Legislature instead of through constitutional amendments.

Also, backers of the new law argued changes were needed to prevent fraud.

But the court documents filed Saturday called arguments justifying the law “gaslighting” and asserted that the new restrictions “impose unconstitutional barriers” to First Amendment rights protecting political speech and freedom of association.

The new law “is cloaked behind the high-minded principle of ensuring” ballot integrity “as justification to impose draconian restrictions on Floridians’ sovereign constitutional right to amend their state Constitution via the citizen initiative process. Beware, as Justice Scalia famously remarked, ‘this wolf comes as a wolf,’” lawyers for Smart & Safe Florida wrote, referring to the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

The restrictions will “effectively destroy the people’s right to invoke the citizen initiative,” they added.

Smart & Safe Florida targeted a number of parts of the law.

As an example, the law caps how many completed petitions unregistered signature-gatherers can possess and makes violations of the restriction a felony. Only Florida residents who are U.S. citizens and have had their voting rights restored if they have been convicted of a felony can register to collect signatures. Unregistered people would be allowed to possess petitions for themselves, 25 other people and certain family members.

Petitions collected by ineligible people or unregistered individuals who violate the 25-petition cap would not be counted toward the number of signatures required for ballot placement.

The new law “is already dramatically infringing upon Smart & Safe’s core speech,” lawyers for the marijuana proposal’s sponsor wrote.

Out-of-state petition firms “already are luring” workers from Florida, including many who “have left or will soon leave” the state and are fearful of the “punitive impact” of the new law, the lawyers argued.

Another controversial part of the law shortens from 30 to 10 days the length of time for completed petitions to be submitted to supervisors of elections and increases penalties for late-filed petitions.

Sponsors face $50-a-day fines for each petition that is turned in late and up to $2,500-a-day fines for “willful” violations of the time restriction. Completed petitions must be turned into supervisors of elections offices in the county where the voter resides, regardless of where they were signed.

The 30-day deadline allowed Smart & Safe Florida to employ “quality controls,” such as flagging incomplete or defective petitions and segregating them to make the validation process more efficient for elections officials and to help address allegations of fraudulent submissions and penalties.

“Mandating an arbitrary and severely truncated delivery deadline has nothing to do with protecting ballot integrity” and “sets sponsors up for failure because it creates unreasonable constraints on the petition gathering process and renders any meaningful quality control impossible — leading to invalidity rates, errors, and subsequent punitive fines,” the committee’s lawyers wrote.

Smart & Safe Florida also is gearing up to sponsor a second proposal for the 2026 ballot that would allow medical-marijuana patients and their caregivers to grow their own cannabis, according to the court documents.

The committee submitted a “Home Cultivation of Medical Marijuana” proposal to the Department of State on Thursday, an email from Burhans to the state Division of Elections showed.

The legal challenge also targets part of the new law that prohibits sponsors from backing more than one amendment. The law does not specify if sponsors can only back one proposal at a time or if the single-proposal restriction lasts forever.

“Not only is this an outright ban on core political speech bearing zero relation to ballot integrity, the provision is vague and ambiguous,” Smart & Safe Florida’s lawyers argued.

As of Monday, Smart & Safe had submitted 218,983 valid signatures for the recreational-marijuana proposal — just shy of the 220,000 signatures needed to trigger a financial impact statement and Florida Supreme Court review of the measure. The committee needs to submit roughly 880,000 signatures by Feb. 1 to make it on the 2026 ballot. The group is eyeing the 2028 ballot if the proposal fails to get before voters next year, according to court documents.

Lawyers for the committee are asking Walker to find that the law is unconstitutional and block state and local officials from enforcing it.

By CLAIRE SAVAGE

The federal agency tasked with protecting workers’ civil rights has moved to terminate a New York administrative judge who has resisted compliance with directives from the White House, including President Donald Trump’s executive order decreeing male and female as two “immutable” sexes.

