A U.S. Army staff sergeant is trying to halt his wife's deportation after she was detained inside a Louisiana military base where the couple was planning to live together just days after their wedding.

The effort to remove the soldier's wife, who was born in Honduras and remained in a federal immigration detention center Monday, has drawn backlash from military family advocates who called the detention demoralizing in a time of war and warned that deporting spouses could undermine recruitment.

Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank said he brought his wife, Annie Ramos, 22, to his base in Fort Polk, Louisiana, last Thursday so that she could begin the process to receive military benefits and take steps toward a green card. The couple married in March.

Federal immigration agents detained Ramos as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda, which legal experts say has dispensed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's practice of leniency toward families of military members.

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"I never imagined that trying to do the right thing would lead to her being taken away from me," said Blank, 23, in a statement to The Associated Press. "What was supposed to be the happiest week of our lives has turned into one of the hardest."

Ramos' detention was first reported by The New York Times.

Ramos entered the U.S. in 2005, when she was younger than 2 years old. That same year, her family failed to appear for an immigration hearing, leading a judge to issue a final order of removal, according to DHS.

"She has no legal status to be in this country," DHS said in an emailed statement. "This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law."

In 2020, Ramos applied to receive Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, but her husband says her application has remained "in limbo" amid legal fights to end the Obama-era program.

Last April, DHS eliminated a 2022 policy that considered military service of an immediate family member to be a "significant mitigating factor" in deciding whether or not to pursue immigration enforcement. The administration's new policy states that "military service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws."

Prior to the Trump administration's mass deportation push, DHS generally allowed the spouses of active-duty military members to gain legal status through policies like parole in place and deferred action that military recruiters promote, according to Margaret Stock, a military immigration law expert.

Ramos' case would have been easy to resolve in the past, Stock said, but instead DHS now appears to be focusing on detaining members of military families whenever the opportunity arises including when, like Ramos, they are attempting to apply for legal status.

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"It doesn't make any sense they're going to get arrested for following the law? That's stupid," Stock said. "It's bad for morale, it disrupts the soldiers' readiness."

In September, more than 60 members of Congress wrote to DHS and the U.S. Department of Defense warning that arrests of military personnel and veteran's family members was "betraying its promises to service members who play a key role in protecting U.S. national security."

The Pentagon declined to comment.

Lydiah Owiti-Otienoh, who runs an advocacy group called the Foreign-Born Military Spouse Network, said she's anecdotally seen an increase in cases where the lives of military families have been upended by tightening immigration restrictions. She believes the federal government is undermining its own interests by attempting to deport military spouses.

"It just sends a really bad message we don't care about you, about your spouses, anything you are doing," Owiti-Otienoh said. "If military families are not stable, national security is not stable."

Blank's mother, Jen Rickling, told the AP in a statement that her daughter-in-law, a Sunday school teacher and biochemistry major, had been everything she hoped for someone who "loves my son with her whole heart."

"We absolutely adore her," Rickling said. "I believe in this country. And I believe we can do better than this for Annie, for other military families, and for the values we hold dear."

Blank says he had been eager to start building a life and with Ramos on the base while he served his country.

"I want my wife home," Blank said. "And I will not stop fighting until she is back where she belongs, by my side."

The rapper formerly known as Kanye West has been barred from entering the U.K., where he was scheduled to perform at the Wireless Festival in July.

It came after government officials condemned Ye's history of antisemitic remarks.

The festival's organizers confirmed the ban and said the entire three-day festival was being canceled as a result.

Ye's travel authorization had been blocked on the grounds that the performer's presence in the U.K. would not be "conducive to the public good," the BBC said, citing the Home Office.

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Ye had been expected to perform in front of around 150,000 revelers July 10-12 at the open-air festival in London's Finsbury Park.

Earlier, a senior member of the British government said Ye should "absolutely not" play at the festival. Ye had responded to the controversy by offering to meet members of the U.K.'s Jewish community and show he has changed since provoking outrage with antisemitic statements.

Festival organizers had been under mounting pressure from sponsors and politicians to cancel the gigs by the rapper, who has drawn widespread condemnation for making antisemitic remarks and voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler.

Last year, Ye released a song called "Heil Hitler" and advertised a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website. The 48-year-old apologized in January with a letter, published as a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal. He said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into "a four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life."

Wireless sponsors Pepsi, Rockstar Energy and Diageo pulled out of the festival since Ye was announced as the headliner, and Starmer called the booking "deeply concerning."

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In a statement Tuesday, Ye, who changed his name in 2021, said he "would be grateful for the opportunity to meet with members of the Jewish community in the U.K. in person, to listen.

"I know words aren't enough I'll have to show change through my actions," he said. "If you're open, I'm here."

Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said the group would be willing to meet with the musician if he pulled out of the festival.

"The Jewish community will want to see a genuine remorse and change before believing that the appropriate place to test this sincerity is on the main stage at the Wireless Festival," Rosenberg said.

Organizer Festival Republic had stood by Ye. In a statement issued Monday, managing director Melvin Benn urged people to offer the performer "forgiveness and hope."

"We are not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions," the statement said.

U.K. Health Secretary Wes Streeting dismissed the organizers' statement as "absurd" and said Ye should "absolutely not" perform at Wireless.

A representative for Ye didn't reply to a request for comment.

The rapper Offset was shot Monday and is stable, according to a spokesperson for the Migos rapper, but his exact condition is unknown.

He is being treated at a hospital and being closely monitored, the spokesperson said in a statement.

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Offset was formerly married to Cardi B, with whom he has three children.

The Seminole Police Department said a person sustained injuries that were not life-threatening Monday evening at a valet area outside of the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. The police department did not identify the victim.

Two people were detained by police and officials are investigating the incident, according to a statement from the police department.

The site is secure and there is no threat to the public, according to the police department. Operations continue as normal.

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Offset's cousin Takeoff, another member of Migos, was shot dead in 2022.

The trio, with its rapid-fire triplet flow, became known as one of the most popular hip-hop groups of all time. It broke out with the 2013 hit Versace and later earned Grammy nominations for best rap album with 2018s Culture," while a track off it nabbed a nod for best rap performance.

Offset and Cardi B were secretly wed in September 2017 in Atlanta. In 2024, Cardi B announced that she filed for divorce.

Michigan's Roddy Gayle Jr. snagged a final rebound, then flung the ball to the other end of the court, effectively ending UConn's frantic bid for a miracle.

The horn sounded, and Morez Johnson Jr. came over to share a celebratory scream and hearty hug from one transfer to another as the Wolverines began running toward midcourt to celebrate a national championship.

Maybe a school really can build an ideal college basketball roster amid the topsy-turvy chaos of the transfer portal, paying players and top-to-bottom overhauls.

