By CHARLOTTE KRAMON

ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to overhaul how U.S. elections are run includes a somewhat obscure reference to the way votes are counted. Voting equipment, it says, should not use ballots that include “a barcode or quick-response code.”

Those few technical words could have a big impact.

Voting machines that give all voters a ballot with one of those codes are used in hundreds of counties across 19 states. Three of them — Georgia, South Carolina and Delaware — use the machines statewide.

Some computer scientists, Democrats and left-leaning election activists have raised concerns about their use, but those pushing conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election have been the loudest, claiming without evidence that manipulation has already occurred. Trump, in justifying the move, said in the order that his intention was “to protect election integrity.”

Even some election officials who have vouched for the accuracy of systems that use coded ballots have said it’s time to move on because too many voters don’t trust them.

Colorado’s secretary of state, Democrat Jena Griswold, decided in 2019 to stop using ballots with QR codes, saying at the time that voters “should have the utmost confidence that their vote will count.” Amanda Gonzalez, the elections clerk in Colorado’s Jefferson County, doesn’t support Trump’s order but believes Colorado’s decision was a worthwhile step.

“We can just eliminate confusion,” Gonzalez said. “At the end of the day, that’s what I want — elections that are free, fair, transparent.”

Target for misinformation

Whether voting by mail or in person, millions of voters across the country mark their selections by using a pen to fill in ovals on paper ballots. Those ballots are then fed through a tabulating machine to tally the votes and can be retrieved later if a recount is needed.

In other places, people voting in person use a touch-screen machine to mark their choices and then get a paper record of their votes that includes a barcode or QR code. A tabulator scans the code to tally the vote.

Election officials who use that equipment say it’s secure and that they routinely perform tests to ensure the results match the votes on the paper records, which they retain. The coded ballots have nevertheless become a target of election conspiracy theories.

“I think the problem is super exaggerated,” said Lawrence Norden of the Brennan Center for Justice. “I understand why it can appeal to certain parts of the public who don’t understand the way this works, but I think it’s being used to try to question certain election results in the past.”

Those pushing conspiracy theories related to the 2020 election have latched onto a long-running legal battle over Georgia’s voting system. In that case, a University of Michigan computer scientist testified that an attacker could tamper with the QR codes to change voter selections and install malware on the machines.

The testimony from J. Alex Halderman has been used to amplify Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, even though there is no evidence that any of the weaknesses he found were exploited.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, has defended the state’s voting system as secure. In March, the judge who presided over Halderman’s testimony declined to block the use of Georgia’s voting equipment but said the case had “identified substantial concerns about the administration, maintenance and security of Georgia’s electronic in-person voting system.”

Can the executive order ban coded ballots?

Trump’s election executive order is being challenged in multiple lawsuits. One has resulted in a preliminary injunction against a provision that sought to require proof of citizenship when people register to vote.

The section banning ballots that use QR or barcodes relies on a Trump directive to a federal agency, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which sets voluntary guidelines for voting systems. Not all states follow them.

Some of the lawsuits say Trump doesn’t have the authority to direct the commission because it was established by Congress as an independent agency.

While the courts sort that out, the commission’s guidelines say ballots using barcodes or QR codes should include a printed list of the voters’ selections so they can be checked.

Trump’s order exempts voting equipment used by voters with disabilities, but it promises no federal money to help states and counties shift away from systems using QR or barcodes.

“In the long run, it would be nice if vendors moved away from encoding, but there’s already evidence of them doing that,” said Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting, a group that focuses on election technology and favors ending the use of QR and barcodes.

Counties in limbo

Kim Dennison, election coordinator of Benton County, Arkansas, estimated that updating the county’s voting system would cost around $400,000 and take up to a year.

Dennison said she has used equipment that relies on coded ballots since she started her job 15 years ago and has never found an inaccurate result during postelection testing.

“I fully and completely trust the equipment is doing exactly what it’s supposed to be doing and not falsifying reports,” she said. “You cannot change a vote once it’s been cast.”

In Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County, voting machines that produce a QR code will be used in this year’s primary. But officials expect a manufacturer’s update later this year to remove the code before the November elections.

County Manager Romilda Crocamo said officials had not received any complaints from voters about QR codes but decided to make the change when Dominion Voting Systems offered the update.

The nation’s most populous county, Los Angeles, uses a system with a QR code that it developed over a decade and deployed in 2020 after passing a state testing and certification program.

The county’s chief election official, Dean Logan, said the system exceeded federal guidelines at the time and meets many of the standards outlined in the most recent ones approved in 2021. He said postelection audits have consistently confirmed its accuracy.

Modifying or replacing it would be costly and take years, he said. The county’s current voting equipment is valued at $140 million.

‘Train Wreck’ in Georgia?

Perhaps nowhere has the issue been more contentious than Georgia, a presidential battleground. It uses the same QR code voting system across the state.

Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, a lead plaintiff in the litigation over the system, said her group has not taken a position on Trump’s executive order but said the federal Election Assistance Commission should stop certifying machines that use barcodes.

The secretary of state said the voting system follows Georgia law, which requires federal certification at the time the system is bought. Nevertheless, the Republican-controlled legislature has voted to ban the use of QR codes but did not allocate any money to make the change — a cost estimated at $66 million.

Republicans said they want to replace the system when the current contract expires in 2028, but their law is still scheduled to take effect next year. GOP state Rep. Victor Anderson said there is no realistic way to “prevent the train wreck that’s coming.”

Associated Press writer Christina A. Cassidy contributed to this report.

Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon.

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — An appeals court has cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ending collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees while a lawsuit plays out.

The Friday ruling came after the Trump administration asked for an emergency pause on a judge’s order blocking enforcement at roughly three dozen agencies and departments.

A split three-judge panel in the nation’s capital sided with government lawyers in a lawsuit filed by unions representing federal employees. The majority ruled on technical grounds, finding that the unions don’t have the legal right to sue because the Trump administration has said it won’t end any collective bargaining agreements while the case is being litigated.

Judge Karen Henderson, appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush, and Justin Walker, appointed by Trump, sided with the government, while Judge Michelle Childs, appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, dissented.