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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in response to Trump’s order has moved to drop at least seven of its own pending cases representing transgender workers alleging discrimination, and is classifying all new gender identity-related discrimination cases as its lowest priority, signaling a major departure from its prior interpretation of civil rights law.

EEOC Administrative Judge Karen Ortiz, who in February criticized the agency’s Trump-appointed head, Acting Chair Andrea Lucas, in an email copied to more than 1,000 colleagues, on Wednesday was placed on administrative leave. She also received notice that the EEOC leadership sought to fire her, accusing her of “profoundly unprofessional” conduct.

“Of particular concern, your February email was ultimately circulated to multiple press outlets, potentially resulting in significant reputational harm to the agency,” according to the notice, which included a PDF of a March 10 article by The Associated Press about Ortiz, along with other materials.

An EEOC spokesperson said on Monday that the agency had no comment on Ortiz’s termination proceedings. But in its notice to Ortiz, the agency said its action “does not pertain to the content of your disagreement with the Agency policy, but rather the disrespectful and disparaging manner in which you have conveyed your message.”

In her February mass-email criticizing the agency’s efforts to comply with Trump’s order, Ortiz wrote to Lucas that “You are not fit to be our chair much less hold a license to practice law,” adding: “I will not compromise my ethics and my duty to uphold the law.” The letter was leaked on Reddit, where it gained more than 10,000 “upvotes.” Many users cheered its author.

The EEOC subsequently revoked her email privileges for about a week and issued her a written reprimand for “discourteous conduct.”

Ortiz’s actions were cited in an April 18 White House proposal aimed to make it easier to fire some federal workers. It listed Ortiz as an example of bureaucrats who “use the protections the system gives them to oppose presidential policies and impose their own preferences.”

Ortiz said she was unfazed after being called out by the nation’s highest office. Trump “just gave me an even bigger platform,” she said in an April 19 message to The AP.

The EEOC has undergone tumultuous change since Trump took office. He fired two of the three Democratic commissioners of the federal agency in an unprecedented move that swept away what would have been a key barrier to his campaign to dismantle diversity and inclusion programs, end protections for transgender and nonbinary workers and other priorities. One of the dismissed commissioners, Jocelyn Samuels, filed a lawsuit challenging her termination, arguing her removal was a violation of the Civil Rights Act that created the agency to be an independent and bipartisan protector of the rights of workers. The move also left the agency without the quorum needed to make key decisions. But last week, Trump tapped an assistant U.S. attorney in Florida, Brittany Panuccio, to fill one of the vacancies. If Panuccio is confirmed by the Senate, the EEOC would regain a quorum and establish a Republican majority 2-1, clearing the path to make major policy changes, including revising agency guidance on how to implement existing civil rights laws.

Since February, Ortiz said she has continued to “raise the alarm” and convey her opposition to the agency’s actions, including in an April 24 email to Lucas and several other internal email groups with the subject line, “If You’re Seeking Power, Here’s Power” and a link to Tears for Fears’ 1985 hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”

“Take in the lyrics,” Ortiz wrote to Lucas. “Ponder what you’re allowing yourself to be a part of.”

Her ability to send emails was again promptly revoked.

Ortiz said she plans to fight the termination, and is strategizing with her attorneys and union on how best to respond. She may reply to the dismissal notice within 15 days, and has the right to request a time extension, an attorney, a union representative, or another representative of her choosing, according to the document, which was acquired by The AP. A final decision will be issued after the reply period has passed.

“I’ve been quite the thorn in the agency’s side,” Ortiz said Monday in a phone interview with The AP. “But, you know, it’s warranted.”

The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By MORIAH BALINGIT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans want to set aside up to $5 billion a year for scholarships to help families send their children to private and religious schools, an unprecedented effort to use public money to pay for private education.

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The proposal, part of a budget reconciliation bill released Monday, would advance President Donald Trump’s agenda of establishing “universal school choice” by providing families nationwide the option to give their children an education different from the one offered in their local public school. Nearly all households would qualify except those making more than three times the local median income.

Supporters of private school vouchers say they want to give families assigned to low-performing schools more choices.