Michigan proved it Monday night, rolling out an all-transfer starting lineup that was too big, too strong and too capable of countering anything that UConn could muster even on a night when the 3-point shot wasn't falling and All-American Yaxel Lendeborg was hobbled by ankle and knee injuries.

The Wolverines still had enough to hold off the Huskies 69-63 and claim the program's first title in 37 years.

And they showed how second-year Dusty May assembled a resilient roster by diving all the way into the portal.

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Man, this whole year, we were a team that played together, Lendeborg said as he stood amid the confetti on the court at Lucas Oil Stadium. We didn't have a best player, like I said before. We have a guy that steps up big-time in these games.

We have players that make plays when they need to make them. And we just played a full all-around team basketball game today. We did it.

It didn't matter that the Wolverines shot just 38% while making 2 of 15 3-pointers stunning numbers for a team that entered the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 8 nationally in KenPom's adjusted offensive efficiency (126.6 points per 100 possessions).

It didn't matter that they were outrebounded and gave up an incredible 22 offensive boards.

Nor that Lendeborg carried an awkward gait as he grinded his way through a 4-for-13 shooting effort in 36 minutes after twisting his left ankle and spraining a knee ligament in Saturday's win over Arizona in the Final Four.

Not the way these guys complemented each other on the sport's biggest stage.

Point guard Elliot Cadeau, in his first season after two up-and-down years at North Carolina, had 19 points and was named the Final Four's most outstanding player. Johnson, in his first year from Illinois, had 12 points and 10 rebounds. The 7-foot-3 Aday Mara, in his first year from UCLA, helped hold UConn big man Tarris Reed Jr. who had been a March Madness force to just 4-of-12 shooting.

Nobody cared about stats the whole season. Nobody cared about nothing but winning, Cadeau said.

Four of Michigan's five starters were in their first year after transferring: Cadeau, Johnson, Mara and Lendeborg (UAB).

The fifth starter, Nimari Burnett, was practically a Michigan lifer by comparison; he was in his third season with the Wolverines, after starting his career at Texas Tech then spending two years at Alabama. A similar story followed Gayle, a reserve who had spent two years at rival Ohio State before these last two years in Ann Arbor.

That left only two players in Michigan's eight-man rotation who would qualify as homegrown talent: freshman Trey McKinney and fifth-year graduate Will Tschetter.

It's an approach that tailored to the current era of the sport, with players transferring freely between campuses and cleared to profit from the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL), along with schools able to pay athletes directly with the arrival of revenue sharing.

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Purists have complained that the revolving door of players makes it harder for fans to get behind their schools than it was when most players spent multiple seasons in the same uniform. Transfers even featured prominently in an executive order signed last week by President Donald Trump seeking to reform college sports.

May shrugged off the critics on Sunday, noting, I think we are all better in certain situations than others.

Athletic director Warde Manuel offered a similar defense on the court Monday night after the program claimed its first national title since the Glen Rice-led Wolverines cut down the nets in Seattle in 1989.

A lot of teams around the country benefited from transfers, Manuel said. You can't just say, Well, Michigan had the most transfers. Dusty put this team together the way he did.

And it worked to perfection.

By the end, Mara was jumping around with a few teammates after they had watched the One Shining Moment music montage of tournament highlights, with someone picking up a handful of confetti and tossing it into the air to flutter around them.

It's important to get the right people on the bus, assistant coach Justin Joyner said. It's important to get unselfish guys that are about winning, that are about the group. We had that with the best of our players. Yaxel Lendeborg's one of the most unselfish superstars you'll ever be around.

So when you have that from the top, it permeates through your locker room, it permeates through your group. And eventually you can become a unit that's about winning.

Irans state-run IRNA news agency says Tehran has rejected the latest ceasefire proposal and wants a permanent end to the war.

The report comes shortly before U.S. President Donald Trumps deadline for Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz or see its power plants and bridges attacked.

The news agency said Iran had conveyed its response to the U.S. through Pakistan.

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We wont merely accept a ceasefire, Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press on Monday. We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we wont be attacked again.

On the Strait of Hormuz, Ferdousi Pour said Iranian and Omani officials were working on a mechanism for administering the shipping chokepoint.

Irans attacks on regional energy infrastructure and its hold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the worlds oil is shipped in peacetime, have sent global energy prices soaring.

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Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose to $109 in early Monday spot trading, about 50% higher than when the war started, then wavered. U.S. stocks were mostly holding steady.

Under pressure at home as consumers worry, Trump has warned Iran that if no deal is reached to reopen the strait, the U.S. would hit power plants and other infrastructure and set the country back to the stone ages.

Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, he threatened Sunday.

Trump has given multiple deadlines to Iran and they could expire Monday night Washington time though he also posted: Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time! without elaborating.

Blake Lively's sexual harassment claims against Justin Baldoni over the movie "It Ends With Us" were dismissed Thursday by a federal judge who left intact three claims, including retaliation, that will let a jury hear many of the allegations anyway.

The written ruling by Judge Lewis J. Liman in Manhattan came after Lively, who starred in and produced the film, sued her co-star and director in December 2024. A trial is scheduled for May 18.

Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios had countersued Lively and her husband, "Deadpool" actor Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of defamation and extortion. The judge dismissed Baldoni's claims last June.

In his ruling, Liman determined that Lively was an independent contractor rather than an employee. On that basis, he said she was not entitled to bring sexual harassment claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That law prohibits employment discrimination on various grounds, including gender.

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As to retaliation, the judge said some evidence might enable a jury to conclude that Baldoni's production company planned not only to damage Lively's reputation but to destroy her career amid fear she'd file a discrimination claim. Lively alleges a smear campaign has been "devastating for her reputation and career," the judge noted.

In an analysis of the sexual harassment claims, the judge said Lively's claims had to be viewed in the context of the movie they were working on.

"Lively claims that during filming, Baldoni leaned in and gestured as if he was intending to kiss her, and that he kissed her forehead, rubbed his face and mouth against her neck, put his thumb to her mouth and flicked her lower lip, caressed her, and leaned into her neck, saying 'it smells good,'" the judge wrote.

He said there was no question that the conduct would support a hostile work environment claim if it happened on a factory floor or in an executive suite.

However, the judge noted, Baldoni was "acting in the scene" and his "conduct was not so far beyond what might reasonably be expected to take place between two characters during a slow dancing scene such that an inference of hostile treatment on the basis of sex would arise. At least in isolation, the conduct was directed to Lively's character rather than to Lively herself."

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Liman added: "Creative artists, no less than comedy room writers, must have some amount of space to experiment within the bounds of an agreed script without fear of being held liable for sexual harassment."