The government says Trump needs the executive order so his administration can cut the federal workforce to ensure strong national security. The law requiring collective bargaining creates exemptions for work related to national security, as in agencies like the FBI.

Union leaders argue the order is designed to facilitate mass firings and exact “political vengeance” against federal unions opposed to Trump’s efforts to dramatically downsize the federal government.

His order seeks to expand that exemption to exclude more workers than any other president has before. That’s according to the National Treasury Employees Union, which is suing to block the order.

The administration has filed in a Kentucky court to terminate the collective bargaining agreement for the Internal Revenue Service, where many workers are represented by the National Treasury Employees Union. They say their IRS members aren’t doing national security work.

Other union employees affected by the order include the Health and Human Services Department, the Energy Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Communications Commission.

By PAUL WISEMAN, CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, Associated Press Business Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) — For months, American consumers and businesses have been hearing that President Trump’s massive import taxes – tariffs – would drive up prices and hurt the U.S. economy. But the latest economic reports don’t match the doom and gloom: Inflation actually eased last month, and hiring was solid in April.

For now, the disconnect has businesses and consumers struggling to reconcile what they were told to expect, what the numbers say and what they are seeing on the ground. Trump and his supporters are quick to point out that the trade wars of his first term didn’t translate into higher overall inflation across the economy.

So is it time to breathe easy?

Not yet, economists say. Trump’s tariffs are still huge – the highest since the Great Depression of the 1930s. They’re unpredictable: The president frequently announces tariffs only to suspend them days later and to conjure up new ones. And they are still working their way through the system.

“We had a good jobs report. We had a cool inflation report, and that’s great,” said Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at Yale University’s Budget Lab. “But that should not give us comfort about what next month will be, particularly on inflation.’’

Walmart, for example, warned its customers last week that prices will be going up for everything from clothing to car seats. Prices for some items like bananas have already increased.

True, the truce with China last Monday dramatically reduced the risks to the U.S. economy, and U.S. and global stock markets rallied last week in relief. The United States dropped the import tax that Trump angrily imposed on China – America’s third-biggest source of imports – from an eye-watering 145% to 30%; Beijing cut its retaliatory tariffs from 125% to 10%. Economists at JPMorgan Chase, who had forecast last month that the China tariffs made a recession likely, don’t expect one now.

Trump’s tariffs are the highest since the Great Depression

But even with the lower levies on China, the Yale Budget Lab reported that the cost of Trump’s trade war will be high. Climbing prices will reduce the purchasing power of the average household by $2,800. Shoe prices will rise 15% and clothing 14%. The tariffs will shave 0.7 percentage points off U.S. economic growth this year and increase the unemployment rate — now a low 4.2% — by nearly 0.4 percentage points.

Trump has plastered 10% taxes on imports from almost every country on earth. He’s also imposed 25% duties on cars, aluminum, steel, and many imports from Canada and Mexico.

The Yale Budget Lab estimates that Trump policies will push the average U.S. tariff rate to 17.8%, highest since 1934 and up from around 2.5% when Trump took office. (Other economists put his tariff rate at 14% to 15%.) During Trump’s first term, the average tariff rose just 1 percentage point despite all the headlines generated by trade policies. Now, according to the budget lab, they are rising 15 percentage points.

And the tariffs have only begun to bite. In April, the import tax revenues collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection came to a tariff rate of just 4.5%, a fraction of what’s coming, Tedeschi said. That’s partly because of delays in rolling out the tariffs, including technical glitches that prevented customs agents from collecting them for a couple of weeks.

The full impact has also been delayed because companies beat the clock by bringing in foreign goods before Trump’s tariffs took effect. Retailers and importers had also largely halted shipments of shoes, clothes, toys, and other items due to new tariffs, but many are resuming imports from China.

Tedeschi, who was chief economist at President Joe Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, also notes that it just takes time for tariffs to translate into higher prices. During Trump’s first term, his January 2018 levies on foreign washing machines didn’t yield more expensive appliances until April that year. Still, a Federal Reserve study this month found that duties Trump imposed in 2018 and 2019 meant higher prices as soon as two months later, suggesting consumers could start paying more in June.

Consumers are less willing to accept higher prices

Things have changed from the first time Trump was in the White House, when companies essentially passed along the entire cost of his tariffs. Now American consumers, still scarred by the burst of inflation that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, may be more reluctant to accept higher prices.

“Consumers weren’t inflation exhausted in 2018 the way that they are now,’’ Tedeschi said. Surveys by Federal Reserve banks in Atlanta and Dallas have found that most companies would eat at least some of the tariff costs this time around. And one reason that the Labor Department’s producer price index fell in April was that retailers and wholesalers reported lower profit margins, a sign that they may have been absorbing some of the tariff cost.

Trump, who has long insisted that foreign countries and not U.S. companies or consumers pay his tariffs, on Saturday lashed out at Walmart for saying it would raise prices. On social media, he demanded that the giant retailer “ EAT THE TARIFFS, and do not charge valued customers anything. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!’’

The economic damage doesn’t just come from the cost of tariffs, but from the erratic way the president imposes them. For instance, the 145% China tariffs were just suspended for 90 days. Likewise, Trump has paused high taxes he slapped last month on imports from countries with which the United States runs trade deficits. Could those levies come back?

Consumers are clearly fearful that the duties will boost prices, as consumer confidence surveys have plummeted since Trump began ramping up his tariff threats in February. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index has fallen for five straight months to its lowest level since the depths of the pandemic in May 2020.

Costlier coffee and Christmas wreathes are coming

Snowy Owl Coffee Roasters in Sandwich, Massachusetts, which imports beans from Brazil, Nicaragua, Burundi and other countries, is only now planning to raise its prices this week to cover the cost of the 10% tariffs. It plans to add 25 cents to 35 cents to the price for each cup.

“Tariffs are increasing costs and they’re adding to a lot of uncertainty around the potential for a downturn,” said Shayna Ferullo, 44, co-owner of Snowy Owl. “We are looking closely at the year ahead with the goal of consolidating and operating really, really tightly.”