“Giving parents the ability to choose the best education for their child makes the (American Dream) possible,” said Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who sponsored a similar proposal in the Senate.

The program would be funded by donors who could contribute money or stock. In turn, they would receive 100% of the contribution back in the form of a discount on their tax bills. It would allow stock holders to avoid paying taxes that would be levied if they donated or transferred the stock.

Critics decried the proposal, saying it would aid the wealthy at the expense of the public school systems that serve the overwhelming majority of students. They said it would set up a tax shelter allowing savvy investors to make money under the guise of a donation.

All of this comes as the Trump administration downsizes the Education Department and cuts resources to public schools, including $1 billion in mental health grants and funding for teacher training.

“This is a significant threat,” said Sasha Pudelski of AASA, the School Superintendents Association. She added that states that have voucher programs often end up assisting families that were already paying for private school. “It’s opening the door even wider to what has already plagued voucher programs around the country, which is rampant waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Similar tax-credit scholarship and private school voucher programs have proliferated in red-leaning states like Texas, which just passed a $1 billion program. Public school advocates worry the programs hurt enrollment and per-pupil funding, ultimately leaving fewer resources for families that choose public schools.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

A federal judge on Monday refused to block the Internal Revenue Service from sharing immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S.

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In a win for the Trump administration, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich denied a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by nonprofit groups. They argued that undocumented immigrants who pay taxes are entitled to the same privacy protections as U.S. citizens and immigrants who are legally in the country.

Friedrich, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, had previously refused to grant a temporary order in the case.

The decision comes less than a month after former acting IRS commissioner Melanie Krause resigned over the deal allowing ICE to submit names and addresses of immigrants inside the U.S. illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records.

“The plaintiffs are disappointed in the Court’s denial of our preliminary injunction, but the case is far from over. We are considering our options,” Alan Butler Morrison, the attorney representing the nonprofit groups, wrote in an email. He noted that the judge’s ruling made it clear that the Department of Homeland Security and the IRS can’t venture beyond the strict limitations spelled out in the case.

“So far, DHS has not made formal requests for taxpayer data and plaintiffs will be keeping a close watch to be sure that the defendants carry out their promises to follow the law and not use the exception for unlawful purposes,” Morrison said.

The IRS has been in upheaval over Trump administration decisions to share taxpayer data. A previous acting commissioner announced his retirement earlier amid a furor over Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency gaining access to IRS taxpayer data.

The Treasury Department says the agreement with ICE will help carry out President Donald Trump’s agenda to secure U.S. borders and is part of his larger nationwide immigration crackdown, which has resulted in deportations, workplace raids and the use of an 18th century wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants.

The acting ICE director has said working with Treasury and other departments is “strictly for the major criminal cases.”

Advocates, however, say the IRS-DHS information-sharing agreement violates privacy laws and diminishes the privacy of all Americans.

In her ruling, Friedrich said the agreement doesn’t violate the Internal Revenue Code, so the IRS hasn’t substantially changed the way it handles taxpayer information. Instead, the Trump administration has decided to use already existing “statutorily authorized tools” to help with criminal investigations, Friedrich wrote.

Federal law allows the IRS to release some taxpayer information to other agencies if the information may assist in criminal enforcement proceedings, and the requesting agency meets certain criteria, the judge said.

Still, that doesn’t mean that all the information the IRS holds can be turned over, Friedrich said.

First, the investigating agency has to already have the name and address of the person whose information is being sought. Then the agency has to provide that information to the IRS, along with the time span for which the information relates, the law that allows the information to be released and the reason why any IRS-disclosed information would be relevant to the investigation.

“In other words, the IRS can disclose information it obtains itself (such as through audits), but not information it obtains exclusively from the taxpayer (such as a tax return filed by the taxpayer),” Friedrich wrote. She noted the law contains a significant exception — a taxpayer’s identity, including the individual’s name, address or taxpayer identifying number, isn’t considered part of the protected tax return information.