Despite those findings, the judge said some sexual harassment claims may be put to a jury to support two retaliation claims that survived the ruling, including one against It Ends With Us Movie LLC and Wayfarer Studios, and a third claim that was left intact alleging breach of a contract rider agreement against It Ends With Us Movie LLC.

The judge noted that Baldoni once said "pretty hot" after asking Lively to remove her jacket, exposing a lace bra underneath, and that when he was warned that it was inappropriate and distracting to make such comment, he allegedly rolled his eyes and responded: "Sorry, I missed the sexual harassment training."

Liman also cited a scene in which Baldoni pushed for Lively to perform a birth scene naked, and then the scene was filmed over several hours without the set being closed to nonessential personnel.

In a statement, Lively attorney Sigrid McCawley wrote that Lively "looks forward to testifying at trial and continuing to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation so that it become easier to detect and fight."

She added: "This case has always been and will remain focused on the devasting retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively's reputation because she stood up for safety on the set and that is the case that is going to trial."

Bryan Freedman, a lawyer for Baldoni, said the defendants in the case were "very good people who have not engaged in this sexual harassment as alleged."

"It is gratifying to see that the courts ruling confirms what the legal team believed from day one," Freedman said in an email to The Associated Press.

"It Ends With Us," an adaptation of Colleen Hoover's bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August 2024, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. But the movie's release was shrouded by speculation over discord between Lively and Baldoni.

Lively appeared in the 2005 film "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and the TV series "Gossip Girl" from 2007 to 2012 before starring in films including "The Town" and "The Shallows."

Baldoni starred in the TV comedy "Jane the Virgin," directed the 2019 film "Five Feet Apart" and wrote "Man Enough," a book challenging traditional notions of masculinity.

President Donald Trump is asking Congress to boost defense spending to $1.5 trillion, the largest such request in decades and the latest signal of the president's emphasis on U.S. military investments over domestic programs.

The 2027 plans for the Pentagon were confirmed in a White House outline of Trump's 2027 budget proposal released Friday. The White House summary says Trump's proposal would reduce nondefense spending by 10% by shifting some responsibilities to state and local governments.

Even before the U.S.-led war against Iran, the Republican president had indicated he wanted to bolster defense spending to modernize the military for 21st-century threats. Separately, the Pentagon last month proposed $200 billion for the war effort and to backfill munitions and supplies.

Trump, speaking ahead of an address to the nation this week about the Iran war, signaled the military is his priority, setting up a clash ahead in Congress.

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Were fighting wars. We cant take care of day care, Trump said at a private White House event Wednesday.

Its not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare all these individual things, he said. They can do it on a state basis. You cant do it on a federal.

The president's annual budget, more broadly, is considered a reflection of the administration's values and does not carry the force of law. The massive document typically highlights an administrations priorities, but Congress, which handles federal spending issues, is free to reject it and often does.

With the nation running nearly $2 trillion annual deficits and the debt swelling past $39 trillion, the federal balance sheets have long been operating in the red.

About two-thirds of the nation's estimated $7 trillion in annual spending covers the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs, as well as Social Security income, which are essentially growing along with an aging population on autopilot.

The rest of the annual budget has typically been more evenly split between defense and domestic accounts, nearly $1 trillion each, which is where much of the debate in Congress takes place.

The GOP's big tax breaks bill that Trump signed into law last year boosted his priorities beyond the budget process with at least $150 billion for the Pentagon over the next several years, and $170 billion for Trumps immigration and deportation operations at the Department of Homeland Security.

This years White House document, prepared by Budget Director Russ Vought, is intended to provide a road map from the president to Congress as lawmakers build their own budgets and annual appropriations bills to keep the government funded. Vought spoke to House GOP lawmakers on a private call Thursday.

Congress still fighting over 2026 spending

The president's budget arrives as the House and Senate remain tangled over current-year spending and stalemated over DHS funding, with Democrats demanding changes to Trumps immigration enforcement regime that Republicans are unwilling to accept.

Trump announced Thursday he would sign an executive order to pay all DHS workers who have gone without paychecks during the record-long partial government shutdown that has reached 49 days. The Republican leadership in Congress reached an agreement this week on a path forward to fund the department, but lawmakers are away on spring break and have not yet voted on any new legislation.

Last year, in the president's first budget since returning to the White House, Trump sought to fulfill his promise to vastly reduce the size and scope of the federal government, reflecting the efforts of billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

As DOGE slashed through federal offices and Vought sought to claw back funds, Congress did not always agree.

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For example, Trump sought a roughly one-fifth decrease in non-defense spending for the current budget year ending Sept. 30, but Congress kept such spending relatively flat.

Some of the programs that Trump tried to eliminate entirely, such as assisting families with their energy costs, got a slight uptick in funding. Others got flat funding, such as the Community Development Block Grants that states and local communities use to fund an array of projects intended mostly to help low-income communities through new parks, sewer systems and affordable housing.

Lawmakers have also focused on ensuring the administration spends federal dollars as directed by Congress. This years spending bills contained what Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, described as hundreds upon hundreds of specific funding levels and directives that the administration is required to follow.

Two U.S. military planes were shot down in separate incidents on Friday, and while one crew member was rescued in Iran, the whereabouts of at least one other was unknown marking a dramatic escalation since the war began nearly five weeks ago.

It was the first time U.S. aircraft had been downed in the conflict and came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has beaten and completely decimated Iran and was going to finish the job, and were going to finish it very fast.

One fighter jet was shot down in Iran, officials said. A U.S. crew member from that jet was rescued, but a second was missing.

The rescue occurred as the U.S. military was conducting a search operation, a U.S. official and an Israeli official said. Three people familiar also confirmed that a search had been underway. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitivity of the situation.

No official details were released.

But the Pentagon notified the House Armed Services Committee that the status of a second service member is not known.

In an email from the Pentagon obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. military said it received notification of an aircraft being shot down in the Middle East, without providing more details.

Separately, Iranian state media said that a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft had crashed into Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defense forces.

Earlier, a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation, said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down or whether Iran was involved. Neither the status of that aircraft's crew, nor exactly where the aircraft, went down was immediately known.

Those incidents came as Iran fired on targets across the Mideast on Friday, keeping the pressure on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors, despite U.S. and Israeli insistence that Irans military capabilities have been all but destroyed.

Irans attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the worlds oil and natural gas transits in peacetime, have roiled stock markets, sent oil prices skyrocketing, and threatened to raise the cost of many basic goods, including food.

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Downed jet could mark a new level of pressure on the US

Prior to word of the rescue, social media footage showed American drones, aircraft and helicopters flying over the mountainous region where a TV channel affiliated with Iranian state television had said earlier Friday that at least one pilot bailed out of the fighter jet.

An anchor had urged residents to hand over any enemy pilot to police and promised a reward.