Ferullo will also have to pay much more than she budgeted to renovate her shop in Brewster, Massachusetts — one of her three retail locations — because the contractor has raised his estimate, partly due to tariffs on building supplies. She has already elected to not fill one job after an employee left and is looking at ways automation could help reduce her labor costs, though she hasn’t laid off any of her 35 employees.

Jared Hendricks, CEO of Village Lighting Co., last month halted shipments of supplies he gets from China – holiday storage bags, wreathes, holiday lights and garlands. Now that the U.S. and China have reached a truce, he’s trying to get the products to the United States in time for the holidays.

He estimates that it will take 10 to 20 days from China to the West Coast ports via ship and another 20 days to 40 days for the goods to go through U.S. Customs, then travel via Union Pacific Railways to his company in Utah. Given all the expected delays, Hendricks said he’s worried that his holiday décor won’t arrive by Sept. 1 when it should start appearing in stores.

Meanwhile, he’s figuring out how to foot a $1 million bill for the tariffs. He’s hoping he can cover the cost by raising prices 10% to 15%.

In the meantime, he’s trying to secure a loan against his house to pay for the levies.

“We are moving forward,’’ he said, “but at great cost, personal risk, and weariness.”

D’Innocenzio reported from New York.

By MATTHEW PERRONE and LAURAN NEERGAARD, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. clinched the political support needed to become the nation’s top health official by pledging to work within the decades-old federal system for approval and use of vaccines. Yet his regulators are promising big changes that cloud the outlook for what shots might even be available.

The Food and Drug Administration will soon “unleash a massive framework” for how vaccines are tested and approved, according to Commissioner Marty Makary. Details aren’t yet public but the plan is being overseen by the agency’s new vaccine chief, Dr. Vinay Prasad, an outspoken critic of FDA’s handling of COVID-19 boosters.

Makary and other Trump administration officials already have taken unprecedented steps that raise uncertainty about next fall’s COVID-19 vaccinations, including delaying FDA scientists’full approval of Novavax’s shot — and then restricting its use to people at higher risk from the virus. They’ve also suggested seasonal tweaks to match the latest circulating virus strains are new products requiring extra testing.

The changes cross multiple health agencies.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn’t yet acted on an influential advisory panel’s recent recommendations on use of a new meningitis shot or broader RSV vaccination. A meeting of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” allies was recently told to expect an end to COVID-19 booster recommendations for children — something that vaccine advisory panel was supposed to debate in June. And researchers around the country lost National Institutes of Health funding to study vaccine hesitancy.

“I think you have to assume that RFK Jr.’s intention is to make it harder for vaccines to come to market,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a vaccine expert at Johns Hopkins University. The changes are “looked at suspiciously because this is someone with a proven track record of evading the value of vaccines.”

Raising doubts about vaccines

In a Senate health committee hearing last week, Kennedy wrongly claimed that the only vaccines tested against a placebo, or dummy shot, were for COVID-19.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican who chairs the committee, briefly interrupted the hearing to say, “For the record, that’s not true” — pointing to placebo-controlled studies of the rotavirus, measles and HPV vaccines.

Concerned by rhetoric about how vaccines are tested, a group of doctors recently compiled a list of more than 120 vaccine clinical trials spanning decades, most of them placebo-controlled, including for shots against polio, hepatitis B, mumps and tetanus.

“It directly debunks the claim that vaccines were never tested against placebo,” said Dr. Jake Scott, a Stanford University infectious disease physician who’s helping lead the project.

Antivaccine groups argue that some substances scientists call a placebo may not really qualify, although the list shows simple saline shots are common.

Sometimes a vaccine causes enough shot-site pain or swelling that it’s evident who’s getting the vaccine and who’s in the control group — and studies might use another option that slightly irritates the skin to keep the test “blinded,” Scott explained.

And when there’s already a proven vaccine for the same disease, it’s unethical to test a new version against a placebo, he said.

“We can’t always expect placebo-controlled trials,” Scott said. “It’s imperative that be communicated clearly to the public, but it’s challenging especially when there’s so much noise in social media and so much misinformation.”

Trump officials held up vaccine decision

The administration’s promise of a new vaccine framework comes ahead of a Thursday meeting where FDA advisers will discuss updating COVID-19 shots for this fall and winter.

The FDA’s credibility has long rested on the independence of its scientific decisions. While the agency is led by a handful of political appointees, approval decisions are almost always handled by career scientists.

But that standard appears to be shifting. FDA staffers were poised to approve Novavax’s vaccine early last month but the decision was delayed by administration officials, including Makary, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss agency matters. The shot was approved late Friday with unusual restrictions.

Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg — a political appointee serving as Makary’s special assistant — was involved in the unprecedented demand that Novavax conduct a new clinical trial of its shot after approval, according to the people. The requirement came shortly after the agency’s longtime vaccine chief, Dr. Peter Marks, was forced to resign.

Hoeg — along with Makary and Prasad — spent much of the COVID-19 pandemic criticizing the FDA’s handling of booster shots, particularly in children and young adults. All three were co-authors of a 2022 paper stating that requiring booster shots in young people would cause more harm than benefit.

Novavax isn’t the only vaccine manufacturer already affected by changing attitudes at FDA. Earlier this month, Moderna pushed back the target date for its new COVID-and-flu combination vaccine to next year after the FDA requested additional effectiveness data.

COVID-19 booster critics are in control

As the FDA’s top official overseeing vaccines, Prasad is now in position to reverse what he recently called “a number of missteps” in how the FDA assessed the benefits and risks of COVID-19 boosters.

He questioned how much benefit yearly vaccinations continue to offer. In a podcast shortly before assuming his FDA job, Prasad suggested companies could study about 20,000 older adults in August or September to show if an updated vaccine prevented COVID-related hospitalizations.

There is “legitimate debate about who should be boosted, how frequently they should be boosted and the value of boosting low-risk individuals,” said Hopkins’ Adalja. But he stressed that CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has the proper expertise to be making those decisions.

And other experts say simply updating the strain that a COVID-19 vaccine targets doesn’t make it a new product — and real-world data shows each fall’s update has offered benefit.

“The data are clear and compelling” that vaccination reduces seniors’ risk of hospitalization and serious illness for four to six months, said Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota infectious disease researcher.

Nor could that kind of study be accomplished quickly enough to get millions of people vaccinated before the yearly winter surge, said Dr. Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University, a former FDA vaccine chief.

“You’d always be doing clinical trials and you’d never have a vaccine that was up to date,” he said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By CARLA K. JOHNSON, Associated Press Medical Writer

Former President Joe Biden’s office said Sunday that he has been diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer and is reviewing treatment options with his doctors.

Biden was having increasing urinary symptoms and was seen last week by doctors who found a prostate nodule. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and the cancer cells have spread to the bone, his office said in a statement.

When caught early, prostate cancer is highly survivable, but it is also the second-leading cause of cancer death in men. About one in eight men will be diagnosed over their lifetime with prostate cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

Here are some things to know about prostate cancer that has spread.

What is the prostate gland?

The prostate is part of the reproductive system in men. It makes fluid for semen. It’s located below the bladder and it wraps around the urethra, the tube that carries urine and semen out through the penis.

How serious is Biden’s cancer?

Biden’s cancer has spread to the bone, his office said. That makes it more serious than localized or early-stage prostate cancer.

Outcomes have improved in recent decades and patients can expect to live with metastatic prostate cancer for four or five years, said Dr. Matthew Smith of Massachusetts General Brigham Cancer Center.

“It’s very treatable, but not curable,” Smith said.

What are the treatment options?

Prostate cancer can be treated with drugs that lower levels of hormones in the body or stop them from getting into prostate cancer cells. The drugs can slow down the growth of cancer cells.

“Most men in this situation would be treated with drugs and would not be advised to have either surgery or radiation therapy,” Smith said.

What is a Gleason score?

Prostate cancers are graded for aggressiveness using what’s known as a Gleason score. The scores range from 6 to 10, with 8, 9 and 10 prostate cancers behaving more aggressively. Biden’s office said his score was 9, suggesting his cancer is among the most aggressive.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Spencer Torkelson drove in the tiebreaking run with a two-out single in the seventh inning and the Detroit Tigers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 on Sunday, improving their MLB-best record to 31-16.

Jackson Jobe (4-0) allowed two runs and six hits in six innings, becoming the first pitcher in Tigers history to have the team win the first eight starts of his career. Detroit won the first seven starts right-hander Howie Koplitz made in 1961 and 1962.

Torkelson had two hits and three RBIs as Detroit won for the 13th time in 17 games. Will Vest finished for his fifth save in seven chances.

Blue Jays left-hander Mason Fluharty (3-1) allowed two runners to reach in the seventh inning after coming on in relief of Jos Berros.

Torkelson hit a two-run double off Berros in the first but Toronto tied it in the fourth on RBI singles by Alejandro Kirk and Ernie Clement.

Akil Baddoo made back-to-back great plays to end the first after Toronto opened with consecutive singles. First, Baddoo scaled the left field wall to catch Daulton Varshos drive, then he made a sliding catch on Kirks liner and threw to second to double off Bo Bichette.

Anthony Santander was Torontos designated hitter after not starting the previous two games. Blue Jays manager John Schneider dropped the struggling Santander from third in the order to fifth. Santander went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts.

Key moment

Torkelson singled on an 0-1 pitch from right-hander Braydon Fisher to score Gleyber Torres in the seventh.

Key stat

Detroit catcher Dillon Dingler had three hits, all with exit velocities of 105 mph or higher.

Up next

Tigers: Detroit begins a three-game series at St. Louis on Monday. The Tigers had not named a starter.

Blue Jays: Toronto had not named a starter for Tuesdays game against San Diego.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Ernie Clement hit a game-winning single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 2-1 on Saturday.

Jeff Hoffman (4-2) worked one inning for the win as Toronto stopped Detroits winning streak at four.

Trailing 1-0, Toronto tied it in the eighth on an RBI single by pinch-hitter Alejandro Kirk.

Tigers right-hander Reese Olson walked one and struck out six in six innings.

Bo Bichette had a leadoff single against Olson in the first inning, but the Blue Jays didnt get another hit off the Tigers right-hander.

Tyler Heineman drew a leadoff walk in the third, but was erased on a double play. Olson retired the final 11 batters he faced.

After Beau Brieske walked two batters in the seventh, Tyler Holton came on and got pinch hitter Myles Straw to ground into a double play on the first pitch.

Holton left with one out and a runner at second in the eighth. Pinch hitter Kirk greeted Will Vest with a game-tying single.

Spencer Torkelson opened the second inning with a 399-foot home run off left-hander Eric Lauer. The homer was Torkelsons 12th. He hit 10 home runs in 2024.

Key moment

Daulton Varsho hit a one-out double off Brenan Hanifee (2-1) in the ninth and advanced to third on a groundout. Pinch-hitter Anthony Santander was intentionally walked before Clement lined an RBI single to right.

Key stat

The Tigers lost for the second time in their past 10 road games.

Up next

Undefeated rookie RHP Jackson Jobe (3-0, 4.32 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Tigers in Sundays series finale. RHP Jos Berros (1-1, 4.33) goes for the Blue Jays.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

By STEPHEN WHYNO
The Associated Press

BALTIMORE — Journalism jostled with horses down the stretch, shrugged off the contact, burst through the lane and came from behind to win the 150th running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

The odds-on favorite was bumped by Goal Oriented near the quarter pole, and it looked like another second-place finish was coming two weeks after being the runner-up to Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby. Journalism instead ran right by Gosger to give trainer Michael McCarthy his second win in a Triple Crown race.

“A lot of bouncing around there,” McCarthy said. “When I saw that, I kind of resigned myself to the fact it was another fantastic effort and maybe come up a little bit short. But it just goes to show the testament that this horse has. Couldn’t be prouder of him.”

Gosger was second by a half-length. Sandman was third and Bob Baffert-trained Goal Oriented fourth. Journalism went 1 3/16 miles in 1:55.37.

Umberto Rispoli became the first jockey from Italy to win any of the Triple Crown races.

“When I crossed the wire, the first things that comes up to my mind, it’s all of the 20 years of my career that pass in front of me,” Rispoli said. “I had to wait so long to be on a champion like that.”