It was the first time the U.S. has lost aircraft in Iranian territory during the conflict and could mark a new level of pressure being placed on the U.S. military.

Throughout the war, Iran has made a series of claims about shooting down piloted enemy aircraft that turned out not to be true. Friday was the first time that Iran went on television urging the public to look for a downed pilot.

Iranian state media said in a post on X that Irans military shot down a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle. The aircraft is a variation of the Air Force fighter jet that carries a pilot and weapons system officer.

Alan Diehl, a former investigator for the Air Force Safety Center, said the Strike Eagle has an emergency locator beacon in a survival kit that can be set to activate automatically or manually.

The Pentagon did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a previous statement that Trump had been briefed but did not offer additional information.

Iran targets a desalination plant and a refinery

News about the fighter jet came after Iran attacked Kuwaits Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery. The state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp. said firefighters were working to control several blazes.

Kuwait also said an Iranian attack caused material damage to a desalination plant. Such plants are responsible for most of the drinking water for Gulf states, and they have become a major target in the war.

Sirens also sounded in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia said it had destroyed several Iranian drones, and Israel reported incoming missiles.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates shut down a gas field after a missile interception reportedly rained debris on it and started a fire.

Activists reported strikes around Tehran and the central city of Isfahan, but it wasnt immediately clear what was hit.

In Lebanon, where Israel has launched a ground invasion in its fight with the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militant group, an Israeli drone strike on worshippers leaving Friday prayers near Beirut killed two people, according to the staterun National News Agency

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes. In a review released Friday, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a U.S.-based group, said it found that civilian casualties were clustered around strikes on security and state-linked sites rather than indiscriminate bombardment of urban areas.

More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, 19 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.

More than 1,300 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in Lebanon. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.

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Iran is keeping a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz

World leaders have struggled to end Irans stranglehold on the strait, which has had far-reaching consequences for the global economy and has proved to be its greatest strategic advantage in the war.

The U.N. Security Council was expected to take up the matter on Saturday.

Trump has vacillated on Americas role in the strait, alternately threatening Iran if it doesnt open the waterway and telling other nations to go get your own oil. On Friday, he said in a post on social media that, With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE.

Spot prices of Brent crude, the international standard, were around $109 Friday, up more than 50% since the start of the war, when Iran began restricting traffic through the strait.

The Cuban government said Thursday it would release 2,010 prisoners in a move that comes while the Trump administration puts extreme pressure on the island's government with a suffocating oil blockade.

The announcement said the pardons were a humanitarian gesture in connection with Holy Week and didnt mention mounting pressures with the U.S.

The government said the prisoners affected are foreigners and Cubans, including women, the elderly and young people. It didn't say when they were being released or under what conditions, nor did it mention the crimes they were accused of committing.

Authorities also provided no details on whether any of those pardoned were protesters convicted and sentenced for terrorism, contempt or public disorder.

Cubas government denies holding political prisoners, but the activist group Prisoners Defended registered 1,214 people imprisoned for political reasons in Cuba as of February.

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Cuban authorities said the decision was based on a careful analysis of the characteristics of the crimes committed by those sanctioned, their good behavior in prison, having served a significant portion of their sentence, and their health status, according to a statement published in state media.

The release comes as the Trump administration has placed extreme pressure on Cubas government, imposing an oil blockade for months that has fueled blackouts and left many civilians suffering.

Cuba periodically frees prisoners at key moments.

In January last year, Cubas government released 553 prisoners as part of talks with the Vatican, a day after the Biden administration announced its intent to lift the U.S. designation of the island nation as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Last month, Cuba released 51 people from the islands prisons in an unexpected move that officials said stems from a spirit of goodwill and close relations with the Vatican.

The government said Thursday's announcement was the fifth prisoner release since 2011, and that it has freed more than 11,000 people.

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The announcement come just months after the U.S. deposed ex-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and pressured that nation's government to make radical changes, including releasing prisoners detained for political reasons and passing an amnesty law.

Former CIA Director Bill Burns has described the U.S.-Israeli war launched against Iran as a war of choice that may have only further empowered the most hard-line elements within its theocracy.

Burns, a former State Department diplomat, made the observation in a podcast by Foreign Affairs magazine.

This is a regime that is inept at many things like managing its economy, but it is designed to preserve itself and designed to repress its own people and designed to withstand even the decapitation of its senior leadership, said Burns, who secretly negotiated with the Iranians ahead of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers during the Obama administration.

Burns also disagreed with U.S. President Donald Trumps assessment that there had been a regime change in the airstrike campaign killing top leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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In some ways, its certainly a much weaker regime, but its also one thats even nastier and more radical and, you know, less open, he said.

He added that Irans theocracy thought victory is survival.

Ive believed for a long time that this is a regime thats on a kind of one-way street to its eventual collapse, but I worry that, you know, in this war, what weve done rather than accelerate that moment of collapse is slow it down a little bit, Burns said.

He noted Trump could try a ground operation to take Irans Kharg Island, its main oil terminal, or territory along the strait, but both carry significant risks.

RELATED STORY | In national address, Trump says Iran war could wrap in weeks

Then theres the third option, which is effectively declaring victory and the inversion of the old Colin Powell Pottery Barn rule, which was we break it, we own it, Burns said, referencing a comment attributed to former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Instead, it would be, we break it, you own it, and its over to you guys, whether its European allies or Gulf Arabs or anybody else to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

NASAs Artemis II astronauts fired their engines and blazed toward the moon Thursday night, breaking free of the chains that have trapped humanity in shallow laps around Earth in the decades since Apollo.

The so-called translunar ignition came 25 hours after liftoff, putting the three Americans and a Canadian on course for a lunar fly-around early next week. Their Orion capsule bolted out of orbit around Earth right on cue and chased after the moon to nearly 250,000 miles away.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am so, so excited to be able to tell you that for the first time since 1972 during Apollo 17, human beings have left Earth orbit, NASAs Lori Glaze announced at a news conference.

The engine firing was flawless, she noted.

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen said he and his crewmates were glued to the capsule's windows as they left Earth in the rearview mirror, taking in the phenomenal views.

Humanity has once again shown what we are capable of, and its your hopes for the future that carry us now on this journey around the moon, he said.

NASA had the Artemis II crew stick close to home for a day to test their capsules life-support systems before clearing them for lunar departure.

Now committed to the moon, the Artemis II test flight is the opening act for NASAs grand plans for a moon base and sustained lunar living.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Hansen will dash past the moon then hang a U-turn and zip straight home without stopping on land. In the process, they will become the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth, breaking the Apollo 13 distance record set in 1970. They also may become the fastest during their reentry at flights end on April 10.