Journalism handled the adversity and thrived on a warm day that dried out the track after torrential rain fell at Pimlico Race Course for much of the past week. Those conditions suited him better than the slop at Churchill Downs in the Derby

“This victory symbolizes so much about life,” co-owner Aaron Wellman said. “It took guts for Umberto Rispoli to power his way through a seemingly impossible hole getting side-swiped and threading the needle and powering on through. And it took guts from an incredible horse to somehow will his way to victory.”

Journalism paid $4 to win, $2.80 to place and $2.40 to show.

“He’s a remarkable horse,” Baffert said of Journalism. “I wanted to be on the lead and was behind horses. I knew (Goal Oriented) was intimidated. He’s never run that way. He ran well, but he’s still too green for that.”

Sovereignty did not take part after his owners and trainer Bill Mott decided to skip the Preakness, citing the two-week turnaround, and aimed for the Belmont on June 7. That made this a fifth time in seven years that the Preakness, for various reasons, was contested without a Triple Crown bid at stake.

But Journalism staked his claim for 3-year-old horse of the year by winning the $2 million American classic race run at the old Pimlico Race Course for the last time before it’s torn down and rebuilt. While work went on around him before the postrace news conference, Wellman asked, “Are they already tearing this place down?”

Not yet, and not before Journalism could add a memorable chapter by squeezing through the space he had to win.

“I still can’t realize what this horse did,” Rispoli said. “It’s all about him. It’s a pleasure and privilege to ride a horse like him.”

The Preakness is set to be held at nearby Laurel Park, between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., next year before a planned return to the new Pimlico in 2027. McCarthy raved about the history at the place known as “Old Hilltop” and still remembers where he was when Sunday Silence beat Easy Goer at the wire in 1989 in a fashion similar to how Journalism won this time.

“Things kind of come full circle,” McCarthy said. “I’m sad to see this place go, but we’ll try to get back here next year, whichever locale it’s at.”

Journalism is the first horse to win the Preakness after running in the Kentucky Derby since Mark Casse-trained War of Will in 2019. He is the first Derby runner-up to follow that up by winning the Preakness since Exaggerator in 2016.

Only two others from the 19 in the Derby participated in the Preakness: Casse’s Sandman and fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas’ American Promise, who did not have the same positive response as Journalism.

“The best horse won,” Lukas said. “He finished beautifully.”

Lukas, the 89-year-old who has saddled the most horses in Preakness history, referred to McCarthy once this week as “the new guy.” This was just McCarthy’s second, and he’s 2 for 2 after Rombauer sprung the upset as an 11-1 long shot in 2021.

This one was more emotional, with McCarthy and his wife still displaced from their home by the Southern California wildfires.

“We’ll get back there,” McCarthy said. “Everybody will get back there. We’ll rebuild. This is for Altadena.”

Federal authorities say they arrested a 19-year-old man who is accused of planning an attack on a U.S. Army site in Michigan on behalf of Islamic State.

The post Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate joins crowded race for US Senate appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

By LISA MASCARO, Associated Press Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans have unveiled the cost-saving centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” at least $880 billion in cuts largely to Medicaid to help cover the cost of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks.

Tallying hundreds of pages, the legislation revealed late Sunday is touching off the biggest political fight over health care since Republicans tried but failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, during Trump’s first term in 2017.

While Republicans insist they are simply rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” to generate savings with new work and eligibility requirements, Democrats warn that millions of Americans will lose coverage. A preliminary estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposals would reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million over the decade.

“Savings like these allow us to use this bill to renew the Trump tax cuts and keep Republicans’ promise to hardworking middle-class families,” said Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, the GOP chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which handles health care spending.

But Democrats said the cuts are “shameful” and essentially amount to another attempt to repeal Obamacare.

“In no uncertain terms, millions of Americans will lose their health care coverage,” said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the panel. He said “hospitals will close, seniors will not be able to access the care they need, and premiums will rise for millions of people if this bill passes.”

As Republicans race toward House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Memorial Day deadline to pass Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, they are preparing to flood the zone with round-the-clock public hearings this week on various sections before they are stitched together in what will become a massive package.

The politics ahead are uncertain. More than a dozen House Republicans have told Johnson and GOP leaders they will not support cuts to the health care safety net programs that residents back home depend on. Trump himself has shied away from a repeat of his first term, vowing there will be no cuts to Medicaid.

All told, 11 committees in the House have been compiling their sections of the package as Republicans seek at least $1.5 trillion in savings to help cover the cost of preserving the 2017 tax breaks, which were approved during Trump’s first term and are expiring at the end of the year.

But the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee has been among the most watched. The committee was instructed to come up with $880 billion in savings and reached that goal, primarily with the health care cuts, but also by rolling back Biden-era green energy programs. The preliminary CBO analysis said the committee’s proposals would reduce the deficit by $912 billion over the decade — with at least $715 billion coming from the health provisions.

Central to the savings are changes to Medicaid, which provides almost free health care to more than 70 million Americans, and the Affordable Care Act, which has expanded in the 15 years since it was first approved to cover millions more.

To be eligible for Medicaid, there would be new “community engagement requirements” of at least 80 hours per month of work, education or service for able-bodied adults without dependents. People would also have to verify their eligibility to be in the program twice a year, rather than just once.

This is likely to lead to more churn in the program and present hurdles for people to stay covered, especially if they have to drive far to a local benefits office to verify their income in person. But Republicans say it’ll ensure that the program is administered to those who qualify for it.

Many states have expanded their Medicaid rosters thanks to federal incentives, but the legislation would cut a 5% boost that was put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal funding to the states for immigrants who have not shown proof of citizenship would be prohibited.

There would be a freeze on the so-called provider tax that some states use to help pay for large portions of their Medicaid programs. The extra tax often leads to higher payments from the federal government, which critics say is a loophole that creates abuse in the system.

The energy portions of the legislation run far fewer pages, but include rollbacks of climate-change strategies President Joe Biden signed into law in the Inflation Reduction Act.

It proposes rescinding funds for a range of energy loans and investment programs while providing expedited permitting for natural gas development and oil pipelines.

Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz contributed to this report.

By ANNIE MA, MAKIYA SEMINERA and JOCELYN GECKER, Associated Press

As he finishes college in China, computer science student Ma Tianyu has set his sights on graduate school in the United States. No country offers better programs for the career he wants as a game developer, he said.

He applied only to U.S. schools and was accepted by some. But after the initial excitement, he began seeing reasons for doubt.

First, there was President Donald Trump’s trade war with China. Then, China’s Ministry of Education issued a warning about studying in America. When Ma saw the wave of legal status terminations for international students in the U.S., he realized he needed to consider how American politics could affect him.

The recent developments soured some of his classmates on studying in the U.S., but he plans to come anyway. He is ready “to adapt to whatever changes may come,” he said.

American universities, home to many programs at the top of their fields, have long appealed to students around the world hoping to pursue research and get a foothold in the U.S. job market. The durability of that demand faces a test under the Trump administration, which has taken actions that have left international students feeling vulnerable and considering alternate places to study.

“All of the Trump administration’s activities have been sending a message that international students are not welcome in the U.S.,” said Clay Harmon, executive director of AIRC, a professional association for international enrollment managers at colleges.

Competitors see an opening to carve into US dominance

Around 1.1 million international students were in the U.S. last year. A large decline in their ranks could cripple school budgets that rely on tuition from foreign students, who are ineligible for federal student aid and often pay full price to attend.

It’s too early to quantify any impact from the administration’s crackdown, which has included new scrutiny of student visas and efforts to deport foreign students for involvement in pro-Palestinian activism. But many fear the worst.

“Students and their families expect and need certainty,” said Fanta Aw, executive director and CEO of NAFSA, an association of international educators. “And they do not function well in a volatile environment like the one we have currently.”

The U.S. has been rebounding from a decline in international enrollment that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As top competitors such as Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom rolled back recruiting efforts and made immigration policies less welcoming, the U.S. appeared ready to bring in far more students.

Now, a few months into the Trump administration, industry experts say it’s unlikely the U.S. will be able to capitalize.

“The U.S. was so perfectly positioned to become the far and away, clear first-choice destination for international students,” said Mike Henniger, CEO of Illume Student Advisory Services. His company works with colleges in the U.S., Canada and Europe to recruit international students. “Then it just went out the door.”

In Canada, where colleges saw enrollment increases during the first Trump administration, they are hoping for another bounce. In a letter following the recent election, a member organization for Canadian universities urged the new Liberal government to address immigration policies that have affected recruitment of foreign students.

“This is a moment of real opportunity for the country to attract international talent,” said Gabriel Miller, president of Universities Canada.

America’s appeal as a place to start a career remains resilient

The U.S. holds strong appeal for students prioritizing career outcomes, in part because of the “optional practical training” program, which allows foreign students to stay on their student visas and work for up to three years, said Lindsey López of ApplyBoard, an application platform for students seeking to study abroad.

Graduates earning this post-college work experience were among the foreigners whose legal status or visas were terminated this spring.

Still, the diversity and size of the U.S. job market could help American schools stay ahead of the competition, López said.

“The U.S. is the largest economy in the world,” she said. “It’s just the vastness and also the economic diversity that we have in the U.S., with a whole variety of different industries, both public and private, for students to choose from.”

William Paterson University, a public institution of 10,000 students in New Jersey, typically has around 250 international students. It expects an increase in foreign students in the fall, according to George Kacenga, vice president for enrollment management. The school has focused on designing programs around STEM majors, which appeal to international students because they open access to OPT programs.

Students have expressed concern about securing visas, but most of the school’s international students are from India and report they are getting appointments, he said.

In Shanghai, many students in Austin Ward’s 12th grade class have either committed to attending U.S. colleges or are considering it. Ward teaches literature in a high school program offering an American Common Core curriculum for Chinese students.

Ward said he avoids discussing politics with his students, but some have asked him about the U.S. government’s termination of students’ legal statuses, signaling their concern about going to the U.S.

To Ward’s knowledge, the students who planned to attend American colleges have not changed their minds. Frustrated with the stress the situation has caused, Ward said he wrote a letter to his U.S. representative on the need to protect international students.

His students are coming to America to “expand their horizons,” he said, not threaten the country.

“If my students have to worry about that, and if students are losing their visas, then America is not going to have that strength of being an academic center,” he said.

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

By AMANDA SEITZ, SEUNG MIN KIM and WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he will set a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to lower the cost of prescription drugs in a sweeping executive order that he will sign on Monday.

The order calls on the health department, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to broker new price tags for drugs, according to a White House official who briefed the press on the executive order ahead of its signing.

If a deal is not reached, a new rule will kick in that will tie the price of what the U.S. pays for medications to lower prices paid by other countries.

Trump teased the executive order in a social media post on Sunday evening.

“I will be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION’S POLICY whereby the United States will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World,” the Republican president posted, pledging to sign the order on Monday morning at the White House.

The federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars on prescription drugs, injectables, transfusions and other medications every year through Medicare, which covers nearly 70 million older Americans.

The nation’s leading pharmaceutical lobby on Sunday pushed back, calling it a “bad deal” for American patients. Drugmakers have long argued that any threats to their profits could impact the research they do to develop new drugs.

“Importing foreign prices will cut billions of dollars from Medicare with no guarantee that it helps patients or improves their access to medicines,” Stephen J. Ubl, the president and CEO of PhRMA, said in a statement. “It jeopardizes the hundreds of billions our member companies are planning to invest in America, making us more reliant on China for innovative medicines.”

Trump’s so-called “most favored nation” approach to Medicare drug pricing has been controversial since he first tried to implement it during his first term. He signed a similar executive order in the final weeks of his presidency, which called for the U.S. to only pay a lower price that other countries pay for drugs administered in a doctor’s office.

But even that more narrow executive order faced hurdles, with a court order that blocked the rule from going into effect under President Joe Biden’s administration. The pharmaceutical industry argued that Trump’s 2020 attempt would give foreign governments the “upper hand” in deciding the value of medicines in the U.S.