Glover, Koch and Hansen already have made history as the first Black, the first woman and the first non-U.S. citizen to launch to the moon. Apollos 24 lunar travelers were all white men.

To set the mood for the days main event, Mission Control woke up the crew with John Legends Green Light featuring Andre 3000 and a medley of NASA teams cheering them.

We are ready to go, Glover said.

ARTEMIS II LAUNCH | Artemis II astronauts lift off for historic mission around the moon

Mission Control gave the final go-ahead minutes before the critical engine firing, telling the astronauts that they were embarking on humanitys lunar homecoming arc to bring them back to Earth. The capsule is relying on the gravity of Earth and the moon termed a free-return lunar trajectory to complete the round-trip figure-eight loop. The engine accelerated their capsule to 24,000 mph to shove them out of Earth's orbit.

With this burn to the moon, we do not leave Earth. We choose it, Koch said.

The next major milestone will be Mondays lunar flyby.

Orion will zoom 4,000 miles beyond the moon before turning back, providing unprecedented and illuminated views of the lunar far side, at least for human eyes. The cosmos will even treat the Artemis II astronauts to a total solar eclipse as the moon temporarily blocks the sun from their perspective.

While awaiting their orbital departure earlier Thursday, the astronauts savored the views of Earth from tens of thousands of miles high. Koch told Mission Control that they can make out the entire coastlines of continents and even the South Pole, her old stomping ground.

NASA is counting on the test flight to kickstart the entire Artemis program and lead to a moon landing by two astronauts in 2028. Orions toilet may need some design tweaks before that happens.

The so-called lunar loo malfunctioned as soon as the Artemis crew reached orbit Wednesday evening. Mission Control guided astronaut Koch through some plumbing tricks and she finally got it going, but not before having to resort to using contingency urine storage bags.

Controllers also managed to bump up the cabin temperature. It was so cold earlier in the flight that the astronauts had to dig into their suitcases for long-sleeved clothes.

The contingency urine bags came in handy later in the day. Mission Control ordered the crew to fill a bunch of the empty bags with water from the capsules dispenser. A valve issue arose with the dispenser following liftoff, and NASA wanted plenty of drinking water on hand for the crew in case the problem worsened. The astronauts used straws and syringes to fill the pouches with more than 2 gallons worth before pivoting to the moon.

A quadruple amputee professional cornhole player acted in self-defense when he shot and killed a passenger in his Tesla during a heated argument, his attorney said Wednesday.

Dayton James Webber, 27, appeared in Charles County District Court via videoconference for the bail review Wednesday, where Judge Patrick Devine noted that he left Maryland after the March 22 shooting of 27-year-old Bradrick Michael Wells and ordered Webber to remain jailed without bail.

Webber, who was extradited from Virginia and is charged with first- and second-degree murder, hasn't entered a plea yet and is due in court for a May 6 preliminary hearing. He also faces assault and firearm charges.

Defense attorney Andrew Jezic told the court that Webber acted in self-defense and that he anticipates "a lengthy trial" to prove it.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Quadruple amputee athlete accused of fatally shooting man during argument

After the hearing, Jezic told reporters that his client was "terrified."

"The truth here is that he would have been a murder victim if he had not acted immediately in defense of his life," Jezic said.

Family members of Webber declined to comment after the hearing.

Webber, whose arms and legs were amputated when he was 10 months old to save his life after he contracted a serious blood infection, is accused of shooting Wells, of Waldorf, twice in the head during an argument, according to police charging documents.

Karen Piper Mitchell, a deputy state's attorney, said witnesses in the car told authorities the argument was over a gun that a friend of Wells had stolen from Webber, and that Webber was upset Wells was still friends with the thief.

She said Webber and Wells had a history of arguing, including a 2024 incident in which Webber ordered Wells to leave his home. While Wells was leaving, Mitchell said Webber fired a shot from a second floor window. Jezic said Webber fired into the air.

In arguing that Webber should remain in custody, Mitchell noted that he drove to Virginia after the shooting and owns firearms.

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Authorities haven't publicly addressed whether the vehicle's cameras captured any of what happened or whether self-driving functionality was in use in the Tesla when the shooting occurred.

According to the charging documents, Webber pulled over after the shooting in La Plata, Maryland, and asked two backseat passengers to help pull the victim out, but they refused, got out of the car and flagged down police officers.

Webber fled with the victim still in the car, the Charles County sheriff's office said. Two hours later, a resident in Charlotte Hall, about 10 miles (16-kilometer) away, found Wells' body in a yard along a road and notified officers.

Detectives tracked down Webber's car in Charlottesville, Virginia, and found Webber at a hospital where he was "seeking treatment for a medical issue," the sheriff's office said.

ICYMI | Kentucky man who won Powerball last year arrested for allegedly stealing cash from a home

Webber was featured by ESPN in 2023 in a story of inspiration, noting he rode dirt bikes, wrestled and played football before becoming a professional cornhole player. The same year, he wrote an essay for the "Today" show about how he became a professional competitor. He said he learned to grab the bean bag by the corners and throw it using his amputated arms.

A YouTube video posted two years ago shows Webber loading and firing a handgun.

Democrats sued Wednesday to block President Donald Trump's latest executive order restricting mail voting, arguing that the U.S. Constitution empowers states and Congress, not the president, to determine who is eligible to vote by mail.

The lawsuit marks the second round of battles over the president's power to control elections. Trump's opponents handily won the first round last year, blocking his initial executive order intended to reshape election procedures by convincing multiple federal judges that it was likely unconstitutional.

Trump on Tuesday announced that his administration would compile lists of who is eligible to vote in states and that the U.S. Postal Service would only mail ballots to those who met that criteria. Critics note that there's little time to comb through voter rolls before ballots start going out for this fall's elections, in some places as soon as September, and question whether the administration's list would be reliable.

RELATED STORY | Trump signs executive order tightening mail-in voting rules

The lawsuit was filed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic National Committee and other party organizations working on campaigns for the House, Senate and governor offices around the country. Trump is one of the defendants, along with top administration officials.

"We will see him in court and we will beat him again," Schumer said in a statement.

Democrats said Trump was attempting to strike at the heart of America's democratic machinery.

President Trump has tried again and again to rewrite election rules for his own perceived partisan advantage, their lawsuit said. It adds that our Constitutions Framers anticipated this kind of desire for absolute power, dispersing the power to control elections to individual states and Congress.

Mail voting has existed for more than a century and had steadily been increasing in popularity in both Democratic and Republican states until 2020. Then Trump decided to target the method, levying baseless claims of mass fraud. As a result, it's become less popular among Republicans and more among Democrats, giving Trump additional incentive to throttle it before midterm elections that will determine whether his party continues to control Congress.

Trump himself often votes by mail, as recently as in a special election in Florida last month.

Since he returned to office, Trump has tried to interfere in state-run elections, citing often-disproven falsehoods about how fraud cost him the presidency in 2020. Repeated investigations, including ones by Republicans, showed no significant fraud in the 2020 vote.

RELATED STORY | 'Because I'm president': Trump defends casting mailin ballot ahead of election

Nonetheless, Trump has called for his administration to take over voting in Democratic areas, launched a probe of the 2020 vote fueled by election conspiracy theories and unsuccessfully pushed Congress to pass a law that would create new hurdles on voting, including a requirement that people provide in-person, documentary proof of citizenship when registering. That bill has stalled in the U.S. Senate over Democratic opposition.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Wednesday rescinded a rule that DHS expenditures over $100,000 be personally approved by his office, ending a widely criticized policy implemented by his predecessor Kristi Noem that critics said put a particular burden on the Federal Emergency Management Agency s work aiding disaster response and recovery.

The decision marks the first major action by the new Homeland Security leader, sworn in last week, to change a policy implemented by Noem, whom President Donald Trump fired in March.

Mullin's move is expected to ease a spending bottleneck that lawmakers and states said delayed disaster response and recovery funds, though those impacts are unlikely to be widely felt until after the end of the DHS shutdown, now in its 46th day.

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A DHS spokesperson confirmed that Mullin rescinded the rule Wednesday, telling The Associated Press the secretary re-evaluated the contract processes to make sure DHS is serving the American taxpayer efficiently. CBS News first reported Mullin's decision.

The spokesperson said Mullins action will streamline the contracting process and allocate aid more efficiently.

The International Association of Emergency Managers praised Mullins decision. We appreciate Secretary Mullins common-sense approach to this matter, and we look forward to working with him, said Josh Morton, president of IAEM-USA.

Noem issued a directive last June requiring that she personally approve any Department of Homeland Security expenditure over $100,000. Critics said the rule undermined FEMA in particular, an agency that routinely issues contracts and reimbursements well over that amount in its work preparing for and responding to natural and manmade disasters across the U.S.

The policy created an untenable situation for emergency managers, Morton said, and a bottleneck that also hindered mitigation and preparedness programs, putting Americans at increased risk from disasters.

A recently released report by Democratic members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found the approval rule had delayed at least 1,000 FEMA contracts, grants or disaster reimbursements by September.

RELATED STORY | Republican leaders in Congress say they'll pursue a path to ending the Homeland Security shutdown

The policy came under scrutiny after news reports linked it to unstaffed call centers and delays deploying FEMA Urban Search and Rescue teams to Texas during deadly floods last July, and brought sharp rebuke from some state officials and lawmakers, especially Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose state is still recovering from devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in 2024.

Youve failed at FEMA, Tillis told Noem at a Senate hearing the day before she was fired.

About $2.2 billion in recovery and mitigation dollars were in the DHS approval queue Wednesday, according to FEMA data seen by the AP.

Its got a great mission, and I think people at FEMA want to do their job, Mullin told lawmakers at his March confirmation hearing, sparking cautious hope that he would ease the tumult experienced at the agency under Noem.

Mullin said he would keep the agency adequately staffed after it lost over 2,400 employees last year, and said he was already considering nominees for a permanent FEMA administrator, which the agency still lacks.

Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of eliminating FEMA, saying as recently as Tuesday that the agency is very expensive and it really doesnt get the job done.

Michael Coen, FEMA chief of staff during the Obama and Biden administrations, said, Hopefully this a step toward transparency and stability between FEMA and states."

DHS is reviewing other policies across the agency, pausing the purchase of new warehouses for immigration detention this week as it reviews contracts signed under Noem.

Lifting the spending approval rule will not necessarily mean a rapid flow of FEMA reimbursements to states, tribes and territories, as the agency is still impacted by the DHS fund impasse, now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

While FEMA disaster response and recovery activities are paid out of a non-lapsing Disaster Relief Fund, that money is running low, a FEMA official warned lawmakers in a House hearing last week, with about $3.6 billion remaining. The DHS appropriations bill would add just over $26 billion to the fund.

Republican lawmakers on Wednesday signaled an agreement to end the shutdown could be reached in the coming days.

American freelance journalist Shelly Kittleson often worked without formal assignments from editors and on a shoestring budget, taking shared taxis to lawless corners of Iraq where militia rule outweighs government control.

Kittleson, 49, had lived abroad for years, using Rome as her base for a time and building a respected journalism career across the Middle East. On Wednesday, she vanished after being forced into a car by two men at a busy Baghdad intersection, surveillance camera footage showed.

She is a great reporter and always wants to go to areas where no one wants to go, said Patrizio Nissirio, a former editor at Italian news agency ANSA, who has known Kittleson since 2011, when she worked as a translator for the agency.

I said to her, You dont need to be in a war zone to do good journalism, and she told me, I think my work is worth something when I am in those areas, Nissirio said.

RELATED STORY | US journalist abducted in Iraq; State Department says she was warned of threats

Friends and fellow journalists describe Kittleson as a determined, gutsy reporter who had spent over a decade reporting from Iraq, Syria and the wider Middle East for a variety of news outlets including Al-Monitor, a regional news site.

Deeply curious and self-directed, she often embedded herself in local communities, sometimes staying with families rather than in hotels.

Her independence meant she often worked alone, traveling long distances and carrying heavy belongings with her at all times, while operating without the backing of a larger news organization that might have offered some protection.

The Wisconsin native was kind and spiritual, friends say, and had embraced Islam.

She was a vegetarian, a lifestyle her close Iraqi friends said was often difficult to accommodate in meat-heavy Middle Eastern countries, and she was frequently teased for her backbreaking bags. She distrusted leaving them behind at the modest hotel in Baghdad where she stayed.

Three Iraqi friends and acquaintances of Kittleson spoke about her on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal from armed groups if they were publicly linked to her.

In her final conversations before the abduction, she asked colleagues and friends about transport routes between cities while continuing to seek access to do stories.

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Hours before she was kidnapped, Kittleson met a friend in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood and said she had received a warning: U.S. officials had told her a militia group intended to target her. She did not believe the threat was credible.

Kittleson had been stopped before by security forces and militias at checkpoints, Iraqi colleagues said, and had always managed to secure her release. They will not hurt me, she told her friend that afternoon before she was taken.

Instead, she spoke of mounting financial strain, saying she had no assignments while in Baghdad. She had long struggled financially, living a frugal existence.

As a freelancer, she often relied on the support of Iraqi journalists.

On March 9, Kittleson was in Syria, seeking to enter Iraq at the border crossing in al-Qaim. Border police gave her a visa, but she was soon stopped by Iraqi intelligence officers, who turned her back, citing kidnapping threats, according to three different accounts from people she called that day.