Trump has played up the announcement, saying it will save taxpayers big money.

“Our Country will finally be treated fairly, and our citizens Healthcare Costs will be reduced by numbers never even thought of before,” Trump added.

He has touted immediate savings, but the health department is limited in its control of drug pricing. It has the most authority around the drug prices it pays for Medicare and Medicaid, which covers roughly 80 million poor and disabled Americans. The price that millions of Americans covered by private insurance pay for drugs is harder for the agency to manipulate.

Trump boasted in his post that the plan will save “TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS.”

The executive order will also encourage the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to examine enforcement action the agencies can take around the pricing of drugs.

The U.S. routinely outspends other nations on drug prices, compared with other large and wealthy countries, a problem that has long drawn the ire of both major political parties, but a lasting fix has never cleared Congress.

Trump came into his first term accusing pharmaceutical companies of “getting away with murder” and complaining that other countries whose governments set drug prices were taking advantage of Americans.

On Sunday, Trump took aim at the industry again, writing that the “Pharmaceutical/Drug Companies would say, for years, that it was Research and Development Costs, and that all of these costs were, and would be, for no reason whatsoever, borne by the ‘suckers’ of America, ALONE.”

Referring to drug companies’ powerful lobbying efforts, he said that campaign contributions “can do wonders, but not with me, and not with the Republican Party.”

“We are going to do the right thing,” he wrote.

By WILL WEISSERT and AMANDA SEITZ, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he’ll sign an executive order on Monday that, if implemented, could bring down the costs of some medications — reviving a failed effort from his first term on an issue he’s talked up since even before becoming president.

The order Trump is promising will direct the Department of Health and Human Services to tie what Medicare pays for medications administered in a doctor’s office to the lowest price paid by other countries.

“I will be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION’S POLICY whereby the United States will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World,” the president posted Sunday on his social media site, pledging to sign the order on Monday morning at the White House.

“Our Country will finally be treated fairly, and our citizens Healthcare Costs will be reduced by numbers never even thought of before,” Trump added.

His proposal would likely only impact certain drugs covered by Medicare and given in an office — think infusions that treat cancer, and other injectables. But it could potentially bring significant savings to the government, although the “TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS” Trump boasted about in his post may be an exaggeration.

Medicare provides health insurance for roughly 70 million older Americans. Complaints about U.S. drug prices being notoriously high, even when compared with other large and wealthy countries, have long drawn the ire of both parties, but a lasting fix has never cleared Congress.

Under the planned order, the federal government would tie what it pays pharmaceutical companies for those drugs to the price paid by a group of other, economically advanced countries — the so-called “most favored nation” approach.

The proposal will face fierce opposition from the pharmaceutical industry.

It was a rule that Trump tried to adopt during his first term, but could never get through. He signed a similar executive order in the final weeks of his presidency, but a court order later blocked the rule from going into effect under the Biden administration.

The pharmaceutical industry argued that Trump’s 2020 attempt would give foreign governments the “upper hand” in deciding the value of medicines in the U.S.. The industry has long argued that forcing lower prices will hurt profits, and ultimately affect innovation and its efforts to develop new medicines.

Only drugs on Medicare Part B — the insurance for doctor’s office visits — are likely to be covered under the plan. Medicare beneficiaries are responsible for picking up some of the costs to get those medications during doctor’s visits, and for traditional Medicare enrollees there is no annual out-of-pocket cap on what they pay.

A report by the Trump administration during its first term found that the U.S. spends twice as much as some other countries in covering those drugs. Medicare Part B drug spending topped $33 billion in 2021.

More common prescription drugs filled at a pharmacy would probably not be covered by the new order.

Trump’s post formally previewing the action came after he teased a “very big announcement” last week. He gave no details, except to note that it wasn’t related to trade or the tariffs he has announced imposing on much of the world.

“We’re going to have a very, very big announcement to make — like as big as it gets,” Trump said last week.

He came into his first term accusing pharmaceutical companies of “getting away with murder” and complaining that other countries whose governments set drug prices were taking advantage of Americans.

On Sunday, Trump took aim at the industry again, writing that the “Pharmaceutical/Drug Companies would say, for years, that it was Research and Development Costs, and that all of these costs were, and would be, for no reason whatsoever, borne by the ‘suckers’ of America, ALONE.”

Referring to drug companies’ powerful lobbying efforts, he said that campaign contributions “can do wonders, but not with me, and not with the Republican Party.”

“We are going to do the right thing,” he wrote.

By JAMEY KEATEN, DAVID McHUGH, ELAINE KURTENBACH and KEN MORITSUGU, Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — U.S. and Chinese officials said Monday they had reached a deal to roll back most of their recent tariffs and call a 90-day truce in their trade war to allow for more talks on resolving their trade disputes.

Stock markets rose sharply as the globe’s two major economic powers took a step back from a clash that has unsettled the global economy. Economists warned that tariffs still remained higher than before and that the outcome of future talks was uncertain.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the U.S. agreed to drop its 145% tariff rate on Chinese goods by 115 percentage points to 30%, while China agreed to lower its rate on U.S. goods by the same amount to 10%.

A deal averts a total blockade

Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the tariff reductions at a news conference in Geneva.

The two officials struck a positive tone as they said the two sides had set up consultations to continue discussing their trade issues. Bessent said at the news briefing following two days of talks that the high tariff levels would have amounted to a complete blockage of each side’s goods — an outcome neither side wants.

“The consensus from both delegations this weekend is neither side wants a decoupling,” Bessent said. “And what had occurred with these very high tariff … was an embargo, the equivalent of an embargo. And neither side wants that. We do want trade.”

“We want more balanced trade,” he said. “And I think that both sides are committed to achieving that.”

The delegations, escorted around town and guarded by scores of Swiss police, met for at least a dozen hours on both days of the weekend at a sunbaked 17th-century villa that serves as the official residence of the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

At times, the delegation leaders broke away from their staffs and settled into sofas on the villa’s patios overlooking Lake Geneva, helping deepen personal ties in the effort to reach a much-sought deal.