Kittleson then went to Jordan and entered Iraq from there with little issue.

She always complained of the treatment of freelance journalists, saying they are not paid enough. She was always trying to make ends meet and said she would sleep on any couch she could find, unlike the big foreign correspondents that sleep in fancy hotels, Nissirio said.

Her job has always been difficult, but she had a burning passion for it that I respect and appreciate.

Kittleson published her last story with Il Foglio on Monday, March 31. The story focused on the effect of the Iran war on Iraqs Kurdish region.

Tiger Woods said hell step away and seek treatment on Tuesday, days after his vehicle crashed in Florida and he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

This is necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work toward lasting recovery, he said in a post on the social media platform X.

Woods pleaded not guilty in his driving under the influence case in Florida on Tuesday, hours after a sheriffs report said he had pain pills in his pocket and showed signs of impairment at a crash last week.

The online court docket for Martin County, Florida, showed Woods entered a written plea of not guilty and planned to waive his appearance during an arraignment hearing next month.

Woods eyes were bloodshot and glassy, his pupils dilated and he had opioid pills on him when interviewed at the scene of the crash, according to the arrest report released by the Martin County Sheriffs Office.

Woods movements were slow and lethargic, he was sweating as he talked to deputies and told them he had taken prescription medication earlier in the morning, according to the report. Woods told deputies he had been looking at his phone and fiddling with the radio before he clipped a truck in front of him, the report said.

Deputies found two white pills, which were identified as the opioid hydrocodone used to treat pain, in his pocket, the report said.

When asked by a deputy if he took any prescription medications, Woods said, I take a few.

RELATED NEWS | Tiger Woods released on bail hours after DUI arrest, rollover crash in Florida

Woods defense attorney, Douglas Duncan, didnt respond to an email and phone call after the plea was entered on Tuesday.

Woods agent at Excel Sports, Mark Steinberg, has not responded to multiple messages seeking comment.

The golfer was traveling at high speeds on a beachside, residential road on Jupiter Island when his Land Rover clipped the truck and rolled onto its side, according to the sheriff's office, which noted Woods showed signs of impairment.

The truck had $5,000 in damage, according to the report.

The truck driver and another person helped Woods out of his vehicle, with the golfer needing to climb out from the passenger side. Neither Woods nor the truck driver were injured.

During a field sobriety test, deputies noticed Woods limping and that he had a compression sock over his right knee. The golfer explained he had undergone seven back surgeries and over 20 leg operations and that his ankle seizes up while walking. Woods, who was hiccupping during the questioning, continuously moved his head during one of the sobriety tests and deputies had to instruct him several times to keep his head straight, the report said.

Based on my observations of Woods, how he performed the exercises and based on my training, knowledge, and experience, I believed that Woods normal faculties were impaired, and he was unable to safely operate the motor vehicle, the deputy wrote after the tests.

RELATED NEWS | Deputies say they found 2 hydrocodone pills on Tiger Woods following crash

Woods, 50, is the most influential figure in golf and has become as recognizable as any athlete in the world. The first person of Black heritage to win the Masters in 1997, he has captivated golf fans with records likely never to be broken.

But his injuries kept him from accomplishing more, including those suffered in a 2021 car crash that damaged his right leg so badly he said doctors considered amputation.

At this latest crash, Woods agreed to a Breathalyzer test that showed no signs of alcohol, but he refused a urine test, authorities said. He was arrested and released on bail eight hours later.

No one from Woods camp or the PGA Tour -- he is on the board and is chairman of the committee reshaping the competition model -- have commented since his arrest.

Woods, who has been involved in many crashes over the years, is charged with driving under the influence with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test. He is scheduled for arraignment April 23.

Under a change to Florida law last year, refusing a law enforcement officers request to take a breath, blood or urine test became a misdemeanor, even for a first offense.

The expansion Denver Summit's match against the Washington Spirit on Saturday broke the National Women's Soccer League record for attendance with its announced crowd of 63,004.

Fans at the Denver Broncos' home stadium broke the previous NWSL record of 40,091 who attended Bay FC's match against the Spirit last season at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.

In 2024, the Chicago Stars drew 35,038 to a game against Bay FC that was played at Wrigley Field, home to the Cubs.

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This is a big deal, and its very important," fan Karmryn Eversole said. "And I think its a huge milestone for womens sports to prove that we want more womens courts. And this is what we want, and were here supporting it, and we want to show it.

The match was the Summit's first at home in Colorado. The team played its first three on the road, going 1-1-1. The game against the Spirit on Saturday ended in a scoreless draw.

Denver was awarded the 16th NWSL franchise in January 2025 for a reported expansion fee of $110 million. The Summit started play this season along with the Boston Legacy.

I mean, I think it means everything, fan Nicole DeLue said. If you look at the amount of Denver womens players that have gone to the World Cup, made the national team. Weve always been a strong feeder. So to finally have a home base here is just incredible.

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After the opener at Mile High, the Summit will play home games at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, home of the Colorado Rapids in MLS. In July, the team will move to the temporary 12,000-seat Centennial Stadium while a women's soccer stadium is built in downtown Denver.

The Summit announced earlier this week they had closed on land at Santa Fe Yards for the future stadium, which the club hopes will be complete by the 2028 season.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday rejected claims that God justifies war and prayed especially for Christians in the Middle East during a Palm Sunday Mass before tens of thousands of people in St. Peters Square.

With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran entering its second month and Russias ongoing campaign in Ukraine, Leo dedicated his Palm Sunday homily to insist that God is the king of peace who rejects violence and comforts those who are oppressed.

Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war, Leo said. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.

Leaders on all sides of the Iran war have used religion to justify their actions. U.S. officials, especially Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have invoked their Christian faith to cast the war as a Christian nation trying to vanquish its foes with military might.

RELATED STORY | Pope Leo suggests Christian leaders who start wars should go to confession

Russia's Orthodox Church, too, has justified Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a holy war against a Western world it considers has fallen into evil.

Palm Sunday marks Jesus triumphant entrance into Jerusalem in the time leading up to his crucifixion, which Christians observe on Good Friday, and resurrection on Easter Sunday.

In a special blessing at the end of Mass, Leo said he was praying especially for Christians in the Middle East who are suffering the consequences of an atrocious conflict. In many cases, they cannot live fully the rites of these holy days.

Earlier Sunday, the Latin Patriarchate said Jerusalem police prevented the Catholic churchs top leadership from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was the first time in centuries church leaders were prevented from celebrating Palm Sunday at the place where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, the Patriarchate said.

Leo said that during Holy Week, Christians cannot forget how many people around the world are suffering as Christ did. Their trials appeal to the conscience of all. Let us raise our prayers to the Prince of Peace so that he may support people wounded by war and open concrete paths of reconciliation and peace, Leo said.

A Holy Week that recalls Pope Francis' suffering

When Holy Week opened last year, Pope Francis was still recovering at the Vatican after a five-week hospital stay for double pneumonia. He had delegated the liturgical celebrations to others, but rallied on Easter Sunday to greet the faithful from the loggia of St. Peters Square. Most poignantly, he then made what became his final popemobile loop around the piazza.

Francis died the following morning, Easter Monday, after suffering a stroke. His nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, later told Vatican Media that Francis had told him: Thank you for bringing me back to the square for the final salute.

Leo is due to preside over this weeks liturgical appointments and is returning to tradition with the Holy Thursday foot-washing ceremony that commemorates Jesus Last Supper with his disciples.

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During his 12-year pontificate, Francis famously celebrated the Holy Thursday ritual by traveling to Rome-area prisons and refugee centers to wash the feet of people most on societys margins. His aim was to drive home the rituals message of service and humility, and he would frequently muse during his Holy Thursday homilies Why them and not me?

Francis gesture had been praised as a tangible evidence of his belief that the church must go to the peripheries to find those most in need of Gods love and mercy. But some critics bristled at the annual outings, especially since Francis would also wash the feet of Muslims and people of other faiths.

Leo restores Holy Week foot-washing tradition

Leo, historys first U.S.-born pope, is returning the Holy Thursday foot-washing tradition to the basilica of St. John Lateran, where popes performed it for decades. The Vatican hasnt yet said who will participate, though Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II normally washed the feet of 12 priests.

On Friday, Leo is due to preside over the Good Friday procession at Romes Colosseum commemorating Christs Passion and crucifixion. Saturday brings the late night Easter Vigil, during which Leo will baptize new Catholics, followed a few hours later by Easter Sunday when Christians commemorate the resurrection of Jesus.

Leo will celebrate Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peters Square and then deliver his Easter blessing from the loggia of the basilica.

Top diplomats from key regional powers gathered in Pakistan on Sunday to discuss how to end the fighting in the Middle East, but there were few signs of progress as Israel and the U.S. kept up strikes on Iran, and Tehran responded by firing missiles and drones across the region.

Pakistan said foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt were participating in the talks in Islamabad. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held extensive discussions on regional hostilities.

More than 3,000 people have been killed throughout the monthlong war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, triggering Iran's attacks on Israel and neighboring Gulf Arab states.

RELATED STORY | War spreads across Middle East as Iran, Houthis target Israel and US forces

The U.S. and Israel were not participating in the Islamabad talks. Irans parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, dismissed the talks as a cover while the U.S. dispatches additional troops to the Middle East. He warned against any ground invasion and said Iran was ready to set American troops on fire and punish U.S. regional allies, according to Iranian state media.

Israel announced waves of incoming strikes from Iran on Sunday and explosions could be heard throughout Tehran.

Mideast leaders try to break impasse at weekend talks

Egypts Badr Abdelatty, Turkeys Hakan Fidan and Saudi Arabias Prince Faisal Bin Farhan were in Islamabad as part of talks scheduled days after the U.S. offered Iran a 15-point action list" as a framework for a possible peace deal. Abdelatty said the meetings were aimed at opening a direct dialogue between the U.S. and Iran, which have largely communicated through mediators during the war.

Yet during the talks, Iran has eased some restrictions on commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. It agreed late Saturday to allow 20 more Pakistani-flagged vessels to transit the critical passageway, Pakistani officials said, adding to the select few it has let through as Iran works to choke but not cut off the strait entirely.

The weekend provided little sign of the talks narrowing the disconnect between the U.S. and Iran. U.S. officials have insisted the war may be nearing an inflection point but Iranian leaders continue to publicly reject negotiations.

To the contrary, the United States has dispatched thousands of additional Marines and paratroopers to the region. And the Iran-backed Houthis, who govern parts of Yemen, announced their long-awaited entry into the war, launching missiles toward what they called sensitive Israeli military sites for the first time on Saturday.

Despite the deployments, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that Washington can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops as domestic opposition grows to expanding the war to a potential ground invasion, including among Republicans.

Yet Iranian officials have rejected the U.S. framework and in public dismissed the idea of negotiating under pressure. Still, Press TV, the English-language arm of Irans state broadcaster, reported last week that Tehran drafted its own five-point proposal, citing an anonymous official. The plan reportedly called for a halt to killing Iranian officials, guarantees against future attacks, reparations and Irans exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran threatens retaliatory strikes on Israeli and US universities

Iran on Sunday warned of additional escalation after Israeli airstrikes hit several universities, including ones that Israel claimed were used for nuclear research and development.

The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard warned in a statement that Iran would consider Israeli universities and branches of American universities in the region legitimate targets unless offered safety assurances for Iranian universities, state media reported.

American colleges including Georgetown, New York University and Northwestern have campuses in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

If the U.S. government wants its universities in the region spared, it should condemn the bombardment of (Iranian) universities by 12 oclock Monday, March 30, in an official statement, the Guard said.

It also demanded the U.S. stop Israel from striking Iranian universities and research centers. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said on Saturday that dozens of universities and research centers have been hit, among them the Iran University of Science and Technology and Isfahan University of Technology.

Houthi involvement sparks concerns

Houthi Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said on the rebels' Al-Masirah satellite television station on Saturday that they launched missiles toward sensitive Israeli military sites in the south.

The group which controls parts of Yemen launched repeated attacks aimed at Israel and Red Sea shipping during the height of the Israel-Hamas war. Israeli strikes on Yemen last year killed the rebel-run government's prime minister and top military general.

If the Houthis again increased attacks on commercial shipping, it would further push up oil prices and destabilize all of maritime security, said Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group. The impact would not be limited to the energy market.

Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is crucial for vessels heading to the Suez Canal through the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia has been routing millions of barrels of crude oil a day through it because the Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed.

RELATED STORY | Iranian strike wounds at least 10 US troops and damages planes at Saudi air base, official says

Houthi rebels attacked more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels, between November 2023 and January 2025. They have held Yemens capital, Sanaa, since 2014. Saudi Arabia launched a war against the Houthis on behalf of Yemens exiled government in 2015. They now have an uneasy ceasefire.

Death toll climbs

Iranian authorities say more than 1,900 people have been killed in the Islamic Republic, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel.

In Lebanon, where Israel has started an invasion in the south while targeting the Hezbollah militant group, officials said more than 1,100 people have been killed in the country since the start of the war.

In Iraq, where Iranian-supported militia groups have entered the conflict, 80 members of the security forces have died.

In Gulf states, 20 people have been killed. Four have been killed in the occupied West Bank.