Finally, a deal

China’s Commerce Ministry said the two sides agreed to cancel 91% in tariffs on each other’s goods and suspend another 24% in tariffs for 90 days, bringing the total reduction to 115 percentage points.

The ministry called the agreement an important step for the resolution of the two countries’ differences and said it lays the foundation for further cooperation.

“This initiative aligns with the expectations of producers and consumers in both countries and serves the interests of both nations as well as the common interests of the world,” a ministry statement said.

China hopes the United States will stop “the erroneous practice of unilateral tariff hikes” and work with China to safeguard the development of their economic and trade relations, injecting more certainty and stability into the global economy, the ministry said.

The joint statement issued by the two countries said China also agreed to suspend or remove other measures it has taken since April 2 in response to the U.S. tariffs.

China has increased export controls on rare earths, including some critical to the defense industry, and added more American companies to its export control and unreliable entity lists, restricting their business with and in China.

Markets rally as two sides de-escalate

The full impact on the complicated tariffs and other trade penalties enacted by Washington and Beijing remains unclear. And much depends on whether they will find ways to bridge longstanding differences during the 90-day suspension.

Bessent said in an interview with CNBC that U.S. and Chinese officials will meet again in a few weeks.

But investors rejoiced as trade envoys from the world’s two biggest economies blinked, finding ways to pull back from potentially massive disruptions to world trade and their own markets.

Futures for the S&P 500 jumped 2.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2%. Oil prices surged more than $1.60 a barrel and the dollar gained against the euro and the Japanese yen.

“This is a substantial de-escalation,” said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics. But he warned “there is no guarantee that the 90-day truce will give way to a lasting ceasefire.”

Dani Rodrik, an economist at Harvard University, said that the two countries had stepped back “from a needless trade war’’ but that U.S. tariffs on China remain high at 30% “and will mainly hurt U.S. consumers.’’

U.S. President Donald Trump “has obtained absolutely nothing from China for all the chaos he generated. Zilch,’’ Rodrik wrote, posting on Bluesky.

Trump last month raised U.S. tariffs on China to a combined 145%, and China retaliated by hitting American imports with a 125% levy. Tariffs that high essentially amount to the two countries boycotting each other’s products, disrupting trade that last year topped $660 billion.

The announcement by the U.S. and China sent shares surging, with U.S. futures jumping more than 2%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged nearly 3% and benchmarks in Germany and France were both up 0.7%

The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on countries worldwide, but its fight with China has been the most intense. Trump’s import taxes on goods from China include a 20% charge imposed because Trump says Beijing has not done enough to stop trafficking in the precursor chemicals used to make the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

“The drop from sky-high to merely high tariffs, along with the uncertainty about the path of future tariffs, will still serve as a constraint on trade and investment flows between the two economies,” said Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University.

“Nevertheless, it is a positive omen for the world economy that U.S. tariffs might eventually end up as significant trade barriers but not unsurmountable walls that block off international trade altogether,’’ he said.

McHugh contributed from Frankfurt, Germany; Kurtenbach from Mito, Japan; and Moritsugu from Beijing. Associated Press writer Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Jenissa Conway drove in the first run with a double in the top of the sixth inning and Lauren Derkowski and Erin Hoehn combined on a three-hitter as the eighth-seeded Michigan Wolverines completed an improbable run to the Big Ten Tournament championship with a 2-0 victory over the second-seeded UCLA Bruins on Saturday.

The Wolverines (38-19) advanced to the title game with a 5-0 victory over the No. 1 seed Oregon Ducks in the quarterfinals and a 4-2 semifinal win over the tournament host and 12th-seeded Purdue Boilermakers. It was Michigan’s second straight Big Ten tourney title and its 12th overall.

Indiana Langford started the rally for Michigan when she singled off UCLA starter Addisen Fisher (16-2) and took second on an error by left fielder Rylee Slimp. Conway plated Langford when she doubled to center and Ella Stephenson added an insurance run with a two-out infield single after Conway took third on a groundout.

Derkowski (17-12) allowed three hits and two walks in five innings. Hoehn entered after Derkowski issued a walk to Jordan Woolery leading off the sixth. Hoehn retired all six batters she faced.

The Bruins advanced to the final after a 4-2 victory over third-seeded Nebraska in the semifinals.

Michigan won its only softball title in 2005. They were runners-up in 2015. The Wolverines have appeared in 12 Women’s College World Series in 30 previous NCAA Tournament appearances.

UCLA (49-10) was playing in its third straight conference tournament final in its first season in the Big Ten with the previous two coming while the Bruins were members of the Pac-12.

UCLA has won 13 NCAA softball championships — most recently in 2019 — as well as being runners-up seven times. The Bruins have advanced to the WCWS in 33 of 40 tournament appearances.

The trial of a Michigan police officer charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a 26-year-old Black man has ended in a mistrial.

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Today is Wednesday, May 7, the 127th day of 2025. There are 238 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On May 7, 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the British liner RMS Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans, out of the nearly 2,000 on board.

Also on this date:

In 1945, Nazi Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, ending its role in World War II.

In 1954, the 55-day Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ended with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning French forces; it would be the last major battle of the First Indochina War.

In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford formally declared an end to the “Vietnam era.” In Ho Chi Minh City — formerly Saigon — the Viet Cong celebrated its takeover.

In 1977, Seattle Slew won the Kentucky Derby, the first of his Triple Crown victories.

In 1984, Monsanto and six other chemical companies agreed to pay a $180 million settlement to Vietnam veterans who were exposed to the chemical herbicide Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

In 2020, Georgia authorities arrested a white father and son and charged them with murder in the February shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man they had pursued in a truck after spotting him running in their neighborhood near the port city of Brunswick. (The two men and a third white man would be convicted of murder in state court and hate crimes in federal court.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Singer Thelma Houston is 82.
• Rock musician Bill Kreutzmann (Grateful Dead) is 79.
• Actor/former boxer Randall “Tex” Cobb is 75.
• Actor Breckin Meyer is 51.
• Reggaeton musician J Balvin is 40.
• Actor-comedian Aidy Bryant is 38.
• Actor-writer Maya Erskine is 38.
• Actor Alexander Ludwig is 33.
• YouTube personality MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) is 27.